#hes being cautious in case u try and capture him

[klepto-angel-blog]

dcmonicprcdigy replied to your post: “If your dad told your family you died at birth...

Pets him.

“Thank”

[astroluvr]

can u do one where reader is famous and is dating jack and they have a kid (1 year) and they post her on ig not her face. and one day while they’re out paparazzi is being annoying and trying to get pictures.

“Mama!” your daughter squealed, moving as fast as she could to you from Jack.

You were all back in Kentucky and enjoying the pretty weather in the huge backyard of the home. You were in love with Kentucky and if it wasn’t for your job, you would’ve lived here around the clock. Kentucky captured your heart when you took a step back from the limelight during your pregnancy. Now, to know that your daughter loved it so much, was all the more reason to stay.

“Mama can’t save you!” Jack growled behind her and you laughed from the deck, snapping a picture of Jack snatching Layla up from the ground and into his chest, rolling onto the ground.

You and Jack were particular about what you posted about Layla. There were only a few photos out there and none of them had her face in them. The moment was too cute to pass up on sharing, though. With a thoughtful glance to the two of them who were laughing loudly, you posted it to your Instagram story and put a heart over Layla’s hardly visible face. It was scary to think about the lengths people might go to enhance the picture for a few dollars.

The news over your picture lasted for much longer than the 24 hours it remained up. At first, it scared you, causing you to think that some intense photoshopping revealed your daughter’s face, but that wasn’t the case. People were just overdramatic at the slightest opening into celebrity life.

The matter made you a little more cautious when Jack’s feature bought you to LA. He had to do a good while’s worth of work on an upcoming song, so you decided to follow him with Layla. After a couple of restless days in the apartment, Layla practically told you and Jack that she needed to get out.

“Baby, will you please wear your hat? It’s just like Uncle Urban’s!” you held the tiny denim bucket hat in front of her in an attempt to persuade her.

“Urby?!” she gasped, and you chuckled at her doe eyes.

“Yeah, do you want to wear it now?” she nodded her head and let you put it on, turning around to Jack who was sliding his diamond ring on.

“Look, Daddy.” she demanded his attention and he gave it to her immediately.

“Oh, my goodness. You look so cute, Lala. I’ve never seen such a cute baby in my life.” he exclaimed, tackling the little girl with a hug and rolling around on the bed. You smiled at the two of them and laughed even louder when she rubbed her nose against his cheek like Jack always did to her.

“Jack, you’re going to raise a wrestler.”

“She’s a sweetheart. Like her mama.” he picked her up and they both showed you identical smiles.

Layla was damn near your twin, but nobody could deny that she had stolen Jack’s smile. You walked over and let a kiss on both of their foreheads. “Are we ready?”

Layla nodded excitedly, kicking both of her feet to get down and run to the door. “Go!” she yelled and you and Jack laughed before rushing to open the door for her.

Things went well, despite your nerves. Even with Jack providing that extra sense of protection, you were still worried that paparazzi would come any moment. Every time you saw a camera, you went to pull down Layla’s hat. She began whining about it and threw it off at one point, but Jack was able to ease it back on when she was distracted by a toy store.

Just as you were letting your guard down and waiting for Jack to analyze every shoe in the New Balance store, you heard a loud shuffle. “Look, Layla. Do you think Daddy should get these or these?”

Layla looked up at him and put her hands on both pairs. When you looked around Jack, you saw at least four paparazzi at the door. Jack turned around quickly and looked back down. “Fuck.” he said, trying to hide his panic by smiling.

“Come to Mommy, Layla.” you cooed, clapping your hands to make your arms seem more appealing. She scrunched up her nose while Jack focused on keeping you two out of focus, carefully matching his movements with yours to prevent the paparazzi from getting any revealing angle. “Please? Can I have a hug?”

Layla never skipped an opportunity to have or give a hug. She crawled into your lap and squeezed your neck and gave you a kiss on the cheek. As much as you wanted to savor the moment, Jack could only hide but so much, so you stood up and made your way to the door. Layla began to get curious about all the noise around her, which made getting through the mob of flashing cameras even more frustrating.

“Mama!” she whined loudly, attempting to lift her head up from your shoulder. “Loud.”

“Y/N, look over here. Y/N, show us the baby! Where’s Jack?”

Against your better judgement, you paused to look for Jack and found him shouldering through the crowd. In those three seconds, a paparazzi was able to tug at your arm. You gasped and shouldered them away while Jack’s voice thundered through the mob.

“Yo, I’ll fuck you up!” he yelled, getting enough attention to help you get a little bit further. “If any of you touch my kid or my girl, it’ll be over.”

“Mommy!” Lacey cried, moving anxiously against your body. Her hands moved from around your neck to pull your hand away from her head long enough throw her hat to the ground.

Everything went wrong so quickly. Your heart was pounding and your hands was sweaty. As you tried to concentrate on making it to the car, you could only think about how many pictures they were able to snap of your wailing daughter. The only benefit to come of it all, was her nuzzling her head back into your neck. From behind you, Jack had pushed himself through them all and made his way to you. His hand around your waist made you flinch at first, but when you smelled his cologne, you calmed down.

“I got you, baby.” you weren’t sure if he was talking to you or Layla, but you both calmed down a little.

With more reassurance, you swallowed and proceeded calmly to the car. Jack opened the door and you slid in quickly with Layla still tucked against you while Jack rushed to the front. Paparazzi still tried to crowd you, but when Jack blew the horn and pushed on the accelerator just enough, they moved.

You hadn’t realized you were crying until you pulled Layla back and saw her tears. Although she was fussy during the hectic clamoring, you weren’t aware she was crying so much. Your heart broke for your baby, seeing her eyes red and the staggered movement of her chest made you cry.

“Stop the car, Jack.” you murmured, and he did so immediately, pulling into a diner parking lot. He stared at the two of you with pity.

“I’m sorry.” he whispered into the air while you wiped at Lacey’s tears.

She’d been so eager to leave the apartment earlier in the day, not even ten minutes ago she was the happiest baby in the world, and now she would probably get nervous around flashes or leaving the house.

“Y/N,” he whispered again while you kissed Lacey’s cheeks and let her whimper against you. “Lacey.”

You turned your head when she turned hers, she quietly observed her father before reaching out for him. You released her hesitantly and watched how she cuddled into Jack.

“I’m so sorry, my sweet girl. Daddy’s sorry.”

All three of you sat in silence. Seeing things like that happen to other celebrities could be overwhelming, having experienced it yourself, but as parents it was even more frightening. Your safety and privacy had been challenged over a little girl who meant the world to you and Jack, but a pay check and gossip to the public. You didn’t care how they’d twist the videos; you knew how that went, but to think about your baby girl worrying about a camera in her face made your stomach churn.

When you all got back to the apartment, you and Jack laid Lacey down in your bed. She ended up calming down and falling asleep, leaving you and Jack to yourselves. He was holding you tight, rubbing your shoulder soothingly, although your presence was especially comforting to him.

“I think I want to move to Kentucky. Full time.”

“I'm absolutely down to moving back home, but full time means you won’t be able to do a lot with your job.” he looked down at you and you nodded. “I know today was scary, but you love what you do.”

“I loved what I did before we had a kid. I mean, if my career means anytime we go into a big city, Lacey will be tortured, I’ll give it up.” you said truthfully and Jack pursed his lips.

“I support you no matter what, Y/N, but I’ll still be rapping and paps will still be around. Even if you just take a step back and do a lot of work from home, you’re still going to be risking that. People are going to take what we don’t give.”

You chewed your lip and grew weary thinking about your options. “I don’t know what else to do, Jack. I’m a mother now, and Lacey is my priority. If I take a step back, everything of me will still be exclusive. If I don’t, Lacey will have to pay for it.” you turned your head and looked at him desperately for an answer. “What do I do, Jack?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Jack, that doesn’t help.” you groaned and he chuckled.

“I’m being serious. What do you want to do? What’s the best course of action, baby?”

“I want to pursue my career, but I want to keep my daughter safe while I do it.”

“And if you think that we can, that's what we'll do. Hell, I'll become you and Lay's personal body guard if I have to. That shit was fucked today."

"I'm grateful for you, J. For our life, our baby, keeping us safe, supporting me. I can't thank you enough for it all."

"You don't have to thank me. I did it all with you." you met his gaze and he hooked a finger under your jaw to pull your lips up to meet his. "I love you. Whatever you need, I'm here for you."

"I love you more." you whispered, cuddling up into his chest and letting yourself drift off into a world where nothing bad could happen.

[fandomout]

Sam x Reader-Supporting Sam when he started the trials

Personally, throughout most seasons, I felt like Sam just wanted someone to believe in him.

While you were on a hunt away from the boys, you hadn't wrapped up the case just yet, but you were missing the sweet voice of your sweetest Sam, so you called him.

Even though he didn’t answer the first time, he called back right after, which gave you a weird feeling. When he answered, he said, “Hey, Y/N,” a bit too quickly. You raised an eyebrow as your suspicion radar spiked.

Being hunter kept those skills sharp, but the way the boys kept their secrets were the real tests. Testing the water, you simply said, “Nice to hear from you. What are you and Dean doing now? Still at the base?”

“Uh...No actually we are just checking in on Kevin.” The short answer and almost robotic answer didn’t help calm your feeling, but you still answered calmly, “Oh, did anything happen? Everyone okay?”

“He’s been overworking himself.” Sam said sincerely unlike how cautious he was before.

“You guys taking care of him?”

“Of course. What do you take us for?”

“Yeah. Okay. Has he found out anything?”

“Maybe.”

“Does this maybe happen to be dangerous?”

“Let you know when I find out. Me and Dean are heading out soon. Dean just went to get Kevin some real food.”

“Need me to come by. It sounds serious.”

“No. No. Just finish your job and come back. We both should be done by then.” A light bulb went off as you lied, “What if I told you I was done and on my way back now.” You did it with a smile hoping it would be more believable.

“That quick? You probably won’t make it in time to get to us. Think you should wait back at the base.”

“Now, I know something is up. Sam-”

“We’ll be fine. Got to go.”

“Sam, you-” He hangs up. “Better not hang up on me, ass.” You shook your head in frustration. You had more than half a mind to rush over to get to them; however, if it was as dangerous as it sounded to you, you couldn’t put them in danger. Instead, you silently fumed and took it out on the monster you captured and quickly packed to leave.

As you drove back to the base, it cemented your nerves. When you got back to the base, you didn’t really do much. You showered, changed, and you are alone waiting for them to come.

After about 5 hours, they battered at 4am. You rush over, get a better look at them and hug onto both of them. Not saying anything. Dean gives a whistle and looks between you and Sam. He began walking off watching you closely. You stare him down a bit and are about to speak about patching him up when he catches you and states, “I’m just banged up. Couple bruises, I don’t need any help. Thank you. Sam is the real one who-” He stops short with Sam’s looks and walks off briskly. Sam gives you an awkward look and keeps looking back and forth from you to the floor with clenched teeth. You wait for him to speak, but he says nothing. You grab onto his hand and drag him to your shared room.

You sit him down. He sits stiff as if moving a millimeter would set you off. While expecting you to yell and freak out, you burn him with silence from the inside out. As you treat him with the utmost care, he kinda just wished you’d yell instead. Reaching under the bed, you pull out a first aid kit that you keep under the bed, and you begin disinfecting and patching him up. Once you finish, the only words Sam can find are, “I’m sorry.”

Although appreciating the sentiment, you aren't sure what to say and don’t respond to the words, and you start cleaning up the mess of blood and gauze. When you're almost down, Sam unexpectedly uses both of his strong arms to pull you closer by the waist and hugs you. He cuddles his head into your body. You stiffen up a bit while you try to figure out what to do; however, your choice becomes more clear as he explains, “So, the dangerous bit of the job we just did...We did it because we talked to Kevin...turns out we can close the gates of hell if there is someone to do a set of trials…”

You tense up, but Sam responds by rubbing your back up and down gently. Having Sam calm you down a bit, you state, “I’m guessing they're deadly.” He chuckles bitterly and asks, “Isn’t everything we do deadly?” You let out a small laugh in agreement before asking, “What is it this time?”

“Well, the 1st trial was to gut a hellhound and bathe in its blood.”

“That explains the smell on you.” He lets out a genuine laugh as he sees you scrunch up your nose in distaste.

“Yeah. I showered, but here I am still smelling.”

