#her decode cover is PERFECTION

[mollyhale]

MAGGIE LINDEMANN YOU ARE THE FUTURE OF FEMALE ROCK/PUNK/POP PUNK ARTISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[screwitbaby]

naive

hamzahthefantastic x reader

day 1/7

summary: a short story about the boys’ trip to curaçao. hamzah’s oblivious with girls and you’re not one to turn down a challenge.

contains: SFW content

wc: 1860-ish

~

The first thing that crossed your mind when you met him was that he was hot. Way too hot. Like, he must have the worst personality (and/or stroke game) behind closed doors to still be single. He truly is an enigma.

A pair of pale legs comes between your view of a shirtless Hamzah walking out of the water like he's in a sexy cologne commercial and blocks you from staring at him any longer. You whine and look up to see Martin with his arms crossed over his pasty chest.

"Enjoying the view?" he asks sarcastically. He sits on the beach chair next to yours.

"I was," you say, pulling your sunglasses off your face and placing them atop your head. "Then you had to go and ruin it."

"I think I made it better, actually,” he says. He lays on his side with his hand on his popped hip. You nearly gag.

"Jumpscare warning next time, please?"

"Ha-ha." He flips to lay on his back. "So go to talk to him."

"Hell no," you say. "He needs to come to me."

"You're delusional." Martin shakes his head. "And Hamzah's oblivious. He friendzones every girl he's interested in. It's really painful to watch, honestly."

"This is your best friend you're talking about," you remind Martin. "Shouldn't you at least talk him up to me a bit?"

"I'm not a good liar," he sighs. "But I know one thing."

"And that is?"

"He likes you."

Your head whips in his direction. "Don't mess with me."

"I'm not!" He squeals. "Seriously, he's bad at showing it, but I know him. He gets a certain way around girls he likes."

"You better not be bullshitting me," you point at him. "Because I will be taking that and sprinting with it."

"Mhm, go for it." Martin puts his arms behind his head, acting suave. "I'm good with this type of stuff. It's a heavy gift to bare."

"Didn't Mandy have to make the first move with you?"

"She told you about that?" He sulks. "I told her not to..."

"Bros before hoes." You throw your hands up defensively.

Deciding you've had enough of this rascal, you throw your lacy cover up over your bikini and walk down the beach to meet the object of your desire halfway.

"Hey," you greet, digging your toes in the sand.

"Oh, hey," he replies. You catch a glimpse of him looking at your legs from over his shoulder. "Welcome to my humble abode."

You eye the limp sand castle he's building with one of the empty margarita cups you guys ordered a round of earlier.

"Looks structurally sound," you joke, plopping down next to him.

"It's a work in progress," he defends himself. "Here is the start of the moat, and here's the tower I'ma save a damsel in distress from.”

"And who's the damsel in distress?"

"I don't know," he says, turning to make eye contact with you. "She'll make herself known sooner or later."

You raise your eyebrow and wonder if there's some deeper meaning that you're supposed to decode beneath his expression. Then, you remember Martin's words and shake the thought from your head.

The two of you work on improving his architectural masterpiece. It proves to be a difficult task considering the fact that the ocean waves keep knocking the castle walls down. Perhaps the location should've been reviewed before you sunk so much time into perfecting it. All you know is that every time he leans over to fix something on your side and your thighs make contact, your stomach flutters.

The Curaçao sun sets and you guys pack up your belongings, stopping by the bar to grab one last mixed drink before heading back to the hotel. Martin attempts to carry Mandy bridal style and trips, sending them straight into a bed of flowers. He says it was because of his flip flops in an attempt to cover up how much of a lightweight he is when it comes to alcohol.

With rosy cheeks and tired limbs, you say your goodbyes to the couple at their suite and make your way back to your room. Hamzah offers to walk with you so you're not alone in the dark and you accept his gracious offer because his shirt is tossed over his bare shoulder, long forgotten. Oh, and your safety, of course.

"My feet are killing me," he groans. "I stepped on, like, a billion seashells."

This triggers a "sally sold seashells by the sea shore"-off between the two of you, keeping you entertained while you clumsily make your way up the stairs of the hotel. You may or may not have been swaying your hips a little extra when you were ahead of him.

Hamzah insists on walking you to your room even though his is a floor lower. When you make it to your door together, you say goodnight and enter the air-conditioned room with a sigh.

You immediately strip and step under the shower head, washing the sand and sunscreen off of your body and massaging your sore extremities. You'd gone sight seeing with the whole gang for the past three days and it took a toll on your body. Despite that, you were the happiest you'd been in a long while. It was a good kind of exhausted. Content.

When you step out of the shower and into a complementary robe, you hear a sudden knock on your door. You frown because you were certain you had placed the do-not-disturb sign on the handle. You put slippers on and shuffle over to open it.

"Hey, again," he sighs.

Your eyes widen, "Hamzah. What's wrong?"

"I lost my card for my room," he explains as you let him in. "And my ID's inside, so I couldn't even prove that it's my room to the front desk."

"Shit," is all you can say. "What do we do?"

"I tried calling Martin ‘cause the bookings are in his name, but he didn't pick up. I think they knocked out already."

He sits on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. "And I'm still fucking tipsy."

This makes you laugh, even though you know you should be sympathetic towards the poor guy. He lifts his head to look at you and smiles.

"I'm glad you think this is funny," he says, leaning back on his elbows. "Because in case you hadn't already pieced it together, that means I gotta sleep in here."

Your heart skips a beat and the laughter fades from your throat. "But there's only one bed."

He furrows his brows in thought. "I can sleep at the foot of the bed."

"No, you freak, you're not a dog," you say, sitting beside him. "Y'know what? We'll just share."

"Is that okay with you?" he questions. "I don't wanna, like, overstep..."

"What other choice do we have? And I'm certainly not letting you sleep on the floor."

"I guess you're right."

You both sit still for a moment, eyes on everything except each other. It's cliche, really, but you couldn't let him wake up with a crook in his neck or something. Then the next day of activities would be sullied. At least, that's what you tell yourself.

"So.... can I use your shower?"

"Yeah, go ahead," you say. "But, um, do you want to borrow some clothes, or?"

"I doubt your clothes would fit me." He snorts. "I'll go buy something from the gift shop."

"I think I packed a pair of comfy sleeping shorts if you want to try?"

He shrugs, so you walk over to your luggage and search for the shorts. You find them bunched up underneath one of your dresses and cover your mouth with your palm. It was a good thing they were stretchy because they definitely were not going to be his size.

You hand them to him and he holds them up to inspect them. Then he looks at you with squinted eyes.

"Thanks." He retreats to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. You take a deep breath and decide to go watch some TV.

Once you hear the water turn off, you cross your legs nervously. The door cracks open.

"This is crazy," Hamzah shouts. "They fit!"

He steps out fully and your breath hitches. He stands there, water still dripping from his curls and onto his chest, only in your tight shorts that barely reach the tops of his thick thighs. It was like a replay of the beach, but better. You cross your legs tighter and try to avoid staring for too long.

"Yay."

He dries his hair with the towel and asks if there's a spare toothbrush. You point to the drawer below the sink and avert your gaze when he bends over to grab it. He finishes up and walks over to the bed.

"The shower floor is destroyed. I think I had 3 pounds of sand in between my ass cheeks."

You burst out laughing and so does he, climbing under the sheets. "Me too, honestly."

You sit up against the headboard, watching some random Dutch family show that was on. You don't understand much, but your phone is charging so you have no choice but to tune in. Hamzah pretends he knows what's going on and creates a riveting plot for the characters that is infinitely funnier than whatever they were actually doing. At some point, the both of you start yawning. You decide it's probably best that you sleep, even though every part of you would love to stay up all night and listen to him ramble on.

You grab some pajamas from your suitcase and turn to him.

"Could you...?" You gesture for him to turn around.

"Oh, yeah, course." He lays on his side facing the wall.

You quickly throw on an oversized tee and shorts, wincing when the bands of your underwear smack loudly against your skin.

When you're fully situated in bed next to him, you turn the TV off and nestle into the sheets. You stay on your side and he lays on his back. All there is to hear is the sound of your breaths and the crash of the waves from the open window.

"Today was fun." He yawns, running his palms over his sun-kissed face. "I wish we could stay here forever, just doing stupid tourist-y shit and hanging around the beach."

"I know," you agree. "I'm glad I got to come on this trip with you guys. I really needed it."

Your chin is tucked under the blanket. He blinks slowly and even in the darkness, you see his big brown eyes find yours.

"Well, I'm glad you came, too." You don't know if it's just the amount of drinks consumed between the two of you, but you swear you see his eyes on your lips. "I like spending time with you."

You don't know what to say, so you say nothing at all. He turns onto his side after one final "goodnight" and the two of you fall asleep in the glow of the moonlight.

~

a/n: did i have to include the one bed hotel room cliche? no. did i anyway? i’m just a girl… lmk if u liked it or if u hate my guts and want to curse my bloodline !!!

[sashi-ya]

𝑴𝑰𝑹𝑹𝑶𝑹, 𝑴𝑰𝑹𝑹𝑶𝑹...　 「cuts of freedom: part 5」 soshiro hoshina x f! officer! reader

a/n: oof, I'm so sorry for that cliffhanger... please enjoy a new one. also, sorry for misleading you with that Okonogi call 😆 tw: mdni! sex explicit scenes. mirror sex. some biting. vag sex. feelings exposed. wc: 1,5k // masterlist

[Okonogi-chan calling…] "Why is she calling, Soshiro?"

You quickly want to get off his lap, but he buries his fingers on your thighs. “No need for you to stop” he murmurs, smiling with his teeth.

You frown; does he really wants to answer Okonogi’s call with your sex still around his?

“Shhh…” he scoffs, pulling you closer to his chest as he grabs the phone and slides to answer. This way, your head rests on top of his chest, and your nose reaches for Soshiro’s neck. You can listen, in any case, everything through the phone as you are extremely close.

“Fukutaicho! Are you ok?! What are you doing?!” Okonogi asks, rather desperately.

You think why is she that worried? Could it be that he didn’t answer her texts? Or maybe she was waiting for him? were they going on a date? Are they on a relationship…?!

“Yes, why are you asking that?” Soshiro asks, confused but not worried at all.

You idiot, why are you treating your girl this way?! She is worried for yo-

“Because your heart rate won’t stop rising! Are you in pain fukutaichou?!” she screams, leaving your potential asshole of a boyfriend… man? lover?! temporarily deaf.

Your head is a mess. You wanna stand up, you can’t stand it. You don’t wanna listen anymore…

“OH- I- I forgot I had the control device still on!! I’m ok, dear! I was just… uh… training” he excuses himself, silly and sweetly -and lies, thankfully-

“Training?! Are you crazy? You are wounded! What type of training do you think it’s ok to do when you are still wearing your bandag-” “I am training… Okonogi-chan… with someone... -.-“ “Oh-“

You can imagine her cheeks turning red as apples, blushed as the idea sank in. As her intelligent brain was able to decode what type of “training” is done with someone else. She immediately asked for forgiveness and ended the call.

Soshiro, who was still holding his phone, also blushed.

You, on the other hand, were only able to swallow dry. How could you think this badly of Soshiro? Do you really expected for him to be an asshole?

“I’m sorry, Soshiro” you whisper. Perhaps he won’t understand why you are actually sorry for.

“Not your fault, I forgot this little shit on” he says, annoyed, as he picks a little plastic -very technologic- health device attached to his torso, off.

You try once again to stand up, and this time he won’t  stop you. Soshiro understands he can’t force you to stay.

You pick up his silky yukata and cover up swiftly; then, you get inside the bathroom.

The mirror in front of you, which takes the whole wall, shows a woman with bed head hair, black remains of your mascara over dark circles and that special aura every person that’s been having sex has.

You want to open the faucet; honestly there is nothing to wash, but you do it anyway.

Seconds after, delicate steps come closer to you. He seems defeated but also intensely blushed, or at least it is what you can see through the reflection.

“I shouldn’t have answered… I thought we had to go back to the base” he apologizes once again, as his arms snake around your waist.

Soshiro is completely naked, his perfect body with bandages around his tiny waist still makes you shiver… your body can’t lie, it’s become addicted to his.

His chin rests on your shoulder, he kisses right there too.

“You look beautiful with one of the Hoshina family yukatas” he murmurs, playing with the hem of the fine fabrics covering your nakedness. He slowly lets it slide just enough to expose your shoulder, and with it your chest.

“ I’m sorry for the interruption. But, now, I wanna keep making love to you…” he mutters, sliding his hand down your right hipbone.

You let the little air in your lungs left, out. Your lips semi open, your body bending a little forward and your belly softly pinned against the white marble of Soshiro’s sink.

His hardness, hot and drippy, now rests on his palm ready to be guided into you once more. While his free hand travels to your face, pinching your cheeks ever so softly.

“Look at you, look at yourself in the mirror as I fuck you…” he orders, gripping your façade tightly but soft enough not to hurt you. “Aren’t you the most beautiful woman alive? And aren’t you mine, mh?”

You nod, out of words. Your eyes speak what your mouth can’t, and they suddenly turn white, in the violence of a thrust that knocks every oxygen molecule out of you; every sense out of you…

He goes deep, very deep into your core. As he is fucking you from behind, you can enjoy the tip hitting the right spot. Your walls spasm around him, milking with great force, causing him to grunt loudly.

“Don’t - don’t squeeze…” he pleads, biting your shoulder with sharp little fangs, while his hips dance a slow adagio of lust.

You weren’t doing it on purpose, but the way you can feel it pulsating inside of you won’t stop you from doing it.

Soshiro -needs- starts to go slow, painfully slow. The rhythm can only synchronize to a relaxed heartbeat, but the truth is that both of yours were about to jump off your chests.

Your nails carve into the marble, as Soshiro’s hands land on yours. His fingers interlock with yours, grabbing you as he kisses your back and neck. He goes from planting sweet pecks, to looking at you through the mirror. His eyes, penetrating as much as his sex itself, seem to be telling you a story of love and desire. A story of a man willing to claim your body, to subjugate you until you are left like nothing more than his own little sex doll.

Far in the past rest those doubts; if he was yours, you didn’t really know… but there is, once again, something clear to you… you were, so absolutely, only and just, his.

The thrusts grow faster again, when not even himself can’t think straight. Both have fallen, finally, victims of the lowest instincts. Bodies desperate for relief, bodies hungry and thirsty for climax.  

“I’m coming, please don’t stop ~” you purr, this time your head only remains up as he pulls from your hair so that you still face the mirror.

“Turn around, come on” he commands, taking his sex off you faster. The <pop> of the detachment might have been silent, but you could feel it reverberating from your insides to your brain.

His hands move around your waist until you are facing him, and his hands lift you from the back of your thighs. You end up sitting on the very edge of the sink, with your legs spread apart, waiting for him to bury into you again.

Quickly, he guides his sex back inside; it took him no effort, as your folds drip wet from all the arousals.

His forehead lands on yours, his hips fuck you so fast and hard you can’t even breathe properly. Your right hand squeezes his neck, as the right one tangles with his hair.

Like powerful clamps, your legs snake around his little waist, ready to pin him and never let him go. Perhaps, you didn’t even realize, but something primal inside of you was desperate to let him impregnate you.

Him, as well, couldn’t think any differently...

“Soshi-Soshiro, are – ngh- are you mine?” you can’t stop your tongue while on the verge of climax.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ “(Name)… I…."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 「to be continued…」

[jjkfemimagine]

moments early in the relationship that made you fall in love with them

“I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends…”

moments early in the relationship that made you fall in love with them | fem! jjk x reader

Gojo: When Gojo asked you to go on a trip with her, you were excited but slightly nervous. She didn’t tell you exactly where the two of you were going, just that it was out of the country and to pack at least two nice pieces of clothing. 

You had been stressed, looking through every item you owned, trying to decide what was considered nice, and your room had become a mess as you threw clothes everywhere, frustrated that nothing seemed good enough. You were practically in tears. The two of you left in two days, and it wasn’t enough time to buy something and then have it tailored if it needed to be. 

You hear a knock at your door, and thinking it was your neighbor bringing back a pan that they used, headed to greet them. 

What greeted you instead was your girlfriend, standing tall and excitedly in front of you. She was somehow balancing a bag and two to-go cups of boba. “Baby!” she exclaimed happily. “Can I come in? I brought your favorite!” 

You stare up at her beautiful face, sunglasses covering her magnificent eyes, and are struck once again by how perfect she was. Her pearly white teeth, her grin, her long white hair, her body — and how she always seemed to pop up with something for you at the exact timing you need it without even knowing. 

She makes herself at home, placing down the bag and two drinks on your coffee table, and you head in her direction after closing the door and locking it in place. As soon as you get close enough, she reaches out, making grabby hands and pulling you into a huge hug where she rocks the two of you back and forth. The scent of her perfume made all your anxiety fly out the window. In this moment there was only you, and the most kindhearted woman you had ever met. 

She pulls back and gives you a quick kiss, before taking in your expression. Gojo was very hard to fool, especially when it came to how you were truly feeling. “What’s wrong, baby?” 

“Nothing,” you say, holding onto her still. She runs one of her hands soothingly up and down your back. 

“It doesn’t seem like nothing, love.” 

You fall silent, and Gojo doesn’t press again, though you can tell she’s waiting for you to continue. The two of you had only been dating for three months, but she never failed to decode how you were truly feeling. She gave you time to process things, but had always circled back to asking about what bothered you.

“It’s just…this trip.” 

Her eyebrows furrow, but she doesn’t interrupt you. 

“You said to pack at least two pieces of nice clothing, and I’ve been stressed with packing. I have no idea what the plans are, and nothing seems right, if you know what I mean. Also, please don’t go into my room; clothes are everywhere and it looks as though my bed has been hit by a tornado.” 

There’s silence for a minute before Gojo begins to laugh at you. You look at her as she does, wondering what’s going on inside her head, when she clasps her hands together, and says, “Let’s play dress up then!”

You continue to stare at her, dumbfounded as you say, “Huh?” 

“Yeah, like Project Runway! I’ll sit here on this couch, and you can change into the different ideas you have, and I can rate them like a judge! It’ll be really fun, and I think it'll make you feel better.” 

Your face breaks out into a soft smile at her idea. “Not a bad idea,” you tell her, and drag her into a quick kiss by tugging her towards you. 

“I never have bad ideas, baby! But first, let’s eat!” 

Geto: I’m so sorry, I think I’ll have to reschedule for tonight, is what greets your eyes when you look down at your phone near the end of your workday. 

You were finishing up the paperwork required after a mission, and had been excited to see your girlfriend after a long day. 

It wasn’t like Geto to cancel a hangout, so you’re immediately worried. You quickly type back, Is everything okay? 

Nanako and Mimiko are sick. They’re both sniffling and running slight fevers and have the chills. I want to stay with them and make sure they’re okay. I’m so sorry, baby. 

No reason to be sorry, you respond. Can I bring you anything? 

It takes Geto a minute to respond, and you’re strangely anxious. You two had only been going out for two months, despite knowing each other for much longer. You didn’t want to be pushy, or overstep, especially since the girls are Geto’s pride and joy. 

Actually, if you can get some cold medicine at the store and drop it off, that would be great. Are you sure? 

You snort before responding, Of course I’m sure. I’ll be there with medicine in less than an hour!

As soon as you get off work, you head to the store and pick up some medicine for the girls (the kind that doesn’t taste bad costs more, but you would literally kill someone for them, so it was very miniscule to you) and then head to Geto’s. 

When you arrive at her home, you knock on the door and it opens to reveal your girlfriend, her hair tied up opposed to her typical half-up half-down style. She wore sweatpants rather than her robes, and a bit of the stress on her face alleviates when she sees you. She steps back and allows you in before wrapping you in a huge hug. 

The two of you rock side to side, and immediately, when her familiar scent comes to you, you relax into her even more. “Thank you for getting medicine,” she says, pulling back and giving you a quick fix. “How much do I owe you?”

You arch an eyebrow, “‘How much do I owe you?’ You owe me nothing, Suguru. I would do anything for you and the girls.” 

A soft smile that she only allows you to see settles on her face, and your heart feels so warm. “Thank you, baby,” she says before giving you another kiss. “Let me take some to the girls.” 

You help your girlfriend carry glasses of water and two small measuring cups of medicine to the girls. They were staying in the same room, as they grew quite adorably clingy to one another when the other was ill. 

What you didn’t expect, however, was the way your very soul exploded as Geto squats next to Mimiko, brushing her hand gently across the girl’s forehead to wake her up. When Mimiko stirs, letting out a groan, Ghetto gently shushes her and tells her to take some medicine. She repeats the very same action with Nanako, and the thought hits you like a hundred bricks: I am falling so, so deeply in love with Geto Suguru. 

Nanami: You had gone for a night out with Shoko and Utahime to a bar, pounding back drink after drink. It had been extremely fun, and you were drunk by the time the night was called for. Utahime and Shoko were staying the night in Shoko’s place, and they offered for you to stay with them, but you shook your head stubbornly, the world spinning. 

“I wan’ my g-girlfriend,” you slur out. Hiccuping, you add, “I need…to call…Kento. She’s so, so p-pretty.” 

Shoko burst out with laughter, Utahime joining her as they shared a look. 

“Alright, alright, let’s call your girlfriend to come pick you up. We’ll stay here with you until she comes.” 

You hadn’t even talked to Nanami about picking you up or being a designated driver, but you squinted down at your phone as you tried to scroll through your contacts. All the names blurred together, and you’re swaying side to side from how fucked up you were. The realization hits you, though it doesn’t necessarily sober you. “W-wait! I, I didn’t ask her to pick me up. She…asleep…” 

“Wow, you’re really drunk,” observes Utahime, steadying you with her arm around your shoulders. “And you don’t need to worry about that. Nanami would drop anything for you.” 

“Don’t want to interrupt her sleep,” you slur. Shoko was smoking, and she snorted at your words. 

“Trust me, you’re her first priority. I’ll call her right now for you. No doubt she stayed up to pick you up and make sure you got home safely.” 

“Noooo, don’t bother herrrrr.” 

“Too late,” Shoko says, phone pressed against her ear. “Nanami? Yeah. Can you come pick her up? We’re at that one small bar in Shinjuku.” She pauses, then snickers. “I knew you’d be up and waiting. You’ll be here in 5 minutes? Alright. We’re standing outside.” 

You let out a whine, “Is’ only,” you stare at the screen on your phone with all your concentration to make out the blurry numbers. “Is’ only 1:24 A.M. We can still dance! Dance with me, Utahimeee!” You grab your friend and begin jumping up and down. You were still convinced you could keep going, and your friends silently sent out a prayer for the blonde sorcerer who was going to be taking care of you. 

You were making Utahime rock back and forth with you until a car pulled up next to your group. You turn to look and see the foggy form of your girlfriend. By now, you had completely forgotten that you were worried about Nanami staying up this late, too focused on the warmth in your body and the electric shock that went through your system at seeing your lover. 

“Nanami!” you cried out, stumbling in your heels in her direction. “My baby! You’re here!” 

Nanami had walked quickly to where you were swaying on your feet and wrapped her arm protectively around your waist, supporting your weight easily. You lean against her, laughing. 

“Nanami, have I ever told you,” you hiccup again, “how beautiful you are. Ahh, I have the best girlfriend ever, so tall, so strong, so beautiful, s-so p-perfect, and kind, and soooo pretty.”

Nanami shakes her head at you, and though she seems exasperated anyone sober could see her lovesick gaze. “I think you’ve mentioned it before, sweetheart. Now, come, we should get you home to lay down, hm? I’ll help you get ready for bed.” 

“Fine,” you pout, before turning around and attempting to run away when Nanami lets her guard down. “Nooo! I wanna dance!” 

Nanami had chased after you, and easily caught up. 

And then she does something that sobers you up: She grabs you easily and picks you up. You immediately grab onto her out of instinct, and she begins walking back to the car. Onlookers are giggling at the scene, but Nanami effortlessly opens the passenger door and gently places you inside. 

(Shoko had definitely been recording the whole thing secretly.) 

Nanami gets into the driver seat, and begins the ride home. It’s quiet until you begin to whine. “My feet huuuurrttt.” 

“I can massage them when we get back, how about that?” Nanami says, leaning over, and places her warm, calloused hand on your thigh. “If you’re a good girl for me, and listen to me, I’ll get you a treat tomorrow while you’re hungover, hm?”

Oh. 

Shoko: Many would assume you would realize you loved Shoko while she was treating your injury. And while this was a good guess, it was not reality. 

You realized you loved Shoko after you had sex for the first time. 

You had never been with anyone before, man or woman, but Shoko had surprisingly had many sexual partners to the point she knew what to do. 

So after she had fingered your pussy so well you had cum around her fingers, gotten eaten out for the first time ever, and gotten fucked with her strap, you knew it was love. You wouldn’t have allowed anyone to go that far if you didn’t love them. 

The thought, I think I’m truly head over heels, came when she cleaned you both up and had started a warm bath for the both of you. She sat behind you, and you were in a blissful haze as she used her nails to scrape into your scalp lovingly as her chest was pressed against your back, her long legs bracketing yours. 

Her touches were so gentle. She had been gentle earlier too as it had been your first time and she didn’t want to make you more nervous. And now, here you were, taking a bath with the most beautiful doctor in the world, as she softly says, “You were so good, honey, so perfect for me. Thank you for allowing me to touch you like that. I adore you, pretty. My good girl.” 

Safe to your heart melted. 

Yuki: The thought came, much like many things with Yuki, as a sudden one. 

You had planned to go out on a nighttime ride on her motorcycle, and as she fixes your helmet for you, she leans forward and kisses the visor right in front of your lips, and you can’t help the grin that comes to your face. 

She coos, “You’re so cute in this helmet. I promise you’ll be safe with me, honey. If you get scared at all, and it’s too much, just tap on my waist three times. Are you ready?” 

Despite your anxiety, you were excited for this experience with your girlfriend, especially knowing how much she loves her motorcycle. You wanted desperately to share this with her, so you say confidently, “I’ll be fine, Yuki. I promise. Let’s go!” 

“That’s what I like to hear!” she says excitedly, sliding onto the motorcycle. You slip on behind her, and wrap your arms around her waist as she takes off. 

It was beautiful, truly, watching the city lights fly away. It was as if the two of you were flying, the beautiful countryside lit by street lamps going past you. You let out a laugh as the night air thrilled you, and you didn’t have to look at Yuki’s face to know she was smiling. 

She made a turn down a dirt path, and you were a bit concerned as she kept going until she entered what is the most magnificent flower field in the world. The moonlight reflected off all the bright colors, the rows of tulips and sunflowers and chrysanthemums all lined up in perfect rows. She parks her bike at the end of a row in the middle of the field, shutting it off and taking off her helmet before turning to you. She helps you take your helmet off, and then gently guides you off the motorcycle. 

You looked around in awe, taking in all the beautiful flowers. It truly looked like something out of a dream — a beautiful field, on a beautiful night, with a beautiful woman. You never would have guessed you would be so lucky to experience something like this or experience having someone like Yuki as a lover. 

“How did you find this place?” you ask Yuki, turning to look at the taller woman. 

She grins, winking at you. “That’s a secret, baby. I come here when I want to clear my thoughts. It’s pretty, isn’t it?” 

You stare up at the moon, hanging brightly in the late summer sky. “Yes, it’s beautiful.” 

(You were unaware of Yuki watching you like a hawk. She was tempted to say something cheesy like Not as beautiful as you, but decided not to for once.) 

“Stay here, I’ll be right back and we can continue our date!” Yuki cries loudly, and after blowing you a kiss, she walks into the part of the field with the sunflowers. She’s a tall woman, but they were so tall they hid her frame once she was engulfed in them. 

You stay there, taking in the ethereal nighttime all around you, though you were curious about where Yuki was going. The two of you usually walked hand in hand, so you wonder why she took off without you. Maybe she’s planning to jump out and scare me…? 

You hear a rustle, and see Yuki running back to you with a big grin on her face, a whole bunch of flowers in one hand. She stops a foot in front of you before getting down on one knee. 

Your heart skips a beat as she exclaims, “A handmade bouquet by yours truly for my one and only type! My one and only girl!” She holds out the flowers, and you dumbly reach out to take them, successfully turned to mush. You were sure you would have melted into a puddle if it was physically possible. 

Just as you open your mouth to respond, you hear shouting in the distance. You both turn your heads at the same time to see a figure in the distance, and a voice that sounded like an old man screaming out, “You again?! How many times do I have to tell you to stay the hell out of my field?!” 

You and Yuki turn to one another, share one glance, and then immediately run to her motorcycle, hurrying to put on your helmets. She takes the flowers from you as you finish putting yours on, and you take it back and jump on the bike as the old man gets closer, still shouting. 

“Hold on, babygirl! Off we go!” She reeves the engine, and turns her head back as she shouts to the farmer, “Sorry!” 

You can’t help but burst out laughing, and she joins you. You’re both breathless and in tears from how hard you were guffawing at the situation. Hearing her giggle lit up the night, gripping onto the bouquet she haphazardly made you, you feel an unexplainable feeling settle over you. The scent of the flowers tickles your nose, blown by the wind cutting around the motorcycle. 

Oh, I’m falling in love. 

Sukuna: Kills a man for you.

[dyns33]

Feeling rainy

Another Dream x female reader 

      “Honey, you look cloudy today. No, rainy."

     "I confirm, he is very rainy at the moment."

     "Matthew. Leave us."

     "Right away, boss. But I'm sick of being wet all the time when I fly in the Dreaming, thank you very much."

It had taken a little time, but during their relationship, Y/N had acquired several certainties about Morpheus, especially about his mood.

The master of nightmares was not very good at expressing his feelings. Mainly because he didn't always know them himself. Partly because he was stupid and not very good with people.

His emotions were like a storm inside him. And therefore, a storm inside the Dreaming, especially when he was nervous, angry or sad.

Happy or neutral sentiments were preferable, with the sky remaining blue, the sun lighting up the whole realm, and the wind seeming to sing melodies.

 Sometimes it was a little too hot, when he was in love and excited, but that was no big deal. Also, it never lasted very long.

Like the weather, Morpheus' mood was changing very quickly, and very easily.

And even though he was doing his best to hide his feelings behind a straight face, the Dreaming never left any doubt that something was bothering him.

     "Is it because of last night ?" Y/N asked calmly.

     "I don't wish to talk about it, love."

     "Not even to please me ? I don't like it when you rain, especially because of me."

     "... It's not because of you. I probably overreacted."

     "Kind of like always, darling, but that doesn't mean your feelings aren't valid. Do you want a hug ?"

     "... Maybe."

The tall, terrible prince of the stories certainly didn't like being seeing as weak, but when Dream was in Y/N's arms, he looked like a cat desperately trying not to purr with pleasure, totally at her mercy.

It wasn't a problem since they were alone, but dreams and nightmares guessed what was going on, as the clouds disappeared and a rainbow formed over their heads.

     "She has to cuddle him all the time."

     "Hush."

     "Merv is right. I may be his more or less emotional raven, but he clearly needs her as an emotional human."

     "Get out of my library."

All of this could have gone quite well, since Y/N had managed to decode the functioning of the Dreaming, and therefore of Dream, but sometimes he was visibly lost and upset by her emotions, not knowing how to help her, and beginning to feel them with her.

Which was not a good thing, for him, nor for his kingdom.

Y/N therefore asked for advice around her, knowing that it was useless to ask Morpheus directly. Morpheus never really answered questions. That being said, his subjects weren't necessarily better for it.

