#especially since I saw multiple shade throwing posts towards ME

[canisitsnotlupus]

There is a difference between sports like hunting or field trials, herding trials, etc. and actual work. If one actually sat down and spoke with people who do the actual work, you get largely introduced to it. BCs are a hard breed to really apply to this, as the breed was developed largely alongside herding trials, if not for herding trials, from their more landrace variety. But a Labrador bred for field trials is different from a Labrador bred to hunt, and many hunters - actual hunters - will tell you this. Field trial dogs are faster, less likely to chill out, will exhaust themselves faster, and typically don't know how to lay in a blind or boat for a few hours without getting restless. Sometimes they even have coat or bodily differences that makes them less suited for the task (i.e. field Labradors being bred like rockets and struggling in waters that aren't calm). There is a lot of cross over, sure, but many of them will explain that often, a dog good at hunting will not be good at field trials, especially higher levels, or vice versa. It isn't saying one is better than the other. It's just a different purpose. It's why it's important to ask about *actual* work when looking for a working dog that you may be relying on for food, animal care, etc. And not all sports are created equal - AKC herding trials are far different from USBCHA (which don't give titles, but still). But a BC that only gets trialed every other weekend is not the same as the dog working the farm daily, usually; there's different skills involved. Not to mention daily work puts a lot more stress on the body over a dog only working one or two weekends a month and a handful of training days the same month. I don't like being told I'm wrong, like most people, especially when this is something I *am* educated in and spend way too much time reading about and studying and talking to people, as well as *actually having done this stuff*. I especially don't like it when the person who spent multiple posts arguing with me, speaking down to me, and twisting my words then goes on to answer an ask and say the exact same information they said I was wrong for saying. It helps that quite a few people have said over Discord and privately that this is what that person does, but it's annoying and it felt, outright, like being singled out. Saying, "This breed doesn't work anymore" is not dooming the breed. A handful of hobbyists doing a sport that you have to apparently get into the in crowd to find even smaller numbers doing something as *actual* work does not make the dog a working breed still, and there's nothing shameful about that. Hell, if it does make a breed a working breed for that particular work, then BCs are a hunting breed, they're a protection breed, etc. because there's handfuls of those competing in venues like that or doing it to *actually* give their owners food on their table. I just find it amusing that we were saying the same thing (if you take into account what they're saying NOW), yet I get accused for wanting a breed for something incredibly off-kilter when I never said that, I explained I *had* reached out to breeders of that particular breed to be told exactly this, etc., and I am still singled out as the one that was wrong. And few acknowledges this person did a completely turn around with their opinion after I blocked them unless it's personal friends.

[luffles424]

Sunrise

☼ Pairing: Seokjin x reader

☼ Genre: angst, fluff, smut, angst with a happy end, post breakup au, actor!seokjin, fashion designer!reader, exes to lovers

☼ Count: 9.5K

☼ Warnings: 18+, accusations of cheating, poor communication, some arguments (the relationship at the end can be seen as turning toxic as communication breaks down, so be aware if you think that may now work for you or just need to be prepared), heartbreak, non-explicit description of panic attack, moments of emotional shut down

Smut warnings: teasing, soft sex, nipple play, body worship, oral (f recieving), multiple orgasms, unprotected sex (stay safe pls!), dirty talk, exhibitionism, bratty reader, rough sex, manhandling, bruising

☼ Summary: It’s been well over 10 years since you and Seokjin broke up. You’ve been doing fine. Until one night a dream rocks you to the core and you find yourself in a place from the past. Have you really moved on?

Has he?

☼  Newly added epilogue: Moonlight

☼ a/n: This is told both in the present and past, the flashbacks are in italics! The flashbacks also aren’t in order, but I believe they’re pretty easy to follow when they would fall chronologically.

Inspired by the 2000s emo playlist I listened to as work (especially Jamie All Over by Mayday Parade) Sorry if the tags seem a little scary, I’d rather overtag than have someone get blindsided while reading. But I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! My ask box is always open ~ 💙💙💙💙

The cool breeze washes over you, bathing you in the salty ocean air. It seems you found the perfect time to come out here. The light jacket you wore more than enough to keep you warm on such an unexpected trip. The sky is slowly being painted in pinks and purples and oranges as the sun slowly starts to sink into the horizon, small wisps of fluffy, white clouds occasionally obscuring the sunlight. You’ve always loved seeing the sunset out here. The colors reflecting off the ocean and leaving everchanging patterns before you. You’ve based plenty of designs on sunsets. 

The dress you wore to your first fashion week is still your favorite. The penultimate meeting of sunset and night sky. The outside was ombre layers of soft chiffon, shades of oranges and pinks and small bands of light purples. It pooled around your feet, you liked to think it made it seem like you had risen from the waters of a sunset reflection. The halter bodice wrapped around your neck in a shimmery, golden band. Hanging from the choker were thin golden chains, draped and connected to a golden belt at your waist. 

For all appearances, it appeared like just a sunset colored dress. But when you walked, or pulled the fabric apart at the slit in the front, it revealed a glittering deep purple fabric, speckled like a swirling galaxy. It had been the ultimate combination of the theme of yours and Hoseok’s collection, sun and moon. The dress still hangs in your closet, one of the few extravagant pieces you’ve held on too. You want to wear it again, you just have to find an occasion to do so. The dress deserves it. 

The scene before you specifically was what inspired it. Maybe not this spot specifically. There were a lot of memories tied to this spot that you tried not to think about typically. But you’ve always loved visiting the beach. Or lakes. Anywhere you could go and watch the sun sink into the water. Watch an uninterrupted sky blend colorfully with the water.

You can’t believe you’re back here though. It’s been easily more than 10 years since the last time you were at this beach, which is a drastic change from back then from when you came here all the time. Taking a seat on the bench beside you, you smile, a little sadly, as your fingers trace over the heart carved into the wood, weathered from years in the elements and use. But the letters are still clear enough and you skip over your initials, letting your fingertips trace the ‘ksj’ as you think on when they were put there. 

 The smile on his face is bright, as bright as the glint of sunlight off the small pocket knife in his hand. 

Your combined giggles fill the fresh spring air, the beach fairly deserted since you skipped your last two periods of school to come here. You hadn’t put up much of a fight when he made the suggestion during lunch. Your grades are good enough and it’s the last weeks of high school, you can miss a few class periods to have some fun, to spend some time together before university. Just in case you don’t get into the same one.

The scratch of the blade against the wood is softer than you expect, a gentle scratch, scratch, scratch as he meticulously and carefully carves your names into the wood. His tongue pokes out from between his lips and you fight the urge to coo at how cute he is. Doubling down on keeping quiet when you know doing so would also result in him being overly macho to prove he wasn’t cute. Not because he doesn’t believe he’s cute or anything, but he knows how much the faux display makes you laugh. You don’t want to interrupt his work when this seems so important to him.  

Finally he looks up from his work, proudly gesturing to the carving on the bench. 

“That’s so cheesy.”

With an exaggerated pout, he gives you the saddest eyes he can muster. “I worked so hard on this for you. As a testament to our love!”

You lean forward, pressing a kiss to his jutted lower lip. “Well, I didn’t know it was so serious. My apologies.”

 A few more kisses and he’d promptly forgiven you and the two of you had spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach, taking blurry pictures on your flip phones. You’re positive that a printed version of one of those photos still lives in a box somewhere, where you didn’t have the heart to throw it away and so it’s stayed in a box of memories that moves with you but you never really look through. 

 You’re so tired when you finally get home. It doesn’t even feel like home anymore. You’ve spent more time either in the studio or with Jimin or Hoseok or at work than you have here. And you know from the times that you are here that Seokjin is gone just as often as you. It doesn’t even feel like you’re in a relationship anymore. It hurts to think about that. 

So you’d thought summer would be the perfect time for the two of you to rekindle your relationship. Fix whatever problems you were having, free from the stress of finals. But with senior year quickly approaching, everything seems to have just gotten worse. You can never seem to catch Seokjin to start the process of fixing anything. 

To your surprise, when you open the door you find Seokjin sitting on the bed, face pinched as he stares at something on his phone. Maybe this will finally be the opportunity to talk and start fixing things. You miss him, body cold and numb the nights you fall asleep here alone, always waiting and waking up disappointed. 

Before you can say anything, his head lifts and the cold glare he sends you stops you in your tracks. What could possibly have happened to make him give you that look? You know the two of you have been having some problems, but nothing that would warrant that look.

“Where the hell were you?” His tone is as icy as his eyes. 

You frown, gesturing vaguely towards the fridge. “Work. I put my schedule up so you knew.” He didn’t have the same courtesy. You never knew when he was working. Or what else he was doing when he was out. You had put yours up in hopes that he would do the same and maybe you would be able to find time to be together. Though you’re not sure he even bothered to go near the fridge. The few times you’ve made dinner for him and left the leftovers in the fridge with a note went untouched. 

He sneers and holds his phone out towards you. You have to step closer to get a good look at the image he has pulled up. It’s from just a few hours ago. You and Jimin sat at one of the cafe tables and laughing. It had been your break and Jimin came in to keep you company. Had Seokjin come by the cafe? Why hadn’t he come in? If he’d been there when this was taken, you were on break, you could’ve spent it together. 

“Then what’s this? Certainly doesn’t look like work to me.”

Your mind blanks. Is he seriously accusing you of lying right now? Indignation rises, acid burning in your throat. “What are you saying? If you were there why didn’t you come in? I would have loved to see you.”

“I wasn’t there. A friend sent this. And I’m saying that you’re never around. And I keep getting people telling me they see you out with him all the time. I haven’t seen you in weeks. But it seems like he sees you every day.”

He can’t seriously be accusing you of cheating right now. This seriously can’t be happening right now. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the accusation. It hurts that he’d honestly think you’d do that. Then the ugly thoughts come. What’s that saying, those who are most guilty are the quickest to throw blame at others?

“First of all,” you grit out, trying your best to keep your tone even. You can feel the rage churning in your belly. “I was on break when that was taken. Jimin came to visit because he knew someone wasn’t going to.” Seokjin’s mouth opens to speak but you continue, voice raising. He is not going to get to cut you off now. “It’s awfully fucking rich for you to accuse me when you have no evidence. You’re never even around. You know what they say, it’s never the one being blamed but the one doing the blaming.”

He scoffs and stands. In his anger, he seems to tower over you. But you’re too angry and indignant yourself for it to feel intimidating. You stare him down. 

“You’re really going to accuse me now?”

“It’s the same thing you’re doing! I was hoping to fucking talk when I saw you were home. I was so happy to see you here. We haven’t been home together in so long. I-”

“We haven’t been home together because you’re always out with Jimin.” 

“No I haven’t been fucking home because you’re never home and it fucking hurts to be in this shitty apartment without the person who’s supposed to be here with me. Do you know how fucking lonely it is waiting around here for a person who never shows up?”

Turning away from you, he takes a few deep breaths. 

You deflate slightly. You could still fix this. “Seokjin-”

He shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to hear any more excuses.”

He moves towards the door and you panic. This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go. You wanted to fix things. To make them better. Everything has spiraled and you can’t let him slip through your fingers. You reach for his wrist.

“Seokjin, wait-”

He wretches his hand free and glances at you over his shoulder with so much contempt that you feel your heart in your throat. “No. I’m done.”

This can’t be it. This really can’t be it. He sees you about to speak again and turns and leaves before you can get a word out and it feels like the rug has been ripped out from beneath you. The silence deafening in his absence. 

You don’t know how long you stand there for. You feel completely numb. Like this is just a bad dream and you’ll wake up soon and Seokjin will be next to you and you’ll tell him about this and he’ll laugh and comfort you and tell you that would never happen. You expect tears, but they never come. Everything feels so surreal. 

The man you had planned to spend the rest of your life with just walked out on you after accusing you of cheating. 5 years and he really thought that was something you would do. Do you wait around? Hope he comes back for you both to talk with calmer minds. 

You settle for a text.

You: Can we talk once we’ve both calmed down?

It’s less than a second later and the response makes your heart sink. Blocked. 

He really blocked you already. He’s not even going to try? You sink onto the bed. What are you supposed to do now?

At some point, mechanically, you text Jimin, asking if he could come over and bring some boxes. Looking around, you’re at least grateful that your place was small because it means you don’t have that much to try to move. Jimin arrives, faster than you expected. Or maybe you’ve just become that disconnected from the passage of time. 

He drops the boxes and comes up to you, hands fretting over you like there’s some physical injury he can attend to. Unless he knows how to mend a broken heart, his fretting is useless. Instead you move on autopilot, taking the boxes Jimin brought and packing your meager possessions into them. Jimin stands by the kitchen, looking sad and lost, unable to help because you have yet to say a word. He knows what happened though. It’s not hard to figure out. You’re thankful that he doesn’t try to get you to talk. Just lets you move and do what you need. Waits for you to ask should you need help. 

You’re almost finished packing when you pull the shoebox from under the bed and you suddenly feel like you’ve been hit by a truck. Flipping the lid open reveals hundreds of photos. Of friends. Of family. Of trips. Of Seokjin. The top pictures pull your attention. Two copies of the same photo. A blurry snapshot of you two grinning on the beach. You both look so young and happy. You wish you could go back to that. Everything was so simple back then. 

He must have put his copy in with yours. Because why would they need to be kept in different places when the two of you would never be apart. You almost want to laugh. You mostly want to cry. You stand with the box, debate for all of two seconds before you set his copy down on the bed. He can decide what to do with his own copy. That’s not for you to decide. Not anymore. 

Tucking the shoebox into the last of the moving boxes, you cast one last look around the apartment. The holes where your things were hurt to see. The physical evidence that this part of your life is over. Carefully extracted from a life that had been so delicately intertwined. You wonder if the gaps will even bother Seokjin. If he’ll even bother staying here, if he’ll move onto something bigger and better. Without you. Swallowing, you turn to Jimin before those thoughts can spiral. Not here. Not yet. Once you’re somewhere else and alone. Then it can all come out.

“Ready?”

You give a small nod and Jimin helps take your things downstairs. He does most of the work while you wait on the sidewalk. He calls a taxi, loads your things into, gives the driver his address. 

As it pulls away from the curb, you can’t help but to watch the apartment shrink into the distance. Feeling like you left your heart behind. You wonder if you’ll ever get it back.

 Your phone dings with a notification, dragging you out of the sad memories. You give yourself a small shake. You hadn’t thought about that day in years, pushing it to the back of your mind. You had learned later on that some girls had told Seokjin lies about you to get the two of you to break up in a bid for his attention. It had backfired spectacularly because you found out through Hoseok after he overheard Seokjin yelling at the girl who asked him out less than a week after the break up. He never came to talk to you after the truth came out though. You never let yourself think too hard about why that might be. You’d already spent too many nights feeling numb and broken. You poured yourself into your work. Your friends. You had been content for your senior year. It didn’t go how you were expecting, but it was still good.

You smile at the device in your hand. It’s far more advanced than your old flip phones had been, even your college phone had been fairly low tech, the downsides of living on a budget. High school you would have killed for a camera this good back then. That blurry picture of you and Seokjin would’ve been much more clear if you’d had something like this back then. You swipe the notification away, just an email from your assistant about your schedule for tomorrow and what had been shifted around from today. But all that can wait until later, probably when you’re back home. The notification draws your attention to a text from Hoseok that you hadn’t seen though. He must have messaged while you were walking so you didn’t feel your phone go off. 

Hobihobi: Are you ok?

You smile at his concern. And honestly the fact that he even noticed you dipped out of the studio early. You had thought that he had been too busy on his own upcoming project to notice. It’s a pretty big deal for your label and he’s been working so hard to get this project. You’re just glad you have the perk of being boss to be able to dip when you need to. Although technically, you and Hoseok own your label, Daydream Designs, together. 

Texting him a quick reassurance, you pocket the device again, content to just enjoy the sunset out here alone. There’s a few people scattered around the beach. A few families beginning to pack up for the evening, a person running with their dog, a couple walking along the shoreline. 

You have such fond memories of this beach. For all the bad memories you have of the relationship, mostly from the end of it, at least the beach remains untainted.

 Nervously clutching the letter in your hand, your leg bounces as you wait for Seokjin to arrive. He’d texted you earlier that he’d gotten a letter from SNU. You’d rushed home to see you had a letter waiting as well. You were thankful that they had come on the same day. You can’t imagine how much more anxiety you’d have if you’d had to wait longer for one of your letters to arrive. 

You glance at the white envelope, the edges are beginning to wrinkle from your grip, but you can’t get your fingers to relax. Checking your phone again, you wonder where Seokjin is. He should be here soon. The beach is crowded today. The weather finally nice enough and the water clear and warm. It was a miracle that you’d managed to get your bench when you’d arrived. But someone had just been leaving when you’d gotten here and you’d quickly jogged over to take it before someone else could snatch it. It seemed like the perfect place to see what your future held.  

Seokjin appears suddenly, panting like he ran the whole way here. Which, given the sweat making his bangs stick to his forehead, is a good possibility. He still looks handsome, more so when he sends you a brilliant grin.

“You got our bench!”

Returning his smile, you send him a wink. “I had to fight an old lady for it.”

He presses a quick kiss to your lips as he sits down, brandishing his letter. “How do you want to do this?”

Chewing your lip, you think it over. “I don’t think I can open it.”

His eyes soften and he takes your hand. He can read you so well. “No matter what happens, we’ll always have each other.” He gives your hand a squeeze. “How about we open each other’s?”

Reluctantly, you nod. Would it really be better to see that he got in while still not knowing if you got in too? Swapping letters, you stare down at his name spelled out in ink. You know he got in. There’s no way he didn’t. Seokjin nudges you and you look up.

“Count of three?” You nod. “Okay… 3…”

“2…”

“1…”

Seokjin is a little faster in tearing open the envelope than you are but you keep your gaze firmly downcast, watching as your fingers tear open the paper with meticulous care. You skim his letter quickly. 

Congratulations.

He got in. Joy swells in you and you look up with a grin, momentarily forgetting your own letter. Your smile quickly falters though when you see the flat look on Seokjin’s face as he stares down at your letter and your heart sinks.

Tugging his hand to get his attention, you give him a sad smile. “Hey, it’s okay. You said-”

“You got in.”

You blink. His words swirling around your head but not fully registering. “What?”

He envelops you in a massive hug, laughing with joy. “You got in! Baby, you did it!”

You still feel a little dumbfounded, but you’re quickly filling with excitement. “You too! Jinnie, you got in too!”

He pulls back and presses a long kiss to your lips. His eyes look suspiciously wet, but you decide not to comment. You’re positive that your’s are probably a little wet too. “The next four years are going to be amazing.”

 He had been so optimistic back then. You could use some of that optimism now. 

You hadn’t originally planned on cutting out of work early, especially not to come here of all places. There were some designs that you needed to work on, a few ideas that you had that you wanted to get sketched up to show to Hoseok. But when you’d been walking through the common area during lunch, you’d overheard a couple of people gathered around a computer gushing about the Kim Seokjin wearing one of Hoseok’s designs. 

It’s definitely not the first time. Hoseok knew Seokjin in university when you knew him too, although you were always closer to him since you shared a lot of classes, and obviously a shared love of fashion. But the two were friendly and remained so afterward, but on a more acquaintanceship basis. The break up clearly divided some friendships, though you hated that it happened. You didn’t want anyone to feel like they had to stop being friends with either of you just because you two were no longer dating. 

You know it’s not the first time Hoseok has designed something for Seokjin. And normally, him wearing one of Hoseok’s designs wouldn’t bother you too much. Both because it’s good for Hoseok because Hoseok is a genius and deserves it, but because it’s also really good for your label in general in terms of good press. Though you know Hoseok sometimes slips your designs into things that get sent to him. You saw one of your jackets ended up at an award show. 

Idle chatter about Seokjin around the office isn’t that new. You suppose that’s one of the downsides to being in an industry that is very closely tied to idols and actors and actresses. It’s not an uncommon occurrence to hear them gossip about him, he’s one of the most popular drama actors currently and everyone loves to gush about how handsome and funny he is. They find it odd that you’ll talk about anyone with them except him. They leave it be much easier now, but in the beginning they still tried to include you. 

You’ve even dealt easily with the dating rumors. All the pretty actresses he’s supposedly dating. And why wouldn’t he? He’s gorgeous and talented and so, so kind. Any woman would be lucky to have him. You’ve been on the receiving end of his love. You know how easy it is to fall.

If your coworkers knew that you’d dated him in the past, they would think you were crazy to let him go. And maybe be a little jealous and probably pepper you with questions about him. You definitely are thankful they don’t know because the way some of them gossip about their own sex lives, they’d beg for details about a celebrity’s from first hand experience. 

 Excitement fills you as you sit in the airport. It’s finally summer. Your first year of college is behind you and you now get to spend two whole weeks with Seokjin in Jeju. Well Seokjin and his family. But they were kind enough to let the two of you have your own little place on the island. Well it was more of just the guest house to the main house they, along with Seokjin’s brother, would be staying at. 

This will likely be the only big summer trip you both take during college. Seokjin had originally planned to not go. More content to work all summer and save up money so the two of you could get an apartment off campus. His parents had offered to pay for a place, but Seokjin was adamant that the two of you wanted to do this for yourselves. 

You’d try to hide your disappointment about not going, but he knows you far too well and caved quickly to saying one trip wouldn’t hurt his independence. So now here you were, ready to fly out to Jeju. You haven’t been since you were little and you were excited that you got to go back and this time with Seokjin. 

The flight is quick and uneventful and Seokjin gets a taxi to take you to the beach house, his parents having arrived a few days prior. 

The main house is beautiful, but you’re more excited to see where you’ll be staying. The outside of the guest house looks like a miniature version of the main one. Inside, it’s spacious, all one room with an attached bathroom. The bed is separated from the living area by an ornate partition painted with a starry nightscape. The moon is painted in such gorgeous detail that you’re tempted to tell Seokjin you want to steal the partition when you leave. 

The living area is simple, a plush sofa and matching chair set facing a wall mounted TV. A small, well-stocked minibar is pressed against one wall. Around the partition and into the sleeping area is a large bed facing a set of french doors that open out onto a small deck that leads right down to the beach in two steps. 

