#how to fix: console and crash

[kritzenkriegen]

average SFM experience

[radroachmeat]

what mods do yall use for fallout 3?

[lomlhwa]

twin bitches (j.yh + c.jh)

pairing: roommate!yunho x roommate!reader x roommate!jongho

preview: your roommates are so sick and tired of hearing about your lack of sexual activity. so, they fix it for you.

tags/warnings: fem reader, threesome, oral (f+m.receiving), monster cocks for both of them, use of the color system, two cocks in one hole can i get a wahoo, praise, degrading, mean dom jongho + sweet dom yunho, mating press, so much dirty talk, slapping, some voyeurism, hand kink, fingering, breath play, pet names (slut, good girl, whore, our girl, baby, pretty girl), yunho likes to be called yuyu thank you, spanking, vibrator torture, edging, unprotected penetration (wrap it before you tap it), a couple creampies

trigger warnings: n/a

wc: 2.6k

song recs for this fic: topia twins by travis scott, soaked by shy smith

a/n: hnnngrggnn

It's late at night when you finally press your key into your front door. you can hear your roommates yelling at each other. you automatically assume that they're gaming. and you’re right. you find them sitting on opposite sides of the couch, screaming about their game and pounding on the buttons of their controllers. you can’t help but find it at least a little cute.

jongho looks up from the game for a split second to acknowledge you before nudging yunho. “oh y/n! you’re home!” yunho throws his headset off and runs over to you. your big golden retriever roommate loves to hug you when you get home. it’s endearing. you wrap your arms around his waist as he crashes your face into his chest. you can hear jongho press the power button on their console and get up from the couch. 

“how did your date go?” jongho asks with a stoic look on his face. it’s your 3rd date this week. you sigh, your shoulders dropping. you hate admitting that it’s yet another date that’s gone south. “he said he didn't see me as anything more than a friend.” jongho rolls his eyes, scoffing at your response. “that’s such bullshit,” he says, his tone highly unimpressed by your response. “i don’t understand how all of these men are treating you like this.”

you shrug, walking over to the couch where the two of them had originally been sitting. you throw your head back and cross your arms over your chest. your roommates plop themselves down on either side of you, watching to see what your next move will be. “yanno, i’m not even upset about not having a boyfriend,” you admit, turning your head to the left to look at jongho. “then what are you upset about?” yunho asks from the right side of you. the tone of his voice gives you an inkling that he knows what you’re gonna say. you grow a mischievous look on your face before turning to look at him. “i’m upset that i’m not getting fucked. like at all.”

as soon as those words leave your mouth, both your roommates collectively sigh. “what?! it’s a valid complaint!” you exclaim, looking at the both of them in disbelief. you watch as they share a secretive look. confusion spreads across your face. “what the fuck was that?” you ask, wondering what they could be planning. before you can ask anymore questions, jongho throws you over his shoulder. 

“genuinely what is happening right now?” you exclaim, kicking your legs, almost making jongho falter. yunho grabs your ankles tightly, forcing you to stop kicking. “stop being a fucking brat,” yunho demands. you halt every movement so quickly you could’ve sworn your heart stopped too. you can feel heat pooling between your legs at the tone of yunho’s voice. finally, jongho throws you down onto your bed. they both stand above you, arms crossed. they look at each other and then back down at you.

“alright, this is what’s gonna happen since you’re such a whore,” yunho starts. you open your mouth to protest the vulgar name and jongho slaps you straight across the face. “you don’t speak unless spoken to.” you can’t even deny how wet this is making you. yunho gives jongho a smile before continuing. “we’re gonna use you however we see fit and you’re gonna fucking like it.” you squeeze your legs together, your core begging for attention. jongho takes notice of this and forces your knees apart. 

“color?” yunho asks. “very green,” you respond. you almost smile before they both move closer to you and then your face drops. yunho collapses to his knees between your legs and jongho moves towards your upper half. yunho removes your pants so gently, you can barely even tell he’s between your legs. the way he looks up at you, almost desperately, could make you cum on the spot. jongho on the other hand, rips your shirt in half with ease before throwing it somewhere. he grips your jaw, squeezing your face with one hand to force your mouth open. “you’re gonna look so pretty with a face full of cock, baby,” jongho says as he opens his belt with his other free hand. 

you’re so focused on jongho’s words and movements that you had forgotten about where yunho was. that is until you feel his tongue lick a stripe up your thigh. you shoot your eyes in his direction, watching as his mouth inches closer to where you need him most. “she’s so wet, jongho. she’s into this,” yunho says, pulling your underwear off. “i think she really wants us to use her.” you can hear the smirk in his voice. jongho shoves his pants and boxers mid-way down his thighs as he laughs. “of course she is. she’s our little slut,” he says as he shoves his cock down your throat. you gag around him almost immediately, despite only being able to take just under half into your mouth. simultaneously, yunho shoves his face into your core, lapping up the slick that had been leaking out of you. 

the mix of the sensation of your throat being abused and your cunt being cared for so gently sends your brain into a frenzy. you buck your hips up against yunho’s mouth, searching for more intense pleasure. jongho holds your face tightly, making sure you’re watching him while he fucks your mouth. he looks at you with dark, focused eyes, keeping a steady pace in your throat. you feel a loss of heat as yunho pulls away from your core, leaving your throbbing. you wonder where he’s going but you physically can’t look away from jongho. you don’t have to wonder for long when you hear the familiar buzzing of your vibrator. panic sets into your chest, knowing you have no escape. “dirty girl keeping her vibrator in the most obvious place,” yunho says. you can hear him click through the different vibration settings before settling on the basic one. 

jongho pulls out from your mouth before removing his pants and boxers completely. he settles behind you, resting his legs on either side of your waist. yunho gets back down between your legs, running the vibrator up your thigh. “this is gonna feel so fucking good, baby,” he mumbles before pressing it directly to your clit. your hips jolt at the high vibration setting he has on, sending electricty through your veins. you dig your nails into jongho’s thighs, throwing your head back against his shoulder. yunho presses the vibrator into your clit harder, making you borderline stop breathing. your vision becomes fuzzy as your orgasm comes racing towards you like a train. “gonna-” is all you can get out before cumming harder than you probably ever have in your life. yunho never lets the vibrator falter, keeping it pressed on your most sensitive spot.

jongho wraps a strong hand around your throat, squeezing just enough to have you gasping for air. yunho digs his teeth into the soft skin of your inner thigh, watching as you clench around nothing, searching for some distraction from the immense pleasure. “plea-ah-se” you stutter, trying to get words out through jongho’s grip on your airway. “please what, whore?” jongho says against your ear, demanding more words out of you. “need your fingers yuyu,” you plead, your voice cracking. you’re desperate for anything to fill your hole, and yunho knows how much you love his hands. he smiles, obliging to your request. he shoves two fingers knuckles-deep into your sopping cunt. he drills them in an out of you at an unfathomable pace, sending another orgasm crashing into you. your legs tremble at the sensation of everything continuing despite your obvious orgasm.

in fact, yunho adds a third finger and sets the vibrator to the next highest setting. you let out a strangled scream, your nerves lighting themselves on fire. your knees slam together painfully, trapping yunho between your legs. you hear a sinister laugh behind you before your legs are pried apart by a pair of strong hands. you gasp at the sudden rush of air to your lungs and also being splayed open perfectly for your roommates. “please, i can’t do it anymore. it’s too much,” you plead, another orgasm creeping up on you already. “oh, you don’t wanna cum again? okay, baby,” yunho says as he takes his fingers and the vibrator away right before you can cum. you whine, your failed orgasm leaving behind a painful sting. jongho leans forward slightly to kiss your jawline; the sweetest gesture he’s shown so far. while your focus on him, yunho presses the vibrator against you again. your eyes roll into your skull, your previously failure orgasm rushing towards you again. “i’m gonna-” you’re cut off once again by yunho halting all movement. “yuyuuu~,” you whine, your legs begging to close.

“color?” yunho asks once more, placing the now off and very wet vibrator on the floor. through heaving breaths you reply; “yellow.” yunho coos at you, kissing your thighs. “okay, baby. we’ll give you the main event now,” he says as pulls his shirt over his head. jongho slips out from behind you to follow suit. you can’t help but get lost in the sudden lack of body heat. it doesn’t last for long when jongho slots himself between your legs. “i’m gonna get you started, slut. yunho will be all nice, treat your pussy with respect and let you cum, but i won’t. i can’t even be bothered to wear a condom while fucking you.” you open your mouth to protest but he cuts you off by shoving his cock completely inside your hole. his length is impressive as it is but the girth is what has your eyes crossing. the stretch stings and it takes over your senses for at least 10 seconds before you come to. 

jongho starts thrusting into you at an almost inhuman pace, loud skin-slapping sounds filling the room. you can’t help but wonder where yunho has run off to. your eyes search the room before finding him sitting on your computer chair, pumping himself while he watches jongho fuck you. your eyes trail down to his cock and you can almost swear your eyes fall out of your head. is it even humanly possible for it to be that long? you can’t wonder for long when you feel another sharp slap come across your face. “look at me, you whore. i know you’re our girl but i’m the one balls deep inside you right now.” your eyes dart back to him, making fierce eye contact. his black hair is sticking to his forehead as he looks down between you. he watches as his cock appears and disappears inside you. “ah fuck, g-gonna cum jongho,” you grip his forearm and wrap your legs around his waist. “i don’t fucking think so,” he says as he pulls out of you, ripping yet another orgasm away from you.

yunho tuts as jongho pulls away from you. “you’re treating her so unfairly. we’ve taken 2 orgasms from her already.” yunho looks at you with such pity that you could almost cry. jongho looks at you like you’re nothing more than a talkative sex doll. “she’s so tight, yunho. i don’t know if she can take both of us at once.” your eyes dart between them, hearing them talk about you taking both at once. “both? what are you talking about? in one hole?” you ramble. they both collectively laugh at your visible panic. “of course. you wanna cum, it has to be on our cocks. that’s your only option, pretty girl,” yunho says to you, followed by the sweetest golden retriever smile. you clench around nothing at the stark contrast between his words and his smile. 

“i can do it!” you cry out, crawling towards them. you grab their arms and look at them with eyes full of desperation. “at least let me try.” yunho caresses the top of your head, making kissy faces at you. “of course you can try. you’re such a good girl, i’m sure you can do it,” he encourages you. jongho scoffs, rolling his eyes. “yeah she can try, but i don’t think it’ll work.” before you can reply with a snarky comment, jongho lifts you bridal style. “your precious yuyu is gonna lay under you, okay?” he explains as yunho lays down on your bed. jongho spins you around and places you chest to chest with yunho. “hi, pretty girl. are you ready?” you nod, still feeling unsure. you feel him reach down between the two of you to align his throbbing cock up with your cunt. he slides in with ease, his tip just barely kissing your cervix. he’s much longer than jongho but jongho’s girth stretched you out enough for yunho to slide in comfortably.

you shiver as you feel a pair of hands run up your ass. “you’re gonna look so fucking slutty with both our cocks inside you, baby.” a sharp smack lands on your ass cheek and you’re almost 100% sure it left a handprint. you feel the tip of jongho’s cock brush your already full hole. as he starts to push into you, yunho brings his lips to yours. he kisses you with soft passion, trying to keep you distracted. the stretch is unbearable, to say the least. you let out strangled moans against yunho’s mouth, scraping your nails into his shoulders. once they’re both bottomed out, they freeze. your walls pulse as you try to adjust. “mmf please move,” you mutter, hoping they could hear you. 

they both pull out simultaneously, emptiness flooding you. they both slam back into you so hard that your whole body jolts forward. your senses are on overdrive, trying to understand the pain and pleasure that fill your abdomen. you’re scared that if you dig your nails into yunho’s shoulders any harder you’ll draw blood. “color?” yunho says, his voice sounding strained. “green, green, oh my god,” you respond. finally, they move in sync with each other, emptying you and refilling you at the same time. “i can’t, i can’t, too much,” you babble, your legs trembling. “yes you can. you were made for this,” jongho replies, slamming into you extra hard. yunho strokes your hair as he thrusts up into you. “i’m so close, please let me cum, i need it, please,” you beg, your eyes watering. yunho and jongho look at each other, as if trying to decide your fate. you know jongho wants to deny you, but yunho just wants your pleasure. “you can cum, you’ve been such a good girl,” yunho encourages. they keep up their unrelenting pace, even as you’re thrown over the edge. “gonna cum inside you, baby. you deserve it,” yunho says, throwing his head back. both him and jongho are close and you can feel it. 

jongho digs his fingers into your hips as his thrusts stutter to a halt, being the first one to blow his load inside you. it coats your abused walls and yunho’s still moving cock. yunho’s orgasm follows soon after, high pitched whines coming from his throat. you feel so full, both loads slowly seeping out of you. they stay inside you for a moment before emptying you. “i’ll go get a towel,” jongho says before rushing into the bathroom across the hall. you stay laying on yunho’s chest as he whispers sweet nothings to you. you feel the rough texture of the towel on your sensitive core, making you flinch. “sorry,” jongho apologizes. 

eventually, you’re falling asleep. you’re still unmoving from yunho’s hold, feeling the most safe there. you can hear your roommates talking to each other but your brain has gone numb. everything buzzes around you as you fall asleep, your body finally giving out.

“sleep well, pretty girl.”

© lomlhwa 2024

[silentpinessave]

Silent Pines gallery uploads are here!

Gallery ID: Cosmoosims

I've gotten many messages from console players and people who would like to download Silent Pines on the Gallery, so I took the time to upload every build!

You will find:

All Silent Pines lots

Both furnished and unfurnished houses

Each lot has a little description explaining what it is

How to find the builds; You can find the Silent Pines builds on the gallery by searching #silentpinessave as pictured above, or by searching my Gallery ID cosmoosims.

*MORE UPDATES COMING* I've heard the reports that the Harris household is crashing games, and I'm trying my best to find a fix for that. I think it must be the house itself, so I've uploaded a game items-only version on the gallery (aka without any custom items from the gallery) and an empty version as well. For now, let me know if that works!

The Mystery Update A more comprehensive outline for this update will be coming soon, but essentially it will contain;

Hopefully the fixed Harris household

More mystery clues to make the mystery more engaging and easier to solve

Better and complete lot descriptions

The Case File: A Google Docs file that will help give more guidance to the mystery, sort of like a detective's case file!

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and played in Silent Pines, it's been amazing to see the screenies and messages from people! Please let me know any more bugs/issues with the save file, so I can add them to the Mystery Update before I start work on V.2 with Oasis Springs and Newcrest!

Love from, Silent Pines.

[i-cant-sing]

Just thinking about Yandere Todoroki clan and reader's random moments.

Reader coming home after a particularly bad day, but poor girl cant even cry or complain without everyone immediately overreacting and pulling you out of school/college or even keeping you from going out at all. So now, reader has to either cry in self pity before she enters her home, wipe her tears and fix herself just enough to show that she hadnt just bawled her eyes out moments ago. That, or do the more risky thing and go home, go to your room and cry under the covers, but then theres always the chance of Rei or the others walking in on you any moment.

Also thinking about baby/toddler reader being sick, just a common cold or flu, nothing major. But with reader whining and being so young, the family's infantalisation goes through the roof and theyd treat you as if you were immunocompromised. I wont lie, but I think Rei is almost kinda... glad when you get sick? She enjoys you being dependant on her for the most things, even when you grow up and are able to handle a cold, she still deludes herself into thinking that you need mommy to come and help you.

I think the one person who is most affected by reader getting sick, no matter what age, is Enji. The man just cant help but view you as a fragile, starving Victorian child the moment you fall ill. In his eyes, even a harsh blow of air is too much for a fragile thing like you, let alone something as bad as the flu. He just- he's holding toddler reader in his arms, who snuggles into his warm body, your tiny nose pink and he cant get the image of you crying and vomiting and being oh so feverish- thats just way too much for your small body. Oh how he almost cried when he took you to the doctor for a shot and you clung to him, trying to bury yourself into him as you begged him to make you feel better, cried to him that you didnt want to get the "big scary needle!" He just had to hold you there in his firm grip as you writhed, had to look away when you looked at him and he saw the feeling of betrayal in your eyes, had to keep himself from not strangling the fucking doctor for not being careful, had to walk out of the clinic and hand you to Rei because he couldnt hear you cry anymore, had to have Rei console both you and Enji (assuring him that "no, Enji. Y/n doesnt resent you for making her get a shot.") and he couldnt even sleep a wink that night because he was standing by your bed, holding your tiny hand with his pinky as a tear finally slipped out of his eye.

ALSO thinking about adult reader going out of the house to meet up with friends, except shes meeting up with them at a club instead of at their house like she told Enji and Rei, and now shes standing outside, abandoned by said friends, and shes now running because a group of pervy men are chasing her and she doesnt know who to call, so she just speed dials Shotou, except someone just changed all your speed dials to one number, and you think youre doomed when Shotou doesnt say a word to you and just hangs up when within minutes, someone comes in front of you-

"Dabi?" He tells you to cover your ears and look away, and you know well by know what that means, so you obey, feeling a bit regretful as those men begin to scream in agony. You dont know how long its been until Dabi pulls your hands away and examines your wounds. He lets you crash into his chest as you sob, and this time, Dabi simply decides to take you home quietly without a lecture.

Hmmm, also thinking about Natsuo who is usually cool as a cucumber, the most normal being in the family, except for his very rare episodes of unbridled rage where he suddenly becomes the Hulk. Good thing for you is that this anger is never directed towards you, rather towards people who actively threaten your life (except Rei cause she gets to play "Im your mom who became mentally unstable because of your abusive dad") The only time NAtsuo is stern with you is when it comes to your health. He's just looking at you with those strict eyes when you refuse to take your multivitamins, or dont want to get a flu shot, or try to make up an excuse so that he cant check your vitals. And when he just grabs your wrist and pulls you to sit down so that he can do his checkup, its in those moments that you realise just how strong your brother is... and how easy it may be for him to overpower you and sedate you if he ever followed through Rei's threats.

[magiccath]

Turtles All The Way Down

The Doctor x anxious!reader

Summary: In which the Doctor calms your anxiety (as best as he can)

A/N: yeah it’s a John Green reference what did you expect

Some days were worse than others. Sometimes it felt like the universe was crashing around you, making it impossible for you to feel anything but anxiety. On other days you hung at a stable baseline, the anxiety managable if not absent. Today wasn’t one of those days. 