Lucienne, loyal intelligent Lucienne advised her to speak to the Lord, as communication was important, although she had to be careful how she wanted to express what she wanted to say, as the Lord could misunderstand things.

Merv and Matthew thought that they should say nothing and just cover him with kisses and compliments so that he would always be happy. Because everyone wanted him to be happy, and everyone loved rainbows.

The Corinthian had a different opinion.

     "You have to do exactly like him." he declared with three huge smiles.

     "What do you mean, like him ?"

     "You want to help him by doing anything so that he doesn't get overwhelmed by emotions ? So don't show any emotion yourself. Keep them inside, act neutral, use a monotonous voice, express your love with ridiculously complicated little sentences, and it will be perfect."

Normally, it would have been strongly discouraged to listen to a nightmare. But despite their bickering, the Corinthian was arguably one of the creations that knew Morpheus best, so Y/N thought it wasn't a bad idea.

After all, Dream was a bit like a sponge. Absorbing all the dreamers' hopes, fears, desires, emotions, and though he was a separate being who felt distinctly, he couldn't completely cut himself off from the rest of the world.

So it seemed logical that he was sometimes troubled by others, and therefore by Y/N, with whom he spent the most time.

It didn't cost much to imitate him. It wasn't necessarily easy, but she could do it, for him, so it wouldn't be rainy or stormy too often.

So she trained in front of a mirror, doing her best to remain impassive as she thought about a joke, her deceased grandfather, an adorable kitten, her boss whom she wanted to strangle, and lots of things that never left her indifferent.

Part of her had thought Morpheus wouldn't notice. Another hoped he would see it, that he would be happy, and that she could smile to herself.

While they were watching her favorite movie together, a funny scene played out and she didn't react. Then another, and another, until Y/N felt that Dream's attention was no longer on the screen, but on her.

     "My love, you seem distant."

     "Not at all. I'm enjoying a pleasant evening, with you." she said with a neutral tone.

     "... You didn't laugh. Would you like to see another movie ?"

     "No, I like this movie. You weren't laughing either, do you want to change ?"

     "I never laugh."

    "Because you're too melancholic to find aything funny ?"

     "... No. My laughter... I was informed that my laughter could be frightening."

Y/N then turned to him, and at that moment, she almost smiled, finding the revelation ridiculous and adorable,  wanting to hear that laughter that her lover was so ashamed of, out of curiosity, but above all to reassure him.

Except that for that, she would have to show emotions, and make him feel emotions, and the goal was to remain as neutral as possible, so Y/N forced herself to remain neutral, looking at him straight in the eyes so that he knew that she was serious, while looking for the right wording.

"I'm sure your laugh is sweet." was the best thing that came to her, patting Morpheus' hand, before watching the movie again.

There were many other moments like this, at the New Inn, at the park, in the Dreaming, and Y/N really thought that everything was fine, that she was doing a good job. The weather seemed calm, with a few distant clouds, but no storms in sight.

Still, there was something in Morpheus' eyes when he looked at her. Curiosity mixed with fear. She didn't dare tell him about it, thinking it was nothing, and he didn't tell her either.

Until Matthew came to visit her as she was getting ready to go to sleep.

     "I don't know if I should ask you to go to bed quickly, or advise you to stay awake."

     "Why ? What's going on ? Morpheus is in trouble ?!"

     "Uh... That depends. Is everything okay between you two ?"

     "Yes, perfectly fine. Why ?" she asked, suddenly worried.

     "I don't know. It's foggy at the moment. We've had a few rains, a few tornadoes, but Lucienne managed to calm it down. Except that... Hmm... I don't know if I should say it."

     "Matthew."

     "He thinks you don't love him anymore." sighed the raven, lowering his head.

The news hit Y/N straight to the heart. For a moment, she wondered how Dream could have come to such a conclusion. Then she remembered how Dream was, his difficulties in understanding people, emotions, and even if he himself didn't often show what he felt, he clearly needed others to show him.

For a month, Y/N thought to make him happy. For a month, Morpheus thought she wanted to leave him.

     "... This is a terrible misunderstanding."

     "Glad to hear that. Can you tell him, please ?"

Falling asleep when stressed might take a while, but Y/N needed to see Morpheus quickly, so she closed her eyes thinking hard about him, and she arrived on the balcony of his palace.

It was raining.

Obviously, Matthew had come to see her before Lucienne went to speak to her master.

Dream stood in the rain, motionless, watching his realm. He didn't move when she came close to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

     "I love you, you know that ?" she asked shyly.

     "I hope so."

     "In wanting to please you, I made a mistake. Your mood changes so easily, you can be so fragile, so sensitive."

     "I'm not fragile." he muttered, continuing to stare into the distance.

     "You are, but that's neither an insult nor the question. I thought... The Corinthian told me that if I don't show my emotions, I won't upset you with them and that you I would be happy. I wanted to help, really. Since you know that I love you, I imagined that it wouldn't change anything. It would be inside, like for you. Sorry."

Finally, Dream turned to her, looking surprised and solemn. He stared at her for a long time, before taking a deep breath.

     "I see. So you made several mistakes, indeed."

     "Dream..."

     "You listened to the Corinthian, a nightmare."

     "I know."

     "You thought it would be good for you to keep your emotions inside, like me. Knowing that my emotions are never really inside, but entirely outside, in the Dreaming, while you should keep your storms in your little heart."

     "I get it, I..."

     "And you believed that I would like you to deprive me of your smile. Of your laughter. That you hide your sadness from me, which I could erase with kisses. Your anger, which I could appease with poems. Your love, which I carry in my chest. All this to make me happy ?"

So Morpheus did something that Y/N hadn't imagined.

He laughed. 

And like he said, his laugh was a little scary. Inhuman. A sound that mortals weren't supposed to hear, that no one was supposed to hear. But he was laughing, and he was smiling, and he came over to kiss her, and Y/N thought she liked that sound a lot.

     "My love, your emotions, all your emotions, are my joy. Do not hide them from me."

     "Okay. But promise me you'll tell me when it's rainy, and why."

     "Very well."

     "And I was right, your laugh is very sweet."

     "Yeah, I guess love makes you blind and deaf."

     "Matthew. Leave us."

     "Yes, boss. Glad it's not raining anymore."

Indeed, the sun had returned as he spoke, a bright sun, and even if the weather could never be perfect, like their relationship, Y/N would do everything to make Morpheus as bright as possible.

[aggro-my-beloved]

Trash Polka (AsherxBabe)

note: this hasn’t been fully looked over/edited so if you notice my mistakes just pretend you don’t. k thx.

summary: *doodles that a person draws on themselves will appear on their soulmate’s skin* [babe is tired of wearing hoodies in summer, and leggings in the spring. but their soulmate seems too caught up in his career to mind leaving little notes and drawings on their skin, rather than revealing himself. babe DOESN’T take matters into their own hands, but they soon won’t be covered by a mod-podge of their soulmate’s scribbles. one can hope, at least.]

pairing(s): AsherxBabe (romantic), AsherxDavid (platonic)

warning(s): none

word count: 1.4k

estimated reading time: 7 mins

taglist: @ther3alsweetheart @darlin-collins @professionallyyappinabtangst @elles-roses @ashertickler mwah

“GLOVES AGAIN? IT’S A HUNDRED degrees outside.” Katherine quips from her desk. As usual, Babe’s morning is all swearing and stumbles through the office building as they don a more than modest collection of clothing.

“I think it’s a hundred and one, actually.” Vinny chortles from his cubicle. Since turning down his invitation to be his plus one at the office holiday party the year prior, he’s been more prone to poke fun at them. Babe illustrates the smirk tugging at his lips and fantasizes ripping it clean off his visage while preparing for another busy morning. Bag strap on the back of their chair. The largest iced coffee Starbucks could provide them on the ceramic coaster gifted by Katherine, which reads some motivational slogan Babe would be caught dead uttering in any unironic fashion.

“I still don’t know how you manage to work like that.” Their colleague’s tone is the perfect balance of judgment and concern; a siren song can draw the most taboo answers from anyone she crosses paths with. Babe is aware of this, and yet they still respond. Katherine is approachable, but isn’t as prone to flapping her lips compared to others who lurk in the office.

“I told you before, Kat, I get cold easily. Low iron, and stuff.” Babe clears their throat and wiggles their chair closer to the computer before them. A few minutes pass, and they flicker their eyes between the two cubicles on either side of them, harboring a yapping Vinny on his phone, and Katherine engrossed in her bookkeeping tasks. Babe’s movement is subtle as they sink lower in their chair, and stretch their arms beneath their desktop to flick on the fan to its highest setting. Another glance back and forth. More nonsense gabs from Vinny. Even more sounds of filing papers from Katherine. They are sandwiched in a personal hell, but the heavy dress pants and turtleneck strangling their figure may be to blame for that.

Relieving wool gloves from their hands has grown to be an orgasmic experience for Babe. One of the few things they miss about working remotely is the pleasure of joining video meetings half-naked, and feel content with the fact that their colleagues are none the wiser about what their lower half is lacking. In this office full of prying eyes and passive-aggressive chatter, though, the simple act of baring their hands fills them with equal amounts of pleasure and shame of a lambasted stripper.

Babe’s eyes cascade over the swoops and strikes of black ink on skin, written in their spoken language but still holding no significant meaning—the lines embedded in their palm act as lines on ruled paper.

Sm Tourn @ Davey’s Fri 8

Buy milk, almost out

DO NOT DRINK MILK IN FRIDGE!

For whatever reason, the person who left these notes for themself also found it apropos to doodle a smiley face below the crease of their thumb. Babe stiffens at the tickling sensation on their opposite hand and draws their attention toward the writing slowly appearing on it. It’s messier than chicken scratch with some typos, like every other message this person leaves for them to discover, but Babe’s witnessed these messages long enough to decode them, or at the very least, try to.

The first time their parents discovered the writing on their skin, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. They were freshly tween, overflowing with naivety and curiosity, and they assumed their anonymous messenger was too. Babe’s father clocked them at the dinner table and demanded they show him their hand, where a “naughty” word written in bold lettering was spelled out on four out of five of their knuckles. Any excuse Babe mustered in that moment would have been a lie because they were still clueless as to how random notes appeared on their skin, or who the person writing them was.

They chalked it off as a word they heard from their classmates, but it didn’t satisfy their parents in the slightest. Babe missed a whole week's worth of Pokémon and Spongebob on the family television and held that grudge for as long as they could remember. But with no face or name to target their anger towards, they learned that stewing was pointless. Soapy water was the obvious solution in Babe’s mind. Just scrub hard enough and there would be no proof, right? Wrong. Whatever mystical power is embedded in this ink, or Babe’s skin, allows it to last twenty-four hours when fighting against soap, stain sticks, or even concealer. From that point on, Babe wrestled themselves into floor-length bottoms and long-sleeves up until high school graduation.

They’ve struggled falling asleep at night, trying to view this anomaly as a “gift”. Nobody else they’ve come across has poorly drawn Star Trek characters or names of midwest emo bands littering their epidermis like a composition notebook. Not to mention the person distributing these excerpts of their life–who are they? Do they know they’re capable of something like this? Do they even know Babe exists, and ponders the consequences of this condition in their life, and cries at the reminder that they can never purchase that crop top on sale or be stared at walking down the beach with a sweatshirt on?

Babe is broken out of their spiraling thoughts by Madelyn’s request to fetch the mail from the lobby. They didn’t catch the particular reason, but their ears perked up at the words “big check we need to run.” Babe feels invisible strings urging their eyes to roll and fights them, seizing the pair of gloves and bustling towards the nearest elevator. Once upon a time, Babe would take any excuse to waltz down the seventeen flights of stairs to dilly dally. But that was before their thoughts became consumed with dying of heat stroke between concrete walls and cotton layers.

Babe finds solace in the empty elevator, and decides to savor the feeling of bare hands in every way imaginable by cracking their knuckles, reaching them up to the fluorescent lights of the lift and drenching their skin in the gleam. In seconds, they become clenched fists, clammy and unresponsive at the sound of quickly approaching steps and voice growing in volume.

“Look, I know I left the stove on. I’m sorry, buddy. It was just a little flare up...” In a panic, Babe reaches forward to jab the button to close the doors, and halts at the sight of their hand, covered in more scribbles than before. They reduce themself into the corner, hastily cloaking their hands with the gloves. Amidst putting on the second one, the voice introduces its body in the picture as it squeezes through the elevator doors right before they shut. His phone is situated between his ear and shoulder, as he shuffles through the large stack of paperwork between his hands.

His hands…

Look just like…

“Bye buddy, love you!” His blonde hair swishes against his forehead as he cranes his neck down to end the call. “He’s really trying to turn me into that guy who’s being super loud on their phone in the elevator.” While pocketing his phone, Babe’s eyes follow his hands, scribbled in black. He retrieves a pen from behind his ear, uncaps it with his mouth and lets the ballpoint make contact with his skin before he begins writing. Babe feels the familiar tickle, but is too in shock to respond. Halfway through his latest entry, he shakes the pen violently with a grunt. “Damn, this thing’s getting low on ink.”

Through his peripheral vision, the blonde peeks over at the second set of hands in the elevator, and notices some writing peeking out from the half-worn glove overtaking Babe’s left hand. “Another avid notetaker, I see. My friends can’t stand it when I write on my skin. They say it's a one way trip to ink poisoning. But it’s saving the trees, right?” Again, the nervous chuckle floats through the space, and then awkward silence. Babe’s lips remain parted in awe, too caught up in the current revelation to grab hold of anything as the elevator’s motor stutters and comes to a sudden halt. Before they could tumble to the floor, his coated hands caught them amidst their teetering. Blue eyes pooling with an intimidating level of concern, stare them down.

“Aw man, I think the elevator got stuck. Hey, are you alright?” The eyes flicker down, and the man appears to harbor the same revelation as Babe when he further inspects the writing on their hand. At least, they thought…

“No way! You like Star Trek too?”

soulmate september schedule | main masterlist | abt author

[guilty-pleasures21]

The perfect guy

Ahh! Thank you so much for following this story! I really appreciate all the love and support you guys have given me. I'm currently going to start work on the Bridgerton-themed fic, so feel free to request for anything you want to see in that one. And any other requests besides 🤗!

The project

The new guy

The lie

The new body

The hospital

The first time

The suit

The virus

The escape

Warnings: explicit descriptions of sex including blowjob (m receiving) and penetration (p in v).

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

She wandered through the halls of the base, pushing the cart of cleaning supplies in front of her. She'd managed to convince one of the janitors to let her use his access card - a kindly old gentleman she'd always been friendly with. His expression had softened as she'd begged and pleaded with him until finally, he'd asked her what she'd use it for. She'd told him that he'd be safer if he didn't know - if he let her tie him up and pretend she'd forced his hand - and he'd agreed, his own heart aching at the pain in her expression. And that was how she'd ended up here: breaking into a top secret government facility to bust out her one true love. “Turning down the hallway to the medical bay now.”

“Let me know when you've lost access,” Miguel replied over her earphones.

“Roger that.” She continued down the winding corridors until finally, she reached a door her card couldn’t access. She pushed the cart aside and took a moment to calm herself. Twelve minutes, she only had twelve minutes. Twelve minutes next to a lifetime. “¿Querido? Estoy listo. (I'm ready.)”

“Roger that.” A tense moment of silence passed, the only sound the beating of her heart in her chest. Then the card reader flashed green and the door slid open before her. “You have twelve minutes, querida. Starting the countdown now.”

She dashed through the series of unlocked doors until finally, she reached the isolation room. She rushed in as quickly as she could and ripped aside the blanket covering Miguel's body. She flicked on the life support monitors, then waited for her phone to connect to his brain. “¿Querido?”

A pause. Then, “I'm in. Uploading consciousness now. Ten minutes until discovery.”

Ten minutes: that meant they'd only have three minutes to escape before anyone caught them. X watched Miguel's chest, anxiously waiting for it to start rising and falling with his breaths. He was still in his Spiderman suit, the nanobots caressing his cold skin gently. Maybe he'd be able to use his powers to help them escape.

“Five minutes until upload is complete,” Miguel informed her, his chest beginning to move. X grabbed his hand quickly, her own heart threatening to burst out of her chest in anxiety. They had to make it out of this together, they had to: they didn’t have any other choice.

Margo searched for the breach in the system, her eyes glued to the monitor before her. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she decoded the information on the screen, trying to undo the complex encryption stopping her. Then finally, she shot out of her seat.

“I got-” She paused as a message flickered on her screen, just one word: please. Her eyes widened with shock. Miguel? He was still … alive?! Her fellow programmers turned to face her, waiting for her to continue.

“What?!” one of them pressed when she remained silent. “Did you get it?!”

“Huh?” Margo looked up at all the other people hunched over their computers, their determined faces lit up by the glowing light of their monitors. None of them wore the easy smile that X always shared with anyone she came across nor the excited curiosity constantly displayed across Miguel's face as he indulged in all the physical sensations his new body had to offer. She hesitated, her eyes flickering back to the single word blinking in the corner of her screen. “I got nothing. Have you managed to find it yet?” She sat back down, a sense of hopeful relief overcoming her when the other guy shook his head. Then she resumed her frantic typing: maybe she couldn't stop the rest of them completely, but she could at least delay them for a little longer.

They were in the last minute of the transfer - the window in which he wouldn't be able to communicate with her until he woke up. X held onto his hand as she waited in silence, rubbing his palm to warm him up a little - they'd kept his body cold so it wouldn't start decomposing, but he was starting to heat up now that his heart was beating again. She brought his fingers to her lips to press a quick kiss to them, then she glanced at her phone again. Four minutes left before someone found them. No, wait … Six? Miguel shifted in position, starting to awaken, and X tucked her phone back into her pocket. “¿Querido?”

He squeezed her hand, then blinked his eyes open slowly, getting used to the light. He turned to face her and smiled when his gaze focused on her, his full lips curling at the ends with delight as soon as he could make her out. X bent over and wrapped her arms around his neck, showering his face with quick kisses. “We have five minutes?"

Miguel swallowed, wetting his throat a little so he could speak. “Margo.”

X’s eyes teared up as she grasped his meaning - she'd bought them some extra time, even though she’d known that it would cost her. X nodded in understanding and stepped back, holding onto Miguel’s arm to support him as he stood. “Can you get us out of here?”

Miguel flexed and relaxed his muscles, getting used to his physical form again. Then he slid his arms around X’s waist and lifted her onto his hips. “Hold tight, querida. Don't let go, no matter what happens.”

X curled herself around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck and breathing in the warm, masculine scent of him.

“No matter what happens,” she echoed in agreement. “No blackouts, Miguel.”

He smiled at the familiar catchphrase. “No blackouts, X.”

Gabriella giggled as her parents held onto her hands and swung her into the air between them. “Again! Again!”

“No, wait!” X stopped her. “I want to know what happened next! What did Anna do after Nick stole her ball?”

“She kicked him!” Gabriella looked up at X, her dark eyes wide with excitement just like her mother's always were. “And then Ms Jenny came before they could start fighting! It was crazy.”

“That is crazy,” X agreed, nodding along to the story. Then she turned serious. “Don't fight with people, okay, Beebee? It's never worth it.”

Miguel shrugged at her words, recalling all the times he’d had to use force to take a villain down. “It's some-”

“It's never worth it,” X interrupted, narrowing her eyes at her husband and fixing him with a threatening glare. Miguel held his free hand up in surrender.

“Okay! Okay. Whatever you say, querida. Listen to your mami, arañita.” He bent over and made his voice low, but kept it loud enough for X to hear. “She might beat us up otherwise!” His wife rolled her eyes in exasperation. Sure she was tiny and adorable, but she’d literally created a superhero, broken into a top secret military base and then pushed an entire human being out of her body after working on it for nine months! His wife was a total badass.

Gabriella looked up at her father, carefully studying his large and towering form. Then she tugged on his hand, gesturing for him to bend over and let her whisper in his ear. “Don't worry, Papa, you can take her!” Miguel chuckled at his daughter’s response.

“You really think so?” Gabriella nodded in agreement and Miguel continued. “Let's get her on the count of three, okay? One, two, three!” The two of them pounced on X, attacking her with their fingers and tickling her mercilessly.

“Ah! Stop! Stop!” She batted their hands away and ran a few steps ahead, putting some distance between them. Then she turned around and huffed at them, her lips twisting down at the ends as her brows furrowed in irritation. Dios, she was just as beautiful as the day she’d first connected him to her cameras. She waited until they reached her, then she smacked Miguel on the arm. “So mean, querido! You're being a bad influence on your daughter. ” She took Gabi's hand in hers and they started walking again.

His daughter - their daughter. Their own little baby who had her eyes and her hair and his nose and his smile. Dios, he'd never stop being amazed by the sight of their own perfect little daughter. He grabbed hold of her and lifted her up onto his shoulders, holding her high above the world as they continued walking home. “Our daughter? Where is she? Where did she disappear to? She was right here a second ago!”

Gabriella giggled as Miguel pretended to search their surroundings for her. “Papa! I'm right here!”

“Gabi?! Bebita?! Where are you?! I can't see you!” Miguel insisted, setting his features into an expression of horror. X chased after him with her arms outstretched, her heart pounding with terror at the thought that their daughter might topple off her father’s broad shoulders. She hated when Miguel played with her like that!

“Miguel! ¡Querido! ¡Bájala! (Put her down!)” she exclaimed, trying to grab Gabriella. Miguel turned to face her, a confused expression on his face.

“¿Qué?” he asked. “¿Quién?” (What? Who?) X folded her arms across her chest and frowned. Miguel grinned at the sight and finally crouched down, allowing Gabi to slide off of him. X rushed to support her, making sure she wouldn’t hurt herself, then she straightened and looked up at Miguel with a scowl. She was so cute whenever she was mad at him, her arched brows crashing together, her nose scrunching up, her lips pursing in irritation. He bent over and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, then he took hold of Gabi's free hand again. “So who got the ball in the end?”

Gabi’s eyes lit up in excitement and she continued chattering away animatedly, clutching onto her parents’ hands as she finished telling them about her day at school.

“You remember our phone numbers, ¿sí, bebita?” X asked as they walked up to the Parker’s door. Gabi sighed at the question.

“Sí, mama,” she reassured her before rattling off her parents’ numbers for what felt like the hundredth time that day. X smiled and leaned over to give her daughter a kiss on the top of her head.

“Good girl!” she praised her. “Remember to call us if you need anything and never do anything you don't feel comfortable doing. ¿Entiendes, mi amor?”

“Entiendo, mama,” Gabriella replied in that same bored tone. Miguel chuckled.

“She sounds just like you, querida,” he teased his wife. X sighed and shot him an exasperated look. But the ends of her lips twitched when she saw the grin on his face. She stepped forward to ring the doorbell and was quickly greeted by MJ's welcoming smile when she opened the door.

“Mr and Mrs O'Hara!” A slight blush coloured her cheeks as her gaze fell on Miguel - as with everyone else in their little suburban neighbourhood - then she quickly turned her attention to Gabi. “Hi Gabriella! Are you ready for the sleepover?”

“Yes, Mrs Parker! Thank you for having me!” She swivelled around to give her parents quick hugs, buzzing with excitement for her first sleepover. “Bye mama, love you! Bye papa, love you!” Then she turned back to MJ and ran into the house when she stepped aside.

“Someone's an eager beaver!” MJ joked. X gestured to Miguel beside her.

“She gets it from her dad.” She held her hand out to Miguel so he'd pass her the box of cupcakes she'd brought along, then she handed it over to MJ. “Thanks so much for organising this Mary Jane, I baked some cupcakes if you'd like to share them with the kids. Please let us know if you need any help, all right?”

Miguel watched fondly as his wife gave their neighbour a warm smile. She was always so genuine in her interactions with people, always so sincere. He didn't know how she still managed to trust in people even after everything they'd been through, fighting so hard to get to the small and happy life that they shared now. He thanked his lucky stars again that she had fought for him: that she'd risked so much to give him the chance to kiss her awake every morning when he got up and cuddle her in his arms every night when they went to bed. MJ thanked the both of them, then went to watch over the kids, leaving Miguel to take hold of his wife's hand and walk back home with her.

He kept his grip on her hand when they entered her house, stopping her from getting too far out of his reach.

“Querida.” Miguel pulled his little wife back to him and bent over to rest his head on her shoulder. “Should we start working on baby number two now?”

X giggled at his naughty suggestion, but leaned into his warm and soothing touch anyway.

“Like you aren’t always working on baby number two,” she chastised him. He’d pounce on her as soon as their daughter fell asleep every night, ushering his wife into their bedroom and taking pleasure in her body after an entire day of having to be apart. He'd found a job as a software developer once they'd settled into their unassuming suburb and though he enjoyed his work, he always got a little anxious that someone might try to take her away from him when he wasn't there to look after her. Miguel pushed X towards the stairs as he brushed his lips along the side of her neck, guiding her in the direction of their bedroom.

“Miguel,” X began, stopping them in their tracks. She turned around and slid her hands up her husband's broad chest before wrapping her arms around his neck. “We have the whole house to ourselves, querido. Why wait until the bedroom?”

She gave him a naughty grin and Miguel groaned at the mischievous look on her face.

“P*ta madre, querida.” He curled his arms around her and nipped at her earlobe playfully, causing her to shudder against him. He straightened to look at her, then smiled when he saw her grinning up at him already. Miguel bent over to press his lips to hers and started pushing her towards the sofa this time as he slid his tongue into her mouth. X clung onto his shoulders, trying to keep herself from stumbling backwards, but Miguel held her upright, his hands wandering all over her body as he rushed to take her clothes off. He pushed her onto the sofa and X laughed as she tripped over her jeans, already bunched up around her ankles. Miguel knelt on the ground to pull them the rest of the way off, then he climbed up over her once he'd tossed them aside.

She cupped his cheek in her hand as their tongues tangled together, brushing her fingers over the faint hint of stubble creeping along his jawline. Shit, he was so. Freakin’. Perfect! X slid her fingers into his hair and tugged on his soft waves gently, delighting in the taste of him in her mouth. Miguel moved his lips to her neck and slid his hands down her curves, meaning to pull her shirt off. But she stopped him, suddenly remembering something.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. Miguel looked up at her in question, sitting back so she could push herself up to a seat. She gazed up at him with wide eyes. “I have a surprise! Wait here!”

X jumped up off the sofa and ran up to their bedroom, leaving her husband sighing at her sudden departure and sinking back into his seat. She dashed over to their cupboard and dug through her clothes to find the underwear she'd somehow managed to keep hidden from him. He was always so curious, her husband, and though it made for plenty of new experiences for their little family, it also made it incredibly difficult for her to surprise him. So, she’d take whatever opportunity she could get. She zipped over to the bathroom to get changed, then hurried back down the stairs, not wanting to keep her handsome husband waiting for too long.

Miguel tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for her. She loved surprises, his adorable little wife. It didn't matter whether she was the one planning them or the one receiving them: she just liked the joy that would fill the room whenever it was revealed.

“I’m ready, querido,” X called from somewhere behind him. Miguel twisted his head to look back at her and his jaw dropped when he saw what she was wearing.

She’d seen the silky green lingerie set in a shop window on her way back from grocery shopping the other day. It had been a while since she’d treated herself like that, what with Gabriella still being too young to go over to her friends’ houses and Miguel being too busy working at his full-time job. She herself spent her days as a biology teacher for the secondary school kids at Gabi’s school. It had taken a bit of getting used to, having to communicate with young students as opposed to the genius scientific minds she’d collaborated with in her previous jobs, but it was nice being able to mentor the kids and enjoy the quiet little life she and her husband had managed to build for themselves. X grinned as she placed her hands on her husband's shoulders and straddled his lap.

Miguel felt his heart start to quicken in his chest as he trailed his eyes over his wife's beautiful body. He hadn’t seen it before, the buttery deep-green fabric that clung to her intimate bits so very nicely. But he liked it.

“Do you like it, querido?” X asked, delighting in the hungry look on his face. Miguel lifted his gaze to hers, his brows furrowed in confusion. Then his eyes fell back to her body.

“Hmm? Yeah,” he mumbled distractedly. “What material is this?” He reached up to circle his thumbs around her nipples and X sucked in a breath at the feeling. Coño, his wife was beautiful, her head falling back in pleasure to expose the delicate length of her neck.

“Silk,” she replied once she’d regained her senses. She ran her hands along his shoulders, squeezing his muscles appreciatively. “Do you like it?”

“Mmm,” Miguel hummed in agreement, sliding his hands along the smooth curves of her waist. X grinned and tilted his face up to hers so she could start kissing him. She slid her fingers into his hair as she swirled her tongue around his, scrunching his soft waves in her hand. Miguel tightened his grip on her waist, moaning into her mouth as she began rolling her hips against his. He glided his hands up her back and wrapped her up in his arms, pulling her closer so her soft breasts pressed against his hard chest. X flinched as he reached down to squeeze her ass, her hips grinding against his and causing him to groan into the crook of her neck. “Querida …”

X dug her fingers into his shoulders and stopped her movements until he pulled back to look at her. She smiled when their eyes met, then leaned forward to run her hands up his neck and to his cheeks. She held his face in position as she kissed him again, her hands drifting down to the hem of his shirt as she smiled against his lips. She sat back to tug it off of him, then let her hands glide down his torso when he took over for her and pulled it off. She bit her lip at the feeling of his smooth skin beneath her palms, then she bent over to begin pressing soft kisses down the side of his neck. Miguel sighed as she made her way down his body, her lips and tongue tracing the outlines of his muscles teasingly. He lifted himself off his seat as she lowered herself to her knees, giving her the space to take his trousers off. X maintained his gaze as she took hold of his cock, fixing him with a naughty grin. Miguel kept his eyes trained on her as she guided him to her mouth and began showering his tip with soft kisses. He dug his fingers into the cushions as she swirled her tongue around him, his nerves lighting on fire as his wife teased and pleasured him with her mouth. She closed her lips around him and sucked on him carefully, slowly pulling him deeper into her mouth. Miguel groaned and slid his fingers into her hair to tug her back and forth, gently guiding her movements along his cock. X gripped onto his thighs and let out a low moan, knowing the vibrations would cause him to shudder in response. She pushed herself forward when he did, taking all of him into her mouth then swallowing around him when she felt his tip hit the back of her throat.

“¡P*tas!” Miguel swore, his body tightening at the pleasant sensation. He let go of her hair, then sank lower into his seat, relaxing into her embrace. X pulled her head back, letting him fall out of her mouth, and Miguel clenched his muscles to control himself as she climbed back onto his lap. He kept his hands on her waist as she circled her arms around his neck and bent over to nibble his jaw. Then she moved her mouth to his and pressed quick kisses to the corners of his lips, only causing his agitation to grow. Miguel growled and cupped her cheek in his hand, angling her head so he could kiss her properly. X giggled into his mouth and he smiled in response to her reaction - just like he always did. He kissed her for a little longer, relishing the taste of her in his mouth, then he flipped them around so she was suddenly underneath him. X looked up at him with wide eyes, startled, but he didn’t give her the chance to respond before he’d flipped her over onto her knees. Miguel curled himself around her and X relaxed into his embrace as he began kissing and nibbling on the side of her neck. He was so warm, his body so toned and defined against hers. He slid his hand down her back and into her panties, then closed his fingers around her soft flesh. X squealed, knowing he loved it when she did that, and Miguel grinned at the sound.

“Eres tan linda, mi amor (you're so lovely, my love),” he mumbled into the crook of her neck. “Tan hermosa. Mi esposita preciosa y inteligente. (So beautiful. My smart and pretty little wife.)” X shivered as the tips of his fangs pricked her skin and Miguel chuckled. He straightened to slide her panties off of her, then he slipped his hand between her legs.

