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weeeeeekly · 3 months ago

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“are you okay?” – mark lee x gn!reader

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blurb On Earth-127, Mark is an ordinary biomed major at Neo Culture Institute of Technology, but when he’s not studying for class, he’s out saving New York City as Spider-Man. The job is hard, but he manages it. It also doesn’t hurt that his new friend is just his type.

info not edited, no afab/fem mention, mainly gender neutral, no reader body shape mention, no use of y/n, swearing, non-idol au, college au, college student!mark, spiderman!mark (obvi), reader is assigned lactose intolerant. johnny & jaehyun as mark’s besties. mark & reader are 22 and johnny & jaehyun are 24. everyone else is 21. ft. jungwoo & 00 line of nct/riize as frat bros. loosely based off a combo of the mcu spider-man movies, ncit house, 200 music video, & superman ii

WARNINGS!!! SFW but MDNI 18+ blog, kinda suggestive but nothing explicit in this, swearing, mentions of almost dying, not proofread just pure free flowing thought, mention of vaping (not by mark or reader), & mention of consuming alcohol

wc: 7.8k

author’s note !! HAPPY belated MFING BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL BOYF MARK LEE. i meant to post this right after 200 came out, then for his birthday, and now it’s finally finished as an early birthday present for myself… this is very much self-indulgent.

a passion project if you will. i hope there are others that also have spider-mark brain rot. ESPECIALLY AFTER 200!!! it was bad before like in the ncit house video, but it’s even worse now. a real labor of love except everything i do is a labor of love because why would i write about something i’m not passionate about in my free time.

this is FICTION!!!!! everything is made up by me or inspired by the mcu spider-man movies, ncit house video, & mark’s 200 music video. the stuff written out is not meant to be a representation of the people, places, or ideas mentioned.

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Mark loves his job.

Nothing made him happier than donning the red and blue one-piece suit with the arachnoid symbol on the center of the chest and pulling down the matching mask. He was pretty proud of his sewing skills. Hopefully the elderly owner of the downtown fabric store never puts the puzzle pieces together.

He was still fairly new to being Spider-Man – only being bitten at the beginning of last semester and using the summer to work out the kinks – this spring semester would show his improvement.

His school schedule was class schedule was calm with classes only on Tuesday and Thursday in the morning and evening with the rest online. With the perfect amount of time throughout busy days to sneak away to patrol the city. The rest of the weekdays were dedicated to working at the college radio station. It allowed Mark to work around his own schedule as he could pre-record segments and cue up pre-made playlists.

The morning of the first day of the new semester was looking like an average day, helping civilians with minimal tasks like crossing busy streets and saving pets in trees.

Swinging to university was his favorite form of transportation as it was convenient but at the same time fun as sailing through the air was incomparable to any other experience. Mark landed on the roof of the old bell tower as he quickly changed into a pair of clothes he stashed in a hidden backpack on the ceiling ledge. Nothing too exciting, just a maroon tee, brown cargo pants, and black converse. He made quick work to stash his suit inside his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

He walked down the spiral staircase as he put on his headphones and checked his phone.

apartment 721

johnny dude r u coming to shoot some hoops?

jaehyun are we playing basketball or should I skip for football practice?

mark be there in 5

Mark raced across the university lawn, passing unassuming students that would never know his secret. The early morning hours provided more security for his secret as most people around him were either too busy rushing to their 8 AM lecture or too tired from pulling another all-nighter.

When he reached the basketball courts, Mark tucked his bag in between Jaehyun’s massive athletic bag and Johnny’s decked out in pins and patches. The duo was goofing off with a basketball as they made obnoxious moves before shooting for the hoop.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late.”

Johnny pauses as he turns toward his best friend before tossing the ball. Mark effortlessly catches it due to his built-up reflexes from stopping local crimes.

“Yo guess who finally decided to show up.” Johnny remarks as Mark makes a 3 pointer.

Jaehyun and Johnny both share a look as the former greets Mark, “You’ve gotten really good at basketball in a short amount of time… like crazy good.”

“Yeah man. You used to not be able to even get the ball in while standing still, but now you’re even better than Mr. Team Captain over here.”

Mark shrugs as he dribbles the ball, “I’m not even close to Jaehyun’s level, dude. He’s the best player.”

“Okay then go to the other side of the court and make it in.”

Mark looks at Johnny as Jaehyun chugs some water but gives in as he walks to the end of the court.

Mark is pretty sure that his sharp reflexes only work for short distances or when he’s out being Spider-Man, so the dare shouldn’t tip his best friends off. Mark dribbles the ball a bit before throwing the ball in the direction of the hoop.

Luckily, the ball goes over the hoop and proving to Johnny and Jaehyun that he still sucks at basketball, but unluckily almost hits a passerby.

You.

“Airball!”

You turn to the source of the noise as you let out a surprised yell as you duck to avoid the rouge basketball, falling to the ground and letting out a string of curses. Mark rushes over after his Spidey senses went off, shooting a ball of webs to knock it off its course of hitting you.

“Are you okay?”

You look up to see a concerned Mark as he helps you up, “Dude, I am so sorry. That could have ended really badly. Did you get hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Johnny and Jaehyun follow Mark to check up on you as you stare at the 3 attractive men paying too much attention to you.

“I’m okay, really. I didn’t even get hit. Just was caught off guard.”

The trio are unconvinced as they inspect your arms and head. Mark is focused on checking for any injury – even a millimeter of a scratch – on your right arm as Jaehyun checks the range of motion on your left arm and Johnny is asking you how many fingers he’s holding up.

“I’m not hurt, but I’ll still get checked up the clinic.” You bargain to get the attractive strangers to stop dotting over you.

“I’ll walk you!” Mark volunteers as he grabs your backpack off the floor and waves bye to his friends. Johnny and Jaehyun refuse to leave until they exchange their number with you to check up but also to make it up to you later. You tell them that it’s not necessary, but the pair insist as Mark gets you to leave.

He quickly introduces himself and you do it in return. Walking to the clinic was peaceful as both you and Mark’s steps were in sync. The crisp spring air helped calm your nerves. You know that you weren’t hurt but it would be best to get a check-up by a nurse.

“I’m really sorry again.”

“Apology accepted.”

“Let’s just get you to the clinic.”

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After a quick check-up with a nurse, you are deemed “okay” with no external or internal injuries. Mark gives you back your backpack as you thank him and are returned with another long string of apologies.

“Here, let me – no us – make it up to you.” Mark opens his phone to create a group chat between the four of you.

we’re sorry

mark if ur free this week we would like to buy u lunch

bc dinner sounds like a date

not that we wouldn’t date u

u seem great !

this is mark btw

johnny what mark is trying to say is that we don’t want to make you uncomfortable

but we also want to make it up to you so lunch this week - johnny

jaehyun it’s jaehyun i know a great café w vegan options

you you guys really don’t have to make it up to me

i’m okay !! a nurse checked me

johnny thank god ur not hurt

“So, are you free this week?”

You look away from your phone at Mark staring at you. You quickly look away at the students walking past you. You feel nervous as Mark is cute and being near him is not helping your poor heart.

“Yeah, I can do Wednesday or this weekend.”

You have to work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with your two in-person classes on the other days and your two fully online classes spread throughout the week. Luckily, working at the bookstore on campus was flexible and allowed you to complete homework whenever you had free time.

“I know this is an annoying question, but what’s your year and major?”

“I’m a sophomore majoring in Health Sciences.”

Mark’s eyes light up, “I’m a sophomore too! But I’m a Biomed major. We’re kinda in similar majors.”

“We might even have a class together.” You joke and let out a laugh, but your mouth shuts as Mark has his printed schedule in hands and extended in your direction.

Your joke turns out to be true as you both share the same evening class on Tuesday and Thursday. Which is a good thing because at least you know someone in that class. A friend possibly.

“Do you work?”

“I work at the radio, so if you ever tune into 27.1 FM you will hear playlists I put together.”

“Ugh, that sounds like such a fun job. I work at the bookstore. I mean, don’t get me wrong I like it there, but it’s never busy for my shifts.”

A notification on Mark’s phone makes him freeze up, but before you can ask what’s wrong he quickly bids you goodbye as he rushes off. You decide to head to work and hope that nothing else out of the ordinary happens today.

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On the plus side, your shared class with Mark has been going well so far. During the first class the day after you met him, you got to the classroom early and saved him a seat.

You watch as people slowly trickle into class as you held out a small hope that Mark would want to sit next to you. The class was almost full with just a handful of seats left – two directly in front of the professor’s podium, one in the very back by the other door, and the one you’ve been saving. He arrives at the last minute, and you watch him scan the room, hopefully looking for you, but once your eyes meet and Mark grins, your heart started racing.

Squeezing between people already in their seats, he reaches the open seat as you move your backpack from the chair to under the table. The professor starts the first day lecture of going over the syllabus, but you tune them out as your attention was… elsewhere.

Mark sits next to you, typing on his laptop as the professor talks. His outfit is a simple green hoodie with tan cargo pants and beat up black converse, yet the outfit compliments him. His hair is fluffy and a little messy as he runs his hand through it in an attempt to fix it. You notice that he’s breathing hard like he ran to get to class. You reach into your backpack to grab your water bottle and place it next to his hand. Mark pauses from typing notes as you turn your head back to the professor.

“Thanks.” He mumbles as he drinks the water.

“Don’t worry, I have another water bottle in my car. You can just give it back to me next class.” You whisper back while pretending to be interested in the professor’s grading policy.

When the second class rolls around, you’re surprised to see Mark is the first person in class, sitting in the same spot with his backpack on the seat you were sitting in last time and your water bottle on the table.

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Saturday is the only day you are all free for lunch. Jaehyun, who keeps telling you to call him Jae, promises that this lunch will be the best lunch of your life and how he knows a worker. He’s brought it up every time he saw you while you were working. Johnny was no help either as he kept asking you super specific questions you would have no idea how to answer.

Johnny leans on a display table full of notebooks while flipping through a psychology textbook, “What kind of wood is this table?”

You let out another deep sigh as you put on your customer service voice to answer yet another question from Johnny Suh. “Sorry, I don’t know.”

“Do you know someone who would?”

Johnny smirks as he puts on his sunglasses. You turn around to reshelve new chemistry textbooks when a tap on your shoulder has you seeing Jaehyun holding a cookbook open.

“Do you like” He turns the cookbook back to himself as he squints, “Maultaschen?”

“What do you know about Germany?”

Jaehyun closes the cookbook as he shoots you his best dimpled smile, “Nothing.”

“Guys, I’m trying to work.”

“Yeah, and we’re being customers.”

Johnny sasses you as he pushes the cart of textbooks away from you. “Don’t pretend that we don’t make your shifts better.”

You can’t argue that because it is true, but you’re also afraid that your boss might think you’re slacking and goofing around with friends on the clock.

“I do love it when you guys come see me while I’m working, but I don’t want my boss to think I’m slacking.”

Jaehyun leans on your shoulder as he looks around the empty bookstore. “Bro, you’re the best employee here by far, but if your boss thinks otherwise, we can give a good review.”

“You? Slacking?” Johnny lets out a laugh as puts some textbooks on the highest shelf. “Slacking is scared of you. And Spider-Man.”

“Here he goes.” Jaehyun rolls his eyes as Johnny scoffs.

“Spider-Man is the coolest superhero ever. I’m jealous of all the people that get to see him work in real time.”

“Spider-Man?”

Johnny’s jaw drops, “Yo… you don’t know Spider-Man? You know, the masked guy in blue and red and has a spider sign on his chest. Stops bank robbers and saves people in car crashes. The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?”

“Oh… his name is Spider-Man?”

“Yeah. I don’t wanna brag, but” Johnny leans closer to you, “I basically coined the name. The story’s really cool and super long, so I’ll save it for lunch.”

The other brunette fixes his backpack straps, “I should head to basketball practice soon, but we’ll text you later with the details. See you tomorrow.”

The duo leaves you to finish your tasks, but with less work as they helped while talking to you. You can’t help fighting the smile on your face at the idea of having plans with friends.

Lunch! With friends! Friends that you made in university and not the same friends you had back home that you knew from elementary school.

Maybe things were looking up for you.

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Spider-Man business had never been easier. Petty thefts had gone down. The city was running smoothly like normal, which was great for Mark as he could focus on schoolwork and improving his swinging skills.

Currently, the vigilante was patrolling the city on the lookout for any danger. Nothing was coming through the crime watch app connected to his watch. He has 10 more minutes until lunch with Johnny, Jaehyun, and You.

Once he reaches the café building’s rooftop, Mark drops down and enters through the stairwell door going directly into the janitor’s room to change. The doors are unlocked, which is not the safest but it’s convenient for Mark, he quickly changes into a white tee, light wash jeans, and the same black converse. The suit and mask are stuffed into his backpack as he goes back out to the roof to web down to the ground to enter through the café entrance like a normal person.

He's constantly on the lookout as he drops down near the trash bins. When he walks in, Mark is the first out of your group to arrive. He snags a booth in the corner as he checks his phone.

we’re sorry

mark i got us a booth

jaehyun be there in 5

image attached

Mark smiles at the selfie Jaehyun took with him and Johnny on either side of you. Jaehyun does a peace sign pose, Johnny is making a kissy face, and you’re just softly smiling. A smile that Mark Lee cannot look away from.

“What are you looking at?”

Mark gets spooked by you as Johnny and Jaehyun slide into the opposite side leaving you to sit next to him. He quickly locks his phone as his roommates give him teasing looks.

The server, Na Jaemin from fraternity Dream, hands out menus and readies his tablet. “Hi. Can I get you all started with any drinks?”

“2 vanilla iced coffees, 1 mango smoothie, and 1 ice matcha latte with coconut milk.” Johnny easily recites as Jaemin types it.

“I’ll be back with those as you look over the menu.”

As Jaemin walks away, you look surprised at Johnny, “How did you know my drink order?”

“You’ve sent a selfie with the same drink the past three days.”

You slump back against the cushion. “That’s embarrassing.”

“Not as embarrassing as Johnny thinking he named Spider-Man.”

Mark tenses at the mention of his other identity. He steals a glance in your direction to see if you noticed, but you’re too busy watching his friends start bickering.

“Bro! I totally did!”

“No, dude. You did not.”

Before the duo can start up another pointless fight, you remind Johnny of his story time.

“At least someone’s interested. As I was saying before, it was early October last year and I was walking to the subway when this massive car crash happened in front of me. I thought I was going to get killed, but then I was suddenly out of the way. Some dude in spandex had pulled me out of the way of one of the cars and then he started pulling people out of the wreck. He even jumped over a 10-ton truck. It was insane. After the fire department and ambulance came to help, the dude shot out a web and it came to me, “Spider-Man”, so I yelled that, and he turned around to give me a thumbs up before swinging away. So basically Spider-Man owes me for that copyright, but I’ll let it slide because he saved my life.”

Mark laughs at Johnny’s retelling of the story because of the way he tells people. The superhero was just glad that he had the spidey sense to save one of his best friends.

Jaemin comes back with the drinks and takes food orders.

“Spider-Man is cool. I’m a fan.”

Mark chokes on the first sip of his smoothie from your casual confession as Johnny high fives you.

“Why do you like the Spider Boy?” Jaehyun questions you. Mark sits up slightly straighter in his seat as he focuses all his attention on your answer.

“Do you remember that major subway incident where some asshole pushed that lady onto the tracks?”

The guys nod their heads.

“I was waiting for the train when it happened. I didn’t see the asshole that did it as I was on my phone, but then the frantic yelling of people started and some good samaritans trying to help the lady off the tracks. Then, all of the sudden, Spider-Man runs in and saves her. Thank god he did before the train arrived and he calmed her down while she told him about the person who did it. I just remember feeling so useless but wanting to do more.”

Mark looks over at you as you stir your drink with a spoon, his heart sinking as he remembers. It was the first time he became a hero. The first person he saved – Ms. Smith works at the corner flower shop that his mom loves.

“And I even… never mind.”

“No finish your sentence.”

“Johnny’s going to make fun of me.”

“I won’t let him.”

“Well, I kinda have a crush on him.” You immediately put your head between your arms on the table in an effort to hide away.

Mark freezes at your confession as Jaehyun lets out an “awe” and Johnny’s jaw drops.

“You like Spider-Man?”

“I know. How do you even like a person when you’ve never seen their face, but it’s his personality. In every story about him saving or helping others, he’s always described as the nicest person ever.”

Mark’s ears are turning red from the compliment. He would have asked for what else you thought about Spider-Man, but Jaemin came back with their orders.

“Yo Jaehyun, are you coming to DREAM’s party Friday?”

“I should be free next week if that invitation extends to my friends.”

“Any friend of Jaehyun’s is a friend of mine. Can you get the football team to bring kegs again? Haechan’s throwing the party this time and he won’t shut the fuck up about it.”

“I can get the guys together to do that. I’ll text him.”

“Thanks man. Enjoy your food, guys.”

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You and Mark meet up and walk to class together. He fills you in on all the bullshit Johnny and Jaehyun got into over the weekend. Something about making a short film where they switch bodies and tried to get Mark to film it.

Before you both can enter the building where your class is, the distant sound of sirens gets closer. You ignore it as you go to open the door, but Mark stops you.

“I, um, have a family emergency so I’ll miss class. Text me. Bye.” Mark weirdly stammers before giving you a quick hug.

You’re left standing in shock as he runs away.

Mark runs to the dumpster behind the university as he quickly changes into his suit. He stuffs his clothes in his backpack and webs it to a lamppost before heading into action. His spidey sense alerted him as soon as the sirens passed, and the app informed him of a fire in an apartment complex a street up.

Once he swings onto the scene, firefighters are battling the fire and evacuating the building. Mark propels himself to the top floor to check for any civilians.

You’re concerned about Mark as he left abruptly and isn’t responding to any of your texts.

you i hope your family emergency isn’t too serious

just let me know you’re ok!

we didn’t do too much in class, but i’ll send my notes

going to the library after class to print something for a class

You’ve never been to the library at 10 PM on a Tuesday night, but there’s a first time for everything. It was shitty that your printer in your dorm had to stop working last night. The first floor of the library was unsurprisingly packed with students as the university’s coffee shop was adjoined and open until 2 AM.

You got into the elevator as the printers were located on the fourth floor. The fourth floor was empty because most people preferred to keep electronic files electronic, but of course your morning class’ professor made the class print their papers to turn in.

Printing the paper was a quick task. There was certainly no line to wait in. You tuck the sacred 5-page paper into a folder to keep pristine and leave the library. You check your phone again for any word from Mark, but nothing. You go to call him, but then the elevator jerks to a stop as the light shuts off. You press the emergency call button and wait for an operator. You try calling Mark again, but your phone can’t get cell service and your battery’s dying.

Sinking to your knees, you hang your head between your hands as the ringing becomes background noise.

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Mark rushes back to university after the fire, swiftly changing back and shoving his suit into his bag. He checks his phone to see the texts from you and calls you. When your call goes immediately to voicemail, he knows something is wrong.

The hair on the back of his neck stands up and Mark books it to the library. The first floor is filled with chatter and students looking normal so he knows that only you must be in trouble. He goes to the elevators where there’s a student waiting for one.

“Are you waiting for the elevator?”

The girl looks up from texting, “Yup, the other one isn’t working again. Ugh so annoying.”

Fuck.

The other elevator returns and Mark steps in with the girl. She presses the next floor and goes back to her phone.

A million scenarios play out in Mark’s mind. Were you claustrophobic? How long have you been stuck in the elevator? Were you alone?

The silent ride was eating him alive as every second felt like an eternity.

When the doors open and Mark basically throws himself out of the elevator as the girl walks around him, judging. Mark’s senses aren’t going off on the second or third floor, he goes up again.

The second the elevator starts moving up to the fourth floor, his senses kick in. When the doors open, Mark calls out your name. When your muffled voice responds from the neighboring elevator he sighs in relief.

“Mark, can you help me?”

“Is help on the way?”

“No.” Mark starts freaking out. “The emergency button doesn’t work, and my phone died a little while ago, but it wouldn’t even help because my service wasn’t working.”

“Why didn’t you call 911?”

“I’m not dying or in serious trouble!”

“W-what? This is an emergency! Hold on let me get someone!”

Mark runs down the hallway and quick changes into Spider-Man. He shoves his backpack behind a printer in the back corner and runs back to you.

Mark clears his throat before speaking in a lower tone, “Hi!”

“Um hi?”

“I’m going to open the elevator doors, so please stand back!”

“Okay!”

Mark places his hands in the middle of both doors as he pushes the doors open by force. After getting them open he holds out a hand to you as you look at him, well Spider-Man, in shock.

“Spider-Man?”

“Are you okay?”

You feebly nod as you allow Mark to pull you towards him.

“Are you sure you’re fine? I can take you to a clinic.”

You shake your head as Mark leads you down the stairs to the first floor while calming you down, passing confused or excited students. When both of you reach the entrance, Mark tells a skeptical security guard about the broken elevator.

Mark is about to swing away to change when you grab his hand. “Did you see my friend? He has brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a yellow hoodie?”

“I sensed there was someone in trouble and he said he was finding a janitor.”

“Thanks, I’ll go find him. And, um, thank you again.”

Mark looks into your eyes full of gratitude and sends you a wave before swinging away. He makes sure to get far enough before u-turning to the back of the library to change. 5 minutes later, he’s running around to the entrance where you are still standing in shock.

Mark pulls you into a hug as you tell him how Spider-Man saved you.

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Haechan’s party was tonight, and you had no idea what you were going to wear.

Jaehyun had surprised you at 8 in morning by waking you up, endlessly calling your phone until you told him the password to open the door. A code you were going to immediately change after he leaves.

“Jae, it’s too early for any bullshit.”

He moves his sunglasses from his face to push back his hair, looking dangerously sexy. You have to shield your eyes from his blinding attractiveness.

“I need some help getting the kegs from Jungwoo.”

“Ugh,” You draw out the word as you throw one of your extra pillows at him which he catches, “I don’t want to get up.”

“Okay.” Jaehyun says as he effortlessly picks you up from your bed. “Now you’re up.”

“Put me down, Jeong.”

“Woah, not the last name. Putting you down.”

He gently sets you on your feet from the princess carry he was holding you in.

“I don’t want to know where you’re storing all that muscle to be able to pick me up.”

He smirks, “Wanna see my 8 pack?”

“Absolutely not. Now stand outside in the lobby so I can change.”

You meet him in the lobby after quickly throwing on an oversized shirt and biker shorts. You check over your bag that you have everything you need for the day – your phone, lip balm, sunscreen, your wallet, hand sanitizer, blotting sheets, and your water bottle.

“Okay, I guess I’m ready to tackle the day with you.”

“Don’t worry, we’re not doing anything too crazy.”

“I have very little trust in you at 8:30 AM.”

He puts his free hand on his chest as he fakes getting hurt, “You wound me.”

You roll your eyes in response as you start walking out of your dorm building, Jaehyun following you from behind.

Jaehyun leads the way to the football field as you walk next to him. The walk isn’t too bad and soon enough you hear various guys yelling and spot footballs flying through the air.

“Hey Jungwoo!”

A shirtless, blonde guy jogs up to the you two and dabs Jaehyun up.

“Hey Captain! I thought you weren’t coming to practice until later?” Jungwoo smiles before turning to you, “Oh, and you are?”

You politely introduce yourself as Jungwoo stares into your soul. “It’s a shame I haven’t seen your pretty face around.”

His remark takes you aback as you turn in shock to Jaehyun.

“Right? Imagine my surprise when I saw her for the first time.”

You avoid eye contact, not sure how to respond. “Um… thanks. We’re here to pick up some kegs?”

“Oh right! Let me get Yangyang.”

Jungwoo calls out to another guy behind him, thankfully he is clothed because you don’t know if you could survive another attractive, shirtless guy. He runs up as he greets you.

“I have it in my car, so follow me. Jungwoo, tell coach I went to the nurse or something.”

“Okay!”

Jungwoo jogs off to get back to practice. You and Jaehyun follow Yangyang to his car so he can drop you off at the DREAM frat house. The drive is short since the fraternity and sorority houses are near campus and the sports facilities.

Outside of the DREAM fraternity house on the front lawn are a few guys running around with water guns. The three of you get out of the car, grabbing their attention. Yangyang and Jaehyun wave at them causing one of them to run inside. As the kegs are being unloaded from the trunk, who you presume Haechan is, walks out.

The pretty boy with purple hair waves at you as he takes a hit from his neon green vape. He walks over as he blows a fat cloud into the air and pockets the vape.

He nods his head at you and leans against Yangyang’s car. “Hey.”

“Hi?”

“Are you coming to the party tonight?”

“Yeah?”

“Cool.” He wets his lips as he looks you up and down, “Wear something hot, ‘kay?”

“Okay?”

He gets off Yangyang’s car as he winks at you.

“Thanks for the kegs. I’ll get the guys to bring them into the garage.”

Haechan taps his phone causing the garage door to open showing you the set of workout equipment on the side and a black Porsche parked inside. 2 guys with blonde and Oreo hair come out from the door inside and start moving the kegs.

“Hey Shotaro! Hey Renjun!”

Jaehyun calls out as the frat bros wave back at him.

“So, are you ready to go?” Yangyang stands next to you as you nod. He opens the passenger door for you to get inside. Jaehyun sits smack in the middle in the uncomfortable seat so he can talk to you.

“What next?”

“Our pretty girl might need a shopping trip.”

You felt like the “ugly” but actually stunning main girl whose only transformation is taking off their glasses or hair out from a ponytail and it’s the makeover montage scene in a 2000s romcom. Jaehyun and Yangyang were running around in the local mall piling on different types of clothes into your arms to try on.

Two hours passed by already and you were getting sweaty from trying on the various combinations of tops, skirts or jeans, and dresses. It was annoyingly sweet of Jaehyun and Yangyang, who you just met today, to go out of their way to help you find something to wear.

“Honestly, I could find something in my closet or a thrift store.”

“If we don’t find something in the next 30 minutes I know a good thrift store.” Yangyang throws a black minidress at you and you let it hit your face.

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As you walk down the street where Johnny parked while fixing the biker shorts under your dress.

Johnny opens the front door of the fraternity only for you to be greeted by the sight of a hundred or so people engaging in various acts of grinding, making out, drinking, or dancing to whatever playlist DJ Yangyang picked.

“Oh my god.” You walk in as Jaehyun and Johnny tail behind you, making sure to stare down anyone who looks at you in a mean or creepy way.

You smile and wave at Yangyang in the corner of the living room as he motions at your trio to come over. The three of you move through the crowd of people partying and try not to have any kind of alcohol accidentally spilling on your new outfit.

Yangyang removes the headphones from his head to his neck and talks in your ear, “You look hot!”

“Thank you! Can we get you anything?”

“Whatever has the least amount of alc by volume.”

“Got it.”

Johnny, Jaehyun, and You find the kitchen entrance behind Yangyang’s DIY DJ booth and open the various coolers filled with alcohol. Johnny helps you pick out Yangyang’s drink from the sea of canned beverages while Jaehyun gets drinks for you all.

As you walk back to give Yangyang his drink, Haechan is talking to him and spots you getting closer to them.

“Well, aren’t you a sight to behold.”

Haechan holds a handout as you take it, spinning you around him.

“That dress fits you perfectly.”

You shyly thank him as you did feel amazing in the red and black dress you bought at a thrift store after the three of you gave up at the mall earlier, but you hid the dress from them so you could pay for it. Jaehyun couldn’t stop staring at you and Johnny couldn’t stop complimenting you when they picked you up from your dorm. You felt that you needed to donate some of your old clothes to keep the good streak going.

The people around you start yelling and both of your heads turn in the direction of the kitchen when a loud crash is heard.

“Fuck. I bet someone tipped over a keg stand. Gotta go.”

He winks at you as he walks into the kitchen. You look around the room to see that J² are nowhere to be seen.

you hey!! where did you guys go??

johnny we’re upstairs hanging with mark

johnny jeno and jaemin are coming down to get u

You stand by the end of the staircase as you scroll on your phone when someone taps the back of your shoulder. Turning around to see 2 more beautiful guys as they smile at you. The guy with black hair and an undercut introduces himself as Jeno and the guy with brown hair introduces himself as Jaemin.

J² sent 2J to get you. Funny.

They kindly escort you upstairs, down a hallway on the left, and to the room at the end. The door has a sign that says

“HAECHANNIE’S ROOM!

LADIES - FREE

GUYS - $20”

You knock on the door and walk in after Johnny says it’s open.

“Hey.” You greet Johnny, Jaehyun, and Mark who are sitting on the bed with various drinks and snacks surrounding them. Mark moves a reuseable bag full of chips so you can sit next to him as Jeno and Jaemin sit on beanbags.

“So, how’s the party going for y’all?” You ask the frat bros as you dig into a bag of your favorite chips.

Jeno and Jaemin jump into a story of how Renjun challenged Haechan and Shotaro to a keg stand contest where Shotaro won and Haechan complained the rest of the time setting up. Haechan also must carry out a dare later tonight, but Renjun is keeping it a secret.

During the story, you keep looking at Mark to see his expressions throughout the story time. You like him, you realized this after Spider-Man saved you in the elevator, the way Mark comforted you and stayed with you the entire night. Even sleeping on the pull-out bed attached to your bed that was a little too small for him. Mark was paying attention to the story, but right after 2J finished telling the story, he abruptly gets up and runs out the room.

“Is Mark okay?” You ask bewildered as the rest of the guys are nonchalant.

“Oh yeah, Mark does this a lot.” Jaemin tells you as he takes a sip of his beer.

