#double post as I finish the post for tomorrow woo woo!

[daily-qpr-miraloop]

qpr miraloop is such a galaxy brained take and youre so right for saying it. eyeopening

My propaganda is spreading hell yes I am so happy to hear that

I think about these two a lot, I love shoving Loop into Situations TM no matter who it's with I stg it's so much fun

Fun fact, this mostly started from a silly Mirabelle Loops AU I did in a discord call with my partner that just- kinda stuck in my brain and Will Not Leave lmao

Maybe I'll doodle things about it someday and share it on this blog idk

[quokkacore]

can you dig it? (m) [kim doyoung & kim jungwoo]

summary: post concert highs can be a real bummer, and tonight, after a particularly intense performance, your boyfriends help you come down.

pairing: kim doyoung x kim jungwoo x fem!reader

genre: poly!au, 70s!au, band!au, smut, fluff

warnings: drug usage (weed specifically), mentions of other substances (lsd and cocaine), shotgunning, established poly relationship, soft dom jungwoo, mentioned switch jungwoo, hard dom doyoung, sub reader, high sex, sex on a water bed!!, unprotected sex, spit kink, they're all so sweaty help, mxm, degradation kink, praise kink, orgasm denial, overstimulation, minor possessiveness

song recs: don’t stop - fleetwood mac // unlock it (feat. kim petras & jay park) - charli xcx // love her madly - the doors // ziggy stardust - david bowie // rhiannon - fleetwood mac // eclipse - kim lip (loona) // flick of the wrist - queen

word count: 5.4k

a/n: this is for my best friend, who i love with all my heart,bc last month we were talking abt the dowoo photoshoot and she said smth about high sex with dowoo. happy birthday queen <3 thank u for listening to me complain abt writing all the time :’)

masterlist

Friday, July 22rd, 1977

The concert hall smelled like cocaine and sweat, you noted to yourself as the three of you joined hands to bow. Cheers from the crowd bounced off of the walls as you bid them your final goodbye, wishing them a good night and telling them to drive safe. Still, their chanting persisted. "Seoul Motel! Seoul Motel! Seoul Motel!" 

You wondered vaguely if this was what it was like to be a young god.

The curtain lowered, and the three of you were ushered offstage, to take some pictures and then head back to the hotel, to try and get some rest before you were off to Philadelphia, some five or so hours from where you were now: Boston. 

Truthfully, everything passed in a blur. It was almost always like this after these concerts. The thrill and euphoria of performing made it difficult to focus on things. That might have also been because Jungwoo had passed you a joint before the concert. You couldn't be completely sure.

Your tambourine and guitar seemingly disappeared, but you knew it would show up tomorrow for soundcheck when you got to the Philadelphia venue, right along with Jungwoo's bass guitar and Doyoung's drum kit.

What you did know was that here, in the car back to the hotel that your manager was driving, lecturing you and Jungwoo about the importance of being sober when talking to reporters, Doyoung had a hand on your thigh, and that was all you could focus on. 

Doyoung was high too. You knew this because ten minutes before you were needed on stage he pulled you forward by the hips and told you to take a few hits from the hand rolled joint and blow the smoke into his mouth. Of course, he wasn't as high as you and Jungwoo were, and he knew how to hide it better. But if you were to get close enough you'd notice the redness rimming his eyes, the dilation of his pupils.

The three of you were something, that was for sure. You had been, probably ever since Jungwoo joined the band, some eight years ago, in the fall of '69. You only really defined what you were once you got your first big hit thanks to some disc jockey in LA playing a song you had written, Calabasas, on the radio back in '73. 

The song had blown up, and suddenly the three of you were whisked into a whirlwind of celebrities, drugs, paparazzi and producers who thought the three of you were born yesterday. Yes, you were college kids that ran on booze and weed, but you weren’t complete morons. That was when the three of you sat down to properly discuss boundaries, what slid and what didn’t.

You and your boys decided that night that weren’t down with the idea of everyone knowing. Too many prying eyes. The public didn’t really know, because the press would have a damn field day. 

Other than that, it was a pretty open secret. In the industry, who was going around with who didn’t really matter—a lot of them were too off their face to even care. You realized that a few years back when David Bowie walked in on you watching Jungwoo and Doyoung get it on in a bathroom at some afterparty in New York City, and closed the door muttering something about how strong the edibles were.

 So, what your manager said fell on deaf ears. Too much weed, too much adrenaline, too much energy for someone who needed to head back onto the road in a few hours.

 When you finally got back to the hotel, Jungwoo grabbed your hand in the elevator on the way up to your rooms, which were right next to each other. "You said that your bed was really big… can we come up?"

You nodded, leaning against his arm. Doyoung hummed affectionately at the sight, noting how tired you both were. 

"You two are about five seconds from passing out," Doyoung mumbled, and you waved your hand in denial. 

"Are not," you protested like a child.

"Y/N, don't be a chump. I'm pretty sure if Woo weren't next to you, you'd have fallen over."

You didn't have the energy to counter, and as the elevator slid open, you were the first one to march out, ready to just take a cold shower and die for the next few hours. 

Realistically, you knew that wasn't what would happen. What would happen was that you would shower, get into bed and then toss and turn for another hour or so. Only then would the adrenaline truly wear off. The weed didn't help, making you feel sleepy. 

You unlocked the door, and Doyoung and Jungwoo gawked at the sight—and size—of your bed. It could probably fit all three of you easily. 

Since only one room would spark rumors, the manager usually booked two: one for Doyoung and Jungwoo and one for you. Your room always went unused. Usually, you would have to push Doyoung's and Jungwoo's beds together to make enough room, leaving an awkward and uncomfortable dip for the person in the middle. Whoever got the middle was handed the terrible double edged sword: cuddles galore, but a sore back in the morning. 

Immediately Jungwoo jumped onto the bed, gasping and immediately laughed gleefully as the bed sloshed underneath him. 

"A water bed!?" He exclaimed, splaying out his limbs. "Oh, far out. You really lucked out, dollface." 

He kicked off his shoes and curled up in the middle, eyes fluttering shut. You followed, sitting at the side as you peeled off your white leather go-go boots. Throwing yourself down next to him, you sighed at the sensation of waves beneath you, and nodded. "Oh, this is ace," You murmured, "Feels great."

Peeling one eye open as Jungwoo wrapped his arm around you, your gaze landed on Doyoung, who was still leaning against the wall. You beckoned him over with a hand. "C'mere, princey." 

He made sure that the air conditioner was working before sitting down on the other side of Jungwoo, for which you were grateful. The still drying sweat on the back of your neck and on your chest started to cool instantly. You and Jungwoo giggled as Doyoung’s weight sent waves rippling beneath you.

"So, are you guys gonna sleep or what?" Doyoung asked, kicking his shoes off as well and peeling off his denim jacket. His eyes were still wide open and he didn't look tired at all. "I'm probably staying up a little later, I have some ideas for some lyrics I want to get down—"

"I would love to sleep. But I can't," Jungwoo declared before glancing knowingly at the both of you, "and neither can either of you." 

You hummed in agreement. "Hmm, you're not wrong. Too much energy left."

You turned to bury your face into his chest. His forest green short-sleeved button up was only buttoned up halfway, easily revealing his collarbones. He smelled like pot, sweat, and designer cologne. His chest rumbled as he continued to speak. 

"What about you, bunny boy? You can't tell me you don't still feel it."

"The weed or the concert jitters?" Doyoung's voice was raspy, cautious. He had a feeling he knew where this conversation was going. Once you and Jungwoo ganged up on him, it wouldn't take long to wear him down.

"Both," You and Jungwoo said in unison. You laughed at the sound. Doyoung chuckled as well, and you cracked your eyes open, despite how cozy you felt with Jungwoo stroking the skin of your nape.

"Well, the jitters are still there. That's why I'm staying up. As for the weed… well, yeah. I still feel it."

Jungwoo sighed. "How's the weed hitting you, though?"

"Honestly?" Doyoung's eyes met yours, and you felt something simmer in your chest. He huffed, deciding to take a bite of the apple, and leaned towards the both of you. 

"The weed, plus watching you two perform… Safe to say I'm pretty fuckin' horny right now."

You bit your lip, giving him a sleepy grin. "Oh, Woo, we turned him on." The teasing tone wasn't missed despite the sleepiness in your tone. 

"And what about it?" Doyoung asked, leaning back on his hands. "You can't say that watching Jungwoo do the thing doesn't get you going."

"I have a thing?" 

"We all have a thing, Woo. Princey's over there is at the end of Mr. Jones' Motorcycle. You know, when he finishes the solo? He always throws his head back, because there's sweat and hair in his eyes. You can see his neck and shit..."

Jungwoo blinked. "Shit, that is his thing… What's mine?"

You raised an eyebrow at Doyoung. "His is the thing where he gets so into it that he throws his head back and plays, and still manages to get every bass note right, right?" 

Doyoung nodded with a satisfied hum. "Gets you going, right?"

You brought a hand up to Jungwoo's chest, slowly sliding it down his stomach. Your voice lowered to a raspy murmur, and Jungwoo's hand tightened around your waist. "Damn right it does." 

"And plus, you both have told me that watching me put together the drum kit is hot."

"'Cause it is!" Again you laughed as Jungwoo said the same thing you did. 

"Jungwoo." Doyoung's voice sounded thicker. "You can't tell me that Y/N isn't an absolute vixen on stage." 

"You're right," The younger man answered, voice gruff. His hand slid down, gripping your butt and giving it a light squeeze, before directing his words at you. "Oh! Y/N, your thing is when—you know how every time you play the transition from Calabasas to Saturn’s Rings you sway your hips and flip your hair back and forth? Sometimes you’ll look at me or at Doyoung while you do, and you looked at me tonight. You're a little tease up there, dollface."

Your breath hitched at their words. “Oh, yeah?” You goaded, cuddling further into Jungwoo’s chest. You let a coy smile grace your face as your eyes fluttered shut. “What do you want me to do about it?”

“Don’t be a brat,” Doyoung growled.

“No, Doie,” Jungwoo hummed. He suddenly sounded a lot more awake. “...What would you have her do about it?”

Your eyes fluttered open, swallowing despite the sudden dryness in your throat. Doyoung's pupils were still blown wide, but you were pretty sure it wasn't because of the weed. He licked his lips. "Princess, get on your knees." 

Jungwoo prompted you up, pulling you up to stand at the side of the bed. Doyoung circled around the bed, before standing next to Jungwoo. Your gaze fluttered between your two boyfriends, one looking stern, the other looking like he was having the time of his life. 

Quietly, you lowered yourself to kneel on the plush carpet, fingers gripping the silver fabric of your dress' skirt to hike it up, so that you wouldn't kneel on it. Your hands itched to reach for them but you knew you needed to ask for permission. "Can I touch you?" 

Doyoung smiled, reaching for his belt. "There's our good girl," He said. Your mouth was already watering embarrassingly as you helped him undo his belt, pulling him out of his boxers. He was already half hard, and as you lifted your hand to spit in it, someone grabbed you gently by the rest. Jungwoo leaned over, turning your hand to reveal your palm to him. His eyes seemed to burn into yours as he let his spit fall into the palm of your hand. You felt your legs close, thighs trying to rub together at the sight. 

"Go on," Jungwoo murmured, using a hand on your jaw to move your head. Your eyes fell on Doyoung's cock again, slowly getting harder and harder. Your hand wrapped around it, stroking slowly as you met his smoldering gaze. You stroked him until he was rock hard in your grip, and his breathing turned heavy. Again, you swallowed, and Doyoung noticed this time. 

“What is it, princess? You want it in your mouth?”

“Yes, please,” You whispered, eyes wide. He chuckled breathily, head tipping back as you ran your thumb over the slit. His eyes met Jungwoo’s, who was palming himself through his pants.  

“What do you think, baby?” He asked him.

“Don’t be mean, Doyoung,” Jungwoo said softly. “Look at her, she’s desperate. Isn’t that right, Y/N?”

You whined, nodding. The pair chuckled. Jungwoo grinned at the state you were already in. “Go ahead, dollface. Give it a kiss.”

Before Doyoung could say anything else, you took his dick into your mouth, and let out a soft moan at how heavy he felt, hot and pulsing. He let out a guttural groan of your name, a hand burying itself in your hair. His other hand gripped Jungwoo’s shirt, pulling him forward to meet in a tongue-filled kiss. 

Slowly, Doyoung’s hips started rocking back and forth, grinding into your mouth. Your hands stroked what you couldn’t fit, as well as his balls. Your eyes fluttered shut, trying to relax so as to not gag on his length. But when he sped up, it became too much to avoid. 

A tap on your shoulder, and Doyoung let you off of his cock. You turned your head to look up at a very flushed Jungwoo, who had pulled his dick out of his pants as well. The words, “Me too?” tumbled out of his swollen lips. And with that gentle, breathy tone, who were you to disobey?

You wrapped your lips around Jungwoo, who hissed at the sudden heat of your mouth. From there, something primal inside of you took control, wanting nothing more than to please—you took turns sucking them off and stroking them, the muffled sounds of their moaning spurring you on.

It was always like this—during sex, Doyoung was the meaner one, manhandling you and throwing degrading words in your face that made your stomach curl in sick pleasure. He was the one who could put you in your place when you became too bratty to handle. Jungwoo was gentler, but he was all too content to watch Doyoung toss you around. He would always swoop in after Doyoung took you apart, and piece you back together. He’d tell you how good you were, how good you made the both of them feel, and while he definitely didn’t treat you like fragile porcelain, he definitely didn’t leave as many bruises as Doyoung did. 

And then, when they were both done, they’d shower you in kisses, and whisper in your ear how grateful they were to love you, and say some philosophical thing about eternal love and the cosmos that you’d always be too fucked out to comprehend, but that made your heart do a backflip regardless. 

“Shit,” Jungwoo groaned, pulling away from Doyoung’s lips. “Y/N, I’m gonna cum.” 

You pulled off of Doyoung to look up at Jungwoo. “In my—in my mouth, please, Woo.”

He nodded, licking his lips as his hands fisted themselves in your hair, gripping but not pulling as he allowed you to touch him the way you wanted. His hands gathered the loose strands into a makeshift ponytail, using it to guide your mouth up and down his hot cock. His hips bucked into your willing mouth, the sound of his hissing and his moaning getting louder and louder, until… 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Y/N… Y/N!" He groaned, as he came into your mouth. His head tipped back, which gave Doyoung access to his neck, pressing sloppy kisses to the skin. This sight was worth the bitter taste that coated your tongue: one of your lovers in ecstasy while the other anchored him to the ground. 

He left his dick in your mouth for a moment, before pulling out with a shaky breath. Doyoung pulled away, letting him breathe. As Jungwoo caught his breath, Doyoung pulled you up, and he sat on the bed, bringing you down with him to straddle his lap. 

You turned your head to face Jungwoo, who smiled at you, coming closer to the both of you. One of his hands patted the top of your head. "That was wicked," He said. 

Doyoung smiled softly, and gripped your chin to get you to face him. His sweet grin didn't disappear as his grip forced your mouth open. He groaned at the sight of your tongue coated in Jungwoo's semen. 

"Gorgeous," He mumbled, eyes trained on your lips as it began to spill out. 

"Kiss her," Jungwoo told him, "You know you want to."

So he did, his tongue almost immediately slipping past your lips to get a taste of Jungwoo for himself, swallowing it down greedily. Your hands came up to unbutton his black dress shirt, and his hands pushed up the skirt of your dress to get you to rock your hips against his. You gasped against his mouth at the feeling of only your soaked panties separating him and you, before pushing the shirt off of him. 

He moved to lie you down on the bed. As he pulled away from you, you caught his tongue slipping out to lick at a dribble of Jungwoo's cum on his lips. To make matters even worse, the bed was rolling beneath you, making your head spin. 

Jungwoo pulled his shirt off before he sat down behind you. Meanwhile, Doyoung moved down your body, parting your legs. He prompted you to sit up, resting your back against his chest. He pressed a kiss to your earlobe as Doyoung peeled your underwear off of you, biting his lip at the sight of your drooling pussy. 

"You're absolutely drenched, princess. And all from sucking our cocks, huh?"

You nodded, eyes fluttering shut as Jungwoo's lips began kissing along your jaw. When you didn't say anything, Jungwoo pinched your sides gently. "Use your words, doll," He whispered. From behind you, his eyes met Doyoung's. "You're gonna keep being our good little girl, right?"

"Y-yes, Jungwoo." Your hand lifted itself to press against his cheek, a silent plea for more kisses. He smiled against your skin. 

"Atta girl," He praised, "On your best behavior for us tonight, huh?" 

"The little slut's just being good because she wants to get fucked, Woo. Don't get it twisted." 

"Please, Doie," You pleaded at the mention of being fucked, "Need it."

The older man chuckled lowly, pressing the pad of his thumb to your clit. 

"Told you."

His tongue pressed itself against your hole, and you immediately cried out. You would have immediately started grinding against Doyoung's face if it weren't for Jungwoo's hands on your hips, holding you down and keeping it still. 

"I don't think you wanna do that," He murmured. His hands travelled underneath your skirt, gripping the silvery blue gossamer as he tried to lift it up. You did your best to keep your squirming at a minimum as you tried to help him get you out of it. Finally, the bell sleeves were pulled off, and you were left naked as the day you were born.

Jungwoo’s hands moved to your breasts, playing with them as he watched you whimper at the sensation of Doyoung’s mouth working at your folds. When he slipped his tongue inside, you keened, head falling against Jungwoo’s shoulder. 

“You’re so pretty like this,” He whispered. 

Your chest heaved, squirming up and down as he began to tug and pinch your nipples, calloused fingertips making you cry out.

Doyoung’s free hand gripped your thigh, and his fingers on the other hand slipped inside when he pulled his tongue out. Immediately, he plunged in two fingers, curling his fingers as he attempted to search for that one special spot.

"Ngh, Doie, faster, pleasepleaseplease." Your legs were trembling slightly now. 

"So fucking slutty," Doyoung mumbled, chuckling wickedly, "And all I had to do was stick my fingers inside." 

He complied with no protest, and the sensation of Doyoung stroking your walls and Jungwoo continuously pawing at your breasts caused a string of moans to come pouring out of your mouth. Jungwoo had been sucking a bruise into your clavicle, but leaned up to press his lips against yours. 

"Don't want anyone hearing what's meant for Doie and I," He said, lips brushing yours. 

The idea made you even needier, the double entendre making your head spin. Jungwoo didn't want anyone to hear you because if they did, rumors would spread. And on top of that? He didn't want anyone to hear. You were theirs. They were yours. This was a sacred ritual between bodies meant to be witnessed by only the three of you.

Your head felt like you were floating, even though your limbs felt like they were sinking into the watery mattress. A coil began to tighten in your stomach, and your soft whines, muffled by Jungwoo's plush lips, increased in pitch. 

They both knew what this meant, because a second later, Doyoung removed his fingers from your core, and Jungwoo pulled away, his hands moving from your breasts to rest on Doyoung's atop your hips. You were left reeling and breathing heavily, that familiar sensation floating away.

When you looked down at Doyoung, you swallowed at the sight of his lips, chin and fingers, all glistening with your wetness.

He lifted himself up off the mattress, and proceeded to sandwich your chest in between his own chest and Jungwoo’s back. He gripped his dick, rubbing it against your folds, which were now even more soaked than before.

"Tell me how much you want it, princess." He pressed his forehead against yours, hissing when the tip caught your clit. You let out a desperate whine, clinging to his broad shoulders. 

"Do—Doyoung, please fuck me," You begged, reeling at the sensation. He was so close, all he had to do was slide in. But he refused.

"Not good enough," He insisted.

"Doyoung, don't be mean," Jungwoo said, but he seemed to be more amused by your desperation than anything.

"No, I wanna hear how much she needs us."

You closed your eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to gather your words. Jungwoo's hands stroked your sides, trying to calm you down. "You doing alright, doll? You wanna take a breather?"

"We can always stop." Doyoung's voice had turned stable, secure, safe. He started pulling away, until you grabbed him by the forearm and shook your head. You opened your eyes, seeing concern in his eyes

“No,” You mumbled, “Jus’ want some water. Think there’s some in the minibar. ‘M really hot.”

Doyoung nodded, getting up and striding over to the small refrigerator on the other side of the room. He pulled out a water bottle, and popped open the cap before passing it to you. Jungwoo had taken to fanning your face lightly with his hand. You took several long swigs of water, before setting it on the nightstand.

“I’m fine,” You promised. “Can we please keep going? I can take it.”

Doyoung pressed a kiss to your temple. “Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yeah,” You said with a nod. 

“Doyoung,” Jungwoo murmured, “Be careful.”

“I know, baby." He lowered his eyes to study your face. "I won’t go that hard on you, Y/N.”

You nodded, even though deep down you wanted to protest. You knew that this was probably the best route to take. You could already feel the high—from the weed and the concert—wearing off. You knew that if Doyoung were too rough you’d probably crash on the way down instead of float.

So, Jungwoo brushed some stray hair out of your sweaty face, and Doyoung grabbed your legs gently, wrapping them around his hips. Slowly, Doyoung eased in, and you sighed in satisfaction of finally being filled. He bit into your shoulder, taking deep heaving breaths as he let you get used to the sensation. Jungwoo took turns pressing kisses to the top of your head and the top of Doyoung’s head. 

“I love you both so much,” He whispered, “I’m so grateful the universe brought us together.” 

Doyoung looked up at him, pressing a kiss to his lips. “My baby,” He murmured against Jungwoo’s lips. He then turned to you and did the same, “My princess.”

You smiled at their words, but the need in your core was becoming unbearable. "Doie, Woo, I love you both so much," You murmured, "But Doyoung, if you don't move I'll pin you down and do it myself."

"And you were doing so well," Doyoung groaned with a laugh, before beginning to thrust his hips. It was a slow, torturous glide, and the way it caused the bed to rock left you dizzy in the best possible way. Doyoung was panting into your ear like some sort of beast, and you were whining softly with every cant of his hips.

"You must feel so good right now, huh, doll?" 

"Jung—woo," You moaned, clawing at his bicep.

"I know, dolly, I know." He sounded sympathetic enough, but the way he was grinding his dick against your ass suggested otherwise. "Bunny boy is just so good with those hips of his, hm?"

"H-he is!" You cried, "Feel so full, ah, Doyoung!" 

Doyoung's eyes met yours, and his hips picked up their pace, until your eyes rolled up into your head. Your head thrashed side to side, leaning against Jungwoo's shoulder. His mouth lowered once again to kiss at your neck, and your hand wrapped itself against his nape, while the other gripped Doyoung's shoulders.

Jungwoo's hands slithered down to where you and Doyoung were connected, and started rubbing at your clit. You shrieked, chest arching. Doyoung hissed. "Shit, do that again," He bit out, "Fuck, princess you just got so tight."

"D-Doie, harder!" 

Doyoung looked up at Jungwoo, the two having an unspoken conversation. A second later, Jungwoo gave a cautious nod. Doyoung smiled, before he adjusted his legs. Then…

Then. He began pounding into you at a breakneck pace. Your legs tightened around him, wanting him even deeper than before. 

