#honestly why were they still playing up to this point. everyone and their mother was saying that that update singlehandedly killed the game

[rubyrhythmposts-archive]

looked at the google play reviews for the game. and atp idk what people want from rhythm hive

[lordprettyflackotara]

Follow You || Chapter One || Eyeless Jack

syn:Eyeless Jack has found himself becoming more isolated over the years, distancing himself from everyone and everything. He considers himself an unforgivable monster, one that shouldn’t be a burden to anyone else. After leaving Slender’s mansion and wondering aimlessly through the woods, he stumbles upon a drunken girl in danger. After saving you, he finds himself completely infatuated with you. You’re strikingly similar to him, even attending his old college. He battles an internal debate as he falls for you, deciding whether or not to burden you by staying. While Jack fights his internal turmoil, old enemies from an all too familiar college come out to play. Will Jack be able to defeat his oldest enemy? Will he be able to overcome his self conscious fears to save you? You’d better hope so, since the cult for Chernabog is back and you seem like the perfect sacrifice.

tw: reader has common sense, mostly

a/n: not me writing a mc whose not a hopeless simp lmaoo

The sun was too mother fucking bright. 

You groaned, squinting in disgust at the suns rays beaming through the window. Your thoughts were  cloudy, your mind in a dazed state. Your vision began to settle, your heart racing as the gears in your brain began turning. You didn’t recognize your surroundings at all. With your heart thudding against your chest you sat up, alarmed as you climbed out of the bed. Panicked, you looked down at your body. Thankfully you were still fully clothed, bandages covering your sore knees. What the hell did you get yourself into? You swallowed as your bare feet hit the floor, those bandaged as well. You were surprised to realize you weren’t being physically restrained, the bed you were laying on quite neat compared to the rest of the room.

Unsurely you looked around, grabbing a nearby lamp. It looked questionable, possibly over a few decades old. You yanked the cord out of the wall, bracing yourself as you stepped towards the bedroom door. Your escape was interrupted, Jack happening to walk in at the same time. He could hear your heart racing a mile away, so naturally he came to check on you. You stared up at him in terror, your eyes darting back and forth as you stared up at the ominous black empty holes of his mask. Jack awkwardly cleared his throat, his eyebrows raising at the sight of your knuckles turning white from gripping the lamp so hard. “Hello, how are you feeling?” He asked, trying his hardest to keep his voice even. You looked absolutely bewildered and although the situation not ideal, Jack couldn’t place why. “How am I feeling? What the fuck is this? Who the fuck are you?” You hissed. 

Jack raised an eyebrow under his mask at the sight of you bouncing your weight back and forth on each foot as you stared at him defensively. You appeared to be ready to attack, although Jacks hands were shoved in his hoodie pocket. “My name is Jack. You passed out drunk in the forest last night. I brought you to my cabin to ensure you wouldn’t be devoured by local coyotes,” He answered honestly. Your face softened for a moment, your grip on the lamp loosening. Jack tilted his head to the side as he pointed at the lamp. “Would you mind putting that down? Its quite sentimental to me,” He asked. Sentimentality meant a lot to humans. In this instance it was a thorn in his side if it was broken and he needed to get another. The last thing he desired was to live off of candlelight. You slowly set down the lamp, your gaze fierce as you refused to look away from Jack. 

“Don’t you think it’s kinda creepy and off putting to live in the middle of the woods and wear that mask?” You asked bluntly.  Jack couldn’t quite understand why this was your question. You were a lot more feisty and logical sober. “Dont you find it quite unsafe to become so intoxicated you wander into forest miles away from civilization?” He quipped, matching your energy. This seemed to humble you a bit, your shoulders dropping as you crossed your arms. “You’ve never been to a Mark Wilder party I assume. Everyone gets trashed. I followed some guy into the woods, I don’t remember where he went. I think I was trying to follow him or something,” You explained. While intelligent you seemed to lack ‘street smarts’. You placed your hand on your head, rubbing your temple. Your head was relentlessly pounding, your eyes squeezing shut. Jack wondered if you felt as awkward as he did.

“Would you like tylenol? I have some down in the kitchen,” Jack offered. You rubbed your eyes, overwhelmed. “Wait so i’m not like, trapped here or anything?” You questioned. Jack turned around, anticipating you to follow him. Curiously you did so, ignoring the stinging from the wounds that rubbed against the bandages. You followed him down a dusty staircase, each wooden slab creaking under your weight. You couldn’t help but let your eyes wander around, noticing the mountains of dust that coated the paintings that covered the walls. “This is your cabin?” You asked slowly. Jack could hear the disbelief and fear lacing your words. You followed closely behind Jack as he turned into the tiny kitchen. To your dismay it looked like it hadn’t been used in ages, the stove rusted and fridge humming so loud you anticipated it to explode. “Mostly. I visit often, but never stay for long,” Jack answered honestly. His explanation may have been vague, but he couldn’t violate too many of The Operators rules. 

He handed you a bottle of tylenol as well as a bottle of water. Both of which he had stolen from a nearby gas station before the sun came up. Jack had studied alcohol and its affects to the human body. While he couldn’t become intoxicated as easily, he was forced to study it due to Masky’s temporarily alcoholism. He had stolen saltine crackers (just a sleeve, not the whole box), a bottle of water, and tylenol. The cabin was just lucky enough to have faint electricity, he knew anything a fragile human girl would need would not be readily available. Hesitantly you took the bottle, satisfied to see it had been unopened. You popped two of the pain killers like candy, chugging the bottle of water. You leaned against the rusted dishwasher, opening the sleeve of crackers. “So, aren’t you going to ask me my name or anything?” You asked. You weren’t buying the whole savior act. You weren’t aware Jack wasn’t attempting to sell you any sort of act. Underneath his mask he was feeling extremely awkward, unsure how to interact with you.

With each passing second he could hear your heart beat, the blood flowing through your veins. It became hard for him to focus, the demon thrilled you decided to begin a civil conversation. “I don’t need to. Your backpack provided that for me,” Jack explained. He reached over the counter, grabbing your backpack from a dusty bar stool. Dust particles floated carelessly in the air as he held it up. Your name had been stitched onto the front pocket, courtesy of your mother. You felt heat flush to your cheeks, mumbling a thanks as you took it from him. Popping a cracker into your mouth you grabbed his wrist, stopping him from concealing his hand. Jack froze under your warm touch, your eyes curiously examining his skin. “Argryia,” He stated dryly. He silently hoped you wouldn’t recall your own theory.  Your eyes seemed to flicker at the word, a sense of recognition igniting them. “That’s absurdly unlucky. Do you know how rare that is?” You asked curiously. It was as if your interest had peeked, Jack analyzing you as you studied the color of his hand. 

“All too well unfortunately,” Jack responded. He watched you stroke your thumb over the harshness of his skin, before pulling away. “Well if it makes you feel any better I understand the whole cabin in the woods mask thing now,” You sighed, resuming your attention back to the bottle of water. Jack was mesmerized as he watched you gulp down the bottle as if you were dying of thirst. “If I may ask, how do you know what argryia is?” He asked you. It was irresponsible for him to engage in anything beyond a mild conversation with you. Slender would be far from happy if he found out. You swallowed the cracker you were nibbling on, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand. “I’m a med student at Harvard. I’m gonna be a doctor some day,” You explained, taking another sip of your water. Jacks interest was peaked. You were attending the same university he did ages ago for an identical major. “Speaking of medicine, how did you bandage me up so well? If I didn’t know any better i’d think you were a doctor yourself,” You said. Jack couldn’t help but feel his heart skip a beat at your flattery. 

“Medicine is my pride and joy. I’ve studied it for years,” He answered. While he was answering honestly he was beating around the bush. While you seemed harmless, he knew humans were prone to gossip. Sharing stories with one another formed stronger bonds. He had no doubt this would be one you would be sharing. “Well Dr.Jack, as fun as this has been I think it’s time for me to bounce,” You say, shoving your backpack over your shoulders. Jack anxiously followed behind you as you turned towards the front door. “Do you know how to get back?” He asked unsurely. Maybe he was hovering too heavily, but he felt an odd urge to look after you. The sun may have provided some form of a safety net, but Jack knew what creatures lurked in these woods. One wrong turn and you could cross the threshold into Slender’s forest, where The Rake would have a field day with you. You dug into your backpack, taking out a cracked iphone. It was on a smooth five percent, multiple missed calls and text on your lockscreen. “I have GPS, i’ll be fine,” You assured him. 

You stepped onto the porch, the wood rotting from age. You looked over your shoulder at the demon, his eye sockets wide. “Thank you for everything Jack, i’ll see you later!” You said cheerfully, biting into another cracker before stepping down onto the forest floor. Jack tried not to hover too much, truly. He was sure you were uneasy from being in a cabin with a stranger. Even if his intentions were pure, he knew what monsters lurked in the shadows that loved to prey on a pretty face like yours. So Jack said nothing, waving goodbye as you traveled into the forest alone. Jack would’ve loved for that to have been the end of it. He would’ve thought that he would never see you again, allowing you to be on your way. That’s how it should’ve gone. 

But it didn’t.

As stealthy as he could he followed you, from a safe distance of course. You appeared to be studying your phone, the sun rays blocking out whatever was on your screen. Jack opted to use the trees above as leverage, jumping from each branch with ease. The crunching of the previously fallen leaf’s would be a dead giveaway, traveling by tall trees much safer as to not be caught. From what Jack could tell you were blissfully oblivious as you traveled, carelessly heading north. Jack sighed as he watched you. Did humans have no sense of awareness at all? Although he didn’t expect you to catch him following you, he did expect you to look around every once in a while. Instead your attention was glued to your phone, as a majority of humans were. He knew most of them spent their time focused on their cellar device but he couldn’t help but question how any humans had made it this far if this was the base level of survival skills. He silently trailed behind you, attempting to not stay on one tree branch for too long. If he did the leafs were bound to fall, exposing him.

Jack wasn’t proud of himself for following you. If anything your hesitance to trust him was proven correct based on his behavior. Although the demon inside of him was purring with satisfaction of stalking, Jack fought his primal urges internally. He knew his intentions were pure, even if the demon lurking in the depths of his being craved something more sinister. Jack was pleasantly surprised to find that you had found your way back to civilization, the Harvard campus attached to these woods. He was slightly impressed that a human of your stature had traveled miles without complaint or sign of slowing down. He managed a small smile as he watched you join the hoards of students, disappearing in the waves of students traveling every which direction. The sounds of voices, heartbeats, and pumping blood began to feel overwhelming, causing the demon to turn away. 

Slender wouldn’t be happy, he knew that. But he felt a sense of ease for the first time in a long time. He had spent his time doing something good. Something morally good. Something impactful. Meaningful even. He walked back the rest of the way, a certain weight slightly lifted off of his shoulders as he strolled. He could feel his stomach growl, the demon cracking his neck at the sound. For once his hunger wasn’t the priority, but an afterthought. He gleamed with a sense of pride as he made it back to the cabin, making sure he had locked it. Slender had multiple run down cabins littered throughout the nearby forest, just in case a creep or proxy was injured. It was meant to look run down and abandoned, so no nosy humans would investigate. Jack’s footsteps echoed throughout the hollow cabin as he checked the back door, a surprise gasp escaping his lips. He had nearly tripped over your heels, his eye sockets widening.

Shit.

Well, if Slender was pissed now he knew this would send him into a fit of rage. Jack didn’t know much about fashion but your shoes looked expensive, even if he didn’t recognize the name brand. He was going to return them to you, putting his and all the creeps' risk of exposure on the line. He couldn’t describe the feeling, but he had an odd sense of relief wash over him knowing he would see you again.

[a-romantics-guide-to-life]

⋆⟡˚ ཐི⋆♱ 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 ♱⋆ཋྀ ˚⟡⋆

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: dad coriolanus snow x fem reader

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: parent life with coryo has been a blessing and a curse due to his political status and long work days so imagine your surprise when he finds time to take your kids trick or treating

𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬: tooth rotting fluff, softie dad coryo, trick or treating, "family costume" based on the addams family (didn't really mention it though), bullying, coryo being a very protective dad

𝐚/𝐧: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! hope everyone has an amazing day and here is my final treat for all of you! i am honestly so surpirsed i actually finished all of this and i hope you enjoy the grand finale of this years flufftober!!

𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟-𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

“Come on Melody darling, we gotta go if you wanna go out!” You yell from the family room of your house.

“OKAY MAMA, ONE SEC!!!” Your daughter yells from her room. You shake your head, turning to the clock that pointed to the time of nearly nine PM. You shook your head, your darling two year old son, Jasper, raising his arms to you from your feet where he stands. You smile at him, picking him up, his arms coming to play with your silky hair that lay softly on your collar. He babbles “pwetty ‘air” as his small hands run through the perfect waves.

If only Melody would hurry up.

If only Coriolanus would hurry.

It was nothing new for your President of a husband to be staying overtime with the senators and other politicians on Halloween of all days. You knew exactly what you were signing up for when you signed that marriage contract. In fact, you knew much much earlier when you and Coryo had started dating during your time at the Academy. You knew that no matter how much he loved and valued you and his family, he’d always work so hard, too hard, just to make all of you proud. You knew that he loved you so much that he dedicated the quiet dark of his nights just to be with you while slaving away his days to achieve that dream that, not too long ago, felt so far away. 

You made sure your children knew that as well.

“Dada,” Jasper smiled, turning his brilliant blue eyes towards you. He had inherited all your looks, from your hair all the way down to the curve of your nose but his eyes were all his fathers.

You smile, pressing a warm kiss to your son’s cheek. “Yes, don’t worry darling, your papa is on his way here right now.”

“Is he really Mama?” Your daughter asked, you smiled at the girl who was now standing on the couch, not too far away from where you stood. You smile, carrying her with your other arm, noticing how she runs her fingers through her blonde curls much like her father. Her hair, a little messy from running around her room and downstairs.

“Why, of course he is baby. You know how bad traffic can get. I’m sure he’s running home right now on his own two legs.”

Jasper and Melody laugh, hugging you. You smile, setting them down and bringing Melody to sit on your lap so you can fix her twin braids. 

You knew Coriolanus wouldn’t be able to make it tonight, he had one of the most important meetings of his presidency tonight. Yet, it didn’t hurt to wait and you still had to fix Melody’s attempt at braids.

Jasper wobbles on his feet, walking to the coffee table in front of the TV to grab his bag. 

Melody hums as you braid her auburn hair, the color similar to Coriolanus’ mothers apparently. 

When you were pregnant with Melody during the beginning of Coriolanus’ campaign for President, you were so worried. The actual pregnancy was so so so painful, for you and Coriolanus. Many times he had urged you to terminate, making sure all Panem's best doctors were five minutes away in case anything went awry. Coriolanus barely slept at night, watching your form sleep curled up to his side. He watched in trepidation for even the slightest tell of pain. But it never came, not that that would stop Coriolanus from watching his beautiful wife sleep. that stopped him from watching his beautiful wife rest peacefully.

The actual birth of your darling was terrifying for Coriolanus. You had been in so much pain during your third trimester and hearing your cries and wails as you pushed Melody out scarred Coriolanus forever. 

He especially felt fear when you had gotten pregnant with Jasper. Coryo’s own mother didn’t make it out of the second birth, so imagine his fear after you smiled at him announcing your second child. 

You two had an enormous fight about it which ended with Coriolanus sleeping in his office for nearly a week while you could barely care for five year old Melody who always asked for her papa and why “mama and papa not talking to each other? You sad, mama?”

You nearly broke under the pressure, especially when you two had to attend the last minute dinner party of one of the senators with Melody in tow. You had forced laughs and smiled so artificially in your elegantly dark gown, the color a silent nudge at the growing rift between you and Coriolanus.

But by the end of that night, you were so exhausted from walking around on shards of glass, you carried Melody to the car, setting her down to lay in your lap before letting the dam overflow. Coriolanus had never seen you so low, he knelt in front of you after you brang Melody to your bed, hugging your tummy and nuzzling his face into your belly. He apologized so profusely, you wondered if that was all he could say.

Suffice to say that after that night, Coriolanus vowed to never again make you cry as you did on that tortuous ride home where you dug your palms flat against your eyes, sobbing softly while sniffling quietly.

“There you go Melody. Do you like them?” You asked having finished the second braid.

You reach for the mirror on the coffee table, holding it up to show your daughter her hair. She squealed, taking the mirror before bolting to where her brother stood. She held the mirror in front of her brother, Jasper turning his head slightly in the mirror watching his reflection. 

“Lookie, Jas! You as handsome as Papa and I’m pretty as Mama.” She giggles, setting the mirror down before dancing with her younger brother, squeals of joy filling the air.

“That you are my little snowflakes.” A deep voice rumbled from the doorway.

Jasper and Melody squeal even louder, if that possible, and run to their father who stands in the doorway. He smiles, bedding down in his pressed black and gray pinstriped suit, wrapping his strong arms around your two children, hoisting them up. Jasper hugs his fathers neck, nuzzling his face into the crook of Coryo’s neck while Melody smacks a kiss to his cheek before wrapping her arms around her brother and her father.

You smile at the scene, Coriolanus’ deep blue eyes meeting your own as he walks over to you. He plops the kids onto the couch before stepping right in front of you. His hands fall to your hips where the delicately black fabric wrinkles, accentuating your figure.

“Hello darling.”

“Why hello mister President.”

He barks a laugh, smiling down at you. He leans in, kissing you softly on your forehead, making his way to each cheek before finally kissing your nose.

You pout, “no kiss on the lips Coryo?”

He smiles, his hand coming to hold your cheek. “Wouldn’t want to mess up your perfectly vicious red lip now would I?”

“Good thing it’s kiss proof then, isn’t it?”

He growls before, bringing his hand to your nape, tugging you forward to meet his lips in a savage kiss. You hear Melody gasp before slapping her hands over what is probably her little brother's eyes.

His lips ravage yours, your hands flying to his chest, roaming the expanse. ALl that could go through either of your heads was mine. His hand comes up to your lower back, rubbing soothingly up and down knowing that ever since the birth of his two gems, your back hasn’t quite been the same.

“MAMA PAPA, CAN YOU PLEASE HAVE THIS MOMENT LATER?! WE NEED TO GOOOO!” Melody yells, wedging herself between yours and Coriolanus’ legs. 

Coriolanus finally lets up, heavy breathing and near panting filling the small space between yours and Coriolanus’ faces.

“Ma, Pa, kiss kiss.” Jasper says as he stalks over to your legs, grabbing the black fabric of your dress, arms stretched up to you. You chuckle, picking your baby up.

“Yes, Ma and your Pa were kissing.” You nuzzle his cheek, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Come on Mama, Papa, can we please go? They gonna run out of candy before we get there.” Your daughter runs to the door, slipping on her boots, candy bag in hand.

“Slow down there snowflake, don’t want you to melt before you get out there, do we?” Coriolanus pats her head as she turns her face to look up to her fathers, her eyes mirroring into her own.

“Okay Papa, I’ll slow down.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Trick or treat!” Melody and Jasper yelled, along with the other kids that had reached that particular door.

“Oh my, what a wonderful group of children I see.” The woman who opened the door exclaimed, handing each and every child at her door at least five candies each. Melody shouted thanks before walking over back to where you and Coryo stood waiting for them by the sidewalk.

“Oooo Papa, can we go to that house over there? And the other one? And the other one?”

“Of course we can have my little gem, but are you sure your bag will be able to hold all that candy?” Coryo raised his eyebrows even though you and Coryo both knew that you had each brought an extra bag for the kids knowing just how long they’d want to stay out walking door to door to get some free candy.

“Of course it can Papa!”

“Okay then Melody, we can go to every single house in the Capitol then. If that is what you want of course.”

