#hopefully tomorrow u will still feel better too okay !!!!!!!

[haleyhunwritess]

hiiii if requests are open can u write one where she has bad period cramps and its seb or bucky taking care of her with like lots of fluff and maybe he teases her for crying at a commercial because shes feeling hormonal cuz of her period but it just ends with a lot of fluff💕

𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝

pairing: bucky x reader

warning: period cramps, FLUFFFF

a/n: i woke up with the worst cramps possible and all i wanted was to cuddle with someone but i'm on campus now trying to get some work done :( i wanna post some more period comfort fics, maybe today or tomorrow! i have an old period comfort fic request from @chrisevansdaughter that i'm working on that i can hopefully post soon 💗

"Do you think it's bleeding? It feels like it's bleeding." Bucky groaned, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh please, you're fine." You mumbled from the couch, clutching your lower abdomen while holding your breath as your cramps started to get worse.

This morning you'd woken up to the most painful cramps you've ever experienced. You assumed that they were pre-period cramps, and tried to go back to sleep. However, a few minutes later, you felt Bucky's hand on your shoulder gently shaking you awake. You mumbled five more minutes, before trying to go back to sleep.

"Love, wake up," he whispered, glancing down at the dark stain on the bed, "You're bleeding, doll."

Suddenly awake, you quickly opened your eyes and turned to look down at the crimson stain on the bed. Groaning loudly, you put your head in your hands. You normally got your period on time, though sometimes it could be a day or two late. It was rarely ever early. You weren't supposed to get your period for another 4 days, and yet here it was. You felt embarrassed, but fortunately that feeling didn't last long as your body started to cramp up again. You whimpered loudly, while clutching your stomach and struggling to breathe.

You struggled to sit up, as the cramps were somehow starting to get even worse. Bucky quickly put one arm behind your back, and held your hand in his, to help you sit up. You quietly thanked him before turning your gaze back down to the stain, and cursing silently, "I'm so sorry, bubba, I wasn't supposed to get my period yet. I didn't mean to ruin your sheets."

"Love, I'm not mad at you. You have nothing to be sorry about, it's okay. I'm sorry I had to wake you up but we've gotta get you cleaned up." Bucky kissed your forehead, before getting up and leaving the room.

He came back a few minutes later with some towels, a water bottle, and some ibuprofen. He handed you the ibuprofen first, which you gladly took before washing it down with some water. Then he helped you get up carefully, holding you gently in his arms as he lead you over to the bathroom. He put the towels down on the counter, then walked over to the shower to turn on the hot water.

"Alright, doll. You take as long as you need in there, okay? If you need anything, just shout and I'll come running. I'm just gonna go clean up in the room, okay?" Before you could even protest, he left the bathroom to take the sheets to the laundry.

You stepped out of the shower after a while, already starting to feel a bit better. You noticed Bucky had left a pair of his sweatpants and his favourite hoodie on the counter next to the towels. There was also a bag of supplies on the ground, with different feminine hygiene products, a heating pad, some painkillers you were definitely going to need later, and some other essentials. After drying yourself off with the towel, you got dressed quickly and decided to go check on Bucky.

You found him downstairs in the kitchen, pouring hot water into a cup. Walking over to him, you noticed a familiar sweet smell coming from the kitchen. That's when you noticed a fresh batch of his painfully-delicious pancakes sitting on the counter. You put your arms around his waist, pulling him closer to you. He turned around, and pulled you into his arms gently, being careful not to hug you too tight in case you still have cramps.

You helped him carry the pancakes and the tea over to the living room. You sat down in front of the TV and started flipping through the channels. Bucky picked up your fork, and started feeding you small bites as you settled on what show to watch. Eventually, breakfast was over and you were cuddled up on the couch watching titanic. You've only seen the movie once and you found the ending sad, but you never cry at the ending. Until today. It seemed like your body was determined to make you miserable today as you wiped the tears that were streaming down your face at a fast pace. You hoped Bucky wouldn't notice that you were crying, especially just because of a movie. You glanced over at him and noticed he was straight at you, and trying to stifle a laugh. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't contain his laughter anymore. He got up from the couch, still laughing, as you glared him.

"Screw you, Barnes, it's not funny!" You picked up a pillow from the couch and threw it at him, but it only made him laugh harder.

"I'm sorry, love, I couldn't help it!" He chuckled as he picked up the pillow and threw it back on the couch next to you. "I didn't think you were one to cry at movies like that. It wasn't like one glistening tear either, doll, you were nearly sobbing. Don't get me wrong though, it was adorable!"

"You jerk!" You picked up the pillow again and threw it at him but it missed him once again. As he bent over to pick the pillow back up, you picked up the remote this time, and launched it at him. Unfortunately, this time it actually hit him.

"Ow, what the-" He got up, rubbing the back of his head, "That actually hurt, doll, what was that?"

"The remote" You mumbled, trying not to laugh.

He glared at you before bending down to pick up the pillow and throw it back at you. Although he didn't mean to, he threw it pretty hard and it hit your stomach, right as the cramps decided to make a comeback. He quickly apologized and walked over to you to make sure you weren't hurt too bad.

"Just go get me the pain-killers, doofus." You mumbled, laying down sideways, clutching your lower abdomen.

He got up and made his way to the kitchen, still rubbing the spot at the back of his head, the one where you threw the remote at.

"Do you think it's bleeding? It feels like it's bleeding." Bucky groaned, as he continued to rub the back of his head, checking for any blood.

"Oh please, you're fine." You mumbled from the couch, clutching your lower abdomen while holding your breath as your cramps started to get worse.

taglist/moots: @chrisevansdaughter @cherryflavoredchapsticck @livvinitt @marvel1984 @mustacherrylover @babyhatesreality @timidpumpkin @matchat3a @pono-pura-vida @sonalokibarnes @alex-ackerman-11  @ailathealternate @lollabear @buckysugar

[violetmuses]

From Scratch - T. Richmond ❤️‍🩹

Title: From Scratch - T. Richmond ❤️‍🩹

Fandom: “Rebel Ridge” Film Universe

Character: Terry Richmond

Pairing: Terry Richmond + Female Reader

Main Storyline: After escaping Shelby Springs, Terry Richmond doesn't know what to expect.

@peaxhygirl @superstar-t20 @adoresmiles @klssngss @deja-r @hyper-trash-panda @amethyst-loves-bucky @planetblaque @sweettea-and-honeybutter @lovedlover @xjjawsomex @readingisahobby @kindofaintrovert @nelo0wesker @gg-trini @cloveroctobers @maliagurl @nobodygetsza @twinklestarslight @yassbishimvintage @episodes-ff @sweetiepie4190 @kirayuki22 @katbakhoe @persethegawd @babybratzmaraj 🏷

=====

2024

With his cousin Mike gone, veteran Terry Richmond slid evidence by the police station and drove away, leaving that rural but dangerous town of Shelby Springs. There's no other choice.

Scoring this new home later, Richmond organized his few belongings and just planned to settle, hopefully comfortable within the unknown space.

After mowing his lawn this morning, Terry glanced across the street and noticed that someone took down one of those long-awaited “For Sale” signs.

Before long, this U-HAUL truck arrived without fail and different staff members hopped, ready to assist whoever else could join the neighborhood.

Once folks carried various boxes inside, another car pulled right into that driveway and this woman stepped out, gathering luggage from this trunk.

Thanking everyone for helping, you entered this house and closed the front door. No partner or wedding ring joined in sight, not yet at least.

Taking this much-needed shower, Richmond quietly acknowledged your presence.

Who knows what could happen next?

________

Later that night while listening to music, you cooked dinner, but someone rang the doorbell out of nowhere.

Setting down work in your new kitchen, you checked the lense of that peephole just in case and found this man holding gorgeous flowers.

“Can I help you?” You opened the door, but took the porch to stand by.

“Uh, sorry to bother you. I…” His deep voice almost chuckled through nerves.

You gently smiled for a moment. “I just moved here.”

“Me too.” Terry grinned back.

“Is everything okay?” You asked.

“Yes, Ma'am. These are for you.” Richmond postured the bouquet again.

“Oh!” Your voice nearly gasped upon realization this time. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome.” Terry exchanged the flowers and planned to head back, but you still reached him.

“What's your name?” You cleared your throat.

“Terry…” His striking eyes locked down when Richmond faced you again.

“Nice to meet you.” You've nodded right back in return.

“Good night.” Just as Terry left the porch, you noticed that this tight shirt clothed one muscular frame and dark tattoos inked past corners.

Damn. Who are you? Your thoughts jumbled.

*******

After visiting porches back and forth, you exchanged numbers and invited Terry over, still offering boundaries no matter what happens next.

Nothing crazy lined up that afternoon. You both planned to share lunch and Terry would leave before sundown. You'd have work in the morning.

Tonight though, talking moved past midnight and you accidentally fell asleep on the living room couch.

Right before Terry could slip away, you somehow woke up again.

“T….” Your voice rasped.

“Don't worry. I'll leave.” Richmond knew so much better.

“It's dark outside.” You would caution him regardless.

“Appreciate your concern, but I live right across the street, remember?” Terry pointed.

“Yeah, but I'd feel better if you stayed here until tomorrow. It's late and I have a guest room upstairs.” You kept looking out, worried.

“Thank you.” Richmond nodded, heading to your guest room for the first time.

He was a good person even after moving away from Shelby Springs. Richmond deserved safety like everyone else in the world.

*****

By morning, you found each other leaving this house and stood in the driveway.

“Thank you.” Terry repeated himself.

“Of course.” You just held the car keys and smiled.

“Don't fall asleep.” His chuckled warmed your heart again.

“Very funny. Bye.” You planned to drive away, but Terry gestured for your chance to roll down the window.

“No more flowers.” Towering height, Richmond tapped the roof of your car and you left, prompting this man to grin all day.

[somber-sapphic]

AheM 🌸 Im a secret lover for hugs so I’ll gladly accept and reciprocate :) and yep sorry I just fuLLy fully read the whole post :’) that definitely goes out to them and you and whoever gets unnecessary stupid hate. Heheh well if you don’t mind I’ll ask for something under this and it’s more than okay if you took like months just take ur time🤭 naw I’m sorry you didn’t have a great day, that’s really shit, but I’m super happy you feel better and hopefully today and tomorrow is a better day! And remember I’ve got two shoulders in case and anytime🫡💪 how’d you know? I’m like always dehydrated, dehydration is scared of me ahaha. But hey most if the time it’s always the people giving advice aren’t following it… so you better be drinking plenty of water too!! And as for the request, would it be possible to ask for a WandaNat with like pregnant reader or reader already recovering from a bad injury with prompts like ‘Ill timed’ and ‘ it’s nothing’🫣 if not that’s okay but ily thank you thank you your amazing eat drink SLEEP, take care of yourself please :)) <3

Are You Staying

⧽ Notes: Hi! So, I don't write anything for pregnant anyone, but here's a sick and hurt reader for you!

⧽Summary: Reader is injured badly after a mission, leaving them with an infection.

⧽Word Count: 1665

〔 Masterlists 〕

.・。.・゜✭���.・✫・゜・。.

You were so, so tired of laying in bed, but your girlfriends wouldn’t let you get up. Apparently, when you ignore an injury for so long that the infection turns into sepsis you are no longer allowed to make decisions for yourself. Who knew? 

Well, there you were, laying in bed, struggling to focus on the book that you were holding in slightly trembling hands. The large gash along your side was beginning to throb again, indicating that you needed another dose of pain medicine, but it made you groggy and you didn't like it. 

You were already feeling sort of fuzzy, your mind blurring in and out. Your head ached and you were starting to wonder if this was more than just the damn lingering infection. Bruce had finally taken you off the IV antibiotics but you were warned that it was vital for you to take the oral ones on a strict schedule to ensure that you didn’t get worse again. 

You rubbed your throat gently and cleared it, trying to get rid of the tickle that had taken up residence there in the past hour or so. It was when the first sneeze came that you finally connected the dots. 

The pain in your sinuses, the slightly runny nose that had required you to wipe it every few minutes, the inability to get warm, the overwhelming feeling of fatigue. It wasn't the infection. You had a cold. You had a damn cold. Of all things, you had gotten yourself sick. Your girlfriends were going to kill you. 

Deciding that it was probably best to keep them out of the loop, you put the book aside and curled up under the blankets in a last-ditch effort to sleep the bug off. Maybe if you’d noticed earlier you would’ve had time to get ahead of it, but for now, you would at least sleep. Putting off rest had probably not helped the situation. Fuck. This was going to be a very long few days. 

When you woke you were incredibly disoriented. The pain in your side was so bad you felt like you wanted to throw up and for some reason, you couldn’t move. This was wrong, this was not okay. 

You managed to sit up with a lot of effort but your head was spinning, the room tilting around you in a way that made you wonder if you should call your girlfriends. They probably wouldn’t mind, they weren’t doing anything important, they just had a lot of busy work to do. You were also supposed to be doing busy work if you felt up to it, but there was absolutely no way you could read, much less hold a pen.

A harsh fit of coughing wracked your body, your lungs burning in agony as your side screamed at you that you needed to stop, that you needed to sit still and never move again, but you couldn’t stop coughing. 

You doubled over despite the protest of your body and hacked until you finally managed to cough up a glob of something green and absolutely disgusting. You leaned over the side of the bed and spit into the trashcan with an agonized groan. 

No matter how hard you tried you couldn’t get a full breath of air into your lungs. Everything hurt, everything was miserable, and the world was definitely ending. Tears rolled down your cheeks which you were sure were flushed with fever and you were regretting not taking the pain medication earlier. Now you were in too much pain to get up and find the pills. 

You managed to roll over and grabbed your phone, gasping aloud as you pleaded with the world that your stitches stayed intact. You really didn’t want to stain your bed with any unnecessary blood, the girls would probably be upset, they loved this comforter. 

With pain blurring in your vision you managed to click on the icon for Wanda’s name and hit speaker, absolutely no way that you would be able to hold the phone up to your ear. 

“Hi sweet girl, what’s up? Are you alright?” The woman’s voice lilted over the phone, immediately calming you down. She had a way about her, her mere presence, whether in person or over the phone, always served to make you feel safer. 

“I-I need…Wanda…Wanda it hurts…” You said through quiet sobs, your words punctuated by a particularly harsh sneeze that made you cry out. 

“Okay, okay love, give us five minutes. I’m going to stay on the phone with you. Are you bleeding? Can you check for me?” She asked, you could hear that she was running, another set of footsteps behind her. 

“No.” You whimpered, desperate for them to be back. You wanted them to fix it, you wanted them to make everything stop hurting, you wanted them to magically cure your sickness, which Wanda may actually be able to do. 

“Alright baby, just stay still. Wanda and I will be there soon. Keep breathing.” That was Natasha, her voice rushed as footsteps pounded in the background. You coughed and let out a sob, curling into a ball as your eyes and nose streaming. Part of you wished that the pain would just take over so that you could pass out and stop feeling it. 

You had almost slipped into that unconsciousness when the door slammed open and you felt gentle hands on your cheeks, one of the girls pleading with you to open your eyes. You obeyed, but mostly because of the harsher tone that you were sure came from Natasha. 

You stared at their blurry figures, wondering how much of this was the fever and how much was the injury. 

“Hey baby girl, there you are. Here, just want you to take this, okay? Swallow for me.” Wanda slipped a pill into your mouth and Natasha followed it with a cool bottle pressed to your lips. You took a little sip, but the cold water grated against your throat in an incredibly uncomfortable way. Every molecule in your body was ordering you to just stop. Your body was done. 

“Oh Y/n, you’re burning up. Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you say something sooner?” The witch cooed, wiping away tears as quickly as they could. 

“I-it’s nothin’, s’nothin. J’st hurts.” You breathed, already feeling the effects of the strong cocktail that was whatever Bruce had prescribed for you. 

“Do you think the infection’s back? We’ve been making sure that they take the antibiotic, should we call Banner?” Natasha asked, speaking to you as if you weren’t in the room, literally sitting right there. Of course, you were so out of it that you may as well have been in space, floating away from reality. 

“Y/n, love, Nat’s going to check your side,” Wanda said, well aware that you weren’t listening even in the slightest as the drug kicked into your system. She could feel the heat radiating off of your skin and was absolutely panicking, but doing a good job of keeping it under control. 

Natasha very carefully lifted up your shirt and peeled back the bandage to reveal a thankfully clean, not bleeding cut with all of the stitches still intact. She let out a sigh of relief and kissed your stomach right next to the injury. 

You sneezed pitifully into the pillow and whined, looking up at Wanda with big, sad eyes. She grabbed a tissue and wiped your nose tenderly, her whole body relaxing as she took in the situation. 

“You’re sick, aren’t you?” Natasha shifted and frowned at the two of you, sitting right by your head. You shifted into her lap and nodded, muffling a fit of chesty coughs into her leg. The assassin rubbed your back while the brunette by your feet hummed her disapproval. 

“Okay, Y/n/n, let’s check your temperature and we’ll get you some medicine.” The thermometer was still there since they had been monitoring your temperature for infection reasons, but now you had a fever for a whole new reason! Your body was trying to kill you for something new!

“Open.” You glanced over at Wanda and pouted slightly, nuzzling closer to your other girlfriend, the one who wasn’t going to make you do something that you didn’t want to. You didn’t hurt anymore and you weren’t about to stay awake until the pain came back. 

“Just listen to her,” Natasha ordered, poking you in the face to get you to open your mouth. Your first instinct was to bite her, but she was too quick for that. The witch placed the thermometer under your tongue and you let it stay there, not in the mood to fight either one of the women. 

The redhead you were sitting on stroked your hair as you waited for the stick to beep, unknowingly lulling you closer to sleep. 

“102.4, that’s not great. Y/n, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Wanda murmured, scooching up on the bed so that she was laying beside you, still wearing relatively comfortable clothes. You rolled over and pressed your head into her chest, mumbling some excuse that no one could make out under your breath. 

“Okay babe, take some more Tylenol and you can sleep.” You lifted your head and opened your mouth, not caring enough to take it yourself. If they wanted you to be medicated, they would be medicating you. Natasha rolled her eyes while Wanda chuckled and she helped you swallow the pills before laying you back down. 

“You stayin’?” You slurred tiredly, cuddling up against the Sokovian. 

“Of course, we’re staying, dummy. Apparently, you can’t be trusted by yourself.” The redhead grumbled, laying down on your other side. She pulled the blankets up over the three of you and kissed your shoulder blade. Wanda kissed your forehead and you sniffled, snuggling deep into the blankets. You could deal with the cold later, for now, you just wanted to be held. 

[smolwritingchick]

The Bangtan Gal Chapter 40- I Need U

Chapter Summary: Yoongi and Jen get into a heated argument. BTS shoot for I Need U as Jen impresses with her acting skills portraying a naive girl in an abusive relationship. Gaining confidence, Jungkook decides to tease Jen when he asks her for a massage.

Words: 13,000+

Author's Note: Yoongi fluff and Jungkook fluff! Ashanti's Rain on Me music video is the inspiration for Jennie's role in I Need U. And I hope your JenKook thirst is quenched for now since the last scene was thought of last minute when I wrote this :)

--------

“I’m fine, mom. Really.” Jennie reassured.

“I’m glad that you are, but I hope you know that you’re stronger than this. Don’t do that to us again, you hear? I was this close to getting a plane ticket.”

“Heh, heh, Vienna and Alani told me. They want me to rest for a week and then see how I do then. I should be refreshed and back to it after that.”

“Good. Now get some rest. I’ll check up on you tomorrow. I love you.”

“Love you too, mom.”

After getting off the phone, Jen set her phone on the bed and laid back down in her bed. Not even five minutes later, her phone rang and she checked the caller ID.

Angelina...Facetime.

Answering it, she saw Angelina smiling brightly. But then the rapper widened her eyes when she noticed Jennie was in bed.

“Whoops, did I call at a bad time?” She asked.

“Nah-are you high?” Jennie stared at her.

“Me? No. Not yet.” She waved her comment away. "My blunt didn't hit yet,"

“Wow. Well enjoy the trip when it happens,"

“Oh, I will. How you holdin’ up?”

“I’m getting better.”

“Good, good, that’s what I like to hear. You need to get better so I can come to Korea and see you.”

“Is that so? I think you want to be here so you can see Namjoon.” Jen teased.

“What? No~”

“Uh huh. I’m happy you two are still talking though. It’s cute. I hope you two can collab one day.”

“Oh yeah. I wish I could be there to do a song on his upcoming mixtape though. But my schedule...so hopefully next time. Soon I’ll come down your way, get to see you and you can introduce me to the boys. Especially Jungkook.”

“You're so eager to meet my best friend," Jennie giggled

"I gotta meet the man who has my girl glowing," 

Angelina's statement caught her by surprise as she asked, "What? Me? Glowing?"

"When you talk about him, you light up. You do it for all the members but with Jungkook it's a different light. You may not notice it but I do. So, I gotta meet this man and see for myself. It's adorable,"

"Ah..." 

For some reason, Jennie couldn't help but feel her face heat up from her response. 

Did she really glow differently with Jungkook?

"Oh? Are you getting flustered?" Angelina teased

"No! Shut up!"

Angelina laughed softly. "She is!"

"Anyway! It'll be worth the wait when you and Namjoon collab. And I am looking forward to you meeting the boys. They're the best. You'll love them. They are truly amazing and passionate about what they do. I'm grateful to know them,"

"Aw...I can't wait. Okay, I hate to change the topic to a negative one but girl...let me tell you the bullcrap I've seen. So, Hailey and the girls threw shade at you.”

“Oh wow. Not surprised. What did they say?”

The rapper rolled her eyes. “They claimed you passing out was a publicity stunt.”

“Heard that one before...” Jen murmured with a pang of sadness.

----

“Another water break? We barely even started practice. How are we supposed to be top notch with deadbeat over here wanting breaks every two minutes?” Hailey complained.

Ignoring her, Angelina looked at Jen with worry. “You okay, Jen? You don’t look so good...”

And once she fell from exhaustion, Hailey sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, get up. Stop trying to make a publicity stunt for relevance.”

-----

Shaking the negative thought away, Jen asked, “So when are they coming to Korea for their World Tour?”

“Looks like around late 2015.”

“I have a little more time to keep my sanity then.”

A week later, Jen felt good as new and refreshed after resting and keeping hydrated. She found herself at the set of Amber’s Shake That Brass music video shooting.

When she arrived, she greeted everyone on the set and placed mini cupcakes on the table for everyone to help themselves to. She wanted to show her gratitude for being invited to Amber’s music video. People were astonished at her kind gesture and there were already media reports of her act of kindness on K-Pop news sites. Jen didn’t think it was a big deal to have an article about her bringing in cupcakes of all things but everyone else thought it was a benevolent act. Seems like new articles will write about the smallest things these days.

“I’m so happy she’s here! I love her so much!” Amber held onto Jen from behind, hugging her tightly with a big smile on her face. 

They were being filmed for Amber’s video of Pops in Seoul and Jen laughed at her enthusiasm.

“I love you too!” She happily responded as she was released.

“I’m really happy you were able to come and support me. It means a lot to me, having friends be a part of this.”

“You know I wouldn’t miss it.”

“I asked Jennie because I love her charisma and her fun attitude. I feel like she and I will have a great time being filmed together with this concept.”

“Her album is going to be great. The fact that she made everything herself, the music and lyrics, so amazing.”

Jen headed over to the Orchestra section, happily greeting those around her. She even had the courage to approach Girl’s Generation’s Taeyeon. 

“I’m a huge fan of your work! I’m so looking forward to the next comeback of Girl’s Generation.” She told her as she cheerily thanked her. 

She was way more beautiful in person. Taeyeon had told her that she didn’t have to be nervous and she could speak to her anytime. Jen planned to take advantage of that.

“Jennie!” She heard a voice and turned to see Jackson happily waving at her.

“Aye! Jackson, nice to see you here.” She beamed, pulling him in for a hug.

“How you feeling? You okay?” He asked with concern.

He must’ve been talking about her passing out. “Yes, I’m good as new. Well rested. I got your messages."

“Uh huh, you left me on read.” He playfully teased.

“Look, I had a ton of people blowing up my phone. I’m sorry! When BTS can have some free time after our upcoming comeback, we’ll hang out, sound cool?”

“Hm...how do I know that you won’t forget?”

She rolled her eyes and walked away as he laughed. “I was joking! Namjoon never answers my messages, don’t be like him!” He walked after her. When he finally caught up to her, they shared a laugh. “Oh, before I forget, I have a small gift basket for you.”

He gestured for her to follow him and he took the basket out of his bag. “It’s a get well gift from one of my friends. He hopes you’re doing well. He was freaking out when he found out what happened to you. It was supposed to be from all of us in GOT7, but he grew a fit.” He sighed and shook his head.

“Aw, really? This is sweet of him. Oh shit, there’s smarties in here, oh my gosh! Jackson, you gotta tell me who he is! I’d love to thank him in person!”

Jackson smiled at her freaking out over the smarties. “Ah, he wanted to remain anonymous.”

“Well, when you see him, tell him thank you so much and kiss him on the cheek for me. And thank the other members of GOT7. I’d like to meet them one day.”

“I’m sure we can make that happen.”

For the orchestra scene, Jen wore a black vest with a white shirt and black pants with a drum set. She stood up, as they began to film. 

Amber attempted to try to conduct everyone. She went to a couple of people to show them exactly what she wanted them to do with their instrument, then she came to Jennie.

“You gotta bang. Like this.” Amber demonstrated.

“I did that!” Jen responded but Amber took her sticks and banged on the drums. 

Once she gave them back to her, Jen banged on the drums to the beat of the song and Amber nodded in approval. They filmed scenes of her banging on the drums in sync with Amber’s song while everyone played their instruments around her.

Afterward, everyone sat their instruments down and freestyled, dancing with Amber in front of the camera, doing the Nae Nae and various other dance moves. They even had Jackson and Jen do a dance battle. Jackson’s dancing brought a grin to her face as she hyped him up with the others around her.

When it was her turn to dance, she snatched his hat, placed it on her head and began to dance.

“OHHHHHH!”

She heard everyone say, laughing at how shocked Jackson was.

“I thought we were friends.” Jackson playfully whined

As the filming began to end, Jen felt her phone buzz and opened it to reveal the group chat with the Maknae Line.

Jungkook: Jimin’s going crazy. Help us.

Jungkook: [Image.jpg]

She examined the photo to see Jimin having her guitar in his hands, planning on throwing it. 

“Oh hell no.” She immediately began to text back

Jen: IS THAT MY GUITAR!? JIMIN YOU BOUT TO DIE TODAY!

Jimin: Jungkook!! Why did you show her!?

Jungkook: Kekekekekekeke

Jimin: SNITCH!

Jen: How TF did he get my guitar!?

Jimin: Jungkookie gave it to me!

Jungkook: LIE!

Jen: Oh...okay...so y’all went in my room?

Tae: Uh...

Jen: Watch yourselves when you go to sleep tonight...We may have five BTS members now.

Jimin: Oh no, what have we done??

Tae: WE!?

Jungkook: WE??? YOU!

Back at the dorm, Hobi and Jen finally decided to initiate the prank war, seeing their targets, Yoongi and Jimin sitting on the couch in the living room. Yoongi, had his headphones on, working on something while Jimin played on his phone.

“We gotta be quick. And run like the wind, got it?” Hobi reminded.

