#fully my one friend when i said i dyed my hair a little darker was like okay i thought you did something cause you look more like your mom

[adaine-party-wizard]

oh my grandma does NOT like my hair darker. i told her i dyed it a little darker cause i was bored but i didn’t wanna bleach my hair cause that’s high maintenance and how it got fucked up last time so i tried a cool tone brown and that i really like it. her response was “but you look so good blonde too”

important: my grandma is blonde and my mom has dark brown hair. i already look like my mom. i look extra like my mom now. this isn’t about my hair colour

[ploxpoke]

Crazy in Love Ch 1.

No use of y/n, reader is only referred to as you and is going to be g/n.

No smut for this first chapter, bc I'm still feeling out how I want this to go. Mention of substance use but no usage, slight violence

______________________________________________________________

You had just gotten a frantic call from Yuji's phone and you assumed the worst. Your heart sank to your feet when you heard the words ‘Yuji’s in trouble.’ It was like the wind was knocked right out of your chest and the grip you had on your phone tightened. You tried to ask who was on the phone but you were just talked over. All you were told was directions and that your help was needed to save Yuji.

 So, of course you dropped everything and left immediately. Once you had gotten there you had initially wondered why Yuji would be at a school instead of a hospital or doctors office, and why you were needed to help him but you didn't question if further as a man with white hair and a blindfold greeted you and had you follow him.

 "I honestly didn't expect you to show up” He says with an almost smug grin “but thank you for it” He starts to walk towards one of the buildings around the school grounds, talking as he walked “ My name is Satoru Gojo, I am one of Itadori’s teachers, and as much as I hate to admit it, I need your help.” Gojo went on to vaguely explain that all you needed to do was talk to Itadori, and you frowned. You gave him a curious look and almost objected but you didn’t. Instead you asked “How is that going to help? You said this was urgent, shouldn’t he be in the hospital?”

Gojo just laughed and shook his head “This is something doctors can’t help with unfortunately. I just need you to talk to him, give him an anchor. Itadori really is lucky to have known you as long as he has. It makes you a perfect candidate. "  Gojo led you down a hall. He greeted several other students and walked towards a door with several seals on it. He paused for a moment before looking at you "I can’t go in with you but I should warn you, you won’t be seeing your Itadori. Just be careful and if anything goes south yell for me.” He puts a hand on your shoulder and looks down at you “You’re his last hope and our last ditch effort to save him.” Gojo’s tone had shifted to a darker, more serious one and it made you worry even more.

You turn slowly to the door and slowly open it, entering with caution. When you enter the room, you feel a chill run up your body and you sense a dark aura. You take deep, stressed breaths as you look around "Yuji? Are you here?" You say in a forced calm tone. You look around and can’t see more than a few feet in front of you. Your breath hitches as you realize you’ll have to enter fully to find Itadori and your calm demeanor falters for a second before you force it back.

 As you step further into the dark room you look around and you see movement in the darkness. You feel a sense of dread creeping up your spine but you press on. You slowly walk further into the room when you hear a noise from behind you and before you have the chance to turn around, something tackles you to the ground. When you regain your bearings you realize the thing that had pushed you down was in fact Itadori and you let out a small sigh of relief.

You look up at your friend that you love so much, and you hit him hard across the face. You glare up at him yelling "What the hell is wrong with you? Get off" Little did you know, that was not currently Yuji Itadori, but Ryomen Sukuna. The king of curses looked down at you with a disgusted expression. He raises a fist, is about to end you when his body slumps forward, landing on you.

Itadori regains control of his body and just lays limply on top of you. You look at him with wide eyes unsure of what to do. When he finally sits up you push him off you and start to yell at him “You fucking jerk! What the hell is wrong with you! I was worried that you were hurt or dying and you pull this? Is this some sort of joke!?” You continue to yell at Itadori until you see him looking really dazed. You crouch down next to him and nudge him.  When he looks up at you, you tilt your head and mumble “Are you okay? I was worried…” Itadori nods slightly and  leans his head on you before quietly giving a half-assed “I’ll tell you later”

Sukuna watches from within Itadori, seeing and hearing all he does. Sukuna recognizes you, the way you look, the way you sound, and your soul. The stark resemblance and the strike of familiarity he got when he looked at you made him feel emotions he’d forgotten he had. He knew you, even if it wasn't the you in front of him. The you he had known was a shrine maiden he’d taken a liking to and became obsessed with when he was still human. You were his once, and he wanted you back after all these hundreds of years. Sukuna decided then and there you were going to be his again and he’d manage to convince his young vessel one way or another to help in his conquest of you.

Itadori gives you a sorry look “Are you okay?”

“Am I alright? he asks!?” you give him an incredulous look and glare at him “What the hell is wrong with you!” you yell at him, clearly scared “What the fuck happened?” 

Yuji looks genuinely guilty and winces at your reaction, understanding why you're so angry and afraid. His voice is soft and apologetic as he tries to explain "I’m not sure how to explain it to you..." He takes a deep breath and explains who Sukuna is and how he ended up as his vessel. “I know I sound crazy but I need you to trust me, I swear I’m telling you the truth” He pleads with you and reaches out to you only for you to pull away from him with a fearful expression.

Sukuna watches from inside Yuji's mind, and begins his manipulation of his vessel. He starts to whisper dark, disturbing, and lustful words about you to Itadori, who ignores them to the best of his ability. Sukuna sees the conflict in your eyes and can’t help but laugh. He knows you’ll be his sooner rather than later and it amuses him that you think you have any choice.

"L-Look, I just need you to trust me-" Itadori says as he, again, tries to reach for you

“No! I will not look anything!” you stand up and back away from him “Are you on something? What reason should I believe there’s some fucking demon-curse thing in your mind!” You stand up and start to get even more scared and angry “And even if I did believe you, what could I even do to help?” You say in a broken voice and Itadori’s expression falls as he realizes how crazy he must sound.

Itadori’s voice is soft and pleading as he speaks "Please, just hear me out. I promise I’m not on anything and I’m not lying to you.. All I want is for us to talk, I want you to understand that’s all” He puts his hands up in a surrendering motion, as he takes a small step towards you. “I just need you to listen to me, I swear-”

“No I won’t listen! I should leave right now.” You almost scream at him, hands shaking “I don't want to hear anything you have to say right now!” Your voice breaks and you stare down at the ground. You take deep, shallow breaths and you sigh deeply. “I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me it’s the truth” Yuji holds his hand out to you and keeps eye contact with you. “It is the truth. Crazy as it sounds, I swear it is”

(No clue on what I'm going to do next but I'll figure it out. If anyone has any suggestions I'll gladly take them. I'll eventually get to smut but idk how to do that transition)

[rengoku-loves-you]

rengoku x confident!reader (who showers him in kisses)

(not requested by anyone, i just wanted to write a little something for myself! i’ve seen plenty of x readers where the reader is shy and hesitant and rengoku ends up confessing first, but since that just isn’t me, i decided to write my own! enjoy, lovelies!)

rengoku has liked you since he first met you. you’re straightforward and blunt - he likes that! he has a hard time grasping double meanings, so he appreciates that you don’t beat around the bush. as much as he enjoys talking to his fellow slayers, it can be exhausting trying to figure out exactly what he said that set sanemi off, or trying to decipher the strange poems gyomei seems to speak in. 

with you, it’s easy. refreshing. you don’t waste words. you don’t let time whittle away by talking pleasantries and nonsense. you say what needs to be said and nothing more or less. at the same time, whenever he talks, you listen like it’s the most important thing you’ve ever heard, unbothered by his volume or intensity.

not many people do that, and he treasures every moment with you.

it’s unfortunate that you don’t see each other often, he thinks. while he patrols his region, you’re everywhere else, hunting demons in other regions and only crossing paths with him when your missions overlap. but that means he treasures those chance meetings even more, remembering them happily and always looking forward to the next time you cross paths. he’s grown extremely fond of you in a little less than a year.

which is why, when he sees you on the horizon and recognizes you, he waves with both hands and rushes to greet you with a smile.

something is different this time, though. he doesn’t know it, but you’ve been looking for him for a few days now. you’ve been attempting to track him on his mission, hoping to catch him before he slays the demon and heads off again. 

see, on your last mission, you realized something. you’d had a near-death experience, like many before. but for some reason this one had shaken you more than the others. it had been a fire-based demon, and when it touched its fingers together and blew, fire spewed from its lips. you’d been burned badly, but you managed to defeat it in the end, watching as it screamed about phoenixes and rebirth. you’d been afraid it would somehow rise from its ashes.

it didn’t. it burned out like a candle, crying about how alone it was until the very end. 

and then for a brief, nauseating moment, the demon’s dull yellow hair had become brilliant gold with crimson flickering at the tips, and you watched rengoku’s face crumble in front of your eyes.

you didn’t know why. you didn’t have much, you were used to losing. rengoku was a friend. one you treasured, but still just a friend, and a pillar at that. you were sure you would end up dying before him.

but in that moment, hallucinating as you were, the idea of rengoku dying before you, dying alone, hit you like a train.

and when you see him again, hurrying towards you with the biggest smile on his face, the lowering sun making his golden hair glow like true flames, haori flapping dramatically behind him, you realize why. somehow, someway, you’ve developed something for him without noticing.

you step forward, and then you’re running to meet him halfway. you see him falter, confused. normally, you wait for him to come to you, but this time you don’t want to wait. even when rengoku comes to a near stop, you don’t slow. you’re close enough to see his lips form the beginning of your name.

then you crash into him, and even though you know he could easily withstand it he lets you take him down with hardly more than a sharp breath, rolling in a tangle of limbs. when you finally stop, you’re lying on your back, rengoku sprawled on your chest with your arms tight around him. if he were normal, you’d probably be crushing him, but he merely lies there for a long moment, breathing with you.

eventually, he squirms, and you loosen enough that he can push himself up, sitting on your stomach while your hands fall to his hips. he crosses his arms and raises a brow at you, but he’s smiling.

“what was that about?” he asks, grass tangled in the spun gold he calls hair, dirt smudged on his face and uniform. you stare. it’s only after he calls your name, his amused smile turning worried, that you remind yourself to speak.

“i missed you,” you say, smiling at him. he blinks at you. and then he blinks again, lips parting. and then he presses them together, grinning again as a huff of laughter escapes through his nose. he leans forward, strands of sunlight spilling over his shoulders.

“i missed you, too,” he says. “it’s only been a week, my friend. you’re not normally this excited to see me.” he lifts a hand to swipe away a streak of brown on the tip of his nose, then lets it fall back into the crook of his elbow.

“well, i realized some things,” you admit, starting to rub your thumb over the jut of his hip through the uniform. he glances down briefly, then back at your face, curious but not bothered. you chuckle, moving your other hand up to the back of his neck, gently tugging him down while you lean upward. he goes willingly, and you stop when your noses nearly touch. 

from this close, he has to look at you, not the space around you like he normally does. his crimson-gold gaze is intense, full of questions and expectations. you’re not being yourself, he thinks. you aren’t saying what you mean, and your actions are confusing him. you notice him prepare to speak, shifting and furrowing his brows.

you sit up a little further, brushing your lips against the corner of his mouth, because you only say what needs to be said.

when you pull away, his eyes are wide, so wide he looks like an owl. you laugh, releasing his neck to lean back on your elbow. you know he might not accept, but you don’t mind. you’ll still be friends, and as long as you can see him smile and live you’re content with just being that.

“ah,” rengoku says finally, and his arms uncross. he touches the spot you kissed, tracing his fingertips over it. “that was... not just a friendly kiss?”

“nope,” you say, and he gives another “ah,” softer than before. his fingers slide across his face, and then his palm is covering his mouth, his cheeks starting to tinge a lovely pink. his gaze flickers away from your face, down to your chest, down to himself, and he flushes further as if just realizing how you two are sitting. you, leisurely stretched out in the grass, smiling. him, straddling your lap.

he can’t help but admit to himself that he doesn’t feel too uncomfortable, just awkward and a little embarrassed. he knows he’s not light. 

“well,” he says, loud and clear as ever as he lowers his hand, “i’m not sure if you realize, but you missed.”

“did i now?” you tip your head, almost sure you can see steam rising from his head.

“yes, but i don’t blame you! it is, after all, getting darker and harder to see!” never mind the fact that the sun still isn’t fully set, washing everything in tones of orange and red. “worry not, i have an idea! i can guide you this time so you don’t miss!” his words speak confidence, but his cheeks match the tips of his hair and you can feel how tense he is.

“really.” you move upwards again, letting your breath ghost over his face. he shivers, looking at some point over your left shoulder.

“yes, really! so... whenever you’re ready, try again!” and then he sits, still and stiff with anticipation. adorable. you laugh, tipping your head forward and kissing his jaw. “ah, missed! higher than that!” you stretch, kissing the middle of his forehead. “missed again, lower! lower!” you’re giggling by the next kiss, right under his eye, and you can see his lips trembling as he fights a smile of his own. “to the right!”

“mine or yours?” you don’t wait for him to answer, tucking a wavy lock of hair behind his ear and kissing his temple.

“my right!” his voice is shaky with laughter, and you move over, pecking the tip of his nose. he wiggles it. “close! a little lower!” you pull back slightly, letting your hands cup either side of his face. a silent demand that he look at you, and eventually, he does. you ask him if he’s okay with this.

he responds by kissing you first.

[ao3komorii]

About Time (Timeskip Dimitri/Reader)

Decided to start transferring my works over, starting with my oldest oneshot from ao3 with Dimitri! It’s technically Dimileth since I like the Dimitri pairing from Byleth’s position, but it’s fully in 2nd person and I don’t use any names for Reader or anything. 

This oneshot was entirely born from having a thought of “what if Dimitri accidentally saw Byleth’s boobs and then freaked out.” Also, this one is set after Dimitri comes out of his emo phase, but before the final battle in the BL route. Just a note, there is sex at the end. Enjoy :)

----

You did not find yourself in over your head much anymore these days, but you also had a talent for finding new trouble.

You had been backed into a corner by multiple soldiers, and a horrible giant beast. The beast’s jaw opened slowly, revealing its gleaming teeth, dripping with a black substance as the soldiers by its side advanced, lances drawn and all pointed towards you. The Sword of the Creator at your side was growing weary, and you knew that it would not be enough to defeat the enemies in front of you.  

You knew that your former students were on the battlefield somewhere, but you couldn’t see them beyond the great beast that caged you in by the wall. Either way, this was too dangerous a situation for them anyways. You could only hope they would stay away. Use the chance to escape while this creature feasted on your flesh and gnawed on your bones. You didn’t want to die, but you would not allow yourself to be the cause of any of your students’ deaths. It would break you. If anyone had to die, it should be you.  

You held up your sword, ready to fight back, but the onslaught still overwhelmed you. You were able to quickly take out a few soldiers with the last remaining swipe of your mythic sword’s power before their lances got too close to you. You had no time to bask in your small victory as your sword refused to spring into action after your first swipe, only functioning as an average sword, and a dull one at that, as it lost all its power. And with its elongation use now locked away from you, you would only be able to defend yourself from close range.  

This immediately proved deadly for you, as you swerved to avoid the creature’s teeth, but found yourself on the receiving end of an enemy’s lance as it sunk in and out of your shoulder. You screamed with pain and shock as you sunk down to your knees, dropping your sword to press a hand over your wound. It hurt so badly, and you looked up as a shadow loomed over you to see the monster and remaining soldiers all radiating with the satisfaction that they were about to snuff your life out. You couldn’t even gather the strength to pick your sword back up, the pain in your shoulder was too great. Even moving your hand sent unbearable jolts of pain up and down your arm. You could do nothing but watch, eyes drawn to the lance of the soldier that had stabbed you, what must be your blood dripping off the tip and onto the ground.  

You felt all hope leave your mind as the abomination’s jaw opened wide, preparing to blast you with fire. Too weary to continue looking up, you turned your head down in defeat, hoping that your death would at least come fast. You heard a loud shout, but it was not enough to keep you from falling on your side, no strength left in your body to allow you to remain up. Your eyes slid closed, and death felt imminent.  

You felt like you were fading, and the sounds around you faded along with your hazy consciousness. There were sounds of screams and horrible growls, but you didn’t know what they meant, and couldn’t really rationalize anything but the extreme pain you felt. There was so much screaming and so much pain. It was hard to even think at all.  

“Professor!”  

A voice broke through your haze at about the same time you felt the pain lessen by a small fraction. You heard your name called, with more insistency, and you felt annoyed. You just wanted the pain to end so you could sleep. The pain was so great that in that moment you didn’t mind dying if it would end the pain.  

“If she falls unconscious, we won’t be able to save her!” You heard a soft-voiced woman assert.  

“Professor!” the calls of your name and title got louder, and more insistent, and your forehead felt wet as one voice rang out louder than the rest. “Please, Professor, I can’t lose you too...”  

The pain lessened a little more, becoming less all-encompassing, and you allowed your eyes to open. You found your vision blurry until a warmth took over the feeling of pain in your shoulder. A call of your name focused your attention directly above you.  

Dimitri was crying. It was the first thing that struck you as you gazed up at him, tears freely flowing from his uncovered eye. His eye lit up when you looked at him, and you felt the world beneath you shift.  

“Dimitri!” an airy voice angrily broke the quiet. “Don’t move!”  

You were confused, and moved your head, unintentionally shifting your shoulder and sending a wave of pain through it as you went limp against Dimitri’s lap, where you found yourself realizing that your head was resting in. You closed your eyes tightly in response to the return of extreme pain, much worse than you had ever felt before.  

“Professor, not you too! You must not move!” the woman insisted.  

Your mind felt clearer once the pain faded again to a dull ache and the warm feeling took over. You realized at once who that voice was, and you opened your eyes to look at Mercedes, who was by your injured shoulder sending healing magic into the wound. That explained the familiar feeling that you couldn’t place. She met your gaze, unable to form her usual smile as she turned back to focusing on your wound. That confused you, and you turned your head ever so slightly to look at your injury without agitating it again.  

You understood Mercedes’ current urgency. Your shoulder looked horrible. There was a large rip in the shoulder of your cloak, likely ripped further by Mercedes in an effort to get better access to the wound. There was so much blood, it matted the ripped fabric around your wound to your skin, making the area feel sticky.  

Most worrying was the blood nearest to the wound, if it was even your blood, was bleeding an oily black. Mercedes wiped a hand over the wound, clearing it to reveal a patch of gray skin surrounding the stab wound.  

“What is that?” Came Ashe’s panicked voice.  

“The enemy’s lance was poisoned, clearly,” Felix stated with a short glance behind him.  

You looked beyond where you were to realize that the area behind where you lay was covered in the bodies of the enemies that had just been closing in on you. The great beast was killed with no mercy, some of its limbs meters away from its actual body. You couldn’t stand to look at what was done to the Imperial soldiers; some with deep slashes, charred, or with arrows sticking out of their heads. It looked horrible, but not unusual for the battles you regularly faced.  

“But poison couldn’t work this fast!” Annette protested.  

“I’ve heard of weapons being enchanted with poison before,” Ashe explained.  

“Enchanted with poison...” Dimitri echoed, expression tense. “What does it look like to you, Mercedes?”  

Mercedes looked up from your wound to meet Dimitri’s eyes, but quickly looked back down. “Her wound isn’t responding to my magic. If we don’t do something, I fear she may die.”  

Mercedes looked sad and scared, but Dimitri’s growl brought your attention back to him in an instant.  

“There has to be something we can do to save her!” His desperate gaze morphed into one of hatred, one you thought you had seen the last of after Rodrigue’s death. “Tell me who I must kill and I will do it.”  

“Spoken like a boar,” Felix interjected. “You think she has the time for you to go on a murderous rampage?”  

“Felix...” Ingrid protested lowly and sadly.  

“Then what would you have me do, Felix?” Dimitri replied, anger clear in his voice. “She is dying, you can’t expect us to do nothing!”  

“I expect you not to-” Felix started.  

“Stop it!” Annette cried. “You guys need to listen to Mercie!”  

Mercedes nodded toward her best friend as Felix and Dimitri reluctantly went quiet. “There is one way to save her, but we will need everyone’s help.”  

“Me and Mercie came up with a plan!” Annette smiled softly at Mercedes, expression belying a reluctant confidence. “Healing magic can’t touch it, but regular magic should be able to negate its effects enough for healing to work on it again!”  

“And the only magic strong enough to fend off this dark poison is Annie’s fire,” Mercedes explained. “Annie will burn off the infection, and then I will heal the wound.”  

“You want to burn her?” Sylvain implored, shocked. “I know she’s tough, but...”  

“We don’t have the time to think of any other solution,” Ingrid said sadly, gesturing towards you. “Grey is spreading down her arm.”  

Everyone’s eyes shot over to your arm, and you lazily swept your gaze over as well to see that the grey skin tone had travelled down your arm, halfway towards your elbow. The grey patches looked rough, and unlike any affliction you had ever seen before. You wondered if the Imperial army had been exploring darker methods to kill than simple weaponry and monsters. It didn’t surprise you, but you should have seen it coming.  

“What do we do...?” Ashe asked quietly, as if he wasn’t ready to hear the answer.  

“You all must hold her down while Annette burns the infection away,” Mercedes answered. “It will be very painful, but if she moves, she could get hurt, so you must keep her still.”  

Dimitri looked torn as he brushed some stray hairs from your face. Even through the excruciating pain, the gesture embarrassed you. Dimitri looked to be mentally weighing options as a stray tear slipped from his chin to drop on your neck. The tear was a momentary relief, a distraction, but Mercedes couldn’t keep you from feeling all the pain in your shoulder, her healing magic seemingly less and less effective by the second as the pain began to grow stronger.  

“Professor,” Dimitri said, trying but failing to keep emotion out of his voice. “What do you want us to do?”  

You didn’t trust your ability to talk at the moment, and so you kept eye contact with him and nodded the best you could, which ended up being two slow rises and falls of your head. You could only hope that he understood what you were trying to say. He stared at you for a few seconds before he broke eye contact.  

“Dedue, Felix, take her legs,” he instructed, and the two men moved quickly towards your lower half. “Ingrid, Sylvain, take an arm each.”  

The four requested students each their place at one of your limbs, and Dimitri slowly let you out of his lap, your head now resting on the ground as he made his way over to Annette and Mercedes by your injured shoulder. “I will ensure she does not move her shoulders.”  

“Um...” Ashe spoke up hesitantly. “It’s not much, but I brought along a book I’ve been reading, and she might need something to bite down on, so she doesn’t bite off her tongue.”  

He offered the book to Dimitri, who accepted it gratefully, and with no choice, you bit down on it when Dimitri brought it to your mouth. You would have been embarrassed if you weren’t so anxious about the somehow worse pain to come. At Dimitri’s signal, your legs and arms were restrained, ensuring that you could not move them at all. When he checked that everyone had a secure hold on you, Dimitri put one hand on your uninjured shoulder, and one on your upper chest, just above your breasts. His head was just above yours, his long hair tickling your cheeks.  

“Just keep looking at me,” he whispered, voice then rising in volume. “Annette, now.”

Annette didn’t reply, but she didn’t have to. Seconds after Dimitri’s words, you felt the worst pain you have ever felt in your entire life, putting the extreme pain from before to shame. You wanted to scream, but you knew you shouldn’t, even in your haze of pain. You just bit down on the book as hard as you could to compensate. Someone held one of your hands and you squeezed their hand as hard as you could, which must have been painful, but they didn’t pull away or let go of your hand.  

A whisper of your name had you looking back up to Dimitri’s face. He looked fairly upset, but the intense levels of pain you were experiencing kept you from being able to reassure him. He smiled, a clearly forced smile, but didn’t look away from you at all, which gave you no insight into how it was going with your shoulder aside from the momentous pain, which was so hot that it now felt cold. The pain was so white hot that you had to close your eyes, teeth digging into the book’s cover.  

“You’ll be alright, professor,” Dimitri said quietly. “We can’t lose you.”  

You knew that your students would be destroyed if you died here. You knew that they would all fall apart. So you endured the pain quietly, you had no other choice. You couldn’t leave them alone after all you had all been through. You tried to stay still, but suddenly the brutal pain increased tenfold. You screamed around the book, trying to thrash your limbs, but your students remained steadfast, restricting your movement.  

“Annette!” Dimitri barked, taking his gaze from you but not his hands, which kept you pressed down.  

“I’m sorry, it’s... it’s fighting against my magic! Professor, I’m so sorry!” she replied tearfully.  

“We have to keep going, Annie,” Mercedes’ voice broke through the panic. “She has no chance if we don’t keep trying!”

With that, the incredible pain returned, and you once again regained the unpleasant taste of the book cover in your mouth as your teeth sank into the dents you had made previously. Everyone was so quiet while Annette and Mercedes worked that you could hear everyone’s breathing, and Dimitri sounded close to hyperventilating with how heavy his breaths sounded. You looked up at him, but he was looking over at your injury, not at you. He looked like he was about to cry again, and it being due to your strategic negligence was weighing on you at the moment.  

He wouldn’t look at you and looked openly panicked. You thought he would eventually feel your eyes on him, but he didn’t. He just continued to stare at the work being done on your shoulder, which you couldn’t see yourself because Mercedes and Annette blocked your sight of it entirely. You were getting used to the horrific pain at this point, so you managed to remain still. Maybe Sothis helped with your pain tolerance, since you knew that even with the pain levels you had experienced in your life, an average person could not possibly remain as still as you were able to during this kind of a procedure.  

“Mercie!” Annette cried.  

At once, the burning started to fade, as the familiar feeling of Mercedes’ magic took over, engulfing your shoulder in a light so bright that you turned your head away from it and closed your eyes. There were gasps and murmured words all around you and all at once you had a range of movement in your limbs again as everyone released their tight holds on you. Dimitri, however, kept his hands where they were, and you assumed he would wait until he knew that you would be okay.  

Annette and Mercedes finally backed up from your sider, allowing you a glance at your shoulder. There was nothing, not even a scratch, or the third-degree burns you were expecting from the fire magic. The grey patches of skin had receded entirely with Annette’s eradication of the strange poison magic. You were in awe of Mercedes’ magic, but you were far from the only one who was.  

“Remind me not to get too far away from you on the battlefield, Mercedes!” Sylvain joked.  

Sylvain’s words brought Dimitri out of his stupor and he finally released his hold on you as you reached a hand up to remove the now soggy and dented book from your mouth. You weren’t sure what to do with it since Ashe would clearly not want it back now.  

You sat up as everyone else began standing up, your muscles screaming in protest. From the pain that riddled your shoulder from all that had been done to it to the soreness in your limbs from being held down by people who put all of their strength into keeping you still, you were in pain, but not deathly pain. You waved off the chorus of worried voices asking if you were okay; you were just sore, not dying!  

Ignoring their protests, you slowly stood up, only for an arm to slide around your waist. Ready to scold Sylvain for choosing now of all times to flirt, you looked over to see a stubborn Dimitri gazing back at you, frowning with concern. It wasn’t like he had no caring before you were able to bring him out of his ten-year thirst for revenge, but he almost went overboard with how much he showed that everyone mattered to him now. And with that knowledge, you knew you weren’t about to win whatever argument he was about to start about your safety.  

“Be careful, Professor!” he chided, refusing to let go of your waist even as were found you were able to stand properly. Not without soreness, but properly enough. “You can ride back to the monastery with me.”  

You could walk just fine... probably. Your hesitation to accept must have shown on your face, because it started another bickering war.  

“She’s fine without you being a mother hen,” Felix stated dryly.  

“Felix!” Dimitri admonished, not removing his hold on you. “She was barely alive moments ago, and you want her to walk all the way back to the monastery?”  

“In case you haven’t noticed, her shoulder is fine. Do you think she wants you to baby her when she spent months trying to get you to behave like a person and not an animal?” Felix retorted.  

You would rather try to walk, to help preserve your pride, but you didn’t have the chance to speak up before the two started fighting. You weren’t sure how to break up this fight before it got worse, but luckily it was resolved for you.  

“And you two think arguing about this is going to make her feel better?” Ingrid said angrily, making her way over to you. “She will ride back with me.”  

Felix scoffed and turned away, while Dimitri went silent, allowing Ingrid to put your arm around her neck as she led you over to her waiting pegasus. You would have time to thank everyone for their help later. The whole experience and then the arguing had tired you out, and you just wanted to rest. So you got on the pegasus ahead of Ingrid and allowed her to take you back to the monastery, where you could get some sleep and recover.  

You were pushing yourself too hard and you knew it. You were still unhappy with how you had fared in the battle with Imperial troops a week before.  

And here you were, a few days later, training in the rain in the forest just outside the monastery. You had been swarmed by the students worrying about you, and your sword hand was itching to get back into practice. Nobody would agree to train with you due to your being in recovery, and Dimitri had insisted that you rest immediately, somehow even more protective of you than he had been when you were actually injured. You understood their worry, but it was getting tiring being told to rest, so you went to practice outside of the monastery to avoid everyone’s worry.  

Just your luck that it was raining, but there were battles still to be fought, so you couldn’t slack on your training. You were going stir crazy, and so you found a dead tree and began practice. The dead tree was considerably more dead looking several hours later, now bearing many stabs and slashes across it. You finally took a break and sat against the tree, surrounded by bark that littered the ground around you, dislodged from your training.  

You swiped a hand under your bangs with disgust. You hadn’t realized how sweaty you had gotten, but it felt nice to do some solo training the way you used to before you became a teacher. You were tired but felt assured that you were maintaining your sword skills even after sustaining such an injury. The rain was pouring even harder now, though you hadn’t noticed until you took a break. It must have been evening now, but with the harsh weather, it was hard for you to tell at all. The rain didn’t bother you, so you continued to lean against the tree, clothes totally soaked, but feeling at peace in that moment.  

You knew you couldn’t stay out there forever, and so you finally sheathed your sword and stood up. Casting one last glance at the dead and beaten tree, you set back off towards the monastery. Nobody else was outside due to the awful rain, and even the merchants had temporarily closed shop. The gatekeeper, determined to do his job regardless of weather, was just under the archway and greeted you with surprise, noting your soaking wet form. You gave him a smile and reassured him that you were alright, and then continued on your way back to your room to rest for the night.  

Your route back to your room took you through the entryway where you were greeted by various students and members of the church alike, who all noticed your current condition. You walked by them with a smile, brushing off their questions, until you passed by Dedue, who was just outside the dining hall. Or you tried to, as he casually stepped in your way, causing you to stop short to avoid bumping into him. You looked up at him, confused.  

“Professor,” he greeted. “Are you alright?”  

You nodded, not sure where this was going as you went to go into the dining hall, and he moved to block your way again. “His Highness has been looking for you.”  

“...why?” you asked. You had seen Dimitri earlier, so what had happened in the past few hours that he needed you for?  

“No one has been able to find you for the past eight hours,” Dedue answered. “His Highness is worried.”  

Past eight hours? It had only been a few hours... at least, that was what you had thought. You had been told before that you got really focused when you trained, but you didn’t think you had taken four hours, let alone double that time!  

You thanked Dedue for the information, and he only moved out of your way when you agreed that you would go meet Dimitri immediately outside your room, where Dedue told you the king had decided to wait for your return. Heaving a mental sigh, you crossed through the crowd of people getting a late dinner and made your way to your room. Just getting to the block of rooms, you noticed the broad figure with unruly blonde hair right where Dedue said he would be. Looking at his figure, you remembered your initial shock at his transformation, but it had been overpowered at the time with relief that he was still alive after five years of war. As if he could hear your footsteps over the sound of the rain, he turned his head to face you as you made your way over to him.  

“Professor... where were you?” he asked, and you couldn’t think of what to reply, so he pressed onward. “You think me reckless, but you go out to train in the pouring rain when you are not yet fully recovered?”  

You were surprised; how did he know?  You must have looked startled because his serious expression melted away with a genuine laugh as he reached a hand out to brush along your hair, or so you thought. He brought his hand away from your hair to show you and you stared at the twig that he held in his hand, the bark of the twig rotten and dead, much like the tree it had come from.  

“I can’t think of any other activities you would do in the rain with your sword at your side and end up with this twig in your hair,” he remarked. “You know, it usually is the professor that lectures their students about working too hard.”  

“You haven’t been my student in a long time,” you mused.  

“You may not be officially our professor, but we all rely on you for so much,” he replied thoughtfully. “You cannot expect us to not worry when our professor works herself to the point where she is liable to pass out from exhaustion in the woods without telling anyone where she has gone.”  

You immediately felt sheepish. He really had you there. You wouldn’t be able to face them if you had been abducted or killed when you had told nobody where you were going or what you were doing.  

“Please don’t look like that,” he implored you. “I am not mad. We just don’t want anything to happen to our favorite professor.”  

It seemed like they would all keep calling you professor, even though you were all equals now. You had some really stubborn former students, you mused with a smile. Dimitri then reluctantly allowed you off the hook so you could get some rest. You both said your goodnights as you went into your room and Dimitri left for his. As you stripped yourself of your heavy, wet cloak and armor and climbed into your bed, you resolved to be a little less reckless with your training. You also wondered how long you could keep such a promise in times such as this.  