“Mama said we should definitely stop by Mrs.Plinth house so can we go there after this street?”

Coryo raises his eyes to meet yours, a sheen of unshed tears brimming his eyes.

“Okay darling, we can go visit Ma Plinth’s if you’d like.”

Melody smiles, a brilliant smile, at her father. She runs off to the next house, her brother in tow. The subtle (although not really invisible, just in disguise) bodyguards follow the young kids, you and Coyo not trailing too far behind.

“So, Ma Plinth’s, huh?” He asks, his eyes watching his darling kids ahead. He takes your arm in his, his hands slightly trembling.

“Yeah, I just thought it’d, you know,” you pause. Your hands rubbing circles on Coryo’s, knowing everything that he did, all the sacrifices he made to survive. You sigh, turning to the man next to you, his gaze hardening ahead of him. “I just thought it’d be nice to pay her a visit with the kids.”

Coryo let out a shaky sigh, shaking his head while his jaw was clenched so hard, his jaw could seemingly kill a man. You leaned to him, kissing his jaw.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in, holding it for a second, and then releasing it. He takes your hand, kissing the blood red diamond sitting on the delicate band of your fingers before smiling at you, his deep blue eyes meeting yours.

You two continue to stroll along, watching Melody and Jasper walk from door to door, yelling “Trick or treat!” You and Coryo laugh, taking in all the sights and sounds that neither of you got to experience all thanks to the war. 

You and Coryo laughed, feeling fully at ease with each other on the night where you can be anything and anyone, anywhere.

Until your head cries that is.

You and Coryo both stiffen at the sound of your children crying. Both of them run back towards you, tears falling down their rosy pink cheeks. You crouch down, picking up Jasper whose sobs and cries could be heard all throughout the Capitol. You soothe him, asking him what’s wrong. He just nuzzles himself further into your neck, more and more tears falling from his eyes.

Coryo’s eyes had hardened, his long legs carrying him to where his precious First Daughter stood, the back of her hands rubbing profusely at her eyes. In that instance, she resembled him, Coryo thought. Her same marine eyes, tears rolling down them as he just found out that his mother died, his father died, that they had lost everything. 

He kneels down in front of Melody, taking his hands to cup her cheeks, nudging her own hands out of the way.

“What’s wrong my darling snowflake?”

She hiccups, kids around them stopping and staring at the strangely fancily dressed man and the small girl wearing twin braids in a gothic black dress.

“O-oh Pa-paa, w-” she stumbles over her words, making Coriolanus’ heart grow weaker at the sight of his daughter crying, “why are k-kids so m-mean?”

“Darling, you’re not a mean kid. What happened?”

“Th-They took our c-candy, me and J-Jasper’s. They took i-it saying i-it was taxes so I told them that y-you were my Pa and that y-you make the taxes.” 

Coryo’s hands balled, fists ready to hunt down whichever lowlife had dared tax his daughter, stolen her candy, and ridiculed the Snow name.

He lifted Melody up, rubbing her back up and down slowly as her tears slowed and her hiccups became few and far inbetween. He walked back over to you where Jasper had nearly cried himself to sleep, the previously full candy bag slung over your shoulder.

You met Coriolanus’ eyes, a quiet yet roaring fire brewing in his iris’. He sends the guards off to find the little shits who had harassed his daughter. He led you to the car you had driven there, setting a sleepy Melody down in the seat next to yours before shutting the door.

You rolled down your window, asking Coryo “where are you going?”

He simply replied, his eyes darkening. 

“Taking care of business.”

Needless to say, the next day Melody’s squeals of excitement and subsequent footsteps up the stairs and into your room were explanation enough for the truckload of candy awaiting you in the family room downstairs.

Bonus:

“Coriolanus Snow, what are we going to do with all this candy?”

“Eat it?”

“Don’t you think you went even a little overboard? Whatever did you do to those poor boys?”

“First off, they were not poor. And secondly, I didn’t do anything out of my reins as President of Panem and father of two gems.”

and that concludes this years flufftober!!! i hope you have enjoyed each of these as much as i have whilst writing them!!

[mattyriddlesbitch]

Yule Ball (Chapter Six)

Mattheo Riddle x F!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of fighting, I think that's it

Posting early since I forgot to do this earlier

The Yule Ball was only hours away and you and the rest of the girls in your dorm were getting ready, putting on makeup and doing each other’s hair, helping zip each other’s dresses up. It was chaos, the dorm was a mess from all the clothes and shoes and accessories thrown about as some of the girls made last minute changes to their outfits. Lots of ‘Does this look good?’ and ‘How does this look?’ was being asked over the music playing. It was definitely the most active and chaotic the dorm had ever been since you started. Even the first and last nights of the school year were calmer.

You finally finished getting ready, looking at yourself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous, the shoes matched perfectly, your makeup and hair were done perfectly. Honestly, you never felt more beautiful, but you were still nervous. Why were you nervous? It’s just Mattheo.

You didn’t have much time to think about it since one of the girls called your name to join in some photos they were taking to remember the night.

After the photos, you all headed to the Great Hall to meet your dates. You were so focused on not tripping on the stairs from your dress or heels, you didn’t notice Mattheo at the bottom just staring at you in awe. He offered his hand to you on the last few steps and you finally looked at him and smiled, taking his hand as he helped you down the rest of the way.

“Hi, Matty.” You said when you finally stood in front of him.

“Hi, princess.” He copied. The lack of words would’ve put you off if it wasn’t him you were talking to.

“That's a nice suit.” You smiled as you looked down at the suit, noticing the tie color matching your dress.

“Thank you. I like the dress.” He said, making you look back up at him.

“You get into another fight since I last saw you?” You asked, noticing the cut along the bridge of his nose.

“Maybe.” He shrugged.

“So, what should I expect tonight? Are we dancing or just hanging with your friends or what?” You asked, still smiling at him.

“Do you wanna dance with me?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I feel like that’s kinda the point of having a date to a dance, so yeah.” You nodded.

“Fair point.” He said, offering his arm. “Come on. We better get in if we wanna see Potter make a fool of himself.”

“Oh, right. He gets to dance in front of everyone.” You take his arm and he leads you both into the Great Hall.

After a few minutes, the champions of the Tri-Wizard tournament came in with their dates and danced. People slowly started to join them and Mattheo led you to dance with him. He placed a hand on your waist and his other hand held one of yours, your free hand going to his shoulder as he led you two to the music.

“Wow. You actually know how to dance, like really well.” You said, a bit surprised.

“Is it that much of a surprise? We were forced to learn anyways.” He said, smiling ever so slightly, like he was happy he surprised you.

“Fair point.” You said, repeating him from earlier. Each house had their own dance lessons earlier, and it definitely wasn’t optional.

“I did also learn when I was younger. My mother forced me to learn.” He said, his smile growing slightly.

“Oh, really?” He surprised you yet again, making you smile at him. You liked learning these little tidbits about him.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Hm. I’m not sure. I’d love for it to be true though.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it’d be funny to imagine you in dance lessons.” You teased, and this time he actually chuckled.

He took the opportunity to catch you off guard and spun you before bringing you back to him, continuing to dance with you.

“Mock me all you want, at least I know how to dance. More than I can say about most of the guys here.” He said, letting go of your hand to place it on his shoulder, moving his to your waist, bringing you a bit closer as you danced.

“How old were you when you started these dancing lessons?” You smiled at him, seeing if you could get more information out of him.

“I was nine. But the teacher gave up after a few weeks.”

“What did you do? You didn’t curse them did you?” You joked.

“Maybe I did.”

“Surprised they lasted a few weeks then.”

“She was stubborn.”

“Seems like you learned something, though. It’s cute. Thinking of little nine year old you being forced to learn how to dance.” You laughed.

He just smiled at your laugh as he continued to guide you in the dance.

After a few songs, he guided you over to a table to rest and the other boys slowly gathered with you two. All the boys were joking around and their dates were gossiping, it really seemed like everyone was having a good time. It honestly was the happiest you can recall seeing Mattheo. He was laughing and smiling with his friends. You even watched and laughed as they danced together during a few of the line dances and fun songs. You really couldn’t think of another time you saw Mattheo smile this much.

He pulled you from your seat to join them in dancing. You laughed together as you danced to the music, just having fun, wrapping your arms around each other. He kept you dancing with him through the slow songs and the upbeat ones, swaying and spinning you, or just dancing while singing the songs to each other.

This was a version of Mattheo you really loved. A version you could really fall in love with.

No. That wouldn’t work out.

You quickly shook that thought from your head as you kept yelling the lyrics of the current song playing to each other.

“I wanna show you something.” Mattheo said in your ear during one of the songs so you could hear him.

You nodded and he led you out of the Great Hall by your hand.

“Where are we going?” You asked once you were in the hall where it was much quieter.

“Somewhere. Just be quiet if you don’t wanna get caught.” He said before putting a finger over his mouth as he looked at you over his shoulder.

You cursed him out in your head, knowing you were doing something that could get you in trouble, but still followed him.

He led you through the castle, up the stairs and down some hallways before getting to the final staircase that led to the Astronomy Tower.

“We’re not supposed to be up here this late.” You whispered to him but he just smiled at you.

He guided you over to the balcony and gestured to the view. “Yeah, but isn’t this worth it?” He said, looking at your face for your reaction.

You could see the lake and the landscape and, of course, the night sky. “Wow…” You breathed out. You’d been up here before, but not at night and not when all the stars were out. It was breathtaking.

His smile grew at your reaction as he turned his head to look at the view, leaning forward on the balcony railing.

“So how often do you come up here?” You asked after a moment of silence.

“A few times a month, at least.” He shrugged, looking back at you. “It’s quiet. And it’s away from everyone.”

“I can see why you  like it.” You nodded before looking over at him. “No people, it’s calming and pretty.”

“Don’t tell anyone about this. I would hate for my spot to be ruined by everyone else.” He said with a small smile.

“I won’t.” You smiled back. “Why’d you show me then?” You asked, curiosity getting the better of you.

He shrugged, looking back out at the night sky. “I don’t know. I don’t mind you here.”

You didn’t comment on that, not wanting to dig too much deeper into it. “I had a lot of fun tonight.”

“Yeah?” He straightened up and turned to face you, leaning his hip against the railing. “I had a lot of fun too.”

“I’m glad I went with you. I’m not sure I would’ve had that much fun with someone else.”

He smiled again at that. “Me too. I think that was the most fun I’ve had in…a long time.”

You smiled back at him. “I liked that. I liked how happy you looked.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to actually enjoy it, but…” He shrugged again.

You leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Matty. For a fun night.”

“Yeah. Of course.” He said, watching as you leaned back down.

You smiled at each other for a moment before you spoke up. “It’s getting late. I should, uh, get to bed. As much fun as that was, my feet are killing me.” You chuckled.

“Right, yeah. Well, come on then, princess. Let’s get you to bed.” He said, gesturing you towards the stairs before helping you make your way down them so you don’t trip.

Chapter 5

Chapter 7

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[evilbihan]

Bi-Han is an honorable man

I can't believe that I'm making yet another post pointing out the obvious but every time I go into a Youtube comment section I'm starting to question whether me and the rest of the Mortal Kombat fandom have even played the same game.

1. He shows opponents mercy

Sub-Zero: You want peace? Let us be. Liu Kang: The Lin Kuei's sins aren't easily forgiven.

Sub-Zero: Surrender and Shao will show mercy. Mileena: If you believe that, you're a fool.

Sub-Zero: Walk away while you can. Raiden: I'll never give up, never surrender.

Sub-Zero: I won't hold back, Brother. Scorpion: Do your worst.

Sub-Zero: We have no cause for dispute. Kitana: You aided Shao's attempt to steal the throne!

These dialogues honestly speak for themselves already, they don't even need explaining. Compare that to actual villains like General Shao who sends Reiko after Bi-Han to kill him simply because he "doesn't like loose ends" even after Bi-Han saved him or Shang Tsung who killed Reptile's family out of nothing but sheer cruelty.

The fact that Bi-Han is willing to let people walk away from a fight, that he gives them a chance to walk away alive, speaks volumes about his personality. He warns his opponents in his intros and even during his end of round taunts ("Flee now and live."), he tries to solve things peacefully and without violence if possible. He's not bloodthirsty, malicious or eager to kill anyone, but will do so if given no other choice.

Despite Bi-Han's flaws, a man willing to show an opponent mercy is an honorable man. SPOILERS AHEAD: May I again remind you that Kuai Liang is not willing to show a defeated and dying Bi-Han mercy when he gets turned into Noob against his will? Not only that, but Kuai Liang wouldn't have hesitated to kill Frost who is probably around Hanzo's age at his own wedding if Harumi hadn't stepped in to save her. Harumi had to beg Kuai Liang to show someone mercy, while Bi-Han grants it without a second thought. Like it or not, at least in that one aspect, Bi-Han is the better man.

I don't know why some people think of him as this aggressive guy going around trying to pick fights with everyone when all he wants is to be left alone? It's wild to me how people think he's the problem here.

2. He respects/admires their fighting skills

Sub-Zero: You will surely test my might. Ashrah: I will overwhelm it, Sub-Zero.

Sub-Zero: This fight I will long remember. General Shao: Who says you will survive it?

Sub-Zero: I'm pleased to fight Outworld's foremost mage. Rain: Will it also please you to lose?

Sub-Zero: I hear your skills are formidable. Li Mei: As are those of all who have been Umgadi.

Can we also talk about how respectful Bi-Han is towards his opponents? He compliments them on their skills as opposed to Kuai Liang who even talks down to his own allies. Yes, Bi-Han is arrogant, but he can still acknowledge other people's strengths and respect them, even if they are his foes.

3. He admits when he's wrong

Sub-Zero: I was wrong to trust you. General Shao: Yes, Earthrealmer. You were.

Sub-Zero: I wasn't aware of Shang Tsung's experiments. Liu Kang: Had you known, would your choice have been different?

Sub-Zero: Your mother's death is regrettable. Kitana: I consider you complicit, Bi-Han.

You can say what you want about him, but he certainly takes responsibility for his actions and even shows regret over some of them. Bi-Han might not be the most compassionate character, but he does express some sympathy towards others. Compare that to Kuai Liang who tells Havik it's his own fault that his face was burned off as if he had nothing to do with it. Yes, Bi-Han doesn't show much sympathy towards Baraka for his condition, but neither does Kuai Liang. Why Kuai Liang is still considered the more honorable brother regardless of that and his very obvious ableism, is beyond me.

Bi-Han's good traits are all too often overlooked. I don't know if it's because people don't pay attention to intros, but it's so easy to see he's not a bad person deep down. It's just the media comprehension skills of most MK fans that are seriously lacking.

[bri-the-nautilus]

Come To the Dark Side, We Have Hot Guys: A Star Wars Story

Spoilers below for S1 of Ahsoka and the first six episodes of The Acolyte.

I'm writing this with The Acolyte most of the way through airing its first season, with episode 6 having released earlier today. Say what you will about the show, but it's really brought out a lot of the uglier sides of the Star Wars fandom. Everyone and their mother has seen videos or Reddit threads dunking on the Critical Drinker or SWT and their mouth-breathing misogynist audiences at this point, so I don't feel particularly compelled to retread that ground. Instead, I want to talk about the... other side of the fandom, the hypocrisy therein, and how we're all being played for absolute fools by the creative team at Disney Lucasfilm.

Yes, this post is about Qimir.

Now I want to say that I have no problem with villain simping/shipping. Far from it. Most of my posts on this account are me simping for Shin Hati (we'll talk more about her later) or various Soulsborne bosses. Hell, my mutuals and I have a running joke about me having a weakness for evil blonde women. While I personally am too gay for my own good and couldn't care less about men as a concept, I absolutely see the appeal of characters like Qimir and Kylo Ren. I absolutely get why people thirst over them and love making fandom content for them. I think Qimir/Osha has the potential to be a really fun ship, actually. The point I'm making here is not "simping for these characters is wrong and bad," and I want to make that crystal clear before we continue.

That said, let's talk about Qimir, and how the landscape of the show and its surrounding discourse has changed since his reveal. Again, I'm ignoring the chud sphere here, partly because their little corner of the Internet has remained remarkably stagnant since then. The podcast bros still think it's woke, fucking Shadiversity is still whining about fight choreography (which as someone who actually has done HEMA/stage combat, Shad annoys me to no end, but that's an entirely separate can of worms), and it all seems to be business as usual over there. No, the most marked changes have been on the Acolyte-positive end of the fandom space. Here's what the top posts in "hashtag TheAcolyte" on Twitter look like tonight:

You get the idea.

Again, no hate to any of these people. This is tumblr ffs, we've all engaged in a little simping for a morally dubious hot person. I love seeing fans having fun engaging with something, and again I kinda dig the Osha/Qimir ship.

Anyways, if you were around for the Acolyte-positive discourse before the Qimir reveal, and especially the show's marketing and the reponse to that, you'll have noticed a marked difference.

Fans quickly began to see The Acolyte as " the gayest Star Wars ever." Showrunner Leslye Headland is an out lesbian, and her wife was cast as Master Vernestra Rwoh. Archetypical girlboss Carrie-Anne Moss was cast as Master Indara, immediately drawing comparisons to her role in the Matrix movies. Leads Osha and Mae Aniseya are played by the nonbinary Amandla Stenberg. The lesbian witches of Brendok were talked about in press releases before the show aired. Dafne Keen (Jecki Lon) stated in an interview that she portrayed the short-haired, serious Theelin as having a crush on Osha, something that fans were picking up on in their first interactions in the premiere before Keen even gave that interview. While Headland said in a post-premiere interview that she didn't set out specifically to make "a capital Q Queer show," it's an objective fact that no Star Wars movie/show has had as much potential in that area, and fans (especially the queer community) took notice. (For what it's worth, in the same interview Headland commented that she was proud of creating something that so many queer fans identified with.)

The show came out, and Master Indara was killed off in the first sequence, which I'm honestly fine with. It was a good scene and works on a lot of levels. Headland's aforementioned interview came and went. Episode three aired. The lesbian witches turned out to be even gayer than was previously thought possible, and people ate that shit up while the Critical Drinker's brain suffered a major cascade failure. Jecki became a runaway favorite in the premiere and episode four, as did lovable himbo Yord Fandar and the wise, paternalistic Master Sol. In Acolyte-positive circles, this was basically how it went. People thought Brendok was cool, the Yord Horde became the show's biggest social media sensation, Jecki and Sol cultivated devoted followings alongside Osha and Mae, there were a wealth of different ships involving various combinations of Jecki, Yord, and the twins... you get the idea.

Then episode 5 happened.

The writing was really on the wall when the Brendok coven was abruptly wiped out. Introducting such an interesting (and queer) Force-wielding culture only to exterminate them in the same episode was certainly a choice that somebody made. But episode 5 was a shock to the system for many fans, as the show's resident Sith revealed himself and killed Jecki and Yord in some of the most brutal recent onscreen deaths in Star Wars. To be clear, I think this was a great sequence. Two beloved main characters being suddenly and gruesomely killed off was a masterfully executed shock to the system, especially after viewers were lulled into a false sense of security by all the redshirt deaths in the previous scene.

This, understandably, completely changed the landscape of the Acolyte fandom. Virtually overnight, much of the simping and shipping involving Jecki and Yord dried up, and once the dust had settled as far as the "rip blorbo, gone too soon" posts went, what remained were the usual Sol/twins offerings and a wave of Qimir hype. Which is understandable. He's a badass emo Sith boy with a cool helmet who brutally murdered fan favorite characters in front of us and has palpable tension with the female lead. Who wouldn't love... wait a minute.

This feels familiar somehow.

But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?

