#i could have had them eat each other's face out in the tunnels but it stopping daddy from making a philo stone was more important

[wndaswife]

there’s no need to be brave | wanda maximoff & fem!reader

Sometimes things get to be too much, but you know you can always go to Wanda to feel safe and loved. She reminds you how important it is for you to be taken care of.

Word count: 3573

Tags: it’s all fluff, some humour, age gap, lightly implied age regression during one scene, wanda takes care of you and kisses you and is patient and loving and gentle

The front door rattled softly as you unlocked it. From the kitchen, Wanda looked up from her dinner preparation, anticipating your presence after coming from your afternoon classes. 

She gave you the keys to her place a month ago when your classes didn’t align as much with her work hours as it did for your last semester. Now that you had the keys, it was easier to see each other without your schedules aligning. 

You set down your bag in the living room, shedding your coat on top of it, before practically sliding your feet over to the kitchen lazily. You didn’t even lift your head; it was only the vague figure of Wanda that you needed in order to navigate around the counter and wrap your arms around her body. 

Her arms were trapped under yours, forcing her to wiggle them out of your hold so she could hug you. 

“Baby, are you alright?” she asked, her voice light but her tone concerned. 

You buried your face in her chest. You had meant to reply to her question, but as soon as you opened your mouth you no longer wanted to answer, so you mumbled incoherently into her soft breasts. 

“Sweetheart,” Wanda tried again, leaning back to get a look at you.

Finally, you lifted your head, squinting as you looked up at her in the light of the kitchen. She immediately cupped your face with both hands, brushing back your hair. 

“I hardly got any sleep last night,” you said, straightening so your face wasn’t in Wanda’s chest anymore but now facing her. 

Her eyes followed yours as you looked around the kitchen while you spoke. One hand dropped to your shoulder, her thumb stroking you softly while her other hand remained cupping your cheek. 

“Yesterday, I woke up at eight to study, then last night I slept for two hours before my nine a.m. class, then took an hour nap between classes, and my head hurts and I think I’m getting tunnel vision and I’m scared I’m gonna start hallucinating soon, because isn’t that a sign of sleep deprivation?”

Wanda opened her mouth to say something, but you continued. 

“At least I’ve eaten, but I don’t know if it’s enough, because I was still hungry while coming over here, and I can’t go home because they’re fixing the hydro so I don’t have running water until midnight — I don’t know why they scheduled the construction in the middle of the day — and I want to shower, and it was so cold outside–”

Suddenly the hand that had been cupping your cheek was over your mouth, and you finally looked at Wanda who was staring at you with a gentle gaze. Upon meeting her eyes she smiled at you, so subtly that the corners of her eyes crinkled just slightly. 

Slowly, she put down her hand then wrapped that arm around your waist, holding you against her. She dropped her other hand from your shoulder and held your hand. 

“You can shower here. My water is working just fine,” she said slowly. “I’m preparing dinner now, so stay over tonight and we can eat a proper meal together. If you’re hungry now, anything in the kitchen is yours.”

She watched your expression relax and your shoulders untense, and she smiled a little when you tried to shuffle closer although you were already standing against her. 

“Take another nap, baby. Shower in my room then sleep in my bed.”

You nodded wordlessly. 

As your face relaxed and when your mind seemed much less troubled, Wanda took a good look at you. She stroked your hand with her thumb. 

“You do look tired…” she said sympathetically. “Please go up to shower — it’ll relax you. Are you still hungry? I can make something for you before you have your nap. I’ll go up after you’ve finished showering.”

Internally, you felt like teasing her for how she was very much talking to you like you were her child. But oh, how badly you just wanted to be taken care of like a child. 

You nodded again, looking up at her. 

Then, at the sight of her face, her pretty face and her beautiful eyes, and her soft hair and the slope of her nose and the line and curl of her lips, you leaned in for a kiss. 

Wanda pulled back slightly, and your eyes darted up from her lips to her eyes. She let go of your hand, lifting her own in front of your face, wiggling her fingers a little. 

“Don’t lick your lips; I was handling raw meat before you came in and I touched your face,” she warned, smiling guiltily. 

You looked over to the counter and saw Wanda’s bowl of ground meat, and around it, her spices and other vegetables she had yet to prepare. 

At the sight of your to-be dinner and the idea of Wanda preparing it and cooking it all up, you laid your head on her shoulder and buried your face in her neck. 

“Oh, doll…” she whispered, cradling the back of your head as you tucked your face under her jaw. 

“Now you’ll have to shower, right? Because I rubbed raw meat on your neck?” 

Maybe you were imagining it, but you could hear Wanda’s grin forming even though your face was buried in her neck. When she spoke next, you were at least sure that she was speaking while grinning. 

“Is that what you were doing?” she asked. “You could’ve just asked.

Wanda tucked your hair back, exposing the side of your face. She kissed your temple. “Give me a few minutes to finish with the meat, so I can refrigerate it. Wait for me upstairs.”

After some minutes, Wanda found you sitting on the edge of the tub waiting for her. She smiled at the sight of you wrapped in a towel, looking up at her as she entered. 

Eagerly, you all but lept from your spot and turned to run the shower, testing it with your hand until it became warm while Wanda undressed behind you. 

When she had taken all her clothes off, she approached you and undid your towel before laying it on the sink. 

You turned, wrapping your arms around her, feeling her smooth bare skin immediately warming your own upon contact with her. 

“I washed my face,” you informed her before squeezing your eyes shut and puckering out your lips. 

A soft kiss was then pressed to your lips, your lips relaxing from its puckering. Wanda’s hand came to your cheek, her thumb brushing against your cheekbone tenderly. 

“My sweet girl…” she whispered softly as she parted from the kiss. 

In the shower, Wanda washed your hair with her shampoo instead of yours. 

“I’m… feeling kinda…” you started quietly, looking down and playing with your fingers. 

“Mmm?” Wanda hummed, busy with massaging her soapy fingers against your scalp. 

“Kinda… little.”

”I know, baby,” she replied softly. “Just let me take care of you.“

You wondered if Wanda, too, imagined that she heard your smile when it formed bashfully at her response, like you had in the kitchen when you heard her grin.

Earlier, you had been planning to tell Wanda about the other things which had made you feel upset, like how you were behind in your readings and how you were almost certain you did terribly on your midterm paper.

But in the shower, all those things just disappeared. 

A part of you worried for just a moment that Wanda might even think you were being silly or overly dramatic for being upset over only the things you mentioned earlier, so you figured you ought to tell her the whole story. 

But when Wanda turned around and let you wash her hair, you knew there was no way she’d ever think that about you. 

It made you feel like crying. 

Really, you didn’t know why you felt the urge. Maybe it was because it was just a touching sentiment, or because you were overcome with how safe and cared for you felt, in the steam and warmth of Wanda’s shower, her hair in your hands, and her bare body just a few inches from you — Wanda just a few inches from you. 

When she turned around to start washing your body after her hair was rinsed, her eyes fell upon your face for just a moment, and within that moment, you could tell that she noticed you looked like you were about to cry. 

And when you really were about to cry, you didn’t notice yourself; it was Wanda’s immediate comforting that made you realize you were. 

Then, at your soft hiccups, you knew for sure you were crying. 