"You love this, don't you? Our pretty little slut." His voice was tighter now, panting with exertion. You nodded. 

"Yes, yes! I'm your slut!" 

Doyoung grinned, before locking lips with you. His tongue dipped into your mouth, before letting you do the same to him. You could tell he was starting to feel something—he always kissed you or Jungwoo as a way of telling you he wouldn't last much longer. 

Truthfully, you could feel it coming too—your body felt like it was on fire, and your hips couldn't stop squirming. Whether it was towards Jungwoo's calloused fingers on your clit, Doyoung's cock, or away from both, you couldn't tell. Your moans were getting shriller too.

You clenched down on his length again, and he grit his teeth, grunting as his pace turned sloppy.

"C-c'mon, princey," You pleaded, "Give it to me, give it…"

"Shit, yes…" His head lolled onto your shoulder. "Gonna stuff you so full, princess, you'll be dripping—"

"Please! Oh, please—"

The two of you fell apart almost at the same time, your orgasm triggering Doyoung's a second later. Your mouth fell open, legs trembling and heart pounding as waves crashed over and under you.

When you came down, Doyoung rolled off of you, turning onto his side to watch you and Jungwoo. Jungwoo, who ceased the movements of his hands and slowly laid you down. Your head landed against the pillows, and you let your eyes shut as you caught your breath. 

"Can I take care of you one last time, doll?" You heard Jungwoo say. Your eyes opened blearily, and you reached a hand out towards him, legs parting of their own accord.

Both of your lovers groaned at the sight of your pussy, Doyoung's cum brimming from your folds. 

"Absolute perfection," Jungwoo murmured, crawling between your legs. He gripped his dick with one hand, the other swiping through your folds, and you immediately whined at the sensitivity there, teetering the fine line between pleasure and pain.

"Please," You whimpered, "Woo, I want it."

"You're insatiable." He sounded so affectionate, so in love. You watched as his eyes studied his index and middle fingers, covered in a mix of Doyoung's cum and yours, before dipping them into his mouth to lick them clean. You sighed, a dopey smile gracing your features. He lowered himself down to brush noses with you, dark eyes blown wide, wide awake despite the dark circles underneath.

"Guess I'll just have to do something about that."

He slid in as if he was coming home, immediately setting a solid pace that had you seeing stars, arms wrapping around his shoulders to lock hands at his nape. The sensitivity left you pliant in his arms, and Jungwoo didn't hesitate in cradling you in his arms.

"So good for us, Y/N. Always Doie and I's sweet girl." 

You nodded, tears brimming at your eyes at the heaviness in your chest, the pulsing in your core. His hair was falling into his eyes, and you lifted your hands to his face, doing your best to brush it away. Your hands cupped his cheeks, heavy eyes burning into his. Your hips were rutting against his desperately now, wanting nothing more than to feel that high with him.

Jungwoo pressed a brief kiss to your neck, feeling something simmer in his gut embarrassingly fast. 

Doyoung placed his head next to yours, gently lifting Jungwoo's head to kiss him, hand brushing the other man's ass. When he pulled away, he kissed you as well, and Jungwoo's mouth pressed itself to one of your nipples. You keened against Doyoung's mouth, hips losing all semblance of grace.

Here, you were needy, animalistic, running on instincts, and your boys were drinking it up like water from a desert oasis. 

Doyoung pulled away, a thin trail of spit connecting his lips to yours. His hands cradled your head.

"Can you feel it yet, princess?"

Your eyebrows furrowed, silent moans falling from your lips. "Ah, yeah, Doie… s-so close…"

"Me too," Jungwoo groaned between your breasts, "So wet, Y/N…"

"That's from all the cum she's filled with, right, princess?"

You nodded. "Mm—ngh! Stuffed me so good, Doie." 

"Yeah? You gonna let Jungwoo fill you up even more? Gonna keep it all inside, right?"

Your stomach did a backflip, and you felt your toes curl. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, I want it—"

"I'll give it to you, doll," Jungwoo growled, "It's all—fuck—all yours. S-same way this is all for us, right?"

Those words were what caused you to finally fall over the edge. Your high was so intense that you could have sworn that your ears popped—clawing at Jungwoo’s shoulders, your eyes squeezed shut. Only one side ended up scratched, since you always kept your right hand nails short to properly play guitar. You sobbed against Doyoung’s lips, and he eagerly swallowed up your cries, shushing you gently as you came back down.

You didn't feel Jungwoo come inside, but you felt it immediately afterwards—the satisfying stickiness, the warmth in your stomach. 

You looked at Jungwoo, pressing a soft kiss to his sweaty forehead before prompting him to move off. He wrapped his arm around you, pulling you towards him as his little spoon, peppering kisses to your cheek and whispering how good you were. The two of you looked at Doyoung. You reached out, making grabby hands at him. His eyes were drooping, and he was blinking blearily as if he were trying to fight off sleep.

Still, he got up and pulled his pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, as well as his lighter. As he sat back down on the bed, the waves sent you and Jungwoo further and further into the recesses of slumber. As consciousness left you, you caught Doyoung looking down at the two of you as if you were the most precious beings he'd ever encountered. His tone was low and grumbly, but there was a glint of smug satisfaction in his eye.

"I hope you two are happy. I can't remember those goddamn lyrics anymore." 

[potteresque-ire]

This is a response to @rainbowsky​ ‘s questions about BJYX, as the original post got too long for reblogging (I hope this is okay!). 1) Should we be worried about GG and DD being outed? I often think about what it’s like to be in the closet and I know how it feels to need to be SEEN. But I also understand the reasons why that might not be an option for them. Still, I worry about them being involuntarily outed. There are so many antis after them.

 2) What would you speculate is the likelihood of this ever happening, and what might be the consequences if it happened?Is leaving an option for them, even as a distant goal years from now?

3)Does their fame and popularity hold any protective power in the situation (i.e. if they were to come out or be outed, would public opinion about what might happen to them have any impact on the outcome given the nature of the regime)? To what degree would that depend on how much money they are still able to make for interested parties?

My response is under the cut, as it got long, as usual ~

@rainbowsky, you’re among the first BXGs I followed! I’d like to thank you for your insightful posts as well!

Your questions ~ I don’t think I’m qualified to speculate because I’m still a very new turtle and also because of the volatility as well as inconsistencies of China’s sociopolitical policies. I do have a better sense of China’s politics than most international fans, but I also don’t live there and the only way to truly understand how things work at the ground level in a non-transparent country like China is to be there.

(For example, China has officially banned Christmas celebrations  for the last several years, but as we saw last week, commercials remain very “Christmas-sy” and Chinese fans happily said Merry Christmas to each other. It takes someone who lives inside to know where to draw the line — what is permitted by the state and what isn’t — when the line shifts and adjusts accordingly.)

Here’re my thoughts, as of today (2020/12/31): if the perpetrator is only some segment of the fandom and the purpose is merely to knock them off the popularity pedestal, outing isn’t a particularly effective way to do so. Homosexuality, being a highly regulated subject in Chinese news and social media, is likely to mean limit transmission of the accusations. The accuser also has to run to risk of being banned themselves first. Also, with BJYX + ZSWW + LSFY being the sizes they are, the people who will most consider turning against gg and dd, ie, the solo fans, have probably already heard something. Some will leave, but the news won’t be a bombshell to them.

The next possibility is if a legal case becomes possible, ie. if China suddenly outlaws homosexuality. This scenario may seem the most dire on the surface but is also one that I least worry about, because with China’s judiciary system being very biased to those in power, if someone wants to frame gg and dd, they do not need to use sexuality as the accusation and subject themselves to the same restrictions as mentioned above. Tax evasion, as @peekbackstage has mentioned with the actress Fan Bing Bing, is far easier, because it tends the turn the audience against the defendant: these stars are making so much money and yet they’re not contributing their share! And as long as the accusers have sufficient power — remembering that commercial and political power are married in the country — the accuser can make up any evidence to suit their needs for any crime.

The third possibility is what I see as the worst case scenario: that the government decides they don’t want their major stars / entertainment industry to be *perceived* as queer — whether the stars are officially out doesn’t matter — and signals the media and commercial companies to stop using any “suspect” star altogether. (Chinese term: 封殺). This is the case of career murder without blood —  laws aren’t changed; all the fans will hear are rumours confirmed by nobody. I see this as a possibility because of the Xi regime’s view of The Ideal Men , and my admittedly limited experience with dealing with older generations of Chinese, who I’ve found tend to confuse perceived femininity in men with queerness. I think, and this is only my opinion, that the sheer amount of adapted BL dramas in production (the so-called “dangai 耽改 101” phenomenon) and the heated discussions of them on Weibo will at some point trigger the government (which is made mostly of older generations Chinese). Even if gg and dd don’t do anything, should the government decide these adapted BL dramas, even after the elimination of their queer element, are “non mainstream socialist core values”, all the major people involved with the Untamed—arguably the classic and the drama whose success all these follow-ups are trying to imitate—can be cast as the culprit. If the same officials become aware of BJYX and if they’re somehow convinced that BJYXSZD, it can be easy be used as evidence of the bad influence these dramas can do—“they can turn people gay”—and it doesn’t help that according to reports, gg, at least, used to have a girlfriend.

Something more to consider: Gg and dd are also in a very special position now, in that not only are they immensely popular in China, no other native mainland Chinese stars have achieved this level of international fame with a native mainland Chinese production (ie, not a production from Hollywood, Hong Kong or Taiwan, or with a Kpop band). As such, they are likely subjected to high levels of scrutiny from the state. Depending on who’s in charge in the appropriate department, they may decide gg and dd have to be China’s image; they may have a set idea of what image it is and most likely, it won’t be queer. 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 are special times for China, image wise, both at home and abroad. 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, and gg and dd are both starring in its propaganda productions (dd as a police in BAH and gg as an army officer in AT). CCTV, the state-controlled TV station, is already promoting these shows. So, for 2021, gg and dd are slated to not only be the faces of Chinese entertainment, but also the image of Chinese uniformed forces. If gg and dd come out or are outed, their allowing themselves to be being perceived as queer while donning uniforms will most likely to be viewed by the current regime as an embarrassment; a career murder, then, is an apt response to such transgression. 2022 is the year of Beijing’s Winter Olympics, so again, it’s the time where image matters.

You may have noticed a pattern, as I have as I write this up: them being outed is something to worry about, but also ... nothing more than anything else. If someone wants to tear gg and dd down — and there will be, given their massive commercial power right now and the increasing evidence that they’re working more like collaborators than competitors (ie, they aren’t about to tear each other down any time soon) — they do not need their sexuality as a reason.

(And if these accusers really want to use homosexuality as a reason, the unofficial BTS is, IMO, more than enough, as long as the accusers have sufficient power.)

Your other question ~ can gg and dd’s fame, popularity, and ability to draw consumers protect them? My (slightly) educated guess of the answer, then, is that it’s very much a double-edged sword. Indeed, the one major thing that may be going for these adapted BL dramas, and for those who come to superstardom to it — with gg and dd being the prime examples — is the economic health of China, which, by some reports that can no way be verified, are far worse than what has been reported. This is the thing about countries lack transparency; without reliable news, there’s no way to get the facts. Reports on China outside the country tend to be either propaganda or demonising / filled with conspiracy theories, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. If the reports of poor economy are true, the commercial sector — which, again, is tied to those with political power; ie the money made in the former goes into the pockets of the latter — desperately needs stars like gg and dd to move products (based on those recent consumer reports!) and with that, it will want to keep gg and dd and these dramas that can potentially make more gg and dd around. This *seems* to be what’s happening so far, with the the state-run media happy to show gg and dd’s dramas (when it should know, at least, that they got to the height of their fame playing lovers-not-lovers) and gg and dd’s sponsors not-so-subtly wooing the BJYX segment of fandom, so I’m tentatively optimistic. However, the current regime has also shown a willingness to sacrifice the economy for the sake of political ideology, so it’s not something to be taken for granted. (What’s going on in Hong Kong is a good example of that.)

(I always think, eat each candy like it can be the last one. With this regime, it can be. We can wake up tomorrow and gg and dd have to break up BJYX to protect the fans.)

(I always think, treasure, treasure, treasure. Ask for more dy and lz and Weibo posts, but never anymore from gg and dd when it comes to insights of their relationship, even without considering it’s actually their private lives and they’re under no obligation to share.)

(They’ve shared with us far more than enough.)

There’s really no precedence for us to predict the future of an outed gg and dd from, as far as I know. Confirmed queer stars in Chinese entertainment (those with sufficient followers to make news) have all been from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries. The successful BL dramas before The Untamed — Addicted (2016) and The Guardian (2018) — didn’t have a real-person cp that truly took off. Addicted, a true BL drama (ie, it retained the queer elements), was banned before it finished its broadcast. The two actors were also banned from appearing together afterwards, and this “signal” from the government almost cost the two actors their career. Bai Yu from The Guardian, meanwhile, already had a girlfriend as he filmed, so there was never a Weibo supertopic dedicated to him and Zhu Yilong. gg and dd, along with their millions of turtles, are treading untrodden ground.

Something I should clarify ~ all the things I said above may sound very scary to international fans, but to those who live in the country, they understand it as the way things are, and they strategise and move accordingly. This is their way of life. What I wanted to say, in my first reblog, is that we who’re outside may not understand why they do things the way they do, why they don’t, for example, come out with all the candies they are spending so much effort to give out, but I do believe that gg and dd have a plan, not in the sense that they’re scheming or trying to trick anyone, but that they are moving things along at the pace necessary to meet the pre-requisites for the outcome they want. What this outcome is is anyone’s guess, mine being that they have the freedom to work together, not necessary in lover’s capacity — most of us are not required to perform our day jobs carrying our identity as so-and-so’s significant other and gg and dd shouldn’t be exceptions — but as colleagues, professionals and friends (lovers are friends). 

To some international fans, this may sound implausible, ridiculous: why do they need a multi year campaign for something as simple as this? As working together again? And I suppose, all these words I’ve typed so far is my attempt to answer this question, to ease the … unease, the frustration of those who may not understand. True to its marxist root, perhaps, many things that are considered mindless, effortless tasks elsewhere somehow become battles, grand struggles of sorts in China. That sea of sea lights on the night of Tencent awards, for example? It was the result of gg’s fans fighting, strategising in real time to smuggle those LED banners in when they realised the venue had forbidden their entry. They wrapped the banners around their bodies under their underwear because they were patted down by security at the underwear level; they hid batteries in their shoes. They ran batteries from one zone in the stadium to another during the whole show for whose who only managed to smuggle in banners or batteries. They fought the security guards inside the stadium, who continued to snatch away their banners even after seeing they were merely support material for the idols. They fought and fought, despite their identities were recorded by their COVID pass and facial recognition. Many confessed they had no idea what gg was singing during the show; they were too busy. They were there, some paying scalpers > 10x the ticket price, just because they promised the sea of red would be there for gg when he returned. When some realised dd’s banners were confiscated in high numbers because his fans happened to have seats right by the strictest security, they improvised, found an image of a green block to show on their cell phones to make makeshift green support lights for dd. They used Weibo to spread this trick to fellow fans. All these trouble, all these effort, all these planning and scheming and sweat and tears — all for one night, one concert and they laughed about it, called it a wonderful day.

(There are many ways for lives to be hard.)

The very first thing gg and dd need to accomplish, therefore, isn’t to announce what they do in the bedroom—the very first thing they need, for their plan to come to fruition, is to stay on top of the industry. How can they be on the same stage for the yearly Tencent Awards if either of them fails to make VIP? What’s their negotiation chip for a future collaboration, when the current norm is against cps like them working together again, if they cannot draw enough viewers and consumers, or if they offend Tencent and other media companies by refusing to see to the needs of the other side (for example, the need to promote new dramas)? So far, the two of them have accomplished this in flying colours. The other thing they need right now, the way I see it, is for their fans to get along. I think part of the reason they’ve made BJYXSZD so easy to believe in and love, in addition to their very human need to be seen when their careers may be safer otherwise (yes, I think they know what they’re doing, the candies they’re throwing), is because they want their fans to unite, as they have united. To make sure something like 227 cannot happen again, or at least, if it does happen again, their fans cannot be used as an excuse, as scapegoats. And this union is happening — slowly, but it’s happening. The size of BJYX (>2.8 million as of now, on Weibo supertopic) is a powerful indicator; I also had a wonderful time reading the comments of gg’s solo fans who went to purchase dd’s new song. This is the part gg and dd need their fan’s help. This is the one of the fews things we, as overseas fans who have limited access to their products, can help.

Your final question — sorry, this is getting so long again — about leaving. Of course, it’s always up to the government and It’s impossible to say what can happen so far ahead. But my perception, right now at least, is that gg and dd have no intention to leave, no intention to sacrifice their career for their personal lives and vice versa. After all, this is a pair who has answered those A vs B choice questions with a straight-faced “I want both” and “so annoying” without a follow-up reply. They’re right to want both. I like them for wanting both. And maybe, with their intelligence, charisma and hardwork and ambition and personalities that seem to clash but somehow complements each other’s, they will figure out a way. Maybe they are, as the Chinese turtles call them, the Chosen Pair, and they will be the ones who’ll change the perception fo queer artists in China, and we’ll one day get a biography about them and laugh at the candies we get right, laugh harder at those candies we get totally wrong.

(Dd ~ I want your honest opinion, in your own words, on the ones we get wrong.)

(Gg ~ videos of your expressions while reading the crazy theories the first time will be very much appreciated. By me.)

It’s a good day to look forward to.

[aliendes]

Natural Borns - Chapter Four

Banner made by @thebannershop​

Series info/genre: Angst, fluff, (possible) smut NSFW due to darker themes

Pairings: ot7 x fem reader (eventual)

Warnings: mentions of sadness, indecent thoughts? maybe, if you squint. it gets a little steamy, I suppose, but mostly just fluffy sadness, if that’s a thing. This series will have different trigger warnings listed for each chapter (if there are any), but as a whole, this series will include violence, mentions of depression & other mental illnesses, cursing, abuse, drugs/alcohol, some shitty medical descriptions because i am NOT a doctor, self-esteem issues, fluff, and possible smut in future chapters (but that’s undecided). i will add more warnings/tags in the future if there are any.

Description: In the year 2613, over half of the world’s population are what scientists consider ‘designer babies’. YN is a small town girl who is a true natural born, someone born naturally without he help of a lab or gene splicing. Her DNA is greatly sought after, but what is she willing to do to protect it?

Word count: 8k~ (whoops so sorry. if you like longer chapters like this, let me know!)

A/N: *deep breath* ok here is chapter 4. things are starting to heat up, but i cut this chapter in two because it was like over 12k long.... i go back to work tomorrow, so updates may start slowing down, but i’m hoping to post updates every Sunday night. i was feeling a little bit bogged down last week, not seeing as much influx with chapter three than i have with the other chapters. if you enjoy reading, please reblog so others can see it, too. thank you, as always. xx - Des

Updated: 8/9/2020

But the second he took one look at you, standing outside, wet and bloody, saw the look in your big beautiful eyes as he so heartlessly demanded things from you, he knew he stood no chance. 

Yoongi sat in his makeshift office on an old torn recliner they found in the warehouse. Surprisingly, the warehouse had been decently furnished when they found it. Granted, it was all old, worn furniture, but furniture nonetheless. The building was incredibly old, but it was also very large and had a lot of empty rooms on two levels. The entire place was made out of concrete, meaning it hasn’t seen much weathering over the years. It was a place they could call home for now. 

Yoongi leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and stared at his beloved laptop in front of him. He wasn’t trying to think about you, no, in fact, he wanted nothing more than to erase the memory of you. Try all he might, his thoughts kept wandering back to the scared, small girl he saw earlier tonight. He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, letting his head loll back. 

The blonde man was snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of footsteps outside his door. He picked his head up and spun around in his seat right as Hoseok came through the doorway. 

“Hey,” Hoseok said, leaning against the doorframe, “I heard they found her.” His tone was indifferent, not happy, nor sad. Hoseok didn’t really have an opinion on you yet, voicing to Namjoon he didn’t really mind either way if they found you or not.

“Have you seen her yet?” Yoongi asked the red head knowing he hadn’t, as his demeanor would’ve changed the moment he did.

Hoseok shook his head, confirming Yoongi’s suspicions. “Good,” was all Yoongi said in response.

Hoseok gave him a puzzled look, cocking his head to the side. A bright grin started to take over his face as he took in the disgruntled look on Yoongi’s. “Are you letting her get under your skin that quickly, Yoongs?” He asked the older man in a teasing voice. “Is that why you’re hiding away while they fix her up?”

Yoongi’s blonde head snapped up at Hoseok’s words. “What do you mean ‘fix her up’?”

Hoseok’s smile started to slowly fade from his face, leaving a knowing smirk in its place. “She was pretty banged up from what Jungkook said. Poor boy was distraught when he came running into my room earlier.” Hoseok watched Yoongi’s face closely as his lips pursed into a thin line and he tried to act as if he didn’t care about you. Hoseok could see right through him.

Yoongi tried to keep his breathing steady and stared Hoseok right in the eye. “Who cares,” he shrugged as he turned back around in his chair and started typing away at his laptop. 

“Who cares?” Hoseok asked rhetorically, “I think you do.” The red head walked over to Yoongi’s chair and put his hands on the back of it, pulling it down a bit so he could look into Yoongi’s eyes. He raised a questioning brow at the hacker, waiting for some kind of response.

“I don’t care about her,” he scoffed, “I don’t even know her.” Yoongi looked away from Hoseok as he spoke, knowing his closest friends would be able to see his lie. He didn’t want it to be a lie, what he was saying he wanted wholeheartedly to be true, but he knew it wasn’t. Why did he care about you? He really didn’t know you. But as Hoseok chuckled and walked away from the chair with a breathy ‘yeah right’, Yoongi’s thoughts just drifted to you.

“Please stay still,” Jin pleaded with you for the third time. You were currently laying on what you assumed was his bed while he took a look at all your wounds. He was looking at your bruised, and possibly fractured, according to him, ribs. It was painful and you weren’t sure how he expected you to stay completely still. 

You had been laying here for the last twenty minutes, staring up at the ceiling, going over your conversation with Namjoon prior to letting Jin take a look at your wounds. You had learned that the five of them had been staying here for the last three weeks. They stumbled upon the place when exploring the surrounding forest. It was devoid of life, but a lot of furniture and supplies had been left from workers or from kids who threw parties here in the past. They made it into a base of sorts, where they could live and work. Work, you learned, was mostly Yoongi trying to hack into Big Hit’s, and other companies, systems, while Namjoon dealt with contacting people and said companies to get more information. Apparently, they had found out about you through Jimin, who had overheard some of the lab techs talking about a female natural born living on the outskirts of Seoul. You still weren’t certain what exactly made you all ‘special’, but Namjoon had said it had something to do with the markers in your DNA that made you desirable to these designer baby companies.

Namjoon had also told you that they were planning on going to Big Hit soon, in hopes of getting Jimin and Taehyung out. As they helped you limp to Jin’s room, he told you that he and Jungkook were going to help Yoongi and Hoseok with the planning tonight, and told you to get some rest.

