#i was supposed to get my t shot at home since day one but all of the nurse offices ive called simply. didn't want to do it fnsnfksj

[chaotictomtom]

in unmeasurable torment (waiting for TWO phone calls one being my nurse so i can open the door for her so i can get my shot, so if other person calls at same time im not out so i can't explain why there's a nurse at my house. so in my usual constant fight or flight response state that i am waiting for phone calls. also i need to shit and i can't.)

[corroded-hellfire]

Red Hot - Eddie Munson x Reader

An As You Wish Story

Collaboration with the woman who makes this series possible @munson-blurbs 💚

Summary: It’s been one year since you and Eddie discovered your feelings for one another—and so much more. Now, it’s your anniversary and a romantic evening is planned. Unfortunately, life with two little boys around tends to throw some wrenches in your life—even on special nights like this.

Note: I cannot believe it’s been a year since I posted the first part of As You Wish. It was only intended to be this spicy one shot but so many people asked for a part 2 and…here we are! I can’t thank all of you enough for reading. It means more to me than you know 💜

Warnings: smut, p in v, unprotected (wrap it up), breeding kink, oral, m and f receiving, vomit, implied medical issues, age gap, older!eddie

Words: 5.3k

[As You Wish masterlist]

One whole year has passed of you being with Eddie. One year since the night he’d come home sullen after what was supposed to be a nice evening out, only to find that his deepest desire was right there waiting for him on the worn blue couch in his living room. 

Honestly, it was the night both of your wishes came true. Such dark secrets you each harbored, never thinking that the other could possibly return the feelings.  You, thinking he wouldn’t see you as anything more than a babysitter for his two kids. Him, thinking you’d never be interested in a man over a decade older than you. The spark finally lit the flame though, leading to the best year of your lives. The best year of the boys’ lives as well. Neither you nor Eddie had ever seen the kids in all around better moods than this past year—and that’s even with the divorce and custody proceedings. 

A romantic date night was planned for the one year anniversary, a date that came with some discussion at first. You had brought up that you weren’t a fan of having your anniversary with Eddie on the same day that was his wedding anniversary with Brittany. Eddie was quick to assure you that this had just been the night he and Brittany were able to get out and celebrate their anniversary—not the actual day itself. 

“Pretty sure the fun you and I had that night went past midnight, into the next day anyway,” Eddie added with a smirk.

So, the evening was planned. An intimate dinner out together while Ryan has a sleepover at his friend Charlie’s house and Luke spends the night with Wayne. 

Even though you didn’t officially live with the Munson men yet, you did spend more time than not at their apartment. A drawer in Eddie’s dresser contained a stash of your clothes, a toothbrush sat right next to Eddie’s by the sink, and if you weren’t spending the night, the boys would call up at bedtime to say goodnight to you anyway. So, it made perfect sense for you to get ready at the apartment so you and Eddie could just go together to drop Luke off and Wayne’s and then be on your way to the restaurant. 

You’re in Eddie’s room, leaning over his dresser to get a better look at your face in the mirror as you apply eyeliner. Eddie is wearing black dress pants with a gray shirt that make you want to rip them right off. He’s currently securing his hair in a low bun as you do your best not to stab yourself in the eye with the stubby little black pencil. 

Just as you finish applying mascara, you hear the soft pitter-patter of Luke’s feet headed towards the master bedroom. 

“I frew up.”

“Oh, Christ,” Eddie mumbles under his breath, swiveling on one heel. “What happened?”

Luke shrugs. “My tummy hurt and then I frew up. But I got most of it in the toilet; wanna see?”

Eddie just looks at you, twisting the mascara wand back into the tube, then back at his son. 

“Most of it?” Eddie asks.

“Mhm.” Luke scampers back to the bathroom, and you and Eddie follow reluctantly. 

Both you and your boyfriend were expecting the smell to be worse as you step into the bathroom. Your eyes are on the ground, making sure not to step in anything Luke wasn’t able to get in the toilet. 

The sick mess in the toilet—and around it—is bright red. 

“Shit.” Eddie scoops up Luke, not caring that there’s now vomit on his dress shirt. “Luke, did you have any fruit snacks today at lunch? Gushers or Fruit Roll-Ups or something like that?”

The little boy shakes his head. “Just a chocolate chip cookie.”

Eddie looks at you, horrified. It’s the first time you’ve ever seen true fear in Eddie’s eyes, and it curdles your own stomach. 

“We have to get him to the hospital,” Eddie says. His tone is urgent, but not panicked. The last thing you need is for Luke to start freaking out. 

You nod in reply, already heading out into the hall, grabbing all three of your coats from the closet and tucking them under your arm. 

Luke is clearly confused. He keeps looking back and forth between you and his father, his little brow pinching together. 

“Why are we going to the hopsital?” he asks. “I feel good!”

Famous last words, Eddie thinks. He needs both hands and feet to count the number of times his kids have claimed that they weren’t sick just moments before they inevitably crashed. 

Neither you nor your boyfriend know how to respond to Luke, so you silently help him into his coat while Eddie shrugs on his own. The keys clang as Eddie takes them off a peg by the front door and tosses them your way. Then he picks up a still-confused Luke and heads out the door.

You drive while Eddie sits in the backseat with Luke. It’s quite obvious you two adults are more stressed out than the six-year-old is. Both of you keep checking in on him but there’s no deviation from the usual Luke-ness that you know and love. 

“How do you feel?” you ask, glancing at Luke in the rear view mirror.

“I’m hungry; can we get McDonalds?”

When you arrive at the emergency room, you pick up Luke to carry so Eddie can go ahead and alert the employees at the intake desk of what’s going on. 

The biting February wind stings your nose and cheeks as you cross the parking lot, but Luke keeps chatting away as though it’s just a regular evening.

“Did you know that birds feed their babies by frowing up in their beaks?”

“Wow, you know so many things,” you manage, trying to tamper your nausea and nerves.

“That’s like if you chewed up my chicken nuggets and spit them into my mouth.”

“Yup, I’ve got the visual.”

Secretly, your insides warm up, flattered that he considers you the “mommy bird.”

“My teacher got pooped on by a bird today, but she didn’t even notice.”

He continues talking through the whole process: waiting, triage, until he’s assigned a room and asked to wear a hospital gown. The moment you step out of the room to give him some privacy, it feels as if the world outside the small room has gone silent, save for the occasional beep from medical instruments. Now it’s too quiet without Luke’s chattering. Needing to do something besides just standing there, full of nervous energy, you walk down the hall to find a payphone and call Wayne to let him know what’s going on. 

Back in the room, Eddie is trying to get his nerves under control. Nothing’s wrong, he tries to assure himself. And even if there was—which there isn’t—he’s in the best possible place he could be and surrounded by professionals who probably see all sorts of things far worse than whatever this might be. 

“Where are the pants?” Luke asks, looking like a dog chasing its tail as he tries to get a look at the back of the gown. 

“No pants,” Eddie tells him as he ties the strings together in the back for him. There’s a soft knock on the door and Eddie tugs it open. 

You step back into the room and Luke grins and holds his arms out at his sides.

“Look! I’m wearing a dress just like you!”

Despite the seriousness of the visit, you can’t help but smile. Though your purple A-line dress looks nothing like the white gown covered in blue dots that he’s wearing. 

“Now you’re my twin instead of Daddy’s,” you tease.

That makes Luke giggle, and he sits down on the bed, dangling his short legs over the side. It isn’t long before Luke is taken back for tests, most of which Eddie is allowed to accompany him for. You know that’s probably bringing far more comfort to Eddie than Luke at the moment. 

You wait back in the room, anxious thoughts getting the better of you now that you’re alone and have time for your brain to wander. There are a bunch of brochures spread out on a table, so you decide to flip through some of them, keep your mind busy. None of them seem relevant to any medical issue you’ll ever have; then again, you never pictured yourself rushing a kid to the hospital for bloody puke, so you plunk down with a booklet on goiters. It mentions scurvy, which reminds you of Luke, and you have to stifle your amusement before you become known as the Woman Who Laughs at Goiters. 

The nurse brings Luke and Eddie back to the room, along with an old coloring book and some crayons. Artist that he is, Luke is already eyeing the different colors to see which one he’ll want to use first.

“It’ll be another hour until we have all the results,” the nurse announces somewhat apologetically. 

Eddie manages a weak smile as he plops into his chair. You reach over and slide your hand into his. A gentle squeeze greets your touch, and you give him one back in reassurance. 

Finally making his decision, Luke plucks a red crayon out of the box. 

“Did you know that these don’t taste like cherry?”

Everyone—including this poor nurse—stares at him.

“Luke,” Eddie starts, “why would you think it tastes like cherry?”

“Evan Holloway said it did,” Luke replies absentmindedly as he starts to color a fire truck, “but I think he was just kidding, because it tasted gross.”

Eddie bites back a comment about how the kid didn’t stand a chance at being nice with parents like Heather Holloway and Billy Hargrove. It’s not the time or place though.

“When did you eat the crayon?” You investigate further.

“Today during arts and crafts,” he says, tongue poking out of his lips as he concentrates on the drawing at hand. 

You and Eddie both look at the nurse apologetically.

“When I asked you about what you ate today that was red, why didn’t you mention the crayon?” Eddie’s teeth are gritted as he tries to maintain his composure. 

“You asked about fruit snacks, not crayons.” He pauses and looks up from his coloring book. “But don’t worry; I took the paper off first.”

“Oh, good.” Eddie rolls his eyes, and you put your hand on his shoulder. 

Luke’s confession—and subsequent perfect test results—allow him to be discharged. He falls asleep in the car almost as soon as Eddie puts it in drive and leaves the parking lot. 

The ride home is draped in comfortable, relaxing silence. After hours of machines incessantly beeping, doctors checking in, and Luke whining about his boredom, the quiet is certainly welcome. At least now there’s a massive weight off of your and Eddie’s shoulders.

The little boy doesn’t even stir when you arrive at home, so Eddie carries him into the apartment and to his room, gently tucking him into bed. 

“G’night, crazy kid,” he says with a soft laugh. He kisses his forehead, and you do the same before you both head to your own bedroom. 

“Baby, I’m so tired—” Eddie starts, the two of you practically collapsing onto the queen-sized mattress. 

You muster up a nod. “Me, too, Eds.” 

“Raincheck on me rocking your world?” he smirks, leaning in and kissing your nose. 

“Sounds like a plan.”

“I’m home!”

Ryan’s excited voice jolts you awake; when you glance at the clock, it’s only a bit after 7 AM. Charlie’s mom must’ve been eager to end the sleepover. 

Eddie pushes himself up on an elbow and cracks one eye open. “Wait, Ry; how did you get in the house?” He didn’t have a spare key, and Eddie always made sure the doors were locked at night. 

Ryan shrugs. “I rang the buzzer and Luke let me in.”

Eddie groans and lets out a yawn. He’ll have to remind his youngest son about making sure an adult knows someone’s coming into the house, but he doesn’t have the energy now. Instead, he focuses on Ryan. “Ya have fun at Charlie’s?”

“Yeah!” he chirps. “We had—” 

You slowly sit up, trying to keep your temper at being woken up. “Can we hear this story over breakfast, Ry?”

He agrees and bounds into the kitchen, you and Eddie sleepily trailing behind. 

Luke is already halfway through a bowl of Frosted Flakes when the three of you walk out to the kitchen. 

“Ryan!” he shouts, way too loud for this early in the morning. Cereal sprays everywhere, and he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “I went to the hospital last night!” 

Ryan’s eyes nearly pop out of his head. “What?!”

“Yeah! I just told Grandpa about it.”

Eddie frowns in confusion. “When did you talk to Grandpa?” He grabs a bowl from the pantry and pours himself some cereal. Nothing sugary like the boys eat; those days are behind him. 

“I just called him before when I woke up,” Luke says with a shrug.

You throw some Eggos in the toaster for Ryan while the boys both regale you with their respective tales. Luke manages to make it sound much more fun than it actually was last night, tapping into his father’s knack for storytelling. Part of you is surprised there’s no supernatural elements to this tale. 

A little later in the day there’s a knock on the door. Eddie turns the knob and is surprised to see Wayne on the other side. He raises his eyebrows as he regards the older man. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks before realizing how that sounded. “I mean, hi.”

“I told Luke I was coming over,” Wayne says, nodding to the younger boy coming up behind his father. 

Eddie looks at the boy as he closes the door behind Wayne. 

“Luke, you never told me that.”

“You didn’t ask.”

Even though he already told him on the phone, Luke once again laments the events of last night to his grandfather. Once he’s done, Ryan tells Wayne all about his sleepover at Charlie’s last night. 

When he finally gets a moment to talk to you and Eddie without the rugrats around, Wayne offers to take the boys for the rest of the day and overnight so the two of you can have a do over on your anniversary date.

“You sure, Old Man?” Eddie asks.

“Positive. I’ll just keep ‘em away from crayons.”

The moment the three of them leave, Eddie locks the door behind them and grabs your hand to drag you into the bedroom.

“Eds!”

“Oh, right; where are my manners?” Eddie admonishes himself. “I should take you out to eat first.” He heads into the kitchen and fishes the brochure for your go-to Chinese restaurant. Not even needing to ask you, he orders your favorites before hanging up and turning back to you. “Now, time for my meal.” There’s a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. “If you don’t cum in thirty minutes, your next orgasm is free.”

The moment your back lands on the bed, he tugs off your pants and panties and buries himself between your legs. There’s time for slow and romantic later, you both need each other now.

“This pussy is perfect, goddamn.”

Any response is futile as words have left your brain the second Eddie’s tongue flicks over your clit. He does it over and over again, causing your abdomen muscles to tighten and your fists grip the blanket below you. 

You let your eyes fall closed and lose yourself in the feeling of Eddie sucking on your clit. He knows the exact speeds and pressures to get you where he wants you, changing it up in the most pleasurable of ways. As your back arches off the bed at a particularly harsh suck, Eddie slips two fingers into your waiting hole, meeting no resistance. Being stretched by and filled with Eddie just has you that much closer to hitting your high. 

Eddie pumps his fingers in time with his licks and it isn’t long before you feel that familiar heat building up in your body. Your boyfriend must be able to sense this as well, because he curls his fingers up against your walls as his tongue continues to flick over your sensitive bundle of nerves. It’s enough to have you seeing stars. Part of you wants it to last longer, but you know Eddie will do this again and again for you if you ask. The thought of him wanting to make you feel good and wanting your body so much is the push you need into oblivion.

“Fuck! Oh shit, Eddie,” you whine, a hand going down to grip his hair. “I’m—I’m coming.”

Eddie knows how to extract every last wave of pleasure from you as he works you through the orgasm. This he’ll take his time with, after being in such a haste to get you off. You feel boneless as you lay on the bed, utterly wrecked from your boyfriend’s thick fingers and sinful mouth. 

You whine as Eddie slips his fingers from your pussy, but the whine turns into a moan when he pops them into his mouth. It’s suddenly given you a burst of energy.

“My turn,” you say, giving him a salacious grin. 

Eddie flings his shirt into an abyss of laundry and rolls onto his back so you can trail kisses down his torso. He giggles when your fingers brush against his stomach as you unbuckle his belt and tug his pants off. His erection springs free, already leaking pre-cum from getting you off. 

“Such a pretty cock, Eds,” you muse, your lips tenderly touching the head. “And it’s all mine, huh?”

“Y-Yup,” his breath hitches. “All yours; please, please suck it for me.”

You happily oblige—as if there was any doubt that you would—licking from base to tip with a flattened tongue. His thighs twitch at the contact, the movement punctuated with a low groan. You never knew how much you appreciated a vocal man until you’d slept with Eddie. Now it’s a goal of yours to get him to make as much noise as possible.

“Oh, princess,” he growls, fingers twisting in the sheets. “Baby girl.”

Your hand grasps the part of him that doesn’t fit in your mouth, leaving no square inch of his cock untouched in some way. You want—no, you need—to make him feel good. Thinking back to that first time together, fueled by lust, but also a desire for one another. A longing that had burned steady in both of you. Eddie could have waited up for Brittany and had lackluster sex; you could have hooked up with that guy from your anthropology class who’s always checking you out. But that wouldn’t have been satisfying; you craved Eddie and Eddie craved you. It was impossible to satisfy that urge any other way.

He bucks his hips gently now, his signal that he’s close. You pump him faster, grip him tighter, until he’s spilling into your mouth and down your chin. 

Once you’re satisfied that you’ve milked everything you can from him, you pull off and swallow his load. Eddie manages just enough strength to lift his head up as he attempts to catch his breath. His eyes darken as he watches you lick your lips and wipe off the cum that drooled out onto your chin and pop it in your mouth. 

“God damn,” Eddie breathes out. 

You share in that sentiment. This fast and rough sex is exactly what the two of you needed after such a scary and stressful evening last night.

The doorbell rings and your boyfriend flops his head back down, his curls spilling around his pillow like a halo. 

“Want me to get it?” you offer, pushing yourself off the bed.

“Uh uh,” Eddie tuts. He haphazardly reaches over the side of the bed to search for his boxers. “Only I get to see you looking this wrecked.” A playful wink is thrown your way as Eddie sits up. He hops off the bed and slips on his boxers, sweats, and an old Deep Purple t-shirt. “You get dressed, baby.” 

“Don’t wanna,” you say with a pout. 

It makes Eddie chuckle, and he presses a kiss to the side of your head before reaching for the knob on the bedroom door.

“Don’t worry, we can take them off again later.”

Eddie strolls out of the room, and you raid your drawer in his dresser. There’s an old pair of jeans shoved in the back that you pull out and hop into those while you scoop one of Eddie’s old Hellfire shirts that he let you cut and customize to your liking—a true sign of love right there—laying over the arm of a chair. 

When you meet Eddie in the living room, he’s unpacking your food into the coffee table. There’s a pile of VHS tapes in the corner of the room, and though most of them are the kids’, you manage to find Benny & Joon and pop that into the player. 

The moment you plop down on the couch next to Eddie, he wraps his arm around your hips and tugs your body up against his. 

“It’s difficult to eat with one hand, you know,” you tell him when he doesn’t move his arm.

“I’ll deal.”

Somehow, he does—even if it causes a bit of a mess on the couch and coffee table.

Eddie swallows a mouth full of rice and turns to look at you. His eyes take in your profile, the expression on his face turning to adoring almost instantly.

“I’m really grateful that you were there with me last night,” he admits, voice softer and more serious than usual. “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to handle that without you.”

The way that you look at him from beneath your eyelashes takes his breath away. He gets just as stunned by your beauty now as he did when he opened the front door that first time he met you.

“Yes, you could’ve,” you assure him. “You’re stronger than you think, Eddie. But I’m glad you didn’t have to do it alone. There’s nowhere I’d rather have been at the moment than with you. Well…I’d have liked not to have had to go to the hospital at all, but you know.”

Eddie chuckles and shakes his head. “Turns out we didn’t need to anyway.” Your boyfriend sighs and runs a hand over his face. “God, Luke’s gonna kill me someday.”

“Kill you with his cuteness, you mean.”

“You mean because he looks just like me?” Eddie asks, a cocky smirk dancing on his lips.

“Of course,” you say with a chuckle. You lean in and press your lips to Eddie’s, resting your hand on his chest.

“You mean the world to me,” Eddie whispers against your lips. He knows he’s told you that many times, in many different ways. But it’s because he needs you to know how true it is. Having a partner who he can count on and trust with his life—with his son’s lives. It’s new to him, and even after a year, it surprises him every day how much you do for him and the boys. Your kindness and your heart are bottomless, he’s decided. And though he has no clue how he got so lucky, he’s not about to question it.

“I feel the same way about you,” you reply, also in a soft tone. Eddie always tells you the way that you make his life better, but he tends to brush you off when you try to do the same. He believes you deserve more than him, but he doesn’t realize there isn’t any more than him. He is everything.

“I can’t believe we’ve been together a year,” Eddie says. Sometimes it feels like it went by in the blink of an eye, but when he thinks about all the shit the two of you have had to overcome, he thinks that a year feels about right.

“Best year ever,” you say. “Even dealing with a certain psycho couldn’t ruin it.” You don’t want to mention Brittany by name, but you need to let him know that you’d do it all over time and time again despite her and all the bullshit.

“Aw, come on. Ryan’s not that bad,” Eddie jokes. You giggle and bury your face in his neck. Electricity sparks where your skin rests against his and Eddie wraps you up in his arms. “Happy anniversary, baby. I love you much.”

“I love you too,” you murmur against his skin. You go to wish him a happy anniversary as well, but Eddie’s loud growling stomach steals your thunder and sends you into another round of giggles. “Would you like some of my food?”

“God, you’re perfect.”

Not five minutes after the two of you finish your food, Eddie has you on your back, his body resting comfortably on top of yours as you makeout. The kisses are slow and passionate, taking your time to explore one another’s mouths. Hands roam each other’s bodies, some soft touches and some rough grabs—all of it possessive.

Needing air, Eddie pulls his mouth from yours and begins to trail hot, open-mouthed kisses down your neck. Strong fingers dig into your hips as you lift your own hands to tangle in his soft curls.

“Bedroom?” Eddie growls against your skin.

“No,” you say, wrapping your legs around the man’s hips to keep him where he is. “Want you here.”

“Mm, whatever my princess wants,” Eddie mutters, punctuating it by grazing your jaw with his teeth. Slowly, he sits up, bringing you with him until you’re seated comfortably in his lap.

You shiver, his tongue warm against your neck and hands strong on your back and sides. It’s as though you can’t be close enough to him, your hips rolling to create a friction that has both of you aroused. 

Eddie unbuttons your jeans disapprovingly. “Don’t know why you even bothered to put these back on,” he tuts, apparently forgetting that he was the one who told you to. “Now I gotta rip ‘em off again. Making this harder than it needs to be.”

“Tell me more about making things harder,” you tease, grinding against his stiff length with the intent of feeling him through your panties. 

“You’re trouble,” he murmurs into your mouth, a smile twitching on his lips. “I fuckin’ love it.”

Your pants get shrugged down your legs, not even making it all the way off, and your lace thong gets pushed over slightly to expose your pussy. Eddie pulls himself out of his boxers and runs his cock along your soaked core before aligning himself with your entrance. 

“Tha’s it,” he moans as you sink onto him, taking every inch within your walls. “Fuck, you know exactly what I want.”

You bite your lip and nod. It’s as though your brain clicks off when he first enters you, your head filled only with thoughts of Eddie Eddie Eddie. 