Flopping onto the bed with a giddy giggle, you watch as Seokjin sets his bag down and gives you a fond smile. 

“Enjoying yourself?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

You squirm back slightly, coy smile stretching your lips. “I don’t know. The bed seems kind of empty.”

He chuckles, sitting on the bed and tugging you into his lap. “Better?”

Humming, you press a kiss to his lips. “Much.”

When you go to pull away, he follows, capturing your lips in another, deeper kiss. “We don’t… have… a lot of time…” he murmurs between kisses. 

You give a vague affirmative, only half listening to his words in favor of pressing him back into the mattress. His parents can wait, you have some important business first.

 The night air is cool, the french doors left open, gauzy curtains shifting in the gentle breeze. Shifting onto his side, Seokjin presses a gentle kiss to your shoulder, soft and unhurried. It’s only been a couple of days since you’ve been here. But it’s been utter bliss, especially after the exhaustion from finals. 

You nudge the sheet lower down your bodies and press closer to him. Tonight seems like the perfect time for something soft and unhurried. A perfect time to really connect again. No hurrying because of classes, or roommates, or meetings. No papers to worry about. 

Just you and Seokjin. In a plush bed with a cool, ocean breeze enveloping you. If you peek through the curtains, you can just make out the shape of the moon, the illumination making Seokjin glow before you. 

He’s already bared to you. Both of you showering off the ocean water from an evening dip and simply crawling into bed together afterwards. The TV is off, the only sounds filling the room is the rustle of the sheets as you move and the lapping of the waves on the shore. You dare not speak and break the peaceful atmosphere and Seokjin seems to be on the same wavelength. 

Neither of you need to speak to know how to move around each other here. He cups your face, such a gentle caress, like you’re the most fragile and beautiful thing he’s ever held. It makes you feel cherished. He leans closer and time seems to slow down with the press of his plush lips to yours. He takes his time kissing you, so slowly like you have the rest of eternity for just this moment. 

Pushing you onto your back, Seokjin cages you in, enveloping you in the safe blanket of his embrace. His scent is overwhelming like this, you could drown in it. His hips press into yours, cock not fully hard yet, but that doesn’t matter. This is about taking your time with each other. You wrap your arms around his shoulders, hands sliding from his neck up into his hair.

The strands are a little dried out, a combination of the salty ocean water and the fresh bleaching it got. His parents hated it at first, but he defended it as just college experimentation. It’s supposed to be a time of discovery and why not try different hair colors. He’s unfairly attractive with the bleach blonde, just as handsome as his natural brunette. You know he plans to dye it another color. But he’s yet to tell you what it’ll be. 

You give his hair a light tug, relishing the sigh he releases against your lips. 

“Tell me what you want.”

“Just you.”

“You always have me.”

Seokjin nudges your thighs apart as he kisses across your jaw and down your neck. Trailing across your collarbones, he leaves a line nips down to your sternum. His hands slide up your sides till they meet your breasts, fingers cupping the soft flesh as he peppers kisses across the expanse of your chest. He traces one nipple with his tongue, teasing the bud to stiffness with each swipe. He moves on to the other one, changing it up and using his teeth this time. The air fills with your soft moans, blending with the waves outside. 

Moving lower, Seokjin kisses your belly, taking his time to touch every little mark across your skin. Pleasure simmers in your belly, every nerve burns like a live wire. Over all that, you feel loved. Absolutely worshiped as Seokjin presses a kiss to your mound with such reverence that you think he might convert right here and now. 

Seokjin eats you out just as slowly and thoroughly as he kissed you. He savors you with each swipe of his tongue, every suck, every twist of his fingers. Seokjin plays your pleasure like a fine-tuned instrument, drawing you ever so slowly to the edge. Your fingers thread through his hair once more, not to be demanding, but for the sake of feeling grounded. His tongue laps at you like you’re a ten course meal and he wants to savor every single morsel. When you chance a glance down at him, his eyes are closed, handsome face, what you can see of it at least, smoothed out in utter bliss. 

When you finally cum, it feels like sinking into pure euphoria. Seokjin drags it out for so long and so gently that you cum a second time. Though you’re so lost in sensation that maybe it’s still the first orgasm.

Pushing himself to his knees, his face glistens with your slick and you feel bereft with the distance suddenly between you. You reach out for him and he falls right into you, lips crashing against yours as his cock presses against your pussy. But you need more than that and you squirm, drawing a chuckle from deep in his chest. 

“Impatient…” he murmurs.

But despite his teasing, he shifts until the tip of his cock catches your hole and he slides in with languid push. You sigh his name and he answers with a nod, lips brushing your neck as he pulls back and starts a slow, almost lazy, rhythm. You cling to him, nearly delirious with pleasure. 

Nudging Seokjin, you pull him in for a kiss of your own. “I love you.”

He groans into your mouth. “Fuck… I love you too. So much.”

You lose track of time, your pace unhurried. Seokjin cums at some point and the two of you lay facing each other and exchanging soft kisses until you drift off to sleep. 

 You whine as Seokjin slips his cock into you. He’s been teasing you all day on the beach. At one point while you were in the water with him, his fingers slipped beneath your suit to tease along your pussy. You’d nearly screamed at the sudden sensation, but Seokjin had merely laughed and floated out of your reach, sending you a wink as he licked his finger. The second you returned to your room from dinner he was on you. This is so different from the other night. Somewhere in between the rushed couplings in the dorms and the slow, soft sex from then. It feels just as good, a little rough, fun, light. Perfect.

Seokjin grins cockily above you. “I barely did anything and you’re so wet for me, baby.”

Huffing, you try to kick at him, but he easily pins your leg down. He tuts and delivers a thrust that jostles you up the bed and draws a gasp from you. He looks entirely too pleased with himself. 

Before you can formulate any other sort of retaliation, the sound of voices catches your attention. Glancing to the side shows that neither of you shut the french doors. The voices don’t sound close, but they are near enough for you to hear. It’s not too strange, the beach is there for anyone. But it’s the first night that anyone has been out there, at least close enough for you to be able to hear from your bed. Music soon follows the voices. A party. 

Unbidden, the thought of someone breaking away from the party, coming down the beach this way and passing by the open doors has you clenching around Seokjin. He gasps at the sudden tightness, blinking down at where you’re connected. Licking his lips, he follows your gaze and a moment later, you see realization cross his features. 

His resulting grin is downright dangerous. “What’s got you going, baby? Hm?”

Swallowing, you turn back to him, blocking out the voices. You will not give him the satisfaction. “Nothing.”

Fingers digging into your hips, Seokjin glances towards the doors again. He gives a harsh thrust that pulls a startle moan from you. “Nothing, huh? I don’t think that’s true.” He turns back to you and there’s a dark look in his eyes. “I think that you want someone to walk by and see us. That the idea of being caught is exciting.”

You scoff, deliberately turning your face away from the doors. “I’m actually bored and thinking about what we’re doing tomorrow.”

Seokjin blinks at you for a moment before chuckling darkly. “Is that right?” You nod. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”

It sounds like a threat and a challenge. And you’re never one to back down from a challenge. “Well in the morning, we’re meeting your parents for brunch…” 

Seokjin’s tongue presses against his cheek as he slams his cock into you. It would force you up the bed if not for his bruising grip on your hips keeping you firmly pinned in place, forced to take the full brunt of his cock spliting you open. 

But you’re just as stubborn as him. “Then we’re going… to the spa… oh my g-god… you… you made… p-plans for lunch…” 

Every few words you stutter out are punctuated by another harsh thrust. Your legs are pushed towards your chest and his next thrust has his cock rubbing along your g-spot and for a second, your mind blanks on what’s happening, pleasure so sudden and searing that you forget everything but the full feel of Seokjin’s cock inside you. He starts to grin then, victoriously, and that pulls you out of it just enough to continue, gritting your teeth as he continues to fuck you.

“Said you had… a surprise… then we were going to… oh, fuck… gonna go to t-town… buy some… gifts… Seokjin, please…”

He grins. “Gonna admit what you were thinking about?”

One hand leaves your legs, thumb brushing your clit and your resolve crumbles with your rising desire to cum. 

“Fuck… yes! I want someone to walk by. See you fucking me, making me cum, making me feel good… Seokjin, please…” you whine out.

“Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

His rough thrusts pick up again. This time accompanied by the rhythmic movements on his fingers on your clit. Your orgasm builds quickly and leaves you breathless as Seokjin forces you over the edge. You cry out, heedless of the volume of your voice. If anything, the thought of someone hearing how Seokjin makes you feel makes you shudder with pleasure.

Seokjin groans, hands dropping to the bed as he chases his own orgasm, smothering his moan of your name against your shoulder. 

When he’s caught his breath, he raises his head, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “So… exhibitionism, huh?”

 The stories you had are probably worth a lot. Which is why you keep them to yourself. No one but you and Seokjin need to know those details. Especially not some of the more nosy people you work with. Hoseok thankfully played along with only knowing him on a professional level and not that you all went to university together. 

It’s typically pretty easy to just ignore the chatter when it comes up about him. But a couple days ago, you had a dream about him. One that after you woke up, you couldn’t recall almost anything about it. Except his face and the heavy feeling in your heart. His smile was burned into your mind and has left you feeling off since then. The mention of him today combined with the weird feeling brought back a whole slew of memories and things you had thought you’d long since moved past. To the point that you made the decision to leave work to work early because you were so confused. Why you were suddenly feeling like this about someone who you thought you’ve been over for more than 10 years. 

You never thought you’d be here back in university. Together with Seokjin. You both had thought you’d be together forever, whispered together about getting married, about the future. The things you’d do and the places you’d go to. 

 The arm around your bare waist tightens, a firm chest pressing into your back. 

“What’re you thinking about, baby?” Seokjin murmurs into the skin of your shoulder.

You chew your lip nervously before shifting in his grip so that you’re now facing each other. You’ve been thinking about a lot of things as freshman year draws to a close. All of them lead back to Seokjin.

The afternoon sunlight peeks in through the curtains, casting golden light across him and the dormroom. It’s an odd time to be in bed together, but it’s one of the only moments that you both have free and there’s no dormmates around to bother or have to kick out. Though you know Yoongi, Seokjin’s roommate and faux reluctant friend, would give you both the space if you asked. You don’t want to be the person that kicks him out constantly, so for now, you both are content to steal some free moments during the day when Yoongi has classes. Maybe next year you can think about getting a little place off campus together. A place both for you guys and maybe for your friends to visit and hang out at. 

You think Seokjin looks the most beautiful under the afternoon light regardless. Seokjin pecks your nose, drawing your attention back to him and his question that remains unanswered. You feel a little nervous bringing up what you were thinking about. But the two of you have been together for almost 3 years. You should be able to bring it up to him.

Swallowing your slight nerves, you finally speak. “Was just… thinking about the future…”

His answering smile is warm and gentle and you feel like the world could crumble around you and you would be safe here in his arms. “I hope I’m there.” 

Giggling, you press a kiss to his lips. “Of course. I can’t imagine a future without such a handsome man on my arm while I attend extravagant parties and get all the jealous stares to be dating someone so much younger than me.”

Gasping with as much drama as you expect from him, Seokjin falls onto his back, hands clutched over his chest. “I can’t believe this! The truth has finally come out! You’re only with me for my youthful looks!”

Fond smile growing, you settle your hand over his as he continues a dramatic monologue about the ultimate betrayal. You wish he would listen to you about changing his major. You know he’d love being an acting major much more than he currently is in his business major classes. A major he’s in only to appease his family. 

Finally tired of his dramatics, you lean up and press a kiss to his lips, effectively silencing him. “I love you,” you murmur against his lips. 

 You wonder when he changed his degree. Or if he ever did. You know plenty of people who go into acting without the degree and Seokjin certainly had the inherent talent to do it. It would be easy to verify if you just looked him up. Someone who’s so in the spotlight now would certainly have his degree information online. But you don’t want to do that. You wonder how invasive that must be. Although you and Hoseok are beginning to get that popular too, you wonder if those sorts of things will begin to happen to you. You can’t imagine you’d be very interesting to follow around. 

Truthfully, you don’t know what would be worse in regards to the fate of Seokjin’s degree. If he had done what you had told him all along and changed his major after you two broke up, or if he had decided to follow his dreams even if he didn’t have the degree for it. It’s undeniable that it hurts either way. The first time you’d seen him in a trailer had sent you spiraling in a way that you hadn’t since the breakup. 

 There’s a pounding at the door, but you can’t find it in yourself to get off the couch. The TV is still on the channel it had been on last night and you’re still sat in the same place as then. Honestly, you only know that it’s at least morning because there’s light streaming in through the windows and when you had seen the trailer it had definitely been evening. 

You had been watching some show, whatever you landed on first that seemed at least mildly entertaining, while eating dinner. A quick break from the sketches that are scattered across your coffee table. Sketches that could lead to your first big contract.  

But your peaceful and exciting night of work had been interrupted when you’d seen a preview for a new drama. A new drama with Kim Seokjin. It had been crushing to see. You had been telling him to do that for so long. To the point that it became one of the contributing factors in your seemingly inevitable breakup. 

It seems then that the problem was never with whether or not he would follow his dreams after graduation. It was just if you would be there with him. You cried when you saw it, a vice of bitterness around your heart that while you don’t get to celebrate with him, you’re so happy that he’s doing what he loves. You’re fairly certain you stopped sometime around midnight, though the night was a little hazy as your thoughts circled around one thing. How he hadn’t wanted you there with him.

The banging at your door stops at some point, though you don’t know how long they kept it up for. And then your door is suddenly being shoved open, banging against the wall and there’s two sets of footsteps moving quickly into the apartment. You hear a muffled ‘fuck’ and then you’re being enveloped in a hug. 

It takes only a moment for you to realize who it is, the orange-y scent of Jimin’s favorite cologne washing over you. Your breath stutters then, it hurts to breathe so you bury your face in his chest and his arms tighten around you. He murmurs comforting words and someone else sits behind you, hand gently rubbing your back. 

Eventually, you calm down and you pull away to give Jimin a weak smile, one that you direct to Hoseok as well when you see him behind you. Jimin returns with a pained smile of his own. 

“You saw, huh?” You nod and Jimin sighs. “I had hoped that you wouldn’t see it last night. It’s what I was planning to tell you at dinner tonight. So you could be prepared for it. I’m so sorry I waited to tell you.”

You shake your head quickly. “No, you have nothing to apologize for.” You rub your neck. “I… I didn’t think I would react quite like this… It’s been 3 years. You worked so hard to help me out of that dark place-”

Jimin puts a hand over your mouth, cutting you off. “No, you worked hard to get yourself out of that dark place. I was just there to hold your hand. It was a tough breakup. It’s understandable if there’s occasionally things that bring that heartache back up.”

You nod slowly, not fully believing his assertion that he just held your hand post break up. You probably would’ve dropped out of university after the breakup if you hadn’t met Jimin. You look between him and Jimin. “H-how did you know to come?”

Hoseok gives a sheepish grin. “You didn’t show up to work and I got worried. I texted Jimin on my way here and he seemed to know exactly what had happened.”

“Now that we’re here. How about I go get all of us some junk food and you two find something trashy for us to binge?”

 After that, it got much easier to see him on your screen. Or on screens in the train stations. Or plastered on ads and billboards. 

It helped you actually, to finally, truly move on from him. A sort of immersion therapy to numb you to his face. You didn’t need him to be happy. You loved your budding design business with Hoseok, clubbing with Jimin, dating both casually and more seriously. It all got easier with time and you’re grateful for the friends that you have. Your friends have always been there for you, even back then. 

 Your first birthday after the breakup was rough. Seokjin always planned something elaborate and thoughtful. There would be none of that this year. You went to work in the morning, gave your coworkers a fake smile as they wished you a happy birthday with a cupcake in the breakroom before you opened the cafe. It was sweet of them to do, but the breakup was still far too recent for you to truly enjoy anything like this. 

Jimin had night classes so you would have the evening alone. You at least had your own room now instead of sleeping on Jimin’s couch in his old apartment. You had protested his plan to move to a two bedroom apartment for you both to share so you could have your own space. You knew on your meager wages you’d never be able to help with rent at such a large place. You and Seokjin had barely been able to afford your studio together.

But Jimin insisted. He had more than enough to cover rent and you could just save your money. Or buy groceries and cook. He hated cooking, could do it just fine but was too impatient for it. It seemed like incredibly inadequate compensation for him giving you a place to live, but he just smiled and said that’s what friends do for each other. You had cried and he teased you afterward and then made you buy him ice cream. But you agreed to moving and letting him help. 

And it was nice to have your own room. It was great to live with Jimin. He was the sweetest and seemed to always know exactly what you needed. Hoseok visited often too, though you don’t know if he was coming to see you or Jimin more some days, and the three of you worked hard to get through your last year of university. Together. 

But with Jimin in classes tonight, the apartment would be empty. You didn’t really feel like cooking either. So you’d probably just have some ramen. If you could even be bothered to eat to begin with. You freeze when you get to your floor, brows knit in confusion when you see a beautiful bouquet of red and yellow lilies, interspersed with sheep sorrels. The vase is a glossy deep blue, splashes of purples and pinks and speckles of white paint of soft starry night. 

You wonder who they’re for. They must have been left at the wrong door. You carefully look through the petals for a card, finding the glossy little square quickly. Tears gather in your eyes when you see the little cartoon cat head sketched into the blank area of the card. It’s a little cruder than you’re used to seeing, the ear slightly misshapen, the cheeks a little too chunky, the lines a little unsure. 

But it’s unmistakably Yoongi’s cat doodle. Meaning he must have dropped these off for you, even though you and Seokjin have broken up. And you’re not even sure if he knew where your new place was. You’d have to thank him soon for them. It makes the day a little less rough to have something so pretty. To know someone was thinking of you.

 You never did get the chance to thank him properly for the gift. At least directly. You’d taken him a coffee, a few days later, as thanks. He’d looked a little confused but never questioned or made you say anything out loud. Which you’re grateful for. Just because you and Seokjin split up, didn’t mean you and Yoongi couldn’t still be on friendly terms. Though you haven’t properly talked to him in quite a while. Maybe you should ask him to meet up soon. See how he’s been doing. 

But even with all the progress you’ve made and all that your friends have done for you, you still have the occasional bad day. Looking back on it, it had been years since you had one that affected you enough that you had to take off work specifically in regards to Seokjin. You’re really not sure what made it seem like the beach, this beach was the best place to go. But there was just something that called you here. 

For as painful as the breakup was, Seokjin was your first love. He was amazing while you were together. Always loving and supportive. Even when things started to fall apart.

 With a groan, you push the apartment door open, giving a harder shove when it gets jammed. Like it always does and your landlord refuses to do a thing about it. The lights are off when you finally get the door shut and your heart sinks. Seokjin was supposed to be home. You haven’t seen him for more than a few minutes in the last week. This was going to finally be the night you spent together. Throwing your bag down, you flick the lights on, seeing the cramped studio apartment is indeed empty. You pull your phone out, seeing if maybe he just ran out for something or if he was running late, but there’s nothing. 

You try not to let your disappointment consume you and instead grab your sketchbook from the shelf and decide to get some sketches done while you wait, hoping, probably vainly, that Seokjin will be back soon. 

You jerk awake to the sound of the door slamming and when you blink blearily at the clock, it’s nearly midnight. You turn to watch as Seokjin kicks his shoes off, weariness written in his posture. 

“Hey,” you croak and Seokjin gives no indication that he heard you. “Where were you?”

Seokjin straightens and sighs before turning to you. There’s a dead look in his eye that you’ve never seen before, let alone had directed at you. “Out.”

For all that you had been sad or worried, anger and confusion surges through you at his complete disregard. “Out? You could’ve texted. We were supposed to have a night in together.”

His jaw tightens and he drops his bag beside yours before moving towards the bathroom, the only place in this shithole with a door. “I had to study.”

And before you can say anything else, the bathroom door is slammed shut behind him. You stare at it incredulously. He can’t be serious. You’re just as stressed as he is. Finals are creeping in and along with that is planning for senior year. At the rate you’re going, summer is going to be unbearable. 

 You sigh, shaking the memories away. You don’t want to dwell on the bad anymore. Even if the breakup was crushing, the good times were amazing. With the sun finally below the horizon, the moon takes its place, casting cool white light across the beach. And with it, comes the peace of being alone. You let the sound of the waves lull your thoughts to silence.

But the sound of footsteps pulls your attention, confused because the beach is basically deserted at this time, the chill brought in with the moon driving most people inside. Your breath catches in your throat when you see Seokjin standing not far from you. The wind blows his hair from his face and he looks tired. A little older, but still just as handsome as he was in university.

There’s no way that this is happening. You must be dreaming. That’s right. This is just another dream. A weird continuation of the one from a couple of days ago. Seokjin isn’t really here. Not at the same time as you. Not when there’s no one around. Not when your heart feels vulnerable and you can admit that you maybe really, really miss him. Sometimes.

But the chill from the wind feels real. The wood biting into your palms where your grip has tightened on the bench feels real. He looks real and handsome and devastating. Every bit like the man who stole your heart in high school and broke it in college. Who loved to make sure his loved ones were always laughing. Who had such a flair for dramatics that it was never a surprise that he’s such a popular and talented actor. 

The jacket wrapped around his shoulders is unmistakably yours. A silly, casual design that you had done but never put into a collection cause there was never one it fit. You had sewn it on a whim, the idea eating away at you until you made it, settled the itch in your fingers. There’s only one way that Seokjin could’ve gotten that.

Hoseok. 

Have they been talking more than Hoseok let on?

Seokjin hasn’t noticed you yet and you’re wondering if you’d be able to slip away without having him notice you when he turns and freezes. He seems just as surprised and blindsided to see you as you are to see him. You stare at each other and it feels like an eternity and a million conversations pass between you both. He swallows and closes the short distance between you both and tentatively takes a seat beside you. 

He looks nervous when he turns towards you. Clearing his throat after a moment, he sticks his hand out, tentative smile on his face. “Hi, I’m Kim Seokjin.”

You almost laugh. It’s such a him thing to do. As if you would ever forget him. Seokjin left a scar on your heart, you’d carry a little piece of him for the rest of your life.

But the introduction feels like more than a way to break the tension. There’s a question hiding in his innocuous words. Is this okay? Can I be here? Can we be in each other’s lives again? 