And just like that, "the gayest Star Wars" is all about the (straight) sexual tension between an edgy, murderous Sith boy and a light-side girl plagued by dark thoughts whose friends said boy just killed. This is all eerily similar to how the Sequel Trilogy focused on Rey and Kylo while abruptly dropping Finn and Poe's character arcs. Even the fandom discourse is the same. I mean Reylo was so ubiquitous back in the day that it became a derogatory catch-all for good girl/evil boy shipping. Multiple authors now have either gotten their initial start/fame writing Reylo fics, or straight up published legally distinct Reylo fiction after the fashion of Netflix's After. You had the occasional person piping up to say "hey they kind of just left Finn and Poe hanging after TFA, it would've been cool if they got together but at the very least don't relegate them to being side characters/comic relief in separate story threads," and that was it. The same thing is going on with The Acolyte now, only the sequel trilogy wasn't marketed on the strength of being a queer story by a queer creative team. The Acolyte is, which makes it all the more baffling that by the midway point of the first season, all the gays have been buried and the show seems to be heading straight for Reylo 2: High Republic Boogaloo. And the fans are eating it up.

As an interesting aside, I think it's an interesting exercise to contrast the Kylo/Qimir pattern with the broader fandom's treatment of Shin Hati (told you we'd circle back to that), and the ship between her and Sabine Wren. On paper, Shin is very similar to Kylo and Qimir. Villain? Check. Edgy-looking armor? Totes. Emotionally damaged/stunted in some way? Sure looks like it. Tension with the heroine? You betcha. If anything, the only major difference is that Shin isn't as evil as the others. Compare her actions in Ahsoka (clearing out part of a light cruiser with Baylan and making repeated attempts on Sabine's life) to Kylo (oversees multiple war crimes, kills his fan-favorite dad) or Qimir (orchestrates the murders of several Jedi before brutally executing two fan-favorite characters). She's definitely bad, but I struggle to see her as on par with Qimir, let alone fucking Kylo, in terms of evilness.

Which makes it all the more interesting to me that the Shin/Sabine ship has received so much more mainstream skepticism/criticism than the Osha/Qimir or Rey/Kylo ships. "They have no chemistry!" "She's an evil murderer!" "She's a blank slate!" "Sabine is taken!" I may be a touch biased, but from where I sit a large part of the fandom, even the ostensibly progressive side, seems to look down upon Shin/Sabine shippers while swooning for heterosexual variants with far more evil villains.

This isn't a monolith, and I can't stress that enough. I'm not trying to start shit here. Villain shipping is awesome. We support women's wrongs in this house. You do see the occasional person decrying Reylo or Osha/Qimir as toxic, which I think is fairly unnecessary. Like yeah, maybe it's a toxic dynamic, but these are fictional characters. For these specific characters, part of the crowd appeal is the toxic badboy side of things. I don't think we should really spend much energy attacking any fictional ship (between adults, mind you) as toxic, which is why it puzzles me that an as-yet-unconfirmed lesbian ship in a niche show receives such a large proportion of this sort of criticism compared to the canon relationship between two main characters of a blockbuster trilogy.

At the end of the day, this whole affair has been rather sobering for me on both Disney Lucasfilm and the Star Wars fandom. For all the support the Shin/Sabine ship has received from Ahsoka cast members Ivanna Sakhno (Shin), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger, the other character people like to ship with Sabine), and Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka), I'm rather sour on the prospects of it becoming canon. The sequel trilogy dropped the ball on what many saw as a promising chance for an MLM romance between Finn and Poe in favor of trotting out the "why do good girls like bad boys" dynamic, and The Acolyte, "the gay show" overseen by a lesbian, has seemingly shifted to center a similar dynamic after killing off most of its prospects for a queer relationship among the main cast. Simply put, I think that Disney as an international company based in the frighteningly divided United States is reluctant to commit to anything beyond lipservice in terms of LGBT representation in their movies/shows, which again doesn't leave me feeling optimistic about WolfWren's canon potential. And the fandom takes the bait. People love the damaged evil badboy/good girl dynamic, and when the queer fandom suggests the possibility of a queer ship taking center stage in a show with no other extant relationships, even the more progressive side of the fandom tends to either ignore it or actively push back on its basis in reality until Disney Lucasfilm inevitably puts the kibosh on it. The amount of times I've heard people dismiss WolfWren for the same reasons they now like Osha/Qimir and liked Reylo (before that ship was fleshed out/canonicalized, anyway) is ridiculous, but at the end of the day you kinda feel stupid for expecting anything else. Again, I think Qimir is a cool character and I'm as much of a sucker for villain romances as the next girlie, but seeing how easily the fandom lets dangling heterosexual carrots lead it away from Disney Lucasfilm's broken promises of queer rep is a sobering ordeal.

[delusionalwh6re]

drunk in love

aged up!lo’ak x fem omaticaya!reader

summary: after yet another failed relationship you end up at a party. what happens when the youngest son of toruk makto is going through the same as you, is it fate?

warnings: 🔞 smut with a plot, oral (both m & f receiving), fingering, cussing, kissing, alcohol, comforting, a bit of angst and drunk sex

you wanted to scream.

after everything, how could he? how could he just choose to mate with another woman right before your eyes? you were angry. all of these months of you trying to court him. he just throws it off a cliff

he doesn’t care. he never did, and that’s probably the part that hurt the most

the thing was is, you weren’t sad. you wanted to cry yes, but only because you were just so fucking angry

you were never the type to go all out for a man in the first place. the one time you did and this shit happens. you truly did love your great mother but you swore that if she put you through another heartbreak you were genuinely going to lose it

so to avoid him seeing you cry, seeing you in such a vulnerable moment you ran. you ran away from men like you usually did. maybe it was the little girl in you but at this point you didn’t care. you were done trying

eventually your running got you somewhere. from a short distance you saw something that appeared to be a… party?

there was glowy purple lights that blended in perfectly with your forest’s natural scenery. there was some traditional music playing along with some ‘sky people’ music from the lab

you decided to walk over to the party to figure out the hype. with every step you took the strong smell of alcohol flooded your nostrils

you physically cringed as you kept walking to the gathering

when you walked through the leaves flowing from the veins as a makeshift door and observed your surroundings. there were na’vi who were having a good time. they were dancing around, singing and laughing

you smiled at your people and even waved at some that you recognized. as you kept walking closer and closer the smell of alcohol got stronger. so you took this as a sign from eywa herself and decided to treat yourself to a drink

it’s honestly the least you deserve

while you were minding your business you felt a presence coming towards you from steps away. the smell was a bit familiar but you weren’t sure. so you just kept pouring your drink waiting for the person to reveal themself if they even were

you heard someone shuffle next to you and turned your head

“lo’ak?” you looked at him with disbelief

“aye wassup y/n” he smiled and turned to pour a drink

“why are you here? you must wanna get your dick wet” you shook your head playfully

he laughed and put his head down

you noticed his demeanor seemed a bit off but you didn’t say anything unless he showed a sign he needed some serious help

“well, why not?” he shrugged with a blank face

“are you good?”

“umm… why?”

“because you’re not yourself?” you side eyed

he sighed “im fine”

“don’t lie to me” you grabbed his shoulder to turn him to face you

he was silent for a while as he thought

“do you ever just feel alone? like there’s people around you but-”

“you’re still alone, nobody is able to understand you” you interrupted him

“yeah” he sighed

“is that what’s bothering you?”

he nodded and put his head down in shame

“lo’ak let me tell you something. there’s nothing wrong with you. i don’t care what anyone says, everyone is a bit misunderstood. don’t listen to what people say. including your dad because i know he can be tough on you” your tone was so genuine it made his heart flutter

“thank you y/n” he smiled

lo’ak sully had smiled because of you and it seemed to be genuine

“of course” you rubbed his shoulder

the two of you made eye contact. this eye contact wasn’t like how it was before. it didn’t seem friendly or strictly platonic, it was a look of lust

he cleared his throat “so what brought you here”

you fought the urge to roll your eyes at the thought of your “ex” boyfriend balls deep inside of another woman from earlier

“it’s a long story” you kicked a rock

“well we got all night mama” he said handing you the drink you poured with a chuckle

time skip

“damn” was all lo’ak had said

your words slurred as the alcohol started to take over your body “yeah, AND he didn’t even try to say sorry or anything. can you believe that motherfucker?”

“no i can’t actually, that’s so fucked up im sorry” his voice was low as he put his arm around your shoulder to side hug you

“it’s whatever, im getting over it” you laughed

“really, it happened like an hour ago?” lo’ak titled his head with a small laugh

“why would i care about a man who couldn’t give a fuck about me?” you raised a brow

he shook his head in agreement and put his hands up in surrender “you got it”

you laughed before looking back at the party. your people really knew how to turn up because the shit was still lit. mated pairs were dancing and touching all on each other as they celebrated

“let’s dance!” lo’ak pulled you up

“what?” you snapped your head towards him

“girl you heard me” he smirked before dragging you to the middle of the dance floor

“i can’t dance” you crossed your arms

“then shake some ass” he bit his lip

you playfully rolled your eyes and walked past him

“where are you going ma?” he called out as you started to walk away

you pointed in the direction of one of your friends to imply you were gonna go talk to her. he nodded his head as you shot him a wink before walking up to her

“boo!” you popped up behind her

“oh! y/n you scared me” amitsa laughed before bringing you into a hug

you laughed as you hugged her back for a little while. the two of you pulled away and began to catch up until she noticed you walked away from lo’ak

“are the two of you..?” she smirked a bit swifting her finger between you and lo’ak

“oh no! we’re just friends. i didn’t even he was here until a little bit ago” you awkwardly laughed

“mhm, you guys are cute together” she shrugged

you held back a smile “stop it”

“girl i see that smile! and i know you guys have some sort of connection. he seems to really like you, give him a chance y/n” she encouraged you

you finally let yourself smile before scoffing and shrugging your shoulders “we’ll see”

she giggled and winked at you “tell me how it goes”

“yeah, yeah whatever” you rolled your eyes at your friend before taking another sip of your drink

after some time you and amitsa ended up on the dance floor together. the two of you had grown a bit of distance just to focus on your own lives and you were starting to forget how much fun the two of you always had

“WOO!” amitsa danced around laughing

“THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT EVER!” you drunkly yelled jumping around

she grabbed you by the arm to pull you closer to her “and it’s about to get a whole lot better for you”

you looked at her in confusion until she smirked and pointed her head ahead of you. you turned your head and met eyes with lo’ak. he was looking a you, no, he was admiring you from afar

you smiled a bit before turning your head back to amitsa “don’t even”

“told you he wanted you” she teased

“he’s just checking me out no big deal!”

“you need to stop being in denial and go jump his bones already! you know you want to” she sassed

she was right. you would be lying to yourself and literally everyone if you said you didn’t find lo’ak attractive. you thought he was one of the most good looking men in your clan and that was simply just a fact

“you better do it or i will’ amitsa caught your attention

you hissed at her before widening your eyes

“oh my eywa! i knew you would get jealous” she laughed at the trick she just pulled on you

“oh my… i really do like him” you smiled at her

“SO GO GET THAT DICK ALREADY WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” she crossed her arms

you smiled at her antics before rushing over to lo’ak who instantly smiled when he saw you

‘he’s so cute’ you thought

“hi lo’ak” you whispered

“hey mama” he looked you up and down

the two of you stared at each other like you were the last meals on pandora. the tension between you two was so painfully obvious and so thick. even a palulukan could sense it

now you don’t know if it was the alcohol in your system or amitsa’s words floating in your mind. the next thing you knew you grabbed lo’ak’s hand and dragged him away to the first secluded area you saw

he happily followed you and was very intrigued by your antics. he couldn’t help but smile to himself before checking you out for the millionth time tonight. his eyes looked over your entire body

the way your hips swayed with confidence. the way your hair flowed down your back. the way the fat of your ass jiggled with every step you took. the way your sexy long legs walked with pride

the things he was about to do to you started to now flood his brain

you decided to stop once you guys were far enough and only heard very faint noises and music from the party. you couldn’t even turn around to face lo’ak before you were immediately pinned to a tree

you gasped and looked up at him to be met with those low drunk eyes he had been giving you since the second he saw you again

“lo-lo’ak, please” you whimpered

“please what? use your words” he whispered letting the smell of alcohol fly off his tongue

“please fuck me. i need you” you rubbed yourself against him

“yeah? you want some dick? was that little boyfriend of yours not properly pleasing you?” he titled his head

you immediately shook your head no

“open your mouth” he squeezed your waist

“no” you whispered

“what a shame, he’s trippin. i would never deny pleasing you” he got closer to whisper in your ear

“mhm” you whined at the little friction he was giving you

“are you thinking about him right now?” he kissed your shoulder

“not a single thought” you reassured him

he smacked your thigh causing you to gasp “don’t lie to me”

“no lo’ak! i swear im not thinking about him please” you pleaded as he started to slightly back away from you

“you swear?” he grabbed you by the neck

“yes” you let out a breath before smashing your lips onto his

the kiss quickly became sloppy as your tongues fought against each other. you ran your fingers through his braids as he held onto your waist gently. he started to get impatient though and rubbed himself against you

you pulled away to breathe and leaned your forehead against his. he looked into your eyes before speaking up

“i know we’re drunk off our asses right now, but are you sure you want this?” he bit his lip anxiously

“yes, more than anything” you smiled placing a soft kiss against his lips

he let out a low growl before lifting his head up and tapping your thigh “jump”

you jumped up and he caught you before walking over to a nearby creek with a soft pile of grass next to it

he laid you down as he settled in between your legs. he looked down at you, eywa you were gorgeous

the forest had really brought out all of your features and the bioluminescence only made you shine brighter in his eyes

“you’re gorgeous you know that?” he caressed your cheek

“thank you” you blushed and looked up at the stars

“nuh uh, if we’re gonna do this i need you to look at me” he demanded

you slowly trailed your eyes back on him. your eyes lowered down his body to be met with a huge bulge sticking out from his loincloth

“you did that mama” he whispered

your eyes widened slightly before leaning over to hover over your face

“you want this right?” he rubbed your thigh

“yes” you smiled widely

he smiled back at you “spread your legs some more”

now you weren’t a whore but for him? you spread your legs so damn fast you could’ve got whiplash

“damn girl” he chuckled at you

“sorry” you mumbled with a smile

“nothing to be sorry about, you want this just as much as i do” he leaned down to kiss your knee

your breath hitched as you couldn’t help but gasp at the contact of his lips on your body

he looked up at you with those eyes. you nodded your head giving him permission to take your loincloth off

he smirked and decided to go all out for you. he first pulled at the strings on the side of your thighs slowly knowing you were growing impatient. once he did that, he used his teeth to drag the loose material off of you

you gasped and looked down at him. he was already looking at you and his movements were very very slow. it was like he was putting some type of spell on you because you were making noise and he barely did anything

“mhm, all this for me huh?” he spoke looking at your glistening cunt

you face heated up in a little bit of embarrassment from how wet you were but who could blame you?

“yes, all for you, all yours” you whispered causing his ears to flick up

he groaned before placing a kiss on your inner thigh. you shut your eyes and just let him do his thing. each kiss he placed onto you was closer and closer to where you needed him the most

he paused and there was silence for a moment. you looked down at him in concern before you were immediately cut off when he placed a sloppy kiss to your clit

“oh!” you moaned throwing your head back

“right there huh?” he mumbled now starting to make out with your pussy and sucking hard onto your clit

“yesss” you whined arching your back

you rubbed yourself onto his face as your orgasm was surprisingly approaching fast, damn he knew how to work his mouth

“im gonna cum” you reached down to pull on his hair

he pulled away to rub your clit gently with his thumb before spitting onto your pussy

“yeah?” he looked up at you while swirling his tongue around to write his name on you slit

“mhm lo’ak!” you screamed as your core tightened

he slowed his tongue down before plunging in one of his long thick fingers inside of you. you moaned out loudly as he instantly curled it and wrapped his lips around your aching clit

“FUCK” you squealed as he sped up all of his movements as each second passed

your chest was heaving up and down which meant you were getting closer. lo’ak pulled his now two fingers out of you to grip onto your thighs

he shoved his face closer to you and held your thighs into place as he ate you out like a man starved

you eyes rolled to the back of your head as your moans got stuck into your throat as the knot forming in your stomach finally unraveled. you let out a scream and tugged tightly onto lo’ak’s hair

he hummed causing vibrations to flow through you which only added to the pleasure. he slowly kissed your pussy engraving the taste of you into his tongue. he eventually pulled away slowly, you watched as a string of his spit and juices were connected to your pussy

“oh my” you panted out

“you taste good” you heard the smirk in lo’ak’s voice as he kissed up your stomach and chest

“i can tell” you giggled wiping his mouth and chin

he smiled down at you before leaning down to place a soft kiss against your lips

“take it off” you mumbled tugging on his loincloth

“take it off for me” he smirked

you smirked back and didn’t hesitate to play with the strings of his loincloth. you started to unravel them before sliding the material off of him. he helped you by lifting up more and working his legs to take it off completely

you heard a hard firm slap against his stomach and immediately gulped. it’s sounded so heavy that you started to panic before even looking at it

“hey, chill, it’s okay. im here. we’ll take our time okay?” he cupped your face

you nodded and smiled up at him for being so caring towards you

“no promises i won’t fuck you up though” he smirked

your face heat up and you laughed at him before thrusting your hips up into him to let him know you were ready

“so eager” he shook his head and looked down between your bodies

he gave his dick a couple of strokes with his hand before spitting onto your pussy one more time to ease any possible pain you might have. even though it was unnecessary because of how dripping wet you were from before

“ready?” he placed his other hand on the side of your head

“ready” you nodded and held onto his wrist

he guided himself into you slowly. his tip was encased by your velvety walls as the rest of his dick slowly entered you. he took his time with entering you until his pelvis was connected to yours

you have never felt so full in your life..

you looked down to see a bulge sticking out of your stomach and sat up in awe. he looked at you with wide eyes and placed a hand on your stomach

“lay back down for me baby” he gently pushed you down

you obliged and wrapped your arms around his neck. your mouth flew open as he slowly began to pull out. his tip was the only thing inside of you before he rammed back inside of you at full force

“LO’AK!” you moaned arching your back

“shit!” he moaned now placing both of his hands on the side of your head

he lifted your thigh up to cling onto his waist. he leaned in to kiss you as he increasingly sped up his pace. his thrusts were firm but deep as you felt him hitting your g-spot perfectly

“FUCK” you whined loudly arching your back as the sound of skin slapping together started to fill the secluded area of the forest

he groaned before whispering in a raspy tone “you feel so fucking good mama”

“don’t stop” you started to scratch his back as he placed both of your thighs on his waist

“this pussy is way too good to stop” he leaned up to put your legs above his shoulders

“OH YES! you’re fucking me soooo good” you whined as tears welled up in your eyes as his thrusts started to get down right vicious

“im fucking you so good huh?” he tiled his head not showing any mercy on you at all

“mhm” you whined gripping the back of your thighs for steadiness against his brutal thrusts

he suddenly pulled out of you with a ‘pop’ sound. before you could even think to open your mouth you were flipped onto your stomach and he was sliding inside of you again

“OH GREAT MOTHER!” you yelped as he started to fuck you senseless from behind

“taking this dick so well” he groaned wrapping your hair around his forearm to yank your head back

“god lo’ak” your legs shook as your body started to grow weak

“nah keep that ass up baby” he smacked your ass before holding onto you waist to hold you up

“SHIT” you screamed as he started pounding your sweet spot

“you like that?” he leaned over you a bit

“YES! RIGHT THERE” your back arched causing him to go deeper inside of you

“FUCK! im about to cum” he whimpered as he was in awe of him sliding in and out of you