Once you regain some semblance of sanity, you hold onto his biceps and bounce on his cock, the tip hitting your sweet spot over and over. “So big—so full,” you manage, eyes rolling back as he thrust up into you. 

“That’s right; you’re fuckin’ full of me,” he grits out, fingers digging into the flesh of your ass. “And I’m gonna pump you full of my cum, too.”

You nod before gently biting down on his shoulder. “Please. Want your cum.”

“I know you do, princess. Because I’ve gotta fill you with my cum to knock you up, don’t I?”

You can only whimper in response, but that isn’t satisfactory for your boyfriend. 

“Words, princess.”

“Want you to knock me up!” It comes out in one pathetic breath. 

His thrusts become more frantic, needier. “Oh, I don’t think you want it,” he goads. “I think you need it. I think you need me to get you pregnant, so you can show off that you fuckin’ belong to me—and only me.”

Tears form along your lash line; your orgasm is so close, but you know he can withhold your pleasure if you don’t answer him. “Need your baby,” you whisper. “Need everyone to know I’m yours.”

“God fuckin’ damn.” The thought of you swollen with pregnancy has him unhinged, his thumb circling your clit as his own release nears. “Gonna fuck you so full.”

You clench around him, chanting his name while you cum. He follows, holding down your hips so he can slam into you and give you every last drop. 

A string of breathy whines leaves your lips as you lower your head down to Eddie’s shoulder. His grip on you softens and slowly glides up your body until one hand trails up and down your back and the other cups the back of your head. 

“How was that?” he murmurs.

“Fucking amazing and you know it,” you mumble against his shoulder. 

Eddie chuckles and you pick your head up to press your lips against his. 

“Don’t wanna move,” you say with a sigh.

“I know, sweetheart,” Eddie coos. “Just want to keep me inside of you forever, don’t you?”

As hard as he just made you cum, you shouldn’t get so instantly turned on by his words and teasing tone. And though he may be teasing, he is also absolutely correct. 

You push against his chest playfully and reluctantly move yourself off of his lap. As gracefully as you can manage—which isn’t very—you lay back down on the couch. A trickle down the inside of your thigh tells you that Eddie’s cum is escaping. Your boyfriend seems to notice this just as you do.

“Absolutely not,” he says as uses two fingers to shove it back into you. 

The feeling has your eyes fluttering closed as you let your muscles relax into the cushions. 

“Ah, shit,” Eddie says.

“What?” you ask, forcing your eyes open. Eddie’s looking down and you follow his line of sight to see that some of his cum got away from both of you and landed on your jeans. “Oh, it’s okay. They’re—huh.”

A giggle begins to bubble up out of you and Eddie raises an eyebrow in question.

“Eds, these are the same jeans I was wearing that night,” you tell him.

“Our first night?”

“Yeah,” you say. “I couldn’t find them when I went to get dressed. Someone else did though and threw them in my face.” You chuckle at the memory. “I didn’t even remember I had these jeans stashed here at your place.” 

“And as nice as they are,” Eddie drawls, crawling on top of your body, “I think you look far better without them on. Or any pants. Or any clothes.”

You smirk up at him and drape your arms around his neck. “What do you say we make some new stains, then?”

“As you wish, sweetheart.”

[unbearableblog]

My Christmas gift for you.

Messages (Carmen Berzatto x reader)

Summary Carmy’s actions towards the reader might eventually lead to consequences.

Word count ~2,8k

Warnings 18+, No use of Y/N (there is rarely a name but it’s just for aesthetics, you are welcome to insert your own name), action set in S2 so possible spoilers, cursing, angst, relationship problems, possible mentions of smut

A/N God this took a lot from me! Legit flew to Copenhagen haha. I am very grateful to each and every one of you who read, liked, commented or reposted and supported this! I would never think that this would happen. I hope you’re not going to crucify me over the plot. Thank you so much for waiting!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Chapter 1 (the one with departure, Denmark, and desserts)

Things were a little different at the Beef lately.

“Richie, shut the fuck up!”

“You first, child!”

Well, maybe not so different. But they certainly were different with you. Amongst the neverending screaming, cursing, and fighting, you somehow survived getting shot at, losing the power, dealing with the IRS, and everything else that constantly went wrong with this cursed place. The amount of experience you had in this short amount of time has topped anything you've done before. You couldn't catch your breath. But that's what you do for the ones you love, right?

It's been some time since you started helping Carmen with the Beef - serving the customers on a particularly busy day, calming down Carmen, sometimes giving Richie a pep talk when he needed to keep his shit together. But mostly you just chatted with Sydney and sat in the kitchen, doing your college assignments while watching Carmen work. You could never get tired of it - he looked so professional and smart. It was his element. Well, when everything was going well.

The entire time, you were there, talking to Carmen as he prepped for the day, giving him a smile and getting one back, just watching him go on about his day and move so swiftly like a well-oiled machine. Seeing him in an apron drove you wild. You'd have to stop yourself from going up to him and touching his god-given curls or rubbing his back through his white T-shirt (but more often you failed to do so). Most of the days you patiently waited to go home and show him everything that was on your mind all day.

One time he caught you staring, mind far away from the Beef. His voice brought you back.

“Are you thinking about my fingers again?” He said while putting his arms at his hips, almost offended.

You bit your lip and looked at him with a guilty smile.

His hand went up to brush through his curls.

“You’re not gonna get any work done if you keep thinking about that. And with the way you look at me, can say the same thing about myself.”

You whine and playfully pout, not wanting to keep studying.

“Come on, princess,” he comes closer to you and whispers in your ear so that his whole voice goes through your body and his lips brush your ear “And when we get home you can tell me all about it while you sit on my ‘pretty’ cock”

Sometimes he would explain what he was doing or why things weren't going the way they were supposed to, sometimes you would share something you found fascinating in your assignment. He would always listen, even if he didn't fully understand, but you knew he was trying to. It made you feel so special - you got the whole attention of this hot 3 Michelin star chef, covered in tattoos and buff, but he looked at you with such care and softness. His muscular arms touched and wrapped around you with strong tenderness and appreciation. Sometimes you saw the same attention to the details in the food he was making - he really cared.

Everything changed after the Beef closed down.

Carmen was a little taken aback when you told him you were going to Copenhagen with Marcus. You were at the restaurant, like any other day, figuring out a thousand things that were wrong before the opening, when you heard Denmark being mentioned amongst the guys.

“Someone's going to Denmark?” you asked, turning around on your chair.

“Marcus is,” Carmen brushed off, and continued having his conversation with him.

“Wait, to Copenhagen? Why?” you felt ignored.

“Uhh, to learn everything about desserts,” Marcus answered. Carmen didn't even look in your direction.

“When? Why didn't you tell me?” you sounded excited because you were, but your heart felt like it was placed into an iron cage. Carmen knew how much that city meant to you, and to not even mention that your friend was going there felt neglectful. But maybe you were overreacting - he was probably busy, he doesn't have to tell you everything, and it surely wasn't for long anyway.

Berzatto shrugged his shoulders. “Why? It's just for some time.”

“I was actually thinking about going there too. I haven't seen my sister in a while. Maybe we could fly together? I know everything there,” you were ready to help Marcus as a bonus. You really appreciated him as a friend, and returning the favor for all those delicious pastries he made at your request would be terrific. You could also use a fucking break from Chiberia.

“For real? That would be awesome!” Marcus exclaimed with his arms, his smile releasing your heart from its prison.

“Uhh… yeah-yeah, sure, I guess,” Carmen squinted his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “I- uhhh, have to go out for a minute. Umm,” he swallowed “-meet that rep for me, yeah?”

An entire work shift of flying has gone by the time you started seeing the bronze-roofed houses sprinkled like decorations on a Red Velvet cake. You made Marcus promise you not to judge the country by its airport, as it usually was surprisingly dirty. Nevertheless, there were hints of what life there was like - a burst of energy, culture, and flavour. You walked what seemed like forever through the endless white halls with blue sections, wondering how many times Carmen had been here and whether you ever crossed paths. You kind of wished he was there. Your excitement rubbed off on your friend - Marcus was beaming with happiness, anticipating your time there. He knew it was going to be life-changing.

The moment you went outside felt like you could breathe again. The weight of The Beef, Carmen, stress, problems problems problems dropped off, was left behind, and never got on the plane. Your chest wasn't encircled by snakes that only pushed until you suffocated. Your mind was clear.

You helped Marcus settle in his awesome boat, and after reading the owner's note to "keep the water in Coco's bowl", searched for the cat for like 20 minutes. Unfortunately, your efforts were fruitless.

Marcus only let you go back alone because you assured him of your safety (you gave him a speech about how it wasn't like Chicago) and experience. Still, he made you text him when you got to your sister's. The two of you were always trying to make your relationship work, but the distance didn't make it easy. That did not mean that you were going to give up - you were used to making a lot of effort for the people you love. She was ecstatic and grateful to see her little sister. The rest of the evening was spent eating, sharing your lives, and talking about your mysterious boyfriend.

“I don’t know, he’s just so… distant. He always leaves somewhere, does god knows what when he knows we don’t have much time! Sometimes it feels like I care about the restaurant more than him. Which is so weird because he was so into it before! He planned the whole thing! And I am so fucking stressed from it all! I never even wanted to work in a restaurant but I was there for him!” you expressed your pain very loudly.

“Have you thought of… breaking up with him?”

You exhale and almost completely give up mentally.

“I don’t know… it feels like we don’t have much of a relationship at all anymore. We don’t go out, all the time is spent on the opening. I swear sometimes I’m there just for our friends and his sister, I can’t just leave them without help while he’s wandering somewhere”.

You couldn’t sleep because being in bed without Carmy by your side felt plain wrong. You were also jetlagged which meant that the peaceful world of Morpheus was avoiding you like a plague. The same thing happened to Marcus, so you both were just texting about what you were doing.

“idk, i gave up and went to get some tea” you typed, a warm mug in your hand as you cozied up on the couch with a blanket.

“yeah, same shit here. bout time to get ready anyway”

Your whole house was asleep, and probably would be so for a while. It was too dark to go out for your liking. Boredom kind of crept in.

“what is it exactly u're gonna do there?”

“uhhh i wish i knew. make some things from the pics i showed u i guess”

“can i watch?” Was it too much of a request? Who even knows if you'll be allowed there?

“yeah i think so. i'd love to not have to do this alone”

You smile, finish your tea, and get up to find some clothes.

You finally reached the place and were met by a tall man in an apron. He introduced himself as Luca, and you heard a very sultry voice softened by an accent. You wondered where he was from.

“I'm Chef Marcus. That's Liv. Is it cool if she just hangs around and watches me?”

“Hi,” you smile at him.

“Hello. You could also join in. What kind of a chef are you?”

“Oh I'm not, I'm -”

“Well, with the amount of time Liv spends in our kitchen listening to every word of the CDC, I'd say she might as well be a chef by now,” Marcus only half-jokes. You give him a look anyway.

Luca prepared everything and soon he and Marcus were working. You were sitting on the other side of the table, able to see everything. Only now you were starting to notice how strong he was, you have to be, you thought, if you stay on your feet all day. His arms were also covered in tattoos that didn't seem to make sense, like Carmy's.

“So who are you?” Luca's question doesn't sound rude, just curious.

“I'm his boss' girlfriend,” you nod as you speak.

“Wow,” he seems to be thinking something, but maybe it's just him being focused on putting the peanuts on dessert, “What are you doing here?”

“Uhh, visiting my sister? It was time and I thought Marcus here could use someone to show him around. As for here, I was really jetlagged and bored.”

Luca was amazing. The way he coached Marcus even when he made mistakes was consistently calm, stern, and leading. Not once did any of you feel berated or hear his voice go louder, all you knew was to just try again. His entire presence excreted stability and equilibrium.

After an extensive lesson, it was Marcus' turn to try. All of you leaned closer to the dessert in hopes of seeing more. You held your breath as you watched Marcus carefully place a tiny piece in the clockwise direction of the dessert when in the blurred background of your vision you felt something change. Instinctively, you looked up from the dish, and your eyes met the gaze of your friend's teacher. There he was, almost lying on the table, looking at you. As if he wasn't busy right now. As if the dessert didn't matter. Hypnotized. “Got it!” Marcus smiled and stood straight up. “Great job, chef,” Luca switched back to Marcus.

Suddenly a firework of spice embraced you in its scent, making your head go round from the all-encompassing desire to taste it.

“Oh my god, are those cinnamon buns?” you had to put your hands on the counter to keep yourself up. “Yeah,” Luca stood straight. “You like them?” “They smell amazing!” you could swear you saw a quick prideful smile brush Luca's lips.

“They are her favourite. And she's very specific about'em too,” Marcus threw you under the bus.

Luca seems interested. “In what way?”

“I'm not, okay? I just believe that cinnamon buns should have a lot of sugar and cinnamon, or else they're just buns. There was this place near the park, and the pastry they sold was like 90% dough. I didn't like that at all” you defend yourself, and Marcus scoffs, having heard you rant about it many times at The Beef.

“Abomination,” Luca shakes his head.

“Exactly! I love it when there is so much sugar that it's oozing out, that's how it'd supposed to be.”

Your lighthearted banter somehow led to Luca opening up and talking about his life and experience. He also shared a couple of stories about determination, his acceptance of not being the best, and some of his failures. Soon all of you were joking around and laughing at your pasts. You felt your heart warm up to him and thought that leaving the house was a good idea.

Marcus stepped outside to check on his mom. He called her sitter as often as he could, and every time you hoped that everything would be alright. Luca was silently doing his work, kneading some dough. It was a demanding process, but so meditative, and you couldn't help but float away watching his big hands grab and squeeze the smooth dough, throwing it back onto the table occasionally, his long fingers dug into it, leaving an impression. “So where is he now?” you ask. “Who?” “The chef who was better than you. Where is he now?” you wondered if Carmen knew him or told you about him. “Well, you tell me. Apparently, opening up a new restaurant,” the chef said, as he threw a careless nod in your direction. Huh? Your heart drops. What? You let out a nervous scoff. “You're saying it was… Carmen??” Your question was met with a simple nod as he kept working. “Carmen Berzatto, the chef that was better than you at everything?” you almost spell out. Luca just takes his eyes off the dough and watches your reaction. He is also confused. “God, he really is the best?” the question sounds more like an exhale. “People keep saying it, but I guess I didn't realize” you sit down, defeated, and stare off. Your mind keeps pacing - what happened to Carmen? How did he go from being the best to being a yelling mess of chaos? Why is someone who looked up to him so calm and collected but still successful? Why can't he be like that? “You sound surprised. What, he doesn't feel like it?” He asks while kneading the dough, this time slower and a little softer. You look at him, then shake your head away and look down. You want to tell him everything about the way Carmen treats you, and how different that is from what your beginning used to be, how he doesn't appreciate you even though you spent so much time in and on The Beef, and how unfair that is, and have his deep voice tell you the answer, but you can't. That would be weird. Luca notices your hesitation. “You know, when we worked together, he would often be… difficult,” there is a pause after he says it because he is reading your face, trying to understand if he's walking on thin ice. He isn't, so he continues. “Partly why I didn't become better than him was because he wouldn't let me.” “Yeah, he shared something like that.” His brows went a little higher, and his grip on the dough hardened and stayed there. “My point is, being with a person like that can't be easy. Man, we only worked together and I already wanted to smother him, can't imagine being in a bloody relationship,” his smile makes you laugh and for a second you forget every bad thing in the world.

Later that day you wanted to call Carmen. “Carm, you free?” You wished to tell him everything - how much you loved the city, how nice his friend was, the fun you were having, and how good this was for you. Kinda wanted to beat his ass for being so mean to Luca too. “not rn, Liv, busy”

Of course.

“Olivia! Come here!” your sister screamed to get your attention. You noticed she was standing at the door, talking to somebody, so you got up and approached her. “What's up?” you asked. She closed the door and turned to you, holding something in her hands. “It's a gift from your boyfriend,” she said in a teasing tone, and you could swear that the last time you saw her that giddy was in high school. “What? How do you know?” A drop of hope celebrated its birth in your chest. “The delivery guy said it's from a chef,” the last word she playfully stretched out, so it came out a little funny, like Tina says it. You couldn't believe it. There it was, a white box carefully tied with a red ribbon. Finally Carmen realised how distracted he was and decided to apologize. Obviously, you were gone, so he missed you. Your heart filled with warmth and you smiled to yourself - you knew things would get better. You take the hefty precious gift from your sister's hands, sit on the couch, and open it with anticipation. Inside, 9 breathtaking gourmet cinnamon rolls with caramelized sugar barely fitting, leaking out of the mouthwatering, well-kneaded dough. And a note.

"You deserve all the best in the world - Luca"

I hope you enjoyed it! Part 2 might come quicker if you comment how you liked it

Snippet from the next chapters

��️ Tagged everyone in the comments! If you want to be excluded, just let me know♥️ @carma-fanficaddict @eternallyvenus @sia2raw @helloheyhihowdyheya @soursopsista @m1dnightsnackz @custarrds

Dividers by @saradika

[thoughtfulreviewprincess]

Borrowed Clothing

“Where's my jacket?” Sasuke asks poking his head in the living room, he was wearing a black T-shirt which he would normally wear along with it.

“Your jacket?” Sakura tilts her head, cosy on the couch with her book.

“Yes, the blue one with the Uchiha logo on the back.”

“Oooh, I thought you might have meant this one?” And it's only when Sakura stands up does he realise she is wearing his oversized jacket.

The red one which he had thought he lost 2 weeks ago.

She was tiny in comparison.

“Why are you-”

“Yo, I'm home,” Naruto calls and Sasuke turns to see the blonde in his blue one.

He just grins as his eyes narrow.

"Why are you two wearing my clothes?" They smiled sheepishly shrugging.

“I mean isn't that what you are supposed to do when in a relationship? It's like an unspoken rule.” Naruto explains, Sasuke gives him a blank look.

“No, it's not.”

“Yes, it is,” Sakura interjects. “It's normal to borrow your partner's clothing.”

“When you say 'borrow' you really mean steal don't you? I've been missing that jacket for two weeks now.”

“Don't blame me, Naruto's the one who had it first. I thought you knew, I only took it after because it smells of the both of you.”

“Yeah, and besides, you can borrow mine if you want. I don't mind.” The Uchiha sighs seeing as there was no point in reasoning with them.

Plus, he couldn't say no to them anyway.

“Fine, but I want them cleaned up afterwards. Especially from you.”

Naruto tended to be quite slobbish with his food.

“Oi, I'm not that bad.”

~~~

Three days later, Sasuke is wearing his red jacket now as Naruto still refuses to give him back the blue one.

Sakura at least had the decency to wash the other and fold it neatly back onto the bed.

Even though it was clean, he could still smell the ramen and Sakura's perfume on it.

So that's why. Sasuke thinks to himself feeling calm and warm at their scent. Despite the fact that the two were both at lectures.

He didn't feel lonely as before.

~~~

“I see you're taking our advice!”

“Don't let it get to your head.”

“Too late.” The Uzumaki smiles seeing the Uchiha in his orange hoodie.

“It suits you,” he comments smirking.

“Yeah, it does.” Sakura agrees feeling snug in Naruto's jumper.

~~~

“I don't think it's going to work...”

“Well, it's your idea.” Sasuke snarls whispering.

“But can we even fit in them?” The Uchiha and Uzumaki browse through their girlfriend's clothes.

She was much tinier compared to them, but it didn't seem fair for them to only borrow each other's clothing when she had multiple options.

“It's worth a shot?”

~~~

“Uh...”

“It was Naruto's idea.” Sasuke pointed to the blonde.

“Hey, you’re the one who said we should try.” The boys glared and Sakura sniggered at them.

Naruto was in a pink crop top with strawberries that just about covered his chest whilst Sasuke was in a plain purple t-shirt that likewise was too tight and barely fitted the Uchiha.