She gasped at the feeling of her husband’s large fingers dragging up and down her p*ssy, then arched her back to spread herself wider for him. Miguel snickered at her eagerness and bent over to kiss her cheek before moving behind her again. He took hold of his cock and traced his tip along her folds, teasing her sensitive nerves as he lubricated himself in her c*m. He dipped his tip in and out of her entrance and X twisted her head back to scowl at him.

“Stop teasing me, Miguel!” she scolded him. Miguel laughed at the irritation on his wife’s face.

“Fine,” he relented. He notched his tip to her entrance then squeezed her ass in his hands as he eased himself into her. He rolled his hips gently as he pushed himself inside of her, keeping his movements slow so he could feel himself brushing against every inch of her warm and soft walls. F*ck, she felt good. He flipped his hands up her sides and unclipped her bra and X hastily pulled the straps off so she could toss it aside. Miguel chuckled at her enthusiasm, then he cupped her breasts in his hands, flicking and rolling her nipples with his fingers.

X flopped over onto the backrest, her brain turning numb at the feeling of his cock nestled deep inside of her. Shit, he felt good. Her p*ssy started throbbing around his dick as he continued to play with her breasts and Miguel grunted before moving his hands to her hips and thrusting himself in and out of her.

She was so cute, the helpless moans and whimpers falling from her mouth sounding like music to his ears. X pushed herself up and Miguel pulled her against him, holding her tight against his chest. She reached up and wrapped an arm around his neck, her slender finger sliding into his hair, and Miguel snuck a hand back up to her breasts. He squeezed her soft flesh as he sped up his movements, the sound of his balls slapping against her ass filling the room. Then he reached down and started rubbing her clit, the feeling of his fingers against her sensitive bundle of nerves amplifying her pleasure.

“M-M-Miguel!” X whined, her small body shuddering in his arms as she reached her climax. He stopped his movements abruptly, wanting to revel in the feeling of her clenching around his cock. Then he pulled out of her when she was done and spun her around so she was laying on her back.

She looked up at her husband with a dazed expression, her chest heaving with shallow breaths as she came down from her high. But then he was tracing her soaked folds with his tip and dipping in and out of her teasingly again. X squeezed her legs together as her p*ssy continued to flutter from the overstimulation, but her husband pried her thighs apart and held them down so he could slide his cock back into her. Miguel inhaled deeply at the delicious feeling of being snuggled tightly within his wife's warm and wet walls, then he glided his hands up her torso to start playing with her breasts again.

She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes as he flicked her nipples, the blissful expression on her face driving him closer to his own edge. He bounced her breasts teasingly, delighting in the way they jiggled between his fingers. Then he cupped them gently, his large hands swallowing her soft flesh whole. X clenched her muscles, tightening her grip on his cock, and Miguel let out a choked gasp at the sensation.

“Querida,” he groaned, the gruff tone of his voice causing a shiver to run down her spine. She pulled him into her again, squeezing his dick tight, and Miguel growled at the feeling this time. He moved his hands to her wrists and loomed over her, his copper eyes sparking as he pinned her against the sofa. “Arañita.”

X giggled at the note of warning in his voice and her back arched off the sofa in response to the feeling of his cock buried inside of her. Miguel bit his lip at the smile on her face, his stomach tightening at the sight of her curly hair tumbling around her shoulders and framing her sweet features so perfectly. Then he slid his hand under her back and started pumping himself in and out of her.

She yelped at the sudden force of his movements, the sofa creaking beneath them as he thrust his dick into her again and again. Her body stretched itself out at the feeling, preparing for another round of contractions to overtake her, and she grabbed onto a cushion to keep herself grounded.

“Mmm, querido …” his wife moaned, biting her lower lip in pleasure at the feeling of him. ¡P*tas! She was so. P*nche. Beautiful! His gorgeous f*cking wife! The woman who had given him their beautiful little daughter, the perfect combination of the both of them together. Mierda, he couldn't wait to put another baby in her - to see her waddling around the house again, all swollen with his seed. Coño, she was cute when she was pregnant.

She giggled at his mumbling about wanting to put another baby in her and how so very cute she looked when she was pregnant. She thanked her lucky stars again that she got to wake up in his arms every morning and fall asleep in them again every night. He was so sweet, her husband, always looking after his little wife and daughter, constantly making sure that no harm ever befell them. She gasped as he reached his climax, relishing the feeling of his warm c*m shooting into her womb and filling her up so very deliciously. Then she reached her orgasm too, her p*ssy clenching around his cock as she shook and shuddered beneath him.

He hovered over her when he was done, panting as he tried to catch his breath. F*ck, that had felt good. X looked up at him, her wide eyes travelling over the outlines of his muscles, highlighted by the sweat glistening on his skin. Then she lifted her gaze to his. “Should we check if it worked?

Miguel pursed his lips in confusion. “If what worked?”

X forced the corners of her lips to twist down at the ends, trying to hide her excited smile. “Should we check on baby number two?”

Miguel raised an eyebrow as he sat back, his lips curling into a smirk at her enthusiastic suggestion. “It takes a little longer than that, querida.”

X sat up and shrugged, her stomach flipping at the smug look on his face. “You never know.”

Miguel grinned and wrapped an arm around her waist as he leaned forward to press a kiss to her cheek.

“Está bien, mi amor (it's okay, my love),” he reassured her, his voice thick with mischief. “We can always keep trying.” He tugged on her earlobe with his teeth, then brushed his nose down the side of her neck.

X giggled at his naughty declaration. “Migue-el!”

He pulled back to look at her, finally starting to get suspicious at the beaming smile on his wife's adorable face. “What?”

She wrapped her arms around her husband's neck, settling herself back on his lap.

“Maybe … we don’t have to keep trying anymore,” she suggested, shrugging nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal that she was growing another little baby inside of her right then. She placed a hand on her stomach and her lips twisted into a cheeky smile again. “Maybe baby number two is already here?”

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in disbelief at her revelation. She was pregnant?! And she hadn't told him?! She was actually insane, his pretty little wife. Miguel reached a hand down to her abdomen and brushed his fingers along her skin.

“Are you …” He swallowed hard, trying to compose himself so his voice wouldn't crack when he asked her the question. “You're pregnant?”

X nodded quickly, then lowered her gaze, suddenly becoming shy at the awestruck expression on his face.

“I haven't had my period for 2 months,” she confessed softly. “So I did a pregnancy test the other day and it was positive!”

A rush of joy swept over him at her words. He was going to be a father! Again! ¡Ay, mierda! He couldn't wait! Miguel grinned and ran his fingers through her hair, elated.

“Querida …” He stroked her cheek affectionately, then brushed his fingers down the length of her body. “When … We have to go to the doctor. We have to make sure everything is okay.” She'd had a few difficulties during her pregnancy with Gabriella and though it had all turned out fine in the end, he didn't dare take any risks with his precious little wife. But ay, mierda, he was going to be a father again!

Her heart thumped in her chest at the dazed look on her husband's face as he stood up and started pulling his clothes back on. It had been a real struggle to keep such a huge secret from him for so long, but the payoff had been completely worth it!

“Miguel.” X patted the empty space beside her, beckoning him back to the sofa. He lowered himself onto his seat and she climbed up onto his lap again. “Next week? Gabi doesn't come back until tomorrow, you know …” Her lips curled into a mischievous smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Miguel grinned and dragged his hands up and down her sides.

“Next week,” he relented, the blood already beginning to rush to his centre again. “But no blackouts, querida.”

Her chest warmed at the familiar phrase - at the promise that had gotten them through all the seemingly impossible trials they'd managed to overcome so far. X leaned forward and pressed her lips to her husband's. “No blackouts, mi amor.”

The end

Tags: @jadeloverxd @migshusben

[boldlyvoid]

Where There is Love, There is Life | Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Choice | for @elriel-month 2024

Summary: Elain trains, Azriel Gossips, and Lucien learns the truth.

Warnings: made up Daglan lore, mentions of HOFAS, history of bonds, Helion and Lucien talk

Word Count: 6k | Masterlist

Sitting in Helion’s personal library once again, there is a sheet of paper, an ink well and pen, and a stack of books almost as tall as Elain. And that’s just what Helion has deemed important for todays lesson. The walls are covered in books, well, 3 of them are. The fourth is dedicated to a chalkboard adorned with thoughts, theories and numbers she doesn’t yet understand. 

“Now that we’ve gone over astrology, did you happen to get all the birthdays of your inner circle?” Helion asks, pushing the pen and paper towards her. 

“I thought we were doing numerology today?” Elain asks, realizing she never brought the sheet of paper with the dates on it. 

“We are,” he smiles. Today’s one of the rare hot days in spring, so her eyes dart from his smile to his big muscled arm that he has on show. The shirt he’s wearing can barely be considered a shirt at this point; it just covers his nipples and stomach… but she’s not complaining. 

“Then why—

“Everyone has a life path number, which you get by adding up the numbers of one birth month and day,” he continues. “The easiest way to learn how to calculate the number is through repetition. So, start with your own and then your sisters; we can move on to the bat boys in a moment.” 

The term makes her smile. She straightens her back, grabs the pen, and starts to write. “My birthday is May 16th.” 

“It is?” He lights up. “Well, we’ll have to throw you a party, then!” 

“Oh, no, no, it’s okay,” she waves him off. “I might go home for the day.” 

He nods, “Or we could invite your court here? There is a beautiful plot of land my Pegasus frequents. It’s lush with flowers and fruit trees; I think it would be the perfect spot to celebrate you.” 

She blushes; it sounds magnificent. “If it’s not too much—

“It would never be too much,” he assures her. “Now, May is already a single number. You’ll have to add 1 and 6 together…” 

“So 5 plus 7,” she starts to write. “My number is 12.” 

“It can also be simplified down to 3,” he smiles. “Out of everyone I’ve ever met, you radiate 3 more than I’ve ever thought possible.” 

He pulls a book from the pile, flips through some pages and slides it in front of her. “See here; people with life path number 3 are creative spirits driven by their infinite imagination. Which is why the cauldron must’ve gifted you with sight. It knew you could see the wildest visions and still decode them.” 

She continues to read the pages, absorbing the knowledge— some of it does sound like her. Like not being able to pick a singular hobby but rather jumping back and forth between everything she enjoys. She would go crazy without baking, gardening and cross-stitching. An independent, free spirit, she’s not restrained by others' expectations of her. Yet, she also loves being around people. Having friends outside of her sisters for the first time has truly changed her life. She felt so lost without Nuala and Cerridwen; she misses them so much right now. She’ll have to ensure they come for her birthday and not lift a finger the whole day! They deserve a break.

“Anything sticking out?” Helion asks. 

She nods, “a few things… I’m definitely unable to stay organized. Ask Feyre; my greenhouse is a mess on a good day.” 

“Speaking of the High Lady, what is her birthday?” 

“December 21st,” she starts to write it down. “December is 12, so that becomes 3… the 21st also becomes 3, so her number is 6.” 

“Exactly,” Helion beams. “Were you this good in school, too?” 

“All 7 years that I was able to go,” she says with a sigh. “I learned what was important, my mother said that once I was married I’d only need to focus on keeping a house together. She said I’d never need advanced math.” 

Helion presses his lips together awkwardly, “Well, at least this math isn’t hard.” 

She simply flips the pages, finding the information on the meaning of 6… which is exactly how she would describe her sister. She starts to laugh at it; it’s way too accurate. 

“As a child and young adult, responsibility was always there on your 6 Life Path, but you may have rebelled against it,” she reads. “You will learn a lot about parenting in this life time. But you are also here to create, to learn that creativity has many forms, and is not confined only to creating a biological family.”

Helion smiles. “She did make a son as beautiful as her paintings.” 

“That she did,” Elain sighs, chest full of pride. 

The 6 Life Path teaches you that you are primarily accountable to yourself, that family members and relatives do not own each other, and that love thrives when it is able to flow freely in all directions.

She’s always loved her sisters and always will… however loving them became a lot easier when they weren’t all sharing a bed. Knowing Feyre is on the other side of her massive mansion of a home, knowing she could just walk to her when she needs her, that’s a blessing. Knowing Nesta is just a quick trip to the House of Wind, living her best life with people who love her, that’s all she’s ever wanted for Nesta. 

Being apart somehow brought them closer together. 

“Nesta is April 13th,” she says, starting to write once again. “4 and 4 is 8… she has an 8-pointed star on her back.”

Helion’s eyes widen, “like the lost sword Gwydion.” 

She nods, not allowing her face to change at all. It sure was still lost… it’s totally not in Nesta’s possession.

She turns back a page, finding it interesting that she and her sisters are so close in number and yet such polar opposites of each other. That’s life, though. 

“The path of Empowerment,” she reads, filled with pride, once more… it fades when she starts to read and it gets too real. 

The 8 Life Path signifies a lifetime of investing in yourself and overcoming judgments that stand between you and your strong ambitions. Modern numerology often diminishes 8’s meaning with an almost exclusive focus on material and financial matters. Yes, 8 is the number of power on the physical plain, but it is also the number of true understanding and balance, without which personal power is superficial and material gain is easily lost.

“I love her,” she whispers, trying not to cry. “She struggles in silence and lets it eat at her until that hunger needs to bite at someone else.” 

Helion nods along, “But it’s all about balance. While she may be in her head, thinking she deserves or doesn’t deserve certain aspects of her life… she’s powerful. Not too selfish, she’s able to use her hurt and her experiences to connect. She networks and organizes, and she’s convincing. I heard about her little dance with Eris last year. I saw how she captivated the high lords during the war and managed to change even Berons mind. The bad comes with the good, making her a perfect 8.”

Elain nods along, finding her smile once more. “She is… everything.” 

“Believe me, I know,” he teases. Still hitting on her no matter how long she’s been mated. “Now, do you remember the others?” 

“I believe so… they’re on my desk in my room,” she shares. 

“I’ll have someone bring them to us,” he assures, waving in a servant. 

She writes down Azriel’s. January 27th. An Aquarius, and after her lesson the other day, nothing fits better for him. He lives in his head, thinks outside the box, and has a deep sense of justice. He's an easygoing loner, and he’s an air sign. It’s no wonder he loves to fly. One of a kind with beautiful eyes, they say what they think with great eloquence… that’s her Az. 

His life path number, however, is 1. 

“Ah… of course,” Helion says as he reads over her shoulder. “One typically takes care of themselves, stand on their own two feet and always get what they want.” 

She smirks, blushing again. “He does.” 

Once again, on his page of the book, she reads everything… but it’s not right. “He’s not self-centred or insensitive?” 

“With you,” Helion reminds her. “At work, when he’s the spymaster, the shadowsinger… he has to put himself first; he has to not care because bringing feelings into an interrogation will backfire on him.” 

“I guess,” she continues to read. 

But because 1 is the first number, being at the top – being first – is your natural place. You will gain the maximum satisfaction from this energy when, instead of using it to compete, you use its pioneering vibrations to carve new roads in areas that interest you the most.

“He is the best at what he does,” she can agree with that. “Oh, and it says concentration is one of the splendid gifts a number 1 has. When he’s been given a command, he’s always so focused on getting the job done.” 

“No wonder you’re so happy,” Helion nudges her. 

She shoves him back. “Yes, and It says here: Practice the art of leadership by welcoming and encouraging your ‘following’, while confidently maintaining your position as originator and leader. Others soon realize that you will not be tricked into anything that goes against your grain or best interests.”

“That’s your man,” Helion agrees. Standing from his seat, he meets the servant at the door and takes her note. “The most powerful High Lord was born on the Eve of Samhain… when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest. When magic is at its height.” 

“So his number would be…. October is 10, so that’s a 1, and 31 becomes 4, so he’s a 5,” she says with glee. “He and Feyre are just a number apart.” 

“5s are an interesting breed,” Helion hesitates, sitting back down beside her, he takes a deep breath. “They’re intense, both emotionally and sexually. Their body, mind and emotions are equipped to easily adapt to change… However, they either flourish with the change or are overwhelmed by it. 5s are able to change their inner attitudes and outer appearances to suit different circumstances” 

“That’s my brother-in-law,” Elain laughs. 

The book states: 5 is an active and unpredictable path. It is so filled with sudden and unusual events and opportunities that you sometimes become confused by it or afraid of it. Once in a while, these 5s do let go, or the 5 current becomes so strong that they are swept away into some kind of drama, only to miss the excitement of it all because they believe they are simply out of control. The freedom of 5 starts with a burning desire to live life as fully, freely, and openly as possible and to experience variety, excitement and adventure. And, of course, these desires can only come from within. Refusing to let go of what is safe and familiar so that you can discover alternatives is a large part of what causes a mistake to be repeated. And most 5s do seem to repeat the same old mistakes, often without realizing it. Admitting to your mistakes can be a battle in itself. Accept that mistakes are inevitable in your life because that is how 5s learn and prosper.

“I’m going to need a scribe to copy this for him,” Elain teases. “He could learn a thing or two.” 

Helion smirks, crossing his arms as he sits back in his chair. “Have you ever been on the wrong end of one of his decisions?” 

“Just last week,” she shares. “He thought it was okay to tell Az to stay away from me so he could keep a good connection with Lucien and the Human Queen, Vassa. Not taking into account that fact that I may want say in my future.” 

Helion nods slowly, “Sounds like Rhysand.” 

She lets it roll off her shoulders, “I settled it. He’s learning, albeit slowly, but he’s learning how to deal with the Archeron sisters.” 

“How does Cassian deal with you all? Being a Cancer and all,” he pushes the paper towards her. 

“July 9th…” she reads aloud. “That would be 7 and 9, so 16 becomes 7.” 

“Perfectionists, prone to secrecy, but as they get older, that need to protect themselves goes away,” Helion explains. “Knowing Cassian as long as I have, he had a hard time trusting people to be as good as he was; he did work while with his legion because he knew that he would be the one to get shit done right.” 

“And now he’s accepted that the rest of us are there to help him and he’s not alone,” Elain smiles softly. “What else?” She asks as she flips in the book. 

“Deep thinker, a cleaver planner… he’s the orchestrator. It’s why he leads armies and he will go down in history as the best warrior since Enalius.” 

She finds a passage that is so Cassian, she sits up straighter as she reads it: Your intuition enables you to sense and feel your way through life. Positive results will follow when you learn to rely on the combined voice of your thoughts and feelings. While others sit perplexed by a problem, you can produce the right answer, instinctively, in one intuitive flash. And once you have the solution, your intuition will take you inward and backward to show you how you arrived at it.

Helion nods along. “Numerology is one of my favourite aspects of divination. Numbers are everywhere, you’ll start noticing them more and more now that you’ve learned this.” 

“How so?” 

“You’ll notice that you look at the clock at specific times every day, without real reason. You’ll notice things come in packs of 3 or 8 or 12. You might even have numbers in your dreams…. And in visions, speaking of which, have you had any since you’ve been here?” 

She shakes her head, “No, I haven’t had one in a few weeks. They only come to me when they want to.” 

He hums, “okay… Tomorrow, I wanted to do some hydromancy, but I think it’s time we look more into clairvoyance and clairaudience. Both are extrasensory perception; the mother or the cauldron or whatever you believe in either whisper the future into your ears or show you glimpses of the future.” 

“I have had both,” she assures. “During the war, I had no idea what was happening and while I kept seeing the firebird who ended up being Vassa, the ravens were first whispered to me. I kept hearing ‘the ravens are coming’ and it confused me so much.” 

Helion starts looking around at all his personal books, reading the titles, but he cannot find what he wants. “I’m going to have a book delivered to your room tonight,” he explains. “You don’t have to read it all. However, it will be a good introduction to what we will be discussing soon.” 

She nods, “are you sure we should have a large lesson tomorrow, given that Lucien is coming?” 

His eyes widen, as if he forgot that was happening. “What if we meet here at dawn? You can join me for my meditation to get in the zone for the day and I’ll have breakfast dropped off here so we can begin early.” 

She nods, “I would like that.” 

—

Azriel’s shadows are like a second skin to him after 500 years. He almost doesn’t notice when they come and go, not until they’re whispering secrets and warnings to him. It takes a while for him to realize that his shadows disappear around Elain. They can find her, they can follow her if he asks, yet when she’s close, they leave. He’s not sure if it’s for privacy or because they know he’s completely safe with her… out of everyone in the world, Elain is the only person he’s truly safe with. 

When he returns to the day court, his shadows simply say that she’s in the library and dissipate. 

He heads to the main library, the first of many in the day court, the closest to the palace. Inside, he can’t scent her over the smell of old books… yet there is a hint of Ash. His shadows come rushing back, worried for him after everything he’s been through in the last few years. He’s been hit with more ash arrows and faebane in the last 3 years than he has in his whole life, which is saying something. 

He follows the smell, a hand on the truth teller as he approaches an alcove. He knows the female sitting at the table, at least from what he can see of her over the stacks of books: Nuan, the Alchemist from the Dawn Court. He knew she’d be here; she had been here all week, researching the Ash family to see all that it could do to the Fae. 

He clears his throat, alerting her to his presence and making her jump in her seat slightly. “Oh, hello, Lord Azriel.” 

He grimaces, shaking his hands, “Please, it’s just Azriel.” 

“Azriel,” she settles with a smile. “Is there something I can help you with?” 

He shakes his head, “I was looking for Elain, I think I have the wrong library.” 

“Ah,” she smiles, having guessed that the high lady’s sister and the spymaster were together. “Well, since you’re here, I have a question.” 

He approaches her, standing beside her work table, “What can I do for you?” 

“I’ve come across a book on the Daglan, the history of the start of Prythian and old folklore,” she explains. “Do you know anything about how they were conquered?”

Az takes a deep breath and assesses if he should tell her. Rhys would be pissed… not as pissed as when Nesta gave Bryce the mask, but still pissed. If answers come from this, however, he might not stay mad for long. 

So Az takes a seat. 

“Where do I even start,” he can’t help but laugh. 

He started when Bryce arrives, explaining their trip to the prison and the history they uncovered. Theia and her daughters, the Daglan, the portals to other worlds… how they concurred worlds and were overthrown only twice and finally destroyed by the portal-jumping half-fae who stole his dagger. He explains how the Daglan corrupted the cauldron and created the monsters now locked in the prison in the night court…. And how the same portals they used to jump worlds brought in the beasts that hunt in The Middle. Beings like the kelpie, the weaver and whatever Amren was before the war. Even Koshcei. 

“Cauldron almighty…” she swears, jaw dropped as her eyes wander, thinking a mile a minute in her mind. “Do you know how they corrupted the cauldron?” 

He shakes his head, “not fully. The original 8 Asteri— that is the Daglan’s true name. They pooled their power together and imbued it into the cauldron… they made the dread trove as well as Gwydion and Truth Teller.”

“Did you learn how to fix it?” Nuan asks, begging for answers just as he did that day he learned all this. “Learn why they did it?”

“No, I did, however, allow one of my shadows to go with Bryce to Midgard. The Asteri, when they were here, there was a tithe to absorb a percentage of our power; in Midgard, they created a parasite to infest the water and stifle their magic until they came of age. The coming of age ceremony was called the drop, once they partook they gave a portion of their power to the Asteri and their powers were unlocked. They were not as powerful as they could be, but they were just enough to live a long, long life. Those who didn’t partake faded away into nothing with age, like a human would.”

“And Bryce defeated them?” 

He nods, “She almost died in the process… which is another way the daglan took power. The power they took in the drop was called first light, the power they take after death is called second light. Once they took it, they didn’t get to go to the forever resting place some believe is out there. They became nothing.” 

Nuan slumps in her seat. Rubbing her hand over her face. “This is so much bigger than a family of trees…” 

Az laughs, “believe me, it was a lot to take in when it was happening. Now, we’re left with the knowledge and no way to fix the cauldron. We don’t even know in what ways they corrupted it; what they changed.” 

“The cauldron holds water,” Nuan reminds him. “They might’ve gotten the idea for the parasite from what ever they did to the cauldron.” 

He hums, thinking about it. “Are you coming to dinner tonight in the great hall?” 

She nods, “why?”

“Elain might be able to tell you about what the water in the cauldron was like,” he explains. “Seeing as she was the first one dunked into it, and she was blessed by it…” 

“Unlike the other sister who stole from it,” Nuan knows. The whole of Prythian knew that the oldest Archeon sister was to be feared for what she did that day. They just don’t know she gave the power back.

“Would I be allowed to see the cauldron?” She asks. 

He takes a deep breath, thinking it over. “Rhys and Feyre will be here in a few days, they, and Helion, can discuss if it’s a safe option for you.” 

She nods, agreeing. “I appreciate the help today. I um… I figured out something, I think it’s something you and Lady Archeron would like to know.” 

“Go on,” he pulls in even closer, anxious to know what she’s uncovered in her days of research. 

“While Ash wood can kill us, the blooming leaves of the Ash tree can be used as a tea. The Daglan did awful, horrific experiments on the fae, all of which were recorded… ingesting the leaves doesn’t maim the drinker. Instead, it gifts them with dreams of their one true love. The Daglan put a stop to the tea the moment they found out what it could do, and now I’m guessing it’s because they corrupted the cauldron to change how bonds work. The dreams would show a true love match; the cauldron now wants powerful offspring because the Dagaln fed from them for so long.” 

It all hits Azriel like a brick wall. “So if I take the tea…” 

“You’ll know the truth,” Nuan smiles. “So will Lady Archeron.” 

—

Feyre and Rhys arrive with Lucien right at noon, greeted by Elain and Helion in the golden courtyard. Helion’s hand is on Elain’s back, and she glances at him, noticing he’s holding his breath while staring at his son. Taking in all his features, noticing all the parts that are himself and what parts are Lucien's mother…, his heart breaks when he sees the scar on his face, knowing there are more scars he keeps inside. 

“Welcome!” Elain takes over for him, breaking away from Helion to meet with him. “Lucien, it’s nice to see you.” 

Surprisingly, she opens her arms and brings him in for a hug. 

He’s a bit shocked, but accepts. Holding her close, smelling Azriel on her. He pulls back with concern on his face, “Did the shadowsinger fly you in?” 

She shakes her head, “he’s been staying here during my training, assuring I stay safe after what happened with the cauldron the last time I started looking for answers.”

It's not a lie, just not the whole truth, either. 

��In your bed?” He chuckles, “I was wondering when you’d finally get together.” 

“You wouldn’t be upset about it?” 

He shakes his head, “I don’t own you; you’re free to make your own choices. I’ve been alive for over 300 years; you haven’t. I’d like to see you make your own choices and mistakes and find happiness.” 

She pulls him in for another hug. " Oh, Lucien, thank you! I expected you to want to follow the cauldron's orders.”

Lucien soaks in the hug, eyes closed as he holds her. “This is the one time I’m not going to blindly follow someone's orders. I’ve learned my lesson.”  

“It’s also why we’re here,” Rhysand says from behind them. “We’ve learned quite a few things about the cauldron, things that you should be made aware of.” 

“The uh, the dining room is all set up for lunch if you’d care to join me in there for this meeting,” Helion finally speaks. “It’s lovely to have you here, Lucien.” 

He reaches out his hand for Helion, “Thank you for inviting me. I’ve always loved visiting the day court.” 

They all agreed it’s completely up to Helion when he tells Lucien; if he ever tells him. This meeting is about the information Nuan found in her research, how to find one's true love and what the Daglan did to mating bonds. 

They gather around the dining table and fill their plates with sandwiches, fruits, and vegetables with dips, cheeses and meats. Its a wonderful spread that his kitchen staff makes on the regular. Elain is going to have to start incorporating these into her own meal rotation at home. 

“What is it you wish to tell me,” Lucien asks between bites. 

Rhysand looks to Elain and then Helion, “Who would like to explain?” 

“I can,” Elain assures, putting down her sandwich and taking a sip of her bubbly wine first before continuing. “Last spring, we had an unexpected visitor in the Night Court. She jumped from her world to ours thanks to the Harp— the 4th forgotten item from the dread trove.”

Lucien's eyes widened. “Is world jumping real? I thought it was a myth?” 

Elain sighs, “It’s very real. You need specific items to do it the right way. However, Bryce was brought here to learn more about her heritage. She was the original Queen Theia’s long-lost ancestor… it turns out that Theia killed Fionn, took the trove and opened a portal to another world that the Daglan had overtaken after they were kicked from our world. There, Theia confirmed that the Daglan, now the Asteri, are just power-hungry monsters who feed off our power. When they were here, they used the cauldron to create deadly weapons, horrible monsters they could hunt for sport, and they corrupted the cauldron to ensure that mate bread more powerful beings they could feed off of.” 

“Holy shit,” Lucien can’t believe it. 

“Nuan, who fixed your eye,” Elain continues, waiting for Luciens mind to catch up, he nods. “She has been doing research for us. The wood of the ash tree is deadly for us, however the Ash tree is a cousin of the olive tree…” 

She picks up an olive with her fork and eats it, “how can one thing kill us and the other be so delicious?” 

“That is a fascinating question,” Feyre says under her breath. 

“Nuan discovered that the Daglan discovered a tea that would allow for the taker to dream of their one true love and those who were able to could then Scry to find them,” she continues with a large smile. “Before the Daglan corrupted the bonds, all mates were assigned together for the purpose of true and happy love. They outlawed the tea because they didn’t want true love bonds anymore, they only wanted powerful offspring.” 

“Are you saying we aren’t a true love bond?” Lucien clues in, shoulders slumping. “I mean, I knew it wasn’t a strong love, I just didn’t expect it to not be true love.” 

Elain shakes her head, feeling sorry for having to break the news to him, “no, the Daglan would collect a tithe from us, taking 10% of our power that we willingly gave to them each year. They wanted a way to still take 10%, they just wanted a stronger 10% so they corrupted the cauldron to make mates who would produce powerful offspring that would satiate them.” 

“Like my parents and Tamlin’s,” Rhysand adds. “They did not love each other; they have just been born through the generations to continue to make powerful children, even after the Daglan left.” 

“How do we fix it?” Lucien asks. 

“We’re still working on that,” Helion jumps in. “Elain is still learning all that she can do with her power so we can attain more answers.”

“So far, I’ve learned basic divination, meditation and relaxation, tarot, astrology, and my favourite has been numerology,” she beams at him. “When is your birthday?” 

“Um, October 3rd,” he shares. “My mother tried to have all of us in the autumn.”

Helion stares at his plate, moving around his side salad and not saying anything. 

“So that would make you a life path number 4,” Elain explains. “Life path number 4’s spend most of their life looking for their true identity. You find accomplishment through hard work. You have great self-discipline. 4 teaches the value of determination, effort, simplicity, and dependability.”

He nods along, slowly taking it all in. “That… that sounds right. What would someone born on January 1st be?”

“A 2,” Elain answers without missing a beat, making Helion smile. 

“She is the best student I’ve ever had,” he compliments, staring right at Feyre. “I don’t want to give her back.” 

“I’ll come visit you,” Elain assures him. 

“What does 2 mean?” Lucien wonders, something like urgency on his tone.

“Um,” she looks to Helion for a bit of support. He nods his head slightly, reminding her that she’s got this. “the energy of 2 does not seek to control but to achieve balance. Those born on the 2 Life Path have the potential to lead the way for humanity through their refined powers of persuasion, their ability to inspire on an emotional level, and most importantly, their desire to bring equality and peace to this planet.”

Lucien blushes slightly, looking down at his plate. “She is going to change the world.” 

“Who?” Feyre asks, sitting up straighter. Happy for her friend.

