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when-they-write-stuff · 4 years ago

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SOMETIMES, STILES THOUGHT he understood Derek Hale.

Other times, he thought he never would.

The man was a million things tucked into a leather jacket. Stiles remembered the first time he’d seen Derek in the preserve; scowling, grey-green eyes hard, with an air around him that made younger Stiles a little bit terrified and a little bit intrigued at the same time. And honestly, if he would’ve known then that one meeting would turn into a whirlwind of chaos afterward, the younger version of him might have turned right back around and walked away without thinking twice.

Or maybe he would’ve just grinned. Grinned, knowing that one little meeting with the grumpiest werewolf in Beacon Hills would one day turn into a little bit more.

If he just had the patience to wait, that is.

But that was then and this was now. Sitting in the loft with the rest of the pack, some rom-com that Lydia had picked out playing on the TV, though most of them were only half paying attention. Scott was all wrapped around Allison, Erica had fallen asleep in Boyd’s lap, and Lydia was scrolling through her phone while Jackson snored at her side. Stiles sat on the floor by himself and watched the TV silently, his brain not even caring what was happening onscreen at the moment.

From somewhere in the kitchen behind all of them, he could hear the faint sound of running water and clinking dishes.

The movie changed scenes— the main couple was kissing. Stiles sighed and pushed himself up.

Isaac made a sound of protest as Stiles accidentally blocked his view, craning his neck to see around. And honestly, the beta seemed to be the only one of them that actually cared about what was happening. Had it been any other time, Stiles might have made fun of him.

But instead, he just rolled his eyes and moved around the couch.

There was a stack of empty pizza boxes on the counter as he entered the kitchen and a line of clean plates next to the sink. Stiles paused in the doorway for a second and stared at Derek literal Hale standing in front of the sink with a towel thrown over his shoulder and an apron wrapped around his hips; a rare sighting of the man without his jacket on.

Then, like a wild animal caught on camera, Derek turned the water off and turned around, giving Stiles an unimpressed look.

“What.”

Stiles hoped his face didn’t look as red as it felt as he snapped out of his thoughts. Forcing himself to just shrug, he moved further into the kitchen and pulled the fridge open, staring unseeingly at the leftovers that he really didn’t care about.

After a long moment of silence, Stiles heard Derek turn the water back on and waited for a few more seconds before stepping back and shutting the fridge again.

“So…” he said, desperately trying not to pay attention to how utterly domestic Derek Hale looked. The man glanced over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow.

“So.”

“Uh. Do you need any help?”

Derek shut off the water again and Stiles noticed for the first time that there weren’t any more dishes left— Derek finished toweling off the last one and gave Stiles a flat look. “No.”

Internally, Stiles cursed himself. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

Derek pressed his lips together, still looking unimpressed. And before he could continue making a fool of himself or Derek could make him feel any more judged, Stiles nodded again and quickly exited the kitchen. Isaac glanced up from the couch as he moved back over, a definite smirk on his lips.

“Nice one, Stilinski. You call that flirting?”

Stiles’s heart skipped at least three beats and he threw a look over his shoulder back toward the kitchen— but all he could hear was the sound of cabinets opening and closing. Derek didn’t seem to have heard the beta.

Clenching his jaw, Stiles gave Isaac the darkest death glare he could muster. “Shut up, Lahey, or I swear to god, will strangle you with your own scarf.”

Isaac smirked wider. “I don’t think Derek would like that very much.”

“I really don’t care what Derek would think.”

“Yeah, we all know that’s not true.”

Stiles glanced over at the others but nobody was even paying their conversation any attention. Well, nobody awake, anyway. Stiles glared back at Isaac, who looked even smugger.

“What, Stilinski? Do you want me to talk a little bit louder?”

“Okay,” Stiles said, shoving himself back up. “You’re an asshole and that’s my cue to leave.”

And just like that, Derek materialized in the doorway of the kitchen. “You’re leaving?”

Stiles blinked at the man, pretty sure his heart had skipped another few beats. Because Derek hadn’t been listening in to any of their conversation, had he? “Uhm, yeah. I’ve got… stuff to do. Important stuff. To do.”

Isaac snorted loudly and then covered it up with the fakest sounding cough Stiles had ever heard. Grinding his teeth together, Stiles reminded himself to throw all of the beta’s scarves into the toilet the next time he came around.

Derek looked at him for a moment longer before nodding. The man turned around, disappeared back into the kitchen, and Stiles gave Isaac one last furious look.

The beta just smirked and Stiles hated him even more.

Except, as he turned back around to make for the door, Derek came out of the kitchen again. This time, the man approached him with something in his hands.

“Uh,” Stiles froze, blinking at the container that Derek pushed into his hands. He looked down at it, glanced back up at Derek, and then carefully pulled the top off, realizing with a start that it was the rest of the leftover pizza. Blinking again, he gave Derek a confused look. “This is pizza.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Stiles didn’t know how to react. “You know my dad will eat this the moment I bring it home, right?”

For a moment, Stiles could’ve sworn he caught a touch of red in Derek’s cheeks; the man almost looked flustered. But then Derek just shrugged, turning back away, and Stiles was left gawking at the werewolf’s back.

Isaac made a strange noise from the couch. It sounded a little bit like a strangled groan.

Shaking his head, Stiles shoved the lid back onto the container and threw one more confused glance toward the kitchen before heading for the door. And, leftovers in hand, he honestly didn’t know what to think.

It was times like this he didn’t think he’d ever understand Derek Hale.

The night Stiles was stuck out in the preserve with Derek, it was raining.

He figured that sounded about right. They’d all drawn straws to decide who would be on watch for the omega that was running loose around Beacon Hills, and Stiles had immediately drawn the shortest one. And then, just because it was his luck, Deaton called Scott, his watch-buddy, in for an emergency shift.

So Stiles was going to have to go out on his own. But then Derek stepped in.

Which really wasn’t so bad, right? Stiles had been alone with Derek Hale before. Like… literally the first day after they’d met. When Stiles had been driving the near-dead werewolf around for a full day while Scott attempted to infiltrate the Argent’s house.

So yeah, he could handle one night. Easily.

But then they got out in the preserve and it started raining. Stiles thought that would make things a little less enjoyable.

“So,” he said, trying not to shiver as his hoodie stuck to his skin like wet paper. “This is nice.”

Derek shot him a sideways glance, not even looking the least bit bothered by the cold as raindrops rolled right off his leather jacket. And Stiles thought the entire world was unfair sometimes. Running a hand through his hair, he attempted to pull up his hood, but it was already soaked through, doing nothing but making his hair even wetter.

He groaned. “Yeah, this isn’t nice at all.”

To that, Derek paused and looked him up and down. Then the man sighed— like Stiles was the ridiculous one— and stripped off his jacket, shoving it into Stiles’s chest.

Stiles froze, not even daring to touch it for a second.

“Er, Derek?”

“Put it on,” Derek said, letting go. Stiles barely managed to catch the jacket before it dropped into the mud and he blinked as Derek started forward again, head slightly bowed against the rain. The man’s long-sleeved t-shirt instantly started to stick against his skin.

Stiles stared after the man, looked down at the jacket held tightly in his hands, and then looked back up. Except, Derek wasn’t slowing down and he cursed silently, pulling the thing over his shoulders before hurrying after the man.

The jacket was like a portable heater. Stiles probably could have melted into it if his mind wasn’t spinning so fast, shoving his hands into the warm pockets as he stumbled after Derek.

“Dude, Derek, dude.”

Derek finally paused and turned around, giving him a pained look. Stiles fumbled to a stop and despite everything, wrapped the jacket further around himself. Even as he asked the question,

“Are you sure?”

Derek raised an eyebrow, looking from the jacket to Stiles’s face. Stiles flushed.

“I mean, if you’re not—”

“There’s nothing out here tonight,” Derek interrupted, turning his gaze to the dark trees around them. “Let’s head back.”

Stiles snapped his mouth closed, staring at the man. But once more, Derek didn’t wait for an answer before starting off in a random direction. Shaking his head, Stiles hurried after him, feet slipping and sliding in the mud.

So, Derek Hale was officially the biggest grumpy-growly weirdo Stiles had met, he decided. One who owned an incredibly warm leather jacket.

He understood that much about the man at least.

Sometimes, Stiles hated werewolves.

Mostly, he decided one day, laying in bed feeling like he was dying, he hated them for their stupid immune systems. Because honestly, how was it even fair that the assholes couldn’t get sick?

Stiles didn’t see how that followed nature’s rules in any way.

He, on the other hand, was very capable of getting sick. And approximately two days after his dad came home with a slight cold, Stiles caught the thing so hard, it felt like he’d been hit by a truck.

Sometimes, he hated werewolves. And laying in bed, his head pounding and his nose feeling like it was about to start leaking out his brain, Stiles very nearly considered calling up Derek and taking the bite.

Then, as if his thoughts had somehow summoned the werewolf, Stiles’s window was shoved up and Derek pulled himself through.

Despite everything, Stiles didn’t even have the energy to be startled. A psychotic murderer could have come through the window and he wouldn’t even lift his head to complain. In fact, he’d take a psycho murderer if it meant his headache would stop.

He was pretty sure Derek had frozen the moment the man’s feet touched the carpet, because silence descended over the room for a moment. Then, he blinked up as Derek plodded over to his bed and glanced down at him, brows knitted tightly together.

“Stiles.”

Stiles gazed up at him blearily. Derek sniffed deeply and then drew back, looking repulsed. Which— rude.

“You smell bad.”

Stiles groaned loudly, which turned into a sharp cough, which turned into a minor lung hacking, before pulling his blankets up over his head. “Fuck you too, Derek.”

Once more, the room was silent. After a long moment, Stiles peeked back out again and saw Derek was still watching him with a mildly concerned look on his face. After another long minute of literal staring, Stiles sighed.

“I haven’t showered in like two days, dude. Stop looking at me like that.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. Stiles groaned again.

“I’m sick, asshole.”

The man’s face finally cleared. Stiles noticed for the first time that Derek had the bestiary in his hands— and there was no way in hell he was doing research right now. But then Derek set the book on his bedside table and tucked his hands into his pockets, looking a little awkward. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“What can I do?”

Stiles blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

“What do you need?”

And that was the last response he’d expected to hear from Derek Hale. Ever. “Uhm, nothing? It’s fine. I’m just going to lay here until I wither up and die, but everyone has to go at some point, right?”

To those words, Derek definitely looked concerned. The man’s eyes flashed red for a second and Stiles startled, drawing the blankets further up to his chin.

“That was a joke, Sourwolf.”

But the man just looked at him for another moment before turning back around and heading for the window. Stiles didn’t even have a chance to protest before Derek was pulling himself right back out— and Stiles stared at the empty sill for a moment before sighing heavily.

Stupid sickness immune werewolves. Derek probably thought this was a life or death situation or something.

And honestly, Stiles didn’t expect to see the man again. After all, he smelled bad.

God, he hated werewolves.

His dad had gone back to work that morning and though it had been Stiles’s idea, telling the man he wasn’t five anymore and didn’t need anyone to ‘take care of him’, Stiles still kind of wished he had someone to complain to. Or someone to make him soup. Or even someone to bring him more tissues when he grabbed the last one out of the box.

Because honestly, the very thought of leaving his bed and searching for more seemed like an impossible task. For one bleak moment, Stiles had actually debated using the t-shirt next to his bed.

Then he realized he was losing his mind.

After what felt like a million hours had passed since Derek had left, and Stiles was right on the verge of falling asleep, his window was shoved up again. Stiles snapped right back to reality so fast his headache came back like an avalanche. In that moment, he vowed he was going to murder whoever had just interrupted his sweet, sweet escape into the darkness.

When he could make himself get out of bed, that is.

But then Stiles realized it was Derek. Derek, with a round styrofoam container held in one hand and a grocery bag held from the other. Struggling to sit up, Stiles gave the werewolf an incredulous look, and Derek approached the bed carefully.

The man was still looking at him like he was about to spontaneously combust.

“I brought soup.”

Stiles just stared.

Derek set the round container on his bedside table and then pulled a spoon out of the plastic bag. Close behind it was a packet of crackers, a box of tissues, and a white bottle of painkillers.

“Boyd said chicken noodle works best,” Derek said, still avoiding Stiles’s blatant stare as he popped the top of the container off. “It should still be hot, so—”

“Derek,” Stiles said, cutting him off. Looking pained, the man finally met his gaze.

“... I also brought crackers.”

“Crackers.”

“For the soup.”

For the soup. Yeah, Stiles had to give it to him; that was a fair answer.

But what?

Before Stiles couldn’t even think of an appropriate reaction to everything that was currently unfolding, Derek was pushing the container of soup into his hands. Instantly, the smell of warmth managed to drift into Stiles’s clogged nose and he almost melted into the mattress, mouth watering.

He hadn’t even realized how hungry he was.

“You brought me soup,” Stiles mumbled, still a little lost in his own head. Derek’s face remained carefully blank and the man nodded once.

“You’re sick.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t actually expect soup—”

Except, Derek didn’t even give him a chance to finish that sentence. Instead, as if dropping off an entire ‘get better now’ cold-care package was all he’d come back to do, the man moved back over to the window. Though still, Derek paused there for a moment, glancing back, and Stiles could’ve sworn his eyes flickered for a moment. The man pressed his lips together, looked like he was going to say something else, and then pulled himself back out.

Stiles gaped in shock at the once more empty window. Because Derek was gone. And this time, Stiles was sure the man was not coming back.

He didn’t even know what to think of the werewolf anymore.

Stiles thought it was a little ridiculous how Derek had never learned how to knock.

That’s what he assumed, anyway, when his window was shoved up on a random Friday midnight and Derek the Grumpy Werewolf pulled himself through like he owned the place. Had it been any other weeknight or had Stiles been attempting to sleep, he might have been a little pissed. But as of that night, he was completely procrastinating sleep, and honestly, what use was telling Derek Hale ‘no’ anyway?

The man never knew how to take that for an answer.

Sighing, Stiles paused whatever Youtube video had been playing and half-closed his laptop, giving Derek a raised-eyebrow look.

“Yes, oh alpha of mine?”

For some reason, the man automatically frowned. “You’re still awake.”

And wasn’t that was a creepy way to start the conversation? Stiles blinked and closed his laptop the rest of the way. “Uh, yeah, dude, I am. Now please tell me you weren’t hoping for the opposite because this isn’t Twilight and I own an insane amount of wolfsbane. Just so you know.”

To that, Derek rolled his eyes. “No, Stiles.”

“‘No, Stiles’ what?”

The man just gave him a flat look— but that had been a fair question, okay?

One Stiles clearly wasn’t getting an answer to.

“Okay, then,” he said, raising his hands. “Just be all weird and creepy then, why don’t you? Yes, Sourwolf, I am awake. And no, I don’t plan on going to sleep any time soon. So do you need something?”

Derek hesitated for a moment before pulling something out of his pocket and stepping forward. Stiles sat straighter as the man dropped a set of keys onto his blankets— and automatically balked.

“Are those my car keys?”

Derek shoved his hands into his pockets and looked a little constipated. “Your jeep is parked in the driveway.”

“My jeep is… I’m sorry, what?”

“Parked in the driveway.”

Stiles stared at the man. Then he shoved himself up and stumbled to the window. And sure enough, his jeep was there. A little bit shiny looking, the duct tape no longer wrapped around the driver’s door handle, and wearing what looked like a new set of tires.

Slowly, Stiles turned back around. “Derek, my jeep was at mechanics.”

“Yes.”

Stiles stared. “Because it wouldn’t start.”

“Yes.”

“And it’s been there for three weeks because I couldn’t afford to get it fixed.”

Derek gave Stiles a look that made him feel like the idiot. As if all of this was somehow supposed to make sense. Because…

“Derek, did you pay to have my car fixed?”

The man didn’t answer for a long moment. Stiles took a deep breath, forcing himself not to turn right back around and stare at his jeep for a minute longer. Just to make sure all of this was real.

“Dude, I’m gonna need an answer. That really wasn’t a hard question.”

“... Yes.”

For a moment, all Stiles heard was white noise. Then he stalked forward and shoved a finger into Derek’s chest, but the man didn’t even move. “What do you mean, you fixed my car? Derek! Oh my god, how much did it cost? I’m going to need to get a job to pay you back. No, two jobs. And dip into my college funds. Oh my god!”

Derek finally reacted— by rolling his eyes. “I don’t want you to pay me back.”

“You don’t what ?”

If Stiles was overreacting a little bit, it wasn’t his fault. No, it definitely wasn’t. It was Derek Hale’s fault because apparently, the man thought it was normal to go around paying for people’s car repairments and—

Stiles blinked, staring blankly at the wall beyond Derek’s shoulder. “I’m gonna faint.”

Derek’s eyebrows shot up and he stepped forward; to which Stiles reacted by raising his hands and stumbling back. Ramming into the nearest wall, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Nope, nope, nope. Do not get any closer, dude. Don’t take one more step. In fact, I think I’m gonna need a minute.”

“I can go,” Derek said, sounding uncertain. Stiles opened one eye and stared at him.

“That… might be a good idea.”

And it probably wasn’t. No, it definitely wasn’t. But Stiles didn’t know what to think, he didn’t know how to react, and if Derek stuck around any longer, he might feel the need to throw himself out the window instead of sending the man away through it. And his dad would probably not appreciate that.

Oh god, how was he going to explain this to his dad?

Derek looked at him for a moment longer, concern still written across his face. But then he just nodded and moved back toward the window. Stiles didn’t even watch the man leave, his attention fully fixed on the set of keys on his bed. His stomach flipped.

Derek Hale had just paid to fix his car.

Stiles had never not understood the werewolf more.

It took a while for Stiles to regain the courage to go back to the loft.

The way things had ended the last time he’d been face to face with Derek Hale, he wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to expect. But stepping through the front door, it was clear almost instantly that nothing had changed.

Somehow, literally nothing had changed.

The betas were all gathered around the couch watching something on TV. Stiles caught what smelled like pancakes and heard the sound of dishes clattering in the kitchen. He stood still for a moment, head-spinning, and then moved toward the noise.

Derek was moving around the room with a towel thrown over his shoulder and a line of clean dishes next to an empty sink. The man’s grey-green eyes took their time drifting to where Stiles stood, gaping, and he just raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t know you were coming by.”

Stiles opened his mouth, then closed it. He had no idea what to say.

There was a stack of pancakes next to the stove.

“Are you hungry?”

And with those words, Stiles finally snapped back to reality. Slipping a hand into his pocket, he gripped his keys tightly and stepped forward, holding Derek’s gaze. Because dammit, all of this was throwing him through a loop and he didn’t know how to react anymore. It was driving him crazy.

“Derek, we need to talk.”

The man’s other brow raised and he crossed his arms; Stiles swallowed hard.

“Somewhere else.”

Because the last thing he wanted was any of the betas listening in to their conversation. Derek studied him for a moment longer before nodding and pulling the towel off his shoulder, dropping it onto the counter. Running his hands nervously through his hair, Stiles followed the man out of the kitchen, toward the loft door.

Isaac was the only one who looked away from the TV. The little bastard was smirking wide and obvious.

Stiles ground his teeth together and followed Derek out of the loft.

He’d kind of expected things to be awkward right from the start when he’d stepped foot in the loft. But Derek was acting like the entire event from a week ago hadn’t even happened. Meanwhile, Stiles could barely even look at his jeep without remembering every last word said.

Out in the hallway, Derek gave Stiles a blank look, his expression not betraying a thing. And, god, Stiles hated that about the werewolf sometimes.

“So,” he said, words sticking to his throat. “Yeah.”

Derek’s brows furrowed. Stiles cursed himself internally, biting down hard on his lower lip.

“Derek, what the hell is going on?”

“What do you mean?”

Stiles gaped at the man before shaking his head. Because he wasn’t imagining these things, dammit. “Uh, what do I mean? Derek!” He rubbed a hand over his face. “My car. The jacket. The constant weird leftovers and that one random time I was sick, you literally brought me soup? Even Scott didn’t bring me soup! And I had been complaining through text to him the entire day.”

Derek’s right eye twitched. The man didn’t say a word. Stiles’s head spun.

“I’m not going crazy,” he said. And he kind of needed to hear that out loud, even if he was the one to say it. “I just… I don’t understand you.”

Derek's face did something strange— maybe he looked a little red. But he didn’t say a word and Stiles hated him a little bit.

“I’m not going crazy, Derek.”

“No,” the man said, something in his expression finally softening. Stiles stared and Derek shoved his hands into his pockets, glancing at the wall over Stiles’s shoulder. “You’re not.”

Stiles swallowed hard, desperately hoping the man wasn’t going to leave him at that. Because he didn’t think he could manage more half explanations. The silence stretched as Derek didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then the man dropped his gaze.

“I… don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?”

“This.”

“I’m gonna need more than that, dude.”

Derek scowled at nothing. The man literally looked constipated now and Stiles might have been a little bit worried if he wasn’t so confused. So damn confused.

“Derek, do what?”

“All of… this! All of this, dammit, Stiles!”

Stiles startled. But before he even had a chance to react, Derek was moving forward. And then there were hands on the sides of his head, desperate lips pressing against his own, and Stiles jolted, nearly yanking back, and then all but melted into the touch.

For a moment Stiles.exe stopped working. His brain officially logged off and his instincts took over, leading Stiles to press right back, kissing Derek as hard as he could.

And if this was another thing he didn’t understand about Derek Hale, Stiles never wanted to figure the man out.

He kissed Derek hard and hungry. Because how long had he wanted to do this? There was a not-so-little part of him that had imagined kissing Derek Hale. Ever since Stiles had first laid eyes on the man. And okay, maybe he didn’t understand it, maybe he didn’t understand him, but at the same time, maybe Stiles had never wanted anything more. Wanted to know something, know someone, more.

At the rate his thoughts were going, that’s what he clung to anyway.

Derek broke contact first. The man drew back almost as fast as he had moved forward and Stiles was left standing there for a moment, swaying just a little, torn between catching Derek’s lips once more or passing out right where he stood.

But when he met Derek’s gaze, the man looked terrified. The coolness of the werewolf’s expression had finally vanished and Stiles wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Derek’s expression hold so much before.

“Oh,” he said. And yeah, that was the first thing that left his mouth. If possible, Derek’s face paled even more.

“I’m sorry.”

Stiles blinked. Just like that, he didn’t understand a thing about Derek Hale all over again. “You’re… what?”

“I’m sorry,” Derek said, clenching his jaw. “I shouldn’t— I didn’t—”

“Derek.”

The man cut off and looked at him with what could only be called a fragile expression. Stiles swallowed hard, all of it crashing down on him suddenly.

“Derek.”

“Stiles.”

Stiles stared. Derek Hale… god, Derek Hale was an enigma wrapped up in a leather jacket. Every time Stiles thought he was getting close to understanding even the smallest thing about the man, something had to change. Soup on a shitty day or a set of keys dropped onto his mattress. And sometimes Stiles thought he understood Derek Hale. But other times, he thought he never would.

The feel of the kiss still lingered on his lips. Maybe… just maybe he could understand that much. For a moment.

Stiles stepped forward carefully. “You confuse the hell out of me.”

Derek stayed stiff and silent. Reaching out, Stiles brushed the tips of his fingers against the man’s own.

“You’re like a thousand lines of red string, Derek Hale.”

Something flickered in Derek’s eyes. Stiles couldn’t tell if it was confusion or a hint of nervousness. Maybe it was a little bit of both.

Licking his lips, Stiles tilted his chin up and searched the man’s face. “I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand you.”

This time, Derek looked a little pained. Stiles offered a small smile.

“But I’d like to.”

Grey-green eyes flickered with the faintest hue of red. Stiles closed that last foot of space between them and took Derek’s hands fully, hoping the werewolf couldn’t hear how fast his heart was racing. Because he felt a little lightheaded and a little nauseous— like if this didn’t work out, he might throw up.

Which totally was not sexy at all.

“Derek?”

The man stared at him. The barest hint of color had finally returned to his cheeks. “Stiles.”

“You should totally kiss me again.”

Derek blinked. His expression did something strange. And then it was like the tension had been wiped from his face. In the breath of a moment, warm lips were pressing against Stiles’s again and this time, there was nothing desperate about it. Nothing hard, nothing sudden, nothing rash. The man kissed him warm, careful, and it was kind of like a leather jacket being draped over his shoulders in the cold of the rain.

Stiles smiled against Derek’s lips. Because honestly, there was something about it that just seemed right. And he thought he knew what it all could become.

He'd like to, at least.

For the moment, though, Stiles kissed the man with just as much hope and decided he understood that much.

#sterek #teen wolf #sterek prompt #sterek fanfiction #ficlet #derek hale #stiles stilinski #stiles x derek #eternalsterek #prompts

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harringtonstudios · 5 years ago

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hershey’s.

plot: you didn’t expect halloween night to go like this.

A/N: it’s nowhere near halloween haha, but inspiration strikes in weird ways. let me know what you think & if i should try for a part 2? v soft & long! :)

taglist: @iamdorka

Halloween night in Cleveland was almost always crazy. There had been years where you had been off partying in clubs and houses, spilling alcohol over couches and laughing with friends. Usually, that’s where you would be found, in between the music, hands thrown around a nameless face as your best friend egged you from across the room. This year felt different though, quieter in a sense.

It had been a while since you’d shown your face in the party scene, the last time ending in a disastrous way. You had rushed to the hospital with your best friend, getting there only to find out that she was suffering from alcohol poisoning. It had been a real wake up call, and you both had decided to stay sober for the time being. That had been a month ago, and so far you really hadn’t missed the alcohol version of you. But with Halloween coming up, you felt a tinge of nostalgia at the previous year’s antics. Things had always been so fun and dressing up was something you looked forward to. Swallowing the memories down, you reminded yourself that this was more for your friend’s sake than yours and nodded enthusiastically when she mentioned horror movie night. You wouldn’t get to pull out your costume, but if that meant keeping her safe and happy, you’d do it without hesitation.