When you first got to Jin’s room, you were pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of it. For an old warehouse, they really tried to make it feel homey. Seokjin’s room was small and looked like it used to be some kind of office or file room. There was a small double mattress in the corner, which you were currently laying on, a small desk on the opposite side of the room, a small wooden end table, and a couple of backpacks and duffle bags laying about. While everything in the room looked old and worn down, it still smelled nice. It smelled like Jin, like pine and soap. Speaking of soap…

“Hey - how do you guys have lights and running water here?” You were curious, previous experiences made you think this place was totally abandoned. 

Jin looked up from poking at your ribs, “Oh - Yoongi. He was able to get the electric and water companies to turn stuff on under a fake name,” he trailed off after noticing the apprehensive look on your face, “I know it’s not the most ethical way to go about things, but we don’t really have much of a choice right now.” The solemn look on his face told you that he regretted their actions, but truly had no other choice. 

You nodded at his answer and jumped a bit when he went back to putting cream on your ribcage. “Please - stay still YN.”

“Sorry, sorry. It just hurts,” you groaned out and he finished his work. Jin let out a short sigh before pulling your shirt back down your torso. He picked up one of your hands and started to unravel the bandages to clean and rebandage it. 

“I know, I’m sorry. I’ll try to be quick,” he gave you a quick smile and gently ran the back of his knuckles along your bicep. You tried to ignore the way his action made you feel, he was just trying to comfort you, right? He was a caring person, and he probably just felt bad seeing you in pain. That’s what you told yourself anyway.

You went back to staring at the ceiling, biting the inside of your cheek and Jin disinfected your cuts and scrapes. The feeling of his hands on you leaving you confused. 

Once Seokjin had finished tending to your wounds, he gave you an old t-shirt and some sweatpants to change into before giving you a little privacy. After you had changed, you hobbled back over to the mattress and sat down. You stared around his room for a moment, finally letting the events of the day sink in.

You inhaled a deep breath as you thought back to everything that had happened. In just a few short hours, you had met these strange men who took you out to a forest and made you question your entire existence, witnessed your father make some kind of deal or exchange with a man who was likely trying to take you away, and ran away from your life, your family, and your friends. You didn’t even know who you could trust anymore, aside from probably Mina and Woo, but who knew when, or if, you would ever see them again. The thought alone made tears prick at the back of your eyes. You looked up to the ceiling to try and stop the hot tears from falling, to no avail. What were you getting yourself into?

As you felt a tear roll down your cheek, you heard a knock at the heavy door of Jin’s room. Quickly, you wiped the back of your hand at your face with a sniffle, before telling whoever was knocking to come in. 

To your surprise, it was Jungkook who walked through the door, not Jin or Namjoon like you had expected. You blinked owlishly up at him for a moment as he shut the door and ventured into the room. He took a few steps in your direction, hands behind his back, and looked even more shy than you had seen him earlier. 

“H-hey, noona?” He timidly asked, eyes locked on the floor.

Your eyes softened at his hesitancy. You made a sound of affirmation, urging him to continue speaking. Slowly he brought his hands from behind him back and extended them in your direction. He was holding a water bottle and a container of what looked like pain relievers. “Jin-hyung wanted me to tell you to take two of these,” he started, walking towards you with his hands outstretched like he was feeding a tiger, “and to drink the whole bottle.” 

You gave Jungkook a small smile as you took his offering. He seemed so sweet in that moment, you couldn’t stop yourself, “Jungkook?” Your voice made the poor boy jump a little, but he relaxed as soon as he saw your smile. His big doe eyes somehow got slightly bigger as he nodded his head at you. “How old are you?” You asked him, head cocked to the side.

“Twenty two,” he said easily. He’s only a year younger than you, it was odd to you he was so timid, almost childlike at times. You hummed in approval. You truly did want to get to know these men, and Jungkook seemed like such a sweet guy. He was shy, but you could tell he had a kind soul. You wondered what had happened to him to make him so quiet. You hoped you would find out with time. You had a sort of affinity toward him. Maybe it was because he had literally carried you through a forest without so much as a complaint. You weren’t entirely sure. 

The boy hesitated for a moment before turning around to walk out of the room. Just as he was about to reach the doorknob, he stopped and turned around to face you. “Noona?” His voice was so small, you almost asked him to repeat himself. Instead, you made a noncommittal noise, urging him to continue. “How old are you?” You wanted to coo at how cute Jungkook looked right now. Cheeks rosy, head slightly cocked to the side, eyes wide with mirth, almost like he was thankful for a reason to speak to you. 

You gave the boy a bright smile before answering, “Twenty three.”

Jungkook stared at you for just a second longer, before nodding once and leaving the room.

“Who the fuck is Pearl?” 

Hoseok shrugged his shoulders, not even looking up from the game he was playing on his phone. 

“Are you even listening to me Hobi?” Yoongi was aggravated, to say the least. Namjoon, Seokjin, and Jungkook brought you to their base last night and he hadn’t gotten a lick of sleep. Namjoon brought him your phone, asking him to remove data from it so it couldn’t be tracked. He did so immediately, but the damn thing was burning a whole in the back of his head while he tried to sleep on the old, black leather couch in his room. Eventually, he got up from tossing and turning, and decided - against his better judgement - to look through the device. He knew it was wrong, knew it was a huge invasion of privacy, but he didn’t particularly care for you. Besides, he was curious, who could blame him?

The red head, currently sitting upside down on Yoongi’s couch, just huffed in response. Yoongi just rolled his eyes and spun around in the old, squeaky rolling chair. He had your phone open on his desk. It was early in the morning now, he figured you and the rest of the boys, aside from Hoseok, were probably still asleep. Hoseok tended to be an extremely early riser, yet still went to bed late at night. Yoongi never understood how he had so much energy with so little sleep.

Yoongi had already looked through your apps and photos. You didn’t have any social media that he could tell. Your apps were incredibly boring, just a few games and a notepad app that he found some of your notes on. Mostly things like grocery lists and dreams that you had. Nothing too interesting. Your photos weren’t very exciting either, mostly pictures of trees and fruit. You had some photos of your mom and dad and a couple of animals he assumed were yours. You seemed to live a pretty boring life, based on what was on your phone. The cynical side of him wanted to tell himself this meant you were a boring person, but he knew that was an unfair assumption.

The last thing Yoongi decided to snoop through, were your text messages. While he hadn’t found much there, aside from conversations with your mom, dad, and a group chat with someone named “Mina” and “Woo”, he did notice how everyone seemed to refer to you as ‘Pearl’. Aside from when your mother called you by your name yesterday, you were almost always referred to as Pearl. This piqued Yoongi’s interest, but he wasn’t sure why. Maybe this was evidence as to why the others shouldn’t trust you? It’s a simple nickname, but Yoongi was suspicious of you from the beginning. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he knew he was looking for reasons to hate you, to make the others hate you. 

Yoongi nearly jumped straight out of his skin when the door to his room was swung open with such ferocity it slammed into the wall. Hoseok jumped straight up from the couch and Yoongi nearly fell out of his chair at the noise. “Jesus kid!” Yoongi yelled as he righted himself.

Jungkook had the graciousness to look ashamed as he entered the elder’s room. “Sorry hyung, I- I didn’t mean to,” he murmured without meeting the eyes of his older friends. 

Hoseok sighed and relaxed a bit before pushing a hand through his bright locks and announcing he was going to ‘find something better to do’. Jungkook nodded at him as he left and took Hoseok’s previous spot on the couch. Yoongi surveyed Jungkook as he sat down. He looked tired, like really tired. He could see the small bags forming under the youngest’s eyes, a purple tint to his nearly perfect skin. Yoongi also noticed how skinny the kid was looking these days. He narrowed his eyes at the boy, “You doing ok, kid?”

Jungkook lowered his head into his hands and rested them on his knees, shaking his head back and forth slightly, “No hyung. I- I miss them,” Yoongi could hear the tears that were threatening to fall. He always did have a soft spot for Jungkook. He rose from his seat and sat down gingerly next to Kook on the couch, making the leather creaked beneath him, and slung his arm around the dark haired boy.

“I know, I miss them too. We all do,” he bagan, running a soothing hand up and down Jungkook’s upper arm, “we will get them back, Jungkook. I promise.” Jungkook lifted his head and looked at his hyung, eyes glazed over. He believed him, he really did, he just missed his best friends. 

Jungkook nodded his head as he worried his bottom lip between his teeth. Yoongi thumbed at the younger’s lip sweetly, prompting him to release it. He knew Jungkook’s stress, he understood it. He missed the twins too, and he was working his hardest to get them back. Soon. He could feel it. 

Last night had gone about as well as you thought it would. After Jungkook left you alone, Jin never returned to his room. You took the painkillers they offered you, but you thought for sure someone would be back to check on you, and you didn’t feel comfortable enough to wander around the place. You also felt a little bad for taking Jin’s bed when he had been so gracious to you. So after a while of waiting - and mentally hoping - for someone to walk in, you tried your hardest to fall asleep, to no avail. You tossed and turned in Jin’s small bed for what felt like hours, but you didn’t really know how long it had been. There was no clock in the room, you didn’t have your phone, and there were no windows. You guessed you finally fell asleep sometime in the early morning and had a very short, fitful rest before Jin was coming in to wake you.

“YN?” You heard Seokjin’s soft voice from the doorway. You blearily blinked away sleep as you tried to fully regain consciousness. As you rolled over in bed to face the door, you saw Jin standing there with a plate of something that smelled absolutely delicious. You hadn’t realized how hungry you were, but your stomach was beginning to rumble at the sight of food. You remembered the last time you ate anything was yesterday morning at breakfast.

Jin walked a little further into the room and sat down at the edge of the bed. He wanted to laugh at how entranced you were by the food in his hands, and at the erratic way your hair was sticking up. “Hungry?” He asked, arm outstretched towards you with the plate. You let out a small yawn and reached your arms above your head with a small pout. The large t-shirt you were wearing - Jin’s t-shirt - rode up slightly as you stretched and Jin thought you had to be the cutest thing he’s ever seen. As you finished your much needed stretch, you nodded your head with one eye open, taking the plate. 

“Thank you, I’m so hungry,” you mumbled, voice still thick with sleep. Jin’s plump lips upturned into a bright smile as you started to eat a piece of toast from the plate. “You’re able to cook here?”

“There’s a small kitchen,” Jin nodded as he spoke, “it looks like it was an old staff lounge or something? We aren’t entirely sure what this building used to be, but it seemed like some people used to live here. There were beds, couches, even an old television when we got here.”

Now, feeling a little more awake, you nodded along with Jin, “Where do you get the food?” 

Seokjin didn’t even miss a beat before answering, happy you were coming out of your shell a bit, “I go to the market at least once a week,” he smiled, “I take Jungkook with me sometimes…” he started to trail off a bit, looking away from your eyes, almost like he was embarrassed. “That’s actually how we found you.”

You stopped chewing, mid-bite of scrambled egg, “Found me?” You mumbled, mouth full. 

Jin nodded, looking bashful, “Jimin told us he overheard people at the lab talking about a girl, a natural born living in this town. We honestly didn’t think we would find you here,” Seokijn rubbed the back of his neck as he continued, still avoiding your gaze, “We came out here and found this warehouse, it ended up being perfect for us to stay in,” as he continued his eyes finally met yours, he mentally noted how cute you looked, cheeks puffed out with food staring at him, “we needed food, so me and Jungkook went to the market. When I saw you, I knew.”

Your stomach was doing flips at Seokjin’s admission, and you weren’t entirely sure why. They were harmless words, maybe even a little reassuring. They weren’t stalking you, they happened to stumble upon you. So you weren’t sure why you were suddenly feeling so shy. His words almost sounded like a love confession you would hear in a blockbuster movie about soulmates. You could feel your cheeks heat slightly as you finally swallowed the eggs. “What do you mean, you knew? I don’t remember seeing you, or talking to you,” you prodded for some more information.

For a moment, Jin just stared into your eyes, and you thought he wasn’t going to answer you. Then, his plush lips parted as he quietly murmured, “Well, YN, you’re breathtakingly beautiful. I hope you know that,” he never broke eye contact as he uttered his next words, “and now that I’ve gotten to know you more, I can say you have a beautiful soul, too.” You were reeling. Were you the female lead of this made for TV movie your head conjured up?

You stared back at Seokjin with wide, glazed eyes, lips slightly parted in shock. No one has ever said anything like that to you, aside from Mina telling you how beautiful you were and how jealous she was of your skin. Jin was gazing at you as if you were the only person in the world, and you would be lying if you said it didn’t make you feel incredible. You were high on his attention, you loved the way your stomach was erupting with butterflies. 

You were still seated on his bed, legs crossed and hands sitting in your lap, food forgotten next to you. Seokjin was still staring intently into your eyes, with an intensity you’ve never felt before. Slowly, ever so slowly, he lifted his hand and went to lightly brush his knuckles against your cheek bone. The action made you flush, eyes closing at the soft feeling of his hand. Just as you were leaning into his touch, a soft smile on his lips, the door to his room opened, causing both of you to jump backwards, eyes shooting towards the person intruding on such an intimate moment. 

“Jin,” Namjoon looked slightly embarrassed, cheeks pink realizing what he walked into, “we need you in Yoongi’s room.” He bowed his head once at you both before turning on his heels and walking away. 

Seokjin cleared his throat and you found it endearing how his neck and ears were turning a beet red. “S-sorry,” he sputtered out, “I - I’ll be back in a little bit?” He sounded unsure as he scrubbed a hand down his face. You gave him a small smile and nodded, a little sad at the loss of companionship you were just starting to get used to. You couldn’t quite place the emotion you were feeling, but you knew it was nothing like the platonic friendship you felt for Woo or Mina. Jin stood up from his bed, making his way towards, before giving you some parting words, “I’ll have Jungkook come show you where the showers are.” 

After your encounter with Jin this morning, you were reeling from the onslaught of emotions you were feeling. You weren’t given much time to think too much about it though, because once you finished your breakfast, Jungkook came to give you a short, and rather quiet, tour of the building. 

Like Seokjim promised, Jungkook showed you where the one bathroom was located, which looked more like a gym locker room than a bathroom. There were shower stalls, benches, and a couple of toilets and sinks along with a wall of lockers. It looked to be a changing room for employees of the mill. Jungkook had brought with him your black linen pants, washed by Jin according to him, and another large t-shirt. He didn’t want to admit it was his this time, and blushed fiercely as he handed them over to you, along with a clean towel.

Jungkook kindly showed you how to work the showers, helping you turn one on because of your hands. He also sweetly helped unwrap your hands and feet so you could properly shower and clean the cuts and scrapes. After he was done, he turned away, telling you he would wait on the benches for you to finish. As he was retreating, you reached out your hand to grab his forearm, “Wait - I- I can’t really lift my arms up,” you mumbled, warily looking up into his wide deer-in-headlights eyes, “can- can you help me?” You’ve never been shy about your body or nudity, but something about Jungkook seeing you nearly naked, made you feel like a shy teenager again. 

You thought Jungkook was about to spontaneously combust the way he was staring at you. His shoulders were squared and nearly meeting his ears, lips pursed into a tight line, and eyes the size of dinner plates. You almost laughed at his expression, but then remembered how awkward this situation was for the both of you.

“I- I - ye- yes,” Jungkook was a stuttering mess, but wanted to offer you his help regardless. He felt like he was on fire with the way his cheeks and neck were heating. Slowly, you retracted your hand from his forearm when you felt like he wasn’t about to bolt out of the room. Jungkook carefully reached for the hem and your shirt and you turned around so your back was facing him to make this all less embarrassing. The boy audibly gulped as he slowly pulled your shirt upwards removing it from your head first, pushing it towards your front. He stepped closer to you so there was barely an inch of space between your now bare back and his front. Reaching his arms around you, he gripped the shirt and slid it down your arms, removing it from you completely. His fingers ever so slightly brushed the skin on your arms and made a shiver run up your spine. Jungkook didn’t miss the way you let out a strangled breath, almost inaudible.

 He needed to cool off, quickly. 

You quietly thanked him, quickly covering your breasts with your arms, as he turned away still holding Jin’s shirt and made his way out of the bathroom without another word. 

After your much needed shower you struggled to dress yourself, but you would rather cut off your own arm than go through the embarrassment of finding Jungkook to help you again. Once you were finally decent, you found Jungkook sitting on the benches outside of the shower room, just like he said he would be. He has visibly calmed down, now wearing a calm expression. When he noticed you walk into the room, he gave you a small smile. “Feel better?” 

You nodded enthusiastically, happy to feel clean again.

Next, Jungkook showed you the small kitchen that Jin spoke of earlier. It was more like a kitchenette, almost like an employee break room. It had a tiny refrigerator, cabinets that were filled with dry goods, a sink, and one electric burner. The building was so old, you were shocked to see the kitchen in such great condition. At the shocked look on your face, Jungkook told you that Jin really loved to cook and worked really hard to clean it up and keep it that way. Your face flushed at the reminder of the older man who was making your heart feel things just this morning. The thought of him caring so much about his kitchen, moving about in here cooking the delicious food you ate for breakfast, made your stomach twist in a pleasant way. 

The last place Jungkook showed you was a mostly empty room on the second floor of the building. He told you that they didn’t use the second story much, considering the state of disrepair of the place, they didn’t want to risk getting hurt up here. But this room, Jungkook told you, was his favorite place to hang out. It was a rectangular concrete room that had a large expanse of windows on the far  wall. Some of the windows were broken, allowing the breeze from outside to enter. In front of the windows sat a small tan sofa that looked like it had seen better days. Jungkook led you over to the windows, and you quickly realized why he liked this room so much. 

You could see the entire quarry from up here. It was beautiful. At the bottom of the quarry was water that took on an incredible aquamarine color, turning almost green in the sunlight. The water was completely still, no disruptions on the surface, making it look serene. Along the bank of water, there were lush, green bushes and trees swaying slightly in the wind. On the other side of the quarry, you could see a small patch of yellow and purple flowering plants. Along the steep sides of the cliffs, you could see the smooth surface of exposed marble. Over the years, the marble has become weathered and looked smooth to the touch. The late morning sun, high in the sky, was reflecting off of the stone in a way that made it sparkle. It was an incredible sight, and you were surprised you’d never seen it like this before, having been out here in the past. 

As you stood there, taking in the breathtaking scenery, Jungkook was taking in you. You had a look of mirth in your eyes, and he mentally patted himself on the back for bringing you up here. He took in your side profile, admiring your sharp features that looked as if they were carved from the very marble you were currently staring at. He loved the way your soft lips were forming a small pout, eyes focused on the sight in front of you. He didn’t realize he was grinning at you, until you turned around with a look of shock on your face.

A grin spread across your face as you saw Jungkook’s smile for the first time. It reminded you of a bunny, large front teeth on display for you to admire. You stood there for a moment, smiling at each other before you both started giggling. “Thank you for showing me this, Jungkook,” you crooned once the laughter had subsided. He just smiled at you in return before looking back out towards the quarry. You stayed in a comfortable silence after that, before Jungkook deemed it time to head back downstairs. 

Downstairs, Jungkook led you to a room that was right in the middle of the long hallway that contained all the other rooms. “This is Yoongi-hyung’s room,” he cautioned, hand on the door, “don’t worry, Joon-hyung told him to be nice,” he rushed out, seeing the fearful look on your pretty features. 

You were still uncertain, but nodded at Jungkook anyways, prompting him to open the door. Jungkook waited patiently for you to enter the room on your own with no pressure from him. You peeked around the corner to find the occupants of the room all staring right at you. You purse your lips into a tight line and avert your gaze to your newfound safe harbor, Seokjin, who was sitting on a black leather couch. His eyes softened at your uncomfortable look before scooting over to make room for you on the couch, patting the seat next to him, inviting you over. You hesitantly walked over and plopped down on the soft cushion.

Jin rubbed a large hand on your shoulder briefly to calm you down before placing both hands in his lap. As you felt yourself relax a bit, you took in your surroundings. Jungkook was still standing near the door, leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He looked oddly stoic, shedding the shy persona he usually wore. The room was fairly large, or at least, larger than the rest of the rooms you’ve been in. Against the right wall was the black leather couch you and Jin were currently sat on, and to your right against the far wall were two arm chairs, one of which was occupied by Namjoon. Sat in a desk chair in front of what looked like an old corporate desk, was Yoongi, with multiple laptops and devices sprawled out in front of him. Leaning against the wall behind Yoongi was another man, one you didn’t recognize, but you assumed was Hoseok. He was staring intently at you. His expression was unreadable, not cold, but not welcoming either. He looked intense with bright red hair, a sharp jawline that looked like it could cut diamonds, dressed in all black. He was a little intimidating and not at all like the golden retriever type boy Namjoon had described to you last night.

As you took in the men around the room, you hadn’t noticed Yoongi and Namjoon discussing a possible plan to break the twins out of Big Hit. “Jimin said there might be a window of time where no one is around,” Yoongi scoffed, “but you remember what happened last time he said that.”

Namjoon nodded his head. Now you were listening intently to their conversation, as were the other men in the room. “We need to trust Jimin, Yoongs. He’s the one inside there, he sees what’s going on, we don’t,” Namjoon sighed, running his hands over his knees, apparently a self-soothing mechanism, “if you think you can get in and knock out the cameras, we might as well give it a shot. We will make sure we’re better prepared this time.” Namjoon seemed defeated. You weren’t sure what happened ‘last time’, but it didn’t sound good.

“It doesn’t matter how prepared we are, he was wrong about the window last time. By two hours. If he’s wrong again we could get caught, or killed,” Yoongi snapped, anger apparent in his eyes, “I’m not willing to risk you guys again.”

“What about her?” This time, it was the redhead who spoke. You hadn’t noticed his eyes on you throughout the entire conversation, assessing you.

“No!” Both Jin and Jungkook barked at the same time, making you jump in your seat. Jin set a soothing hand on your shoulder as you looked at him, and then at Hoseok with wide eyes. Jin shook his head aggressively before looking at Yoongi and Hoseok, “No way. She’s never been there, she would have no idea what to do. You’re not willing to risk one of us, but willing to risk her?” He snarled, you haven’t seen him angry before, and you were positive you didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his anger. 

Over by the door, Jungkook had uncrossed his arms and was walking towards Yoongi’s desk. “You can’t send her in there, hyung,” he started, placing both hands palm down on the desk, “please.”

Yoongi looked up at the maknae with soft eyes before pursing his lips and sighing through his nose. Behind him, Hoseok raised his hands in surrender, “It was just a suggestion,” he sighed out passively, “we’ve all lived there at some point or another, they would recognize us immediately, just like last time.”

“They know her too. Hyunwoo has been scouting her for months, according to Jimin. We can’t let her go in there.” It was Namjoon who was being the voice of reason this time, causing both Jin and Jungkook to let out a collective sigh of relief. The five men continued to argue while you got lost in your thoughts. Hoseok wanted you to navigate Big Hit? Alone? You mulled it over in your head for a minute, remembering Yoongi’s words. If he was able to hack the cameras, they wouldn’t be able to see you, right? You felt so grateful towards Jin and Namjoon, and even Jungkook, for helping you, you wanted to contribute in some way. You wanted to help them, ease their pain at the loss of their friends.

