#hey while people maybe actually listen to Asian voices

[tigerseye46]

learning that there must be at least one person out there shipping sun wukong and guanyin makes me incredibly uncomfortable. i thought people making them out to be an abuser of red boy was bad but that feels more off to me. i've only seen the second thing once and seen it talked about twice and never the ship in person and it's got to be rare since i've been in the fandoms for almost a year without seeing it but still even one person doing that feels gross.

That is perfectly valid and it makes me uncomfortable too. It is not fucking hard to be respectful. Also I’m open to discussions about this stuff because I am so tired with how certain gods are treated.

Btw I put a read more in case people want to scroll past this

Personally I’ve never actually seen people from the OSP fandom ship Guanyin and SWK but I don’t actively go digging for OSP fan content so thankfully I’ve never seen it. I’ve been watching OSP for a couple years yet have never seen it. Side note, I kinda hate how people take their JTTW video as complete truth when Red cuts out a lot of stuff for humor and especially since they look at things through a white lens rather than actual cultural significance.

People think the Jade Emperor is an idiot for trying to kill Sun Wukong when he’s immortal when that’s not how Daoist immortality works at all. In Daoist immortality, invulnerability and immortality are not the same thing. You can live forever but still be killed. SWK is the exception because of how much of that immortality granted stuff he ate, I think

And yea you were right it does feel extremely off. It is gross even for one person. Both things feel extremely off especially since these are you know gods. Especially for someone so important as Guanyin who is either being shipped or turned into evil abuser who enslaved Red Boy. It’s not rocket science for people to know that’s not how she is at all. I haven’t even read the books because of my poor attention span and I obviously know that’s not how she is!

It’s tiring to be an Asian in this fandom. I’m not Chinese and it must be so tiring for the Chinese people in this fandom especially since some of them are trying to regain and learn more about this culture which is the same thing I’m trying to do with my Filipino half.

Asian people have had their culture stripped away or have been colonized by white people or some other group and we’re trying to get our culture back and it must be so amazing when you see something like LMK which is based on JTTW then you get tired when you see how the fandom treats certain gods without research.

One day I will snap and write a whole fanfic about how amazing Guanyin is. No one fucking test me.

[mediocre-writerr]

who do you love [lexi howard]

lexi howard x reader

requested: Hiii! I just discovered your page while looking for Euphoria fics. I saw that you don’t have any Lexi Howard fics. Could I request a fic where Reader is partnered up with Cassie for a project or something and they meet Lexi and develops a crush on her, but Lexi is clueless and thinks reader has a thing for Cassie? Fluff please. Also your works are absolutely amazing!

a/n: italicized are rue's voiceover

*not my gif*

Lexi has always lived in the shadows of her sister. Every guy or girl she liked just never fell for her. They always fell for her sister. Cassie was the one in the spotlight and Lexi was just the background character.

You sat there with your earbuds in as your teacher went on and on about some project you guys had to do. But again, you weren't exactly listening.

Until he came over and ripped your earbuds out of your ear. You looked up at him with innocent eyes, "Ms. Y/L/N, you're partnered with Ms. Howard. Hopefully, she'll be able to fill you in since you weren't paying attention,"

You sent him a small smile before trudging your way over to Cassie. You heard a lot of things about her, but you didn't really care what everyone thought around here. Most of them were assholes anyway.

"So were you paying attention to anything he was saying?" you asked as you plopped down into the seat next to her.

"Not a word, but my friend Kat heard all of it. If you want you can come over tonight, we can start working on it, getting it over with," she offered and you nodded. 

“Sounds great,”

You see this was the start of a beautiful friendship for Y/N and Cassie. They became as thick as thieves. Everyone thought that Y/N and Cassie would eventually get together, but the entire time Cassie was just trying to get her newly found best friend to admit feelings for her sister. 

And those feelings started, cheesy to say, but at first sight.

You knocked on the Howard’s door, bouncing on the balls of your feet. You didn’t really know how to feel, Cassie was popular and well you? Not so much.

The door swung open and you swore your jaw dropped all the way to the floor. You were met with the younger Howard sister. She was beautiful. Her beautiful brown hair fit perfectly with her fair skin.

“You must be Y/N?” she says, snapping you out of your daze.

“Yeah, that’s me. Hi, Lexi, right?” you asked, stepping into the house as she held the door open.

“Yeah. Cassie went out with Maddy, but she texted me and said she’s on her way back. You can come in, you don’t have to wait outside like a dog,” she joked and you laughed together softly.

The two of you sat together on the couch. Your eyes gazed to the TV to see her watching Crazy Rich Asians. One of your favorite movies of all time. The screen was showing the montage of Rachel trying on all the different dresses for the wedding.

“This movie is a masterpiece,” you tell her.

She nods, “This is my first time watching it and I’m completely sold,” 

“Oh, you haven’t even gotten to the best part yet. The wedding scene is-” you put your fingers to your lips and kiss them, “Chef’s kiss!” 

“Hmm, I’ll have to take your word for it,” she said.

You continued watching as the wedding scene started. Lexi’s eyes were glued to the TV, but yours kept drifting towards Lexi. The way she watched intently as Kina Grannis started singing “Can’t Help Falling In Love”.

The scene ends and she looks at you, tears boarded at her eyes, “Why am I going to cry?” she laughed.

“Because it’s one of the most beautiful scenes in history,” you told her. 

The two of you just stared at each other. Her doe brown eyes were captivating and you couldn’t help your eyes from drifting down to her lips. There was a moment where you thought she did the same thing. 

The door bust open filled with laughter and Cassie and Maddy’s eyes landed on the two of you, “Hey Y/N, sorry I’m late. I see my sister was able to keep you company,”

“Oh yeah, Lexi was great. It was nice meeting you, I’ll see you around,” you told her. 

You see, my best friend Lexi developed a crush on Y/N right after that. But despite me and Jules telling her constantly that she felt the same way, Lexi still thought that you fell for her blonde sister and not her. 

“Cassie! I am not telling your sister that I like her. She does not feel the same way that I do. I am not going to risk my friendship that I’ve built with her and you,” you told her as the two of you laid on the bed in her bedroom.

She looked at you with her blue eyes like you were on drugs, “Are you kidding me right now? You sound like you just bought something from Fez. I’ve never seen my sister look at anyone the way she looks at you. You need to stop being a fucking coward and just tell her how you feel,”

“Okay, what if she does want to be my girlfriend? What if something bad happens? I lose the both of you and I can’t do that. I don’t want you to choose between me and your own sister,” you whispered.

Your heads were slightly tilted towards each other as you just stared at her, “I think you need to take advice from your favorite movie: you’re not playing to win, you’re playing to not lose. So play to win. Don’t think about the what if’s and even if things go south with my sister, I found a sister in you. You’re not gonna lose me either,” she said, “You’re one of my favorite people in the entire world, possibly my favorite, don’t tell Maddy that though. I love you so much Y/N,”

Little did the two of you know that Lexi was at the door way. She didn’t hear anything besides that you’re Cassie’s favorite person and that she loves you. 

“Awww someone loves me,” you nudge her shoulder, “But I’m for sure going to tell Maddy that I’m your favorite person. She’ll have a field day with that one,”

She pushed your face away from her, “You will not! I’ll just tell Lexi myself then,” 

You gasped, “You wouldn’t dare!” 

“Then you do it!” she exclaimed. 

Lexi avoided Y/N after that day. She also avoided Cassie. The two girls didn’t know why the brunette Howard was avoiding them. All they knew was that she avoided them every chance that she got.

It broke Y/N’s heart. She was finally ready to tell Lexi how she felt. And now, she wants nothing to do with her. No more movie nights. No more random ice cream days. But rather, Y/N going over to visit Cassie and being disappointed when their mom would answer the door and not Lexi.

You finally caught up to her as she was trying to sprint past you in the hallway. You grabbed her wrist and she looked back at you. The first time actually seeing those beautiful eyes of hers in weeks.

“What did I do? I understand if you don’t want to talk to me. I understand if you don’t want to be my friend, but please just tell me what I did. That’s the least I deserve,” you whispered, your voice breaking at the thought of losing one of your best friends. 

She shook her head, “Nothing, you didn’t do anything,” 

“I obviously did something, you’re not talking to me!” you exclaimed. 

Lexi broke free of your grasp, “You don’t need me Y/N. You have my sister. Cassie always wins. She’s always been in the spotlight. She always gets the guys and girls. Everyone I’ve ever liked, she went for them. And she always wins. I just thought for once that I mattered. That for once, the person I fell in love with chose me, but I guess I was wrong,” 

She stormed away and you were left with your mouth agape. Everything she said twirling in your brain. You immediately told Cassie all of it and your brain worked together to try and figure out a way to win her back. Until it all finally clicked.

You stood outside in the backyard of the Howard’s house. A slip n slide was in the path leading to you, switch on candles. You sat on the opposite side with a guitar in your hand. Luckily, you can play. 

Singing on the other hand, well let’s just hope it goes well.

“Cassie, I already said I don’t want to talk to you! You can’t bribe me with Bob Ross tutorials!” Lexi’s voice echoed as she closed the backyard door. 

She spotted you sitting there and she was immediately about to go inside when you yelled out to her, “Lexi please! Just let me explain, it’ll take maybe three or four minutes of your time,” 

Lexi walked down the slip n slide, but not before falling on her butt and sliding towards you. You let out a roar of a laugh as she finally reached down to you. She tried hard to fight off a laugh and a smile, but you could see it faintly. 

When you finally came down from your high she looked at you with raised eyebrows, “Well, I’m waiting,” 

You started playing the guitar. The melody you learned just hours before playing from the guitar. You took in a deep breath as you started singing the infamous song that got you to fall in love with her in the first place. 

“So, take my hand, take my whole life too. For, I can’t help falling in love with you. For, I can’t help falling in love with you,” you finish the song.

The two of you look at each other as you place your guitar down next to you, “You do matter to me, Lexi. More than you know. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you, but ever since the first night I met you I’ve always been in love with you,” 

“Cassie actually told me that I need to play to win. And if I had to slip on my ass a thousands times trying to set up this low budget recreation of the wedding scene in Crazy Rich Asians, I would. I did it because I need to win your heart, because Lexi, you already have mine,” 

A small smile breaks out onto her face as she closes the distance between the two of you. She kissed you ever so softly as you tasted the sweet taste of her lips. 

“And you have mine,” 

[kristiewritings]

hey there, i saw that you have a kazuha pfp so maybe you r a kazuha simp?? also if it’s ok, could i ask a kazuha college au where he’s your partner in a project and then u fall inlove with him??

hehe hi there anon! yes indeed i am a kazuha simp BUT i also simp for childe 😩

daw anon your request will be done leave it to me (wtf am i doing?? 😔)

character: kazuha

word count: 648

tw: the teacher ships 😌😌but none rlly

kazuha, oh kazuha. he was always the quiet kid who would be mumbling to himself about something. no one really talks to him except for yoimiya and a few others.

you never really noticed him but if you look at his notebooks, they’re filled with poems or scenarios about you. he adored you. every night before he goes to sleep, he thinks about how it would be to sleep with you in his arms.

one day, your teacher announced that the class would be having a new project. “class. today we’ll be having a project. it will be due in a week so please prepare your projects and your presentation speech as well.”

since the teacher thought the topic was hard for some students, she decided to give out partners.

you were just hoping to be done with it all. “kazuha, go over to [name]” the teacher said as she walked by. kazuha was a mess inside but managed to get himself together and sit with you. (SIMP)

you gave him a friendly smile before introducing yourself. “hey, I’m [name].” he replied with a faint “kaedehara kazuha”. you thought he was just being shy but you just ignored that.

“soo let’s get started?” you broke the silence between you two awkwardly. kazuha nodded and started discussing with you the things that you two would do for the project.

after the bell rang, the teacher dismissed the class and you all packed your stuff. you saw kazuha at a table during lunch and decided you’d sit with him.

“hey, do you mind if i sit here kazuha?” you asked him. he shook his head no and you sat down infront of him. you talked to him about whatever and he listened to you, nodding and responding every once in a while.

before your lunch ended, you told him “let’s meet outside after school’s done. let’s finish the project at my place.” you smiled at him before leaving.

kazuha was stuck there. you were ACTUALLY inviting him to go to your house! he tried to calm down and managed to do it (after failing for 5 minutes).

_________________________

once school was done, he went outside the school and waited for you. not so long after, kazuha saw you walking out with a few people. you waved goodbye to them before going to kazuha.

"hey, let's go!" you held his hand and dragged him to your house. you failed to notice the blush slowly spreading on his face. as you reached your house, you took off your shoes and went in. kazuha followed. (yes i am asian, don't step in my house with shoes on or i will literally spank you).

he then followed you to your room, where you two would finish the project. you got a chair and started working with him on the project.

(skips the thing 'cause im lazy but dw i have some scenes)

after you two do what you planned for the project today, you cleaned up the area. as you were doing so, you remembered some moments with him

* flashbacks*

the way his hand brushes against yours every once in a while had your insides moving. his soft voice speaking to say some things he wishes to improve about the project had you screaming in your pillow.

you don't understand. why did you suddenly feel this way after he came over? why did you suddenly feel like you're inlove? what's happening? those were the questions in your head.

you just ignored it for now and went to the table for dinner. you forgot about it for a while as you ate.

when it was time for bed, you couldn't sleep. all you could think about was kazuha. you walked around for a while but you still couldn't sleep.

guess you'll have to tell him soon.....

hi hi anon!! heres ur request i hope yall like it

[spencer-reid-in-a-pool]

Room For Dessert

anon requested- Can you do a smut where rossi has a dinner party but also has his Niece staying with him because her apartment is being fumigated. Her and Spencer hit it off and go at it.

anon requested- smut 54: you better be quiet or everyone is going to know what a naughty little slut you are. and 59: such a needy little thing, aren't you? with Spencer

Contains: fingering (female receiving), hand job (male receiving), mention of pregnancy/breeding kink, name calling, slight degradation, unprotected sex, swearing, sexual acts in a public setting

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

I had never met my uncle David's co-workers before. He had always talked about introducing us, but it just never seemed to be the right time. It seems that today though, the world decided it was the right time.

He was having a dinner party tonight and my apartment needed to be fumigated. What luck!

I figured I would be staying with him for a couple days, so I packed my things after work yesterday. Now it was Saturday, the day of the party, and time to head over.

I had to admit I was nervous. A dinner party with people I didn't know? Talk about awkward. But I decided to make the most of it.

Once I was at his house, he took me to a spare room that would be mine for the next few days and showed me where everything was. Not that I would remember since we're in a mansion.

A few hours passed and it was time for people to start arriving. As I was getting my party clothes on, I could hear voices downstairs. Guess I should hurry.

Once I was done with my hair, makeup, and clothes, I made my way slowly down the stairs. The voices got progressively louder as I got closer.

A few people were scattered around the immediate area. A dark-haired woman stood talking to a blonde woman over near the far side of the room. Uncle David was talking with an Asian man and a dark-skinned woman by the entrance to the kitchen. And lastly, a well-built Hispanic man sat talking to a blonde woman in colorful clothing and a tall, slightly unkempt man.

I wasn't sure where to go first so I just kind of stood on the bottom step without saying anything. Then Uncle David noticed me.

"Ah there she is! We've been waiting for you. Come on and mingle while the food is finishing up."

At his words, the room full of people all turned their heads toward me.

Slightly taken aback by all the eyes on me, I gave a small wave and a smile before making my way down to them.

"It's nice to meet you guys! I'm (Y/N). Uncle David has told me about all of you."

The woman wearing bright colors made her way over to me first, a glass of champagne in hand.

"It's so nice to meet you! Your dress is to die for!"

She then enveloped me in a one arm hug. I hugged her back and accidentally made eye contact with the tall guy in the back. He quickly looked away. What was he staring at me for?

"I'm Penelope by the way!"

She pulled away and smiled at me once more before making room for the next person.

Emily, JJ, Luke, Tara, and Matt all introduced themselves. The last guy must be...

"Dr. Spencer Reid," he said as he stuck his hand out to shake.

Oh. Oh wow.

Now that I got a closer look at him, I could see why his nickname was "Pretty Boy." If we hadn't been in front of so many people, I would've had to jump his bones right then.

I shook his hand shyly.

"It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. Aren't you a little too attractive to be in the FBI? How does anyone get their work done?"

Spencer cleared his throat and glanced around the room to see people start walking to the kitchen. The food must be almost done.

"Well, why don’t you sit next to me at the dinner table? I’ll make sure to tell you all about my...work,” he murmured as he made no attempts to hide his eyes roaming my body.

Did-did he just...?

Before I could think anything coherent, he began walking away. He was probably just messing with me. I’m just being stupid.

Still, my legs felt a bit weak as I made my way into the kitchen. They were all sitting down and the only empty seat was next to Spencer. As I approached, he jumped up and pulled out the chair.

“Here let me.”

He gave me a bashful look, not at all like the look he gave my body moments ago in the living room. What is this guy’s deal?

I gave him a small smile and took a seat. He pushed me towards the table and sat down next to me.

Uncle David did his toast thing to be thankful for everyone being here, and then we started dishing up our food. There was so much to choose from that my plate became full almost immediately.

“So tell me,” I said to the man next to me, “What’s it like to be the BAU’s resident genius?”

Spencer glanced at me as he gathered food onto his plate.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that an IQ score or any amount of knowledge makes someone a genius. Not that both of those aren’t high for me, but I don’t like to quantify the term genius.”

He paused for a moment before continuing.

“But between you and me, it feels pretty good.”

I giggled and he smiled at me. He has a nice smile.

“Hey I made you laugh and it wasn’t at me. Maybe I’m getting somewhere with women.”

I traced the rim of my champagne glass before looking at him. I know I’d like to go somewhere with him...

“I don’t see how women aren’t all over you, Doctor. I mean. Have you looked in a mirror?”

Spencer chuckled and smiled, almost nervously.

“I’d rather look at you.”

My cheeks got hot and I blinked rapidly. Oh no. This is it. It’s happening.

But I hadn’t forgotten that look he gave me before we sat down. I hadn’t forgotten the way he undressed me with his eyes. If he wanted to mess with me then I would mess with him too.

I leaned over slowly so no one would notice and began talking in a low voice in his ear.

“What parts of me would you like to look at, Doctor?”

Spencer choked on his drink when I finished speaking. I leaned away feeling accomplished and with a painful twitch in my chest from trying not to lose my shit at him sputtering like an idiot.

But it would seem that karma is, in fact, a bitch.

“How about I start with those pretty tits of yours?”

It was my turn to choke on my drink this time. This earned me a few glances from the people across from me at the table.

“You two okay over there?” Emily asked us, having no clue what was really happening on our side of the table.

Spencer gave me a fake confused glance and then met Emily’s eyes.

“Of course, why wouldn’t we be?”

She shrugged and seemed to leave it at that, turning back to her conversation with JJ.

“How about...,” Spencer began next to me in a low voice so that no one would hear, “We have a little fun?”

I raised an eyebrow at him, not really sure what he meant by that.

He widened his eyes and looked me up and down in response as if to say, “You know exactly what I mean.”

I tried not to smile as big as I wanted to, so I settled on a sly grin in his direction to let him know I was game.

His body seemed to relax in relief almost, something I wasn’t expecting. Was he genuinely interested in me or was he just messing with me because I happened to be here?

I tried distracting myself from these thoughts and started actually eating, since we were at a dinner party after all.

A few minutes went by of idle conversation, although I wasn’t really listening. I responded in short sentences and nods in between bites of food, but my mind was elsewhere.

It wasn’t too long though, until my mind went straight to my thigh, where a hand could be felt slowly making its way up.

Trying not to make it obvious, I turned towards Spencer with a shocked look on my face. He wasn’t even looking at me, he was looking ahead and having a full conversation with Matt and Luke. How is he multitasking this well?

His hand- his very large and warm hand- made its way even farther up, snaking towards my center with a painfully slow pace.

I knew what he was planning, and I was ready for it. At least, I think I am.

His finger brushed against the edge of my panties and he paused. When I looked over at him, he had his chin casually resting on his other hand and was looking at me sideways. He raised an eyebrow to ask me if it was okay.

In response, I took his hand that was so close to where I wanted it to be, and brought it down so that he could feel the wet spot forming just from thinking about what he was getting ready to do.

I think this shocked him a little, so he cleared his throat and looked ahead, picking up another conversation with Tara.

He made his way back to where he was and began slipping fingers past the hem of my panties. They were warm and soft, but still, I shivered.

I tried my best to continue on as normal while people talked to me, but as soon as I felt the pad of his pointer finger stroking my folds, I choked on my words.

No one seemed to notice, so I continued on like nothing happened.

He was teasing me now, touching around my entrance but never going in it. How irritating.

I’m sure he sensed my frustration, since he chuckled under his breath and immediately shoved a finger inside me.

I inhaled sharply, not expecting the force or suddenness. This seemed to please him; at least I’m assuming he was pleased based on the grin that graced his features.

He continued working while he talked, never stopping the motions of going in and out of me. He even began rubbing my clit with another finger while he fingered me. He must be really good at piano. And guitar, for that matter.

It was starting to get a little warm, and my body began reacting to the way he was relentlessly rubbing my clit in hurried circles.

“Spencer,” I hissed so that no one else could hear.

“Hmmm?”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“I believe I’m trying to make you cum on my fingers.”

My breath hitched in my throat as I felt my core tighten. I looked around to make sure no one had heard us. The coast seemed to be clear.

“You’re gonna pay for this, asshole,” I choked out.

This seemed to only fuel him. His fingers began relentlessly attacking my swollen bundle of nerves and they did not stop. Not even close. He only got faster and faster, and I have no idea how that was even possible to begin with.

I wanted to smack the smirk that appeared when I tightened around his fingers right off his stupid face.

His eyes roamed my sweaty, slightly red face and he slowly pulled his hand from my panties.

Spencer then turned back to his plate and picked up the last bit of his dinner roll that was left. He placed it in his mouth, along with the tips of his fingers that were just in my panties. He pushed the roll farther in his mouth so that his fingers were halfway in. Then he slowly withdrew them, his lips never leaving those damn fingers.

“Mmm Rossi,” Spencer began, turning away from me and to the man he called, “These rolls are really good. Did you make them yourself? I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like it.”

This time I choked on my own saliva. So of course, I had a coughing fit that drew everyone’s attention to me.

“Oh my gosh, (Y/N) are you okay? Take a sip of water!” Penelope told me in honest concern for my well being.

I finished coughing and took a long gulp from my glass. I only wished it was whiskey instead of water right now.

“I’m okay, really,” I said, holding my hands up in front of me, “Just... swallowed my food too fast.”

This seemed to satisfy everyone so they all turned back to each other, Spencer’s comment about the rolls forgotten.

“That’s what you get for calling me those mean names, princess,” Spencer murmured next to me.

I stayed silent in response. Two could play at this game.

Without hesitation, I placed my hand against his crotch. And it was... something. I’m not sure if he was that hard or just- that big. Either way, my heart skipped a beat. But I didn’t let that stop me.

I slipped my hand beneath the waistband of his pants and made contact with what I was looking for. I felt him twitch under my touch, but his face gave nothing away to the others at the table.

So I started working. Tracing the length of what I could reach, and rubbing along his shaft with precision.

He took in a sharp breath as I made my way closer to the tip, and he quickly cut a glance my way.

I paid him no mind as I continued, making sure to eat off my plate like normal so as not to draw suspicion. Looking around, I could see that most people were finishing up their food, so I didn’t really have a lot of time left. I started going faster, putting more pressure onto his dick as I went. 

When I looked up to check the scene, I saw Spencer gripping his fork with white knuckles. He was holding on for dear life. Good. 

It was then that a few people began to excuse themselves from the table to go mingle some more before dessert. Shit. I had to hurry. 

I kept picking up speed, probably too much to be honest. But it worked. Spencer stiffened under my touch and a warm, wet spot was now forming in his pants, coating my fingers. He cleared his throat to try and drown out the noise he wanted so badly to make instead. 

I took a deep breath, satisfied with my work, and slowly removed my hand from his pants. It was just us, Penelope, and my uncle left at the table. They were in the middle of a conversation anyway. Luck was on my side tonight.

Spencer excused himself in a hurry, and I waited a few minutes before doing the same. I had no idea where he went, so I just had to walk around and find him somehow. We had unfinished business. 

A few minutes went by of me searching the halls, hopefully not drawing attention to myself. And then I found him, leaning against a wall and looking out the window in front of him. 

When I approached him, I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get any words out, he grabbed my wrist roughly and pulled me into a closet. Spencer shut the door quietly behind us, though I could tell that he wanted to slam it. Uh oh.

“What the hell was that?” he hissed through gritted teeth.

“I was just playing along! Isn’t that what we wanted to do from the beginning?”

Spencer ran a hand through his hair. Oh, how I wanted to do the same thing.

“Obviously. I’ve been wanting to fuck you senseless since I laid eyes on you.”

My heart skipped a beat and the pulse suddenly went down into my core instead.

“Well do it then,” I murmured while gripping onto his forearms. There was enough space in this closet for many different positions. I just wanted to be as close to him as possible.

“I don’t know if you know what you’re getting yourself into,” Spencer groaned while palming my ass roughly.