Her arms surrounded you, and you buried your face in her neck. Your damp cheeks blended with the wet warmth of her skin, making your face feel flushed. 

“Shh, it’s okay now,” she spoke gently. Her arm wrapped around your waist had her warm palm against the middle of your back, her other cradling the back of your head. “I know it gets hard…” 

You sniffled and opened your eyes, watching the water drip from the ends of Wanda’s hair through your bleary eyes. 

“You’re tired and frustrated,” she said. “You just need to be taken care of, right?” She felt you nodding against her shoulder slightly.

“There we go. It’ll be alright, honey. All you need is a little bit of time.”

Your arms squeezed around her waist. 

“I need you,” you insisted. 

“I’m here, Y/N.”

Though you felt you didn’t need anything to eat until dinner, Wanda prepared a snack for you anyway, insisting that you eat something. You asked her to wake you up for dinner because you didn’t want it to get cold before you woke up.

You wanted to wear her pajamas too, so she picked out a comfy pair for you. You were practically beaming as you snuggled down into her neatly-made bed. 

After a few minutes, Wanda came up with some apple slices and some peanut butter on the side. She told you to get to sleep right after eating, and you weren’t even worried you’d accidentally keep yourself up.

With dinner being prepared and Wanda promising to wake you up once it was finished, you snuggled into her bed, promptly falling asleep in her pajamas after eating the snack she put together for you. 

Over dinner, now that you felt far more rested but still extremely eager to sleep cuddled up to Wanda soon, you spoke about her day, and very little about yours, since you didn’t want to think about it.

She sat beside you, touching you occasionally, her hand rubbing your shoulder as she spoke or playing with your fingers that were laying on your thigh.

She asked how you liked dinner, and scooted closer to you when you told her how much you liked it. 

“When was the last time you had a full meal, baby?”

“A full meal?” you asked, thinking about what qualified as a full meal, let alone a meal at all. 

She squeezed your hand as she took a drink from her glass. “One cooked in a kitchen, and warm.”

“Instant noodles in a pot, two evenings ago.”

“That’s not a meal, Y/N.”

“Then… A week and a half ago. When I went for dinner with my friends.”

Wanda let go of your hand and tucked your hair behind your ear. “You need to eat better, baby. Can you come over more often?”

“Can I sleep over more?”

The corners of Wanda’s eyes crinkled when a smile immediately formed on her face, the tips of her ears rising just a twitch. “Please do,” she answered. 

While you were brushing your teeth, Wanda came up after getting the dishes into the dishwasher. She insisted she do it herself while you got ready. 

She smiled at the sight of you still in her pajamas, brushing your teeth in her washroom. She approached you and pressed a kiss to your cheek, your mouth full of minty suds. 

When you had both finished getting ready, you crawled over the bed and laid your head down in Wanda’s lap and brought your knees to your stomach, like a puppy. She set her phone down and laid her hand on your head, massaging your scalp and forehead softly.

Satisfied and relaxed, you closed your eyes. 

“I miss you when you’re busy at school, baby…” she said softly, her voice gentle and a little sleepy. 

You opened your eyes and turned onto your back so you could look up at her. The lamp on her nightstand embraced her in a warm glowing outline around the crown of her head through her hair, making the soft glow look like a halo. 

“Really…?” you asked. 

Her warm hand cupped your cheek, her thumb stroking your skin. She nodded. “So much. I think of you all the time, Y/N. Our phone calls aren’t enough.”

You turned your body and pressed your face against her stomach. 

After a few silent moments of Wanda brushing her fingers through your hair. “Why don’t you take care of yourself? You need to eat and sleep properly, honey.”

You muffled indiscernible words into her stomach, not really trying to give an answer. 

“Are you listening, Y/N?”

You spoke, intelligibly this time, albeit still against her stomach. “Yes, I’m listening.”

“Let’s get into bed,” she said, taking your chin in her hand and making you look up at her. She smiled down at you and you turned your head to kiss her palm. 

You weren’t ready to stop clinging onto Wanda even after she turned off the lights and you got under the blankets together; your arms were wrapped around her waist snugly, your head tucked under her chin. Her hand gently stroked the back of your head.

Your breathing was in time with Wanda’s in a way that when her chest expanded as she inhaled, your shoulders relaxed as you exhaled, creating a subtle push and pull of your bodies’ contact.

“I think I might’ve done really badly on my midterm paper,” you said quietly, turning your head and opening your eyes, looking at the subtle shifting of her shoulders.

“Really?” she asked, continuing to stroke the back of your head. “Why?”

The heavy ache in your chest that arose when you normally thought about your terrible paper had somehow dissipated, and in its place a dull and hollowed out feeling where you expected to feel its weight. 

You tightened your arm around Wanda’s waist, pressing your chest against hers. 

“I knew it was terrible as I was writing it. I was just in such a rush. I didn’t take the time to plan it — nothing,” you explained. The words felt like a confession, finally releasing what you’d done without denying it to yourself and storing it deep within that ache that was presently missing.

“What happens if you get a bad mark?”

For the first time, you genuinely thought about a future that took place after receiving the paper’s grade. “I guess I’d have to talk to a teaching assistant about it… Or my professor.”

Wanda hummed in acknowledgment. “It’ll be alright, Y/N. It’s a midterm for a reason; it's not your final, and you’ll certainly have ways to make up for it.”

“But it’s just stupid…” you mumbled, hiding your face in Wanda’s chest again. 

She pulled her head back a bit and looked down at you. “What’s stupid, baby? Come on, look at me when you’re talking.”

“No, I don’t want to,” you replied childishly. 

Wanda gave in with an exhale through her nose and rested her chin on top of your head again. “Can you tell me what’s frustrating you?”

“I’m just stupid. I’m supposed to be able to do these things properly, and I can’t.”

“It’s not that you can’t, Y/N, it’s just that you couldn’t for that assignment. Don’t call yourself stupid.”

“It’s easy for you to say,” you insisted. “You weren’t there with me when I knew I could’ve done better.”

Above you, Wanda clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and sighed. She took your chin in her hand and forced you to lift your head from her chest. 

You looked up at her. 

“Why do you want me to scold you so badly, hm? You want me to agree with you and tell me you should’ve and could’ve done better, and that you’ve done a terrible thing?”

The suggestion wasn’t entirely far from what you had been trying to do, but the idea of Wanda actually doing it made you upset. You felt your bottom lip tremble a little. 

“Why won’t you just make me feel bad about things? Just make me feel bad about things I do.”

Pads of her fingers pressed against your cheeks and Wanda frowned as she looked down at you.

“I would never do that, Y/N,” she told you softly. 

You couldn’t tell if you felt more defiant and stubborn, or overwhelmed again by the realization of how much Wanda loved you. 

“Why not?” you asked. 

Her hand combed down your hair until she was holding the side of your face in her hand. “I love you. You’re loved when you’re with me. That’s why.”

You rubbed eyes with the back of your wrist, feeling an onset of tears. You didn’t want to cry — it wasn’t the time, and all you’d been doing since you arrived was cry and whine and want Wanda’s attention. 

“Oh, baby…” Wanda whispered, kissing your forehead and pulling your head against her chest again. “I know. You’re just feeling overwhelmed.”

You wrapped your arm tightly around her waist again, now feeling her shirt dampening against your cheeks. 