“So, you and Dean do these trials? I can understand why, but why did you make it seem so worrisome? Like you freaked, which made me freak. Why couldn’t I be there?”

“For one, I knew you’d think we were idiots. You might want to do the trials yourself. I mean Dean got really crazy about it. He was seemingly suicidal. I couldn’t have that. The important bit that I need to tell you is that...it’s not me and Dean. It’s just me.”

“Just you?”

“For the trials? Dean tried to put himself in the way, but I finished it. Therefore, I have to do all the trials by myself...“ You stay silent. You stroke his hair softly for a second., and he looks up at you. You meet his eyes and say ,”Okay���, as you put the 1st aid back under the bed. He blinks roughly at you with a confused expression and questions you with, “I’m sorry?”

“I said it’s okay. Sam.” You tap his head a little and ask, “Are you hungry? I can whip us up someth-”

“Y/N.”

“Yeah, Sam?”

“That can’t be what you want to say.”

“You’re not hungry then?” He wipes his face with his hand and states, “Just say what you're thinking.”

“I don’t need to. I’m genuinely just asking if your hungry-”

“After what I just said, you’re not up-”

“Sam, I’m not upset.”

“Mad?”

“No-None of that…”

“Really? You're not gonna yell or hit me or something.”

“Of course not, Sam. What do you take me for?” You laugh out loud.

You walk over to him and put one hand to land on the back of his neck while the other lands on his heart. You sigh softly and kiss his forehead before telling him, ”While yeah, I’m not exactly thrilled you're risking your life yet again…Probably going to hate seeing you bloody and messed up from all of this...but I’m gonna be here for you and try and help as best I can.” You put your forehead to his and add, “Because I believe in you.”

His expression becomes so soft, and he lifts his head slightly to meet his lips to yours. You enjoy the free and floating sensation he gives you even, but you pull away when you feel something wet on your face. You open your eyes and pull away. You become worried seeing the tears fleeing his eyes and feel your heart clench when he clings his grapes onto your clothes like he’ll slip away from you. Your hands rush to his shoulders to ground him, and you express, “Sam, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” He shakes his head and bites his lip. “Sam, don’t scare me baby...Look, everything is okay. Well, it’s never really, but we make sure. Don’t be worried, please...say something…”

His head nuzzles your chest and he speaks against your body, and you almost don’t hear him say, “Thank you for believing in me.” You hold him and rub his back until he calms a bit. You wipe the streak along his face and respond, “Of course I believe...How could I not? Look at me, okay?”

He meets your eyes. You show him teary eyes because his state makes you overwhelmed and you continue to say, ”I hope you don’t mind me saying this but also I know demons and hell have taken so much from you and Dean. The things they've done to you- anyway I understand it’s for the greater good and something you want to do. Also, I’ve seen you through the self-hate, the struggle with demon blood, and acceptance to yourself and what you’ve done...I know all you ever wanted was someone to believe, and I do. Never doubt that...You’re the best person I know, Sam...really.”

He takes the hand you had on his neck and kisses it gently from the knuckles to the finger to the palm and to your wrist and forearm. Against your arm, he utters, “I love you so much.” You caress his head before making him look at you and you pepper kisses all over his face. Then, you wrap your arms around him and say, “I love you too, Sam...I will say though...I’m not looking forward to the fights you and Dean will have over this.” He lets out a genuine laugh along with you and you both bask in the comfort of each other's arms.

Hope your day got better

SPN Masterlist

Full Masterlist

[candlestickbud]

Worthy of Betrayal Pt.1

Howzer x Jedi!GN:Reader [Ep.11 Spoilers]

Description: After the bad batch drop off the weapons to a client of Cid’s, she calls them in for a favor and asks them to help some royal Twi’leks on Ryloth.

Warnings/Notes: I'm predicting that this fic will have 5 parts. Possible smut in the future. Mentions of guns and child kidnapping, minor cussing. Sorry if the story is a little off, I was in a rush to finish. Hope you still like it though!

“What do you mean we have to go back!”

Hunter rose his voice at Cid from the comms on the ship. We were on our way back to Ord Mantel after dropping off weapons to some Twi’leks, a client of Cids. As they were already halfway to the destination, Cid called up the batch to inform us that we had to go back, but this time the location was on Ryloth.

“Hey, you still owe me, remember? Now tell goggles over there to get to Ryloth. I need you to rescue this kid named Hera Syndula, the twi’leks, her parents run Ryloth so we’ll be getting some big bucks, so I suggest you get moving, got that?”

Hunter sighed, “Mind telling us what we have to do to get out of dept?”

“Tell you what, let's say you don't mess this up, and you'll be out of debt. Just fell the big guy to ease up on the mantel mix, wouldya, ” Cid said before hanging up.

Hunter rubbed his face trying to shake off his tiredness.

“What's the word, Sargent, ” Wrecker asked.

“Tell Tech to relocate the route to Ryloth. We have another mission, but this is a mission we can't mess up. We need to save some senators kid.”

“Another senator? They aren't a separatist, are they? There's no way-”

“I didn't ask, and either way we have to take this job to get us out of that debt, ” Hunter cut off Echo, “and besides it's not a senator, just their kid.”

Echo glared at Hunter, “Well you should understand why I plan to not work with separatists, ” he said pointing his cybernetic socket arm at Hunter.

“Wait so who are we saving, ” Omega asked from her room.

Hunter pushed his way past Echo to talk to Omega, hearing Echo scoff as he walked away.

“That kid from earlier,” Hunter said softly.

“Hera? I knew she was in trouble! How can I help,” Onega exclaimed excitedly?

“I’ll let up know once we land. The empire will be there based on what that client said earlier. That's what they needed those weapons for.”

“That could mean that Crosshair would be there, ” Tech yelled from the piloting seat.

“Good! We need to talk some sense into him, get him home, ” Wrecker said.

“I don't think he wants to come home, ” Hunter said coldly.

“Doesn't matter, we need to get him back and remove his chip or whatever.”

Hunter opener his mouth to say something back, but instead walked away to the pilot's seat.

“We should at least try to save him, ” you said sternly.

“Cant save someone that doesn't want to be saved, ” Hunter barked back.

“In case to haven't noticed, we don't know what he wants. That chip is controlling him!”

“I agree with Y/N, ” Wrecker barged in.

“That's not the mission.”

•••

Howzer took off his helmet to ruffle his hair. It was a humid night on the planet of Ryloth, and he's been running around trying to capture a child named Hera with a squad of clone troopers.

“Hey boss, do we stun her or shoot.”

“Stun! She's a child, has some empathy. Besides, I'm sure they want her alive, otherwise, we have no leverage over Cham.”

“You got it, captain.”

There was silence as the squad walked through the place, flashlight in hands and visors on night vision mode as they searched for the child. This seemed very wrong to Howzer. What would the empire want with a child if they already have Cham? Leverage, but for what? They don't plan on hurting the kid, do they?

“What do you think they'll do with the kid, ” Howzer asked his squad.

“Who cared, she's a traitor to the empire. She's lucky she isn't dead yet. Speaking of traitors, don't we have orders to kill whoever betrays the empire?”

“What? That's ridiculous, we should just imprison them, and still, she's a child, soldier. We aren't killing her, ” Howzer scoffed.

The squad quietly whispered to each other. Suddenly a ship hovered over them, landing a few feet behind where they were.

“Stay cautious, that could be their backup.”

“Shoot to kill or stun, ” a trooper asked.

“Stun. I won't tell you again, ” Howser said through gritted teeth.

“Whatever you say, Captain, ” the trooper said with an annoyed tone.

Howzer placed his helmet back onto his head, getting his gun ready and placing it in stun mode.

“I have eyes on them!”

The troopers began shooting blindly at a group of troopers, a Jedi standing in front of then reflecting the shots with a child behind them.

“Hold your fire, ” Howzer exclaimed.

The troopers ignore him.

“I said, hold your fire!”

The troopers looked at each other in confusion and disgust.

“They're wanted by the empire! We need to kill them, they're traitors.”

The troopers began shooting live rounds at the squad.

“But they have a child with them! Stop!”

Howzer put his gun in the gun holder that held itself on his waist, pushing a trooper back. One by one, the trooper squad of 5 became the squad of 2.

“You're not fit enough to be Captain! You're a trait of to the empire! We have to kill them, now!”

“No! This is wrong and you know it! Snap out of it how can you not see that this is wrong, ” Howzer said before being pushed to the ground by Hunter.

“See what you did! You're a traitor, ” the trooper said trying to shake out of Wrecker's grasp.

“You, be quiet, ” you yelled at the trooper.

You walked up to Howzer, cocking your head to the side slightly.

“Hunter, there's something wrong with his chip.”

Hunter looked up at you, scrunching his eyebrows together, “How can you be so sure?”

“He seems...different I can feel it.”

Hunter looked at you and then back ah Howzer, grabbed him by the shoulders, and pushed him up to his feet. You walked towards Howzer and removed his helmet, eyes widening, surprised with how attractive the clone was. You looked at him, placing your hands on his face, inspecting him. Howzer attempted to back off, but Hunter held him in place. He flinched as you placed a hand near the left side of his head, closing your eyes as you felt his chip through the force. You opened your eyes, staring into his eyes, only for him to nervously look away.

“He has his chip, but it's damaged, ” you looked at Hunter as if you were asked for permission.

“Fine. You deal with him. We cat have him running back to the empire to inform them of our arrival. We can't have any attention, this is a stealth mission. We need to focus on saving the kid, ” Hunter said, shoving Howzer towards you.

You caught Howzer and placed your lightsaber close to his face, only for him to flinch against it, his head laying on your shoulder, “Try anything stupid and I'll kill you on sight, got that?”

“I thought that wasn't the Jedi way, ” he said with caution.

You retracted your saber and placed it back on your holders, “There is no Jedi way, ” you scoffed, putting his helmet back on. You knew it would possibly be a distraction to you.

“What do I do with him, ” Wrecker asked, picking up the trooper he held captive.

“Woah, ” the trooper yelped.

Hunter looked at Howzer and then the trooper.

“His chip is active,” you said.

Hunter paused for a second in thought, “Stun him. Look, we’ll look over here, you and Omega look over there, that way we’ll have a better chance of finding the kid.”

“You got it. Cmon, Omega, let's get ahead of them. I think Hera will be pleased to see that you're the one rescuing her, ” you said as you pushed Howzer forward, grabbing Omega’s hand as you led her away, Hunter stunning the clone from behind.

You and Omega stared at Howzer as you walked through the gravel trail.

“Uhm...Why do you two keep starring at me,” he asked.

“To make sure you don't try anything funny, ” you lied.

“Your chip isn't working. That's pretty rare for a clone, ” Omega explained.

“What is this chip that you guys keep talking about?”

You sighed, ” Well, the clones, you included, have these chips that were implanted in you when you were, I think a stage 1 embryo?”

“Stage 2,” Omega corrected.

You chuckled, “A stage 2 embryo, and these chips were implanted in you by the Emperor to have you murder the Jedi. Nearly all of them were killed during order 66. I survived it by chance.”

“Oh…so that’s what that was. I’m sorry.”

You looked at Howzer in confusion, “W-What?”

“I’m sorry. That must’ve been hard to go through I had no idea. When I was out on a mission, we were working with a Jedi and just out of no where, everyone aimed their blasters at the General. They had told us they were traitors to the republic, betrayed the Chancellor.”

“Yeah, that’s because we found out he betrayed us. He was working with Count Dooku.”

Howzer shook his head in disappointment, “You must hate us then, clones.”

You looked at Howzer, sighing as you let go of his shoulder, “No, I don’t. The clones, it’s not their fault, what they did. They’re all being controlled by these chips, being controlled by the empire. I made my peace with the clones once I got informed of this by the batch.”

Howzer walked by your side, “So those troops back there, their chips are also defected?”

“They were, but we got help with removing them. Having the chips mean that’s you’re still a threat. They could activate at any time.”

“Why not stun me? Like him back there.”

You thought for a moment, “Just because your chip isn’t activated doesn’t mean your not with the empire. For all we know you could still be loyal to them. We didn’t wanna risk the possibility of activating your chip, and we couldn't have you go off to the empire.”

“Oh. What do you uh plan on doing with me once you find the kid?”

“If I’m being completely honest with you, I’m not sure.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” he chuckled nervously.

He scratched the back of his neck, looking at you as if hesitant to ask a question.

“I can feel you looking at me. What is it?”

