#even though I told myself I wouldn’t explore this AU any more

[asteria7fics]

The conclusion to LPM really hit the spot! You really brought everything together in a satisfying way! Loved the mental image of Kyle knocking Cartman's teeth out, cuz he sure had it coming. Compliments to the chef and an extra big tip! :)

Aaah thank you my friend!!

I’ve finally sat down for the night so I can reply to everyone’s lovely comments, but seriously it’s so nice to hear that the ending was enjoyable!

Someone on AO3 left a comment saying they’d like to see Kyle’s POV of the month they were apart, and honestly? An excuse to write Kyle beating the shit outta Cartman? I may have to take the opportunity, someday. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

But again, thank you so much for being along for the ride!! It’s such a relief to hear that the sequel satisfied your appetite (๑>؂•̀๑)

[sixosix]

i want you for worse or for better | aether

synopsis your ex, aether, asks you to be his plus one; you were doomed from the very beginning.

tags wc 2.8k, gn!reader, modern au, profanity, getting back together, exes to lovers, humor bc i cant take my own writing seriously, ft 4GGRAVATE!!!

notes ty to @earthtooz and @naosaki helping me brainstorm w this one… our big brains were on the same wave while cooking.

Aether moved around a lot. He was never the type to settle down. It was in his blood to explore the world and leave only a trace of him behind. He was something like a hero, coming in at the worst time and leaving them better than before. You couldn’t say the same about his effect on you, though.

You told him of this before, and he slumped over and rested his head on your lap, “I don’t even mean to. Are you at least swept off your feet by my heroic deeds?”

“I was so charmed I only dated you because you have overthrown the government,” you said.

Aether had laughed then, and kissed you sweetly. You couldn’t fool him for a second—how you melted to the kiss spoke for itself. You loved him for so much more than that.

But you also knew that it wouldn’t last long. Aether warned you about it, too; you couldn’t even be mad. How could you blame anyone but yourself when you deliberately brushed past all the warning signs?

“I don’t stay,” Aether told you, at the time. “If you want to do this…”

“I know,” you said, at the time. “I know what I’m getting myself into. So will you just kiss me already?”

Well, you should’ve known, too, that falling out of love with Aether wouldn’t be as easy as falling in love with him. Not when he kissed you like he would never leave, anyway. You were doomed from the very beginning.

“You’ve been staring at your phone for a worryingly long time now,” Tighnari said, eyeing you from the top of his cards.

You were seated on Alhaitham’s living room couch, the four boys lounging on the floor playing TCG. Cyno was winning effortlessly against Kaveh, but against Tighnari, he found himself at a loss. Alhaitham was continuing Cyno’s winning streak on his behalf, while Cyno was down two rounds from playing with Tighnari. You had been playing, too, but your phone lit up and displayed a name that had you dropping your cards and hiding your screen from your friends’ view.

You bit your lip and reread the message for the third time. The previous texts had been months ago, with him wishing you a happy birthday. You replied with a Thank you and a red heart emoji, because the <3 emoticon felt too intimate.

“Aether texted me,” you murmured, then braced yourself for the explosion.

It was Kaveh that did. “Aether? As in your ex, Aether? That Aether?” Kaveh demanded.

“Do you know other Aethers?” Alhaitham quipped, then placed a card that had Kaveh clutching his head and groaning.

“Shut up,” Kaveh hissed, mostly because he lost. “The point is—that’s your ex! What did he say?”

You buried your face on the couch pillow, hating how your heart was racing. Like you were still in high school, or something, and not a full-grown adult who was having a crisis over their ex texting them. “He said hey are you up?, all lowercase, no comma.”

“No comma,” Kaveh repeated with a suspicious look on his face.

“No need to be so wary,” Cyno said. “His intentions don't appear to deliberately cause any 'comma-tion’.”

Tighnari’s ears dropped along with his face.

“Do you get it?” Cyno seemed proud that he was able to come up with that one right away. “There was no comma. It was a wordplay on commotion—”

“Did he also say what he was texting you for?” Kaveh interrupted loudly. “If he wants something, send a picture of us and tell him you’re busy.”

“Aether’s not like that,” you murmured in defeat.

Kaveh was making him out to be some sort of playboy. Aether wasn’t, which made you worry more. You didn’t want to entertain someone who left you, but you still cared enough to wonder if something came up and he needed you.

“You’re going to reply?” Tighnari asked.

“Yes,” you said, typing out a what’s up? and hitting Send. You didn’t know why you had butterflies in your stomach—you used to shower with Aether back when you were still together; there was no need to be so nervous. “He’s your friend, too, you know.”

“You were our friend first,” Kaveh said. “And he broke your heart. That’s not something to be taken lightly.”

You felt warm, a smile blooming on your face. “It’s okay. I wasn’t that affected.”

“You were,” Kaveh, Tighnari, and Cyno chorused.

“Fuck you,” you said, smile dropping.

Aether was typing again. You sat up straight and watched the three dots do the worm on the bottom of your screen. 

hi :) how are you?

Ugh. Furiously, you typed, aether spit it out. did something happen?

okay okay

You expected that he just wanted something. Something had to have come up for him to text you after months. That didn’t make it hurt any less, though. Maybe Aether was a playboy; the way he played with your feelings almost qualified him for it.

But then you think back to when Aether was still in Sumeru, lighting up the room, lighting up a fire in your heart. He was everyone’s favorite, too, not just yours. And even if Kaveh and the others denied it now, they hadn’t been able to deny him back then. Aether helped them out in ways they didn’t know how to repay. Aether made you so happy, to be thinking so negatively about him like this.

Aether sent: i’m invited to aymar’s wedding and i wanted to ask if you would agree to be my plus one

why me?

you’re the first person i thought of.

Perhaps he wasn’t in trouble—he was trouble enough. What were you getting yourself into?

i thought you didn’t want to get involved with Aymar anymore

i can’t turn down an excuse to eat free at a buffet

You sighed. You wouldn’t, either.

You frowned at your screen, wishing it was Aether in front of you instead. Maybe if you could read his expressions instead of reading between the lines of his texts, you could figure out why he invited his ex, of all the people he knew.

besides, Aether continued to text, this is probably aymar’s way of showing us that she’s over me. she has a groom now and all that

Aymar had the biggest crush on Aether, and she never hid it, even when you and Aether were dating. But despite her advances, she was a sweet girl who was just as infatuated with your ex as the rest of Teyvat was. Maybe this was her way of apologizing.

However—

she didn’t even invite me wtf

haha well is that a no?

“Guys,” you spoke up, grabbing your friends’ attention. Kaveh was still losing miserably. “Have you heard news of Aymar’s wedding?”

“Oh,” Kaveh looked thoughtful, “yes. We were invited.”

“What? Was I the only one not invited?”

“Maybe it’s because you got to date Aether and she didn’t,” Tighnari said.

You rolled your eyes. “Well, Aether’s asking me to be his plus one—and I’m going to say yes don’t look at me like that.”

Alhaitham, Cyno, and Kaveh wordlessly clear their expressions.

“Oh,” Tighnari frowned. “We weren’t planning on going.”

“We have to now!” Kaveh said. “We have to, if Y/N’s going.”

“Is this too much?”

You checked yourself out in the full-length mirror, performing a little twirl that had Kaveh clapping. Alhaitham sat beside him, briefly looking up from his book. Tighnari and Cyno were elsewhere, picking shoes for you that would be in the range of ‘cheap’ and ‘expensive, but not because I care about what Aether would think’.

“Of course not,” Kaveh said, giving a thumbs up. “You look great!”

You turned to Alhaitham next, who didn’t hesitate: “Looks good. Might as well wear yellow, too.”

You flushed hotly at his implications. “I’m not dressing up to impress him! This is a formal event, which he happened to invite me to—as friends.”

“Right,” Alhaitham drawled. He could at least pretend to believe you, but that would probably be asking too much from him already.

Kaveh nudged Alhaitham, with a bit more force than necessary. “Cut Y/N some slack.”

Alhaitham sighed imperceptibly, turning his full attention to you. “This would probably be the closure you needed,” Alhaitham said, and you recognized his way of comfort for the way it is. “You’ll find out that you’re over him after this.”

“You’re right,” you said, breathing in deep. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“So,” Kaveh stood up. “Is that what you’re buying? Let’s make haste—Cyno reserved a spot in the line for you!”

Excitement bubbled in your chest as you held the fabric to your chest.

You were definitely not over Aether.

As soon as you felt yourself fidgeting nervously a block away from the ceremony, you knew. As soon as a car rolled in and he stumbled out of the car, tripping because he was waving at you, you knew that you were so not over him.

You tried to blame the heat of the sun for how warm you suddenly felt, but you could be referring to the other sun making his merry way to you, his smile bright, all teeth. His braid could almost be a tail from how it waggled as he jogged over.

“Hey,” Aether, charming and beautiful Aether, gold and warm—your ex, Aether—breathed out, “you look great.”

“You, too.” Aether looked maddening in a suit, in the best way possible. You felt lightheaded and choked out, “Very dashing.”

“Yeah?” He grinned.

“Yeah,” you said, then turned away in case he saw the raw, unfiltered want on your face.

“Shall we?”

How cheesy. Still, you felt yourself flush as you linked your arms with his, like you were a couple. Kaveh was going to kill you—after he killed Aether first.

Aymar’s wedding was startlingly grand. You think she might just have invited the entirety of Sumeru; you might even find Lesser Lord Kusanali here, maybe. 

You found your friends and settled beside them while Aether awkwardly sat on the far edge. He seemed reluctant to have space from you, so you pulled him closer.

“Hey,” Tighnari greeted him. “How have you been? You stopped sending us letters.”

Aether looked extremely uncomfortable. He must be feeling Cyno’s stern stare. “Haha. Well, yeah.” 

The ceremony went as usual. The groom was someone you didn’t recognize; he looked like he was from Sumeru, all big and intimidating—the complete opposite of Aether. Aymar’s tastes changed drastically. All the same, you cheered along with the crowd when they kissed.

You haven’t been able to attend many weddings yourself, though you could always appreciate how emotional the newlyweds got. Vows were always the sweetest to hear. You’d never seen Aymar smile so wide before; then again, it was only fitting. This was her wedding day. Not that you’d know, though.

You glance to the side, catching Aether looking at the newlyweds kiss with an unreadable expression on his face. He looked like he longed for it, but that didn’t seem right. Weddings tied you down. Aether didn’t want to be tied down.

Kaveh clapped the loudest, which snapped Aether into clapping along as well.

You wondered what Aether was thinking. You wonder if he was thinking the same. Looking at the happy bride and the teary groom—could this have been you and him in another life?

Hah.

That’s a funny thought.

You bit your bottom lip to distract yourself from feeling your eyes go hot.

Aymar beamed at you two as she bounded over. “You came!” she said, though it was directed at you.

You wanted to tell her you weren’t even invited, but you felt like that would ruin the moment. Plus, it was literally her wedding. You were glad you ended up here after all the years you spent knowing each other. You smiled back, genuine, and leaned into her hug.

“Of course,” you said. “You look beautiful.”

Aymar blushed. “Thank you. You two look great as well!”

Aether shuffled beside you. “Thanks for inviting us.”

Aymar had that look in her eye that spelled suspicious.

But the past was the past. You weren’t going to get jealous when Aymar was quite literally married, and Aether wasn’t even your boyfriend anymore. “I’m glad you’re happy, Aymar,” you said.

Aymar glanced between the two of you, then finally at you. “I hope you find happiness, too, Y/N. Soon, hopefully.”

The reception started. While your friends were busy hoarding the food, you and Aether were left alone. He looked uncharacteristically nervous—it made you pity him. He was the one who asked you to come with him, but he must have felt out of place the entire time. Everyone thought he would never return, after all.

You traced the rim of your glass, hoping to appear nonchalant. “So, what have you been up to while at Fontaine? Finally moving off to Natlan?” you asked, then bit back a Find any other flings, too?

Aether sighed, twirling his champagne flute before taking a long sip. “Didn’t do too much, honestly. I spent most of my time there thinking.” His eyes flicked up to yours. “Lumine already found her place here in Teyvat, and I…”

Oh.

You were glad you held back from being petty while Aether was genuinely distressed over his journey to self-discovery. Again, you weren’t an asshole. And you still cared about Aether, despite everything, because he was hard to hate. With a sad face like that…

“Sorry,” you muttered. You didn’t mean to make him remember Lumine.

Aether laughed softly. “It’s not like that. It took me a while, but—I had already found my place, too. I was just too dumb not to realize it sooner.”

You wanted to chide him for calling himself dumb, but he was looking at you like he was waiting for you to get something. You blinked, feeling lost.

Aether tilted his head. “It’s with you.”

Your mouth hung open. “What?”

Aether went to repeat it, but Cyno and Tighnari had come back with plates heaping with food. Cyno had one on each hand, unabashed. He sat on his seat and said, in all seriousness, “We might have finished all the catering.”

Tighnari chuckled, “We didn’t, but you two should hurry and get your fill.”

You didn’t get another chance to talk with Aether privately during the reception, but it was still good fun. Aether seemed to warm up to your friends again—or, rather, your friends seemed to warm up to him again.

You shared laughs, food, and toasts with the newlyweds—but your favorite had to have been sharing glances with Aether all throughout the night.

You and Aether went ahead. Cyno and Tighnari didn’t seem surprised when you told them that you were letting Aether take you home, which would have certainly been a blow to your dignity had it been in any other situation.

“So,” you started, “what made you realize you wanted to get me back? Did you have some revelation while in Fontaine?”

“Yes, actually,” Aether said, his hands brushing against yours now and then. “For every sight and couple I saw, I just kept thinking about how you would’ve loved it there.”

“Oh.”

Aether looked bashful. The moonlight highlighted his blush well. “I thought it was because we had just broken up at the time, but I never stopped thinking about you.”

Aether kept going, but you were already sold. You already wanted to get back with him the moment he texted you with all lowercase and no commas. You were fooling no one. Not Alhaitham, not yourself. “What, so you want to take me to the City of Love?”

Aether looked at you fondly. “You would always be the first one I’d think of.”

“I curbed your wanderlust…?” You were fishing for it at this point, but being deprived of Aether’s affections for a long while did that to a person.

You felt outmaneuvered. Shouldn’t you be letting him chase after you a bit more? Why were you discarding your pride just like that? Over your ex?

Your not-ex-anymore now-boyfriend-again smiled. “You became my reason to stay.”

Well. You were doomed from the very beginning.

“Aether!” Paimon shrieked from the other room. “You have mail!”

“Alright, alright,” Aether sighed, lazily pulling himself up from his bed and trudging to the living room. Paimon held a brown envelope.

Aether opened it and withdrew the contents, puzzled.

“Ooh!” Paimon gasped. “Two invitations for a wedding? Is it for Paimon, too?”

Aether ripped the other envelope, heart stuttering at the sight of a familiar name inked on the vellum paper. He blushed. “This is—!”

“Huh? For Y/N?” Paimon snatched the invitation from Aether’s fingers. “Why was it addressed to us? Maybe they were mistaken…”

Aether read something on the back of your invitation. “I don’t think it was mistaken.”

Written with a ballpen, it said, Hi, Y/N! It’s Aymar! I don’t know Aether’s address and none of my colleagues seemed to know where his residence would be…? (Probably because Aether wasn’t even in Sumeru.) But I assumed you would be staying together, so here’s my invitation for you both—I hope you can come!

Aether recognized an opportunity when he saw one.

extras!

the ending was rlly vague so let me add: aether was planning to go back to sumeru for you already and the wedding invitation was a perfect excuse—he flew out back to sumeru literally the next day.

earthtooz was making out with alhaitham & art was making out w kaveh during the reception which is why they dont show up during the end thanks

cyno brought his tcg deck and made tighnari bring his own—thats what they did during the afterparty lol

don’t ask if paimon was floating or if she was on the ground. sometimes we dont have to question things.

aymar was a name i just grabbed from the list of sumeru npcs—i don’t actually know if i butchered her personality horribly. if i did, forgive me.

THANK YOU FOR READING HOPE U ENJOYED!! LMK WHAT U THINK <3333 comments/rbs get a kiss from aether

[flightfoot]

Marinette Completed Angst Fic Reclist

I know some people really like this genre, so I figured I'd make a list for it! These will obviously all be completed, and none of them will be bashing fics, and PLEASE don't rec any fics on this post that are bashing fics, I don't want to see them.

Some of these will have my own commentary about the fic attached to it, for if I've put them on a previous reclist where I had that commentary written out. But a lot of the older fics won't.

For a fic to count for this, the angst Marinette goes through can't just be her being upset about what someone else is going through, though the angst of the fic doesn't only need to be hers, so long as she has her own angst which is a decently prominent part of the fic.

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one does not love breathing by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

All of Paris watched as Hawkmoth murdered Chat Noir, taking the Black Cat Miraculous for himself. Ladybug swears revenge, but her enemy—and every miraculous in his possession—disappear without a trace.

Six years later, a new team of villains launches an attack for the last remaining Miraculous: Volpina, armed with new powers; Queen Bee, with questionable loyalty; Argos, the new holder of the Peacock Miraculous; and Cat Walker, who Ladybug hates the most.

Takes place after S4 - Strike Back.

This is a simply phenomenal fic. You get to explore a lot of different perspectives, like Felix, Kagami, Marinette, and Adrien’s, just to name a few, and see their different thought processes and plans and priorities, and how it can cause their plans to collide with each other, even when they all ultimately are aiming for a good outcome for everyone. The characters are pretty complex and can mess up at times, even when they’re doing things (or not doing things, looking at you Luka) with the best of intentions. It was a joy to read and a real nail-biter the whole time, I actually wrote a fic for it halfway through just to resolve some of the tension for myself, One Does Not Love Shadows.

It also features the version of Luka I’ve connected best with to date, as he feels like Luka, but also is a lot more fleshed out, and can make some major errors while simply trying to avoid missteps. It’s helped me get a better handle on a character who I’ve generally had a lot of problems with really understanding.

It is an M-rated fic, though I think Wackus is being overly cautious on that front. There’s no sexual content and I wouldn’t put the violence or gore above a T-rating, so I wouldn’t let the rating scare you off.

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you don’t even know me at all (but I was made for loving you) by @ladyofthenoodle

They didn’t remember each other. The hospital told them there’d been an accident—brain damage—but Alya had told them the truth, later. Who’d they’d been to each other. What they’d given up, and why. But even with their memories of each other gone, Adrien and Marinette are still inextricably tied together—by law, by their social circles, and by their hearts. And in the apartment they share, there’s only one bed.

Yep, it’s the “there was only one bed” trope XD! I especially love how it was used here, how Adrien and Marinette are strangers now but they had a whole life together, and they pine for each other even without remembering, and how Marinette just can’t believe how in love with her Adrien is even though he doesn’t remember her. I loved the emotional turmoil the two of them went through together in the fic, and the resolution, it’s great!

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fine line by @bbutterflies

“Catwalker?” Loveybug asks. “Hmm?” “Do you remember… what happened before us?” “What do you mean?” “Before we were heroes. Was there someone else?” Catwalker goes quiet for a moment. “I don’t know,” he finally says.

This is a surprisingly angsty take on the Loveybug AU. Here, since the Loveybug and Cat Walker transformations are so unnatural, they’re having negative side effects on Marinette and Adrien, causing them to be constantly exhausted and even to get amnesia the longer they continue using them.

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do you think I have forgotten about you? by @roseinaugust

Based on the song ‘About You’ by The 1975. Memory Loss. Told in alternating time lines, one leading up to and one dealing with the aftermath of Marinette relinquishing the Miracle Box and the guardianship. Marinette struggles with her life after losing her memory, though there is a persistent voice that calls to her that always seems just out of reach in her memory.

Beautiful memory loss fic here, with seeing Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s relationship before she gave up the Miracle box, juxtaposed with the present day, when Adrien is only a stranger to her. I could really feel how Marinette was struggling with navigating these new circumstances, with her friends seeming to expect her to remember, to be who she was to them, to Adrien especially, before, and her just… not knowing whether she can do that. It’s got a happy ending though, for those who are concerned about that.

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Our Tales Are Endless (That’s Why I Tell Them) by @joonapeach

Marinette lives a simple life - one surrounded by pretty dresses, fresh macaroons, and the calming view of Paris. It’s a life she thinks she has always fit in. And yet sometimes, when a certain boy comes by her shop with a flower and a new adventurous story, she can’t help but wonder if there’s something else she’s missing.

This was a truly gorgeous story. It’s the classic “Marinette gives up the Miracle Box and loses her memories” storyline, exploring her life two years later. Even though she’s had time to heal and recover, she still feels like she’s missing something, something big. At least Adrien’s stopping by regularly to tell her stories about Ladybug and Chat Noir, even if she doesn’t understand why they resonate with her so well.

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I (Wish I) Knew You by @buggachat

University has been hard on Marinette. Making new friends and maintaining her grades is a lot easier said than done when she has to disappear at odd times to fight akumas. She's struggling, and with Alya away with family and Adrien painfully out of reach, she's never felt lonelier.

If only she could talk to someone who really understood her struggles... but it's not like Chat Noir would know anything about loneliness. Right?

Nice aged-up Ladynoir fic here! Marinette’s struggling with losing friends and lovers because of her flakiness due to her superhero activities, until at last she breaks down. Thankfully, Chat Noir’s there at least - and it soon turns out he’s got problems of his own that he’s been hiding.

There’s some fluff and angst, it’s mostly just the two of them navigating life, dealing with their feelings and talking things out.

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If I Let Myself Love You by @uptoolateart

It’s hard to be a normal girl with a normal life when your mother has terminal cancer. And when fashion model Adrien Agreste moves back to Paris and wants to be Marinette’s friend – or maybe even more – her life is turned upside down again.

How can she risk opening her heart to love when her whole world is falling apart? Especially when Adrien is hiding a dark secret of his own….

- COMPLETE FIC – updates on Sundays

*** No kwamis AU - 100% Adrinette. About half of it is fluffy and half heavy. Please read tags for trigger warnings. ***

This fic can be rough, definitely pay attention to the tags. There’s no villains in this story, it mostly centers around themes of dealing with illness - both being sick and having a loved one who’s terminally ill - and death, grieving someone who’s lost, and how difficult that can be. It can get pretty gut-wrenching at times, especially as you slowly discover more layers of what’s really going on, what both Adrien and Marinette are hiding, both from others and from themselves in order to help cope with their circumstances. But they still move forwards together, regardless.

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Between the Heavens and the Embers by @readersmoon

Everyone in Paris remembers the fateful night of January 16, when the city was attacked by the most powerful and destructive akuma ever created. The assault, which lasted for hours, resulted in the death of 439 people.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was among the casualties.

Years later, Adrien hasn't been able to move on, haunted by the memories of her broken body. So, when the opportunity to leave Paris for a while presents itself, he doesn't hesitate. But this trip might end up giving him more than he ever dreamt of.

This is a fantastic fic, though a serious and a dark one - make sure to mind the tags, and it’s M-rated for a reason. Vee - or rather, Marinette - is going through a horror story here. Imagine finding out that your life is a lie, that everyone you thought you could trust was manipulating you, that you were just being continually gaslit for years. 

As for Adrien, Alya, and Nino... well, none of them took Marinette’s “death” all that well, especially Adrien. Finding out that she’s been alive all this time, in these horrible circumstances, and they had no clue... it’s hard on them as well.

I love how this fic goes into how much trauma everyone has even after the immediate danger’s dealt with, you don’t just walk off this kind of experience, especially with how many years this lasted.

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in case you don’t know me tomorrow by @thelibraryloser:

“We live in a crazy world where pieces of our lives can be erased like they never even happened. I just wanted to memorize this moment so… so I could keep it, if that makes sense.”

Adrien’s heart gave a little flutter. She wanted to keep this moment, meeting him. She wanted to keep… him.

“I understand exactly what you mean.“

In a world that has created a way to selectively delete memories, no moment is truly safe. So how do you hold on to something when the memory of it is gone? And how do you keep fighting for someone when you’re the only one who remembers?

This is a SEVERELY underrated fic. It’s got some shades of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” in the world, though the plot is very different - the memory erasure ain’t willing. 

Basically, the first few chapters are establishing Adrien’s and Marinette’s romance, and then the rest of the fic is dealing with Gabriel being an absolute DICK and using any means at his disposal to break them apart. It’s fantastic and I highly recommend reading it!

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hella enchanted by @xiueryn:

Years ago, Marinette’s father died and she was left with her awful stepmother. With magic forcing her to obey every command, she lived as a servant and gave up hope. When a man appears, searching for the very fairy that blessed her, Marinette decides to give life one more try. AU.

(a different ella enchanted au.)

Even though it’s a one-shot this one is pretty long, clocking in at over 30k words. Absolutely worth a shot, though. The first third is basically Marinette dealing with being pushed around because of her “blessing”, and the other two-thirds is just some adorable fluff of her and Adrien touring the country together. 

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Echoes of You by kittinoir

In the day time, she's Marinette - a normal girl, with a normal life. A normal girl, with a normal life. A normal girl, with... Not Season 4 Compliant; please, no spoilers

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balancing act by fictionalinfinity

“Besides, being Ladybug always came first. It came before school, friends, and sometimes even family. Now it had to come before her health. Marinette had a duty to Paris. She wouldn’t let them down.” Or, being both Ladybug and the Guardian starts to take its toll on Marinette. - the epilepsy au literally no one asked for

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Some Days by @merrygreenie

Some days are worse, and others are a little better, little by little and day by day. Marinette Dupain-Chen is learning how to live her new normal after living in confinement and being tortured by Hawkmoth. She is thankful to have her friends and family to support her. And a very special Chat who loves her very much. *This story contains scenes of violence and torture this is a whump fic*

This fic has some great angst, but be warned, it's not kidding about the violence and torture. Honestly, it should probably be rated M instead of Teen, given that while the fic mostly takes place after Marinette escapes and while she's recovering, we do get a detailed flashback to her torture.

[yallemagne]

Thinking about dom/sub in Dracula

So, I was musing about Harkward dynamics to myself and I got the idea to expand that into general kink of the Dracula cast. This will not explore all of kink because… I am not familiar with all of kink. But I am familiar with BDSM, so I will mostly be exploring dom/sub dynamics. No, I’m not going into depth about Dracula himself. Everyone knows he’s just a shitty dom who refuses to utilize safewords. 

DISCLAIMER: not everyone falls into a category because not everyone is into dom/sub and it isn't a perfect lil binary system. And please leave your preconceptions spawned from media like Fifty Shades at the door.

Mina - Dom. While wanting to stick to gender norms most of the time, her dominance just naturally comes out, and even in nonsexual situations she has a tendency to be very stern with people, and as seen with the team, her wishes often take precedence, and she consistently uses that to her advantage. She tries to suppress herself around people she is less familiar with (again, not wanting to make any waves or be seen as a New Woman), but with friends, she excuses it as her schoolmistress persona coming out. Jack turned bright red the first time she made this excuse and no one will let him live it down. Though, Mina is open to exploring this schoolmistress persona with him if he would like. She and Jonathan don’t really engage in much role-play, they ultimately burst into laughter after the second cheesy line and just have their regular sex.

Jonathan - Sub. Jonathan is, even in non-sexual situations, a very submissive person, and this unfortunately gets him into hot water. However, it also may be how he was able to survive Dracula’s castle. He is naturally very eager to please, so he has learned over the years how to appease his superiors and fall back when it is necessary. Dracula’s abuse of him definitely coloured submission in an unfortunate light for him, but mostly in terms of fully submitting to other men, because he is completely comfortable with letting Mina take full control. There is fluidity, however. While he isn’t very sexually assertive, he will service top for Mina or others. When subbing for men (at least in the beginning) he prefers Mina to be present to moderate. This isn't kink, but I headcanon him as demisexual, so he has some conflicts about his sexual desires (at first interpreting them to be unnaturally thrust upon him by some outside force). Mina takes care in easing him into sex, encouraging him not to shy away from it.

Lucy - I don’t see her as particularly kinky, not because I think she’s a pure little flower or anything, but because she has not been properly educated about sex. What she has been taught about sex is probably very reductive towards women (the idea that sex is painful, that the woman has a duty to her husband, etc.). Since she would reasonably be very anxious about sex, I would like to see her take a more active role in dictating how the sexual experience is going to happen for her own personal comfort. It wouldn’t necessarily make her a dom because in most healthy dynamics it is actually the sub that gets the final say over how the scene plays out. I see her as vanilla but receptive to kink if her partner is interested. 

(highly recommend BlueCatWriter's fic Lucy's Wedding Night, exploring... well... Lucy's wedding night in three AUs where she survives and marries each one of the Suitors.)

Jack - hooooo boy. Sub. He carries a lot of power in his day-to-day, and I’m not saying there’s absolutely nothing psycho-sexual about his behaviour towards Renfield (not a healthy dynamic whatsoever, mind you), but because he spends much of his time in a position of power- when he’s intimate with someone, he prefers to be able to fully let go and be told what to do. To be told how well he does it, what a good boy he is. Gets fairly anxious about being dominant in bed if he ever is because he wants to perform well. Definitely has engaged in some nasty role-play. 

Quincey - Man knows how to hogtie a person. Fairly dominant and always frank about what he’d like. At least with men, it's easier for him to talk dirty with men, he's a bit more old-fashioned and courteous with the ladies. In book, he's almost ridiculously cautious about springing anything on a woman, opting to stand outside the Harkers' bedroom like an NPC while Mina was being eaten because he didn't want to burst in on her wearing a nightgown. Quincey, you prude, she's DYING. He, Arthur, and Jack have all engaged in very… hyperspecific role-play scenarios. It’s not something he thought he would be into, but he leans into a hyper-American persona because it really seems to entertain and excite his partners. Oh, sorry. Pardners. 

Arthur - I don’t see him as particularly dominant or submissive. While often using his higher status as a bargaining chip, he doesn’t seem to lord it over his lower-classed friends at all. It's possible he's uncomfortable with being dominant because it feels “icky” to him. He doesn’t like thinking that he’s forcing people to do anything. Much like Lucy, he is receptive to his partner's desires. Is super turned on by the ridiculous role-play ideas that Jack and Quincey come up with, so that’s something. But he’s embarrassed to ever come up with scenarios himself, so he opts to prompt it by asking questions like: “Can we do what we did last week? Can you do the thing with the rope again?” As such, he and Lucy probably don’t have kinky sex unless Lucy makes a move (no that is not a diss, vanilla sex is perfectly fulfilling). 

... I don't want to talk about the old men, I will be crucified (you can ask though... I suppose. But I swear if I get an ask about Renfield and I am killed the next day, I am going to haunt you).

If you wish for me to elaborate on any particular ship or go further in-depth with the characters/share your own headcanons, feel free to ask. If you want to scream at me for being so terribly wrong in my headcanons... I can't hear you, my headphones are in.

[xocasper]

First Time for Everything

Pairing: Gerard Way x Reader Summary: Mikey is your best friend, and you have an unfortunate crush on his older brother, Gerard. When you discover that Gerard likes you too, it leads to an afternoon of exploration. (aka high school!au with super virgin basement!gerard) Warnings: NSFW content Tags: oral sex, mega virgin!gerard Word Count: 2306 A/N: I literally hate this with every fiber of my being but I was too far in to quit. Gonna go write some relatively kinky shit to validate myself.

Today was Friday, and arguably the best day of the week, especially for you. Every Friday after school, you would walk home with your friend Mikey, and spend the rest of the day at his house, watching movies and eating junk food. You weren’t very popular, but you did have a small circle of friends outside of him who would always try to tell you that high school is the best years of your life, and you should be out doing something fun. To you, “something fun” meant spending time with Mikey, and sometimes his brother Gerard.

Gerard was a year older than you two, but he didn’t think of you as little kids, unlike the other seniors. He was quiet, and spent a lot of time in his room, only emerging if Mikey coaxed him out. He also happened to be very cute. You wanted to hold his hand and kiss him softly, watching for the pretty shade of pink that had dusted his cheeks any time he spoke to you. You weren’t sure if he was shy around everyone or just you, but it didn’t matter. Even if he liked you too, Mikey was your best friend and you couldn’t just date his older brother.

The sound of the bell ringing woke you from your daydreams, and you haphazardly tossed your schoolwork into your bag, rushing to your locker to meet Mikey. You heard footsteps stop next to you, but instead of your friend, you were face-to-face with his brother.

“Mikey got picked up for a doctor’s appointment a little while ago,” he told you, fiddling with the straps of his backpack. “He didn’t remember it until today, so he asked if I could walk with you instead? I drove here though, so we wouldn’t be walking, and you don’t have to if you don’t want to. You could come over later once he’s home or something, I know adults always say not to get into strangers’ cars-”

You stifled a laugh as he rambled, staring at the floor as he went on. “A ride would be great, thank you. And you’re not a stranger, you’re my friend.”

He looked slightly surprised, “We’re friends?”

“Do you want to be more than that?” you joked, and his head shot up, eyebrows raising slightly. “What?”

“I’m kidding,” you said as you began heading towards the doors of the school, Gerard trailing behind you. You almost missed the faint frown on his face as he mumbled an “oh”, and you had to bite back a grin as you walked outside. This could be fun.

Neither of you spoke until you got into the car, and he started apologizing profusely for the mess, which was really only a few snack wrappers and school papers.

The ride to his house was filled with the low hum of the radio, mixed with a slightly awkward conversation about school and other mundane things. You wanted him to open up a bit, maybe get him to touch on a topic he was passionate about. Mikey had told you that he was really into comics, so you ran with that.

“Mikey said you like comics,” you said, more as an offhand comment with hopes of him expanding on it.

“He did?” he turned to look at you, a small smile ghosting across his face. You nodded your head and the next thing you knew he was chatting away about a new series he was reading.

It was sweet how happy he was to be talking about something he enjoyed, even more because you were interested in what he had to say.

When you pulled into the driveway, he got out first, scooting around to the passenger side to open the door for you. He blushed that same pretty pink as you smiled at him, following him inside.

“Do you want to do something while you wait for Mikey? I can stay up here if you want, not that I don’t trust you or anything, you’ve been coming over forever, but I wouldn’t want you to be lonely.” The awkward rambling returned, and so did the urge to kiss him. “C’mon, let’s go see what’s on TV.” You made a bold move and held his hand as you pulled him into the living room, his mouth opening and closing, wanting to say something but the words were caught in his throat.

He kept some distance between the two of you, fumbling a bit as he reached for the remote. It was almost funny how flustered he got over something as simple as hand-holding, and you were honestly wondering if he’d even spoken to a girl before. 

You could feel his eyes on you, but yours stayed glued to the television. It was a cartoon you’d never seen before, and you really had no interest in it, but it felt nice to have him watching you. It wasn’t creepy like most guys, more like endearing. This continued for about five minutes and you figured he had spaced out or something, but when you turned to look at him, he whipped his head away.

A small laugh escaped you and he buried his face in his hand, embarrassed that he was caught despite how blunt his staring was. You shifted to face him, leaning against the arm of the couch, and stared right back at him. He frowned a bit, “Why are you staring at me?”

“Because I think you’re pretty,” you said, and his eyes squinted questionably. “Have you ever kissed someone before?”

“What?!” he looked floored, and for a moment you thought you’d overstepped. You raised an eyebrow at him, and he shook his head almost shamefully. “Do you want to?”

He was silent for a moment, shock scribbled across his face. After a moment he nodded but remained glued to his seat. You moved over to him, placing his hands on your hips, one of yours resting against his cheek, the other on his chest. He looked nervous as you leaned in, but didn’t back away.

He tensed a bit as you kissed him, unsure of what to do, but he did some damn good improv by the end of it. His eyes fluttered open as you pulled away, lips still parted as you caressed his skin. Everything about him was soft and warm, and it made you feel that way as well.

Finally, he found the ability to speak. “Can we do that again?”

He had a better idea of what to do the second time around, kissing back tenderly, and relaxing a bit. Cautiously, you slid your hand through his hair, tugging lightly, and a quiet moan rolled off his tongue. He broke away and you retracted your hands, getting ready to apologize, but he beat you to it.

“Sorry,” he pouted, eyebrows knitted together in worry. “I didn’t mean to... moan.” He cringed a bit as he said it, but you assured him that it was alright.

“Hey, you don’t have to apologize. If you’re moaning, that means I’m doing something right,” you told him, and he nodded in understanding.

“You’re doing everything right.” He smiled at you, and butterflies swarmed your stomach. You glanced at the clock behind him; only fifteen minutes had passed, and there was no sign of Mikey. 

Shit, Mikey.

You hated killing the moment, especially with how much more you were willing to give him, but he was probably thinking the same thing anyway.

“What about Mikey?” you asked, and his smile dropped. “Oh shit, you guys are together?!” He was struck with panic and immediately moved away from you, looking absolutely horrified.

“No! God no, Gerard.” You reached for his hand, which he reluctantly gave to you. “I mean that I’ve liked you for ages, I just didn’t think this far in advance. Mikey never said ‘hey! don’t fuck my brother!’ but I don’t want him to freak out anyway.”

He turned cherry red as you spoke, “Don’t what my brother?”

Oh. That wasn’t supposed to come out. You were mortified, stomach churning with anxiety and embarrassment as he stared at you, begging for you to elaborate. “Fuck, no, well yeah, but no, I didn’t mean to say that,” you stammered. “I mean I would if you wanted to, but we just kissed so I’m not really counting on getting laid today.”

He pondered your response for a few seconds before giving his own. “You think about me like that?” You nodded slowly, knowing you had brought this on yourself. “I think about you like that sometimes,” he told you, studying you closely.

You slowly regained your confidence, now knowing that he wasn’t uncomfortable with anything, just a bit sheepish. You pulled him back over to you, his eyes flickering down to your lips again.

“Yeah?” you breathed, gazing at him through your lashes. “Yeah,” he mumbled, and this time he kissed you.

It was different from the other two, there was a trace of neediness in it. Tentatively, he pulled you into his lap, placing his hands back on your waist and squeezing ever so gently. Your arms draped around his neck, occasionally moving them to run your hands through his hair.

He whined as you tugged on it again, and you took the opportunity to slide your tongue past his lips, another moan escaping him. You went slowly, not using too much, swirling it against his as he let you lead. Everything was new to him, and boy, was he enjoying it. 

You left sweet kisses on his neck, sucking softly on his pale skin, knowing full well that the bruises would be obvious later. He shifted beneath you, trying to subtly relieve the discomfort in his jeans. Unfortunately for him, his hard-on was rubbing right up against your thigh, making his actions incredibly clear.

“You don’t have to do anything,” he mumbled, and you lifted your head to look at him. “Do you want me to stop?” you asked, getting ready to climb off his lap. “No! No, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to do something, y’know?”