Most importantly, it feels like a fresh start. A new chapter. You and Seokjin are different people now. You’re both successful. You’ve grown, matured, learned. You’re no longer the starry-eyed, hopeful kids in college. Full of dreams and hopes, but with so little experience. 

Who knows, maybe there won’t even be romantic feelings between you anymore. Maybe you’ll just end up friends. 

But maybe this new start is what you both need. The sun may have set on your relationship in the past, but maybe it was just what you both needed to let the sun rise now. Something new, and exciting, but still a little bit familiar. 

You take his hand with a smile. “Hi, Kim Seokjin. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

[hunflowers]

Golden

Word Count: 15.3k

Requested? I don’t remember, but you always can here :)

Mood Board

A/N: Lord, have mercy SHE’S FINALLY HERE!!!!! My baby Golden is finally out to the public and can I just say how fucking relieved I am to post it. I love her, I hope you do too <3 little warning: there are mentions of panic attacks in here, and a heart condition (that i did my best to research on) so if you’re uncomfortable, pls don’t read. 

special thanks to my soul baby @stylesloveclub​ for being my biggest support system with this, she’s dedicated to you <3

for anyone reading this, please reblog! it really helps us writers out. okay onward friends!!! lemme know how i did and if you like it *nose boops*

Water. The ocean. Waves. The tide.

Symbolic of life, birth. Can be used to wash away even the most troubling of sins.

O’ahu, Hawaii, home to some of the best surfing destinations in the state, in the country, in the world. Also home to one of the best surfers in the state, in the country, in the world. 

Y/N didn’t coin herself that. Not that she’s complaining about it, but she doesn’t surf for the title. She surfs for the freedom. She feels the most alive when her toes dig into the sand as she runs towards the warm, salt oblivion, her novelty yellow and blue surfboard tucked under her arm.

Her whole life she had been surrounded by water. When she was a baby, she always wanted a bath. When she was a toddler, she always wanted to stay in the kiddie pool. And then she got into surfing, and well, the rest is history so-to-speak. Her parents never got themselves involved in the sport professionally but more as a recreational activity. And it was even how they met, so really there was no stopping surfing from flowing through Y/N’s blood.

Her backyard was the ocean, so growing up, it was really the only thing for her to do. It’s what all the kids were doing, and Y/N was no different. She met her best friends on the beach when they were five years old, practicing the basics of surfing, like getting up on the board and finding their balance with the Earth.

Kalani and AJ, two of the best surfers Y/N will ever meet, and two of the purest souls to ever grace her life. They’re madly in love with one another. Have been for as long as they’ve been friends -- so coming up on sixteen years. Y/N is in awe of their relationship, she really is, but being a third-wheel isn’t exactly something she signed up for. Though, she kind of expected it when growing up.

They tried countless times to set her up with someone, but time and time again their matchmaking skills have failed, and Y/N is tired of them pitying her. No, she may not be in a long term relationship, but she hardly has time for a relationship anyway. Especially with competitions coming up, she needs to keep herself focused on surfing rather than some boy who will probably end up breaking her heart.

Well, that was her intention anyway.

October 27th, the first day of the best months out of the year.

And it started just the same as every other year. Y/N woke up at the crack of dawn and threw on her lucky white bathing suit before throwing an apple down her throat. Her surfboard was perched up against the back patio railing, and she swiftly tucked it under her arm as she made her way down the shore, being greeted by the luminescent sun that was swarming the sea in a shade of tangerine and lemon.

Jogging knee deep into water, Y/N sunk her hand just below the surface, swaying it back and forth, taking a deep breath as she felt the cool texture swarm her body. Exhaling slowly, she threw herself down onto her board, paddling onward into the great unknown. The familiar sound of the crashing waves causing her to flinch for a brief moment before comforting her ears as she watches the restless ocean ahead of her, a smile washing over her face as she could basically see her future ahead of her.

Today marks qualifying day, and obviously if she marks as qualified, she moves forward to the Vans Triple Crown. She’s been training all year, her body practically a prune with how much she’s been in the water. But, a minute can’t go to waste, so up until the very last second where she has to head to the north shore, she’s gonna remain in the water and build her intuition with how the day is going to go.

Last year, Y/N had to cut her time short when she was hospitalized the night before the first competition. So, she was all more determined to win the championship that is rightfully hers. Well, in the women’s division at least. Last year was ripped from her right when it was under her nose and she refuses to have a repeat of it. 

After her hospitalization, everyone was convinced she’d never return to the water. Despite the ocean being her second home, everyone figured she would turn away -- avoid the embarrassment last year brought upon her. But, it only made her stronger and more determined to prove everyone wrong. No matter how frightening it really was.

Her first wave of the day had her coasting along smoothly, starting her out easy as waves progressively got bigger with the tide. When she got out into the water, the sun had just broken past the horizon line, yet by the time she left, the sun was nearly at its peak in the sky. Her skin felt raw, yet her body was running on adrenaline as she scoffed down the lunch her mom had made her before they banded into the family van and headed to Sunset Beach on the north shore.

Y/N’s heart raced in her chest, her leg bouncing subconsciously but furiously as she watched the landscape pass her by through the window. Her typically calming music wasn’t even working as she ran through multiple scenarios in her mind of what could go wrong today and how her day, her week, month, even year could be ruined.

Once outside of the van and on the beach, her parents pulled her close into a tight, warm hug, whispering words of encouragement in her ears, knowing just how important this was for her. Surfing and competitions had always been important to Y/N, but following last year’s downfall, this day was going to make or break whatever is left of her both physically and emotionally.

“Y/N!” she heard her name being called from the distance, the three of them immediately letting go of one another as they exchanged sheepish smiles.

“Y/N!” Was called out again, causing her to turn around and see Kalani running straight for the three of them, waving her arms in a drastic manner to gain her best friend’s attention. “Oh my -- I ran so fast, wow, I need to calm down,” Kalani breathed out, closing Y/N into a firm embrace.

“Save your energy for the waves, babe,” Y/N laughed, wrapping her own arms around Kalani’s frame. The two of them were never inseparable, it was kind of like they were actually glued to the hip together ever since they were children. And a lot of people were surprised they remained best friends through the years, what with both of them always competing in the same surfing competitions battling for the first place spot. And they knew this could be a strain on their relationship, but they decided ever since they were seven years old that they weren’t going to let surfing get between them. No matter what, they were always proud of each other for everything they’ve accomplished and are each other’s number one fans.

Thing is, Y/N tends to snag that first place spot a lot of the time, and Kalani always just misses her, earning her the second spot, right beneath her. But, Kalani has grown to accept that Y/N is better at the sport, and that’s nothing for her to be ashamed of. She’s managed to get a few of her own first place wins, and in her eyes, that’s good enough. She can’t live her life being jealous of her best friend because that’s not healthy, and anyway, surfing is much more Y/N’s livelihood than it is her own, so she’s fine with being second best -- despite what others may think.

Tugging her board off the top of the car, Y/N tucked it beneath her arm as she walked hand-in-hand with Kalani to wherever her family had set up camp on the beach. “Where’s AJ?” Y/N wondered, as she looked out into the water and saw no one out in it.

“The boys are starting soon, so he’s with Nav,” Kalani said, finally stopping in front of her parents and younger brother, and AJ’s older brother.

“Y/N!” They greeted, getting up from their chairs to kiss the girl on the cheek before greeting her parents. “It’s so great to see you back here,” Kalani’s mom smiled, pinching Y/N’s cheek before plopping herself back down under the sun.

They all began to catch up with one another since it’s been awhile they’ve all gotten together, all of them falling into old habits as if it hadn’t been months since they were last together. Y/N tried to engage in as much conversation as possible, but her mind tended to wander off as the guys started lining up in the water and making their way out. Her throat dried up and her palms were sweating -- and not from the heat -- as her nerves kicked in. Her memory began to cloud her vision as she stood abruptly and quickly walked away from the group, her heart picking up again.

Her breaths shortened as her mind blurred, and all she wanted was to curl up on her bed and calm her mind. She felt someone’s hand on her back, and immediately she could tell it was her father by the smell of his cologne. Once she was far enough from people, Y/N could feel tears well in her eyes as short images flashed across her eyes, cutting each inhale of breath in half -- which caused her to panic even more as she couldn’t breathe properly.

Last year ruined her, and she absolutely despises that this is considered her normal day-to-day routine now, her body shaking with fear as she feels herself collapsing from the inside, out. “Y/N, honey, can you hear me?” She thinks she hears her father say, but is undetermined with the intense white noise that’s swarming her ear drums.

“Count with me, c’mon, backwards from ten.”

But, all her mind could focus on was her body sinking lower and lower beneath the surface of water.

“Ten… Gotta count, c’mon you can do it, nine.”

“Eight,” she murmured, reaching out to grasp her dad’s shirt tight in her fist, just to make sure that he was really in front of her. She needs to be reminded that last year is her past, and that no matter how forward it is in her mind, it’s not her present anymore and she’s not drowning. “Seven.”

He took her hands and held them to his chest, “Six, keep going.”

“Fi-” she gulps, swallowing the lump in her throat, “..five.”

She makes it all the way down to zero, her body visibly relaxing and mentally as she hesitantly looks around to see no one watching the little event. “Do you want to go home?”

Y/N looks up to her father, shaking her head in response as she sniffles her nose and brushes away the one stray tear that has cascaded down her cheek. “No… I can do this.”

He cocks his head to the side and purses his lips, slowly nodding his head. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he turns them back in the direction, walking with her slowly as she continues to gather herself. “You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, Y/N. Everyone knows you’re an amazing surfer.”

“I think I just need to prove it to myself,” she stated, dragging her feet through the sand like a child so it slowed their arrival time back with the group. She can only imagine that her mom had informed everyone already of what was happening, and the last thing she wants is their sorry eyes and pathetic spouts of pity that she knows she’ll wish they just kept to themselves.

Y/N knows she’s broken. She’s not the same girl everyone knew this time last year, but she doesn’t need to be reminded of it every time she steps into a room. What happened last year was serious and she understands that people are worried; But all she wants is for everyone to forget about it. Including herself. She thinks the thing that’s causing her the most trepidation now -- rather than in the morning or all year long -- is the fact she’s now back in front of a crowd again, eyes trained on her like hawks watching prey, waiting for something awful to happen again.

The only thing missing is the popcorn as they watch this free entertainment.

When they finally came back to everyone, Y/N noticed the guys had started paddling out. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, dismissing her presence as she sat herself down back in the sand, and a breath of relief escaped her lips. The tension was there, but everyone ignored it for her sake, and Y/N couldn’t be more grateful.

“Go, AJ!” Kalani cheered, pumping her fist and shouting a few hoots and hollers afterward. Dom, AJ’s brother, let out a few ear screeching whistles, the kind with the fingers in the mouth, joining in on rooting for his brother. 

Watching the guys out there solidified to Y/N how real this really is, and soon her veins were pumping with excitement again instead of dread as she cheered on her best friend. He was going to qualify, they all were and they knew that, but it's always fun to get excited about the possibility of moving forward and winning the titles and earning the trophies.

All the other faces that surfed alongside AJ were mostly familiar, their names ringing bells as the announcers spoke of them, but there was one that Y/N hadn’t ever heard before. It’s the same cycle of people every year, yet this guy was fresh. And the only reason she’s curious as to who he is, is because he’s good. Like, really good.

Kalani can’t exactly remember if she’s heard of him either, shrugging to Y/N’s wonderment, “I don’t know. Maybe AJ knows.” His pink surfboard and pink wet shirt stuck out as he was a sight for sore eyes, and Y/N grew a little resentment towards him as he pulled out a few advanced maneuvers, gaining everyone’s undivided attention that used to be on AJ.

“Who is that?” Y/N’s mother questioned, looking around to see that no one knew the answer. 

He was a mystery yet he radiated this vibrant energy as the guys finished their rounds, walking off with grace in his step as he laughed at something Nav -- one of the three’s friends -- had said. The girls bid their goodbyes to their families as they headed over to where the guys were before their rounds. AJ immediately came running over to them, hugging Y/N and Kalani simultaneously before giving his girlfriend a quick kiss on the lips. “You did great,” Kalani smiled, keeping her arms wrapped around his center.

“Alright, not in front of me,” Y/N grimaced, looking away from them. Immediately her eyes landed on the new surfer, still talking to Nav, and she was quick to turn back to AJ to ask who he is. “Hey, who’s the new guy?”

Looking over his shoulder, AJ saw who she was talking about before realization dawned on him. “Oh, that’s Harry. He’s from England. A really nice guy, I bet you’d like him,” he winked, causing Y/N to look at him with squinted eyes and pursed lips.

Kalani nudged his side, giving him a weird look. “What? I’m just saying.”

Then, speak of the Devil, Nav and this Harry guy came walking over, joining the three as they stood around waiting for the announcement that the girls could head out. Y/N wasn’t exactly paying attention to her surroundings as she continued to calm herself down for the impending near future. It wasn’t until Harry had stood in front of her, that she was knocked out of her own thoughts.

She looked up at him, making eye contact and briefly getting her breath caught in her throat. When he was far away, it was hard to make out his facial features or what he exactly looked like. But being right in front of him, she was merely astonished at his beauty, but more so his green eyes that reflected the perfect amount of sunlight. His wet, brunette hair rested against his forehead and seemed to be drying a bit curly.

His head tilted slightly, an amused smirk inching up his face as he watched her reaction. Something tells her he’s used to this kind of reaction. “M’Harry.”

His hand came between the two of them, waiting for her to grasp it in a firm grip. Y/N was hesitant at first but finally took his hand and shook it gently while greeting herself before dropping her hand back down to her side. “Y/N.”

This is insanely awkward. Especially because her friends are just watching the exchange silently, as if they weren’t allowed to speak while the two introduced themselves.

Harry has heard of Y/N. It’s hard for anyone involved in the surfing business to not have heard of her. Aside from the jarring news from last year, she’s an excellent surfer and her name is always spreading around like wildfire. She’s part of the reason Harry decided to delve more into the professional surfing world, because he’s been itching to meet her.

Y/N is attractive, anyone with eyes knows that, but Harry wanted to meet her only because of her expansive skills in the water. Standing in front of her, he can’t deny her undying beauty -- and if he weren’t such a gentleman he’d probably be trying to woo her this very instant. But, her looks aren’t what draws him to her, and he decides to not think with his dick for once.

Before he gets the chance to say something else to her, they get notified that the girls should start heading out for their rounds. Y/N and Kalani grab their boards and tuck them under their arms before bidding their goodbyes to the boys and scurrying off to join the rest of the girls.

“Whipped already?” Nav jokes, wrapping his arm around Harry’s shoulders and leading them to the sand where they’ll watch.

Y/N steps her toes into the water, basking in the cool feeling wrapping around her toes and surging up her body. She rolls her neck feeling it crack softly before rolling her shoulders back and taking in her umpteenth deep breath of the day. Her and Kalani looked at each other, nodding with smiles on their faces before they walked deeper in the shallow water until it reached the middle of their thighs before dropping their boards down and paddling out.

At the sight of a small wave heading toward her, Y/N dipped herself beneath the water just to wet her hair. It felt refreshing again to feel the salt coax her skin for the second time that day, as if it never left. When she greeted the air again, she could immediately feel the rays of the sun bouncing off of her skin, illuminating her in a heavenly glow, like the star she is. The spotlight is on her as she aims herself for the peak of the impending wave, nabbing the first ride of the girls’ round.

Back on the beach, her mom’s fingers were crossed, her dad’s breath was caught in his lungs, and Harry’s eyes were fixated on her figure as she jumped up on the belly of her board. Her legs kept her balance against the rough matter below her. Due to the steep wall of the wave, Y/N had to act quick and rational in order to keep control, and started off with an off-the-lip, which kept her parallel with the wave before she moved herself down and carved herself back into the energy zone. 

Because it was a smaller wave, she could only go on for so long before she tipped herself off the board and fell down into the water. Everyone waited with bated breaths and kept their eyes on the area she sunk beneath the blue, before sighing in relief to see her head pop back up. Harry could see the joy wipe over everyone’s faces, replacing the worry that was once there as they hugged one another. He could tell Y/N has such a good support system, and it only urges him more to want to be a part of her life.

Of this life.

❊ ❊

“You guys did so good! We’re so proud,” Y/N’s mom gushed as she pulled her into a warm embrace -- a hug that holds more meaning than just being proud. Her mom was relieved. Grateful. Happy. She’s able to hold her daughter one more time, and that’s all she could ask for. “It’s going to be a good year for all you kids.”

Y/N felt like she was on cloud nine. She was elated, overjoyed, ecstatic, riding such a good high. Her comeback couldn’t have gone any better and she’s just so, so happy. Arriving at the beach she was nervous and anxious and was two seconds away from caving to her fears and running away. Now, as she walks arm-in-arm with her best friend away from the water for the night, she’s laughing a genuine laugh and her veins are currently pumping excitement rather than nerves. 

AJ locked his arm over her shoulders, the three of them linked just like they always are as they head towards Y/N’s family van. But, instead of like other times, this time they have a tag-a-long trailing behind them. It’s sort of like a tradition where after every competition, all of the families join together and head to dinner at their usual restaurant. Nav couldn’t come because he had his own family matters to attend to but Harry was more than willing to accept the offer. He says he came to Hawaii alone and that he had nothing better to do, but his intense stare on Y/N when he accepted the offer says that’s not the only reason he was so quick to join.

It was also part of the tradition that they ride together in the van, 1) because it was the most spacious vehicle where they were able to ride together and 2) because Y/N’s parents are pretty fun to be around. They blasted the best music and made the best jokes, causing not one dull car ride. When they filed in, AJ and Kalani pushed themselves to the back seat, leaving Y/N and Harry to sit in the separate middle row chairs.

“Oh! Harry, I’m sorry, I forgot to ask. Does your family want to join us? They’re more than welcome to,” Y/N’s mom looked over her shoulder in the passenger seat.

He cleared his throat, looking up from his phone and sitting up a bit in his seat, an uncomfortable look on his face. “M’here alone, actually.”

Before anyone could ask any questions, AJ clapped Harry’s shoulder, saying, “We’re your temporary family now, man.” Despite being competitors, it seems the two of them really hit it off and AJ genuinely meant what he said about being Harry’s family. Though, everyone knows the main reason he said it was to diminish the rising tension.

“Thanks, mate,” Harry returned, fist bumping AJ. And during the little exchange, Harry caught eyes with Y/N, catching her eyes wandering around his profile and facial features, causing her to look away quickly and look out the window as if the view was something spectacular. She could hear him snicker quietly, and just when she thinks the coast is clear, she slyly looks back at him just to find out he’s already staring at her.

They really love staring at one another apparently.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Y/N and Harry were pushed to the back of the group -- not really by choice but somehow it ended up that way -- and neither of them really made any moves to break the silence between them. Y/N because she was nervous, and Harry because he wanted her to be the first to speak. And it just so happened that when they were sat at a table, they were left with the last two remaining chairs that also happened to be right next to each other. Y/N couldn’t figure out if they were doing this on purpose or it was by coincidence, but she can tell Harry doesn’t mind.

She’s not one to be nervous around guys, but there’s something about Harry and how he is so blatantly interested in her that makes her wary of talking to him. Kalani sat across the table from her, and when they made eye contact, they had a silent conversation about how Y/N should grow the balls and actually talk to him. Of course Y/N refused, which earned her a kick to the shin in retaliation, which then caused her to let out a yelp of pain and made everyone look at her confused and worried. 

“Sorry, hit my knee on the table,” she brushed it off, glaring at her best friend the moment everyone turned away and continued with their own conversations. 

Being as slick as possible, Kalani directed her eyes to Harry when he wasn’t looking so Y/N could see her, before turning to AJ and talking to him about something completely irrelevant. Again, Y/N and Harry were stuck in this silence. She’s not exactly sure why she can’t just start a conversation, but he’s kind of intimidating and she’s afraid of embarrassing herself, especially in front of her family. 

Pursing her lips and looking down to her lap, Y/N finally turned to give Harry her attention, noticing how he was staring into space, looking completely lost in this foreign setting. “So, uh, where exactly are you from?”

Harry was quick to turn his head to Y/N, waiting and waiting and waiting for the moment she would say something. “A small town in Cheshire. Northwest of London, if that helps.”

“That’s a pretty far trip to take alone,” she nods, licking her bottom lip before gently biting down on it. As much as she thinks of herself as an independent person, she’s also an extreme homebody and could never imagine going anywhere without anyone by her side, whether it be family or friends.

He merely shrugs in response, “M’better off alone.”

Y/N cocked her head to the side while looking at him, letting his words sizzle inside her mind as she tries to overanalyze him in the mere hours she’s known him. She turned her gaze down to her hands that were intertwined in her lap, mulling over her next words to say. She doesn’t know him, but she knows the feeling of being alone. And being alone, no matter how appealing it could sound, never works out in the end. People aren’t meant to live alone. It goes against the natural order of life, and just hearing him say he prefers being alone breaks her heart just the tiniest bit. “No one’s better off alone. Everyone needs someone eventually.”

Little does she know, is that she is his someone. Or, at least that’s what Harry’s hoping. He thinks he’s crazy for being so enthralled by someone so suddenly and so strongly, but Harry’s always been one to trust his gut. His plushie but toned gut was screaming at him that this girl is just meant to be in his life. Maybe meant to be his, but he won’t push his luck. “Guess we’ll have to wait an’ see.”

They both smiled softly at one another, a small blush creeping up Y/N’s cheeks for the umpteenth time that day. “I guess we will.”

❊ ❊

It had been a little over two weeks since qualification day. Her days hadn’t changed much in regards to her schedule; Waking up at the ass crack of dawn and heading straight into the water and staying in practically until the sun was set. But, there was one slight shift in her day, and that was the now familiar face of Harry popping in everyday, either physically or in her mind.

It was safe to say Harry was quickly adapting to the three friends, merging with them seamlessly; As if he had been part of this little group since he was a child. It’s not like any of them minded, especially AJ because he was happy to get another guy around. Their friend Nav wasn’t exactly a permanent part of their little group because he belonged to everyone and no one, but Harry stuck around them like glue and AJ was so grateful. 