One thing neither of you had prepared for was trick-or-treating. Staying at home meant constant knocking on your front door. You had turned off the lights, drawn all the curtains to give off the impression that nobody was home, but the kids didn’t seem to give up so easily. Sighing, you got off of the couch, walking over the kitchen to search in the cupboards for any type of candy to give away. Your hands passed a large bag of Hershey bars that you had once bought after your terrible breakup. It wasn’t even opened and you let your fingers hover over it before you heard yet another hard knock on your door. Grabbing the bag with only a hint of regret, you walked to the front door and braced yourself as you opened it.

There was a little girl standing in front of you, dressed as a ladybug. She had on a red skirt, and a red antenna headband and you smiled as she looked up at you. Holding out her pumpkin basket, she exclaimed, “Trick oh Treat!” You laughed as you pulled out a whole bar from the bag, and leaned down to put it in her empty basket.

“What do we say Case,” someone said from behind her, and you looked past your porch. Standing at the curb, there was a man on top of a skateboard. He grinned as you made eye contact and you immediately willed yourself not to blush. You had a type, and this man was very obviously what you usually went for. You could see his tattoos in the dim light, and he had a beanie propped on his head, at an awkward angle. Regretting your outfit choice, an old Slurpie stained t-shirt and a pair of gym shorts, you crossed your legs trying to hide the worn out fabric.

“Thank,” the girl mumbled and she turned around to cautiously walk back down the stairs. He met her halfway, lifting her up and turning her around to face you. “Thank you,” he said to her and she looked at you, raising her little hand, “Thank yu!”

“Yeah, no problem,” you smiled back. He gave you another grin before setting her down and walking back to grab his skateboard. You closed the door as soon as he turned his back, smiling as you went over the interaction in your head. Leaving the bag of candy by the door, you ran to the window, slightly moving the curtain to see the duo. He was holding her hand as she slowly walked down the road and you could feel your heart melting at the sight.

“Who was that?” your friend questioned and you turned around. Not wanting to particularly share why you were grinning like an idiot, you brushed it off. “Okay, come back! You’re missing all the good parts,” she declared. You walked back to your spot on the couch and plopped yourself down, willing your mind to become invested in this stupid film.

A few scenes later, you heard knocking on your door again. “Don’t get it Y/N. It’s the climax scene,” your friend whispered as she moved closer to you. You gave her a look as the knock came again a little harder. Pushing her away from you, you got up. “Seriously,” she whispered at you and you stuck your tongue out as you went towards the door. There was a tiny part of you that hoped it was the ladybug girl again, but you knew there was no way it was. You’d opened the door a couple of times in between and it’d always been some other kids, eyes lighting up as you gave them king-sized candy bars. It felt good to see their smiles and enthusiasm as they bounded down your stairs to show their parents. You grabbed the bag from the floor as you opened it again.

There stood the guy from earlier, holding his daughter again, fist paused mid-air as he reached to knock again. “Oh, hey,” he said as he saw your confused face. “Hi,” you responded questioningly.

“I know we’ve already been at your house but my kid got their candy stolen and you’re like loaded can you just spare one more c-” he rambled out as you reached into the bag for the last few bars.

Pulling out four, you dropped them into his daughter’s basket. “Oh God, no not the whole bag of candy, dude, she’s gonna be off the walls,” he ended with as you laughed.

“It’s all I have left. You should take them, gives me a good excuse to not open the door anymore,” you said as you held up the empty bag. He seemed kinda shocked, eyes glancing up at you before he replied, “You positive?”

“Yeah, my friend’s been trying to get me to ignore the kids anyway,” you blurted out before clasping a hand over your mouth. “I didn’t mean it like that,” you mumbled as he snickered.

“Nah, you’re good,” he shook his head slightly. As soon as the words left his mouth, screaming started from inside the house. Both of you peered in and you shouted, “You good?”

He put his daughter down on your porch as he moved a little closer to the door. “Y/N YOU JUST MISSED THE REVEAL MAN OH FUCK,” your friend shouted from the living room. You turned back around to face him, rolling your eyes. Seeing his questioning expression, you clarified by pumping your fist in the air, “We’re watching a horror movie. Halloween nights woooo!”

“Mhm, so your name’s Y/N? That’s pretty,” he said as he casually licked his lips. You laughed a little and he raised his eyebrows at your reaction. Pointing at his daughter, you responded, “Sorry man, she’s like trying to eat the wrapping.” Reaching down, you took the candy bar from her hands and opened it a little. Breaking off a piece, you handed it to her and she giggled before smashing it in her mouth.

“Shit, I didn’t know she would do that, sorry,” you looked up at him. He was smiling and he waved it away.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry, I have tissues somewhere,” he dipped his hands into his pockets, searching as his daughter continued to spread the chocolate over her cheeks. Coming up empty, he grimaced.

“Hey, um if you want, you can come in and clean her up? Just take your shoes off at the door,” you suggested. He hesitated for a second before responding, “You sure?” Getting back up, you nodded, “Yeah, my friend won’t mind.”

Scooping up his daughter, he kicked his skateboard, propping it against the edge of the door. You picked up her pumpkin basket, seeing him struggle to keep her sticky face away from his jacket. As he toed off his shoes, he said, “I’m Colson, by the way.”

Closing the door behind you, you smiled at him. “Nice to meet you Colson. Bathroom’s down the hall, first door on the right. Let me know if you need anything.” He shot you a thumbs up from under his daughter’s legs.

Running into the living room, you sat back on the edge of your couch. You could feel the warmth on your face and you huffed before poking your friend. “Sooo, there’s a really cute guy in our bathroom right now with his daughter, how do I look?” you mumbled out as you struck a pose. She laughed, smacking your arm and you dropped the pose. “No I’m serious. Is this outfit the one?” you said, motioning to the stain on your shirt.

“Y/N!,” she screeched and you laughed, feeling happier than you had in awhile. This might turn out to be the best Halloween night yet, and all it had taken was a few king-size Hershey bars.

#here we go again i am clown #machine gun kelly imagine #machine gun kelly x reader #machine gun kelly fanfiction #machine gun kelly fanfic #mgk imagine #mgk fanfic #mgk fanfiction #mgk #colson baker x reader #colson baker fanfiction #colson baker imagine #mgk x reader #casie baker #m-writes-4-mgk

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moonlightsbeams · 5 years ago

Text

The Queen’s Court Chapter 2

Waking up in the morning, Chloe stares at the ceiling. Was yesterday really… real? Was she really a superhero?

She turns her head to see Pollen, curled up next to her on the pillow. Chloe smiles, whispering, “So it wasn’t a dream.”

Pollen stretches, blinking her big eyes up at Chloe. “Good morning my queen! I hope you don’t mind that I slept on your pillow, I just dozed off.”

Chloe shakes her head. “No, no, you’re fine. I think- I think it’s sweet that you care so much.”

Pollen perks up, and Chloe smiles at her before going off to get herself ready for school. If her Adrikins was finally going to show up, she needed to look extra special.

While she brushes her hair, Pollen flies up to her. “My queen, do you have something you can carry me around in? I need to be at your side at all times in case of an akuma attack.”

“Of course,” Chloe preens. “I always carry a purse with me. Now let’s pick the perfect combo for today!”

After picking the perfect accessories, eating breakfast fit for her royal likening, and having her chaffeur drive her, she’s finally at school. Sabrina’s not here yet, so she examines the scene in front of her.

The new girl… Okay it had to be Ariel, right? Is blabbering to Dupain-Cheng about some blog she made about.. The new superheroes. Specifically Queen Bee. Chloe feels her heart swell, she deserves to have an entire blog about her, even without the miraculous. But even though the limelight is on her, she feels her teammates deserve just as much attention as her. Besides, the BeeBlog? Ridiculous name.

“Isn’t the whole point of the team is that they’re all royalty?” Chloe drawls, injecting herself into their conversation. “You’re only paying attention to one part of one hero. Your blog should be themed around royalty, not just Queen Bee.”

Suddenly Dupain-Cheng turns to Chloe, her face scrunched up in undeniable anger. “Do you have a problem with Queen Bee?” she hisses. “She was amazing yesterday and far more amazing than you could ever be.”

First off, Dupain Cheng was talking back to Chloe? She had always been mild mannered and never fought back against Chloe. And secondly, was she seriously accusing Chloe of being jealous of herself?

“I know that Queen Bee is amazing, I saw first hand how brilliantly she fought against Ivan yesterday,” Chloe sneers, shooting a glance towards the boy in question. “I’m just drawing the fact to attention that if someone’s going to report on our new superheroes, she should focus on all of them. Princess Kitten and Sir Coccinelle are just as powerful, brilliant, and fantastic as Queen Bee. None of them would be able to fight without each other.” She stares Dupain-Cheng down, ignoring Alyssa’s murmurs of it being a working table. Chloe has only met her teammates once, but she already knows she would trot to the end of the Earth for them.

Before she could get into a proper fight with Dupain-Cheng, her eyes are drawn to a familiar blonde boy furiously running to school. “Adrikins!” Chloe cries, rushing to him and clinging to his arm. “I’m so happy you finally made it!” She nuzzles into his arm, and pulls him inside school to tell him how lonely she was without him, not caring to notice Sabrina trailing behind them.

Upon entering the classroom, Chloe’s eyes flicker to Dupain-Cheng’s seat. With her free hand, she reaches into her bag for a stick of gum, but her fingers brush up against Pollen. She gently pats Pollen’s head, and then pauses.

Pollen worships her.. But what would Pollen think about Chloe sticking gum to Dupain-Cheng’s seat? What would Princess Kitten and Sir Coccinelle think? Chloe remembers how Sir Coccinelle looked up to her, with his big innocent eyes, and how relieved Princess Kitten looked when Queen Bee was kind to her. And although Chloe enjoys the power she feels tormenting Dupain-Cheng, she feels that Queen Bee just wouldn’t do that. Chloe-Chloe doesn’t know what to do.

Is - is she not worthy of the Bee Miraculous?

She spaces out, at unease with herself, not spacing back in until she hears a roar very similar to the giant beast she fought yesterday ring through the school. She jerks out of her stupor to see Ivan in the monster form burst into the classroom, grab Mylene and storm off, leaving destruction in his wake.

The classroom erupts into chaos, and Chloe takes the opportunity to rush off and transform. She passes Dupain-Cheng, and pauses at the determined look on her face. Dupain-Cheng, who has never stood up to Chloe, despite years of torment, radiates this energy that makes her believe that she could destroy the beast.

For a second, Chloe’s glad that she didn’t put the gum on Dupain-Cheng’s seat.

She slam into a bathroom stall, and opens her bag to let Pollen out. Pollen flutters out of the bag, a concerned look on her face. “My queen,” she chirps. “I feel as if you are extremely upset, what’s wrong?”

Chloe shakes her head. “No time to talk! We have an akuma to defeat! Pollen, buzz on!”

Queen Bee scrambles her way to the top of the school where she spots Ivan clutching Mylene in a stone fist stomping through the streets, while human sized versions of the stone monsters run around causing destruction. Not seeing Princess Kitten or Sir Cocinelle, she decides to follow Ivan to avoid making him bigger, and causing herself more problems.

She follows him to the Eiffel Tower, and lands behind a police barricade. “What’s going on?” Queen Bee asks, trying to put on her most authoritative voice.

She recognizes Sabrina’s dad, who turns to her with an annoyed, condescending look on his face. “Leave the work to the professionals, alright?”

Queen Bee bristles, and bites her tongue to stop herself from calling him a very not nice word. “I’m sorry, Officer, but do you have superpowers?” She shoots at Officer Raincomprix.

Sure, her power isn’t the most powerful, but still, she’s the one wielding the Bee Miraculous and not him. Where’s Princess Kitten staff and Sir Cocinelle’s Lucky Charm when you need them?

Sir Coccinelle lands next to her, and she sighs in relief that at least one member of her team is here. Now all she needs is Princess Kitten, and they can take Ivan down once and for all. “Your Majesty,” he says with a comical, over exaggerated bow. “How lucky we meet again. How may your humble knight help you?”

Queen Bee snorts. “At least you know how to address me, oh dashing knight. Maybe you can convince the kind officer here that we are here to help protect Paris? I’m going to scout to figure out where the akuma is this time.”

“Why, of course, your majesty!” He gives another goofy bow, and Queen Bee leaps off.

As she surveys the scene from a rooftop, a blur of black lands in front of her. “Queen Bee, I’m so sorry I’m late,” Princess Kitten apologizes, her face scrunched up in distress. “I was afraid that I wasn’t a good superhero, or that I just got in the way yesterday, and I panicked, and I just keep letting you down-”

Queen Bee shoves a finger against Princess Kitten’s lips. “Princess, you know what I can not stand? When people who are clearly talented put themselves down.” Queen Bee snaps, looking into Princess Kitten’s big blue eyes.

Queen Bee softens, seeing the sheer and utter panic on her face. “Princess, you are so much more than you believe. Sure, Sir Coccinelle got rid of the damage done to the city, but it was because of you he was able to do that! Without your Cataclysm, we couldn’t have defeated Iv- the akuma in the first place, and we most definitely can’t do it without you. You are more than enough and we need you. Not anyone else. So please, chatonne, stay.”

Princess Kitten blinks a few times, and nods, a smile spreading across her face.. “Th- thank you Queen Bee. I really needed to hear that.”

And with a start, Queen Bee realizes that she has never been this kind. The sweet thankful smile on Princess Kitten’s face makes her want to do it a thousand times over.

A roar from Ivan snaps her out of her musing, and she looks up to see a face shaped out of butterflies sneering down at them. “Paris, I am Hawkmoth. I created and control Stoneheart. To the royal menagerie, surrender your Miraculouses to me if you don’t want to harm Paris.”

“How dare you turn this on us!” Princess Kitten shouts. Queen Bee whips around to see her, eyes furrowed, fists clenched, her staff pointed accusingly at the butterfly face. “You literally said that you were the creator of the akuma who’s destroying Paris! You took advantage of an innocent person’s emotions for some selfish reason!”

Queen Bee steps forward, and grabs Princess Kitten’s free hand. “She’s right. We are not the villains here! You’re literally the one who’s using butterflies to terrorise Paris.”

Sir Coccinelle jumps up from his conversation with a very annoyed Officer Raincomprix to stand at Queen Bee’s side, a giant shit-eating grin on his face. “Seriously, dude. No one’s scared of a bunch of butterflies. Us Parisians have faced much worse.”

Hawkmoth scowls, sneering, “You will regret not taking my offer soon enough.”

Queen Bee looks him up and down, an eyebrow raised, a smirk on her face. “No, I really think we won’t.”

Hawkmoth disappears into a burst of butterflies, but Queen Bee frankly could not care less. She throws her arms around her teammates, pulling them in. “Who’s ready to get rid of Stoneheart once and for all?”

“Yes please,” groans Princess Kitten, but she’s still grinning, and leaning into Queen Bee.

Sir Coccinelle throws his hands up into the arms and cheers. “First villain take down! Or, is it the second? Whatever, doesn’t matter! Lucky Charm!”

“A parachute?”

Queen Bee snorts at his baffled reaction, and waits a moment for his.. Ladybug vision to work. She examines it, and sees that once again, Stoneheart has a clenched fist. “I’m pretty sure the akuma’s in the fist again.” She looks at Sir Coccinelle, and the pieces click together. “First villain takedown, take 2, let’s go!”

After one hap hazardous event with a parachute, a call of Venom that turned out to be useless, and holding Ivan far too close for comfort, they’re all on the ground with the akuma properly purified this time. Queen Bee watches as Princess Kitten encourages Mylene to read Ivan’s paper. She watches as they awkwardly hug, and files away the memory for later use. Teasing or tormenting, she wasn’t quite sure. A beep from all of their Miraculouses tears the superheroes away from the two civilians.

They quickly fist bump, and Sir Coccinelle gives another comical bow. “I’m looking forward to fighting by your sides.”

“Me too, bug boy,” Queen Bee says, and watches him swing off. Turning to Princess Kitten, she gives her a soft smile. “I hope you’re planning on sticking around, chatonne. I would hate to lose you as quickly as I got you.”

Princess Kitten shakes her head furiously. “No, no no! I mean yes! Yes, I am most definitely staying!”

Queen Bee lets herself giggle, and gently boops her nose. “Glad to keep you around, chatonne.” Queen Bee swings back to school, slipping back into the hordes reentering the school, finding Sabrina.

Entering the classroom, Chloe overhears excited chatter from the new girl. “I can’t believe I missed today’s fight! Especially considering the wicked cool new name my blog’s got!”

Dupain-Cheng’s voice returns, strong and reassuring. “C’mon Alya, I’m sure there will be plenty more. That Hawkmoth guy seemed kind of serious. And you know, you didn’t have to listen to Chloe, BeeBlog was a fine name.”

Chloe side eyes Dupain-Cheng and Alya, as the latter shakes her head. “No, BeeBlog was a dumb name. From now on, Paris can get all their news about our superheroes from the Queendom!”

Chloe smiles. Now that’s a name she could get behind. Before she takes her seat, she pauses, and then swivels around to face Dupain-Cheng. “Hey. You can have your seat back if you want.” Chloe tries to say in her nicest face. It was a lot easier to be nice to Princess Kitten, but Dupain-Cheng? A whole other story.

She’s only greeted by blank stares. This is going to be harder than she wanted. “It wasn’t.. Cool of me to force you out of your seat yesterday. You got there fair and square. Sabrina and I don’t care sitting where I forced you to sit before.”

With a huff, she stomps off to the seat, sliding in.

“I thought you said Chloe always got what she wanted?” She overhears Alya whisper. She bristles, about to retract her beautiful and well thought out apology, but is interrupted by Marinette whispering back, “Hey, I guess anyone can change. New year, new Chloe.”

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

Chloe retracts any thoughts of goodwill she might’ve had.

She fumes in the pouring rain, her diamond encrusted phone clenched in her hand. Apparently, Daddy has been so busy with press conferences that he forgot to send for her chauffeur, leaving Chloe locked out of school in the thunderstorm. Sure, the driver was on his way, but that still didn’t change the fact that Chloe is soaked, her makeup is running, and Pollen could be getting wet. Goodness help her if anyone sees her like this, she might die.

“Chloe?”

Chloe was going to murder someone. “Don’t look at me,” she snaps any attempts of kindness leaving her system.

“I never thanked you for letting me have my seat back earlier,” Dupain-Cheng presses on, seemingly oblivious to Chloe’s wrath threatening to pour out of her.

“Whatever, it was never mine to take in the first place,” she snaps, wishing on any star that Dupain-Cheng would just leave.

“But you admitted you were wrong, which is something you’ve done, and you were surprisingly nice about it.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, my driver will be here soon, so you should get back to your bakery or whatever.”

“Here.”

Chloe turns to see Dupain-Cheng offering her her umbrella, smiling, and damn. That was a nice smile.

“What-what are you doing?” Chloe sputters, attempting to avoid making eye contact.

“I live super close, a little rain won’t hurt me. Please, take it.”

“Why? I’ve done nothing to deserve your handout.”

“No one deserves to be soaking in the rain. Besides, I was kind of hoping this year could be a fresh start for the two of us.”

Chloe looks up at Dupain-Cheng's hopeful smile. She pushes the umbrella closer. “What do you say?”

Chloe gingerly takes the umbrella, reassured by her kind gaze, but jumps when a clap of thunder goes off when they brush hands, pouring rain on the umbrella onto her head.

Marinette restrains a snort, and Chloe’s about to snap at her, but stops herself. “Thank you...Marinette.”

Marinette smiles big, and rushes off into the rain. “Bring it back tomorrow, okay?”

Chloe smiles, and whispers, “I will.”

Pollen flies out, and nuzzles against Chloe’s cheek. Chloe turns to her, and asks, “What just happened?”

Pollen only giggles, and responds, “I think we both know, my queen.”

Chloe touches a hand to her blushing face.

“Fuck.”

Chapter 1

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfic #Queen Bee #adrien has the ladybug miraculous #marinette has the cat miraculous #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #chloe bourgeois #chloe x marinette #chlonette #adrien agreste #the queen's court #chloe/marinette

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patchdotexe · 4 years ago

Text

explorers of arvus: heading back / 3.11.21

zoom and enhonse

LAST TIME ON ARVUS taure passed out and we are now down a healer! also we met a disciple of halvkar, and surprisingly did not murder her. this is fine. we have instantly gotten distracted by our various carts. cats. our various cats

DID ANY OF US CATCH TAURE, SHE FELL OVER sieron tried to catch her and smacked charlie+thorne in the face (he rolled a nat1, f) BUT the catboy is to the rescue bc silje is the designated Not Incompetent of the group today

CONSULT THE CHILD hewwo yrel yrel: her mind is being consumed by the serpent of nightmares. :D charlie: HELLO?????//

so, dendar(?) the night serpent is imprisoned beneath arvus! she was formed from the nightmares of the first sentient being, and sometimes she eats people's nightmares. if she's exceptionally hungry, she'll force nightmares onto people for her to feed off their fear. yrel thinks taure will Probably wake up. there's a thing on arvus mentioned by the locals called a "sleeping sickness" where people will fall asleep for a few days, sometimes longer, but will wake up. its magical in cause, the people afflicted by it have horrific nightmares, and its just kinda. a thing. wowza

(i have gone back to spelling yrel's name as yrel bc i think it looks nice)

OH HEY SOMEONE POSTED A THEORY ON ONE OF MY STICKMOLUS ANIMATIONS man i should get back to stickmolus sometime. once dsmp releases its awful grip on me.

i keep getting distracted by seeing myself in the camera preview. i have a tooth gap! what the fuck its cute?? K I KNOW WE'RE SUPER BLURRY IN FRONT RN BUT PLEASE HELP ME STAY FOCUSED I SWEAR -leo

we're gonna build a sled! to put taure on. thorne: i have a good strength score. ....i say, out loud charlie: i am four feet tall. [cue argument between thorne & sieron about them both being horcs but sieron has a +0 bc strength is his dump stat] OH, OKAY, THORNE ROLLED A NAT20 TO CARRY TAURE. NICE

[discussion about what to tell everyone at camp vengenace] thorne: the last thing we need to do is a witch hunt charlie: --and we already hunted the witch! the witch has been hunted.

time to discuss strategy! we need to figure out how to head back to camp vengeance, eg if we want to follow the path we already took or if we wanna do some trailblazing. looks like we're gonna try and take the most direct path! which means we'll prolly risk tangoing with some undead but im willing to risk it TINY HUT STAIRCASE sorry i just remember it now and then

nyx: [meowing at his cats] thorne: uh... why is silje meowing? jorb: silje's food bowl is empty jorb: you look at silje's food bowl and there's a divot in the middle and the food is all on the sides emotionally, we must bully the catboy silje saw something interesting and started meowing

thorne: ill take first watch silje: ill also take first watch. charlie: [quietly] gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy (but, like, extended for 15 seconds)

silje: [takes watch] [rolls a nat1 and gets distracted by looking at his crush]

THORNE HAS LOCATED A DOG the dog does not give a shit about the tiny hut. THE DOG HAS PEED ON THE TINY HUT goodbye dog

EVERYONE IS ROLLING AT LEAST 1 NAT1 thorne: wow! that sure is a dog. thorne has drawn the worst possible dog. thorne has erased the worst possible dog. we dont speak of the worst possible dog its the dog version of honse. DONSE

sieron is now on watch! MAN we are havin trouble rolling today. at least kali's here to make sure sieron doesnt stare at a rock for 50000 years sieron sees a mouse! bottom text

charlie is now on watch! kali is havin a big ol thonk. nothing meaningful has come of this

i am perceiving some deer. sieron is not perceiving some deer. silje is perceiving some deer, but better the deer are fucked up and undead! silje has gone from "we should hunt these deer for food" to "we should hunt these deer for sport"

charlie: i do not feel like being jumped by five thousand skeletons

charlie takes first watch with sieron! WHY ARE OUR ROLLS SO TERRIBLE taure is super cursed right now. that's not very pog charlie: this place sucks. thorne: to be fair, we havent-- charlie: YOU'RE ASLEEP, SHUT UP

oh hey coolname galvanic finally partied. nice.

thorne is at watch! solar: hey, is leomund's tiny hut an orb? there's a critter digging around! AH, THE CRITTER IS UNDEAD. this could be a problem

solar: hey michael, how much does the horrific sin against god dog i drew look like this creature michael: [dice roll noises] about 50%.

michael: if anyone likes, they can make a nature check-- solar: ME MEMEMEMEME ME ME ME

its a bulette! aka a land shark. problem: they are not normally undead. this one is undead.

jorb: imagine if you could tame one of those and use it as a mount. leo: IT WOULD JUST DIG UNDERGROUND AND LEAVE YOU THERE

we are just calling it a weird dog

we're going to mail a letter to the heart of arvus. HEY, CHECK OUT THIS WEIRD DOG,

JORB FOUND ART OF A BABY BULETTE. WEIRD PUPPY!

solar: hey guys, check out this sick art of a bulette i found

silje kept a lookout for the weird dog but its just fucked off. goodbye, weird dog give it up for day 3!

man there's been like, three incinerations today in blaseball. what's up with that. I SWEAR IM MOSTLY PAYING ATTENTION its just been an eventful day in blaseball. also im wearing my garages bomber rn. jaylen is home wooOOOO the wind smells stinky. this is fine.

we're actively avoiding whatever combat michael keeps nudging at us bc we're carrying around an unconscious person and i SWEAR hes gonna throw something directly at us once he's done with our shenanigans

UHH MICHAEL ASKING FOR PASSIVE PERCEPTION LOL

huh. this place used to be inhabited? we're in the woods rn but there's some like, stone ruins? like, VERY ruins. like, not really any structures standing, but enough evidence to show there Were things. WE FOUND A STATUE charlie: i want to smash my face against the lore.

used to be a circle of standing stones, but most of em fell over or got overgrown. inside of the circle has been cleared, although v roughly-- ground's torn up statue is of fjolnir! warrior holding up a spear and shield. AH, THERE ARE CORPSES, a human got REAL fucked up here. one of the corpses is straight up impaled on fjolnir's spear. n ... not pog.

i am trying so, so hard to pay attention. but i also kinda wanna take a nap.

charlie: [stares at statue] [rolls a 4] i wonder if he had a dick.

okay so something rolled in, tore up the overgrowth inside the circle, and murdered a couple dudes. and was also super tall and human-adjacent. hrm.

oh my god why are we rolling so shit today. time to stealth away and hope we dont get casually dismembered

k: jorb's hair is so long... leo: K, PLEASE,

time for a break! i am very tired but im gonan see if i can push through a little further. nyx is petting his cat why do orangatangs look like that

first watch is thorne and sieron! have they even, like, talked thorne unhabby ): thorne's worried we were tresspassing when checking out the statue, meanwhile im thinking about that one time when sieron got bit by a groundhog

(oh my god this is from late 2018)

leomund's tiny hut, aka the anti-sea bear circle we are getting SO much mileage out of the tiny hut. SILJE HUMS A SONG WITH KALI cute........... FINALLY I HAVE ROLLED ABOVE A 14 wait no i rolled a 16 twice. anyway we are not dead

nearly at camp vengenace! boy howdy i hope camp vengeance didnt get burned down. AH FUCK TAURE IS UNCONSCIOUS SO WE CANT CAST FOR DETECT POISON kaepora nearly made us all shit ourselves but its okay he just saw some bison and thought it was cool Michael Is Consulting Several Tables

WHY DOES JORB'S CAMERA ZOOM LIKE THAT why am i hungry. i have so many questions

HEY, TALL GUY [smacks sieron]

camp vengeance looks better! like, nobody's Obviously Sick anymore, the medical tents arent overfilled, we did it! we saved the dayyyyyy time to report to ryder! taure's getting dropped off at the medical tent

man remember when charlie didnt wear pants

oh man, with taure unconscious charlie is now taking point with social interaction. wild. jk im making jorb do it bc im tired HAHA NAT 20 PERSUASION BC OF ME HELPIN SIERON man ryder is such a cock. he was totally ready to keep throwing troops at heaven's brazier to die until we managed to persuade him out of it. jorb: did we tell ryder about the vision? michael: you kinda just took a look at him and went STINKY BOY!

okay yeah anything that dies on arvus will just pop back up as undead. man, arvus sucks.

ryder: alright, dismissed. charlie: seeya, soldier boy! :D hahahahaha im gonna eat his knees.