God, he was so sweet. “Hey, you’re not forcing me to do anything,” you told him, pressing your lips to his jaw. “Ever gotten a blowjob before?”

“I hadn’t even been kissed before today and you think I’ve had one?” He stared at you incredulously, and you shrugged your shoulders. “I’m all for unconventional relationships.”

“No, I haven’t had a blowjob before,” he said, glaring at you playfully. Snickering, you raised your hands in mock defense. “Then I’m honored to give you your first.” He shifted once again, and you finally slid down to the floor.

He probably could’ve come at the mere sight of you on your knees, mouth falling open as you took off his jeans. His boxers were tight, erection practically begging to be set free. He was big, there was no doubt about it.

You kissed up his thighs and stroked him gently over the fabric before tugging it down, watching as his head tipped back at the lightest of touches. You paused as his dick sprung free, “You’re pretty.” He looked down at you, confused, breath catching in his throat as he saw the way you looked at him; every part of him. His dick was thick and pale, tip a deep blush, leaking with precum, and just as pretty as the rest of him. He hissed as you wrapped a hand around him, your tongue darting out to taste him. You swirled it teasingly, jerking him just as slow, while he fought the urge to buck into your mouth.

You pitied him a bit after he mumbled an almost inaudible “please”, and finally took him into your mouth. He kept one hand on the back of your head, the other clenched in a tight fist. His hips jumped a few times, sending him farther down your throat than you would’ve liked, but with each movement came a curse and a mumbled apology. A chorus of moans spilled out of him as he got closer to coming, and you wondered why you hadn't done this sooner.

You picked up the pace while he writhed beneath you, and the way your name fell from his lips had you moaning around him too. He looked beautiful, all flushed and disheveled, groaning loudly as he came down your throat.

His chest heaved as you pulled off of him, bottom lip caught between his teeth as you cleaned him up, leaving a small kiss on the head before tucking him away. He looked at you confused as you sat back on the couch, “You didn’t get to...” His voice trailed off at the end, and you laughed lightly at his shyness. “It’s okay, Mikey will probably be back soon. If it means that much to you though, I could sneak downstairs tonight. You know he passes out before midnight.”

He beamed at you, content with your plan, and brushed his thumb across your lips, still a bit wet and swollen from your previous activities. “Thank you for doing that,” he said before pressing his mouth to yours, already more comfortable than he had been at school. You gave him a peck on the cheek as he pulled away, watching as they tinged pink and he looked anywhere but you.

After a couple of minutes, you heard a car pull into the driveway, and it was time for him to disappear downstairs again. “I’ll see you tonight, yeah?” he asked, already knowing the answer. “Not if you don’t get your ass downstairs,” you grinned, pushing him off the couch. He blew you a kiss as he walked away, your smile only widening. Gerard Way was going to be the death of you.

[kookieswan]

Of Blooms & Bounties - Petunia

Pirate!Jungkook x Explorer!Reader

Word Count: 1.5k

Genre: Pirate!AU, Magic!AU, Semi-Historical!AU, slightly fluffy, very silly.

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, mentions of prostitution, nothing too serious though!

Summary: Namjoon had wanted the gold, Jimin had wanted the fun, and Jungkook had wanted to lay low. All in all, you’d say that two out of three were successful.

Notes: Here we go, another look into their shenanigans lmao

This is from the Of Blooms & Bounties Series. Find it here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s a super simple but very effective plan; Minnie is going to pretend to be Petunia while Tae, Hobi, Jin, and Yoon escort him back to the boat so we can take him home. _____, JK, and myself are going to stay here to make sure nothing tips them off. Pose as customers at the tavern and keep a lookout for Minnie…”

And lookout you do; both you and Joon sitting in the corner of the tavern, eyes scanning the area for the bandits that have purchased Petunias time. It wouldn’t have been as big of a quest to return him home if the man wasn’t expecting customers at almost every hour, but apparently his services are a hot commodity and his boss is… Demanding, which means your options are very slim. The poor man wants wants to to be home with his family again, and since they paid you nicely, it’s the least you can do to help.

“Everything’s going to go to plan, we have the perfect set up.” Namjoon’s dressed down a bit, lacking his usual hat and numerous layers of clothes for a more simple shirt and pants combo. You’re wearing something similar to blend into the background, not wanting to stand out all that much. You don’t think you’ll be found out anyway, not with how intense the partying is tonight.

“I know it will Joon, I’m not worried.” The tavern’s in full swing, a large crowed covering most of the floor space and seemingly very drunk. Other pirates mostly, some prostitutes, even a few performers. The bards play music over the roaring crowed, fun songs you wiggle in your seat to, wishing you could get up and dance.

Min sits idly at the bar, legs daintily crossed in his finest leather pants. He looks dangerous but in the best of ways, his charms drawing in a number of patrons around the shady tavern. He dones a billowy white shirt as well as high laced leather boots, coal around his eyes and red on his lips, the exact look Petunia told his customers he’d be wearing. A little scandalous, a little saucy, a perfect trap.

Kookie had excused himself to hit the toilet a while ago, and so you scan the room to try and spot him in the chaos. It’s a few seconds before he stumbles around the corner, eyes doe like and head swiveling to watch out for your target. It’s a passing thought that he looks pretty, the true flower in your group as he spots you and smiles with his pretty bunny smile as he speeds toward the table.

“Oh, I think this little daffodil is the company we purchased.” You’re so focused on him that you miss the new faces; Jungkook is almost back to the table as he’s stopped, a small hand wrapped around his wrist. He looks down at the small woman as her voice booms out over the patrons, two more women that aren’t much taller by her side. Kookie dwarfs them by quite a bit, tall defined muscles towering over them like a shaking tree. You and Joon both tense, ready to fight this out if things go south.

“I- Huh? Me!?” His voice is frantic but quiet enough you almost miss it. You suppose they’re wearing somewhat similar outfits, but Jungkook has certainly never worn skintight leather pants in his life like Jimin. Trying to hide your giggles as you settle a bit, you swig down your beer and pretend not to notice Namjoon’s bugging eyes. Min watches from across the tavern with wide eyes, lips twitching up and down, clearly not sensing any danger.

“Yes you beautiful, you’re exceptionally stunning. Look at that tiny little waist under that pretty little shirt, I could just eat you up.” Well, things certainly aren’t going as planned… They’re going better. The woman places her hand on Jungkook’s chest, slowly trailing a finger down until she reaches the low-cut collar. It’s humorous how far she has to stretch her arm up, but you remain mostly quite as Namjoon gently pokes your leg, a code for ‘shut up’. Jungkook looks like he’s about to pass out: from the implication of him being a prostitute or from being touched so boldly, you’re not sure.

“Um, yes. Yes that’s right, I-I’m Petunia.” Even with the taverns light being dim, you can still see the pink hue that lights up Jungkook’s cheeks as you glance at him, maybe a little shy but also a little flattered. It’s enough to make you coo to yourself, Namjoon’s slowly lowering his forehead till his face is planted firmly against the table. Your poor captains plans just don’t seem to be owning our recently, a true pity but also a secret blessing. Seeing JK flustered is always a little treat, it makes you wanna melt into a puddle.

“Give us a little dance sweetheart, I’ve heard the way your hips move casts shame on the sea herself.” It’s tense as Namjoon raises his head just enough to watch, Jimin staring with intensity from the bar now. Jungkook clears his throat noisily a few times, then slowly starts to sway his hips to the tune of the bards song.

Perhaps he tends to be a little awkward, maybe a smidge outspoken, but he’s always been stunning. A captivating personality, a beautiful face, and now apparently hips that might be able to rival Jimin’s. The poet sways to the music almost sensually as the women cheer him on, rowdy as the sit at the table relatively close to yours, drinks in hand and eyes shining with glee. There’s a shout for him to “take it off”, and strangely enough, he starts to slip out of his shirt without a second though. Hm.

Glancing over at Jimin with a raised brow, he purses his lips and shrugs, clearly enjoying the show as Jungkook finally trips over his own feet. The crew of women don’t seem to mind though, cheering him on in their drunken state. Namjoon sighs noisily to your right, face defeated as he starts to stand up. It’s an unspoken rule; all damage control is in the hands of the captain.

“… I can’t believe it’s come to this, you all are very lucky I’m a nice captain. Slip out when you can _____, I’m sure Minnie will stick around as a watch out.” Apparently the charade has been going on much too long by Joonie’s standards when in reality, Jimin was supposed to lead them into the alleyway and knock them out. This, however, had been much more fun to watch. You continue to watch with an slightly open mouth as Namjoon swaggers up to Jungkook as he sways around with his shirt now mostly off, hands on his hips. He taps the younger man’s shoulder, Kookie turning and freezing like he’s been spotted by a walbear.

“Petunia! How COULD you!?!?” Namjoons voice is shrill over the music, some people turning to stare, others not caring at all. It takes everything in you not to cackle, and so you down the rest of your beer to keep quiet. If you thought Kookies acting was bad, well…

“W-what?” JK looks like he’s nearly about to cry, eyes big and watery as he stares up at Joonie. You can’t see the other man’s face, but something must silently cross between them because Kookie noticeably relaxes in the next few seconds.

“I can’t believe you’re dancing for other people again, you-you harlot! That’s it! I’m taking you home to our eight children!” … Eight? That’s quite a lot. Namjoon actually picks up poor Jungkook and runs out of the building with the smaller man over his shoulder, the three women who bought his time gaping like little fishies. Things could have went a lot worse if they weren’t such a lighthearted and very drunk crew…

Standing slowly from the table, you notice Jimin had departed from the bar at some point, now standing close to the entrance and watching you with expectant eyes. Grabbing your duster, you walk past the women and hide your grin as they mourn the loss of Petunia quite loudly. Jimin ushers you out of the tavern, leading you to the alleyway behind it where the two other men are waiting.

“Woooow JK, that was quite the performance love. Outshined me in every way.” Jungkook starts to sputter and hides his face as Jimin laughs at him, not cruelly but with clear intention to tease. Namjoon just sighs and pats the youngest man’s back, trying to comfort him as he attempts to get over the loss of his own dignity. You silently grab JKs hand, rubbing your thumb against his warm honey skin comfortingly as he glances at you with a shy smile.

“…The things I put up with for some gold. I’m about to walk my own planm”

[buckyownsmylife]

Follow you - Chris Evans smut

The one where Chris becomes your roomate and finds out he has a domesticity kink... and more

Warnings: Smut, breeding kink, domesticity kink, friends to lovers, rommates au, pandemic mention, hair-pulling kink, daddy kink, cockwarming, kind of allusion to an age gap, but can be read as reader being into teasing chris

Word count: 4.1k

A/N: Thanks to @mollygetssherlockcoffee​ for reading this over and helping me make it better! You’re the sweetest person ever!  this is for my own birthday celebration challenge! Like I explained here, I’m going to try to fill every single AU I listed with the characters I picked for the challenge, and since the deadline if May 27, these fics will be posted randomly, as I finish them. Hope you guys like it!

Chris’ P.O.V.

“C’mon, sweetheart,” I’d been trying to convince her to close her laptop for the last two hours, unfortunately without any luck. She just glanced at me before returning to her document, and I groaned as I left the living room in search of what I knew we needed.

“Close the laptop and I’ll give you a sip.” This time when she looked up, she found me holding a bottle of my most expensive whiskey, the one she’d been dying to try ever since she first got invited to my place.

It was a tense moment of evaluation while she took in my offer and her workload, her head turning from her computer to me and then back to the device again, and I found himself growing anxious because of how desperately I wanted her company that night.

“Please?” I tried to convince her, even going so far as to pout - which at least earned me a giggle. I considered it a win, especially with the way it made my chest warm up. “C’mon, we deserve it! After the week we had?”

She frowned when she thought back on the stresses we had confided in each other for the last couple of days, and I watched with glee when she slowly closed her laptop, prompting me to wave my arms around in victory. “We?” She teased, getting up to stand before me with her arms crossed in front of her body, making me laugh.

“Alright, so maybe just you.” I couldn’t really deny that my work “problems” paled in comparison to hers. “Listen, I’m only trying to help.” She narrowed her eyes at me, reaching out for the bottle and unscrewing it before taking the sip I’d promised.

“Shit, this really is good.” A smug smile took over my face as I wrapped my arms around her, walking us back to the couch before making us fall over it.

“Only the best for you, babe.” I watched her roll her eyes at the pet name, snickering at how it affected her. I knew it made her giddy and she hated it, it’s why I insisted on doing it - or so I told myself.

Something deep inside of me whispered differently, though. I tried to ignore it. She was my best friend and we were going to be living together for the foreseeable future. No one knew when this pandemic would let up.

And lord knows that nothing positive had ever come out of my investments in romantic relationships. So every rational thought in my mind was begging me not to overcomplicate this. I couldn’t stand to lose her friendship, anyway. That’s why I had invited her to spend lockdown with me - my need to know she was okay, and be able to have her around whenever I needed to vent.

She was the only one outside my family who got my anxiety well enough to help me work through it when I was feeling bad, and she had even been able to prevent me from having panic attacks more than once.

I just couldn’t imagine going through this with anyone other than her. I simply hadn’t anticipated how fucking horny this period of forced sexual privation would make me, and I never expected her to become a willing victim to my needs.

But boy, once the liquor hit and she ended up over my lap, shivering as she rode my thigh without a care in the world, was I glad that she did.

“Is this what you like?” I asked, looking up at her with my mouth hanging open, unbelieving of how fucking sexy she looked as she used my body for her pleasure. I didn’t even care that my cock was straining against my jeans, begging me to move her on top of it. As long as I could keep enjoying the show, being a part of it, I was satisfied.

“I wanna learn it,” I pressed, moving my hands to hold her ass, squeezing it the way I’d always wanted to do but never allowed myself to dream about. “I wanna learn how to please you.” She made me feel something I hadn’t felt before, in any of my past relationships. There was attraction, of course, but there was also this deep, familiar feeling that made me feel at home. It made me feel safe, and with the help of alcohol, I was desperate to explore it.

“Ugh,” she groaned, letting her head fall back, drawing my attention to her breasts, the way they bounced in front of my eyes, unfortunately still covered. My mouth watered at the sight of it, wanting nothing much than to strip her bare and wrap my lips around one of her nipples.

“Don’t say stuff like that, Evans.” The comment threw me off, making me frown as I took a hold of the hair on the back of her head and yanked her to me, devouring her lips. They were soft - so much softer than I’d ever allowed myself to imagine.

“Why not?” I panted against her mouth once I was forced to separate from her taste of whiskey to search for some oxygen. She kept moving, her eyes hazy and glossed over, and it sent a pang of lust straight down my body when I realized it wasn’t completely due to the drinks we shared. There was also desire in there.

“You want to learn?” She asked, hands bunching up my shirt as she used her hold to grind against me faster. “Then fuck me, Chris.” She molded her body to mine, engulfing my lips once more as I laid her down on the couch, excited to have her underneath me - excited to see her naked body, explore it, get to know every little thing that made her tick.

I knew it would be a moment I’d forever remember, regardless of the amount of bourbon in my blood. I just never expected it to become something I was so eager to relive over and over and over again.

It was supposed to be a one time thing. When I woke up in the morning, I was ready to go back to being roommates. We were good at that. She was a morning person, by the time I woke up every morning, she already had breakfast ready for me, and then we’d go out to the backyard to let Dodger out together.

We’d sit and talk and then I’d go for a run - she’d have done her yoga already, while I was still asleep - I’d answer some e-mails, she’d work on her laptop by my side and the silence was just as comfortable as all of our late night conversations.

She’d sneak out to the kitchen and come back with a few sandwiches for our lunch, and then the rest of the day would go by with us doing whatever mundane task we had in mind, together even if we were doing separate things, and I didn’t feel suffocated.

I didn’t even run out of things to say. By the time dinner rolled around and I followed her back to the kitchen, cleaning up the dishes while she fixed us dinner - I wasn’t allowed to cook in my own stove, mostly because she was terrified of my food but hid it under the excuse of that one time when I started a fire - then we’d eat together, watch a movie together, talk until we fell asleep - always together.

I was shocked. It’d never been this way in any of my previous relationships. In fact, I was certain it was the reason why they had never worked. I’d given up on any realistic expectation of settling down precisely because of this: I just never expected to find anyone with whom a day-to-day life wouldn’t eventually grow boring.

It’d been three months and I still loved to wake up to her coffee. We still fell asleep every night side by side, too tired to move into different beds because we had laughed our asses off after skyping Scott.

And now that sex came into play in our relationship? I just knew there was no way I’d ever go back to being nothing but friends - or living in a place where she wasn’t the first person I saw when I woke up.

It sucked that it took a pandemic and a night of alcohol to make me realize that, but damn, was I grateful that I decided to open a bottle of whiskey that evening.

I kept waiting for the catch, the moment it would all go to shit, but it never came. Our lives resumed to how they used to be, only now I had this ongoing inner battle to not just bend her over the nearest piece of furniture when we were busy, and the ability to do exactly that whenever there was nothing else to do.

And for a while it was bliss. There wasn’t a nagging voice inside my head questioning this arrangement because it was theoretically perfect. I had a best friend, a roommate and a fuck buddy, all wrapped into one single person that I adored.

Life couldn’t possibly get better - until I realized that I wanted more. Talks of lockdown being over started and she had plans of going back to her place, of course, but I couldn’t stand the thought of being away from her.

I wanted to see my family too, but I wanted to take her with me. Introduce her to my mom, see her get along with my sisters. Witness how she’d be with my nephews and nieces - I knew how much she loved kids. And that’s when it hit me.

I’d given my heart to her. Somewhere between the morning coffees and afternoon runs, the nights where I’d rant about all of my silly problems and she actually listened to them - really listened, never making me feel bad about what could only be described as rich people problems.

All the innocent little gestures, and the not so innocent ones - when I discovered she was exactly the nasty slut I’d always dreamed of, the way she would randomly drop to her knees and suck me off, even while I was on the phone. Most times she didn’t even let me repay the favor. She just genuinely liked to blow me.

She also liked to play with me randomly, like when we were watching a movie and she mindlessly reached for my crotch, rubbing me until I got hard. It almost always ended in sex, and I just loved it.

I loved it, and I loved her, and the idea of her ever sharing this idyllic lifestyle with anyone else made me irrationally jealous.

And that’s how I knew it. I didn’t want to mess it up. But how could I not fuck this up?

Xxx

“Chris…” Her sweet voice called out to me, reaching my ears while I was hiding in my office, trying to get my thoughts in order so I wouldn’t just randomly blurt out what I was feeling for my best friend to my best friend.

To her credit, she didn’t try to force me to keep her company - but that only made me fall even deeper for her, leaving me a complete and utter mess while she went about her day as if nothing was wrong in the world.

“Yes?” I looked up to see her by the threshold, clearly reticent about invading my privacy. It made me smile, thinking back on all of the times my exes hadn’t been as understanding, even after I let them clearly know what I was needing.

“I made cupcakes, do you want me to bring you one?” The thought of her in the kitchen, baking a sweet treat just for me had my cock twitching in my pants. Biting my lips, I pushed away from my desk to finally get up and stretch my legs, taking advantage of the monitor to hide my hard-on.

“No, I’ll come eat them downstairs with you.” She smiled before leaving, and I soon trailed after her, walking into the kitchen to find the most delicious-looking little treats, just waiting to be devoured.

Much like her, I supposed.

I was reaching for one of them, already licking my lips in anticipation when something caught my eye, prompting me to raise my gaze and look at her again, but really look at her this time.

She was wearing an apron.

There was nothing inherently sexual about the damn thing, but the way she looked with it, going about her business in my kitchen like she owned the place… It just felt right, seeing her there.

And suddenly I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Y/N…” I started, leaving the cupcake back on the counter and brushing off the crumbs as I circled the kitchen island to go stand in front of her. She hummed before turning to meet me, smiling slightly to signal that she was listening to what I had to say.

But I didn’t know how to say it. So we just stood there, staring at each other until eventually her smile became a frown. “Chris, what’s going on?” I still couldn’t speak. Much to my absolute surprise though, she just sighed, wiping her hands on the apron while shaking her head, a knowing smile on her face.

“You’re stressed, aren’t you? You’ve been working so much, that’s why I thought the cupcakes would be a good idea,” she explained nodding towards the tray where her sweet treats laid. “They’re a reward and a break all wrapped in one delicious cake.”

The comment was like a punch to the stomach - or a scalding wave of desire rushing through my body, straight to my groin. The idea of her thinking about my needs and catering (quite literally) to them just did something to me, and I didn’t know how to explain it - I don’t think I understood it myself.

“But since they didn’t work…” she continued, blissfully unaware of the conundrum she had put me into. “I know something else that will definitely work.” And just like that, the woman dropped to her knees in front of me, reaching for my sweatpants before I could find a way to close the mouth that was hanging open.

“I guess I’ll grab a sweet treat for myself.” She looked so devious, small hand encircling my already pathetically engorged member, that all I could do was whisper an, “Oh, shit,” when she immediately wrapped her lips around it,  starting to suck me off without any preamble.

My fingers were white as I held onto the counter behind me to keep myself up. She looked so good, staring up at me with her lips wrapped around my dick, I felt like I was about to blow already.

Why did she have to be such a fucking tease?

“Oh, God,” I moaned when she managed to engulf the entirety of my member inside her throat, the choking noises getting to my head. My hand instinctively laced with her hair, first to hold her lips close to my navel, then to pry her completely off of my member.

“What’s wrong?” She questioned once she was able to speak, surprise written all over her features while I was still staring down at her slightly teary face and trying to find my voice.

“I-I have a problem.” There. I said it. I had finally made some progress in my goal to let her know what was going through my head. Only instead of curiosity, what I got was a confused expression from the woman still holding my dick, her eyes darting from my own to the member throbbing between her fingers.

“No, you don’t!” It would have been funny if I wasn’t so fucking frustrated. Yanking her by the hair, I complained, “Not that kind of problem!” pulling her to the living room so I could throw her on the couch, trying to ignore her moans of pleasure in the process.

I’d figured out pretty early on that she had a pretty serious hair-pulling kink, and if my plans of sitting down and having a level-headed conversation were ever in motion, they surely went out of the window the second she pulled my body down to cover hers and adjusted my cock so it would easily fill her.

“Son of a…” I groaned, letting my head fall down against her chest as the little vixen gleefully giggled underneath me, legs wrapped around my torso as she tried to thrust up and tempt me to move.

“Just wait a second,” I managed to reason, but she just shook her head.

“Fuck away your problem, Chris. Use me. I want you to.” Motherfucker. I really couldn’t catch a break with her. Just as she started to make me move again, my hand instinctively wrapped around her neck, lightly squeezing it just enough to get her to shut up.

“I wanna start a family with you,” I finally spilled, looking deep into her eyes as I tried to ignore that I was still balls deep inside of her. Her eyes widened, and now her mouth was the one hanging open.

I couldn’t really relish in it because she looked absolutely delicious and she felt stupidly heavenly to my throbbing dick.

A few seconds went by without as much of a reaction from her and I was about to pull out - despite still being achingly hard - but her legs held me tighter, stopping my plans of leaving her tight haven.

“You know…” She started to speak, a little out of breath, catching my attention as I finally gathered the courage to look her in the eye again. “When I first met you, I thought you were the epitome of a fuckboy.”

The unexpected sentence had me snorting, and then I just couldn’t stop laughing. Finally pulling away from her, she fixed her hair when she sat up and I did the same, shaking my head slightly as I rubbed my eyes.

Our own relative nakedness - well… mine, she was wearing her usual dress with no underwear under the damn apron - didn’t affect anything when I pondered over her words, until I decided to break the silence.

“I mean… I think I was?” She chewed on her bottom lip as she took in my response, analyzing it, weighing its validity in that gorgeous head of hers. I was nervous, but she hadn’t blew me off yet. And quite honestly? I’d do anything for that little hope that was growing inside of me.

“What changed?” Was her question, so unexpected I couldn’t help but question, “Huh?”

“What made you change?” It wasn’t an unwelcome inquiry, especially when the response became clear to me, lighting up my brain and warming my chest, spreading all over my body until I had no choice but to voice it.

“I realized I could have a future with you.” My smile was vulnerable but honest, and in her eyes, I could see that she knew that. When she threw one leg over my lap, straddling my hips, I allowed myself to breathe deeply again, leaning on the soft cushion while taking a hold of her ass.

“So, how are we gonna do this?” She non-nonchalantly asked, slowly rubbing herself against my still half-hard member. I groaned when I realized the implication of her words, knowing that the meaning paired with the feeling of her wet lips dragging along my cock would get it back up in no time at all. “You wanna do me right now?”

The brashness of the question made my eyes light up, as weird as it may sound. In that moment, it became clear just how perfect for me she really was, giving me what I needed exactly in the way I didn’t know how to ask for it.

“See? This is why I’m in love with you.” She rolled her eyes at that, making me laugh. I’d anticipated the gesture, I knew it’d take her longer to say it, but it was alright. The fact that she was willing me to give me a child was more than enough proof of her feelings for me, if her entire behavior ever since she moved in wasn’t already.

“Shut up and fuck me, Evans.” Throwing her back against the couch, she yelped in surprise when I took off my shirt and slapped the inside of her thigh, assuming my usual position of hovering over her smaller frame.

“Spread your fucking legs, darling. I’m gonna fuck you real good.” The way she bit her lip as I slowly penetrated her again showed me just how excited the prospect got her, and as I started to make good on my promise, her moans told me just as much.

“Holy fuck,” she commented as I pounded her ruthlessly, weeks of frustration and the rush of anticipation getting the best of me, and I was glad for the feeling of her nails biting into my skin because otherwise, I’d probably run over the edge of not even caring about her own pleasure as I chased mine.

“You gonna cum inside of me, honey? Make me a mom? Finally fulfill your dream of becoming a daddy?” Her words detracted me from my task of sucking bruises on the skin that was now mine to bruise, mine. I threw my head back, yelling a, “fuck yes,” as my hips sped up, desperate to fill her up, but I was determined to get her to cum before me.

“Say it,” she ordered, small hand circling my throat as best as she could, a throwback to what I’d done only moments prior. It wasn’t enough to choke me, but it did catch my attention. “I wanna hear you say it.”

Tears escaped the corners of my eyes as I blinked, the intensity of the moment overwhelming in the best of ways. “God, you are such a fucking tease…” She chuckled underneath me, giving my throat a squeeze before she raised up on her elbows to kiss my jaw.

“Better get used to it… daddy.” And just like that, I realized that I had yet another kink I hadn’t known about before her. Or maybe it was just her, and I was obsessed with the damn woman, painfully turned on by every little thing that she did.

“I’m gonna cum deep inside your little pussy, sweetheart,” I finally gathered myself enough to do as she asked me to. “You’re gonna belong to me forever now. Give me kids, make me happy. How do you like that?”

The mischievous grin she gave me told me everything. “I love it.” I knew this was her way of saying what she couldn’t yet voice, and I’d take it. I’d take anything she gave me, any chance I got to love this wonderful woman.

We came together, both riding our highs in deep ecstasy. I moaned when I felt myself empty all of my seed inside of her, incredibly excited about the prospect of starting our future together right then.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” I cradled her face in my hands as I struggled to catch my breath, but she turned it to the side and pressed a kiss to my palm and I was breathless all over again. It was such a simple action, why did it get to me so much?

“You’re not too bad yourself, Chris.” I didn’t want to part with her warmth, so I just adjusted us on the sofa in a way that kept me inside of her, sighing contently as I realized I’d never have to sleep away from her again.

“I’m gonna stay right here all night.” I adjusted myself so I was resting my face on her boobs, perfectly happy to do just so, but by the tone of her voice, I knew she had a teasing smile when she called me an, “Old man.”

“And here I was, thinking you’d be able to go again.” Warmth filled my chest at the realization of just how badly she wanted me - just as much as I wanted her too. I was so damn ecstatic. Not even her pokes at my age would be able to affect me.

“Oh, darling… better get ready,” I warned as I adjusted myself to hover over her again, taking notice of the excited glint in her eyes, the way she bit her lip as she stared back at me. “I’m never gonna get enough of you.”

The next morning, I added a new kink to the list of random bits of information that were driving me slowly insane as I felt the overwhelming need to bend the woman that I now got to call ‘mine’ over the nearest piece of furniture and rail her until I had cummed deep inside her pussy: seeing her in my shirt while cooking breakfast.

Yeah, I was going to live a happy life by her side.

[chipper-smol]

Hollow Knight Telephone Round Two: Relic Coffee Shop

Prompt

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.

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Prompts:

1: Lemm finds an odd fellow at the Blue Lake. Normally he wouldn’t bother to approach a stranger out of nowhere, but something in his gut urges him to take action. Quirrel, feeling the effects of age on his body, stares incredulously at the bearded face of a stranger who apparently wants to have him over for coffee. 2: Lemm sets up shop in an abandoned cafe. It’s roomy and pleasant at first, but there are _stacks_ of these disgusting old bitter coffee beans clogging up the rooms. It doesn’t help that bugs keep coming in to order a drink even though he’s posted signs to _KEEP OUT!!_ However, once they start offering Geo be begrudgingly takes it as an opportunity to achieve funds to pay for relics. 3: At first, the coffee was just an excuse to get Geo to pay for relics, but Lemm’s begun to notice that bugs who wandered into his shop with the telltale early symptoms of infection no longer have them on their return visits. He tells himself he’s not an altruist. He’s _not._It’s just a waste to throw out old coffee when someone just needs a pick-me-up.

By @bluwails​

------------------------------- By @hydrochlorinate​

“Just don’t. Tell. Anyone. Else.”

Those were the words that came out of the grumpy barista’s mouth that fateful day. One’s that you completely ignored, as you had already been drinking what could only be the drink of HIgher Beings, with just how heavenly it tasted.

Grinning like a lunatic, you give him 45 geo, not a small sum. If anything though, it was hilariously cheap for a drink that was this good. The bug doesn’t complain about the amount though, so he’s probably fine with it. Wings fluttering in excitement, you leave the shop, ready to tell any remaining survivors about the amazing drink shop you just found.

===============>(Coffee Shop AU)

The next time you come in, the store is absolutely packed. Denizens from all across the ruins of Hallownest are here, ranging from some uninfected moss knights to that one ladybug that you had a dance off with a while back. There's even a noble here, and- is that a mantis?

Anyway, it looks like your very subtle method of giving publicity to this cafe by talking about literally nothing else to whomever you talked to over the following week paid off. Good, this place deserves all the atte-

“You.”

Oh? You snap out of your thoughts, and look towards the counter, where the barista is levelling a glare at you that could instantly wither those delicate flowers that have been spreading around recently.

You stroll on up to the counter, a grin stretching across your face. The barista narrows his eyes.

“Didn’t I tell you to keep this a secret? Why is my establishment filled to the brim with bugs? Who are these people?!”

...huh. Did he tell you to keep it on the down low? It seems in character from your limited interactions, but you don’t remember exactly. Oh well, time to play it off. You tell him that, well, what can you say except you’re welcome.

You’ve never seen a bug go from “Irritated” to “Ballistic” as fast as this barista. Usually they make a stop at “Angry” or “Absolutely Livid”.

“YOU’RE WELCOME?!?!”

No, see, he’s supposed to say thank you.

“THANK YOU???”

You tell him he’s welcome, before laughing. No, really, you tell him, look around, the place is packed! Business is booming! The barista (you should really ask for his name) manages to bring his volume under control, taking in a deep breath.

“That’s part of the problem. I’m a relic seeker, not a-” He gestures around the cafe, as if looking for the right words to use. Barista, you suggest.

“Exactly. I’m not made to brew coffee-” Oh, that’s what it was called. “-or to be dealing with customers all day long.”

Sure. That’s why he decided to allow people to keep purchasing coffee, or why he decided to put on a cute green and white visor.

You didn’t just come to check in on your new favorite bug though, you have coffee to order! Taking out a sheet of paper from your bag, you begin to read out both your order, and those of your companions. Even with the end of the infection, the leftover damage to hallownest’s caves and architecture makes it dangerous to travel alone.

As you begin to read out your order, the barista shifts from crotchety old bug to attentive worker. You really wish you had come back earlier, instead of letting some of your other traveling buddies pick up the coffee for you. Something about the atmosphere here is… relaxing, despite the amount of people.

After your order is finished, you leave the cafe. Back to the real world bucko, as an old friend of yours would always say.

...Wait a minute you never got the barista’s name.

===============>(Coffee Shop AU)

It’s been 3 weeks. You think. Time gets a little funky down here, what with the sudden influx of void. Sure, most of it has cleared out by now, but every so often your exploration party comes across a tunnel that hasn’t quite been fully illuminated, the shadows just a bit too thick to be natural.

You enter the coffee shop again. It’s gotten a lot quieter as time went on and bugs started coming in on a schedule. There’s still plenty of other customers here, but it’s nowhere near as packed as the first couple of days. Lemm (yeah, you finally got his name) stands at the counter, still slightly disgruntled, but a lot less so than he was at the beginning. In fact, he’s actually talking to someone right now! An actual conversation too, not just an exchange of witty remarks. You can’t see their face, but they appear to be a pillbug wearing a blue hood. 
As you step up to the counter, you can hear their conversation a bit better.

“...of course, I couldn’t just leave it sitting there right? So I move to pick it up, only to find out that the desk I dropped it on was magnetized! So here I am, trying and failing to pick up this one plant hanger for a solid 10 minutes.”

They both laugh at this, before noticing you. The unknown bug turns to face you, allowing you to see his mask.

“Oh, hello, I don’t believe we’ve met before!”

You greet him back, introducing yourself.

“It’s nice to meet you. My name’s Quirrell. I’m… well, I can’t really call myself an explorer, because I’ve already been everywhere! I’m more of a wanderer, really.”

Ahh, a free spirit, you see. You point out that just because he’s been everywhere doesn’t mean he’s seen everything. After all, who knows what could’ve gone down during Hallownest’s peak. Both Quirrell and Lemm get amused by this, for some reason. Seeing your confused look, Lemm decides to speak up.

"He probably knows more about Hallownest than everyone here, having lived here since before the infection and all."

Your eyes widen, and your wings begin to flutter. Truly? An original denizen, and not someone else trying to piece together its history? Quirrell waves off the words, though.

"I wouldn't go that far…" He begins, but Lemm cuts him off before he can go any further.

"Hah! Next you'll be telling me that you weren't the head assistant of the kingdom's best scientist!"

Giving off the equivalent of a blush, Quirrell rubs the back of his head. Lemm turns back to you.

"I'm sure you didn't come in just to chat, though. What can I get for you?"

It's nice to see him making friends.

------------------------------- By @schyrsivochter​

Lemm wasn’t a sociable person. That was a fact. He wasn’t good at talking, or at being friendly. (It wasn’t like he needed it, anyway. It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed conversing with another bug.)

No, Lemm was much more of a person for reading. Deciphering the journals of the long dead, the writing and languages, was something he thoroughly enjoyed. Other artefacts spoke differently: the materials from which they were made, the way they were worked, the artistic style. It was a different kind of reading; some might say a more figurative one. But it was just as interesting.

Of course, architecture was part of that. It had not been a coincidence that Lemm had set up camp in Hallownest’s abandoned capital. When he’d arrived, he hadn’t dared to think that he’d ever finish exploring and finding new things. And it was true; he’d only explored a little bit before he’d realised that collecting and gathering relics was no use if he never took a proper look at them, instead letting them gather dust on the shelves, the tables, and the floor of the long-abandoned shop he’d moved into. So he’d decided to stay there, poring over his collection. His picture of the world of Hallownest in times past grew ever more detailed, more complete.

He’d opened the shop because people did not seem to stop wanting to sell him relics, and it never hurt to appear a little professional. And it had been a reliable source of new artefacts; new knowledge. He’d never sold anything, of course. His collection was his, and his alone.

And then came the dark. The cleansing void. It had taken him by surprise; he’d been working, and only noticed that anything was amiss when the light dimmed and he was finally bathed in darkness. He must’ve fallen unconscious at that point, and there’d been no telling how long it had been until he’d awoken. It hadn’t been until later that he’d learned that this was what had obliterated the plague, leaving in its wake hundreds of confused survivors and thousands of dead. No, the next thing to happen that told him things were not as usual was that a bug had come in, asked if he was open, and, upon his affirmative answer, asked for a hot drink, holding out a piece of ten.

Taken by surprise, he’d offered to make tea. He’d immediately regretted it, since it meant the bug would be staying for a while, probably without selling him relics, but it was easy enough to do and would get him geo, his supply of which had been running low. So he put a kettle on and took the money. The bug had thanked him profusely, while he had elected to remain quiet.

Not long afterwards, the same bug and four others stood in the doorway. Whether they had relics for him, he’d asked. They’d looked amongst themselves, and one had asked, ‘Is this not a coffee shop?’

‘I suppose it might’ve once been,’ he’d said. ‘Now it’s mine.’

More confused looks and standing around, and then the bug he’d seen before asked if he’d make more tea. He’d said no, not unless they paid him twice as much as the last time and stayed quiet and didn’t disturb him in his work. To his horror, the five bugs had agreed, and so he’d dug out cups from the coffee shop’s former stock and afterwards found himself a little richer in geo but with a significantly worse mood.

He had his peace afterwards, though. At least for a while. Now a bug had arrived, taller than the others, wearing a headscarf. Lemm had mentally prepared for the bug to ask for coffee, but the bug had halted in front of one of the tables that Lemm had repurposed for his collection of relics.

‘Admiring my collection?’ Lemm asked.

’Yes, quite!’ the bug answered, chipper and friendly. ‘I’m curious how you managed to get a hold of so many texts in such diverse languages! These are journals, are they not?’

‘They are,’ Lemm acknowledged. ‘From all over Hallownest.’

‘But most of them aren’t any Hallownest language.’ The bug put a hand on his mask. ‘I suppose they’re from travellers that came to the ruins and perished?’

‘Quite right,’ Lemm said. He had to admit, begrudgingly, that the bug standing before him was sharp and knew his history. A trait not many others shared.

‘Can you read all of them?’ The mask turned towards Lemm, inclined in question.

‘No,’ he answered truthfully, making his way around the counter to stand next to the bug. ‘I haven’t had the time to decipher all of them yet. But I’ll get around to it eventually.’

‘Interesting,’ the bug said. ‘I can—huh?’

He turned towards the entrance, and Lemm followed his gaze. Lemm was about to ask what the problem was, when a bug appeared in the entrance. The one that he’d made tea twice for. Ah yes, he thought. A customer. Two of them, in fact; one of the others from before had joined the one who’d taken a fancy to paying Lemm to make tea.

‘I don’t suppose,’ Lemm said, ‘there is any way to convince you to find tea somewhere else?’

The bugs shook their head.

Lemm sighed, and muttered an apology to the tall visitor. Time to get it over with.

He went to the back room to prepare the tea, and overheard the two visitors conversing in the front.