“yeah?” you whispered looking back as you threw it back on him to help him reach his first orgasm of the night as you reached your second

“don’t look at me like that” he met your low eyes

you smirked and reached for his hand. you started to meet his thrusts halfway. he gripped the side of your hip as he thrusted into you in a circular motion. the both of you let out loud moans as your orgasms approached

“ouuu lo’ak! yessss” you threw your ass back faster as you gripped onto the grass in front of you with your free hand

“im cumming mama, im cumming” he threw his head back as he aggressively smacked your ass

“cum inside of me, please i want all of you deep inside of me” you begged

he groaned as he gripped your hair harder as his cum shot right out of him into you. you moaned as his seed filled you up just right which triggered your own orgasm too

the both of you let out long sighs as exhaustion started to wash over. you squealed when he pulled out of you with a whimper

“shit” he rubbed his hands across his face

you flopped onto the floor as your legs have officially gave up on you

“told you i’ll fuck you up” he smacked your ass once again

you giggled “shut up”

“come on ma, let’s get you cleaned up”

you sat up and turned around to look at him “i rather clean you up first”

he looked at you in confusion and like you were crazy. his confusion was immediately drained from his body as you grabbed his dick into your hands

“oh you’re nasty” he smirked at you

you smirked back at him before licking under his shaft while maintaining eye contact. his breath hitched as he gripped your hair putting it into a makeshift ponytail. you kissed his tip softly causing him to yank your hair before you decided to stop teasing

you hungrily shoved him into your mouth as he groaned. you instantly started to swirl your tongue around him doing all sorts of tricks on his dick. he threw his head back moaning loudly

“you’re so good at this, fuck! keep doing that. im gonna nut all in that pretty ass mouth”

you moaned at his words which only caused him more pleasure. you decided to add on and wrap your hand around what you couldn’t fit into your mouth. your hand worked in a twisty motion as you bopped your head up and down

“mhm, im gonna have to marry you after this” lo’ak mumbled in complete euphoria

you tried not to laugh at him. you reached as far as you possibly could on him. the tip of your nose briefly reached his pelvis. there was a lump in your throat and spit dripping down your chin leading to the crease between your breasts

lo’ak would have that image engraved into his mind forever. he couldn’t help but get needy as he felt another orgasm slowly approaching

“baby please” he begged for nothing as he began to fuck your throat

tears started to form in your eyes as your jaw was starting to hurt from this and all that screaming you did from earlier. you tapped his thigh to give him the green light. his hips stuttered as he gripped your hair so hard it felt like your scalp was burning

but you didn’t care, not when he just filled you up in another one of your holes. his hips came to a stop and his breathing increase as his load flowed all the way down your concentrated throat

“FUCK GIRL! that was amazing” he grinned down at you

you smiled up at him and wiped the cum that got on your chin onto your thumb. you looked up at lo’ak seductively before placing your thumb in your mouth and sucking slowly. his eyes widened at you and you caressed his thighs

“what are we?” you asked in slight desperation

“shit, well we ain’t friends no more. you’re mine” he smirked and planted a kiss on your forehead as he helped you stand up

and you couldn’t be happier…

authore speaking

SHIT THATS FINALLY DONE

y/n really said “i ain’t trippin over no nga im hoppin onto the next” I KNOW DAS RIGHT!!

don’t get me wrong im a proud teyam girl thru and thru but lo’ak is tew underrated.. like cmon he’s sexy yall show him some more lovin 😫

LMAO this was lowk ass um.. go easy on me yall i haven’t wrote smut in MONTHS. 😭

love, liana

[theelfdruid]

Finished wind and truth the other day and I am not okay, I especially need to talk about Jasnah storming Kholin.

WIND AND TRUTH SPOILERS BELOW! You've been warned!

Chapter 116, that scene with Fen, was HEARTBREAKING. I was yelling from the start to walk away, because there's no winning an argument with a Shard. but the narrative must go on

Jasnah tried her damnedest to protect Thaylenah but it wasn't enough. Because ultimately it wasn't down to a battle of logic and wits, it was a battle of emotions and trust. And honestly I'm not even sure there was anything Jasnah could have done to make Fen trust her enough

Like... Todium asked her if she'd sacrifice Alethkar to save Thaylenah and accused her of lying if she said anything but no, but she already proved she would. Because what did the Kholins do during the capture of Kholinar? Jasnah was queen when they chose to abandon Kholinar because they knew it wasn't favourable for the rest of the alliance. They followed through on Herdaz even though it was strategically bad because of an oath they made. I have little doubt at the end of the day if Jasnah thought she had a better chance to save Thaylenah than Alethkar, she would.

And that's particularly if she considered Queen Fen a friend. I don't think she did, nor even entertained the idea Fen could possibly have liked her except for her strategic value. Why else would she have been so shocked that Queen Fen all but said she considered Jasnah a friend? That she wouldn't have been able to turn her back on Kholinar and that she gave Jasnah the benefit of the doubt when Todium implied she was working for him?

Wit and pen pals aside, Jasnah's always been on her own. She had her family, of course, but her role has always been the quiet protector, the genius who never needed their coddling. She's been called cold and heartless and so that's the part she has to play. No matter how confident and powerful you are, constantly being alone will wear on you. It will make you doubt that someone, particularly a political ally, could truly, truly like you. Something something "When Jasnah spoke her mind, people hated her."

I think the revelation anyone cared or trusted her shocked her. And of course, it was automatically twisted into a punishment, rather than a blessing.

I think we're seeing Jasnah at a low point right now, and that will carry into Book 6 if not most of era 2. Her inability to present anything but her perfect facade and rely on other people in, her eyes, lost her Thaylenah. She didn't seem to take any respite in being able to salvage the situation at the Shattered Plains, and she was clearly unraveling by the end of WaT.

Everything Jasnah did was out of love for her family, but it wasn't enough. Everything she did to protect them was used against her. She couldn't stop her brother from dying or his son becoming a pawn in Todium's game. Her mother is asleep, possibly forever. Her uncle, the only person she trusted to comfort her after her father's death, is dead, too. She's separated from her cousin Adolin, and Shallan. She has Renarin, but that doesn't make those losses any less painful. Because in her heart, Jasnah has failed at near everything she tried to do. And in one fell swoop, she's the oldest surviving Kholin—the one everyone will look to, despite having failed the most. Can they still rely on her?

How responsible must she feel for not just the loss of Thaylenah and the Shattered Plains, but for everything? How much of her and Renarin's decision to immediately set up a ruling council is not out of practicality, but out of fear she's no longer competent to rule? How can she trust her own judgment anymore?

I hope we get to see Queen Jasnah and Queen Fen rebuild their friendship later on---Jasnah truly needs it. I think she feels too much responsibility for her family, living and dead/comatose, to truly rely on them. Wit was the closest she had to any kind of confidante, and in her own words... "They were bad for one another—but at this moment, all she wanted was someone to hold.” Now, she doesn't even have that.

I think if anyone can pick herself up and put herself back together, it's Jasnah, but it's not going to be an easy journey getting there.

I don't know, I just think about Jasnah a lot. I'm so glad we get to see more imperfect Jasnah, but god, the next few books are going to rip my heart out in a few years, aren't they?

[apomaro-mellow]

Matchmaking Harringtons 3

Steve was having a great time with Eddie. It was mostly because he was just that amazing. He was funny, hot, cute, and totally into him. A winning combo in Steve's opinion. But it was all due in no small part to the fact that his parents were so supportive. Steve didn't talk about the girls he dated that much (because why would he?) but his folks seemed actively interested in his going with Eddie.

Maybe it was the whole 'serious relationship' thing they were trying to commit him to. Maybe they were overcompensating for not being around much and wanting to also prove they were okay with his preferences. Either way, they always wanted to know how things were going with Eddie.

They'd been going out for a couple of dates at this point and honestly each one was better than the last. They were all typically low-key, with moments that they were able to get alone for a bit of privacy.

"Let's just say the back of his van is very spacey", Steve said into the phone as he paced about his room.

"So...you're still a total slut then?", Robin said from the other end of the line.

"Guys can't be slutty. And it's not being a slut if it's with the same guy."

"So you've?"

Diane was in the middle of bringing up a basket of laundry when she heard her son's conversation in his room. She swore she'd never be the kind of mother that constantly eavesdropped but well, the door was open just a smidge...

"Not, not the full thing, all the way yet. I think he's nervous. Or he can tell I'm nervous? I don't know. I told him I'd never been with a guy before and I thought that might make him, you know, take initiative?"

"Or maybe he's taking things slow because he doesn't wanna scare you off?", Robin suggested.

"That...could be it. But that's kinda why I called. I thought he was moving kinda slow, but guess where he's taking me tomorrow?"

"Steve, is Munson taking you to a hotel?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "No. He's taking me to Le Petit Nuange. That French place a town over?"

Robin gasped. "Sacre bleu! Va-t-il faire une proposition?"

"Robs, please. My extent of French is 'filet mignon'."

"Do you think he's serious? Like trying to meet your parents serious?"

"I don't know? Maybe? It's just weird. Le Petit is just...so not Eddie."

Diane was inclined to agree. A fancy place like that seemed out of character for someone as boisterous and non-conforming as Eddie. He has once brought a bouquet of lilies, despite their dire meaning. 'Screw flower language, these are some damn fine flowers', he had said.

And even if he thought of taking Steve somewhere special, Enzo's was the nicest place in town. Where would he get the idea to go to the next town?

Jonas.

Diane had thought he was being suspicious when he hid Steve's shoes before a date and met Eddie outside to talk. Diane had thought he'd been giving the boy some kind of shovel talk. He must've been giving Eddie advice on where to take Steve instead.

And she could just imagine what he was trying to do - clean Eddie up. Well, if he wanted to go behind her back, then two could play at that game.

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

The doorbell rung and Steve answered it. Eddie was there, in a button up shirt with long sleeves that hide his tattoos. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail. And he had a bouquet of nice, traditional, red roses.

"They're beautiful", Steve beamed. He took a moment to put the roses in a vase, missing the thumbs up his dad gave Eddie. Diane however, did not miss it.

"Your chariot awaits", Eddie said, giving a sweeping bow and then locking his arm with Steve's. "Have a good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Harrington!", he called back.

As the van roared down the street, Diane enacted her own plan. She had her husband would also be having a date night.

At Le Petit Nuange, Eddie and Steve were being seated and Eddie had never felt more out of place. It was like everyone could tell he didn't belong here. But when he saw Steve smiling from across him, he knew there was no place he'd rather be.

"What made you want to bring me here?", Steve asked.

Jonas had practically cornered Eddie when he had come to pick up Steve, saying he just wanted to talk a little. Eddie was prepared for the whole 'I have a shotgun/shovel and I'm not afraid to use it.'

"Let's talk", he had opened with. "Steve and you have been having fun, right?"

"Uh, yes? I guess?", Eddie said, unsure now.

"Fun's all well and good Eddie. But now's the time to show Steve you're serious. And you are serious? Aren't you, son?"

"Y-yes. Yes, I am, serious like a heart attack."

"Then you've gotta take him some place special. A place like, uh, say Le Petit Nuange", Jonas rubbed at his chin.

Eddie's brows rose up under his fringe. "Le Petit Nuange? That place is-"

"Is upscale. Which is what Steve deserves, isn't it?"

Eddie swallowed. "Yeah, yeah it is."

He looked at Steve's hand, sitting on the table, just asking to be held. Steve deserved all this and more. And Eddie wanted to be the one to give it to him. It was why he took extra shifts and more of his side business to have the dough to take Steve here.

"I just looked up places in the yellow pages and thought you might like it."

"You know, my parents actually come here a lot", Steve pointed out.

"You don't say", Eddie tried to hide his expression by covering his face with the menu. When he got a look at the prices, it did a good job hiding the way his eyes bugged out. Looks like his purse strings would be a little tight after this. But he had prepared for that. Steve was worth it.

He was worth the stiff shirt, the swanky eatery, and even spending more time selling music that was beneath him to the general populace.

"So tell me more about this gig you've got coming up", Steve said.

Eddie's face broke out into a wild smile and he nearly slammed the menu down. "It's gonna be a ride, Stevie." He wasn't shouting, but his volume was a little louder than polite, and he felt eyes on him. He cleared his throat and quieted himself. "I mean I'm excited to rub elbows with other bands. The experience is sure to be enlightening."

Steve gave him an odd look. "Yeah, I hope my parents let me go. Indy isn't far, but I feel like they've been keeping a closer eye on me lately."

The thought of Steve being in a crowd while he played made Eddie wanted to jump for joy. He wanted to tell him come, even if his parents said no. Sneak out for the weekend, what could they do? He was a man now. But he couldn't do that. Not just because he was trying to clean up and having his new boyfriend at a metal venue might ruin that image. It was also because Steve's had nice parents.

There weren't many that could both accept and encourage their queer child.

"You know Steve, your parents-hcck!" Eddie choked on his words as he saw the Harringtons walk right in and get led to a table.

"What about my parents?", Steve asked.

"They're uh, they're um great!", Eddie squeaked, then cleared his throat to get it back to its normal register. "I mean they're great. I can tell they love you very much."

Steve smiled, none the wiser to his folks being seated not too far away. Eddie tried not to look at them, tried to ignore them. But this couldn't be a coincidence.

Jonas was looking around while trying not to look around. "When you said you wanted to go out tonight....I didn't think you meant this place."

"Why not?", Diane questioned. "We're regular patrons. And it's been a while since we went out." They'd been getting plenty of alone time what with Steve dating now, but they usually spent their evenings at home.

Jonas pulled out her chair for her and when he sat down, he used the menu to continue looking around. Diane watched him like a hawk.

Steve didn't know what was going on with Eddie. He looked nice dressed this way, sure. But it didn't feel like him. He felt...smaller somehow. Like he was trying to shrink himself down. Even as they talked, his smiles were restrained, he didn't move his hands as much, and even his voice seemed like it was being held back.

Steve watched as he cut his food, using minimal motions like he was working with glass.

"Eddie, are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, course, I'm fine. I uh, I just need to hit the can-uh use the facilities. Please excuse me."

Eddie got up in a haste. He thought he'd be ready for tonight. It was just playing pretend. Potentially for the rest of his life. Maybe having an audience of the parents was what was tripping him up. He got close to the bathroom when a hand tapped his shoulder. He turned to see none of than Mrs. Harrington.

"Don't worry, I know this wasn't your idea", she started right off. "My husband put it in your head. I'll admit, I like the idea of Steve being treated like a prince, but if you clean up too much he'll get confused."

"Right, yeah, gotta strike a balance. Mhm."

"Glad we could talk", she patted his arm. "Go get him, tiger."

Eddie returned to Steve and saw Diane come back to her table not long after. He could see them exchange words, although he couldn't hear what. Then Jonas got up from his seat. He gave Eddie a strange look while making his way to the bathroom. Eddie sighed and excused himself again.

"Now I don't know what my wife might've said to you, but you've got to stay on this path. I can see a real future with you and Steve if you do."

"A real future?"

"I could only give my son to someone who could take care of him. You understand what I mean, don't you?"

Eddie nodded. The kind of man who could take Steve to these places and not have his soul leave his body when he looked at the menu. When Eddie sat back down, he looked at Steve, sitting across from him. It was the kind of view he could get used to.

Somehow, the meddling didn't end there. The Harringtons took turns, getting up to meet with Eddie and each time he had to come up with an excuse.

"I'm gonna check their wine selection."

"I want to make sure the kitchen knows my allergies."

"I'm gonna see if the violinist takes requests."

Finally, Steve stood up with him and grabbed Eddie by the elbow. "Come with me."

Steve took him to the bathroom and locked the door behind them.

"Steve", Eddie gasped, scandalized when his neck started to get kissed.

"You've been antsy all night." Steve's hands went to his hips and began to untuck his shirt.

Instantly, Eddie felt like being released from shackles. Steve's hand roaming under his shirt left him so distracted, he almost didn't hear what he said next.

"Hm?"

"I said, do you wanna get out of here?"

"The bill-", Eddie was cut off when Steve reached behind him and took down his hair, running his fingers through it to free the tresses.

"A little dine and ditch never hurt anyone."

Eddie looked to the window in the bathroom. Just barely big enough to make a getaway. He was halfway out when they heard someone knocking on the door. Eddie was helping Steve out as the handle was shaking. Steve was giggling and it was like a sweet bell to his ears.

They were making their way around the back of the restaurant and towards the van as the manager finally came around with a key.

Diane and Jonas could make out the commotion going on near the bathroom and saw the empty table where two lovebirds should be.

"You knew I made Eddie take Steve here", Jonas confirmed.

"Yes."

"And every time you got up-"

"Was to speak with Eddie. And now they've-"

"-Snuck out the bathroom."

Together they sighed, remembering when they snuck out of stuffy formals to be alone together. And because they wondered if they were doing right by their son.

"We're going to have a long talk when we get home, huh?", Jonas asked his wife.

"Oh yeah."

"Any hope for me?"

"Ask me after dessert."

Part 5

Tag Team

@tartarusknight @swimmingbirdrunningrock @estrellami-1 @potato-of-the-lord @dragonmama76 @m-owo-n @sticknpokelightningbolt @somegirlsomewhere @tinyplanet95 @samsoble @runniem @hallucinatedjosten @nburkhardt @littlewildflowerkitten @noctxrn-e @subversivecynic @larawrmonster @suikatto @platinum-sunset @imacowboy3 @tiny-enthusiast @netflixisacopingstrategymom @honorarybrit81 @manda-panda-monium @krazyperson @ninjapirateunicorns

[gleefullypolin]

Stacy's Tipsy Musing's – Penelope Bridgerton Hot Takes - Part 2

Ok boys and girls, we need to have a little chat about Penelope Bridgerton.

Part 2 has been out now for a couple of days and there have been a lot of hot takes to come out of the season. A LOT of hot takes. I’m going to break this down into 4 parts like I did for Colin ((Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Bonus). 4 questions that I'm seeing really bad hot takes about Penelope.

Not surprising I see lots of hot takes about Pen, because either A) people cannot handle a woman complex emotions and facets, B) hate on a woman who does not fit societal norms and standards or C) are stans who refuse to see that all characters have imperfections which make them even more delicious to watch.

Last time we talked about Colin’s entrapment statement to Pen and her reaction to it.  Question 1, now lets get to question 2:

Why didn’t Pen tell Colin about Lady Whistledown after X? (The Carriage, their first time, in the carriage after their first time, during the engagement party, when he gave her the engagement ring, after El met with her and she decided to write the column to protect the Bridgerton’s)

Ok first off let’s be honest, mistakes were made. But let’s also say...some of these moments were not exactly the right time either. So, let’s take each of these one by one.

The carriage, night of their engagement...Ok whoever thought this was a good night is literally insane. Pen was seriously bombarded one evening with not one but two proposals. She was expecting to be proposed to by Lord Debling, had her best friend barge into their dance and ruin said proposal, chase her carriage down, profess that he had feelings for her, finger bang her in said carriage, and then spring a proposal on her. She’s at this point shell shocked with emotion. Now she’s staring down the Bridgerton’s who are literally squeezing the air out of her in love and hugs on one side, and on the other glaring at her and spewing literal vitriol at her that Colin cannot possibly love her if he knows the real her. This is NOT the night this confession would have taken place.

Moving on to their first time. Another moment of shell shock for Penelope. Colin professes to her mother that he proposed to Pen out of love, standing up to her in front of her mother and then taking her to the place that is to be their home. They then make love for her first time in what I would say is every girl’s dream first time because damn girl. Yes! Now I would argue that this would have been the perfect time afterwards to tell Colin, and Pen had the same thought as I believe had they not been interrupted she would have told him. Now I think she could have still tried to tell him as they were getting ready to leave but honestly once the staff arrived, the time was gone.