“Got it.” She responded as they both had whipped cream in their right palms, stalking up to them from behind.

“SMACK CAM!” They shouted as Hobi smacked Jimin, and Jen aimed for Yoongi’s side of his face.

The glimpse of them smacking their targets caused the rest of the members to burst out in laughter, screaming and shouting with amusement.

“Do you wanna die!?” Jimin shouted and began chasing after Hobi, who screamed.

“JENNIE! WHAT THE FUCK!?” Yoongi bellowed, turning around to stare at her with rage. 

All the rest of the members were laughing, but Jen noticed Yoongi was the only one who wasn’t as she looked confused at his outburst.

Now what?

“That wasn’t fuckin’ funny! What the fuck?” He shouted, throwing his headphones across the room.

The sound of his headphones hitting the wall, caused everyone to stop laughing and the mood of the room shifted drastically.

Jen looked at Yoongi as irritation began to boil through her veins. 

Frowning at him, she shook her head. “The heck was that? That was unnecessary, Yoongi! It was just a joke-”

“I don’t give a shit! This isn’t fuckin’ funny! And this isn’t the time to be playing around like a bunch of fuckin’ kids!” He slammed his hand on the couch, roughly running his other hand across his face to remove whatever whipped cream he could.

A bitter chuckle came out of her as she poked her cheek with her tongue. 

“Okay, first of all, I’m gonna need you to chill the fuck out.” She snapped.

Hearing what came out of her mouth caused the other members but Yoongi to stare at her in surprise. It staggered them to see her demeanor change into an aggravated one. It was an unusual sight to see her be angry like this.

When Yoongi heard her snap at him, he stood up in fury, causing the Maknae Line’s stomachs to drop with anxiousness.

“This is as chill as I’m gonna fuckin’ get.” He bluntly snapped back.

“I’m not liking this...” Jin looked on with worry.

The members began to feel the atmosphere change for the worse as they felt the tension between the two of them. They weren’t expecting Yoongi and Jennie to clash. Hobi, Jimin, Jungkook and Taehyung began to feel uneasy as they heard their voices getting louder by the second. Jin and Namjoon were alarmed as they tried to figure out how to stop it before it blew up even more.

“It was just a prank! We’re starting a prank war!” She exclaimed.

“I don’t fuckin’ care!” He yelled at her.

Looking around the room, she looked confused. “Excuse me, who are you yelling at?!”

The Hyung Line glanced at each other in alarm and decided to intervene in the situation. 

Jin shook his head and got in between them. “Okay, this was taken out of hand, let’s not do this.” He calmly spoke up, attempting to back her away from Yoongi. “Stop it. No more of this, stop arguing. I’m not having this.”

“Cause I know damn well you aren’t yelling at me, like that!” Jen continued in fury, ignoring Jin.

“Yah! Yah! Yah! Stop.” Hobi tried to back Yoongi away from her with Namjoon as the Maknae Line watched helplessly at the chaos.

“Get the fuck outta here!” She shouted.

“That’s enough. Come on, now. Let’s not do this.” Namjoon’s voice was filled with authority, trying to reason. “Let’s speak calmly, not yell.”

“I didn’t think this would end up like this...” Taehyung murmured to Jungkook and Jimin. 

The two were now in each other’s faces, yelling back and forth and it didn’t look like they were stopping anytime soon.

“Yeah, okay...okay...” Jen responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“I don’t want this shit on me!” Yoongi shouted as a vein popped out of his neck.

“It’s whipped fucking cream!” She clapped her hands three times.

“I don’t care if it was water, I don’t want that shit on me!”

“It’s nothin’ serious! What’s your issue!? It was a joke! Completely harmless!”

“G-guys. Please stop arguing.” A whipped creamed covered Jimin pleaded. 

This whole situation was making him sad, he didn’t want to see anyone fighting. When Jin finally managed to back Jen away from Yoongi, Taehyung took over, wrapping his arms around her from behind, in a tight embrace. 

Taehyung desperately tried to calm her down but to no avail, as he told her, “Ennie, please relax. Please calm down.” 

“Get off of me, Tae.” She attempted to wiggle out of his grip.

“Not until you calm down. I don’t want to see you like this. Please, Ennie. Please calm down.”

Yoongi was trying to get away from Namjoon and Hobi’s grips as he shouted, “I don’t have time for this bullshit!” His voice filled with aggression. “You see me fuckin’ working on something, why the fuck would you do stupid shit like this!?”

“You can’t take a break and relax!? Have fun for just a moment!?”

“We have an album coming out soon!”

“I get that!” She got out of Tae’s arms.

“Enough Jennie-“ Jin stopped mid-sentence.

“No. I’m gonna say what I have to say.” She responded to him and turned back to Yoongi. ”You are not gonna yell at me like that. We are all friggin’ stressed out from this album. The least we can do is loosen up with a couple of laughs and take our minds off work for just a moment. You need to lighten up!”

“Everyone calm down!” Jimin shouted. “Please, let’s just cool down. This was blown out of proportion.”

“FUCK!” Yoongi shouted and roughly shoved Namjoon and Hobi off him, storming into his bedroom. He slammed the door, causing everyone but Jennie to flinch.

She exhaled with her eyes closed, trying to compose herself. Opening her eyes, she muttered out a curse. “Un-fucking-believable...”

Taehyung turned to her, with a sad expression. “E-Ennie-“

“Don’t.” She raised her hand up, gesturing for him to stop. “I’m taking a walk.”

“I-I’ll come with you,” Jungkook spoke up.

“I just want to be alone,” she said with irritation as she left the dorm.

The dorm felt empty without the energetic vibe as the rest of the members were bummed at how things turned out. A scary pissed off Yoongi and an unhappy Miss Bangtan were not something they prepared for. 

Namjoon sighed and rubbed his temples on the couch. “I wished we handled that better...”

-----

Yoongi and Jen haven’t spoken a word to each other in the past few days as Jen stood backstage with Amber for Music Bank, in support of her in Shake That Brass.

“Ouch, and you still haven’t talked to him?” Amber asked with a concerned look, sitting on the couch.

“Nope,” Jen replied, sitting next to her, and looking at the TV on the wall.

“Aw, he needs to lighten up. But I can understand how frustrated he was about it. I hope you two can rekindle soon.”

After getting ready for the show, Jen began to get filmed for a Bangtan Bomb as she stood with Amber and 4Minute backstage. To be able to meet these fierce ladies was an honor, as Jen happily told them how much she adored their song, Crazy.

“Crazy is lit, oh my gosh. I’ve been practicing ever since your song came out. Can I show you?” She eagerly asked.

“Yeah! Let’s see!” Hyuna beamed.

“Let’s see!” Sohyun clapped her hands.

“Amber you should do it too!” Jiyoon pointed to her.

“Me? Me really? You wanna?” Amber turned to Jennie.

“Oh yeah, come on.” She answered. 

Amber had pulled out her phone, putting the song on, skipping just a few seconds before the chorus.

“Okay, five...six...seven...eight.”

nal bogo michyeo

(C.R.A.Z.Y) ttara hae

Jen and Amber began the choreography, Amber did a laid-back version of it while Jen went full out.

The 4Minute members cheered them on with bright smiles on their faces. 

“Wow!” They applauded

Later, Amber and Jen waited to go on stage as Jen turned to the Bangtan Bomb camera with a smile.

“Today I met 4Minute. They’re super nice. Crazy is lit. I can’t get enough of that song. And now I’m here to perform Shake That Brass with Amber.” She wrapped her arm around her.

Amber pulled her close, cheek to cheek. “We’re gonna have a lot of fun today!” she shot up a peace sign.

Jen watched Amber perform from backstage, as she waited for her cue, with a mic in hand. “I’m a little nervous.” She glanced at the Bangtan Bomb camera, still filming her. “But this is a fun song, so I’m sure once I get on that stage, I’ll feel more carefree, y’know?” She started bouncing around as she continued watching.

When it was her cue, she made her way to the stage, standing behind the dancers.

Yeah I want you to

(Shake shake that brass)

Yeah I want you to

“Shake that brass.” Her smooth voice was heard as Amber’s backup dancers revealed her. 

She got a big pop from the crowd as she smiled and strutted forward. She had some big shoes to fill because Taeyeon was the original singer of the verse, but she performed it in her own style, singing out strong with soul. From the cheers of the crowd, she seemed to have done well. 

“oneul bam bam gomindeureun naeil more saenggakhae. meorireul biwobeoryeo amu saenggak an nage. son meori wiro.”

Amber stands next to her with a smile, dancing with her.

(Uhuh)

“sinnage ttwieo”

(Yeah yeah)

“da gachi michyeo, get it started. Come and shake that brass~!” Her high note was filled with soul and energy and earned some more cheers. “Woo!” 

She cheered, moving her hips around with Amber.

Hey ho (Yeah) Hey Ho (Uh Huh)

Hey Ho (Yeah) Hey Ho (Uh Huh)

Hey Ho (Yeah) Hey Ho (Uh Huh)

“Shake that brass~! Oh, baby!” She sang out, holding hands with Amber as Amber spun her around.

Hey Ho Shake That Brass

“Wooooooooooo~!”

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA-

“Won’t you shake that brass...Ooooohhhhh won’t you shake that brass!” She ended the song with a huge smile on her face. Amber had stuck her tongue out, standing next to her for their final pose.

Soon they embraced in a big hug, causing the crowd to cheer for them.

After the show, fans tweeted their love for the duo with the hashtags, #Jamber and #Jenber eager for the next time to watch the duo together.

-----

As soon as she went back to the dorm, Jimin and Namjoon asked to speak with her in her room. They sat on her bed and tried to talk to her about Yoongi. Jen however, wasn’t having it, being the stubborn teenager, she was.

“Nope.” She bluntly replied, still feeling some type of way at how he yelled at her.

Who did he think he was, to raise his voice at her like that? She wasn’t going to stand there and let him scream at her in any type of way. She stood up for her opinion on the situation, not backing down and felt as though he overreacted.

“Jennie, you two should talk it out,” Jimin suggested.

“I don’t want to talk to him, he pissed me off.” She stubbornly responded.

“Ennie, come on...”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.” She replied louder.

“I think you should apologize.” Namjoon calmly spoke up.

“But why do I need to say sorry? I feel like I’ve done nothing wrong. Everything I did was harmless. It wasn’t that bad. I just wanted to share some laughs.”

“I understand that, Jennifer.” He said with seriousness in his voice. “But try to put yourself in Yoongi’s shoes. Get where he’s coming from. You know what a workaholic he is and how serious he is about his work. The whipped cream got on his notebook. Almost smeared what he was working on.”

Jen exhaled. She didn’t know that part. She knew how he was with his work and it made her feel guilty. Deep down, she was sad that they weren’t talking. She missed him. She missed being around him. Maybe she did go too far, unaware that he was working on something important. 

As much as she hated to admit.

“Where is he?” She finally asked with another sigh.

“His studio.”

Meanwhile, with Yoongi, he drowned himself in work, with his headphones on his ears. Earlier today, Namjoon and Hobi had talked to him about the argument and he couldn’t help but think about the conversation.

“I don’t want to fucking talk to her. I don’t want to see her, I don’t want anything to do with her. I don’t even want you to say her damn name. So, drop it. This conversation is over.” He had growled at them in frustration.

“She really cares about us. She just wanted us to loosen up. We’re all on edge for this album. You know that. She just wanted us to laugh and forget about work for just an hour or so. Get where she’s coming from.” Namjoon had told him.

He’d be lying if he said he didn’t think about her since the fight. He missed her presence. He didn’t mean to say that he didn’t want anything to do with her. She held a special place in his heart. He was emotional at the time. Frustrated. They both said things in the heat of the moment.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard knocking in the room.

“Hey.” Jen greeted softly. He acknowledged her at the door by glancing at her and continued to work. “You free to talk?”

He grunted, responding as a yes, pushing a seat out for her to sit. He placed his headphones on his neck, stopping what he was doing as he turned to her. He didn’t look angry, he looked upset that they went that far while arguing.

He could tell she was feeling the same.

“I’ve...been thinking about our blowout.” She spoke again after a moment of silence. “I just came here to say that I’m sorry.” He could hear the sadness in her voice. “I should’ve been more mindful of you and your work. I know how you get with your work. I know how passionate you are about music. Sorry for doing that to you. I hope I didn’t ruin anything.”

Yoongi let out a sigh. “Although we pissed each other off and yelled some crazy things...I can’t stay mad at you.” He shrugged and shook his head. “I forgive you...and I’m sorry for lashing out at you like that, Smartie. Forgive me.”

A smile came across her face. “It’s okay.”

He was happy to see her smile as he placed a hand on top of her head affectionately and turned back to his work.

“Oh geez...” He sighed when she wrapped her arms around him, pressing multiple kisses on his cheek. Though he secretly enjoyed the affection. “Okay, okay. That’s enough.”

“Nope! Not done, yet.” She laughed and gave him a couple more of her sweet kisses.

“Gross...” He faked a gagging sound, wiping his cheek when she released him.

“Don’t lie to me. You love my hugs and kisses.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Wow. Really?” She asked, offended as he smirked in response.

When they got back to the dorm, Jen took a nap on the couch, and Yoongi decided to get her back for what she did to him. Just like he did after filming an episode of Rookie King, he got a Sharpie and wrote all over her face. Writing various words like swag, and Suga. Jen remained asleep, unaware, as the members around her struggled not to laugh.

“She’s going to kill you, hyung.” Tae giggled.

“I like to see her try.” Yoongi responded, and took a photo of her makeover, tweeting, ‘Prank War is now on. #SUGA’

Jen woke up a minute later from the laughing and looked around.

“Why are you guys laughing so much?” She asked.

“We’re just admiring your new makeover.” The Daegu rapper smirked, revealing the Sharpie in his hands.

Her stomach dropped when she realized what he had done. “No friggin, you didn’t-“ She cut herself off as she grabbed her phone and turned the camera on herself. “YOONGI! What the hell!?”

“I know, you finally look beautiful.”

She tried to hit him but he backed away, as he laughed with the members. 

“Asshole!” She laughed and went to clean her face in the bathroom.

“Prank war is now on. No teams. Every person for themselves. Got it?” Yoongi announced.

“AAAWWWWEEEE Yeah! Let’s go!” The members got hyped

----

The next day, in the afternoon, Jen decided to practice her freestyle dancing in one of the dance studios at Big Hit. After doing her stretches, she plugged her phone into the speaker and put on Come on Over by Sevyn Streeter.

Jen admired the artist and loved how sexy and confident she was with her music. Sometimes she would think about what it would be like to collab with her. She hoped so one day if it was possible. Standing in the middle of the dance floor, she begam to dance on beat when she heard Sevyn sing.

On my mind just one thing

You and me doing some things

No particular one place, oh no O-pen

Open to changes, positions, and angles

Tonight I ain’t no angel, oh no

She wanted to focus on storytelling with her dancing, and listening to the lyrics. But she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something as she danced. After dancing for 30 minutes, Hobi walked in, with a big smile.

“I hope you don’t mind a dance partner!” He greeted.

“Hey! No, of course not! Join me! I could use some help. You mind?”

“Not at all.” He stretched first and then went over to see what she needed help with. 

She wanted him to help her with body rolling and popping her body more. Make her movements more fluid. He showed her a couple of basic moves as she watched in awe at how in sync he was and how smooth he moved. His style of dancing was unique in her eyes. No doubt he was the best representative of BTS’ Dance Line.

“You got it?” He asked with a smile.

“Well...I think so.” She replied, unsure of herself

“I’m not liking that attitude, munchkin. Come on, you can do it.”

She tried out his movements. She was doing them but it looked like she was missing something. It was almost like she was hesitating in his eyes.

“You’re holding back. Don’t do that to yourself. Elevate.” he spoke up.

“Really? I feel like I’m not holding back. This is how I dance.” She explained.

He crossed his arms. “Can I be blunt?”

“Knock yourself out.”

“I feel like your true dancing potential is still locked away because of what you told me about Amity. You said they wanted you to tone it down. Well, you won’t tone it down anymore, not here. I’m not having it. I can’t keep standing here when I know you can do better than this.”

Jen was taken aback at his sudden statement. But he had a point as much as she hated to admit it.

“I...”

“No excuses. I know you can do better, Jennie. Now, show me. Dance, munchkin...Dance.” He smiled and pressed shuffle on her phone as Numb by Rihanna came on.

Jen stood and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

'Dance, huh?' she thought as Rihanna began to sing.

Ecstasy in the air

I don’t care

‘But...I don’t think I can do this...’ She thought nervously.

Can’t tell me nothing

I’m impaired

No worse for wear

‘Cause I’m going numb

‘Move.’ She thought as her body suddenly began to move, side to side, on beat, getting into it. Hobi nodded to the beat, watching her attentively.

I’m going numb

I’m going numb, I’m going numb

I’m going numb, I’m going numb (Let the champagne splash)

I’m going numb, I’m going numb (Let that man get cash)

I’m going numb,

Hobi smiled brightly when he watched her let loose. How her face changed into an expression of seriousness. Her movements were fluid with the beat, her body popping powerfully with the beat. It was like the dancer in her broke the chain that locked her true potential. 

It felt good.

She felt free.

The way she danced, it was like she told a story as she listened to the lyrics. The way she went harder when the beat dropped on the second set of Rihanna’s ‘I’m going Numb’s.

Can’t you see

Ain’t it clear

Hobi was elated to see her dance harder and decided to record her on his phone as she body rolled powerfully during the second verse. She even added some of the moves he had shown her earlier, remaining in sync with the beat.

I don’t care

Get closer to me

If you dare

I double dare

'Cause I’m going numb,

This time, she swayed side to side with more energy, running a hand through her hair, pretending that she was going numb. 

‘Atta girl.’ Hobi thought to himself, seeing a whole different person.

This is Jennie.

This is who Miss Bangtan is.

As soon as the beat dropped, she popped her chest and the rest of her body, robotically and rigid. 

But odds are I'mma end up in the back of a squad car 

Hobi widened his eyes, impressed as he watched her dance faster during Eminem’s rap. It caused him to squeal happily. 

“Woo! Wooooooo! Go munchkin!” He shouted

“Stop making me laugh!” She broke out into a smile as she continued to dance.

After the song ended, she let out a breath. 

‘Was that actually me?’ She looked at her reflection.

“That felt good. So, how’d I do?” She turned to him with a nervous smile.

Hobi screamed and jumped around, applauding her loudly. She laughed when he picked her up and spun her around. 

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Where have you been!?” 

The room filled with their loud laughter as he set her down. 

He grabbed his phone to show her the video he recorded. “Now this, this is Miss Bangtan. This is Jennie.” He smiled. “Your dancing has gotten so much better. I’m so proud of you.”

She turned to him, touched by his words. “Thank you, Hobi. Thank you so much. This means a lot coming from you.”

Hobi tweeted a small video of Jen dancing, ‘I think she’s going numb, kekekeke. Well done, munchkin! Sometimes all you need is that extra push. Proud of you. #JHOPE’

---

On March 9th, after giving out handmade gifts for ARMY on his birthday, Yoongi went to the studio to work, only to find a birthday card and two black boxes in his workspace. The bigger black box was on the bottom while the smaller one was on the top, wrapped up as a tag was attached to it.

‘To the guy I’ll beat in the next basketball game :P’

“Smartie.” He confirmed with a smirk as he sat down and opened the card first.

‘Dear Grandpa!’

He read and stopped. “This girl...” He shook his head in amusement and kept reading.

‘I don’t think you have any idea how much you’re valued or how much you mean to me. I look up to you. A lot. Not just for rapping but also for your passion in your work. How relatable your lyrics are and your ability to create such moving music. How humble you are about what you do. How raw you are with your rapping, I inspire to be on that level, to show that much emotion in music like you do. Just you being yourself in general, and how I enjoy being around you, even if you’re feeling a little lazy or in one of your work modes. Not to mention your blunt, yet savage remarks these days. Yeah, we may piss each other off at times but no matter what, we work on our problems and learn about ourselves so we can move forward through anything. I’ll always be there. No matter what. Even if you need me to be your napping buddy, I’m there. (Just don’t drool on me like last time, mkay? Mkay.) Thank you for being straightforward with me since the day we met. You’re very giving and hard working. And I thank you for always taking the time to teach me about rapping. I thank you for taking me under your wing, being patient, and encouraging me. You may not act like it but I see how much you care. You love us, members, more quietly, but I dare say you have the biggest heart.’

Yoongi stopped reading as he looked down, feeling something in his heart. That last sentence moved him. He took a moment to pull himself together before continuing to read.

‘And FYI, I do catch your small smiles when I accomplish your rap assignments. :) That is always motivating me to work harder so I can see that gummy smile of yours. Though we’re not related by blood, you are a brother I prayed for and I thank you for being in my life. I love you, Yoongi and I’m happy to be a part of BTS as we grow together musically, mentally and physically.

P.S.- When’s our next one on one basketball game? Too scared to get trashed? ;)

“This girl...” He smiled. 

Sometimes she could be a pain in the ass. With her smacking him with whipped cream, especially, but at the end of the day, she would always be special to him. He never knew how much her words could move him as he reread her letter.

He opened the smallest gift first, opening the small box to reveal a personalized charm bracelet with a basketball and his name on it. He read the note that was on the box.

‘You better be wearing this. I have my own. We’re matching. No ifs, ands, or buts. Deal with it.’

“This girl is something else.” He put the bracelet on. It was a perfect fit for him. He turned to the big box, taking off the cover and inside looked like a haul of Kumamon merch. “This girl...” He repeated yet again in disbelief.

‘You still like him, right? Hope you like this haul! I better see you have that phone case on. I’m not joking. And you better eat the damn cake!’ Her note said.

“Cake?” He asked and saw a small box inside the big box with the merch. 

He took it out and opened it to reveal a small Kumamon cake. His smile got wider as he read the note she wrote on top of the lid of the cake.

‘You BETTER eat this...I made it with love! Love I tell you! Don’t tell the guys, they’ve been begging me to bake again since those Valentine’s Day cupcakes, lol. I baked it, and Hayoon helped me decorate it. She has more of an artistic touch with baking. I may want to do this trend for the others’ birthdays too. It all depends on how much you like it.’

Yoongi felt something in his eyes as he shook his head, clearing his throat. He felt his tears dry up thanks to his dry eyes but overall, he was moved. He made a mental note to do this trend for her on her birthday, for sure.

“Hello Kitty is what she likes...” He thought out loud.

All of this was so...generous and kind of her. It made him feel so appreciated and loved. He checked out the merch in the box, which consisted of a black Kumamon shirt, a Kumamon phone case, a small plush and much more merch that he’d be pleased to have in his room.

Pulling out his phone, he gave her a quick text.

Yoongi: Swing by the studio when you can

While he waited for her, he took a photo of his haul and tweets, ‘Smartie is something else...I’m very thankful and overwhelmed with joy. #SUGA’

ARMY would immediately tweet, wishing him a happy birthday and talking about Jen giving him the haul of gifts.

‘YoonJen is so precious.’

‘I wish my friends would do something like that for me. I’m jealous’

‘She really made him a Kumamon cake tho! I can’t! This is making me cry’

‘Why are there tears in my eyes?’

‘Wishing him another year of success and happiness!’

‘She has got to be one of the kindest souls ever. She went out her way for him on his birthday.’

‘Wait she actually baked that for him!? OMG I ship it!’

‘AWWWWWW!’

‘KUMAMON!! Of course!’

Soon after, the members would tweet about it, instantly once they saw the photo of the cake.

‘WAIT SHE MADE THAT FOR YOU!? Where’s my cake!? #JIMIN’

‘I’m feeling some type of way... #JK’

'I want some!! #JHOPE'

‘Too cute! #V’

‘Wait she BAKED!? AGAIN!? Where were we!? #JIN’

Yoongi chuckled at their responses and tweets ‘Be jealous #SUGA’

‘So...you aren’t going to share?? #RM’

10 minutes later she arrived. “Yo! I see you got the stuff! Happy birthday!” She beamed.

As soon as he saw her walk in, he immediately got out of his seat and pulled her into his arms. As he wrapped his arms around her for a firm hug, she was taken by surprise and stood there, shocked.

“Thank you, Jennifer.” He murmured against her.

The sound of her name caught her by surprise. He only called her smartie these days, and to hear him say her full name, made her believe that this was something that he was extremely happy about.

She let out a chuckle and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tight. 

“Of course.” She released him. “Oh, and another thing, I wanted to tell you that I’m ready to show you my skills on the launchpad.” She pointed it out.

He responded with a proud smile and gestured for her to sit with him. 

“But it could wait, I mean, you sure you wanna work on your birthday? Don’t you want to chill?” she added.

“My work is never done and besides, I’m in a working mood. How about you consider this as your other gift to me? Show me.”

“All righty.” She set everything up. 

Yoongi listened and watched intently as her fingers moved skillfully on the launchpad. She decided to perform BTS’ Tomorrow since she’s been playing around with it, and he wasn’t disappointed. There was something there and he just stared at her even after she finished. He wasn’t even aware she finished until she spoke. 

“Well...what do you think?”

“I’m gonna have a talk with Namjoon, Hobi and Slow Rabbit.”

“Why?”

“I think you should consider working behind the scenes with us for our albums. There’s something there.”

“I kind of low-key wanted to.”

“We’ll take it one day at a time. For now, your homework is to practice Cypher PT 3. And without Tae. Good God, I don’t wanna hear him rap it.” He sighed and rubbed his temples.

She laughed. “I’ll try my best not to practice around him. I do think you should consider-“

“No.”

“But Tae would be so enthusiastic-“

“No.”

“He’s so eager-“

“No.”

“He has passi-“

“No.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Boo!”

“Yeah, yeah...By the way, after we have some free time during our upcoming I Need U promotions, we’re gonna have a date.” He announced.

“What’s the dress code?”

“A-game, don’t forget the sneakers. We have a date on the court.” He smirked competitively

“I’m down. Keep me posted.”

“And smartie?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for everything.”

“Always.”

---

During Namjoon’s Do You MV filming, the members decided to surprise him when he was on break. They walked in with bags of chicken, while Namjoon sat on the couch on his phone.

“Hello!” Jimin shouted.

“YO! YO! YO! YO! YOOOOOOOO! We have arrived!” Jen happily yelled, walking in with the rest of the members like a hurricane. The rest of the members shout randomly as Namjoon, covered his ears, whining. Jen let out a laugh. 

Looks like the room won’t be quiet anymore.

“Hey leader, oppa’s here!” Tae beamed.

“The chicken has arrived!” Yoongi announced.

“You look good, that outfit is on point,” Jen told him as she greeted him with a hug. As they all sat down, getting situated, they discussed how nice Namjoon looked on video while they munched on the chicken. “Is it weird shooting alone?”

“Very. But now that you guys are here, maybe I spoke too soon, it’s so loud now.” He joked with a laugh.

“Well, you look cool. I think I can speak for everyone that we can’t wait to see what you have been working on.”

After the break, the members watch with Namjoon, clips of the filmed MV. Jen began dancing to the song with the other members.

“He’s so cool,” Jimin said proudly.

“He is going to do really well, I believe in him. He’s going to be great.” Yoongi guaranteed.

“I’m so proud of this guy, he’s worked so hard. I’m a proud baby sister.” She placed a hand over her heart as she looked at the Bangtan Bomb camera.