‘What’s this, anyway?’

‘Historical documents. Journals of travellers.’

‘What’s it doing here?’

‘I think the shopkeep collects them.’

‘That’s correct!’ Lemm called. ‘I’m always buying, if you have anything of historical value.’

He grabbed the cups and walked back to the front. ‘That’s fifty geo. Unless you have relics.’

The bugs complained under their breath, but paid up, and Lemm could direct his attention back to the visitor.

‘So is this what you do?’ they asked. ‘Opened the coffee shop again and collecting relics in your free time?’

Lemm was dumbstruck for a moment. Then he remembered to be outraged. ‘No! I am not opening this place as a coffee shop! People just keep coming and demanding tea and I cannot let an opportunity to earn easy money go to waste!’

‘Relic business not exactly booming, then, I assume?’

‘I’m—’ he spluttered, ‘It’s not a business! I don’t sell my relics, they’re mine!’

‘So you wouldn’t have any income if you weren’t selling tea?’

Lemm had the distinct impression that the bug was making fun of him. He didn’t answer, but simply walked up to the table, grabbed a random journal, and took it to his desk to try and get some work done.

He had not yet prepared his quill and ink when he was interrupted yet again.

‘You know,’ the visitor called, ‘that one is from a traveller from Greynest. Came here looking for his brother, never found him. No doubt said brother also perished in the ruins.’

Lemm turned around to see the bug standing in the doorway, having followed him halfway. ‘And how do you know this?’ he asked.

The bug shrugged. ‘I read it.’

Lemm regarded the bug. They didn’t seem to be joking.

‘You mean to tell me,’ Lemm began, slowly, ‘you know this language?’

‘Yes,’ they said nonchalantly. ‘I think I��ve been to Greynest? Must have been a while ago.’

‘Are you a traveller, then?’ Lemm asked. ‘You don’t seem the type.’

As soon as he’d spoken the words, Lemm became aware how utterly ridiculous it was of him to make observations about people. He didn’t like people, he wasn’t interested in people—

The bug laughed. ‘I am, in fact. I have travelled far and wide.’

‘Hmph,’ said Lemm, unsure what else to say. He turned back to his work, looked at the angular shapes carved into the stone, but now it seemed senseless to try and make sense of it when he knew that it was no mystery to the bug standing behind him.

At some point, he looked up and found that he was hungry and the visitor was gone. Oh, well. Time for a meal, then, and afterwards he might be able to find something else to do.

* * *

The next time the tea-drinker returned, they asked for tea and then asked Lemm about the relics, and he was in a favourable enough mood to talk about them. They asked some fairly stupid questions, but it seemed to come out of a genuine interest in the topic, so he indulged them. Plus, he had to admit that he enjoyed having a reliable source of geo. Not that he needed it much for buying relics, these days, but he supposed that his supplies of food – and of tea – would not last indefinitely, and he didn’t particularly fancy having to go back to scavenging, now that there were actual people living in the vicinity again. No, he’d rather find some place where he could buy what he needed fair and square.

The traveller with the headscarf returned, and it was an odd sort of feeling Lemm had about them. Like he actually liked having them in his shop and talking to them. And the perplexing thing was that the bug also seemed to enjoy conversing with Lemm. Which one one hand was absolutely preposterous, on the other … it was a refreshing change.

The bug introduced himself as Quirrel, apprentice to Monomon the Teacher, and Lemm could hardly believe it. Monomon the Teacher, one of the most brilliant minds of Hallownest? It couldn’t be! And yet it was not all too difficult to imagine. He’d seen stranger things in these lands.

Quirrel also was the one who later suggested Lemm officially open the shop as a coffee shop again. Lemm had thrown him out at that and gone back to work.

Now, a short while later, he looked up and Quirrel was back, standing at the counter, watching Lemm silently.

Lemm rose and went to the front, choosing to stare back equally silently. Lemm was good at that. Probably.

‘So,’ Quirrel said at length, his voice still as annoyingly friendly as ever, ‘have you thought about it?’

Lemm kept staring.

Quirrel held up his hands. ‘You need money, you don’t have much else to do, and besides’ – Quirrel shrugged. – ‘people like your tea.’

‘I certainly have enough to do,’ Lemm started. ‘These texts don’t decipher themselves. What’s so funny?’

Quirrel stopped his giggling and said, ‘They sort of do. Have you forgotten who stands before you?’

‘You don’t read all of these languages.’ Really, Quirrel’s ego was getting on Lemm’s nerves.

‘But most of them,’ Quirrel said, shrugging, ‘and most of the Archive’s records are intact. And we do have a nice section on language and writing.’

Lemm was silent for a moment, mostly because he could not think of a good comeback. Quirrel had a point, and Lemm did not like that in the slightest.

‘Let’s make a deal,’ Quirrel said. ‘I help you translate your texts and catalogue your artefacts, and you’ – Quirrel jabbed a finger in Lemm’s direction – ‘you sell your tea officially.’

‘Out of the question.’

‘You’re already doing it.’

‘I am not!’

‘Yes, you are.’ Quirrel said this with absolute certainty and no anger, and there was a voice at the back of Lemm’s mind that said: You really sort of are. And you could use the help. You don’t like the busywork anyway.

‘All right,’ Lemm grumbled. ‘Deal.’

‘Thank you,’ said Quirrel, audibly grinning.

‘I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?’ Lemm asked under his breath.

‘I don’t think so,’ Quirrel said. ‘I’m curious – what else can you make? Tea alone is a bit boring, don’t you think?’

‘Shut up,’ Lemm said, ‘or I change my mind.’

* * *

Lemm did not change his mind, even though Quirrel didn’t shut up. It had been a while, and Lemm hated to admit it, but he enjoyed doing something different for a change. Customers were now plenty, and Lemm had a menu with more than one item, and his relic collection was no bigger, but more orderly and better understood than it had ever been, thanks to Quirrel’s – and the Archive’s – help.

Another thing that Lemm was not quite ready to admit was that people could be nice. The more he talked to customers, interacted with them, observed them, the more he began to appreciate them. He used to be content in reading historical texts and artefacts, preferring to learn about people that were dead and gone. Living bugs had never really interested him.

Nowadays, however, it seemed that people could be just as interesting to read as anything else. And, as Quirrel entered, greeting him, and he could not help his mood being lifted just by the prospect of learning something new and interesting that Quirrel learnt on his last trip to the Archive, Lemm supposed that sometimes, very rarely … people were something he could enjoy.

------------------------------- By @gardening-clown​

------------------------------- By @buglife​

Lemm was five seconds away from throwing someone through the window.

His shop was now occupied by five bugs of various species, talking, laughing, and sitting around when he could be in the back doing literally anything else. It took weeks of bugs thinking that his relic shop was a coffee one before he simply gave up and made peace with it. At least he got some geo from it to pay adventurers that did come by to sell legit relics. How they mistook his shop for a coffee one, he would have never guess.

All he had was a little brewer that was barely put back together that he scavenged from some random shop, but other bugs seemed to like it, for some strange reason. It wasn’t even good coffee he was making, but they seemed to accept it. After all, who else in this dead kingdom was even selling coffee? He had looted plenty of shops and took as many sacks of beans as he would when he first arrived, and there was no way he could drink them all, so he might as well do something with them.

But he was steadily losing his patience with the amount of bugs around him. They were talking and loitering. Loitering was probably the worst of it all as it made the loner bug feel his shell crawl with the forced social interaction. He just wanted them to leave. He couldn’t stand the feeling of a crowded space, which is why he went to a dead kingdom in the first place.

Hell, he had to take his beloved odds and ends down from the shelves to keep some curious bug from touching them all up with their dirty fingers and breaking something.

He found himself dreading the sound of the bell above his door, and when it rang he wondered if someone else was coming to ask him for some random drink or be an annoying thorn in his side.

To his hidden delight however, it was the little wanderer. They looked like a grub, to be honest, with a black body and a stark white horned shell for a head. The nail on their back seemed to be a little put together the last time he saw them, perhaps they visited the Nailsmith? He never asked for their name, he didn’t want to learn it to avoid attachments, but he found them oddly endearing. They liked to listen to him ramble about his theories on various relics they bring him, so they can’t be too bad. Plus they were quiet and polite, something he was immensely grateful for.

They bounced inside the door and came to a stop, looking at the five other bugs sitting around and chatting. They tilted their head to the side, watching the bugs for a moment before looking at Lemm. They stretched out a stubby arm from under their cloak and pointed at him.

Lemm sighed. Of course, the little Wanderer had been gone for a while, and obviously didn’t know what had become of his beloved shop. He gestured for them to come over, which they did and looked up at him expectantly.

“Bugs keep thinking that this is a coffee shop.” He explained. “So here they are, drinking coffee that I make on a terrible little brewer. I gave up trying to kick them all out all the time, it stopped being worth the effort.”

The little wanderer blinked a few times, looking somewhat confused. They pointed to the cup being held by the beetle on one of Lemm’s chairs and mimed the action of drinking it.

“Yes, that’s coffee they are drinking.” He raised a brow as he looked down at the grub. “Haven’t you ever seen coffee before?”

They shook their head.

“Really now? Hrm…” He wasn’t sure where the little wanderer had come from if they never saw coffee before. It was a fairly common drink besides tea. They must have grew up in a rather isolated place If they never saw it. He decided he might as well explain it, it would be better to do it now than later.

“Coffee is a drink that bugs like to drink to give them energy.” He saw them perk up a bit at the ‘energy’ part. “It’s rather bitter, so some like it with sugar. I like it plain. It keeps me awake when I am working.”

They somehow made a face when he said it was bitter, tilting their head and angling their eye holes to look affronted. Lemm squashed down a laugh at the expression and decided to get to business.

“Anyway, they trade me geo for it, which lets me compensate bugs that get me relics. Do you have any for me today?” He hoped they did, he needed something to brighten up his day.

The wanderer nodded, reaching under their cloak to pull out a black orb. Lemm recognized it immediately to be an arcane egg. He loved working with those. Peeling back each layer revealed new information and new discoveries. He was in fact, still working on the one he got weeks before. He needed to be careful with them, and he reveled in the intense focus and work it needed to discover it’s secrets. His day instantly got better.

“Very nice, I’ll be glad to take that off your hands for the usual price.” The old beetle held out his hand and the wanderer gently placed the egg it in. They held up a hand once it was free and shook their head, pointed to a cup sitting on the counter.

“Ah, you want to trade this for a cup of coffee?” He wasn’t going to say no to that. If the wanderer was okay with it, it was a perfectly reasonable business transaction. His suspicions were confirmed when they nodded and bounced in place, looking as excited as they were able to. “Well I can certainly do that.”

Thankfully, the two bugs occupying the chairs in front of the counter left, leaving behind their dirty cups and a few geo for the mess. They thanked him and he grumped out a ‘have a good day’ as they left, seemingly indifferent to his mood. Oh well, at least it brought down the occupancy to a more manageable level for his social batteries. He pushed the dirty cups out of the way and gestured to an open seat. “Here, sit down and I’ll get you a cup.”

They bounced upwards to take a seat, swinging their legs back and forth as they waited. It didn’t take Lemm long to throw some ground up beans and water into the grinder, watching the brewed coffee pour into a clean cup. He carefully carried the hot cup down and set it in front of the wanderer. “Be careful, it’s very hot. I’ll bring you some sugar, you didn’t seem to like the ‘bitter’ description.”

They nodded and watched as he pushed over a bowl of honey sugar and a spoon. It was the least he could do after they got him another arcane egg.  “There you are, help yourself.”

They bowed their head in thanks and took up the spoon, poking it into the bowl.

“Excuse me,” One of the bugs by the window got up, the one with a bent antenna and holding their empty cup. “Could I get a refill, please?”

Lemm held back a sigh and nodded, taking the cup and heading back to his brewer. He had to smack it a couple times for it to start working again, but in the end he got a passable cup of coffee out of it. He returned just in timed to hear said bug exclaim, “Woah there buddy, you must really like sugar!”

He looked to the wanderer, who had added so much sugar to their cup of coffee, that he could hear the sugar that couldn’t dissolve scrape against the ceramic as it was stirred. It looked like fresh cement, there was only a bit of brown to denote that once, it was indeed a cup of coffee.

He wordlessly handed the other bug their coffee, who took it and retreated back to sit by the window. He was about to say something to the wanderer, when to his horror, their head tilted backwards. A maw of sharp black teeth opened wide, and he watched, astonished, as the mix of sugar and coffee oozed into their mouth and to who knows where. A long black tongue lashed out to get every last bit of sugar out of the cup, before the mouth closed with a quiet click. They must have felt him staring, because they turned to look at him with their fathomless, dark eyes. He stared back, wondering what the hell was actually sitting in front of him.

They then bounced in place and gave him a thumbs up. They made a shape of a heart with their hands, a way that they say ‘thank you’. They seemed rather happy.

“Um…you’re welcome?” He managed, after he gathered his composure again.

They sat still for a moment, seeming to ponder on what they had just consumed. He figured that they were probably trying to figure out if they liked it or not. He doubt they even managed to taste the coffee from the sheer amount of sugar in that cup.

Then, to his horror, they began to vibrate. At first it was a few twitches, and then it steadily became more and more severe, until they were a literal blur. The chair rattled under the stress and the bugs that remained in the shop turned to look at the commotion.

It was then, Lemm realized he fucked up.

They suddenly dashed away, slamming into the shop door with such force that it caved outwards. There was only the short sound of shattering glass and the scream of metal before it flew off it’s hinges and rattled down the hallway. He could hear the hurried pitter-patter of the wanderer’s tiny feet, now fast enough to blur into one continuous sound, race down the hall and out of sight and hearing.

He just stood there, looking at the wreckage of his shop door, wondering where the hell is he going to get a replacement, if there even was a replacement. He looked at the three shocked bugs, standing and looking at the wreckage, and then he got himself an idea.

“Hey fellas,” He said, as he turned and looked at the bugs next to the window. “How would you all like some free coffee if you find me a door?”

------------------------------- By @radical-mudkips​

------------------------------- By @unregisteredcookie​

Lemm's 'shop' was empty.

Actually, no, that… that wasn't right. Lemm's shop wasn't a shop in the first place--it was a haven for relics and ancient knick-knacks, and the shelves were filled to overflowing with stone tablets and peculiar eggs that held unimaginable information. Not that Lemm was ever able to crack into the eggs' shells, but he knew--he knew there was more treasured information sleeping beneath. If only he were able to open it up without risking that information being damaged.

And that wasn't right, either. The shop being empty, that was. Right now, the shelves were empty, but that was less because of the absence of relics and more because they were all stowed away in the back room to be sorted. He had a notebook he was combing over, quill in hand as he scribbled out little bits of information that might relate to one another.

'Might', because Lemm wasn't really from Hallownest. So he didn't know for sure whether this smooth L-shaped contraption was a door handle or a piece to a lost work of art.

It was while Lemm was scribbling about in this journal bound in parchment (hand-made and flimsy, using the paper he found around the area that was clean and allowed to dry) that he heard it: The distant clattering of the elevator. There were about seven options he could think of off of the top of his head, each more dreaded than the last. It could be that scarcely-seen Nailsmith who seemed to know more about the history of this ruin than he let on. It could be the peculiar little silent bug that stared up at him now and again, the one that sometimes passed by with a relic to sell. It could be that talkative windbag, droning on and on in his droning voice, so grating and persistent that Lemm struggled to ignore him. He was probably the worst.

Lemm stopped writing, tilted his head, and listened for the telltale sound. The rattling stopped, and all that he heard for a while was silence. And then.

Ding.

He sighed, getting to his feet. A customer it was, then. How delightful. Here's hoping that the customer wasn't 'Zote the Mighty'.

He had a small moment of dread when he saw the horn, a critical blow of dismay that tempted him to retreat back into the back room and pretend to be out for a walk, but then he saw the second horn and breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, it wasn't the Zote person after all. It was… them. The other little one.

They looked up at him as he approached the register and looked down at them. Their eyes were vacant as ever, face impossibly unreadable. Lemm doubted that he'd ever get used to it.

Lemm liked this little bug, if for no other reason than they were quiet, kept their hands to themself, and brought him relics to purchase. They were the only one willing to sell these relics, and they were the only reason Lemm often said what he said next.

"Cup of coffee, or looking to sell?"

He never had much company in this place until the Nailsmith (Lemm never caught his name, never bothered asking, really) first came in looking for materials for his smithing. Almost took one of Lemm's Pale Idols from under his beard while he was noting in his journal. After the initial yelling that followed and a cup of coffee, the Nailsmith apologized by paying for the cup. And he did it again. And again. Until the mapmaker came in, saw, and bought a cup himself. Until the hooded pillbug came in, hummed, and bought one for himself. And then--

Well. And then he had a coffee shop.

Lemm wished he could say that he hated it, and he did, at first. But over time, he found the company rather pleasant. Besides, the geo paid for this little bug's relic collection well enough, so he wasn't complaining.

So. Did they want a cup of coffee, or did they want to sell their relics? Lemm didn't get an answer. Instead, they looked around at the empty shelves for a moment before turning their empty eyes back onto him, tilting their head to the side slightly.

It took Lemm a moment.

"Oh, I moved the relics into the back room," he said. "I've been needing to work on sorting them out and writing notes about them. Never would I have thought that I would have so many to study."

Satisfied, they reached into the confines of their cloak. Lemm leaned forward a little, watching as they rummaged about for a moment, heart skipping a beat as he pondered what sort of relic they were going to sell this time.

And then they withdrew their small hand, reached up, and dropped a fist full of geo onto the counter.

Lemm blinked and stared at the geo for a moment. Something wispy and thin clung to them, and when he picked it up and opened the register, it was sticky. Was this webbing? Lemm wasn't aware of there being any spiders in Hallownest, aside from maybe that red-cloaked bug he saw very rarely flitting about outside his window.

So. No relics today. Fine, at least he'd have more money to buy another one later.

"One coffee coming up," he murmured, rummaging around behind the counter. Underneath the register was where he kept the coffee pot, which he refrained from moving just so he could be prepared if a 'customer' came by. He busied himself with it for a few moments, filling the filter and checking the water, before clicking the button and letting it steep. Granted, he didn't know what kind of coffee they'd drink, but they didn't make it clear anyway, so he doubted that it mattered.

Besides. They seemed a little preoccupied by something else at the moment. After a few minutes, the coffee was finished, and Lemm poured them a cup. He chose a caramel-like flavor, because they seemed about the size of a child and a little bit of sweetness never hurt anyone. Lemm reached over the counter and held it out to them, which they took in their hands and stared down at for a moment. Lemm was about ready to head back into the back when it happened. A crack. It almost sounded like something breaking, but when he turned to look behind himself at the small knight, they still stood there. Another crack, one that made his fur stand on end and his body stiffen, and Lemm caught the glimpse of something sharp and white shifting beneath the bottom of their mask.

A mouth?

They tilted their head back. A jaw opened. Many layers of teeth glimmered in the dim light, cracking as they did so, the noise chilling him through his chitin and making his hemolymph freeze. Lemm stood there, stock still, as they lifted the cup up to their face, jaw extending outwards to drink it, and then-- --they set the scalding hot coffee in their mouth, cup and all, closed it, and crunched.

Lemm had never seen a bug eat a cup of coffee before. He could still hear the crunch, crunch, crunching, muffled and quiet and growing quieter, noise sounding like a particularly crunchy tiktik being eaten.

Lemm shuddered. When the knight looked back at him, he turned around quickly and went into the back room.

Okay. Suddenly they weren't the second most welcome sight for sore eyes. Suddenly Lemm wished that it was that talking, yapping Zote fellow who came in instead.

------------------------------- By @doodle-chris​

------------------------------- By @payasita​

There was no shortage of open real estate as far as the City of Tears was concerned. But that certainly didn't make every option an equally viable living space.

First, Lemm wanted something enclosed away from the rain, and insulated enough to stave off the humidity. That discounted anything open to the outside, as he wouldn't risk his relics to even the threat of exposure. A leaking roof dripping down onto crumbling tablets or fragile spider silk could devastate hundreds of years worth of history, so that also discounted any room without a few protective floors above it.

Next, it had to be out of the way of any and all shambling husks and infected critters. They weren't the brightest of creatures, so a room only accessible by elevator was ideal. He'd never seen anything plague-cursed have enough wherewithal to operate one, and the noise of it would give him plenty warning of visitors otherwise.

Lastly, he wanted someplace with plenty of shelf space. He needed little in the way of actual living space, so long as he had ample storage room set up in such a way that things could easily be organized.

All of these qualities described, in his opinion, the ideal relic storage and research dwelling. And in the end, he was lucky enough to find it.

Unearthing the previous tenant's belongings informed him that it also, apparently, described the ideal setup for a small café. On his first day in his new residence, he'd uncovered an antique coffee machine and a few other ancient tools, kept miraculously free of rust and wear. The room's conditions must be far better than he thought.

He'd dusted his findings off and set them back up on the counter, having quickly deduced where they'd once been put to use through old nicks and rings left on the shellwood by years of service. Lemm had felt a small swell of pride at finding this small bit of the city's history, and began a set of notes on his theories about this tower complex and its surrounding culture from everything he found around. Perhaps the whole place had been a shopping centre.

On the second day, he pried open the crates in the back room, and they had spilled forth bags upon bags of beans and teas. There were so many of them that he was able to rationalize cutting one open and examining its contents without much guilt. The beans were coffee, that much was obvious at a glance.

Biological samples weren't exactly his area of expertise, but smell and texture alone all but convinced him that they'd been perfectly preserved in their airtight prisons, well dried and perfectly edible.

Most likely.

For the sake of research, and because the bag was already open, he put them through the machine. He committed some time to studying the machine beforehand, as he was afraid mishandling it may destroy it. But an hour of trying to figure the damn thing out was frustrating enough that he finally reasoned that if he did break it, he could at least take it apart and examine its insides for anything interesting. Lemm was a relic keeper, not a tinker. So he winged it with a bit of rainwater and the beans, and got wet beans and hot murky water all over the counter to show for it. He figured out the grinder and filter after his second attempt, and by the third, he had a mug of fresh coffee to show for his efforts. The scent that filled his shop and the outside corridor must have been nothing Hallownest had experienced in centuries. Lemm had little taste for the stuff himself, but in his experimentation he'd gone and made a whole pot. So he supposed he needed to acquire a taste for it rather quickly.

Luckily for his health, that turned out to be unnecessary. The smell, perhaps amplified in the ever-present petrichor, quickly attracted guests of the still-living variety. There turned out to be far more travelers and treasure hunters bumping around this old city than he'd initially expected, prone to tucking himself away in solitude as he was. Introverted or no, he happily gave the coffee away rather than waste it or risk giving himself a coronary. There were even a great deal of disposable mugs stacked away that just made it all the more convenient.

Just over the course of an hour, Lemm was graced with a fair amount of odd characters intruding on his doorstep. There was a surly fellow wielding a metal shield of some foreign make, who announced his intentions towards finding and conquering Hallownest's old colosseum. He was convinced it was still in operation somewhere. Lemm decided that if it was, the place was more than likely not populated with the sorts of honorable warriors this poor bastard was looking to prove himself against, but he kept his thoughts to himself and sent the boy off with a steaming cup of acrid bean water. Next came another traveller who gave off a more scholarly air than the first had, and who carried a more conventional weapon at his hip. The pill bug certainly acted more like a student than a warrior, all bright-eyed and curious and talkative. But no doubt he must know how to use that nail of his to have survived this far down and still be so cheerful. His stay wasn't entirely unpleasant; the two actually talked a short while about Hallownest's history and their shared learnings. The bug even tried to insist on paying, but Lemm was adamant that his reliquary wasn't a damn breakfast nook, thank you, keep your geo. But if he really wanted to pay, Lemm would certainly take any interesting artifact or trinket the bug happened to pick up on his travels. They eventually came to an agreement: A journal pilfered from a shrine somewhere in Greenpath for an extra cup for the road. Lemm's next visitor was, of all things, a cartographer. This one was far too involved in his work for much conversation, which was fine by Lemm. But he did manage to barter a cup for a map of the city. It was incomplete and bare of any landmarks, much to Lemm's disappointment. Finally, an odd little wanderer walked in almost soundlessly. They did not speak to Lemm, nor did they give any indication that they were here for any specific reason. But they had acquired an old city crest and a King's idol on their path, and Lemm had a more typical exchange of geo for relics with them. And then because it was the last of the coffee in the still warm pot, and because the little wanderer did not refuse, he sent them off with a cup on their way out. Thankful to be rid of all the blasted coffee and done with the uptick in social interaction, he then washed the pot and continued with his normal studies. It was nice and quiet, now.

But then the next morning, the pill bug returned. And he was surprised (and clearly disappointed) to see the coffee pot empty. It was a shame, he'd said. For he'd gone and found himself another journal, and considered a relic he couldn't use for a hot morning's drink to be a fine deal indeed. Lemm was inclined to agree, for how it saved him his geo in case of a more potentially significant find down the line. He turned the machine back on at once at the prospect. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to brew just one cup, and was still rightfully intimidated by the old, fussy contraption, and not inclined to mess with what worked. So he made another full pot, and talked shop.

The pill bug wasn't the only one to return that day. The would-be gladiator came back, still not having found his destination, and had the gall to just expect another drink. After the deal he'd just made, Lemm was feeling markedly less generous than he had been the day before, and informed his nasally guest that he'd have to barter something old and interesting for it.

The ant grumbled and left, but returned a few minutes later with a guardsman's crest. He'd apparently seen old treasures all over the place, but had found it beneath him to go and pick them up." A warrior has no need to weigh himself down with baubles," he'd sneered over his cup. Lemm privately thought that the plague-crazed beasts who were doubtlessly running the colosseum now would soon show this haughty kid what they cared for his warrior’s creed in due time, so he said nothing.

The silent wanderer came later. This time when they held up an ancient journal, they made no move to take the geo held out to them. They only stared at Lemm, with their little mask so perfectly unmoving he could easily think them a sudden corpse. Then his hand drifted towards the pot, and the creature set the journal down on the counter.

"...News of a relic keeper bartering goods for coffee has already spread among your lot, then? I suppose even wanderers must have a rumor mill," Lemm talked to himself while pouring their cup. Predictably, they padded away without an answer, drink in hand. Lemm would soon learn how right he was.

- The coming days were more lucrative than his business had ever been. All the travellers he'd met before all came back with various oddities found around Hallownest, as did anyone new. Though not everyone quite understood what constituted a relic, and Lemm had to turn down more than a few shiny rocks and petrified lake detritus. But they all got the routine down soon enough. And, well, Lemm did have an extraordinary amount of coffee that'd just go to waste for another thousand years otherwise, so, may as well.

The pill bug, Quirrel, came to be his best "customer", though Lemm would be twice damned before he ever said the word aloud. Either way, Quirrel often stayed long enough just chatting to warrant a second cup.

"I ought to have you bring double the treasure," Lemm griped once while handing that second cup over. Quirrel's response was a good natured laugh.

"Perhaps elsewhere, that'd be fair. Coffee was a luxury in some lands, and remains so to this day, but by my understanding it was quite in abundance here. Though I couldn't tell you where in the world they must have been growing it," he mused. Lemm raised a brow, wondering once again where in gods' names this bug was educated. But as asking would be an invitation to hear his life story, Lemm deferred.

"Is that right?" he asked instead, "I don't care for the stuff myself, luxury or no." "Really? Not an uncommon opinion, I suppose. I picked it up as a habit at one point... Though, I couldn't tell you when, now that I think of it," Quirrel trailed off, adjusting the oversized mask over his head. Lemm found it an odd choice of protection from the rain, though he supposed it was better than nothing. He only shrugged, "I hear many students do make a habit of caffeine. Your sorts can never get enough hours out of the day."

Quirrel stared at him for a brief moment, and then huffed a laugh again. "Student? You mistake me, sir. I've only ever been a traveller for as long as I can remember."

Lemm didn't bother to mask his surprise, and Quirrel's eyes crinkled. "You're right on that second part, though. So much to see, and never enough time." He took a sip.

-

The mapmaker came back one day with an order for two drinks. He had no relics, but offered an extra inkwell and quill instead. Lemm found equipment for keeping good notes was lucky to come by, and reluctantly made the trade, much to the old bug's gratitude.

"Thank you, the second is for my wife running our shop surface-side. It was her suggestion you might want materials for your research."

Lemm cleared his throat, blustering slightly under his beard.

"Ahh. Hm. I can appreciate that, then."

"Oh, on that note, have you any sugar you can add in for her?" The bug peered over Lemm’s shoulder, which rankled him for some reason.

"...I did find a jar back here somewhere, I think." Though he couldn't promise it was good. Could sugar go bad? It still just looked like white sand.

"Thank you. ...Err, actually, is that a box of tea on the shelf, there?"

Lemm paused in his rummaging, and looked back at the open storeroom door. The room now made a good home for his relics, though he never bothered unpacking the open crates.

"...It is," he eyed the bug neutrally.

"Ah. Iselda enjoys her coffee, though I quite prefer a good cup of tea myself. ...Erm, if it isn't too much trouble, of course," the bug grinned politely over folded hands.

Lemm, to his credit, did not sigh. There was indeed a kettle back there, too. And at least he knew how to brew tea without making an entire day's worth of it.

He brought up the jar of sugar, and leveled the bug with a grumpy look.

"Fine. But next time, you bring relics."

The cartographer acquiesced immediately, and that was the point where Lemm realized he'd invited them both to expect a "next time".

-

The silent wanderer came back again, on the tail of a group of treasure hunters who came in and left up the elevator. Shortly after, there was the sound of struggle above them.

This had become commonplace. Anyone who showed up had to contend with the violent husks above and beyond the shop, and some were more prepared to deal with the dangers of Hallownest than others. Lemm only poured the wanderer's cup in bored silence, tuning out the thumping and shouts above. "You know this stuff stunts your growth, right?" Lemm asked flatly. The wanderer only ever stared.

"Dehydrates you, too. You active types probably ought to stick to water. Imagine having to deal with the horrors of rotting sentries and whatnot with a diuretic sloshing about in you." Unbothered, they leaned forward and took their cup in both hands, still staring up while he spoke. Lemm honestly had no idea if they even understood him, and considered the possibility that their muteness was compounded by a language barrier. But they at least always made the effort to appear attentive.

There was a thundering crash above them that made Lemm flinch, and then a silence that kept him tense. The voices started up once again after a few seconds, and the sound of footsteps hurrying away as fast as they could. By his guess, his last customers had just had a very close encounter with a belfly. He'd likely not be seeing them again.

He turned his attention back down to the wanderer with a sigh.

"...Let me see what you have, then."

The tiny thing set their cup carefully down by their feet, and fished a genuine void egg from the depths of their grubby cloak. Lemm was struck with the brief impulse to give them the entire coffee machine for it.

-

There was a new visitor one morning, just as Lemm brewed the pot for his regulars. He rarely got anyone so very early, and was guiltily nursing his own cup of acrid sugary heart disease before anyone would be around to see. Alright, so he'd acquired the taste for it. It was hardly unreasonable with how much time he spent around the smell, and it helped him make up for lost time studying his relics later in the night. Perfectly understandable, and so he definitely did not freeze mid sip like he was caught in a crime when the door opened unexpectedly. The red-clad stranger who walked in wore a wicked-sharp needle slung across her back, and fixed him with an even sharper gaze.

"...I hear you sell tea." Her voice was quiet enough, but cut clear without the normal hesitant lilt of a question.

Lemm slowly put down his mug, and the soft thunk it made against the countertop sounded awfully loud in the morning lull.

"...I don't sell anything. I buy," he insisted.

The altogether frightening lass glanced between him, the full coffee pot, and the kettle sat next to a stack of assorted loose leaf teas. Then back at him.

He grunted, hiding an inane flush of indignation behind another swig of his drink.

"...I seek artifacts. Relics of this place's past, and anything that may help me understand it, for geo. ...Or for a cuppa, for those who'd rather." He shifted behind the counter, nearly trailing off into a mumble. But at this point, there wasn’t much use in fighting his reputation.

The girl just scrutinized him until she seemed to come to a decision. She then turned and left without saying anything else, opting to hop down the elevator shaft rather than waste a moment calling the lift.

Lemm rolled his eyes and gulped down the dregs of his coffee, vaguely annoyed. By this point, he was used to the rude and half feral sorts of vagabonds that only came by out of curiosity. At least she was quick about leaving.

All the better for him, as far as he was concerned. He doubted such a young thing would have anything of note to share with Hallownest's foremost historian.

[dreamescapeswriting]

Make Me Stay ~ Changbin [M] [Request]

WORD COUNT: 20.5K (As of this moment the longest imagine on my account….whoops)

GENRE: Non Idol Au, Mechanic Changbin, slow burn(first time doing slow burn fics) Smut, fluffy, SMUT, cute fluff lil angst, hapyy ending 

PAIRING: Mechanic Changbin x Fem!Reader

The sun from the sunset was beaming down through the windshield of your 1967 Volkswagen beetle causing you to squint as you continued driving down the old dirt road. The sun setting was always so bright and in your face, it made it hard to see anything going on around you. The sat nav on your phone had convinced you that this was the right way but it didn't seem like it at all. There were no buildings around for miles. Just trees, bushes and more trees, a serial killer's favourite place to be hiding out.

"Stupid thing," You mumbled as you pulled up towards a huge gate that looked like it lead onto the private property in front of you, you hissed punching in a new address into your phone. All you were trying to do was get into the city, you'd been doing a huge road trip alone, exploring Korean since you'd lived there most of your life and hadn't explored much. Many people told you not to be "stupid" that it could be dangerous all alone, not to mention lonely or boring but so far you'd enjoyed all of your time. You'd managed to do a lot of sightseeing on your way around the places you'd been, you'd gotten to do a lot of things you wouldn't normally do if you were with friends. The drive had given you space to think over things in your life, it gave you the time to think over everything that was waiting for you back at home...Which was a whole lot of nothing since you'd basically worked in a dead-end job for the last 6 years of your life in order to take this trip. Busan was the third to last place on your list to tick off and so far you hadn't even gotten into the town yet, you were right on the outskirts, the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees and a whole lot of nothing.

"Don't! Don't you dare!" You cried out as your car began to judder forward when you were driving down the back dirt roads, smoke coming from the back of it where the engine was. You wanted to scream out but you held it in thinking it was probably nothing, smoke normally meant that the old engine was just overheating itself. It was perfectly normal.

"No!" You whined out to yourself as you pulled into a small layby near some trees, praying to yourself it would just be the heat. There was nothing around you for miles thanks to the shoddy GPS system on your phone you would have thrown the thing out if it wasn't the only way you would get out of this situation.

Kicking the wheel of your car as you walked to the back of the car to check out what was wrong with the engine if it was the radiators you could fix the issue yourself. It did it occasionally, well more than occasionally, overheat. It would do it every day to the point where you had to carry around water in huge cartons just to make sure you could look after it. As soon as you opened the boot of the car you were met with smoke to the face and you groaned looking inside, you weren't a mechanic but you already knew it didn't look good. There was oil splotched all over the place and bubbling out of the oil dip, something looked as though it was snapped and there was a major stench coming from the engine yourself.

"So much for an easy fix." You mumbled slamming the boot shut and groaning at the thought of being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. The private land was about four miles away and you knew there was nothing around you for miles in any direction,

"Piece of shit," You whispered as you looked at the small light blue beetle all of it beginning to rust with how old it was.

"I didn't mean it, baby," You whispered as though you had hurt the cars feelings. You put a small kiss on your fingers before placing it on the wing mirror, then you began scrolling through your phone you searching for your recovery number. Having no idea if they would have a branch out in the middle of nowhere or be able to find you out here. You were so far from any major towns, you hadn't seen a single signpost anywhere to give to them over the phone.

"Hi, I've broken down and I have the cover with your service. The only problem is I have no idea where I am..." You trailed off hoping that there was some way they could help you out even though you had no idea what to do yourself. There was some typing on the other end of the phone then a soft voice came through,

"Not a problem love, we can track your phone with our systems just give me one moment," The woman on the other side of the phone seemed pleasant enough to talk to, she hummed while she was typing on her computer.

"I can see you're location, unfortunately, we won't have an official truck out there but we can send someone from a nearby towing company." That was better than the thought of being stuck out forever so you agreed.

"That would be great," You whispered as you got into your car, wanting to stay as warm as you could since the air was starting to drop. It might have been the summer but the nights were always chilly,

"I'll send you the name of our drive and the licence plate as soon as I find out myself," You thanked her for all her work, giving her your insurance information and making sure she had everything she would need before hanging up.

"Hyunjin?" You questioned as a huge truck pulled up beside you on the road, it had been the first sign of anyone else since you ended the phone call. No one had driven down or up this road which made you wonder if the house you'd pulled up at was abandoned.

"That's me, you're-" The long-haired blonde man looked down at a clipboard as he got out of his white truck, much like your small blue Beetle it was starting to rust from how old it was. It must have been a family business, he didn't look any older than you did to be having a van that old.

"Y/n? Driving the 1967 Volkswagon?" He glanced up again and smiled at you, he wasn't at all what you had pictured when you got the text with his name. You always imagined tow drivers to be old and creepy looking but Hyunjin seemed genuinely nice, though you couldn't always judge a book by its cover.

"I haven't seen one of these in a while, what's wrong with it?" He looked impressed by the car so you smiled, taking him around to the boot to show him the engine. Opening it up and wincing at the sight as soon as you did so,

"I seem to have run into some engine troubles," You mumbled as he looked inside the boot and hissed, the sight was enough to make you cry. You knew for a fact it wasn't going to be cheap fixing all of this, not to mention you would now have to find a new place to stay since you hadn't exactly planned on staying in the town. Just passing through after doing some sightseeing.

"I'll take you to Changbin, he does repairs and he's the closest garage to here." You looked at him while nodding, slamming the boot shut and smiling to yourself as Hyunjin helped you up into his truck to wait while he got the car ready on the back of his van.

"Changbin!" You looked around as Hyunjin walked you down the gravelled pathway towards a rundown looking garage shouting out the name of the mechanic. If you hadn't seen the man working on a car in the back you would have thought the place was deserted, the building looked like it would fall apart and the slightest bit of wind change.

"Changin?!" Hyunjin cried out again as he tried to gain the attention of the man who was currently bent over a car and rapping along to some music that was playing. The man was wearing dark blue overalls that were tied around his waist but you hadn't seen his face yet.

"Wait here, I'll go and talk to him," Hyunjin told you as he rushed off over to the car, you hummed and glanced around taking in the sight of everything around you. There was a house beside the garage that looked to be in better shape, you assumed it was where this Changbin lived. Hyunjin had been telling you about him on the drive over, that they'd been close friends since school, how he and a few of their other friends had wanted to start a boy group together when they were kids. It was nice hearing what people dreamed about, back home no one ever discussed that sort of thing. They only cared about what job you wanted after school, dreaming wasn't allowed in the town you grew up in.