“Well...it's the thought that counts.”

~~~

Since the two couldn't fit into her clothes, they thought of another idea instead.

“What are you...”

“We couldn't fit into your own clothes, so we thought we would buy a larger version of them,” Sasuke spoke.

“We also went and brought other clothes that would suit us but think you would like.” Naruto finished off.

“I can't believe you actually went out of your way to buy something, just so you can wear something that's mine.”

“This is equal rights,” Naruto stated.

Sakura huffed amused, he had a point.

“We've borrowed your perfume though.” Sasuke shares perfume in hand.

“My perfume?”

“To make them smell like you.”

Of course, they did, it was cheesy but kind of sweet.

Only one question remained though.

“Are you two even going to go outside wearing them?” Most guys would feel embarrassed at wearing 'women's clothing' but then again...

“What do you mean? We already did.”

They were her boys after all.

[kiiwiigii]

The Red-Eyed Boy pt. ii

Pt. One | Three | Outtake

Alec x Swan!Fem!Reader

Summary: Your relationship with Alec was going smoothly, until Victoria's army comes for your sister.

Warnings:

Mild language

I'm a sucker for angst

Word Count: 1,798

A/N: Part 1 was originally just supposed to be a oneshot, but here I am. Enjoy! Pssst @rosedpetal and @badass-daisy-22 your wish is my command. ;)

He was laying on his bed, dressed more casually than I had ever seen him, in a simple white t-shirt and pajama bottoms, a book in hand. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book was on ancient Greek myths, something that I was quite interested in and even planned to study in college.

His dark chocolate colored hair was splayed out across his pillow and I itched to touch it. Well, I really itched to touch all of him, but that was neither here nor there. I had a weird obsession with his hair. And his face. In particular his eyes and especially his lips. I grinned to myself, content just to watch with my being so far away.

Visions like this were rare, few and far in between.

I supposed it was kind of creepy, but in my defense I didn't really have control of these visions, especially since they happened while I was sleeping.

I could already feel the nudge of wakefulness pulling at me. I tried my best to burrow down deeper into sleep, but resistance was futile, and I found myself opening my eyes to see the ceiling of my bedroom back home in Forks, Washington.

I rolled over with a deep sigh. I would give anything to be in Volterra with Alec. Sadly I had a little bit longer to wait. Reaching for my phone I checked my messages and grinned to see a text from him.

'Missing you.'

Alec wasn't one for talking on the phone, he preferred to text, and almost always left me a good morning message to wake up to. Most days it was the highlight of my day.

I pressed the call button and he picked up before the second ring even made a sound.

"Good morning, tesoro."

"Good morning, love." I smiled, burrowing deeper into my covers.

I really just needed to hear his voice this morning.

"Y/N?"

It was Bella, her arm wrapped around my shoulders.

"Hey, sis." I gave her a hug, resting my forehead against her.

"Everything's gonna be ok."

"I know." I sighed. "Let's just get today over with. Grab that diploma and skedaddle."

Bella would definitely have to repeat high school at some point and I counted my lucky stars that I was not in her shoes in that regard. Or any other regard. My sister was a fucking danger magnet and the whole Victoria shit was just a big red neon sign that proved it.

There was a knock at the door and Bella opened it to see Alice. The vampire was bouncing on the tips of her toes already, and the gleam in her eyes scared me. Maybe if I let Bella go first then I could make my escape-

"I'd take Y/N first. She's planning on making a run for it."

Edward you twat. Where did you come from??

Edward just shot me a crooked grin as I glared at him from over my shoulder, Alice already dragging me up the stairs. With a sigh I sat on my bed like a good girl and let Alice do her thing. Thankfully I had already done my makeup, and Alice was content to give me some red lipstick for a pop of color.

"Alec will like it, promise." She gave me a wink and I swear I turned at least fifty shades of red.

"He's not even supposed to be here today. Do you know something I don't?" I eyed her skeptically, but the little bit of hope I was feeling was obvious.

She smiled at me sadly. "Sorry, Y/N. But speaking of lover-boy."

Alice turned to her bag and brought out a small ornate box, handing it to me with all the care in the world. From Alec?

I let my fingers curl around the box, admiring the designs carved into the dark colored wood. It was old, which was quite obvious, and while I had an inkling that it was a piece of jewelry, I was in no way prepared for when I opened the box. It was a small ruby pendant, about the size of my pinky nail, dangling from a golden chain. It had with a rough rectangular cut that rounded out a little at the bottom. I was immediately mesmerized, stroking the pendant in wonder.

It reminded me not just of blood, but of something else that I couldn't quite remember. It was then that I saw the note wedged into the top of the box. I unfolded it with shaking hands, overwhelmed and giddy.

For my Persephone. Congratulations. -A

My mouth popped open. Oh. Oh this boy was clever.

The ruby wasn't supposed to be blood, it was supposed to be a pomegranate seed. Like one of the seeds that Hades offered to Persephone. In the end, eating the pomegranate seeds forced her to return to the underworld to live half the year there with Hades. It was my favorite Greek myth, and I couldn't help but draw parallels between her story and my own. They were rather crooked parallels, but I wasn't too bothered by that.

I could feel the tears start to well up. I don't think I've ever received a gift that was so thoughtful.

"Oh hun. No. No." Alice was there beside me in a heartbeat, wiping the tears before they could fall.

"They're happy tears, Alice." I said with a small smile.

Well, not completely happy, I wished he was here of course. But I would be seeing him soon enough.

"I know. We don't wanna ruin your makeup. Let me help you put it on and we'll take a good portrait to send him, yeah?"

"Thanks, Alice. You're the best ever."

I only wished I had realized just how soon we would be seeing each other.

'I am in so much trouble.'

My anxiety, paired with the adrenaline rush, was practically so high I was pretty sure it was orbiting the moon. Jasper was by my side, doing his best to soothe not just me, but poor little Bree Tanner.

"How bad is it gonna be, Alice?" I whispered to her, wringing my hands together and bouncing on the tips of my toes. "How much trouble am I in?"

"Relax." She soothed.

"So pretty fucking bad. Do I have time to run?"

I was this close to hyperventilating.

I wasn't even supposed to be here. Bella almost had my head when she saw me on the back Jacob's wolf form, poised and ready to help. With what I wasn’t entirely sure in that moment. I had come up with the harebrained scheme to help muddle Bella's scent with my own by switching the matching jackets we had received for Christmas years ago. Emmet had made the comment a while ago that our scents were pretty similar, so I just kind of ran with the idea. It had worked so well that even Edward hadn't seemed to notice when Bella had slipped on my jacket instead of her own. It had helped split the army at least. Having two humans with similar scents had sent them all mixed signals, so it had kind of worked.

Or so I was telling myself.

So here I was, exactly in a place where I wasn't supposed to be, and the Volturi would be arriving any minute. More specifically Alec and the other elite guards from what Alice had said. None of whom I've had the pleasure of meeting yet. Including his sister. This was like… meeting your significant other's family for the first time.

Well, this was gonna be one hell of a hello.

"They're coming." Alice's panicked voice did nothing to calm me down.

Jasper put a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to help. "Try to relax, Y/N. It's not you he's going to angry with."

I simply nodded and fiddled with my necklace, the ruby seed feeling cold and smooth beneath my fingers. That helped a little as they appeared from the fog, and I found myself catching my breath when I saw Alec's silhouette emerge. He removed his hood and nearly froze when he caught sight of me. I gave him a small smile and a wave.

He let out a snarl that almost sent me hiding behind Jasper.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

"Y/N is safe." Carlisle soothed. "We never would have let anything happen to her."

"This is the second time your coven has dragged her into something dangerous." He hissed, voice low and deadly.

'Well, if we're gonna get technical about it Alec, we never would have met had it not been for that first time.'

Edward shot me a look.

What? It's not like I had said it out loud.

Wringing my hands, I stepped forward slightly before finally gathering the courage to approach him. He met me half way, gathering me into his arms. I let out a deep sigh of contentment as I buried my face in his jacket.

"I know you're angry." I whispered. "But I couldn't let something happen to Bella. They weren't even aware of what I was doing until it was too late. I'm sorry. For scaring you."

Alec said nothing for a long minute and I could feel the tension practically eating me alive.

"Alec." The red-eyed girl spoke, watching and taking us in.

Jane. His sister.

He simply nodded and left me standing there before returning to his position by her side. My heart dropped. He hadn't even bothered to say anything. I turned swiftly, blinking back tears. While I was sorry for scaring him, I refused to be sorry for my actions. Bella was my sister, and I would do what I could to help her. I stood a little behind Alice, staring at nothing and trying my best to turn off my emotions.

Jane spoke again. "Impressive. I have never seen a coven escape an assault of this magnitude intact."

"We were lucky." Carlisle answered.

"I doubt that."

I couldn't help the way my eyebrows shot up. Then I had to remind myself that this was Jane, and she had always proved exceptionally brutal in my visions. And this was no different, although it was Felix who did the dirty work this time. Bree was gone.

I didn't even blink at the end of it. I simply stood there, like a zombie when they finally disappeared. And Alec hadn't even said a word. The dam holding back the flood of tears finally broke.

'There goes my red-eyed boy.'

NEXT

{Masterlist}

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[harrygoeswest]

Love Aged Like Fine Wine

Harry is drunk and lost not too far from home, and there's only one person he wants to call to rescue him.

A/N: Hello everyone 👋🏼 it has been a loooong time since I posted anything on Tumblr, and I was admittedly reluctant to do so. However, I reblogged the lovely Sarah's (@harry-on-broadway) fic challenge the other day and it inspired me, and I would be doing a disservice to write the whole thing and never look at it again, especially since I quite like it. SO, I give you my first one shot in over a year. Bear with me, I'm a bit rusty... Special mention as always to Miss Liz (@all-things-fic) for reading and validating me.

I'm using prompts 14 & 19.

Trigger Warnings: Absolutely nothing (apart from the odd f word)

Word Count: 6533

~~~

“What do you want, Harry?”

An offended scoff was his initial response. “Not a very nice way t’greet y’best friend.”

He was right, it wasn’t. “You’re not my best friend.”

“Ouch. Though’ we were besties ‘n now y’makin’ me feel sad.”

Harry was slurring more than he usually did. I feared if he tried to say obviously, ‘overshly’ would turn into a soft, deep single syllable alike to the word ‘shush’. It wasn’t particularly late to warrant his level of drunkenness. Especially on a Tuesday evening. Chewsday, if you will.

“Harsh truths are easier to take when you’re drunk.” I said, shrugging as if he could see the action.

“Why’re y’bein’ so ‘orrible?” He whined.

“Why are you calling me pissed as a fart at 8:45 on a Tuesday night and ruining my bath time?”

“‘S there some space lef’ in the bathtub?”

“Don’t make it weird.” I grimaced. “What’s going on?”

He produced an incoherent mumble. I heard the rain get heavier, both on the phone call and outside my house.

“What was that?”

“M’st…”

“Aye?” I asked, my face surely a bewildered picture.

“I’m lost.” He huffed, agitated.

I sat up in the bath, water and suds sloshing around me. “Lost?”

“Yes.”

“W-,” words failed me, and I barked out a sharp laugh. “How are you lost?”

“How does anyone else get lost?” He said, stroppy.

“Wow, you really are drunk.”

He hummed, but it was a defeated noise. “C’ya come ‘n get me?”

“How am I supposed to come and get you if you don’t know where you are?”

“Well I was only at The Holly Bush.”

I laughed twice as hard that time. Put in perspective, The Holly Bush is no more than a ten minute walk from Harry’s house. “How long have you been walking?”

“‘Bout ‘alf an hour.” He muttered.

Now I was really howling, like a hyena on laughing gas. “Jesus Christ, Harry!”

“‘S not funny!”

“On the contrary, years of comedy begs to differ.”

He practically cried my name down the phone. “‘M really tired ‘n cold ‘n… weh,” I think he meant wet, “please come get me.”

I took a deep breath and mourned my premature bath. “Fine. But do not move from wherever you are.”

“Won’t.”

I stood up and watched water and soap suds cascade down my body with a pout. “What can you see?”

“Er…” a pause followed, I assumed for his vacant thoughts. “‘S like a lot of trees.”

I rolled my eyes. “That could literally be any part of the Heath, mate. Say more words.”

“I can’t see shit! It’s dark and it’s pissing it down!”

“Don’t get arsey or you can stay there and drown in rain water.” I warned him. “Find a road sign. Or a street name.”

He grunted. After no more than fifteen seconds he produced, “Platt’s Lane.”

“Alright, I know where that is. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“Thank you.” He said. At least I think that’s what he said.

I murmured a little, “Sure,” and then hung up. 

I dressed quickly in the easiest clothes I could find - a pair of tie-dye jogging bottoms, an old t-shirt and a crewneck over the top. I pulled on the first pair of trainers I could find and ran out to my car whilst fighting the rain. I also took a towel with me. My hair was still in the bun I’d put it up in for my bath.

It was really battering it down now - it was loud inside the car and the windows were steamed up. It was even louder when I turned the air conditioning on to defog the windows.

Once I could see outside the front and back windows I finally made my way to find Harry. I still mourned my bath as I drove - I missed how warm it was and how comfortable I had been. Now I was out in the cold and wet to rescue my drunken idiot friend.

It didn’t take me very long to find said drunken idiotic friend. He was sitting on a yellow grit box under some trees at the junction of Platt’s Lane and West Heath Road. He was soaking, shoulders slumped and looking at the floor. I pulled up as close to him as possible and leaned over to push the door open.

“Get in, you moron!” I called.

Harry looked up at the sound of my voice. He leapt to his feet almost immediately after, and staggered his way over to my little car. He nearly tripped over twice on his way, and he hit his head as he sat down.

“Fucking hell.” I muttered. “Look at the state of you.”

He grumbled, readjusting his sodden jacket, and then looked right at me. His hair was drenched, water dripping from his neck down his arms and chest, and his forehead down his nose and cheeks.

“Here,” I threw the towel at him. “You’re gonna make my car smell.”

“‘S tha’ the wors’ a’ya problems?” He asked, a snide tone laced in his mushy words.

“I wish it was.”

I pulled off again as Harry began to attempt to dry himself off, although I feared a towel would do very little to help him. Fortunately we were only a mere five minute drive from his house anyway. He probably could have walked home faster if he were sober. 

It was a relatively quiet drive since Harry spent most of it rubbing my towel over every available inch of his body. He did however sing along to the one song he heard playing, but he didn’t quite have the same masterful tone as usual. He even seemed quite timid.

I parked as close as possible to his front door and shut the engine off.

“Where are your keys, H?”

He gave me a dopey blink and then looked down at himself, double chin appearing accompanied with a pouty lower lip. “Dunno. On me somewhere.”

I sighed and unclipped my seatbelt, then reached over to him to feel through each of his pockets for his house keys. Of course I found them in the hardest one to reach on the inside of his jacket. He giggled while I did, like a child being tickled. I smacked him on the arm before I got out of the car.

I ran up to the front door and unlocked it, opening it so that my paralytic companion could be jettisoned inside his home as quickly as possible without getting more wet.

“Come on, then,” I said as I opened the passenger door, my shoulders hunched because the rain felt weird on my neck.

Harry practically fell out of the car at my instruction, so I lifted him up and placed his arm around my shoulder so I could manage his weight better. I kicked the car door shut behind us and walked him to the door. I realised on our little walk how unfit I was.

“‘M sorry.” He mumbled.

“It’s fine.” I said, my voice tight. It was only strained because he was heavy and I was weak.

“Didn’t even think I drank tha’ much, was only few whiskeys.”

Only a few could range anything between 3 and 30. I didn’t chide him for that. “It’s alright, Harry. I’m sure you’d do the same for me.” I meant that genuinely and not as a threat I’d be getting that level of drunk in the future just to call him to rescue me.

“Would.” He insisted.

I awkwardly held onto him as we got inside, twisting at an awkward angle to close the door and keep any more rain from getting in. Harry felt like dead weight against me.

“Ready to get upstairs?”

His affirming nod was the surest action I’d seen from him this far.

“Alright,” I took a deep breath, “let’s go.”

I made sure we navigated the stairs one at a time, because I had visions of him tripping up and cracking his head open if he tried to do anything by himself. And now, in the warmth of his massive home and up this close to him, the boy reeked of stale beer and sweat. I didn’t want to ask what he’d been doing in The Holly Bush for him to get that bad. I hadn’t seen him that wasted in a very long time.

“Meant it, y’know.” He slurred.

We were only halfway up the stairs and all I could hear was my own panting. Admittedly I was surprised he hadn’t passed out yet. 

“Meant what?” I heaved, and pushed him up the next step.

“I w’ do the same f’you.”

“I know you would.”

“Don’t even have t’ be drunk.”

“Right.”

We stopped for a minute, not at anyone’s request but Harry didn’t seem to want to move. I looked at him as he did me, and he produced this hazy-eyed, closed-lip smile. 

His woolly but content expression made me laugh. “I think it’s bed time for you, mate.”

He groaned. “Don’t call me ‘mate’.”

I frowned. “Alright. Sorry.”

When we finally reached the top of the stairs, Harry collapsed on me by way of a hug. We were standing in the middle of the hallway, his entire body somehow wrapped around mine. I was suffocating in the smell of a brewery.

“Don’t leave me.” He begged.

“I’m not… Need to get you to bed somehow.”

He pulled his head back to look at me, eyes heavy. “You can take me to bed.”

“That’s what I just said.”

He nodded repeatedly like a bobble-head figure. 

I made a face, perturbed, and nudged him in the direction of his bedroom. He nearly fell over as he turned around, and ended up palming the wall the rest of the way. I kept a hand on his back just in case.

As soon as he saw his bed he was climbing onto it, still fully clothed and in his muddy trainers.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, reaching after him like he was a toddler, “Harry, take your shoes off.”

He laughed maniacally into his bed sheets, the muffled sound disturbing.

I huffed with a scowl and did it myself. His vans were dripping wet so I took them to the radiator and left them on top to dry. I made sure the radiator was turned on, too. The last thing Harry Styles needed was the flu again.

He was sitting up now, watching me with a warm expression. I ignored it.

“Need to take your clothes off or you’ll get a cold.”

“Yes, Miss.” He was beaming now.

The attempt at taking his t-shirt off was painful, and I ended up having to help him.

“Jeans too.”

I knew that would be more agonising to watch than the t-shirt, and I didn’t want to have to look at his bare chest for too long, so I went for a walk to the closest bathroom to get another towel. His jeans were still around his knees when I got back.

“Jesus Christ.” I said through gritted teeth, and freed his jeans from around his ankles. They were a heavy kind of damp and thudded when I put them on the floor.

“‘S cold.” He commented, staring up at me.

“I’ve just put the radiator on.” I told him, and handed him the towel. “I’ll find you some clean pants.”

I left him to dry his no doubt tacky chest and legs while I searched through his drawers for some clean underwear. I threw them at him once I’d located them.

“Where’s your laundry basket?”

“Wardrobe.” He said, voice getting gruff.

I collected his dirty clothes from off the floor again and wandered into the walk-in wardrobe attached to his bedroom. I stared at it for a while, not just because it was ginormous but also because I couldn’t believe the amount of crap in it. It was bulging with clothes - some I hadn’t seen him wear for years and others I hadn’t seen him wear at all. Ever. 

I dropped the clothes in my hand onto the overflowing basket in one of the cupboards, hating to do so because it was just adding to more chores. And then I realised that this was not my house and I would not be responsible for washing any of his clothes.

“Harry, do you want something to wear in bed if you’re cold?”

He never answered.

I peered into the bedroom to see he’d already tucked himself into bed.

“I guess not.” I muttered.

I stood next to his bed and watched him for a minute. His eyes were closed and he was breathing regularly but I couldn’t work out if he was actually asleep or just pretending to be. His eyelids looked shiny and delicate and his cheeks were dusted pink - a combination of his inebriation and being outside in the cold for so long. I could hear the radiator chugging and it was definitely warmer than it had been when we arrived.

Without thinking, still staring at him while possibly passed out like a lunatic creep, I wrapped my index finger around one of his curls and moved it out of his face.

He giggled suddenly, catching my wrist. “That tickled.”

I smacked his hand away. “I thought you were asleep, you absolute git!”

“Not yet.”

I rolled my eyes and scowled at him. “I’m goin’ home. Seeing you in bed is making me want mine.”

“Can always share mine.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I scoffed, and made a move to leave. “I’ll check on you tomorrow.”

“Aye, wait!” He shouted at me.

“What?”

“I don’t want you t’ leave yet.”

“Well, I’m exhausted, and you’re about to pass out on me anyway.”

He said something that was complete and utter incoherent nonsense.

“I don’t know what you just said but I’m not changing my mind.”

He whined my name again and reached for my hand. “Please stay bit longer? Like havin’ y’here, havin’ y’around.”

“Well, that’s nice of you to say, but I still want my own bed.”

“Please?”

“No.” I stood my ground, but I took a step closer and pinched his cheek. “But I’ll come back tomorrow after work if that makes you feel better.”

“Feel better if y’stayed wi’ me now.”

“Well that’s not going to happen. Just call me if you need anything.”

“Need y’now. Need y’all the time.”

“Stop being daft.”

“‘M not bein’ daft - I mean it.”

“You are being daft. Just go to sleep - I’ll come back tomorrow. I promise.”

He stressed my name and sat up. “Y’not listenin’ to me. ‘M bein’ proper serious - I want ya t’ stay wi’ me. I need y’here.”

“No, what you need is sleep.”

He scowled at me.

“I’m going to go and get you a pint of water and a paracetamol and then I’m going home. And that’s the last we’re gonna say on this, end of.”

I left the room and  found my way to the kitchen, though admittedly I did get lost on my way there since I’d only been here once before and it was a considerable amount of time ago. I did as promised and got him a pint of water and found some paracetamol in a drawer full of miscellaneous items close to the sink.

I couldn’t fathom why Harry was so needy, insobriety aside. We were friends, yes, and had been for some time, but we weren’t that close. Or perhaps we were and I just refused to admit it due to his increasing popularity and the fact that being perceived near him in the public eye terrified me. I was perfectly happy with my mundane job and my mundane life. I appreciated Harry for what he was - a friend -, and didn’t expect anything more or less from that level of our relationship. Nor had I ever, and it surprised me that he suddenly did.

Perhaps I was overthinking it all. That was likely.

I returned to Harry’s room to find him out of bed in just his pants.

“What are you doing?” I asked, putting the water and the tablets on his bedside table, trying to avoid looking at his chest.

“Need the loo.” He said without hesitation, and marched past me.

I sighed, watching after him until he was safely in the bathroom with the door closed, and then I perched on the edge of his bed with my head in my hands.

I was irritated, yes. I knew I shouldn’t be as irritated as I was, but I couldn’t help it. This was not the evening I had planned for myself. I was supposed to have an early night and go to work in the morning with a clear head and no bags under my eyes. Now I was going to look like the walking dead, and feel like it too.

I stood up again when Harry reappeared. I watched him stagger and sway across the corridor and it made me nervous. He tripped once and nearly smacked his face against the doorframe.

“Fucking hell, Harry.” I said, panicked, and reached forward to steady him.

He laughed, more a giggle of that from a small girl. “I’m so drunk.”

“I know you are. That’s why you need to get into bed.”

“I will, jus’ one more thing before I do,”

I thought he was going to start running riot around the house and I was going to have to chase after him, like a dog owner with a tyrannical pooch. But instead, he just wrapped his arms around my middle and shoved his face into the crook of my neck. His body was warm and it felt strange being this close to him when he had so little clothes on.

I let out a long breath, reciprocating it this time. “You’re a twat.”

He hummed when I stroked my hand over his damp hair. “Not very nice.”

“And yet still true.”

He grunted, but never moved a muscle. A moment of silence passed before he said anything else. “Thank you f’ comin’ to rescue me.”

“Sure, anytime.” I didn’t mean that. Or maybe I did, but I’d be bitter about it if it became a recurrence because I couldn’t stand to disappoint people who meant a lot to me.

He let me go, and I thought that was finally going to be the end of it. Instead, he took my face, quite harshly, between both of his hands until my cheeks squished. His gaze was dopey and warm again, but somehow different to last time. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Harry, that hurts.”

He ignored me. “I love you.” It sounded more like ‘ah luff you’ but that wasn’t relevant in the moment.

“Yeah, I love you too, now let go.” I was trying to pull his hands away but apparently he was still physically stronger than me even that drunk.

“No,” he shook his head at me and then brought what felt like my entire body against his chest. “I mean I really love you.”

I couldn’t see anything. I felt us begin to fall sideways, but with his strength I had absolutely no control over where we were going.

“Harry!” I screamed, still trying to fight him with no luck.

I think we hit the bed because the landing was softer than anticipated and Harry didn’t wince or flinch. That could also be attributed to the levels of alcohol in his body. He was probably majoritively quite numb.

“Y’like, my favourite person.” He said, voice much quieter now, and I could feel his nose in my hair. My face was pushed into his chest. “Want y’around all time. Rubbish a’ showin’ it but I miss y’when ‘m nor’ at home. ‘N I don’t mean everyone, I mean jus’ you.”