Ok moving on to the carriage ride after their first time. Here is the second time that she had to actually tell him her secret. This was a great opportunity for her to talk to him. They were alone, it was private. The Queen’s notice did cause her to panic. But I do believe this was a mistake on Pen’s part. While the Queen’s notice going after LW and Colin’s hatred toward LW gave her pause, telling him the truth was the right play here. But she was scared, and she did not make the move and the time passed. Her moment was gone.

During the Engagement party. Ok this one is the most laughable one. El’s demand that she tells him by midnight was the most laughable thing I had ever seen. It was ridiculous to think that in the middle of a busy party with everyone around she was going to unload this giant secret with so many eyes and ears around. There was no way this was going to be where she did it. Point. Blank. Period.

When Colin gives her the engagement ring. Ok this one is where I have a bit of beef with Pen. This is where Lady Whistledown actually tells a lie. He asks her directly why she has ink all over her hands and Pen pulls back and tells him she is writing letters. It is the first time she lies directly to Colin. She’s not withholding secrets; she is directly lying to him. I give Pen a lot of grace in her secret. I gave her a lot of leeway, but this was the one time I looked at the screen and yelled NO PEN NO! But with Portia in the room, this was not when she was going to reveal her secret either.

So that takes to us the night that Eloise comes to Pen because Cressida has revealed herself as LW and is now writing a column and Eloise is worried it will ruin her and her family. Pen decides she is going to write a column because Whistledown is power. Now I know this is not a moment with Colin, but this is the moment that causes her to be caught by Colin. If only this had been the moment that they decided that now was the time to involve Colin because that would have been my dream right here for them to pull him in, let him know the secret, and the rest of the show would have been the 3 of them trying to figure out what to do, but alas, they did not, and I will have to live in fanfiction for this alternative reality.

And so here we are, she did not tell him, and he watched her leave the ballroom with El, the same person whom she was not speaking with for the last year who were seen leaving together hand in hand, and he followed her. And instead of her being able to tell him herself, instead of being able to come clean, her secret was laid bare as a deception to be discovered.

Stick around for part 3....

Why didn’t Show!Pen give up Lady Whistledown like Book!Pen did?

[noctilu-uca]

Rei Amayado and Love.

fgghhgggghhh....

Ok so ik there are a lot of unknowns about rei and honestly im no where near qualified enough to talk about ANY of the hypmic characters in the detail im about to go. But i like to think i know a decent amount of info and lore to make a good assumption. I could be totally wrong about some things soo pllleeeaassseeee dont take me entirely seriously

But the conversation between rei and nayuta confirmed a lot of things for me. A lot of things i was speculating that i havent really seen anyone else talk about

In the drama track, rei comes to the realization that he lets himself shoulder everything despite having the support that he could turn to rely on. Even when nayuta was still awake and with him, he had the bad habit of pushing everything onto himself.

The line that really stood out to me was nayuta asking if he was going to play the villain, to which he responds with a curt "yes" and this. Right there. Is exactly what ive been thinking this entire time.

Its really nothing new that ohhh rei is the bad guy hes morally grey hes hurt people You Shouldnt Really Trust Him. And rosho denounces all of that with pushing sasara to think "who is he really?" now i know that whole portion was supposed to lead sasara into his own growth but seriously. Who is rei? They knew he was a conman, they knew he was shady, unserious, and pushed things off. But rosho says that it was just a persona he built up, and hes correct.

We all knew rei was a deeper character than they let on, it was obvious to us, but not to them. Though its still kinda funny sasaro just said "yeah we guessed" when he said he was bb's father LMAOAOAOAOA not slick at all... but anyways where am i going with this ?

Rei has quite obviously put up a persona to the people around him. He doesnt want to be suspected, he doesnt want people knowing too much about him. So he pretends. That whole comical uncle spiel was just a means of hiding from everyone, and most importantly, himself. I dont think he really wants to face his reality. Of course he takes responsibility and is *painfully* aware of it, but he doesnt seem like he wants to accept it. Now im mostly talking about nayuta here, in the dt he said he would do basically whatever it took to keep nayuta by his side when she mentioned her not being there anymore. And what is he doing now? Keeping her comatose body on publicly unknown island to protect her, and watch over her state.

What about his kids? As far as im aware theres no reason we were given for him leaving bb. Hes accepted the fact hes nolonger an important part of their lives, sure hes important to a degree, but not in a parental way. Im sure its fair to assume he left bb around the time nayuta was sent comatose. So what i think: he left for their own safety.

He left them to make sure they wouldnt get wrapped up in the politics he did. Their mother got hurt, whose to say chuuohku wouldnt target his children next? They knew what was important to him, so he forced himself to think of them as unimportant. He left them so they wouldnt meet the same fate, nayuta is gone, he cant have her children following.

But that was when they were young. Now that they are more grown, things have changed. They are drb participants, and isnt the whole point of the drbs to train potential true hypnosis mic users? Those mics? The mics that kill users? Why would he allow that? I personally think that its just a matter of "they are grown, they can make their own decisions." mixed with "they could possibly survive it and help me create nayutas ideal world."

Even before the 2nd drb, dont you think it was odd how he randomly came to jirosabu one day and revealed that he was their father? What were the motives? Ive always interpreted it as him helping them in his own odd way. He knew their bonds were strong, so maybe if he gives them a challenge, he could strengthen those bonds while simultaneously pushing himself away. Which woah !! Exactly what he did. Jiro got some really good character developmemt out of that one, and bb started resenting him even more. Keeping them together is his goal, afterall its all they have.

So he got what he wanted. He pushed those that he loved and cherished away to protect them from his issues. So... Whats up with sasara and rosho? Notoriously, he told them almost nothing about himself. But with this new dt he revealed EVERYTHING. A new level of intimacy for our current time rei. He was vulnerable with them, when he was so used to makimg other vulnerable.

I think his relationship with sasaro is very healing for him. For all of them, actually, both he and sasara have a tendency to push others away for either their protection, or his own protection. And rosho is a catalyst of "thats so stupid wtf" and is essentially helping them find themselves after he found his own self.

Of course human growth is always happening, rosho is no where near done growing. As we see in the dt he is growing right in front of us, gaining more confidence in himself. And sasara and rei are still so far from really allowing themselves to grow. In a way, they are ashamed for their lack of growth. Sasara getting antsy over the fact rosho pointed out his habit of never getting involved. And rei reflecting back on nayuta when he just got done actively pushing sasaro away. Nayuta was the only person who *actually* forced him to think of different perspectives and not rot in his own.

While nayuta is gone, sasara and rosho are good stand ins. Will he love them like he loved her ?? NO !!! That man is a wife lover through and through. But theres one thing about hypmic that i absolutely adore, and its their utilization of platonic love. Rei is slowly learning to cherish sasara and rosho just as they are him. Its obvious sasaro already cherish and love each other on some level, with sasara immediately thinking of roshos dreams when met with his own to start comedy with him again. He didnt want to enroach on roshos new found identity. And rosho, pushing sasara to find his own new identity. And so many more examples.

But with rei, he stopped himself from cherishing and loving, keeping himself in the past where the only person he has ever, truly, loved with his whole heart resided. So when met with two people who had a bond like he once did, he stayed stagnant and kept himself where he was. That was, until they forced him not to.

So who is rei? Rei amayado, Rei yamada. I think he is a man that loves, truly loves.

Everything that he does was done from a place of care. Was he perfect? No. Not at all. Ramuda exists now, but to him that was a side point in getting nayuta back, and creating their shared world. He did it for nayuta, everything for nayuta. Because he loved her. And absolutely still does. He did it for his children, because in some way he still cares. Even if he acts like he doesnt. And now he is continuing on for his strengthening bonds with sasara and rosho, because they are giving him a chance to recount himself, and find out who he wants to be in his future. He isnt done living despite his old age, he has so much more to do and figure out, things he thought he could only do with nayuta by his side. Of course he wants her back, desperately, he truly thought she would never leave him. But now she has, and even though she isnt with him, he has the opportunity to restart with sasara and rosho. And hopefully be a changed man when nayuta comes back.

Rei, no matter what name he takes, is a man who loves, and will continue loving.

[enixamyram]

Rewatching the episode to give even more thoughts in every detail because I am so obsessed right now!

I don't give a f*ck what the anti's whine. I actually think Stella is a good villain. I genuinely like how much of a dumbass bitch she is. She's fun and entertaining and I can't wait for her downfall where I predict she'll throw a tantrum worthy of her usual hissy fits.

(Also, side note, I love her voice actress.)

I love the mugshots of Moxie, Blitzo and Millie. But I have to wonder, where is the Loona picture from? She looks so happy and sweet.

I know a lot of people have fawned over that moment where Loona tucks the picture away. And I love that moment too. But I also love this one. Blitzo has such nervous enthusiam meanwhile Loona's just kind of impressed.

And why does this one shot hit me so hard?! No one splits up M&M!

And these are the faces of people who realized that so long as Blitzo was allowed to represent himself, they were screwed. Someone get this Imp a lawyer to speak for him!

Side note; I love Bee's outfit!

Ya'll have no idea how loudly I wanted to scream at this moment!

(But I was still working when I was watching it so I had to settle for muffled squeaking instead...)

I said in another post but I genuinely loved what little we saw of Vassago in this episode. He immediately seems like a sweetheart and I want more of him in the future! I could honestly see him playing a fun role with I.M.P.

I have nothing negative to say about this episode... Except I wasn't crazy about Satan's singing voice... I mean the normal talking voice was good but his singing wasn't really the epic I was expecting (I think I was expecting something like Luke Holt as Zeus... but maybe that's just me...)

But anyway! They need to figure out a way to do a crossover. I need to see all the Deadly Sins meeting up with Lucifer, even if it's just for a short or something.

Someone else pointed out that Octavia doesn't run into her mums arms. In fact she actually steps back away from her and is hesitant to return the hug. Now it could be shock about what's happening to her dad but it does make me wonder if Stella wasn't a very distant mother. I mean, we saw as a young child Stella used to send Stolas to comfort Octavia after a nightmare so it's not so far fetched to believe she was a reluctant mother as well as a reluctant bride.

A brief funny moment ("So uh... Can I go then?") before Vivzie rips my heart apart.

Speaking of ripping my heart. You know what's really traumatic? Stolas is in shock so he hasn't told everyone the reality of what's happened, aka that he can't see his daughter. So Blitzo and Loona have no idea and are hugging and being sweet and it's lovely but they don't even realize they're unintentionally rubbing it in Stolas' face... It is somehow a beautiful, wholesome and yet awful, tear-jerking moment in one single screenshot.

Blitzo is so gentle with him...

Of course let's end on this screenshot...:

[vladdyissues]

I managed to read an old fanfic [Not uploaded on platforms] from a friend who really admired your account but for a while now he stopped being interested in Danny Phantom and forgot about the fanfic, This one deals more or less with the pompous pep theme where Danny starts receiving expensive gifts that Vlad sent and he thought they were for his mother, Until specific things started coming in, The thing is Danny Needs money for stuff so Tocker tells him to make videos [Where he makes money] And he decides to start making videos where he shows the things that come to him from Vlad, without saying who they are from and earning some money for the things which...Mysteriously they were his favorite things /video games/Comics/Things to play with

So he started to become popular for being "The muse of a secret admirer", And on that path Vlad found his account...And he started to stop sending gifts, So one day a new gift arrived [After months] and when opening it in a live, an invitation letter to Vlad's mansion came out, Danny now forced to go because those in the live saw him...You have to negotiate with Vlad about this... Profit that Danny is having and they make a deal where Danny will have to come to Vlad's house to show things and in exchange he can keep the money from the videos and the things, But in those aspects...Everyone already knew that the gifts were from Vlad [He was trying to promote Vlad's brand]

"Everyone knows Vlad is the admirer, except Danny's parents!"

What do you think??? My friend told me that I can continue the fanfic if I want and I really need an opinion from a talented writer who loves this ship... I've heard a lot of great things about you, honestly, Anything you can support me with? [I think the idea is great]

It sounds like a fun premise! Lots of potential for misunderstanding, miscommunication and mistaken identity (comedic and/or dramatic), a little bit of mystery and intrigue, clueless Sugar Baby Danny who has no idea Vlad is trying to win (buy) his affections. Here are some points I think might be prudent to consider:

• Why does Danny need money, and how badly? (Is he having a hard time finding an after-school job? Is he trying to save up money for college?)

How old is Danny in this fic? If he's 18 or older, it's a bit more natural for him to be worried about money—and for Vlad to be openly courting him. If Danny is still a minor, well, that complicates things. Vlad realistically can't be wooing a teenager in public, unless he's very careful (secretive) about his interactions.

• Why is Vlad lavishing these gifts on Danny? Is it because he's lonely? Does he just want someone to like him? When did he first realize he wanted Danny to like/love him?

Are they still enemies at this point, or is this an AU where that never happened? Do they still have ghost powers? If so, will that impact the plot in any way?

• What does Vlad hope to accomplish by getting Danny to come to his house to make the videos? Is it to get closer to him, spend more time with him? (Is Vlad shy?) Is he going to start asking Danny to stay for dinner? Tempt him with a movie afterward?

If you want to play up the "mystery" aspect of this story, don't answer any of these questions in the beginning. Let the audience wonder about Vlad's motivations for a little while.

• Per the points above, would Danny's parents approve of these visits, or would Danny keep it a secret from them? If he's keeping it a secret, what would happen if Jack and Maddie found out? (Potential story climax.)

• How is Danny going to react when he (finally) finds out that Vlad is in love with him? Does he accept, or does he freak out and run away? (Another potential story climax.) And if he does run away, how does Vlad get him back (if it's even possible)?

• And finally, how do you envision the overall "tone" of this story? Is it happy, lighthearted, humorous? Dark, dramatic, serious? A bit of both? What kind of ending do you envision for it?

I hope these points were helpful. Like I said, this sounds like an interesting premise with lots of options to work with. If you're feeling the spark of inspiration, go for it!

[guerrerajaguar]

Are you ever going to finish the CEO rengoku x reader story?

Hey there! I felt really happy that you asked for this <3 and the answer is absolutely yes! I hope you like it

CeoKyojuro x fem!reader (part 4)

Tags: @lalachanya, @aijlin @misslili265

CeoKyojuro x fem!reader part 1

CeoKyojuro x fem!reader part 2

CeoKyojuro x fem!reader part 3

One Step Ahead

Kyojuro Rengoku has never been so abashed in his life before, his mind keept playing tricks on him as he mentally tried to recreate the scene that had just happened.

“Good bye, Rengoku-san”

Why? 

Why was it so hard to get close to you? His hair was a complete mess by now as his hands desperately tried to look for an outlet to his growing exasperation. 

All of this and for nothing.

This was also the first time he could not get whatever he wanted. This feeling of failure was a completely strange to him. 

And all due to someone that up until a couple of weeks ago, was an absolute nobody.

This was certainly a growing obsession and for strangely as it could sound, he loved every single minute of it. The growing deception of you slipping through his fingers will only make his victory more delightful. Although, by that point, he wasn’t sure there could be any chance of triumph at all. 

Was there a way for him to slip into your heart?

He sighed deeply and soundly, right in the middle of his solitary CEO office. His jacket messily resting over his expensive brown oak imported desk, his tie loosen all the way up to his chest and his heart beating painfully. He was surprised by the fact of all the things he had to go through for realizing that he had fallen in love with you.

“I just hope that I didn't humiliate myself more than what I already have…”- He said, thinking out loud, not aware that there was someone listening to him.

“And why would you do that, brother?” - Almost laughing, replied Senjuro, the youngest member of the Rengoku dynasty. He was the entire opposite of his older brother. He was kind and respectful, everyone in the office enjoyed his presence, and even though he was still in college, it was not uncommon to see Senjuro working along with some multidisciplinary teams. He was really committed to help his older brother with the family company management, even if he did not agreed with some of Kyojuro’s ways.

“Ah Senjuro, what are you doing here at this time? Should you not be out with your friends on a Friday evening?”

“Mother sent me to look for you, as it seems you forgot our family gathering.”

“Was it today?” - He immediately checked his phone calendar and dropped himself deeper into his chair as he saw with disappointment that he had, indeed, completely forgotten about his family responsibilities. Pinching the bridge of his nose he continued:

“I am on my way now, I will apologize to our mother’s family…”

“What is with that expression, Kyo-ni? You look terrible!”- Senjuro said with a very affable expression, having a very good guess what the cause of it might be.

“To be honest with you Senjuro, I really don’t know anymore…”- He gave his brother a bitter side smile as he gently massaged his temples.

“Let me guess, this problem has a first and last name, pretty smile, beautiful hair, dazzling eyes and more important of all; she hates you.” - Said the younger blond while sitting over the elegant CEO desk.

“Senjuro, how could you possibly know that…?” - He was completely shocked to learn that at that point, he was so down bad that it was completely obvious.

“Well, I am not a kid anymore Kyo-ni! I can clearly tell when a man is suffering for love. But honestly, I thought you were a bit more charming. Because, I can assure you, that treating a girl so badly to make her quit is not the easiest way to get into her heart.” - He chuckled softly as he picked up one of the small crystal trophies that Kyojuro had given to himself, and that he so pridefully showed off.

“That is nothing like that, at all.” - He said while staring at the glass triangle statuette and he couldn’t help but to feel ashamed of the ridiculous idea of awarding himself.

“You see Kyo-ni, that is exactly the attitude that put you in THIS situation” - he returned the award back to its rightful place- “ You love to make things more complicated than what they should be, oh, and that horrendous pride of yours!” - Senjuro was smiling widely.

“By this time, it's pointless Senjuro, she really doesn’t want to know anything about me.” - His expression was serious but full of deception.

“That is because she doesn’t know the other side of you. We just need her to give you a chance to get to know you and I am sure that her perception of you, will change.” - Senjuro took out his phone and after he typed something on it, he showed Kyojuro his search results.

“Senjuro, I appreciate your help but I honestly don't think that this will make any difference”. - The CEO said as he took his younger brother’s phone.

“No offense Kyo-ni, but you need all the help you can get and as I see how you have failed so miserably, I will suggest that you take my advice.” - He smiled triumphantly as Kyojuro took a couple of minutes to weigh out his options.

“I guess it won’t hurt to try, and indeed, you are so grown up now that I never realized the time you stopped being a kid… ” - He chuckled loudly as he playfully hit one of Senjuro’s shoulders with his fist.

“This is owned by a friend of mine, so I will make sure that everything goes out perfectly, alright? I think this will be either a hit or a miss.”- Senjuro kept texting while Kyojuro and him walked out from the CEO’s office.”

“I really hope that Y/N likes it… “ - Kyojuro concluded as he reached the elevator as a secret bystander caught a significant amount of that conversation. 

Friday had finally arrived and you could not believe how suddenly you stopped desperately waiting for the weekend to arrive. You still had to go to work but you were finally enjoying it and living your best work life. The Uber driver left you at your friend’s front door. This was barely the second time he invited you over, so you contributed with a small peach cake and a your favorite chilled beer.

Your friend opened the door as soon as you knocked. A very manly and profound scent escaped through the entrance, it smelled just like his jacket, so deeply of him. This situation, unconsciously made you feel safe, so you stepped in as if that home was yours. He was wearing a very tight black shirt with washed-off denim jeans and his hair was entirely placed back in a low pony tail, exposing his face completely.

“Made it just in time and brought these goodies with me.” - You said with a soft smile, while Giyuu picked up your coat from his hands.

“I was wondering if you were going to come at all” - Giyuu said with a playful sarcastic tone.