You had felt your anxiety building all week, an eruption boiling deep in your chest. In an effort to keep it at bay, you hid away. Normally, you told the Doctor when you were feeling like this. He was good at distracting you from your anxieties, usually he just took you to the prettiest planet he could think of. But this time, you didn’t even tell the Doctor, though you knew you should have. Instead, you spent the whole day in your room, buried under the covers in a futile attempt to keep the rest of the world out. Admittedly, you knew that ignoring your problems wasn’t the solution, but it was a band-aid fix. You supposed it was better than nothing.

The Doctor noticed - it was rare that he didn’t notice when something was different. He loved you, of course, he noticed when you were in pain. It hurt him that you hurt. Even more, it hurt him that he didn’t know how to help you. If he could, he would take every single anxious thought from your head and shove them into his instead. 

When you didn’t come out of your room all day he knew something was seriously wrong. With a frustrated groan, he set down the alien technology he had been fiddling with, the strange metal landing on the console with a quiet thunk. Exasperated, he tugged his glasses off of his face, rubbing the bridge of his nose. It was hard to focus on anything else when he didn’t know what was going on with you. He knew that he wasn’t going to get anything productive done without knowing if you were ok. Silently, he sulked his way out of the control room and down the hall to your room. 

His feet took him to your room, the path well engrained in the back of his brain, he didn’t even have to think about it. The familiar wood of your door was closed and his chest tightened at the familiarity of the object. He never realized how often he saw it or how many times he had walked this same path to just see you. 

There was a small sign taped to the door, your name scrawled across it in your handwriting. A few stickers littered the surface next to it, his eyes darting between cartoonish fruits, a flamingo, and crude imitations of the planets in your Milky Way. He stared at the closed door for a second longer before finally knocking on it gently so as not to startle you. He waited for a full minute, but no response came from inside. 

“Love, I’m gonna come in,” he called out, giving you ample warning before opening the door. He felt guilting coming in without invitation, even though you had told him multiple times that you didn’t mind as long as he announced his entrance. 

His eyes darted around the room, looking for you in the familiar space. It took him a second to realize that the pile of blankets on the bed was you. His hearts melted when he saw you hiding, the only sign that you were there at all was the hardly discernible rise and fall of your breath under the blankets. He sat down next to you, gently rubbing his hand over your shoulder through the covers. 

“You doing ok?” he asked, even though he knew the answer. If you were ok, you wouldn’t have spent all day in bed like this. Part of him hoped it was a cold. He knew that humans were prone to silly viruses like that. A cold he knew how to fix, he could get rid of it in a day. 

“I’ve been better,” you admitted, your voice muffled from under the covers. The Doctor frowned to himself. He knew that your anxiety could get bad, but he’d never seen it like this. He felt helpless not knowing how to fix it. He could fix a cold, he could even fix the flu! But he couldn’t fix this, and that killed him. 

“Scale of 1 to 10,” he urged, rubbing your shoulder through the pile of blankets you were currently under. 

“9.6,” you murmured. The Doctor’s frown deepened. He was used to 4s and 5s - the lower levels that could be fixed with a hug and some sort of distracting adventure. This was a whole other thing and he wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. 

“Is there anything I can do?” he asked, still rubbing your shoulder, this thumb tracing circles. When you didn’t say anything he sighed, tugging at the blankets that covered you. “Will you please come out?” 

Reluctantly, you wiggled your face out from under your cocoon, looking up at him with tired eyes. 

“There we go,” he smiled lovingly down at you, brushing your hair away from your face, his fingers ghosting over your cheek.

“Now, will you tell me what’s wrong?” he murmured, resting his hand on the side of your face. He looked down at you with nothing but love, the sight melting your heart.

“There’s this story where a famous scientist is giving a lecture on astronomy to a large audience, and he’s describing how the Earth orbits the sun and the sun orbits the galaxy and so on and so forth.” The Doctor stays silent, letting you tell your story. 

“When he’s done a lady raises her hand and says ‘Professor, with all due respect what you’ve just told us is wrong. The truth is, the Earth rests on the back of a giant turtle.’ So the scientist asks her, ‘So, what is the turtle resting on.’ The woman replies, ‘It’s resting on the shell of another giant turtle, of course.’ And the scientist says, ‘And that turtle?’ And the woman exclaims ‘Don't you understand? It’s turtles all the way down.’ It’s infinite, it’s turtles all the way down,” you explain. 

“Well, the Earth isn’t resting on anything,” the Doctor corrects, clearly taking the story seriously. “There isn’t any gravity for it to rest on. There is no down or up. Plus, I'm not sure that turtles could survive in space.” 

“That’s not the point, Doctor.” 

“What is the point?” He asks, swiping his thumb back and forth across your cheek. “Turtles aren’t going to help me make you feel better.” 

“My thoughts are like that, no beginning, no end, no rationale. Just, turtles all the way down,” you sigh. It was incredibly easy to get stuck in your head, to fall down the endless stack of thoughts until you forgot where you started, or if you even started it in the first place. It was terrifying and debilitating. 

“I think your mind is beautiful,” the Doctor whispered, still gazing into your eyes with unbridled love. “You view the world in such an incredible way, it fascinates me. The way that you can draw lines between two seemingly unrelated things is brilliant. You, my love, are brilliant.” 

You shake your head slightly, “I don’t think so. I think I have an endless pile of very ugly turtles.” 

The Doctor chuckled; not at you, but at your words. He liked the way that you were referring to your anxious thoughts as turtles, the mere image brought a smile to his face. It was the same kind of strange creativity that made him love your mind in the first place. Only you would come up with something as silly as turtles to explain your feelings to him. 

“I like your turtles. I like all of them, even the ones you don’t,” he reassured with a soft smile, his thumb now brushing against your jawline. “I don’t like when they bring you pain, though.” 

“I don’t either.” 

A frustrated sigh escaped the Doctor’s lips, his hearts aching for you. Not knowing what else to do, he leaned his forehead against yours. You also let out a quiet sigh at the contact, your eyes fluttering shut as you basked in the affection behind his simple gesture. 

“There’s always another turtle for me to try and understand, another turtle for me to love. You think that your turtles make you less, but they make you more,” he whispered, his warm breath fanning across your face as he spoke. “You are infinite,” he smiled brightly, pulling back so he could look at you. “And I love you for it,” he whispered, his slender fingers brushing the curve of your cheekbones. 

“I don’t like when I get stuck like this,” your voice cracked and you hated the sound of it. You hated that you felt this way - trapped and hopeless. 

“I don’t either, love,” the Doctor reassured, still stroking your cheeks with the pad of this thumb. “Room for an old Time Lord under there?” he said, inclining his head towards your blanket fort. 

You nodded gently, lifting one side of your blanket pile up to grant him access. He quickly wiggled his way under with you, positioning the blankets so they were firmly over both of you. 

“Much better,” he murmured, pulling you fully into his embrace. His arms encircled their way around your waist, guiding your head to rest against his chest. The familiar sound of his twin heartbeats flooded your senses, the sound steady and calming. 

“We’ll just sit here until the turtles decide to sod off,” he whispered, resting his chin on the top of your head. His thumb continued to brush back and forth, this time on the small of your back. 

You figured he’d grow restless after a few hours. It wasn’t like the Doctor to sit and do anything for long, he didn’t have the kind of attention span for that. Admittedly, the Doctor did grow a bit restless. He knew you needed him though, and that was more than enough to keep him rooted. To fend off the restlessness he occupied his brain by coming up with lists; all of the planets he hadn’t taken you to yet, every species of dog in English alphabetical order, each bone in the pterodactyl skeletal system, and many more. 

But, he stayed true to his promise and held you closely until your mind calmed down, the gentle love of his embrace and the thudding of his hearts doing wonders for your anxious mind. 

[florencemtrash]

Hummingbird: Chapter Two

Miguel O'Hara x Reader

What if the Earth-1610 (Miles’s universe) version of Miguel’s wife was actually Miles’s AP Art teacher?

Masterlist

Miguel grumbled, furiously trying to rub away the oncoming headache as the newly updated Spider-Gang continued to berate him. Jessica only leaned forward on her motorcycle, smirking at the sight of his towering figure surrounded by teenagers.

Gwen prodded him with a pointed finger, “What the hell, Miguel! I can’t believe you-”

“We trusted you and-”

“So what now you’re just on our side like some-” 

Miles’s palms sparked threateningly, “You were going to let my Dad die!”

“Hold the baby, Migs.” Peter tried in vain to shove a babbling Mayday into his hands, “She’s going to make you feel so much better.”

“You and I are gonna have some serious fisticuffs you turtle-”

“You let the power get to your head like some capitalistic-”

Peni’s robot chittered angrily.

“Ok, ok, OK!” Miguel yelled, “Everyone just QUIET!” Turning on his heels so that his broad shoulders blocked out the skyline, he began to mutter, “Dios mío. ¿Qué estoy haciendo? Estos niños me van a matar. Mierda.” He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the words that were about to leave his mouth.

“I messed up.” he murmured under his breath.

Hobie propped himself up against his guitar, “Sorry bruv, don’t think I heard you ri-”

“I MESSED UP!” Miguel shouted, throwing his hands up in his air. Everyone except Hobie and Miles took a step back. This was the closest thing to an apology any of them could hope to get, and far more than they were expecting to hear from him. “Now in case you’ve forgotten, we still have an imminent multiversal collapse on our hands!” 

“Very imminent,” Lyla said, floating on her back and propping her holographic feet up on Miguel’s shoulder.

Miles stepped forward in the silence, all eyes on him. 

He still had to tilt his head up to meet Miguel’s eyes, but he didn’t feel small. No. He wasn’t small. He wasn’t weak. He was Spider-Man, and together they were going to fix this.

“I still don’t like you but,” he stuck out his hand, “Welcome to the Spider-Gang, Miguel.” 

>>>

“Lyla, take a scan of the-” Gwen spun out of a wormhole, crashing into his side.

“Sorry!” A web shot out of her wrist, pulling her towards the skylight as Miles flipped across the room in a red and black blur.

“Spot, please!” Miles’s voice bounced around the room, sound waves rippling out from a hundred spots at once, “You don’t have to do this.”

Lyla flickered to life on Miguel’s shoulder, a holographic lollipop sticking out the corner of her mouth, “I’m on it!” 

Miguel caught himself on the wall, blades screeching on metal as a dozen more spots popped into existence around him. Rain pelted him from all sides, distracting him long enough for the hub of a cop car to fly out and flatten him against the wall. 

The Spot dipped in and out of the ground, basking in the remnants of the Super-Collider and swallowing up bits and pieces of metal and granite in the process. Wormholes had already started to crop up all around New York, threatening the destruction of buildings as cars and trains suddenly found themselves hundreds of feet above the ground.

“It’s a proper mess out here mates,” Hobie’s voice called out from Miguel’s watch, followed by the shattering of glass, “How much longer is this going to take?”

“I just need fifteen more minutes,” Margo said. A crash sounded in the background along with Jessica’s colorful words, “... maybe twenty.” 

“We don’t have twenty minutes,” Miguel grunted, flinging his body across the room. He strung his webs around a battered console, whipping it around and aiming it directly at the Spot. He only chuckled, lifting his hand and opening a portal. The console smashed into Miguel’s back, sending him crashing to the ground.

Lyla pulled the lollipop out of her mouth with an audible pop! “Scan of the room’s complete. You’re in luck! You’ve got about 17 minutes before the structural integrity of the building goes kaput, starting with the northwest corner.” Her finger glitched as she pointed. 

Joder.

“Guys no. I can do this.” Miles said, his voice tight with effort as he continued to jump around the room, whipping metal at the Spot to distract him long enough to swing to safety. He could make the Spot see reason. He had to.

Margo and Jessica scrambled about the control room three stories up, Margo’s virtual reality body glitching from anxiety as she threaded wires together and fumbled around on the computers in the control room. This dimension’s technology was ancient compared to hers and she was finding it hard to make the adjustment. 

“You really think that would work?” She asked Miles. They all stood side by side atop Alchemax, staring down into the remnants of the Super-Collider where the Spot floated around aimlessly in a pool of black ether. Every so often Margo was certain she could see visions of other dimensions poking through the fabric of spacetime - A baseball game, an explosion, a thousand ships cruising past a desert planet.

“He got his powers using the Super Collider,” Miles reasoned, “Absorbed dark matter energy from countless universes. Reverse the process and we might be able to send it all back to their original dimensions.”

“Leaving him powerless.” Hobie finished, shoving his hands into his jacket and nodding, “I like it.” 

“It’ll be a large scale Go-Home-Machine.” Margo murmured, nodding in understanding as the plan fell into place.

“But you gotta let me talk to him first.” Miles narrowed a pointed glare at Miguel. “Let me make him see reason. End this before it even begins.”

“Are you joking? That’s too risky.” Miguel growled out.

“This could kill him!”

“Oh come on, Miguel, give Miles a chance!” Pavitr had to balance on the tip of his toes to sling an arm around Miguel’s shoulders. “He’s Spider-Man! This will be easy for him! Use that charm and compassion and-”

“Fine.” Miguel said, shrugging Pavitr off, “We’ll try it your way.”

The Spot walked forward menacingly, noting with pride how Miles backed away, hands lifted up in front of him, “So now you want to talk?” 

“Listen, Jonathan - it’s Jonathan, right? - We don’t have to do this. I’m sorry I made fun of you before. I’m sorry that I disregarded you after everything you’ve been through. But you have to understand what you’re doing. This is going to destroy everything. Everything. The universe, the multiverse, all of it. You’ve got the power to-”

“There’s no Jonathan anymore, only the Spot. You still think I’m joking don’t you? You still think we’re going to make up after a grand old speech - that you’re going to save me. Well it’s too late for that, kid.” 

He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers, a portal opening to his left. Someone tumbled out wearing a paint stained Brooklyn Visions Academy sweatshirt. 

Miguel’s heart stopped beating. 

He would recognize you anywhere - in any universe.

“Y/n?” he breathed out. 

“Let’s see how good you really are, Spider-Man.” He snapped his fingers again and a portal opened up beneath your feet. The last thing you heard was the Spot's laughter as you began to fall from the sky.

“NO!” Miguel sprang into action, red laser webs flinging out to the walls as he threw himself into the air. 

“Nuh uh.” The Spot shook his finger, throwing a spot at Miguel and portaling him away, “No help! That’s cheating.” 

Miles sprinted up the walls, tracking the small dot of your figure as you flailed about wildly more than two hundred feet up, desperately trying to straighten your arms and slow your fall. The wind carried your screams away.

He dove towards a spot, arms and legs tucked in straight as an arrow after seeing your sprawling form fall past the wormhole, and re-emerged just above you. With a quick flick of the wrist he caught you, throwing out webs wildly towards the neighboring buildings in a desperate bid to slow your fall. The strands held on for as long as they could, slowing your descent before finally snapping from the tension. 

“Hold on!” He yelled over the wind as the last web broke. The voice sounded familiar. 

You both hurtled through the skeleton of a window before landing and rolling onto the floor of the one of Alchemax lab rooms, the faint smell of chlorine and formaldehyde still clinging to the air.

You pushed yourself onto your knees, prepared to kiss the solid ground beneath you.

“Miss Y/l/n?!” Miles’s jaw dropped, eyes as round as dinner plates. 

You perked your head up, momentarily forgetting your near death experience.

“Miles?!” 

“Oh crap,” he cleared his throat, dropping his voice an octave, “Um, who’s Miles?” 

“What the hell are you doing here? Do your parents know about this? Is this why you’ve been skipping classes? Who let you do this without adult supervision?!” You grabbed him by the shoulder, shaking him. He was just a teenager for fuck’s sake!

“Listen, Miss Y/l/n-” Maybe it was because he was so used to unloading his thoughts in front of you that he launched into a half-baked explanation of everything that had happened, “I got bitten by a radioactive spider-” “I met all these Spiderpeople-” “-and he tried to stop me from saving my dad and-” 

Your head was spinning.

“Oh Spidermaaannnnn!” The Spot called out in a sing-song voice. “Where are you hiding, you little insect?” “I gotta go, just-” he held his hands out, “just stay here for now. Don’t move!” And just like that he was gone, leaving you more confused than ever before.

I don’t get paid enough for this. You thought, standing alone amidst the rubble.

Miguel tore through the rooms, sprinting like a madman. The reverse Super Collider was finally up and running and it was only a matter of time before the Spot would realize their plan and go berserk. The ground beneath him shook and groaned in protest as the building’s foundations began to crumble into nothing, eaten away by the dark matter that spilled out of the Spot.

“Y/N!” he roared, kicking down a door so hard it blew off its hinges.

You hopped off the bench. It seemed silly, but as a civilian caught in the middle of a multiverse-ending battle there hadn’t been anything for you to do but sit and wait for Miles to come back.

A Spider-Man variant barreled towards you, all hard cut lines of red and blue with blades protruding to his forearms that glinted in the dim light. You hadn’t made a decision about whether or not to run - whether or not it was even worth it to try - before he had you wrapped up in his arms, burying his face in your shoulder. The mask fell away like tv static to reveal a head of brown waves that smelled faintly of oranges.

“Dios mío, pensé que te perdí.” He murmured, holding you like his life depended on it. 

You stiffened under his touch before awkwardly raising a hand to pat his back. “Umm, hola. ¿Te conozco?”

Miguel froze, feeling the tension in your body. You didn’t… you didn’t know who he was. He’d just… he’d been so terrified that he’d forgotten himself - the situation they were all in. 

He took a step back, spine ram-rod straight as he suppressed the urge to hold you again. This version of you looked… different. Different, but the same. You were missing the faint scar on your temple you’d gotten from a car crash at seventeen. 

“We need to go.” he said, voice tight as he gestured to his back, “Get on and hold on tight. This building’s about to blow.”

You blinked at the sudden change in his tone, taking a moment to process what he’d just asked you. 

“You know Spider-Man?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” He said, clenching his jaw. If you didn’t jump on his back in the next ten seconds he was going to chuck you over his shoulder and start running.

The floor beneath you shifted, the building’s dying breaths echoing through the halls.

Hesitantly you climbed onto his back, wrapping your legs tightly around his waist as he started sprinting towards the broken window.

“Si me dejas caer, nunca te perdonaré,” you said, lips accidentally brushing against the curve of his ear. 

He shivered. “Jamás.” 

You were airborne again, feeling Miguel’s body twist and flex beneath you as he pulled you both towards the ceiling like it was as natural as breathing. When you dared to look towards the ground you gasped. The tangled frame of the Super Collider was whirring to life, crackling with energy and exploding with color as Miles spun his webs, keeping the machine together even as it threatened to rip itself apart. 