It was hot. So hot. It was all that consumed your mind and body. Suddenly you realized that you had woken up. And you were only wearing a top and shorts, but you were burning up. With a groan, you assessed the situation. You felt sluggish, and so, so warm. Your throat felt sore and sitting up in your bed made you feel nauseous, so you quickly laid back down. You had to face facts; you were clearly sick.  

You knew it had to be the rain. You were outside in the rain for eight hours and overexerted yourself. The combination was a bad idea, but unfortunately you did not see it like that at the time, so here you were. Sick and feeling miserable, unable to get out of bed for fear of throwing up. You didn’t even know what time it was, but you knew that being awake was doing you no favors. You didn’t feel like being awake in this state anyways, so you had only one choice. Gardening and tea parties would have to wait until you didn’t feel like you had just drank poison.  

The feverish heat you felt kept you from sleeping however, which made you even more miserable. Feverish and now irritated that you couldn’t get to sleep, you decided to just remove your top and chest wrappings, your shorts taken off as well for good measure. You had never slept in just your underwear at the monastery before for fear of someone barging in your room without knocking, but at this point you didn’t care. Seteth’s lectures about propriety be damned. You just wanted to be less overwhelmingly warm, and so you laid back down in just your underwear, not bothering to put the blanket back on and curling up in the hopes that sleep would finally come.  

“I’ve had that one before! Remember when we had that visiting professor at the sorcery school? I think she made these for us!” Annette exclaimed excitedly.  

Mercedes nodded as she flipped the page of the new sweets book they had purchased at the market, and they both stared curiously at the next page.  

“Ooh, I always wanted to make some of those!” Annette said, pointing at the colorful pastries that were illustrated on the page.  

“Me too, Annie! We really should make some to share with everyone,” Mercedes replied.  

Their excited chatter was interrupted as Dimitri strode by their table in the dining room for what Annette estimated was likely the fifteenth time that day. He had hardly eaten what would be considered a basic nutritional amount of dinner before he resumed his cycles around the monastery.  

“Dimitri!” Annette called out to him as he was about to pass them to leave the dining hall, and he stopped in front of them. “ Mercie and I were thinking of making some sweets and having a little party with everyone!”  

Dimitri seemed distracted as he responded. “Oh, Annette... that would be...”  

“Are you alright, Dimitri?” Mercedes interjected. “You look like you have something on your mind.”  

“Oh...” Dimitri replied stiffly, coming out of his thoughts for a moment. “Has the professor been by here?”  

“No,” Mercedes shook her head. “I haven’t seen her all day.”  

“Is she okay? Do you want us to help look for her?” Annette pressed, sweets book all but forgotten in worry.  

“She should be fine...” Dimitri trailed off. “Sorry for bothering you both, your idea sounds wonderful.”  

And before either woman could protest, Dimitri exited the dining hall in a hurry, not even glancing behind him, cape fluttering with his movement. Mercedes and Annette could only watch in a haze of confusion and concern, their questions unanswered.  

If you were out training in secret again after overworking yourself in the rain the previous day... no, Dimitri dismissed the thought. He had already looked in the forest and located the tree that you had cut to ribbons the day before. You could have gone farther into the forest, but he thought that unlikely as well. You had seemed regretful when the two of you had spoken at your door the night before, and he thought it unlikely that you would immediately break a promise to him, especially after he had told you how much you and your health mattered to all of them.  

It occurred to him just then that he had neglected to check your room. It should have been the first place he checked, but it had slipped his mind. He would have to go check now. You may have decided to relax in your room for the day, and then he would have been worrying for nothing. Although he knew that you had a healthy appetite, but nobody had seen you in the dining hall at all, which was very strange.  

There was nobody at the dorms, or if they were, they must have been inside their rooms. Dimitri was able to arrive at your door with no hassle, but he couldn’t hear any sounds from inside. He knocked politely, but to no response at all.  

“Professor?” he called out as he knocked again, louder this time.  

There was still no reply, which vexed him. If you didn’t want to see anyone, you would have replied to inform him of that. Which left only one thought running wild in his mind; you must have gone out to train and been injured. Or been injured yesterday and were now in too bad or a state to even talk. Once the thought entered his mind, he was consumed with worry. Reaching out and finding the door locked, he did not spare any thought before he slammed his shoulder into the door, bursting open the lock. Without a moment to spare, he thrust open the door and rushed into your room.  

“Professor-” Dimitri exclaimed, but his eye widened in shock as he took in the scene in front of him.  

The room looked fairly normal , a similar state of cleanliness to what it had been the last time he had visited you here for tea. Your blanket was half draped on the end of the bed and half on the floor, but none of your sparse belongings were out of place.  

Dimitri found you immediately, and his cheeks immediately felt hot. You did not appear to be injured, and he was easily able to discern this because of your lack of clothes. You were curled up on your bed... in only your smallclothes. Dimitri’s mind went blank as his focus was drawn to your bare breasts. He didn’t know what to do, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He knew what breasts looked like, but he couldn’t remember seeing any bare but yours at this exact moment. He was transfixed, even though every instinct of his was telling him he had to look away, to protect your modesty.

And then you moaned and brought him out of his stupor. Now that he thought about it, you did not look very well. Still unsure if he was making the right decision, he closed the door behind him before making his way over to you. He removed a glove and placed his hand on your forehead, having his suspicions confirmed. You were burning up, clearly sick from training in the rain for so long the day before. He presumed that you had not left your room the entire day, which did not seem good, considering you must have spent the entire day unconscious and fevered.

He wanted to cover you up, for the sake of his waning composure, but you didn’t have the time for that and he didn’t want to overheat you further. He would have to try to disregard his embarrassment for the moment, because you needed his help, and he didn’t know how to explain to one of the women around the monastery that he had busted down your door and found you nearly naked. And you would never forgive him if he had others see you compromised like this. It was already bad enough that he had seen you like this.

He quietly left your room, glancing around to confirm that nobody was around to see him coming and going from your room so late. It was a cold night, but it did nothing to calm him down at all. Your body was beautiful, and he couldn’t get it out of his mind as he fetched a small bucket of water and a cloth before returning to your room. He mentally braced himself before opening the door to find you in pretty much the same position you had been in, laying on your back.

Prioritizing his worry for you over his shyness, he closed the door gently behind him and walked over to your bedside. He carefully wet the cloth, wringing some of the excess water out before moving your bangs to the side and placing the cloth on your forehead. You exhaled loudly but evenly in your sleep, which he took to be a positive sign.

He ended up not getting a lot of sleep that night. He stayed in your room for quite a while into the early hours of the morning, dunking the cloth in the cold water again whenever it began to be overcome by your body temperature. He never felt his lack of sleep at all, practice, he assumed, from all of his sleepless nights spent longing for revenge. He had never slept as well as he had since he had allowed himself to be free of the burdens of his dead loved ones. Not free from his obligations to them, but now he would channel his resolve into freeing Fódlan from Edelgard’s tyranny as opposed to the mindless bloodshed that he had surrounded himself with for the majority of the past five years.

You were such a comfort to him, one he thought he had lost a long time ago. You had supported him and been by his side, and he was too consumed to appreciate it until after he lost Rodrigue. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. Not with you and all of his former classmates and friends surrounding him. They did not want him to be consumed and lost to revenge, and now he understood that the dead did not want that either. But he was not free from the choices he knew he would have to make soon, it was something that weighed on his mind. He did not want to kill his stepsister, but as he went to wet the cloth again, he was glad you would be with him when he made that decision. He needed your support, and he resolved to support you as well as he could, especially given your recent hobby of being reckless with your own health and safety.

Feeling your forehead, he was relieved to discover that your fever had finally broken. You may not have been fully healthy again, but if you were at least a normal temperature now, then he knew that he had done his job. You were still nearly naked though, and he would likely be an unwelcome sight when you woke up, and so he took the cloth and bucket and stood up. Better that you did not know he had been here; it would spare at least you of the embarrassment. But as he quickly fixed the lock back into place before opening the door and closing it behind him, he knew it would be a difficult feat to erase the sight of your uncovered body from his mind any time soon. You were so pretty, and it was all he could think about the entire way back to his room.

You woke up slowly, eyes still closed but aware that you were now awake. Your middle of the night wakeup felt almost like a dream compared to how you felt now. You felt somewhat bad still, your throat not fully better and limbs still feeling a bit heavy, but the incredible fever you had felt earlier had all but faded. You must have really been doing poorly, because a glance outside the window told you that it was morning.

You supposed that you might as well get up; there was no way to assuage worry except going to interact with everyone. You would feel better eventually. You knew that the students would worry about you. Getting up and checking with your calendar, you discovered that you had spent an entire day and night in bed.

You slowly put your clothing back on, happy to discover that it had dried all the way, pretty much a given as it had lain in a heap for over a full day on your floor. You probably looked awful after your high fever, so you headed out of your room and towards the bathhouse to freshen yourself up. Just as you went to enter, Ingrid was leaving, her hair obviously wet, and you exchanged smiles as you passed by each other.

The bathhouse was almost completely empty, save a few women, but none of your students. It made sense that there weren’t a lot of people up this early in the morning. There had just been a big battle, and there were still more to come. Everyone worked so hard, so you felt that they more than deserved to sleep in if they wanted to. But you were more than happy to finally be free from your bed, and so you stripped down and got into the water in just your towel.

You took your time to wash your hair and body, happy to not feel gross for the first time in a while. Only after scrubbing yourself to your utmost satisfaction did you relent and get redressed, leaving the bathhouse behind and feeling fully refreshed. Stifling a yawn, you decided to head over to the dining hall as your stomach yearned for food after so long without.

“Good morning, Professor,” Mercedes greeted you as you both entered the dining hall together. “Did you also hear that they would be including sugar scones in today’s breakfast menu?”

You hadn’t heard anything about menus at all, but any food sounded good to you at this point. You couldn’t remember if you had eaten sugar scones before, but they sounded like something you would like. You and Mercedes walked up to the front of the hall together, both accepting a plate of assorted muffins and colorful scones that were sparkling with sugar.

“Oh, I just love these!” Mercedes spoke cheerily as the two of you found a free section of table and sat down across from each other. “Have you had sugar scones before, Professor?”

You shook your head no and she giggled. “Well, I would recommend spreading some Albenian berry jam on them,” she informed you happily, gesturing to the small dish of red jelly that was situated in the middle of your plate. “These are one of Annie’s favorites, so I thought she would be here by now…”

As if on cue, Annette burst through the doorway to the dining hall, almost tripping as she skidded to a stop just in time to turn and rush towards the dining hall staff for her tray of breakfast sweets. She waved happily at you and Mercedes as she passed you to get to the front. The two of you watched, amused, as Annette was scolded by the head chef for running in the dining hall. She sheepishly apologized and received her tray of sweets, which brought a smile back onto her face as she turned and made her way over to you, taking a seat next to Mercedes.

“Sorry I’m late! I thought scone day was tomorrow!” Annette explained as she took in the sight of her breakfast tray.

“You’re so forgetful, Annie,” Mercedes teased with a smile.

“Well at least I got here in time!” Annette huffed, wasting no time in smearing jam all over one of her scones and taking a big bite out of it.

“That is true,” Mercedes agreed, before turning her head to look at you. “Do you like them, Professor?”

You had tried a bite while they were talking, spreading the jam like Mercedes had suggested, and found that you did like them. You must have missed it when these had been served in the dining hall before. You had eaten an entire scone by the time Mercedes had asked the question, and you were interrupted before you could answer her.

“Mind if I join you ladies?” Sylvain asked from behind you.

“Of course, Sylvain,” Mercedes replied, and he slid in right next to you with his own plate of food that he placed down in front of himself.

“I feel like I missed seeing your pretty face around here the past few days,” Sylvain said, popping an entire scone in his mouth as he looked over at you.

“You never change, do you?” Ingrid said wearingly as she sat down on your other side. “You think that she hasn’t had enough of your behavior already?”

“Ingrid…” Sylvain groaned. “She got a hole cut out of her not that long ago, I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

“And you thought your flirting would heal her wounds?” Felix raised an eyebrow as he sat down next to Mercedes. “You delusions never end.”

“Hey, why is everyone turning on me?” Sylvain complained, and you laughed. “Not you too, Professor! You wound me!”

Now Annette and Mercedes laughed, while Felix rolled his eyes and Ingrid smiled and shook her head. You all ate your breakfast while chatting, slowly adding Ashe and Dedue to your midst. Even when Dedue didn’t appear to be coming to sit with your group, Annette called his name and beckoned him over to join your table, while Ashe was convinced as soon as he saw your group all together. It was very lively, and almost made you forget that there was a war looming over you all. But just because you would soon have to kill or be killed yet again did not mean that you couldn’t enjoy the company of your lively house members.

“Hey, shouldn’t Dimitri be up by now?” Annette wondered out loud.

“That’s true,” Ingrid agreed. “He’s never been one to sleep in.”

“I can go and check his room,” Dedue volunteered. “If he is not there, then he may-”

“No need!” Annette replied. “I see him now! Dimitri, over here!”

The tall blonde king had just walked into the dining hall, and looked your way at Annette’s call, noticing your entire group all sitting together and walking over to approach you all. Before anyone could stop him or insist that he didn’t have to, Dedue was up from his seat to grab Dimitri a plate of breakfast from the cooks at the front. Some other people stopped Dimitri to talk quickly or greet him, and so he arrived at your table just as Dedue had brought back a plate for him, which he accepted gratefully, knowing better than to try to dissuade his friend from performing errands without being asked by this point. He sat down next to Dedue, and Annette got up to bring over some tea to share with everyone. It was the most cheerful that you all had been during this time of war, and you could not recall a time when you had been happier.

You talked with Ingrid about how her pegasus was doing, and she happily invited you to come flying with her if you would like, to which Mercedes and Annette chimed in that they would love to fly with her as well. Meanwhile, Sylvain on your other side informed you that his horse was available for riding lessons as well, to which Ashe mentioned that he wanted to improve his riding skills, and Sylvain looked marginally defeated. You were having so much fun talking with everyone that you didn’t notice anything amiss with Dimitri at all.

“Are you ill, Your Highness?” Dedue said, with no intentions of being discreet with his volume management. “You have not touched your food.”

Everyone paused their conversations to stare at the king, who had been staring at his plate until Dedue had spoken up to him. He looked up at the sudden silence, surprised to see everyone’s eyes on him. He gave Dedue a small smile, assuring him that he was alright, which Dedue reluctantly accepted, but it was not good enough for Ingrid.

“You don’t look very well, Dimitri,” she insisted, leaning forward a bit to get a better look at him. “Have you been sleeping alright?”

He looked over, meeting your eyes for a very brief moment before immediately looking at Ingrid, ignoring your confused stare. “I am fine,” he said reassuringly, shaking his head with a laugh when Ingrid gave him a hard look. “Really, Ingrid. I am alright.”

“If you don’t sleep, you’re just making it easier for the enemy to cut you down,” Felix said sharply.

“I bought some tea at the market that is supposed to help with sleeping problems if you would like to try some,” Mercedes offered.

“I promise you all that I am alright,” Dimitri insisted with a smile.

Sensing that a change of mood was in order, you offered the last remaining thing on your plate, a Dagda fruit muffin, to Sylvain. You found that you did not like Dadga fruit tea, and so you figured that it would be better to give it to someone who would appreciate it more. And it didn’t hurt as a conversation swap either.

“You don’t want it, Professor?” he asked, blinking at you, surprised.

You shook your head, holding the plate a little closer to him, and he shrugged, grinning at you. “Who am I to refuse you? Thanks for the muffin.”

Sylvain ate the muffin in a few bites as Dimitri finally began to pick at his own tray. You tried again to catch his eye, but he was determined to stare down at his plate. Conversation began to pick up again as Annette started to tell a story from back when they were all students. The conversation took a nostalgic turn as everyone then began sharing stories from their school lives five years prior.

“Not to be rude, but I thought you hated us at first!” Annette told you, blushing slightly with embarrassment.

“I must confess that I felt the same at the start,” Ashe agreed, quickly adding, “but we couldn’t be where we are now without you.”

“I do remember calling you beautiful and you just stared at me... I thought you didn’t hear me for a second,” Sylvain recalled.

“How is that any different from now?” Felix sneered.

“That is true,” Mercedes agreed. “Just the other day I saw a village girl just turn around and leave without saying anything.”

“Mercedes!” Sylvain’s jaw went slack. “You saw that?”

“I see your success rate hasn’t changed,” Felix scoffed.

Sylvain really had no comeback for that, and you were far from the only one at the table to laugh at his plight. Giggling, you locked eyes with Annette, who you noticed had also finished her plate. Nodding at each other, you both got up from the table to take your empty plates back.

“I feel like I’ve got my muffin fix for a while!” she joked as you handed your empty plates to the dining hall staff.

“What are your plans for the day?” you asked her, and she smiled.

“Don’t tell Mercie, but she was talking about how she missed these sweet ginger cakes we had when we were younger, and I was going to make some to surprise her with!” she whispered excitedly.

You were glad that Annette was such an endless supply of joy and kindness. You knew how much everyone appreciated any distractions from the mounting scale of war you were faced with, and so you also would have to do your best to keep a happy demeanor about yourself. Annette’s eyes drifted from yours as you both got back to the table as she stared ahead.

“Hey, where did Dimitri go?” she asked.

You looked over to where Annette had her eyes set and noticed that your table was missing its blonde king. You both must have looked incredibly confused, because Dedue decided to put you out of your misery.

“His Highness… had something to attend to.” Even Dedue sounded puzzled.

“Yeah, he just said that he had forgotten to do something and left…” Ingrid added, her eyebrows drawn together.

“Maybe he just had a bad reaction to the muffins?” Sylvain suggested, but one look at Dimitri’s plate told you that he hadn’t eaten a single thing from his plate.

He was acting weird, but he didn’t seem to be sliding back into his darkness again. Even so, you would have to check on him later, just to make sure. You had abandoned him for five years, even if it wasn’t by choice, and you would never leave his side again until the day came when he no longer needed you. You wouldn’t lose him again, not when everyone, when Faerghus, needed him.

Dimitri walked briskly to the cathedral, taking up his usual spot in front of the rubble that had once been a proud altar. He knew that he was clearly acting off, and his friends would eventually come and make sure he was okay. And he knew that he was not doing well, but it was not the type of problem that he imagined that they thought that he was dealing with. He had never dealt with anything like this before, and he didn’t know what to do. And so, he stared at the rubble, but too lost in thoughts to take in the scenery.

He couldn’t sleep at all the night before, and he didn’t know how he would get any sleep tonight. Seeing your mostly nude body had awoken within him feelings that he had kept himself from feeling for so long. He had been so focused on revenge for the entirety of his developing years that he had never allowed himself to think of romance as more than a faraway concept. He had sheltered himself for so long, and now the reality of his situation was hitting him with the full force that it would have had he allowed himself when he was a teenager. Instead, he was an adult man who was only now realizing the depths that his feelings could reach. He loved you, and it scared him.

He knew that he couldn’t avoid you forever. You had a war to win, and he couldn’t avoid his closest ally, even if he happened to just discover his feelings for you. He wanted desperately to be near you, but even with your widening range of emotions, he had seen no indication that you had any romantic feelings towards him. And besides, you would never talk to him again if you found out that he had stayed in your room while you were not fully dressed, even if it was to help you recover from your fever. He would live with his shame and hide his feelings, and would channel his energy into the war. Although that still didn’t resolve how he was going to sleep tonight, since he knew that every time he closed his eyes that night he would see your perfect breasts or your kind smile.

He had spent the last few hours of the night after he had returned to his room staring out of his window into the night sky. He had wrestled with his longing to go back there and tell you how he felt, kiss you… but you were sick. You needed rest. And you certainly did not need to have to deal with this new revelation of his. He relied on you for so much that he would crumble without your support, and so he just had to accept that your support would never be that of a wife’s to him.

He felt like a preteen boy. He couldn’t even stand to meet eyes with you in the dining hall earlier. He was so focused on staring at his plate that he could barely hear what anyone else had said. He had met your eyes for only half a second and even that was too much for him in his current state. You had looked worried for him, worries that he didn’t feel that he could assuage. He would have to keep his distance from you until he could resolve this within himself.

He must have been lost in thought for a while because eventually, he realized that Dedue was by his side. He gave Dedue a nod and then turned back to face the rubble, but a call of his title had him looking back to his stoic friend.

“Is everything alright, Your Highness?” Dedue asked simply.

“I…” Dimitri was not sure what to say.

“When I pledged myself to you, I intended to ensure that no harm came to you,” Dedue explained. “If anyone has been upsetting you, or you are suffering a cursed ailment, you need only to tell me and I will scourge whoever dared to curse you.”

Dimitri could never have a normal conversation with him during this war, could he? There were so many threats to his life, he was willing to admit, but Dedue never ceased to worry, even when everything was stable for the moment. He knew that Dedue cared about him, but he always thought the worst of things when it concerned his king.

“I have no injuries or curses, my friend,” he told Dedue who looked entirely unconvinced.

“If it is something that you feel that you cannot tell the others…” Dedue’s offer was implied. He was concerned, that much Dimitri could tell easily.

“For now, it is something that I must handle on my own,” Dimitri said, not meeting his friend’s eyes.

It took some convincing, but Dedue finally relented in his insistence that he walk the king back to his room, despite the fact that they were on entirely different floors. He also rebuffed Dedue’s offer to stand guard outside his room the entire night to defend him from attackers. Dedue had finally, reluctantly relented and allowed Dimitri to finally return to his room alone. He was careful to check that he hadn’t been followed; Dedue had done it before, after all. But he saw no signs of anyone following him and arrived on the second floor of the dormitories, not meeting anyone on the way down the hall and to his room.

It was early in the night, he discovered as he returned to his room. It was earlier than he usually went to sleep, but being awake for closing in on thirty or so hours was wearing on him. With getting some rest potentially in sight, he sat on his bed and began the painstaking process of removing his armor. He let out a tired sigh as his leg armor came off, and he carefully placed it aside before repeating the process on his upper armor, removing his cape and furs as well when he had taken his armor off. He was left in just his long black undershirt and black pants, which was all he wore when he slept these days. Although he did recall that he had previously pushed himself to the point of collapse when in his full armor before, and waking up from that had never felt pleasant on his body. But given his state of mind at the time, he simply got up and continued to do the work he felt needed to be done; being sore never kept him from the slaughter. But as he was now, he appreciated that he could take his armor off at the end of the day and rest. He never knew how nice it would feel to let down his last layer of defense and truly be himself around his friends with nothing to hide. Well, he thought, nothing to hide but his attraction to you that refused to wane.

He would try to sleep; at least now he was in his room, where he was not likely to run into you. His onset affection for you was so strong that he didn’t think it would go away, and he did not know if that was a good thing or not. He took off his shoes, setting them down before laying down on his bed and closing his eyes in the hope that sleep would find him.

You had spent your day talking to the other occupants of the monastery, doing your best to confirm that everyone was doing alright. You knew that this war weighed on everyone’s souls, and if you could do anything to help, you would. And so, you did some light training with Felix, went to the marketplace with Ashe, and ended up helping Annette do some baking for Mercedes, which did not result in any kitchen disasters for once, which was a relief. You had seen Dimitri in the cathedral earlier, in that same place he had always gone before he had broken free of his darkness. You decided to give him some space, but when you passed by the cathedral again later in the evening, he was no longer in his usual spot in front of the rubble.

Whatever was wrong with him, you wanted to give him time. You really did. But if he was sinking back into his inner darkness, then you couldn’t stand by and let it happen again. You walked around the monastery grounds but were unable to find him. As a last ditch effort, you decided to head to the second floor of the dormitories to check and see if he was in his room. You passed various people as they headed to their own rooms to retire for the night, smiling as Flayn excitedly wished you a good night as you passed by her. Finally, you arrived at what you recalled to be Dimitri’s bedroom door.

You raised a hand and lightly knocked on the door. No answer. Maybe he had gone for a late night walk and you had just missed him on your walk around the monastery. You knocked one more time, slightly louder, but still got no response. You couldn’t hear any sounds from at all from the other side of the door. Having no choice, you reluctantly decided to leave and head back to your own room. You could talk with Dimitri the next time you saw him, you reassured yourself. And so, you began to retreat the way that you had come, off to get some sleep and hopefully wake up fully free from your sickness.

“Professor…”

It was so quiet that you almost didn’t detect it, but you supposed your sensitivity on the battlefield allowed you to pick up the muted whisper of your old title. You turned your head back, not sure what to expect, but found Dimitri in only pants and a long-sleeved shirt, both in black, staring at you from just outside his room. He met your gaze with a look of surprise on his face, almost as if he had not expected you to hear him or turn back to look. You made your way back over to him, and he opened his door wider and gestured for you to accompany him inside.

He walked all the way to his window before turning only his head back to face you. His expression was unreadable, but yours certainly wasn’t, and he immediately saw the worry on your face.

“Are you okay?” you asked quietly. You knew that you couldn’t make him talk if he didn’t want to but you needed him to know that you were here for him.

“You never let up, do you?” he asked, and you vaguely recalled him saying something like that to you in the past. Before you could reply, he continued. “I could not be who I am today without your help.”

Why was he saying that now, and then why did he look so troubled? You didn’t understand where he was going with this, and were about to tell him so.

“I could not stand to lose you,” he spoke slowly, finally turning around fully and stepping slightly closer to you. “But I fear that I may if I tell you what is on my mind.”

“That is not possible,” you countered, staring him down sternly.

Dimitri only grew a small sad smile at your words. He looked to be waging a mental war on himself, but you bridged the gap that was still between you and forced him to look at you in the eyes. You looked at him with all the seriousness you could manage in an attempt to convey to him that you would listen to anything that he had to say. He broke eye contact with you almost immediately, staring at the floor as he spoke quietly.

“You had a fever,” he explained. “Nobody had seen you the day after you were out in the rain. I went to check on you, and you were not answering your door and I…”

Your eyes went wide in surprise. That night, you were…

“I am so sorry, Professor!” he spoke, sounding upset as he hung his head in shame. “I saw you in a state that only your husband should see you in and I-”

His rambling cut off and you looked at him, trying desperately to have him meet your eyes, but he continued to look at the floor, so you took a second to reevaluate these new revelations. Dimitri had not fully explained, but from what you had pieced together, he had been worried about you and came into your room, which must have been after you had stripped down to only your underwear, based on Dimitri’s odd husband comment. You felt a rush of embarrassment that he had seen you like that, but you found that you were more bothered that he had seen you looking so weak rather than the fact that he had seen you nearly naked. But you also found that you didn’t really mind that it was him that had seen you that way.

“I… I did not leave you be. I could not. I stayed with you and kept a cold cloth on your forehead until your fever broke. I should have left, but I could not just leave you like that,” Dimitri spoke up again.

He was so earnest that it was cute. Apologizing for seeing you nearly nude was one thing, but you stifled a laugh as he was for some reason apologizing for staying with you and taking care of you while you were sick. He was fiercely intelligent, brave in the face of the hardships of war, but looking at him now, he looked like an awkward teenager trapped in the body of a grown man. You could no longer help yourself, and you let out a quiet giggle.

“Professor?” Dimitri uttered as he looked at you in shock and you laughed at his expression.

“You’re so cute,” you told him, and watched as your words sent a pink flush to his cheeks as he stared at you in disbelief.

You knew that you should do something to put him out of his misery, but you weren’t sure what. You reached a hand up to cup one of his cheeks, and he looked at you unsteadily, closing his eye as he leaned into your touch. You weren’t sure why you had decided to reach out for him physically, but staring at his handsome face, so close to your own, you felt the most comfortable and safe you had ever felt. You closed your eyes too to bask in the moment, but then he said your name, not your title, but your actual name. You opened your eyes again and the two of you stared at each other and he raised his own hand to cover yours that was still on his cheek. He had an urgency in his eyes that you could not place.

“I need to kiss you,” he said, not breaking eye contact, unwavering under your surprised look.

You really shouldn’t have been as surprised as you were, given how physically close the two of you were now, and how emotionally close you had been to each other for so long, but you hadn’t had the time to think that this was even a possibility. Overpowering all of your mind was the sense that this was all that you wanted in this moment. He was different than he had been when you had reunited with him, but he had broken free of his darkness, and had become the kind, strong leader that his people needed. That you all needed. He was your dearest friend, but right now you wanted him to kiss you more than anything, and so you nodded.

He didn’t waste any more than a few seconds before bending down and connecting your lips as your eyes slid closed as the same time. You adjusted your chin so you would be better locked together as your other hand weakly grasped at the material of his shirt, just above his chest. The kiss felt so effortless, as you both adjusted to the other’s rhythm and Dimitri’s other hand came up to rest on the back of your head, keeping you close together.

The kiss stayed simple, but it was making you feel lightheaded with the intensity that you were both putting into it. You pulled away, not confident in your ability to breathe at the moment and he followed, gently steering you back until the back of your knees hit his bed and you allowed him to push you back down onto it.

You found yourself laying on your back as Dimitri hovered over you, his legs on either side of you. He was upright with his knees pressed against your upper thighs, looking at you with want but unsure of how to proceed. While he sat there in a daze, you shrugged your coat off and gently removed your gauntlets, letting it all fall down in a heap by the bedside, and as you did, you noticed a pile of Dimitri’s own clothing and armor only a few feet away.

When you looked back up, you noticed that Dimitri had been following you with his gaze, but he still looked unsure. You had no idea what was going on in his head or what had happened to his confidence, but you decided that you would have to make it abundantly clear that you would like this to continue. And so, you lifted your torso up from the bed and wriggled out of your shirt, throwing everything that covered your upper body onto the floor and watching Dimitri’s eye widen and cheeks turned red as he once again took in the sight of your bare breasts. You were just happy that you were conscious this time so you could enjoy his very honest reaction.

He was still staring, this time he had switched back to look you in the eyes and you couldn’t help but tease him. “Dimitri, your shirt…”

He finally relaxed a bit and smiled so sweetly down at you. “I suppose I should make it even.”

You had never seen him shirtless before, but the scars on his body told you what he could never bring himself to about what had happened to him over the past ten years. He gave you no explanation, and did not give you the time to fully examine all of his scars as he lowered his head down and kissed you again, feeding in your boldness as he supported himself with one hand, bringing his other hand up to feel one breast. The shock of his sudden movements had you moaning in surprise, and the kiss transitioned further as you both allowed your tongues to meet as well.

You cradled his head in your hands, bringing one hand through his hair, so much longer than it had been five years earlier. Finding yourself wanting to be even closer to him, you brought one leg out from under him and wrapped it around his hip. The position allowed you to grind up against him, and he met your hips excitedly as you kissed and you felt a shiver go down your spine as you realized how much he wanted this, your hips so close together that you could not miss how hard he had become in such little time. The friction was exactly where you wanted it, but it began to not feel like anywhere close to enough.

He pulled back from you by a few centimeters, nose still touching yours, and his hand that was not supporting his weight drifted from your breast to brush a hand through your hair. “I love you,” he said sincerely, chuckling as you looked up at him in shock. “You did not think I loved you?”

He seemed amused by your lack of response, and in truth you did not know, you had been so happy to be like this with him that you hadn’t even considered the feelings that were obviously involved. But you could not deny how happy those words made you, and he leaned down to kiss you again as a smile lit up your face. He gave you a few short kisses before he disengaged himself from you, sitting at the side of the bed, and you hastened to join him. He looked over as you hesitantly placed your head on his shoulder, and he readily accepted the contact.

“I did not think that I would ever feel like this… that I deserved to feel this way with you. I escaped the darkness that I had been trapped in, but I know there are those who will never forgive me for the sins I have committed. But you stuck by my side when I treated you so poorly. I don’t deserve you… any of you,” he said, staring at the wall but wrapping an arm around your naked back.

“You are indispensable to me,” he said as he leaned over to kiss your hair. “I knew that I would not be here without you, but I did not realize my feelings until that night.”

You knew which night he meant, but you had taken even longer than him to discover your own feelings, but you knew now. You loved him, and there was no going back now, even if you wanted to. Which, sitting side by side in this moment, you knew that you only wanted to experience even more with this man who was so dear to you.

“I wanted to wait until after the war, until we had peace. But after that night, I could not look back at you without seeing your bare form. It is shameful, but I cannot hold back any longer, especially now that I know it is mutual,” he explained, adjusting the both of you so that you were facing each other. “I want to be with you.”

He was looking at you expectantly, but kindly. You realized that he needed you to also affirm that this was real, that you loved him as well. He believed in you, but you knew that you should put the poor boy out of his misery. You leaned in to kiss him and he reciprocated happily, pulling back after a few seconds, eyes fluttering open to look at Dimitri, who looked so content in that moment.

“I love you,” you told him, truly meaning it. “I want to be with you.”

Dimitri looked so happy, but with a glance downwards, you saw that he was no less hard. It looked rather painful, and couldn’t be comfortable for him. You were not as subtle as you thought you had been, and he caught your glance downwards on his form.

“I… it is okay, I would never pressure you. You do not have to worry about me,” he said quickly, face flushing pink.

He was about to get up and put some distance between you, but you would not let that happen. You stood up with him and spoke his name softly as you slipped your hands into the sides of your shorts, pulling them down along with your tights and slipping out of them and your boots. It was not a particularly graceful or sexy stripping of your last articles of clothing, but it got the job done. You crossed the room to where he was standing and he allowed you to begin the process of removing the clothes covering his lower half.