"You own the 1967 Beetle?" A voice questioned from behind you snapping you out of your small dream, you jumped up a little before nodding and turning to face whoever it was. From the overalls he was wearing you assumed he was the mechanic, Changbin, he smiled shyly at you and you grabbed the keys from your pocket. Changbin smiled at you but you couldn't help but take notice of what he was wearing, his overalls were tied around his waist, he had a white tank top covering his top half but it was covered in oil and sweat, it made him look incredibly hot. Shaking your head you snapped out of the daydream about him and gave him the keys to your car, Hyunjin had dropped it off at the top of the driveway for you not wanting to clog up Changbin's workspace.

"She's old, the family passed it down and I had her fixed up. The engine seems to have gone bye-bye on me...I think the timing belt snapped, I know for sure the oil has...bubbled over-" You stopped talking when you saw how Changbin was staring at you. His eyebrow was raised at the way you were talking about the car, when Hyunjin told him what was happening inside your engine he assumed you'd have no idea but you seemed to have a pretty good one to him.

"Most people don't know what's wrong when they bring it in," He chuckled softly truly impressed that you seemed to know what was wrong. That smile could have melted your whole heart if you stared at it long enough, it sent a warm feeling throughout your body just seeing him smile. You smiled back at him feeling the need to laugh a little as you both walked in the direction of your car falling into a comfortable silence as Changbin looked up at the vehicle.

"You weren't kidding when you said old," He laughed softly stepping over to the car and unlocking it. He ran his hands over the bonnet and smiled to himself, it had been so long since someone had brought anything decent for him to work on. He'd been surprised when Hyunjin mentioned the year and model,

"She's a classic," You mentioned looking at the expression on his face as he opened the doors to see all of the original interiors was still intact. Right down to the radio dials and cassette player that had been installed in the later models, it was a sight to see nowadays since many people would modify them.

"Holy fuck." He was truly stunned by how well it was still kept together, you didn't see it much now unless the person restoring the car was only doing it to sell it on or keep for a display piece.

"This is insane, I'll have to order the pieces in the fix it but you're welcome to stay in my house in the guest room until it's finished. It would be my pleasure to work on this car." He mentioned as he looked up at you, both of you heading towards the boot to take a look at the engine. Hyunjin had mentioned that Busan was a good two-hour drive if you wanted to get a hotel so you decided to take up Changbin's offer of a room. Hyunjin said he was a good guy and so far he seemed relatively normal and nice to you, who were you to say no to someone being good at hospitality.

"What happened?" He questioned when he took a look at the engine his face scrunching up as he was hit with smoke, you winced as you saw the look of disgust hit his face.

"Driving down a dirt road because my sat nav told me to, turns out I was wrong and then when I was on my way out, Buggy here gave out." He raised his eyebrow when he heard the nickname that you had for the car, you looked down at the floor feeling slightly shy at the look he was giving you.

"Everyone names their car," Your voice trailed off making Changbin smile even more as he nodded his head in agreement with you. He shut the boot as he began walking you back in the direction of his garage.

"I'll have everything priced up by the morning for you," He spoke as he walked into the main area of the garage as he went to lay your keys down.

"I don't charge people for staying at the home, it's just empty without anyone around." He mumbled as he began noting something down on a pad of paper, you weren't able to make out his handwriting so you didn't attempt to.

"Head up to the house, make yourself at home. Do you have any clothes with you?" He questioned as he looked up at you, wondering if he was going to need to lend you some of his own clothing or if you would be okay for now.

"In the car," He threw you the keys then he began writing down again, you headed off back to your car.

Wanting to get some comfortable clothes for the night, you twirled the keys around your fingers as you walked. Thinking over how nice everyone had been to you so far and how comfortable you already felt with a stranger. Hyunjin waved goodbye as he pulled out of the driveway when you reached it,

"Have a nice night! Tell him to give you some of Lix's cookies! You'll never regret eating them!" You laughed softly as Hyunjin waved his long arm out of the window and drove off down the road. You wondered how many people Changbin had allowed to stay over when he did their cars up and if he had a lot of business being out in the middle of nowhere.

Slamming the bonnet shut you took your overnight bag in the direction of the house, not paying attention to anything happening around you as you looked into your bank savings account. The money that was left was going to have to go on the car which meant your road trip would be officially cut short. Locking your phone you slid it into your bag before you let out a loud squeal, somehow you'd lost your footing on all the peddles that lined the floor causing you to slip. Falling over and smacking your head and ankle onto the ground as you let out a loud groan, wincing as you tried to get up on your own.

"Y/n?!" You looked up to see Changbin rushing over to you with a panicked expression on his face. He'd heard the scream and came rushing out from the garage to see what had happened, he hissed as he saw what had cut your head open on the floor.

"Here," He pulled off the tank top he was wearing and it took everything inside of you not to stare at his body in awe, he had huge biceps which you saw earlier but his abs were to die for.

"How did you fall?" He questioned trying hard not to laugh when he saw your eyes drifting to his body. He reached out with his hand covered in his tank top to dab the blood away from the small cut. From what he could see it wasn't major, just a small scrape that he could clean up indoors if you needed to.

"I-I wasn't paying attention," You hissed trying to stand up and that was when you and Changbin looked down at your ankle that was the source of most of your pain.

"I'll get you some ice and some painkillers, you'll have a headache soon." He then ripped his tank top in half as if it was made of nothing but tissue paper then gently wrapped it around your bruised ankle to help put some pressure on it while a makeshift bandage.

"The ice will bring the swelling out, then I'll get heat to help." You whimpered as he wrapped his arm around your waist and forced yours around his broad shoulders.

"I'm sorry I'm such a pain." You grumbled as he helped you limp in the direction of the main house that was in front of you. You'd only just met him and now you were using him to get around his place of work and home,

"You're not a pain, I'll get the first aid kit if you wait here." He sat you down on a grey sofa and you looked around, it was quite a large open home. The kitchen opened right into the living room, there was a wooden staircase right in front of the front door entrance which you assumed leads to the bedrooms.

"Here it is," You heard Changbin acknowledge followed by a small bang low groan came from him making you giggle a little, you covered your mouth to stop yourself from laughing.

"Do I need to be in charge of the first aid kit now?" He chuckled as he walked over to you from a small cupboard shaking his head at you,

"I hit my head on the shelf." You held back the second small giggle that was trying to escape from your lips and looked at him as he came over to you. He was rubbing the back of his head as he walked towards you. Sitting down next to you on the sofa as he looked through the small green box,

"I haven't had to use this in a while so I hope it's all good," He was biting down on his lower lip while reading through the contents of the box, checking the small butterfly stitches were okay to use. He didn't know if they went out of date or if they stopped working,

"Will it hurt?" You questioned nervously as you saw what he had in his hand. He gazed at you, you were biting down on your lower lip while watching his hands on the stitches with wide eyes.

"No, it's just a slight tugging sensation that's all." You nodded as he moved closer to you, his face inches away from yours as he began applying the small strips to the cut on your head. It wasn't anything major but he thought it would be best for your sake.

"This might hurt," He mumbled as he slowly took off the makeshift bandage from your ankle glancing up at you to see if you were okay. Your face was scrunched up in pain as you waited for him to do something else,

"It's swollen pretty bad but I don't think it's broken," He whispered to you as he slowly ran his hand over the skin you grimaced as he began applying a bandage around the bottom of your foot and up your ankle making sure it was secure enough, but not too tight to cut off your circulation.

"I'll go and get some ice after I've taken you to the room." He helped you up again, wrapping his arm around your waist as he got you up from the sofa. Waiting for you to steady yourself before he attempted to move,

"T-This is really nice of you, you shouldn't have to put up with a client like this." He shook his head at your words promising you that it was fine, it was really no big deal to him. He told you how he'd looked after his older sister in the same way whenever she was clumsy enough to hurt herself.

"Are you close with your family?" You yawned halfway through the questioned but he got it, helping you hop up the stairs as he nodded his head watching your feet carefully as you both walked.

"Pretty close, my sister and I are more like friends than siblings. It's nice," He chuckled as you hopped onto the landing and then tried to stand on your own. It wasn't because you wanted to seem tough but his hands on your waist was making your heart skip a beat and it was distracting to have him touch you even in an innocent manner. You couldn't help but let your mind wander onto what else his hands would be good at doing such large, long fingers. You shook your head trying to ignore the thought as he began to walk you into one of the rooms.

"I'll get a heater inside, I know it gets quite cold in this room in the summer." He sat you down on the edge of the double bed, it was in the middle of a plain white room. Wooden beams on the ceiling that were lined with posters of different artists, some you'd heard of others you hadn't, it must have been his own childhood room by the looks of it or his sisters you couldn't tell yet.

"I'll go and get some blankets, make yourself comfortable." He spoke to you as he headed out of the room, not being able to stop the smile on his face from the moment you stepped foot on the property. He grabbed the blankets from the airing cupboard, shutting it carefully as he made his way back to your room,

"I found a fluffy one and then a-" Changbin cut himself short when he saw you fast asleep on the pillow, you looked so peaceful laid there like that. He smiled weakly grabbing a spare pillow from beside you and carefully placing it under your bad ankle to make sure it was elevated for the night. Then he made sure to cover you with a warm blanket so you wouldn't get cold in the night. He sighed to himself going to get your bag from the living room to bring up to the room for the morning when you would need it.

Changbin walked up towards the top of the stairs to see if you'd woken up yet, he'd been awake for the last two hours getting the parts for your car ordered in so you could rest easy knowing that they were on their way into the garage. He'd had to call a bunch of companies since the car was so old but the thought of telling you that he couldn't fix it broke his heart. He could already tell how much you loved it from the short period of knowing you. 

"Y/n?" He called out when he heard a floorboard creak inside the room, you stared at the door wondering what to say or do in this situation. You had no idea he was on his way up, you were just on your way out of the room to use the bathroom. Last night you had been too tired to even question anything going on, where anything was and what you should even do when staying in someone else's house. Sleepovers had never been like this because at least before staying over you had been friends but, you didn't know Changbin. 

"I made breakfast if you're hungry, it's downstairs," Changbin said to the door as he realised how unsure you must have been about what was happening. To him letting out a room or two for a night was no big deal. He would do it if a customer couldn't get into the town for a hotel or one of the boys were staying over for the night, so he hadn't thought about it until now. 

"Also I laid some fresh towels out in the bathroom if you wanted to take a shower," You pulled the door open as he spoke and you nodded at him. He looked just as good as yesterday only this time he was in fresh overalls and a new tank top.  

"This is really nice of you, thank you again." He looked down at your ankle to see you were hovering it in the air, panic rushed through him as he thought about it possibly being broken or worse. It hadn't looked bad last night but now he was worried about it. 

"It's okay, just a little sore. The shower will help," You promised him when you noticed the concerned look spreading along his face, you didn't want him to have to worry about this since it was your fault for falling over in the first place. Changbin smiled shyly as he looked back up at you, 

"I'll come and turn the shower on, it's a little tricky if you don't know what you're doing," You followed him along towards the bathroom, limping whenever you put too much pressure on your ankle trying to ignore the floorboards that would creak whenever you stepped on them. It made you wonder how Changbin had ever snuck around as a kid. 

"Thanks," You whispered, leaning against the door frame as he hung over the side of the bathtub, turning the shower on and fiddling around with the dials. The water rushing down as he held his hand out to see if it was okay for you.

"The towels are on the heated rack, should be nice for when you get out." He smiled brightly at you, promising to get you some new bandages for your ankle while he was downstairs. 

"Thank you...Again," He chuckled at you shaking his head and reminding you again that it was his pleasure. 

"I'll be downstairs, scream if you need me." He joked playfully, walking out of the bathroom and heading back down to the kitchen. 

His phone was lighting up with text messages from Hyunjin asking what had happened the night before with you. Changbin made the mistake of telling Hyunjin that you'd fallen over and how Changbin's heart had been racing when he was sitting so close to you. Now the boy wasn't going to let Changbin get away with it without giving him some details, not that there were any details for him to give away.

Changbin: Nothing happened. We don't even know one another. Stop being a creep. He hit send and shook his head, going back to making some breakfast for you both, making sure to keep it hot in the oven while you were showering. Nothing was worse than cold food...Other than Hyunjin who had set yet another text, this time a huge paragraph.

Hyunjin: All I'm saying is...You haven't seen anyone in a while, she's cute, you're cute get to know her- Changbin stopped reading when he heard a thud followed by a scream coming from you, he dropped his phone onto the counter. 

"Y/n?!" He cried out rushing up the staircase and towards the bathroom knocking on the door rather loudly his voice coming out panicked as he spoke, 

"You okay?! Answer me if you're alive...I-I don't wanna walk in," He stuttered at the thought of having to walk in there while you were indecent. The mere thought of it causing his hands to get sweaty as he waited for you to give some kind of response to him, he bit down on his lip. 

"I-I'm okay, I slipped...C-Can-" You groaned at the thought of asking someone you barely knew for help, sitting there in nothing but a towel. You clutched the towel around your body, you'd slipped while wrapping the towel around yourself losing your footing on the water and your bad ankle. 

"Can you help me up? I slipped, I'm decent." You told him as you realised he must have thought you were naked or something. The door slowly opened and Changbin walked into the room turning a bright red colour as he saw you leaning against the bathtub on the floor. A blue towel wrapped around you tightly, he came closer to you as he spoke,

"Here," He wrapped his arm around your waist and helped you up onto your foot so you could keep your bad one up in the air, helping you out of the bathroom. 

"I have more bandages in the kitchen when you come down I'll wrap it up for you and get some ice." He was walking you carefully and slowly back to the bedroom while you tried not to get embarrassed over the fact that you'd fallen over twice in his presence and were now standing in nothing but a towel in front of him.

"I'm not usually this clumsy," You informed him as he pushed open the door to the bedroom you were staying in. He let out a low chuckle as he looked at you shaking his head as he thought back on what he'd said before he went to cook. 

"You know...When I told you to scream if you needed me I didn't mean it literally," He winked at you playfully, he had no idea where the wink came from but he liked the fact that you seemed to get shy, letting out a giggle and looked down at the floor. The simple wink had somehow sent your stomach into a frenzy and made your heart skip a beat.

"Will you be okay?" He questioned once you were sitting safely on the edge of the bed, he noticed how you'd made the bed again and he smiled at how thoughtful it was. Normally whenever someone stayed over they left the cleaning for him to do when he wasn't busy. 

"Yeah, I'll be right down." You whispered to him as you look at your bag that was sitting on a chair beside the bed, you wondered what you could wear that wouldn't bother your ankle too much, Changbin smiled before leaving the room and going back down to the kitchen. 

Changbin: She fell again, starting to think she's almost as clumsy as Jisung. I'll talk later. With lightning speed, Hyunjin replied immediately trying to tease his friend. 

Hyunjin: Ever thought she's falling on purpose so you'll save her? She was in the shower remember. The text ended with a suggestive string of emojis to which Changbin groaned and threw his phone into the drawer, wanting nothing more to do with Hyunjin that day. 

"I made tea as well, or I can make some coffee if you prefer," Changbin called to you when he heard small hops coming from the staircase. He glanced over to see you in a pair of high waisted shorts a band t-shirt, his eyes travelled up your legs as he took in the sight of you.

"Tea is perfect," You breathed out in relief as you reached the bottom floor without falling over or hurting yourself this time. 

"Come and sit," Changbin pulled out a white wooden chair that was in front of a kitchen island and you waddled over to him, watching as he began opening some drawers. Pulling out bandages and scissors before coming over to you to get you bandaged up for the day. 

"I have to finish that car I was working on yesterday but you're welcome to do whatever you want, watch a movie, or a show or something." He spoke calmly as he knelt down in front of you, carefully wrapping the new bandage around your ankle, pulling it a little tighter so that your ankle was secure. 

"I'll probably watch a movie, Hyunjin said that Busan is 2 hours away?" You wanted to confirm that Hyunjin was telling the truth and it wasn't just some trick so he wouldn't have to take you. 

"Yeah, two hours and from here to Seoul it's around four in a car." He cut the end of the bandage off before tying it around your leg and smiling up at you to show off his handiwork.

"I'm not a nurse but I don't think its that bad a job," He told you as you complimented his work on your ankle, 

"Well if you handle my car like you've handled me I'm sure she's in perfect hands." Changbin began blushing a deeper red than before and you smiled at him, you'd never had that effect on anybody before. 

"I'll get you some tea," You thanked him shyly and looked around again, the house was cosy and small but it did make you wonder about where his family were. There were photographs of them on the wall, they all looked so happy together,

"I know you mentioned your sister last night...Where is she?" It probably came across as you being nosy but you were generally interested in getting to know Changbin as a person. He came back to the kitchen island with plates stacked high with food for the both of you, he set them down before looking at you. Walking away to get the drinks as he spoke to you,

"Well my sister went to Seoul National University and my parents moved out there with her. I stayed to run the family business," He came back to the table again with tea for you both and sat down on the chair beside you, 

"You grew up out here?" He nodded at you, he could see where this was going so he cut you off before you could question him on school and friends. It was the question everyone asked whenever they came out here, 

"It's not as quiet as you probably think i is. There are some farms further down the road and then a small school where Hyunjin and I met the rest of our friends." That explained how they'd met, you'd wondered in the van when Hyunjin told you how far away everything was. You would have assumed they were homeschooled since everything seemed so far away from them,

"I thought you were going to tell me you travelled two hours a day for school," It was normal, you knew people travelled further for other schools, he shook his head at you. Telling you the only time they'd travelled to school was for high school and it was an hour-long bus journey there and back.

"What was school like?" You questioned as you began eating some of the food that Changbin had prepared. Withstanding the urge to let out a moan of delight when you tasted it, it was far better than you had imagined for a mechanic. It made you wonder who had taught him how to cook and if he got it from his mother or father, 

"Y-You okay? Is it not good?!" Changbin panicked as he read the look on your face, he couldn't tell if it was a good shocked face or a bad one. You were very hard to read for him at the minute and it scared him a little, he hadn't realised it until now but he'd been trying to impress you. 

"No! No! It's actually really good, I didn't- I didn't expect it." You admitted shyly and Changbin chuckled, his friend Jeongin had said the same thing when he first cooked for them all.

"My dad taught me how to cook growing up, Mum taught me cars." He admitted as he looked at you, you had a smile on your face as you looked at him intrigued to know more about him. Much like his your smile hadn't left your face yet. 

"School." You told him as you waited to hear more about his childhood and how he'd grown up around here, 

"School was normal I guess...We formed a friend group, tried to start a band as every young boy does." You giggled at the thought of it, pushing a piece of pancake into your mouth and shaking your head, 

"Not just boys, I wanted to be in a girl group but not many others did." You admitted to him as you began exchanging stories from your "girl group" days which turned out to be more of a solo carer turned into, the one singing job at a talent show followed by you never singing in front of people again. 

"What was your group name?" You quizzed when you were drying the dishes up for him. The conversations had been going back and forth while you ate. He'd told you all their stage names but not the group name itself, 

"I think we called ourselves Stray kids, we-" He started laughing through the sentence as he thought back on everything and shook his head, 

"We called ourselves that because we always strayed away from the usual kid's stuff," He shook his head at the memories and looked at you wondering the same question, 

"Your turn. Your group name?" He questioned, turning off the hot water and drying his hands while he stared at you. You were shying away from the question and shook your head, 

"It was something dumb, unlike Stray Kids which seems like a good name..." He wasn't going to let you get out of this one though, he wanted to know the ins and outs so he shook his head, 

"Come on, I told you mine." He pressed, moving closer to you and sitting down on the chair beside you, you groaned laying your face in your hands as you thought back on it all. The name had just been something you randomly thought of on the day, a 12-year-old you didn't have much imagination for names at the time.

"The group was called January Spice...I formed the group in January...Clearly, and I liked spicy food." He began to laugh softly at the time and you moaned, rolling your head down on the countertop in front of you. 

"Laugh away, you had stage names remember. SpearB," You mocked playfully earning a playful glare from Changbin as he got up from the counter. 

"I need to go work on the cars, do you want me to set the TV up?" He questioned as he pointed over at the tv while looking at you, but you had a better idea,

"C-Can I come?" You questioned, the thought of being alone in the house would bother you too much and you wanted to get to know him better. Changbin's heart warmed at the thought of you wanting to spend time with him more than you had that morning at least, 

"Sure. We'll take a chair out so you can sit while I work." He laughed picking up one of the barstools from the kitchen island and heading out, you limping slowly behind him as he went to open the garage doors. 

"Bliss," He called out randomly in the silence, you frowned looking at him. It had been quiet while he worked on the car for a couple of minutes, you didn't know if he wanted complete silence or if it would be okay to talk. He was bent over the hood of a car as he worked on the engine, he could tell you were confused by the lack of response, 

"You said everyone names their car, mine was called Bliss." You nodded along with him now following along with what he meant, 

"Was?" He whined out at the question and thought of his car, he hadn't been away from it since the day he'd gotten it until his parents needed it. He knew they would need it more than him so he gave it up. Changbin had his choice of cars around the yard that they bought from people over the years. But none of them was 'Bliss', his dream car. 

"Out in the city with my parents, they needed it to get around." He told you as he placed his hand on his chest, faking hurt for dramatic effect splashing oil all over his clean white vest top.

"Now I just have Dave," He groaned facing over at a Ford Pickup truck that was sitting beside the house, 

"He's only good when I need to go into town and come back with all of the snacks Felix makes for me,"

"Felix is the one that bakes right?" You remembered both Hyunjin and Changbin telling you about him. Changbin said that Felix was better than him at cooking but it was hard to believe when you'd ate Changbin's food. 

"Yeah! I think I'll see him before your parts come so you can have some of his cookies for the road," He laughed going back down into the hood of the car while you stared at the floor feeling a sinking feeling in your chest as you thought back on that. You'd totally forgotten about driving back home. Ending your road trip short and yet the one thing that was making you feel down the most was leaving here, you'd loved spending so much time with Changbin it felt as though you'd known him longer than you had.

"Yeah- Sounds good," Changbin could hear the uncertainty in your voice and he decided to look back at you, turning his head as he caught you looking a little sad. 

"Can you pass me the adjustable wrench?" He questioned snapping you out from your daydream, you reached for it and handed it over to him in silence. He could tell that making you think of home had struck a nerve so he looked back down at the car trying to come up with something to distract you from it, 

"Why did you leave home? Why did you decide to go on the huge road trip alone?" He licked his lips as he began fixing the engine again not glancing over at you. You took in a deep breath and shook your head thinking over it all. 

"I- I don't know, I just..." You'd never said it out loud to anyone before in fear of hurting their feelings but where you lived was awful. No one did a thing about their dreams, they worked in dead-end jobs like they were running their lives on autopilot all of the time.

"I looked around and realised there wasn't a single person there, whose life I wanted." By now Changbin was resting his hands on the closed bonnet of the car and staring at you, he watched the way your face contorted thinking back on everything back home. He could tell you didn't want to go back there, 

"So you travelled to find somewhere you wanted to stay?" He cleaned off his hands on a towel while he waited for your response, 

"Maybe..." You whispered not wanting to admit that you may have found somewhere. That it was Busan was seemingly like a great place despite not seeing it as a whole yet, you sensed it was probably Changbin making you feel like you wanted to stay.

The rest of the day was spent with you and Changbin getting to know one another on a deeper level. He told you about his time growing up and you did the same, exchanging horror stories from your high school years and what you had done for a living before going on the road trip. 

Now you were both watching a movie together, it was some horror movie that his friend Minho had suggested you both watch together. Though it wasn't really scary...At all. Changbin thought he'd only suggested it because he had you over at the house and "watching horror movies scared girls into your arms" was something Minho always used to say in school. But you weren't scared, in fact, you were laying your head on Changbin as you drifted off to sleep, Changbin smiled when he heard you murmur in your sleep. Holding onto his arms as you got comfortable against him, snuggling your head into him. He knew if you were awake you would be far too shy to do this which was why he wrapped his arm around your shoulder enjoying the moment while he had it. He drew your body closer to his as he got comfy. It somehow felt natural to be in this position with you, as though you'd done this a million times before. 

"C-Changbin," He heard the small whine of his name leave your lips and he froze in place wondering if you'd woken up and felt him holding you or if you were dreaming about him. He blushed at the thought of him being in your dreams and glanced at his phone, it was getting late and he had to be up early soon but he didn't want to leave this position. He wanted to stay right here with you but sleeping on the sofa caused back pains, he would know after the many nights he'd spent on it after crashing. 

The next morning you rolled over to stop the sun from blinding you in your face but ended up rolling over and hurting your ankle as it came into contact with the edge of the bed.

"Shit," You hissed, sitting up straight and looking down at yourself, you were still in the clothes from yesterday but, you were in the bedroom. You could have sworn you'd been sitting downstairs. It was the last thing you could remember, you were watching a horror movie with Changbin and pretending to be a little afraid so you could hide in his arms. Looking back on it now it seemed silly and childish but you wanted to hold onto him or have him hold you, even if it was just a little while. You hadn't meant to fall asleep beside him and have him carry you up to the bed, now you felt like such a fool.

"Y/n? You alright?" Changbin asked as he came out of the bathroom from his shower, he was about to head into his room when he heard you moving around in the bedroom. Pulling up your black jeans you hummed at him, pulling the door open as soon as you were dressed. Then you walked out showing him that you weren't limping around anymore while you did the best you could not to whine out. It was still hard to walk on but at least now you could do it on your own and without limping, he chuckled softly so you looked up at him. Your mouth could have dropped to the floor when you saw him standing there in nothing but a towel. His body on full display for you to see, beads of water dripping down his arms, abs and face. As he looked at you your mouth ran dry as you realised you were staring at him as if he was some model in a magazine. This time it was your turn to get shy and turn away from him as you got embarrassed.

"I'm heading into the town today, the market will be on. You're welcome to join me if you'd like." He told you as he turned his back on you, heading towards his bedroom so that you wouldn't have to be shy about staring at him anymore.

"Y-Yeah! Sounds great, I-I'm gonna go- Make a drink." You stuttered out as you tried to make it down the staircase as quickly as you could with your bad ankle. Changbin sniggered to himself as he heard you mumbling to yourself about staring.

"He can see you staring you idiot," Was the last words he heard from you before he went to change into some clothes for the town.

Instead of his usual attire, Changbin came down in dressed in some blue jeans and a white t-shirt while he pulled on a black jacket.

"We'll take Dave, no doubt Felix will have baked up a storm last night and I need to get some food while I'm in town." He told you as he walked into the kitchen where you were sitting. You'd made you both a hot cup of tea while you waited for him, wanting to trip yourself over for staring at him the way you did. It was clear from his actions over the two days he wasn't feeling the same way that you did, you had to stop fantasying about him and get on with it. Changbin was just there to fix your car and you would be out of there. It was as simple as that.

"Y/n?" Changbin called out as he stood beside you looking down at you, your hands were clamped down tightly on the mug you were holding. There was something on your mind anybody with more than one brain cell could see that.

"Sorry, what?" You muttered shaking your head as you realised he had been speaking to you the entire time and you hadn't noticed until now.

"I asked if you want me to put your tea into the travel mug for the drive?" He held up a pink travel mug and shook it so you would see what he was talking about, you nodded shyly at him and he chuckled taking the mug from your hands. As he stood at the sink he glanced over his shoulder at you, wanting to know what it was that seemed to be bothering you.

"What's on your mind?" He questioned as he poured the hot liquid into another container. A part of him hoped it was about what had happened upstairs and you would either confirm or deny your feelings for him but it was wishful thinking on his part. Neither of you had known one another that long and he didn't want to tell you his feelings too soon in fear of ruining what would be a lovely couple of days together.

"Going back home...The thought of it just lingers." You mumbled as you lied to him, you'd never ever been a good liar even your mother could tell when you lied to her. You couldn't exactly be straight forward and tell him that it was he that occupied your mind all morning and night. The situation on the top floor landing creeping back into your mind, which then took you back into thinking of the dream you'd had the night before. Nothing special had happened but Changbin had been there. You couldn't even remember what had happened, only that he was there and you kissed.

"Hmm," Changbin hummed as he looked at you knowing that it was a lie. Your eyes were locked on your hands and your body language had become blocked off to him, he hadn't known you long but he already knew your thinking of home face and that wasn't it. Whatever it was that was on your mind had you biting your bottom lip and playing with your hands nervously.

"Well, maybe you'll like Busan and you'll have found a place you want to stay." He nudged your side trying to wake you up from another daydream and he walked you out of the house in silence not knowing what to say to you to make things easier on your mind. This was the most you had been quiet around one another and it was starting to feel a little awkward.

"I'd offer to buy breakfast on the drive but if I do that I think Seungmin and Chan might kill me. They serve food all day from the moment they get there. You'll love it," As he spoke to you you looked at him and smiled as you tried to forget about kissing him in your dream and seeing him almost naked. At least now you'd both seen one another in nothing but a towel and you had nothing to be embarrassed about.

"What are they like?" You had questioned him on his friends before but nothing major, now that you were going to meet them all you wanted to know what you were in for before you got to the market and they would get to hang with you all day.

"Jump in, we have a whole two-hour drive. I'll tell you all about them," He chuckled as he looked at you, the chuckle made you feel more relaxed as you realised he was just breezing over the fact you'd seen him in a towel.

"In return though-" He started as he turned on the car of the pickup truck, turning the radio down from the last time he had been in the car alone. He didn't want to deafen you with his music blasting out suddenly at you.

"I want you to sing for me, otherwise I'm going to throw you to the boys. Like a sheep in a lion's den." You raised your eyebrow at the statement and turned your head to the side trying to think if that was the correct saying.

"I thought the saying was 'I'll feed you to the wolves'?" He licked his lips at you and shook his head acting confident in what he had said to you.

"Not anymore, I changed it. Find a song and start singing," He winked at you, nodding over at the glove box where he kept all of his CD's.

"Whoa. You have a lot of music," You mumbled as you flicked through the multiple CD holders he had inside to try and find a CD where you would at least know one song on it.

"I have to keep myself entertained on the long drives somehow," By now Changbin was pulling into the main road and heading into the town ready to listen to your singing.

By the time you pulled into a parking spot, you knew all of the boy's names, how he'd met every one of them and some small details about them all. Changbin and you had sung together, which led to some rather interesting duets in the car mostly you being shocked by how well Changbin could make up a rap on the spot. He could have had a huge music career if he had stuck it out.

"I just don't want to seem nervous," You told Changbin as he playfully teased you for wanting to know who all of his friends were when you got out of the car. Changbin slammed the door and laughed again, Hyunjin looked up from his phone as soon as he heard your voice and he smiled quickly sending a text to everyone that you were there.

"Is that Y/n I hear? Changbin hasn't scared you off then?" He laughed loudly gaining the attention of other people around you as you looked at him. You smiled back at him as you shook your head at his question,

"Not yet!" You giggled as he rushed over to you and Changbin, greeting Changbin with nothing but a nod of his head before turning to you.

"I hope you're enjoying your stay at Hotel-Dela-Changbin," You laughed softly and began talking with Hyunjin about Changbin's rapping in the car but Changbin began gushing about your singing voice.

"So where shall we start?" You questioned as you looked around you, you were still standing at the edge of the parking lot looking around for something. The market area seemed huge with both and indoor and outdoor market area, a huge building with floor to ceiling windows letting you see everything inside. You didn't dare admit to Changbin you'd never been to one before, the closest thing you'd gotten to a farmers market is a market stall in your home town that sold books.

"We'll start outdoors, Seungmin text saying he has some breakfast food ready for us and that Chan is getting angsty just waiting there." He chuckled glancing from his phone and up to you to make sure that would alright with you,

"Great let's go-" Your sentence was cut short by a loud whimper as you went to walk on your foot a little too eagerly and twisted your ankle, you wanted to cry out in pain but you held it back. Changbin instantly reached his hands out to grab you protectively and Hyunjin watched from the side a little shocked by how protective of you Changbin was acting.

"Ankle again?" Changbin questioned as he steadied you in his arms holding onto you tightly trying to make sure you didn't fall.

"Y-Yeah," The stutter in your voice wasn't because of your ankle but because of how he was holding you. His hands were on your waist, his breath against your neck as he stood close to you, stopping you from toppling over onto your face. Your heart began to pump as you felt him draw you closer to him, his chest against your back as you felt his heart racing just as yours was.

"Alright love birds, let's get moving." Hyunjin joked hoping that Seungmin had seen it from the stall he was working on. He clapped his hands together as he waited for you and Changbin to start moving together so he could get back to his job on directing everyone in the right places. Changbin looked at you as he linked his arm with yours, slowly walking with you in the direction of Seungmin and Chan who were both watching you from a distance. Smirking to one another as they watch you and Changbin engage in conversation with one another, staring up into one another's eyes getting lost in one another rather than paying attention to anything around you.

"It's like those old romance movies Minho claims he doesn't watch," Seungmin joked to Chan who was laughing softly at the thought of it. They could already tell that Changbin liked you a lot, they'd known him for a long time and knew he rarely smiled that much unless it was someone he really liked.

"I thought Changbin was going to join a nunnery he'd been single for so long." Felix joked as he loaded up a box full of baking goods for you to take back to the garage. All nine of you were sitting at a bench in the indoor market while you had some lunch together, Changbin and you had done a full lap of the outdoor market. Walking slowly, of course, to make sure you didn't hurt your ankle. The whole time you spoke about his life again, what he had planned for his future if he wasn't going to run the garage but now you were here with them all.

"Felix!" Changbin groaned as he playfully hit his friend for bringing it up in front of you, he didn't want you to know how long he'd been single in case it put you off him.

"It would be a monastery anyway since...Changbin is a dude." You whispered joining in on the playful teasing while Changbin started nodding sarcastically and licked the inside of his lip.

"Yeah! That's it! You encourage them!" He yelled at you jokingly but you held onto his arm and shook your head, promising him it was just a joke while Felix told him it wasn't.

"The boys and I were going to chip on getting you a Monk outfit." A biscuit was thrown in Felix's direction while you let out a loud surprised shriek as Changbin got up from the seat suddenly.

"Do they always act like this?" You questioned Chan who was sitting beside you watching them both, Changbin got up from the table and began racing after Felix around the indoor market, chasing him in and out of stalls and around people while you giggled.

"Sometimes, Changbin normally rises above it." He whispered turning to look at you as he tried to figure out how you felt about Changbin. Your eyes hadn't left him, watching him chase the smaller boy of the group around, yelling out that he would kill him amongst other playful remarks.

"To be blunt," Chan started once he realised he couldn't read what you were thinking based on your facial expression. As you turned to look at him your face softened wondering what it was that he wanted to ask, you placed a forkful of cake into your mouth and waited for him to continue on.

"Do you like him?" You almost choked on the piece of cake you were eating as he asked you point blankly about Changbin.

"What?! I don't- We don't know- I-" Chan smirked when he saw how easily flustered you were getting with the question, it was obvious now what the answer was even if you weren't saying it yourself.

"You do?" He questioned, biting down on your lip you looked back over at Changbin before nodding. It would be no use lying to yourself about your feelings for him so you weren't going to bother trying to hide it.

"Yeah. I do. Don't...Don't tell him? It's dumb but we haven't known each other long and I don't want things to be awkward-"

"Don't want to be awkward?" Changbin asked making you jump in your seat and look up at him, you were instantly hit with nervousness as you thought he'd heard you and Chan talking about him.

"Nothing, can we take a walk? I want to stretch my ankle for a little bit." Chan slyly tapped his nose at you as a way of telling you that he would keep your secret so you began heading off to look through the indoor market.

"Cute!" You expressed once you saw a stand selling handmade outfits for animals, you walked away from Changbin who was buying you both a hot chocolate and over to the lady who was serving.

"Do you own a pet?" She asked you as you looked through everything,

"No, but now I want to." You whined, Changbin chuckled as he caught you whining and walked over to you, looking through everything as he greeted the woman at the stand.

"Changbin, watch while I have a bathroom break?" He nodded at her and she rushed out of the booth going towards the bathroom while you giggled at everything. Picking up a bow tie that would go around a dogs neck,

"Look, it would suit you." You giggled as you adjusted the neck to fit around Changbin's. Holding it around his neck as you stared into his eyes, getting lost in them as you looked at one another.

"S-So cute," You whispered dropping the bow tie on the floor as you both leant closer to one another. Your heart was in your throat as you moved closer to one another, your lips inches away. Changbin wrapped his arms around your waist as your you were about to kiss when someone let out a loud screech. Changbin backed away from you first making you whine as you looked down at the floor acting as though you weren't just about to kiss one another. The fact that he pulled away first made you feel as though he didn't want to be that close to you,

"Binnie!" You heard a female voice cry out before someone came bounding over to you both, pushing you back a couple of steps and causing you to knock into the stand.

"Watch it Flair!" Changbin yelled moving away from her and holding onto your elbow to stop you from falling over anymore and then he stared at the girl. She had long jet-black hair as she stared at you, giving you a dirty look the second Changbin held onto you.

"What are you doing here? I thought you never wanted to see me again?" Changbin questioned her once you were steady on your feet. Minho, who had seen the entire thing began making his way over to move you out of the firing range. Whenever Flair saw Changbin it ended badly, the last time she'd seen him she flipped out never wanting to see him again but now she'd seen him with someone else Minho knew what was bound to happen.

"I still love you silly, we should go for a drink." Her hands were holding onto his biceps as Minho reached your side,

"Come on," He pulled you over in the direction of the table where the boys were again so you could be alone and not have to listen to their fight.

"Flair again?" Jeongin questioned when they all looked over at Changbin who seemed to be turning red in the face as he spoke back and forth with the girl.

"Who is she?" You questioned shyly, not wanting to look as though you were jealous, you had nothing to be jealous over. It was only a small kiss and it hadn't even happened, though your rapidly beating heart would say otherwise.

The drive home had been silent except for the music that had been playing through the speaker system. Changbin and you hadn't spoken since the almost kiss in the indoor market, he'd come to stand at the table and told the boys he best start driving home before it got too late which meant it was your cue to leave as well.

Now you were heading up to the bedroom to get some rest for the night, holding onto the railing instead of relying on Changbin to help balance you.

"Y/n?" Changbin questioned as you hand touched the golden door handle on the door, you turned your body to face him as you forced yourself to look him in the eyes,

"I'm sorry. Flair...She's a little too much and she's my ex...I had to talk to her-" The boys had explained who Flair was to you, she cheated on Changbin multiple times with different guys to the point where they had their relationship as open but Changbin wasn't allowed to date anyone else. If he even looked at another girl Flair would flip out on him and ''break up'' the relationship without a second thought. When they finally did have a real break up she swore she never wanted to see him again, until she got needy and followed him everywhere. Then claimed she never wanted to see him again. Minho had explained she'd only gone up to him at the market today because she'd seen him with you and got jealous.