“Mmm, I don’t care. I’m on the pill, by the way. So I wanna feel you. All of you. Although I have a pretty strong feeling you’d get off on putting a baby in me, Doctor,” I whispered into his ear before pressing my chest against his. I felt his breathing stop for a split second.

“Shut up,” he growled. It seems I pushed a button.

“Make me.”

Without a word and without hesitation, Spencer shoved me against the wall behind me and locked his mouth onto mine.

It was better than I could’ve imagined. And I had imagined it a lot over the course of tonight.

His tongue immediately shoved past the barrier of my lips and teeth, finding shelter in my mouth. The groans that came from him could have undone me right there, so I held onto his shoulders for dear life. His hands found his way to my ass, and he pushed me against his erection. His very large, very intimidating erection. And then all too soon, he pulled away, a string of saliva and swollen lips the only evidence of what had just happened.

“Who said you were allowed to tease me, huh? You've been pushing my buttons all night, and now look at you. A writhing mess underneath me. Such a needy little thing, aren't you?"

I shivered as his words reached my ears. So he had noticed I was already falling apart once again.

“God,” he moaned into my neck as he pushed me against his dick.

I couldn’t help myself- I moaned with him. The friction of him against my pulsing core was almost too much to handle.

“You sound so good,” he growled in my ear.

We stopped suddenly when footsteps could be heard nearby. I glanced at Spencer in a panic and started to move away from him. But before I could, he hastily shoved his hand over my mouth.

"Oh no, we're not stopping. Not when it’s getting this good. So you better be quiet or else everyone will know what a naughty little slut you are. Understand?"

I whimpered against his fingers and nodded at him. He gave me a wicked smile in return.

"Good girl. Now take off your panties and wrap your legs around me so I can feel just how tight your cunt really is. I have a feeling my dick will feel a lot better inside you rather than my fingers.”

With shaking hands, I slid my panties off and kicked them away.

Spencer must have enjoyed what I did because he licked his lips eagerly, never breaking his gaze towards me. Before I made my way back over to him, I couldn’t help but notice how hard he already was. This wouldn’t take long. Less of a chance we would get caught, thankfully. 

He pulled down his pants and boxers roughly, quickly stepping out of them like I had done moments ago. He made no motion to remove the clothes on his top half, solidifying the thought that this would be over quickly. How bittersweet. 

Without another word, I practically jumped into his arms, our mouths meeting immediately and moving against the other ferociously. But all of a sudden, he pulled away, and it pissed me off more than it should have. 

When I saw why he did though, I wasn’t angry anymore. 

He had picked up the belt he had been wearing from the floor, and was holding it in front of me with a dangerous look in his eye. 

“I don’t trust you to be quiet. Open,” Spencer said in a gravelly huff. 

I did as he asked without hesitation, and he roughly shoved the leather belt into my mouth, commanding me to bite down on it. 

Oh shit.

Without missing a beat, he picked me up and laid me down on the floor, extremely gently compared to how he had previously put the belt in my mouth. 

“Good thing you’re already so wet,” Spencer purred, looking down at my exposed core. “Otherwise, this might hurt a little. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Unfortunately, it did still hurt. But God, did it hurt so good. 

[textsfromthefifthbasement]

Hey, @brbdaly​, maybe don’t reblog this post while you’re supporting a blacklist full of POCs managed by another white person?

You, as a white person, have ignored, silenced, and talked over POCs in the Phantom of the Opera fandom for too long. You prize yourself on elevating marginalized identities but only listen to the POCs YOU deem worthy of listening to, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that you supported a list determining which marginalized identities are worth listening to. Rest is under cut as this is a long post.

This blacklist was originally created by phandombigotryarchive, who disproportionally targeted POCs who disagreed with her and her methods. She is no longer active in the fandom but is happy repeatedly posting pictures of Asian women in sexy poses over on her other main. It was later promoted by asianphancollective, whose explicit goal was to send targeted harassment against other Asian fans. Now, it’s managed entirely by trans-flint aka cefantomeenhabitnoir aka so many other shell accounts I’m not even going to name them all.

Trans-flint. A white person. Like you.

Yeah sorry, white people piling on POCs for woke points is about the farthest from anti-racist activism you can get.

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That’s fucking rich coming from someone who actively refused to listen to people discussing anti-Asian racism. @helloitskrispy​, an Asian person, reached out to you about the anti-Asian racism being perpetuated by phandombigotryarchive, asianphancollective, and trans-flint. Your response was that it was an intracommunity issue, and that Asian people should be listening to the Asians who supported phandombigotryarchive. AKA your two Asian friends.

White people stop using “I have a ___ friend” as an excuse challenge 2021.

Anyways.

Then you turned around and wrote/reblogged these immediately after ignoring Asian voices:

You DO realize that we can talk about anti-Asian racism while addressing antiblackness, right? But then we’d have to look at the inconvenient truth that the people you supported throughout these callouts, phandombigotryarchive and trans-flint, are not Asian while accusing literal Asian people of orientalism. Phandombigotryarchive herself wrote that Pharoga shippers (people who ship Erik/the Phantom and the Daroga) have avoidance of confrontation “in their blood.”

Most Pharoga shippers are Asian.

You’d think it would stop there but. You reblogged this on February 28, 2021:

Not a problem! Anti-racism resources are great to share! And then a day later, another Asian phan, @phannah--montana​, reblogged this same post.

That earned her a callout post.

So, let me get this straight, it’s alright for a white person to reblog anti-racism resources but not a literal POC. Gotcha. How progressive.

You want to be seen as a champion of marginalized identities. You want to be seen as a good ally. The thing is, for a white person to be a good ally, you kind of have to listen to other POCs than just the voices you like to hear.

The hard truth of the matter is neither you nor phandombigotryarchive nor trans-flint nor asianphancollective ever cared about antiracism and antiblackness. You did not care if a blog actually campaigned for antiracism if they disagreed with you. You did not even care when several bad actors in the phandom were racist towards Lucy St. Louis. All you cared about was bullying a small fandom into silence so you could control things.

No more.

[seoulwhat]

Wedding OR Not (#12)

Summary: Loving your best friend is a stupid and hard thing to do. Would you be able to allow yourself to let your best friend marry the one he loves so he can be happy?

Pairing: Rowoon x female reader

Genre: slight angst, fluff

Warnings: heartbreak

Word Count: 3.9k

He’s your best friend in the whole world. You love him with all your heart and your whole soul.

Yet…

He has never really seen how much you loved him. You tried to show him through your actions, but all he did was see you as a “friend”. It’s not like you didn’t want to be his friend. Of course, you did. You had known him since you were six years old and were neighbors. You remembered when he would ring your doorbell in the middle of the afternoon, and he would be crying because his dad yelled at him, or his older brother didn’t let him play with his toy car. You remembered in elementary school, he hated the school lunch, so you would always make an extra peanut butter and jelly sandwich and bring it for him. You remembered in middle school when he was bullied for not cutting his hair and everyone called him names, but you were there to hug him during his sad moments, and you were there to make him happy again. You remembered you told him in high school that you loved him and all he said was “I love you too. I hope we’re friends forever”.

So yeah, it did break your heart when he told you that he had been dating this girl and he thought that “she was the one”. But you two are best friends, so it’s a must to smile and be happy for him, right?

But you weren’t.

“I’m so happy for you. How long have you two been dating now?” You asked during a lunch that he kept rain checking. He took a sip of his water and began to speak.

“Actually, I’ve been dating her for a year and a half now.”

You almost spit your own food out and your eyes turned into the size of golf balls. “A year and a half!? Why haven’t you told me?”

All he did was shrug his shoulders and continued to eat his salad as he stared at you while you talked.

“What do you mean, you don’t know? We’ve been friends for how long now. Like forever? Rowoon, we’re best friends.”

Rowoon continued stabbing at his food with his fork and all you did was stare at him, waiting for an answer.

“She’s a jealous person.” He said quickly.

“Jealous? She doesn’t have to be jealous of me.”

“I told her you were my best friend and showed her a picture of you. She got upset and told me that she didn’t want me to see you again. I told her I couldn’t do that. So, we made a negotiation and I promised her that if I ever went out to see you, I would turn on the GPS on my phone.”

You furrowed your eyebrows. Why would he want to be with someone like that? You became aware that your best friend was in a controlling relationship. But why was he still being with her?

“Do you love her?” The question popped out quicker than you could even think.

Rowoon was quiet and he hesitated to answer. “I do,” he nodded. “I think I want to marry her.”

You had imagined that if hearts were made of glass, yours would have shattered to a million pieces. Unfixable.

“Are-are you sure? Shouldn’t you think this through?” You asked, trying to delay his thoughts. You didn’t want him to get married. Well, you did, but you wanted him to marry you.

He shook his head. “I already did. I want to ask her tonight actually. What do you think?”

What I think is that you should get out of this relationship before it turns worse. You should leave her before she becomes more controlling and starts to decide what kind of underwear you can wear and cannot wear. You should leave her because she’s not me. You should leave her because I love you. You should leave her because I would make you so happy and I would never let you go.

“I think that’s a good idea,” was all that you were able to say. You regretted bringing this up in your conversation. It was making you uncomfortable and you were already on a verge of tears. Your throat was burning from holding back all your tears.

Your lunch came to an end, and you were thankful that the conversation did as well. You weren’t sure how much longer you could take listening to him brag about how much he loved this girl. You hugged him goodbye, and he promised to call you to let you know what she said. You weren’t looking forward to the call because honestly, you were already devastated as is.

Once you were home, you made sure to put your phone on sound so you wouldn’t miss Rowoon’s call.

A year had passed and the only thing that kept your mind thinking about things, other than Rowoon, was jogging twice a day and taking daily walks throughout the park. You stopped waiting for his phone call a month after he promised he would call you. You tried calling him, but he changed his phone number, and you had no other way to reach him. You used to know where he lived, until the day you went to his door and an Asian couple opened the door.

At first, you didn’t want him to call you to tell you that she agreed to marry him. Then after the second and third day and so on, you impatiently waited for him to call and say something.

Maybe she said no? Or maybe he just never asked her and broke up with her.

You thought so many things, but a call never came your way to satisfy your curiosity. Like always, you woke up in the morning and put on some comfortable jogging clothes and went for your morning run. On your way back home, you checked your mail and noticed a nice red and white envelope underneath all the junk mail that piled up over the course of two weeks.

To: Y/F/N Y/L/N From: Soon to be Mr. And Mrs. Kim

You knew what it was as soon as you seen the sender. You couldn’t believe it. A year later and you’re barely hearing about this. You ripped open the envelope and took out a folded paper that let loose a couple of I Doconfetti that was inside. The paper was written in beautiful cursive writing, and you wondered who wrote it for them.

We would like to officially invite you to the wedding of Lee Mina and Kim Rowoon.

Please call the number below to RSVP your seat.

This was it. This was it. Tears began falling from your eyes. You felt like you were being dramatic, crying at your mailbox, but you couldn’t hold it in. He went through with it, and she said yes. He’s going to go through with it and marry this girl. You realized that he didn’t love you and you don’t think he ever did and ever will.

You grabbed the rest of your mail and ran inside your home. You slid against your door, your crying continuing. You tried to stop crying, but years of held back tears came spilling out of your eyes. You felt like you were never going to be able to stop.

But you did. A few hours later. You missed your walk in the park and your second jog for the day. But you didn’t care.

You read the invite repeatedly. You didn’t know if you did it to torture yourself or to make sure that the invite itself was even real. Either way, you decided to RSVP. You grabbed your cell phone and dialed the number. Two rings later, a female answers the phone.

“Hi, I wanted to RSVP a seat for the,” you looked at the invite to make sure you got her name right. “Mina and Rowoon wedding.”

“Okay, and can I ask who is calling and how many extra guests will you be bringing.” The female voice was so happy and squeaky, she was beginning to give you a headache.

“It’s for Y/F/N Y/L/N, and I’m not bringing anyone. Just bringing myself,” you said simply.

“Y/N?” The female repeated your name.

“Yes?” You weren’t sure if she was simply repeating your name or if she was going to ask you something.

“As in Rowoon’s best friend?” She said even more squeakier than before.

All you did was laugh. “Uh, I’m not so sure about that. I haven’t spoken to him in about a year. So more like an acquaintance.”

The phone went silent for a few seconds, and you can hear a muffled voice yelling in the background.

“I thought I told you not to invite her!”

“Of course, I’m inviting her! She is my best friend!”

A few yells later and the female began to speak on the phone again. This time, you knew you were talking to Mina.

“Okay, well your seat is officially RSVPed,” Mina said and then hung up. You didn’t even get a chance to say thank you, but you didn’t care if you didn’t anyway.

::

Two months later, spring had the flowers blooming and the cold air was now a warm breeze that you enjoyed. Today was the wedding and you were so happy you went dress shopping a month in advance.

You found a beautiful red dress, since the wedding is red and white themed, and found a nice pair of white pumps to go with it. You drove yourself to where the wedding was taking place and you didn’t know the wedding was going to take place at someone’s rich home until you got there.

So many people whom you didn’t obviously know were there and you felt so out of place. All you did was stand there awkwardly, hoping you would see someone you knew.

“Hey little red,” a familiar deep voice said from behind you. You turned around and was faced with a man dressed nicely in a tuxedo.

“Jaewook?! Oh my goodness, you got tall from the last time I seen you! Which was what? When you were fifteen?” You walked up to him and hugged him. He was now taller than you and smelled a lot better.

“Yeah. Look at you,” he said looking you up and down. “You lost weight and you look so good. Like, you look hot.”

He winked at you, and you swatted his shoulder. Same ol’ Jae.

“So, are you Rowoon’s best man?” You asked him.

He shook his head and gave me an angry look. “No. He chose Mina’s brother instead of me. Who does that?”

That surprised you. Rowoon used to be all about his family and he just ditched Jaewook out of his wedding like that, but all you did was shrug your shoulders.

“I honestly thought Rowoon was going to end up marrying you. You guys were like those two popsicles that come joined together. It was always hard to split you two apart.”

You smiled at the memories that came into your mind, but then frowned. “Yeah, but I haven’t spoken to Rowoon in over a year. He hasn’t called me and when I tried calling him, he changed his number. Then when I tried going to his house, he no longer lived there.”

Jaewook shook his head in disbelief. “This man is so hung up on getting married that he ignored his best friend, moved in with his fiancée, and has her brother as his best man just so he can marry her.”

“Not to mention that he loves her. He’s not just doing this to marry her,” you mentioned. Jaewook wrinkled his forehead and shook his head again.

“I don’t know why he does. Have you met the woman? She is fifty shades of crazy.” Both you and Jaewook laughed and continued making jokes about Rowoon ‘s soon to be wife.

“So that’s what you two do when I’m not around?” Rowoon ‘s voice sounded behind you and your heart began to crash against your ribcage.

“Aw come on Rowoon. We’re just having some fun,” Jaewook said. You still hadn’t turned around yet, scared of your actions and words when you do.

“I don’t consider making fun of my fiancée fun,” Rowoon said angrily. You turned around and made eye contact with him. His face seemed more chiseled, and his hair grew so much longer.

“Hello to you too. Long time no talk, don’t you think?” You said annoyed.

Rowoon ‘s tense shoulders relaxed at your words and his eyes changed from angry to worried. “I’m sorry I never called you.”

You put your hand up as if to cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it. I’m just here to see you marry the one you love, and then I’m out of here.”

“Y/N, hear me out please. I actually really need to tell you something in private,” Rowoon said lowly.

You looked at Jaewook and he raised his eyebrows and walked away.

“What do you want Rowoon?”

“Let’s take this somewhere more private.”

He grabbed your hand and dragged you to the inside of the home. He pulled you up the three-story spiraled staircase and pulled you into a room that looked as if he was getting dressed in it.

You crossed your arms and waited for him to speak as he locked the door. He turned around and ran up to you and hugged you. His body crashed into yours and he knocked the wind out of you. All you did was hug back until he let go.

“What was that for?”

“I haven’t seen you in such a long time. I missed you so much, Y/N. You have no idea.”

“Why didn’t you ever come see me then? Or call me?” You said stepping away from him.

“I couldn’t. She didn’t let me. She threatened to leave me if I didn’t change my number and move in with her. Not to mention, she threatened to leave me if I spoke to you. She even told me not to invite you, but I just had to. It’s not like she would cancel the wedding after the invites went out anyway.”

All you did was place your fingers on your forehead and shake your head in disbelief.

“What? Speak to me please. Tell me what’s wrong,” he begged. He walked up to you and grabbed your hand, but the feeling was too intimate for you, so you pulled away. “What did I do?”

You let him have it.

“What did you do? It’s more like what you didn’t do. Two years ago, you began drifting away from me and always making up excuses as to why we couldn’t hang out. Why? Because of Mina. You promised me you would call me about your good news, and I waited for a month before I realized you weren’t going to call. Why? Because of Mina. I tried calling you numerous times only to find out that you changed your number. Why? Once again because of Mina. You moved and didn’t tell me because of her. I cried myself to sleep, most nights, because of how much I love you. I began bawling my eyes out like a hormonal teenager in front of my mailbox when I received your wedding invite and didn’t stop crying until that evening. All because of Mina. Mina, the woman who made you change your number, made you move, made you have her brother as your best man, made you lose contact with your best friend because why exactly? Because she’s controlling. I don’t understand how you cannot see that if a person loved you, they wouldn’t put you through those things.”

Hot tears were burning down your face and you knew your makeup was ruined. But you didn’t care. You had to let it out. Rowoon just stood there gaping at you. You tried to clean the runny makeup on your cheeks, making your hands black from your eyeliner and mascara. The silence in the room didn’t bother you because you knew it would take Rowoon some time to process.

“You love me?” He asked. You weren’t sure if he was confused or if he was worried that you love him.

“All of that and the only thing you managed to process was that I loved you,” you laughed at him and grabbed a tissue from the dresser that was in the room. You turned your back to him and faced towards the mirror that was connected to the dresser and began wiping your face.

“Yes. I do. I have since high school. I even told you, but you took it the wrong way. I’m not expecting some pity party here. So please, spare me.”

You continued wiping your makeup, doing a pretty good job at making it look like you weren’t crying. When you were done and you turned around, Rowoon was gone, but you weren’t surprised.

The wedding began and you were seated at the worse table ever. You couldn’t see the bride walk down the aisle and you could barely see anything going on. You were, however, able to see Rowoon, which was enough for you.

“Dearly beloveds and honored guests, we are gathered here today to witness the giving and receiving of the marriage vows. Marriage is an institution ordained of God and is not to be entered into lightly or in jest and only after much consideration.”

The man began to speak, and you were already bored. You always thought that the best part about weddings was the end. The man continued talking, even reading some scriptures from the bible, and you almost fell asleep. The man continued to speak, but you knew it wasn’t straight from the bible because he was speaking in the English that you understood.

“Do you, Lee Mina, take this man, Kim Rowoon, to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and health, to love, honor and obey, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself solely unto him for as long as you both shall live? If so, answer ‘I DO.’”

She squealed and laughed as she said her I Do. You cringed as she continued to laugh and rolled your eyes when she mentioned out loud how excited she was.

The man began to speak to Rowoon. Not that you could physically see, but by the vows he was saying, you assumed he was. “Do you, Kim Rowoon, take this woman, Lee Mina, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in heath, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself solely unto her for as long as you both shall live? If so, answer 'I DO.’”

Rowoon quickly said I Do, but you didn’t see a smile on his face.

The man began to state, “If there be anyone present who may show just and lawful cause why this couple may not be legally wed, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.”

It was quiet for a few seconds before a voice boomed unexpectedly. It was none other than Jaewook’s.

“Rowoon, you know you can’t marry her,” Jaewook began. Jaewook was wobbling down the aisle and you knew he went straight to the bar when he left earlier. You quickly got up and ran to him, making a huge scene as you tried to pull him away, but he was too strong. “You’re marrying the wrong girl!” Jaewook continued to yell.

“Jae, be quiet. Let’s go,” you said hushing him and trying to pull him away from the wedding arbor. He pulled himself away from you and tried to steady himself.

“No! He has to marry you!”

The whole crowed gasped and turned towards you, and you didn’t move at all. You couldn’t believe Jaewook just said that in front of everyone.

“She loves you, Rowoon. How can you not see that she loves you and Mina doesn’t?” Jaewook slurred his words and began losing his balance and you ran to him and caught him on time before he fell unconscious to the ground.

“Get them out of here,” Mina demanded to Rowoon. You looked to Rowoon, and he had a sad expression on his face.

“I’m so sorry, Rowoon. I had no idea he was going to do this,” you told him. You were on the floor trying to pick Jaewook up, but he was just too heavy.

Mina walked up to you and pointed her scrawny skinny finger at you. “You! You’re the reason why I even started having problems in my relationship! Then you had to come here and ruin my wedding as well!?”

Almost instantly, she quickly drew her hand back and brought her hand against your cheek, burning your face as you quickly grabbed your cheek with your hand.

“Homewrecker!” She screamed and walked back to Rowoon and held his hands again. Rowoon continued to look at you and Jaewook with a doleful look and Mina dismissed you and Jaewook. “Ignore them. Please continue.”

But the man didn’t continue the vows. Rowoon dropped his hands from Mina and walked up to you and Jaewook. He brought his hand to your stinging cheek and softly caressed your face. You closed your eyes as his soft hand began to cease the pain and you felt like you were going to spontaneously combust when his lips crashed onto yours. You pulled back because you were surprised but Rowoon just pushed his kiss in deeper. That really made the crowd gasp and whisper.

His hand was still on your cheek as he slowly pulled away from your lips. “I love you, Y/N.”

“What?!” Mina yelled. “You love me! You cannot do this to me! This is my day!”

Rowoon looked back at her and laughed. “Not anymore it isn’t. I don’t love you anymore and I would never marry a rotten person like you.”

Rowoon turned his back on her and helped you and Jaewook off the floor. The three of you walked out, you and Rowoon both feeling relieved. You could still hear Mina screaming and crying, and when you looked back, she dramatically dropped herself to the floor, her face in her hands.

“And so, a week later you and dad got married?” Your daughter, June, asked. You nodded and continued to hug her as you both scrolled through the photo album of your wedding day. There was a picture of Rowoon smiling and laughing, which made you smile as well. You remembered how happy the both of you were and how happy Jaewook was to finally be Rowoon ‘s best man.

“What are my two favorite girls doing?” Rowoon asked as he walked in and plopped himself on the couch right next to you.

“Mom was telling me about the drama you two had when Mina was your girlfriend,” June said.

Rowoon just laughed. “Yeah, those were two crazy years. But I’m happy that your Uncle Jaewook objected during the wedding, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have noticed what a terrible person Mina was.”

“I heard my name,” Jaewook said walking into the living room with a beer. “I told your dad numerous times that she was one crazy chick.”

Rowoon rolled his eyes and smiled. He placed a kiss on your head and entwined his fingers with yours.

“I love you so much,” he said as you placed your head on his shoulder.

“I love you, Rowoon.”

[feitansluver]

Two Birds on a Wire (THE PROLOGUE)

a Feitan x Reader series (gender neutral)

Genre: romance, angst, fluff, smidge of violence

Series Summary: If you wish to see the series summary, check out my masterlist (which should be up now, if not just give me 10 mins) which you can access through my pinned navigations post on my blog. It might have a teensy bit of spoilers but nothing too drastic since this is a major wip.

Prologue Summary: This story's beginning takes place before the troupe was even a figment of anyone's imagination. Meteor City is a dangerous place, and many can vouch for me when I say this. The place where good deeds never come truly from the heart, but instead for the chance to get what you wanted from someone else. Here begins the story of how Feitan Portor and Y/n L/n would soon meet, for real this time.

Author's Note: This entire series is inspired by the song "Two Birds" by Regina Spektor. I originally wrote this as a small x reader for a writing sample, but I like it so much, it'll be a series instead. This is going to be a slow burn series. As you can tell from my headcanons, I'm super detailed when it comes to adding backstories. It's even worse w actual stories. I'm not too sure how many chapters this will be but, Please enjoy! reblogs, likes, and constructive criticism is appreciated. Heads up, this will be the shortest 'chapter' of them all, so do be prepared haha. Italicized = Flashbacks!

The aroma of decaying matter engulfed the air like a thick fog, pulling down and wrapping itself around the shiny newcomers to the rather large wasteland of an area. These newcomers weren't wealthy, no, instead, they were here for the ego boost that accompanied the action of them tossing any worthless item that would instantly be scavenged by a poor resident, usually a child since they were small and naturally agile. Well, as agile as they could be growing up eating other's waste. Those bastards with their sickening laughs of arrogance. They'd be frowned upon in a normal society, but here, oh here, this was just what they'd call a Wednesday.

Where exactly is 'here,' you may be asking? To the people passing through, they might've considered it to be hell. Perhaps a dumpster. Hell, they might have even passed through with out even noticing the cries of agony as a mother's child passed away from malnutrition, without noticing the way that no resident seemed to acknowledge anything other than themselves, even the murder of a shopkeep in broad daylight. No, see they're too focused on trying to steal to survive, perhaps even slave away to a more fortunate resident for a chance at life, if you could even call this living. 'Maybe they're just introverted people,' oh how naïve you must be to even succumb to that conclusion. 'Here' there is no such thing as introversion, with this trait, you won't survive for more than 10 minutes.

'Here' is none other than Meteor City.