“Really?”

Johnny nods, “Yeah ever since the start of last year Mark’s been really weird like weirder than usual.”

“And stronger for some reason.” Jaehyun adds. “We started working out together last semester. When he thought I wasn’t looking, he maxed out the bench press. I can’t do that and I’m active in sports.”

“So now we think he’s doing steroids.”

“Dude don’t say that.”

“Kidding,” Johnny says as he looks at you. “But there is something going on… like he’s keeping a secret from us.”

“Are you insinuating that Mark is Spider-Man?”

Johnny shrugs. “I didn’t say that, but I also did not not say that.”

“I think you’ve had too much to drink, dude.”

“I’m literally sober. I have to drive you and Jaehyun home tonight.”

As you’re handing Johnny a bottle of water, Shotaro opens the door.

“Johnny or Jaehyun, can you please talk Haechan out of jumping from the roof into the pool.”

The two oldest guys let out a sigh as they get up to stop Haechan from doing something stupid and getting hurt.

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Your little group stands outside on the pool deck as people crowd around the pool chanting at Haechan to “jump”. Johnny and Jaehyun are sticking their head out of someone’s room scolding a tipsy Haechan who is standing near the ledge. It’s only 7 feet between the roof and the pool, but the pool is another 6 feet to dive into and the entire situation just screams “danger” to you.

Haechan is getting dangerously close to the edge causing Johnny to step out onto the roof as Jaehyun holds one of his hands.

“Haechan, we’re bringing you inside.”

“No.” He puffs a cloud of vape into Johnny’s face.

“You’re being an asshole, get in.”

Haechan’s balance is off because as he steps back a bit, his right foot misses the ledge. You can’t watch. The crowd is yelling. You look away only to see a figure jump over the fence.

Spider-Man thwips a web to put an inflatable pool floatie a foot of the ground with another floatie under it to cushion Haechan’s fall. Thankfully, Haechan falls right on the floatie and is safe from breaking a bone or something worse on the concrete.

“Are you okay?” The masked hero asks Haechan as he helps him stand up and check his body.

An eerily similar situation that mirrors exactly what Mark did when you were almost hit by a basketball.

Rushing over to Haechan, you hug him as you’re actively scolding him.

“Never do that ever again! You could have broken your legs or spine or died!”

“Excuse me.” Spider-Man clears his throat as you turn your head to him. “Are you a friend of his?”

“Yes.”

“It would be best to check that he doesn’t have any injuries and keep him inside.”

“Johnny’s probably going to bubble wrap him now.”

“I have to go now but have a good night.”

Spider-Man waves you and everyone else at the party bye as the crowd cheers for him. He then swings out of DREAM’s backyard as Johnny, Jaehyun, Jeno, and Jaemin meet you outside. They all hug Haechan and scold him as well.

“You’re cut off.”

“Seriously?” Haechan whines.

“From everything. End of discussion.”

Most of the crowd disperses inside to tell or show their friends a video of Spider-Man saving Haechan. You’re putting the pool floaties back in the pool when you almost fall in.

“Hey–woah there!”

You look wide up at Mark, who appeared out of nowhere, holding your waist to stop you from accidentally falling in the pool.

“Mark! Thanks for saving me.”

“Anytime.”

You stand back up away from the pool ledge as you smile at Mark. You notice that he’s sweating a bit.

“Could we head inside? I, um, wanted to ask you something.”

He nods his head as the two of you walk inside and then upstairs where there aren’t that many people. You hear commotion in the hallway that leads to Haechan’s room. You’re both curious, so you walk down the hallway to see Jaehyun standing guard outside his room.

“What is happening?”

“Johnny is inside making sure Haechan can’t escape out his window. Well, if he can get out of the bubble wrap duct taped to his body.”

“Figures. Mark and I are going to talk in someone’s room.”

“Oh?” Jaehyun gives you a look.

“We’re not going to fuck in someone’s bed.”

“Sure it isn’t.”

Mark blushes as you grab his hand to walk away down the other hallway. You spot Shotaro standing outside his door.

“Hey Shotaro! Can we borrow your room to talk quickly?”

“Yeah! Just lock the door after and find me at the DJ booth when you’re done. I don’t want a repeat of the first day of summer party where someone threw up in my bed.”

“Of course, and don’t worry, we won’t fuck in your bed.”

You make Shotaro speechless and Mark blushes even harder. You open the door to Shotaro’s room and get inside. His room is cutely decorated with pictures of him alongside the rest of the fraternity and tiny little trinkets sprinkled throughout. The window is open and as you look out of it you can see that his room overlooks the grassy area beside the pool.

A thought comes into your head as you look at Mark who is sitting on Shotaro’s bed across from you.

“I’ve got a lot to say so please hear me out for its entirety.” He nods his head as you stand in front of him. “Mark, I have a crush on you. I thought you were cute the first time I saw you after that basketball almost took me out. I was so excited when we ended up sharing a class together and you sat next to me the next class after we met. Then when you comforted me after Spider-Man saved me. That was the moment I knew that I liked you. I like you, Mark. Maybe even more than that.”

He stares at you awestruck.

“It’s okay if you don’t like me back. Hope we can still be friends no matter what. I just want you to know.”

“I like you too. A lot. I liked you ever since I almost accidentally hit you with a basketball. I liked you when you were excited when you found out we shared a class. I liked you when you saved a seat for me and let me borrow your water bottle. I was so happy when you were safe from being trapped in an elevator. I really like you and, if you want to, I hope we can date.”

“I would love to date you, Mark, but now I’m going to do something that might ruin our relationship before it even starts?”

Mark looks adorably confused as you walk backwards to stand in front of the window.

“You know that I also have a crush on Spider-Man. And I’ve had this hunch since he saved me in the elevator. I didn’t realize it when it was happening due to the adrenaline, but then thinking back on it – when you left while we were walking to class that one time for a “family emergency” and Spider-Man had been spotted right helping firefighter put out a nearby fire. Then, I got stuck in the library elevator and Spider-Man miraculously came to save me. Sure, it could have been a coincidence since the fire was near the university, but I wasn’t in that dire of a situation. I could’ve waited for you to find me after I texted you. Then, just right now, you leave as we’re talking with 4J then when Haechan is in danger Spider-Man shows up in the nick of time to save him? In every situation I brought up, you were there then gone, Spider-Man shows up then leaves, and then you’re back? Never in the same room to witness the masked hero. Something’s not adding up.”

“Am I Spider-Man?” Mark asks while nervously laughing. “You mean you think I’m Spider-Man?”

“I’d bet my life on it.” You tell him seriously as you sit on the window ledge.

“That’s serious.”

“I am serious.”

You continue getting farther out of the window as you possibly can.

Mark slowly stands up, “What are you doing?”

“If I’m wrong… have 9-1-1 ready.”

You then lean back as you fall out of Shotaro’s window hearing Mark yell your name, you barely have your entire body out the window when you stop moving. Opening your eyes, bunches of white strings surround your head and shoulders – Mark slowly brings you back inside Shotaro’s room.

The silence between the two of you is deafening until you open your mouth.

“I fucking knew it.”

Marks hugs you tightly. “Please… never do that again. You scared me.”

“Do you still like me?”

“D-Do I still like you? Yes, I still like you very much.”

“I scared you that bad, huh?”

“What if I wasn’t Spider-Man? Then what? You fall and die?”

“I wouldn’t have done it unless I was sure. Would a kiss make you feel better?”

“A kiss away from the window and maybe on solid ground would.”

masterlist | bonus chapter

BONUS CHAPTER NSFW MDNI 18+, instead of a sweet confession to Mark you decide to tease his masked persona, the ending in an alternate universe like the alternate universe where this story was real life – posted 9/24/2024

#mark lee x reader #mark lee x you #nct x reader #spiderman!mark #spidermark #mark lee oneshot #nct oneshot #spidermark has consumed my entire being since the ncit house video #i need to buy one of those acrylic pc holders that's spidey themed #please enjoy my brain rot & please reblog!!#but don't steal this to publish it as your own here or another website because that's plagiarism & i would be so upset

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ao3-rex1223 · 6 months ago

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Twist Me series: part I, part III, part IV

Pairing: Professor!Leon x fem!reader

Warnings: Smut, Porn, Vaginal, Sex, Blow Jobs, Mildly Dubious Consent, Desk Sex, Creampie, Spanking, One Night Stands, Thigh Fucking

Summary: Sequel to "Twist My Words". You haven't stopped thinking about fucking Leon for a good grade at the end of last semester. One casual hook up with a frat boy ends up in some unintended consequences. When Professor Kennedy comes to the library where you work looking for a textbook. One thing leads to another...

A/N: I'm finally out of Tumblr Jail! I guess this blog got flagged as "spam" somehow? But to celebrate getting released, here's my newest Leon Kennedy fic!

“Fuck! I'm gonna cum!” the frat boy moans as he shoots his load inside you. You're not even sure you remember his name. It's something like Jason or Jeremy or…Jesse? Oh well; who cares? It's not like he even got you close to climaxing….not like with Professor Kennedy back at the end of last semester. God, that was the most incredible sex you've ever had! The memories of that day have been in your spank bank ever since. You had fucked him for a good grade but haven't really seen him since; you're not in his class or anything this semester so you don't really cross now.

The frat boy with the J-name releases your ankles from his shoulders and gets off you, wiping his cock dry with a towel he grabbed from his floor, one that likely has seen its fair share of jizz. He offers you the towel and you silently decline with a wave of your hand and a mildly scrunched face. You quickly dress, trying to suppress a look of disgust as you feel his cum oozing out of your cunt. You slip out of his room and go back downstairs to the party that's still going on, its guests seemingly unaware of but not likely to be surprised by the fact that you hooked up with one of the hosts. It's the Friday night before spring break so everyone is out partying. You grab another Soho cup and fill it with the concoction of punch and whatever alcohol with which it's been spiked then take a big swing, hoping to wipe the disappointing experience Mr J-name called ‘sex’.

Your heart skips a beat as you hear a few students talk about Mr Kennedy. It seems like they're all taking his class this semester. One of them calls your name. “Did you just hook up with James!?” A petite girl asks. She looks like she's too young to be drinking, yet still has a cup with the boozy punch in it. Her tone is accusatory, like she's jealous.

“James! That was his name!” You reply, more so to yourself than her. You keep walking, uncaring of her perturbed state. She doesn't know how lucky she is! She gets to see Mr Kennedy every day! Your mood progressively sours and you decide to leave the party early. You unlock the door to your dorm and dump your keys on the desk. You kick the door closed with your foot and mosey to your room.

As you lie on your bed, you replay your tryst with Professor Kennedy in your mind. Your hand travels along your body, touching and caressing. You knead and squeeze your breasts, remembering the feel of his dick inside you, thrusting hard and hitting your cervix like an aggressive salesman knocking on a door. You moan and kick your pants and panties off, hand trailing south towards your wet folds. You recall the feeling of him bending you over his desk and holding you down roughly as you start stroking your clit, the pads of your fingers doing their best to stimulate you like he could. You start to pant, the tension in your belly building steadily. Slick coats your fingers and leaks down your ass cheeks. You rub faster and faster, playing the sound of his voice in your mind again…

…“That's a good girl.” … “Choke on my cock like a - ah - good little slut. You want an A, sweetheart? Better - mf - suck this dick like your grade depends on it…

You inhale sharply and cum hard on your fingers. You lay there, boneless, for a moment before rising out of bed to clean yourself up. After you wash your hands, you climb back into bed and fall asleep.

Monday morning you stroll into the library to work the front desk; your student job since you've been going here. Since it's spring break, it's very dead on campus. There's maybe one or two graduate students scattered about the whole building. You lean your head on your knuckles while you sit completely bored, staring at your computer screen with the list of overdue books. It's your job to send out reminder emails to everyone who needs to return what they've rented. No one is going to read them today, you figure. Everyone is on vacation…except you. You decided to stay behind and make some easy money.

“Hey!” You hear a voice sharply rip you from your wandering thoughts. It was harsh, like the owner of that voice had already tried at least once to get your attention. You look up to see him on the other side of the circulation desk.

Your jaw briefly drops, followed by a quick recovery. You swallow hard and straighten up. “Professor Kennedy! What can I do for you?” you ask, a little too eagerly.

He smirks meanly. “I'm looking for the Litigator's Handbook of Forensic Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychology. Volume 2,” he states, as if he's pissed off that it's not already in his hands.

You nod and quickly type the name into your computer to find where the text is. Shit. “I'm sorry, Professor…all our copies are out right now.”

The professor glares at you, like it's somehow your fault. You look into more detail on who has the books and realize one is due back today. “There should be one available later today,” you add, but know very well there's a high chance it just won't get returned. Still, you're willing to say anything to make him happy.

His glare neutralizes into an unreadable expression. Then, with just a hint of a smirk he replies, “great. Bring it to my office then.” He turns and walks out before you can protest and tell him the library doesn't deliver.

But an idea pops into your head and sends a jolt of arousal to your sex. Maybe he'll be grateful for that delivery…

After trying numerous times to contact the professor who has the book you need, you finally get a hold of her and retrieve the book. With a big, dumb grin on your face, you high tail it over to Professor Kennedy’s office. You knock eagerly on his door.

“Come in,” he calls from inside his office, his tone neutral. You open the door and see him behind his desk typing into his computer, his expression unreadable.

“Professor Kennedy, I brought you the textbook you were looking for,” you announce. His office isn't much different than when you were in it last time…naked and getting deliciously fucked by him. Your pussy throbs at the memories that come rushing back.

He gestures with his hand to come toward him without looking up from his computer. You walk to him, holding the textbook.

“Desk,” he commands, still engrossed in whatever he's working on. You set the book down and turn to leave, convinced you're not going to make any worthy progress with him. You let out a silent sigh and head for the door. “Did I say you could leave?” He asks. You spin around. He's finally looking at you.

You stare back at him, mouth agape. “Wh-what?” Your heart starts to race; your palms sweat.

He lets out a snort. “Desk,” he repeats with the slightest smirk. His eyes flicker to the surface of his desk, the very same one where you just dropped the book.

You don't realize you're holding your breath as you walk toward him. Before you can even hop up on his desk he grabs your hips tightly and pins you between his body and the edge of the desk.

“Open your fucking mouth,” he demands.

Your lips part only just slightly and his tongue is inside your mouth, attacking yours. Your rational thought is quickly slipping away as your fingers tangle into his hair. His hands slip underneath the hem of your shirt, rubbing your bare waist with his thumbs. The tingles shooting through your body could make you jump out of your own skin. You suck on his tongue, the memory of his dick in your mouth rushing back into your mind.

He slides his hands up further, pushing your shirt with it. He breaks the kiss only for a second to pull your shirt over your head and toss it to the side before roughly grabbing your breast through your lace bra and claiming your mouth again. You reach behind yourself and unclasp your bra. Before you can move your hands, he grips your wrists tightly and holds them behind your back. He kisses, licks, and even bites down onto your neck. “Did you think I wouldn't fucking find out?” he asks with a gruff whisper in your ear. He nips at your neck again.

“Wh-what?” You manage to gasp out. Your head falls to one side, giving him better access to your neck.

He laughs meanly. “I have eyes and ears all over this school, sweetheart.” He gently kisses your neck. “Don't think for a second that you could get away with fucking some dumb ass frat boy without me knowing.” He nips at your pulse, dragging his teeth across your neck. “Don't move,” he commands darkly and lets go of your hands long enough to remove his tie and use it to secure your wrists behind your back. He cups your face, kissing you hungrily again. One hand slides down and cups your breasts. You feel his erection straining in his pants and pressing against your hip. “I think I need to teach you another lesson, sweetheart.” He breaks the kiss and smirks wickedly.

He pushes you down to your knees and slowly unbuckles his belt then tosses it aside. He unzips his pants and frees his cock - God, it's bigger than you remember. He strokes it a few times and shoves it into your waiting mouth. Hands grip the sides of your face, pushing you further onto his shaft. He combs your hair with his fingers, holding it all back with one hand fisted tightly, forming a handle with which he can control your head. “That's my good little slut. Suck my fucking cock,” he growls as he fucks your face. “You love this don't you? Letting me fuck you again and you're not even in my class. Fuck. I've been waiting to fuck you again for months. Can't stop thinking about your sweet mouth and your tight pussy,” he coos and gently runs a finger down the side of your face. You fight to hold back the tears pooling in your eyes as you resist gagging on the fat dick in your mouth.

But he's right. You do love it, you crave it, you need it. You suck him greedily, ecstatic to even have the chance to gag on his dick. Precum coats the back of your throat and you moan loudly. Your pussy is throbbing, aching to be touched but with your hands tied behind your back, you can't touch it. His grip on your hair tightens and it makes you wetter. You can tell he's close, but before he can cum, he pulls your face away. He pants, looking like he wants to say something but is at a loss for words. He growls and pulls you up, spins you around and shoves you over his desk. You feel your pants and panties being yanked off of you together. His chest presses against your back, holding you in place against his desk, still covered with papers. You glance to the side and see the textbook you brought; your ticket back to Professor Kennedy and his magnificent cock. He slides his cock between your thighs, gliding under your cunt. He's teasing you. His shaft is coated in your slick, so much so it's about to start dripping down his balls.

“You're so fucking wet, sweetheart. Gonna cum all over my cock before I've even fucked you?” He runs his hands all over your naked body, reminding himself of what he believes belongs to him.

“Please! Please! Please! Fuck me, Professor! Please! Fuck! I can't take it!” You beg, a few tears leaking from your eyes. You feel like you'll spontaneously combust if you don't feel his cock fill you up soon.

A loud smack fills the air followed by a stinging on your ass cheek. More slick gushes from your dripping wet sex. “Ah, ah, ah, sweetheart. You don't call the shots. I do. And you still need to learn your lesson. So, for now, I'm gonna fuck your cute little thighs…nice and slow.”

It's torture as you feel his length slide back and forth between your thighs, ghosting your clit and sending jolts of pleasure through you but not nearly enough to cum. Your moans fade into whimpers and crescendo back into moans.

He plays with you for a while, never increasing his pace. You're crying, you're so desperate for release. “Tell me, sweetheart, was it worth it? Fucking that worthless frat boy?” He slaps your ass again. “Did he make you cum?”

You bite your lip. “...no…”

He laughs, as if he already knew the answer but it made it that much sweeter to hear it from your own lips. His hand rubs up your back and slides around your throat, squeezing gently and turning you on even more. “Did you let him cum inside you?” He asks, his voice dark and devoid of any humor. You know he's not going to like your answer.

“...yes…” you confess; you're certainly in no position to lie to him. Another smack hits your ass cheek along with that delicious sting. You don't need to see his face to know he's pissed. He rubs the spot tenderly then slaps it once more.

“Learn your lesson yet, sweetheart?” He asks, delivering another slap. His hips continue to move his dick between your thighs at a snail's pace.

You cry out for release. “What!? What is it!? What am I supposed to learn!?”

Leon stops moving and positions the head of his cock at your entrance, locked and ready to fill you with one thrust. He grips your waist with both hands, tightly, to keep you from pushing your hips back and impaling yourself on his cock before he decides to give it to you. He leans in slowly and gently whispers in your ear, “that you're fucking mine.” With that, he slams his cock inside you, fucking you ruthlessly. Your eyes roll back into your head. Finally, the addicting sensation of being filled by him is yours to savor once again. His fat, long dick hits your cervix over and over, rubbing your g-spot perfectly. It doesn't take you long to cum, screaming his name, panting, and gasping as you catch your breath. He doesn't slow his pace; instead he maintains, fucking you hard and fast as your walls contract and relax around him. He draws out your orgasm, reaching around to squeeze your throat again with one hand and rubbing your clit with the other. Where you were just parched for pleasure, you're now overstimulated, between his hard and fast thrusts and his rough circles on your clit, you're about to combust yet again. He leans forward once more, biting and sucking on your neck, leaving deliberate marks. “In case any other fucking frat boys get any ideas about touching you,” he growls. You cum again, the pain and pleasure enough to send you over the edge a second time. You're covered in sweat and your body is sliding easily on his desk.

Leon slams his hips forward hard, sheathing himself balls deep inside you as he cums, his dick exploding with jizz all over the entrance to your womb. He holds you on the desk with his hands as the last globs of cum shoot out from his tip. Then, he leans down and tenderly kisses your neck. He helps you up from the desk, releases your hands from his tie, and even helps you dress.

“You know, if it's any consolation, I don't even remember that frat boy's name,” you admit.

“James C. Harold,” Leon rattles off without hesitation.

Your eyes widen. “How did you…?”

He leans in closer, looming over you. His smirk is nearly audible. “I had him expelled.” He hooks his finger into the waistband of your jeans and pulls you to him. “You. Are. Mine.” He growls then kisses you possessively. “Is that clear?”

#resident evil #Leon Kennedy #leon kennedy x reader #Professor!Leon #smut #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic #resident evil smut

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soletyue · 1 year ago

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september snapshots // currently playing: Cincin - Hindia

i kind of dropped off the face of the earth after last fall semester... needless to say, spring semester was rough for me and i just withdrew from everything for a while. anyways, i am back now !! my classes started a month ago and so far i have been handling everything surprisingly well ? but with midterms coming up, i am definitely starting to feel the stress. also, i am in my third year now and the reality of that is starting to hit me as everyone around me is now talking about jobs and grad school. i am an obsessive planner and the fact that i'm not sure what i want to do right after college is adding to my stress, but at least i still have all year to figure it out. i can't say i'll be posting any more regularly now, but i'll at least try. i hope september has been a good month and that October will treat you well !!

#studyblr #studyspo #student #study #studying #university #universidad #uniblr #estudiablr #estudiante #estudio #belajar #100 days of productivity #motivation #study inspiration #study motivation #study notes

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sprinkler-ashes · 2 years ago

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gorgeous // aaron hotchner x reader

gorgeous

pairing: aaron hotchner x fem!reader

in which you’re jack hotchner’s teacher, and you are utterly enamored of his dad. loosely based off of taylor swift’s song “gorgeous.”

words: 2.4k

warnings: everyone thirsting over hotch lmao

a/n: thank you all soooo very much for 600+ notes on my last fic!!! here’s another small taylor-inspired fic. It’s short, sweet, and i left it open for a part 2 in case i want to write it – we’ll see. i really wanted to get more out for you guys, but spring semester started, i fell back into constant work, and now am getting over the flu, which totally sucks, but is giving me a slight break to write. thanks for reading <3

you make me so happy, it turns back to sad

there's nothing i hate more than what i can't have

you are so gorgeous it makes me so mad

On most days, you loved your job. You were a first grade teacher and truly loved all the kids you had as if they were your own.

However, on some days – you really despised your job.

Dealing with the parents was sometimes your least favorite part of your job. It was usually mind-boggling to you at how some of these people had the sweetest and smartest kids, but they, the parents themselves, could be absolutely awful. It wasn’t all of the parents. In fact, there were some you really liked, but there were definitely a couple bad ones.

As much as you didn’t like dealing with some of those bad parents during conferences, you weren’t a fan of days like today – a Saturday bake sale at nine in the morning to raise money for an end-of-the-year field trip coming up at the end of the school year in just a couple months. The PTA was over the bake sale, which meant you had to deal with some of the most insufferable women you had ever met on what was supposed to be a day off.

“I told you, Stef, she’s just with him so she can get that life insurance check when he finally kicks the bucket – you watch and see if I’m not right,” the woman next to you, Kelly, said. “Poor Charlie, I hope he gets away from her before she snatches every penny he’s got.”

You wanted to scream. You weren’t sure how you were going to deal with this for another – you checked your watch – two hours and thirty-eight minutes even though the bake sale was only supposed to be three hours long. How had it only been twenty-two minutes?

Kelly was the resident gossip while Stefanie, Stef, was her best friend and head of the PTA. Kelly’s son wasn’t in your class, but Stef’s twins were both in your class. Even though you didn’t even teach Kelly’s kid, you saw her often because she was always at every single school event.

“Stef, are you listening to me?” You heard Kelly ask.

“Did you know Mr. Hotchner is here?” Stef asked excitedly.

Your head perked up at hearing that. You pretended to fiddle with the homemade brownies wrapped up in front of you while you listened.

“That man is so beautiful. I just want him for myself,” Kelly replied. “I’m glad he made it today, so we have something nice to look at.”

You couldn’t disagree with Kelly there. Aaron Hotchner was the dad of one of the kids in your class, Jack, and a member of the PTA. He was the Unit Chief of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and was often gone on cases. Jack’s mom had died a while ago, close to two years prior, and Jessica, Jack’s aunt, was usually the one who would drop him off and pick him up.

In fact, you had only met Jack’s dad a couple times – three, to be exact. The first time you met Jack and Aaron was at the school’s open house event right before school had started. The second time was the first parent-teacher conference of the year. The last time you had seen him was purely by luck in the grocery store one evening.

Kelly wasn’t wrong – Aaron Hotchner was insanely attractive and every woman in the PTA knew it. It honestly seemed like everyone knew it except for Aaron himself. You watched as he helped Jack give change back to a man who was buying a cookie at the booth he was at. You couldn’t help but smile as you watched him give his son a high-five after the man had left.

Truthfully, you hated him. Not because he had ever done anything to you – actually, it was because he hadn’t done anything to you.

“Do you think he’ll ever remarry?” Kelly asked Stef. “If so, I hope it’s one of us.”

“You, me, and every woman here,” Stef said with a laugh. “Oh my goodness, Kelly, he’s coming over here. Fix your hair! It looks like a bird’s nest.”

You felt your pulse start to race as you glanced up to find that Stef was, indeed, right. Aaron was coming over, his eyes trained on you with his hands in his pockets. He was dressed casually in jeans and a crewneck sweatshirt. It was different from the usual suits you saw him in. Seeing him without a tie felt almost criminal.

“Good morning,” he told you, not paying attention to the other women near you, his eyes trained solely on you. “I’m sorry to bother you, but Jack wants to know if you’ll come join his booth for a moment. It won’t be long.”

You silently it wasn’t obvious that his gaze on you was affecting you the way that it was. His job was literally to profile people – you just hoped he wasn’t profiling you right now. “Yeah, I’d love to. Do you mind taking over this booth while I go over for a bit?”

“Go right ahead, honey,” Kelly told you. She lowered her voice, “I’d go anywhere with him, too.”

You rolled your eyes. “I’m just going to see Jack’s poster.”

Kelly grinned. “Whatever you say.”

You shook your head, avoiding eye contact with Aaron and watching as both the women gave him a smile and little wave while you maneuvered from out behind the table you were standing at. “Lead the way.”

He gave you a small smile as he removed his hands from his pockets and led you over to the table him and Jack were assigned to. “I know you’re miserable, so I thought I’d help you escape.”

You were about to ask how he knew you’d rather have been doing anything else other than Stef and Kelly gossip, but you closed your mouth as soon as you opened it. “Really? You were profiling me? Here?”

That earned you a laugh out of him, which you now claimed as your favorite sound you’ve ever heard. “I don’t think it would’ve taken a profiler to see that you weren’t enjoying yourself.”

“Did you guys not get assigned with anyone else? It was supposed to be three to five people per table,” you mentioned as you two had finally reached the cookie booth that Aaron and Jack were over.

“We did, but they didn’t show,” Aaron replied to you, his hand lightly touching your lower back as he guided you behind the table where Jack was awaiting, causing you to elicit a sharp intake at the contact. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” you said in your best attempt at a nonchalant tone. If he doubted you, he didn’t press further. “Do you want me to ask around and see if I can get someone to come work the cookie booth with you guys?”

Aaron shook his head. “We’re holding up fine. Right, Jack?”

“Miss Y/L/N!” Jack shouted coming towards you as he held out his poster board that was just about as big as he was and filled with hand-drawn pictures of cookies. “Look at my sign! Daddy let me stay up late to make it.”

You crouched down to his level. “It looks awesome, Jack!” you told him excitedly, gaining a smile of your own as you watched his spread wide. “You did a great job!”

“Thanks! Can you put it back in front of the table, please?” He asked you politely. You nodded and took the poster back from him and placed it back in its rightful spot in front. “Daddy, can I go talk to my friends? I’ll be really quick, I pinky-promise.”

“Yes, but don’t be too long. We have cookies to sell,” Aaron told him.

You both watched as Jack’s little legs carried him just right in front of the table you were at. He was only a couple feet away, but you noticed Aaron’s eyes watching him, making sure he got there safely and that the adults working that table saw him.

“He thinks the world of you. I think you’re his favorite person,” Aaron told you.

That made you grin. You weren’t supposed to have favorites as a teacher, especially with kids as young as the ones you taught, but Jack was definitely one of your favorites. He was a sweet kid and was even reading on a fourth grade level. He caused no trouble and was a friend to everyone.

“He’s a great kid. I think the world of him also,” you said, your eyes locking with Aaron’s. Your breath hitched. How was someone this gorgeous? “But I actually think you’re his favorite person. He tells everyone about you and what you do. You’re his hero.”

Aaron grinned, and it was a sight you hadn’t seen before. You’d gotten smiles from him before, but never anything this big. You refrained from quite literally melting onto the floor. To be honest, you weren’t sure how you were going to last another minute standing here with him. He was so attractive you could barely even look at him.

If you said you didn’t have a teeny, tiny crush on Jack’s dad, you would be lying, but he was off-limits. For one, you were his son’s teacher. You’d really convinced yourself that there was no way he would want someone like you. There was nothing wrong with you, but you two were supposed to have a strictly professional relationship.