From within the cocoon of webs, dark matter, and multiversal energy, you could make out the Spot’s form warping and pulling apart, bits and pieces disappearing into the frenetic portal that the collider had split open.

Miles caught up to you both, matching Miguel’s rhythm as they flicked and swung from their webs.

“Hey again, Miss Y/l/n.” Flick. “I see you’ve met Miguel.” Flick. “I hope he hasn’t been too mean towards you.” He called out.

You felt Miguel grumble with displeasure. 

“He’s the guy that body slammed me into a moving train!” Flick. “But I beat him!” 

“Miguel did WHAT?!” 

“Right, Miss Y/l/n?”

“Listen kid, I already apologized for that.” 

“Yeah right.” Miles had to laugh. The day he heard Miguel say the words “I’m sorry” would be the day the multiverse tore apart, and that day was not today.

You slapped Miguel on the shoulder - it was like hitting stone, “¿Qué coño te pasa? He’s just a teenager!” 

“Cariño, can we please discuss this at a later time?” He gritted his teeth. Something was wrong with the collider. It was getting harder and harder to swing you both upwards, like the force of gravity had tripled. 

You froze. “What did you just call me?” 

Crap.

Miles’s eyes swung back and forth between you two like a pinball machine and the dots finally connected - the alternate universe where Miguel had a family, the way he kept looking at you, the way he’d demanded Miles tell him where you were.

“...Aren’t you his wife?” He asked dumbly.

Miguel’s face went white beneath his mask. Did the temperature go up, or was that just him? His hands felt clammy under his spider-suit.

“I’M HIS WIFE?!” 

The collider screeched beneath them and Miguel barely had time to flick his web out towards the remnant of a walkway before - 

One. 

Two.

Three. 

BOOM! 

The Spot burst out from the cocoon in a tornado of dark matter, sending debris flying backward towards the sucking mouth of the collider. The building walls buckled, drywall ripping out and sailing downward at the whim of the collider’s gravitational force.

“Spider-Man!” He bellowed, his voice grating and animalistic, “I’M GOING TO DESTROY YOU!” 

He might get torn apart and sent to a thousand different dimensions, but if he was going down, he was going to take Spider-Man with him.

“Get her out of here!” Miles yelled over the deafening roar. He pressed his body flat to the wall to keep from falling down into the collider.

“I can’t!” Miguel groaned. His hands had begun to slip down the bright red webbing. You were beginning to lose your grip as well, nails clawing into Miguel’s back.

Your legs gave way first, then your arms. 

“Y/N!” Miguel flicked a laser web out, catching you by your waist. 

“MISS Y/L/N!” 

You gasped, arms and legs splayed out to your sides as you dangled precariously over nothing. Miguel stared down at you, shoulder screaming in pain as he did everything he could to keep you both from getting sucked down. His mask disappeared, letting you see the way his red-brown eyes were blown open. Somewhere from below Miguel heard the Spot scream as he was finally torn to shreds, dark matter traveling back to their respective dimensions, but all he could focus on was you.

“Miguel,” you whispered, too scared to say anything else.

“Miguel?” You called out from the bottom of the stairs. 

Gabriella dribbled the football close, just like her father had taught her, before passing it cleanly between your legs.

“¡Túnel!” 

“¡Y la multitud se vuelve loca!” Miguel whooped, thundering down the stairs and twirling a screaming Gabriella through the air.

You fixed the collar of his sweater, kissing him hesitantly on the lips and smiling at the brightness in his eyes as he held your daughter. 

“I’ll see you at the game later,” You said, smoothing back a strand of your husband’s hair, “I love you.” You murmured, hoping to hear him say it back. It had been so long since he’d said those words to you.

“I’ll see you later.” Miguel promised, kissing you again with a smile so wide you felt his teeth against your lips. 

You knew something wasn’t quite right… he knew you knew… but neither of you could find the words to say anything about it. 

What’s happened? Why have you changed so much so quickly? Why don’t you remember things about me - about Gabriella - anymore? 

You wanted to ask those questions so badly.

But you didn’t ask, and he didn’t answer.

So he left without saying those words… and that was the day he lost you.

He wouldn’t lose you again. He wouldn’t lose you like he’d lost Gabriella.

With a roar he pulled you back to him, wrapping one arm tightly around you. You molded yourself into his side, shutting your eyes just in time for the collider to groan to a halt and then explode.

The noise alone knocked you both back, sound waves rattling your bones and pressing you further against Miguel. Golden light emitted from the collapsing collider, sinking into your skin until it felt like you were burning.

The laser web burned away and Miguel could do nothing more than wrap his body around you as you were both thrown up and through what remained of the roof. You landed on hard pressed glass, pain shooting up your side as you and Miguel tumbled in a flurry of tangled limbs. You rolled to a stop, Miguel bracing his arms so that you wouldn’t get crushed under his bulky frame. His suit glitched, unstable molecules traveling over his skin as it worked to repair any and all damage.

The collider stilled, light dimming as it sighed and breathed its last.

“Are you ok? Are you hurt?” He brushed your hair back, frantically scanning your body for injuries as you caught your breath. 

“I’m ok.” You gasped out, “I’m ok,” You promised, resting your hands against his chest. He felt solid and real beneath your fingertips - the most real thing you’d experienced this entire night. 

Miguel sighed in relief, pressing his forehead against yours and closing his eyes. You closed yours too, letting yourself enjoy this delicate moment of peace and quiet. 

“Woooow, you can really feel the romantic tension between the two of them, can’t you?”

“Shut up, Pavitr.” Gwen hissed.

Miguel’s eyes snapped open, suddenly aware of the audience of Spiderpeople that had congregated on the roof. It was at times like this that he envied the others for their spider-sense. 

He rolled lightly onto his feet, pulling you up with him and keeping one arm loosely wrapped around your waist. You found that you didn’t mind the contact at all. 

Sirens blared from every street corner, the flashing red, white, and blue lights of firefighters, policemen, and EMS overwhelming to the eye. 

Someone was missing. 

“Where’s Miles?!” You said, your heart leaping into your throat.

As if on cue he swung up through the hole in the roof, landing with a wince of pain as his right knee buckled under his weight. Patches of his singed suit were still smoking.

“Are you guys ok? I oof-'' Gwen tackled him in a hug, ripping off her mask in the process. You recognized her immediately from Miles’s drawings, but her hair was longer - wilder - than in the pictures.

“Miles,” her breath stuttered, “Oh my god, I-I thought-” 

He shushed her, rubbing her back as she helped hold him up on his injured leg.

“Hey it’s ok. It’s all good. I’m alright.”

“Aight’ bruv!” Hobie and Pavitr whooped, clapping Miles’s back. 

You wrapped your arms tightly around yourself as the others circled around Miles. Only Miguel stayed close, watching you out of the corner of his eye. 

Had you actually just experienced all of that? Had you lost your mind?

“Miss Y/l/n!” Miles noticed you shivering in the cold in your socks and pajamas. He tugged off his ruined mask, exposing the bruise that was beginning to blossom like a purple flower around his nose, “Are you alright?”

You blinked. Were you alright? You weren’t dead or seriously injured as far as you could tell. 

It is taking all my willpower not to pass out or vomit right now - was what you were thinking.

“I’ve been better,” you answered, uncrossing your arms. You took a deep, stabilizing breath and squared your shoulders. It was bad enough that you’d spent the majority of the evening flung around like a rag doll in front of your favorite student, but to do it in your pajamas? That was just embarrassing. 

“Miles, please tell me you haven’t been running around New York alone with no adult supervision fighting crime this past year.” 

He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his heck. It was like being reprimanded by his own mother, “I mean… I wasn’t always doing it alone.” 

“Yeah! And he had adult supervision - at least for the beginning part of it,” you turned towards the sandy-haired Spider-Man in the pink bathrobe and matching slippers, “I was his mentor and I think I did a pretty good job, wouldn’t you say?” He punched Miles proudly on the arm.

You gawked at him. “Is that… is that a baby strapped to your chest?” 

The baby in question babbled with happiness, chubby fingers reaching out for you. 

Peter grinned, plucking the little girl out from her carrier and mussing up her wild, red curls. “This is Mayday. She’s a wonder isn’t she?” 

He thrust May into your baffled arms where she proceeded to wriggle around like a worm on a hook. 

“You-you brought a baby to a superhero fight?” 

“Sure did! And she did fantastically. Photo time!” He snapped a picture with you and May, adding as a caption “Mayday’s first time saving the multiverse.” “This is going in the scrapbook for sure.” 

“I think… I think I need to go home now.” You said once Mayday was safely crawling around her father’s chest again.

“We should all get out of here.” Miguel said, noting the cop cars beginning to crowd around the perimeter. “Lyla?” 

An orange holographic woman popped to life, hovering in the air between you and Miguel. “You called?” 

You jolted back. Lyla fluttered her fingers in a wave.

“Is it over?” he asked wearily. 

“Hmmmmm,” she flitted around the air, checking holographic screens and typing away on a computer, “Multiverse is holding steady and there’s no sign of the Spot anywhere.” 

“And the super collider?”

Lyla made a poof sound, opening her hands and wiggling her fingers, “Destroyed. No anomalies detected.” 

“Great.” Miguel, tilting his head back and breathing deeply. Lyla blinked out of existence. 

A very pregnant Spiderwoman fiddled around with her watch, opening a portal behind her and her motorbike with only a few quick taps.

Damn, is everyone having kids these days except me? The thought came forth from your muddled brain.

“Let’s get back to HQ everyone. I want full debriefs recorded and uploaded in the next hour.” 

A chorus of protests and half-veiled insults rose up.

A tall, spindly Spider-Man, dressed like a 1920s silent film detective, tipped his hat towards you before calmly adjusting the lapels of his grey coat and stepping into the portal. He was followed by a petite Asian girl driving a robot, and… a pig? You had to blink at that one.

“I hear you teach art.” Hobie said, swinging his guitar onto his back, “That’s ace. Try this out and let me know what you think, yeah?” He tossed you a haphazardly folded zine. The cover screamed out in newsprint letters: THE DECAY OF SOCIETY IN THE FACE OF COMMERCIALIZED ART-MAKING.

“See you around,” he gave a two-fingered salute and stepped back through the portal. 

You immediately felt Miguel’s absence when he brushed past you towards Miles and Gwen. He sized up the two teenagers, grabbed Miles’s wrist, and dropped a watch into his open palm.

“Gwen will teach you how to use it. Don’t make any dumb decisions.” 

“Me?” Miles snorted, “Pfffft. Never.” 

Miguel hesitated before saying, “I’ll see you around… Spider-Man.” 

He was just about to step through the portal himself when you called out his name, voice cracking. He closed his eyes, back tense. 

He didn’t want to turn around. He wanted you to ignore him and let him leave without saying goodbye because… because if he saw you again that just might ruin him. Here was another version of you - another family - that would never be his.

But when you called his name again - this time with more force - he couldn’t deny you. He turned around and stared into your eyes - the eyes of his wife… the eyes of a stranger.

He never had the chance to live a full life with that other version of you. He hadn’t been the one to take you out on the first date, he hadn’t been the one to kiss you at the altar, he hadn’t been there when Gabriella was born. No. All those memories and experiences belonged to someone else, some other version of him that he could never be. But when he looked at you he imagined for one brief moment what it would be like to try it all over again, to be a real husband to you… to be there for you from the start.

“Thank you,” you said, “For saving my life.” 

His lips tightened into a thin, almost angry line, but whether he was angry at you or himself you couldn’t tell. He gave a curt nod, stepped into his dimension, and let the portal close in front of you.

When Gwen and Miles dropped you off at your apartment, the first words out of his mouth were, “Please don’t tell my mom and dad.” 

His phone weighed like a stone in his pocket, filled to the brim with frantic text messages and missed phone calls from Rio and Jefferson.

“Miles… this isn’t-this isn’t safe for you to do. I mean you’re just a teenager.”

“I’m not just a teenager.”  

“Do you even have a driver’s license yet?” Miles shut his mouth, thinking over his next words carefully. 

“Miss Y/l/n, this world needs Spider-Man. You know it needs Spider-Man, And I’m this universe’s Spider-Man. Me. I can’t just let that go.” 

You muttered under your breath. Were you really going to encourage a fifteen year old’s vigilantism? You pinched the bridge of your nose and sighed, hating that he was right. The answer was yes - you really were going to encourage your student to be a superhero.

“I won’t say anything to Rio or Jefferson or anyone else. Your secret is safe with me, Miles. I swear it.” 

His shoulders drooped in relief. Without warning Miles wrapped his wiry arms around you in a tight hug, “Thank you so much. You’re the best.” 

“Don’t thank me. I haven’t even done anything yet. In fact I should be thanking you for protecting the multiverse tonight.” You said, a faint smile growing on your lips despite your best efforts. You hugged him back. “If you ever need anything, just let me know. I’m going to guess even superheroes need a little help every now and then.”

“That would be the understatement of the century.” Gwen said, balancing on the balcony railing with all the grace and poise of a ballerina. 

“We should really get going, Miles. It was nice meeting you, Miss Y/l/n.” You nearly had a heart attack when Gwen fell backwards without hesitation, catching herself in a swing from an old lamppost. 

“See you around, Miss Y/l/n,” Miles said and dove after her, adding a flourish in the form of a front flip.

“See you around, Spider-Man.” You said softly, finally escaping into your apartment and sliding the balcony door shut.

<- Previous chapter Next chapter ->

>>>

Sneak peek at Chapter Three (because I want you all to know what I have planned, but I've made this chapter too long):

You awoke with a start, suffocating under the heavy blankets that you’d buried yourself in last night. You’d been dreaming again about the collider. You’d been dreaming about Miguel - this time in a feverish haze that left your mind in a puddle on the floor. 

How was it possible that a stranger could occupy so much space in your mind? It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that he’d held you like you were everything and then left without saying goodbye.

Are you thinking about me too? You wondered, opening your eyes in hopes of chasing the memory of him away.

…Maybe you were still dreaming, because the last time you checked you hadn’t fallen asleep under a tree in Central Park. And even if you had, you highly doubted you could have lugged your bed frame with you all the way from Brooklyn.

Oh por el amor de Dios.

Author's note: I hope you guys are enjoying where the story is heading! To those of you who reached out and offered to help with the Spanish - thank you so much! I've been a little overwhelmed by the responses on Tumblr and haven't been good about keeping track of things, but I have a friend who will be helping me out moving forward. I'll be updating the masterlist once the next chapter is scheduled. In the meantime, have a great weekend everyone :)

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was sitting in my room, playing on my Xbox 360 when it suddenly crashed and the power button started showing the Red Ring of Death. I could still turn the console on and scroll through the dashboard, but I couldn’t interact with anything. I was frantically looking up how to fix it, then I woke up in a panic because I thought my 360 in the real world was busted (it’s still working fine).

[junrenjun]

11:21 AM

lee donghyuck (haechan) x reader

You can’t help but laugh as you take in your husband’s appearance. A larger version of your son’s football jersey sits loosely on his frame. Matching purple eye black runs under his eyes. You can’t bring yourself to complain though because he looks good. “Isn’t this a little much for peewee football?” you ask him jokingly, running your finger just under the line on his cheek. 

“Absolutely not,” he responds before planting a wet kiss to the top of your forehead. “Mark and Jeno are wearing the same thing,” he tells you with a proud smile on his face. 

You roll your eyes at his antics. “I’m sure their wives are thrilled about that,” you joke, reaching out to straighten the chains that hang around his neck. “Did you get all dressed up for me or for Melissa?” you ask with a quirk of an eyebrow. 

Donghyuck groans at the mention of the team mom of his son’s football team. The woman really needs to learn to keep her hands to herself. She may be single but he sure as hell is not. “Only you baby,” he says, wrapping his hand around your wrist to halt your movements. 

You look up at him again and he smirks back down at you. Without wasting a second, his lips are on yours, working fervently against your mouth. Just as you grant his tongue access, there’s a small shout of “Mom!” from across the hallway and you separate. 

“We’ll continue this later,” you tell him, side stepping around the bed to head to your son’s room. Donghyuck doesn’t hesitate to give your ass a little smack when you do so. You roll your eyes and give him the finger over your shoulder. 

Thirty minutes later, everyone is situated in the car. Your son chatters happily about how excited he is, while your husband listens and nods from the driver’s seat. His hand is lazily thrown over the console, loosely holding your own. 

Donghyuck has barely put the car in park at the complex when your son grabs his bag and practically sprints out of the car. You both watch as he approaches the field, joining his team to put on his gear and warm up. A small contented sigh leaves your mouth. You lean back against the headrest and close your eyes. 

You’re only granted a few moments of peace before your husband disturbs you. His hand slips from its place on the console to your upper thigh, where he gives it a quick squeeze. Your eyes shoot open. “Hyuck…” you warn.

“‘...’m not doing anything,” he mumbles, eyes zeroed in on the plush skin underneath his hand. 

A scoff escapes you at his statement. You don’t get a chance to shoot back a smart remark, because his other hand reaches out and pulls your face towards him. Before you know it, his lips are crashing against yours. His mouth moves roughly against your own and you can feel your own desire increasing by the second. You reach up, placing your hands on either side of his face and pulling him closer. 

Your little moment is quickly interrupted by a knock on the driver’s side window. When Donghyuck turns his head, you catch a glimpse of Mark with his hands in his pockets and a disgruntled look on his face. Unsurprisingly, his outfit matches your husband’s to a tee. Hyuck rolls down the window.

“You guys are nasty little voyeurs, man. We’re at a children’s football game,” Mark calls out to you both. “Game starts in 15 minutes,” he continues, looking down at his watch. “And you might want to fix that,” he says, gesturing to the eye black that mirror’s Donghyuck’s, before turning around and walking back to his wife. 

Sure enough, when your husband turns back to you, the purple has smudged further down his cheek. “Sorry,” you giggle to him, while reaching out to fix it as best as you can. 

One of his hands reaches down to rest on your thigh again. “Our son is going to sleep pretty well after this game, right?” he asks you. 

“Probably, why?” you ask as you lean back to observe your work. 

Donghyuck leans down and presses his lips to your ear before whispering, “I want to give him a sibling.” You smack his chest as hard as you can and he leans back, howling in laughter.

“Great,” you tell him with a deadpan expression. “Now I’m going to be wet walking into my son’s football game.”

His Adam’s apple bobs in response. “Mmm maybe I should keep it up. Would probably keep Melissa away,” he teases.

You smack him again. “Stop talking about another woman when you just said you wanted to put a baby in me.”