----

Finally, on April 5th, BTS began their jacket shooting in Gyeongju, for their upcoming album. Jen still hadn’t had her hair dyed yet, but her hair was styled straight with bangs this time.

Recently, her hair began to get damaged because sometimes the stylists wouldn’t know what to do with her African American hair, putting way too much heat. The last straw was when she noticed her hair breaking off, so she talked with Big Hit, asking if she could use one of Angelina’s stylists, who would come to Korea at times to do her hair more protectively, or even do her own hair when she could. She had to speak up on her hair, she kept quiet for too long.

She was happy they accepted her request and even went a step further to make the stylists learn about taking care of her hair so this wouldn't happen again. Jennie was grateful they were mindful of her hair. She did not want to go bald anytime soon.

For the jacket shooting, she wore a white blouse with blue jeans, along with a black hat on her head. They greeted the director and began shooting at the beach for Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa pt.1. 

She sat in between Rapmon and Jin as photos were snapped away, bringing off a more mature vibe this time with their new concept.

“Jesus...for April, it sure is cold. But when you’re near the water, it’s always colder. I should’ve worn a heavier jacket.” She mentioned.

“I’ll keep you warm!” Tae wrapped his arms around her from behind, having the blanket he had on his back, wrap around her too.

“Why are you so warm!?” She exclaimed as they walked near the ocean.

When everyone gathered around, Jennie shivered violently. 

“Wh-why.” She shivered while Tae placed a big jacket on her, holding her close. “I don’t do cold!”

He grabbed her hands and began to blow his hot breath on them, in hopes to soothe her. He took great care of her to make sure she was warm. She was grateful for his kind gestures.

After waiting as each member took their concept photos, Jennie and Jin met up for their photos together as they stood back to back. Jin looked ahead while Jen turned her head to the side as if looking back at him. She then wrapped her arms around herself, as the photos were snapped away, looking serious.

As they took more photos, Jimin and Jungkook watched them from a distance. 

“Wah...so pretty.” Jimin admired Jennie’s visuals.

“Very,” Jungkook murmured.

“So...Jungkookie...I wanted to tell you about Ennie’s massage skills.” Jimin decided to tease him, smiling mischievously. “She gave me the most amazing massage a few days ago. It was great!”

“Is that so?” Jungkook poked his cheek with his tongue, trying to ignore him.

“Yeah, her hands do wonders. I didn’t know she was that talented. It was so relaxing.”

“Uh huh...”

“Have you ever gotten a massage from her? You’re missing out. I was the first one to get a massage from her too, I feel so special.”

“Shut up, Hyung...”

“Hehehehe. Someone’s mad~.”

“I’m not mad!” He grumbled.

“We were in her room, too-“ Jimin groaned in pain when he was suddenly punched in the arm.

Jungkook stormed off. “I want a massage...” He grumbled to himself, while Jimin walked after him, laughing hysterically.

He really fell for it.

After Jen was done with her photos with Jin, she cheered. 

“Woo!” She opened her palms, raising them high as Jin high fived her. He places his palms down as she mer his hands for a low five, and then they jump up, bumping chests. 

“SeokJen in the house!” She performed his traffic dance with him.

“Hey, this is a great warm up! I’m feeling warm!” He laughed.

She continued shooting photos alone, walking around, with the ocean in the background, looking angelic, yet mature. Losing the baby fat in her face, gained her more of a mature look with this concept.

After the shooting, she walked past Taehyung and Jungkook goofing around, as Kookie attempted to juggle with heat packs. Acting mischievous, she slapped the heat packs that were tossed in the air by him and continued to innocently walk away.

“Now you’re going to pay.” He dropped the other heat packs and ran after her.

“Wait! Wait!” She yelled in panic, trying to run for her life. Instantly he grabbed her from behind, lifting her up over his shoulder. “Tae! Help!”

“Why did she even bother to run?” Taehyung laughed.

When they go inside, they continue their shooting in a room. Jen was filmed in the bathroom with the bathroom mirror fogged up as she wrote ‘He’ll change’ on it. Then she shot photos with Namjoon as he sat on the toilet and her in the tub without any water in it.

When she finished up, she watched Tae and Jungkook shoot photos on the bed and ended up giggling at Jungkook dozing off. “He’s so out of it. It’s so cute.”

On April 11th, BTS began their I Need U filming. For the music video, Jen kept on a white butterfly necklace throughout the entire filming, as she first wore a black pajama shirt with pants.

She stood in a bedroom with a Korean actor near her age, portraying her abusive boyfriend. She faced the camera, questioning what her concept was. “My concept is an abusive relationship. I play a naïve teenage girl who is infatuated with this boy but he’s not all who he seems to be. She left her family just to be with him, too. It’s very sad. Her boyfriend will begin to get more aggressive when things don’t go his way. She’ll even be in denial of what he’s been doing, too.”

“She unexpectedly gets hit by him and he’ll say sorry and say it won’t happen again," she added. "A lot of abusive couples go through that. She’ll foolishly forgive him, believing that he’ll change. And then he’ll end up cheating on her with her best friend. Ah...so, grimy. I thought it was cliché when I was told what I’ll be doing but honestly, you’d be surprised how much this stuff happens. This stuff happens in real life. A guy can be abusive but also a woman can be abusive too and I feel as though there isn’t enough recognition for men out there getting abused by women. It could be emotional, not just physical. They may think it’s funny to see a guy get abused by a chick but freak out when a chick is abused by a guy. I feel as though both parties should be treated as serious matters.”

Jen stood with the actor, hearing the director’s instructions. 

“You’ll barge in. Yell at him for forgetting your birthday. We just need shots of you arguing, so improvise, say whatever works.” The director instructed. “Then he’s going to grab you.”

The male actor grabbed Jen’s arms and shook her softly, getting the feel of what he was supposed to do. The two of them end up laughing.

“The actor is such a nice guy, so it’s going to be interesting working with him because he’s so nice.” She said on camera. “I think it’ll be difficult for me to think of what to say in this situation since I’ve never experienced it.”

“And...action!”

Jen stormed into the bedroom, watching her boyfriend playing video games. 

Disgust was shown on her features as she sternly asked, “Where were you!?”

Her boyfriend sighed and shot her a dirty look. “What are you screaming about?”

“I said where were you?” She snatched the controller out of his hands and tossed it to the side. “I was waiting for you, how the heck could you forget my birthday!?”

He stood up and got in her face. “What the hell was that for!?”

“One special day and you weren’t there, it’s like you don’t even care at all! I’m always there for you, why can’t you give more to me like I do for you?! This happens all the time!” She exclaimed.

“Cut!” The director announced. “Jennie, this time say that you’re done. And we’ll get into the grabbing sequence.”

Jennie nodded as the actor smiled at her. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” He told her.

“I’m sure I can take it.” She reassured him.

“Action!”

“You know what? I can’t do this anymore. I’m done.” She turned around but he roughly grabbed her wrist, forcefully turning her back to face him. Suddenly his large arms grabbed a hold of her, shaking her as she flinched.

“You are NOT going to leave me! You’re nothing without, do you hear me!?” He shouted as she started to whimper in fear.

“Stop it!” She shouted, trying to push him off. “Get off of me!” She finally shoved him off and hastily backed up. “What is wrong with you!?”

He grabbed a beer bottle and threw it near her, on the ground, making her yelp as she started running away. 

“Get back here!” He shouted and ran after her.

The cameras quickly followed them. Jen managed to run into the bathroom and lock the door as a camera was filming her from inside the bathroom. A frightened facial expression was shown on her face as she watched the door shake violently from him banging his fists.

“OPEN THE DOOR!” His scream caused Jennie to flinch involuntarily.

His acting was off the charts. She was genuinely scared as her chest rose up and down at a quick pace. She let out a shriek when he finally kicked open the door.

“Please no...” She whimpered, backing up in fear. He slammed the door shut in front of the camera, as the scene only had the door shown.

“Cut! Good.” The director praised.

“You all right?” He smiled apologetically.

“Your acting is no joke. I was actually scared.” She praised.

After those shots, Jen sat down to get her makeup done, as the rest of the members began their shooting. The stylists had made sure Jen’s eyeliner and mascara weren’t waterproof so when she cried, it could run and be messy. Her cheek looked like she had been backslapped in the face.

Once she was done, the director let her sit in the shower with her knees up to her chest, with water running down on her. She had to cry for this one, so it took her a few moments before the tears began to flow. After they got enough shots of that, they led her to stare at her reflection in the mirror, examining the bruise on her face. She frowned, looking hurt that he would put his hands on her.

“I have never been heartbroken in my life, yet, so I hope my acting is believable for the cheating scene,” Jennie said on camera. “I’m glad I’m doing this cheating scenario, coming up. I feel like in your youth, you will get heartbroken and it’s a part of life. Whether it’s dating, one sided love, death, or any struggle. But overcoming it...I think that’s a beautiful thing.”

Jen had changed into a grey sweater and jeans, her face not bruised anymore. She pondered how she would act if a guy cheated on her in real life. 

“I honestly have no idea what I might do if someone cheats on me. If I had my bat from Danger, I could beat him with it...but I’d like not to get a record.” She grinned innocently.

“I need you two to improvise.” The director said. He decided to let them have more freedom in this scene. “Bang on his chest, yell, scream at him.”

“Can I slap you?” She asked straightforwardly, earning a laugh from the actor and those in the background.

“I don’t mind.”

Getting in position, she stood outside the hallway of the bedroom. Exhaling, she thought of her sister, Vienna. She was cheated on back in high school. It made her never want to date again and just hook up with guys instead of a commitment. She’ll never forget that day of her yelling and screaming at him on the phone, as Alani tried to calm her down.

Jungkook and Jimin were watching her film behind the cameras. They were impressed at how well she was doing, despite her beginning nervousness with the concept. Jungkook had clenched his fists when he saw the actor grab her, previously, feeling protective.

“Go Jennie!” Taehyung cheered her on. Her sad expression changed into a bright smile as she shot him a finger heart.

“Action!”

Jen barged into the bedroom to find a girl in her boyfriend’s lap, making out. She stood there, frozen, as she watched them with disappointment and hurt in her face.

“My heart...” Jimin murmured as he watched her broken facial expression. 

Jungkook felt something in his chest when he saw the hurt in her eyes. It was something he never wanted to see.

Jennie scoffed at the sight, shaking her head as she made her way out of the room. Storming down the hallway, her boyfriend quickly followed her, trying to catch her.

“W-wait!” He shouted. “It’s not what it looks like-“ He’s cut off by a strong slap in the face. 

The slap was heard throughout the room as all the attention was on the two lovers. The sound of the slap even made Jungkook and Jimin flinch as they watched with interest. 

Jennie began to violently bang on his chest, trying to hit him as he attempted to stop her. “Why!? Why would you do this to me!?” She screamed as tears began to appear in her eyes. He attempted to hug her but she fought out of his arms. 

“Get off of me!” She screamed and shoved him away. She stared at him with disbelief as he ran a hand through his hair. 

“Jennie...look-“

“My best friend though!? My best friend!? I knew this would happen!”

“If you knew this was going to happen why did you come back to me!? Why didn’t you just leave!?”

“Because I love you! And I’m so damn foolish to love you but I can’t help it! You’re supposed to be my everything, my heart, my soul!” Her voice began to sound raspy from the anger. “I’ve been loyal to you since day one! Day one! Your ride or die! Your support! Your love and you gonna do me like this!?” Her voice cracked.

Jungkook stared at her as she acted, wanting to walk in the shot right then and there to pull her in for a hug. Jimin glanced at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“It’s just acting, Jungkookie. She’s okay.” He reassured.

“Y-yeah. I know...But I would never do that to her...”

Jimin smiled at his statement. “Oh really? Tell me more.”

“I-ignore what I said, hyung.”

“Sounds to me like you-“

“I think it’s your turn to film, hyung!”

Meanwhile, with Jennie, she wasn’t expecting to tear up so soon, but she got so into the acting, that it worked as the tears streamed down her cheeks. 

“Why? Why would you do this to me? I have never done you wrong! I forgave you for hitting me, I forgave you for missing my birthday but this? My best friend?! I’ve had enough!”

“Wow.” Yoongi looked on with Namjoon.

“I sincerely thought this was real, the way she was screaming at him.” Namjoon glanced at the camera filming their reactions.

After her shots were done, she checked out how it looked from the screen. 

“Ah, I feel like I could’ve done better but as I’m watching myself since they only want the video, not the sound of us arguing, it looks passionate. I’m proud of the results.” She mentioned.

Filming continued late at night. In Hongdae, shooting a scene playing around while eating burritos. The members laugh hysterically as they toss food at each other. Jen stole a bite out of Jin’s burrito, and he shoved her burrito in her face.

“Hey!”

“HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!” His trademark laugh filled her ears. “I didn’t think it would be that bad, I’m sorry.”

The next day, at night, Jin is filmed driving a car with Suga in the passenger seat. 

“I’m trusting you with my life.” Jennie teased as she sat in the back with Jimin, Hobi and Jungkook. 

Tae and Rapmon were watching while Jin drove in circles. Everyone decided to go home while Jungkook prepared to film his individual scene in an alley in Itaewon. Jennie decided to stay with him, instead of going back to the dorm like the others.

“I think Jungkook has the saddest story in I Need U. First, he gets beaten up and then ran over by a car. What has he done to the world?” She questioned on camera. “I’m a little worried to see him get beat up.”

“You needn’t.” He said behind her with a smile. “I’m very happy that she decided to stay with me. The hyungs decided to leave. They abandoned me. But not her.”

Jen watched in the background as Jungkook was filmed bumping into some bad guys, played by their managers. When she watched the first scene with him from the camera, she nodded in approval. “Nice job, Kookie.”

She watched Jungkook stroll down the alleyway until he was shoved harshly against the security gate, making a loud sound. 

She cringed at the sight. “Oh dear...”

After filming that scene, Jungkook had his makeup done to look like he had gotten beaten up as they filmed him getting tossed against the gate once more.

“This is intense,” Jennie murmured. 

She was impressed at his acting, he made it believable with his facial expressions. But she had the urge to hug him as she watched him get tossed around. 

When was this over? She didn’t want to see him like that.

After his filming was done, she rushed up to him, pulling him in for a hug. 

“Why do you gotta make things so realistic? That was intense.” She exclaimed as he smiled at her concern.

“Did I worry you?” He teased, feeling happy that she cared so much about him.

Before heading back to the dorm, the two of them decided to go get something to eat because Jen was craving French fries and chose to get a big plate of them so they could share.

“You have salt on your lips.” She pointed out, taking a napkin to gently wipe his lips. Jungkook stared at her with lingering eyes at the closeness.

“There. It was bothering me.” She looked up, meeting his intense gaze. He looked away, feeling his face warm up after being caught staring. “Do I have something on my face?”

“Nah, it’s just that you have pretty eyes.”

“That’s a first.” She smiled.

“No one has never said that before?”

“Not really. They’re just brown. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

“Well, I think it’s a big deal.” He countered. “Let’s go on a compliment spree, back and forth.”

“All right. Your bunny smile is really cute, I’ll admit.”

He flashed her a grin. “You have a nice voice.”

“Your singing voice is very sweet.”

“I saw the video Hobi filmed on Twitter. You dance well. Way different from before.”

“Better than you?” She teased.

“Let’s not get that far, I’m the Golden Maknae, after all.”

“Blah, blah...” She grabbed a handful of fries and shoved them in his mouth. “Eat and shut your face.”

He laughed at her. “Do you think I’ve become manlier?”

“Hm...” She examined him. “Nope!”

“Y-yah!” He exclaimed while she giggled at his shocked expression.

After more chatting, they were down to the end of their meal. "Last piece. Who gets it?” She asked.

“Staring contest?” He offered.

“You’re on.” She leaned in, taking him off guard as he gulped. “Nervous? All you gotta do is blink and I’ll back away~.”

“Never. I’m not losing.” He kept his eyes open, widening them as he stared at her.

Out of nowhere, he grabbed the last fry, shoving it in his mouth before she could comprehend what he had done.

“Wow, Kookie...really?”

“Hehehehe.”

-------

For the next day of filming, Jennie put on a white dress, black heels and red lipstick. “I look old...” She checked out her outfit. “I own this dress, it was in my closet for some time. Colors play a key role for me in HYYH. As you can see, I’m wearing white. What does white stand for? Purity. Red, well, it’s more of an intense color than white. It can mean aggression, anger and violence. Keep that in mind for the future.”

She was briefly filmed sitting at the dining room table alone, with a knife on the table, contemplating in irritation. She wanted to hurt him. Hurt him for treating her so wrong. For betraying her. For hitting her, everything that he had done wrong to her, she wanted to hurt him for.

She stood up, walking around the table until she heard the door open and close to reveal her boyfriend. With her back to him, she glanced at the knife as the camera panned down to her hand grabbing a hold of it, ending the shot as a cliffhanger.

After she finished the individual shot, she bowed. “I am a hot mess in this music video.” She declared with a laugh. “Like they say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!”

----

A few days later, the members decided to take care of some business, doing their respective activities for the day which left the 97 Liners in the dorm to chill. 

Jennie happily chose this time to watch a show that Angelina wanted her to check out, while Jungkook played video games in the living room. As Jungkook gamed, he overheard her talking on the phone as she left her room to walk to the kitchen.

“GIRL! I just finished the eighth episode.” He heard her say and paused as she listened to Angelina speak to her on the other line.

She went through the cabinets as she began to speak again. “This show is crazy, Angie! So many plot twists, I dunno who to trust, hahah!” She grabbed a bag of chips and poured them into a bowl. “Uh huh, yeah that part messed me up...she’s such a bitch, I hope she gets what’s coming to her...But oh my God, you warned me but I wasn’t expecting him to look that good. He’s so sexy, though! His muscles? That grin? Lord Jesus, I’m deceased!”

Jungkook let out a chuckle at her fangirling in her Native tongue. When she was back in her room, he continued to game for another hour until he decided to approach her door.

“Who?” She questioned at the sudden knocking.

“Jeon Cena.”

“Will I be Attitude Adjusted if I let you in?”

He smirked at her statement. “No, Milady. I come in peace.”

“Enter my realm.”

He grinned and walked into her room, shutting the door behind him as he saw her watching some American show with her laptop connected to an HDMI cord on her TV. Her hair was in a messy bun and she wore her Hello Kitty pajama shirt and shorts. He thought she looked cute.

Jen smiled brightly and paused her show to give him her full attention. “Hey!”

“Hey. You free to talk?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

He crossed his arms, deciding to ask her something that’s been on his mind all day. The sound of annoyance in his voice was heard as he asked, “So, you gave Jimin a massage?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. He complained about his shoulder. I offered.” She shrugged.

‘And not me?’ He wanted to ask, clenching his jaw.

“One of my cousins is a massage therapist and taught me some things when I was younger.” He heard her continue her statement. “It helped me loosen up my muscles when I first began to dance professionally. Now I’m used to the soreness. I told Jimin about the fun fact, and he asked.”

“That’s...actually what I wanted to talk to you about.” He looked down at his feet, trying to figure out how to ask her. “C-can I...get a massage from you?”

She let out a soft laugh. “It’ll cost you.”

Looking up at her, he nodded as his face began to heat up. “Ah, okay. I need to get my wallet.” He turned around.

She laughed at his actions. He didn’t catch her sarcasm. “Get on the bed. I’m messing with you.”

Her statement caused him to reveal his bunny smile on his features as he eagerly sat on her bed.

‘That was easier than I thought. I should stop overthinking.’ He happily thought as she turned her show back on.

He watched her get off the bed, to walk over to her dresser. He couldn’t help but stare at her bare legs in her shorts. Her working out with him has been paying off because he could see the definition in her legs. It was safe to say that she had one of the nicest legs that he had ever seen and wondered why she didn’t show them off more.

‘I should stop looking.’ He turned away, to look at the show on her TV instead. 

After a few moments, the temptation got to him as he couldn’t help but slowly drift his eyes back to her legs, inching higher this time.

“Where?” She had asked him while searching for her massage stuff in the drawer as he kept staring at the back of her legs.

‘A lot of places, actually...’ He thought to himself, averting his eyes from going higher than her thick thighs. ‘Don’t stare...don’t creep her out. Don’t stare at her ass, Jungkook, what are you doing?’

“Hello? Earth to Kook?” Jen had turned around to face him, catching his attention.

“Y-yeah?”

“I asked where did you need a massage?”

“Oh. Right. My back.”

“Got it.” She turned back around to gather up what she needed.

Jungkook stood up from the bed, with his back to her, reaching behind his neck to grab the collar of his shirt. Pulling his shirt up, he took it off and tossed it on her bed. All that was left on his upper body was the short bunny necklace around his neck that she had gotten him for Christmas.

Jennie turned around with bottles of massage oils in her hands. When she caught a glimpse of his muscular back she widened her eyes and accidentally dropped her supplies. The sudden clutter of noise caught Jungkook's attention as he turned around abruptly, giving her a full view of his muscular torso.

“You all right?” He asked, walking up to her.

“Ye-ah, y-yeah, just fine.” She kneeled to quickly pick up her belongings, placing them on the bed.

Jungkook watched her as he replayed her statement in his head.

‘Did she...stutter?’ He pondered as he watched her avert her eyes from his chest, trying not to look anywhere near his way. 

He fought the urge to smile as he appreciated the gesture. The fact that she tried not to stare filled him with pride. He’s worked hard for them, after all. And only getting muscular as the months go by.

‘I’m making her nervous...’ He confirmed.

Normally it would be her that made him nervous. But now that the tables have turned, he wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. 

“You need help with anything?” He decided to get closer to her again to see her reaction. 

She instantly shook her head and took a step back, desperately trying not to look down his chest, keeping her eyes on his face.

“Nope, nope. I gotta get something from the kitchen real quick. Just hang tight for a moment.”

“Okay.”

Once she left, he smirked, feeling good about himself. ‘She’s cute when she’s nervous like that.’ He thought as he waited for her.

When she came back, she had found Smarties in the kitchen and placed them on her nightstand. 

Facing him, she looked up into his eyes, still trying her best not to let her eyes wander. “I’m no pro, I only know a few basics, but it’s more than enough to help me with the aches and pains. I highly suggest a hot bath or shower to loosen up the muscles.”

“Got it.” He nodded curtly, walking over to the bed.

Before laying down, he decided to stretch deeply, raising his arms up in the air. He let out a soft moan as he stretched and discreetly peeked over to see if she was staring. He was not disappointed at the result.

When she accidentally glanced at him stretching, watching his muscles tighten, she quickly looked away.

‘Oh, oh no. No, no, no. Jen no. You shouldn’t be looking.’ She thought nervously.

She’d never seen him shirtless like this before and it was making her feel on edge. It caught her off guard since she wasn’t used to seeing him like that. They were comfortable around each other but something about him today made her nervous. But not in a bad way as she felt like her face was on fire. 

Was she beginning to blush? Thankfully her dark skin didn’t give it away so easily.

“Everything okay, baby girl?”

He didn’t know where he got his confidence from, but somehow he ended up asking her, as she didn’t hear the teasing in his voice. He felt no nervousness at all and seemed to run on his confidence because the sight of her being nervous around him for the first time boosted his ego. Maybe she thought he was manly now, after asking her so many times in the past. 

It felt satisfying.

“Huh? Y-yeah, everything’s fine.” She decided to fix her messy bun, turning her back to him. 

Any way to get away from the sight. They were getting older, so it should be natural that things like this would happen, right?

“Actually, can you check something before you do my back? I think I’m feeling a little sore on my arm.” He made up a white lie, to see her reaction.

She closed her eyes for a moment, attempting to contain her composure.

‘Oh, Lord have mercy.’ She thought as she turned to him. “Your arm?”

“Uh huh. If that’s okay.” He flashed her a smile and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

‘Say no. Say no, right now. Don’t do it, don’t you do it, do NOT do it.’ She tried to warn herself. 

“A-all right, show me.” She took a seat next to him, having no choice but to reluctantly turn her eyes to his bare torso. 

He flexed his arm for her, in a slow manner, revealing the definition of his arm muscles.

‘Oh no, I should not be in this position, right now. I shouldn’t be staring but his muscles are really...’ She ended her thought when he gently grabbed her wrist, feeling the warmth of his hand.

She watched him place her palm on his bare shoulder and he slowly ran it down his bicep, making sure she could feel his strength.

“Riiiiiiiight here.” He declared. “Maybe I stretched it out too much? What do you think?”

“Um...” She trailed off, running her hand on his strong arm. “You really feel tense here.” She stated as he watched her intently.

“Am I? Well, could you...also, massage that as well? I would really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, um, let’s begin with your back first. Lay down. On your stomach.” 

She got off the bed. He fulfilled her request and she sat next to his body. Thanks to him lying on his stomach, she felt less nervous but still felt some type of way about his muscular back.

“Never thought I’d be doing this to you. Jimin runs his mouth. But I like taking care of you, so I can’t complain. You’ve been my dance partner and personal trainer in the gym. I’ve been your nurse, best friend and massage therapist. What’s next on the agenda?”

“I have a couple of titles in mind...” He murmured to himself as he heard her open a bottle of the massage oil.

“I’m gonna need you to communicate with me while I do this, okay? Tell me what feels good and what doesn’t. And the areas you want me to focus on.”

“Got it.”

“And you can ignore me if I end up making random comments, I’m still fixated on Empire.”

“What’s that?”

“The show I’ve been watching. That’s why I was on the phone with Angelina. I blame her.” She poured the oil on her hands. “This’ll be a little cold, but you’ll warm up once your blood starts circulating.”

She ran her hands over his back, straight up and back down as he sighed in content. She smiled at his reaction. At least he was relaxed.

“Did you...do this to Jimin?” He suddenly asked.

“Nah, he wasn’t on my bed or anything. Nothing like this.”

‘Did this pabo lie to me to get me jealous so I could ask her?’ He pondered in annoyance. ‘I’m going to kill him.’

Jen multitasked while glancing at her show and listening to his reactions as she began to rub in circular motions. Jungkook thought her hands felt like heaven. His back was sore from all the dance practices and was grateful she was there to help him out.

“You’re tense, Kookie. Like all over. What’s on your mind?”

“A lot of things.”

“Care to share?”

“Ah, just making sure this comeback is a good one.” He let out another contented sigh.

“I swear, your muscles weren’t this big.” She thought out loud. “I’m not used to seeing you shirtless, so it caught me by surprise.”

“Do you like them?”

“They’re nice. Impressive. Hard work is paying off. I think I’m toning up too, what do you think?”

“Your legs are really nice. I think you should show them off more.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Maybe.”

Suddenly, he let out a soft groan and she stopped.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” She asked in alarm when she pressed into his muscle tissue with more pressure.

“Nah. Keep doing that. It feels nice.”

“Lemme know if it hurts.” She continued what she was doing and made sure to massage his arm like he wanted as well.

After 30 minutes, she noticed that he had fallen asleep and his breathing had gotten slower. She let him rest on her bed, placing a blanket on him. Later, she heard a cute bark and saw their dog Tony trying to jump on the bed. 

Jungkook and Jennie finally agreed to name their dog Tony. It was cute and suited him well. Iron Man won this round but the next thing they got that required a name was going to be Captain America related.

Letting out a giggle, she picked Tony up and placed him on the bed. He went right to Jungkook, walking on his back, curling up into a ball to rest.