“Have you tried one of the cookies?” Aaron asked you, motioning to the cookies that laid on the table in front of the two of you.

“I haven’t,” you replied. “Did you bake all of these?”

“I had some help,” he sheepishly admitted. “Penelope, one of my co-workers, she helped me. As soon as we got back from a case last night, she came over. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to bake this many cookies by myself.”

“You made all of these last night? And after a case?” you asked incredulously. The entire table was covered in cookies of various different flavors. You were seriously impressed.

“Yeah, but it was no big deal,” he brushed it off. “I didn’t want to miss the bake sale. Plus, like I said, I didn’t do all of it.”

Was there anything this man couldn’t do?

You laughed. “I’m sure you’re probably wishing that you did miss the bake sale.” You gestured around the school parking lot that was set up. “I can count on one hand the number of things we’ve sold. I told Stef that a chilly February bake sale wasn’t a good idea, but she doesn’t really listen.”

“No, I’m glad I’m here. I really wanted to be here,” he said, looking directly at you.

This man knew how to take your breath away without even touching you or really even saying anything. You really understand now why all the PTA moms spent so much time gossiping about him.

“We’re glad you could make it,” you said breathlessly, offering a smile. “Really, Mr. Hotchner, I know how busy you are, so all of us are thrilled that you could find the time to help out.”

“Call me Aaron.”

This man was genuinely going to drive you crazy. You were an adult, so why did talking to Aaron Hotchner almost make you drop to the ground?

Before you could say anything else, Jack was back. “Did we get any more customers?”

“Not yet, buddy.”

Jack frowned. “Ah, man. But the cookies are so good!” He turned to you. “Miss Y/L/N, why is no one buying anything?”

“I’m not sure, Jack. Hopefully, we’ll get some more customers later.”

“I hope so,” he said sadly. “I really want to go on the field trip.”

You once again crouched down to his height – something you did often when talking to any of the kids. “We’re working really hard to make the field trip happen, so don’t give up hope, okay?”

Before Jack could reply, you noticed people coming towards your table, so you motioned for Jack to look. “Look! There’s some customers coming. You ready?”

Jack nodded excitedly as he turned around and eagerly started to await the arrival of the people nearing. You smiled at his excitement and took a step back, letting him take control, but you were going to keep watch to make sure he was doing everything correctly.

“I can see why Jack likes you so much.”

You smiled. The greatest compliments you could receive was from parents telling you their kids – the kids you spent more time with than your own family — liked you. Some days were tough, and it would feel like you weren’t in the right profession, but that feeling would go away any time a parent was able to confirm that their child really enjoyed you teaching them.

“Thank you, Mr. Hotchner, but I should probably get back to helping out Stef and Kelly,” you told him as you looked around to see more people filing in. “It seems we’re starting to get a little busy.”

“Yeah, of course, sorry to keep you busy. Jack just wanted you to come over.”

Jack turned around. “Yeah, I did. Daddy wasn’t happy that we didn’t get to work a table with you. He called Miss Stef a-”

Aaron’s eyes went for a split second before he said, “Jack, turn back around and sell your cookies.”

Jack did as he was told and Aaron awkwardly ran a hand through his hair as you replayed what Jack said back in your head. Aaron wanted to talk to you. He wanted to work with you today. It could’ve meant anything, but you were currently feeling like a kid on Christmas morning.

Aaron cleared his throat. “I guess Jack wasn’t the only one that wanted to talk to you.”

You suppressed a grin, gaining the courage to look Aaron in the eyes. “And I guess Jack wasn’t the only one I came over here for.”

#aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x you #aaron hotchner x y/n #aaron hotchner one shot #hotch x reader #aaron hotchner

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bunni-v1 · 4 months ago

Text

(Twenty) Nine Lives for Love

Chapter 2: First Day Prev Chapter\\Next Chapter m.list

Tw: Kenma is a little creepy, but not in a bad way.

Info: Kenma x Reader (for real this time); Kuroo and Reader; Kuroo is a wingman (maybe?); Your cat is so fucking fat

Word Count: 5k 🍓Hehehe, it's finished! Writing this was a fun challenge, simply because Kenma is so fucking odd and weird and I love him so much please marry me Kenma!!! Anywayyyyyy, please pretend that Animal Crossing New Leaf came out just a little earlier for the sake of this fic. Thankssssssss.

Tag List: @angel-academia

Since you moved to Tokyo, a lot has happened. You finished (by some miracle of the universe) unpacking and decorating the house in about a week, managed to get accepted by the shelter for work over the weekends (which you loved so far), and picked out all of your classes for the spring semester. You even got into the Animal Sciences course you were gunning for by passing the entrance test. Everything was going great, you had just one tiny… eentsy weensy thing you didn’t account for.

Nekoma’s campus was way bigger than you expected. Sure, you figured it would be, it’s a Tokyo High School, but it didn’t seem all that intimidating when you went to pick classes. You turned down a tour, confident in your navigational skills – it’s just a few floors of classrooms, how hard could it be?

Very, as you’ve come to learn.

Clutching the flimsy paper that held your schedule tightly, you looked around woefully at the students who passed you by. Everyone was too busy catching up or chatting, not paying you any mind. You glare at your class schedule again, and “Class 3” glares back at you. That is not helpful. You are lost. Very lost. God, you wanted to beat past you senseless – stupid stupid overconfident past you.

Just as you’re about to scream or bash your head into a wall and ruin your reputation before classes begin, your savior appears. He’s incredibly tall, his uniform jacket unbuttoned and his clothes wrinkled. His messy black bedhead stands straight up in the air, bangs shrouding half of his face. He looks like the crafty type like he might take advantage of the situation and make you buy him lunch as thanks. However, when he speaks, you realize you might be overreacting just a tad.

“You alright? I couldn’t help but see you floundering over here,” He laughs.

You flush, adjusting the strap of your bag on your shoulder awkwardly, “I’m a little lost…”

“You’re a first-year?” He asks.

You frown, shaking your head, “Second-year. I transferred from Karasuno High School, uhm, in Miyagi,” you quickly clarify. You hope you didn’t look like a first-year.

He hums, nodding, “That makes sense, looking for your homeroom then?”

“Yeah, I just… can’t make sense of the schedule they gave me,” you admit, lifting the paper for him to see.

He looks over it, and then smirks to himself, “Ooh, Kenma, she’s in your class.” He says to someone, and hot shame washes over you as you realize there was another person here the whole time.

He’s a shorter guy with a pretty shitty dye job that reminds you of a lot of pudding. You try not to snicker at the mental image of actual pudding on the poor guy's head. He eyes you like he’s considering you. It’s clear he’s taking in everything about your appearance, and it makes you flush a little. You didn’t take well to being scrutinized – especially not by cute strangers. (Cute? Did you find this guy cute?) Something about the way he looks at you is… familiar… but you’ve never met this guy, so you brush it off and smile apologetically.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were there or else I would’ve greeted you too,” you apologize.

He shrugs, eyes catching on something in your bag, then he goes back to staring at the PSP in his hands, “It’s fine.”

You frown, but the beadhead guy sighs loud enough to interrupt any self-depreciation you might’ve started on.

“Don’t pay him any mind, he’s always like this,” he tells you, then shoves his hand your way, “I’m Kuroo Tetsrou, Third-year!”

You take the hand, shake it firmly, and introduce yourself with a smile. Kuroo turns to Kenma, pulling his game out of his hands and confiscating it in his pocket, grumbling lowly to him about being polite. You can’t help the little laugh that escapes you at their antics.

With a grumble, Kenma turns to you and nods reluctantly, “Kozume Kenma.”

Kuroo lets out a satisfied huff, visibly pleased with the interaction, then gestures for both of you to follow him. You take off first, trying your best to keep pace with his incredibly long legs, Kenma follows just behind you, dragging his feet enough that he wouldn’t match your pace.

“So,” Kuroo starts again, “What made you transfer here – Tokyo’s a big change from Miyagi.”

You sigh, “I’ll say. My dad moved us here 'cause he got some big promotion,” you grumble, then realize you might be too grumbly and add, “but… Tokyo is nice. There’s a lot more to do here, and the people are nice.”

“Thank you, I do try,” He laughs, “there is a lot to do here, though. Too much, sometimes. What kinda things do you like to do?”

You hum, folding the paper in your hands as you think, “Well, I like helping out at animal shelters – oh and I like video games. I know there are arcades around here, and I wanna check some out.”

Kenma perks up a bit at the mention of video games, but he doesn’t say anything about it. As if he were a mind reader – or maybe he just knew Kenma well – Kuroo beams back at you.

“Thank god, I thought I’d never find someone who likes games like Kenma does,” he laughs, “I was gonna ask about that charm on your bag, it looked like one of the characters from his games.”

You frown, looking at your bag, and realizing the Tom Nook charm you got in middle school was still on it. It wasn’t in very good shape, but you could still discern that it was Tom Nook.

“It’s Tom Nook, from Animal Crossing,” Kenma corrects, “You should know that.”

“You play,” you ask suddenly, and a bit too excited, seeing how Kenma shrinks back a bit.

He nods, slowly, afraid of setting you off, “Yeah, not so much anymore, but I still like the game.”

“Sorry,” you laugh, “None of my friends from home liked it all that much, so I’m excited to meet someone who does.”

He hesitates, and your smile falters a bit. For a second you can see him panic, though you aren’t sure why. Then, he digs into his bag and pulls out a notebook and a pen, scribbling something down sloppily as he walks. When he finishes, he tears the page out and hands it to you. It takes you a second to realize what the numbers mean, but when you do, you grin.

“You have your friend code memorized?” You ask lightly.

Again, you see him panic a little, but he plays it off well enough, “I… handed it out a lot when the game first came out.”

You hum, folding the paper up and putting it in your bag, “I’ll write mine down and get it to you tomorrow.”

“Woaaaahhhhh,” Kuroo butts in loudly, “Sharing Animal Crossing friend codes already? That’s pretty big for first-time meetings.”

Kenma groans, “I could’ve shown her the classroom myself.”

“You would’ve just made her uncomfortable with all your moping,” Kuroo shoots back.

He rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t argue any further. Kuroo grows a smug, satisfied smirk, and practically struts the rest of the way to your new classroom. He reminds you a lot of a proud cat, and you fight off the mental image of him with ears and a tail.

Getting to the classroom was surprisingly easy, and you mentally scolded yourself for making two strangers have to guide you on such a stupid side quest like you were some kind of NPC. Two flights of stairs and three right turns took you right where you needed to be. The schedule with directions from earlier made a lot more sense now that you’ve walked it once.

“This is it!” Kuroo announces, “Not so bad, huh?”

“Yeah, sorry for making you walk me here. It’s pretty embarrassing I couldn’t figure it out myself.” You admit, rubbing the back of your head.

“It’s fine,” Kenma says, shocking both you and Kuroo, “I had a hard time getting around when I was a freshman. The schedule isn’t very helpful for navigation.”

“We were both on the way anyway,” Kuroo adds, “so meeting you was just a bonus!”

As he says that, the ten-minute bell rings above the three of you. Kuroo bids both of you farewell, making sure to give Kenma a hard time about taking care of you. It’s embarrassing to be treated like a helpless kid by a total stranger. You feel a bit guilty, so you try to apologize, but Kenma seemingly beats you to the punch.

“Sorry about him, he’s always like that,” he says, echoing Kuroo’s earlier sentiment about him.

“Oh! It’s fine, I kinda deserve it.” You dismiss with a laugh.

Kenma slides the door open, and you are both hit with a barrage of voices. Students giggle and catch up, excitedly sharing what their break was like, and what they expect the school year to be like. Kenma trudges through them with a glower, eyes glued to a desk in the corner of the room. A few people give him greetings, but he ignores them outright, which they seem to expect. You awkwardly follow behind him, trying to ignore the curious eyes of your new classmates trying to figure out who you are and why you’re in their classroom.

Kenma settles himself in his desk, and you stand by him, nervously playing with your fingers. He gives you a weird look – not quite judging you but staring curiously. Normally you would be hurt by the look, but something about it is so familiar that you feel comfortable enough to explain yourself.

“I don’t wanna take someone's desk and tear up a friend group and be known as the stupid new girl who took someone's seat on the first day like an idiot.” You say quickly.

He stares at you, head tilting, blinking like you were stupid, “Just… sit next to me.”

You blink dumbly, taking in what he said as slowly as possible, and then you plop yourself down in the desk next to him. Well, you were still embarrassed, but at least it wasn’t because you’d accidentally made yourself enemies. Avoiding Kenma’s very intense stare locked onto the side of your head, you pull out your notebook and pencil case, getting ready for the school day. You glance over your schedule one more time, humming as you take it in. Most of them were general classes like Math and English, but you also had Animal Science in the afternoon – which you had to switch classrooms for, but it would be fine you were sure.

“What’s your schedule look like?” Kenma asks suddenly close, making you jump out of your skin. You’d forgotten he was there for a second.

It takes you a moment to recover, but when you do you lean over and show him the paper, “Pretty normal stuff, but I have Animal Science fifth period in Class 1’s room.”

He hums, “We have most of our classes together except that one,” you silently praise the universe for that, “but someone I know from volleyball is in your Animal Science class.”

You’re a little disappointed that you won’t be taking it with Kenma, despite having only known him for a few minutes. But five out of six courses together wasn’t too bad. You process shortly after your disappointment that he mentioned a friend from volleyball, which strikes you as odd because he doesn’t look all that… sporty. Or social.

“Volleyball? Do you play?” you ask, trying hard not to give away your thoughts.

“Yeah. I’m not athletic at all, but Kuroo got me into it when we were in middle school and I’ve stuck with it.” He explains simply, and you feel bad for assuming things about him in the first place, “Do you like it?”

“I don’t play, but my best friends from home love it,” you reply, smiling fondly, “so I guess you could say I do.”

A little smile grows on his face, mirroring yours, and you think that he looks cuter when he's smiling, “You should come by and watch one of our practices then. If you have the free time after school.”

You nod excitedly, then remember what he said earlier about his teammate being in your class, “Your friend is in my Animal Science class?”

His face sours, and you bite back the laugh that bubbles up your throat, “I wouldn’t call him my friend – his name is Yamamoto. He’s loud and intense, and he’s probably only taking the class cause he thinks it’ll be easy fun.”

You frown a little, “It’s definitely not easy fun.”

“I know, I tried to tell him that, but he doesn’t listen to me,” he grumbles, “he’s got a stupid haircut, you’ll know him when you see him. Avoid him if you can help it.”

You laugh a little, “Thanks for the warning, Kozume.”

He blinks, and then frowns a bit, “You can just call me Kenma.”

“Wouldn’t that be rude? We just met,” you ask.

“I don’t care that much about formalities, so just call me Kenma.” He says simply.

There’s not much room for argument with him, so you nod conceding, “Okay, but you have to do the same for me.”

He also nods, a little smile lighting up his face again. He goes to say something else, but the door slides open, and your new homeroom teacher steps in and commands silence from everyone. You give him an apologetic smile, shrugging a little, before giving her your full attention.

.·:*˚¨¨ ≈★≈ ¨¨˚*:·.

Classes go by smoothly, thanks in part to Kenma catching you up on anything your old curriculum might’ve missed. Introducing yourself was as awful as it always is, but your classmates were very welcoming, so it wasn’t so bad. You eat lunch with Kenma, further discussing the many different games that you both like. You learn he and Kuroo really like Metal Gear, and when you say you’ve never played it he offers to lend you his copy (though, he seems reluctant to do so, despite him offering it in the first place). He even shows you to Class 1’s room, though he doesn’t stick around very long. “I don’t want to deal with him,” was his excuse.

You do immediately recognize this ‘Yamamoto’ person, as he’s the only person in the room with a fuzzy yellow mohawk. Like Kenma said, he was loud and intense, but you didn’t mind it too much. He reminded you a lot of Tanaka and Noya, and even though you were too shy to approach him, you were pretty confident you could handle him if he ever bothered you.

Kenma also picked you up from class, which you weren’t expecting at all. Again, he managed to come up with an excuse. “Kuroo wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if I let you wander alone.” You don’t mention how you could find your way back to the classroom two doors down, because the sentiment of him waiting on you is sweet, and you don’t want him to be annoyed with you. Your classmates stare at the two of you like you’re insane when you walk back in together, but you try your best to pay them no mind like Kenma does so easily.

When your last class is over, the two of you head down to the front gates to meet up with Kuroo. You hold a light conversation with him, talking about whatever topic seems to interest him. Mostly video games, which makes you feel incredibly behind with all the titles he throws at you, but he assures you he’s just more into them than most people are. Shortly after you arrive, Kuroo jogs over with a smirk on his face. You feel Kenma’s dread roll off him in waves at the sight, and you give him a reassuring smile.

“Kenma took good care of you?” he asks playfully.

“She’s not a child, Kuroo,” Kenma sighs.

“You’re right,” he nods, turning his smirk to you “Did you take good care of Kenma?”

You laugh lightly, shaking your head, “He was very helpful,” you turn to said Kenma, “Thank you, by the way. You didn’t have to do all that.”

He shrugs, “It wasn’t a big deal, don’t worry about it.”

Kuroo seems to consider something for a moment before he shrugs and any comments he might’ve said are lost to time. “Which way do you live shorty?”

It takes you a second to realize he’s talking to you with the nickname, despite no one else being around, “Oh! Uh, that way.” you point in the direction you remember your house being, giving them the street name.

“Hey, that's where we live,” he exclaims, “aren’t you lucky, bumping into your neighbors this morning.”

You are lucky, you think, but you don’t want to feed into any more of his teasing, so you just shrug. You take the lead this time, much more confident on the route home than you were on the route to class. Kuroo and Kenma quickly fall back into place beside you.

“I’ve been wondering who moved into the Shirashi’s old place,” Kuroo comments absently.

“Were you close with them?” you ask.

“Nah, they were an old couple with no kids,” he sighs, “they used to make all the neighborhood kids cookies and stuff, so I’m gonna miss that.”

“They smelled weird,” Kenma adds.

“Don’t be rude!” Kuroo scolds.

You laugh, “The house does have a weird smell. Dad and I had to buy a bunch of those plug-in air fresheners when we moved in, and it’s still kinda smelly.”

“See,” Kenma says smugly.

Kuroo rolls his eyes, “I don’t like this tag-teaming that's going on right now.”

“You just don’t like being wrong,” Kenma comments flatly.

“That’s it, I’m not giving you your game back!” Kuroo declares, and Kenma prickles at the words. They bicker back and forth again for a little while, you watch with amusement. They remind you of a mother cat and her kit. You snicker at the thought of Kuroo grooming Kenma like a kitten, catching their attention long enough that they stop arguing.

You walk in a nice quiet for a few blocks, Kuroo occasionally pointing out some places he thinks you might like – Kenma adding in his two cents when he felt like it. Kenma points out a specific arcade as you walk, and Kuroo highly suggests going there sometime. As you walk you get to thinking, and you recall your conversation with Kenma during classes. Kuroo was the one who got him into volleyball, and you were a bit curious about the volleyball club yourself. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), Tanaka and Noya were very successful in their pro-volleyball brainwashing.

“Are both of you on the Volleyball team?” you ask.

Kuroo nods, puffing his chest out and jutting his thumb at it proudly, “I’m the captain! Why, are you interested in getting involved with the girls?”

You shake your head, “Nah. Kenma mentioned it, and my friends at home are interested in it, so I was curious.”

“Well, we haven’t been very successful tournament-wise in a while,” Kenma comments.

“This year is gonna be different though, I can feel it!” Kuroo jumps in, determination shining in his eyes.

“You’ve said that every year,” Kenma sighs.

“Well, I mean it this time! Our team is shaping up to be amazing, I think we could even win nationals.” He says confidently.

Kenma rolls his eyes, but you smile, “Passion like that is a good thing.”

“See? Thank you shorty, this guy doesn’t get it like us.” Kuroo teases, pointing at Kenma accusingly.

There’s a pause, then he asks, “What about you, have you thought about clubs yet?”

You shake your head, “I wanted to do something with animals, but all the ones that are there seem kinda lame.”

Kuroo nods, “Yeah, that’s typical. Nekoma doesn’t have much variety, unfortunately.”

You hum, adjusting the strap of your bag as it moves with your shoulders. Then, suddenly, it hits you.

“Wait, why aren’t you at practice? I saw somewhere that all the teams had mandatory practice today.” You ask.

“Oh, coach let us have the first day of classes off,” Kuroo explains, “We did a training camp with the new first years over break, so he’s being generous today.”

“He’s only doing it so he can work us harder later,” Kenma grumbles.

Kuroo ignores him, thinking something over, then smiles at you, “Hey, we have practice tomorrow. Since it’s the first official one of the season, it shouldn’t be too bad. Why don’t you come to check us out.”

You stare at him like he’s grown a second head. You are a total stranger, and he’s… inviting you to watch his team practice? Sure, Kenma might’ve done the same thing earlier, but you think he was just being nice. Kuroo seems… sincere. It’s a bit odd, you wonder what his motive is.

“What’s your motive,” you say flatly.

“Motive? I don’t have a motive!” He defends, hands flying up into the air.

Kenma returns your flat look, probing for answers himself, “You absolutely have a motive.”

Kuroo glares at the two of you, hoping one of you will break. Unfortunately for him, you were raised stubborn, and Kenma had the best poker face in all of Japan. So, with a groan, he gives up.

“Alright, alright, you got me,” he admits, “We don’t have a manager, and despite all I’ve tried I can’t get anyone to say yes.”

“So you try and harass the new girl?” You tease, earning another groan.

“Don’t make me sound like some villain. I figured it was worth a try, but I won’t force you.”

You smile at him, shaking your head, “No, no. It’s fine. I kinda miss watching my friend's team play, and I almost managed their team too, so it wouldn’t be a big deal for me.”

Both Kenma and Kuroo perk up at that.

“So you’ll do it?” Kuroo asks excitedly.

You hum, thoughtfully, “I’ll think about it. I want to see the whole team first and meet the coach, then I’ll make my decision.”

Kuroo practically leaps in the air, pumping his fist energetically in celebration. His excitement is infectious, and you feel your stomach bubble with delight at his outburst. Kenma also looks pleased, less outwardly than Kurro, however. Something about this feels… natural like you were meant to be friends with these two your whole life. Neither of them had left any room for you to feel awkward or left out, despite having only met you today. It was… nice. Comforting.

Kenma taps you on your shoulder, pulling you from Kuroo’s display, “The team can be a handful, but… I think you’ll fit in great.”

A curious part of your brain wonders how he could be so sure of that, but you shove it back in favor of smiling warmly at him. “I hope so, I could use some more friends – and a hobby.”

Kenma laughs, a real laugh, and you realize you like the sound a lot more than you probably should. Before you can dwell on it too much longer, Kuroo interrupts the thoughts with some declaration of being left out. You think you could get used to this routine.

.·:*˚¨¨ ≈★≈ ¨¨˚*:·.

The walk back to your neighborhood is about fifteen minutes, and the two boys you’re walking with make it much more interesting than your walk to school this morning. Most of it is Kuroo talking about whatever he feels like, you and Kenma nodding along with whatever he says. Kenma does talk, though. Mostly to you, mostly teasing Kuroo. It’s nice, you think. You’re still talking as you approach your gate, and you’re a bit disappointed that you have to cut your time short.

As you go to close your gate behind you, Kuroo shouts at you to wait, so you do.

“Hey, since we all live on the same street, why don’t we walk together tomorrow.” He offers.

You give Kenma a little side eye, and he shrugs, so you copy the motion, “Why not? Better than walking alone.”

He smiles, then seemingly remembers something, and pulls his phone out of his pocket. You think for a moment that his parents might’ve been scolding him for something, but then he shoves it over your gate and into your hands. You stare at it stupidly for a second, then look back at him.

“Your number, so we can keep in contact.” He explains.

You nod with a little ‘ooohhhh’, and quickly punch your number in. When you hand his phone back, he holds his hand out. Brain connecting the dots faster this time, you pull your phone out and pull up your contact list before giving it to him. Kenma peers over his shoulder as he punches in his number, then glares up at him for a long second before he hands the phone back to you.

You scroll down the contact list, seeing both Kuroo and Kenma’s numbers on your phone. You smile a little, what an odd guy.

“Thanks, I’ll send you a message so you have my number too, Kenma.” You assure.

He nods, and then he and Kuroo are bidding you farewell. You watch them for another long moment, laughing to yourself as they bicker – no doubt about Kuroo putting Kenma’s number in your phone. You can’t help but feel a little grateful, though. You never would’ve had the confidence to ask yourself.

You sigh, turning around to enter your new house. As you open the door, Maki practically attacks you, pressing her fat little body against your legs with happy little chirps. You wonder how she’s able to move so agilely with so much extra weight on her little bones. You keep trying to put her on a diet, but when you try your dad would undo all your progress cause he feels bad for ‘starving the poor thing’. You bend down and scoop her up, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I missed you too fat girl,” you coo, closing the door behind you.

As you do that, your phone buzzes. Right on time as always, you think. You set Maki down, pull out your phone, and smile at the messages. Three from your dad, who was still at work – his new schedule had him working late almost every night, but he sent you messages at 3 o’clock on the dot without fail since you were little. It was sweet that he kept it up.

Dad: Hey sweetpea, I hope your first day was good!

Knowing you, it was. I’m sure you have a lot to tell me.

Dad: I’ll be home late like usual, but I’ll pick us up

something to eat before I get back. Maybe that

one sushi place we saw the other day?

Dad: You should pick a movie for us to watch

while we eat! Love you!

You smile. Your dad was the most amazing person in the world, and you’d bet on it too. Despite your differences, namely your disagreement with soulmates, he never let it affect your relationship. He treated you so well, and you couldn’t ask for a better father in a million lifetimes. You bet he was the best one you’ve ever had.

You: Thanks, Dad!

You: I was thinking about that new horror movie

that came out.

You: Seems really scary

Dad: Yes! I’ve been wanting to watch it! Is it on that one

streaming place?

You: Netflix? I think so.

You: If not, I’ll figure something out.

You: Good luck at work! Love you!

Dad: Love you too pumpkin!

You click off your phone, looks like you had a little side quest tonight. Shouldn’t be hard, so long as it’s actually on Netflix. You make your way to the living room, nearly tripping over Maki four times as she glues herself to your feet. When you manage to make it without killing yourself or your cat, you pull up Netflix on the nice new TV your old man bought you. Lucky you, the movie is on there, which saves you the trip to a video store.

As you set the remote down, your hand bumps into your DS, and you suddenly remember promising to get Kenma your friend code. Nerves light as you pull up your account, and you can’t place why. Kenma made you the opposite of nervous so far, but sharing your friend code felt too important. Probably because of Kuroo’s teasing earlier in the day. Something about Kenma just felt… familiar. Right. Like you’ve known him for a long time – or like you should’ve known him for a long time.

You have his number pulled up and a message typed out before you know it, but you can’t get yourself to send it. It’s just one text, you scold mentally, but your thumb doesn’t move to press send. This was so unlike you, to be so flustered over someone you hardly even knew. With one last demolishing comment toward yourself in your head, you manage to press send.

You: Hi Kenma! I told you I’d send you a text, so here it is!

You: I also wanted to give you my friend code now!

You: 2946-6782-9856

Kenma: Cool, I’ll check your village out later.

You stare at the message for way too long. If he were here in person, he would stare at you with those freakishly big eyes. Chills run up your spine at the thought.

You: Yay!

You: You can tell me what you think tomorrow.

His response doesn’t come through for a little while, and you worry you might’ve been too forward. (How in the world were you too forward? The logical side of your mind insists you’re being dramatic. The teenage girl part of you is about to beat your ass.) Then, your phone buzzes again, and you dive for it embarrassingly fast.

Kenma: Looking forward to it.

Your heart practically flips in your chest, and you re-read the text an embarrassing amount of times. In an attempt to remain semi-sane-looking, you wait a little longer to send your response. You don’t want to scare him off after the first day of knowing each other. Still, you respond a little too fast for your liking.

You: Me too! See you then!

After sending the message, you pretty much throw your phone across the room. You can’t send any more awkward messages if you don’t have your phone. A little rude? Yeah, but it’s for the best, you reason. You were not acting like yourself, therefore you had to ‘normal’ yourself before you could continue a conversation with him. Nothing about what just happened felt normal. Are you crushing on a guy you just met? ‘That's so unlike you.’ You could hear Noya say. You sounded like Takana! Oh God, you hoped he didn’t feel like Kiyoko. You didn’t think he was your soulmate, at the very least. You weren’t that crazy… yet. God, you were screwed, weren’t you?

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #x reader #kenma x reader #kozume kenma #kuroo tetsurou #bunni's treats 🧁

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ourtearsofrain · 5 months ago

Text

Slow It Down (D.R.W/S.F.K)- Chapter 15

Pairings: Danny Wagner x Sam Kiszka, (background) Josh Kiszka x Male O.C.

Genre: fluff, smut ish? (they get spicy but don’t go far)

Word Count: 2.5k

Warnings: Sam’s anxious at first but that’s like it, ^ like I said things get spicy but don’t go too far

A/N: I hate to say it, but this is the last official full chapter, although there will be an Epilogue set in the future

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4:43 PM

“Hey.” Josh flashes the pair a nervous smile as they enter the kitchen where he and Austin had set in on unpacking the few groceries they had gotten to pass the time, trying to test the waters to see how their talk had gone. “Everything good?”

“Yeah.” Sam freezes, his mind racing out of nowhere. What if Josh doesn’t want me to live here? What if I don’t have somewhere to stay after all that? I can’t afford a place on my own, and I couldn’t make Danny leave Josh.