Donghyuck simply smirks in response before turning off the car and unbuckling his seatbelt. He whips his head toward you, taking you by surprise. “Last to the field has to do the dishes tonight,” he says, before sprinting out of the car the same way his son had. You shake your head before running after him. 

[hungharrington]

I can’t stop thinking about how Steve keeps the spicy polaroids of you in his wallet and someone finds them 👁️

polaroid asks here & here. the moment i tried to think of who this would happen to and like how it even happens, it actually made me snort aloud- like i’m so sorry if u wanted smth hot and sexy but 😭

The chime announces your entrance to the Family Video as you push through the door. Behind the counter, Steve and Robin are leaning lazily— slacking even— caught up in their conversation, only interrupted by the sound of the door. You wander up to the counter with a grin. Upon seeing who it is, three things happen. Steve smiles and Robin… doesn’t look at your face.

Instead, her eyes are fixed on your chest. She drinks in the sight your cleavage with the hunger of a thirteen year old boy, eyes wide. When she manages to break her gaze, she squawks loudly. Her freckled cheeks bloom bright red and she turns quickly, stumbling out into the aisles ungracefully, muttering words behind her.

You blink. “Wuh…. what just happened?”

Steve grins at you, looking far too cheeky. “She went digging in my wallet earlier. Tried to warn her but…” He holds his hands up defensively.

It takes a second. When realisation sets in, a flare of light embarrassment follows and you cover your mouth for a moment, a quiet little oh my god escaping you — then reach out smack your boyfriend on the arm.

“Ow! Hey!”

“You kept them in your wallet?” You hiss, still a bit embarrassed. In the background, you hear Robin crash one of the film carts into a shelf loudly and Steve snickers. You smack him again.

“Ow! Well, where was I supposed to—?”

“Not somewhere someone else would see them, maybe?” You raise your brows at him and Steve finally has the decency to look a little embarrassed as well.

“If it’s any consolation!” Robin voice calls out weakly across the store. “They’re…. great boobs. Like— like top notch boobies.”

When you glance over, you can see her pointer finger and thumb pressed together, a further expression of how much she enjoyed the brief snippet of your tits. You sigh and drop your head into the counter, just so Steve won’t see your smile sneaking through. You’re still a bit annoyed at him.

“Thanks, Robin.” You say back.

“Anytime!” She responds hurriedly. You can hear her nervous laughter and the sound of the cart running into another shelf— and can’t help but snort again. “Any… any time.”

[chimivx]

That one fucked you over last year, this one is fucking you over this year, you had no idea she was involved with him, someone over here has been lying to you, you didn't mean to end up in that ones bed, he told you he loved you... Does anyone even trust anyone anymore?

👫 -> college!teez x fem!reader/oc {frat/sorority} #️⃣ -> 9.9k (part NINE of ten) ‼️ -> 18+, sexual content, drugs/alcohol, college life, all the drama, heavy angst, infidelity adjacent moments, mean boys, mean girls, mentions of anxiety/depression… IF I MISSED ANYTHING PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

{ there are names & faces in here that come from NMWID <3 }

october 7th ~ monday ~ 9:58 a.m.

“Three, probably,” Wooyoung said, turning the wheel in his hands, parking along the side of the quiet street in front of Blend. Unbuckling yourself, you make a face and scoff.

“Three?” Sarcasm dripped from your lips. “You slut!”

Wooyoung turned the car off and glared at you. “You were on Yunho’s dick all summer, what the hell was I supposed to do?”

Grabbing the door handle you pursed your lips. “Fair enough.” The two of you popped the doors to the BMW open, but you reached a hand over the center console to grab his sweatshirt, yanking him back into his seat. With raised brows and attentive eyes he looked at you. Your words made him laugh. “Were they pretty?” “So pretty,” he whispered, narrowing his eyes. The same sarcasm you gave him, he handed right back.

“Really?” He nodded after your whisper.

His eyes flickered down to your lips. “They certainly were not as hot as you, though.”

Heat rose to your cheeks, Wooyoung giggling at the way you shoved his shoulder and dashed out of the car. Fixing the hoodie you wore, adjusting your jeans before he circled the car, you were able to tuck your hair behind your ears by the time he joined your side. Maybe you should’ve dressed a bit better, not only were you going to speak to a professor about his own daughter, you were spending the day with Wooyoung, and you were wearing a hoodie and jeans.

“Ready?” he asked, his voice gentle. With a nod you smiled and led the way, Wooyoung hanging close behind you.

He wore the same, so you shouldn’t be too panicked about your appearance, a black zip up hoodie on his top and baggy black denim jeans on his bottom. You were his colorful counterpart, two sides of the same coin. Plus, he was here with you, skipping classes to drive you around so the two of you could face some type of justice. He’s seen what's beneath the clothes anyway, nothing about them should bother you.

Keeping your gaze locked on the door to Blend, Wooyoung flashed his from side to side, surveilling the premises, like he was on watch, on alert.

The clothes worry most likely stemmed from last semester, when you caught him with Yeji. Aside from shattering your heart into a trillion pieces, it made you question a lot about yourself. You’ve been over this before, Yeji is the complete opposite of you. At the time, Wooyoung, alleged slut, would seem like he’d go after anything, but finding him with Yeji sparked an entirely different insecurity.

They would be the couple to rise to absolute fame and fortune entirely too fast, and then, like you’d hope and envision over many nights before bed, their Camelot would burst into flames and they’d both crash and burn. Entirely too dramatic. Wooyoung was right about the situation fucking with your brain scientifically. You’d have to tell him what you planned out for him and his alleged lover's future later.

Then you’d have to ask him about this emotional maturity stuff. The emotional intelligence thing. What was it, how did you get it, and when were you supposed to use it?

Stepping into Blend, into the air that was cooler than the outside, you look hopefully toward the counter for Theo, but freeze immediately. Wooyoung, unsuspecting behind you, let the door shut and bumped into your back, bringing a hand to your shoulder, standing directly behind you.

For the most part, the typical Monday morning, Blend was empty. A student sat by the windows working vigorously on her laptop, but aside from her the cafe was empty. Save for the two boys standing at the counter. Well, one leaning on the tallest part of the counter, the other sitting on the counter with his knees tucked into his chest, his gangly legs poking out of the rips in his jeans. Theo, behind it, speaking with both of them, looked straight at you as you walked inside, glanced at the boy behind you, and froze, just as you had.

Your knees turned into jelly, and Wooyoung tightened his hand on your shoulder as if he could feel it. 

“Let’s go,” he said to you. Judging by his tone, you know his eyes were hot on the three of them. “We’ll go somewhere else.”

Seonghwa and Soul, they both wore some type of remorseful look, the younger boys lips in a pout while the older boys brows were flipped over. You haven’t seen either of them since last Saturday, Soul when Tori pulled you away from him and his friends, and Seonghwa when you watched him battle with himself internally as Wooyoung smuggled you out of the ATZ house.

Interesting, really, how he could play the part of inconspicuous let me help you lover boy, seem so genuine, then turn out to be another player in the game of your life. That night, walking, or stumbling really, out of the house you never planned on setting foot in again, the way he looked at you… Shock, pain and confusion all wrapped into one cryptically beautiful face, it made you sick.

How could he possibly feel bad?

The other one, Soul. The freshman. The nineteen year old with a crush on you, he wore that face now. Pain, like he was holding something within that he needed to get out or he’d implode. The two of them here together, talking to Theo, who’s brother hated him a few weeks ago, it was all the more strange. It wasn’t until shit started hitting the fan that these boys started following you around.

“You’re here early,” Theo said.

Pointing your eyes at him directly, trying your hardest to not look at either babe to his left or his right, you clenched your jaw and tilted your head the slightest. “Not going to classes today,” you mumbled.  When Seonghwa’s gaze traveled behind you, you swore he sighed as he turned away, facing the counter so he wouldn’t have to look at the two of you for any longer. 

“Come on,” Wooyoung said, coming closer to your ear. “I don’t want to be here.”

An anger lived beneath the surface of your being. The feeling you had Saturday night when you unloaded onto Mina, and it was growing, it had been growing since that night. Face to face with them now, it was uncontrollable, you couldn’t hold it back.

Turning around, you put a hand to Wooyoung's cheek. Your whisper had his expression shift into something harder, understanding you within seconds. “Then you can go outside, and I’ll be out in a minute.”

“I’m not gonna leave you alone with them,” he said.

Your smile was slightly sadistic. “I was raised by Choi Yeonjun, I can handle myself.”

Wooyoung bit back his smile. He gave you a tiny nod. “Then, I’ll stay for the show.” His eyes did the thing again, they flickered to your lips. “Go get ‘em.”

Whirling around, you bounded for the coffee counter, all three boys caving within themselves more and more the closer you got. The space tightened, and nerves infected your veins, but your rage overpowered all.

Theo, standing up straight, glanced at his brother who sucked in a breath when you reached his side. “Hey, Ror,” he mumbled. “What can I-”

Facing Soul, looking him in the eye, you straightened your brows. “I want the same damn thing you’ve been making me for the last three weeks.” Soul was most definitely shaking, if you reached out to touch him you’d be able to feel it. “And, considering I have an allowance, I don’t think it’d be too much to get that Wednesday night Chai Tea now, would it?” Theo looked at Wooyoung, but Soul could barely give him a glance.

“No problem,” Theo said, and got to work.

Snapping your eyes to the boy behind the counter, you said, “Extra honey.” Turning back to the freshman who hadn’t moved an inch, you smiled at him. “What’s the matter, Soul? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Leaning on the counter, tipping your chin back a bit, you pouted. “You look like you’re a part of something you don’t really want to be a part of.” They boy gulped, his black eyes blinking feverishly. “What’d they do to you?” His eyes pointed behind you, at Seonghwa, but you put a hand on his thigh and he loosed a breath, coming back to you. “Don’t look at him, I’m right here.”

“Shota,” Theo spoke up, and you know he gave his brother a disapproving look.

“They made me do it, Aurora, I swear,” he breathed. Soul grasped his cheeks and inhaled. “He made me do it, Seonghwa, it was the initiation, I had to do something for each of them, his was you.” A rock formed in your gut, furthering the urge to clench your fist and launch it into Seonghwa’s jaw. “I had to get upperclassman attention from ITZ, and if I did, I passed, ‘cause I was desirable.”

A chill ran over your skin. Knowing what he’s been through, you shot a glare behind you at Seonghwa, one he shied away from. “You guys are disgusting.”

“He picked you, even though I wasn’t sure why, ‘cause you guys were a thing,” Soul continued on, the word vomit filling in some blanks you didn’t even know were blanks. “He had your location on his phone, you shared it with him or something, and he would be able to tell me where you were, where you were going, and I’d be able to find you.”

That made sense.

“I had to collect things for proof, or none of it counted,” Soul sucked in a breath, “You always wear lipgloss,” he glanced to your lips and scrunched up his face, “Except now, apparently, shit, and I’d walk you to class and take your straws from these cups, god.” Hiding his face in his hands now, he groaned and shook his head. “It sounds horrible like this,” he looked up and searched for his brother who bobbed his head, not looking up from his work.

“Keep going,” Theo said. “Tell her everything you told me.” He broke his fixed gaze on his work this time, shooting a glare at Seonghwa.

Soul, heartbroken, turned to you. “I recorded conversations… our conversations. For proof.” Your body went rigid. Standing up, you took a hand to your neck, grasping the collar of your hoodie for comfort.

“All of those times,” you whispered, and he pressed his lips together. His eyes were shining, like he was moments away from tears. “You… pestering me for attention, flirting with me like you couldn’t care less I told you I liked him,” you threw a hand back toward Seonghwa, then clasped that hand over your mouth, “I told you I liked him,” you whispered. Soul waited, flinching as you put the same hang on one of his knees. “Soul,” you said, and he nodded. There was no use in holding it all back now. What more did you have to lose? “I told you I had feelings for Seonghwa because I was hiding… a relationship, I guess I could call it, with Yunho.”

Theo, at the counter with your drinks, appeared just as shocked as his brother. “I knew you guys were up to something,” he muttered, sparing a look back at Wooyoung who perched himself up against the wall, his arms folded over his chest.

Waving Theo off, you only spoke to Soul. “It looked like he was with Mina, right?” The freshman nodded again. “I was… the sidepiece… who thought she was the main piece. He made it really convincing, that he loved me, and he told me that. I was keeping him and I a secret in hopes that he’d break it off with her, like he said he would, but he never did, and he continuously lied to me about it.” 

Soul thought to himself, then said, “I mean, I figured something was up at some point when…”

“Tell her,” Theo’s tone went stern as his brother's voice trailed off.

“I had to get you to come to ATZ, that was the final thing,” he whispered. “If I could convince you to come to the house, by my invitation, I was in the clear.” His voice regained some strength. “You wouldn’t do it, I couldn’t get you to come, so he had me do something else.”

Soul's hand retreated into the pocket of his jeans. Pulling it out, his fingers in a fist, he offered it to you and you opened your hand. Discreetly, he dropped something soft in your palm and used his fingers to close yours. You didn’t even have to look, the feel of the lacy fabric told you enough.

“He told me that Yunho had something of yours,” Soul spoke above a whisper. If your blood wasn’t already running cold, it would be now. “If I could find it without him knowing I took it, I was in.” He gulped. “So, I did. It was easy, he never locks his door.”

“Where was it?” you whispered, your voice starting to shake.

Soul blinked. “In a drawer, next to his bed.” Squeezing your hand into a fist, you plunged it into your hoodie pocket and left the lace there. “Aurora?” When your eyes were back on him, he took a preparative breath. “Even though it looks like you aren’t with him anymore, I guess, I have to tell you…”

“Soul,” your voice wavered.

“They weren’t the only ones in there,” he whispered.

Jaw falling open, your knees really wobbled this time, like the earth had shook. Raking your hands through your hair, tugging at the strands, you took a step backward and fell into a pair of arms that secured your balance, wrapping around your waist. Dropping your hands to his, you gripped the sleeves of his sweatshirt. Wooyoung.

“Who the fuck?” you gasped.

“Mina,” Seonghwa said, and you dropped your head back onto Wooyoung's shoulder. A tear slipped down your cheek, one the boy holding you took from you with his cheek.

A singular horrid laugh came from your chest. “I don’t believe you,” you said, lifting your head to look at him, twisting in Wooyoung's arms. “You’re a fucking liar, Seonghwa. You knew what they were all doing the entire time, you preyed on my feelings, you had your little shadow stalk me and feed me more lies, how am I supposed to believe anything you say?”

“It wasn’t all lies,” Soul offered, taking your attention back. “I do like you, Aurora, but I remember what you said. That part wasn’t a lie.” Wooyoung's arms tensed around you.

“You can believe me because I had to hear all about it,” Seonghwa said, turning around so that his back was leaning on the counter. Looking down at you, that face he gave you Saturday night appeared. “And not from Yunho. From Mina.”

“What?” you sighed.

Seonghwa let his shoulders speak for him for a second, giving you half a shrug that also put emphasis on his own personal disappointment. “I’m risking a lot here, Ror, can we just acknowledge that first? I am the Vice President.” Your fingers dug into Wooyoung’s arms at his audacity. “What Wooyoung did Saturday night? What happened to him? That could happen to me, but here I am risking it all to tell you the truth.”

Rolling your eyes, where more tears had fallen from, you mumbled, “My hero,” and Theo chuckled to himself. 

Ignoring you, Seonghwa continued. “Mina knew about you and Yunho. At first she had her strong suspicions, but after you ended up in my bed and confirmed it, I was able to put her theories to rest, because they were real. She and I were already wrapped up in Yeji’s presidential era thing, so she leaned on me for help. I was supposed to distract you, keep you away from Yunho so she could secure him, but she wasn’t able to do it.” He shrugged. “Neither of you have been able to do it.”

“Her telling you that she’s never been with anyone before? It was all an act. She wanted you to think you had the upper hand because you could get him in bed, and she knew he wouldn’t tell you if they were hooking up because he hadn’t told you anything about them at all. You were so worried about keeping your own secret, and then our secret, that she knew you weren’t going to notice if he was fucking you both. At the party, when you popped off on her, your confession as she called it? That was supposed to get you in huge trouble with Yeji and the other girls, Mina was going to keep playing along like she didn’t know about you and Yunho.”

“If I did find out,” you whispered, unable to feel anything save for Wooyoung’s grip around you, “I would most likely come to you, I would tell you, ‘cause I trusted you. You would tell her I knew, wouldn’t you?”

Seonghwa swallowed, hard, then nodded. “I would’ve, yeah.” Whatever was left of the goodness you held for this boy crumbled to pieces. “This deal between us, it was included in the Yeji deal, the president deal. If either was… is broken, then we’re…” he glanced up at Wooyoung.

“Is that why you’re telling me this now?” you asked, the words harsh behind your teeth. “Here, in a place where they can’t hear you?” Wriggling around in Wooyoung’s arms he kept his hold around you tight, not knowing what the hell you would do if he let you go. “So your precious Vice President role isn’t taken away from you?”

“No, Ror, this is just where we’ve caught you,” he said, his voice falling quiet. “Soul and I, we’ve been speaking since Wooyoung moved out, the entire house is whispering to each other. It’s fucked up. All of it is fucked up. Realizing what’s happened, what it’s done to you, to him, to the rest of us… But, mainly you? Ror, you were one of the first students I met here, one of the first friends I made while everyone else looked at me like some sort of disgusting nepo-baby snob.”

“Nepo-baby?” Settling in Wooyoung’s arms, you rested your body against his. Even Soul looked at his senior with curiosity. Theo though, he hung his head.

“Yeah,” Seonghwa rolled his eyes, taking a breath. “My uncle’s the dean,” he nearly whispered. The shock that flashed over your face made him huff a laugh. “Easy for me to be Vice President.”

“Easy for you to spill all of this and have no consequences,” you grit your teeth. “No way in hell Hongjoong would kick you out, he’ll keep you close, won’t he?”

“I guess, I…” Seonghwa scoffed, pushing off of the counter to take a few steps around himself. “That’s why I’m telling you this, because of my uncle.” He gestured a hand toward Wooyoung. “He could reinstate you. Hongjoong expelled you for disruption, didn’t he? I watched him sign the notice. Disruption of the rules, disruption of the mission. If you get enough of us to come forward to speak for you, to vouch for you, you can submit an appeal. I’ll help.”

“Why?” Wooyoung’s tone was hot, sharp to the touch if it took physical form.