Coughing could be heard around every corner from the ill, penniless residents who were selling everything in their possession just to survive another miserable day. A feeble attempt truly, it's not as though the medicine was at least 50% likely to cause some sort of change. Nonetheless, Meteor City wasn't too bad, no. Children scurried amongst each other, shouting with smiles upon their somewhat sunken faces as they played along the areas of the city that were truly wastelands. There were no true friends created in Meteor City, but these children have yet to understand.

All except for one. A rather small boy, whether that be from malnutrition or genetics, with black hair and heartless black eyes sat upon an old shipping crate with an uninterested look upon his young face as he watched the children run about. "How pedestrian," was all that came out of his cracked, dehydrated lips. Only an 8-year-old from Meteor would consider playing to be pedestrian. Aside from his shocking attitude, with one glance you could certainly tell he wasn't from here, such 'exotic' features couldn't have been bred in this hellhole. The boy was dressed in what seemed to be traditional Asian clothes, ones that were too big for his figure, all black and seemingly thick yet still lightweight enough to where he wouldn't die from a heat stroke, the word "Feitan" engraved over his left breast. Perhaps this was his name, neither he or the townsfolk new, but it was what they called him when they believed he wasn't looking. He was frequently seen mumbling to himself, and paired with his stone cold gaze, he was deemed "unapproachable" to others, adults and children alike.

"Hey, you!" A call from one of the children pulled Feitan out of his thoughts. The blackette raised his gaze to find another small child before him, taller yes, but no doubt younger, no stranger to his eyes yet not an aly. "My name's Marley. Do you want to play with us?" Feitan rolled his eyes in annoyance and spoke with his broken interpretation of the city's language. "Why would me want t-," He analyzed the other children beside the runt Marley and froze his gaze upon another small child, who was smiling as they spoke to a friend, one he's kept his eye on for a long time.

(Y/n) (L/n).

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

2 years ago, Meteor City, 3rd Person Omniscient

The sky boomed a thunderous roar as lighting flashed across the city. Purples and dark ominous grey's colored over the townsfolk as the rushed their preparations for the storm. Adults were sheltering children, even if they didn't know them, most likely with the promise of something in return, while also taking in whatever possessions they needed before the storm's condition worsened.

A 4-year-old child, Y/n, ran about the poorly made streets, hoping to find a place of shelter before it was too late. Of course, since they're small and malnourished, they weren't very efficient, constantly stumbling over their two feet and pausing to catch their balance.

"Please, somebody help me!"

They continued to run through the now damp streets as the rain began to pour violently. Water drenched the poor child as they ran around banging on doors screaming for help, yet still, no one listened. It was almost as though the entire town had become a ghost city.Just as Y/n was about to give up, a hand grabbed their arm harshly and quickly pulled them into a small, dark, poorly-made shack.

Y/n jumped back in surprise with a yelp only to be pushed down by the other party, quite roughly might I add. "Shhh." A firm, seemingly male voice commanded with no other words as he sat beside the younger child. "Are you going to eat me??" Y/n spoke in a panicked tone. "The old lady by the library told me a story about a demon who comes out during horrible storms and eats the children who are wandering the streets." They cried with their arms curled around their legs, staring at the silhouette in fear beside of them.

The strange savior huffed under his breath. Why did he even pull this idiot into his home. Who was he to be providing shelter for others when he could barely take care of himself? God he never hated himself more until that moment. There was no place for some snotty kid, nor did he want to deal with them either. "Me no eat you. you taste bad, too whiny." Was all the boy said, hoping to get the other to take the hint and shut up.

"O-oh. My name's y/n, what's yours?" The 4-year-old spoke, no longer carrying a fearful tone. The older boy rolled his eyes at how naïve and trusting the other was. He didn't bother answering, and in fact, he never said another word to Y/n for the remaining duration of the storm.

Y/n ended up falling asleep after a while from all of the chaos earlier. The silhouette eyed the child beside him before closing his own eyes and leaning his head back against the wall. Soft snoring was all that was heard by the boy, aside from the pouring rain that is. Falling into his thoughts, he began to drift off into a light, alert slumber. Well, he was until he felt a weight hit his left shoulder.

His eyes shot open as he looked to his left with a scowl upon his face. "Idiot pest." He grumbled agitatedly as he noticed Y/n had fallen asleep on his shoulder. As much as he wanted to push them off, he quite enjoyed the quiet he was now receiving. With an annoyed sigh, he closed his own eyes and drifted to his previous light sleep.

When Y/n awoke with a yawn and began to identify their surroundings, they almost screamed in fear and confusion. They jumped up and racked their brain for some sort of explanation. Wait, it was coming to them now: the mystery boy and him providing them shelter. Properly looking at their surroundings, they noticed were still in the shack; however, this time, they were alone. With a quick glance outside, the small child ran out of the shack, patting themselves down to make sure they still had their items in their pockets.

A sigh of relief escaped their lips as they felt everything there. Digging into their pockets to find their last bit of money to buy a bit of food, Y/n noticed there was a folded piece of poorly maintained paper in their pockets. With a confused hum and a head tilt, they unfolded the piece of paper and read in poor grammar and messy writing:

"You owe me, Brat."

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

They blackette's face remained in a deapan expression as his own eyes locked back with Marley's "Yes, me play." He spoke emotionlessly as he hopped down from his crate, dusting himself off as he began walking closer to the group of children. A handful of yays, yippees, and downright cries of joy could be heard from the crowd of children as they gathered one more player for their game. "Okay, great. So here's what we're going to play.."

The voices blurred and faded into nothingness as the eight-year-old fell into his cunning mind, his eyes yet again landed on Y/n with his usual piercing gaze. Only difference was that this time, there was a twinge of excitement and malice, lots of malice.

God how he wanted to make them pay. A total troglodyte they were, so ignorant and easily distracted by such trivial things.

You see, Feitan never got back that favor, and he certainly wasn't one to hold back when it came to exploiting others. Especially younger, naïve children who hadn't seen nor understood just how horrific the world could be. How horrific he could make their world be.

Go ahead, call him a monster. It's such a common title for him, he might've even believed it were his own name if it hadn't been for the thread engraved onto his shirt.

Feeling eyes watching them, Y/n turned to face the newer strange boy with their head tilted in confusion. The blackette walked over to the younger child, the two of them standing at the same height. "Hello." Feitan spoke up with a small smile and a friendly wave. It certainly looked realistic and Y/n couldn't feel any malicious intent within the other boy, though if only they knew how fake that smile was. "Hey there! I'm Y/n, what's your name?" The child spoke with a close-eyed smile as they waved in return.

'Oh this was going to be fun.' The boy thought with an inward chuckle of sadism.

Feitan Portor wasn't one to forgive and forget. Hell, he came from Meteor City, the place where every good action was never from the heart but instead the manipulative portion of people's minds. No matter who or what he had to go through,

He was getting back what he owed, and he was expecting it NOW.

[erin-bo-berin]

Birthday Surprise

MASTERLIST

So I actually got this idea from a adult romance book I read last year and it was so humorous, I knew I wanted to write a scenario like it with Spencer and the team. Besides, Spencer can be funny at times too.  Hope you enjoy!

Spencer Reid/Reader

Rating: M (smut)

Word Count: 2,529

You can’t believe you let your best friend talk you into this.

“It will be a great birthday present!” Bree exclaimed, beaming.

You grumble to yourself. This was a better idea in theory than reality.

Your boyfriend, Spencer Reid, had a birthday coming up. It was the last year of his 30’s and you really wanted to do something special for him, but with every gift you thought of, it just didn’t seem to be enough.

That was when Bree, the grand schemer of all schemes, came up with what she thought was a brilliant idea. 

She worked at a nice, upscale restaurant as a waitress. Also, she had one of the nicest sections. You were to make reservations for you two and you would hide under the table for when he arrived and you could give him a secretive, surprise blow job. It would be hot and memorable, she said.

You arrived at the restaurant 15 minutes early. Bree had managed to snag you a table that was off in a corner, with more privacy and helped you under the table. Which is where you currently were.

It all sounded great when she had hatched the idea, now you just felt silly, your knees were numb and your feet were falling asleep. You were about ready to give up and come out from under the table with your tail between your legs when you heard voices approaching your table.

“Here’s your table, sir, I’ll be right back with your menu,” Bree said, probably louder than she should have. 

With one rap against the table, you knew that she was giving you the signal that you two were alone now. 

You watch as he sat down and you see his familiar black converse suddenly appear inches from your legs, his black suit pants accompanying the shoes. He’d probably just come from work.

You hesitate, not sure if you should go through this, but decide you’ll never get another chance like this. You’re reaching out for his belt buckle when you hear Bree’s voice, loud and close again.

“Can I help you?”

There was a pause and then a mixture of voices you didn’t recognize.

“Let me see if I have a bigger table available in my area! I’ll be just one second!” 

Bree’s voice is suddenly high pitched, sounding frantic. You know her voice only sounds like that during super busy shifts, when she’s panicked and freaking out. Something is wrong and you have no idea what’s going on.

Your phone buzzes in your purse. You twist around, not easily, to retrieve it from your bag. It’s a text from Bree.

ABORT MISSION. More dinner guests.

Your brows furrow. You have no earthly idea what she’s talking about. You send back a few question marks.

A huge group of people just showed up to your and Spencer’s table.

Your phone vibrates repeatedly with multiple texts from your friend.

Tall assassin looking black woman.

Hispanic looking guy with nice hair.

Buff Asian hottie with tattoo.

Italian grandpa.

Brunette boss lady with bangs.

Pretty blonde with killer legs.

Another blonde wearing every color in the rainbow and cute shoes.

You stop breathing for a second. They all sound like Spencer’s coworkers.

As in coworkers from the team in the unit of the FBI, where he works. This was not how you planned to meet them for the first time.

You have no idea why they’re here though, so you’re just as bewildered as Bree. But you’ve started to panic, trying to figure out how you’re gonna escape with no one seeing you. It would be humiliating to meet Spencer’s work family like this.

How the hell am I gonna get out from under the table without them knowing?

Don’t worry, I got this.

You hear the clicking of heels approaching and hear Bree talking to the team.

“We’re working on that table, why don’t I escort you all to the bar so you can see our drink menu.”

“I’ll wait here with you, Spence,” a male voice said.

“Damnit,” you mumble.

Now your escape was going to be even harder.

The majority of the voices fade away with Bree’s and you sighed, resigned to the fact that you’re going to be stuck under this table for a while.

You make a mental note not to listen to another one of Bree’s ideas.

“So, kid, did you tell Y/N that you were inviting us to your birthday dinner? We’re all so excited to meet her.”

“No,” Spencer answered the deep, older sounding voice, “I wanted to surprise her because I was afraid if I told her beforehand she’d stress out about meeting all of you.”

Well that explained that.

You were surprised alright. 

“How long have you been together now? Over a year? And we haven’t even met her yet? Are you sure you haven’t made her up?”

You bite your thumbnail trying your hardest not to laugh out loud.

“No, Rossi, I haven’t made her up. She’s real. Besides you know every time we tried to make plans something has come up.”

“Quite conveniently too, I might add.”

You already like this guy.

“She should be here soon,” Spencer said.

You catch a glimpse of him pulling his phone out of his pants pocket, positive he’s checking if there’s any missed texts or phone calls from you.

You guess now is the best time of any to make him aware of your presence. 

Your hand slides up his thigh and you choke back your cackle when he practically jumps ten feet in the air.

“Something wrong?” 

“Uh I dropped my phone under the table, let me just get it.”

His chair scoots back and he bends down under the table, pretending to retrieve his phantom fallen cell phone. His eyes widen when he sees you under the table. You give a meek smile and wave in return.

You point to your phone, miming texting to tell him that’s the only way you can talk without being found out.

“Oh found it. It fell against the wall.”

Spencer sits back up again, pulling his chair in as he settles.

“I think I’m gonna text Y/N, just so I can get her ETA,” Spencer says calmly.

He’s way too good at staying calm in situations, so you’re not too surprised that he sounds completely normal even though he just discovered his girlfriend curled up in an uncomfortable position, under a table in a restaurant.

I’m afraid to ask why you’re under the table.

That was one good thing about Spencer; he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. So instead of mocking you, embarrassing you or even being angry, he approached most things calmly. Although you’re sure he’s secretly dying of amusement over this. You’re positive this isn’t going to be the last time you hear about this.

Well, I was kinda hoping to surprise you for your birthday with a hot, secret blowjob...but it kinda blew up in my face instead of how you were supposed to.

You hear him snort above you which he quickly covers with a cough.

“Y/N should be here soon. She’s probably closer than she thinks.”

You hit his leg. What a smart ass he is, although technically he is a smart ass but that’s another story.

Help me get out of here. I don’t want to exactly pop out to meet your teammates like “hi I was just hiding out for a nice birthday sexcapade nice to meet you”.

Technically doesn’t that mean an illicit affair?

Spencer, we really need to introduce you to Urban Dictionary.

A chorus of voices approach the table.

“Any update on that table?” came a female voice.

“Nothing yet. But, uh, have you seen their amazing aquarium? Come on, I’ll show it to you!”

“I gotta head to the ladies room, I’ll find you at our new table.”

This voice was a different female voice from the first one.

You wait until the numerous voices get far enough from the table when you decide to peek from underneath the tablecloth. You curse, seeing a woman that looks a lot like what Bree described as the brunette boss lady walking in your direction. That was most definitely Spencer’s boss. 

You drop the tablecloth like it’s on fire, concealing yourself once again. You watch as the feet pass by the table and brave another look. Thankfully, it’s all clear.

You dash as fast as you towards the kitchen. If Bree is in there, your hands might find their way around her neck.

•

“Bree, that could’ve been disastrous!” you shriek, causing a few of the kitchen staff to peer over at you.

Sorry, you mouth, wincing.

“Well it’s not like Spencer is mad is it?” she asked, loading plates onto her tray.

“No, but he’s not going to let me live it down.”

“Hey, think of it this way. He’s gonna be thinking of that BJ the entire dinner,” she smirked.

“I’m never listening to another one of your hair brained ideas,” you grumbled.

“Hey, you’ll thank me later,” she sing-songed lifting the tray of food to her shoulder, “Now just go out the back kitchen door, walk around to the front of the restaurant and it will be like nothing ever happened.”

She was gone through the swinging doors in a jiff and you sighed, heading towards the back door.

•

It takes a whole ten minutes for you to circle the entire building before you finally reach the front doors. You attempted to compose yourself and straighten your red mini dress before entering and going to find the new table. You spot them a few minutes later and walk up nervously.

“There she is!”

Spencer’s face lights up when he sees you and suddenly you don’t feel as nervous as you did seconds before. He loved this group of people and that meant a lot to have a Spencer seal of approval. Maybe the night wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Did you take the subway here?” Emily asked.

“Um, yes. That’s why I’m late, I’m so sorry.”

“I sure hope it wasn’t too crowded down there—I mean in there,” Spencer smirks.

You shoot him an exasperated look and are met with one of his thousand kilowatt smiles.

Turns out, dinner wasn’t so bad after all.

•

“You were right; they were all incredibly nice,” you say as you and Spencer walk in the door of your apartment, “I love them.”

“I knew you would,” he smiled.

“So, have you had a great birthday?”

“Well I’ve had quite the unusual one, that’s for sure.”

You stifle a groan as you kick off your heels in the hallway.

“I still can’t believe you actually hid under a table to surprise me.”

He’s already laughing again.

“I’m still gonna kill Bree.”

“Hey,” he grabs you by the arm, turning you towards him, “I’m incredibly flattered that you went to such lengths for me.”

“Really?” you asked timidly.

“Of course,” he smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, “Not every girlfriend would plan to blow their boyfriend in front of his coworkers.”

“Spencer!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” he chuckled, leaning against the hallway wall, pulling you towards him and kissing you.

“Mm, well it is still your birthday, you know,” you say devilishly, biting his bottom lip gently then kissing him again.

You pull away, taking a hold of his tie before leading him to the bedroom. It takes a few minutes for you both to make it there as he stops you frequently to steal a kiss or two.

Finally at your destination, you push him against the closed bedroom door, fingers pulling off his tie. Your lips trail his jaw then neck, fingers fumbling over his button down. 

He chuckles amused, aiding you. Your mouth travels down his neck and over his chest, making slow work of your descent. He watches you closely as you fall to your knees, a kiss placed just above the waistline of his pants. Your hand comes up to press against the forming bulge in his pants and he groans lowly.

“I may not have been able to do this earlier, but we’ve got all the time in the world now,” you bite your lip and peer up at him innocently.

Popping the button and pulling his zipper down, you push his pants down over his hips. The edges of your fingers dip into the waistband of his underwear and you hear the sharp intake of his breath; you can tell how much he’s anticipating this.

Apparently Bree was right and he had been thinking about it all dinner long, especially if his small stolen touches under the table were any indicator. There would be a gentle touch on your thigh, slowly sliding just a bit too close towards your inner thigh; an arm wrapped around your back, his fingers just casually brushing the bottom swell of your breast. He had been ready for this hours ago and you were ready to give it to him.

Your eyes don’t leave his as the clothing is pulled downwards and you wrap a hand around him, squeezing just hard enough to cause his head to fall back with a dull thud against the door, a groan coming from deep in his throat.

You lean down, tongue swirling around the tip, agonizing slow, your fingertips ever so slightly tracing down his length.

“Oh god,” he groaned, “Don’t tease me, Y/N.”

“Not so fun when you're not the one dishing it out, now is it?”

He could be the ultimate tease in the bedroom, so this taste of his own medicine was long overdue.

Your tongue swirls around him before taking him in your mouth, his moan of relief and pleasure filling your ears. 

With hollowed cheeks, you alternate your speed and pressure, keeping him on his toes, making your next move unpredictable to him.

“Baby, please.”

His moans are louder and more frequent as his hand moves into your hair. You look up through your lashes as you work him, keeping your gaze locked on him. You think you actually hear him whimper.

Your hand pumps the rest of him, your wrist turning as your mouth moves on him, your tongue whirling as if you’re enjoying a favorite ice cream cone.

His hand tightens in your hair and you can tell he’s close to losing all control. 

“Y/N, Y/N, fuck, fuuuuck,” he groans finally letting go and succumbing to his ecstasy.

You take all he has in stride, discreetly wiping your mouth when you pull back although you’re sure he’s too dazed to notice.

“Happy birthday to me,” Spencer mumbles, pulling you to your feet and kissing you.

You break the chaste kiss, backing up towards the bed.

“Well lucky for you, there’s still three and a half hours left of your birthday. How about we do a little more celebrating?”

It takes him all of two steps to cross the room and take you in his arms, causing you to giggle.

Yeah, this would be a birthday he wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

Tag List: @dreatine​ @reid-187​ @groovyreid​ @reidslibra​ @suvikamahes98blr​ @fuckthealarm​ @whatspunispun​ @iamburdened​ @cindywayne​ @thomasfoockinshelby​ @tinyminy88​ @theitcaramelchick​ @missprettyboy​@hushlilbabydoll @sammy-jo1977​ @theonlyone-meeeee​ @haileymorelikestupid​

[shintorikhazumi]

A Warm Diana Chapter 6: Overheating

A/N: Seriously writing a couple of my story updates in the hospital since I’m watching my dad who got admitted. There’s no internet in his room so I post upon arriving at home. Finally having Christmas break after hellish exams haha. Sorry this took so long. I’m having a bit of writer’s block, tbh. One of the reasons I stopped writing for so long was because I lost the USB flashdrive with all the prepped plots and chapters and all that. It really was a huge blow to motivation. I legit cried over it. I also lost so much progress on other stories so… since some chapters had planned out info already in their files. I’m really trying to figure out how to move this story towards the end point. At this stage, it’s just full of Akko and Diana awkwardly trying to figure out their new dynamic, now that their relationship is clearly changing. Haha, I’m struggling with the plot. Still, trying my best. Btw, my headcanon is that Diana in love = OOC Diana so apologies in advance xD Not Beta read because I don’t have a beta reader now. I’ve been reading and correcting by myself, but I usually miss a few typos or mistakes, so again, sorry ‘bout that. Anyway.

Happy Holidays!

Enjoy?

~Shintori Khazumi

 A Warm Diana Chapter 6: Overheating

Relationships require balance.

At times, they are as if you were riding a seesaw, or maybe just tipping scales. At other times, they feel like a tug-o-war, and sometimes it’s more of a shoving and pushing motion.

Regardless of how you adjust the weights, you will find that it takes two sides to pull off that balance.

You may find that perfect balance now, or it may come millions of troubleshooting sessions later. It is different for everyone, it varies from person to person.

Your search may be painfully awkward, or incredibly sweet; filled with unspeakable joy, or unspeakable heartbreak. Just know, so long as you try, you’ll eventually stumble upon that sweet spot of balance tailor made for two.

Just keep working it out.

You’ll discover it soon.

And once you have it, a new chapter begins.

~0~0~0~0~

If you were to ask Akko for a list of her favorite things, broom rides and Diana would most probably top that list. She often related one with the other. There was just something about the heat of Diana’s back as they flew across the cooling horizon as the sun set, dropping the day’s temperature a few degrees down. While flying was one of the most magical experiences for Akko, she would easily argue that Diana was just as- if not, even more- magical than any spell that she could think of really.

Diana herself was magic.

With how her streaked blonde hair sparkled as the rays of the retreating sun hit it at just the right angle. How her eyes glimmered with mirth as she chanced a glance at Akko sitting behind her, arms encircling her waist. How her lips twitched upwards into a slight smile as their eyes met, how her body was soft to the touch, slender and felt really nice to hold- Akko should stop her train of thought right there.

Clearing her throat along with her mind, Akko silently urged Diana’s gaze forward with her hand gently pushing Diana’s cheek facing her away; slightly worried about the prodigy not looking where she was driving.

It only took her a few seconds to jump right back into her mental worship of the girl sitting in front of her. It wasn’t just a physical magnificence that Diana exuded. Her talent was far above and beyond a normal person’s, heck- even a normal witch’s. Despite this, she had the dedication to keep striving for more, to whole-heartedly pour her heart and will into improving, not for her own sake solely, but for others as well. Her mind was as attractive as her heart. Clever lines, smooth conversations, powerful words; Akko could listen to Diana go off all day. This was something she would never have imagined she’d think some time ago, remembering all the times she felt annoyed as Diana chided her, wishing the heiress would shut up.

It truly surprised her how she could change. How Diana could change. How they could change each other. What a wonder. What kind of spell had been cast on her? If love was a spell so powerful, no wonder so many tried to obtain it.

And at this moment, Akko thought Diana wielded it the best, casting her magic on Akko, making the brunette yearn and long for her, daily feeling her affections grow as she could only see more reasons to be in love with the Cavendish heiress.

Everything about her was just… magical.

And though magic and reality sometimes clashed in so many people’s opinions, Diana managed to make those two things work in a wondrous complement. Just another one of her many abilities, Akko admired.

“Akko.”

Ah… another thing she loved. Diana’s voice; the way she called out her name, the way her lips formed each syllable, how her tone caressed it in such a tender way it made her heart melt-

“Akko?”

“Ah- I… I-I just love your voice!” Realizing what she had just blurted out, Akko clapped her hands over her mouth, face a charming shade of red as, once more during their little broom ride, blue met red.

Diana blinked at the surprising confession, before her expression melted into one of teasing amusement. “Is that so?” Clearly, she was pleased. “Why thank you, Akko. I find myself quite fond of your voice as well.”

With her companion rendered speechless and unable to hold further conversation, Diana laughed quietly, turning her attention back to her task of manning the small broom they were on.

The reason as to why they were both on this peaceful flight was Diana’s suggestion to further secure their escape from their definitely angered dorm mother.

Never in her life had Diana imagined that she would be one to run away from authority. More often than not, she was the authority being run away from. She was that chasing, chastising figure who preserved the peace and discipline of the Academy.

…She was also the girl who screamed about just how much of a mess she was, prompted by her feelings for a witch quite familiar with the other end of the chasing game.

And she was in awe at the fact that she did not mind this change of pace one bit.

Diana almost jumped as she felt Akko’s arms tighten their hold around her waist, a weight- presumably Akko’s head- finding it’s purchase on her back. Akko had pressed her ear to the area, indulging in the sounds of Diana’s heart that did her no favors in hiding her emotions, betraying the calm she tried to show. It made the smaller witch smile giddily. It was the pleasure of knowing that she was the cause of such reactions from someone as amazing as Diana that filled her own heart with paramount joy.

The flight remained rather uneventful. It was tranquil, and the gentle breezes were almost enough to lull Akko to sleep, combined with the soothing scent of Diana’s shampoo, and the steady thrum of her heartbeat that served as her lullaby.

Almost, because Akko’s ever brilliant and excitable, yet sometimes anxious and doubtful mind had other ideas.

Ideas that may or may not be good, but nevertheless may be an adventure.

This time it was good, though! Akko swore! …maybe. She would admit that the notion slightly unnerved her, but it just felt right to challenge some things.

So, she decided to voice her idea to her partner in crime, thinking this was a good opportunity as any- scratch that- this was the perfect opportunity for her idea. It was the perfect moment, and all the cogs of this operation were aligned to allow this moment.

“Hey, Diana?”

“Hmm?” Akko loved how the hum vibrated against her ear, it was a pleasant feeling.