Howzer looked away, “U-Uhm I was just uh…” he stuttered, “Uhm, where were you? During order 66.”

You smiled at his struggle, a smile still placed on your face when he asked the question.

“I uh I was actually in my ship. It was on a mission I was in with my droid to Ord Mantel, I was supposed to get intel on this bounty Hunter I’ve been hunting down. My droid saved me from the clones.”

“Lucky you weren’t assigned with a squad.”

You chuckled, “Yeah really.”

You and Howzer heard rustling from a bush that was up ahead. Howzer got in front of you, trying to take a closer look.

“Come out! We know you're there,” Howzer yelled.

You grabbed Howzer’s shoulder, “Maybe you should keep it down. If it’s Hera, she could be scared since you are supposed to be hunting her down,” you rolled your eyes in his idiocy.

“Oh, uh, right, ” he backed up.

Howzer removed his helmet. He's very well aware that citizens are often scared of the armor rather than what's underneath it. You glanced and him in admiration until you heard the bush rustle again.

“Hera? It's me and Omega, remember? We were selling those weapons to your uncle, ” you said calmly.

Slowly peaking out from the bush, you saw Hera’s head, “Omega?”

Omega waved at her, “Hello,” she smiled.

Hera got out from the bush, “What are you doing here?”

“We’re here to rescue you.”

Hera looked at Howzer with wide eyes, “H-He’s”

“Not with the empire,” Howzer said confidently, “Not anymore that is.”

“They’ll kill you,” Hera said walking towards Howzer.

“Not unless they catch me,” He smiled, patting her head.

You smiled at his kind act, “Hunter, we found Hera. We’re on our way back,” you looked at Howzer, “What are we going to do with...,” you whispered into your commlink.

“Hey! I never got your name, ” you said nervously.

“Oh! Uh, the name’s Howzer, ” he smiled, “What about you?”

You chuckled, “In your dreams, pal.”

“What are we going to do with Howzer, the clone.”

You heard Hunter sigh into his commlink, “We’ll stun him when we leave. Take him back with you in case we get spotted.”

“Hunter, we can't just leave him here. Hera knows him, he could be useful to us.”

There was no reply.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah, ” he sighed, “I'm here. Look just get over here we’ll talk when you get back.”

You walked over to Howzer with a smirk on your face, “Lucky you, Hunter doesn't want to kill you, ” you swung your arm over his shoulders, “Now you're really fucked.”

Howzer looked at you like a confused dog, “What do you mean? What you think I can’t handle a couple of clones and a Jedi?”

You laughed, “We ain’t your typical squad,” you smirked.

He got in your face, “Try me. I’ve been with many squads. What’s so different about you guys?”

You inched closer to his face, “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

There was a pause until the both of you burst out laughing.

“Cmon, we gotta get back to them.”

“You got it, General.”

You stopped in your tracks, looking back at Howzer. You were going to say something but decided to let it go.

“Cmon girls. We have to get back to the ship.”

“Coming, ” they said laughing.

•••

“I never noticed how nice your hair is, ” you said ruffling Howzer’s hair.

He kindly swatted your hand away, “Thanks, ” he said while rolling his eyes.

You looked at his face, eyes scanning over his scars. You choose not to ask him about them. Not yet anyway. The girls whispered and giggles to each other throughout the walk to the marauder.

“What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing, ” they chuckled devilishly.

Both you and Howzer looked at them questionably, the at each other.

You shook your head, “Kids, huh?”

“Reminds me of my younger days, making fun of brothers for having a crush. Of course, that was before order 66. Good memories.”

The four of you continued to walk and began to see the ship, with Hunter sitting at the entrance of the ship.

“Took you long enough, ” he said as he got up, “We need to talk.”

You nodded, “Ladies, ” you smiled down at Omega and Hera, “into the ship. Omega show Hera our little secret since she’ll be with us for a bit.”

“Ooh! Good idea. Hera, follow me.”

The two children ran their way into the marauder, Howzer squatting down on the floor, patiently waiting for an invitation inside. Hunter grabbed you and pulled you off to the side, away from Howzer.

“Look I don't want to take him with us. He seems sketchy.”

You sighed and nodded in agreement, “Yes, I know but I'm sure he means well. I'll look after him but Hunter, something tells me that we can trust him. Howzer seems like a good guy. Hera seems to trust him and she knew him when he was working with her dad.”

Hunter looked at Howzer to see him awkwardly wave at him.

Hunter cursed, “Fine, but if anything and I mean anything, happens, he's off the ship.”

You nodded, giddily walking over to Howzer, then clapping your hand on his shoulder.

“What’re you doing just standing here like an idiot? C’mon,” you snickered.

“Well, excuse me for trying to be polite, ” he smiled, Hunter glaring him down as you all entered the ship.

[96harmony96]

Chapter 2

Just before I exited the elevator into the vestibule of Waters Field & Leaman, the advertising firm I worked for on the twentieth floor, Lauren whispered in my ear, “Think about me all day.”

I squeezed her hand surreptitiously in the crowded car. “Always do.”

She continued the ride up to the top floor, which housed the headquarters of Jauregui Industries. The Crossfire was her, one of many properties she owned throughout the city, including the apartment complex I lived in.

I tried not to pay attention to that. My mom was a career trophy wife. She’d given up my father’s love for an affluent lifestyle, which I couldn’t relate to at all. I’d prefer love over wealth any day, but I suppose that was easy for me to say because I had money—a sizable investment portfolio—of my own. Not that I ever touched it. I wouldn’t. I’d paid too high a price and couldn’t imagine anything worth the cost.

Megumi, the receptionist, buzzed me through the glass security door and greeted me with a big smile. She was a pretty woman, young like me, with a stylish bob of glossy black hair framing stunning Asian features.

“Hey,” I said, stopping by her desk. “Got any plans for lunch?”

“I do now.”

“Awesome.” My grin was wide and genuine. As much as I loved Cary and enjoyed spending time with him, I needed girlfriends, too. Cary had already started building a network of acquaintances and friends in our adopted city, but I’d been sucked into the Lauren vortex almost from the outset. As much as I’d prefer to spend every moment with her, I knew it wasn’t healthy. Female friends would give it to me straight when I needed it, and I was going to have to cultivate those friendships if I wanted them.

Setting off, I headed down the long hallway to my cubicle. When I reached my desk, I put my bag and purse in the bottom drawer, keeping my smartphone out so I could silence it. I found a text from Cary: I’m sorry, baby girl.

“Cary Taylor,” I sighed. “I love you . . . even when you’re pissing me off.”

And he’d pissed me off royally. No woman wanted to come home to a sexual clusterfuck in progress on her living room floor. Especially not while in the middle of a fight with her new girlfriend.

I texted back, Block off the wknd 4 me if u can.

There was a long pause and I imagined him absorbing my request. Damn, he texted back finally. Must be some ass kicking u have planned.

“Maybe a little,” I muttered, shuddering as I remembered the . . . orgy I’d walked in on. But mostly I thought Cary and I needed to spend some quality downtime together. We hadn’t been living in Manhattan long. It was a new town for us, new apartment, new jobs and experiences, new partners for both of us. We were out of our element and struggling, and since we both had barge loads of baggage from our pasts, we didn’t handle struggling well. Usually we leaned on each other for balance, but we hadn’t had much time for that lately. We really needed to make the time. Up for a trip to Vegas? Just u and me?

Fuck yeah!

K . . . more later. As I silenced my phone and put it away, my gaze passed briefly over the two collage photo frames next to my monitor—one filled with photos of both of my parents and one of Cary, and the other filled with photos of me and Lauren. Lauren had put the latter collection together herself, wanting me to have a reminder of her just like the reminder she had of me on her desk. As if I needed it . . .

I loved having those images of the people I loved close by: my mom with her golden cap of curls and her bombshell smile, her curvy body scarcely covered by a tiny bikini as she enjoyed the French Riviera on my stepdad’s yacht; my stepfather, Richard Stanton, looking regal and distinguished, his silver hair oddly complementing the looks of his much younger wife; and Cary, who was captured in all his photogenic glory, with his lustrous brown hair and sparkling green eyes, his smile wide and mischievous. That million-dollar face was starting to pop up in magazines everywhere and soon would grace billboards and bus stops advertising Grey Isles clothing.

I looked across the strip of hallway and through the glass wall that encased Mark Garrity’s very small office and saw his jacket hung over the back of his Aeron chair, even though the man himself wasn’t in sight. I wasn’t surprised to find him in the break room scowling into his coffee mug; he and I shared a java dependency.

“I thought you had the hang of it,” I said, referring to his trouble with the one-cup coffee maker.

“I do, thanks to you.” Mark lifted his head and offering a charmingly crooked smile. He had gleaming dark skin, a trim goatee, and soft brown eyes. In addition to being easy on the eyes, he was a great boss—very open to educating me about the ad business and quick to trust that he didn’t have to show me how to do something twice. We worked well together, and I hoped that would be the case for a long time to come.

“Try this,” he said, reaching for a second steaming cup waiting on the counter. He handed it to me and I accepted it gratefully, appreciating that he’d been thoughtful about adding cream and sweetener, which was how I liked it.

I took a cautious sip, since it was hot, then coughed over the unexpected—and unwelcome—flavor. “What is this?”

“Blueberry-flavored coffee.”

Abruptly, I was the one scowling. “Who the hell wants to drink that?”

“Ah, see . . . it’s our job to figure out who, then sell this to them.” He lifted his mug in a toast. “Here’s to our latest account!”

Wincing, I straightened my spine and took another sip.

* * *

I was pretty sure the sickly sweet taste of artificial blueberries was still coating my tongue two hours later. Since it was time for my break, I started an Internet search for Dr. Terrence Lucas, a man who’d clearly rubbed Lauren the wrong way when I’d seen the two men together at dinner the night before. I hadn’t gotten any further than typing the doctor’s name in the search box when my desk phone rang.

“Mark Garrity’s office,” I answered. “Camila Cabello speaking.”

“Are you serious about Vegas?” Cary asked without preamble.

“Totally.”

There was a pause. “Is this when you tell me you’re moving in with your billionaire girlfriend and I’ve got to go?”

“What? No. Are you nuts?” I squeezed my eyes shut, understanding how insecure Cary was but thinking we were too far along in our friendship for those kinds of doubts. “You’re stuck with me for life, you know that.”

“And you just up and decided we should go to Vegas?”

“Pretty much. Figured we could sip mojitos by the pool and live off room service for a couple days.”

“I’m not sure how much I can pitch in for that.”

“Don’t worry, it’s on Lauren. her plane, her hotel. We’ll just cover our food and drinks.” A lie, since I planned on covering everything except the airfare, but Cary didn’t need to know that.

“And she’s not coming with us?”

I leaned back in my chair and stared at one of the photos of Lauren. I missed her already and it’d been only a couple of hours since we’d been together. “she’s got business in Arizona, so she’ll share the flights back and forth, but it’ll be just you and me in Vegas. I think we need it.”

“Yeah.” He exhaled harshly. “I could do with a change of scenery and some quality time with my best girl.”

“Okay, then. She wants to fly out by eight tomorrow night.”

“I’ll start packing. Want me to put a bag together for you, too?”

“Would you? That’d be great!” Cary could’ve been a stylist or personal shopper. He had serious talent when it came to clothes.

“camila?”

“Yeah?”

He sighed. “Thank you for putting up with my shit.”

“Shut up.”

After we hung up, I stared at the phone for a long minute, hating that Cary was so unhappy when everything in his life was going so well. He was an expert at self-sabotage, never truly believing he was worthy of happiness.

As I returned my attention to work, the Google search on my monitor reminded me of my interest in Dr. Terry Lucas. A few articles about her had been posted on the Web, complete with pictures that cemented the verification.

Pediatrician. Forty-five years of age. Married for twenty years. Nervously, I searched for “Dr. Terrence Lucas and wife,” inwardly cringing at the thought of seeing a golden-skinned, long-haired blonde. I exhaled my relief when I saw that Mrs. Lucas was a pale-skinned woman with short, bright red hair.

But that left me with more questions. I’d figured it would be a woman who’d caused the trouble between the two men.

The fact was, Lauren and I really didn’t know that much about each other. We knew the ugly stuff—at least she knew mine; I’d mostly guessed her from some pretty obvious clues. We knew some of the basic cohabitation stuff about each other after spending so many nights sleeping over at our respective apartments. she’d met half of my family and I’d met all of her. But we hadn’t been together long enough to touch on a whole lot of the periphery stuff. And frankly, I think we weren’t as forthcoming or inquisitive as we could’ve been, as if we were afraid to pile any more crap onto an already struggling relationship.