“If this is what you really want,” his growled words sent your cheeks aflame. “I will not hold back, my love.”

He helped you by kicking his pants and underwear off, and as soon as you were both fully naked, he picked you up, his hands grasping your thighs to support you. You hastily wrapped your legs and arms around him so you wouldn’t fall, and he grinned at you as he placed you down on the bed, following you down so he could kiss you again. Dimitri kissed you for only a moment longer as you desperately tried to keep up with his pace. You were so ready for what was to come, and you pulled back from the kiss and gazed up at him with longing.

Dimitri swallowed as he looked down at you, and you spread your legs as he reached down to his achingly hard cock. You were embarrassed to discover that you were easily wet enough from just kisses and simple groping that Dimitri was able to rub himself against you before he began to slide himself inside with ease. You let out a breathy moan as you tried not to squirm at the foreign feeling. Dimitri’s eyes closed as he dropped down to rest his head on your shoulder, his deep groan right by your ear as he pushed further inside you. Finally, your hips fully met as he was seated fully within you, and you knew that you had never felt anything like this before. You knew what sex was, your father had been too awkward to give you the talk himself and had a female village chief explain to it to you after you had saved their village, so you knew the basics. But no explanation could match up with how good it felt to be so intimate with the man you loved.

You felt his breath tickle your ear as he pulled himself back up, his eyes half lidded. “You feel so good… forgive me, but it is hard for me to focus on anything else.”

You felt the same way, but you didn’t have the patience for him to wait and adjust to this feeling, so you decided to force the issue by squeezing your inner muscles and watching as he shuddered, eye fluttering closed for a moment with a groan. He opened his eye to glare halfheartedly at you, obviously too pleased at the moment for you to believe that he was actually angry with you.

“You are so impatient,” he teased, but complied with your wishes as he pulled ever so slightly out of you before canting his hips back into yours.

He didn’t waste a second in continuing the movement, and his gentle rocking was driving you crazy. You were completely naked, and it had been a cold month, but you were so, so warm. There was a pleasant burn that was slowly ebbing away to just feel good in a way that you had never felt before. Evidently this was new to Dimitri as well, because he was in no better of a state than you were, panting against your skin as he leaned down to kiss at your neck. You were content to lay like that, your arms around his neck and feeling his hair tickle your face, but a well-timed thrust had you unexpectedly crying out with the sudden spike of pleasure.

Dimitri couldn’t suppress his own groan as he was able to reach deeper within you. And when you rolled your hips up to meet him, he almost stopped his momentum to bask in how good it felt. He once again palmed your breasts and stifled your moan as he kissed you again. He closed his eye as he kissed you because he feared that if he was to keep it open and take in the way you looked right now, this would end far sooner than he wanted. You were so beautiful like this, and his heart stuttered with every sound that left your mouth.

He wanted this to last, but he could no longer be satisfied with the current pace. He began to pull out more swiftly and push back in with a new speed and intensity. He felt pride surge up in him as you squirmed and broke the kiss to let out another cute cry. Your next cry was of his name, which set his pace on fire as you both rapidly tried to meet your ends as you both connected in a desperate clashing of tongues, both groping at any inch of the other’s skin that you could reach.

“I fear this will not last much longer, beloved,” Dimitri panted. “But we have so much more time ahead of us.”

You weren’t fully sure what he meant by that, but at this point you were so close to reaching your peak that you could do no more than moan and grasp weakly onto his neck and back, tangling one hand in his hair. You closed your eyes tightly as Dimitri held you as close to him as he could, his chest brushing against yours in tandem with his thrusting. It only took a bit more of his harsh, fast pace before you lost yourself in pleasure. Dimitri continued to move, prolonging your orgasm as you moaned and squeezed around him. He could only hold out for so long and he was finally pushed over the edge with a strained groan of your name. The two of you stayed joined for a moment before Dimitri gently moved off of you, giving you a shy smile. You went to get up with him, but he stopped you with a hand on your arm and you obeyed, laying back down, but looked at him quizzically.

“You may not want to get up. We have made quite a mess,” Dimitri said reluctantly.

He wasn’t making eye contact anymore, and you followed his gaze downwards on your body. Oh. Without the feeling to distract you, you realized just how gross you were feeling… down there. You closed your legs tightly in embarrassment, and in the hopes that you wouldn’t ruin Dimitri’s sheets. Feeling an onset of bashfulness, you also brought an arm up to cover as much of your chest as you could; despite what you had just done with him, the reality of the situation was catching up to you.

Dimitri laughed at your sudden shyness. “I will go fetch something to clean you up with,” he explained, beginning to dress himself to his first layer of clothing, foregoing his armor.

He bent down to kiss one of your flushed cheeks, and then he was gone out the door. Once the door had been closed and you were alone, you felt all of your remaining composure slip away. You and Dimitri had… you had no idea how he was so much more composed than you were, easily leaving the room to bring back something to clean you up. You felt too embarrassed to leave this room for a month, let alone right after you had been so intimate for the first time. You did not even know what to say to Dimitri when he got back, but you would dare to hope he had meant what he said, implying that he wanted to do this again. That he loved you. But for now, all you could do was wait for him to return.

Dimitri kept a relatively quick pace to fetch a cloth, although for a much different reason than the previous time. He still had a hard time believing that had just happened, that you and he were… he loved you, and he would not deny it even if being open about it was so new for him. Smiling to himself, he wistfully hoped that you would agree to spend the night in his room. He would not force you, but he could not deny that the idea of waking up and seeing your beautiful face first thing in the morning set his heart aflutter.

Dimitri had gotten to the middle of the hallway before he noticed someone waving at him just past his room, standing at the end of the hallway. Sylvain grinned at him as Dimitri walked past his own room to meet his friend just outside the redhead’s room.

“Late night walk, Your Highness?” Sylvain quipped, eyes briefly darting down to the towel in Dimitri’s grasp.

Dimitri was silent for a moment too long, wondering what to respond, and Sylvain laughed awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. “Just one thing though, you might want to noise-proof your room.”

“Sylvain!” Dimitri admonished, shocked.

“Hey!” Sylvain waved his hands in a defensive manner. “It wasn’t me! But, uh, Felix was just here complaining that you and the Professor were interrupting his sleep…”

Dimitri was not sure what to say to that, and immediately felt bad because he was sure that you would be embarrassed if you knew that you two had been heard. Dimitri turned a hard gaze to Sylvain; his childhood friend had not been known to be the most trustworthy with gossip, but Sylvain immediately knew what Dimitri was thinking, and what he was likely about to say.

“I wasn’t going to tell anyone, relax!” Sylvain stated quickly. “Just be careful, ladies don’t really like having an audience.”

Dimitri scoffed, but smiled at his friend. “I will keep that in mind, Sylvain.”

Relieved that Dimitri was not mad at him, he clasped one of his friend’s shoulders. “I won’t keep you from her, but I just wanted to say that I’m happy for you. You deserve to be happy, Dimitri. Just don’t let her get away!” he joked.

Both men having said their piece, turned to go to their respective rooms. Dimitri could only hope that you hadn’t heard any of their conversation. The last thing he wanted to do was scare you away or make you uncomfortable. But as he opened the door, he found you still on his bed, shutting the door behind him without looking back because he could not stand to look away from the smile you gave him upon seeing him return.

It hadn’t been long, but you felt happiness surge up in you at the sight of him. He briskly made his way over to you and handed you the towel he had brought, to your great relief. It would be too embarrassing to have him clean you, and so you accepted the towel gratefully, cleaning yourself as he turned his back to give you some privacy. You made quick work of cleaning yourself, feeling less of a mess immediately, other than your hair still being slightly matted to your forehead with sweat. You wanted to savor this moment, but you also wanted to know if he had really meant what he had said earlier.

Dimitri, not noticing the shift in your mood, leaned down onto the bed just as you sat up so he could give you a light kiss. He looked so happy when he pulled away from you, his smile unwavering. It was only then that he noticed how strained your small smile was. “My love…?”

“…you said we would have more time,” you said quietly, and his brows drew together in confusion, before nodding affirmatively.

“You have not figured it out yet?” Dimitri teased, reaching down to hold your hand. “I would hope that this was not the only time we would be together like this.”

You were still confused, and he noticed immediately. “I do not mean only in a carnal sense. This is a rather unusual setting, but I have no regrets. I want to marry you.”

Oh... You stared at him in shock. You weren’t sure what you were expecting him to say, only just nervous that he would tell you to leave, that this was a one-time thing. But he had gone in the farthest direction possible from what you had feared. You found that you really wanted this, you wanted to marry him, wanted to stay by his side forever. None of your thoughts made it to your face, your expression blank as you stared at him. Dimitri didn’t seem to understand what you were thinking, and got a little anxious himself.

“If you do not want to, of course…” he muttered. “I do not have a ring, yet I decided to ask this of you. I understand if you do not want this with me.”

He had seemingly already decided his fate, and you smiled softly at him. “I accept.”

“You… you do?” he sounded surprised, and you weren’t quite sure why. He was a wonderful man, and you loved him so much. He was a fool to think anything otherwise. Especially after what you had just done together, and all you both had been through.

He had finally seemed to get the message, and practically lunged towards you, connecting your lips together in a rough kiss. This war would end, you knew, and then the two of you could build a peaceful world together. You looked forward to that, but you knew that you would have Dimitri at your side for anything that came your way, and that gave you all the confidence you could ever need.

[peculiarpatches]

           ❤  𝐿𝑂𝑉𝐸𝐷 𝑌𝑂𝑈 𝑇𝐻𝐸𝑁, 𝐿𝑂𝑉𝐸 𝑌𝑂𝑈 𝐴𝐿𝑊𝐴𝑌𝑆 ❤  

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bella swan x fem! reader. 

lowercase intended.

this story takes place during new moon. also, i love edward cullen as much as i love bella swan but in this story, edward cullen has no rights. 

me and my homies all fucking HATE new moon edward cullen. 

anyways, if you like this, please give it a 'like' and tell me if you like it because it'll mean the world to me :( 

thank you and enjoy!! WARNINGS:  smut. there's not a lot of it, it's mainly just oral and somewhat dirty talk. again, not a whole lot of anything, really. it's mainly fluff with somewhat smut. idk??? either way. i hope yall like it.

(y/n) stirred in her sleep, the floor  below her squeaking loudly due to her  continuous movements. she couldn't stop squirming around, couldn't get comfortable in the slightest, no matter how much she tried to do so.  (y/n) tried her best but didn't - couldn't - succeed. she was constantly stirring as she tried to rest.. no matter what position she tried, no matter how many melatonin gummies she had previously taken before as well, nothing seemed to work. both her thoughts and heart were racing, she knew they wouldn't stop or slow down any time soon, either.    they kept going, running and running, it was as if her thoughts were a horse, racing to the finishing line but the finishing line was so far away, so out of reach, she couldn't seem to catch up to it. as for her heart, it was hammering away against her chest, rapidly.    though, she knew it was physically impossible, (y/n) swore her best friend - bella swan - could hear (y/n)'s heartbeat drumming and jack hammering against her chest. but all was silent in the room, other than the faint snores drifting away from bella's lips and (y/n)'s heavy breathing. the thoughts that clouded her mind were nothing but pure filth, such sinful things that'd make even the devil red in the face and cause him to go speechless.   all these thoughts were about bella, too. (y/n) knew it was wrong to think such thoughts about your best friend, especially one who just went through a break up not too long ago but she couldn't help herself.   truth be told, she always did have an attraction to her best friend, ever since the two were children, actually, (y/n) always had a crush on bella.   

of course, she didn't know what those feelings were as a kid, she just thought bella was pretty the way flowers were and the way the sky was when it'd drastically change colors, have it be a sunset or a sunrise, it didn't matter because they were a beautiful sight to her, as was bella.   The marriage of warm honey hues and deep caramels spun  in bella's eyes,  her brown hair was long and wavy,  it   flowed  so smoothly down over her shoulders and across her back.  

as of the moment, however, her hair was a bird's nest and in every other angle, strands of hair poked out from her sleeping, restless face. it actually made (y/n) giggle faintly as she bent forward, sneaking a peek at her best friend. 

she had done this every other time within the night, sneaking a glance, here and there, just to watch how beautiful she slept - how peaceful she looked.  but  (y/n) also was quick to lay back down against the sleeping bag she was  oh so, uncomfortably sleeping in. the moment bella rolled over and shifted in her sleep, she'd be quick to shut her eyes and play pretend, afraid of bella waking up and seeing her, gawking at her, googly eyes and a lovestruck expression across her face.  she didn't want bella to think she was a total creep, for gazing  at her like that, especially as the girl was elsewhere within her own state of mind, more than likely, dreaming of her ex boyfriend, edward, too.  the reason they were having this sleepover, anyways, was because charlie - bella's dad - suggested it. said that bella could use a friend, especially with edward getting up and walking out on her for whatever, given reason that may be, nobody expect bella knew. and even then, bella didn't say anything about it. she kept quiet. but even then, no words needed to be spoken, bella's expressions and body language were more than enough of a dead giveaway; she was still so hung up about the cullen boy. 

at least, this is what (y/n) thought. everyone in forks thought that. expect, as she's thinking about bella, lost in her own thoughts, she hears a faint whimper, coming above her. eyebrows furrowed and bottom lip tugged between her teeth, (y/n) sits up and at first, she hesitates, wondering if she should wake bella up herself or go and get charlie. charlie warned her that bella was having nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night, she'd yell on the top of her lungs and cry until there were no tears left.  expect, before she could make that decision, she hears the whimpers growing louder, thus giving her the explanation and the answer to the question she had yet asked. bella wasn't having a night terror, no, instead she was touching herself. and she was touching herself to (y/n).  "a-ah.... oh... (y/n)..." bella's voice is hoarse, groggy, it's as if she had just woken up.   (y/n) felt foolish  for not having picked up on the sudden noises before but there they were - the faint buzzing and the soft, slick sound of bella pleasuring herself with said toy.  once she recognized the sound, she couldn't unhear it. (y/n)  now, having known what it exactly was that she was doing, she could hear it a little too well.  it sent her own core throbbing, begging to be touched.  the thin layer of cloth she wore around her thighs, a poor excuse of a pair of panties if you ask her, began to leak with (y/n)'s arousal.  but there, she lay, as stiff as a board, unable to move.  until she heard bella's voice. then and only then, did she feel her heart begin to pick back up with speed  and the butterflies that she desperately tried to hide began to flutter and fly deep within her stomach, sending an endless amount of feelings to flood her.  "(y/n)? i know you're awake... i know you can hear me. i can practically read your thoughts, too. read you like a book. i've known you since, well... forever." bella giggled but her voice cracked, giving away at the last sentence she spoke, it was as if she was on the verge - the edge  - of coming undone. and completely oblivious to the fact, bella was, indeed, on the edge of an orgasm. and she needed  (y/n). now, more than ever, she needed her best friend.  "i know you want me, (y/n). i won't lie, either, i want you too... and i also know you want my pretty pussy as much as i want yours."   (y/n)'s breath hitches in her throat and she solemnly  swears her heart stops beating.  fully sitting up, her (e/c)  eyes meet with bella's hazel ones. "are you sure? you aren't just saying this because-" bella shook her head, quick to reply before (y/n) could even mention her ex boyfriend's name. bella didn't want to hear about him. not now, not ever again. he broke her heart but here (y/n) was, always there to pick bella up when she fell. bella, herself, felt like an idiot for not realizing her feelings sooner.  yes, she loved edward, and a little piece of her always probably would love him.  and yes, she'll also think about the endless possibilities  that could have happened in the future with edward but.... 

as she looked at her best friend, bella realizes that she'd rather remain as a mortal and die, loving this girl than love an immortal who left, even after claiming he loved her and wanted to spend forever with her.  

she'd rather be with (y/n) the girl who never gave up on her, even in the most difficult times.   this was her forever. and as dull and depressing as a human may be, especially one so scared of dying, bella wasn't afraid anymore. being with (y/n) made her feel alive. 

and again, she'd die, happily, as long as it meant (y/n) was by her side throughout it all.  

both bella and (y/n) knew, too, nothing would ever tear them apart. no matter what, they'd always be together.

 friendship or relationship, at the end of the day, it'll always be them.  "yes. i'm sure. i'm positive. i want you now more than ever. i.... well, i've been thinking about it for awhile. often, i should say.... you're the only friend  - only person - who has remained by my side, not just with this breakup but even when i lived thousands and thousands of miles away. you sent me letters and packages.... hell,  when i told you i finally got a laptop. you were the first person in my inbox.  you sent me multiple emails, all of which mainly contained of nothing expect, 'i miss you's.' 

you were always there for me. and even now, even when i had pushed you away for a boy who could care less about me, you were there. i love you, (y/n). and i am so sorry it took me so long before to realize."  by the time, bella was done talking, (y/n) scrambled up on her feet (she nearly fell in the progress, too) and pushed bella down against the bed, instantly crashing her lips on the other girl's. smiling in the kiss, bella happily kisses back, murmuring a soft, "i love you," against (y/n)'s lips. "and i love you." (y/n) replied. the kiss was short, simple and sweet. it would have lasted longer and  bella was upset when (y/n) had pulled away  but (y/n) giggles softly and explains why she ended the kiss so soon, so quickly.  "what did you say earlier, by the way? you know.... about me, wanting that pretty pussy of yours? is that offer still on the table, bell?" (y/n) whispered, seduction easing its way into the words she spoke. bella shuddered, feeling her nipples harden and her cunt throb as (y/n) talked.    "y-yes." bella stammered, blushing deeply as she chewed on her bottom lip. "will you? please? 'm still so wet." bella continued, the blush on her cheeks only growing a deeper and darker red as she confessed this.  

 in one swift movement, bella holds the toy up, proving her statement. the toy was small, no bigger than her and (y/n)'s fingers combined.  the only light in the room, other than the faint glimmer and glow of the lights hung up above bella's bed was the pale light of the moon, peaking out from the curtains. even with little to no light, (y/n) could tell the toy was soaked with bella's wetness.  "lay on your back. spread your legs for me, want to see your full pussy on display for me. won't you do that for me, bells? be my good girl and show me your cute cunt?" 

 like earlier, bella shuddered at (y/n)'s words and throwing the comforter off of her, she gets cozy and lays on the mattress, her breathing heavy as she watched (y/n) spread her legs apart and before she can even register what's happening, she feels the soft but wet tip of (y/n)'s tongue in between her folds.  "oh." bella mewled, throwing her head back against the pillows behind her head.  edward never touched her, other than a few awkward kisses, here and there. he  always said he was too scared he'd hurt her. how ironic, being the fact he still managed to hurt her by leaving her. not so much in the bedroom because they never got around to it. but he was gone now and (y/n) was here,  showing and proving that she was better than that heartless, and undead son of a bitch.  "(y/n) please..." bella whimpered, tugging on her lower lip harder as she felt (y/n)'s tongue go deeper inside. a moan leaves her lips before she could say anything else.     (y/n), taking her clit  in her mouth, bella squeals with delight and surprise at the sudden action.  "oh, fuck, yes~!"  bella moans, throwing her head back, her hand finds its way into (y/n)'s hair, curling her fingers around the stray few pieces that slip between her fingertips.  "eat me out, baby, just like that.  you like that, hm? like the taste of your best friend's cunt on your tongue?  fucking devour it, baby, eat me out as if i'm your last meal. oh, (y/n)!!" bella's voice grew louder, more needy, by the second. (y/n) as quick as ever, flicks her tongue again and again, over and over,  against bella's clit, her lips hollow over her womanhood and she licks all around, taking in bella's juice like a cum slut she was.  

bella seemed to enjoy it, with the way she was withering and shaking above her. there's that, of course,  and her, growing wetter the more (y/n)'s tongue and lips hover over her cunt. so,  there was the answer to the question she had yet asked. being the ultimate tease, however, (y/n) pulls back and replaces her tongue with the toy that bella used earlier, slipping it in easily as the wetness of herself continues to leak out.  "oh, fuck!" bella exclaims, she's quick to cover her mouth with the palm of her hand,  however, reminding herself that her father was downstairs, more than likely, passed out on the couch with a repeat of last year's game on the screen. if he had heard her yelling, (thanks for that, edward) he'd be quick to run up the stairwell, careful on his feet so he wouldn't trip and  he'd burst through the door, seeing if his daughter was okay and if she needed him like all the other times he had heard her, screaming and hollering.  of course, if that were the case; he'd see bella, being eaten out by her best friend, tears of pleasure and satisfaction rolling down her cheeks, bottom lip clamped between her teeth, all while (y/n)'s face was full of her pussy, her chin glistening with her juices.  as her one hand covered her mouth, her other had left (y/n)'s hair and was digging into the comforter, her nails digging into the flower printed fabric. 

"that's it, baby, yes, yes, oh, FUCK.  fuck me like that, please, don't stop, oh please, don't stop."  bella's words ran together as she was getting closer and closer to an orgasm. the slur in her speech made it seem as if she were drunk, more than anything. "fuck me like a whore, (y/n), please... want you. need you so bad. 'wan be a good girl for you and cum just for you, babygirl, please."  more than happy to do so, (y/n) does exactly that.  removing the toy, (y/n) replaces the opening of bella's cunt with her fingers, pumping her fingers back and forth; in and out. she does this while shoving her face back in between bella's thighs.   meanwhile, bella bucks her hips into her best friend's mouth, her lips falling down into a little 'o' shape as  the familiar heat pools in the bottom of her stomach and continues to build. her teeth clench together as her feet arch up and her toes curl downward. "oh god.... oh, (y/n).. i'm coming!"  bella's words, like earlier, have not changed because the palm of her hand was still clamped over her mouth, therefore the words that left her lips were muffled.    as the girl rides out her high, the other gal remained in the same position, licking and swallowing all the cum that bella just let loose, happily slurping it up.  the girl below was obviously messy.    even in the dim lighting of the room, bella could see her best friend's face was covered with her own  arousement, it  was dripping  from her lips and her own wetness - she noticed - was sticking to her underwear and was beginning to leak, the drip sticking to her thighs. had she really came, untouched? 

the thought made bella hornier, if that were even possible.   "was that okay?" (y/n) was the first one to speak up and her voice came out in a whisper. it took bella a moment or two to process the words and piece them together. giggling, bella is quick to sit up and crawl over, pinning (y/n) to the bed and kissing her. 

"baby, that was wonderful... you made me feel so fucking good so great. i love you so much." (y/n), hearing bella confess this, squeals with happiness as she kisses her best friend - girlfriend? - back, smiling widely into the kiss as they lay there, lovingly interlocking lips with one another. "but..." bella pulls away, her cheeks flushing as she continues with her sentence, "how about me? can i have a taste of you?" goosebumps prickle her skin  at the question and eagerly, (y/n) nods and grips onto bella's arm, her fingernails digging into her skin as she practically begs for it. 

she needed this so bad. 

wanted bella so bad since all those summer's ago.  "please, bella..."  giggling and smiling - oh, how (y/n) loved seeing her smile, especially knowing she was the reason behind it -  bella nods as she trails down, opening (y/n)'s legs and doing the exact same thing that (y/n) just did. "oh... bella..."  *~* 

throughout the night, bella and (y/n) took turns, pleasing and pleasuring the other. soft, gentle whispers of 'i love you's' left their lips at any given chance, at any free moment they had.  by the end of the night, bella forgot all about edward cullen, all she could think about was (y/n). 

 as for (y/n) she was - though, she wouldn't dare say this to her best friend -

(well, girlfriend) 

(bella asked if it was okay if they put that label on themselves and (y/n) laughed and pulled her into a passionate yet hungry kiss, "i've been waiting forever for you to ask me... yes, bella, i'd love to be your girlfriend.") 

but she was glad edward was out of the picture, too. 

(the two girls came out to charlie the next morning and completely unfazed, he nods and presses a steaming cup of coffee to his lips, sipping on it slowly before he spoke,  “at least you know you have my approval.” 

charlie, too, was more than happy to see edward gone and out of the picture. he liked (y/n) a lot better, anyways.) 

[maliby]

When The Night Comes | CH. 3

↬ Pairing: Jimin x Reader | Taehyung x Reader

↬ Story Genre: smut, angst, vampire!au

↬ Warnings in this chapter: blood, explicit language, smut

↬ Word count: 4.9K

↬ Summary: Your school has two courses: the day course, and the night course. Rules say that it’s strictly forbidden for both courses to interact but can you really follow the rules when you see the same eyes that have been showing up in your dreams for months on a mysterious hot guy from the night course?

A/N: tag list below, if you want to be tagged feel free to ask <3

“Wake up,” you jolted up from your fortress of blankets to an alluring voice whispering on your left ear.

“Who’s there?” you asked looking around the dark room. Your sleepy eyes were having trouble focusing but nonetheless you were able to see a dark figure right in front of you which made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

“Don’t be scared, it’s just me,” you immediately screamed as your eyes adjusted to the darkness and spotted the red eyes and hair of your intruder.

“Don’t worry love, I’m not going to hurt you.” Taehyung came closer to you, his hand reaching for your cheek to caress it. “I could never hurt you...that is, of course, unless you ask for it.”

His evil smirk made your instincts kick in and make you want to get away from him, but your body wasn’t giving in. It was like it wanted nothing more than to receive his affection and the danger that came along with him. 

Suddenly, you remembered your roommate Yujin was sleeping in the same room as you and couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread coming over you at the potential hazard that would arise if she woke up and saw Taehyung.

“Y-yujin,” you pointed out.

“Don’t worry love, I concealed us from her. She won’t hear or see a thing…” And then his lips were on your neck, kissing and sucking as tiny moans left your mouth.

You should be getting away, you should be screaming, you should be pushing him away, but you wouldn’t. This man had deceived you so you could give him your blood, he had lied to you and tricked you, he was dangerous and yet you couldn’t help but get wet by his touch and you hated yourself for it.

“Why can’t I say no to you? Stop using your supernatural powers on me,” you said, trying to come up with an explanation as to why you couldn’t stop him.

“You think I’m using my powers on you love? I’m offended,” he chuckled. “You better believe that when I have a girl it’s because she wants me to have her, and you…” his hand travelled down your body and entered your pyjama pants and underwear, massaging your lips and clit, “are dying to have me inside you.”

“Fuck,” your hand reached for his arm as a reflex, not really expecting to find such toned biceps underneath his studded leather jacket.

“Am I making you curse now? I love corrupting good girls…” his nose was moving through your neck as he inhaled deeply, probably getting a good whiff off his meal. Soon, his sharp fangs were scrapping through your neck. It seemed like every move of his was made with the intention of luring you into his web of seduction - he started at the nape of your neck, slowly going up, probably leaving red streaks on your neck, as his finger smoothly glided from your entrance all the way up to your clit. It was like it was designed to make you fall, the climax being when he bit your lower lip with one of his fangs and entered you with his 2 long digits.

“Oh my-”

“Scream it louder love, he can’t hear you,” his fingers started pumping into you faster as if encouraging you to let go.

“Fuck yes,” you screamed, your brain not registering what he meant by ‘he’. Was it Jimin?

“I love the way your tight little pussy is clenching around my fingers,” his velvety voice was like fuel to the fire, rilling you up even more. “I can just imagine how good it must feel to have you squeezing around my cock.” 

When you thought it couldn’t get any better, Taehyung’s other fingers reached your clit and started rubbing circles on it, making you go completely wild.

“Mmmm,” you moaned through your shut lips, trying hard not to make a noise. Yujin couldn’t hear you, but that didn’t mean the people in the other rooms also couldn’t.

“Scream my name for me love and I’ll let you cum.”

You couldn’t think about what was happening anymore. You couldn’t think about the fact that this vampire was here in your room after he had tricked you. You couldn’t think about all of the dangers. All you could think about was that you wanted to cream his fucking fingers and scream his name. “Taehyung…”

“That’s it love, let them all hear. Let him hear.”

You were in a trance, his smooth voice and long fingers guiding you to your sweet release. You could feel it building up. You could feel your walls clenching tight, ready to let go, but just as you were about to cum you woke up.

You frantically got up and looked around the room - only Yujin was there. You sighed. It was just a dream.

Being aware of your current state of arousal you couldn’t help but hide your face in your hands - the freshly healed cut on your hand throbbing in unison with your pussy. You plonked back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Was this your life now? Dreaming about hot vampire boys? You wouldn’t mind if it was a harmless sex dream, but seeing as the protagonist of that dream had, just the night before, tricked you into giving him your blood just so he could track you things were a little different.

You looked outside the window that stood on the opposite wall of where the beds were and noticed the absence of the silver moon in the sky. You sighed. You hated when it was the new moon. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it, but you felt like it had to do with the fact that everything felt much darker.

Your mind reverted back to Jimin. Why was he so pissed that Taehyung had drunk your blood? You were glad that he was worried about you but the fact was that he barely knows you. Why was a vampire so worried about the fact that another vampire has fed on someone? He didn’t seem to mind the affairs going on in the hangout place of the nightwing, so why was he so worried about you?

Your thoughts started to subside and soon sleep started to take over you. As the leaves of the trees outside danced around in the wind, your eyes started to close shut. You nuzzled your cheek on your pillow and sunk under, oblivious to the pair of silver eyes watching over you in the trees.

------------------ 1 week later -------------------

You read the text your friend Lisa had sent you out loud so your roommate Yujin could hear it. 

Lisa McGuire

Get to the cafeteria now!!! You won’t believe what happened!

When it came to getting ready, you and Yujin were one and the same - you were always late. You both liked to take your time doing things, especially in the shower. Since you were getting ready to have breakfast and not to go straight to class you both felt in less of a rush, but your friend’s message surely intrigued both of you.

“What could it be?” Your friend asked as she quickly applied mascara to her already long lashes.

“Knowing Lisa? It’s probably about a boy.” You finished brushing your hair and placed down the brush, now being fully ready.

“You think she’s already over that Chanyeol boy she hooked up with last week or she secretly sneaked into the nightwing to have sex with him?” Yujin placed her mascara back in her little cup and made her way to her bed so she could pick up her bag and join you.

“I truly don’t know…” You hoped it wasn’t the latter. Chanyeol was Taehyung’s friend, and if he helped him pull his little stunt where he ‘made you’ give him his blood then he was just as bad as the vampire with the red hair.

When you and your roommate spotted your group of friends in the cafeteria you felt your whole world shake. They had company, someone that was currently biting Lisa’s earlobe making her giggle. Someone that made your blood freeze over.

“Oh my god-” Yujin interjected.

”Lisa!” You called in a volume way louder than your normal register, getting the attention of everyone around you, including all of your friends.

“Y/N! Yujin! Look, it’s Chanyeol!” She happily pointed at the boy sitting next to her with a huge grin. Just the look on his face was making you physically sick.

“What is he doing here?! Isn’t he from the night course?” You tried not to sound too angry, but you just couldn’t help it.

“A portion of the night course moved to the day course and Chanyeol was picked!” If she noticed the level of aggression in your tone she didn’t let it show, being really excited about the boy with the silver hair’s presence.

After registering her words you looked around the cafeteria and noticed several people wearing the characteristic navy blue uniform of the night course - dread soon took over your whole body. If Chanyeol was here then...was Taehyung also here?

“He didn’t come,” the man with the deep voice said as if reading your mind. You turned your head back to your own group and couldn’t help but feel the creeps at the smirk he had on his face.

“Who’s he? And...you know each other? Y/N you never told me!” Lisa looked between the two of you all confused. She was probably upset that you had pretended like you didn’t know him all the times she gushed about him.

“We met through a mutual friend.” Chanyeol broke eye contact with you to look back at Lisa, but you couldn’t stop looking at him. You needed answers on what the hell was going on and you needed them now.

“Oh my god! Is it the mysterious hot guy?” Lisa interrogated her crush before she turned back to you. “Y/N you didn’t tell us you finally got together with him!”

“Mysterious hot g-”

“Yes!” You interrupted Chanyeol before he could question Lisa further. You couldn’t have them know about Taehyung, it was way too dangerous. “I was with him at the Halloween party.” Technically you weren’t lying, you were with Jimin at the Halloween party.

“Oh my god! And you kept that a secret?! What happened?” Eunbin who was currently spreading strawberry jam on her toast asked.

“I-” You were struggling with what to say, especially because Chanyeol was right in front of you. You looked straight at him and quickly got annoyed - he was enjoying this. He certainly was Taehyung’s friend.

“Good morning,” a voice you recognized perfectly said from behind you, saving you from this embarrassing moment - it was Jimin. Your eyes, that were looking straight at Chanyeol, noticed how he immediately changed demeanour, the smug on his face disappearing and his head hanging low as if he was submitting. Weird, you thought.

You turned around and there he was. His dark hair softly hanging across his features, his (now) brown eyes that you knew oh so well looking straight at you, his soft plump lips making your heart skip a beat, and the way his navy blue uniform hugged his lean and fit body making your thighs squeeze harder. You know he noticed the way you were ogling him up and down because his soft neutral expression quickly turned into a teasing one, a little chuckle leaving his perfect set of lips.

“I’m sorry to take you from your friends but, would you mind having breakfast with me today? I’d really like to talk to you.”

The way all of your friends gasped at his request made you embarrassed beyond belief, but the worst was when Lisa decided to respond instead of you. “Of course she will!”