“Vassa,” Lucien beams. “Don’t tell her, but I’m— I think I’m falling in love with her.” 

Elain places her hand on her heart, “This is wonderful news, Lucien!” 

“Thank you. I’m excited to take this tea now, to see if my true love match is her… even if it isn’t, even if it was Jesminda, I still want to be with Vassa.” 

“We’re still looking into her curse,” Helion assures him. “I’ll do anything I can to help you get to keep her.” 

“Thank you, Helion,” Lucien smiles. 

They look so similar it blows Elain’s mind. How does he not see it? It should be like looking in a mirror for him. 

“The teas will be delivered to our rooms tonight,” Elain assures. “We are all taking it. Some has even been sent back to Nesta and Cassian to check. Morrigan and Amren are taking it as well.” 

“What does this mean for you two?” Lucien asks Feyre and Rhys. 

They look at each other and smile. Rhys is quick to hold her hand above the table, “we know the truth. This love we have between us in unbreakable.” 

“I personally believe that the reason why mating has become so hard. People were shocked to find out that all 3 of us were mated so soon after becoming fae. It’s unheard of for a whole family to find a mate.” Feyre adds. “The Cauldron picked up to help it. I think the cauldron misses when it was dedicated to giving out love and life to these lands.” 

“So we bring it back,” Helion announces, holding up his glass. “No matter what it takes, we bring true love back to Prythian.” 

Everyone raises their glasses in response, dedicated to the task at hand. 

—

That night she sits in bed beside Azriel, a mug of steaming tea in both of their hands. “Are you sure?” She asks. 

“I want to know… even if it’s not you; even if I’m meant for no one, I want to know and love you anyway,” Azriel assures. 

“And if we do dream of each other?” 

Azriel’s eyes soften; he’s more beautiful than ever before. “Then we’ll know why we’ve wanted one another so badly.” 

“Do you think this tea will make us tired or just aid in our dreams when we do fall asleep?” She asks. 

A knowing smirk grows on his face, “Why?” 

She takes another sip and places her almost empty cup on her night table; Azriel follows her lead and does the same. She quickly straddles his hips, hands on his shoulders, “because I would like to remind you just how badly I’ve wanted you all this time.” 

—

Elain and Azriel are the last to arrive at the breakfast table the nest morning. Hand in hand, matching smiles plastered to their faces. 

They dreamt of each other last night. 

Feyre is sitting in Rhys’ lap, being hand-fed cantaloupe while Lucien laughs. Helion shakes his head with a smile. "Well, I take it you had good dreams?” the golden High Lord asks.

Elain nods, “We had the same dream… us and our daughter playing in the grass behind our home on the Sidra.” 

Feyre places a hand to her heart, “the same girl you’ve seen before?” 

“You’ve seen her before?” Azriel can’t believe it. 

Elain nods, “We adopt her from Illyria, seeing as I can’t have babies for us.” 

Azriel kisses her head, “we’ll create the family we deserve.” 

They take a seat side by side, across from Lucien, “So, what did you dream of?” 

“Fire,” Lucien explains, smile building. “Blinding, bright fire that took over all my senses.” 

“Your firebird,” Feyre swoons. 

He nods, overjoyed with love in his eyes, “My firebird… Helion, who did you see?” 

He takes a deep breath, thinking it over. “I saw my mate… Seraphina.” 

“That’s my… mother’s—“ Lucien blinks in understanding. “What?” 

Helion simply nods. “I met her a year before she was betrothed to Beron. We met again during the great war, and… we had a love affair that lasted over a hundred years. Beron never knew, not until the end, when she became pregnant.” 

Lucien's mechanical eye closes in on Helion, studying him. “You’re… my father?” 

Helion nods. “I didn’t know. Not until last week.” 

“Does my— does Beron know?” 

Helion shrugs, “I’m not certain. However, his level of cruelty to you, from what I’ve heard, could be explained by knowing you’re not his blood.” 

“Then where does—

“Your mother was sold to your father to ensure that the fire in her veins passed on to all his children. He wanted the strongest brood and would do anything to get it.” 

“Why didn’t you do anything about it? Why didn’t you challenge him?” Lucien begs, “You know he hurts her, and you do nothing?” 

“What do you do?” Helion challenges him right back. “Beron is not a man I would like to mess with unless absolutely necessary. Your mother asked me not to intervene. She asked me to let nature take its course, and she said when the time was right when he died, she could come back to me.” 

Lucien just shakes his head, “I wish he would die tomorrow.” 

“We all do,” Rhys murmurs, reminding the men that there are others in the room, still. 

Lucien calms, shaking his head as it all settles around him. “So I’m… I’m heir to the day court?” 

Helion nods, “you are… I’ve heard your fire is bright, almost white. That you can winnow and you run like the wind. I wonder if there’s more light to you, if when you become truly happy... if you’ll glow like myself and Feyre do.” 

“I’ve…. I’ve glowed,” Lucien admits. “I thought it was… I’m not sure what it was.” 

Clearly lying, he doesn’t seem comfortable enough to share. 

“How about we leave you two,” Elain announces, standing with her plate now filled with food. “My chambers have a sitting room; we can move there. Let them bond.” 

“Fantastic idea,” feyre is quick to her feet, feeling just as awkward as everyone else. “I’d love to hear more about your dreams.” 

@greenleaf777 @lostvillainess

General Taglist 

@ncsls0515 @stevesmunsons @reidsbookclub @sweetyyhippyy @manuosorioh @mrs-dr-reid @k-k0129 @squishyturtle @katsukis1wife @buckleyhans @mrs-ssa-hotch @ssavanessa22

[cinnamunspice]

cont. from @rogueportraits

Like a fly buzzing around in her ear, the pest's persistent vibrations arose a kind of fury in her that she didn't know possible. Fifteen-year-old Stephanie Brown, in her refitted gym wear and tactical gear-- SPOILER -- ready to ruin her dad's day and finally get the kind of justice she needed, crouched low, perched above the scene of the crime. And this time? She wasn't alone.

People drew the short stick of the straw every day, why did people like CLUEMASTER and RIDDLER think they were above the rules? How come people suffered every day, but still managed to make the right choices, if it was so called 'reform' needed? People didn't resolve to hurt other people, to steal things, to yell and scream at their partner, to let drug addiction run rampant in the house, bringing strangers in and out and in and out like it was some kind of seedy motel, but with more goods stolen, and to ruin their family over an inflated ego?

Ahem.

Perhaps that got a touch too personal.

Let's rewind, take a step back: There was plenty of rage in her heart. It helped her focus. Hone in on what was important. Running into the RIDDLER could have resulted in another fight: but she was smart enough to see opportunity here. Work together. Grit your teeth and bear it. Then: expose them both.

Last time she checked, Edward Nygma hadn't served his full sentence in Arkham. She kept tabs on those sort of things.

SPOILER clicked the binoculars closed. It was hard to see, with the mask covering her entire face and head, so really, she wasn't sure what she was expecting there. Tugging the hood of her cape further down over her forehead, she grumbled,

"Yeah. I'm sure you were a basket of kittens. Look:" She tosses him the pair,

"You want CLUEMASTER to go down? Let's not waste time with spoilers, and just get down to business. You see the pattern he's drawing, right? It's a clock. Perfect symmetry. It's wired up to the one on the tower, but he's using the entire city as the interspace for the hands. And as each bell rings, he uses corresponding targets--" She tugs out a folder from her pack, notebook paper covered in scribbles with illustrations over a city map, poems and other literary references to the cuckoo clock (prepared in the way that someone might have trained to be on jeopardy, or other trivia shows like it)-- and plenty of other cypher keys and post translated notes at crime scenes.

Meticulous. Impressive. Not usual for a girl her age. And it was obvious that she was not older than sixteen, at most. Costumes at her budget couldn't afford voice modulators.

SPOILER pointed at the map, "Two pairs of marble tables stolen at the place of 'two', while the previous target 'one' is blown up-- creating a diversion, a split path: one team will have to solve the puzzles, the cyphers left to decode the clues, the other has to deal with the fallout of the explosion, while he sets up 'three's heist. He doesn't think anyone will make the connection until he's at six, and by then, he's going to skip to the main event and blow through the rest by being here. So.... famed RIDDLER. " Her voice dripped with heavy distaste,

"What do you think the solution here, is? Or do you think you've gotten.... rusty, behind bars?"

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic Cyber Revolution, Entry 22: The Treasure Hunter

''Tap the rhythm against the floor to look for another door. I am slipping to the mystery of the night. I know there is an easy way, but it is my choice anyway. Don't let me waste my time in futile thinking anymore. Fated not to be tamed, watch me I never will lean upon you. I can go – by myself!''

– Fly in the Freedom by Sonic Adventure 2 (Theme of Rouge)

xXxXxXx

It was the middle of the night, the mansion being dead silent. The room was only illuminated by the moonlight coming from a nearby window, only for it to darken when a shadow-like figure appeared behind the window, easily opening it and making her way inside the room. She looked around, making sure there weren't any cameras inside the room, then smiled in satisfaction.

This person was an anthropomorphic bat with white fur, tan skin, turquoise eyes with two large eyelashes on each one, and a curvy figure. She had large pointy ears, small fangs, a small black nose on her muzzle, a short pointy tail, and a pair of dark purple wings on her back. Only her head appeared to have fur, which flared out into six points at the back. She was wearing powder blue eyeshadow and a pink lipstick and her attire consisted of a black, skin-tight, strapless unitard with a pink, heart-shaped chestplate with white trim, along with long white gloves and high-heeled boots with pink cuffs. Her boots also had gray soles and featured pink hearts on the toes. She also had a small white bag with a strap over her shoulder. Once she was assured that no one would interrupt her, she started to make her way over to a portrait, opening it like a door and observing the vault before her. She then reached for her bag, taking out a compact from it. Opening it, she smiled at the tiny mirror and taking the powder puff that was inside it. She then gathered some of the powder before tapping it over the number pad on the vault, before blowing away the excess powder, leaving only four numbers covered.

''They really need to up the security here.''

Rouge the Bat smiled as she punched in the number code, having observed earlier in the day the directions the owner used to open the vault. The number pad glowed green and the vault opened, with Rouge's eyes sparking as she saw the pink jewel inside it.

''Oh, you're so beautiful! So perfect!''

Rouge grabbed the pink jewel, examining it with glee. She felt as if she was in Heaven, having managed to successfully steal another jewel from some rich person who'd probably not even miss it. She felt that should could give it a much better home. She then placed the jewel in her bag, sighing dramatically.

''Despite the dazzling reward, there really isn't any challenge, as expected,'' Rouge muttered under her breath, a little disappointed that there wasn't more to her heist. She shook her head, leaving through the window and flying into the night.

xXx

Tails stretched his arms, yawning. ''We're finally done… What's the time?''

''It's like 1 AM in the morning,'' Warren responded, yawning and squinting at the computer monitor. They were at their workshop, finally done decoding and cataloguing all of the data they got from the Codex Research Facility, creating two separate files, one for themselves and another for Touka and Shadow, including back-ups. ''I feel like my brain had been fried, and we're still not done.''

''I wonder whether we should tell Lucas about what we found out,'' Tails said, leaning back in his seat. ''He did say that he wanted to learn more about the origins of Irregulars, and we actually got some insight into that.''

''Yeah, but I'm not sure whether Touka and Shadow will agree to us telling Lucas or the rest of the team what we had found out,'' Warren pointed out. ''You saw it for yourself, that information is part of Project Shadow.''

''I think we should call them and ask them about it,'' Tails said, reaching for the AR Visor on the top of his head, but was hesitant. ''Uh, do you think they're asleep?''

''I'm pretty sure everyone's asleep at this point, aside from us,'' Warren replied in a deadpan tone. ''But, I still think we should go ahead with it. If they don't pick up, we'll give them a call tomorrow.''

''You know that 'tomorrow' is now, right?'' Tails replied, deciding to call Touka, because he didn't want to deal with a grumpy Shadow. Warren snorted as they waited for the call to pick up. It took a minute, but the holographic screen revealed an annoyed Touka, sitting on her bed and frowning as she stared at them. Shadow, who also woke up, was sitting next to her, was just glaring at the two.

''I hope you have a good reason for calling us in the middle of the night,'' Touka said.

''We managed to finally finish decoding all the data we got from Codex, so we wanted to ask you if you could come over tomorrow to pick up the USB stick,'' Tails explained.

''You could've just called us in the morning to tell us that,'' Shadow said, his gaze softening slightly.

''There was something else we wanted to tell you about. Some of the information we had found concerns the possible origin of Irregulars and we wanted to share it with everyone, but it's part of Project Shadow, so we wanted to ask for your opinion first, since this is very personal to you,'' Warren explained.

''We are only going to talk about the part that concerns Irregulars in general, so you don't have to worry about sharing any information you're not comfortable with,'' Tails added.

Touka and Shadow both had to admit that they were a little surprised that they even asked, but pleased nevertheless. ''How important is the information you got?''

''Important enough for everyone to know,'' Warren replied.

''You two could come earlier to take a look at it, if you want and tell us whether you're okay with what we have prepared,'' Tails suggested. Touka and Shadow fell silent for a moment, exchanging glances as if engaged in a wordless conversation.

''Go for it,'' Touka finally said, much to Warren and Tails' surprise. ''I'm curious what you have uncovered. Good night!''

The screen went black, with Warren just sighing in relief. ''Man, it's always so tense with these two around.''

''At least we can call everyone else for a meeting,'' Tails replied, already typing up a message and sending it to everyone. Warren took a deep breath, leaning against the table.

''I just want to go to sleep.''

xXx

''…and Mum's paranoid that someone might break into our house to steal her jewel and gemstone collection,'' Lily concluded, with Minami and Amy giving her surprised looks. The two were on their way towards the Taylor Workshop, having ran into Lily and Knuckles on their way there, with the latter two telling them about last night's break into into the mansion of Lauren Crystle's, Lily's mother, close friend. Minami furrowed a brow.

''I had no idea your mother was interested in gemology,'' she said. Lily waved her off.

''Actually, she isn't. She just likes to collect valuable gemstones and then brag in front of her friends about them. She has a whole room just dedicated to her hobby,'' Lily explained.

''Now that someone stole from her friend, she voiced her concerns during breakfast over her collection being the next target and demands additional security. Lily's father stated that there was no reason to be worried, though,'' Knuckles added.

''Really, why?'' Amy asked, confused.

''I think that Dad just didn't want to deal with Mum's dramatics, so he blew it off,'' Lily replied, shrugging. ''Honestly, I don't really care about it, although I'd like to learn more about this mysterious thief.''

''If this thief knows what is good for them, they wouldn't dare to steal from our home as long as I'm the Guardian,'' Knuckles said.

''Nevertheless, if you ever need help, you know you can call us,'' Amy noted. Knuckles simply nodded in response as they arrived at the workshop. The rest of Team Neos was already there, with Warren and Tails working on a device, with Sonic peering curiously over Tails' shoulder. Lucas was talking to Makoto and Silver, while Touka and Shadow were in the corner of the room, reading something on a holographic screen.

''Hey, guys! Hope you haven't started without us,'' Minami announced their presence as they joined the rest of the team.

''Don't worry, we were waiting for you,'' Warren told her, with Tails picking up the device they had been working on earlier, disconnecting it from the computer.

''What's that?'' Sonic asked.

''It's a portable AR Field generator, something Warren worked on before I came along. We wanted to use it for our presentation,'' Tails explained. He pressed a button on it, the AR Field suddenly spreading through the entire room and revealing a bunch of holographic screens floating around them. ''All done!''

As their friends settled either on the couch or just leaned against it, Warren and Tails turned towards them, feeling a little nervous. After all, the information they had discovered felt like a huge bombshell since any information regarding Irregulars was limited and investigations in their origins were basically non-existent due to the government forbidding it. However, given the existence of the Codex Research Facility, that hadn't always been the case.

''So, you already know why we have called you here,'' Warren started, noting everyone's gazes of anticipation. Sonic held up his hand as if he was in a class.

''Yeah, you said you had figured out the origins of Irregulars,'' Sonic said.

''Right, except that's not completely the case. As a matter of fact, all of the information we got was from the Codex Research Facility, being part of Prof. Hiroshi Sakamoto's research,'' Warren explained, briefly glancing at Touka and Shadow, who looked quite tense.

''There are a few points we wanted to go through,'' Tails said, grabbing a nearby holographic screen that was filled with notes. ''For starters, you all know that any research concerning Irregulars had been forbidden, not helped due to Shadow basically destroying a good chunk of the Codex Research Facility.'' Tails glanced at the ebony hedgehog. ''Yeah, there is no way to sugarcoat this one. Sorry, Shadow.''

''I don't mind,'' Shadow replied, arms folded across his chest.

''Nevertheless, before that, the scientists at Codex were tasked with the research of Irregulars, who had proven themselves a threat since there really wasn't anyone who could properly deal with them at the time, since the Irregular Hunters haven't even been formed yet and combat-oriented ARNavs weren't developed yet,'' Warren continued. ''The main directive of this research was to learn the origins of the Irregulars, their connection to BioEnergy and whether there was a possibility to control them properly without them being a danger to humanity.''

''Prof. Sakamoto had even detailed in his notes how Codex had created a task force to capture Irregulars and bring them there for research. Let's just say that some members got seriously hurt during that process,'' Tails continued. ''During the research, they had come to the same conclusions as we did. Irregulars, unlike regular ARNavs, are both biological and digital in nature, needing to sleep and eat while also being able to manipulate data and survive outside an AR Field, as well as be able to manipulate BioEnergy. However, they still didn't know why that was the case.''

''Considering what you had told us, it looks like they figured it out eventually,'' Amy commented.

''Correct, although this only happened because Prof. Sakamoto had help from an outside contributor,'' Warren replied.

''Really? He couldn't figure it out by himself?'' Makoto was stunned.

''Who was the contributor?'' Silver asked.

''Unfortunately, that information had been redacted,'' Tails replied, turning a holographic screen towards them and showing them the notes with the redacted parts. ''Whoeever it was, Prof. Sakamoto didn't want anyone to know. We don't know why either, because he never elaborated on that in detail, so unless you guys know anything, this is all we got.''

''If we knew anything, we would've told you. Prof. Sakamoto made sure that Shadow and I stay as far away from the research areas as possible unless he specifically called for us, which was rare,'' Touka explained.

''That still didn't prevent you from going to areas you weren't supposed to be at,'' Shadow remarked dryly. Touka just shrugged.

''So? I was bored,'' she replied, with Shadow rolling his eyes. Touka turned to Warren and Tails. ''In any case, we don't really have anything to add.''

''Fortunately, we do,'' Warren replied. ''We all know that ARNavs are sentient digital beings created in a controlled environment. Irregulars, however, aren't really created as much as they're… I guess 'born' would be the correct term? I'm not sure.''

''I'd go with the term 'awoken','' Tails added, glancing at Warren, then turned towards fellow Irregular teammates. ''None of us really remembers where we come from. We have absolutely no memories of our past save from the moment we awoke.''

''That's correct,'' Knuckles said.

''The reason for that is because Irregulars are literal errors that appeared in the current system. They are amalgamations of stray data that has been caught between an AR Field and the real world, glitching out and forming into an Irregular. That also explains why we have no memories of anything before awakening. We're literally not supposed to exist,'' Tails explained. There was a moment of silence, with his teammates exchanging glances, being rather surprised, but at the same time, they seemed to be more accepting of that fact. With all the things that happened to them, this may not have been as shocking as it was supposed to be.

''That would explain why so many Irregulars have appeared in Neos City, since this place is filled with AR Fields,'' Sonic pointed out.

Tails simply nodded and continued, ''There is something else I want to add. According to Prof. Sakamoto, it is actually almost impossible for an Irregular to be artificially created. It wasn't elaborated on why though, but I have a couple of theories regarding that. More importantly, the remaining data shows that there had been several unsuccessful attempts of creating an artificial Irregular that they would be able to control, hence why I said that it's almost impossible to create one. However, thanks to the anonymous contributor, there was one, and only one, successful creation.''

As if on cue, everyone turned their heads towards Shadow. The ebony hedgehog wasn't too keen on all of the sudden attention he got, opting to just scowl and ignore it. They knew about his and Touka's past, as they had told them, and he wasn't going to answer any unnecessary questions.

''Moving on,'' Warren started, drawing everyone's attention. ''There was also a section about the research on BioEnergy and its connection to Irregulars. However, neither Tails nor I are really comfortable talking about it in detail because it is tied to Project Shadow, so we'll leave that one to Touka and Shadow to explain, if they want to.'' He paused, catching the two's intense gaze. ''All we can say is that there was an attempt at weaponizing BioEnergy and Irregulars, but they had failed.''

''Not only failed, but failed spectacularly,'' Tails added in a snarky tone.

''Hmph, it is ironic that what the Professor couldn't achieve, you have managed to figure out,'' Shadow said suddenly, ignoring the looks he got.

''You mean, Chaos Surge?'' Lucas asked. Shadow nodded, then noted Sonic's curious look.

''Do you want to tell us more?'' Sonic asked.

''I was only going to fill in the gaps,'' Shadow replied. He did respect Tails and Warren for not sharing all of the information, him and Touka having decided after the call they got that they would add more if necessary. Shadow recalled Prof. Sakamoto's last log, having read it after he woke up from his stasis pod, feeling the rage simmering again, but kept himself calm. ''The Professor has never shared what the true purpose of his research, but he would still run exams on me. He had also insisted on me and Touka developing a close bond, and I suppose that was all part of his experiment. It even reached a point where we both were put into danger just to see whether he can trigger anything.''

''Honestly, I'm just glad we don't have to deal with him or anything regarding Codex anymore,'' Touka said, sighing in relief. There was a moment of silence, suddenly broken by Silver.

''Do you guys think we'll meet more Irregulars like us?'' Silver asked.

''Well, Knuckles and I had already a run in with Big and Froggy, and there were also the Babylon Rogues. I guess anything's possible,'' Lily said.

xXx

Knuckles yawned, walking away from the kitchen while eating handful of grapes. He woke up in the middle of the night feeling a little hungry and, after failing to fall asleep, he decided to just get his favorite snack to calm his nerves. It was a rather quiet night, but Knuckles remained alert. It was a habit of his, something he learned from his travels, to listen to his gut feeling and be prepared for anything. He had been told that the Crystle Mansion was quite secure, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't do a little patrol around just to be sure. He was Lily's Guardian, after all, and that extended to her home as well.

Throwing the last grape into his mouth, Knuckles walked past a hallway leading to a room belonging to Lily's mother, that being her hobby room, the one she displayed all the gemstones and jewels she gathered. No one was allowed to enter it, but Knuckles stopped for a moment, a strange feeling bubbling inside his chest and then walked over to it. After opening the door, he peered inside, his purple eyes widening in surprise at what he saw.

Inside was a white bat ARNav taking a red jewel out of the display case. Knuckles' brow furrowed as he slammed the door open, causing the thief to get startled and turn towards him. Knuckles clenched his fists, walking right over to her.

''Who are you and what are you doing with that jewel?'' Knuckles confronted the intruder. The bat ARNav gave him an intrigued gaze, still holding up the red jewel.

''My name is Rouge the Bat. Better known as the treasure hunter, Rouge,'' Rouge introduced herself, then tilted her head slightly as she gazed at Knuckles. ''And, who are you, handsome?''

''I'm Knuckles the Echidna, the Guardian of the Crystle Mansion, and you have no business being here,'' Knuckles responded, trying to ignore the ''handsome'' comment. Rouge put her fingertip on her lips, acting as if she were surprised.

''Oh, really? I had no idea!'' she said, walking around Knuckles. The red echidna was scowling, arms folded across his chest as he observed her circling him as if she was checking him out. ''I had just found some beautiful jewels and I just couldn't resist taking a closer look at them.''

''You got your chance to take a look at them, now give me back the jewel and leave before I make you leave!'' Knuckles warned her, but Rouge didn't appear to be particularly threatened.

''Don't worry, I was planning on leaving, but not without a souvenir,'' Rouge replied casually, brushing with her hand against Knuckles shoulder as she walked past him. Knuckles tensed for a moment, shivering feeling a chill down his spine, but then quickly turned towards Rouge.

''Give me the jewel back,'' he demanded. Rouge smirked, placing one hand on her hip as she turned towards him.

''Why don't you take it by yourself?'' she replied, holding the jewel up. Knuckles stepped towards her, but Rouge stepped back. Frowning, he stepped again towards her, reaching for the jewel, but Rouge leapt back. Now annoyed, Knuckles lunged at Rouge, but she quickly flapped her wings, flying up and causing Knuckles to crash into a nearby display. He shook his head, looking up at Rouge as she hovered above him. ''Huh? Is that all you've got?''

''You'll pay for this!'' Knuckles growled.

''I'm sorry honey, but I don't have any money on me,'' Rouge teased him, then winked at Knuckles. ''Would a kiss be enough?''

''Wh-ah, no!'' Knuckles stammered, his cheeks taking a sudden shade of red, being caught off guard by Rouge's question. Rouge took advantage of this, doing a two-finger salute and quickly flew out through the skylight.

''I'll be seeing you later!''

Knuckles just stared at the skylight, completely stunned. Suddenly, a pit formed in his stomach, followed by the sensation of dread as he realized that Rouge had just escaped with the jewel he was supposed to protect simply because he froze. He hated it.

xXx

''Why have you told me not to tell your parents that I know who stole the jewel?'' Knuckles asked.

Lily hummed as she and Knuckles were going over to Heizeru Park. She, her parents and Bennet had been awoken in the middle of the night by Knuckles, who regretfully told them that one of the jewels from Lauren's collection had been stolen, apologizing for his failure to guard the Crystle Mansion. However, he had woken up Lily first and immediately told her who the culprit was, but to his confusion, she insisted that he keep it a secret. He also had to face the anger from her parents, who immediately went into blaming him for allowing the jewel to get stolen. Lily defended him, going by the narrative of Knuckles already finding the jewel stolen, but she didn't explain to the echidna why she decided to lie to her own parents. Instead, she called Team Neos for a meeting the next day.

''Mainly because the thief who stole the jewel is Rouge the Bat and I feel that this is something we should be handling instead of my parents calling the police,'' Lily replied.

''I do agree that I should make up for my mistake,'' Knuckles responded, although Lily could hear the disheartened tone in his voice. She was about to continue the conversation, when a blue blur ran right past them, halting to a stop and turning around.

''Hey, there you are! Everyone's already waiting for you at Heizeru Park!'' Sonic told them. ''Speaking of which, why did you ask for meeting up there and not at your place?''

''Mainly because I don't want to convince my parents to have my friends over without a proper plan, especially since they're already in an awful mood because of what happened,'' Lily replied. ''You remember how Bennet didn't even want to let you inside and you got lucky because Knuckles and I found you in one of our booby traps? I want to avoid that.''

''Yeah, I'd like to avoid that too,'' Sonic agreed, glancing at Knuckles. ''Are you okay, Knux?''

''I will be fine once I find Rouge and take that jewel back from her,'' Knuckles responded, scowling. Sonic gave him a thumbs up.

''Don't worry, we'll help you with that,'' he said in a chipper tone. Knuckles gazed at Sonic, feeling at the same time both annoyed and relieved by his assurance. He felt it was his personal responsibility to return the jewel from Rouge, but at the same time, having some assistance wasn't a bad thing, especially since he already knew that he could rely on Team Neos to help him. After all, this was the reason they all agreed to work together – to combat all kinds of threats as a team.

When they arrived at Heizeru Park, they found the rest of the team at the clearing close to the pond, already talking about some random topic. Lily and Knuckles were mildly surprised that Touka and Shadow were there as well, since the two were usually just doing their own thing. Admittedly, they were a bit apart from the rest of the group, with Touka leaning against a tree, while Shadow was sitting on the branch above, just observing the situation quietly.

''Hey, guys!'' Lily called out for the group, who turned towards her. ''Knux and I already told you during the call what happened, but I guess we kind of need to elaborate on it.''

''You did tell us that you had a break in and Rouge stole a jewel, and that you wanted to do something about it,'' Amy said.

''Correct,'' Knuckles replied.

''Do you have any idea where to find her?'' Minami asked.

''No, but she had told me that 'she'll be seeing me later'. However, I don't understand the meaning of it,'' Knuckles replied. ''I don't know whether she is going to return to steal more jewels, but I believe that it is a possibility and I want to prepare for it.''

''So, what's the plan?'' Silver asked, his question causing a few heads turn right towards Lucas, who appeared to be startled by the sudden attention.

''Uh… Why are you all looking at me like that?'' he asked.

''You're the self-proclaimed leader and the one who comes up with a plan. Don't be so surprised,'' Touka snarked, a slight smirk on her lips. Lucas frowned, glancing at Touka.

''Yeah, I know, but…'' Lucas trailed off for a moment, glancing at Lily and Knuckles. ''I want to first hear what exactly you want to do. After all, this situation is personal to you.''

''Honestly, if Knuckles is right and Rouge would return, maybe we could ambush her or make some kind of trap?'' Lily suggested, shrugging. ''That's what we wanted to talk about in detail.''

''Well, I'm all for this trap idea,'' Minami replied. ''If Rouge is anything like her video game counterpart, she will return to grab the rest of the jewels that are at the mansion. The only question is when.''

''Unfortunately, I don't have the information, but I am willing to stand guard until she does appear,'' Knuckles replied. Lucas hummed at the comment, folding his arms across his chest as he thought about the trap idea.

''You know, I think a trap could work, but we don't really know when Rouge would plan to strike again,'' he said. ''I mean, an alarm system could also do the job…''

''There is an alarm system at the gate and cameras inside the mansion, but Rouge didn't trigger any alarm nor was she seen on any of the cameras. When she escaped, she used the skylight above the room,'' Knuckles explained.

''Honestly, I'm not surprised about that,'' Warren said, remembering the spy aspect of Rouge's character. Lucas' eyes lit up and he hit with his fist against his palm.

''I think we can work around this,'' he said, grinning.

xXx

''Chaos Surge!''

Dr. Eggman furrowed a brow as he observed Ferra and Metal Sonic charging up with power on one of his computer screens. The two had spent the past few days learning how to harness and control their new ability, growing quite strong. He just let them do their own thing, figuring that this way, they'll be an even better asset to his own plans. He himself had been busy with the fallout of infecting the Buddy Bots with a virus. He let the android he created, Dr. Tamago, do the talking to the public and the investigators and while he knew that people wouldn't so easily trust the company after what had happened, he also knew that after some time passed, everyone would forget about it, especially if he made sure that his Eggman Empire wasn't associated with the Tamago Corporation.

''I got the attention of Neos City and Sonic and his friends. Tamago Corporation has had its reputation recovered and no one is the wiser,'' Dr. Eggman said, rubbing his hands as he pulled up another screen. ''Excellent!''

''Have you already finished your new project, Boss?'' Orbot asked, bringing along with Cubot a few snacks and a blue mug of coffee on a tray, the red text on the mug saying #1 Brilliant Genius.

''Yeah, you sound quite happy, despite your recent defeat,'' Cubot added, only to get elbowed by Orbot. The spherical robot gave him a warning look, not wanting to get on Eggman's bad side by reminding him of the defeat several days ago. Eggman just glared at the two, then turned towards the monitors.

''That encounter was far from a defeat. I have achieved what I wanted and my current project is close to being finished,'' Eggman replied, adding with a growl, ''It would've been faster if a certain duo was actually doing what they're supposed to do.''

''Oh, you mean Mephiles and Toshiro? They're already here,'' Cubot replied.