We were together because we were addicted to each other. I was never as intoxicated as I was when we were happy together, and I knew it was the same for her. We were putting ourselves through the wringer for those moments of perfection between us, but they were so tenuous that only our stubbornness, determination, and love kept us fighting for them.

Enough with making yourself crazy.

I checked my e-mail, and found my daily Google alert on “Lauren Jauregui.” The day’s digest of links led mostly to photos of Lauren, in black tie sans tie, and me at the charity dinner at the Waldorf Astoria the night before.

“God.” I couldn’t help but be reminded of my mother when looking at the pictures of me in a champagne Vera Wang cocktail dress. Not just because of how closely my looks mirrored my mom’s—aside from my hair being brown, long and straight—but also because of the mega-mogul whose arm I graced.

sinu Cabello Barker Mitchell Stanton was very, very good at being a trophy wife. She knew precisely what was expected of her and delivered without fail. Although she’d been divorced twice, both times had been by her choice and both divorces had left her exes despondent over losing her. I didn’t think less of my mother, because she gave as good as she got and didn’t take anyone for granted, but I’d grown up striving for independence. My right to say no was my most valued possession.

Minimizing my e-mail window, I pushed my personal life aside and went back to searching for market comparisons on fruity coffee. I coordinated some initial meetings between the strategists and Mark and helped Mark with brainstorming a campaign for a gluten-free restaurant. Noon approached and I was starting to feel seriously hungry when my phone rang. I answered with my usual greeting.

“camila?” an accented female voice greeted me. “It’s Magdalene. Do you have a minute?”

I leaned back in my chair, alert. Magdalene and I had once shared a moment of sympathy over Corinne’s unexpected and unwanted reappearance in Lauren’s life, but I’d never forget how vicious Magdalene had been to me the first time we’d met. “Just. What’s up?”

She sighed, then spoke quickly, her words flowing in a rush. “I was sitting at the table behind Corinne last night. I could hear a bit of what was being said between her and Lauren during dinner.”

My stomach tensed, preparing for an emotional blow. Magdalene knew just how to exploit my insecurities about Lauren. “Stirring up crap while I’m at work is a new low,” I said coldly. “I don’t—”

“she wasn’t ignoring you.”

My mouth hung open a second, and she quickly filled the silence.

“she was managing her, camila. She was making suggestions for where to take you around New York since you’re new in town, but she was doing it by playing the old remember-when-you-and-I-went-there game.”

“A walk down memory lane,” I muttered, grateful now that I hadn’t been able to hear much of Lauren’s low-voiced conversation with her ex.

“Yes.” Magdalene took a deep breath. “You left because you thought she was ignoring you for her. I just want you to know that she seemed to be thinking about you, trying to keep Corinne from upsetting you.”

“Why do you care?”

“Who says I do? I owe you one, Camila, for the way I introduced myself.”

I thought about that. Yeah, she owed me for when she ambushed me in the bathroom with her catty jealous bullshit. Not that I bought it as her sole motivation. Maybe I was just the lesser of two evils. Maybe she was keeping her enemies close. “All right. Thank you.”

No denying I felt better. A weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying around was suddenly relieved.

“Something else,” Magdalene went on. “she went after you.”

My grip tightened on the phone receiver. Lauren always came after me . . . because I was always running. My recovery was so fragile that I’d learned to protect it at all costs. When something threatened my stability, I ditched it.

“There have been other women in her life who’ve tried ultimatums like that, camila. They got bored or they wanted her attention or some kind of grand gesture . . . So they walked away and expected her to come after them. You know what she did?”

“Nothing,” I said softly, knowing my man. A man who never spent social time with women she slept with and never slept with women she associated with socially. Corinne and I were the sole exceptions to that rule, which was yet another reason why her ex sent me into fits of jealousy.

“Nothing more than making sure Angus dropped them off safely,” she confirmed, making me think it’d been a tactic she’d tried at some point. “But when you left, she couldn’t chase after you fast enough. And she wasn’t herself when she said good-bye. she seemed . . . off.”

Because she’d felt fear. My eyes closed as I mentally kicked myself. Hard.

Lauren had told me more than once that it terrified her when I ran, because she couldn’t handle the thought that I might not come back. What good did it do to say that I couldn’t imagine living without her when I so often showed her otherwise with my actions? Was it any wonder she hadn’t opened up to me about her past?

I had to stop running. Lauren and I were both going to have to stand and fight for this, for us, if we were going to have any hope of making our relationship work.

“Do I owe you now?” I asked neutrally, returning Mark’s wave as he left for lunch.

Magdalene exhaled in a rush. “Lauren and I have known each other a long time. Our mothers are best friends. You and I will see each other around, Camila, and I’m hoping we can find a way to avoid any awkwardness.”

The woman had come up to me and told me that the minute Lauren “shoved her dick” in me, I was “done.” And she’d hit me with that at a moment when I was especially vulnerable.

“Listen, Magdalene, if you don’t cause drama, we’ll get by.” And since she was being so forthright . . . “I can screw up my relationship with Lauren all by myself, trust me. I don’t need any help.”

She laughed softly. “That was my mistake, I think—I was too careful and too accommodating. she has to work at it with you. Anyway . . . I’ve taken up my minute. I’ll let you go.”

“Enjoy your weekend,” I said, in lieu of thanks. I still couldn’t trust her motivation.

“You, too.”

As I returned the receiver to its cradle, my gaze went to the photos of me and Lauren. I was abruptly overwhelmed by feelings of greed and possession. she was mine, yet I couldn’t be sure from one day to the next whether she’d stay mine. And the thought of any other woman having her made me insane.

I pulled open my bottom drawer and dug my smartphone out of my purse. Driven by the need to have her thinking as fiercely about me, I texted her about my sudden desperate hunger to devour her whole: I’d give anything to be sucking your cock right now.

Just thinking about how she looked when I took her in my mouth . . . the feral sounds she made when she was about to come . . .

Standing, I deleted the text the moment I saw it’d been delivered, then dropped my phone back in my purse. Since it was noon, I closed all the windows on my computer and headed out to reception to find Megumi.

“You hungry for anything in particular?” she asked, pushing to her feet and giving me a chance to admire her belted, sleeveless lavender dress.

I coughed because her question came so soon after my text. “No. Your choice. I’m not picky.”

We pushed out through the glass doors to reach the elevators.

“I am so ready for the weekend,” Megumi said with a groan as she stabbed the call button with an acrylic-tipped finger. “A day and a half left to go.”

“Got something fun planned?”

“That remains to be seen.” She sighed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Blind date,” she explained ruefully.

“Ah. Do you trust the person setting you up?”

“My roommate. I expect the guy will at least be physically attractive, because I know where she sleeps at night and paybacks are a bitch.”

I was smiling as an elevator car reached our floor and we stepped inside. “Well, that ups your odds for a good time.”

“Not really, since she found him by going on a blind date with him first. She swears he’s great, just more my type than hers.”

“Hmm.”

“I know, right?” Megumi shook her head and looked up at the decorative, old-fashioned needle above the car doors that marked the passing floors.

“You’ll have to let me know how it goes.”

“Oh, yeah. Wish me luck.”

“Absolutely.” We’d just stepped out into the lobby when I felt my purse vibrate beneath my arm. As we passed through the turnstiles, I dug for my phone and felt my stomach tighten at the sight of Lauren’s name. she was calling, not sexting me back.

“Excuse me,” I said to Megumi before answering.

She waved it off nonchalantly. “Go for it.”

“Hey,” I greeted her playfully.

“camila.”

I missed a step hearing the way she growled my name. There was a wealth of promise in the roughness of her voice.

Slowing, I found I was speechless, just from hearing her say my name with that edginess I craved—the sharp bite that told me she wanted to be inside me more than she wanted anything else in the world.

While people flowed around me, entering and exiting the building, I was halted by the weighted silence on my phone. The unspoken and nearly irresistible demand. she made no sound at all—I couldn’t even hear her breathing—but I felt her hunger. If I didn’t have Megumi waiting patiently for me, I’d be riding an elevator to the top floor to satisfy her unvoiced command to make good on my offer.

The memory of the time I’d sucked her off in her office simmered through me, making my mouth water. I swallowed. “Lauren . . .”

“You wanted my attention—now you have it. I want to hear you say those words.”

I felt my face flush. “I can’t. Not here. Let me call you later.”

“Step over by the column and out of the way.”

Startled, I looked around for her. Then I remembered that the Caller ID put her in her office. My gaze lifted, searching for the security cameras. Immediately, I felt her eyes on me, hot and wanting. Arousal surged through me, spurred by her desire.

“Hurry along, angel. Your friend’s waiting.”

I moved to the column, my breathing fast and audible.

“Now tell me. Your text made me hard, camila. What are you going to do about it?”

My hand went to my throat, my gaze sliding helplessly to Megumi, who watched me with raised brows. I lifted one finger up, asking for another minute, then turned my back to her and whispered, “I want you in my mouth.”

“Why? To play with me? To tease me like you’re doing now?” There was no heat in her voice, just calm severity.

I knew to pay careful attention when Lauren got serious about sex.

“No.” I lifted my face to the tinted dome in the ceiling that concealed the nearest security camera. “To make you come. I love making you come, Lauren.”

she exhaled harshly. “A gift, then.”

Only I knew what it meant for Lauren to view a sexual act as a gift. For her, sex had previously been about pain and degradation or lust and necessity. Now, with me, it was about pleasure and love. “Always.”

“Good. Because I treasure you, Camila, and what we have. Even our driving urge to fuck each other constantly is precious to me, because it matters.”

I sagged into the column, admitting to myself that I’d fallen into an old destructive habit—I’d exploited sexual attraction to ease my insecurities. If Lauren was lusting after me, she couldn’t be lusting after anyone else. How did she always know what was going on in my mind?

“Yes,” I breathed, closing my eyes. “It matters.”

There’d been a time when I’d turned to sex to feel affection, confusing momentary desire with genuine caring. Which was why I now insisted on having some sort of friendly framework in place before I went to bed with a man. I never again wanted to roll out of a lover’s bed feeling worthless and dirty.

And I sure as hell didn’t want to cheapen what I shared with Lauren just because I was irrationally scared of losing her.

It hit me then that I was off balance. I had this sick feeling in my gut, like something awful was going to happen.

“You can have what you want after work, angel.” her voice deepened, grew raspier. “In the meantime, enjoy lunch with your co-worker. I’ll be thinking about you. And your mouth.”

“I love you, Lauren.”

It took a couple of deep breaths after I hung up to compose myself enough to join Megumi again. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Everything all right?”

“Yes. Everything’s fine.”

“Things still hot and heavy with you and Lauren Jauregui?” She glanced at me with a slight smile.

“Umm . . .” Oh yes. “Yes, that’s fine, too.” And I wished desperately that I could talk about it. I wished I could just open the valve and gush about my overwhelming feelings for her. How thoughts of her consumed me, how the feel of her beneath my hands drove me wild, how the passion of her tortured soul cut into me like the sharpest blade.

But I couldn’t. Not ever. She was too visible, too well known. Private tidbits about her life were worth a small fortune. I couldn’t risk it.

“she sure is,” Megumi agreed. “Damn fine. Did you know her before you started working here?”

“No. Although I suppose we would have met eventually.” Because of our pasts. My mother gave generously to many abused children’s charities, as did Lauren. It was inevitable that Lauren and I would’ve crossed paths at some point. I wondered what that meeting would have been like—her with a gorgeous blonde on her arm and me with Cary. Would we have had the same visceral reaction to each other from a distance as we’d had up close in the Crossfire lobby?

she’d wanted me the moment she saw me on the street.

“I wondered.” Megumi pushed through the revolving lobby door. “I read that it was serious between you two,” she went on when I joined her outside on the sidewalk. “So I thought maybe you’d known her before.”

“Don’t believe everything you read on those gossip blogs.”

“So it’s not serious?”

“I didn’t say that.” It was too serious at times. Painfully, brutally so.

She shook her head. “God . . . listen to me pry. Sorry. Gossip is one of my vices. So are extremely hot women like Lauren Jauregui. I can’t help but wonder what it’d be like to hook up with a gir whose body screams sex like that. Tell me she’s awesome in bed.”