"It's fine. It's not as if we're dating, right?" You knew it was wrong to snap at him but you did so anyway, walking into the room and slamming the door behind you. Changbin stared at the door sighing to himself, he should never have stood there to speak to Flair, he should have just taken you away and finished the kiss. Now things were going to be weird between the two of you.

As soon as you knew he was gone from outside of the door you let out a cry into your hands, it seemed stupid crying over a boy you weren't with but it hurt how he left you there like that for someone else.

When the sun woke you up that morning you didn't bother moving from the bedroom, you just rolled over onto your side and began to scroll through your phone trying to distract yourself. There had been someone at the front door earlier that morning talking with Changbin but the voices were muffled through your door, so you weren't able to make out who it was or what they were talking about so you just went back to sleep for a few hours until now. 

Sighing to yourself you sat up in the bed deciding that hiding from Changbin wouldn't be the most mature thing to do in this situation so you wanted to go and see him, at least try and talk this all over with him. Smooth things out at least. You changed into another pair of jeans and an oversized button-up that was in the bottom of your bag and headed for the stairs finding your ankle perfectly fine to walk on today, unlike the previous days when you could barely use it.

"Changbin?" You called out nervously as you reached the bottom to see that he wasn't around, the living room was empty and there were no signs of him in the kitchen. Nothing but a plate and a used mug in the sink that was waiting to be washed up.

"Changbin?" You walked out to the front door checking to see if he was in the garage but the doors were shut and locked and Dave was missing so he'd most likely gone out somewhere but you didn't know where that was. 

As you made your way back towards the kitchen there was a small note on the coffee machine you hadn't seen before, 

One of your parts was missing, went out to Seoul to get it. Won't be home until late, food in the fridge, Lix said he'll come round after 11. See you later x

The small kiss on the end of the handwritten note gave you hope that he wasn't mad about whatever happened the night before between you. The almost kiss lingering in your head as you thought back on the market incident. Maybe there was hope for you both yet but your stomach was still in a nervous spin as you realised he'd left you alone with not much to do. There was an hour before Lix would be arriving so you were going to do the best you could to get something to eat in the house and then clean up. It was the least you could do since Changbin was letting you stay here for free this whole time. Trying to distract yourself from thinking about Changbin the whole time, there was no use sitting around and crying over a boy.

"Changbin wasn't kidding when he said you could sing, huh?" Felix laughed as he walked right into the house. The whole house was filled with loud music, he heard it as he pulled into the driveway. You'd been playing it for the last hour as you cleaned up the house. It wasn't as though it was unnecessarily dirty, just random stains you knew how to fix. 

Felix placed the key he had into his jacket pocket and walked further into the home, taking off his shoes not wanting to mess it up. The boys all had their own key to both the house and the garage, Changbin made them make copies for whenever he was away and needed them to come and look after the place for a couple of days.

"Ah! Hi!" You yelled as you got up from the floor turning off the music so you would be able to talk to one another without yelling at each other. 

"Hey! I brought you guys some more cookies, I even had Sengmin whip us something up for dinner." He placed the containers into the fridge and walked over to you to see what you had been doing. That was when he noticed that the stain in front of the kitchen sink was gone. Chan had dropped some oil a few years ago and it ended up seeping into the small grooves of the floor. 

Felix greeted you with a hug although you hadn't known him longer than half a day you already felt close with him. In fact, you felt close to all of the boys which were nice since you'd never had that kind of friendship before. Everyone back home just sort of tolerated one another, put up with each other for the sake of the town since it was only small and there were only so many people around. Yet another reason to stay away. There everyone knew one another, here they did too but it didn't seem as toxic as it did back home.

"Thank you, Changbin loves your cookies. I haven't tried them yet but if they're anything like your cakes though I'm sure I'll gain a few pounds while I have the last few days here." Felix frowned as you spoke about leaving. From what he'd gotten from Changbin the day before you were starting to like your time in Busan, which made him and the boys wondered if you would be staying. It wasn't uncommon for people to visit and plan to stay in the future.

"Last days?" He tried to bring it up casually as you both walked over to the sofa to talk for a while but you knew why he was asking. 

"I have to go home right? I can't stay with Changbin all the time...There aren't really any places for me to stay other than here..." You trailed off slowly not knowing if Chan had told anyone else that you admitted your feelings for Changbin to him yesterday. Felix smiled softly at you as he looked at you.

"Chan told me that you might have a crush on him," You scoffed at his words, 'crush' was one of the biggest oversimplifications you could have used. It made you feel as though you were back in school and had a crush on one of the popular kids.

"That would be the understatement of the year." Felix sighed at you when he saw the look on your face, it looked as though you were really upset about something and he wanted to know what it was that was on your mind.

"What happened? Minho said that he saw you and Changbin with Flair but-"

"We almost kissed when she interrupted then when we got back to the house I sort of - maybe kind of...Snapped at him for something that wasn't his fault," You dramatically rolled back to lay on the grey sofa, closing your eyes and groaning about how if you could do it over you would. Felix met you with a breathy chuckle as he looked over at you laying down on the sofa with your eyes closed.

"You could talk it through with him...Tell him how you feel? I mean after the almost kiss it means he confirms his feelings for you." Forcing your eyes open you stared up at Felix, you had so many questions you wanted to ask him but you didn't know if he would be comfortable with answering them. Changbin was his friend, Felix wasn't yours you had to remember that. 

"You're worried about Flair right? If you are you have nothing to be worried about... From what I heard Changbin set her straight yesterday." To distract yourself a little you walked to the kitchen to make you both a hot drink to have together. Trying not to make it seem like you were prying for too much information. 

"Set her straight?" You wondered if that was why he had been so tense the night before and hadn't spoken in the truck ride home. Not that you did anything to help aid that either, you could have just as easily spoken to him too you just choose not to. Deciding it would be better to sit in a dull silence rather than talk it out like the adults you both were.

"From what we heard, Flair isn't planning on sticking around in Busan much longer. Then last night Changbin gave her that little extra nudge to move." You looked at Felix with a raised eyebrow handing him his mug of hot coffee as you sat down beside him on the sofa once again. Pulling your knees into your chest as you stared at him, 

"Was Flair his first love? Was that why he put up with so much from her?" As much as he didn't want to talk about his friend behind his back he thought it would be important for you to know it. Since you'd expressed your interest in Changbin and it was clear to him and the boys Changbin liked you back. 

"They were each other's first love, Changbin had been crushing on Flair Hard. For years. I'm talking since we were in little school to high school..."

The story went on until Felix had told you the ins and outs of the relationship. The first time Flair had cheated until the last time when Changbin finally had enough of it all and called it all to an end. She'd been the worst of the worst for him and it took him so long to realise it. Felix took off not long before nine that night so you just began watching a film on the TV. The plan was to wait for Changbin to come in so you could greet him and talk everything over but it wasn't panning out that way since your eyes were getting harder to keep open with each passing second. 

Changbin walked into the house to find you asleep on the sofa a movie running on the screen while there was a mug of half-drunken coffee on the coffee table. He grinned to himself as he quietly dropped the truck keys on the table and stepped over to you, looking over your face while you snuggled into the sofa. You were covered by a small blanket while clutching a small stuffed toy in your arms he'd never seen it before so he could only assume you'd brought it along with you,

"Cute." He whispered to himself as you scrunched your face up in your sleep dreaming of something that wasn't nice by the looks of it. 

"Come here," He whispered to himself once again, taking the blanket off of your body before lifting you up into his arms just like he'd done that second night you'd stayed over. He couldn't expect you to sleep on the coach given how uncomfortable it was, he watched your face as he walked carefully up the staircase to your room. Being careful not to drop you as he walked towards the bedroom you were staying in.

"Changbin," He froze in place as he reached the door of your bedroom, he'd just tucked you into the double bed and was about to leave when you called out his name. 

"Y/n?" He glanced back at you and sighed when he saw that you were still fast asleep on the bed, mumbling his name to yourself. He was sure he could run a hover around the room and you would still be out cold. He shook his head while laughing softly at the sight of you, then he sighed to himself making himself leave the room as he thought about everything. The almost kiss in the market. The ranting text messages he had sitting in his phone from the boys complaining about how he had dealt with everything. Including a string of new messages from Felix updating him on what had happened in the house.

Felix: She's caught up on this whole almost kiss...You should tell her how you feel...

Felix: I'm leaving. She's going to try and stay awake to talk to you. Talk to her. She'll be good for you, you know it, the boys know it and I know it

Changbin ignored them though, throwing his phone onto the sofa as he looked around the kitchen. The boys were always on his case about moving on so this was nothing new from them but he didn't need the pressures of everyone else around him on top of him as well as his own pressures about you. As he walked further into the kitchen he noticed that the usual oil stain on the floor was gone...He'd been trying to get that out for years and you'd only been here a few days and it vanished? He was going to need your secret that or he needed you to stay around forever to be his personal stain remover. Who was he kidding? He wanted you to stay around because having you there had made him happier than he had been in the longest time. Anyone with a functioning brain and two eyes could tell that. He groaned to himself as he thought about how rude he had been, he should have offered to take you to Seoul with him, there was no reason for him to have been out all day either. He'd wasted so much time in the City just trying to avoid coming home to the weird tension that had been in the air the previous night.

The next morning Changbin had woken up first - as he always did - and headed out to your car to start working on it. Working on cars was the only thing he could do to help clear his mind and help him say the things he needed to say without them coming out as complicated, fixing cars helped him focus.

When you woke up and saw him out of the window you knew it was now or never, you had to speak to him. He was working on your car so you only had a couple of hours to get yourself to talk to him, starting with a hot drink. In your mindset, no one could be mad or upset if you brought them a hot drink. That and it would give you that tiny bit longer of procrastination while you worked out what on earth you were going to say to him when you went out there.

"I-I made you a drink." You whispered as you brought him out a mug of tea with the biscuits that Felix brought round the day before.

"Lix baked fresh cookies so I brought them out too." You mumbled to him as you set the small tray down on one of the empty workbenches not knowing how else to pluck up a conversation. No words came from him as he continued working in the back of your car, glancing over at you when you weren't looking. Today you were dressed in a pair of dark blue denim overalls and a white button-up which made him smile at the thought of you both looking alike, but he went back to the car ignoring the sweet thoughts he was having about you as he continued his work. He still had no idea what it was he wanted to say to you. If he should bring up the kiss or if he was just supposed to ignore the whole thing had happened.

"Look I was hoping-" You stopped talking when someone knocked on the wooden doors of the garage interrupting you, you both glanced over to see the delivery man holding a box for Changbin.

"Drop it anywhere, thanks, man." The box said had a brand of spray paint on the side which the delivery man dropped over by the doors.  

"I was hoping that we could talk about the other day-" You'd tried to start once the delivery man was gone but Changbin cut you off this time. He began talking about the car instead of looking at you, staring into the engine as he tried to talk.

"It'll be done by tomorrow at the latest. You'll be out of here before you know it." He didn't even look at you while he spoke it pissed you off more than it probably should have. That he didn't even have the guts to look you in the face while he toyed around with your feelings like this.

"Changbin I wasn't talking about the car-" You tried to speak once again but just like before he cut you off.

"I just need to get an oil change and some stuff, let it settle. You'll be out of my hair by morning." The wording of his sentence pierced you both in place like a deer caught in headlights, your heart thumped against your chest as he told you what he thought about you. Changbin put down the wrench he was using and slowly looked over at you to try and assess the situation. Your eyes were starting to fill with tears as you thought over what he had said. 'Out of my hair' was he sick of you already? Did the boys read him wrong and he didn't like you back at all?

"Out of your hair, r-right...Okay." You stuttered out as you tried not to burst out into tears right there and then, trying to leave the comment alone but it kept repeating itself over and over in your head. Anger began to bubble up inside of you as you thought about it longer and longer,

"You offered me to stay...If it was that big a deal you could have told me to go...I-I could have found a hotel-" He cut you off trying to explain why he'd said what he'd said.

"I didn't mean it, I was just-" This time you cut him off,

"Just what? Because it sounded to me like you meant it! What's your problem? We went from almost kissing to you ignoring me, passing me off as nothing but a visitor and claiming I'm in your hair!?" It came out more of a question than you throwing accusations at him, he licked his lips as he began to feel the guilt coming onto him. He hadn't meant it all, he was just trying to push you away. Pushing people away was easier for him than to accept they were willing to stay with him.

"If I'm that big a deal I'll leave now!" You knew yelling wasn't going to solve anything in this situation but you couldn't help but feel mad at him. You turned to leave out of the garage doors when he seized your wrist in his grasp, stopping you from leaving him there.

"I didn't mean I wanted you to leave..." His voice was coming out calmer now as he looked at you, trying not to hold back the feelings he could feel rushing to the surface. It scared him that he was finally starting to feel something stronger than he had for Flair all those years ago and now he was going to have to admit it out loud it worried him. He didn't want the thing that had happened in the past to repeat themselves.

"Then what is your problem? You've been so-" This time it wasn't Changbin cutting you off with his words...He smashed his lips against yours. Instantly it was as if the fight had melted away from you, you couldn't remember what you were mad at him for, all that matter now was that he was kissing you deeply. Your arms wrapped around the back of his neck as you stood up on your tiptoes to deepen the kiss, Changbin smirked against your lips. Biting down on your lower one so he could gain access, pushing his tongue into your mouth as he made out with you. Your lips mouthing in sync with one another as you finally got the dream kiss you'd been wanting this whole time. Changbin's arms snaked around your waist, luring you closer to him as he made out with you on the spot.

"N-No, not here." He whispered as you began to run your hands up his shirt. He had to remember you were both in the middle of the garage, anyone could walk in and he didn't want that. He kissed both of your hands as he pulled them out from under his tank top, then he kissed down your neck, pulling you in the direction of the house instead.

Clothes were strewn around the bedroom as you both rushed to undress one another, you bit down on your lip taking in all of his body in one look.

"Like what you see baby? You couldn't get enough the other day." Changbin teased you as he thought back on the morning you'd seen him in nothing but a towel, you whined at him before pushing him to lay down on the bed.

"Can you blame me? Look at you." You purred as you bit down on his bottom lip dragging it down as you then began to kiss down his neck, leaving a small mark as your lips travelled. Kissing down every inch of his body until you got to his boxers. Despite him still having his underwear on you could already tell how large he was from the tent in his boxers. Your mouth watered as you looked up at him, taking your hand and palming him through the thin black fabric. His lips parted to let out a low grunt as his head rolled back against the pillows of his bed, no one except for him had done this in such a long time he'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

"Oh shit." He whispered breathlessly as you continued to palm him slowly not knowing if he wanted it faster or not since you'd never discussed this before. Biting down on your lip your eyes were fixated on his erection, you pulled down his boxers and bit down on your lip you watched as his cock sprang up to his lower abdomen.

"Y-You don't have to-" Changbin was cut off when he let out a loud moan as you took the head of his cock into your mouth, swirling your tongue around the head while you looked up at him. His head was rolled back against the pillows with his eyes screwed shut, he was in ecstasy with every small kitten licks you were giving to him. Taking in some air you took all of his cock until he filled your mouth and hit the back of your throat. Scrunched your eyes shut you continued to bob your head around him, moaning whenever he would hit the back of your throat.

"Fuck Y/n. You're doing s-so good, oh fuck!" He grunted as he bucked up into the back of your throat. You hummed around him as he pulled your hair out of your face, staring at you to make sure this was okay.

"F-Feels so fucking good." He moaned out as he began fucking into your throat, his cock pushing in and out periodically making you gag around him but you did your best to keep your gags to a minimum wanting to please him. His grip on the back of your head tightened as he continued before letting go and letting you catch your breath, you pulled off and began pumping him.

"Look at you," He moaned out sitting up slowly as he ran his thumb over your bottom lip making you suck the string of saliva and precum from it.

"So fucking hot." He grunted out as you stared up at him, taking him back into your mouth and all the way to the back of your throat until you gagged again.

"Ugh shit," He moaned out as you began bobbing your head up and down around him, he could feel the smirk on your lips as you continued to take him into your mouth. You moaned out around him as you reached down to rub yourself through your panties, you hadn't realised just how wet you were getting from the ordeal.

"Do you want some attention now baby?" He cooed looking down at you as he removed his cock from your throat. You looked up at him with parted lips, nodding slowly. Changbin chuckled bending down to pick you up and lay you on the bed,

"Look at you," He whispered to you as he slowly pulled down the black lace panties yo were wearing and watch your arousal slowly stick to them. He chuckled darkly before kissing each of your thighs. Shyly you pressed your thighs together trying to hide from him but he spread them apart, kissing up to your core.

"You're beautiful, you don't need to hide." He promised you as he bit down softly on the fleshy part of your outer labia humming against your skin as you moaned.

"I've not even started yet," He chuckled before plunging his tongue between your folds, lapping over your clit as you bucked up against his mouth. Crying out his name as you screwed your eyes shut. Changbin chuckled against your core amused by the sounds you were letting out.

"You sound so good." He whispered to you as he continued pushing his tongue in and out of you, sucking on your clit whenever he wanted to. He laid your legs over his shoulders, pulling you to the edge of the bed to have better access to you.

"C-Changbin!" You gripped onto his black locks pushing him deeper into you as you began to feel dizzy from the feeling of him pleasuring you. Your toes were starting to cur as you felt your orgasm getting closer and closer with each flick of his tongue. Your mind was starting to go blank as he continued to fuck his tongue into you.

"C-Close." You whimpered as you looked down at him not knowing if he wanted you to cum on his tongue or not but the small pull on your waist as he stared into your eyes gave you all the confirmation you needed. He gripped onto your hips with one hand before pushing two fingers into you and began pumping them in and out of you. You screamed out as his name as your walls clenched around his digits tipping you closer to the edge.

"Fuck! C-Changbin please," You whimpered as you began to cry out his name, he continued with his thrusting fingers and he hummed against your core.

"F-Fuck!" You cried out as your cunt began to spasm out of control, clenching and unclenching around his fingers as your orgasm ripped through you. You were letting out loud desperate moans of his name as you bucked up into his mouth cumming on his fingers and tongue.

"Good girl," He whispered as he pulled his fingers from you, licking them clean as he kissed back up to your lips. Making out with you on the bed as he ground his hips down against your core, you wrapped your legs around his waist as you kissed him back.

"N-Need you," You whispered to him as you began pumping him in your hand between his legs, he looked at you nervously as reality began to set in. He had no condoms in the house since he'd not had any need for them the last couple of years.

"I-I'm on the pill and I'm clean," You whispered to him as though you could read his brain.

"M-Me too...N-Not that I'm on the pill that I'm clean-" You cut him off by kissing him again and giggling softly at how stuttery he was for someone who had just been eating you out like it was his last meal.

"Shh," You whispered to him as you began to line the head of his cock up with your entrance, running the tip over your core as you moaned out. He groaned out when he got himself wet with your juices,

"S-So fucking wet for me," He smirked going back to his previous attitude around you he continued to tease himself and you as he ran his cock over your opening.  Pushing his hips forward until he sunk all the way into you making you cry out in pleasure and tilt your head back. Every inch of him was filling you up, you could feel him at your hilt.

Once he knew you were adjusted to his size he began to slowly push in and out of you, holding onto your hips as he made out with you lovingly.

"Mmm f-fuck," You cried out as your eyes screwed shut. His hips began to pick up speed as you dug your nails into his back.

"Y-You can go faster," Panted as you pulled away from the kiss, biting down on his neck urging him to snap his hips in and out of you. He grunted lowly as he positioned his hands either side of your head giving you the full view of the arms you'd dreamt over. His cock felt incredible inside of you, slamming in and out as he continued to piston his hips vigorously. You felt complete there with him, with his cock filling you up and every moan of your name that fell from his lips.

"I-I've been dreaming of this since the day you came here," He admitted as he continued to thrust into you, kissing down your neck as he held dug his hands into the pillows.

"M-Me too," You whimpered back to him tilting your head so he could have better access to your neck.

You were squirming and crying underneath him with every thrust, your heels digging into his ass as you tried to get him deeper inside of you as if it was even possible. It already felt as though he was rearranging your guts, you knew it wouldn't be long until you were cumming again.

"So fucking good." You mewled out as you looked at him, stuttering out the words as you lost the ability to speak the pleasure inside of you making your brain go numb. Changbin smirked as he began to fuck into you harder, moving his hands to hold your hips down to give him more leverage. Gripping onto your skin as he slammed into you, your screams filled the air with the sounds of your skin slapping together and wetness.

"Changbin!" You screamed out, gripping onto his huge biceps as he continued to fuck into you. Only getting encouraged from your moans, he looked into your eyes and chuckled. He could see how close you were getting,

"Close?" He questioned as he continued to slam into you, leaning down to kiss you sweetly, you nodded at him and grunted into your neck when he felt you clench around him.

"Cum for me," He whispered as he began to slam into you once again. Causing you both to cry out as your walls contracted around him. The walls of your cunt squeezed around him tightly as you felt your orgasm rip through you, Changbin moaned out loudly as he continued to fuck you through it.

You moaned out again when you felt him twitch inside of you pushing himself into place as he came into you, holding onto your hips as you kiss his cheeks and nose.

"S-Shit," You both breathed out heavily as he pulled out of you and laid down beside you on the bed both of you panting as you began to giggle softly turning your head to look at him.

"I-If it wasn't obvious before...I like you a lot." You giggled at him and he moaned out at the cheesiness of it.

"I like you too," He whispered as he linked your hands together on the bed, bringing your hand up to his lips as he gently laid a small kiss on it.

Changbin fed you strawberries as you laid on the sofa, you were dressed in one of his flannel shirts while he wore some shorts around the house.

"Open," You parted your lips waiting for the fruit and he smiled bending down to kiss your lips gently when he placed the fruit into your mouth you made sure to suck on his fingers and smirk up at him.

"What?" You giggled innocently and he shook his head,

"The real question is, are you ready?" You frowned at what he meant,

"Ready for what?" He began leaning down to you and kissed your lips, running his hands between your thighs and chuckling.

"Round 2." He chuckled evilly as he pulled you into a deep kiss, discarding the strawberries onto the table as he pulled you up to sit on his lap.

Humming to yourself as you rolled over you expected to find Changbin laying in the sheets with you but you were met by a cold empty bed, the sheets were cold so he'd clearly been out of bed for some time. You let out a whine as you thought about the night before, gripping onto the sheets around your body as the memories came flooding back to you. Round 1,2...3..4..eventually ending at 8 when Changbin couldn't keep going on or keep up but now the bed was empty you were confused as to where he could be. There was no note by the nightstand and his clothes were gone so you just assumed he'd gone back to working out front so you decided to surprise him. You slipped out of the sheets and walked over to the shirt of his you'd been wearing the night before and slipped into it, along with some panties and a pair of your short heading for the stairs. If he was outside working you would just take him a morning cup of tea and greet him with a small kiss, nothing seemed more romantic than that right now. Apart from maybe having Changbin back in bed where he could hold you for longer, you already missed his touch and longed for him to have his arms around you again. 

"Morning, I made you a cup of tea..." You said to Changbin as you walked into the garage, he was covered in light blue paint, oil and sweat so he'd clearly been out here longer than you had originally thought. He was washing his hands on a towel when he came to face you, looking down at the towel instead of up at you.

"Why are you covered in paint?" You giggled as you handed him the warm mug of tea, taking in the appearance of his - what you assumed was originally a nice white tank top but now stained blue and black. He took the mug without looking at you and placed it down onto the table. He hadn't looked at you once which was starting to make you worry. 

"I erm...I finished the car." He mumbled to you, walking in the direction of the garage doors. You frowned wondering which car he was talking about when you noticed the blue colour that he was covered in matched the same colour as your car but, you hadn't asked him for a paint job.  

"Mine?" Your voice cracked as you questioned him. He began walking out of the garage nodding his head at you while he rooted through his pockets for something. You could hear all of the keys jingling around inside of there so he was probably looking for yours.

"I woke up at 2 am and I couldn't sleep so I just came and finished it. You can leave whenever you want." His voice was coming out cold as he spoke. You stared down at the floor he walked out without even so much as a glance at you, your heart was thumping against your chest. 

Had the previous night's events meant nothing to him or had they completely slipped his mind? You felt the pit in your stomach begin to grow as you thought about him wanting to leave even after the night before. He told you he liked you, you spent the night together, kissing hugging, making love and talking with one another until you finally fell asleep with your head on his chest. It had been all you could think about since the moment you woke up and now that he was just brushing it under the carpet as though it happened all of the time for him. You worried if that was all it was to him, nothing but a one-night stand for him to shake off and leave. You hoped it wasn't but the ground felt as though it was pulling you into it with each passing second he had his back to you without mentioning the night. 

"Do you want me to leave?" Your voice came out hoarse as you did your best not to cry right in front of him, the one thing you didn't want to do was influence his decision on letting you stay by your emotions. Changbin stared forward at your freshly painted car that was waiting for you to go of course he didn't want you to go. He wanted you to stay right here in his arms for as long as humanly possible but the thought of making you stay when you had so many plans to finish your road trip tore him apart. He didn't want to be the one to cut your dream short, he'd seen how happy and excited you were about the road trip, he wasn't going to be the one to ruin that.

"You have things to do. I have things to do." He said emotionlessly as he turned around to see you standing there in his shirt. His heart lept up at the sight of you in his clothes but then he noticed the tears welling up in your eyes as they began to turn red. 

"R-Right...Yeah." You stuttered out blinking the tears away as you stared down at the ground, brushing your face off with your hands. He came closer to you to give you the keys to your car you snatched them from him rather quickly so you wouldn't have to look at him any longer, 

"I'll pay you...T-Then grab my stuff." You mumbled to him as you felt your heart begin to ache with each passing moment he stared at you blankly. He pushed down the guilt he was feeling towards you all of the emotions he was feeling towards you and nodded his head. 

"Sure. I'll write up the receipts for everything. The paint job was free." He grumbled as he walked past you without batting an eyelid, only confirming to you that last night had meant nothing to him. Sighing to yourself you began walking back to the house as quickly as you could not turning to look at him. Changing out of his shirt and putting on your own clothes. 

Changbin stared down at his hands as he wrote down on the pieces of paper you would need for your insurance company, he couldn't help but feel awful for what he was doing to you but you deserved better than this. Better than him. He closed up the garage doors since it was closed for the day.

Felix: Get Y/n to come into the town when you've finished her car, I have cookies for her and you. It'll let her put the car to good use. Sighing to himself he locked his phone and looked over his shoulder, you were storming over to your car with tears gushing down your face. He already felt terrible for everything he was doing but he knew if he stopped you from leaving he would feel even worse. There was nothing worse on this planet than having your heart broken or your dreams cut short. Changbin had no idea that he was doing both of those with one swift action.

"Felix said he wants you to stop by town, he has some snacks," Changbin said as he brought over your receipt, you didn't say anything as you signed your details onto the form scribbling a signature along the bottom line and giving the pad back to him. Changbin frowned as he noticed it was yours and not some random insurance company that you were with. 

"What?" You questioned looking at the expression on his face as you shut the hood of your car, taking the keys round to the driver's side door and opening it.

"Insurance companies pay for repairs, not people..." He whispered as he looked from the papers and up to your face. 

"Not on mine. The car is too old." Your replies were coming out short and abrupt, Changbin didn't blame you since he was the reason you were upset in the first place. 

"So where are you going next on your road trip?" He was doing his best to come across pleasant but you pulled you shook your head at him. 

"Into town. Home. Can't afford the trip anymore and it seems like nothing is keeping me in Busan." You pushed yourself into the car avoiding eye contact with Changbin as you started up the engine resisting the temptation to tell him how great she sounded now. Changbin's heart fell into the pit of his stomach as he realised that you were just going to go home. Somewhere you had expressed multiple times that you didn't like and didn't want to go back to. 

"Can I go now? Is the paperwork okay?" You questioned as you stared at him, he nodded slowly and you began backing out of the drive, ignoring the urge inside of you to look at him before leaving. 

Changbin:: I fucked up. Make her come back, tell her she forgot something! Tell her to come back! Do something. Anything. You guys are good at lying! Changbin sent the text to the huge group chat that all of the boys were in and he panicked as he began to think of losing you forever. He didn't have a way of contacting you, your number wasn't on any of the paperwork just your name. He figured you would finish your road trip and move on but now that he knew you were just going to go back home he began to feel his heartbreak.

Changbin: Seriously this isn't a drill guys I need you to make her stay!!! He hit send followed by five of the siren emojis to show that this was an emergency and that they needed him t help fix this as soon as possible but none of them was replying to the messages. Just reading them without a word in response to him. 

Hyunjin was the first to see, followed by Felix and Chan who were no doubt together at the markets which meant they could do something to help out. Fear began to set in as Changbin wondered if he could race into town after you and talk to you himself but he needed to stay here, in case with some kind of miracle the boys convinced you to come back.

Two hours later Changbin was sitting in his living still waiting for a response from one of the boys when his phone finally began to ping his text notification sound. He hadn't been able to sit still since the moment you left the drive. He'd been pacing back and forth having arguments in his own head about how he should have just told you to stay in the first place, there was no need for him to push you away when all of the signs pointed to you wanting to stay in the first place.

Felix: She won't stay. Says she's heading into Seoul for a few hours to sightsee? Maybe you can catch her? That was all Changbin needed just a chance, he could get to Seoul within four hours and make this all up to you. Fix everything and prove to you that this wasn't just a one night stand to him that the whole thing had meant more to him that he was letting on. Racing over to the door he grabbed the keys for his truck and began to rush out of the door, dropping the keys five times before he finally got into the truck and started it up. He would get to Seoul in four hours or less even if it resulted in some kind of speeding ticket he didn't care. All he cared about was seeing you one last time even if you yelled at him or cried at him for what he was doing he wanted to see you. Convince you to stay in Busan, with him...for as long as you wanted to.

Dropping the keys onto the table Changbin wanted to scream out in frustration. He'd gone into the city to try and find you but it was impossible since he didn't have your number and you hadn't told the boys the exact places you were going to go. He'd gone to every possible tourist place he could think of but you were nowhere to be seen so he headed home in defeat. Ringing the boys to try and get answers but none of the boys were replying or calling him back. 

"Why the long face?" Changbin's heart jumped as he heard your voice come out of nowhere, you were standing in the kitchen pouring boiling water into eight different cups that were in front of you. He had been so lost in his own mind he hadn't even seen you walking around the house with the rest of the boys, all of them doing their own jobs in the kitchen and living room. As you poured out the water you turned to look at Felix,

"Lix can you get another mug?" You called out behind you but Changbin was just staring at you with wide eyes, trying to figure out if this was some kind of dream he was having but he didn't remember falling asleep. Maybe that he'd crashed on the way home and this was some kind of weird coma dream he was having about you. 

"Jesus, you look like you've seen a ghost mate." Chan sarcastically called out as he walked into the house from the back garden looking around for some oil and the plate of meat Jisung was supposed to be prepared. 

"What are you all doing here?" Changbin didn't mean for it to come out cold but he was confused as to what was going on around him, all of the boys were just chilling in the house. He stared at them all but his eyes went straight back to you as you looked up at him.

"I invited them over, I figured we could have a barbeque together. Chan brought his own, insisting it was better than the rust bucket you have sitting out there-" You mentioned as you walked over to Changbin, handing him the mug of tea as you smiled up at him.

"I agree by the way, why did you let it get so rusty?" You groaned at the thought of cooking food on something like that but Changbin stared at you as he shook his head, ignoring your question. 

"I thought you left." He whispered confusingly, discarding the mug onto the table beside him and cupping your face in his hands as though you were the only ones in the room together. He ran his thumbs under your eyes and licked his lips as he resisted the temptation to kiss you.

"I did, I went to the markets and Felix showed me your many...many...many texts," You whispered to him putting an emphasis on 'many' since it hadn't just been two that Changbin sent to them all. When the boys began reading and not replying to him he began writing out essays about how he felt about you. Leaving out no details about why he wanted you to stay and how he needed you to come back to him. 

"But I wanted to get back at you for making me feel bad...So I made them tell you I was out in the city while we came back here for this." You gestured around you as you looked around the boys who were all staring at you both waiting to see what would happen next. Changbin shook his head at you knowing he deserved a lot worse than just going into the city on a pointless goose chase. 

"I don't deserve you," He whispered as he looked down into your eyes, leaning forward to kiss you. His eyes fluttered shut along with yours as your lips were about to touch when Jeongin cleared his throat. Standing beside you as he held out a bowl of potato chips for you to take some from, tapping the sides of the glass dish as he waited patiently.

"Kind of...Having a moment here-" Changbin nodded between you both but you grabbed the chips and smiled up at him innocently, 

"I have to go and help cook. Go and change, you smell like oil and sweat." Tapping his chest playfully you headed out to the back yard where Chan was waiting for you to start grilling some meat with him. Felix smirked at Changbin who was staring off after you, only now did he realise you were back in the shirt from that morning. You had it tied around your midway as you paired it with some high waisted shorts, you looked amazing in anything but so much better in his clothes. 

"I like her, she makes you work for what you want." Felix chuckled as he passed Changbin to head towards the back yard turning back to look at Changbin who was still a little lost on everything happening, 

"She's right though, you stink." He called out right before going out of the door and greeting Chan and you with a hug. 

Later that night when the boys were all passed out asleep in their spots on the sofa and the floor you were in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes. You wanted them to rest while you did the washing up since most of this had been your idea. Changbin walked up behind you snaking his arms around your waist and putting his head in the crook of your neck. He could feel your pulse began to quick against his lips as he placed a small and innocent kiss on your skin. 

"I'm sorry," It was the first time he had said sorry to you for everything all night. You'd spoken to one another about other things but you never had enough privacy to talk about the one thing that was on his mind the one thing he needed to talk to you about. 

"I never should have pushed you away...It was wrong." He admitted, looking at you in the small mirror above the sink, your eyes met as you smiled softly at him telling him it was fine with your eyes. He placed another kiss on your neck and you bit down on your lip trying to concentrate on the dishes rather than the way his lips were making you feel. 

"I'm here now, aren't I?" You whispered to him as you drained the water from the sink turning around in his arms and wrapping yours around the back of his neck. He ignored the water trickling down the back of his shirt as he stared into your eyes. He had no idea how he was going to make up for what he'd done to you but, he was going to do whatever it took every day for the rest of his life if he had to.

"I never want you to leave again," He mumbled to you as he looked over at the boys, one of them was mumbling in their sleep as they turned over on the bed. Jisung snoring loudly, too loudly as though he was faking it so Changbin looked at you,

"Let's go somewhere we can talk privately." He pulled his arms away from your waist and took your hand into his, leading you up to the bedroom so you could talk without whispering or fear of being listened in on by some of the boys. 

Laying beside him on the bed you let your head lay on his chest listening to the way his heart thumped against his chest as he drew patterns into your skin with his fingers. Neither of you had said anything since coming up the stairs twenty minutes ago, you just laid together in a comfortable silence just listening to one another's breathing. Enjoying the company you gave one another.

"I never would have pushed you away if I'd have known you weren't going to go on your trip...I didn't want to be the reason you stopped your road trip or your dreams..." He broke the silence as he said the same thing he had told the boys over their messages. He knew you already knew all of this but he wanted to tell you face to face. He owed you that. 

"I pushed you away the first time because I was scared of what happened with Flair happening again...That night we spent together meant more to me than I could ever begin to tell you." His heart was beginning to beat faster as he told you everything that had been planning on his mind over the last couple of days. The truth spilling out of his lips like a tap that couldn't be shut off.

"Changbin you don't have to-"

"I want to." He stared down into your eyes as he sat you both up, sitting across from you as he stared back into your eyes. Crossing your legs you looked at him smiling weakly, you were getting tired from the night before and being up all day.

"For the first time in a long time, I've felt myself getting happier...To be honest for the last few days being with you has made me feel like I'm floating on a cloud." You laughed softly at the words he was using and he smiled, your laugh was like music to his ears he would listen to it all day if he could and would do anything to make you laugh. 

"When Flair interrupted that kiss at the market it made me realise just how much I liked you. Before I would drop everything and go running back to her but with you it's different. You've taken over my heart and you're the only one who runs it now." You looked at him, your eyes were starting to tear up as he spoke exactly what was going on in his mind.

"I got scared. I pushed you away but I promise never to do it again if you promise to stay?" You looked at him turning your head to the side as if you were going to challenge him on what he was saying to you. You licked your lips slowly,

"Make me stay." You whispered softly to him challenging him as the corners of your mouth turned up into a smirk, he smirked back at you. Cupping your face in his hands before bringing you into a loving kiss just like the one from the night before, running his thumbs over your face. Sparks came flying from your body as soon as he touched you and your mind went blank, you wrapped your arms around the back of his neck as you rose onto your knees to deepen the kiss with him. Falling down to lay on top of him on the mattress as you both made out, slowly letting one another remove each other's clothes until you were in nothing but your underwear. It was going to be the best new start in a new town you'd ever had, you couldn't wait to spend the rest of your life there with him.

Tagline: @taestannie​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @channiewoo​ @minholuvs​ @lkwonmj​

[babygirl-diaz]

You're Cute Enough to Fuck With Me Tonight (AU)

Going to a club when you’re in your late 30s is not the best way to spend your Saturday nights, but Steve and Natasha insisted, so Sam ended up giving in to the peer pressure. Natasha got them to bypass the queue outside because she apparently knew the owner. The nightclub turned out different from what Sam was expecting. It was an elite club with its own fancy VIP lounge. Natasha got them a VIP booth and the three of them did whiskey shots to celebrate the successful first season of their tv show.

They were talking and laughing and well into their third beer when Natasha said, “Sam, don’t look now, but cokehead over there is eating you up with his eyes.”

“Huh?” Sam asked, and turned around to see who she was talking about when he found a white dude with short dark hair and a face full of facial hair, looking at Sam like he was starving and Sam was a buffet. There was a line of cocaine in front of the guy and he leaned down to snort it before coming up to wave at Sam. Sam ignored him.

“I tell him not to look and what does he do… he looks,” Natasha said sarcastically. “The guy’s hot, though. I think you should go for it.” She leaned back against Steve, who absently stroked her arm.

“The guy looks like trouble to me,” Steve pointed out. “I think you should stay away.”

“Wow, thanks, Dad,” Sam huffed.

“I love this song!” Natasha announced when the strings of a familiar song played. Before Sam could say anything, he was being pulled onto the dance floor by his friends despite his protests. “Call Me By Your Name, really?” Sam asks

“What? It’s a nice song!” Steve said, almost offended.