Jennie smiled at the cute sight and decided to take a photo for the adorable memory. For a moment, she watched as Jungkook slept and started to run a hand through his soft hair, feeling elated. She then turned her attention back to her show, making sure the volume wasn't too loud to disturb his rest. 

She went through two more episodes while he continued to sleep. 

“No way!” She whispered in a hushed yell, watching another plot twist in the show. 

She glanced over at Jungkook who moved in his sleep. With Tony not on the bed anymore, Jungkook was sleeping on his back now with the cover still on him. She let out a soft chuckle at how cute he looked as he slept. The way his mouth was open, and how he looked like a baby. She was happy that he was resting. He and Jimin had been going to the dance studio more often as the comeback neared. She didn’t want him to work himself too hard.

She affectionately ran her hand through his soft hair again, checking up on him to make sure he was still fine. Then, her phone vibrated and rang at a low volume, interrupting her thoughts as she checked the Caller ID.

Jin.

“What’s up?” She answered.

“Hey, Jennie. The boys are on their way back, and should be back at the dorm in less than five minutes.” He said, causing her to almost drop her phone, hastily getting off the bed.

“Oh, really? Okay!” She managed to say as she looked back at Jungkook. 

She needed to get him out of her room.

ASAP.

She did not want to see what would happen if the guys found him, in her bed, shirtless, asleep. And it didn’t look any better with her hair disheveled. It would give the wrong impression, and they wouldn’t be able to hear the end of it. And the way the guys’ minds like to be dirty, she would like to avoid their teasing at all costs, and she knew Jungkook would want that too.

“I’ll be home soon, at the store. I wanted to ask if you needed anything?”

“Um, yeah, actually, could I get some more pads?” She requested. 

Ever since he caught her when she had her period accident, Jin had been looking out for her, ever since, buying her anything she needed to make her time of the month as painless as possible.

“Of course. I’ll buy two packs. See you when I get home.”

“Thank you!” She said her goodbyes and hung up, tossing her phone on the bed. “Okay.” She turned to the sleeping bunny.

How was she going to wake him up?

“Kook, wake up.” She called out.

No answer.

Sitting on her bed, she started to shake him but got no response. Of all times, he wanted to be a heavy sleeper he chose now. But she was the one who put him to sleep anyway, so she should be praising her hand skills.

It made her happy to get him to relax. The way he trusted her to massage him even though she wasn't a professional. She enjoyed these moments with him.

She shook him more roughly. “Kook, wake up. You gotta get out of my room, they’re coming back soon!”

She sighed at his lack of response. “You mean to tell me I need to pinch him like Jin?” She pondered as she tried to look for an alternative method. Looking around her bed, she grabbed one of her pillows.

“Wake up!” She started hitting his face with the pillow. 

Waking up and realizing that he was getting hit with the pillow, he grabbed a hold of her wrists and pinned her down on the bed, making her shriek in surprise. 

“Oh, hey, you’re awake.” She looked up at him. 

“What was that for?” He asked, sleepily.

“Well, I’ve been trying to wake you up for a while. The guys are coming back. You are in my room. You are shirtless in my room. And right now, you are on top of me, shirtless, in my room. If they see us like this...we’re done for. Let’s not give them something to tease us about for months. And if Jin sees us...” She cringed at the thought

“Yeah, we’re dead.” He let out a chuckle and got off of her. 

He helped her up and grabbed his shirt, putting it on. Both getting off the bed, they try to straighten up, so it can look like she did not give him a massage.

“Wait! Your shirt!” She called out in panic.

“What about it?”

“It’s inside out!” She hastily took it off him, since it was inside out, and turned it back and placed it back on him. “Wait, we need to fix your hair!” She started messing around with it, trying her best to make it look neat as he laughed at her attempts. “This isn’t funny!”

“It kind of is.”

“Okay, now go. Play video games, act normal.” She pushed him out of her room 

"All right, all right. But one more thing,"

"What's up?"

"Thank you for the massage. It felt great,"

She smiled, "Of course. Whenever you need one just ask. I'm here,"

"I'll keep that in mind," he was happy about the offer as he shut her door and went back to playing his game.

A minute later, the members made their way back to the dorm, while Jen continued to watch her show. 

“Jennie! Here are your things.” Jin came into her room, handing her the bag.

“Much appreciated.”

“So, anything interesting happened while we were gone?”

“Nah, I’m catching up on some American shows while Kook is gaming like usual. Same ol’ same ol’.” She smiled.

[possibilistfanfiction]

Your footy au is so awesome and giving me all the feelings

[hopefully i’ll be able to finish & post ch4 tomorrow but a little preview (& ode to tobin, if u know lol) to offset how bOring the uswnt game is rn 🙄]

//

you get a few questions about your continued work in advocacy, team chemistry, and how you’re looking forward to your club season and the world cup.

‘there’s a few new players on the roster that you’ll play against in a few days, maybe a different look to this team than what you might be used to,’ one journalist says. ‘do you have any specific team tactics you’re bringing into this upcoming match, especially as the world cup approaches?’

‘sure. any player called up and rostered is going to be dangerous, of course,’ you say. ‘and their veterans, as well, deserve a lot of credit. i’ve played with mary for years and there’s no better a leader than her.’ you really are thinking about the upcoming match when you continue, ‘and, obviously, in regard to some new faces we’ll see, ava silva can score when she wants, so we’ve got to make sure we keep her in check.’ you can’t help but smile. ‘easier said than done, of course. but beyond that, we just need to stick to our game plan: be patient, control the midfield, win tackles, finish. we’ve come together really well after this break, so i’m excited.’

you answer a few more specific tactical questions, and then you’re done. you say hi to a few of your favorite journalists that you haven’t seen in a few months, and then make your way back to your room. when you look at your phone, you roll your eyes at the number of texts you already see, try to wrack your brain for something you’d said that had been that interesting.

you answer when ava calls, and she’s laughing. ‘hi bea!’

‘hello, ava.’

‘wait, one second.’ she facetimes you with mary in the background, who waves with a good-natured eye roll at ava’s antics; she’s practically vibrating. ‘okay, here,’ she says, then turns her camera around so you can see her laptop on a youtube video, then presses play. ‘ava silva can score when she wants,’ you hear, and you groan.

‘ava.’

‘this is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.’

‘ava.’

she’s smiling too big for you to fight it: a laugh bubbles up out of your chest and then mary is laughing too. ‘lilith is gonna have a field day with this,’ she says.

‘i’m gonna print this out as a poster, i think,’ ava tells you, still playing it on loop in the background.

there’s a knock on your hotel room door and when you open it lilith is, indeed, holding out her phone.

‘hi lilith!’ ava says from your screen. ‘looking hot, as always. great and terrifying to see you, please don’t kill me in two days.’

you sigh. lilith leans against the doorframe. ‘ava silva can score when she wants?’

‘okay, you know what i meant.’

‘yeah!’ ava says. ‘i can score! in more ways than one!’

‘goodbye, ava.’

‘bye, love you,’ ava says, still laughing, and you hang up.

lilith just looks at you for a moment and then rolls her eyes, but it’s not cruel. you think, maybe, she might be amused. ‘see you at dinner, beatrice.’

[bromantically]

Hey I saw your post about christmas and I wanted to let you know it's going to be okay. It sucks that this xmas isn't going well for you but it'll get better. I promise. The first time I spent xmas on my own was horrible, everything went wrong and I was painfully lonely and just felt like shit. But the next year things were better, I wasn't so lonely anymore, even though I was alone at home the pain wasn't there anymore. This is the third year I'm spending christmas on my own and I'm having a pretty good time, making my own traditions and stuff. So, I promise things will get better and the pain will subside. Sorry if this was a weird message, I just wanted to make you feel a little better, as someone who's been in the same situation. It's going to be okay 💛

its really relieving to know others know what im going through honestly... i miss my lucy so much still, and i havent really done much processing of any of it, so its really hard to look in the eye and try to heal yknow... hopefully at my next therapy appointment ill try to bring it up and talk these things out though. i want to be able to process it so i dont remember my baby in fear forever

im hoping to hang with friends or something online on the anniversary of her passing so its easier and i can make happy memories for that day instead, and i might try to visit my nana with my mom tomorrow so im not stuck alone in the house

anyways thank u for ur ask :') i hope ur holding up alright too, and i hope ur years being u more fond memories to add to this time of year

[celestie0]

ELLIEIEIEIEIE !! hi ☺️

hru bae???? good i hope?? i mean its only been a day but things happen fast yk !

bae i fear i might’ve angered the jjk fandom with this tiktok i made…. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLndcoEq/ 😓😓 LITTLE DO THEY KNOW I HAVE MORE IDEAS AHAHAAH (dont tell them i told u tho 🤫🤫)

ALSO OH MY GOD I SWEAR THE UNIVERSE HAS IT OUT FOR ME. i got covid 😭 idek how though 🫠 and i have so many upcoming plans 💔💔 I FEEL FINE THOUGH SO HOPEFULLY I’LL BE OKAY BY NEXT WEEK !!

and fr bae like leaving work, or graduating, or just leaving ppl who you care about is always so bittersweet ☹️ when i graduated i wrote my music teacher 2 letters (one from just me and one from all of the seniors) and she cried when she read them 😭 then we hugged and cried a bit more 😭 she also called me a menace for ending the one from all of the seniors with “Please don’t forget about us!” 🧍‍♀️ maybe that was a bit evil on my part but like…… a few of my friends jokingly yelled at me for it BUT IF THEY DIDNT WANT ME TO SAY THAT THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE LET ME WRITE THE LETTER.

anyway bae thats all for now 💗💗 i hope you’re doing better than i am and i love u soooo much !

much love,, your deer -🦌

(heh i stole from your pun 😆)

hiii bb i’m doing well!! got a lot of chores done today so i can chill tomorrow 😼 how are youuu?

OMG THATS A SAD TIKTOK PLS I WAS HAVING A GOOD NIGHT 😭😭 why would u DO THATT. i’m so sad i just wanna give yuuji a hug :(( he’s been through too much loss at such a young age

aaa no not covid omg i didnt know people still got that xD (im just joking bahha i saw a tiktok where someone said getting covid is so “out of style” now n i thought it was insane but kinda funny lol) i hope you feel better!! drink lots of fluids

AWW that’s such a sweet thing you did for her i bet she’ll always remember that :””) i would feel so happy if i was a teacher n my students did something like that. i baked cookies for my PI bc he really likes my cookies and he appreciate it LOL. yea goodbyes are always bittersweet

love u toooo my deerling please take care of yourself!! feel better soon <3 so much love from meeee

- ellie 🦢

[chelleztjs18]

Hello you mrs. lady robin hood honey nut cheerio lefty eyebag 😅

Oh no! Delays suck. But it's good that you guys got to CA safely. That's a long drive from the airport to their house..

I am freezing my butt over here. It is snowing and the temperature is down to 10 degrees. Do you wanna trade? I can go enjoy the heat in CA while you play in the snow here. Hahaha 🤣 so all the clothes you brought are thick layers? Hopefully it does get cold but I doubt it because all the cold temperatures are heading my way haha

Hm so you like stories that have a dark theme to it?

So I listened to some songs of Glass Animals. I love his voice. It gives me a soft bar vibe hahaha I think my favorite so far is Your Love. And I didn't know they are the ones who sings Heat Wave. I like that song too.

Hm is it bad that I have a lot of crushes? Hahaha 😅 okay so technically one of them is the girl from the past that I have been crushing on since grade school. I've always like her since we were younger and we don't talk much now but whenever I see her on social media, it's like feelings come back?? And I hate it lol.

The others are sort of recent. Yeah the tumblr crush, she's cool but I don't know, I don't wanna put feelings into it because it might turn out bad.

Haha I guess I could be. One time for our anniversary, I gave her a book of all the letters I wrote to her but never sent (because we were long distance at first).

Sounds like a busy day! How many brothers does he have? So his parents are not together?

Anyways, it's almost Christmas time! Are you guys going to take Emily to see some lights or decorated houses?

- CuriousGeorge

Corn-punn righty eyebag! Hello hello! I'm back! But i bet u r asleep already since u r 2 hours ahead i think.

I tried not to be rude to be on the phone when they were talking.

How r u? Hows everything in the last 2 days?

Sorry for the late reply.. we went to have sushi for lunch, then went to his brother's house to chill nncatch up. Got mexican food for dinner n too the kids to see christmas light neighborhood. Em fell asleep so easy because she was so tired. She had a big meltdown before go to dinner but thank god we could handle it.hahaha.

I'm so tired today.. i had to wake up early tomorrow because im gonna go to indonesian food place to hv some food n bring home some desert. 😁

Hahaha yeah we can trade place n weather for a bit .today was kinda chilly n windy so i still wore my pull over hoodie n thick jeans at noon n wore my coat at night when we were walking to see the christmas light.

I didnt bring all of the thick clothes but u brought long sleeves. Some of them r thick ones, some of them r thin.. i got upset because i took out the cardigans last minutes. Which they would be perfect for the weather right now.🙄😒

Yeah i like dark stories or thriller that has that vibes i told u. Because usually it focuses more on the antagonist's mind such as why they do what they did, or why they did it n what wrong step they did that got them caught, or the revelation of who did it.. N it's interesting. Even better that usually it has plot twist at the end. I love movies like that. I can recommend u some movies like that if u want. 😊

I wish i can write that kind of story someday.. 😊 a thriller story.

Yeah i love Glass Animals. The singer's voice is pretty unique.. n their style of music is pretty different. I love Your Love song. It inspired an interesting plot idea..😁

He has 3 younger brothers. He is the oldest. N em is the first granddaughter on his dad's side. His parents divorced a long time ago but they get a long well so they still hang out or attend each other's family gathering.

Yes we took em n her cousins see christmas light neighborhood. There are quite a few big neighborhood that do that every year on christmas n halloween too.

It sucks when i got the chance to reply u, u r either not awake yet or already went to bed because of the time difference. But oh well, i hope it doesnt bore u from waiting. Just leave me next questions after this. Will for sure still reply u asap

Cheerio!

[kyunsies]

I think you have a lot of love to give to others - I see this a lot in the tags of your mutual's posts (+ I think it's cute how you have tags for some of them) and you always say the nicest things about them or their creations. I've said this before, but I admire your dedication to nursing + this blog - I can tell that you put a lot of work into your creations and they're always so pretty!! Also idk where to put this but your vibes are good and I love reading your tags when you go wild for mx (mostly changkyun, but relatable) skfkdkd. I heard you weren't feeling well today but I hope you were able to rest and you feel better the next day! - 🌱

hello again love <3 ahHHHH u are going to make me cry at all of this bby ;______; i am a person who always sees the good in ppl (until they give me a bad reason otherwise) but really if we are friends i will give u my all ....... i really put others' feelings before my own partly bc i think so poorly of myself sldkfjklf but the other reason is bc like i really just cherish friendships i have (at least i try to) and i would never want to give someone a reason not to feel all of my love :( so thank u for that angel <3 and still i cannot believe u picture me as this dedicated person hhhh like i really do try my best at things like running this blog and nursing but i always have this feeling like i won't amount to anything and that i'm a complete failure :/ i have had some hardships at uni and sometimes i just feel like i'm not doing literally anything right but u saying that i'm just like .......... do ppl really think this of me ? ;______; i don't even know how to accept these nice words sdfkjs just thank u so much for saying such kind words :(

AH MY TAGS i feel like i annoy everyone but fun fact all of my moots go crazy in the tags for the most part as well and i really enjoy seeing paragraph tags sldfsdkf just to see what's on ppl's minds so that's why i kinda just go crazy LKDJFSKLFJ thank u for actually paying attention to my ramble bubbie <3 u can always count on me to go crazy in the tags about changkyun ...... i love that dude so much lately i just cry over him lsdfkjskld why ;______;

anyways thank u for wishing me well angel i really hope i feel better tomorrow :( even tho i'm almost a nurse i am the BIGGEST baby when i'm sick i just want someone to hold me and i hate feeling so poopy ajskddfjs this is why i need a boyfriend preferably changkyun ASAP .............

send me a LONG (or short) anonymous (or not) message saying what you think of me

[drawlfoy]

pink in the night p.4 - FINALE!

masterlist

series masterlist

pairing: hufflepuffmuggleborn!reader x draco

summary: when y/n y/l/n starts having weird, recurring dreams about her long time unrequited crush in her 6th year, she begins to wonder where fantasies end and reality begins. 

(based on a request from anon asking for a fic about a hufflepuff reader, who had been average in hogwarts before she had a big glow up. i took many, many creative liberties with the plot, as you can clearly see in the summary).

warnings: mentions of sex, implied sex, violence, mild gore, explicit language, mentions of drug use (if u squint ig)

a/n: remember when i said i was splitting this into two parts? nvm! this is the whole finale! please heed the warnings on this one!

wc: 12.6k

playlist

The fork Y/N had been holding made a dull clank when it hit her plate. Thankfully—was it?—Draco hadn’t even looked her direction since Pansy had sat next to him, 

Her mouth felt fuzzy, but she picked up her fork, speared a potato, and began to eat. 

The first night was the worst. Y/N broke down in her dorm bed as Susan hugged her fiercely and promised her that it would get better.

“I feel so fucking stupid,” she gasped, swiping the tears away with the heels of her palms. “I knew it was hopeless. I knew this would happen.”

“It’s okay,” soothed Susan, smoothing her hair away from her face. “It’s okay to be upset. Love makes us all fools.”

“I never loved him,” said Y/N sourly, her voice cracking. 

Susan shrugged. “It’s just a saying. But it doesn’t matter whether you loved him or not. What matters is that you cared for him and he didn’t treat you the way you deserved. It was inevitable that he was going to see other people, sure, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be hurt. It’s good that you feel hurt. It means that you have it in you to care for someone blindly.”

“For the last time!” added Y/N. She blew her nose loudly. 

“Hopefully not,” said Susan, her eyes crinkling in amusement. “That’s what romance is—that’s what makes it so fun. It would be boring if you knew everyone you dated was perfect. Then you wouldn’t know the right person when he comes.”

“I think we both need therapy, Susan.” Y/N’s sobs had since settled. Now she just wanted to sleep. “That sounds a bit masochistic.”

“We can discuss mental health professionals after you get some rest,” Susan decided, grabbing Y/N’s comforter and pushing her into her nest of pillows. “The first night is always the worst. I know it feels like the end of the world now, but the sun will shine tomorrow. You’ll see.”

And so it did. The sun rose, set, and gently stroked her cheeks as she walked between classes. She went to dueling practice, hung out with her friends, and studied in the library. January swallowed her and spat her out in the middle of February before she knew it.

On the 13th of the month, Y/N sat at the Ravenclaw table for lunch with Terry, as she so often did now when Susan went into Hogsmeade with Theo for the day.

“Any plans for Valentine’s Day?” asked Terry..

“No, none!” she chirped. “What about you?”

Terry grimaced. “Well, after what happened with Cho…not much.”

“I’m sorry,” said Y/N sympathetically. Terry and Cho had been together since November. Terry had really liked her, too, but Cho had broken things off after they had returned from break, saying that she still had things to work through and couldn’t handle another relationship. She supposed she understood. She couldn’t even imagine the heartbreak of seeing a partner pass away. “Is there something you’d like to do?”

“Platonic Valentine’s date?” asked Terry, wiggling his fingers at her. “I’ll buy you sugar quills and let you beat me at Exploding Snap.”

“Only if we play Exploding Snap at Madame Puddifoot’s.”

“They’re going to kick us out if we do that.”

“That’s part of the fun!” Y/N was already grinning ear to ear. “I’m in.”

24 hours later, they were staring at each other across the tiny table. Madame Puddifoot herself had set out plates of fine china cups, filled to the brim with steaming pink and gold tea that smelled of roses. Terry and Y/N had taken one look at them and shoved them aside.

“You deal,” said Y/N, tossing her deck to him. He caught it before it managed to sail over his shoulder and hit Susan and Theo, sitting in the booth behind them.

“You guys,” Susan groaned, peering over her date’s shoulder. “Please don’t. This is a public establishment.”

The cards crackled as Terry split the deck, shuffling them once in an elegant swoosh. “Bavarian version?”

“Only if you think you can handle it.” Y/N smirked, watching as he quickly arranged the deck into a circular formation. 

“First to get 7 pairs wins,” said Terry. “And if we tie, the winner is the one covered in the least soot.”

“Why not 11 pairs?”

“Because Puddifoot is looking at us weird.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just start!”

Just like that, they were off. Y/N had gotten 3 pairs in quick succession, only blowing up one card—the Manticore card.

“Bloody hell, Y/N,” Terry mumbled as they scrambled to turn the cards over and collect pairs before the entire desk combusted. “3 already?”

“You have 5,” said Y/N through gritted teeth, not even bothering to look at him as her nails scraped against the table. She flipped over another card—a Manticore.

“Fuck,” she mumbled. She’d exploded the last one. Now that it was destroyed, there was no way this one wasn’t going to blow too. She abandoned it in search of other pairs.

“Excuse me,” said a very stern, angry voice.

Y/N looked up, but not before the Manticore card went up in flames with a violent crack. 

“This is highly inappropriate behavior,” said Madame Puddifoot, scowling down at them through her spectacles. “If you’ve not already noticed, today is a very special day to those of us enjoying the fruits of love and passion. No tomfoolery such as this is allowed. Out! Both of you!”

“You don’t understand,” simpered Y/N, blinking up through her lashes. In a last minute decision, she darted forward, taking Terry’s hand in hers. “This is our 1 month anniversary, He asked me out with Exploding Snap. It's very sentimental to us, you see. But I suppose if we aren’t welcome here we can leave.” She coaxed her lips into a pout. “Maybe the Three Broomsticks will be okay with us celebrating. We were just so excited to finally come here as a couple.”

Madame Puddifoot’s face contorted as she thought, her long nose wrinkling. Finally, she stepped back and nodded once. “Well, alright. I’ve forgotten the beauty of young love. It turns anything into an occasion. You’ll have to forgive me.”

“I understand,” said Y/N, sniffling for good measure. “Thank you, thank you!”

Susan caught her gaze. Her jaw was dropped. Once Y/N was sure Madame Puddifoot had walked far enough away that she wouldn’t notice, she sent her best friend a wink and let go of Terry’s hand.

“That was horrifying,” said Terry gravely. “Don’t ever fake cry again. It’s so…Slytherin of you.”

“And it kept us from getting kicked out, didn’t it? Also, I win.” 

True to her word, they had both made 6 pairs, though Terry’s pale blue shirt was smudged with ash. 

“Only because I let you.”

“Uh huh.”

Susan was still trying to catch her eye. Y/N frowned, mouthing a “what?” in her direction. In response, her roommate lifted her chin, looking pointedly at the space behind Y/N.

Slowly, Y/N eased around in her seat so she could peek over her shoulder. When her eyes met Draco’s, she whipped back around.

“Another round?” she squeaked at Terry, shoving her pairs in his direction. Draco was there with Pansy—surprise—but had been glaring at Y/N intensely.

“I dunno,” said Terry. “I feel like we’ve pushed our luck enough. Want to head back?”

“Sure,” said Y/N, secretly relieved to be given an out. Now that she knew that Draco could see and hear everything she did, she felt stiff and uncomfortable under the weight of his eyes. “Rematch in the common room?”

~

Y/N didn’t see Draco much outside of class anymore. Not like she had ever seen him much to begin with—but the occasional tapestry and side corridor episodes they’d shared over the last month of fall term constituted as extracurricular events to her. But now that he was apparently Pansy’s very committed and loving boyfriend, he was nowhere to be seen when he wasn’t sitting across the room in Potions.

It was stupid, but she missed him sometimes. If anything, she missed getting to bitch at someone who had next to zero moral compass when it came to talking shit. In her dreams, when they weren’t shagging and she wasn’t waxing romantic, they would gossip. It wasn’t as though Y/N was particularly nasty, but Hufflepuff house was just too clean cut sometimes. It was nice to really complain about the way that Harry Potter and his friends consistently disrupted the school year to someone who had no interest in pretending to be morally spotless. 

She also missed getting to kiss him and lay in his arms, too, but it would’ve been easier to forget all about him if it had been purely physical attraction like it’d started as. Now she actually knew him, and even worse, she liked what she knew about him. Disregarding the whole Death Eater thing—of course—but beggars can’t be choosers, and Y/N would’ve been ready to get on her knees and grovel if it meant going back in time and enjoying it all one last time. 

And now Pansy got to enjoy every good thing that Y/N had seen during their time together. And Pansy had gotten to do it in this dimension! Life wasn’t fair. 

The Monday after Valentine’s Day was strange. Y/N made a conscious effort to not look at Draco, but it was hard when he was so obviously staring at her from his seat on the other side of the room. When she finally dared to meet his eyes, he wrenched his own gaze away, staring at the table instead. 

Once class ended, she thought about catching up with him to ask him what his deal was, but he was gone before she even finished packing her satchel. It was unnerving, really, the way he’d been looking at her.

Her mind was still preoccupied when Professor Trelawney addressed the class.

“Good morning, students,” she greeted, looking rather solemn. “I come with some…rather disappointing news. I trust each and every one of you, which is why it saddens me that one of you saw fit to break into the classroom last weekend and steal equipment.”

Y/N shared a wide-eyed glance with Terry, raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips dramatically. 

“If you are in possession of an illegally required crystal ball,” said Trelawney, looking nearly close to tears, “Please return it as soon as possible. Many bad, bad things can happen if you use these special tools without proper supervision! Children, please heed my warning. The pupil who stole this will face great struggle should they choose to not come forward.”

Terry wiggled his brows back at her, but Y/N was feeling a little suspicious. Crystal ball? Wait a damn minute…

By the time dueling practice rolled around, she had largely forgotten about the whole ordeal. Y/N had been paired up with McLaggen, easily the most ruthless dueler on their team, and he was giving her enough to think about as she scrambled to defend herself in the dueling circle.

The classroom they practiced in was large, airy, and school gymnasium-like. The dueling circle was lined with mats and warded at the border to ensure that rogue spells didn’t attack the audience. Whenever Y/N hit the faded red mats (which happened a lot when she was up against McLaggen), she found that they smelled like salt and chalk.

Her wand was almost buzzing in her hand as she stalked along the perimeter of the circle, waiting for her opponent to retaliate. She’d somehow managed to get him good with a well aimed Jelly Legs jinx, but now that he’d recovered before she managed to disarm him, he was clearly miffed and ready for revenge.

“Watch your feet, Y/L/N,” called Professor Flitwick from the sidelines. Surprisingly, the Ravenclaw house Head was a marvelous and enthusiastic dueling coach. She accredited much of her improvement to his teaching. “He’s going to go for your feet unless you can extend your shield to the ground.”

Y/N frowned, deeply concentrating on the shield she had just raised with her wand. Sure enough, the pale blue shimmering air paused at her ankles. If he managed to make the mark, McLaggen would have no problem bringing her to the ground and disarming her. 

If she recast it now, he would no doubt take the opportunity to strike her, but taking the time to wait for the right moment meant leaving her feet undefended. Though it would be tough to strike her under her shield, McLaggen was renowned for his perfect aim. She was on borrowed time. 

So that settled it, then. She would make the first attack. 

The room was completely silent now except for the slow thump of her steps and the rhythm of her exhales. McLaggen’s large, looming frame rotated in time with her movements, keeping his wand raised at the ready. 