Seonghwa flashed him sorry eyes. “Because what the fuck are we letting them get away with? We joined these groups because we wanted to be around people like ourselves, people to trust, people to lean on, people to get through these four years with. Our freshman year, amazing. Sophomore year, amazing,” he glanced at you, “For the most part. That’s when it got screwy, in the end. It started to turn into a money grab for most of us. We all saw what it was doing to us on social media, we all experienced the Yeji tag follower rush. It was so easy to fall into her game, her plan.”

“Why’d you do it, Hwa?” you whispered, and he softened.

“Reputations are built fast,” he said, sharing a look with Wooyoung, “You know that all too well.” He returned his eyes to you. “Yeji knew of my uncle and what power he had. She offered me money, like she did with all of us, and then she threatened me. Ror, you already told me what you heard about me, what I liked to do to girls I sleep with? How everyone spun it into this thing, that it made you mine? She said…” he paused, sucking in a breath, “She said that if I didn’t help her she would tell the entire school board, including my uncle… That I…”

He couldn’t even get the words out. Clenching his jaw he tipped his chin back and blinked too many times, showing too much emotion for Park Seonghwa.

“I had to help Mina, I had to make Yeji president, I had to make Soul do what he did, or she would ruin my life,” he whispered, looking back at you. “That doesn’t make anything between us better, and I understand that. I understand if you never forgive me, ever. I don’t deserve it.” A part of your heart felt for him, as much as your anger was fueled by his presence. “But, she deserves to pay.” He hesitated, then his following words made you all crack a soft laugh. “More than she already has.”

After a breath, you shook your head, praying you were able to process and remember everything he’s told you. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” he sighed. “Just promise me you’ll bring me with you if you do anything about this, and I’ll tell you anything you want, Ror.”

Turning your head to peek up at Wooyoung, you waited for his blessing.

“Don’t look at me,” he said, shaking his head.

“If we’re going to do this, we’re doing it together,” you said. “I need you to be okay with it, too.” 

He thought to himself, and shrugged, glancing away from you a couple times. “I mean, from what I know, he’s telling the truth,” he said quietly, letting his eyes travel to Seonghwa. “I didn’t know about Yeji threatening him with all of that, I thought it was just the whole kicked out of the frat thing.” The boys stared each other down, something unspoken happening in between it all. “She’s fucked up for that, Hwa,” he whispered, then held up a hand, “As much as you suck for doing all of this, much like myself… She’s fucked up, and deserves to pay.”

Looking at Seonghwa, the pain in his face somewhat resolved, he gulped and bobbed his head. He turned his gaze down to you. “As much as I want to tell you to go fuck off,” you began, and he tensed, “I unfortunately trust this guy,” you nodded back to Wooyoung, “So if he says you’re telling the truth, I think I have to believe you, too.” A small smile broke onto his lips. “It feels stupid as hell though,” you held up a hand, “I just said this to Wooyo, Hwa. Please, for the love of god, don’t fucking embarrass me. Again.”

“I won’t,” he said, tone hurried and rushed. “Aurora, I won’t.”

Taking a steadying deep breath for yourself, and what you’re about to agree to, you tell him what you have planned for the day. That Soobin finished his lecture around one o’clock, and that you and Wooyoung were going to go in and speak with him. About what, though, you still weren’t sure. Walking into his classroom guns blazing didn’t seem ideal, and Seonghwa agreed with you.

“You know, Soobin is friends with my uncle,” Seonghwa said, like it were everyday information. Eyes shooting open wide, standing firmly on your own two feet now, you spun toward Wooyoung and wacked his arm. Cringing, he covered the spot with his hand and muttered a joke about you beating him again.

“Chan said this,” you restated, bringing up what the boy had said to you Friday night. “Soobin has a friend of importance, holy shit.” 

“So we go to Soobin, then we take it to my uncle,” Seonghwa said, laying out the plan. He glanced at Soul, still sitting on the counter, watching you all with admirable patience. “I think you’re stuck with us, kid.”

Soul sat up tall, averting his gaze over to you, knowing it was your call. A smile snuck onto his lips when you nodded toward him. “Come with us,” you said gently. “You have four years in that house, it’s better to make a change now.” The boy jumped off the counter and tucked his hands behind his back, ready for the next call to action. Theo smiled at you and it told you plenty. He didn’t need to say anything to express his thanks and his apologies, he was able to wrap it all up in the curve of his cheeks.

“Crushes only,” Wooyoung said to Soul, motioning toward you, and the freshman widened his eyes and nodded, bowing his head in understanding. 

“Four of us could be enough,” Seonghwa said, scanning the group before him. Looking at you he asked, “Should we get Tori, too? Make it five? The more, the better.” The weight of the plethora of unread messages and missed calls living on your phone made it onto your face. Pulling his lips into a frown, Seonghwa said, “Or… not?”

“I haven’t spoken to her since the party,” you mumbled. “Which makes me want to ask you, what I wanted to ask you before,” you paused and he nodded, “Did she know?”

“No,” Seonghwa sighed, answering you as fast as he possibly could. “She didn’t know anything, she and Yuna weren’t involved. They were too close to you, Yeji knew better than to involve them. They found out everything in real time with you, last week.”

Damn. Which meant she was going through this alone.

“What about Mingi?” you asked, biting your tongue, praying to a god your father never taught you about. If he knew, and Tori found out he knew, and he didn’t tell her anything… Almost three years of her life would be torn apart. Almost three years with the love of her life.

Seonghwa shook his head. “Mingi wasn’t in on it either.” Thank god. Hesitating, he glanced away for a moment. “Yunho didn’t know anything either, for what it’s worth.”

You started to laugh, all of the boys looking to you with worry. “Of course he didn’t,” you laughed even louder, smacking a hand to your thigh. Wooyoung slid a hand over your shoulder. “That just means he was playing his own damn game. A little side quest. How long can I keep fucking both these girls before one of them finds out?” 

Yes, him.

Yes, Yunho.

You knew this. You’ve always known this. It shouldn’t hurt this bad.

You just feel stupid for falling for it.

You feel stupid for thinking this entire time, since May, that you had the one up on Mina with Yunho. That you were winning the game, that he was yours. But, while you and Mina played cops and robbers, chasing after one another every other night, unknowingly tossing Yunho back and forth, you had no idea he was the one holding the gun.

Digging for your phone in your back pocket, you swiped open to your messages.

You needed her.

You needed Tori.

Ignoring the paragraphs you’d read later now that you know she’s really on your side, you opt for a phone call, tapping the button in the corner. Pressing it to your ear, you wandered away from the boys, praying that they wouldn’t annihilate each other while you weren’t there to referee. It took two rings, but she answered with a heave of a breath.

“Aurora?” Half panicked, half shocked, either way, her voice was the greatest comfort.

“Torilynn?” Hitting her with her full, birth given name, you braced yourself for her shriek. And, oh, did she shriek.

“I can’t even be mad at you for saying that,” she said. “Why are you calling me, holy shit, where the fuck have you been?”

“At home,” you said. “Dad’s been driving me back and forth everyday. I can’t be in that house. I don’t even know how you can be in that house.”

“Ror, we’re falling apart,” she lowered her voice. “We told Ryujin, me and Yuna, and she lost her shit. It’s like a battlefield up in here, Yeji won’t show her face. Mina and Chaeryeong are speaking for her, but even then, no one knows who to believe. I want to say we’re on the winning side though, ‘cause it’s pretty much all of us against Yeji. What’s she gonna do, expel us all?”

“Tor,” you said, putting an end to her ramble. “We have more to tell you.”

“We?”

“Me, Wooyoung, Seonghwa-”

“Seonghwa?!” she shouted.

Closing your eyes, you sighed. “And, Soul.”

“How the… What the fuck?” The line went quiet, then she uttered another, “What… the fuck?!”

“I’m at Blend. Its operation take down Yeji and Mina in a few hours. How fast can you get here?”

You heard her take a breath, then move around wherever she was. “Getting ready now, I’m at the house.” Something was dropped on her end, it sounded like a hairbrush. “And Mina?”

“Yeah,” you started to smile. “Guess who hung out with her big brother Chan Friday night?”

“ROR!”

“Guess who was right about her being a big, fat, liar?”

Tori, silent for a few seconds, came back with the sound of an echo, like she’d put the phone on speaker. “You,” she mumbled. “Ror, I’m sorry.”

You were on apology overload for the day. “Don’t be, we were all being deceived. Just get here as soon as you can. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going, not even Yuna, unless she asks.”

“Holy shit, okay,” she breathed, the sound of her makeup clicking open and closed sounding through the phone. “Okay, okay. I’ll see you soon.”

october 7th ~ monday ~ 12:23 p.m.

It took Tori a half hour to get to Blend, longer than any of you anticipated, but when she arrived, hair done, makeup done, dressed to impress, you couldn’t blame her. Where there were nerves, there was an exquisite, done up appearance. Admitting she got carried away the second she stepped into the cafe, she bustled over to where you were sitting at a booth beside Wooyoung, Seonghwa and Soul across from you. Leaping from your seat, outstretching your arms, she fell into them, squeezing you into oblivion.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” she muttered into your hair, rocking you back and forth. “Choi Aurora, don’t you ever ghost me again.” When she pulled back she used her baby purse for ammo and knocked it against your arm. Glancing at Wooyoung who met you with a small smile, you couldn’t help but laugh. Looking at him, too, Tori shook her head. “What the fuck is going on?” She took in Seonghwa, and Soul. “How are you not doxxed? Either of you?” Putting a hand on her shoulder, her light colored sweater matching the weather outside, you pulled her attention back to you and smiled. “I’ll update you in the car. We need to go now. It takes a half hour to get to the law side of the school, we need to leave.”

The boys all rose from the booth, heading toward the door as Tori asked, “What, who’s driving?”

Wooyoung gave her a smirk and spun his key on his finger. “I am,” he sang as he passed by her, and the three filed out the door.

Walking side by side with her, she linked her elbow with yours and leaned closer to you. “Did you guys-“

“No,” you huffed, pulling your brows together.

Tori, shocked, asked, “But, you’re back on? You two?” 

Outside of the cafe now, watching him circle around his BMW, taking his time, waiting for you, you looked at your best friend without an inkling on your face. “I don’t know. We’ll see once this shitstorm is over.” Unlinking your arms you hurried for the passenger door and slid into your seat the same as Wooyoung, who met you inside with a smile.

Soul ended up in the middle of the backseat, both Seonghwa and Tori squishing against him to lean forward toward the front seats. Tori sat behind you, while Seonghwa sat behind Wooyoung. The two glanced at one another. If looks could kill, Seonghwa would be done for.

“I don’t think I like that you’re coming with us,” she grilled.

Wooyoung looked through the rearview mirror as he manipulated the car out of the tight, parallel park job. “Tori, he’s okay.”

“Yeah, okay, Yeji fucker,” she said, and you laughed. Wooyoung, offended as ever, twisted his face up and shot you both a look. “She might be able to forgive you faster, but I’m best friend, ain’t no way in hell you’re living that shit down, Wooyoung, I won’t let you. This girl was messed up for months.”

“Okay,” he whispered. “Fair enough.”

Putting your hand over his on the shifter, where it lived all morning, you shared a smile with him, one that made Tori whine.

“Somebody tell me everything right now or I’m going to lose my mind.”

And so, you filled her in.

For thirty minutes the boys sat in silence while you and Tori yapped endlessly back and forth. Seonghwa popped in occasionally to give his input, or when you’d ask him if you were telling the story right, you know, the one he just told you, but other than that he let you take the reins. Not one of them dared to get between two best friends, not one wanted to feel the wrath of interrupting you two.

She heard about the bar with Chan, you heard about her solemn time spent with Mingi trying to work things out amidst the chaos. You told her how your dad has been, she told you what it’s been like in the house this week. Spoiler: hell. Filling her in on Souls purpose here, she told you about Jongseob and how he still wouldn’t leave her alone.

For thirty minutes, you wouldn’t shut up. Not until Wooyoung pulled up in front of some architectural masterpieces, buildings stretching into the sky for miles. Beiges, tans, sparks of earthy orange, the law side of Nasara was breathtaking. It was like the Conoscenza on steroids.

“Holy shit, they get it good over here,” you whispered within the quiet air, and four hums agreed with you. Nerves shot down into your gut as Wooyoung pulled into a parking spot, the lines of white in a row along the center median of the wide road, the median covered in green grass and delicately manicured bushes and shrubs.

“Which building is he in?” Tori asked, and you answered with the press of your finger onto the glass window.

“That one,” you said, finger in the direction of the largest building to your left. “He’s on the fifth floor. We have to hurry, he might leave right after he’s done.”

The five of you yanked off your seatbelts and threw the doors open, but Tori stopped you before you could get out. “What are we going to say to him?” She waited, and when you couldn’t answer she asked, “What are you going to say to him?”

Flickering your eyes between hers, you gulped and tried to smile. “Honesty. The truth. Even if he doesn’t believe it.” 

She took your words, and lowered her chin, signifying her support. “Let’s go, Choi.” 

Waiting for you outside of your door, Wooyoung pushed it shut once you stepped out, Seonghwa and Soul a few steps ahead of everyone. Tori flashed you a look before she followed the boys, letting you know she was on your side, that she would have your back no matter what happened inside of this classroom.

“You gonna be okay?” Wooyoung asked quietly once Tori turned to follow the other two.

With a slight shrug, you tightened your lips. “I think so.” He waited for you to say more, knowing that you were going to say more. “It’s all too much, it’s overwhelming. Like, none of it feels like it should be real.”

“But it is,” he added, agreeing with you.

“It is,” you sighed.

He held open his hand, offering it to you. He wore a ring on his middle finger, a skinny silver band, and when you placed your palm over his and laced your fingers together, it was cool to the touch.

“I got you,” he said, meeting your eyes, calmness becoming him. “No matter what happens, with any of this, with us, I got you. I’m here for you.”

A breath corrupted your lungs, forcing you to look away from him. Wanting to ignore how your heart started to beat fast, how he suddenly had the ability to become a rock for you, part of you didn’t want to. You wanted to feel excited, you wanted someone like this, someone genuine. And, if you thought back on it, like really thought back on it, he’s always been someone for you to lean on. You just never allowed yourself to.

Squeezing his hand, you dropped them between your bodies and pulled him along, walking faster than any of them, you and Wooyoung taking the lead. Seonghwa and Soul were talking about some anime the freshman was into, an old one that you’re certain your father watched as a kid. Up on the sidewalk now, turning to question him with a brow, you ignored Tori smiling at you and Wooyoung's intertwined hands.

Soul laughed at something Hwa said, then once he stepped up on the sidewalk he looked around at the five of you. “Hey,” he said, serious as he was the day he told you he fucked Theo’s girlfriend. “It’s us,” he laughed between his words, “They’re us.”

“Are you talking about Avatar?” you asked, and he nodded, proud. “Avatar the Last Airbender? That’s not anime, did Theo teach you nothing?”

Soul shoved his hands in his back pockets and cocked his head to the side, his blonde hair brushing over his forehead. “Damn, and all this time I thought you were Aang.”

Holding up your hand, the one Wooyoung wasn’t clinging to, you motioned with one finger around the group. “We are Team Avatar?” Soul’s cheeks broke out into a grin. “I am Aang, Soulie.”

Wooyoung nodded, rubbing a hand over his chin. “She is,” he uttered under his breath.

Seonghwa snickered. “That makes you Katara.”

“What?” The hand dropped quickly, his brows furrowing tight above his eyes, nestling right into the center of his forehead. “I would not be Katara.” Moving your other hand over the one you were holding, you tapped it twice.

“It’s okay,” you whispered, and the boys laughed together. “You’re Katara, it’s okay.”

“What does that make me?” Tori’s face read that she wanted no part of this, but equally wanted all the parts of this. “I’m not Zuko, nor am I Sokka.”

“That’s why you’re Toph,” Soul said without missing a beat, and you and Wooyoung lost it. Weighing her options, she glanced about the trees and shrugged.

“She’s badass, I’ll take it,” she said, then sent a look toward Soul and Seonghwa. “You’re definitely Zuko,” she pointed at Hwa, then Soul, “Which makes you Sokka.”

Everyone narrowed their eyes at him, the freshman stuck with four juniors. His silly little smile lit up his face as he took each one of you in. 

He shrugged. “Only Sokka would be able to force you into choosing which character you are.” Tori had something smart to say to him, something that Seonghwa bounced off of, the three of them bickering with one another like their new aliases would. You thought of Sokka’s other charm and how it related to Soul, one you weren’t too keen on sharing amongst the group right now, so you would save it for later.

Here’s hoping he’d make it to stick around for later.

Their bickering continued into the building, their whispers echoing off the sculpted walls and ceilings, all the way up to the fifth floor. Five stories of listening to their pointless arguments of which episode was the best, and was Avatar really an anime or not? Five flights of stairs, and by the time you had reached the landing of number five, they still hadn’t figured it out.

“Guys, shut up,” you hissed, turning to them once they made it up behind you. Like children, they snapped into place. “It’s that room,” you pointed a finger to the third metal door down the hallway to the right. “When I looked up his lecture it said floor five, room eight.”

The man was there. Mina's father was in that room, and you were here in the hall of a building you’ve never once set foot in so that you could tattle to a girl's daddy about how she hurt your feelings.

Your friends were quiet.

They were quiet until you turned to face them and said, “Maybe we should just leave.” Audible groans and protests came out of each one of them. Looking down at the floor, your legs like lead, not even Wooyoung’s hand over your shoulder could soothe the feeling.

“We’re so close, Ror,” Seonghwa said.

Tori nodded profusely. “After all of this, you can do it. You said it, go speak your truth.”

Truth. Your perception of truth is so distorted at this point, how were you so sure that the four of them weren’t lying to you right now in this moment? Convincing you that it was alright to confront this innocent man, persuading you to walk into his classroom and shame him for the daughter he raised. What if it was all a lie?

You should’ve dropped out when you had the chance.

“Ro,” Wooyoung whispered. He took both hands to your shoulders and walked you backward, away from the others who took the cue to wander down the other side of the hall. Looking into his eyes, his wide, sparkling, empathetic eyes, you took a breath to ease your pounding heart. “You’re okay. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, no matter what any of them say. No one is forcing you to do this.” He nodded, making sure you nodded along with him. “This isn’t me trying to talk you into it, but you’ve come this far. If anyone has the capability of going in there and talking to this Soobin guy, it’s you.” You tried to look away, but he took a finger to your chin, keeping your eyes on his. “You’re Aang,” he whispered, and it made you both laugh.

After a long deep breath, you whispered, “And you’re Katara,” just to laugh all over again. His toothy smile flushed your cheeks pink. “Only if you want to be,” you added, and he rolled his eyes.

