#do i care it's quarter to 10pm

[dutifulsilence]

bonus headcanon for the night:

Link loves making fresh bread. Get him to stay somewhere a couple of days and he will eventually start baking bread.

[multiwreckedmess]

Kinktober Day 21

Prompt: Tentacles Pairing: roommate!Seonghwa x renter!reader   WC: 3k   Summary: So...that’s how he keeps everything so clean.

This is a work of fiction, it does not represent Seonghwa or any Ateez member. On top of this it is an 18+ work. For my comfort and boundaries please if you are under age do not interact with this.

Additional TW/CW below the cut.

TW/CW: unrealistic penetration, tentacle fucking, alien dick, “making it fit”, fem sex characteristics, overstimulation.

 The man was nice and the room was cheap. You know you’ve heard a horror story that began the same way but you can’t place which one or how it ended. He really didn’t seem all that strange except for one strange line in the sublease.  “Forewarn the roommate of any activity concentrated in shared living quarters between the hours of 1-5am.” You read aloud sitting across the coffee table from him.  “I’m extremely sensitive to light and sound, you see,” he leeds, apologetically hiding behind his bangs. “In exchange I take care of the cleaning of the shared areas. I think it’s fair, I like to keep things tidy anyway.” He laughs so non-chalantely it alarms you, staring into his big brown eyes.

 For the most part the arrangement was easy and the apartment was spotless. You didn’t see a need to be out in the shared areas any later than 10pm, slinking off to your room.  That night though, lying awake in bed scrolling, you broke the deal. You didn’t think much of it. It was a cough, you needed water. Surely you could get a glass of water at 2am. You really didn’t think much.  Door creaking open, the over-the-stove light in the kitchen shone like a beacon in the distance. It was a short throw from your door down the hall to the kitchen. You could see it. Nothing to disturb your roommate. Stepping lightly, you’re so focused on not making your own noise you don’t notice the soft rhythmic scratching of a melomane sponge against tile. Several sponges against tile.  Feet away from the arch you almost do a little dance out of glee as you think you’ve made it to safety. Instead as you round the corner you freeze. Seonghwa’s back is to you, pale and lean, with 4 thick purple tendrils stretching out to various surfaces. Two work in tandem on the stove, another scrubs the grout around the sink, and the last holds a small cup of tea out of the way.  You gasp.  Seonghwa wheels around to face you, both of you draining of color.  “Water.” You croak.  His eyes flash with anger. “It’s 2am.”  Your mouth moves but no words come out. Both of you stare at each other as the two tentacles working on the stove pause and reach for the glassware cabinet and fridge, pulling out the pitcher of water and filling a large glass. They flex and shimmer as they perform the task, but you’re unable to pull your eyes from his glare to look closer. Instinctively you reach for the glass as it passes in front of you, just out of your arms length. You want to let him know it’s okay. That really you saw nothing or would pretend if he wanted to pretend or if he wanted to talk you were equally as happy to do that. Instead he steps forward to claim the glass, appendages bobbing in place, almost as though they were watching the interaction with their own curiosity.

 Slowly he extends his arm to you, long dainty fingers wrapped around the offending glass which you snatch from him, nearly sloshing some of the precious water over the edge and onto the floor, or worse, his hand.  Shaking as you turn heel you hear him over your shoulder as you hurry back to your room.  “I hope it's as refreshing as you wished.”

 You can’t stop thinking about it, him, the tentacles. Strange and beautiful, like him. Millions of inappropriate questions invade your mind. Everything from the mundane to the horny. How did they work? Could he feel what they felt? Did he use them to jerk off? What do they feel like? Is it only the four? Can they change thickness? Screaming internally for the thoughts to stop you hold up in your room for the week, only dashing out quickly to grab cold leftovers and to use the bathroom. Anything to avoid him. To avoid his judgment. Avoid his wrath. The entire apartment is eerily quiet at all hours now. No jovial clink of utensils against the sink basin, no beeping of the electric kettle. Just silence.  Until there is a knock on your door. There the man himself stands, long strands of hair pulled up into a small ponytail at the crown of his head.  “You’re still here,” he states bluntly.  “I can leave,” you can’t look him in the face, instead opting to hang your head to the ground. “I don’t want to but if you- I-” your voice shakes. “I don’t mind them though. I would continue living here knowing. If you don’t mind me not minding.”  The slim man looks you up and down silently. Neither of you move from your spots.  “You can even leave them out when you want,” you hastily blurt under the burn of his gaze.  He shifts back on his heels, tilting his head in thought. Your eyes cast down, shoulders caving in on your chest, he can tell you’re not much of a threat to him.  “I just…need the room, I can’t afford to move right now-”  “If money is what’s keeping you here-” Seonghwa interrupts cooly, stiffening at the mention of finances.  “I like them,” you blurt hastily, embarrassment lighting your entire body on fire from your inside out. “They’re…interesting. I want to know more. I like you, you’ve never judged me. Fuck I like the neighborhood. And if it’s just the fucking uh…extra bits…that you’re afraid of me running around and blabbing to everyone about then you clearly don’t understand how few fucking friends I have.”  Heart skipping beats as you stand your ground, one hand on the door and one on the frame, bracing yourself in the arch, defending your small place of comfort. Slowly you see the forms of the tentacles weaving under his shirt, tips of two emerging alongside his arms and seemingly shaking themselves fuller.  Seonghwa nods, “okay, if that’s your choice.” He turns shrugging and walks back down the hall to the kitchen, “sad about the friends though. You should get a hobby.”  You nearly collapse at the door from relief. Barely able to contain your glee as you close the door quietly.

 Seonghwa does start to use his tentacles more freely around you for increasingly more mundane tasks. At first continuing to use them during his cleaning sessions only but cleaning now when you were around.  As he grew more confident, so did his physical comfort with you did too. Or, the tentacles comfort with you was maybe the right way to put it. Slowly you’d seen him start to spread out, leaving the semi-translucent appendages lolling about while he relaxed. You still hadn’t asked if they acted on their own or under his direction or a little of both. The more you observed the clearer it was that occasionally they’d simply take care of things for him, grabbing a glass of water while he cooked, fixing his hair away from his face, itching spots for him while he sat. Partially acting like a cats tail, tensing during action sequences in games and movies.  Oddly although he seemed to show no additional interest in you, they did. Slowly but surely creeping farther into your personal boundary. Not that you were innocently waiting for them. You too had started taking up more space, no longer hiding like a mouse in a hole. Instead lounging around the common areas more now, with less secrets to hide, letting your limbs slowly but surely make their way past the middle boundaries into sharing the space with his.  Until you finally touch.  Your foot twitches just so, big toe brushing against a lax tentacle laying to the side of your leg, tip almost reaching to your kneecap but careful not to touch.  Both of your heads jump from your phones to stare at the other as your limbs retract in a hurry, ironically answering one of your burning questions. He can totally feel through them.  “Sorry-” you both start to apologize to the other, Seonghwa reaching out his hands to you, eyes wide.  “I didn’t mean to invade-” Seonghwa tries to bully his way into apologizing first but you continue undaunted.

 “-my legs are just so tired-”  “-it’s just been so nice to spread out-”  “-I liked it, I just-”  Seonghwa pauses, brows raised. Finally ready to listen to you.  Taking a deep breath your fingers run nervously over your thighs. “I hope this isn’t overstepping and I swear it wasn’t on purpose. I worked out really hard and my legs are just still so sore and they just twitch sometimes. I just didn’t want to…offend you?”  He looks at you puzzled. “Offend?”  “Can I…touch…one?” You can barely look at him as heat creeps the side of your face.  Slowly a tendril bobs its way into your peripheral vision, it looks almost inquisitive as the tip points at you. Tilting your head towards it, you reach out the back of your hand like you would to an animal that was easily startled. Ever so cautiously you glance the back of your first finger over it. It’s softer than you’d imagined and not nearly as sticky. You try to hold back the slight gasp of shock.  “You okay?” Seonghwa tries to catch your eyes fruitlessly. “It takes a certain type of person to be both okay with and interested in this side of me.”  The admission that others had asked before, that others knew, you look up from your trance. “How many know?”

 “Enough,” he chuckles wryly, “probably too many.” Tentatively the appendage curls around your first finger as you pet it. “You’re doing well so far,” he clears his throat, “it’s nice to feel someone else for once, someone kind.”

 Once again a flood of questions burbles below the surface of your thoughts, tamped back by a dam of respectability. You purse your lips and unwind your finger from the tiny embrace to cup the thing in your hands. “It’s just so much softer than I thought. How can you grab things, it just seems like they’d slip-” your stream of thoughts bursts over the top, surfacing only the dumbest most inane questions in your roaster. “-how many are there? Can you make more or are there a set amount forever? Are they you or a part of you or like can they think for themselves-’

 The tendril turns and winds in your palm, flipping itself to the underside. Tiny suckers tucked neatly flush to the skin extend out, almost as an answer. Curling around the tip of your thumb one latches on for a half second, squeezing just enough to stop your babbling. Strong enough to make you gasp.

Seonghwa full belly laughs, his distant exterior cracking. “Do I need to make a powerpoint or would you like a demonstration?”

 “Demonstration,” you blurt. The tentacle in your palm twists itself around your thumb. It stretches to follow you as you level your hand in front of your eyes. It’s iridescent shimmer seemingly pulses through like blood being pushed through veins. The surface tenses and morphs, elongating to an elegant point, reaching towards your face. Cautiously it touches your lower lip, the smooth body has nearly imperceptible layer of film that clings behind. Seonghwa tries to hold back his expression, eyes rolling back with a small shudder.

 Pulling your lower lip into your mouth and between your teeth on instinct, a sweet flavor makes your taste buds drool. “Strawberry?” You search his face but he’s unreadable.

 “What else did you want to know?” His voice shakes.

 “How strong-”

 “How do you want me to show you?” The tentacle unwinds and waits. Bobbing quizzically along side him.

 “Strong enough to lift me?” You stand hesitantly and turn in front of him.

 Seonghwa chuckles softly. A second, heftier tentacle snakes from behind him, wrapping itself around your waist like a belt before fitting itself between your thighs. Your heart drops to your cunt as it throbs. “Brace yourself,” the man orders in a near whisper as he steps up closer to you. The appendage tightens and lifts you upwards, just enough so your toes leave the carpet. Your friend from before nuzzles its way into your hand to help stabilize your torso but your foot is already hooked around Seonghwa’s leg, pulling him closer.

 “You’re excited,” he barely breathes, tentacle wriggling against you. “I can-”

 “-do they help with that too?”

 His Adam's apple bobs in his throat as he swallows hard, nodding rapidly.

 Fingers slip below his shirt, bundles of shimmering tendrils seeming to materialize as you drag him free of it. Two of them slide along your sides to your chest, circling your breasts with their tiny suction cups kissing your skin creating sparkes of arousal with each motion. You barely notice as you’re lowered to the mattress, legs held aloft in two more of them.

 “We’ll go slow,” Seonghwa gulps, hands running over the winding trail of thigh and tentacle which glow light pink in response. His presence radiates quiet strength, you trust him. Head lolling back you close your eyes to simply feel him.

 You look so peaceful as your chest rises and falls, decorated by his soft pink pulsing swirls. Mouth watering, he crawls face first between your legs, his tongue is long and strong enough he thinks. At least to start. Thumbs spreading your slit he sighs, head spinning with the full force of your pheromones. Seonghwa dives hungrily into you, licking ferociously.

 The tentacles hold firmly against your sudden pleased writhing, allowing some movement but miraculously keeping your legs aloft and Seonghwa’s head uncrushed. The helpers on your chest nudge your pebbled nipples lightly, illciting a pleased moan of encouragement. Tiny suckers latch to the sensitive skin surrounding them. Swirling and sucking and moving independently yet somehow as one. It’s hard to tell if the strong muscle fucking into your hole is his tongue or yet another tentacle, if the pressure on your clit is his lips or a sucker. Not that it would really impact your enjoyment of the experience.

 “You’re just as delicious as you smell,” Seonghwa practically purrs as his hands wander your stomach. “Even more resilient than you look.”

 “Wanna-taste-you-” you pant. “Issnot fair.”

 A tentacle slides, warm, up your stomach, between your breasts, and stops hovering near your lips. “Didn’t get enough before?” Seonghwa chuckles darkly. He looks less like the shy, dodgy roommate you’d known, more animalistic. “Funny little greedy thing. You aren’t afraid? You know nothing of me. You think you can take me.”

 “I want to take you.”

 Your resolute whisper sends a shiver through every one of his appendages. Deadly serious. So he lets you, the tentacle moves closer, brushing over your soft lips, waiting for your next move. Your tongue flicks over the tip without any hesitation, pulling more of it into your warm mouth. The tentacle doesn’t so much as thrust but swell and taper, simulating the tension of the movement without the friction. It tastes like the most perfectly sun ripened strawberry, no overwhelming lingering tartness or disappointing watery afternote, pure sweet sun.

 Seonghwa doesn’t wait longer, his own senses fizzing and popping with each eager slurp. His eyes lock on your slick cunt as the blunt tip of his breeding tentacle presses against the entrance. Knobbly and stiffer than the others, a flicker of fear passes through your body. He watches as your lips part for him, stretching around to accommodate the thickness. Your stomach tenses and hollows as the dull ache hits you.

 “Just a bit more, I’ll make it fit,” Seonghwa barely manages to murmur, thumb passing over your clit and rubbing soft circles around it. “I don’t think this one can get your kind…” he trails off sounding almost a little disappointed.

 Your entire body is positively vibrating as more eases into you until you swear you can feel him in your stomach no matter how physically impossible it might be. Slowly you feel him move in and out, the knobs making themselves known to your tender walls. He’s so careful not to go too fast, to savor every drag. Seonghwa barely blinks as he watches you coat the tentacle in orgasm after orgasm, a ring of release forming. He doesn’t even mind the mess being made of his carpet. Your eyelids flutter open and shut, your full weight collapsing as your strength wains, lazily suckling the tendril between your lips.

 “One more, you can do one more, right? My good pet. You can.” His faith in the human form is unwavering, feeding off your relentless clenching around him. Palm pressing to your abdomend, to the spot where you swear he’s nearly bursting through, the simple caress melts whats left of your sanity. Carefully he slides his human cock in alongside the massive appendage, a soft whine vibrates your lips on him. The rhythm he sets is brutal, thrusting in and out opposite of the other. The soft silky warmth of your walls contracts around them weakly. Chasing his high, he lets the appendages have their way, a little harsher than he would’ve normally had them. The suckers leave small red spots in their wake, sure to bruise tomorrow. The tendril in your mouth thrusts deeper, popping past the ring of muscle in your throat and forcing you to gag. Spit bubbles around your lips as you gasp and wriggle, your body fighting exhaustion and overwhelming pleasure.

 Seonghwa’s hands hold your hips firmly as his hips stutter, releasing deep into your cunt with an almost pained high caught whine. His tendrils still and contract back, seizing and twitching. Sparkling with each jolt. His fingers trace over your worn hole, sensitive and puffy.

 “You humans are something.”

Idk if you can tell but I had a grander vision for this one and it burned me out severely because I couldn’t get the images in my head onto paper and it KEEELLLLS me. Anyway i’m sorry this one kinda sucks, it hurts because tentacles are my FAVORITE trope.

[owlsie-hoot]

ACGAS 05x01 "To All Our Boys"

After a horrible evening where my internet decided to stop working at exactly 10pm (CET, I am not in the UK), I finally had time to rewatch the entire episode in one go without interruptions.

My initial grumpiness has disappeared now. Thankfully.

It might not have been an episode 3.1 or 4.1 but it was a wonderful start to the fifth series that reminded us of many wonderful moments in the past by constantly giving us parallels to earlier episodes.

brucellosis

James's mixing up two cats

both were also black cats

Audrey's time in the WRENS

James's first bus ride into Darrowby

James's first solo case + the case that brought him back to Darrowby

which was then extended to Siegfried giving Carmody more responsibility

Salut D'Amour being played in the background of the uniform scene

Siegfried being speechless when seeing Audrey in an unexpected outfit

a dog finding shelter at Skeldale because the owner went to war

James and Siegfried talking about war and family like in 4.5 and Siegfried DID take care of Helen like he promised- together with Audrey

There might be even more moments. The structure of the episode was also interesting and yes, I always notice such things. It's not nitpicking, far from it, it's just how I watch things and might be related to the fact that I read too many books and studied literature at one point and therefore approach everything I watch and read with my literary analysis glasses on.

We start in Darrowby and are introduced to the local WI and ARP group, the Home Front war effort. It is contrasted with scenes from the RAF base and we switch back and forth between "getting ready to fight" and "the warm family home that is Skeldale". There is the family getting used to black out regulations versus planes getting ready for the first long distance flight. The family vibes are so strong in the first quarter of the episode with Siegfried being the perfect uncle/surrogate granddad and Audrey being more his wife than the housekeeper. It is clear that the vibe at Skeldale has shifted to something much more familial and relaxed.