He wouldn’t expect her to be on the offense. It was unusual for the weaker, younger dueler to forgo a shield in order to lay on another hex in standoffs. This could work to her advantage, she realized. McLaggen would be ready to attack her when she removed the shield spell. But that would mean his own guard would be down. If she could non-verbally cast an attack…

Y/N walked another quarter of the circle, feeling magic gather at her wand hand, thrumming under her fingertips. McLaggen was smirking as he cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders. 

Flipendo, Flipendo, Flipendo. Y/N shouted the words in her head, building up the strength to silently send it his way. One, two….three…

A crackling green ball burst from the tip of her wand at the moment she ended the shield spell and thrust her hand forward. McLaggen hadn’t even opened his mouth to speak the incantations of his hex before he was launched high in the air, crashing into the mats outside of the dueling lines.

“Absolutely marvelous use of non-verbal spellwork,” said Flitwick approvingly, giving her a very firm nod. “Spectacular. Well done.”

“Yeah, Y/N,” said Justin, creeping forward from the crowd of onlookers. “That was incredible. You just wiped the floor with him.”

Y/N grinned back at him before striding over to McLaggen and offering her hand. “I can’t believe I finally managed to best you.”

“Just barely.” He groaned as he rolled onto his back and let her help pull him to his feet. “Next time I’ll get you back.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

~

The floor was springy under her feet as she slowly stalked the outer rim of the dueling circle, her wand clutched tightly in her fingers. It was darker than the usual lighting they used for dueling practice, and Y/N had no clue how she’d ended up back in the circle.

That is, until she saw the bright blond head of hair at the opposite end. Then it all made sense.

“Hi,” Draco said. He wasn’t walking like she was. Instead, he was standing with his hands shoved into his pockets. He looked awkward.

“So it was you,” said Y/N, finally stopping her steps. “You stole the crystal ball from Trelawney.”

“She’s already noticed?”

“Unfortunately.” She rolled her wand between her fingers, letting the ridges of the handle pull across the pads of her fingertips. “Why’d you steal it? Is it for your task?”

It was a cruel reminder. He paled and shifted his weight. “No, actually.”

“Oh,” said Y/N. For one glorious moment, she forgot all about Pansy, entertaining the idea that Draco broke the crystal ball to confess his love and devotion for her. But then she remembered the way she had seen him bend down and kiss her forehead from across the Great Hall that morning, and reality settled into her stomach like a cold medicine ball. “Was this—” She motioned to the air between them “—an accident?”

“No,” Draco said, swallowing hard. 

Anger rose in her chest when he didn’t elaborate. He had left her in December thinking that he was going to die. He had left her letting her believe he cared for her. And then he came back, dating Pansy Parkinson out of every other person available. 

“I’m glad you’re alright,” she said, stiffly. 

“Thank you.”

Y/N twirled her wand around her fingers once, twice, watching as the cherry red of the wood flashed around her nails. 

“Dueling club, huh?” prompted Draco. It was stupid, really, how he was trying to make casual conversation after everything that had happened. After everything he’d done.

“Why are you here?” she asked finally, scowling.

“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“Okay.”

“Okay? That’s it?” 

She stared at him, her mouth momentarily agape. “Yes, of course that’s it. If you’ll recall, you snogged me in a dark corridor, made me spend the entire break thinking that you were either dead or dying, and then proceeded to enter a very public relationship with the only person with which I’ve ever had a physical altercation. Do you seriously expect me to just forgive you like that?”

“Says the person who started dating the only person I specifically asked you not to go out with!” said Draco. He remained standing still, but his fingers were drumming along the length of his wand.

“Terry?!” 

“Don’t play dumb,” he snapped. “I was there at Puddifoot’s, you know. I saw you two together. And you always sit together at lunch.”

She supposed she could tell him that she wasn't actually dating him, but she was furious, and his jaw seemed to clench the more he thought about her and Terry. “That doesn’t change anything. Like I said, I don’t do everything just become you tell me to.”

Suddenly it hit her.

“I know why you’re here now,” she said, sounding smaller. His silver eyes snapped up from his hands to meet hers, his brow raised. “You think that because I’m rolling back on my word with Terry, I’m going to stop protecting your secret, too.”

“Well, that’s—”

“How many times do I need to tell you, Malfoy?” Her voice was sharp, her consonants punctuated. It echoed. “Give me a fucking break. I’m not stupid. I know that some promises are more important than others. I’ve told you, time and time again, that I will. Not. Tell. So stop bugging me and—” She paused to look down at her body, seeing that she was once again in her Slytherin party dress, sans tights. “—and stop fucking fantasizing about me without my tights! That’s lewd and disgusting. Imagine how your girlfriend would feel knowing that thoughts like those are rattling around up there in that vacant brain of yours. Honestly! You’re depraved.” 

Draco’s eyebrows were nearly touching his hairline, his jaw slack before he regained his composure. “You’re really going to start calling me Malfoy now? After everything?”

“Yes,” spat Y/N. “Now get out of my dream. Finite Incantatem!”

A flash of blue light sprung from her wand, puncturing Draco’s middle. Then he was gone, and Y/N was all alone in the abandoned dueling room. 

The next morning, the news of Katie Bell’s return broke in the Great Hall. Y/N and Susan had left late due to Y/N being in a particularly rotten mood. Susan, to her credit, had stayed behind and listened to Y/N rant about how Draco had been the one to steal the crystal ball Trelawney had lectured their class about. Naturally, Y/N had twisted the details, omitting the bits where Draco was technically an enemy of the state. Her roommate shared her malaise nonetheless.

“I can’t believe him,” she had said, shaking her head. “What a twat. I’m glad you stood up for yourself. That must’ve been hard.”

One short, embarrassing sob session in their bathroom later, Y/N was fresh faced and ready to walk down to the Great Hall. The entire student body was buzzing as they pushed open the heavy doors.

“What’s going on?” asked Y/N as they settled down next to Hannah.

“I was wondering where you guys were,” replied Hannah. Her spoon clinked against her mug of steaming coffee as she stirred in swirls of cream. “You missed it. Remember Katie Bell, that 7th year Gryffindor who had been cursed?”

Susan and Y/N nodded.

“She’s back,” Justin cut in, for once looking excited. “She’s alright.”

“That’s great!” For the first time that day, her lips turned into a genuine smile. Katie Bell had been at the first Dueling Club practice she had attended and had been an angel, helping her walk through the motions and shake off the nervousness of being one of the only female students there. “Is she coming back to team practices, then?”

“She’s missing the tournament this weekend,” Justin said. “But I think she’s coming tomorrow night.”

Y/N bobbed her head, her newly discovered excitement wavering in the face of the upcoming weekend. Beauxbatons was hosting the annual Pygmy Invitational Dueling Tournament, and Y/N was finally competing. There were no divisions—she was just as likely to be against someone as renowned as Hristo Krum, Viktor Krum’s younger brother as she was a weaker, more novice dueler. She’d managed to put off thinking about it, planning on not letting it sink in until she was actually there—or, preferably, never—but she was already failing.

“Hey,” said Justin, reaching out to touch her elbow in a brief, perhaps not entirely platonic gesture. “You’ll do great.”

“Are you coming?” she found herself asking. Even though Justin had a knack for getting on her nerves on occasion, he was growing on her. 

Justin flushed, setting his gaze on his plate. The precision in which he was slicing up the breakfast potatoes impressed her. “If you’d like me to. Do you think they’d let me?”

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t.” The only struggle would be finding a way to transport another student to France, but considering how wealthy the Finch-Fletch’s were, he could probably come across a Portkey some way or another.

Y/N finished up the rest of her breakfast, engaging in light conversation with her friends. Out of habit, she cast her gaze over to the Slytherin table, searching for a head of startlingly light hair amongst the sea of forest green. Draco wasn’t there. She berated herself for looking in the first place. What did it matter if he was there? 

Her muted curiosity morphed into full-fledged concern when, by Thursday morning, she had yet to see Draco at all. He no longer showed up during meals, leaving Pansy to eat alone with a rather harrowed look on her face. He was nowhere to be seen in corridors between classes with his Slytherin friends, which she supposed made sense as he hadn’t shown up for class since Monday. And, of course, since she hadn’t seen him in person, he never appeared in her dreams.

When Y/N brought it up to Susan on her way to Divination, her friend had no idea.

“Theo hasn’t said anything to me,” she admitted. The heels of her loafers made satisfying clicks on the cobblestone as they walked. “We don’t really talk much about Draco when I see him, though. I can ask?”

“No, no, that’s okay,” said Y/N hurriedly. “No need. I’m still mad at him, anyway. I shouldn’t even be talking about him.”

“Smart! I’ve always heard that pretending that someone is actually dead is a good way to get over them.”

“Haha. Maybe I’ll try that.” She said this in a deceptively casual tone, and her blood ran cold. What if something truly awful had happened to him? Even if he was a right arse, he didn’t deserve to die. 

Nausea built in her throat as she sat through the day’s Divination lecture. All she wanted was for her free period to begin so she could curl up in her dorm bed and nap. She’d barely slept since she’d dreamt of Draco on Monday. 

She was just on the way towards the common room when Madame Pomfrey appeared around the corner, walking towards her with a purpose. Y/N was suddenly queasy. Could Madame Pomfrey tell if she was having her dreams again? Would she accuse her of stealing from Trelawney?

“Miss Y/L/N,” she said, her heavy footsteps coming to a halt in front of her. “You need to come with me.”

Her tone betrayed nothing. She spoke with her usual no-nonsense voice, but she at least didn’t look angry—just stoney faced. 

“Er—well—alright then,” Y/N stammered. So much for her napping plans. She followed the healer down the corridor, up the stairs, and through the wide doors of the hospital wing. This was it. She was going to be blamed for Draco’s theft, and she was going to get expelled. Well, maybe not that. Trelawney would just look at her in class with a deeply hurt expression, like she had personally betrayed her professor. And, although Y/N was never particularly attuned to Divination, the sadness she’d see in one of her mentors’ eyes would be almost worse.

The hospital wing was remarkably quiet. Their footsteps echoed as they walked past the white beds, all empty except for one at the end, the furthest from the door. That one was obscured entirely from view by crisp white curtains, sparking a morbid interest in Y/N. Unless someone was seriously injured or were changing, curtains were rarely used. 

To her surprise, Madame Pomfrey didn’t lead her through the beaded entrance at the end to her office for a serious talking-to. Instead, she motioned towards the curtains. 

“You have a visitor,” said the healer, ignoring Y/N entirely and poking her head through the curtain. 

She was too far away to hear whatever the patient whispered back.

“It’s the girl you’ve been moaning about,” added Madame Pomfrey, rather snippily for someone who was treating patients. She turned to face Y/N. “Come along, you. Your free period doesn’t last all day.” A scraping sound emanated from the metal rods as she parted the curtains.

The first thing that hit her was the smell of Dittany—a strong musky, herbal scent with notes of mint. Y/N had smelled it the first time when she’d sliced her finger in Potions class in second year, and she’d never forgotten the way the viscous brown substance looked as it trickled into her cut. 

Madame Pomfrey stepped aside from the gap she’d created in the curtains, ushering her inside. “I’ll let you know when you need to leave.”

Y/N crept forward, passing the threshold of the curtains. She gasped when she saw who was inside. “Malfoy?”

He looked awful, even worse than when she saw him that night in December. He was so gray that he resembled a corpse. The crisp white hospital linens were pulled tight around his otherwise bare chest, where she could see the beginnings of angry red gashes poking out from above the sheets.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” said Madame Pomfrey before shutting the curtains behind Y/N. 

When she was sure that Pomfrey’s footsteps had faded, Y/N produced her wand and cast a silencing spell around the curtains, unsure what else to do or what to say. Finally, when she met his hooded eyes, she settled on: 

“Are you alright?” That was a stupid question. Thankfully, he ignored it completely. 

“You came.” He was gaping at her vacantly. “I didn’t think…didn’t think you would.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” said Y/N. “Pomfrey didn’t tell me who it was.”

He sighed, then shut his lips, pouting childishly. 

“What happened to you?” she asked. Everything in her wanted to come up and embrace him, brush his hair away from his forehead, and tell him how much she’d missed him and how afraid she was for him, but the thought of acting on these desires made her sick to her stomach. “Who did this to you?”

Draco stared blankly at her before letting his head fall back on the pillow. 

“When did this happen?”

“I miss you.” He said this with his eyes closed, so quietly Y/N thought she had imagined it.

“What?”

“It’s not fair,” he mumbled. “None of this is fair.”

“You’re not making any sense. Why did you call me here? Where’s Pansy?” She gingerly sat down on the chair beside his bed, which produced a little creak as she transferred her weight onto the seat. At the sound, his eyes cracked open and he twisted, wincing as he reached out. After some waving about, his fingers found her hand.

She stiffened. Worry welled up in her throat. His hand was blazing hot, warm from sleep. 

“Don’t go,” he whispered as she attempted to wrench herself from his grip. “Please don’t go.”

“You’re not well,” she said, pointing out the obvious. Draco hardly seemed to hear or register anything that she had said to him. Realization hit her when she saw the empty potion bottles on the nightstand. Madame Pomfrey must’ve dosed him with a cocktail of pain potions, leaving him with barely half his mind. She was speaking to the most incoherent version of Draco she’d ever seen.

He probably wouldn’t remember any of this, she bitterly thought to herself. She would have to be the one who carried the burden of this interaction. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry. I’ll never forgive myself for what I’ve done.”

“It’s okay.” It definitely wasn’t, but Y/N wasn’t about to say so to an invalid clearly on the verge of an emotional breakdown. 

“I’m not allowed to love you,” he said, almost ruefully. 

“I’m aware,” Y/N snapped.

“I miss you,” he said again, his fingers tightening around hers. “I wish you still called me Draco.”

Y/N didn’t even dignify this with a response. This wasn’t even a conversation—he was so high on whatever Madame Pomfrey had given him that he probably didn’t even realize that she was actually there. 

“I hate Terry Boot,” he mumbled. “It’s not fair.”

Y/N blinked. What had Terry ever done to him? 

“You have to stay,” he said. Y/N cocked her head. 

“I’m here,” she said gently, though she knew it was futile. He wouldn’t understand, even if he did hear her. 

“Don’t leave me. Please.” He was begging now, which confused Y/N. She hadn’t so much as shifted since she tried to pull her hands from his in the beginning. Nothing in her body language hinted at her leaving. He must’ve been so far gone that he was hallucinating her getting up and letting go. 

“I’m right here,” she repeated. Tentatively, and mostly because she knew he wouldn’t remember, she leaned forward and touched her palm gently to his cheek. He pressed into the contact like a housecat, his eyes fluttering shut.

“I don’t deserve you,” he croaked. “But I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Y/N’s frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

“I love you,” he breathed. “I’m yours.”

Her heart dropped. She pulled her hand away from his face, feeling for a moment as if she was going to puke right then and there.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she whispered, feeling hot tears prick at the backs of her eyes. “I’ll ask Pomfrey to get Pansy.” Because if he was going to confess his love to anyone, it was going to be Pansy Parkinson, heiress to the Parkinson fortune and by all accounts a perfect Slytherin Pureblooded Princess. It wasn’t going to be Y/N. 

He made a small sound of protest as she stood up and wrenched her fingers from his grip. Her heart ached as she looked down at him, taking in his newfound feebleness and delirium. 

“Don’t,” he rasped. “Please—don’t go—”

Y/N waved her wand, breaking the silencing charm before stepping through the curtains without another word. 

“Back so soon?” asked Madame Pomfrey. She was on the other side of the room, tediously logging the potion inventory into a sheet of parchment.

“I think there’s been a mistake,” Y/N said. “He thinks I’m someone else—his girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson. He’s very discombobulated.” 

Madame Pomfrey frowned. “Girlfriend? The Slytherin girl with black hair?”

“That’s Pansy.”

“She was just in,” she said. “She dropped off notes. He asked for you by name.”

“He has no idea what he’s saying,” said Y/N stubbornly. “He didn’t understand anything I said to him. He didn’t mean to ask for me, I’m sure of it.’

She bid her goodbyes to Madame Pomfrey before heading to her next class.

~

Her sheets felt stiffer than usual. And warmer, very warm, like she wasn’t alone. 

Y/N jerked awake to find herself in the hospital bed with a very awake, very lucid Draco staring at her. The tiny bed left barely any space between the two of them, and she’d found that part of her body was draped over his.

“Fuck,” she hissed, frantically pulling the blankets off of her and scrambling out of bed.

“How are you here?” asked Draco. His voice was prim, crisp, and posh—a return to normalcy. “I haven’t seen you in days. I thought we only dreamt of each other when I saw you.”

Y/N sighed. “I did see you today. Pomfrey got confused. She brought me to you instead of Pansy.”

“Oh,” said Draco. He was significantly paler. “I don’t remember.”

“I’m not surprised,” she responded. “You were absolutely delirious. Completely nonsensical.”

“What kinds of things did I say?”

Y/N shrugged. “Nothing important.” Because it really wasn’t, not in the grand scheme of things. Because he didn’t mean anything that he’d said.

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows.

“I think you thought I was Pansy,” said Y/N. “So you said some weird things.”

“Like what?”

“Things,” she hissed through her teeth.

“What kind of things?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Y/N rubbed the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb. “What happened to you? Why are you in the hospital wing?”

“Potter cursed me,” said Draco. “He used some backyard homemade curse that almost killed me.”

Y/N gasped. “What? Why?”

“He suspected that I was behind Katie Bell’s affliction,” he said simply.

“On Tuesday?” Y/N knew that if she thought about it for long enough, she’d feel nauseous at the thought of what he’d had to endure. But now she was numb, instead focused on the hurt that he’d caused her over the past month. 

He nodded.

“You need to ask Pomfrey for the antidote to this whole dreaming business,” Y/N informed him. “I’m not going to ask. She’s going to think I was the one who stole the crystal ball, and you’re under her care, anyway. It’ll be more convenient if you ask.”

“I can’t ask her either!” he said. “If I do, she’ll know it was me. I can’t have a target on my back. Not now.”

“Well then.” Y/N scowled as she whipped out her wand and transfigured her chair until it was a large, cozy armchair. Then she tucked her legs under herself and rested her head on the arm.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to sleep,” said Y/N. 

“There’s a perfectly fine bed right here. No need for the showy Transfiguration.”

“It’s not perfectly fine when you’re in it,” she retorted. 

He rolled his eyes and held open the sheets. “Come here. Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll get out if you want.”

“No.”

“You’re so stubborn,” he said. There was no venom in his tone. 

She ignored his comment, lost in her own train of thought. For some reason, what she’d told him about Terry emerged in her ponderings. She was angry at him, yes, but there was no reason to try and keep up the lie. Letting him believe that she was dating Terry would eventually catch up to her, she was sure of it. It would be more embarrassing if he discovered the truth from someone else.

Once she’d found her resolve in confessing, she cleared her throat. “I, ehm, I need to clear my conscience while we’re both here. I need to tell you something. I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”

“Oh?”

“I’m not dating Terry,” she said. His eyebrows shoot up. “I just let you think I was because you were getting on my nerves and it seemed like it upset you.”

His silver eyes glittered in the moonlight as he laughed, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’re a Hufflepuff sometimes.”

She sent him a weak smile in return, though she didn’t really feel it reach her eyes. It felt good  to get her secret off her chest—he surely would’ve found out from someone else eventually—but she’d lost her last bargaining chip. Nothing else about her seemed to elicit any indication that he cared.

“Don’t feel too guilty,” he continued. “We’re even.”

“How so?” she asked, inspecting her fingernails instead of meeting his eyes.

“I’m not dating Pansy.” 

Her head snapped up, her gaze meeting his. There was no trace of insincerity in his face. “What?”

“Pansy and I aren’t really together,” said Draco. “I was going to tell you earlier. I just never had the chance.”

Anger and relief simultaneously rushed through her. Anger, because what did he mean he didn’t have any time? They’d been at school for over 2 months after the fact. Relief, because…well, she didn’t need to explain that.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” admonished Y/N. 

“I couldn’t,” he answered.

“You are right now. I don’t understand.”

“The Dark Lord—I mean, Voldemort—went through my thoughts over the break,” said Draco, looking rather solemn. “He saw the memory of us in the corridor from when I came to say goodbye. It was dark enough that he didn’t see who you were, so I told him you were Pansy.”

“But we’ve been together so many other times. How did he not see those?”

“Legilimency only works on memories created in our usual reality,” he explained. “He can’t see my dreams. So I couldn’t tell you because I couldn’t figure out how to break into Trelawney’s classroom until last weekend. And I also didn’t want to try in my real corporeal form, anyway.”

“Why not?”

He looked sheepish. “You’re scary when you’re angry.”

“I'm the scary one?” 

“I thought you were going to hex me in the last dream,” he said. “I’ve heard how good you are at dueling. I’d prefer to not be on the receiving end of that.”

Y/N rolled her eyes, but her heart was pounding from all that he’d just dumped on her.”Does Pansy know?”

“‘Course,” he said, frowning. 

“And she’s okay with you pretending to be her boyfriend so you can cover your tracks after fucking around with a mudblood?” The words tasted acrid in her mouth. 

“I didn’t give her your name,” he said, looking even more uncomfortable.

“She’s in love with you, you know.”

Draco sighed, a sharp breath leaving his nose. “I know. That’s why I didn’t tell her it was you. She’d be ruthless.”

“So what does she know?”

“That I’m involved with someone that I’m not supposed to be with,” he said simply.

Her middle began to feel weightless with hope, hope that she unsuccessfully attempted to tamp down. “That you are involved with? Present tense?”

He shrugged. “That was the plan, yeah. Before Boot, of course.”

“Is it still?” She hated the way she sounded so expectant, so optimistic. 

“Would you like that?” asked Draco. His long, dark lashes nearly touched his cheekbones as he looked down, focusing on the hospital sheets instead of Y/N.

“You’d only ever see me in our dreams,” she pointed out. 

“That’s okay. It’s better than not seeing you at all.”

She wanted to say yes. She wanted to agree wholeheartedly, to jump in the hospital bed with him and bury her face in his neck. But what stopped her was the fear. He’d gotten her hopes up so many times before, and dealing with the aftermath had been nearly catastrophic for Y/N. 

As if he could read her thoughts, Draco shifted and met her eyes. “It’s okay if the answer is no. I know that asking you to trust me again is…a lot.”

“I’m just not really sure what I should do,” she admitted. “I’m afraid of getting hurt again.” But who was she kidding? Draco Malfoy, her school crush of over 2 years now, was handing himself over to her on a silver platter. She’d let her filet her with a plastic takeaway knife if it meant getting to shag him again. She considered indicating that she’d come to her senses, but the way he was looking at her with such sorrowful and empathetic eyes made her decide to hold her tongue for a bit longer. She did deserve a good apology, after all, not one from when his brain was addled with pain potions.

“I know,” he said gently. “I wish I could find a way to atone for the things I’ve done. Words can’t describe how much I regret how much I’ve hurt you. I’ll do anything if it results in your forgiveness.”

The pretty words he offered were empty. There were of course things that he wouldn’t do, lines that he wouldn’t cross if it resulted in harm to his family. But they were good enough, she supposed. She couldn’t fault him for loving his mother.

“Okay,” she said. “I forgive you. But if you ever do anything like this to me without warning again, I’m breaking a thousand crystal balls and haunting you for the rest of your life.”

He was grinning by the time she finished her threat. 

“You’re supposed to act at least a little scared,” she told him, sounding much more wounded than she actually was. “I was just very intimidating there.”

“Oh, yes, very scary,” he said gravely. “Terrifying. Appalling. I’m trembling. Will you get back in bed with me now?”

The spot where she had appeared was still warm as she settled down next to him, letting him pull her into his side once again. They didn’t talk. Y/N just laid as she thought, feeling his fingers stroke through her hair.

“What did you mean by ‘involved’?” she asked, finally. The question had been nagging her for however long she’d been lying there. “What does this mean to you?”

His fingers threaded into the hair behind the nape of her neck, stilling. “Is this a ‘what are we’ question?”

“I guess,” she said. When he phrased it like that, it made her feel a little ridiculous. She knew what they were—a distraction for him, a fun side quest to keep him from thinking about his real responsibilities. When they graduated, he’d be a good little boy and get engaged to someone like Pansy or Daphne. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I assume nothing’s changed since last fall.”

A sick, heavy sense of dread filled her stomach. Now that she’d thought about it, she really didn’t want him to answer. It was easier for her to read into things, to pretend like there was meaning where there wasn’t if he didn’t explicitly tell her otherwise. That’s how she’d handled it the first go around. The tender way he touched her near the end enabled her fantasies of him returning her feelings. Could she do it all over again if he told her what she feared most?

She wasn’t sure. And he’d been quiet for a long time, too, which was stressing her out more.

“Please don’t answer if you don’t want to. I won’t make it into anything it isn’t,” she lied. She totally would, but what she thought in the private recesses of her mind was her business and her business only.

“Hey.” His voice was gentle but firm as he used his hold on the back of her hair to softly tilt her face up to meet his gaze. “I’m really sorry I’ve made you feel like that. I know I’ve been a bit of an arse to you, especially at first. It’s not a real excuse, but in my defense I didn’t think you were a real person for a while.”

She snorted. Where was he going with this?

“If things were ordinary,” he continued, “I’d be a much better boyfriend—actually take you out on dates and study together and all that normal stuff. But—are you alright?”

He’d paused because Y/N had stopped breathing.

“What?” she said after she finally checked back into her body and inhaled through her nose. “You’d want that with me?”

“Of course,” he replied, his voice soft. “But things aren’t ordinary. I can’t give you those things, at least not now. It’s too dangerous for both of us.”

“Oh. Yeah, I understand.” Her momentary high had dropped considerably.

“That isn’t to say that I don’t want anything real with you,” Draco said hastily. His fingers moved out of her hair, his palms coming to her jaw so his thumbs could run across the lengths of her cheekbones. He was still wearing his signet ring, and the coolness of the silver against her hot skin was startling. “I do. I care for you—more than what’s good for the both of us. That’s why I stole the crystal ball. I couldn’t stay away any longer, and that was terribly selfish of me. I know that seeing me like this doesn’t even hold a candle to what you deserve, but it’s all I can offer right now.”

“And is what you’re offering the same as you did last fall?” she prodded. Hope treacherously made its way back into her chest cavity.

“No.”

“So are you proposing that you be my boyfriend, but only in this realm?”

He rolled his eyes, but a smile danced across his lips. “I was thinking more along the lines of your actual boyfriend. With the caveat that we meet up at night in another dimension instead of, say, Saturday afternoons at Hogsmeade. What do you think about that?”

“I think I can manage,” she said mildly, trying her hardest to seem cool and collected.

“I can feel your heart racing,” he said smugly. The hand that was stroking her neck pressed into her pulse point in a light demonstration.

“Oh, stop it.” She flushed, frowning. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not,” said Draco. “I think it’s cute how much this affects you.”

As if to prove his point, he bent down until his face was almost level with hers before lightly kissing the tip of her nose, then the tops of her cheeks. She was grinning stupidly by the time he was done. 

Shyly, she pushed her weight into her toes and shifted forward. Her nose nudged against his cheek as she tilted her head up. When her lips finally pressed into his, his fingers curled around her waist, pulling her further into his chest.