SILJE NEEDS ENRICHMENT IN HIS ENCLOSURE

charlie: ive decided he sucks. silje: we've already arrived to that, you're late!

LMAO WE WALKED IN ON INGRID AND HER CRUSH they fuckin. nice. you go, you funky lesbian

jorb: we've got the tiny hut, we could go anywhere leo: we could go to SPACE! nyx: we could not go to space. leo: WITH A TINY HUT STAIRCASE, WE CAN,

we are 320 miles away from the spaceship that exists on arvus. nice.

michael: justin sees you-- roll a strength saving throw. leo: i cant wait to die! [rolls a 3] I AM CRUSHED BY MY DOG michael: he rolled a nat20.

BOSS ENCOUNTER: CHARLIE'S DOG (the small circle next to him is one of the medical tents.)

THORNE IS PACT OF THE GUN solar: PARRY THIS, YOU FUCKING CASUAL

sieron, to ingrid: seems like youve been doing well charlie: i punch sieron. sieron: sieron: the camp, of course.

man we have no idea if the heart of arvus is actually related to the prophecy or not. theres a Lot of stuff lining up, but not enough, and its hard to say how much of it couldve been literal?

solar & michael: [discussing exposition] me: [cracking up bc penn sent me a funny dsmp joke]

prophecies are weird.

charlie is just s she is just sitting here SILJE PLAYED CARDS REALLY GOOD AT ME nyx rolled a nat20 and took all my money

oh cool we can talk to yrel telepathically! time to hoist yrel. THIS IS SO SCUFFED thorne mentioned yrel and now we're trying to explain to ingrid that we have a magic talking snake charlie: I WANT TO GO HOME. thorne: we cant go, we have a GOD-KING to kill! "i think theyre insane, theyre talking to a snake" "ingrid, druids exist" "oh. im gonna go back to getting railed by my 7 foot tall girlfriend"

#leo chirps #ttrpg #explorers of arvus #OKAY WE'RE CAUGHT UP NOW sorry abt that lmao

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drivingsideways · 4 years ago

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10, 14 and 27 for Kang Hyeon-min (TMTTAL) please!

For the character meme

Thanks for playing along @saltr0se

10. What do they like to do when it rains?

What a GREAT question. Ok, so like, Hyeon-min generally thinks he feels like a normal person would about rain- which is to say, depends on context , right? It can be pretty, the pitter-patter of the raindrops soothing, especially when you're safe and dry inside and have got your hands around a steaming, fragrant cup of tea. It can be a fucking annoyance when you're on a stake out and huddling under the eaves of some run down shop, jeans getting wet and heavy and socks getting damp through allegedly water proof sneakers; it can be dull and boring when it's a drizzle that lasts the entire week, grey clouds never letting up, everything just that much more of a chore, somehow. But then it can also be like the time when he takes Yeong out of Busan for a picnic, that first summer.

It's an abandoned radio station out in the hills dating back to the 1940s; rusted gates opening to a path overgrown with weeds, winding gently uphill. There are three radio towers up there, no longer in use, though urban legend says that on some nights, if you tune into the right frequency, you'll hear—something. Hyeon-min's even caught it once or twice- a dull, monotonous hum that could be something or nothing. Military, if anything, Hyeon-min had concluded, and promptly lost interest. There were more important mysteries to solve, though he's aware that conspiracy theorists love this one. Not many make it up here, though, after so many years.

"Aliens" says Hyeon-min, waggling his eyebrows at Yeong, "They're coming for us."

Yeong rolls his eyes.

"What?" asks Hyeon-min, overjoyed. Getting an actual eye-roll is a score. "You think we're alone in the universe?"

Something shadows Yeong's face, but it disappears too fast for Hyeon-min to parse it.

"I like to think they'd find more efficient ways of contacting us", he says dryly.

"Hey, there could be dumb aliens out there" Hyeon-min points out, as he flops down on the grass.

It's a clear day, not a cloud in sight, and the view of the city, and the sea beyond it, is spectacular.

"Hard to imagine", says Yeong, as he lowers himself gingerly onto the grass. Even though he's dressed "casual"- dark beige slacks and a crisp shirt that's distractingly unbuttoned at the collar. He'd almost pointed it out, but then thought the better of it- what if it made Yeong button it up? That would be- unfortunate. From this angle, he gets a tantalizing view of a collarbone and a flash of tanned skin, stretched smooth over—

Yeong's looking at him from behind his shades and his lips quirk a little.

"Enjoying the view?"

"Spectacular", confirms Hyeon-min, grinning up at him.

Yeong doesn't move.

"Oh, for fuck's sake", groans Hyeon-min, "Come here."

Kissing Yeong has fast become one of Hyeon-min's favourite things to do, and here, out in the open, but sheltered from the world, with the sun warming their bodies, and the air still crisp, it's a little slice of heaven, and Hyeon-min's floating gently on the endorphin-boost of it all, when the sky decides to literally rain on his parade. The sun is still out too, which is the stupidest thing—

"Rainbow", Yeong says against his mouth, "We'll probably get to see one."

And huh, Hyeon-min would have placed a thousand-won on Yeong hating the rain, but apparently, he would have lost that bet, because Yeong just remains latched to his face, and oh, how sweet, he'd moved so that he was covering most of Hyeon-min's body, sheltering it from the downpour. Water drips down the side of his face, and his hair, and onto Hyeon-min's, and Hyeon-min pulls him closer to taste him, getting drunker by the minute on the salt-skin-water-sweetness of Yeong, until the rain stops as abruptly as it started. When they disentangle themselves, there is a rainbow arching across the sky, and Hyeon-min thinks back to the story he learnt in Sunday School as a child: rainbows are promises. Today, for the first time, he believes it.

14. What five to ten objects do they always have on their person?

Always, except when naked in bed, or including then? 😉

Hmm, usually, when fully clothed, and out-and-about in the world- wallet, keys, mobile, badge, watch.

Even when not fully clothed, he wears a small, plain gold cross on a thin chain. Not the most practical, and he hides it under his shirt, not the least because he doesn't want criminal-du-jour to yank it, but also because it's the kind of sentiment he'd rather not reveal. The cross is a gift from eomma, bought after The Incident, with her first salary from the Palace, and she wears a matching one, though she, of course, doesn't bother to hide it.

27.Turn ons? Turn offs? (sexual or not)

Longer version answered here :D

but shorter version would be that Hyeon-min likes sex that’s fun, though he doesn’t go out of his way to look for it, per se. He is pretty cool with experimenting with anything. The non negotiables are enthusiastic consent and well, enthusiasm. He’s drawn to smart, confident people, I think, rather than good looks, definitely has a Competence Kink, and is almost always surprised when people like him for the same reasons.

Turn offs: dude-bro types, like, Kang Hyeon Min drinks the Respect Women Juice by the gallons, ok, MRAs please excuse.

#saltr0se #tkem #well that was fun to write #:D

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80sidecharacters · 4 years ago

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Online Dating For Superheroes

Σημείωμα: το rewrite είναι πλέον γεγονός! Πάρτε ένα κείμενο γραμμένο από την @adastreia-12, γραμμένο στα πλαίσια του the October Project. Η σεξουαλικότητα της Ρούμπι, το νέο επίθετο του Άλεξ, αναφορές στις γνωστές κριντζιές από το παλιό καλό Secret Identity, νέοι χαρακτήρες αλλά και σε ανανεωμένη μορφή οι παλιοί (όσοι δεν διαγράφηκαν τουλάχιστον), όλα είναι εδώ σε ένα sneak peek για το πως περίπου θα είναι το rewrite.

Prompt: This is the third time you have seduced a villain in this month!

“This is the third criminal you’ve seduced this month.” Aaron looks at the photo on her phone, holding it up at an arm’s length, and looks back at the unmasked villain behind the double paned glass. His eyebrows are furrowed and he keeps opening and closing his mouth as if he wants to say something but can’t find the right words. Ruby can’t quite believe this either.

“In my defense, she was cute. And! I didn’t know!” Ruby says, in an attempt to escape the embarrassment. Her cheeks are bright red again and she can’t avoid the heat no matter how hard she tries.

Aaron’s eyes dart between the Tinder profile picture and the woman sitting in the interrogation chair, wrists bound to the table with handcuffs, looking intimidatingly at the glass. He purses his lips a bit and starts again.

“Maybe it’s a hacked version for criminals? I mean, they gotta date, right?”

Ruby shoots him a look, eyebrows raised. Aaron looks at her and throws his hands into the air. “You don’t know! There must be one criminal hacker out there who was getting the lonesies and decided to make something like that.”

Ruby snatches the phone from his hand and shoves it back in his face. “Does this,” she hisses, pointing a manicured finger at the goofy picture of Sam struggling with holding down a huge fish, red hair in a wet mess, “Look like the stuff of a criminal dating app?”

Aaron offers a crooked smile and half a shrug. “Maybe she was trying to show off a softer side?”

She whines, and folds into herself, covering her face with her palm. Aaron pats her back comfortingly.

“It’s okay,” he says matter-of-factly, “It can happen to the best of us.”

“Maybe it can happen to you, but even you couldn’t do this three times in a month,” she sighs miserably.

The beat up couch behind them almost swallows her when she plops down on it and stares up at the ceiling blankly, her legs sprawled in an awkward angle.

“Maybe I’m just not meant to date.”

Aaron sits gingerly next to her, folding his legs under him as he does.

“Oooor, maybe you already have someone you should be going after closer than you think they are, if you catch my drift.”

She did catch his drift. She isn’t particularly excited about the drift though.

She snaps her head back toward him and raises a very accusing index finger, almost bumping his nose with it.

“No. Don’t even think about it.”

“But-”

“No, no. Say it with me. Alex Delikaris isn’t a dating option for Ruby. Say it.”

“But he is a dating option for Ruby! Come on, bro, the dude is completely whipped for you and you’re literally the only person who doesn’t see it.”

She sputtered for a bit, struggling to voice her objection, which was quite intense, thank you very much. Alex? Her roommate? Sure, he could be sweet, but he is also annoying and a bit of a dick. So what if he just spontaneously got her flowers the other day for no reason whatsoever, hedidn’tlikehershutup.

“He’s not… compatible with me? It’s just- I don’t know, we don’t fit together that way,” she says, shrugging and shrinking away from Aaron’s judgemental look. Unfortunately, it is inescapable.

“You’re like an old married couple already,” he deadpans. Ruby’s cheeks flare.

“Exactly,” she tries desperately, “Incompatible.”

Aaron snorts, and shifts to rest his head on her shoulder. “Well, that’s a grim view of marriage.”

Ruby gives a half-smile and rests her head on top of his. “Why risk it then, hm?” she asks quietly with a weak shrug.

A loud crack has them both jumping on their feet in alert, only to look at the door, yanked violently open, with Dwayne looking at them with an amused smirk on their lips.

“Did it happen again?” they ask in the conspiratorial hush of a child passing gossip in the courtyard. Ruby groans as she jabs her palms in her eye sockets and falls back on the couch unceremoniously. She can hear the smile in Aaron’s voice when he says: “Mhm, she strikes again.”

Dwayne bursts into roaring laughter, booming down the hallway, and Ruby hopes the rest of the response team isn’t close by to get drawn in by it, like moths to the flame.

“How!” Dwayne manages to wheeze out between giggles, “Do you keep doing that!”

Ruby makes some incomprehensible sounds and wallows deeper in her embarrassment. Aaron chuckles softly before nudging her, and she lowers her palms from her eyes. She gives him a big pout.

“This isn’t funny.”

“You’re right,” Dwayne says, no longer shaking with laughter, wiping a tear from their eye, “It’s absolutely hilarious.”

“You guys suck,” Ruby pouts even harder, just to guilt them both a bit. It doesn’t seem to work particularly well, as Aaron nudges her again and extends a hand to lift her up from the couch. She takes it, avoiding his eyes.

Once she’s up, Aaron slings an arm over her shoulders, their height difference now extremely palpable, and drags her along.

“Come on, Villain Fucker, let’s get you home to your true love,” he says, and they walk out of the room, Sam and her fiery hair long gone as well, walking with Dwayne down the hall towards the changing rooms where the rest of their team waited.

“Alex isn’t my true love,” she grumbles under her breath as she walks with her friends, cringing inside as they announce her later escapades to the rest of them.

Only, later, the closer she gets back to the apartment she shares with Alex, the more she fixates on him and what Aaron told her. Her true love. He wasn’t that, that’s for sure. But he had been there. He had stuck around when Kazen died, helped her forget the pain for a little bit. He had taken her out for drinks, and he’s shared his jacket with her, and he’d gotten her flowers unprompted.

But he was also rude. Rude, and brash, and blunt and with a complete disregard for her house rules. He left his cup of coffee on random places and it stained, and he refused to wear a stupid shirt. He called her Beetroot and he kept using Greek idioms she never understood in English but wouldn’t explain them to her until she Googled them. He isn’t her true love. But he’s something. Something way more than her online dates ever got to be.

“I’m home,” she calls into the apartment as she takes her boots off, her keys jiggling against the key plate. It doesn't take long for Alex to materialize out of the kitchen.

“Out for another late night escapade, were we?” he asks with a wink, leaning against the wall right next to Ruby, his eyes following her movements as she takes off her coat.

“Oh ha, ha, you’re hilarious.”

“How did the date go, Beetroot?” he asks, and starts following after her as she heads towards the kitchen. She finds a cup containing a steaming hot brown liquid on the counter.

“Let’s just say I won’t be seeing Sam anymore. She was too shady.” An understatement. She looks back at him, and points at the cuppa. “That for me?”

Alex nods. “Strawberry hot chocolate.” Her favorite. Ruby can’t fight a content smile. Her feet are weary and her heart is tired of the embarrassment. A cup of hot cocoa is exactly what she needs. She grabs it and goes to the living room, melting into their worn couch with a sigh. Soon, she feels the cushion dip under Alex’s weight next to her.

“So what didn’t work with her?Be honest, did you just run after them like a Greek grandma telling them to wear a jacket too much? I allow it, but it’s not everyone’s thing, you know,” he says teasingly. Ruby winces. Somehow, she feels like ‘She was a mutant criminal that me and my team of mutant superheroes busted on tonight’s patrol and it was kind of a dealbreaker’ wouldn’t be something she could share with Alex. Instead, she deflects.

“Oh, so it’s your thing?” Okay, perhaps she deflected to the wrong thing, she thinks and her cheeks burn up again.

Alex smirks and tilts his head to the side, somehow failing to look cute while doing so, but rather intimidating. Dangerous.

“Maybe it is,” he says, and it’s barely above a whisper, breathless and tantalizing. She’s tempted to lean in as he does, just to test it. Just to see if maybe Aaron was on to something.

She thinks of the hot chocolate burning her palms, and of his lips, smelling of the coffee he drinks so much. Would she like it if she tasted the caffeine on them? Damn Aaron and his insistence. If he hadn’t mentioned Alex again, this wouldn’t be happening right now.

“Ruby?” she hears Alex’s voice call her as if piercing a glass barrier. It’s soft, and unguarded, devoid of his usual facades. It brings a smile to her lips. She hesitates for a moment, but her Tinder DMs come to mind. She’s gone out with three criminals this month. Her life choices haven’t been optimal. She doesn’t have much to lose, if Aaron is right. At the very least, Alex isn’t another criminal. Might as well make a point to her friends, whatever that point may be. What could go wrong?

#secret identity #writeblr #writing #one shot #writers on tumblr #wattpad #spilled ink #original work #supeheroes #tumblr prompt #villain #crack fiction #humor #fluff #romantic tension #lgbt

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miscellaneous-miraculous · 5 years ago

Text

Day 8: Hair Down

A little late, but hope you enjoy anyways :)

AO3

“Let operation Best Sleepover Ever commence!” Nino grinned.

“What do we do first?” Adrien asked. He had already changed into his pajamas, fuzzy Ladybug patterned pants with a plain white t-shirt. He’d decided against the matching top since his blanket and pillow were already Ladybug themed too.

“Tom and Sabine always make tons of food,” Nino said. “And Marinette mentioned something about decorating cookies, so that’ll probably be first. Then we can watch a movie – hey, maybe you, me, and Alya can finally convince Mari to watch a horror movie!”

“Not happening!” Marinette called from upstairs.

Nino shrugged but sent him a wink, “We’ll see about that. Oh, and Alya will probably want to play truth or dare at least once.”

“But first –” a large pile of blankets tumbled down the stairs and Marinette emerged at the bottom with a grin, “Time to build a fort!”

Adrien suddenly forgot how to breath and Nino's laughter was little more than ringing in his ears. All he could see was her.

Marinette's hair was free from it's usual pigtails, falling in a sheet around her face. She was just as breathtaking as the first time he'd seen her with her hair down, even as the static electricity of the blankets made it frizz out in all sorts of directions. A soft “Wow” escaped his lips.

Pink dusted Marinette’s cheeks as she mumbled a thanks.

They built a fort from the blankets and couch cushions, Alya joining at some point, but Adrien hardly noticed. Maybe it was good Marinette didn't wear her hair down often, he couldn't imagine focusing on anything else. She was cute all the time, but there was something special about her hair being down. Especially when she blushed or laughed. Her laugh was magical, lighting up the whole room. She had so many different laughs too. Her laugh was different with Chat Noir, completely unrestrained. With Alya there were often shrieks mixed in with laughs. Nino was somewhere in the middle of those two, and with Adrien she giggled.

Adrien had been lost in trying to think of a good pun to get her to laugh when he realized they'd moved to the kitchen. His gaze kept being drawn back to Marinette. Marinette with the same cat pun t-shirt he’d once gotten for Ladybug. Marinette with her hair down and icing on her nose. Marinette laughing as Alya smeared some on her cheek. Marinette who made works of art on her cookies. Marinette who, for everyone of Alya’s Ladybug cookies, had made a Chat Noir cookie insisting one couldn’t exist without the other. Marinette who was definitely going to be the death of him by the end of the night.

“Um, dude, you alright there?” Nino asked, pointing down to his try of cookies. A giant glob of pink icing was covering his hands and several cookies. Marinette had been laughing at joke Alya told.

“Oh, I’ll get a towel!” Marinette said, glancing over at them.

“Sorry,” Adrien cringed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Marinette said. “I’ve spilled entire sacks of flour before, this is nothing.”

Only when she came back with a wet rag did Adrien notice the design of icing on her face. The bit on her nose had been smudged into a triangle, three streaks for whiskers on either side of her face. That must’ve been what Alya had been doing when she smudged some on Marinette’s cheek.

As Adrien wiped off his hands Marinette began redistributing the icing more evenly over all the cookies. “Time for a game then?” Alya asked.

“As long as it’s not truth or dare,” Marinette warned.

“Aw, but Marinette, don’t you want Adrien to get the complete sleepover experience?”

“We could play Mahjong, we’ve got four people, it’s perfect!”

“But – okay, actually, that sounds fun, I’ve never played before,” Alya said, frowning. “But don’t think you’re getting off easy, Marinette, we can play truth or dare after!”

“We'll see about that. Mama taught me when I was little, it’s a lot like cards actually,” Marinette put the tray off to the side, wiping her fingers on a nearby towel. “I’ll go get the tiles.”

A few minutes later Marinette had begun explaining the rules and setting up the tiles, “We’ll leave the flower tiles out since it’s your first time. Nino’s played at least a few times before, but I’ll start as the East Wind. Nino you might want to sit in the South seat so you can be East after me.”

“This is so much fun, I’ve only ever played the solitaire version,” Adrien said, the game distracting him from being too absorbed by Marinette’s beauty, even if he ended up losing spectacularly.

“How?” Alya groaned as Marinette declaring mahjong with her two North wind tiles. She’d managed to win using entirely dragon and wind tiles, tripling her final score. She’d won each hand but the second, each with a different score modifier.

Marinette shrugged, “This was one of the only games I would play for a while, so I've gotten a lot of practice. At first I just thought the tiles were pretty and I liked the noise they made but I picked up some strategy along the way.”

“Wait, Mari, didn’t you make your own set of tiles for an art project one year?” Nino asked.

“Oh yeah, they’re still around here somewhere. I think Mama put them away for safe keeping though.”

“I vote we switch to truth or dare before Marinette finds someway to win that too,” Alya said, still shaking her head as they put the tiles away.

“Don’t give her any ideas!” Nino protested.

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

Later:

“I dare you to compliment Marinette,” Alya smirked.

“Aren’t dares supposed to be hard?” Adrien asked.

“Well, I’d say until she blushes, but that ship has sailed,” Alya nodded in her friend’s direction.

“Marinette, you’re the kindest, bravest, most creative person I know,” Adrien said. Except for maybe Ladybug. Maybe. “Also, you look beautiful with your hair down.”

“Eep!” Marinette squeaked, burying her face in a nearby pillow.

#adrinetteapril2020 #adrinetteapril #adrinette #day 8 #hair down #sleepover #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #mahjong #cookie decorating

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tsukoyomi-fumikage · 4 years ago

Text

Baby Birb (Sl/TokoShoji)

Slight Tokoyami X Shoji

Prompt - Tokoyami gets turned into a baby. I wrote this ages ago and it’s just a few oneshots drawn together that are fluffy and sweet. Mostly, of course, since I love angst.

He couldn't talk normally anymore - the only thing coming out of him were soft gurgles. Raising a hand for his eyes to see, he widened when he noticed how small they were, and how they felt unused, unlike his usual rough hands. Reaching up to his head, he felt along his feathers - they were plush and rounded at the end, nothing like the sharp ended fully black feathers he used to have. "W'at?" He squeaked out, then squeaked again at the sound of his voice.

There appeared to be only certain words he could get out of his now even smaller beak. Looking up, he tried to see if he could find any of his friends, who were supposed to be nearby. They'd been training in the fields of U.A, and Tokoyami had only gone into the bushes close by to grab something Bakugou had accidentally tossed in there.

He found said item, and picked it up - usually, it wouldn't be that big in his hands, but the item was practically the size of him. Tokoyami began to waddle back in the direction of voices, clutching the object to his chest. Fumikage was now so small that the bushes and trees surrounding him almost scarred him, however for some reason Dark Shadow wouldn't come out. The bird knew that meant he was at an age where he hadn't developed his quirk yet - so younger than two, since he was an early child and developed his quirk around three, rather than five.

Stepping out onto the short grass, his eyes searched for the training students, and he saw Shoji - or well, he saw large arms, a tall, sturdy body and a white mop of hair that he knew was Shoji. For some reason, this baby version of him let out a giggle, stumbling towards the six-armed quirk user, raising his hands and making grabby fists at him, dropping the item on the floor.