Josh’s focus moves to Danny, hoping he would elaborate. “Yeah, it did.” Danny looks to Sam, nudging him forward gently in encouragement. “Sammy has something to tell you.”

“Yeah, uh.” Swallowing hard, Sam’s eyes dart between Josh and Austin, looking to Danny behind him one last time before finding his courage. “I’ve decided I want to move here. I’m gonna finish the semester at Saginaw State, then transfer to NYU for the Spring term. I’m gonna start looking for jobs here like right now so I’ll try to visit as often as I can for interviews. And I- I was wondering if you would be ok with me moving in with you guys. Danny’s already agreed to sharing a room, I just wanted your opinion too, Josh. So, uh… yeah. That’s it basically.”

A beat of silence passes between the group before Josh whoops, startling everyone else as he practically throws himself at Sam, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and jumping up and down in excitement. “YES! IS THAT EVEN A QUESTION?! OF FUCKING COURSE YOU CAN MOVE IN WITH US, SAMMY!” He releases him, taking a step back to grin at him. “Austin and I were actually going to ask Danny if he would mind if he officially moved in, so now this’ll take our share of the rent down by half!”

“Woooow, so the only reason you’re fine with me moving in is to take the rent down, huh?”

“You know it, why else would I want to live with you? Did that for 15 years, never again unless I’m getting something out of it.”

“Fuck off.” Despite his words, Sam beams at Josh, his worries gone at the excitement his older brother had shown.

Josh’s eyebrows shoot up, as if he had just come up with a genius idea. “We should celebrate!”

Austin glances at his watch momentarily, speaking before his boyfriend could start rattling off ideas that would more than likely involve alcohol or weed as it was so early in the night. “Well, it’s almost five, darlin’. Anyone hungry?”

“Fucking starving. I’ve had nothing but plane peanuts since like ten AM.” As if on cue, Sam’s stomach grumbles, loud enough for everyone to hear as his face twists with hunger. “See?”

“Yeah, you’re all skin and bones, Sammy.” Josh swats his stomach as he passes him, too quick for Sam to retaliate as he darts towards the door. “We should go to Baazi, I’ve been craving Indian all day.”

Met with no complaints, the four men get ready to leave once again, slipping on their shoes and grabbing their phones, wallets, and keys before setting out with Josh in the lead. Out of earshot of the other pair, Austin leans towards Josh as they descend the stairs of their apartment, dropping his voice low just in case. “Not that I got any complaints, but you know Baazi is a bit pricey, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t care.” When Austin gives Josh a knowing look, he waves his hand in the air between them, slipping his hand into Austin’s as his arm drops. “It’s my treat tonight, and don’t try talking me out of it. Sammy’s moving here, we’re celebrating.”

“Fine.” Austin lets out a sharp sigh, slightly annoyed with his stubbornness but in admiration of Josh nonetheless. “You know, it’s sweet. You treatin’ us to dinner tonight, your reaction to Samuel movin’ here.”

Josh shrugs as if the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, his actions coming naturally to him. “He’s my little brother. He’s finally taking control of his life, he’s finally gonna be happy. Sammy rarely makes this monumental of a step, this is really big for him. I love him and I’m proud of him; and I know how terrified he must be, so I’m gonna do all I can to make him feel welcome.”

“You’re easily the most beautiful person I reckon I’ve ever met, Joshua Kiszka.”

Josh missteps at his words, luckily having just stepped onto the ground floor, and he regains his balance before glancing over at him with a sheepish smile. “I don’t know about that, baby. I mean have you met yourself?”

Austin only grins down at him as he holds the door open, pausing to wait for the other pair. “Shut it and take the compliment.”

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7:28 PM

“That place was fantastic, best I’ve had in a while since Frankenmuth doesn’t have many good Indian places. Thanks for picking the bill up, Josh.”

“No problem, Sammy. Like I said, we’re celebrating. Speaking of,” Josh grins wide, the other three men immediately knowing what he was about to suggest. “We should continue this celebration back home, if you know what I mean.” He brings his pinched thumb and index fingers to his lips, winking theatrically as if his words and actions weren’t an immediate hint to what he was implying.

When Danny and Sam voice their agreements, Josh turns to his boyfriend, gently elbowing him in the ribs. “Yeah, yeah alright.” Austin laughs. “I won’t be smokin’ too much tonight though, gotta wake up early for work tomorrow mornin’ and I can’t exactly show up to the shop high… again.”

“Wait, again??” Sam exclaims, eager to know more. “Where do you work?”

“…local auto repair shop. Don’t remember any of that shift. Last time I try Josh’s ‘special brownies’ the night before I work, I’ll tell ya. Probably don’t help that I got a low tolerance since I haven’t been smokin’ for long.”

“Oh my god, I knew Josh was a bad influence!”

“Am not!”

“Yuh huh.”

“Shut the fuck up, Sam.”

“You’re just mad I’m right.” Sam looks over his head at Austin, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Did you know Danny and I were 15 when he let us smoke with him and Jake?”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” Josh punctuates each word with a smack to Sam’s arm, resulting in Austin gently steering him to his other side to put some space between the brothers. “In my defense, there’s literally nothing to do in the fucking Midwest, especially Frankenmuth.”

“Aw don’t worry darlin’, I won’t hold it against you.”

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9:17 PM

“Bedtime.” Josh mumbles out as the end credits to Cars 3, Austin’s movie choice, plays on the TV across the room, his eyes barely cracked open from his high.

Sam immediately sets in on teasing him, having smoked less than his brother. “Awww, is Joshy tireddddd?”

“Shut the fuck up, I went through most of a J on my own. I’m higher than bat pussy right now.”

His choice of words sets the other three men off, snorting before dissolving into laughter before Austin finds his words first. “What?! Where the hell did that expression come from, darlin’?”

“Dunno, some random bar here. Anyways, I’m tired, sleepy time now.”

“Alright, c’mon.” Austin stands, wobbling on his sore legs before reaching down to pull Josh up. “It was great gettin’ to know you, Samuel. Heard so much about you but I’m glad I finally got to meet you, and I’m glad you’re movin’ in with us soon. Imma get him to bed, goodnight y’all.”

“Goodnight Austin, see you tomorrow.”

“Night, it was great to meet you too.” The pair watch the other two stumble from the room with Josh leaning heavily on Austin, Josh’s bedroom door quietly clicking behind them a few seconds after they disappear from their sight. Sam’s head falls on Danny’s shoulder, relaxing into him easily.

“You tired too?”

“Not really, I probably should be after all the traveling today and… emotional exhaustion, but I’m not.”

“Understandable.” Danny makes a move to stand, much to Sam’s dismay until he reaches down, offering his hand to him. “Let’s go, we don’t have to sleep, but my bed is more comfortable than this couch.”

“Oh, so you’re trying to get me into your bed now?” Sam questions with a mischievous grin, allowing the other man to pull him up nonetheless.

“Shut up, I’m not trying to pull any moves on you, I just want to get my ass off these threadbare cushions.”

“Likely story.”

Danny shakes his head as he opens his bedroom door, rolling his eyes as Sam passes him. “Keep it up and you’re sleeping on the couch, Kiszka.”

“You wouldn’t.” Sam puts on a wounded expression, flashing puppy dog eyes at Danny as he closes the door behind himself.

Danny melts at his act, making his way back to Sam and placing a gentle kiss to his lips. “I wouldn’t. Anyway, do you need anything to change into? I probably have some sweats if you don’t want to sleep in your jeans.”

“Na, it’s alright, I brought something.” Sam leaves him, crossing the room to where he had thrown his small suitcase and crouching to unzip it. “Usually, I sleep naked, but I won’t subject you to that tonight.”

“Who says I don’t want to be subjected to that?” Danny jokes, his tone lighthearted but his heart hammering in his chest as he swapped his sweater for a faded tie-dye shirt.

“Someone’s eager.” Sam cocks an eyebrow at him as he stands again, a pair of short, red and blue shorts in his hand.

Taking his comment as a sign of discomfort, Danny rushes to clarify. “I was just kidding, we don’t- we don’t have to do anything tonight.”

“I know, Danny, I’m just fucking with you.” Sam grins wide before unbuttoning his pants, barely giving Danny the time to avert his gaze out of respect as he pulls the tight jeans down his legs. He laughs when he sees Danny’s cheeks go red, his eyes darting around the room to focus on anything but him. “You’ve seen me change before, Danny. I don’t care if you’re looking.”

“I know… It’s just, it’s different now.” He looks back up at Sam, his voice timid as he began to fidget with his hands.

Sam makes his way over to him quickly, bringing his hands to his mouth before kissing his skin lightly. “I know. Thank you for respecting any of my boundaries, but again, you can look when I change. Especially if I’m just putting a different pair of pants on.”

“Alright.” Danny offers him a small smile before Sam turns away, making his way over to the bed as Danny strips his own jeans off. Noting the two pillows on his bed despite living alone, Sam hesitates by the side of it as Danny joins him. “You got a preference for which side you sleep on?”

“Nope, I end up sprawled in the middle when I sleep alone. You?”

“Can I have the right side?”

Danny smiles at him before making his way to the left side of the bed, pulling the comforter back before crawling under the covers. “Of course.”

“Thanks, Danny.” Sam follows suit almost immediately, clicking the lamp beside him off and settling into the bed. He hesitates for a moment as he feels Danny’s arm brush his, unknowing whether or not if the other man was a cuddler outside of unconscious camping habits.

As if he were reading his mind, Danny snakes his arm under Sam’s back, pulling him into his chest. “This ok?”

Sam breathes a sigh of relief into the fabric of his shirt, relaxing against him. “More than ok.”

Danny’s arms tense around him, as if he was holding something back. “Can I kiss you, Sammy?”

Instead of answering with his words, Sam tilts his head up, blindly searching for his lips in the dark until they finally connect. Danny’s hand moves up to cup Sam’s jaw as his other splays across his lower back, pulling him into his body. What starts out as a slow and tender kiss quickly heats up as Sam’s lips part, giving Danny the opportunity to test the waters by licking across his lower lip, reveling in the quiet hitch of Sam’s breath. As their breaths become more erratic, Danny moves his hand to Sam’s hip, grinding his body into the quickly forming tent in his boxers.

“Wait.” At the word, Danny freezes immediately, pushing Sam’s hip away from himself slightly to put some space between them, afraid he crossed a line. “Can we take it slow, please? Believe me, I want to but, maybe not tonight.”

“Of course, we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” As Danny settles back against his pillow, Sam props himself up on his arm, bending slightly to reconnect their lips briefly.

“Thank you. Like I said, I want to eventually, I guess I’m just kind of in my head right now.”

“You’re alright, we can slow it down.” Danny hesitates again as Sam relaxes into his own pillow, the space between their bodies increasing as he untangles his legs from Danny’s. “Can I- can I hold you?”

“Yes, you can.” Sam’s heart soars as Danny wraps his arms around him again, pulling his back flush against his chest as he nuzzles his face into his hair, placing a gentle kiss to the back of his head. “Remember when we raced to the lake while camping?”

“Yeah, I remember you cheating very vividly.” Danny prods his finger into the soft skin of Sam’s side, grinning to himself as Sam squeals and tries to twist out of his grasp.

“I did not cheat, never have and never will, thank you very much. But I ask because I believe I still haven’t gotten my prize yet.”

“Oh, really? And what do you think your ‘prize’ is, huh?”

Sam turns, his front pressing into Danny’s as he looks up at him in the dark. “This. Us. This is all I want, all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Really?” Despite his best efforts, tears quickly come to Danny’s eyes at Sam’s words, barely succeeding in keeping them from spilling down his cheeks.

“Yeah.”

“I love you, Sammy.”

Sam grins in the dark, his exhaustion beginning to catch up to him now that he was in the arms of a man he could now proudly call his. “I love you too, Danny.”

Within minutes, only the soft sounds of their quiet snores can be heard, both men drifting easily into sleep with the other securely pressed against their bodies.

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taglist: @gretnavannfleet @aioba1503-sdm @jake-whatthefisgoingon-kiszka @milojames16 @sanguinebats @theres-a-tvjoe @jakekiszkapunchmeintheface @currentlyfangirling10

#greta van fleet #greta van fleet fan fiction #gvf fic #daniel gvf #sam gvf #sanny gvf #greta van angst #greta van fluff #sam kiszka x danny wagner #sam kiszka #danny wagner

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ryanwritesfanfiction · 4 months ago

Text

Covet

Doug Davis X Reader

a/n: this is just doug davis yearning; not rlly a great ending :/

ps: im very sorry i havent written much lately, my work schedule has been hectic and I'm starting school soon so I've been a lil frazzled

wc: 1184

It was a Friday night when Doug laid eyes on you for the first time. He was so unfamiliar with the feeling that he had almost thought that he had come down with some kind of ailment.

“Hey, who are we starin’ at” said a voice from across the round table he was sitting at and Doug was brought back to reality, back to the dimly lit bar beside his coworkers. The spring semester had just ended and his fellow educators had decided to go out for drinks to celebrate. Doug wasn’t a drinker so he sipped a diet Coke and tried his hardest to contribute to the conversations. He suddenly felt the gaze of the others and the the conversation stopped.

Doug silently cursed Wade for bringing him suddenly as the center of attention. Doug suddenly found himself desperate to change the subject so he attempted to shift the attention to a different topic.

“Speaking of staring, did you know that 80 percent of the human eye is filled with a jelly-like substance?” The silence persisted and it began to feel more and more awkward every second but it was broken once again this time by a much friendlier voice.

“Who is that Doug, do you know them?” Lucy said curiously. Doug felt heat rise to his face and was suddenly very grateful for the low lights in the bar. “No, why would you say that?” he responded in an almost scared voice, which filled the group with suspicion.

“Well, you have been staring at them since they walked in” chimed in Tracy leaving Doug at a loss for words. Thankfully Lucy changed the subject, detecting the nervousness that Doug developed the more that he was pressed on the matter. For the rest of the night, Doug tried his best to make his staring less noticeable, though deep down he knew that he was doing a terrible job.

As the night continued, more of his coworkers started leaving the bar. They wished each other a good summer but they had paid their tabs and left the bar his friend Lucy tried to encourage him to talk to you to no avail.

Although Doug didn’t drink and hated crowded areas, he found himself going back to the bar every Friday night, at the same table just to get to see you. Every Friday he saw you do the same routine, you would sit at a booth next to a window, and have one, sometimes two, of the same drink and then leave.

He didn’t know what compelled him to engage in this weekly tradition. He never attempted to speak to you, he just watched from a distance. Doug studied you, he found you fascinating, captivating even. He wondered about you all the time. What was your favorite color? What were your interests? He wanted to know everything about you.

Anytime Doug had a subject that he found himself engrossed in, he would try his best to learn everything about that subject and become an expert in it. This feeling had manifested in many other topics, but he had never felt this interest in a person like this. He had spent a fair amount of the school year trying to master the art of conversation but he didn't feel he was fully proficient in the manner yet, so he kept his distance. He was too afraid he would creep you out or that you wouldn’t like him. The longer he kept up this weekly pattern, the more he felt like he wouldn’t have a chance with you. He saw that others would approach you every week and you rejected each of them. There was seemingly no pattern in the rejection, no matter what race, gender, or way of approach, you were simply uninterested in everyone who set their eyes on you.

Weeks passed and so did the summer, and Doug still could not talk to you. On the Friday before school started Doug had once again followed his weekend ritual and went to the bar in hopes of spotting you in your usual spot. All summer you had been so consistent with your schedule week after week and so Doug sat at the same table as always where he could best see you from however this night was different since he had been there for two hours and had still not spotted you. The night continued as a sinking feeling began to crawl its way from the pit of Doug’s stomach until it grew and reached his heart, causing a stinging pain in it. He kept hoping that you would still come until the last call and you weren’t there.

During his walk home, Doug became filled with the most awful feeling of regret. His mind never drifted off of the topic of you. He thought about all the subtle details that made you who you are. The subtle smile that you would have when you got your drink at the bar. The way you glowed when someone made you laugh. Like so many nights, Doug spent much of it thinking of you tonight, but this time it was different not only because you didn’t come to the bar, but because Doug finally realized that whatever chance, if there even was one, that he could have had to approach you, he had wasted. He used so much timing running scenarios through his head trying to figure out the perfect thing to say to you. He wanted so badly for you to notice him, and there was even a part of him that hoped that you might approach him but he knew deep down that would never happen. Realistically, no one as breathtaking as you could ever love someone as weird and awkward as him, but it's not like he would ever get to find out now.

The school year had started and Doug’s colleagues began to notice something was wrong. They sort of carried the sentiment that he was “acting weird but not his usual weird” They often found him staring off into the distance rather than his usual attempts to engage in conversation. Instead of chirping in with interesting science facts, Doug had become much more quiet and reserved.

He had spent so much time thinking about what his life would be like with you that after he had realized that his chance was gone, he grew to resent his current life, as he didn't believe it would ever be worth living if he could not have you in it. He cursed himself for not being brave enough, strong enough, or attractive enough to have you. He knew that it was for the best that he didn't take that risk and pursued you at the bar. Doug had long held hoped that you would come back to the bar but deep down he knew you were likely far gone, as anyone would hope to be in a town like Fort Chicken and for you, he was willing to let go, but he knew that he would regret it for the rest of his life

#leigh whannell #doug davis #cooties 2014 #doug davis x reader #Spotify

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dutchvanwinkle · 1 year ago

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Mr Van der Linde Pt. 8 - Dutch x Reader

Yes, we have skipped a term but there are two parts for the next one so <3

It's on ao3 if you'd prefer!

Summary: It's a particularly stressful time, and Dutch tries his hardest to ease the pressure weighing down your shoulders.

Word count: 6,360

Content warnings: smut, somnophilia

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You were right. Following the wedding of his older brother, John had asked Abigail to make things official.

On the night of the wedding, you’d stayed in Dutch’s room and returned to your own to find that none of its other inhabitants had stayed there that night either, making the situation much easier since you didn’t have to make any excuses and could easily lie about sleeping in your assigned room.

Karen had slumped in early the next morning, announcing that she and Sean were back together as an afterthought while she made a hot drink. You’d laughed, unsurprised.

But when Abigail came in, her eyes bright and with a spring in her step, the two of you already knew what’d happened.

Everyone was overjoyed. You’d all been waiting for this moment for a long time, none more hopeful than Abigail about the prospect, and had even gone out to celebrate once you were back at university. John seemed calmer somehow, more focused on university work and with an air of sensibility about him - at least compared to how he was previously.

However, the sweetness of the announcement only lasted so long, before another piece of news made itself known; one shrouded in much more uncertainty and stress.

Abigail was pregnant.

She’d knocked on your door while you and Karen were in there chatting while the boys were at football, and entered with tears down her face and broke the news a month before the Christmas break. She hadn’t told John, and it took a full week before she plucked up the courage to do so.

These things happened. It wasn’t unheard of for contraception to not do its job, but then Abigail came to you a couple of days after she'd informed John and told you something you hadn’t expected.

She was keeping the baby.

You’d assumed she wasn’t going to keep it. You’d all assumed that. Even John, who’d been relatively calm when Abigail told him about her positive test, had brushed you off with the reasoning ‘it’s not like she’s going to keep it’.

It was a whole new situation when she told him she wanted to have the baby.

John was eerily quiet, like a ghost haunting the walls of your shared house. He barely left his room, until one evening when the boys convinced him to go the pub and he’d apparently broken down in tears while out. You’d gone to see him the next day, and the two of you hugged it out, and you could see plain as day the fear that’d overtaken his face.

It’d taken time, but everyone had settled into the new normal. Abigail was pregnant. Abigail would continue to be pregnant, all being well, for the next nine months.

She displayed the most immeasurable sense of bravery and level-headedness about it all. In her eyes, the timing was good; she could finish third year, her exams, and even graduate before the baby arrived. Even in the early few weeks of her pregnancy, she’d asked for your and Karen’s advice on baby names.

The news had stayed decidedly within your house. Some of Abigail’s coursemates knew, apparently, but she hadn’t told her family. She was confident that when she told them over Christmas, it would all work itself out.

John was less optimistic.

So much so, that he didn’t want to tell anyone about the baby. In fact, when you all returned for second semester, the news came out that his family still didn’t know a thing.

Abigail had been furious, on the grounds that they said they’d do this together, face it together. John promised that he would, he was just stressed with the winter exams, and he promised he’d tell his family over Easter.

The week before the break he’d come to your room and pleaded for you to come with him, too scared to face it alone.

As if it wasn’t hard enough for you to continuously lie to Dutch, though you’d do it for as long as you had to, he now wanted you to be there when his father found out that not only was John going to be a father, but that you’d known about it and hid it from him. But, considering how much you’d lied to John over the past two years, your guilty conscience disallowed you to say no.

That led to the present, Dutch obviously thrilled to have you around under the guise of a study group. The poor man was so distracted by you, he hadn’t seen anything else coming.

You hadn’t actually been there when John told him. You were upstairs in your usual spare room, waiting on standby for the eruption. Tilly was away on holiday with her friend Mary-Beth, so when you heard a door slam and checked out the window to see John stalking down the front path to his car then drive away, that left only you and Dutch in the house. You cleared your throat from the top of the stairs, Dutch turning around with a dangerous glint in his eye.

“You knew?” he asked, far too calm for your liking, and it sounded more like an accusation than a question.

“I did,” you sighed, taking hesitant steps down the stairs. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you; it wasn’t my business.”

Dutch’s jaw ticked, but against his better judgement, he paused for thought. “How long have you known?”

“I found out before John did,” you reached the bottom step and took a seat on it. “Mid-November.”

“I see.”

“How do you feel?”

Dutch shook his head and folded his arms. “He’s going to throw his life away.”

“That’s not necessarily the case.”

“No? Trading in travelling, finding his career, meeting new people all so he can have a baby?”

“Dutch,” you said diplomatically, “it’s not like he planned it.”

“No, but -” Dutch sighed away his anger and took a seat beside you on the step. Briefly, you were amused as the thought occurred to you that John had just left you to deal with his dad. This may be the only time where your relationship with Dutch benefitted John. “But it’s John. He – he isn’t ready for this.”

“You’re right. He’s not. But Abigail is keeping that baby, so he’s going to have to get ready.”

Dutch bristled, the news itching at his skin.

“It’ll be a lot easier for him to get ready if he has your support.”

“I -” Dutch scoffed and pressed his tongue into his cheek, “I know. But -”

“No buts,” you rested your hand on his forearm, “you can’t change it. He’s scared, Dutch. He needs you.”

With a sigh, he placed his hand over yours and nodded solemnly.

“There’s also – god, I can’t believe I’m saying this, I know how selfish it sounds – but if the news about us ever comes out... he might just be that extra bit understanding.”

Dutch’s eyebrows rose at the new angle on the situation. “You might be right. It could help.”

“Probably only a little, but we can use all the help we can get.”

“Shit,” he huffed, running a hand through his hair to push it from his face. “I hate that you’re right.”

“That’s a regular occurrence you’ll have to get used to,” you said and planted a sweet kiss on his cheek.

Dutch smiled forlornly. “Believe me, I know. I should probably call John.”

“Maybe wait, let him cool off a little. Send him a text if anything, but the two of you will likely benefit from a bit of processing time. Do you know where he went?”

“To Arthur’s, I think. Most likely to tell him what a terrible father I am.”

“Dutch. Stop it.”

Dutch stared between his feet for a moment, the tension easing out of his face. “I suppose I should be thankful. John’s lucky to have such a loyal friend.”

“Loyal?” you scoffed, “I’d hardly call sleeping with his dad loyal.”

“True,” he chuckled and stood. “Come, let’s watch some TV together, make the most of this empty house.”

“I can’t,” you shook your head, standing anyway. “I’ve got to study.”

“Could you be persuaded to have a coffee with me? Just one?”

Saying no to his pleading eyes was a tough task, so you didn’t. “Fine. Just one, though.”

Once settled beside Dutch with your warm drink of choice, he turned on the TV and lowered the volume to keep it as background noise. “How is your revision going?”

“Fine,” you grumbled. “I can’t seem to keep everything in my head, though.”

“I am sure,” he chuckled warmly, kissing your forehead, “you could take those exams tomorrow and ace every single one.”

“No way. I’d be screwed.”

“I disagree. Try not to be so hard on yourself, alright?”

“I’m making no promises,” you mumbled and nestled into his side, taking slower-than-usual sips of your drink to extend your time away from studying and within the comfort of Dutch’s embrace.

It’d been a couple of hours until John returned, and he came straight up to the spare room to see you.

“Hey,” he said sheepishly upon entering.

“Oh, hey,” you shifted your laptop out of the way to give him your full attention, “you alright?”

“Yeah,” he sat on the bed. “Sorry for leaving you with my dad, I was too mad to even think.”

“That’s alright,” you did a good job of hiding how okay with that outcome you were, “he said you went to Arthur’s?”

“You spoke to him?”

“Uh, yeah. I heard you leave and bumped into him, figured I’d give a shot at talking to him.”

John puzzled through that for a moment, then cleared his throat. “And how did that go?”

“Not too bad, actually.”

“Huh. Well... thanks. I knew bringing you would be a good idea.”

After sharing a rueful laugh, the conversation paused with John still looking visibly distressed. “Did you tell Arthur the news?”

“I did.”

“How did he take it?”

“Not so bad,” John scratched at his patchy stubble, “he’s excited for me. Already going on about him and Charles being uncles.”

The thought warmed your heart. “Did that make you feel better?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, his answer concluding there at the sound of approaching footsteps towards the door, followed by Dutch standing at the entrance, his hands in his pockets.

“Son, can I have a word?” he said, sounding much calmer than before.

John huffed and stood, reluctantly walking towards him. “Fine.”

Dutch offered you a nod as he closed your door, and the two made their way downstairs to talk; you carrying on with your studying and hoping Dutch would remain reasonable.

Considering how tense you already were thanks to the impending exams; it was no surprise that you remained on edge for the forty-five minutes that followed. You’d done a good job of hiding it from your friends and Dutch, but truth be told they were taking a real toll on you.

Everyone repeatedly told you how great it was that you’d been consistently diligent with your attitude towards learning throughout your degree, and that these exams would surely be a breeze considering your track record. In your mind, though, it only heightened the pressure to perform. What if after all this hard work, you flunked out? It’s not a common occurrence, but certainly not unheard of, you taking the time to torture yourself by reading through horror stories on student forums about people who’d done just that.

As you began to feel yourself getting worked up to a concerning level, John interrupted with a knock at your door, and you called for him to come in.

“It’s not like you to knock.”

John laughed, considerably more at peace than before. “Yeah, guess I’m becoming a changed man. Dad’s made lasagne, are you coming down for some?”

“A peace offering?” you asked, overjoyed at the excuse to stop working and becoming acutely aware of the growing hunger in your stomach that you’d somehow tuned out.

“You could call it that,” he smiled, and placed an appreciative hand to your shoulder. “Whatever you said must’ve worked. He’s never come around that quickly for as long as I’ve known him, so thank you.”

It was meant to make you feel good, but it only made you feel guilty for the real reason why you were able to get through to Dutch so well. You promptly shook the feeling away. “Don’t mention it. Glad I could help.”

The smell of Dutch’s delightful cooking entered your nose as you entered, and you eagerly took a seat at the table, you and John facing each other with a seat reserved for Dutch in his usual spot at the head of the table.

“Can I get you a drink, miss?” he offered, smirking at you while John was turned the other way. “We’re opening some wine.”

Not allowing yourself to rise to his teasing, you kept your expression neutral, though Dutch probably noticed some minor change in your face. “I am not getting drunk.”

“I know you’re a lightweight,” John began, “but you won’t get drunk from one glass. C’mon,” he used his puppy eyes on you, and you tutted.

“Fine. A small one,” you said to Dutch with a warning, then remembered your company. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he said, grabbing a third glass and placing it on the table before returning to the lasagne he’d left cooling on the countertop.

It was soon in front of you on a small, raised stand, and John poured you a glass of red wine.

Dutch cleared his throat and took a steadying breath, holding up his glass. “To our incoming new addition.”

John smiled gladly, clinking his glass and you did the same.

You didn’t dare cast your eyes to Dutch, for the fear of getting lost in the memory of what happened the last time the two of you made a toast. You made sure to take a sip of the drink before setting it down, though.

Despite your prior agitation, you began to settle thanks to the amicable chatter between John and Dutch. The latter had surprised you; you knew he wouldn’t take it well, but he’d hardly been irritated at you for not telling him and had been swift in owning up to his mistakes. The two men were much more at ease, all things considered.

Towards the end of the meal, Dutch’s eyes furrowed as he chewed a mouthful of food. “Isn’t she far in enough to know the sex of the baby?”

John nodded, taking a sip of wine. “Said she didn’t want to know. Like we haven’t had enough surprises as it is.”

“Did you want to find out?” you asked, and he shrugged.

“I’m not too bothered. Perhaps it’s better this way.”

“Plus it’s what Abigail wants,” you added.

“That too,” John said quietly.

“Have you talked much about how you’re going to take care of the baby?” Dutch dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, “might be time to start looking for a place for the two – three of you to live.”

John looked at Dutch sheepishly, and he raised his brows in response. “I -,” John sighed, looking down at his lap. “I think we’ll need help. At the start, at least.”

He stole another glance at Dutch, who appeared deep in thought as he observed his son. “If the two of you want to stay here, you’re welcome to do so.”

Your breath released, after being held for the past few exchanges of sentences.