I was listening to him with baited breath. I’d never really been on the receiving end of ‘drunk words, sober thoughts’ - I was usually the one talking and making a fool of myself. Once I told my sister’s boyfriend (at the time) what I really thought of him in front of our entire family after keeping my mouth shut for so long. They broke up the next day and she came to live with me for a month. I felt almost paralysed now listening to Harry.

“Mus’ think ‘m nuts ‘cause I’ve never said anythin’ before, bur’m scared. You’re a scary woman.”

I tried not to take offence to that, even though it was likely true. I had tried for the longest time to give off a very ambiguous aura. I didn’t want anyone to know me, least not the real me. I liked the illusion of being dead inside even if I was far from it.

“Loved y’ for so long now I can’ ‘ide it anymore.” He was really slurring now and words were about to fail him. Somehow, he was still holding onto me. “‘M like tha’ 1975 song.” I wanted to ask which one, but I didn’t have to. He proceeded to sing the words, “I’m in love with you.”

Just once he sang them, maybe slightly off pitch but it still sounded good. Not sure it would hold up to any of his previous performances, but I’d take it.

I didn’t know what to say. I was in a state of shock to be honest and the thought of moving terrified me. But then his grip around me loosened, and he let out a singular loud snore.

I pulled back, horrified, to see his sleeping face - mouth wide open. Another snore was released. “You are fucking joking.”

I sat up, his limp body falling away from me. I smacked his arm in the hopes of waking him, but he never flinched. “Harry,” I said, hitting him again.

Still no movement.

“Oi.” Smack.

Nothing.

I didn’t know what to do. Who does that? Who makes an admission like that and then falls asleep? And why did it have to be this boy? I was speechless, and when I finally managed to clamber off the bed I was also useless.

I stared at him with a look of bewilderment, as he lay there passed out on his unmade bed, mouth agape and naked besides his white y-fronts. It was then that the reality of what he’d said hit me, and I started to cry.

I wasn’t angry or upset - I was overwhelmed. Drunkenly, Harry had just told me he loved me. Then immediately passed out. Now I was left with my own feelings and his and no one to talk to about it. What was I supposed to do?

I desperately wanted to leave and get some sleep, but I also couldn’t help but think that would be morally inappropriate. Leaving a friend alone while dangerously intoxicated was how 50% of all murder documentaries started. Not that Harry was likely to get killed by an intruder in his mansion complete with security fortress. But he might accidentally fall down the stairs or choke on his own vomit.

And yet, the idea of staying in this massive and unfamiliar house to process all those thoughts made me even more hysterical. The idea alone provoked a loud sob, and I quickly covered my mouth because it was such a horrendous sound.

I made my decision that instant. I put Harry properly into bed with all of my remaining strength, covered him with his duvet, and then I fled from his house like a bat out of hell. On my way out, I took his spare keys with me.

I barely slept that night. My head was swimming and even though I couldn’t keep my eyes open, my brain was in overdrive. That, and the cat was sleeping on my chest and purring right in my face. His whiskers tickled my nose.

I found myself thinking about the early stages of mine and Harry’s association. 

I couldn’t have called him a friend when we first met because I hated him. I don’t think that feeling was ever reciprocated on his part but I couldn’t ever stand to be in the same room as him. Why? Because I felt the need to constantly contradict societal comments and beliefs. The world - at least people in my world - deemed him a golden boy who never did any wrong. I was convinced it wasn’t the case. My downfall was my lack of determination to prove it.

We met through mutual friends, as these things always seemed to happen. I couldn’t even remember which friend it was - neither me nor Harry talked to them anymore. But one day he was just there, and periodically from then onward he continued to show up. I couldn’t even remember when it was, but it was before he cut all his hair off. One Direction’s last few remaining days, perhaps? Anyway, he was suddenly omnipresent and came with an abundance of attention and it infuriated me.

I remember once, Harry confronted me on my obvious dislike for him. That was our first encounter collectively with ‘drunk words, sober thoughts’. I can’t remember exactly what I said but I wasn’t very nice and I remember the Bambi look in his eyes when I walked away from him. After that he was notably absent for some time. If I asked him about it now I’m not sure how honest he’d be about it. He was lucky enough to be able to claim work absences for long periods of time - I imagined he’d use that excuse. How truthful that would be, I didn’t know.

Our reconciliation came after that. He saw me alone in the nearby shop and asked me to join him for a coffee. I couldn’t really say no - it was a Sunday afternoon and I was only going back home to vegetate for the rest of the day. I think it was spring - I probably would’ve just read a book and gone to bed early. We spent the next 3 hours in Ginger & White, and after we got kicked out of there we went up to The Holly Bush, ironically.

I saw a different side to Harry that night, and I always put it down to having him to myself. There was no one else there with us apart from the locals in the pub who wouldn’t bat an eyelid. It was just us, and he was unapologetically himself, as was I.  We suddenly had an entirely new perception of one another - a higher level of understanding. On that random Sunday evening alone, I came to appreciate Harry for just being Harry. I saw who he really was, and I liked him.

From then on, I enjoyed his company. It became a regular thing - an afternoon doing something random together, just the two of us. And it ranged from simple coffee shop talks to entire day trips out of London. I realised then that what we’d basically been doing was dating for about 5 years with no physical contact.

I laughed out loud, disturbing the cat. He ran off and left me alone. 

We’d had our own intimate relationships with other people outside of our friendship, which I guess is why I’d never thought about it that way before. He also seemed to do that with multiple other people - I wasn’t the only one. Was I?

I never had to apologise for the night I was rude to him. I always wondered why, and I always berated myself for not saying I was sorry. I’d admitted I was wrong about him a long time ago, but only to myself. It seemed a bit too late to do it now, but I assumed he’d forgiven me. I could’ve been wrong.

I think I finally fell asleep around 4am. My alarm for work went off just 3 hours later and I burst into tears as soon as I realised the situation I was in. I called into work sick and went straight back to sleep.

How much more sleep I had was uncertain. It felt like only 2 hours, but it could’ve been more. Since I wasn’t working, I decided to get a McDonald’s after showering. Mostly for Harry rather than me, although I’m sure he’d make a comment about it.

I used the key I’d stolen last night to let myself in and went straight up to his bedroom with the McDonald’s in my right hand. Except I didn’t make it to his bedroom, because I found him on the bathroom floor next to the toilet, on his front with his cheek pressed to the tile floor.

“Harry…?”

He moaned, limply raising his hand and dropping it again immediately.

I moved into the room, leaving the McDonald’s in the hall because the smell would not go well with the pre-existing one in the room. It seemed Harry had vomited since I left. I sat on my knees beside him and stroked a finger through his curls, similar to how I had done last night.

“Are you alright?”

“Not really.” He said, voice whiny.

“No, I’m not surprised. I brought you some breakfast.”

He managed to lift his head and look towards me. I pointed at the hallway and he followed where my finger suggested.

“What is it?”

“McDonald’s.”

He screwed his face up. “You know I don’t eat meat.”

“Yes, that’s why I got you a Fillet-O-Fish. And mozzarella sticks.”

“Not very healthy.”

“Well, boiled eggs and avocado doesn’t make for very exciting hangover food if you ask me.”

He blew a breath out so that his lips wobbled. “True.”

“You gonna sit up and eat it?”

He took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

“Come on, then,”

I took his arm and helped pull him to a sitting position. He sat against the bathtub and rolled his head back, mouth open and breathing heavy. I left his food in his lap and sat opposite him with my back against the wall.

“This is probably one of the worst hangovers I’ve had in a long time.” He said, grimacing into the paper bag. At least he could form complete words this morning.

“How much do you remember?”

He laughed once. “Not much. I remember calling you, and waiting for you to come get me. I remember when you turned up, but that’s about it. I don’t remember getting home.”

I swallowed thickly. That meant he probably didn’t remember telling me he was in love with me. Or rather, singing it.

“Next thing I’ve woke up in my pants about to vomit.”

“I think you were the most drunk I’ve ever seen you.”

He paused before he took a bite out of his fillet burger. “Really?”

“Hands down. You fell over nearly three times. And you wouldn’t let me go home.”

“Oh, I’m not surprised by that. I’m a very clingy drunk.”

“I was aware of that before last night.” I muttered. “Who were you with?”

“Tom and Tyler.”

“Ah, one of those evenings, was it?

“Yeah, didn’t expect it to be quite that bad, though. Was only going for one.”

“That’s how they all start.”

“Mm, I should know better.”

“Yes you should.”

He laughed around his mouthful and then swallowed it. “This was a good call, thank you.”

“No problem. Although I have to say I did not expect to watch you eat it on the bathroom floor.”

“I know. Feel like a uni student.”

“I don’t think uni students have bathrooms this big.”

He smiled, but didn’t say anything while his mouth was full. “Think I’m gonna have a shower, if you don’t mind?”

I shrugged. “Your house.”

“Right.” He rolled his eyes in jest. “Will you hang around a bit while I do?”

“Sure. I’ll put some coffee on.”

“Cool.” He grinned. 

He shoved the empty box into the paper bag and screwed it up. I took the rubbish off him once we were standing again and left him alone to shower.

I did as I said I would and made him a coffee, and then helped myself to a glass of water and an apple out of the fruit bowl on his counter. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen now. He seemed to be behaving normally, so I was certain he’d forgotten his admission, but that worried me because I was now going to have to admit that I knew. And I still wasn’t entirely sure how I felt.

When Harry did reappear he was fully clothed and looked a lot fresher than he had done before. His hair was damp but beginning to curl and his complexion had a bit more life to it.

“Feel better?”

“Loads better, thank you.”

“That’s good.” I said with a pressed smile. I pushed his coffee towards him.

“Cheers. Where’s yours?” He asked with a subtle frown as he took a sip out of his mug. He made an approving sound. “That’s good.”

“You know, I don’t actually like coffee.”

His frown deepened. “You have coffee all the time.”

“No, I have a mocha.”

“That’s still got coffee in it.”

“Yes, but the hot chocolate kind of makes it a fake coffee. A coffee for people who don’t like coffee.”

“Right.” He chuckled. “I had a thought upstairs just now… why aren’t you at work?”

“Because I barely slept.”

He looked concerned. “You better not have stayed really late because of me. Should’ve kicked me in the crotch and told me to get over myself.”

“Oh believe me, I tried to leave you here to go to bed, H. But I actually got back at an acceptable hour, that wasn’t the problem.”

“Just a bad night?”

I hummed. “No, I still blame you.”

“Why?” He asked, leaning his hip against the counter side.

I looked at the kitchen top and pursed my lips. “You… you told me something that gave me a lot to think about.”

“I didn’t give you some rubbish music samples, did I?”

I snorted. “I wish. Might’ve helped me sleep.”

“What then? I can’t remember anything.”

After a charged silence, I let out a long sigh. “You told me you love me. You said you love me, and then gave this little speech about missing me. And not just as friends - you said like The 1975’s song, I’m in love with you. But you sang that part, and then immediately fell asleep.”

When I met Harry’s gaze again he was staring at me, and biting his cheek. Neither of us said anything for a while. I was hoping he’d say something. Or perhaps me repeating what he said last night meant he felt like he didn’t need to say anymore.

I cocked my head. “Did you mean it?”

He stood taller, inhaling as his gaze became glassy. “Yeah. Yeah of course I did. Well, I didn’t mean to fall asleep, obviously. But I meant it, although I didn’t mean to tell you in that way… you know, while utterly shit faced.”

“You were completely shit faced.”

“Yeah… no, that’s not how I planned on telling you.”

“Was there a different plan?”

“Maybe…” He turned his nose up and scratched the back of his head. “If I told you what it was you’d hate it-,”

“You don’t know that.” I retorted.

He raised a judgemental brow at me. “Er, yes I do.”

I laughed and put my head on the table. “Whatever.”

“Anyway,” he huffed, but it had a lightheartedness to it, “of course I fucking meant it. Been living with it for ages - it’s all had time to brew. Aged like a fine wine.”

I started laughing, and then I felt his arms wrap around my chest. I was pulled up by him to stand straighter, and he rested his chin on my shoulder. His back was against my front and it felt quite nice. I don’t think we’d ever stood like that before.

“Your love has aged like a fine wine?”

“Sounds right cheap when you say it like that.” 

“You said it. That is literally what you said.” I was still laughing.

“I know.” He whimpered.

I twisted my head to look at him, but he’d hidden his face. “You’re gonna have to bear with me.”

“In what way?”

“Well, this is a lot for me. I’m still… processing it, and I don’t know how I feel. You’re my friend and I love you, of course I do. Just…”

“Not in love with me yet.” He concluded.

“Yet.” I sniggered.

“I’ll remain optimistic, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

He giggled, and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Take your time. Preferably not forever though, ‘cause… the biological clock is ticking.”

I snorted again. “Reel it in.”

“Sorry.” He hummed and squeezed my shoulders tightly. “I am going to have a movie day on the sofa. Do you want to stay?”

“For that I do, fuck yeah.”

“Sweet… go and make yourself comfy. I’ll get the snacks.”

He bumped my hip with his when I passed him so I kicked him back. He gave a childish laugh, and I shook my head at him, but I found as I wandered into his overcompensating living room that I had this giddy feeling in my stomach I’d never felt with him before.

What was I, the most stubborn woman on Earth, going to do?

~

“What d’you want, H?”

“Not a very charming greeting.” He groused.

I pouted. “You’re interrupting my bath time.”

“Is there some space left in the bathtub?”

I smirked and sank lower into the water. “For you? Never.”

“Hey!”

“Always,” I laughed around my correction, “I meant always.”

“That’s more like it.” He chuckled. “I was calling because I think it might be my turn to get dinner. So what do you fancy?”

“Well, you, obviously.”

“Obviously.” His matter-of-fact tone matched mine. I could imagine him nodding his head. “How about a chippy?”

“Oh, fuck yeah. My usual please.”

“Curry sauce too?”

“Wouldn’t be my usual without it.”

“Just checking. So, I will be knocking on your door within the next hour. Make the most of that bath ‘cause I’m coming.”

“Cool. See you in a bit.”

“Bye-bye.”

“Love you!” I shouted before he could put the phone down.

He was quiet for a minute. “Blimey. Don’t need to shout it, darlin’.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “Just in case you forgot.”

“I could never. But I love you more. See you shortly.”

“Okay, bye-bye. Love you most.”

“No!” He shouted, but I cut him off before he could refute it more.

I felt smug. I let out a satisfied sigh and laid my head back against the edge of the tub. 

I had taken my time in coming around to Harry’s admission, but he was incredibly patient with me and I was always grateful for that. It had been little over a year since his little bender, and I felt really good about everything. We felt really good about everything.