“So, like… I was thinking…” Diana gave her another hum to let her know she still had her attention. “Since we’re like… out here and together and all, already. And I don’t really know when we’d get another chance to do it since you might be busy, and I might be busy, and I guess we both can get very busy-“

“Akko, just say it.” Diana laughed lightly, one hand patting over Akko’s pair that rested on her stomach. She heard a deep intake of air, before the words,

“Can I drive?”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, uh,” Akko was beginning to make exaggerated gestures that were causing their little vehicle to swerve, and Diana got a tad bit nervous. “Y-you see, like, maybe I could drive and you could, like, tutor my flying again, y’know? Since we’re already out and flying, maybe you could, um, guide me as I drove and stuffandmaybenotIguessitwouldbesaferforyoutodrive-“

“Akko! Calm down!” Diana laughed a little louder. “Calm down.” She repeated much softer; and Akko now noticed that they both were making a slow descent onto a rather large tree branch. “It’s fine. I like the productive idea.” Diana threw her a nonchalant smile as they dismounted, holding the broom out for Akko to take.

“Th-thanks.”

“Still, I don’t think I’d ever be too busy to allow myself to spend some time with you.” Diana stepped a bit closer, effectively cutting Akko’s breaths a little short. “I’ll always make time for you.” Her face was even closer than her body, and Akko swore they could kiss if she leaned just an inch more- “And besides, we already have our usual tutoring sessions. Couldn’t we do it then?” Diana asked. “Actually, don’t we already have flying sessions from time-to-time? Silly, Akko.”

With those words, Diana had pulled away, leaving a flustered Akko staring at her for a few seconds. She giggled a beautiful tune, taking one of Akko’s hands and pressing the broom’s handle against it, closing calloused fingers around the rod.

“Come now, we don’t want to be having this lesson in complete darkness, now do we? The sooner we get to it, the sooner we finish and get back to the dorms.” Diana was seriously enjoying this too much. “I heard the dinner menu will include some Asian cuisine, and I’m rather excited for it. I’m sure neither of us would dare miss it.”

In a slight daze, but with her partner’s words registering in her shaken mind, Akko nodded her agreement. Straddling the broom, she waited as Diana situated herself comfortably behind her, feeling the warmness of her palms that lightly rested on her shoulders. It felt awkward for Akko, if she were to be honest; it also worried her that Diana might not be safe or secure behind her unless she held on slightly, um, tighter somewhere that was easier to hold on to? Not that Diana couldn’t easily take care of herself, but Akko still had her misgivings. Despite these beliefs, it proved difficult for the smaller witch to voice her concerns so she decided she might as well just kick off and trust that Diana would be alright.

But as if Diana had read her mind, feeling the tense muscles beneath her hands, she transferred her hold, arms snaking their way around Akko’s slim waist, thumbs brushing on a toned stomach over the brunette’s clothes, applying a certain amount of pressure for a small ounce of fun to get Akko to lighten up.

-Or so Diana claimed.

At the action, Akko found herself making an odd sound between a yelp and a squeal that made Diana uncharacteristically grin devilishly. Whipping her head around to glare at the perpetrator, Akko felt the slightest bit annoyed at the guiltless heiress wearing an innocent expression, but with a playful glint in her eyes.

“I swear,” Akko began. “Try that again, and we’re both falling to the ground; and it’s not even going to be my fault this time.” After keeping her gaze on Diana for just a few seconds more to ensure the girl didn’t pull anything funny, Akko looked forward, taking deep breaths and trying to focus her mind, chanting the spell that would get them up and flying once more.

And up they went.

…

At least, they were supposed to.

Albeit at her proposal, Akko found her feet rooted firmly on the ground, the phrase, Tia Freyre, dying on her lips.

She found her gaze flickering between the view of the horizon and the very far ground, and her will wavered.

Maybe it wasn’t as good an idea as she originally assumed.

“Akko?” Diana’s soft voice called for her attention, and she could only respond with a whimper. Upon hearing that, Diana felt the slightest panic begin to plant itself in her mind. Something was suddenly wrong. “Are you alright?”

Akko tried opening her mouth that suddenly felt very dry. She felt nauseous all of a sudden, and her vision swam. She considered giving in to the call of the darkness, but then she remembered that Diana was still behind her, still waiting for a response.

And if anything happened to Akko while they were out here, she’d surely feel responsible. Not to mention, Akko would be causing her extra trouble, dragging her unconscious Japanese weight back to campus.

She’d rather not leave Diana with a memory of her being such a burden again.

But at the same time, she’d also prefer not being the one to cause Diana harm should she make a fatal mistake. Ah yes, there was that too. Such a timely reminder that made her shake in her standard Luna Nova boots. What if she messed up and hurt Diana? That scared her more than anything else could. And that wasn’t something unexpected, at all. The fact that she herself could accept that she was a walking disaster only deflated Akko’s ego, and fed her monsters, more.

“Akko?”

But Diana was still waiting. Waiting so kindly, so patiently. She was still reaching for Akko’s heart, doing her best to clear out the clouds, and tell the girl that it was all okay. That they’d be okay. That she could do it.

Maybe it wasn’t true. Or maybe it was.

Nevertheless.

Maybe Akko could fake it ‘til she made it then. If it was for Diana, she could.

“I’m good.” She finally replied. With a heavy sigh, she braced herself, croaking out a shaky, “Tia Freyre”, and they were off.

At first, the take-off had its wobbly movements, and this fed Akko’s anxieties and lack of confidence in her abilities in magic, especially in flying which she had struggled the most with while learning. Maybe she was too apprehensive, so on edge and overthinking every little thing, and every possible bad situation, untrusting that she could fly both of them safely on course. Her hands were beginning to sweat and slide along the broom’s handle quite easily as she tried to steer them in the right direction. But before her mind could fall back irredeemably deep into the negatives and impact her performance significantly, she felt a squeeze to her waist and a nuzzle to her shoulder, yanking her out of the sinking sand that was her thoughts.

Fingers lightly walked their way to her shoulders, massaging the stiff muscles till the knots came slightly undone. Circular patterns were soon drawn on them, and it was as though she was being told, ‘It’s alright. Breathe. I believe in you, that you can do it’.

Still in doubt, Akko squeezed the wooden handle, eyes trying to remain trained to the scene in front of her. A tremor ran through her body as she coughed awkwardly, trying to trust in those words as Diana trusted in her.

Just then, she felt a hand placed on the center of her back, aligned with where her heart was, and she immediately understood.

‘I believe in your believing heart.’

Again, those words. They rung deep within her, gathering in a pool of hope and springing out into a fountain that allowed her actions to be filled with confidence and faith. If not faith in herself, then faith in Diana who believed in her.

Akko felt it blossom, the confidence she needed to try; to persevere. And it was all thanks to her companion. Her beautiful, all sorts of wonderful companion who knew Akko; who understood her.

Diana had spoken nothing, and yet she had successfully conveyed every word Akko needed to hear at the moment.

Readjusting her grip on the broom, Akko breathed in and out deeply, eyes closing momentarily, before revealing determined reds. No need for extra pressure on herself. She knew she had practiced; she knew she had studied. Diana knew that too. She had been with Akko every step of the way, and now it was time to see their sessions’ payoff.

As they ascended to a decent height, motions stabilizing, winds calm, with Akko only feeling the minimum magical usage drain from her body, she couldn’t help but be proud of herself. Her eyes widened as she felt the energy course through her veins, her body and the broom obeying her commands with relative ease. Realization hit her; she could personally tell that she had improved from her earlier days in Luna Nova, and she felt excitement bubble up within her, channeling into tiny bursts of happy laughter.

“Diana!” Akko exclaimed, daringly taking them into an upside-down loop in the air, speeding up at times, and slowing down smoothly with little struggle. “Diana, I can fly!”, she declared, going for a sudden drop before rising back high in the air. “I can fly!”. They zipped past trees and fields, headed down over a small pond where their feet barely grazed the water before Akko pulled upwards, spiraling into the sky gently.

“I can fly!” Akko repeated, again and again; each time serving as a reassurance, a confirmation of a truth she had longed for. “I can fly!”, she said as they traversed the Luna Nova skies, aiming for the setting sun.

“I can fly.” Akko’s proclamations were growing softer, yet more filled with emotion. Diana could have sworn she heard Akko choke up this time. Leaning to her side and over Akko’s shoulder to try to catch a glimpse of the brunette’s face, Diana’s conjecture had been confirmed.

She made it just in time to see a solitary tear escape the most gorgeous rubies Diana’s ever seen.

“I can fly… Diana. I can fly.” She spoke in a silent whisper, that last echo of joy.

And those words and the sparks in Akko’s eyes filled Diana’s heart with so much adoration, so much pride. She was genuinely happy for Akko. She knew for a fact that flying was one of Akko’s biggest dreams.

And witnessing the girl’s dreams come true firsthand, was Diana’s dream come true.

As they soared, twirled, giggled, and boisterously hollered their merriment, emotions only heightened- as high as the altitudes they so freely conquered.

And Diana slipped.

Overcome with all these intense emotions, senses filled with the sights of the world, and the scents of nature and of Akko, ears receiving the songs of the wind and Akko’s laughter; skin feeling the rushing cool, and Akko’s body pressed against her, and Akko filling her immediate visage, brown tresses and all; and Akko… and Akko, and Akko, Akko-

Diana kissed the back of her neck.

She’d lost control, and jumped on her impulses.

She’d lost control… and so did Akko.

With a loud yelp serving as the sole warning, the sound transformed into piercing screeches and wails as Akko shot out bullets of, “what do I do”s, while Diana tried her best to yell back the answers that fell on ears that could not focus on her voice at all, they spiraled down, and they spiraled down fast.

There was no time, Diana realized.

The ground was ready to catch them, and it was meeting up with them sooner than they’d like. Neither of those facts were very appealing.

What could she do, what could she do; what could she do- if only time would wait for them-!

“!!!” Diana’s memory and experienced served her well as she regained her calm and senses, a spell she had used before making its way to the forefront of her mind as she chanted a resounding, “Scrylla!” And immediately, time slowed down for them. This gave her the opportunity to shake Akko out of her panic, all but yelling at her to pull up immediately.

And Akko did.

~0~0~0~0~

After a few slow laps in the air to allow the shock to fade from their very bones, Akko guided them in an even slower descent until their feet were, once more, flat on the ground.

Moments of silence passed, both girls too frazzled to utter anything right away. All they did was begin their unrushed trek towards the main building, sun just about ready to disappear beneath the lining of trees.

They made it all the way to the cafeteria, no one having uttered a word still. Halting in their steps in front of the large, closed wooden doors, feet shuffled awkwardly, throats were cleared, and eyes darted all around.

…

Not being able to take the overwhelming tension, Akko took it upon herself to break it… though she was lost as to what to say in this kind of situation where they had most certainly almost died.

(Though if she thought about it, this wasn’t a rare occurrence either.)

“Um, so… right. Um… I’m-“ Where should she start? A greeting? With an apology? She did just almost kill them. It wasn’t quite on purpose, but- Okay. She’d apologize.

Akko inwardly groaned, words forming on her tongue, breathing in, ready to spew out strings of ‘I’m sorry. And I’m sorry.”

“I-“

“I’m sorry!”

“Huh?” That most certainly did not come from her.

“I… apologize for causing you distress.” Diana mumbled shyly, uncharacteristically. “Especially in that situation, and placing us in danger. I’m sorry.” Her body facing Akko, she had bent herself in a perfect bow.

“D-Diana! You- you don’t need to apologize! That was all me! I should’ve gotten a grip and-“ In her frantic state, Akko had reached over to grab Diana by both shoulders, trying to get her to straighten her posture once more, embarrassed to have someone like Diana in such a state in front of her. “It’s fine, really. You, You’re not at fault!”

At those words, Diana looked up, unease flashing in her eyes.

“Are you sure?” She whispered, Akko almost missing the words. The shorter girl nodded.

“I’m sure.” She replied, just as gently. “You didn’t really do anything wrong.” Akko offered one those smiles of hers that made Diana’s stomach do summersaults, flips, and run miles a minute.

It almost made Diana feel completely relieved. Until she remembered what she had done. Hanging her head ashamedly, she spoke again. “I would still like to offer my apologies. I may have crossed a line just then…”

“Huh? No, what are you, don’t apologize, Diana!” Feeling awkward at how Diana kept asking for her forgiveness, Akko rubbed the nape of her neck out of habit, and a recent vivid memory suddenly began replaying in her mind- the cause of their little “accident”.

Noticing the realization flash across Akko’s face, Diana looked to the side, a hand braced on the opposite arm, crossing her front, as if it were some form of comfort. Diana felt very shy, and very small at the moment.

And that look did not suit her at all, Akko thought. She’d be damned if their day ended on a sad note after all of this.

Reaching for both the heiress’ hands, she called, “Diana-“ And maybe she had gotten a little too excited, too close, as she the aforementioned girl jumped at the sudden proximity. “Ah! S-sorry.” Akko exclaimed, backing off.

Before she could release Diana’s hands, however, she was pulled right back in. “It’s alright.” It was a quiet statement, a simple one. Yet full of so much emotion and assurance.

Akko was entranced once more. Put under Diana’s spell, breathless and unable to pull her eyes away from those deep ocean blues. It was as if she was being reeled in. Caught by the other witch- hook, line, and sinker. She was getting so close. So, so close.

Blue eyes flickered down momentarily, and Akko was pretty sure she knew why.

Closer.

Closer.

Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong.

The chime echoed through the halls, an intercom announcing that dinner would be over in the next ten minutes, and that students should hurry up and finish their meals.

Just like that, the spell was broken, two girls separating a safe distance from one another.

“I-I guess we should hurry now! Wow, we… we sure took our time, haha!” Akko was the first to turn away, pushing the door to the mess hall open, attempting to escape the situation; but before she could take another step forward, a hand clutched to one of her own.

She looked back in time to see a blush bloom on Diana’s face, and Akko thought that it was prettier than any flower.

She probably wasn’t any better.

Diana gave her an unsure smile, like a question, a request for permission. She looked so soft and cute; Akko couldn’t help herself. She responded with a relaxed smile of her own and a squeeze to Diana’s hand, pulling her into the room.

They shared one final look, admiring each other’s features; eyes now clear and full of strong emotion. Two faces burned a fiery red, but their hearts probably burned brighter.

Hands bashfully intertwining as they made their way to the counters, grabbing trays of food and choosing a free table. Trying to focus on the rare Asian cuisine served for tonight’s meal, both tried to erase any remaining embarrassment or lingering awkwardness in the air, but found themselves failing.

Should someone say something? Should they simply eat in peace?

Both sighed in unison, attention darting to each other as they shared a laugh, blushes searing hotly across their faces.

It was starting to get a little hot. But it wasn’t bad at all.

~0~0~0~0~

Another day of much dreaded dance practice. At least, on Akko’s part, she hated it. After all, it was so boring as she was stuck, simply observing everyone else. Her teacher hadn’t really paid her any mind the moment she stepped into the extra class, neither was she given the go-ahead to join everyone else. So, she now found herself seated once more at a corner of the room, watching everyone else practice.

She observed everyone’s motions, trying to get a sense of what dancing entailed, trying to maybe image-train herself. Understanding and picturing the steps out clearly might help her be able to do it once she started dancing.

If the teacher allowed her to take part, that is.

At this point, that prospect was looking a little vague.

A sigh.

“They say you lose a year of life with each sigh, you know?” A pleasant timbre tickled her ears; a hand was extended, entering her line of vision. “I certainly wouldn’t like that. I’d prefer to see you around for much longer.”

“…I didn’t know you could be such a tease.” Akko giggled, looking up into bright eyes that stared at her expectantly, a kind smile playing across Diana’s face.

“I can’t say I don’t share the sentiment. I didn’t know I could be one either.”

Rolling her eyes, Akko took the outstretched hand, a squeak of surprise escaping her as she was pulled up abruptly into comfortable arms.

“W-what are you doing?” Akko aggressively whispered, a shiver running down her spine as a hand made its way to the small of her back, the other taking her own hand. Reflexively, her free hand found purchase on Diana’s shoulder- had it always been this broad- and Akko felt herself led a step forward, onto the dancefloor.

“Why, I’m simply ensuring that all my classmates contribute to this event. Slacking off isn’t a very good thing to do, right now.” Diana responded with her no-nonsense face on, before it was replaced by an impish smirk. They took another step. And another.

Was the world going to end today? Were pigs about to fly? Would Finnelan suddenly become a sweet, kind teacher? All these impossible thoughts streaming through Akko’s head were prompted by the oddness of Diana’s behavior. The other girl certainly had been acting quite different as of late, at least around and towards her.

Before she could question such events further, she suddenly realized what the girl had implied. Eyes widening, but brows furrowing, her face must have been quite a spectacle. She could clearly see the taller witch holding back a laugh. “I’m not- I’m not slacking off!” That was all she could come up with as a reply in her flustered state.

Diana was clearly amused, if her toned-down chuckles were any indication. Akko braced herself for more teasing, wondering if it would end soon.

Contrary to what she was expecting, Diana became serious all of a sudden, smile much more sincere now.

“I know.” – was Diana’s only reply. They had stopped in the middle of the room, Diana adjusting her hold on Akko, allowing the girl time to get more comfortable in the starting position, and get used to their proximity.

“Wha-“

“Dance with me, Akko.”

And that was her only warning; the next thing she knew, Diana had taken the lead, and the ease at which she could follow those movements stunned her, in a good sense, she supposed. Diana never failed to amaze her in everything she did.

Still, regardless of Diana’s skill, it did not hide the fact that Akko was inexperienced and no amount of knowledge-less observation could help her. She soon found herself stumbling into ready arms, careful in catching her.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, Diana! I can’t do this after all-“ She was unable to complete that statement as she was back in the original posture, Diana taking the lead, slower this time.

“The waltz, like any other dance, has its basics." Diana began to explain. “Take a step backward with your right foot,” Akko did as she was told without question. Diana nodded as if to say, ‘good’. “Step to the left with your left foot, then bring your right next to it.”

Akko clumsily tried to match Diana’s smoother actions, experiencing some difficulty with executing it in synch with Diana’s poised steps. She wanted to be as graceful as she her partner, but that was proving to be a challenge.

“Do not dwell on how you are performing, at the moment, Miss Kagari.” Diana instructed softly, as if she could hear Akko’s thoughts. “Focus on what you should do first. Now. Left foot forward, and right forward, but to the right; then bring your left foot to your right.” Diana hummed her approval as Akko was able to do as taught.

Akko would make a few random noises and squacks, but Diana paid them no mind. Her full attention was on guiding Akko, watching her every movement and correcting her accordingly until the girl got used to the motions, able to grasp the concept better, movements less rough and choppy.

“One, two, three; one, two, three.” Diana began counting to the music that had been playing in the room, picking up the pace of their movements to correspond to the sound. Her eyes remained staring into Akko’s intensely, yet gentle all the same. A paradox, much like Diana in her entirety was.

Similar to Diana’s concentrated state, Akko could only focus on her; everything not Diana fading out into nothingness. Only Diana remained. Her sweet voice, the way her hair swished about, the body that fit perfectly against her own, the scent she wore today: a bit of a vanilla-like fragrance, and fresh apples; and Akko thought she looked simply dashing, even if she was only in their school-issued jersey and shorts. The clothes did nothing to deter how absolutely gorgeous Diana was in her eyes.

And on that note of being an absolute beauty, Diana’s face was the kind you’d never get tired of staring at for as long as you could.

Eyes you could drown in, refreshing, gentle, and kind; a beautiful shade of blue. Then there was her nose, perfectly sculpted. Diana had fair skin, with a healthy tinge of pink on her cheeks. And of course, there were Diana’s lips- lips that Akko might have been staring at longer than necessary.

Lips. Full and plump. Inviting. Beautiful. Pink. Soft, they looked so soft… Warm.

Diana.

Diana’s lips. So close. If she’d only lean down the tiniest bit forward, maybe they could-

“One, two, three. One, two three. One, two- Miss O’Neill! I could have sworn I told you not to do that part like that-!”

The loud sounds of instruction, berating, and the clacks and squeaks of shoes returned to Akko’s hearing, reminding her of where she was and what she was doing.

“Miss Kagari, Miss Cavendish! Aren’t you a bit too close?” Their teacher’s voice completed the shattering of their own little world, reality seizing them back. With wide eyes, the pair disentangled themselves from one another, standing at a more decent distance away now.

This game of enchantment and being brought back to reality was becoming a dangerous habit of both, it seemed. It felt like playing with fire, and they were at the brink of something they did not know was about to take place; whether the consequences of that event be good or bad. They were both losing control. Over what? Akko felt she’d know soon.

Quietly, she made her way back to her corner of the room, picking up her towel and water bottle, taking long sips to help calm her nerves.

The last thing she registered before losing herself in thought was that she could barely hear Diana’s apologizing to the teacher; it was the only thing she was aware of at that moment… and maybe along with the fact that it was starting to get a little hotter.

~0~0~0~0~

In a corner of Luna Nova’s grand library, away from the prying eyes of other students, the temptations of any distractions, and the general noise of the school halls, was their spot.

A location in the wide chamber’s expanse that served as the standard meeting place of two witches. The top student, and the top problem of teachers- or so some professors and students labelled her. Diana would strongly beg to differ.

Here, in this little area, they’d often meet. To many people, two teens seemingly meeting secretly in a hidden corner of a building sounded like a scandalous affair waiting to be discovered. However, that was not the case for Akko and Diana. Most definitely not. Undoubtedly.

…maybe.

After all, this place was a sanctuary for them that would aid them in their dreams of becoming the greatest witches in the world. It was their place of focus and meditation, growth and dedication, progress and improvement.

It was their study spot.

“Dianaaa~” Akko whined, shattering the silence of the library momentarily. “I really don’t get this problemmmm~” She groaned, flopping face-first into her math book. “There’s just no way!”

Diana sighed, shutting her reading material with a soft clap. “Akko, have you ever heard the phrase, ‘When there’s a will, there’s a way’?” Diana addressed calmly, transferring from her seat by the window to the one next to Akko, adjacent to her initial position, and looking over the girl’s work.

“What if I don’t have a will…” Akko grumbled, glaring at the letters on the notebook she was solving on. “What does the alphabet have to do with math anyway! And what are these symbols and squiggles and lines! This isn’t art class!”

Diana wanted to laugh, finding Akko’s little exasperated tirade adorable, but she knew the girl would just pout at her even more, and possibly get annoyed. The initial response, she’d welcome, but if it meant Akko would ignore her again, she’d rather not.

She decided to give Akko a tip instead, seeing as the girl was relatively close to getting to the answer. She realized something that made her smile proudly at Akko, gaze warming over. “Well, at least you’ve gotten this far in your solution. On your own, might I add.” She gave praise as an encouragement, pleased at Akko’s apparent progressive improvement. She had yet to tutor Akko on this latest topic in their class, but the girl seemed to have been listening attentively in class, managing to understand this much of the material.

“N-not really.” Akko had become bashful as Diana commended her efforts. Despite feeling shy, Akko felt elated that all her hard work paid off in some way or form. Just like how she was able to fly the other day. Fly freely, fly happily with Diana by her side.

Ah. Right. She was reminded of a certain happening right away, but she decided against thinking about it, pushing it to the back of her mind. It would be best if she didn’t dwell on those memories if she wanted to continue concentrating in this study session, actually getting work done instead of dreaming of Diana at almost every moment, awake or asleep.

Opting to shift the attention away from herself to hide the blush that was definitely about to show, Akko turned to Diana. “I wouldn’t get to this point if it weren’t for you, Diana.” Akko admitted with a sincerity that made Diana’s heart flutter.

“Th-that was because of the effort and perseverance you put in.” She countered, her own cheeks taking on a pink hue.

“Not at all. Even with all the work I put in before, I never got far. But ever since you and Ursula-sensei began teaching me, I-“

“Well, you and sensei have been working hard together; I really haven’t done much.” Diana reasoned, ever the humble soul.

“No, you’ve done so much Diana! You’ve really helped me learn a lot, you’ve taught me a lot!” Akko exclaimed, lifting off her seat a few centimeters closer to Diana.

“If we are on the topic of learning from someone else, then you’ve certainly given me more life lessons than I’ve ever given you!” Diana countered, also rising from her seat.

With every return of praise, and/or compliment, the pair failed to notice the distance between them shrinking, too into their war of gratitude.

If she were being honest, this situation stressed Akko out somewhat. Today had been quite comfy; peaceful, friendly and homely. She was hoping it would stay that way. It had been a while since she could simply relax around Diana without worrying about how she should act towards the white-haired witch. Any awkwardness between them these past few weeks, courtesy of their changing relationship, had been forgotten… until this point. It was like she had returned to stepping around the eggshells that were her doubts and fears about this relationship, and the unending internal queries of how she should approach and act around Diana now. She thought she had become quite excited at the prospect of a more intimate relationship with Diana, but equal to that excitement was the amount of fear she had tried to push away these days.

Akko felt her tension rising again, an imaginary string representing her calmness, being pulled taut. What had started as one of their rare calm moments that they almost never had between them nowadays- in the form of a study session- transformed into a heated exchange between the pair, stored tension unravelling from the bundles kept within them.

“You-“

“No, You!”

“Akko!”

“Diana! It’s thanks to you, being so wonderful and amazing, and talented!”