Then we get the second quarter of the episode when James's illness is revealed, the war effort picks up and Carmody's suggested triage system is put to the test. We cover a few days and not just a few hours until the missing cat is found and the groundwork is laid for the denouement of the storylines.

A third quarter then features almost exclusively James with only two small scenes from Skeldale and Darrowby that sadly are a bit short and feel as if something is missing. That was my least favourite bit of the episode because until then everything had felt really balanced.

Finally we bookend the episode by James's return, the return to Darrowby and Skeldale. To the warmth of the house and the family. All the storylines are concluded and Audrey appears in her new uniform for the first time and leaves Siegfried completely stunned and overwhelmed. That, and the many baby moments Siegfried had as well as the constant bright smile on Audrey's face when she looked at him, was my favourite bit. The way she just went to Bosworth, told him she can totally do it because she has all the qualifications and then just slays it! It was her decision, no need to ask Siegfried. She knows that he will not say no to it anyway. He is in fact proud and absolutely mesmerised by her and her bright smile and flustered question if she looks daft show us how far they have come. Audrey lives her own life. She might be in Siegfried's employ but that is by now only a formality if we're honest. The scene Siegfried then shares with James also suggests that he stays up until Audrey has returned. Everyone else has gone to bed after all. It is 11:10pm. With the two dogs cuddled up in front of the fireplace representing Audrey and Siegfried we leave him there in his armchair, waiting for his friend and companion (and housekeeper last) to return safely from her first shift.

[sunspray-peak]

Ch. 61: Dreams Delaying

TUESDAY - WINTER 16

The past few days had felt like a dream.

True to his word, the evening after Elliott’s book reading Achilles had purchased two center orchestra seats for Persephonopolis and had made a reservation at the third nicest restaurant in Zuzu City (third because he didn’t want to go too overboard on Date #2). 

Alex had indeed found a tie, though by covering nearly the whole damn thing with a burgundy quarter zip, he hadn’t been quite as overdressed as Achilles—who had fully committed to their “fancy” theme—had anticipated.

Well. Alex had at least liked his suspenders. He supposed the compliment was a worthy enough consolation prize for sticking out like a sore thumb at the Grannis Theater—half the folks sitting around them were wearing sweatpants. Sweatpants! And in such a lovely auditorium, too—pastel murals of Grecian figures had adorned the ceiling, and ornate floral carvings trimmed in gold and sage green had greeted them as they took their seats of cushioning plush. 

It wasn’t the splashiest spectacle of musicals—a little dark, more than a little sad—but the music was good and the set and lighting design extraordinary. And Alex had been bright-eyed throughout, had jumped to his feet, cheering like a child the moment curtain call began, so it was clear he had enjoyed it enough, which was really all anyone could have wanted. They’d grabbed some late night ice cream before taking the bus back. Achilles had walked him home. It’d been a good night. 

And late Tuesday afternoon, during the tail end of the work day, Achilles had popped over to Zuzu again. His excuse had been to sign up for a membership with Orange Grove, after allegedly having forgotten to the previous day, but Alex had seen clear through him. 

“You’re never going to use this, you hate working out in front of other people.” 

“Maybe I’m signing up to make your numbers look good, ever thought of that, Mr. Manager?” 

Alex only laughed as Megan, who was manning the front desk today, snapped Achilles’ photo. 

“But you picked our most expensive plan,” she couldn’t help but remark as she glanced at his freshly printed, iridescent membership card before handing it to Achilles. He straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the counter and slipped it into his wallet before pointing a thumb at Alex’s turned back.  

“Oh did I? Guess that’s just how much I care about this bitch’s numbers.” 

Though perhaps he was doing too much… Then again, even before they’d been dating, they had seen each other practically every day—there was nowhere else to go in that regard, so surely what he was doing now, the “extra”of it all, was only natural. Only expected. What more else could he do? He wanted to be supportive. Really, it was just a natural part of the transition from friends to… whatever the hell they were right now. Right?

And besides, what else was Achilles doing with his life these days? Why not get out of town for a bit. Spend money. He’d nothing else better to do…  

Don’t think about that. 

It’s not like he was just aimlessly loitering, waiting around for Alex. He’d brought a book. He’d brought a notebook. He had taken care not to distract Alex—who, outside of teaching the occasional class, now spent most of his time in the back office—from his job, though there were only a few minutes left in the work day, anyway; he had timed his visit well, Alex would be heading to the pool soon. He had planned to read and keep Alex company for a couple hours while he trained.

Legs pulled tightly against his chest, Achilles found himself sitting atop one of three lounge recliners once 5:10pm hit. The white fluorescent lights above were nice and bright, and he managed to get through a good portion of his book, but even so, his eyes were repeatedly drawn away from the pages in his lap to the muscled figure in the water.

Just like back in the Summer out in the Gem Sea, it was almost meditative watching him swim—Alex was obviously no amateur; he moved with a seasoned, steady strength and confidence that Achilles could never hope to replicate, arms smoothly slicing freestyle through the water like a hot knife through butter. 

At the opposite end of the pool, he saw Alex pause, chest heaving. He gripped the wall with one hand and lifted his goggles with the other as his coach bent down to speak with him.

Achilles followed their gazes to the massive digital clock on the opposite wall. 49.93 seconds. Not bad. Not bad at all. He knew Alex was hoping to get below 49 by the end of next summer. 

But he found that his vicarious thrill was dulled by something a little more sour, a little more grey; he should’ve been excited, seeing Alex’s obvious joy in finally being able to make strides towards his goals, but instead, Achilles couldn’t help but feel… wistful.  

Selfish. 

He shoved the feeling aside and forced himself to return to his book, though he found himself reading the same sentence twice more than an occasional time. 

But afterwards, in the empty locker room, he’d forgotten his melancholy. He’d tousled Alex’s damp hair, and Alex had kissed him on the cheek, and together they had ridden the bus back to the Valley and he had once more felt like gold. 

Yes, the past few days had felt like a dream. A good dream—a great dream! Yes, he had been feeling great. Feeling absolutely amazing. Feeling better than he had all year. 

Until he didn’t.

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

Part 3

Evan and I walk out into the brisk LA night.

"Brr it's chilly out here" he says. "I didn't bring a jacket. Are you cold?" He asks.

"Thanks, but I'm ok. This is still pretty warm weather for me. Although I do notice it is a bit chillier without the humidity. But I guess I haven't adjusted yet" I smile at him. He smiles back.

"So, where are you parked? " He asks

"Um, I actually ubered here, since I didn't really know the area." I reply

"Oh. Well, we can walk somewhere or I can drive us. Up to you? The only thing around here is a burger joint about a quarter mile east"

"That sounds fine to me."

We start walking. We chat small talk as we near the restaurant. I tell him I don't know the area well and I am loving the different shops here.

"Ha! I was shocked with how many porn shops are around here." He says bluntly. I laugh out loud. "Not that I frequent them or anything!!" He says with wide eyes. He rubs his eyes with his thumb. Blushing a bit.

"Eh, so what if you did. I don't offend easily" I say smiling at him.

"Good to know. Then I can let all my good jokes fly."

"Hey, I have some of my own"

"Oh, good. I hope I get to hear them..ope, we're here"

Evan opens the door for me and I thank him as I walk in. The burger joint is set up to look like an old fashioned diner. Signed autographs of various celebrities lining the wall. "Been here before, huh?" I say as I point to a picture of Evan giving a thumbs up. His burger on the table below him. His signature in the corner.

"Yea, I love this place. It's cozy and super fun atmosphere"

The sign tells us to seat ourselves and Evan puts his hand on the small of my back and lets me go ahead of him. The small gesture sends tingles to all my happy places. He tells me to pick a seat. So, I pick a small two seater in the corner. We are alone and practically sitting on top of each other. Exactly my intentions.

The server brings us a menu and I take a look. We thank her and Evan asks me what I'm in the mood for.

"Holy shit! They have Saunders cream puffs here!" I'm way too happy.

Evan laughs "What is that?"

"Well, Saunders is a Michigan based company and they sell these at the coney island diners we have there. It's a pastry with ice cream in the middle and Saunders chocolate drizzled on top. It's so fucking good. Want to just order that and split it? You have to at least try a bite of mine"

"Ok, let's do it" he says

When the server comes back I order the cream puff and tell her I'm surprised they sell them. She informs me the owner is from Michigan and he orders the supplies to be delivered here. I talk to her way too long about it and Evan just listens amused.

"I'm way too excited for this"

He laughs "I can tell"

We get the dessert and start tearing into it.

"Oh my God" Evan moans. "This should be illegal"

"I feel like I'm home right now" I moan.

"I shouldn't be stuffing my face with something that's going to make me fat with someone totally out of my league. Yet, I don't care at the moment" he chuckles.

I practically choke on my bite. "Uhhhh, I think you have that completely backwards. If that's true about anyone it's you. I would never end up with someone as hot as you.." I shut my mouth. Embarrassed. "Sorry." I blush.

"No need to apologize. Although I wouldn't say 'hot'"

"Well, I meant what I said anyway" I say staring into his eyes.

He clears his throat. "Last bite is yours"

We chat a bit longer and I look at the time on my phone. It's already 10pm. "Wow. It's getting late. I should probably get home now." My face shows my regret for having to end this night. I open my Uber app on my phone.

Evan notices "I can drive you home." He offers.

My head snaps up "Oh, that's unnecessary. You have done enough for me tonight."

"I insist. At least I know you got home safe. Then you don't have to text me that you did. Unless, you just want to text me." A sly smile on his face.

"Hard to text when I don't have your number"

"Let me drive you home and then we can fix that"

I agree. Evan insists on paying and we walk to his car. He opens the passenger door of his black Land Rover for me and I thank him. It's fancy and smells good inside. Something like musk and cedar. I imagine that's how he smelled if I was close enough to him. His voice pulls me out of my little daydream.

"Where to, miss lady?"

I tell him my address and he plugs it into his GPS. I joke that it's probably for the best cause I'm not good with directions at all. That makes him laugh.

As he's driving we sit in silence. I look out the window. I can see him look at me now and then. He doesn't speak. It's not awkward, but I decide I want to tell him something.

"Thank you for your kindness tonight" I say to him. My eyes soft. My face serious.

He turns his head to me and says "My pleasure. But I didn't do much"

"Are you kidding? You turned my whole night around. I can't even describe how I feel." I answer. I look down at my hands. And I see him reach his over and grab mine. He squeezes it. I squeeze back. And we stay like that for the rest of the drive. Fingers intertwined. It feels...natural. Like it has always been this way. His touch is comforting as he rubs my hand with his thumb.

Evan pulls up to my house and puts the car in park. I pull my phone out. "I guess we should do that number exchange before we forget" I say

"I wouldn't forget" he smiles and tells me his number. I text him a heart and we save the numbers in our phones. "I had a great night." He says.

"Me too!" I say with a huge smile. I undo my seatbelt.

"Um. Listen. Can I see you again?" Evan asks me

"I was hoping that's what you were going to say. Of course" I reply

"Really? You weren't hoping I was going to ask if I could kiss you?" His look is smoldering.

I lean in first and he meets me with no hesitation. We look into each other's eyes until our lips are close enough to touch. We close our eyes and our lips meet. His lips are full and soft and they feel like I thought they would. He's warm and the way he touches my back makes me feel secure. My mouth latches to his top lip, then his bottom. Back and forth. When we pull away he's breathing heavily. He looks cuddly in the moment. I kiss his forehead. I want to pounce on him and take care of him at the same time. His mouth finds mine again. It's more eager this time. He grabs my face gently with both of his hands. His tongue darts between my lips. I find it with mine. And we end the kiss with such passion, we both feel lightheaded.

"Would you like to come in for a bit?" I ask

He nods his head yes.

[noloveforned]

apparently it's my summer of strep! i finished the round antibiotics on monday night and by thursday morning i'd already tested positive again at urgent care. they prescribed a stronger antibiotic and i'm officially not contageous again so i'll make my way to wlur for my show tonight from 8pm until midnight. as usual, you can catch up with last week's show on mixcloud, as documented below.

no love for ned on wlur – june 7th, 2024 from 10pm-midnight

artist // track // album // label cat power // cross bones style // moon pix // matador secadora // bedroom // little pieces of paper // keiki zen frisbee // crazy steven // i'm as mad as faust // flavor contra bonny doon // clock keeps ticking // clock keeps ticking digital single // anti- the db's // black and white // stands for decibels // propeller sound dancer // bluetooth hell // ten songs i hate about you // meritorio neutrals // chaos at the jasmine // new town dream // slumberland blab school // scrolls // blab school // fort lowell snõõper // for yr love // computers on wheels cassette // (self-released) perennial // jet set mono // art history // ernest jenning shop regulars // seven winds // shop regulars // merrie melodies american culture // survive // hey brother, it's been a while // convulse idaho // on fire // lapse // arts and crafts beings // do come again // there is a garden // no quarter elijah mclaughlin and caleb willitz // vesper, part two // morning improvisations / evening abstractions // centripetal force patrick shiroishi featuring emma ruth rundle // a sparrow in a swallow’s nest // a sparrow in a swallow’s nest 7" // sub pop oren ambarchi, johan berthling and andreas werliin // en // ghosted ii // drag city frank lowe // cherryco // decision in paradise // soul note eabs // boratka // reflections of purple sun // astigmatic rapsody featuring erykah badu // three a.m. // please don't cry // jamla messiah! featuring mavi and ovrkast. // silent heel // silent heel digital single // noble music estee nack and al.divino // lugano airport // triple black diamonds // fxck rxp sky's the limit // don't be afraid // eccentric soul: minibus // numero group ka // reap // woeful studies // iron works spill gold // volcano // zaza // teenage menopause penny arcade // black cloud // backwater collage // tapete lovejoy // fantasy island // songs in the key of... lovejoy // matinée the brights // drinks and dreams // oyster rock! // meritorio swansea sound // markin' it down // twentieth century // skep wax mighty clouds // anagram // anagram 7" // antiquated future

[tehlittletoaster]

day 1 of being a camp counselor

i’ve been here for about 24 hours with campers. here are somethings i’ve learned about my kids aged 6-8:

- they hate listening to you when you’re telling them they can’t do something they find fun. these girls wanted to roll down a hill. in the middle of the woods. known for having ticks. they wanted to swing between their metal bunk beds. they were running at 10pm in the dark, not caring about falling and breaking something. and they won’t stop.

- they will believe anything you tell them. they think my name is toaster, that i’m 190 years old, and my parent’s names are tree and rock. 

- E N E R G Y . they didn’t want to go to bed until 11:30pm last night. i get staying up late, but we are staying up until at least 10:30 tonight and i reminded them that at least 5 times before going to bed, we still had to yell at them. 

- they love swimming. for our entire activity before pool, they would not shut up about going to the pool. every five minutes, it’d be like, “when can we go to the pool?” “are we going to the pool now?” “can we leave for the pool now?” mind you these are BABIES wanting to go swim in chlorinated water. why? i do not know. i also just hate pools. 

- sensitive. little. beings. one of my littles failed the swim test because they kept grabbing onto the wall while taking it (whats the point of the test if we know you can just hold onto the walls?), and they would not. stop. crying. for what was probably only 5 minutes but it felt like forever. they kept saying “i hate shallow!” or “i like swimming!” even after telling them many times that i have never swam in that side of the pool (true, i’ve been going here since i was her age and still have never gone on the deep end). they eventually gave up and got their wristband because their friends got out of the water. i am so happy i will not be with them the next time they go to the pool. my break is scheduled then!

- super touchy. completely unaware of personal space. while i was working with a HOT GLUE GUN, these kids were literally, like legit, breathing down my neck. i could feel their sticky little warm bodies next to me while i was glueing these ribbons onto their little popsicle stick stars. i had to say multiple times to get into a line. they keep coming up behind me and hugging me while i’m sitting. if it happens again, i am 100% going to tell them about boundaries. 

- they forget. EVERYTHING. before leaving this morning, i reminded them we were going to the pool. at least 10 times. mentioning that you need a change of clothes. guess how many kids forgot something? only two, but one kid forgot their towel, one forgot their underwear, another forgot their hair stuff, another forgot their hairbrush, etc. and none of them brought dry clothes to change into. none. we remind them to grab their water bottles every time we leave our quarters, since it’s summer in the midwest and it’s easy to get dehydrated. theres always at least two that leave them on their beds. some didn’t even bring a water bottle to camp. we have to give them leftover stock from last year. and those kids that get new water bottles? still forget them wherever they go. its wild to me how they can be thirsty, complain about being thirsty, and yet still forget to grab them.