It struck her then, really struck her, that she wasn’t just kissing Draco Malfoy—she was kissing her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, Draco Malfoy. He was hers. 

The thought made her entirely giddy as she rested her hands on his chest, letting her thumb run across his skin. His skin was so warm to the touch. She was overwhelmed by the need to be even closer to him than she already was, to somehow intertwine themselves until there was no telling where one ended and the other began. 

For the first time in months, Y/N awoke feeling completely at peace.

~

Draco sat next to her in Potions on Friday. As Slughorn lectured, droning on about the properties of Valerian root, Draco’s knee nudged against hers. They managed to look entirely serious and no nonsense when they spoke to each other and jointly brewed a Draught of Peace, but under the table, his fingers would briefly rest on her thigh or tangle with hers. 

Y/N thought she was going to absolutely combust with happiness by the time she joined Justin and the rest of the Dueling Club in the meeting room to travel to France. She wasn’t afraid anymore. Now that she was riding the euphoric emotional waves of her renewed relationship with Draco, she felt like she could take on the world.

“I have a tournament tomorrow,” she told him that night after she’d fallen asleep in the French hotel room. She’d awoken to find herself next to Draco in his own dorm bed.

“Where?” he asked, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. He was hovering over her, letting his forearms support his weight from their place besides her head.

“France,” she told him. “I’m there right now, actually. I took a Portkey a few hours before dinner.”

“That’s exciting.” Draco smiled encouragingly down at her. “I’m sure you’re going to wipe the floor with everyone.”

She frowned, deep in thought. “I’m not sure. I’m actually really nervous. I can barely beat McLaggen, and he’s probably like a child compared to the other duelers. Durmstrang is sending their best.”

“That sounds intimidating,” he agreed. “But you have a natural talent for dueling. You’re going to do wonderfully.” To punctuate his last point, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of her forehead. 

She smiled, then changed the subject to something Slughorn had said in class. It struck her then how domestic and normal their meetings were becoming. It felt so natural now to tell him about her day and how it made her feel. The newfound emotional vulnerability felt like a warm, fuzzy blanket around Y/N’s entire body, wrapped tight.

The next day was a blur. Every dueler was scheduled to partake in 6 sessions. The first opponent Y/N had was a lithe, elegant Beauxbatons boy with rich chocolate hair and a demeanor that reminded her distantly of Draco. 

Despite Professor Flitwick’s pep talk to her before she’d stepped into the ring, the sudden gravity of it all weighed on her the moment she passed through the protective wards. The Beauxbatons boy, who she was pretty sure was named Clement, was languidly twirling a short, stumpy wand around his fingers and eying her up and down. She had refused to ask how accomplished this dueler was—it’d only serve to make her more nervous—but the way he was smirking at her made her think the feeling was not mutual. If he hadn’t heard that this was her first tournament, he had at least figured out she was a muggleborn 6th year by now. 

“Take your stances!” called out the moderator from outside the circle. She was a wiry looking woman, with carrot red hair and some flavor of Scandinavian accent. Y/N’s knees nearly buckled as she bent them slightly, staggering her legs and readying her wand. “Begin!”

A curse, white hot and scathing, hit her chest before the word had even finished echoing throughout the hall. It struck Y/N head on, making her double over and wheeze as her lungs seized. 

“Stop!” cried the moderator. “Illegal spell. Beauxbatons 35 is disqualified. The win is given to Hogwarts 2.”

Clement scoffed. “Illegal? Zat was a simple burning ‘ex!” He stomped out of the ring with a flourish, meeting a tall blonde woman who patted his shoulder and scowled nastily at Y/N—the Beauxbatons coach, she assumed.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” asked Katie, appearing at her side with worry in her eyes. “That looked like it was nasty. He cast it early. You didn’t even have a chance to block it.”

“I’m alright.” Her voice was shaky and hoarse. “Everything just happened so quickly. At least I technically won, right?”

Katie clapped her on her back. “Good. You’ll get more used to it. I can’t believe he used that curse—no international dueling competitions allow any body alteration spells in the preliminary rounds. I’m sorry. Do you want to stop by the infirmary?”

“No,” said Y/N. If she stopped by the infirmary, she’d have to tell someone how she felt, and if she thought about how she felt for too long, she’d probably vomit from the nerves. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“It must’ve been just a temporary burning curse, then,” explained Katie. “I have to go visit Cormac and watch his round. Good luck on the next if I don’t see you before, yeah?”

The next 5 rounds were even more nerve wracking. Y/N was matched exclusively with Durmstrang wizards. They were impossibly burly, nearly twice her size in both height and bulk. Miraculously, Y/N managed to nudge her second opponent into the barrier charms with a well placed Jelly Legs jinx. The wards glowed a blood red once he breached the perimeter of the circle, and she was declared the winner. She won her third, fourth, and fifth rounds with equal fortune, just barely managing to aim her curses enough to strike them where they least expected it. She even took after McLaggen, sending a Stupefy at the toes of her fifth opponent when his shield wasn’t fully comprehensive. 

“You’re 5 for 5,” said Katie once Y/N returned to the room that the Hogwarts kids had been hanging out in between rounds. “I want to watch your 6th round. Who’s it this time?”

“I have no idea.” Y/N panted as she finished up her water bottle. Though it wasn’t the most physically demanding sport, she was already drenched in sweat and her heart was racing. “I think they’re releasing pairings in 5.”

Katie nodded. “Exciting. You might make it to out-rounds, you know.”

“Out-rounds?”

“You know, the final elimination rounds,” explained Katie. “In a tournament this small, they’ll probably only go as far as quarterfinals. Octofinals are more common at larger meets. It’s really rare to win more than 4 prelims without getting there, so I think it’s totally possible. Especially when even Cormac is down 2.”

Y/N felt nervousness creep into her throat. Was she really the only Hogwarts dueler who hadn’t lost yet?

She did not hold this title for long. Hristo Krum was her last opponent, and he absolutely eviscerated her in a matter of seconds. In his defense, he cast a clean, respectful Flipendo aimed directly at her wand hand that sent her spiraling into the bounds. It was a fair win, and when he shook her hand after the round, he congratulated her.

“It is good to see another young dueler,” he said in his thick Bulgarian accent. “I have heard of your earlier rounds. You are doing well for your first time.”

His kind words were almost enough to make her forget the glares that the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students sent her as it was announced that she would be the only 6th year progressing into the quarterfinals.

“Out-rounds are different,” Katie instructed her as they hurriedly prepared in their prep room. “You won’t get to use shields, and almost all curses but those that are lethal are allowed. They’ll have a healer on site regardless, just in case. We’ve never trained you to do this sort of thing before, so don’t feel bad if you get eliminated.”

She was up against the same Beauxbatons boy from the first round. Anger bubbled up in her as the moderator told them to take their stances. Y/N nonverbally began to build up a full-body binding hex in her fingers. The moment that the words “Begin!” left the lips of the moderator, she cast. He was on the floor in seconds.

“Fucking bitch,” he spat once she’d been declared the winner and released the binding hex. “Mudblood.” He then added some French that Y/N didn’t quite understand, but she assumed that he was using equally colorful words.

Y/N awkwardly tossed her wand back and forth as he was led away, stuck between feeling the raw wound of being reminded of her place in Wizarding society and the euphoria of the fact that she was progressing into semifinals. It was harder to feel offended by someone like Clement when she knew she just simply was better than him, even if he had fancier lineage.

She ended up losing the semifinal round to a Beauxbatons boy that she’d never seen before. He’d sent a slicing hex at her wand hand, and the wound bled so profusely that she dropped her wand, immediately disqualifying her. 

“Don’t look too bummed,” said Katie as she sat next to her, watching the healer on duty slowly patch up the slice. “I have good news.”

Y/N peered up at the brunette. “What news?”

“You qualified for the Bulgarian Duel!” Katie grinned. “They’re taking everyone who made it to quarterfinals. You’re the first 6th year to go in years, and I think the first female 6th year from Hogwarts to go ever.”

Y/N laughed, shakily. “Merlin. I don’t know if I can do another one of these.”

“Isn’t it great, though? The adrenaline? Knowing that you’re on equal ground with everyone, regardless of gender or blood?”

“I suppose,” said Y/N thoughtfully. “I guess you’re right. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.”

“It’ll be in a month or so,” added Katie. “Some duelers spend the entire fall trying to prepare for it. You’re really lucky to have made it after one tournament.”

After the final round wrapped up, Y/N collected her medal for 3rd place and smiled for the cameras next to Hristo Krum and the boy who had beaten her in her last round. A reporter asked for her name, and in a dazzled state, she gave it to him.

“Y/L/N?” said the man, tilting his head and scribbling something thoughtfully down on his scroll. “I’ve never heard that name before. What do your parents do?”

“They’re muggles,” said Y/N boldly, holding her chin up high and daring the reporter to say something snide in responde.

But the nasty comment never came. Instead, the short stumpy man nodded and furrowed his eyebrows as he added a few more notes. “Thank you, miss,” he said. Then he moved onto Hristo and the Beauxbatons boy. 

~

Back at school, Y/N settled back into a comfortable routine. Draco would try and find excuses to at least be in her general line of sight each day, even if they weren’t in class, just so they could dream together. Though he never gave her any reason to worry, she found herself desperate to commit every moment they shared to her memory. 

Because as much as he said he cared about her and loved her, there was never any guarantee as to what would happen between them in the near future. There was no happy ending that she could clearly envision. The logical thing for him to do was end things with her before he completed his task, or before he returned back home. 

Even if somehow he didn’t want to break things off with her right then, she’d have to face the reality that he would eventually come to his senses. They wouldn’t so much as have the chance to owl each other over the summer, much less meet in person. They wouldn’t see each other for months. And who knows how he’d feel after being without her for a summer? Maybe he would decide that he wanted to be a good Slytherin lad after all and realize he didn’t need her anymore. And, even if that wasn’t true, they couldn’t go on dreaming forever. It would eventually need to end. She’d probably need to harvest her magical signature again at some point. Continuing this indefinitely would only result in her heart and her magic being harmed.

There was no light at the end of the tunnel. What she had with him was all she would ever have, she thought, as she tangled her legs with his in his silk sheets and shared secret, knowing glances with him in passing. This was finite. Unless he managed to convince his mother to escape, something he thought to be near impossible, they were doomed.

~

The Bulgarian Duel began on a cloudy Friday afternoon in April. Y/N had trained hard and long with Professor Flitwick to ensure that she would be able to hold her own against the older, more experienced duelers. Though she didn’t feel invincible, she felt less helpless. The plethora of printed articles about the Pygmy Invitational, depicting her as a rising superstar from unlikely roots, certainly didn’t hurt in raising her morale. 

Clement was her first opponent, and she made quick work of knocking him out of the circle with a nonverbal flick of her wand. The rest of her rounds did not go as swimmingly. She won 2 others by just a hair, but lost the rest, ending on a neutral record of 3-3. 

To cheer Y/N up, Professor Flitwick took her on a tour of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. It was dark by the time they had finished up with the awards ceremony and embarked on their trip, opting to roam the streets of Wizarding Sofia until they found a restaurant that caught their eye.

It wasn’t like Y/N harbored any negative feelings towards Professor Flitwick—she’d just never really connected with the older professor when she’d begun taking Charms under his supervision. But the trip to Bulgaria was quickly warming her up to him. He was a jolly old man that reminded her of her late grandfather, with all of us stories and elderly man habits. 

Sofia was a gorgeous city. They got to walk past the Alexander Nevsky Cathedra and its appealing teal and gold architecture. Y/N had never seen anything quite like it.

“This is beautiful!” she said to Professor Flitwick as they rounded the corner. “Thank you for taking me, Professor.” 

“Of course,” Flitwick responded. “If we turn this way, there should be a fabulous restaurant a few blocks down. An old friend of mine runs it. It’ll be busy on a Saturday night, but I’m sure he’ll fit us in…”

She followed her dueling coach down a street that had become noticeably dimmer, succumbing to darkness of the twilight sky. The few lanterns that were hung outside the storefronts cast very little light on the cobbled road. Dark shadows huddled in the corners, whispering faintly to one another.

“Wait here, dear,” said Professor Flitwick. They’d stood in front of a noisy pub, full of wizards and witches joyously chattering. “I’ll be just a moment.”

Nervously, Y/N stood outside while her coach attempted to get them a table. The sky was quickly darkening, becoming pitch black and starless. Though the area she stood in was fairly well-lit, she was right across from a dark alley that made her feel uneasy.

The street quieted down as a large group of wizards left the pub and began walking their way down the street. The rate of passersby slowed to a trickle, and suddenly Y/N was virtually all alone.

“No! Please! Don’t!”

The sound of a woman crying shook Y/N out of her exhausted post-duel daze. It came from a crouched shadow in the alley, too far away and obscured by darkness for her to make out anything more.

“Please,” the woman begged again. “I have a family. Children! Please!”

Y/N’s blood ran ice cold. What was she watching? She was frozen in place. There was a movement in the shadows, and she could just barely make out another silhouette standing over the crouched woman.

An awful cackling sound came from the standing shadow. “Oh, dearie. Now I’ll have to find them too! You knew the rules. Get me what I want or suffer the consequences.”

It was a familiar, sing-songy voice. Y/N racked her brain. Where had she heard that woman before? 

As the mystery woman moved to brandish her wand, Y/N caught a glimpse of scraggly black curls, poking just barely out of the alley and into her sight. It hit her then.

This was the woman who had cock-blocked her in that dream about Draco! She was here!

The memory was enough to jolt Y/N into action as the crouched figure wailed, begging for forgiveness and for her family’s safety. The wood of her wand was cold against her palm as she sprung into motion.

“Petrificus Totalous!” 

By some miracle, Y/N’s blindly aimed spell hit her mark before the pair in the alley could move. The woman from Malfoy Manor limply fell into the street, her head bouncing once on the cobble before her body went completely still. The crouched woman scrambled to her feet and bolted down the sidewalk before Y/N could even open her mouth to shout after her.

“Miss Y/L/N!” said Professor Flitwick’s voice from behind her. “There’s a table ready.” When she didn’t respond—she was too busy staring at the woman who she had just paralyzed and likely concussed in the street—he spoke again. “Miss Y/L/N? Is everything alri—Merlin’s beard!”

Her elderly professor appeared at her side, gaping at the woman in front of her, then Y/N’s outstretched hand with her wand pointed directly at the body. 

Y/N never did get to try the pub that Professor Flitwick raved about. Instead, she enjoyed a dry protein bar that tasted of sawdust on her trip back to the hotel. Professor Flitwick was adamant that they find an emergency Portkey and depart immediately after gathering their things. Y/N wasn’t sure what the big deal was—all she had done was stop some sort of drug deal gone wrong, and the Bulgarian Aurors didn’t even bother questioning her as a suspect—but her professor looked like he was about to combust with anxiety.

Y/N didn’t understand what he was so worried about—she’d seen the woman be ushered away into custody. She tried to pry, but Professor Flitwick seemed too frazzled to offer any elaboration beyond, “What you did was very brave.”

~

Monday morning began like any other morning. Like always, Y/N sat in her chair and tried to nonchalantly crane her head around so she could stare at Draco at the Slytherin table. Today, he was thumbing through what looked to be a long letter. His eyes flickered up to meet hers for a moment, sending her a secret smile. She smiled back, the knowledge that she would get to have him all to herself that night humming in her chest.

The day took a strange turn when an arm reached out and yanked her behind a tapestry on her way to Potions. 

She shrieked against the hand that muffled her mouth, trying her hardest to pull away from the figure that had her tightly pressed to their front.

“Sh!” It was Draco. Once she had relaxed, he let go of her mouth and let her turn to face him. He looked happier than he had in months, with dimples peeking out of his slight smile and a friendly scrunch in the corner of his eye.

“I thought you couldn’t see me in person!” she whispered. “What are you doing?” 

His smile grew into a wolfish grin before he grabbed her around the waist and began peppering kisses all over her face.

“Draco! Stop!” she gasped. “Your memories! You can’t do—hmph!” He shut her up by finally covering her mouth with his, his hands twisting in the back of her robes before he finally released her.

“Actually, I can,” he said, looking far too proud of himself. “Guess what happened over the weekend?”

“What happened?” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him look so good-humored and light—probably not since 5th year, she realized.

“My mother just sent me a letter saying that she’s managed to escape,” said Draco. “She’s hiding out someplace in Muggle Canada.”

Y/N’s jaw dropped. “You’re free? You don’t have to do your task anymore? Or go home?”

He nodded, then pulled her into her chest so he could press a kiss to her forehead. It was sweet that he couldn’t seem to stop touching her. 

“How?”

“Her handler—my aunt Bellatrix—was caught somewhere in Bulgaria and taken into custody over the weekend,” he explained. “She was the one in charge of monitoring my mother and ensuring that she couldn’t leave. When Bellatrix didn’t return home, my mother went out on what she disguised as a shopping trip and left for good.”

Y/N paled. “Bellatrix? Like, Bellatrix Lestrange?” The puzzle pieces were starting to click into place. That was the name she’d seen appear everywhere in articles and journals about the darkest wizards and witches of their age. She’d never seen a picture of the witch, though.

“Yes.” Draco frowned. “Is everything alright?” 

“Oh, fuck,” she breathed. “Oh God.” No wonder Flitwick had been so stressed out of her mind. Y/N had single handedly taken out a war criminal.

“You’re worrying me,” he said, squeezing her hand reassuringly. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t know that woman was Bellatrix Lestrange,” said Y/N. "I thought she was just—I dunno—a batshit insane lady who happened to be your aunt. You’re related to Bellatrix Lestrange?”

He grimaced. “I know. It’s weird, I’m sorry. She’s my mother’s sister.”

“No, no, that’s not what I’m upset about,” clarified Y/N, waving her hand.

“Then what is it?”

“I was the one who petrified her,” said Y/N. “I saw her in an alleyway. She was accosting some poor witch, and I didn’t even think. I just cast the spell and before I knew it, the Bulgarian Aurors were putting her in some sort of magical straightjacket and dragging her away and Flitwick was patting my shoulder and telling me how brave I was.”

She gasped for breath once she’d stopped—she’d been rambling.

Draco was doing an award winning “deer in the headlights” impression a few inches away from her. “You—you caught Bella?”

“It wasn’t like it was hard,” said Y/N, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her, like she had just turned into a unicorn. “If I had known it was Bellatrix Lestrange, I probably would’ve been a little more nervous. God. I had no idea it was her. She could’ve killed me!”

Draco blinked hard. “Ehm. Well. I’m not really sure what to say. You really didn’t know who it was?”

“No!” exclaimed Y/N. “If I had, I probably wouldn’t have been able to even point my wand at her. Jesus Christ.”

“It’s good that Flitwick had you leave,” said Draco. “The Bulgarians didn’t take your name, did they?”

“No.”

“So, no one will trace it back to you. The perfect crime. You never stop impressing me.”

She smiled at the praise, leaning into him. His chest was warm and solid against her. How had everything turned for the best in a matter of weeks? She’d gone from a nervous, heartbroken, and jaded girl to a semi-accomplished dueler who had caught not only a serial killer but the heart of the boy that she’d wanted for years.

~

After Bellatrix’s capture, things changed for the better between Y/N and Draco. Instead of their midnight rendezvous, Draco would find excuses to snog her in empty classrooms or behind tapestries. They hadn’t made anything public—doing so would’ve been dangerous for Y/N—but she was happier than ever. 

June came quickly, along with Y/N’s concerns for the future. Draco couldn’t go home. Ever since he’d failed to complete his task or offer any progress reports to his ex-master, it was clear that returning to his childhood home would be a repackaged death sentence. Y/N usually tried to avoid the subject, assuming that he planned on fleeing the country or joining his mum or something, but as fate would have it, they eventually had to broach the topic. 

Draco had snuck her into his Slytherin dorm room by making liberal use of disillusionment spells. It was strange to be, really be, in his bed, watching fish dart by his window as his hand stroked up and down her ribs. 

“I’m really glad this all worked out,” mused Y/N, keeping her eyes trained on his window. His body, curled behind hers, kept her from getting too cold in the dungeon air. “I can’t believe I got this lucky. I’m really going to miss you.”

His hand paused on her waist, and she felt him nuzzle her shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to see you for a whole summer,” she said, trying not to sniffle or do anything else equally as embarrassing. “And that’s under the assumption that you’re even coming back to Hogwarts.”

“Oh,” he said, exhaling a shaky laugh. “You don’t want to see me over the summer?”

She sat up, turning to give him a stern look. “Of course I want to see you. But aren’t you going to be in hiding or something?”

He shrugged. “I mean, yeah. I wasn’t planning on appearing in Wizarding society. But you live in the Muggle world over summer, right?”

She nodded. 

“And on that note…” He cleared his throat, looking a little awkward. “I’ve meant to ask this for a while, but I don’t want you to feel any pressure to say yes. The last thing I want to do is intrude on your family over the summer. I’ve been thinking about that conversation we had before Yule in the corridor. You know how you said that I could stay with you over the break?”

Draco waited until she nodded to continue. “Did you really mean that? Or was that just a spur of the moment thing?”

“Of course I meant it,” said Y/N. “I’m sure my family would’ve been alright with it. And I would’ve wanted you there, too, of course.”

“Right,” he said. “I know that it’s poor etiquette to invite myself like this, but would you be willing to host me over the summer?”

Y/N gaped at him. “But your mother! Don’t you want to be with her?”

“She can’t tell me where she is in Canada over owls,” he explained. “She says it’s too risky to disclose that information, especially internationally. It could easily get into the wrong hands. I agree. I think it’d be best if I waited to come to her until after everything is settled and I know that we’ll both be safe.”

“So until after the war?”

He pressed his lips together. “Yeah. Probably.”

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, you can stay with me for however long you’d like,” she told him, reaching up to tap the top of his nose. The tension in his face was replaced with relief, then affection.

“I was worried you would say no,” he admitted.

“And why would I do that?” she asked, grinning madly. Her boyfriend was going to live with her for at least the summer. Why would she ever refuse something like that?

“I don’t know,” Draco said. His hands found her waist once again, and he leaned forward to kiss the corner of her mouth. “I know I’m asking quite a lot from you.”

“I’d do anything for you,” she said without hesitation. “I’m really glad you asked—oh!”

Something cold pressed into her bare waist—Draco’s ring. He was smirking at her as she tried to regain her breath.

“Something wrong?” he asked innocently, like he wasn’t dragging the cool metal from her waist down to her stomach, and then lower still. Then, leaning forward so his breath fanned over her neck: “I thought you liked my rings.”

For the first time since she could remember, she no longer dreaded the onset of her looming muggleborn summer.

final a/n: hi everyone :) thank you for coming along for the ride of this fun series! i'm not sure what i'm going to be writing next. it always feels so bizarre to finish up something like this. ik i keep sayign that (insert series name here) is going to be the last thing i write for this community but idk if i mean that...because it's sm fun to write these. thank you all for reading. i apologize if the end seems abrupt!

tags! @writeandtranslate @sycathorn-slush @gruffle1 @missmultifandommess @cleopatera @hahaboop @accio-rogers @geeksareunique @eltanin-malfoy @war-sword @cams-lynn @itsivyberry @ayo-cowbelly @nerd-domland @yesnerdsblog @shizarianathania @evanstanfanatic @strawberriesonsummer @hariosborn @night-ving @straightzoinked @imintoodeeptostop @naiomimoonshard @jejegu @ophelia-enthusiast @alwaysbeanunknownfan @nearly-memories @litty-dumb @callieclearwater @malfoy-wife15 @charlenasaxen @belladaises @fiantomartell @yiamalfoy @crystalox @dracoismybabey @dreamcxtcherr @decaffeinated-turtle @marrymetheonott @felicityofbakerstreet @daedreamss @sycathorn-slush @writeandtranslate @erisdogwood @loveissupernatural @sycathorn-slush @big-galaxy-chaos @lilyrachelcassidy @ynalouis @sivuda @zzoz942 @imabee-oralizard @afuckenslutforharrybro

[ilovekazuhaa]

hey isa! are u good? so can i request please julieta with a reader that suffers in silence, and shuts everyone when theyre feeling down or julieta comforting crying reader

everything's been so bad lately, my cat is sick and im so worried, i cant even sleep:(

-noa

hi friend!! i’m great and i’m sorry your cat is sick :( i hope he/she gets better, hopefully this lifts your mood a bit <3

“You don’t have to suffer alone”

Julieta x reader

genre: bit of angst, then overwhelming fluff

Julieta comforts crying reader!

The tears just kept pouring out as you sobbed uncontrollably. Your breathing extremely irregular as you tried to cry as quiet as you could. Your eyes were red, cheeks and nose tinted pink, hair ruffled and messy. You wanted to just scream and cry loudly but you couldn’t, since you were hiding under the dining table in La Casa Madrigal. Julieta was cooking right there, so you couldn’t exactly leave without worrying the woman. Plus, she’d never let you hear the end of it if she caught you crying, trying her best to comfort you. You were surprised she hadn’t heard you, always sensing when something was wrong and her motherly instinct kicking in. You thought she must be too busy making arepas to notice. You knew you were good as long as you heard the clattering of the pots and pans she was using.

You heard her speaking to herself “I need to make 200 arepas by tonight so I can have them ready for tomorrow… I also need to have dinner done by 6pm… oh! but I also need t-“ she stopped suddenly. Your quick gasps for air during your fit of crying stopped her in her tracks. She started walking around the room, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. You didn’t even realize as you still had you face buried in your knees. She heard it closest to the dining room table. She slowly approached, trying not to make a sound as she cautiously tip toed over. When she finally reached the dining room table she crouched down to look under it and she saw you there, crying.

“Ay mi vida! Que paso? Are you okay?” She exclaimed in shock as she saw you there. Seeing you so vulnerable, so fragile, she wanted to do anything she could to save you. She quickly dropped to her knees and crawled under the table with you. Hands shaking, she slowly wrapped her arms around your torso from behind as you let go of your knees and crossed your legs. You just let her hold you there for a few minutes, taking in her scent and sinking into her. A few moments later, she spoke “What happened? You can tell me. But if you don’t want to talk about it it’s fine, just know I’m always here if you ever want to talk.” You still say nothing. Respecting your choice, she plants a kiss on your cheek.

“I’m okay, just- life has been hard lately, and it’s so frustrating. I feel so alone” you say. She squeezes you tighter to let you know she’s listening and says “I get it mi vida, life is hard sometimes, but you don’t have to suffer alone.” She plants another kiss on your cheek. “And as long as I’m here, know that you will never be alone. Never ever my love.” You turn around, facing her now. She holds your hands and you look into her worried eyes. Your eyes get blurry with tears again and one glides down your cheek.

“Thank you Juli, it really means a lot” you say sincerely. “Plus, you’re way too cute to cry, I mean just look at you. No tears belong on a perfect face like yours” the woman says as she wipes your tear away. You blush at this, trying to hold back a smile. She then cups your face with both her hands and starts planting little kisses all over your face. You got kisses everywhere! To her you were just so cute! This sparked a laugh from you and once it started, it was going to take forever to stop. When her attack of kisses finally subsided, you both looked at each other lovingly. You then went in for another kiss, on her lips this time. The moment you two shared was so surreal, but in a good way. You climbed on top of her, hovering over her as she layed under you. The kiss deepened with every passing second. “God, what would I do without you?” you said as you finally pulled away. “You’d perish!” she exclaimed as she raised the back of her hand to her forehead exaggeratedly as if she were in a TV drama. This resulted in the both of you laughing loudly. “Uhh guys?” You two were cut off by a voice. Both of you snap your heads in the direction the voice came from and saw Bruno awkwardly standing in the doorway. “It smells like something’s burning-“ he said. “The arepas!!!” you both yelled in unison as you ran to turn off the oven. As you turned it off just before the arepas caught on fire, you looked at Julieta and shook your head, smiling “Gosh Juli, what am I gonna do with you?”