I smiled. It was good to hang out with another girl. Not that Cary couldn’t also be appreciative of a hot guy, but nothing beat girl talk. “You won’t hear me complaining.”

“Lucky bitch.” Bumping shoulders with me to show she was teasing, she said, “How about that roommate of yours? From the photos I saw, she’s gorgeous, too. Is she single? Wanna hook me up?”

Turning my head quickly, I hid a wince. I’d learned the hard way never to set up an acquaintance or friend with Cary. He was so easy to love, which led to a lot of broken hearts because he couldn’t love back the same way. The moment things started going too well, Cary sabotaged them. “I don’t know if he’s single or not. Things are . . . complicated in his life at the moment.”

“Well, if the opportunity presents itself, I’m certainly not opposed. Just sayin’. You like tacos?”

“Love ’em.”

“I know a great place a couple blocks up. Come on.”

* * *

Things were going well in my world as Megumi and I headed back from lunch. Forty minutes of gossip, guy-ogling, and three awesome carne asada tacos later, I was feeling pretty good. And we were returning to work a little over ten minutes early, which I was glad for since I hadn’t been the most punctual employee lately, even though Mark never complained.

The city was thrumming around us, taxis and people surging through the growing heat and humidity as they crammed what they could into the insufficient hours of the day. I people-watched shamelessly, my eyes skimming over everyone and everything.

Men in business suits walked alongside women in flowing skirts and flip-flops. Ladies in haute couture and five-hundred-dollar shoes teetered past steaming hot dog vendor carts and shouting hawkers. The eclectic mix of New York was heaven to me, stirring an excitement that made me feel more vibrant here than anyplace else I’d ever lived.

We were stopped by a traffic light directly across from the Crossfire, and my gaze was immediately drawn to the black Bentley sitting in front of it. Lauren must’ve just gotten back from lunch. I couldn’t help but think about her sitting in her car on the day we’d met, watching me as I took in the imposing beauty of her Crossfire Building. It made me tingly just thinking about it—

Suddenly, I went cold.

Because a striking blonde breezed out of the revolving doors just then and paused, giving me a good, long look at her—Lauren’s ideal, whether she’d been aware of it or not. A woman I’d witnessed her fixate on the moment she’d seen her in the Waldorf Astoria ballroom. A woman whose poise and hold over Lauren brought out all my worst insecurities.

Corinne Giroux looked like a breath of fresh air in a cream-colored sheath dress and cherry red heels. She ran a hand over her waist-length hair, which wasn’t quite as sleek as it’d appeared last night when I’d met her. In fact, it looked a little disheveled. And her fingers were rubbing at her mouth, wiping along the outline of her lips.

I pulled my smartphone out, activated the camera, and snapped a picture. With the proximity of the zoom, I could see why she was fussing with her lipstick—it was smeared. No, more like mashed. As if from a passionate kiss.

The light changed. Megumi and I moved with the flow, closing the distance between me and the woman who’d once had Lauren’s promise to marry her. Angus stepped out of the Bentley and came around, speaking to her briefly before opening the back door for her. The feeling of betrayal—Angus’s and Lauren’s—was so fierce, I couldn’t catch my breath. I swayed on my feet.

“Hey.” Megumi caught my arm to steady me. “And we only had virgin margaritas, lightweight!”

I watched Corinne’s willowy body slide into the back of Lauren’s car with practiced grace. My fists clenched as fury surged through me. Through the haze of my angry tears, the Bentley pulled away from the curb and disappeared.

[himbowelsh]

I love your writing! I don't think I have seen him yet, so sweet Carwood Lip please for the Valentine's alphabet, if you have the time 💖

valentines day alphabet  ( accepting! )

A   :   AFFECTION.   how does your muse show affection?

He has a very gentle presence, which allows him to share space with someone without being overwhelming. Lip’s love languages are quality time  ---  he thrives in being around people, actively listening to them and getting to know them  ---  and acts of service. Once he knows them well, he’s able to be there for them, doing little things to help them out when they need it most. Lip is a generous guy to begin with, but he’s at his best when able to do things for others. He’s a giver. While not shy about physical affection, he uses it strategically, more to reinforce his presence than be excessively affectionate.

B   :   BOUQUET.   does your muse like flowers? which ones are their favourite?

He has a special fondness for flowers, in the “I should probably not be left alone to grow any of them myself” way. He enjoys looking at them, and his mother maintained a lovely garden which he helped with on occasion, under her strict supervision. Bouquets are a favorite gift, and he’s likely to show up with a nice one to any special occasion.

C   :   CHOCOLATE.   does your muse like chocolate? which one is their favourite?

He’s not a big fan...  so he’d claim, 'til he spots a bowl of brownie batter, at which point he must be fought off with the nearest ladle.

D   :   DATE.   what is your muse’s ideal date? where / who with / etc?

He wouldn’t mind something simple and quiet  ---  maybe a night at home, where he gets to surprise his partner with a homemade dinner. He’d light some candles, get out the nice silverware, and just enjoy the time with his partner; afterwards, they’d go out onto the porch with mugs of coffee or tea, drinking in the quiet night. He’s also partial to visits to museums. Being surrounded by art gives him a certain sense of peace, an insight into humanity as more than it currently is; that’s something he’d love to share with his partner.

E   :   EMBRACE.   does your muse like hugs? what are their hugs like?

It’s all about the arms, man. We knows this. He had the arms of a bear-faced god, and isn’t afraid to use them. Being hugged by Lip is like curling up by a fire, under your comfiest blanket, with a good book and a warm drink. He makes people feel safe.

F   :   FLIRT.   is your muse good at flirting? how do they flirt?

Shy boy. Flirting is definitely not where he excels, and he’s too guileless to do it properly. Just...  approaching a stranger and winking at them? “Chatting them up”? That’s...  uncomfortable.He’s the sort of guy to buy people drinks at the bar and genuinely not expect anything in return, though it’d be nice if they did. Lip is much more flirtatious once actually in a relationship  ---  he jokes and teases in a charming, restrained way that’s utterly him.

G   :   GIFT.   is your muse good at gift - giving or do they struggle to get it right?

He’s a very thoughtful gift giver, who takes the time to observe what people need, and genuinely listens to them when they talk about things they’re looking for. Unconsciously, he keeps mental lists of gift ideas for all the people in his life, and refers to them whenever a birthday or holiday comes up. He’s not excessive with his gifts, but they’re always just right. (Except when it comes to clothes. He should never be allowed to pick out clothes for other people, especially women’s clothing.)

H   :   HEART.   is your muse quick or slow to give their heart away?

He cares for a lot of people, but Lip is always cautious; his heart is a carefully guarded thing, and once he trusts someone with it, he wants to know that they’re the right person. His heart is won gradually, over a period of coming to know and love a person better. 

I    :   I LOVE YOU.   does your muse find ‘i love you’ easy or hard to say?

He finds it very easy, as soon as he knows it within his own heart. Lip could absolutely be the first one to say it in a relationship  ---  and wouldn’t be discouraged if his partner didn’t immediately say it back, because everything comes in it’s own time. He’d rather it be natural than forced in the moment. Lip doesn’t say it constantly, but every time he does, the words carry twice their original meaning.

J   :   JEALOUSY.   does your muse get jealous in a relationship?

While certainly not intimidated easily, Lip has a jealous streak he goes to great efforts to smother. It’s not gentlemanly, it’s not always sensible, and certainly not something to make a scene in public over...  but he might pointedly capture his partner’s attention if he feels it straying, and try to discuss things in private afterwards. He doesn’t like this part of himself, but he can get a bit defensive sometimes.

K   :   KISS.   is your muse a good kisser? why / why not?

Lip...  thinks he’s a worse kisser than he is. He underestimates himself. Sometimes overthinking gets the better of him; he’s hyperconscious of where his hands are, what his partner’s body is doing, how they’re responding, whether he’s being gentlemanly or over-forceful...  Lip’s kisses tend to be restrained and respectful, not assuming anything. The farthest he’ll go is sucking on his partner’s lip a little, just to test their response. Whatever response they give, and whatever lead they take, he’ll go from there. Given the proper cues,

L   :   LOVE.   who does your muse love?

His mother and brother, absolutely; his friends, completely; his neighbors, because he’s the sort of guy who knows his neighbors’ names, and helps Old Mrs. Huston down the street with her groceries every week; and his partner, with all his heart, if he were to have one.

M   :   MOONLIGHT.   is morning or night a more romantic setting?

He’s at his most sappy romantic mid-morning, when the sun’s high in the sky and the world is finding its rhythm. Getting to spend a quiet morning in with his partner sounds like heaven.

N   :   NAUGHTY.   what is your muse like in bed?

He’s willing to follow his partner anywhere they want to take him; Lip can never be comfortable until he’s sure his partner is, and is sure of what they want. Now, if they want him to be dominant, he’ll do it gladly...  but he’ll never be rough. He’s very into hearing his partner talk during sex, mostly because he wants to keep tabs and know how they’re doing; but if his partner’s the one who seizes control, Lip runs out of words very quickly. Harsh breathing, moans even when he tries to hold them back, eyes squeezed shut to cling to his self-control... into hand holding during sex.  He’s a very physical lover, with a lot of stamina; sometimes leaves bruises without meaning to and feels guilty afterwards  (aftercare with Lip is like going to a spa). Occasionally he enjoys music to set the mood, or even candlelight, but Lip’s versatile. If his partner’s up for it, he can rumble pretty much anywhere.

O   :   ODE.   does your muse have a way with words?

He’s a surprisingly skilled writer, and can be quite eloquent when he puts his mind to it. Though plainspoken by nature, Lip’s written a few poems for his private collection, and would definitely try his hand at love poetry for his partner. They’re not half-bad.

P   :   PARTNER.   what does your muse look for in a partner? looks / personality?

Lip kind of wants someone who can keep him on his toes a bit. For as steady as he is, he’s drawn to unpredictable people, with a healthy sense of humor. Someone who appreciates quiet, but knows exactly when to fill it; someone who isn’t afraid of responsibility or commitment. A hard worker; someone who can carry an intelligent conversation, and is naturally a thinker. If they share common interests, like literature/museums/engineering, he’d be absolutely delighted. Above all else, Lip’s drawn to people with beautiful smiles, even if they don’t show it off that often.

Q   :   QUESTION.   would your muse ask the big question or expect their partner to?

Call him traditional (it’s valid, cause he is) but Lip would like to be the one to pop the question. As soon as he decides that, yes, he wants to spend the rest of his life with this person, Lip’s next step is to evaluate  ---  do they feel the same way? He spends a while overthinking this question before finally deciding to just take the leap and buy a ring. The proposal will come in a quiet moment, when he and his partner are both feeling equally at peace. If his partner beats him to it, he’ll be surprised, of course...  but either way, the end result is the same. If it means spending

R   :   ROMANCE.   is your muse a romantic or a cynic?

He wishes he were more romantic...  but, unfortunately, practicality is ingrained in this man’s bones. He’ll definitely surprise his partner with bouquets on occasion, and thinks very carefully about gifts, but he’s not the ‘spontaneous romantic adventure’ sort.

S   :   SWEETHEART.   did your muse have a childhood sweetheart?

He had a few middle school crushes that never went anywhere; that’s as far as Little Lip’s love life ever went. He bore a lot of responsibility from a young age, so never really had time to mess around.

T   :   TRUE LOVE.   does your muse believe in true love?

He...  would have to see it firsthand to believe in it, but he believes in individual cases of it. Like, his mother and father  ---  that was true love. Lip saw the way they looked at each other, so there’s not a doubt in his mind. He doesn’t believe it’s everywhere, or even common, but in certain cases true love definitely exists. Maybe it’s out there for him, too...  he hopes so.

U   :   UNREQUITED.   has your muse had their heart broken?

In a romantic relationship? Not...  not really. Lip’s got a strong heart. It’s endured a lot, and can endure more.

V   :   VALENTINE.   how does your muse feel about valentine’s day?

He’s a very proper “dinner date and a box of chocolates” type, so would go out of his way to do something nice for a partner, but doesn’t make much of the day himself.

W  :   WEDDING.   would your muse get married? why / why not?

Yes, this is absolutely something he wants! Lip’s given it a lot of thought, and the idea of raising his own family appeals greatly to him; he lost his father at such a young age that he really wants to be a constant, supportive presence in his childrens’ lives. And, more than anything, he wants to spend a lifetime with someone he loves. That would make any future struggles and past strifes worth it.