“It’s just,” John began, “there’s no room at Abigail’s. They don’t have enough space -”

“It’s fine, Johnathon.”

“Least I can come round and see the baby more regularly,” you grinned, attempting to ease the underlying tension.

“You’re on babysitting duty,” John teased around a mouthful of pasta, his shoulders appearing lighter after receiving Dutch’s permission to stay.

“Fine by me,” you said gladly, setting your cutlery down on your empty plate. “That was delicious. Thanks, Mr Van der Linde.”

“You’re very welcome, miss.”

You stood, picking up your plate and glass. “I’ll excuse myself if you don’t mind. I’ve got some stuff to do before I go to bed.”

“You can use the study if you have work to do,” Dutch offered.

“You never let me use the study.”

“John, if you’re going to do work in there, you’re more than welcome.”

John grumbled, unable to retort against Dutch’s truth and instead turning his attention back to you. “It’s late, you’re really studying at this time?”

“Just for a couple of hours,” you shrugged, walking to the sink to wash your pots.

That couple of hours turned into many more. It was four AM by the time you finally closed your laptop, and sleep did not come easy after so much time staring at your screen with your brain on overdrive and clouded by stress.

It hadn’t stopped you from waking up early, either. You’d grabbed a croissant and a hot drink from the kitchen and returned to your room before anyone else had awoken, it seemed. After finishing both, you opened your laptop and began the study slog once again.

John came to visit you in the early afternoon, a plate of food in hand. “Made myself a sandwich,” he announced.

“Congrats,” you remarked, looking up from your flashcards.

“Made you one too,” he said in an irritating singsong voice and placed it down on the bedside table, then sat at the end of your bed. “Though you really should have a break.”

“That’s easy to say when you’re always having a break.”

“Ain’t you funny. Speaking of, I’m to go to the pub with Javier.”

“John!”

“We’re gonna study!”

“Like hell you are.”

John raised a shoulder cheekily and stood. “Will you be okay here?”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”

He knew better than to invite you along, god forbid you motivated the pair of them to get any work done. After John left, your legs began to ache and so you decided to walk up and down the room while testing yourself on your flashcards.

Fifteen minutes passed, and there was a knock on your ajar door that proceeded to be gently pushed open.

“You know I can hear you pacing?”

You stopped in your tracks, glancing over your shoulder to Dutch. “I’m stretching my legs,” you said matter-of-factly.

“Right,” he responded, unconvinced. “Why don’t you go on a walk, give the studying a rest for a short while?”

“No no, it’s fine. Honest.”

He hummed, looking as though he was about to leave when a thought came to his mind. “You quit that job of yours, right? Like we talked about?”

You blinked your eyes away from him guiltily. The two of you had spoken on the phone at the start of final year, and while you knew Dutch wasn’t pleased with how much of your time was spent working, he made a rather convincing case as to why you should quit, mainly focused on how it could affect your exams and stress during final year. To placate him, you agreed to think about it, and said you might just do that. In your defence, you had said might.

“You’re kidding.”

“I need the money, Dutch. I’m taking on fewer shifts if that makes you feel any better,” you held your hands up placatingly.

“It does not. You can’t seriously be carrying that extra weight on into your final exams?”

“I told you; I'm doing fewer shifts,” you repeated, fiddling with the flashcards in your hands.

“I don’t see why you won’t just let me –“

“I’m not discussing this again.”

Dutch angled his head at you, growing tired of your stubbornness. “But you could focus on your exams.”

“No, Dutch! I’ve told you more than once that I’m not accepting handouts.”

“It’s not a handout. Stop being so proud.”

“Judge me all you like,” you pointed a finger at him, “You don’t get it.”

Dutch stepped past the threshold and into your room, irritation growing on his face. “I didn’t come from money. I understand more than most, but damn it you need to accept help.”

“I don’t need to accept anything.”

He tipped his head up to his ceiling and sighed.

“What I do need,” you paused as he met your gaze once more, “is for you to stop badgering me. I’ll deal with my finances and education however I see fit.”

“You are infuriatingly independent.”

You shrugged, not seeing that as a fault.

Dutch took a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing. “I just want to help. I see you working yourself to exhaustion and knowing I can help just...”

“I understand,” you interrupted, and it was the truth. “I do. But it's temporary and it means a lot to me to make my own way through. I don’t want to be reliant on anyone.”

“You aren’t going to budge on this, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Will you at least do one thing for me?” he asked, and the concerned look he gave you already made you want to say yes. “Get out of this room. There’s a perfectly good kitchen table you can use, you have my assurance that I will not bother you. But you need a change of scenery.”

It wasn’t a big ask. Plus, he was right, no good could come from staying cooped up in one room all day.

“Alright,” you agreed, and watched some of the worry leave his face.

It’d been a bizarre week for Dutch.

The last-minute news that you were coming to stay had thoroughly thrilled him, even if your time was limited given your need to study. He’d hoped that your commitment would rub off on his son, but his disappointment upon finding out that would not be the case dropped to minor importance when he found out the second piece of news.

He was going to be a grandfather.

It made him feel old, and that wasn’t something he revelled in. He’d expected to gain the title sooner rather than later, Arthur and Charles regularly discussing the prospect of adoption, but he didn’t expect it to be his middle child that was responsible for it.

He’d kept a tight hold on the hope that John would be his academic kid, Arthur having no interest in taking a job just to make money, considering his desire to work outside or with animals from a young age. That was fine, but after dragging John through university, the last of his hopes rested on Tilly’s shoulders.

That wasn’t a bleak reality. Tilly excelled at school and regularly expressed her desire to grow up and study law. He believed she’d stick to that plan, too.

John had placated him. He’d gone to university, mostly for the free ride Dutch offered, and did the bare minimum not to get kicked out. Arguably, the baby saved John from Dutch’s wrath; even he knew that being hard on the boy at an already stressful time would be no help in resulting in some decent grades. At this point, he’d settle for a pass.

There was a part of Dutch that was glad John wasn’t burning the candle at both ends. He was witnessing first-hand what that looked like, as he observed the girl at his table with her head rested on her open book, asleep.

He’d come in to make a drink, mainly with the excuse of making you one, after he’d finished with his virtual meetings for the day. Unfortunately, he knew all too well how difficult it was to get through to a workaholic; what with him being one himself.

However, In recent years he’d mellowed and found his life much more fruitful when he used his time for pleasure.

That was when the idea hit him.

Dutch had sat for a while, just watching your peaceful expression and wracking his brain for how he could help. All this was necessary. The stress was unavoidable, and as you’d said, temporary. But he had to help somehow, he simply couldn’t watch you tire yourself out like this anymore. There had to be something he could do.

With John at the pub (stupid boy) and Tilly still on her holiday, he was safe. Gently, he scooped you up in his arms and you didn’t so much as murmur.

He carried you up the stairs, placing you onto his bed and being relieved when you didn’t wake, closing his door for good measure. He wasn’t sure how he was going to do this without waking you, at least right away.

Even with the slight bags under your eyes and casual loungewear, you awoken that carnal desire from deep in his bones. Dutch stepped beside the bed, allowing his eyes to rake over your sleeping form. The thought of you so relaxed and unaware turned him on more than it should’ve.

You took slow breaths, your chest rising and falling gently along with them. Your lips were parted ever so slightly, and he briefly indulged in the mental image of his cock running over them until your eyelids fluttered open. But this wasn’t about him. It was about you.

Your trackies were loose, and he figured that’d be the best place to start. So, he tested the waters by taking your waistband between his fingertips and gently pulling them down. When all you did was take a slightly louder breath he paused, then continued.

Thanks to the spongey mattress and soft duvet you were lying on, he was able to pull them over your ass, thighs, and then discard them completely.

No underwear. He’d noticed you’d forgone that a lot recently. He smirked to himself at the likely reason why that was.

Every time he saw your pussy, he found himself completely enamoured, which was unsurprising considering it was his favourite place to be. He’d happily spend the rest of his life with his head between your thighs.

Speaking of which, he slowly urged you to part them and opened them up to allow him better access. Dutch lay on his front, getting a VIP seat to the show. No going back now.

He took his index finger and ran it gently between your folds, glad to find a little moisture already present. Hopefully in your unconsciousness, your body would react and help him along. He sucked his finger, both to get a taste of you and to provide some lubrication. He repeated the action, keeping his palm lightly rested on your thigh to avoid you tensing and shutting your legs.

As your muscle twitched under his hand, he observed the wetness increasing from this angle. The skin that had previously been dry had changed to delightfully moist, rewarding him with the sight of your wet cunt that he adored so much. He could hardly wait to taste you at the source.

So he didn’t. He leaned forward, allowing a moment to take in your scent before softly licking a stripe up your slit. The slight jolt in your body had him wondering if the fun had already ended, but a quick glance up at your closed eyes told him otherwise. He did the same thing again, watching your mouth become slightly more ajar.

You tasted holy. If ambrosia was such a thing, he was certain this was a perfect dupe of its flavour. He was already rock-hard and adjusted himself to get a little more comfortable.

He ran his tongue around your entrance, testing your deep sleep by penetrating you a little. You jolted a little more harshly, and he made sure not to do that again in order to keep you in your slumber.

After gathering spit in his mouth, Dutch trailed his tongue down your slit and stopped over your clit, slowly moving in circles and smirking when your hips twitched upwards. Even in your sleep, he couldn’t resist giving you what you deserved. He closed his lips around your most sensitive part and began pulsing them, gently sucking you repeatedly.

Your throbbing clit and the continuous, steady stream of slick into his mouth made him feel drunk, and he couldn’t resist sucking that extra bit harder. You gasped quietly, and your small desperate thrusts made Dutch weak at the knees; thank the stars he was already lying down.

It was so damn arousing, and at that he began to lick you more fervently, attempting to reach every crevasse of your sex when a hand found its way into his hair, gripping his scalp as his name fell from your mouth all breathy. He hummed his approval, watching your eyes flutter open and lock with his.

“I -” you frowned, unsure exactly how you’d gotten into this situation. You had never awoken so aroused before, but then again, you’d never awoken to someone giving you head. “What are you doing down there?” you asked sleepily.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he responded, his face flushed and lips glistening.

You pressed on his scalp, lifting your hips to his mouth, “I’m not sure, but don’t you dare stop now.”

Dutch chuckled into your mound, the vibrations flowing through you perfectly, and didn’t waste a breath giving you an answer. He began devouring you as though you were his first and last meal, flicking the tip of his tongue over your bud, along the sides of your folds, and fucking your cunt. You groaned and then stifled it, glancing down at him. “John’s still out, right?”

He only gave you a hum of confirmation, but it was all you needed to drop your head back and continue grinding into his face. The man was good. Just as he was with his fingers, he was an expert in knowing what to touch and when, and with what pressure.

You moaned repeatedly, the air filling with your response along with the wet lapping of Dutch down below. He placed his hands around to hold the tops of your thighs, pulling you ever closer to the point you weren't sure he could breathe. He didn’t look like he had any desire to do so, anyway.

“You taste so divine, sweetheart,” he somehow said while pleasuring you, and you looked down to see his mouth licking and sucking around your cunt, his gorgeous nose pressed into your mound and creased at the bridge thanks to the pressure of your thrusts upwards. “Let me taste the rest of you.”

He sucked harder, pulsating his lips faster and you had no choice but to obey, lifting your lips one last time while Dutch pushed them back down and you came, right into his mouth and he didn’t stop licking until he’d tasted every bit and you’d winced from oversensitivity.

With a relieved sigh, you shut your eyes and dropped your head back while Dutch pressed light pecks around your sex. Then his lips went and so did he, and you cranked your eyes open to the view of him checking his watch as he stood by the bed. “It’s getting late,” he announced. “How would you like a bath?”

“Hold on a second,” you frowned, “what was all that about?”

Dutch sat beside you on the bed, brushing his palm up and down your stomach. “It’s the only release I can offer you. It’s all I can do. I’m completely powerless otherwise.”

Well, wasn’t that kind of him. “Does that mean you’re only going to do that when I’m stressed?”

“My darling,” he chuckled, pressing his lips against yours and giving you a taste of yourself, “I would happily have you for every meal.”

Your face grew content. “I could get used to that,” you frowned at your surroundings, “I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

“You were studying in the kitchen at the time.”

“Oh yeah...”

“Now about that bath?”

“What about John?”

“He isn’t home. Besides, I’ve thought ahead,” he pulled open the drawer of his bedside table and held up a key. “There’s a lock on that door on that spare room of yours. I can look it from the outside, tell John you’re asleep and you can stay in here.”

“Dutch -”

“It’ll be fine. It’s too late for any more studying, you can’t possibly take in any more information. I promise I’ll wake you early with a hearty breakfast and distract John while you leave. Please, sweetheart.”

That sounded delightful. A hot bath, a sleep on Dutch’s chest, and his cooking to wake you, all after being brought to orgasm by his mouth? Nothing could top that. Despite your exam anxiety, you knew a large part of him was right. Plus, you’d gotten a lot done that day already. “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Dutch stood, relieved. “And the bath?”

“I’d love a bath more than anything.”

Dutch needed no more confirmation, immediately going to his ensuite and running the taps. You’d only intended on resting your eyes but found yourself drifting as Dutch gently shook you awake.

“Bath’s waiting for you.”

“That was fast.”

“You nodded off again,” he said, his eyebrows twitching as he proved his previous point.

“Alright, I get it,” you sat up, and Dutch took you in his arms before you had time to continue your motion. You tutted at him, but it was borne from appreciation, and he knew that. He placed you gently into the perfectly warm water, bubbly and floral scented.

Then, he rolled up his sleeves and knelt by the bath.

“What are you doing now?”

“Tip your head back,” he ordered softly, squeezing liquid from a bottle into his hands. You did as he asked.

His face appeared over yours as your gaze was projected towards the ceiling. His fingertips ran into your hair, working what you assumed to be shampoo all over your roots as he massaged your scalp.

“Oh, that’s lovely,” you sighed, his hands taking most of the weight of your head, while gently applying soothing pressure. “Where did you learn to do that?”

He paused for a moment, briefly sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. “Annabelle had muscular issues. Couldn’t always... you know. So I learnt.”

“I’m sure she appreciated that.”

“She did,” he said fondly, his face warm with the memory.

After he’d washed and conditioned your hair, he ran a wet cloth over your skin under the water, lingering a little longer than necessary on your breasts. Once you were squeaky clean, Dutch left to allow you some alone time and returned not long later.

“I could fall asleep here,” you hummed upon hearing him enter.

“Oh ho no you don’t,” he said, slowly dipping his arms into the water to curl under your knees and upper back. He lifted you out and stood you up, drying you in the same way he had back on your mini break.

“I needed that,” you admitted, Dutch walking back into his room with you and handing you a t-shirt of his.

“I know,” he said pointedly.

“Are you sure this isn’t too risky?” you said in a hushed whisper.

“It’s fine, I promise. John won’t have a clue.”

Too tired to argue, you climbed into his bed after doing the rest of your pre-bedtime routine and he followed soon after. He had his book at the ready, and as brief as the thought was to ask what he was reading, it floated away as you did, too.

Dutch had followed up on his end of the bargain. You were woken up with a cooked breakfast and were studying downstairs before John had even woken up. Unsurprisingly, your lovely friend had managed to do no studying whatsoever the previous day.

He lied to his father though, claiming that he’d gotten a lot done and was going to the library with Javier to do the same thing again. This time, he asked if you wanted to come, and you responded with a scoff.

It had meant, though, that when you found your brain fogging over into the late afternoon the following day, your mind was insistent as it drifted towards the thought of Dutch, his hands, his mouth, his...

Screw it.

You walked upstairs and heard faint noises of an occupied space coming from his room. He looked up from his reclined position on his bed, a book in hand, and you wordlessly straddled him, pulling your top over your head and attaching your lips to his. He chuckled smugly.

In no time, he had you begging him not to stop as you were bent over his bed, relishing in the feeling of his cock fucking you deep. His hands gripped your hips, urgent thrusts as you lost yourself in the pleasure. He held you down as his hips smacked against yours, and you moaned sharply when you came, pulsing around his cock and Dutch followed close behind as he filled you with an extended grunt.

The two of you flopped onto the bed, sweaty and entirely fucked out.

“It worked then?” he asked, already knowing the answer but you humoured him nonetheless.

“It worked.”

“Just think,” he rested a lazy arm over your stomach, “the next time I see you, these exams will be all finished with.”

“God, I can’t wait,” you said earnestly, angling your head towards him.

That left you with only one day remaining at the Van der Linde residence, you and Dutch having a private goodbye when he dropped you at the station to save John the trouble of interrupting his studies (that was his excuse, anyway).

When you sat down on the train, for the first time you allowed your thoughts to drift into the future. That reality that’d felt so far away now loomed on the horizon, a thing that you couldn’t escape from anymore. The thought of how, or even if, you’d break the news circled your head, along with how John would react.

It got to the point where the stress of studying was preferable to those thoughts, and it became your new distraction as you vowed to cross that bridge when you came to it, instead.

#dutch van der linde x reader #dutch van der linde x f!reader #dutch van der linde #dutch x reader #rdr2 fanfic #rdr2 #fanfiction #my stuff

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goldenlaurelleaveswrites · 1 year ago

Text

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe ch 15

Juleka vs. the Forces of Chat Noir

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe (AO3)

Hi everyone!!!

I wanted to start out by thanking you all so much for your patience and ongoing support. 💖💖💖💖 I honestly thought I would get this chapter posted ages ago because it was 90% written before I started my spring semester. But then, (to absolutely no one's surprise) I ended up being very ambitious with the central project of my entire semester. That ate up pretty much all of my time and mental energy, which was why this ended up getting so delayed. But, I am now finished the semester on Friday and I spent yesterday finishing writing, and today revising. And now, here it is!!!

This chapter has been a long time coming (parts of it have been written for over a year 😂) and I'm so excited to finally share it with all of you. It ended up being way longer than expected, so make sure to settle in because it is a very long one.

A last bit of housekeeping. My eternal love and thanks to the my LBSC friends for cheering me on. Also a bug thanks to Min and Rierse for helping me remember what happened with some of the canon akumas and saving me from having to rewatch episodes. Finally, a huge thank you to Ver for talking me through all of my spirals and self-doubt I had with this chapter. Y'all are the best and I love you 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

With all that being said, again, thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy the chapter!!! 💖💖💖💖💖

_______________________________________________________________________

The air was warm, but there was a soft, cool breeze slipping through the city, ruffling her hair and carrying with it the sounds of the city at night. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, and the warm light of the golden hour had been replaced by the dusky blues and violets of twilight. In the approaching darkness, the skyline twinkled with the lights of the city, now come to life. It was a gorgeous evening. A perfect June evening. Except…

Where was he?

When Ladybug had shown up on the Liberty, it hadn’t come as a complete shock—though she hadn’t been expecting her quite so soon— what with her and Marinette’s little talk in the shoe store. Honestly, she had been flattered when she had realized Ladybug had been thinking about entrusting her with more responsibilities. And she was only too happy to fill in for Ladybug for patrol for the next couple of weeks. She was just glad Marinette was taking the time to work on something for herself. And patrolling with Chat Noir would be… fine.

Probably.

Maybe.

Hopefully…

And where was he anyway?

He was fifteen minutes late now and she couldn’t exactly start patrol without him. Well, she probably shouldn’t start without him, given this was her first patrol. But if he wasn’t there in another five minutes, she was going to start without him anyway. She wasn’t about to let Ladybug down. Not when she had come to her for help.

And not when she had looked so relieved when she had agreed to the favour.

She leaned back on her hands and looked up at the sky, painted with the promise of the oncoming night. The breeze ruffled her hair again, and she sighed.

She could definitely get used to evenings like this.

It was such gorgeous evening, she could just sit forever. But she had a job to do. And if relaxing on a rooftop on an evening like this was this wonderful, racing across the rooftops had to be even better…

She was just pushing herself to her feet when the soft thud of boots hitting the roof flicked at her ears. As she rose fully to her feet she turned to find Chat standing behind her, staring at her.

“Oh. It’s you,” he said flatly.

“Excuse me?”

Instead of answering, her tapped on his baton and a section of it slid open to reveal his communicator. He started tapping on the screen; she watched as his eyes scanned back and forth as if he were reading something. “I thought she was trying to make a joke,” he mumbled, a frown creasing his face.

“About…?”

He didn’t look up from his communicator. “About her calling in someone else to patrol.”

“And why would she joke about that?” she asked, crossing her arms as she watched him type out what she assumed was a message to Ladybug.

Finally, he looked up from his screen to meet her eyes. “Because it’s our thing.” He had left the word ‘just’ unsaid, but it was plenty clear in his voice.

“Well, I’m standing in for her,” she said tartly. He hadn’t even been here five minutes and already, her patience was waning thin. Maybe she should have just started patrol without him…

“You can go home,” he said brusquely, “I can easily handle patrol myself,” he grumbled. “I don’t need your help.”

“I’m here, like she asked me to be” she snapped. “Now come on, we’re already starting late enough as it is.”

Petty? Yes.

Did she care? No.

Chat shot her a sour look, and then without waiting, he launched himself into the air and toward the next roof over with his baton.

But it didn’t matter.

She would have no problem keeping up.

***

The night air whipped at her face as she raced across the rooftops and sailed through the air. Her feet barely touched the shingles as she tore across the rooftops. And she swore she flew just a little bit higher with every leap into the air. The speed with which they were racing was… exhilarating.

Even if it was so plainly obvious that he was trying to show her up. Or leave her behind.

Knowing him… it was probably both.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, his mouth settling into a tight line at the sight of her keeping pace with him. As soon as he landed, he used his baton to launch himself into the air in an attempt to pull ahead.

Like it was some sort of race.

But she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction.

And if he wanted to play stupid games?

She pulled her bolas from her waist and spun them, not missing a single step as she whipped them out to latch onto some scaffolding ahead of Chat. The air whistled past her as she swung through the air, pulling ahead of Chat.

He would have to live with winning stupid prizes.

***

Ladybug was already waiting for her in amongst the pile of stuff in the shadows of the stage’s scaffolding by the time she made it home from patrol. She dropped down onto the deck and ducked into the cover of the chaos of the the junk her ma refused to part with.

“How did it go?” Ladybug asked in a low voice.

“Good,” she murmured as she dropped her transformation. It had been good. Other than all the business with Chat…

Ladybug must has seen her thoughts reflected in her face, because her brows furrowed and her eyes were suddenly glimmering with concern. “If you don’t have the time, or if it’s stressing you out you don’t have to-“

“It really was fine,” she promised, grasping Ladybug’s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze as she haded her the panjas bracelet. “Chat just… he wasn’t thrilled I was the one he was patrolling with.”

Something akin to the beginning of a grimace crossed Ladybug’s face. “I’m sorry about him. I told him… but I guess I should have given him more warning or something.”

“You told him. That should have been enough.”

“Yeah, well…” Ladybug said noncommittally. “Other than that, things were ok?”

“More than ok. It was actually pretty nice. Good way to blow off some steam.”

Ladybug laughed quietly, nodding her head. “Yeah, it is.” The laughter faded from her face, replaced by hesitancy. “I know I asked you to cover my patrols with Chat for me, but I was wondering… would you- would you be comfortable covering my solo patrols as well? It’s just, I- I’m working on a really tight deadline with this project and it’s really important to me,” she explained, her words tumbling out in an ever increasing tempo as she wrung her hands. “The first one isn’t until the end of the week so you would have some time to adjust. And if you needed anything I would just be a message away! My kwami can received messages even when I’m not transformed so if there were any issues or you felt overwhelmed I could-“

“It’s no problem.”

Ladybug’s whole body heaved with her sigh of relief. “Thank you, Juleka. You have no idea what this means to me.” Oh, she had a pretty good idea… “And I’m sorry to ask you in the first place. I would just get Chat to do solo patrols until I’m done but-“ Ladybug hesitated, obviously debating with herself. But then she sighed again. “I would feel better if I had someone I trust patrolling with him…”

“I won’t let you down.”

Ladybug’s eyes darted down to the panjas bracelet before returning to meet her own, a smile curling across her face. “I know.”

***

Chat was already waiting on the rooftop by the time she got there. He was perched on the edge of the roof, one leg dangling over the edge of the roof, with the other propped up so his hand could rest easily on his knee. He was leaning back on his other hand, and his face was tilted towards the sky so that his features perfectly caught the last of the golden rays.

He was the picture of casual elegance and charm.

Easy.

Effortless.

And totally practiced.

She recognized the pose from one of the ads that had been plastered across the city a while back.

After the her first few outings as Purple Tigress, she had gotten the hang of landing silently, no matter the force with which she had jumped or fallen. But she let herself land with a soft, but still audible thud.

“M’lady-“ he began so say as he turned, his face already breaking into a suave smile before his gaze landed on her. His smile immediately fell. “Oh. It’s you again.”

“It’s me again,” she agreed as she made her way towards him. But he ignored her in favour of turning back to look over the city as he pulled up the communicator in his baton. He began typing furiously, and a second later, she heard the familiar sound of an outgoing message. Followed by another. And another.

“So…” she said slowly, drawing the word out, “are we going to patrol or…”

“I’m waiting for Ladybug.”

“She isn’t coming,” she sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “That’s why I’m here, remember?”

“That was last time,” he said, still typing on his communicator. And still pointedly not looking at her.

“And this time. And all her patrols for the next couple of weeks.”

Another chime of an outgoing message rang from his phone, and his fingers stilled over the communicator. Then he snapped it shut and stowed it on his belt before standing. Finally, he turned to look at her with pursed lips and an exaggerated sigh. “Look, you’re a temp,” she raised her brow, and crossed her arms for good measure, but he continued on, completely undeterred. “And you’re still pretty new at all of this. But there’s something you need to understand.”

“And that is?”

“Ladybug and I… we’re in this together.”��

“And now I’m in it too.”

“No,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice. Like he was correcting a silly thing a child had said. “She and I are in this together. It’s been us from the start. And no offence, but you’re no replacement for her.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not trying to replace her. I’m just filling in for a bit.” He looked like he had more he wanted to say. Before he could begin to say anything else, she turned, glancing back over her shoulder as she loosened her bolas from her waist. “Now are we going to patrol, or what?’ Without waiting for a response, she snapped her bolas and swung herself into the air.

***

The wind whipped through her hair as she flew across the rooftops. They were going so fast, her feet barely touched the ground. It seemed Chat still had a point to prove.

Though what he was hoping to accomplish—what he was thinking he would accomplish if he proved his point—was frankly, beyond her. Did he actually think she would stop showing up for patrol?

Her bolas cracked like a whip, the sound cutting through to city noise as she latched onto a chimney and swung herself to land on the next roof.

“You know,” Chat grunted as he landed on the roof a step behind her, “I can handle this on my own.”

It was a funny thing for him to say, given he had been petulant about Ladybug not being there in the first place. “Like I said,” she said as she vaulted over a retaining wall, “Ladybug asked me to fill in.”

“You could go home early.”

“I’m not going to go back on a promise.” It took her a few seconds to realize Chat wasn’t running beside—behind—her anymore. She slid to a stop and turned to look back at him. He was standing a few feet back, frowning at her with his arms crossed. “Why did she need you to cover for her anyway?”

“Didn’t she tell you?”

“She said she had something she needed to work on, but she wouldn’t tell me what.”

“There’s your answer then,” she sighed.

That, apparently, was the wrong thing to say.

“And why did she ask you to fill in for her?” he demanded, crossing his arms even tighter across his chest as he stalked a few steps toward her.

She couldn’t exactly tell him Ladybug had asked her to cover for her because she—as a civilian—had encouraged Ladybug—also as a civilian—to take time to do something for herself. Like make herself a nice dress for the dance she was going to with the guy she liked…

“I guess the same reason she’s asked me to help out in battles,” she said, feigning blithe ignorance and biting down hard on her sharper words. She was already getting a headache from his petulance, and she wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight.

Finishing one on the other hand…

“We don’t need you for patrols,” he said acidly. The ‘for patrols’ sentiment sounded like an afterthought. “Ladybug and I are perfectly capable-“

“She’s busy.”

“Well, I’m fully capable of handling it on my own. We never asked the other part-timers to help out with them.”

She shrugged. “Well, Ladybug asked me to. Now are we going to continue?”

Chat said nothing, but he sniffed as he brushed past her to continue along the roof. She bit back a sigh, but indulged in rolling her eyes as she turned to follow him.

***

The bright, late-morning sun filtered through the porthole into her room, filling the room with warm light from the way it reflected off of her dressing table mirror. Which was directing the light right into her eyes.

Squinting with disgust, she burrowed back into the somewhat dark depths of her sheets to shelter herself from the sun that had no right being so bright this early. Well, early was a relative statement. Couaffaines were not morning people.

And she especially, was not a morning person on the best of days.

The late night patrol from the night before—which had resulted in a Chat-induced headache—hadn’t exactly helped. That and…

In the relative safety of the shadows of her bedding, she frowned at her phone screen

Alya 🦊?! unsent a message

It wasn’t like Alya to unsend messages. There was the odd occasion where Alya sent a message to the girl’s chat instead of the class—minus Chloe and Sabrina—chat. But that only happened once in a blue moon. And she never bothered to unsend the messages.

The only reason Alya would unsend a message would be if she didn’t want someone to see it.

But she had sent it to the Adrienette chat… not the girl squad one…

None of the other girls had acknowledged the unsent message, and she hadn’t had a chance to see it before Alya had retracted it. She had been a little busy trying to will the sun to shine somewhere else so she could go back to sleep.