“But Akko you’re the amazing one! You’re inspiring; full of hope, dreams, strength!”

“You’re the strong one! Doing your best for the sake of your family, and for the school, it’s one of the things I like about you!” Akko had now raised her voice, eyes squeezing shut at the intensity with which she expressed her emotions.

“Well, your outlook on life and the way you face your fears and goals head on is what I like about you!” Diana threw back.

“Aren’t you describing yourself? That’s what I admire about you! That and your ability to believe in me, and the people around you!” Akko returned the fiery compliments each time.

“You’ve embodied the phrase, ‘A believing heart is your magic’, and I’ve always admired that about you!” Was complimenting someone always this stressful? Diana wondered.

“Well, if you admire me, then I look up to you!”

“I wholeheartedly appreciate you, then!”

“I respect you!”

“I adore you!”

“I enjoy being around you!”

“I savor every moment I have together with you.”

“I find you very attractive!”

“I love everything about you!” Diana was sure she had never been as loud as this before, especially not while expressing her feelings towards someone else.

“Oh yeah?” Akko challenged, eyes now holding a staring contest with Diana, both waiting on the other to give in, feeling as if they’d explode otherwise.

“Yes.”

“Really now?”

“Yes!”

“Really, really?”

Diana took a deep breath, pushing the next words out, backed with a large volume. “Indeed, I DEEPLY cherish you! I-”

“WELL, I LOVE YOU-!”

Ah.

Two pairs of eyes went wide, Akko stuttering and fumbling out sounds, unable to form anything coherent. Diana felt the need to turn her head away, breaking their connected gazes, trying to look anywhere, at anything that wasn’t Akko to help her calm down.

Had the brunette meant what she said? Was it true? The words Diana had been longing to hear… had they finally been expressed?

Sure, she had a feeling- scratch that, she knew Akko loved her. She tried to trust in the girl and the feelings she was stirring within Diana herself.

Still, it came as a shock.

Diana knew she had said it to Akko before, and that the said girl likely returned her feelings; but she also knew that something was keeping Akko from committing to those feelings. There was always something keeping her from saying it.

Fanning her face, Diana tried to breathe in and out slowly.

The atmosphere was becoming too hot for either of them too handle.

Her eyes that had been darting every which way suddenly made a mistake, her gaze returning to where it had first been, and now they were locked with crimson pools, still wide, so large, so close yet again. Too close, once more.

Diana had forgotten how to breathe, and Akko seemed to struggle likewise.

It was a silent staring contest. A stark contrast to the moments of yelling prior to this. Their eyes saw nothing but the other’s, their breaths mingled due to their proximity. The shared heat between them becoming increasingly unbearable with each passing second that they held fast to their post.

Then it happened. So quick, Diana could have missed it, but it was obvious. Akko’s gaze had flicked to her lips, and in the split second it took for her eyes to meet Diana’s again, the distance was obliterated.

It was soft, yet intense. Hot, but refreshing. Full of mistakes, and absolutely perfect at the same time. Scary but then… they were each other’s reassurance. It felt like forever, but only lasted so few seconds.

Pulling apart breathless, Diana managed to comb a quivering hand into brown tresses, keeping Akko close as she bumped their foreheads together, shutting her eyes to allow her senses relief. In that single moment, Akko had managed to arrest all of her. Everything she felt, smelt, saw, tasted, heard… even thought. They were all Akko. Akko. Akko.

Her scent, the beat of her heart and clammy palms now resting on Diana’s lap; her shaky breaths, the taste of strawberry chapstick, and the red eyes that had tempted her so.

It was all Akko, Akko, Akko.

Akko and her smile. Akko and her whole being.

Akko and her lips.

“Again.”

It was not a request.

Diana would probably have to apologize for her greediness later, but right now, she had lost every chance of regaining her control any time soon.

As they separated after the second kiss, Diana felt the little wind she even had left in her get knocked out her lungs as Akko’s dazed expression did Diana no favors of keeping her sanity.

And as if to tip her over the edge,

“I love you… Diana.”

��

“I’m sorry, Akko.”

“H-huh? What do you…” Before Akko could even feel confusion or hurt, a loving hand cupped her face, body pulled ever closer by the opposite arm now clinging to her waist. And then came a command she was compelled to comply to, nodding at each repeat.

A single word.

“Again.”

Even if it was looped a thousand times, she wouldn’t say no.

“Again.”

“Yes.”

“Again.”

“Until you’re satisfied, Diana.”

“-!!”

Akko pouted as Diana had created some space between them, breaths heavy and eyes wide.

“Don’t act all taken aback now!” Akko sighed fondly, giggling at the destroyed tension, nuzzling Diana’s cheek sweetly before contrasting that action by fixing the girl with a heated stare, looping her arms over her shoulders, pulling the taller girl down to her level. She had been enjoying Diana’s initiative, but it seems she now needed a jumpstart.

She smirked at the audible gulp, offering a proposal to study something else other than math against swollen lips.

 “Okay, Diana? …Now do it again.”

 They’d finally overheated.

 A/N: Anddd… done! Finally! I could cry!

I baked a frick ton of cookies yesterday and today. 100 fairly large ones hahaha for the holidays. That also took some of my updating time.u I hope I don’t take this long for the next chapter. Huhuhu. It is stressful to think that it takes so long for me to dish something out. Feedback if you would be so kind? Thank you for reading and Merry Christmas!

~Shintori Khazumi

[gerberbabey]

maybe I'm honestly falling too soon | John B. Routledge

a/n: this is technically a stand alone, but i kinda wish i did a little mini series for the Peterkin!Reader concept...oh well I’ll do that now. love the support for SUMMER, i wish it was better written but I still appreciate ya’ll.

This is technically a reader insert, but I made the reader mixed with Black and Korean. always hashing out WOC representation.

masterlist

summary: You try not to question people’s intelligence. John B saves the day. 

warnings: like rlly bad writing, underaged drinking, hints of racism and stereotyping, that part is based off of a conversation i overheard but if it’s offensive in any way and if you’d like me to take it out or change it pls let me know

♫ Down to Earth by UMI ♫

You weren’t really known to go out much. Partying with either Kooks or Pogues wasn’t the norm for you considering who your parents were. But even if your mom wasn’t the Sheriff and your dad wasn’t a teacher at Kildare County High, your personality alone wasn’t really the “partying” type. Your friends tended to label you as the “sweet” one, or even the “innocent” one. It didn’t necessarily make you mad per se, it was just a bit annoying that the entirety of your being was labelled based off of the fact that you tended to not do things. 

You didn’t label your friends for the things they did, so you found it odd that they labelled you because of the things you didn’t do. 

“Pleeeaaase (Y/N), John B and his crew throw the best keggers and you’ve only gone to like one!” 

“Nicky, I just...really don’t want to, ok?” you’d been trying to decline Nicky all day. This was the 5th time she’d brought it up today, not to mention the amount of times she’d brought it up this past week. Maybe if it had happened yesterday or even tomorrow you would’ve felt more up to it. Today didn’t feel like a good day to party. At least not to you. 

“(Y/NNNNNN)!” Nicky whined and you only sat patiently as she shook you, “Please just this once? Ok I heard that Kelce’s gonna be there and he usually avoids the Cut! This is the perfect oppurtuntiy for me to get closer to him!” 

You hated that she was using her crush on Kelce against you. You truly wouldn’t say that Nicky was either a Kook or a Pogue (you didn’t even think you were either a Kook or Pogue) but she’d developed a crush on him due to her sudden frequent attendance at the country club with her cousins. She barely spoke to him and barely had the chance to but she insisted that he was a “great guy who just get’s pressured by his asshole friends”. You supported anything Nicky did (lest it get her hurt) and Kelce had only ever been kind to you. 

“Ok...fine,” you sighed and Nicky squeed in excitement. 

“Oh my god yes! Finally!” Nicky cheered and you only rolled your eyes playfully as she tackled you into a hug. 

_____

John B casually strolled through the aisles of the grocery store. He’d been taxed with getting a few snacks to stash in the Twinkie so that they had some food of their own at the party. 

“Relax ok, I just really wants some chips.”

John B perked up at a familiar sounding voice and straightened up as you and your best friend walked around the corner of the aisle. He licked his lips as he gave you a quick look over. You were dressed in your usual aesthetic, a long high waisted skirt, a tank top that was tied to cinch at your waist, large wire framed glasses on the bridge of your nose, and your bouncy curls pushed back with a bandana in your hair.

“Oh, hey John B.” 

John B shook himself out of his stupor and flashed you a wide grin, nodding to Nicky, who only gave him a look of suspicion. 

“Hey (Y/N), what are you doing here?” That question wasn’t too out of place, you lived closer to the bigger grocery store chains than the family owned one’s in the Cut. 

“I just wanted to get some chips, Heyward’s is the only store that has the one’s I like,” you gave him a sweet smile and John B tried not to melt. 

“That’s-That’s really cool,” he stuttered and he licked his lips awkwardly as his eyebrows raised. You blinked at him, the smile on your face twisting a bit in confusion as you glanced at Nicky for a moment before looking to John B again, “I mean sorry-um...Kegger!” John B put up a hand in realization, “We’re gonna have a Kegger tonight at the Boneyard. Will I see you there?” 

“Yeah for sure,” you smiled at him and he gave you that grin that’d always made you think of the sun. You’d always thought John B was cute. Probably more than cute really. He was tall (6 foot maybe?), and his body was built ridiculously...nice for a 16 year old. Plus he was like one of the sweetest guys you’d ever met. 

“Are you gonna be manning the Keg the whole time?” you teased as you grabbed two bags of your favorite chips. Nicky took them from you, looking between you and John b from off to the side. John B scoffed at your comment.

“Nah, I’ll drag JJ to do shifts if he even tries to run away from it,” the last time they threw a Kegger, John B and Pope had been ditched to man the keg. JJ had run off with some touron and Kie was hard to say no to when she insisted it wasn’t her turn. 

“So that means you’ll save me a dance?” you bit at your bottom lip as John B looked at you in surprise. He’d always thought of the two of you as friends, you and your mom were oddly involved in his life but he didn’t mind. He wasn’t going to complain about having people give a shit about him. 

“Yeah...yeah definitely,” John B confirmed and you giggled before waving to him goodbye and leading Nicky away to go pay for your chips. John B stared at where you were standing just a second ago before he turned to watch you over his shoulder. He barely caught Nicky shaking you by the arm before the two of you disappeared around the corner of the aisle. 

________

“Is that...(Y/N)?” Pope asked, passing some random Touron a filled red solo cup. John B looked up from where he was filling up a Kook’s cup and turned to where Pope was pointing. It was indeed you. You were standing in group with a few Kooks. Nicky was standing close to Kelce, the two of them seemingly in their own world and you were stuck interacting with Topper, Rafe, and some other Kook guys he didn’t recognize. 

“Yeah,” John B confirmed and Pope glanced at him for a moment before turning his attention back to you. 

“She looks like she’s having a great time,” Pope pointed out sarcastically and John B straightened up. Pope was right, and even from this far away he could tell. You had a perplexed look you on your face as you listened to one of the ook boys talk and your body language was closed off. You had your arms wrapped around yourself and you were switching the weight of your feet back and forth. 

“Maybe you should go save her?” Pope suggested and John B turned to him. 

“Nah, nah she’s probably fine,” John B shook his head, reaching for the eg hose once again. Pope snatched it out of his hands. 

“C’mon John B, you really wanna risk that?”  Pope stated matter of factly and he cringed as he looked back to you. You looked more and more uncomfortable by the second. 

“Alright...” John B dusted his hands off on his swim trunks and began to weave through the crowd to get to you, leaving behind a grinning Pope. 

Across the way, you were trying your best not to let much show on your face but you couldn’t help but cringe at everything this guy was saying. You were pretty sure he had done a line of something (probably supplied by Rafe) but you were beginning to think you should definitely put yourself in a safer environment. You hadn’t been the most bothered by Topper or Rafe, they were usually polite to you, but when three more Kooks stepped up to you, you were left to deal with five Kooks who were all under some type of influence while Nicky talked with Kelce. 

“Y’know, you have like really nice eyes,” one of the kooks pointed to you and you smiled. 

“Oh thank you-”

“They’re like real narrow. Do you put like make up on?” That threw you off guard and your mouth drpped open in shock at the question. Topper hit the boy in the chest and the Kook shot him a look of confusion, “What man?”

“Dude you can’t say that shit,” Rafe laughed and you were uncomfortable with the idea that he found it funny for a different reason other then idiocy. 

“What she’s got like real narrow eyes. So what how do you do that?” 

“Well um-” you stammered, “I’m just...Asian?” 

“Wait you’re Asian?” one of the other boys cried out, “I thought you were black?” 

Rafe snorted at that and you could feel the discomfort in your chest increase. 

“I-I am black. My mom’s black and my dad’s Korean...” you explained. Your cheeks burned and your palms were clammy due to your nerves. 

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry...” the first boy laughed, “Wait, I swear I’m not racist or anything. You’re gorgeous.” 

You wondered how your beauty had anything to do with his questions about your race. 

“Like, my sister’s just always talking about like fox eyes or whatever and she’d probably love to have eyes like yours.”

You sucked in a breath at that. Could this guy be anymore cluelessly offensive? At this point you were beginning to question his intelligence altogether. But you weren’t a confrontational person and the thought of calling him out on his bullshit terrified you. You also definitely weren’t in a position to act brave. 

“Uh hey! (Y/N)?” you turned in shock and almost cried out in relief at the sight of John B calling you. 

“What do you want Pogue?” Rafe hissed out and you looked up at him before rushing over to John B. 

“Oh hey John B, I was actually looking for you, sorry guys,” you barely turned to look back at the circle of Kooks before you were leading John B away by the hand, completely ignoring Rafe’s calls. 

When you were a good ways away, and a little closer to where the keg was, you stopped and put a hand on your chest. you let out a laugh of disbelief as you looked up at John B. He looked down at you in confusion, your fingers still intertwined with his.

“Jeez you seriously saved me,” you breathed and John B’s eyebrows raised. 

“Were they doing something-” he looked back over to the boys but you only waved it off. 

“No no, one of them was just...making me lose brain cells,” you laughed, though John B could tell see the discomfort on your face. 

“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” John B pointed out and you only scoffed. 

“I’m used to it at this point,” John B wondered what “it” was. 

“Hey (Y/N)! What’s up?” the two of you turned to Kie as the girl walked up to you, a wide grin brightening her expression. 

“Nothing much just, being a damsel in distress,” you looked up at John B with a teasing smile and he rolled his eyes. 

“I literally only called your name,” he recalled and you laughed. 

“And that saved me, the damsel, from my distress!” you reassured. 

Kie chuckled despite her confusion. She gave a pointed smile at your guys’s hands but the two of you were too distracted by one another. Kie wondered when John B was finally gonna tell you he liked you. 

“You guys are real cute,” Kie laughed and the two of you looked at her with wide eyes. Kie regretted opening her mouth as John B realized the two of you were still holding hands. He quickly pulled his hands out of yours, wiping his sweaty palms onto his shorts. You looked a little disheartened as your hands came forward to fidget on the knot of your shirt. 

“Nevermind,” Kie mumbled. She shook her ehad before walking away from the two of you to go help Pope with the Keg. You watched her walk away, the tips of your ears feeling hot. 

Your fingers fidgeted with one another as you looked up at John B from the corner of your eye.

“So um...” John B turned to you, “I think you owe me a dance?” you smiled and a smile began to stretch across his face. You couldn’t help but notice how his eyes were smiling too and the stretch of his cheeks caused his freckles to shift. 

“Would you like to dance?” John B questioned you and you pretended to think. 

“Hmm I don’t know, the guy who’s asking me to dance is being kinda...dry about it,” you pretended to cringe and John B rolled his eyes. 

He stepped back away from you and turned you so that two of you were facing one another rather than standing side by side. He held out a hand and you glanced between it and his expression. You tilted your head giving him raised brows and he laughed before getting down onto one knee. He put one arm behind his back and offered a hand out to you as you laughed at his antics. 

“Lady (Y/N) may I please have this dance?” he asked loudly and a few people chuckled as they watched him. You looked away, your cheeks burning as you tried to stop yourself from geeking out. You looked back at him again, biting at your cheek as you placed a hand into his. 

“Why of course,” you confirmed and John B hopped up to his feet before leading you into the middle of the dancing bodies. You weren’t to sure what song was playing but the bass was loud and the energy was high in that medium sized pocket of dancing people. 

You made a graceful turn, John B’s hand still in yours, and pressed your back up against John B’s front. The two of you swayed to the beat of the song as John B let go of your hand to put his hands on your skirt clad hips. He pressed himself close to you and you threw your curls over to your right side so he could lean his face down close to yours. 

The two of you grinned at each other as the song moved your body for you. 

“Those two are...definitely in love,” Pope pointed out, taking a sip from his drink. 

“Absolutely,” Kie nodded as she copied Pope’s actions. 

The two of them ignored JJ’s whines about the keg as they watched you and John B dance. 

will this be a series? who knows.....

[retrievablememories]

like you | jungwoo

title: like you pairing: jungwoo x black!reader genre: fluff, college!au request: “Hi. I’m requesting a fluffy imagine where Y/N is a senior in college and Jungwoo is a freshman in college. Y/N gets upset because people keep picking on him because he is asian and she defends him. This causes Jungwoo to get extremely clingy/flirty and develop a crush on Y/N. Y/N is not used to recieving affection so she feels skeptical” word count: 3.8k warnings: cursing, instances of racism a/n: this one was pretty fun to write, i love writing college-inspired stuff for some reason lol. tumblr fucked the image quality but whatever. the title comes from the song off story op 1. stan kim jonghyun girlies!

“Who’s that guy in your Medieval History class?” Your roommate, Mira, randomly asks you one day. She’s hanging off the edge of your bed, her textbook on the ground in front of her as she fists her hands in her hair and tries to comprehend the words swimming on the page in front of her.

You turn away from your desk to look at her. “That’s a random ass question. Have the words finally fried your brain? I don’t even know what guy you’re talking about.”

She looks up at you, crossing her arms in front of her and resting her chin on them. “Fuck this homework man, I’ve had enough. I wanna know who’s the guy in your History class, the black-haired one? The Asian dude?”

You think for a moment. You do remember who she’s talking about; he sits closer to the front of the class, though you’re not sure how she knows him. She’s not even in the same class. He has cute features, though you haven’t paid him much mind—you know from the first day’s icebreaker that he’s a freshman exchange student, but any other details have escaped your mind.

“I don’t remember his name at the moment...what about him?”

“He seems kind of awkward, like...I’ve only really seen him with one other boy. It’s kinda sad...he could use a friend or two.”

“You’re assuming he’s awkward? Maybe he’s just shy, or doesn’t want 800 different friends,” you say, turning to another page in your notebook. There are only a couple of reasons why she’d ask you about a guy, and you can guess what her plans are. “If you want to be his friend, you can. Ain’t nobody stopping you.”

“Well, shit, can’t you like...introduce me? I don’t wanna be a weirdo going up to a total stranger!”

You laugh incredulously. “Girl, he’s a total stranger to me too. If you really want to be friends, just say so...or say you’re with that Freshman Committee who pairs upperclassmen mentors with the new students. I’m sure that’ll work well.” In actuality, you’re not entirely serious or sure about that, but it’s better than listening to your friend complain.

Mira sighs, going back to her textbook. “Ugh, you never wanna help me get guys. Fine...I could try it, but if I end up looking like a fool I’m blaming you.”

You only have Medieval History on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you have to wait another day before returning to class again. After keeping your ears open for the roll call, you figure out that the guy’s name is Jungwoo.

He appears to be really into the subject and participates often, asking and answering questions whenever the professor engages with the students. You’re only taking Medieval History to fill out the last credit for your Social Studies electives, so you never expected to be all into the subject; but the teacher does a decent enough job of making the class not totally boring. 

Jungwoo has a pretty proficient grasp of English, which makes you wonder if he did a lot of studying before he got here. He mispronounces a word when asking the teacher about a certain concept in the reading material, though, and a couple of girls who sit behind him laugh. You furrow your eyebrows at that, wondering what their problem is.

Later, when you’re leaving class, they pass by you and you hear a bit of their conversation.

“Shit, if you’re gonna move over here you should at least know English first,” one says, screwing up her nose.

“Seriously, it’s so embarrassing. I thought Asians were supposed to be geniuses or something?” Both girls laugh at that, and you roll your eyes at the ignorance. They’re gone only seconds later, although your mind keeps drifting back to their comments for the rest of the day.

Over the next week, you notice that those same two girls seem to spend more of their class time giggling over Jungwoo’s mannerisms and speech than actually participating in the class. It quickly begins wearing your nerves thin; you’ve never gotten along well with people who are assholes just for the sake of being mean.

If Jungwoo notices—which you figure he must, because their cackling is too obvious not to pick up on—he doesn’t acknowledge it. This only makes you more irritated, knowing that he probably isn’t interested in picking a fight with these girls; but that doesn’t mean he should continue being disrespected.

You reach a point where you can no longer stay silent during a lecture on Medieval cuisine, where the girls keep whispering silly jokes about Asian food. You clear your throat loud enough to make a few heads turn, including the girls doing the laughing. “Excuse you, I can’t hear the teacher over the noise,” you say pointedly, crossing your arms. They both give you salty looks at that comment, and you have to stifle the urge to throw something at the backs of their heads when they turn around.

This is going to be a long semester.

Things come to head one day when you’re all waiting outside the classroom for the professor’s last class to leave. Jungwoo is standing beside the classroom’s door, while you’re seated on a nearby bench, trying to stay awake after studying until 2 a.m. last night.

The two girls walk into the hallway, including a boy you don’t recognize; you figure he’s probably a friend or boyfriend. You kiss your teeth at their entrance and try to return to your thoughts, but you’re quickly taken out of them again when you see the trio stop in front of Jungwoo.

The first girl, who seems to be the ringleader, speaks. “Hey, what’s your name again—Ching? Jing?”

“We need some homework help! And since you seem to be the teacher’s pet…” Both girls look at each other and laugh at that. Jungwoo furrows his eyebrows, an unimpressed expression on his face.

“I don’t think that’s—” Jungwoo starts, but the other guy cuts him off, putting his hand to his ear in an exaggerated gesture.

“What was that? We need you to enunicate, no one knows what the fuck you’re saying.” This time, all three of them break into laughter. 

The tiredness drains from your body faster than any caffeine could achieve as you watch the scene unfold. Some of your other classmates look on, shifting uncomfortably, but no one moves to say or do anything. Before you can really think about it, you’re already up on your feet and walking towards the group.

“Maybe if your miserable asses spent more time studying the lectures instead of shitting on a fellow student, you wouldn’t have to beg for help.”

All three of them, plus Jungwoo, turn their heads in your direction with varying expressions on their faces. The main girl speaks up, putting her hands on her hips. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

“You, bitch! Who else? Y’all love picking on someone you know is too nice to say anything back. That’s weak as hell and says more about you than it ever could about him.”

Your voices start getting louder as the girl gets up in your face, and before anything can pop off, the professor comes storming through the classroom door.

“What the hell is going on here?” he shouts over the arguing.

The girl backs down after the professor makes his appearance and turns to look at her two partners in crime. “Girl—got the damn teacher out here, come on, we ain’t got time for this shit.” They both walk away in a huff, their male friend trailing behind them, and some other students give them sideways glances as they pass. The guy throws you a dirty look before he leaves, and you don’t hesitate to flip him off.

“That’s an unexcused absence on your record!” The professor calls after them, shaking his head. Meanwhile, Jungwoo has been watching the whole scene with shocked eyes, and he keeps looking at you as you shrug and head into the classroom.

The next time you have your Medieval History class, the two girls don’t show up. Maybe they’re too embarrassed to come back to class, but whatever it is, it’s above you now.

After the professor finishes his main lecture, he flips through his copy of the class textbook for the day’s assignment. “Everyone, turn to page 273 in your books. I want you all to read and analyze this text on Romanesque architecture, then answer the 3 discussion questions on page 275. You can get into groups of no more than 3 if you wish, but everyone needs to turn in their own individual answer sheet.”

Sighing, you open your notebook and rifle through your backpack for a writing utensil. When you look up, you jump a little from shock; Jungwoo is standing near your desk with his things in his arms.

“Hi...could we work together?” He gives you a gentle smile.

“Oh, sure, that’s fine with me!” Jungwoo takes the empty seat beside you and you push your desks to be closer together.

“I never got to say,” he starts, “but thank you for doing that last week...you didn’t have to.”

“Well, I would hope any decent person would...I didn’t want to just sit there and watch you be insulted. It’s so unnecessary...” You quickly flip through your textbook, completely overshooting the assignment page and having to go back. You feel a little flustered at this kind of attention, because you weren’t really doing it to be noticed or heroic.

Jungwoo smiles at your modesty, though he doesn’t try to push the matter.

At the end of class, after you’ve both turned in your assignments, you and Jungwoo leave together.

“Thanks for partnering with me today,” you tell him, and he nods in acknowledgement. “I guess I’ll see you next class?”

“Actually, do you want to eat lunch with me? I mean, at the cafeteria today?” he asks. His eyes seem to literally sparkle in anticipation of your answer, and you find it hard to turn that face down. Plus, he seems nice enough; this could be a good way to introduce him to Mira.