“Ha! You wish! You promised me movies and popcorn and I wont leave until I get both.” - you said as you walked into Giyuu’s living room while he placed the cake and the beer inside the fridge. He was a very neat and organized man, and that of course, was not a surprise at all. His apartment had a minimalistic style, everything had a dedicated place, not a lot of decor, but colors were perfectly balanced to make the place look very sophisticated.

Everything seemed to be in its righteous place, except for the living room. And oh boy. Your blue eyed friend had definitely gone over the top with this improvised “home theater”. The space in front of you was filled with fluffy over-sized pillows on top of a cream-colored rug, every single blank space was filled with equally soft blankets, it was a dreamy invitation to throw yourself to sink into that overwhelming comfiness.

Without a second thought, you sunk yourself into that pillow fortress, fitting your body in the middle of all those blankets, just like a little girl. As you scanned the place, you noticed a gray cabinet that had some pictures on top of them. Your eyes observed them from left to right. 

The first, you assumed, was one of his family; you recognized his sister and two other people that looked just like Giyuu and Tsukako respectively. The second picture was him with his best friend Sabito, you have met his friend the first year you both became close at Giyuu’s improvised birthday party. He was a very vivacious guy, a bit too loud for your liking but a good person after all. And the third picture was you and him during the last company Christmas party. 

Something settled in your stomach when you looked at that picture, as usual, Giyuu had barely smiled at all, and if you remembered correctly, you almost had to forcefully drag him into the photo booth. Naturally, you made sure to pick the most ridiculous attire to make you both look even more ridiculous. You politely gave him a copy of that picture, being sure that if he did not threw it away, then it will never see the light of day ever again, to say the least.

But no, there it was, the picture was beautifully placed inside a golden frame, decorated with very delicate flowers. You could not recall where your copy was. Maybe you left it at your old desk? You probably would never know.

As if he had received a silent cue, Giyuu reappeared into the living room and beamed softly as he saw you already cuddled into the pillow nest that took him almost 3 hours to set up.

“It’s not that I don’t like it, but I believe we should get another picture together, don’t you think? A photo where I don’t make you feel miserable.” - You chuckled as Giyuu’s puzzled expression made you yank your face into the picture direction. Your friend’s face flushed instantaneously, he had totally forgotten about that picture, what was he thinking leaving it laying around just like that? 

He walked towards you, popcorn in hand, not really knowing what to say, so he tried his best to calm himself.

“I- I was not miserable. I had fun.” - He offered you the bowl without staring at you, you grabbed a fist-full and continued:

“I still think it’s a good idea to get another picture, I am afraid I left my copy at the office… Let’s take it the next time we go to the movies!” - you concluded before munching the little buttery softies.

Giyuu’s heart was racing wildly, he suddenly remembered the conversation he heard between Rengoku and his younger brother earlier that day. Because of that and various other reasons he had to make that day, THE DAY. He did and could not wait any longer. Will he summon enough courage to speak about it?

It was his turn to pick the movie, The Conjuring was within the repository of your favorite ones. You inadvertently drank a bit too much beer and end up finding the movie scarier than what you remembered. As nervous as Giyuu was, he mustered enough courage to speak softly to your ear:

“If you are scared, you can always look comfort in me, you know?”- he said it in such a velvety but inviting tone, that your body felt an electrical discharge that ran through your body, directly to your toes. You were sure that your heart was going to break loose from your chest any moment now. Your attention was directly driven into your blue-eyed friend. In which moment did you placed yourself under his shoulder, innocently resting on his chest?

He stared at you for a moment as well, his eyes slipped to your lips, you swore you could listen Giyuu’s wild heart beating as well. You both started to lean over, reducing the distance between the two of you, did Giyuu closed his eyes already? You quickly wondered what would Giyuu’s lips taste like, but instead of leaning over, you stood upso quickly that you stumbled and fell back into the pillow-free sofa.

“Oh wow! Look at the hour? Is that late already? I am so sorry Tomioka-sa… I meant, Giyuu, haha!”- You spoke broken words intertwined with nervous giggles, desperately looking for your shoes and phone. You were clearly impaired by the booze you drank.

Giyuu was still in shock, paralyzed with amazement trying to recollect what had just happened. That was not the way he wanted things to happen.

“Found them!” - you said with your phone in your hands while desperately requesting the first Uber driver you could get.

“Hold on Y/N, I-I…, please let me explain…”- he said as he watched you, hopelessly, getting ready to leave any moment now.

“Oh no, you are good! I was the one that took advantage of your hospitality, I better take my leave now. You probably have very important things to do tomorrow morning and I am here, keeping you busy very late at night!” - your head was a mess, but your heart was even more confused. You have never wished that someone responded to your Uber request as fast as in that moment.

“I-I, understand. I-I… at least let me take you home, I do not want you to take a cab by yourself with all the beer that you drank.”- he muttered sadly as we picked his keys and his jacket.

“Oh no, no need, there is an Uber driver already waiting for me outside!” - You lied, smiling at him, walking quickly through the door, but as your hand reached the door knob, you briskly returned, kissed your friend’s cheek and said to him:

“Can we talk about this another day?” - Giyuu Tomioka had never understood the out of body experiences until that moment. His hand automatically traveled to the cheek where your lips had rested an instant ago. You took that moment of shock from your friend to walk away quickly to meet your in-existent Uber driver. Maybe it was fate or the power of your thoughts, but a car was waiting right in front of you and after confirming the vehicle identity information you opened the door and rapidly entered.

“Good night, thank you for taking my request!” - you said without looking at your driver, as you were still staring through the rear mirror with the hope of catching a glimpse of Giyuu. Make up your mind already, you spoke to yourself.

“Y/N…?” - Your driver responded and as you identified that voice, you snapped your entire attention to the driver now.

“Akaza-senpai?!?”-

Ok so, I took forever to write this part but believe or not, I had this in my drafts for a long time now. So I still have not decided what is going to happen between Akaza and Y/N but I have 2 different possible outcomes with these too.

I felt really bad for Giyuu baby :c, but we all love a good dose of drama, don’t we? I wont promise to update soon because I don’t know if I would be able to but I will certainly try my best. Adulting takes most of my time since I became a functional adult lol.

I for sure will be updating my devoted husbands next, I JUST LOVE this self insert story hahaha.

If you have read the other CEO Kyojuro parts I thank you from the bottom of my heart, if you are a fellow fiction writer you might know how some days we can feel like our writing is not good enough and that’s ok! I do this for fun and will try to be a bit less harsh on myself.

If you are reading this story for the first time, I wanna welcome you to my writing blog and want to thank you deeply for taking the time to read my lil story, I hope that you like it and you have the chance to read my other writings. Until next time- Disturbia. 

[seungkwansphd]

room for interpretation - 3

pairing: lawyer!jeonghan x lawyer!YN word count: 9.9K synopsis: as top of class, you and jeonghan had been many things to each other. enthusiastic rivals, begrudging allies, and…parties to a jokingly written (but legally binding) marriage contingency contract? this piece of paper would’ve been long forgotten had an unexpected merger not thrown you back into each others’ lives. themes: fluff, rivals to coworkers to tentative friends to lovers, “if we’re both single by X age” marriage contract, IDIOTS2lovers, fake dating, miscommunication. this is just a romcom.

You must be losing your mind at least a little. This was the conclusion you’d come to over the weekend. You’d spent the better part of Sunday thinking about Jeonghan, the contract, and your feelings. You’d basically said that you wouldn’t mind being married to him, but that didn’t mean you actively liked him, right? So now you were slightly panicked that you’d maybe confessed something to him that you hadn’t meant to.

“How’d it go?” Maja burst into your office, demanding an update.

“Good!” you spun around to face her, eager to think about something other than Jeonghan. “They treat prospective clients the exact same way that Jillian said they treated employees. The whole place stank of elitism!”

“What did they say?”

“A lot of veiled language around ‘clients have to match the image of the brand’ and how they ‘look for a certain type and demographic of people’.”

“Yuck,” Maja blew a raspberry and gave a thumbs down. You agreed.

“And Jeonghan did a good job at playing fake fiance?” Maja couldn’t help but pry. She’d been wondering all weekend about that.

“Weirdly, yes,” you shrugged, “He’s surprisingly attentive. 

“Huh,” Maja, “Surprisingly?”

“He remembers little things that I wouldn’t have guessed he would remember.”

“I mean, you guys are friends,” Maja felt the need to remind you. Even if you didn’t accept it or realize it, your relationship with Jeonghan was in fact quite close.

“Yes! Everyone and their mother would like me to admit that I like Jeonghan. I’m friends with Jeonghan!” you threw your arms up suddenly, startling Maja.

Her eyes bugged out of her head at ‘I like Jeonghan’. Did you mean like…romantically? Or more as an extension of ‘I’m friends with Jeonghan’? She had a feeling that the question would be poorly received, so she withheld it for now.

“Sorry, it was just kind of weird. Pretending to be engaged, and then remembering the marriage contract, and then pretending to be married. I might still be processing.”

“Marriage contract? And why did you have to pretend to be married?”

“So,” you pointed at her, “When the person at the wedding venue asked us how we met, Jeonghan brought up the fact that we signed a marriage contingency contract in law school. In this fake world, of course, we realized we liked each other before the contract had to be enforced.”

Maja blinked. She was barely keeping up.

“So honestly, I had forgotten about that until he brought it up! But yeah, we did sign that, which was silly. But then we got food after the consultation and the waitress kept making eyes at him. Apparently he didn’t like that, so he kept referring to me as his wife, because we were wearing rings.”

Maja’s head spun.

“Hold on, let’s back up a second. You two signed a marriage contingency contract? What the hell does that even mean?”

“Okay, so,” you inhaled before launching into the full backstory for Maja.

You did your best to explain the context of Peter’s divorce, his declaration that law was for lonely losers, and your subsequent insistence that that didn’t apply to you. She nodded as you explained how smugly sure Jeonghan had been that you couldn’t get married and make partner before thirty and the resultant bet and contract.

She wasn’t nodding because it was reasonable, by any means. No, the whole arrangement was unhinged. She nodded because it could maybe make sense if there were repressed feelings on both sides. And even then, it was a stretch.

“Why would you sign that?” she found herself asking indignantly. Even as a non-lawyer, it seemed ill advised.

“I mean I was such a hothead in law school. I couldn’t stand it when Jeonghan called me chicken. The other thing I realized, like literally this weekend, is that it would be okay if I were contractually obligated to marry Jeonghan. Now that things with Flynn are over, I’m not gonna make the thirty year cut anyways!” you shrugged and laughed.

Maja squeezed her eyelids together. You were being an idiot of grander scale than she could’ve ever anticipated, it seemed. Maybe more than her gentle nudges were needed. Perhaps it required an actual act of God.

“You know what?” you pointed an accusatory finger at her. You had meant to stop thinking about Jeonghan! “I’ve spilled a lot of beans just now while your beans have stayed in their container. What the heck is going on with you and Harris?!”

“Ah,” Maja scratched the back of her neck. “You’re right, I’ve been keeping that to myself. Why don’t we do something fun this weekend and I can catch you up?”

“Yes!”

Maja shot you a quick thumbs up before returning to her desk. Her eyes flitted to Jeonghan’s closed office door. She wondered how much information she could get out of him if she tried.

…

Maja checked that the coast was clear as soon as Jeonghan left his office. She’d been snooping on calendars and seen that he had the next two hours blocked off. He’d taken his laptop with him, so she was confident that she could snoop freely for the next bit. Trying to appear as nonchalant as possible, she ducked into his office and started peering around. She didn’t honestly know what she was hoping to find. She doubted that Jeonghan kept a journal full of his secret feelings about you, but she would settle for something…anything!

“What’re you doing?” Peter appeared suddenly in the doorway.

“Nothing! Um…helping Jeonghan sort his paperwork,” she shuffled piles of papers haphazardly together on his desk.

“You never help with administrative tasks,” Peter narrowed his eyes at her. “What’s really going on?”

“I…, uh,” she floundered for a moment before giving up the charade completely, “I’m snooping. I think something’s going on between Jeonghan and YN.”

“Oh!” Peter’s eyebrows raised with surprise, “Like…in a good way or a bad way?”

“Like…I think they liked each other. And maybe still like each other.”

“Love!” Peter gasped, clapping his hands together. “Let me help. What are you looking for?”

Maja rolled her eyes. She should’ve known this would be Peter’s response.

“Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m doing here. It’s not like it’s the Victorian era and they keep secret correspondence or something,” she shook her head, ready to give up.

“Ow, shoot!” Peter whisper-shouted as his shoulder brushed against Jeonghan’s diploma, knocking it off the wall. The loud crash that accompanied it made Maja want to melt into the floor.

“How did it not break?” she marveled with wonder before realizing it was plexiglass. She flipped it over to put the diploma back in place and was surprised when multiple sheets of paper emerged. “What in the world…,” she murmured. Peter had made himself scarce after the ruckus, so she was able to read in peace.

“I, the undersigned, consent to…,” she read the text and realized that this was the contract. It was a fairly short document and while no judge in their right mind would enforce this, it was technically binding. She set it aside before fixing Jeonghan’s diploma and hanging it back on the wall. Maja thought briefly about what to do with the contract, but ultimately settled on leaving it on Jeonghan’s desk. She’d thoroughly undone whatever organization system he used to separate his papers, so she could at least make this easy for him.

…

Jeonghan let out another long exhale. He’d blocked off a few hours in the law library so he could work without being distracted by the view of you through the window. He’d also spent his Sunday thinking of you. He’d have no way of knowing it, but he was far less conflicted than you were. He liked you, was attracted to you, and would be happy to date you. After all this time, both apart and together, he just…enjoyed you. Whether you were making his blood boil while butting heads or making his heart flip flop as his fake fiancee, he liked you.

He knew he likely had some work to do in order to show himself to you in that light, but he was willing. You already spent an atypical amount of time with him, so really there were more than enough opportunities. He typed up a few more sentences before someone burst into the office unceremoniously.

You’d jumped when your phone had started ringing in your hands. Flynn was calling weeks after your break up, so you’d panicked and ducked into the law library.

“Hello?” Jeonghan’s eyes widened when it was your voice that answered. Your phone wasn’t on speaker, but the volume was high enough that he could also hear the person on the line.

“Hello? YN?”

“Flynn, is everything okay?” you asked.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s okay, thanks for asking,” he chuckled and you smiled reflexively. It was easy to relax into his laugh.

“Um, so why are you calling?” you asked, slightly awkward.

“Right to business as usual,” Flynn laughed again.

Jeonghan’s pulse raced. You were still facing the door, so he felt like he was eavesdropping, but it also didn’t seem right to speak up, so he just sat in this one-sidedly tense situation, frozen.

“Listen, I’m calling, um. Because I’ve been thinking…I just miss you. Uh, I know I struggled with your lack of work life balance, but…I’ve been wondering if we should give it another try?”

Your eyebrows shot up with surprise at the same time Jeonghan’s furrowed. You’d been thinking maybe he’d left something at your apartment and wanted to pick it up. You exhaled sharply and turned, pressing your back to the door.

“Flynn, I-,” your eyes met Jeonghan’s. You hadn’t realized he was there.

His eyes pinned you against the door and the words caught in your throat. Heat crept up your neck and the room suddenly felt foggy. You tried to form words that wouldn’t come.

Jeonghan tried to keep from frowning. Your ex wanted to reconcile, which made him want to throw your phone out of the window, but he refrained from showing this. He tried not to react in any way because he needed to understand more of where you stood and what you wanted. His wants regardless.

You blinked at Jeonghan, eyes searching his irritatingly placid face. You were surprised when you realized you were looking for some sort of indication or tell from him. In the past he’d been quite clear that he didn't care for Flynn. Why did it frustrate you that he wasn’t showing that to you again? Now?

“YN?” Flynn’s tinny voice shook you both out of your reverie. Jeonghan held your gaze, nodding as if reminding you that you needed to answer.

“I-,” you closed your eyes for a moment to filter through your thoughts and decide what you wanted. “Flynn, it’s so kind of you to call. I…don’t think we should give it another try. I actually feel really good about our split,” you answered honestly, eyes opening again.

“Ah,” Flynn was clearly surprised. “Well, thank you for being honest. I, uh, wish you the best!”

“Thank you,” you said as you met Jeonghan’s eyes again. Your heart pounded wildly as you ended the call and excused yourself from the library.

Jeonghan’s hand rose to his mouth to cover a wide smile of relief. He spent the next minutes trying and failing to focus and smiling into his palm. After accepting that he wasn’t going to get any more work done, he returned to his office. He cocked his head when he noticed the papers on his desk. This was definitely not how he had left them, but he found he didn’t really care.

The only document of note was the one he’d set his laptop on top of. Furrowing his brow as he pulled it out, his eyes scanned through it until he realized what it was: The ContractTM. Where had this come from?

With revived focus and interest, he reread the pages in their entirety. He found himself chuckling at his past self as he did so. Maybe it was just that hindsight is twenty-twenty, but Jeonghan found himself truly marveling at the document. While on its surface it was just an oddly written contract, it could also be read as a love letter to you from an emotionally constipated idiot. All this time, you’d been someone very special to him and it had taken him all this time to realize it.

…

“Mandatory happy hour,” you read the calendar invite you’d just received from Peter. You looked to Maja, who shrugged in response.

“Guess I’m busy tonight,” you gave your computer a lackluster thumbs up. Your pulse sped up slightly as you watched Jeonghan walk into his office.

You were feeling some awkwardness after he’d witnessed Flynn’s attempt to reconcile. It was your fault for barging into the library, but you wished he’d said something, cleared his throat, anything to let you know that he’d been in there! You felt vulnerable to Jeonghan in a way that made you feel shy around him now. You hated it.

After a moment or two more of consideration, you shook your head. It would be fine. It was fine!

Jeonghan ran his tongue across his teeth as he read the calendar invite from Peter. While a mandatory, company-wide hang hadn’t been his ideal next step, he supposed it was still an opportunity to spend time with you. He had been thinking, overthinking really, ways he could spend time with you that were less casual than the current post-activity meals that you often shared. Your relationship revolved heavily around work, so at some point he wanted to move away from that, but he also wanted some reassurance that you were even interested.

…

“Are you walking over now?” Jeonghan called from his office when he saw you and Maja conferring.

“Yes! Would you like to join us?” Maja invited him.

“Please,” he nodded, logging out of his laptop quickly. It was just a few minutes more before he was ready to go.

“Alright, mandatory fun!” Maja pumped a reluctant fist before leading you towards the elevator.

“Mandatory fun,” you chuckled weakly as you followed her.

“Ready for mandatory fun?” Jeonghan nudged you with his elbow as he settled in next to you.

“So ready,” you laughed.

You actually weren’t dreading it that much. Peter’s unseriousness as a boss meant that after-hours work events were often quite fun. It would be interesting to see Harris in a social situation, but you genuinely liked a lot of the associates, so honestly it would be a good time. As long as you could keep a reasonable distance between yourself and Jeonghan, you could be okay.

Jeonghan’s brow furrowed. You were being unusually quiet.

“How was your day? How’s the wrongful termination suit going?”

“Oh, um, good,” you nodded. Why was this elevator so slow?

Maja furrowed her brow. Jeonghan was trying and you were giving him absolutely nothing.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to visit the employer again? There was a coworker that could be a key witness if you could get into contact with them!”

“I-,” you glared at Maja.

“Oh, do you want to go back? I’ll go with you,” Jeonghan offered.

“For your client,” Maja implored, but you could see the mischief playing across her lips.

“Maybe, it might not be necessary,” you shrugged.

“Okay, just text me if it is. I’ll make myself available,” Jeonghan nodded.

Maja was suffering in silence. She wondered if she could have the elevator to herself for a moment while you two walked to the bar.

“YN! Jeonghan!” Peter greeted the two of you enthusiastically when you walked in.