It made a loud thump, startling everyone there and making them turn to look at the offending sound, being met with a baby version of their friend, who was now looking like he was going to cry at the loud noise. Bakugou let out a choked splutter - the other students there, all from Class 1-A, stopped training and rushed over. "Is that-"

Midoriya and Shoji got there first. The green-haired teen knelt down, looking the young bird in the eyes. "Tokoyami?" He asked softly. The kid swiped a hand across his teary eyes, sniffling. "Is that you?"

He looked at them - he was dying inside from crying at the loud noise, and the last thing he needed was for them to all know he was still him inside. He didn't want to show that kind of weakness. Tokoyami decided to pretend like an actual child. Fumikage nodded stiffly, reaching out his tiny hands and clutching at Mezo's trouser leg, pulling at it gently.

The man plucked him up and held him securely against his chest. "I think it is him, but he's like, actually a baby. The Tokoyami we know isn't in there right now." Bakugou scoffed out, coming over and poking the bird on the head. He let out a childlike whine. "Definitely."

Kirishima smacked Katsuki on the back of the head. "Dude, that's not cool man, don't hit the kid!"

Shoji and Midoriya took this opportunity to begin walking back to the dormitories as Bakugou tried to fight the red-head, being held back by the rest of the training group - Sero and Mina. Mezo bounced the young kid in his grip, and Fumikage gave what they could only assume as his version of a smile with a beak, but it was none-the-less cute. "What are we supposed to do now?" Izuku said, looking and cooing at their friend. "Do you think it'll wear off, whatever it is?"

The six-armed teen smiled under his mask at the warm, tiny body in his arms, wrapping all of his baby fingers around Shoji's pinkie. "I think it must be someone's quirk, so yes, I think it'll wear off." He said softly, his usual whisper making Fumikage look at him, their eyes meeting. "For now, looks like we've got a seriously de-aged Tokoyami to look after."

"He's got to be around one years old." Yaoyorozu said, watching at the young kid played with Denki, trying to run after the blond-haired boy, who kept leaping over the very small child. Fumikage couldn't run fast - the only clothing the young kid had on was a ripped bit of his cloak to made a smaller cloak; Nothing had shrunk with him. Nada.

Mineta growled at the sight of all the girls cooing over Fumikage; he leapt forward, scooping the child into his arms. "I'm a master at children!" He said loudly so everyone heard him. They all turned to look at him, murderous intent in their eyes.

Tokoyami began sniffling at being in the pop-off quirk users short arms. The grip was unnaturally tight and he squirmed uncomfortably, looking around for a savoir. He knew just who it would be.

Mezo came charging through, snatching him out of Minto's grip. Shoji was his boyfriend after all - he also seemed like the kind of guy who really likes children. Fumikage smiled, burying his head in the crook of the tall mans neck. "Don't touch him." Came the deep voice from the six-armed teen. The whole room was probably gobsmacked. "Ever."

"Toko, nooo!" Midoriya laughed, picking up the spoon from where the bird-headed child had thrown it on the floor. Fumikage was currently sat on top of the dorm table, wearing clothes Jirio and Yaoyorozu had hand made - it was a little horned blue hoodie, making it seem the child had two baby horns sticking out on his forehead and some loose black jogging bottoms. "You need to let me feed you!"

Sticking out his tongue, the baby snorted, turning away. A tap on Izuku's shoulder meant someone else was nearby. Koji was smiling at him, or well, down at him. He nodded at the spoon. "Children are creative and are stubborn - I had a little brother growing up who was exactly like Tokoyami. They just want to feed themselves. Here, let him try."

Although that definitely was not the reason Fumikage wanted nothing to do with the green-haired student (It was actually the choice of mushed up bananas and kiwi - disgusting), he still allowed the spoon to be passed to him. Looking at Koda's hopeful expression, he sighed eternally and began to eat, but plastic spoons and beaks didn't exactly go very well together.

Just a day in the life of Fumikage Tokoyami he supposed.

"Oh God, is he sick?"

A hand was touching at his feathered head - Fumikage let out a cry, trying to push it away. "He's warm, I think he has a fever!"

The shouting wasn't helping his sore ears, and his throat was raw from sobbing. A pair of hands wrapped around him, bringing him up and into someones chest. An icy hand was placed against his feathers, and he was bounced softly. "There there, Toko." The voice said - it was deep and calming. "I've got you."

People were bustling around them, Fumikage could hear the worry in their tones - he must not be looking so good. "Shoto, has he cooled down yet from your ice?"

So it was Todoroki holding him, he thought wearily, it all connecting. "N-No." Came the confused voice of the man holding him. "He's burning up really fucking badly."

Hearing the top-hero's son swear and crack under the pressure made Tokoyami's fear bubble. Someone else touched his arm, and he was handed over to a warmer pair of hands. "I don't think blasting him with cold will heal him." Came the voice of the woman holding him. It was Tsu.

The frog-quirk user sat down with the bird in her arms, rocking him slowly. "I've already sent Sato out to grab some baby medication, ribbit." She said calmly, stroking a hand through his fluffy feathers. "For now though, I say the best option is to bathe him - Sero, go turn the bath on - make sure it's actually warm, it being cold won't accomplish anything."

Footsteps bounded off, and the couch dipped when someone else sat on the side. "C-Can I hold him?" It was Uraraka. "I always wanted a baby sister or brother when I was younger." She confessed. No one else must be in the room anymore, all rushing off to grab things for the kid. "And he looks so small."

Being lifted into the air was something he'd grown accustomed too, and he opened his eyes a little to be met face to face with the brunette. "Hey, he's awake!" She spoke softly, but her voice was high in excitement. "Hey Toko'!" She cooed, brushing back at his feathers. "Tsu, when Shoto said he was burning, I didn't think he actually meant it. My, little one, how sick you really are!"

Bakugou growled. "Why do I have to bathe him?"

Kirishima sighed, holding the child in his arms as they passed Sero, who gulped, giving a thumbs up to the hardening-quirk user. Pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand, only using one to carry the small kid, he stalked ahead of Katsuki and into the bathroom. "Because we haven't done anything with him yet and we want him to trust us?"

"Bathing him is not the way to trust." The explosive teen retorted. Fumikage had to agree - how was stripping him fucking butt naked allowing him to trust them? However, he was glad it was these two - Kirishima was a real man, and wouldn't hold any sort of blackmail over him after this was all done, and Bakugou would just forget about it. "We're legit taking his clothes off, Kiri."

"No, the boxers Momo made are staying on, we ain't that mean."

Both the bird and the blond let out a sigh, and the child reached up his arms slowly so Ejiro could take off his cat shirt, which he'd sweated all the way through. "Feeling tired, little man?" The red-head asked softly, sitting the baby on the toilet seat, taking off his socks and shorts. "That's alright, you just doze. It's got to be good for you cause of how sick you are right now, huh."

The feeling of warm water surrounding him made him relax - it was really weird having people bathing him instead of just taking a shower and being ready in less then five minutes, but at the same time it was comforting for some reason.

"Hey, Kacchan." Kirishima looked desperate from what Fumikage could see out of half-closed eyelids. "Please take a photo, I think I'm going to die of cuteness. He's falling asleep on my hand!" He was leaning face first against the students hand, beak poking through his fingers. He sighed internally.

Great. Proof of all of this for after it's worn off.

"So, looks like you're staying here with me!" Iida smiled at the boy, walking into his blue dorm room, plopping the still sick child onto his bed. "Sorry you couldn't be with Shoji, but he sleeps too deeply - I however can make sure you don't get hurt! I have very maternal instincts!"

Tenya was super excited it seems, to have a young child in his hold and needing on him for everything. Fumikage supposed Tenya always wanted to know what it was like to be his big brother caring for him when he was younger. He muttered softly, and the teen stopped his rambling. "Did you just say something, young Tokoyami?"

"Sleeps." He said, yawning tiredly. He watched with satisfaction as Tenya died in front of him, clutching at his heart in a brotherly way, clearly absorbing the shock of the boy speaking.

"I got to hear your first words!" Tokoyami realized that around this age he was practically mute, and he wondered if that's why talking was so hard. "Awesome!"

A phone was jostled around before steadying and facing the tired child. "Say it again!" Iida encouraged quietly, smiling like Fumikage had never seen before. How could he deny the man the shame of saying he couldn't catch the second time he spoke on camera?

"Sleeps!" He whined louder, and he's certain if he had lips, he'd be pouting. It wasn't for the camera really; he was just so tired and frustrated and exhausted. "Please." He sort of made the tone of his voice sound pleading, and the phone went on charge quickly, and soon, he was secured in bed, being hugged by the mess that was definitely the next Sonic.

It was around seven when Iida woke up and got changed into casual clothing. Following the incident with Tokoyami, the school was on high alert and had canceled school in case the villain or whomever had done this was still on campus. All class 1-A were told only to leave the dorms if needed. Sato gathering medicine counted as a need, apparently.

"Did he sleep alright?" Came the bouncy voice of Denki as Iida carried the half asleep boy in, cradled in his arms, head resting sleepily against his chest. "He still looks tired."

Straightening his glasses, the Representative smiled. "He is still fighting off the illness"He reminded his friend. "- and yes, apart from a small night terror, he was just fine."

Shoji was there to take the bird child into his arms. Tokoyami inhaled his scent tiredly and relaxed reaching a hand out to snag the students T-Shirt, smiling, half-daydreaming, half-sleeping. "C'mon Fumikage." The six-armed teen said quietly, prodding his feathered cheek. "You need to eat and take your medication before you can sleep again."

Sato waltzed in, smiling brightly at the kid. "Hey, Toko'," He said, coming closer to the pair. "Guess what? I made you something!" Mezo took a seat at the table, adjusting the child so he was sitting on his lap and using it as a booster seat to be able to see over the table like a normal person. "Ever tried Oreo pancakes?"

Fumikage looked at his teammate, who was holding out these freshly baked pancakes with some weird crushed up black substance mixed in. It smelt amazing though, and he reached out a hand to try and snag some of it. It was, of course, pulled away from him. "Knew you'd like them!" Sato was so happy that he'd shown interest. "They're just a bit hot, Fumi'."

The fact they didn't trust him enough anymore to deal with his own food's temperature was slightly annoying, but it didn't stop him taking the medication held out to him by Sero while waiting for breakfast to cool down.

When the plate was put back down, he noticed all the pancakes had been cut up into even-sized squares, and their was a fork he could use on the side. Leaning slightly off his boyfriend, he was more awake as the stabbed at the pieces, shoving them into his mouth quickly, making a happy noise that sent Sato stumbling with happiness.

Maybe being a kid wasn't so bad after all.

#bnha oneshots #bnha shotoko #bnha shoutoko #bnha tokoshoji #bnha tokoyami #bnha fumikage tokoyami #bnha class 1a #bnha shoji #bnha mezo shoji #bnha mezou shoji #I tried okay #One of my first BNHA oneshots #Oneshots strung together to create whatever this is

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inspired-by-the-music · 4 years ago

Text

For You: 4 O’Clock

Taglist: @jineunwootrash @jamies-kpop-reactions

Chapter 12: Untouched by Time

I woke from a restless sleep the next morning when Heechul’s screams shook the entire house. “Aish! This is why I never do anything nice! I wake up at the crack of dawn to make that woman breakfast in bed, and I end up with first degree burns from this stupid death oven!”

His outburst might have been funny were it not for a) Heechul’s genuine whimpers of pain as he climbed the stairs (I imagined) to carry a breakfast tray into Mom’s room and b) my fear that Taemin would be roughly shaken from his sleep by chaos so early in the morning.

That was nothing to be worried about, I realized, when I rolled onto my side and saw that he was still sound asleep, pretty pink lips parted and dripping drool onto the white pillowcase. Taemin looked so beautiful, so tranquil, so happy that I willed myself to ignore the sun glaring at me. I willed myself to ignore its warnings that it was time for him to leave.

I didn’t want him to leave even if I held the hope that he would return to my side with the rising of the moon. There was no choice but to wake him, though, when I made out the faint sounds of Heechul considering, “Maybe I should make something for Lei. I never saw her again last night after her fight with that dude with the angry eyebrows.”

I pushed the thought of Sehun— and the nauseating surge of emotions that rose in my chest with his image filling my mind— aside. Later, I decided, I would think about him.

It didn’t matter that Mom discouraged Heechul from barging into my room with pancakes or something. “You don’t have time for that, Heechul. We have to drive Mom to the airport soon.” With the house awakening, the likelihood of being caught with Taemin in my room increased with each passing second.

Laying atop Taemin, hoping to savor for as long as possible the feeling of his skin against mine, his heartbeat racing to meet mine, I carded my hands through his hair. I tried to sate my disappointment in the realization that my earliest words in our first full day of being an official couple would be along the lines of, “You have to go.” I laid a kiss on his forehead, and then another on the tip of his nose, and then one on his cheek and then the other, and then his chin, and—

“Lei.” Taemin smiled in the early morning sunlight as he tightened his arms around my waist. “Please tell me that the sun isn’t up yet.” He kept his eyes closed even when I responded only by pressing another kiss to his jaw before burying my face in the warm crook of his neck.

He whined, “Ah, the sun woke up before me again.” He was kind enough to realize without my prompting, “That means it’s time for me to go.”

Moments passed quietly, with me breathing softly against Taemin’s neck while he traced formless shapes over my shirt. He whispered, “I don’t want to go.”

Although this was precisely the kind of thing I never should have said to Taemin, I confessed, “I don’t want you to go either.”

When I lifted my head and looked down at his pouting face, Taemin consoled, “You’ll see me at the New Years’ party in a few days.”

Maybe this makes me a little childish, but that gave me little comfort. I understood that Taemin and I could never go out on dates like normal people; we would never be the kind of people who held hands in darkened movie theaters or had anniversary dinners in the season’s most popular restaurant or even walked through a park together in broad daylight. I hated that the only places where I could look forward to seeing this person who held my heart were work studios, work banquet halls, or work hotel rooms. It was unfair that we could only be so close in the dark.

I always thought it was unfair, but I was never as bothered as I was that first morning of being Taemin’s girlfriend.

Climbing off of Taemin and peeling back the blanket to give him clear access to the window— he couldn’t very well walk out the front door with Heechul roaming the halls— I mumbled, “I can’t wait that long to see you again.”

I missed Taemin already, and he hadn’t even left yet. Was it too early to cling to him like this? Maybe it was, but I couldn’t help it.

Taemin didn’t seem to mind. Wearing a goofy smile, he leaned close to me, weight balanced on his knees. “Do you want me to come back again tonight?”

What was wrong with me? Obviously, the answer was a deafening, resounding “yes,” but I couldn’t nod my head or mutter the one-syllable word. I could only pick at a loose thread on my quilt as I shrugged and avoided Taemin’s gaze while chewing on my lips.

“I want to come back tonight,” Taemin admitted shamelessly, placing a warm hand on my knee over my pajama pants. “Can I? Please? Pretty please?”

I felt a little less embarrassed once Taemin reminded me that he wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him. He looked at me with wide, pleading eyes, and I shrugged again— playfully this time. “I’ll think about it.”

For a moment, Taemin forgot that we were being sneaky. He squealed, and I hushed him. “What’s so exciting anyway, silly?”

After pressing a kiss to my hairline, Taemin tiptoed over to the window, wearing Lucas’s sweatpants and t-shirt. “It’s just—” he smiled so widely that I had to smile too— “the last time you said ‘I’ll think about it,’ it meant ‘yes,’ and I got to hold you all night again.”

Before I could argue that I wasn’t making any promises that he could sneak in again that night (although, internally, I was) or at least remind him to take his clothes, Taemin shimmied out of the window. I watched him scale the building and run barefoot through the garden to the SuperM house.

Lucas was still asleep when I tiptoed into his room after folding Taemin’s party clothes and stuffing them into the space under my bed. The overhead light was turned off and the blinds and thick navy blue curtains were drawn closed over the window. In Lucas’s room, I could almost believe that the sun hadn’t risen. I could almost believe that when I walked over to peel back the curtains, I would be greeted by the moon.

The only thing Lucas hated more than being woken up before noon on rest days was being left out of gossip. Bearing that in mind, I was able to justify flicking the light on and humming loudly as I flung the curtains open and raised the blinds.

Lucas ceased snoring to grumble, “What the hell, Lei?” His face contorted in animated annoyance before he rolled onto his stomach to press his face into a fluffy pillow. “It’s too early to be conscious.”

I sat on the edge of his bed atop a thin blue blanket decorated with tiny white anchors. The blanket was expensive, the same quality of the sheets in Mom’s bedroom. The blue blanket was meant to be mine— Mom gave it to me last year as a Christmas present— but Lucas claimed it because I was never looking to replace my familiar blue quilt.

“Come on,” I urged, gripping one of Lucas’s legs through the blanket. “I have to tell you something.”

Lucas resumed snoring.

“Don’t you want to hear about how Taemin became my boyfriend last night?”

Lucas grunted, but he didn’t roll onto his back to greet me with any enthusiasm. I should have remembered that Lucas already thought that Taemin and I were dating. Then, it would have been obvious that talking about Taemin wouldn’t stir his interest.

While I had waited all night and all morning to tell Lucas about Sehun— our fight, our apology, our confession— I had been hoping to tiptoe toward the topic. I wasn’t ready to address it so soon.

Maybe I wanted more time to work through the shock. Maybe I wanted more time to strengthen myself against the sickening clenching that seized my heart when I remembered that finally— finally Sehun loved me the way I loved him, but the timing was all wrong.

Because I didn’t want to say anything that would belittle my love for Taemin, I bit my tongue. Even to Lucas— even to myself— I didn’t want to admit that a part of me still loved Sehun as it always had. A part of me was sick because I knew that if Taemin never took my ribbon or found me in the garden, my childhood perception of a happy ending (being the one who held Sehun’s heart) would have been realized.

Had I known that Sehun would fall in love with me, that it was just time separating me from the dream, would I have waited? Would I have waited for him? I certainly could have. For years and years, I saw nobody but him. I could have waited.

Something like regret churned my stomach. Sharp pain coursed through the veins around my temples. But I couldn’t quite regret the circumstances that kept me and Sehun apart. Maybe— I knew I regretted something, but not falling in love with Taemin. This was still the best version of the universe. I had to believe that.

I don’t remember how I ended up at Lucas’s side, back pressed against his headboard. I don’t remember how I told him about the previous night’s lifetime of emotions— about the old photograph, watching Mom cry, confronting Sehun, becoming Taemin’s girlfriend, finding out that Sehun loved me.

I just remember that Lucas’s eyes were wide and full of tears when he said, “Everything sucks.” Maybe it sounds a little anti-climactic, but that was exactly how I felt in that moment. I was grateful that Lucas could put my feelings in such simple terms. “Except that you and Taemin are official. That’s cute. That’s the only silver lining in all this.”

After I nodded in agreement, tracing one of the anchors on the blanket, Lucas asked, “Did you tell Taemin about Sehun’s confession?”

“No.” I shook my head.

Even if I hadn’t swelled with affection at the morning’s first sight of Taemin— even if I hadn’t been too consumed by the instinct to kiss him and hold him and love him to even think clearly about Sehun— I wouldn’t have mentioned Sehun’s confession. That wasn’t the right thing to do.

Aside from the obvious discomfort of telling Taemin about something that, frankly, was none of his business, I thought discussing Sehun could only strain our relationship. I didn’t want to tell Taemin about all of my memories with Sehun that made his confession feel as heavy as the weight of the entire world. I didn’t want to tell Taemin about the years that I spent following Sehun, never delusional enough to believe that he would ever look at me. I didn’t want to tell Taemin (and thereby have to relive the moment) that years of admiration fell apart.

Taemin probably didn’t want to hear how much I loved someone else, anyway.

Above all, Sehun admitted his feelings to me in confidence. Even if I couldn’t reciprocate them anymore, I wanted to protect them. If holding onto this secret put a distance between me and Taemin— if holding onto this secret meant that Sehun would always hold a piece of my heart (no matter how small) that I couldn’t entrust to Taemin— that was okay. That was okay with me even it wasn’t okay. Even if it wasn’t right.

Of course, I justified relating Sehun’s feelings to Lucas. I had to tell him. I couldn’t carry the weight of Sehun’s love alone. I couldn’t carry the weight of his broken heart alone. It was too heavy. What was heavy to me was never a burden to Lucas.

Lucas huffed. “Well, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room.” He looked into my eyes. “Do you love Sehun?”

I was grateful that he hadn’t phrased his question as, “Do you still love Sehun?” Then, I might have felt trapped by the past. Then, I wouldn’t have been able to shake my head. “No.”

Squirming as if I told a lie— and I think I knew that I did— I averted my gaze and hoped that Lucas wouldn’t ask again.

Gently, Lucas disagreed. “I think you do, Lei. If you didn’t love Sehun, I don’t think you would burst into my room first thing in the morning to talk about him.”

I didn’t respond. No matter how I tried to hide, no matter how I tried to lie, Lucas always saw me. Sometimes, like that morning, being seen so clearly made me want to disappear. Couldn’t he believe my lies just once? Would it have been easier if Lucas wouldn’t challenge me to accept myself?

“The issue,” Lucas said, “is that the love Sehun wants— he had it once. It’s sad that he wants it now that you’ve given it to Taemin.”

Guilt racked through me— disordered my thoughts— and Lucas threw an arm around my shoulder as if to hold me together. “It sucks that you can feel this bad when you haven’t done anything wrong. Believe me, everything will be okay. Just like you accepted it when Sehun didn’t return your feelings, he’ll learn to be happy with the way you love him now. You know, he’ll be okay because the way you love Sehun— it really isn’t less than what you feel for Taemin. It’s just different.”

Maybe I would believe anything Lucas said with a sincere smile, or maybe Lucas was right.

People like to believe in one great love, and I was no different. I wanted to believe that Taemin was mine. I wanted to believe that we would find each other in every life, that every decision, every joy and every heartbreak forged me into the person Taemin would love. Viewing the world in terms of fate and destiny made dull days seem meaningful. I was enchanted by the idea that everything works out as it should even in matters of love.

When I looked at Lucas, though, smiling at me as warmly as he had on our first day of friendship years ago— when I reflected on the years of memories with Sehun (disregarding the pain of that Christmas kiss) — I couldn’t deny that I had known love before Taemin. He probably had known love before me too.

Those realizations didn’t wind me, I guess, because Lucas reminded me that the heart is made to love many. I read once that there are all kinds of loves in this world, but never the same love twice. Maybe the trick is learning to recognize love. Or maybe the challenge is learning to appreciate love as it is without the burden of expectations.

All I knew for certain was that Lucas was right: I loved Sehun. I probably always would. I would have to accept that some loves are forever, but that doesn’t guarantee the happy ending I used to dream about. Maybe this was still the best version of the universe. By believing that, I could give my all and truly live in this time of loving Taemin.

And if there was another universe out there— one where Sehun and I loved each other in the same way at the same time— I hoped that I was happy there. I hoped it was every bit as wonderful as I once dreamed. There, I hoped, Sehun was happy too.

Lucas’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Hey.” He tightened his grip around my shoulders. “Whatcha thinking about?”

Although I didn’t quite believe in alternate universes (no matter how often I daydreamed about them), I had comforted myself with my thoughts. My smile was genuine when I answered, “Nothing much. I’m just thinking that I’m really glad we met, ya know?”

Lucas’s eyebrows darted upward. He smirked, “Is this your way of saying that you love me, Lei?”

Maybe I didn’t tell him enough. I sat there wondering if I had ever told Lucas that I loved him, but before I could confidently assure him that I did— that in every lifetime, I couldn’t exist without having him as my best friend— three knocks sounded at the door.

Without removing his arm from its place around my shoulder, without considering our compromising position, Lucas warmly said, “Come in!”

Mom pushed the door open. Standing behind Mom, Heechul demanded, wide-eyed, “What the hell is going on here?” Leave it to pervert Heechul to misunderstand friendship as if he didn’t frequently cross the same boundaries with Mom that Lucas crossed with me.

My face burned less at having been caught sitting on Lucas’s bed and more at the memory of Grandma catching Taemin in my room the night before. I squirmed out of Lucas’s embrace.

“We’re just talking,” Lucas and I responded simultaneously. I chewed on the inside of my cheek; even when we told the truth, we sounded like a couple of liars.

Unconvinced, Heechul rounded on Mom, stunned by her lack of outrage. “You knew about this, didn’t you? This is why you told me not to bring Lei breakfast!”

“Get out of my face, Heechul!” Mom swatted him away and filled the doorway. Gaze shifting between me and Lucas, Mom said, “I just wanted to tell you that Heechul and I are taking Grandma to the airport, so we'll be out for a while.”

“And that means—” Heechul pointed a harsh finger at Lucas— “that you have to leave!”

Lucas’s jaw dropped, and he pressed a palm flat over his chest which (I now realized) was bare. I rolled my eyes, wondering why we could never do anything without causing a scandal, even at home.

“Me?” Lucas pouted. “I have to leave?”

Although Heechul sternly nodded, eyebrows pinching together just above his eyes, Mom shook her head. “No, Lucas, I’ve told you a thousand times— this is your home, especially around the holidays. Just—” her mouth twitched in amusement or subdued disapproval— “make sure you use protection.”

Heechul, Lucas, and I gasped.

Brushing past Heechul into the hallway, Mom instructed, “Check the top drawer in the nightstand.”

Lucas obeyed and stared down into the drawer, too shocked by its contents to close it. Flustered, I ran a hand through my hair as Heechul argued with Mom. “That is so inappropriate!” He poked his head back into the room to lecture, “You better not do anything naughty under my roof!”

I couldn’t quite appreciate the humor of Heechul being so protective or feel amused that Mom screamed back, “First of all, this is my house! Second of all, let those kids live! They deserve to be happy and do what kids their age do!”