“You’re so whipped!” Sam laughed and slapped him on the back.

He moved his hips and ass along with the music and let out a frustrated groan when Natasha and Steve started grinding up against each other and got lost in one another. Sam knew this would happen. He’d end up as the third wheel and that’s why he wasn’t keen on coming tonight.

Sam lets out a surprised sound when he felt hands on his waist. Whoever had their hands on him spun him around, and Sam immediately came face to face with a pair of bright blue eyes, rimmed red. It was that cokehead from earlier. Sam wanted to pull away but got hypnotized by the look the guy was giving him.

The guy leaned in close to Sam’s ear and sang completely out of tune. “Romantic talkin'? You don't even have to try. You're cute enough to fuck with me tonight.” His voice was rough and despite the bad singing, it ran a shiver down Sam’s spine.

“I’m Bucky,” the guy introduced himself and pulled Sam even closer to move their hips together. “And you’re hot.” His voice was slightly slurred.

“Well, lucky for me, my name is Sam and not Hot.” Sam wrapped his arms around the guy’s neck and pressed their chests together.

“Sam…” Bucky said as if testing out his name. “Beautiful name for a beautiful guy.”

“You’re just saying that to get into my pants,” Sam smirked.

“Is it working?” Bucky pouted

“Nah, you gotta try harder.”

“God, you’re so hot,” Bucky said into Sam’s ear and took his earlobe between his teeth and pulled on it, making Sam moan. “I want you so bad,” he continued to say and squeezed Sam’s ass. Maybe the alcohol made him do it, but Sam surged forward and kissed him. He darted out his tongue and licked Bucky’s upper lip before taking it between his own lips. He then tilted his head to the side and kissed the edge of Bucky’s lips. Bucky opened his mouth and Sam’s tongue slid inside and he let himself explore Bucky’s mouth. The kiss got intense and heated. Sam felt Bucky’s cock press against his and he moaned into Bucky’s mouth, and Bucky swallowed up the sound. The song ended and they pull apart but stay close. “Let’s get out of here,” Sam said over the next song.

“Okay,” said Bucky and took Sam’s hand, leading him out of the club. But when they got outside, a small group gathered around them and asked Sam for autographs and photos. Sam felt himself strain in his jeans and he hoped no one noticed it as he took photos and signed autographs. Once the crowd dispersed, Sam found Bucky giving him a curious look. “You some kinda big shot?” He asked.

“I’m an actor,” Sam replied. “Ever heard of the show Captain America and the Winter Soldier? I’m the Captain America part of it. My friend Steve is the Winter Soldier.”

“I don’t watch tv. Don’t get the time,” Bucky shrugged. “But I get to fuck someone famous. That’s one thing off my bucket list.”

“So that’s why you wanna fuck me?” Sam asked faking offense. “And hey, who said you get to fuck me?”

Bucky got closer to Sam and kissed him again. “Oh, you’re so gonna let me fuck you, doll.” The way Bucky says doll makes Sam shiver and bite his lips.

“You wanna come back to my place?” Sam asked.

“Nah, I can’t wait that long but I know just the place.”

Bucky took Sam’s hand and led him towards the parking garage. Sam raised an eyebrow when they got to Bucky’s vehicle. “You some kinda soccer mom?” He asked looking at the Jeep SUV.

“It’s nondescript. Works well for my line of work,” Bucky shrugged. “Besides, you’re gonna thank me in a bit.”

“Your line of work? Fuck, you’re not a stay-at-home dad, are you? I don’t do married men.”

Bucky threw his head back and laughed as he got into the SUV. Sam followed him. “I am not a stay-at-home dad or married,” Bucky replied.

Bucky was on him, kissing him, the second they got in.

Sam pulled away briefly to ask, “What do you do then?”

Bucky looked him right in the eyes. The red rim around his eyes was gone and his eyes turned dark as he replied. “I’m an assassin. I was at the club to kill one of my targets.”

Sam blinked at him before he burst out laughing. “Wow, I’m the actor, but you’re the one with the vivid imagination.”

A smirked twitched along Bucky’s lips. “What can I say? I have a boring ass job. So I’m just trying to make myself sound interesting.”

“So what do you actually do?” Sam asked. “No. Wait. Lemme guess.”

“Be my guest.”

Sam’s eyes trailed down Bucky’s body. “You’re an investment banker.”

Bucky’s eyebrow shot up at that. “So damn close… I’m a stockbroker. How did you--”

“I’m just that good.” Sam winked at him. But then a smile broke across his face and he shook his head. “I saw you with those Wall Street folks earlier. Wasn’t that hard to figure out what you did for a living.”

Bucky leaned in close and kissed Sam once again. “So smart,” he said in between the kisses. “Just the way I like ‘em. Get in the backseat.”

Sam didn’t need to be told twice. He made his way onto the backseat and took off his clothes. He tossed them onto the front seat and felt his cheeks heat when he noticed the way Bucky was looking at him. Bucky’s blue eyes dilated, and he licked his lips while once again staring at Sam like he was a buffet. Bucky pulled out a condom and single-use lube from his wallet and Sam raised an eyebrow at him. “You were waiting to get lucky tonight, weren’t you?”

“I just like being prepared,” Bucky replied as he got into the backseat as well. He took off his own clothes and threw them onto the driver’s seat and pulled Sam closer to ravish his lips.

Bucky was right. Sam was thankful for the fact that the vehicle was an SUV. They had enough space to fuck in the back.

When they finished, it left Sam breathless and sore, but in a good way. Bucky drove him home, and the two cuddled up naked on Sam’s bed.

“Didn’t think you’d be a cuddler…” Sam commented.

“Oh, I love to cuddle,” Bucky replied, and tightened his grip around Sam’s middle.

Sam made his head more comfortable on Bucky’s chest and kissed his pecs. “You’re gorgeous, you know that.”

“So I’ve been told,” Bucky chuckled.

Sam frowned at that. “How many guys do you pick up at the club?”

“Is that jealousy I hear in your voice?” Bucky teased and kissed the top of Sam’s head. “If it’s any consolation, you’re the best I’ve ever had.”

“You’re just saying that cause I let you fuck me,” Sam huffed.

Bucky got on top of Sam and pressed their lips together again. “Nope, I’m only saying that so that you’d let me fuck you again.” His hand moved down on the sheets and groped Sam’s ass, making him gasp.

“You asshole,” Sam said, with no heat behind his words. “Lube and condoms are in the side drawer.”

“How many guys do you bring around here?” Bucky asked, narrowing his eyes.

Sam smirked at that. “If it’s any consolation, you’re the best I’ve ever had.”

***

Sam woke up the next morning to a cold and lonely bed. Bucky had snuck out during the night without even saying goodbye. That made Sam hurt a little. Just a little. Huffing, Sam threw the sheets over himself and fell back asleep. He didn’t know how long he slept, but the ringing of his doorbell woke him up. Sam wanted to ignore it and go back to sleep, but the person on the other end of the door was relentless.

Groaning, Sam got out of the bed and put on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt before making his way to the door. He threw it open and found Natasha and Steve standing there, looking equally worried.

“Oh thank god,” Steve pushed past Natasha and hugged Sam tightly.

The guy was built like a tank, and Sam struggled in his embrace. “Let me go! You’re crushing me!” Sam complained and pulled away from his friend to catch a breath. “What is wrong with you, man?”

“You disappeared last night! And then this morning there was news that someone at the club died and you wouldn’t answer your phone… we were scared!”

“What?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, your leering cokehead friend, one of his friends OD’d at the club last night.”

“Shit,” Sam hissed.

I’m an assassin. I was at the club to kill one of my targets. Bucky’s words rang in his ears and for a moment, Sam entertained the thought that maybe Bucky wasn’t joking after all. But he shook his head and got rid of the thought as soon as it entered his mind. There was no way Bucky was responsible for some guy overdosing. Sam was being ridiculous.

“Where did you go last night?” Natasha asked, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

“The leering cokehead… I brought him home,” Sam replied.

“What?!” Steve screeched. “Why would you do that?”

Both Natasha and Sam gave him an exasperated look, and he threw his hands up.

“So how was he?” Natasha asked.

“The best I’ve ever had,” Sam replied.

[junko-and-riri-domain]

₊·˚♤˚· inconvenient | lhs ˚₊·˚♤˚·

↬ part of: 500 followers event <33 ↬ pairing: lee heeseung x reader ↬ genre: fluff | slight angst (happy ending dw) | idol!au  ↬ warnings: slight angst in that reader feels as if hee doesn’t have enough time for them bc of hee’s busy schedule and heeseung calls reader’s efforts inconvenient w/o realizing the weight of his words :( ↬ w/c: 1.4k ↬ requested by: anon, no specific name

As your eyes settled on the screen of your phone, reading Heeseung’s text message, you couldn’t help but scoff at it. You looked out the window of the cafe you were supposed to meet your boyfriend for your lunch date but he sent a text, canceling for what felt like the hundredth time this month. You could feel him slipping away from you with the other half of the bed empty almost every night, your dates constantly canceled, and your texts going unread. You decided not to respond to Heeseung, after all, what was the point? As you finished the remainder of your drink, you decided that you were going to enjoy the day to yourself regardless of whether or not Heeseung was going to be with you.

And that’s exactly what you did.

You explored the city and took your own pictures, found a new favorite trail to walk on, and bought yourself a new bag. Despite all the texts and calls from Heeseung, you ignored them all to give him a little taste of his own medicine. When you got home, you were more surprised than anything to see Heeseung waiting for you.

“Where the hell have you been?” he asked. You looked at him, noticing how his eyes narrowed in on you and his arms crossed over his chest which caused his biceps to bulge out.

“Oh, so you care about me?”

“Of course I care, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well you canceled for the hundredth time today, I decided to have fun by myself.” His eyes cast to the floor, unable to look at you. You heard him let out a sigh as he muttered,

“I’m sorry.” You knew that when Heeseung became an idol, he’d have a busy schedule. You supported his dreams, had been there from the start but what good was your efforts when right now it felt as if you weren’t even in a relationship? Sure, Heeseung was sorry but you had heard the words thousands of times that you felt nothing anymore.

“How many times am I supposed to forgive you?” you asked, voice barely above a whisper.

“Babe, I’ve just been busy. You know how important promotion season is, I just don’t have the time for things like I used to.”

“I know that but you can’t even go on one damn date the entire month?”

“We spend all night practicing for performances that I’m better off spending the night at Jay or Jake’s instead of coming home. With the events we have along with the dates you wanna go on and your constant texts, it’s just inconvenient.”

“Inconvenient?” It was with Heeseung’s words that you realized, you had had enough. If your constant attempts to keep the relationship, well, a relationship turned out to be inconvenient to Heeseung then there was no point to it. If all the time you spent checking up on him turned out to be inconvenient then you had no reason to put in any effort anymore. You knew that work and his dreams were important but so were you.

“I didn’t mean it like that, there are things that I need to do and responsibilities I need to focus on-”

“Am I not important to you anymore?” As your ears were met with silence you felt your breathing caught up in your throat. Waiting for Heeseung to answer only to be met with no reply, through his hesitance you found your answer.

“Baby, I-”

“Forget I asked.” You walked past him, heading into your room and in the process shoving his shoulder. As the door slammed and you flopped onto the bed you waited. Waited for Heeseung to knock on the door, waited for him to say something, anything, but waiting only led to self-given heartbreak. You heard the opening of a door ringing throughout your ears but it wasn’t the door you had hoped. After hearing the key, you came to a realization. Heeseung decided to walk out.

Following the next few days, you and Heeseung entered a stage of your relationship you weren’t quite sure what to label as. It wasn’t that you broke up per se, but you weren’t exactly together either. Sure, you exchanged a few messages here and there but you could feel Heeseung slipping away or maybe it was you slipping away, you weren’t quite sure. Throughout the week, you found yourself unable to sleep. But one Friday night, that inability to sleep turned into a 3 am movie marathon spent on the living room couch curled up under your blankets and one of Heeseung’s shirts. You heard the front door open, glanced over to see the light turn on and Heeseung taking off his shoes.

“You’re up?” he asked, slight worry filling his tone.

“Couldn’t sleep,” was all you could bring yourself to say.

“Should I make us some ramen?” he offered.

“Yeah, if you want.” You stayed in the living room while Heeseung made his way to the kitchen. You didn’t know what to say, how were you even supposed to start? With your eyes settled on the tv, you entered a sort of daze where your head felt heavy and clouded with thoughts but your throat was unable to get any words out. It wasn’t until Heeseung was in front of you, blocking the tv that you drifted back to reality. You let out a small “thank you,” as the warmth of the bowl of ramen met your palms, couldn’t hold back your small smile as you saw that Heeseung had given you one and a half soft boiled eggs. When the both of you finished eating, you found yourself almost scared to talk to Heeseung about what went on that night. Your relationship was either going to continue, or it was going to end. As Heeseung reached towards the coffee table, about to take the bowls to the kitchen, your hand reached out to hold his arm, stopping him.

“Stay,” you whispered. Heeseung only nodded, settling himself so that he was laying on the couch with you. Face to face with him, you moved so that your head was laying on his chest. His heartbeat was calming, embrace comfortable, and scent making you feel complete. The next step in your relationship, or its end, whichever it was, you’d find out tomorrow. Closing your eyes, all you could do was wait.

When you woke up, your ears were met with a slight groan and the hold around you tightened. As you lifted your head up, a hard sort of knock was heard paired with an,

“Oww, what the hell?” from Heeseung. You brought up a hand to massage his chin while you felt him kiss the top of your head,

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to be here when I woke up.”

“I, uhh, have something planned for us today. If you’re up for it?” Heeseung seemed kind of nervous as he spoke, avoiding your eyes and rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“You do?”

“A date, as an apology, because I’m sorry.”

“What about work?”

“I told our manager that I was taking today off.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re important to me and I hate that it’s taken so damn long for me to show it to you.”

While you got ready for whatever it was Heeseung had planned, he was making breakfast. After breakfast, he brought you to a festival you didn’t even know was going on. While you walked past the stalls set up, occasionally stopping to look at something that caught your eye, Heeseung’s hand stayed intertwine with yours. You had missed it, being with Heeseung, and feeling loved by him. When lunchtime came around, you ended at the park. There were both couples and families with a towel, eating food they had packed, but all of a sudden, Heeseung was leading you to a towel with a picnic basket.

“This is our spot,” he said. Your eyes went wide,

“You set this up?”

“Mhm. I know how much you love picnics and I figured… let’s go on one.” You sat down, unable to hold back your smile as Heeseung sat next to you. You really did love picnics, but more so with Heeseung. After eating, you laid down and looked up at sky feeling as if the world was so vast and wide. You found yourself looking at Heeseung,

“Y’know, keeping my head on the ground is really inconvenient right now.” Heeseung’s eyes filled with alarm,

“I’m sorry, I never should’ve said that.”

“It’s ok,” you said. And you meant it. “It’d be less inconvenient if I could use your arm as a pillow though.” As Heeseung’s arm extended, you rested your head on it while you wrapped an arm around his chest. Waiting often led to self-given heartbreak, but sometimes, it was worth it.

❦ written by riri ( @enhykkul ) | main blog masterlist | 500 followers masterlist 

tagging: @bloom-bloom-pow | @markleepooh​ | @sunshineshouchan​ (permanent taglist open if anyone wants to be on it !!)

[featherwriterweather]

A dead girl walking

AU: I got so inspired by the song from the Heathers episode ‘A dead girl walking’ so I named this imagine after it.

Alert: Smut/badass girl

It was usual Friday night. I was at the Wyrm drinking shots of our favorite Tequilla with Tony. The booze was slowly taking control of me. Behind us the boys were playing the usual pool game. Sweet pea was winning, as usual. That made him scream on top of his lungs “Yeah”

We were getting annoyed with them. The non stop cockiness was getting exessive by the time of the third beer when Fangs and Sweet pea decided to bump into each other chests for yet another win over some other Serpents, who were older and a little more drunk than them.

“Are they for real? This is starting to really piss me off” I told Tony. She smiled at me behind the bar, pouring us another shots of Tequilla. We raised our glasses and locked them down.

“You know, maybe you need to do something about it. We both know you are sassy biotch. Go there and show them how you play and make them shut it.” she said poiting at the boys’ pool table with her head.

“You know what, Tony?! You are right! I’ll show them their places. It’s been something I really want to do so they can shut it once and for all.” I locked down yet another shot and went to the table. “So, you think you are great men, ha?”

“How much did you have to drink, northie?” Sweet pea said puffing his chest as a male peacock ready to fight for territory.

“Do want me to show you how a “northsider” can win this stupid game?” I stepped a little closer with my hands on my hips.

“Alright! But when you lose, don’t go crying in the bathroom. Take a stick, let’s see what you got! “ He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“I would but I guess the only free one is up your ass!” I was so proud of myself of this line, especially when Tony came behind me laughing.

“You seem to have some serious competition here, Pea!” Tony told him.

“Fine by me! That’s a game of two. When I win, though, you will go up there and do a dance for us! Or you are going to chicken out now?” I am pretty sure he tried to scare me off by saying this, but that would never scare me. Actually, exactly the opposite. It only made me more eager to kick his ass.

“Good! But when I actually win over your pathetic game, you will take your ass up there boy, you will strip down and dance for all of the other Serpents.” I played him with some of his very own tricks.

“If you want to see me naked that much, I can take you to the restroom right now and show you some moves.” He pulled one of his side smiles.

“Are you sure there is something for me to see in there, boy?” I pointed to his dick with my finger as I looked him head to toe.

“ Just hit the balls!” He shoved the stick in my hand.

“It will hurt if I actully do it but okay” I laughed as I took the stick and hit the balls on the pool table making them go in all directions and some of them went inside the pockets. “It’s a little too crowded around this table boys. Move a little, cause I am getting hot.” I said as I gestured to Fangs and the older Serpent they played with to move back. I took my jacket leaving myself in tight off the shoulder shirt with deep cleavage. I aimed at another ball and bent down to hit it and send it directly to the pocket. Actually, my aim was not the ball but to distract Sweet pea so much that he wouldn’t be able to hit a ball straight.

For my misfortune, my ball skipped the pocket. He laughed and took his place aiming at the balls with his stick. I stood opposite him and pressed my hands on the table so I could bend down “casually” and clearly distract him. It didn’t really work. He was hitting the balls one after another until there was almost nothing left on the table.

“Are you fucking kidding me? How the hell did you do that?” I asked with my hand crossed in front of my chest making my boobs a little more squished. He came up to me, licked his lips, winked at me and tilted his head towards the pole where I had to do the dance.

“Brace yourself, babygirl. One more ball is left until I win that game and you go there and show me what you got.” he said aiming at the ball and shamelessly missing the pocket. “Dammit!” 

“Ha-ha! I guess it’s now or never. If I get this ball inside the pocket, you will show me what you got, babyboy.” I winked at him and flipped my hair back as I went and aimed at the last ball standing. With one swift and well counted hit, I sent it into the right corner pocked. I stood up, leaning on the stick, looking proud as ever when I told him “Now,go there and undress for me.”

“I always knew you want to see me naked, but if I go there and do the dance, that means you don’t get to touch any of the body part you see.” He laughed at me.

“Well, I guess I will be okay with that, but I really want to see how you dance and take off piece by piece.” I told him. Everyone around us who was watching our game, was rolling on the floor of laughter. “I’ll go and refresh a little so I can give you time to choose a song and prepare to go up there and wow us”

I went to the toilet and went straight to the mirror to take a look at myself. Seconds after that I heard the door open, close and then lock. I looked towards it and saw Sweet pea leaning on it, smirking at me.

“So, you want to see me dance and strip. Why don’t we take it to somewhere private where you can actully give me money for it.” he said

“I’d love that but unfortunately it seems there is nowhere to put those money in as it seems awfully small in there.” I said pointing to his dick again.

He just laughed and came towards me. He took me by the hand and pulled me into him slapping playfully my bum. “I think you had a couple more beers than you had to” I said. But, to be honest, I didn’t really fight back what he was pushing towards. 

“Don’t act like you don’t want it, too” he whispered to me as he pushed me back against the sink. I looked at his eyes and bit my lower lip. I could feel how hard he was because he was so pressed to my body. I took a hold of his shirt and pulled him so his lips met mine. 

His hands started travelling on my body making stops at the buttons of my jeans. He opened them and pushed his hand inside making me gasp at the sudden sensation of his warm hand touching me over my lacy underwear. He smiled in his kisses which were leaving wet marks on my neck as he was enjoying the sounds of my moans. His fingers were like experienced explorers, making me wet by the minute. I was biting my lip so hard I could almost feel the blood on it. My hands were exploring his bare chest under his shirt. His erection was growing harder and harder making me want him more and more. I started undoing his belt and the buttons of his jeans. He made sure to help me and himself as he pulled down my jeans and underwear and then his. I turned myself to face the mirror and he pushed my legs open by kicking my right leg gently to the side. We did not speak at all. Not one word was said. He bit his full lips and entered me in one motion. I let out a loud moan which made him smile. 

His trust were deep and fast. I was holding the sink tightly giving in the sensations of him filling me to the fullest. I wanted to scream and moan and swing my hips. I didn’t let myself scream, though. The fact that we could be heard was driving me crazy and scaring me at the same time. I moved my hips a little extracting a deep voiced moan from him. He was holding me tight. One hand was squeezing my breast while the other was drawing circles over my soft and aroused clit. I was so close to loosing it. I couldn’t contain myself. I could hear how wet I was. Every time he was pulling out, the wet sounds of us were making my head spin like a rollercoaster. I was getting weak in the knees as he continued to pull out and push back in his hard member.

I was sure he was getting closer to his orgasm. He was kissing my neck and biting gently my ear, all the while getting faster and faster with his trust. His hand was squeezing my breast hard which was making my nipples go hard between his fingers. His other hand continued to massage my clit making me throw my head back to his shoulder from pleasure. I was getting close, too. He knew it as I was getting really tight around his dick. I was losing all control as he was moving over my wet spot faster and faster. Soon enough I felt him come inside me which made me follow him right away, shaking with the waves of plasure. He contined to trust in me even though we both came hard. His hand found its way to my neck getly touching it. His trust became slow but still deep. His voice was husky and full of lust as he was moaning in my ear.

“I will pull out now, even though I really don’t want to. I will go to my bike like nothing happened, telling them I have to go because I feel drunk. You will come out after me telling Tony you have to go home for whatever reason. I will wait for you on my bike. You will come out the bar, get behind me on the bike and I will take you to my trailer where I will fuck your brains out. I will go all night. I will eat you out, then fuck you on the table, on the couch, on the bed and in the shower. I will leave marks all over your body and I swear to God, tomorrow, when you wake up, you will pleased as ever. And you will get wet every single time you even see me in school. Copy that!?” he whispered in my ear while his eyes were locked on mine  in the mirror.

I nodded, even though his slow post orgasmic trust were making me go closer to another orgasm and I didn’t want him to stop. But the idea of what will happen in his house based on his words made me so impatient to throw away all the clothes that I couldn’t breath properly. He kissed me hard on the lips. Then he pulled up his pants, rearranged his hair and left the toilet. I pulled myself together and tried to catch my breath. Tony, of course, knew what happened. I could see it in the way she looked and laughed at me. Still she pretented to believe me I had to get home and left me go. 

Just as he said, he was waiting for me on his bike. I took a seat behind him and we drove off into the night towards his trailer where I met the pleasures of a lifetime.

AU: I hope you like it. Please let me know if you want me write part 2 with what happens inside the trailer.

[whosjunglejim4322]

Umbra | J. Seo (m)

》 Genre: vampire au! Smut, fluff, minor angst and mentions of violence, This story also features Yuta, Taeyong, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Doyoung and Mark as his coven members

》 Warnings: spitting, dry humping, mentions of blood obvi, mentions of feeding, strong boy trying not to fuck you into oblivion, his eyes get black he's when he's hungry/horny, disgusting amount of fluff, omg sorta strength kink? Johnny is very in love w you and very protective cause some of his brothers are out of pocket, Jungwoo wants to b ur bestie lowkey, Yuta is a lil shit

Chapter 2 

There are many things that Johnny loves about you. He could spend all his time showering you with professions of his adoration, and he'd never grow tired of it. Though, his concept of time and yours are slightly different.

He's patient, excessively so sometimes, in your humble opinion. But, he also never expected in his three hundred and forty five years of existence, to find someone who manages to warm his cold and stagnant heart in the way you have.

Now, anytime away from you is a bit bothersome.

It's just, he never knew humans like you existed. In his world, there are either those who lust after his kind and the benefits in which their heightened senses and skills provide, or those who see him as a complete moral abomination.

Even now, in a society that has to live in conjunction with vampires, there are still so many people who fear him. Well, they fear what they think he is. A creature of the night, a demon, something that is only greedy for strife and nothing more.

You were the first person who genuinely throttled him, curious and wide eyed, completely fascinated by him. And not in a way that made him feel like he was under a microscope, but in a way that made him feel as though he was something...to be admired.

Your heartbeat, even after a year, still flutters like the wings of dragonfly whenever he displays his strength; swinging you up into his arms like you're made of feathers and all things delicate.

At first, he thought you were scared, weary, perhaps, about his abnormalities. He couldn't find any other explanation for the way you seemed to shrink in his presence whenever he'd dip his head below your chin to grace your throat with his lips, cooling your hot skin.

It didn't make sense. Not until he realized there is a direct correlation to your change and scent, and these moments in which he can be himself around you.

You like it. You like that he's different, a complete opposite to what you'd find in the common world. If he thought he could be any more enamored, anymore breathless than he was before (no pun intended) he was wrong.

Even now, with you lying with your back against his hard chest, playing with his slim fingers, your voice is nothing but earnest. Curious, in your own little world that consists of just you and him.

He thinks, no he knows, that if he had a pulse it would be racing every time he's around you. Every time you ask him a question that would normally repulse anyone else, even when you place his cool palm against your blazing cheek, giddy about the difference in temperature. He can tell that you just want to know more about him, about how he exists in the world. He simply can't resist indulging you.

"So...everyone doesn't taste the same? I always just assumed that blood is, well, blood." He smiles to himself as you trace shapes into his palm, before flipping his hand over and grazing your fingertips over his protruding knuckles.

The feeling of your skin against his is so pleasant he almost gets distracted.

"Well, it depends, really," his free hand strokes up and down your arms, savoring the softness. "sometimes the difference is slight, like someone who's A or B negative, but other times it can be quite stark. It's about chemistry really."

He can already see your expression in his head, furrowed brows, lips pursed in a manner too cute for your own good. He absentmindedly pushes you further against his chest, reclining slightly against the pillows as to make it more comfortable for you. You hum in satisfaction.

"Chemistry? Like how you feel about the person?" He can't quite pinpoint what is laced within the lilt of your voice, he answers nonetheless, chuckling warmly.

The sound is like pure velvet, causing your skin to tingle. You shiver, and he pulls your blanket over you, worried his lack of body heat may be disturbing your comfort. He doesn't realize how wrong he is.

"It's more like, how that person has lived. Their natural...how do I say...essence? Yes, their essence sometimes can determine how desirable some ones blood is to us."

He doesn't miss the way your heartbeat falters in rythm. He grins, as you take both of his hands in yours and intertwine your fingers. He twists his wrist and brings your knuckles up to his lips, kissing your skin.

You shift underneath the covers, suddenly thankful for his cool temperature. You know that most of the vampires that exist in society use blood bags from the banks provided, but you still wonder...

"Am I...am I desirable to you? Like, my blood, or whatever." You wish you could say you usually aren't so bad at speaking when you're around him, but that would be a blatant lie.

It's the most endearing thing he's ever witnessed.

His hands are gone from yours and elsewhere in the blink of an eye, one strong arm locked around your torso as his free hand reaches down to cup your chin. He turns and lifts your head towards him, gently, and the look in his eyes has your breath stalling momentarily.

"Of course you are, silly," he says it as if it's the most obvious thing ever, leaning down to peck your nose. Butterflies swarm violently in your belly. "I desire you in every way there is to desire someone, it makes me want to keep you all to myself. No one else should be allowed to even think about you, or your blood, in that way."

He looks lost in thought for a second, pupils almost darkening the whole of his irises, before he seemingly brings himself out of his daze. You turn in his hold, adjusting your position so that you're practically lying on top of him, chests touching and your legs cradled between his hips. He holds you effortlessly in his arms.

"Well it wouldn't matter anyways, cause I'm all yours." His pearly teeth show from behind the pillowy surface of his lips, as he leans in to kiss you in a manner that has you reaching out to wrap your hand around the nape of his neck.

"Mhm, all mine." He murmurs, nose nudging against yours as he shifts back and forth from your top lip, and then your bottom, tongue exploring the surface of each.

Kissing you, is another experience entirely for him. He wonders if it feels for you as it does for him, like pure intoxication. It brings back memories, memories he didn't think could still be reachable in the depths of his mind.

A time where he was warm, where life thrummed through his veins like the rushing current of a river. You are springtime on his tongue, the rays of sunlight that once heated his skin, the smell of flora in the air that mingles with the fleeting breeze.

He almost whines when you depart from his mouth, yearning already heavy in the pit of his stomach.

You look almost nervous, suddenly finicking with the front of his shirt as you sit back on his lap. He can hear the acceleration of your heartbeat, can smell the anxiety that is almost as heady as your desire.

He reaches out to cup your cheek, something he often does as a comforting gesture. You smile softly, meeting his curious, tepid gaze.

"So...I have a question," your voice shakes and you huff. "I mean, I was just wondering," he senses your struggle, wrapping his arms around you and sitting up so that your chests are nearly touching again, his palms splayed against your lower back.

"You can ask me anything, sweetheart. You know that." His voice, as sweet as honey, calms your racing pulse for a moment. Until you actually say the words out loud, wincing as if preparing for a scolding.

"Well I know you have a family, of sorts, from what you've told me. And I know you've always been really...hesitant to tell me more about them? I mean I've never been over, to your home or met them,"

Understanding washes over him, hands rubbing your back soothingly as the glint in his irises provokes an odd sensation within your belly. Like he knew this conversation would have to be had one day.

He lets you finish speaking, though your voice has even more of a tremor than before, now.

"Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable, I understand if you don't want me over there."

Urgency calcifies in his chest, the sad lilt to your soft voice making him feel ill. The way you say it is as if you think he doesn't want you in his space, like he's keeping you away from there because of something other than rational reasoning, doesn't sit right with him.

He cups your jaw, firmly but gently.

"I want you with me as much as possible, never think that I don't want you. That is not at all why I haven't brought you over there," You have no choice but to believe him, when he's looking at you with such a passionate gaze far heavier than what you're used to in a normal setting, his words concise.

"I am...well I'm old, and so are they. I've spent a long time being alienated, far before we were even accepted in the new world. We've settled here since before you were born, so you won't remember what it was like when people were forced to live along side us."

You hate hearing the unusual grain of what seems to be dejection in his tone, though you listen fervently anyways, his hands still comforting you despite the fact that his eyes are the ones cast down. You want to kiss the furrow between his dark brows.

"I've accepted who I am, furthermore I've accepted who I want to be. I realized that, it would do me no good to be a monster if people were willing, even if begrudgingly, to accept our existence. But my brothers,"

Your stomach sinks at the way he says it, knowing without a doubt that this is the answer to your original question, that his stance had to be explained before he told you something like this.

"they don't feel the same way as me, so they are stuck in their ways beyond coercion. They live very different lives, they are what our kind refer to as nightcrawlers, it's sardonic inside joke for those of us that would rather not conform to the new age of mutual concurrency."

"They are still a bit resentful for the fact that they can't exactly give in to their natural instincts. They don't see the humans acceptance as welcoming, they see it as a mockery. Do you see where I'm coming from?"

You look a bit out of it, like maybe you're frightened and he's suddenly worried he's gone overboard, that he's scared you in a way that can't be fixed. His eyes are suddenly frantic.

But then you speak, and you don't sound vexed, nor unsettled. Your question is simple, your thighs tightening around his waist as if to draw yourself closer to his comfort, arms looping around his shoulders.

"Do they all feel that way?"

He smiles, muscles untensing as you play with his hair in the way you usually do. Your eyes never leave his, and he wonders how he got so lucky.

"The youngest, well the youngest in our years, they're a bit less malicious about it. They don't cross anyone unless someone crosses them, but they can be excessively territorial because of their youth."

The tension, despite talking about a topic so heavy, is light again. You feel a bit silly now, understanding why he might not want you in close proximity with his coven.

But, still, knowing that there are people, for lack of better term, that have been in his life unimaginably long; a completely different, solidified version of a family, it makes you more nosey than usual. Could they really be that different from him?

"And...you're sure that if I were to meet them, it would end badly?" His eyebrow twitches in an inquisitive manner, surprise coloring his sharp features.

"I- well I thought you were just curious, I didn't think you'd actually want to meet them. Especially after all of that,"

It's as if he's speaking to himself out loud, his pink tongue flicking out to wet his lips. You resist the urge to kiss him so suddenly.

"but I don't suppose so. It's already established that you're mine. If there's one rule we follow, it's that. They know how I feel about you, despite our differences."

The sturdiness to his voice when he speaks of you being his, has your belly filling with heat at an irrational rate, and you suddenly remember how it felt to see him before you actually got to know him.

He's incredibly intimidating on the surface, firm and stoic. You can't see how anyone would want to anger him.

"So then I'd be safe, meeting them. And I'd get to see if you guys really have furniture."

Despite not needing to, he swallows. It's hard impossible to say no to you, when you look at him like that and sound so genuinely interested at a prospect that would make any other person run for the hills, even cracking jokes.

You're soft, and too innocent for your own good. He should say no, but to risk seeing a pout form on your soft lips, or having to hear the disappointment in your voice, it's unbearable.

"You really want to meet them, don't you?" He can't fight his smile when your face lights up like that.

"Well, I think it's important. They're your family, one way or another." You're gentle when you speak, honest.

"You're safe with me, you have to know that. But they're...not used to being around humans that aren't just accessories. The last thing I want is for one of them to say something that makes you uncomfortable."

It's evident in the low timbre of his tone that he's serious, and any smart person might listen. But as he said, and as you believe wholeheartedly, you're safe with him. Safer than you'd ever be.

And, as wrong as it may be, you want to see what other vampires are like. You're really only used to Johnny, the exception, where as most modern vampires only come out when absolutely necessary. Meeting him, and falling in love with him, has given you a brand new sight towards the world. Is it that insane to want to meet his brothers that have been so close to him for so long?

"I'll be with you, so it won't matter. I'll bet they're not even that scary, no ones scarier than you."

Your triumphant, playful smile has him grinning from ear to ear, leaning down to capture your lips between his own. Even though you're wrong about them, he's weak. Too weak.

"Yeah? Afraid I'll eat you for breakfast?" His breath is suddenly against your earlobe and you shudder pleasantly, grasping onto his shoulders before regaining some sort of composure.

"I'm definitely dinner, breakfast is really overrated. Unless it's breakfast for dinner, that's way better for some reason?"

He's kissing you again, despite the fact that he's smiling too hard for his own good, swiftly flipping you over so that you're caged underneath his body. His weight is barely perceptible even with your chests touching, forearms holding himself up.

"You'll be the death of me, you know that?" He has a hard time speaking without strain due to the way his throat has suddenly tightened with need, your legs wrapping around his trim torso and pushing his hips further against yours.

"Not possible, unless I've suddenly charmed your heart into beating again." You tease, though his eyebrows remain furrowed in concentration as he kisses you between words, dangerously sensual. You smell too divine.

"Very possible, actually. If you only knew how you make me feel."

Your belly lurches at the desperation that flows from him, his aura downright fever inducing. Without thinking, your crotch nudges his, bucking with the slightest of movements. But it's enough, enough to have his jaw clenching and a habitual breath of restraint leaving his nose.

Five fingers grasp your chin, so he can kiss you, hard. His hips begin to roll as his teeth nibble your bottom lip, the fabric of his jeans an arousing juxtaposition to your soft lounge shorts, your lack of underwear making it all the more satisfying.

He's hard, too. Knowing his dick is just underneath, hard for you, it'll never not give you whiplash. It gets you drunk, knowing your effect on him is as overwhelming as his on you. You're whimpering against his tongue, rubbing yourself on his bulge.

"Mmm, fuck." He growls, capturing your wrists in his palms before your next breath, raising them above your head and making sure they're comfortable against the pillows.

He's inches away from your face now, and his expression alone is enough to have your walls pulsing around nothing, desire seeping into your chest and hardening your nipples, goosebumps forming across your skin.

He looks at you like he's hungry, nostrils flaring avariciously. He tries so very hard to fight the darkness that fills his sclera like ink, knowing how very monstrous and unlike himself it makes him appear.

But he hears the way it makes your heart race. He can practically taste the thrill that seeps from your pores, the unbridled arousal that drips from your cunt like syrup. Your neck cranes upwards to try and reach his lips, and he smirks before meeting you halfway.

"Do you want me to keep rubbing your pussy like this," he looks down between your bodies and purposely rolls his hips in an accentuated fashion. "or do you want my dick?"

His voice is brusque, but caring and accommodating as it always is, his plump lips quivering slightly from the way his mouth waters.

"Can I have your dick, please?" You return, his mouth quirking up into a sideways grin.

"Such good manners," he kisses you again, sloppily, the sounds lewd and causing you to shiver against his unwavering body. "how could I ever deny you?"

You blink, and cool air is breezing against your wet slit, the nakedness sending a wave of tingles through your nerve endings. Before you can look down, you feel his cock against your clit, smooth and rounded tip gathering wetness from your hole before circling it over your clit.

He uses one hand to keep your legs parted for his viewing, fingers softly gripping your flesh as he sits back on his haunches. You feel impatience crawling up your throat, toes already curling as your bud throbs and your walls ache.

He's so pretty, he is raven hair against olive skin, an onyx sky against shimmering stars. Your hands reach out for his hips, delicate but fierce in their strength. He rubs his shaft against your folds, before prodding at your entrance.

He always watches your expression when he first slides in, the way your mouth falls open and you are suddenly this beautiful, agonizingly worked up thing. He bites down on his bottom lip as his eyes flicker from your pussy, lovlier than a flower and welcoming him with a squeeze, to your face.

Your eyes are bleary as they stare back up at him, your breathing already erratic. His lip curls with the need to hiss, to ravage you. But he takes it slow, he loves watching you fall apart too much. And you're so wet around him, moaning his name like it's the only word you know.

"Johnnyyyy, oh - umph." He rocks into, gracefully and with a deliberate curl. You claw at the front of his tee shirt, pulling him down to your face.

He eagerly obliges, meeting your lips with a soft smack, the angle only pushing him deeper within your body. His pace has increased, the front of his thighs colliding with the back of yours. His mouth somehow remains steady, as if he's not fucking you like he is.