“I wouldn’t be standing here if I didn’t want to be your Katara.”

Standing within the world's biggest hallway, the space seemed to close in on you, the air growing tighter, and that feeling from the car ride this morning came back. Butterflies filled your belly. His finger on your chin, frozen in place, didn’t dare to move. Only his eyes shifted to your lips, and just as you were both about to bite the bullet and close the inches between you, the doors to four different classrooms flew open.

Jumping apart, rejoining reality, you both turned away from one another for a few seconds as students poured out into the hall. Your friends down the other end blended in with everyone else, you couldn’t spot them as you faced Wooyoung. When his eyes found you again, he gave you a smile, then nodded toward the classroom that was nearing empty.

“I got you,” he said, holding up a pinky finger.

He’s got you.

You’ve got you.

You could do this.

Tiptoeing toward the classroom, Wooyoung getting lost in the crowds that washed him down the hall, you hovered a few feet from the door that was now closed. Students were either filing into other rooms or trekking down the mile long staircases. It would just be you and Soobin. If he allowed you to speak.

Just you and Soobin. You would speak your truth.

After a breath that ended with the heaviest sigh, you threw away your inhibitions and grabbed the doorknob, pushing the heavy metal open with a creak. The lecture room was like any other, numerous rows of chairs behind long tables all facing a large desk toward the corner of the room in front of a chalkboard and a tall projector and screen. Like the rest of the building it smelled of books and old paper, like school. 

The man standing behind his desk gathering his things into a bag looked like school.

Tall, a stretched out type of stocky, Soobin had dark hair with a few strands of pepper streaking through it. Glasses perched on his nose, he used the knuckle of a finger to push them back after shoving a few leather bound books into his bag. You wouldn’t lie, he was stunning, you cursed yourself for not considering law as an option for a major. Tori was going to eat this up.

He didn’t hear you until you took a couple steps toward him, and still, there were feet upon feet of space between you. His head popped up, his hair parted to the side somewhat gracing his forehead ever so slightly.

“Hi,” he said, his voice clear, and so deep. “Can I help you?” Looking at your trembling fingers folded in front of your middle, Soobin’s brows dipped. “Is everything alright? Were you just in my lecture?”

“No,” you said, then cleared your throat, feeling the tightening begin already. “I, uh, I wasn’t, I just… Was hoping you’d have a few minutes to talk?”

Glancing about his empty room, he peered at his things, then back to you. “If this is about the practice, I’ll have to send you to enrollment, I’m not-”

“It’s about Mina,” you pushed from your lips, cutting him straight off. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time, Mr. Choi, but I could really use your help.”

Setting his jaw straight, his lips that always seemed to rest in a smile pointed down. Looking in front of him, at the rows of tables and chairs, he sighed, then nodded once. He stepped around his desk, leaving his things behind. Motioning for you to follow him, he sat on the table of the first row, letting his longer than life legs hang off the edge. His feet were almost touching the floor.

“Is she okay?” he asked, not giving away anything with an inflection in his tone. He was a lawyer, he was going to be good at this.

Sitting beside him, using your hands to help you up onto the table, you left ample space between you and Soobin. “Uh, she’s okay,” you said, folding your hands in your lap. “I’m not.”

He released a breath, letting his head shake, pointing his focus forward. “One good year,” he mumbled to himself. “What’d she do?”

Taken aback, you stuttered a few times before you were able to say, “A lot. She was involved with… a lot. I felt bad coming here, you don’t know me, I don’t know you, but I’m at a loss of where to go, or what to do.”

Soobin leaned back on his hands, his wide chest curving inward, his light blue button down clinging to his muscle. “Your feelings are valid, Aurora.” The way your eyes shot open made him smile, his lips pulling to the side. “You’ve met Chan, kid. The only boy in the world who cannot keep his mouth shut. I was fully prepared for you to come in here today, he gave me the rundown. Usually I walk out with my class so I can get home as fast as I can to my wife.”

“Faden,” you said, and his smile grew.

“Chan ran you through our family tree, I heard,” Soobin said. “Always some type of excited, that one is,” he glanced away from you, “Funny, too,” he looked back at you, “But, not as funny as my Wonwoo.” A snicker passed through his lips, one you joined in on. “Don’t know why I felt the need to share that with you. Probably has to do with the fact that you share no relation with my family in any way, yet our history cannot help itself. Our lives are still intertwined.”

“You mean,” you cleared your throat, “My dad?”

Soobin pressed his lips into a flat smile and raised his brows. “Your dad, Aurora.”

“Chan told me he was… an asshole to Faden,” you said, then shook your head quickly, “Mrs. Choi, sorry.” He huffed a laugh.

“Soobin and Faden,” he assured you. “Don’t stress it.”

“What happened between them?” you whispered your question, and for the first time it seems you’ve struck him with the unknown.

Taking his time to think, the process happening all over his face, he tilted his head. “How new is this for you? Chan, and this?”

Toying with your fingers, you said, “Very new. I didn’t know any of you existed until a week or so ago.”

“Right,” Soobin said, his tone always breathless, yet on point. “I’m not sure it’s my place to tell you what happened between them, Aurora.” Pointing his brows, he shook his head. “If you asked your father, would he talk about it with you?”

“I dunno,” you muttered, glancing down at your hands. “We talk about a lot, but he’s never brought up his past like that. It’s always vague, he likes to start from when I was born. He said that’s when his life began, or something.”

His smile triggered yours. “That’s beautiful,” he said. “I know how he feels.” There’s a few seconds of quiet before Soobin sat himself up and sighed. “Now, speaking of children, let’s get to Mina, shall we?” He gave you a look that told you you must’ve physically turned green. “It’s alright, Aurora, Chan spoke with me. I’ve been debriefed,” he laughed, “Don’t hold back on me, I know my daughter, I can handle it.”

“I’m just going to tell you everything I know,” you whispered, and he smiled with his nod. “All of it, Soobin.”

Twisting on the table, trying to break some type of ice, he folded his long legs beneath him and motioned for you to do the same. “Hit me,” he said, his chin low and his gaze on focus mode.

Every nerve you felt out in the hallway had vanished. Something about this man, about Soobin, made it entirely too easy to speak to him. He listened, he took in every word, every sentence, no matter how clinically insane it sounded, and he digested it. Processing in real time, the man, a certified genius allegedly, dots were being connected and ties were being tied. 

Though most of what you told him was you accusing his daughter of being a liar, and a manipulative bitch, he took it all like you were talking to him about the shoes you had bought for the school year. Not one thing that came out of your mouth made him flinch, made him itch, made him stop you out of fear of blowing his top.

How crazy was this chick?

Unsure of how long it actually took to tell him everything, you were almost near tears twice, something he took into account.

“I swear to you,” you whispered by the end of it all. Glancing about the room, you held one hand on your heart and the other in the air. “Whatever the hell it is they do in court,” you said, and he laughed. “I solemnly swear. I”ve spoken the truth. My truth. I’m not here to accuse your daughter, I am not here to get her into trouble, I am not here to make her out to be a bad person, because believe me, Soobin. Aside from this shit, I know she could be a really good person.”

Dropping his eyes, Soobin bobbed his head and shot you a half smile. “First of all, thank you for coming to me. I appreciate you coming here, telling me all of this.” Taking a needed deep breath, you popped your brows. “Second of all,” he started, sitting forward, placing his elbows on his knees, “I am so sorry.” His pause held power, a lawyer's choreographed moment of silence. “This is not me apologizing for her, or because of her. This is me apologizing to you as a person on the outside. You didn’t deserve any of that, no person does.”

“Thank you,” you whispered.

Soobin glanced at the door. “Your friends that you said came with you, are they okay?”

Following his line of sight, not a soul seen from the tiny window on the door, you said, “I think so, for now.” Whipping your head back to him, your wide eyes excited his own. “Seonghwa, Park Seonghwa. He’s here with me. The Vice President of the fraternity.”

Soobins cheeks broke out into a knowing smile. “Jimins nephew,” he said with a chuckle.

Energy surged through your body. “Yes,” your whisper was breathless. “Him. He said he could help us. That you guys… You could help us. All things with Mina aside, the wench sitting on the throne in my sorority needs to be taken care of.” Soobin considered his options. “I know, your daughter is involved, I can understand if you won’t. Either way, we’re going to go to the dean's office and do this all over again, except it will be five of us in that room with him. Maybe more if we can get my best friend's boyfriend to join us, and knowing him and her, it won’t take much convincing. Trust me.”

Soobin rolled his eyes playfully and looked down to the table beneath him. “Oh, don’t worry, I remember my twenties.” Sharing a laugh with him, he reached over to you when it got quiet, placing a firm hand to your shoulder. A fatherly hand. “Like I said, thank you for coming here first. Trust me when I say, that when the time comes, I’ll stand with you and your friends.”

Holy shit.

You could’ve jumped out of your skin. Tossing your head backward with the loudest sigh, a tear seemed to slip out at the same time. Unable to help yourself, you launched yourself forward and hugged him. Returning it, his arms firm and strong, Soobin let go when you did, letting you hug him for as long as you needed.

Pulling away from him you touched your cheeks and let out a laugh. More tears were falling. “I don’t know why I’m crying.”

Soobin put his hand back on your shoulder. “That’s okay, let it out. You just revisited some traumas, it’s heavy to talk about, but the more we do, the lighter it gets.”

Wiping your cheeks clean, you sniffled. “You should be a therapist.”

Soobin breathed through a laugh. “I’ve heard that one before.”

“I mean it,” you said. “You seem like a good dad, too. I’m sorry this is all happening with Mina.”

He brushed the matter off, then hopped from the table, offering you his hand to help you down safely. When you looked up at him, he smiled and said, “Your dad seems like a good dad, too.” The words brought the tears back to your eyes. “Learn about his past, but don’t hold it against him. People can learn, people can change. I’ve watched it happen, in three different people.”

Out of all the names you’ve learned, you couldn’t place who he was talking about, but figured it must’ve meant the world to him.

“Mina can, too,” you offered, and he smiled, grabbing your shoulder once more before he walked to his desk. 

“Thank you, Aurora, but now I have to go home to my wife.”

Heading for the door, you waved at him and flashed him a genuine smile. “Thanks, Soobin. I appreciated your time.”

Hitting you with one last lazy smile, he propped his phone up to his ear, and just as you were walking through the doorway, you heard him say, “Hi, my love. We’re going to need to come up here together within the next couple of days, can Kai take the store for a day or two?”

The hallway was silent.

Pulling the door closed behind you, you stepped away from it and ran your hand through your hair.

You’d done it. You had spoken to Soobin, you told him everything, every detail down to his daughter lying about his son. He heard all about Yunho, all about how he teetered back and forth between you and Mina, and she knew about it, but you didn’t make her out to be the complete villain there, Yunho easily fit the mold as well.

A grown adult, one who works at the college, now knew about Yeji’s scheme. It was out there. It was no longer a petty thing for your make believe hierarchy shit.

He believed you. He believed it all.

The truth, your truth.

Facing the end of the hall your friends were sitting around, you watched as their heads perked up.

Their truth.

Our truth.

Your steps started out light, the dizziness you felt since stepping out of Soobins presence intoxicating, but the closer you got to them, the more they came into view, their beautiful faces and their anxious anticipation, your steps turned into strides, which then turned into a run as a smile and a ragged laugh graced your lips. Their murmurs could be heard, flowing in one ear and out the other, their excited energy influencing your own.

Wooyoung leapt to his feet, the others rising with a hesitance, not wanting to get their hopes up too high before you had the chance to spill the news, but the boy couldn’t hold himself back. Walking toward you, knowing you weren’t going to slow down he opened his arms, throwing them around you as you launched yourself onto his chest, arms tightening around his neck. With your feet off the floor, he laughed and stumbled backward at the impact.

Catching your breath, your shoes found the tile. Tangling your hands within his hair, his dark waves framing his face, you pulled back from him and pressed your noses together. One of his hands took to your cheek, brushing away tears that lingered and new ones that fell. Heart pounding between your lungs, you loosed a laugh with him and pressed your hands to his cheeks.

“I did it,” you whispered, and he smiled, his gaze full of pride.

“You did it,” he whispered back, and then he lost himself in you, your lips finally meeting. A kiss way overdue, yet so perfectly timed you couldn’t even bring yourself to reprimand your heart that reached out toward him.

You’d done it. Soobin knew, and he was willing to help you.

And, as much as it was a relief to have gotten past this first step, knowing what was to come did nothing but scare you shitless.

NU home ✧ nice for what masterlist ✧ talk to me ✧ thank you for reading <3

you do not have permission to copy or translate my works without my consent.

[askagamedev]

I've heard from friends that there's no reason for companies to shut down game/store servers because "it doesn't really cost them anything to keep it up", which feels wrong to me given how readily console makers are to close up features of older consoles that wouldn't conflict with newer ones. Is upkeep really that cheap?

Here's the thing - your friends are kind of right but also mostly wrong at the same time. In terms of technology and such, they are correct - running a server process in the cloud today is pretty cheap. We pay for how much CPU time our processes end up using and old games don't use up that much since there aren't that many players, so the cost of running the server itself is not that high.

However...

There are significantly more costs to running a game (especially a service game) than simply keeping the server running. That's where your friends are wrong.

Imagine, for example, a longtime player gets hacked and the hacker deletes her character and items. What is the player's recourse? Submit a ticket to customer service and get it resolved, right? Now we need to keep at least one customer service agent on the service to handle things like refunds, user mistakes, and so on. What if the server crashes? We'll need somebody to handle server maintenance. What if somebody discovers an exploit that severely harms the player experience? I guess we need a programmer who knows how to fix things. If there's any development to be done, there will also need to be production (to keep tasks prioritized and tracked) and QA (to validate fixes).

Remember, the vast majority of the costs of game development are the salaries and benefits paid out to the people working on and maintaining the game. Even a small skeleton crew costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in salary, benefits, taxes, equipment, rent, and so on. So... upkeep for the server processes really is that cheap. But keeping an entire game running is absolutely not that cheap. When the service can't afford to pay for its own upkeep - including the salaries of all of the people needed to keep the service running - then it gets shut down.

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[whos-orion]

Crash

Summary: Omega’s just finished up a mission for the Rebellion. But her ship’s been hit hard, and all systems are failing. As she falls out of Hyperspace, she finds a small bit of comfort in Tech’s goggles, as if he’s there with her.

Word Count: 1203

Notes: Another request from @mantellmix ! I love writing sad stuff. Short one-shot, enjoy!

Tag List: @mantellmix @a-cryptid-called-magetha

Things weren’t going well. They had been, for a while, but not anymore. Omega had just finished another mission for the Rebellion. She was supposed to take out an Imperial factory and get all the workers out. She did that. And may have accidentally taken down a nearby Star Destroyer. But it was fine. Or it was supposed to be. The workers were heading back to their families on the planet, the Empire was down a factory and a Star Destroyer, and Omega’s hyperdrive was in critical failure.

She watched as the blue streaks around her turned orange and pink, as she was thrown out of Hyperspace. Her console was beeping and flashing and sparking, only making the job more stressful. Gonky was in the back of the ship, shut down and being unhelpful. Even some reassurance would be nice. But she was alone.

Omega tried to take control of the ship’s trajectory, flipping on the emergency stabilizers and trying to steer. But it was no use. The ship was crashing down towards a nearby moon, out of control and buying Omega a one-way ticket to a very gruesome death. No, she couldn’t think like that. Yet.

Omega gave up on trying to control the steering and began running around the ship, fixing whatever she saw was sparking. But every time she fixed something, five more systems broke. She looked out the window and saw the ship was entering the atmosphere. She ran to the console and hit her distress signal. She looked up to the window again, seeing the orange and red flames begin appearing around her ship from such a sharp entry. She saw Tech’s goggles on the dashboard. She picked them up and held them tightly in her hands. Did he ever have to deal with a crash like this? He would at least have help. Omega was on her own. With only the reminders of her brothers sitting around.

Would they be proud? How would they even find out? Who would find her? If it was an Imperial, they’d never know. Another rebel? Maybe. She hadn’t told anyone where she was from yet, or who her family was. She hadn’t gotten to know anyone that well yet. Would they know who she was? Would they find her family and tell them?

Omega held Tech’s goggles closer as the ship kept falling. She could nearly see the planet’s surface now. Omega took Tech’s goggles and moved them over her ponytail and onto her neck. She sat down in the pilot’s chair and looked out at the scene before her. The noise of the warning sensors and sparks of the consoles were nothing now. Omega just stared aimlessly. She felt tears welling up as she placed a hand on the goggles. She felt the broken glass between her fingertips as she sighed. She laughed a bit in disbelief and felt the first tear roll down her face.

“I think this is it, Tech.” She spoke to the air. “See you soon.”

Omega closed her eyes and braced for impact. She’d been here before, hadn’t she? On Bora Vio, and her daring escape from Cad Bane. In that tiny flight pod, hands cuffed together. She’d just pushed that tiny droid off her. What was his name? Toto? Todo? It was so many years ago, but it wasn’t an experience easily forgotten. Omega remembered how loyal he was to Bane. But it clearly didn’t go both ways. She felt a little sorry for him. I guess you feel sorry about everything at the end.

She had felt so scared in that pod. She was just a kid. She was scared now. She was no longer a kid. She kept waiting and waiting for everything to stop. She’d thought about death a lot, to be honest. Back when she’d first left Kamino, it was a constant thing. It stopped for a while when Hemlock died, and they got to live on Pabu, but since joining the Rebellion it was back. That excitement. That risk. She’d underestimated it, and now she was paying the price. But she had Tech with her. She had her brother.

Omega kept waiting. But everything was the same. She was still sitting in the pilot seat, still holding Tech’s goggles around her neck, still alive. She finally opened her eyes to see she was being pulled out of the planet’s atmosphere. She looked around in confusion. A button on her console was blinking, one that signaled someone was trying to comm her. She pressed it, hoped it wouldn’t break, and waited. A few moments of silence passed as Omega saw the fiery horizon turn back to the darkness of space, and then a familiar voice came through the comm.

“Got yourself into some trouble, kid?”

Hunter’s voice was the last thing Omega expected to hear, but it was welcome. It was so welcome.

“Hunter?!” Omega exclaimed, her worry gone in a flash. They had come for her. She was safe.

The boarding hatch opened on Omega’s ship as she ran into her brother’s arms. Hunter smiled softly, holding her close. Omega heard a familiar, gravelly laugh coming from the bench on Phee’s ship (which they had arrived on).