“Sure,” you say, grinning.

You and Jungwoo head to the dining hall for lunch, talking about anything that comes to mind along the way. You find out that him and his roommate, Jaehyun, have been best friends for awhile before deciding to go overseas for college; his roommate has been to the U.S. before, but this is his first time. He talks a lot more than you expected him to, but you figure some people just need time to warm up before they get comfortable.

It doesn’t take you long to find Mira after you get to the cafe, and you plan to let her take the reins with the conversation, but Jungwoo continually does his best to keep you roped into the dialogue. You realize you don’t mind that, though—it’s nice to have someone who actively engages you rather than lets you fade into the background.

Jungwoo quickly makes the desk beside yours his new spot in class. He sticks close to your side during lectures and even when you walk to the cafeteria or back to your dorm, always thinking of something new to tell you about. With any other person you’d quickly get tired of this borderline clingy behavior, but something about him keeps you interested, even when you’re talking about stuff that would be boring to others—like Medieval History.

The two girls eventually make their return, glowering silently at you and Jungwoo but not saying a word. Their object of laughter and mockery is no longer available for harassment; who knows who they’ll try to terrorize next, though you hope the answer is no one.

“You don’t mind that Jungwoo always wants to hang out with me, do you? Since I know you kinda liked him and all.” You ask Mira at lunch one day, when Jungwoo leaves the table to get the straw he forgot. You feel a bit sheepish. You didn’t mean to “steal” her prospective man away from her, but you and Jungwoo have taken a liking to each other, and you enjoy being in his presence.

“Jungwoo? No! I actually have my eye on another guy in my Nursing class now, he’s really funny and he owns a collection of vintage records…” You snort, unsurprised that her attention has drifted already. Mira launches into a whole spiel about this new dude, even detailing how the color of his irises is just shy of being “true hazel green.” She pauses in her speech to bat her eyelashes at you. “Besides, it seems like you two have something going on already. I wouldn’t dare get in between that.”

You almost drop your food in your lap. “Uh, what?”

“Don’t be shy. You two are practically tied at the hip, and Jungwoo already talks to you like you’re his girlfriend. It’s only a matter of time at this point.”

“I seriously doubt that,” you say, suddenly feeling very put on the spot. You don’t think Jungwoo sees you like that at all, and you’re a little irritated that your roommate would suggest it, jokingly or not.

She sighs and shakes her head. When she spots Jungwoo walking back to the table, she tries to act casual and wrap the subject up. “Suit yourself, but I’m always right about this kinda stuff. Watch.”

Every year, your college throws a Welcome Back party on the last Friday of the first month in the semester. You initially didn’t have plans to go, much preferring your friends’ kickbacks where you don’t have to avoid sweaty and horny stranger dudes all night. However, Jungwoo turns to you one day after class ends and brings it up.

“Y/N, there’s gonna be a party on campus at the end of the week...are you going?”

“Hmm, probably not...Welcome Back parties are always lowkey messy and filled with freshmen who don’t know how to act…” You momentarily forget that Jungwoo is a freshman, and you have to walk your comment back a bit. “Not saying you’ll be like that, though!”

He waves it off. “It’s fine. It’s just, me and Jaehyun are going and thought it’d be fun if you came too.”

“Well…”

Jungwoo rests his head on your shoulder and hugs your arm. “Please? I want the prettiest girl in school to be my date.”

You pat his hand and laugh off his comment, unsure how to accept his compliment. “Since you asked so nicely…I’ll go. But I’m bringing Mira with me. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone to a campus party.”

“Yes!! That’s fine, Jaehyun will probably like her,” Jungwoo says, smirking. You still don’t get how they haven’t formally met yet with how your friend circles overlap, but you know it’s coming soon. Obviously, Jungwoo knows something you don’t, judging by the look on his face, but you don’t inquire about it.

You and Mira spend the night of the party getting ready with Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls blasting through your dorm room. She was a little resistant to the idea at first, insisting that campus parties were too corny for her taste, but you eventually convinced her to go. 

As the hour approaches, there’s a knock on your door. You’re still putting the finishing touches on your makeup, so you tell Mira to answer it. When she does, Jungwoo and Jaehyun are standing there.

“You guys are here already? Who let you in?” she says jokingly, though you wonder the same thing; you can’t get into a dorm you don’t live in without a key card.

“Some guy downstairs. Maybe your dorm needs better security.” Jaehyun laughs. “I tried to tell Jungwoo it’s still early, but he was ready to leave.”

“Walking in on two girls getting ready, how presumptuous of you,” Mira giggles, pretending to shove Jungwoo’s shoulder. You roll your eyes hard and try not to laugh in the mirror. “But you’re here now, so might as well come in.”

Jungwoo makes a beeline straight to you, placing his hands on your shoulders like he wants to give you a massage. “Hi pretty girl.” He smiles at your reflection, and you almost drop your lip gloss on the floor.

“Oh, h-hey, Jungwoo! The party tonight better be fun...if not, you owe me,” you say, trying to play off your nervousness.

Jungwoo acts reluctant about it, placing his hand in his chin and thinking deeply. “I owe you? Well, okay...anything you want.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You can have my heart first, if you want.”

This time you really do drop your lip gloss, and Mira and Jaehyun watch with amused fascination as you mourn your lost makeup. But right now, you just want to avoid thinking about what Jungwoo has just said, and how it makes you feel.

The gymnasium where the party is being held is just as packed as you expected it to be, even at your group’s early arrival. It’s only going to get more crowded from here, but you don’t think about that as Jungwoo all but drags you to go dance.

You genuinely enjoy yourself for the first time in a while, and you’re surprised at just how much fun you can still have even with drunken dudes bumping into you every few minutes.

You’re too caught up in dancing with Jungwoo to notice, but Mira and Jaehyun are nowhere to be found. You only realize this after you two take a break during a slower song and you can’t spot her anywhere on the gym floor. You send her a text message, but you don’t expect to receive an answer anytime soon.

“Shit, they didn’t waste any time,” you laugh, and for some reason you can’t stop laughing at the situation. Jungwoo joins you until you’re both outright cackling, and some of the other party-goers give you odd glances.

You and Jungwoo spend most of the night dancing and partying with some of your other classmates. You both leave the gym one hour before the party ends, wanting to avoid getting caught in the huge rush of people who’ll be looking for fast food places to hit up. Instead of heading back to your dorms, you two decide to walk around the campus for a while, enjoying the still night air and the sounds of crickets all around you. You’re glad for the open air, because you were burning up in the gym with so many bodies around you.

Neither of you speak for a while, simply taking in the scenery and retracing your footsteps on paths you walk everyday to get to class. Jungwoo finally breaks the silence when you pass through a long path flanked on both sides by rows of flowery trees; this part of campus is so picturesque that it almost seems out of place.

“Tonight is really pretty,” he says, glancing at the starry sky.

“I know, right,” you agree. “It’s so nice outside. I’m glad you convinced me to go to the party.”

“I’m glad too. I really like being next to you...” Jungwoo’s eyes linger on your face for longer than you expect them to, and you look away nervously, unsure what that could mean. “But, there’s something I have to tell you.”

“Oh? What’s that?” The sudden change in tone makes you a bit anxious, and you half expect him to tell you he has to return home after this semester ends. That thought makes you more disappointed than you anticipated. Your stomach curls into a knot.

“Y/N, I like you.” Jungwoo’s face is earnest, but your brain has a hard time catching up to the meaning of his words. You feel like you’ve been kicked in the chest—or maybe that’s your heart trying to knock its way out of your ribcage. You stop walking and simply look at him, unsure how to approach his confession. He stops too, turning to face you with gentle eyes.

“I-is...this a joke?” You finally blurt out. Jungwoo’s face draws into a confused expression. He shakes his head, his hair waving as he does.

“It’s not a joke at all. You are funny, nice, cool, brave, pretty…”

“A...are you sure this isn’t just because I defended you? Like, maybe you just feel really grateful about it—a-and we’ve only known each other a month—”

“Y/N, I know how I feel,” Jungwoo argues, grabbing your hands. He pauses for a moment as if he’s trying to come up with the accurate words to express himself. “I just...I don’t need a reason or excuse. I just like you.”

This is all far more than what you’re used to. You pull your hands away from Jungwoo’s for a moment, embarrassed and overwhelmed. You tentatively reach for his hand again after seeing the hurt look on his face, but you hesitate.

“I’m...sorry, it’s just…” You don’t really want to admit something so personal to him, but you don’t know how else to avoid completely hurting his feelings tonight. “I’m, uh, not really used to this kind of stuff…” Jungwoo raises his eyebrows at that.

“Used to...what? Someone liking you?”

“Well damn, when you put it like that…” You try to laugh it off, but you feel corny and sheltered at best. What must Jungwoo think of you, as a senior who’s never had a genuine love interest? You’ve had more than one college boy’s lust directed at you one time or another, but true affection is another thing entirely. That has been a much rarer find.

“Then...you can get used to it now. It’s never too late to experience love.”

“You really believe that?” you say softly, allowing yourself to feel a little relieved that he’s not laughing you out of town. But of course he wouldn’t. He’s not that kind of person, anyway.

“Don’t you?” You let him take your hand this time as he steps closer. “You deserve someone who will treat you nicely, tell you funny stories, carry your books for you..”

“Someone...like you,” you finish for him, thinking back to all the times he’s done those exact same things for you. You’re unsure how to approach the intense newness of this situation, and you’re a little afraid of him holding your sweaty palm, but you decide none of that matters when Jungwoo’s lips meet yours, his hand carefully holding your face.

Right now, the only thing that matters is this moment under the stars.

[ghostly-cabbage]

Frigid (Chapter 1)

Danny Phantom fanfic

Genre: Horror, Angst, Enemies to Friends

Fic Rating: M (Language, Underage Drug Use, Violence and Gore)

Summary: Wes and his brother Kyle have just moved to Amity Park. Wes is only worried about fitting in, but all the ghost nonsense is making that harder and harder. Something weird is going on in this place, and his chemistry lab partner is no different. Seriously, what the hell was up with the Fenton kid and why did everyone ignore it?

Danny is a junior in high school, and pressure is squeezing in on all sides. Keeping good enough grades to graduate, and dealing with the snoopy new kid wasn't bad enough, but he's starting to feel like his parents are getting closer to figuring out his secret. Jazz is off at college and he didn't realize just how helpful it was when she was home to cover for him.

Danny's been able to keep his secret at school for one reason, and that's that no one cares to watch him close enough to connect the dots. Wes is different.

AO3   FFN

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"The air is different here," Wes said, looking up at the swath of stars across the sky. Kyle exhaled a plume of smoke that clouded the view. 

"Shit. Don't get all poetic on me now." Kyle coughed his way into a laugh and Wes kicked his shin just hard enough to hurt. 

"Ow!" 

"Shut up dude, I mean it's colder here. More humid or something too." 

"Yeah, definitely nothing like home." Kyle swung his legs back and forth off the brow of the roof. "How was your first day of school btdubs?" He offered Wes the joint pinched between his fingers. Wes waved him off. 

"Thrilling, nothin' like being the new kid," he said.  

Kyle shrugged and took another hit.

“‘S not so bad, my day was chill,” he croaked out while trying to keep his breath held in. 

Wes scrunched his nose at the smell. “Jesus dude, that stuff smells worse than normal.” 

“Yeah—” he puffed out the cloud of smoke “—the shit here isn’t as good. Missin’ that green triangle right about now.” Kyle let out a wistful sigh. Wes almost wanted to ask how he’d found a dealer already, but it was Kyle. He always found someone. It was like his supernatural ability to sniff out someone who’d sell to minors.

 “Anyway, basketball tryouts are at the end of the week, right? Cheer up my man, you’ll get mad chicks once you make the team.” Wes shot him a glare. Getting chicks was the last thing on his mind. He was more preoccupied with the fact their dad uprooted their entire lives to move to fucking Illinois. Illinois!

“Whatever dude.” There was a brief silence, before Kyle bumped his shoulder into him. He took another deep drag off his joint, the static burn filling the air like white noise. The stars continued to glimmer coldly in the sky, and it sent a pang of homesickness through him. It was bullshit. 

“Any classes you like?” 

“Psh. Hardly… Well. There’s a photography class—” 

“Didn’t you mention something about chem at lunch?” 

“Oh. That.” Wes started to get angry just thinking about it. “Yeah. Chemistry two. Apparently we have to have a lab partner for the whole semester. Which wouldn't be a big deal but I got stuck paired with a dude that’s ‘banned for life’ from using the chem equipment.” He used his fingers for the air quotes. “So I’m probably gonna have to do everything.”

Kyle took a breath like he was about to say something, but Wes pressed on. “What the hell do you even have to do to get banned for life from using the chemistry stuff?” 

“Dude! Maybe your partner got busted for making drugs! That Breaking Bad kinda shit! That’d get him banned fer sure fer sure.” His words slurred around the edges.

Wes almost laughed. “You’re high Kyle. If you saw him you’d understand. This guy isn’t a drug lord, trust me, he’s a twig. No way he’d be involved in anything dangerous. If that guy does anything more exciting than video games I’d eat your hat.” 

Kyle gasped. “Brooo!” 

“What?”

“Somthin’ to eat sounds wicked. Wanna swing by that... Nasty place, what’zit called? We saw it on the way in.” 

Wes rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh. 

“Nasty Burger?”

“Nasty Burger!”

“As a majority of you are aware, it’s a new school year, which means as per new school district regulation it’s time to report to the gym for the annual ghost safety course, and later today at an unspecified time there will be a ghost drill.” Mr. Lancer droned at the front of the class. The other students around Wes all groaned like they’d been assigned a pop quiz, rather than that being the most batshit crazy thing they’d ever heard. Uh, what the hell? He raised his hand. 

“Yes, Mr. Weston.” 

“Did... you just say ghost safety course?” Kids around him chuckled and shared knowing looks. It was like he was on the other side of an inside joke.   

“Regrettably so, Mr. Weston. Everyone single file to the gym please. Leave your bags here, you’ll be back before the third period,” Lancer said as he gestured to the door. Wes stayed sitting for a few seconds longer than the class, trying to make sense of what he’d just heard. Ghosts? Like actual ghosts? 

“Hey, Fenturd, can’t wait to see how your parents fuck it up this year!” Wes turned towards the back of the classroom to see a tall broad shouldered guy, Dash if he remembered right, shoving past Danny Fenton, AKA his chem lab partner. Danny lurched to the side, stumbling into a desk. There were two other kids that Wes hadn’t seen before standing behind Danny, a goth girl and a dweeby kid in a beret.

“Bro, I still have the picture on my phone from when they couldn’t get Mr. Fenton out of that ghost netting,” said an equally massive asian guy. The small knot of kids around them all laughed and filed past Danny and his presumed friends. Danny was glaring daggers at the back of Dash’s head. 

So… Danny’s parents were the guest speakers, and they were giving a talk on... ghost safety… Seriously, did anything here make sense? Wes followed after the crowd, trying to wrap his head around it. The odd trio started following a few paces back.

“Great. Just what I need to kick off the year again,” Wes heard Danny grumble. 

“Oh come on Danny, It wasn’t that bad,” the goth girl said. 

“Nah, it was pretty bad.” 

“Tucker!” 

“What?!”  

Wes tried to continue listening to their conversation but the person in front of him turned around to look at him. 

“You’re the new kid right?” She asked. She had long blonde hair and perfect makeup. 

“Uh, yeah. Wes.” 

“I hear you’re trying out for the basketball team, right?” A few of the popular kids walking in front of her glanced over their shoulders to look at Wes.

“Y-yeah. I was point guard on my last team back home.” 

“I don’t know what that means.” She tossed a lock of hair behind her shoulder. Her eyes were burning into him like she was personally judging where he fit into the social caste system of the school.  “But good luck. I’m Star, by the way. My boyfriend’s on the football team so don’t get any ideas.”  

“Oh please Star, you’re like, totally out of his league, basketball team or not,” a new voice cut in from just in front of Star. Another girl with dark wavy hair turned to look at him. She had dark olive skin, almond eyes and thick eyelashes. “I’m Paulina, but I’m sure you’ve heard all about me already. People are kind of obsessed with me, they can’t help it.” She said it with a smile and a cute giggle to punctuate her sentences. He’d seen her in homeroom yesterday, and he knew right off the bat she was top of the hierarchy, her and Dash both seemed to have a pretty solid hold on their popularity. If he was going to survive here he needed to make sure they liked him, or at the very least had nothing bad to say about him. 

“I can see why, it’s nice to meet you,” he said. The two girls shared a look, shrugged and turned their attention away from him. 

He let go of the breath he’d been holding, feeling like he’d just passed some sort of test.  He’d never exactly been a popular kid. In elementary school he was small and easy to pick on. Unless Kyle was around, who had a nonchalant courage about him, even as a kid. It’d taken a lot of work for Wes to figure out how to fit in just under the radar of the big fish. 

He stepped into the bustling gym along with the rest of the Junior homeroom class. The bleachers were pulled out, and the class dispersed to find their place to sit. Wes bobbed his head over the shoulders of other students looking for Kyle. It took some work but eventually his eyes landed on his brother. He was lounging, taking up two seats worth of space on the far left side of the bleachers. He made a beeline for him, and took the stairs two at a time. The clamor of the student body filled the room, and when he sat down he had to speak over it. 

“Dude, can you believe this? A ghost assembly?” His brother had never been the most believing of the supernatural. But this place, openly acknowledging the presence of ghosts? He’d like to see Kyle try and refuse to believe now. 

“Yeah man! This school must really love Halloween.” 

And there it was. 

“Kyle. It’s September.” 

“And? Bro they got the Halloween decorations up at wally-world already, why not have a fun Halloween thing?” Wes frowned, and clicked his tongue. He propped his chin against his hand and watched as the school started to settle. His eyes wandered the rows until he found the goth girl. Danny and the kid she’d called Tucker were with her. They were sitting in the section over a row down. Danny had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his black NASA hoodie, and a pinched look on his face. He couldn’t exactly say he blamed the kid, the thought of his own dad showing up to give a presentation made him shiver in horror. 

They’d set up a stage in the center of the gym. Principal Ishiyama stepped up to the podium, and tapped the mic. 

“Hello students of Casper High! For incoming freshmen, allow me to officially extend a warm welcome, and to all returning students, welcome back!” She was way too chipper for the time of morning. “As many of you know we have to review some safety precautions. Now, this may not be new information but I expect you all to pay attention and be respectful regardless. With that, allow me to introduce local ghost experts: Jack and Maddie Fenton.” Ishiyama moved back, clapping for the guests. The crowd gave mixed reactions. Most people looked like they were only applauding out of awkwardness. Wes was definitely included in that category. 

A man and woman with brightly colored… jumpsuits? Hazmat suits? Whatever they were, came forward. The man was intimidating from the pure size of him alone. Jesus christ, he looked like a NFL linebacker. Next to him, was a slight and fit woman. She spoke first, standing at the podium. 

“Good morning everyone! My husband and I are honored to be welcomed back to run through the safety course with you kids!” Mrs. Fenton was peppy and direct with the way she spoke and the way she moved. “As of last year the manual ghost alarms were installed around the school.” Maddie motioned to the projector screen behind her that had been lowered from the ceiling. “As you can see here.” The picture on the projector showed huge red buttons ringed by yellow and black caution trim. Wes had seen them around before, but he’d figured they were for... tornados or something, they had those here right?

“If you see a ghost you are encouraged to press this button so that the school can evacuate and the correct professionals may be notified.” 

“By that she means us!” Mr. Fenton shouted, popping up in front of the projector. She moved on as if the interruption hadn’t even happened. 

“Whatever you do, do not engage with a ghost. Ghosts are highly dangerous. Even a low level ecto-entity can be a threat to your life and well-being!” Her voice was grave, and practically oozed with conviction. Wes looked over at Kyle, gesturing towards the stage, incredulous. 

“Really? Nothing to say about this?”

“What can I say, they’re pretty dedicated. Dude, Wes, it might be an ARPG, like remember the Halo 2 ‘I love bees' thing?”

“I hate you. This isn’t even anything close to—” 

“Shh!” Someone who sounded like a teacher hissed at them. He turned his attention back to the presentation, annoyed. 

“Now, let’s go over what to do if you think you’ve been possessed or otherwise overshadowed by a ghost! First thing to look for are gaps in memory or consciousness. Changes in mood or violent tendencies can also occur. Keep an eye on your friends and loved ones. Remember that no one is immune to being overshadowed by a ghost, unless you purchase a Fenton Specter Deflector available on our website!” Almost out of nowhere, the woman pulled out what looked like a metal belt. There was silence in response, and she cleared her throat. 

“If you or someone you know has been or is currently possessed please seek help immediately, go to your teachers or parents.” Wes watched as she moved on to the next subject, talking with the fervor and simplicity of an expert. Screw whatever Kyle said, this wasn’t just for shits and giggles or some halloween event. Something was different here. The other students, despite seeming bored, looked like they fully believed her. Maybe people here would actually believe him about what happened when he was a kid. 

The hazy memories crept along his skin, making the hair on his arms stand on end. His dad told him he had an active imagination. He knew it wasn’t that.

“Finally, let’s go over what to do if a ghost fight breaks out!” 

“A ghost fight?” he echoed, brows furrowing. 

“As we’ve said, do not engage or interact with ghosts for any reason—”

“Hey, what about Phantom?” Someone from the crowd shouted. A murmur of agreement rippled through the students. 

“Who’s Phantom?” He wondered out loud, and a guy sitting in front of him turned to give him an affronted look. 

“We strongly discourage interacting with Phantom especially! When it comes to ghosts, it’s simple. There are no good ghosts! Ghosts are ectoplasmic post-human impressions driven only by their obsession! They are not human and don’t care about the havoc they wreak.”  

The crowd murmured again, the disapproval evident. A few kids shouted unintelligible things, but they sounded defensive. Wes didn’t get it, the Fenton lady seemed to know her shit, why argue? 

“Quiet! Quiet please!” Ishiyama called over the voices. Eventually the students settled, and the Fentons wrapped up their presentation. Everyone seemed disappointed that nothing embarrassing happened, until Mr. Fenton underestimated the height of the stage, and face planted onto the gym floor. The students broke into an uproar of laughter, and Ishiyama rushed to the mic to dismiss everyone back to homeroom. Wes couldn’t hold back a laugh, and glanced over to see Danny hunching up his shoulders. If Wes had to describe someone that looked like they wanted to disappear, it would be Danny in that moment. 

The walk back to the classroom was uneventful, though he was pretty sure he heard Mrs. Fenton repeatedly calling out “Danny sweetie!” Wes was really glad he wasn’t that poor bastard, talk about humiliating. He tried to ignore the pang that twisted inside his stomach. Still, it must be nice to have a mom around. 

Fifth period started in four minutes, and Wes was stuck fiddling with the lock on his locker. The damn thing looked like it’d been fished off the titanic. The wheel made an awful squealing noise when he twisted it, and even when the lock popped, he had to yank on it to get it to unlatch all the way. He put in his combo for the third time and pulled. It came undone and if it weren’t for holes on the handle he’d have gone stumbling backwards. He opened the locker and was just about to grab his History textbook, when an ear splitting alarm blasted from the overhead speakers. He jumped and spun around, hands coming up to cover his ears. 

It wasn’t like a fire alarm, instead of the shrill school bell ringing, it was a long whooping siren that echoed up and down the halls like a nuclear strike was incoming. Wes had to hand it to them, it sounded creepy as fuck. The emergency lights flashed in the hallways, and the kids around him started to make for the exits.  

“Your attention please,” an automated female voice came over the speaker, offering  a brief respite from the siren. “A ghost has been sighted in the building. Please evacuate or get to safety as soon as possible.” Holy shit, was this really happening? The siren began its wailing again. His heart thundered in his chest, and he looked both ways up and down the hall. He didn’t see anything, except for Lancer standing at the end of the hall, directing students to an emergency exit. Wes remembered then that Lancer had said something about a “ghost drill”. Of course that’s what this was. Just a drill. Wes let out a shaky breath, and went to close up his locker before he headed out. 

Which in retrospect wasn’t the greatest idea. In less than a second, something changed. The hall felt darker, and the air grew cold. Not cold like someone left the window open, cold like he’d just walked into a meat freezer. It prickled against his skin, and he felt a deep sense of dread sink to the bottom of his stomach. 

“Little lamb…” Murmured a soft voice. It echoed up the hall, and Wes forced himself to turn and look. He shouldn’t have, he really shouldn’t have. It was the shape of a woman, but she was floating a foot off the ground. She had stringy hair, and bangs that partially covered her empty eyes. In her hand looked like a shepherd's crook. Wes slammed his back against his locker, his knees locking up. He felt his hands start to tremble. Not again, he didn’t want the nightmares again.

The hall was empty, the last few terrified kids were gone. 

“Little lamb... separated from the herd… Don’t you know there’s predators?” Her voice echoed unnaturally, it’s clarity sending chills across his skin. She was hardly speaking above a whisper, but it was rough and cracked, like something had happened to her voice. But the thing that was worse was even at barely a whisper, he could somehow hear her over the sirens. Like she was right next to him breathing the words into his ears. 