Y/N’s grateful because now she isn’t a third-wheel.

Harry and her aren’t exactly buddy-buddy, but it definitely helps having someone else around for movie night so Y/N isn’t stuck watching her best friend’s all cuddled up together and hearing the occasional kiss they would share.

Though, Harry has made it known time and time again that he really wants to be buddy-buddy with her. And Y/N’s not exactly sure why she won’t give him what he wants, but for some reason she loses all comprehensive skills and becomes a blubbering, nervous mess around Harry whenever he brings up his interest in her. So, she’s successfully avoided all buddy-buddy conversations with him by bringing up mundane things instead. Like, why she decided to paint her nails blue, or why she absolutely despises white socks.

She thought she was doing a pretty skillful job too. But, after the first two times she avoided giving a yes or no answer to going on a date with him, Harry purposely would ask her just to hear what other obscure distractions she could come up with. He loved hearing Y/N talk, and without her knowing, he was getting to know her piece by piece, inch by inch, and he was loving it.

Though, a guy’s ego can only take so many rejections before he gives up completely. And just when he was ready to call it quits and accept that she wasn’t interested in him like he was her, the unexpected happened.

Y/N agreed to a date.

Well, kind of.

It was time for the Hawaiian Pro. The official first event of the Vans Triple Crown. It was taking place at Ali’i Beach Park in Hale’iwa, one of the most intense surfing spots filled with waves of  many different faces. Of course, this is when Y/N’s nerves really started to kick in. Qualification day isn’t anywhere near as filled with people as the actual events are, and her nerves have seemed to kick it into high gear. It doesn’t help that the Hawaiian Pro is when her life changed a year ago. She could hear people whispering about her, wondering if she’s going to wipe out again or if this time she’ll stay under the water. Her mind was already frenzied enough, but nothing completes the cycle like a panic attack and the embarrassment of many on-goers witnessing said panic attack.

She almost backed out. How is she meant to be the best when her body is afraid of taking its final breath? The tide was high and the waves showed no mercy. How is she meant to challenge that? How is she meant to control the water beneath her when she can’t even control her own thoughts?

It was getting to be too much for her. This entire time leading up to the Triple Crown she’s denied her fear and her anxiety, telling herself she’ll get over it. She’s been doing good all year, so what makes now any different? But it is very different. The calm atmosphere of her backyard is no match for the rambunctious setting of the Triple Crown. And she’s a fool for thinking differently.

So, she was panicking.

Y/N couldn’t even get up from her seat in her parent’s van because she was so shaky. Her father held her close, easing her back to reality and away from her tortuous mind. Of course, he offered to drive them back home and away from the competition, telling her again that she didn’t have to prove herself to anyone. But, she declined again. Because she needed to prove it to herself. She’s stronger than her mind lets on, and she needs to make sure she knows that.

When she slid off her board and sank her toes back into the warm sand after a very successful first round, landing her in the lead spot, she was finally able to breathe again.

People congratulated her on her comeback, astonished to see her doing better than ever before. Her parents embraced her with love and elation, so beyond happy to see her laughing and smiling and enjoying herself now that she’s progressing forward. Kalani of course is her number one supporter, practically jumping on her and screaming in her ear about how happy she is for her best friend.

Everyone was making their rounds hugging Y/N, and then it was Harry’s turn. They didn’t exactly embrace like the rest of them had, but he threw his arm over her shoulders and pulled her to his side, squeezing her to him softly before looking down at her and saying, “Absolutely wicked, love. Gotta teach me some of y’fancy moves.”

“You sure? They’re really only meant for the pros,” she teased, biting at her bottom lip to conceal her laughter as he scoffed.

“”Ey, no one likes a narcissist,” he shoved her shoulder softly, rolling his eyes as her laughter rang through his ears. “But, whaddya say? M’gonna need a good teacher if I wanna make it to the big leagues.”

Y/N simply shrugs without really thinking much into it, “Sure.” Her mind didn’t exactly process what she had agreed to until later that night, before she dozed off into her temporary slumber. Her eyes shot open and her body sat upright as an over dramatic gasp was inhaled into her lungs. Her mind had been all over the place with the competition that she didn’t realize that she had agreed to being alone with Harry for the first time since they'd met. Immediately she texted and called Kalani, to which she got laughed at in return.

“Kalani, this isn’t a laughing matter!”

A few miles away, Harry was snuggled into his bedsheets, a bright smile stretched across his face as he reveled in the idea that he finally was going to be alone with Y/N since the first time they’d met. His heart was jumping and his stomach was fluttering as he envisioned her pretty face behind his eyelids before he drifted off into his dream with her. 

“It so is! C’mon, Y/N, what have you got to lose? You have the same interests, he’s funny, he’s hot, and he clearly is into you. Enjoy something outside of surfing for once.”

Enjoy something outside of surfing for once.

That’s the thought that stuck in her mind, lingering around as she finally fell asleep, and then when she woke up, and when she was eating breakfast; And doing her chores; And hanging out with Kalani; And eating dinner; And then falling asleep again. Y/N didn’t even realize she had spent so much of her past year focusing on her career and health that she hasn’t done much of anything else.

She’s so grateful to be alive, but she’s hardly given herself the chance to live again.

Before her accident, she was always up for adventure and was always the life of any party. After her accident, she hasn’t even been to a party. She hasn’t been in a relationship in years, she hasn’t gone on a date in a long time, and she can’t even remember the last time she’s had sex or kissed a guy. She’s been so focused on her redemption, that she can’t remember the last time she was genuinely happy.

Going on this date, but also not a date -- but also clearly a date -- with Harry just may provide her with that. And she owes it to herself, to her past self, that her accident isn’t going to shape her life anymore.

Plus, she really enjoys Harry’s company. And even if she doesn’t show it so bluntly like him, she really likes him too.

The next day, Y/N and Kalani had gone out shopping, enjoying a nice girls day out. They had bought a few new varieties of swimsuits (as if they didn’t have enough) and a few other types of clothes, got some lunch, and even found time to watch a movie. And they did all of this right up until the moment Y/N decided it was time to text Harry. 

She wasn’t sure how to go about this, because she’s never really asked anyone on a date before, or followed up with plans (?) about a date. Kalani kept urging her to just rip the bandaid off and to get it over with, saying something along the lines of, “You’re not getting any younger. Plus, I think he’d slip right off his board at the sight of you in that new yellow suit you got.” It was just a simple bikini, but it showcased the majority of her skin that essentially left little to the imagination.

But, the thing is, whenever Y/N gets into the water around people, she can’t help but cover her torso with a wet-shirt, insecure of the imperfections that lined her skin. It’s rare she can bear to look at her skin, so she only assumes no one else would want to either. So, she’s not so sure he’ll fall off his board at the sight of her, but the thought is nice.

Y/N pulled out her phone and hovered over his contact for a good amount of time before Kalani grew impatient and snatched the phone from her friend’s hand. They wrestled around with each other to try and gain custody of the phone, but finally in the end Y/N was able to hold her phone tight in her hands before declaring, “Okay! Okay! I’m texting, I’m going.”

Kalani peaked over Y/N’s shoulder as she watched her type the allusive message to Harry, a proud smile carving over her lips as she watched her break down a barrier she had subconsciously put up. It isn’t by any means important to be in a relationship or to have a boyfriend, but Kalani knows deep down that Y/N was wishing to have that special connection only a relationship could provide -- a connection outside of the realm of friendships.

“There,” Y/N huffed, shoving the screen of her phone in her best friend’s face.

hii, if you’re still up to learn from a true professional, I’m available tonight :)

It wasn’t even ten seconds later that she got a reply.

Shit, I’ll be your best student, babe. I know a perfect spot, I’ll be at yours in an hour.

It was kind of amusing to Y/N that he said he knows a perfect spot, as if she hadn’t been living on this island all her life and practically knows it like that back of her hand. But, that miniscule thought was pushed to the very depths of her mind as panic coursed through her as she realized what she was getting herself into. She’s going on a date, not a date, but also a date with Harry, and a small hour wasn’t enough time to gain her composure. 

Fuck.

❊ ❊

It’s no surprise to Y/N when Harry shows up to her house a minute early. She’s half convinced that he had been waiting outside of her house for the past fifteen minutes until he finally stepped up on to the porch of her house, knocking rapidly on the door. It wasn’t an emergent knock that caused some sort of panic, but it was a frantic knock that screamed ‘let’s get the show on the road.’

When she opened the door, both of their breaths were robbed from their lungs. Y/N essentially looked like she always did but something about her glowed differently to Harry; maybe it was because she’s his for the night. For his eyes only. Just him and her. He was awestruck. 

Harry essentially looked like he always did but something about him radiated differently to Y/N. The same little smirk was nestled in its usual spot, but this one held a different meaning. It looked the same, but maybe it was different because it was just her and him tonight. He’s hers for the night. For her eyes only. Y/N was nervous.

Y/N left her board out on her porch so she wouldn’t have to walk around back when he got here, but she was silently wishing she didn’t so she’d get just a couple more seconds to get herself together. She just kept chanting, “It’s not a date!” in her head, in hopes it would make her feel better.

It didn’t.

Harry saw her board and tucked it under his left arm as he threw his right one over her shoulders guiding her his mode of transportation. It also wasn’t a surprise to Y/N to see Harry rolling up in a light yellow Jeep; the top down and the doors off, typical of any surfer dude, no matter where they originate.

“Her name’s Betty,” he smiled, walking around the back and giving her a quick tap on her rear end before stepping up to straddle Y/N’s board safely and securely.

Sliding through the empty passenger door to take her seat, Y/N was greeted by a familiar smell, a smell she could only associate with Harry. And even if she could never admit it, she loved it a lot. It was mouth-watering and intoxicating, and simply put, it was Harry. Even with the open atmosphere of the car, it was still drenched in this specific smell, and Y/N can’t help but giggle at the image of Harry spritzing whatever cologne into the car before arriving at her house.

A few moments later, Harry slid into the driver side, placing the sunglasses that were sitting on the dash over his eyes, shoving the key into the ignition and starting them on their journey to whatever beach he had envisioned. On the ride there, over the course of a few right turns and lefts and different exits on the highway, Y/N surprisingly had no idea where they were going. Did she think maybe he was gonna murder her? A bit. But, she felt comfortable around Harry. So, she felt it in her gut that she was going to come out alive from this… event.

When they got to the beach, it was about thirty minutes from Y/N’s house, and she had no idea where they were. They had to walk a short path to meet sand and ocean, but once they made it past the clearing, Y/N was in awe of the site ahead of her. People could think that seeing the ocean every day ruins the peaceful and magical aura surrounding it. But, Y/N never gets sick of greeting it. The sun was beginning to set, and the water was glowing with a yellow-pink hue by the horizon that blended into a bright blue by the shore. The cliff sides around them guarded the little alcove, feeding into the tranquil atmosphere.

“How did you find this place?” Y/N wondered as she kicked off her sandals, and shimmied her shorts down her legs before kicking them over her sandals. The yellow bottom of her bikini was visible, and she turned her head just as Harry took a large gulp at the sight of her in front of him; Just for him. Her blue wet-shirt stayed on though.

It piqued Harry’s interest as to why she never took off her shirt. He understood for the competitions, but even when it was just a casual outing, just him and her, or them and their friends, she always kept it on. It wasn’t his place to ask, but he wished she would’ve broken this barrier down just this once. Just for him. “Tha’s a secret for me to know and you to maybe find out.”

Y/N let out a giggle - why? she didn’t know - and turned her attention back to the boy that brought her here, her eyes nearly popping out of her head as she caught Harry taking off his white t-shirt, now only clad in his little pink shorts next to his little pink board. His skin looked extra dewy, and his tattoos seemed to glint under the setting sun. Before she could devour him with her eyes, she picked up her board and took it with her, running down to the water and shouting, “C’mon slow-poke, gotta get in the water before the sun sets!”

It wasn’t a surprise to Y/N that this didn’t keep on track of a teaching lesson. Harry doesn’t need to be taught, he’s amazing on his own. He pulled off his own tricks that Y/N didn’t even know the name of, and she was asking him to let her in on his little secrets. He locked his lips in return, throwing the imaginary key somewhere over his shoulder, “Y’think I’m g’na tell you? I’m far too narcissistic to let you beat me at my own game.”

“Who said I’m gonna beat you?”

“Have you met you?”

There’s a reason Y/N’s name circulates throughout people’s brains, why her name is common in any Hawaiian household, why Harry was itching to meet her. She’s good at what she does. Insanely good that it’s kind of concerning. Not everyone can come back from a life-altering experience, but Y/N took those stereotypes and crushed them beneath the tail of her infamous yellow surfboard. She reveled in the doubts and came back stronger than ever. Of course she would beat him at his own game. She’s the only one who could.

There wasn’t any telling how long they had been riding wave after wave, in the water with no one else but just each other. But, the sun almost halfway past the horizon line was a good giveaway. They were probably nearing the two hour mark, and they knew they couldn’t stay out here all night, but Jesus, how they wished they could. Y/N wasn’t expecting to be so content, thinking this would be some strange, awkward, uncomfortable time they would want to forget about the moment they left each other’s sides.

It’s the opposite.

Just for him. Just for her.

They both laid on their boards, limbs sprawled out and dangling into the water as their bodies shut down in exhaustion. Y/N can’t remember the last time she went so long without taking at least a ten minute break. Her body was most definitely not used to it as she felt her back mold into her little yellow board, accepting the relaxation. When she finally opened her eyes back up, she turned her head to the side, admiring Harry’s profile as his arms were pulled over his head, the skin of his torso being stretched, which also stretched the ink that adorned him.

Y/N got lost in the mirage that is Harry, that she didn’t even realize he had turned his head and caught her ogling. It wasn’t until he cleared his throat that her eyes snapped to his, heat traveling up through her body and rushing to her cheeks. “M’eyes are up here, love.”

“Uh- right. Yeah, I know.”

“Cool. Hey d’y’wanna play twenty questions?” He asked, sitting up to straddle his board and paddling himself around so he was facing her. 

Y/N squinted her eyes, “Are we children?”

“I mean, I guess not. Doesn’t stop my five year old humor though,” he smiled, kicking his foot up to splash her with an inkling of water as his childlike, petty comeback. “You ask first.”

Y/N pushed her hand through the water to spray him in an ounce of sea salt before turning her head back to the sky, contemplating her first question. “Mm… favorite color?” She already knew the answer.

“And you asked me if we’re children? C’mon, darling, know you wanna know more than tha’. Pink. What was your first impression of me?” He wiggled his eyebrows, even though she couldn’t see his face. This has been one of those things that’s been nagging at the back of his mind ever since they first met. Their first encounter wasn’t awkward per-se, but the fleeting moment of introduction wasn’t exactly one worth remembering either. But, Harry was always going to remember it. And depending on Y/N’s answer, he hopes she will too.

At this, she turned her head back to Harry, hand covering her eyes as the sun glared at them over the reflective water. It was a sight to behold, seeing Harry glow in the golden hour light. “Intimidating. But, also unique,” she began, moving to sit herself up and paddle her board around so she was now facing him. “You remind me of a singular cloud in an otherwise clear sky. You’re not meant to be there, yet you’re not out of place.”

Harry sat for a moment, staring. Completely in awe. Head over heels. Never would’ve guessed those words to be the ones tumbling from her lips. It was the way she didn’t hesitate in her sentence, as if those words had been formulated a while ago and just now was she able to spew it from her wordbank. Just for him. “Fuck, that was beautiful. Your turn.”

“Do you really think you’re better off alone?”

Harry pursed his lips, looking off into the distance for a brief moment before shrugging, “I do. But, I don’t. If it comes down to going back to my family and friends from home or being alone, I’ll choose being alone.” And he wanted to sprinkle in the little bonus that he doesn’t feel alone when he’s around her, but something tells him that’ll just turn her away. “What’re you so afraid of?”

It’s a brash question Y/N wasn’t expecting to be thrown at her so suddenly. She has a mix of answers, and there’s a specific one flashing in her mind like a bright, neon yellow sign, but she’s not certain how comfortable she is with telling him yet. Though, she notices that whatever question she could throw his way, he’d answer it truthfully, not scared of opening himself up, just for her. She wants to be brave like that, and maybe she can be, but she’s not sure how.

It comes as a surprise to her when she does say, “I’m scared of going through everything that happened last year all over again. Everyone’s afraid of dying, or at least most people are, but experiencing death… there’s really no coming back from that. ”

“Experiencing it?” He looks at her wide-eyed.

“What, you haven’t heard of what happened last year?” She looks at him, eyebrows scrunched. 

“Only know you had some accident. No offense, but I didn’t really bother myself with reading the fine print,” he shrugs, running his pruney fingers through his salted hair. He didn’t know if he wanted to read it, especially not with the sudden news that apparently this very alive, lively girl in front of him… died? He doesn’t think he could stomach reading about that.

Y/N hasn’t met a single person who hasn’t heard about what happened to her. Or at least the details of it. In reality she doubts anyone outside of Hawaii knows of her existence, but in her world it was the biggest news to affect the state in a while -- aside from, like, actual serious matters, her accident was up there on the news.

She evades his second question though, not wanting to cough up the traumatic details of her past; not yet at least. “Well, it’s my turn anyway. Why surfing?”

“I could just look it up, but I get it; you’ll tell me when you’re ready,” he gave her a playful look, pursing his lips while giving her a pointed stare. “It’s different. England isn’t known for surfing. It’s known for rain and football. But, with every possible detail of m’life, I wanted to make sure I was different. My dad wanted me to become a professional footy player, so I said no. M’mum wanted me to go and get a degree and a real job. I didn’t want that. So, I turned to surfing,” he swung his arms around, gesturing to the vast sea and the board below him.

“Plus, it’s given me an excuse to leave home and come here. And y’know, so I could meet you.”

Y/N felt a small blush creep up her skin again, her eyes shooting down to her lap and her feet that were distorted under the water. Harry’s infatuation with the girl isn’t a secret, but anytime he purposely makes it known, it’s like a little secret that she’s unsure if she’s supposed to know or not. “Meet me?”

Harry kicked his foot up again so water would splash at her. “Uh-uh, my turn,” he laughed, shaking his head. He knew she thought she was slick at the way she bit her lip, containing her laughter. If she wants to play by the rules of the nonsensical game, then so will he. “Sunrise or sunset?”

“Sunset. Favorite song?” She wanted to reel back from the serious talk for a moment.

“Too many to choose from. Favorite movie?” He wanted to know every nitty-gritty detail about her.

She pondered for a moment, “Mamma Mia.”

“No shit! Me too!” His mouth dropped in shock, his hand flying up to his chest. 

“Really?”

“No,” he shook his head, immediately blocking the massive splash he sensed coming. 

Y/N rolled her eyes, huffing at him whilst crossing her arms over her torso, “Are you always so insufferable?”

“S’my middle name, babe. You hungry?” He laid himself down on his board on his belly, paddling himself to face the beach, ready to make a head start for the beach. Y/N hummed a response, following in suit and settling her stomach against the belly of the board and pushing herself to land. “Cool, let’s go get something to eat then I’ll take you home.”

Y/N’s legs felt weak, yet appreciative back on the sand. It felt like she was walking on Jell-O as she went to pick up her towel and clothes. Looking down to her shirt, she knew it was out of the question to let him see her take it off. And she could turn her back so he wouldn’t see her front -- whether or not it’s clad in a bikini top -- but even then her heart raced at the thought. She held her t-shirt in her hands and thought it over for a moment before blurting, “Could you turn around please?”

Harry looked up from checking his phone quickly, tilting his head in confusion before looking down to the shirt in her hands. The dots are connected and the bright neon pink sign in his head is telling him to listen to her, and not to question it. So, he doesn’t. Just for her. It’s still unbeknownst to Harry why she never takes her shirt off, but he knows better than to think with his dick, and accepts her wishes, turning his back to her. 

Y/N lets out a small breath of relief, grateful he didn’t question her on it. She’s quick to rip off her shirt and pat dry her wet skin before hastily throwing on her dry one, giving Harry the OK to turn back around. 

“Sorry, I just… I’m not comfortable with anyone seeing my, uh, my scar,” she mumbles, nervously moving her hair from one shoulder over to the other. Harry shrugs in response, picking his board up from the ground and wrapping his arm around her shoulder as they began their walk back to his car.

“You don’ have to explain yourself to me, babe,” he smiled down at her, squeezing her to his side softly.

Y/N looked up at him, and she’s sure that if she could see herself right now, her eyes would be twinkling in delight, with adoration. Just for him. “Thank you.”

They didn’t say anything else for a few minutes, walking the distance to his lonesome Jeep in peace. The silence gave Y/N time to think and to mull over all of the gushy feelings she was feeling inside about the guy beside her. She had no reason not to like him, realizing it was only fear that was pushing her away. But, this night displayed a soft side to Harry that she fell head over heels for. His smooth, easy-going approach to life, mixed in with respect for her, and a hint of witty humor was enough to tell her how she truly feels about him. And she’s scared, not because she’s afraid, but because she’s not.

Y/N can find herself easily opening up to Harry quicker than she has anyone else because she trusts him. She can just tell he’s got nothing to hide, so in-turn she wants to be the same. She doesn’t want to cower away, but revel in happiness. Because she deserves it.

Harry quickly secured the boards back into their previous spots before sliding into the driver side and whisking them away from their little getaway. The wind swept through their hair and chilled their still slightly wet skin, causing goosebumps to trail up Y/N’s arm as chills raked through her body. This time around in the car they both were more laid back, not singing along to the songs playing on the radio but rather just listening and taking in the blissful atmosphere they’ve created.

There’s been one question dancing across her mind though ever since he brought up the little game of twenty questions. It was the first one to pop up in her mind when she was thinking of something juicy to ask. She didn’t want to ask it though, in fear of what his answer would be. But, now she’s not afraid. She’s curious though.

“Is this a date?” She queried, turning the volume of the radio down a bit so he could hear her and vice versa. 

Harry glanced at her through his peripheral, one eyebrow cocking up on his forehead, “Is the sky blue?”

“I mean, right now it’s like orange-blue,” she retorted, looking at the newly sun-ridden sky that blended shades of orange into the usual night blue. 