X   :   XOXO.   does your muse use / like pet names?

Very conservative with them. “Sweetheart” or dimunitives of someone’s name is probably as far as he’d go.

Y   :   YOURS.   does your muse get protective easily?

Again, yes, and he doesn’t like it about himself! Of course, Lip would move mountains when the people he loves need help  ---  there’s no shame in that  ---  but when it comes to his partner, he can get territorial. Seeing someone threaten his partner is one of the few things he’ll get angry about, and a pissed off Carwood Lipton is not something anyone wants to confront firsthand.

Z   :   ZZZ.   how many people has your muse slept with?

Not a lot. He went to college for a short time, and that was really where he was able to let loose; while still a diligent student, he went to a few parties and met a few girls. So, by the time of the war, maybe three partners? Enough that he’s not nervous in bed, and has a good idea what goes where.

[starlightdreams-blog]

Here is the prologue of my story. I will be posting the next part soon after.

So before this story starts, again, I don't own Mystery Skulls Animated characters. Also, instead of Vivi being older, she will be 20 years old in this story. (I just love the fact of her being younger then her boys. So cute!) This is an AU where Lewis saw Arthur being possessed before his death and ended up taking his memories from him, leaving Vivi to live with the guilt of failing her friends. And after Lewis died, Vivi will be more mature, cautious and serious when investigating the supernatural with Mystery and Arthur, who has amnesia. Both Vivi and Mystery will be extremely protective of Arthur; so if someone captures or harms him, run... RUN FOR THE HILLS! She will also wear a purple ascot in a ponytail instead of her blue headband after the cave)

Now, on with the story!

_______________________________________

Prologue: The Cave

It was dark at night, with green fog coming out of a demonic looking cave with a skull sign on the side, smudged wording from years of weather that said 'beware for all those who enter; only death and despair will follow', making it hard to read. An orange van with the word 'Mystery Skulls' pulled up and stopped in front of the entrance to the cave. Then the lights to the van turned off and the doors were opened as three people and their dog got out.

A purple haired twenty one year old man, with purple clothes, magenta eyes and tan skin, got out first as he said, opening and closing the front door of the driver's seat, "Well gang, this is the place. The Emerald Cove." A blued haired, pale skinned, twenty year old woman, with blue clothes, sparkling, baby blue eyes and pink glasses on, quickly got out in excitement and said, as she jumped up and down, almost bumping into her purple haired boyfriend, "This place is said to be haunted by some type of ghost. There were rumors of people running away from the cave in fear and panic, a strange green mist, weird sounds and possession! Oh, LewLew, Artie, let's go inside! This could be the real thing!"

A pale skinned, twenty one year old man with spiked up, yellow-orange hair with two dark antenna strands and amber eyes and a small, dark goatee on his chin was the last person to get out of the van. He wore a white shirt, an orange vest with a blue circle, a purple skull and a yellow star pin on, orange pants and white orangish shoes on, along with two black wristbands on each of his wrists. Jumping out of the vehicle behind the blonde was a white, red and black haired dog, who had a red collar with a question mark on it and yellow glasses on his snout, the group's mascot and companion, Mystery.

The yellow-orange haired man was shaking slightly with fear, for he didn't like this place one bit; something about this cave really set him off. Looking at his two best friends (and the people he was in love with) said, his voice a slight stutter from alarm, "U-um, V-Vi? L-Lew? Maybe w-we should g-go back. I-I have a b-bad feeling about t-this..." But before he could finish his sentence, his friends pulled him forward and into their arms, making him stumble. They looked at their scared friend with such tenderness and care that Arthur swore that his heart would pop right out of his chest.

Lewis looked at his best friend since third grade/secret crush and said, as he, gently, firmly, put his giant hand on Arthur's left shoulder, "Don't worry, Artie. We got you. As long as Vivi, Mystery and I are here, nothing will hurt you. Besides, the sooner we solve this case, the quicker we can go home to rest." Looking to Vivi who nodded her head, Arthur gave a small shaky smile in return; he was ready to solve this case, trusting his best friends. With that, they entered the cave after Lewis lit a torch.

They walked for what felt like ages before coming to a fork in the road; the left path leading up, the right path leading down. It was decided; the two boys took the higher path while the girl and dog took the lower path. No one saw the green mist move and, feeling the delicate soul from the smaller male, latched on to Arthur, feeding him lies about his friends; the wicked demon slowly winning control over the young man. Oh boy, it couldn't wait to get started on it's road to chaos! It's been decades since humans last visited it's cave and it wasn't going to pass this up. Time to kill and have some fun while doing it in glee. So why not use the 'weak link' in this group to kill; oh this blonde will be perfect for something else after it achieves it's goal, too. But it doesn't need it's puppet to know that yet.

By the time Arthur realised that he was slowly being possessed, he and Lewis were at the edge of a cliff. Unaware of what was happening to Arthur, Lewis looked over the edge only to freeze, seeing a straight clean drop onto pointy staglamites. As he took a good long look, he said, turning back to Arthur to tell him something, blushing as he did so, "Artie, there's something that Vivi and I want to tell you. You see, we've been dating for a while and we both realised that we were missing something. We both realised that we... OMG ARTHUR WHAT'S HAPPENING TO YOUR ARM!?? WHY IS IT TURNING GREEN!?"

When Lewis saw green spreading through his friend's arm, his eyes widened, fear setting in at seeing a demonic being had control over Arthur's left side, where it was wickedly smiling, sharp teeth showing and a black-green eye was sparkling insanely. Looking to his friend's right side, he knew that it was Arthur, the tears going down an amber eye, his mouth in a silent scream, and he could see that he was trying to back away. Something was trying to completely possess his best friend and he didn't even know it.

Then the thing in Arthur's body, whatever was possessing his best friend and crush, shot out, it's clawed hand pushing Lewis over the edge before he even had a chance to react to save them both from whatever vile, evil being was in control. "Oh, no! No! ARTHUR!!" Lewis screamed out as he looked at his possessed friend in horrified realization and fear, seeing Vivi, who was a few inches behind Arthur, look straight in to his eyes, fear and terror in her eyes, and their angry, growling companion, Mystery, transform in to a kitsune, running behind and biting down on to his friend's possessed arm, thinking, as he plummeted to his doom, right arm out stretched in the air towards the cliff, torch falling away from his hand, 'no no no. not Arthur anyone but him. Please! I don't want him to see me die! Forget this moment! Please don't let Arthur remember this! Please!!' before landing on top of the staglamites with a wash of intense pain and agony. With the last of his strength, he lifted his head, only to see the end point of a stalagmite straight through his abdomen as he coughed up blood, the life giving fluid staining his clothes and the floor below him . Then he heard the terrifying heartwreaching screams from above.

The last thing he saw and heard as he looked up from where he was pushed were the sounds of Vivi's heartbroken cries, Arthur's pained, grieved screams and a giant seven tailed fox throwing something screeching and cursing over the edge of the cliff. Then Lewis knew no more as his breathing and heart stopped, dying in pain, sadness (for his loved ones) and rage (at his murderer, the demon, for using his best friend against them) After Lewis breathed his last, a burst of purple/pink energy shot up to the cliff, heading straight towards the crying, wounded mechanic, knocking him in the eyes as he lost consciousness from the trauma and blood loss, unaware of the magic blocking his friend from his mind. The very last wish of Lewis Pepper.

[velvetgons]

yoonbin as your boyfriend

warnings; probably swearing i’m not sure!! 

word count; 3.6k 

requested; no :) whoops! but requests are open if you have any :) 

a/n; i’m working on a request right now so i should have that finished this weekend!! thank you for being patient (also, to gif makers: if tumblr removes the attached credit please let me know so i can credit you!! most of the time it keeps it attached but sometimes it removes it so :// i’ll add credit just in case!!) 

gif credit; hayoonbin on tumblr :) please tell me if you want it removed!!

ok!! we’ll start with how you met;

say you happen to be friends with a certain Loud Boy named jihoon who’s insistent on widening your friendship circle so it doesn’t ‘embarrass him that he’s your only friend!’

(secretly it’s because he genuinely cares for you and wants you to have a wide friendship group but he’s taking that to his grave)

so he takes you to different Friend FunctionsTM and it’s all going good u know

you’re talking to so many people and you’re conversing and actually having full length conversation about people’s different interests

and jihoon is so proud because! that’s his best friend! there they go! making friends so quick!

but seriously everyone’s so welcoming that you’ve almost formed some kind of friendship with every single one of his friends there

except for this one guy who’s kinda just awkwardly sat there?? and you’re about to approach him to get a full house of friends when you start to think that he looks lowkey bored n irritated

so you’re like haha nope! not going there! it’s been a great night and i am not prepared to be publicly embarrassed by one (1) boy!

and so you go to jihoon n you’re like “alrighty my friend my buddy it’s been a great night but i am tired now and i have completed your task of making friends so goodnight!!!”

but he’s all “not so fast snake! there’s someone you haven’t spoken to yet :/” and he’s gesturing back to the boy with the stone face

and ur first reaction is “jihoon wtf how do u know who i’ve communicated with” but he dismisses that so ur second reaction is “he is very scary i am not going to talk to him ://”

but jihoon is so persistent he’s all “i know he’s intimidating but he’s just awkward i promise!! he’s like a spider, even more scared of you than you are of him :)”

so he just walks you over, drops you there, gets the boy’s attention, and then is like “wowie do you hear doyoung calling for me because i sure do!!” and then he abandons you

he just deadass leaves you there with this scary boy who is now looking at you very expectantly while you just stand there staring back at him

so you mutter a lil introduction of ur name and he kinda. just nods

and so u look at him like ?? bro what

which is when he gets the message and he’s like “right yeah sure i’m yoonbin”

so now you think he’s scary and dismissive and he’s STILL looking at you and not saying anything?? he’s just. sitting there and looking at you like ur some kind of book that he’s really focused in on

and you’re looking around for jihoon because?? you need help!! you are very scared!! you feel like a small animal under threat!!

so just when you’re about to run away because you truly are very intimidated this boy looks panicked at you being panicked so he’s like ‘no!! omg!! they think i don’t like them!! yoonbin we: did it again’ but externally he just kinda “hey uh sorry 4 being weird n all but. do u wanna sit down so i can make it up to you :-)”

and oh boy now that you’re lookin at him ur starting to notice that he’s honestly pretty cute

so ur like “haha yeah sure i’ll have a seat :)”

and truly your friendship just grows from that

for a while ur still kinda sceptical and withdrawn around him because you still think he hates you a lil bit from the way he stares at u all the time

and he’s always really overtly polite with you? so whenever you speak it feels so formal? like he can’t really be bothered to be having that conversation

which upsets you because :(( cute interesting boy doesn’t like me :((

and he’d notice in one of the many times you spent alone together (because jihoon is convinced that yoonbin likes you)that you seemed to genuinely think that he didn’t like you??

and after a while he’d kinda…slowly try and bring it up!

like. “hey…uh…i just wanted to let you know that my face really does just look like this…all the time…it’s my resting expression…i do like you :(( i am: sorry”

and you’re like “oh my god!! no!! i’m sorry i made assumptions!! it’s nice to know you like me though ♡＾▽＾♡”

and then the door slams open?? and jihoon is barrelling in??

both you and yoonbin freak out because “what the fuck jihoon??????? where did you even come from???”

and he’s like “aha!! not important! what’s important is that yoonbin finally confessed his feelings for u!! we love a couple!!”

it’s honestly like you can physically feel yoonbin sigh internally as he tenses up next to you

and you’re like “oh…this is: not what i expected”

but then jihoon is confused because he’s like “uh i was listening in and i heard u say that u knew he liked u so don’t pretend not to know! i already know that you think i don’t know what i do actually know”

and ur like “ok first off jihoon, i don’t know what you mean at all, and second of all,, yoonbin told me nothing :/”

meanwhile yoonbin is just. stood. very still

and jihoons like “oh! haha,,, my mistake! i’ll uh leave you kids to it then :O”

which means yoonbin has to stutter his way through a long paragraph that summarises his Mood for the past couple months of knowing u which essentially boils down to ‘yeah i like you as more than a friend’

and ur like ‘oh….wowie….i like the way this is going…’ and then u just kinda mumble a lil “ask me on a date then!!” because you assume he isn’t listening

but he hears! oh boy he hears! so he stops rambling and laughs at himself because ‘u fool, u baboon, she wants to d a t e’

and then he’s like “:)) ok :)) pls go on a date with me!!!!”