- they don’t understand wastefulness yet. at opening fire last night, they all reapplied bug spray at least 5 times each. after being reminded that once or twice was enough. they spray it for fun sometimes. they spray it on their friends. they’re gonna run out of bug spray halfway through the week and we won’t be able to help them. they also waste food. at breakfast, only two of my campers finished their plates. there were half full or full bowls of cereal. a semi-touched bowl of oatmeal. an entire plate of just bacon. these kids want to eat it all, but they physically can’t. and they know it. but they still want to grab all of the bacon they can just because they wanna. 

i will add more onto this post tomorrow on my break, because why not. i love typing out my days instead of writing them, so i might just turn this into a camp counselor blog. if, y’know, tumblr still is active lmao

[st4rdust-ch0rds]

Hey!! Could you maybe do a Jake x reader about y/n having really really bad period cramps and Jake being a really loving a cute boyfriend about it?! Thanks🥺

your wish is my command!

----------

the missing piece || J. T. Kiszka

a/n: i tried my best to make this as gender-neutral as possible since i know there are people out there who experience periods but don't identify as a woman. i hope i did this request justice and you all enjoy!

warnings: none, pure fluff.

pairing: jake kiszka x reader

---------------

You and Jake’s schedules had been memorized by one another by now. You were able to tell the time of the day indicated by what he was doing and vice versa. You were typically found tucked into bed roughly around 10PM whether or not you were ready to knock out for the night. Jake would stay up longer than you most nights to take care of work that wouldn’t be able to let him rest until he finished. Following mornings were the same. You woke up first no matter what the circumstances were - work, appointments, free days. Jake’s schedule kept him up until the break of dawn more often than others, leaving him to wake up at noon, if he was lucky. However, today there was a slight change.

The night went about as it usually did, as stated before. You crawled into bed around 10:30 PM once you finished your nightly routine and kissed Jake good night in case you were asleep by the time he came to bed. Jake was in his makeshift studio in your apartment, trying his hardest to play as quietly as he could without disturbing your rest. He decided to call it a night around quarter to two when his eyes couldn’t seem to see the writings on his paper clearly anymore. He walked towards the bedroom door, opened ajar and saw the faint glow of the bedside lamp illuminating the room peaking through. Strange, he thought, since you should be well asleep by now and all light would’ve been gone from the room, save for the digital alarm clock on his bedside table. He slowly pushed the door open, trying to not let it creek obnoxiously.

“Babe?” He said as gingerly as he could. Jake opened the door completely to find you not in bed. The covers were tousled in a way that it seemed your exit was frantic and rushed. His eyes scanned the room in search of where you could be. His focus landed on the bathroom door attached to the bedroom. The light was on, indicating you were in there. None the wiser, Jake brushed it off as you possibly needing to use the bathroom.

You exited the bathroom, looking annoyed and partially distressed. Jake’s back was turned towards you as he was searching for a shirt in his dresser. You closed the door, catching his attention. He noticed your glum demeanor and grew a soft expression.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He walked towards you, as you looked defeated, “Did you get sick?”

“No, I’m fine. I just want to sleep,” You opened the drawer to the bedside table in search of your bottle of Midol. Jake recognized the label and mentally put the pieces together.

“Do you need anything from me?” He asked, walking into the bathroom.

“Not as of now, but I’m sure I’ll keep you updated,”

Jake emerged from the bathroom with a glass of water and the electric heating pad. He placed the glass down in front of you before leaning down to plug in the heating pad.

“First day is usually the hardest, so it’s better to have these at the ready just to be safe,” Jake kissed your forehead and softly rubbed your back. You smiled to yourself at his sentiment on remembering. Yes, this seems like the bare minimum to celebrate, but it meant everything to you.

You settled yourself into bed, trying to reconfigure yourself into a comfortable position that eases your cramps. Jake takes notice of your sporadic movement next to him.

“Do you want me to do anything else, love?” His tone is soft, and gentle. He knows he shouldn’t baby you with all of this since you wouldn’t want that. You were always the one to muscle through pain and illness no matter how awful you felt. Periods took no backseat. You conditioned yourself to deal with it in silence due to past experiences of people in your life becoming grossed out and shoving away the concept of menstruating, or dismissing it since there are those who don’t experience periods and don’t understand the turmoil that entails.

You shuffle some more until you finally feel yourself in a somewhat comfortable position, but still feel as if sometime was missing.

“Actually, can you hold me?” You asked quietly, almost afraid to say that as if you would inconvenience him for doing so. You feel Jake’s side of the bed shift under his weight as he adjusted himself to fit against the position you were in. His arm draped gently over your stomach just above the heating pad, applying the perfect amount of weight you needed. He nuzzled his nose against your cheek before kissing it.

That was the missing piece.

[lockefanfic]

White Silk

Parts One, Two, and Three of this series of oneshots.

-

There were only few moments in your life when you truly cared about the weather.

Once when your much-anticipated camping trip was spent inside your tents hiding from a torrential downpour. Another time when your apartment’s air conditioning broke down during an unprecedented heat wave. A final time when icy roads brought you close to you wrapping your car around a tree.

This was another one of those moments. Outside, what seemed like the storm of the century battered the building relentlessly, turning the day into a dark, stormy mess.

Inside, however, Lee Jieun somehow still managed to shine.

She was utterly beautiful - no, beautiful seemed inadequate to describe the sight. She stands with her back half turned to you, her perfect silhouette framed by the window. And while it is dark and stormy outside, she somehow still manages to glow, her very presence seeming to battle against the gloom that pervaded the rest of the day, seeming to defy it, seeming to tell it “No, your rain and clouds will not dim my brightness.”

She turns when you enter the room - and time slows to a crawl. It was like one of those moments in the movies when the female lead meets the male lead for the first time. As she turns her head, her hair, unstyled and seemingly also unbrushed but somehow still flawless, whips carelessly over her bare shoulder, almost as if in slow motion - a shampoo commercial come to life. 

Wrapped around her lithe, thin frame is a white silk dress. Made of the finest of materials and woven by the most talented of seamstresses, it is almost a work of art in and of itself - but without the young woman on whom it draped it is little more than a useless scrap of overpriced fabric. No, the woman made the dress, and not the other way around. It is she that makes the dress beautiful.

From the second you met her so many years ago you’d thought she was the most beautiful woman you’d ever met - but right now, as a bride on her wedding day, you knew she’d never been more beautiful. All women are beautiful - but on their wedding day they glow just a little brighter.

Jieun’s eyes meet yours. A glimpse of a surprised reaction - one she quickly hides. She opens her mouth to speak, and you expect some eloquent, powerful observation on the storm raging outside, and how it will not affect her spirits.

“I need some fucking alcohol,” she spits.

You smirk a little at her first words of the day to you. She looked like a princess, but sometimes she had the tongue of a sailor.

“Sorry,” you answer as you step towards her, “there’s no bar on the premises, unfortunately, although I hear the reception will have one. Cash bar, though, so best hit up an ATM before arriving.”

Jieun sighs and returns her attention to staring out the window. You feel the room get a little dimmer as she takes her attention away from you.

“Of course not. Nothing today can go right, apparently.”

You stand beside her, staring out the same window at the angry grey skies and the seemingly endless torrential downpour.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she says after a few shared seconds watching the raindrops trace random patterns on the glass.

“You’re not exactly kicking me out.”

Jieun scoffs. “Well everything else today is going horribly wrong so yeah, why the hell not have you show up?”

“What else is going wrong, exactly?”

“The photographer came down with a cold, so the best we can muster is my cousin and his fucking iPhone. The hair and makeup artist I hired is stuck in traffic on the other side of the city and probably won’t make it here on time, which is why I currently look like a fucking college student on the wrong end of a weed bender. The florist thought the wedding was tomorrow, so the only flowers we have are those sad looking almost-dead bouquets from the fucking gas station. Oh, and the reception hall had a goddamn double booking and neglected to tell us that the banquet hall won’t be available until 10pm, once the fucking high school math olympics has finished its awards ceremony!”

You frown. There wasn’t really much you could do to ameliorate the situation.

“Clusterfuck and a half,” you state.

“Clusterfuck and three quarters,” she counters, “coming real close to two full clusterfucks. Compared to all the bullshit that’s already gone down today, yeah, fuck it, you may as well be here, even when you very clearly shouldn’t be. I’m getting married today, if you didn’t notice.”

You glance over to her for the first time, and even though she is currently wearing a frown on her cute little features, you are nonetheless still struck by her beauty. Such a cheesy thing to admit to - being awestruck by a woman. It was something that surely only happened in books and movies and on Netflix; surely in real life no woman could ever be so beautiful as to render a man temporarily physically paralyzed.

But Lee Jieun had a way of doing that to you. She did it when she walked into the busy downtown Korean barbeque place that your mutual friend had dragged her to on that fateful day so many years ago. She did it when she just so happened to sit next to you, and again when she reached out her slim, pale hand and introduced herself with a cute handshake and a blinding smile. 

And she did it every single day you’d met her since. Today was no different, even if it was one of the most important days of her life.

“I overheard one of the bridesmaids saying you weren’t doing so well,” you say. “I had to make sure you were going to make it up the aisle.”

“Well I feel nauseous as fuck at the moment so I might make it up there only to barf all over the goddamn groom when I get to the altar.”

“What a lucky guy.”

“Damn straight. He gets to spend his entire life boning this hot piece,” she says with an exaggerated flourish of her hand over her body that was more sarcastic than serious, a deadpan frown on her face.

“I’m jealous,” you say.

Jieun buries her face in her hands, where she lets out a long sigh.

“Are you sure you don’t have a shot of soju in your jacket or something?”

“No,” you say. “I do have these, though.”

“I swear to god if you’re referring to your balls I’m gonna punch-”

When she lifts her head from her hands, she finds you with your arms wide open and the cheesiest of smiles on your face.

It begins slowly - just a slight crack of an upward tilt at the corners of her mouth, like a small ray of light piercing dark clouds. Eventually her soft pink lips and cute cheeks follow suit, and soon the metaphorical clouds part, her face surrendering to the reluctant smile and short chuckle that she allows to escape her mouth along with an adorable little snort.

She steps forward into your embrace, and you wrap your arms tightly around each other.

“You’ve always been there for me,” she says, her words muffled by your chest.

“I always will be.”

“Even when I’m married?”

“Especially when you’re married. Married guys can be dicks.”

Jieun chuckles again, and the soft vibration of her laugh against your chest makes your heart sing. She presses herself closer against you, as though she were fleeing from the accumulating problems of the day and had just found a hiding spot in your arms.

“How much time do I have?” she asks, barely audible.

“About an hour or so, I’d say,” you reply. Only a few of the guests had arrived and the groomsmen and bridesmaids were occupied with putting out the myriad of little fires that came up during weddings. There was still some time to yourselves before the start of the show.

“Then kiss me,” she says, lifting her head from your chest.

Time slows again. Time moves slowly, almost incrementally slowly, as you bend your head to kiss her.

It felt so wrong, so dangerous - but it also felt so right, so perfect. You should not have been there, not on her wedding day, mere minutes before she was to walk down the aisle. You could have, and perhaps should have, been anywhere but here.

But Jieun had always had that hold over you. You didn’t think yourself whipped for any other woman in your life, but when Jieun called you answered - no questions asked. You hated yourself for it sometimes, hated that a woman could have such overwhelming control over you, could have you wrapped around her finger like she did. 

But one smile - and sometimes, one kiss - was all it took to remind you why you did it: you were in love with her.

The kiss deepens, becoming something more passionate, more needy. Tongues begin to explore familiar mouths and find their counterparts willing and ready to touch and taste. Hands tighten around torsos. Hips press against hips. The bride tries to find solace from a day of ruined plans in the kiss and embrace of a man that meant so much to her.

You are happy to leave it there - merely seeing her was already probably a mistake - but Jieun was never one to stop things she had started. She breaks the kiss and pulls at the back of your head until your mouth is on her neck, and you begin devouring the sweet, pale flesh there with your hungry lips and tongue. She cranes her neck up and back, offering up more of herself to you.

Her hands slip between your bodies to work at your belt, which she quickly undoes.

“Here..?” you manage to gasp in between kisses. She was taking your breath away, again, although this time for another reason.

“Here,” she snaps, as though she were surprised you would even dare to ask, “Everything else is going wrong. I need this now. I need you now. Fuck me like you always do. One last time.”

Before you could say anything further she has you out of your boxers, her slim fingers suddenly cold and chilly around your quickly hardening shaft. Soon she has you at full stiffness. It doesn’t take you long. It never did. Especially not now, given the circumstances. Given the knowledge that the hand wrapped around your shaft and pumping it up and down would soon have a shiny diamond ring on it for the rest of her life.

You groan into her neck as the pleasure she is conjuring inside your body begins to overtake your senses. You feel her cheeks move against the side of your face - a wicked smile on an angel’s lips.

You are content to let her have her way with you, but you are reminded of her request - to fuck her the way you always did. And when you fucked, you were the one in control. Her innocent, girl-next-door exterior belied the fact that she loved to be taken, loved to be called names and used - and you weren’t one to disappoint her, even today, on this most important of days. You hated yourself sometimes for how much control she had over you in your day-to-day life; but you relished the fact that in your most intimate moments the roles were very much reversed.

You bring your hands to her shoulders and turn her around until she is facing the wall. She lets out a gasp of surprise - one that turns into a low moan as you press yourself, and your stiff shaft, against her. She braces herself against the glass, her forearms and palms flat against it.

Your hands, still on her shoulders, trace the top edge of the perfect white dress wrapped around her like a second skin. When they reach the front of her dress, you grasp the top edge and pull downward.

Jieun gasps as you pull the dress down to expose her breasts, and you grin devilishly over her shoulder as you watch her reflection in the glass as her small, perfect round mounds bounce free from their silk prison. Before she can react further your hands are already on them, squeezing them none too gently, enjoying the feel of her body molding itself into your hands, her already stiffened nipples poking between your fingers.

“You gonna let me fuck you on your wedding day, Jieun?” you hiss into her ear.

“Fuck yes,” she hisses, her breath a mist upon the glass, “I want you to fuck me right fucking now.”. She reaches down, pulling her long, flowing skirt up to bunch it around her waist. It takes her a while - her skirt is so long - but soon the pale, perfect round cheeks of her pert little ass are laid bare, your cock pressing impatiently against her lower back. 

You smirk at the sight of her, the perfect little bride on her wedding day, now a wanton, needy little thing, begging for it, begging to be fucked in a dress that was supposed to symbolize her innocence with its pure color. She wasn’t even wearing underwear, as though she knew this would happen, was expecting to be fucked wearing this dress.

“Fuck me,” she snaps, as though every moment you kept her waiting was making her more and more upset. “Fuck me please. I’m so wet for you.”

“Such a slutty little bride,” you observe. ‘So wet and hot already, and I’ve barely touched you.” You pinch her nipples. She sighs. You grin at the sight of her in her pristine white dress, an angel engaged in an act that was not at all angelic.

“Fuck yes. I’m such a slut. Such a slutty little bride. Now fuck me!”

“You want to get fucked against this glass in your pretty little white wedding dress?”

“Mmmm!” Jieun gasps, every sound that leaves her throat dripping now with need, “Please, fuck me now. Fuck this bride’s tight little pussy until you cum in it.”

You let go of her breasts, but not before giving her stiff nubs one last pinch that elicits a sharp gasp from her throat. Your right hand drifts to your cock, you line up your tip with her entrance, and within moments you slip inside Lee Jieun’s body.

You’d had her plenty of times, but today is different - and you wonder if perhaps the circumstances and the sheer audacity of what you were doing somehow added to the way she felt around you. She was slick and hot and wet and so, so very tight. It almost drove you insane to be inside her. Judging by the way her fingers curled against the hard glass, seeking something to claw into as she is filled with your cock - Jieun felt the same.

“Fuck,” she hisses, the curse word leaving her mouth in a breathy sigh. You both take a moment to savor the sensations - hers of being filled, yours of her wet, hot body wrapping itself around your stiff, aching shaft.

You don’t waste any time. You had little to waste, nor did you have any desire to deny yourself the pleasure her body promised. When you withdraw your shaft from between her round cheeks to find it glistening with her juices, you quickly drive yourself back in - this time to the hilt.

Soon you are fucking Lee Jieun against the glass, her naked breasts pressed against it, stiff nipples crushed against the cold surface as she is taken roughly, your cock pumping in and out of her wet, slick pussy at a frantic pace. 

If she had problems with the liberties you were taking on her body she was not showing it. Her reactions told you much the opposite - that she loved each thrust into her needy pussy, loved feeling you piston in and out of her at the quick, hard pace you had set for yourselves.

“Oh my… oh my fucking god,” she hisses, her face pressed now against the glass, a soft mist forming on it with each hot breath that leaves her lips. “Fuck me, fuck me like this.”

You are almost afraid to look down, almost afraid to watch your cock pump in and out of her needy body - but you eventually tear your eyes from her pleasure-stricken face to glance down between your torsos.