With this thought in mind, you spoke up, “I could do it…” you trailed off, voice quiet. All five of the men’s heads snapped towards you, most with looks of disbelief on their faces. Even Hoseok hadn’t expected you to agree, he was testing you, to see how you would react. Yoongi looked at you curiously, waiting for your next words. He couldn’t deny the clench in his heart at Seokjin’s words. No, he wasn’t willing to risk you, but if you were offering... “I mean.. I want to help,” you hesitated, looking between Jin and Jungkook who were now looking angrily at you. You shrunk in on yourself a bit, awaiting their response. 

“Then it’s settled,” Yoongi remarked. He was trying hard to contain the fear he felt at allowing you to enter Big Hit alone. He knew it was dangerous, and he really wanted to not care about your well-being, but try as he might, he was terrified of allowing you to do this. He assumed he hid it well though, because everyone bar Hoseok was looking at him with incredulousness. 

“No way,” Seokjin spoke first, his tone leaving nothing up for discussion, “this conversation is over.” Jin stood up abruptly, looking directly at Namjoon, “You aren’t ok with this, are you?” The look in his eye was intense, and Namjoon could feel it. He could feel the emotions Jin felt towards you, that he was going to do whatever it took to protect you. Namjoon would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t feel the same way.

Namjoon let out a short sigh and closed his eyes before setting his gaze on Yoongi, “We can figure this out without involving YN.” 

“You heard her,” Yoongi growled, “she’s willing to risk her life. Who am I to tell her no?”

From there, the argument got even more heated, Jungkook even getting involved at one point. You were starting to feel uncomfortably hot in this cramped space. You understood both sides. You wanted to help, but you also knew that whatever you were volunteering yourself to do was dangerous. You needed air.

Suddenly, you stood up from the sofa announcing to the others that you ‘needed space’ and bolted out the door. Jungkook turned to run after you, but Hoseok, who was now standing next to the youngest, put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Let me go Hobi-hyung, I need to make sure YN is ok,” Jungkook rushed out, turning to the elder.

“Let her go, Kookie. This is probably a lot for her,” Hoseok told the boy, who looked like his heart was breaking at his words, “She’ll be ok, give her time.”

In your haste to remove yourself from the situation, you missed the look of absolute devastation on Jin’s face. He didn’t want you to feel like you had to do anything to repay them. He didn’t want you to feel like you owed them. He couldn’t believe how strongly he felt for you after only one day, longing for your presence next to him, now that it was suddenly gone. He could see that Jungkook - and to some extent, Namjoon - felt similarly. 

Namjoon’s heavy sigh could be heard by everyone in the room, even over the loud chatter between the boys, as he slowly rose from his seat. As he made his way over to the door, he looked over his shoulder at the hacker. “Fix this.” His words held a finality that made Yoongi gulp. The blonde had a stoic outer shell that was hard to crack, but no one in this building could deny Namjoon was the one in charge, the one they wouldn’t defy. Yoongi nodded, biting the inside his cheek to hold back his retorts as Namjoon left the room. 

After you burst out of Yoongi’s room earlier, you ran towards the big metal door that led outside the warehouse. You didn’t really want to go home, you were way too scared of what might be waiting for you there, but you did need some fresh air and some time to process everything that has happened to you since yesterday. 

You made your way down the long winding path that led back to the fork in the path at the edge of the forest. You were thankful Jungkook had found you a pair of slippers earlier and you were no longer barefoot. You passed the broken fence blocking the dirt road down to the quarry and carefully hiked down until you were at the embankment and sat on the edge of the water. It really was beautiful and now that you were up close, you could see how clear the water was. It looked like liquid gemstones, barely rippling in the slight breeze. The marble looked so pretty up close, nearly snow white with swirls and lines of grey. It was calming out here. You took a few deep breaths, inhaling the scent of the water and the trees. 

You have never done well with crowds of people. Not that five men were a crowd by any means, but you weren’t used to being around more than a couple of people at a time. Growing up, you had severe anxiety, especially while at school, and it carried over to adulthood. You also haven’t had many chances to socialize as an adult, outside of Mina and Woo. Being thrown into a situation with five men, two of whom you don’t think even want you around, is a lot. It’s only been twenty four hours and you’re already starting to regret leaving your home. You thought about your mom, and the huge breakfasts and dinners she would make for you and your father. Your father, who you didn’t know if you could even trust anymore. You’ve lived your whole life putting all your trust in your parents, as one should. But now you were questioning everything. Were they aware of your genetic rarity? Did they know about Big Hit all along? You had so many unanswered questions that you would probably never have answers to unless you went home.

Your mind wandered to Mina and Woo. How you weren’t sure if you would ever get to see them again. You were worried about them, worried that they would look for you and find themselves in some kind of trouble. They were your only friends growing up, and you didn’t even get to properly say goodbye to them. You didn’t realize you were crying until you felt something wet and warm drop into your lap. You were wearing the pants that you got dressed in yesterday morning before what could’ve been your last breakfast with your family. At that thought, the dam within you broke and the tears started flowing. 

While staring at your damaged hands, you were reminded of Seokjin, and his caring nature. The tall, broad shouldered man who has shown you nothing but kindness. He was so gentle with you, like no one ever has been before. He made your heart flutter and your mind blank when he spoke to you. You thought back to how angry he had been with his own friends, over you, a girl he just met. He was defending you, and it made you feel like you were tearing a family apart. You didn’t want to bring him, or anyone else for that matter, any pain or harm. But then you thought back to how nice his large hand had felt against the delicate skin of your face this morning, and how his words had made you blush with fondness. You’ve never loved someone outside of your family, never even had a crush before. You weren’t sure how to define what you felt for Seokjin, but it felt good. 

Then you thought about Namjoon, the well spoken and intelligent man who was the reason you were brought in with welcoming arms. From what you’ve gathered, he was the one who pushed to find you, to make sure they did something to stop Big Hit from getting to you. You were thankful for him, and you didn’t want to put him in a position where he had to choose you or his brothers. He cared for them deeply, you could see that clearly. 

Jungkook was mysterious to you. He seemed so shy and timid, yet he was so angry with Yoongi earlier in defense of you. He had shown you one of the most beautiful places you’ve ever witnessed before, and given you one of the most precious smiles you’ve ever seen. You wanted to learn more about him, get to know him, be his friend. You felt drawn to the boy and wanted to protect him. It was odd, you’ve never felt an instinct to take care of someone else before, aside from maybe your cat. You wondered if that was how Seokjin felt towards the rest of them, the thought causing your heart to clench, emphatic towards him.  

The red haired man, Hoseok, was the one you knew the least about. It felt like he didn’t really like you, but he was so hard to read. You remembered what Namjoon said about him being excitable and friendly, but you had yet to experience it yourself. As much as you felt unwelcomed by him and Yoongi, you still felt inclined to get to know him better, a pull to him, much like the others. You couldn’t explain these feelings, and they were confusing you.

The last man of the group, the blonde. Yoongi. He definitely didn’t want you here, and definitely made you feel unwelcome. But could you blame him? You weren’t mad at him. No. You understood completely how he felt. You were a stranger, disposable, and you weren’t his friend. He had no reason to care about you. None of them did. You mentally berated yourself for allowing your mind to conjure up the idea that they owe you anything, that you deserved their care and affection. 

As you sat and cried silently to yourself, you let the dark thoughts take over your mind. Were you some kind of charity case to Namjoon? Like he felt the need to save someone who was like him and that’s all you meant to them? Maybe they felt sorry for you, and that’s why they were treating you so kindly. Seokjin acted caring towards everyone, why were you anything special? You were acting crazy, it’s only been a day with these men and you’re already feeling such a strong pull to them. You need to get a hold of yourself. You continued to sit there, on the edge of the water, shoulders hunched as you cried silently. As the day went on, and the sun started to set beyond the hills, your mind was plagued with the thoughts that this was all a horrible, horrible idea. 

To be continued….

A/N: if you made it this far, first of all, THANK YOU! If you want to be added to the taglist, make sure you’re following me and send me an ask. if you enjoy the series consider reblogging so it can reach more readers. i’m feeling a little down about writing right now, so i’m trying to make sure to update next sunday. we will be meeting the twins in the next couple chapters, depending on how long they get, and you will be getting some steamy scenes between YN and (a) boy shortly. much love 

xx Des

taglist:  @minifruity​  @mrcleanheichou @arantxaglz​ @chim-possible​ 

copyright 2020 aliendes

[woozibby]

The Switch | Wonwoo | Part 2

a.n. originally posted on my shared blog, but now moving everything here- to my main blog. 

// unedited.

last | 2 | next 

Half an hour before the date, Wonwoo’s P.O.V

I had just sat down, excited to begin my new book when my phone began to ring. Looking at the caller ID, I see Vernon’s name pop up and I just shrug and let it go to answer phone. After a couple of rings, the phone stops and silence takes over the room.

Picking up my book, I flip to the first page and begin to read. However, in the next moment, my phone begins to ring again. Letting out a sigh, I grab it to see it’s Vernon calling again and I click answer.

“What do you want?”

“Can you do me a favour?” Vernon asks, his voice is rushed.

“What do you want?”

“Go on the date I’m meant to go on” Faking a laugh, I roll my eyes to myself.

“No, if you don’t want to go on the date just tell them”

“No no, please, Hana will kill me if no one shows up” Vernon rushes. “Just say you’re me and I’ll tell Hana that the date didn’t go well and you’ll never have to see them again”

I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. I couldn’t believe what Vernon was suggesting.

“I can’t go on a date and pretend to be you, that’s not how those things go”

“Dude, please,” Vernon pleads. “How about I pay you? Whatever you spend I’ll pay you back”

I’m silent for a moment as I think. This was a stupid idea and I’d rather not get in the way of Hana’s wrath if she’s angry at Vernon. If she finds out about this, that would mean not only would Vernon die, I’d be in the firing range.

“Fine, but you better pay me extra for this shit” I state. “Double whatever I spend tonight”

“Fine, Fine! Deal!” Vernon agrees. “Just pretend to be me and afterwards I’ll tell Hana that it just wasn’t working”

“Okay, what’s the girl’s name?”

“y/n, her names y/n, the dates at Monroe’s in ten minutes ”

“You owe me so much for this,” I don’t wait for him to respond when I hang up the phone. Running my hands through my hair, I decide it’s not best I change and just head straight for the restaurant since I was going to be late as it is.

When I get there, I enter the restaurant and look around. There was only one girl sat alone, so hopefully, that was y/n. Walking up to her, I rub the back of my neck awkwardly.

“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late,” I say, holding my hand out for her to shake.

“Vernon?” She asks and I nod my head. “Nice to meet you and it’s okay, I wasn’t waiting long”

I sit down quickly in the chair across from her and let myself relax. Picking up the menu, I start to flick through it.

“So,” I begin. “What made you want to be set up on a date?”

“Well honestly,” She laughs. “My friend wouldn’t stop trying to set me up with someone, Yeri’s her name” Yeri… I’ve heard that name before- wait…

“Hana’s girlfriend”

“Yeah!” She laughs again. “That’s her alright, What about you?”

I begin to think. What lie could I come up with that would make sense for Vernon to tell? Vernon wasn’t really the dating type, I don’t even know why he agreed to this date to begin with.

“Honestly, I’m one of the only people in my friend group that is single anymore, I think it was just time to try and get out there you know?” She nods her head as a small smile plays on her lips.

“Yeah, I get what you mean” She looks through the menu again before looking up at me. She’s still smiling when she asks; “Would you want to go get some beer and bbq instead of eating here?”

Vernon is really missing out.

“Of course, honestly, this place isn’t my usual type” I lead the way out of the restaurant.

“Same here,”

The walk to the bbq restaurant was brisk. She nor I said much, but it was comfortable. Once we got there, I smiled at the old lady who I recognised and we sat down at a table. It was strangely empty for once, but it was nice.

“What do you want to eat?” I ask. y/n just shrugs with a smile.

“I’m fine with anything,” Nodding, I get up and go over to the lady who runs the place. “Can we have some beef and some beers please,”

“Anything you want sweetie,” She smiles, before passing over the beers. She then gets some beef out of the freezer and puts it on a plate for us. Once she’s finished, I take it back over to our table.

“Here you go,” I say, sitting back down in my seat. “I just got us some beef, I hope that’s okay,”

“That’s great,” Y/n smiles. I start cooking the beef and y/n opens up our bottles of beer.

“So,” I say, “What do you study?”

By the time we had finished our food and one beer lead to two, it was already getting late.

“I should really get back to my place,” Y/n hiccups, pushing some of her hair back behind her ear.

“I’ll walk you there”

“Thank you,” She starts looking in her bag, for what I’m assuming was her purse and I laugh.

“Don’t worry, I already paid” She looks up at me with a pout.

“Then at least let me pay you back for some of it” Shaking my head, I hold out a hand for her to take.

“No, it’s fine, didn’t you say you have to get back?”

She’s silent for a moment- well as silent as someone can be with hiccups. The next second, she takes my hand and stands.

“Okay, if you say so”

For the rest of the walk back, we go quiet again. Her hand is still in mine.

“I had a really good time tonight,” She smiles.

“I did too, say no if I’m being too forward, but would you want to go on another date with me?” y/n nods her head.

“I’d love to,” She kisses my cheek. “So, I’ll see you again soon then”

“Yeah, real soon”

She makes her way into her accommodation building and waves before she fully closes the door behind her. My attention gets taken away from the door when my phone buzzes.

Pulling it out of my pocket, the screen lights up with an incoming call from Vernon. Swiping the answer button, I put the phone to my ear.

“So, how did it go?” Vernon asks. His voice crackling cause of the signal.

“It was good, she’s nice.” I hum. Looking back at the door to Y/N’s accommodation a final time, I turn around and make my way home.

“Cool, I’ll text Hana tomorrow to give it some time.”

“Yeah, about that…” Vernon sighs. I could sense his annoyance through the phone.

“Nonono, Woo, you can’t be saying what I think you’re saying.” I stay silent for a moment before I find the right words.

“I know, but I really enjoyed the date and I want to see her again.”

“Yeah I get that Woo, but you went pretending to be me. You’d be insane to continue that” Vernon says. “Hana would be pissed if she knew you went in my place tonight”

“I know, but come on, Hana doesn’t have to know, it’s not like y/n and Hana hang out that often is it?”

“You’re insane,”

“Hey, you were the one that came up with the idea in the first place”

“Yeah, for one date! Not for an actual relationship” Vernon argues. By this point, I had gotten back home and hung up the phone as soon as I open the front door. Vernon comes out of his room in the next second.

“You can’t really be thinking about doing this Woo”

“Give me two more dates,” I suggest. Vernon runs his hands through his hair as he thinks. “Two more dates and if it’s still going well and we still want to see each other I’ll tell her the truth.”

“Fine, two dates!”

“You’re the best man!” I smile whereas Vernon just rolls his eyes.

“Just don’t let Hana find out about this, or she’ll kill us both” Nodding, I click my fingers before pointing at him.

“Also, I need her number”

“How could you forget to ask her for her number?!” Vernon yells. I shrug, holding my hands up in defence.

“I mean, I was kind of caught up in asking her about meeting up again that I didn’t even think about it”

Vernon lets out a long sigh before he speaks again. Even though it was only a second, it somehow felt like hours.

“Fine, I’ll ask Hana about it, but I swear to God if anything happens from this” He mumbles. “I’ll kill you before Hana has the chance to” I just nod my head.

“Yeah, yeah dude, I get it”

“I’ll text Hana in the morning, there’s no way she’ll be awake now”

“Okay,” I say. Vernon says nothing else and starts to head back to his room. “Vern,” He turns back. “Thanks, seriously”

He waves a hand and turns away again as he mumbles to himself. When he’s out of sight, the sound of his door slamming shut is all I need to know he’s not wanting to be bothered again.

So, I go to my own room. I get changed and get ready for bed when I notice myself in the mirror. My glasses were slightly tilted to the side and my cheeks were pink. Smiling, I shake my head to myself and head to bed.

The ideas of the future and y/n in my mind.

[neednothavehappenedtobetrue]

(Hello I have typed everything else that is in this post and now I am putting a parenthetical at the top. this post is very long, so you don’t have to read it, and if you do read it, you don’t have to Experience Concern, I’m usually fine and probably will be, but! If you do read it, and you do experience concern, would you mind telling me? Normally I do not require that, and I do not actually require that you read this long post, but if you do, it might be helpful to tell me)

(Also I can’t do cuts on mobile, so, sorry) (aha I am on desktop now and have added a cut, though this post is now from the past)

So! the good news:

-every homework I have ever had is done! all of it! the two classes I needed to finish after Big Cascading Extensive Sickness are fully completed! I have taken five classes of my grad program which is eight regular classes and then a semester where you do your thesis, so like ten classes altogether! Halfway there! Woo!

-I do not acquire more classes until not tomorrow but next Monday after that, so I have a week with some downtime in it! in which to do ADLs and write and listen to podcasts!

-my health situation has been back-and-forth this past… time period, but today I do not feel sick, nauseous, panicky, brain-stuck or sad!!! I will gladly take the current Mood Situation over any of those, and double-especially over nausea!!!

now for the part that’s not a complaint but also not not a complaint

-so I still cannot lately focus for shit until the very last minute where I realize there will be immediate bad consequences of not doing the thing right exactly now

-(this is an intermittent Mood Disorder problem for me, we are tweaking my meds, I am not going to be experiencing this brain forever)

-the final project was originally due Monday, and then “Sunday if possible” and then “can you turn it in Saturday night so I can grade it early Sunday?”

-it was not his fault about the moved deadline he is expecting a big hurricane and wanted to get it done pre-power-outage and the registrar would have been a big stickler for anything after Monday

-I figured that anything before 6:AM Sunday counted for these purposes, as he seemed unlikely to be doing grading any earlier than that

-I spaced out very badly most of Saturday

-I opened my laptop around 10PM

-my brain refused to let me do literally anything until like 1AM, at which point the assignment was due sometime between “an hour ago” and “five hours from now”

-then I unlocked the ability to focus for about five to fifteen minute increments at random a few times an hour

-it turns out that “literally after the assignment is due by the most generous definition, it’s already late and can only get later, someone is this minute waiting for you,” the point at which I regain my normal ability to just like, sit down, do a thing, and then have it be done.

-I worked pretty much straight through 7-noon, proofread, formatted, attached the document to an email with some made up personal problems in it

-not because I’m not having real life problems, I just didn’t want to explain the real ones

-turned it in at 12:35

-G submitted my final grade to the registrar already and will email me final comments post-hurricane

-if he secretly hates me he still gave me an A in the class, so who cares.

-the assignment took somewhere around 8 hours of focus work, most of which I did in the six and a half hours after it was (again, by the most generous estimate) definitely due and already late

-I guess it’s good to know I can Enter The Zone if I place enough consequences on myself

-I miss The Zone, it used to be comparatively much easier for me to go there

-I very much do hope the meds adjustment fixes my brain a bit, and soon

-I just did a casual assessment of my feelings about things and got “unusually limited emotions, somewhat flat inside,” about it, so I’m jotting that down.

-I don’t remember how I’ve been feeling, exactly, but I do remember telling my therapist that I’ve been feeling a bit flat lately, so that does check out!

-alex, if you were doing homework for fourteen hours, when did you sleep last?

-first of all, I was doing homework for eight hours, interspersed with six hours of genuinely nothing, I truly don’t even know

-that’s not even a terrible ratio for lately, there were entire calendar days last week where I had a brain for about two decent hours out of twenty-four

-there has been a lot of Mindless Scrolling lately, but also yesterday I put my phone away and genuinely did not even glance at anything but schoolwork on the computer

-what did I do for six hours? my guy, I truly do not know

-that wasn’t the question, was it? I’m kidding, I remember the question, it was about sleeping

-I slept from around 6-9PM last night, for some reason, and then haven’t since! lately I’ve been very nocturnal as much as I’ve been anything, so I am trying to reset my sleep schedule by going to bed, very tired, around 9PM tonight.

-assuming I will feel tired later, not sure body sensations are things I still experience very often, including tiredness.

-I’ve been very verbose today, and my voice on the phone sounded a bit manic earlier, so maybe that’s a thing, but in a distant and far away way, even that.

-huh. I feel like that would be concerning if I was closer to normal today. might edit this post a bit and then share it with my therapist.

-hey Alex, if you’re not doing any body feelings, what have you eaten and drank lately?

-more than nothing, technically

-I mean what are you, a cop?

[nbatrades]

Charlotte Hornets Acquire Eric Leckner from Sacramento for Two Second Round Picks

On January 29th, 1991, the Charlotte Hornets traded a 1993 second round draft pick (Alex Holcombe) and a 1995 second round draft pick (Dejan Bodiroga) to the Sacramento Kings for Eric Leckner.

The Sacramento Kings originally acquired center Eric Leckner along with guard Bobby Hansen and three future draft picks in a three-team trade that saw Pervis Ellison end up in Washington and Jeff Malone go to Utah. 

Leckner joined a Kings team that had Ralph Sampson at center, but the position would become crowded quickly. Soon after acquiring Leckner, the Kings drafted center Duane Causwell in the first round of the 1990 draft. Next, they traded for center Bill Wennington from the Dallas Mavericks.

The pack of centers would compete for playing time and Leckner oftentimes found himself as the odd man out. Kings head coach Dick Motta preferred a center that could operate from the high post and Leckner’s paint-based style of play clashed with Motta’s vision. Leckner’s lack of playing time would cause a deep fissure in the relationship between coach and player. 

In 32 games with the Kings, Leckner was averaging 2.9 PPG, 2.7 RPG and 0.6 APG in 11.8 MPG. Operating out of the high post was also hurting his efficiency, as he was shooting a career-low 40.6% from the field.

Leckner had wanted to be traded. He was in the final year of his contract, earning $475,000 for the 1990-91 season. Looking to secure a new deal, Leckner was offered by Kings director of player personnel Jerry Reynolds the chance to leave in a trade or stay on the bench the rest of the season. Leckner approved the trade and was dealt to the Charlotte Hornets. The Kings were 12-28 when they dealt Leckner.

Charlotte gave Sacramento two second rounders. One was in 1995 and the other — in 1993 — was conditional. Leckner had to be on Charlotte’s roster a year from the trade for the Hornets to convey their 1993 second rounder to Sacramento.

Charlotte was 13-27 when they acquired Leckner. Relying heavily on veteran center Mike Gminski, the Hornets were often playing smaller players at center and needed a big body to fill the position as a reserve. The team went 13-29 the rest of the way to finish fourth-worst in the NBA with a 26-56 record. Leckner was given an opportunity to play in Charlotte, and showed some signs of development. He had three double-doubles in 58 games with Charlotte after failing to record one in his first 184 games in the league. Overall, the 6-foot-11 center produced 5.8 PPG, 5.2 RPG and 0.3 APG in 18.6 MPG.

The Hornets won the 1991 draft lottery and drafted UNLV star forward Larry Johnson. with the first overall pick. Charlotte head coach Gene Littles moved to the front office and vice president Allan Bristow shifted to head coach in a organizational realignment.