“Brainiac. There’s your answer. It’s however you want to look at it,” he digressed, reaching over to pat her thigh - in more of a friendly manner rather than sensual.

She appreciated his answer, absolutely adoring the fact that he wasn’t putting pressure on her about anything. It was hard to comprehend just how nice he truly is, and how someone could be so perfect. She couldn’t see a flaw in his looks or his personality or his morals, and all she could wonder was how someone like him could possibly like someone like her. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you, Harry.”

He side glanced at her again, this time raising both of his eyebrows in puzzlement, “I’ll take tha’ as a good thing?”

“It’s good. It’s… it’s a good thing.”

❊ ❊

The two of them had discussed where they wanted to go, neither of them wanting to decide and going back and forth with one another, saying, “No, you decide,” “No you.”

Y/N was never good at decisions, especially mundane ones like where to eat. She always lets Kalani decide because she could eat anything, and it’s her friend that’s the picky one. But, Harry is the same way. Whatever is put in front of him, he could probably eat (except for pickles, he absolutely hates pickles).

They settled for pizza. And it was going to be Harry’s first time trying a slice of Hawaiian.

Y/N hates Hawaiian slices, finding the sweetness of the pineapple and the savor of the ham unsettling atop her pizza. It sends her taste buds into shock and her mind into a meltdown. But, she insisted he try it, because how could someone be in Hawaii and not try its state-named slice?

They sat at their little table in the corner of the restaurant that was alongside a window, giggling to themselves as they played a little game of eye-spy, waiting for their food. For some odd reason, Harry was really good at this game, always picking the hardest of objects to point out, always stumping a frustrated Y/N.

“You’re cheating.”

“How the fuck am I cheating?”

“Dunno, you just are.”

And in retaliation to her accusation, Harry pointed to her shirt, stating she got a little soda on it, causing her to look down to her chest and see nothing but finger as he flicked her nose. “Too easy. Sore loser.”

Y/N huffed, sticking her tongue out at him. The playful banter between them was the best part of their days lately. Before Y/N even realized her feelings for Harry, she always looked forward to what they would bicker about -- in a friendly matter of course. Now, she constitutes that to just wanting to see him because she really enjoys his company, and him. 

It’s been a long time since she’s felt this way about anyone, and she’s sort of glad she gets to feel this way about Harry. He’s an enigma, but a good one. She’s totally transfixed by him and she never wants this euphoria to end. He radiates this bright and bubbly energy that lifts her mood whenever she’s around him, and she’s afraid of losing that. But, she chooses not to dwell on the what-if, instead completely basking in the present and his gooey aura of happiness. 

When the food finally came out, they both were quick to stuff their faces, their stomachs practically turning inside-out from how hungry they were. It came to no surprise to Harry that he was absolutely in love with this Hawaiian slice, already looking forward to ordering two more. 

Y/N looked at him a tad worried. He was scoffing down three slices as if there were no tomorrow, all within a matter of two minutes. She was slightly worried he was going to reach over and take her dinner, because that’s how hungry he seemed to be. But, he should know better than to get between Y/N and her food. Like the one time he tried to take some of her fries, to which she punched him in the shoulder and then took them back.

“Hey, y’gonna eat that?” He points to her not yet touched slice of pizza, earning a glare that could kill in response. “Cool, you are, just making sure. Can’t let precious food go t’waste. It’s my turn for a question right?”

Y/N thinks back for a second to determine if he’s right or not, remembering she did ask a question last. She nodded her head before biting into her little piece of heaven. 

“Was it hard getting back in the water?”

She brought her napkin up to her mouth to wipe away the drop of sauce she felt on her cheek, mulling over her answer. “Kinda. I knew I had to eventually because it’s all I know, it was just a matter of when. My parents were terrified, and I mean I was too but I can’t let that dictate my future. I love surfing and nothing is going to take that away from me.”

Not even something as horrifying as death could take her away from her true love. Not until she’s truly six-feet under, riding silver waves in the silver palace. 

“Do you think you’re going to stay here? In Hawaii?” Y/N wondered, taking a sip of her Coke.

“Got nowhere else to be,” he shrugged, mindlessly tapping his fingers on the table in an arrhythmic pattern. “Home is where the heart is, right? Well, think mine’s here right now.” Across from her. Just for her.

Home is where the heart is.

“Does it count if my heart isn’t mine?”

Last year, Y/N was going about her day like she always did. She was fine, in tip-top shape just like she had been for the past twenty years of her life. The bright sun was out and shining over all of the surfers and onlookers, and it seemed just like every other regular day. She was paddling out into the water, and the perfect, golden first wave was approaching her. She pushed herself up onto her feet, balancing her body, in tune with the wave, executing a nearly perfect opener. Then, she felt her chest tighten and her body suddenly felt weak. Breathing rapidly grew difficult, causing her to instantly panic. She fell off her board, plummeting into the water, trying to gasp for air but choking on the sea that swimmed down her throat. 

Feeling herself sink as her chest was on fire was the last she remembered. The baby blue sky blended into black and that was it. Her life was over. 

Kalani was the one who went in after her, screaming for help as her best friend was blue in the face and not moving. 

Y/N suffered a heart attack. Apparently, she had a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, that went unnoticed all her life. On this day, her heart had thickened extensively, making it difficult to pump blood to the rest of her body. The strain on her heart caused it to give out, right when she was feeling the high of riding a solid wave. She was pronounced dead for a total of forty-five seconds before EMT could revive her. Supposedly she’s lucky to be alive, because if not treated basically instantly, there’s a slim chance of survival. But, she was able to stick it out until the hospital.

Her heart was in brutal shape, so she was sent to the top of a donor waiting list. Y/N and her family are forever grateful for the team of doctors and nurses that stuck by her side, knowing she wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them. Or her sheer luck.

Y/N felt a little crazy for feeling so comfortable spilling all of this information so suddenly to Harry, but at the same time she didn’t. And the best part about it is that none of it seems to freak Harry out. Nothing about who she is or how she is scares him. And that’s what makes her feel so comfortable. “My scar, it’s from a heart transplant. I had a heart condition all my life apparently. Then suddenly one day, it couldn’t handle it anymore, so it gave out. A girl named Shauna’s heart is keeping me alive right now.”

Harry didn’t blink for a whole minute.

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, trying to come up with something, anything to say to the girl across from him. But, he had nothing. He didn’t know what to say.

His silence was a little concerning to Y/N, making her wish she could just be swallowed whole by the ground below her. Was it too soon to drop the HT bomb? He was bound to find out eventually, and she figured it was best to rip the bandaid off on her own time rather than someone else telling him or him looking it up on Google. 

She’s kicking herself over it. 

Harry cleared his throat, taking a sip of his water before licking his lips and leaning back in his chair. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Y/N merely shrugged, “Don’t be. Shit happens. Who knows, if it never happened we may not be here now.”

Harry raised his eyebrows, his signature small smirk back on his face in its usual spot. He raised his glass, leaning it forward a bit toward her, stating, “Cheers to that, babe.” She raised her own glass and clinked it against his, a smile on her lips as she sucked up the remaining bit of her soda through her straw. She’s happy he didn’t turn and run away.

Cheers to that, babe.

By the time they both filled their guts to the point of feeling overstuffed, mindlessly chatting and spending time together, it was already past ten o’clock. The time had passed them by like it was nothing, but they weren’t necessarily complaining. The older couple next to them were though. Y/N had to pull Harry out of the restaurant before he bit the woman’s head off for how rude she was. That’s when they knew it was time to skedaddle.

Then they just drove around for another hour before Harry figured it was time to bring her home, much to his dismay. But, when her head lolled against the passenger seat headrest and her eyes would softly shut in exhaustion. He wanted desperately to reach over and tuck the loose strand of hair that fell out of her ponytail, behind her ear. He wanted to reach over and place his hand on her thigh as they drove down the highway, softly squeezing her skin before teasingly inching up towards her hidden gem.

Is it too soon to be in love?

It was like a slap in the face when Harry parked in front of her house. Reality stuck its nose into their little wonderland bubble, and unfortunately, they couldn’t push it back out.

Harry hopped out of his seat, unfastening her board from the trunk and tucking it under his arm as they walked side-by-side to her front door. He gently placed it down where he had initially found it earlier on, tucking his lips into his mouth as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

“I uh… I guess this is it. I had a really ni-”

“I’ve got one more question before you leave me,” he interrupted her little speech, stepping impossibly closer to her, barricading her between him and the banister on her porch. It wasn’t hard to notice the long stares at her shiny lips that glinted in the dull yellow glow of the light by the door. He purposely took extra time to rake over the features of her face before finally meeting her eyes. 

Y/N swallowed nothing but air as she softly bit at her bottom lip, “Yeah?”

She already knew his question.

“Can I kiss you?”

He already knew her answer.

Y/N slyly looked at him, bringing her hands up, a bit hesitant to rest on his shoulders. “I thought this wasn’t a date.”

“Sky’s blue.” Y/N looks up at the sky and notices it’s dark blue hue, twinkling stars layers on top, surrounding the fullest, brightest moon. It was a beautiful sky, perfect to share a first kiss under.

He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers as his hands came up to her hips. Her eyes fluttered shut, waiting for the climactic moment to overcome them, the air of the night chilling up her spine.

But, then she felt fiery, red hot as their lips locked together in a soft kiss. It was as soft as they felt towards one another. This giddy, slow paced, admiring kiss that had their insides melting but their hearts pounding. This kiss is exactly how Y/N images Harry. A pale yellow that’s not harsh on the eyes, that resonates happiness. Harry imagines it as a hot pink, one that takes his breath away and captures his mind.

It wasn’t long before it turned heated, Harry’s tongue sweeping into her mouth, and one of his hands travelling further south to grab hold of the flesh of her behind. Y/N let out a soft moan into his mouth as her hands tangled into his mound of curls, tugging softly on his roots.

Then the disturbing image of either one of her parents opening the front door at any moment flashed across her eyes, causing her to pull back, kissing his bottom lip softly before trailing her thumb over the swollen skin and opening her eyes to look into his gaudy, green ones.

The sounds of their breaths mingled together as tired smiles adorned their faces, little giggles leaving each of their mouths as they basked in what just happened. All Harry could think was, ‘It’s about damn time.’ All Y/N could think was, ‘Why did I ever push him away?’

“My turn,” she spoke after a few moments, standing up straighter and fixing her shirt around her body. “Pick me up tomorrow?”

A wide, shit-eating grin spread out across Harry’s face as he ran his hand through his mangled curls. “Sunrise. If y’not in this exact spot in the morning, m’knocking the door down and dragging you out by y’hair.” He hopped down off the porch, completely skipping the steps as the adrenaline of their first kiss kicked into his system.

“Sunrise,” she agreed.

He hopped back into the driver’s side of his Jeep, throwing his hand up in a goodbye wave as he sped away, already counting down the seconds until he would see his golden ray of bright and bubbly sunshine again. He’s not so sure if he’ll be able to fall asleep.

Y/N didn’t have that same problem. The moment she landed on her bed, her eyes shut faster than the speed of light, her last conscious thought being of Harry. Her smile never leaving her face. 

❊ ❊

Meeting at sunrise had become part of their routine. Not always to surf, but just to be together. Sometimes they surfed at their little alcove, other times they would watch the sun from her backyard, snuggled up in blankets on the beach. Or, they would surf, get breakfast, then fall back asleep in his bed until a more decent hour of morning.

But, their day always began at sunrise. It would be the equivalent to say that it also ended at sunset, but sunset was always too soon to part ways. 

This wasn’t an everyday occurrence, mostly at random. Except for Sundays. Sundays are specifically their day, as per request of Harry. How could he be in love with a girl that coined yellow as her color, that had a smile as bright as the huge burning star, that claimed golden hour was prime sun time, and not deem Sunday as their day? He didn’t put any second thought into it.

Despite their sort of fast paced first date, they’ve been taking things slow, truly getting used to the feel of one another over the course of the next couple of months. It wasn’t until a month later that Harry popped the question, officially making Y/N his forever buddy-buddy. Well, not necessarily forever, but they both know it’s basically forever.

Harry never wants to be alone again.

It wasn’t until the night after they became official that Y/N finally took her shirt off in front of him. She was going through one of her episodes, and Harry was the only one around who could help her. He managed to calm her down and bring her inside her house - that was empty because her parents had gone out for the night - and get her to the bathroom so she could take a shower.

Initially, he was going to let her get in by herself, knowing her boundaries in regards to her body and not seeing it. But, when he saw how worn down she looked, he whispered words of reassurance in her ear, asking her permission to help get her in the shower. He wasn’t thinking with his dick, he just wanted to help the girl that didn’t know how to help herself.

Y/N looked him in the eyes, nibbling softly on her bottom lip before averting her attention to her chest for a few moments. She trusts him, and if they’re bound to work out, she needs him to be comfortable with seeing all aspects of her both mentally and physically. Which includes her scar. 

So, she nods her head in agreement.

She lifted her arms and allowed him to remove her shirt, immediately feeling self-conscious. She couldn’t look him in the eyes as she stepped out of her shorts and underwear, going into the shower to avoid any lingering stares. Harry was quick to follow behind her, shutting the curtain after him. That’s when Y/N turned around and completely broke down, the tears that have been building behind her eyes finally pouring out. Harry wrapped her in his arms, letting her cry her eyes out for however long she needed.

When she stopped, Harry washed her hair, washed her body, washed away her bad thoughts, then washed himself as fast as he could so he could get her into her bed for the night. She snuggled up to his side, enjoying the warmness of his body that contrasted her cool ones. 

That night when her parents came home, they spotted Harry’s Jeep in front of their house. Though when the house was eerily quiet, and found the door to her bedroom slightly ajar, they peeked inside and saw the two of them fast asleep. Parents usually would get angry at the sight of their child in bed with someone of a different gender, but not Y/N’s parents.

Over the last two months, they saw their daughter break back out of her shell, slowly returning to her former self, and all because of Harry. They saw how happy she became whenever he was around, or they’d overheard happy she was when just talking about him to Kalani. How could they ever get angry at the fact that Y/N was happy?

With the blossoming of their relationship taking place at the same time as the Vans Triple Crown, word got around fast and soon enough they were the star couple leading the ranks in their respective divisions. The world -- or really the surfing world, because no one really pays attention to professional surfers, was in awe of them. They were the hype of the news, of the town, of the state. Rightfully so, because they’re awfully cute. 

It came as no surprise to everyone when the two were crowned the champions. The press went wild with this one, stating there was some scam happening behind the scenes, because what were the odds that this new star couple could both win? Or, how could Harry, a newbie, shoot his way up to the top in just one year? Or, how could Y/N dominate with her physical ailments? 

There wasn’t a hoax and there wasn’t any cheating. They both were just that good.

The day of the final competition, they may have worked just a little harder to land the championship title. Harry had picked Y/N up and they traveled to their secret hideaway bright and early in the morning. After being out at a party the night before, the two were in no shape to get in the water already, opting to snooze under the shade of a cliff on the beach for a little while. 

They didn’t sleep for very long before they got wrapped up in one another, indulging in a morning session of intimate love. They slept for maybe an hour before Y/N was ready to get her swim on, but Harry was the biggest sack of lazy mush that morning. He didn’t want to get up for nothing. He was laying down on his surfboard, completely comfortable under the shade. Y/N tried tugging on his arms to get him up, but he wouldn’t budge, a half-sleepy and dazed smile on his lips.

At one point he tugged her back, causing her to land on his lap, legs straddling his hips as her face crashed into his chest. His arms wrapped around her back, securing him to her as he said, “See? Isn’t this so much better than physical activity?”

“C’mon tubby, we got shit to do,” Y/N giggled, but Harry just held onto her tighter and nuzzled his cheek to the top of her head.

He hummed, “S’comfortable here.”

Y/N didn’t know what else to do, so the only maneuver left was bribery. Harry’s no different than any guy in the sense that once sex is brought into the mix, his ears perk up and his dick stiffens. So, Y/N was going to use that to her advantage. “If you get up, you can fuck me all night tonight.”

Harry was quick to sit up, her still in his lap, eyes squinted in suspicion. Y/N bit her lip to refrain from laughing, but she was mentally patting herself on the back. His hands shifted down her back to grab onto the flash of her behind, pulling her center closer to his and building up a bit of friction. “How about right now and tonight?”

“I can’t be exhausted for today, H,” Y/N rolled her eyes, moving to get herself off his lap, but he kept her grounded.

“You don’t ‘ave to get in the water now. You’ve practiced, you’re prepared, you got this. The championship is practically in your hands already,” he disclosed, peppering kisses up the side of her neck, a few across her jawline, and then landing on her lips.

Even if that may be true, she doesn’t want that to stop her from putting effort and time into winning. “Harry…” she started, getting lost in the feel of his lips suckling a lovebite right in the crook of her neck, her most sweet spot. He lifted his hips up slightly, pushing against her heat, eliciting the smallest moan from her mouth.

“Bet y’soaking your suit. Can I see?”

They only have a limited amount of time before they need to get to the Northshore at Ehukai Beach Park for the competition. It was about a forty-five minute drive alone. But, Harry’s lips and fingers were way too persuasive, so Y/N nodded her head.

“Good girl.”

He lifted her up so her back was now against the belly of his pink board, her legs immediately wrapped around his broad shoulders as he placed a chaste kiss to her clothed core. She whined as he hooked his fingers into her bikini bottoms, dragging them tortuously slow down her legs. His eyes immediately attracted themselves to her glistening slit, her wetness practically inviting him in. “So fucking pretty, baby.”

Harry’s hands pushed her legs as far apart as they would go, licking a fat stripe up from her little hole to her sensitive clit. Y/N threw her head back as he focused his attention on her clit, swirling his tongue around the little bud before sucking it into his mouth. She was a whimpering mess, but that earned her a smack on the ass and a first warning from Harry.

“No one’s around. Let me hear you loud and clear,” he gave her a pointed look, keeping their eye contact as he went a little further south, pushing the tip of his tongue into her cunt. Y/N tried closing her legs around his head but Harry just pushed them open further, keeping a firm grip on her thighs that were bound to leave bruises. Bruises just for her. 

Her jaw fell slack, moans tumbling past her pink lips louder and louder. Her nails dug into his shoulders, most likely leaving scratches he’ll find later when they’re stinging in the shower. Just for him.

Y/N was growing restless as he inserted his middle and ring finger inside of her, pushing and pulling them at an intense pace that caused her toes to curl in the sand by his hips. When he managed to push his index finger in alongside the other two, Y/N began to see stars at the stretch of her walls.

“So tight f’me. Imagine it was my cock instead. Would feel so good and full, but you’d be too exhausted for later, hm?” He cooed, letting her adjust to the extra digit inside of her before fucking her harder and faster than before. He kissed up her tummy that was visible from under her shirt before landing his forehead against hers.

His free hand grabbed a hold of her jaw, making her face him which caused her eyes to open up quickly, locking eye contact with one another. “S’a shame. M’so hard, like a fucking rock. But you’ll be too tired.”

Teasingly, Y/N nodded her head in agreement, earning a hard glare from her lover. At this, he stopped the movement of his fingers, slowly pulling them out of her. Y/N’s mouth opened wide, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion as Harry sucked his fingers past his lips, indulging in her sweetness that tasted like a little sliver of heaven. 

“Wh-wha…?”

“Close y’mouth, Y/N. Gonna catch flies,” he smirked, reaching over for her bikini bottoms and sliding them back up her legs until they were nestled against her soaking wet, throbbing pussy. “Said it y’self. Can’t be exhausted for the finale today, gotta be quick on your feet and coasting the gnarliest waves. C’mon slow poke, gotta get some practice in.”

So, Y/N was pissed off to say the least. And because of this, she was extra determined to push herself as far as she could to come out on top today. Harry on the other hand, well he was just mad that he had an insane hard-on that his own girlfriend didn’t want to tend to. He should’ve expected his little stunt wouldn’t go over nicely, but the look on her face when he stopped was absolutely priceless.

When it was announced that Y/N and Harry had won in their divisions everyone was beyond elated at the news, cheers and hugs and kisses spread all around the group. Though when it was their turn to congratulate each other, they looked at each other, small smiles on their faces before they turned to make conversation with someone else. That didn’t stop them from reaching for one another though, slyly interlocking their hands together.

They were whisked away quickly for pictures, holding their trophies high in the air, the biggest smiles on their faces. Y/N’s parents were cheering them on, more specifically her because they were so proud she was able to take her life back. Y/N could cry at the sight of her mother being a blubbering mess, and her dad’s admiration sparkling across his eyes. Though, with the support of her family, Y/N’s mind couldn’t help but wonder about Harry’s family, and how they couldn’t support their son with what he loved. 

With this, Y/N squeezed his hand harder, and despite the cameras around them, she leaned up on her tiptoes and placed a kiss to his lips, the clicks of the cameras and the chatter of the crowd increasing. But, neither of them cared as they looked at one another, full of love.

Because that’s what this was. Love.

It didn’t matter that they had only met a little over three months ago, only dating for two months. They were in love. And that’s all that mattered.

Going out to dinner that night, they hardly left each other’s sides. They were being that obnoxious clingy couple that no one likes being around, but they didn’t care. Because they both knew they were in love. An unspoken love that didn’t have to be announced because the whole world knew, and so did they.

“Cheers to the love birds! And for the love of God, could you stop looking at each other like that,” AJ gagged, causing everyone to laugh before they clinked glasses.

When they left the restaurant, Harry and Y/N hopped into Betty, driving around for a little while before they decided to stay at his for the night. It was when the wind was blowing in her hair again, the moon shining above them and shining through her hair, his hand gently on her thigh, squeezing softly in contrast to that morning, that Harry truly felt it. This love that he has for this girl. Love that’s meant just for her. Her, and only her.

This gushy feeling was put on hold for a little while though the moment they walked through the door of his apartment. Y/N was bent over the arm of his living room couch, her one leg bent and on the armrest beside her while the other was trying its best to keep her steady on the ground. Harry’s fist was wrapped up in her hair, proving to make it more difficult for her to keep her balance. Though she wouldn’t want it any other way. 

“What’s the matter, babe? You said I could fuck you all night.” Harry’s hot breath coated the shell of her ear, “Y’tired?”