Was she speaking as a mother or as a manager? Even though Lucas and I were 21— technically adults— it didn’t seem like she was saying the right things.

“Come on, Heechul! Mom is already in the car! If you don’t get down here in five seconds, I’m leaving without you!”

Heechul eyed me and Lucas one more time before walking through the open door and running downstairs.

Closing the nightstand’s drawer at last, Lucas mumbled, “That was weird,” which deepened my discomfort because Lucas never thought anything was weird.

I agreed. “Yeah. That was pretty disgusting.”

“Yeah.” Lucas returned to his place next to me. He sat stiffly, holding his hands in his lap. Moments passed in silence— a rarity with Lucas— before he wondered aloud, “Do you really think it would be disgusting if you and I— you know?”

I cut my eyes at him, assuming that I could deflate his joke with a glare. There were no traces of humor in Lucas’s expression, but I shook my head anyway. “I’m not having sex with you just because Mom thinks—”

Red-faced, Lucas interrupted. “Well, obviously we’re not gonna do it! You have Taemin now.” Lucas spoke as if Taemin were all that kept us from crossing that rather serious boundary. Suddenly dropping his gaze down to the hands joined in his lap, Lucas shrugged. “I’m not saying that I want to do it. I just don’t know that it would be that gross with you. I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”

After being chased by dating rumors for so many years, how could Lucas have never considered what life would be like if the fans were right? I wanted to argue— to believe that he had considered me romantically and then dismissed those feelings just as I had considered him romantically for the briefest subconscious second before easily shaking the thoughts from my mind.

When I looked at Lucas, however, his brow was furrowed in concentration. He was re-imagining me, reconsidering me, and I didn’t like it.

“Hey! Cut that out!” I swiped at his bare arm. “It’s not gonna happen, Lucas, so don’t make things weird!”

‘Please,’ I almost said, but then I would have been making things weird. Looking back, I see that maybe we didn’t carefully toe the line between friendship and something almost romantic. Maybe the line was blurred. Ambiguous. I never would have admitted it, though, so there’s little point in trying to see us clearly now.

Lucas whined, “Ow!” and rubbed at his arm. “That really hurt, Lei! You don’t slap Taemin around like this, do you?”

I shook my head and crossed my arms, and Lucas laughed, and it felt like everything was back to normal. It felt like the uncomfortable season was passing. Although nothing was really resolved, I felt like I could finally be happy.

Let it be known that I was a fangirl first and an idol second. Somehow— by fate or some miracle— I had discovered an especially well written fanmade series about SuperM. I was lured in because Taemin and I were tagged as the main couple and, as you well know, I was starved for Taemin content. Plus, I think, I was excited that somebody else saw our potential as a couple even if I couldn’t publicly confirm it.

By the time I was about ¾ of the way through the story, however, it became apparent that Baekhyun (of all people) had been my true soulmate all along. Although flustered and vaguely disappointed that my fictional happy ending wouldn’t be with Taemin, I couldn’t abandon the story. I was too invested. And, over the course of several chapters, I had fallen for the fictionalized Baekhyun.

On the day of S.M.’s New Years’ Party, I arrived at the banquet hall hours early with Mom. Sitting alone at a table in the corner, reading the story and answering the occasional disruptive text from Taemin or Lucas, I wondered how the author planned to tie up so many loose ends with just one remaining chapter.

Maybe, I hoped to settle the knots tightening in my stomach, she would write a sequel!

As I allowed myself to smile at the thought, a loud CRASH sounded in the kitchen. Before I could rise to straighten my blue dress and set toward the sound to investigate— before I could even wonder what happened— the staff gathered in the kitchen chorused, “BAEKHYUN!”

My face burned at his name. For a second, the lines between fiction and reality were blurred as my heart raced. Now that I knew Baekhyun was there, I couldn’t resume reading. Not wanting the fear that he might catch me reading a love story about us to ruin the long-awaited ending, I closed out of the app on my phone and stuffed it into my purse.

Baekhyun walked out of the kitchen, face crimson, and beelined toward me. Wearing a midnight blue suit, black hair combed neatly to the side, masquerade mask (as that was the theme of the party) concealing half of his face, he was almost unrecognizable. Adult. Handsome. Yet, I preferred his boyish smile to his tense expression.

Mentally scolding myself for staring at Baekhyun as if I had never seen him before— as if he had walked from the pages of that imaginary story where we were in love— I asked, “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer. He just held his hand out to me and pleaded, “Come with me, please.”

I stood, matching his height in my heels, but I didn’t take his hand. Maybe I was overthinking a meaningless gesture, but I felt that we weren’t meant to hold hands, so I wrapped my fingers around the strap of my purse. “Okay.” I nodded and bit my tongue because I didn’t want to bother him with my questions about where we were going.

Baekhyun blinked at the hand I rejected and stuffed it into his pants’ pocket. “Here.” He pressed Mom’s credit card into my hand before reaching back into his pocket for a set of keys.

The keys, I realized once Baekhyun led me outside, belonged to one of the company vans. Like he had on our late-night run to Buffalo Wild Wings in Atlanta, he held the door open for me. “We have to go buy some champagne glasses to replace the ones I just shattered in the kitchen.”

As Baekhyun climbed into his seat, I fastened my seatbelt. “Oh. Is that what caused the crash in the kitchen?”

The answer was obvious enough when Baekhyun’s face flushed maroon. I regretted saying anything at all when his hands gripping the wheel turned an unnatural white. “God, I’m such a clumsy moron!”

My eyes widened, unaccustomed to seeing an unhappy Baekhyun. Granted, sometimes the joy he derived from chaos annoyed me or made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t know how to feel when Baekhyun wasn’t smiling. As I sat there, shrinking in the passenger seat, it occurred to me that I had no idea how to make him smile again.

In a small voice, I started, “You’re not—”

But I was cut off by the sudden screeching of tires and Baekhyun shrieking, “Shit!”

Too stunned to ask, I didn’t quite understand what happened until TVXQ’s Max Changmin, coincidentally one of the most breathtakingly handsome men in the world, poked his head into Baekhyun’s open window. “In a hurry there, buddy?”

Too embarrassed to meet Changmin’s eyes, which were not yet concealed by a mask, Baekhyun whispered apologies about a thousand times in a span of thirty seconds.

I guess it’s hard to stay mad at somebody who is so contrite, even if they did just almost run you over with a company vehicle. Patting his fist on the door, Changmin said, “Don’t sweat it. You barely grazed me!”

At once overwhelmed by the realization that Baekhyun had backed into Changmin— CHANGMIN— I gasped. Baekhyun whirled around in his seat to look at me with wide eyes like he had forgotten I was there. “Lei, are you okay?”

“Me?” I gawked at Baekhyun’s misplaced concern and leaned forward to get a clear look at Changmin. “Are you okay?”

Smiling as if to prove his lack of injury, Changmin nodded. “I’m alright! Like I said, Baekhyun barely bumped into me—” I wanted to retort that Baekhyun shouldn’t have hit him at all, but Changmin instructed— “so don’t get too mad at him, alright?” so I gnawed on my tongue.

After I swore to Baekhyun’s pout that I wasn’t angry— I was just a little startled— Changmin stepped away from the window. “I gotta go. I promised Ms. Kim that I would arrive early to help her set up for the party.” He wagged a finger at Baekhyun. “Drive carefully with my little wife, alright?”

With color rising to my face at Changmin’s well-mannered teasing as I waved to him, Baekhyun slowly drove out of the parking lot. He must have been truly mourning the destruction of the champagne glasses and/or the near destruction of poor Changmin; Baekhyun didn’t ask me about the ‘little wife’ comment until we were well down the street. Super Junior’s “Somebody New,” blaring through the van’s speakers, was nearly over.

“It’s a joke,” I explained.

“Well, duh.” Baekhyun stuck his tongue out at me, and I guessed that meant his weird mood had passed. I was glad. “I think I’d know if you were married to Changmin!”

I shrugged, and Baekhyun asked, “Isn’t he, like, way older than you?”

“Just by, like, eleven years.” So I could properly hear Baekhyun,’s reaction, I turned the radio down. “Eleven years isn’t such a long time. Have you ever thought that I haven’t dated anyone all these years because I’ve been secretly married to Max Changmin, the dreamiest guy in the universe?”

Like it was even vaguely possible that I could have been telling the truth, Baekhyun glanced at me with a single raised eyebrow. Within seconds, we broke into side splitting laughter.

Between giggles, I admitted, “When I was a little kid, like way before I ever debuted, I used to say that my dream was to marry Changmin.” Baekhyun snorted, and I defended myself by saying, “Just look at him, Baek! Marrying Changmin is still a solid goal if you ask me.”

“Cute,” Baekhyun hummed. “I wonder if that’s why Sehun went through that phase where he rolled his eyes whenever Changmin was mentioned.”

My face paled at Sehun’s name, but I don’t guess Baekhyun noticed. He told me, “Sehun had a pretty big head about the fact that some cute little kid— you— looked at him with hearts in her eyes. I bet he didn’t like that you looked at Changmin the same way.”

I didn’t look at Changmin the same way. I never looked at anybody the way I looked at Sehun, just like I never looked at anyone the way I looked at Taemin. Some things are special, but I couldn’t explain that to Baekhyun, so I shrugged and turned my gaze out the window.

Would it be like this forever? I had long since been unable to remember Sehun from those days without frowning in time with the sad twinging of my heart, but life was different now that my frown wasn’t formed by anger or the sting of rejection. It was worse now.

“Are you okay?” Baekhyun asked.

Although I was certain that he had watched my argument with Sehun at the Christmas party, was it possible that Baekhyun hadn’t actually overheard anything? Even if he had heard everything, could our words have made any sense when he knew little about my past with Sehun? I didn’t know.

Regardless of what Baekhyun might have assumed or imagined, it was evident from his frown that he hadn’t known that Sehun was a sensitive topic.

“I just don’t really want to talk about Sehun.” Although Baekhyun hadn’t asked for a reason, when his frown deepened, I tried to lessen his concern by citing a trivial reason. “I’m just kinda annoyed with him, as usual.” I didn’t like saying it because it wasn’t true. I wasn’t annoyed with Sehun. I was just sorry. “He stole my mistletoe crown and—”

“He what?”

The mistletoe crown, I assumed, had been some kind of joke to Baekhyun, but when he stopped at a red light and looked at me, brows meeting between his eyes, it was evident that I had worsened his mood.

I stuttered, “I’m sorry,” and Baekhyun shook his head before turning his attention back to the road.

“What do you have to be sorry for, silly?” Baekhyun said nothing else about the mistletoe crown— thank goodness— because he preferred to turn the conversation back to the broken champagne glasses. “They were so beautiful, Lei. You know how everyone gets to keep a commemorative glass after the party?”

“Yeah.” I knew very well since the leftover glasses from years past filled cabinets in my mother’s home.

“Well, they’re always pretty, so I always look forward to seeing the New Year’s design.” Baekhyun must have been one of those people who found the small joys in life. “I’ve heard it said that you don’t have to touch to see, but when I see something so pretty—”

Baekhyun glanced over and grinned at the fact that I was carefully considering his every word. I raised my eyebrows. “When you see something so pretty?” Baekhyun was interesting because I could never predict where his thoughts would lead. I could never imagine the picture he would paint with his words.

“Huh?” Baekhyun blinked. “Oh! When I see something pretty, I get a little careless, but that doesn’t mean that I wanted to break those glasses. I didn’t want your mom to look at me so tired and disappointed before saying, ‘go downtown and pick up the extra glasses I have on reserve at that Eternal Memories store.’”

I guess it made sense that Mom was prepared for the worst-case scenario; that was a part of her job. Trying to make him feel better, I said, “I know. It was an accident.” Then, probably thinking about the broken picture frame Taemin swept into the garbage can, I acknowledged, “Glass is more fragile than it looks.”

Baekhyun parked the van in front of a store that was actually called Eternal Memories. I thought that was an embarrassing, cliche sort of name for a store, but I guess it suited their theme of personalized gifts.

“We’re not talking about champagne glasses anymore, are we, Lei?” I would never get over how perceptive Baekhyun and Lucas were because they hid their wit or supernatural senses behind blinding smiles.

“I dunno.” Glancing at the time blinking on the car radio, I suggested, “Maybe I’ll tell you some other time.”

Baekhyun repeated, “Some other time,” and held his hand out for me to shake.

A promise.

Knowing that there wouldn’t be much time to talk again before, during, or after the party, imagining that I didn’t really want to tell Baekyun about the broken picture frame even if we had all the time in the world, I still took his hand without hesitation. I made a promise that couldn’t be realized.

“Still got your mom’s card?”

In response, I flashed the card in my hand, and Baekhyun cheered, “Alright!” He bounced out of his seat. Before I had even unfastened my seatbelt, Baekhyun had barreled down most of the sidewalk, right past the Eternal Memories shop.

“Where are you going?” I leaned out of the car window to call after him.

He turned to face me, mask also serving to protect his identity from those who passed him on the sidewalk. “I gotta go get something! You go in and deal with the champagne glasses!” Without giving me the chance to argue— not that I would have in my shock— Baekhyun turned around and continued down the street.

Unbelievable.

Kind of believable.

Cursing myself for getting swept into the position of cleaning up Baekhyun’s mess while he played around, I stepped out of the car and closed the door with a tired slam. There was no point in chasing Baekhyun or arguing once he set his mind to something— especially after he turned his back to me. I swallowed my annoyance, felt that my mask was still secured around my eyes, and ducked into the Eternal Memories store.

The line leading to the sole open register wasn’t especially long. The problem was that the couple in front of me was determined to argue with the cashier, a young guy who couldn’t have been much older than me, for the rest of time. Well, the male half of the couple wanted to argue.

While he ranted about how his girlfriend’s name had been misspelled on a sparkling red ornament, the girlfriend cradled her face in her hands. I didn’t blame her. As a witness, I was embarrassed by his behavior.

A man wearing a manager’s name tag appeared from the back of the store, I hoped, to open another register. A disappointed wheeze passed through my lips when he instead focused on diffusing the dispute between the customer and the young cashier. Realizing quickly that I wouldn’t be leaving the store with the replaced glasses any time soon, I tried to soothe my temper by fixing my attention on the shelves of high-end commemorative merchandise.

After admiring snow globes, discounted (but still expensive) ornaments, and music boxes, my eyes fell on a picture frame with a small infinity symbol etched into the corner. I’m not sure which I remembered first: Donghae’s shattered picture frame or the infinity bracelet that he promised to give me that night. I’m not sure which memory prompted me to purchase the picture frame once the disruptive couple (finally) left after the girlfriend stormed out, shrieking until her face turned red, “I don’t even want that stupid ornament! You ruined Christmas by complaining about it, and now you’re ruining the new year with all this bickering!”

The boyfriend nearly knocked me over on his race out the door. He left the problem ornament sitting on the edge of the counter, and it remained there after I left. I don’t know if he ever returned for it or got it replaced with the correct spelling of his girlfriend’s name. I don’t really care.

After I instructed the Eternal Memories employee to pack the box of replacement glasses into the van’s trunk, I found Baekhyun sitting on the rim of a nearby foundation despite a sign that (I realized upon closer inspection) read: “PLEASE DO NOT SIT ON THE FOUNTAIN.”

Although I didn’t obey his gesture to sit at his side because I didn’t want to break the rules myself, I didn’t have the heart to tell Baekhyun about the sign discouraging his behavior. Pointing at the bag in my hand, he asked, “What’s that?”

Instead of answering, I deflected the question, pointing at the box in his lap, then the drink in his hand that he eagerly sucked through a neon green straw. “What are those?”

“Boba tea.” He revealed that he had hidden another cup behind his back. “Here’s yours!”

Although I didn’t really care for milk tea, I accepted the cup with a smile. “Thank you.”

He held the box out to me too. I only accepted it when he nodded, “Here, this is for you too.”

Unwrapped, it looked like the box he and Sehun gave me at the Christmas party— the one that contained the mistletoe crown I would never hold again. The crown I hadn’t wanted until it was gone.

I glanced at Baekhyun to ask where had gone and why, but my question died when I realized that his gaze had turned away from me to settle on the setting sun. It was weird. Baekhyun had never done anything without excitedly monitoring the reaction. So why didn’t he look at me?

Unsure of what to say, I quietly opened the box and blinked at the crown of white roses sitting atop pale orange tissue paper. I set my picture frame and tea next to Baekhyun so I could use both hands to gingerly remove the crown. What had Taemin said about white roses? I tried to remember.

Pure love. Secrecy. Baekhyun probably didn’t know that meaning. The color of these roses didn’t mean anything, but I blushed nonetheless. Contemplating the significance of roses, I didn’t mind that Baekhyun peeked into the bag containing the picture frame; I just wondered why he didn’t examine it more closely before setting it back down at his side.

Swallowing the lump in my throat— I could only react to such unexpected kindness with tears— I croaked, “You didn’t have to buy this.”

“Didn’t I?” Baekhyun quirked a brow at me and straightened the rose in his coat pocket. I hadn’t noticed it before. It was pretty.

I shook my head. “No, you didn’t have to give this to me.” But I was glad he did. To prove it, I fixed the crown onto my head and, clutching it so it wouldn’t fall onto the cobbled path beneath my feet, I bowed to Baekhyun. “Thank you.”

He blinked at me, face glowing the same sunset pink coloring the clouds. “Don’t make a big deal of it,” he muttered as a small smile curled his lips.

Maybe he didn’t think it was a big deal, but I kind of did.

Leaving all of our collected items on the fountain’s rim to stand by my side, Baekhyun spent the next few moments in silence before deciding, “You’re welcome.”

Because it seemed like the proper thing to do, I offered, “I’ll repay you,” but Baekhyun shook his head.

“You’ve already repaid me.” He looked away from the sunset or the fountain or whatever he had been admiring to explain, “You— uh—” his eyes darted away from me— “you smiled when you opened it.”

Before I could wonder how a smile could be an adequate payment, Baekhyun ran away. “We should probably go, huh? The moon and stars will be out soon, and that means that the fireworks at the party will start, and—”

Baekhyun was rambling. He always talked a lot, but there was always some chaotic method to his speech even if I couldn’t understand it. Perhaps more than ever, Baekhyun was acting like a normal person— how a normal person would react to embarrassment— but Baekhyun couldn’t get embarrassed. Besides, what had he done to justify any degree of shame?

Perhaps more than ever, I couldn’t understand Baekhyun. Rather than questioning him and risk making him more uncomfortable— or, worse, risk receiving answers that I couldn’t understand— I interrupted, “Did you know this is a wishing fountain?”

He held all of our purchases in his hands. “Oh, really?” His glance into the water must have revealed that coins littered the marble floor. “Before we go, let’s make a wish, okay?”

Baekhyun dropped our bags back onto the rim of the fountain and plucked his wallet from his pocket. I hadn’t the chance to mumble that I didn’t have any coins before he pressed a particularly worn one into my palm.

“Watch this.” He stood with his back to the fountain and flicked the coin over his shoulder. It landed at the feet of the baby Cupid statue standing in the center of the fountain. Perhaps startled by the lack of a splash, Baekhyun spun around. “Did I make it?”

He rushed to the fountain, trying to see where his coin had landed among others in the water. He seemed so determined to find it there that I was almost reluctant to tell him, “It landed at the angel’s feet.” Once I noticed Baekhyun’s small pout, I said, “When Super Junior used to take me to places like this when I was a kid, we aimed for the statues. It was something like getting bonus points.”

The bonus points, I think, were just their excitement at having been destructive to public property.

Baekhyun beamed. “Then that means my wish will definitely come true!”

Did he even take the time to make a wish before launching his coin into the air? He must have. Otherwise, why would he have smiled at me like that?

One of the last times I went to a wishing fountain, Eunhyuk told me that only little kids ask others what they wished for, and Donghae quietly explained that if you tell someone your wish, it won’t come true. I don’t know that I believed in Donghae’s imagination even as a kid, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask Baekhyun what he wished for.

I don’t know if I ever believed that fountains could grant wishes, but I wished that in the coming year, everyone I knew and loved would find happiness— especially Mom and Donghae and Sehun. I even pressed a kiss to Baekhyun’s dirty coin like Donghae taught me before tossing it into the water with a big splash.

“Oops,” Baekhyun huffed. Evidently, he decided that the goal was indeed to peg baby Cupid. “Maybe You’ll make it next time.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged and reached for my picture frame and tea. “We should probably go now, especially because we have to stop by my house before we go back to the banquet hall.”

“Your house?” Baekhyun raised his eyebrows as we rounded back to the van. He opened the door for me again. “Why do we have to go there? Won’t we be late?”

Baekhyun never struck me as the kind of person who cared much about punctuality, but maybe, I thought as I watched him ease into his seat and set the car onto the street, I didn’t really know Baekhyun well at all. That was too bad. I would have to get to know him better in the future.

I started to say that we didn’t have to go if my house was too far out of the way, but Baekhyun spoke instead. “Do you have to go get the picture for the frame you bought?”

There was little point in denying my plan. “Yeah.”

Baekhyun nodded and, without saying another word, he turned toward my house. I opened my mouth to thank him, but he started to sing a song— one I couldn’t recognize— that blared through the speakers.

Unable to say what I wanted to say, unable to sing along, I lowered the sun visor and adjusted the rose crown on my head. Then, I noticed that the roses were accented by blue baby’s breath. I made a mental note to research whether there was any symbolism behind that, but I think I forgot. I wish I had remembered.

“Hey!” Baekhyun interrupted his song with a yell. “I told you not to make a big deal about it!” I didn’t really know what he was talking about until he pointed at the flower crown.

I didn’t apologize for admiring it or anything. Once I was satisfied that the crown wasn’t lopsided or anything, I closed the visor and snorted at Baekhyun’s returned blush.

While Baekhyun waited in the van, I dashed upstairs to my bedroom, where I learned to reconcile the past and the present by fitting the old photograph into its new frame. This time, when we smiled back at me, neither sadness nor regret seized my heart. This time, I realized that I would see those same smiles— just a bit aged— at the party.

Finally, I understood as my thumb traced over the infinity symbol in the corner of the frame, the smiles shone forever in my memory. There, they were safe. There, they remained untouched by time.

One must be mindful when mourning the passage of time. If you spend too much time looking back, you risk missing the beauty currently before you, and that is no small tragedy. You can’t look too anxiously toward the future, either. You can ruin the night if you spend the time worrying about what could happen when the sun rises— that’s what Taemin taught me.

The only option, then, is to live in the present. I decided to try harder to live for now.

After setting the picture frame down on the vanity, convinced that it would make its way back to its rightful owner— Donghae— even if I didn’t return it to him myself, after glancing fondly at Donghae’s smiling poster (which Lucas had helped me return to its place on the wall the morning after the Christmas party), I ran downstairs and out the front door to find Baekhyun smiling in the van’s driver’s seat. I would have asked what he was so happy about were it not for the sudden buzzing of my phone.

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sleepless-stories · 4 years ago

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Coordinates to a soulmate

Normal version/ Non-OwO

Roman sat in his room with a grin that wouldn’t come off his face, disney posters adorning all of the red painted walls, a large crown painting done by Roman himself was right up above his bed, where he sat. Roman was staring down at his wrist, tonight was the new year after his 18th birthday, that meant that tonight he got his soulmark, tonight he could start on his quest to find his soulmate, to finding his one true love.

The clock hit midnight and ink appeared on his wrist, as if it slowly faded in, it was a bit darker than his skin not standing out too much but just enough. On it had his soulmate’s name, Janus Sanders, then a set of coordinates of where his soulmate was. Roman smiled, “I’ll meet you soon.” he whispered. Roman collapsed back on his pillows almost in a dramatic fashion as the boy closed his eyes falling asleep.

____________

Janus glanced at the clock, his room was dark, curtains drawn. The only light coming into the room was from his snake’s heat lamp. Janus was sitting on the floor of his room, right in front of his snake’s large tank with the little slithery boy hanging out coiled around his arm.

Janus glanced at the clock again, 11:59 pm… one minute. One minute till he got his soulmate mark, or didn’t there were several stories of those who didn’t get their mark for while after. Along with stories that your soulmate wasn’t to be your love… rumors that some people were destined to kill their soulmate or die by their soulmate’s hand, rumors though. Nobody knew if such a thing existed even after such a long time. But rumors were just lies.

Janus glanced at the clock… midnight… Janus glanced down at his wrist as the ink faded in, the ink was pitch black before fading to a light tan and being a few shades darker than his wrist. He looked down at his wrist reading it, it said Roman Sanders and had a set of coordinates. His soulmate… Janus adjusted his a black poncho as he carefully stood up from the floor. He put his snake back in the tank before going over to his bed and going to sleep.

____________

Roman threw stuff in a bag first thing in the morning and left his house, he knew he was a bit crazy but he needed to meet his soulmate. Roman got into his car punched in the coordinates and drove. He drove for hours… mostly because he stopped at a mall several towns away before going to the coordinates which were actually just an hour from his house… but like it was 7am when he left. Soooo he didn’t want to be toooooo early. Roman then drove to the town his soulmate presumably lived and just decided to go to a cafe.

Roman stepped out of his car and adjusted his red leather jacket, it had a gold crown on the back of it too, he had just bought it at the mall. Roman walked into the cafe and ordered a drink.

Janus had woken up and got dressed for the day, throwing on black jeans, a black shirt, a jacket, yellow and black striped beanie, and a black and yellow scarf, he got cold easily. Janus drove to the cafe and walked over to the counter ordering. He looked down at his wrist and saw the coordinates, curiously he pulled out his phone as he waited for his coffee. Janus leaned against the wall typing in the coordinates and… the coordinates were the cafe… his soulmate was here… at the cafe.