Leckner did not sign a contract with the Hornets until right before training camp. He ended up with a one-year, $618,000 deal keeping him in Charlotte. Under new coach Bristow, the Hornets planned to play 6-foot-9 J.R. Reid more often at center. That meant Leckner would have to fight to receive any minutes on the court.

He suffered, playing less often as many of the center minutes went to Reid, Gminski and Kenny Gattison. Leckner appeared in 59 games (two starts), and recorded 3.3 PPG, 3.5 RPG and 0.5 APG in 12.1 MPG. Charlotte dropped 24 of their first 32 games to start the season. The team would play better behind the efforts of 1991-92 Rookie of the Year Johnson and Kendall Gill. Still, they finished out of the playoffs and in the lottery once again with a 31-51 mark.

Charlotte won the second spot in the 1992 NBA Draft and selected Georgetown center Alonzo Mourning with the second overall pick. Mourning’s addition — plus the presence of Gattison and Gminski on the roster — dropped Charlotte’s interest in retaining Leckner. He was not re-signed.

Leckner was not able to catch on with an NBA team in the 1992 offseason. He ended up heading over to Italy and playing for Panna Firenze of the Serie A2 League in Italy. Leckner ended his Hornets tenure with a stat line of 99 games played, 4.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 0.5 APG. He shot 49% from the field and 62% from the free-throw line.

The conditional 1993 second rounder the Kings acquired from Charlotte was conveyed since Leckner played past the 1991-92 season with the Hornets. The acquired draft pick was slotted at 44th in the 1993 draft. Sacramento selected 6-foot-9 Baylor center Alex Holcombe. Considered a raw athlete with an NBA body, Holcombe had a 7-foot-5 wingspan and 9-foot-3 standing reach. Holcombe did not play in summer camp with the Kings because he committed to playing in Europe.

During the 1993-94 season, Holcombe played in Spain (CB Breogán) before becoming homesick. He moved on to the CBA (Grand Rapids Hoops) for the rest of the season. He played with the Kings in 1994 Summer League at the Rocky Mountain Revue. Holcombe’s draft rights were renounced by the Kings in October of 1994.

The 1995 second rounder the Kings had secured in the trade from Charlotte ended up in the 51st spot of the 1995 draft. Sacramento used the pick on Serbian forward Dejan Bodiroga. A 6-foot-8 point-forward, Bodiroga was a unique player. Though he wasn’t the best shooter or quickest player, he drew comparisons to Magic Johnson due to his size and ability to pass the ball.

The Kings attempted to woo Bodiroga to come to the United States, but he passed on multiple occasions. In 1996, the Kings were interested in using their $800,000 exception on Bodiroga, but he never signed. In 2002, Bodiroga was tempted to come, but he never committed.

A star in Europe, Bodiroga played for some of the top teams in the EuroLeague including Olimpia Milano, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos and FC Barcelona. He was well decorated, winning three EuroLeague championships and 2002 All-Europe Player of the Year.

There were a few questions about whether Bodiroga could play the NBA game, but many believed he had the skill. Still, despite all of Sacramento’s overtures, Bodiroga never played in the NBA, retiring professionally in 2007. The Kings waited more than 22 years after drafting Bodiroga before renouncing their rights to the 44-year old Serbian forward.

Eric Leckner on the trade (via the Sacramento Bee):

“Being mad or bitter now isn’t going to change anything so I’m just going to look at this as a great opportunity to start over. I’m going to get to play some serious minutes in Charlotte. I get to go to work now.”

On wanting to leave (via the Sacramento Bee):

“I just want to get out of here. I could go and talk to him (Motta) about it but it wouldn’t do any good.”

On being in the doghouse in Sacramento (via the Charlotte Observer):

“I’m in the front row of that doghouse. That was not about ability It was personality or playing style. Yeah I was in that doghouse — right next to Ralph [Sampson].”

On wanting to prove himself:

“It’s time for Eric Leckner to do something.”

How he brings a different skill set compared to starting center Mike Gminski:

“I bring a contrast to Gminski. He’s a little sneaky with a lot of 10-foot jump shots I’m strictly a back-to-the-basket player. You put a guy 20 feet from the basket and not let him rebound — that's not my style. I spent more time in the paint in practice today than I did the whole time in Sacramento.”

Charlotte Hornets vice president of basketball operations Allan Bristow on acquiring Leckner (via Deseret News):

“Eric will provide us depth inside without sacrificing our immediate future. He will also spell [Mike] Gminski from playing too many minutes and since he is such a young player, we hope to help him reach his promising potential.”

Sacramento Kings head coach Dick Motta on Leckner (via the Sacramento Bee):

“He was so uptight. The high-post, low-post thing is a cop-out. If you want to score in the low post you’ll get there.”

How having four centers was an issue in Sacramento (via the Sacramento Bee):

“We should never have come out of training camp with four centers. We didn’t know that Ralph Sampson was going to be with us for the whole year. It wasn’t fair to us. It wasn’t fair to any of them. Between Bill Wennington and Eric, we felt Bill gave us more.”

On Leckner being nervous (via the Charlotte Observer):

“Every time he got in a game he seemed to be nervous. With four centers here there was no chance for any of them to relax. It wasn’t fair to them or us. I hope he looks at it as us breaking up a logjam not picking on Eric Leckner.”

On how an incident where Leckner kicked a chair out of frustration meant more than just the chair (via the Sacramento Bee):

“When I’m upset with myself I never let anyone know it. That’s my edge. When Eric kicked that chair, I told him the chair would still be there tomorrow and so would the anxiety that had built up inside of him. He had so much anxiety. He never learned to relax and play.”

On the roster glut at the center position:

“You can’t have four centers. I didn’t think Ralph would be here. I had to go with Duane [Causwell] because he needs experience. I want him to play 2,000 minutes this year. Maybe it’s a mistake because he hasn’t earned those minutes, but I’ve got to do it. That left Eric and Bill [Wennington]. I thought Bill gave us more. Any way you look at it, it wasn’t a good situation.”

On Leckner’s dissatisfaction with his role in Sacramento:

“I never try to be friends with my 10th, 11th and 12th men. “You can’t do it. I hope Eric does well. I didn’t mind working with him. We just didn’t have time to keep him around and see what developed. I hope Eric is still playing in the league 10 years from now. I don’t know if I would bet on it. But I hope he has a nice career.”

Hornets center Mike Gminski on the toll playing 36-plus minutes a night was having on him (via the Charlotte Observer):

“I can (play that long) every once in a while but a steady diet of 40-minute nights would have taken its toll on me.”

Hornets guard Kendall Gill on how acquiring Leckner could help them stop a recent losing streak (via the Charlotte Observer):

“You just don’t know how badly I want to win. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’m glad we’re getting another low-post player [Leckner]. That’s got to help.”

Image via Getty Images/Rocky Widner

[yoong-i]

this was supposed to be a fav D-2 lyrics post but it just somehow turned into me rambling my thoughts about D-2 in regard to life and what he’s said in the interviews so far

So I started this and then my computer decided to restart and I lost all of it. And then when I finally finished it and hit save draft one last time, Tumblr stopped working. So if you see anything formatted weirdly, let me know. The universe was against me on this one.

As always, all translators are linked. Check them out and give them credit, they’re great at what they do. Sometimes they update things, so I really do recommend checking out the links to see if they’ve made any updates since I’ve posted.

I love Yoongi’s writing a lot, so I tend to get a bit wordy. I’d say I’m sorry but really, me doing these lyric posts is entirely self-indulgent so, I’m not.

(OK. I wrote that part before I finished and YIKES this ended up being SO LONG I am SORRY)

I want to point out some of the obvious references first that I know everyone on the internet has already figured out, but as I’ve said, idc. I like to have things in one place so I can look back at it. These ones don’t need much explanation, I feel, so I’m just gonna leave them here. Credits for these are with their songs down below.

“If you think you’re gonna crash, accelerate even harder, you idiot” 

From Moonlight, but also Intro: Never Mind, which is just so Yoongi to me. I think that song gives you an accurate picture of him.

“I got a big house big car big ring, bring anything over, I’ll give it to you” 

From What do you think?, and then No More Dream, Home, and Interlude: Shadow. This gif set breaks the references down nicely. It’s interesting to see the different tones he takes when referencing this line. I think Interlude: Shadow is my favorite, but really, I’m just biased to that song and they’re all truly great.

“I’m a king, I’i m a boss” 

Daechwita to Interlude: Shadow (I am sorry that this song is all I ever talk about all the time). I can’t remember if he references wanting to be the king/top in other songs, and I’m too lazy to check right now. So I’m going to go with no unless someone would like to correct me, I don’t mind.

There’s also the Burn It/Outro: Tear references that are just too much to copy and paste, really. I’m sure an argument can be made that it’s the whole song being referenced, but to me, this is the obvious part being referenced from Outro: Tear:

“Right, it’s there, what are you hesitating for? This is the end you wanted I hope you kill quickly without hesitation Woo yeah yeah burn it, woo yeah yeah yeah burn it, woo yeah yeah yeah burn it So that not even ashes are left. This is the real you and this is the real me We’ve now seen the end and there are not even resentments left Awake now from sweet dreams, I close my eyes This is the real you and this is the real me“

~~

While I didn’t list a lyric from Interlude: Set Me Free, I just want to say that I do really love this song, but there just aren’t many lyrics in it. Additionally, I’m not sure what exactly he’s saying he wants to be set free from, and so it doesn’t feel right to make an assumption about the lyrics. (Which is kinda bothering me, not in an annoyed way, but more or less just nagging at me.) But really, I love any interlude from Yoongi. Set Me Free sounds so beautiful and so calming and I wish the bird chirping didn’t drive my cat so crazy so I could enjoy it more.

~~

“Changes are fated to happen to everyone, perhaps, how we change is what our undertaking is about.”

Moonlight. I’ve said this before, but I really do love a good lyric about growing and changing and this mixtape definitely has a lot of it. I think it is interesting that he talks about change like this in the opening song, and then he talks about change in Dear my friend, which is much different given the tone of that whole song. Here, in the very first song, he poses the idea of “change is good, depending how you change” and then delves into a mixtape that discusses “the present” of his life (he tells Billboard in this article that this mixtape is about the present), which I find interesting. I’ll try to touch on it more in Dear my friend.

//

“What’s after this?  Feeling a strong feeling of reality check, a situation where there’s no higher. I had only looked up, now I just wanna look down and gently land.”

Daechwita. Yes, Interlude: Shadow AGAIN (as your local Shadow enthusiast, it only makes sense I pick a lyric that connects.) Although he says don’t let me down in Shadow, in that song I take it more as “I want to come down but I’m terrified of what’s gonna happen.” Where Shadow is more desperate, the tone of Daechwita is definitely more confident. Plus he has that whole mad king thing going for him (and then the whole killing the mad king thing) which Muish discusses wonderfully in the translation I linked.

This is another thing I love about Yoongi and his lyrics. He’s discussing the same thing in the lines of these different songs, but you get to witness these two battling personas when it comes to the topic. And I guess that is the point of there being a difference between Suga and Agust D, but I do wonder where Yoongi falls between these two. He lets you see his struggle and that’s why I love his writing. (I also love that for this song he says focus more on the visual and auditory enjoyment than the lyrics. The video really does tell a good story.)

//

“Crazy that you’d think that my success has a connection to your failure.”

“I have no fucking interest in those who ask whether idol music is music.”

What do you think? The idol lyric may seem like a weird choice, but as a long time boyband stan I’m so over the way artists who were/are in boybands get disregarded for their talent. I’ve come to realize I just need to stop caring whether or not they are socially accepted by “others” and just enjoy what music they are choosing to share with me and those who support them.

I don’t have much to say about the success lyric. It’s just Yoongi being his usual self and I love it.

//

“Capital injects morphine called hope with dream as collateral“

The first time I read this I did a double take. Much to unpack here, but I think that is even beyond me. Interpret it as you please.

“The one who has his eyes open in the world that has its eyes closed — now they make him blind, isn’t it strange.” 

Namjoon has a similar lyric later, but rather than the second half of Yoongi’s lyric, Joon says “that he has his eyes open alone is so much more strange for me” and I love the contrast between the two. Very on brand too.

“But still, life goes on, somehow, just like this, everyone, in their own chicken coop, says they’re okay.”

Strange. I had to stop myself because it is very hard to just not copy and paste the whole freakin song. I love anything these two create together as they are two of the most wonderful lyricists I have ever seen. Going off of that, this song is very reminiscent of Respect for me. Do yourself a favor and just sit down and read through these lyrics (Strange, but also I always recommend Respect). Songs like these make me wish I was a fly on the wall for conversations between these two.

//

“People change, just as I have, there’s nothing eternal about life, they’re all happenings that pass by”

“Did someone say humans are the animals of wisdom? The way I see it, humans are the animals of regret”

People. I love this song a lot (and NOT just because he sounds like an angel in it...) Despite that, I’m not sure why but I found myself stuck on what he was trying to say with this song as a whole. I enlisted my best friend for help and she gave me some good insight and one of the things she said was “good can come out of living each day like it means something.” While I didn’t see this song as inherently negative, I don’t think I was viewing the song in a way that would have allowed me to see this silver lining. I saw it as more cynical I guess?

//

“Tomorrow will come and go once again, this kind of me, that kind of you are both simply enduring the day, I guess.”

Honsool. Time isn’t real. Am I writing this at 2 o’clock in the morning when I should be asleep? Maybe so. But time isn’t real and the days come and go and we’re all just enduring. I like the word choice there. Not surviving, or getting by, or living. We’re enduring.

//

“I grow older and become to know the world, and yet, would it have been better to not know the world?”

Ignorance is bliss. Kinda. This lyric actually reminded me of Nightmare by Halsey, one part specifically: “'Cause kindness is weakness, or worse, you're complacent, I could play nice or I could be a bully, I'm tired and angry, but somebody should be” And like. Yeah. Would I rather be ignorant to all the world’s problems and not give a shit about anything just to be happy, or should I let myself succumb to believing in cynicism for the sake of the world and caring about things? I used a different translation for this lyric than I did for the other two lyrics in 28.

“To live, live, live just one day without any worries, just one day without any concerns.” 

“I thought it’d change when I turned twenty, I thought it’d change when I graduated, Shit, if I’m thirty like this, this, And so, so, what’s changed with me?”

28. This was another one of those where I had to stop and tell myself, Ahna, please do not copy every lyric. But, just know that I wanted to. We spend so many of our days looking forward because we are so displeased with where we are currently at (reminder: this mixtape is about the present.) There’s the constant thought of “once I achieve this thing, it’ll be better!” We’ve all done it, I’ve done it, and I truly hate it. The difference here is you have someone like Yoongi, who is at the top, who has it “all” and he is still stuck in this mindset. Oh, also, hi he’s talking about change again. 

//

“[Always], the choice and decision is yours to make. I hope you don’t forget that giving up decisively also counts as courage.”

Burn It. It is now 4am and Burn It just came on shuffle and I’ve been staring at this lyric for a bit too long, hating my 2pm fully conscious self for choosing this one and leaving writing about it for last. This lyric is existential crisis content. I don’t think I’ve ever in my life heard someone talk about giving up in this way. Giving up can be so powerless, but thinking about giving up in this way not only restores power, but also praises you for being able to make such a decision bold decision for yourself. Makes you think a lot about Yoongi and how he turned out the way he has.

Yoongi reiterated a similar thought in the interview with TIME: “It’s good to know that it’s fine when things go in an unintended direction, because you can always start over again. Keep calm, take the next-best option and move forward.” And this translator also points out another instance, just a month before he dropped his mixtape, of him saying basically the same thing again to one of the listeners on his Live who said they gave up their dream: “I don’t know what circumstances you were in, but I think you must have had tremendous courage. Giving something up decisively takes lots of courage. And, you’ve worked hard.” Like, is he trying to make me cry? 

//

“Was it you who changed? Or was it me? I hate this flowing time, it's us who changed.”

Dear my friend. First, in regard to the lyric itself, there are so many friendships we look back on, ruined or not, and wonder whose fault it was. Maybe even blame them if it’s easier. While it does vary by friendship, I do think it’s important to step back and question our place in it all going wrong, and how we have changed as well. The “I hate this flowing time, it's us who changed” reminds me of how sometimes there truly is nothing you can do when it comes to changing and growing apart from people. It’s not your fault, it’s not my fault, we have changed in ways we both needed to and we are not compatible anymore. I do think the overarching theme in Dear my friend is different from this, however.

I was not expecting this song at all. I think a lot of stuff Yoongi writes is very open and vulnerable, but this song really took me by surprise because it’s a different kind of open. This song will make you miss friendships and people that went downhill, wondering what more you could have done for them. Why he gotta do me like this.

Going back to the thought I posed in Moonlight, in Dear my friend we witness a change that just... isn’t good. Aside from that, on an album which is supposedly all about the present of his life, this song is not. Maybe it is present because it is something that still clearly bothers him, and something, or rather someone, he thinks about a lot, but I still find it interesting. Maybe it was just a sentiment he felt he really needed to get out. 

He talks about change a lot on this album, yet when they ask him in the D-2 interviews (TIME/Billboard) about how he feels things have changed since the last mixtape, he says he doesn’t feel his life really changed.

If you listen to Intro: Never Mind, he says the only thing he feels that’s different about him is his height, and that he’s mature compared to people his age. That must be very grounding, feeling that despite the whirlwind of his life and fame he is still the same person he’s always been. And then again, 5 years later in 2020, the only change he mentions about himself is that he’s matured. I guess “matured” can be taken different ways, especially in regard to the way he talks about growth on this album. But I respect and admire him talking about himself like this. I appreciate the introspection and I take maturing in this context as a positive thing. I take it as him growing in good ways, becoming better versions of himself, which I feel shows in the art he produces. 

One more thought, and it goes back to the interviews. Yoongi told TIME “what’s good is good” is his philosophy. I think back to 28 and People, and the drastic difference between his life and mine, or as he would say, the difference between our ordinaries and extraordinaries, yet we both have the same bad habits and worries about the future.  

Yoongi seems like a walking hazard sign for wanting more or too much, warning of it not being better and it being lonely to have “everything” you want. Considering how simple the phrase “what’s good is good” is, I have spent too long thinking about it in relation to all of this. He uses it in People when talking about the average ordinary life. In the new Break the Silence docu-series, he talks about not being able to do ordinary things like go out for a coffee or to the movies. It is once again his reminder, things are not better up there. You will still struggle. Be content with what you have. If it’s good, its good, and what’s good is good. Let it be. 

~~

This felt like a good ending note, and then I remembered Billboard asked him, “What is a line or thought you share on D-2 you want listeners to be left thinking about?“ And this was his answer:

“So what, if we live like that, so what My distinction is your ordinary My ordinary is your distinction”

I thought it was funny that I somehow ended this by talking about the one thing he wanted to leave us thinking about. Mission accomplished Yoongi.

~~

In regard to raising questions about norms and how we live, Yoongi said he just merely wanted to raise the question mark - not provide the answers - and boy did he here. I will be thinking about this all for a while. This took me so much longer to write than intended, mostly just because I wasn’t expecting to feel so strongly about all the songs.  Thank you for the art honey my dude.

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 14 Night 1 Review (Jan 4th 2020, Tokyo Dome)

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors & Alex Coghlin  ***

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi  **3/4

JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER RETIREMENT MATCH Ⅰ: Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi  ***1/2

SANADA, EVIL, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr.,Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & El Desperado  ***1/4

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. KENTA, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens  ***

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Guerrillas Of Destiny (c) vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay  ***1/4+

IWGP US HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH/ TEXAS DEATH MATCH: Lance Archer (c) vs. Jon Moxley  ****

IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi  *****

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Jay White (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito  ****1/4

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kota Ibushi  *****

Photos.

Good Lord, was this a great pro wrestling show! It ran the emotional gamut and gave us trememendous matches aplenty, this was as close to perfect as a wrestling event gets in my opinion. After two very decent, but very brief, pre-show tags featuring a nice mix of Young Lions and NJPW Dads, the main show kicked off with the first of Jushin Thunder Liger’s retirement bouts. I loved this, and whilst I wouldn’t say it was a “great” match, per say, everyone brought their working boots to make Liger’s farewell feel special, and they certainly succeeded. It was also great just to see some of these guys in the ring. The 40,000 plus in attendance were super into this, with Liger’s exchanges with Otani (who are two of my favourite workers ever) being the highlight. Everyone looked good here. Well, as good as some of them are going to look in 2020. Naoki Sano hit a big tope suicida, which was initially frightening, but was great to see, 66 year old Tatsumi Fujinami hit everyone with his patented Dragon Screw Leg Whip, and The Great Sasuke nearly killed himself twice on a Senton Atomico, before the ever-selfless Liger stared at the lights for a Taguchi Dodon at 8:52 of a super fun outing. Liger shook hands with everyone in the post match. It’s going to be sad watching Liger go, I can tell you. 

ZSJ submitted BUSHI with the Jim Breaks Special at 8:39 of a really good LIJ vs. Suzuki-gun 8 man. Zack and SANADA’s exchanges were the standout, hyping their British Title Match tomorrow, which should be excellent. Hirooki Goto pinned Yujiro with the GTR in another decent 8 minute multi-man. This was fun, but forgettable stuff with Ishii hitting a big vertical suplex on Fale getting the biggest pop. The WTL winners Juice Robinson and David Finlay defeated GOD to win the IWGP Tag Titles in yet another good outing. Finlay got the pin on Tama Tonga after an Acid Drop to win the belts. This was a feel good win, and anything that appears to shake up that ultra-stale tag division is a positive in my eyes. Next up, Lance Archer and Jon Moxley squared off in an excellent Texas Death Match for the US Title. This was a hard-hitting brawl which used the stipulation effectively, and featured a lot of plunder, some great brawling, and fortuitous hard-way juice. After surviving a Blackout onto four chairs, and a plastic bag induced EBD Claw, Mox hit a massive Death Rider DDT off the apron, through two tables, to regain the championship he never actually lost, at the 14:26 mark, when Archer couldn’t answer the 10 count. Great stuff here. In the post match, Moxley promised to beat Juice Robinson tomorrow. 

In what was a truly exceptional Junior Heavyweight Championship battle, Hiromu Takahashi overcame certain defeat, and won his precious “belt-san” back, in a sublime match with Will Ospreay. This had it all; sky-high emotional stakes, a great story and fantastic action. It also featured one of the most creative sequences I’ve ever seen in a match, when Ospreay went for the Sasuke Special, but Hiromu caught him and tried a German suplex on the floor, but Will flipped out onto his feet. He then charged at Takahashi, who countered into an overhead belly to belly throw, but Ospreay jumped through the ropes, doing a roll back into the ring, then finally hitting the Sasuke Special in a mind-blowing spot. The story here was Ospreay continually working over Hiromu’s neck (hitting several worrying double stomps to the back of his head), who did a tremendous sell-job throughout. Ospreay got a believable near fall with the Oscutter, which lead into the hot closing stretch. After scoring a near fall with a Canadian/Mexican Destroyer, Hiromu tried Time Bomb, but Will escaped, hits the hook kick and tries Stormbreaker, but Takahashi counters, and runs straight into a Spanish Fly for another near fall. Hidden Blade connects, which Hiromu sold beautifully, then Ospreay tried Stormbreaker again, but Hiromu reverses into a Code Red for a great near fall. Hiromu battles back, hitting Time Bomb, but Ospreay kicks at two to a massive pop. A lariat follows, then Hiromu hits his new finish; a leg capture Emerald Flowsion, which is tentatively being called Time Bomb II, to end a fab match at 24:33, and the win the belt. This was a fantastic comeback story, as the Junior Ace returns from a potential career ending injury and reclaims his throne. This had high expectations going in, but far exceeded them, and here’s hoping this signifies Ospreay’s jump to Heavyweight full-time as he’s realistically done all he can do in the Juniour division.