“I will always be proud of you, Y/N,” she spoke against the top of your head. Her hand rubbed your upper back. “I will never scold you for falling behind or making a mistake when you tried your best. And I know you did. You’re a hard worker and a good girl.” 

At her words, your silent tears grew into soft sobs and pathetic whimpers which you didn’t care enough to try and silence. 

Wanda asked with a sweet and patient tone, “You’re a good girl, right, sweetheart?” 

You nodded against her chest. 

She pulled away and lifted your face up with two hands. She wiped your tears away and craned her head down to kiss you softly. 

When she pulled away, you sniffled and immediately wrapped your arms around her neck to give her a hug. 

Several quick kisses were pressed to your cheek, and Wanda hugged you tighter. You knew that her arms were hugged around your torso, but it really felt like she was hugging you all over.

“You will always have somewhere to go to be loved and cared for, Y/N. I love you so much,” she said, her lips brushing against your temple. 

You were a mess of sniffles and whines. “But I can’t come over as much as I want. I wish I was with you all the time. I wish I didn’t have to go anywhere, ever.”

“I know, sweetheart. I wish you could stay here all the time and wake up with me every morning, and be here every time I get back from work. I wish neither of us had to do anything.”

Her fingers combed through your hair. “But I’ll always be here for you, Y/N. I’m not upset when you can’t visit. I know you get busy and I want you to do well in school. You’re a very smart girl.”

“I love you, Wanda,” you said. Your words were slightly muffled but your lips were close to her ear, so she could hear. “I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have you in my life. I love you so much.”

Wanda’s arms tightened slightly around your body. “I love you too. I don’t know what I’d do without you either. Talking and being with you is my favourite part of every day. You’re the most important thing in my life.”

For the rest of the night, you and Wanda talked about how you’d figure out having you come over more. Now that you had keys to her place, you could come whenever you wanted, even if she was at work, and stay until she got home. 

She suggested you come over just to eat between classes even if she was out, but you said you weren’t ready to be at her place without her yet; it would feel too lonely and you wanted to see her every time you came over. 

In the morning, Wanda made you breakfast while you brewed the coffee. You didn’t want to miss her when she left for work, so you woke up early and decided to study on campus before your first class, so you could leave with her and spend more time with her in the car. 

Everything in the world and in your life made so much sense when you were doing your daily tasks with Wanda, as if your ordinary life was meant to be aligned with hers. 

This was the woman you were supposed to spend your life with, and it was no wonder everything felt better when you were with her.

[luvyeni]

THE DEMON IN THE KITCHEN • PARK SUNGHOON

pairing ‎⸝⸝⸝ demon!sunghoon wc. 5.2k+

𓄷 warnings... smut mdni. mentions of murder. sunghoon actually hates you. attempted murder ( twice ). reader likes some weird stuff. sexual tension. oral ( m. receiving ). rough sex. degradation.

nia's notes: this is probably a lot darker than the jake one , im sorry, but I hope you still enjoy 🖤 jay is next !!!

jake | lucifer masterlist | jay

having taken you away , I became a terrible monster, destroy and trample all …

with the burning fire of lucifer’s anger , swallow it up …

It had been about a month since you've found out about Jake; and the other demons who you haven't met that lived in your grandparents' old house — they hadn't introduced themselves yet ; so you and Jake spent your days alone in the house , never really leaving.

You mother had also came and visited to check on the house, see what you had gotten done; and if the house needed any renovations— unfortunately; your new friend had to stay away that week, which he dramatically claimed was the worse week in 50 years.

Besides watching TV shows and forcing Jake to take up baking; you two also had a lot of sex— like a lot there was not a time jake and you weren't on each other; his hips constantly rutting against yours while watching tv; his hands in your pants , giving you orgasm after orgasm before you went to sleep. Jake never slept though; he didn't need it, instead he watched over you while you sleep. At first yes you thought it was a bit creepy; but eventually you grew to like it; and soon you couldn't sleep unless he was right next to you, holding your hand.

You liked spending time with Jake; but you couldn't help but ask questions about the others; jake— who at first was jealous that you would literally ask about them when he's right there , put his pride to the side; you weren't only his— told you everything he could about his brothers ; telling you that he believed it will different and they'll all come out when they're ready. “be patient.” he would always said. “things will be different soon.”

“have you tried to eat?” you asked during one of your baking sessions. “of course , but, I don't need to eat, why would I? besides your grandmother was a terrible cook.” His face scrunched up in disgust. “I don't need to eat the brownies , but I believe you when you say they are good.” You frowned; which made him feel bad. “Fine, I'll eat one.” You smiled , cutting him a piece of freshly cooked brownie. “take a bite.”

You watched as he bit down on the brownie; his eyes lit up, moaning at the chocolate gooey treat. “it's so good.” he said. “We did a good job.” You scoffed, rolling your eyes. “we? the only thing you did was crack the eggs.” he shrugged. “That's something.” He said , your lips were in a thin line. “You got egg shells in the batter three times.”

“When you leave at night.” You said , laying in bed after a tense session. “where do you go?” this question had always loomed over your head. “there's a lot you don't know about this house; a lot that all of the owners don't know.” He said, “like what.” You sat up. “this house has many secret tunnels , the first owner who built this house was a bit of a maze lover , so he built a bunch of tunnels under ground.” He said. “And some of them have rooms?” you asked. ��more like and entire underground house.” He said.

“How do i access it?” He sat up , holding your hand. “Do not go searching for it.” He said. “Why not?” You said. “Because the first owner wasn't just obbsesed with the labyrinth, but he was also a bit of a nutjob.” He said. “He also built secret tunnels that would lead to no where , but would trap you inside and you can't get out— ones so the ground could easily become unstable and you could get hurt.” He said. “Promise me you won't go looking, promise me.” you saw the concern look on his face , deciding not to stress him further. “Fine I won't go looking for the passage ways.” He looked into your eyes. “What can you tell if I'm lying or not?” He nodded. “Well smartass we can in fact tell when you're lying , that's how I know you're telling the truth.” he kissed your pouty lips. “It's best you don't go around getting hurt , if you die we can all feel it.”

Jake left after making sure you were in a deep sleep; locking up the house, something you always forgot to do , so he took it into his own hands to do so— turning the lights off , making his way through the tunnels back to where he'd wait until morning when he knew you were about to get up and start his day with you again.

you sat up in your bed , looking around the dark room. “Jake?” You rubbed your eyes , a blurry figure appearing in front of you. “Jake?” You squinted, “is that you?” He nodded , holding his hand out. “Come with me.” You held your hand out , getting out of bed , where he waited. He took a hold of your hands. “Follow me.”

“Where are you taking me?” You asked. “You wanted to see where we stayed right?” He asked. “Well I'm taking you.” You were confused. “You told me it was dangerous.” He looked back at you. “alone? yes, but you're with me me, would I ever put you in a dangerous love?” He wouldn't , you knew that he wouldn't. “No” he smiled. “Then keep walking.”

And that's what you did, following him down to the base of the house , where he guided you to a wall , pushing on the wall. “just go right through there.” He went first holding your hand , guiding you through the tunnels, lit with torches. “Just a little further love.”