The little dots indicating Alya was typing again appeared on the screen. She watched as they appeared and disappeared before, after what felt like an eternity, she sent her message.

Alya 🦊?!: so r we still on for meeting at 11?

She frowned.

There was no acknowledgement of the unsent message. No indication of why she had retracted it.

Nothing.

It was… weird.

Rose 🌹💗: Yes!! I just have to let my nails dry

Alix 🛼 : gonna be late

Alix 🛼 : still at the park with Kim and Max

Alix 🛼 : Kim actually thinks he can win this race 🙄🙄🙄

Mylène 🌼 : I’m just finishing up some gardening

Mylène 🌼 : I’ll need a quick shower but I’ll be there

Rose 🌹💗: @Queen of Darkness are you alive yet, bijou??

Queen of Darkness 🦇: barely

Queen of Darkness 🦇: but I’ll be there

Like she would miss this meeting.

Rose 🌹💗: 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Alya 🦊?!: cool

She frowned again as she stared at Alya’s response, which felt entirely too short for a confirmation they would all be attending a scheming session. Alya was being… weird was the only word she could really use to describe it. And it wasn’t just the message that was weird.

Alya was always a bit weird, especially with all the Adrien stuff looking back on it now. But ever since the shopping trip, she had been especially weird. When she had, as offhandedly and casually as she could, mentioned it to Rose, Rose had simply brushed it off as Alya just being focused on getting Adrien and Marinette together before the school year ended.

But she couldn’t shake the way Alya had looked to her for agreement in the shoe store, or the look she had given her when Luka had shown up and derailed Alya’s scheme. And then there had been the text… the short, curt, and abrupt text that still had her on edge.

Alya hadn’t said anything since. And Alya was not afraid of confrontation. It was the little things. The little looks Alya shot her when she thought she wasn’t looking. And now…

That unsent message was giving her vibes.

She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it was… it was weird.

She shook her head. Maybe it was something. But maybe it was nothing. She had been counter-scheming for so long, maybe she was seeing things where there weren’t any? Either way, it was obvious she needed a bit of a break.

Tapping on her screen, she pulled up her text chat with just Rose.

Queen of Darkness 🦇: do you want to go our for lunch after the meeting?

Queen of Darkness 🦇: maybe grab some frozen yogurt after and go for a walk in the park?

They were long overdue for a real date. And it would be nice to get off the boat and spend some time with just Rose. And hopefully, it would help her unwind and relax a bit.

Rose 🌹💗: I already have plans!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Rose 🌹💗: I’m sorry bijou 😭😭😭😭😭😭

She sighed. She had been hoping for a nice day out, but it would have to wait. She started to type out a reply when Rose, in typical fashion, continued her barrage of messages.

Rose 🌹💗: I would reschedule them if I could but they’re important

Rose 🌹💗: and time sensitive

Rose’s messages made her pause. It wasn’t unusual for Rose to have important plans she couldn’t reschedule. After all, when she was video chatting with Prince Ali, they were at the whims of his often erratic schedule. But Rose always told her if she was chatting with Ali, or what her plans were for that matter.

Rose wasn’t obligated to tell her what her plans were. And she never expected her to. But Rose always told her. Unprompted too. And Rose knew she didn’t have to, and that she wouldn’t ask if she didn’t offer the reason herself because she wanted to respect Rose’s privacy.

So it wasn’t a problem that Rose hadn’t said what her plans were. But it was… well, she couldn’t help but feel it was weird.

Rose 🌹💗: can I take you out tomorrow? 💖💖💖💖💖💖

Queen of Darkness 🦇: of course 💜 and don’t worry about it 💜

She let her phone drop from her hand to bounce against the mattress as she stared up at the ceiling, partially obscured by the sheets she still had shielding her from the light. Maybe she was reading too much into things. After all, people unsent messages. And Rose knew she didn’t have to share every detail of her life. But she just couldn’t ignore that niggling feeling in the back of her head.

And she doubted she would be able to get rid of it any time soon.

Before she could dwell on it further, or drag herself from her bed to start getting ready like she probably should have fifteen minutes ago given the time, the sound of footsteps against stairs caught her attention.

“Morning little miss sunshine,” Luka chuckled as their door squeaked out.

Groaning, she sat up, her bedding still bundled around her, and gave him the evilest glare she could muster. He was in an entirely too good of a mood considering it was still technically morning.

He was even humming as he made his way over to his side of the room. And smiling stupidly down at the bags he was carrying…

Her eyes zeroed in on the shopping bags he was carrying. They were all from thrift stores Marinette had, at this point, dragged everyone to. He had mentioned that he would be looking for something to wear to the dance this weekend. After she had pestered him repeatedly that he couldn’t show up looking like a dork. Well, as much of a dork as he usually looked.

“So, what did you get?” she asked as she emerged from her bed to take a couple steps across the room.

“Nothing that will interest you,” he started to say, trailing off as an even dopier grin spread across his face as he glanced down at the contents of his bags.

Interesting…

She moved to peer into the closest bag, but with lightning quick reflexes—that would have caught her off guard if she didn’t know he moonlighted as Viperion—he snatched the bag away. “You know I’m going to see what you’re wearing eventually, right?” she grumbled. “It’s my school’s dance, remember?”

“Yeah, well…” Luka mumbled as his face and ears turned a particularly interesting shade of pink. “Don’t forget, we’re moving up dye night because of the dance.”

“Like I would forget,” she said, scoffing at his blatant change in topic.

“And what happened to you last night?”

“Hmm?”

“That miniseries you love, you know, the one that adapts all those creepy short stories-”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“It was on last night, and I was going to tell you but I couldn’t find you.”

She shrugged. “I was around.” Technically, it was true. Her patrol had ended about the same time the show usually started. But Ladybug had been late picking up the miraculous, which was unsurprising given Marinette’s tendency to get lost in the process when she had a project to work on. And rather than going out for an extra run and making Ladybug wait for her, it had made more sense to just hang around the Liberty. Sure, she had been hiding, but she had been around.

“Doing what?”

“It was the witching hour, do you really want to know?” With that, she threw on her robe, and hastily made her way to the kitchen—and some much needed coffee—before Luka could ask any more questions.

***

“Everything go ok tonight?”

“Yeah. It was nice to stretch my legs.”

“Great!” Ladybug beamed, her eyes vivid and sparkling. “And you’re all set for tomorrow?”

She nodded. Tomorrow would be her first solo patrol, and honestly, she was excited for the chance to patrol the city without having to drag along an irritable cat.

“Ok, then I can meet you at your place at nine-” Ladybug’s words cut off at her cringe.

“Sorry, I forgot, I might be a little late tomorrow.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve got plans that probably won’t wrap up until half past eight at the earliest.” Knowing Alya, the meeting would definitely go overtime, meaning she would be cutting it pretty close. “I can find a way to bail…” But given the way Alya had been acting lately… it would probably be best not to leave early… Alya had been a little too pushy about her involvement and support of the Adrien schemes. To say nothing of all the… the vibes she had been getting from Alya…

“Hang onto it until the end of patrol tomorrow then,” Ladybug said, pressing the miraculous back into her hands.

“What? But…” Ladybug always took back the miraculous after battles and patrols. As far as she knew, none of the temp heroes had ever gotten to hold onto their miraculous outside of active use.

Ladybug closed her fingers around the miraculous. “I trust you with it.”

***

She had been looking forward to her first solo patrol. She had been looking forward to taking in the city at night in peace. Or at least, as much peace as could be found in Paris at night.

The point being, she had been looking forward to it.

And then Shadowmoth had just had to go and ruin her evening.

What was worse, he was interrupting Marinette.

And given how tight Marinette’s deadline was… she had no interest in letting this fight drag out.

“Taste my wrath!” Jets of molten cheese burst from the prongs of Fondoom’s oversized fondue fork and streaked through the air toward Ladybug. Ladybug dove to the side, ducking behind the cover of an abandoned car. The stench of sour milk, compost, something akin to Kim’s gym socks, and a general funk hit her like a wall with such force it almost knocked her over. From behind the car Ladybug had rolled behind she could hear gagging.

“That is revolting,” she gasped as she stumbled back a few steps, narrowing missing a puddle of gooey cheese. The last thing she wanted to do was get stuck in the stuff.

“Artisanal cheeses are wasted on the likes of you,” Fondoom snarled before lunging at her with his fork. She danced out of the way, nimbly—but narrowly—avoiding being speared by the fork. Just like the odour he and his attacks were emitting, Fondoom was relentless. His fork was a silver blur as he swung and stabbed at her, all while trying to douse her in molten cheese. She was too fast for him, but she was getting nauseous.

She unfurled her bolas from her waist and snapped them at Fondoom, throwing him off balance. He had to catch himself against the ground using his fork. But what he had failed to notice was how close he had gotten to some of the pungent puddles he had left all over the place.

“No. One. Appreciates,” he growled as he struggled to pull his fork from the cheese, “Fine. Cheeses. Anymore.” He wrenched his fork free with a roar.

“Not when they smell like that,” she quipped, snapping her bolas as he raised his fork, sending him skittering back to plant his feet directly in the cheese he had just freed himself from.

“Lucky charm!” She looked in the direction of Ladybug’s nasally shout, being careful to keep an eye on the akuma as he struggled against his own cheese. Ladybug’s yoyo shot up into the air as she pinched her nose shut with her other hand.

A pair of red and black spotted nose plugs appeared in a rain of sparkling light before dropping into Ladybug’s outstretched hand. She slipped one over her nose, and then turned to her. “Tigress!”

She easily caught the nose plug, and slipped it into place.

“Sweet relief,” she sighed, and Ladybug immediately burst into giggles. “What?”

“You- you sound funny,” Ladybug laughed, “And you’ve got cheese in your hair.”

“Yeah, well,” she said, having to hold back her own laughter at how oddly nasal and high her voice sounded, “so do you.”

Ladybug blinked at her, and then her giggles descended into howls of laughter as she picked her way through the cheese covered street. By the time Ladybug had made her way over, she was almost doubled over; they had to lean on each other as they tried to control their laughter.

“If- if my hair stinks of cheese after your miraculous cure-” she gasped between peals of laughter, “you owe me a bottle of shampoo. Make that three,” she added, playfully shoving Ladybug’s shoulder.”

At some point in their hysterics, Fondoom had managed to fall flat onto his back into the cheese and was well and truly stuck. And it seemed the civilians who had been cowering in the shops and cars lining the street had caught on that the danger had passed, as they were beginning to emerge. Vaguely, she was aware of some pointing their phones at her and Ladybug as they both fought to keep it together.

But it was hard.

Between how ridiculous they sounded and must have looked with cheese in their hair, and with how outright ridiculous this akuma had been—seriously, what had Shadowmoth been thinking?—and how tired they both were, how could they not laugh?

“We should- we should…” Ladybug wheezed as she wiped a stray tear and gestured uselessly at Fondoom, who had seemingly given up struggling against the cheese and was just staring forlornly at the sky, muttering about how ‘no one appreciated traditional cheese anymore.’

“I’m- ready when you are,” she gasped as she tried to push herself up from leaning on her friend.

“M’lady! I’m-” Chat’s breathless gasp snapped her out of the worst of her laughter. She turned just in time to see Chat staring at her and Ladybug, still leaning against each other and stifling the odd giggle. “here…” he finished, his voice trailing off as his eyes darted between the two of them. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Ladybug said, forcing back her laughter as she straightened up. “It was stupid.” There was still a ring of laughter in her voice as she tried to put on her professional smile. “We should deal with the akuma.”

“Right-” her grip tightened on her bolas, ready to strike them against the fork and release the akuma when Chat cried out.

“Cataclysm!” A streak of black whizzed in front of her, and the next thing she knew, the fork had crumbled and a dark butterfly had fluttered out of it’s remains.

Chat smiled smugly at her, before letting his gaze land on Ladybug as she purified the akuma. Once the silvery white butterfly had been released from her yoyo, Ladybug turned to her ruefully and slipped off her nose plug. With a grimace, she slipped her own off handed it to Ladybug, who promptly cast them into the air with a hurried cry of “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The swarm of Ladybugs rushed over and past her—hopefully removing the cheese and stench from her hair as they went—before swarming out over the street. By the time they had disappeared, the worst of the smell was gone. But a fainter—though still strong—aroma remained, emanating from the rather ruffled looking man lying in the street, clutching a fondue fork—now normal sized—and a box of Epoisse de Bourgogne.

“I just wanted to introduce her to the world of fine cheeses” the man mumbled dolefully as he sat up.

“Hey,” she said quietly, making her way over to crouch beside him. Gently, she rested her hand on his shoulder, ignoring the beep coming from her miraculous. She still had two minutes. “Maybe… maybe next time start with something a little less-” she stopped herself before she could say rank. “Odiferous. Work your…”

“Girlfriend.”

“Work your girlfriend’s way up to it.” The man offered her a shaky smile. Satisfied, she stood and offered him her hand. Once she had pulled the man to his feet, she turned.

“It’s been fur-ever, M’lady,” Chat said as leaned against his staff. “What say you and I have a moonlight picnic? All that cheese made me hungry.”

How? How could anyone be hungry after smelling that?

“I can’t, I keep telling you, I’m busy.”

Chat pouted as he pushed himself off his staff to stand up straight. “Too busy for me?”

“Chat…” Ladybug sighed, reaching up to massage her temples. But before she could say anything else, her earring beeped. And her bracelet was quick to follow.

“That’s one minute for me.”

Even if it hadn’t been, she would have said it was. She knew he kept sending Ladybug messages about patrols, and the last couple of battles, he had complained about it. Multiple times.

And he seemed completely unaware that Ladybug’s patience was waning.

Ladybug nodded at her, then turned back to Chat. “Can you help him home?” she asked, nodding to the man.

“But-”

“Chat.”

“Fine,” Chat grumbled.

Ladybug nodded at him, the turned to her. “C’mon. I think we can call it a night for your patrol.“Nodding, she followed after Ladybug. “Be honest,” Ladybug said quietly as they turned, “does my hair still stink of cheese?”

A bark of laughter escaped her as she shook her head. “No, you’re good.”

Ladybug giggled. “You too.” And then she cast her yoyo, and let it pull her up to the rooftops.

She was about to follow when she froze, feeling the invisible weight of eyes on her.. Quickly, she glanced over her shoulder; Chat was still standing there, watching her.

Shaking her head, she turned, swung herself toward the roofline.

***

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Bustier said with another of her syrupy smiles as she hovered by the open door to the classroom, “M. Damocles only needs to see me for a few minutes, so take this time to review the stages of the Hero’s Journey, and then we’ll discuss when I return.” With that, their teacher left the room and headed towards the principals office, seemingly blithely ignorant of the fact that no one in the class was even remotely engaging in the lesson.

“And…” Alix said, dragging out the word as she craned her neck to look out the windows into the hallway, “she’s gone.”

“Did you guys see the pictures from the battle last night?” Rose squealed as soon as the coast had been declared clear.

“I missed it,” Alya moaned before flopping dramatically onto her desk. “I didn’t get any pictures,” Alya continued, her voice muffled by the desk.

“But babe, you told me you were heading there-”

“I got stuck in cheese!” Alya cried, sitting back up. “I was only a block away! And all those people- they were right there. The pictures were amazing! And it smelled disgusting!”

Marinette patted Alya’s shoulder comfortingly. But the motion seemed a little more awkward than usual. A little more reserved.

“They are pretty amazing,” Alix said as she glanced at her phone. She craned her neck to get a better look at Alix’s screen.

One of the many pictures taken the previous night was pulled up on the phone. It was one of the ones that had been taken when she and Ladybug were in the midst of their fit of laughter.

“I wish I had been there…” Kim sighed longingly. “What?” he asked, when met with incredulous looks. “Have you seen the way Tigress throws those weight thingies of hers?”

“Bolas,” Max corrected.

“Boas,” Kim repeated—sort of—“I would love to challenge her to a discus throw.”

“My money’s on Tigress,” Alix snorted.

“Mine too! She’s so cool!” Rose chirped.

“Yeah, Marc and I are writing her into the next issue of the comic.”

She bit the inside of her keep to keep her grin in check. It would look weird if she just started randomly grinning—of course, it was hardly random given she was the one they were heaping praise upon—but try as she might, the heat in her cheeks wasn’t subsiding. Under the ruse of doodling, she dropped her gaze to try and hide her flaming cheeks. But through her curtain of hair, she caught sight of Adrien.

Like everyone else seated in the front rows—excluding Chloe and Sabrina who seemed to be skipping class entirely—he was turned towards the back to be more part of the conversation. But unlike everyone else, he looked less than thrilled by the topic of conversation. Sure, he had his usual, bland, model smile pasted on his face. But his smile was tight, and his eyes were hard.

There was that green-eyed monster again…

“Yeah?” Mylène asked.

“Yeah, she’s been around so much lately, and she and Ladybug are obviously friends, so it seemed like a good choice to bring her in. Plus she adds a really cool dynamic.”

Adrien’s smile slipped at that.

Marinette’s on the other hand… “I think that’s a great idea, Nathanial! I think it’s high time Ladybug had a friend.”

“What about Chat Noir?”

Everyone turned to blink at Adrien. It hadn’t been an… outburst per se, but it had been… unexpected. Based on the pink tinge that was quickly rising in his face, it seemed he hadn’t meant to say that quite so loud. If at all…

Ivan cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, Chat Noir and Ladybug have been together since the beginning.”

The others nodded in agreement. But she saw Marinette’s smile slip from her face.

“But it’s different with him,” Alya said. She wasn’t sure who was more surprised. Her, Marinette, or Adrien.

“What do you mean?” Adrien somehow meekly demanded.

Alya shrugged. “Sure, they’re best friends. But they’re also meant to be, so that makes their dynamic a little different. Tigress is a girl, so it’s only natural they’re going to talk about stuff Ladybug wouldn’t normally talk to Chat Noir about.” She didn’t miss the jealous edge in Alya’s voice. If Alya had been who she thought she had been, she was betting Alya had been hoping she would be filling the role of Ladybug’s friend.

It was more than a little ironic…

“That makes sense,” Kim mused before brightening. “It’s like how you girls talk about who you have crushes o- ow!” Kim turned in his seat to glare at Rose. “What was that for?”

Rose smiled sweetly at him, still kicking her legs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said innocently with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“Right…” Kim said, shrinking back a little and warily eying Rose’s swinging legs. He had obviously received the message loud and clear.

“They seem like the kind of friends who would tell each other everything,” Rose sighed happily. “It’s so cute seeing that side of Ladybug.”

Maybe not everything…

But pretty close…

“Ladybug would never tell someone her identity,” Adrien mumbled.

She snapped her head to look at Adrien, but before her gaze settled on blond hair and green eyes, brown eyes behind glasses caught her attention. Nino’s eyes widened as his previously thought-furrowed brows rose to disappear under the brim of his cap as her eyes met his. He ducked his head to look down at his desk before—very obviously—turning his attention to Adrien.

That was… weird-

“I concur, Ladybug has always been very protective regarding her identity. However,” Max said, the light glinting off his glasses as he looked up from his phone, “they do appear to be very close friends.”

“Yes!” Markov added, “we have recently been analyzing resources on body language to update my database, and Tigress and Ladybug regularly display body language that communicates a deep sense of trust and friendship!”

“And even if they don’t share their identities, they totally seem like share everything else!”

“Maybe…” Adrien said, though it sounded more like he was talking to himself. Disgruntlement was no longer showing through the cracks in his model facade. His brows furrowed as if he were deep in thought. There was a spark in his eye that reminded her of-

“I wonder what they talk about,” Ivan mused.

Her own brows furrowed as she watched Adrien. Why was he suddenly so-

“Bustier’s coming!”

***

For the second time since she had started patrolling for Ladybug, Chat Noir was waiting for her at the meeting place. In fact, he was early. It was… weird.

The first time, he had obviously been expecting Ladybug despite being told multiple times Ladybug wouldn’t be patrolling for the last two weeks of June. Every other night, he had shown up after her, all but dragging his feet.

She held back a groan. She was still a few rooftops away, but with her enhanced vision and her night vision—one of the many perks of the tiger miraculous—she had a clear view of him. He was sitting in another clearly practiced pose that was meant to look casual. Ladybug had told him—again—she wouldn’t be patrolling… but based on the way he was waiting… apparently that didn’t mean anything.

She was not in the mood for an argument tonight; all she wanted was to blow off some steam, make sure there were no signs of any akumas or sentimonsters, and then go home and curl up in bed with a book.

While she had successfully held back her groan before, she couldn’t stop a sigh from escaping her now.

There was no point in putting off the inevitable any further.

With the effortless grace her miraculous granted her, she crossed the rest of the rooftops and landed behind Chat. His cat ears twitched at the sound of her landing—it had seemed like a good idea to clue him in to her arrival before he saw her—and he pushed himself off the chimney he had been leaning against as if posing for a campaign.

He turned to her with a suave smile.

That didn’t drop the moment he saw it was her…

What-

“Tigress,” he greeted her, seemingly channeling every drop of charisma he had in his body into his voice. “How are you?”

Ok…

She had thought it was weird he was early, but she didn’t even know how to begin to describe… this…

“Fine…” she said carefully, watching him warily as he grinned and sauntered toward her.

“Good… good,” he murmured, almost to himself.

What was going on?

Had she missed something?

Had he been zapped by an akuma?

He tilted his head back to take in the lights of the city, and let out a wistful sigh. “Isn’t the city beautiful at night?”

“Sure…”

Where was he going with this?

As if finally noticing she wasn’t charmed, he turned to grin at her. “Look,” he said as he leaned on his staff and offered her what she was sure would be a charming grin, if not for the fact that she was utterly un-charmed by it. And wasn’t that a sudden change in tune… “I think you and I maybe got off on the wrong foot.”

And whose fault was that?

“I mean, we are practically cousins, after all.” That line? Again? “And shouldn’t family stick together?”

She would stick by Luka and her ma through anything.

Chat, on the other hand, was not family, no matter what miraculous she had.

But she would be lying if she wasn’t curious to see where he was trying to steer this conversation. And agreeing with him seemed like the most direct path to his intended destination. “Sure.” It was technically a sentiment she agreed with, just not in the context he had given. “Should we get going?” As much as she wanted to figure out the sudden attitude change, it was starting to feel awkward just standing around with him being so… yeah.

And she could just as easily get to the bottom of this while blowing off some of this awkward energy.

“After you,” he said with a bow that wasn’t the least bit mocking. But was plenty thick with obvious attempts at flattery.

Ok…

Casting another wary glance at him, she loosened her bolas and swung them to latch onto some scaffolding on the next building over.

Chat insisted on making small talk as they scoured the city for any signs of Shadowmoth. It was… she wanted to say it was a nice break from the open hostility and the pointed, green-eyed glances he usually shot her way. But in some ways, his sudden friendliness was worse. At least she hand known what to expect the last few patrols.

But this?

He obviously had some kind of angle.

He obviously wanted something.

“Tigress?”

She shook her head to try and clear her thoughts, and turned to Chat. “Sorry, what?”

“I’m ready for a break, want to take a rest up there?” he asked, pointing with his staff toward the Palais Garnier in the distance.

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

He nodded, and shot her what many would consider a winning grin. Then he took a running start and used his staff to launch himself into the air in the direction of the Palais Garnier. She watched him through narrowed eyes as he bounded across the rooftops, her frown returning.

So far, he had not been very forthcoming on what it was he wanted. It seemed he was more interested in laying on the flattery.

Thickly.

She had a feeling she wouldn’t like it—whatever it was he wanted—when she did find out…

Before she could psych herself out, she ran toward the edge of the roof and leapt into the air.

By the time she made it to the roof, he was waiting in yet another perfectly practiced pose. She recognized it as another pose from one of his previous campaigns. Sure, in the magazine he had been leaning against a bookshelf in the library whereas now, he was leaning against the base of one of the Lequesne Pagasi. But the offhand grace and winsome smile that were obviously meant to make him look approachable were the same.

She had barely taken two steps onto the roof when he turned the full force of his smile on her. Not that it had any effect. “You hungry?” Before she could so much as reply, he was already busying himself with opening a compartment in his baton. Carefully, he extracted a box and opened its lid before holding it out to her.

They were chocolates.

Expensive chocolates.

Expensive, chocolatey bribes if his sudden change in tune was anything to go by.

But sure. She would bite.

Carefully, she selected a chocolate from the box.

Just because she took the chocolate didn’t mean she had to take the bribe.

She popped the chocolate into her mouth. It was rich and decadent and tasted as expensive as she imagined it had been. Though she didn’t dwell too long on how expensive; some things were better left unknown. It was amazing. But-

“They’re good, right?”

She nodded. “They are, thanks.”

He smiled like the cat that had just caught the canary. He was obviously pleased with himself. “Have another,” he coaxed, holding the box out to her.

She complied. It wasn’t like she was about to turn down free chocolate.

And they were amazing. But as amazing as they were, she swore she could taste the strings attached to them.

She watched as he popped a chocolate into his own mouth and hummed in bliss. They finished the rest of the chocolates in relative silence. With every bite she took, the less she tasted chocolate and the more she tasted the bitterness of the bribe.

“So Tigress…” he turned to her, raking a hand through his golden hair and offering her a charming yet abashed smile that reeked of being rehearsed. “Can I ask you something.”

Struggling to chew the last of her chocolate, she nodded.

“You and Ladybug are friends, right?”

So that was what this was all about? What they had been talking about in class earlier?

Typical.

Thickly, she swallowed the last bite of her chocolate. “Yeah, she and I are friends,” she said carefully.

“And you two are close, right?

Technically, she and Marinette were close. “I guess you could say that-”

“So you tell each other stuff then.” It wasn’t so much a question as a statement. His eyes were fixed on her firmly now, and if she weren’t a tigress, she imaged she would have felt like prey.

But as she was a tigress… “A little bit, but not much.” She and Marinette on the other hand…

“What are her favourite flowers?”

“What-“

“I’ve always gone with red roses because they’re classic.” His attention was suddenly off her as he gazed thoughtfully out at the skyline. But just as suddenly, his eyes snapped back to her. “But maybe that’s the problem; so what other kinds of flowers does she like?”

Cherry blossoms. Peonies. Lilacs.

To name a few.

Luka could probably recite all of Marinette’s favourites in reverse order in his sleep.

“You don’t know?”

“Obviously,” he chuckled, though there was a tinge of bitter annoyance, “that’s why I asked.”

“And you’re asking me because…” she let her voice trail off as she turned to raise a brow at him.

“The two of you are friends.” He said it like it was supposed to explain all the intricacies of the Universe.

“Yeah. But why not ask her? And why wait this long to ask?”

“I thought roses were the right direction. They symbolize love, you know. True love, to be exact.” He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair again, and shot her a a charming yet hopeless smile that she was sure was meant to elicit pity. “But I guess they weren’t the right choice after all…”

Because it was the flowers that were the issue…

“And girls like picnics, right?”

“What-”

“I thought they did. And they always do romantic, moonlight picnics in the movies. But every time I try one, it never seems to work. But maybe a picnic isn’t the right direction? Maybe I need to do something bolder?”

She bit back a groan. “Some girls like picnics, sure. But not all girls.” Of course, Marinette did like picnics. But it was always more about the company… “And I don’t think-”

“Ok, so no picnics,” Chat said as he stood abruptly. He turned, and began to pace, completely ignoring what she had been about to say. “But then what? Maybe a boat ride along the Seine? No… Too many tourists. The cinema might be fun… I could take her to see the new Ladybug and Chat Noir movie!” He paused in his pacing, then frowned before muttering, “But all our fans would probably be watching us if we did something so public, and that wouldn’t be very romantic. Maybe I could- no, that would be no good. A rooftop picnic is the best option for privacy but those haven’t worked before-” he whirled to face her, and she swore she saw the lightbulb go off over his head. “I’ve got it!”

Oh no.

“It’s perfect!”

Here we go…

“If you put in a good word for me to Ladybug, apparently girl friends talk to each other about stuff they don’t talk about with their guy friends,” he added for her benefit, as if it was something she didn’t already know, “then she’ll have to agree! And I can bring takeout from her favourite restaurant- do you know what it is, by the way?” he was pacing with renewed vigour and energy. But it wasn’t the aimless pacing of before. It seemed he was set on his plan. “And her favourite flowers? You never told me what they were. If I have her favourites of everything ready for her at the picnic then it will be perfect and she’ll realize-”

“It isn’t going to work.”

He froze misstep and turned to look at her. The mask of cheery camaraderie slipped. Just for a second. The it was back. But much more forced than before.

“Of course it will,” he said, trying to laugh lightheartedly. But it sounded just as forced as his smile. “It’s easy! You put in a good word for me, since she listens to you,” despite his obvious attempts, he wasn’t able to mask the bitterness in his voice. “And you tell me what she would want for a first date-”

“You can’t use my friendship with her to try and date her.”

“But nothing I’ve done has worked!”

She shrugged. “That’s life.”

He glowered at her. “So you’re just going to stand in the way of true love? Of destiny?”

Fate… destiny… the Universe…

Whatever he wanted to call it, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been standing in its way for the past few months.

She refused to shrink under his glower. He seemed to realize pretty quick that she wasn’t going to balk under his glare. “You just don’t get it,” he snapped, his face shifting into a petulant pout. “She and I are meant to be. She’s the only one who doesn’t see it. But she never even gives me a chance!” He stalked back toward the statue and leaned against it sullenly, kicking the stone of the roof for good measure. ”I’m just so tired of her turning me down. I wish she would just stop rejecting me and realize what’s been obvious to everyone else since the start.”