The alarm cut out and the automated message looped. The woman—ghost lifted her crook to point at him. “Little lambs have to come back home,” she said. The sound of panting and low growling filled the hall. A green shape, low and lean flew out from behind her. It closed the gap between them in three strides flat. It’s eyes glowed red, and white teeth slavered toxic green. Wes’ voice stuck in his throat and he couldn’t scream, he squeezed his eyes shut and hoped he’d wake up.

Wes felt the air stir in front of him, and he heard a meaty crunch followed by a deafening caterwaul. His eyes flashed open to see the mountain lion-like creature picking itself up off the ground on the other side of the hall. And directly in front of him, it was another human shape, another ghost. They had white hair and a black jumpsuit on. 

“Bad kitty! What, did someone forget the catnip?” It was a guy’s voice that echoed around the hall. The shape cast a glance over his shoulder at Wes. He gulped down a breath, it was a boy about his age. His eyes glowed the same neon toxic green that painted the hall in its supernatural light. He looked like he was about to say something, when the big cat hurled itself at his flank. Its massive front paws slammed into his midsection and they disappeared into the wall. 

The shepherd moved towards him, and Wes felt like he was going to pass out or throw up. Maybe both, both sounded okay. She was focused entirely on him as she drifted over the floor. She was four feet away, and the expression etched onto her dead face made his stomach twist. This was worse, this was way worse than even the nightmares. Her empty eyes leaked tears. 

“It’s dangerous. There’s predators.” She lifted a hand like she was trying to reach for him. A blast of green light suddenly filled his vision, and the girl let out a scream. She was slammed backwards into a set of lockers and she slipped down to the ground. Wes’ gaze snapped to where the blast of energy had come from and saw the ghost boy. He was floating six feet off the ground, and his right hand was glowing green. He had a long deep slash across his side that was oozing and dripping globby green ectoplasm. 

“I’ve never seen you before,” he said. “What do you want?” his tone of voice was firm and sharp, it felt like ice. The girl looked up at the boy. She opened her mouth and screamed. It was a raw terrible thing that petered off into an agonized gurgle. The ghost boy arched a brow, but before he could say anything else the Shepherd melted into the wall. 

“Shit,” the ghost puffed. He turned his eyes to Wes and he stiffened again. Right, he wasn’t exactly out of the woods yet. “You must be new here. Piece of advice, run away next time, okay dude?” The ghost boy looked up at the ceiling that still had the alarms blaring and rolled his eyes. In the next instant he shot through the wall where the shepherd ghost had disappeared. 

Wes let out a breath and sunk to the floor, shivering from head to toe. What the hell was that?    

[cinnaminsvga]

Dumbo Preview | Jungkook (M)

→ summary: you know what they say about boys with big noses...

{or alternatively: jungkook has a big dick but he doesn’t know how to use it.}

→ genre: humor/crack, smut → warnings: they talk about dicks a lot (i.e. jungkook has a big dick), DICK MEASURING CONTESTS (aka jk gets his dick appraised... just boys bein’ boys), explicit sexual content, semi-public exhibitionism, handjobs, blowjobs, sub!jungkook, whining, light dirty talk but it’s... not on purpose??, jungkook looks soft but he’s tattoed and pierced, accidental edging (you’ll... understand) → words: anticipated 10-15K → a/n: ...listen. i am not in the right state of mind right now. i am actually bordering on insane... but that’s not gonna stop me from being a clown so this is!! something i’ve been working on for a Year now but @jincherie​ literally commissioned me to finish writing this piece of shit so here we are... here we fucking are... idk when i’m posting this but it will be Soon and i’m not ready

It takes him a while to find an empty stool by the bar and he is unlucky enough to be squished between two couples who don’t seem to be aware that public indecency is a crime. He has to endure being jostled for five minutes straight until the bartender finally notices him and allow him to order his can of coke.

(“Sorry, kid. The banana milk is all sold out. Some girl ordered our entire stock for her friends a few hours ago.” And just like that, Jungkook wants to die all over again.)

He does not know for how long he sits by the bar. Well, that’s a blatant lie, because he knows that he’s been sitting there for 18 minutes and 34 seconds exactly. He’s checked his phone religiously every 2 minutes to see if 2 hours have passed already, just so he can ask one of his stupid friends to go home with him. Perhaps he could coerce Jimin into turning in early for once (which is a pipedream, not when the DJ seems adamant to play Jimin’s favorite Christina Aguilera song 70 times in a row.)

So in short, Jungkook is miserable. He could go home by himself, but also he doesn’t want to end up having to walk to the police station the next morning to bail his friends out after one of them inevitably destroys public property again.

Fuck. Maybe he shouldn’t have thrown away his other drink.

He’s so deep in his thoughts that he doesn’t notice that one of the couples beside him have already left and that another person has taken their spot. He is jarred from his musings when a well-manicured hand is placed delicately on his shoulder, urging him to swivel the barstool around to face his soon-to-be acquaintance.

“Hey,” you say, a sultry smile on your lips. Jungkook feels his mouth immediately fill with cotton as he stares at your beautiful face, the dingy lighting of the club doing nothing to suppress the wicked glint in your eyes.

“Uhh… hey?” Jungkook replies, as charming and verbose as ever. If it isn’t obvious enough, Jungkook is a little lacking in the girls department, or at least, when it comes to girls-who-are-blatantly-flirting with him department. He normally isn’t this socially inept around the opposite gender, but given the connotations of this circumstance, his overactive male brain can only be restrained so much before it starts wandering towards dangerous territory.

It doesn’t help that the neckline of your dress is bordering on obscene, and Jungkook is afraid that if you move one more inch towards him, something very embarrassing might happen to the both of you (probably more so for him, if he’s being quite honest.)

“I couldn’t help but notice you from across the club and thought I should introduce myself,” you explain, gaze unashamedly trailing down his body. Jungkook can feel the heat from you radiating in waves, burning him from the inside out as he tries not to melt into a puddle in a pathetic attempt to get the fuck out of there. 

“You saw me? But it’s… so dark in here…” Jungkook wants to fucking murder himself. That’s what he decides to say to you? God, no fucking wonder he’s a virgin. Good looks really aren’t everything when he doesn’t have a brain controlling the rest of his body. There might as well be a fucking hamster running laps inside of his skull for all he knew.

Thankfully (or unthankfully––God knows Jungkook’s stress levels aren’t lowering any time soon), you find his response funny enough to warrant a chuckle. You bat your eyes salaciously at him, which Jungkook didn’t even think was possible. People can be sexy? When they blink? Apparently, you can do that. 

You shrug your shoulders. “That’s true. You caught me in a lie, I suppose. I actually knew you were coming even before you arrived.”

Jungkook chokes on his own spit then, nearly spraying you with his saliva like the dog that he is. He feels his eyes bugging out of his sockets, his body going tense with nerves. "You... you knew? What... What does that even mean?"

You point over your shoulder, gesturing vaguely at the crowd on the dance floor. "I'm friends with Seokjin over there. He mentioned you were coming with him to the club tonight so I decided to tag along."

"You know Seokjin-hyung?" The alarm bells in Jungkook's head start ringing wildly out of control. Nothing good ever comes out of being friends with Seokjin, especially since his presence alone has the power to make the creases in your brain to smoothen. Take it from someone who's been there, done that.

"Yep," you say, popping your 'p.' "I met him in my first-year English course, though I still don't know why a third-year like him was taking it in the first place."

"It's because he doesn't know how to read," Jungkook says plainly.

"I can tell. He uses voice-to-text exclusively and Siri can never spell Asian names correctly," you shrug your shoulders. "Either that, or he just doesn't know how to spell your name."

"Yea. I'm permanently John Jung Cock on his phone," Jungkook replies. He shakes his head. "Hold on, we were talking about something before this."

"Oh. About how I casually revealed to you that I was stalking you through our mutually insane friend?"

"Y-Yea, basically." Jungkook doesn't even understand what the fuck is happening right now. "I mean! Not exactly? Like, for all I know, you could've just asked hyung who he was coming with and he mentioned my name and––"

"Listen, kid. I straight up just told you I'm stalking you. Let's skip the foreplay and get to the meat of it: I'm literally following you," you say, without an inch of regret, embarrassment, or morality in your tone of voice.

Jungkook, who despite being filled with so much fear and tension enough to kill the small hamster inside his brain, is somehow able to keep his calm in front of the psychopath in front of him. Either that, or he's already in the middle of a stroke and he's lost all his fine motor skills.

"I... I don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything, baby," you murmur, leaning even closer to him until your chest was practically pressed against his. The thin layer of your dress and his well-worn cotton tee does nothing to help the situation (both in general and the one in his pants). He can feel your every curve, can smell the sweet perfume you're wearing; you were enveloping his senses. If he tried hard enough, he could probably count your eyelashes if he so desired with how close you were.

He knows he should probably be running away in terror right now, but he finds himself stuck resolutely to the barstool, unable to move. Maybe Jimin was right... Maybe he did have a fear kink or something.

("Isn't that just called masochism?" Jungkook asks, brows raised.

Jimin only laughs, patting him on the back condescendingly. "Nah, dude. You just straight up wanna die by the hands of a hot person, and I can respect that homie. We all have been there.")

“W-what do you want from me?” Jungkook asks, sweat lining his brow. You’re still looking at him like he was a meal, but he finds he probably doesn’t mind being devoured by you. 

Your wicked grin returns, full force. “I just want to play, Jungkook. But why don’t we discuss this… somewhere more private?”

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

Missin’ You is Terrible-Part 3: Fooled Around

Calum isn’t looking for deep feelings, just for some fun. But he’s pretty sure friends with benefits isn’t supposed to go like this. Black!Female Reader. 

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No one has my permission to repost this fic, including translations. All rights reserved. Copyright © be-ready-when-i-say-go.

_________________________

I am not even five feet away from you. You do not have to text me. 

Calum looks up from his phone, to her--brown eyes, rich brown skin, black hair. She’s sitting in her backyard, at the small desk she set up outside, half her manuscript printed out next to her. The cursor on her screen blinking at her to finish the thought. But she is staring at him, her lips quirked into a bemused smirk. She is staring at him and Duke, who rest at Calum’s feet, enjoying the warmth of the wooden deck, soaking into his back. She is staring at the shy smile that takes over Calum’s face, the little scrunch to his cheeks and crinkle around his eyes. She listens to the soft chuckle that escapes his lips as he reaches out for her, wiggling his fingers. She is captivated by his shyness and allured by his softness. 

“Then why did you text me back?” Calum quips, still signaling for her. 

“Because I am working and maybe too lazy to turn around.”

“And yet, you did so anyway.”

She flips him off, turning back to her computer. Calum laughs at the action and pushes from the steps he’s seated, navigating around Duke. He kneads at her shoulders, kissing the crown of her head. It’s not like beautiful days aren’t a common occurrence in LA, but this past week has been too good to Calum. His days are spent watching her write, watching her edit, writing his own stuff. He gets to wake up next to her; gets to fall asleep next to her. He gets to cook for her. They do laundry together, clean while jazz blares over her speakers. 

She melts under his touch, firm enough, but never too hard on her muscles. Plucking away at the keys, she tilts her head, cheek brushing up and down on his fingers. Calum chuckles at the gesture before pinching the fat on the side of her face. “You’re supposed to be writing,” she mutters, cheeks still between his fingers. 

“I’m helping you,” he says, releasing the flesh. “Clearly.”

“Clearly,” she laughs. Duke barks, running down the steps of the porch, chasing after a bird. They watch him run in the grass until the bird wises up and flies off. Duke stops, watching, waiting. He watches the bird flying. She watches him and Calum watches her. He wishes he could bottle this moment, pack it nicely into a cube, carrying it with him everywhere. So he could never be down, so whenever things did get bad, he could pop it open and be reminded of her smile, of the way her lashes curl as she blinks. Be reminded of the way she inhaled, the way her chest rise with the action, the way her fingers curled around his. So he could always be reminded of her, though it’s not like he already wasn’t. The wind blowing a certain way made him swear he caught a whiff of her scent in his nostrils. 

She turns back to her screen, fingers slipping from around his. Calum walks down to the grassy backyard, but not before grabbing the red ball. The second Duke spots it in Cal’s hand, he perks up, already on alert. Cal gives it a gentle toss, the pup sprinting after it. Yeah, if he could bottle this moment up, he would. If he could drown in it, he’d fight every instinct for oxygen. There’s nothing like this. Duke drops the rubber ball at Calum’s feet, eager for the next throw, eager to push his legs over the grass. 

__ “I can’t believe this. You really--,” 

“Yes,” she interrupts him, swiping her thumb under his eyes. “Yes I really did. Do you know how easy it was to get your family on board with this? All them extended their houses. I was flooded with emails--all eager to help you.”

Calum pushes up from the chair, pulling her over the table to him. She said that months ago--promised him on her living room floor that she’d take him to New Zealand. It’s not that he didn’t believe her. He just didn’t think it’d happen now. But it makes sense. Tour is done. All his other obligations are months from now. He finally gets a chance to breathe. She scoots out around from the corner of the table. He buries his face into her shoulder, arms wind so tight around her that they meet the other side of his chest. 

Something is salty against his lips when he pulls back. His vision is a watery mess. He’s crying-no he’s weeping. Sobs are pressing, squeezing his chest. “Baby, it’s okay. It’s okay,” she soothes, grabbing napkins to clean his face. He knows it’s okay. It’s more than okay. He just can’t stop himself, there’s no words to express how overjoyed he is. She’s doing this all for him. Something he’s always wanted to do; all for him. He wraps her into a hug again. She gently rocks him side to side, trailing her fingers through the shaved sides and back. 

“I’m always good on my word,” she chuckles. 

“God, I’ve gotta pack. What about Duke?” he asks, pushing away from her. His mind races now. He needs someone to watch his house. So does she, or at least someone to come around and water all her plants. She’s such a gardener, if her plants were to die while away, she would be crushed. 

“I thought of this. Just take a breath. Finish your pie, we got time. Flight’s in two days.”

Calum nods, exhaling and finally takes the napkins from her. He stares down at the plane ticket. His chest ignites again, his eyes water yet again. “You’re fucking incredible, you know?” he whispers to her. He doesn’t bother wiping the tears. They don’t matter to him, they don’t change meaning if he clears them away. His chest bubbles, his lips curls, his tongue presses into bottom row of his teeth with three words threatening to spill over his throat. But he stops himself, he pulls his tongue back, he straightens as best he can the wobble to his smile. He can’t say those words just yet. 

It feels right, though, he could. He could say it right now. Should he? She starts wiping his cheeks again, pressing short pecks to his reddening cheeks. He grabs her face, pulling her into his lips. It’s salty, the meeting of their lips, due to his tears. But she smiles, that makes it sweet. He can’t say it right now. But he can show it. He can show all the love he feels, even if he’s terrified of the words spilling pasts his lips. 

__ He knows it hasn’t been that long. A few months at the absolute most, but by God, the boy looks half a foot taller. Calum rubs his eyes looking at his cousin, laughing. “When did this happen? I blink and you’re sprouting like a tree.” He wraps the boy in a hug. 

“Just trying to be like you,” the boy grins. The hug last a long moment, but no one minds. His aunt and uncle crowd around, eager to greet, but patient enough. This is a moment she wishes to bottle, though the air has a slight chill to it and her jacket is just thick enough to keep the majority of the chill out. But the smile on his face makes her chest warm. The way his family wraps him in close to their bodies, grins wide, laughs falling from lips easily. This is the laughter of reunion, the ‘oh my god it’s been so long and you’ve grown so much’ laugh. It’s the ‘the gods have lined up and I’m actually seeing you in the flesh and by god I am elated to see you’ laugh. It’s the ‘if you don’t give me a hug to make sure you’re actually real’ laugh. The awe on his cousin’s face let’s her know they needed this just as much as he needed it. 

She’s the last to be hugged, and profusely apologized too. “We swear we’re not rude,” his uncle laughs, hugging her. 

“It’s quite alright. It’s about him anyway.”

In the car, Calum watches intently at the rolling hilltops as they travel down the road. His fingers are thread through hers, thumb brushing over the skin of her hand. She watches him, watching the scenery. She wonders what he’s thinking. It’s breathtaking for sure. The air feels different in her lungs. But she wonders what is this is doing specifically for him. She squeezes his hand. Calum turns to her, a soft smile resting on the corners of his lips. 

“It’s beautiful. Now that I can actually sit down and see it. I love it,” he says. She nods in agreement. 

“Have you ever seen a Haka?” Calum’s cousin directs to her. 

“Not in person. Just online.”

“Has Calum taught you any Maori?”

“Not yet.”

“Is he really as cool as people say he is? I know he’s a rockstar or whatever. But,” the boy raises his eyebrows. 

She laughs, but nods at the question. Calum’s not paying attention, having turned his gaze back to the grassy hillsides. It’s soon replaced by city streets and sidewalks and the bustle of city life. But even if all the slabs of manmade infrastructure the trees are still powerful and towering.He inhales deeply as they exit the car. Yeah, here is different. Here is reaching through the depths of him, touching something he’s always felt distantly there. Always brushed his fingers over it but never firmly grasped it into his hands. 

Is he ready to grasp it now? Can he? He feels a little like a fraud, he embraced it so powerfully before. But as time has gone on, he’s swallowed it back down. So many times he’s been called Asian, too many times he’s felt himself and others brush aside his Māori blood. Is he a fraud? Or is he just still that seventeen year old boy who’s had his trust shattered? Once so connected but battered down by time, once so trusting but hurt by the very arms he fell into. His lower lip wobbles. 

Her voice is soft in his ear. “Hey, earth to Calum.”

He shakes his head, blinking back the start of tears. “Sorry, just thinking.”

Her nails run down his arm, threading her fingers through his. “Do you want to be left alone? I already put your bag inside. They’re prepping us some food.”

No. Maybe. “Just for a moment please?”

“Of course.” She kisses the back of his hand before unraveling her fingers. The door closes quietly behind her. Calum looks to his hand, his mother’s initials staring back at him. He wishes she was here. She’d tell him that it doesn’t matter how his journey of self-acceptance went, doesn’t matter if he feels like he’s regressed, as long as he still takes the journal. Maybe that’s true. Now he wishes she was here, she’d reassure him, she’d wrap him into a hug and rock him gently. 

Calum turns to the front door and steps into the house. It’s warm, smells like home, feels like home. His cousin smiles at his entrance. He steps through the narrow hallway and standing there next to his uncle is his mother. His knees falter right then and there and he leans into the wall next to him for support. “Mum?” Calum’s voice is so quiet it’s barely audible.

She smiles, opening her arms wide. “I been waiting for you,” she laughs, striding over. 

As they hug, Calum feels like a child again, he buries his face into her shoulder, letting the tears slip down his cheeks. “Oh my God. I’m so happy to see you.”

“Hmm, me too, Calum. Me too. Always happy to see my boy.”  

“I love you,” he whispers, only for her to hear, only for her to latch onto. 

“I love you too.”

Later, they sit in the living room, watching TV. Calum’s got an arm around both her and his mother. They recline into him on either side. This is what he needs. Just time to sit in quiet moments. He can tell by the deep breathes that she’s fast asleep, so he wraps his arm tighter around her body, gently rubbing at the base of her neck, right at the edge of her hair line. She loves that spot in particular. “Mum?” he starts softly. 

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For not being more vocal like I used to be about us. I’m not ashamed. I want you to know that. I guess, I’m just, I grew tired of always been mislabeled. I grew tired of being different.”

She smiles at Calum, resting her head onto his shoulder. “We all grew tired. The trick is to find your energy again. Find a way to become reconnected. And I think that girl in your arms is the answer to that question.”

Calum looks down to the sleeping body snuggled into his side. Maybe she is the answer. “I love her,” he says. It’s easier to say to her unconscious body. She doesn’t have to say it back. He doesn't need her too. He’s not even sure he wants her too right now. He wants to linger in this moment, the reality of the words, but without the expectation for reciprocation. He will linger here, in the freedom of finally letting himself fall, knowing that there’s a net to catch him. 

There’s a knock on the door. Calum snaps awake, instinctively pulling her body closer to him. The door creaks open and Joy pops her head in. “Sorry,” she whispers. “Still some sleepyheads, I see.”

Calum chuckles. “We can be awake bodies in a minute.”

Joy chuckles, waving at him. “Rest.” Then she shuts the door. 

Calum rests his head back onto the pillows, eyes closing, right as a muffled voice whispers into his hear. “Think she noticed I’m not wearing a bra or a shirt?”

Calum chuckles. “We’re adults. It doesn’t.”

“I hope it’s not too lame, but there’s this museum I think we should check out.”

“Are you saying we but really mean you want to check out?”

“Maybe,” she huffs with a sleepy chuckle. 

“Tomorrow?”

“Deal.” They hook pinkies, and then drift back to sleep. When they wake again it’s about one. They get dressed and head downstairs. Calum’s cousin is eager to show them around. So they bundle up before starting out of the house. Calum watches the way she asks questions, the way she tries the words on her tongue. They fall awkwardly from her lips, but after a couple tries she finds her way. He watches the way she takes in the scenery around her. He wonders wha his feels like for her. Is she imagining the battles that might’ve taken place right here on this very grass? Is she thinking about the Maori women and men that walked here before her, trying to piece together their story? What pushed them here? Were they just traveling? Did she wonder what business they attended to? He know he did. He wondered all those questions and more. 

“So yeah, silver ferns are a big deal. But Calum’s got fucked up, so here we are,” the boy chuckles pausing at a bench in the park. 

Calum lets the jab go with a shake of his head. He knows the tattoo was not executed well. But it’s the thought that counts. She settles onto the bench next to the younger boy. They talk, she asks about school, what his favorite subjects. He asks what it’s like to be in a publishing firm, still writing her own work. Calum doesn’t say much, watching the exchange, the ease at which she listens to the boy speaks, the way she listens to understand not just respond. They land on the topic of her most recent project, but she shies away from too many details. “Basically,” she starts, “I’m retelling events from the future perspective. So I’m telling a story as present me to past me with all the things we should’ve said or done to see how the events would turn out differently.”

“So you’re basically time traveling?”

She nods. “Yeah in a way. But it’s not fiction full fledge science fiction, or really fiction. It’s a weird mixture of creative nonfiction and elements of science fiction.”

“It sounds interesting. So are you then showing how things change with the information?”

“I thought about it. But that might push nonfiction too far into fiction, which is not what I want to do. I want to it to be a dialogue.

“Can I read some of it? ”

“If you really want to, yeah, sure. Just pretend you know nothing of course.”

The boy chuckles. “I swear to take it to my grave.”

They talk for a little bit longer before wandering back to the house. The second Calum steps through the door he finds his family lined wall to wall, standing, waiting to greet him. The first sound of a stomp echoes in his brain long after the last cry is shouted, long after the tears cloud his vision. He doesn’t consider himself worth of such a greeting, not a haka. Not him, never him. He doesn’t even realize how caught up he got until he realizes how breathless is, until he feels the sweat rolling down his back in his sweatshirt. 

He looks to find her, to see if he really did what he just did. She always grounds him. She’s panting too, grinning, hugging Joy into her side. “I got roped in,” she laughs. “But god was it beautiful. Is it weird to say I saw a rainbow, like a literal rainbow? I’m pretty sure some might call it a hallucination. But I swear to high heavens, I saw a rainbow over you guys in the beginning.”

“She wanted to join. I could tell,” his mom grins, hugging her tighter. “She caught on fast.”

His cousin holds out his phone. “Caught it all on tape for you, Cal.”

“Calum?” 

He turns to the sound of his baby cousin calling him, feeling her tug on his pant leg. He picks her up with a smile then turns to the boy. “I’ll watch later. Thanks.” His throat is dry, his voice sounds shot. What did he do? It’s almost like his consciousness left him, flew straight out of his head and only re-entered once he was done. He remembers nothing. It’s like someone else took over his body. Maybe someone else did. Maybe he needed the hand of some ancestor to reach into his soul and unlock him fully. 

His mother smacks his hand. It’s not hard. More like a gentle tap, a warning that he really should remove his hand. “You keep stealing pieces and we’re going to have none left.”

Calum laughs but retreats. “But your rēwena is the best,” he pouts. 

“I know it is. Now out.”

Walking out of the kitchen he hears the shouts from a phone speaker. One particularly loud shout echoes above the rest. It sounds like him. But also not like him. Peering over the huddled shoulders, Calum watches himself. It’s him he’s staring at, but his gut tells him that it’s not him. It’s something deeper than them on that screen. It’s more than just joining his family in their greeting for him. It’s everything he’s been afraid of spilling over his throat. It’s the fear of sixteen year old him leaving everything he once knew behind. It’s the frustration of feeling himself disconnecting, but feeling like it’s his only option. It’s the terror of being lost, brushed aside, never understood. 

Calum watches himself, teary eyed but smiling, as he lets it all out. As he finally feels welcomed. He’s home. A place always yearned for, but now felt. Then he finds her, in the corner following along with his mother. He would’ve never had this moment of freedom if not for her. He would still be yearning, still be hurt. Not that he’s fully healed now, but it’s a start. Those words are bubbling again against his lips. He looks around the room for her, but then he remembers that she’s in the kitchen. 

Calling out her name, he starts from the living room back to her. She meets him in the hallway, hands wrapped in a towel. “Is something wrong?” her eyes are a little wide. 

The words are falling over his lips before he can stop them. He cups her face with his palms. He zeros in on the deep, almost black, brown to her eyes. “Kei te aroha au i a koe,” he breathes. 