You turned to your friend to give her a menacing look that failed to intimidate her, a wink being all you got in response. You glanced over at Chanyeol and his eyes were still on his lap, making you question their dynamics. You wondered for a second if you should ask Jimin about it but then you remembered that he was still waiting for your response.

“Sure,” you ignored your friend’s excited faces and joined Jimin, being terrified to look back for just a second.

“Find a table, I’ll just go and get my breakfast and then I’ll join you,” you turned to leave, but the cold hand he placed around your arm stopped you.

“No need, I got it for you,” he lifted up his tray filled with food making your eyes double in size at all the food he had there. “I didn’t know what you liked so I got a bit of everything.”

“Oh,” you interjected feeling touched at his gesture. “You didn’t have to.”

“No, I didn’t. But I wanted to.”

You two stayed silent for a moment, a blush creeping up on your cheeks until Jimin found an empty table and signalled you to sit down.

You were feeling kind of nervous if you were being honest. You hadn’t heard anything from Jimin since the incident at the Halloween party. He had taken you back to your room but had said little to no words, making you think he was somehow angry at you. But the fact that he was being so nice right now kind of calmed you down.

Looking down at the tray of food you noticed your usual Oreos were missing. But, as the number 1 Oreo fan, you always carried a little package with you, so you reached for your bag and picked up the package so you can dip the cookies in your milk.

Jimin chuckled. “I didn’t realize I was having breakfast with a child. I’m sorry, I’ll get your cookies next time,” he joked.

“Hey! It’s really good okay? Don’t judge me,” you stuffed your mouth with the first Oreo dipped in milk and hummed in approval, Jimin finding your behaviour amusing.

He lifted up his hands in defence and apologized. “I’m sorry, I promise not to make fun of the Cookie Monster anymore!”

You laughed, choking up on the Oreo a bit.

The mood between you and Jimin had never been this light before, a form of tension always being present, but you must admit that you really enjoyed it. Then your mind went back to that Halloween party again and the tension grew once more.

“I’m sorry,” you picked up another oreo and dipped it in your glass of milk, avoiding his gaze.

“For what?” You could tell from his tone of voice that he was confused at your sudden apology.

“For giving my blood to Taehyung…” 

You weren’t looking at his face but you saw him clench his fists, giving you a strange feeling in your chest.

“It’s not your fault. I should have been there to protect you.” You looked up at him in shock, but he averted your gaze, looking away into nothingness. It was as if he was being transported to that moment, his jaw locked tight. Why was he blaming himself?

“Jimin, you couldn’t have known…” You cleaned your fingers on your napkin and placed your hand on top of his cold one, immediately feeling something similar to a spike of electricity running through the skin that was in contact with him.

He didn���t answer. 

Jimin’s eyes locked with yours for an instant, and as much as you tried to decipher his emotions you couldn’t.

“So,” you removed your hand from on top of his and picked up another Oreo, getting ready to dunk it in your glass of milk, “why did people from the night course change to the day course?” You asked, trying to change the subject and lighten up the mood again.

“The director liked how well the Halloween party went and how the students from both courses seemed to get along, so he came up with this little one-way exchange program.” 

You didn’t know why but you had a feeling Jimin wasn’t telling you the truth. Not only did his answer seem rehearsed but the university had been structured like this since 2 years ago when you first enlisted and not once had the director showed this much interest in the two courses socializing. Something fishy was going on but you decided not to press Jimin any further on that matter.

“Does the director know that you’re-”

“Vampires?” He whispered with a teasing expression, seeming to poke fun at the way you got embarrassed to say the word. “Yes.”

“And is he...is Taehyung also going to be around here during the day?” You really didn’t want to bring Taehyung back into the conversation but the thought hadn’t left your mind since you first learned some vampires were transferred and for your own peace of mind, you had to ask.

“Don’t worry, I made sure that worthless rat wouldn’t step his feet in here. You’re safe.” 

You couldn’t help but release the breath you now realized were holding. Since the incident, your dreams had been filled with what you would describe as pure porn, all of which involved Taehyung. What bothered you most was how realistic the dreams were. Like you woke up and you could still feel his teeth sinking into your skin and his long cold fingers playing with your pussy. At first, you thought your mind was just acting upon you being around sexy men so often, but for the last couple of days, you’ve begun to wonder if it’s some side effect of you giving him your blood. You wanted to ask somebody who could answer you, but there was no way in hell you were about to tell Jimin you’ve been having erotic dreams with Taehyung. He already despised the guy and seemed to hate even you just mentioning him, much less this.

“Have you been sleeping well?” Jimin asked in a soft voice as if reading your thoughts. You now realized you had spaced out on him, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Hum...yes,” you answered in a not so affirmative tone. “Why do you ask? Do I-?” As on a reflex, you let go of your Oreo and touched your eye bags, wondering if your concealer wasn’t doing a good enough job.

He chuckled. “You look great cara mia, don’t worry,” his hand reached for your cheek and you couldn’t help but feel your whole body burning up. How could it not, when a man that looked like he was carved into perfection was complementing you in a foreign language?

The sweet gesture didn’t last long though, him getting his hand back on the table and clearing his throat. “I was just worried because of the events of last week. I just wanted to make sure you’re alright,” this time his voice was more serious, giving you whiplash. No matter how much time you spent with Jimin, his hot and cold persona was something you found difficult to deal with.

“Don’t worry Jimin,” you reassured him which seemed to ease up his mind.

As you downed your glass of milk - having finished all your Oreos - you noticed your group of friends passing right by you, Lisa holding hands with Chanyeol, and you couldn’t help but worry for her.

“Hey Jimin, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Is he a bad guy?” You pointed to the man with the silver hair currently grabbing your friend’s ass, feeling your chest tighten at their interactions.

“You’re worried about your friend?”

“Yeah…” you trailed off.

“I think that all you need to worry about is that he may be a womanizer. Other than that...he’s not gonna eat her,” his sincere and warm smile ease up your mind.

“I never thought I’d have this response at someone being a womanizer but thank god,” you sighed in relief.

Your response made Jimin laugh and you found that you liked him best like this, his eyes turned into crescent moons and his beautiful smile on display.

“Well then, shall we go to class? I hear Mr Moon is a pain in the ass.”

“You’re in my class?!” Your eyes doubled up in size at the revelation. You hadn’t even thought of the possibility of him being in your class.

“Mhm,” he nodded, his teasing expression back on his face.

Well, if you had trouble paying attention in class before then you really were in trouble now.

Jimin was annoying. Not only did he know the answer to every fucking question the teachers asked him, but he also had the audacity to look like a fucking god sent from up above while doing it.

He sat at the back of the class, probably trying to avoid attention, but the truth of it was that most girls (and even some guys) spent the whole class looking at him. There was just no way you could not when he was sitting there, leaned back, gaze focused on the teacher spinning a pen so effortlessly between his fingers. 

The way you spent your time in class went straight from doodling random things on your notebook to drawing full on portraits of Jimin. You just couldn’t help it. You were looking straight at his profile and when you came to it you were already halfway through your drawing.

“Miss Y/N,” professor Moon called, interrupting the shading process of Jimin’s voluptuous lips. “Would you mind paying attention to the class or am I bothering your drawing time of your new colleague Jimin?”

You choked. Everyone was laughing at you and you could swear you’ve never felt more embarrassed before in your life. Then you looked at Jimin and he had an amusing smug on his face. Nope. Scratch that. This was the most embarrassing moment in your life.

“I-I’m sorry,” you looked down and quickly turned the page to a blank one, trying to show him your commitment to the class.

“Don’t let it happen again. Alright everybody, the show’s over. I want everyone doing exercise number 15, you have 5 minutes!” He broke his gaze from you and went to sit back on his desk, waiting for the whole class to finish the exercise.

You sneakingly tried to look at Jimin again and noticed he was still smirking. You quickly turned your head to look for exercise 15, feeling your cheeks burning up. How were you supposed to look at Jimin ever again in your life? You were gonna have to move schools, you simply had no choice.

“Alright class, see you Monday. Don’t forget to do exercises 16 to 20 for homework!” Mr Moon recalled after the bell rang and everyone started to pack up their things.

You were dreading this moment. You hadn’t looked at Jimin ever since the professor had called you out. You had passed a little piece of paper to Lisa begging her to stay with you at the end of the class to save you from further embarrassment, but you felt the evil sting of betrayal as you saw her and your friends promptly leave class with an evil smile on their faces.

They were sooo gonna pay for this, you thought.

“Can I see it?” 

You felt his presence behind you even before he spoke u, his teasing voice making you dread the next minutes. Was there a way the whole floor could swallow you right now and save you from this moment?

“Jimin you scared me,” you fake jumped, hoping it would distract him from his original intentions.

You failed.

“I’m sorry. Can I see it?” He repeated, the smug on his face never dissolving. He was onto you.

“S-see what?” You closed your notebook and tried to put it inside your bag, his palm pressing it to the table, making it hard for you to store it.

“The drawing you made of me.” The way he almost sang those words really pissed you off. He was enjoying this.

“It’s...it’s really not good…” you trailed off, half saying what you really thought, half expecting him to not want to see it anymore.

“Don’t doubt yourself like that, I’m sure it’s great.”

You felt warmth spread through your chest. How could you say no to him after that? How dare he be so confident in your skills? 

Giving a sigh of defeat you lightly swatted his hand so he could move it out of the way and opened the notebook, quickly flipping through the pages until you reached the object of your embarrassment.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even make a sound. He picked up your notebook and just observed from up close. The expression on his face was unreadable, he seemed to be lost in thought and you were terrified that he didn’t like the drawing. Worse, you were terrified he thought you were a creep.

“See…” you said in a small voice while taking the notebook out of his hands, “I told you it wasn’t good.”

Your words seemed to wake Jimin up from his dazed state, his eyes looking straight at you. “Y/N, that is amazing.”

“R-Really?”

As in most cases, you were your biggest critic. No matter how much your friends told you how good your drawings were, you always found it in yourself to think that they were absolute crap. Usually, your friends’ complements only managed to raise your opinions of your drawings up by a little bit, but something about Jimin made you feel that much more confident in your art. You didn’t know what it was, but you liked the feeling he was giving you.

“Really.” 

The way the crescent moons appeared on his eyes as he smiled at you made your heart skip a beat and you were damn sure you were probably blushing again.

“But next time, try to pay attention in class,” he got closer to you and whispered in your ear: “For as much as I love having you stare at me during the whole lecture, I’d hate to be the one responsible for your poor grades.”

You couldn’t move.

Jimin’s cologne and the way his saccharine and enticing voice had delivered that teasing line had completely paralyzed you. All you could do was watch as he winked at you and turned to leave, his perfect ass filling out that navy uniform.

“Come on cara mia, you’re gonna be late for the next class.”

How in the world were you supposed to not stare at him?

“Nice to see you again, love.”

You jumped up from underneath the safety of your blankets and immediately spotted the man with the fire-like hair sitting at the foot of your bed, red silky shirt halfway opened. 

You were dreaming again.

This was just what you didn’t need. After spending a lovely day bonding with Jimin and your friends you had, for the first time that week, been able to forget about your sinful dreams with Taehyung. So, when you went to sleep that night you didn’t even dread to close your eyes (like the previous nights) because Jimin was the only thing on your mind. Now, though, that you were seeing Taehyung’s dream form right in front of you you felt weirder than usual; you felt like you were somehow cheating on Jimin, even though you weren’t even dating.

Without saying anything you simply lay back in bed and covered your head with your blankets, hoping he would just vanish.

It took everything in you to deny him right now, especially with that shirt he was wearing, but you had to put your foot down. At the end of the day, he was no good, no matter how hot he looked.

“Are you ignoring me love?” You felt the mattress dip closer to you and soon enough, his hand was running over your leg on top of the layer of blankets. “Mmmh...could it be that lover boy finally made his move?”

Your eyes shot wide open, your head peeking out of the blankets to look at him. Was he talking about Jimin? “What are you talking about?”

“He doesn’t know what you want love,” he continued trailing up his hand until it reached your neck completely ignoring your question. “What you truly need,” he then mounted you, his hand firmly grabbing your neck but not squeezing, completely asserting his dominance over you and you immediately felt your panties getting wet.

You were starting to cave to the sex appeal of the man on top of you. Suddenly your thoughts were fuzzy and your thighs were rubbing up against each other, making Taehyung smirk.

His mouth got near your neck and you felt a chill run up your spine as his breath hit your skin. “I know you can’t resist me,” he licked your neck and by the way his head suddenly moved back and the hand on your neck made you move your head to your right you knew he was about to bite you.

Suddenly a scream coming from the next-door room woke you up - it was Lisa and Eunbin’s room. You turned to your left to look at Yujin and she too had woken up. “Was that screaming?”

“I heard it too, I think it’s coming from Lisa and Eunbin’s room,” Yujin confirmed as she quickly got out of bed and put on her slippers, you following her suit.

You two rapidly made your way to the room next door but immediately stopped as you noticed Eunbin’s figure standing completely still at the entrance of the room.

“What happened? Is everything alright?” You asked as both you and your roommate entered the room walking past a petrified Eunbin. 

The sight in front of you completely terrified you - Chanyeol was feeding off of Lisa’s neck, rivers of blood running down her chest.

“V-vampire,” Eunbin stuttered.

© maliby, 2020. Do not copy or repost without permission.

[malewifegradyruewen]

An Untitled Original Work, Part 8

y'all are either gonna love me or hate me-

previous | next | masterpost

trigger warnings: none that i can think of, ask to tag

word count: 2755

tagging: @fire-sapphics @artemiassamos @honorablescythecurie @love-pyramus @silver-war @pencilwritesshiz47 @tiergan-andrin-alenefar @mermistahawk @dirty-racoon @tommyinnitt @enbies-and-felonies @sofia-not-sophie @imaramennoodle @littlemisscupcake @cadence-talle and lmk know if you wanna be added/removed!!

Gina was pissed, to say the least. Stupid, oblivious Leo, and stupid, oblivious her. What a pair.

Leo had always been oblivious, so she really couldn’t blame him, but it was her own mistakes that really set her off. Sure, they were her mistakes, but that didn’t make them sting less.

Put it out of your mind. That’s over now, and now we can… try again.

After they’d left, she and Sammie had decided that they should go to Gina’s, just to hang out. The only reason Gina had agreed was because she knew her dad had taken her youngest siblings to their grandma’s, and the oldest two of her younger siblings wouldn’t bother her. They might have even gone over to a friend’s house, leaving the Weathers residence vacant.

“So, what did you think? Salt & Pepper, it was good, right?” she asked, hoping to break the tension that had formed.

“Yeah, it was pretty good! Leo was right, the mocha was pretty good.”

She knew Sammie didn’t mean any harm, but hearing Leo’s name brought a bitter taste to Gina’s mouth. She did her best to swallow it before asking, “Have you ever dyed your hair?”

So she was taking the easy way out of discussing what had happened at the café. There was nothing wrong with that, especially because Gina wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but they didn’t need to talk about it. Right now, she needed a distraction, something guaranteed.

“Uh, no, I haven’t,” Sammie admitted. “I never had the chance, I guess.”

“How would you feel about maybe, I dunno, doing that at my house?” Gina asked. “I’ve got a couple colours. I accidentally bought some for light hair, too, so that’s been sitting in my closet for a while now.”

Sammie hesitated. Gina could tell she wanted to, but still. It wasn’t something most people did on the fly. Changing your colour was one thing, but doing it for the first time was usually a bigger decision.

“You don’t have to,” Gina added. “Or we can do just like, a little bit. Streaks or ends or-” She gasped. “Under layer would look so good!”

With that, Sammie seemed won over. “Why not? What colours do you have?”

“For light hair, I think pink and blue. And then I have some that’s for darker hair, purple and green and red. And brown. I dunno. Probably pink or blue for you.”

“Pink, for sure.”

“Good, because we’re here,” Gina said as they pulled into her driveway. She quickly parked outside and hopped out of the car. “Do you want a soda or something? We’ve got some in the garage.”

She led Sammie into the garage and to an old, white fridge. Sammie pulled it open and Gina grabbed a Sprite. “Go on, you can take something.”

Sammie grabbed a Sprite of her own before closing the fridge. Gina then pulled open the door to the back hall, a tiny doorway that led into the kitchen. “Shoes on or off?” Sammie asked.

“Either one,” Gina said. “I keep mine in my room.” She then bolted upstairs. “My room’s up here.”

As Gina walked down the narrow hallway, she suddenly felt very… inadequate. Everything seemed too small, too dirty, too embarrassing. It never felt like this when Mally or Andre were over, because they’d been coming over since they were little. But somehow, Sammie seeing it for the first time as a high schooler, the most judgemental group of people on the planet, terrified Gina. What if this was it? Maybe Sammie would stop hanging out with her. Plus, there was the added terror of having your crush see your bedroom. That usually didn’t happen so early, did it?

Gina ran out of time to go over worst-case scenarios as she opened her bedroom door. Luckily, she’d cleaned up a bit before going to pick Sammie up, so it wasn’t too bad. Her bed was made, there were no dirty underwear on the floor, and the dresser was organised.

“Aww, your room is so cute!” Sammie said as Gina stepped out of the way to let her in. “The nail polish is so fun!” She pointed to the row that Gina had lined up in colour order. There were only maybe a dozen bottles, but they took up a decent amount of room on her dresser.

“Thanks,” Gina said as she internally sighed a sigh of relief. “Maybe we can paint our nails later, if we have time.”

“That would be fun,” Sammie agreed.

Gina could tell that there was something Sammie wasn’t saying, but she decided not to push. “Okay, here’s the hair dye,” she said as she opened her closet and grabbed a small plastic basket off the floor. “Here’s the pink.”

She tossed the box to Sammie, who caught it with ease. “Should we do this in the bathroom, and do you have some old towels?”

“Yeah, they’re right here.” She reached into her closet again and grabbed two stained towels. “I know they look gross but they’re clean, I promise. I just washed them.”

“That’s okay,” Sammie said as she took one of the towels from Gina. “Here, you put the basket away. Where’s your bathroom?”

“Right next door, first door on the right,” Gina said, sliding the basket back and closing her small closet. She followed Sammie into the bathroom.

“Okay, what’s first?” asked Sammie as she opened the box.

“You should wash your hair. I can do that in the sink, and then I have some clips in the sink so we only dye the bottom layer.”

“Alright, I’m doing this!” Sammie said as she placed one of the towels around her neck like a cape.

“We’re doing this! Here, I’m gonna go grab a chair so you can sit by the sink,” Gina said. She ran back downstairs to the garage, grabbed an old folding chair, and brought it back up. When she got back to the bathroom, she found that Sammie had found a handful of hair clips in a drawer and had pulled the gloves out of the box.

“Here.” She set the chair down facing the wall. “Sit.”

Sammie sat as Gina grabbed her shampoo and conditioner from the shower. She put them on the counter next to the sink and turned the water on. “Sit back so your hair’s actually in the sink.”

Gina could see Sammie hesitate. “Hey, it’s not too late to chicken out. I still haven’t been able to do Mally’s. You’re fine if you don’t wanna do it.”

“No, I wanna,” Sammie said. “I’m just nervous.”

“Don’t be! This stuff is only semi-permanent anyways, so it won’t last for more than six weeks, if you wash it the same amount as usual.”

Gina could see Sammie take a deep breath before sitting back. “Let’s go!”

She placed Sammie’s hair in the sink and started washing it. “So, how do you like it here?”

“I like it. It’s different from where I lived before, but I like the people here. I think I found a good group, y’know?”

“Yeah, I get that,” Gina said as she started adding shampoo. “Good crew. I’ve known Mally and Andre since elementary school. I think we’re all pretty likeable.”

“Yeah, and the other people in my classes are nice, too,” Sammie said. “Not that I’d hang out with most of them, but they’re nice.”

“Mhm,” Gina said absentmindedly as she rinsed the shampoo and started combing conditioner through Sammie’s hair.

“I can’t wait to just get to know more people, you know? Like I’ve been talking with some of my other classmates and I forgot how fun it is to talk to different people and get their perspectives on things.”

“Yeah,” Gina agreed. “Sit up, your hair is clean. I gotta dry it a bit.”

Sammie leaned forward in the chair as Gina pulled the towel that was sitting on her shoulders up to rub her hair dry. “I’m overall liking it here. I was nervous, but everyone has been really nice and no one’s really bullied me or anything.”

“Yeah, most of the people at our school are nice. It’s actually not too bad. I’ve heard South is way more toxic than our school.” Gina grabbed the clips and then pulled a comb out of one of the drawers. “Hold these,” she said, handing the clips to Sammie. She then ran the comb around Sammie’s head, grabbing the top section with one hand and a clip with the other. “Turn around, does that look good?”

“Yeah, that’s not too much,” Sammie said as she looked in the mirror.

“Okay, I’m gonna straighten out the part there then. Uh, you can continue what you were saying,” Gina said as Sammie turned back to face the wall.

“It’s just a decent environment, better than my old school. Even the worst people here are generally better than at my old school.”

“Yeah,” Gina said. “Okay, hair dye next. You ready?”

“Do it.”

“Okay,” Gina said as she slid on the gloves and opened the package of dye. She mixed it up and started scooping small handfuls onto Sammie’s hair. “Yeah, I’d say the worst person at our school is probably Logan, and she’s pretty bad, so the people at your school must have been terrible.”

“She’s not that bad,” Sammie said. “She’s in my English, and she seems pretty nice.”

“Trust me, she’s not.” Gina combed her fingers through Sammie’s hair. “She’s rude and a bully.”

“Huh, I haven’t seen that,” Sammie admitted. “She seems pretty… normal, I guess.”

“Don’t hang out with her, trust me. Mally and Andre can vouch for me. Just don’t.”

“Okay, I guess I can do that.”

They sat in silence, Gina combing her fingers through Sammie’s hair to make sure it was fully covered. “Your hair looks good, now we wait,” she said, pulling the gloves off and throwing them in the garbage next to the toilet. “Uh, do you wanna do nails while we wait?”

“Sure,” Sammie said. “I can do yours, if you go grab colours.”

Gina nodded before heading back to her room. That was… strange, right? How Sammie had talked about Logan? What was up with the two of them, anyways? Gina wasn’t sure, but hopefully it was just a misunderstanding on Sammie’s part. Logan was bad news, and the two of them hanging out was worse news.

She grabbed a couple colours; sparkly black and her favourite purple. She brought them back to the bathroom and sat down on the floor in front of Sammie. She’d been doing something on her phone while Gina was in her room, and Gina sat for a moment before she put her phone away. “Sorry, I had to respond to a couple messages.”

“That’s okay. Here, here’s my colours.” She put one hand up and Sammie opened the bottle of purple. She started applying the colour with an ease Gina had never been able to master.

“We should listen to music,” Gina said as she pulled her phone out of her pocket with her free hand. She opened her Spotify and scrolled through her playlists until she found one that wouldn’t totally embarrass her.

“Oh, this is a bop,” she said as the first song came on.

“Oh, yeah!” Sammie said, grinning. She started singing along. “You would not believe your eyes…”

Gina joined in. “If ten million fireflies…”

“Lit up the world as I fell asleep,” they sang in unison. They sang the whole song, relishing each other’s company. By the time the song was over, the first coat on Gina’s nails was finished, and Sammie was on the second coat.

“That was good,” Sammie said, almost breathless.

“Yeah,” Gina laughed. “Ooh, this next one is good. I’ve been cheated by you since I don’t know when…”

“So I made up my mind, it must come to an end,” Sammie joined in. She finished the final coat of polish on Gina’s nails before the song ended.

“Alright, your nails are done, just let them dry and we can rinse my hair.”

“The bottom drawer on your left, there’s a hair dryer. We can dry my nails faster,” Gina said. She paused the music as Sammie plugged it in. She put her hands out in front of her as Sammie turned it on and aimed it at Gina’s nails.

They sat in relative silence, the only noise being the hair dryer. Not quite silence, but one sound enveloping the small room. After about five minutes, Sammie turned it off and said, “Try that.”

Gina tentatively touched her pinky nail. “Dry,” she said, standing up. “Now for your hair.”

She turned the sink back on as Sammie leaned back once more. Gina combed her fingers through Sammie’s hair, turning the water in the sink bright pink. After a few minutes of rinsing, she said, “I think you’re good. Let’s blow it dry.”

Sammie handed her the dryer from where it had been sitting in her lap. Gina switched it on and started blow drying her friend’s hair. She pulled the clip out and ran her fingers through until she determined it was dry. Gina turned off the hair dryer and unplugged it. “Ready for the final reveal?”

Sammie nodded with a nervous smile. She stood up and turned around. “Oh my gosh I love it!” she cried. “It’s so beautiful! Thank you!”

Gina smiled. “It turned out nicely,” she said. “Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous too.”

“You were?” Sammie asked. “You did it so well! I can’t stop looking at it!”

“Ah, it was nothing. But my nails! You made it look so easy! I always get it all over my fingers and then have to wipe it off.”

“I did my nails a lot in middle school.”

“Makes sense.” They stood in awkward silence for a moment before Gina added, “We should clean this up, and it’s getting late. I can drive you home.”

“Yeah, you’re right. A ride would be great.” Sammie grabbed the towel and the chair and asked, “Where do these go?”

“Uh, the towel can go on the hook behind the door there,” Gina pointed. “And the chair goes in the garage. Do you mind taking it down there while I finish cleaning up the garbage?”

Sammie nodded and took the chair downstairs. Gina grabbed the rest of the garbage, threw it away, and brought the nail polish and the rest of the hair dye back to her room. She set them on her dresser and ran downstairs.

“C’mon, let’s go,” she said to Sammie as she entered the garage. She hopped in the driver’s seat as Sammie climbed in next to her.

“This was fun,” Sammie said Gina started backing out.

“Yeah, it was.” Gina realised this was the perfect time to admit something that had been pulling at her stomach all week. “Uh, Sammie, uh, I dunno how to say this. It’s only been, what, a week since you came, but I really-” She stopped herself and swallowed.

“I like you.”

The words hung there, suspended between them for what felt like an eternity. Gina couldn’t take her eyes off the road, wouldn't let herself. She was scared, but she couldn't take the words back.

Sammie gulped loudly enough for Gina to hear before saying, “I think I might like you.”

They didn’t live far apart, and that short ride had already brought them into Sammie’s driveway. Gina parked and neither girl said anything. She turned to face Sammie and saw Sammie staring at her.

Gina could see Sammie unbuckle her seatbelt, but nothing could have prepared her for Sammie to lean over and kiss her. It was so sudden, she hadn’t even registered what was happening until it was over. Sammie had opened the door and was climbing out of the car.

“Bye!” she called as she slammed the door shut and ran into the house, and just like that, she was gone.

Gina sat there, absolutely shocked. Of all the things she had expected to happen that day, that was not one of them. But Sammie had disappeared inside. There was nothing for Gina to do except drive home and hold the secret tight. That experience, that moment, was going to stay in this car, and Gina couldn't do anything about it, so she didn’t try to fight it. Instead, she drove home and tried not to think about it. After all, what else could she do?

[g0ldengubler]

chapter 6~life is a “high” way

(*i do not own this gif*)

A/N: this chapter is honestly one of personal favs because we get to see more of spencer feeling more confident in himself in a way while still being him and it’s just aaaaa :’) tomorrow you will get chapter 7 but then after that, expect chapters to come out a bit slower, including requests (which i am working on currently and thank you so much for sending them my way!). lots of my focus needs to be on my personal life but writing helps me get through all of that hell, so i’m in a very wishy washy position lol. thank you so much for the love on nauseous i love uuuuuu

Category: fluff w smut at the end

CW: road head, d/s dynamic, daddy kink

Word Count: 3282

before you read | last chapter | next chapter (coming soon!*)

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

Spencer parks in front of your apartment building and stays in his seat as you get out. You both had decided that packing up right away and not going to lunch was better. That way, you can learn more about each other on the way there. You couldn't wait to get inside that smarty-pants brain of his and find out what's really going on in there.

You shut the car door and start walking, but stop when you don't hear his footsteps behind you. When you walk back to the car, you see Spencer sticking his battery in the cigarette lighter to charge.

"You're more than welcome to come in, y'know." You chuckled.

Spencer looks up at you, licking his lips as he moves some of his hair behind his ear. "It's ok, I don't want to bother."

"You won't be a bother. I've been to yours, now you can come into mine."

"Oh, so that's how that works huh? You have to go into the guys apartment before the guy goes to yours?" Spencer said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean!" You pull open the car and grab his hand, "C'mon, Spence. You'll be fine!"

He giggles under his breath and comes out of the car. After locking it, the two of you head inside and up the elevator to the 4th floor. Once at your door, you unlock it and open up to 4 paws jumping onto you. You hear Spencer gasp in surprise and giggle at his reaction, making it seem like you were giggling at your two buddies. Sitting on your old couch was your next door neighbor, Seth, who was watching Pose on the tv.

"Thank you again for watching the boys while I was gone. I really owe you big time for doing this." you say as you get up from the floor.

Seth gets off of the couch and walks up to you to give you a hug. "Anytime! If anything, they can stay at my place when you go on a case-" He stops and looks over at Spencer, standing awkwardly by the door still and letting the dogs sniff him, "Although, it seems like this new case was a success."

"Shut up, Seth!" You giggle, lightly slapping him on the arm. Realizing you forgot your manners, you quickly try to take it back. "Seth, meet Dr.Spencer Reid. Doc, meet my neighbor, Seth."

Seth reached his hand out to shake, but Spencer politely denies. "Sorry, I-I don't shake hands. It's actually been proven that it's safer to kiss." You catch Seth's eyes looking him up and down. "Seth stop teasing him like that!" You laugh. Spencer wasn't into guys, but somehow Seth looking at him made you a little jealous. You're not even dating the man, y/n shut up, you think to yourself.

"You and I will talk later." He says.

"Oh, Spence! These are my babies. The scottie is Benedict and the husky is Draco."

The room went silent for a moment, Spencer trying to hold in a chuckle. "Yes, I did name them after Benedict Cumberbatch and Draco Malfoy. I've had them picked out since I was a teenager, don't judge."

"Oh c'mon hun," said Seth, "it's adorable that you named them the way you did."

"It is," Spencer spoke, "I didn't depict you as a nerd."

"Oh my god, you kidding? She's probably the biggest nerd I've ever met with all her Sherlock and other crime shows, Harry Potter, Doctor Wh-"

"Ok, I think he gets it Seth!" You cut him off. That was enough embarrassment for today.

"I will say, Benedict or Tom Felton could always come my way."

You slap him on the arm again laughing. You look back at Spencer, who was awkwardly chuckling along with. You then announce that you were going to get in the shower. "Seth, can you take them for a few more nights? We're going up to my dad's cabin back home for the weekend. Also, when I get out and do my makeup, you promised me that you would tell me how your date went last night with 'Mr.Perfect' as you said it."

"Bitch I have ALLLLLL the tea that I'm not missing on spilling!"

"Good. Now you two get along. And Spence," He looks up at you, his hazel eyes looking into you...

"Don't miss me too much, hm?"

Then you walked into your bathroom, trying to wrap your brain on the fact that you just said that to him.

                           ~Spencer's POV~ I can't believe she said that.

She left me here a little turned on. I could start feeling my pants getting tight and had to put my bag over myself as I sat on the couch so then I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of Seth. I looked around her apartment to distract myself of thoughts of being in the shower with her. She had a very interesting aesthetic. Walls white with old picture frames that had beautifully taken old photos in them. The lamps that were in the living room looked like they were from the 70's, old gold coating chipped off at some parts of the stand. While there was a vintage look to her place, it was also very modern at the same time, a minimalistic look took over her kitchen. She had a fake vine hanging from the wall behind her tv, some of it covering her maroon record player. In some ways, our aesthetics were similar. If she had a bookcase in here, I'd feel like I was at my place.

Seth and I began to get to know each other. I came to find out that Seth worked as a bartender at a club, and he enjoyed taking photos for his social media. "I would love to be a photographer," he said, "but right now it's just a hobby that I do mostly during the colder months." He says cold, cloudy days (especially if it's raining) were the best times to take photos, in his opinion.

"So," he says, "you work with y/n at the BAU?"

"Yeah, we've really become good friends in the past 9 days. It's like we've known each other for years. Plus, she's great out on the field. She's definitely someone myself and the rest of the team will never take for granted."

"Thank god," Seth said as I heard the water turn off, "She told me that it was her dream to be a part of the BAU. She would never stop talking about it when she was in college."

"Hm, she never mentioned that to me."

"Well, let her tell you on your way to the cabin. She'll love it."

After a little bit more conversation, y/n came back to the living room. Her hair was damp, not fully wet but not dry either. She had thrown on a white turtle neck shirt with a brown sweater vest over it. She matched it with darker brown corduroy pants, cuffing the bottoms. In her hands was what looked like to be her makeup bag. She sat down in front of the mirror that was in the corner on the left side of the tv (when you look at the tv), beginning the process.

Seth and y/n talk about his date from last night and got pretty detailed about it. He talked about how the man took him to a gay bar that was a few blocks from here, and how they danced and drank the night away. "Oh and then get this," says Seth, "we're pretty drunk at this point, right? Well at one point, the local queen that performed came up to me and tried to flirt and shit, thinking she was all that and a bag of lashes, and he saw how uncomfortable I was and stood up for me. And let me tell you, he was REA-DY to throw hands!"