and wham! an overly complicated way of explaining how u two started dating

so. now that you’re dating. it’s like he’s a completely different person??

he’s relaxed enough now to act however he feels like acting with you in the moment

sometimes he’s all （＾∀＾）and giggly and talks about a lot of different things while you nod and try and capture as much as you can from him!!

but sometimes he’s ( ￣＾￣) and wants things to be quieter and chilled out and would much rather listen to you talk about different things while he nods along occasionally

but he’d always make it clear that despite this he is listening!! he totally does care!! he’s just tired and doesn’t have the energy to be communicative!!

i feel like yoonbin is also really caring?? and it would probably come across as him being a bit overprotective at first because he isn’t fully sure how to communicate how much he cares about you

so if you’ve had a bad day and you’re telling him about it he feels like his mind is going a million miles an hour because he just? wants to fix it and he doesn’t know how to other than to directly try and sort any problems out for you

like if you’re arguing with family/friends, he’ll try and find common ground to fix the issue for u, or if you’ve got a lot of school work and it’s tiring you out he’d be like ‘i will do ur homework for u’

so you have to sit him down and say “hey!!! i know you’re only doing it because u love me but i promise i can sort out my problems by myself and you don’t need to stress yourself over them :))”

and then he gets the hang of it you know!! if you have a problem he’s like “do you want me to help or do u got it??” and if you’ve got it then !! well done you’re so talented he’s impressed !! and if you don’t then it’s okay !! he’ll help he doesn’t mind !!

i think he’d still be quite a protective person but i think he knows where the line is between being protective and wanting to take care of someone and being overbearing and interfering where he isn’t supposed to

and by protective i just mean if someone was flirting with you he’d be really cautious to not overreact but also to pay attention to how you’re responding, so if you start to look uncomfortable he’s ready to argue with the other person

or he checks that you’ve eaten, slept, and drank enough often just to make sure you’re okay all the time

i also think that despite how he’d have a lack of energy to really converse with you sometimes he’d still wanna be with you almost all the time

whether that’s by texting you through-out the day ((lowkey he just wants updates on your day and gives you responses about that and not his day))

or having long ass phone calls where you talk about plans, or how you’ve been or things you’re interested in

but overall he would just like to be in your presence, even if it’s just having a movie playing while he gets to cuddle up to you

that’s another thing!! he loves having you cuddle up to him!!

i mean he’s all for spooning or having you lie on his chest n stuff but if you kinda clung onto his arm or grabbed his hand or did a lil run up to hug him when you first see him!! oh boy his heart speeds up so fast he thinks he might actually be having a heart-attack

he’s also hand-holdings biggest fan like. if ur not holding his hand 24/7 in public and private then what’s the point?

i think the only public affection he’d actually be cool with displaying is hand-holding and having his arm kinda slung across your shoulder or around your waist

he’d like to always have some kind of contact with you in public just because he would ~lowkey~ get jealous pretty easily and it makes him feel more at ease to know that other people can obviously see that you guys are together

but the hand-holding would be for u just so u know that he’s right there if u need him for whatever reason in public

in private i think it’d take him a lil while before he got comfortable with displaying proper affection

but after he did i don’t honestly think that he’d be flustered very easily? i feel like once he was comfortable enough to kiss u whenever and stuff he’d find it pretty natural for you to kiss him randomly too

having said that, forehead kisses are his ultimate favourite

if you’re shorter than him, then it’s the biggest flex on your height to give u lil forehead kisses (and! you can’t be mad because he’s being cute)

if you’re taller than him (i just immediately assumed not because he is Big) then he’d lean up to :-* and it doesn’t phase him at all just because. that’s still his baby and he’s still gonna smooch

also. even though he gets jealous easily he wouldn’t ever think it was your fault? like, he doesn’t care what you’re wearing, what you’re acting like, but if somebody in public flirts with you he is ?? stressed

but he knows he can be intimidating so he’d just glare at them until they got the message and left

and you’d reassure him like “ily!! and no other people who flirt in public!! i pinkie promise!”

also full disclosure if you ever did that he might just. drop all his uwus

this would also be a reoccurring theme if you ever did something mildly cute because!! he cannot handle how soft it makes him feel

he is also your biggest hype-man!! if you finish one (1) question on your homework before being like “nah ok i can’t do this right now” and he’d still be like “omg but u did one question that’s so intelligent of u no one else could ever!”

he’d make fun of you pretty often too but not in like a mean way he just has to do it to make sure you don’t get too big for ur boots u know

if you fell over or anything he’d pause for a minute to help you up, make sure you were okay, before proceeding to roast you within an inch of ur life

but if anyone else did it then he’d get all Stone Faced because uh?? they’re not allowed to do that?? he totally is but anyone else…being even jokingly mean to you…not on his watch

he’d definitely end up being the type of boyfriend that all your friends think is this cool, nonchalant bad boy type that’s soft for you only

and they’re just. wrong. so wrong

he’s the sweetest boy and he’d constantly check in with you for reassurance in social situations because?? is he making people uncomfortable again?? what’s he supposed to say when people ask him why he looks mad??

i also fully believe that yoonbin would always be as considerate as he possibly could be of your feelings in arguments

like he seems as if he’d be the type to kinda scoff and shrug off what you’re saying while he talks at you about his opinions

and i do think that’d probably be his immediate reaction in arguments but then he’d do this heavy pause where he’d kinda close his eyes and sigh really deeply before he’d look back at you and say “let’s actually talk about this because we’re acting like children right now”

and if you kept trying to argue he’d just. calm himself as much as possible while he tried his hardest to understand where you were coming from with whatever point you had without getting mad or arguing back at you

which would eventually make you stop and talk calmly because you’d just feel dumb yelling at him and getting rational responses

if he was ever tired or frustrated or anything that made him just snap at you (whether you were arguing beforehand or not) he’d feel so guilty later

and he’d come and find you after he’d gotten back to senses and he’d be so apologetic

if you were still upset, he’d ask if there was anything he could do to make up for it after apologising a thousand times, or if you just wanted him to give you some space

if you accepting of his apology and kinda just like “i get it!! ur tired and i shouldn’t have pushed you :)” he would. be very thankful that you understand but would also be a lil upset because. you didn’t deserve the way he treated you right then?? why would you just accept that??

so, that’s also a Big Thing for him

if he – or anyone else – disrespected you/didn’t treat you the way you deserve and you brushed it off he would be so, so upset

he just thinks the world of you and wants you to think that of yourself too so seeing you so unbothered by people not giving you everything he deserves makes him literally determined to prove your worth to you

the type of boyfriend to leave lil sticky notes on mirrors that just say, “you’re the cutest!!!!!” or “omg ur like. hot” and he would straight up deny it if you ever asked about them

he’d be like “:o omg u probably got someone sneaking in!! that’s wild idk who would leave such cheesy messages ;)”  

and even though you know he ain’t slick ur like “wowie me neither,,, hope to find out one day……i wonder if he’s cute….”

back onto the earlier topic, like i said: he’d be so considerate of how you were feeling in every situation

if he knew you weren’t feeling too good he’d always ask whether you wanted him there or whether you needed some space, always reiterating that he won’t be offended by either answer

and even though he always wants to be making sure you’re okay and wants to spend every second of every day with you, he’s definitely the type of person who sees the value in alone time

he needs alone time!! you need alone time!! and he isn’t scared to let you know that he just needs to spend some time clearing his head and being in solitude, and he’d be respectful if you wanted the same thing

he also very much thinks that both of you should have social lives outside of with one another if that makes sense?

like, he encourages the both of you spending time with your friends without one another because he thinks it’s important that you’re both still getting that time where you can just. be dumb and say dumb stuff and inside jokes that ur friends already get u know

but also!! he would love to know that you trusted him enough to tell him things that you do/don’t tell your friends

he just loves that feeling of intimacy of being able to share personal things with one another and not feel judged or uncomfortable

and if you ever told him that you felt safe with him oh boy!!! he could swear his heart actually burst in his chest!!!

if you were ever in a situation where you just didn’t feel fully comfy/safe (such as: walking home late at night, etc.) and you mentioned it, even in passing, to him he’d insist on you two having a system so he can help you out

like, if there was a certain person that made you uncomfy when you were around them, you’d have a lil emoji that you would text him so that it didn’t seem suspicious and so he could get you out of the situation !!

(you’d have to do this at some point and he’d check his phone to see the emoji and he’s !! on high alert because ur just like. across the room from him and he’d take big ass strides over to you and curl an arm around your waist to let you know that he’s right there!! you’re all good!!)

and with the walking home late at night, even if he didn’t already know you were uncomfortable with it, he would just overall dislike the idea of it because he worries about you!!

so especially if he knew you didn’t like it either, he’d be a lil bit on edge if he knew you had to do it

which is why it’s easier for both of you if he just comes to meet you whenever you have to walk back in the dark

but i think if you ever went to him with a problem/something that made you feel unsafe because you trusted him he’d genuinely feel so!! warm and complete inside because he’s truly reached the level where he could make you feel nice and safe!! which is really all he ever wants for u

yoonbin will not, under any circumstances, wear matching couple clothes with you. it is not happening. he will not ever do it. it’s not a thing

however! he starts wearing this necklace all the time,, and being his s/o ur curious as to why

so you ask him like “:O it’s so pretty!! why’d you start wearing it??”

and he’d be really nonchalant about it and just shrug before being like “it’s actually a locket :)”

so you assume it’s a picture of his family or something so you ask to see the inside and he’d do this big dumb grin before he nodded

and you’d reach over to open it up and oh boy oh boy!! it’s a lil candid picture of you!!

so ur first reaction is “bro u literally never told me this is so cute,, and also: why……..”

to which he really would just shrug at you before mumbling the smallest lil, “i like feeling like ur close to me 24/7 u know”

and your heart! oof it’s: burst

now! onto the quick fire round:

yoonbin is anti-tell-your-partner-what-to-wear (mostly because he genuinely only thinks about what you wear in a “wowie that’s my actual s/o??? i am. floored” type of way) but! he will get pressed if you go out in little clothing in the cold because “you’re going to get sick!! and then i will be forced to say i told you so!” so long story short you have to take a jacket with you or else he’ll rant about how difficult it is to get rid of colds again :/

also. he blushes when you compliment him. and it’s something he threatens to fight you over if you ever tell anyone (which you won’t because it’s an endearing lil thing that he does for u!!) and so obviously you compliment him all the time because of it

he really wants to know something substantial about things you’re interested in!! like, if you’re into film, he wants to know about technical film stuff so he can understand what ur talking about. if you’re into writing, he wants to know about your newest piece of writing and why you’re writing it.

he just firmly believes that repaying you for all the support you’ve shown him in his training is super important!!

doesn’t have any big qualms about you showing skin-ship with other people but hand holding is!! yours and his thing and he gets bitter if you do it with someone else

so: overall, i think yoonbin would take a lil while to fully grasp how relationships and being with someone actually works, but like. as soon as he does he’d be a pretty picture perfect boyfriend to be honest

[studiobeebo]

hi bee! i loved the soulmate AUs you did so much so im gonna request another one haha would you be willing to write a soulmate AU where you are able to communicate with your SO through your thoughts? Bakugous soulmate went missing after being captured by the League of villians, and after a while of her being presumably dead, he hears her voice in his head, asking for help and wanting him to meet her. angst or fluff u decide!

ahh i’m still not super used to writing soulmate AU’s, so hope this is alright for you anon!

Katsuki Bakugou

When you first ‘met’ Bakugou, it was actually at a pretty awkward time. You couldn’t tell if he was screaming or what at first, all you heard was a sudden blast of loud, incoherent noise.

After actually talking to him, you found out that it wasn’t him at all, it was just that his explosive quirk was so loud that it invaded his thoughts, so what you were hearing was an actual explosion.

At first, your mental connection was absolutely terrible. Katsuki was Katsuki, and the idea of someone invading space that was definitely personal pissed him the fuck off, and you bet your ass he took that anger out on you with rude comments or snarky insults. You’d always try to throw them back, but a lot of times you got so frustrated with him that you’d just try your best to ignore him and shut him out.

On top of dealing with Katsuki’s attitude, neither of you could control when you two connected at first. He’d just randomly hear your thoughts and you’d randomly hear his, so it felt super invasive.