You finally made it to the door , he pointed. “There.” He said. “open the door love.” You were about to reach for the door; turning back to him. “Go ahead.” As you reached for the door , you heard a yell— no a call of your name, it was jake; but how could that be if he was right there with you , and his mouth wasn't moving; in fact he was smiling. “Guess he's right on time.” The boy in front of you said. “what?” His mouth went flat. “Maybe next time.” He said. “Wake up.”

Your eyes suddenly shot open, it felt like all the air came rushing back to your lungs. “y/n!” His arms were wrapped around you. “huh?” Your head felt dizzy. “I told you to never come looking for these tunnels.” He held your shoulders , shaking you. “you promised you wouldn't come looking for these tunnels and you were sleepwalking.” He seemed so scared, you tried to explain but he wasn't having it. “Let's get you back to your room.” He said.

“You don't understand, you almost opened one that could've killed you.” He said , you sat on your bed. “But you're the one that guided me there , you told me you were gonna show me.” You said , he shook his head. “No I didn't , why would i guide you to one that was gonna kill you?” He said, he had a point. “But he looked just like you.”

“He did?” He asked. “Yeah , just like you.” He thought about it for just a split second , his eyes filling with rage. “What's wrong?” You reached for his hand , but he shot up to the floor. “I have to go.” He said. “Where?” You asked. “Jake where are you— just go back to sleep, I'll see you in the morning.” Was all he said , before leaving out— like hell you were going to sleep.

meanwhile Jake was on a mission; to find him, pushing the door open. “Sunghoon!” He shouted. “Where the fuck are you.” He was livid, walking throughout the house to find him. “sunghoon!”

“What?” The boy emerged from his own room. “what the hell is your problem?” Jake shoved the boy. “You could've kill her.” He bellowed , sunghoon nodded; the shrug barely phasing him. “you're right I could've but I didn't , did I?” He tilted his head to the side. “shes safe no? you got to her in time.” Jake couldn't believe his brother would be this heartless ; he wasn't always like this. “if you don't like her then leave her alone.” Jake said. “be like jay then , don't bother her.” He said.

“No.” he folded his arms, waking towards the boy. “I want her to take the necklace off , I want her to break the bond.” He said. “Leave this place , leave us alone.” He said, “I don't want to deal with her family anymore.” Jake knew he had his reasons; but this didn't mean he could do this to you. “she's not like her , I promise.” but sunghoon wasn't listening , already checked out. “maybe if you just got— i don't care, just cause your pussy whipped doesn't mean anything to me.” He said. “she's as good as dead in my eyes.”

You actually don't see Jake the next morning; which doesn't worry you at first; until he doesn't show up in the afternoon either— he told you he'd be back , and then the way he left abruptly. “Jake?” You called out , but got no answer. you got up , you couldn't wait for him today ; you needed to go into town.

“Hey it's you again.” You smiled seeing kai; the cute cashier standing at the register. “was starting to think you left.” He said , packing all your things up. “no , just don't really get out much.” He nodded. “understandable , driving into town all the time could be a handful.” He said. “Your grandmother never came into town , actually i haven't seen your cousins in a while.”

Cousin? you didn't have a cousin , you're mother didn't have any siblings. “Oh you're talking about jake.” Knowing what you knew about your grandmother she probably did use them as her slaves. “long black hair, kinda like a golden retriever?” He laughed , sitting your last bag in the cart. “Golden retriever?” He said. “No , absolutely not, his hair was short and black.” he could sense your confusion. “sunghoon I think his name was.” — sunghoon? jake said he didn't leave the house. “oh sunghoon , yeah.” you chuckled. “he went home to his family” he nodded. “figured.” he said. “he didn't talk much , and when he did, it was cold and sorta murderous.”

he walked you to your car; helping you put your groceries in the trunk. “thank you so much kai.” He nodded , smiling. “No problem.” He awkwardly shifted on the balls of his feet. “Is there something else?” You questioned. “Would you like the to get a drink sometime?” He said. “With you?” you asked. “Y-yeah , it's fine if you're busy though.” He stuttered. “No I'm not busy any time soon.” you said he smiled. “how about saturday?” you nodded. “sure.”

you bring all the bags inside. “Jake!” You shouted , closing the door. “Jake where are you?” You walked around looking for him. “I went to the grocery store.” You looked into the different rooms. “Jake?” nowhere , it was like he vanished, you walked into your room , the door to your closet open, making you smile. “Jake?” you open the door; empty — except it wasn't fully empty, there was a door. “huh?”

you moved the shoes , pushing the door; it opened. “Is this how he was leaving?” you asked yourself , shaking your head. “I'm gonna kill him again , if I find him.” you looked down the tunnel , another opening; wide open and you could see inside , a room. “seems safe.” You walked down the dimly lit tunnel , stopping once you reached the door. You pushed it open , walking it. “Jake?”

it was a room, a red and black room; the bed right in the mirror , it was almost a mirror to yours; Jake had nice taste— it was actually better than yours. “That's because it's not jake's room.” you heard an almost familiar, but unfamiliar voice. “and that's not how he enters your room.” He said , you were almost scared to turn around , you could feel the room become colder. “you're sunghoon.”

you turned around, and there he was, just like kai described— expect scarier cause he was right in front of you. “you kept calling for him and calling for him, it was annoying me.” he said. “I can hear you.” The door slammed behind you making you jump forward. “Your voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.” he stepped closer to you. “i hate constantly hearing it in my head.” you stepped back. “then dont listen to it, I'm looking for Jake.” you turned to open the door; only for him to slam it again. “you think its that fucking easy?” He scoffed. “You are just as dumb as I thought you were.”

he didn't even know you, so why was he insulting you? “it was you.” You said. “You're the one who made me sleep walk— the one who tried to kill me.” he scoffed. “Trust me if I was trying to kill you, you'd be dead already.” He said. “sending me into a fucking tunnel to have my head caved in by rocks didn't seem like you were trying to be welcoming”

“Oh you have a mouth on you.” he said smiling. “Gonna make killing you so much better.” He said. “st-stay.” He interrupted “stay away? or what? you gonna call jakey?” he mockingly said. “I want you to take the necklace off,” he said. “Leave this house, hide it somewhere your parents won't find it.” he said. “If your mother doesn't find it , I won't have to slave for your disgusting family anymore, and when they die we'll get a new bond.” He said, “or I can kill you.” you can feel his breathing on your neck. “Jake can't stop me.” he whispered in your ear. “I can hear your heart racing.”

your breath hitched, he smirked. “Is the thought of me killing you turning you on,” he said. “are you really that sick of a person , not only do you fuck demons , you fuck demons who want to kill you as well. “ you felt his hand coming up to your back , pushing down on it. “st-st” you stuttered. “I bet if I fucked you right now you'd take it.” he growled. “Let little jakey walk in on me making you take my cock.” you gasp , his hands coming up to your hair yanking it back. “or I snap your neck now.”

he let you go; pulling the door open. “now get the fuck out; and think about what I said.” he said; you took off back down the tunnel entering back through the closet, slamming the hidden door closed , standing in your closet , trying to catch your breath— he said alot of stuff; what the fuck were you supposed to think about. “yn?” you heard jake's voice outside your door. “jake?” you pushed open the closet door. “where the hell have you been? I've called you 50 times.”