"Stooooop he's literally a keeper!" y/n says.

Once she was done with her makeup, she gets up and goes back to her room, coming back out with her luggage. She goes over to the door to grab a pair of Vans and comes back to tell Seth and her children goodbye.

"I'll be back in a few days. Thanks again, Seth. I really-"

"Owe me one, I know I know!" Seth cuts her off, "Now go have some fun and relax, you need to after working so damn hard for this job!" He turns to me and waves. "And it was very nice meeting you, Doctor."

"It was nice to meet you, too! But please, you can just call me Spencer."

Seth smiles as we walk out the door. What this trip will bring? For once, I'm letting fate take the lead instead of science.

~Y'N's POV~ It had been about a few hours of being on the road. At this point, you were somewhere in Pennsylvania, but not sure if you were close enough to Philly to grab a cheesesteak. You think back to the start of the drive. You suggested that you'd be the dj because your library on spotify had a full range of genres with some songs you had no clue were in there. "It'd be a fun little journey!" You told Spencer. And that it was, a journey.

You ended up driving right by a dispensary before even leaving DC. Garcia told you that that's where she gets her stuff, but knowing that bringing a lot of weed across the country wouldn't be a fun trip, you two decided to go with the original plan and just wait till you get to Michigan.

You could tell Spencer was getting a kick out of your music library. While majority of the songs he didn't know, he was still being goofy and jamming out along with you, trying to match the same energy you were having. The songs that talked about sex, drugs, and/or alcohol surprised him every time, his jaw dropping or his eyes bulging out of his head as he listened to the lyrics. You couldn't help yourself but laugh at his reactions, which would make him laugh along with you.

You two weren't alone, however. You were pretty much sucking down on the carts you still had, although you both made a deal that whoever was driving could only get a little high if they wanted to, drinking plenty of water and eating snacks to sober you up a bit if needed.

Driving through Pennsylvania, you look out the window and onto the scenery around you. You weren't paying attention, however, because you couldn't stop the dirty thoughts that intruded your mind. You couldn't help to think about giving him head, since you hadn't done it yet because both times he gave you all the pleasure. You couldn't wait to get to the cabin and go straight to your knees for him. Suddenly, you tried to get them out of your head. 'You're getting way too excited, y/n. STOP IT!' you thought to yourself.

You decided to just feel everything around you, taking a few more hits from your pen before taking it in. Nineteen by Movements was playing; it was like you could feel the song itself and everything about it as you looked up at the very tall street lamps passing by. Nothing felt better than this moment. Just you and Spencer out on the open road. It felt like nothing could stop you two. You felt free, but you also felt safe and complete, something you haven't felt in a long time.

At one point, you couldn't take it anymore. It was 2:30am and Spencer was still driving. He told you to get some sleep but you weren't sleepy or tired at all. You tried to feel free but when you did, you thought of Spencer, which led to dirty thoughts. It was like you couldn't escape it, and every time the thoughts came, you couldn't help but secretly rub your thighs together for some kind of friction.

As you tried to get the thoughts out of your head, you look over to see a nice little surprise. The passing lights outside helping you see, you noticed the bulge in Spencer's pants. How in the hell would he be getting hard now of all times? Were dirty thoughts intruding his mind, too? Seeing that made you even more wet than you already were. This was your chance.

You look out to the open road in front of you, and gently graced your fingers across his bulge. You look out the corner of your eye...nothing. Not even a flinch. 'Playing hard to get, hm?' You thought to yourself. So you did it again, which made him shift in his seat a little, still pretending he didn't notice anything. Finally, with some kind of courage that you never knew you had, you grabbed his cock through his pants and slowly started to stroke it. His eyes came out of his head, letting out a small gasp.

"You know I'm driving, right?" He asked, "We could crash if I'm paying attention more to this and not on the road."

You give him a smirk, "It's almost 3am," you begin to say, but then you notice that you're the only car on the road, "and no one else is on the road right now."

You start to undo his belt with your one hand. "You pleasured me twice already," you continue, your hand successfully undoing the belt and undoing the zipper on his pants, reaching inside to pull out his already, fully hard cock, "I need to show my thanks somehow, don't I?"

Spencer shifts in his seat, keeping his eyes out on the road. You were kind of hoping he was looking for somewhere to pull over, but you wouldn't mind doing it as he drove. "You...you already did...b-by inviting me to your dad's cabin."

You stopped stroking and he almost let out a whimper. "I saw that bulge in your pants just a few minutes ago, are you suuuurree you don't want to...daddy?"

Just hearing the word 'daddy' made him grab your hair tightly. You smiled as you shifted your position in your seat to go down on him. When you were ready, Spencer stopped at a red light and pulled your face close to his, lips almost ghosting each other.

"You better make daddy feel good then, since you're being such a fucking brat right now." He whispered as you continued to slowly stroke him again.

You couldn't even react to what he said because once the light turned green, he guided your head down to his cock before letting the tightness on your head go and letting his hand rest on top. You decided to egg on your bratty-ness by teasing the tip, giving him kitty licks at first and then slowly just running your tongue in it, licking up the pre cum.

Spencer tightens his grip again, making you whimper. "I'm not sure doing that is a good idea, angel. Do you want to get punished once we're there?"

You shook your head no, but the thought of him punishing you made you feel yourself drip between your thighs.

Spencer moves his grip from your hair and slaps your ass with a huge SMACK, which made you moan loudly.  "You have to use your words, angel. Unless you want to be a little slut tonight."

You look up at him to see his eyes were still on the road. You smirk as you pump him a few times before taking his head in your mouth. You bob up and down slowly, hearing him grunt and curse under his breath. You step it up by going down a little lower, each time going back up and then going lower until you had all of him in your mouth. You stayed like that for a few moments, gagging on it.

"Oh fuuuck that's it...that's it baby, take my cock in your mouth, just like that." He says before pulling you off to let you breathe. He's quiet for a moment before he says, "Now I'm going to guide you, angel. You're gonna make daddy feel more good than he already was, got it?"

"Yes, daddy." you answer, knowing that he wanted to hear you say again.

He pushes your head back on his cock, moving you head faster than before. He couldn't get enough it, making you gag every so often and pulling you back up. Spencer's cock twitched in your mouth and you knew he was close. He controls your head faster, his rhythm getting sloppy.

"You want me to cum in that pretty mouth of yours, angel? You want daddy's cum?" He growled, trying not to thrust into your mouth as he continues to drive.

"Mhmm!" You moan, which almost made him go over the edge.

"Keep doing that for daddy, moan for me. God, I bet you just love having my cock in your mouth, but I'm sure you're just desperate for my cum."

You moan again. That you were. You wanted his cum so bad in your mouth so you could taste him; taste how good you made him feel.

"Don't...fuck...don't stop doing that, angel...that's it...fuck I'm gonna cum..."

And with that, you feel his cum shoot inside your mouth, letting out moans and cursing. You slowly continued to suck him, getting every last drop. When you did, you move up to face Spencer as he pulled over, showing his cum in your mouth at first and then closing your mouth to swallow and open back up to show him it was gone. The look in his eyes told you that that was the hottest thing he's ever seen.

Spencer pulls you in surprisingly and attacks your lips with his, as if he was hungry for them. He was almost eating your face but you didn't care, you kissed him back and let your tongues play with one another. You both pull away after a bit and he just looks into your eyes. You look into his hazel eyes and felt complete.

"Now, will you stop being a brat and get some sleep?" He asks.

You giggle as you quickly look at the time in the car radio. "It's 3:15," you said, "it's my turn to drive."

"But now you're all tired from pleasing daddy," he jokes, "so you get some sleep, and I'll drive. I really don't mind it. Honest."

"Are you sure?"

Spencer nods his head. You decided to give in and get comfy in your seat.

"Goodnight, Spence." You say as you move the top part of the seat all the way back. You grabbed your traveling pillow and placed it on top of your right arm, laying your head as you turned your body to face away from him.

"Goodnight, angel."

[secretficblog]

Thinking about you for the entire mission

Chapter 1: Confiscated, Commander’s orders.

Eh yeah this is a working title, inspiration struck last night. 

Pairing: Poe Dameron x Reader ; Poe Dameron x You

No use of y/n 

This was gonna be an excessive smut dump but I got carried away so now it’ll be at least a two-parter. 

** Hi, it’s editing me, just posted this on ao3, too:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/29776950 **

Rating: E (use of swear words, description of sexual act, alcohol) 

Summary: You, Black Seven, part of Poe Dameron’s famed Black Squadron, have just returned from a rescue mission and the squad wants to celebrate. However, you just want to take a shower and work off some of the tension the last few weeks built up inside of you. You are ready to slip into bed after a nice shower when one handsome Captain shows up at your door drunk. 

You lifted yourself out of your X-Wing after a long flight back to the base. Damages had been minimal during the rescue mission the Black Squadron had flown today, only Black Three’s X-Wing had been hit and she was fine, from what you could tell from afar. Your legs where heavy and your bones were creaking when you finally hit the ground, jumping off the wing. You lifted the helmet off of your head, your hair was sticking to your face, damp and matted from the hours under the helmet. You looked around, breathing in the fresh air on the tarmac, it was good to be home. Your eyes traced over the stars in the distance and landed back on the ships in front of you, seeing people cheer and celebrate over the successful mission. 

Dameron was walking towards you, an easy cocky grin playing around his lips. “Black Seven”, he called out. To your irritation your heart jumped in your chest as he addressed you with your call sign. You were acutely hyper aware of the sweat and grime that had collected in your hair and on your face over the course of the mission. “Commander.”, you nodded curtly. “Listen, Seven, a few of us were gonna go grab a drink in the base cantina to celebrate a successful mission, shake off the tension a little, if you know what I mean…”, he smirked and your stomach flipped. You could feel a blush creeping up your cheeks, deepening the longer he looked at you. “I think I’m beat Dameron, gonna take a shower and hit my cot.” His smile didn’t falter but you noticed it didn’t quite reach his eyes anymore. “Alright sweetheart, see you around then!”, he said easily, squeezed your shoulder and strode off. The touch lingered a second longer than necessary, but not long enough to interpret anything into it. His walk was confident, every step he took seemed placed purposefully. It made you wonder if his touches were equally full of purpose. 

Your shoulder tingled and you could still feel the lasting warmth of his touch through the layers of your flight suit. You closed your eyes and sighed. It had been way too long since you had been touched in a friendly manner, even longer since someone dragged their fingertips over your bare skin, full of admiration and wonder. The way to the shower seemed shorter than it usually did with your head clouded with the fantasy of Dameron’s fingers ghosting over you face, your neck and your collarbone. You imagined he would be hungry for every inch of skin that was poking out under your flight suit. You really shouldn’t be thinking about this, he was your superior after all. You shook your head, slowly at first, gradually moving it faster as if that could clear your mind. 

However, as you stepped into the small refresher closest to your room the thoughts were still there, ever persistent and even intensifying. You cursed the fact that you hadn’t had a day off in ages, no chance to spend a night at the Resistance bars and take some random mechanic or officer, whoever was willing, back to bed with you, preferably in his room so that it was easier to sneak out in the morning. 

You just needed to ease the tension so something like the short touch of one Poe Dameron didn’t make you think of unspeakable things, how good the rough pads of his fingers would feel tracing over your breasts, circling your nipples, how beautiful his dark eyes would look even darker with lust when they gazed up at you from between your legs. 

Your mind snapped back to the task at hand and you slipped out of your dirtied flight suit, reaching to turn the water in the refesher on. Its strong stream felt amazing against your tense back muscles, working out all the kinks a day in the cockpit had given you. You decided to take your time tonight, knowing that almost everyone was out celebrating and there was no rush. You scrubbed off most part of the grime before sitting down on the small indent in the wall, leaning your legs up one by one to shave them, a little luxury you allowed yourself every once in a while during your time in the Black Squadron. 

There wasn’t much room for self-care in the rebellion, but you liked to steal those little moments for yourself, like sinking underneath your covers after a risky mission, feeling completely clean and smooth, the feeling of your legs sliding against the cold blanket was like heaven after a long day. After you were done shaving you stood back up, lathering your hair in shampoo and scrubbing your scalp before rinsing it off thoroughly. You weren’t sure how much time had passed, but you were almost certain that everyone was still celebrating, so you decided to sneak back into your room without getting fully dressed again. The towel was loosely wrapped around your chest, falling over your hips and barely covering your butt. 

You gathered your clothes and opened the door of the refresher, looking forward to dropping the towel as soon as you stepped into the room, slipping into your bed and touching yourself to dark eyes, curly dark hair, the low hum of his voice and the feeling of Dameron’s touch. You weren’t proud of it, you really weren’t. It wasn’t him. No way it was. You just needed some inspiration and he had unintentionally given it to you with a slight squeeze of your shoulder and the sparkle in his eyes when he called you sweetheart. Of course you were friends, as much as you could find friends in the middle of a war, always afraid to form attachments and feel the sting of loss when the inevitable happened. You wanted to feel gross when thinking about your superior like that, but the deep sound of his voice made you feel something else instead.

You opened the door to your room through a little keypad that required you to enter your personal code. You dropped your clothes into the laundry bin, your other hand already starting to pull at the fastening of your towel. It dropped on the floor with a slight thud before you realized you hadn’t heard the door slide shut behind you. You turned around, snarl on your face and ready to punch the panel in the wall for its malfunction when your eyes fixated on the door.

 Someone had shoved a dusty boot in between, forcing the door to stop and slide back open. You bend down to hastily pull up your towel while the door was still sliding back open. You focused on the person standing in your door frame, all insults you were ready to hurl at them dying down on your tongue when you saw the same person that had been occupying your mind for the last hour or so illuminated by the dim light of the corridor. 

Poe kriffing Dameron.

He was looking at you, his gaze slightly unfocused. He had one arm propped up against the frame, swaying slightly. Oh, he was drunk. And he was here. In front of your room, smelling like Corellian Whiskey, looking disheveled. “He-eey Black Seven, missed you at the celebration. Did you not want to cheer for me, sweetheart?” Ah there it was, the other reason why you didn’t want him to be part of your fantasies. The man was insufferably in love with himself, he knew all about the effect he had on people around him, women and men alike. Every movement he made dripped with self-confidence. 

You cleared your throat, clutching the towel tighter against your chest, uncertain how much it was actually still covering. “Dameron, you’re drunk.”, you retorted. Sure, you’ve made better comebacks before but it’s not every kriffing day Poe “Hotter Than The Binary Suns” Dameron shows up in front of your door in his casual clothes while you are basically naked. Boy, did he look good like that, a white shirt with a wide, open collar and tight black pants with the brown boots you had already noticed. A weapons belt was slung around his hips, underlining their curve, his blaster dangling off of it lazily. His skin was glistening with sweat in the low light. You wondered what he would taste like.

“’m not that drunk, you should be drunker. Would be if you came to the thing.”

 “Commander”, you said, emphasizing the word and ignoring the way it made your pussy clench, “you are very drunk and very unprofessional right now and I would like to get dressed.”, you said, shifting the towel again to make him aware of your state of undress. 

His eyes looked like they darkened even more, but you must be imagining that. Poe Dameron could have almost anyone on base without even asking, there was no reason for him to be interested in you. Must be the alcohol. 

He took a cautious but wobbly step forward and asked “Can I come in?” 

“You’re already halfway in.”, you grunted. 

“That’s not a no, sweet thing.” 

“Would you stop calling me that?” 

“Calling you what?” 

“Sweetheart, Sweet Thing, Honeybuns, whatever else you say”

 “But I bet you are sweet!” 

“Dameron.” 

“Bet you taste even sweeter.”, he continued lowly 

“DAMERON!”, you wanted to yell but it came out as an angry hushed whisper. 

“mhh yes sweet cheeks?”, he asked cheerily. 

“You are drunk, you are going to regret this in the morning, you’ll be embarrassed.”, you listed off everything in your head that might keep him from coming closer. This was wrong. He was drunk and you were just horny from the weeks of endless missions without breaks to let off some steam. For all you knew he had knocked on the wrong door by accident. 

“Been thinking about you for the entire mission baby, not going to regret shit.” The entire mission? Surely you must have misheard that. 

His smell hit you when he took another slow step towards you, he smelled like whiskey, gunpowder and leather, but there was something else underneath, something so decisively him that it made your legs weak and your nipples harden. He took another step, slightly more wobbly now that he couldn’t support himself on the walls anymore. He was so close to you now, close enough for you to be able to count the little gold specs in his dark eyes, you cranked your neck, trying to do exactly that. 

Poe had most likely miscalculated the distance and tried to take another step forward, bumping directly into you. You raised your arms in shock, momentarily forgetting all about your towel. You didn’t even realized that it had slipped until you heard the soft thud of it hitting the floor. 

“Oh”, you said, still lost in Poe’s twinkling eyes. His eyes flicked down for just a split second and widened comically. You could feel his hot gaze on your breasts, ghosting over your hard nipples. He slapped his hands in front of his eyes, then twirled around and hit the control panel on the wall, closing the sliding door. You bent down to retrieve the towel and secured it around your chest once more.

 “Can I turn around again?”, he asked, voice much more hesitant than before.

 You sighed, “Why are you in here Dameron?” 

“Missed you at the thing. Wanted to tell you you did good, saved my pretty ass out there once or twice today.” 

“I save your pretty ass all the time.” 

“So you agree?”, he asked and while he still had his back turned to you, you could feel the cocky grin spreading over his face. 

“Agree with what?”, you questioned. 

“I have a pretty ass!” 

“Will you drink some water and go to bed if I say yes?” 

“Sure thing sugar plum!” 

“You, Commander Poe ‘Insufferably Annoying’ Dameron, have a very pretty ass.” 

“I know, so do you!”, he grinned. Then he did the unthinkable and turned around, brushed past you on the way to the small sink in your room, took a big gulp of water and then, kriffing then, flopped down on your bed. 

“Excuse me? Get out.”, you squeaked. 

“Had my water. Went to bed.” 

“This is my bed.” 

“Mh. Confiscated. Commander’s orders.”, he smiled lazily, legs still dangling off the bed. 

He grabbed a pillow and stuffed it between his head and the wall. You could see him inhale deeply, eyes fluttering shut. Was he… smelling your pillow? You knew Corellian Whiskey was one hell of a drink but you had never seen him so guardless before. Sure, he was always flirty but his relaxed posture, legs dangling slightly, head leaned back, was something else. He shifted forward, pulling his worn leather boots off. 

“Hey Seven, don’t you want to get comfy too?” Something told you he wasn’t going to budge and there was no way you would move him back to his own bunk, your back was already killing you from the mission. 

“Fine, fine, cover your eyes I’m getting dressed.” Poe obliged, slapping his hands in front of his eyes. 

“No peaking, take the pillow, or the blanket”, you insisted. 

He put his heels on the bed frame, shoulders still pushed against the wall and thrust up his hips to pull out the blanket underneath. You couldn’t help yourself and fixated your eyes on the bulge between his legs that was hugged tightly by his pants. 

He had pulled the blanket over his eyes now, but you were standing still, lost in your fantasies. 

Your mouth watered thinking about what he would feel like on your tongue, how the first bead of precum out of his achingly hard cock would taste, the sounds he would make underneath you when you stared up at him with his cock in your mouth. You wondered if he was going to curse or praise you for taking it well. You thought it might be both. 

Poe tugged the blanket down a little, whining “You aren’t done yet. You haven’t even moved. Do you want me to suffocate under your blanket, Seven, is that what you’re hoping for?”

You blinked. 

“Sorry, I’ll be done in a sec.” 

He pulled the blanket up again, but not before he gave you a big pout with his plushy lips. You wondered what they would feel like sucking bruises into your skin. 

That’s enough, you reminded yourself. He was drunk and you wouldn’t take advantage of that. You could last another day without cumming. This was fine. Tomorrow was an off-day anyway, you’d just spend part of it in bed. A bed that might, depending on if you were able to convince him to leave, smell like Dameron tomorrow. 

You turned towards your wardrobe, picking out a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top. You could hear Poe shift behind you, but you had already pulled the pants up and you didn’t really care if he saw your naked back so you didn’t bother to chastise him for looking.

 When you turned back around, still in the motion of pulling the top over your stomach, you saw that he hadn’t shifted the blanket to look at you. Well, maybe he had initially, but now Captain Poe Dameron was curled into himself on your bed, breathing evening out and face relaxed. He looked soft and young like this, lacking the tension in his shoulders. War was hard on him too, you knew that, he was just good at keeping up the cheery and cheeky facade. 

“Hey”, you started softly, “Dameron, hey, you need to go into your own bed.” 

He smacked his lips sleepily and scooted closer to the wall “’s enough room”, he mumbled, patting the mattress lazily. 

You were tired, exhaustion seeping into your bones, that’s why you sat down. No other reason. 

It was your bed and there was no way you would be able to haul him out. That’s why you laid down without protest. No other reason. 

He was warm and smelled nice. That’s why you didn’t move away when he shifted closer to you. No other reason. 

You had been craving human touch for weeks. That’s why you sighed softly when he circled an arm around your waist and melted into the embrace. No other reason. 

Your missions had been exhausting recently and sleep and breaks had been rare. That’s why you drifted off into the deepest, most relaxing sleep in a long time, surrounded by the warmth of Poe Dameron and his smell. No other reason.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Alrighty so there’s that, hope you guys enjoyed it. I’ll definetly be writing a more naked, more explicit part 2 about the morning after. I’d love it if you left some feedback, good or bad just don’t be mean. Bye guys xx

Chapter 2 is here , hope you love it 

[extremelyblackandwhite]

handmaid - 21

PAIRING: mob!sebastian stan x ingenue!reader

WARNINGS: age gap, sexual content (18+)

A/N: CHILDREN SHIELD YOUR EYES!!! for those over 18, hope you enjoy this chapter xxx

NEXT CHAPTER

I love you.

I love ... you.

Some words have the power to affect you and touch you more than an actual touch. I, love, and you are words as simple as words can be, they’re overused and sometimes used in ways that shouldn’t be used. They’re harmless. However put them together and suddenly you have a sentence that can haunt you or provide you with the best of feelings that can be experienced by someone. 

I love you. He’d heard that particular phrase several times at different times in his life, the first being with the very first girl he fell in love with and the last being with the last girl he would ever fall in love with. Love is such a pure emotion in its own, no hatred, no jealousy, no selfishness and the fact that it came from someone as pure as Y/N, it was just ... the best thing someone could hear. She loved him. Him, out of everyone. She loved him and he was speechless. The mob boss who constantly controlled the room and everyone around him, who always had the last word was speechless at the hand of the handmaid. Soft power, she embodied soft power and this was a pure demonstration of that trait. 

    - I’m so sorry ... I don’t know why I said that, you’re engaged to Gwen and I respect her so much. I ... - she was lost in her rambling. Why couldn’t she have kept her feelings in the darkest corner of her mind? Why would she tell him that? She shouldn’t have and before she could return to her quick apology and cover up what she thought to be a dagger and conversation stopper, he had pulled her chin towards his to kiss her delicately. She should’ve pulled back, part of her knew she should’ve pulled back but he was too much for a good kisser and she was too much involved into it for her to actually delve onto the consequences of her actions. 

   - If I knew you’d do this, I would given you a bag much much sooner. - was she wrong to be feeling this way? After all, no one is really capable of controlling their feelings, they’re just responses caused by hormones and the brain to various stimuli . She can’t choose them right? Then if she can’t chose she should at least feel guilty. This was Gwen’s husband to be, the same Gwen whose family supported her education and kept her alive all this years. But then again Gwen was never gonna love Sebastian, no, she wasn’t even gonna try to be his friend yet that didn’t mean it gave Y/N the right to commit adultery. Could it even be considered adultery if he wasn’t married yet? No, it is adultery and she shouldn’t commit adultery with the man standing in front of her. - Are you alright, angel?

   - I should go to bed. - she got on her feet, looking down at her cozy socks instead of his beautiful baby blues. - Good night, Sebastian. 

She had to get as far away from him as possible before she did something something like getting under him. How is she supposed to fall out of love with someone if she’s under him? Why would she tell him she was in love with him? Was she daft or did she have a dying wish? Locking the bedroom door behind her, she slid down the dark wood door, hand on top of her chest. How rude of her to just leave him there. He had been nothing but a sweetheart to her with pretty much copying her Christmas tradition in less than a day to make her happy, and let’s not even mention the bag that was compared to real estate. For shame, she had kissed not once, not twice but several times the very much off the market mob boss. Yet again, why should she care? Why should be so worried if Gwen was not? If his wife to be didn’t care and was more than happy to go around with as many men as she wanted despite the wedding ring on her polished finger, why should she care about who was with Sebastian?

Oh Sebastian. She had just left him there looking like a lost puppy. How could she do this? He had gone all the way to make her happy, he respected her and was the only person in her life so far who had actually been interested in listening to her opinions and actually ask her what she wanted. She owed him an apology, heck, she had been playing go and pull with him for quite some time so she owed him more than a apology. Yet again, why did she not just have her fun? If Gwen can have her affairs then why couldn’t she delve into her own passions with him? He clearly seemed willing but it’s wrong. However, what is right and wrong when you’re in the mob? There’s always a fine fine line between right and wrong. There’s no right and wrong, that’s what she used to hear from Mr. Forrest, only darker and lighter shades of grey. 

Did she believe that? She didn’t know. Different authors had different opinions and she herself din’t believe she would ever know the answer. What she knew was that before she realised what she was doing, she was walking barefoot against the hardwood floors and stood in front of the door of his bedroom. She knocked on the door with a less than willing strength. He didn’t take long to open the door, standing with his dark sweatpants and grey tee shirt. Y/N’s words escaped her, what was she gonna say? Couldn’t be stupider than telling a soon to be married man that she loved him. Should she start with an apology? Should she try and joke? No, she clearly wasn’t good at joking. Why wasn’t she speaking? She could feel him looming, eyes burning onto her face. 

   - Got something to say, angel? - there was a weird shift in atmosphere as she looked up into his beautiful cerulean eyes. There it was once more, the same pull accompanied by those characteristic sparks she had heard and read about. What is the point of going against the pull? It’s like facing two magnets and try to ensure they don’t stick together, eventually you tire yourself off. Finally, Y/N was tired and pushing her morals towards her friend into the back of her friend, she leaned in. 

Sebastian was caught off guard but he wasn’t one to complain, specially when it was her. His hands rested on her natural waist, pushing her body towards his. She could feel the warmth of his hands through her shirt, the sort of warmth that only he could provide and as such she held him closer, closer than ever before, ensuring he wouldn’t leave or become a figment of her imagination. Her hand slide into the curly mess that was his hair became whenever he didn’t pay attention to it. 

She didn’t consider herself an experienced kisser, in all honesty, she wasn’t experienced at anything relationship wise so once his tongue made his way into her mouth, stroking the roof ever so lightly she couldn’t help but choke in a moan, hand pulling at his hair. This seemed to incite him as he bit her lip, hands slowly descending to her lower back and her bum, giving it a little squeeze which made her smile through the kiss. 

   - You’re gonna run away from the again, angel? - he swiftly pulled back, closing the door behind them. 

    - I reckon that I care to choose to stay. - Y/N smiled, knowing she would regret it later but later is later and now is now and she’d rather be in the now. He leaned in to kiss her again, fingers toying with the much too short t-shirt of her sleeping garments. Part of her wished he would just take it off, wanting to feel his warmth all over. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about him in lewd ways or how he looked under the pristine suits he always wore. At that thought alone, she couldn’t help but feel her cheeks heat up. 

With a decisive grip, she held onto the hem of his t-shirt, pulling it over his head. What she came into her view was something that would water the mouths of everyone. She knew he was a good looking well built man but she wasn’t expecting him to be that ripped. Her hand slid down from his hair to rest onto his chest. 

   - I don’t think it’s a fair deal you seeing me with my shirt off while you’re fully dressed, angel. - stress spread through her whole body and she wondered if he was going to like what he saw once she removed her tee-shirt. She was almost entirely sure that she was not up to standards to please a man like him. 

   - Alright, turn around. - Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows at her request but decided to comply, turning around. After checking he was staring at the door and not at her, she pulled her shirt off throwing it to the floor where it pooled near his.

    - You are the most stunning thing I’ve ever come across. - she heard his raspy deep yet deeper than usual voice against her ear as he took a long stride towards her. 

His arms circled around her smaller figure and Y/N was sure she could feel her heart beating faster and harder on her throat when his hands ghosted over her chest, tightening around her perked bud. This sole action made her gasp loudly which caused him to softly hum in content against the back of her neck, moving the hand that circled over one of her breasts and running his thumb over the perked bud once to watch the young handmaid get goosebumps and squirm under his touch. Screw having power over a whole entire city, he would throw it all away so he could have this sort of power over her. 

    - You like when I touch you. Don’t you, angel? - He stated rather plainly with a hint of pride and she adverted her eyes from his hands. Her mouth opened to speak yet it closed as quickly as it opened once he pinched one of her buds without any prior warning. She tried her hardest to prevent a moan to slip out thinking it would make her sound like a desperate teenager but there was no stopping her quivering and shaking legs. He seemed to notice this, pulling her from the ground and laying her down on his bed. - Do you want to do this?

    - Yes. - she nodded her head furiously, worried that if she took a beat he would disappear in thin air. She stood there in his bed, head slightly raised as she watched every single step.

His eyes were darker than usual, a far cry from the baby blues that took over his iris and the stretched fabric on his crotch was a tell sign he was trying his best to control the situation which only made her more aroused and she could feel the wetness coming from her and sliding down her thighs which every once in a while rubbed against one another. 

He took his sweet time unbuttoning and zipping down his trousers as he stares down at her, wondering if he was having yet again one of his delusion dreams. However, her harsh breathing was much too real to be just a dream and her touch was much to intense to be a fantasy. He pushed his boxers and his trousers down past his knees and climbed onto bed, hovering above her, hands on either side of her head. 

Y/N was rather new to the whole array of sensations she was feeling yet all she knew was that she wanted to feel him, she wanted to touch him badly yet all her body seemed to be writhing under him, awaiting for release. However, he lost no time in getting rid of the white shorts as quickly as he could. Her eyes were gazed onto the ceiling, much to shy to actually look at what was happening. 

When he pressed down with his index finger on her clit and, skilfully, pushed aside her underwear, she found herself gasping lightly as she felt his warm roughed finger trace up and down her folds and then, to make it more torturous in a twisted pleasurable way, he adds another finger, circling her little bundle of nerves masterfully while his other fingers slip along her folds, slipping just enough for him to feel her soaking entrance.

   - Sebastian ... - she managed to blurt out, clinging to the arm whose hand continued to tease her masterfully and she herself was if she had hold onto him to get some relief from these new emotions or to stop him completely so she could regain her senses. 

  - It’s alright, angel, I’m here. - he smirked down at her, leaning close to her heated face, lips almost painfully touching. - You are so wet, so frustrated. I could just stare at you for hours.

   - Just do something. 

   - I am doing something, angel. Maybe I’ll just stop doing it ... - he answers , removing his fingers from her soaked folds and placing them in his sinful mouth, licking and sucking on them rather loudly to make her even more flustered, if that was even possible. 

Y/N stared at him as she tried to even out her breathing and calm down her beating-heart, thumping as hard as a rabbit thumps their small pawed feet on the grass. She thought she had read sinful things, she thought she had seen sinful things but nothing compared to watching his lick her juices off his fingers. Sebastian hummed and wrapped his tongue around the tips of his fingers. Once finished, he removed them with a loud pop. 

  - After all you did run on me ... several times - he added smugly, proud of the control he has holding over her head. - You’re lucky I adore you, angel. 

He pushed her stomach down on the bed, his hands, parted and one either side of her head, supporting his body height as he fit his knee in between her legs, slowly spreading her thighs apart, never for a moment leaving her gaze or letting her eyes wander anywhere else but him. He could just die happy looking at her like that.

Wrapping her spread legs around his waist, she could already feel his thick hard cock pressed against her entrance, making her choke out a moan and a few whines, both from anticipation, need, and pure unknown of what was going to happen next. She was sure she had never felt something like that before, so powerful yet needy at the same time. Stretching her arms to wrap around his neck, she buried her head against the soft sheets of the bed to which he smirked and leaned. Slowly, he pushed into her and she gasped, parting her lips just barely enough to let out a throaty moan. It was a weird feeling, painful but with the power to be something else and as he slowly continued to fill her the brim, she couldn’t help but let out moans and cries of both pleasure and pain as she felt him stretch her completely and that pain morphed into more of an unspeakable pleasure.

   - God fuck ... you’re tight. - he shut his eyes, groaning as he felt her walls contract around him, stilling his movements.

   - Fuck ... - she groaned, moving her hips from side to side which made him groan loudly, eyes snapping open. 

   - Don’t do that unless you want me to fuck you against the window so that the whole of the Upper East will know who you belong to. - those words came out like threats but the way she milked him made him smirk. - You do want that, don’t you, angel? Maybe some other day. 

  - Just move, please just move ... - she pleaded with whatever control of her voice she had left and with a crooked smirk, his hands slide down to her hips which he grabbed. Subtly, he yanked them up until he slide out of her womanhood completely before ramming himself back in, making her moan sharply and hide her face against his chest in an attempt to muffle her moans.