This left the Intercontinental Title outing between White and Naito with an awful lot to follow. They had an excellent pro wrestling bout that was completely unlike the match that preceeded it, but told just as good a story. Unfortunatley, as good as the match was, at 33:54, it was much too long, which hurt it somewhat. Jay destroyed Naito’s knackered knees, which will be the story of these two shows, but Naito made a valiant comeback, hitting a tope rope Frankensteiner, and Gloria for a near fall. He goes for Destino, but Switchblade slumps to the mat to prevent it, then shoves Naito into Red Shoes for the prerequisite ref bump. This was Gedo’s cue to run in, but Naito sent him packing with a low blow, but Jay hits a low blow of his own, goes for Blade Runner, but Naito hits a Dragon Suplex. Gedo in again, this time with a chair, but is again sent packing. White throws the abandoned chair into Naito’s face however, which he takes full force, then takes the Sleeper Suplex. Naito hits a Destino out of nowhere for the double down, then hits a reverse rana and another Destino for a great near fall. Naito tried another Destino, but Jay counters into a Blade Runner attempt, but Naito reverses that into Valentia, then hits another Destino to win the belt, and head into the winner-takes-all match tomorrow. I will say that one thing New Japan do really well is protect finishers. Whenever White went for Blade Runner, the crowd, who were 100% behind Naito, gasped in horror every time, as if Jay hits the move, the match is over.

Which brought us to the main event, which was the best match of the night, very probably the best match of the entire year (I’m aware we’re only 4 days in), and one of the best matches I’ve ever seen. Both guys came out in new gear, with Okada looking like a God in his entrance, so you knew this was going to be special. It started slow but built into an absoulutely epic match. Okada hits the dropkick off the top to the floor, then his big dive over the barricade, then in the ring locks on Red Ink, a move he hasn’t used in forever, showing he’s going to the old tricks drawer to try and beat Ibushi, who of course beat him in the G1. Ibushi escapes a Rainmaker attempt and tries a Moonsault dropkick, (which saw him land right ontop of his head), but Okada catches him in a Tombstone, only for Ibushi to reverse that into a Bastard Driver. Okada tries John Woo, but Kota counters into a big double stomp, then hits the Golden Triangle to the floor, and scores a near fall with the Last Ride. Okada starts unloading with European Uppercuts, but Ibushi no-sells them, getting the “psycho look” in his eyes. Kota starts teeing off with hard palm-strikes, kicks and punches, Okada fores back with John Woo, but Ibushi pops right up and floors the champion with more strikes. He goes for the deadlift German off the ropes, but Okada counters into a nasty Tombstone onto the apron, but Ibushi makes it in at 19. Okada hits Heavy Rain (another old classic), then the German rolled through into a spinning Rainmaker attempt, but Ibushi escapes with a Lariat. Kota finally hits the deadlift German off the apron into the ring, which Okada lands right on his head for, for a near fall, then tries the lawndart, but Okada turns it into a spinning Tombstone. A Rainmaker is turned into a huge Ibushi Lariat, who then hits a Boma Ye, but Okada kicks at one! Another to the back follows, as does a big head kick, then Ibushi nails Kamigoye, but again the champion gets the shoulder up at 2.999 as the Dome goes crazy. Ibushi drops the knee pad and tries another, but Okada counters into an amazing dropkick. Okada escapes a top rope Tiger Driver and attempts a missile dropkick, but Ibushi catches him in a sitout powerbomb for a great near fall, then goes up top for the Phoenix Splash, but Okada moves. Okada hits a spinning Rainmaker, then another Rainmaker, but Ibushi kicks out as the crowd goes crazy. Ibushi counters another Rainmaker attempt with another big head kick, then hits a V-Trigger. He goes for Kamigoye again, but Okada counters into a Fire Thunder Driver, then hits Rainmaker to end an absolutely outstanding match at the 39:16 mark. This was just exceptional stuff that perfectly played off spots in all of their previous meetings.

Naito came out in the post match and he promised to win tomorrow, saying its his perfect chance to beat him at the Dome. I’m amazed Okada is even able to go tomorrow after this match. Okada says “no chance”, and thanks Ibushi. He also says he wants even more people in the Dome tomorrow to see the double Title Match. I can’t believe there’s another of these shows to go. What a time to be alive.

NDT

[daoquin]

Sericis Cafe chapter 3

João awoke, this time not from his alarm, but by someone calling him. He groaned when he saw who was calling him, and so he decided to let him go to voicemail, he didn't need that stress.

He got up and walked quietly to the kitchen, being careful as to not wake up Fatiha, she always slept in whenever possible, something they both had in common. He found a note on the counter from Fatiha: left to run errands, will be back with breakfast, check your phone.

João sighed and walked back to his room to grab his phone from the side of his bed.

He checked his messages from Fatiha and saw that she was asking if he wanted anything specific for breakfast. He replied stating that he was good with whatever.

He went to check his other messages, but he found that he couldn't, thanks to the 20 missed calls and 5 voicemails from his brother, Antonio. He sighed and began listening to all of them. They were all questions asking about where things were, but one of them was wishing him good luck on the cafe and João smiled upon hearing it.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Fatiha sent him a message: getting some donuts, will be back in about an hour. João sighed and fell back on his bed, then started texting Antonio where everything was. He got a response almost immediately.

"I found them! But I'm at work now so it doesn't matter anymore."

"Oh, that's unfortunate." He replied back.

"Yeah, do you need me to ship anything to you?"

"Nope, unlike you, I actually remember to pack all my things."

":("

"It's the truth."

";("

"Why are you upset, I'm right."

João didn't get any response after that, so he assumed that Antonio had started working again. He checked the time and found that he had only managed to waste about 5 minutes of the time until Fatiha arrived. He decided to play the games that were on his phone until Fatiha arrived 

back home.

Eventually she arrived, carrying a small box of donuts and a large shopping bag, both in which she placed down on the counter.

“You’re lucky that there’s a store so close to your apartment,” She pushed the donut box to the center of the counter to where João could grab one, but he decided to wait until Fatiha finished her sentence. “So today we need to order supplies for the cafe, then tomorrow we'll post ads to hire people. But currently I need your help to eat these donuts." Fatiha said in a simple tone.

"Oh, ok, that sounds like a good plan." João replied and reached for a donut. It was one filled with chocolate buttercream and with a coating of powdered sugar on top, whereas Fatiha got one with a simple glaze on top. They ate in silence for a few minutes before João broke the silence,

“So did Mr. Beilschmidt get back to you on that apartment of yours?”

“Yes, he says I can move in monday next week, but why are you asking, do you not enjoy my company?”

João’s face turned red, “No, I’m just curious…” He said, noticing how Fatiha was staring at him. “Oh, you’re joking with me.”

“Of course I am, I swear sometimes you can be as dense as that brother of yours.” Fatiha chuckled.

“Not funny, he’s way more dense than me.”

“You sure about that?” Fatiha said. João scoffed in response, then they both continued eating their breakfast. They finished shortly after, and João went to throw the box away while Fatiha went to put the large bag away in her room.

“Do you want to go back to the shop with me to check for anything that we might’ve missed yesterday?” João asked when Fatiha came back from her room.

“Sure, that sounds like a good idea, let’s go.” She agreed.

They had finally arrived at the cafe, after running into a fair bit of traffic. João glanced at the interesting shop across the street from them. It appeared to be a cross between a punk shop and a bookshop, so he made a mental note to visit it later after they were done rechecking the cafe.

They began checking the stoves for any potential leakes and found none. Then they changed the dishwasher and ran an empty load.

“Oh, you know what we forgot to put on the shopping list?” João said.

“What?’’

“Crates to put the dirty dishes on.”

“Oh, you’re right, I guess you’re not as dense and oblivious as your brother.”

“Of course not.”

They continued on double checking that everything worked before finally sitting down for a break.

“So I’m going back to the apartment to order things.” Fatiha stated.

“I think that I'm going to stay here and look at a few shops, get to know our neighbours and all.” João informed her, thinking about that shop from earlier. They left the cafe and Fatiha walked to where a taxi could pick her up. João on the other hand walked to the punk/book shop hybrid.

Walking in he noticed a few teenagers in the punk section. The next thing he noticed was the same boy from the airport, the one that had nearly tripped over his shoes. He was currently sitting behind a counter, but he immediately recognized João from the airport if the excited waving was anything to go off of. João smiled and waved back at him before deciding to look at some of the books.

He walked to the english classics sections and started looking at some of the books, specifically shakespearean plays.

“I would recommend this one.” a voice from beside João. he turned his head to see who it was and it was Arthur. He held a different play in his hand and João took it after putting the other one back in its proper spot.

“Right, what is it about?” he asked Arthur.

“It’s about a con artist trying to woo the wives of two merchants because he’s poor , but instead they decide to mess with him, it’s called The Merry Wives of Windsor.” the englishman informed, casting a coy look to the portuguese beside him.

“Huh, that does sound interesting, I think I’ll get it then.”

“Great, let's go over to the register and I’ll ring it up for you.” Arthur said and guided him over to the register. He rang up the play and handed it to João, his hand brushing against João’s, “That’ll be $3.”

“Three? It says five right here?”

“I’m going to give you a discount, considering that this is your first time shopping with us.”

“Oh, that’s so kind of you!” João smiled and handed him the money. Arthur took it and João bid him farewell as he left the shop, deciding that he would come back again.

____________________________________

I know this took an ungodly amount of time to get written, but life smacked in the face with all sorts of things, but the next chapter should be out next weekend. I hope the flirting was good in this chapter though

[sloshi]

Sasusaku Fanfic - ch. 1 preview

Title: Captain!

Pairing: Sasusaku

Summary: Passing lewd notes in class is all fun and games—that is, until it smacks a certain baseball captain upside the head. Japan!highschool AU [will be Slow burn / eventual smut]

Read the Prologue here

Because this was so kindly received, I decided to post a preview of the next chapter :D I’ll upload to FF.net when I have about 5 or so chapters down and tweak it a little more; enjoy!

Chapter 1

It’s only at her locker that she catches her breath, hunching over with hands on her sock-covered knees, desperate for lost oxygen that doesn’t necessarily have to do with running. Her heart races against her chest. Pink hair falls over her shoulders and into her eyes, when suddenly a pair of shiny black flats enter her line of sight.

“Sakura!” Ino exclaims, exasperated and breathless as if she, too, had taken off running in pursuit of her pink-haired friend. Sighing in defeat, she straightens upright to face her best friend. She’s surprised to see guilt marring her feminine features, but it doesn’t make her feel better in the slightest. “Goddamn, you’re quick! Seriously, how the hell do you run so fast?”

“Are you kidding?” Sakura almost screeches. Several curious heads turn to look at her as they pass through the hallway. “Sasuke-kun just read our disgusting note, Ino!” Sakura drops her voice to a harsh whisper. “Which—by the way, is all your fault—and you’re worried about how fast I can run?” She throws her hands up in disbelief before they slap against either side of her green-and-gold plaid skirt in frustration.

Ino’s perfect brows cinch in anger. “My fault?” She’s defensive immediately, as usual. “How the hell is this my fault! You’re the one who pitched the note like it was a fucking baseball across the room! Suddenly it’s my fault?!” She scoffs haughtily. “Oh, congrats on the home run by the way. And the crowd goes wild! Woo-hoo!” Ino waves her arms hysterically, openly mocking her.

That does it. Sakura jabs an accusing finger to Ino’s collarbone, completely ignoring her stupid sarcasm. (Which is totally not funny.) “Yes! Your fault! If you hadn’t thrown that note in the first place, none of this would have ever happened, Ino! And Sasuke—“ she breaks off abruptly, bottom lip trembling like a leaf as she’s reminded all over again the nightmare of which she has just been flung into. “Oh, gods, Sasuke-kun. . .” Covering her face with her hands, she tries to hide the tears that are swiftly filling her eyes to the brim. She’s so embarrassed, it’s nauseating. “What am I going to do . . .” She finishes with a defeated whisper and a sniffle against her palms.

Ino’s warm embrace surrounds her immediately, comforting and familiar. But it doesn’t help.

“Let’s just go to lunch, and try to forget this ever happened, okay?” Ino’s voice flips like a switch, not a sour note perceptible in her now soothing tone. Sakura blinks, wondering if she’s imagining things, but when Ino pulls away, a bright white smile shines back. Sakura almost has to squint.

(Ino is so weird.)

.

.

.

When they enter the cafeteria, Sakura hides behind Ino’s back, eyes darting around frantically as she shuffles behind the blonde, as if Sasuke will somehow jump out of nowhere and pounce like an angry lion. He’s in here somewhere, hiding in the underbrush. (She knows it.)

“Will you relax, Forehead?” Ino complains when Sakura jumps in fright, dramatically clutching onto the blonde’s shoulders and nearly pulling her backwards as a kid with black hair (not Sasuke) strolls by. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m being cautious, Pig. There’s a difference.”

“Well, can you be a little less cautious so that I can get my lunch in peace, please. People are staring.”

Sakura squeezes her shoulders. “What if he comes up to me?”

“He won’t.”

“You don’t know that!”

“I’ll make sure of it, Forehead, now get off me!”

Sakura groans, but acquiesces reluctantly. Although she steps back to give Ino some breathing room, she trails behind her like lost puppy as they make their way to the lunch line. Every spot of black in her peripherals has her jumping in her own skin. She doesn’t think Sasuke will actually confront her, but she’s not taking any chances, dammit.

But it’s only when she and Ino have their lunch trays in hand and headed towards their usual table that she finally spots him. He strolls through the double doors of the cafeteria coolly, hands deep in the pockets of his beige slacks, expression indiscernible and unruffled as always.

His KHS uniform is in perfect shape—the forest green blazer is unwrinkled, the rich golden tie tucked beneath the dipped V collar, and a stark white dress shirt underneath. The matching gold KHS logo is sewn into the left breast of the jacket. A mop of spiky midnight hair sits thick and messy on his head, moody black eyes just barely peeking through his overgrown bangs, yet somehow it’s still perfect.

Mouth dry, Sakura nearly drops her tray.

“Oh, god—there he is, Ino. He’s right there!” She whispers harshly, terror ripping through her gut, leaning to try and hide her face from Sasuke’s line-of-sight behind Ino’s shouder just in case.

He’s far away enough that she thinks he probably doesn’t see her, but that doesn’t stop her fingers from trembling as her eyes follow his graceful stride to the lunch line behind them. (Even his walk is flawless!) Sakura quickly takes note of the several pairs of eyes following the very same baseball captain she’s basically ogling. She’s surprised, however, when she catches a few angry glares sent her way. She averts her gaze.

“Okay, and?” Ino prompts, unimpressed, as they finish their trek to the lunch table where they join their  typical ring of friends. Tenten, Hinata, and Karin wave them over excitedly.

“And—how are you not freaking out about this?!” Sakura squeaks incredulously, trying and failing to keep her voice down.

“Freaking out about what?” Karin asks casually when Sakura and Ino shuffle in and take their seats, always ready for whatever juicy gossip she can snatch.

“N-Nothing!” Karin blinks at her strange behavior. It’s not like her, Karin thinks, when the pinkette shifts her eyes warily, as if she expecting someone to come up and stab her at any given moment. Sakura casts several looks over her shoulder. What, did she suddenly become schizophrenic overnight?

“Is e-everything okay, S-Sakura-chan?” Hinata asks kindly, pausing in the middle of wrapping stringy ramen noodles around her chopsticks to observe her pink-haired friend with concern.

“Yeah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Tenten adds unhelpfully around a mouthful of rice.

“She’s fine.” Ino says with a roll of her blue eyes.

Sakura doesn’t protest Ino’s remark, and when Tenten and Karin exchange glances with a shrug, they start gushing about a science project (At least she thinks that’s what they’re talking about; she can hardly pay them any attention.) And because all  seniors share the same biology class, just different intervals in the day, Sakura quickly tunes them out.

(Wait—Did they just say project?)

Sakura blinks, but then thinks better of it and doesn’t bother to ask; she’ll just ask Kakashi-sensei about it tomorrow. She decides she doesn’t need another stressor today.

Hinata returns to her ramen, and Sakura is left to stare down at her miso soup, appetite zapped. She knows she should eat something, but her stomach won’t stop flip-flopping. A tiny square of tofu floats lazily across the gold liquid. (She’s gonna be sick.)

Next to her, Ino tucks into her extra-light salad, coated with a light (low-fat) dressing, slivers of raw carrot, and two measly cherry tomatoes. Sakura grimaces, opening her mouth to unleash a lecture Ino’s already heard thousands of times. But really, Sakura worries. All thoughts of Sasuke are momentarily forgotten in light of her friend’s health.

“You should really eat more than just lettuce everyday, Pig, it’s not healthy. As much as you’d like to think so. You need protein—like an egg or something. I swear to god you’re one leaf away from turning into a pile of dust and bones. One day you’re gonna’ wake up and Poof!” She makes an exploding gesture with both hands. “Just like that.”

Ino looks offended, stabbing the lettuce with a little more force than necessary to prove it. “My weight isn’t going to maintain itself, Dr. Billboard-brow. But thanks for the advice, I’d like to check out now.”

“Hey!” Sakura frowns at the mockery of the career she’s chased since she was a child. “I really will be a doctor one day, Ino. And the minute I graduate from medical school, you’ll technically have to listen to me.”

“S-She’s right, you know.” Hinata says quietly, supportive as always, pearl eyes blinking innocently under her dark purple fringe.

Ino sniffs, lifting her chin in defiance. “I don’t care. I’ll eat what I want, how much I want, and when I want. And none of you—“ she sweeps an accusing manicured nail at each girl at the table. “—can stop me.” With that, she pops one of the only two cherry tomatoes in her mouth.

Sakura rolls her eyes, but gives up. (For now. She’ll try again tomorrow.) Ino’s so stubborn it almost hurts. But she’s skinny—the forest green and gold KHS uniform that once fit her snugly just a few weeks ago is noticeably looser. It’s more than just being an aspiring doctor, she cares about her best friend’s wellbeing. Sakura has seen the magazines plastered on Ino’s wall; the one-hundred pound American model women posing fierce and beautiful. But gods, so underweight. She really hopes Ino knows better than that.

Sakura opens her mouth to change the subject, when a boisterous laugh erupts through the cafeteria. Even though loud noises normally wouldn’t bother her (or even catch her attention, honestly, because it’s the cafeteria and it’s always loud.) She’s already on edge, on guard, and she jerks her head and cranes her neck, searching for the source of racket.

A few tables away, she sees it in the form of blonde hair and mirthful blue eyes. Not the pale blonde hair or baby blue eyes like Ino’s, no. His colorings are saturated; full of color and light. He’s laughing so hard he’s wheezing—though at what, who the hell knows. But it’s not Naruto Uzumaki or the several other impossibly cute guys in his groupie who has her heartbeat skyrocketing instantaneously, it’s the onyx haired man sitting right next to him. Sasuke looks irritated, if not totally pissed off, as he tilts his head back and sips his water bottle.

Sakura inhales sharply, heart leaping into her throat, because the second she blinks, his dark, dark eyes somehow catch hers just as he’s tipping his head down, lowering the plastic bottle from his lips.

“No!” Sakura squeaks, dropping her eyes to her lunch-tray so fast she has to blink furiously to bring herself back to reality. It happened so fast—so fleeting and quick she has to wonder if he even registered their brief eye contact.

(But he’s a genius, stupid. Of course he totally caught you eyeballing him! Pull yourself together!)

“Forehead? You good?”

It takes a second for Sakura to catch her breath, anxiety sweeping her whole frame and filling her stomach with tingles that she’s not quite sure feel good or bad. Its his eyes, she thinks. They’re so . . . Intense. So dark and strange and filled with something she can’t explain. It makes her feel like jelly all over.

(And technically, that’s the second time he’s ever looked at her!) Sakura mentally drops her head in shame. So pathetic . . .

“—you okay?” All of her friends, except Ino who sits next to her, blink at her from the other side of the table, concerned.

Sakura snaps back to earth and smiles a little too brightly, waving her hands as if to dismiss their worry. “Y-Yeah! Totally fine. Peachy. Absolutely perfect.” She laughs nervously, palming the back of her neck with a twitching smile.

Karin’s expression turns serious and Sakura almost reels in surprise. “No, really Sakura. What’s up with you? You’re being all . . .” Her lips purse in thought as she tries to find the right words to describe her mousey pink friend. “Skittish and weird.”

Tenten and Hinata bob their heads in sudden agreement, as if just now realizing Sakura’s strange behavior themselves. Ino merely sighs, parting her lips to fill them in on all the details when she is rudely interrupted.

“Sakura! Sakura!” A feminine voice shouts (shrieks) from behind her and Sakura jerks her head over her shoulder in alarm, long pink hair—pulled halfway back and fixed with a yellow ribbon—whipping Ino in the face.

A girl with short purple hair runs full speed towards her, huffing and puffing when she makes it to their table, as if she had ran across half the country just for Sakura. The pinkette blinks in astonishment. For a moment she considers covering her head, because surely the sky is falling. “Ami?”

Still huffing, bent over with hands upon her sock-covered knees, she breathes quickly. “You—I can’t believe you threw a love letter at Sasuke-kun’s head! What the hell were you thinking, stupid! Have you even heard what everyone’s been saying!”

Several chairs screech backward when Sakura—along with Karin and Tenten—leap like frogs from their seats, palms slamming upon the table. Her forgotten miso soup sloshes over the rim when the surface shakes.

“What!” They all scream in unison, sharing the same horrified expression.   Hinata merely squeaks.

The cafeteria immediately falls silent at the outburst. Even though every head is turned in their direction, Sakura becomes hyper-aware when she knows without a doubt that Sasuke is looking at her—all loud and obnoxious, she wonders how she can ever redeem herself in those dark eyes that are burning holes onto her face right now. She doesn’t even dare look.

(God, he’s judging you so hard right now.)

But it’s not like she could help it! She totally did not give Sasuke a love letter, dammit! Sue her for being upset; she should have known rumors would begin to circulate. It wasn’t like she was fucking subtle about it when she nailed the side of Sasuke Uchiha’s head with a wad of paper in front of the whole biology class of forty-five people.  

Hinata looks like she wants to run to the bathroom in humiliation at the sudden limelight, and Ino is slack-jawed, speechless. Tenten and Karin exchange disbelieving looks before turning back to Sakura slowly, carefully, as if afraid of scaring her off with their next sentence. “You. . . You did what?”

When not-so-hushed whispers and stifled snickers start to erupt all around them, Sakura plops back into her seat, properly mortified—again. Heat fills her cheeks, lips trembling when she whispers: “I didn’t. . .”