He's parting from you sooner than you'd like, but you know he likes to fuck you like this, able to see all of you and savor it. It's still the most incredible thing he'll ever witness or experience, he's sure of it.

He can't believe a creature like him could be so lucky, here with his manhood buried to the hilt inside of someone so breathtaking, so innately divine. Your essence is thick and wet, coating his shaft each time he pulls out.

"Such a pretty pussy, so fuckin' pretty baby." His voice is gruff, nose twitching and eyes black. You wrap your fingers around his strong, sturdy forearms as his hands grip the softness of your waist. His lips purse and a string of spit dribbles down your clit.

"Ungh, oh my- ohhhhh Johnny please please." You're not sure what your begging for, and it doesn't matter. Because he'll give you whatever it is you need before you know you need it, already hooking your legs over his broad shoulders, gripping your jaw and pushing it up so that he can mouth at your sensitive neck.

"Mmm, I got you baby, I'm right here," he takes your earlobe in his mouth before marking your throat, licking and sucking. "I can already feel your belly tensing sweetheart, gonna make a mess for me?"

All you can do is nod, eyes squeezed shut and hands exploring his firm abdomen while he pushes himself all the way into you; rocking his hips back and forth to make sure the tip of his cock is rubbing that sweet spot inside of you. Your clit is being stimulated in the process, and you know you're not going to last long.

He knows it too, and his thumb is suddenly on your swelling bud, rubbing you in circles faster than you can comprehend, but with just enough pressure to have your nails digging into his back with fervor. Having unbreakable skin must be a plus, in his case.

You're tensing more now, twitching even. Your energy is buzzing around him, electric. Your heart pounds like a drum, rattling against your ribcage and causing blood to thrum viciously throughout your veins. His thrusts become a bit more frantic, his senses completely overcome with you.

He's so lost in his own pleasure he doesn't even hear you cum. He feels you go limp underneath him, back arching off the bed and your walls spasming around his cock.

He realizes now that you're trying to shove your face in the pillows, a silent sob ripping through your body. He's pulling you to him, and you're suddenly in his lap, as he comforts you with a soothing coo.

When you move your face from the crook of his neck and he's met with your teary eyes and damp skin, he's thrown off the edge.

Your forehead is against his as he bites back a snarl of sorts, pumping into you from below with as much restraint as he can muster as to not overwhelm you since you've just cum as well.

He has to move his hands away from you for a quick second, opting for the bed sheets instead while you cling onto him and kiss his cheeks, his jaw, his neck. He feels selfish, but he also doesn't want to crush your hip bones in such a state.

Your breathing is still uneven, even after several minutes and once he's sure that he's in his right frame of mind, his arms are around you again.

Your body is sweetly ravaged by his mouth, lips leaving a wet trail over too much skin in such a short amount of time. You're still sensitive, wincing as his enthusiasm causes you to shift on his lap.

"Oh." He uses one arm to wrap around your middle, slowly pulling you off of his dick and lying you down against the comforter.

You whine at the loss of contact as he disappears, returning in a blur with a warm, damp cloth. He's in between your legs, wiping away your shared mess and muttering soft sorrys when he's just a smidge too rough. You're still embarrassed by his need to take care of you like this, bashfully looking away.

You don't realize he's gone and returned until the covers are being thrown over your body, his arms securing you to his solid chest and his lips against your ear.

"You need sleep, don't argue." He kisses the back of your head and you smile to yourself, snuggling further against his figure. You feel like you're being warmed from the inside out, despite how cool his skin is against yours.

"M'not gonna argue, you made me tired," The thump of your pulse and the shy lilt to your voice satisfies him, and he wishes that he could make love to you all over again.

"When will you take me to go meet the others?" Your speech is already slightly slurred with sleep, a yawn following. He sighs, kissing behind your ear.

"Give me until tomorrow night, I need to discuss a few things. Then we'll go, I promise."

He wishes that this could be a more exciting prospect for him, that in the back of his mind he weren't, for the first time in a long time, genuinely worried about how his brothers might react.

It's got nothing to do with his capability. Without question he will keep you safe, his strength is comparable to the eldest and he'd forge fire if it meant having you whole and in his arms.

But his coven, they're different than what he knows you're expecting. He knows that because of primal, and ancestral rules that they will not lay a hand on you.

If he's honest, it's more so what might come out of their mouths that worries him. He can't have them slip up and say something they're not supposed. It'll kill him if there's even one crease of worry or sadness etched onto your pretty face. He won't allow it.

But if it's important to you, it's important to him. You're here, asleep in his arms, and he's certain that if he had a soul, he would trade it if it meant another lifetime of your existence.

•

Johnny isn't next to you when you wake up, which isn't a particularly uncommon occurrence. It's just that normally he'd let you know beforehand, even shaking you awake sometimes just to mumble a be back soon in your ear, despite the fact that you're half asleep.

You reach over to your bedside table to grab your phone, clicking it on and feeling a bit less tense realizing he's left you a message. You smile.

Sorry I had to leave so early, sweetheart. I'm speaking with my brothers and getting some things taken care of. Don't worry. I love you and I'll see you soon. xx

He must be serious, about the way they behave. It's not that you don't believe him, you'd just rather see the positives, in whatever way you can. It's a little bit startling to think about today, if you're honest. Especially after such an all consuming night, the sun now too bright in your eyes, the scent of Johnny still on your sheets and clothes.

You feel anything but dark and dreary when you think of him. That's not to say he's not quite scary if you don't know him. Broad and towering, gaze low and piercing in a way that'll have you looking away nervously if he were to make eye contact with you.

But you can't imagine him as anything but what he is, beautiful and lively and kind, soft around the cold hard edges.

You stretch as you rise from your bed, joints popping as you pull yourself onto your feet. You wince slightly, realizing between your thighs is still fairly sore, ghosts of his touch lingering on your heated skin.

You and Johnny don't have sex incredibly often, at least not by normal human couple standards. It's pretty obvious why. His ability to control his strength, his desire, his thirst; in that state, as he has explained, it leaves him a little bit frayed.

It's not like you're not satisfied anyways, he's more than generous with his mouth and fingers, and despite the fact that he holds nearly half of his full vigor back when the two of you are intimate, it's still a little bit throttling for you afterwards.

The day is boring without him, quite frankly, but despite whatever you may think about it, you still respect his decision to plan ahead for your visit.

You do get it, it's not that. If anything, you just feel too safe with him. To the point where you sometimes feel invincible in his arms.

It almost makes up for the fact that you don't get to show him off as much as you'd like, as silly as it sounds. His kind can go out in the sun, but it's a bit bothersome after a while from what you've heard. He is almost a cliché in that department, most days either spent with him in doors or at night.

Sometimes, though, you wonder what it would be like if he were human. It wouldn't make a difference, you're sure of that, because he'll always be your Johnny. But the thought does venture into your mind every now and then, because of the way he speaks of his humanhood. As if he's trying not to admit how much he misses it.

You often wonder what he must have looked like when he could blush, with his vibrant smile on show, and dimples high on his soft cheeks.

A small, selfish part of you envies the people who might have gotten to witness him like that. Warm, a little uncoordinated maybe, eyes topaz in the sun. He must have been a sight to behold, throughout his human life.

Deep down, a part of you knows that, that is what this whole thing with his brothers boils down to. You're not just curious, you're madly in love with him. So much so that when he's away, it does feel uncomfortable. You never believed people when they spoke of love that way, you always thought it to be quite gross, actually.

And maybe you're just a silly little human with silly little feelings, to be so smitten after a year. But there's no going back now, he's a part of you, so of course you think about how much of him you've never gotten to see. Of course you want to meet any tangible part of his incomprehensible life, his family. Even if it's not conventional.

It leaves an odd pit in your stomach, thinking of him young and youthful, thinking of his mother and father and the life that they had created so many lifetimes ago.

You think of him at eighteen, maybe still plush in some areas not yet tainted by the work of adulthood. Had he ever been in love, back then? You swallow back the irrational bitterness you suddenly taste.

You think of him at twenty, and what he might have been passionate about. What life was even like for him. You think of his first kiss, and him at twenty four, a year before his life as what he is now, began.

Truthfully, you don't know a lot about him. It's a strange, sudden realization, but it's just never really mattered in all honesty. Because you know him, how he is now, which is all you'll ever get and is more than what you could've ever asked for.

You've always felt like it's different because his existence in itself has been so tremulous, and in a lot of ways very hard to talk about without it getting uncomfortable because of all that he has lost, or subsequently reminding him of what he is.

Never things he'd admit out loud, but definitely something you've picked up on in his expression or the wistfulness in his voice. It doesn't matter, to you; the bad parts. He's yours, and somehow you two have found each other despite so many centuries vouching on never having met one another at all. You wish you could truly express to him how nothing would ever stray you away.

You've showered and eaten an inadequate dinner by the time Johnny shows up, presence barely perceptible until he's wrapping his strong arms around you from behind.

You're used to it by now, not even flinching anymore. You melt instantaneously, placing your hands over his that are resting around your waist.

"Hi." He whispers, lips against the shell of your ear. You shiver and let out a giggle, turning in his grasp to get a kiss. He's on your lips before you even have to lift yourself on your tippy toes.

"Mm, hi." You mumble, hands cupping his jaw. You hum as he pulls you closer, spinning you so that you're pressed against the counter, his hand on the small of your back blocking you from the hard edge.

"We could stay here, you know," he smiles against your mouth, half teasing and half serious. "a change of plan never hurt anybody."

The idea is actually tempting.

"But I just showered." You pout, and his hands are rubbing your sides, eyes contemplative.

"You're right, you shouldn't go over there smelling anymore enticing than you already do, anyways." He says it with a grit of his teeth, as if the mere thought bothers him.

You're too distracted by his face to really absorb what he's saying, smiling up at him, practically beaming. Before he can quirk his brow and boop your nose with the tip of his finger, you kiss him again.

It's chaste, but it's sincere.

"You're so cute when you're all disgruntled." You state, throwing your arms around his neck. He snorts, shaking his head and licking his heart shaped lips lips out of habit.

"I'm not disgruntled, I just want this to go well." He replies, broad shoulders slumping. You unhook your arms from around him to grasp his hands, large and welcoming in yours. He intertwines your fingers.

"It will. Because I'm with you." It's simple, and undeniable. He knows that, and accepts defeat when he sees how truly bright the gleam in your eye is. You're his own little sun. 

During the drive to his home, Johnny takes this time to give you some much needed insight on the creatures you’ll be meeting. He gives you their names, some key characteristics so that you won’t be startled by their behavior, but he doesn’t give you their ages. He simply refers to the one named Yuta as the oldest, and Mark as the youngest. 

“Youngest and oldest in vampire years or..?” You ask, the corner of his mouth twitching into an amused smile at your interest. You forget to focus for a moment, tracing the planes of his side profile with your eyes. 

“Yuta was my age when he was changed, but he is, in our terms, the eldest. Mark is the youngest both in the factors.” His thumb strokes the back of your knuckles where your clasped hands rest on the center console, though it doesn’t soothe all the burning questions that you’ve decided need to stay in your head, for now. 

You think of mark first, something about his youth, despite the fact that he is centuries older than you, seeming a little bit less intimidating. Almost abstract, in a way. As he describes the youngest, it’s easy to picture a boyish smile, innocence. Until he throws in the fact that the ones that get changed before the brain is fully developed, tend to be the ones with more of an unsteady grasp on their more potent emotions. You can guess what that means, and he suddenly regrets ever opening his mouth. 

Johnny almost debates whether or not he should turn the car around and forget about this occasion all together, growing anxious at your monotone expression and the way you are chewing the skin of your bottom lip, and not realizing you are just lost in deep thought, not perturbed or uncomfortable. 

Really, you are just trying to make out what his brothers may be like. Taeyong, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Doyoung. For some reason, it’s the thought of meeting Yuta that seems the most daunting. Despite the fact that he is Johnny’s age, not technically but anyways - knowing that he has been around for so long has you wondering how a person like that even thinks. 

Maybe you should've listened to your boyfriend. No, you're brave. But sometimes you are not very smart.

You are pulled for your reverie of sorts when your surroundings become darker, gloomier in the way that the trees seem to shield the road ahead from the sun, forming a canopy from above and casting misshapen shadows across the ground.

You don’t realize you’re clutching his hand tighter until Johnny turns to look at you with worried eyes, all the stars and every wish that he could ever grant you swirling in his chocolate irises. 

“Are you alright? We can turn around and-” 

You shake your head in defiance, determined. You aren’t going to back out now, not when you can already see the house from around the bend, pillars high and spiraling, a wide balcony peeking out from behind the trees. 

“I’m perfectly fine, promise.” you give him a soft, reassuring smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes but he knows you’ll likely scowl at him if he keeps insisting on your indifference, so he takes the car just a little bit further, rounding a bend and stalling before cutting the engine. 

The house is a lot more grand that you’d previously expected, the outside still kempt but not as pristine. Mostly, you thought that it would offensive to coin their home as something dark and menacing, not wanting to contribute to the cliché. But, it does in fact feel as though you are walking into a lair.  

It’s beauty is undeniable, though, despite the lack of real warmth that it exudes. Upon entering, wide open space greets you, black marble flooring underneath your boots and a staircase straddling either side of the entryway. Above it is a balcony, hanging over the foyer from the second floor. 

“So I was correct, about the furniture.” You murmur, pressed against his hard side with your arms wound around his forearm despite the fact that the house is seemingly empty. You know that it’s not, though. Any living being who walked into this house would be able to feel it, the static that seems to raise the hair on the back of your neck. 

“You'll have to forgive our complacency when it comes to interior design,"  

The voice seems to appear out of nowhere, melodic and smooth and echoing off of the walls in a way that makes the direction of the sound imperceptible. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see someone making their way down the left staircase, gliding more so than walking. 

"So many years leave us comfortable, rather than fashionable."

Two figures float behind him, while three others descend down the opposite staircase. You could've sworn you'd only glanced at Johnny for half a second, before they suddenly materialized.

The man is suddenly right in front of you, and your eyes act as if they have no choice but to meet his, your breath stalling. It reminds you of the first time you saw Johnny, how shocking it was to be faced with such inhuman beauty.

"My name is Taeyong, it's lovely to meet you." The creature flashes a bright smile, something unreadable in his sharp eyes. His quaint lips are mischievous, or maybe you're just paranoid.

You don't have a chance to respond, already surrounded by a group that seem oddly eager to meet you despite what Johnny had warned, their gate an obvious contrast to your boyfriends. 

They seem to sway effortlessly rather than stand perfectly still, their proximity closer than that of strangers. The energy around them feels unpredictable, and without thought your hand tightens around Johnny's.

"Wow, she smells good." A voice muses from the group, and you follow it to find a face that you somehow automatically know belongs to Mark. His face is youthful, eyes wide and full of glee and then a bit amused, due to what you can assume is from your boyfriend glaring at him sharply.

"No wonder he's so attached." The boy beside Mark, with dimples as deep as you've ever seen, hums to his friend.

"Please, don't be so crude, children. She is our guest." This voice is authoritative, the timbre low but the tone gentle like the stroke of a feather.

The group seems to make way for him without thought, and again, you're instantly struck with recognition simply by his presence alone.

He approaches you without caution, you blink and he's suddenly right there. His hair is longer than the others, curling around his prominent chin and framing his elegant features.

"It's a real pleasure to meet you, we've heard so much about the little human that's enamored our dear brother." You can't look away from his cunning face, his eyes are almost wild in excitement, plush lips stretching across his face to reveal a million wat smile.

He extends his hand towards you, with a bit more reserve now - and the first thing you notice are the sharp, glossy black nails that are more akin to claws, formed into stilettos at the tips of his delicate, slender fingers.

"Careful." Johnny mutters to his brother through his teeth, the man giggling in amusement as he gently takes your hand in his. You hadn't even realized you'd extended it back, his skin almost colder than Johnny's if possible.

"Tsk, so worried. For what reason? Look, I'm being as gentle as a hummingbird. Her hands are so soft."

Yuta. It's undeniable, he's too confident, bemused by this whole ordeal and even more so by the way his brother has stiffened beside you, pulling you back just a fraction of an inch.

The elder sighs wistfully, allowing your hand to drop from his. He meets your eyes once more, your skin buzzing oddly.

"My name is-"

"Yuta. I-I know, I mean I guessed."

It's the first word you've spoken to any them, and your voice is shakier than you'd like, throat dry. The mans lips twitch into a grin, lashes fluttering against his cheeks as he clasps his hands together in a stunned manner.

"Wow, perceptive you are. So sure, despite appearing so meek."

You can't decipher his tone, worried that maybe you've messed up by interrupting him. He seems a bit perplexed, in a curious way. You're grateful for a new voice introducing themselves, directing your attention elsewhere.

"I'm Jungwoo," His voice is the most welcoming. "your skin is so pretty. Is that weird to say?" He mutters the last part to the slender, inquisitive man beside him, who's features are similar to that of a feline. He seems indifferent.

But, for the first time since you've arrived, you smile, an odd sense of relief flooding through your nervous system. You feel Johnny relax as well, and you glance up at him for just a moment, to see him already looking down at you.

"It's nice to meet you, Jungwoo," The jubilent vampire flashes you a smile. "all of you, really. Thankyou for welcoming me into your home."

"Of course, doll. Should we give her a tour?" Yuta speaks and Johnny responds almost a heartbeat after the elders suggestion.

"I can do that, give her some space." His voice is polite but firm, and Yuta giggles again, while the others back up a bit. Johnny readjusts his grip on your hand and begins moving towards the right staircase, turning his head to send the rest a look you can't see.

He leads you down the left corridor into a massive hallway, the walls a deep shade of plum, floors white marble instead of black like the ones downstairs.

Once you're out of view from the rest, he stills, turning towards you and rubbing his hands up and down your arms.

"I'm sorry about that, really." His eyes are apologetic and you snort, embracing his middle and kissing his chin.

"Sorry for what? I'm fine, they were fine."

He lets out a sigh, broad shoulders slumping as he does so. He believes you enough to not keep on, pressing his lips to your forehead before continuing his non informative tour.

"I wish they'd keep at least some of their thoughts to themselves," you're turning, brought down another lengthy hall with a massive picture window framing the north wall. Heavy burgundy curtains keep the sun from shining through the glass.

To the left is another set of stairs, small in comparison to the ones you've seen so far, framed with elegant railing. "this is my room, up here." He points to the door that sits right at the top of them, lonesome and heavy looking.

Your heartbeat is suddenly loud in your own ears, excitement bubbling in your belly at the prospect of being in a space that belongs to him. He senses this, and smiles to himself as he wraps his fingers around the doorknob and pushes it open.

Everything about his room is inherently Johnny. It's simple, but so very him.

The atmosphere is completely different to what the rest of the house provokes, the floors a deep cherry red, hardwood. A round, red rug sits in the middle of the room, a leather sectional nestled in the corner to the right. Beside it hangs rows of shelves with a multitude of books, more than you'd normally see lounging in some ones room. He's probably read them all three times over by now.

He has a television, which shouldn't make you giggle as it does. It's far bigger than necessary, taking up almost all the space on the eastern wall. There's a door almost adjacent to the one you entered from, which you presume is the bathroom.

"I love it, it's so comfortable in here." You muse, trotting towards the sectional and throwing yourself on the massive sofa. He chuckles, sauntering towards you and lifting your head so that he can place it atop his lap.

He can't lie to himself, it makes him ache in the most pleasant of ways to have you here, in a place that has been his only real peace since he's met you. Well, scratch that. You are his only safe haven.

"Yeah?" He replies, scratching your scalp lightly, studying the softness of your features as you gaze up at him, elated.

"Mhm, it feels like stepping into a different house entirely. Not that I have an issue with the interior design." You playfully mock his brother Taeyong’s earlier words, and laughter bubbles from your boyfriends throat.

"You don't think it's too melancholy? The house, I mean."

You shake your head indifferently, hair ruffling against the material of his jeans that are covering his thick thighs.

"To be honest it is quite....vampire-y, but it's elegant. And big. And knowing you live here makes it not seem so dark."

His hands are suddenly cupping the area just underneath your arms, effortlessly pulling you up so that you're straddling his lap. Your thighs find their place immediately, knees squeezing his torso.

"You're too good. Too pretty to be in a place like this." Despite his tone his eyes are formed into crescent moons from his smile, and you don't fight the urge to kiss him.

"Shush, or I'll battle you to the death." You mumble, his nose nudging your cheek as he tilts his head to move in a steady rythm with your mouth.

"Mm, think I beat you to it." He teases, and you can feel his smile. You're not in the frame of mind to scold him for that one.

Naturally, without even thinking, your body heats up fast from the way he kisses you. Even if he's trying to be chaste, it always ends up with a flame being fed by his tongue. His scent, the sensation of wholeness when you're surrounded by him.

Especially now, in the comfort of and quiet of his room when all you can hear is the smack of your mouths, steady and calculated. You're encapsulated by everything that belongs to the person you love.

A soft push to your shoulders has you humming in confusion, you're still not back on earth when you break apart to see the contrived, reluctant expression that twists his face.

"We can't - not here." He strains, very much so aware of way your hips are planted so firmly against his, the sweet scent of blood that rushes like a current through the area between your thighs.

You pout, and instinctually he's cupping your face between his palms, kissing it away. His fingertips graze the shell of your ear. 

"Don't give me that look, you know why I'm saying no. If they thought you smelled good before, you'd be the finest of dining options if you walked down there wet."

Your body pulses with arousal, arousal that he can practically taste on the tip of his tongue. A petulant whine slips from your throat, while your palms graze his hardening length through his jeans, and his cock twitches.

Fuck. He really can't deny you, can he?

[5-seconds-of-bucky]

Secret

A/N: Hello, hello! Not much to say about this one other than Allison made me do it (2021 is amazing but angsty and I needed some serious fluff so I wrote it myself smh) Anyways, enjoy :)

Summery: AU in which once you meet your soulmate, you can hear them talking to themselves. You’re Shawn’s personal assistant and soulmate but you have to keep your relationship a secret, until one day . . .

Word count: 6.5k+

Warnings: Swearing, and little angst towards the end (but only a little) 

---

This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.

Nobody knew. Nobody. Not your parents, not Andrew, not even Brian knew. You never told anyone about it. But now the whole world knew about your relationship.

The whole world knew and you sure as hell were going to lose your job.

---

You wouldn’t say you knew you were soulmates right away, but it didn’t take long to figure it out. Well, it didn’t take long for Shawn to figure it out and tell you. In fact, it only took him about six hours after meeting you to realize you were the one destined for him.

He knew the moment he met you that there was something about you that was just different. Not different like “I’m not like other girls” different. Different as in someone that gave him a feeling he’d never had before.

“Shawn, this is Y/N Y/L/N, your new personal assistant. Y/N, this is Shawn.” You smiled nervously as Andrew introduced you to your new boss, giving him a small wave before realizing how unprofessional it looked.

You stuck your hand out for a handshake. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Mendes.”

“Oh, please,” he chuckled as he shook your hand. “Call me Shawn. Mr. Mendes is way too formal.”

You let out a small laugh as well, dropping his hand. There was an awkward pause that made you worry you’d already made the wrong impression. Too weak of a handshake? A wavering voice? What made this go downhill so fast?

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” You nodded at the two men before heading over to the bathroom in the hotel lobby.

“She seemed nervous,” Shawn mentioned once you were out of earshot.

“I think she’s going to be a good fit. She’s a year younger than you and her application was great. Give her a chance. She was meeting the Shawn Mendes, her boss, after all.

Get it together, Y/N.

The words muttered in his head were in her voice, not his own. He frowned, sure that his mind was simply playing tricks on him.

Meanwhile, you were in the bathroom, cursing yourself for already making the wrong impression.

“You said ten words to the man and he probably already thinks you’re a moron,” you muttered as you paced in front of the sinks. “Take a deep breath and get back out there.”

“You okay?” Andrew asked, referring to the distant look that had overtaken Shawn’s face.

“Hmm? . . . Oh, yeah. Zoned out for a second.” Am I hearing my soulmate’s voice?

“Play nice with Y/N. I really think you’re going to like her.”

You exited the bathroom and put a pleasant look on your face as you approached the group. That was your job now: look and make everyone happy.

“Y/N, I’ll show you to your room so you can get settled,” Andrew said, gesturing for you to lead the way towards the elevator.

“Wait, Y/N.” Shawn reached out to gently grab your shoulder. “Do you wanna meet up before dinner for a smoothie or something? You know, to get to know each other?” His soft smile was something you couldn’t say no to, even if you’d only known him for three minutes.

Thirty minutes later, Shawn was knocking on your hotel door and taking you out for a smoothie shop across the street.

“What do you think you’re gonna get?” he asked once you were standing in line, taking his wallet out of his pocket.

“Trying to decide between strawberry-banana and berry blast.”

“This is the best smoothie shop around and you want strawberry-banana?”

“Or berry blast.” You’d just met him but the banter came easily. “Besides, if they’re that good at making smoothies, then the strawberry-banana will knock me off my feet with how good it is.”

“I don’t know if I can work with such a basic person as an assistant.” He playfully nudged you a step away from him.

“Oh, is this a test? Because you haven’t even seen me actually work yet.” You stepped in front of him, deciding on strawberry-banana.

“Yeah, but I could fire you for any reason at any time so really-”

“You’re not gonna fire me.” You turned around and gave him a smirk.

“But I could.” He stepped unreasonably close just as you stepped up to order. You pushed his face back with the back of your hand. He’s acting awfully friendly.

“I’ll take a strawberry-banana smoothie please,” you smiled at the cashier, pulling out some money.

“And I’ll get blueberry and avocado smoothie,” Shawn said as he pushed down your hand with the money and held out his card to the cashier. You glared at him playfully and lightly elbowed him in the stomach. “What? It’s good for your skin.”

“You guys are cute,” the cashier giggled after announcing the total and swiping Shawn’s card.

“Oh, we barely know each other.” Your words were a lost cause as Shawn dragged you aside so the next person could order.

“Shh, she doesn’t know that. Make her think there’s a world where a person with a basic smoothie order and a person with a good smoothie order can be soulmates.”

“I haven’t overheard you talking to yourself yet so I don’t think that’s possible.”

“But imagine.” He led you over to a table and plopped down on a seat. You turned around to hang your purse over the back of the chair as you sat down.

“Wait, how much do I owe you?” You pulled the purse back over the chair and dug through it to find the money you haphazardly stuck in there just a minute before.

“Nothing. It’s on me,” he said, like it was the obvious answer.

“But I feel bad making you pay for it.”

“You’re not making me pay for it, I wanted to. Consider it a ‘welcome to the team’ present.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

He liked how nervous he was making you. Whether it was because he was your boss or because he was devilishly handsome, he wasn’t entirely sure. But, he did know that you made him a little nervous too, especially since he was 95 percent sure you were his soulmate.

---

“You know what?” you said to yourself in your hotel room that night. “This is going to be really good for me. A fresh start and a chance to see the world. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Shawn was distracted from his own thoughts once he heard your voice in his head. Shawn Mendes is my fucking boss. Not only that, but he’s an awesome dude. He smiled, not entirely sure he should be listening into this conversation. To be fair though, he couldn’t help it. Your voice was in his head.

“Damn,” he said as he put on a clean shirt for the night. “That girl was real cute.” He heard something fall in the other room followed by absolute silence, leading him to believe that you heard him. “She had a basic-ass smoothie order though.”

Was that my soulmate? He couldn’t help but laugh, trying to stay quiet as he figured out how to surprise you. Who did I meet today? You started to list the numerous people you met at dinner that night as Shawn shuffled over to the door that connected your hotel rooms.

“Hey, soulmate,” he quipped as he swung the door open. You let out a yelp, arms holding a shirt over your chest as you fell back onto the bed. “Oh, sorry!”

You threw the shirt over your head and glanced at the mirror on the wall to make sure you looked presentable. “You can come back in now,” you said once you were decent. Shawn reentered with a hand over his eyes, softly closing the door behind him. “You can look,” you giggled. “I have a shirt on now.”

Shawn put his hand down and smiled sheepishly at you. You wanted to swoon at how cute he looked with his rosy cheeks and messy curls.

“Hi.” He leaned against the wall, watching your feet get closer and closer to him until your sock clad toes were almost touching his.

“Hey.” He slowly looked up to meet your gaze. You gave him a shy smile and wave, to which he could only smile back. He’s been dreaming of the moment he met his soulmate for all these years yet he found himself at a loss of words.

“So . . . how much of that did you hear?”

“Oh, I heard the whole shabang. I’m glad you think so highly of me.” You groaned and leaned into his chest.

“You weren’t supposed to hear any of that.”

“That’s part of the whole soulmate thing. Can’t help it.”

“We’re actually soulmates?” You lifted your head so your chin was resting on his chest.

“Yeah,” He wrapped his arms around you. “I think we are.”

You brought your hands up so they were resting on his shoulders. “That moment would be a lot more romantic if I wasn’t staring up your nose.”

Shawn threw his head back, body shaking with laughter. You buried your face into his chest as you laughed along with him.

There was a comfortable pause before either of you dared to break the moment. “I’d day we should stay up all night and talk about our deepest fears and hopes for the future but we both look dead tired so we should probably call it a night.”

“Probably should. Night, Shawn.”

“Night, Y/N.” He squeezed you for a second longer before opening the door and stepping back into his room, sending you a wink before he shut it all the way.

“Shawn Mendes is my soulmate,” you whispered to yourself. “Shawn Mendes is my fucking soulmate!”

“Uh huh,” Shawn chuckled from the other room. “We’re definitely soulmates.”

---

It was a year of bliss full of sneaking kisses behind closed doors and holding hands under tables. You agreed at the start to keep your relationship a secret. With you settling into the new job and the two of you wanting to explore the relationship, it was best to keep everything under wraps. Hard as you tried, people had their suspicions for one reason or another.

It started with Andrew about a month after you realized you were soulmates. Shawn knew he could trust Andrew but he also knew that Andrew could be kind of harsh when it came to professionalism. The man didn’t expect the two of you to refer to each other strictly by last name, but he did expect that you abide by the rules and not cross the line between platonic and romantic.

So Shawn thought it would be best to find out what would happen if you were to announce that you were together. You know, in a hypothetical situation.

“Andrew, Shawn is looking for you,” you said as you peeked your head around the doorway of the green room. “He’s in his dressing room.”

Andrew’s head perked up at the calling of his name and nodded, standing up and following you to Shawn’s dressing room. You let him go in by himself, telling him that you had some other things to attend to. Once he shut the door though, you put your ear to it in hopes that you would be able to overhear what he had to say about Shawn’s “hypothetical” situation.

“Y/N said you needed me?” Andrew said once the door was closed.

“Yeah, I just had a quick question.” Shawn picked at the skin on the side of his thumb. “I just thought of this random situation and I was wondering what would happen if it actually happened.”

Andrew nodded for him to go on, still confused as to why Shawn made him come all the way down there for this.

“So say, my assistant was my soulmate. What would happen? Would they be able to keep their job or . . .?” He could see the gears turning in Andrew’s head at the mention of a soulmate and he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to answer.

“Is this about Y/N?”

“No, no. Just in some alternate universe. What would happen?”

“It depends. You obviously have a soulmate, we can’t stop that from happening, but I’d rather it not be someone you worked with,” Andrew started. “When I hire any team member, no matter what their job is, they agree that there is to be no romantic involvement with you. It keeps things professional and could prevent things from going haywire with the media. Things never look good when a star gets involved with someone on their team. I just don’t want to deal with all the bad publicity that could come out of that kind of situation. I don’t know if I would fire them but it would likely be on the table.” He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. “But that’s not happening with you and Y/N, right?”

Your face dropped. You were expecting that sort of answer, but it still hurt to hear.

“What? Pfft, of course not. I was just curious,” Shawn replied, walking over to the door and pushing it open. You stumbled back, suddenly realizing that you were supposed to be attending “other things.”

“That was all. Thanks, Andrew.” Andrew gave Shawn a look that said he knew something was up, but Shawn laughed it off.

Okay?” He stepped out into the hallway, bumping into you. “Oops, sorry, Y/N.”

“Haha, no problem,” you waved him off. “Shawn, they need you on stage for soundcheck.”

“Soundcheck doesn’t start for another half hour,” Andrew said.

“They wanted to start early. Something about having trouble with stuff in the past so they wanted to get a head start.”

Shawn shot you a discrete thumbs up, eyes silently thanking you for the save.

“Okay then? I’ll let you do what you need to do.”

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding in once he turned around and started making his way back down the hallway.

“Do they actually need me?”

“No, but I needed to look like I wasn’t eavesdropping.”

Shawn looked down the hallway to make sure no one was there before pulling you into a hug behind the open door and pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “I love you.”

“Love you too, big guy. Can we go to stage so it doesn’t look like I was lying?” You pulled away and took hold of his hand, tugging him in the direction of the stage.

Shawn rolled his eyes. “The things I do for you.”

“Thank youuu.” He followed you down the long hallway, checking every so often to make sure no one was behind you.

“Nice shoes,” he smirked, glancing down at the tie dye Crocs you were wearing.

“My heel broke and I didn’t have another pair of shoes on me.”

“But you had rainbow Crocs?”

“It’s fashion and comfort all in one shoe. You expect me to carry another pair of heels around when I could be wearing these bad boys?”

“I mean, they go wonderfully with the blouse and slacks. I kinda want a pair now.”

“Guess I know what to get you for Christmas.”

The sound of footsteps coming towards you stopped your conversation. You ripped your hand out of Shawn’s and he found himself missing the warmth of it.

“Hey, just talked to stage crew,” Andrew said once he popped around the corner you were just about to turn. “They’re not starting yet. They’re actually on track to be starting late. Don’t know who told you they needed him.”

“That’s weird,” you said, attempting to subtly put some more space between Shawn and yourself. “Guess we have some time. You guys need me to get anything for you?” The men both shook their heads no.

“Nice shoes, by the way.” He was gone as quickly as he appeared.

You looked over to see Shawn doubled over, body shaking with laughter. “Shut up, he almost caught us.”

“Yeah, but he saw the shoes!”

“How did the universe put us together?”

“Oh stop.” He wrapped you in his arms once again. “You know you love me.”

---

Brian was the next to get curious about your relationship.

A knock on the door that connected you and Shawn’s hotel room made Shawn look up from his phone for the first time in a while. He was met with your sheepish smile and what he now affectionately called the “Y/N wants something wave.”  

He narrowed his eyes at you. “What do you want?”

“Can I borrow one of your shirts? All of mine are dirty.”

“You have like 1,000 shirts.”

“Well 995 of them are dressy shirts for my job and I’m out of comfy shirts to sleep in. Would you be willing to sacrifice one of yours so I may bask in its comfort?”

“I guess so,” he sighed, leaning over the side of his bed to grab a shirt.

“Thank you.” You smiled wider as he came towards you and threw the shirt over your face. “Ooh, it smells like you.”

“That could be because I wear it a lot.”

“Is it your favorite shirt?”

“Maybe.”

“Ooh, I feel special.”

“Go put a shirt on, weirdo.”

You disappeared behind the door for a second and slipped the shirt on. You stepped back into Shawn’s room without a second thought and suddenly, Shawn couldn’t take his eyes off of you.

The silence and his stare made you feel self conscious for a moment. Does he not want me to wear it?

“I actually have a clean shirt if you don’t want me to wear-”

“No, keep it on. It looks good on you.” Two months into your secret relationship and he was head over heels in love with you.

“Thanks . . .” Completely uncharted territory. Neither of you had any idea what to do from here.

“Do you wanna, uh, sleep here tonight?” He scratched the back of his neck.

“Yeah . . . I’d like that.”

He held his arm out for you to enter and closed the door behind you.

“I, uh, need to use the bathroom real quick.”

You stepped into the bathroom and braced yourself on the counter. “It’s no big deal, Y/N. He’s your soulmate. No need to get nervous.”

Shawn melted as the words played in his head. Now go out there and be the best damn soulmate there is.

You emerged from the bathroom like nothing happened, leaning on the doorway with your arms crossed. “Sup?”

“You didn’t flush the toilet.”

“Oh please, we both know I wasn’t actually going to the bathroom.”

Shawn held his hands up in defense, extending them out as you shuffled over to the bed and flopped down on it.

“I’m going to steal this shirt, by the way,” you said matter of factly.

“You should. It looks good on you.” He tugged you onto his chest so your head was laying over his heart.

“You’re gonna let me steal your favorite shirt, just like that?” You flipped over so your chin was resting on his shoulder. He nodded. “Damn, that was easy. You really do love me.”

You spent the next hour and a half talking about the random thoughts that crossed your mind. Minute by minute, your eyes got droopier and droopier, until you were fast asleep on top of Shawn. It was everything he wanted in life, right there in his arms.

He was almost asleep himself when there was a sharp knock on the door. He got up, careful not to move you too much and wake you up before opening the door.

“Hey, can I borrow some toothpaste?” a tired looking Brian asked, a yawn escaping his mouth in the fluorescent hotel hallway.

“Uh, yeah.” Shawn let Brian step inside, completely forgetting in his sleepy state that you were laying on the bed. He came out of the bathroom a second later to hand the toothpaste to Brian, who seemed completely shocked out of the daze he was in earlier. “What?”

“Is that Y/N?”

“Oh, yeah, she had a rough day so she came over here to vent. Ended up falling asleep before she went back to her own room.” He was getting better at coming up with these coverups.

“Really? She seemed like she was having a great day when I saw her earlier. I think the tie dye Crocs put her in a good mood.”

“I don’t know,” Shawn shrugged. “Maybe something went wrong after you saw her?”

“Maybe,” Brian nodded slowly, already putting the pieces together. “She’s not your soulmate, is she?”

“No, of course not. Just good friends.” The response came quick. Almost too quick.

“Okay, sure.” Brian took the toothpaste from Shawn with a skeptical look. “Thanks. I’ll give it back tomorrow morning.”

Shawn gave him a thumbs up and closed the door. He looked back to your sleeping form and couldn’t help but grin. He loved everything about you. How bad would it actually be if someone found out about you?

---

“Wanna ditch and get milkshakes?” You were standing in the corner of some celebrity’s mansion when Shawn asked the question. The Grammys afterparty wasn’t all that appealing to you, but it was part of the job and Shawn wanted you to go as his plus one since you were, as he claimed, his “best friend in the whole entire universe.”

“Hell yeah.” You pushed yourself off the wall, brushing off the back of your dress. “Where’re we going?”

“I dunno. What’s open this late?” He reached out to grab your hand, which you almost took before realizing where you were. His face dropped the slightest bit, wanting nothing more than to hold your hand and let the whole world know that he’d found his soulmate.

“I’m sure there’s something close by.” You nodded for him to follow you. “Wait, I have to ‘convince’ you to stay so I can say I tried to keep you here and Andrew doesn’t get mad at me.”