She gasped at a particularly hard thrust that felt like it had hit against her cervix, trying to get the word No out in between her moans and whimpers. 

“Hope not. Had me aching all day for your tiny cunt. M’gonna need a few hours to really appreciate it.” She could feel his menacing smirk against her skin as he again thrusted so far deep inside of her, her one leg gave out. If it wasn’t for Harry holding her up, she would’ve fell right over, too weak to even try and get back up.

They went twice on the couch before Harry helped her get to the shower, where they did it again. And then when they finally cleaned themselves, they got into bed, where they did it again, but this one could be classified under love-making. It was slow and sensual and sweet, just like them. Harry paid extra attention to her scar, trailing down the tissue with soft kisses as they softly climaxed together.

It was a little past midnight at this point, and they were both extremely tired. Y/N was on the brink of dozing off into dreamland before Harry interrupted her exhaustion. 

“We never finished our game of twenty questions, did we?” He murmured, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Y/N lazily opened her eyes, shaking her head, “Don’t believe so.”

“Think it’s my turn,” he hummed. “Do you love me?”

There was silence for a brief couple of seconds, making Harry think Y/N had dozed off before answering his question. But, Y/N just needed those seconds to collect her mushed thoughts inside of her mushy brain before giving him a coherent and valid response.

“Yeah. I do.”

Harry smiled, probably the biggest he’s ever smiled, leaning down and taking hold of her face and smashing their lips together in a ceremonious kiss.

“Sick. Ditto, Sunshine.”

[superfreakerz]

So, this is a request from @ccrispy asking me to write a story for my favorite artwork of hers! And lemme tell you, it was so hard to choose one because ccrispy is my fav artist on tumblr so I love literally everything she posts lmao. BUT! I have to say that this one is my favorite because it literally made me CRY seeing it the first time! So, without further ado, here it is! :D

Also, I really wanted to post a link to her post but I can’t find it on my laptop for some reason. So I’m sorry if the pictures are out of scale or something! I’ll try to add another link using mobile after I post this!

“So Long, Happy”

Rated K.

Summary: Saying goodbye hurts, especially when it’s to one of your closest friends.

So Long, Happy

All that could be heard were the muffled sobs as the three walked to their destination. Nobody said a word, their throats tight and constricted from all of their crying. Their steps were slow, as if trying to postpone the inevitable, which in truth they might have subconsciously doing. They wanted to turn around. They wanted to go home and laugh, tease each other, and continue their never-ending adventure.

But they couldn’t.

Not when Happy had a mission.

After the battle with Zeref and Acnologia, Lucy, Natsu, and Happy had found peace in their lives. They went on jobs together, messed up Lucy’s apartment together, and shared each day like it was their last. They had been through so much over the past couple of years, they very much needed the serenity.

Not long after, however, two strange people entered the guildhall. One was a girl with blonde hair, lighter than Lucy’s and not as golden. It fell in waves, a little bit past her shoulders. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, similar to Mira’s. Next to her was a boy with black hair, not unlike Gray’s. His eyes were dark and slanted. There was a small bandage over his cheek.

Before anyone could speak, they both dropped to their knees and bowed.

“Please,” the girl spoke. Her voice was strained, cracking as if she had been crying recently. “We… We need your help.”

Everyone in the guild shared a look of concern. The one who spoke next was none other than Natsu, who had walked closer to the strange pair.

“Then you came to the right place!” he said, giving them a wide grin in hopes of lightening the mood. “Fairy Tail never backs down from a job!”

“What is it you need?” Erza chimed in.

“We need your help,” the strange girl answered, her gaze still glued to the floor. “Our world- or worlds, I should say- is in danger of destruction.”

“What do you mean by worlds? Who are you people?”

“My name is Rebecca, and this is Shiki. We come from a different planet in another dimension of space.”

“A different dimension of space?” Lucy repeated, her mouth opened wide. “Is this like Edolas again?”

“I don’t think so,” Makarov answered. “Edolas was another world, but it was connected to ours. If their world is in a different pocket of space, then it would be different entirely, is that correct?”

Rebecca nodded. “There are multiple universes. We come from the Sakura Cosmos. I know it may be hard to believe but-”

“After everything all of us have been through, there’s really not much that’s hard to believe,” Natsu interrupted, giving the girl a grin. “So, what do you need us to do? Head over there?”

“Well… it’s not that simple. We can only take one of you. Coming from different universes, our bodies are made up of different materials. Ours are made up of something called ether, while yours are made up of something foreign to us. In order to get here, one of our friends back home had to create these devices that are inserted into our bodies and converts our ether into what is known as magical power over here. The parts needed to make them are rare in our world, so he could only make enough to bring back one person.”

“Just one?” Lucy asked, a frown spreading over her face.

“Don’t worry, Lucy,” Natsu said, nudging the girl and flashing her a reassuring grin. “I’ll go. And I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Actually…” Rebecca started, biting her lower lip. “There’s a specific person that we came for.”

“Huh? Who is it?”

Rebecca glanced behind Natsu, pointing at the blue exceed behind him.

“We came for Happy.”

The cat’s eyes widened. Pointing at himself, he asked, “Me?”

“Yes. I used to have a companion like you,” Rebecca started, her voice cracking. Her eyes pricked with tears, but she blinked them back. Now wasn’t the time to cry. She had to save the world. “But, umm… He didn’t make it in our last battle.”

Lucy’s hands flew to her mouth. It was that bad over there? Sure, she’d had more than a few close calls with her friends, but she’d never had any of them actually die.

“You look and sound just like the Happy from my own world,” Rebecca said with a sad smile. “And in order to use my powers, I need Happy. We’re running low on fighters, I can’t be put on the sidelines now.”

“So Happy will help you use your powers?” Erza asked. “How?”

“Well, once we insert the conversion device into Happy, his body will have ether that is compatible with my own. He will be able to transform his body into my weapon. That is, if he chooses to come with us.”

Everyone turned towards the cat in question. He shrugged.

“Sure. Why not?” Happy said with a grin.

Shiki frowned, shaking his head. “You should take some time to think about it first.”

“Huh? Why? All I’m doing there is helping you win and then coming back, right?”

“It’s not that simple,” Rebecca said, her frown growing. “While having you around will help our efforts, it won’t change the tide of the battle overnight. It’s a long and dangerous journey. In fact… It could take up to years.”

“Years!?” Lucy repeated. “But… But Happy…”

Natsu’s eyes were wide, his stomach filled with dread. The thought of going without one of his best friends for so long made him sick. Happy had been there for him through everything. He was there to help look for Igneel, there when Igneel had died, and was there to help with Zeref. Happy was his partner in crime, his confidant.

Happy frowned, glancing up at Natsu. It was clear that the boy wasn’t processing the information well.

“I’m sorry,” Happy said, turning back towards Rebecca and Shiki. “I don’t think I can be away that long. This is my home, and all of my friends are here…”

Rebecca nodded, but she couldn’t fight the tears that slipped down her cheeks. Happy was her only hope, and while she understood completely, it was devasting to know that he wasn’t going to help.

“We understand,” Shiki said. “Thank you for hearing us out.” He picked Rebecca up from the floor and went to lead her out of the guild when Natsu spoke.

“Wait,” he said, swallowing thickly. He crouched in front of Happy, ruffling his fur. “Don’t worry about me, buddy.”

“But-!” the cat started, only to be interrupted.

“I’m not gonna force you to go or anything, but these people need your help. I’m not gonna selfishly keep you here either. We’re Fairy Tail wizards, we don’t give up on jobs that we accept, right?”

Happy nodded, tears welling in his eyes. “A-Aye…” Before he could get discouraged and change his mind, he turned back towards the two. “I’ll go with you.”

After that, they were given one last day to hang out together. Many tears were shed that night, knowing that it would be their last time seeing each other for a while. Still, they made the best they could out of it.

But now that the fateful day was upon them, their feet felt like bricks and sorrow was heavy in their hearts. As selfish as it was, they didn’t want to let Happy go. They wanted him to stay with the guild, laughing, eating fish, and trying to win Charle’s heart.

Reaching Hargeon, the place they were told to meet up with Rebecca and Shiki, their sorrow intensified. This was the place Natsu and Happy had met Lucy. It held wonderful memories for them, as it was the beginning of their adventure. Ironically, it was also the end of it as well.

Soon enough, they could make out Rebecca and Shiki standing by the pier. A large, metallic ship rested in the water behind them. It was clear it wasn’t an ordinary ship, but they didn’t care about that at the moment.

Reaching the pair, the trio started their goodbyes.

Lucy watched, her heart sinking in her chest as Natsu crouched beside Happy, scooping him into his arms in a tight hug, his hand cupping the back of the exceed’s head. Tears washed over his face and sunk into Happy’s fur. The two cried together, uncaring of who saw.

Lucy crouched beside them, poking the back of Happy’s head. Her eyes stung with tears and her throat was dry. She hadn’t been able to stop crying since yesterday. Still, she wanted to be strong for her friend.

Forcing a smile to her face, Lucy held her arms out in front of her. Happy choked back a sob, launching himself into her chest for a final hug. No longer able to hold it in any longer, Lucy broke down, her cries loud enough to gain the attention of people passing by. She wept and wept, expecting her tears to run out eventually, but they didn’t.

It seemed Happy wasn’t faring any better, his claws digging into her sides as he cried. How many times had they hugged like this before? It was too much to count.

Trying to regain control of herself, Lucy pulled away.

A shaky smile spread over her face. “Be good, okay? D-Don’t give these guys too much trouble.”

Happy nodded, burying his face into her chest again. They held onto each other for a few more minutes, but their time was short. Happy had to go soon, and Lucy knew that his next goodbye meant even more.

Gently carrying Happy, Lucy handed him to Natsu. Without saying a word, the boy held Happy close to his chest. He wanted to say goodbye, but he couldn’t speak. The words wouldn’t come to him and his throat felt like it was getting tighter by the second. He felt sick to his stomach, so sad that he thought he might throw up. The only other times he’d been this sad was when he saw Igneel die or when he thought Lucy had died.

Still, he needed to be optimistic. He knew Happy better than anyone, and if he continued to act like this, then Happy would change his mind. And even though a large part of Natsu wished he would, he knew that there were people that needed him. People were dying, even if he couldn’t see it happening with his own two eyes. The thought alone was to galvanize him to speak.

“It’s okay, buddy,” he started, his voice just above a whisper. It was hoarse, cracking under the pressure of his emotions. “I trust them.”

“A-Aye,” Happy replied, his voice muffled as his face was buried in Natsu’s scarf.

They stayed like that in silence, as if scared that their time together would end if one of them spoke. Knowing that their time together was coming to an end soon, Lucy hugged them both tightly.

“I love you, Happy,” she whispered, unable to speak any louder. “Be safe, got it? You make sure that you come back to us.”

“Aye,” Happy replied with a nod.

Natsu smoothed a hand over the cat’s head one more time before pulling away from the hug. He knew that he needed to be the one to act, for if he didn’t, nobody else would. He had to be strong.

“C'mon, buddy. It’s time for you to go. A new journey for you begins,” he said, wiping away his tears and smiling at his friend. His lips quivered, and the smile didn’t reach his eyes, but it was enough to reassure the cat that what he was doing was the right thing to do.

Shiki picked up Happy, admittedly feeling guilty for being the one to take him away from such a loving family. He loved making new friends, but doing it like this wasn’t satisfying. His heart broke for the three of them just watching them say goodbye.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him,” Rebecca told Lucy, a smile on her face in hopes of cheering the other girl up.

Lucy gave a wet smile in return, tears streaming down her face. “I’m sure of that.”

Natsu swallowed thickly, ruffling his hand through Happy’s fur one more time. This was it. This was goodbye.

“So long, Happy,” he choked out. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Aye,” the exceed replied with a nod. “Soon.”

With that, Rebecca, Shiki, and Happy headed towards the ship, ready to start their new adventure.

The weight of Natsu’s emotions at the sight of Happy’s retreating form brought him crashing to his knees and clutching his scarf for support. His breathing was staggered, unable to be calmed even as Lucy wrapped her arms around him. Together, the two cried, knowing that their lives weren’t going to be the same without Happy there with them. The three of them were the original Team Natsu. Until Happy returned, there was always going to be a hole in their hearts.

But they had faith in their friend. Happy was a strong cat, stronger than he looked. They knew that he would help Rebecca and Shiki, just as he had helped them. Then, he would return.

“H-Happy!” Natsu cried out.

Happy turned around to find Natsu being held in Lucy’s arms. The boy’s body trembled as he brought a shaky hand into the air. Pointing his index finger and thumb out, he gave the cat Fairy Tail’s signature salute. Lucy smiled through her tears, raising her hand and doing the same.

For the first time that day, Happy smiled back at them, finally feeling ready to follow through with his decision. Raising his paw in the air, he mirrored their form. With that, he boarded the ship with the others, not turning around again to check on them. He knew that they were distraught. He was too. But he was going to see them again, he’d make sure of it.

Because even if they couldn’t find where he was, they would always be looking his way, just as he would with them.

[roses-shadow]

Underworld part 1

Ok, so, as a preface: this fic is finished. I’m posting it in parts and putting in a long A/N at the end so I can go ‘didja see? didja see what I did thar????’

Vague summary: Nero’s adventure in Undertale, the DMC version. Or where Nero screams at everything and says ‘fuck’ a lot. PG 13

Posting this on 15 Sept 2021, cause of Undertale coming out on this day a few years ago. Probably have a few mistakes here and there; I tried.

******

Nero groaned, coming out of unconsciousness slowly.

He was aware enough to know that he was lying on his back but not on the familiar sheets of his bed. Still disoriented, he grabbed his head, gradually pushing himself out of his prone position and into a groaning hunch over his knees and tried to blink the black spots out of his eyes.

The ground he was eventually able to focus on between his legs was a field of dirt tinted a weird red color, definitely not something he was used to seeing in his everyday life of grey asphalt, green grass, brown dirt and other normal things he’d encounter on the ground.

“Wha...?” he said bewildered.

He raised his head to see that he was surrounded by a wide circle of red rose filled hedges. To his right there was an opening in the circle that led off to a path further surrounded by more of the hedges that led off to who knows where.

His first thought was, of course, ‘Where the hell am I?’ quickly followed by, ‘Is this a prank?’ and, ‘Did I get kidnapped?’ Because, sure, he did have his fare share of hazing by the other kids who made fun of his hair and just liked to be jerks in general but he didn’t think he’d be knocked out and dragged away somewhere. Especially since he was drawing a blank on how exactly he got here.

He didn’t think he was drugged; sure, he still felt woozy but not in the I’m-going-to-throw-up way and his head didn’t physically hurt, especially with his weird healing thing speeding things along. It was just...like he was drained, like he just ran a marathon and woke up right after passing out.

Hell, considering it seemed like he was stuck in a maze he was probably a lucky contestant for some guy’s video. Meaning that yes, it probably was a stupid prank that doubled with people laughing at his expense. Just to be spiteful, he flipped his finger into the air for any cameras hidden away in the bushes watching him suffer.

Man, was his mom was going to flip when she found out what happened to him.

Nero huffed out a breath, rocking back off his knees to sit down properly and bumping his back into something hard. He turned around quickly, finding a stone fountain containing a long coiling white plant. As he tilted his head up farther, however, he realized it was a moving plant, tendrils at the top twisting around a red hazy cloud and snaking in and out to hover in the air.

And that put a lot of doubt on him being pranked because what in the actual fuck was he looking at?

As Nero blinked up at the weird fever-dream plant his mind must have thought up in his confused state, one of its tendrils suddenly sprouted a long needle-like thorn and shot down toward him.

Nero gasped and only had enough time to throw up his right arm as protection as he instinctively curled away. “Fuck!” he cried out as the thorn punctured his forearm, the pain making his arm spasm, “Oh holy fuck!”

He jerked his arm away, trying to dislodge the thorn but it was firmly stuck inside. He started panting heavily as he reached over with his other hand and tried to grip onto the thorn, hissing as he sliced his hand as he staggered his arm farther up until he finally found purchase to pull it out at the far end with a forceful yell. He rolled backwards in the same movement as the thorn came free, gripping his arm to put pressure on the wound as he skittered farther backwards toward the hedge wall.

“What the fuck,” he panted out, staring up at the murderous plant in horror. There was no way this could be happening. It was just a bad dream –a really, really, realistically painful dream that he was hallucinating because crazy tentacle death plants do not exist.

He watched as more tendrils unsheathed their thorns and panicked. Dream or not, those thorns would still hurt. He looked toward the opening in the maze and stumbled to his feet.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

He took off at a run, dodging the thorns that attacked where he was last standing. He was ready to dive through the exit when he had to stagger to the side as three tendrils blocked the way, their thorns positioned to stab him right in his front. “Shit!” he cried, shuffling back as he tried to find another way out. But he was pretty much cornered, the thorns surrounding him slowly closing off his available space to run.

“Oh shit, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not happening!” He couldn’t die here! He didn’t even know where here was! He closed his eyes and curled in on himself. “You’re dreaming,” he stated firmly to himself. “This is a dream. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”

But rather than wake up safe and sound in his bed, or worse, being stabbed to –a dream! –death by said death plant from hell, he instead felt an intense heat made of blue light pass right by him. When he finally decided to peek an eye open and squint upwards he watched in amazed disbelief that the hell plant tendrils were calmly retreating back to its fountain and sheathing their thorns, placidly hovering in place once more.

“Wha...?”

Languid footsteps made him turn to the maze entrance to see the shadow of an actual human being idly twirling a cane back and forth coming down the path. The first thing Nero saw was the shoulder length white hair so that when the figure came close enough for him to make out the youthful face it was attached to he took a double take. The man planted his cane into the dirt and looked Nero up and down.

“I went to the Garden of Love, and saw what I never had seen.”

And just what was that supposed to mean? Nero gave the man an incredulous look. “Uh...what?” he moaned out in pained confusion.

He stayed huddled in his crouch as the man started to circle him. “I pass through here every day yet I’ve never had a human just appear before. Well,” he paused, looking over at the murder plant. “Unless they’ve been...eaten before I make my rounds here. I would have noticed the leftover pollen, however.”

Nero, still in deep denial of his whereabouts and wondering if he had come across a crazy psychopath, blurted out in a harsh whisper, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

The man carried on despite the interruption. “But where are my manners. I am the caretaker of this garden and to my family home beyond this place. You may call me V.” He drew his cane arm across his chest and fell into a deep bow. “And who might you be?” He looked up with a wide smirk.

What kind of name was that? Not a name, that’s what. Nero hesitated for a long moment, debating whether he should come up with a fake name himself but not actually able to force his brain cells away from the near –dream! – death experience he just had. “Uh...Nero?”

V raised his eyebrow. “Nero? What an...interesting name choice, considering the lovely shade of your hair.” As if he was one to talk, the hypocrite; it was just like his. “Well, tell me Nero, how have you come to find yourself in this place?” He gestured one-handed into the air.

Nero licked his lips, suddenly nervous. “I –I don’t know. I was just –in my room?” Was he? He wasn’t actually sure now that he thought about it. “I think? I don’t remember.” He paused to dry swallow and meekly ask, “Am I in wonderland hell or something?”

“Ah,” V paused, giving a secretive smile. “I suppose you could say that.”

“Ok. Right.” He took a split second to process. “I wanna go home,” he blurted out decisively.

V had a sardonic smile on his face. “Do you now? Unfortunately for you, the way back to your home is a...long ways off, I’m afraid,” he said in what Nero considered an ominous tone.

Long ways off how? Nero was tired of this dream. He very much wanted to wake up now.

V gestured to his still sluggishly bleeding arm with his cane. “You seem to have taken quite the damage there. Here,” he paused, digging something out of his pocket. “Eat this, it will help stop the bleeding.”

He was holding out what looked like a piece of green candy and Nero went, nope. Don’t take candy from strangers. He’d probably end up drugged and fed right back to the hell plant –that existed purely in his imagination, of course, and by that logic if he died in his dream he’d probably just die in real life too. So no, he’d rather take his chances.

V raised an eyebrow after Nero continued to not do anything. “What’s wrong? Do you not trust me? Hm, well,” he paused, lowering his arm. “Will you allow me to bandage you up instead, then?”

Nero took a moment to process. He always had weird healing as a kid and eventually he’d be as good as new in no time.

In the mean time, however, his arm decided to keep on radiating pain and bleed through the gaps of his fingers.

“Yeah, ok,” Nero quickly decided, nonchalantly, he hoped. He didn’t want to sound that painfully desperate.

“Good.” V suddenly whipped out a long piece of white cloth like a magician, except it was more impressive considering he didn’t have any sleeves. That was dream logic for him. “If you could just hold out your arm?”

Nero held his arm out and allowed to V to quickly wrap up the cloth around it multiple times, tying it tightly enough to apply enough pressure to compress the wound, his blood slowly staining through the cloth.

“There, that should do for now,” V said, tying up the ends of the cloth. He brought out the candy from before and dropped it into his hand anyway. “Here, you can hang on to this if you do start to feel faint. One should be good enough.”

Nero frowned down at it. He was still reluctant to eat it, but after V was kind enough to wrap up his arm he didn’t want to be rude and throw it away. He shoved it into his pocket instead.

“If you will allow me to escort you to my home and offer you proper food and shelter? I can assure you it is a safe haven from the dangers you can encounter in this place.”

Not having any other option, and definitely not wanting to have to deal with the murderous hell plant again, Nero agreed. “Yeah...ok, thanks.”

“Excellent,” V said, planting his cane down.  “Before we leave though, I’d like to give you another gift.”

He walked close to the hell plant, rustling around until he came back with a broken off branch and offered it to him. Nero, still leery about his near-death experience, leaned away.

“It’s alright. It’s perfectly harmless like this. If you keep this with you it will ward off the Qliphoth from attacking you again.”

He demonstrated by waving it at the –what did he call it again? –hell plant, the vines all leaning away from it by his command.

Oh. Ok. Cool. He had a magic stick to stop the hell plant from eating him. That was good. Nero accepted the stick more easily.

“Now, let us be off.” he said, leading the way out of the maze of hedges and onto a more open path.

This place was weird. Nero was looking from side to side, taking in all the strange structures. There were old pillars set up every now and then making everything look something like it came from a different era but with an aged look, the growth of vines making it appear that he was walking through some old ruins. V stopped them from moving for some reason, making Nero look at him questioningly.