Let’s just say the two of you ended up in each other’s heads at very..embarrassing times sometimes. (You were both teenagers at that ‘discovery age’ so, well, you probably get the gist of some of the things you’d both catch the other doing on accident)

It took a few months, but the two of you eventually got used to one another’s presence and you were able to better control when you were in each other’s heads. Plus, you both knew that this connection meant you were soulmates, and screaming at each other in your heads until you finally met would definitely not be fun, so you made a sort of truce in a way.

After a good year of being ‘together’, the two of you had gotten close enough to actually seek eachother out in your minds rather than treating your connection as some sort of annoyance. The two of you told each other things you never spoke of with others; insecurities, doubts, things like that.

You noticed that the only time you ever accidentally connected with him anymore was when your thoughts drifted to thinking about him.

Unbeknownst to you, it was the same for him, so every time he caught himself thinking about you and accidentally popped up into your head, he’d have to come up with some lame excuse as to why he was contacting you.

When he stopped hearing from you, even when he had reached out to you rather than waiting for you to contact him, he could honestly say he was scared because he thought he had seriously fucked up. This was because you stopped responding to him after he had mentioned ‘just wanting to fucking meet you already’ during one of his more vulnerable late nights when his emotions were more out in the open. He thought that somehow he managed to scare his own fucking soulmate off and he felt like a complete idiot.

His mood became very sour, even more so than usual, and his friends even became concerned for him. He’d only ever mentioned you to Kirishima, but he had never said enough about you for him or any of Bakugou’s friends to make the connection. He was so preoccupied with being pissed at himself that he hardly payed attention to the news, so hearing about some missing high school student from a few miles away wasn’t all that big of a deal to him.

A few weeks past, and he had forgotten about you a bit. Well, at least that’s what he had to convince himself he had done just so he could focus on training, but in reality he still spent every night lying in bed thinking about you. When he finally heard your voice, just barely a whisper in his mind, on one of those nights, he honestly thought he was dreaming, though he still immediately sprung out of bed and called out your name. When you repeated his name, this time louder and in a more panicked tone, he jumped out of bed and immediately started asking you where the fuck you and been and what was going on.

It wasn’t often he got so passionately upset over something but he..He couldn’t explain it, but having you gone was making his chest hurt in some weird way he’d yet to experience. Though when you explained what happened and where you had been, his heart nearly stopped.

Honestly, his blood was boiling before you even finished your first sentence, but he got the gist of what you were saying.

Even you didn’t know what had happened at first. One minute you were out walking to the corner store for something to eat late at night, and the next you were waking up tied to a chair with a terrible headache. From what you heard, you had been mistaken for a UA student and had been taken by this ‘league of villains’ you’d heard about on the news and had even talked to Katsuki about. You didn’t know if they knew about your mental connection, or if they were just being cautious just in case you happen to have a telepathy quirk, but they had somehow managed to block you off from him while they spent almost a month deciding what the hell to do with you. It was when their leader and whoever was blocking you from Katsuki stepped out that you were able to get out of the binds that you had been working on tearing up since you got there.

Once you were out of what weirdly looked like a bar, you just barely made it down the street before nearly passing out and having to stop. They had been feeding you the bare minimum to keep you alive so there was no way you could, one, figure out where the fuck you are and , two, make it home or to the police from there. Especially without any money or your phone, not to mention your mental state wasn’t all that great from the near starvation. So, you reached out to the only person you could reach out to.

At first his exasperated shouts bombarding your head made you clench your temples in pain until you got the chance to slightly calm him down enough to tell him what was happening and that you needed him to call the police or something . You could have sworn you heard his voice shaking, though maybe that was in anger as you could hear him cursing while he dialed the police.

It took awhile for him to get help since he didn’t have an address, only what you had described the area as looking like. When they had a solid guess, they sent a car to pick him up, but only because he screamed over the phone repeating multiple times that he had to go with. Normally the police wouldn’t let a teen get involved with something like this, but he ‘promised’ to stay in the car. That absolutely didn’t happen.

The second the car he was in pulled up just in time to see the EMT’s wrapping a blanket around your shoulders while someone checked your vitals, he was out in seconds and closing the gap between the two of you despite all the yelling protests he heard.

He’d been wanting to finally meet you, and even if he was first meeting you in a normal situation, he didn’t think he would have reacted any differently because he had no idea what to do or say. Much like him, despite the protests, you wobbled to your feet and wrapped your arms tightly around him, not having to hear his voice to know who he was. You’d been trying to be strong this whole time, but for some reason, now that you were safe you couldn’t stop the hot tears that were suddenly rolling down your cheeks as you buried your face into his shoulder as he stood there shocked.

After a moment, he awkwardly wrapped his arms around you and rested his chin on your head before mumbling out an apology. He didn’t know what he was apologizing for, maybe for not being able to protect you from the start or maybe because he didn’t even know what was going on for so long, but he just felt like he needed to.

Bakugou wasn’t expecting to hear a laugh from you, especially since you were still crying, but you couldn’t help it after hearing him apologize. He had nothing to do with it, plus the whole time you were gone, you were still able to hear his thoughts here or there when he was worrying about you, and even though you couldn’t reach out to him, he was part of the reason you kept your hopes high.

Eventually, he did have to let you go, but he did so very begrudgingly and he argued with the EMT about going with you to the hospital for a solid ten minutes, but she insisted that only immediate family would be allowed to be with you in the hospital once you got there. He probably would have continued arguing, but you took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze and told him a hundred times that you would be fine, so he finally agreed to let you go.

Of course, right as he was leaving to get back into the squad car to be taken home, he heard the EMT make a comment under her breath to you, saying “Your boyfriend’s a firecracker, huh?”, and he flipped his shit all over again, yelling and actually stumbling over his words about how you weren’t dating and blah blah blah, but because of how red his face had gotten, the EMT just rolled her eyes and shooed him off for good, assuring him that ‘he’d be able to visit his girlfriend tomorrow’ right before shutting the ambulance doors. He obviously would have rather gone with, but as long as you were safe and sound, he could honestly say that he was happy. 

[philly-osopher]

C, H, N, P, U! (I hope you're done working for the day cause I don't think this is what "yelling at you if I see you post" looks like tbh.)

C: Which character do you identify with most?

So here’s a thing that may come as a surprise to readers of this blog: it’s not John Laurens, although I love him very much. I am far more pragmatic and less angry than he is, and I self-flagellate much less. I am also not as stupidly reckless– in fact, I think of myself as very cautious. But I admire his idealism and his bravery a lot, even as I can see where the extremes of those traits lead him to tragedy. That sense of such great potential, along with all the details we have on him due to @john-laurens​‘ fantastic and tireless research, is what draws me in.

Okay so I explained it’s not John. I definitely projected a lot of my mannerisms/ quirks, especially anxiety-related ones (memorizing data, making lists, talking to myself, getting really insistent and precise with words) onto Macaroniverse Alex. That said, musical!Alex doesn’t really have those traits. But in terms of his ambition to Be Somebody in his field and his willingness to work really hard to do it, sometimes to the detriment of… uh… everything else in life? The way he likes to plan? The enjoyment he gets from discussing ideas and constructing arguments? Those things definitely speak to me.

H: How would you describe your style?

Versatile! I try to adjust my style to what I’m writing, and I’m pretty proud of my ability to switch because it’s something I’ve worked on a lot. Even between third person Alex and third person John in Macaroniverse, the voices are different; Alex gets longer sentences and more looping/ leaping, while John is very concrete and linear and pretty bad at noticing his own emotions. For example, John:

The plastic bag inside the box slides out and he spills Cheerios all over the floor. Then he can’t work broom and dustpan at the same time, so he ends up picking up all the spilled Cheerios and throwing them in the trash one by one. Then he can’t get the milk carton open. He almost gives up, because Cheerios without milk are just not fucking worth it, but something in him refuses.

Hemingway might approve, if not of the content, then at least the sentence length and structure. (Actually I kind of like the Hemingway comparison because his is the Stoical Manpain voice and John def has a little Stoical Manpain going on in this story, the silly dear).

Versus Alex:

And even though he trusts Herc to be careful with his pins, and not to judge him for the enormous quantity of free dental dams and condoms he steals from the table outside his door, and to help him discriminate between normal-sick and dangerous-sick… he doesn’t trust him with this yet. He should—he really should.

One, Herc owes him for agreeing to serve as his mannequin after his poor sweet Thimbleina was stolen by a bunch of giggling tri-Delts on a scavenger hunt. (Not that Alex minds getting to model Herc’s edgy, sculptural creations every once in awhile. They make him feel badass. Particularly the poison-green women’s blazer currently taking shape on his shoulders.)

Two, Herc’s also first-gen, he was born in Nigeria, he knows what it’s like to stick out like a sore thumb. Alex frowns. Does that metaphor make sense? Why do sore thumbs stick out? Are they swollen or something? What happened to Herc’s poor sore thumb? In this case, was it sore from the hammer-blow of class, racial, and native-born privilege?

See how he likes to make lists? And starts running with sentences and just kinda… keeps going with them? And how he gets distracted and goes off on mental tangents and has to loop back to the topic? He’s not disorganized to himself, he just has a different system. With his stories sometimes I struggle to get in-voice and sometimes I have the opposite problem of keeping everything from exploding into the confetti shower that is Alex’s inner monologue.

For canon-era stuff I try to use a totally different voice, which isn’t authentically 18th-century but has absorbed approximately that flavor from all the Patrick O’Brian I’ve read. From the rivers/ guns sequel I’m working on:

On the mudded-out track through the endless woods and rolling hills of central Pennsylvania there walks a woman—young, clad in widow’s black, the heavy fabric falling round the gentle swell of her belly. Her black hood is cast down to shield her face from the wind; her head is bowed but her back straight. Before her the sky is clear and blue in all the glory of early fall; behind her it is ink-black and uncanny, and uncanniness clings to her skin like the smell of death clings to men off the battlefield. No band of brigands dares accost her; no friendly washerwoman inquires if she is well, if she needs a bite to eat, what business a woman in her state has on the road. The uncanniness holds them back—well, that, and the creature that scuttles along at her heels: low-slung, many-limbed, panting and coughing and drooling ink from its gibbering mouths.

I count three semicolons, one colon, two em-dashes, and 22 adjectives. Hemingway no longer approves. He’s coming for me with a big knife. If you never hear from me again, you know whose ghost to blame.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

Yes, but thank god @herowndeliverance​ is writing it already.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Here’s what happens, most of the time. I get an idea for a passage of dialogue or a premise or an ending to a fic. I’m nowhere convenient to write (usually walking somewhere or at work) so I write it down in the notes to my phone and then think on it obsessively for the rest of the day, trying to turn it into something story-shaped. I get home and try to capture what I thought of. Inevitably something isn’t working and I have to talk/ appeal to someone to get the idea loose. Mostly I do this by shouting at my friends in messages and then going back and copy-pasting the whole conversation into the document.

So, I think I end up planning quite a lot, even for shorter stories. Even if I don’t deliberately outline, I’ve at least gone through the story several times in my head before I start typing.

For longer stories, like the rivers/ guns sequel excerpted above, I outline before I get started, but inevitably things will change and evolve as I’m going. Sometimes when I garden too much my inner architect has to tear out the gardens I made because they’re in the wrong places or they don’t match the house, which is always a sad process. In fact, as I’m writing I’ll actually tell myself when something isn’t working, like Philip thinking, this is so dumb, why am I acting like this? when I was trying to take a plot shortcut that unfortunately led to Bad Characterization. That’s a sign more planning needs to happen.

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven’t tried yet.

I’m not naturally inclined to do much in the way of shipping, and my Lams obsession is actually very out of character for me. But I’d love to do more of Laurens and Lafayette interacting, because whenever you think about their characters, there’s some very clear compare-and-contrast you could do. @your3fundamentaltruths has also convinced me that there’s a lot of potential with stories featuring John and Angelica, although I can’t ship them because I headcanon John as Kinsey 6 100% Gay.

I also haven’t written any Mariliza, even though I think there could be potential there. Obviously not in the canon timeline, because Eliza would probably rather slap canon!Maria than just about anything else, but in an AU where Maria and Eliza meet before Maria and Alex do? You could see Eliza being the Concerned Mom Friend when James Reynolds is being terrible to Maria, and being moved by how hard Maria tries to protect her little girl (maybe Little Eliza and Susan are friends in preschool and Eliza and Maria start talking when they set up a playdate?), and wanting to help her. Actually, you know what, I don’t really ship this but if somebody wants that premise it’s up for grabs :D