Y/N quivered and whimpered in his hold, shaking her hips with both excitement and pleasure as he repeated the same motion time and time again. His thrusts  heavy, hard and fast, and as both of them gradually started to reach their end, became sloppier and messier but still powerful enough to rock her body and the bed along with it. She could feel herself getting closer, closer and closer to some sort of unknown release until finally she felt as if her body went through a tiny explosion causing her walls to tighten around him and Sebastian, in turn and along with her orgasm, came within a few seconds after her. 

He slid out of her, rolling on his side while Y/N stared at the ceiling, still lost in what sounded like static and white like vision, breath returning to normality along with her body. 

  - Are you okay, angel? - he questioned, watching her roll on her side so she could look at him.

  - Peachy. - she breathed out, arms lifting up with whatever strength she had left to wrap them around his torso. Nuzzling her face against his chest, sleep soon came to both of them. 

The morning came soon after, tiny and weak rays of sun filtered through the windows into the mob boss’s bedroom. However, it wasn’t the light that woke them up but the incessant knocking on their door. Sebastian raised his head from his pillow, cursing whomever was knocking at the door.

Grabbing his boxers from the floor and quickly putting them on, he strode towards the door, pulling it open so hard that it could’ve removed it from the hinges hadn’t they been well placed.

   - Amelia, what is it? - he almost growled at the housekeeper, she however was unbothered by it, much too used to him at this point. 

   - We have a situation, Mr. Stan. 

   - What situation? - he asked in a much more polite tone of voice, noticing Y/N was watching them like a hawk in confusion. 

   - It’s Mr. Daniel Forrest ... he’s downstairs. 

   - How is he downstairs? No cars are leaving from the Upper East. 

   - I don’t know, sir. He is here however to take Miss Y/N to Mr. Forrest’s house ... for Christmas. He is rather impatient. 

   - For heaven’s sakes ... - he kicked the side of the door. In all the times the weather just had to get better right now, turning around to look at the girl still barely awake in his bed, he let out a sigh. He couldn’t force her to spend Christmas with him. All she wanted was to go home. - Angel, get your things, Daniel Forrest is here. 

   - Dan is here? - she perked up, duvet wrapped around her body as she collected her garments from the floor. - But I thought ...

   - Well, he is here and I don’t think he’s gonna leave unless you leave with him. Isn’t that what you wanted? - isn’t that what she wanted? She questioned herself as she got dressed, surely it was. She wanted to spend Christmas with those who had taken care of her, right? 

   - You must come with me then. We always have one more plate at our table and the house is awf ...

   - I have to work, angel. I don’t get days off, I told you that. 

   - I know and you can work there. It’s fine, I’m sur ...

   - Y/N. - he interrupted her. - Just go and get your things. 

tag list: @lilya-petrichor @xoxohannahlee @irespostthingsiwanttoseelater @nikkipea @madisonpillstrom @cevans98 @thelostallycat @sideeffectsofyou @anxiousdreamersworld @captainchrisstan @lookiamtrying​ @sarge-barnes-sir​​​​ @stuffforreferences​ @thebadassbitchqueen

[sepublic]

Blight Trio AU

           So as a bit of an extension of my past meta, speculation, and analyses on Emira and Edric, and their feelings towards Amity… What if they got to Amity first? That is to say, before Odalia and Alador could fully indoctrinate Amity into their toxic abuse and ideas of authority and hierarchy… What if Ed and Em managed to become a better, more prominent influence in Amity’s life? What if a younger Amity chose to listen to her siblings more than her parents, to follow them around, and looked up to them more for guidance?

           In the Blight Trio AU, Emira and Edric ended up having way more of an influence on Amity. As a result, she became a troublemaker like them, and instead of just being known as the Blight Twins… They became known as the Blight Kids, that trio of siblings always hanging around together, causing trouble, and being oh-so confident, charming, and too cool for school!

           As Amity became more like the Twins as a deliberate defense against their parents’ attempts to separate the kids and put them at each other’s throats, to keep from competing with one another for Odalia and Alador’s meaningless affection… Unsurprisingly, she changed her style of clothes. She ended up dressing like Ed and Em, just as they dressed like one another! She even dyed her hair a green more akin to Emira and Edric, although in this scenario it was more encouraged by her siblings as a sign of solidarity against their parents, and not an outright order forced by Odalia.

           (More on that later)

           Just as Emira and Edric are inseparable in the original canon, in the Blight Trio AU, Amity is included amongst this! All three Blight kids have shared their deepest, darkest secrets with each other; They do everything together, and are practically capable of finishing each other’s sentences! They also seem like three parts of a whole, which leads to most people referring to the group as a whole –the Blight kids- VS as separate individuals.

           Amity’s definitely a lot more open, happier, and confident here. She’s a lot more similar to Emira and Edric, at first glance… That same flippant, mischievous confidence, that willingness to mess around with other people, seemingly too cool for school! Because Amity’s given a better sense of individuality with her older siblings, she’s happier and more open about being a dork, at least when she and the others are alone- Like Edric, when in public, she’s not as open about being a dork. Like the Twins, Amity continues that same façade, although this façade comes across as a lot happier and more confident than the one she has in canon.

           And, Amity IS happier and more independent, in a sense! She’s not subject to crippling pressures and expectations by her parents- Or at least, she’s no longer beholden to them. Because Amity is One Of Them, Emira and Edric fully indulge in her interests in The Good Witch Azura, about wanting to be good at magic, and help train her a lot! They use their skills and talent to hone Amity’s understanding, and following in her siblings’ footsteps, Amity enrolls in the Illusion Track!

           …Still. While it’s in some ways a lot better than what she has in canon, because Amity fully has the trust and support of her siblings and vice-versa, and is fully integrated amongst the group… As I’ve speculated in the past, there are issues of identity. Not only that, but while Ed and Em try to reassure Amity that she really IS one of them, Amity still has concerns. She knows that she’s younger, and that Emira and Edric are implicity closer with one another, than they are with Amity. It’s only natural- For two whole years, they only had each other! Not to mention they look so similar, too…

           And, Amity doesn’t want to get in the way. She doesn’t want to be jealous. But sometimes she’s afraid that her own relationship with her siblings, individually, doesn’t mean as much to them? That if either Emira or Edric had to choose between their other siblings, they’d choose their Twin? It’s a silly thought, surely, and amidst Amity’s darker secrets, this one she doesn’t bring up. It brings shame to her, and it makes her feel like she’s jeopardizing the ‘harmony’ and ‘sync’ of the trio. The fact that she’s noticeably younger and has brown hair more akin to their abusive father, VS her loving siblings, doesn’t help either…

           In this situation, Amity’s hair is always, constantly, fully-dyed; Especially with the help of Illusions. Her shade of green is dark and identical to the Twins’. She dresses like them, doesn’t do things without them and vice-versa… And while it seems like the kids are a close, tight-knit and cohesive unit, there’s still issues here or there. Because Emira and Edric influenced Amity so much… They’re a bit less self-aware of whenever they tend to steamroll over what Amity wants for herself, especially since Amity is reluctant about letting them down by trying to be different. She already feels beholden to her older siblings for saving her from their parents, and again, she doesn’t want to jeopardize any unity…

           Especially since the Blight Trio, as in canon, only really have each other! They don’t have any actual friends… By a stroke of different decisions leading to different circumstances, Amity never encountered Willow by chance and never became close to her unfortunately. She was too busy doing other things with Emira and Edric…

           Making friends also means getting people involved in the Blight drama and abuse, and that’s a very vulnerable thing to do. After all, making connections outside of the family that their parents don’t approve of would mean having to defend them… So the Blight Trio avoids friends, they act like they’re secretly too cool for everyone else, and everybody else agrees and assumes as such! But they’re starved for additional friends. Having the three of them IS great and all… But if they weren’t afraid of hurting anyone else, the Blight Trio would certainly try to form more connections. And, this just contributes to their loneliness, insecurity… To the distance they set others at, pretending to be casual and informal, and while to an extent they ARE…

           The Blight Trio could never let anyone in close, because the idea of people intimately knowing them is terrifying. Instead, they keep marching on together… At least, they try to. But as I said, the differences between Amity and the Twins are obvious. Not to mention, Amity is likely at a different grade level… Because no matter how hard she tries in canon, she just can’t move up a grade! It’s rather frustrating to be in different grades than the Twins, it results in the trio separating more often than they’d like- And while Ed and Em are alone together, THEIR bond and closeness increases, while Amity continues to feel more and more distant.

           At some point, I imagine she gets desperate, maybe interacts with Augustus Porter from her grade! He’s not on Emira and Edric’s level, but he IS a child prodigy who skipped a few grades… Maybe she could pick up a thing or two, and advance to be in the same classes as the twins! Perhaps Amity starts to become acquainted with Willow through Augustus in THIS particular scenario, although…

           Like I said- Amity doesn’t have natural talent, at least not to the same extent as Emira and Edric. And inevitably, she’s going to feel the need to keep up with them, for fear that they’re leaving her behind, that Amity is actually at fault for enforcing a rift between her and the Twins… She works and studies extra hard in the hopes of advancing to their grade, but! Doing so requires time separate from Emira and Edric, because they don’t particularly care for studying or grades. Amity either drops the effort entirely, potentially becoming distant with Augustus and Willow again as she focuses on maintaining her constant presence with the Twins…

           Or, Emira and Edric hear what Amity have to say! And there’s a little bit of concern, because… They understand Amity’s concerns, and they know that she wants to be close with them! And they’d hate to leave their little sis behind, neither twin can imagine what it’s like to be on their own. Either with Amity, or just with one another, the Twins consider the possibility of… Maybe deliberately failing and flunking classes, and getting held back? Granted that would look HUMILIATING, and their parents definitely wouldn’t let it pass!

           Alas, it’s not an option. Even if brought up to Amity, she wouldn’t let the Twins do so anyway, because she doesn’t want to feel like she’s dragging them down… But at the same time, she’s afraid of Emira and Edric leaving her behind! And Emira and Edric don’t reflect as much as whether or not they’re quashing their sister’s identity, because they’re more focused on how being a close-knit group turned out the best, and Amity is already so eager to be like them. NOT being like the Twins has led to Amity’s personal insecurities after all.

           Inevitably, a sense of toxic co-dependency is made. It’s more or less the same between Emira and Edric… But it also happens between the Twins and Amity as well. In Amity’s case, she’s constantly trying to do what she can to be more like her twins, and even existing on their own without any expectations, Emira and Edric unintentionally set an elusive standard for the girl that she simply can’t reach! And it’s exhausting, Amity’s trying to keep up when Emira and Edric aren’t even meaning to outpace her!

           And, they try to make room for her in their schedules. But inevitably, circumstances and the reality of the situation force them farther and farther apart. Emira and Edric don’t stop to consider how much they’re hurting Amity, because again, she seems to be most happy around them, and they’re doing better than their parents! Their self-awareness is even less potent in this AU than in canon. Without meaning to, the Twins find themselves sharing little moments and secrets between one another that Amity isn’t privy to, and at some point… They don’t tell her about this, because they don’t want Amity to feel bad.

           Not to mention, Amity keeps avoiding making new friends, because like her siblings, she’s under the impression that will somehow ‘ruin’ how close she is to Emira and Edric. It’s a frustrating situation, sometimes the trio is seemingly in-sync, but not always… Amidst Ed and Em having THEIR own differences, too! And when either twin goes to Amity and confides about this in secret, she’s elated, because she has something with THIS sibling that the other one doesn’t! In a way, being a trio helps the Blight kids recognize that not all relationships are meant to be the same…

           They learn that inevitably, there are going to be secrets they keep with one person, while excluding from the other. It’s a hard and bitter truth, but they at least manage to cope with it; For each sibling, two connections are better than just the one that Emira and Edric have… And better than the lack of relationships that Amity had, period, prior to meeting Luz! I can see Amity’s presence helping Emira and Edric in a sense… Even if Amity herself also her own issues unique to this AU, perhaps it’s better than being indoctrinated into the self-loathing for herself that Odalia and Alador encouraged in canon.

           Still, it really feels like Amity isn’t her own person- And this realization that she can’t function on her own just makes her panic and become more codependent with the Twins, which in turn worsens the original issue to begin with. It’s a self-feeding cycle, but inevitably, the poor girl is going to get frustrated. She’s going to want to do things that Emira and Edric don’t, because she’s always been a nerd who loves to learn… And when Amity tries to ramble about class, Ed and Em shut her down because they’re not interested, and they assume more often than not that she’s like them; So clearly Amity doesn’t care THAT much, and this is just a sign she’s trying to do well in school to keep up with them- Lighten up a little!

           And they intend to reassure her… but really, Emira and Edric contribute to a feeling of being left unheard, and not appreciated as her own person for Amity. Amity feels like the things that keep her up at night aren’t being relayed and told, nor listened to… And she keeps insisting that this is because she isn’t close enough to the Twins and so neither can trust the other enough to this degree, as if this desperation to be close wasn’t precisely why Amity was suffering! And, amidst Autistic headcanons and speculation about Amity… And sometimes Amity doesn’t get the joke. Sometimes she feels left behind, or not as clever or confident.

           Even if she’s better at it in the Blight Trio AU than in canon, Amity isn’t a perfect talker. Her actual social skills are already stunted as-is, so her façade at being charming and confident has a lot of work to do, in comparison to Ed and Em… That keeps frustrating her, making Amity feels like there’s something wrongwith her.

           Worst-case scenario, a bad argument might lead to Amity feeling like she has to be her own person to survive, and completely cut ties with the Twins… Especially if Emira and Edric’s concerns about being co-dependent with one another become apparent. It’d become heartbreaking, that just as Ed and Em fear that they need to cut ties with the other completely to avoid becoming co-dependent, Amity might think she has to separate from her siblings entirely. She sees the existential angst that Emira and Edric have from being so similar, and it conflicts with her desire to be similar to the Twins. Maybe Amity even considers turning to her parentsfor guidance, under the hopes that they can give her more attention, or at least help the girl form an individual identity of her own…

           Maybe… Maybe Odalia and Alador WERE right, after all. Maybe setting the kids at each others’ throats was the right action, in the end… And Emira and Edric, eerily, consider this every now and then. It makes them doubt their own judgment, their own rebelliousness… It makes it hard to tell what’s right or wrong, if being obedient would’ve made them happier in the long run! Odalia and Alador of course notice this and eat it all up, they try to take advantage of it. Maybe if one kid turns to them for support, they’ll feel indebted to that support; And they’ll try to live up to whatever expectations the Blight parents set, just to maintain that relationship!

           And there is, of course… Luz to consider. Luz the human. Because she’s a lot less elitist and more of a troublemaker thanks to the twins, Amity gets along with her a lot more quickly. And while the Blight Trio is all over Luz, and they utterly LOVE her… Not all of their feelings are the same. Emira and Edric see Luz more as a younger sister than anything else, but Amity… Amity feels romantic.

           This becomes apparent to the Blight Trio, and it confuses them. Maybe Emira and Edric should form a romantic interest in Luz, too? But she’s also a bit younger than them, so maybe not… And Amity’s wondering if she should stop this crush, and try to be like her siblings. Unintentionally on any of the kids’ ends, it becomes like a cult; Where trying to form new connections outside of the group feels like a ‘betrayal’. But Amity can’t deny how she feels, and how Luz makes her feel seen as an individual and not part of a greater whole…

           Then this adds to Amity wondering if she should’ve been separate from the Twins to begin with… It’s a really confusing mess, and Luz, who is just vibing, tries to help! She’s definitely got a lot to offer the Blight Trio, as does Eda… And those two help a lot. Maybe Emira and Edric feel it’s for Amity’s own good that she starts avoiding them, as they fear having become a bad and toxic influence on her… And while they DID do a thing wrong here or there, it’s not irreparable, and cutting ties completely would do more harm than just setting boundaries. But none of the kids can differentiate between setting personal boundaries and individual identity, VS losing a close bond with somebody else. There’s just not enough experience, and Ed and Em feel that Luz is a better influence for Amity than them, anyway… Maybe one twin is different from the other in that they’d rather keep Amity closer, or don’t want to be left behind, the same way Amity was prior to meeting Luz. This would cause even moreconfusion between the Twins, individually- And likely a lot of conflict.

           Amity is of course heart-broken. She tells them that they don’t have to leave her, that she still wants to be with them… But then does she? Because why is she so interested in Luz, doesn’t focusing on this one relationship jeopardize the one she has with her siblings? In the end, Luz helps Amity articulate that she still looks up to the Twins, that they mean the world to her… And she wants them and Luz with her! She doesn’t want to abandon her siblings just to pursue an even closer relationship with Luz, and…

           Eda naturally steps in. She makes it clear to these kids, sets it down, that relationships and identity don’t work like that. You can be your own person and still be close with someone… That arguably, one becomes closer with someone because each one is their own individual! There’s a difference between a close bond and co-dependency, and she and Luz can help the Blight Trio navigate this. Amidst Lilith joining in, and having her own insights and experience to offer…

           Like canon, it’s painful, awkward, and difficult. It’s a bumpy road that’s incredibly confusing and at times the directions seem contradictory. There’s probably going to be times where Amity and the Twins argue and storm off, go their own path… Before it evolves to all three kids going their separate ways from time to time! But I think in the end, Amity, Emira, and Edric will learn to navigate their lives and head towards recovery, just as they likely are in canon! Ed and Em don’t have to be left behind by Amity; She can bring them along with her into the Owl House! And together, they can all heal… Even as Luz and Eda help teach the Blight kids how to be their own people while still maintain close relationships, AND fend off Odalia and Alador’s abuse!

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

it was always you (falling for me) - chapter 2

Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: All the sides Rating: Teen & up (for swearing) Relationships: Prinxiety, Moceit, and QPR Intrulogical (eventually this will develop into Intrulosleep!) Warnings: Language; Remus being Remus; Shakespeare fans will probably hate my interpretation(s) of the plays I reference here, if the English major friend I showed this to is anything to go by, and I’m very sorry about that 😂 Word Count: 9042

Read on AO3!

My writing masterpost

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Summary: In a world where you and your soulmate swap dreams once a month, seven young adults enter the same college as freshmen. Each of them is wondering when they’ll find their soulmate and what that will mean for them.

Notes: Secret Santa gift for sanders-sides-fics!

Chapter 2

Roman had a problem. A person-shaped problem. Specifically, a problem shaped like his brother’s excessively pretty roommate, who seemed to take pleasure exclusively in needling Roman every chance they got.

Roman groaned, burying his face in one of the pillows on his bed.

“Hm?” his roommate, Patton, said sympathetically.

“I swear Virgil has, like, an agenda against soulmates, or something,” Roman said, rolling over and staring despairingly at the ceiling.

“Now, kiddo, I’m sure that’s not true.”

Roman lifted his head to look at Patton. “Aren’t I older than you?”

“Only by a few months,” Patton said serenely. “Spiritually, you’re my kiddo.”

“Pat, that makes no sense.”

Patton blinked up at him with a too-innocent face. “If it feels dad to you, just don’t think about it any father.”

“Oh my god.”

Patton giggled, a noise of pure delight, then circled back to Roman’s original topic. “What makes you think he’s got something against soulmates?”

“Uh, the way ze rails against them at every opportunity, for a start?” Roman sat up. “We have argued five times in the last two weeks about soulmates, and only three of them were even about Shakespeare like usual!”

“Haven’t you only known Virgil for, like, three weeks?”

“Well, yes, but that’s not the point.” Roman climbed down the ladder to the ground. “Also, I feel like that makes it worse?”

“Hmm, maybe.” Patton seemed amused. “You talk about them a lot, you know?”

“He’s so annoying!” Roman said defensively. “Ze gets this stupid smirk like ze knows something I don’t and he doesn’t even seem to care about constructing sound arguments half the time!” He put his laptop into his backpack.

“Going somewhere?” Patton asked.

“Yeah, Virgil and Remus invited me over to their dorm to study.”

“Oh,” Patton said, a funny sort of look on his face like he was trying not to laugh.

“What?” Roman asked.

“Nothing, nothing.” Patton waved him away, still smiling to himself. “Have fun studying with Virgil.”

“I will,” Roman said brightly, heading out the door.

***

“I want to go get ice cream,” Remus announced suddenly, hopping to his feet. “Who’s coming with?” It was late, almost midnight, and Roman was sitting on the floor in what had been a nice triangle with Remus and Virgil until Remus had stood. The three of them had been alternately working on homework and arguing about Disney characters.

“Sure,” Virgil said with a shrug, tugging their hoodie up onto their shoulders—they’d been wearing it dangling off their body, with only their wrists in the sleeves holding it on. “Let me fix my eyeliner first, though.”

Remus nodded distractedly, looking around the room and turning in a circle.

“Whatcha looking for?” Roman inquired, getting to his feet as well.

“My wallet,” Remus said, gaze still roving around. “I don’t know where I—”

“By your chapstick,” Roman said.

“Ah!” Remus dove under his desk, scrabbled on the floor, and emerged with his wallet clutched triumphantly in one hand and his chapstick in the other. “Thank you.”

“How the fuck did you know that?” Virgil asked, turning away from the mirror hung on the door with their eyeliner in their hand. They’d reapplied it to one eye, in a perfect, pointed wing; the other eye still had the only slightly less perfect, barely faded wing they’d been wearing this whole time. It matched their black lipstick and the carefully blended eyeshadow on their upper eyelids.

“He put it down there when he was telling the story about trying to collect dried gum off the street,” Roman explained. “And the chapstick was already there right next to it. So that’s how I remembered.”

Remus nodded. “I would have gotten there in a minute, probably,” he agreed.

“I still don’t understand how the fuck you knew that, but good for y’all, I guess,” Virgil said, turning back to the mirror.

“ADHD solidarity,” Roman explained.

Remus made finger guns at him, nodding. “ADHD solidarity,” he agreed.

Virgil paused halfway through drawing the other wing on. “Oh, that makes sense.” They picked up the line again, their hand perfectly steady, drawing it out to a fine point. “I thought you said you were autistic?” they added after a moment, their face holding perfectly still as they filled in the eyeliner with a practiced hand; their monolid eyelids allowed them to draw the wings of their eyeliner wide and dramatic.

“Yeah, I’m both. There are high rates of comorbidity, and also they’re both genetic, so neurodivergence runs in families,” Roman explained, the sentence rolling out of his mouth without him stumbling over the words once or having to think about it at all. “Did you know about ten percent of the population is probably ADHD?” he went on eagerly. “It’s super underdiagnosed. Especially because of race and gender biases in doctors who diagnose it, and the misconception that it’s only something children have. I only got diagnosed because Remus did when we were little, and we’re twins, so then they tested me too. Even though we aren’t identical. It’s super frequent for identical twins to both have ADHD if one of them has it, though.” Roman bounced on the balls of his feet, tapping the tip of his finger against his thumb. “I wish we were identical, I think it’d be so funny. Like, impersonating each other, and things. We could make such good video skits.”

“We make fantastic video skits already,” Remus protested.

“Okay, fair. But you know what I mean. And we could switch places for a day and see who noticed. All the stuff twins do in stories. Twins are always identical in stories, it’s so annoying, I wish there were more stories with fraternal twins.” Roman paused for a second, his mind hovering for an instant between a not-fully-realized train of thought about the gender politics of twin representation in stories and the question of what animals were most likely to have twins. He chose, almost before he was aware there was a choice, the animals question, his emotions nudging him away from the energy talking about gender representation would take up. “Do you think kittens dream?” he asked, only a second or two after he’d stopped talking in the first place.

“Yeah, probably,” Remus responded without missing a beat, likely following his train of thought. “Better question, do other animals have soulbonds, and how do they know if so?”

“Maybe it’s a scent thing,” Roman said thoughtfully.

“Ooh, like with glands or some shit?” Remus looked thoughtful. “That could make sense. I wonder—I bet there’s answers on the internet. I’m going to look this up later. Are you coming, too, by the way? To get ice cream?”

Roman thought it over. “Sure,” he agreed.

“I’m ready,” Virgil announced, capping their eyeliner and setting it down on hir desk. “Also, I got whiplash about five times just listening to that conversation.”

“Good, my chaos is overtaking another victim and soon I shall rule the world. Let’s go!” Remus led the other two out the door and started walking towards the end of campus.

“Where are we going, exactly?” Roman inquired, shoving his hands into the pockets of his red letterman jacket to keep them warm.

“There’s an ice cream shop that’s open till one in the morning about ten minutes away walking,” Remus said over his shoulder. “Logan and I found it the first weekend here.”

“You two went in search of sweets without me?” Roman put a hand to his heart. “I’m hurt,” he declared in his most dramatic voice.

“Oh, shut up, we would have gotten around to telling you about it eventually. I mean, I’m telling you right now, so.” Remus shrugged. “Virge, aren’t you cold?”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty, so it’s worth it,” Virgil said, tossing their head so the long hair on the top of their undercut swished. They were wearing a distressed band tee and a black skater skirt over fishnet leggings and a pair of doc martens. It was quite chilly out, and even though they were wearing a hoodie too, Roman understood why Remus had been concerned.

“You are very pretty,” Roman told them seriously. Even aside from their clearly carefully chosen outfit, this was true. Their eyes were round and curious and a captivating shade of dark brown. Even with the boost from the platform of the shoes they were wearing, they were tiny. Roman was sure they couldn’t be more than 5’2” without the boots. The hair on top of their undercut was very long, almost down to their waist, contrasting with the closely-shaved back and sides of their head. About six inches on the ends of their hair were dyed purple. Their makeup, of course, was flawless, as was their golden-brown skin, which was just a little bit darker than Roman’s. He made a mental note to ask them about their skincare routine sometime; no matter how much care he treated his skin with, the acne on his cheeks refused to go away. It was his least favorite side effect of taking testosterone. “But you can be pretty and warm at the same time, if you want. I hate being cold. But I respect your decision to be pretty and cold if you want to,” he added quickly.

Virgil let out a slightly nervous laugh, rubbing the back of their neck. “Thanks, I think.” Their eyes widened as they looked past him. “Oh, my god, Remus, shut up!”

“What?” Roman asked, looking over at Remus, who was giving Virgil an evil grin.

“Nothing,” Virgil snapped.

“I didn’t say anything,” Remus said innocently.

“Shut up!” Virgil repeated, flipping the hood of their hoodie up and dragging it over their face.

“What’s going on?” Roman asked, confused, while Remus burst into cackles of laughter.

“Nothing!” Virgil repeated with great emphasis.

Roman let out a sigh of frustration, but Virgil seemed genuinely upset about whatever Remus had done when Roman wasn’t looking, so he dropped it. Maybe Remus would explain later.

Remus did not explain later; however, he did turn around to walk backwards after the silence had stretched on long enough to become awkward. “Is the ocean a soup? Discuss,” he commanded.

“Oh, not this again!” Roman groaned. “No, absolutely not!”

“Yes,” Virgil said, almost as soon as Roman stopped talking.

“No!” Roman stamped his foot. “That makes no sense!”

“It makes lots of sense. Explain how it’s not soup,” Virgil challenged.

The resulting argument lasted them all the way to the ice cream shop and halfway through their treats.

“Aren’t you going to take a side?” Roman demanded of Remus at last.

Remus looked up from his cone. “Oh, no, this is very entertaining for me, I could watch you two bicker all month. Please keep it up.”

“You’re a terrible person,” Roman told him, trying not to laugh.

“I never claimed to be anything else,” Remus said happily.

***

“—and that’s how you do it. It’s really easy, but it’s so fun, I could balance chemical equations for hours,” Remus said, bopping the tip of his dry-erase marker against the giant whiteboard in the library for emphasis. He and Roman and Virgil had all met up here to study; it was a sunny afternoon, and they’d gotten a nice spot by the window. The marker left a little black mark next to the diagram Remus had spent the last ten minutes drawing; he wiped the dot away with his finger. He was wearing a turtleneck with horizontal black-and-white stripes and a pair of faded jeans with paint splatters all over them and huge rips in the front that ran from his mid-thighs almost down to his ankles; he’d finished the outfit off with socks in sandals and a black felt beret. His outfit—vaguely artistic, but mostly just terrible—contrasted comically with the intensely technical pseudo-lecture on chemistry he’d just given.

Roman nodded without looking up. “I remember balancing those was fun,” he agreed. He hadn’t taken a chemistry class in a couple of years now, but Remus was majoring in it, and the best way for Remus to study was to explain it out loud, so he’d gathered Roman and Virgil in the library. They’d even been able to snag one of the coveted whiteboards. Roman was able to focus on his notes better with Remus’s animated talking in the background, and Virgil preferred quiet but was willing to put on his headphones to block out Remus’s noise, so all in all this arrangement worked out well for all three of them.

“Yes!” Remus agreed with a happy wiggle. He picked up his water bottle off the table and took a long sip. “Okay, next I have a bunch of molecules I have to memorize the structures of. Do you need anything first?” He addressed his question to both of them, but Virgil seemed pretty focused—or perhaps his music was loud enough to drown out other noises.

Roman, however, thought the question over. “Yes, actually, can you help me go over my lines for this one scene? It’s not very long.”

“Mmhm.” Remus held out his hands expectantly, and Roman handed him his script. Remus began fiddling with the dog-eared bottom corner of the page it was open to, folding it back and forth.

Roman dug in the pocket of his cargo shorts—he liked cargo shorts, partly for the shape but mostly for the pockets—and handed Remus a star-shaped fidget toy made of sequins that could be flipped back and forth. He’d rather the corner of the script didn’t get torn off by mistake.

“I think I’m off book, I just want to make sure,” he said as Remus accepted the toy and began fidgeting with it.

Remus nodded, scanning the page. “Sounds good. It’s just this one page?”

“Yeah. Ready?”

Remus nodded, and Roman launched into the scene. His character had most of the lines; it was essentially a glorified monologue. Remus interjected the two lines from other characters, using a hilarious nasally voice that made it hard for Roman to stay in character without breaking to laugh, but he successfully made it through the final line before dissolving into snickers.

“You’re word-perfect, kid,” Remus proclaimed as Roman got ahold of himself, handing him back the script.

Roman grinned. “Thank you!”

Remus nodded and took another sip of water before wiping down the whiteboard and launching into a ramble about the molecular structures he had to memorize.

Roman had just about tuned Remus out again and slipped back into the headspace where he could focus on his work when Remus broke off. “Logan!” he exclaimed, sounding delighted.

Roman looked up, and so did Virgil, pulling off hir headphones. Roman followed Remus’s gaze, and there indeed was Logan, his flat top haircut and dark academia outfit unmistakeable. He was stepping out of the stairwell that led down from the floor above, adjusting the strap of the leather messenger bag they used instead of a backpack. Even at this distance, the pins he kept on the bag were visible, neatly affixed in alternating rows on the bag’s buckle straps—a demiboy flag, an aromantic flag, an enamel pin shaped like an open book, and a handful of other pins Logan had collected from the university’s cultural centers during orientation. Roman had a few of that last category on his backpack himself; he knew he and Logan had matching land acknowledgment pins now, but he wasn’t sure if any of the other pins they’d chosen matched.

Remus darted across the wide open floor, weaving his way around a few students. “Logan! Hi!”

Logan looked up, a small smile finding its way onto his face as he saw Remus. He said something—presumably a greeting—but was too far away for Roman to hear, since he was speaking at a normal tone.

Remus seized Logan by the hand and dragged them towards Roman and Virgil. Logan laughed and said something in protest, pushing his square glasses up his wide nose as he followed Remus.

“Remus, I have to go to class,” Logan was insisting as they got close enough for Roman to hear. “Hello, Roman. Virgil.” They adjusted their already-immaculate clothing, the tendons in their thin hands flexing as they smoothed their mustard-brown cable knit sweater vest and tugged on the rolled-up sleeves of their periwinkle button down shirt.

Virgil gave a two-fingered salute. “Sup.”

“Hi Logan,” Roman said happily. “We’re studying!”

“Very nice,” Logan said, raising Remus’s hand—which was still clasping his own—and gently pressing it with their other hand. “I am always glad to see you, Remus, but I can’t stay long.”

“Okay,” Remus said. “I just wanted to say hi.” He gave Logan a quick, tight hug around the ribs before releasing them just as fast as he’d darted in.

Logan smiled again. “Hello, then. I hope your studying is going well?”

He received nods from the group, and gave them his own nod in return.

“You’ve got to go,” Remus reminded him. “You don’t like to be late.”

“True. I’ll see you later, dear.”

Remus nodded. “Wanna hang out tomorrow night?”

Logan considered this. “Maybe. I’m going to the Black Student Union meeting tomorrow evening. So it would have to be after that.”

“Okay, I can do that! I love you!”

Logan smiled. “I love you too, Rem.” They made as if to leave, then paused. “Roman, while I’m thinking of it—are you and Patton still free for lunch tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Roman confirmed. Logan and Patton had two classes together, and so together with Roman they’d formed a tight-knit little friend group very quickly; the three of them tried to make sure to meet up for lunch at least once a week.

“Wonderful. I’ll text our groupchat about it. See you then.” Logan tugged his hand out of Remus’s grip, waved, and set off at a brisk pace back towards the stairs.