''Why haven't you told me that earlier?'' Eggman asked angrily.

''You… haven't asked?'' Orbot said, shrugging.

''Just tell the two to get over here,'' Eggman replied, now impatient, with Orbot and Cubot quickly leaving. It didn't take long until Toshiro and Mephiles entered the room, with Eggman getting up. ''I have told you two to give me a report the moment you return!''

''With all due respect, sir, we didn't want to interrupt you in case you were busy,'' Toshiro replied, but Eggman interrupted him.

''I don't care about your excuses, I want results! Especially since you two just decided to disappear during the invasion,'' Eggman growled.

''Then, you will be pleased to hear that Prof. Sakamoto has finalized a way to synthetize a proper energy source for you,'' Mephiles replied. ''It is not the infinite source of energy you demanded, but it is satisfactory enough.''

''Do you have the data with you?'' Eggman asked.

''No, but the Professor is in the process of finishing it. However, his mental health isn't the best as of late,'' Toshiro replied.

''In other words, he's losing his grip on reality,'' Mephiles added. Eggman sat back down in the swivel chair, staring at the two as he clasped his hands, with his index fingers pointing up.

''As long as he finishes the project, I don't care. It is… unfortunate to lose a brilliant mind, but I might as well take back all of the resources I gave him if he's of no more use to me,'' he said.

''So, you're planning to let him rot in his own madness?'' Toshiro asked. Eggman just waved him off, turning back to the computer screen behind him.

''As long as he doesn't attempt to sabotage my own plans, be it intentionally or unintentionally, I frankly don't care what he's up to,'' he replied. ''However, I do have another project for you two. Since you have been missing from the action last time, you'll be leading tonight's attack.''

''You are planning an attack on Neos City?'' Toshiro asked.

''Not on Neos City, but on Sonic and his friends,'' Eggman replied. ''It has been several days since the first attack and I don't want them to get too comfortable. You two know how to find whomever you're searching for, so take the Badniks and attack them.''

''Yes, sir,'' Toshiro replied, him and Mephiles leaving the room, passing by Orbot and Cubot, who apparently overheard the conversation.

''I guess that means that we should reset the 'X Days Without An Attack' counter,'' Cubot said. Toshiro and Mephiles didn't pay much attention to the two as they were focused on their task.

''I suppose we should make this an attack without making our presence known,'' Mephiles told Toshiro. ''It's still not time for our grand entrance.''

''You're right. Fortunately, Dr. Eggman did give us some key information to use,'' Toshiro replied. ''Rest assured, we it won't be long until all pieces are set.''

xXx

''So, is everyone ready for guard duty?'' Lucas asked, him and Sonic standing in front of the main entrance to the hobby room filled with the jewels and gemstones, the door behind them locked.

''Yeah!''

''We're ready!''

''Hopefully this works!''

''I still doubt Rouge would return tonight specifically.''

There was a chorus of responses from the rest of their teammates, some excited, some cynical. Nevertheless, they all agreed to go along with the plan they came up and try to catch Rouge in the act. After Lily managed to persuade her parents to let Team Neos on the case, they agreed, but not without some strong disapproval and comments regarding whom she's friends with; something everyone ignored. Lily also had to work around her and Knuckles' lie about knowing who the culprit was, explaining how they were doing this just because they felt that they might return for the rest of the collection. After all, the mansion now appeared to be a very easy target.

''Honestly, it's a miracle they agreed to this rather than calling the authorities or hiring additional bodyguards,'' Lily grumbled over the screen. She and Knuckles had also a good feeling that another reason why her parents approved of this was because Knuckles blamed himself for what happened, and seeing the echidna who previously put them in their place having a slice of humble pie made them feel vindicated.

''I'm sure that we got this,'' Sonic replied as he looked at the screens that showed where everyone was.

Makoto and Silver were stationed at the front gate, making sure no one could enter the yard through it. Minami and Amy were patrolling the front yard, Amy having her hammer out. Touka and Shadow took over the woods surrounding the mansion and the part behind it. Warren and Tails were stationed at the side entrance to the hobby room, the door behind them locked. Lily and Knuckles were locked up inside the jewel room, with Knuckles staring ahead stoically, his arms folded across his chest as he observed the skylight above, as if expecting Rouge to enter the room through it.

''Now, all we have to do is to wait. The moment you notice something, send out a warning,'' Lucas added, then turned the holographic screen off, looking at Sonic, who was walking up and down the corridor at a quite fast pace. ''Are you planning on making a hole in the hallway?''

''You know that I'm not the most patient person,'' Sonic replied. ''This is probably going to be a long wait.''

''You could go out from time to time just to check on everyone,'' Lucas suggested. Sonic just nodded, looking at the door behind him, wondering how Knuckles was doing.

The echidna in question was currently not moving from his spot, standing in front of the display of a green jewel, still staring at the skylight and feeling tense. Lily sat down next to him, giving him an empathetic look.

''Hey, Knuckles, are you feeling okay?'' she asked. ''You had been talking about how you need to make up for your mistake, but honestly, I don't think it's that bad. Yeah, sure, an expensive jewel was stolen, but you said you're here to protect me, not Mum's collection of gemstones.''

Knuckles frowned, being silent at first, but then started talking.

''I brought dishonor to my status as your Guardian. While I swore to protect you, this also extends to your home. I deeply apologize for my failure,'' Knuckles added solemly, staring ahead. Lily gazed at him, a sympathetic look on her expression, and shifted closer to him. ''All I want is to fix my mistake.''

''Knux, listen… You haven't failed anything,'' Lily told him in a comforting tone. Knuckles just frowned harder.

''You're just stating that to make me feel better,'' he responded. Lily just rolled her eyes, humming.

''Yeah, you're right, I do want to make you feel better because I feel like you're too hard on yourself,'' she admitted, tilting her head. ''Also, I think there's a bit more to it than you just losing a jewel to Rouge.''

Knuckles stiffened, a slight shade of red tinting his cheeks as he clenched his fists tighter. He then looked at Lily. ''Do you swear you won't tell anyone about what I'm going to tell you?''

''Of course not, cross my heart and hope to die if I ever do,'' Lily replied, with Knuckles sitting next to her, crossing his legs and taking a deep breath as he placed his hands on his knees.

''I believe that Rouge has somehow charmed me… or at least she put me under a hex,'' Knuckles started. Lily gave him a surprised look.

''What do you mean by that?''

''During our encounter, we had a conversation and I… I started feeling weird, to the point that I just froze. I'm ashamed to admit that I wasn't able to do anything at the moment and my inaction allowed Rouge to escape,'' Knuckles admitted.

''Was it something specific you guys were talking about?'' Lily asked, prying for more details to make sense of the situation. Knuckles shook his head.

''I… No, I just told her to hand over the jewel and she started to act weird and… bewitching, I suppose,'' he replied, remembering how he shivered at Rouge's touch. Lily stared at him for a moment, gears turning in her head as she processed the information, then snorted in amusement.

''I think I understand what's going on,'' she said. Knuckles gave her a confused look.

''You do?''

''Yeah, and rest assured, Rouge didn't put a hex on you,'' Lily assured him.

''Then, why-?'' Knuckle's voice died in his throat. Frankly, he felt quite foolish. He sighed, leaning back against the display case. ''I feel as if I should focus on my task rather than think about what had happened.''

''If you want to do that, that's okay. I'll be with you the whole time. If Rouge appears and tries to 'charm' you again, I'll have your back,'' Lily assured him, holding up her fist towards Knuckles. Knuckles smiled, lifting his arm and doing a fist bump.

''Thank you,'' he replied, grateful for Lily's presence. Whenever he felt like he doubted his actions, she was there to clear his mind and give him a proper direction. Sure, he was supposed to protect her, but he had to admit that he was content with Lily looking after him.

xXx

''Finally, they fell asleep,'' Rouge muttered under her breath, hanging upside down from a tree at the woods surrounding the Crystle Mansion. She had been observing the whole place for hours, waiting for Team Neos to get tired and the lack of sleep getting to them. She had seen Silver and Makoto leaning against the gate, Amy and Minami having fallen asleep on the sunloungers next to the swimming pool, and Touka and Shadow being sound asleep while hiding behind some bushes. She also was well aware that Sonic, Lucas, Tails and Warren were guarding both entrances and that Lily and Knuckles were inside the hobby room. How did she know that? She had followed Knuckles and Lily to Heizeru Park and eavesdropped their conversation with their friends. She heard their entire plan and knew that she could easily find a way inside without alerting anyone. Knuckles and his friends shouldn't have talked about it in the public. You never know who might overhear it.

Rouge did come prepared this time, just in case something happened. She flew up, a white and pink bag being slung over her shoulder and she flew towards the skylight she used the last night to break into the mansion. Fortunately for her, it was still open, so she easily slipped inside, landing right in front of Knuckles. To her surprise, he was standing leaned against a display case, arms still folded across his chest, yet he was fast asleep. Lily was next to him, sitting leaned against the display case, just as asleep as he was.

Rouge had to admit that they looked kind of cute like this. Unfortunately for them, she was planning to leave this place completely empty. She walked up towards the display case, reaching for the green jewel inside it, only to get startled when a gloved fist grabbed her arm. Her eyes widened as she stared at Knuckles, now fully awake and glaring at her.

''I… I thought you were asleep,'' Rouge said, completely stunned.

''No, you have been tricked,'' Knuckles replied. To Rouge's surprise, Lily suddenly got up, giving her a victorious look.

''I had figured that you might stick around, which is why I told everyone to meet up at Heizeru Park to talk about what we should do. Once we were done, I just sent everyone a message about the actual plan, which was to bait you here,'' Lily explained. Rouge smirked.

''You're a smart cookie, sweetheart,'' she said, ripping her arm out of Knuckles' grip and stepping back.

''Now, give us back the jewel you stole,'' Knuckles demanded. Rouge's ears twitched as she heard a clicking sound coming from both entrances, Sonic, Lucas, Tails and Warren entering the room. She then turned to Knuckles, who was ready to fight her. She reached for her bag, showing the red jewel she had stolen.

''You'll have to catch me if you want your precious jewel back,'' she said, reaching once again for the bag, but this time, she pulled out a white orb with a pink heart on it. Just as Knuckles, Tails and Sonic lunged at her, she threw the mini-bomb which exploded, acting like a smoke bomb. This allowed her to quickly fly up to the skylight, hearing coughing from behind her. Unfortunately for her, there was a flash of cyan and light blue lights, with Silver and Shadow hovering in front of the skylight and blocking her path, Silver using his psychokinesis and Shadow using his air shoes.

''You're not getting past us,'' Silver told her.

''Oh, I think I will,'' Rouge replied, reaching for her bag again and throwing blue powder at both of them, forcing Silver and Shadow to close their eyes and back away on instinct, being blinded for a moment. She flew past them, but was taken by surprise when she saw Amy appearing before her on her hoverboard. Amy leapt from her hoverboard, swinging her hammer at Rouge, but Rouge managed to dodge it. She flew away as fast as possible, taking a moment to turn back and being astonished to see Knuckles following her on a hoverboard.

''You're not getting away with this!'' Knuckles yelled after her. Rouge just laughed in response, turning her attention back to her flight path. They reached the more urban landscape, with Rouge flying above a building, only to realize that Knuckles caught up to her. She turned back, reaching for her bag again and throwing one of her smoke bombs at him. However, Knuckles leapt of the hoverboard and lunged at her, tackling her and causing both of them to tumble onto the rooftop of a nearby building. Rouge's bag fell off, her ears twitching as she heard the clinking of the jewel, which had fallen out of her bag. It was quite painful.

Both Rouge and Knuckles got up on their feet, glancing at the jewel, then glaring at each other, with Knuckles taking a swing at Rouge. She dodged it, flying up and going for a dive kick, but Knuckles avoided it and went for another punch.

''You know, I had a lovely time playing with you,'' Rouge said, avoiding the punch and going for a kick in the gut, but Knuckles managed to catch her leg.

''I'm not pleased with any of your games,'' Knuckles responded, holding onto Rouge's leg and swinging her around before letting her go. Rouge flew back, but used her wings to stop herself, hovering on the rooftop.

She was about to attack Knuckles, when she and the echidna suddenly heard the sound of buzzing. They looked up, surprised to see a swarm of wasp or bee-like robots, which suddenly started to fire lasers from their stingers. Knuckles and Rouge dodged the laser blasts, being pushed back towards the edge of the rooftop. Rouge then flew up in an attempt to escape the barrage of laser blasts, only for one to hit her right in the right wing. She cried out in pain, finding herself plummeting towards the street below her. Rouge closed her eyes, aware that she couldn't fly herself up due to her injured wing and already accepted her fate, when she suddenly felt someone grabbing her. She forced her eyes open, stunned to see Knuckles carrying her bridal style and gliding towards the ground. She realized that she probably jumped after her when she got hit.

''Y-You saved me?'' Rouge stuttered in awe as they landed safely on the ground.

''You may be getting on my nerves, but I'm not going to let you die,'' Knuckles replied. Rouge stared at him, feeling her heart racing. ''Are you okay?''

''Uh, I am…'' Rouge replied, her mind fuzzy and her cheeks slightly red. She was stunned that Knuckles had saved her, despite the fact that he made it clear that he disliked her. ''You can let me down now.''

''Oh, right,'' Knuckles mumbled, letting go off Rouge. Both looked up at the wasp-like robots, which flew after them. Knuckles glanced at Rouge. ''How about a truce until we take care of those robots?''

''Gladly,'' Rouge replied, both turning towards their common enemy. She flapped with her injured wing, feeling a sting of pain, but she figured she could handle it.

Knuckles and Rouge charged towards the wasp-like robots, with Knuckles punching one that appeared behind Rouge and Rouge kicking down another one that aimed at Knuckles. Another robot appeared, firing at Rouge, but Knuckles managed to pull her away before the laser blast could hit her.

''Thanks for the save, Big Guy,'' Rouge complimented him.

''I must admit, you're a good fighter,'' Knuckles returned the compliment, with both looking up, seeing another bunch of wasp robots surrounding them. Both prepared to for the assault, only for the wasp robots to be stopped mid-air by cyan energy. A blue and a black and red ball smashed right through them, their rescuers revealing themselves to be Silver, Sonic and Shadow.

''Yo, Knux, are you okay?'' Sonic asked, standing in the middle of the smashed robots.

''Fortunately, I am,'' Knuckles replied, relieved to see his teammates. It didn't take long for the rest of them to arrive, with Tails and Warren immediately investigating the robots.

''Guys, these are Buzz Bombers, Eggman's Badniks,'' Warren told his friends.

''Why would Eggman send those out?'' Makoto asked.

''Probably to ruin our night,'' Sonic said, shrugging. ''It doesn't look like there are more of them.''

Knuckles turned to Rouge to see what she had to say, only to realize that she was gone. He looked around frantically, only to see her suddenly fly down and holding her bag, having gone to the rooftop to pick it up.

''It appears that our truce has come to an end,'' Rouge said, turning to Knuckles. She was startled when he suddenly held her hand, a faint blush tinting her cheeks as she looked at Knuckles in astonishment. However, the strange feeling of fuzziness came to an sudden end when the echidna threw her over his shoulder and slammed her right into the ground. Rouge felt her back ache, but it didn't stop her from jumping on her feet and yelling at Knuckles, her face red, ''What the hell was that for?!''

The echidna warrior was taken aback by her sudden outburst, a look of guilt forming on his expression, ''I-I thought we'd be continuing our fight.''

Rouge groaned, rubbing her temples, then reached for her bag and took out the jewel, tossing it at Knuckles. ''I hate to part with it, but I guess I need to repay you for saving my life. You can have it back.''

Knuckles was genuinely stunned to see the red jewel back in his hands, looking down at it, then back at Rouge. ''I'm sorry… for hurting you earlier.''

''Don't worry, Big Guy, it's fine. I've been through worse,'' Rouge replied, blowing a kiss at him and then flying away. ''Bye!''

Knuckles stared at her as she vanished into the night, still a little stunned, with Lily approaching him. ''Are you okay?''

''I'm fine,'' Knuckles replied, still trying to process what just had happened. He was glad to have managed to get back the jewel and be done with everything, but at the same time he felt as if his interactions with Rouge weren't over yet.

As for Rouge, she managed to find a good spot on a building, allowing for her injured wing to rest. She sighed, enjoying the cold breeze that cooled the burnt spot and gazed down at the streets. While she felt a bit bitter for returning the jewel to Knuckles, she realized that it didn't really matter. As a matter of fact, she had a lot of fun tonight and she was looking forward to interacting more with Knuckles and his friends.

''I guess I had finally found my match.''

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[healthy-4u]

Have you ever puzzled over the "Women's Health Brand" crossword clue? It can make you stop and think. As someone who enjoys crosswords, I get it. I'm here to help you understand this clue better and open your eyes to women's health brands in the world of crossword puzzles. And let me start by posing a question meant to draw your interest: Do you know what's behind the most common menopause symptom, affecting three-quarters of women?

The "Women's Health Brand" crossword clue often pops up in big puzzles like the LA Times Crossword.

Figuring it out can be both enjoyable and a test of your skills for people who love crosswords.

This guide's goal is to shed light on solving the clue and understanding what these health brands are about.

Hot flashes are a major menopause symptom. They can last more than ten years and affect sleep, memory, and urinary health.

Companies focused on women's health provide various products and services for wellbeing, private healthcare, and gynecological health.

Unraveling the Women's Health Brand Crossword Clue

The LA Times Crossword is famous for its smart clues and tricky levels. Many people love solving it every day. The Women's Health Brand clue showed up in the LA Times Crossword on April 19, 2024.

Decoding the Clue: "Women's Health Brand"

This puzzle asks for a specific brand focused on women's health and wellness. Think of products like feminine care, gynecological health, and more.

The Answer: HERS

The solution to "Women's Health Brand" is HERS. They provide various health products for women. This includes items for private care, menstrual needs, and gynecological health.

Challenging and fun, the LA Times Crossword is loved by many. The clue about the Women's Health Brand is just one example. It's published in this celebrated puzzle.

Understanding Women's Health Brands

Women's health brands cover many products and services for feminine wellness and intimate health. This includes items for menstrual care, gynecological health, and intimate hygiene. They provide the tools and resources women need for their well-being.

Feminine Wellness and Intimate Healthcare

These brands have a lot of gynecological products and menstrual care items. Like tampons, pads, menstrual cups, and more. They also offer info for reproductive care and gynecological health.

Gynecological Products and Menstrual Solutions

They also have many gynecological and menstrual items available.Such as tampons, pads, and menstrual cups. They provide help and info for reproductive care and gynecological health.

women's health brand crossword clue

Crosswords often have clues about women's health and wellness beyond the "Women's Health Brand" hint. They might talk about things like feminine hygiene, gynecology, reproductive health, and other health topics for women.

Common Crossword Clues Related to Women's Health

The "Women's Health Brand" is just one kind of clue you might see. Others could be about products for feminine care, intimate health items, and products for gynecological use.

Strategies for Solving Health-Related Clues

Figuring out health clues, including those for women, takes good background knowledge, some medical terms, and the ability to think through problems. It helps to look at the base words, use the context, and think about what you know personally. These are useful tricks for solving these mysteries.

Knowing about the wide range of clues on women's health boosts your crossword skills and makes solving them fun. Enjoy expanding your puzzle-solving expertise with these tips.

Exploring Crossword Puzzle Resources

Numerous online communities and forums are there for crossword fans.They are perfect for sharing tips, asking questions, and working together on puzzles.

Moreover, you'll find plenty of apps and websites with all kinds of crossword puzzles. Some focus on topics like women's health. These online tools help you access daily puzzles and make solving them more fun.

Online Crossword Communities and Forums

There's a lot of help and fun awaiting crossword lovers online. On these sites, you can meet others who share your passion, swap strategies, and get help with the tough clues. Joining a crossword forum can open up new puzzle avenues and interesting discussions.

Crossword Puzzle Apps and Websites

Besides the communities, crossword puzzle apps and websites are plentiful. They offer many puzzles, from daily ones to special themes, for all skill levels and interests. These places usually have hints, track your progress, and let you challenge friends, making puzzle-solving extra exciting.Popular Crossword Puzzle AppsTop Crossword Puzzle Websites- The New York Times Crossword - USA Today Crossword - LA Times Crossword - The Washington Post Crossword - Universal Crossword- The New York Times Crossword - Crosswords.com - Wordplays.com - CrosswordHobbyist.com - Crossword Puzzle Maker

The Importance of Women's Health Education

Talking about women's health is key to our well-being and tackling big concerns. This means making people more aware about things like taking care of your body, what you need when having a baby, and looking after your breasts.Brands focused on women's health step in to provide knowledge and help to make us stronger in our health journeys.

Raising Awareness on Reproductive Care

Knowing about health topics isn't just for women. It's also about the important things needed when having a baby and taking care of your breasts. Companies in this field are all about offering the best products, services, and tips for staying healthy, especially when you're pregnant, nursing, or if you have concerns about your breasts.

Promoting Maternity Essentials and Breast Care

Talking about women's health is vital. It helps us be healthier and deal with big health needs. Such topics include reproductive care, what's needed during pregnancy, and breast health. Women-led health brands are crucial in giving out information and support. This empowers everyone to care for themselves and their communities better.

[xasha777]

In a small garage on the outskirts of New Detroit, nestled among the rusting remains of old combustion engines and gleaming new electric prototypes, Elara Callahan was more than just a mechanic. Her fiery red hair, often tied up in a practical bun, and her tattooed arms spoke of a past as vivid and complex as the machinery she worked on. Elara was a woman of many talents, but one stood out above all: she was the only person in the solar system who could communicate with the stars.

Elara's journey to becoming the Cosmic Mechanic began years ago when she stumbled upon a piece of alien technology in the wreckage of an asteroid mining accident. The device, a sleek, black orb no bigger than a grapefruit, was covered in strange symbols that glowed with an otherworldly light. She took it back to her garage, her curiosity piqued, and began to tinker with it.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, as she tirelessly worked to unlock the secrets of the orb. One night, while adjusting the device’s core frequencies, the garage was suddenly filled with a burst of static and a flurry of star-like projections. Elara realized she had stumbled upon a form of radio astronomy far beyond human comprehension.

The orb was a cosmic translator, capable of decoding the electromagnetic whispers of the universe. By aligning it with Earth's radio telescopes, Elara began to receive messages from the farthest reaches of space. At first, they were simple bursts of data—coordinates, frequencies, and pulses. But soon, patterns emerged, forming coherent signals and, eventually, a language.

Elara's life changed irrevocably. She was no longer just a mechanic; she was humanity's liaison with the cosmos. Her garage became a hub of interstellar communication, with scientists and engineers from across the globe coming to her for help. Elara reveled in her new role, her tattoos now symbolizing the constellations and star systems she communicated with daily.

One day, while working on a particularly stubborn engine part, the orb emitted a series of urgent beeps. Elara dropped her wrench and rushed to the device. The signals were unlike any she had seen before—rapid, intense, and laced with a sense of desperation. As she decoded the message, her eyes widened in shock.

The message was a distress call from a distant star system. An advanced civilization was on the brink of annihilation, their planet threatened by a colossal rogue asteroid. They had detected Earth’s radio signals and, recognizing humanity’s burgeoning space-faring capabilities, had sent out a plea for help.

Elara knew she had to act fast. She contacted the global space agencies and, using her unique understanding of the alien technology, helped coordinate a daring rescue mission. Engineers and astronauts worked around the clock, retrofitting an old asteroid mining ship with new propulsion systems and advanced weaponry capable of diverting the asteroid’s path.

As the ship launched into space, Elara felt a surge of pride and anxiety. She spent sleepless nights in her garage, monitoring the mission’s progress through the orb. Finally, after weeks of tension, the ship reached the alien star system. The crew managed to alter the asteroid’s course, saving the alien planet from certain destruction.

The grateful aliens sent back a message of thanks, their symbols now familiar to Elara. They offered to share their knowledge and technology, marking the beginning of a new era of cooperation and understanding between the two civilizations.

Elara Callahan, once a simple mechanic, had become a hero. Her garage, filled with the hum of engines and the whisper of stars, was a testament to the boundless possibilities of the universe. She continued her work, bridging the gap between Earth and the cosmos, knowing that the stars still had many secrets to reveal.

[samkkshopping]

Amyra Dastur Mesmerizes in Cream Lehenga by Samyakk

Introduction:

Unveil sheer bridal opulence with the divine “Cannoli Cream Resham Embroidered Silk Exclusive Bridal Lehenga,” as flaunted by the radiant @Amyra Dastur! Now, indulge in unmatched luxury and grace with this masterpiece, exclusively available at samyakk.com. Elevate your bridal outfit to celestial heights and leave an everlasting impression on your special day.

Introduction to Amyra Dastur’s Bridal Lehenga

Picture a bride walking down the aisle, adorned in a resplendent designer bridal lehenga, radiating sheer elegance and beauty. This is precisely the image that Amyra Dastur painted as she graced the occasion in a stunning Cannoli Cream Resham Embroidered Silk Exclusive Bridal Lehenga. The intricate craftsmanship, rich fabric, and timeless appeal of this attire left everyone spellbound, making it an instant favorite among brides-to-be.

The Allure of Designer Bridal Lehengas

Exploring the Exclusive Bridal Lehenga Collection

Trendy Exclusive bridal lehenga choli offer a blend of tradition and modernity, catering to the diverse tastes of brides. These collections feature a myriad of styles, ranging from traditional to contemporary, ensuring that every bride finds her perfect match. Whether it’s intricate embroidery, opulent embellishments, or delicate fabrics, bridal lehenga choli exude sophistication and charm, making them a coveted choice for discerning brides.

Decoding Amyra Dastur’s Lehenga Style

Embracing Tradition with Pure Silk Lehengas

Pure silk lehengas have always been a symbol of tradition and elegance in Indian weddings. Known for their luxurious feel and exquisite sheen, pure silk wedding lehenga choli add a touch of opulence to the bridal ensemble. Whether adorned with intricate zari work or subtle embellishments, these lehengas epitomize timeless beauty, making them a popular choice for brides looking to embrace tradition with a modern twist.

The Artistry of Embroidered Silk Lehengas

Dive into the world of Indian wedding lehengas with stunning Embroidered Silk Lehengas. These handcrafted marvels are a testament to the impeccable skills of Indian artisans. Each stitch narrates a unique story, weaving intricate patterns and motifs to create a masterpiece of bridal lehenga outfit unlike any other.

Amyra Dastur’s Celebrity Style Inspiration

Amyra Dastur’s impeccable sense of style has always been a source of inspiration for fashion enthusiasts. From red carpet events to bridal couture, she effortlessly blends sophistication with glamour, setting new trends with every appearance. Her choice of the Cannoli Cream Resham Embroidered Silk Exclusive Bridal Lehenga is a testament to her timeless elegance and discerning taste, inspiring brides to embrace their unique style on their wedding day.

Where to Find Your Dream Wedding Lehenga Online

Latest Trends in Bridal Lehenga Designs

Latest Bridal fashion is ever-evolving, with new trends emerging every season. From bold colours to unconventional silhouettes, designers are pushing the boundaries of traditional bridal wear, offering brides a plethora of options to choose from. Some of the latest trends in bridal lehenga choli designs include statement sleeves, intricate hand embroidery, and modern draping techniques, adding a touch of freshness and innovation to the timeless art of bridal outfit.

Latest Designer Lehengas by Occasion & Fabrics

Introducing our exclusive collection of Latest Designer Lehengas curated to perfection, keeping in mind every special occasion and fabric preference. Whether you’re in search of the perfect Wedding lehenga to grace your big day or a glamorous Reception lehenga to captivate the crowd, we have you covered.

For the vibrant celebrations of Sangeet and Mehndi, we present a stunning array of Silk lehengas adorned with intricate Zari work and delicate Resham Embroidery, adding a touch of traditional charm to your festivities. These ensembles are designed to make you the epitome of elegance and grace as you dance the night away.

If you’re looking to make a statement at your wedding ceremony, our collection of Velvet lehengas is sure to leave a lasting impression. With their rich texture and opulent feel, these lehengas exude luxury and sophistication, making you feel like royalty on your special day.

For those who prefer a lighter, more ethereal look, our Net lehengas are the perfect choice. Embellished with Heavy embroidery and intricate detailing, these lehengas strike the perfect balance between tradition and modernity, ensuring that you shine bright on your wedding day.

No matter the occasion or fabric preference, our collection of Latest Designer Lehengas for Wedding offers something for every bride-to-be. With attention to detail and unparalleled craftsmanship, each ensemble is a masterpiece waiting to be discovered. So why wait? Explore our collection today and find the perfect lehenga for your special day!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Where can I purchase a bridal lehenga similar to Amyra Dastur’s outfit? A: You can explore exclusive bridal collections online at Samyakk.com, where you’ll find a wide range of designer bridal lehengas inspired by celebrity fashion.

2. What makes pure silk lehengas a popular choice among brides? A: Pure silk lehengas are favored for their luxurious feel, exquisite sheen, and timeless appeal, making them a symbol of tradition and elegance in Indian weddings.

3. How can I style a cream color lehenga for my wedding? A: You can style a cream color lehenga with traditional gold jewellery for a classic look or opt for contemporary accessories for a modern twist, ensuring that you radiate elegance on your special day.

4. Are embroidered silk lehengas suitable for all body types? A: Yes, embroidered silk lehengas are versatile and can be tailored to flatter different body types. Whether you’re petite or curvy, there’s a silhouette and design that will enhance your natural beauty and make you feel confident on your wedding day.

5. What are some tips for choosing the perfect bridal lehenga? A: When choosing a bridal lehenga, consider your personal style, body type, and wedding theme. Opt for fabrics and designs that complement your figure and make you feel comfortable and confident. Don’t forget to accessorize wisely to complete your bridal look with finesse!

Conclusion

In conclusion, the world of bridal fashion is ever-evolving, with Latest bridal lehenga designs constantly redefining the boundaries of elegance and sophistication. As brides embark on their journey of Bridal lehenga shopping, they are greeted with a plethora of options, each more enchanting than the last. Websites like Samyakk.com have revolutionized the way brides shop for their dream attire, offering an extensive collection of Indian wedding lehengas online to suit every style and preference.

From traditional Indian bridal gowns to contemporary Bridal lehenga trends, there’s something to cater to every bride’s vision of her special day. Whether it’s the timeless allure of Silk lehengas or the intricate beauty of Zari work lehengas, each ensemble tells a unique story of love and tradition.

As brides-to-be explore the endless possibilities of Indian wedding dresses, they are met with a world of creativity and craftsmanship that knows no bounds. From the classic elegance of Wedding lehenga cholis to the avant-garde designs of Designer lehengas, every piece is a masterpiece waiting to be discovered.

In essence, the journey of finding the perfect bridal lehenga is not just about finding a dress; it’s about finding a reflection of one’s personality, style, and love story. And with the myriad of options available, every bride can embark on this journey with confidence, knowing that her dream ensemble is just a click away. Discover your favourite Bridal Wedding Outfit from Samyakk.com. Happy Shopping…

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 22: Petrichor and Bibliosmia (Library/books)

AO3

Prev

Marinette frowned at the rain outside of her window. She had wanted to go to the botanical gardens with Harley and Ivy today. But with the rain, both women decided it would be better to just reschedule. They didn’t want her to get sick. Which, to be fair, was sweet. But still upsetting because she really wanted to go to the gardens. She’d planned on using the plants as inspiration to make something for Ivy.

“Tikki, I’m bored.” She says, looking at her smallest friend. Tikki just looks at her.