Her juices are flowing freely, lathering your stiff shaft with a thick sheen of her slick, glistening  wetness. Her lips grip every inch of your shaft, parting softly to welcome it in with each thrust, grasping it tightly with each withdrawal as though not wanting to let it go. You reach down and squeeze her tight little ass with both hands, filling your hands with her cheeks, parting them slightly to give you a better view of each thrust of your cock into her slick, wet pussy.

“Oh… oh fuck!” she gasps as you reach a new depth, bottoming out your thrusts now as you fill her with every inch of you, filling the mewling young bride as deeply as you could with stiff cock. 

“Fucking take my cock, Jieun,” you snap, bringing your hand up to her chin to tilt it toward you. “Fucking take it.”

“Y-yes! Fuck me… I’m yours. I’m yours!”

The filth of her words, of her submission to you, would have been pleasurable any other time. But now, mere minutes from her marriage - it meant something more, something more perverse - and something more deliciously sinful.

You reach around her torso to grasp a round breast with your free hand, finding her stiff nipple and teasing it at first before pinching and twisting the sensitive bud. You turn her face toward you with the hand on her chin, wanting to watch as every thrust into her body twisted her small, adorable face with little spasms of pleasure. For a few long, delicious minutes you fuck the mewling, squirming young bride against the glass, the pleasure you both found in each others’ bodies far outweighing the filthy wickedness of your act.

“Is your husband going to fuck you like this every single day? Fuck your needy, slutty little pussy whenever he wants?”

“Y-yes!” she manages to gasp, her words interrupted by each thrust of your cock into her juicy pussy, “Yes… whenever… wherever… however he wants!”

“And you want my cum dripping down your legs while you walk down the aisle? While you get married?”

“Yes! Oh fuck please I want it, I want your cum inside me, I want it dripping out of my pussy oh please oh fuck, cum inside me oh fuck cum inside me please, fill my pussy, fill me with cum, fuck me, fuck me, oh, oh I’m cumming, oh--!”

You always dreaded Jieun’s orgasm during sex, because it was so powerful, so overwhelming -  not only for her, but for the both of you. And it usually meant that you came soon after.

Jieun turns into a mewling, quivering mess of flesh, held up against the glass only by your hands on her chin and breast - and the cock still pistoning in and out of her pulsating pussy. You fuck her through her orgasm even as you feel your own beckoning, concentrating on each thrust, pushing yourself as deep as you can inside the young bride before pulling out only far enough to thrust right back inside her.

The random pulsating of her slick pussy, the wordless cries of pleasure brought upon her by her orgasm, and the soft breast in your hand - it all combined to push you dangerously close to the edge. But the thought of it - of fucking this needy young woman mere moments before her wedding - and at her demand, no less - it pushed you right over it.

You push yourself as deep inside her as you can go before you finally allow your orgasm to overtake your senses. Your mind tunnels, becoming focused solely on your pulsating cock as it spurts hot, thick semen deep inside Jieun’s tightly gripping pussy. The bride gasps - a soft, lustful sound - with each rope of cum that splashes into her depths, each stream further adding to the mess you’d made inside her body.

You both spend a long minute trying your best to piece your realities back together after your respective orgasms have shattered it, both reduced to heavily breathing, barely standing masses of suddenly weak flesh. It was a quick little session - not more than a few minutes from her first kiss to your mutual orgasm - but it still left you both exhausted, chests heaving in an attempt to refill lungs drained of air.

You reach up, tilt her chin to yours once more, and you give her a kiss - one that was more affectionate than perhaps either of you were ready for, but one you find her returning willingly and passionately.

Slowly you draw your softening shaft out of her body, and Jieun tries her best to clean herself up and look presentable, doing her best to look as though she didn’t just have rough sex minutes before walking down the aisle.

There is a knock on the door. It opens just wide enough for the maid of honor to poke her head inside - and you are thankful that she didn’t decide to do so a few minutes earlier, lest she catch you fucking the bride against the glass. She gives you a quizzical look.

“Isn’t it bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding?” she asks.

“I think we’ve used up all our bad luck for today, Nayeon,” Jieun answers. “What’s a little more bullshit on top of the shit sundae that is our wedding plans?”

Nayeon frowns, confused by the bride’s nonchalance towards the day’s ruined plans. “Aish. Anyway, the makeup lady is here. And one of the groomsmen managed to track down a photographer. One of you should talk to him.”

“Thank you, Nayeon. We’ll just be a few minutes,” you reply.

The maid of honor gives you both a look before she closes the door behind her.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” Jieun says.

“Me neither.”

“I’ll see you up there. You’re walking down that aisle first. Try not to trip.”

“Try not to drip.”

Jieun gives you a punch in the arm, but her hand lingers there for a moment, before sliding down and grasping your hand in hers.

“I love you,” she says.

“And I, you,” you reply. 

You kiss her, and the peck on the lips turns into a soft but passionate kiss. She gives one last look out the window and the cloudy, stormy weather that continued unabated outside, although it all seemed to matter a little less to the both of you.

“Let’s go get married,” she says, the smile on her lips all the sunshine you ever needed.

-

Author’s Note: Short but hopefully sweet. :) I had to sneak in an “I, you” (IU) reference in there somewhere lol.

So I felt kind of bad about the way Green Silk ended and wanted to have a similar twist but this time with a happy ending lol. Also lol at maid of honor Nayeon, I bet being IU’s maid of honor would be a dream come true for her haha.

[has-gilgamesh-doneanythingwrong]

How will Caster Gil’s s/o cope with his bad sleeping habits?

Hello anon, thank you for the request. Actually, yeah. I wonder about that too. I did once read an incredible one about a similar topic of Caster Gilgamesh being overwhelmed, which is also a great read!

All right, I'll give it my best ;3

Also Caster Gilgamesh is such a mood to the culture of overwork tbh, it make me feel kinda sad.

S/O Dealing with Caster Gilgamesh's Bad Sleeping Habits

- It had been months, if not almost an entire year since Caster Gilgamesh had taken a proper night's rest.

- He was up long before the cockerel crowed at the crack of dawn, and would remain that way- for even longer than the most nocturnal of night owls.

- In other words, he was working himself to DEATH.

- Whenever you'd visit, to assuage his doubts and reassure him that it's fine if he takes a nap; Caster responds with a simple "I do not require your concern. It is my duty as a king to work peerlessly to ensure that the buffoons' operating within Chaldea do not scrimp upon their duties." Although his words are harsh, what he really means is that he doesn't want you to worry about him. Just having you visit is more than enough.

- However, for you- who has to witness Gilgamesh running himself ragged on a daily basis- such words do naught to appease the doubt gnawing within your chest.

- Often finding yourself in bed alone, your only signal as to Gilgamesh's presence would be when his entire body would flop onto the bed at only the ungodliest hours of night. Not even sparing the time to materialize into a set of pyjamas, he would instantly fall asleep; decked in his regular gear and all!!

- Worried for his health, you'd often help out by removing his shoes (yep he didn't even remove those!!) and sliding his body over so that he could sleep soundly under the bed covers (he didn't even bother to tuck himself in). Sometimes, you'd even have to apply plasters to wounds or even place hot flannels on his face to regulate his temperature. That's how bad he was at taking care of his health.

- You even went as far as to carefully place his stone tablets by the bedside table, due to his overwhelmingly bad habit of literally taking his work to bed with him.

- When Caster Gilgamesh regains enough energy to resume his regular toil for the day, he's secretly moved by how you put in the effort to tuck him in every night. Softly kissing the temple of your forehead, he whispers his gratitude in your ear- only then to sigh once he realizes that you purposely put his tablet in the wrong area gain. "Honestly, this mongrel..."

- The truth is, you're struggling. Not only is he as stubborn as an ox whenever you or others try to negotiate with him, but he won't let anybody help him either! And to top things off, you missed his company greatly. Strangely enough, the two of you did most of your bonding during missions and events (because during those times he'd either be on a rare vacation or assist you for his daily work instead); which meant that you had barely any room at all for couple time!!!

- Tomorrow was a Saturday, which meant that he would be off for the weekend. In other words, it was the perfect time to confront him-once and for all! Resolve steeled within your heart; you prepared yourself for an extremely long night.

- Caster Gilgamesh is GOBSMACKED once he returns to his room. Usually, you'd be fast asleep when he enters. But this time, you had prepared a massive surprise for him. Softly glowing candles were lined across the rooms, illuminating it within a serene light; as the healing scent of lavender embraced the room. In your hands, you had none other than a massager and relaxing ASMR binaural CD set (of whales swimming in the sea) to help Gilgamesh relax to.

- He won't say it aloud, but to come home to a feat like this means a great deal to him.

- Although he is weary, his red eyes flicker with a slight ebb of amusement; as he gathers enough energy to smile. "What possesses you to be roaming around at the witching hours of night, mongrel? Has being on your lonesome made you that eager to embrace your king?"

- Your deadpan reply of "FUCK YES." leaves him utterly startled, to the point where he has to hide an enormous blush- blossoming wildly around his ears. "But look, Gilgamesh. As you're probably on the verge of passing out right now, let me make this quick." As he shrugs off his mini jacket (?)-your hands softly massaging the tight muscles rippling through his back-you finally begin to speak.

- You explain to him that although you understand that he has to work, it would be nice if he could stop overworking; both for his sake and also so that you could spend some more time together as a couple as well. As he often spent the weekends between many groups of people, the two of you barely spent any time on your lonesome.

- "I cannot adhere to such a request. What ails Chaldea ails me in turn, hence why I must continue to toil. Mongrel. I request that you do not press the matter any further. Nonetheless, I shall reward you greatly for the honor you have bestowed upon me tonight. I do adore the delightful little sounds those whales make." Caster Gilgamesh refuses to budge, his words bearing upon your heart like a heavy stone. As he sighs with bliss at your massage skills, you struggle to hold back the tears pricking your eyes.

- It is a long, and lonely night. Staring up at the ceiling as Gilgamesh snores softly by your side, you frown. Was this it, after all? Was this what could possibly break the two of you up?!! Such worries made it all but impossible to enjoy a good night's rest.

- The weekend passes as usual, with the two of you mainly hanging out with separate groups. The heavy weight drowning your heart- like a rock sinking beneath the tumultuous waves of the sea- only heightens in intensity.

- That is until Gilgamesh shocks you in return with a surprise of his own?!!!

- Seated atop your bed at a time as early as 10PM (omg), Caster Gilgamesh apprehends you with a brilliant grin. "Ah, so you have finally decided to bestow your presence before me. Sit." Patting the space beside him with an energy much unlike his usual worn-out countenance, you can't believe your eyes. "Why do you stare at me so? Didn't I tell you that yesterday's activities were much to my liking already?!" A compliment. Yet another rare miracle had occurred.

- As soon as you sit beside him, expression as surprised as pikachu's own; he sidles towards you, a devious grin plastered on his face, as he wraps both arms around you. "Mongrel." Cradling his face against the crook of your neck, his breath lightly fans your face. "Wherever you wish to go, I shall take you there. All you need to do is say the word."

- "?!!" His riddle confuses you to no end. When you ask him what the hell he means by that, he slaps a palm to his forehead in agony.

- "Fool, what do you not understand?! I am professing my desire to take a much-needed rest, just as you suggested!" A blush yet again seeps through his features, for the most unfathomable reason. "After managing to delegate certain responsibilities by placing them on the shoulders of some rather, well, unusually...proficient mongrels; I now have the week off. I shall also be able to return to my quarters at earlier intervals on the odd occasion." As he revealed his true intentions, actual mirth warmed his expression; as you stared back in awe.

- He had heard your advice, and was actually taking it to heart?! "B-but I thought you said...I swear you said..." Your mouth flaps, pure stupefaction taking over your features. You were certain that he wasn't up for negotiation, so what lead to such a change in heart?

- "It would be unbecoming of me not to pay attention to the mongrel yapping at my heels." In Gilgamesh language, this meant that he actually wanted to spend some time with you as well. "Do not be so presumptuous, I shan't cease all work. However, I can archive more time for more... mundane activities, I suppose. I am simply repaying yesterday's favor." How bashful a reply this was!!

- As you thanked him, eagerly talking about the places you wanted to visit by his side and the things you wanted to do for your first ever couple's holiday, one could daresay state that a rather warm feeling radiated within his chest no way would he admit to that.

- It's a good thing you spoke to him about it. This time, he'll try to fit in some more time for the sake of his own health and for you, as well. not like he'll admit that though

[theodora3022]

Good Morning, Or Good Night(Pt.3)

Summary: Night and morning series part three! This time for my favourite boys + a little gift for a friend!

Notes: These are probably even more self indulgent than others since I love them too much. Sigma and Tetchou especially, soft but strong boys are my weakness-

Next part I will cover Yosano, Higuchi and Kouyou since I recently noticed there is a lack of content for the beautiful BSD ladies around here…

Tags: @rose-tragedy​ I hope you like this surprise gift! I included Lovecraft for you if that’s okay! I tried my best to write him... @dragoning1​ here’s sigma as you asked! 

Adding a cut for the last two boys since there will be manga spoilers.

Warnings: Fluff, self indulgent content, spoilers for the manga for anyone who only seen the anime!

Edgar Allan Poe

Bedtime: Whenever you go to sleep, or he may just stay up all night reading or writing novels.

Sometimes(it happens a lot) Edgar would get too invested in a book to eat dinner or sleep, you’ll have to remind him! Make sure he stays healthy and fed :) Brew him some of his favorite tea blends to make sure he stays hydrated!

“Ah, it’s dinnertime already? Thank you my dear, I will come right after I finish this paragraph. No Karl, you cannot go first.”

His ideal way to spend the nights would include :snuggling under a blanket with you and Karl, reading books under dim candle lights near a fireplace(if it’s winter of course).

But if you insist, Edgar will come shopping with you! As long as he gets to stop by a bookstore on the way. Be prepared to drag him out of there after two hours-

Since he lives alone in canon, I imagine Edgar usually orders takeout or buy bulks of frozen dinner at a time to avoid cooking himself. If you are willing to eat these with him, that’s no problem! But if you want to cook up things yourself, Edgar would be happy to eat them. He doesn’t strike me as the picky type, so as long it’s edible he won’t complain and will just swallow. His face would lit up if it’s delicious though!

Edgar doesn’t need to “Go to work” per se, being the guild’s planner allows him to work from home, as long as the plans are available for pick up by the end of the week. So you bet him likes to sleep in. Unless you have a regular job he will want you to stay in bed with him and Karl.

If you decide to urge him to get up, however, Edgar will grumble like a little kid. He would only begrudgingly get up after thirty minutes of you lecturing the benefits of being an early riser.

Help him brush that messy hair, tie his tie in different styles, much like Ranpo he loves being taken care of. Edgar will pack a lunch for you if you have to leave for work!

Howard Phillps Lovecraft

Bedtime:...Bold of you to assume he has one. Like he won’t just fall asleep randomly on the couch or anywhere really. It would be more useful to know about his conscious schedule.

I assume you work in the Guild along with him, if they have 9-5 work days he will try to get enough sleep in the evening but no promises. (A/N: I seriously cannot find any info on this forgive me ahhh)

He doesn’t mind if you play with his hair, in fact he loves it when you buy all kinds of elastic and hairclips for them. Howard never bothered to keep it tidy himself, but it feels...quite nice. Maybe he is just too lazy to care.

Regular shopping?Like for clothes? Buy him some chocolates on your way home, he’s going to bed. If you want to go grocery shopping? Howard is putting his coat on and ready to go. He might not have much passion for other things,  but when it comes to food consider him interested.

“No, we don’t have space for this much of Icecream? That’s disappointing. Maybe we just need a bigger fridge.”

Do not be surprised if you two come home with fifty boxes of ice cream of different flavours. His tencicles will help to carry them!

If work calls for early risings, you would need to get Howard out of bed and get him dressed. How he managed to keep his position in the Guild before is a mystery. Fitzgerald didn’t fire him for being late to work this much?

(A/N: An attempt was made, please don’t criticize me too harshly ahhhh)

Proceed with caution! The following section contains manga spoilers!

Suehiro Tetchou

Bedtime:10pm, but on days off he is willing to push it to 11pm.

As soldiers, Tetchou and you have to follow a healthy sleeping schedule, to preserve yourselves in best condition for any emergencies. But he cannot say no to your watery eyes when you plead on holidays. One hour is all he will compromise.

Like Tachihara, this guy loves to work out! Be his workout buddy, time his planks and count his pushups! Tetchou would even let you sit on his back while doing push ups just to get some extra weight and to hear your giggle.

While he prefers to exercise the evenings away, Tetchou is not opposed to watching some cheesy rom coms maybe twice a week. Expect him to  make odd remarks to the storyline and the characters though.

“Why is her hair braided that way? Oh, it’s not important to the plot? Alright. Wait, there is a dog, and he is not important either? Then why include him at all?”