***

“I’m telling you, Virgil, Oberon and Titania are a really good example of how soulmates can make it through rough patches!”

“Bullshit. They’re obviously not a metaphor for soulmates, why would the fae even have soulmates? Their story is a cautionary tale,” Virgil said languidly, lying on their back on the floor of their room.

“No!” Roman pounded his fist on the floor. “Why do you always do this?”

“Because it’s funny,” Virgil replied with a snicker.

“But you always bash on soulmates, specifically!” Roman said.

“Yeah, because I think society’s emphasis on soulbonds is dumb.” Virgil shrugged. “Anyway, if you think Oberon and Titania’s relationship is a good example of anything, I have some concerns.”

“No—no, stop! I didn’t mean it like that! They’re fae, like you said. I obviously don’t condone any of the ways they treated each other! I’m just saying that viewing them as a metaphor for soulmates makes a really interesting lens to view the other couples in the play! Right, Logan?” He turned expectantly to Logan.

“Wh—no,” Logan, who was sitting on Remus’s bed and combing their fingers through Remus’s hair, his head in their lap, responded. “You are both, objectively, wrong. Horribly so. Painfully so.”

“Hey! You’re not allowed to tell me I’m wrong about Shakespeare,” Roman countered quickly.

“Why did you ask me for my opinion, then?” Logan asked, rolling their eyes.

“I don’t know,” Roman grumbled.

“Wait, why can’t they talk to you about Shakespeare?” Virgil asked.

“Because they always win!” Roman crossed his arms.

“Oh, and I don’t?” Virgil demanded. “What am I to you, Roman? I thought we had something special here,” they went on playfully. “You make dumb arguments, I make worse ones, and then I win. I thought that meant something to you.” They pouted at him.

“That’s different!” Roman protested, stifling giggles at the mopey puppy dog eyes Virgil was sending him. “You just don’t care what I say. Logan actually refutes my arguments! It’s very humiliating!”

“I only do it because your logic is physically painful to listen to,” Logan said.

Roman crossed his arms and pointedly turned away from Logan, nose in the air. “Anyway. As I was saying. Puck’s role in all of this is really interesting, if you consider the question: are the fae supposed to be able to truly alter soulbonds, or are they only messing with feelings?”

“Dear,” Logan said plaintively, looking down at Remus, his fingers still carding through Remus’s curls.

“Hmm?” Remus responded, not opening his eyes.

“Make them stop,” Logan said beseechingly.

“Sorry fellas, you heard them. Stop torturing Logan, he’s already an English major, so he’s plenty tortured already. Or else I’ll have to dissect your spleens.” Remus wagged a finger in Roman and Virgil’s direction.

“What a terrible fate that would be,” Roman commented, flopping over to lie on the floor beside Virgil.

Seconds later, his phone buzzed; he pulled it out to see a text notification from Virgil.

Virgil: oberon sucks btw

Roman: Oh, it is ON!

Roman grinned as he sent the response, already anticipating the thrill of the argument that was about to ensue. He felt a warm thrill in his chest at Virgil’s answering chuckle—it was good to know Virgil was having fun with this too.

***

“—so I was hanging out with Virgil the other day at the library cafe, and he said The Tempest was dumb because magic solves everything.” Roman was lying on the floor of his dorm, tossing a bouncy ball up in the air and catching it over and over again. Logan was sitting at Roman’s desk, legs up and crossed on the seat of the chair as he worked on readings for an English class, half-listening to Roman’s rambling. “And that since it solved all the problems, it made no sense for Prospero to give it up. Which was completely ignoring all the bad stuff magic had done and the symbolism of him throwing it away!”

“What did Remus have to say about that?” Logan inquired with a small laugh, not looking up from the copy of Frankenstein in his hands.

“What? Oh, nothing. Remus wasn’t there.”

“Oh?” Logan blinked, glancing up from the book.

“Yeah, we were at the library getting Starbucks, we do that on Wednesdays now. Remus was in his history class, I’m pretty sure.”

“I didn’t know you and Virgil hung out together,” Logan said, raising their eyebrows.

“Oh, we don’t, we just get coffee on Wednesdays, it’s different,” Roman said.

Logan stared at him. “...What?”

“Like, we only hang out on our own time to get Starbucks and then argue about Shakespeare. It’s really fun! It’s a great system, honestly. And this way, you don’t yell at me about Shakespeare or text Remus rant essays about what you think I’m getting wrong!”

Logan looked away, a very called-out expression on his face. “You weren’t supposed to see those…”

“Oh, Remus didn’t show me, I just broke into his phone the other day and it was open to your texts,” Roman said reassuringly.

“Why would you break into—” Logan began, not seeming reassured in the slightest.

“I needed to check his calendar to see if he was available to come with me to the grocery store,” Roman explained. “You know we’re really good at guessing each other’s passcodes. He doesn’t mind, we break into each other’s phones all the time.” He paused, assessing Logan’s face, trying to gauge if their expression was upset or not. “I’m sorry I read the texts, though,” he added, just in case it had hurt their feelings. “I only saw the very end of it, it wasn't on purpose or anything. Promise.”

Logan sighed. “I know. It’s alright.” He reached across the space between them to press the back of Roman’s hand.

Roman grinned. “Only you would come up with a whole essay in a text,” he teased. “Dunno what I expected, really.”

“It wasn’t an essay,” Logan said defensively. “Technically speaking.”

“I dunno, it sure looked like if you formatted it with MLA, you could turn it in for a grade.” Roman giggled. “But hey, what do I know?”

Logan opened his mouth to reply, but stopped as the doorknob rattled with the sound of keys.

Patton stepped in. “Hey! If it isn’t some of my favorite people!” he greeted the two of them with a smile. His dark, wavy hair was a little ruffled. Normally he combed it to the side, but Roman remembered it had been windy today, so Roman guessed that was responsible for the irregularity. “How are you doing?” Patton asked the two of them.

“Better now that you’re here,” Roman told him with an answering grin. “How’s your day been?” He’d noticed that Patton really liked being asked how his day had gone.

Sure enough, Patton’s smile spread a little wider. “Pretty good, thanks! I haven’t had too much to do today, which is nice. How are you doing, Logan?” He sat down on the floor beside Roman, sliding his backpack off his shoulders.

Roman immediately sat up and scooted over to lean against Patton—he was an excellent cuddler; he was tall and chubby and he ran warm, and Roman liked cuddles. He tended towards understimulation rather than overstimulation, and hugs were one of his favorite things. Patton was always happy to supply.

“I’m alright, thank you,” Logan said as Patton wrapped an arm around Roman’s shoulders. “A little underslept, but otherwise good.”

“Good, good. You should sleep more. Are you both busy?” Patton asked.

“No,” Roman said, because Patton always had fun ideas.

Logan pursed his lips, glancing down at the book in his hands in consideration. “I can finish this chapter later. Why?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if either of you wanted to play a board game,” Patton said. He and Roman had each brought a couple from their homes, and together they had quite the little collection.

“Yes!” Roman agreed eagerly, breaking away from Patton and crossing to the shelf where they kept the games. “How about Clue?”

“I will decimate you both,” Logan said, deadly serious, adjusting their glasses and scooting to the floor.

“All part of the fun, Specs.” Roman pulled out the box and set it down between them. “Dibs on the red piece!”

***

“—so I told him that was utter bullshit—not in so many words, of course—and listed off the reasons why, and he simply did not seem to recognize how completely nonexistent his logic was, he just kept repeating his original points louder and louder.” Logan punctuated his rant about a classmate with hand gestures as he walked next to Roman on the sidewalk.

“I hate guys like that,” Roman said, making a face.

Logan nodded. “But I got full credit on my discussion post when I typed up my argument and I cannot imagine he got the same, based on his talking points. So.” He shrugged, clearly trying not to look too smug with himself.

“Good job!” Roman told them.

“Thank you.” Logan’s happiness was palpable. “How have—”

“Logan!” Remus’s voice shouted.

Roman looked in the direction of the noise; they were almost an entire block away still from the quad, where they’d agreed to meet Remus, but he seemed to have spotted them. He was sprinting at full speed directly towards them.

“Oh, dear,” Logan said, the exasperation in his voice belied by the grin on their face. They took a step back and braced themself, just in time.

Remus full-on tackled Logan in a hug, colliding into him at full speed. Logan stumbled back a couple of steps, but successfully avoided falling over. “Hello, Remus,” he said composedly, wrapping their arms around Remus and returning the enthusiastic hug. “How are you?”

“Much better now. I missed you,” Remus said into Logan’s shoulder. “Normal people get all weird about it when I tell them cool murder facts. You're much cooler than normal people.”

“It has been twenty-seven hours and about thirty minutes since you last saw me,” Logan informed him. “And thirteen minutes since we last texted.” They rumpled his curls, which fell messily in loose spirals about his face; they were mostly about chin length, although some of them were choppily trimmed shorter than others. Remus was very insistent about cutting his own hair. It was always mildly disastrous, but he insisted he liked it that way. He’d dyed it himself, too; he’d bleached a streak at the very front of his head and dyed it silver about a month before college started, with a surprising amount of success.

“Yeah, and I missed you.” Remus stepped back from the hug as Logan released him. “Also hi Roman, I guess.” He tossed Roman a grin.

“You are a terrible brother sometimes,” Roman informed him. “Hi.”

“Uh, I think you mean all the time,” Remus corrected him. “I’m joking,” he added. “C’mon, I got Starbucks for us! I have extra meal credits!” He seized Logan’s hand and reached invitingly for Roman’s.

Roman let Remus grab his hand, too, and his brother immediately began dragging both Roman and Logan at a slightly breakneck pace down the sidewalk. Several students dove out of their way until he dragged them to a halt by the food truck, bouncing on the balls of his feet and waiting expectantly.

Not even a moment later, the barista placed three cups on the delivery window tray and called out Remus’s name.

“Yes!” Remus pumped his fist, darted over, and picked up two of the cups—Roman recognized Remus and Logan’s go-to coffee orders, a trenta mango-dragonfruit refresher and a grande vanilla sweet cream cold brew with extra ice. Roman picked up the last cup, a warm drink in a grande cup; he sniffed to check what it was even though he knew what Remus usually got him. Steamed apple juice with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top—his favorite as a kid and still one of his favorites now. He wrapped his hands around the warm cup and followed Remus and Logan over to a sunny patch on the lawn.

Remus sprawled out, taking up more space than seemed humanly possible for one person to fill; Logan tucked their legs beneath them as they sat beside Remus and began pulling out a textbook, a dog-eared novel, and a handful of pens and pencils from their messenger bag.

Roman sat so that he completed the triangle between the three of them, his legs crossed so he could lean his cup against them between sips and not worry about knocking it over.

“Thank you for the coffee, Remus,” Logan said, his cup halfway to his lips as he flipped through the worn novel.

Roman nodded in agreement, breathing in the warm cinnamon scent of the apple juice.

“Of course!” Remus said exuberantly, taking a noisy slurp of his drink.

Roman and Logan both winced slightly.

“Could you be a little quieter, there?” Logan asked mildly.

“How dare you.” Remus clutched his heart, leaning back so far Roman was surprised he didn’t lose his balance and fall over.

Logan sighed, reaching over and placing a hand over Remus’s, gripped around the edge of the cup’s lid. “At least please be careful not to splash,” he said, guiding Remus’s hand downwards until the cup came to rest on the ground. “This textbook cost rather a lot and I’d like to sell it back in a decent condition at the end of the term.”

Remus let go of the cup, leaving it to rest where it was, and leaned forward. He took Logan’s face in both of his hands and looked seriously into their eyes. “Hey. You are my best friend in the whole world and you mean everything to me. I love you and I’m so glad we’re soulmates. But I draw the line at stopping my annoying behavior for anything less than a natural disaster.” He released Logan and picked his drink back up. “I promise I won’t spill on your book, though,” he added lightly. “Roman gets no such promises.”

“You wouldn’t dare, you know I hate being sticky—” Roman began heatedly.

“Okay, okay. Jesus. You two are really conspiring to foil all my chaotic little gremlin dealings today. I’ll order an ice water to spill on you instead, will that make you happy?” Remus snickered.

Roman frowned. “If you must,” he begrudgingly agreed, since this seemed the closest thing to a compromise he was likely to get out of Remus. He suspected it might be a joke anyway, but he wasn’t sure about that and didn’t want to take any chances.

But Remus didn’t return to the food truck, so it seemed likely that it was a joke after all. Instead, he devoted himself to more noisy slurping, crossing his eyes and looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“You’re the tallest one of us,” Roman said after a moment.

“Huh?” Remus looked up at him.

“He has a point, dear,” Logan said, turning a page.

“Like yeah I know I am, but what’s the point?” Remus asked.

“You said we were foiling your chaotic little gremlin dealings,” Roman elaborated. “You’re, like, fucking… six two.”

“And a half,” Remus added. “Emotionally, I am a chaotic creature of spite who’s about three five and can sneeze fire, though.”

“That makes no sense,” Roman protested.

“Does too,” Remus responded, crossing his arms.

“It does,” Logan agreed. “For example, emotionally, I punch that one classmate in the face twice a week, but we can’t always embody what we want to be. And you, Roman—emotionally, you’re very invested in Shakespeare, but in actuality, your interpretations are painfully bad.”

“Hey. You talking about me and Shakespeare is off limits. We’ve discussed this.” Roman waved a warning finger at them.

“I still think that’s unfair and have raised a motion to reject and overturn the ban.”

“Unfortunately for you, the judge and jury are my feelings, and you hurt them, Logan. Shakespeare and I have something special. You need to stop trying to come between us like this.”

Logan glanced up from his book to give Roman a singularly unimpressed look. “You are preposterous.”

Roman beamed at him and made a heart shape with his hands, holding it up like a picture frame to look at Logan through. “But you loooooove me,” he singsonged.

Logan nodded. “This is true.”

“You’re both nerds and Shakespeare isn’t even that good,” Remus put in, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“I’m divorcing you,” Logan said immediately.

“Noooo, come back!” Remus dramatically grasped at the air as if reaching out from afar for Logan.

“Fine.” Logan shrugged. “Then Roman’s disowning you.”

“Hey, that’s my line!”  

“He can’t disown me, he’d miss me,” Remus said confidently. “Y’all are stuck with me.” He looked very pleased with himself.

There was silence for a beat, then all three of them burst into laughter.

“I’m really glad we’re all friends,” Remus said happily, leaning back and taking another long sip of his drink.

“Yeah,” Roman agreed.

“I don’t know,” Logan said, holding back a smirk. “Sometimes I think about a world where I don’t have to deal with a pair of himbos every day of my life.” He maintained his faux-serious face for all of the three seconds it took both twins to start pelting him with ripped-up blades of grass, then devolved into helpless laughter again.

***

“Patton, you good? You’ve been kind of spaced out all day.”

“Huh?” Patton looked up, blinking through his round gold-rimmed glasses. “Yeah, I’m okay! Just… boy problems, I guess? Which is… it’s new.” He wrinkled his nose for a second in a face of dissatisfaction before smoothing his face back into a smile.

“Oh? Want to talk about it?” Roman asked eagerly, leaning forward and resting his chin in his hands, interest definitely piqued.

“I don’t know…” Patton glanced away. “It’s complicated. And it’s probably not a big deal.”

“Patton. We are friends. The main purpose of friends is gossiping about crushes.” Roman crossed his arms. “I am offended that you would ever doubt my capacity for talking about boys in a gay way.”

“I don’t think that’s the main purpose of friendship,” Patton said, but his smile looked more genuine.

“Shush, I know that, I’m being dramatic. How about a movie night and you can spill the deets in a cozy setting with popcorn? And Logan?”

“I mean… okay,” Patton relented. “It’s probably not as exciting as you’re hoping for, though, I’m sorry.”

“Nonsense. You are perfect and so is everything you do,” Roman said absently, pulling out his phone and FaceTiming Logan.

“Roman! You’re sweet, but you know you shouldn’t go around passing out compliments that should go to you,” Patton said.

“Oh, stop,” Roman said, grinning wide.

Logan picked up on the second ring. “What do you need, Roman?”

“To see your gorgeous face, nerd. Also we’re having a movie night at me and Pat’s, attendance mandatory. Seven works, right? Pat’s having boy problems.���

Logan stared at Roman with a blank face for several beats. “And… you want me there to help… why?” he deadpanned.

“Shut up, you have a nonromantic boy toy, you’re basically qualified to help.”

“Don’t call Remus that! He’s a person, not a—wait, he’s your brother, Roman, that’s worse, that’s so weird—”

“—Anyway, I can more than handle giving Patton plenty of terrible advice on his love life,” Roman interrupted. “You’re there to tell him everything I say is a terrible idea and let me throw popcorn at you. We can watch Big Hero Six. C’mon, it’ll be fun!”

Logan heaved a sigh. “Fine. But you have to put your dad’s curry powder on the popcorn.”

“What kind of man do you take me for, Logan? Of course we’ll have curry popcorn! See you at seven, love you, bye bye.” Roman blew a kiss and hung up.

After his English class, Roman grabbed a burrito from the dining hall and hurried back to the dorm, making it there at half past six. Patton was already back; he made hot chocolate while Roman microwaved popcorn and tossed it in a bowl with curry powder.

At precisely seven o'clock, there was a knock on the door; Roman let Logan in and the three of them climbed into the nest of pillows and blankets Patton had built on the bottom bunk, pushing aside the bi pride flag and the Puerto Rican flag Patton had hung like curtains around his bunk.

“So,” Roman said eagerly as the movie’s opening bot fight began on the laptop screen, turning to Patton and bouncing (Logan grabbed the popcorn bowl out of Roman’s lap as it jostled), “spill!”

Patton squirmed under the attention, a half-hidden smile ghosting its way onto his face. “I don’t know… what should I talk about?”

“What’s he like?” Roman asked. “How do you know him? Is he cute? Have you got his number?”

“Oh, wow—that’s a lot.” Patton giggled nervously.

“Okay, start with is he cute?”

“He’s really cute,” Patton allowed, biting back another smile. “He’s got all these freckles all over his face and neck and hands, and his eyebrows are really expressive—he gets this really serious face when he’s thinking, and it’s… really pretty.”

“Eyes?” Roman demanded. “How are his eyes?”

“I mean, they’re eyes? They’re this kind of greyish blueish color. I don’t know, I try not to stare, especially when he’s looking, you know?”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Roman relented. “What else? Is he fashionable?”

“I—not really, honestly. He mostly just wears longsleeve tees and jeans. Sometimes beanies. He has these really cute yellow converse that he always wears, though. He, like—oh, gosh, I’m not sure how to describe it. He’s not, like, fashionable like you asked, but he—kind of the way he holds himself makes it seem like he is? He wears his clothes well, I think is maybe the phrase.”

Roman nodded. “Alright. Do you know whether or not he’s queer?”

Patton hesitated. “Um… I’m not sure. I don’t know either way. But he was the only one that laughed at a bi pun I made one time, and he wore a pink shirt and yellow belt with faded jeans one time, which I might be reading way too much into but it sure looked like a sneaky pastel pan flag.”

Roman nodded very seriously, taking mental notes. “All good signs. Anything else? Any stickers on his laptop or water bottle? Pins on his backpack?”

Patton shook his head. “They’re, like, super empty. He doesn’t really do anything that tells people about his personality. His outfits are usually really plain, like I said, and everything. It’s weird, because he’s got such a distinct personality, and he really doesn’t seem like someone who’d leave his stuff unpersonalized. It’s like he’s afraid of something, or something.” Patton was silent for a moment, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “But then, he seems kind of nervous around me in general.” He looked away, a worried expression crossing his face.

“Maybe he likes you back?” Roman suggested. “Plenty of people get nervous around their crushes.”

Patton shook his head quickly. “No, I don’t think that’s it. I think I know what the thing worrying him is. I just… don’t know how to talk about it with him.”

“You do realize you’re being super vague here, right?” Roman queried; he couldn’t parse what on earth Patton meant by that, but his curiosity was piqued.

“I know.” Patton bit his lip. “I, um, don’t want to talk about it yet, I think. It’s complicated. I don’t think it would be fair to him to discuss it with others.”

“Oh.” Roman did his best to hide his disappointment. “Okay, that’s fine. How do you know him?”

His attempt to change the subject didn’t seem to ease Patton’s discomfort, based on the way his shoulders drew up even closer to his ears. “...Kind of from a class we’re in together?” he answered after a long pause. “We’re partners on a group project.”

“Sounds like a meet cute to me,” Roman said, searching again for new lines of questioning that would hopefully not be as upsetting for mysterious and unknown reasons. “What do you like about him?”

Patton lit up. “He’s really sweet, actually. It takes some looking to see it, because he’s got a lot of walls up, but you can tell he’s really thoughtful and observant, and he’s really warming up to me, I think—he’s being much nicer to me than most people, and I’m starting to think he really means it and wants to be nice to me just to be nice, not because he feels like he has to.”

“Well, of course he’d be nice to you, you’re like the sweetest person I’ve met in my life,” Roman said, feeling bewildered by this line of reasoning.

“No, I—oh, nevermind. I was worried he wasn’t genuinely being nice for a while, but I’m really starting to think he means it, is my point. Anyway, he’s really smart—he’s so good at like, you know, synthesizing stuff? He’s really good at finding the information we need and paraphrasing it in a way that works really well for our project. I have such a hard time wording things how I want, you know? So it’s awesome that he can do that so well. And he’s good at puns, too! He tries not to laugh, but he scrunches his nose up and gets really red cheeks so you can always tell, it’s really cute. And one time I was trying to explain to our professor he was wrong about something, but I was kind of having trouble getting my point across, the teacher didn’t seem to get it, and he just spoke up and pointed out exactly where the misunderstanding was. It was really nice and reassuring of him. He just seems really protective of people he cares about, you know?”

“He sounds great, Pat!” Roman agreed.

Patton nodded, giving an excited little wiggle.

The brief silence was broken by a quiet crunching noise. Roman looked to his other side to see Logan, eyes fixed on the movie, who had worked their way through a solid third of the popcorn.

“Oh, you fiend!” Roman cried, seizing the popcorn bowl back since he was sitting in the middle.

“What?” Logan defended himself exasperatedly. “You two seemed to be handling that just fine! I like this movie! Neither of you asked for the popcorn back! What did I do?”

“...Okay, technically nothing,” Roman admitted after considering this defense and finding it to be unfortunately solid and covering all of Logan’s bases. God, they knew him too well. “But we are supposed to be doing this as a group.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Fine. Patton, he’s probably queer. You should ask him out and see what happens. Happy now?”

“Wh—how are you saying that with such confidence?” Roman demanded.

“Which part?”

“That he’s queer. I agree Patton should definitely ask him out at the first opportunity, we just hadn’t gotten to that yet.”

“I mean, I can’t say for sure, but being the only person in a classroom to react to a queer joke is pretty telling.” Logan shrugged. “Any other relevant details?”

Patton shrugged. “I don’t know. Janus—that’s the guy—he doesn’t talk about himself very much—”

“Hold on, Janus?” Logan interrupted. “Lanky white guy? Constantly acts like he’s just swallowed a lemon? Kind of a twink? Looks incredibly uncomfortable in his own skin? Growing his hair out?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Patton admitted. “You could maybe be nicer about him, though.”

“I’m sure I could,” Logan said, seeming unconcerned. “Yeah, I know him. He’s queer, I’m pretty sure he’s compatible with you. No idea if he’d be interested, or frankly what you see in him, but go for it.”

“Wh—how do you know him?” Roman demanded. “I feel left out now!”

“We met at the Aspec—at a pride center identity group. Also he’s Remus’s roommate’s best friend. They’re practically attached at the hip. I’m surprised you haven’t met him yet, with how much you hang out over there lately.”

Virgil had a best friend? A best friend here, at college? That was news. Surprisingly unpleasant news—Roman wasn’t quite sure why. It wasn’t like he disliked Virgil to the point of not wanting them to have friends! Of course not! Frankly, he was glad to hear the tiny emo had a social life. It just kind of stung that this was the first time he was hearing about someone evidently so important to Virgil. And not even from hir own mouth. He’d kind of thought they were closer than that. That he’d have learned basic facts about what and who was important to Virgil by now. Learning otherwise was a remarkably unpleasant experience.

Logan took another handful of popcorn out of the bowl in Roman’s hands, startling Roman out of his thoughts.

“Stop!” he yelped. “I want some, too!”

“You have more if this bag runs out,” Logan pointed out. “I have some extra popcorn in my dorm too. And you’ve been holding out on me with your curry powder.” He popped another handful into his mouth and crossed his arms.

“If you just asked my parents, you could have some of your own! They’d even give you the recipe! Now share with Patton!” Roman leaned himself and the popcorn bowl away from Logan, trying not to laugh.

“I don’t mind,” Patton put in. “It’s very tasty, but I’m not as attached as Logan is.”

“No, you have to take some, he’s been hogging it,” Roman insisted.

“I don’t mind!” Patton insisted. Roman shoved the bowl in his face, and he relented and took a handful.

“Let Logan have some more now,” Patton said, gently pushing the bowl back into Roman’s lap.

“Thank you,” Logan said primly when Roman relented.

“You’re welcome!” Patton said with an easy smile. The smile fell away after a moment, though, and he looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure about asking Janus out, though,” he said hesitantly.

“Why not?” Roman asked. “You really sound interested in him! What have you got to lose?”

“It’s more complicated than that,” Patton said, worrying the edge of a blanket between his fingers. “I’m not sure if he’d be comfortable with it. I don’t—I don’t know.” He looked away. “I’ll figure it out, I guess.” He looked back at Roman and Logan, forcing a smile onto his face. “Thank you both for the advice, though. And for listening.”

“Patton—” Roman began, concerned.

Patton shook his head. “Let’s just watch the movie now, okay? Really. Thank you. But I’m good for now. Can I have some more popcorn?”

Logan wordlessly held out the bowl and Roman allowed himself to be mostly distracted by Big Hero Six. He felt better when Patton leaned on his shoulder, a genuine smile on his face as he watched Fred goofing around on the screen. Whatever the issue Patton was dealing with was, at least it didn’t seem big enough to keep bothering him after putting it aside.

***

“So,” Remus said with an evil grin.

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to know,” Roman said. They were both sprawled on Remus’s bed, sharing earbuds as Remus swiped through TikTok.

“It’s nothing!” Remus protested.

Roman gave him a suspicious look. Remus’s face was entirely too innocent.

“I was just wondering when you’re going to get your shit together and do something about your crush on Virgil,” Remus said, the evil grin back.

“My what?” Roman did a double take. “I—I don’t have a crush on Virgil, we barely even get along!”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. The tension between you two is so high I’m surprised something hasn’t snapped yet. And you definitely have a crush.”

“I do not!” Roman grabbed Remus’s pillow and threw it in his brother’s face. “We’re barely even friends!”

Remus shoved the pillow aside and rested his chin on top of it, making a skeptical face.

“I mean, are they really pretty? Sure. But that’s not a crush,��� Roman insisted.

“Mmhm. Okay. So what makes it not a crush?” Remus pressed.

“I—well—” Roman stammered, flustered by the very question.

“Uh-huh.”

“No!” Roman snapped, voice cracking. “I just—that’s a hard question to answer right off the bat! How do you define a crush? It’s just not, okay?”

“I mean, I define crush as, like…” Remus paused. “Huh. Okay. You have a point, or whatever. I guess… a crush is, like—huh. No. Okay. You’re distracting me. I’m teasing you about your crush that you totally do have, we are not veering off topic.”

“I do not have a crush on Virgil! I just want to be his friend! Okay?”

Remus made a skeptical face. “Sure, whatever you say. I’m still going to tease you about it.”

“Oh, whenever you find that third soulmate, I am getting so much revenge.”

“Eh.” Remus shrugged. “Like, go for it, but I dunno if you’ll have that much time to tease me about it before we get together. You know? Like, think about me and Logan.”

“Logan knew you were soulmates for two and a half years before you got togeth—”

“Yeah, because he’s smart, but I didn’t figure it out until thirty minutes before we got together. Or like. Thirty minutes before we started talking about it. You know this.”

Roman crossed his arms. This was unfortunately a very good point; the day Remus had figured out that Logan was one of his soulmates had been a pretty memorable one even for Roman. Logan and the twins had grown up next door to each other, and had been best friends since elementary school. One Saturday morning near the end of their senior year of high school, Remus had bolted upright in bed while Roman was brushing his teeth, blurted out something nigh incomprehensible, and taken off at a sprint; he’d slammed the front door behind himself on his way out and he hadn’t answered any of Roman’s texts for two hours, only to show up by sprinting back into the house and screaming at the top of his lungs “Logan and I are soulmates!”

This had prompted a lot of confused questioning from Roman. He’d learned that yes, Remus and Logan were definitely soulmates; Logan had figured it out in sophomore year but hadn’t said anything; Remus had only just figured it out; yes, Logan was still aromantic; yes, Remus was still allo; no, neither of them felt like either of these facts was an issue; and Remus was very happy.

“We’re going on, like, a date, but platonic,” Remus had announced to him that day, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I’m really excited, this is so cool! Who’d have thought, right? Logan and me!”

Roman had smiled and tried hard to just be happy for Remus and Logan, and not jealous of them. Particularly about two months later, when they’d made their relationship official and become queerplatonic partners. He was happy for them! He was!

But Remus had never cared that much about finding his soulmates. Roman had. It didn’t feel fair. Remus, who didn’t care, got two soulmates, and one of them was literally his childhood best friend. Roman, who’d been daydreaming about finding his soulmate since he was too little to remember, and had learned just about everything there was to know about how soulbonds worked, seemed to have just the usual one soulmate. His soulbond hadn’t even developed until he was sixteen—admittedly, that was an expected side effect of the puberty blockers he’d been on for a few years before he’d been approved for T, but he was still salty about it. And when his soulbond finally had developed and he’d started tuning into his soulmate’s dreams, they were so creepy! He wasn’t sure he’d had a single souldream so far that wasn’t a nightmare. They ruined his sleep for the night whenever he got one. It was irritating and frustrating and all sorts of bad things; he’d actually cried over it a couple of times, not that anyone but Remus knew.

But as annoying as it was for him, it had to be worse for his poor soulmate—if these nightmares were what was making it through the soulbond, he could only imagine how much worse their nightly sleep must be.

He hoped he’d find them soon. He was ready for a proper romance, thank you very much!

[atla-hcs-and-bakoda]

Bato’s Backstory

ok so this is gonna be long, buckle up. This is my personal interpretation of bato’s backstory, it likely makes no canonical or reasonable sense, but canon does not exist and i make the rules. this is purely self-indulgent crack-treated-seriously. This is what all the other hcs, unless stated otherwise, will be set in.

Note about Bato: in my interpretation of him, he has teal/cyan eyes and darker brown hair than in the show, his skin tone has not changed.

(unfortunately this is not a zukka au, just a bakoda one. bato’s backstory is kind of an au in my mind, so when i do ship zukka, its not in this au)

(the bold letters at the beginning of the paragraphs are for accessibility)

‘Present’ (only a few months after zuko’s coronation) ages: Hakoda & Bato - 41 Kya - 42 Iroh - 65 Ozai - 47

under the cut because oh boy this is long, sorry asdfghfd

So, our story begins in the fire nation, about 59 AG, Iroh is the 25 year old crown prince, and recently had a child with his wife, Minami, on the coldest day of winter. They named him Shui, and they, quite frankly, spoilt him with their love. Minami stayed in the castle while Iroh was at war, and always sang to Shui while putting his hair up or putting him to bed.

One day, when Shui was 9, Azulon decided to take his family to Ember Islands on vacation, like the royal family has been doing for generations. However, there was a bad storm, and the ship got thrown near the south. Little Shui followed Iroh onto the deck, and fell overboard when a big wave hit the other side of the boat, rocking it and making him fall.

The royal family and crew tried to save him, but the waves dragged him under, and once the storm cleared, he was presumed dead. Iroh and Minami mourned the loss of their first son, who died so young that he hardly got to live life at all. Ozai mourned to a minor extent, as he was 15 at the time and wasn’t as bad as he is in the present, but not for as long as Shui’s parents, or grandfather, did.

Meanwhile, in the southern water tribe, little 9 year old Hakoda was wandering down at the seaside with his father when he came across a young boy unconscious in the snow, the cold water nearly freezing him to death. His father hurried him back to the tribe with the young boy’s body. For days, Hakoda sat beside the bed, rarely moving from the spot, keeping watch on the mystery boy. And eventually, he woke up.

Hakoda introduced himself once the boy was fully awake, but when asked his name, the boy said “i...i don’t remember...” So, instead, Hakoda decided to pick a name for him; Bato. The boy agreed to the name, and after a week, got adopted by one of the tribesmen, a close friend of Hakoda’s father. After that, the two children were an unstoppable duo, they did many successful pranks on everyone, including Hakoda’s mother, Kanna.

However, every once in a while, Bato would blurt out something without thinking, and when questioned, wouldn’t be able to remember it at all. For instance, Bato and Hakoda were once watching the stars late at night, when Bato pointed at a constellation and called it Druk. Hakoda laughed, but Bato insisted that was its name. Hakoda asked where Bato learned that, since thats not what their tribe calls it, and Bato had no recollection of learning it.