“Down here, in the Underworld, we have to find ways to pass the time. Most like to challenge others to battle, which is engaging, I’ll admit. But for those who are more suited to higher thought, we have puzzles. We’ve had plenty of time to hone them that we are able to use them to safeguard doorways in addition to their regular diverting fun. Take this one for example.”

There was a statue of a female in the center of the field, the expression on her face was sad, mournful. At least, that was the general impression Nero was getting from her eyes as her mouth was busy holding onto a glowing yellow orb.

Far beyond that were three separate doors fitted with a big fancy lion sculpture acting as a door knocker. The doors were all set up at the ends of different paths, each framed with their own arch to precede their paths. The left arch had a weird lumpy sparkling gold rock attached to it, while the right arch had a shining curved bone like stick on it. The one in the center didn’t have any weird jewelry attached to it and was completely dark.

V gestured to the clearing in front of him. “Solve my riddle, child: When the night comes, I’ll go to places fit for woe, walking along the darken’d valley, with silent Melancholy.”

Nero gave him a blank look. “What?”

V gave a quiet sigh with a sardonic look on his face. “Would you like for me to explain how this puzzle operates or would you like to attempt to work it out yourself?”

Considering Nero had no idea what the hell his riddle meant and didn’t want to use any of his brain power on it, he put his vote on getting a free pass through. “Yeah, I’ll...uh, pass.”

V sighed again. “Very well.” He pointed past Nero to the statue with his cane. “That there is the Melancholy Soul. You take that key and insert it into the lion’s mouth down the darkened path in the center. If you were decidedly brave or foolish enough to try the sun or moon lit paths instead you would face a...most unpleasant encounter,” he finished darkly with a smirk.

“Right.” He was glad V was willing to put up with him and explain rather than let him blindly walk into disaster. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “So, uh, can we keep going now?”

“Of course,” V agreed. He gave Nero a significant look, raising his eyebrows a little. “Why don’t you take the soul and go insert it into the lion’s maw, child.”

Nero felt a spark of irritation. He didn’t know if V was doing it on purpose, but it felt like he said it condescendingly, having to prompt Nero into action like a kid. But he didn’t quite want to cause waves over something he wasn’t sure was deliberately patronizing.

He huffed, stomping over to the statue and grabbing onto the orb, forcing out of the mouth with a little tugging and continuing to march on down the path to the door.

He considered the very realistic lion head with its very, very sharp looking teeth and the spot he was clearly meant to fit the orb in its not-so-wide mouth. A stray thought ran through his head, ‘It’s not going to like, chomp down on my arm, is it?’

V did say that it’d be unpleasant if he picked the wrong door and he couldn’t help but wonder...was this a trap?

And now that that thought was in his head he wasn’t sure if he was ok with actually putting his hand inside if he didn’t know if he’d still have it when he pulled it back out.

V came up behind him when he failed to do anything. “Something wrong?”

“Um.” So he could either admit he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stick his hand inside or just deny it and continue to do nothing.

V looked between him and the door, immediately understood his dilemma. “Ah.” He took the orb out his hand and placed it inside the lion himself. It made a clicking noise. He pressed on the door and it swung open.

Huh. Guess he didn’t have anything to worry about after all.

“Come along, Nero,” V said as he passed through the door.

Nero hunched up self-consciously. “R-right.”

 ***

 “There is another puzzle in this area,” V said out of nowhere as they walked along. “Are you able to solve it, I wonder?” V gave him a wide smirk.

Nero scowled. There wasn’t any puzzle he could make out from where he was standing. Was he just messing with him to make him think something was there when there really wasn’t? Whatever. He’d call his bluff.

Nero stomped past V down the path, still seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He was about to keep going before he abruptly felt V’s cane clamping down on his shoulder and preventing him from taking another step. The cane yanked him backwards and he stumbled a bit.

“What was that for?”

V only pointed to the ground in front of him. “Do you see those small holes?”

Nero squinted into the dirt. “...Yeah?”

“There are...tendrils that are wont to come out and latch on to you if you get too close.”

Tendrils? What did he mean by that?  Did he mean the hell plant or something else? “Like, it’ll...tie me down and keep me from moving tendrils?”

“Hmm, yes.”

Nero furrowed his brow. So what was the big problem? “And?” he prompted.

“And then they drain you of your life force,” V added nonchalantly.

Nero backed up a few more steps, definitely leery of moving forward. “What? But, I thought –the stick you gave me –”

“Only works against the Qliphoth, I’m afraid. This is a...different plant altogether.” He idly gestured one hand in the air.

Oh great, there was more than one hell plant in this hell hole and he had a get out of death free stick that only worked on one of them.

“But fear not.” V held out his hand, wiggling his fingers invitingly. “Take my hand. I can lead you through safely.”

Not having another choice, Nero put his hand in V’s and followed him in.

“It’s alright that you’re not ready to handle these puzzles. They can seem...dangerous to one so young.”

Nero clenched his teeth at the condescending words. “Well, it’d be much easier to work through them if they weren’t literal life and death, you know,” Nero scoffed snidely.

“Most things down here can be life or death, why not add it to our fun?”

Nero huffed. “That’s crazy.”

“It’s our normal here in the Underworld,” V droned on placatingly.

They were walking along for awhile with their hands together, and Nero was wondering just how long this puzzle trap was. “So, when’s the end of the puzzle?”

“The end? Oh, we passed that ages ago.”

“What?” Nero jerked. “Then why are you still holding my hand?”

“It’s giving you reassurance,” V soothed, giving him a quirk of his lips. “Like a child following their father around for added security.”

Now that irked Nero. He wasn’t a child, damn it. And who was V to play into a fatherly role when he never had one before? He ripped his hand out of V’s grasp. “You don’t have to baby me,” he snarked.

V hummed indulgently, further pissing Nero off. “Very well, if you want to prove that you’re old enough to take care of yourself then surely you can cross this long corridor by yourself?” he said, pointing ahead at the dimly lit path with the end of the cane.

Nero looked ahead. On the surface the path seemed clear enough from what he could tell, but he didn’t notice the tendril trap from earlier so maybe he was getting in over his head. It’d be really stupid of him to blindly rush off when he didn’t know his way around just yet. Reluctant to admit he might need help after all, he turned to look at V –

And he was gone.

“V?” he turned his head to look. “V, where did you go?”

Nero panicked a little, turning around himself to see if he could spot him but he couldn’t see him in the darkness. He tried to take a deep, calming breath, trying to calm his suddenly racing heart. Alright. This was fine. If V wanted him to go on ahead by himself then he could go on ahead by himself; he could do that. He was a big boy. “No big deal,” he breathed out, trying to reassure himself.

He wiped his suddenly sweaty palms on his pants and gripped his magic stick in his left hand, holding it up like a bat in case something came out to attack him, and started down the vine infested corridor with slow, cautious steps.

Aside from his nervous breaths and soft steps barely making any noise in the dirt there wasn’t anything else making noise in the passageway.

The silence was getting to him. It was just too quiet.

So when he did hear a faint whisper of movement, something slithering along, Nero jumped. He held his stick at the ready, panting out in fearful anticipation. He was squinting at the dark corners, trying to see if the ever present vines were moving and possibly about to attack him or if he was just seeing things and panicking unnecessarily. Still, he was afraid to turn his back to it, not wanting to get sneak attacked from behind and took shuffling side steps away from that particular spot of darkness, his trusty stick held out in front of him just in case.

Once he felt he was far enough away he gradually turned to face forward again, bringing his stick back up near his face again.

It occurred to him after another bit of walking that he still couldn’t even see the end of the hallway. The path was bright enough that he could walk comfortably without tripping on anything but it just seemed like it never ended.

Man, this dream was getting creepier and creepier.

Maybe he was going to get stuck wandering this hallway forever. Walking in one direction only to end up back where he started; a never ending loop that would go on forever. Was there even a way forward or was it swallowed by the darkness? It could just be his paranoia talking. But how could he tell? How far did he walk anyway? It felt like eons already. He was afraid to turn around in case something was going to sneak up behind him –

There was something behind him.

Nero shrieked, swinging his stick around and blindly attacking –

Only to have his strike parried by an opposing force, the recoil from his stick nearly braining him in return.

It was V, his cane held up one handed to block Nero’s swing.

Nero was breathing hard. “What the fuck!”

V removed his cane, settling it back down to rest on the ground. “Hello again, Nero. How did you like your taste of independence?”

“Not a whole lot!” Nero forced out, trying to calm his racing heart.

“Ah. Forgive me for putting you through such a stressful ordeal, Nero. I had not left the area, though it seemed as if I did. Perhaps...I can give you a friend to keep you company instead.”

He raised his arm up horizontally and suddenly a big blue bird poofed upwards into existence.

Nero instinctively flinched backwards, bringing his stick up to protect his face. He stayed safely behind his stick even after his brain realized what he was looking at just in case the magic bird decided to launch off and claw his face off but it didn’t actually do much besides watch him cower.

V took his reaction in stride and calmly continued. “This is Griffon. He can help guide you through the Underworld at your own pace. Why don’t you say hello?”

Nero gave V a funny look, trying to convey his incredulity of his request.

‘I am talking. To a bird,’ Nero thought.

A demon bird, more accurately. With three yellow eyes on each side of its face and a wicked looking beak splitting its lower jaw. It even had horns curling over its head.

Nero stared at the demon bird with his two human eyes.

The demon bird stared back, tilting his head around to ensure all six of his wandering eyes could get a glimpse of Nero.

He didn’t think it was going to be much for conversation.

“So...are you supposed to be some demon parrot or something?”

“Ha! Ha ha,” Griffon cackled in a buzzing echoing voice, its jaw stretching out wide as it spoke. Nero jumped further back in surprise. “That’s pretty funny. You’re a pretty funny guy. Not!”

Nero was still in shock. “Holy shit you can talk!”

“Yeah, no shit Shirley. Whaddya think I was gonna say? Polly want a cracker?”

V raised an eyebrow at their exchange. “Is there something wrong?”

“If you mean wrong as in what the hell,” Nero emphasized, pointing to Griffon.

“The hell you mean what the hell? I’m perfect!” Griffon said, puffing up his chest in pride.

V looked at Griffon, assessing his features. “I suppose he can be quite startling to humans. How can I make him appear less frightening to you?” V mused to himself, rubbing his hand on his chin. “Perhaps if add this.”

V placed his hand on Griffon’s head and drew it up slowly, leaving a little top hat in its place.

Griffon tilted his head to the side, the hat somehow still managing to stay on despite gravity. “So how do I look?” he asked.

Nero was put on the spot, part of him wanting to say that it did absolutely nothing to comfort him and another part not wanting to offend a demon bird that might peck out his eyes in revenge. But fortunately, he had great practice complimenting his mom without offending her and ended up mindlessly blurting out his default go-to safe response in these situations. “Um...great?”

He immediately made a face after. ‘What the fuck am I doing?’

“Excellent, I shall leave him in your care,” V said, holding his arm out to Nero’s shoulder and allowing Griffon to waddle his way across to settle on him with barely any added weight. Nero furrowed his brow, unclear if V was directing his words toward him or Griffon but deciding not to ask. “I shall be going on ahead. Do try to not get into any trouble along the way.”

Nero turned his head sharply toward V, feeling dread in the pit of his stomach at the thought of being alone in this hell again. “Wait, you’re just going to leave?”

“Yes, I have some...business to attend to. But don’t worry Nero, Griffon shall keep you safe. You can remain in this area if you’d like and I will return for you after I am done. But if you wish to continue exploring there are more puzzles you can try out. They are perfectly safe so there is no need to worry.” V paused to give Nero a slow smirk. “Unless you don’t feel capable enough to handle them?”

Here, a normal person trapped in this literal hellhole would probably not take the bait and desperately beg to be rescued. Nero considered himself a normal person at the best of times who would be sensible enough to tag along unobtrusively and let the adult handle everything rather than trying to brave his way through a dangerous situation by himself, dream or no.

But for V to taunt him and tell him he wasn’t good enough? It pissed him off enough to forgo his normally excellent common sense.

“I’ll be just fine, thank you very much,” Nero grit through his teeth politely.

V looked at him with lowered eyelids and nodded. “Good. I shall see you soon, Nero,” he said and turned around to walk off into the darkness.

Griffon immediately piped up to fill the silence. “Alright Superstar, what do want to do first? We’ve got some leaf piles you can play around in here. Kids like those sorts of things, right?”

“I’m not a kid,” Nero muttered mulishly, watching V’s back as he disappeared. He was fifteen, definitely not a kid anymore.

“Ha! Could have fooled me with that baby face of yours!”

Nero scowled, jerking his arm up and trying to dislodge the bird. Griffon squawked, gripping his talons on as tight as he could without hurting Nero in order to keep his balance as his wings flailed in the air.

“Touchy touchy. Someone needs a nap.”

“What I need is to get out of this place,” Nero said, starting to walk off after V once the other man was out of sight. He wanted to prove himself, sure, but he didn’t want to get the cheat sheet off of V if he followed too closely.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you’re just going to leave?” Griffon squawked. He didn’t wait for a response before he started rambling again. “But you were just shaking in your little boots just a minute ago. Don’t you want to stay here and wait for your daddy to come and pick you after he’s done with his super important thing?”

Nero wasn’t sure where to start with that sentence. “What –he’s not my dad! You –nevermind! I just want to do this by myself.”

“Do what? The puzzles? Yeah, sure go ahead, if you think your kiddy brain can handle them but you didn’t even notice the last one and what would’ve happened then?” Griffon made an exaggerated choking noise. “Alas, poor Nero! If only he used his head!”

Nero was starting to think he preferred the quiet horror of being alone instead of this annoying voice bombarding him every few seconds.

“Aren’t you supposed to be my guide?” Nero said, stubbornly trying to keep his cool. “Guide me then.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll show you where to go. But I’m just saying if it gets too hard for you we can come back here and play in the leaves until your dad comes back to rescue you. Running away is okay. It’s always okay to run away, if you’re not up for it!”

A blue butterfly suddenly flew off from a branch once they walked too close to it.

“Like that butterfly! Look at it go, getting scared of your big ol’ mean footsteps. That’s what you should do, kiddo. You tell ‘em they’re doing a good job running away!”

“I don’t think the butterfly can understand you,” Nero mumbled, then stopped to reconsider.”Wait, it doesn’t talk either, does it?”

He realized his mistake as soon as he said it. “No, wait, don’t answer that –”

It was too late.

Griffon started up his rambling again, swivelling his neck to stare behind him at the retreating butterfly. “Oh that tiny thing, no it’s just a little bug it –”

Nero willed himself to tune out the annoying background commentary and keep walking.

 ***

 They didn’t make if that far before Griffon decided to deviate from his rambling and ask him a question. “Hey, do you prefer chocolate or strawberry?”

That was a random question. “Uh, chocolate I guess?”

Griffon perked up happily. “Yeah, chocolate is pretty great, huh?”

“Uh, yeah,” Nero agreed. He considered if he wanted to continue this conversation and deal with Griffon’s unending word-vomit. “So...why do you want to know anyway?”

“What, I can’t ask questions? How else are we supposed to get to know each other better?”

“Right, yeah,” Nero said dully, rolling his eyes. He’d heard plenty enough from Griffon already to know how annoying he was. “Forget I asked.”

“How can I forget that you’d rather have chocolate instead of strawberry? That’s big news down here! Lemme tell you –”

Nero sighed heavily.

 ***

 They entered a room containing a giant chessboard with equally giant life-sized demonic looking chess pieces set up on both sides of the board. At the far end of the room, past the edge of the board, was a wall of spikes blocking what looked like the path forward.

“Hey you’re good at chess, aren’tcha?” Griffon prompted.

“Uh,” Nero replied eloquently. “I...I know what it looks like. But, um, no.”

It just wasn’t interesting to him, especially since he had no reason to play it when he’d rather do other things when he’d hang out with his friends. His mom even got him a guitar to jam out on and when he wasn’t doing that he’d just be in his room listening to some music as he worked on a drawing or tried his hand at building something.

“Huh. Well ain’t that a shocker! No big deal we’ll just set it to itty-bitty baby mode,” Griffon said. Nero frowned, not sure if he should be grateful for the handicap when he had to go and phrase it like that. Plus, how was he able to change the settings on this thing? Was there a control panel set up somewhere?

Griffon flew onto the board as Nero was lost in thought and landed about halfway in on the left side, speedily turning around by slapping his little talons on the ground. “Now listen up Superstar, your goal here is to have two pieces land on these two squares here,” he said, gesturing to the one he stood on and the one diagonally across him. “Doesn’t matter which side does it, any two pieces will do. And when you got them in place then that wall of spikes will vamoose and we can go on our merry way.”

“Uh, ok, so –how do I do that? Do I just pick them up or...?” Nero trailed off, approaching one of the pawns holding a pair of crossed swords and gave it a testing shove. Considering it was made out of solid rock it didn’t move at all.

“No, no. You gotta play the game. Tell the pieces where you want them to go. Just don’t worry about winning, remember. And if you mess up we can reset the board and you can try again as many times as you’d like.”

That seemed easy enough. “Alright. Ok. So, uh, pawn,” Nero said, pointing at the pawn three spaces away from the left side of the board. “Go there.” Nero then pointed to the space directly in front of the pawn, just one spot away from one of the spots Griffon pointed out.

“Oh, ah, hmm,” Griffon said, for once being less expressive. “You’re really going to put it there?”

“What? Yeah...pawns can only go forward one space, right? Is there something wrong with that?” Nero said, feeling a little self-conscious due to his inexperience with the game.

“Nothing, nothing. Nothing’s wrong,” Griffon appeased unconvincingly before screeching into the air, “Pawn to C3!”

The pawn rumbled to life, changing its color from a lifeless dark grey to a white and floated into the designated spot before deactivating again.

“Huh, cool,” Nero mused.

A noise from the opposite side of the board had him look over and see the pawn second from the left activate and move forward two spaces.

Nero stared. “Wait...” he said, confused.

“Yeah...uh. Pawns can move forward two spaces from their starting position.”

Meaning Nero could have just moved his pawn two spaces from the start and got one of the squares covered.

“Oh...” Nero said lamely.

“Yeah, well, live and learn. Your move, Nero.”

Alright. Now that he knew what to do this should be easy. He pointed at the next pawn in the lineup to carry out his turn. “You go over there.”

“Pawn to D4!” Griffon translated.

The piece looking like some wizard holding a staff on the other side of the board popped out to land among the pawn lineup.

And then it was Nero’s turn again. He figured he’d just move his pawns forward one space one at a time and get this puzzle over and done with. “You over there.”

“Pawn to C4!”

A few things happened at once:

Griffon was holding down the other activation square, which allowed the spikes at the end of the board to lower into the ground and reveal the path. He flew up, however, bringing the spikes shooting back into their slots just as the opposite pawn came to life and swung its swords down upon Nero’s just recently moved pawn and shattered it into pieces.

“Holy shit!” Nero yelped, ducking away from the flying rock shards.

“Yeah it’s a blast isn’t it?” Griffon said from the safety in the air.

“What the hell was that?” Nero said, staring as the opposing pawn casually moved into the newly vacant square, crushing the leftover remains of Nero’s pawn as it descended into place.

“It’s how we play chess down here! Pretty great, huh? It’s even better if you ride on the pieces and go all out against another player. It’s a lotta fun! We gotta try it out sometime later, especially when you get better at the game. Or we can go on a free for all brawl –you versus the other pieces. Now that’s a whole other game there –”

Griffon babbled away as he flew in circles, leaving Nero free to look at the board. The enemy pawn was holding down one of the switches. All he had to do was move his other pawn in place and they were good to go, right?

“Hey, Griffon, tell that pawn to move forward,” Nero interrupted.

“What –Oh,” Griffon stopped mid speech, hovering in place as he looked at what Nero was pointing at. “Pawn to D5!”

The pawn moved forward and settled into place. And on the far side of the room the spikes lowered into the ground again.

“Great going, Superstar,” Griffon cheered. “You did it! Let’s keep going.”

“Fine by me,” Nero agreed.

 ***

 Nero was starting to get a little hungry with all this walking around. He chalked it up to weird dream logic but he hoped he wasn’t going to wake up chewing on his pillow and drooling all over the bed again. That was a weird thing to discover and explain to his mom. She was already amazed at how much food he could pack away in his growing body during the day that for him to do it in his sleep just made her laugh and get her sewing kit to try and repair his torn up pillows.

He wasn’t sure how long he was going to have to deal with these puzzles for so he figured he might as well as check if there was anything edible nearby so his hunger didn’t stress him out and ruin his concentration.

“So, uh, is there anything I can eat around here?”

“Got the munchies, huh?” Griffon said. “Not to fear, your trusty navigator Griffon is here to help you! So how do you feel about donuts?”

Now that he mentioned them he really wanted one now. “Donuts sound good.”

“Great! There’s a little bakery nearby. It doesn’t get a lot of customers and I’ve got enough halos to buy you one.”

Nero looked at him funny. “Halos?”

Griffon looked right back. “Yeah, halos. You know, those golden rings hovering over angels heads? It’s our money down here. Well, one of them, anyway.”

Nero raised his eyebrows. Okay. That was a thing. Angels were real and demons used their headgear as money, Right. Nero was chalking that one up to dream logic.

Griffon continued his rambling. “This bakery is the cheaper one too. There’s the main branch a far ways off that’s real stingy with their prices. Especially since the lady that manages it is awfully protective of her goods. You’d have to pay an arm and a leg just to get a taste and you’d gobble it up in seconds! I mean sure, it’s a great plan to torture some poor soul to sign their afterlife away and have them spend the rest of eternity just to pay back that loan. But this one here?” Griffon made a screechy scoff noise. “It’s a steal!”

Griffon directed Nero forward with a wing. “Head past this pile of leaves and head straight on through.”

Nero entered an enclosed dead end area filled with more plant roots, foliage and spider webs with a bunch of not so tiny spiders crawling around the floor. Nero thought himself as someone who could handle himself reasonably well when put in the situation of standing off against a lone spider he’d find in his house. But those were small, normal sized things he could catch in a cup or crush under a shoe or something. These....were the size of rats. Giant rat sized spiders. An army of giant rat sized mutant spiders all looking his way with their many, many eyes.