Our relationship seemed to only be moving up at a pace we were both happy with, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. All we had to do was keep it that way, and I had every confidence we could.

~~~

If you read this far, thank you <3

Come Talk To Me

[melanieph321]

Can you write something about Ruben based on “Beautiful liar” by Beyoncé&Shakira? I don’t think he is that kind of guy but I don’t know why I though about him while listening it😂

Yeah, so this request is too good to be a one shot. I'm making it into a three part series!⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ruben Dias x Reader - Beautiful Liar Part 1/3

Enjoy!

"You snore when you sleep, did you know that?"

"I don't." You muttered.

Rubens hands moved under the bed covers, caressing and grouping your naked body.

"You're gonna be late for work."

He grinned. "Let me work on you first."

It had been your first time spending the night. Sex with Ruben was just as you expected, eager and a bit needy. His egerness and need for your body showed long into the early morning. Who knows, you two might have been fucking each other all night.

"Ruben, go!" You groaned. But he rolled on top of you in a pathetic attempt to get a quicky in before work.

"Five more minutes."

He traced sloppy kisses down your body, his head disappearing beneath the duvet.

"Fuck."

His hands spread your legs like butter whilst his tounge swirled your clit like a popsicle.

"You can leave whenever, no stress."

Following a hot shower together, you found yourself in Ruben's kitchen. He was getting dressed for work, whilst you sat nibbling on a cluster of sweet grapes.

"What, no making me breakfast?"

He turned to you, his shirt yet buttoned and a sloppy black tie hanging around his neck.

"Seems like your eating me up right now." He smiled. Your eyes were sinfully scoping out his sculptured body.

"Ha ha, very funny."

"Besides..." He said, working the buttons on his shirt. "I've already had my breakfast this morning. It was delicious."

You held your chuckle, thighs pressing together underneath the table. The sensation of him was still there, Ruben and his slippery tounge.

"Have a nice day at work." You said. He came over to the kitchen Island where you sat, tilting your head back by slightly pulling your hair.

"God you're so sexy." He said and kissed you lips.

"Thanks, you two."

He chuckled "Don't forget to lock the door when you leave. The key is in the little pot by the door.

"Okay, I will."

Your day was much slower than Rubens. Working from home was usually a bore, but Rubens apartment had a nicer view than yours.

You asked yourself if this was supposed to be a one night stand? Ruben had been very relentless about his attraction to you ever since you stepped into his office two months ago. It had gone all down hill from there. Telling him that you didn't date colleagues, let alone your boss' assistant only seemed to make him what you more. Forbidden love. Which hopless romantic hadn't fallen into that trap before? You were glad however, that Ruben had respected you needs to take things slow. He neither saw you as a tease or a office cunt for making him wait two months to get with you.

"Shoot!"

It was around lunchtime. You were headed towards your favorite café in Manchester, when you realized that you had forgotten your purse at Ruben's. You had no intention on going back there once you left. It would be better for Ruben not to hear from you in a while. This way rumors around the office would seize to spread. Nevertheless you needed your purse and Ruben had already told you where the spare key was. Your reaction though, stepping into his apartment and finding another woman in there, a pregnant one at that.

"Hello?" She smiled. "Can I help you?"

She was surprisingly calm for a woman being met by a stranger looking for a purse.

"Um...I just forgot my purse." You said, unsure how to introduce yourself to the woman. Was she Rubens sister, in that case had Ruben told her about you?

"Oh, this one?" She held up the bag in front if her, looking admirable at it. After all, it was your finest Louis Vuitton. Ruben got it for you on your birthday.

"Yes. Thank you." You stepped forwards to grab the bag, forcing yourself not to stare at the womas bloated belly.

"Are you Rubens assistant?" She asked, with a hand to her stomach. The ring on her finger was beautiful. You were a bit of a jewelry enthusiasts so seeing a fine diamond like that always caught your attention.

"No, I'm his....his...we work together. I'm his colleague." You didn't know who this woman was, she could be working for HR for all you know. You and Ruben had agreed to keep things on the low, at least until you switched office next month.

"How nice to finally meet one of Ruben's coworkers. I barely know what he does for a living. " The woman laughed, her laughter seemed to lift the whole apartment. She was beautiful, you thought. Plump lips and thick brown hair.

"Well, I couldn't tell you." You chuckled. "Other than being my boss assistant I barely know anything myself."

It was true, you weren't even sure when and if Ruben had lunch breaks.

"You're funny." The woman said, stretching out a hand for you to greet.

"Y/N."

"Y/N, how beautiful. I'm Charlotte Dias, Rubens wife."

A moment of silence, as time seemed to collapse around you.

"C...come again?"

"I'm Charlotte Dias, Ruben's wife?"

His pregnant wife.

The woman looked at you with furrowed brows. "Haven't Ruben told you about me?

"Um...no, no he hasn't." You felt lightheaded and a sudden need to vomit.

"Is everything okay hun?" Charlotte stepped forward, her hands looking ready to catch you if you fell.

Your steps were wobbly, however you had to get out of there.

"I'm sorry I..." You moved to the door, fumbling with its handle.

"Wait, do you need me to..."

The door slammed shut behind you before Ruben's wife could finnish her sentence. Coming down the elevator, you stepped onto a busy street, feeling like you've gone crazy. Ruben had been lying to you. Lying to you about everything. You felt a need to hold in your tears but the pain that came with it was unbearable to withstand and so you weeped. Right there on the busy street you sat down on the sidewalk and weeped. How could he do this to you? That fucking liar.

[deathofpeaceofmiiind]

illicit affairs | twenty four

*Ellie's POV* (we'll get Noah's pov back soon I promise lol) The next couple days flew by for us, I felt like we were busy every waking moment. The boys came back a day early due to wildfire warnings up north, so I had to send them out on a mission to get air mattresses for everyone since our guest beds wouldn’t arrive for a couple weeks. The boys were also kind enough to keep Liam busy while Noah and I finished unpacking and visited Ikea more than I care to admit.

Liam loved the house, thankfully. I had my doubts because he sometimes has a hard time with change but he's adapted so well to everything. He spent most of his time in the pool, mostly with Folio, who didn’t seem to mind at all. They both had so much fun together. I’m just so relieved all of Noah’s friends treat Liam the way they do, and that he likes them just as much.

Tonight was the housewarming party, and I was far from thrilled to be outnumbered by fifteen boys. I guess some of guys from previous tours were coming up today as well. Who? I had no idea. Ruffilo flew in last night with Steven and Josh… Matt was supposed to be here at some point today too. I was over stressing about it because it was so fucking petty at this point, considering he had my number blocked. If he hated me, fine. I’d stay out of his way and if not… I deserved an explanation for being blocked. After dropping Liam off at Tyler’s I headed back home and went back to bed. I had been so exhausted this entire week and it was finally catching up to me. I had spent all last night cleaning and setting everything up the best I could to host a party. I just needed to grab food and booze, but that can wait a couple more hours. It was around 1pm when my eyes flickered open. The house was quiet but I heard voices outside, and I heard one I haven’t heard in months.

I ran over to my window and peered outside, I saw some of the boys from Erra, Devin and Kooter from I see stars were here talking with everyone, but there was no sign of Matt. Am I that sleep deprived that I’m hearing voices? I threw on some biker shorts and one of my million Bad Omens t-shirts before heading into the kitchen to make myself some coffee. I threw my glasses on and as soon as I could see, I stopped dead in my tracks.

Holy shit.

“H…Hi.” He met my gaze as he stood in the kitchen, not looking happy to see me in the slightest. He looked the same, maybe a little bit more tanned from the summer heat but that was it. I felt a lump form in the back of my throat, I never realized how much I missed him until now. I didn’t want him back, I just missed being around him and being his best friend. Neither of us were moving, his eyes were locked on me to the point I started to feel uneasy. My lips parted to say something else but he just walked past me without a single word.

“You can’t avoid me forever.” I spat out while he was still in ear shot. 

“Watch me.” 

Rolling my eyes, I quickly made myself some coffee before heading outside to say hi to the boys. They were all sitting around the pool, some of them were already in there to beat the heat. Every time I turned around, someone new arrived. Michael from Chief even came up which was a nice surprise. Him and Noah were so close so it was nice to see him come up to support us. Jesse and Clint hugged me before I made my way over to Noah who was sitting with Ruffilo, Davis and Jolly.

“Hey, El did you not get the memo?” Folio asked me as he walked past me with a coffee, my eyebrow raised at him, “no girls allowed.” “Yeah, go away.” 

Noah shook his head, a small smirk appeared on his face as he walked over to me, “settle down guys.” “Let me remind you that I’m feeding you guys and giving you free booze later.” Noah motioned for me to walk away with him. As soon as we were out of ear shot of the boys he kissed me, his hands gripping into my sides like he hasn’t seen me in days.  “Someone was tired today.” “I guess everything hit me finally.” I replied before taking a small sip of my coffee. “It’s okay honey, you’ve worked really hard this week.” He beamed, kissing me again. We both held our breath as Matt walked passed us, taking Noah’s spot with the guys, “I’m also sorry at how fucking forgetful I’ve been because I was going to warn you Matt was here.” “I’m okay, Noah. It had to happen eventually.” I assured him, catching myself kissing him again. I could feel Matt’s eyes burning a hole through me and I grew uncomfortable. “I’m gonna head to Costco and the liquor store after I have a shower.” “Perfect, can you take Folio with you?” I rolled my eyes, “here I thought I was going to have a kid free day.” “I love you too.” Noah chuckled, kissing me again before heading back over to the guys. “Folio be ready in an hour, we’re going on a field trip.” I went back inside, sighing heavily because Matt has annoyed me already. Why did he bother coming up here if he’s just going to ignore me but stare at me the entire time? Tonight was going to be interesting. 

“Are you okay with everything at the house?” I looked over at Folio as we stood in Costco trying to decide on chip flavours to get. I thought I had let it go, but he picked up on it quickly because I was so silent the entire car ride here. Folio had a way with reading people, and he could read me like a book. 

“Earlier, he was in the kitchen and I went to talk to him but he just walked past me.” I started, “I said to him that he couldn’t avoid me and he said ‘watch me.’ I just don’t understand why he would come all this way to act this stupid.” “That’s Matt for you, unfortunately.” Folio sighed as he grabbed a bag of Doritos and tossed them into the cart. “He’s fucking petty about every little thing. Just don’t play into it.” “I don’t plan to but if he starts anything I’ll happily remind him he’s at my house warming party with you know, my boyfriend.” “fuck, you’re not any better.” He chuckled, "this should be a fun night.” “You’re telling me.” 

[likeadeuce]

Challengers Fic, WIP Wednesday, Art and Tashi in their Friend Zone era

“I don’t want to get on a plane tomorrow and then never talk to you again,” Art said.

Tashi waited for the rest of it, the I know this is crazy and totally unexpected but if this is going to be our last night, what if we slept together, just for the beautiful memory.

She’d had the same conversation the night before she left high school for good, to play Juniors at the Aussie Open and train fulltime and home-school. With that guy, who didn’t matter, she’d barely had a hint he was interested that way before that night when he started kissing her -- and also she’d said yes because she was sixteen and a dumb virgin who was tired of being a dumb virgin. Compared to that guy Art might as well have had “stupid in love with Tashi Duncan” screenprinted on a T-shirt, and she’d indulged it and now she was going to have to say no and make both of them feel shitty.

“Come to Europe with me'" he said. Now that was crazy and totally unexpected. “After your exams. My folks rented a place in Mallorca for two weeks -- huge place, lots of room, and I’ll probably lose in the first round, and then Dad will want to take me deep sea fishing or something so we can be really masculine at each other and he can decide if he thinks I count as a person yet.”

“So I should ditch my plans and fly around the world to save you from the specter of male bonding. He shrugged, and she admitted, “Your mom already kind of invited me. When we were emailing about the photos for your slide show. Or, more like, she assumed I was coming, but possibly she thought I was your assistant.”

“Oh, Jesus,” he said. “See? Save me from having to be alone with these people. I’ll still mostly be training, and we can hit together, whatever you feel up to. Play some golf, go to the beach and eat olives and chorizo and -- what do they have? Flan? I can watch enviously while you eat the flan. Then we’re doing a few days of Wimbledon, I won’t make qualifiers yet but my agent and my marketing rep are supposed to introduce me around to industry people and you’ve definitely got a better head for all that than I do.”

Art had picked his agent and his marketing rep after a two hour phone call with Tashi’s father, who had been researching the best people to guide his baby girl since she was nine years old. Tashi was supposed to be on the call, too, but five minutes in, she fake-remembered a study group she couldn’t miss and went back to her room to take a few tequila shots and cry.

“You’d be doing me a favor,” Art said.

Tashi considered it for a moment. She really did. Sunshine and good food and the game she still wanted to love, sitting in the player’s box for a good-looking boy with a sky’s the limit future, sharing little jokes and secret looks and eventually, finally, falling into his bed because, Jesus, if he kept looking at her like that, she would forget all the reasons she knew that bed was a bad idea. Especially when the main reason was, simply, that he liked her too much.

“I would not be doing you a favor,” she said. “Because you know damn well what you’re talking about is girlfriend shit, and I’m not your girlfriend.”

She was ready for him to say No No No, that wasn't what he meant, they were friends, European beaches and shacking up with his family were just normal things friends did.

Instead, Art answered fast, with a broad grin that would let it be a joke if it had to be a joke. “Fortunately, that’s a fixable problem. Be my girlfriend.” For the first time in a long time, she saw the brash kid who had tried to get her number that night at the party, to hell if someone else wanted it, he had just as good a claim as anyone, and tonight it was even true. National champion with a face TV cameras would love and a body to kill for, and world number one in Being There for Tashi Duncan and never complaining about the Friend Zone of it all.

Art couldn’t keep up the bravado long enough for her to say no. His grin froze, then crumbled and he looked at the ground. “You don’t have to say it, Tashi. But I figured I needed to try.”

“If it helps at all, even if it weren’t for everything else --” She swallowed. “I couldn’t take being around all that tennis right now.”

[btsydtrash]

Daydream

Childhood sweethearts Hoseok x YN

(Author's note: This ended nicely however I could be tempted to write additons to it. I initially wanted this to be a sweethearts-to-enemies story but I like how it feels at this point. Also, this is my debut project to get back into writing lol. Please, don't kill me for making a whole new one-shot, but I wanted to grease my wheels again.)

In this story, Hoseok and YN are minors so there's no sexual content at all(!!) but they do have a lil chaste kissy kiss. Maybe I could do a time-skip for when they're in college or whatever, but that's only if ya'll want it lol!

Summer, 2004

“Hey, you know you aren’t supposed to do it that way, right?”

Hoseok glances up, eyes naturally squinting as the sun shines in his eyes. He puts up his hands, sticky with ice-cream from his snack, to shield his eyes. In front of him stands an equally-sticky girl. Her cheeks are covered in green ice-cream and her t-shirt has some melted chocolate all over the front. She’s missing a front tooth, clear from where she’s smiling brightly at him, and she seems a little sweaty, her hair sticking to her forehead in some places. Hoseok understands - it’s July, dead in the middle of summer time in Gwangju. It might as well be hell on Earth. 

Hoseok tilts his head to the side and his expression must show confusion as the girl scoffs. “That!”

She gestures to the sandcastle he was making in the sandbox.

“It’s a castle.” He murmurs.

She nods. “I know, I’m not a dummy.”

“So, what?”

She sighs and crouches down. “The poles aren’t high enough and the moat shouldn’t be this way.”

“But it’s my castle,” he says, pouting. “I want it to look like this.”

He’s lying, of course. He isn’t good with his hands but the girl teasing about his castle is making his upset. Who does she think she is?

The girl takes a second to look at his expression before she smiles, and it doesn’t hold any malice in it - only amusement. “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

His cheeks burn, and it has nothing to do with the sun this time.

“Whatever,” he grumbles, moving to stand. “Do what you want.”

He moves to leave, no longer wanting to be around this stranger. He scans the playground to look for his dad, but he can’t spot him. No matter, he thinks. I’ll just find my own way home, like usual.

A hand on his wrist stalls his movements. “Hey, don’t go.”

He looks back at the girl and she looks chastised. She continues, “Shall we do it together? Your style and my style mixed together?”

He thinks for a moment before he nods, tentatively. “Okay.”

And that was the beginning.

Sometimes Hoseok thinks back to that day, their first meeting, and wonders if it was serendipity or an omen. Either way, he wouldn’t have changed it for a thing.

—

8 years later

“YAH! Jung Hoseok!”

Hoseok jerks at the familiar shrill sound of his best friend’s voice. He glances to the left from where he’s laying on the roof, needing a brief moment of silence and peace before his Korean history class, to see you. In your left hand, an empty bread wrapper. In your right hand, his backpack.

Hoseok sits up. “Oh, you found it?”

You glower at him, darkly. “You mean the bread I had been saving since this morning to eat during my break time? Yes. I found it.”

He smiles, small but real, and moves to his feet, throwing his arm over your lithe shoulders. “It was delicious.”

You elbow him in his stomach, making him wince. “You owe me after school.”

He takes his backpack out of your hand and throws it over his shoulder. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I mean it, Hobi,” you warn, trailing behind him. He grabs your shoulder and pulls you under his arm, leading you down the corridor to your shared class, listening to you scold him the entire time.

His heart clenches at the nickname. Only you call him that. And it makes him feel amazing every time. You made it in elementary school, randomly whispering it in his ear, and he’s still embarrassed to say he squealed in bed that night, thinking you had something special only for him.

Yes, yes. He has a crush on you. A huge one, actually. You are his first and only love. And, along with it, the literal bane of his existence. This is because you won’t leave him alone, no matter what he does. 

He has always been an underachiever at school. You, on the other hand, are a shining star, academically. You always score first or second in your year group, you are the class president and you are a member of four different teams. That hadn’t always been true though.

In elementary school, you had gotten into your fair share of fights for him. Hoseok had been skinny and poor, and he looked pitiful most days. The other boys would exclude or tease him, for being so close to you - a girl. They would call him gay or say he had mental instability. Then, you would come out and curse and scold them until they cried. One time, you even kicked a boy so hard in his face, you had broken his front tooth. You both got into so much trouble that day, but it remains his favorite memory of his childhood. The two of you, sitting with your arms raised in the principal’s office, covered in cuts and bruises, messy hair and dirt rubbed all over your clothes from the ensuing fight. You had glanced over at him and given him a private smile that said ‘I don’t regret a thing’, and he returned it with his own. ‘I’d do anything for you.’ He hoped you understood it then, and remember it as fondly as he does now. 

The only things Hoseok can do well are sports, and that’s because he has a hard-head. You come to all of his games, no matter where or when they are, even shirking your other responsibilities to support him. And, this just makes him love you that much more.

He feels like you value him. You support him. You show him so much love that it makes him squirm.

As someone who has been shown none of those things from his family, it was overwhelming at first. He tried to push his feelings away, smother them, kill them even, but it never worked. The feelings would build and build and build until he felt physically sick from the weight of them. At 13, he resigned himself to loving you for as long as he lived, but he knew nothing could come from it.

You were just too lovely for a loser like him.

So, he let himself be your best friend - the bestest best friend he could be. And, it has been a pleasant near-decade of friendship, for the most part.

Until now.

You seemed to have a crush yourself.

And, it was killing him inside.

He didn’t know who, but you had been acting weird these last few months. You did your makeup, changed your hair, stopped wearing glasses. All the cute things he thought were so perfect about you, you were steadily erasing and replacing with someone else. He still thought you were beautiful - actually, it’s been hard to even look you in your eyes - but knowing it was for some other idiot was driving him crazy.

He spends the class stealing glances at the side of your face, wondering how pretty you would be in a few years time. He wonders if he’ll be by your side to see what kind of butterfly you would turn into at that time, too. Or, maybe he will be replaced by someone else. Someone who could actually stand by your side with pride.

—

“Hobi,” you whisper into his ears. He woke up a while ago, but he keeps his eyes closed in order to feel you this close to him. His heart is racing in his chest and he feels queasy in the best way possible. “You shouldn’t sleep here.”

He grumbles a little and you move your hand to pat his chest comfortingly. “It’s cold, Hobi. Wake up and come inside.”

He had developed this habit of waiting outside of your apartment complex on one of the benches when he doesn’t want to go back home. Your parents are the kindest people on Earth, and they always let him in. They give him food, let his shower and even sleep on the couch a couple of times. He’s still a kid, so they probably think he’s pathetic but some days, he thinks he would do anything to stay out of his house. 

It just so happens that he loves being at your house. It’s so warm - just like you.

He wishes he could stay in this bubble for longer, pretending to be asleep so you’ll touch him all tenderly as you are doing. But, it’s cold, and he doesn’t want you to get sick, so he holds all his yearning in his chest and blinks open an eye.

“There you are,” you croon, softly, and then there you go, moving your hand away. He can barely catch the disappointment from appearing on his face. “Let’s go inside, hm?”

And, he trails behind you, like he always does.

A happy, stupid fool.

—

The crush you had on whoever was getting worse, and it was getting harder for him to hold back his frustration each time you gazed longingly out of the window or twisted the necklace he gave you for your thirteenth birthday around your fingers, thinking so deeply that your forehead creased.

He pushes his fingers between your brows to smoothen out the wrinkles and you blink back into clarity.

“Sorry, I was just-”

“Distracted,” he grumbles, pushing his egg-fried rice around on his place. He has no appetite, thinking of all the different guys this fucker could be.

You give him a small smile and go back to your own meal.

God, you were so pretty. Your hair falls into your face a little, so he pushes it behind your ear easily. His fingers barely touch your cheek but he feels electricity zing through his body at the small contact. He wants to cup your soft cheek in his hand, feel how warm your skin is for real, but he settles on just… pushing your hair back and turning his eyes to his plate.

He doesn’t see how red your cheeks burn as he looks away.

—

“YN, you should just tell him,” your friend, Kyunghee… (Kyeonghae? Kyeongmi?) says, and her tone of voice makes Hoseok freeze in his tracks. The girls are in the corridor outside of the girls’ bathroom, and he is going to meet you to walk you to your shared fourth period class. But, something about what your friend is saying makes a pit of anxiety open up in his stomach.

He stands with his back to the wall, hidden from sight, but within hearing distance. He knows it’s wrong but Hoseok can’t help himself. It’s like he’s dying to know but can’t bear the truth either.

“I don’t know…”

You sound so unsure, so nervous, so different from what he knows you to be like, that it makes him sick.

“What if he doesn’t feel the same way?”

So, this is what you were talking about. Your crush. He bites his lip so hard that he can taste blood.

“I don’t know what I would do,” you continue on, and it sounds like you are seconds away from crying. Crying over some fucker who isn’t him. His fists clench by his side and he realized that his eyes, too, are stinging.

“Isn’t it better to tell him and get it off your chest?” Your other friend, Sana (Sara? Suha?) says, and he wants to put her head through the wall.

No. It wouldn’t be better. She shouldn’t say anything to anyone about any feelings she may or may not have!

“I think…” You pause, and he holds his breath. “I think I’m in love with him.”

And just like that, Hoseok feels part of himself die right then and there.

—

He doesn’t disappear like he wants to. He diligently walks you to your fourth period class, he sits beside you as he always does, he stares ahead with an intensity so strong that the teacher asks him if he’s alright three different times.

But, he doesn’t speak to you.

In fact, he doesn’t even look at you.

And, he can tell he’s hurting you. however, he can’t help it.

You hurt him first.

Yes, he knows you didn’t mean to. And he knows you probably can’t help how you feel either. But he’s hurting inside, so badly that he thinks he might suffocate. As soon as his last class lets out, he’s rushing out of his seat, out of the classroom and he’s walking back home at a pace so fast, he doesn’t realize his thighs are rubbed raw until he takes a shower later that night before bed.

It’s only when he knows he’s alone, when his dad is gone doing only God knows what, that he finally lets himself cry. 

And he cries all night, even in his sleep, over you.

—

Your relationship becomes strained after that.