Roman was in the corner of the cafe eating his third slice of cherry pie.... He was nervous and hungry. Roman sipped his birthday cake, vanilla, expresso, sprinkle delight, foamy, sugar rush, as he looked around the cafe. He decided to look down at his soulmate mark, the coordinates were different. Roman put them in his phone and was surprised to see they were for the cafe, his soulmate was-

“Janus?” a tired barista called out putting a coffee on the counter.

Roman instantly stood up and sauntered over to him, roman took the other’s hand and kissed it, “It is wonderful to meet you” he whispered softly with a wink.

Then his soulmate pulled him close and kissed him….

Well that last part was what roman wished had happened….. Instead he got scolding hot coffee dumped on him. It hurt. Roman cried. Before he knew it he was sitting on a chair with a towel pressed against his face and some dude saying sorry a lot, though it didn’t seem super sincere… which kinda offended Roman… like he just committed a very romantic act only to have coffee in his face and a really fucking insincere apoligy.

Janus… had not expected to have some random dude come over and assault him by kissing his hand. So he threw his coffee in the person’s face…. In his defence.. It was for his defence. “You really are an idiot aren’t you?” Janus mumbled looking at his phone.

Roman gasped, even more offended than before. “Excuse me, guess you have an idiot for your soulmate then.” he said and took the towel off his face to glare.

Janus stared at him in shock, “You’re… you’re Roman?”

“The one and fairest!”

“Oh shit…. That was the best way to meet I guess.” Janus said, rather sarcastically.

Roman rolled his eyes, “You are the worst.”

“Awww, sweet.”

“My soulmate is an asshole.”

“Well, you know what they say, you and your soulmate are rather alike.”

“How… how dare you.”

“Whatever Prince.”

Roman sighed. “Would you like to go for a walk?”

“It’s 46 fucking ferinhite outside, it’s freezing.”

Roman stared at him in confusion, “Um please?”

“Fine… I’ll suffer.”

“YAY!” Roman jumped up then ran over to where he was sitting before and grabbed his bag. “Lets go!” he said and offered his hand to Janus.

Janus signed exasperated and took his hand.

An alligator fell from the sky outside, falling on some people splattering blood everywhere from the impact.

Roman walked out with janus and smiled as they walked down the street, “This town is beautiful. But not as much as you.”

Janus groaned, “Fuck… you.”

Roman rolled his eyes, “Are you saying you don’t appreciate my compliments?”

“No, I hate them.” Janus sarcastically responded.

Roman grinned as if he just won the lottery.

The two walked down the street together talking as they went, getting to know each other.

Janus didn’t want to say it… but he was falling in love with this idiotic, goofy, extra, ‘prince’.

Janus sighed and paused, “Roman, would you like to come over to my home? You could stay so you don’t need a hotel.”

Roman gasped instantly, “Janus? You really want me to?”

“Sure…” Janus nodded, blushing softly.

Roman guided him back to the cafe skipping as he walked down the street.

They drove their cars to Janus’ home.

When they got there roman quickly got out of his car and went over opening Janus’ car door and bowed.

“You’re very cheesy.” Janus sighed and walked over unlocking the door and walking in.

Roman went in behind him, “Your place is nice.”

“Thanks.” Janus smiled.

Roman nodded, shutting the door behind him.

Janus took off his jacket, scarf, and hat, before going to his room and taking his snake out. He let it wrap around his wrist as he went back to Roman. “Here’s my pet.”

“Awww! Cute!”

Janus nodded, “yeah, want to sit and watch a movie?”

“Disney?”

“Sure.”

Roman grinned and went over with Janus trailing behind him. They sat together and roman chose Cinderella.

Half way through the movie Roman looked over at Janus who happened to be staring at him, they leaned in close to each other and kissed.

Janus stood up quickly after they kissed, “I’m um… I’m going to make dinner.” he said and walked to his room putting his snake away before going to the kitchen.

Roman sighed leaning back on the couch looking at the ceiling, sighing… he totally messed that up…

Janus blushed thinking about the kiss as he chopped up vegetables.

Roman moped for a bit before getting up and going over to the kitchen, “Janus! I lo-”

Janus heard his name yelled and quickly turned around looking at Roman. “You…” Janus began to notice something warm on his hand. He looked down, the knife he had been cutting vegetables with was still in his hand and currently lodged in Roman’s thigh. “Roman.” He cried looking up at him.

Roman stared at Janus putting a hand to the side of his face and kissing him as tears ran down his own face.

Janus shook his head and pulled the knife out quickly putting it down and helping roman to sit. “You’ll… you’ll be ok.”

Roman simply shook his head, his eyes full of tears as he was quickly bleeding out, “I love you.”

“I… I love you too.” Janus whispered, putting pressure on the wound… but it was too late.

Roman’s eyes shut… he was dead.

Janus sobbed leaning against him, “Don’t don’t leave me.. Please.” he whispered.

It was too late.

_________________________

General Tag List

@crazy-multifandomfangirl

@aceawkwardunicorn

Roceit

@dragonindigo245

#tw death #tw blood #tw murder #tw major character death #soulmate au #roceit #Janus Sanders #ts janus #ts roman #roman sanders #fluff and angst

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colbybrocksmolder · 5 years ago

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Never Have I Ever Had A Threesome - Colby Brock x Reader x Jake Webber (smut) [PART 1/3]

"Y/n!” Colby yelled, walking into his apartment and chucking his things on the counter, Jake following him in and diving onto the couch. When you didn’t respond, he yelled again. “Y/n?”

“Is she at Sam’s?” Jake asked, scrolling through the trending page on YouTube to try and figure out what the fuck he was going to record tonight. He had gone out of town after his breakup and completely put off recording and he was about to hit a week with no video.

“I don’t think so” Colby answered, checking his bedroom and the balcony. “Her shit is still all here.”

“Check your loft” Jake suggested. “Remember she used to climb up in the one at your parents house all the time.”

You had known Jake, Sam, and Colby for years. You were always the closest to Colby, but you guys just vibed. Sam used to call you soul siblings. You always loved the same music, style, authors…pretty much everything. You were drawn to the same people…Sometimes if felt like you were reading each other’s minds. You’d never really dated, but you’d had your fair share of “comforting” each other. At least that’s what you called it. That was another thing you had in common. You weren’t afraid of your sexuality. You’d shared more than one “I want to try something, but I want to try it with someone I trust” nights. Honestly, Jake and Sam had talked about the two of you more than once. They were still convinced, to this day, that you were somehow TOGETHER together. Or secretly in love with each other.

“Oh shit, you’re right. But why wouldn’t she be answering?” he asked as he ran up the stairs. “Y/n?”

There you were. Bundled up in one of Colby’s baggier sweatshirts, headphones in, Colby’s stuffed koala in your arms…You’d dragged his big fluffy blanket up there to take a nap and had slept longer than you originally planned.

“Jake” Colby whisper yelled. “Chuck me my phone”

“Is she asleep?” Jake asked, grabbing Colby’s phone and running up the stairs. “Awww, I miss her. I’m glad she’s here.” He handed the phone to Colby.

“She’s staying, too.” Colby told him, squatting down on one knee to take a picture of you.

“What!?” Jake asked excitedly. “When is she moving out here?”

“We’ll go back and get her shit from her mom’s place soon. I talked her into it last night.” Colby answered, smiling down at your sleeping form. “I fucking missed her, dude.”

“Is she getting her own place?” Jake asked.

“Nah, she’ll just move in with me until the lease is up and then she’ll probably move to whatever house we end up getting.” Colby answered matter-of-factly, knowing neither Sam nor Jake would ever have an issue with her being around.

“Bro. I feel like we’re getting the band back together.” Jake laughed.

Colby moved to lay by you, scooting against you. “Y/n” he said your name, pulling your headphones out of your ears. “Wake up, sleepy head.” He leaned forward and kissed your cheek. “We need to record a video for Jake.”

When you didn’t budge, Jake started teasing you. “Y/n! I’m gonna lick your face if you don’t wake up!”

Your eyes popped open, Colby’s face just inches from yours. You gave him a confused look. “Did I just dream that or did Jake jus…” Jake interrupted you, making slurpy noises with his mouth. “Not a dream” you laughed, moving to get up.

“We should just play Never Have I Ever” Jake said, heading back downstairs.

“What?” you asked, confused as to why he so casually suggested that.

Colby laughed, “he needs to record a video tonight.”

“Oooooh. That makes more sense.” You moved to wipe the sleep from your eyes. “Let me shower really quick and I’ll help you guys with the video.”

Before you could walk past him, Colby pulled you into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re staying.”

“Me too. I’m anxious and worried, but I fucking missed you guys so much.” You answered, leaning up to kiss Colby’s lips.

“I told Jake, btw. He’s stoked.” Colby answered, letting go of you and following you down the stairs.

“How do you feel about me staying around here and annoying you all the time?” You teased Jake, walking up behind him and jumping on his back.

“Hey, you only annoy me when you eat all the Cheetos and don’t tell me we need to get more. I take my snacks very seriously.” He joked, spinning around in circles in the living room.

You pressed multiple kisses to Jake’s cheek and hopped off of his back. “I’ll be out in like 15 minutes, boys.”

Jake dropped down next to Colby on the couch, staring over at one of his best friends. “You’ve gotta let me in, man.”

“What?” Colby laughed, locking his phone and setting it on the coffee table.

“You two are definitely more than friends but you just genuinely smiled over at us when she was kissing me half an inch from my lips.” Jake sat there with a ‘duh’ look on his face.

“Jake” Colby leaned in, making sure to make eye contact. “She’s allowed to do whatever she wants. We’re not dating. We’re not boyfriend/girlfriend. I promise.”

“You guys are so confusing, like…why aren’t you actually together? You literally make more sense than Sam and Kat. WAY more sense than Tara and I ever made.” Colby went to speak, but Jake kept going. “Or OR if you ARE together, how are you so chill with how flirty and touchy feely she is with us?”

Colby could tell this wasn’t just about him and Y/n. He was still upset about Tara. Colby scooted closer to his friend and pulled him into a hug, Jake collapsing against Colby. “You’re gonna get over her. I promise.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.” He answered.

“Believe me, Jake. You’re gonna find someone that really loves you for you.” Colby reassured him, his arms still tightly around his friend. “Who wouldn’t love you? Tara is stupid. You’re one of the best people I know.”

“Thanks, man.” Jake sat thinking for a minute. “I just don’t get why you guys don’t see it” he continued. “You guys are like two halves that fit perfectly together.”

Colby pulled back, letting go of Jake and looking at him. “Sometimes I think that” he admitted. “I do. And if that girl told me I was the one she wanted to spend forever with, I’d drop everything to make it happen. But I don’t think I am. And I really am happy to be in her life however she wants me to be. I’m in no rush to make my forever plans.”

“I knew it. I fucking knew it! I knew you had to be like secretly in love with each other. I just told Sam I thought….” Jake was interrupted.

“You can’t tell Sam shit. Sam will talk to her about it and I don’t want that. I just want to fly to Kansas and drive back with all of her shit and live here happily with one of my best friends that I’ve been missing.” Colby sounded firm. “Agreed?”

Yeah, Colby had yelled at Jake before, but he’d never seen him get SERIOUS serious about pretty much anything. “Yeah, man. No worries.”

Colby nodded, pulling Jake back into a hug. “Thanks, man.”

“I won’t tell Sam, but I think you’re stupid as fuck for not telling her.” Jake laughed.

Colby and Jake decided that they’d play the alcoholic version of Never have I ever. You either answer and tell the story or choose not to answer and take a shot. On the whole, the three of you were pretty open people, but you definitely threw some questions in that you guys knew no one would want to answer. As the last question came up, Jake said “Never have I ever had a threesome!”

You and Colby looked at each other, wide-eyed and smiling. “Give me a shot” you said, reaching for the bottle of Jack.

“Me too” Colby said, downing a shot right after you.

Jake, a little tipsy, bust out laughing. “Well guys, turns out all my friends are hoes” Jake shook his head. “Thanks for watching! Make sure to check out these two down in the description. I think we finally convinced this one to start a channel” Jake side tackled you on the couch. “I’ll see you guys next week!” He yelled.

Colby ran at the camera with his hand to cover the lens at the end of the outro, laughing and turning it off. “Jake did us dirty” he said, walking back to the couch.

“How was I supposed to know both of you were sex crazed maniacs” He laughed, teasing you.

“Oh like you’re an innocent boy” you scoffed, pulling up your Postmates app.

“Hey, I never said that.” Jake laughed. “I want foooood”

“Well, here.” You said, climbing in his lap. “These are the places that are open still” you scrolled through the list in your Postmates app.

Jake wasn’t paying attention to you. He was looking over at Colby who was standing in the kitchen, massive grin on his face. *These two are so confusing* Jake thought to himself, finally looking down at your phone screen.

“Colby, come help pick” you said, letting Jake take your phone from you.

Colby couldn’t stop smiling. He thought the scene in front of him was adorable. You were sat on Jake’s lap, playing with the bracelets on one of Jake’s wrists while he scrolled through food options. Your faces were close so you could both see the screen. Two of the people he loved most on this planet. One was enviably confident and the most loving person he’d ever met and the other was currently heartbroken and in need of love. To Colby, it made sense. He walked to the couch, laying down so his head was laying in your lap…or laps, I guess. “You know what I like. Just order me something from wherever you two pick.”

You grabbed the phone back from Jake, adding yours and Colby’s order to the restaurant he had picked. “If you don’t like what I got you we can switch” you said, reaching down to play with Colby’s hair.

Jake laughed. “If Sam walked in here right now, he’d wonder what the fuck we were doing.” He looked at all of the open seating that wasn’t being used because the three of you were practically on top of each other.

“It’s not my fault Sam is stingy with his cuddles” Colby replied.

“Psshhh, like I didn’t used to catch you two cuddling when I’d go in to wake you up” you laughed, resting your hand on his chest.

“Let me rephrase” Colby chuckled. “It’s not my fault Sam is stingy with his cuddles when he’s awake and sober.”

The three of you laughed and you rested your head against Jake’s chest. “I need to figure out when I’m gonna go get my stuff.” You thought out loud, just passing the time until your food got there.

“WE’LL fly out there sometime in the next week or so and just rent a little moving truck and drive back” Colby said, making sure you knew he wasn’t letting you do it alone.

“I CAN do things for myself, Colby. You’re already not letting me pay you rent.” You complained, more for the principle of the matter than actually being mad Colby made decisions for you.

“Y/n” Jake said, wrapping his arms around you. “You should know by now that none of us really volunteer to do shit we don’t actually want to do.”

You sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing. “I love you guys.”

“That’s a relief” Colby snarked, getting up to get the door that was being knocked on.

You could feel Jake’s body bounce with his laugh. “I’m seriously so happy you’re going to be around again” he said. “It’s like perfect timing.”

You sat up to look at Jake. “I’m sorry about Tara.”

“Don’t be” Jake smiled. “If it wasn’t meant to be, I’m glad it’s over. It would have sucked worse to waste more time on it.”

“You’re going to make someone very happy one day, babe” you pecked his lips with a quick kiss and hopped off his lap to go grab the food that had just been delivered.

“Jake!” Colby called from the kitchen, “come eat!”

When Jake walked into the kitchen, he saw you and Colby whispering to each other, but he couldn’t tell what you were talking about.

“I think it would be good for him” you whispered to Colby.

Colby smiled down at you, his hand reaching up to push your hair out of your eyes. “I agree and I think he’d be down” he replied.

“Okay, but YOU have to be the one to talk to him” you said. “I don’t know if he knows how *comfortable* you are with him, if you know what I mean.”

“Don’t worry” he said, leaning down a bit to kiss you. “We have a pretty touchy feely friendship, Y/n” he laughed.

“You two don’t look hella sus or anything” Jake snarked, grabbing his food.

“Oh, you wish you knew what we were talking about, brother” Colby smirked at him. He grabbed his food and kissed Jake on the cheek, the two of you moving to the living room to eat.

“I forgot how weird you two get when you’re around each other all the time” Jake laughed, sitting between the two of you on the couch.

After you had finished eating and finished watching the movie you had put on, Colby looked over at you and then to Jake. You knew he was going to ease into what could be the rest of your night. Colby leaned his head on Jake’s shoulder, not saying anything. He just let his weight fall against his friend. You took Jake’s other arm and put it around your shoulders so you could snuggle into his other side.

“Aww” Jake quietly said. “I feel loved” he chuckled a bit.

“That’s the point” Colby said, once again kissing Jake’s cheek.

“We do love you, Jake” you added, putting your hand on his thigh.

“Stay with us tonight” Colby whispered to his friend, his lips grazing Jake’s ear.

Jake looked over and stared at Colby with parted lips, an almost vulnerable look on his face. “Wait…you…am I reading this wrong?” Jake’s eyes dropped to Colby’s lips for a second before moving back to stare into his blue gaze.

You moved to straddle Jake’s lap, hiding your face in his neck. “You’ve got all the control, Jake” you said, pressing your lips to his neck.

Colby put his hands on either side of Jake’s face. “She’s right” Colby said, his eyes dropping to stare at Jake’s lips. “What happens is up to you.”

“This is real?” Jake asked, not exactly in the trusting mood after his break-up. “Please don’t fuck with me” he said in an almost sad whisper.

Colby leaned forward and pressed a soft and slow kiss to Jake’s full lips, you sat up and watched as Jake relaxed into Colby’s touch. “We’d never fuck with you like that, Jake” you assured him.

Colby pulled back from the kiss and stood up. He started cleaning up the dinner trash. “Are you gonna stay with us?” he asked, walking to the kitchen. He wanted to give Jake room to think.

Jake looked at you, his cheeks flushed pink. “Awww, you liked it” you teased, pressing kisses to Jake’s cheeks. “Colby, you made him blush” you called out. You could hear Colby laugh from the kitchen.

“Colby!” Jake called out, his hands moving to gently rest at your waist.

Colby walked back into the living room, standing behind where you were still straddling Jake’s lap. “Yes, Jake” Colby smirked down at him.

“What we talked about earlier…” Jake said, his eyes dropping to meet yours for half a second before looking back up at Colby. “Are you sure?”

Colby leaned down from behind you and pulled Jake into a quick, but rougher kiss. “Very” he said, walking back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up.

Jake looked at you and pulled you into a kiss, his hands pulling you closer against his body. “Wait” Jake broke the kiss. “I assume your threesome answer earlier meant you’ve had one together?” he laughed.

“maybe” you blushed, hiding your face in Jake’s neck.

“Aww she’s embarrassed.” Colby laughed. “You weren’t so shy about it when Nate had you…”

“NATE Nate?” Jake threw his head back laughing, interrupting Colby. “Yeah, I could see that.”

“Hey!” you hopped off Jake’s lap, walking up to Colby. “I spent half of that night watching Nate walk you through your first…”

“Babe!” Colby threw you over his shoulder laughing, interrupting you. He started walking towards his bedroom. “You coming?” he turned and smiled at Jake, continuing forward and flipping you down onto the bed in front of him.

“Hey! I like that story.” you pouted, reaching up to pull Colby into a kiss. You then ran your thumb over his bottom lip. “Seeing these pouty lips wrapped around Nate was one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen in my life.” you said, pulling his lips back to yours.

You guys watched Jake hesitate at the door. “I think you should go get our boy” Colby said, pulling you to your feet.

Grabbing Jake’s hands, you turned the two of you and started pushing him into the room. Wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling his lips to yours, you slowly backed him up into Colby. “You’ve gotta talk to us, babe.” You removed your arms from around him so Colby could pull Jake’s shirt up over his head, tossing it to the floor.

“I don’t know what to say” Jake blushed, tipping his head to the side when he felt Colby’s mouth teasing the skin of his neck. Jake moaned Colby’s name

“We need to know you feel safe” Colby said, wrapping his arms around Jake and continuing to leave kisses across his skin.

Your fingers started undoing Jake’s pants, watching the two boys. “God, you two are gorgeous” you quietly said, moving Jake’s jeans to fall around his ankles.

“I feel safe” Jake stuttered out, his hands reaching out for you without pulling away from Colby. “I don’t like that I’m the only one getting naked though.” His hands tugged at your shirt.

“Don’t worry, we’ll join you soon.” Colby laughed, his hand slipping further down Jake’s torso to cup him through his boxers. “I think he likes us, y/n” Colby teased, feeling Jake harden beneath his palm.

Jake groaned, dropping his head back to rest against Colby’s shoulder. You quickly stripped out of your jeans and top, dropping to your knees in front of him. “Jake” you said, running your hands up and down his thighs.

“Oh fuck” Jake’s head flew forward, his eyes staring into yours.

Colby pushed Jake’s boxers down over his erection. “Can I touch you?” Colby whispered into Jake’s ear, his fingers grazing the skin of his lower abdomen while you pulled his boxers the rest of the way down.

“Please” Jake almost whined.

“Ooo, so polite” Colby teased, circling Jake’s hardness in his hand and stroking him at an almost painfully slow pace.

“Baby, it’s my turn” you said, moving Colby’s hands. Firmly holding the base of Jake in your hand, you wet your lips and slid the rest of his length into your mouth.

Colby moved out from behind Jake and stripped out of all of his clothes. “Y/n” Jake moaned, his fingers tangling with your hair as you quickened your pace.

“You don’t want to end this too soon” Colby scolded.

Jake reached down and pulled you to stand, connecting your lips. “I want to taste you” he said between kisses, pushing you towards the bed.

Colby was already on the bed and he pulled you down to lay your back against his chest, his hands fiddling with your bra until he got what he wanted and it was discarded on the floor with the rest of the boy’s clothes. Jake did the same with your underwear. “I bet you can’t wait, y/n” Colby teased you, his fingers moving to play with your nipples. “I bet you’re already soaked just thinking about Jake’s mouth on you.”

Jake moved to kneel between your legs, his strong hands holding your knees apart as he left wet open mouth kisses down your inner thighs. He looked up to see your body sprawled across Colby’s naked form, your eyes shut and your cheeks rosy. His thumb teased your clit, moving effortlessly between your wet folds.

“Don’t tease me” you cried out, moving to close your legs because of the too-light pressure.

“No you don’t, baby girl” Colby said, using his legs to hook around yours and keep them open. Your body fully exposed for Jake.

Your eyes flew open and you started down at Jake, seeing the grin on his face. “Please” you begged, the light touches just weren’t enough.

Jake removed his thumb, sliding two fingers into your heat. “I just can’t say no to you when you look so needy” he laughed, dipping down to swirl his tongue around the sensitive bit of flesh. “So sweet” he said, lapping at and sucking on your clit.

As you neared your orgasm, you couldn’t help but moan Jake’s name. “God, I love watching you fall apart” Colby said, his hand moving to rest against the front of your throat.

Jake looked up to see Colby lightly squeeze his ring clad fingers around your throat and groaned, the vibrations moving through you and pushing you over the edge of your climax. “Holy fuck” Jake said, staring at you and Colby.

“Tease her” Colby told Jake, still holding you down.

Jake dipped his mouth to suck you back into his mouth. “Aahhh” you cried out, your nerves being overstimulated and still too sensitive. “Jake!” you tried moving away from his mouth, but you were at their mercy.

“Keep going” Colby said, knowing you’d be falling apart again in just a few seconds. When he knew you were right on the edge of your second orgasm, he tightened his hand, momentarily stealing your breath from you. “Jake”

You felt your second orgasm flood through you. Your body felt like it was floating and you couldn’t hear anything but your heart beat.

Jake and Colby watched you fall apart all over again. Colby let go of your throat and released your legs, letting you relax back against his body as you slowly came down from your intense high. Jake crawled up next to where the two of you were laying. He traced patterns into the skin of your stomach and thigh while he waited for you to ‘come to’. When your eyes fluttered open, he leaned in and kissed you.

“You two are evil” you smiled against Jake’s lips.

“You loved it and you know it” Colby smirked, letting you climb off of him. He moved to lay down on the other side of Jake. “I think Jake deserves a reward for being so good to you” He said, pulling the boy into a rough kiss.

You reached for the bedside table to grab a condom. You opened it and rolled it onto Jake. “I think you just want to watch us because it gets you off” you teased him, moving to straddle Jake.

“Guilty as charged” Colby said, moving to suck a mark near Jake’s collarbone.

“You beautiful possessive boy” you smiled, sinking down onto Jake’s girth.

“Jesus fuck” Jake moaned, caught off guard. His hips started to move with you, meeting your bounces with his thrusts.

“He’s so pretty when he moans” Colby said to you, kissing down Jake’s chest and sucking one of his nipples between his lips.

Jake moved his hand to the back of Colby’s head, a silent invitation to keep going. “I think he likes that” you said, moaning when Jake thrust up into you a little harder. “He definitely likes it”

“We’re learning all sorts of stuff about you today” Colby said, biting down on Jake’s nipple before moving to the other one.

“I’m close” Jake mumbled out, throwing his head back against the pillow when Colby roughly bit down on his other nipple.

Colby climbed off of the bed and grabbed another condom, watching Jake’s thrusts falter. As he rolled the condom on himself, he heard Jake cry out. The look on his face, pure bliss.

Colby moved to straddle Jake behind you, pushing you forward to lean over Jake’s body on your hands and knees. “My turn, baby girl” he said, thrusting fully into you in one go.

Jake pulled you into a kiss, his hands playing with your breasts. You could feel Colby angle his hips to aim at that specific spot inside you. “Fuck, Colby. Right there.” You cried out.

“You are literally dripping wet, y/n” Colby said in his low sexy voice. Colby was always a talker in bed. He liked having power over you and you were a sucker for everything that boy did. “I know you love letting us use your body, baby” he said, his hands moving to grip your hips as he thrust harder, aiming for that spot.