Nero froze up, instinctual fear telling him to abort. Abort now. Flee from the army of giant mutant demon spiders that could easily crawl all over him and send him flailing about like a maniac just to get them off of him.

Griffon had no such problem, probably due to the fact that he had the advantage of flight and could abandon Nero to his doom at any time. “Heya guys! Guess what, we’ve got a paying customer here to sample your delectable wears. One spider donut if you please!”

Griffon fluffed up and shook out a bunch of golden rings from his feathers to let them bounce around and scatter on the ground. The spiders crawled forward to gather them up and Nero jumped back in alarm, not wanting to be swarmed. He stumbled even further backwards with shaky footsteps, about to make a break for it when Griffon stopped him.

“Hey what’s wrong kiddo? Where are you going? You’re not afraid of spiders are you?” He didn’t bother waiting for a response, just taking in Nero’s petrified face as enough of a translation. “Relax! You don’t need to be afraid of these little guys they’re just minding their own business just like we are. And look, they’re fetching our order right now. Fast service, huh?”

He was right. A few of the spiders had retreated into the plants carrying the halos with them and returned with an actual authentic looking donut. They crawled onto one of the webs, and held it out between them for Nero to be able to reach out and grab it, if he could bring himself to walk over and take it.

Nero was still hesitant. “Uhh, so what’s it made out of anyway?”

“Oh the usual, they bake it like you humans do. They add a special ingredient down here though, Adds a little extra zing to it, you know.”

Nero wasn’t quite convinced but his hunger was winning out and the donut was right there. He’d just reach out and grab it and back away slowly. It’d be totally fine, right?

He shuffled closer, licking his lips as he bent over and carefully reached out with a hand to grab it.

Griffon stopped him. “Whoa, hang on a sec, kiddo. They’re still not done yet. Got to add the last ingredient and it tastes way better when it’s fresh. Here it comes now.”

It, being another spider. It was being herded up by a train of other spiders and was forced up onto the donut. Nero had a split second to get irrationally creeped out by the spider walking its many legs all over the top even though they literally just carried it out with said legs before the other surrounding spiders grabbed onto each of its legs and pulled. The spider screeched out a dying scream as its legs were pulled off, spilling out multiple sprays of its blood onto the donut until the spider disintegrated into nothingness as its legless body fell through the open donut hole. The donut was soaked red, some of the blood instantly crystallizing into little red rocks along its surface that glistened wetly.

“What the fuck,” Nero breathed in wide eyed horror, his mouth gaping open.

“And voila! One spider donut freshly glazed and topped with sprinkles,” Griffon crowed happily. He gave him an encouraging nudge forward. “Well go on, pick it up. Don’t be rude, Nero.”

Nero was speechless. He was running on autopilot as he obediently picked up the cursed donut from hell and blindly backed away to the exit, the eyes of the many, many spiders watching him leave silently. Griffon called out in farewell as they left the area and returned to the previous hallway, Nero backtracking into the pile of leaves and sitting down in them heavily. He stared at nothing and just breathed.

“So are you going to eat that or...?” Griffon prompted after watching him do absolutely nothing, donut still held aloft in his frozen hand.

Nero took a moment to process his thoughts.

“What the fuck was that?” he summed up eloquently.

Griffon tilted his head at him, trying to get all of his eyes to look at Nero. “What was what?”

“That!” Nero emphasized, waving his hands as he tried to get his point across. “The –that!”

Griffon looked back and forth between Nero and the donut intently as he tried to figure out what he was trying to say. He extended his neck forward to stare into Nero’s eyes better. “Do you mean the special ingredient or something?”

“Yes!” Nero cried, incredulous that Griffon wasn’t making a big deal over it like he was. “That!”

“Ohh, that’s nothing,” Griffon shrugged off. “They’ve got an overpopulation problem you know. They’ve gotta cull the weaklings. But hey, that’s good for us, huh?” Griffon nudged him with a wing. “They taste great on donuts. Go on, give it a try.”

There was no way Nero was eating it now, his appetite lost after having to watch that. “Uh, maybe later.”

Griffon shrugged. “Eh, suit yourself. Why don’t I hang onto that for you.” He reached out with his foot and yanked the donut from Nero’s unresisting hand, tucking it into his chest where it just...absorbed into his feathers. “You just let me know when you’re in the mood and I’ll bring it out again.”

Nero blankly stared at where it disappeared to. “Great...thanks.”

 ***

 They came across an open doorframe set into a rock. Above it there were three pictures sculpted into the rock: A baby crawling, a man standing tall, and one that looked an awful lot like V hunched over with a cane. Nero raised an eyebrow at it and shook his head minutely, ignoring it and moving through the doorway.

It led into a square room with more doorways, except there were skulls adorned above the doorway with varying red lights instead.

Where was he supposed to go now?

Nero looked between the open doors trying to see which way the right way to go but it was too dark to see what was behind them. He hoped it wasn’t one of those, beware certain death behind door number one sort of deal.

Griffon didn’t offer any helpful advice so he figured it’d be okay for him to run on through and see for himself what happened.

He shrugged and randomly picked one to walk through, walking into the darkness.

There was a weird noise –

And he walked back into the room he just left.

“What? How?” Nero said, doing a double take as he looked back at the door he just came from. He raised a finger in the air as if to silently say wait and walked back through the doorway again.

There was a weird noise again –

And he was back in the same room.

Nero stared, absolutely confused. But then again...was this really the same room? Maybe that was the trick. That he was really going forward but because everything looked the same he couldn’t tell.

Maybe he should go through the door a few times to test it. Process of elimination and all that.

He walked through the door, ending up in the same room, but deciding to carry on forward to the door across the room that was directly in front of him and did so again once he got into the next room after that.

He still ended up in the same looking room.

“How is it doing that?” Nero said, absolutely flummoxed.

Was this just weird dream logic? Where you’d run to something but the floor just kept going and going to keep the prize just out of reach?

Griffon finally spoke up. “Ah, huh. Having trouble there? Want an itty bitty hint? Or we can backtrack our way out of this room and take another look around...?”

Nero was stubborn enough to try and figure this out on his own. “No, no, I can do this,” he quickly retorted. “But...I wouldn’t mind a little hint.”

“Alrighty,” Griffon said. He flew off of Nero’s shoulder and landed in the middle of the room. “I’m going to stay right here.  If you don’t see me, you’re going the right way.”

“Ok!” Nero said, adamant to get through this.

He went through another door –

And met up with Griffon again.

“Nope,” said the demon bird.

He tried a different door –

“Nuh uh,” Griffon said.

He tried another door –

Blessed silence.

He looked behind him incredulously. Which door did he take again? He couldn’t remember. Well, time for him to try again. He picked a door –

And found Griffon who made an annoying error buzzing noise when he saw him.

Nero scowled at him and tried to find the right door again.

It was after he had gone through a lot of doorways, some giving him false hope of the right path when he didn’t see Griffon, and some having repeated encounters with his feathered guide and his oh so helpful failure noises that frustrated the hell out of him, did Griffon decide to change up his dialogue.

“You know, V has a saying,” Griffon started.

“Is is something along the lines of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?” Nero interrupted grouchily, not wanting to hear any backseat commentary.

“There is that one, yeah. But this one goes,” Griffon stopped to clear his throat and lift a wing into the air while he drew the other across his chest. “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

Nero stopped to run that through his head. “So...that a good thing then?”

“Just keep going, Superstar. You’ll get it eventually.”

 ***

A/N:

So, again, the entire fic is finished and I’ll be posting it up gradually over time. Thing is...I wrote the scenes all out of order. Like, I’ll be writing on a scene a 1/4 way in, then jump to somewhere over 3/4 in and then 2/4 and so on and try to puzzle piece them together. So the pacing for the scenes is definitely going to be off in some parts. Like, I’ll go into massive detail in one paragraph and the next may have me just moving things along because I wrote them both at completely different times. I mighta missed some continuity of what the characters are supposed to know and have on them at some points, so, uh, that’s why.

Alrighty, so now for some of my ‘didja see that? didja get it?’ gushing:

1) Nero wakes up in some garden with no context of how he got there and gets attacked by less than friendly plant life. Hello Flowey, setting the tone for the player to ‘Trust no one. None. At all. Zip. Nada. They’re playing nice just to eat you, even you goat mom.’ Plus we know nothing about Frisky Business at this point in time until their (possible choice) personality comes out with dialogue options as the game goes on.

2) Nero also being Monster Kid and worrying about parental discipline.

3) That blue fire ball from V. DMC1 anyone?

4) Monster candy. Heals you. Please take one. Yes it’s a vital star.

5) Nero starting weapon inventory: the stick and the bandage.

6) The first puzzle Toriel introduces you to. I debated keeping it as it is in the game just because it used the magic word ‘foolish’. But then I was like....ehh, I should probably come up with something instead. So, checked the Blake poems for options and good ole Melancholy came in handy. Thanks DMC1! Brought over sun and moon keys from DMC3 too.

7) Next puzzle being the spike floor pattern one, again from DMC1 when you’re on your way to see Mundus in Hell and suddenly there are things coming out of the walls.

8) Goat mom tells you to forgive her for making you walk all by your lonesome self down the hall that seems like it never ends. So why not hype that up that fear, huh?

9) Griffon: Acts as your cellphone. Will bother you with non-stop chatter if you give him the chance. Dammit Alphys I just want to walk without interruptions. Also the first dummy you practice talking to and Blooky and his wonderful top hat. And tutorial frog advice. (I also ultimately chose this spot to fit in the Hamlet reference.)

10) Qliphoth butterfly. Hello and goodbye Whimsun.

11) Do you prefer cinnamon or butterscotch. Asking for a friend.

12) Tell the rock to move where you want it to move dammit. Thanks DMC3. If I didn’t fail at my mental pathway of the chess game I had Nero’s pieces land on D&C on 3,4,5 of the DMC 3,4,5 games.

14) Spider donut. Made of spiders, for spiders. So, uh, this scene was one of the starting inspirational ‘huh, what if...’ moments that had me write this entire story out. Expanded on the scene til I got the finished product there and just kept going.

15) Yes, Halos. Hello Bayonetta reference.

16) DMC3 Trial of Wisdom being the perspective turn switch room. So, fun fact: kid me playing DMC3 didn’t read the instructions at first and tried to brute force trial and error it. Guess what Nero, you get to too.

[got7-texts]

Safe - Mark (99/100)

You can find my post explaining the 100 Day Drabble Challenge here

To view the masterlist of drabbles for the challenge, click here

Prompt: Safe Member: Mark x Reader AU: Superhero!AU

Word Count: 1,434

Low-key imagined Mark as Dick Grayson the entire time I was writing this cause Dick is so great and so is Mark??

Being a superhero wasn’t easy.

Not when you had homework and chores and studies to also think about. But, somehow, Mark made do. He reckoned that it was definitely worth saving a lot of people at night, even if that meant being a little bit exhausted in the morning.

Tonight, was pretty much the same as every other night. He had already stopped a small drug trade that had happened in the far east side of town and now he was patrolling the area. Being able to fly and having super strength made it quite easy to take down regular, every day trouble makers. He was only hoping that he wouldn’t run into any other villains with superpowers.

Or maybe he ought to. That way he could take them down.

He was almost lost in his thoughts when he heard a shout from far off and the sound of men chuckling. In a flash, Mark flew across the buildings to peer down from above. In one of the alleyways, he saw three men cornering someone. One of them had a knife and, although it was dark and the shadows were deep, Mark thought he was holding it up to the person’s throat.

When he floated down to the ground, he was about to announce his presence when he suddenly saw the person’s face in the lamp light.

It was you.

You. Y/N L/N.

Mark had met you when you were both ten and you had just moved to the city. Your parents weren’t around much so you would often times run around the local park which was where you began your friendship with Mark. You spent years meeting up at the park, talking about your respective schools, lives, and problems. The two of you considered each other friends, but unbeknownst to you, Mark thought of you as something much more.

“Who the hell are you?” a voice called out, but Mark barely heard it. His eyes were locked onto yours and seeing the fear in them made him inexplicably angry. Mark shook away his thoughts, realizing that the men were now turning towards him.

“I’m the guy who’s gonna kick your ass,” Mark said, angrily. He wasn’t usually like this. When he was at school, he was always laid back and he thought he was pretty chill. But whenever he put on the mask and the superhero outfit, it was as though he was becoming a different person.

“Yea, we’ll see about that,” one of the thugs said. “Pretty boy in tights? Let me kick your ass,” the guy finished, rushing towards Mark with his fist pulled back. Mark easily evaded the punch and then pulled the thug’s arm, throwing him against the wall. With a roar, one of the other men pulled out a knife and attempted to stab Mark, but Mark evaded once more, flying over the man and landing his feet into the chest of the third. Unfortunately, the first man was now getting back up and grabbed a metal bar that was lying on the ground.

“Behind you!” you shouted, pointing to the masked man that was currently saving your life. The man quickly spun around and ducked before, using what looked like super human strength to slam the man against the second. Once all three men were lying unconscious, you heard the masked man sigh.

You were leaning against the wall and breathing heavily, not believing what just occurred. You tried to formulate a sentence but just stuttered as you stared down at the three bodies on the ground and the masked man in front of you.

You had seen him before multiple times on the news. There were always reports about how he stopped robberies, caught thieves, and was an overall superhero, but you had never thought that you would ever get to meet him.

Especially not under these circumstances.

Mark was currently having the same predicament. He didn’t know whether he should make a quick escape or not. He wanted to ask if you were okay and yell at you for being out so late, but he didn’t want to reveal his identity. He wanted you to like him for who he was, not a mask he wore.

“Uh…good evening,” Mark said. He was obviously putting on a fake voice, making it sound deeper than it probably was and you would have raised your eyes knowingly if you weren’t so emotionally exhausted.

“I…thank you…” you stuttered, nodding at him and then looking back at the men. “Are…are they…dead?” you asked, slowly. The masked men bent down to check the men and then shook his head.

“No, just unconscious,” he said, forgetting to use his fake voice. You were about to move forward when your legs betrayed you. You hadn’t realized just how much shock the situation had but you in and your legs almost melted, causing you to fall forward.

“Woah,” the masked man exclaimed, grabbing you in his arms before you hit the ground. “Oh my god, are you okay?” he asked, his voice frantic with concern. You nodded slowly and were about to respond when you froze.

“Whoa, wait, what?” you said, straightening yourself out. “I know you,” you stated, pointing at him.

“Uh…you must be confused,” the man said in a whisper to attempt to hide his voice, but you weren’t going to let him off that easily.

“No, stop that, speak in your normal voice cause I definitely know you,” you said, poking his chest with your finger as you sized him up, trying to place his voice.

“No you don’t,” he said, as quickly as he could. It was when he said this that it finally clicked. Your eyes grew tenfold and your jaw dropped.

“OH MY GOD. MARK?” you shouted, loudly. Mark immediately looked around and hushed you, bringing his finger to your lips. You felt your heartbeat race as you realized that your best friend and long time crush was in fact, a superhero.

“Shhhh, nobody’s supposed to know,” he said, frantically. You reached up to him and immediately felt the texture of the mask, feeling his neck for the line where the face mask split from the rest of the suit. Mark groaned and swatted your hand away, reaching up and pulling off the face mask.

His hair was slightly damp with sweat from running and fighting all night and you felt your heart skip a beat. His lips were a slight shade darker and his eyes were looking at you with nervousness. You took a step back into the wall and took him all in. The suit was skin tight and defined every muscle that he had, making you feel red in the cheeks just thinking about it.

“Oh my god, this is actually real. You’re actually a superhero,” you stated, breathlessly as you stared at him in shock. It was now the second time that night that you were frozen in place.

“Yes, but you have to promise you – ”

“Wait, you can fly!” you exclaimed, cutting Mark off with a grin on your face. “You can actually fly! Can you take me? Can you fly with me?” you asked, eagerly. Mark looked at you with a confused expression.

“Yea I guess but Y/N, you have to realize that this is extremely dangerous. If anyone – ”

“Woah, wait. This is why you’ve been sleeping during classes!” you stated, snapping your fingers as it all began to piece together in your mind. The more realizations you came to, the more excited you became.

“Y/N, I can’t – ”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this. I’m honestly super offended, Mark. I mean if I had superpowers I would totally tell you about them!” you ranted, shaking your head and crossing your arms. Mark gave you an exhausted look and then sighed.

“Can I please speak?” he asked, tiredly. You paused for a moment before motioning for him to proceed. “Okay, listen. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about any of this but it was…complicated. I want to explain it to you so just…just go home while I take these goons to the county jail and then I’ll meet you later tonight, okay?” he explained. You pondered his offer and then relented.

“Alright. Since you saved my life, I’ll grant you clemency…but only this time,” you said, smiling lightly. There was a small moment of silence before you threw your arms around him and squeezed him, your cheeks turning pink in the process.

“Thank you,” you said before turning and grabbing your bag as you headed home.

[daehwifi]

Confession - Guanlin Au

- Admin Min

genre: fluff member: lai guanlin word count: 1177 requested: yup side notes: I’ll be posting Annoyed tomorrow! Sorry for the long wait guys ;(

You yawned as you made your way down the familiar hallway that led to your locker, you had to face it, you were never going to be ready for Monday's at all. 

Tests tests and tests were all that clouded your mind nowadays. 

You groaned as you reached your locker, hitting your head multiple times against the cold metal. 

A chuckle emitted from Guanlin's lips as he made his way towards your pitiful figure. " Tired? " he asked as he handed you cup of your favorite beverage, hot chocolate. 

Your eyes brightened up immediately as you wrapped your cold hands around the warm paper cup. 

Immediately you took a sip and all the fatigue seemed to fade away as the sweet flavor of the chocolate had taken over your mouth 

Guanlin could swear that that was the cutest thing he'd ever seen but in his life time

And that's even after he'd seen Jihoon do his random aegyo daily 

“Let's go shortie " he laughed as he wrapped his arm around your shoulder leading you to class

you cheeks were flushed a bright red but you tried to convince yourself it was from the cold winter air.

Guanlin had dropped you off at your class and you watched as his figure died off as he ran to his class 

" So I'm guessing you're that red because the love of your life got you that? " your best friend said as he gestured towards the still steaming cup that sat on your desk. 

" Shut up Jaehwan I am not in love with him! " you yelled as you avoided eye contact 

" It's because of how cold it is outside! " you tried to reason

" Of course, because we're totally outside right now and you're totally not in love " he said as he scoffed 

" I'm not in love! " you almost screeched at him

" Sure you're not ( y/n ) " he singsonged as he made his way to sit next to you 

Math was the most boring subject and you just happened to have it first period

if the teacher said another word about quadratic formulas you swore you'd throw yourself out the window 

you placed your head into your arms as you sighed quietly you just wanted to go to next period to see Guanlin 

as soon as he crossed your mind you could feel your eyes automatically make their way back to the cup of hot chocolate 

the giddy feeling of butterflies in your stomach was back and you couldn't help but squeal quietly to yourself.

of course with the occasional questioning glance shot at you by Jaehwan 

" What's wrong with you all the sudden? " he asked as he raised one of his eyebrows 

" nothing! Really nothing.. WHEW is it hot in here or is it just me " you replied a little too quickly as you could already feel your face heating up. 

" Yup it sure is, just as hot as Guanlin looked this morning" he replied. 

oh how you wanted to smack the smirk off of Jaehwan's face 

he knew he was right and boy did he use it against you at the fullest potential

" whatever " you huffed in response as you sulked in annoyance 

you were on your way home that day when you really had taken the time to thoroughly examine your feelings for Guanlin 

there was no way to deny the way your heart beat sped up around him, the way that you could feel your cheeks heating up and tinting a dark shade of red if he got a little too close to you, the way that whenever he smiled you could feel your day brighten up a bit too

and you could've sworn that Guanlin's smile could've rivaled the sun 

you knew that never in a million years would he ever like you back 

especially not when had his own fan club and girls basically following him to every class of his , risking to be late to their own 

if you were to be honest, you could see those girls glare daggers into you as they whined over the fact that they should've been the ones that Guanlin had his arm around. 

you never knew why but you took pride in the fact that it was you he was like this around

you stood at your front door fiddling with the keys uselessly as your mind went blank on which was the house key 

" am I really this messed up over him KSJSJS " you yelled as you plopped down into a squat 

eventually you had gotten the door open

throwing all your belongings on the couch you had preceded to throw yourself onto the ground too

the useless rolling around had somehow become a way for you to cope with the overwhelming pour of emotions you felt for the boy. 

a small ping had come from your phone as a sign that you had received a message 

" please don't be from Guanlin " you begged 

and oh boy was it from it from him, as if you weren't already messed up enough from earlier that day

' come to school early tomorrow and wait for me by your locker, it's something important. ' his text had read 

what could've possibly been that important? 

you know the way that you start to think of useless scenarios where your crush would confess? 

well that's all that your mind could possibly think of right now 

you groaned as you remembered that he probably just needed to copy your notes from yesterday when he had fallen asleep in class 

" I'm not that important anyways why am I getting my hopes up " you sighed as you took a seat in front of your desk 

it was 8:30 the next morning and you were already standing next to your locker yawning more than you had ever before 

why so early you ask? All because you didn't want to be the tiniest bit late to disappoint Guanlin

opening your locker you hadn't expected to find a steaming cup of hot chocolate sitting there waiting for you 

but the cups appearance was different today 

it had a bright yellow sticky note on it that read " (y/n) I've liked you since the minute I saw you, be my girlfriend? " 

" You can't say no after the tea that a little birdy spilled to me yesterday " Guanlin said as he came out from what seemed like nowhere 

you sighed immediately knowing who he was talking about 

" I'm gonna kill jaehwan if that's the last thing I do " you groaned

you heard a chuckle as a familiar pair of arms wrapped around you, only, this time without a friendly intention 

but a newly arisen romantic one 

you didn't think yelling " yes " was necessary anymore as you buried your face a little more into his chest, taking in the scent of the familiar cologne 

the familiar cologne that you loved a little too much, the familiar pair of arms that you loved a little too much 

all wrapped up in one boy, that you just happened to love a little too much