(This continued well into teenagehood, when Bato realised at the ripe old age of 14 that he was, in fact, in love with his best friend. He didn’t come out for a long time, in fear of his tribe’s reaction. Deep down he knew they’d accept him with open arms, but his anxiety said otherwise.)

At 12, there was a fire nation raid while Bato was at the seaside, and he recognised both the ship and flag instantly despite not being told prior about the Southern Raiders. He ran to tell the chief, and thanks to his quick reaction, saved the tribe to a degree. Many waterbenders still died, however.

At 15, Bato and Hakoda went ice-dodging with their respective fathers- and eachother. Hakoda recieved the mark of the wise, and Bato recieved the mark of the brave.

One night at 15, they were cuddling in Hakoda’s bed (because thats what best friends do, of course. its cold, no other reason, totally not) when Hakoda noticed Bato’s eye color; Teal. not the regular water tribe blue, not a dark blue, or even a light blue, but pure Teal. Although hakoda would still argue to this day that bato’s eyes are cyan. When questioned about his eye color, Bato shrugged and brushed it off as an uncommon trait. But Hakoda realised nobody else in the tribe had cyan eyes, just blue.

Then, at 16, the boys got into a bad avalanche that resulted in Hakoda getting knocked out. Bato woke up hours later, and pulled his best friend out of the snow. He realised Hakoda wasnt breathing, and started to cry, taking his gloves off to cling to Hakoda and try feel the warmth of his pulse, to no avail. He closed his eyes and cried, when his hands lit on fire. When he realised what he just did, he put the flame out and made a plan, carrying Hakoda to the dog sled quite a bit from the avalanche, and set them on course for the tribe while he carefully lit his hands back on fire after a few attempts, and kept Hakoda warm. 

Just before they got to the tribe, Hakoda started breathing again, shallowly, and his father quickly took both of them to the healer when they arrived back. This time, it was Bato who sat beside the bed and waited for Hakoda to wake up, refusing to eat much until his friend woke up.

He never told anyone about his bending.

A few months later, Hakoda met and started dating Kya, and Bato’s heart broke. he was happy for hakoda, he really was, but deep down it still hurt him to see him with someone else.

At 20, Hakoda’s father went off to war.  At 22, Hakoda became Chief, and Bato became the second-in-command.

At 23, Hakoda proposed to Kya after like 20 failed attempts at carving a betrothal necklace. Bato’s heart broke a tiny bit more, but he ignored it to be happy for his friend. Bato had to sleep alone for the first time since he joined the southern water tribe, he didn’t sleep much when alone.

2 years later, at 25, Sokka was born, and Bato babysat him a lot when Hakoda and Kya were busy. Bato admittedly vented to baby sokka quite a bit, and showed him very minor firebending tricks he practiced during sleepless nights, which was most nights.

At 26, Katara was born, and Bato now babysat two little children, both of which he adored with all his heart. He himself is infertile, so Katara and Sokka were the closest thing he had to his own children.

Things went mostly peacefully for years, until 34, when Kya got killed. After the raid, Hakoda wouldnt eat for days at a time, completely depressed and exhausted. Bato would offer him small plates of food and sit with him, letting him vent or cry or whatever Hakoda needed to do to get the stress and pain out. He also looked after Sokka and Katara while Hakoda couldn’t, and usually slept next to Hakoda’s bed, watching over the chief, along with his kids, as both children were terrified to sleep by themselves, Hakoda was scared of losing them, and Bato couldn’t bare the thought of not keeping them safe.

After years of recovering, Hakoda eventually had to head out to war with the men of the tribe, Bato included. Bato’s heart broke watching Sokka beg to come with them, but he knew it was for the best.

3 months after leaving, Bato came out to Hakoda in the Chieftan’s private room in the boat, and Hakoda accepted him with open arms, and promised to not tell anyone until Bato was ready. Bato fell a lot more in love.

At 5 months, he started very carefully dropping hints to Hakoda that he likes him, slightly-too-friendly-to-be-platonic compliments, cuddling him in hakoda’s room “because its cold” (they were nowhere near cold climates), and other vaugely homoerotic stuff like that. All of it went over Hakoda’s head.

(At 6 months he straight up told Hakoda at night on the deck “Your my stars, Hakoda. Whenever i’m lost, you always bring me home.”, and Hakoda responded “Thanks Bato, I’m happy your my friend too.”, Bato stayed awake all night in utter disbelief. He still teases Hakoda about it.)

1 year after leaving, Bato realised he might not be as much of a guy as he thought he was. He silently decided to put that train of thoughts on hold until the war was over. (In his heart he knew the war would never be over until the fire nation won. especially with sozin’s comet only a year away and- he doesnt remember what sozin’s comet is.)

When his arm got burned, he burned the soldier right back with his good arm out of sight of everyone else, and managed to shove them overboard before the pain hit him. He’s always had a high pain tolerance.  After the fight ended, Hakoda carried Bato to the abbey, and they had a tearful goodbye, where Bato quietly confessed his love as Hakoda walked out the room. Hakoda thought about it until he saw Bato again.

When they reunited, Hakoda confessed his love back to Bato, and they kissed right in the open, it took a lot of self control for the other tribesmen to not cheer, they had known for literally forever, the only person in the tribe who didnt know bato was in love with hakoda was hakoda.

Somehow, it took until the war was over for Sokka and Katara to find out they had a step-dad. They already considered Bato to be their second dad, so not much exactly changed.

The day of Zuko’s coronation, Bato got talking with Iroh, and when the topic came to children, Iroh explained how both his sons were dead, one dying at 9 from a storm, and the other dying at 20 from war. When Iroh says his youngest (eldest?) son’s name, Shui, Bato remembers the storm, and Iroh notices Bato’s rare cyan eyes.

They have a nice reunion, although Bato has to sit down for a while to process all this and figure out his family tree. He decides not to tell Hakoda yet, but he does spend a while walking through the palace with Iroh and remembering parts of his early childhood. He cant bring himself to go into the room of firelord portraits.

A month after zuko’s coronation, he sits Hakoda down and explains that he’s a bender, and he’s apparently fire nation royalty. Hakoda gets temporarily mad, but eventually calms down and hugs Bato when his friend told him that his firebending saved both himself and hakoda, and that he would never be like his forefathers or uncle. Hakoda takes a while to fully accept it, but eventually warms up (heh) to the concept, and continues to use Bato as a personal space heater.

Two months after zuko’s coronation, he finally decides to tackle the “i’m not as much as a guy as i thought” issue, and he decides to go to Iroh and Toph for advice over tea, where Iroh suggests some wise stuff, but Toph simply explains what non-binary is, and suggests Bato may be Demiboy. (Although Bato prefers to call himself Demiguy, he doesnt like being called a boy) The Gender Crisis continues for about another week, and takes another half a month for him to come out to Hakoda. Bato was somewhat internally afraid he wouldnt be counted as one of the men, but Hakoda was overwhelmingly supportive, and admitted that he knew Bato wasn’t exactly cis, he just never knew the words to use.

Bato spends a while at the palace after the coronation to get his bearings on being half fire nation and a prince, he learns purple is a very good color on him.(Hakoda later jokes that it was foreshadowing for Bato realising he was enby, as he wasnt blue or red)

He bonds quite a bit with Zuko, Iroh, and Toph during his stay, but eventually goes back to the southern water tribe, the place he truly considers home. Although, he does go and visit the fire nation every once in a while. He even goes to Ember Islands and has a vacation day with both of his families.

After about two years, He finally makes a betrothal necklace for Hakoda, with the symbol of the water tribe on it and flames coming up from the waves, both of them totally cry happy tears when he proposes privately under the light of the aurora.

[quirkdotcom]

Where To? || Kaminari x Reader

Summary: Denki Kaminari has been working with the League of Villains for the school year. He's been putting up a front and fake personality to keep his secret safe. However, the one thing he didn't count on was you. In the end, Kaminari has been found in a pond, one hand from Shigaraki in his clutches.  The twist on this world? Like a popular tik tok trend, when you die, someone you have hurt the most comes to decide if you go to heaven, or hell. And you are his judge.

Warnings: Death

Authors Note: I honestly started this at like 3AM one night and now here I am 😳 Anyways, I hope you guys like it sorry for the angst that comes with it

Tags: @ijustwannachangemyuser @bluewritesmha @that-lowkey-weeb @pinkcowgirleggpanda  

One moment ago, you had been sitting in class, with the rest of 1A as they grieved together over the loss of Denki Kaminari.

Two moments ago, Aizawa was explaining how he had just received a call that Denki had been found, alone in a lake,  his quirk the ultimate cause. But one other important piece of evidence with him, a hand from Tomura Shigaraki.

Three moments ago, he had been explaining about Kaminari being the traitor of UA,  working closely with the League of Villains.

But now, you were standing across Kaminari in the same pond that he had been found in, an electrical current dying out as his cries stopped, his eyes finding yours.

"(Y/n)?" His voice was hoarse, eyes red and puffy. 

You looked around, fog rolling in around your legs, though you couldn't feel the water that looked to surround you, nor the fog.

"So...the rumors are true...I didn't think that'd I'd have to decide anyones fate so soon but…" 

"Wait...does that mean.." he started, but the words fell short, his amber eyes looking around once more. 

"You've died…"

"Then that means, " he turned in a circle, shaking his head quickly, "He...he got away!" 

You stepped closer to him, in response, he stepped away, "No! (Y/n) you have to be quick, decide my fate! Warn Aizawa Sensei that the league is on their way!"

"But...I need time…" you pulled back, hand falling to your side. 

"Just choose hell and be on your way! Please!" He pleaded with you, still leaving an open space between the two of you. 

You stared at him incredulously, "Kaminari...thats...I'd be damning you!" 

"Maybe I deserve it!" He yelled, his frustration and hate taking over as he kicked his foot, creating a wave of water that didn't touch you.

"All I ever did was pretend to be an idiot and betray everyone around me! And now you're here, and I have hurt you one more time!" His hands shook as he held them up, staring at them as they flickered with electricity.

"I sold everyone out each time. He asked me questions and without fail I gave them to him." 

You shook your head, "Come on...there had to have been a reason! Tell me that he was pressuring you or that he had some way of manipulating you!" 

His hands slowly turned to fists as he dropped them to his sides, "You don't get it! I faked everything!  I pretended about everything! I made friends in order to keep my cover safe! I even.. I even started to date you to keep my cover safe! So just hurry up and choose hell and go be a hero!" 

You stood quietly, his words like knives digging into your heart, creating chasms of heartache. Hot tears filled your eyes, you could barely wipe them away in time for them to be replaced with new ones, "That's..that's not true! Don't say it!" 

"(Y/n)!"

"No! Stop it! I won't believe it! I'm the one who gets to make the decision! Don't try to lie to me, I know what I felt and who I was with! You aren't like that!" 

At once, everything grew silent, neither of you saying a word more. 

Instead, you were reflecting. 

"(Y/L/N) was it? Im Denki, Denki Kaminari! Hero name Chargebolt ! Aizawa seated you next to me, so that means we're going to be good friends, maybe more if you catch my drift," 

You turned to the guy in the seat next to yours, immediately smiling and shaking your head, "Pfft wow! Are you trying to make a move on me already! I just transferred into the class literal minutes ago!"

"Hey what can I say, if I don't do it now, then the others might beat me to it," he flashed a wink your way, earning another chuckle from you. 

"Well, it's nice to meet you Kaminari, hopefully you help keep this class interesting," you held your hand out to him, watching as he shook it. 

"Sooo does this mean I've been friend zoned?" 

You didn't answer, only leaving him to guess as to what your answer was. 

"You...you were the first to welcome me into the class...even if you did hit on me right away. " You smiled softly, that memory of him had always been oddly charming to you.

"Because I had to keep my persona up," 

"You walked me to my next class, and any that we shared. You helped me befriend Mina, Sero, Kirishima, Jirou and even Bakugo…" 

"I already told you! I had to make sure no one questioned me or my actions!" 

"The second day that I had been in that class, at lunch, I had forgotten mine...so you gave me half of yours…and told me that if it happened again, you'd share any day," 

He didn't say anything for a moment, smiling before he did say something, "Sero called me a simp…" 

That day still felt so familiar to you….

"Oh no…." You looked around the table, seeing that the others, who's names you were still trying to learn, had all brought their lunches.

"What is it (Y/L/N)?" Came the pink haired girl, who's bubblegum skin matched in such a pretty shade. She looked so concerned for you, even if she didn't know you all that well.

You let out a sheepish laugh, "Ahh I forgot my lunch…this morning I was in a rush…" 

"Hey! Have some of mine!" Kaminari grinned, pushing his towards you, "We can split it!" 

You turned to him, mouth open a little as you were caught off guard, "Wait really??" 

"Yeah! And if it happens again, I'll share my lunch again! You can count on me,"

From across the table, the black haired boy, who had a contagious smile, coughed loudly, or cleared his throat, you weren't fully sure

After that, lunch had went by so smoothly, as if you had been friends with them for years. 

"And later that day, you even gave me your number! " he sat down, the pond water now going up to his stomach. Though, like you, he couldn't feel it. Whatever cold that seeped its way into his body, was long gone. 

You nodded, following suit and taking a seat, though you didn't look at the water too much, it was cloudy and murky, something you hated about lakes and ponds, "Yeah, and you sent me memes, even in class!" 

"Well, I wanted to see you smile…" 

"I know…" 

But perhaps the memory you would hold dearest to you, was one that he had tried so hard to block out as he worked with the League. 

The UA Winter Formal...just a few months after you had transferred into UA. The crew in charge of decorations had outdone themselves.

What was once the cafeteria, was now a room beautifully lit by fairy lights and pale blue lanterns. There were silky streamers hung across the room, catching the reflection of the lights off of them.  At the front, Present Mic was behind a dj booth, a line of students waiting to ask for a song to queued.

You walked further in, trying to spot anyone you knew.

Currently, you were dressed in a very light shade of yellow, so delicately pale that in this lighting, it would be mistaken for white. 

"(Y/n)! Over here!" Came the call from Kirishima, waving you over.

"Kiri! You look so manly! And Bakugo, I didn't think you'd actually show up!" You grinned as you walked up, earning a 'thanks' from Kiri and a scowl from Bakugo.

For the next few moments, you exchanged compliments with Mina and Jirou, and then joked with Sero. 

But when that all came to an usual stop, you realized what was missing, well..who was missing.

 "Where's Kami?" You asked, having to raise your voice slightly over the music. 

Bakugo turned to you, thinking back for a moment, "Dunce face said something about feeling claustrophobic or whatever, he said he'd be in the hall? I'm surprised you didn't see him on your way in," 

You nodded slowly, humming in return, "ah thanks," You left after that, making your way around the groups of people, waving as you could hear your name from some friends. 

As you reached the entrance once again, you looked up and down the hall, spotting him a ways away by a window, wearing black slacks, a white undershirt and black suspenders, his blazer hanging off his arm loosely, he had a tie on, a darker shade of red. 

"Kaminari! Hey!" You called, making your way over until you stood a foot away, "Why are you all the way out here?" 

"It was hot and stuffy in there, I needed some fresh air...and I was waiting to see if I could spot someone on their way in," 

Again Kaminari flashed a dazzling smile at you. And suddenly, your breath hitched in your throat, cheeks heating up.

Your stomach filled with dainty butterflies and you're pretty sure your heart stopped beating. 

What was going on?? Were you...crushing? But there's no way….

Sure Kaminari tended to flirt with you, and you always laughed at his jokes and smiled at him whenever he smiled at you.

And sure, sometimes when he handed you something your hand would brush his and you'd think about it for a few moments .

 And then there was that time when you were paired up in hero training, and you almost fell off a building in the city area, and then he pulled you back and basically hugged you because you were scared and then later on that was all you could think of.

...okay yeah you were definitely crushing but why did it have to act up now ?!

"Uhh…(Y/n)??? Earth to (Y/n)?"

 You blinked, looking back to Kaminari, who was now fully facing you instead of the window, "Sorry! I uh, spaced out there…"

"It's okay! I'm used to seeing you space off,  you do it often," Denki laughed, only furthering the complicated feelings you were having.

"I don't do it too often…" you gave a small smile, knowing full and well that you ventured into wonderland quite often.

 "Hey, (Y/n)...do you want to dance by any chance? Right here? I can still kind of hear the music," 

You gave a startled look, eyes wide as you took in what he said, but you quickly changed to a smile, "Yes! I'd love that!"

At your approval, Denki gently wrapped his arms around your waist,  pulling you closer to him, almost stealing away all the air from your lungs.

 You looked up to him, your hands moving up to circle around his neck loosely.

God he was so pretty. Even just the light that streamed in from the window seemed to make his eyes sparkle with their golden color.

 "What are you doing?" He murmured, gazing back into your own eyes, an amused smile played out onto his face.

You shook your head quickly, looking down and away, words caught in your throat.

 "(Y/n)...look at me," 

A hand moved away from your hip, gentle fingers cupping your face as he turned you to look at him. 

You weren't sure how it happened...but in a fleeting moment, he had kissed you. At this point, you weren't sure if the tingles running throughout your body were caused by you, or him. 

He pulled away for a breath with a smile, and you pulled him back for another kiss, an overwhelming feeling of happiness washing over you. 

After that, you both had left from the dance, and enjoyed the rest of the night together, watching movies and playing video games. It was the beginning of your relationship. 

"Denki.. whatever the reason for this...I know you aren't a villain. You're Denki Kaminari, the student who offered me lunch on my second day. You're the student who saw a general education kid crying and joked with them to make them feel better!" 

"(Y/n)..." 

"And you're the one who I..who I love okay? So stop trying to make me hate you! " 

His eyes went wide, filling with more tears. You rushed to him through the mucky water, grasping him. You clutched at his clothes starting to cry with him.

"I love you so much and I'll always love you, I swear!" You buried your head into his neck, feeling him hold onto you just as tightly as you were holding onto him. 

"(Y/n) I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry. I want more time with you, I want to spend life with you. Im sorry fuck..I love you so much. You're the reason I'm even here! Shigaraki was planning on attacking the school and he threatened you and I panicked and I tried to shock him and..and...the water here...I wasn't thinking," he started to work himself into a panic.

You stroked his hair, shushing him gently until you both calmed down enough.  

Finally, he looked to you, amber eyes red and puffy just as you had found him, and asked with a sad smile, "So...where to?" 

You shook your head, tears still falling as you kissed his forehead, the water and the area around you falling away, "I think we both know.."

[no6secretsanta]

I had a fun time writing a Nezushi AU and playing with the idea of what their characters would be in a completely normal sort of environment. I’m hoping you enjoy this one-shot. Happy holidays @liebe-dear!

- @fairysdarkestnight

______________________________________________________________________________

Nezumi sat alone in a crowded cafe, tapping his fingers restlessly against the tabletop as outdated and overplayed Christmas music played through speakers placed behind the counter. Time was ticking by even slower than usual, and even his book wasn’t holding his attention the way it normally would. Macbeth was one of his favorites, and he hadn’t even finished the first act yet.

A hand reached out and pulled out the chair across from Nezumi, startling him from his book. “Hey sorry I’m late - it’s Eve, right?”

A mousey young man with unkempt brown hair sat across the table as Nezumi put his book to the side. “So. You’re Shion?”

Wild nodding. Damn the kid looks like he’s a bobblehead.

“So are you into theater at all?”

Shion shook his head. “No, I haven’t been able to see a show. I think theater is one of the greatest art forms of our time, but I’ve never even read a play.”

“Okay kid, thanks for coming out. Guess there wasn’t really a point in meeting up.” Nezumi pushed back his chair, picked up his book and turned to leave. But a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, halting Nezumi in his steps. “Please, give me just five minutes. I’ve heard your singing when I walk by the theater and I wanted to get to know you more. I’m drawn to you.”

Nezumi shook him off and placed a hand against Shion’s cheek. His voice pitched high, he crooned a few notes. “Be calm child. You don’t know me. You shouldn’t be using words such as that to someone you’ve never met. One might take that as a love confession.”

Large brown eyes looked up at the actor. “If I say I loved you, would that make you stay? Because I’ve seen you rehearsing. I’ve heard the passion in your voice as you recite your lines. And I love the person that I see who gives everything into a performance. That’s why when I saw your profile, I immediately swiped right.”

The kid’s crazy. I thought I’d kill some time and maybe get lucky using that infuriating app, but I never thought I’d run into a certified stalker.

Nezumi yanked his hand away, only to stare as a dark pink line seared across the other’s face. A pale cream was smeared across his hand. Lower quality than even the stage makeup some of the other college actors used in the community theater.

A deep flush was spread across Shion’s cheeks and he wouldn’t meet Nezumi’s eyes. “Hm. Well you just got more interesting.” Nezumi rubbed slightly against his cheek to wipe away more of the foundation to reveal a scar that curled around his face and down to his neck. Curious, Nezumi leaned in and could faintly see the outline of the scar curve down Shion’s neck and below his collared shirt where he hadn’t been skilled enough to hide the slightly raised edges. “So. How far does this go? Because if it’s a snake that winds itself around your body? Well that’s pretty damn sexy. And rather fitting for an actress who goes by Eve.”

And so Nezumi placed his book on the table, pulled out his chair, and ordered another cup of coffee. “So for starters you can call me Nezumi.”

______________________________________________________________________________

It wasn’t until about a month after they’d first met that Nezumi finally noticed that there was something off about Shion. They were sitting on the beat up couch in Nezumi’s studio apartment (an apartment that he was rather proud of, despite it being in the dangerous end of town and certainly a little more than run-down, but it was his) when Nezumi reached around to rest his arm across Shion’s shoulders.

The flinch was so noticeable that Nezumi couldn’t believe that Shion hadn’t launched himself off the couch. Again, the boy wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Is… is there something wrong? It’s not like we’re watching a scary movie or anything.”

No, they were watching one of those terrible made-for-TV-movies that was so sickeningly sweet that Nezumi wanted to puke at the thought of watching one, but Shion demanded that the movies were a Christmas staple.

“It’s… I just don’t feel like cuddling.”

“Shion. I will turn off this movie if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.” Nezumi didn’t think that it was something that he’d done (might’ve been a trigger but even though they’d only known each other a few weeks, Nezumi thought he had a pretty good idea of Shion would be comfortable with, and it wasn’t the first time they’d curled up on his couch together.)

“... I never told you how I got this scar.”

It was one of those topics that there wasn’t a good time to ask about. No matter how drawn to each other they felt (and Nezumi would have denied feeling any such attraction if asked) they still had only known each other a couple of weeks. And even if they’d discussed some deeper topics - Shion’s single mother, his best friend’s death, the fire that destroyed Nezumi’s home - the scar was one that neither wanted to touch.

“It… it was actually the reason my father left. I know I mentioned that my mother raised me, but when I was a kid I contracted a disease that left me sick for months. My dad… well he couldn’t take the stress of a sick child that none of the doctors could cure. They couldn’t even figure out what was wrong with me. So he left. Wrote a letter that he placed on my nightstand as he said goodbye. And I never saw him again.”

Nezumi opened his mouth to speak, but Shion shook his head as he still had more to tell. “I got better, but after that I was always just a little weaker than the other kids. So I focused more on learning what I could about the environment and medicine since that’s what interested me. And when I was 16, Safu died. And the stress from that brought back my disease from when I was a kid. Apparently I’d never fully recovered and it was just giving me milder symptoms for about ten years. But this time, it left me with a scar. And a few other changes.”

Shion turned his back on Nezumi and bent over, shoulders shaking slightly. No words were spoken between them, and Nezumi was hesitant to reach out to him. There was something unapproachable about his boyfriend in that moment, and he didn’t want to be the one to break the silence.

When Shion turned around, the red eyes that met Nezumi’s were full of hesitation and fear. “I wanted to tell you sooner. It felt like I was lying to you everytime we talked. The photos on my profile? Safu had taken them shortly before. And I’ve spent so much of my time hating my reflection and every memory that went with it that I didn’t want you to see me like that. You, whose singing got me out of bed every morning just for the chance to hear it. So I bought colored contacts and dyed my hair. But we made plans for today and my mom asked me to help out at the bakery in the morning. So I didn’t have time to dye my roots.”

“Dye your roots?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Nezumi wanted to shove them back in. Stupid. That’s something the airhead would ask.

“I’m not sure what exactly it was - Safu was more into medicine than I ever was - but yeah. My hair is originally brown. A little darker than this, but it was the best I could find on short notice. But when I got sick again, it turned my hair white.”

Nezumi blinked and sat there for a moment. Then, “So basically you’re saying you catfished me.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Three years to the day saw Nezumi and Shion sitting on that same beat up couch in their studio apartment, celebrating Shion’s acceptance into grad school. They hadn’t been an easy three years, but neither of them would change a thing. Because that year for Christmas, though neither of them knew it, they had both bought rings to propose.

[mintmatcha]

can we see the noya fic???

oh yeah, part one and two are posted on my ao3 here

But here’s part one for you bad boys:

First Time: Nishinoya Yuu 

Rated: PG13

Fluff

Everyone you had ever dated had considered your friendship with Nishinoya strange, but you didn’t understand why. Sure, you two were closer than most friends, but that was just because you had lived down the street from each other for years. And yes, maybe it was a little strange that you would have him sleep over when your mother wasn’t home, but that was only because you liked watching shitty horror movies together. Yeah, maybe he should’ve been sleeping on the floor instead of in bed with you, but it shouldn’t have mattered. Your friendship was strictly platonic.

You were too busy texting your latest boy toy to notice when volleyball practice let out. Your orchestra practice always let out a little bit before Noya’s practice ended, so you would wait for him on the days where your practices overlapped. Usually, his overenthusiastic cheering would catch your attention before anything else, but today was different.

“Ready to go home?” you asked as you saw him approach from your peripheral vision, not even looking up from your phone. This guy you were texting was flirting with you pretty hard, you were sure that you were about to get some steamy messages if you just-

“Yeah.” Noya brushed by you and walked ahead.

Yeah? Just yeah? You looked up to your friend in confusion. He was never this quiet. Ever. He usually always had a story about his teammates or his classes that he was dying to talk about. You started following him

“Nishi? What’s wrong?” you asked, “Bad day of practice?”

“I’m fine.”

“Come on, don’t you wanna talk about your rolling thunder or something?”

“No.”

“Are you going to be like this the whole way home?”

“Maybe.”

You groaned, already tired of this game. You sped up to match his pace and took a look at his face. His brow was knotted, his eyes downcast to avoid your gaze. You nudged your friend with your elbow, trying to get any sort of reaction, but he just kept walking. Nishinoya was a sensitive individual underneath his boisterous exterior. If you didn’t take drastic measures to cheer him up, he would continue like this for at least the next week.

“I know it’s a school night, but my mom is working the late shift tonight. Do you want to come over and watch a movie with me? It’s supposed to be really scary and I’m afraid to watch it by myself. I’ll even make you food. “

“I should probably just go home-”

Time to whip out the big guns. “Please, senpai? I need someone to protect me.”

Your spikey headed friend turned to you, obviously trying to fight the smile creeping up on his face. “Well, if my underclassman needs me, I guess I can stay for a little.” he said, “But only if there’s popcorn.”

The two of you laid in your bed, separated by your laptop and a comically large bowl of popcorn. Noya lounged comfortably, head on your pillow and arm around a stuffed animal. The movie blared in the background, going on about some sort of magical curse. Probably. You weren’t really watching it. Instead, you had gone back to texting your new boy, who has stopped flirting and started telling you about his boring school work. Every time your phone pinged, Noya looked over.

“Is that the first year from Nekoma?” he asked.

“No way, he was so lame.” you scoffed, “This is just some guy from our school. ”

“It better not be anyone on my team.”

“Well, in that case,” you laughed, “I guess I’ll just break Ennoshita’s heart.” Noya launched the stuffed animal at your head, almost knocking your phone out of your hands.

“I’m just kidding! Calm down! It’s a second-year! I promise I won’t date anyone on your team.” you said,

Nishinoya paused the movie suddenly, avoiding your gaze again. “Can I ask you a question, Y/N? And you gotta be cool about it, because it’s, like, embarrassing and stuff.”

“Yeah, of course.” You put down your phone for a moment, only to pick it up again when it pinged a moment later.

“You’ve been on a lot of dates before.”

“That’s not a question, but yeah, I have been.”

“And you’ve liked all different types of guys.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Why don’t girls like me?”

You stopped typing mid sentence and looked over in shock. You tried to keep the heartbroken look off of your face, but you couldn’t help it. Seeing your best friend like this hurt you. He threw his arms over his face, trying to hide his expression from you. You sat up and moved the bowl of popcorn to the floor before leaning over him.

“Yuu, where is this coming from?” you asked.

“I maybe, sort of asked a girl out today. During lunch... And she laughed at me! Is it just because I’m short? Because I make up for my short stature with my coolness factor!” he huffed, “I mean, I didn’t actually like her that much, but she was cute! I figured, you’re always dating guys you aren’t super into, why shouldn’t I try to get a date?”

“Is this why you’ve been in a bad mood today? Because some girl was mean to you? It doesn’t matter what she thinks.”

“It’s not just that!” he said, “I’m the ONLY one on the team who- who- who-”

“Who?”

“Who hasn’t even had my first kiss!” Noya practically shouted. He threw his hands up in frustration, revealing his beet red face. “Even Kageyama has kissed someone! I mean, he’s really cool and talented, but he drinks milk! Every day! And he’s younger than me! The guy obsessed with milk has more girls than I do! I can’t get a single girl to even talk to me!”

Your phone pinged again, but you ignored the message.

“Yuu, I hate to break this to you, but you’re talking to a girl right now.” you said, “And I think you’re cute. “

That wasn’t exactly the truth. You found Noya more than cute, you thought he was hot. Those little moments where he would laugh too hard at a joke or get too excited about his volleyball technique made you warm just thinking about it. The moments during games where his shirt would ride up, exposing a little bit of stomach and hips… well, you thought about that on the nights where you were alone.

“Y/N, you don’t count!” he sighed in aggravation, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re crazy hot, but you’re always dating other guys! It’s not like you would ever kiss me!”

With this, you impulsively leaned down and ghosted your lips over his in a chaste kiss. His lips were so soft against yours, you almost didn’t believe you had actually kissed him. You pulled away as quickly as you approached, studying his face for a reaction. Nishinoya’s arms fell above his head, revealing his wide eyes. He stared at you, unblinking, as the gears in his head slowly turned. The blush on his face somehow grew darker as his mouth fell open. You chuckled to yourself as you grabbed your phone once again.

“See? There was your first kiss. No big deal, right?” You laid back down and resumed your text conversation with your potential suitor. “Now you don’t have to feel self conscious.”

“Th-th-that didn’t count!” he stuttered after a moment of silence, his body seemingly still frozen, “You can’t just surprise a man like that! That’s so uncool! You have to at least give me the chance to kiss you back! You didn’t even give me a chance to use tongue so it doesn’t count!“

You phoned pinged again. “And it doesn’t count if you’re texting another guy while you’re k-kissing me!”

With that, you held down your power button, shutting off your phone before throwing it behind you. In a swift motion, you rolled over so your bodies were flush with each other, face to face. Taking his jaw in your hand, you slowly turned his face to yours. His breathing was fast and hot across your skin, sending a chill down your spine. His eyes were still wide with shock, but now they were focused on your lips, seemingly knowing what was about to happen.

“Yuu, I’m going to kiss you now.” you whispered as you closed the gap between you. He gasped as your lips touched him, and you used the opportunity to slide your tongue against his. His small body vibrated with a deep moan. Fuck, you’d do anything to hear that again. Against your own wishes you pulled away. You didn’t want to overwhelm him too much on his first (second) kiss. Keep it PG-13.

“Th-that didn’t count either. “ he murmured, lifting his hand into your hair and pulling you back to him. He was sloppy, but eager, practically smashing your teeth together in excitement. His free hand wandered down to your waist and gripped the soft part of your hip. A whine escaped your lips as he pulled your body closer. You broke the kiss, pulling back just enough to rest your forehead against his.

“Y/N, That didn’t count.” his voice was unsure, but he closed the gap between you greedily. You grasped his arm and slowly guided his touch up from your waist to your chest. His hand was trembling as it gently gripped your breast. You slung a leg over his as you broke the kiss once more, this time still ghosting your lips over his.

“Did that one count?” you joked.

“It depends- if I say yes, are you going to roll over and start texting that second-year again?”

You chuckled. “I’m probably just going to give you your second kiss .”

“You know, if you’re thinking about him it doesn’t count.” he said, “And then I’ll just have to keep trying until you forget about those other guys.”

“You were the only thing on my mind.”

Noya suddenly sat up, completely untangling himself from you to pull his own phone from his pocket. You watched as he fervently typed away.

“Yuu, what the hell?” you huffed, “Who are you texting?”

“I gotta let the group chat know about this, they’re going to be so pumped about this.” he grinned ear to ear, clearly thrilled about this development. “Tanaka’s going to be all ‘I told you that Y/N had the hots for you!’ Tsukkishima is probably going to say something sarcastic-”

You groaned and rolled your eyes. “Maybe I won’t kiss you again after all.”

Nishinoya looked up from his phone, his confident aura fully restored. “Ha! You wouldn’t be able to resist me. If you thought that first kiss was good, wait until-”

“Shut up and come back here.”