You notice it almost immediately. Hoseok stops waiting for you after class, he stops miraculously bumping into your in the corridors, he stops smiling at you through the windows of the class when he takes bathroom breaks.

Instead, there seems to be a wall of ice between the two of you, and you have no idea where it came from.

You try to corner him, to confront him about it, because you deserve an explanation, damn it, but he just weasels his way out of it by hooking onto someone else’s backpack and claiming to be meeting them for dinner or outpacing you with his stupidly long legs.

And, as much as it pains you to say it, you can’t just go to his apartment because you don’t know where he lives.

Over a decade of friendship and he has never invited you over to his place.

You aren’t even sure which area he lives in, even though you both had the bus together every afternoon after school since you were thirteen.

He has always been very private about his life, you wanted to respect his wishes, even if it felt like he didn’t trust you. You try not to personalize it - to not make it about you, but it had been hard, especially considering how open you are with him about everything.

Well, almost everything.

Still, this weirdness has to stop, and soon.

You watch Hobi walk out onto the baseball field in his team uniform. While you were inside studying, Hobi was outside being the shining star of your school’s sports’ team. He’s always been talented with his body and athletics, even if he constantly talked down on his skills. You knew he would be a great fit for the baseball and basketball team, so when you pushed him to go try-out, you knew he would shine. And you were right.

He doesn’t look back up to the window like he usually did to smile and wink at you, and it makes your lips draw down in a deep frown.

Did you do something to him? Did you upset him somehow?

Or… Did he find out?

You blanche at the thought.

But, you had been so careful. He couldn’t know.

Nervously, you gnaw at your thumb nail and feel your forehead furrow in a deep frown. You didn’t know how you could salvage this situation with your childhood best friend, but you know you couldn’t stand this uncomfortable stiffness between the two of you anymore.

Hours later, Hobi changes into his sneakers and tosses his school shoes into his locker. He closes the locker to see you standing directly to his right and it nearly scares the life out of him.

“Fuc- YN! Don’t do that,” he scolds, clutching his hand over his racing heart.

On the other hand, your heart is racing for a different reason. Seeing him look at you for the first time in weeks is making you incredibly nervous. So, you steel your expression and growl, “Follow me.”

“YN…”

You stall on your heel and glare over your shoulder. “Do not piss me off. Follow. Me. Hoseok.”

Fearfully, Hoseok clamps his mouth shut and faithfully trails behind you until you reach the park near your school. You walk far into the park, until you can just barely see the street, and turn to face him.

“Spill,” you command.

He avoids your eyes and shoves his hands in his pocket. “Dunno what you’re talking about.”

“Do I look stupid to you?”

He gives you a brief look that reads, Yeah, kinda, dummy, before he returns his eyes to the space behind you.

You approach him but he takes one small step back, and that’s enough to stab at your heart.

“Hobi… Did I do something to you?”

He flinches and swallows, his expression growing pained for a moment before smoothing out into nothingness again.

“No,” he replies. “I just- This is a bit… I just want to make new friends.”

It all tumbles out at the end, like a flood of water that he can’t hold back, and if you felt hurt before, now it feels like he’s punched a hole in your chest.

“I never stopped you from making friends, Hobi,” you mutter, eyes stinging. “Did I?”

You really can’t be sure.

His lips pucker, strangely, like he’s sucking on something sour. Finally, he admits, “A little…”

“How?”

You gasp a little, your throat tight and thick, and your eyes are practically on fire.

“You… YN, you and I are always together,” he explains. He starts pacing then, as if he can’t keep himself still. “It’s me and it’s you, and it’s us. Nobody can come between that. So, of course I never made friends. Nobody wanted to talk to me or be around me, and I never needed anyone else. But now… I just feel like we don’t need to be… We should… I need… I need space, dummy.”

Biting down on what you wanted to say, you let out a shuddering breath and nod. “I understand.”

But the voice doesn’t sound like yours anymore. It’s all garbled and wet and weird.

Hoseok seems to notice too because he stops pacing instantly.

“YN…?”

You glance up and he takes a shocked step back before wrapping his arms around your shoulders and pulling you in close. You are pressed tightly against his chest and all you can see or smell is him.

“I didn’t mean it, don’t cry,” he whispers all at once. “I was being mean. I’m so sorry. Please, don’t cry.”

He’s whispering things over and over again, but you can’t really hear anything over the sound of his racing heartbeat. It’s so loud, it almost deafens you. Hoseok sits you both down on a bench and wraps you up nice and tight, swaying from side to side and patting your back until all the choked sobs have worked their way out.

He wipes your face with his sleeve, waving off your worries of mascara stains. “I’ve got a washing machine, dummy.”

You giggle, but it still sounds so wet and inhuman that it makes you both grimace.

“Can I tell you the truth, YN?

You peer up at him through wet lashes, but he isn’t looking at you. He’s staring ahead, and his side profile is so handsome, it takes your breath away. He’s always been so pretty to you.

“The reason I can’t be around you anymore is because I fucked up,” he admits, running a hand through his hair. It surprises you deeply as Hoseok rarely ever swears around you. He seems frustrated, nervous and scared. “I… I promised we would always be together, right?”

You nod.

“We both promised, right?”

You nod again.

He turns to look at you this time, and now he’s the one with watery eyes and flushed cheeks. “I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”

He takes in a deep, shaky breath. “I haven’t for a long time, YN.”

“So…”

“I’m in love with you,” he says in a quiet whisper. The wind carries his words to your ears so delicately that it almost feels as if you imagined it. You stare, dumbly, at him while his ears pink under your gaze. He shrinks on himself and bites his bottom lip. “I told you I fucked up.”

“Then I think I fucked up too,” you admit after a long pause. You reach for his face, holding his cheeks between your shaky palms. “I’ve been in love with you since I was twelve.”

His eyes widen until they are incredibly large, and then he’s kissing you. It isn’t hot and angry and wild like you had dreamed. It isn’t soft and chaste like you read about in books. It isn’t sloppy and wet like the girls told you it could be.

It’s warm and firm, like Hoseok always has been. He holds the back of your neck in his hand and moves his other hand to rest on your hip lightly. Hoseok pulls back to press his nose against yours and then pecks you twice on your lips, eyes fluttering closed. Then, he rests his forehead against your own and the two of you just… wait.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?”

You let out a giggle then, and shake your head, pulling back slightly. “Not at all, dummy.”

*end*

[kindoffruity]

Smitten - Final Chapter

Summary: Neteyam is all patched up, it's time to mate.

Warnings: This is definitely not canon compliant, this is my world. This chapter is technically rated M. Now, I have incorporated enough stuff rated T to balance out for those of you who are not into smut. Because let's be honest, not everyone likes it. With that, I marked it "-The Bond-" to signal when there will actually be sex. Also it's pretty long.

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Smitten: Final Chapter - Bond - Both Perspectives

Aonung learned about six new things about Neteyam in the days he was injured.

 First, Neteyam was not a morning person. 

Every morning, Aonung would wake up to the sun creeping in. Neteyam would be fast asleep in his arms, Aonung could barely escape without Neteyam sort of whining. “I need to go..” Aonung would whisper trying to break free from his sleeping lover's arms, “No.. Just five more minutes.” Neteyam would sleepily beg. But it was never just five minutes. Aonung had fallen for it too many times, giving in to five more minutes he would wake up an hour later to his father yelling outside of his home. It always left him rushing and running around, even while he ran around, Neteyam would sleep peacefully. 

Neteyamn would usually wake up confused just before he needed to actually move, he never actually recalled Aonung leaving the bed. He usually rolled over to Aonung’s spot and bundled in real tight.

Second, Neteyam would sometimes get nightmares. 

It wasn’t often, but twice in a row, Aonung was woken up to Neteyam shouting and clutching his chest. It would take Neteyam hours to fall back asleep, usually they took a walk on the beach to pass the time. “I’m sorry I woke you.. You can go back to sleep, I will be fine.” Neteyam would reassure him that he could go to sleep, but Neteyam still had bandages on his stomach. Aonung worried that anything could happen, the stitches could come undone. He didn’t need to sleep that much. “What was it about..you had the same dream yesterday?” Aonung would hold him from behind and Neteyam relaxed against him. 

“Since I was younger.. I’ve had a recurring dream.. More like a nightmare, I guess. We are at war,” Neteyam starts his eyes closing as he recalls the dream vividly as it has haunted him since he was 15. “We are gathering materials, ammunition and weapons, we are supposed to keep watch but we don’t. We go to help the warriors get the guns, we should have kept watch- they attack us.” Neteyam takes a deep breath, opening his eyes and promising to himself that it’s not real. “In my dream, I was shot. I have never seen the end of the dream, I usually wake up as soon as the bullet hits me. It feels so real sometimes.. But I know it’s not.” Neteyam expressed, he was holding onto Aonung’s arms to ground himself down. 

“You must think I am childish, having these silly dreams. We have not been at war for sometime- let us go.” Neteyam had never shared that nightmare before, he was embarrassed to be so vulnerable. “I don’t think you’re childish.. I’m sorry that you have those nightmares. I wish I could protect you from them.” Aonung genuinely means this. Neteyam can only think that Aonung is a great listener that makes him feel safe.

“Growing up, I had a nightmare where I was drowning. Ironic, right? Because I am a good diver now. But I am in the ocean, and I am trying to swim up. However, no matter how fast I kick my legs, I am not moving. I am stuck in the same place, feeling helpless and unable to take a breath.” Aonung explained, “But right before I pass out someone grabs me and yanks me out of the water. I never get to see them, I never even get the opportunity to thank them. I’d like to thank them one day.” Aonung wanted Neteyam to know he wasn’t crazy, sometimes even he had dreams that scared him. 

“It was probably me, I’m pretty much a hero.” Neteyam joked, bringing up Aonung’s hand and pressing a kiss to it. “You might be right, Forest Boy. But I think those baby lungs of yours would have collapsed.” Aonung teases, though part of him feels like it could have been Neteyam. 

“Knowing that, I’d still go to save you regardless.” Neteyam admits with a small smile, turning around in his arms for a hug. Aonung knows Neteyam means it, while it is endearing the thought scares him. Aonung knows that if it came to him, Neteyam would sacrifice himself for him. 

Thirdly, Neteyam did not know how to be taken care of. 

Despite the obvious injuries that he had retained, Neteyam was adamant about making himself useful. He would try to sharpen Aonung’s spear for him, or set aside his armor and riding gear. Neteyam should have been in bed resting, but would get up to clean, organize Aonung’s things and would even leave the Marui limping with his bow and arrow, practicing to polish up his skills.

It was probably the second time Aonung could recall a serious argument. 

He had returned from the reef, as usual, he carried a shell or something pretty that reminded him of Neteyam. He had caught Neteyam outside, firing his arrow against a specific part of a tree as target practice. Aonung wouldn’t have had a problem with it if Neteyam hadn’t tried to climb the tree to gather his arrows. 

Neteyam nearly slipped, wincing as he pulled out the arrow from the tree and tossing it back on the ground so he could continue. 

“What are you doing?” Aonung was annoyed, he didn’t even bother to hide it. “I am practicing, I do not wish to be soft by the time I heal.” Neteyam would explain as he jumped down off the tree to his feet. Neteyam tried not to wince as his legs hit the ground, he knew Aonung would have a heart attack. Aonung didn’t understand him, he needed to always be ready. 

“That is enough.” Aonung warned him, clearly just concerned. “You are not my parent, I love you. And I would do anything for you, but you need to respect that I need to do this, I cannot be cooped up in a house as if I am a damsel.” Neteyam didn’t turn back to look at Aonung as he picked up his arrows. 

“If you cared about  me, you’ll put your bow down. I don’t care how often you practice once you are healed- but you will never heal if you are out here climbing trees.” Aonung tried to be level-headed, he did. Neteyam turned around, his bow at his side as he stared at his lover. “If you cared about me, you’d let me do what I need to do.” Neteyam countered. Aonung growled at his lover, dropping the vibrant pink shell he had collected for his lover. 

“Why are you so stubborn? You are not at war! You do not need to be constantly on edge, this is extreme even for you. You have nothing to prove!” Aonung shouted, he couldn’t recall ever really yelling at his lover. “You do not understand! Aonung, I cannot lie here like some useless thing- I can never explain my thought process. This is just how I am, I need to be useful. I need to be strong. This is a symbol of weakness!” Neteyam pointed to his injury with regret, “if I was stronger, it would not have happened!” 

Ah, there it was.

Neteyam had blamed his injury on himself. 

“Ma’Neteyam.. Come here.” Aonung sighed softly, opening his arms up to his lover. Neteyam dropped his bow and immediately attached himself into the others arms, hugging him tight and burying his head in his chest. Aonung smelled like saltwater. Weird, he never thought this scent would be home to him. “Do not blame yourself for your injuries, you did very well for being on your own. You must give yourself credit. I never once thought less of you, in fact, I admire your strength, I wish I could be as strong as you.” Aonung ran his fingers through his braids with a small smile as he held him close. 

“I know I can’t force you into bed.” Aonung needed to think of something that would work for both of them. “How about we train together? You can target practice, but with me here so I can get the arrows for you. This way we’re both happy. You won’t hear me complain about your injuries and you get to practice.” Aonung decided to compromise, Neteyam was stubborn and he wasn’t going to take that away from him. 

“I’d like that..” Neteyam felt spoiled as Aonung kissed his forehead and then retrieved every arrow for him for the next few hours until he felt satisfied with his training for the day. 

Aonung could admit, he didn’t realize how much he needed to polish his climbing skills until Neteyam was behind him laughing at him.

Fourthly, Neteyam seemed to love his tattoos. 

At night, when the couple should have been sleeping. Neteyam would often spend time tracing the series of lines that adorned his arms. Aonung would pretend to sleep while his finger seemed to admire every droplet of ink. Neteyam did this when he couldn’t sleep, “I wonder if it hurts..” Neteyam would talk to himself quietly. 

Then his attention would drag to the tattoo on his chest, his fingers were more delicate there as the ink was still fresh and even a bit tender as it was the newest piece to adorn his body. “Protecting home?”  Neteyam questioned, his words were slurred as if he was ready to pass out while his fingers guided over the ink. Aonung had taught him the meaning of the different tattoos and placements, there were so many that Neteyam would summarize as easily as possible. Aonung tried not to smile as Neteyam finally thought of the reef as home, though the Forest was always his home. Aonung respects that. 

This whole thing made Aonung’s heart melt, he couldn’t tell Neteyam he was awake the whole time. Neteyam had fallen into a nightly routine of tracing the ink on his body. Aonung would wait until the finger stopped moving all together, a minute later usually he would hear a soft snore and he knew Neteyam had fallen asleep.

Aonung’s eyes opened up to admire his sleeping lover, planting a kiss on his head. He knew one day Neteyam would kill him for pretending he was asleep while he did these cute things. Aonung wouldn’t dare tell him anytime soon. 

Fifth, Neteyam loved all gifts. 

Aonung had been in a relationship briefly, it was difficult for him because nothing he had ever done was good enough by their standards. Once he had a shell thrown back on the ground because “anyone could get a shell”. Those moments always stuck with him. It was why Aonung worked so hard to get the nicest things, he’d only get the best for Neteyam. 

But Neteyam was grateful for everything. 

Aonung had returned home once with a singular flower, it only grew in a specific cave so it was unique. Aonung was eager to give it to him because Neteyam was at this point just about fully healed. Except, on his way back to give him the flower, he had been tackled by some kids and it dropped, one accidentally stepping on it and squashing it. 

Aonung knew it was an accident, so he didn’t get upset. 

“Teyam, I’m home.” Aonung called out as he stepped inside, squished flower in his hand. “Welcome back! Look at the bandages, gone. Stitches, removed.” Neteyam was practically running around now that he wasn’t injured anymore. (Plus Aonung couldn’t be mad if he was all healed and running around).

Aonung swore he had leaped and jumped in his arms. “I take it my mother did a good job with you?” Aonung asked with a laugh as he held him close. He gave him a tight squeeze, just celebrating the others' health. 

“What is that? Is that for me?” Neteyam asked, reaching for his hand he pulled the squished flower out of Aonung’s hand. “Well- it was but.. Some kids squished it- I can get you another one.” Aonung didn’t know why he felt nervous that Neteyam was going to be upset or hate the flower. 

“No, it's perfect. I love it. Thank you so much for thinking about me.” Neteyam accepted it with a large smile, pulling away towards the bed and taking a seat on the ground to grab a box. Aonung stared wide. He hadn’t expected him to be that eager for a squished flower. 

 Neteyam had saved every single gift, no matter how small it was. It was all there in this box. “You saved it all?” Aonung asked stupidly, his mouth hung open as he watched Neteyam pull out little gifts from years ago when they first met. There wasn’t much from that time, but a rock and a few notes that they had passed along. 

“Yeah, I save everything you give me. Like this, you probably don’t remember but years ago, you gave me this scale. Remember, we didn’t know what it belonged to, only that it glowed in the night.” Neteyam held up the scale, probably the same size as a pearl. “You know.. I think I must have always had a crush on you.” Neteyam looked up at him with the largest smile as he held it out to him. 

Aonung was so in love, he dropped down to his knees and immediately hugged Neteyam, practically squishing him with all his weight. “Why are you this perfect?” Aonung never thought he would have gotten this lucky, Neteyam treasured even the dumbest things he had given him. Of course he was appreciative of a squished flower. “You always bring me the nicest gifts.. It really brightens my day to know you’re always thinking of me.” Neteyam admitted, just laying underneath the other with absolutely no protest. 

Aonung loved adorning Neteyam with all sorts of gifts, but there was no greater satisfaction than Neteyam saving even the smallest things. Aonung could see that Neteyam was starting a collection of shells and sea glass. Aonung would need to create a space for him to place the collection. Aonung buried his head in Neteyam’s neck.

They spent at least an hour just laying on the ground and cuddling while going over all of the items. “Which one is your favorite?” Aonung asked, admiring the assortment he had gathered for his lover. “Probably the crown you made for me.. I never get to wear it but I love it so much.” Neteyam admitted grabbing the headpiece and placing it over his ears. 

Aonung loved the way it looked on him, it was definitely his favorite too. Neteyam was usually beautiful, but he seemed almost like a dream when he wore the delicate headpiece. Neteyam looked up at him with big eyes almost expectantly, his hands gently scratching at his back as Aonung finally got the hint. 

Neteyam wanted a kiss. 

Aonung caressed his face, just admiring his beauty before he pulled him for a slow and sensual kiss. No matter how many times their lips pressed against each other, the spark never faded, it only intensified. Neteyam clung to him, learning to love the heavy weight of his lover. Aonung using an arm to prop himself up so he could properly kiss. 

Aonung pulled away, his heart throbbing at the sight of Neteyam underneath him. Neteyam couldn’t hide his emotions at all, his eyes begging for more, cheeks flustered, his hair framed his face beautifully. Aonung wishes to memorize this moment for the rest of his life. 

It led him to the sixth conclusion about Neteyam. 

Neteyam was a huge tease. 

 Now granted, Aonung had said they would wait to mate until Neteyam was all better. For some reason, little things kept getting in the way. He was pulled to observe the reefs in the evenings, it made it hard for him to actually plan. Because everytime, he had set aside time for them, just a two day vacation or a romantic trip to the spirit tree. 

Something always got in the way. 

The Ilu had run out once, they had to gather them before they were eaten. 

An Akula lurking too close to home. 

Lo’ak picking a fight with the neighboring clans- which was an awful story on its own. 

Nothing seemed to go right when Aonung tried to plan it. 

Neteyam had practically moved into his Marui at this point, which was lovely, really. Except, Aonung would come home and Neteyam would pounce on him. Neteyam would kiss him hungrily and wrap his legs around him to pull him on the bed. 

Aonung loved it, every second of it, every kiss and playful bite. 

But it always left them both unsatisfied because they wanted to wait to do it right. Aonung always pulled away with such great restraint, Neteyam still pulling at him. Aonung knew it was a blessing to have someone as eager as Neteyam. 

Neteyam had once pushed him down, climbing on top of him and pinned his wrists down. “Neteyam..” Aonung would call out half-heartedly because he didn’t want him to stop. “Shhh.. No speaking.” Neteyam would smirk down at him, planting a heated kiss on his lips and pulling away to trail hot and steamy kisses down his neck. Aonung let out a shaky sigh as Neteyam bit down and marked his neck. The hickey itself was Neteyam’s claim on his body. 

Aonung’s hands grabbed at his thighs and then rested on his butt, Neteyam’s tail wagging excitedly as he marked his lover's neck up. “What will they say tomorrow, when you show up to the hunt covered in marks?” Neteyam would purr into his ears, Aonung could only groan in response. Neteyam had possessive tendencies sometimes, Aonung swore it was because he hadn’t mated him yet. 

“Yo bro, could I borrow some beads-“ Lo’ak should have learned his lesson, but he never did. He walked in on them, immediately screaming like a child in horror by the sight. Neteyam usually would have jumped off embarrassed, except he didn’t. He turned around and glared at Lo’ak, grabbing the bag of beads and throwing them at his head. “Get out! You don’t know how to fucking knock- Stop screaming!” Neteyam shouted climbing off of Aonung and shoving Lo’ak out, Neteyam heard him fall out and the beads spill. 

Aonung could tell Neteyam was pent up and frustrated, and Lo’ak was probably traumatized. Hopefully, he learned to knock. 

“Ma’Teyam..” Aonung reached for him, pulling him close to cuddle. “Soon… I’ll give you everything you want.” Aonung promised, kissing his neck and spooning him from behind. Neteyam pouted, arms folded in annoyance because they had been interrupted so many times. 

- - - 

“I plan on mating with Neteyam. I have decided to not proceed with our traditional methods of bonding in front of our clan. I would like for us to have our bond between ourselves and Eywa.” Aonung spoke at dinner, Neteyam hadn’t been expecting that in the slightest. If he was honest, he had forgotten traditionally they would mate before their clan members. Neteyam didn’t speak, he just ate, too embarrassed to even look up at his parents. 

“You know, for it to be-”

“It will be before Eywa. And that is all we need. With that being said, we will be unavailable for the next week.” Aonung needed to speak now, everyone seemed surprised by the mention of needing a whole week. Even Neteyam tried not to choke on his food, a week was excessive. He could feel eyes pouring into him. 

“Very well, we will proceed without you for the following week.” Tonowari spoke, Ronal seemed like she was going to protest their methods. “Neteyam has nothing to do with this, I have realized that I do not need an audience to acknowledge my love. Only Eywa.” Aonung paused with a smile, “Plus I don’t want anyone else to look at my mate.”  

Neteyam actually choked. 

All eyes were on him as he rushed out, unable to excuse himself as he was coughing and sputtering from embarrassment. Aonung was pleased with himself. Aonung took a final bite of his food and excused himself to rush after Neteyam. 

“Aonung! A-A week?” Neteyam sputtered on the way back to their Marui, shaking his head, still baffled by the whole conversation. 

“I could ask for two if you’d like,” Aonung offered with a smile as he hugged Neteyam from behind. “You act like you haven’t been trying to jump my bones everyday since you healed. The least I could give you is a week for just the two of us.” Aonung walked slowly as he held onto Neteyam. 

“And ignoring tradition?” Neteyam asked leaning against as they stepped together, it must have looked so funny as they were moving as one. 

“I don’t want anyone else to hear you or see you. They already think you're perfect, wait until they hear you whimper,” Aonung pressed a kiss into his ear and Neteyam shuddered, shaking his head embarrassed at the thought of that. “Whatever will I do with you..” Neteyam didn’t hate it though. 

————

The remainder of the week left Neteyam on edge, he was excited but nervous. Constantly restless, reality had settled in, they were finally going to mate. 

Neteyam set aside time from his regular duties to redo his hair, even shine the pearls he had been gifted. Neteyam was worried it wouldn’t be perfect, what if he wasn’t as good as he wanted to be? Maybe he’d disappoint Aonung? The second those intrusive thoughts hit, he tried to shake them away. 

Aonung was probably his biggest fan. 

When the day came, Neteyam felt self conscious almost instantly. Aonung had gifted him a new garment, it was white and sheer, with sewn in pearls. It covered his chest, leaving his back open, the thin fabric left little to imagine. With the new top came a new loincloth, the material as soft as silk. It hung low on his hips, a pearl white. Aonung even added an anklet for him, now from pretty much head to toe he had been dressed by his lover. 

Most people didn’t even get the amount of gifts he received. 

 Aonung had left him to get ready, Aonung was waiting by Yam, such a ferocious Tsurak with the funniest name. Neteyam let out a shaky sigh stepping out of their Marui, Neteyam was flustered as he walked slowly, worried the beads were suddenly too loud or that he’d trip over and eat sand. 