Tetchou loves cuddling, would often bury his face on the crook of your neck and tickle you with his breath and unruly hair.

An Emergency mission in the middle of the night is nothing foreign to him. But you won’t hear him if you are not needed. Tetchou knows his way of being stealthy! But if you are needed, expect him to carry you out of bed an hour before, dressing you in your uniforms and putting your hair into a quick ponytail if you are still sleepy.

He is not like the last two lazy ones, Tetchou got  training to do! The mornings you two would go for a daily run in the base gym, followed by a set of stretch exercises. Then if you are lazy and would just prefer to eat in the base cafeteria, Tetchou would come along. But if you want to cook something in the little kitchen of your shared quarters, let him help with the food preparation!

Learn some reasonable dishes of his favorite color combo, and you will have a Tetchou smiling non-stop while stuffing himself. He will try to cook some regular food too, but the taste...I won’t comment on it.

Sigma

Bedtime:??? most nights you literally have to force him to go to bed at a reasonable hour!

Life as a casino manager is a busy one, with overtimes. Even with your help, Sigma would overload himself with work and get into a bit of a workaholic state often.

You cannot count how many times you had to carry him to bed at midnight. He would always apologize for bothering you, and even when you insist he is not, Sigma would still buy you something to make it up. Maybe a nice dress or another set of colorful fountain pens.

“I know I get crazy sometimes, but you and the casino is all I have, love. Please forgive me for letting you worry. Thank you for bearing with me.”

When he is actually free, or you convinced him to relax for a bit, Sigma would probably be willing to accompany you to anywhere you want. The world is still new to him, so many things to explore and try. If you take him to an amusement park he would probably scream on the rollercoasters but want to try them again!

Saying Sigma is the dictionary definition of clingy would be an understatement. Can’t blame him though, he got major abandonment issues, or separation anxiety, whichever you wish to call it. Even when he is working, you need to be somewhere in sight. It gets even harder when you two are in bed, since Sigma will not let you go to the washroom even if he is deep in the dream realm. You know he cannot control himself while sleeping, so just remember to not drink too much water before bed!

He would have the chef of the Casino restaurant to cook the meals since he does not wish to bother himself or you with these time consuming things. But if you baked some chocolate chip cookies, be ready for this man trailing after you like a needy puppy!

Part 1 for ADA 

Part 2 for Port Mafia

[jonah-aesthetic]

Gingerbread I Zach Herron

Zach X Reader

Plot: Y/N’s successful boyfriend invites her to his to bake Christmas Cookies.

Word Count: 2.8k

Author’s Note: The last bit is a little rushed, this isn’t edited but I hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas my Lovelies! 

Rating: 16+ (do you guys like the spicy scenes or no)

Moodboard

------------------------------------------

Inserting the brass key into the lock with a click, you pushed open your door with your shoulder. Entering your apartment on the three floor, you flicked on the lights and tossed you keys on the counter not caring where they landed. 

The entire day was stressful, the corner store was out of your favourite creamer. Next you forgot you phone at home and had to run back. You were late to work cause your hair wasn’t participating. Not to mention that Asshole that cut you off earlier. You were annoyed and ready to throw on something comfy to watch Netflix for the rest of the day.

A yellow post-it note caught your eye, Remembering it not being on the fridge this morning. Plucking it off you read the words written upon it. 

 Hey Darling, 

@ 10pm meet me at my place, we’re baking cookies. Don’t call me saying no cause I blocked you. Also there’s a gift in the fridge for you 

xx - Z 

Smiling you shook head, only Zach would make the effort of blocking you on everything so you had no other choice then to show up. You had the worst habit of denying his invitation when you weren't in the mood for it. But you’d end up regretting it five episodes in of your favourite tv show. Zach always managed to make your day better, ever since the day you meet him. 

December 10th, 2019

The aroma of the coffee shop was filled with the intoxicating smell of coffee beans and Christmas music. Third  in line all you could think about how the guy you were talking to you ghosted you. He was the first guy who found interest in you since the breakup with you ex- boyfriend. The bastard used that to his advantage just to get laid. Knowing you were fairly vulnerable and desperate to feel any connection again. What- 

“What can I get you?” The leathery voice asked, 

Without realising you moved up on the line, slightly embarrassed you wondered how many times he had to ask you. “Just a large coffee, three sugar, three cream.” You spoke with a small smile, what could you say. you had a sweet tooth and hated the bitter taste of black coffee. 

“$3.78.” His bored tone was heard, 

Nodding you reached into your purse for your wallet. searching you found two quarters, one dime, two nickles and no sign of your back card. Of course not you left it on the coffee table after buying a book online. Your dumb ass never put it back home. 

“Fuck.” You say more to yourself, but you knew it was heard my others close by. Looking up you smiled apologetically at the barista. “Funny story- 

“Here, I got it.” a smooth memorising voice cut you off,  you watched as some guy reached over your shoulder to pay. Not just any guy with that perfect bone structure a fucking god, okay maybe that was too drastic, but you didn’t think it was. 

“No, You don’t have to.” You spoke trying to push him away, but it was too late his card reached the machine chiming happily. 

“Don’t worry about it, it’s my pleasure honestly.”  His smile sucked the breath out of your lungs. His brown eyes were watching you, wondering what emotions were going through your pretty little head. Taking his hand out of the pocket of his slacks, reaching it towards you. “Zach” 

“Y/N” You smiled back at him, connecting your right hand in his. They were warm to the touch and significantly larger then your delicate one. The thing that intrigued  you most about him was his un-denying classic style he held. Wearing a beautiful button down, which had four different black and white patterns. Two buttons undone, just enough for his defined chest to peek through. Tucked into a pair of black striped slack as he wore black oxford shoes, pulling the entire look together. He was formal, yet he wasn’t and you found it fucking attractive. 

After Zach requested his order and paid you both caught onto a conversation. Waiting for your drinks, he was funny and from what he was telling you talented too. Collecting your beverages he offered to take a seat with you, and you definitely weren't denying that offer. Talking with Zach you forgot all about Chase, or was it Chance? Who cared he wasn’t important anymore. 

You had no idea how long you talked before the barista who served you earlier kicked you out. You switched numbers and he asked if he could walk you home. It was dark and you didn’t necessarily want to walk alone down town.

Sticking the note to the counter you hopped in the shower washing away the filth of the day, changed into leggings and a hoodie that once belonged to him. Locking up the apartment you got into your car and began driving to Zach’s house. Feeling giddy you forgot about the candy bar settling inside the fridge. 

Arriving you walked through the front, glass doors sliding open like they always had for you. Reaching into the lobby you caught the eye of Julian who had been sitting behind the hostess’ desk. Green eyes staring he smiled, “Well if it ain’t little Mrs. Herron.” Greeting you with the nickname he gave you eight months ago. Nonetheless it still made your cheeks heat up at the thought of marrying the boy one day. 

“Hello to you too Julian.” You reply, heading straight to the white elevator. Pressing the silver key card against the scanning pad. It was a gift given on the same night you planned on offering your apartment key to him. You both laughed at how connected your mindset really was. 

Dinging the elevator opening speaking mechanically to you. “Good evening Y/N, and Happy Holidays.” Walking in you whispered a small thank you like you’ve always had. You still weren’t use to how luxurious the apartment-plex was, Only feels like yesterday was the first time you agreed to come over. 

Letting the elevator engulf you with hushed Christmas music. There were no buttons embedded on the side. All the information it needed was packed into the chip within the card. All that was plastered on the wall was a screen, counting down the seconds it took to reach his pent house.

Zach’s success as an artist never bothered you, never made you feel less then him. He’s never once made you feel that way with him, especially when you two fought in the dead of the night. He’s even asked for you to move in, but you liked you place. Liked your own space.The luxury of his life could be a little much for you at times. 

Dinging the elevator door exposed Zach’s apartment, lights were dimmed showing off the string of Christmas bulbs scattered about. Home Alone displaying on the t.v above the crackling fire place. Candles lit emitting of the scents of pine and peppermint mingling perfectly together. Christmas decor still intact from when you placed it with Zach’s help last week.  Staring at the atmosphere your boyfriend created you wondered where he was. 

“Zach?” Your voice travelled through the pent house like a maze. With no response you decided to look for him yourself. Entering his room you spotted pyjamas atop his silky black duvet, Another note rest a top. 

Just put these on for me 

xx -Z

Plucking the note you unfolded them, a white crop top and a pair of red pyjama bottoms. With all nine of Santa's reindeer’s names written in white all over them. You couldn’t help but smile like an idiot, he had a chill night planned for the both of you. Since he knew you weren’t one for big crowds, you were blessed to know he understood that. 

Stripping in the middle of his room you changed into the Christmas pjs. Tossing your clothes into the corner of the room you ventured off to find him. Wasn’t too long before you spotted him in the kitchen, in matching Pyjamas dancing to the Christmas music. That right there was the love of your life and you wouldn’t change it for the world. 

“Hey hot stuff!” you holler over the music, he stopped instantly at you voice, looking up he breaks into a stunning smile. “ I didn’t here the elevator.” His brown eyes a little apologetic, “You also didn’t here me call for you. Too busy lost into the Christmas feel.” you tease him. 

“Here, I made you this.” Grabbing a red mug off the counter he stalks towards you. Towering over you small height, he places the hot coco in your hands. The hot beverage topped with whipped cream, cinnamon, and a candy cane melting into the side of it.  You didn’t think your words could manage the gratitude you felt from him. Placing you unoccupied hand around his neck bringing him to your lips. You kissed him, a soft and slow one. He tasted like hot coco and candy canes. 

“I could never get use to the way you kiss me in appreciation.” He says after you let go of his neck. 

“I Don’t feel like my words are enough, not like the way you sing them.” 

“Your words are everything to me, but I’d definitely prefer the kissing.” Zach winks, flirting with you like you two were still best friends. Walking backwards to the island he did a once over of your body, and a second time. His brown eyes travelled from head to toe drinking every inch of you in. You laughed and rolled your eyes at him, shaking your head a little. He always flirted with you, he never saw the reason to stop. Zach found you breathtakingly beautiful and wouldn’t let you forget it. 

Drinking the glorious hot coco he made you, your eyes watched at he started prepping the ingredients. His moments were sly and simple yet attractive, you still couldn’t grasp the thought of him being yours. The man practically got on his  knees till you said you’d be his girlfriend. 

“So are you just going to stare at me the whole time or help me?”  His eyes never lost focus as he caught you red handed admiring the way this hands moved. Your cheeks flushed, trying to hide yourself behind the cup of hot coco. The man could flirt with you but the moment he catches you staring you burn up like a tomato. 

“I wasn’t.” You mumble into your beverage, hoping it hide the quiver in your voice. It failed. 

Dark chuckle emits into the air, “I love the way I affect you.” Still trying to hide into your cup, you couldn’t see the way he prowled over to you. His brown eyes a little dark and his expression a little sharper. You gasped once his hands came in contact with your skin. Goosebumps arisen on your waist as he backed you up against the counter, lifting you atop it. 

You let him pull the mug away as he looked into your eyes, seeing every piece of you. Separating your knees he slide between your legs. Pulling you closer against him, you locked your ankles around his waist. He held your chin in his hands you felt every muscle, every vein, and every bone in his left hand. Placing his thumb on your chin he pried back your bottom lip. 

Your core throbbed between your legs feeling the sexual energy flowing in his blood. You were putty in his hands like you’ve always had been for him, only him. You released a whimper at the growing tension, wanting him to do something, anything. Moving closed to you, his mouth swerved past you lips and to your ear. Breathing against your neck sending shivered down you spine.

“I want to fuck you, but right now I want to make cookies with you.” He whispered softly and you could hear the teasing smiled on his lips. Just like that the burning in your core vanished like thin air and replaced with disappointment. That fucking brick, he’s done it multiple times before. yet you still haven’t learned. 

“Okay lets go.” You grab his hand, hopped of the counter and pulled him to the kitchen island. Showing no weakness, no emotion, no trace of the way he affected with his prickery.  Zach was bewildered by your response, nonetheless let you lead them. 

There was no effort needed into making the dough as Zach had measured everything out correctly.  While slinging along with the Christmas music you combined the wet ingredients and Zach did the dry. You’d never forget this moment with him, sneaking glances while you made gingerbread cookies with him.  

Wasn’t too long before combining both mixing bowls into a larger one, placing that one under the mixer. Watching the dough as it mingles everything together creating a beautiful brown and soft cookie dough. It was mesmerising to watch honestly. 

Distracted with the dough you couldn’t feel the tight hold of Zach’s eyes on you. Watching every muscle, the way your lips twitched with happiness. How your calm breathing expanded your chest. The motion of your fingers riming the brim of the mixing bowl. The way the light in the kitchen beamed off your hair, making the shade brighter. 

“I love you.” His voice sounded hazy, lost in the thought of you. 

Surprised you whipped your head in his direction, a giddy smile upon your lips. He leaned against the counter, sipping hot coco out of a forest green mug with ‘Merry’ written in white. You realised your mug and his had been a matching set, as yours had the word ‘Christmas. 

“I love you too.” It was as if the words were yanked from your soul. Maybe it was in the moment or you knew that you truly loved this man with your whole heart. But you let yourself say it and you didn’t feel the need to apologies. Zach responded with an ear to ear smile, no words and you were thankful for that. 

From there it didn’t take too long before the dough was plop on the island and rolled out. Gingerbread cookie cutters dug into it softly, before they were laid down on a cookie sheet. Then pushed inside the oven to be baked. 

“Speaking of cookies, I got you a gift.”  Looking into his doe brown eyes you held in a laugh. “How do those even connect?” You asked him, raising your eyebrow and crossing your arms accusingly at him.

“They don’t, But I got you one.” He pulls a small white box with a stunning red ribbon on top from behind his back . Small meant it was either a give card or jewellery, with him it always had been expensive. Which you were grateful for but you’d rather the small gift. Deep down you didn’t want to feel like a burden, Zach has done so much for you already.

“It’s not Christmas yet.” You managed to get out. 

“Does it have to Christmas for me to get my girlfriend a gift?” He asked his voice smooth and sounding like home. Shaking your head gently you say “No, I guess not.” It would making you feel less guilty if it had been. 

Taking the small box into your hands you watched his brown eyes light up. Starring at the little bow atop, you pulled the lid Revealing a gift that was neither what you assumed. Inside was a golden card sitting on green velvet, Not just any card, a card that was identical to his pent house key card. Grasping it into your grip you saw the small detailing. Matte background with a shinning luxurious car and letters that spelled your name. 

“What’s this?” You ask having a good idea, but you wanted confirmation.

“Key card for the parking garage.” You could spy the hesitation and anxiety swimming in his eyes. You wondered how long he’s had this tucked away. Waiting for the exact right moment to ask you again. 

“Yes.” 

“Will you move in with me?”  his words were forced from his lips like he was awaiting your denial. “I made my office into one for you, your own space. It’s all yours if you want it.” He continues not hearing your answer over his hammering heart. That explained why he kept it locked for the last two months, you never questioned it since this was his house.

“Yes” you smile, knowing you made the right choice for the both of you.”...but you didn’t have to do that Zach.”  He engulfed you in a hug and you latched onto him like it was the last time you would see him. Holding you tight to his chest you could feel his lips kiss the crown of your head. 

“Really?” His slow question vibrated against his chest where your head was laying. you moved to catch his eyes with yours, to make sure he heard you. “Yes, You’re my forever Zach.” 

[sdmnluvs]

Home Town Glory- Minishaw

Disclaimer!! I know that Simon is in a very happy relationship with Talia! It’s just for entertainment purposes and to let me practice my writing. This is also posted on my Wattpad!

28 years old and he misses home more than ever. That's why he's walking the streets of Hemel Hempstead at quarter past 11 on a Friday night.

It wasn't his plan when he woke up this morning. But he had fucked up, told Harry he loved him and when Harry just stared at him he fled the flat in record worthy time.

Got back to his own flat with ignoring Harry's missed calls and texts. Grabs a bag and packs a weekends worth of clothes as Jj enters his room confused.

"You alright there Simon?" He asks dumbly as the taller runs to the bathroom to grab his toothbrush. "I-I fucked up, going home for the weekend!" He says, pulls out his phone to call an Uber. He doesn't care if it's expensive, would spend every dime in his bank account if it meant he didn't have to look at the pity his friends would throw him when they found out what he had done.

"Did something happen with Harry? Did you guys break up?" Jj asks shock evident in his voice. Everyone was sure that they were a stable couple. Maybe looks really can be deceiving.

"I need to clear my head for a while Jide, if Harry comes please don't tell him where I am," Simon says before grabbing his bag and leaving Jj standing in bedroom. Heard the door close and the younger doesn't know what to do.

But he listens to what Simon said. When Harry shows up half an hour later with tears in his eyes it takes all of his might to say that he doesn't know where Simon is. Says me might have gone to visit Josh.