His words hung heavy in the air. With his tantrum over and done with—she hoped—he seemed set on moping. And frankly, she was long past tired of it. Of his jealousy-fuelled hostility. Of his whining and complaining. Of his sulking. What she was going to say would probably make him mad. But she was over it.

She just hoped it would be worth it.

“You know,” she said slowly, watching him out of the corner of her eye, “there is a way for you to get her to stop rejecting you.”

He perked up immediately, turning to look at her with the delight of someone what had just been told they were going to be told the secrets of the Universe. “Really? How?”

“It’ll be hard-“

“I’ll do anything to get her to stop rejecting me-“

“Stop asking her out.”

His face went blank. He stared at her silently, looking as if he was trying to puzzle out one of Mendeleiev’s homework assignments. “How will that-“

“You’re tired of her saying no?” He nodded. “Then stop asking. She’s already given you her answer-“

“But-“

“And she’s been way nicer about it than she needs to. And she’s given way more reasons than she needs to. No is reason enough.”

“You just don’t get it- you’re a temp. She and I have been in it since the beginning. Me and her against the world,” he sighed wistfully, “we were chosen to be partners. It was destiny-“

“And what if I had been chosen instead?” She wasn’t sure which of them was more surprised she had asked that.

“What-“

But it was still a relevant question.

“What if I had been the one chosen to be Ladybug? Would you and I be destined for each other?” That felt wrong to say on so many levels. She sent a silent apology to Rose.

She could practically see the gears turning in his head as he spluttered out nonsense. “What- but- you- she- no. No. It’s different-“

“I don’t see how.”

He laughed, but it was strained. “Look, I’m flattered and all but you know I love-“

“Don’t be.” The beginnings of the casually charming smile that had been making its way onto his face fell back to blank confusion. “I’m seeing someone. And you’re not my type. Not even close. All I’m saying is, magical jewelry seems like a pretty flimsy foundation for true love. Much less destiny.” She stood and made a show of stretching. “Now I’m going to go finish patrol-“

“You’re wrong!” Before she could say anything else, he pushed himself off of the statue and vaulted himself off into the darkness, disappearing into the shadows.

She groaned. It was like arguing with a brick wall.

***

To say patrolling solo was a relief after the previous night was an understatement. She needed the peace and quiet of solitude to clear her head after all of that. And sure, maybe intervening in an armed robbery wasn’t exactly what she would call quiet or peaceful…

But at least it wasn’t headache inducing the way arguing with a certain cat was…

One of the masked robbers ran at her, viciously swinging the knife he was holding.

Really, he should have known better.

Easily and with grace, she stepped aside, using her arm to block the knife as she caught his wrist. Using his own momentum against him, she disarmed and flipped him to the ground in one fluid motion. His blade clattered against the ground, far out of his reach as she pinned him with a knee to his back.

The man grunted, trying to hit her and throw her off of him, but it was futile. He couldn’t reach her with his free hand and with her miraculous, she was too strong for him.

“Hey!”

Her attention snapped to two of the other robbers. They were—rather stupidly—running towards her, brandishing their crowbars. Without relinquishing her grip on the man she had subdued, she loosened her bolas from her waist.

Before the robbers rushing to attack her could even begin to rethink their idiotic plan, she had her bolas free and swinging. Their brash confidence turned to panic as she smirked at them, right before she loosed the bolas.

They streaked through the air in a blur; their whizzing melding with the squeaks of sneakers against tiles as the robbers tried to skid to a stop. The sound of distant sirens joined the mix. The two cried out as the bolas tangled around them both, knocking the crowbars from their hands and binding them together in a mishmash of limbs. They immediately tripped over each other and toppled to the ground where they continued to struggle uselessly against her weapon.

A sharp inhale that sounded an awful lot like a whimper came from the back of the shop.

She snapped her gaze to the fourth and last robber. His eyes were wide and wild with panic as he looked at her. What she could see off his face was stark pale next to the black of his ski mask. His gaze darted around the shop and landed on the window the robbers had originally broken through.

“You really want to do that?” she asked.

His gaze snapped back to her. He looked like he would rather do anything but try and go up against her, but he also looked like he didn’t want to stick around. Especially with the sirens drawing so close. The hand he was brandishing his knife with was shaking, but his feet were—albeit hesitantly—shifting.

Keeping a careful and tight grip on the man she was pinning, she feigned lunging toward the last robber. With a yelp, he skittered backward, tripping and stumbling over his feet to land on his behind. His knife clattered to the ground, and was promptly kicked out of his reach by his own flailing feet as he scrambled back and away from her. Directly into the back corner of the jewelry display he had been in the middle of emptying into his forgotten sack.

“That’s what I thought.”

Barely minutes later, police officers burst into the room with Officer Roger—he and her ma had had enough run ins that he and her family were on a first name basis now—leading the charge, only to find the robbers subdued. Or, in the case of the last one, cowering. After that, the arrest was quick with the only real delay being untangling the robbers from her bolas.

As the last of the robbers was led out in handcuffs, she turned to Officer Roger, who had coughed quietly in a clear attempt to get her attention. With an air of formality and admiration, he stuck his hand out toward her.

“Thank you for your service, Purple Tigress.”

As she shook his hand, she couldn’t help but wonder how he would react if he knew he was shaking the hand of Anarka Couffaine’s daughter.

Spontaneous combustion didn’t seem entirely unrealistic…

“It was no problem, I’m just doing my job.”

***

“So, how did it go tonight?” Ladybug asked as soon as she ducked under the tarps her ma had hung over the stage to cover it from the rain they had gotten earlier in the day. “Any trouble?”

“Everything was fine. Well- there was a bit of a robbery, but it wasn’t any trouble-”

“A robbery? What happened? Are you ok? I didn’t get any messages I’m so sorry I should have been there to-”

“Hey, hey,” she said, quickly placing a gentle hand on Ladybug’s shoulder to interrupt her spiralling. “I was fine. I’m sorry, I should have let you know sooner. There just wasn’t time to alert you and stop them so I just… went for it. And then I got caught up in giving my statement to the police and well… yeah, it isn’t really an excuse. I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be.”

She blinked in surprise at the force in Ladybug’s voice. She hadn’t realized it, but her gaze had drifted down to her feet; the last thing she had wanted was to disappoint Marinette or cause her any stress. She forced herself to look back up at Ladybug; she was staring at her intently, her blue eyes burning.

“You’re ok?” Wordlessly, she nodded. “You aren’t hurt?” She shook her head.

Ladybug nodded. And then she smiled…

And it suddenly dawned on her what it was that was fueling the flames in Ladybug’s eyes.

It was pride…

“You have nothing to apologize for. I’m just glad you’re ok.”

“It was really no big deal…” she mumbled, her cheeks suddenly flaming.

“Hey, none of that,” Ladybug said gently. “Remember what Roarr said?”

She nodded, though she still couldn’t fight the flush in her face. Speaking of Roarr…

Quickly, she dropped her transformation. And once she had given Roarr a quick cuddle and one of the candies she had taken to keeping in her pockets incase of emergencies, she slipped the miraculous off and handed it back to Ladybug.

Ladybug popped it into the box she had waiting. But instead of closing the lid and slipping it into her yoyo, she stared thoughtfully down at the miraculous.

Awkwardly, she shifted her weight between her feet.” Ladybug…?”

“Hmm?” Ladybug glanced up at her.

“Is everything… ok?” she asked hesitantly.

“Oh! Yeah! I’m just…” Ladybug’s gaze flickered back down to the tiger miraculous. Her spotted hand closed around the box, snapping the lid shut before slipping it into her yoyo. When she met her gaze again, Ladybug was smiling. It was a small smile, still tinged with thoughtfulness, but it was genuine. “I’m just thinking about something a friend told me a while ago.”

“Oh.”

Ladybug’s eyes, still burning, were also full of warmth. “Thank you again. For everything.”

“It’s nothing…”

Ladybug let out a quiet chuckle. “Trust me, it’s everything.”

***

“And… boom! He’s down!” Alix crowed, pumping her fist in the air, nearly punching Ivan in the face as she whooped at the video playing on Max’s laptop.

“I want to learn how to do that-”

“No,” Nathaniel said, emphatically shaking his head, “you do not need to know how to do that, Kim.”

“Dudes, how is her aim that good?”

She watched silently as she—well, Tigress—threw her bolas, ensnaring the two robbers. The security camera footage from the jewelry shop had been pulled, and had ended up on the late night news last night. And the early morning news…

“She didn’t even have to do anything to take out that last guy,” Mylène murmured in awe, her eyes glued to the screen.

“She’s pretty tough,” Ivan agreed.

“She’s a total badass is what she is!” Alix corrected.

She tipped her head forward, letting her curtain of hair conceal the grin she couldn’t wipe from her face and her cheeks, which given how warm they were had to been tinged pink. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Adrien roll his eyes. He looked like he had just swallowed a lemon.

“Yeah,” Marinette said as she watched the footage play for the umpteenth time, a wide grin on her face. “She’s incredible!”

Before she could completely combust from compliment overload, Rose hummed thoughtfully. She turned to look at her girlfriend just in time to see Rose tilt her head to the side, her brows furrowed, as she watched to footage.

“I wonder if Ladybug will make her a permanent hero?”

“There’s no way!”

Everyone turned to stare at Adrien. His hands were splayed on the table—he hadn’t quite slammed the table but he looked like he had come pretty close—and his mouth was a tight, twisted line. But as he seemed to realize everyone was suddenly looking at him, his face shifted, his cheeks turning pink. But the sourness in his eyes hadn’t fully vanished, even as embarrassment seemed to overtake him.

“Why not, dude?”

“Well, because…” Adrien began to flounder.

“She has been at almost all of the most recent battles,” Nathaniel said absently.

“And her presence during those battles has improved the efficiency with which akumas and sentimonsters are dealt with,” Max added.

“It is true! We did the calculations ourselves!”

Max nodded. “Additionally, it seems she has been added to the patrol roster.”

“Yeah, well…”

“But none of the other heroes were ever made permanent,” Alya noted, a tinge of jealousy creeping into her voice.

It seemed Adrien had found the life line he needed, and he latched on. “Exactly. It’s always been Ladybug and Chat Noir! The black cat and ladybug from the start. Creation and destruction. Yin and yang. ”

“So?”

She wasn’t sure who out the class was most shocked by Marinette’s question, but for his part, Adrien looked at her like she had grown a second head.

“Adding another full time hero would throw off the balance,” he replied with the utmost confidence and assuredness.

And yet…

“It’s always been the two of them. Why mess with destiny?”

It seemed Adrien wasn’t so much clinging to a life line as he was grasping at straws.

***

Chat glared at her as soon as he landed on the roof.

It seemed they were back to that…

“You’re here again,” he muttered.

She stood, and took a breath. “I am.” Already, she could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on.

“Look,” he said, crossing his arms as he stalked across the roof towards her, “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but it isn’t going to work.”

Game?

He thought this was a game?

Why did that not surprise her?

“There is no game-”

“Then whatever this is,” he hissed, gesturing to her, “this ‘trying to replace Ladybug’ thing-”

“I’m not trying to replace Ladybug!” she all but shouted.

“I never see her anymore! Except for during akuma attacks.” It was almost impressive how he was able to hiss and whine at the same time. “It’s always you.”

“I told you, she’s busy.”

“She’s always too busy for me these days-“

Something she deeply admired about her brother was his ability to stay cool. Especially with a ma like theirs. He was slow to anger, and even slower to act on that anger. And his patience at times seemed near infinite. Sometimes to his detriment.

But is was still something she admired about Luka. And something she tried to emulate.

And she had tried.

She really had.

The last thing she wanted to do was make things awkward or more difficult for Ladybug in any way.

But there was only so much she could take.

And she was at her limits.

Past them, actually.

“It isn’t about you!” she snapped. “She’s busy. She has things she needs to do.”

“So she goes to you instead of me?”

“She asked. And if she hadn’t, I would have offered.” Chat snorted. “It’s not fair that she has to do so much on her own.”

“She isn’t on her own! She has me! That should be enough.” Chat threw his arms in the air, turned, stalked a few steps away, and then whirled back to face her as he gestured to himself. “If she wanted more help, she should have asked me!”

“You’re her partner?”

“Her only partner,” he said coldly.

“Then she shouldn’t have to ask you to step up.”

“She and I have kissed! Multiple times!”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“She and I are partners. Soul mates. How is that not destiny?”

“Let me count the ways.” She held up a single finger. “If you have to have all your memories erased in order for someone to kiss you, your ‘destiny’ is looking pretty grim.”

“The Oblivio thing happened one time! We didn’t have amnesia the other-“

“Yeah,” she held up a second finger, “Nothing says romance like having to kiss someone because they’re brainwashed and trying to bash your brains out.”

“You’re just jealous,” Chat spat.

“Of who? Of what?”

“I-“

“I’m seeing someone. She and I are-”

“She?”

“Yes, she. And no, I’m not dating Ladybug, nor do I want to. She and I are friends. Good friends. But that’s it. Or do you think I’m jealous that you’re her ‘partner?’” He opened his mouth to retort, but she was done listening to his ludicrous accusations. “I’m here to do a job. A job she asked me to do. And I’m going to do my job to the best of my abilities, and have her back because that’s what she needs of me. And I am not going to let her down.”

He planted his staff against the roof hard enough for the sound to cut her off. Momentarily. Before he could open his mouth again, she she drew herself up to her full height and stepped forward with the force of the words flowing out of her mouth.

“You don’t own her. And she doesn’t owe you her love. So stop acting like it and step up and do your job.”

Her chest was heaving; she hadn’t expected to get so into it with him.

She hadn’t necessarily meant to.

But she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.

Not even a little bit.

She had meant every word she had said.

He glowered at her.

And then he turned tail and disappeared into the darkness.

***

She grit her teeth as she flexed her claws.

Why?

Why tonight?

Why couldn’t Shadowmoth just chill?

Marinette didn’t have much time left to work on her dress. The dance was the day after tomorrow. She had said she would be done her dress on time, but that had been earlier in the day. When the girls had been pestering her for a sneak peek—because Marinette had been very tightlipped about her dress—when she had thought she would have the entire evening.

Except now, they were dealing with a category five akuma.

And it was not going well.

With a furious cry, she slashed at the net the akuma had trapped her in, shredding it to pieces and freeing herself and the civilians she had been trying to evacuate. The tattered remains of the net floated down to the ground around her as she scowled at her surroundings.

Chat was supposed to be covering her.

And she would hardly call his half-hearted shout of warning as the net was already twisting itself around her and the civilians sufficient.

At least Exterminator’s attention was wholly focused on Chat now. Snapping her attention back to the civilians, she ushered them into the closest alleyway. “Get as far away as possible, and stay out of sight. I don’t know how long this is going to take,” she said before turning tail and sprinting back into the street.

Already, this akuma fight was taking longer than it should have, with the multitude of traps the akuma kept setting. And she was not feeling optimistic about it wrapping up anytime soon.

“Don’t you know cats were the original pest control?” Chat laughed from where he was perched on his staff in the middle of the street, laughing as he watched Exterminator struggle back to his feet. “You really think you can catch me?” Chat smirked in her direction as she ran past the shredded net, his eyes flashing.

Rude.

She skidded to a halt just in time to see Exterminator’s smirk, and the quick flick of his wrist that sent a roll of oversized white paper unfurling along the street under Chat’s perch.

Her eyes widened.

“Chat! Look out!”

Whether he was too busy gloating or just didn’t bother to heed her warning was unclear. She was already in motion, rushing toward him, but she was too late. She watched as Exterminator pulled out what would have been a comically enormous fly swatter if the circumstances weren’t so dire, and hit Chat’s staff out from under him.

Chat’s laugh cut off in a yelp as he fell toward the street.

Somehow, he managed to land on his feet.

Directly on the trap Exterminator had laid.

Chat laughed as he straightened to his full height. “That’s the best you can do?” he asked before trying to move to retrieve his baton. He yelped as his upper body moved while his feet stayed stuck, firmly in place. He had to frantically windmill his arms to keep himself from overbalancing and getting even more stuck on the giant roll of fly paper he had landed on.

“This city’s had a problem with alley cats for a while now,” Exterminator spat, “but this’ll show everyone that I’m the best Paris has to offer for pest control! Now it’s time to skin two cats with one stone…” Exterminator started to turn, and she dropped to the ground and slid behind the cover of an overturned bus. “…and then I can move onto the bug- where is she?”

She took a deep breath as the akuma’s roars echoed through the street.

This was good.

If he was busy looking for her, that would keep him busy while she freed Chat and waited for Ladybug to return.

“Camouflage.”

On silent feet, she skirted around Exterminator, giving him a wide berth as he scoured the street. By the time she made it over the Chat, he was still grunting and griping to himself as he tried to tug his feet free.

“Give me your hand,” she whispered so as not to alert Exterminator to her whereabouts.

Chat snapped his attention up to her—well, a bit to the left of her— and blinked. “What?”

“Quiet,” she shushed him, casting a glance over her shoulder. Exterminator thankfully hadn’t heard Chat over the sounds of his search. “Give me your hand.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“You’re a sitting duck right now.”

“I can handle myself just fine.”

“That’s not the point right now. Now take my hand so we can keep him busy-”

“Ladybug and I were fine before you showed up, I don’t need your help,” Chat spat. “Cataclysm!” The flypaper turned to dust under his touch as he smiled smugly in her general direction. “See?”

“Found you.”

She glanced up just in time to see Exterminator glaring at Chat- or rather, what would look like the empty air Chat was apparently talking to. She could see the akuma’s finger already squeezing around the trigger of his net-gun. Wordlessly, she shoved Chat to the side and then threw herself to the ground.

The net whizzed harmlessly over her head.

But it had been close.

Too close.

And now they were both on a timer…

“Get out of here,” she hissed to Chat, “we need to regroup.”

“You’re not the one in charge here,” Chat snapped as he sprang to his feet to dodge another net.

“Sorry, that took longer than I thought.” Ladybug’s voice crackled to life over their com pieces. “I’ll be there in a minute-”

“We’re both on timers now,” she replied as she threw her bolas. Exterminator ducked out of the way as they whizzed past, visible the moment they left her hand. But that was fine, all she needed was to buy time for-

“Get out of there and recharge. Meet me on the roof of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. I think I have a plan.”

***

“At the very least, it will give me a chance to get up close and figure out where the akuma is hiding before- ”

“I break it with my Cataclysm, and we save the day, bugaboo.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that? And no, it’s not going to be that simple. This akuma is tricky.”

That was an understatement. It was honestly surprising Shadowmoth hadn’t ever tried to akumatize an exterminator before. An akuma based around dealing with pests like bugs? That had Shadowmoth written all over it.

“We need to get him out in the open, were he can’t lay any more traps for us.” Exterminator had proven himself to be a much better strategist that most akumas, and his proficiency with setting magically enhanced traps was a testament to the danger he posed. “We can’t let him catch us off guard again, we’ve had too many close calls,” Ladybug continued before turning to her. “Tigress, you’re going to be taking point on this. You have the best chance of leading him out into the open without getting caught. If we can get him to the Trocadero…”

As Ladybug continued with the plan, the back of her neck prickled with the feeling of eyes on her. She glanced up from the holographic map Ladybug had pulled up on her yoyo to find bitter and venomous green eyes trained on her.

***

Her lungs were still burning as she tried to catch her breath while Roarr scarfed down the last of her emergency candy. They has a couple minutes at most before they had to get back out there and rejoin the fight.

She had managed to lead Exterminator to the Trocadéro, but she had had to burn through her invisibility. Ladybug and Chat were keeping the akuma busy and trying to identify the akumatized object while she recharged, but she didn’t want to be away from the fighting any longer than she had to.. Especially given it wasn’t just the fight with the akuma… the way Chat had kept interrupting and calling her nicknames she had told him not to while she tried to strategize… the tension had been so thick, she could have sliced it with her claws.

The less time she left the two alone, the better.

“Just about ready?”

“Almost,” Roarr said through a mouthful of gummies that were sticky and partially melted from the heat. Hopefully kwamis didn’t get cavities…

As Roarr finished the last few bites of her snack, she rolled her shoulders to try and loosen up the joints and release some of the tension that had made its way into her muscles during the strategy meeting. Somehow, being chased through the streets by the akuma as she acted as live bait had been less uncomfortable that bearing witness to the brink of another spat between the two-

“Ready!”

“Roarr, stripes on.”

The magic of her transformation had barely washed over her before she was leaping up into the air, digging her claws into the brick of the back of the buildings lining the alley she had hidden in. Chips of masonry scattered and fell as she effortlessly clawed her way up to the roof.

In a matter of minutes, she was back at the Trocadéro.

Ladybug was a blur of red around the akuma as she swung and dove and rolled, never getting particularly close to the akuma. But she was certainly keeping him busy. A blur of black whizzed by the akuma, spouting more puns and flirtatious remarks in the same breath. Ladybug didn’t respond, but it was impossible to tell if that was because she was trying to concentrate or was just trying to ignore him. Or both.

Either way, it didn’t matter. It was time for her to join the fray.

She landed lightly, and then sped toward the akuma. She slide to a stop a few steps from Ladybug, swinging her bolas to deflect a net that had been heading towards her. Ladybug shot her a quick, grateful smile before springing back and out of the way and swinging up toward the top of the Palais de Challiot. A moment later, a shimmer of red and pink light burst out from the roof of the building.

“I need you two to try and buy me some time while I figure out this Lucky Charm,” Ladybug’s voice crackled to life over the com links, “Chat, you’re going to keep him busy. Tigress, he can’t catch what he can’t see. You’re going to get the akuma, it’s in his dust-sprayer.”

Of course it was.

He had used it to try and douse them all in a foul smelling powder that had made her feel woozy when they first confronted him. Thankfully, Ladybug had been able to jam it with one of her previous Lucky Charms. But it was still intact.

As she ducked under a net swung in her direction, she caught Chat glaring at her, bitter venom in his eyes.

It was the same venomous look he had given her when Ladybug had given her the job of luring Exterminator to the Trocadéro.

She shook her head. There wasn’t time to think about that now. Now when there was an akuma standing right in front of her, aiming that stupid net gun at her again.

She took off running towards the akuma, and at the last second, dropped to slide as he launched a net directly at her. The net flew harmlessly overhead as she slid past him, murmuring to activate her powers as she went past him. The second she was hidden right in front of him, she dug her claws into the stone to stop herself from sliding further and launched herself to her feet.

Exterminator howled in pain, and she turned just in time to see him clutching his nose as Chat’s staff retracted.

At least he was keeping the akuma busy. She wished he hadn’t gone straight to making the akuma angrier… but at least he was distracted.

Now all she had to do was get in close and swipe the dust-sprayer.

Moving as light as a feather, and as quietly as a tiger stalking through the forest, she crept towards the akuma. The akuma howled in frustration and then pulled his snare trap from his back before swinging it wildly. She hissed as she dropped to the ground, just managing to avoid getting beaned in the head by the erratically swinging weapon.

“Don’t you know that cat always wins the game of cat and mouse?”” Chat called as he scraped his claws along the stone, loosening dust from the ground. With a smirk, he flung it at the akuma.

And her.

She froze, a glare directed at Chat fixed on her face even though he couldn’t see it. What was he doing? Was he trying to derail the plan? But maybe the dust hadn’t settled on her. And even if it had, maybe the akuma wouldn’t see it-“

“There you are.”

The akuma’s voice made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Without looking back to see how close the akuma was, she leapt straight up in the air with all her might. Something rushed through the space she had been occupying mere seconds ago before.

She managed to twist in midair and kick off of the akuma, who had rushed forward and unwittingly placed himself right under her. With a little less grace than usual, she landed a few feet behind the akuma. Immediately, she sprang back up and darted away from where she had landed. The akuma was looking around wildly, even with his snare trap locked with Chat’s staff. As she darted to the side to look for an opening, she caught sight of Ladybug perched on top of the roof, a small red object in her hands and a look of horror on her face.

Ladybug’s voice crackled to life in the coms. “Chat! What are you doing?”

She glanced at Chat in time to see him grit his teeth and shove against his staff, breaking the lock he had been in with Exterminator and forcing the akuma back.

Exterminator stumbled back, his free arm out to the side as he planted his snare trap to try and stop himself from overbalancing.

She had a clear path to his belt, and the dust-sprayer on it.

This was it.

On near silent feet, she sprinted forward.

She reached out for the akuma.

She was so close.

“See, M’lady, it’s you and me against the world!”

What?

“Cataclysm!”

Her eyes widened in horror as Chat’s hand erupted in a dark miasma as he lunged towards the dust-sprayer.

Towards her.

She dug her feet into the ground to try and stop herself. But she had been going so fast, it wasn’t enough to stop the momentum.

Seeing Chat hurtle towards him, Exterminator dove to the side. Out of her reach.

Out of Chat’s path.

Leaving him hurtling directly toward-

She managed to throw herself into a clumsy roll at the very last second. It wasn’t enough to avoid the collision entirely though.

Time felt like it was moving through syrup.

Heavy boots knocked against her shoulders. Claws grazed across her back.

Her heart stopped.

And then beat again as she inched through the air, no searing pain running along her back.

At least it hadn’t been his Cataclysm hand as far as she could tell.

But as she and Chat tumbled over and against each other, she felt her bolas swing up with her momentum. And then suddenly they were changing direction. Like they had hit something.

Or been pushed by-

And just as suddenly, their weight was gone.

And time doubled to catch up with itself.

The impact of Chat hitting her threw her off kilter enough so that she landed heavily on her shoulder with a thud and a very uncontrolled roll before she skidded to a stop against the pavement. The impact was enough to knock the air from her lungs.

But it could have been worse.

Gingerly, she picked herself back up and turned. Just in time to see Chat dragging himself up from the ground.

And Exterminator rushing right towards him, holding what looked like an oversized can of pesticide foam at the ready.

Despite her protesting muscles, she rushed forward and shoved Chat—maybe a little harder than was necessary—out of the way of the foul smelling stream of toxic green foam.

Exterminator barrelled past them. He started to skid to a stop, but then a familiar zip of a yoyo cut the air and the akuma was suddenly windmilling his arms. And then he fell flat on his face, just short of the pile of foam.

Ladybug was a red blur as she dove off of the roof; she was beside the Exterminator in an instant, ripping the dust-sprayer from his belt brusquely. Even with her back to her, she could see the tension in every inch of Ladybug’s body. And- her hands were shaking as she clutched the dust-sprayer in one and the unused Lucky Charm in the other.

Wordlessly, in one swift and sharp movement, Ladybug slammed the dust-sprayer down as she drover her knee up, snapping it with a loud and decisive crack that split the suddenly too-quiet air.

The next thing she knew, Ladybug’s yoyo was capturing the akuma.

But she was silent as she purified it.

She dropped her invisibility as the white butterfly fluttered away.

She watched as Ladybug pulled the akuma victim to his feet and offered him some quiet words. He nodded, and then, with an apologetic look cast in her and Chat’s direct, he hastily walked off. When she turned back to look at Ladybug, she had her Lucky Charm in her hands again. And she was staring at it.

It was hard to tell from where she was standing, but it looked like an egg-timer.

Ladybug stared at it silently. Until finally, she sighed. The moment Ladybug sighed, the timer began to ring, its sound shrill against the quiet.

She watched as Ladybug took a breath, and then hurled it into the air as she cast her purification spell.

The second the ladybugs disappeared, Ladybug turned sharply to face her and Chat. Her blue eyes were burning like ice as she approached. The burning ice flickered out of Ladybug’s eyes as they darted to her. “You ok?” she asked quietly.

She nodded.

With a short nod of her own, the icy flames returned to Ladybug’s eyes as she drew level with her and Chat.

“What,” Ladybug asked, her voice so quiet it would have been impossible to hear if not for the fact that the streets were still eerily empty in the aftermath of the akuma battle, “was that?”

Ladybug wasn’t looking at her. Not even remotely. Her eyes were fixed directly on Chat. But she still took a half a step back form the weight of her voice.

Chat audibly swallowed.

“Well, I… I was only-”

“What were you thinking? Throwing that dust?”

“I was trying to blind him!”

“And risk Tigress getting caught?”

“How was I supposed to know she would be there? She was invisible!”

Awkwardly, she shifted her weight between her feet. Should she jump in? Should she say something?

She had seen plenty of their spats firsthand, from the ones that were little more than bickering, to the ones that were full on arguments, which had become more and more frequent ever since she first received the tiger miraculous. But none of them had been…

“It was the entire plan! I told you she would be in close range. You knew she would be trying to get the akuma! You knew she could have been caught in the crossfire!”

“I’m not her babysitter,” Chat spat. “Besides, she’s a big girl, she can take care of herself. You certainly seem to think so.”

It was one thing to tell Chat how she really felt. But getting involved in a fight between the two of them…

It was like watching a tennis match, the way they volleyed back and forth. Her gaze followed the trajectory of the fight with every spoken strike.

“That isn’t the point. We’re a team.”

“We’re partners!”

“And the way you just ignored the plan and jumped in the first chance you got? That’s what partners do?”

“I was taking initiative. I was doing my job.”

“You were supposed to distract him!”

“What? So she could do my job?” He flung his arm to gesture at her, almost hitting her given the proximity.

Maybe she wouldn’t have a choice on getting involved… as appealing as standing and watching them argue was-

Before she could even so much as open her mouth, Chat continued. “I’m your partner. It’s been us from the start! And then suddenly you’re bringing in other people-”

“We need the help!”

“And you changed when you became the Guardian-”

“I never asked to be-”

“You gave out another miraculous without asking me and you’re letting her keep one!” He gestured at her again.