“You’ve been stuck inside because of the weather before, Marinette. Why don’t you design?” Tikki suggests. Marinette huffs, flopping back down onto the cushioned window seat.

“But there’s nothing inspiring in my room, Tikki.” She mumbles, before shooting back up. “Do you think any of the boys are here?” She asks.

“Only one way to find out!” Tikki says with a smile, obviously relieved to have avoided any more whining from Marinette. She jumps up, throwing one of Dick’s old hoodies on over her t-shirt. She’d always gotten cold easily, and becoming the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous didn’t help. That, and the manor was cold on a good day- it would probably be freezing with how bad the weather was. She slides down the banister, knowing her Dad was at work and couldn’t yell at her.

“Miss Marinette, if you insist on behaving like your brothers, I will have to resort to treating you like your brothers.” Alfred says with raised eyebrows. But she can sense the smile wanting to break through. She just grins apologetically.

“Sorry, Alfred.” She says. “Speaking of my brothers, are any of them here right now?” She asks. If they’re not, she could probably convince Alfred to bake something with her. As long as she promises not to slide down the banister again.

“I believe Master Jason is in the library. Masters Dick and Damian are in the gym and Master Tim is at Wayne Enterprises with your father.” He says and she hums, thinking. She could go do some training with Dick and Damian, or she could go sit and sketch in the library with Jason.

“Thanks Alfred!” She says, giving him a wide smile before turning and walking down one of the many halls. She glances in open doors as she walks. Despite having lived here for nearly a month, she still got lost going anywhere other than her room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the Batcave. They were kind of the places she’d gone the most. She could also easily find her dad’s study and the main sitting room, most of the time. But the library wasn’t really a place she’d spent a lot of time in. And while she loved Dick and Damian, she also knew that they hadn’t gotten time to hang out just the two of them in a while. She’d talked to Dick before, about how when their dad was missing, he was basically Damian’s father. She knew that bonds like that didn’t just go away, knew that neither boy wanted it to. So she figured she’d just annoy Jay instead of barging in on the others’ bonding time.

Finally finding the library, she grins. Pushing the cracked door open a little more, she moves into the room, jaw dropping. The floor to ceiling bookshelves were packed. There were huge overstuffed couches, and the large windows had window seats attached- perfect little reading nooks. Quickly making a mental note to come to the library more, she starts to search for Jay. She knew he had to be in here. Alfred is never wrong. She grins when she spots him, sitting in what looked like an insanely uncomfortable position, but one she knew from experience was the best.

“Whatchya reading?” She asks, walking over and getting comfortable on the couch next to him.

“<i>Pride and Prejudice<i>.” He says, continuing reading for a moment before putting a little scrap of paper in the book and shutting it. “What’s up, Pixie Pop?” He asks, looking at her with a grin. Marinette sighs dramatically and moves so that she’s upside down on the couch.

“It’s raining. And I was supposed to go to the gardens with Ivy and Harley but they canceled because of my ‘health’ and they were ‘concerned’.” She says with a pout.

“And you decided the library was the best place to curb your boredom? No offense kid, but you don’t seem like the type to read.” He says and she huffs.

“I like books! It’s just-” She pauses, remembering the way Lila had teased her for it back in Paris. Her classmates hadn’t joined in, not really. They’d just agreed that she was a little odd.

“You okay, Pix?” Jason asks, his earlier grin replaced with a slightly concerned look. Marinette winces and nods.

“Yeah it’s- I can read. I swear I can. But when I’m looking at a book, or an article or anything with a lot of text, it gets hard to pick out the pieces. Things just kind of swirl together and then I can’t decode it and I get frustrated and just stop reading. It sucks, ‘cause I do like books. I listen to audiobooks while doing commissions.” She rambles, stopping and turning red. Though that may be from hanging upside down on the couch. Sighing, she sits up and shrugs. “Sorry I’m so weird.” She says. Jason’s face morphs into a scowl.

“Just ‘cause you learn differently doesn’t mean you’re weird, kid. Just means you’ve got your own style. Don’t let any of those little shits you go to school with tell you differently.” He says, reaching out and ruffling her hair. She smiles at him, a genuine happy smile. She was so relieved that he didn’t think she was weird. Or stupid. Lila had thrown that word around. That one hurt. Marinette prided herself on her quick thinking and cleverness. And her grades. They were some of the best in the class! So for Lila to call her stupid…

“Pixie.” Jason says, drawing the nickname out in a sing-song voice. She looks at him and raises an eyebrow. “You were zoned out, kid. So, was there something ya wanna do?” He asks. Marinette glances down at the book in his hand and frowns.

“I don’t wanna keep you from reading. I can just sit in here with you. I’ll probably end up grabbing my sketchbook.” She says. Jason waves in a ‘no big deal’ motion.

“I’ve read this book a million times.” He reassures her. She glances at the cover again, realizing it’s not one she’s really heard much about before.

“What’s it about?” She asks. “I’ve never read it.” Jay’s face morphs into a huge grin.

“You said you like listening to books, right?” He asks. She nods. “Well, then settle in because I’m going to read to you.” He says proudly with a grin.

“Oh, you really don’t-” She tries to say. She didn’t want to make him read to her. That was not-

“Oh but I want to.” He says, effectively cutting off her mental ramble before she can complete her meltdown. “Listen Pix, this is one of my favorite books. If you go listen to some dumb audio book, you won’t get my commentary. Trust me, this is the best way for you to read the book.” He says and she snorts, shaking her head lightly.

“Okay, Jay, let’s read a book.”

---

Finally arriving home after being stuck at the office, Bruce sets off to find his daughter. Since his apology a few days ago, he’d attempted to make an effort to check in on her and see how she was doing. He tried to also do the same with the boys, but they had all given him odd looks, so he didn’t continue. He checks her room, the Batcave, the sitting room- nothing. He finally decides to check the kitchen. If he had to guess, she’d be there baking with Alfred. He walks in and sees Alfred, but no Marinette.

“Good evening, Alfred. Have you seen Marinette?” Bruce asks, silently hoping she hadn’t left the planet again.

“I believe she’s in the library with Master Jason.” Alfred says and Bruce blinks in surprise. He’d never seen her read a book before, while Jason always had a book on him. He supposed it could be a hobby of hers that he just hasn’t noticed. Or, she could have just followed Jason. Which seems more likely. The two of them were all but attached at the hip ever since the Gala. It was surprising, but at the same time welcoming. Thanking Alfred quickly, he walks towards the library. He’d just say hi and leave. No need to make them stop reading if they were having fun. Gently pushing open the library door he walks in and pauses at the sight. Marinette had wrapped herself in a blanket and was almost sitting on the edge of the couch, leaning forward with an intense look of concentration on her face. Jason had his legs swung over the arm of the couch and was reading out loud. Immediately recognizing the book as Jason’s favorite, Bruce slowly leaves the library, careful not to let the door slam. He’d have the chance to talk to Marinette later, but for now, he’d let the two continue reading in peace.

Next

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @laurcad123 @waiting247 @jayjayspixiepop @mizzy-pop @jjmjjktth @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82 @lady-bee-fechin @corporeal-terrestrial

[ktheist]

2prettybestfrens | jjk

muses. jeon jeongguk x reader x park jimin ft. kim taehyung

genre. strangers to lovers!au. university!au. 

words. 18.2k

drabbles. pjm

feedback.

warnings. mentions of physical insecurities, alcohol use, juul use, mention of adoption, mentions of dysfunctional families, handcuffs - lots of handcuffs, jeongguk crossdressing, too many one-sided pinings lmao 

synopsis. you’re in love with kim taehyung who’s in love with jennie kim who’s in love with professor kim namjoon. so park jimin doesn’t exactly fit in all of this, yet he’s always been there in your weakest moments which may or may not be caused by your heartbreak boy - or so jeongguk likes to call him.

oh and jeongguk? you don’t even know jeongguk until that party-gone-awry night where you end up handcuffed together to ponder on what you did.

x

when you uploaded a snapchat of your darkened room and a single teary-eyed emoji because kim taehyung uploaded one where a beautiful girl was covering her mouth while she giggled, jimin snapped back a ‘why r u awake 😬’ to which you snapped the same darkened room with a slightly different angle and a ‘just cause’. his last snap to you contained a ‘cool wanna call?’ before you dialed him up and ended up talking until 5 in the morning before bidding each other-

“well, good night then,” you’d muttered.

“g’morning,” he’d wished you back in a soft mumble and a hint of sleepiness taking over.

that happened on a friday night. on monday and for the rest of the week, you merely greeted each other in the hallway and went on your days without the inclusion of the other.

when you sat by yourself on the bench on the sidewalk of campus, under the shade of a great old tree a few feet away from your department after being left high and dry when kim taehyung’s friends asked him if he’s joining them to get mcdonald’s which he’d in turn asked if you wanted to tag along and you said you were good only because you never did well in groupies - park jimin sat down next to you, head thrown back as he squinted at the gaps of the leaves where the tiniest of sun rays managed to pass through and dot his face. blonde tresses swaying ever so softly when the wind blew past you.

“so how was finance?” he looked like he was asking the waving branches.

“eh, it was fine, professor kim’s a good teacher,” you shrugged, the sight of jennie suavely smiling and said professor shooting glances at her made you mentally vomit.

“man,” he blew a gust of air from his mouth as he ran a hand through his semi-long tresses, “were we in the same class? because all i remember was dozing off five minutes into class.”

“that’s why you should sit at the front,” you’d suggested.

it was then, did he push himself off the ground and stood up, black and white jacket pushed back as he slipped his hands into the pocket of his jeans. eyes narrowing while his tongue protruded against the inside of his cheek before he went, “you hungry?”

“starving,” you rolled your eyes before collecting your mac and holding it to your chest, bag slung over your shoulders.

the both of you didn’t go to mcdonald’s but the food tasted just as good that day at the cafe in your faculty.

when kim taehyung asked jennie if she was free friday night and the girl turned to you with an endearingly oblivious, “do we have any plans on friday?” and taehyung awkwardly but not so hesitantly corrected, “um, i mean, just you jennie,” the air, without a doubt turned tangibly tense and awkward.

“oh,” jennie’s brows knitted together as she stared at him, as though trying to spot the caption on his forehead as to why he invited only her when everyone knew you and jennie never go anywhere without the other if you didn’t have any prior engagements, “well, ___ and me are going to hang out together so yeah, i’m not free.”

you weren’t sure if she was dumb or playing dumb but you’d found out later that night, that she’d been irritated with kim taehyung’s non-considerate advancements which she’d recently noticed seemed to exclude you ‘i hate people who make plans in front of someone and not invite them’ was her exact word before she followed up with a ‘blockedt’.

but backtrack to when the tension seemed to rise higher than the sky, you were saved by jimin when he came mini-jogging towards you with that adorable boyish smile and crescent eyes, “hey, i was looking for you - you wanna walk to accounting together?”

you’d waved jennie and taehyung goodbye and gladly walked with jimin to class.

and so it goes, with kim taehyung’s eyes lighting like fireworks in the midnight sky when he sees jennie and the girl itching to make a beeline to the opposite side of where he comes from and you shooting her ‘be nice’ looks whilst park jimin pops up now and then in the most convenient time until ‘us’ no longer comprise of you and jennie but also taehyung and jimin.

so much so, some of your casual friends come to you asking for either of the boys when they seem to have something to inform them which you’re not sure why isn’t informable through text. but either way, you’ve become two best friends with additional friends.

maybe said additional friends happen to fall in the top list of cuties in the girls and gays’ books but besides kim taehyung, if you looked, like really really looked at park jimin, you concurred, perhaps he does have the right to be in said list with his unblemished, smooth skin, perfect pink lips and pretty sparkly eyes.

“what?” his lips do the thing where they curl, revealing a pair of perfectly lined white pearls.

“nothing,” you say as you find yourself third-wheeling in taehyung’s bmw with jimin at the back and the first commenting something about his older sister liking to shop at zara as well when jennie asked you if you were free tomorrow to go to the mall near campus.

“i mean i can go with you girls, i have a two-hour gap between classes,” the boy offers.

“oh,” the first laugh trickles out of your mouth without a stop switch, “you’re so cute.”

you can hear jennie snickering in the passenger seat as you turn away from the angle where taehyung could see you in the rear-view mirror, only to come face to face with jimin who seems to get your humor.

“it’s not a big deal,” taehyung shrugs, a tinge of pride in his voice.

“my man,” jimin pats said man on his shoulder, “you don’t know jack shit about women.”

“what?” the older boy asks, perplexed and quite honestly irritated for some reason - but then again, he never seems to like jimin’s quick-to-catch-on nature when it comes to any girls-related topics.

“two hours is not enough to shop, taehyung,” jennie finally decodes the long standing cipher, “we can barely explore one shop.”

by the end of her words, you’re is full out snickering like an unattractive hyena, “i thought you have a sister?”

“i do,” there’s a tinge of confusion in his tone, “she usually goes shopping with her boyfriend.”

“well, how long did it take them to go shopping?” she quizzes, sharing an amused look with jimin.

“uh,” it’s then, do you hear the sound of the screws in taehyung’s brain twisting, “she usually stays over whenever they do.”

“well, whatever you think they did after they went shopping - it’s probably not it,” jimin snickers, shoulderline jolting as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“so cute,” jennie echoes your earlier words, neck craning to look at the two other passengers in the back seat as she gives you a one-eyebrow-lifted look as if to say ‘this is the guy you’re crushing on?’

at that, you shrug, unapologetically mouthing ‘he’s cute’ - in a much different and adoring sense than the first time which jennie must’ve gotten when she shakes her head, a hopeless smile on her lips as she turns to the road again.

you were on your way to the movies then.

x

“oh my god,” jennie squeals, eyes skimming your specifically-handpicked-by-jennie-kim attire, “you look so cute!”

“only because i agreed to be your live mannequin,” you say rolling your eyes but the curl of a smile on your lips is unstoppable.

“no - because i know what kind of style suits you,” she narrows her eyes in a ‘you know i’m right’ kind of manner, “no offense, your usual style is cute too but it’s more like an... ‘i have a crush, don’t talk to me’ kind of look, you know?”

“am i wrong though?” your eyebrows rise, mimicking her ‘you know i’m right’ look.

she raises a hand, her free one scrolling through her phone as she announces, “i don’t recommend crushing on airheaded guys but you do you sis,” then she looks up, staring at you straight in the eye with the most deadpanned expression, “but if he breaks your heart, i’ll break his leg,” it’s a full, solid moment later, just as you were about to burst out laughing, does she say, “literally.”

and it’s times like these that you fear for another person’s life that isn’t yours - well, taehyung’s life isn’t just anyone’s but - as she turns back to her phone ever so casually.

but before you can fret any further, your phone vibrates, the words ‘chim’ flashing across your screen with a ‘get yo asses down’ and contrasting ‘ur chauffer awaits’ popping a second later.

“get your ass up. they’re here,” you end up saying, pushing your phone into the back pocket of your leather pants that jennie manages to convince you to put on for some unknown reason - that reason going along the lines of ‘kim taehyung’ and ‘jealousy’, but you’re not one to dwell on why one do things they do as you accept jennie’s grabby-motioned hands in request for assistance to be pulled up.

it turns out the shopping plan gets pushed to saturday where taehyung is basically spouting out how he’s a good judge for fashion and that he hasn’t gone to the mall since the semester started which to be fair, was only a month ago. 

you’re not sure how jimin ended up tagging along - the two aren’t even the bestest buddies - but someway, somehow, he always manages to get taehyung to pick him up and drop him off whenever the taller man makes plans to go out with you and jennie.

“wow,” jimin is the first to notice, mouth taking on an ‘o’ shape he basically ogles in plain daylight.

“what do you think?” jennie comes up behind you, chin resting on your shoulder as she wraps her arms around your waist then she turns to taehyung who was the last to get out of the car, “doesn’t ___ look pretty, taehyung?”

at the sound of his name rolling off the tongue of the girl he’s been pining for since he laid eyes on her, his gaze lights up - but only to meet jennie’s. one look at you and he turns back to her with the most beautiful smile, “yeah, she looks great - did you help choose the top?”

“actually,” the girl begins with a cheery tone - they’re walking a few steps behind you whilst you and jimin walk together. it’s been like that for as long as you remember, “i picked out the whole fit. it wasn’t easy though because...”

kim jennie walking side-by-side with kim taehyung whilst you with jimin whenever the two boys join you, be it whether to get to a class you all share, to go to the library to study or to get some lunch - has become a familiar view to your mutual friends. so much so, you’ve heard of a rumor going around that you’re a couple of best friends.

like literal couples. you with jimin and jennie with taehyung. thanks to that, no one would have suspected jennie’s relationship with professor kim nor would anyone see through the veil of friendly smiles and amicable conversations to be you pining over your best friend’s alleged boyfriend.

you’ve gotten used to hearing jennie and taehyung’s conversation fade into the background yet never really able to disregard the way taehyung laughs at something your best friend says or the sight of the two walking a few feet ahead with taehyung’s head almost always turned to jennie’s and the girl, oblivious, occasionally cranes her neck to look at him at the beginning of her sentence before directing her gaze to the front where she’s walking.

jennie dislikes taehyung less now, if only because he steers the conversation towards the areas of interest - which he seems to know a lot of. kudos to you for answering his ass-crack o’clock texts of ‘heyyy what kind of movie does jennie like?’s and ‘heyy you girls got any plans tomorrow?’s.

“you look great in those leather pants, by the way,” jimin’s voice makes you turn to the other boy, a boyish smile on his lips, “so let me guess,” his head tilts to the side as the dip between his thumb and index finger hooks itself underneath his chin, eyebrows knitted together in heavy contemplation, “are you going for a good girl gone bad kind of look,” a playful smile tugs on the corners of his lips, “or are you in a secret biker gang and have a biker meeting at 7?”

you lean closer to the man, hand covering your mouth as you whisper, “you didn’t hear this from me but we’re convoying to disney land. i heard it’s more magical during christmas.” 

or so you thought your whispering skills were close to perfect but a cat with brown hair pops up from next to you, eyes glinting with excitement, “did someone say christmas?!”

so you end up early-christmas shopping just because of that one word that triggers the warm-hearted-who-ness in her. and that’s how you, taehyung and jimin gets dragged from one store to another. but where your attention gets robbed with material things like-

“oh look, a snow globe with a puppy and a snowman in it!” you shake the see through globe, watching as pseudo snowflakes rain over the unmoving pupper and olaf lookalike before you sigh, “technically the snowman isn’t alive and the doggo is alone by itself in a world where nobody else can enter - and on christmas at that . oh my god, i think i’m gonna cry.”

- but jennie’s interest lies within the holiday-themed clothes. sweaters. costumers. lingerie. you name it and jennie kim tries it on.

“___ - pssst, hey,” there she goes, hiss-whispering your name as if you’re not right in front of the curtain she’s poking her head through, eyes darting around for the two boys who, last you saw, were doing the best to look interested in reindeers and candy printed sweaters.

“what, girl, what?” you whisper back, trying to peek through the gap of the curtain over her head as if you’ve never entered a changing room together.

and as if reading your mind, her bare arm that’s supposed to be wrapped with the floral cotton material of her sleeve - shoots out, hand wrapping around your wrist.

a “wha- ah-!” probably echoed off the walls and turned some heads but you’re no longer in the position to check as you find your back pressed against the wall of the cubicle and red and white lace-wearing jennie posing for you.

“so?” she beams.

“those are so cute, oh my god,” you end up his-whispering whilst trying to keep your voice low, “where did you get them? i only ever saw you checking out - and you have got to admit this - ugly sweaters!”

“girl, the lingerie section is just next to the sweaters,” her eyes seem to disappear behind her crescents as she crinkles her nose, “no but for real, you think i was gonna buy them? i just needed the boys to go away. and. they. finally. did,” she rolls her eyes, “it took awhile but kim taehyung is so persistent.”

“that’s why he’s so... cute,” you hum, eyes shutting close as the picture of the aforementioned man flashes behind your eyes. he’s looking at you with those dark eyes and he’s smiling at you with that magnetic-

“gross! get your ass out of the gutter,” a squeal hits the air as your eyes flutter open to the sight of your best friend’s contorted faces as if-

“um, girl,” you tilt your head just the slightest bit, hand on your hip while your other hand raises in a ‘hold up’ manner, “out of the two of us, you’re the one that’s gotta stop being silly and start wrapping professor kim’s willy.”

a stick of tongue out is all you’ve got as a response before she turns to her phone that’s vibrating at an alarming rate.

that’s when you feign almost-vomit, “did you - ulgh - sent him a - ulgh - nude?”

in any ordinary circumstance, she would have made faces to mimic a much ridiculous series of vomiting in response to your fake almost-vomits but when her smile tugs downwards in a disheartened pout, you practically drop all the ugly sweaters you picked out just for the sake of getting into the christmas spirit and rush over to the girl - which is only one and a half feet away.

“hey, hey, what’s wrong?” you coo as she starts blinking back tears.

“i knew it,” she huffs out a puff of air, hand fanning at her waterline, “i fucking knew it.”

in between the ‘you’re okay’s and ‘everything’s going to be okay’s on your part and jennie’s increasingly growing sobs, you manage to make out the words she blurts out. something along the lines of ‘not spending as much time as we used to’ and ‘because i’m ugly as fuck’. so you hold her tighter, fingers brushing out the potentially forming knots in her hair each time it gets into her tear stained face and gets aggressively pushed out of said face with the back of the hand. 

it’s been going on since the start of the third year - the ‘i can’t make it tonight’s and ‘sorry, i’m going to have to rain check’s. 

you’ve been a silent spectator of how your best friend’s face lights up whenever she talks about her secret affair with the youngest professor in the business faculty, how he lives up to her private swooning with the smallest ‘miss kim, how was your day’s when he met her in the hallway, ever so casually greeting one of his supposed students like any professor would and treats her to fine-dinings and became the reason why forehead kisses are her favorite kind of kiss now.

he never really tried to hide his fondness for her even at the faculty and though you knew your best friend could get anyone she wanted, you were dubious of whether that anyone actually deserved such a loving, beautiful person. nonetheless, kim namjoon seems to be the exact person who does.

“hey, look at me,” you implore, sitting cross-legged on the floor whilst your knees touch and your fingers twine together in a fingers hug, or so jennie coined the term in your first year, “you’re so beautiful.”

“you don’t mean that,” she mumbles out.

“girl, if i were to be born again and were allowed to choose how i’m going to look - i want your eyes, they like, pull people in - not gonna lie, i started talking to you because you were intimidating but also really alluring. does that make sense?” you hold up a hand when she begins to giggle lightly, head shaking in show of her disagreement.

“but when i did get to know you, you’re the sweetest, squishiest,” a protest falls from her lips as she clasps a palm over the spot on her arm that you just pinched, “person alive. and oh!” you pinch her cheeks next, chuckling at how she crinkles her nose and like the feline she’s always been associated with, “and i want your cute chubs cheeks! and your adorable nose, and your lips,” you pause for the longest moment before retracting, “okay maybe i’d want my lips but your lips are juicy too!”

she makes a sound at the back of her throat, eyes of dried tears rolling, “please, i barely have any lips.”

“i mean, they’re still kissable,” you shoot her a suggestive look, “and i know out of the two of us, one would kiss you if she’s a little bit more fruity.”

“okay, maybe you think i’m kinda pretty,” she gives in.

but that’s not enough for you,“bih, you’re a literal goddess,”

“i’m not but anyway beauty is subjective so maybe namjoon’s perspective’s changed.”

“nope - nu-uh, we can cry and just... let ourselves feel the emotion that’s been bottling up and burst at one single message but what we’re not gonna do is mope around, being sad all day because of our presumptions that someone else thinks we’re not good enough or pretty enough. because you are and i would die for you.”

she hiccups, “i don’t know if i would die for you but i’d sacrifice my first born for you.”

“ew,” you feel your nose crinkling, “no, you’re not gonna trap me with a kid - that’s a trap right there and i’m not falling for it.”

jennie ends up laughing too loudly that one of the store attendants end up kicking you out. jimin and taehyung followed suit a second later, acting like they didn’t know you two but walking towards you anyway. you’re not sure if they noticed jennie’s swollen eyes but neither mentioned anything about it. instead, taehyung suggests- “since we’re already out, you guys wanna go to chanyeol’s party?”

x

so you end up going to the party. the apartment’s too cramped for your liking but jennie’s found some mutual friends of yours that she’s dancing and laughing with. and maybe that’s why you haven’t bolted right out of the door the moment you stepped in.

jimin found some of his own friends. they’re probably not from the faculty since you don’t remember seeing them around and taehyung-

you’re not quite sure why taehyung is following you around like a lost puppy and trying to make small talks with you. internally, your heart’s doing flips but your head’s been giving out one of those obnoxiously loud sirens with lights as red as the cup you’re holding.

“...and you know, it’s pretty cool how they managed to attract foreign investors within six months of starting up their business,” taehyung is saying, the awkward shrug and eyes glued to the ground telling you that he’s not so into whatever he’s saying either.

“yeah, like, they definitely got lucky or something,” you nod in agreement.

funny how the blare of the music is barely allowing you to have a proper conversation but all you hear is deafening silence as you stand five feet apart - the kind of distance that screams acquaintances but less than friends and most definitely not lovers.

but then he stands on his two feet instead of leaning his weight on just one - and he looks at you right in the eye for the first time that night. and your stupid heart goes fluttering like the petals in a field.

“hey, i don’t wanna be a nosy or anything but,” he pauses for the briefest second, eyes slanting to somewhere on the dance floor where you think you last saw jennie and then he refocuses back to you. but you already know where his mind and soul remains, “what happened today? like, jennie’s acting off, like something’s bothering her and she’s kinda drinking more than she should and it kinda feels like she doesn’t want me around.”

it takes a moment to ponder on how much you should say before your words become affirmation and affirmation will probably lead to more assumptions and - “well, you should ask her.”

“uh, i- she doesn’t- i don’t know how - i don’t wanna annoy her, you know what i mean? and since you’re best friends, i thought maybe you’d-” he’s scratching the back of his head when you cut him off.

“there’s your answer,” you raise the half-empty cup that’s been lying undrunken in your hands, “if you’re not gonna square up and tell her how you feel, then you, my friend,” your stomach drops at the word but you manage to land a solid pat on his arm, “are going to live the rest of your live like this - wondering what the hell is going on because you’re really not sure where you stand. and i get it, confessing to someone is terrifying and depending on jennie’s answer, you might or might not be able to talk to her ever again but it’s better to get it out there. feelings are like farts, you know?” the way his brows come together in a confused what-the-hell moment, is adorable, “hold it in and you’ll feel like something’s not right and it is never going to be until you get all of it out of your system.” and with a nod and a tight-lipped smile, you leave him with a “good luck,” before wandering over to the dance floor, not sure where you’re going because jennie, lisa chaeyoung and jisoo’s not where you thought they were and the only less crowded but still suffocating part of the apartment is the kitchen where you don’t want to risk going back and seeing taehyung there, unmoving in the spot where you left him.

amid all of it, you almost get your shoulder dislocated before a hand shoots out and pulls you back on your two feet whilst you raise your cup higher in hopes to save its contents from spilling.

the man that caught you looks between you and your raised cup for two solid seconds before a grin tugs on his face and he clicks his own cup to yours, “cheers.”

“aha, yeah,” you laugh as you feel his grip on your arm loosening and you pull it back to your side like a robot, taking a sip of your nicely saved drink.

“thanks for not letting me fall,” you say a moment later, after thanking whatever deity is out there that allows you to get your first drink into the right pipe without feeling the need to cough out loud.

“no problem,” even in the poor lighting, you can easily catch the sight of pearly whites lined up perfectly amid an alluring smile, that is, before a pair of brows knit together in what seem like an unresolvable conundrum, “hey, you don’t happen to...” he pauses for the longest moment, eyes slanting to scan the crowd and making you do the same until he commands your attention back with his next words, lips curling back into the breathtakingly attractive smile as words tumble past them, “...see two pretty best friends in here, do you?”

and that’s when your interest, wherever it is, plunges straight down to the ground and into the ether, “oh,” your vision shakes as you nod repeatedly before forcing out a dry “ha ha” which isn’t meant to disguise your displeasure at all - if anything, a wave of satisfaction crashes over you when his smile falters, “yeah, that - that’s really funny,” you say plainly, smile still plastered on your face.

“o-kay,” he drags out the word for half a second, teeth clenched together in growing panic as all traces of humor fade away, “...joke too old?”

“well, let’s see,” you feel your index finger tapping your chin as you throw your gaze up to the ceiling, “i get it, tell the ugly best friend she’s ugly but in a joking way,” you shrug, “you don’t need to rub it in my face cause i know and yes it’s getting old.”

it takes a whole solid moment of blaring music and non-caring half-way-drunken college students continuing to grind against one another and this insanely attractive stranger staring at you with jaws on the ground, for you to wave a dismissive hand.

“you know what? don’t worry, jennie’s not here, thankfully or she would’ve blo-” air fills your throat and cuts you off when he frowns, “who?”, to which you raise your eyebrows, “je-” you almost choked, “jennie?”

he shakes his head the second time, bottom lip jutting out in an additional- “nope” gesture as he continues with “never heard of her,” after your “jennie... kim?”

so you go one, “kinda cute height, long hair, brunette-” he shrugs, “nope- doesn’t ring a bell,” in the middle of your, “-fierce cat-like eyes but adorable as heck personality?”

in the end he wins with a final word of, “no - nope,” after a whole solid moment of your silenced disbelieve and him drawing his pondering session to a close.

“oh,” escapes your lips before you can even register, “so - it was- like-”

“yeap,” he nods, “it was-”

“a joke?”

“a joke.”

you both announce at the same time. the tones may differ but the essence is there, leaving one to stare at the ground in shame for having snapped at a complete stranger and the other staring with unapologetic eyes.

“i’m sorry,” you finally manage to utter, shoulderline falling with your walls of pride, “i thought it was one of those micro aggressive jokes people throw around just because they can’t straight out tell someone they’re ugly-”

but the words seem to enter through one ear and go out the other when his brows begin to knit together for the nth time of the night - and in a matter of less than thirty minutes at that - when he declares before you get to properly end your sentence, “you’re pretty as hell. why did you think i’d randomly try to crack a joke to a stranger and risk pissing pants off on the off chance she took it badly... which you did. i’m sorry for pushing the wrong button.”

“oh,” but just like him, your brain short-circuits and you seem to only truly hear the first part of what he’s saying as just like any girl - you curse yourself as you - shy away from his gaze, hand going up to tuck your hair behind your ear before you slowly peek up through your lashes, “thanks,” you blink once, shrugging, “and it’s fine i get that joke a lot - i don’t usually care, i don’t know what got into me tonight.” 

but before he manages to say anything, the loudspeaker starts reverberating with the sound of someone clearing their throat and a “how’s everyone doing?” and a dismissive “alright, alright you might be wondering ‘who the eff is this guy’ right? yea, yea, i know, but-” he stops, eyes scanning the crowd for a suspenseful effect, “-but you’re gonna wanna hear this,” to which a groan erupts from the crowd, so he quickly gets to the point “don’t panic,” most of the time, that’s exactly when you should panic, “so, the police are coming.”

x

his name is jeon jeongguk and he goes to your university’s rival university. his hair is actually a shade of rich deep brown that forms wavy ends and contrasts glaringly against his sharp jawline under the fluorescent lighting which also highlights his pearly whites that remind you of bunnies when his lips curl over them when he smiles.

to think that he’s doing that now while the police officer, a man in his 40′s and on the shorter side of the spectrum is ten steps from marching up to you with a disapproving gaze on his face.

his hair falls over his face in half ringlets, an excited glint in his eyes, “he’s mad cause we’re clean.”

a guy somewhere a few people away from you is sobbing increasingly loudly with every step the officer takes before he comes to a stop in front of you, eyes skimming each faces one by one until he stops on you.