“I gave you a break, you seemed pretty scared,” he said. “Why are you coming out of the closet?” he asked, he saw the look in your eyes. “you found the passageway into sunghoons room?” you nodded. “and he was in there.” you nodded again. “I'm so sorry yn.” he stood up, hugging you. “I don't know why he's like that now , he actually wasn't that bad.” feeling your heartbeat. “What did he say?”

“N-nothing.” You said. “You're shaking like a leaf and your heartbeat is going a mile a minute, he must've said something.” you didn't know what to tell him , so you only told him what you thought he wanted to hear. “He said he'd kill me.”

telling him everything except the “moment” you both shared. “that's it?” He said. “that's all he told you?” you nodded. “Y-yeah.” you said, he sighed. “Why does he hate my family so much?” you asked, he rubbed his face with his hands. “your grandmother really fucked with him; sunghoon was always a little fucked in the head , but she made did something he swore to never do again , and he couldn't stop her , so before she made him do it again—” he stopped , continuing on again. “What did he do?” you asked. “he stopped her.” that's all he said , before stopping. “He killed her.”

That's all jake would tell you that day; and the next few days it was like that— you trying to force it out him and him telling you no; and you tried everything, even withholding sex; which never lasted long because jake was persuasive little shit.

Eventually you gave up; until he came to you again— you knew it was a dream again; but he wasn't trying to trick you this time; it wasn't him trying to disguise himself as Jake, it was actually him. “So you chose to die?” He asked , you couldn't move your legs, you could only sit up. “All you had to do was take the necklace off,” he said. “is it because of jake isn't it?” you felt his finger on your ankle. “would you miss fucking little jakey?” he mocked you again.

“Are you getting turned on again?” his finger dragging up your thigh. “you didn't tell him earlier, why didn't he want him to find out you got wet from me threatening you earlier?” he made his way to your thigh, squeezing hard, you whimpered, his face was angry. “you keep asking questions.” he dug his fingers into your thigh. “you want to know why?” he said. “Why I killed her?” you couldn't move anyway so it was an obvious rhetorical question. “because she was a murderer,” he spat. “and I hate those the most.”

What was he talking about? you wanted to say something, but you couldn't; you wanted to ask him, but you couldn't open your mouth. “stop asking questions about me.” he finally let your leg go. “Next time I snap your fucking neck.” and just like that he was gone— you shot up feeling your legs , looked down at them; no bruises, breathless you looked around your room; everything was normal. except the fucking adrenaline wouldn't stop running through your veins, and the obvious ache in between your legs.

when you finally came to, you were livid; he had no right to be upset with you; you didn't murder anybody, so why was he so upset with you? why'd he want to kill you so badly? and who the hell did she kill; that really wasn't on the top of your list now, finding the murderous man. “sunghoon!”

your voice was booming throughout the house. “I know you're listening, you're all always fucking listening.” you yanked at your hair frustrated. “so fucking answer me , sunghoon!” you felt like you were going crazy , screaming into the air like a lunatic. “what?” you turned around, and there he was. “I told you to le—” before he could finish , all you saw was red , before raising your hand , slapping the demon across the face. “What the fuck?”

“how fucking dare you?” you hissed. “whatever my grandmother did to you doesn't have shit to do with me , so don't you ever interfere with my dreams again.” you said. “and I'm not taking the necklace off , your little scare tactic doesn't scare me anymore.” he scoffed. “scare tactic?” He said. “That's what you think it is?” you could almost feel the heat bouncing off his body. “I said next time I will snap your neck.” before you could get a word out , your words were cut short; his hand wrapping around your neck. “I meant it.”

you could see his eyes flash red; he finally was gonna kill you. “I told you to take off the necklace and leave,” he said. “you should've listened.” He heard your heartbeat going faster, he wanted to do it, end it before he could start— but he couldn't.” He let you go , you gasped falling to the floor. “Stay away from me, stop calling out my name,” he said. “He's here.” before you could say something he was gone and Jake was here , ready to console you.

“you almost killed her!” Jake wanted to snap the boy's neck; that wouldn't help he was already dead. “but he didn't.” sunghoon sat on the bed. “and why didn't you sunghoon?” he sighed. “because she's innocent.” he said. “and?” he looked at Jake. “I'm not a killer , I don't kill innocent people.”

You rub the sleep from your eyes; sitting up, rubbing your sore neck. “you're gonna be fine.” a voice made you look up. “su-sunghoon.” you stuttered. “I'm not gonna hurt you calm down.” he said. “You tried to choke me.” You said. “yeah well now that you're not a murderer i have no reason to.” He said. “That's not how you apologize.” you said. “because it wasn't an apology.” you both stared into each other's eyes, before he coughed. “go to bed.” you tried to say something, but before you could blink— he was gone. “what?” then you realized, it wasn't a dream— he was really in your room.

you don't see him again— and soon saturday rolls around; and your date with kai. “you really don't have to go.” Jake followed you around the house as you got ready. “Well I already agreed , so yes I do.” you said. “why'd you agree in the first place?” you turned to him. “Because he's the first human I've come across since I came up here.” he pouted. “I can come with you.” you stood with your hand on your hips. “its supposed to be a date.” you said. “why would I bring you on a date?" he frowned, "why would you go on a date?" you pinched his cheek. “I'll only be gone for a few hours.”

you met kai at the bar; he was waiting at a table for your arrival. “kai!” you waved. “hey.” he stood up, hugging you. “you made it.” he let you go. “Of course I did.” you followed suit. “order anything you want , it's on me tonight.” He said. “You don't have to.” he shook his head. “Think of it as a very late welcome gift.”

“you're really pretty, you know that?” the red faced boy said. “I wanted to say that ever since I saw you first.” he was drunk , slurring his words. “but I was nervous.” he pouted, it was cute; it reminded you of jake. “but I was so happy when you said yes to going out with me,” he said. “I'm glad,” you said , and you genuinely were, but your mind was elsewhere; it was on sunghoon. why was he on your mind? he tried to kill you, you tried to shake it away.

“Are you okay?” he asked , both of you walking out. “yeah, are you okay?” you laughed , watching him stumble. “Will you be able to drive?” he shook his head. “I live down the road with my brothers, I'm fine, are you okay to drive?” you only had one drink , knowing you had to drive. “Yeah I'm fine,” he nodded. “Can I see you again?” your mind kept shifting , from him to jake— to sunghoon. “We'll see.”

you drove back to the house , pulling into the driveway. “Jake?” you call out , not getting an answer; but a noise , from the kitchen. “Jake?” there was the sound of glass shattering. “Jake , I told you to turn the light on , you've broken three of the mugs.” you threw your bag down , walking into the kitchen. “Jake get out of the ki—.” you froze in your spot. It wasn't Jake standing over the shards of glass; it was sunghoon. “I broke it , cleaned it.” he said. “wh-why are you here?” you asked. “Because you've been calling out for me for an hour , it started to get annoying.” He said. “I thought I said don't call out for me.”