[rnebbie]

There, There, spidey.

Tony Stark x platonic! Penny Parker. Deadpool x platonic! Penny Parker. Ned Leeds x platonic! Penny Parker.

Inspired by: @justme--emily <3!!!! (My fav omg)

Warnings: underage drinking, getting drunk, VOMITING!!!!! Brief mention of starvation (not vulgar) , brief mention of losing virginity (doesn’t happen Isn’t vulgar) ,,, I think that’s it? Lmk if I’m incorrect.

A/n: YOOO ITS BEEN TOO LONG SINCE I POSTED A FIC HORRAYYYY IM BACK!! And!!! It’s penny parker!!! HORRAY! My fav! Hopefully u guys like this! If u wanna leave feedback, negative or positive, it would be so so so greatly appreciated! Ok love u. Also fun fact: if u remember when I was on a hiatus a few months ago cause I was grounded… some of this story was taken from my real experience of why I was grounded :) lmfao Ok go ahead and read. Love <3

“I won’t be able to patrol tomorrow,” Penny says, taking one of the final bites of her sandwich. Her tone is quite monotone for her usual self. And Deadpool, who’s sitting about three feet to the right of her on the roof of his apartment complex, can tell something is off.

He looks up at her with a mouth full of bread, ham, and cheese. Waiting for her to elaborate. So penny continues. “I’m busy.”

His masks eyes narrow. Penny has become used to reading his emotion through his mask, granted, it’s not that difficult. “You’re busy?” He starts, “You should be a comedian. You’re penny parker, high school student, and major loser.” He jokes with penny. With his lack of filter, it’s easy to come off harsher than he means to. And that aspect doesn’t always go well with penny’s sensitivity.

Penny doesn’t need a special mask with changing eyes to indicate how she’s feeling. Wade could tell she was upset by her body language. Her whole body seemed taken aback and she scoffs, “Hey, don’t be mean to me.” She says in her small, agitated voice that wade recognizes much better.

Wade fights the urge to smile at her reaction, Especially since his mask is pulled up to his nose, revealing his lips so he could shovel his lunch into his mouth. “We always patrol together on Friday nights, the crime rates are the highest on Fridays. What gives?” He verbally pokes at penny, expecting an explanation.

Penny just shrugs and looks down at the last bite of her sandwich. “I forgot I made plans with my friend.” She avoids eye contact with wade, knowing he’s the kind of person who won’t stop until he understands what’s going on, and knowing his lack of filter will more or less force her to tell him the truth.

“Okay. We still on for next Friday?” Wade opts for asking simply. He and penny had only known each other for a couple of months, and they’re most familiar which each other’s superhero alter egos. They’ve never hung out outside of patrolling together on occasion and they’d never seen each other out of uniform aside from when they’d randomly ran into each other in the supermarket one Saturday, both with grocery’s in hand. Immediately recognizing each other, eyes widening and both turning the opposite way.

“Mhm.” She hums with her mouth full of her last bite, shaking the crumbs off her palms. After she answers, wade pulls his mask down before face-palming over his masked forehead. “Oh, damn. I forgot I have a dinner date with Captain America.” He says in a serious tone.

Penny stares at him blankly.

“Kidding! He won’t return my calls.” Wade's eyes lighten at his own joke and he flicks his wrist towards penny humorously.

Penny presses her lips together in a small, unamused smile. Before pulling her mask down to fully cover her face. “I need to head over to the tower. I have my internship.” She says, standing up on the ledge of the building and brushing the crumbs off her legs.

“Right. See you around, spidey.” Wade says, penny nods and swings off towards the tower.

While swinging away penny thinks she did a good job at keeping her plans a secret and keeping suspicion low. But if she had stuck around a second longer she would’ve heard wade mutter something along the lines of, “she’s hiding something, the teenage angst is stirring up!” Before shuffling into his lower class, extremely lower class apartment.

Upon arrival on stark tower premises, penny swings into the easily openable window in the exclusive avenger's gym. Tony put a small fingerprint accessible lock on the window so penny could get into the tower easily whenever she needed to.

She swings into the gym and sticks to the wall to lock the window back up. Then she walks over to the women’s locker room to unlock her locker and get the change of clothes she always has accessible. She doesn’t know when the lockers get restocked, or how anyone would even know there needs to be a change of clothes restocked for her, but whenever she’s had to snatch the change of clothes, they’re always there for her, and another change is readily available the next time she checks. Every time without fail.

The change is just a pair of jeans that fit her perfectly, and a plain navy blue long sleeve tee. Her unspoken theory is that pepper is the one who restocks her locker because the clothes are always something penny would probably have at home anyway. And it doesn’t hurt her theory that the clothes always smell like pepper and Tony’s laundry detergent.

After she gets out of her suit and into her clothes, she heads to the gym's elevator, which eventually takes her up into Tony’s personal lab. She scans her hand and enters her passcode, and the door unlocks with a beep, that Tony hears and turns around to greet her.

“Penny!” He claps, penny smiles as the door shuts behind her. Tony narrows his eyes slightly, pointing to her, “You went on patrol today after school?” He asks, even though he already knows the answer.

Pennys confused as to how he already knows seconds after stepping into the lab, she blinks away her confusion and smiles sheepishly, hoping this doesn’t ignite a conversation, “yeah. How’d you know?” She asks in a quiet voice as if it’s a secret.

“Spider-man doesn’t wear shoes,” Tony says, pointing to her fresh white socks she’d found in her locker and lack of shoes. She looks down at her feet and quietly sighs in relief. This isn’t the first time she’s not had her shoes on in the tower, when she’d stayed late for dinner with Tony before, they’d kicked their shoes off and went up to his penthouse. She’d spent evenings having impromptu dinner with pepper and Tony often.

She laughs in acknowledgment and sits at her workbench off in a corner. Tony turns to her as she revisits what she was working on last week, briefing her mind for a second before getting ready to start her work again. But feels his eyes on her. She pauses for a second before slowly looking up to see him staring as if waiting for her to catch his eyes.

“Why? You don’t usually patrol on Thursdays.” He asks lightheartedly. Penny knows he’s not being accusatory, but she’s getting tired of everyone asking her about it. She knows she’ll have to deal with this with Aunt May later, and she’s not in the mood to have all these authority figures watching over her 24/7.

“I finished my homework so I figured, why not?” She says, glancing down back at her work, trying to brush off the subject.

“Your schedule is Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Sometimes Sundays, something going on?” Mr. Stark asks. Penny blinks hard, trying to ignore the agitation. She breathes through her nose for a second, trying not to lose her temper over something so small.

She doesn’t know why she’s so short-tempered today.

Maybe because she knows she’s doing something wrong.

“I’m busy tomorrow.” Penny doesn’t look up from her workbench this time. She starts her work, scribbling equations on a piece of scrap paper, trying to figure out how to fix an error in a prototype of her new work-in-progress web fluid.

Tony’s long since gotten off his stool and walked closer to where penny’s sitting. He’s hovering over where she’s writing and she pauses for a second uncomfortably. “Yeah? What’s up?” He asks, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning slightly to read penny’s writing, which has slowed since she felt pressured by the smartest man in the world reading her theories.

When he leans closer she stops writing. She glances up over her shoulder and makes eye contact with Tony. “I have plans. With ned.” She says shortly, glaring at him sassily for a second. She shakes her head slightly, clenches her jaw, and turns back to her prototype.

Tony stares for a moment longer, taken aback at penny’s mood. Usually, she’s excited to talk about her life and the things going on that interest her, but she seems short-tempered. Tony’s never realized how much he enjoys listening to her messy rambling and cut-off conversations when something else pops into her mind that she seems more important.

“Have fun,” Tony says and turns around to return to his workbench. He’s not one to press with penny, since he knows he’s not her father, and penny tries to be the same way since she knows she’s not his daughter. But the short sass and teenage girl way has overtaken her at this point. And she doesn’t know where it’s coming from, as that’s never been the way she’s opted to behave.

Her eyes linger on his frame walking away for a second. In between a breath, she makes a decision, “Sorry, Mr. stark. I’ve been trying to patrol more because I know I'm gonna miss patrol on Friday, so I'm just tired from working a lot. I'm going to the movies with ned.” She says staring at the floor. She’s never been a huge fan of lying, and she feels her stomach burning immediately as she realizes the hole she’s dug herself into.

Tony sits on his stool and turns to look at her. He nods in understanding. “Don’t worry about it, pen. No patrolling tonight. I want you to be well-rested.” He says, and she meets his eyes for a moment before nodding and turning back to her workbench. Tony turns towards his own work and she closes her eyes angrily. She knows he’s trying to be nice and he’s not trying to annoy her, but she feels so ticked off that he's trying so hard to act like her parent. He’s not her parent.

Penny works quietly for the rest of the evening. Answering in a minimalistic but not rude way. Only speaking when spoken to, and near the time she usually leaves, she pretends to be dozing off so she can be excused early.

She fakes a yawn, “I’m gonna head home, Mr. Stark. I’d like to catch Aunt May before she has to start her second shift.” She says, standing up and cleaning her bench up briefly.

“Alright, kid. I’ll call happy to give you a ride home.” He says, standing up from his own workbench and stretching. Penny looks over at him and immediately shakes her head, “I wanna catch her before she leaves. Her shifts in thirty minutes, so I’m gonna swing over there now.” She says, matter-of-factly. Penny doesn’t even know if her aunt is working tonight. She just wants to leave the lap as soon as possible.

Tony wants to argue with the girl, but he can tell that’s a slippery slope today. “You sure you’re okay?” He asks narrowing his eyes. Penny nods, “I’ll be safe.” She says.

They walk out of the lab together and into the elevator. Tony tells FRIDAY to bring them to the gym, and after, to pepper and his’ penthouse.

After the elevator arrives at the gym floor, penny steps out. She turns around to say goodbye to the man. “Goodnight, Mr. Stark. Thank you!” She says as the doors start to close.

“Night, kid.” He says, and the elevator starts to bring him to where he needs to go.

Penny heads back to the locker room to put her suit back on. She opens her locker and it’s folded neatly and smells like Tony and peppers laundry detergent.

She also spots another change of clothes.

000

Penny wakes up the next morning well-rested. After shoveling leftovers into her mouth the night before, she immediately went to bed. May wasn’t home from work, and penny didn’t know when she’d be back. So she took it as an opportunity to give herself a break from lying, though, she would have to tell one small lie.

She packed her change of clothes for the party in her backpack. She also shoved a several-year-old tube of mascara out from her drawer. The last time she used it being her uncle Ben's funeral many years prior.

She quickly scarfed up a banana and some peanut butter and then wrote a small note for May.

‘I think I mentioned to you earlier in the week, but ned and I are seeing a movie tonight, I’ll sleepover at his house and be back Early tomorrow. Do u wanna do something tomorrow? Text me. Love u! - penny ‘

She sticks the note on the kitchen table and slings her backpack over her shoulder, walking out of the apartment and catching the subway to school.

000

When she arrives at school, ned smiles at her giddily. Their first high school party. They’d been friends since 5th grade, this is something they have dreamt of for years together.

“You’re coming over after school, right?” Ned asks quietly when she approaches his locker. She nods even though ned already knows she is because they’ve been texting about their plans the entire week.

Penny can hardly focus all day, and all she can say is she’s glad she and ned don’t have any classes together this semester because if she can’t focus, god knows ned can’t. And her suspicion is confirmed true when the seventh bell rings and she exits her classroom, hearing two girls mutter how restless ned was. She almost stopped to defend her best friend, but once she caught sight of him leaving his classroom rapidly and smiling at her brightly, she understands the girl's behavior.

They exit the school soon after and walk home towards Ned’s House. On the way home, in between conversations, ned starts to lean towards the sandwich shop he and penny usually eat at on days when they hang out after school, but penny stops him, shaking her head.

“It’s easier to get drunk on an empty stomach.” She says as they stand in the middle of the sidewalk outside of the deli.

“Well, yeah. But it’s easier to get alcohol poisoning that way too.” Ned says, gesturing towards the doors. Penny rolls her eyes. Sometimes she forgets her best friend is basically just as smart as her.

“Okay, if you want to eat then be my guest. But God knows I need it, I don’t know how easy it’ll be for me with my fast metabolism.” Penny says matter of factly. Ned sighs and they make their way into the store.

After ned orders and the man starts making his food, (not before asking, “nothing for the girl?”) ned continues to press penny. “You really should eat, pen. Won't you just burn it off anyway?” He asks in a kind voice.

Penny’s not having it. “Dude, I know what I’m doing.” She snaps, resisting the urge to take out all her anger from the past few days out onto ned. But she knows she can’t, he doesn’t deserve that.

Ned gets his food and they walk silently back to his house. Penny’s stomach continues to make noise for the rest of the night.

000

About an hour before they leave for the party, Penny changes into her outfit. She regrets it immediately. It makes her feel much more revealed than she ever has in her spider-suit, which is skin tight and shows every aspect of her body.

Ned changes, and after opening the door to his room again and seeing penny’s outfit, he shields his eyes. “Holy- penny! Are you actually going to wear that?” He says, frozen in place.

Penny frantically looks in between the mirror, then to him. “I-i don’t know! I shouldn’t, right? It’s too much?” She says nervously. This entire thing is out of her comfort zone and it’s making her feel so weird.

“I thought we wanted to go and have a few drinks and dance! I didn’t know you were planning on losing your-“ Ned starts, but penny yells his name to cut him off, shocked at where the sentence was going. She tells him to leave the room and she makes do with what she has.

Her pair of jeans, her t-shirt, the small top she’s wearing, and the short skirt she’s wearing. She plays musical chairs with her clothing pieces and finally decided on her pair of jeans and the scandalous shirt. She checks Ned’s closet as a last resort and adds his zip-up that’s oversized on her. She opts for not zipping it up and tells ned to come back in.

He agrees that it’s better. He sprays cologne on, and penny puts her mascara on, and five minutes before leaving they stand side by side in the bathroom mirror.

“Are you ready?” Ned asks. Penny nods.

“Are you?” Penny asks ned, he hums in response and they leave the house.

000

They walk all the way to the party in the suburbs of queens. People are spilling out of the house. All the lights are on, music is blaring, and people are vomiting on the front lawn.

Ned and penny exchange an anxious glance and step in through the front door. It’s an open house, so no one’s there to greet them, besides MJ after a few minutes of ned and penny awkwardly walking around people.

MJ tells them where to find the keg. “If you wanna be stupid go for it, it’s in the bathtub. I just come to these things to observe people ruining their lives.” She says, ned and penny stare at her for a prolonged second, and then make their way to the bathroom.

After filling up two cups, they both take their first sip. Ned gags and penny spits it back into her cup.

After raiding the pantry and looking around the kitchen for things that could help the rancid flavor, (and adding sugar, which ultimately made it taste worse) penny and Ned opt for simply chugging it despite the awful taste and plugging their nose.

It takes about five minutes before penny starts to feel it. She’s in the middle of a conversation with Ned and MJ. “Wait!” She stops ned from his sentence, “I think it’s working! I need more!” She says as her vision starts to blur ever so slightly.

They get two more cups, and penny chugs hers as ned and MJ watch in horror. Well, ned watches in horror, MJ watches with a knowing amused face. When penny finishes the cup, MJ shakes her head.

“Are you going to finish that?” Penny asks ned through a belch. Ned shakes his head slightly, and penny takes his cup.

Ned and MJ exchange a shocked glance and penny exclaims when she finishes her third cup, running off away from the two.

Penny has her fifteen minutes of fun feeling drunk and out of it. She meets a girl she’s never seen before whos about the same amount of drunk as her, the girl tells her how fun it is to spin while drunk, and penny tries it, she’s absolutely shocked and her mouth drops, hugging the girl for her service.

Then the girl tells her about how it feels to run while drunk. Penny gasps and begs her to run with her, so the two of them exit the house and run down the street. Penny laughs and smiles the entire time they’re running together. They run halfway down the street, before stopping to spin together for a minute, then running back towards the house the party was being held at.

When they reach the house, penny stops in the road to spin again. The girl halts her running as well, before muttering something along the lines of, “I think I’m gonna be sick.” And running off into the house. But penny was too drunk and focused on her spinning to hear the girl.

When penny gets too dizzy, she stops, and nearly falls over. She catches herself and tries to see straight. “Girl?” Penny calls out, looking outside in at the house and all the people inside.

“Giirrllyy?” Penny calls out in a curious tone searching for her new friend, the dizziness doesn’t fade, and only worsens for a second as she attempts to take a step forward but stumbles.

But before she can crash into the pavement, a big man with strong arms catches her. She closes her eyes preparing for the fall but opens them when she’s caught, and she sees red.

She looks up and sees the Deadpool mask.

“Oh my god!” She yells, pushes him away angrily, and stands up straight.

“What, am I not-“ Deadpool starts sounding amused but stops his sentence when he sees penny cross her arms and the familiar angry look on her face. “Spidey?” He asks in a shocked voice.

She stomps childishly. “Can you jus’ leave me alone!? Why is everybody so obsessed with me!?” She yells at him. He watches intently, confused at the entire situation.

“Are you… drunk?” He asks and even though severely under the influence, she can still hear the stupid amused tone in his voice. She’s sick of hearing it all the time.

“No shit, Sherlock,” She slurs, “Why did you follow me here you creep!? Did Mr. S’ark put you up to it?” She angrily questions, and drools a little bit, wiping her mouth aggressively.

“Oh, I just came to break up the party, I love ruining fun! Especially if I wasn’t invited,” he starts in a jokey tone, penny watches with a stone-hard angry look on her small face. “What I didn’t expect, is to see penny parker, the fifteen-year-old vigilante here! So I guess we’re both having a surprising night!” He says in an excitingly condescending tone.

“Everyone needs to leave me alone and let me live my own-“ penny starts, but suddenly swallows bile. “My own-“ she gags, Deadpool’s mask shows him grimace as she suddenly vomits right in front of her. Wade runs back dramatically and screams in disgust.

Penny’s retching stops and she collapses onto the ground, immediately sobbing at the burning in her throat and stomach, and at the anger and overwhelming trouble she’s felt the past few days.

“Please, just go.” She says as tears rapidly run down her cheeks, and she can see Deadpool stand a few feet away from her, hands up to his face.

“Oh no, she’s a sad drunk.” He says sympathetically as he reaches down to pat her on the back, avoiding her vomit.

“There, there, spidey.” He says softly as her back heaves and she shoves her face into her hands. But after only a few seconds of Deadpool shushing her, she gags again and vomits more painful liquid up.

“Jesus, kid. What did you eat?” Deadpool says as penny’s sobbing and vomiting continues. Penny wipes her mouth and her eyes briefly, only before continuing to sob hysterically. “Nothing, dumbass. I was trying to get drunk quicker that’s the whole point. God, you really are so stupid sometimes.” She hiccups through sobs. This is the rawest penny has ever been.

Penny doesn’t think much about what Wade's reaction would be, but if she had, she would’ve assumed he would’ve been offended, or he would’ve walked away from her altogether out of shock and hurt. But he just bursts into laughter. “I knew you had the sass in you! I gotta get you drunk more often.” He says, patting her back and shaking his head.

Penny looks up and Ned and MJ are approaching them. The sight must have been funny, and MJ sure thought so, because she burst into laughter and snapped a picture of penny and Deadpool before ned spoke up. “Penny, are… you okay?” He asks hesitantly as he eyes Deadpool. Penny shakes her head through tears.

“This is a sensitive topic for her,” Deadpool says. Nodding with fake sympathy and rubbing her back. Ned watches his best friend with worry, “penny, do you need me to call May?” He asks, bending down to awkwardly pat penny’s knee.

Before her sobbing can stop and she can answer, wade answers for her, holding up a hand. “No need, good sir. I’m her personal Uber.” He says and picks penny up bridal style.

The change in gravity makes penny gag, but she doesn’t vomit this time. Deadpool asks ned a question and ned rattles off a string of numbers to him. Penny wishes she could understand but the nausea is clouding her vision and her ears. She lets her head hang limply and Deadpool pauses to look at her, he feels her pulse and upon realizing she’s conscious, rolls his eyes.

“We should get going now. Say bye penny! Byeee!” Wade grabs penny’s limp wrist and shakes it to indicate her waving goodbye to her friends, penny doesn’t register anything that’s happening.

Then wade starts walking down the street.

“I thought a perk of being an orphan would be having no one to constantly be monitoring everything you do,” MJ says in a monotone voice after she and ned had been standing for a while watching Deadpool walk away with penny in his arms.

Ned scoffs, “you’d think.” He says, and they turn around to re-enter the party.

000

“You haven’t even learned how to drink yet.” She hears Deadpool say as they enter a building. Penny cant register what building yet, until she hears a familiar voice. “Oh my god, is she okay?” The voice says. Penny suddenly recognizes exactly who it is and jerks her eyes open. It’s pepper.

“She’s pretty much vomited everything out of her system. Perks of being a teenage mutant I guess. Damn that fast metabolism.” Deadpool eyes penny with joke-anger in his eyes. No one else finds him funny, so he continues, “her ego may be bruised after I remind her of this every time I see her. But physically, aside from a killer hangover tomorrow morning, she should be fine.” Deadpool shrugs.

Pepper sighs and anxiously fidgets with her hands. Penny watches with guilt in her stomach knowing she’s caused her anxiety. “Okay, um… would you mind carrying her up to the penthouse? I’m sorry to ask but-“ pepper starts, but is interrupted by Tony. He walks out from behind pepper slowly with his hands in his pockets and penny wonders where he even came from, but upon hearing his voice, she lets her head fall limp once again.

“There’s no need. I’ll take her.” Tony says, he holds his arms out, gesturing for Deadpool to hand her limp body over. Deadpool hisses as if penny had just been seriously injured. “Ooh, you are in for it, spidey.” He says quietly to penny, and she wishes her powers allowed her to time travel, or to turn invisible, or teleport, or anything else that could help her get out of this situation right now.

The worst part is she knows the best way for her to not be in this situation right now, would’ve been telling the truth the entire time.

She keeps her eyes closed as she feels her body being handed over to Tony, whose arms feel much more comfortable and warm, not so strong, but still just as capable. “Bye penny!” Deadpool yells as they enter the elevator with pepper.

“Penny's bedroom is ready for her. I’ll bring a trash can and some water in there.” Pepper says quietly to Tony, penny doesn’t hear Tony answer, so she assumes he nods or something. She hopes he does. She hopes he’s not too mad or too hurt to answer.

The next thing she knows, she’s being softly lowered into bed. After she’s laying and trying her hardest to seem asleep, Tony takes her shoes off slowly and softly, and he covers her with blankets and tucks her in. The doorknob clicks and pepper walks in with a cup of water, and a couple of pills. She sets them on the side table. She knows they’re still standing there but she can’t see what they’re doing. She’s too scared to open her eyes.

“What are we going to do with her?” She Heard- pepper say softly. She sounds upset. She can hear what she assumes to be Tony kiss pepper. “We’ll see when the time comes.” He says, and the two of them walk out.

It’s a few minutes before penny feels like it’s safe to open her eyes, and when she does she sees the guest bedroom that she’d stayed in multiple times. She didn’t know this was ‘her’ room according to pepper. She would stay up longer to dwell on it, but the adventures of the night catch up with her, and she immediately falls asleep.

000

The next morning she wakes up and immediately remembers some of the events from the night before. She knows she’s forgetting parts, and she feels like that’s even worse than remembering.

Her head is killing her, and she remembers the pills on her nightstand that pepper placed there the night before. She chugs the water and gets out of bed.

She looks around the room and out of curiosity, reaches for the knob of the dresser in the corner of the room. Penny figured it wishful thinking until she pulls the drawer open and it’s full of clothes in her size, tops and bottoms, pajamas, undergarments. A lot of socks. And it all smells like pepper and Tony’s laundry detergent.

Penny smiles slightly and feels upset at herself, figuring she hurt them. She knows they care about her, and she knows she broke their trust. And they’re pretty cool, anyway.

It takes her a few minutes before she works up the courage to walk out of her room, but eventually she does.

Not before checking her phone. She has three text notifications.

Call me in the morning. From may

How are u feeling? From Wade Wilson.

And an attachment of her sitting on the ground next to her pile of vomit, sobbing hysterically, and Deadpool smiling and holding a thumbs up with his arm around her shoulder, from MJ.

000

.

Taglist: @ohworm-writes @spidyyparker @littlemortals @americaarse

Lmk if u wanna be added to my Taglist! Notes, reblogs, and likes are highly appreciated <3

…

Have a good day love u

[cr0wbonezz-wr1ting-inc]

One more time

Summary: Alex regrets ever saying yes. All he wants is a second chance.

Trigger warning: Mentions of cheating, mentions of sex, swearing, angst

Author's note: my first piece off hiatus !! - you're a twitch streamer in this fic but it won't come up too much :) hope u like it <3

Based on: Break My Heart Again - FINNEAS

you sigh. your ex-boyfriend called again. you've been ignoring your phone for 5 minutes now. was he really this desperate?

you pick up your phone and slide the green button.

"what do you want, alex?"

"___, you picked up!"

he sounded extremely relieved, like he needs you to breathe.

"i did, now what do you want?"

alex sighed and leaned on a wall in his bedroom.

"can i come over? there's some stuff i still need to pick up."

you suck in a breath sharply. the air is thick and tense.

"no."

you clench the phone you were holding and bit your lip.

"i don't want to see you right now."

alex closed his eyes and pushed himself off the wall.

"i understand, you need time."

there was silence for a moment. neither of you wanted to say anything.

"if you want to come over that bad you can get your things tomorrow morning."

"sounds good. i'll be there around 11, okay?"

"fine."

"good-"

you ended the call.

"-bye..."

alex let his arm drop beside him. his eyes were watering, but he wiped it away with the sleeve of his hoodie.

it's his fault, he knew. but why is he still so upset? he shouldn't feel like this - it's is his own doing, after all.

~

you open the door to your home. alex was standing on the porch with a few empty bags in hand. the morning sun blinded you slightly, making you squint at the man in front of you.

"hi ___."

"hello, alex. all your belongings are on the couch.

"great, thank you."

~

he looks over as he's folding a shirt.

"what are you looking at?"

you say without looking away from your laptop.

his face was getting red slightly from embarrassment.

"nothing, you seem busy."

alex directed his eyes back to the clothes in front of him.

"otherwise you would've said something about me."

alex snickered slightly, trying to lighten the mood.

you sigh, holding your face in one of your hands.

don't say it. ___, keep it in. there's no point in fighting him. ___-

"if i wanted to make a comment it'd be about the fact you can't keep your dick in your pants."

god damn it, why did you do that?

he fell quiet. you hated his guts, but even you felt kind of bad for being so blunt with it.

a part of you still loved him. his loud, yet charming laugh. his sweet kisses. his adorable clinginess. his blushing face when you teased him.

you shake your head, trying to physically get rid of your pity for him. he doesn't love you anymore. he shouldn't, and neither should you.