“What about me?” Maja glared playfully at Peter.

“Maja, my favorite girl!” he folded her into a hug that she immediately pulled away from.

Harris appeared behind Peter and you tried to hide a smile. This casual check-in with Maja was obvious to you, but you knew no one else was aware of the relationship yet.

“Hi Harris,” you smiled at the other managing partner before slipping away towards the bar. Maja followed.

“You’re acting weird,” she declared, leveling you with a stare. “What gives?”

“What?”

“You are being so short with Jeonghan. Did he upset you or something?”

“I mean not specifically, but in general he is upsetting to me.”

Maja narrowed her eyes at you. You were so full of shit! Yet you had given her space about Harris when she’d needed it and so she supposed he could at least try and reciprocate.

“YN!” your junior associate, Kevin, appeared suddenly at your side. He placed his chin on your shoulder, which was silly because he was a full two heads taller than you. Kevin was like a big puppy and he looked up to you like an older sibling.

“What’s up?” you couldn’t help but laugh at his antics.

“The advice that you gave me on that fraud case totally worked!” He stood up excitedly. “As always, you are the greatest!”

You grinned up at him. Kevin was straightforward and genuine in a way that you liked. You could trust the things he said without wondering about ulterior motives.

Jeonghan’s brow furrowed as he watched you and the world’s tallest Kevin at the bar. You two seemed wildly incompatible, yet you clearly enjoyed Kevin’s company and that surprised Jeonghan. He wondered whether that was what you looked for in a partner. Someone goofy and easy?

“You are thinking very hard,” Joshua appeared suddenly, teasing him in a sing-songy voice.

“I am not,” Jeonghan found himself denying immediately.

“Lies,” Joshua’s eyebrows raised before his head snapped in the direction Jeonghan had been looking earlier. The most devious smile curled onto his lips when he saw you. Jeonghan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Explain.” his evil twin demanded.

“There’s nothing to explain,” Jeonghan insisted. He wasn’t willing to share this with anyone yet, not even Joshua. He had just barely admitted it to himself.

“Well, I haven’t gotten to know YN at all since the merger, so now’s the perfect time,” Joshua managed to sound sweet and menacing at the same time.

“Wait,” Jeonghan called weakly. Was he ready to give this up?

Joshua turned back and looked down at him expectantly. Jeonghan glared at him for a moment before looking away and Joshua finished his beeline towards you. For all his soft smiles and sweet demeanor, he was such a little shit when he wanted to be.

“Oh, Joshua!” you were surprised when the attorney joined you at the bar. Aside from his commitment to work life balance, and also due to it, you didn’t know Joshua very well.

“You all looked like you were having too much fun for me not to join,” he smiled at you. Kevin gave him a jovial fistbump and he was folded into the group seamlessly.

You tried to ignore Jeonghan’s eyes on you, but you could feel them. You’d noticed Joshua teasing Jeonghan about something, but even before he had made his way to you, you’d felt Jeonghan’s gaze on you. You couldn’t seem to help the way it made your pulse stutter every so often. You wished it would stop.

“Joshua, you and Jeonghan are close, right?” Maja asked.

“As close as one can be with a workaholic,” he teased.

“Did you know that he and YN went to school together?”

“No, I didn’t,” Joshua shook his head. He looked at you with new appreciation. “Was he as big of a pain in law school as he is now?”

You shifted your gaze to Jeonghan and considered him. A smile lit up your face before you answered yes.

Jeonghan stood up. That was enough of standing on the sidelines.

“Talking about me?” he asked as he slipped behind you to order another drink.

“Only bad things, I promise.”

“Well, even if your attention is elsewhere, I’m glad I’m still on your mind,” he murmured for only you to hear.

You blinked, trying to keep a sheepish grin from spreading across your face. The edge of jealousy you heard was giving you major butterflies.

“YN?” you heard your name, snapping you back to reality.

“I’m so sorry, I did not hear you,” you shrugged sheepishly. Jeonghan looked down to hide a self satisfied grin.

“We were thinking of sitting outside on the patio,” Kevin repeated himself, jerking a thumb towards the door.

“Oh sure! It’s nice out,” you nodded, moving away from Jeonghan in an act of reflexive self preservation. It would be great not to be on edge all night if you could manage.

The outdoor seating was mostly picnic bench-style, so your group split in half to slot yourselves into them. You stayed close to Maja throughout the shuffle, which resulted in being sandwiched between her and Jeonghan. Wonderful.

You didn’t really absorb another word that was said the rest of the night. Every time you tuned in, the conversation had drastically changed from the last time you’d been listening. Eventually you gave up. Instead, your mind zeroed in on every shift and movement that Jeonghan made. A few minutes after sitting down, he turned to face the group more directly and his legs straddled the seat of the bench. What this meant for you was that his legs were now more or less draped around you, boxing you in. 

Maja struggled to hide her giddy grin as she watched you from the corner of her eye. Whether he was aware of it or not, Jeonghan was definitely staking a claim. Most of the firm knew that you two spent a lot of time together, both professional and extracurricular, but these subtle physical proximities reinforced and cemented the closeness you shared.

“Oh? Jeonghan, is that you?” a new voice pierced the air.

“Ah?” his legs brushed against you as he turned to identify where the voice had come from. “Ah, Soonyoung?!”

“Jeonghan, it is you!” a young, vivacious man called more excitedly this time. Jeonghan stood to embrace him. “Just my luck running into you!”

“Oh, why’s that?” Jeonghan slung an arm around his shoulder, moving to catch up with him.

You exhaled a small sigh of relief as Jeonghan left to chat with his friend across the bar. You brought your chin to rest on your upturned palm as you watched them. A soft smile settled on your lips. Jeonghan’s expression was so dynamic as his friend talked. He was a much better listener than he’d been in college.

“YN,” Joshua’s voice pulled your attention away. “How is your wrongful term case going?”

“Oh! Mostly good, though I am a little worried about the jury selection. You never know what you’re going to get, right?”

“That’s true,” he laughed. “Is Jeonghan still assisting on that case?”

“Well, no. He was never formally assisting. I just needed a fake fiance for a day, so he got roped in, I suppose.”

“He volunteered!” Maja piped in unhelpfully.

“Oh, did he?” Joshua’s eyes widened with surprise. “That’s odd!”

“Is it?” your brows raised, “He loves butting into cases that aren’t his!” you laughed good naturedly.

“Hm, not the Jeonghan that I’ve come to know,” Joshua shook his head with a bemused smile. “He’s different with you though, I’ve noticed.”

You looked towards Jeonghan again. He was staring at you with an expression on his face that indicated he needed extricating from his situation. You blinked slowly before turning back to Joshua.

“I think he needs help,” you laughed. You and Joshua chatted about made up topics for a few minutes longer before you got up to retrieve him. You were delighted to learn that reveling in Jeonghan’s misery was an interest of Joshua’s as well.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt,” you cleared your throat as you approached the pair. “Can I steal him back from  you…soonish?”

“Oh please! We’ve discussed what I needed to discuss. Now I’m just blabbing his ear off. I’m Hoshi, by the way. You are?” Jeonghan’s friend stood up to shake your hand.

“YN,” you smiled, “How do you two know each other?” you couldn’t resist asking. You knew you were meant to be extricating Jeonghan from the conversation, but the opportunity to learn about this person from Jeonghan’s life was simply too tempting to resist.

Hoshi launched into a long and animated story of how he and Jeonghan met on the playground at Maseok Elementary school. Hoshi was an excellent storyteller and regaled you with no shortage of entertaining stories about Jeonghan. One that particularly made you giggle was the story of Jeonghan, upset over something and trying to make a show of it, losing his balance and rolling down the stairs instead.

Jeonghan covered his face with a hand. He should’ve known that Hoshi would happily volunteer all of his most embarrassing tales. He almost stopped Hoshi from telling the snake story until he saw the smile that had lit up your face.

“Friggin’ idiot,” you laughed, covering your mouth with your hands to hide a smile of utter delight behind it.

The words were insulting, but you said them with a warmth and affection that spread through Jeonghan’s chest like fire. Damn, he really did like you didn’t he?

“Hey are you ever coming back?” Maja shouted from across the bar.

You and Jeonghan looked at each other before smiling at Hoshi sheepishly. Jeonghan ensured that he would be in touch with Hoshi soon before you returned to the remainder of the firm that was still out.

“How was your little sidebar?” Peter asked.

“That was an old friend who happens to be in need of a lawyer, so we may have a new client,” Jeonghan shrugged casually.

“Oh I could kiss you on the mouth!” Peter clapped him on the back excitedly. At your bemused glare, he added, “With your consent, of course.”

Jeonghan let out a puff of laughter. Peter had ceased to surprise him long ago.

“Okay, I’m tired, I’m ready to go home,” Maja announced after a rather spectacular yawn.

Harris stood and the rest of the associates followed.

“Hey, you’re not taking the bus home, okay?” Maja pointed a finger at you as you closed your tab. “Jeonghan, will you drive her?”

Jeonghan nodded, silently thanking Maja for her observant and protective nature.

“No, I-,” your protest died in your throat when you saw her withering stare. It was late anyways, you wouldn’t mind the ride, to be honest. “I can ask someone else, if it’s out of the way for you,” you turned to Jeonghan.

“It’s on the way,” he shook his head. He had no idea whether this was true or not, but he wasn’t going to give up this opportunity.

“Okay,” you nodded.

You felt inordinately nervous as you followed him to his car. Jeonghan had driven you places plenty of times before, but it felt a little different this late after-hours. You watched him out of the corner of your eye as he drove.

“Did you enjoy your mandatory fun?” you finally asked, unable to take the silence anymore.

“Huh?” Jeonghan was startled from his thoughts.

He’d been deeply ruminating over if, whether, and then how he was going to walk you to the door and ask you out. He wanted to wait until the Mock Trial season was over so you wouldn’t consider it another meal of convenience.

“Jeonghan?” you were confused when he didn’t answer.

“Sorry, yes, it was fun. Added bonus of running into Hoshi,” he shook his head slightly.

“I enjoyed running into him too,” you grinned cheekily at him.

“It seemed so,” Jeonghan raised an eyebrow at you, but it was good natured.

“Thanks for the ride,” you smiled at Jeonghan as he pulled into the parking area at your place.

“I’ll walk you up,” he decided as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

“You don’t have to do that,” you cocked your head at him.

“I know,” he half-smiled at you and continued anyway.

You tamped down a prickle of nerves as he followed you to the building entrance. You turned to face him because you felt like you needed to say something before going inside.

“Thank you for the ride,” you waved awkwardly at him, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Jeonghan nodded, feeling stuck as you turned to enter the building. At the last moment, he grabbed a hanging tie on your bag and jerked you back towards him. Now or never.

“Hey, uh…question,” he cleared his throat when you turned confused eyes towards him. “When Mock Trial season is over…would you want to go to dinner with me?”

“Oh?” your eyes widened. That prickly tingle was back again.

Jeonghan watched you think. It was like the day he’d watched you talk to your ex over the phone. It felt similarly nerve wracking waiting for you to render a decision.

“Yes, I would like that,” you finally nodded, offering him a small smile.

“Great,” he broke out into a smile and you both exhaled small breaths of relief. “How about the Friday after their final trial?”

“That works for me,” you nodded. You didn’t need to check your calendar, you never had plans.

“Okay, let’s plan for 7. I’ll work out the other details,” he nodded before releasing his hold on your bag. You exhaled loudly after you were safely inside. Was this a date?

…

Jeonghan’s brow furrowed as he stared at the casefile on his desk. He should be ecstatic. Harris and Peter had just assigned him a major Merger & Acquisition project. This was a huge step in building his corporate law portfolio, yet he couldn’t help but feel annoyed as it required him to be onsite. Your dinner date was just two weeks out and he really had no way of knowing how long he’d be required to be out of town.

“Hey, I heard you got an interesting case! What is it?” you popped your head into Jeonghan’s office. You were itching to know.

“Merger and Acquisition,” he responded blandly.

Your nose wrinkled. You had never been one for corporate law, so this was a rare case where you had no interest whatsoever. It was, however, surprising that Jeonghan wasn’t more visibly excited.

“Why do you look so un-psyched? You like this shit,” you furrowed your brows at him.

“I am, but I have to be on site for it…in Minneapolis.”

“Ah,” you nodded. You had to travel for work every so often and it was never as fun as you’d think. Staying in a hotel with an unfamiliar bed and weird pillows was just mildly annoying enough to drive you crazy. “Minneapolis is fun though!”

“There are things here I’d rather be doing,” an eyebrow jerked up with slight irritation. He hoped you would catch his drift.

“It’ll all be here when you get back,” you were trying to be encouraging.

Jeonghan tried to be reassured, but the unreasonable fear that you would change your mind about wanting to go out to dinner with him while he was gone lingered. He wondered if he could take that Friday off and fly back for the weekend.

…

You sighed as you walked back to your car. Jeonghan was out of town, which meant you were now advising both teams. You adored all of the students, but their instincts to try and weasel out information about the opposition’s strategy was making you a little crazy. You missed being a two-person team.

Your stomach grumbled as you entered a restaurant. This was your favorite place for solo dining. On top of the food being good, they had single person booths equipped with phone charging outlets where you could eat in peace. As you sat down, you realized just how long it had been since you’d stopped in. These days, more often than not, you had Jeonghan to eat with.

“Ah, YN! Where the hell have you been?” the hostess, Evan yelled excitedly when you walked in. “You finally find someone who will date you and your crazy hours?”

“Why would you think that when I’m back here to eat by myself?” you threw your hands up playfully in response. Your mind wandered to Jeonghan, but you brought it back quickly. 

“I guess so, you lonely spinster,” Evan chuckled affectionately as he led you to a booth. “You know the deal, so let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do,” you nodded as you took a seat. You submitted your order through the tablet and scrolled through your phone as you waited.

Your mind inevitably wandered to Jeonghan. You wondered whether he’d gotten into Minneapolis without much hassle and how the merger seemed so far. You even went so far as to draft a text message to him, but did not actually send it. He could contact you if he wanted to. You returned to the article you’d been reading, but it wasn’t much longer before your phone rang, alerting you of an incoming video call from ‘Yoon Jeonghan’. How was that for timing?

“Hello?” you answered while fishing in your bag for headphones.

“Hey, it’s Jeonghan,” you laughed. You knew that already. “Is practice over?”

“Yes,” you replied, waiting for a moment for the audio to switch over. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he replied, turning his camera on. “I was just thinking of you so I thought I’d call to see how it went. Thank you for pulling double duty, by the way. I wish I could’ve been there.”

“Me too,” you chuckled, propping your phone up so you could see him. “You should’ve seen the way Farah’s eyes bugged out when I told them where you were. Yet another weirdo who likes corporate law,” you teased. Farah was wonderful, but you just truly did not understand the draw.

Jeonghan laughed before reaching offscreen to grab a pair of chopsticks. You watched as he pulled them apart and jabbed them into something in a bowl.

“Oh are you eating? Me too,” you remarked, showing him a spoon that was handy.

“Yes. It’s been a long day, I’m starving,” he nodded before shoveling noodles into his mouth.

“How has the merger been, by the way?” you 

“Fairly aggressive so far,” Jeonghan shook his head. Once his immediate hunger was sated, he shared more details about his day. The timing was just as well because Evan brought you food and you could listen and eat.

Jeonghan smiled as he watched you eat dumplings rather expeditiously. While his day had been busy and consumed with the merger, he hadn’t been able to keep his mind from wandering to you. He’d finalized his plans to fly home on Friday in time for your date, which filled him with a nervous excitement. He planned to surprise you, so he didn’t share for now.

“How is Hoshi’s case?” he asked before bringing his water to his lips.

Your eyes lingered on his hand for a moment too long before you answered. Hoshi was quite the character. You weren’t exactly sure he had a solid case against his business partner, but you were still in the fact finding stage of things.

Jeonghan nodded while his server brought him the bill and informed him that he should pay at the hostess stand. As he stood, he let you know that he would be back soon and instructed you to wait for him. He knew you likely wouldn’t, but he was curious how long you might hold for. He laughed when he returned to a stern text from you asking not to waste your time. You’d waited all of two minutes before ending the call.

…

Jeonghan squeezed his eyes shut. The attorney for the opposite side of the merger was driving him insane with his idiocy and dramatic flair. His eyes flitted to his phone, he wondered if you were free.

[yjh]: ‘my opposing counsel is a moron’

You laughed.

[yn]: ‘i wonder if he attended Thee Law School That Shall Not Be Named’

[yjh]: ‘i’m not even sure he’d be admitted there’

You snorted. While you knew it was unreasonable, dunking on your law school’s longest standing rival still tickled a special spot of joy in your heart.

[yn]: ‘otherwise, how’s it going?’

Jeonghan glanced up surreptitiously before responding. Things were going smoother than the first days. Leadership of the acquiree had come to terms with the transaction. At this point, the opposing counsel was more of an obstacle than anyone else.

You raised your eyebrows as you read his response. You wondered if this attorney was struggling to change mindset and was still taking an oppositional approach.

[yn]: ‘may want to reinforce that his clients have accepted the acquisition and continue to redirect/reroute to them as appropriate’

[yjh]: ‘would rather just strangle him’

[yn]: ‘i will not represent you when it inevitably goes to trial’

[yjh]: ‘but you’re the best 🥺👉👈’

[yn]: ‘i’m aware :)’

Jeonghan snorted before tucking his phone back in his pocket. Incompetent Opposition LawyerTM had returned so it was back to business.

…

[yn]: ‘you should go to the MIA!’

[yjh]: ‘what is that?”

[yn]: ‘Minneapolis Institute of Art.’

[yn]: ‘this weekend is their annual Art in Bloom event!’

[yn]: ‘your timing is perfect!’

Jeonghan was pleasantly surprised as you proceeded to blow up his phone, explaining that the Art in Bloom was an annual event where floral artists were invited to create arrangements that were inspired by or complements to art pieces that were housed at the MIA. Apparently it was a free annual event that you were very excited about.

[yjh]: ‘it’s too bad you’re not here with me.’

‘Here with me’ stuck out to you more than you cared to admit.

[yn]: ‘send me pictures if you go! plz & ty’

Part of you did wish that you were in Minneapolis with Jeonghan. As much as your friends disagreed that it was a cool city, you enjoyed it. It had so many things that you enjoyed.

[maja-stic]: ‘are you ready? i’m leaving now, be there in 15’

[yn]: ‘yes! see you soon :)’

You flipped back to Jeonghan’s messages and were delighted to see he had decided to take your advice and promised to send you pictures. You nodded happily and finished packing your bag. You and Maja had a date at the mall. You were in the market for new trousers and she was shopping for home decor items.

[maja-stic]: ‘here’

“Hello hello! I missed you,” she greeted you with a smile as you climbed into her car. Being with Harris really looked good on her, she seemed so happy these days.

“I missed you too. Freaking Harris monopolizing all of your time,” you feigned outrage.

“You’re always welcome to hang out with us,” she offered as she drove.

“I don’t think I want to third wheel my literal boss,” you chuckled.

“I-,” she glared at you, “He is also my literal boss.”

“Yes, and you chose to get involved in a sordid, workplace relationship. That’s not my fault!” you teased her and she reached over to pinch you.

“Ow! I’m gonna report you to HR!” you shouted.

You both broke out into a peal of giggles as she turned off on the exit to the mall. After completing your ritual of getting soft pretzels and bubble tea, the two of you began shopping in earnest. You alternated between clothing and home decor and as was typical, both ended up buying things you absolutely didn’t need. As time went on, Maja noticed that you were more and more wrapped up in your phone. At the beginning of the trip, you’d been invested in finding pants, but once you’d found two pairs to your liking, you’d been checking your phone like crazy. Sometimes there was nothing to respond to, but more often than not, a smile crept onto your lips and you tapped back a quick reply. Her eyebrows furrowed.