The second Karin and Tenten settle back into their seats, Ino stands abruptly, chair scraping noisily against linoleum. “What the hell! Sakura didn’t give anyone a love letter, it was for me!” She snaps at Ami, who edges backward at the rage in Ino’s voice. “We were passing a note back and forth and Sasuke just happened to intercept! Tell your little friends to stop spreading false crap and get your facts straight or i’ll—“

“Ino!” Hinata gasps when the blonde starts rolling up her uniform’s sleeves. But Sakura is already laying a hand on her friend’s forearm in warning.

“Ino, you’re causing a scene!” Sakura bites out through clenched teeth, nearly groaning out loud in irritation. Just how many times is she going to draw attention to herself today! “Sit down!”

“I—I’m not trying to cause trouble, you idiots! I came here to warn you.” Ami casts a shifty glance from side to side before dropping her voice so that only their table can hear. “I overheard it in the hallway; everyone’s saying you smacked him in the head with a love letter. Somebody else said it’s because he rejected you.”

Sakura’s mouth flounders in incredulity. “That did not—what! That’s not even . . . “ She glances around the cafeteria and its only now that she notices the waspish looks being thrown her way. Glares. So many of them. And they’re whispering. Sakura groans, shoving her tray away and crossing her arms over the table, burying her head. Because not only has she ruined any chance of being in good graces with Sasuke ever, she’s also drawn a big fat target on her back.

Why me . . .

“There, there, Forehead.” Ino says lightheartedly with a pat on her back as she sits back down. “It could be worse.”

Sakura straightens up at this, her face awash with disbelief. “How?!”

Ino simply smiles. “He could have actually rejected you.”

She tries to think of a nasty retort, but Ino’s kind of right. (For once.)

“Yeah!” Tenten chimes in cheerfully. “Besides, it wasn’t actually a love letter right?”

Sakura shakes her head, sick to her stomach. No. It was so much worse. At her sudden change in expression, Karin takes over carefully, crimson eyes narrowed in uncertainty. “Sakura. . . What exactly was in that note?”

.

.

.

Her locker is jammed.

Of course it is, she grumbles sourly to herself, because clearly she can’t catch a break today. Her fist bangs against the cool metal in frustration.

Breathe, Sakura. Just breathe—

Her mood plummets even further when a trio of girls she’s never even seen before pass by, pointing and sniggering at her expense.

“—the girl Sasuke-kun rejected.”

“No way, I would hate to be her.”

“Did she really throw a love letter at his head? How embarrassing.”

Sakura scowls at them darkly, but instead of scaring them off like she hoped, they only laugh harder behind their manicured nails before disappearing down the hallway corridor.

Filthy witches, Sakura seethes inwardly.

The warning bell trills through the emptying halls. She’s going to be late if she doesn’t get this stupid thing open. Her chemistry notebooks are in there and unfortunately, that’s the one class she actually needs to take notes in. Cursing, she yanks the locker handle, hiking her foot against the wall for better leverage.

(Come on, come on, come on—!)

By some miracle, the locker finally bursts open. She stumbles backwards while everything inside spills to the floor in a waterfall of loose leaf papers and notebooks. Yanking on her long pink tresses in aggravation, she tries not to let out a high pitched scream. She huffs, bending over and attempting to scrape the papers up off the floor when a sudden (large) tan hand shoots out.

Sakura jumps back, startled.

“Woah, hey! Relax—I just thought you looked like you could use some help.”

She blinks stupidly, eyelashes fluttering several times in succession before she takes in the friendly cerulean eyes, strange whisker marks and sunshine hair.

“You’re—you’re. . .” Her mind stutters and she swallows hard. He’s taller than her, she notices immediately, the tip of her head just reaching under his nose. His shaggy blond hair falls carelessly over his crinkling eyes and Sakura can’t help but feel starstruck by his charming presence.  

“Naruto.” He introduces cheerfully before laughing at her baffled expression. It’s a sound so genuine and pure that Sakura’s mood lightens immediately. She’s grinning before she can help herself.

“Ah—Right, right!” Shaking out of her daze, she quickly bows to introduce herself. “I’m—“

“Sakura Haruno,” he finishes for her, taking her by complete surprise. She straightens up and cocks her head to the side.

“Y-Yeah . . .” She drops her gaze bashfully, toes curling inward. “How’d you know?”

(Since when do popular guys know who she is, anyway! She’s a nobody!)

He scratches the nape of his neck sheepishly before bending down to sweep up the rest of her papers. “I—Well, I don’t know if you’ll remember but,” Sakura leans down to help pick up the last few pieces of paper before he passes over the rest of her stack. She cradles them to her chest, nods in thanks and listens intently. “freshmen year we were in math together. I really sucked at it, you know?” He chuckles uneasily and Sakura can’t help but wonder if he’s somehow nervous. But that’s not possible because why would Naruto Uzumaki ever be nervous around her? “But one day I was stuck on a certain question, god it was so stupid, but you were sitting in front of me and Iruka-sensei wasn’t looking so I tapped your shoulder and asked for your help. You were the first girl who ever bothered to help me. You know, before I joined the baseball team that is.” His grin turns sheepish and there’s something about it that suddenly makes him look like a child. His cheeks are pink. “It’s . . . kind of hard to forget something—someone—” he corrects quickly. “—like that.”

Sakura thinks there’s no way she would forget something like that, but considering Naruto hadn’t really risen in popularity until Sophomore year, she supposes it would make sense that she hadn’t even bothered to remember his face. As terrible as that sounds, it just wasn’t a striking memory. She feels bad.

Sakura bows apologetically, pink hair spilling over her shoulders. “Please forgive me. I don’t remember—“

A firm hand on her shoulder has her squeaking in surprise. Her head jerks up, green eyes wide. “It’s okay, really, Sakura-chan.” Pink eyebrows raise in astonishment at the sudden endearment, but his smile is so contagious and it sounds so natural coming from his deep raspy voice that her shoulders slacken a little. “I just figured I’d tell you, you know, so I don’t come off as some kind of a creep.”

“Of course not!” She blurts with a little more volume than necessary.

(Because, gods, this is Naruto Uzumaki! The man who helped win KHS’s national baseball tournament three years in a row! And practically Sasuke’s right hand man. He’s so cool, how could he ever think he was a creep?!)  

Sakura voices none of these inner thoughts, but flushes immediately at his puzzled expression. “S-Sorry it’s just—“

“Hey, wait a second. . .” He begins suddenly, face inching closer as cerulean eyes squint in scrutiny, studying her like she’s a curious specimen under a microscope. Her heart picks up the pace and she takes a hesitant step back. (Because why is he looking at her like that!) She immediately shrinks, uncomfortably vulnerable beneath his hardening gaze. “You—aren’t you the one who threw the love letter at the bastard this morning?”

Sakura nearly chokes, heart thumping  like a war-drum inside her chest. (I guess this is my life now.) She flushes several shades of red before stuttering out: “No! That wasn’t—I didn’t—!”

He looks taken aback by her discomfort, and he quickly waves his hands defensively. “Relax, Sakura-chan! I wasn’t going to tease you or anything. In fact, I was laughing so hard when I heard I nearly fell off my chair! I wish I hadn’t been sleeping in Biology, I would have paid to see his face!”

Sakura grimaces, cheeks pink, clenching the papers against her chest tighter, as if it could protect her from this humiliation that has so quickly ruined her life. “It wasn’t a love letter.” She grumbles sulkily.

He simply laughs. “You should have seen the bastard’s face at lunch when someone brought it up. He was so embarrassed!” So that’s what he was laughing so hard about, Sakura muses with dread. But then her heart twists painfully when she registers what Naruto just said.

‘He was so embarrassed!’

Oh, man. Sakura screws her eyes shut. (I’m so sorry, Sasuke-kun!)

“T-That wasn’t my intention.” She says earnestly, hoping Naruto understands.

Naruto smiles brightly, shifting to shove a lazy hand in the pocket of his slacks and waving dismissively with the other. “Oh, he’s fine. He’ll get over it. It’s definitely not the first time he’s gotten a love letter,” he pauses in thought before adding with a cheeky grin: “although, I’m pretty sure it’s the first time one’s ever been thrown at his head.”

“Well, I’ll see you around Naruto.” She abruptly spins on her heel, intending to walk away before he can make her feel even worse. Cute, popular guy be damned. She doesn’t even bother putting the rest of her stuff back in her locker. She’ll carry her whole damn academic career in her arms if it means escaping from the blond who is so clearly poking fun at her misery.

“Wait! Sakura-chan, I was just kidding—!”

Sakura walks faster, picking up the pace when she hears his dress shoes clacking against the linoleum behind her. Nope. Not happening. And when she feels him closing in on her, she breaks out into a run (she’s going to be late and she needs to get away from this guy before she spills ugly fat tears!)

When the final bell rings through the hall, she careens down the corridor like she’s being chased by a rabid dog, frowning when she still hears his footsteps behind her.

Naruto pumps his legs wildly, desperately trying to keep up with Sakura’s incredibly insane speed and he can’t help but stare after her in amazement. God damn this girl’s fast!

Running even faster, she bolts down the next hallway, huffing and puffing, before she swiftly rounds the corner—

“Uaah!” She slams into something hard.

Sakura flies backward, arms flailing, papers bursting into the air and fluttering like snowflakes all around her before they float innocently to the ground. Her head smacks the hard tile and for a moment everything goes white. Stars swim across her vision.

I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead. I died. I’m dead.

There’s a soft, pained grunt a little ways from her, but her vision isn’t clear enough to see what—or who—it is. Slowly, she struggles to sit up, rubbing at the lump forming on the back of her head underneath her satin yellow bow. She moans quietly when the pain shoots from the back of her head to the base of her spine. Yup, definitely a trip to the nurses’ office.

“O-Ouch.” She mumbles.

She cracks an eye open, only for every muscle in her body to freeze.

Because there, sitting on the ground in front of her, is Sasuke Uchiha.

(Yeah, she’s definitely dead.) .

.

.

“You.”

Sakura tenses like a coiled spring, bristling with a hurricane of emotions.

Because first of all: ‘you.’

(Not: ‘Are you alright?’ ‘Are you hurt?’ ‘I’m so sorry’ ‘Let me help you up’)

Nope. Just a very deep, accusing ‘you.’

Sakura’s not sure what hurts more; the fact that he hadn’t even addressed her by name, (because he definitely knows it by now.) or the fact that he bypassed her wellbeing completely in favor of glaring muderously at her. She stiffens when he rises effortlessly to his feet—he really is tall—and has to crane her neck to look up at his scowling expression from her pitiful position on the floor. He impatiently wipes the dirt from his spotless uniform.

She gulps.

There’s a desperate clack-clack-clack growing ever closer, the sound of shoes against tile echoing in the barren halls, and it’s only when she hears the obnoxious “Sakura-chan!” that she winces. “Sakura-chan, are you—oh.”

Naruto skids to a screeching stop when he takes in the situation before him, head swiveling left and right. Large cerulean eyes blink at Sasuke’s arrogantly cocked eyebrow, before Naruto’s expression darkens considerably.

“Watch where you’re going, you stupid bastard!” Naruto chides, immediately at her defense as he helps Sakura to her feet. His loyalty would be endearing if it wasn’t Sasuke Uchiha he was aiming to piss off. When she finds her balance, he begins to fix the yellow ribbon that fell askew during her graceless fall. She can’t help but blush.

“T-Thanks, Naruto, but I don’t need—“

She’s interrupted by a bitter scoff. “She ran into me, idiot.” His dark eyes lock onto Naruto in blatant irritation before they flicker almost reluctantly to hers. She wants to step backwards at the animosity she sees in them, but his intense gaze skewers her in place. “Watch where you’re going next time. . .” The Uchiha promptly side-steps them.

“. . .annoying.” He mumbles as an afterthought when he brushes past her shoulder, continuing his way down the corridor as if he’d never been interrupted in the first place.

Annoying?!

She blinks after him, openly gaping at the audacity. The nerve! The absolute gall of that guy! Her foot stomps childishly before she can help it and she crosses her arms with a huff.

But Naruto, clearly having none of Sasuke’s usual bullshit, swivels around immediately, lips floundering indignantly as he jabs a finger at his best friend’s back. Obviously, he’s not going to let Sasuke get away so easily.

“Now you wait just a minute, you bastard! Get back here and apologize to Sakura-chan right now or I’ll—!”

“Shh! Naruto!” Sakura reprimands fiercely, yanking his accusing arm down. “S-Shut up!” She casts a terrified, fleeting glance at the Uchiha’s back, praying he would ignore Naruto’s unfinished threat and pretend none of this ever happened.

(Because the last thing she needs is to provoke the very guy who could crush what’s left of her reputation in an instant!)

But because she’s somehow subject to torture, Sasuke’s tall form has already paused mid-step. While a brief moment of tense silence hangs in the air, Sakura considers jumping out one of the windows that line the hallway. Since she’s on the second floor, she calculates the possibility of whether she’d die on impact or simply cripple herself.

She stiffens, spine snapping straight as a toothpick, when Sasuke suddenly throws a challenging glare over his shoulder, black bangs flopping over narrowed eyes. “Or you’ll what?”

Naruto reels, clearly taken off-guard by the sudden intensity of the Uchiha’s threatening tone.

Wait a second, aren’t they friends?

Sakura looks between them helplessly, head swiveling side to side as if watching an intense match of tennis, wondering if she should say something to ease the tension when Naruto’s jawline tweaks in anger. He tilts his chin downward and without warning, once-friendly blue eyes fill with pure rage and a raw promise of pain that would send a lesser man screaming with his tail tucked between his legs. “Or I’ll beat your fucking ass.”

Sakura can’t stop the sharp gasp that escapes past her lips. She takes several steps backward because Naruto looks simply terrifying and she swears his pupils shrink to slits.

Lightning crackles dangerously between them as they stare each other down.

W-What the heck is wrong with these guys!

Oh gods, she’s needs to get out of here, right now! (She has a chemistry class to get to, dammit!) There’s no time for this! Before either of the boys have a chance to act on whatever personal ill-will they have towards each other, Sakura skirts around the hallway in a pink blur, scraping up her lost papers and notebooks before scampering down the hall in the opposite direction.

“—WasNiceToMeetYouGottaGo!” She nearly trips over her own feet in her haste but she doesn’t slow down nor does she dare to look back.

“Wait, Sakura-ch—!”

But she’s already rounding the corner at the opposite end of the hall and out of sight.

Seriously, how is she so fast?!

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

Thoughts? :D Lmao this is so fun to write, if i’m being honest. Dorky!sakura is the best sakura... 

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Follower Ficmas: Day 18

For @book-dragon-13

Preferred Character: Bucky Barnes

Prompt: Bucky takes me on a first date to go dancing and then dinner afterwards

A/N: sorry that this is posted late in the night! I was pretty busy today!

You were excited when Bucky rolled up to the famous club, Sebastian’s. It was currently the hottest Jazz club and you’ve always wanted to go. Unfortunately, the waitlist for that place was long. Luckily, Bucky asked Tony Stark, a friend of the club owner, to pull some strings and that’s how you two were able to get in tonight! 

Your blonde hair, curled to perfection, bounced as you hopped out of Bucky’s car, looping your arm around his as he escorted you in. You red painted lips turned upward into an excited smile when the muffling sound of a saxophone became more clear. 

“Whadday think, Kris?” Bucky asks with a fond smile.

“It’s amazing!” you said with an excited squeal. 

Bucky chuckled, “I’m glad you like it. Now, do you wanna settle in for a bit or hit the dancefloor?”

“Hit the dance floor! Is that even a question?!” you pulled him by the hand as you weaved in an out of the groups of people in the club. You dodged waiters and some loose dancers until you hit the middle of the floor. 

Bucky twirled you around before you came chest to chest with him. His left hand in your right, his right on your lower back, and your left hand on his shoulder. To the rhythm of the sax, piano, bass, and drums, you both moved to the music. 

Pivoting, twirling, dipping, dragging your feet along floor. Move after move to slow and seductive song of the jazz band. 

You giggle as Bucky twirls you around more for you to land back in his arms, “I’m rather impressed with your dancing skills, Sarge.”

He gave a shrug along with a smirk, “I did tell you I wooed dames on the dance floor, doll.”

You laughed as he wiggled his eye brows at you, “Well, consider me wooed.” 

The slow song faded and abrupt trumpet solo began for then the bass to drop and an upbeat rhythm to take place. You and Bucky allowed yourself to let loose a little bit, going back and forth to traditional jazz dancing to something rather untraditional like the shimmy or the robot, which seemed to be Bucky’s favorite move. It was two and a half hours later that you realized you were exhausted and starving.

“There’s a diner I saw down the block. Shall we?” Bucky asked, offering his hand to you again.

You nodded and set your hand in his, “We shall.”

When you stepped out, a rush of cold wind hit your hot and sweaty skin. For a few minutes, as you walked, it was nice. But with you wearing a rather loose and somewhat revealing dress, it was starting to become inconvenient. Noticing your shivers, Bucky pulled away from you, shrugging off his jacket and setting it on your shoulders.

“Can’t let my beautiful date freeze to death.”

You gave him a smile and leaned in to peck his cheek, “What a gentleman.”

The bell above the diner’s door gave a soft ding and a hostess smiled at you, “Go ahead and sit wherever. A server will be with you in a moment.”

You and Bucky settled in a booth, with you sitting across each other. You picked up the menus that already sat on the table. Your eyes moved left from right as you read the items one by one. 

You glanced up for a second, then had to do a double take. Bucky wasn’t even looking at his menu. He was staring at you, “What?” you asked with a grin.

He propped his arm up, resting his cheek against his hand, “I’m really happy I asked you out.”

“So am I.”

“Wanna go out again tomorrow?” 

You chuckle, “Couldn’t even wait for this date to finish? Won’t you get tired of me?”

Bucky shook his head, “I will never get tired of you, Kristen.” he said with a wink and then picked up his menu. 

My, my, my, what a charmer Bucky Barnes can be. 

[jocy-diaries]

01.10.2022

Woo double digits and a new week. I’m waking up tired everyday now it seems, which sucks seeing as to how one of my goals was to wake up with positive thoughts. That can’t very well happen while I’m complaining that I feel ill. Something’s gonna have to change around that…

Welp, I was able to pay for the spring semester, but I think my old school’s email account got deactivated so I have no way of knowing if the scheduled email I made to be sent out today will actually go through. I sure hope not. The other things I want to achieve this week are:

All of the things I didn’t do last week (7)

Watch “Pig”

Organize classes

Order class books

Post 6 month loc’d video

Listen to audiobook

Get stomach sorted out

Keep taking medicine

It’s a lot less than I had last time, but then again I didn’t finish 7 tasks from last week so it merges over. Y’all it’s so embarrassing not finishing the tasks I set out for myself. Although it was maybe a little too ambitious…

You know when someone says they play lacrosse and they look like they play lacrosse??? 😂 That will never not be funny to me.

You know when you follow a god or goddess and you ask for something and you’re GIVEN that goddamnthing that you thought was going to be such a hassle to get and your love and admiration for Them just increases by the barrel full??? (Thank you Universe Thank you Bastet I love you I love you I love you I love you)

I think this and many other little things have finally made me realizing that my time with Sekhmet might have come to an end. I really enjoyed working with Her -even with the tests- but recently my focus and admiration has really been placed on Bast alone. I’ll do a meditation tonight to see if it’s really the case, but I feel like it is. It’s been good though~

Okay my happy freak out is over lol. I’ve applied to the position they sent to me, but of course if the salary isn’t high enough I’ll decline. It’s just nice to know that someone is listening sometimes you know~? And that my skills and my LinkedIn still get me noticed~

Too many emails (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ I don’t know how people can live like this. I keep a little picture of Kiki on the side of my computer to remind me to work hard but hot damn Kiki it’s difficult. It’s actually so sad because I was having a good time but then I got overwhelmed and I’m just stopped. And see, this is why I feel like taking my anxiety medication won’t do much because I took it yesterday and look at me. If I’m still the same why bother with it at all? I think that me saying “I don’t talk full one hour lunches anymore because I don’t wanna have to work until 6pm” says a lot about what I think of work.

Okay. I’ve eaten a buttered toast and I have some tea and I peer reviewed my sister’s story homework. So now I’m gonna put on something in the background and clean out my school emails. If I feel up to it, I might do a bit more work for work.

I want to be angry at myself for falling a bit at the end of work, but I got a lot of other stuff done! I cleaned out my personal and school inboxes, I requested my official transcripts for transfer, I paid for my SGA membership renewal, and I applied to two jobs, one of which was a government position so, yeah! I did good. I guess it helped that I was working along to a video of someone working lol

Trying to figure out my icky mornings and stomach situation by not eating anything after 9pm. I would be snacking all night long otherwise haha. Hope it works!

The way this class is set up… It’s so confusing. It doesn’t work into any of the layouts I currently have and it’s frustrating me. I’ll have to force myself to stop and go to sleep soon. Not looking forward to work tomorrow… Too much to do… Always too much to do. I wish I could just go to school and study.

[cassraven]

Revising old stories and it’s back to school. Woo.

That moment of amusement/happiness when you find an old CD Disc and USB flash drive from your high school years when you were going through old art boxes to look in them when you were cleaning. I found that they were holding some old save previous fan fiction stories I used to have posted on fanfiction.net when I used to be known as Cassandra Malfoy as a pen name on there. Those stories used to be on my FF.N account before the 2006 or 2007 purge of authors stories being removed when the site crashed back then if I recall correctly. Some of those stories of mine were all lost.  I also found some w.i.p. stories of old stories I never had posted up of fan fiction stories in fandoms of Sailor Moon, Harry Potter, and 10 Things I Hate About You when I was a teenage fanfiction writer. 

I will definitely be going through some of these old fan fiction stories I wrote to reread them, then rewrite/revise them to post them up on my author pages on Ao3 and FanFictionNet again sometime. There will be lots of sipping coffee + tea when rewriting those stories for me.

And tomorrow’s my first day going back into the grind of college for Autumn/Fall Semester. My final college semester! I’ll be twice a week taking a Level Four College Reading Critical Thinking/Analyzing Literature Class for two and a half hours on Tues + Thursdays happily. Plus I’ll be going to campus a few hours early before the afternoon class time so I can use the digital research library to my advantage to prep-double study up, type/write papers in the library’s computer labs section, or do any research, or get ahead in assignments for the class if I wish. (I love being on top of assignments game-wise in class, always nice to get stuff out of the way for free time.) All my new notebooks for note-taking in-class lectures, writing black ink pens and black writing traditional tri-pencils, erasers, lined paper, highlighter markers, stick it post notes, and a new polka-dot binder folder are all packed and ready for the new semester!

Posting fan fiction stories will probably be slower than usual due to my occupied fall semester so I apologize everyone. But I will be working on stories during any free time or holidays I get in-between class assignments and studying. Once this semester is finished with final exams in late fall later, that means GRADUATION COMMENCEMENT FOR ME TO GET MY FINE ARTS ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE! (Keep your fingers crossed everyone!!!)