It's evil really, Jj decides when Harry leaves his sitting room with a look of determination on his face. He's sending the poor boy on a wild goose chase for what? Jj doesn't even know what happened between the both of them. For all he knows Simon could be in the wrong here. He had said that he fucked up.....

But by the time he comes to the decision that he should ask Harry what happened the brunet is long gone and he curses to himself. Feels even worse when he realizes that Josh will probably send Harry to Tobi's to check, then Tobi will send him to Randys and Randy will send him back to the flat.

Simon calls him 2 hours later. He's sat in his old room and trying not to cry. "So what happened?" Jj never did have the best patience, Simons surprised he's waited this long.

"I overreacted I guess," the blond sighs. "I told Harry that I loved him. He just stared at me for a straight minute. I couldn't deal with it Jide so I ran. I ran as fast and as far away as I could. Sure I only made it about 27 miles away from home but I couldn't deal with the pity when I told you. I just thought, it's been a year and I've loved him for long. But I guess that it was too soon".

Simon explains it all and Jj listens. Doesn't interrupt just let's Simon talk and it feels nice. Once he's finished talking Jj comforts him. Tells him to go for a walk even though it's 8pm and the sun is going to set soon. Also tells him that Harry definitely loves him back. "He was probably shocked Simon. Give him time. Just go relax, hey go to that park you used to drag me to every Sunday!".

And Simon follows his advice. Tells his mum that he's going to pub to see a few of his old friends. He doesn't need her worrying about him anymore than she already is. So he heads out. Goes for a walk around the town.

Meanwhile Jj sighs when he hears the door knock again. Knows that it's either Josh about to give out to him for sending Harry round his when he knew exactly where the blond was because Tobi had already called him and gave out to him. Or it's Harry back, probably just as deflated as he was this morning.

Opens the door and he's not shocked to see Harry stood in front of him. Bit more shocked that Ethan is stood with him. Arm wrapped around the youngers shoulder. He's smiling sadly and Harry's a puddle of tears.

Jj opens the door wider and rushes both of them in. They all sit down on the couch and Harry won't let go of Ethan's arm as he re-tells the story of his day.

"I-I was shocked Jide, I didn't expect him to say it. I called him back, must've called his name 20 times but it was too late. He was gone. Cal wouldn't let me go until I had told him that happened. I never got the chance to tell him that I love him too. I got to yours as fast as I could. Then you told me to go to Josh and he wasn't there.

Freya convinced me to have a cup of tea and some breakfast. I didn't want to tell them why I was there but you know what Freya's like. They gave me some comforting words and then Josh said that he might be at Tobi's. So I went to Tobi's but he wasn't there. I stayed for a while, talked to Tobi to calm down.

Our last resort was that he was at Randys. But he wasn't. Randy made me eat again, told me that he'd probably of gone back to the flat by now. But that I should maybe leave him until tomorrow. I agreed and was heading home but I couldn't face it. The thought that I'd lost Simon forever. Like our relationship had started and ended in my flat.

Ethan was the closest person to me at that stage. Told the taxi driver to turn around...," he trails off tears falling faster and harder. Ethan throws a comforting arm around him and finishes the story for the younger.

"I tried to calm him down but it was no use. That's when I realized that maybe big man knowledge, strength, Integrity would know where Simon is by now!" Ethan says his eyes cold and narrow when he says Integrity and Jj knows that he's in for it.

He loves Simon he really does, he's his best friend but Harry's sat in their living room crying an actual river and Ethan's glaring at him as much as to say "Tell him the truth or else".

"He's away home for the weekend. I'm sorry Harry, I promised him I wouldn't tell you," but Harry isn't even mad. He lets go of Ethan for the first time since he entered the flat and hugs Jj as tightly as he can.

"Jide please, we have to go. I'll do anything, I'll, I'll-"

Jj stops him, the least he can do is drive the three of them to Hertfordshire as an apology to Harry. Even though it's 10pm and he has a meeting at 8am tomorrow. The things he does for his friends.

So here Simon is. Quarter past 11 on a Friday night. He had actually popped into the local pub. Met a few of his old friends and downed 2 pints. Laughed and laughed and laughed as they re-told childhood stories. Listens as they catch him up on everything he had missed the past 8 years not living at home.

Sure his mum had kept him up to date and he had come home every so often but he'd never found the time to catch up with old friends. Looks around the room and wonders if he had never left what would life be like?

Would he be sat here with the same group of friends every Friday night making memories to last a lifetime. Would Jide be KSI or would he be sat here right next to him. Would he of met a nice girl from the town and be married already. Would he of made memories?

Thinks and remembers that he's made memories to last a lifetime. He's met people, he's met his friends, he's met Harry. The love of his life and suddenly it's all too much. The walls of the pub are closing in on him. He thanks them for the laughs and memories but he's gotta go. Promises them that he'll come home again, with Jj this time and they'll make even more memories.

He looks back and smiles seeing them all doubled over in laughter over something one of them had said. He wants to say that he escaped but there was never really anything to escape. Everyone that stayed is happy. They're all content with their lives. And so is he. He took a different route that's all.

Left the pub and heads off in the direction of the park Jj had mentioned. He had wanted to leave it for last. Let's his mind wander as he wanders around the streets.

Passes by a group of teenagers shrieking in laughter, empty bottle of vodka in their hands and he has to smile. Because that used to be him, running through the same streets when he was younger. Drunk, young and free.

He's so engrossed that he almost walks into a woman. She asks if he's lost because she's never seen him around here. He shakes his head, tells her that he's not lost, just wandering around home. She leaves him be and he keeps going.

Arrives at the park and heads straight to the field. Lies down and watches the stars. Let's the day wash over him and he can't help but smile as he remembers the first time he ever went star gazing was with Harry.

Jj knocks on the door. Simons mum opens the door and she's so happy to see Jj. Welcomes him inside but Jj asks if Simons around. She can hear the desperation in his voice and tells him that he went down to the pub to met a few of the lads.

So the 3 of them leave. They enter and nobody bats and eyelid at them. Jj instantly spots the group of people that Simon should be with, it's just, he's nowhere to be seen. Swears under his breath as he approaches the table.

Taps one of the boys on the shoulder and he turns grinning. "When we told Simon to hurry back with you we didn't mean this soon!" The man laughs and stands up to hug Jj.

He laughs weakly "it's really nice to see you James, but do you have any idea where Simon is?". The man now known as James to Harry and Ethan shakes his head. Explains how he left 20 minutes ago, adds that he looked like he had been doing a lot of thinking. Jj thanks him and they leave,

"So we're back to square 1?" Ethan asks as Harry lets a sob rip from his mouth. "This is all my fault, I shouldn't of been such a prick today," he cries as Ethan hugs him.

"It's ok Bog, let's just head back to his, he'll be home-," Jj starts but then stops. He has a shit eating grin on his face. "I know where he is!".

They all pile into Jj's car once again and 5 minutes later they're pulling up to a park. "Simon used to drag me here every Sunday, I told him to visit here when I was talking to him earlier as a joke," Jj explains as they exit the car and head to the field.

And that's where they spot him. Lying in the grass eyes closed and mouth turned upwards in a smile. Harry walks closer as Ethan and Jj hang back.

"Si?" Harry asks shyly and the body shoots up. Looks around and all air leaves his body because Harry is inching closer to him with a nervous smile on his face. Simon can't take it, not whilst he's at home, in his safe place.

"Harry, please not-," but Harry cuts him off. "Simon please, just listen to me I beg. You don't understand what I've done to get here!". So Simon stays quiet.

"Si I was shocked when you told me that you loved me. Ever since I met you I was convinced that I'd never be enough for you. I was just a 17 year old kid with insecurities that would've drowned me when I first met you. But you, as cringy as it sounds you taught me how to love myself. I was finally in the shallow end when I moved in with Cal and Cal and I started drinking a lot, when the drugs started.

But you were there. Every single time I relapsed you where there. On bad nights that I was tempted you made me watch a shitty movie with you. And even though I hate movies I watched them with you. You supported me when I came out. And then you kissed me when we where in Vegas for Jides fight. A week later we had our first date in London and you weren't embarrassed of me. You held my hand as we walked home and you asked me to be your boyfriend and I said yes. Because I loved you. You kept me afloat, Simon I have loved you since I was 18, too young to know what love is as mum always said. But I loved you. And I still do.

And I'm sorry that I left you standing there waiting for an answer today. I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that you loved me, you love me just as much as I love you! And I would've been able to tell you all of this this morning but Cal held me back and then Jide sent me on a goose chase like a whole twat.

So I'm sorry Si, I love you. A lot more than the moon and stars combined,". And Simons stood staring at him, tears falling down his face. Because holy fucking shit. Harry loved him as much as he loved Harry. Didn't even think as he tackled him into a hug. Kissed him deeply and had every unspoken word added to it.

And Harry seemed to just know because when they pulled away he hugged him tighter. They turn to their 2 cheering friends before Simon leans down to kiss him again.

Because he had Harry. Harry was his, the love of his life. "I even love you enough for the first time I tell you to be in Hertfordshire," Harry giggles and Simon grins at him. "Hometown glory I guess,". And then Simon kisses him again

[hopeshoodie]

I can’t believe it took me until part 8 to do my favorite boy but

 Here are the pros and cons of dating

Noah

 Cons

Noah is really non confrontational, so he tends to let issues fester. It’s not that he’s trying to let things build up, it’s just that he doesn’t think they’re important enough to bring up. He won’t start a fight about them when they’ve built up, but if MC is angry about something he’ll mention that there’s a bunch of things he’s let go but not have specifics. It ends up coming out like ‘yeah well what about all the other things?!’ ‘what other things!?’ ‘I don’t remember!!’. He’s not actively keeping track of all her mistakes, he genuinely does forgive and forget, but then when tensions come to a boil he needs to point out that there has been conflict that he just ignored. He’s not trying to guilt or gaslight MC, but sometimes it feels like it. If she thinks especially little of his intentions, it feels like he’s just pulling things out of thin air to be mad instead of focusing on the issue. That’s not what he’s doing- he just doesn’t address little things until they feel like big things. But of course he hasn’t done the introspection to truly understand how doing this is hurtful or articulate that he doesn’t mean it to be. 

When he and MC disagree, he lets things go wayyy too easily. This is fine if MC is a really mature, self-reflective person who can see that she’s crossed a line after the fact. But if MC is a little more selfish/immature, like Lottie, this is a huge con because he doesn’t give her accountability that would help her grow. We saw this with Hope- she wasn’t able to recognize how harmful her temper was when she was dating Noah because he never pointed it out, he just rolled over. If there’s a genuine problem- financial, emotional, logistically, he’ll ‘let it go’ until it’s a way bigger problem (and much harder to solve). 

Sorry that most of these cons are about how he fights with people, but that’s what we saw in-game lol. I’d love to know more about how Lucas or Rahim fight with their partners. But when you’re arguing, Noah tends to focus on really little details of what you said instead of listening to the whole thing and getting a sense of the bigger picture. So let’s say the issue is ‘Noah, I need you to tell me when you’re borrowing my car because you took it to the gym and then it went from having enough gas to get me to work in the morning to being on empty. This morning I had to stop for gas and that made me late.” The issue there is actually ‘please tell me when you’re using my car”, but he fixates on the gas part and says “well fine I can fill up your tank”. So he focuses on little details that he can fix instead of acknowledging the actual problem.

He internalizes things so fucking hard. Yes he intellectually knows that when MC gives him feedback on things she’s talking about his BEHAVIOR and not him as a person, but he definitely feels like shit about himself if he makes a mistake and MC calls him on it. He’ll definitely beat himself up about things for weeks after it happens, and his internal dialogue in general is pretty toxic. 

I can see him being a bit of a workaholic. Not in the same sense that Camilo is in Boat Party, but Noah definitely will go into the library on a day he’s scheduled to be off if he has projects to work on or will stay late because he got engrossed in research. Same thing now that the library’s closed because of COVID- it takes him two times as long to put everyone online and work from home, so he’s spending more time working than ever. He views it through the lens of the ‘greater good’- getting that display set up for the patrons is more important that seeing his wife two hours earlier because many members of the community outnumber one person. Plus he just cares so much about his work that he has a hard time seeing it as an inconvenience to other people.

He loves his family so much. Even when MC and he get married and have kids, he struggles to prioritize them over his siblings and parents. So if his little brother Arlo needs money, Noah won’t hesitate to give him a loan even if he and MC are struggling financially. If his aging mom or dad can’t live alone anymore, Noah will invite them to move in with his family, even if their house isn’t big enough to accommodate more people. I can see this being a huge point of contention, especially in that second scenario where MC would have to take on a caretaker role as well. Noah just wants to help people so bad and has a hard time saying no, so that can sometimes impede his partner.

He’s really used to living on low income, and so he has a lot of frugal habits and concessions that he thinks are normal that someone more middle or upper class might find irritating. These are all coming from my experience and things partners have complained about- but think things like only eating out once a month or refusing to turn the heat on until it’s dangerous or making his own laundry detergent. He grew up doing them out of necessity (and still does, student debt on a public librarian’s budget? I couldn’t do it), so he doesn’t realize how strange or frustrating his habits might be to someone who isn’t used to it. He also has a really hard time justifying spending excessive amounts of money, so if MC has lavish taste there’s going to be some conflict.

He doesn’t like initiating anything. Conversations, activities… you know *smirk emoji*. He will, but the ratio of when Noah suggests something to when MC does is like 1:8

My boy is beautiful, and his clothes look lovely, but he has 7 outfits that he rewears all the time. The closest thing to fashion is him putting a different button up shirt underneath his vest. It’s definitely a joke at work that he wears the same sweater, button up, and quarter length shirt just in different colors. You know that vine where the teacher walks into the room wearing the same shirt in different colors, saying the same ‘hello’ for like a million days. Noah’s coworkers remake that with him, because that’s exactly what he does. 

He’s a bit of a homebody, and loves routine. For me, massive plus, I love that. But for someone who wants to party regularly or be spontaneous, I can see constantly changing plans and going out with people being really draining to Noah. He has a small group of close friends, so he’d struggle to remember MC’s friends' names if she has more than five. Don’t get me wrong, Noah will take MC to galleries and dates at least three times a month, but it has to be discussed and scheduled in advance. 

Pros

Honestly, what isn’t a pro about him? Noah is a steadfast, thoughtful, and kind person. His politics are about taking care of people, providing them dignity and respect, and building community. He loves his family and is incredibly patient. He’s incredibly smart but not at all classist or condescending about it. I know this is supposed to be about how the islanders affect the person they’re dating, but oh my god he’s such a good person I love him. Let’s just say the pro for this is his positive aura. 

He’s really good at group dynamics and listening, so he goes out of his way to make everyone feel heard and valued. If someone says something and no one acknowledges it, he’ll specifically engage with them so they’re not left hanging. If someone’s trying to get a word in but can’t, he’ll get everyone’s attention then say ‘so and so had an idea’. He’s not one to boisterously laugh in group settings, but he always makes eye contact and smiles if you make a joke that flops or say something he agrees with. If people are teasing about something, he picks up if it’s gone too far really easily and will gracefully change the subject/tell them to knock it off. 

He’s super conscientious about respecting boundaries and ensuring the people around him are taking care of himself. If MC and him are long distance and texting after 10pm, he’ll be like “I love you, but we’ve both got to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow”. He’ll always check and make sure people have eaten when meeting up with them, and if they haven’t he’ll insist they get food from somewhere. 100% gives you his jacket, brings you water bottles, in general just wants you to take care of yourself. 

Above all else, Noah just always ensures the people around him feel safe. The last thing he’d want to do is make people uncomfortable, so safe driving, safe spaces, safe sex are all musts. He’s really good in crisis situations because he can calm people down and encourage them to think critically.  

Building off of that, he’s really aware of how much of the housework is being done by who and always tries to ensure he’s doing his part. I bet that was a big thing he ripped on Rahim for- Rahim expects his woman to clean up after him and do the bulk of the domestic work, and Noah knows that’s bullshit. I think Noah likes cleaning, anyways, and will usually take laundry/disinfecting bathrooms/cleaning dishes over cooking or running errands. But the mental load of keeping track of recipes/groceries that need replenishing and keeping up with kids needs, he’s aware of the imbalance and does his part. Obvious plus, because it sounds fucking exhausting to date a man. He fucking hates vaccuming though, and will splurge on a roomba. 

He has a dry sense of humor that’s very based in puns and hyperbole. Sometimes it’s hard to know when he’s joking or not, but he never makes you feel bad for missing a joke or dwells on something for too long. He absolutely subscribes to the Mcelroys’ No Bummers rule, there are some things you don’t joke about and he’s happy to shut down inappropriate comments or ‘jokes’. He definitely prefers physical gaffs and dumb ways of saying things, so his favorite comedians are John Mulaney and Chris Fleming. While humor isn’t an important part of how he relates to other people, Noah enjoys being around funny people and won’t shut down their energy like Rahim, Marisol, or Hope. 