~

after filling the bags with alex's belongings he stood up and wiped his forehead. you waver from your work and look him up and down.

"you done?"

you asked him. he turned around and gave you a weak smile.

"yeah, i think so."

"good, you know the way out."

you turn back to your computer.

"___, wait. can i ask you something?"

you make eye contact with him, fully aware it makes him nervous.

"what do you want?"

alex took a quick breath.

"can we talk sometime?"

you look at him like he spoke an alien tongue.

"why the hell would i?"

"i want to talk about what happened between us. i hate that our relationship is so sour."

he set a step forward.

"i just want this to end peaceful - or at least neutral."

"why the fuck would i want to be peaceful with you of all people?"

"i hate ending things on the wrong foot, you know that."

alex stands his ground, making you livid.

"then we make up, and then what? you'll just break my heart again!"

you stand up, simultaneously pushing the chair away with your legs.

"then i can lay awake and think about why i even let you inside my house again in the first place?!"

if looks could kill, alex would be on the floor.

"fine. if you don't want to, then i guess everything will just stay the way it is."

alex turned around and grabbed his bags. there's no way he's getting through to you right now.

"oh, so now it's my fault?"

you slam your laptop and walk away from the table.

"well, i'm so sorry for being angry at you for cheating on me!"

you don't hold your anger in anymore, he crossed the line.

"i never said that, ___!"

alex yelled to match your energy.

you took a step back. the audacity to yell at you in your house.

"out. now."

alex grabbed the second bag of clothes and without a word walked to the front door.

"goodbye, ___."

alex pushes the door open and steps outside. you go after him but stop at the doorstep.

"fuck you!" you sob out. you grab the doorknob and slam the door shut.

your knees slowly got weaker and you sit against the front door, shutting your eyes.

~

it's been a month since you've seen alex. you've blocked him on everything since then.

you were doing a q&a on your twitch channel and everything was going well. chat was filled with questions and you answered the one's you could.

your thoughts were somewhere else, though.

you still miss him, you really did. alex used to watch your streams all the time. he sent you donations with cheesy pick-up lines, he called you during streams to make fun of you for dying in a game or just to chat while he's bored.

but that didn't happen anymore.

you realize you haven't said anything in a while and you apologize. your chat was spamming purple hearts and 'are you okay?'

"ah, sorry everyone, i'm still tired from yesterday. i think i'm going to end the stream for today, thank you all for coming!"

after saying goodbye you turn off your computer.

why are you still so obsessed over him?! he cheated on you! he even tried to cover it up with a bullshit story about "not being the first to kiss her," and "she forced me to," like someone would believe a lie like that.

yet, you still love him. something inside you wants to believe him, like he really was telling the truth.

~

the next morning you open twitter and scroll for a bit. you made a tweet earlier in which you stated you weren't going to stream today.

you looked at the trending topics and saw your name in bold letters. you clicked on it and read the first tweet that popped up.

'i really hope ___ is doing better, they looked so sad on stream :('

an image was attached to it - a screenshot from the stream you did yesterday where you were mindlessly staring at your computer screen.

you sighed. at least they're not thinking too deep about this.

you scroll further down, replying and liking a couple tweets saying you were alright, thanking them or cracking a joke. this should keep them off your back for a while.

after scrolling for a bit one tweet catches your eye. you clutch your phone as you read the comment.

'kinda obvious they miss quackity :/ it's a good cover-up story tho '

~

alex was staring at his ceiling. he'd seen the tweets about you - about him.

he hates this feeling. he hates the fact that he knows what you're thinking. he hates that he knows it's his fault. he didn't mean to. he didn't.

"come on, alex. you know you want it." the woman said.

"i told you, no! i have a partner!" alex pushed her away for the second time, trying to find a way past the girl and out of this small alleyway. he should've never gone to this stupid bar.

"tch, whatever. but know you'll regret rejecting someone like me!" the girl pushed him to the brick wall and fixed her dress as she walked away.

alex fixed himself for a minute and walked past the bar and into his car. he pulled out his phone and shot you a quick text.

'hey bb i'll be over in a few :)'

'don't come back.'

you responded almost immediately. alex froze as he looked at the screen.

'wdym?'

'you know damn well why'

you sent him a photo of him next to the bar in the alley. the girl was all over him while her lips connected lustfully to his.

'it isn't what it looks like, i didn't start any of this!'

you don't respond. alex tries to send you another text when an error pops up.

'unable to send message. user has blocked you.'

~

you hover your hand over your phone's keyboard. you thought anbout alex's offer to talk, and decided that maybe it was a good idea after all. you couldn't get your mind off him, you thought that hopefully getting some closure could help.

but how were you going to ask him? 'hey, i know i blocked number like a month ago but can you to meet me at some random park? see you there!'

after typing and deleting multiple texts you eventually landed on a message.

'hey alex, i've been thinking about your offer to talk it out, and i wanted to ask if you're still up for it?'

you send it and immediately turn off your phone and place it on the coffeetable in front of you. you did it, finally. you fall back on your couch and pull your knees up to your face, waiting for a notification.

after a nailbiting five minutes a light emits from your phone. you pick it up and read the name calling you. 'alex'. you take a deep breath and answer the phone.

"hi alex."

"hey ___, it's been a while."

you sit up straight, preparing yourself for the conversation you're about to have.

'yeah, you can say that."

the atmosphere was a lot less tense than you expected. it was weirdly... comforting? you can hear alex's raspy voice through the phone. has he been crying?

"i saw your text, you wanted to meet?"

"yes, i did. i wanted to get some closure, at least."

alex chuckled, his laugh making you a little flustered. trying to brush it off, you laugh with him.

"what's so funny?" alex asked.

you rolled your eyes and smile.

"you, dumbass."

he gasps cartoonishly loud. his goofy personality is something you could never get enough of. maybe you were wrong after all.

"ok, but seriously, when do you want to meet?"

he gets back on topic. you snap out of your smile and remember why he called in the first place.

"right, right. i'm free this whole week, you can choose when."

after some planning and back and forth, you decide to meet at a small family-run café in the afternoon. coincidentally, it's the same place you two had your first date.

~

you settle down at a table on the terrace of the café, the sunday sun greeting you warmly. you were a little early, so you decided to think of some questions. it didn't take you long to come to a few, though. your main question was the photo. what was that all about?

as you were handed a menu you saw alex walking on the pavement fidgeting with his fingers.

"hey! sorry if i'm late, i took the bus instead of my car."

he took the seat parallel to yours and exhaled.

"oh no, you're right on time. i was just a little early."

the waitress gave alex a menu and disappeared into the establishment. you both decided to stay quiet before getting on topic. neither of you want to start the conversation.

after both ordering and having surface level conversation for a while silence fell. you both know why you're here, it feels off to talk like nothing ever happened.

"okay-"

"so-"

you both start at the same time. alex awkwardly chuckles while covering his mouth.

"you first."

alex proposes. you nod and like magic lose the somewhat content mood you had prior. you steadily breathe in and pull out your phone.

"so, first things first; my main goal is to get closure and an explanation - there's no point in lying to me."

alex hums in agreement. you could tell he was nervous, you knew him better than anyone. you tap on your screen a few times until you reach the photo that was sent to you.

"now, i want a clear answer. what happened that night?"

you ask him firmly as you put your phone on the table to reveal the image.

"that's my ex-girlfriend."

alex said. you raise an eyebrow - his ex? you've heard some wild things about her and her antics, which is exactly why alex broke up with her in the first place.

"she said she wanted to ask me something in private. my dumbass said yes, because i can't pick up on context clues, apparently."

you cross your arms and lean back on the chair.

"you got that right."

alex looks up from the photo and makes eye contact with you.

"long story short, she pushed me to the wall and kissed me. i tried to push her off but she didn't let me go. after shoving her, like, twice she finally got the hint and left."

~

"so she set you up?"

"she hasn't changed a bit since all those years."

you say with a hint of condescension. his explanation made sense, and from what you heard he wasn't lying. your gut told you to believe him, yet your mind had an itching feeling that there was something else.

"are you sure that's all?"

alex flinched slightly.

"y-yes, ___. i don't know what else to tell you."

you mess with your hair a bit, clearly conflicted. there was nothing else, you knew that. but your brain wouldn't let it go. you decided it's better if you just sleep on it.

"alright, then.-"

you grab your bag and stand up.

"-i think we're done here."

alex stays seated and looks up at you.

"yeah, i think so."

you pick the phone up that's laying on the table. you pull out your wallet and put a $5 bill under your teacup.

"goodbye, alex."

"wait!"

alex stands up and grabs your wrist, the gesture scaring you little bit.

"are you still mad at me?"

those eyes. they're so pretty, almost sparlking. you snap out of it when he lets go, just realizing how weird it is to grab someone's arm out of nowhere.

"sorry, my bad. i wasn't thinking."

alex scratches the back of his neck.

"i'm still deciding if i can trust you, but i appreciate you showing up, at least."

"that's enough for me."

alex smile at you, not trying to pry.

"goodbye, ___."

"goodbye, alex."

~

you heard the chirping of the birds outside your window and groan. why is it already morning? you sit up and grab your phone from the nightstand next to your bed, the phone reading 11:23 - tuesday - xx-xx-xxxx.

you sigh and fall back onto your bed. you've been thinking about alex for a few days now, still not getting him out of your head.

after going downstairs and eating some toast you pull out your phone again, the clock now reading 12:44. you look through your contacts and eventually land on his name.

you hover your hand over the green pixels while sitting down at the dining table. you swallow audibly and click the call button.

it goes once.

it goes twice.

"___?"

'Hey alex, i wanted to ask you if you wanted to meet up again?"

ty for reading <3

m.list

taglist: @adoring-ghost @sakisaralazy @for-memories-sacrifice @ialexabsuniverse @shiyanchan @bioluminescentfrog @esylwen

reblogs >> likes !

[hollyhomburg]

okay first of all: how are you? are you still hurting bc of your wisdom teeth? I hope you feel better 🥺

second of all: holy.fucking.shit. this whole chapter was… wow. i’ve assumed that i have the biggest voyeurism kink ever, and this chapter has been the absolute death of me. i expected yoongi and m/c to get absolutely hot and bothered but take care of themselves when they were alone, taking things nice and slow u know? but when yoongi started touching her and jin, namjoon and jungkook looked over at them? yeah, the m/c and jk were not the only ones leaking... 😅 and when the scene was done and jungkook wanted the m/c was such a sweet but somehow also sexy moment don’t ask me why. and namjoon finally got a taste of m/c’s addictive slick oh my goooood. yeah i’ll probably re-read the chapter tonight i liked it a little too much. it was so sensual Li, you have to give yourself more credit for the smut you write bc honestly all that i’ve read from you has been nothing but perfect and hot af. yeah. thanks for the chapter 🥵💕

i am still very very swollen and in lots of pain but hopefully by the end of tomorrow I'll have a day and a time to get them removed, i may have to go to a hospital to get them out because my bones hurting and my uncle was worried about cracks and stuff but sigh... ill let you guys know if and when im feeling better.

i think that it suprised all of them tbh that the yoongi and the m/c where willing to give them a view into their sex life, i guarantee you jin was a little bit proud of yoongi and how gentle he was with the m/c just...the love that overflows in him when he sees them distracts jin enough from his own pleasure.

and can you really blame jk for being like 'okay sex is over cuddle me now' he's a little bratt and loves the m/c she's like- his favorite cuddle buddy <3

ahhhhhhhh i guess enough people like my smut where i should stop talking down to myself about it so much- i guess because smut isn't easy for me to write and it isn't like first nature to write it so it feels a little new? I'm glad you liked it regardless!

[guqwrvte]

hello! if the quite game is still on, can i request smth for "its always my fault" and like, it begins really really angsty but ends in fluff? thank u so much for your time on this! i hope u have a great week💕

⨽ pairing: jimin x reader

⨽ genre: fluff , angst

⨽ warnings: strong language (one swear word i think) , crying (guys, is crying a warning??) y/n feels at fault ( :/ ) , uhh there are mean people with mean comments (?)

.

"Really? y/n, again?" Ari asked, pausing the music. "Why can't you get it right?" she asked again.

"We've been stuck on the same part for the past three practices! Three fucking practices! And it's all because of you," she yelled, causing you to flinch.

"Have you even been practising? I thought I asked you to go over it at home so that we won't have to waste time during practice. But here we are, wasting, yet again." she mumbled the last part.

"Let's finish here for today. We'll continue tomorrow. Hopefully, y/n will get this part right so we can move on."

"I really don't understand you. Why'd you even join the dance club? You can barely stay on your feet," Jae snickered. "Right? How do you have the courage to keeping here? Do you enjoy embarrassing yourself?" Nari said. "Just quit and find something else to do. It's your fault we're stuck on this part anyway. Showing yourself out would do us a real favour," she whispered before walking out.

You stood there with your head hung low. You could hear the whispers of the other girls. Some were laughing at you, as usual, while others were whispering encouraging words, telling you it was okay.

Once everyone had left the practice room, you fell to the floor, letting the tears you were struggling to hold back fall. Anyone could come back into the practice room and witness you in this horrible state, but you didn't care.

You were tired of getting scolded in front of all members. You were tired of feeling as if everything was your fault.

"Why'd you even join the dance club? You can barely stay on your feet."

You recalled Jae's words. She was right, you weren't the best dancer, and you knew that, but you kept coming to practice in the hope that you'd improve and become a better dancer. But were you really improving? You kept making mistakes and messing up the choreography.

You were slowing down the others in the process.

Maybe everything was your fault.

"I heard that you're in here- y/n?" you looked in the mirror to see your boyfriend standing at the door. "y/n, y/n, baby, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Jimin asked, rushing towards and sitting next to you.

You sobbed into your hands. "I keep making the same mistakes over and over again, Jimin," you said. "It's okay to make mistakes. I'm sure the others are making mistakes too," he said, pulling you into his embrace, stroking your head as you cried into his shoulder.

"But it's not the same. Their mistakes don't stop us from continuing the choreography. Mine do," you said. "It's my fault that we're stuck on this part. Whenever we're stuck on a specific part in the choreography, it's always my fault, Jimin. It's always my fault," you whispered the last part, and Jimin let out a sigh.

Jimin placed his hand on your head and lifted your head from his shoulder. You started at your hands, and Jimin softly smiled. "Look at me y/n," he said, placing both his hands on your cheeks.

Your eyes met with his, and he smiled, wiping your tears. "It's not your fault, y/n," he said. "It's not your fault, baby. You just need more practice than the others, and that's totally okay. Everyone moves at their own pace," he said.

"How about this. I'll help you practice, hm? Show me where you're stuck, and I'll help you get it right. No matter how many times you mess up, I'll help you until you get it right," he said, giving you a soft smile. "Okay?" he asked, and you nodded. "Okay."

.

You showed Jimin a video of the choreography you and your members were learning. You pointed out all the parts you were struggling to get right, and he went over each one with you.

"Don't worry, you've almost got it." "There you go. You're getting the hang of it." He'd say, encouraging you to continue each time you felt like giving up.

You were so grateful to have someone as supportive as Jimin.

You danced and danced for hours, perfecting each and every move. Jimin stayed and danced with you, not leaving you alone for a minute.

"y/n..." Jimin said, stopping you. You looked at him through the mirror, afraid you made a mistake again. "You did it, baby," he said, flashing you the biggest smile. Your eyes widened. "I did?" you asked, and he nodded.

"You did it, and you've seemed to master the whole routine too! You're going to be ahead of the others now," he said, and you couldn't help but smile.

You ran into his arms, catching him by surprise. "Thank you so much for helping me, baby." You thanked, tightly wrapping your arms around him. "You don't have to thank me, I was more than happy to help-" you cut him off by placing your lips on his.

Jimin tightened his hold around your waist. He slowly closed his eyes and hummed in response, enjoying the feeling of your soft lips against his.

"Thank you," you said once you pulled away from the kiss. "I'm just... I'm so happy that I got it right. And it's all thanks to you," you said.

Jimin sheepishly smiled. "No, it's not," he whispered before lowering your body to the ground.

"Would you like to go over the choreography one more time?" he asked, and you shook your head. "I'll go over it tomorrow before practice. Right now, all I want to do is go to your apartment and spend the night with you. Doing whatever you want, since you spent so much time helping me with this. Would you like that?" you asked.

Jimin nodded before placing his lips on yours.

.

high sorry if this isn't angsty, i'm not the best at writing angst :(

i think this is the most detailed request i’ve gotten so far lol

.

part of quote game , submit request here

[keanureevesisbae]

But professor… - c.8

Summary: Walter and Penny adapt to Maryland

Professor!Walter Marshall x Penny Townsend (Asian ofc)

Wordcount: 2.1k

Warnings: None

Masterlist // But professor… masterlist // Previous chapter //

Tomorrow Walter and I are going to move to Maryland and there is just one more thing I need to do: buy some snacks. My cravings have been all over the place recently, so a trip without snack is asking for trouble. Walter is packing the final things with my mom and dad and in a minute they are going to put everything in the truck and U-haul. Since I’m the only one that knows what I really want, I decided to go on a little grocery store trip.

I’m wearing an oversized sweater on top of my leggings and it’s almost the only piece of clothing that is able to hide the bump. I’m seventeen weeks pregnant now, meaning the bump is harder and harder to hide, however this sweater will do. The chances of me running into someone I actually know is next to zero, but better be safe than sorry.

I walk into the grocery store and grab a basket, slowly filling it with what I want. ‘There she is,’ I hear a voice say, one I haven’t heard in so long and certainly haven’t missed.

Fitzgerald.

Every hair in my neck stands up straight. I simply pull my lips into an awkward smile, before walking off to the register. As I’m scanning the products, he actually follows me and I hate how this guy never understands the message, spoken or unspoken.

‘So, you haven’t been coming to classes,’ he says.

‘I know,’ I say, ‘I quit. Been looking into some other things.’

That is already more than I actually wanted to share with him, but hopefully it’s enough to make him go away.

‘Oh really? What you been looking into?’

Just fuck off, Fitzgerald. ‘First of all moving back home,’ I say, packing everything in my bag. ‘New York never really was the place for me.’ After paying for my snacks, I walk out of the store, only to hear the footsteps of the guy who just won’t leave me alone following behind me.

‘Did you hear that professor Marshall is quitting?’

Yes, I actually helped him writing his resignation letter. ‘Oh,’ I say, ‘I didn’t.’

‘Apparently he got a job offer somewhere else.’

Yep, in Maryland. ‘Good for him,’ I say. ‘Well, I gotta go. Bye, Fitzgerald.’

He wants to say something, but then his eyes widen. ‘Yeah, bye,’ he says. He quickly turns around and is gone by the time I looked over my shoulder at him.

What was that about?

When I look up, I glare at Walter, who is standing on the other side of the road, leaning against a street light, his arms crossed. I walk up to him and without saying a word at first, we get mixed into the crowd. ‘What was that about?’ I ask him.

‘Nothing,’ he says, a little too nonchalant for my liking, ‘just wanted to make sure that you weren’t carrying anything too heavy.’ He pulls the bags from my hands and adds: ‘I hate that snotty kid.’

‘I had everything under control,’ I say, poking his side. ‘Did you see him scooting away?’

‘I wish I had it on video,’ Walter chuckles.

My parents are already in the U-haul they rented to make moving as quickly and easy as possible for us and I hand them some snacks.

‘Oh, honey, I’m so glad you’re moving back,’ mom says, after our final pee. Walter just handed over the key to the realtor of his loft and stands behind me, before he says: ‘I know I am happy to move to Maryland. I quite love the place already.’ He presses a kiss on my temple.

My parents get in the U-haul and I wave to them as they drive off. Walter helps me in the truck and when he sits next to me, he gives me a kiss. ‘I love you,’ he tells me.

‘I love you too, Walter.’ I take off my sweater, before strapping myself in the seatbelt. ‘It’s ridiculously hot in here,’ I say, leaning back against the seat.

‘Twenty bucks you are gonna be cold within half an hour.’

I glare at him. ‘That’s mean.’

‘Ah, princess, don’t pout. You know how that makes me weak.’ I continue to tut my bottom lip out and he chuckles. ‘Let’s just hope the baby doesn’t get your pout, because otherwise I can never say no.’

‘No matter what the baby looks like,’ I say, ‘you’re gonna be unable to say no anyway. You are such a push over with me, this baby will wrap you around their finger in no time.’

‘Ai, exposed.’ He holds my hand in his as he drives off and gives me a kiss on my knuckles.

‘You thought about the co sleeping thing I mentioned to you?’ I ask him.

He sighs. ‘Yes and I’m not sure about it. I mean, we could place a crib in our room, right?’

‘But that’s so sad for the baby. To be alone like that after living inside my stomach for so long. What if they don’t be to be alone? They are not gonna sleep in our bed forever, Walter.’

‘I know,’ he says, ‘but… what if I crush them? I mean, they would be in between us, so… That means no sleep for me.’

I start to laugh. ‘That was your worry? Oh, Walter.’ Since I’m already close to him, I wrap my arms around his neck to give him a kiss on his cheek. ‘Aren’t you absolutely darling?’

I actually spot a faint blush on his cheeks.

I decide not to push it any further, because I feel like this co sleep thing is something that needs to simmer for awhile. ‘Can I ask a question?’ I ask.

He nods. ‘Of course.’

‘What if something goes wrong,’ I start, but he is having none of it.

‘No, no, no, nothing is gonna go wrong.’

‘But what if?’ I say. ‘I mean, something could go wrong during birth.’

He clenches his jaw, not wanting to talk about it obviously. ‘I see,’ he mumbles.

‘What I wanted to say was that if I am unable to answer, that you should decide what happens, okay? I’m one hundred percent sure you are going to choose the right thing for us.’

He smiles. ‘That’s what you wanted to tell me?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Oh, princess, princess, don’t scare me like that, okay?’

I smile. ‘Sorry.’

✎ ✎ ✎

Walter and I bought a house and never in a million years did I expect to have this type of domestic life at only twenty one, however it’s exactly the life I have now and I wouldn’t change it for the world. The move from New York and Maryland went pretty swiftly, especially because my parents helped a lot, since it’s only twenty minutes from my parents’ place.

The place we chose was already pretty great, but Walter and I decided—okay, I decided—that some wallpaper should cheer it up. It was a lot of white and it made me feel like I was at a dentist. There’s lots of pastel going on now, mint green, baby blue, soft pink and some yellow.

However, Walter did all the work, because he doesn’t want me to do anything. Too much work can’t be good for the baby, princess.

He now works at the Maryland Police Department and he is actually enjoying it a lot. He now is on patrol duties, but it will only take a few months before he is back as a detective again.

Weeks have gone by and today marks me being twenty seven weeks pregnant. I won’t lie about it, but I’m very over this pregnancy already. Everything hurts. My head hurts, my stomach hurts, my boobs hurts and don’t get me started on my back. I’m mostly sitting on the couch, reading both informative books and novels if I’m not mindlessly watching Netflix shows.

I am a horrendous cook, but I continue to try some things for Walter, because I hate it that he has to both work and cook himself some dinner when he’s off.

Walter comes back from work and smiles when he sees me. ‘There is my beautiful woman,’ he says. ‘Princess, princess, aren’t you gorgeous.’

‘Stop,’ I chuckle, trying to get up from the couch, but fail miserably. ‘I’m sorry, but dinner got burned.’

He smiles. ‘That’s okay, princess. I’ll order some take out, don’t you worry.’

‘I’m really useless,’ I admit. ‘I’m so sorry.’

He scoffs. ‘Don’t say stuff like that. You’re never useless.’ He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me against his side. ‘Tell me what did you do today?’

‘I went to that meeting,’ I say, ‘talked about being a first time mom. It’s just that…’ I place my head against his shoulder. ‘I’m scared.’

‘Why is that, princess?’

‘What if I’m a terrible mom?’

‘You’re not gonna be a terrible mom,’ he retorts. ‘The audacity to think you’re gonna be a terrible mom, when I know that you are nothing but sweet, kind, lovely and you will be a wonderful mom.’

‘Really?’ I ask.

‘Really, darling.’ He places his hand on my stomach and says: ‘It’s okay to be scared, however, you have nothing to worry about. Not when I am right here for the two of you.’

✎ ✎ ✎

The next day, while my mom and I are folding some baby clothes, we watch dad and Walter finish the crib. Mom has been sharing embarrassing baby stories about me and to make things even worse, my dad adds a few stories to it, some I didn’t even know.

Thankfully Walter really enjoys them, because he chuckles loudly. It took him awhile, but he is really liking it, having my parents around.

‘You really don’t want to know the gender?’ mom asks me.

‘No,’ I say, ‘I like to be surprised.’

‘Walter,’ my mom sighs, ‘can’t you talk some sense into her?’

‘Sorry, CC,’ he says, ‘but I kinda like the surprise too.’

She scoffs, before she lets out a chuckle. The baby already made the bond between my parents and I a lot tighter and for that I’m forever grateful.

I resit a little and Walter wouldn’t be Walter if he didn’t notice immediately I was slightly uncomfortable. ‘Princess, are you okay?’

‘Yeah, just my back hurts.’

‘How about you go to bed?’ Walter suggests. ‘Rest a little? You’ve been up pretty early on.’ When I don’t stand up immediately, he walks over to me and crouches down in front of me. ‘What’s wrong, princess?’

‘Nothing, just tired and in pain, that’s all.’

He nods, pulls me up and holds my hand tightly in his. I want to apologize to my parents, but my mom simply tells me not to worry. ‘Pregnancy can be rough, darling,’ she says, ‘so please don’t worry.’

I wonder if it’s hard for my mom to see me pregnant, when she couldn’t get pregnant herself. She never said it to me, but still I wonder from time to time. Even if she does have some hard feelings against it, she never shows it, as she is super supportive of the pregnancy. I give her a kiss, just like I give my dad a kiss and mom says: ‘Walter, did you even sleep last night?’

‘No, this one woke me up,’ he says with a smile.

‘You should sleep as well. You had a late shift the day before yesterday and you two should get a lot of sleep when you can. When the baby is here, she’ll keep you up.’

‘We really don’t know the gender, mom,’ I say with a chuckle. ‘I don’t know if they are gonna be a he or a she.’

‘Worth a shot, you gotta give me that. Okay, you go rest, we finish up in here and let ourselves out. We love you.’

‘Love you too,’ I say back, before Walter and I walk towards the bedroom. He helps me out of my sweatpants and into the bed. I hug the pregnancy pillow, and the bed dips down a bit when Walter gets underneath the thin blanket behind me. He places his hand on my stomach, before kissing my temple. ‘You comfortable, sweetheart?’

‘I am,’ I whisper. ‘I’m sorry I’m keeping you up.’

‘No, don’t do that.’

It only causes me to sniffle, but Walter knows exactly what to do when I have these slight emotional outbursts. He pulls my back closer against his chest, despite him being very warm, he tugs the blankets over our bodies and warms me up even more, giving me more kisses on the side of my face. ‘It can get pretty rough, princess,’ he says, ‘and that’s okay. Just let it all out, okay?’

‘Why are you so sweet?’ I hiccup.

He chuckles. ‘Well, you’re gonna be the mom of our kid and you’re my girlfriend. Of course I’m gonna be sweet to you. Forever and ever, princess. Forever and ever.’