There’s a chorus of aww’s from his younger cousins. She waits, she thinks she knows what he said. “I am not sure what you said exactly. But I’m going to assume it’s sweet by the reaction it just got.”

Calum closes his eyes for a second, laughing at himself before kissing her lips. “I said I love you.” His lips brush over hers as he speak. It feels so right falling off his lips, over his tongue, pass his teeth. “I love you,” he says again kissing her lips. “I love you.” Kiss to her right cheek. “I love you.” He kisses her left cheek. “I love you.” One final kiss to her forehead. 

It wasn’t supposed to go like this, he knows. He didn’t plan for this to fall in love with her. This was just supposed to be for fun, someone he could enjoy company with and slide beneath the sheets with. They were only supposed to be be fooling around. But he went along, fooled around, and fell right the fuck in love with her. He’ll be damned if he pretends like it bothers him. He’ll be damned if he lies to her or himself about this. He’ll be damned if he doesn’t say it to her. 

“Teach me,” she utters softly. “Teach me how to say it back.”

Calum shakes his head, her cheeks still warm beneath his palms. “You don’t have to say it back in M.”

“I want to. Because I feel the same way. Now how do I say it? I want to learn.”

Calum breaks it down piece by piece for her, watching the way her lips curl to form the words. Her first attempt isn’t great. He fights to keep the chuckle from bursting through. “Give that one more shot,” he encourages, kissing her hands now wrapped in his. 

“Kei te aroha au i a koe,” she whispers. 

He’s never heard a better phrase falling from her lips. “Perfect, you nailed it.”

“Are you guys done? I’m hungry,” comes one of cousins. They laugh and move out of the way, letting the kids by. Calum hugs her to his chest, burying his face into the top of her hair. 

__

After all the museums and nurseries are visited during their visit, Calum and her sit out under the stars the last night before they leave. It’s beyond cold, but they wrap up in layers and huddle together under a blanket snagged from the hall closet. Every breath exhaled is a ghost escaping their nostrils. “Thank you,” Calum says. “I don’t think I can even begin to describe the experience I’ve had.”

“You’re beyond welcome. It’s amazing here. Your family is beautiful and I love them.”

“They are enamored by you. Everyone loves you.”

“I watched the video of the haka again. I still believe there’s a rainbow.” He disagreed with her upon rewatching it. But he did state that he wasn’t fully conscious during all of that, so he’s not the best judge. Others don’t see it, but she refuses to concede. “But I’m pretty sure your soul like ascended or something. That’s what I believe. Watching you even in that moment, I could tell something was taking over you.”

He nods, humming in agreement. “That’s probably better than I could ever describe it.” Then there’s another moment of silence. Calum ought to say more. He wants to say more. He’s just not sure how to say more. So he squeezes her body and she looks up. “I don’t think I’d have enough tongues to tell you thank you enough.”

Her smile is soft. “It’s alright. You can always try.”

Calum chuckles, leaning down. She captures his lips, her cold and his chapped by the unforgiving chill. He grazes his teeth over her bottom lip, pulling on it. She moans against his mouth, arms tightening around him. Their lips don’t say disconnected for long before Calum kisses her again. She swipes the tip of her tongue over his lips. Releasing a sigh, Calum parts his lips for her. One of her hands slips down his crotch, holding onto his thigh. He shivers a little at the touch and because the blanket starts to slip from around them. He’s normally a warm person, but even this chill bites as his skin. 

She pulls away, throwing the blanket back over her body. “It’s cold.”

“Let’s head inside, yeah?” he breathes against her skin, brushing his nose along her jaw, pressing butterfly kisses to her neck. “Think you can keep quiet.”

“I’m less concerned about me and more concerned about you keeping quiet,” she chuckles. 

“You’re right,” he laughs, resting his head onto her shoulder. He knows he can be particular vocal. She holds him tight, occasionally brushing her nails over her scalp. Calum wraps his arms around her waist as she reclines into the railing of the deck for support. “But it’s way too cold to do anything out here.”

“Guess we’ll just have to wait. What a shame.”

Calum closes his eyes, inhaling her scent. “I’m okay with that,” he murmurs. He’s not even sure that the sentence is audible. He’s okay with just sitting in this moment even though it’s cold. She makes him feel connected, feel at home, feel loved. She makes him warm on the inside.

[wildflower-alex]

The shores (C.H.) Chapter 1

Note: I’m reposting this, as the first time it had some troubles. Hit love if you like it!

The night went by with Matthew by her side, his slow snores keeping her awake at the feeling he might die in his sleep. She wished he could die, so she’d be freed and she wouldn’t have to make a choice about their relationship. That was the hardest part, making a choice inside her mind and actually sticking to it. She remembered the tantrums she threw back at his parents house, the times she thought she was crazy or the times he would stroke her skin and make her spine curl. He had a touch she could remember even if she was walking down the street. It was hard not to give him credit on that. Yet, he was destroying her, slowly, but steady, piece by piece, playing with her mind and her memories, gaslighting her, blaming her for everything he’d done wrong. The cheating, the tremendous seek for attention, the excessive amount of time spent to look good for others, these were red flags, but she ignored them as she swam into the deep ocean of his sweet lies.

She finally fell asleep facing his body, tracing imaginary lines along his torso and cursing herself for being indulgent. She felt she loved him, but was it really love? Was it that normal to fight all the time about every aspect of their lives? And on top of all, was it normal trying to get attention from all the females around? Maybe that was normal, but she knew deep down that it felt wrong. She just wanted peace, both around, but inside her soul, too.

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

The rays of sunshine started to hurt her eyes, annoying her that they’ll finally wake her up. After a minute or so, she opened her eyes and saw the curtain moving in the blow of the wind. It was finally peaceful and she could enjoy a morning without grunting and a sore throat. She turned on the other side, but found nothing. She smiled knowing that she was alone, at least for a few minutes. Her hands slowly started to rub her eyes as she stood up in the middle of the small bed.

“Are you ready for the beach?” Matthew’s voice pierced the silence, making her heart to tremble.

“You scared me!” she whispered. “What are you doing there?” she asked as she bent over the edge of the bed to see him laying on his stomach and checking his phone.

“It was hot last night and I slept on the floor. How could you?” he replied.

“How could I what?” she said as her eyebrows furrowed under the words.

“How could you let me sleep on the floor?” he said, a smirk forming on his lips.

“It’s way too early for your shit” she mumbled as she made her way to the bathroom.

The coldness of the water woke her body up and relaxed her muscles. The citrus smell of the shower gel opened her nostrils as she usually enjoyed every perfume caressing her skin. She started to rub away the memories of last night as the foam fell on the ground and sunk down the hole.

“You know what?” he screamed from across the hall. “Forget the beach, I’m literally fried and can’t stay in the sun”.

“I told you to put on some sunscreen and you never, never” she paused and continued “… ever listen to me” she whispered to herself, knowing that even if he heard her, he’d never approve her.

After she stepped out of the bathroom she laid on the bed, thinking about everything. Her phone rang.

“Hey, are you ready yet?” Christine asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in 5 minutes” Sonia replied. At least she got a beach buddy to hang with. She thanked God for Christine’s presence as she put on the bathing suit, then looked in the mirror at Matthew’s reflection. He looked so dumb, she thought, with his hands crossed on the chest, a cushion wrapped around him and his eyes closed, mimicking a deep sleep. So dumb. She quickly grabbed the bag and left the room, not wanting to give an extra explanation. Thankfully for her, he didn’t care enough to ask anything.

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

She was so in love with the sea. Everything about it ignited a warm fire inside her soul, a sweet sensation of pure pleasure and relaxation as she was enjoying the view and the well-known smells of the beaches. The smooth sand burned her bare feet, making her to walk faster to the proximity of the water, where it was colder.

Once finding the spot, they carefully arranged their things and stopped to take a breath. It was idyllic, the invisible line of the sea merging into the sky, forming a deep, enormous blue, perfect to sink in. A blow stroke her face only to mess up her hair, already curled up from the previous days. As she carefully removed the oversized shirt she breathed that she wanted to swim for a bit, leaving Christine behind to arrange their clothes.

When the coldness of the water hit her chest, she felt her heart pounding harder, making her breath to lose the rhythm. The sea was agitated that day, but she managed to stick her feet in the sand, closing her eyes to only feel the water. Waves started to increase, but she enjoyed that feeling of the water slowly rising to her chest and swallowing her entirely. The second after she tried to stand up in her feet and regain her breath a wave hit her with the force of a bull. Her now sunglasses were lost at the bottom of her feet and she furiously started to look around her, on the sand beneath her feet and at the waves around her, but she could only see a figure standing a few feet away from her. She build up the courage and sunk into the water, as her eyes wandered to find the sunglasses. Nothing. She was now angry. Then she felt a pulling motion and her scalp hurting as she took a deep breath out of the water.

“What are you doing? You could’ve drown!” a raspy voice screamed at her from behind her back. It took a second or two to regain her thoughts and understand what happened. She was pulled out of the water by someone. She felt a bulge increasing in her throat and suddenly needed to cough the water out.

“Are you ok?” the man asked as he pulled her body close to his and dragged her onto the shore.

She wanted to answer, to say that she can’t breath so well, but she’s fine, yet her coughing never stopped. A few seconds later, he pulled her body entirely from the water and placed her on the dry sand.

“Oh my god! What happened?!” Christine yelled as she ran to her friend.

“She was under water when the waves hit me and” he paused, trying to catch a breath “…and I thought she might’ve drowned” he ended.

“Sonia? Soni?” she asked, but got no answer.

“Sonia, is that your name? Hey” the man said again. She felt like their discussion took hours, but it was actually a matter of seconds, as she was lucky enough to witness the discussion. The man grabbed her chin and turned her face to his. She was somehow able to think, but her mind was so far away, still thinking about her sunglasses and the water in her nose. She looked at him, but saw nothing.

“Sonia, hey” he harshly added.

Only now her vision was less blurry and more active on the man standing in front of her.

“Yes” she whispered.

“How are you feeling? Can you breathe?” he asked.

“I can” she coughed and shook her head, trying to regain her conscience. “Yes, sorry…”

“You scared the shit outta me!” Christine said, while her eyes laid on the man, only for Sonia to catch a glimpse of her enthusiasm.

“Let’s go sit on a towel, do you have one?” he asked, his eyes never leaving her white face.

“Yes, we do have” Christine pointed out, trying to sweeten her voice. Sonia felt she couldn’t care less about her, but only for the boys. She then stood up and ran to their towels, searching for something in their bags.

As Sonia laid there she finally relaxed her body to exhale and wipe her face. It was that moment she realized what happened, her desire to no longer see the light of the day, her desperate scream for help, as someone grabbed her body and gave her another chance. It was already hard for her to express her feelings, but now it was harder than any other day.

“Thank you” she whispered and decided to look at the person in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat as this man was a gorgeous creature, a very pleasant human being, something you could watch all day long. His most remarkable feature, the eyes, had an almond shape, something with an Asian influence, but wide enough to let his long eyelashes to flutter. He had big lips, as most men do, but his were bigger, revealing the gorgeous teeth he had. A few small moles drawn across those chubby cheeks and strong eyebrows perfectly marked his face, making his caramel skin to glow stronger in the sunlight of the morning.

He smiled, revealing the perfect smile she always searched for. She always looked at people’s smiles, trying to figure out their personalities based on that, and she always concluded that bright, uncensored smiles meant pretty personalities. She loved smiles so much that she was often caught off guard as she would stare at people around. His smile was perfect, that was for sure.

“You scared your friend” he replied as his chest let out a breath, revealing his nervousness. Was Christine that scared? Probably, but not that much as to fear for her friend’s life. “Here, let me take you to your towel” he added and placed a hand on her waist and walked her in that direction. “Now you’re safe, ok?” she nodded. “Ok, girls, Imma leave, please excuse me” he said and she took one more look into his brown eyes and both of them smiled, while his hands slowly stroked the inside of her palm, then walked away.

“He’s so hot, my fucking God”

“What?” Sonia replied, as if she wasn’t there, her mind wandering around the man’s pretty smile and eyes.

“He’s so hot I’d fuck him”

“My God, you’re so desperate” and laughed at the thought of this silly girl trying to get attention from anyone, anywhere, anytime. Her slippery personality was, anyway, showing little by little over the years and Sonia was used to her being needy. Still, she laughed inside knowing the truth, that Christine was a wannabe, always a tryhard, whilst playing the martyr. Whorish, as she’d say.

She laid on her back and pulled a shirt on her face, covering it from the heating rays. While straightening her neck, she took a look in the direction which the men left and saw him, not too far, standing on his feet with a beer in his hand and at the same time he took a look at her direction.” Is he looking at me? Can he see me? No, I’m overreacting” she talked to herself”.

Chapter 2 here

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Little kitty on the roof who could see spirits- Adrien AUGreste Day 8

So I was gonna do this day but then couldn’t think of anything so I wasn’t going to, then when I was trying to think of an idea of what to do for day 9, I was thinking of, oh dinner for his mom’s birthday and then I thought of Ghost Whisper and when Melinda was thinking about his grandmother when her birthday was coming up and suddenly, I had to do this prompt, but with a much different twist. There is a minor mention of death. Hopefully you enjoy. @adrienaugust Little Kitty on the Roof

“Little kitty on the roof, all alone without his lady.” Adrien hummed to himself as he walked through campus of his university. He just got out of his Ancient Asian History class and he had time before he’d met with his friends for dinner and he didn’t want to go back to the mansion. He was sure his father found out about him moving out. He didn’t want to deal with that.

“What’s that song you’re singing?”

“Ahh!” he spun around to see a little girl staring up at him. There were a few factors that made something very clear to Adrien. One was that everyone passing looked at him, not her. Another was the clothes she was wearing. They suited the time period the university had first been built. The last one was the burst of emotions he was feeling. Ones that didn’t belong to him, but to the spirit of the little girl in front of him. He pulled out his phone and placed it on his ear before gesturing for the little girl to follow him.

“Oh, me?”

He nodded as quickly as possible before walking off, hoping she’d follow.

“So, what was that song? And why can you see me? I’ve been here a long time and no one’s been able to see me.”

“Let’s just say I’m different. I can see people like you. Come on.”

It was easy to find an out of the way bench so he wouldn’t have to have his phone pressed against his face the whole time.

“The song?” she asked again.

He let out a sigh. “It’s from a legend. My mom has been able to see ghosts or earthbound spirits since she was a child, same time I could see them. she did a lot of research and found a story about the first two people who claimed to see spirits. It’s said that they could do it with these artifacts. The little kitty refers to one who loved the other seer with all his heart. Unfortunately, his lady didn’t feel the same. She actually used the artifacts to bring back someone who died that she’d fallen for. The song is a warning about falling for someone.”

“Oh.” The little girl said. “That’s so sad.”

“Well,” he said thinking about Nathalie and his father’s change in relationship after his mother passed. He loved Nathalie, but it was always a sore spot that his father grew much closer to Nathalie not long after his mother’s passing. “It seems to be the truth. Now, how about you? why are you still here?”

As he listened to the girl explain his story, he thought about what she’d said. It was sad that the seer had one sided love. After seeing what his father had done after his wife’s passing and the extra struggles from just growing up with people thinking he was strange, not to mention the one time he trusted someone with his secret only for it to blow up in his face, it felt all too real. Who’d want to date a guy who saw the dead?

                                ____________________________

Getting woken up at 2 am to a fire wasn’t the best thing in the world. Though according to the fireman who came to corral him and others on his floor out of the building, the fire was taken care of but the interior had collapsed into the next building.

“Keep moving please.”

“Ah!” Adrien yelped as one of his slippers fell off. Before he could get it, the fireman directing them scooped it up and pushed him over to the other side of the caution tape. “Hey, I can walk myself.” The minute he was on the other side, his slipper was thrown on the ground with a tired ‘you’re welcome’ from the firefighter.

Adrien huffed and broke the rules by going on the opposite side of the tape to get his slipper. He’d dealt with rude spirits, but it was always the living that made his temper rise with their attitude. He moved to text Nino and the others when he heard his name being called.

“Adrien! Adrien!”

“Mme. Night? What’s wrong?” M. and Mme. Night were neighbours on his floor. While for the first couple weeks, people had been clamouring to see the former model, the Nights had easily beat the crowds back, all while offering him home cooked meals and checking up on him.

“My husband! He’s still inside!” the woman cried, her white hair seeming perfect for being woken up so early.

“Are you sure? Maybe he went around the corner?”

“No! he’s still in there! He’s at the bottom of the stairs!”

That’s when he felt it, the rush of emotions. Mme. Night was dead, but she wouldn’t move on until she knew her husband was safe. It was the least he could do to help the couple who looked after him.

He ducked underneath the tape again, heading toward a fireman who pulled his helmet off to reveal black hair with faded blue and aqua blue eyes. “Excuse me?”

“Sir, you’re supposed to be behind the barricade.” Adrien could tell from the voice it had been the rude one from earlier.

“There’s a man inside.”

“No there isn’t. everyone’s been cleared out.”

Using the same voice, he did with people who would be stubborn about the messages he had, he said, “Yes there is. Please believe me.”

It must have gotten through because the fireman stopped a passing co-worker and the two went back inside. He let out a breath and ducked back, going to the woman’s spirit.

“It’s on the first floor.” She kept moaning, clearly worried.

“They’re going to find him.”

Not long after, some announcement came through the radios as all the fireman stopped and even the hose was shut off. Everyone stood in tense silence before another announcement came through.

“We get 2, we found them!”

Before he knew it, the firemen came out supporting M. Night, sounding weak and coughing but alive. Mme. Night was fireman carried out and placed on a stretcher, confirming what Adrien knew. She was gone.

“I want you to check on him ok?” Mme. Night asked.

“I will, I promise. Thank you, for looking out for me. I won’t forget that.”

“I also hope you won’t forget how special you are. My husband isn’t going to keep trying to find you someone so you’d better keep looking ok?”

He wanted to roll his eyes, like he usually did when the question came up, but he couldn’t find it in himself to do that now. “I will.”

He watched as she passed where her husband was, passed the same rude fireman who was checking over him with such comfort, he didn’t think it was the same person. She walked into the building and when she walked into the light, the ripple of power caused one of the windows above to shatter. He had to be the only person who didn’t flinch and he noticed a pair of aqua blue eyes looking at him. He looked away, mostly to hide his tears.

Little kitty on the rooftop, all alone without his lady. Being alone seemed to be a theme for him.

                                               _________________

Nino and Alya and even Marinette insisted he stay at the DJ’s apartment longer. It was nice to talk to the only friends he had who knew about his ability and talk about Mme. Night. After the funeral though, with M. Night moving in with his daughter, Adrien knew he had to get back to life. Of course, all the snow and the week long sleepover left his refrigerator in shambles. He needed to go shopping, even if it happened to be pouring out. He was actually glad he didn’t take his mother’s umbrella as a sudden gust of wind turned his umbrella inside out, whacking someone he didn’t see until the last minute. One certain familiar fireman. With all the soot no longer on his face, he was able to see the piercings in his ears and the small holes on his bottom lip.

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Please, let me. I can fix that. Remember me?”

“Yeah. You threw my slipper at me.”

At least he looked ashamed. “Tossed.” He looked even more ashamed as he broke one of the pegs, rendering the umbrella useless. He was glad he didn’t bring his mother’s own out even more. “Sorry. I’d be glad to buy you a new one.”

“Uh huh. I hope you’re better at putting out fires. It’s fine though.”

“I’m Luka. Luka Couffaine.”

“Adrien Agreste.” Other than a raised eyebrow, Luka blessedly didn’t ask any questions. “I should go.”

“Where to?” well, wasn’t someone Mr. Eager?

“An umbrella and groceries. I was at my friends’ place for a week and everything went bad, not to mention my place is covered in soot.”

“You know, I’m pretty starved. Let me take you out for something?”

“In this rain? Every place would be crowded.”

“Ever hear of the Umbrella Room?”

The Umbrella Room turned out to be Andre’s ice cream cart, but honestly, Adrien was fine with ice cream for dinner. Luka was turning out to be quite different than he thought. He was actually really nice and cute and he made Adrien feel comfortable.

“Ice cream for dinner, I can hear Nathalie crying.”

“I think she can forgive you.” Luka took Adrien’s wrist, making a circle around it with his fingers. “If my mom saw you, she’d try to stuff you full of food.”

“I’m always happy for a home cooked meal. But I have a feeling it might end up in a few fires?”

Luka laughed. “There’s a reason I joined the Fire Station. I want to be transferred to the Paramedics division though.”

When he was a sullen person, Adrien could easily see that.

“I have to ask though. You knew that old man was still inside. How?”

Adrien shrugged. “Lucky guess. I knew them and didn’t see them.”

Luka shook his head, keeping his gaze on Adrien. “No. You definitely knew they were there. Will you ever tell me?”

He wasn’t demanding an answer like most. He was waiting for Adrien to give him an answer.

“One day.”

                                        _______________________

“He sounds like a dream.” Alya teased as he joined his friends for the last bits of lunch before their shared English class. He’d already had lunch with Luka at the fire station.

“He’s…nice. Ok, more than nice. I haven’t felt this great since, you know.”

“Do you think you’d ever tell him?” Nino asked.

Adrien played with his ring. “I don’t know. I mean ‘little kitty on the roof’ and all that.”

“Please tell me you don’t still think that story is true? Just cause you see ghosts doesn’t mean you’ll be alone for the rest of your life. I know you’re are still upset about how quickly your dad moved on, but you know how in love with her he was. And that relationship with they-who-will-not-be-named doesn’t count. We never liked them and you said your mom didn’t either.” Alya said.

It was funny she mentioned his mom. It hurt that she was still Earthbound but he’d been so stuck on the song she’d taught him, she never thought he’d take it so seriously. She told him she wasn’t going anywhere until he saw he could be happy with someone. After his first official date with Luka, she appeared and wouldn’t stop talking about him like the sun rose and set on him. So far, there was nothing to dissuade her but still. It was kinda embarrassing.

“She’s right Adrien. You were so scared out of your mind to tell us and nothing we’ve heard so far says he would be worse than, you know. Plus, it sounds like he’s so gone for you. I don’t see him using any artifact to bring back a dead lover.”

“Well.” He started, remembering the long-haired guy he’d seen around Luka at times. “Not a dead lover. There’s definitely love when I see him, but it’s familial love.”

“Wonder what he thinks of you?” Alya said. “But seriously, forget how this kitty is lonely without his lady ok? You are happy with your lord. So, stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

He didn’t have to see his mother to know she agreed.

So, when Luka called him, telling him he had news one day and he saw that ghost hovering near him, he decided to take a chance.

“Luka, I’m so proud of you! you got the transfer you wanted.”

“Which means I’m a rookie all over again but it’s fine. Medical school was way too much for me but I still want to help people and now I can.” The ghost looked proud of him too. “Adrien, is something wrong?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just…this is gonna sound really random, but did you lose someone in your life?”

Luka looked confused. “Um, yeah. My older brother, Sass. Why?”

Adrien took a deep breath. The last time he did this, it blew up in his face and he didn’t know if he could live through that again. “He has long hair, same blue eyes as yours and snake bites. Wearing something an 80s child would be proud of.”

Luka looked really confused now. “How do you know that?”

“This is gonna sound really weird, so just bear with me here ok? I can see ghosts or Earthbound Spirits, as my mom called them. Always have been since I was a kid. The reason I knew M. Night was still inside the night we first met? The spirit of his wife came to me and told me so. That’s why they were both there. She had passed on and she couldn’t let her husband to pass on. I’ve seen your brother around you and…”

“tell him I still remember him stealing my violin. He broke a string and wouldn’t give it back until he figured out how to redo it.” Sass told him.

“You stole his violin and when a string broke, you wouldn’t give it back until you fixed it.”

Luka hadn’t pulled away from him, though he kept shaking his head. “How do you know that?”

“Tell him he actually looks better with snake bites than I thought. I kept poking at him that he wouldn’t wear them as well as I did.”

He told him what Sass said and it seemed to click for Luka. “You can see ghosts, spirits sorry. Mom hated Sass’s snake bites and Juleka wouldn’t even consider piercings until she found some pairs she loved from Mom’s collection. You’ve been doing it since you were a kid?” Adrien nodded, feeling the nerves starting to slip from him. “But wait. I guess you help them move on, right? Sass died when I was 10. Why is he still around?”

“I stayed to keep an eye on my family. Once I knew they were happy, I knew I could go. Luka was there when I died though. He still blames himself.”

Adrien felt for Luka. To hold on to those feelings and still be willing to give a smile. “He stayed to make sure you and your family was happy before he left.”

“He’s still waiting on me, isn’t he?” Adrien nodded, and Luka let out a wet sounding laugh. “God, he’s so stubborn. Please tell me he didn’t tell you to date me.”

“No! no, he didn’t. I’ve been so scared of dating people. Last person I dated and told about my, um, secret, threw it in my face and made me feel like I wasn’t worth it.”

“Then they’re an idiot.” He said like he was stating a pure fact. He couldn’t help but feel his heart warm that. “I’m not going to change my mind about how I feel about you, even if you didn’t see my brother. I haven’t felt as happy as I am now until I met you. I don’t think that’ll change anytime soon.”

Maybe this little kitty wouldn’t be so lonely after all.