“I didn't— you have been, you've been thinking about me, I heard it , felt it.” he said. “It's annoying.” you frowned. “Well you try being choked and then finding out you can't escape the thing trying to kill you, and then the thing trying to kill you is standing over a broken mug telling you to clean it.” you said. “That's annoying as well.” his face is stoic , but so is yours; staring at each other , both of you filling up with anger again. “I don't like you.”

you scoffed. “feeling is mutual.” he stepped closer , you stepped back. “i-im not scared of you.” He smirked. “I can hear your heartbeat dummy.” he said. “It's late out , why are you coming in late?” He had the nerve to ask you questions. “what's it matter to you?” he shrugged. “you smell like alcohol.” He scrunched his nose up in disgust. “you were out drinking? was it with a guy , little jakey won't like that.” it was your turn to scoff. “jakey or you?”

“What you do isn't my concern,” he said. “says the one standing in my kitchen , asking where I've been , seems like you like to make anything I do your concern.” you said, he stepped closer. “because I have no choice.” He said , standing over you now. “All because of that stupid necklace , as long as you're wearing it, I can hear what you're doing, see you.” he stopped. “feel what you're feeling.” your breath hitched as you felt his hand go up to your hair. “It's killing me.” you felt a tug on it, you whimpered. “i can't fucking escape you.”

he couldn't stop himself; his lips attaching to your neck with quickness, pushing you against the kitchen counter. “su-sunghoon.” he yanked on your head back. “don't speak.” He continued to attack your neck. “don't fucking speak.”

his hand gripped your waist; it most likely was gonna leave a bruise, but you didn't care. after leaving your neck covered in bruises, he pulled away. “On your knees.” he pushed you down. “gotta shut you up.” he groaned , unzipping his pants, pulling his underwear down just a bit to free his cock from its confinements , slapping against his abdomen. “open.”

you don't know why you were doing this; he tried to kill you; you should be scared of him— but that all seemed to not matter as he pushed his cock into yours mouth. “fuck.” he groaned, his cock hitting the back of your throat. “suck it , suck my fucking dick.” he growled. “wanna fuck your face.”

tears streaming down your face; drooling as he abused your throat. “so fucking messy -fuck- i can hear all the dirty thoughts on your little head.” he cursed. “so dirty, letting someone who hurt you fuck your tiny little throat.” he moaned, your thighs tightening together. “you're horny I can feel it.” he said. “need someone fu-fuck you.” he held your hair once more , pulling you off his cock. “not yet.” he pulled you off him, stroking his hard on. “gonna make you want it.” he said. “fuck you.” you spat; your mind was everywhere, you pissed at him— more importantly, you were horny. “still running that mouth.” he cursed, stroking faster. “see how fucking stupid you look -fuck- trying to be pissed at me , covered in my cum.” he growled. “fuck I'm cumming.” you felt his cum hitting your cheeks , tapping your lips. “So messy.”

You woke up the next morning; everything running through your head , you groaned. “yeah it happened.” Jake said. “I wish I could make it disappear from my mind.” you looked at the boy. “You two are sexually bonded to each other in a weird way,” he said. “like super weird , you hate each other so much , but you also want to fuck each other.” You stared at him. “i'm not jealous, I know our bond is stronger.” you rolled your eyes. “hey I'm not the one who fucked the demon who tried to kill me.” he shrugged. “I hate you.”

He was back two days later; you were sitting on your bed , when he pushed open your closet door. “Did I say you can use that, did I?” you said. “Yeah well I did.” he said, sitting down on the bed. “you were thinking about me again.” you stared at him. “Who did my grandmother make you kill?” His face dropped. “I’m not talking to anyone about that , especially you.” he said. “Why?” he said. “cause it was my grandmother.”

“You want to know? really?” he said , you nodded, “I do.” “It was your grandfather,” his voice was laced with bitterness. “she made me kill your grandfather.” you furrowed your eyebrows. “No you're lying, grandfather died of a heart attack.” you said. “Did he? or was it because I crushed his heart?” you gulped, he was looking you dead in the eyes. “why?” you asked. “She was tired of him , just wanted him gone , and she couldn't do it,” He said. “no , why did you kill him?” you said. “my told me he was the kindest man she'd ever known.”

“He was,” he said. “I couldn't do anything about it.” you scoffed. “So you just had to kill him?” he huffed. “You wouldn't understand,” he said. “Yeah I do, you're a murderer.” you could see his eyes turn red. “I'm not a murderer.” you curled back against the headboard. “I was a slave to her , to that fucking necklace— to who ever owns it.” He said. “That's my punishment.”

“punishment?” you questioned, “what kind of stupid punishment is that?” he closed his eyes , before continuing on. “As punishment for killing innocent people , I became a slave,” he said. “They killed her , she did nothing wrong and they killed her.” His fit was tightly closed. “who?” you asked. “Her name was mina.” he said. “she was my first love, it was supposed to be a robbery, we both were supposed to be out, but she didn't feel like it , so she stayed.”

“So you sold your soul like Jake?” you asked. “But he isn't a slave?” he scoffed. “If you think watching the love of your life die for the past 100 years is considered good , then you're just as crazy as I thought.” He said. “I didn't sell my soul , I died and went to hell.” he said. “After they killed her , I went crazy; I wanted revenge.” he said. “So I found them , all of them— and I killed them,” he said. “But you said they were trying to rob you, so they were not innocent.”

“they weren't, but there was this rage inside , I killed everyone in that house that night; including myself,” he said. “when I got to hell , he forced me to live through killing 2 innocent people and myself and over.” he said. “until I was begging on my knees for him to stop.” he said. “I told him I'd do anything.” and he turned me into a demon, and sent me here, forced to live out eternity as a slave for the people to whoever found that necklace, in the house I killed those people in.”

“So you killed her?” you asked. “When I'm told to do something, it's like I can't control my body— she forced me to kill an innocent person,” he said. “I was punished that night, he said if I ever killed any innocent person again I would be punished,” he said. “how were you punished?” “That's not important.” He said. “After that I thought she'd stop , then I started hearing her thoughts about killing her caregiver. Her caregiver had a child , 2 daughters and no husband, and she wanted me to kill her, for no reason. I couldn't wait until she told me and I couldn't stop , so I had to do it.” he said , staring off into space. “I had to kill her , so no one else got hurt,” he said, before staring at you. “You look like her when she was younger, I guess I really just hated her that bad.” you didn't say anything, just sat there in silence.

“don't look at me like that,” he said. “with pity, I don't want your pity.” He stood up. “I only told you so you'd stop asking jake.” He said. “I don't need your sympathy.” You sat up fully. “I wasn't going give you any.” You said. “You still tried to kill me.” You said. “and how do i know you aren't lying , demons don't really have a good track record of being truthful.” he grew frustrated, lifting his shirt up. “because this is what happened when I killed your grandfather.” Three long scratches on his chest. “This is what happens when I kill an innocent person.”

“yo-you can't heal them?” he huffed. “don't you think I would if I could?” he scoffed. “What the hell am I doing here? explaining myself to you.” he went to walk away. “no.” you said. “sit down.” He looked at you with anger on his face. “I said sit down.” he moved to the bed, sitting down. “I don't want to be here with you.” He said. “Too bad, because I'm not letting you leave , and I'm keeping the necklace on.” before you could say anything else, he was yanking your legs down , pinning them to the bed. “Fine then I'll do what I came here to do in the first place, the real reason you keep thinking about me.” he climbed on top of you. “to fuck you.”

he pulled down your sleep shorts , leaving you in your underwear. “open your fucking legs.” he growled , pulling your underwear down. “so fucking wet , do you get off on the fact that I don't like you?” you smirked. “wipe that smirk off your face before I shove my dick back down your throat.” his eyes were red , but filled with lust; not anger. “Please , you enjoy that more than I did, I remember you moaning and groaning too well.” He gripped your cheeks. “slut.”