Aonung turned to face Neteyam, his jaw practically dropping as he took in his features. Neteyam was always beautiful, but he was practically glowing. It was unreal, Neteyam was walking slowly to watch his step but everything was already playing in slow motion in Aonung’s head. 

Aonung couldn’t believe this was his mate. The garments and accessories framed his body well, emphasizing Neteyam’s best features. His small waist prominent, the curve of his ass, and at the top his broad shoulders wrapped delicately in the thin sheer fabric. 

Neteyam could feel Aonung’s eyes staring at him, it made the uneasiness fade away. Aonung really liked what he saw, it made Neteyam feel confident. 

“I have imagined this countless times.. But my thoughts were nothing compared to your actual beauty.” Aonung spoke once he realized Neteyam was standing right in front of him. He reached to help Neteyam on his skimwing. “You think so? Well don’t get used to this.” Neteyam teased, his confidence skyrocketing as Aonung pressed a kiss to his hand. 

The ride there was difficult, the waves weren’t bad on anything but it all felt so surreal. Neteyam swore he would wake up, or perhaps he had already died and these were just his thoughts. 

Aonung’s arms squeezing his waist and pulling him close reminded him that this was real. Neteyam sighed softly, just admiring the beautiful day. The vibrant sky, smooth waves, and everything was just perfect. Neteyam’s hands rested over Aonung’s as they rode. 

Aonung was absolutely excited, he was so happy that nothing could even remotely ruin this. As they approached the cove of ancestors, he could feel Neteyam twitch and that baby tail wagging excitedly. Neteyam was just as excited as their destination became closer. 

“I hope you remembered how to breathe.” Aonung teased, now it was time to release Yam. Neteyam suddenly forgot how to breathe, letting Aonung help him down. Neteyam immediately clung to him, his arms wrapped around him. “And if I forgot?” Neteyam returned the tease, the two staring into each other's eyes. Aonung swore he could get lost in those golden orbs, so he instinctively pulled him closer. Neteyam smiled, immediately caressing Ao’nung’s face and gently pulling him for a soft kiss. 

It was chaste, but it had probably been the most exciting kiss yet. 

Aonung led the way down, their hands locked as they swam to the spirit tree. Neteyam was glad they elected to do this on their own. It was much more romantic, Neteyam admired the tree, thanking Eywa for everything. For this life he lived, his beautiful new home, and his amazing mate. Neteyam’s eyes closed as he thanked her. Once he opened them, it looked like Aonung had been doing the same thing. It gave Neteyam the opportunity to admire his lover, his strong arms and his handsome face. 

Aonung slowly opened his eyes, smiling at him as they pulled each other closer. Their legs intertwined, locking each other together, they were unable to speak underwater but both of their gazes alone held so much love and respect for one-another. It was all they needed. 

The two shared a moment, heads pressed together, just admiring each other. Aonung reached first, his hand reaching for his braid, pulling around his queue. Ao’nung’s eyes locked on Neteyam’s as he mirrored him. Neteyam’s free hand intertwined their fingers together. There was a brief moment where they didn’t move, almost stunned with emotions.

They both simultaneously take the extra inch and they have connected. Nothing could have mentally prepared them for what it felt like to be one. If Neteyam could breathe, it would have taken all of it away. Neteyam’s body shuddered from the emotions, his hand squeezing tight on Aonung’s, nails just digging in from the overwhelming feeling. His body felt hot. Neteyam couldn’t keep his eyes open as he practically curled into Aonung, barely able to steady himself from the intense wave of pleasure and emotions that rushed through him. 

Aonung knew he had to be strong here because Neteyam was weaker in the water, he focused a lot of energy on his core to keep them treading. Aonung felt his entire body stutter as the bond was made. Their connection was so intense, Aonung felt like was flying, everything was heightened. He and Neteyam were one, he returned the firm squeeze of Neteyam’s hand before releasing it and pulling him closer, his hand locked on his waist as Neteyam’s legs wrapped around him. Aonung’s eyes closed briefly as the two seemed to just float in a pool of one another. But when his eyes opened again, he couldn’t help but admire his mate's delicate features. Neteyam’s face hid nothing, the pleasure was written all over it and Aonung could tell his lover was running out of air. 

Aonung gently caressed his face, pulling him for a sensual kiss. Aonung made sure he was pumping some air into his lover's lungs. Pulling away, he had Neteyam wrap his arms around his neck. Neteyam held where their braids had connected in his hand to keep them locked in place. Aonung allowed the other to cling to him so he could swim them up to air, before he left he thanked the great mother for allowing him to mate with Neteyam. 

The second they reached air, Neteyam gasped out, he was almost desperate to breathe. “H-Hah..Aonung..” Neteyam spoke in between shaky breaths, his body was on edge, he had been struggling to breathe and their connection itself made him want to whimper from the intensity of it. Neteyam’s legs wrapped tightly around Aonung, as if he didn’t want to let go. Aonung pulled his whimpering lover for another kiss, this time more heated- it was almost desperate as they clung to the other in the water. 

Aonung struggled to maintain his composure as Neteyam practically whimpered in his ear from their connection. Aonung pressed a kiss to his neck as his hands dragged from Neteyam’s thighs to his back, just feeling him. Neteyam was officially his now, they would be together for life. Aonung nipped at Neteyam’s lip, sliding his tongue in eagerly as they’re hands explored each other's body. Everything was so sensual, the smallest brush against his nipple left Neteyam practically shaking. Aonung could relate, his length hardened underneath the weight of his lover. 

The couple spent some time, treading in the water and just making out when Neteyam pulled away first, his cheeks flushed and lips practically swollen from the intense kisses, at this point their erections were just pressing into each other. “Aonung.. Let’s go back.. I want you..” Neteyam whispered boldly to him. Neteyam was just about ready to burst, Aonung instantly agreed. He had just been waiting for Neteyam to be ready. Aonung had already planned for them to continue everything at home. He couldn’t put Neteyam’s lungs through sex in the ocean.  Their first time needed to be comfortable. 

————

-Bond- 

———-

Aonung called for Yam, the second he straddled the skimwing he felt instantly tortured. Neteyam was still clinging to him, Neteyam’s length pressed firmly into his stomach while all of his weight and his ass sat right on his loincloth. His own length practically wedged between his mate’s cheeks. The two could feel the heat quickly brewing and intensifying as they rubbed against each other. Neteyam’s nipples pressed against the sheer fabric left them feeling almost raw in the most pleasurable way. 

“I love you..” Neteyam was squeezing him tightly, he didn’t want to let go any time soon. Aonung’s hand rested on Neteyam’s waist, gently trailing his hand over a particular sensitive spot, he had learned his favorite spots. “I love you more.” Aonung gently challenged him as he saw their home approaching. 

“Aonung..” Neteyam’s voice was needy, Aonung knew exactly where Neteyam was. He understood though, they had waited for so long for one another and now this ride back was so long. 

Aonung quieted his lover with his lips, nipping at his lower lip and pushing his tongue inside to taste his mate. Neteyam didn’t even hesitate to open his mouth to Aonung, a muffled moan against his lips. Aonung wanted to hear more, his free hand playing with the bouncing tail. Neteyam pulled away flushed, a quiet moan threatening to escape as his tail was another sensitive spot Aonung remembered. 

“My love, we have arrived.” Aonung maneuvered them off the animal. Neteyam pulled him for another kiss, almost causing Aonung to stumble in the sand. Aonung steadied himself, his hands on the back of Neteyam’s thighs to hold him up while they walked. Neteyam was so eager, Aonung struggled to watch where he was going. “I’ve waited too long..” Neteyam whispered against his lips, pulling away to kiss Aonung's neck. Each kiss left a burning trail of pleasure on his. “As have I..” Aonung gently reminded himself, he would drop Neteyam if he didn’t watch his steps. 

Aonung had set up their home, adorning it with special flower petals and new blankets for them. Once they were inside, it was like a switch was flipped within Aonung. He had tried to be calm, but now they were here, he didn’t have to hold himself back. Aonung gently placed Neteyam on the bed, Neteyam was panting already. 

They had just gotten started. 

Neteyam’s golden orbs filled with want as he looked up at Aonung, his legs spread to welcome him in between them. Aonung eagerly accepted the invitation, immediately attacking Neteyam’s neck, he bit and suckled on the skin leaving the prettiest marks to claim his body. 

The kisses and marks  traveled from Neteyam’s neck, all the way down to his calves. Aonung paid extra special attention to his inner thighs, leaving all sorts of steamy kisses and especially bites there. Neteyam was already his, but Aonung still felt the need to mark him now that he could. 

Aonung’s eyes dropped to the new loincloth that seemed to be already soiled with precum, “So soon, my love?” He teased as his hands pulled at the sides of the cloth and wriggled it off, revealing Neteyam’s body. Neteyam wasn’t even embarrassed at this point, legs spread out, his cock resting on his stomach, the head glistening with beads of precum. 

Aonung had to take a second to admire all of it, Neteyam caught this and smirked at him. “Do you like what you see?” Neteyam asked, despite it being their first time, Aonung had done wonders for his self confidence. So all that worshiping and praise he had received from his lover left him like this. Neteyam did feel flustered being on display but Aonung had made him confident regardless. 

“How could I not?” Aonung pressed a kiss to the dripping head of Neteyam’s cock, causing him to almost instinctively close his legs but Aonung held them open. “Now isn’t the time to be shy, Forest boy.” Aonung gently reminded, Neteyam bit his lip, he hadn’t expecting to feel that sensation, 

“Keep your legs open for me.” Aonung reached over his body, pulling out a small vial and pouring some of the contents on his fingers. “Nung..?” Neteyam watched him, wondering what it could have been. “It’s to help it go in easier, I don’t want to hurt you.” Aonung explained, planting a kiss on his forehead before rubbing the other's entrance with the substance. Neteyam shuddered at the foreign feeling, but he had wanted this for so long, he held his legs open for Aonung. 

Aonung watched his mate’s reaction carefully to see if there was any discomfort before he slipped his finger in. Neteyam seemed to tense for a moment, unused to the feeling. Aonung tried not to get excited by the thought of how the inside of Neteyam would finally feel. He thrusted the digit slowly to allow him to get used to it, then added a second finger so he could really start to stretch him out. The lube on his fingers was created to trigger Neteyam’s body to lubricate itself. In essence, the more turned on he became the slicker he’d become. Aonung watched Neteyam struggle to decide if he liked the feeling. With that being said, Aonung reached his free hand to jerk his cock slowly at the pace of his fingers. 

Soon enough, the weird feeling of fingers inside of him disappeared and it was replaced with intense pleasure as Aonung hit the best spots. “Aonung..” Neteyam started to speak but it was cut off by a soft moan, “Please.. Please stop teasing me.. I just want to cum with you..” Neteyam’s voice was dripping in pleasure. 

Aonung watched as his fingers unraveled the male underneath him, he knew it was pretty much time for Neteyam, his insides were nice and wet, a mixture of the oil and now his body was self lubricating. Neteyam’s hands reached for his loincloth and immediately pulled them down. It was Aonung’s turn to be embarrassed for a split second, his cock springing up and hitting him in the stomach, extremely eager to be released. Aonung saw Neteyam blush at the sight and he swore he heard him gulp at the length of it. 

“I uh.. I don’t think it’s going to fit..” Neteyam knew Aonung was big, but seeing it uncovered, it was a little nerve wrecking. “We can go slow.. Just relax, I promise I won’t hurt you and if it does hurt, we can stop.” Aonung reminded him gently. Neteyam still looked nervous, despite all the confidence and want in the beginning, it was their first time. It was a little scary. 

“My love, just focus on me..” Aonung pressed a kiss to his lips, not as rushed as the first ones, slow and sensual. Neteyam’s arms wrapped around his neck, practically surrounding himself with Aonung. The kiss distracted Neteyam while Aonung lined himself up, Neteyam tensed a bit when he felt the warm head pressing into him. Next thing he knew, Aonung was slowly pushing inside of him. Neteyam’s nails dug into Aonung’s back as he tried to ground himself. At first, it hurt to be stretched. He had never felt this before, but it still slid in without too much resistance probably from all the lubricant. Neteyam took a shaky breath and pulled away from the kiss. “Nung.. Slower please..” Neteyam whispered, his mouth hung open as he tried to breathe and get used to the length. 

“I know, my love.. I’m almost all the way in.. You’re doing great.. I’m so fortunate to have you as my mate..” Aonung whispered against his lips, it took a lot out of him to go so painfully slow, easing inch by inch inside his lover, but Neteyam being comfortable was far more important than his own needs right now. The nails at his back left a burning sensation where they dug into him. Aonung pushed all the way in, peppering kisses on his lover's face and lips as he whimpered at the feeling of being so full. Aonung couldn’t even hold back his own groan at finally being one with Neteyam. 

Everything felt surreal. 

“Neteyam.. Is it okay to move?” Aonung asked, waiting for his lover to find words, Neteyam nodded shakily and clung tighter onto Aonung. Aonung pulled his hips back, nearly pulling all the way out and then pushing back in. Neteyam let out a huff of air, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Neteyam.. We can stop..” Aonung gently reminded him but Neteyam shook his head no. “I don’t wanna stop.. It’s just so much..” Neteyam tried to explain but Aonung didn’t understand. Was it too much dick? Or too many emotions? 

“My love.. You’re doing so great..” Aonung whispered in his ear, it was everything Neteyam always needed to hear. Aonung knew Neteyam always responded well to praise, so he whispered all sorts of endearments in his ears. The nails on his back slowly stopped digging painfully, Neteyam pulled Aonung for a kiss just as Aonung had started to settle in for a nice pace. Aonung returned the kiss, his hands exploring Neteyam’s body, resting on his length as he slowly jerked his lover off in sync with his thrusts. 

Neteyam at first found it hard to breathe, Aonung was well endowed. But, the compliments and hand on his length helped him. The compliments made him want to keep going, it motivated him. It wasn’t long until Neteyam could breathe easier, a little too easy, as moans just seemed to fall out of his lips left and right. Aonung was moving freely now, Neteyam didn’t even feel pain, it felt amazing. 

Aonung noticed that Neteyam had gotten accustomed, “Nete… Can I go faster?” Aonung had been really holding himself back, but Neteyam was enjoying it now. It was well worth the wait. “Please.. Yess.” Neteyam responded instantly, a loud moan escaping as Aonung hit a special bundle of nerves. Aonung made sure to remember that. 

It wasn’t long until the couple had found a rhythm that worked for them, first times were always hard in the beginning, they had just started to learn each other's body. Aonung realized that while Neteyam liked a sweet and slow start, it somehow ended with him being rough. 

Aonung had no complaints as the Marui filled with fast skin slapping and loud moans, Aonung wincing as the nails dragged all the way down his back. Neteyam whined and mewled, telling Aonung how much he liked it.

“Nung.. I’m going to cum.” Neteyam warned his lover, his legs wrapping tighter around him to keep him locked in. “It’s okay, you can cum we’ve got all week.” Aonung teased, as if he wasn’t just ready to burst. Neteyam tried to hold out so they could cum together, it only took one thrust to have him spill all over his stomach.

Neteyam swore he was seeing stars. 

Aonung was going to pull out since Neteyam had cum but the legs around his waist wouldn’t let him move, “Inside..” was the only thing Neteyam breathed out, Neteyam’s eyes were dazed with lust and he looked absolutely ravished by his lover. It took Aonung back to hear him say that, it sent shivers down his spine. “Are you-” Aonung was just checking to see if he was sure but then he felt Neteyam clench around his cock and he couldn’t help but groan in pleasure. Neteyam knew exactly what he was doing. 

Neteyam was very sure of what he wanted. 

With Neteyam clenching on him and taking some notes from Aonung’s books. “Please cum in me.. It feels so good, Aonung..” Neteyam’s voice was fucked out as he mirrored Aonung’s voice. Aonung wasn’t sure if he also had a praise thing- or if it was because Neteyam sounded soooo good. 

Aonung barely lasted a few more thrusts before he came inside of Neteyam, it took all of his strength to not give out on Neteyam. He used his arm to steady himself as he came down from the high of an orgasm. Neteyam shuddered, feeling the warm liquid filling him. The couple laid intertwined with one another, just catching their breath and admiring each other. 

Their first time was something else, it was a little nerve wrecking but certainly filled with love. Neteyam didn’t let Aonung pull out for a good hour, before their tired bodies decided it was time for bed. It was difficult for Aonung to clean up while still connected but he managed. Neteyam had instantly passed out after Aonung pulled out. It left Aonung awake spooning his lover with a content smile on his face. 

————

— The Bond —

———— 

The next week really was a blur, Neteyam proved to be quite the animal in bed. Aonung thought he would have been the one who was insatiable but their first morning together, Neteyam had practically sprung up, climbed on him, and rode him. Aonung should have known what to expect, but Neteyam surprised him.

The return back to reality was harsh, they could just lay in bed the whole day just whispering how much they loved each other. It was back to their usual responsibilities, hunting and basket weaving, protecting the reef. 

“Welcome back..” Tonowari greeted his son, he looked proud with a knowing smirk. Aonung sporting half healed scratch marks down his back and faint hickeys. Neteyam had enough respect to allow their bodies to heal from embarrassment. “It’s nice to be back, I suppose we should hunt?” Aonung asked with a smirk. He did miss hunting a bit. 

“Yeah I suppose we should,” It was Neteyam. 

They always say, you can tell when someone has been held. The person’s body becomes more beautiful, they practically glow and even their hair becomes shiny. 

It was the truth, villagers and members of the clan immediately noticed how Neteyam grew more beautiful in the week that had passed. Neteyam noticed the eyes on him, a little concerned he had been walking funny or had something on his face. 

“Shouldn’t you be-” Aonung started. 

“You’re not the only one with a Tsurak.” Neteyam smirked, walking past his lover. His tail swishing as he passed him, he did feel his knees buckle for a split second. He had been trying to pretend like his body wasn’t aching but this last week was more of a work out than anything. His thighs burned with every step he took.

“Why is Neteyam walking kind of funny?” Tuk commented amusedly, kicking her legs at the edge of the water. 

Lo’ak had learned his lesson of messing with the couple, he did notice the almost side step Neteyam had taken, “Neteyam has been rock climbing, right Aonung?” Lo’ak commented through gritted teeth. They were mated now, he couldn’t do anything to stop him.

 If you can’t beat them, join them. 

Aonung was too distracted by the large Tsurak that was by Neteyam, it was larger than Yam, and even seemed more feral. “When did you?!” Aonung was baffled by this secret. 

“Don’t worry, meet Ao.” Neteyam introduced the large animal to Aonung who was still processing. “I hope you didn’t think because we mated I was going to stay at home and wait around for you. I am not some male wife.” Neteyam reached for his bow. 

Aonung wasn’t surprised by this decision, he was more surprised that Neteyam had tamed a feral skimwing and hadn’t told him. It was then he realized that this marriage was just the beginning of some crazy adventures together. 

“I never thought that for a second, let’s go hunt.” 

[hodgepodgequack]

Emio Demo 2: Electric Boogaloo

So it’s been more than 24 hours since I beat the second part of the demo (I hate that we have to wait 5 days for the next part man) and I have some thoughts.

First of all, I called it when I said that Kuze knows Utsugi from 18 years ago (I was wrong about her being the sibling of one of the female victims though). Instead her connection is through the disappearance of her brother Makoto (haha Danganronpa reference) and Utsugi was in charge of that. Must be tough to see the person who was supposed to bring her brother home (and failed) after a murder that reminds her of the og incident.

So let’s talk about Makoto first. According to the game, Junko had not come home for some reason so he went out to look for her. Junko comes back (clearly shaken) and Makoto is nowhere to be found. I wonder if she came home late because the OG killer was targeting her and M someone managed to find her in time, but something bad happens to him. What happens: Killer kills Makoto and for some reason threatens Junko to not be a snitch otherwise he would come after her. (Also possible he abducts him for some reason and tells J to not tell or she will never see him again)

why this stops the murders completely I don’t know, but it is possible the killer thought he might have been getting caught soon and that’s why he stopped. But if that was the case he could have silenced her permanently right then and there. Unless she sees the act occur, killer knows she’s there but doesn’t see her and makes a bluffing threat saying I know who you are and if you snitch it will bite you in the ass. Hence she survives and comes home scared.

Who did it: Now in order to keep someone silent you need to bribe (or as mentioned beforehand threaten) said person or make them believe that no matter what no one will believe them. Maybe the culprit is a cop. And Utsugi works with the police. Maybe J can’t bring herself to trust anyone in the force (again another reason why he joins because if you want the job done right, you have to do it yourself). And that would explain why she’s standoffish towards U because she still doesn’t trust him.

Another Observation: the game mentions it’s a possibility that Makoto was the original culprit (because the murders didn’t stop until he disappears). He was old enough to pull it off. But that means something would have to have happened to him. Did he run away and leave a note that only J saw? Or did she see him messing with bodies and he asks her to hide his body because he can’t live with the guilt anymore now that she saw him and he offs himself.

Game is also adamant that the mystery man who went missing after the first girls death may know something (was he an accomplice I don’t know) there’s not much info I can theorize about him right now.

Kamis age is still not revealed to us in this chapter. Very very sus. I wonder if he is Makoto and he just has amnesia. Him and J could both be adopted or step siblings. Only problem with this is that J should recognize him.

Additionally the game mentions Kami can’t have a gun because he is a terrible shot. I wonder if at some point you have to pick between him and J to raid a place and the gun makes a huge difference. Hell I wonder if knowing said info can influence the game (because it is completely optional dialogue)

Speaking of potential game mechanics: phones. During some point of my gameplay I used to phone to call everybody that was in my contacts. While playing through Ayumis section, she gets a call from the protagonist (whether or not this is scripted I don’t know) and she doesn’t pick up. There’s also an option at some point if you call the office to leave a voicemail (which I didn’t take, I’m curious to see if anyone else did). I wonder it this is going to be a serious mechanic that at some point you need to call XYZ at this time or something bad is going to happen to them, or if it’s a way for the game to gauge the players playstyle (just like they did in the Girl who Stands Behind).

Now I’m not done talking about the demo part 2, but I’m going to leave this post here for now because it’s getting long and I want to dedicate more time to Kamada and the Taxi Driver is separate posts. See you in a bit.

[andydrysdalerogers]

Sliding Into Home ~ Finale

Pairing: MLB!Frank Adler x Abigail Hernandez (OFC)

Synopsis:

After a trade from Boston to Los Angeles, first baseman Frank Adler would seem to have it all. Money, women, an amazing niece, yes Frank should have it all. Except for one thing. One thing that left after a mistake five years ago. Los Angeles should be the chance to start over. Except she is supposed to be in Boston. Not his new medical director.

* A Frank Adler AU x Major League Baseball Story**

Warning: ANGST (i can't stress this enough), second chances, cheating, S~M~U~T!!, slow burn, drug use, abandonment issues, betrayal, domestic violence (i may have missed some), flashbacks

Dividers by me!

A/N: So this is it folks! This is the end. There isn't anymore. I hate to say goodbye but maybe we will revisit in one shots!

Thank you for following me on this journey!

Also, there is a spotify playlist for this one. Click here!

I do NOT give permission for my work to be translated or reposted on here or any other site, even if you give me credit. DO NOT REPOST MY FICS. Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated

Previous: Oh Captain, My Captain!

Sliding Into Home Master List Main Masterlist

Four Years Later... 

The playoffs this year have been exhausting. Frank was used to it but now, he had one more reason to be home.  The world series would start next week for the Dodgers.  It was their second bid in four years and Frank felt like this was their time.  Johnny was pitching better than ever and the team that Dave and Todd had put together was golden.   

As he drove home in his beloved Camero, he thought back on how he ended up here.  

The trial for Mike Weiss was long and exhaustive. Mike faught to the bitter end, continuing to claim that he only kidnapped Mary to speak to her, get to know her, since Frank and Abby had forbade him from coming close to his family.  The law was on their side, as Diane provided testimoney of Mike’s obsession in destroying the Adlers from way back to when Frank and Abby first started their relationship.  It had been a 20 year obsession that had catipulted him delusions.  

Unfortunately, Mike never saw a day of his sentence.  Frank was disappointed in how Mike ended up taking his own life from an accidental overdose after finding out the guilty verdict. They had given him one week to set up his affairs. Frank didn’t want the man to die but Mike couldn’t live with the idea of going in sober and clean.  The “friend” that found him said he wanted one more party before he went inside.  Was it accidental?  No one will ever really know beside the man who had been Frank’s best friend for 15 years.  