So until that future announcement, I make of “Graduation Time Ahoy!”, I’ll be keeping busy with hitting the books, writing notes, term papers and studying. Bento made lunches of nori sandwiches, veggie sticks, salads, and gluten-free snacks will get me through all that fun study homework chaos. 

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/06/09/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-6917/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 6/9/17

  In an interesting shake-up over at CBS, Erinn Hayes has been let go from her role as wife to Kevin James in Kevin Can Wait. They say that the show is going in a new direction, which necessitated the firing. But here’s where it gets interesting. Leah Remini, who played James’s wife on King of Queens, popped up in the season finale as James’ former cop partner. Well, just before announcing Hayes’s departure, CBS announced that Remini would be joining the show next season as a series regular. Now, if you’ve never seen Kevin Can Wait, Kevin James plays a former NYC cop who tries to figure out how to adjust to his recent retirement. Based on the season finale, though, it seems like James’s character might be coming out of retirement. It’s just a strange move, seeing as how the show ended the season as the #1 new comedy on network TV – hardly a situation that necessitated a retooling of the show. Part of what critics praised was Hayes’s portrayal of James’s wife of 20 years. How do you just gloss over that relationship? I mean, they’ve gotta kill her off, but unless you do a time jump, you’ve gotta slog through all the grief stuff, which doesn’t lend itself well to a multicam comedy. And if they’re gonna fast track a relationship between James and Remini, will the audience accept it? It really feels like they blew a sure thing and, if they wanted to recreate The King of Queens, thy should’ve just revived The King of Queens! I’ve said that online since Kevin was announced!

Speaking of Remini, I’m starting to think she’s a Scientology double agent. Bear with me here: Scientology is a well-connected organization in Hollywood that allegedly has the power to ruin your career with the information that they have on their members. If you ever leave the church, you’re pretty much done. Just look at the list of former Scientologists. On that list, Remini and Jeffrey Tambor are the one ones who even have a semblance of a steady career right now, and Tambor kinda skirted the issue by saying he never really joined the church. Remini, however, joined up as a child, and was a HUGE booster of the church. Then, in 2013, she turned on the church – not for its negative views on homosexuality (which is why Crash director Paul Haggis left) or its alleged illegal activities. No, she left because she got her feelings hurt after leadership clapped back at her. At Tom Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes, Remini asked why church leader David Miscavige’s wife wasn’t in attendance, and they basically told her she didn’t have clearance for that info (formal speak for “Nunyo Biznazz”). She didn’t trust that answer, and went further to file a missing persons report on Mrs. Miscavige. Then, she made it her mission to publicly discredit Miscavige, criticizing his leadership, citing reports of abuse in the Sea Org, and more. She went straight to the TOP with her blame game, yet NOTHING has happened to her. In fact, it’s probably rejuvenated her career. She got a successful show on A&E called Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, where she’s basically telling all their secrets. When the show debuted, the church issued a statement attacking her. Yet, she’s working more now than she was before. So, there’s two things happening here: either Scientology isn’t as powerful and litigious as we’ve been led to believe OR they’re in on it. It’s yin and yang. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. While Scientology has its critics, it never really had an enemy before. Why not create one where they could control the narrative? It’s like learning that Captain America has secretly been Hydra the whole time. Long story short, I’m not entirely convinced she’s left the church, especially over something as trivial as what’s reported to have started the whole thing. And she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

In other TV news, Tia and Tamera Mowry (yeah, they got married and have new hyphenated last names, but I ain’t got time for all that) are trying to get a Sister, Sister revival off the ground. And I don’t know anyone who wants this. If you were cool back in the 90s you probably never watched Sister, Sister, where a set of adopted twins didn’t realize they were twins until a chance meeting in a department store, a la The Parent Trap. Then they all move in together. It was the definition of “mediocre”, yet once ABC canceled it, it gained a new life over on The WB. The most memorable thing about it was that Marques “Batman” Houston, of the R&B group Immature/IMx, played their annoying neighbor Roger (kinda like a watered down Steve Urkel), and they’d constantly yell “Go home, Roger!” at him. Other than that, it was just a bunch of zany, mistaken identity twin shit – stuff that I’d hope adult Tia and Tamera had outgrown by now. What’s the story to tell? They both get divorced, and move in together with their kids? Sorry, Kate & Allie, Getting By, and the upcoming Raven’s Home have already covered that old chestnut. Are they single in the city, doing the same twin shit? Not interested. I don’t have a lot of faith in this one getting picked up, though, because they’re far behind where they need to be. Right now, they say they’re looking for a show runner to guide the project, but then they’d have to find a network. Sister, Sister was NO Full House, so I doubt Netflix would be interested. If anything, the only place I’d put it right now would probably be Freeform, even though the twins are slightly older than the target demo of that channel. Let this just be a lesson that not everything needs to be revived.

In other television news, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has cast Tala Ashe as Muslim “hacktivist” Zari Adrianna Tomaz for season 3. She’s a computer whiz from 2030, so basically the team’s got their own Oracle/Felicity now – not that they really need it, with Gideon and all. Anyway, in comics Tomaz is actually an Egyptian who uses the Amulet of Isis to transform into the hero Isis. Before the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe, Isis was an important character in the weekly series 52, as she was in a relationship with Black Adam, and her brother, Osiris, was eaten by Sobek. Oh, and she had a cheesy TV show in the 70s. None of that’s gonna be in the Legends, I’m sure. Given the current political climate, and how loaded the name “Isis” is right now, I doubt they’ll actually ever call her that onscreen, either.

Song of the Week

Today I give you “Vampires”, by The Midnight. My pal and thrifting partner, “Special Forces”, and I decided that this is the official theme song for Thrift Justice should it ever become a real show. Synthwave AND saxophone?! I wanna direct Skinemax movies just so I can score them with this entire album. So sexy. Right now, Thrift Justice is a USA drama circa 1990, and I ain’t got no problems with that!

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

Modern Family‘s Sarah Hyland will guest star on Freeform’s Shadowhunters, which kinda sounds like a step back…

Speaking of Freeform, they’ve ordered a pilot for an American adaptation of UK hit Misfits. The network is a good home for something like this, but I’m still pissed over the American adaptation of Skins, so…

Rudy Huxtable herself, Keshia Knight Pulliam, escorted TV dad Bill Cosby to the first day of his rape trial. Whatever. Call me when Lisa Bonet shows up.

In next level pettiness, Taylor Swift put her entire catalog back on Spotify at midnight – at the very moment Katy Perry released her album “Witness”

According to Dan Aykroyd, Paul Feig blew his chance at a Ghostbusters sequel because he overran his budget on unnecessary reshoots. Sony refuted the figures Aykroyd presented, saying the estimates were off by about NINETY percent. Woo!

Jennifer Connelly will join Daveed Diggs in TNT’s Snowpiercer pilot, playing the person who makes the daily announcements on the train. Exciting!

Tom Cruise revealed that the title of the Top Gun sequel will be Top Gun: Maverick. I wonder if John McCain has any feelings about that. Coherent feelings, not ramblings about the Diamondbacks…

Speaking of Cruise, his The Mummy reboot opens today, and reviewers have called it “the worst Tom Cruise movie ever”. Wow.

Singer/actress/sister of Ray J Brandy was found unconscious on a Delta flight, and the doctor who came to her rescue was reportedly Kim Kardashian’s uncle! Considering Ray J put that family on the map, I figure it’s time the Kardashians did something to return the favor.

Gotham stars Morena Baccarin and Ben McKenzie got married. Knowing that show, it’ll probably revealed that they’re Bruce’s real parents or some shit. It’s not like it pays attention to any of the rest of the lore, so why not?

Fox canceled 24 Legacy after a low-rated single season, but they’re still committed to the 24 brand. They’re reportedly developing an anthology series to take the show back to its real-time roots

Like Peter denied Jesus, Jerry Seinfeld denied THREE requests for a hug from Kesha. I don’t blame him!

In one of the strangest deals I’ve ever heard of, Epix has inked a deal to stream its content directly to 2018 Honda Odyssey  minivans

Sony will begin selling clean versions of some of their hit movies. If you’ve ever accidentally bought a clean version of an album from Walmart, you can see why this decision might anger some folks

Hank Williams Jr is back singing the opening to Monday Night Football for the first time since 2011. I guess all his rowdy friends will be over after they finish burning a few more crosses…

George and Amal Clooney welcomed twins Ella and Alexander

Former Power Rangers director/producer/fight coordinator Koichi Sakamoto will direct the upcoming Ultraman Geed series, focusing on the son of the evil Ultraman Belial. Yeah, those words mean something to someone out there.

Newcomer Blu Hunt has been cast as Danielle Moonstar in the upcoming New Mutants spinoff of the X-Men films.

A live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop is being developed, and my heart weeps. As one of the few anime series I’ve watched, and loved, I kinda hope this dies in development hell

Hackers released 8 stolen episodes of ABC’s upcoming game show, Funderdome, and nobody cared.

Donald Glover will be retiring her Childish Gambino hip hop persona after his next album.

We got our first poster for the Black Panther film.

Last week I gave my opinions and feelings on the movie. This week, I’m just gonna stick to the facts:

92% on Rotten Tomatoes

$103 million opening weekend domestic box office

$220 million opening weekend global box office

Third highest opening for a DC film

Most successful female-directed film

Mot expensive female-directed film, with a budget of $150 million

Most tweeted about movie of 2017, with 2.19 million tweets

Won Best In Show and Best Fantasy/Adventure at the Golden Trailer Awards

Last Saturday, Wonder Woman Day was celebrated at comic shops around the world

You’ve seen it by now, right? RIGHT?! Then, what are you waiting for? For these reasons, and more, Wonder Woman once again had the West Week Ever.

[my-one-love-is-music]

Be My Player 2? Chapter 10

Yay chapter update!! Woo hoo!! I'm really glad that I got this done today since I leave for a weekend trip tomorrow and don't have to worry about coming back and trying to finish this, so I hope that y'all are looking forward to reading it.

Also, I got a twitter if you're interested! It's just a place for me to ramble about fics and give more consistent updates about how things are going and when things might get posted. So you can follow that here: https://twitter.com/m_o_l_i_m

Cheers!

Also on AO3!

Friday felt like an utter dream to Keith. He hardly registered his own actions throughout the day and didn’t even really remember waking up or getting ready for the day. He almost felt like a zombie and didn’t really register where he was until he received a slap on the back, forcing him to look around and comprehend that he was at work. He didn’t even remember clocking in or going to class! And was honestly surprised that he managed to even dress himself in his work clothes, although he was sure Linda would’ve stopped him if he’d looked too out of sorts.

               “Someone seems to be a little out of it today,” George said, bringing Keith out of his thoughts and to focus back in on the drink that he’d been preparing. “Late night? Too much studying? Or too much gaming?”

               “Uhh…” Keith responded eloquently, grasping for some sort of explanation as to why he was acting the way he was. He couldn’t exactly say he was thinking about the hot guy that he met online while gaming. Not only did he not know how to go about explaining that situation, but he didn’t think he was prepared for the lecture that he would undoubtedly get about interacting with strangers online and the possibility that his life might turn into an afterschool special. George would probably even go so far as to suggest he’d been featured on America’s Most Wanted. You’d think being twenty-one would get you a pass for things like that, but Keith was never so lucky.

               “Based on your intelligent response and the fact you’re grasping for some sort of response, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you were up late gaming last night and didn’t get enough sleep,” he said with a chuckle and moved to pick up a bottle of alcohol for the next order coming in. It was getting into the busier part of the night where more people were coming out just for the drinks than for actual meals.

               Keith didn’t bother responding and did his best to focus back in on his work and knew that he wouldn’t be able to let his mind wander any further. He didn’t want to risk messing up anyone’s drinks because that would mean losing drinks and money and he wasn’t prepared to be responsible for that on top of everything else. And with the growing crowds, that would slow things down for them if they had to make twice as many drinks to make up for Keith’s lack of concentration.

               He looked at the pile of orders that were quickly stacking up and turned back to the drink he was almost finished with. He wanted to shove it all away and not worry about it, but a thought struck him. Something that would help to keep him focused…

               “Hey, George,” he called, smirk pulling at the edges of his lips.

               “Yeah?” he asked, bottle in hand and eyebrow raised in question at Keith’s expression. He’d known him long enough to know that a smirk wasn’t always a good sign.

               “Feel like having a little competition tonight?” he asked, gesturing to the pile of tickets that was waiting for them.

               A grin slowly pulled at the edges of his mouth, eyes lighting up at the prospect of making a game out of their workload. “You’re on,” he said, raising the bottle in his hand. “Whoever gets the most drinks made wins. And the loser has to do all the closedown procedures.”

               “Hope you like staying late,” Keith said. “Because I’m not going to lose,” he said getting back to work with a renewed fervor. These next few hours were going to pass by with a breeze.

               “How is it that we both managed to end up with the same number of tickets?!” George nearly screeched as they finished totaling their piles.

               “Damn, I really thought that I was ahead there,” Keith said, running a hand through his hair.

               “You were ahead. Clearly, I was making the most drinks during the night.”

               Keith raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, reaching for the bottle of cleaner and the towel to wipe down the counter.

               “Please, you’ve been out of it all night. I don’t understand how you have the same number of tickets,” George grouched and reached for the empty bottles to take inventory of how much stock they’d used.

               “I don’t care who won what or what you’re arguing about, but I want to see more cleaning boys! It’s Friday and I know that you as much as me are ready to get out of here for the night,” Linda called as she walked past.

               The two of them hurried back to their closedown procedures and probably got done in record time. Getting motivated at the end of a long day wasn’t too hard when the threat of your boss was just around the corner. Keith and George parted ways quickly, knowing that they’d see each other again soon enough, and were more concerned with getting home after a long day. Keith may not have had a shift the next day, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t looking forward to spending time with his friend that night and getting more than enough sleep.

               He pushed into his apartment and made his way into the bedroom, leaving his backpack at the foot of the bed while he moved over to his dresser to pull out something more comfortable to wear. Swapping out his work clothes for a pair of sweatpants and a shirt found him back in the kitchen with his headset and rummaging around for something to make for dinner. He was still doing really well on food and thought he might be able to pull some money from his food budget if he ended up running low after being pulled from the double shift on Sunday. Things really seemed to be looking up for once. Or maybe it was just memories of having someone to lean on that were helping him see the brighter side of things.

               As he was heating up the water to make some of the pasta that he’d stocked up on-and it was in fact pasta and not ramen noodles-he heard a ringing coming from his computer. Keith stepped over and was surprised to find Shiro calling him through skype rather than his Voltron account which he had already pulled up. He answered quickly and grinned when Shiro’s face came into view.

               “Hey, Shiro,” he said, picking up his computer and carrying it over to the counter next to his stove.

               “Wh-what’s up? What are you doing?” Shiro asked, belatedly.

               “Making dinner. I just got back from work and decided to make some pasta to celebrate that it’s Friday. I would say that I’m surprised that you’re online already, but I can’t really say that I am.” He felt relaxed talking to him like this. He was a little worried that things could’ve been a bit weird after the night before, but he found Shiro’s presence particularly grounding. “How are things on your end?” he asked while reaching for the box of pasta.

               “Oh, you know, just another Friday. Not really one for the history books,” Shiro said, laughing awkwardly.

               Keith glanced at his screen and found Shiro looking away from him and off screen. He saw traces of pink along his cheekbones and leaned in further while absentmindedly stirring the pasta.

               “Shiro, are you feeling alright? You’re not sick are you?” he asked, squinting for good measure.

               He looked back at the screen and looked taken aback when he caught how close Keith was. Keith watched as his face got even redder.

               “Fine, fine,” Shiro said, trying to wave away his concern.

               Keith gave him one last look before returning to his pasta. “Okay. I still think you should make sure that you don’t have a temperature and aren’t sick.”

               “Later. I can take it later.”

               “Okay,” Keith said, not entirely convinced.

               Shiro cleared his throat, searching for something to say. “Allura and Lance had a lot of fun with us the other night. They’d like to join up again.”

               “Cool. I can’t wait to kick Lance’s ass again.”

               Shiro laughed. “You know, the point of team missions are so that you work together and not fight amongst the players.”

               Keith shrugged and speared a piece of pasta to taste. He hummed in satisfaction and turned off the stovetop, picking up the pot and carrying it over to the sink to drain. “As long as it doesn’t cause us to lose, I think that we can manage to have a little bit of fun at least. ‘Sides, Lance’s ego’s big enough that he can take it.”

               “I’m not sure that he’d agree with you on that, but he’d also probably claim that he doesn’t have an ego. Still, I’d like the two of you to get along on some level at least,” Shiro said.

               Keith paused as he grabbed the jar of tomato sauce from the cabinet above his head. He looked down at it as he addressed what Shiro said. “You think that we don’t get along?”

               “Do you?” Shiro asked, disbelief obvious.

               Keith rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his hip as he turned to face the screen. “Of course we get along. Even I could tell from our first night gaming together that Lance wanted to see how I held up. Eventually, it became less about testing me and more about seeing how far we could push each other. I just managed to come out on top. Don’t worry so much.”

               Now that his dinner was ready, Keith moved his computer and his bowl of food over to the table while Shiro sat there silently, obviously thinking.

               “So did you want to game or what?” Keith asked between bites since it looked like Shiro wasn’t going to say anything anytime soon.

               “Hm?” Shiro asked, being pulled from his thoughts. Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh, yeah. Sure, we can game.”

               “You can invite Lance and Allura if you want. If they’re free anyway.”

               “Actually…do you mind if we do something else?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

               Keith shrugged. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”

               Shiro shrugged, obviously feeling a bit embarrassed about the request. “I just feel like maybe hanging out and watching a movie or something.”

               Keith quirked an eyebrow. “You want to try and stream a movie at the same time?”

               “Yeah.”

               “That’s great and all, but I don’t have Netflix.”

               “Oh.”

               “Hang on,” Keith said, leaning forward and pulling up his web browser. “I don’t remember the name of it, but I heard about this website that can let you watch things at the same time. It’s sort of hard to explain. So you would be streaming from your Netflix account, but I’d be able to watch it too, even though I don’t have Netflix.”

               “That sounds perfect. I think that I’ve heard of that too, actually…”

               “Here it is! It’s this website called rabbit.” Keith heard Shiro typing even as he looked around the website himself.

               “Oh hey, this looks pretty cool. So I just need to set this up with my Netlfix account…”

               Keith listened as he clicked several things and typed in information.

               “Okay, I think I’ve got this figured out. I’m going to send you the link to this room through Skype and we should be able to get started.”

               Keith heard the notification from his Skype window and pulled up the room. Once it was opened in his web browser he shut off the call with Shiro and brought up the video and audio capabilities of the chat room.

               “Shiro? You there?”

               “Yeah. Although, cutting out without saying goodbye was a little rude.”

               Keith rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. I was gone for like two seconds, it didn’t kill you.”

               “It was still rude,” he muttered. “Anyway, what do you want to watch?”

               “It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll probably be fine with anything so if there’s something in particular that you like watching or are in the middle of watching, I’ll probably be fine with that.”

               Shiro hummed. “Do you like anime?”

               “I’ve never really watched it, but I’ll give anything a try.” Keith picked up his computer and the remains of his dinner and headed over to his couch. He moved a few of the pillows up against the arm of the couch and laid down, leaning against them and stretching out his legs. He settled his laptop on top of his legs so that he could still eat and sighed happily as his muscles relaxed in the soft cushions.

               “Okay, I think this one’ll be good to start with. I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while so I guess this is just my excuse to get you involved too.”

               “What’s it called?”

               “The English name is Your Lie in April. It’s supposed to be really good.”

               “Okay. Is this going to have subtitles then?”

               “Yeah, is that a problem?”

               “I think I’ll be okay. I just might have to do full screen so that I can read them, depending on how small they are and if the video quality isn’t too fuzzy.”

               “Well, let’s find out.”

               Keith watched as Shiro pulled it up and animated cherry blossoms filled his screen. The image followed a blond girl walking down the street and following a cat.

               “Is this an anime about music students?” he asked as the opening began to play. He might never admit it, but he thought the music was pretty catchy and could see the appeal of why people went to such lengths to find it sometimes.  

               “Yeah.”

               “Okay.”

               Silence fell between them again as the episode progressed. He thought that this might be something he could actually get into even if it wasn’t along the lines of what he usually took interest in.

               “What did you think?” Shiro asked as the credits began to play.

               “I like it. Can we watch another episode? I really want to see what happens with her violin performance.”

               “Yeah, of course.”

               One more episode turned into another and another and another. Even with his eyes drooping and his mind complaining about the influx of information that the anime was giving him, Keith couldn’t find it in himself to complain or ask Shiro to stop despite the late hour and his need to actually get some sleep. Keith was enraptured by the storyline and the characters to the point that he might even be a little bit obsessed. He wanted to know what was going to happen to Kousei and he wanted so much for Kousei to succeed at his solo competition.

               It was probably unhealthy how invested he was in the wellbeing of a fictional character, but the writing and the characterizations just made him want to care about him. He wanted him to do well and find motivation in the people who claimed to be his rivals. He wanted him to find support in his friends and realize that it’s okay for him to play the piano and move on with his life and be great.

               Keith sat up and clutched the sides of his laptop, staring with wide eyes as Kousei battled himself during his performance. He felt himself saddened by the turn that the anime had taken and sagged against the couch’s back cushion, nearly burying his face in the fabric.

               Shiro paused the episode as the ending music began. “You okay there, Keith.”

               Keith groaned. “I was really hoping for a different outcome for Kousei.”

               “I know, but he can’t just magically come back after having such an impactful experience. He has to find his love for the piano again and deal with the trauma that he’s been through. We’re only half way through the anime so there’s plenty of time for it to get better. Unless you want to put that off for later.”

               Keith looked at the time and sighed. “3am huh? I should probably get to bed.”

               “You don’t have work tomorrow, do you?”

               “Nah, it’s my night off. But I’m getting together with some friends. We’re going to hang out and watch movies before mid-terms-shit! Fuck, mid-terms. I should really be studying for those.” He groaned again, not wanting to think about his upcoming tests or the rest of his anxieties.

               “So study tomorrow-well, later today anyway. Get some sleep, get refreshed, and then study before you get together with your friends. We can finish this next weekend after you get through your tests. Just think of it as the reward that’s waiting for you.”

               “Okay. Yeah, sounds good. I can totally do that,” Keith said, trying to convince himself. Neither of them made a move to leave the chat. “I guess, I’ll go then. Talk to you later, Shiro?”

               “Yeah, talk to you later.”

               Keith closed out of his web browser and stared at his desktop for a minute, not wanting to move off the couch. He hadn’t even considered the amount of hours that he’d need to put into studying next week. That would mean he’d probably not be able to game or talk with Shiro for a while at least. He sighed and shut down his computer, setting it down on the coffee table before wearily pushing himself to his feet.

               He shuffled into his bedroom and let himself fall down onto his bed and pulled his comforter over himself, his eyes sliding shut easily. It was so strange. They’d only known each other for a short amount of time and had been skyping for barely a fraction of that, yet Shiro already felt like a large part of his life. It felt weird to even consider going a day without interacting with him. Shiro had wedged his way so far into Keith’s life already that the thought of him possibly disappearing was absolutely terrifying for him to consider.