“Colby” you moaned, your body falling to partially lean on Jake.

“Touch yourself, Y/n” Colby told you in a firm voice. “I know you can come again.”

You reached your fingers back between your legs, deciding to tease Colby first. You reached past yourself to gently grab Colby’s balls, massaging them in your hand. His thrusts stopped, himself buried balls deep in you with a grunt. “What’s wrong baby?” you asked.

“Is that what I told you to do?” Colby asked, his hand landing in a hard slap on your ass before you could answer.

“Jesus” Jake said, seeing a side of Colby he had never witnessed before. “If you two go on much longer I’ll be ready for round two” he said, seeing Colby continue to thrust into you from behind.

“Don’t worry, we’ll all get a round two in a few hours, right y/n?” Colby asked, slapping your ass again.

“Fuck yes” you moaned, sliding your fingers between your folds and pushing yourself towards your third climax of the night.

“I can feel you close, baby” Colby said, his thrusts getting sloppy as he was almost there with you. You clenched down onto Colby’s girth as ripples of pleasure worked their way through your body. “Y/n” Colby called out, filling the condom with a few more thrusts.

Colby stayed on his knees with his hands on your hips for a moment as he gained his composure. He reached down to remove Jake’s condom as well as his own and left the bedroom to throw them away. Your body collapsed onto Jake’s.

When Colby came back in the room, he couldn’t help but smile as he looked down at the two of you. You both looked exhausted and happy. “Come on, you two.” He said, bending down to kiss you both one after the other. “Scoot that way, y/n” he instructed.

You ended up on your side with your back pressed to Jake’s front, his arms holding you tight to him. Colby slid into the bed and wrapped his arms around Jake from behind, pulling a blanket over the three of you. “Guys?” Jake whispered, nervous you had already fallen asleep.

“You okay?” Colby sleepily asked, nuzzling his face into Jake’s hair.

“I just wanted to say thank you.” Jake shyly let out.

“You don’t need to thank us, babe” you said, squeezing his hand.

“Yeah, you’re always welcome here.” Colby said, the three of you drifting off to sleep.

#colby brock #colby brock x reader #jake webber x reader #colby brock imagine #colby brock smut

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awhitehead17 · 5 years ago

Text

Everything Goes Silent

Tim & Kon, Friendship, Hurt and Comfort, Powers Acting Up.

Summary: When Tim finds Kon suffering because of his powers, he immediately sets himself the task of helping his best friend with his problem.

Enjoy! :D

The first time it happened Tim was actually caught off guard by it. It was just something he actually never even thought about until it happened and it made him wonder how long his best friend had been suffering for before he accidently found out.

It was when he was stopping by the Tower one weekend that he accidently found it out. While there he decided to visit Kon in his room to have a catch up as he hadn’t seen his friend in who knows how long. Since Tim didn’t have anything planned for a change, it was the perfect time to have a chat and maybe play some video games while they were at it.

He gets to Kon’s bedroom door and taps it a few times to announce his presence before walking in. Tim walks into the room to find it unusually dark, the curtains had been drawn closed to block out any light from the window and there were no gadgets on which would normally illuminate the room.

“Kon?” He calls out into the empty looking room. He looks around to try and find his best friend in the dark. He wasn’t on his bed and most certainly wasn’t asleep, the desk on one side of the room was empty and a glance upwards tells him Kon wasn’t floating on the ceiling anywhere.

Tim frowns, how odd. Earlier on when he first arrived Cassie had told him that Kon was in his room and had been all day, if he wanted to find the super, that’s where to look.

“Conner?” He calls out again. A bad feeling starting to build up inside of him, his gut was telling him that something was wrong.

Stepping further into the room Tim scans around trying to find something out of the ordinary, however everything was in place that he could see the only strange thing was that it was dark. Despite the gut feeling that something was off he was ready to leave the room, considering that Kon may have walked out at one point and Cassie just didn’t know, when a quiet whimper catches his attention.

His head whips around to where the sound came from and finds himself looking at the corner of the room where Kon’s wardrobe was. He listens intently, waiting to hear the noise again. When Tim hears it a second time he cautiously walks over there. The bad feeling in his stomach amplifying with every step he takes.

When he gets close enough he hears the whimpering much more clearly and to his complete surprise he finds his best friend being the source of the sound. Tim stares as he takes in Kon’s figure, the Super having somehow managed to wedge himself in between the wardrobe and the wall making himself as small as possible. His whole body was shaking, his head was tucked tightly in his knees and his hands and arms where covering his head like he was trying to hide from something.

Tim’s heart breaks at the sight. What was going on with his best friend? How didn’t anyone know about this?

Getting over himself he crouches down in front of Kon’s shaking figure. Close enough to touch but still far enough away to give personal space.

“Kon? It’s Tim, what’s wrong dude?” Okay, Tim didn’t actually know what to say to get his friend’s attention. He was crap with emotional stuff and anyone who knows him knows this but this was his best friend and he needed to help him.

Not knowing what else to really do, he reaches out and gently touches Kon’s knee and the reaction was instant. Tim thanks the gods for his fast reactions because they saved him from getting a Kryptonian kick to the stomach. Kon startles badly that his body reacts faster than his mind but once he sees that it was Tim and how he wasn’t in any immediate danger he curls back up into his ball and lets out another whimper.

Tim gets in close again and places his hand on Kon’s knee, keeping it there as a source of comfort. “Kon? What’s going on?”

Kon shakes his head, refusing to answer. Tim notices the way he has his hands pressed over his ears tightly.

“Kon, please, I want to help. Let me know what’s going on man.”

His best friend finally looks up at him, his hands still clutching to his ears, his face was contorted with pain and there were streak marks going down his cheeks. “I can’t do it anymore. That’s what. It’s all too much!”

He lets out a sob and Tim feels absolutely awful, but he still wasn’t sure what Kon was on about. “What’s too much? You need to explain it to me Kon, I can’t help if I don’t know the details.”

Kon shakes his head again, his teeth clench together as his hands press tighter to his ears. His tone was full of pain and stress as he talks. “I can hear everything. It’s all too much! I can’t do it! There’s just too much of it!”

That’s when it clicks in Tim’s mind. Kon’s super hearing was playing up. He currently didn’t have any control over his ability, it was causing him to have something similar to sensory overload. That’s the only way Tim can really describe it.

“Make it stop. Please. Make it stop!” Kon stresses, almost begging him.

Tim looks away and around the room hoping for something that’ll help. He doesn’t have anything that’ll immediately help and despite what everyone thinks he doesn’t know everything about powers and abilities. He doesn’t know what’ll help Kon right in this moment.

Taking a chance he gets up and finds Kon’s phone and his earphones on the bedside table. Grabbing them Tim goes back over to Kon and unlocks the phone, opens YouTube to bring up some white noise videos. He leans forward and tries to pry Kon’s hands away from his ears but they wouldn’t budge.

“Tim please,” Kon begs again.

“Kon, trust me.” Tim tells him, he holds the earphones up for him to see and reluctantly Kon moves his hands from his ears.

As quick as he can Tim places them in each ear and turns the video up. “Try and concentrate on this noise only.”

Kon closes his eyes but the painful expression he’s been wearing doesn’t go away. After a couple of moments Tim gets another idea, he shuffles closer pushing Kon’s knees apart and sliding between them. He presses his back against Kon’s chest, grabs his friends arms so they wrap around him and strategically places Kon’s hand over his heart, hoping this would be another thing that Kon could concentrate on.

He feels his best friend hug him tight as he places his head on top of Tim’s. They stay like that for a long time, long enough for even Tim to become stiff but he doesn’t dare move. During that time Kon seemed to have calmed down enough to get control once again.

When Kon starts to pull away Tim moves too, opting to stand up and try and stretch his muscles out. Kon stays sat down, taking a moment to get himself together before taking out the earphones and looking up at Tim with a small tired smile. “Thanks man.”

“It’s no problem. That helped then?” He asks curiously. There’s so many questions that Tim wants to ask his friend but he’s able to restrain himself, he doesn’t want to overload Kon after that.

Kon swallows, “Yeah, it took a little while but it did eventually. Man that was awful, I’m pretty sure that’s my version of a migraine or something.”

Tim chuckles at that and extends his hand for Kon who takes it. “That’s good to hear. How often does this happen?”

His friend looks away, “Not a lot, it happened more when I was younger but once I got control over my powers it stopped. However, on the rare occasion it all just becomes too much and I lose that control. Particularly when I’m stressed or over tired and exhausted.”

Tim hums, taking in that information but he doesn’t press for more. He looks up at him, “I’ve got the weekend off, fancy watching some movies or playing some games?”

Kon shoots him a relived look and nods, “Sounds good.”

That was when Tim set himself up a project, to come up and build something that’ll help Kon in the future when another overload happens.

He works on it for weeks, making sure it was perfect. Of course it was difficult at times, frustrating at other times when it doesn’t always work out right, but after hours and hours of work he eventually has something that’ll help Kon out with his problem.

Unfortunately he can’t give it to Kon straight away because of course aliens attack the planet, villains try and take over the city, some sort of natural disaster happens which takes up all of their time. With everything that had happened Tim had completely forgotten about the project, saving the world and thousands of lives just distracted him from it.

It wasn’t until months later, when Tim finds Kon having another sensory overload because of his super hearing that he remembers the project. Once he finds his friend curled up in a ball with his hands clenched over his ears, Tim runs to his room and finds it stashed away in his desk.

He rushes back to Kon and pries the meta’s hands away before placing some very special crafted noise cancelling headphones over his ears. Tim had designed them specifically for Kon’s needs so he’s nervous yet excited as he turns them on, this being the first time they’re being used therefore this will let Tim know if they work or not.

After a moment his best friend looks up at him in shock and carefully pats his head, feeling the headphones out. A large grin takes over his face and if the hug tackle that Kon does is any indication, Tim would say that his project worked. He’s happy that he was able to help his friend.

#Tim Drake #Kon-El #fanfiction #hurt and comfort #friendship #powers acting up #super hearing #sensory overload #kinda #noise cancelling headphones #tim being a good friend

27 notes · View notes

nickelkeep · 5 years ago

Note

1 fake relationship with 42 getting back together. Destiel please, ily, thank you

Oh hey, I’m sorry this took so long my love...To Confess

Sam entered into the War Room, finding Cas and Dean squabbling like the old married couple he had always pictured them to be. Dean was clearly losing whatever argument they were having this time around, his arms crossed across his chest, and his eyes stuck in a perpetual eye roll.

"Dean, it doesn't make sense."

"Cas, it's science fiction. Fiction doesn't have to make sense." Dean looked to Sam for support. "Please explain to Cas why Han Solo using Parsecs as a measurement of time actually makes sense."

Sam opened his mouth and shook his head. "I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole." He turned his tablet around and laid it on the table in front of Dean and Cas. "So get this... We've got couples missing at a couples retreat a couple states over."

"Which lovely lady you going with?" Dean uncrossed his arms and smacked Cas' hand away from the tablet so he could scroll through the article.

"Can't find one. Charlie's still not back. Jody's taking Donna on a hunt."

Cas looked up. "Well, there was a lesbian couple that went missing. You can choose a male partner."

"I was hoping you'd say that, Cas." Sam shot a look at Dean before smiling at Cas. "Will you do me the honor of being my fake husband for a case?"

"Excuse me?" Dean shot a look at Sam.

"Well, I'm not asking you, Dean." Sam shook his head. "That's... Yeah, no."

Dean crossed his arms over his chest again. "Why are you and Cas going? Cas is my best friend. He and I can pull it off better than you two can."

"You realize that you're going to have to act like you love Cas, right? You might have to kiss him. Act like he doesn't have cooties."

"Sam, Dean. I'm standing right here." Cas looked back and forth between the two brothers. He picked up the tablet from the table. "Actually, it might work better if it is Dean and I." Cas turned the tablet around. "The retreat is aimed at couples who are having issues within their relationship. Dean and I can easily act that out."

"Done." Dean smiled smugly at Sam.

Sam held his hands up in defense. "Sorry, Dean didn't realize you wanted an excuse to play house with your best friend."

Dean blushed and rushed towards his room, muttering something under his breath about needing to pack. Cas cocked his head in confusion, watching Dean leave. He turned back and looked at Sam. "What was that about?"

"I have no idea, Cas." Sam smiled smugly. "None, whatsoever." He held his hand out for the tablet. "Let's get you and Dean set up for a vacation, shall we?"

xxx

The drive was relatively smooth. Dean and Cas pulled into the campground, finding the main office to check-in without too much difficulty. Before they entered the building, Cas stopped Dean. "Should we hold hands or something?"

Dean ran his hand down his face, nodding before taking Cas' hand into his. "Sorry if it's sweaty. Been driving this whole time."

"It's okay, Dean." Cas lightly squeezed Dean's hand, sending a strange sensation through to Dean's heart and causing it to speed up.

"Let's do this." Dean pulled open the door and let Cas walk in first, their hands still together. They walked up to a counter where a bored-looking teenager was busy texting on their phone. The teenager shot them a look and held up a finger, spending a few additional moments focusing on their phone before setting it down.

"Welcome to Camp Geode River. Can I get the name your reservation is under?" The teenager's monotone made Dean scoff.

"The Pages? Dean and Castiel?" Cas offered.

The teen clicked away at the keyboard before nodding. "Yup. Sec." They turned around and grabbed a folder, a pair of keys, and a bag. "There's a map in the folder, but you're in cabin ten. Pretty easy to find, just straight down the road, all the way at the end, no turns. There's a personal itinerary for you two in there, plus a group one if you want to socialize." The teen rolled their eyes. "The bag is a welcome gift from management." The teen forced a smile. "Have a great time at Camp Geode River."

"Thanks." Dean rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag while Cas took the folder. The pair headed back out to the Impala and took the brief drive back down to their assigned cabin. Dean parked the car and looked at the log cabin and nodded in appreciation. "Doesn't look too shabby."

"I believe if it were shabby, it would be uninhabitable, Dean."

Dean opened his mouth to respond but decided against it. Instead, he chose to get out of the car and grab his duffel bag out of the trunk. Cas took his key and headed up to the door, opening it and heading inside. Dean followed close behind and found himself pleasantly surprised by the interior.

"Well, then. This may not be so bad, after all." Dean's eyes fell on the bed. "Except for that. Is that the only one?"

"It is a couple's retreat, Dean. They expect couples to share the same bed."

"Uh." Dean rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, you can have the bed. I've slept on plenty of couches."

Cas' eyebrow went up. "Dean, you know I don't require sleep. You can take the bed."

"Yeah, I know you don't need it, but it looked like something you were starting to enjoy. Don't think I haven't seen you catnapping around the bunker." Dean crossed over to the bed and dropped the duffel on it.

"I can go without sleep for this hunt, although I appreciate the offer, Dean." Cas opened the folder and started looking at its contents.

"So what's on the docket for tonight?" Dean moved next to the bag and fell back on the bed. "Oh dude, you're going to regret giving up the option to sleep on the bed. This memory foam is almost as good as mine."

"I'm fairly certain I'll be okay." Cas looked up for a moment and smiled at Dean. "Thank you, though."

Dean blushed, and let his head fall back on the pillow. "So, what's the fancy stuff in the fancy folder say?"

"Well, there's a meet and greet tonight for the people who came in today. So perhaps we should go to that."

"Are members of the staff going to be there?" Dean questioned.

"Looks like it."

"Cool. When is it?" Dean pushed himself up on his elbows as he felt Cas sit on the edge of the bed.

Cas pulled out his phone. "Starts in about an hour. Need to grab a shower?"

"Hell yeah."Dean sat up and crossed to the shower. "I hope the dress code is casual. I only brought the FBI badge. I didn't even bring a monkey suit."

"I'm fairly certain your lumberjack attire will fit in here perfectly." Cas quipped, earning a genuine laugh from Dean.

"And yet you make fun of it all the time. Want to borrow one?"

Cas started to take off his trench coat and suit jacket. "I might as well." He began untying his tie, causing Dean to swallow hard.

"Well, you know the saying, 'When in Rome...'" Dean tried to look anywhere else, but his eyes found themselves drawn to Cas' hands.

"Did you know that saying is actually about ways to worship at Church?" Cas finished removing his tie and draped it with his jackets.

Dean's eyes snapped back up to Cas'. "I had no clue, but I'm sure you could tell me all about it."

"I doubt you're actually interested in that history," Cas smirked and unbuttoned his shirt. "Do you have a spare tee shirt as well?"

"Yep." Dean turned away from his best friend and focused on the word friend. He opened the duffel and pulled out a light grey tee and a flannel that was in shades of blue. He turned back around to a shirtless Cas, hoping that the angel didn't notice Dean's eyes tracing down his chest and abs before resting on his tattoo. "Huh. Forgot about that." Dean said aloud.

Cas looked up at Dean and tilted his head before looking down at his own torso. "Oh."

"Sorry, didn't mean to..." Dean stumbled over his words before shoving the shirts at Cas. "Throw those on, and we can explore the campground before the Meet and Greet thing. I'll wait for you outside." Dean rushed out of the cabin, his mind going in a hundred different directions.

Cas followed out of the cabin a few minutes later. Dean fought to keep himself from staring at his best friend and focused on a spot on the ground.

"Dean? Are you ok?"

Dean looked up to find Cas standing in front of him. "Yeah, just tired from all the driving. I'll be ok after some sleep tonight."

"Okay." Cas didn't bother hiding the fact he didn't believe Dean. He offered his hand. "For appearances?"

"Right, for appearances." Dean took Cas' hand and allowed himself to be pulled back up the road. "Where to, Casanova?"

Cas looked over his shoulder and shot his own version of a bitchface at Dean. "We'll start heading towards the Mess Hall, as that's where the Meet and Greet is."

"Think they'll have pie?" Dean asked, trying to distract himself as he caught up and walked side by side with Cas.

"Is pie camping food?"

"Pie is an everywhere food, Cas." Dean winked before feeling a flush to his cheeks. "So, what's our story?"

"We've been together for 7 years. We're having issues."

Dean nodded in agreement. "Keeping it simple. Makes sense. Are we having issues, though?"

"Us, as in for the case? or Us, as in back at the bunker?" Cas stopped and looked at Dean. "You tell me."

"Nope." Dean shook his head. "My head hasn't been clearer."

Cas simply nodded and continued walking. They made their way to the mess hall, both of them having left the map back in their cabin, and found that the Meet and Greet was already underway. Several couples had come in that day and were already making the rounds. They were introducing themselves to the staff and each other.

Dean and Cas looked at each other before shrugging and moving in to follow suit.

After spending time talking to staff, Dean and Cas found a bench away from the rest of the group to sit down on. "Explain to me how we do this all the time?" Dean looked at Cas and huffed.

"Isn't it usually Sam who does the so-called nerd work?" Cas inquired. "You make Sam do the interviews, you make him research. You prefer doing the grunt work." Cas wrapped his arm around Dean's shoulder.

Dean's eyes went wide. "Uh, Cas?"

"We have to be a couple, Dean." Cas leaned in closer and reminded. "If we're not playing the part, it can look suspicious."

"Right. Play the part." Dean nodded in confirmation.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Cas pulled his arm back and tilted his head.

Dean opened his mouth to speak when a voice called out from the primary grouping of people.

"Alright, ladies and gents!" A staff member had stood up on a bench to get everyone's attention. "Time to head over to pit! We've had a pig going all day, and for those who are kosher or vegan, we have some other options available for you!"

"You heard the lady, Cas. There might even be pie." Dean wiggled his shoulders and stood up, offering his hand down to the angel.

Cas muttered something under his breath, causing Dean to lean down and ask him to repeat himself. "Nothing, Dean. Let's go see if they have your pie." Cas took Dean's hand and stood up, walking side-by-side with the hunter as they headed a few hundred yards over to a particular cooking area.

The pair grabbed food and sat down at a table that was mostly staff, trying to catch all the gossip they could about the missing couples, which came with false reassurances that they were safe. As they enjoyed their dinner, Dean had Cas keep an eye on the other pairs. When the first couple decided to call it quits, Dean also declared it bedtime for him and Cas, earning himself a grumpy eye roll.

Once back in their cabin, Dean pulled out his laptop and handed Cas a tablet. "Alright, so what have we learned?"

"It's four couples that have gone missing, and it was after their therapy sessions." Cas sat on the sofa and slouched down. "You know we're not going to be able to get anything out of the therapists. They're bound by patient-doctor confidentiality."

"Think they keep notes?" Dean pulled out his phone and called Sam, putting on him on speakerphone.

"You guys kill each other yet?" Sam asked as soon as he answered the phone.

"Seriously, Sam?"

"Hello, Sam." Cas sat up and leaned towards the phone. "We are both still alive."

"Oh good, I was betting that you would have smote him by now." Sam laughed, and the guys could hear some paper being rustled on the other end of the line. "So, what's up?"

Dean ran his fingers through his hair. "Hoping for another set of eyes on this. And you're the best nerd we know."

"There have been four couples reported missing, Sam." Cas continued. "All four were last seen at a therapy session."

Sam laughed out loud. "No wonder you need my help. You're not getting Dean within 100 feet of that building."

"Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean?"

Sam continued laughing as Cas tried to diffuse the situation. "I believe what Sam is getting at is that you don't like talking about your problems and issues. You would be averse to going near the building.”

"Seriously, Sam?" Dean rolled his eyes and let disdain creep into his voice. "Or do you forget the times we checked into mental hospitals, and I was forced to talk about my feelings?"

"I know, I'm sorry." Sam let out a breath. "Sorry. Okay, seriously, how can I help?"

Cas took over the conversation with Sam while Dean walked off to the bathroom. This case was turning into a disaster. Dean started to believe that it would have been better if he just kept his mouth shut and let Sam come with Cas.

Cas wouldn't be annoyed with Sam right now. If anything, Cas and Sam would be acting like a perfect couple. Dean paused. Did Sam even like guys? Not that it would bother Dean, but he can't ever remember Sam looking at another guy like that. Did Sam look at Cas like that?

Did Sam want Cas the way that Dean wanted Cas?

Dean turned the water on in the bathroom and splashed it on his face. He did not want Cas like that, he couldn't want Cas like that. Dean pressed the heels of his palms against his temples and leaned his elbows against the sink. He was completely hopeless.

Dean took a deep breath and looked in the mirror again. He let the breath out slowly and headed back out to the main room. Cas and Sam were still talking, and Cas had a smile on his face. Dean's heart sunk.

"That makes sense, Sam." Cas looked up at Dean and nodded. "Dean's back in the room."

"Ok, so based on what Cas has told me, I think you two need to look into Fairy Lore."

"More Fairies?" Dean groaned. "No Oberon jokes, Sammy."

"Well," Sam laughed. "Funny you should mention that. 'Cause you can see them."

Dean muttered some choice curse words under his breath and collapsed on the foot of the bed.

"Why don't you get some rest, Sam. I'm going to shoo Dean off to bed here in a moment as well. I'll keep researching." Cas looked at Dean with a small smile on his face.

"I have a few more things to do yet, but I will head to bed soon, I promise." There was a brief moment of silence. "Have a good night, you two."

"Night, Sammy." Dean replied as Cas responded with: "Goodnight, Sam."

The call disconnected, and Dean frowned at Cas. "You really going to send me to bed?"

"You told me you were tired earlier, Dean." Cas stood up and crossed over to the bed, grabbing the duffel bag and putting it on the floor. "You should get some sleep."

"You're not going to sleep?" Dean frowned. "What about you getting rest?"

"I don't need to. We already had this conversation."

Dean looked back at the bed then looked at Cas. "You know, it is a king-size. So if you get tired?"

"I hear you, Dean." Cas stepped in between Dean's legs and ran his fingers through Dean's hair before gently cupping his cheek. "Go lay down. Please?"

Dean nodded and crawled up to the top of the bed before sliding under the blankets. He watched Cas turn off the lights, except for a lamp next to the sofa he'd been sitting on. Dean's heart was beating a mile a minute, and nothing he could do could make it stop. "Goodnight, Cas."

"Goodnight, Dean."

xxx

The next morning, Dean woke up to the scent of freshly brewed coffee, but a cold bedside. His heart sank upon realizing that Cas never joined him. Dean sat up and looked over at the kitchen area and saw Cas drinking what was most likely a cup of tea.

"Good morning, Dean." Cas looked up from the paper in front of him. "The coffee should be done by now if you want a cup."

Dean got out of the bed and walked towards Cas and the kitchenette. "You get any rest?"

"I didn't need it, Dean." Cas offered a small smile. "I appreciate your concern, though."

"Just watching out for my best friend. You know." Dean mentally kicked himself and headed to the coffee pot. He grabbed himself a mug and filled it with fresh coffee.

"I know."

Dean leaned back against the counter and took a sip. "So, figure anything out last night?"

"Yes, actually. And already texted Sam too." Cas reached across the table, grabbing the tablet he worked on, before turning around to look at Dean. "Pixies."

"Shit. It really is fairies?" Dean rubbed his hand over his mouth and jaw in frustration. "No offense, but I was hoping that was a dead end."

"I'm sure. I remember that your last run-in with fairies was not particularly something you want to remember." Cas smirked.

"I microwaved one to death. That's not an image you get out of your head." Dean shuddered. "So, what do we need to do?"

"It's a fairy, Dean. How do you deal with fairies?"

Dean thought for a moment. "They love cream. They have to count spilled sugar or salt." Dean snapped his fingers. "They hate iron."

"Looks like we know what we need to do then." Cas took a sip of his tea. "You care for some breakfast?"

As Cas and Dean walked to the Mess Hall for breakfast, Dean made it his personal mission to keep some distance between himself and Cas. He was confusing himself. Dean knew he shouldn't be having these feelings for Cas, but he also finding fewer and fewer reasons why he shouldn't have them.