“How touching.” Crosshair said, flicking a toothpick onto the floor. Omega ran over and hugged him as well, overjoyed to see her family again. “Only a month into the Rebellion, and we’re already coming to get you.” He snickered, hugging her back. Omega scoffed and pulled away, crossing her arms with a smirk on her face.

“Hardly needed it. Besides, you’re getting too old for this anyways.”

“We’re never too old!” Boomed Wrecker’s voice. Omega went over and hugged him as well. He laughed and held her close. Crosshair smirked, she really hadn’t changed.

“And you’re still a terrible liar.” He said, folding his arms. Hunter was going to make a snarky remark about the state of her ship, but then noticed something else. Something around her neck.

“Are those…Tech’s goggles?” He asked, something in his voice breaking. He hadn’t seen the old, shattered goggles in so long. And Omega was wearing them. Omega stepped away from Wrecker and took the goggles off, examining them in her hands.

“They…are. And you’re right. I did need your help. I got into a…bad situation. In over my head a bit. Ship was failing. Spirit was failing. I…I thought I was going to die. It brought me some comfort, at the very least.” Omega said, smiling fondly at the goggles. “It’s like he’s there with me.” The ship was silent. A silence of remembrance. They never properly talked about losing Tech when it happened. Not like they got the chance. There were conversations over the years, but Omega couldn’t remember a time where they all sat down and actually talked about him, purposefully.

“…he’s always with us. Just like how we’re always with you.” Hunter finally said, smiling warmly at Omega. “We’ll always be there. Burning ship or not. We’re a call away.” He put a hand on her shoulder as she wiped away a tear. “You’re our kid, Omega, like I’ve told you a thousand times. Now come on, let’s fix up your ship.”

[bi-bard]

Reckless - Tenth Doctor Imagine [Doctor Who]

Title: Reckless

Pairing: Tenth Doctor X Reader | Rose Tyler X Platonic!Reader

Word Count: 6,274 words

Warning(s): canon-typical violence

Summary: [Christmas Special (2005)] The Doctor's regeneration has left him unconscious for the unforeseeable future. Now, with an invasion on the horizon, (Y/n) is pushed onto the frontlines on their own for the first time.

Author's Note: I did a poll to decide what episode I should write about next and this episode won. I hope I've made you guys proud. If you have a doctor/series/episode you want to see in the future, just let me know.

Y'all. I need you to trust me here. I know what I'm doing.

MORE OF THIS OC HERE!

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It was as if there was no pause between the burst of regeneration energy and the Doctor's attempt to fly the TARDIS.

As if nothing had happened at all.

But it was clear that something had. Something fundamentally had changed about him. Some wires were still waiting to be properly connected. I could see it. It was in how he was stumbling and frantically glancing between things on the console. He wasn't ready. Not yet.

"Doctor, move," I said, stepping toward the console.

"I- I'm just trying to land," he replied, still scrambling.

"I know, but you are fresh off of a regeneration, this is-" my sentence was cut off by the TARDIS jerking to the side harshly. "Doctor, get away from the console, now!"

He stopped as soon as I raised my voice at him.

I moved around him, flipping a few switches to try to undo some of the chaos he had caused. I wasn't doing a great job, but I had most of it under control. There was one more crash before the machine finally stopped moving.

I ran over to Rose, who had fallen during the earlier chaos. "You alright?"

"What... What's happened to him," she asked quietly. "What's this regeneration thing?"

I watched the Doctor go stumbling out through the doors. "I... I'll explain in a bit. As soon as I know that he's not going to do something stupid."

I ran outside, making it through the door just as the Doctor fainted. I glanced between Jackie and Mickey. They both stared at me in shock. I knelt down, checking that he was alright.

"What happened," I looked up to see Rose in the doorway. "Is he alright?"

"Should be," I replied.

"He just keeled over," Mickey added. "Who is he? Where's the Doctor?"

"That's him," Rose explained. "That's the Doctor."

"What do you mean, that's the Doctor?" Jackie said.

"I'll explain in a bit, but can we first get him inside, please," I pleaded.

It took a bit of work, but we managed to get the Doctor upstairs and into bed. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to get him into a pair of pajamas while I was searching around the apartment for something that could help.

"I... I don't wanna know," I muttered when I walked into the room and saw him. "Do you have anything I can use?"

"Like what," Rose asked.

"Stuff to check vitals. Anything will be better than nothing."

Jackie let out a gasp. "I've got something. Be back in a tick!"

I barely had a chance to blink before she went running out of the room. I sat down next to the Doctor, letting out a small sigh as I looked at him.

"Are you going to explain what's going on now?" Rose muttered, leaning on the doorframe.

"He regenerated," I said. "It's a normal process for Time Lords. The body senses that it's near death and finds a way to fix itself. Losing consciousness like this isn't entirely normal. It happens sometimes. Usually, it means the whole process wasn't complete during the initial regeneration. His cells are still burning and regrowing. They're settling."

"But he'll be alright?" she replied.

"I hope so," I mumbled.

Jackie ran back in a few moments later, rambling about some neighbor of hers. She handed me a stethoscope. I placed the ends in my ears before pressing the flat piece to his torso, moving to check both hearts.

"I still think we should take him to a hospital," Jackie noted.

"We can't," Rose argued before I could. "They'd lock him up. Dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the course of the human race."

"But-"

"You would trust human doctors with no experience of this situation while I am here and the only being alive that shares his anatomical makeup," I asked.

"I didn't-"

I shushed her, going back to listening to the Doctor's hearts. "Good. Both working fine. We'll just have to wait."

"Both?" Jackie replied.

"They've got two hearts," Rose explained. "Each."

"Really?"

I nodded.

"Anything else you lot have two of?"

"Ew," I murmured. "Come on. We need to let him rest. Finish the process."

Rose sighed, pausing a moment. "Could make tea?"

I chuckled. "Is that just a natural human response? Making tea when things are going wrong?"

"Mostly just the English," Jackie shrugged.

I nodded. "I see..."

I followed the two of them out of the room. As soon as they made it to the kitchen, Jackie seemed to be berating Rose with questions when she should have been asking me. Rose didn't know anything about this. She was already dealing with so many emotions. It wasn't fair.

"Stop it," I said firmly. "If you have questions, ask me. Don't torment her."

Jackie huffed. "I just want some answers."

"Rose isn't gonna have them," I replied. I looked at Rose, who looked back at me with tears in her eyes. "Hey..."

"I thought I knew him," she muttered. "I thought me and him were..."

The way her voice trailed off broke my hearts. I took a breath before speaking, "He may have changed, but his memories didn't. Who he cares for, what he believes in... they're built on more than his physical form. Those kinds of things are built on experiences. His favorite food might change, but not something as deep as his thoughts and feelings about you or me or anyone. He'll most likely still see you in the same way he did."

I was caught off guard by her hugging me tightly. I hesitantly wrapped my arms around her, closing my eyes as she hid her face in my shoulder. There was a long silence as we sat in that hug.

She leaned back, wiping her eyes. She looked at her mother. "The big question is... where'd you get a pair of men's pajamas from?"

"Howard's been staying over," Jackie replied, turning back to the counter.

"What, Howard from the market?"

I chuckled a bit as I turned around. I had never known a race to spend as much time gossiping as humanity. In some strange way, I admired it.

I glanced at the TV in the main room. "Is that Harriet Jones?"

Rose followed me out of the kitchen when she heard me speak up. "Why is she on the telly?"

"She's Prime Minister now," Jackie explained. "I'm 18 quid a week better off."

"Britain's Golden Age," I said quietly. "This is it."

"That's what they've been calling it," Jackie shrugged. "I keep on saying my Rose has met her."

"Did more than that," Rose replied. "Stopped World War III with her."

I furrowed my eyebrows as the report carried on. "Space probe... humans... always reaching for more."

"I thought you'd be a fan of exploration."

"As long as it doesn't draw in any unwanted attention."

Rose and Mickey left later that evening. Something about Christmas shopping.

I split my time between checking on the Doctor and awkwardly trying to help Jackie while she rambled on the phone to a friend.

It all felt... slow. Time was something that I was used to being able to somewhat ignore. It wasn't an important factor to me. I could bend it to be as fast or slow as I wanted, but now... all I could do was wait. Sit and wait.

It was infuriating.

It was a little while later that Rose and Mickey barged in, yelling at Jackie to get off the phone. I furrowed my eyebrows at them.

"What's going on," I asked.

"It's not safe. Someone- something is after the Doctor," Rose explained quickly. "We've got to get out. Where can we go?"

"My mate Stan. He'll put us up," Mickey suggested.

"That's only two streets away" Rose replied. "What about Mo? Where's she living now?"

"I don't know, Peak District," Jackie answered.

"We'll go to cousin Mo's then," Rose replied.

"It's Christmas Eve, we're not going anywhere!" Jackie exclaimed. "What are you babbling on about?"

"Where'd you get that tree," Rose asked. "That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?"

"I thought it was you," Jackie said.

"You accepted a new tree when you didn't know who sent it?" I chimed in. She paused for a moment. "Get the Doctor to the TARDIS and we can go anywhere in time and space. Escaping to a different planet will be better than a different... district or whatever."

The lights started turning on. And then, the branches started spinning.

"Go, now!" I shoved them all out of the main room.

Rose sprinted into the Doctor's room. I followed her, shoving Mickey and Jackie in with me. The two of them shoved a dresser in front of the door while I started rummaging through the pocket of his leather jacket.

I let out a relieved breath when I found the sonic screwdriver.

It was perfect timing.

The robotic tree had broken through the door. The others had quickly backed away from the door.

I picked up my arm and pressed the button on the screwdriver. I shielded my face as the tree blew up.

"You guys alright," I said, scrambling to the other three.

They all nodded, each clearly still in shock about the entire event. I made it to the Doctor, checking his pulse to make sure that he wasn't somehow hurt during the whole event. He seemed fine... and then I saw a puff of regeneration energy escape from him.

"No," I muttered to myself. "No, no, no!"

"What is it," Rose asked.

I ran outside, stopping at the railing when I saw a collection of Santa-looking robots standing on the ground below us. Rose was right behind me, along with the other two.

"What are they?" she whispered to me.

I shushed her quietly before lifting my hand, pointing the sonic screwdriver at them. They seemed to recognize the situation they were in. They moved closer to each other and teleported away. Presumably back to their ship.

"They've just gone," Mickey said. "What kind of rubbish were they?"

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I mean, no offense, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver scares them off."

"They're pilot fish," I replied. "They're being controlled by something else... someone else. Like the tree. Toy soldiers, robots."

"And that gold dust we saw?" Rose pushed.

"Regeneration energy," I explained. "I... I didn't think he was releasing it and now that I didn't see it, I don't know how long or how much he's expelled. Time Lords are powerful and there are creatures who know that."

"They can find him?"

"Pilot fish were what attacked you earlier, weren't they?"

She nodded.

"That's why. They found out where the energy was and knew that they needed to destroy his 'guardians' to get to him. Either use him or kill him or... just experiment on him. We walked away from something that we weren't meant to survive. There are a few species with a few questions."

"What do we do?"

"Nothing. You lot go inside. Protect yourselves. Watch telly, have tea, do whatever it is humans do in a crisis that they can't fix."

"What about you," Rose asked, going to grab my arm.

"I'm going to the TARDIS," I explained. "If there are pilot fish here, then there's something coming. Something strong. I need to figure out what it is."

"You're just gonna go running off?"

"If I need to, yeah."

"I'm not gonna let you do that!"

"It's not your choice!"

"And why is that?"

"Because I am not going to be the one to get you killed!"

She froze.

"Go inside. Take care of the Doctor. Let me handle this."

I turned and walked away before she could say anything else.

I made it to the TARDIS. I scrambled around the console. I found faint traces of the regeneration energy. Along with it was the signal from the new space probe that had been sent up earlier that night. I furrowed my eyebrows. That couldn't be right.

I watched the signal's trajectory. It had been lost at some point. It was around the same place that the regeneration energy seemed to disperse.

"Who is up there..."

I flicked a switch, tuning into the news about the space probe. I saw the head of the mission scrambling, trying to explain away the loss of contact.

"You are terrible at de-escalating," I muttered.

It was then that the signal was interrupted. Through the static came an image of four creatures. I leaned in a little bit closer. The creature suddenly growled at the screen and then the image was gone.

"Well... shit," I murmured, frantically reaching for a few more buttons.

It was a matter of minutes before Rose stormed through the door. "Did you see that?"

"Yes," I answered. "How's the Doctor?"

"Pale, sick."

"Oh...," I mumbled. "It's okay. He'll be okay."

Rose looked down for a moment. "What... What was that thing?"

"I'm not sure," I replied. "I didn't get a clear enough image. But... I know something. I was tracking the trace of regeneration energy that the Doctor has been emitting and it is going to the same place as the probe's signal is coming from."

"So... mars?"

"No," I shook my head. "The probe never made it that far. It's 5,000 miles above it. It's a spaceship. The probe is onboard and they're tracking the energy, coming this way. That puts the entire planet at risk."

"Can't we go stop them before they get here?"

"No. If they're looking for a Time Lord, then handing them a piece of Time Lord technology would be reckless at best."

"But if they get to the Doctor-"

"I won't let that happen!"

"Are you sure? Because you don't seem to be doing much to stop them!"

"Rose, they will kill you. They will kill me. They will kill the Doctor. We don't know what they want, so I'd like to not hand them one of the most sophisticated pieces of space and time travel equipment to ever exist!"

She huffed and turned around, going to storm out.

I closed my eyes and dug the heels of my palms against them.

I was just trying to protect her... protect everyone. I just... I didn't know how to do that on my own. I had become so accustomed to having someone to bounce my ideas off of. I was lost. Stuck. I didn't know what to do yet.

I had spent ages continuing to try to get some kind of answer when the screen turned to static again.

Those four aliens were there again. One of them started speaking again, but the TARDIS wasn't translating.

"Hey, hey," I said quietly. "I know that I'm not him, but I'm still Gallifreyan. I can still fly you. You can still work with me."

The video replayed. This time, the voices were translated. "People, you belong to us. To the Sycorax. We own you. We now possess your land, your minerals, your precious stones. You will surrender or they will die. Sycorax strong, Sycorax mighty, Sycorax rock!"

"'They'," I repeated the word to myself. "Who are you talking about?"

I tried to search for any sign of who they could be talking about.

It was hours before another message came through. One of the Sycorax stuck their hand out. A blue light emitted from it. The image disappeared after that.

"Nice to know that humanity wasn't slow to do something stupid," I muttered to myself. It was a harsh assumption, but it was a valid one.

I ran outside only to be met with a crowd of people walking by me. I furrowed my eyebrows as the blue light shined around their heads. I saw Rose up on the landing outside her door. We shared the same look with each other.

I followed her and Mickey to the roof of the building.

There was an entire fraction of the population standing on the edge. Each seemingly ready to jump. I stepped back, running my hands over my face.

"What is it? What's going on?" Rose said, grabbing my arm.

"I... I don't know," I mumbled. "It... I have an idea but... it can't be. I want to believe that the top minds in your country are not stupid enough to do something that would allow it."

"What is it?"

"Mickey, can you still get access to the military's files?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, of course, I can."

"I need you to get any information you can on that probe. Now. I can't work on it on my own."

"He left us," Rose muttered. "This is the time when we need him the most and he left us. He left... He left me."

"Rose, look at me," I grabbed her hands. "I have known the Doctor maybe as long as you have. I know one thing though... he is never going to abandon you. I promise."

"How do you know that?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Mickey chimed in before the conversation could continue, "Come on!"

We ran back down the stairs to the ground level. As soon as we had made it outside, I turned to Mickey, "Go get your computer and then come straight back here. We'll work in the TARDIS. Rose, you're gonna go up and watch the Doctor. If something happens, then you call-"

My instructions were cut off by a loud boom. Any glass nearby had broken, shattering all over the ground near us. I covered my head and squatted down to cover myself, yelling for the others to get down as well.

"What the hell-"

"A spaceship just entered your atmosphere," I said as I scrambled to stand up. "Sonic wave."

"What do we do," Rose asked.

I looked up as the spaceship flew overhead. It stopped just above us. "Get the Doctor to the TARDIS. Now. It's the safest place for him now. I'm sorry that we didn't do it sooner, but we need to move."

I watched as the trio scrambled to get the Doctor and Jackie's supplies into the TARDIS. She ran out to get the rest of the food, even though I yelled at her not to go.

"What now?" Rose said.

"I... I'm not sure," I replied. "I'm... I'm not usually the only one coming up with ideas at this point."

"But you're clever. I've seen you; you are clever. You... You were said you were trained for wartime."

"A war. I was trained for a war on one planet with different conditions and tools and-"

"And they never taught you to adapt? To do... I don't know... peace talks and things?"

I paused for a moment. "Do you trust me?"

"With my life."

I leaned forward and flicked a switch.

"What was that?"

"I let out a signal. There's no way the TARDIS would be able to land on the ship, but I could get them to teleport the TARDIS onto the ship."

"You're gonna talk to them."

I nodded. "I'm gonna try... see if that theory of mine was correct."

I took a deep breath, going to walk toward the doors. I rolled my shoulders back and tilted my chin up a bit. I pulled the door open, letting out a sigh of relief when I found myself on the spaceship.

Harriet Jones was standing there with her assistant.

"Harriet Jones," I said, a grin forming. "You are a sight for sore eyes."

"I could say the same to you," she muttered, hugging me. "Is the Doctor with you?"

"Not exactly," I replied as I stepped back. "But if you trust me, I can handle this."

I stepped ahead of the group, facing the Sycorax leader as bravely as I could.

"You. You have the clever box," the presumed leader spoke up.

Harriet's assistant tried to translate for me, but I stopped him. "I can understand him."

"How," Rose asked.

"TARDIS has a stronger psychic connection with the Doctor but I am still the same species as him. I may not be able to expand its reach like he seemingly can, but I don't need him to be able to use the translation."

"Silence!" the Sycorax shouted.

"Alright," I muttered.

"You speak for this planet!"

"Yes."

"You will understand my wishes."

"Surrender, correct?" I replied. "Basic signs of obedience in your eyes. Harriet, what did he ask for? Some of the population?"

"Half," she answered.

"Half to be used for their own benefit," I turned back to the Sycorax. "Half to be used as slaves in exchange for letting a third live."

"Correct," the Sycorax said.

"Why Earth?"

There was a silence.

"There are millions of planets that are far more advanced. That," I pointed at the TARDIS, "isn't human technology. There are other planets more beneficial to you, if you're looking for resources. And many are ready for the taking. These people are barely scratching the surface of space exploration and you're exploiting it. There's a whole planet renowned for being quick to surrender, why not go there?"