“you,” he announces before sighing deeply, “you look like a kid who wouldn’t cause trouble, why are you here?”

“uh,” the chain around your wrist feels cold but jeongguk’s pinky that’s touching yours as your thighs brush together - is warm, “i...” you pause, in search for words before settling with a disappointing confession “i don’t know,”

the officer echoes your statement with a critical emphasize on the ‘don’t’.

and because of that, you blink once, “in fact, does anyone know what they’re doing at all? if you think about it we’re just astronomical particles in this vast universe which is called the milky way,” you pause, if only squint at his sparse mustache, “why is it even called milky way? like, there’s absolutely no scientific evidence that milk exists in outer space or do you reckon the guys that named it just feels like drinking some milk while they were-”

by the end of it, a few snickers have escaped from the people you and jeongguk were caught with, the aforementioned man, having turned his head the other way as his shoulders jolt silently and it’s only then does the officer’s increasing confused expression contorts into that of a maddened bore, “keep hanging out with him and you’re gonna find yourself behind bars.”

“that hurts my feelings, detective yoo,” jeongguk confesses, forehead creasing as his uncuffed hand holds the spot on his chest where his heart should be.

the man finally shakes his head, motioning to a younger officer who looks just about your age to start unlocking everyone’s cuffs - there were a few other people you’ve never seen before dragged out of the vicinity and to the station. he speaks a moment later, “you kids are lucky because none of you are associated with the ones down the hallway - we were initially going for them. busted their asses and found over a hundred kilograms of cocaine.”

once your cuffs are off and you get your phone back, you’re fast-scrolling through the messages on the notification window before swiping up and searching for jennie’s contact. it turns out she, taehyung and jimin guessed you were one of the few who didn’t make it and waited for you near the building where the party was busted.

“oh my god,” jennie is the first to dash into your arms as if she hadn’t seen you since forever, “i’m so sorry i left you!”

“well to be fair, i left you,” you mumble, your arms banded around her waist while hers around your neck.

and just when you thought the melodrama would end when she pulls away, you find yourself staring at sparkly-eyed jennie and the most heartbreaking downturned lips, “i will never,” she pauses, “ever let you out of my sight.”

you’re exactly against that idea - after all, you’ve made plans to buy a beach house and move in together in your olden days once you’ve poiso- burried your husbands who died of a totally natural cause.

it’s only after breaking apart from a second hug, do you realize the man standing not-so-awkwardly five feet away.

“don’t mind me,” jeongguk holds up his hands, “i don’t watch much drama but i might after all this.”

“jeongguk,” you can’t help the smile that creeps up your face at his joke, “this is jennie,” then you turn to the girl who still has her arm around your waist, and you her, “jennie, jeongguk.”

“have i seen you before?” her cat-like eyes narrows just the slightest bit, as though if she tried hard enough, she’d see the pieces of moving memories that’ll somehow point out where she claims to have met him - but you don’t doubt it if they have, jennie gets invited to a lot of parties and hookups.

you should’ve known when jeongguk’s eyes sweep over you with a playful glint in them as he begins, “that’s funny because ____ here-” that from this point forward, that you shouldn’t have put your foot forward and prance at him like a predator with a secret, hand clasped against a surprisingly hard chest before your brain can register what you’re doing.

and when it does, you’re left to awkwardly pat his chest in what you hope to be friendly gesture whilst you force out a laugh, “that- that was really funny jeongguk,” you turn to jennie who, having known you all your life easily catches onto your out-of-character laugh but says nothing, so you point at the guy you’re basically and is still groping - to which you’ve finally tear your hand off his body, “he’s a funny guy.”

“and who exactly is this funny guy?” taehyung comes up on your left - you think you catch sight of his sleek bmw parked on the other side of the street where he must’ve strutted up from in his beige jacket with his hands buried in its pockets.

“just...” you trail off before your brain completely fries and you blurt out, “some guy.”

and that’s when jeongguk decides to call you out, “some guy? i helped you through a life lesson.”

you attribute the alcohol in your system that’s slowing down the neurons and disables you from thinking before you act when you roll your eyes, “in case you didn’t realize, you were in there laughing your ass off when i had to have my own back while that officer looked like he was a word away from dragging me to the police station for talking back to a law enforcement.”

“you talked back to an officer?” jennie chirps, her jaw falling to the ground as her cat eyes widen in excitement and astonishment.

“she did,” jeongguk nods at the girl, a displaced proud smile on his lips before he looks back to you, “brought out the boomer in him too.”

“you pissed off an officer?” this time, it’s jimin who pops up from behind taehyung, before casually nodding to jeongguk with a “hey man.”

“i mean, it was probably ___’s sheer guts and rebellious streak alone that helped free us,” jeongguk goes on, eyes glinting with amusement in the briefest moment they slant to meet yours but they’re gone too soon as he redirects your attention to jimin and jennie’s overpouring questions.

and because jennie wanted to hear more about how jeongguk embellished what went down, taehyung ends up agreeing to give the stranger a ride as you get squished between two men with jennie constantly pulling on the strap of the seatbelt to look over to the backseat, her mouth constantly dropping with every word jeongguk utters like he’s some well-known storyteller.

by the time the car rolls to a stop in front of his apartment building, jennie’s shooting you approving, borderline provocative looks your way - you don’t doubt that if she had any power in her hand to put both you and jeongguk in the same room, lock the door and swallow the key, she would in a heartbeat.

“hey,” jeongguk leans over the doorframe, “can i talk to you for a sec?” it’s the way he tilts his head to the side on a 35 degree angle, paired with that dangerous smile he’s been shooting you in the briefest span of moments jennie’s head is turned to the road and jimin’s gave is thrown outside of the window and taehyung isn’t stealing glances from the rear-view mirror - that makes you want to shake your head in rejection to his request and prance out of the car like a predator in heat at the same time.

but instead, you calmly slide over to the side now vacant side and slip out of the car, closing the door behind you so no ears can eavesdrop.

the scent of his cologne wafts stronger into your senses now that you have no police officers to be cautious of nor any embellished stories to correct.

that, or maybe it’s the way he’s got you trapped against the car door and his body, right arm placed perfectly on the roof of the car, next to your head.

“bout time you give me your @, no?” the corner of his lips tilts higher into a cocky smirk.

“um, yea,” you begin, “i think it’s better if we leave into the night like strangers with stories, you know? and if we’re meant to find each other, we will,” you swear on your grandmother’s grave that you will never go to any parties anymore, “makes a good plot for a drama,” eyes going wide and mouth taking on an ‘o’ shape, you continue, “didn’t you say you were gonna start watching those?”

 his shoulderline shakes as he chuckles, head dropped it tilts up, eyes capturing yours, “i’m not falling for that,” his announcement is plain and simple and yet you’re forced to put twice the effort in your smile as to not let it falter, “after getting my chest groped and caressed, i deserve at least-”

“it was a friendly pat, mind you,” you correct, smile still glued to your face before rolling your eyes, “but snapchat is as far as i’m willing to go.”

“works for me,” the screen of his phone flashes with a dark mode keypad splayed over it - you’re not sure how he unlocked it without taking those glinted eyes off you but he did. so you swipe the phone off his hand and send yourself a request through his account.

“i’m gonna open your snap and leave you on read!” you announce, and he laughs, “alright, bet!”

and with that, he waves at you using the same phone he told you to put your number in, taking a few steps backward, allowing you room to breathe properly again before he whirls on his heels and walks through the glass double doors.

you don’t wait any longer than you have to, shivering from the cold night air when you slip into the car.

“did you give him your number?!” jennie practically screams.

“no but i gave my snapchat only because he looked like he wouldn’t sleep a wink at night if i didn’t,” you shrug.

and that’s how kim jennie gets it into her head that you’re going to get your first-boyfriend-cherry popped. or so she likes to believe.

but that’s the least of your concern for the greater one comes in a devil with black jeans and matching plain t-shirt and timberlands and a lit up screen at exactly three something in the am, right after you’re done with a hot shower and in a middle of towel drying your hair and putting on your night routine skincare.

you open the text revealing a night view of a cityscape from a window which room is surrounded by darkness and a transparent horizontal strip with a ‘❄️ ’ in the middle from a goldenjks.

so you snap a picture of your skincare products next to a mirror with you and a towel on your head, face blocked by your hand that’s holding your phone, choosing  to send ‘🍜’.

and so it goes, the snap war that erupts between you and user goldenjks throughout the night which, after you’d gotten into bed with the lights off, basically includes snaps of your darkened room and his more superior window view.

before long, you started texting on snapchat about how the police officer seems to know him and how-

goldenjks

u were p chill for someone who got arrested for the 1st time

you’re giggling in the darkness at 5:23 am.

you

cs ik i didn’t do anything wrong

duh

and he mentions something about a sobbing kid that was made to wait with you and nobody really did anything to comfort him.

goldenjks

that coulda been u if i wasn’t there probably

you roll your eyes but you can feel your muscles becoming sore from the way your lips are stretching from ear to ear.

then it starts with how taehyung didn’t saying anything throughout the ride up until the car rolled to a stop in front of jeongguk’s place.

goldenjks

r u guys using him for his car???

cs same 

i would 2

you

wtf

we’re not 😭😭

and without much thought, you end up spilling a not-so-secret but not-so-well-known truth.

you

welp

he’s using me to get close to jennie so

ig i should use him for his car

oof

goldenjks 

ooof

so let me guess

u can’t say no to him  cs u have the biggest crush on him

“what the hell?” you mumble to yourself, smile pulled down into a frown, but before you can type out a reply, two more pop up on his side.

goldenjks

and jimin head over heels for u

you

🧢 🧢 🧢

u funny 😂😂😂

goldenjks

fr fr tho 😔😔😔

i would b too

all of a sudden, a boy with the softest blonde hair and crescent eye smiles floods your throughts. you and jimin might have been casual friends for the longest time and only until recently started hanging out together - and he may or may not hold confidential information about the littlest details of the lack of smile on your face and the blank snaps in your stories whenever you’re down.

but to say he’s reacting such way because he’s into you would be a total scam.

so you shake your head, laughing out loud, “nah can’t be.”

you

alright imma 😴😴😴

to which jeongguk tests back a gnight and after one whole solid minute, a text u tmr?

you leave him on read.

x

“like, who does he think he is?” you huff, burying the plastic spoon into the ice cream before scooping up a chunk of neapolitan flavored goodness and directing it into your mouth, “he literally met us just last night and he’s spouting shit like he knows us for years?”

“i don’t know,” jennie humps, tongue darting out to lick the remnants of strawberry ice cream on her upper lips before she goes on with a smile that screams ‘just get together already’, “it’s kinda hot to me when guys know shits, you know what i mean?”

you’ve managed to avoid jimin and taehyung at all costs and sneak to the ice cream parlor that’s five minutes away from campus where you spilled your guts out about how you got unreasonably irritated by the long running joke, about how jeongguk’s hand wrapped around your wrist and he pulled you out of the way of the chaotic college students who were rushing to get out of the small, cramped apartment and how you stopped him from relaying your disbelief of his lack of knowledge about her.

“like, i flipped out at him because of some stupid joke,” you shrugged, hands fiddling with each other while a coat of smoke wafted over the newly scooped and paid-for ice cream.

your name rolled off her lips before she stared at you with her hands on hear heart, “i- i didn’t know you would go so far as fight a guy for me for calling me ugly,” then she laughed, “but you don’t have to. girl, we been knew i’m ugly as fuck.”

your jaw hit the ground at the word she used to describe herself before you blinked and came back to your senses and aggressive defenses, “oh my god, i’m the ugly one and you’re the literal goddess - like, i shouldn’t even be looking at you. i should be looking at your sole. you should be stepping on me - step on me! now!”

a yelp resonated into the air as you groped around for jenni’s left leg in an attempt to lift her foot to make her step on you to which you both ended up laughing hysterically after realizing that she was wearing a skirt and the way you were sitting may or may have not resulted in an array of possible outcomes.

“oh my god, do you think she saw my panties?” she meant the woman in her late 40′s who were shooting disapproving eyes at the both of you as she scrolled through her phone, seeming to be waiting for someone before placing an order.

“you just flashed a poor old woman who came to have some ice cream,” you were hunched over, hand covering your face as you stole glances her way which didn’t hold long because you ended up giggling with the girl when you caught each other’s eyes.

“you think she likes what she sees?” jennie’s brows rose suggestively and you knew what she was going to say next before the words even leave her mouth, “you think maybe i should tell her about my onlyfans?”

it was a few bursts of giggles later, that you’d finally managed to talk properly. or probably because jennie’s question brought out an unwelcomed emotion that you pushed to the back of your conscience last night and for the most part, managed to forget, “so,” her brows were wiggling like earthworms on her forehead, “did he text you?”

that was what spurred the whole confession and up to the moment where you spilled the contents of the unfairly attractive stranger’s text.

“i don’t know, he kinda went overboard,” you shrug and jennie’s hand reaches over yours, patting it once with what you assume is an understanding manner.

“sweetie, i get it,” she announces, “you feel exposed because he said the absolute truth and only the truth and now you’re projecting your embarrassment on him through disdain.”

silence follows her statement.

and staring.

on your part, that is.

“girl,” you blink once, eyebrows arched, “whatever you’re having - i want some.”

that warrants a bout of giggles from said girl before she scoops her last bite of ice cream and hook arms with you as you walk towards the trashcan to dump your empty paper bowls, “no but for real, i like jeongguk-”

“then you date him,” you announce, nodding in approval.

“i like how he brings this... this... fire out of you, you know?” she quizzes to which you shake your head in a ‘no, i don’t know’ kind of manner as she goes on, “and i already have namjoon so,” she sing songs as she starts to skip in the middle of the mall and since your arms are linked together, you end up taking larger steps to accommodate to hers before deciding that you can’t root your feet down to slow her down into a normal pace. so you join her, skipping to the exit where you wait for your uber.

“you guys made up?” the question comes out in a calm, poised manner once you’ve both slipped into the backseat of the uber - you’d like to believe you’re doing a pretty good job on trying to conceal your spiking disbelief and the need to whoop someone’s ass. that someone being a girl who just pledged an oath to choose herself first instead of some man who-

“i texted him and told him how i felt with him cancelling on our plans and when i didn’t get any reply, i turned off my phone and got into bed because i’m not gonna mope over someone who won’t appreciate me,” at that, you give her an approving nod, “but then he came knocking on my door at like 5 in the morning in yesterday’s suit because apparently he has a deadline to meet and he’s been bending over backward trying to finish it on time and he brought his laptop with him too and managed to submit on time after explaining everything. he said he tried calling multiple times but obviously it went to voice mail so... yeah we made up.”

“that’s...” you trail off, only to stare at your friend’s beaming face like she’s just had one of the best facials on earth, “wow, i... i don’t know what to say now that we know he’s not trash.”

“i know,” you feel her pat the back of your hand sympathetically, “and that’s what a man is,” and when she looks at you with eyes that have one goal in her mind, you know not to start listening because the facts are going to bruise your pride and hit the nail on the head more times than you’d-

“liking a boy has more downs than ups but i’m not too worried because you’re a self-loving bitch and i love that for you but kim taehyung is not it,” she says all that with a straight face.

“yeah,” you mumble, thumbs fiddling together as you turn your attention to them as if it’s the most magnifying thing in the world to find out that identical parts of your body could move on their own with just a thought.

“okay, but i swear, he’s so oblivious all the time-” the girl stops short of her lament, you can see her head tilting to peer at you at a slightly different angle as if to see traces of an impostor on you, “wait, what?”

“we got into a fight last night- i don’t know if it’s even a fight but you know how i go off in a tangent when i get like annoyed, right?” you steal a glance at her for half a second before going back to your thumbs, “so i kind of did that to him before the dude announced the cops were coming and we haven’t really talked to each other since then.”

before any of you could say anything else, the sound of a cough echoes in the air, warranting your attention to turn to the driver, a woman in her mid-thirties. you return her smile through the rear-view mirror, “if you don’t mind me saying this - i know you girls are smart as fuck, but you sound just as dumb as that guy - whoever he is because it’s completely normal to get mad at someone you’re crushing on and still have a crush on them but sounds to me like you’re thinking one fight is the end of the world for you.”

“sis, please, don’t encourage her,” jennie talk-whispers as she leans forward just the slightest bit and covers the side of her mouth with her hand.

“well, we’re not really friends,” you begin and jennie groans - you two went over this and agreed to disagree with each other’s wildly contrasting views about crushing on crushes that could crush you but the lady hasn’t heard it so you’re not going to stop lamenting over it, “and whatever i do, it’s like i’m teetering on a tight rope because one wrong move and he probably won’t talk to me ever again and i’m not like miserably crushing on him - like, whatever we are right now - it lets me see him every day and he has the cutest smile and the prettiest fingers- i just - it’s better than not talking to each other forever, you feel?”

“um, don’t i?” she rolls her eyes, as if coming from a place filled with oblivious boys and hopeless crushes.

her name is solar and she does uber as a part time while working 9 to 5 at a firm that she claims to pay better but still not enough for her to save up for her wedding on the side and she and her fiance knew each other since high school but she’s seen him date two girls and get his heartbroken by both before he actually noticed her, the friend that’s always been there for him through his heartbreaks.

coming from someone who isn’t jennie and her alarming obsession with breaking parts of bodies of people who hurt her loved ones, solar’s view is somewhat a mixture of you and your best friend’s which still bases on one simple fact: whatever you say to and about taehyung comes bouncing back at you like a ping pong ball because-

“you have a crush on him and he has a crush on jennie,” she surmises before looking over at the aforementioned girl, “and people with crushes act like idiots- by the way how do you feel- like how do you handle the guy’s advancements and still aren’t awkward with each other because i have never seen...”

when the car rolls to a stop in the parking lot of your faculty, she finally turns to the two of you, her bleached blonde hair framing her face in waves as the silence - on you and jennie’s part as you both share glances at the indicative joke opening - hangs in the air with a sort of tension you can feel.

might even bite back like you did with jeongguk but you’re more in control now.

 “...two pretty best friends who are still best friends when there’s a guy that comes between them.”

“oh thank god,” jennie sighs, laughing and you’re nodding in agreement, “thanks for not-” and your best friend echoes, “yeah,” before you can even finish your sentence, “-saying that cliche joke or like for giving your own twist to it,” waving a dismissive hand, you address her initial worries, “and taehyung doesn’t-”

“he doesn’t-” jennie chimes in.

“-come between us.”

you both say at the same time. 

“oh my god, that’s great, you know my best friend tried sleeping with my fiance behind my back once,” solar crinkles her nose, “wasn’t a good experience but anywho, i’m so glad to see two girls having each other’s back like you guys. makes me want to...”

it’s a few moments later that you finally hand her the money and murmur out appreciations for being such a great uber driver along with some ‘give me five stars! thanks!’ and ‘we will! have a nice one!’

you both part ways in the hallway when you’re supposed to go for marketing and she has to go for personnel management. jimin’s already reserved a seat for you, waving at you to catch your attention which he succeeds splendidly. by the start of the second year, you’ve opted to sit together in classes you have in common, though not as close as the front as you’d like, it’s better than sitting at the back where you can hear the buzz of flies - you mean people, talking.

“are you doing anything this friday night?” jimin asks amidst people zooming out of the class as if they don’t want to be there for longer than a minute after being dismissed.

that, or they have another class to get to on the other side of the campus.

“uh, just me or me and jennie ‘you’?” you dumbly question.

that warrants a chuckle from the boy, “you and jennie... unless you wanna come alone?”

a hum vibrates in your chest as you narrow your eyes at him, as though if you looked close enough, you can see through his skull and right into his thoughts. 

but you can’t so that’s why you’re spouting out another question, “where exactly are you inviting us again?”

“so, like, you know i dance right?” he drops his gaze for the briefest moment before coming back up to lock it with yours, “it’s very lowkey - just something i do for fun, but we kind of have a dance off with other teams every month and this month’s round is this friday night so i was wondering if you wanna come?” then he quickly adds, “with jennie, of course.”

to be frank your weekends are as boring and dull as it gets - the party-busted incident was a rare exception - but you and jennie are quite content with it. you start having more to do and places to venture out to when taehyung and subsequently jimin join your group of two and made it a group of four but for the most part, if you’re not going anywhere, your weekend is usually spent with watching movies and burying yourself in work for the rest of it.

“bet,” your reply might have come a tad bit delayed judging from how his brows rise to the ceiling and his eyes go round as he chirps, “really?” 

“yeah, just text me or jennie the location the day before,” you request as you both walk down the hallway.

“great- yeah, i’ll... i’ll text you the place,” jimin beams even as he bumps into someone behind him, turning around to lower his head and mumble out an oh sorry before turning back to you, “i got another class but i’ll text you- on thursday - not today, of course.”

and you wave back, shouting out an ‘okay bye!’

then he’s gone like the wind.

x

the days pass by like a breeze.

kim taehyung caught you in the middle of waiting for jennie’s class to end whilst also finishing up some work in the library. he knew your favorite spot and he knew where you’d usually be - but you had an inkling that you weren’t exactly the reason why he memorized these little things. he waved at you in greeting and you waved back. you would’ve pretended he didn’t exist after that and go back to your laptop if he didn’t hold up his phone screen with blank white space and blue and grey bubbles on the side.

so of course you picked up your phone, noticing that there were already three wiggling dots when you tapped on his name.

kth: hey

you met his gaze once, as if to affirm that he meant to send it. when he shota half, almost pleading smile, you typed out a reply.

you: hey what’s good

kth: nothing

kth: just waiting for a friend

seeing as there was not really a conversation going on where jennie wasn’t involved and how the boy’s blatant dismissal in addressing the big, giant elephant in the room, taehyung must’ve had seen the way your lips pursed into an irritated pout before his phone vibrated.

you: cool

and then you were back to your laptop, typing sentences out and backspacing because of its incoherent nature, or lack of quality or whatever reason that stopped you from doing your job before kim taehyung’s arrival.

then he started whispering “hey, uh, ____,” from across the table. upper body leaned to the front as if it’d help enunciate his words.

you took your sweet time taking out your airpods from each individual ear and placing them down next to your mac before finally arching a brow at the boy, “what?”

“hey,” he repeated, this time with a frozen mid-wave, “hi, how you doing?”

“great thanks,” there was a minimal effort on your part to disguise your ‘what even?’ expression on your face as you picked up your right airpod first - only to be stopped by the boy’s-

“i’m sorry.”

it’s clean and short but his face made up for conveying his genuinity.

“why are you saying sorry?” it didn’t mean you were going to let him off the hook easy.

“well, because...” he trailed off for the briefest moment but the unconcealable bop of his adam’s apple isn’t really helping him appear any more convincing, “i was being pushy...” he looked to you for an indication of him being on the right track to which you were not sure if he did get any but he still went on with his wits and his will - it took you everything not to gush over how cute he looks with his panic-blinking and pretty lips moving as if to say something but no words coming out, “...and i was generally being an annoying little shit.”

“and?” you pressed on, blinking once as if to paint a look of unbotheredness.

“...and...” he echoes, eyes darting from your phone to somewhere behind you and then something next to it but only silence fills the space between you and him.

“alright, i’m gonna be real with you,” leaning back, you cross your arms over your chest, “i know you talk to me when you need something and i don’t really care - well i do, but i just bottle it up until it one day burst out, you know what i’m saying? so yea, if you’re wondering if that night was me blowing up on you, it kinda was and it wasn’t because you were making small talks with me just to  poke into my best friend’s business - well, it kinda is but like not in that way, you follow? what i mean is.. don’t let me catch you sneaking behind jennie’s back asking personal shits about her that you don’t think she’s going to disclose even if you straight up ask her - that’s sus, taehyung.”

by the end of it, he was staring at you like you had two horns and a tail swaying around behind you. but you concur, that may or may have not been your inner self coming to light - just a hypocrite criticizing someone for doing the things she would have done, if she wasn’t already doing it, if she was in his shoes.

and to be quite frank, taehyung’s shoe size is probably a few inches bigger than yours but if they had laces, you would’ve been able to put them on and tied them up to accommodate your ego.

so taehyung didn’t - couldn’t say anything in response to your second time going off into a tangent and because of what he did, at that. he stopped texting you altogether and only talked to jennie whenever you weren’t around and left before you got to them if he saw you coming his way - jennie’s actually. 

either way, jennie wasn’t as elated as you thought she’d be once you told her that you called taehyung out on his bullshit.

“um, i’ve always wanted to tell him about me and namjoon so he’d give up - you were the one who didn’t let me,” she might or might not have said something along the lines of you making her “lead him on all because you wanted to an eye candy to look at every day.”

“what do you mean?” your forehead was creasing a thousand folds.

“not that i’m pointing fingers,” she went on, eyes glued to the pairs of indoor shoes in the corner of the room and anywhere but your eyes, “but i’m like, cool with or without him around but you sort of said ‘okay, then it’s cool if he comes with us right?’ and you were making puppy eyes and i couldn’t no to that-”

and so you were laughing dryly, “aha- wha- what so it’s my fault that he’s being a total wuss and won’t square up?”

“i didn’t say that,” jennie’s reply came a heartbeat later which meant yes, it was.

so now you’re not talking to your best friend and neither are you talking to the boy who’s crushing on her. which leaves you a lot of free time to finish up your work in time to hop into a bullet train and then an uber and get to the building where jimin’s dance off is held. 

you’re in the middle of texting the boy a ‘sorry, might b late. i didn’t know there’d be a line 😭’ when a figure comes up to you from the corner of your eye.

fitted in black jeans and matching tucked in t that shows off his slender waist and beanie, the only thing that isn’t black is probably his white-yellow timberlands, “so you weren’t kidding when you said you were gonna leave me on read.”

“you know, it’s so cute that you think you’re worth the reply at all,” you blink, eyes going wide and jaw hanging loose from shock, “this... this... confidence - where do you get it? seriously, tell me because i have never seen someone with such immaculate self-absorbance.”

jeongguk’s head moves as he nods in admittance, hands buried in his pocket before he looks up at you. that familiar glint in his eyes is telling you that whatever he has up his sleeve, you’re not going to be able to refuse.

“you know, eugene over there and i are homies,” he nods towards the burly tall man at the front who’s mainly the reason there’s a line in the first place - one that no one seems to dare cut, “i could get you in faster.”

“oh my god, look what that self-absorbance’s got you believing,” you put one, sympathetic hand on his shoulder as your free hand goes to cover the spot on your chest where your heart is, “i’m so happy for you,” you glance over to the not-declining-anytime-soon line behind you, “but sometimes, even confidence can’t get you into invites-only events.”

 to any other person, it must’ve looked like you and jeongguk are friends - friendly acquaintances hitting best buddies at the very least. but something in the way his grin curling sweetly on his lips and the curve of the half ringlet of his hair touching the corners of his onyx eyes, makes your toes curl inwardly and your stomach churn with a sort of emotion you can’t pinpoint.

and because of that, you know there won’t be any sort of friendship forming between you and jeongguk.

he leaves you with an amused smirk and a “see you inside,” and marches up to eugene, the two sharing an uncomplicated handshake before the man steps to the side and lets him in.

well. 

it takes you another ten minutes of standing in line and assuring jimin that he doesn’t need to rush out and risk having his team go without him when their turn comes. which according to jimin, ‘isn’t anytime soon - they let the bigger teams go first’.

but then jimin knowing jimin, that probably meant soon enough.

when you’re finally on the front of the line, crumpled up ticket in hand, eugene gives you a once over and nods at his not-as-burly-but-just-as-scary-looking friend.

“follow me,” and with that, she struts in through the door but instead of going down the hallway like the ones before you did before they disappear from eyesight in the corner, she takes a sharp turn to the right until she stops in front of an elevator.

her deep violet hair brushes against her cheekbones as she nods at the empty box with mirrors all around.

yeesh, guess everyone expresses themselves with their bodies here.

the numbers constantly change from ground level to 1 to 2 and finally stops at the 3rd floor where the blare of the music seems to come from. and that’s when you see the black haired boy who has his forearms leaned against the railing as he grins at something on the bottom floor where the shouts and cheers seem to erupt from. but before you can make a sharp 180 to go back down where jimin said you’d only need to follow the hallway and take the turn around the corner like the people before you did, jeongguk looks up as if sensing the heat of your gaze drilling holes inside his head. with one hand raised, he beckons you over.

“your majesty,” you drop into a bow once you reach him, “this humble servant thanks you for bringing her here but,” pointing your thumb over your shoulder at the hallway you just came from you continue, “i think i’m on the wrong floor because all i can see here is flocks of hair - an oh, shiny scalp from that guy - arms flailing around. takes away the magic of dance, you feel?”

“so you’re here for jimin.” it doesn’t sound like a question - so it must not be. a ponderous hum vibrate from his chest as you shoot him an arched brow whilst your insides burst like fireworks at the way his darkened eyes traces down your body and back up after he’s done with what seems to be a scout’s assessment.

“no leather pants and no best friend or heartbreak boy hovering around like a lost puppy - let me guess, he did something that made you mad, the best friend backed him up and now you’re mad at both of them?” he raises his own brow, lips curling into an assured smirk, “oh and jimin here’s probably taking a neutral stance because it ‘doesn’t concern’ him.”

you don’t know if you want to run away or grab the neck of his shirt and smack your lips on his.

so you settle with handguns pointed in his face, “alright, catch you never.”

but before you can even take a step to where you came from, jeongguk’s laying out his card on the table, “you sure bout that? it’s bulleproof boys’ turn - it’s jimin’s teams name, in case you’re wondering and judging by who they’re going against, it might be their first and last performance for the night.”

“i knew that,” respectfully, you had no idea that the teams have specific names besides the alphabetical letters given to them upon registration.

jimin’s only mentioned dance match once and that he’s in team c that’ll go against team d.

so you stick around, watching from all the way on the third floor where the lest people are gathered, cheering out names of teams that are alien to your ears which seem to be the team jimin is going against. but the fact that jimin could dance with such precision and grace is magnifying enough. he’s mostly posed on either sides of the formation, switching from the front left to the furthest back line on the right side as the beat drops.

jimin’s name pours out of your mouth in cheers but it’s swallowed by the other cheers before it can even reach him. in the end, jimin’s team loses. they still go up to their opponent and share handshakes and sidehugs before moving away from the dance floor.

he’s not smiling nor is he frowning as he stands in the crowd after the prelims but his lips curl and eyes disappear into crescents when he sees you.

“hey!” his arms open up into a hug, only to stop halfway in hesitation but by then you’re already wrapping yours around his neck with a “you were so cool!”

and just like that, the awkwardness in the air dissipates.

“i didn’t see you in the crowd.”

“so what? you thought i left?” a light smack lands on his arm, “by the way, you didn’t tell me it was this intense - i can feel the tension from all the way...” you pause for the briefest moment, “...in the audience.”

“everyone here just likes to dance so it gets competitive at some point but at the end of the day, it’s important to have fun,” he shrugs, a shy smile plastered to his face.

“either way you did great,” you bump his elbow with yours, and he shifts his weight to his left foot.

“we lost but it was a fair match the bts people were too good,” a mixture of regret and contentedness crosses his face as he nods to himself, as if admitting the difference in skills.