“We- I needed help!”

“No you didn’t! You have me!”

“No, I didn’t!”

Chat stumbled back at Ladybugs words. Both of their chests were heaving, and their faces were the same scarlet as Ladybug’s suit. Tears glimmered at the corners of Ladybug’s eyes. She stepped forward, but before she could place herself between the two, before she could reach out to comfort Ladybug, Ladybug broke the silence.

“I didn’t have you.”

Ladybug’s quiet, broken voice took her back to her room on the Liberty. Back to her friend, sitting beside her on her bed, spilling tears over too many responsibilities for one person to handle.

“Oh, Bugaboo,” Chat crooned, his furious face instantly softening, “of course you did. I’ll always be by your side, M’lady.”

Ladybug’s eyes darted back up from the ground to Chat.

“Frozer.”

Chat’s brows furrowed. “What-”

“Glaciator.”

With each name, Ladybug took a step forward.

“Oblivio. Dark Cupid-”

“M’lady, what are you talking about?”

“All the akumas where you’ve been more interested in goofing off or flirting. That, or having a snit because you were mad I don’t feel the same way.”

“I don’t-”

“I needed help.”

“We beat all of those akumas!”

“Barely! And always by the seat of our pants, because you never listen to me.”

“I listen!”

Ladybug let out an incredulous half-laugh before she drew herself up to her full height. She was still more that half a head shorter than Chat, but somehow, she didn’t seem to be.

“Like you listened tonight?” Ladybug’s voice was quiet steel.

“I- I- I…” she could see Chat floundering for something to say. Some way out of the grave he had dug for himself. “I did follow the plan!” She had to hold back a snort. Ladybug’s face morphed to pure incredulity. “I let her get the akuma to the Trocadéro! I was distracting it!”

“And then you jumped in anyways when Tigress had an opening!”

“I was being a hero!”

“You could have hurt her.” Technically, he had. The suit protected her, but the fall had still hurt. “You could have Cataclysmed her!”

“If she hadn’t been there to begin with this wouldn’t have happened!” Wildly, he turned to glare at her. “This was your fault! You told me to step up! If you hadn’t-”

“Chat! Stop. It.”

“But Bugaboo, she told me to- if she hadn’t interfered-”

“Don’t ever talk to her that way.” Ladybug’s voice was quiet and even. And deadly. “Don’t ever talk about her like that.”

“Bugaboo-”

“Don’t. Call. Me. That.”

“But-”

“You knew the plan.” Ladybug took a step toward Chat, the sheer weight of her voice was enough to silence him. “You chose to do your own thing.” Chat shrank back as Ladybug took another step. His face was stark white against the black of his mask, and it looked like the carpet had just been ripped out from under him. “You chose not to be part of the team.” She hissed, jabbing a finger into his chest.

Ladybug looked like she wanted to say more, but she was interrupted by another beep from her earrings.

“I’ll find you later Tigress,” she said, turning away from Chat curtly. Her voice was still still sharp, but it obviously wasn’t directed at her. And then with a flick of her wrist and the familiar zip of her yoyo, she was gone in a red and black blur.

Heavy silence hung in the air. Everything was still; there was no breeze, no rush of traffics or people going about their evening. There wasn’t even the sound of any pigeons.

It was like the world was holding its breath.

Chat cast her an icy glare. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she turned on her heel and darted into the shadows of the Palais de Challiot.

#endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #juleka vs the forces of the universe #juleka couffaine #marinette dupain cheng #luka couffaine #adrien agreste #ladybug #purple tigress #chat noir #chat noir salt #adrien salt #high sodium #miracuclass #alya cesaire #alya salt

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bloodboundsiege · 1 year ago

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project update/where i've been/other stuff

Hey everyone! I know it's been a loooooooong time since I posted anything or gave any updates, but since I just updated the demo with some bug fixes--you can go here or to the pinned post on my page to download the new patch if you want to take the demo out for another spin--, I figured it was as good a time as any to talk about what's been going on.

This is probably going to turn into a long post, so if you don't want to read all of that, here's the tl;dr: Bloodbound: The Siege is still underway, I just was going through a really difficult period. Thank you all for your support of me and your continued enthusiasm for this project. It doesn't go unnoticed, and I'm really thankful for it.

Where I've Been

You know how sometimes someone will take forever to post an update to their fic and then the author's note will be like hey, sorry it took me so long to upload a new chapter, I was kidnapped? This is nothing like that. It's a lot less juicy, but I figured I'd still talk about it.

When I first started working on this visual novel, I was doing some freelance social media work, living with my family, and had a ton of free time on my hands. I would literally wake up every day and sit at my desk for 9+ hours a day, working on this project, making music, or writing screenplays.

At the end of last summer, I moved across the country, started grad school, and started working a pretty demanding job to support myself. It was also the first time since 2020 that I was doing any kind of significant socializing, and I was still working on this project, along with my other endeavors.

I felt like I was killing it. It didn't matter that wasn't getting a lot of sleep or really taking care of myself. I was somehow doing everything I wanted to do and needed to do.

And then...it caught up with me, right around when I released the demo for BBTS. I was having panic attacks at work, barely making deadlines for school, and it would take me half the day to work up the energy to get out of bed. It felt like I could do was sit in my room, watch Netflix, and doomscroll. Everything else was left to the wayside. Even though I was able to finish out my spring semester with good grades and left my job on good terms, I was hanging by the skin of my teeth. I also had some really messy stuff going on in my personal life that exacerbated these issues.

I had to spend this summer trying to rebuild myself and find a balance again. I'm in a much better place now--I started working out, which has been great for my anxiety, I quit vaping, I'm starting to be more conscious about what I put in my body and how it affects me, but I had to prioritize myself and my well being in order to get to this place.

As a side note, the experience of announcing this project and releasing this demo has been...strange. I put a lot of work into this project, from teaching myself how to code to writing the story, and this is the most visible thing I've ever put out. I was hoping maybe fifty people would play this demo and be like cool, but it's a much higher number, and a lot more feedback.

And that's both really cool and really scary. Cool because it's awesome that people appreciate something I created. Scary because now I want to make it good. I don't want to disappoint you all.

A Brief Tangent On How People Interact With Fandom Creators Sometimes

Even though I'm not always super active/interactive on here, I really enjoy getting asks about the project, whether it's hype, an inquiry, or feedback. Even if it's negative feedback, I know that it's coming from a good place. I also am really appreciative of messages that are either letting me know about bugs, or expressing any concerns about the story I am planning to tell. I don't take those kinds of things personally at all.

But I have noticed--and this is not just exclusive to the Choices fandom--that sometimes, people will interact with fic writers, fan devs, or really anyone that makes any kind of ContentTM in a way that isn't any of the aforementioned things I described above. Sometimes, the way that people interact with me--or other creators--is demanding, passive aggressive, or outright hostile. Other times, it may be well-intentioned, but it still feels like it's crossing some boundaries.

I'm extremely thankful to everyone who has reached out to check on me, but there's a huge difference between doing that and accusing me of abandoning this project and framing it as a deep moral failing on my part. I know I'm not the only person in this fandom that's experienced this. It really doesn't feel good, and it isn't helpful. Even if I had just decided I was no longer feeling BBTS and decided to dip, that isn't okay.

I additionally ask that in the event of another pause in posting on this project, people not reach out to me on my personal tumblr to ask about the status of this project, or to tell me to check my DMs or inbox on this page, or anything of that sort. To my recollection, I have never posted the URL my personal tumblr on this page. Like I said before, I'm appreciative of the fact that people are passionate about this project, but it's important to me to be able to keep this space and that space separate from one another.

I would absolutely understand any of this kind of behavior if there was money involved. If I had investors to answer to, or people pre-ordered the completed game from me and paid up front, people would absolutely be within their right to be frustrated with the radio silence that's been coming from my end and reach out to ask about the status of the game, or even be upset with me. But that isn't what's happening here.

This project is supposed to be fun. There's something really liberating about the fact that I can't ever monetize this or put it into a portfolio. It means it's for me and for you. We're all just supposed to be here because we like being here.

But part of the reason why the burnout and the anxiety I was experiencing spilled over into this project was because of these more pushy interactions. It made me feel like I was letting people down, or like the stakes of this were higher than they actually are.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, or like a diva. Like I said, I'm really appreciative of the reception of this project, and I'm grateful for any and all feedback, inquiries, or curiosities. But I just ask that everyone be respectful, and I don't think that's an unreasonable request. We'll all have a good time--both here and in the larger Choices fandom--if we're kind to one another, and if we're respectful of each other's boundaries.

Is Bloodbound: The Siege Still Happening?

Bloodbound: The Siege is still happening, but it is not going to be coming out this year, unless I somehow gain the ability to freeze time. Most of the sprite work is done--though I might do another round of retrofitting sprites into their respective dialogue boxes because I'm a glutton for punishment--and I'm pretty close to completing the more detailed outline of this story.

While I'm not ready to do this yet, it is extremely likely that by the end of the year, I'll start seeking out additional help for this project, mostly with programming. There will be a more detailed post about that when the time comes.

Until then, it's good to be back. Catch you on the flipside.

#bloodbound #bloodbound the siege #bbts #playchoices #choices stories you play #update #text

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meanderforth · 2 months ago

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Hey, folks!

In the last update, I detailed the techniques used to port the levels from the old GameMaker version of Meander Forth to the Godot engine.

I had hoped to have a playable build of the game ready for patrons by the time this post rolled around, but it's not quite ready yet. There are still some finishing touches and known issues I need to work out. I can safely say it will be available soon, however!

In the meantime, here are some updates regarding the game:

Outskirts Progress:

First and foremost, I've made some more headway on the outskirts stage, populating it with NPC's and story events!

As the opening stage of the game, the Outskirts area serves as an introduction to the game's mechanics, world, story, and characters.

It opens with a scene of three friends (Isaak the human, Scotty the fox, and Garret the otter) getting reacquainted after some time apart.

As the stage progresses, Garret bumps into a variety of quirky characters, such as his sister Emerald and his brother Parlo, who seem elated that Garret is finally out-and-about.

If you've played the Teak's Tall Tale demo, you may recognize some familiar faces! Meander Forth picks up right where that one left off.

It seems Garret's friends are worried about something, however. It must be important, if they have their own cutscene areas!

Not everyone has some long-winded diatribe, of course. Some just spout what's on their mind. And that's okay.

Admittedly, this stage has a lot of dialog. In fact, it probably has the most out of any stage in the game! Despite the blocky aesthetic, my goal is to create a world that feels "alive." I want players to really get a sense of what this world means to Garret... and what it means for it to be stolen away from him.

Godot 4.3

Since the last update, I have upgraded the game's engine from Godot 4.2 to Godot 4.3. The previous version had a lot of issues regarding pixel art positioning and scaling, causing art on the screen to shimmer and jitter. 4.3 fixes this issue, giving the game a smoother feel.

A by-product of this update is that the framerate can now be uncapped without introducing ugly visual artifacts. An option to choose your desired framerate will be added to the settings menu for those with faster monitors.

School Stuff

As of the writing of this post, the Fall 2024 semester of my college has begun! Admittedly, I'm taking this semester off from school. I have completed all-but-two of the classes in my program, and neither of them will be available until Spring.

Thankfully, I have been allowed to continue my front-desk job at the school's tutoring center, so I will be able to support myself with that, and even work on some STEM-related projects such as this one in the downtime.

Admittedly, development may slow down a bit as I get adjusted, but rest assured the pace will pick back up when I get used to the new schedule.

Thank you for reading! I hope to see you in the next update. Hopefully I'll have something playable ready by then. After that, it'll be time to create the second part of this level: the Forest area. (Note: These areas will have better names in the final game, haha!)

Note: This is a cross-post from my p*treon blog. The original can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/3-sept-2024-111383422

#gamedev #indiedev #meanderforth #otter

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fallin4fiction · 5 months ago

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Flex Legacy Gen 5: Discovering University (with Ulterior Motives)

The family wasn’t doing the best financially and it may be the Watchers fault for replacing bedrooms instead of redecorating them because she was too lazy to do so.

Sullivan joined the family with only 700 Simoleans because his family had inherited Salim Benali’s broke apartment and nothing else, so that meant everyone (sans the infant) had to get a job. Sullivan joined that one Snowy Escape Career where he had to work long hours and Aaliyah joined the military.

Leo decided to be different and go to Britchesrer and earn a degree. He hoped to one day become an internet personality( also he wanted to get away from his almost full capacity household for a bit) He also has a hidden motive to introduce his newly divorced sister to some of his dormmates, but that doesn't go so well because no one really stands out to Aaliyah.

The Watcher decides to take matters in her own hands and intriduce Aaaliyah to a sim grom the gallery. She meets Aubrey Deckland and immediately finds her extremely attractive. They liked each other so much that they get engaged and married on the spot.

Meanwhile, Leo finished his first semester and managed to maintain his marriage with Sullivan with a date at a bar in Oasis Springs.

The family’s funds also got a hefty motherlode when Leo’s grandparents passed away. It’s Bittersweet because the Watcher really loved Mariah and Amadou, but also the family needs that money so Leo and Sullivan can move out.

#sims 4 #sims 4 legacy #flex family #gen 5

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britany1997 · 2 years ago

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Little Announcement/Update For Y’all:

This week is Spring “break” for me so I’ll be working on y’all’s requests all week in between studying:) I’d like to clear my ask box and finish off all the requests if I can:)

After Spring break, Monday March 20th, I won’t be quite as active on here. I don’t want to call it a hiatus because I plan on replying to messages and asks as often as I can, but I probably won’t be posting nearly as much. Maybe a fic a week, if that.

It’s going to be “get serious,” time for Law school😣 I’ll have to start hard core studying for finals because they’re 100% of my grade in four of my classes and the way the Law school curve works, it’s impossible for everyone to get As:( professors have a certain number of As they can give, a certain number of Bs and a certain number of Cs unfortunately🫠 and I have to keep a 3.5 to keep my scholarship. (Last semester I got some As and an A- but I got a B and a C+ as well)

I haven’t decided if I’m going to open requests again after I finish the ones I have, but if I do, I’ll probably only take like 3-4 requests and do those over the course of a month or so.

I’m really sorry if this is disappointing, I really wish I’d be able to have more time to devote to my writing for the next month or so after the break, but again, writing isn’t my full time job, being a law student is.

I’m hoping to have more time over the summer to work on fics and writing for y’all because I’ll have weekends free, but for April and the first week of May it’s gonna be all about school.

Thank you for understanding, I love y’all, thanks for all y’all’s support and encouragement��️

#the lost boys #the lost boys fic

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bisexual-horror-fan · 1 year ago

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"Making Him The Exception." Machete Sam X AFAB! Reader.

Okay! So! I love the movie Club Dread. It is this silly horror comedy that is kinda parodying slasher movies, and we watched it in the Boiler Lounge the other week and everyone was looking at Sam being like, “Why he kindaaaa-” and I joked about writing him a fic, and so, here it is! This is very much in the same vein of that fic I did for Steve The Kayak King. I don’t wanna fuck Sam personally but I love, love, love doing a fun silly joke fic on occasion! So let's get into this, I had so much fun doing it and I hope you like the ridiculousness.

—

Rating. NSFW, Length. 3.2K. Machete Sam X AFAB! Reader. Warnings: Reckless Partying And Hook-up Culture. Jokes. Bantering. Teasing. Alcohol Consumption. Friends With Benefits. Sexually Forward Reader.

—

You were enjoying vacation on Coconut Pete’s Pleasure Island massively. Stupid games, hanging by the pool or on the beach, more food and more drink than any one college student could or should, reasonably consume. You met lots of great people on your trip too, you had no shortage of people to talk to, you found yourself talking with just about anybody.

First breakfast with a group of college kids from Tampa on spring break who were on the same soccer team. Next, then you could have lunch on the sand with some tourists from Europe who were weirdly into Pete’s music and saved up to come to his island getaway resort together, their suitcases half full of his entire discography on vinyl that they found in thrift shops across the pond. Last you then did dinner from the buffet with this couple who were on again off again, on while on vacation together, off when at their respective schools, the distance too much while the semesters happen so they simply break up until the next time they can be together in the same space for a reasonable amount of time. Weird but they seemed to really live it up when together at least.

You however, were very glad you came here alone, able to just have time for you, soak up the tropical atmosphere and party hardy to your contentment. You normally worry a lot about other people, this trip was about being selfish, indulging yourself and what you want completely, no whim was ignored, no craving left unsatiated.

Something that you hadn’t counted on was how friendly, helpful and damn fun the staff at this resort was, they were very involved and clearly good at what they did. You took some tennis lessons from Putman, did a cliff diving session with Juan, but the one person you kept running into was Sam, resident fun police, his entire job was to ensure people were having a good time. He clearly loved his work, an almost permanent smile on his face, playful demeanour and a mischievous look in his eyes, always flitting about, encouraging people to get into games, get out of their shells, talk to people, pairing couples up or to take a shot. He had a really positive excitable energy that was infectious.

It took a while into your stay for you two to become properly introduced, mostly due to the fact you were already constantly out and about having fun, no need for him to step in. The night you first had a conversation it was in the dance club. You were catching your breath after a bout of dancing, leaning against the bar and he came up, gesturing to Lars with one hand, the other holding up his comically large water gun, “I need a refill.”

“You got it!” Came the call in response and then a bottle of tequila was thrust into his open and outstretched palm. You watched as the cap on the back tank of the gun was spun open, the lid on the bottle flicked off and then as he upended it to fill the toy meant for summer fun with 40%, silver, grade A, bad decision juice. Your eyebrows raised and you asked for the thumping beat of the techno-dancey music, “You’re putting tequila in that?”

His gaze flicked over to you, grin widening as he responded like it was obvious, he spoke loudly as he responded, “Yeah!”

“Why?” You ask and he shrugs, “Can you think of a more fun way to take a shot?”

You hum in consideration and offer up, "Jello shots?"

He scoffs as if offended, "Jello shots are the peak vehicle of alcoholic consumption and fun to you? What are we in? Seventh grade?"

He finished filling the gun up and gestured with it, "Vodka laden gelatin in disposable plastic tops this?"

The vigorous action of him pumping the gun to ready it to shoot makes you stifle a giggle, you say, “I dunno! I’ve never taken a shot via squirt gun before!”

There is that look again, pure mischief, he holds the gun up, braced against his shoulder, pointing it directly at you, he asks, “Do you want to?”

A laugh breaks out, you push off the bar turning to face him and put your hands on your hips, “Are you challenging me?”

He laughs too, throwing on a goofy country southern drawl that matches the cowboy hat he was sporting perfectly, he says, “Sure am partner.”

You continue the bit, “You positive you can make a shot like this?”

“Fastest fingers this side of the e-qau-tor.” He stretched out “equator” with his accent and you laugh harder, “Well shoot, gimmie all you got.”

Arms out and mouth open, you close your eyes and he takes the aforementioned shot, a long, honestly too long, stream of tequila right between your lips. The taste was so strong, the force of it more powerful than you anticipated, it burned, you almost gag, it overflows your mouth but you get a few swallows full before he stops. Your eyes crack back open, hand swipes over your chin, mopping up some of the alcohol. Your outfit feels more damp now and it isn't from the sweat you worked up on the dance floor, you are sure you reek of tequila, you take a deep breath and only sputter and cough once, an action he deems, "Impressive!"

The thumbs up he gives puts the smile back on your face and he asks, "So? What's the verdict?"

"Fun! Very fucking fun. Better than a jello shot." You admitted, it was certainly more memorable if nothing else and he beams, "Told you!"

He did. Someone called out, "Hey Sammy! Hit me!"

He turned when hearing the call, he pointed at them, "I'm coming for you!"

A look over his shoulder with an adjustment of that same ridiculous cowboy hat, "Duty calls. See you round-"

You fill in the blank, give him your name, he thanks you and then with a wave and you say, "See you later."

Off he goes, water gun at the ready, you turn back to the bar to order a palette cleanser to chase down the burn of the tequila and you hear the high pitched half scream from the other patron getting their fair share shot down their throat and Sam’s loud laughter. He’s a cool and funny guy, definitely worthy of the name of fun police you have decided.

The next time you see Sam is when he is hosting a Luau night on the beach. You hear his voice behind you asking, “Cocktail?”

You turn with a smile and are greeted with the sight of Sam clad in a button up tropical themed short sleeved shirt and a grass skirt over cargo shorts, a coconut bra thrown over top the shirt and a ludicrously large hat made out of woven dried grass you couldn’t help almost choking on your laughter. He was holding a tray that was filled with cocktails in halved pineapples, bright multi-coloured umbrellas sticking out along with crazy straws and those little plastic swords stuck with fruit.

“Uh yeah sure.” You answer around another laugh as you reach out and pluck up one of the drinks and he asks, “What’s the matter?”

One hand is on his waist, the other holding up the tray he cocks out his hip, the pose makes the laughter worse and you manage to get out, “Your outfit is killing me man.”

“What? You don’t like it?” He asks in a higher tone that only further adds to the comedy, both hands on the tray he sways back and forth before fully twirling showing off the movement of the skirt.

“No, I like it a lot! It is very on brand.”

“And what is my brand?” He asks and you say with a nod, “Fun! It’s in your job title and everything right?”

“You got me there. Glad I am living up to my potential!” He concedes and you finally take a sip of your drink and holy shit it is really good, fruity and strong but not in an off putting way. You pull it back from your face and ask, “Wow! This is delicious, did you make it yourself?”

“I did! My own recipe believe it or not, sometimes fucking around behind the bar pays off.” He seemed to appreciate the compliment. “Well keep it up, you’re making it hard for me to want a drink made by anyone else.”

“Then don’t, come bug me whenever you are thirsty.”

You take him up on the offer and thus you and Sam end up talking and spending way more time together. More conversations happen and one day, when he is on duty at the swim up bar at the pool, you were in your bathing suit, sitting on one of the stools that was in the water and chatting, “Hey Sammy?”

“Mmm?” He hums in acknowledgment, eyes flicking up briefly from his task of cutting up lemon wedges.

“You like your job?” You ask, the curly straw sitting in your tiki mug resting on your lips. He smiles and says, “Yeah! I love my job. I love working here, what I do, the island is my home. I’m really happy here.”

“Good! I’m glad!” You say, honestly and he asks, “Why do you wanna know?”

You tell him, “Just been thinking lately about how you are always so concerned with everyone else having fun, I was wondering, who is ensuring that YOU are having fun.”

How fucking sweet was that. He pauses cutting, he wasn’t expecting you to say this but he is quick on his feet and he says, “I got it handled don’t worry, if I am in charge of fun for the whole island that means I am in charge of my fun too.”

You stick your tongue out, “Boo! Bullshit, you need someone who can take some of that weight off your shoulders. You already worry about everyone’s happiness too often.” Something you could relate far too much to.

“Cuz it’s my job!” He exclaims with a gesture of the knife in one hand and you pile on, leaning closer over the bar, “But you need someone to look after you!”

“What do you suggest I do in this case?” He asks, maintaining eye contact he leans closer too and you say, “I should be your fun buddy! Let me be the person making sure you are having a good time.”

“Have you ever thought that ensuring everyone else’s good time IS my good time?” He says and you scoff, “Okay even if you do love your work it is still work. Stop deflecting. Yes or no?”

“Okay, okay I can admit that maybe the idea has some appeal. But, again I don’t think it is needed!” You cut him off, “It’ll improve my experience and make sure I have the most fun possible! How about that?”

That makes him stop. Well shit, a loophole. You got him. He gives in, “Okay, if it will help you have fun then it’s my job to listen.”

He reaches out, he takes your hand not holding the knife and asks sincerely, “Be my fun buddy while you are here on vacation?”

“Yes I will! You won’t regret it Sam!” You tell him excitedly and he laughs, his hand falling away, “You are right, I am sure I won’t.”

Sam is always so busy, constantly throwing himself into his work and activities and seemingly having a blast while doing it, there wasn’t any real opportunity for you to step in and try to make him have fun, just as he said earlier, he seemingly had it covered. Still you were not convinced, a nagging thought that something was off.

You were watching him as he took a bungee cord and hooked it around two people, forcing them to be pressed together, chest to chest on the dance floor. You watch the body language, the eye contact, flushing skin, tentative touch and greetings, all instigated by him, a built in meet cute thanks to him. Sam was so good at that, you would see him set up people and consistently after he introduced them and put them in some situation where they had to talk, play a game or get to know each other? You’d see them hanging out long after whatever scenario he forced them into, you wondered just how many people have fucked on vacation here solely because of him.

That’s it!

Hitting all at once you realise that Sam is always pairing up other people but you had never seen him with anyone. You’d see literally every other staff member hooking up with people, multiple people at once in some cases, whether fellow staff or guests but never Sam. You hadn’t hooked up with anyone yet yourself and that is the one thing you would say was missing from this vacation, this is how you could help him out. Besides, what is more fun than casual sex?

You made your move when he was in between tasks the following day, you caught him after doing the morning exercise salute and before breakfast was being served. You tapped on his shoulder after you caught up, “Heya Sammy!”

His head turned and he caught sight of you and said, “Oh! Hey! You having a good day so far?”

“It’s barely started Sam but so far? Yeah, I’m feeling good.” You admit with a shrug, you and he were walking and talking now.

“I bet, you slept in, right? I missed you at the crab walk.” He teased and you said, “Went for an early swim, I still got some moving in, don’t worry.”

“Good! Being active is important, you know?” A good enough segue. “I couldn’t agree more, being active is important so I wanted to ask. How sexually active are you?”

That made him stop in his tracks. You stop too. He looked confused and then asked slowly, “I’m…I’m sorry?”

“I asked how sexually active are you?”

“I. I don’t know how to respond, where is this coming from?” He asked and you started walking again, motioning for him to follow, “I was watching you the other day, thinking about it, being your designated fun buddy, and it seems you were right. You got a really good handle on having a lot of fun and a good time!”

“Uh-huhhh, but?” He starts and you cut in, “But, I noticed I never see you with anybody! Are you not hooking up with anyone? Are you like, against the idea of casual sex?”

“What? No! Not against it or anything I just-I get caught up in my work.” He started to defend himself and you cut him off, “Alright so I was right! You aren’t fucking anyone!”

“Christ! Not so fucking loud.” He looked around to make sure no one could overhear, visibly relaxing when he was sure no one had, “How do you think it would look if the fun police is too preoccupied getting everyone else laid to get any himself? It’s totally pathetic.”

“So do you actually care about not getting any or just how it would look if other people knew?” You asked and he sighed, “I do care! I just get so wrapped up in everything else I don’t think of it often, alright?”

“All your fellow staff members are getting it regularly so what is your excuse?”

His hands gesture as if it will hopefully make his point stronger, “Well I’m a lot better at my job than any of them so-”

“Really? Cuz I thought your job was all things fun? Isn’t no strings attached vacation fuck fests fun? Aren’t you supposed to lead by example?”

He stops again, a hand on your shoulder effectively stopping you too, “Where are you going with this? Did you stop me just to insult me for not getting any pussy or?”

“No! God, no! I stopped you to tell you that I have come up with a solution!”

“Oh I am dying to hear this. Lay it out.” He insists and you say, “I’m suggesting as your fun buddy that you and I fuck.”

Jaw drops open slightly and brows knit together and he says, “What?”

“I said, we should fuck! It can be that totally casual fun, no risk or strings attached kind of fucking that this resort is known for.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He asks and you say, “Seriously! I am gonna be going home in a week, so we can just let loose! I think it will be good for you.”

“From fun buddies to fuck buddies just like that-” He snaps his fingers for emphasis, “,huh? Just, turn it on and go?”

“Exactly. I think it will wake up the ol libido, get you out of your slump and then you can fuck other guests after I leave cuz you will have the want to pursue, that craving and urge you will need to satisfy.”

“Are you my or my dick’s fun buddy?” He asks and you laugh, “Both! Now c’mon, what do you say?”

“I say you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this.” He says with a sigh, a hand running through his hair, he eyes you up and down before asking, “How do you know I would even be into such an arrangement?”

“Sam. I have eyes. I’ve seen you staring when I’m in my bathing suit and I am sure you’ve seen me staring too.” Your eyes drop down before coming back up to meet his gaze, saying confidently, “Also you are embarrassingly hard in your cargo shorts right now during this conversation.”

His eyes snap down too before he says with a nod, “Okay. Fair point.”

“So! Good, glad we are in agreement, I’m going to get breakfast, I’ll meet up with you later and we can bang this out.” You clapped him on the shoulder and then stepped away with a grin, a wave over your shoulder as you walked towards the restaurant, “Try not to cream yourself thinking about me, alright? I want that load all for myself.”

He was left standing there dumbfounded. This was so much to deal with, you were so cool, he knew that, but you being so casual and confident, unbothered at the same time, concerned for him and so sexually forward, the mix of it is enough to make his head spin. How was he supposed to focus on work today?

As you walked towards getting some food you felt proud of yourself, excited for later on. You agree with the stance of fuck the police but you didn’t think you’d ever take it so literally, you wonder if he’d like that joke, he probably would roll his eyes and call it terrible but still laugh at it. As you are walking by the pool you glance down at the hot tub, the one where the glass sides of the jacuzzi show into the bar/nightclub area, visible from the dance floor and you know that is where it’s gotta happen. You can’t wait to show him just how long you can hold your breath underwater.

#Machete Sam X reader #club dread x reader #slasher x reader #BHF writing #Enjoy this silly joke fic #Maybe it will get a part two someday of the actual fucking!

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