“Who do you keep texting?” she demanded, curiosity bubbling.

“Oh, my friend is at a museum and they’re sending me pictures!” you avoided answering the question directly.

“Oh? Let me see!” she poked her head over your shoulder. She had a burning gut feeling.

You flipped through the photos that Jeonghan had sent you. Maja cooed appropriately at the floral arrangements, but was disappointed that they didn’t give anything away. It had to be Jeonghan, right? You didn’t have any other friends!

“So is it a botanical garden? It seemed like flowers and also art?”

“No, it’s an art museum. They do an annual special exhibit of floral arrangements.”

“Ahh, cool,” Maja nodded before unlocking her phone to do some googling. It didn’t take much sleuthing to deduce that this was probably the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Art in Bloom exhibit. The pieces of information puzzled themselves together in Maja’s brain and she gasped, giving you an accusatory stare.

“You lying son of a gun!”

“What?” you feigned ignorance, but you knew your goose was cooked.

“You’ve been texting Jeonghan all day! You-,” her outrage choked out the rest of her sentence. “Right?”

“No,” you denied reflexively.

“Give me your phone then,” she stood with a fist on her hip and the other hand outstretched. “If you are truly not texting Jeonghan all day on a Saturday then give me your phone.”

“I-,” you sighed, giving up the pretense, “Fine, you’re right. Sue me!”

“I will!” she replied. She was overwhelmed by a mix of indignance, vindication, and excitement that was showing up in an overly combative manner. “Sorry, I just…I am surprised! And processing.”

“We’re just talking,” you tried to play it down, but you knew it was more than that.

Over the past week, your communications with Jeonghan had grown more frequent than they’d even been with Flynn. You looked forward to his nightly calls and you’d accepted that you were feeling something for him that was more than a casual friendship. Something that made you feel nervous yet hopeful that he meant your next dinner as a date too.

“You are thinking way too hard about him for this to just be talking,” Maja shook her head firmly. “You don’t have to tell me, but…I don’t believe it’s just friendly texting.”

“It’s so embarrassing to say it out loud, but I think I like him,” you rolled your eyes at yourself. “Freaking Jeonghan.”

“Hehe,” Maja was grinning from ear to ear. “I love this. You two make sense together, like come on! I love love.”

“You sound like Peter,” you gave her a pointed look.

“In this case, I’m happy to,” she beamed at you proudly. “Do you guys have anything planned? Have you set like a date date?”

“We were supposed to get dinner next Friday, but since he’s still in Minneapolis, I’m assuming we’ll reschedule once that’s done?”

Maja nodded. That made sense. The rest of the shopping trip was filled with a peppering of questions about your newly realized feelings and fighting off Maja’s occasional offers to Facetime Jeonghan together. It was way too early for that.

…

The next time you spoke on the phone, you were the one who called Jeonghan, which made him want to kick his feet with delight and triumph. He was, however, on his way back to the hotel so that would have to wait.

“Hello?” he sandwiched the phone between his shoulder and ear as he entered his hotel room.

“Hey, do you have any experience with beverage labeling compliance?”

“What?” Jeonghan’s eyebrows furrowed. Not the greeting he expected.

“I’m at the grocery store,” you said, as if it explained anything. “I’m looking at this weird canned beverage that claims a million benefits that I find difficult to believe.”

“Hm, I wonder if it’s technically a supplement. Much more lax on that side.”

“Really?” you squawked. “Shouldn’t supplements be more tightly regulated?”

Jeonghan shook his head. This was yet another corporate law elective that you had elected to ignore.

“You’d think so, but no. FDA is dreadfully underfunded when it comes to inspection and enforcement. It’s almost a free for all unless you have significant market share.”

“Huh,” you narrowed your eyes at the can before moving down the aisle. “Well nay to that, then, I suppose. What are you up to?”

“Just got back to my room. Another long day, so I am ordering room service and not moving once I lay down.”

“Ah, I’ll let you go then.”

“No, don’t,” Jeonghan shook his head vehemently, “Stay on.”

“Do you need to at least call room service?”

“No,” Jeonghan shook his head as he toed off his shoes, “I can order online.”

“Ah,” you nodded.

You continued through the grocery aisles, plucking an assortment of items that you could throw together to make dinner. You were well aware of the differences in regulation between supplements and foods. The beverage’s nutritional claims had been a flimsy excuse to call him. It’d only been a few days since he’d left for the merger, but you felt it. The firm was quiet without him and you found yourself missing your thinking partner. Maja could only assist to a certain level before you needed someone else…well, needed Jeonghan.

“Gosh, I’m tired,” Jeonghan huffed and you heard what sounded like him flopping down into bed. There was a bit of soft rustling before he spoke again. “What should I eat?” he asked, putting you on speakerphone and pulling up the room service menu.

“I don’t know,” you rolled your eyes, “What do they have?”

Jeonghan was inordinately pleased that you were humoring him. In months past, you definitely would’ve hung up at this, admittedly, unreasonable question. He was very much reading into the fact that you hadn’t. He took his time reading the menu to you while you checked out with your groceries.

“I think…well, it’s humid today in Minneapolis, right? I don’t like heavy foods when the weather is sticky like that.”

“How do you know it’s humid?”

“I…,” you had looked it up earlier.

“Did you check?” Jeonghan’s eyes lit up. Had he been around other people, he would’ve had to cover his mouth to hide the beaming smile on his face.

“No,” you denied it too quickly.

“You were thinking about me,” he teased in a sing-songy voice followed by the sound of rustling sheets. You couldn’t see it, but he was kicking his feet like an absolute fool.

You had every plan to say something in your own defense, but you suddenly realized or remembered that he was laying in bed. This sent a jolt of heat up your neck. You really shouldn’t feel this way in a grocery store!

“Well what did you decide to eat?” you asked as you drove your car home. You smacked yourself on the forehead. This was an incredibly inane topic for you to be entertaining, but you didn’t want to end the call either.

“Oh, I haven’t yet,” Jeonghan focused his attention again. “I do think I’ll take your advice. Something light sounds nice.”

You had finished putting away groceries by the time he’d submitted his order. It had been a long day, so you went to lay down as well. You landed with a quiet thud and you shifted slightly to get comfortable.

“What are you going to eat?” Jeonghan asked.

“I bought groceries, but now I don’t feel like cooking them,” you laughed, “I think I have some hard boiled eggs in the fridge.”

“No. Stop,” he said sternly. “That is pathetically sad. You can’t just eat eggs for dinner.”

“I mean who’s gonna stop me?” you teased.

“YN.”

You stilled. Hearing Jeonghan say your name in an admonishing, scolding tone sent a shiver down your spine. Not unpleasant by any means, but surprising. You took a few shallow breaths, forgetting to reply.

“YN?” Jeonghan his voice sounded in your ear again and you shuddered.

“Yeah?” you replied, but it was breathy. Thin. You squeezed your eyes shut.

Jeonghan swallowed. The effect that he’d heard in your voice shot through him and surprised him. He wished he was home.

“I’m gonna order you food,” he decided, clearing his throat.

“No, you don’t have to do that,” you shook your head.

“I know,” he brushed off your protest and pulled up his phone. “Ah, Krazy Bao delivers,” he thought aloud as he submitted your order.

You blinked at his memory. It still surprised you when Jeonghan was attentive like this.

“What’s your address again?”

You contemplated withholding it from him, but he promptly reminded you that he could look it up in his Google Maps search history. Damn his brain.

“Okay, ETA is forty minutes,” he confirmed, satisfied with himself.

“Thank you,” you muttered, face half buried into a pillow.

“You’re welcome,” he laughed. “Tell me about the rest of your day.”

You thought for a moment, trying to decide what to tell. Honestly the days had been boring since Jeonghan was gone. The other associates’ offices were further away from your corner and so you’d mostly been working and chatting with Maja occasionally. She and Harris were now at a point where they spent most evenings together, so you felt more alone than normal. You didn’t share all of this with him, of course, but found more than enough topics to last through both of your dinners.

“It’s getting late,” you yawned.

“It is,” Jeonghan nodded, sleep was creeping up on him as well.

“I can’t wait for you to get back,” you muttered as you dozed off, “I miss you.”

Jeonghan’s eyes snapped wide open.

‘I miss you’

“What did you just say?” he asked in disbelief.

The only answer you had for him was light snoring, so he ended the call.

‘I miss you.’

He hadn’t realized he’d been wanting to hear those words until now. The brief shock of adrenaline subsided and he laid back down. The next two days couldn’t pass quickly enough for him.

…

You felt like a chicken with its head cut off. Things had been so overwhelmingly busy for the past weeks that you felt just one very minor inconvenience from exploding. Mock Trial had finally wound down, but now you were assisting with Hoshi who was quite the handful. You probably would have fired him as a client already, but this was technically Jeonghan’s case. But he was gone and Hoshi was…a lot.

Soonyoung, who preferred his ‘Doing Business As’ name of Hoshi, was embroiled in a fairly pointless lawsuit with his business partner, Seungkwan. The pair of them were equally hotheaded and emotional and some days it felt like they were engaged in the lawsuit just so they could fight with each other on record.

“What time is the mediation for Hoshi today?” you called out of your office door to Maja.

“Six-thirty,” she replied. 

“Gah!” you let out a squawk before returning to work. You needed to run over to campus to meet with your mock trial team one more time before heading to Seungkwan’s lawyer’s office for mediation. After this week was over, you could take a bit of a breather. You just had to make it until then.

As you drove to campus your mind wandered, as it usually did now, to Jeonghan. Tonight would’ve been your dinner (date?), but he was still in Minneapolis. You’d assumed it was canceled. You’d figure something out once he was back.

…

Jeonghan sighed with relief when he finally deboarded the plane. It had looked a little hairy for a moment, but he’d made it back on time. He had enough time to get home, shower, change, and meet you at the restaurant. If he didn’t hit traffic, he might even have time to pick up some flowers. Nothing showy, as that wasn’t your style, but you had so enjoyed those cabbage roses in the wedding venue garden when he’d gone undercover with you.

…

You silenced your phone before you walked into the conference room with Hoshi. You were meeting with Seungkwan and his lawyer today for another, hopefully final, mediation session.

“Are you ready?” you asked Hoshi with a hopeful smile.

“Yes! I will let you answer all of the questions even if Seungkwan goads me!” he answered you, a look of determination across his face. You hoped that would be true this time.

“I guess they really do let anyone in these days,” came Mr. Boo’s drawling voice and Hoshi looked ready to launch himself over the conference table.

You pinched the bridge of your nose. This was going to be a challenging mediation.

…

Jeonghan’s eyebrows were furrowed. You were late. It hadn’t worried him for the first few minutes, but it was now quarter past seven and you hadn’t responded to any of his texts.

“Hello sir,” a waiter dressed in all black came to check on him. It was a fancy restaurant, so the service was unfortunately attentive.

“Yes, I know. I don’t know where she is,” Jeonghan replied, clearly ticked. “Let me give her a call to see if something happened.”

“Of course,” the server ducked away to share the update with another server.

Jeonghan could feel his irritation rise with each ring of the line. He ran his tongue across his teeth with annoyance until it finally went to voicemail.

“Hello, you’ve reached YN-,” he cut off your voicemail with an irritated push of the red button.

“I guess she’s not coming,” his eyebrows flicked up with annoyance when the server came back to check in again.

“Ah, I see. Would the gentleman still like to dine with us today?”

“No, thank you. I’ll get the check and get this table cleared out for you.”

The server nodded and returned shortly with a bill. Jeonghan paid for his one cocktail and then headed out to his car. Before starting it, he tried calling you again. He tossed his phone into the passenger seat before heading home. As he got closer, the irritation subsided and was replaced by a sense of worry. Even if you were standing him up, he would’ve liked to know that you were okay.

…

“How could you possibly suggest that?” Hoshi and Seungkwan gasped in horror at both you and your opposing counsel.

You shook your head. You and your opposing counsel had just devised an ingenious way to split assets of the business quite equitably between the two partners. You’d thought they would be elated.

“What are you, King Solomon? We can’t cut our baby in half like that!”

“Absolutely not!”

“At this rate, I’m second guessing the entire lawsuit to begin with!”

“Me too!”

Your head spun. You weren’t even sure who was saying what at this point, only that your plan had backfired spectacularly. Seungkwan and Hoshi made eye contact for a few moments before launching themselves into each other’s arms for a rather spectacular hug.

“What is happening?” you whispered to Seungkwan’s lawyer.

“Lord if I know,” he wailed, looking ready to pull his own eyebrows out.

“Brothers!” Hoshi and Seungkwan pulled away triumphantly. “Cancel the lawsuit, we’ve reconciled!”

You were torn between stabbing the both of them and cry-laughing because it meant you could go home. You went with the latter. Seungkwan’s attorney had the good idea of documenting the decision signed by all parties and as soon as that was done, you were free to go.

When you pulled out your phone to check the time, your heart leapt into your throat. Three missed calls and several texts from Jeonghan. What was going on?!

Jeonghan pretended to consider not picking it up when you called, but ultimately couldn’t help himself. The curiosity had been eating at him for hours now.

“Hello?” he answered gruffly.

“Are you okay? I was in mediation with a client so I just saw your texts and calls. Are you okay?”

“Mediation? Why were you in mediation?” Jeonghan asked, his tone somewhat strained.

“Because you pawned Hoshi off on me,” you rolled your eyes.

“Did you forget what day it is?” Jeonghan inquired snippily.

“Friday?” you answered, slightly confused.

“We were supposed to have dinner!”

“But you’re still in Minneapolis?”

“Try again,” Jeonghan’s tongue clicked.

“...You’re home?” your eyes widened.

Jeonghan let out a small noise of confirmation and a mix of feelings washed over you.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back? I assumed we were canceling!”

“Why would you assume that?! I didn’t tell you because I wanted to surprise you?”

“Well you were the one who saddled me with the world’s most insane client!”

“And you’re the one who stood me up on our first date!”

You stilled. You pushed your adrenaline aside and focused on what was important. Jeonghan had come back all the way from Minneapolis for your date. Which was in fact a date and not just wishful thinking on your part.

“It’s fine, we can just reschedule. Hopefully the merger will be over soon-”

“No!” you cut him off, opening your car door. “Where are you? I’ll come pick you up! It’s eight, we can still have dinner.”

“I-,” he chuckled. Within moments you were headed towards his place.

Jeonghan glanced at the clock as he waited. He couldn’t recall the last time he had been picked up for dinner and he had to laugh. His relationship to you was anything but traditional, so really it made sense for you to have accidentally stood him up and then come pick him up instead.

Despite that, he was excited to see you. The past weeks apart had cemented just how important you were to him. He missed hearing your thoughts, bouncing ideas off of you, and spending time with you. He thought about you for so long that the buzzer was what pulled him back to reality. He buzzed you up and wondered whether you’d be amenable to a simple night in.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?” you burst in unceremoniously.

“I wanted to surprise you!” came his bemused reply.

“Well I wouldn’t have scheduled mediation if I’d known you were coming back,” you fixed him with a stubborn look.

“I know,” he de-escalated the situation completely, grabbing you by the wrists and pulling you towards himself. “Hello.”

“H-hello,” you swallowed, nervous at his touch.

“I missed you,” Jeonghan smiled softly down at you. “I’m not mad. I’m glad you came.”

“I-,” your adrenaline fueled nerves melted into relief and your heart stuttered in your chest. “I missed you too.” 

“Do you want to go out? Or do you want to stay in?” he asked, pushing a few stray hairs out of your face.

“I wouldn’t mind staying in, to be honest. I need to give you an earful about Hoshi,” you couldn’t help but tease.

“I’m sure you do,” he smiled at you. “Go sit down and I’ll grab you a drink.”

“Wait, before you do,” you caught him before he could step away completely. You tugged him in by the front of his shirt and pressed your lips to his. His arms folded around you and his lips curled into a smile. “I missed you beyond a reasonable doubt,” you smiled cheesily at him when you pulled away.

“My god,” Jeonghan rolled his eyes affectionately at you, “I like you so much.”

back to index

[cxhleel108]

S7 Thots for this week: I’ve had enough…

• Here go this bitch🙄🙄🙄

• The new bed outfits were kinda meh but that purple and gold number was cuuuuuute.

• Lame ass sex scene on the daybeds yayyyy.

• Yes Willow we had a VERY nice evening. Did you have fun with the “him-shaped space” in your bed?😁

• Aw Bonnie and Vicky are sad that I made love with Bryson? That’s awful, I really don’t give a fuck tho.

• Snog, Marry, Pie day is here😍😍😍

• Oh don’t worry bitch I got somebody in mind too!

• Daphne immediately going to snog Evan like she’s so real I’m sorry.

• The fact we get to dodge the pie getting thrown at us LMAOOOOO Willow you’re never gonna win bookie.

• The fact everyone wants to marry Tanya (my MC for clarification) oooohhh she’s mother!

• Bryson you really coulda just snogged me babe but Imma look past it cuz you still made sure to put a ring on it😁

• Willow I know YOU of all people are not tryna call ME predictable.

•🫵🏽🤣

• Not Rafael coming to kiss us??? Sorry Daph🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

• Why I actually got upset cuz he ain’t choose us?

• Oh ok nvm I’m good now🤭

• 🫵🏽🤣

• Why did Vicky emphasize that she had to tell us stuff about our LI and the other boys and then we proceeded to pay 29 gems just for her to not tell us anything about our LI…Fusebox somebody is gon sue y’all niggas one day while y’all keep playing.

• BYE WILLOW!

• Oh Bryson you are so shady for saying last to come should be the first to go, aka Vicky and Travis needa pack they mf bags. I’ve taught him so well🤩

• I don’t wanna go talk to these people about “where their heads are at” I DON'T CAREEE.

• Evan asking me who I think the most annoying couple is omg? Why are y’all so messssyyyyy??? (I love it)

• Oh that's cool, we really don't give a fuck tho!

• Oop it's date time so you know what that means girlies...outfit reviews🤩🤩🤩

• Don't get me wrong these are both cute but there are certain details on both of the tops that's fucking them up.

• The date was cute. Not much else to comment on.

• OH-

• I'm crying how #Raphne get destroyed just after they was pledging to leave the villa for each other😭😭😭

• Honestly real asf.

• Ok my whole thing is...Uma...If y'all just made up and had a wonderful lil freak session then why after a very small, I mean MINISCULE, disagreement about not talking so quickly about the future are you gonna just go out and try to make a move on another bitch's man? Niece I can only keep defending you for so long like...

• But at the same time Alex lowkey deserve it cuz he pissing me off with all this hypocritical whiny ass lil baby shit.

• Omg Bryson finna ask us to be his girlfriend soon oooo #Raphne watch out cuz #Tyson is gonna take your spot😘

• LIKE WHAT IS SHE BABBLING ABOUT???????

• Uma you may be immature and a lil slow at times but you still a real ass bitch, I can't hate you💯

• Outfit time again🤩

• Omg omg omg these both eat thank god I was so scared.

• Don’t say what I think you're about to say...

• Oh ok you did it anyway lol🙂

• Willow if you know what's good for you, you will keep your mouth SHUT!

• So Willow gets to stay and now Evan's gone...ok.

• So what I'm gathering from this confession about Raf (I literally couldn't be any less shocked) is that every man that has met Tanya in here has wanted her...she's literally queen of the villa like all you hoes are peasants at this point🤣🤣🤣

• GIRL DON'T CLOCK JAKE WILSON LIKE THAT-

• Willow...don't get fucked up😄

• Willow...don't. get. fucked. UP.

• ...