This is just me projecting again but Noah is generoussss. Even though he doesn’t make a lot of money at the library, he still has a ‘mutual aid’ budget each month (and goes over it often). He’s the first one to give money to panhandlers, donate to gofundmes, and give friends/family personal loans. That definitely gets him into sticky situations sometimes, because he has a hard time saying no and can get taken advantage of, but ultimately I think it’s a pro because he’ll never forget where he came from and always prioritize helping other people. 

He has a really pretty, deep singing voice and this is a pro to me because fuck I meltttttt.

The shit he says to his partner or spouse? THE most romantic thing in the world. You think Mr. “you’re made of stardust” doesn’t shower his lover with the most meaningful lines at random times? You think he’s not quoting sappho and jane austen when he’s at a loss for words? You think he’s NOT going to turn over in bed on a lazy Saturday and say ‘this is the most perfect my life will ever be’? It’s not even prompted either, yes he’ll compliment Bobby or MC when they get all dressed up for date night, but more often he’ll profess his adoration in the middle of dinner, then take another forkful of food. 

Fantastic with kids, and this is a huge pro because people who can work with kids and be patient/positive with them make me so fuckim soft. But if/when (hopefully when because if MC didn’t want kids I don’t think it’d last) they had kids, Noah is happy to be on bottle duty, wake up early to the baby, and generally be a really involved parent. He’ll take a big chunk of paternity leave, and generally be there as much as humanly possible. Even when they have multiple little tyrants running around, he always makes time to be alone with MC and make sure she’s not taking on too much.

He’s basically a lesbian, which is definitely a reason I love him so much. Hear me out- loves milfs, loves 80s music, communicates affection through meaningful glances and playing with hair but will die before explicitly saying any of it, crushes on his best friend for the longest time but never makes the first move, puts way too much emotional meaning and personal metaphors into objects and then presents them as gifts, is into fandoms and actively collects pop figures, is attracted to assertive/powerful women, wears beige skinny jeans, wears VESTS….. That’s a lesbian. He’s a bisexual man, but he’s also an honorary lesbian.

A really good confidant. Noah’s an amazing listener and never judges people harshly- his life philosophy is as long as you’re not hurting anymore or yourself, everything else is details. So you can definitely tell him secrets and confess regrets to him and he’ll listen with those soft eyes and gentle nods. Talking to him about mistakes always feels like unburdening yourself. And he’d never tell your secret to anyone. Doesn’t matter if you cheat on him, lie to him, or die, he’s never going to tell anyone your secrets. 

[scullydubois]

Only the Light: Ch. 21

21/? | AU where Melissa moves in with Scully after Scully’s abduction | angst, msr slow-burn, occasional fluff | currently: mid-s3 (canon-divergent) | T | 4.8k | previous chapters | read on ao3 | tagging: @today-in-fic 

Hello, here is my ‘I didn’t plan for updates to take two weeks, but it always works out to two weeks’ post, right on time. Almost finished with this journey, thank you for sticking around <3

As Mulder helps care for his ill partner and her child, he enlists the Lone Gunmen to investigate the circumstances surrounding Scully's diagnosis. He and Melissa pay a visit to the three men, then Mulder gets an unwanted surprise back at apartment 42.

-------------------

As Scully’s world has shrunk, the amount of love in it has grown. This is small consolation for the hell she’s enduring, but it is the only antidote. She realizes this now that she’s staring down the abyss: all the knowledge in the world won’t save you, and wealth is nothing but a false comfort. What will live on are the parts of herself she’s left with others. Her goal for her remaining time, however long that may be, is to hold tight to those she loves...not to slip away until her heart stops beating.

This is hard when she already feels like less of herself. She’s doing chemo twice a week at Georgetown, and it’s brutal. She knew it would be...her only other choice is to get that gravestone of hers re-engraved. 

Meanwhile, Mulder pushed all other work aside to get in contact with the Mufon women. It only took him one day to do so, but Scully doesn’t know that, and for now, she doesn’t need to know. He’s keeping what he’s learned so far to himself...Betsy Hagopian is dead and has been since shortly after Scully saw her. Penny Northern is sick and not responding to treatment. A handful of other women, abductees like Scully, have developed rare cancers too.

It’s not something he knows how to talk about, such despondency. His world has always hinged on hope. That’s what his work on the X-Files is to him, one big leap of faith toward his sister. Or was, before Scully came along. It’s not that she diverted him from Samantha...no, she turned a very personal quest into something larger than him. Or her, or any one person they worked with. She pared it down to its core value, its overarching mission: the truth. Because the truth may hurt at first, but given time, it heals. And it is the only path to healing. This is what he’s learned from her. And now, he’s got to do everything he can to pass the revitalized world she’s shown him onto her. 

The arrangement falls into place without any friction: Missy handles the chemo run on Monday mornings, and Mulder leaves work early on Thursdays. Emily spends Mondays with her grandma, and Thursdays too when Missy works the night shift. 

Thursdays become something of a spiritual day for Mulder. The hours of approximately 3-10pm are spent doting on his partner--in her apartment, and then his car, then the hospital and his car again, and finally, back to her apartment. Mama Scully brings Emily back around eight, and if Missy’s not home, Mulder gets the honor of the bedtime ritual. The domesticity of it all tethers him to reality, maybe for the first time in his life. He’d give anything to change the circumstances, but it’s humbling to feel--for once--that he belongs on Earth. 

It is on one of these Thursday evenings that Mulder could swear he feels his whole life trailing behind him, leading him to the present. The end of the year is creeping up in its usual fashion, which means the outside world is a blanket of darkness before the stoves of countless suburban homes have even been started. Having settled her comfortably into bed with a pile of pillows, Mulder carries his partner a glass of water and pulls the wastebasket to her side; this is their routine now. 

“You doing okay?” he asks, lingering as she takes a sip of water. It will soon be time to make himself scarce so she can sleep.

She nods, gurgles a garbled affirmation. Mulder turns to go, and her heart leaps to her throat. “Will you stay?” she spews, embarrassed by her need. 

“Of course.” She’s unaware, apparently, that when he leaves it’s for her, not him. He approaches her bedside, lowers himself carefully beside her knees. “Any particular reason?” he murmurs, examining the sunken spaces beneath her eyes.

“I just...wanted to talk to you,” she says, and Mulder thinks there might be a bit more color in her cheeks than there was yesterday.

“Okay.” He leans in and sweeps a strand of hair off her forehead so lightly that Scully doesn’t even feel it. She’s apprehensive about being touched these days, and he has taken this knowledge to heart. She is grateful, and to show the extent of this feeling, she strokes his hand, allows him to take hers in his. He runs his thumb over each finger as they continue. 

He wants to ask what she’s thinking about, what it is that has so graciously extended his stay in this room. But he knows that she’ll get to it, that she has nothing to keep from him now. 

There’s a sincere serenity on her face that he’s never seen. And after a minute or two, she begins. “I didn’t think it could happen--and it certainly doesn’t make much sense-- but right now, I am happier than I have ever been.”

A string on Mulder’s heart, tightened to its prime, bursts without warning. 

She caresses the back of his head. “It’s so trivial, Mulder. So much of what we call life isn’t living at all. Or at least not the important kind.”

He lifts his gaze, eye contact conveying more than he could with words.

“But I’ve thought about the parts of my life that are living, and all of them, in some way, come back to you.”

Mulder shakes his head, feeling too flattered. “That’s not true…”

“You can believe whatever you need to,” she whispers, “but it is the truth, and I am eternally grateful that you happened to me.”

He tries to cough away some tears, which works about a quarter as well as he hoped it would. “Hold on, little lady.” He pats her hand in response to her smile. “I think you happened to me.”

Scully’s chest flutters in laughter. “Did I?” These subtle things have always been so important to them. 

“You walked into my office, remember.”

“Well, I guess it would depend on who changed the most due to the other’s influence then,” she reasons. 

Mulder just gives her a look. 

She smirks. “Okay, so maybe I happened to you, but you…” she chews her lip, and this could be any other day of any other year if she weren’t bedridden. She picks out her words-- “You completed me.”

Mulder spills forward, finding his footing and spinning into the middle of the room. “Holy fuck Scully, are you trying to kill me?”

“We’ve been searching for the truth. That’s the truth, Mulder. I wanted you to know.”

He sets his jaw. He won’t burst into tears in front of her, not when she has all the reason to cry and yet has been so strong. 

“You should get some sleep,” he tells her, hoping to expedite his exit from the room. 

“I will. And it’s okay to be sad, but not for me. My life is as whole as ever.”

He nods, though he doesn’t agree (what’s new?). He knew Samantha for eight years and has been sad for twenty. He’s known Scully for half that--so he gets at least a decade of mourning. 

“Sweet dreams,” he says, resting his hands on the door frame. “I’ll bring Emily in when she gets here.”

“Okay.” She closes her eyes, smiles. “Love you.”

“Love you too, DKS.” He blows a kiss and slips out, heat flooding to his face. This is the first time she’s said that unprompted, and is that what the threat of imminent death does to you? Pries you open? 

He wonders. Whose love is saving who?

-------------------------

The primetime line-up is flickering over the television when Mama Scully arrives with Emily, passing her granddaughter to Mulder like the family heirloom she is. They exchange a few words in short breaths, reserving the air supply for their dear Dana. Mama Scully agrees to come see her daughter this weekend rather than interrupt her much-needed rest now, and Mulder is suddenly single parent-slash-babysitter; the specifics elude him. 

Perfumed with baby powder from her grandmother’s overly enthusiastic hand, Mulder concludes that Em needs neither bathing nor changing. She doesn’t seem very keen on sleep either, seeing as how her little voice keeps calling out Moldy! and her little fists clobber his shoulders. Still, he will keep his promise. He carries her into the room she shares with her mother, stepping lightly lest the floorboards creak. 

As he circles the bed to lay the child beside her sleeping mother, he winces at the mess in the trash can. Good thing he moved it into place though Scully had seemed okay. He hadn’t heard any retching, and it saddens him that he wasn’t there to hold her hair back. He settles Em into place, makes a mental note to rinse the can on his way out. 

Her characteristically light sleep lightened further by her illness, Scully stirs from the shift of Emily’s weight against the mattress. She rolls toward the free side and flutters her eyelids open. Her smile is reflexive. 

“Hello baby girl,” she purrs. She lays a hand against her daughter’s polka-dotted onesie. “Did you have a good day with Grandma?”

Emily answers with some fluttery babbling and gropes for her mother’s nose. 

“I don’t think she’s very tired,” Mulder remarks, hands in his pockets. He smirks. “We should really find out what your mother feeds her.”

Scully pulls her lips into a grin, exhibiting a great deal more effort than she did just moments before. She blinks, rubs her eyes, and seems to go out of the world for a second. Then she sets her gaze on Mulder and speaks dreamily--”Will you tell us a bedtime story?”

“Oh!” Mulder scratches his chin, having expected his dismissal. “Do you think that would help…?”

Scully presses her head into the pillow. “I’m not gonna be able to fall back asleep until she does.”

That is a yes, served with some condescension.  

“Okay, well, let me think.” He perches on the side of the bed. “Regrettably, I did not get my degree in bedtime stories.”

“Just say what you know,” Scully mumbles. “We’re the only ones listening, and the goal is to put us to sleep.”

“I hope that’s not a comment on my conversational skills,” he teases, smoothing the sheets. 

Again, there’s a look of otherworldliness from his partner. She is somewhere else.

“Go on, tell us a story,” she hums, her surprising lack of impatience attributable to an equal lack of wakefulness. 

“Let’s see…” He stretches out, perching on his elbow by Scully’s feet like she did in the first motel they ever stayed in. Emily sits herself up and grasps for him. He laughs, lets her latch onto his fingers.

“There once was a little girl who loved horses and bugging her brother,” he begins. “Now, I’m sure she sounds like just about any little girl out there, but I promise, she was as unique as they come.” 

Scully closes her eyes and tilts her head back to listen.

“She always said she wanted to be a butterfly when she grew up so she could spread her wings and fly. And her parents would scoff and tell her that would never be possible, but she believed. She believed it would happen.”

Emily babbles along, adding her own colorful commentary. 

“I know, I know right?” Mulder muses to the little girl. “The parents were such jerks.”

He tickles Em’s stomach, then remembers that he’s supposed to be helping her go to sleep. He kisses her temple and begins stroking her knee, hoping to achieve a hypnotic rhythm. 

“And so one day, this little girl...well, this little girl got to go on an adventure. She left behind her house and her family, and she got to go up to the sky and see the stars, and it was everything she wished for.”

Scully opens her eyes slowly. Mulder’s focus is centered on Emily, who stares up at him with the awe of a museum-goer seeing the Starry Night. It is as if they are the only two in the room, and this gives Scully great comfort, for she can imagine them having a life after she is gone.

“The girl’s family was sad because they didn’t know where she went. The girl’s brother missed her the most, but it was okay because the girl was happy. She got to fly through the sky like a bird or a plane, and she achieved the dream that her parents thought would never come true.”

Em’s breathing begins to slow into sleep. And thank god, cause he’s running out of story to tell.

“Lay down, little girl.” He guides her onto her back so she can drift off without difficulty, then clears his throat softly. 

“Some say that if you see a light in the night sky, that’s this little girl, floating among the stars, living her dream. And her brother, well, he’s pretty fond of that thought. He just wants her to be happy.”

Silence falls over the room like a throbbing sensation of unknown origin. Emily’s eyelids struggle between open and closed, and Mulder knows she will soon be out. Scully’s baby blues, meanwhile, peer at him with such unflinching intensity that he suspects she has fallen asleep like that. It is haunting, but it becomes much less so when she blinks and he realizes that she’s looking at him, that she heard the whole story.

“Is that what you wanted?” he whispers, half expecting her not to answer.

“It was beautiful, Mulder. Samantha lives on.”

He smiles from his eyes...oh, of course it was obvious, his little tribute to his sister. Scully said to work from what he knew, and this myth is something he’s used to keep himself going since his family realized that there would be no happy reunion with Sam. He’s happy to share his fantasy; such escapes are needed now.

----------------------

Melissa’s heart leaps when she opens the apartment door to an empty living room. The TV drones out its slapstick laugh track, contributing to the ominous atmosphere. She’d expect to see Mulder taking up a restless refuge on the couch, or maybe sneaking a late night snack to Em. Her sister should be fast asleep by now, her little world able to slacken its hold on her. Unless she is no longer afforded such luxury…

Missy rushes toward Dana’s bedroom, her purse still on her shoulder. In the doorway she slows as her eyes adjust to the lack of light. And thank goodness because three silhouettes catch her eye; a medium one buried under the covers, a large one strewn diagonally across the bed, and a small bump barely visible on the far side. A snore of unidentifiable origin is the only disturbance. Missy smiles to herself. All the missing persons are accounted for and well. She can continue with the blissfully bland routine of her night. 

She washes her face and brews some chamomile before settling on the couch with the week’s issues of Mad Magazine and Vogue. Yes, she contains multitudes. She’s up to the Spy vs. Spy comic when Mulder strolls in, yawning. 

“I guess my bedtime story was effective.”

“Mmm.” Missy scoots her mug over so he can prop his feet up. Dana hates feet on furniture, but she’s got a child in the house now, so she’ll have to let go of those judgments. “How is she?”

“Oh shit.” She’s jogged something in his memory. “I meant to grab the trash can on the way out.”

Missy knows what this means. “I’ll get it in a second.”

Mulder nods in silent gratitude, relaxes back into his spot. “She seemed livelier than usual when we got home.”

 It hits him that he said home, not back. And well, it is Scully’s home. What about him? He sleeps on the couch and he doesn’t pay rent...that’s how he lived at Oxford, though he gets the feeling that it’s not as evergreen at thirty-three years old. 

These days, he only goes to his place on Sunday nights to get (what he considers) a week’s worth of clothing--two work outfits (hey, he never really sees anyone but Scully anyway) and one casual outfit that doubles as pajamas. He bought a bunch of fish feeding tablets so all he has to do is drop a few in on Sunday and the fish are set for the week. As far as he can tell, at least. None of them have floated to the top of the tank yet.

“And Em is all good?” Missy confirms.

Mulder nods. “Your mom takes good care of her.”

“I think I know the answer to this, but do you want some tea?” Missy asks, flashing her mug.

“No, no, save it for yourself.”

“Alright.” She flips a page in her magazine. “Just let me know when you’re ready to kick me out. Since I’m kind of in your bed and all.”

“I should be telling you that,” Mulder counters. “You don’t mind me staying here, do you?”

“Not at all.” Missy lays the magazine on the table. “It’s important that you’re around.”

“Really?...For what?”

“For who,” Missy corrects. “Emily needs you to give her balance, and Dana...she just needs you. You’re the safety net under her tightrope.”