Slapping the inside of your thighs, holding them open. “God you're dripping, you want me to fuck you that bad?” He pulled his cock from his pants. “just hurry up and fuck me.” he roughly shoved himself inside you, both of you moaning out. “shit!” he moaned, moving his hips , holding down your waist , keeping you still as he abused your cunt. “tight fucking cunt , sucking in my cock like a slut.” his hand coming up to your neck. “fu-fuck , please faster.” You moaned , his hips speeding up.

you were so close to cumming, you could feel it— then you felt him slip out of you. “Kee— I know what you're doing, trying to get your way.” he said. “I will gag you to keep that mouth shut if I have to.” he flipped you over; your ass up in the air, pushing your head in the pillow. “stop trying to tell me what to do.” he slammed back into you , you tell as he slapped your ass. “Just shut up and take my cock.”

his movements were lethal; his hip snapping against your ass , watching it bounce back. “fuck sunghoon.” You screamed. “Please let me cum.” he moaned. “fuck, fuck go ahead cum.” he squeezed your ass. “cum all over my cock.” your legs shook as you came , eyes rolling to the back of your head as he fucked you through your orgasm. “shit I'm gonna cum , I'm gonna cum inside.” He groaned , “take my fucking cum.” you felt his cum filling you up , his hips twitching as he came. “sh-shit.” he pulled out of you.

“I'm not gonna make you murder anyone.” You said. “I don't think I ever wanted anyone dead.” he looked at you. “Well there was talia in second grade who took my pink crayon.” You thought about it further. “and a few of my ex's , but I wouldn't act on it or force someone else to do it.” you said. “and how do I know that?” He said. “you have to trust me, just how I have to trust that you won't snap and kill me.” You said. “you’re safe for now,” he said. “I can live with that.” you said. “but the next time you ever try to tell me what to do when im fucking you, I will gag you.” you rolled your eyes. “whatever.”

“I'm leaving,” he said. “Jake should be here soon , and I don't want to see him right after this , he'll be sulky for days.” you smiled. “he's cute isn't he?.” he scrunched his nose in disgust. “no, no he is not.” you pouted , then spoke up. “was it you?” you asked. “what are you talking about?” he said. “The one in the mirror on my first with the necklace?” he laughed. “the last thing that day wasn't fucking you or seeing you naked.” he said. “It was murdering you.”

“asshole.” you said, he smirked. “it was jay.” He said. “jay, jake told me he hasn't shown himself for the past 200 years.” he shrugged.

“i guess you're special , congratulations.”

TAGLIST. @deobitful @in-somnias-world @darlingz99 @luvitaria @lost-fantasy @lostinneocity @nalenhypen @heeshlove @kirinaa08 @strxwbloody @ryn000 @neosexuals @sakanelli-afc @yizhoutv @capri-cuntz @lilyuwon @criminalseung @hanhaeji @eggomi @serenijiny @luvvsnae @jakesfurry

©️LUVYENI

[serafilms]

song 53! magic (one direction) + percy jackson requested by @isabelboo (2023 spotify wrapped event)

you, you’ve got this spell on me, i don’t know what to believe, kissed you once now i can’t leave

Percy isn’t really sure how or when it started, but he’s pretty sure you’ve put some kind of curse on him.

His thoughts are consumed by you day and night. His vision tunnels in on you every time you’re around. Whenever you talk to him, all he can do is think of your lips. It’s excruciating. It’s nauseating. And it’s definitely affecting his daily activities, he thinks as he sits, dazed in the infirmary, with a stab wound (a very minor one!) in his side.

It has to be some kind of magic, he thinks, because he’s never felt like this. Maybe some voodoo? Maybe a trick by Hecate as vengeance for defeating the Titans. Maybe you’ve been slipping him potions in his food. It could be anything, and Percy is not as well-versed in magic knowledge as some other people at camp, so he has no idea.

But he finds himself always looking for you, asking after you. He finds himself trailing after you always, and depressed when you’re not around.

The strangest part is that nobody else seems to notice anything out of the ordinary, and he’s too afraid to ask them about it.

He mentioned something about it to Annabeth once, but she merely waved him off.

(“It’s like I can only think of Y/N,” he said.

Annabeth looked over her notes distractedly. “Uh huh, yeah, that’s great, Percy. Hey, since you’re not being any help here, would you mind getting Y/N so they can help me finish the Capture the Flag plans?”

Percy blinked. “Okay?”)

He thinks it must have started somewhere between all the times you held his hand to lead him somewhere, or the times he stood behind you to help correct your sword fighting posture, or the times you touched his hands and arms to correct his archery posture. He always ended up blushing furiously after each of those ordeals.

Or maybe it started that time he kissed you. Although, technically, you’d kissed him first (on the cheek, nothing crazy!) before he went off to face Kronos.

But then again, Percy had been the one to kiss you on the lips when he found you again after.

(“Percy!”

He heard the call of his name, registered your voice, and his head was already whipping around to find you. He found you, a strained look on your face as you hobbled towards him, and Percy rushed towards you.

No sooner had you steadied yourself by holding onto his forearms than he had leaned forwards and kissed you on the lips.)

But Percy couldn’t help it! He’d just been so worried about you, and so relieved to find you alive. He thinks maybe during one of those kisses you transferred your evil little spell.

Still, he hoped that kiss might have meant something to you, more than friendship, but you hadn’t gotten the chance to talk about it, since you’d collapsed on your broken ankle right after.

Even until now, you two have never really discussed what you are, or what the kiss/es entail for your future relationship. Because magic spell or not, Percy’s endless thoughts about you have him planning out your future (however much of it you can plan for two demigods who face certain death before their prime). An apartment in New York, close enough to his mom and Paul but not so close that it’s overbearing, college and planning schedules to match up, weekends out with your friends laughing and eating and watching movies and doing normal teenager things.

That’s all he wants. But he’ll settle for the lingering touches and smiles he gets from you for now.

But this curse, spell, whatever (because gods forbid Percy Jackson admit he’s in love with you before he’s sure you’re in love with him. They kissed you, Percy! What more do you need, for Zeus’ sake) is seriously becoming a problem, because somebody explain to him how from 30 feet away, Percy managed to see an Ares camper headed straight for you and make it over the battlefield in time to intercept it. With his own abdomen.

It was a stupid mistake, he acknowledges now. He’s been through countless battles, and he knows he could’ve incapacitated the camper from behind, or just knocked the spear out of his hand or something. But something about seeing you in danger just sets alight a fire in his mind that burns through any rational thought, leaving only an urge to stop you from getting hurt.

A little inconvenient now that he’s wincing on an infirmary bed with his side burning up. But at least you’re okay. And oh, look! It’s you! He’s not sure if he’s hallucinating now, or if you’re really standing in front of him.

“Seaweed brain,” you say, sniffling.

Okay, definitely you.