"We want the Earth," the leader said.

"But why," I pushed. "Why can't you just leave these people alone?"

He didn't respond.

"And then there's the third of the population," I continued, going to step around him. "I have a theory of course, but... oooooh, great."

I ran up the steps.

"Look at that! A big red button! Control matrix. Tell me, if I look under here, will I find a little bowl of blood?"

"Step away from that!"

"Alright," I held my hands up before leaning down, going to open the center console.

"That was English," Rose said.

"Well, yes, Rose, I speak English," I replied, still looking at the control matrix. I dipped my finger into the small bowl. "A+!"

"No, the Sycorax spoke English. I understood him," Rose explained.

I stood up, turning to look at her. "What?"

"He... He told you to step away from the controls, right? I understood him!"

"That means the TARDIS is translating for you again," I took a few steps closer.

The TARDIS doors behind them creaked open, revealing the Doctor in his pajamas and a robe.

"Took your sweet time, didn't you?" I crossed my arms.

"Could say the same to you," he shrugged as he stepped out.

The Sycorax tried to attack him, but it didn't work out well. Instead, the Doctor grabbed the weapons that the creature had and simply tossed them away. Being fresh off regeneration energy either made him stronger or dumber, I wasn't certain which one yet.

"Now, give me a moment. I am busy," he said to the leader before turning to the group of four that was now behind him. "Mickey! Hello!"

That was the happiest he had ever been to see Mickey.

"And Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. Blimey, it's like This is Your Life."

"Harriet Jones, Prime Minister," I corrected.

"I see," he grinned. "Tea! That's all I needed. A good cup of tea."

I almost chuckled at the idea.

If there was one thing about the Doctor that didn't change at all, it was his ability to talk. He ranted and rambled and jumped between different tones of voice. He talked about little he knew about himself now. He was a clean slate with nothing known yet.

I had regenerated before, but I had never thought about the process before. Truly, I never had the time. I was kind of thrown from one thing to the other. Getting confused after regenerating never made it onto my schedule.

"Doctor," I called from the steps.

"Yeah?" he turned to me. "Oh, I interrupted you. Go on. Bet you were doing brilliantly."

"Oh, you didn't interrupt at all," I shook my head. "It's just that, well, if I were to find a big red button, then I would know better than to press it. However, a Time Lord fresh off a regeneration may not be so rational... considering he's figuring himself out and everything."

"You're right," he replied. "Does the very rational one happen to know what the button does?"

"It's operating a blood control system."

"No!" he exclaimed excitedly, running over to me. "I haven't seen blood control in years."

"I've only read about it. Similar to hypnosis, yeah?"

"Exactly," he nodded. "When'd you work that out?"

"It was a running theory when I saw everyone on the roof. If they could control any chunk of the population, then why would they not make it half alive for a half enslaved? Why only a third?"

"Oh, you are so clever."

"I know," I shrugged. "So... what do you think?"

"Well, here's the danger with a freshly regenerated Time Lord," the Doctor looked at the Sycorax. "I truly don't know who I am. So... if I see a great big threatening button which should never, ever, ever be pressed, then I just wanna do this."

The Doctor slammed his hand down on the button.

I heard the others yelling at him.

"You killed them!" Harriet's assistant said.

I turned to the leader of the Sycorax. "Are they dead?"

"We allow them to live," he grumbled.

"Oh, please," I rolled my eyes. "He couldn't kill them. He had no choice. When I said blood control was like hypnosis, I was being honest. You can't hypnotize someone into doing something that they'd never do such as kill themselves. Humans operate on an evolutionary basis that forces them to protect their genes, so the fight-or-flight system kicks in."

"Everyone's okay," Rose asked.

"Everyone's okay," I nodded.

"Blood control was one form of conquest," the leader spoke up. "I can summon the armada and take this planet by force."

"Which brings me to my question again, why? Can't you just leave them alone?"

"Or what?"

"Or... I'll stop you."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

I looked at one of the soldiers next to me before rushing over and grabbing the sword on his waist.

I stepped back, getting away from the crowd.

I poised the sword out toward the leader. "I challenge you."

"(Y/n)," the Doctor scolded. The Sycorax laughed loudly as he stormed over to me. "This is incredibly stupid. Reckless."

"No, it's not," I replied. "This is what I was trained for. I existed before you met me, Doctor. You need to remember that."

He stepped away from me slowly.

"You're just gonna let (Y/n) do this?" I heard Rose mutter.

"I can't stop them," the Doctor replied.

I looked at the leader of the Sycorax again.

"Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply," I asked.

The leader unsheathed a sword of his own. "You stand as this world's champion?"

"Proudly. Do you accept my challenge?"

The crowd roared around us.

We both took a knee, swords next to us.

"For the planet?" the leader tilted his head slightly as he spoke. He was taunting me.

"For the planet," I confirmed.

We stood up.

I could barely remember who actually took the first swing.

I was beginning to realize that I hadn't been in a fight so similar to what I had originally been training for.

I could just remember the technology, the instructions, the fake wounds. It was as if with every swing, my blood started boiling more and more. I hadn't felt like this in a long time.

I could remember the days when I felt that every day.

Fake Daleks, fake Cybermen, fake monsters, fake gods. I could see them all so vividly. In between the visions were the familiar flipping of pages and frantic searching and reading. The tests and quizzes and practices.

Oh, I was furious. It was making me sloppy.

I ran onto the outside platform of the ship as I found myself getting angrier and angrier.

I needed to be able to focus on one target. I needed to bring myself back to the current moment. To recognize that this was not fake. That this was not every evil being that I had been forced to face, but was one being. One thing that wanted to have more power than he deserved.

I also needed to get out of the crowd as soon as I could. That crowd could turn on me the moment I won. My victory could last a matter of moments before they turned on me entirely.

I learned how much the leader of the Sycorax valued straightforward aggression. He wanted the anger. The yelling and wild thrashing that seemed more calculated than they were.

I had learned long ago how to adapt to someone like that.

This means that despite any scratches and bruises, I was more in control than he thought.

So, when I squatted down and swung my leg so I could knock him off his feet, he was the only one surprised.

I stood above him, only leaning down to throw his sword as far away as I could. I pressed the tip of my blade to his throat. His head was hanging off the platform. I could have turned him into an example for the entire human race and Sycorax alike.

"I win," I said.

"Then, kill me," the leader's words were hoarse.

"I was raised as a weapon," I explained. "I was created to fight. To stop any threat that could have come my way. But mercy... I had to learn that. And it took me so long to perfect."

I pushed a little harder.

"So do not take it for granted when I offer it to you now," I warned. "I will spare your life as long as you listen to this command. Leave this planet and never return. Is that understood?"

"Yes."

"Swear on the blood of your species."

"I swear."

"Good."

I stepped back, pulling the blade away from the leader's neck.

I turned around to see the Doctor walking over to me already. I let him pull me into a tight hug, making sure to keep the blade away from either of our bodies.

Rose ran out just behind him. I smiled widely as I went to hug her.

"I told you that you could do this," she muttered to me. "I told you that you were clever."

"Thank you," I mumbled back.

She stepped back.

"We should go. Now."

The Doctor smiled for a moment. "Sounds like- (Y/n), look out-"

I turned around. The leader came running at me, shouting as he went to attack me. I slammed my blade through his torso. I pulled the blade up and twisted it slightly.

"I warned you," I murmured to him before shoving him down. I dragged the blade out of him. "I... I tried to warn you."

"Hey," Rose touched my back. "Come on. It's done. It's over."

"No. Not yet."

I stormed into the main hall, staring up at the collection of Sycorax. I slammed the sword into the ground.

"I am this planet's champion, and you will heed my command. You are to leave this planet and never return for the rest of time. And I would advise you to take this battle as a warning. A warning that you will spread among the stars. As you speak of Earth and its people and all that it could offer, ensure that you tell them all that this planet is- and always will be- protected."

The Sycorax's teleport sent us all back to the surface after that.

I watched in silence as the ship began to fly away. I let out a shaky breath as tears pricked the corners of my eyes.

"(Y/n)," I turned to the Doctor.

"I killed someone," I murmured. "Directly, I mean. I... I wasn't just there. It wasn't some misguided attempt to save him. I killed him-"

He shushed me as he pulled me into a hug. "I want you to listen."

I closed my eyes, listening to the rumbling of the above spaceship. The sound of Rose and Mickey cheering cut through. Sharp and deafening in the best way. I heard Jackie's voice join them. Thankful and caring and proud.

"I hear hope... joy. I hear the cheers of the very people you just saved. Now, imagine that sound echoing all over the world. All of them. Safe because of you."

He stepped back, holding my upper arms.

"I'd say that's an alright balance, wouldn't you?"

I felt my lips tugging up as I thought about it. Yeah, maybe-

Any hope I had was shattered with the sound of an explosion. It silenced any cheering. Any joy. It was loud, violent, terrifying.

I looked over at Harriet. She stood there with a sullen expression painted on her face.

"What the hell is wrong with you," I asked. "They were leaving!"

"You said it yourself," she replied. "They go out and tell the rest of the universe about us. What happens when you and the Doctor aren't here? When another race decides that they want Earth?"

"You think that you're so important that it justifies murder-"

"Yours was?"

"I never wanted to do that! I wanted to show mercy! I wanted them to have the chance to make the right choice! Do not use me as an example to justify your monstrous behavior!"

She had no response to that.

"I shouldn't have just said to leave. I should have told them to run. Run as fast as you can because here comes humanity, the true monsters! The species ready to destroy anything different than themselves!"

I was almost screeching by the end of it. I felt the Doctor move his arm in front of me. I must have moved forward without thinking much of it.

I stepped away, turning to the others. Rose hugged me, muttering how sorry she was.

"I should have stopped you," the Doctor said.

"What does that make you, Doctor? Both of you? Another alien threat?"

"Don't challenge me, Harriet Jones, 'cause I'm a completely new man," he pushed. I stepped away from Rose, turning back to Harriet. "I could bring down your government with a single word."

"You're the most remarkable man I've ever met, but even you aren't capable of that."

"No, you're right," the Doctor replied. "Not a single word. Just six."

"I don't think so."

"Six words."

"Stop it!"

"Six."

He stepped around her. He walked to her assistant, muttering something into his ear. He came back to us.

"You go back with these three. I'll meet you there," he explained to me. I furrowed my eyebrows. "I can't very well keep walking around in pajamas and a robe."

"Fair," I chuckled. "See you in a bit."

"You too."

I followed Rose, Mickey, and Jackie back to the apartment.

They forced me to go sit down while they got dinner together, only letting me join them when the table was set.

"I could've helped," I said when I sat down.

"Well, we couldn't let the planet's champion make their own meal," Mickey replied. "Now, eat."

I chuckled and shook my head.

The door opened a few moments later. I turned to look at the Doctor. He was wearing a suit now. Dark brown with a light button-up and a tie. He had a long trench coat on now. He grinned at us before coming to sit at the end of the table.

I found myself faced with Rose holding out some roll of something. It was wrapped in green foil with gold and red details. I furrowed my eyebrows at it.

"Grab that end," Rose instructed. "It's a Christmas cracker. This is a very human thing. Like the tea."

I was hesitant but listened to her anyway.

"On three, pull toward you," she continued. "1... 2... 3!"

I tugged the roll toward myself. I flinched a bit as it popped. I found myself with most of the roll in my hand. I moved it, looking inside.

I found a crown made of tissue paper. It was yellow. Bright yellow.

"Put it on!" Rose pushed.

"Okay, okay," I replied. I placed the crown on my head, struggling to get it to stay in place. The Doctor reached over and fixed it for me. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he muttered.

Rose pointed at the TV. "It's Harriet Jones."

She was rambling, trying to defend staying in office. I looked at the Doctor. He gave me a look that simply said 'don't ask'. I turned back to the screen.

That was until Jackie pushed us all outside.

I almost froze in the door at the sight of what seemed to be snow. It was as I stepped on it that I realized that it wasn't. It was ash. Leftover ash from the spaceship still burning up.

I closed my eyes for a moment before looking around me. I saw people. Couples and kids and whole families running around in it. They were laughing. Cheering. Spinning and celebrating.

There it was again.

That sense of hope.

That very small shred of it that made me feel like I needed to hold onto it as tightly as I could.

"(Y/n)," I turned to the Doctor. He was standing next to Rose, holding hands with her as they both looked at me. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Absolutely."

He grinned before going to open the door.

I let out a small sigh as I followed them both inside.

One shred.

That was all I needed.

Or... all that I was going to have... for now.

If I wanted more, I had to go find it.

And yeah, I was absolutely ready to do that.

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Author's Note: I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for reading and accepting this OC. I know I play around with canon and I promise it is only going to become more evident as we go on. I have this OC planned out through Flux, just to give you an idea of how committed I am to this OC and their story. They have been through many of iterations before this one and I am so happy that this is the version that resonated with people. Thank you for your time and care. I promise that it is recognized and appreciated. I'll see you all soon!

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[raindailies]

— 𝐓𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 ☁️

summary : your boyfriend loves the sweet and sugary taste of your honeyed tinted lips. (HAIKYUU CHARACTERS)

warnings: cigarettes, making out in the car, kissing mwah mwah yk that shit, literally all fluff.

extra: divider by @/cafekitsune <3

The faint smell of cigarette was dawning the car, as you were seated beside your boyfriend, a box of strawberry fixed on your lap as you ate the pieces with a slight hum of contentment.

The slight sour and juicy interior of the strawberries left slight tender savor in your mouth, as you relished in the taste. Your boyfriend, on the other hand, had a cigarette rested between in middle and pointer finger, his gazed fixed outside the window.

The two of you sat in a comfortable relishing silence, watching the view that was presented upon you both, before you felt a cold hand grab your chin in a gentle manner, turning your head back.

Looking back, you saw the ridiculous smirk that taunted the surface of your boyfriend's face, before moments later where he lets his lips crash against your own.

One of his hand was rested on your face, cupping your cheek as the other wandered on your waist, pulling you closer to him, the only thing separating you two being the center console that extends between the driver's and passenger's seat.

The kiss was tentative, and tender. The feeling of his plush and soft lips against your own was a feeling that you could never be bored of. You felt his larger hand angling your face so he could further deepen the kiss, leaning closer to you.

You felt breathless, and were, arguably, breathless. But you couldn't stop. You wanted more, you needed more of him.

Yet during that feathery moment, you tasted something different - a bitter and metallic taste was rested on his lips as you deepened the kiss. It felt acidic, yet addictive as it drew you in even more.

He tasted like the cigarette he had just abandoned a moment earlier, the one sticking between his middle and pointer finger, yet now discarded with no attention.

Whilst on his end, you smelt, and tasted sweet. So sweet. With a sour mixed in the flavor of your plump lips, god, he wanted more of you. He needed all of you.

You were all he needed, no cigarettes were comparable to the taste of your lips.

You tasted so sweet.

And he tasted so bitter, yet, weirdly sweet at the same time.

Pulling away hesitantly so you both could catch a breath, he panted slightly, the taste of your lips still lingering on his own as if he had memorized it from top to bottom, but seriously, he'd make out with you all day long if he could.

The taste that your lips had relished to him was one of the feelings that he deeply cherish, one that he couldn't get rid of.

He was a mess, you were a mess. His eyes peered to you and your swollen lips from kissing him, taking in your appearance of slightly disheveled hair and ragged breath.

"You taste like strawberries." He whispered, letting his arms pull you closer as he breathed in your scent. He looked at you, his eyes swirling with desire and need as you chuckled slightly at his observation.

"And you taste like cigarettes." You grinned, melting into his touch.

"That so?" He smirked, a sly expression coating his features as he moved his hand from your waist to the box of strawberries, grabbing a handful before shoving them in his mouth.

Like a kid, he feverishly chewed the strawberries in his mouth with quick pace in his tracks, before grabbing your wrist, smashing his lips against yours again.

This time, he tasted sweet, mixed with the slight sour taste of strawberries lingering on his lips.

The kiss this time, was quick and gentle, before he quickly pulled away, a big grin on his face as he smiled at you as if he had accomplished something big.

"Now we both taste like strawberries!"

☁︎ ── ATSUMU, osamu, KUROO, hinata, bokuto, oikawa, AND your favs

❝𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬, 𝐢'𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞❞

A/N: New look for blog how we feeling gang 😮‍💨 ok ok i KNOWW they're professional athletes and won't smoke but just for the sake of this sweet scenario pretend that they do ONCE

this is a repost from my other acc - rainndailies lolol, expect a BIG rebranding of the blog tmr 🫡

[cuttlekiss-mlp]

dash has grown her hair out considerably since the incident. she just hasn't had the time or the care to cut it properly (before things happened, she always did try to keep up with it).

MY LITTLE CATASTROPHE : RAINBOW

"Do you guys not see how hard she is working to fix this? Twilight is killing herself to find a cure, and you all have turned your backs on her! What kind of friends are you?"

Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty, lives up to her title. Twilight may have made a horrible, maybe even unforgivable mistake -- but at least she was trying her best to fix it? Why couldn't they see that?

When she heard the explosion from Twilight's home, she flew over as fast as she could. The door was locked, the curtains were closed, but it didn't stop her. She crashed through the window to find the house in shambles, and Twilight huddled over Spike's body, sobbing uncontrollably. She and her baby dragon were covered in this weird pink sparkly..goop. She couldn't imagine what had happened - maybe Twilight tried that spell she said she wanted to do but couldn't...she didn't see the Elements of Harmony anywhere - so perhaps that wasn't it. Dash tried to console Twilight, but her friend snapped at her, yelled at her to go away and leave her alone. It hurt her to leave, but Twilight needed time. She was so brokenhearted...

The news of Spike's condition travelled fast after his attack and rampage. So many ponies were mauled or wounded by him. Twilight tried to reason with him, but Spike wasn't listening to her. He wasn't listening to anyone.

Everything changed that day. No one knew what was going to happen, not even Twilight. They all blamed her. They were so angry, and even though it was justified, that was no reason to leave her in the dust. She didn't mean for any of this to happen. She just wanted Spike back. Wouldn't they have done the same thing? Dash continued to stay by Twi's side, bringing her food, checking up on her, making sure she's had some water. Sometimes, she finds Twilight passed out on the floor or at her desk. Dash has read some of the unsent letters to Celestia that she's written. Twilight blames herself, too. She knows her friends have abandoned her...

That is why Dash won't abandon her. How could she? Twilight needed her. She needed someone to check on her, someone to be her friend.