"Good morning!" A way-too-happy voice called. "Heading to breakfast?"

Dean looked at Cas, who pointed. Another couple were coming to intercept them. "I believe their names are Marge and Ed." He whispered.

"And I don't really care," Dean responded back to Cas before turning to the couple. "Yep. A quiet, private breakfast."

"Good luck with that!" The guy scoffed. "There's no privacy in there."

"Ed, be nice." The woman smiled at Dean and Cas. "Just figured we could all walk over together. We're all in the same boat for the next couple of days."

Ed grumbled something under his breath before looking at the guys. "Run away, or Marge is going to try and Dr. Phil you two."

"Ed!" Marge playfully clutched at non-existent pearls. "I do love my daytime shows, but I wouldn't pretend to act like an expert on anyone's marriage."

"You're not even an expert on our own," Ed responded.

"I would be if you talked to me!"

Dean and Cas looked at each other exasperatedly.

"So, boys." Marge turned away from her husband. "How long have you been together?"

Cas cleared his throat. "Seven years."

"Awww, I thought seven was supposed to be lucky! Why are you two here?" Marge pouted at them.

Dean and Cas looked at each other, surprised that the stranger was so blunt in her questioning.

"Christ, Marge. It's not enough that your marriage sucks, you need peep in on others?"

"I'm just worried about them. These two are such a good looking couple, but they're not even acting like a couple!"

Dean winced. He knew he should have taken Cas' hand or anything. He could be screwing up the entire case.

"Maybe they're not gay!" Ed joked. "Maybe they only got married for the tax breaks."

"Seriously, Dude?" Dean stopped. "I don't know who you two think you are–"

"Dean–" Cas tried to interrupt Dean, but instead found himself pulled into Dean's arms and their lips pressed together in a searing kiss. Dean melted into Cas, his arms wrapped around the angel's neck, and Cas' hands resting on his hips.

Dean remembered the feeling of the sparks flying when he met Cas for the first time all those years ago. This was that feeling multiplied by a number too high for him to comprehend. He was gone, his heart having beat its way out of his chest.

A cough pulled them out of their reverie, Ed bright red while Marge stared at them and fanned herself.

"You know Eddie, if you still kissed me like that, we wouldn't be here."

Dean blushed his own bright shade of pink. He grabbed Cas by the hand and dragged him into the Mess Hall, leaving the other couple in the dust.

Once they settled down at a table, Dean flushed again. "Cas, I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do, and I–"

"Dean." Cas rested his hand on top of Dean's. "It's okay. I understand. They could have blown our cover. It was an effective way to make them quiet."

Dean slouched in his seat. "Right. To keep our cover." He picked up a piece of bacon and bit it. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"We have a therapy session in about 30 minutes." Cas sipped at the coffee he had grabbed while putting some additional bacon on Dean's tray. "Perhaps if we're lucky, we'll be abducted."

"Cas, we don't know why the others were abducted, only that it was after their therapy session." Dean swallowed the bacon and took a drink of his own coffee.

"Well, we still need to have a therapy session in order to try and be abducted."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Great. Feelings."

"Make them up for all I care, Dean." Cas snapped. "We need to stop this, and you're literally one of the only hunters who can see fairies."

"You think Sam knew?" Dean tilted his head. "There's no way he knew."

"Doubtful. When we were talking, Sam was fighting against that idea." Cas ate a piece of bacon he had kept on his tray, causing Dean to raise an eyebrow. "What? I need to appear human."

After breakfast, Cas and Dean walked over to the building where the therapists had set up their offices. They were meeting with Dr. Quinn, who was another too-perky-for-mornings person that irritated Dean.

They settled down on her sofa, Cas on one side and Dean on the other.

"You two are making this extremely stereotypical. You don't have to sit a million miles apart. I heard about your little makeout session this morning." Dr. Quinn winked at them.

"We're not normally like that," Cas replied. "Dean doesn't like– What's the phrase? –DPA, so we don't engage."

"PDA, Cas. It's PDA. Public Displays of Affection." Dean frowned. If only Cas knew how much he actually loved them.

"Why don't you like them, Dean?"

"How about you tell me what you asked the last four couples who went missing, so I know not to answer those questions?" Dean countered.

"Dean!" Cas turned to face him and winked the eye that the doctor couldn't see. "That's not something you should be asking!"

"He's right, you know. And I don't know what that has to do with why we're here now." Dr. Quinn added.

Dean crossed his arms and slouched back about the couch. "We've heard the rumors, and we only got here last night. Four couples went missing, and they were all last seen here. How convenient."

"While that is unfortunate, and yes, they did see me, I had nothing to do with their disappearances." Dr. Quinn tapped her finger against her lips. "Perhaps you can tell me why you're using the disappearances to avoid talking about your feelings?"

"He will use any excuse to not talk about his feelings." Cas looked at Dean, an emotion in his eyes that Dean couldn't quite place. "If you want to know how he's feeling, you're better off going to a psychic."

"Dude, Cas."

"So, there's a lot of emotional avoidance as well, Cas?" Dr. Quinn turned and focused on Cas, acting as though Dean weren't in the room.

"Definitely. Dean can't explain how he feels, or he won't. Not once in seven years have I heard..." Cas stopped himself. "Sorry. I can't go there."

"Go where?" Dr. Quinn looked back and forth between Dean and Cas, Dean shrugging at her.

"Dean still doesn't fully accept himself." Cas looked at Dean.

Dr. Quinn nodded as though it all made sense. "Dean, where are your parents?"

"Excuse me?" It was Dean's turn to look back and forth.

"It's a simple question. Are you in contact with your parents?"

"No. They're both dead." Dean glared at her. "I don't understand what this has to do with anything."

"Who died first?" Dr. Quinn pushed forward.

Dean looked at Cas, confusion, and betrayal on his face. "My mom died when I was four. Dad died nine years ago."

"So, Dad raised you?"

"Stop right there." Dean pointed at her. "You going to tell me I have Daddy issues? Everyone who knows me knows that I have Daddy issues." He turned to face Cas. "You especially."

"I think you're afraid of being honest about your love for Cas because your father would disapprove." Dr. Quinn's voice drew Dean's attention back to her. "I think you're ashamed to admit you're bisexual, even though you're literally married to a man."

Cas cringed as Dean exploded on the poor doctor. "Excuse me? My father has never had any control over who I do or don't love." He stood up from his seat. "My father was never around. My father would abandon me and my brother for weeks at a time in shitty motel rooms and not enough cash for us to survive.

"So you know what I did? I did what no teenager should ever have to do to make sure there's food on the table for their kid brother. I've known for a long time that I'm bisexual. And I don't care. Did I flaunt in front of my father? No, cause I'm not stupid. But ashamed of that fact? Fuck no.

"What I'm ashamed of is that I love Cas, and I don't know how he can love me back. Because I'm not worthy. He knows the shit I've done. He knows the Hell I've been to, the Hell I've been through. I love him, and there's no way he can love me too."

Dean stormed out of the office, slamming the door shut behind him. He stumbled outside, finding the first bench he could and sitting down on it, his face falling to his hands. The words had spilled out of him in a rage, and he couldn't put them back.

"Room for one more?" A soft, sweet voice called from above Dean. He looked up and came face to face with a cute, petite blonde.

"There's a bench over there." Dean pointed in a random direction.

"Yeah, but this one has a heartbroken guy who looks like he needs a hug on it."

Dean shrugged. "Sit or don't sit. I don't care."

"It's normally polite to ask if someone wants company." She tucked her short hair behind her ear. "So, may I?"

"Yeah." Dean sniffed and rubbed at a tear that had fallen.

"Quinn or Martin?" The blonde asked.

"Quinn."

The blonde nodded. "Yeah, the doc can be pushy." She extended her hand. "I'm Rúnda."

"Nice to meet you." He shook her hand.

"Would you like that hug?" Rúnda asked, a hopeful smile on her face.

"Nah, I'm good." Dean wiped at his face again. "You staff here?"

Rúnda nodded from side to side. "You can say that. I help out when I can. I try to be helpful where I can. Relationship issues, huh?"

"Kinda." Dean shrugged again and hung his head. "If I didn't have them before, I'll definitely have them now."

"What makes you so sure about that, Dean?" Rúnda asked.

Dean lifted his head slowly and looked at the blonde. He focused on her carefully, and slowly reached for the iron blade in his boot. "I don't recall telling you my name."

"Dammit." Rúnda cursed. "I always forget that." She smiled brightly and let the rest of her façade slip. "Let me guess, hunter?"

Dean forwent the blade in his boot and instead grabbed a sugar packet out of his pocket and ripped it open, spilling it in front of the pixie. "Where are they?"

"Dammit. A good hunter." Rúnda sat down and started counting the sugar crystals. "They're all safe. They're fine. They're in Avalon."

"Humans don't belong in Avalon. You know that." Dean sighed and pulled the iron blade out of his boot. "Bring them back."

"Busy!" Rúnda hummed playfully. "You know I can't stop."

Dean kept the blade pointed at her as she kept counting. "Why'd you take them?"

"They were hurting each other. With secrets. I can smell secrets a mile away. Yours is a big one. You're hurting yourself and your Cas with yours."

"So you took them to what? Make them share their secrets?" Dean knelt down.

"Yep! Once they share and there's no more pain, they can go home!" Rúnda looked up at Dean. "You know, you can tell me how many sugar crystals you spilled."

Dean ran his fingers through his hair and watched for a moment as the pixie kept counting the sugar crystals. "You. You can't do that. Secrets are healthy."

"Some secrets, yes. Presents. If that dress makes them look fat." The pixie frowned, an expression that looked entirely out of place on her delicate face. "But the kind of secrets, like yours? They hurt."

Dean ignored her and rolled his eyes. "What do I need to do to have you release the other couples?"

"Ooh, I can make deals. Rumpelstiltskin is a cousin. Taught me everything I know." Rúnda thought for a second. "First. Promise you nor Cas will kill me, and let me go back to Avalon in peace. Then, you tell me how many sugar crystals you dropped. Finally, you tell Cas the secret. We'll consider it proxy for all the other couple's secrets."

"First one is easy. I promise Cas nor I will kill you." Dean extended his hand again and let Rúnda shake it. "Second part, though. That one might be impossible. I ripped open a random packet. I have no idea how many are in there."

"Ah, that's the best part. You make up a number, it becomes fact."

"How do I know you won't run?" Dean crossed his arms over his chest again.

Rúnda scratched the back of her head. "Well, besides the fact that we're in the middle of negotiation? If you want to switch two and three, there's Cas now." She pointed at the door, where a relieved Cas had spotted Dean.

"Fine, we switch two and three. I tell Cas what I think is my biggest secret and then I tell you the number of crystals. But then you let them go."

"I'm ok with that!" Rúnda smiled up at Dean as he stood up.

"Thank God," Cas smiled at Dean. "I was hoping you hadn't gone far." He looked down at Rúnda. "Who's this?"

"He can see you?" Dean asked.

"Yep! I'm letting him."

Dean ran his hand down his face. "This is our pixie, Rúnda. Rúnda, let me formally introduce you to Cas."

"Pleasure!" She continued counting the sugar crystals. "You can tell him at any time."

"First." Dean turned to Cas and held up his finger. "Under no circumstance can you kill her. That's part of the negotiation to get the couples back."

"Okay." Cas nodded.

"Second." Dean looked at Cas. He took a deep breath, looking at the pixie for a split second before looking at the angel in front of him. The angel that could never be his. "I know what I said in there, Cas. But I need to be honest. I can't love you."

Cas took a moment to process what Dean had said. The look on Cas' face reminded Dean of when he told him that he wasn't allowed to stay in the bunker after Cas had fallen. "I see." Cas looked down at the pixie, before walking away.

Dean watched as Cas' posture slumped, the strength and grace he walked with draining away.

"You're an idiot." Rúnda shook her head. "Like, you believe that and that's a damn shame, and it's a secret you've been keeping you tricky son of a bitch–"

"Hey!"

"–like, why do you think you can't love him?" Rúnda pulled at her hair. "He's obviously in love with you, and you're clearly in love with him." The pixie made a frustrated sound. "That was dirty."

"You agreed to the terms." Dean pointed out.

"Because I thought you were going to tell him that when you said you loved him, that you meant it!"

"Four hundred and one," Dean responded.

Rúnda looked at Dean, confusion written on her face.

"Sugar crystals. Four hundred and one." Dean sat back down on the bench. "I don't need you to tell me how much I suck. I already know."

"How often are you told you need therapy?" Rúnda glared at Dean.

"Apparently not enough."

"Take it from a creature of mischief. You need it." She snapped her fingers. "They're all back home with their families. You can have your hunter friends confirm."

Dean nodded. "Thank you, Rúnda."

"Don't thank me, dumbass. Go fix your problem. Cause it just got worse." She snapped her fingers again, disappearing from sight.

Dean didn't stick around. He ran back to the cabin and found it empty, only his duffel bag sitting on the bed where he had left it that morning. Cas was gone. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started to dial Cas when he realized that Cas probably wouldn't answer. Dean finished packing his things back into the duffel and loaded it into the Impala. He pulled his phone back out and called the next best option. Sam.

After two rings, the line picked up. "What the hell did you do?"

"Hello to you too, Sam."

"No, I'm not playing games, Dean. I thought something happened to you. But no. That's not it at all, is it?" Dean didn't even have to close his eyes to imagine the bitchface his brother had going on. "What did you do?"

"Is Cas there?"

"Do you even have the right to ask that right now, Dean?" Sam spat, a venom Dean hadn't heard in years.

"I want to make sure he's safe. He's my priority before the couples."

A pregnant pause made Dean pull the phone back to make sure they hadn't been disconnected. "–e's here. Incredibly heartbroken, but he's here. Your ass better get back here as fast as humanly possible."

Dean heard the click of the phone and pulled it away from his ear. He hopped back into the passenger seat and started the drive back to Lebanon.

Several hours and two stops for gas later, Dean pulled into the Bunker's garage. Before he could even get his duffel out of the trunk, Sam was meeting him at the door. "What the hell happened, Dean? I mean, there are not enough words to explain what's going through my mind right now."

"It was a pixie. I made a deal." Dean slung his bag over his shoulder and started heading back to his room.

"Bullshit," Sam yelled at him. "I got Cas to talk, and I know what you said."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, that I can't love him." He stood in front of his door and looked over his shoulder at Sam. "That's the truth." Dean opened the door and walked in. He tried to close his door, but Sam shoved his foot in, keeping it from closing.

"Before that. When you two were in the actual therapy session." Sam used his size and weight to shove the door open. "You said that you love him. You admitted what I've known for years. You said what anyone with eyes has seen." Sam watched as Dean crossed to his bed and dropped his bag on it in resignation. "Why did you tell him you can't love him?"

"The pixie said I had to tell my biggest secret, Sam." Dean sat on the edge of the bed.

"So, what, you don't love Cas?" Sam ran his hand through his hair. "I think I just pointed out that's not the case."

"Sam, it's no secret that I love Cas. That's why I couldn't use it as my secret. I've never hidden my feelings for him. I just may not have been completely open about them." Dean looked at Sam. "I had literally just yelled out that I didn't care who knew that I love him. It's not a secret at that point."

Sam's jaw dropped. "But you said..."

"I said I can't love him." Dean ran his hand down his face. "My secret is that I fight to not love him."

"Why!?" Sam's face twisted in confusion. "You can have the one thing that we both crave. And don't tell me you don't want it."

"The list is endless, Sam." Dean starts ticking on his fingers. "He's an Angel of the Lord, I'm not supposed to fall in love with my best friend, He doesn't love me back, my love for him can be used against me."

Sam shook his head. "Nope." He grabbed Dean under the arm. "I'm not putting up with this."

"What the hell, Sam?" Dean found himself being pulled to his feet and dragged out of his room. "Stop!"

"No!" Sam dragged Dean down to Cas' room, where he kicked on the door. "Cas, open up!"

"The fuck, Sam?" Dean tried to get out of Sam's grasp before Cas could open the door. "Let me go!"

Cas' door opened slowly. "What, Sam?"

Sam shoved open the door with his shoulder and flung Dean into the room, throwing both angel and hunter for a loop. He scrambled to beat them to the door and slammed it shut behind him. Once closed, Sam drew a pattern on the door, causing it to glow gold briefly. "Oh, thank God."

The door shook violently, but neither Dean nor Cas could open it. "What the hell did you do, Sam?" Dean shouted, banging on the door.

"I did some reading about the bunker while you two were on your trip. It's a little trick that'll come in handy." Sam playfully slapped the door. "I'll come back and check on you two later. Like, much later."

In the room, Cas crossed over to his bed and sat down. He picked up the crossword puzzle that he had been working on, choosing to ignore Dean.

Dean, left with nothing to do, sat in a chair in the corner of the room. He kicked his feet up on the other one and leaned back, trying to get comfortable. Dean pushed and pulled the chair with his feet, trying to find the best place for it to rest.

"Would you stop?" Cas spoke, causing Dean to look up. He picked up a book and threw it at Dean. "It's one of yours anyway."

Dean flipped it over, despite not needing to, knowing it was On the Road. "Did you finish it?"

"Several times." Cas turned back to his crossword. "There's a lot of time when one chooses not to sleep."

"Did you li–"

"That was not an invitation for conversation, Dean." Cas wrote down an answer and scratched out the question.

Dean hung his head. "I'm sorry."

"Okay." Cas wrote in another answer, crossing out the clue.

"No, Cas." Dean stood up and crossed over to the bed, setting the book on the nightstand. "I'm sorry. For what I said."

Tears welled up in Cas' eyes. "Don't be sorry for how you feel, Dean."

"I'll never be sorry for loving you, Cas." Dean sat on the bed at Cas' feet.

Cas dropped the paper, shaking his head. "You told the pixie–"

Dean held up his finger. "First, what did I say in front of the doctor? Then what did I say in front of the pixie?"

"You said that you love me in front of the doctor and that you were ashamed of the fact that I love you."

"More like, ashamed of who I am, not that you love me." Dean paused. "You do, right? Love me?" A tinge of hope colored Dean's tone.

Cas nodded. "But then you told the pixie you don't love me."

"I didn't tell the pixie anything." Dean took a chance and rested his hand on Cas' leg. "I told you that my biggest secret is that I can't love you. Because I feel like I'm not allowed to."

"Who said you can't?" Cas tilted his head in confusion.

"No one actually said I can't. I've always felt like it's wrong. You're a freaking Angel. I'm a high school dropout who's caused the apocalypse, hunts monsters, took on the Mark of Cain, became a demon, and unleashed some crazy bitch who's the literal darkness."

"I've done my share of wrongs, Dean." Cas sat up and crossed his legs to be closer to Dean. "But not once have I ever thought that I didn't deserve you." Cas started to reach to touch Dean's cheek but pulled back. "You have always been my beacon. My Righteous Man."

A sob escaped Dean's lips. "You've always been my Angel. There is no one but you, Cas." Dean hung his head. "I mean it when I say I don't feel worthy."

"Dean." Cas cupped Dean's cheek and wiped away a stray tear with his thumb. "You don't decide if you are worthy of someone's love." Cas leaned forward and captured Dean's mouth with his own. The kiss was brief and sweet, but still enough to take their breaths away. "My love is yours, and yours alone, Dean."

Dean crashed his lips into Cas' again, claiming the angel as he had at the campground. He climbed into Cas' lap, the need for closeness rushing through his veins.

Cas ran his hands up the front of Dean's chest and under Dean's flannel, pushing it off of his shoulders and tossing it to the floor. He pulled up on the hem of Dean's tee shirt, and with Dean's help, he pulled it up and over his hunter's head. Cas traced his fingers over Dean's skin, taking the moments to relearn the freckles and the scars that marked the beautiful body in his lap. "What do you want, Dean?"

Dean leaned forward and kissed Cas briefly before kissing along his jaw. He moved down Cas' neck, nibbling on it before he came to the tee shirt Cas was wearing. "Is this the one I leant you?"

Cas nodded. "I didn't dream of this happening. So I thought I would..." Cas closed his eyes and trailed off as Dean started to suck a spot onto his neck.

"Keep it. Knowing you're in my clothes?" Dean whispered against Cas' skin. "It means you're mine."

"Mhmm." Cas' hands found their way to Dean's back and started kneading into the skin and muscles, causing Dean to melt against Cas.

"Fuck, Cas." Dean pulled back and started pulling Cas' shirt off.

A warm chuckle left Cas' throat. "I believe if we keep this up, that's where we're heading." He lifted his arms up, letting Dean finish taking his shirt off before his hands found Dean's hips. Cas squeezed them and pulled Dean down on to him. "Is that what you want, Dean?"

"Yes." Dean's eyes were half-lidded as he found Cas' mouth again, his tongue pleading with Cas' lips for entrance. Cas' lips parted, and Dean slid in, and a dance for dominance between their tongues commenced, eliciting whimpers and soft moans from both men.

Cas reluctantly pulled back and let go of Dean's hips, tracing his fingers along the top of Dean's jeans. He stopped, looking at Dean for final confirmation before moving to undo his pants.

Dean carded his fingers through Cas' hair, resting them at the back of his angel's neck. He nodded before resting his forehead against Cas'. "Please."

"Of course, Dean." Cas softly kissed Dean while undoing the button and zipper of his jeans, slowly, so painfully slow for Dean.

"Cas, play fair."

"I don't know what fair is for you, yet." Cas dragged his tongue along Dean's jaw before starting his own mark on Dean's neck.

Dean mewled, pushing himself up on Cas shoulders, so Cas could pull down Dean's jeans and underwear over his hips. Cas was able to get them to below Dean's knees, and Dean finished kicking them off the rest of the way. "Now you're overdressed, Angel," Dean complained cheekily.

Cas raised his eyebrow, and in one swift movement rolled over the pair over so Dean was pinned under him. "It's a little difficult to get undressed when you have a gorgeous man sitting in your lap."

Dean turned bright red, the blush extending down his body.

Cas pushed himself up to his knees and undid his belt and pants, smoothly sliding them off in one fluid movement. "What do you want, Dean?" Cas leaned back down and languidly started kissing his way up along Dean's chest.

"You is too general an answer, I assume?"

Cas playfully bit Dean in response.

"Come here, Cas.”

Cas tilted his head in confusion.

"Do you have lube in here?" Dean asked point-blank.

"Ah." Cas leaned down and whispered into Dean's ear. "Tell me what you want, and I'll show you the perks of having an angel for a boyfriend."

Dean groaned as the rest of the blood in his body shot to his cock. "Cas, not to kill this, but last I checked, you don't–"

"Dean. Shush." Cas wrapped his hand around Dean's cock and started stroking. "What do you want?"

Dean's fingers dug into the blanket under him. "Fuck. You. Inside me. Please." Dean's head fell back on the pillow. He felt Cas climb between his legs and slide a finger inside of him effortlessly. A moan escaped Dean's lips as Cas slipped another finger inside of him, a familiar warm spreading through him as Cas took care of him.

"Still concerned?"

Dean lifted his head and shook it, his eyes meeting Cas'. "No, Angel. I'm yours."

"Good." Cas lined himself up with Dean and slowly pushed in, watching as Dean writhed under him. Dean's fingers found Cas' arms and grabbed them, clinging to Cas as he slid in completely, two puzzle pieces coming together.

"Cas. Cas. Cas." Dean cried beneath him, a prayer of pleasure as Dean tried to make Cas move. "Please, Cas. Have you, need you." Dean pleaded, a sweet, broken litany.

Cas started moving, his hips gyrating and thrusting as he wrapped his hand back around Dean's cock. Each movement of his wrist synchronized with each movement of his hips. The swings and sways built up in tempo, matching the crescendo of the pleas and cries escaping from the lovers' lips.

Dean found his climax first, Cas' ministrations pushing him to edge quickly and thoroughly. Thick white ropes spilled over Cas' hand and painted their stomachs and chests. Several movements more, and Cas found his own, his head rolling back as his tongue slipped into his native language.

Cas fell forward, catching himself over Dean, and smiling down at him. "Ol hoath."

Dean pulled Cas down the rest of the way and kissed him softly. "I'm a little rusty on my Enochian, there Cas, but I think you just called me your beloved."

"Yes." Cas cocked his eyebrow. "I assume you'll explain to me how you know that another time."

"No major story," Dean smirked and closed his eyes, waiting as Cas rolled next to him on the bed. "I was trying to figure out how to tell you that I love you. I'm pretty sure that's when Sam figured it out, cause I don't study willingly." He turned to look at Cas. "It's not something I'm going to say a lot, though I'll try for you." Dean brushed Cas' cheek. "I love you, Castiel."

Cas ran his hand down Dean's side then down his own, cleaning up their mess. "I love you, Dean." He leaned in and stole a quick kiss before pulling the blanket out from under them and covering them up. "Rest."

"You won't leave?" Dean questioned, concern in his voice.

"Nothing can pull me away from you. Not now that I am yours." Cas held Dean closely.

xxx

A few hours later, Sam came back and undid the warding on the door. He listened for a moment, making sure there were no uncouth sounds, as no one wants to hear their best friend and brother having sex.

Once he was sure there was quiet, he knocked quietly. There was no response, odd, as Cas should at least say something.

He knocked a little louder.

Neither Dean nor Cas responded.

Against his better judgment, Sam tested the doorknob and found it unlocked. He turned it slowly and pushed the door open as softly as possible.

In the dim light, he could make out the forms of Dean and Cas, curled up together asleep.

Sam smiled in surprise and pulled the door shut.

"About damn time."

#spn #spn fic #destiel #nickel's story time #nickel writes #from prompts #ask box is open #send me asks

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