Diane was a better story.  After staying for for treatment for a year, Diane was sober and in her right mind.  She had visited with Frank and Mary once, before moving to Maine with her boyfriend.  She told Frank that she would never contest custody and hoped to maintain an “auntie” sort of relationship with Mary.  Abby couldn’t bring herself to face her again.  She had gotten her answers and forgave her former friend.  But she set down the law: her future children would not have a relationship with their aunt. Frank respected her decision. 

Bobby Fuller was banned by the league after their investigation into him found his drug use and his collaboration in helping Mike.  At the insistence of Frank, the district attorney did not press charges against him. Frank decided losing his passion, his career was punishment enough.  they never spoke again.  

A year after the loss of the world Series, Johnny decided to propose to Katie, at Christmas, on Dodger Field.  Frank had been right that he would propose, all be it, a year later than he thought.  But Katie had a surprise for him after she said yes.  She was pregnant, with twins.  Sam and David Storm joined the family at the beginning of June the following year.  

Susie had made an honest man out of Marco in the summer after the first world series.  They bought a house in the same neighborhood as Frank and Abby.  Susie was honored after her discovery of a new star in the sky.  Marco still worked as security for the Adlers, especially after Abby decided to resign as medical director for the Dodgers.  She went to take over as  Chief of Staff at USC.  The hours changed so security for the children had to be updated as well.  

Scott and Steve married after dating for three years.  Frank stood as his best man and signed their marriage certificate.  Luckily, the Adler property had a small house in the back that Scott turned into a home for them.  Scott stayed on as the nanny, not wanting to separate from his godchildren.  Steve was so understanding and was happy to be honored as the kid’s second godfather.  

Frank smiled as he drove down the familiar street.  The leaves were starting to turn and the air in California finally started to have a chill in the mornings.  He was looking forward to an early morning coffee with his Cricket on the balcony before the kids woke up.  Mary was still working on her science project, a fully functioning telescope from scratch.  The now 14-year-old was in college level science, a brain box just like her mothers.  Susie loved having a prodigy to work with.  She still went to a normal school but twice a week, Susie would take her to her college classes as her guardian and professor.  

Turning into the driveway, Frank groaned at the toys all over the yard. “Dammit Mary,” he muttered.  She had just a few responsibilities at the house, and one was to make sure all of the toys were put away for the night.  He looked at his watch.  It was just past eight.  He grabbed his bag and headed into the house.  

“Hello, hello!” He called out.  

“Daddy!!” 

A streak of dark curls rushed at him.  He crouched down and caught three-year-old Lorelei in his arms.  

“Hi princess,”he said as he hugged and kissed his daughter.  

“Daddy, you were ever and ever,” she pouted.  

“I know princess, but I’ll be home for a few days.  Uncle Johnny and Auntie Katie are coming over tomorrow.”  

“Yay!!!” She hung on to his neck as he stood up to see his Mary walking over. “Hey Nugget.”  

“Hey dad!” Mary hugged him hard. “That was an awesome play yesterday.”  

“Thanks.  But you’re in trouble.” Mary looked at him confused. “The toys?”  

“Oh, cr-,” she stopped, “crazy,” she said, looking at her sister. “I’ll take care of it right now.”  She darted out the door, Dodger on her heels after getting a pat from Frank.  

“Hey Frankie.”  

Frank turned to see his girl, his Cricket walking over to him, holding their eight-week-old son, Anthony, in her arms.  “Hi Cricket.”  He put Rory down and took his son in his arms. “Hey little man.” He kissed his forehead and was rewarded with a sleepy yawn and a blink of his ocean blues.  “He’s bigger.”  

“Went for his checkup yesterday,” Abby said. “He’s at 12 pounds now, growing like a weed.”  

Anthony had been born four weeks early and was just under six pounds when he was born, but healthy.  He had an appetite like his dad, which Abby complained about at the 3 AM feedings.  

“I’ve missed you guys.” Frank pulled Abby close and kissed her softly.  

“We missed you.”  Abby took his hand and guided him to the counter. “I thought you would be earlier, and I made dinner.”  

“Sorry baby, the flight got delayed on the tarmac and I had no signal.” Frank sighed.  “Whatcha make?” 

“Lasagna.” Frank groaned as Abby's lasagna was second to none. Abby smiled. “I’ll cut you a piece.”  

“You’re the best Cricket.  I should marry you.”  

“Already did Frankie. Best decision ever.”  

“Without a doubt.” 

Later that night, as the house settled for the night, Abby laid Tony in his bassinet. She smoothed his blanket before kissing him goodnight.  Frank leaned over and kissed him as well.  “Sweet dreams, pal. Love you son.”  

Abby could never get over how sweet it was to watch Frank with all his kids. He helped with Mary’s homework, read stories to Rory and cuddled with Tony when Abby wanted to take a shower.  This man, this man that she met 20 years ago, was everything she ever dreamed of.  As they climbed into bed, Abby lay on Frank’s chest.  “You’re thinking really loud, Cricket.  What’s on your mind?” 

Abby chewed her lip for a moment before asking, “Are you happy Frankie?” 

“The happiest I’ve ever been.  Why do you ask?” 

“I dunno.  Lots of changes.” 

Frank sat up and pulled his wife onto his lap.  “Cricket, winning you back, having our family, it's like beating the throw and sliding into home.  It’s a high that I am so happy I get to live with you.”  

Abby melted at his sweet words. “I love you so much Frankie.”  

“And I love you, Cricket forever and ever.” He kissed her softly.  “Need some help getting to sleep?” He smirked.  

“Always.” Abby giggled as Frank flipped her onto her back, pulled the blanket over them and they sighed.  

THE END 

Taglist

@patzammit

@texmexdarling

@slutforchrisjamalevans

@firephotogrl74

@before-we-get-started

@tinkerbelle67

@bunnyforhim

@peaceinourtime82

[ukranianacearo]

Surviving the horrors, or better yet, the horrors surviving me

Gn!Reader

Tw:

Pairing: Doom x reader

Genre: hurt with comfort, I guess

Tags: @futuristiclanddinosaur

Synopsis: Young Doom meets young reader after they escaped the drunk policeman, but got lost in the woods.

Author's note: I had another trope in mind at first, but I hate HATE that trope, so I had to change it a bit. Idk if this is actually what you wanted, but I tried my best. If you want to be added to the tag list, please comment (if you have default profile, please change it, it'll help me know that you're not a bot). Sorry for any mistakes, this is not proofread and English is not my first language. Hope you enjoy!

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Run. You have to run or else you won't see another day. Still hearing the voice of the policeman behind you, you only fastened your speed as you run through the woods. Is this what you get for just bumping into a drunk policeman? Then you definitely don't want to bump into a sober policeman! As you run, it felt like you were in a trance, moving by pure instinct. Despite being so young and suffered so much already, and only eating bits of bread for the last three days, you still pushed through every challenge. All your family had already died back when you still were in your home country, but it didn't stop you from moving to another country, "The Magic Realm", to try out your luck in survival. Being out of breath, you gradually slow down until fully stopping. That is when you don't hear anyone running after you nor spying on you. You held onto the square core of the necklace that laid on your collarbone, it being one of the only things that remained from your family and that saved your life almost every day. The other three cores, with the same shape, but different design, were buried in your skin, just above the heart's location. These cores could also be named hearts, since they're vital for your survival and death.

You started looking around when your breath steadied. The woods looked the same. That's when you realized that you're lost. Looking one last time behind you to check that one was going after you, you gulped and proceeded to start walking onwards. It's not like you got much choices, anyway; and you're rather be killed by a bear or a wolf than by a man. After some time, you feel a presence just a few meters onwards. This presence was rather calm and you didn't have any idea who this might be nor if they were hostile or not. You quietly approached the presence, trying to make as little sound as you could; it's either your best shot at surviving or the action that'll take you to your grave. Nonetheless, you hide behind a tree and saw a boy around your age with unusual glasses on. He was cleaning a rather big, and as you supposed, heavy sword; it really looked like an amazing sword. Suddenly, he moved his head up slightly, making you hide behind the tree more.

- "Whoever that is there, come out." - You heard his calm yet demanding voice. Realizing that he somehow already spotted you, you come out of your hiding spot. When he hears your steps he turns his head towards you, having a calm yet cold expression. The wind blew and you felt it clearly, as you only had a broken T-shirt, broken pair of pants, some wore out shoes and a slightly broken medieval cape. - "Who are you? And what are you doing here?" - He spoke again, making you shiver under the weight of his words. Hesitant, you answered with a broken accent, having learnt the language of this country only by a dictionary that was thrown away when you still were in your home country.

- "I... I am [Y/N] [L/N]... I'm sorry for disturbing you, I was only trying to find another exit out of here... I'm very sorry for making you waste your time..." - You stuttered from the nervousness and fear. After all, your live is at line. The boy didn't seem to budge at all, as if he didn't care.

- "Why don't you use the main exit? Better question even, how did you get in?" - You could feel how wary the boy was just by the tone of his voice. Thought, there was nothing to fear for him. He looked to be in a good physical condition, so it won't take him much time or effort to just kill you there and then. You really didn't know how exactly to answer him. Sure, you had the answers, but would he believe you? That's another story. You decided to answer him, as there was no other better choice to do.

- "Some drunk policeman followed me from the city to here just because I bumped into him... He wouldn't take my apology and was very... Irritated at me. As for how I entered... I just did... I don't know if there was supposed to be a barrier, but I had no difficulty running here..." - You fidget with your fingers as you answered him, while stuttering because you couldn't find the right words in the language. He seemed to analyze your words and after that, he sighted.

- "I'll take you to the exit. Don't like picking on the weak. Just don't tell anyone that you saw me. Got it?" - He said as he got up.

- "Okay... Okay." - You muttered as he started walking, you following him behind.

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Idk how I finished writing this, bc I lost the motivation in the middle of writing so it has been sitting here for some montts lol... Hope you liked it, bye bye

[theladyofshalott1989]

In honor of the first anniversary of Like Moths to a Flame on Wattpad, here's a smutty one-shot for y'all.

The idea was sparked by an episode of Fellow Travelers on Showtime. It’s a bit of a departure from my usual style, but it was an absolute joy to write. While it's set within the Like Moths to a Flame series, it can be read as a standalone. Enjoy! :)

Mood: “you should see me in a crown” by Billie Eilish

You can read it at the link above OR I have also posted it below (after the cut). Warning: It is explicit!

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On the second Tuesday of February in the fortuitous year of 1899, Sebastian Evans-Sallow returned home to a hell of a surprise.

Our esteemed protagonist froze in the middle of the entryway, his hand on the doorknob. Staring slack-jawed at his husband, he somehow managed to form the words: “What in Merlin’s name are you wearing?” His voice cracked very noticeably in the middle of his shocked inquiry, which was deeply unfortunate, but upon deeper reflection, was perfectly understandable. Sebastian hadn’t recalled his voice doing that since he was a pre-teen. He chuckled in spite of himself.

Damien shouted out in alarm, throwing himself clumsily through the nearest doorway. “You weren’t supposed to be home for another half an hour!” He punctuated his proclamation with an exasperated huff. It was, frankly, adorable.

“I wanted to get ready before the event,” Sebastian said, having recovered enough now to enter their humble abode. He shut the door quietly behind him and tiptoed through the hall.

“Well, you need to leave and come back in ten minutes! It was supposed to be a surprise!”

Sebastian scrambled to find a hiding place. Ah yes, one of the bookshelves should suffice. He pressed his torso against the side of the nearest one, finding an angle that would hopefully keep him out of Damien’s line of sight. It was just in time as mere moments later Damien popped his head around the corner of the doorway.

“Sebastian?” Damien called out.

Sebastian didn’t reply. He brought his fist to his mouth and bit down on his knuckle to hold back a laugh.

Damien gradually eased himself through the door. “Bash, did you leave?” Their orange tabby cat, Tabitha, slunk behind him. Wherever Damien went, the cat followed. She was clingy like that. To be fair, Damien also encouraged it.

Sebastian observed his two housemates, his beloved husband and his stubborn feline-child, with bated breath. Tabitha certainly knew he was in the house - the cat was annoyingly observant - but he hoped that she and he had an understanding. If Tabitha didn’t give Sebastian away, there would be treats. Lots and lots of treats.

“He left. Good,” Damien said to the cat, making an attempt to reach down and gingerly pat her head, but failing rather miserably. “Can’t have him ruining the surprise for himself.” He straightened back up. As to why he failed in his cat-patting endeavor? Well, one would if they were unaccustomed to wearing a corset. Which Damien was wearing right at this very moment.

What a time to be alive! What a glorious day to come home early! What a… Damien turned around and Sebastian got a good look at him, not just a side profile, for the first time. His breath hitched. His trousers suddenly became uncomfortably tight. Merlin’s arse, Damien was a bloody wonder. This man could do things to him. How did Sebastian ever win over this alarmingly beautiful man? His husband was absolute perfection.

Was Damien seriously considering wearing a corset, and presumably a dress, to Sirona’s Valentine’s Day ball? Or was this wondrous ensemble just for Sebastian? If it was just for him… they very well might not be attending the ball tonight after all. They wouldn’t have any energy left.

Well, Sebastian would just have to wait and find out. Although how much longer he could wait before he burst, he couldn’t say.

Damien made his way back into their bedroom. Sebastian heard rustling and a string of muted exclamations, although nothing worse than “Blast!" since Damien was a proper gentleman. When he was presumably finished, Damien floated back into the living room in a full dress, lace finish and everything, the full works. It was positively sensational.

Sebastian nearly lost it then and there. He stuffed his fist back into his mouth, this time biting down harder than he intended. And then, Damien spun in a circle. Scratch that, Sebastian was done for. He fell back on his arse with a loud thump. The noise brought Tabitha straight to him - damn cat! - alerting Damien to his hiding place.

“Bash!” Damien exclaimed, placing his hands on his narrower than usual waist. He pouted prettily.

From Sebastian’s vantage point on the floor, Damien looked so different, and yet so ravishing, that he struggled to compose his face. A part of him needed to laugh, quite badly, more from astonishment than ridiculousness, for Damien was too lovely in that baby blue dress to elicit anything but pure joy. The other part of him needed to ravage his husband immediately. That part of him, thankfully, took over entirely.

Sebastian scrambled up and threw himself at Damien. At his sudden movement, Tabitha yowled and bolted from the room. Damien let out a shocked gasp as Sebastian grabbed him by the waist and backed him up against the wall.

“Hello there, beautiful,” Sebastian said, his chestnut-brown eyes boring into Damien’s golden-brown ones. He bit his bottom lip as he analyzed Damien’s reaction.

Damien's eyes widened for the briefest of moments and his lips parted slightly, awaiting an expected snog. His pupils darkened in kind. Damien’s body, which was wedged against the wall, pressing against Sebastian’s, responded as Sebastian knew it would, but the many layers of his dress were stubbornly in the way. Sebastian released his hands from Damien’s waist and dropped down, lifting the dress, but finding it more difficult than he anticipated.

When he finally managed to tame the heavy layers, Sebastian eased back up and, breathing harder than he intended, asked, “Is this ensemble just for me or was it meant to be shared with the rest of the world?” His lips hovered over Damien’s lips, teasing him mercilessly.

Damien moaned before replying, “You, Bash. Only for you.”

Sebastian grinned wolfishly, leaned back in, and made contact with Damien’s perfect mouth. “Good answer,” he replied between kisses. “Top marks.”

They attacked each other greedily, hands exploring each others’ bodies as they were often wont to do. Even though they’d been together for what felt like ages now - Sebastian could barely remember a time when Damien wasn’t his constant, cherished shadow - Damien’s touch was still exciting, electrifying, truly invigorating. The dress was a nice touch though: different, captivating. But it was time for it to come off.

Sebastian abruptly stopped his focused ministrations. Where did one begin? The dress was practically a prison. There were far too many buttons and ties to be practical.

“How did you manage to get this damned contraption on?” he asked as his eyes scanned Damien’s unusually confined frame.

“Well, my dear,” Damien said, “there is this very handy thing called magic. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.”

"That does ring a bell," Sebastian replied with a smirk, finally finding a series of buttons scattered across Damien's chest that hinted at a potential escape route. “I might have heard something about it in passing.” He began undoing the buttons, planting a kiss on Damien’s bare skin, a light patch of hair tickling Sebastian's nose. 

“I think you have it sorted. Mostly.” Damien provided Sebastian assistance by untying some ribbons on his right side, revealing another slew of buttons that had been hidden under a plait of fabric.

“Ridiculous,” Sebastian mumbled under his breath. With the dress now loosened, he pulled it down past Damien’s hips, and the hefty garment cascaded around Damien’s feet. Damien promptly stepped out of it as Sebastian stripped off his own, far less constrictive, clothing.

Duty done, Sebastian clutched Damien by the shoulders and spun him around, shoving him firmly against the wall once more. Damien tensed very briefly, but quickly relaxed, melting under Sebastian’s grip.

The corset remained on. The hardness of it, the unique sensation of it against Sebastian’s chest, was a new, welcome experience. Sebastian traced his hands up and down the whalebone, stroking hard so Damien could feel the pressure of it, the pressure of Sebastian’s all-consuming desire for him.

Satisfied, Sebastian then nestled his head in the crook between Damien’s neck and shoulder. “Ready?” he whispered.

“Always.”

Sebastian dropped his hand to Damien’s bare arse and squeezed, eliciting a quiet chuckle from Damien’s lips. Sebastian brought his hand back up to his mouth, licked it generously, then brought it down to his cock. He lubricated himself quicker than usual, since he was already practically drowning in pre-cum. Once ready, he declared, “Brace yourself, love,” and entered Damien, thrusting immediately, just as Damien liked.

Damien groaned in appreciation, craning his neck to the side to lock eyes with Sebastian. Eye contact was key, even from this angle. Damien and Sebastian preferred to climax while observing the minute reactions on each others’ faces. Sebastian never ceased to enjoy the subtle wrinkling at the corners of Damien’s eyes, more pronounced now in adulthood, as the pleasure hit.

And with years of practice, Damien could now orgasm in this position, with Sebastian inside him, without even touching himself. Sebastian was still rather chuffed by that fact. The first time it happened, shortly after they were engaged, Sebastian had been so inspired that they spent the entire night in congress. They had been lucky it was the weekend, for in the morning they were so exhausted - having each orgasmed a handful of times - they slept the entire day away. It was one of the best nights of Sebastian’s life.

Sebastian was pulled out of his reverie by the familiar sensation of his cock hardening further inside Damien, building up in anticipation of release. Damien’s breaths came more hurriedly and Sebastian watched as the muscles in his jaw tightened. Damien was close; Sebastian was too.

“Come for me, my love,” Sebastian murmured into Damien’s ear. Damien didn’t hesitate. He came as commanded, moaning with pleasure, his body shuddering under Sebastian. Sebastian followed forthwith, his breath stolen away from him as he reveled in the explosive bursts, sending a shiver of ecstasy down his spine all the way down to his curled toes. Ah, bliss.

Once his wits were somewhat recovered, Sebastian released himself from Damien, then pecked him lightly on the side of his neck. Damien turned around slowly, almost lazily, a dazed expression on his face. Sebastian didn’t blame him. He had once asked Damien to describe what it was like to orgasm without ejaculating. Damien’s response had been astonishing.

“It’s more intense, completely incapacitating,” he had said, a wistful look in his eyes. “Time stops, your face blurs, everything around me turns into a swirl of colors. It’s… beautiful, like a work of art.”

Sebastian hoped that someday he’d be granted such a mind-altering experience, but until that day, he was more than satisfied. He had his health, a wonderful home, and a fulfilling job, but most importantly, he had Damien. Damien—his kindred spirit, the love of Sebastian’s life. Whether clad in a man's or a woman's attire, Damien had the power to bring Sebastian to his knees with pleasure. Figuratively speaking, of course. What more could he ask for?

[greatbigbellies]

2023 PREGNANCY KINK ADVENT CALENDAR (DAY 2)

Secret Surrogate: 1st Trimester.

So, my counselor advised I take up journaling, so I’m giving it a shot here. She says it’ll help me get my thoughts and experiences down so I don’t linger on them so much. She’s the expert so, here we go I guess.

I suppose I’ll just get into it, since I have something really exciting but also really stressful going on. I’m surrogating for my best friend! She and her husband (lovely guy!) have wanted kids for a while now, but unfortunately my friend has some health issues that make carrying a pregnancy very unsafe for her. We talked, and made a lot of plans, and contacted the appropriate agencies and everything is above board and got greenlit!

The fertilized egg took without an issue, and now I’m proudly 11 weeks pregnant as of this writing! I’m really excited just thinking about it, helping my friend with the family she’s wanted since we met, and of course I get the proud title of god parent after the baby is born!

That also, though, kind of brings me to my trouble and stress surrounding the situation. I work a good job, part of a huge office complex, many coworkers, most of whom I am neutral toward, if I don’t like them outright. That said… there is a penchant for gossip to spread quickly, and some of the folks vying for promotions can be… very judgy.

Why am I beating around the bush? This is a journal for crying out loud. I have a coworker who recently had a baby, she’s the sweetest woman, slightly younger then me. Unfortunately, it was pretty common knowledge that she was, and still is, single. And so, when she started showing, some pretty negative opinions of her started circulating. A lot of water cooler chat about how she was “easy” and “must have gotten around a lot”, really hurtful stuff. What was really insidious was how no one actually told her that these rumors were going around until I said something, and by then it has been months, and I assumed she already knew… I felt really bad (that was a very awkward brunch…), and if I’d known I would have told her much sooner. 

The problem was so widespread that if HR were to have reprimanded the people who engaged with it, they would have been dolling out punishments for nearly two whole departments. Frankly I think they should have, but I’m all too aware that the bureaucracy machines moves too slowly to catch them all. My coworker is on maternity leave now, seems to be doing well, I check up on her when I can. With everything that happened, I’m not sure if she truly intends to come back, or if she’s just juicing them for that leave PTO. I’d miss her if she left but wouldn’t blame her in the slightest.

But now, here I am, surrogating for my friend, and I know I’ve told a few coworkers that I’m not seeing anyone… I’m worried it’ll hit me too. I could obviously just tell them the truth but I’m not sure if they would believe me. Some of them are so eager to judge… I’m not very tall either, 5’2”, so I’m going to show and probably get pretty big. Thankfully, I have one hail mary pass.

The company has been talking about renovating the office building we work out of for years now. We’re talking big, sweeping overhauls to almost every floor. Obviously they can’t just have people NOT work and they’re trying to avoid layoffs as much as possible, so the plan for when that hits is to have everyone work form home! By some miracle, the renovations start right as I’m about to hit 20 weeks, and are so massive that they plan to take almost 5 months! So my plan is to basically dress loosely to hide… well, everything, and use my backlog of paid time off as a form of parental leave to recover after giving birth. I can frame the PTO use as a vacation, bounce back, and return to work slim, trim, and NOT pregnant, my best friend gets her baby, and no one is the wiser!

The big reason I’m bending over so far backwards for this is, one of the most vocally judgy people from the incident with my coworker also happens to be the one who works the position above mine that I really, really want. Apparently they intend to work through the holidays next year to reap the christmas bonus and then retire, and they get to name their successor. They aren’t the most kind, and I wouldn’t put it past them to cast aspersions on my character and select someone else for that job based on my perceived “bastard pregnancy”. They’re a jerk, but they’d get away with it. If I want that position, I need to keep it under wraps.

It sucks too, I like the attention pregnant people get. It’s supposed to be a special, positive thing, and it should be for me too. All my family and friends are very excited and proud, but it sucks my work life has to be so isolated from it. I’ll live, but as my pregnancy progresses, I suspect I’ll be venting a lot here.

I admittedly have some things to vent about it already. The morning sickness has been very unpleasant, and I’m experiencing a noticeable amount of bloating. You’re not supposed to need bigger clothes until later, right? My usual pants already feel tight. I’ve also been getting cravings, pretty intense ones. If things persist like this through the next 29 weeks, those poor guys down at the taco bell are going to get really sick of seeing me. But baby gets what baby wants… I just wish baby didn’t want dirt quality burritos.

Aside from that, I’m just attending regular doctor visits. Everything looks healthy, and I hope it stays that way! Fingers crossed I can hit full term and be induced before they call me back in for a meeting…