“Oh.” This metaphor grounds Mulder better than gravity ever has.

Missy seems to sense this and takes the opportunity to profit off his vulnerability. “So what’s gone on between you?” she asks, an eyebrow arched.

Mulder squints at her. “Huh?”

“I keep waiting for Dana to kick you out or get irritated about you being around all the time,” Missy says with honest simplicity. “But instead, she lets you take her to chemo and fall asleep in her bed…”

“Well, I think the former is more ideal than the alternative, which is that I watch her child,” Mulder replies. “And I fell asleep on the bed, not in it.”

“Okay.” Missy sips her tea, keeps her eyes on him. 

It’s pointless for Mulder to try to keep secrets anymore. He wrings out his hands. “If you must know, when you dropped her off at my apartment after her appointment, we... came to a mutual understanding.”

“Ah.” Missy is not surprised by any of it. Of course it happened. Of course her sister hasn’t mentioned it. 

“Why are you just asking about this now?”

“Cause I expected my suspicions to be proven wrong, and that hasn’t happened.”

Mulder nods, taps absentmindedly on his knee. “Actually, I have something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” She’s intrigued. The enigmatic Fox Mulder, divulging on his own accord. 

“Don’t get excited, it’s not good.” 

Damn. Missy reels herself in. “About Dana?”

“About what happened to her or...what is happening to her. It’s about the Mufon women.”

Missy curls her legs beneath herself. “You reached them?” 

He nods. “Well, Penny Northern’s hospice nurse picked up when I called. She’s got stage four tumors throughout her body that migrated from her nasopharynx.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah. Apparently most of the other abductees have cancer too. And Betsy Hagopian--the woman who Scully saw in the hospital last spring--is dead.”

Missy’s gaze drops to the floor. “So the invasive procedures that the abductors did are killing these women.”

“One doctor’s treating them all--he’s supposed to be a specialist--but it doesn’t look like he’s having much success.” Mulder pauses, his mouth partially open.

“What?” Missy presses.

“The Lone Gunmen and I have been looking into him, and we think that he might have been involved in the abductions.”

Missy barrels forward. “You think he did this to them on purpose and now he’s letting them die?”

Mulder nods solemnly. 

“Well, we have to stop him. We can’t let any more patients go to him, especially Dana…”

“I know. I’m going down to see the Lone Gunmen tomorrow after work if you want to join me.”

Missy contemplates. “I have the lunch shift tomorrow, so I could. What would we tell Dana?”

“I’ll say that Skinner is keeping me late to go over some paperwork. You could say whatever, she’s not going to question you.”

“I hate to leave her alone for so long, but...yeah, we have to do this.” She leans back, takes another look at Mulder. “You might just save a lot of women, you know.”

------------------------

Missy feels unseen eyes bore into her as she and Mulder approach the basement entrance of a helter-skelter building. She doesn’t recognize the part of town they’re in, and she doesn’t ask. 

Mulder hits the button on a call box beside the door. Before he can speak, a voice leaps out at them.

“Howdy Mulderoony.” Mulder recognizes it as Frohike’s voice. “Glad to see you made it safely.”

A variety of locks and chains are undone, the door pulled open. 

“Join our ménage a trois,” Frohike says, ushering them in. 

“We can’t stay long,” Mulder tells them, squinting as he adjusts to the darkness of their realm. “You guys forget to pay the electric bill or something?”

“We’re conserving electricity,” Byers says, a shadow in the corner of the room. “It’s good for the environment.”

“I didn’t realize the environment was on your list of concerns.”

“It should be on everyone’s list of concerns,” Byers throws back matter-of-factly. 

Mulder slides his hands into his pockets. “Touché.” 

Ringo comes forward from the darkness, his hair as tressed and greasy as ever. “Well lookie here. Dana Scully in the flesh.”

Frohike inserts himself between them. “You can’t be serious, pool boy. That’s not her, I’d know her anywhere. It is, however, an equally lovely woman.” He takes Missy’s hand and kisses it. “My lady.”

Missy participates with amusement until Mulder brushes Frohike aside.

“Okay boys, lay off. This is Scully’s sister Melissa. And I believe she’s taken.”

Frohike bows. “A lucky man.”

“Woman,” Missy corrects.

“Oh. Excusez-moi."

Tucked in the darkness, Byers scoffs at the childish antics. “Come on, let’s cut to the chase. Lives are at stake.”

“I’m glad to see someone has a brain around here,” Mulder quips. 

Ringo pats Mulder’s shoulder. “Not all of us got a full-ride to Oxford, but hey, I’d say we’ve done pretty well for ourselves.”

“Calm down, Ringo. You’d still be the smartest member of the Ramones.” 

Like an unleashed dog, Ringo lunges forward, and Byers and Frohike pull him back. They are quite used to this. 

“You can insult me, but never speak ill of the Ramones!” Ringo growls. 

Mulder puts his hands up, smirks at the permission he’s been given. “Happily.”

Missy clears her throat, her amusement wearing thin. She’s like her sister in this way.

Mulder gets the memo. “Right. Can the trash talk, we’re here to catch a criminal.”

“If he is, in fact, a criminal,” Byers remarks.

Missy frowns. “Haven’t you proved that?”

“We’re connecting the dots, but we haven’t completed the picture yet,” Byers replies. 

Mulder circles around to Byers’ monitor. “What have you got?”

“This doctor, Scanlon, isn’t just an oncologist,” Ringo begins, as if Mulder asked him. “His name is associated with the Lombard Research Facility.”

Mulder and Missy both give him a look. More, more!

“A high security medical research center in Allentown,” he clarifies. 

“We’ve hacked into some of the security cameras,” Frohike tells them. “We’d have to get in to see for ourselves, but the activity is rather suspicious. The same men, in and out, at odd times. Whatever they’re storing in there, it’s significant.”

“Then let’s get in,” Mulder emphasizes. “You be the eyes and ears, I’ll be the legs.”

Ringo nods. “We’re working on it.”

“We need to observe their weekend patterns before we make any moves,” Byers insists. “We don’t set up our missions to fail.”

“Fine, but as soon as you’ve reached your confidence threshold--”

“We’ll call you,” Ringo promises.

“What are you expecting to find?” Missy asks, frenzied. “Will it help Dana?”

Frohike drums his fingers on the desk. “That’s the plan.”

Byers nods. “We can’t be sure exactly what we’ll find, but the connection is clear: Scanlon was involved with the abductions, and he’s exploiting these women for his own benefit.”

Melissa shivers involuntarily. “It’s amazing that you’ve figured this out.”

Ringo twirls a pencil through his hair. “We have a lot of free time on our hands.”

Mulder takes a shot at the mini-basketball hoop they have, misses. “And you’d better use it all to implicate Dr. Scanlon’s ass.”

Frohike does a two-finger salute. “Aye aye captain.”

Mulder thumbs toward the door. “Now we’ve gotta get out of here before the smell sticks to us. Scully will know exactly where we’ve been,” he smirks.

“Can’t argue with that.” Frohike shows them to the door. “Give the lady my regards.”

“Will do.” He turns back, exchanges a serious glance with each man. “Sort this out, boys.”

Just as quickly as they came, he and Melissa step out of the chambers and ascend back into the sun’s dominion. Entrusting those three with the well-being of a woman they love so much is far from ideal, and yet, they’re throwing all their faith into it.

---------------------------

Mulder slides his key into the door of apartment 42 shortly after seven on Sunday evening. He hasn’t been in for a week, and yet a vivid scent of...smoke sticks about the place. And a wrinkled mess of a man to go with it.

The old man lifts his chin. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Mulder is no longer naïve enough to be taken aback by Cancer Man’s ambush. He shrugs and slides his coat off. “Well, you are in my apartment.”

“I’ve heard that your partner is very sick,” CSM says, his steps so clunky that Mulder wonders whether the downstairs tenants will complain. 

“What grapevine did you get that from?...Or are you the one growing the grapes?”

“It saddened me to hear. Agent Scully is a valuable member of the Bureau.”

Mulder nods. “You here to pass on your condolences? Cause I’m pretty sure you could just send a card.”

“I’m here to propose a solution...The doctors say your partner’s sickness is incurable. This is not true.”

“Smarter than the doctors, are you?”

“In this case I am.”

A bitter laugh rises from Mulder. “So I’m supposed to believe that you were involved in sickening Scully, yet you want to save her?”

“We all have our regrets.”

“And I have no reason to trust you.”

“Upon learning about her child, I feel a deep need to intervene.”

“Mmm.” Mulder begins to pace. “And by learning about her child, do you mean when Scully’s ova were removed and fertilized without her knowledge? Because I have a hard time believing that you didn’t know a thing about Emily until Scully got custody.”

“Certainly I did not foresee Emily ending up in her mother’s custody.”

“What was the purpose then, of Emily? To terrorize a woman by taking away her bodily autonomy?”

CSM shrugs. “That’s not my area.”

Mulder scoffs. “Okay you old freak. Tell me how to save Scully’s life or get the hell out of here.”

The wrinkled man folds his hands. “She had a silicone implant removed from her neck. Put it back in.”

Mulder freezes. “Are you serious? That’s your miracle cure?”

CSM nods. “It is the only way to save her life. Removing the implant is what caused the cancer in the first place.”

Mulder steps forward, getting in the old man’s face like a middle-school bully. He’s ready to throw a punch--honestly, ready to kill the man--if need be. He could do it. Easily. He could.

“What does the implant do, Cancer Man?”

“Believe it or not, it is meant as a sort of inoculation. It offsets the negative effects of any tests performed during the...time away.”

“Uh-huh, and what do you get from it?”

“Who says I get anything from it?”

“How else would you know that she had it removed?”

“I am everywhere, Agent Mulder.”

Mulder loses his thinly-veiled calm, wraps his hand around the man’s saggy neck. “You fucking pervert, I’ll kill you! I’ve killed a man before just like this. Tell me the truth.”

“This is the truth,” CSM wheezes, not intimidated by his rapidly deteriorating air flow. His cold, hard eyes stare into Mulder’s. “You wouldn’t kill a man over nothing, would you?”

Mulder squeezes harder, his fingers gripping the man’s pulse. He watches the light drain from his victim’s eyes. All the old bastard does is smirk at him. 

Angered by this more than anything, Mulder releases the man so suddenly that his bony body is thrown into the wall. He keeps his footing, stumbles forward.

“Get out,” Mulder growls. When he doesn’t respond, Mulder pokes his finger at the door. “Get out now!”

CSM dusts himself off and walks out, the pompous smirk never leaving his face. Mulder slams the door shut behind him. 

There are certain truths he cannot escape. If Scully has made him believe in Heaven, CSM has made him believe in Hell.

[jimmys-zeppelin]

ghostin'

chapter five

(table of contents)

(chapter four)

march 17, 1976

Ellie groggily rubbed at her eyes, 'still on the plane, I see', she thought to herself. She wasn't even sure how long she'd slept, but knew she should probably get back to it so as to avoid jet lag, according to Jimmy. Her throat was dry and she reached for a water bottle that was lodged in the seat-back pocket in front of her. The water bottle crackled loudly in the silence of the packed airplane.

Jimmy stirred next to her, his right hand was atop her left and he gripped onto her a bit tighter at the sudden noise. "Els?"

"Sorry, I was getting some water." she whispered, uncapping the bottle and drinking whatever was left in the quarter-full bottle. She'd have to remember to get another one in case she got thirsty.

"We're in first class, you can just ask a flight attendant for a glass." Jimmy whispered.

"I didn't want to bother anyone. Plus I had my water bottle." Ellie replied, "how much longer do you think?"

Checking his watch, Jimmy did some quick math in his head before answering, "I don't know, like five more. My watch is still on Pacific time."

"Ugh, I don't know how you can do this all the time," she said, leaning back into her chair, "This is just making me nervous, I don't know what to do. I'm so bored."

Jimmy lifted his hand from Ellie's and he took her hand off of the arm rest that separated them. Lifting the arm, he invited her to lean into his chest. "If we were on the Starship," Jimmy whispered once her head laid in the crook of his neck, "I don't think you'd be bored at all."

"Do tell, James." Ellie said suggestively, urging him to indulge on his thoughts.

"Not here, love." He answered—she could tell there was a smile plastered across his face. He patted her head, placing a light kiss on it, "go back to sleep, we'll be there in no time."

☆

Ellie spit out her toothpaste in the Gatwick Airport bathroom. Washing it down the drain, she took some water and splashed her face lightly. Waking herself up so as to adjust the best she could to the drastic time difference. Looking at her watch, it read 10PM, but in actuality it was 6AM in London. It was a new day in her new location, whereas she would just be getting ready for bed—or a party—back at home.

Drying her face with a paper towel, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was a hot mess. Her hair was in need of a brush, her eyes were puffy from sleeping for most of the flight, and her favorite dress—a lime green shift dress that hit her just above the knees—was wrinkled. And her feet were freezing. And although she was wearing a thin layer of tights, they weren't enough to warm her with the penny loafers she was wearing.

Deciding she looked good enough to at least get out of the airport with Jimmy, she ran a damp hand over the flyaways on her head and straightened out her dress before making her way out. Upon exiting the bathroom she was met with a swarm of people. But they weren't surrounding her, they were surrounding Jimmy. He'd been standing outside of the bathroom and naturally people recognized him. Ellie pushed her way through the small crowd and saw Jimmy at the center, talking with other people—presumably Zeppelin fans—when he looked up and Ellie caught his eye.

"Okay, it was a pleasure to meet you all, but the lady and I have to go." Jimmy announced. A few flashes went off as the two walked away along with a couple of groans at the fact that they were leaving. Ellie was mildly stunned. She was famous, of course, but not at all on the level that Jimmy was. People didn't swarm her like they did him.

"Does this happen often?" she whispered once they were a ways away. Jimmy wheeled both of their luggages behind him and kept a quick pace as they walked through the airport.

"Unfortunately." was all he said as they walked out of the airport where a car was already waiting for them. They hopped into the vehicle and were able to take a breather.

The radio played faintly behind them as Jimmy's hand started up Ellie's thigh. She smirked up at him, "what are you doing?"

Smirking back, he answered, "nothing. I'm happy you're here."

"Cheeky thing, you." Ellie giggled, kissing him sweetly on the lips before scooting closer to him and resting her head on his shoulder yet again.

"Since when do you know British slang?" Jimmy asked with a chuckle.

"How long have we been dating?" Ellie asked back.

"Two years." he said, playing along.

"Well, then that should answer your question."

"Yeah, okay, but I don't say cheeky. Or at least not often enough."

"I guess I picked it up from my other English lover, then."

"And who might that be?"

"Not you." she said with an amused dullness to her voice. 

"Oh, now you're just taking the piss." Jimmy laughed.

"Wait, what does that mean?"

☆

After thirty-five minutes or so in the car, Ellie felt like she was going to throw up from going through so much transportation. "Jimmy, are we almost there?" Ellie asked almost as impatiently as a toddler.

He reassured her, "Yes, just wait a few more minutes, I promise you won't have to get into another car or plane for the rest of the day.

Ellie breathed out a sigh of relief, "thank you."

Jimmy showed her a few more interesting sights as the driver went through some more twists and turns. Eventually, they slowed to a stop outside of a large, estate-like house. Ellie looked around after getting out of the car and taking in the fresh air. She got used to the sensation of walking again as she took a few steps around the car while Jimmy took care of the luggages and tipping the driver. Then the man drove off, leaving the couple out on the empty driveway.

"Here we are...home sweet home." Jimmy said after their quiet walk up the drive of the gargantuan house. He unlocked the door and let Ellie inside first.

"Wow, Jimmy, this is beautiful. And I thought my house was big. How come you never showed me?"

"You know I'm not one to show off. C'mon, I'll show you around."

Ellie had lost count of the number of bedrooms Jimmy's house had. She wondered how he was ever comfortable at her house when she didn't have nearly as many rooms or couches or as nice a kitchen. Everything was bigger and better at Jimmy's house.

"Now, don't let the size intimidate you. It's very comfortable here. I want you to feel at home." he said, taking a look around for himself, seemingly admiring the home he'd created for himself.

"Y'know, Jimmy. Taken out of context, one could think you were talking about something else." Ellie joked, holding a completely serious face as she said so.

"You dirty, dirty, girl." he shook his head with a light chuckle, soon changing the topic of conversation, "Are you hungry? I made some arrangements for breakfast at a tea house a couple minutes from here."

"Do they have coffee?" Ellie asked.

"Darling, it's a tea house."

"Right. But should I ask?"

"Absolutely not."

"Got it." Ellie said, "Can I shower and then we go?"

"Of course. There's a bathroom in my room if you wanna go there."

"Okay," Ellie said, starting in the direction of Jimmy's bedroom, "I'll be back in a jiff." she smiled, kissing him on the cheek before heading further into the house.

---

masterlist | playlist

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