Shawn crossed his arms and nodded. “Can we ditch and get milkshakes?”

“No, we have to stay so you don’t seem rude.”

“But this party's boring and we could have a lot more fun somewhere else.”

“Shawn.”

“I could fire you . . .”

“Nice,” you said, grabbing his wrist and making your way through the crowd.

The cool air of the night was a relief from how hot it was inside but you found yourself pressing yourself into Shawn’s side anyways. He threw his arm over your shoulder as the two of you made your way to the edge of the driveway. The noise from the party faded into the background and neither of you said anything, enjoying one of the rare quiet moments you got together.

“Where to, m’lady?”

“You’re the one who wanted to leave.”

“Don’t act like you wanted to be there,” he teased, pulling away to grab your hand and twirl you under his arm.

“Well, I’m indecisive so you have the honors of picking the place.”

“I guess let’s go into the city and go to the first place that’s open.”

“Sounds good to me.” Your smile could light up the streets better than the streetlamps and he never wanted to see it go away.

“Take this, by the way.” Shawn shook his suit jacket off and put it over your shoulders. The red cloth was a little too big but he thought you looked stunning nonetheless.

“I’m not cold though.” You pulled your arms through the sleeves anyways.

“Let me do the boyfriend thing,” he pleaded as he rolled his shirt sleeves up.

“Fine. Only because you look really hot with your shirt sleeves rolled up.”

He smirked, making a mental note for the future.

You walked for a while before you stumbled across a McDonald’s, mumbling a might as well before opening the door for Shawn.

“Hey, I’m supposed to do that.”

“Oh, please. Let me be nice.”

The restaurant was empty, the only other person in there being the cashier who sleepily appeared from the kitchen as you looked at the menu. Shawn stepped up and ordered a milkshake before you stepped up and ordered a shake and fries. You whipped out your card and paid for it before Shawn could, to which he playfully glared at you.

“You pay for stuff all the time. Let me pay seven dollars this one time.”

He huffed, letting you know that you’d won. You smiled triumphantly as you sat down at a table and patted the space across from you. Shawn sat down and propped his elbow on the table to rest his head on his hand.  

“Why are you so pretty?” you mumbled as you admired him. Seven billion people in the world and you somehow were lucky enough to have Shawn Mendes as your soulmate. Who would’ve thought?

“Why are you so pretty?” He reached across the table to grab your hand.

“I asked first.” You intertwined your fingers with his.

Your order number was called before he could respond, causing him to let go of your hand and go up to the counter. He grabbed the food and turned around to catch you checking him out. “What’re you looking at?”

“I can’t help it! Do you have any idea how hot it is when you roll the sleeves of a button up all the way up to your elbows?”

He laughed as he pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “Would’ve done this a lot more often if I knew how much you liked it,” he said as he popped a fry into his mouth.

“Well, it’s super hot so please do it more often.” You took a sip of your milkshake. “And be more careful. Someone might see us.,” you said, referring to the act of affection he did moments before.

“We’re fine. The poor kid’s so tired they’re falling asleep back there.”

“Still. We’re in public and I really don’t want to lose my job.”

“Andrew won’t fire you. He just wants to scare us,” Shawn insisted, reaching over to tuck a piece of hair behind your ear. “Besides, if word does get out we can finally move forward with our lives. Get married? Really start our future together?” It had only been eight months but Shawn knew without a single doubt that he wanted to be with you. (The soulmate part helped a little bit too.)

“You really want to do that?”

“You’re my soulmate and the most amazing person I’ve ever met. Of course I want to get married! That is, as long as you want to.”

“I’d like that.”

The sound of your phone ringing ruined the moment, and you quickly fumbled to get it out of your pocket.

“Andrew, hey,” you said, watching Shawn’s face change from lovey-dovey to concerned and a little scared.

“Where are you guys?” Andrew’s voice came through the phone, slightly drowned out by the loud music playing in the background.

“I . . . uh . . .”

“It sounds really quiet over there. Did you guys sneak back to the hotel?” You cringed at what sounded like a disappointed tone as you tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t get you fired.

“Shawn wanted milkshakes so we’re at McDonalds,” you finally admitted.

“Dude!” Shawn whisper yelled.

“I tried to make him stay but he was insistent!”

“Can you put Shawn on the phone?”

“Sure,” you said, passing the phone to Shawn.

“Andrew, hi,” Shawn said in a voice that did not at all match the look on his face. You couldn’t hear what Andrew was saying but based on the intermittent “I know” and “yeah” you assumed he was getting lectured about ditching the party.

“We will. See you there.” He hung up with a sigh. “Our romantic time at McDonald’s is going to have to come to an end, my dear.”

“What’d he say?” You took your phone from his hand and stood up.

“Come back to the hotel or you’re gonna get it.” He took his milkshake in one hand and your hand in the other, letting you take the last few fries and throw out the cardboard.

“You’re going to get me fired one of these days.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It is a bad thing! I like my job, thank you very much.”

“I kid, I kid.”

His smile was all you needed in life. Job or not, you would always have Shawn, right?

---

“Here’s your boarding pass,” you said through a yawn, handing Shawn the slip of paper as you walked into the airport.

The pass you handed him had your name printed on it and he laughed to himself. He took the pass you had in your hand and switched it with the one he gave you.

“What’re you-”

“You gave me your pass.” He placed his hand on your lower back, subtly trying to speed you up so you could catch up to the rest of the group.

“Oh, sorry,” you muttered softly. “I’ve gotten three hours of sleep in the past two days. I’m so ready to get on the plane and take a freaking nap.”

“We gotta get on the plane first, sleepyhead.” You were dressed in leggings, an oversized t-shirt, and your tie dye Crocs. It was one of the few times he ever saw you dressed down on the job and he was loving it.

“Watch your hand, there’s people all around.”

“It’s really hard to take you seriously when you look like you’re about to pass out in my arms.”

“Shawn!”

“I’m helping out my tired best friend. Besides, it’s four in the morning, nobody’s around.” He didn’t move his arm, even as you got closer to the group. It was like he wanted to get caught. “And, if you really wanted me to move, you would’ve shaken my arm off by now.”

He knew you too well.

He kept his arm there as you checked your luggage and went through security, only letting go when absolutely necessary. It earned some strange looks from a couple team members but you were too tired to care. All you wanted to do was take a year long nap.

You ended sitting in the terminal with half the team while the other half went to get coffee. Shawn sat next to you, occasionally glancing around to see if he could steal a kiss from you when no one was looking.

It was another 30 minutes until you were supposed to board but you weren’t sure you would be able to keep your eyes open for much longer. Shawn noticed your bobbing head and drooping eyes and wrapped his arm around your shoulders, pushing your head so it was resting on his shoulder.

“I’ll wake you up when it’s time to board.”

“Thanks, babe,” you whispered, pressing a subtle kiss to his shoulder as your eyes fluttered closed.

“What are you guys gonna do when you find your real soulmates?” Brian asked casually, not even looking up from his phone. Shawn’s head snapped up at the mention of “soulmates” and Brian snickered. “You two act like you’re soulmates all the freaking time. What’s gonna happen when you find the actual one for you?”

“What if we are soulmates and we just didn’t tell anyone?” It was a stupid answer but he wasn’t sure what else to say. Was he really about to expose your relationship after keeping it a secret for all this time?

“You wouldn’t be able to keep that from me.” While Brian wasn’t entirely convinced his two friends weren’t soulmates, he didn’t have the proof to say definitively that they were.

“Fair enough.”

The conversation stopped there but Shawn couldn’t stop thinking about it. Eleven months together and you somehow managed to keep it a secret from everyone. It meant that you couldn’t progress your relationship as far as you wanted to though. Was it even worth it to keep it a secret anymore?

Your boarding group was called before he could dwell on it too long and Shawn was forced to wake you up. As much as he wanted to keep you asleep, he knew there was no getting you on the plane otherwise.

“Wake up, pretty girl,” he muttered as he pressed his face to the top of your head and rubbed his hand up and down your arm. You sighed and snuggled deeper into him, craving his warmth. “You can go back to sleep soon but we gotta get on the plane.”

You lifted your head slowly, blinking at the bright lights of the terminal. Shawn helped you stand up and grabbed your carry on and helped you stand up.

“I’m supposed to take your stuff. That’s my actual job,” you said, reaching for your backpack that he was holding.

“You’re tired, honey. Let me carry your bag.”

You complied, too tired and wanting nothing more than to knock out for the five hour flight. You put your head back on Shawn’s shoulder the second he sat down next to you on the plane, out cold for the entire ride.

---

Shawn Mendes Found His Soulmate? Everything You Need to Know About the New Couple.

What You Need to Know About Shawn Mendes’ Post Last Night.

Shawn Mendes Gets Cozy With His PA in Recent Instagram Post.

The headlines seemed to be never ending as they appeared on your phone. You could hear Shawn pacing in the other room and trying to explain to Andew what was happening. It was inevitable, you knew. But did it have to happen like this?

“Andrew, I don’t know what to tell you. It was an accident!” Shawn insisted, running a hand through his hair for the millionth time since the call started.

“Do you have any idea how bad this is, Shawn?” Andrew sighed on the other side of the line. “This is exactly what I told you was going to happen!”

Texts were blowing up your phone like crazy. All your friends were wondering since when Shawn Mendes was your soulmate and why you didn’t tell them earlier. That didn’t matter so much through as you realized that you were about to lose your job, and possibly Shawn.

“We’re soulmates, Andrew! What were we supposed to do? You said that she’d be fired if she was my soulmate. Y/N loves this job and she’s amazing at it. I didn’t want to lose her!”

You felt like you were going to throw up.

From what you could hear, the rest of the conversation didn’t go too well. Shawn sounded frustrated beyond belief as he tried to save your job and relationship, leaving you wondering if you would have either of those after today. You were so lost in thought that you didn’t hear him enter the living room and sit down next to you.

“Andrew wants to have a meeting in an hour,” he sighed. You bit your lip, trying to hold back tears as you stared at the ground.

“I’m getting fired, aren’t I?” you asked.

“I have no idea, honestly. I’m not sure how much authority I have over that.” He put his head in his hands. The uncertainty of the future was killing both of you.

“Should we just break up?”

Your voice was so quiet but Shawn heard the words loud and clear.

“What!?”

“We’re obviously going to get in a ton of trouble for this. What if Andrew says we have to end it? If this ends, I want it to be on my terms, not someone else’s.”

“Y/N, he can’t make us break up.”

“But what if this destroys your career? I wouldn’t be able to live with the fact that I was the reason you had to stop doing what you loved.”

“Y/N, you’re spiraling. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that I love more than you.”

“I just want you to be happy.” A single tear slipped down your face and Shawn wished he wasn’t the reason for it.

“You make me happy.”

You stared at each other for a moment before you threw yourself into his arms, latching on tight as sobs rang through your body. Shawn tucked his head into your neck, holding you tight and letting a few tears soak into your shirt.

“No matter what happens,” He pulled back to look directly into your eyes. “I will always love you. Nobody can make us end our relationship, okay? I don’t care if it ends my career, I will never want anything more than you.”

You nodded, not sure what else to say.

“Now, lets get yelled at by Andrew and tell him that this isn’t going to end.”

---

“Alright, let’s talk about this.” Andrew sat down across from you and Shawn, sounding calmer than he did an hour ago over the phone.

“Before you say anything, we’re not breaking up. I just wanna make that clear.” Shawn said, his thumb caressing your hand under the table.

“I’m not gonna make you break up. I just want to know why you didn’t tell me earlier.” His voice sounded strained, like he couldn’t believe that you would hide something like this from him for so long. “We could’ve prevented this whole squabble if you just told me earlier.”

“I didn’t want to lose my job,” you said. “I agreed that I wouldn’t be romantically involved with Shawn when you hired me and I broke that agreement on the first day.”

“The first day?” Andrew leaned forward in his seat.

“Yeah, we uh . . . we found out that night.”

“If I’m being honest, I’ve pretty much known for a while,” Andrew confessed. “I was waiting for one of you to tell me though. I didn’t want to pressure you.”

“But you said she could get fired-”

“I said that firing her could possibly be on the table, depending on the situation. Y/N’s a great team member and I know your relationship isn’t going to get in the way of her doing her job. I figured that if you were trying to keep it a secret for so long, you didn’t want anyone to know.”

“You knew the whole time?” Shawn leaned back in his chair, feeling a lot more relaxed now that he knew your job was safe.

“You guys were subtle but you weren’t that subtle. I pieced it together pretty quickly.”

“So I’m not getting fired?”

“No, I’m not going to fire you.”

You breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was a-okay. “Thank you, Andrew. Really, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“No need to thank me. Your work speaks for itself.” Andrew smiled and for the first time in a long time, you felt at ease. You didn’t have to hide anything anymore. “However, we do have to deal with this situation you two have created.”

---

“Ready?” Shawn asked, his thumb hovering over the “post” button.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” you smiled. A year of hiding your relationship from everyone you knew and you were finally going to share it with the world.

“Let’s do this.” He pressed the button and just like that, the picture was up.

shawnmendes "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." -Dr. Seuss

Taglist//Add yourself//Masterlist 

@fallinallincurls @lonelyreputation @yourstrulyamour @aelingalthynius @voguesir @shawnsreputation @drayshadow @otaculo @mendesficsxbombay @particularnarry @shawnaus @friendlyneighborhood-mendes @marshmallowtraver @shawn-youth @h0tcupid0 @callitropsis

Strikethrough means I couldn’t tag you. Let me know if you want to be removed!

[binniesthighs]

a/n: this piece is a lil gift for by lovely friend arina ♡ (ฉันรักคุณ & ich liebe dich!!) ♡ as well as my first submission for svtredroom!! happy valentines day to you all hehe and i hope ya remember that i love you too so! much! 

~in which getting stood up on Valentines Day goes a bit more differently than you expected 

Like the Movies 

Pairing: self insert, female reader x jeon wonwoo 

Genre: fluffy smut 

Tags: valentines day au, meet cute au, mentions of food and alcohol, sexual tension, hook-up, businessman!wonwoo, wonwoo being expensive eeee, softdom!wonwoo, sub!reader, kitchen sex, oral (f receiving), bondage, unprotected sex (stay safe!!), cockwarming hehe 

Word count: 2.9k 

Tagging: @hongnanglen-arina​ @svtredroom​

He had been sitting there for at least forty-five minutes--or longer--you didn’t quite know, seeing as you had only been there for forty-five minutes yourself. In the time that you had spent waiting, watching him had become a bit of your routine; he wasn’t watching, so it wasn’t like you had been disturbing anyone. 

You couldn’t imagine why someone like him would be sitting alone on a night like this. 

Someone must’ve been a fool to think that they could leave him at that table by himself, for at least forty-five minutes, to read over the menu for the tenth time like you had watched him do. 

Granted, you had also been sitting there for at least forty-five minutes. 

Perhaps the world was much crueler than you had expected...especially on this holiday supposedly all about love and connection. 

He had perfect posture: the kind that made you assume he must’ve been a businessman or someone else important who had to train themselves to keep a strong composure. The suit that he wore was plain, although it looked as if it had undoubtedly cost him a small fortune. Every corner and pleat of the fabric had been pressed professionally and not a speck of dust or dander seemed to cling to it. His raven black hair too looked effortlessly tussled with the stray strand here and there that must have been planned. Those slender fingers of his pushed up his wire framed glasses now and then. Under the dim lighting of the restaurant, his eyes of a dark brown reflected a color of dark obsidian: both cold and testing. 

To his side, he had a tall glass of wine that he had barely touched: you thought to yourself maybe he just liked how it looked here; like he really was just waiting, and not sitting alone. 

“Have you decided if you would like to order while you wait miss?” 

Your waiter with a wispy beard leaned in to speak to you over the noise of the room. 

“Ah-no. Not yet. I think I want to wait a little longer. I think that they should be here soon.” 

“Of course,” He bowed. 

Across the room, his waiter approached him as well, likely whispering the same question. He nodded, and shooed him with the wave of his hand. Lithe fingers toyed with the stem of his glass, he he rose his head. 

In your surprise, he had turned his head over to your direction of the room, and you suddenly became much more interested in the small assortment of white and cream colored roses on your table. You could feel his gaze, but you couldn’t bring up the bravery to meet it. 

Under the table, your watch ticked tiny and nearly silent ticks as you waited for the minutes to pass by even farther. 

How long is it acceptable to wait until you accept that they’re never coming? 

In many ways, you felt pathetic and crinkled like the browning edges of those very flowers in the glass vase before you. Who in their right mind would stand someone up on Valentines Day? Out of all days of the year? 

You thought to yourself that it must’ve taken some kind of evil and unfeeling person to do so...and you were the fool to think that you would’ve thought they would have showed up. For a moment, you had thought that perhaps it would be better if you left, marched right out of that door into the winter cold, gotten a taxi to the grocery store to buy discounted valentines day candy and cherry cola, then ate it all until you gave yourself a headache. As the night drew longer, that didn’t seem like the worst idea. 

“Ma’am? I’m sorry, but we ask that if you are going to sit that you order an item...we have a waiting list still and we would prefer if you got your money’s worth.” 

You could see the remorse in your waiters eyes. Even he felt bad for you. 

Your eyes drifted to the lobster bisque that you had assumed you would have ordered had they showed up. 

Discount candy? Or lobster bisque? 

“--One order of the Burrata please.” 

He had slipped into the chair across with you as swift as a shadow, and you hadn’t even seen him coming. From this close, he was even more breathtaking. His broad shoulders seemed to take up the whole space of the seat before you, and his creeping smile held a type of mystery that was intriguing and terrifying. 

The waiter himself looked a bit surprised. “One...order of the Burrata then.” 

The man sighed, then took off his glasses with finesse. 

“It looks like you and I are in the same predicament.” His tone was deep, but still gentle. “I don’t think its fair to be alone on a night like tonight. I hope you don’t mind that I invited myself over.” 

“N-no. Not at all.” Your throat felt dry. 

Rather than respond, he smiled out in a grin that made you instantly enthralled. Even though you didn’t know him much, you knew him to be the kind of man that could wrap you around his little finger. Had it been any other day of the year, you wouldn’t have given him the time of day, but, today wasn’t any other day of the year. 

“I assume you already know what you’d like to order?” 

“Mm. Yes. I think I’ve looked over the menu just as many times as you have.” 

He folded his arms over his chest with a little chuckle. 

“I’m Jeon Wonwoo. And you are?” 

“Y/n.” 

“Seems like it there’s a reason that we’re both here at the same time, and...by ourselves.” 

“Not...anymore.” You took a sip of your own wine with heart racing. 

“You’re right.” He rose his own glass into the air which he had taken from his table. “To being alone...together.” 

»»————-　♡　————-««

Your heeled shoes fell to the hardwood floors of his apartment with a clack. His whole home seemed to be swelling with the same energy that he held about himself. It was simple, minimal, no room for anything that looked sentimental or unbecoming for someone as proper as him. The layout was mostly open with each of the rooms connecting to the other. Every item in the apartment seemed to be either gunmetal grey, or black. His kitchen was large for a relatively small apartment, and had a centerpiece of a large black marble island. 

“Espresso?” He offered as he pulled at his shirt collar and tie. 

“Sure.” 

You wondered about you, tracing your fingertips over the leather couches and spotless upholstery of his dining table chairs. The far wall of the apartment was made of floor to ceiling windows that gave a magnificent view of the city in all it’s nighttime spectral glow. Millions of lights made up the cityscape and twinkled like faraway stars from the height of his 17th floor home. From here, you could take in the whole city fully and it filled you with an unknown sense of tranquility. 

Behind you his stainless steel espresso maker made a little humming sounds, and then the air was filled with the nutty aroma of the coffee. You walked over, feeling the cold touch of the wood under your pantyhose. He placed the small cup on a saucer and presented it to you. The smell filled up your senses and it was perfectly foamy on the top. From the quality of the brew, you assumed this must’ve been his hobby. 

The both of you drank your shots in silence, and you waited to feel the caffeine rush though your body. 

You placed the cup down, “Thank you.” 

He chuckled a little, then rose his finger to wipe a bit of the foam from the corner of your mouth. Instinctually you licked your lips after with the ghostly touch of him lingering there. He licked the remnants off his finger. All at once, you felt yourself grow weaker under the weight of his obsidian eyes. A tension too held in the air as he leaned his body lower and lower...

He tasted like coffee, much as you had expected yourself to taste as well. It was startling, but he was still gentle in the way that he had pulled your frame into his body with fingers splayed across your back. On your teetering tip-toes, you struggled to keep your balance returning the heat of his mouth. He had been smiling devilishly too as his hands explored your whole body: from the curves of your hips and your shoulder blades, all the way down to your ass which he grabbed at in handfuls. It was no mystery that he had hardened against your stomach and the feeling made you keen even further in his arms. 

A deep groan vibrated his chest when your own hands explored the width of his back and clawed lightly at the fabric of his suit jacket hiding the rippling muscles underneath. He told you to continue by kissing a trail down the side of your cheek to your jaw, then to your neck where he sucked and kissed wet little reminders of adoration into the skin. Slowly, your hands snuck under the jacket and to his crinkling shirt. 

In one motion, he lifted you by the back of your thighs to the stone counter which felt startlingly cold under your nearly bare legs. Here, you were allowed a better angle to throw your arms over his shoulders and push off the thick fabric that kept you at bay. You granted yourself one little peek between the kisses to take up the way that his arm muscles flexed the white cotton. He did the same with hasty fingers going to untie the thin bow that held up your blouse. His fingers tickled you as he tore the shirt up and off your head to throw it somewhere you had no idea where. After, he set to work unclasping your bra with ease, and the same needy hands cupped at your breasts firmly, tweaking your buds in-between his index and middle. Further, he traversed down your chest to suck harshly at your hardened nipples, not even caring when his teeth had grazed them slightly. 

Your arousal had become painfully obvious in your underwear constricted by your tights. You couldn’t help but squirm feeling yourself getting wetter by the second. His teasing gaze never left you while he looked up at you with your perky nipples on his tongue. Shameless moans and breathy gasps from you filled the wide and open apartment, and got lost in the empty corners of the room. 

You felt dizzy and breathless once he had decided to stop and opted to tear his tie off his neck. 

“Can I tie your hands with this? Please?” He kissed the words into your neck and nibbled them into your ear. 

You let out a little whimper saying “yes” and offered your wrists to him. 

You would have never imagined it, but the blue silk looked even more lovely than you would’ve guessed. His eyes darkened too seeing how helpless you had become like this. It as as if he couldn’t help himself: he held your tied hands up to his lips where he kissed at your fingers and palms, giving them gifts of his pleasure to them. 

He lowered you back to lay flat on the marble counter and the cold sensation made your whole body shiver wonderfully. 

“Just relax.” He cooed while kissing down your stomach and fiddling with the zipper of your skirt. 

The heat of your core had become unbearable waiting for him, and each of his teasing touches against your inner thighs and on your sides sent you spinning for more. 

You were colder without your clothes, but soon he had granted you the rub of his thumb on your clit over your panties and a mischievous smile spread across his lips. 

“God, you’re gorgeous.” He said, pulling your thin panties to the side to take a peek. He granted one more finger to rub over you directly and mix with your slick. 

“Mm-fuck.” Your hips twisted with each of his touches and your hands writhed in the knot of his tie. 

Wickedly slow, he removed your panties from your legs, then stopped to let his hot breath swirl over your twitching clit. 

“Such a good girl.” He permitted you one kiss which elicited pathetic and needy moans from your mouth. 

Wonwoo began his tantalizing lapping: thick and slow stripes with his wetted mouth that made you tremble. It was criminal how wet he had made you, and it was obscene how each of his kisses sounded against your clit. His cat-like eyes tested you further as if to say watch what a beautiful mess I make of you. 

The mixture of cold stone on your back and the heat of your waist was terribly confusing, but you couldn’t help but get lost in it. 

“Don’t you look so pretty like this?”  

Your voice wavered and you lost yourself further in him while he continued. Your hands did feel trapped--you wanted nothing more to mess up that hair of his, and make it all yours to take in sinfully...but he didn’t grant you that pleasure. 

It didn’t take him long to build up your orgasm, and each flick over your bud, he drew you closer and closer into melting into a shaking mess over his mouth. He built you up until you were painfully sensitive, then smiled with his gorgeously white smile when you came on his tongue, even grinding slightly to ride your release which he reveled in. 

“Did you like that sweetheart?” 

Airy chuckles shook your chest and you tried your best to calm your trembling body. 

“Y-yes.” 

“Here, sit up.” 

Wonwoo grabbed you by your arms to help you up, and admittedly, you felt a bit dizzy yourself. 

“Grab on.” 

He prompted you to wrap yourself around him, which you were a bit hesitant of, but his now warm smile assured you that all would be well. 

“Don’t worry.” He simply soothed. 

You did so, even getting a little embarrassed over your arousal that must’ve been rubbing off on his clothes. 

He walked the two of you over to his velvety looking couch, having you sit on his lap. Even after this while, he was still as hard as before. He returned his mouth to paint kisses into yours once more, filling your mouth with adoring comments in between each one. 

“I can’t believe that you’re all mine tonight.”  

His hands returned to your breasts to kneed over them more carefully this time. 

“Would you like to ride my dick princess?” 

It had been absentminded, but you had been grinding into his lap and against his swelling dick. 

“Y-yes. Please. I-I want to.” 

Wonwoo carefully helped you off his lap to remove himself of his own pants, then guided your hips over his hardened length which was much longer and girthier than it had appeared to be hidden under his pants. 

“Take it as slow or as fast as you want, okay? We have all night.” 

Once more his smiling kisses peppered your mouth, then you lowered yourself over him, and it was near euphoric how tightly you took him in. It was effortless in the way that the tip of his head would graze your cervix just like this. Both of you groaned out your symphony of pleasure. 

“Oh fuck--” His eyes rolled. “You’re unreal.” 

Wonwoo’s fingers dug deeply into your lower back, guiding the return of your hips over his length all the while giving love bites to the soft nape of your neck. Connected with him like this, the stranger that you barely knew, you felt a sense of closeness unlike anything you had felt before. He must have put a spell on you from the way each one of his kisses and the pull of your lip by his teeth made you fall deeper into him.

Your thighs straddled him harder in all of your want: you wanted to make him one with you, to have him all to yourself even though you knew he wasn’t yours to keep. The way that his faint grunts wavered in your ears was too much for you to handle. You weren’t alone. On the night that you thought you hadn’t been wanted, he made you feel as if you were the only one there was. 

He hushed into you, “Cum for me, beautiful.” 

Your hands now untied, you raked them though his hair just as you had wanted, chasing your orgasm roughly while you made a mess of him just as he did for you. It tightened in your core, and you used every last shred of your energy to maintain your speed over him. It was exhausting, and your legs shook the closer you got. 

It flushed over your whole body, and dripped down your legs: it was electricity through each of your extremities, and then it was heat, warm as the sun that ran from the tips of your ears to your neck still throbbing from his lips pulling there, hard, as he reached his own orgasm that was left throbbing inside your walls. 

A wave of exhaustion swept over you while you clung to him and he to you. He really was unimaginably handsome this close. The side of his hand caressed down the side of your dewy face. 

“Would you like to be alone together...more?” 

[slippinmickeys]

Head Canon AU Mulder and Scully as Archeologist and Scientist at a dig in ruins in the Amazon.

Anon! Thank you so much. I saw this this morning and got that rare inspiration wherein I launched myself at this, and kind of love what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it! (It is unbeta-ed)

1. The University was being cheap. That was the first thing. Piggybacking off the hard work he’d put in: years worth of toil to arrange this meticulously set-up dig. If they wanted to send a team to study advanced medical uses of the vast biome of the Amazon rainforest, they’d do far better sending this approaching medical team into the interior. His team -- his dig -- was practically on the outskirts. The forest around them had already been explored and researched, catalogued and referenced. The real biological finds -- the cures for Alzheimer’s, cancer -- would be found in the unknown, in those places even the aboriginal people hadn’t stepped. The University was being cheap, plunking in a science team on a completely separate mission with his own, just to save some cash. That was the bottom line.

If it hadn’t been so oppressively hot so early in the morning, he might not have been quite so irritated. As it was, he stood on the bank of the river and ran an already sweat-soaked handkerchief over the back of his neck, willing the putting little outboard Evinrude to chug a little more quickly upstream. It was hot and stiflingly humid, and he’d wanted to be at the dig two hours ago, before the heat of the day set in. Too late, that.

The incoming medical team -- if you could call it a team -- seemed to consist of only one person. A short-statured wisp of a woman (if the high, top-knotted messy red bun was any indication of sex) who sat low in the backseat of the approaching riverboat, surrounded by expensive-looking boxes filled with technology that probably wouldn’t operate well in the humidity. He blew an irritated raspberry and shuffled his feet in the muddy squelch of the riverbank.

The stout block of the driver hefted a rope at Mulder as they approached, which Mulder caught easily and wrapped around a nearby tree.

“Tudo vai bem?” Mulder inquired as the man cut the engine and grunted an affirmative.

The passenger stood, keeping a hand on the side of the little tin vessel, its stern fishtailing out into the current. Mulder stepped up and held out a hand, which she grasped gratefully. He pulled and she took a confident leap, landing lightly on the ground next to him.

“Dr. Mulder, I presume?” she said on a light breath, looking up at him with a small smile, having to crane her neck to do so. She had astonishingly blue eyes, a color he’d only seen once, in an ice-cave in the far north. He shook his head after a moment and realized that he was still holding her hand. He dropped it, nodding.

“I thank God, doctor, I have been permitted to see you,” she finished, quoting the journals of Henry Morton Stanley.

Mulder outright laughed. He was smitten immediately.

2. “Be careful with that!” she’d barked, as Langly handed out her equipment to a couple of waiting locals that had been working on the project for three years.

Mulder held up a calming hand.

“You’re working with archeologists, Dr. Scully,” he said softly, “my team has the gentlest hands in the Southern Hemisphere.”

She quirked one side of a grin at him even as she threw a worried look over her shoulder at her equipment.

“Come on,” he said, giving her sleeve a gentle tug, “let me show you around.”

He showed her the latrine first, watching her face carefully for a reaction, but she just nodded nonchalantly and kept walking. Then the mess, and the tent where she’d be working when she wasn’t in the field.

“And this,” he said, taking her to an empty patch of jungle, “is where your bunk will be. My apologies that it’s not set up. There’s no female barracks and we were told you wouldn’t be here until next week. The radio communique we got this morning informing us of your arrival came as something of a surprise.”

“I’m eager to get started,” was all she said in response.

Mulder walked on and she followed him.

“I’m afraid the only empty cot is in my tent,” he said sheepishly. “Dr. Byers headed home for a funeral last month and we’re not expecting him back until March. I’ll be sure yours is set up right away, but takes some time as we have to build a platform first. Have you done jungle field work before?”

“I flew here from Borneo,” she said. “It’s not a problem.” With that, she flipped back the tent’s outer curtain and ducked inside like she owned the place.

She never did move out.

3. Scully’s father had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and hadn’t lived long enough to see her graduate from medical school. She would not let it happen to anyone else if she could help it, she’d said. She worked like a woman possessed.

Against all advice, she would march into the jungle alone and be gone for days at a time. When her grad students finally arrived, they couldn’t keep up with her, and she’d frequently leave them at base camp to work on the equipment (which, Mulder was not really that pleased to report, did have a tendency to malfunction in the miasmic humidity and heat of the Amazon basin. It wasn’t, he admitted, that easy always being right). Occasionally she could be talked into taking one of the local hires with her, but she felt bad taking workers that Mulder’s project funding paid for, and anyway, they weren’t trained in her science, she would tell him.

“I wish you wouldn’t go out on your own,” he murmured into the cup of her ear one night, a trickle of sweat running from her hairline and onto the tip of his nose.

She turned on the cot, a feat, considering its fairly narrow dimensions, and pressed her forehead against his, the flimsy pillow damp beneath them both.

“I’m careful,” she whispered, and threw a leg over him, her dewy mons pressing into the naked flesh of his thigh.

“It’s not safe-” he began to protest, but she’d captured his lips with her own and he fell headlong into the lush heat of her -- whatever concern that had been on the tip of his tongue lost to her rapacious mouth as it trailed a slick path down his torso and latched, vitae and greedy, around the rigid length of him. It was bliss. She was bliss. If he had ever thought he knew love, he was wrong.

4. The whole camp knew they were together. Her tent had become a kind of catchall storage area, and it’s not like nylon canvas could contain the breathy moans of their pleasure. That and she’d just plunk down and sit on his lap whenever the only camp chair available around the mess tent was the one with the tricky leg.

Anyway, what happened in the field stayed in the field, unless it was up for peer review.

“Are you guys going to get married or something?” Mulder’s newest grad student asked one night when the air had actually cooled enough to take the edge off of everybody’s temper. Beer had arrived with their latest resupply and Frohike had syphoned off some LN2 to cool it and it was frosty and rich and maybe the best thing Mulder had ever tasted aside from Scully’s skin.

Scully, from atop his lap, merely shrugged and took a leisurely sip of brew. Mulder pictured it sliding down her throat, the cold blooming into her belly and he dry swallowed, then leaned forward and kissed her shoulder.

“God, don’t be such a newb,” drawled Langly, pressing his glasses into his face compulsively.

Mulder knew what Langly meant. They’d all seen their share of field romances that fizzled the second your boots stepped back onto University soil, though something about Scully felt different; the way their minds worked together, the way she felt in his arms.

“I’m married to the job, bro,” Scully said, but reached back and squeezed the skin just above Mulder’s hip. He kissed her shoulder again.

“D’you tell her about the helo data?” Frohike asked, looking at Mulder from his own camp chair. The little man sat low and back in it with his shoulders hunched up, and Mulder thought he looked a bit like a toad, or an ogre guarding a burial mound.

They’d gotten the funding from a billionaire alumni to fly a helicopter over the whole of the basin in this sector of the Amazon, using light detection radar. Basically, it shot out billions of lasers as it flew overhead that were able to penetrate the rainforest’s canopy and map the landscape below.

“You had a chance to analyze it?” Scully asked, craning her head to look at him squarely.

He nodded, smiling. He’d been saving this to tell her especially.

“And you were able to combine it with the satellite data?” she asked, excited.

He nodded again. “Sóis,” he said, smiling. The settlements they’d found took their name from the Portuguese word for ‘suns.’ They were round villages, all with remarkably similar layouts, with elongated mounds circling a central plaza. When seen from above, they looked like the rays of the sun. “Pre-Columbian.”

She jumped off his lap, spilling half her beer in the process. It dripped down the bare skin of her knee, unnoticed.

“Are you kidding?!” her excitement made him giddy.

“It gets better,” he said, and she cocked her head, waiting for him to elaborate. “They’re laid out like the cosmos,” he said, giving her a full-watt smile as he rose out of the chair to stand in front of her. “We’re already plotted three different villages, all laid out in the exact design of southern constellations.” Her mouth dropped open. “Canis Major, Hydra, and Crux Australis.”

She launched herself into his arms, practically squealing -- something he’d never heard her do -- and he held her, looking around at the smiling faces of the other scientists in the mess. The find would make his career, and her excitement for him touched him profoundly.

5. Martim, one of their local hires, came careening into camp, breathing so hard he had to put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. His face was a mask of anxiety and fear. Mulder felt dread bloom in his gut, and he dropped what he was doing -- actually dropped the computer tablet he was holding to the wet forest floor -- and ran over to the man, grasping him firmly by the shoulder.

“Martim?” he said, “O que aconteceu?”

“Dr. Scully,” the man heaved, his accent thick. He could still scarcely breathe.

“Where is she?” Mulder didn’t have the emotional wherewithal to translate from English. “What happened?”

“Hurt,” the man wheezed, “she’s hurt.”

It took nearly thirty minutes to assemble a rescue party, and they had to let Martim rest for a bit and give him food and water before he could take them back out into the jungle where he’d left Scully. Mulder was beside himself by the time they finally started off, impatient as a recalcitrant child, sick to his stomach with worry.

It took three hours to hack into the area where she’d been doing her search, and a further twenty minutes of calling her name before they heard her weak call back.

Mulder raced ahead without thought to obstacle or danger, and skidded to a halt when he was practically on top of her. She was leaning back against the base of a large tree, holding onto her right ankle, which she had elevated on her left knee. There was a length of rope beside her and a climbing harness around her butt and waist.

“Scully,” he panted, falling to his knees beside her.

She smiled at him weakly, her face pale and sweaty.

“I think it’s broken,” she hissed, pointing at her ankle.

“What happened?” Mulder asked, as the rest of the rescue party trundled in behind him, pulling off backpacks and other equipment. Someone handed Scully a bottle of water.

“I saw a fungus I’d never seen before growing on the bark midway up this tree,” she said after guzzling half a bottle of Arrowhead. “The carabiner failed on my descent.”

“Oh, Scully,” Mulder said, reaching out to tuck a damp lock of titian hair behind her ear.

“I got the sample, though,” she said with a tired, but victorious glint in her eye.

They weren’t back into camp until well after nightfall.

Mulder picked her up from the field stretcher and carried her into their tent, depositing her gently onto her cot. Langly came in behind him and handed him two fresh cold packs before ducking back out without a word. Mulder popped them to activate the chemicals and pressed them gingerly on either side of Scully’s ankle.

“I’m going to call for a medical evac,” he said quietly.

“Don’t you dare,” she said, grabbing at his hand and squeezing it. “Mulder, don’t you fucking dare.”

“Scully, we’ve got to follow protocol here,” he said, trying not to sound put out.

“Do not take me out of the field, Mulder. Promise me.”

“Scully-”

“Promise me!”

“How will you even work?” he said a little desperately.

“It doesn’t need setting or surgery,” she said, gesturing to her injured limb.

“How do you know that without an X-ray?”

“I’m a medical doctor,” she said, by way of explanation, “I can secure it with supplies we have on hand. I can work from my cot for a few days and make crutches out of tree limbs. Please, Mulder,” she said, and he could feel himself relenting, even if it would get him in trouble. “Please.”

He sighed, and she smiled up at him weakly, though he didn’t say a thing.

“Thank you,” and closed her eyes, relaxing into her pillow, “thank you.”

Six weeks later the canvas of their tent ripped back and the greenish glow of leaf-filtered sunlight shone into the murky, damp depths. Mulder rose from where he was resting on his cot and looked to the entrance. Scully stood there, armpit resting on her improvised crutch, her hair a rich autumn frizz around her head. Her eyes were wide and shining, and there was something incandescent about her in that moment -- an energy pulsing from her that lit his soul from within.

“Scully-” he started, but she held up a hand to silence him. Her hands were shaking.

“I found it,” she said, her voice breathy with the triumph of discovery, “Mulder, I found it.”