“let’s get a drink later, i’m buying,” you propose and jimin looks like a kid who just received his favorite candy.

well, that was the plan for the rest of the night up until the winner was announced. then a boy no older than you and jimin came up to the latter, arms slung over his shoulders, “dude, beyond the scene just asked if we wanna join them at the afterparty. can you believe it?”

“dude, you capping - don’t fucking joke with men man, i was about to shit my pants-” jimin attempts to shove the guy away half-heartedly which does nothing as his friend - teammate, cuts him off.

“i’m not fucking joking, man, behind the scenes literally asked if we wanna chill with them!”

the two boys are basically shoving each other back and forth before they start slapping each other on the face once to wake the other up. whoever this behind the scenes guys, they seem like a pretty big deal if two grown adults are fanboying this hard about them.

only after they’re sporting the faintest shade of pink on their right cheeks, do they finally realize that they weren’t squeal-whispering by themselves. he introduces himself as kai - “jimin’s best friend and mentor.”

“he likes to say that because i got into dance because of him,” jimin adds, debunking the mentor myth.

you’re about to wave the two goodbye and call it a night since it’s pretty clear that the behind the scenes guys only invited them and not their friends.

“come with us,” kai announces as the three of you walk down the back entrance where it’s less crowded and meant for the participants to use, “baekhyun can’t make it so we’ll still be five people.”

“i really should go- it’s getting late and my place is in seoul-”

and so begin your war of apologies and ‘no, you’s.

“oh shit, i forgot.” jimin’s usually almond-shaped eyes turn round and wide, “you used the subway-”

“yeah, but i can still catch the last train home-” you try to assure.

“i’ll accompany you back-”

“no, no - you should go with them-”

“no, i made you come to watch-”

and it would have gone on until morning if you and jimin were left to argue on who should do what if kai didn’t clap his hands together and put an end to the long debate, “okay, okay, break it up.”

he looks between the blonde haired best friend and then to you, “jimin came with me so i’m gonna drive him back anyway and i could drop you off too after chilling with bts - it’s nothing you’re not used to, beers and games and shits, you know? plus it’ll be like, less than 20 people there - bts never invites other groups into their circle - who knows, maybe you’ll find your true way like jimin did,” he pats the aforementioned man on his shoulder whilst jimin rolls his eyes at the way best friends who’ve heard their best friend boast about an-untruth for the umpteenth time.

and because you basically made another friend and that means you’ll have at least 2 people to hang out with if the rest turns out not to be your kind of people - so you cave in, “okay, sure, why not?”

x

'why not’s are subjective - or so you’d like to think.

like when you’re not particularly into americano and prefer latte but wouldn’t say no to having the first if jennie mixed up your order and bought you your not-so-favored but also not-so-hated drink.

but jennie’s known you since she shoved you off the swings at five after you outran her only to get to the swings faster because only one was vacant and the other kid was already in the other one.

so she’d know your preferred drinks.

but in the event she suddenly has amnesia or anything and got you and americano, that’s when you’ll go, “why not?”

but that and finding out that jeongguk used to be part of bts until he hurt his during practice, having to have 2 major surgeries because of it, rendering him no longer able to dance so he’s only going to the dance offs to cheer for his friends which was how he met you at the entrance and now you’re handcuffed together (and yes, again) in the middle of the forest - are two disparate things altogether.

hoseok, the most outgoing and friendliest of the bunch, suggested for the ice breaking to be in a form of 2 beer bottles and a sort of rope or chain tying people from bts and the bulletproof people together to talk for five minutes. they only have 2 pairs of cuffs so the others that lack them have to make do with bandanas and you think a seokjin got harassed into taking off his shirt and using it as him and his designated partner’s pseudo handcuff.

yours and jeongguk’s are - you’re not sure if it’s a fortunate or unfortunate thing - real ones (you’re not sure if you want to know why and how seulgi easily pulls out a pair of fluffy pink handcuffs and a normal-looking one - out of the blue).

but you’re almost sure that you’re leaning on the side of the internal argument of this - this, right here - is why not.

“why didn’t you text me back?” jeongguk is in the middle of asking as you take a big chug of the alcoholic beverage.

"oh my god,” you let a pleased smile tug at your lips as you feel the buzz of the alcohol coursing through your system, “i was just gonna talk to you about that - jennie said i was being a ghosting b because you only said facts and i got like, offended without a reason but i agree that people can be wrong sometimes and that was her time... i just...” you shrug, “i just didn’t want to text you back so i didn’t,” you look at him with a new found familiarity, “anyways, how was your week?”

by the end of it, jeongguk’s nodding and poorly suppressing his smirk.

“well, let me start first,” you begin before he can even say anything, listing down the happenings in a chronological order which may or may have not confirmed his initial assumption on why you’re here alone “...i mean, was it my fault though? between you and me, i think jennie and i need to sit down and actually talk about accountabilities first, you know? but anyway, that’s how my week went! how about you, how was your week?”

to say that your turmoil of a week is anything close to a laugh-worthy joke, would be a lie but for some reason, trickles of laughter are escaping jeongguk’s lips and into the night air as he leans back, holding his stomach. he would’ve hit the ground if you’d poke him.

“wow,” you slowly nod, “that’s... that’s very... flattering that you think my somewhat a quarter life crisis is amusing,” a grin stretches across your face but your eyes drill holes into the boy’s skull, “maybe i should just quit uni altogether. that’d be... exciting, right? just... quit uni and live a life as a comedian because look at how much i’m cracking you up right now!”

and it goes on for another minute of jeongguk’s laughter filling the air as you threaten him to stop in the guise of encouragement besides the cracking of the branches as it gets swallowed up by the fire in the barrel not too far away from where everyone’s scattered.

“god,” when he’s finally reduced to chuckles and wiping invisible tears off the corner of his eyes, you’re about halfway done with your bottle.

“and he’s back,” you announce, “welcome back. can’t say i missed you though but glad that you’re back with us.”

but before jeongguk can get a word out about his own week which you’d asked, if only to be polite, hoseok is already summoning everyone to gather around the barrel as he raises a bottle in the air to - “new groupship and friends!”

or so you think he said.

you’re not too sure because you’re too busy demanding jeongguk to - “uncuff me right now, jeon - was that too pushy? let me try again,” you pause, clearing your throat, “can you please, please, please, uncuff me so i can go back to my friends and not have to stay here a minute longer?”

“don’t act like you don’t enjoy my company,” he offers you one of his self-assured smirks before addressing your concern, “i’m trying,” he says simply, free hand patting around the pocket on the side of his jeans before groping his own ass.

“um, maybe try harder?” you suggest, smiling sweetly but it downturns into a frown not even a minute later when he declares, “i can’t find it.”

“you... can’t find it?” you echo his words.

“it’s not on me,” he states.

“well, did seulgi give it to you at all or...” you trail off only to be met by a devious smirk which doesn’t exactly help his case.

“guess you’re stuck with me,” he shrugs ever so easily.

“oh, hell nah,” and that’s when you latch onto to smirking boy’s body - on your hands at least, and since his left hand and your right hand are cuffed together, it doesn’t allow much room for your physical inspection which is how using your only free hand to get to the side of his pocket that’s farthest from you - may appear suspicious to others.

you only notice that you’re fully facing jeongguk and having your back turned to everyone else when hoseok’s voice cuts through the air, “yo hold up, hold up, hold up - this is bonfire and chill, not netflix and chill.”

your jaws hurt from hanging a bit too low as you meet each and everyone’s eyes, their giggling and laughing already telling enough of what the majority thinks - everyone except jimin, that is.

but you’re a bit too preoccupied with trying to clear the supposed air of you and jeongguk getting it on in the middle of the forest with both your friends and his around, “aha,” you force out, “i know this,” free hand waving between the chain linking your wrists and the open air which isn’t helping your case because jeongguk’s poor attempt at subduing his smirk is well, poor, “might look sus to you but it isn’t - jeongguk lost the key and if someone could help us find it, it’d-”

“oh, don’t worry, i have a spare at home,” seulgi chirps up, hand waving her illuminated phone, “i’ll text my girlfriend to bring it here.”

well, that explains the fluffy cuffs.

“sick,” jeongguk nods over to the girl to which she holds up an ‘okay’ sign and a meaningful smile to him which shouldn’t be ominous but is.

so you fix him a stare when hoseok goes to say something along the line of ‘great’ and ‘lifesaver’ to seulgi.

which the boy only asks back with a “what?”

“i have something to say but i’m not gonna so i’m just gonna keep quiet but just know that i’m watching you,” but the warning doesn’t exactly bring out the intimidating aspect that you hoped for.

“watch all you want, i’m yours for tonight,” the velvety sound of his chuckles is awfully distracting because you don’t even notice the chain clinking until his fingers interlock yours before he brings them up in the air - as if to emphasize on the technicality of his titillating claim.

the night goes on with bottles of beers scattering over the ground, faint smoke dissipating into the air as the scent of something sweet and fruity wafts around whilst the juul gets passed around.

once in a while someone’s laugh echoes between the gaps of the trees and into the night, amidst the sound of woodland creatures. you’ve downed one and a half bottle of henny whilst jeongguk doesn’t seem to have gone past even half of his first bottle. but he’s chuckling and laughing at something someone said which, for the most part, is funny or warrant a jaw-dropping, pin-drop-silence kind of reaction just like now as seulgi confesses to-

“never have i ever slept with my mom’s boyfriend at 19.”

“and that’s on mommy issues,” you hold up a beer in a ‘cheers’ manner at her whilst she mimics your action before you both tilt your head up and take a chug out of your individual beers at the same time.

“what about you?” jeongguk asks and for a moment, you forget that there are people around because jeongguk’s eyes look like someone reached up the sky and handpicked two stars each for his irises and trap them in there like a class case.

but you’d like to believe it’s the alcohol doing its rightful work in your system because you’re back on the ground with an unrelenting itch on your ankle where it’s brushing against the blades of grass.

“yea, what’s your never-have-i-ever mommy issues edition?” kai speaks up.

“nah, it’s wack,” you wave a dismissive hand but end up agreeing to spill the beans when a bout of protest spreads across your ever so faithful audience.

“okay, okay, never have i ever fucked my biological mom’s husband who isn’t my dad,” you say which earns a bout of cheers and ‘that’s messed up’s before seokjin claps his hands together.

“never have i ever...” he pauses, grinning as an added suspense before he goes on, “fucked my brother’s boyfriend.”

the game doesn’t last for long when everyone collectively agree to take the atmosphere up a notch and play strip truth or dare. but before your turn came, seulgi announces her girlfriend’s arrival concurrently with her having to leave for the night because she’s her ride home. and because you and jeongguk are both of the same mind that you’re the ones that should be following after her to get yourselves uncuffed, you do just that. 

yeri is a sweetheart and matches seulgi’s playful yet reserved nature. they take the cuffs with them and seulgi waves you two goodbye with the same, meaningful smile directed to jeongguk - but if that’s not enough, the ‘good luck’ thumbs up is a screaming red button for you.

but before you can even call him out for his possible hand in convincing his dance friends to invite jimin’s and consequently you to the forest after the match - he beats you to it.

“you okay?” this time, his features are lacking the smirk.

“yea, why wouldn’t i be?” you say, hopping on the rail of the train track that’ll lead to the spot where the others are - so far, you’re doing a good job not falling to your demise.

“i don’t know,” the scraping sound of his soul kicking against the pebbly ground fills the air as he walks next to you, hands in his pocket, “you’ve been pretty quiet after that thing about your mom.”

“you think what i did was messed up?” you inquire, resisting the urge to steal a glance at him to see what kind of emotion he’s making - whether it’s contorted with disgust or whether his nose is crinkling at an attempt to appear unbothered or whether there really isn’t any judgments being passed and he’s just downcasting his eyes because he’s looking out for possible sharp objects protruding from the ground.

“everyone’s a little messed up,” his shoulderline shakes as he shrugs, “it’s the why behind it that counts.”

“nah,” your hair tickles your face as you shake your head in blatant refutation, “i didn’t have a reason.”

and just when you expect a disgusted scoff to erupt from jeongguk’s pink lips... it doesn’t.

“that works too.”

silence follows his words for the longest moment with you trying placing one foot in front of the other, pretending like teetering on that tightrope you’re stuck on with kim taehyung at the end of it, not even waiting for you but just happen to be there.

so you break the silence, “i finally found her last year - flew all the way to jeju  because my biological aunt saw my the post i put up on facebook in a last ditch attempt before i hire a private investigator like my dads suggested. she set us up to meet,” the picture of a woman who’s so similar yet dissimilar to you flashes at the back of your head, a biscoff cheesecake slice lying untouched on the table and someone screaming at the top of their lungs right in front of your ears, “my biological mom didn’t know anything about it, flipped out and told me to never bother her again so i looked up where her husband worked and slept with him and sent the video to her.”

jeongguk doesn’t say anything, only nodding in your periphery before a soothing kind of silence lapses between you.

“what’s your story?” you ask a moment later.

“hm?” he glances at you, the moonlight shining over that smirk that you’ve come to miss in the course of the five minutes it went missing, skin painted a creamy white.

“if you don’t wanna tell, that’s fine too but like, you basically tore down my walls and i’m naked as hell - figuratively -” you add as soon as his eyes light up, “right now.” 

but then he tries to bargain, “promise you’ll text me back and i’ll tell.”

and you try to teeter in the grey area between words and its meanings, “alright, promise... i won’t leave you on read.”

“nah, you gotta promise to text back,” his half curls sway as he shakes his head - your end of the bargain not sufficiently satisfying.

it’s a few moments after your surrendering, “you know what? keep your skeletons in your closet - i’m good,” that he finally says something.

“i used to do tracks, lucked out with a sports scholarship but by freshman year in college, realized i didn’t even like tracks and dropped out...”

jeongguk’s parents weren’t happy about it - didn’t exactly welcome him when he came back with a suitcase and a letter from his unversity claiming the outstanding balance of his first two semesters. but he wasn’t happy at home either. 

so he packed his bags one more time and took the first train to seoul where he worked part time at a restaurant and occasionally at the dance off’s, before he found the beyond the scene people and subsequently found dance. that was amidst of a developer of the game he was playing approaching him through the game’s chat server and offering him a job to test out their games with the condition that he gets a degree in computer science which they paid for on the company’s scholarship fund.

and so it was obvious that jeon jeongguk, wherever he chooses to go and stop at, blooms like a wildflower that strives in any condition thrown in his face whether it be a storm, a hurricane or a sunny weather that barely allows any rain to cover the soil he’s rooted in.

and because he’s true to himself, it isn’t as unbelievable, when almost everyone - from every layer of backgrounds, flock around him like honeybees in spring - allured, magnified and bewitched by jeon jeongguk that makes him... well, him.

to say you understand him a little bit better may be an overstatement but maybe you’re less suspicious of his keen intuition and uncanny prognosis of what happened in your relationships, both with your friend and your not-so-friendly crush.

jeongguk jests that his leg “doesn’t work like it used to but-” - he’s been to places. seen people.

“so why are you obsessed with me?” you question into the night in a light hearted joke, “i mean, i can possibly see why because well, i’m... me and i’m amazing but you know, it’s not healthy to be this obsessed with people.”

his chuckles sounds like wind chimes on a spring day, "besides the fact that i was too busy being a tracks nerd for most of my life so i have zero flirting skills and decided to make all the calls that seem to irritate the one person i want to get to know? it’s because you looked like you were head over heels with the guy you were putting in place but still managed to not make it personal.”

it takes a moment for you to digest what he just said, and even then, you’re nodding in complete disagreement as you blurt out, “pretty sure some parts were personal,” and you turn to him with a smile stretched over your face, “but glad that you don’t think i’m the impostor.”

so you stop twenty steps away from where you can see the fire in the barrel and hoshi, one of the guys from bulletproof boys, standing in boxers and shouting an oath before gulping down a bottle of henny at an alarming rate.

“everyone’s a little sus now and then,” he refutes, nose crinkling as a grin spread across his moon-kissed features as he offers you his hand and you take it, hopping off your tightrope journey and onto grounding earth.

x

when morning comes, you wake up to the familiar but not-very-welcomed sound of cars honking from outside your window and the light piercing through your eyelids, so much so, you surrender to the start of the day. arms stretched over your head and a guttural sound vibrating within your chest as a sign of protest before your vision finally gets used to the bright sunny rays.

and that’s when you freeze. arms stretched and all.

“after all this, you can’t say no to a date with me,” jeon jeongguk is lying right next to you, in your one-person bed which you could never imagine would fit more than your need-for-maximum-space self when you sleep but there he is, in yesterday’s clothes, hugging your light pink alpaca plushie on his stomach whilst his elbow which you don’t notice before is poking into your rib.

the events of last night untangle in a web of hazed memory coming to high definition as each passing second pass by.

you and jimin live on the opposite ends of the city which made you reluctant in having kai drive you back at all, so jeongguk offered to split the uber bills with you because apparently, “oh, hey, we live in the same area!”

which later turned out you didn’t and it would’ve made more sense for him to hitch a ride with kai and jimin. but you didn’t even need to ask why he did what he did.

because by the time you and jeongguk returned, it’d been a set-in-stones assumption that you were off making out somewhere under a tree and everyone cheered you and him for it upon your return.

well, except jimin.

so you pulled jeongguk to the side once the attention was directed to hoseok whose dare was to lick the grass he was stepping on.

“is that thing about jimin liking me true because he’s been like, avoiding my eyes the whole night and now he’s acting like i don’t exist and i’m pretty concerned because his friend is my ride home,” you whispered underneath your beath.

jeongguk threw one, confirming glance at the aforementioned man before nodding casually, “he’s jealous as fuck because he thinks we did the do - cross my heart and hope to die.”

so you ended up offering jeongguk to sleep in your bed because it was already late and it felt like a waste to spend another thirty bucks to go back to a place where nobody was waiting for him anyway.

you were so beat, you’d fallen asleep as soon as jeongguk pulled your protesting self off the futon-splayed floor and held you captive in your own bed.

“you know what? i might as well,” you say, legs thrown off the bed and stretching some more before looking down at the smiling, plushie-holding, grown ass person in your bed, “now we need to figure out how to sneak you out because this is a girls-only dorm and if they found out i have a guy over, i might get expelled.”

but before you can even start brainstorming the best possible route for jeongguk to sneak out without being detected, an obnoxious rapping reverberates against your door. the look of pure horror settling in as jeongguk’s smile melts into a wide-eyed, panicked face would have been adorable if you’re not in the middle of shoving him into your “quick, in the closest!” which he needs to hunch his shoulders to become as small as possible before you can close it whilst you yelp out a “just a minute!”

by the time you manage to school a smile on your face, jennie’s is already sprinkled with a dust of red as her brows come together, judging your choice of outfit and the events that went down last night.

“hey, girl,” you drag out the first word in idle panic, body leaning against the doorframe a little too defensively, “what’s...” you can’t even find the right words as you tap your fingers against the doorframe before finally saying, “what’s good?”

but one questioning look from her and you’re stepping out of the way, left to stand at attention like a cadet in the presence of the general whilst said general struts into your room and scans it once before turning to you.

“’what’s good?’” jennie echoes and you know from the way her head does the slightest of movements according to her enunciation, “imagine seeing your best friend on some mutual friend’s snapchat story which mind you, said mutual friend isn’t anywhere close to either of you and the time in the snap says a big whooping 4:03 am while you’re here feeling bad for hurting her feelings with your words words. but does she feel bad? well, it doesn’t flipping look like she even gave any thoughts about you, did it?”

and that’s when the closet decides that it’s had enough of storing a full grown human in its belly and slowly, but surely swings the door open with thunderous creak in the midst of the calm before the storm. and lo and behold, a jeon jeongguk, still hugging your alpaca tightly, keeping his eyes closed as if it’ll make him invisible before he gradually screws one eye open to the sight of a raging but confused  jennie kim and a mortified you turning to said girl.

so much for keeping skeletons in closets.

“i-i can explain.”

x

it turns out all it takes for jennie’s anger to subside is for her to find a boy in your room. namely the boy she’s been blatantly shipping you with even though you barely knew each other then.

“i have a wig in my room,” she suggests after you’ve exhausted all options - jeongguk can’t climb through the window and jump down from the second floor.

“well, he can but there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to leave without one of his limbs intact,” you’d added, shrugging.

he’s sitting crossed leg on your bed, alpaca in his lap and looking cute as hell as his eyes go round at the mention of a wig and five minutes prior, crossdressing.  the plan is for you and jennie will walk him out once he’s all dresed up like you’re just three - well, one is kind of buffed up but still pretty - best friends who had a girls’ night and crashed in your room.

he whistles lowly, head lulling to the side as he stares at the door before turning to you with a playful smile, “i’ve always wanted to wear a skirt.”

and so it goes, jennie kim’s squealing and making a short trip to her room and returning with a bag full of wig, stretchable sweaters and lycra skirts whilst she scours through your closet for clothes that you have but don’t even remember. the oversized sweater that’s a few more inches too big for you wraps around his body tightly and the skirt is a tad bit too short for him, going down to a few inches above the knee. but the head turner is the way the curly brown wig gracefully frames his face and softens his jawline, giving an illusion of how his half-ringlet would have looked if he grew them out.

you apply the soft pink lipgloss on his already rosy lips as a joke in a guise of a final touch, heart skipping as his lips curl whilst he gazes at you the whole time you’re putting on the glimmering liquid.

“okay, i feel bad,” you confess, shoulder line falling, “i thought you’d hate the lipgloss and i was going say it’s important to make the look work if you said no but you’re not saying no and you’re looking at me like you’d trust me with your life...” a sigh rolls off your lips at the end of it.

“you feel bad?” he echoes, glossed lips looking kissable as hell - it doesn’t even matter that he’s smirking like it was part of his plan all along to manipulate your conscience into confessing your ulterior motive.

so you nod.

“good,” he states simply.

“you saying good like you’re satisfied that you managed to pick on my guilty conscience is making me feel less guilty,” you narrow your eyes, not even bothering to hide the smile creeping on your lips.

“oh my god, my ship is sailing!” jennie’s whispered squeal cuts through the air before she reverts to her deadpanned self, “okay but seriously, if you’re done sprinkling sugar cubes all over the place, i think we should get jeongguk out before miss snitchery sonyeon next door sniffs the man in jeongguk and snitch on us.”

sonyeon has been known for reporting 2 boy-sneaking activities that went on last year which would have been justified if the girls that brought the boys into their room was doing questionable things and loudly at that but the first incident was with a late enrolled newbie that just moved in and didn’t know that boys weren’t allowed inside and though the other girl did sneak her boyfriend in, it was only because he was bleeding profusely and needed first aid treatment which she stored in her room.

you’re just about a few feet away from the double doors when a familiar but disembodied voice drums in your ears.

“you three, stop right there.”

you think your heart stops working for the briefest moment as time freezes and you’re craning your head to look at jennie whose fear-stricken face mimics yours and then jeongguk whom you don’t expect to wear such ceases in his forehead.

so you do the one thing that you think of-

“run.” you whisper.

all of a sudden, the wind is in your face and a few heads turn your way - but you doubt that it has more to do with how unfairly gorgeous jeongguk looks than the fact that the ra is on your tail, her pitched demands for ‘someone stop them!’ whilst. you’re not sure if someone did try to chase after you or if the adrenaline pumping in your system is what helps you sprint faster than a cheetah but when you finally slow down, almost skidding to a stop on the grass somewhere on campus grounds instead of the dormitory area - it’s because jennie is dramatically breathing through her mouth and found herself a bench to put on an act of dying whale.

“you guys... go on... leave me be...” she croaks out in between breaths, hand reaching out to the air.

“dude, tell me if you’re gonna stop so we can stop and get caught together,” you guff, plopping down, your state no better than jennie’s while jeongguk shakes his head at the two of you.

not even a beat of sweat or heaved breathing coming from him - not to mention that-

“how are you the fastest-” you suck in a much needed breath, “-when your leg doesn’t work as good anymore?”

“yea, didn’t say i can’t run,” he grins.

“jen, let’s go,” you say, tapping the dying whale on her shoulder as she starts wailing words of saddened goodbyes.

“forsake me! save yourselves!” she wheezes, staring into nothingness before waving a dismissive hand, “no for real, i don’t think they’re gonna chase us all the way here. you guys go, i have a date anyway, i’ll text kim,” it’s the name you coined for namjoon whenever you talk about him in public,��“to pick me up here.”

a year ago, you would have called her a brave fool for having her boyfriend slash professor that’s teaching at the same university - pick her up in plain sight. but once you saw the unfamiliar ferrari roll to a stop in front of the dorms with tinted black windows, you understand why they can be as free and uncaring as they are.

“you sure? what if they saw you here?” you question, needles of doubt still deeply pierced into your racing heart.

but when she looks at you with arched brows and a familiar couldn’t-care-less attitude, you know nothing you say can change her mind which helps ease the knots in your stomach by a lot.

so you cave in, waving her goodbye - but not before the scarring ‘we still need to talk though’ reminder - and going back to the tall, brown haired person who’s holding his left hand midair and wiggling his fingers about in what you think is a parodic depiction of how girls wave at each other while mouthing a nasally, higher-pitched “thank you so much for helping us.” 

one minute into the walk, you stop in front of the cafe you’re used to having lunch at with your group of 4 - if there’s even any group left after this, “so this kim guy - he’s way older isn’t he?” 

“if you’re all knowing, you wouldn’t end that sentence with a question,” you assert, “so i’m not gonna say anything.”

“that’s a yes then,” he nods. 

“i think we lost them,” you say, a tad too late but pretend to look around anyway like you’re not 200% sure of that fact.

to any outsiders, you’ll probably look like two girls standing three feet apart from each other, looking out in a distance.

“nice,” jeongguk nods, joining in your scouting party before he squints his eyes at something in the most casual manner before suggesting, “so... you wanna go on a date?”

x

“you think we lost them?” you whisper under your breath, worry filling your chest as you throw your gaze over somewhere at the end of the alleyway where flashes of red and blue lights passed by.

but before the black cladded boy can say anything, his lips smack together as he and you both press yourselves flat to the wall as the sound of radio static bounces into the narrow space you’ve found yourselves in. six months after your first date, which involves a crossdressing jeongguk and a day at a park that had you returning to the dorm with a giant teddy bear and a strip of photo you took from the booth comprising the multiple personalities embodied in one person from sassy to stare-into-the camera-intimidating face to him looking down and shyly peeking through his pushed back curls - you’ve gone on multiple other dates.

none of which can be considered normal because you’ll always end up in a sticky situation like you are now.

on your second month, you found out that jeon jeongguk not only has a stable  income for literally playing games while trying to balance out his education but he also paints and draws.

on your third month, you go on your first mural-painting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-dressed-as-robbers date to which ended pretty well with the two of you getting hungry and having ramen at a 24 hour convenience store. so the mural painting becomes a monthly routine.

jimin finds out about it somewhere down the line and broke out into the most heartwarming smile while teasing you about how “the singles lost another one,” as he shook his head in dismay. but things went back to normal for the most parts. taehyung talks to you more now. he apologized for having only treated you like someone useful to him when he needed something and found that you have more in common than you think.

like how you’re decently informed about the greatest artists of all time - all because jeongguk was telling you about them whilst you chill at his place on days you don’t feel like going out but still want to spend time together. jeongguk, later found out that his supply of artistic information was what led to you and taehyung’s improving friendship and offers to become your spokesperson by having you invite taehyung to a cafe so he can pour his abundance of knowledge in the fine arts of painting - “since he’s so interested in van gogh, you know what i mean?”

he even finished it with a tilt of his head and an sassy ‘ugh.”

“i think we gotta run,” jeongguk’s declarations doesn’t have you arching your eyebrows and looking at him in an ‘are you for real?’ kind of manner.

it could be because you’re so used to running from law enforcement now.

or maybe because jeongguk showed you the world through his eyes. doesn’t mean it’s any less terrifying - the thought of being caught and shoved behind the bars whilst they included it in your records. but hey, at least, you’re no strangers to handcuffs.

“on one,” you say and he nods, hand squeezing yours as if saying i’ll never let them get you.

“three,” you begin, eyes fixed on the stars in jeongguk’s gaze, “two,” jeongguk breathes in deeply, “one.”

run.

x

note. i hope you guys enjoyed reading!! and if you want anything similar to this kind of style, i have one more college au. the second part of that one is my pinned post which also has a link to the first part. if you’re curious why i’m not gonna link or name it is because i’m convinced that tumblr literally makes anything that’s linked or mentioned it blocked for some reason idk.

but anyways, thank you for reading!!

[genshin-hours]

Could I get some hand holding headcanons for Demi and/or Eli :0 they’re my comfort characters and I’d really appreciate it 🥺

demi and eli hand holding hcs (gn reader)

absolutely shawty. sorry I'm going out of order for my asks, I'm trying to do the ones I have the most I guess inspiration for first.

demi

this woman is literally the queen of physical affection, which absolutely includes hand holding

she loves holding your hand, and she will do it as much as she can. sometimes she even does it subconsciously

like you guys could just be at dinner and you'll feel her grab your free hand and rest it on the table or across your laps, interlocking your fingers.

if you're shy about it, that's ok too! she's chill with dialing it back and only doing it in private. but if you let her, she would probably even run with you while holding your hand in matches.

if she's feeling frisky, she'll place a gentle kiss on the top of your palm and leave a nice dark lipstick stain on your skin. (goodluck getting it off)

when you hold her hand, she will gently stroke her thumb across the top of yours.

if you're nervous, she'll grab your hand and do the same thing to, but she always locks your fingers together so you feel tethered to her and she can keep you with her.

she likes sharing these types of things because it's the intimacy of being close to you without being on top of you and in your personal space

if you subconsciously stroke your thumb over her hand or whatnot, she will melt

also she loves comparing your hand sizes!!

if your hands are larger than hers, she thinks it's super cool and loves how your hand basically covers hers

if yours are the same size, she measures your fingers then sneakily locks them together and pulls you to her and she tells you how cute your hands are

if they're smaller, expect her to coo about how cute and small your hands are, and if you get embarrassed easily I am sorry

demi also probably got you matching rings to wear on the hands that you hold together. she absolutely adores you and everything about you, and she loves being close in every way with you :)

eli

this man is a little shy, so you'll have to give him some time. he's also nervous to hold hands because the last person he was close to like this didn't end up treating him so well.

once he feels comfortable though, he absolutely loves holding your hand!

he thinks it's super romantic and gentle when you walk with him and grasp his hand in yours.

he can be shy about pda, so holding hands is really nice for him because he sees it as sweet and innocent, yet it is a perfect way to be close with you

when he gets the courage (and you two are alone) he kisses your hand and calls you his prince/princess/darling etc. he is a gentleman after all

if he is wearing a costume with some type of claws, he takes them off because he would never want to hurt you. even if it's just a little scratch.

if you're shy to hold hands with him, he will be super understanding and patient with you, and give you all the time you need.

when you do hold hands with him though, he really values it and sees it as you trusting him and being close to him.

he secretly loves it when you take his hand and take the lead too. if you gently pull him by his hand to go somewhere, he will go anywhere with you. makes him feel special.

likes to hold your hand during matches. especially stressful ones if you guys end up decoding together.

if the exit gate is opening really slowly, he will definitely grasp your free hand tightly and pray that it opens faster, ready to take a hit for you if the hunter were to teleport.

if you can, he likes holding your hand while running out of the gate or to another cipher. makes him feel like he is in some type of teen romance novel running through flower fields with his lover.

eli absolutely adores you and really likes any intimacy with you, and holding your hand is one of his favorites!!