“Hey Y/N,” Percy says meekly. His side still feels like it’s on fire but his heart feels warmer with you here.

You take his hand and his heart aches at the tears in your eyes. “Hey, I’m fine,” he assures, ignoring the fact that he is definitely not fine.

“You’re an idiot, is what you are.”

“Yeah, that too.”

You look at him, at the ridiculous little smile he’s giving you to reassure you, at the bandages around his waist, and his hand in yours, and you lurch forwards and press your lips to his.

Percy jolts in surprise and feels his abdomen screaming at him from the movement, but kisses back nonetheless, feeling your lips on his once more and your tongue graze his bottom one.

When you pull back, he stares at you in a daze. If kissing is how you kept this spell on him, he is okay with being under it forever.

“You’re ridiculous, Percy Jackson,” you say, “but I love you.”

He swears his heart has never felt this warm. “I love you too.”

(“Sorry,” Leo says, looking rather gobsmacked, “they weren’t already dating?”

“Leo!” Piper throws her hands up in exasperation.

He smacks his cheeseburger back down on his plate and stares at the faces of his friends. Jason and Frank also look rather miffed, but the girls are all rolling their eyes. “Excuse me for being surprised! They’ve known each other since they were, what, 13?”

“12, actually,” answers Annabeth.

“12! When Percy woke up on the other side of America, the only name he could remember was Y/N’s, right?”

“Correct,” says Frank.

“And we spent ages on the Argo II, during which they got caught in the stables—“

“They were just talking,” says Hazel.

“—and they fell into Tartarus together! Because he refused to let go of her hand! They literally went all the way to hell, all the way through hell, and back out, together!”

Nobody says a word, all looking at Leo.

“You’re telling me,” Leo says, breathing very intensely as though he just found out that his pet dog has been run over, “that during that entire time, neither of them asked each other out?”

“Nope,” says Annabeth matter-of-factly, “and he also kissed Y/N on his 16th birthday.”

“Man,” Jason sighs, “talk about slow burn.”)

[jeonghanspookie]

The Plan

"Okay so what are we gonna do about Y/N and Vernon?"

The group of 12 decided they have had enough of the weird tension between their two friends. They all gathered at Mingyu's apartment to come up with a plan that could get the two to reconcile.

Of course they also made this meetup an excuse to get Mingyu to cook them a meal and for Seungcheol to buy them some drinks.

In fact the meetup was starting to look like one of their bbq nights.

Chan, who was currently making himself a wrap, spoke up, "Yeah we gotta figure out how to get the two to make up. I can't work under these conditions anymore!"

Jeonghan nodded his head. "Yeah and I don't think I can play another round of Dress to Impress with Y/N. One can only troll so much on Roblox."

"No yeah we definitely need to get them to reconcile."

"I've had enough of seeing Vernon eat Toast every lunch"

"Yeah I don't know if I can do another Taco Bell run with Y/N. Everything tastes the same to me know"

"And if I have to listen to Vernon explaining which Shrek movie is the best out of the whole franchise again I'm gonna crash out for real"

With a mouth full of rice, Soonyoung made a sound of agreement. "Whaf ebenf haftend-" he let out muffled.

"I don't know but I'm guessing it happened after work on Tuesday. They were fine with each other during their closing shifts that day, but when they came in the next morning they were acting so cold to each other." Dokyeom said while continuing to flip the meat on the grill.

From across the table Junhui was eyeing the biggest piece pork belly on the grill.

Joshua made a displeased face. "Maybe they were just mad they had to open after closing"

"Nah" Seungkwan started, "They were both being normal to everyone else. Plus the two of them play games til like 2 AM everyday so it doesn't make a difference if they closed the night before.

The piece of pork was one flip away from being grilled to perfection.

"WAIT THATS IT!" Wonwoo exclaimed.

"Huh"

Seokmin flipped the piece of pork.

Wonwoo stood up to explain, "Tuesday nights are when we work on our Minecraft neighborhood."

"Nerds" Seungcheol interrupted.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. "Anyway. They were fine before I left the discord call and the Minecraft server and that was a little after midnight. So something most likely happened after that."

He then looked over to Soonyoung and Seokmin. "You guys were still in the server with them after I left right? Did anything happen?"

Soonyoung shrugged. "We weren't there for long after you left.."

"Yeah we got kicked out of the call and the server since we kept arguing because Soonyoung killed my horse!" Seokmin glared at the so called horse killer.

"THAT WASNT MY FAULT AND YOU KNOW IT"

"THE SCREEN LITERALLY SAID 'KING KONG WAS SLAIN BY HORANGHAE96' OF COURSE IT WAS YOUR FAULT"

Junhui finally picked up the precious piece of pork and put it on his plate.

"I was just trying to ride your horse." Soonyoung pouted. "I didn't know I was hitting him with my sword"

"There's literally a button to get on the horse" Jihoon interjected.

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW!"

Right as Soonyoung yelled out his defense, he stood up with his arms out, bumping into Junhui's shoulder in the process making Jun drop the piece of pork belly he had almost brought to his mouth.

"Wait you named your horse King Kong?" Joshua quesy Seokmin.

Junhui now stares at his piece of pork that is now on the floor.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter" Mingyu said as he brought in some more bowls of rice. "Let's just figure out what happened and how to fix it."

Seungkwan agreed. "Yeah! We're losing the plot!"

"Why don't yall go back on the server and see if anything happened." Minghao suggested.

Jun settles for the next best piece of pork.

"Oh what the fuck"

"It says Vernon made the world private"

"What does that mean?"

"It means only he can he join the server."

"Tell Vernon to come over right now. We need answers!"

15 minutes later

"So yeah. Basically I accidentally led a creeper into the underground tunnels we have connecting our houses together and Y/N got too close to it and it ended up blowing up part of her house. Specifically Dumbledore's room." Vernon explained.

"Dumbledore? Like the wizard? I thought you guys were playing Minecraft?"

Wonwoo sighed. "Y/N named her cat in Minecraft Dumbledore"

"Ohhh"

"So that explains why she's mad at you" Minghao concludes. "Now why are you mad at her?"

Vernon runs his hands up and down his face.

"So after the creeper exploded Y/N got mad at me because when she went to go look at the damage she noticed that Dumbledore was gone. And because she got mad at me she went to my house and destroyed my bed and then she started chasing me around with her netherite sword. Before I knew it she killed my character and I had to respond at the default spawn point because she destroyed my bed. At least I had the coordinates but Y/N turned them off so I couldn't go back to the neighborhood. So then I got mad and we started arguing and then it ended with me kicking her out of the server." Vernon ended with a frown on his face.

"I'm not even mad at Y/N, it was just in the moment. Now I feel so bad because her house is destroyed and Dumbledore is gone"

"Yall are really fighting over some stup-" Jihoon starts.

"What Jihoon means to say is that we can fix this." Seungkwan says as he covers Jihoon's mouth before he could finish his sentence that could have potentially made Vernon even sadder.

"Yeah just spawn a cat that looks like Dumbledore and say that he was outside and not in his room." Joshua says.

Seems reasonable.

Vernon looks at the group with an unconvinced face. "I don't know guys. That just feels wrong."

Jeonghan pats the younger boy's back. "If it makes you feel any better, that's probably the 9th Dumbledore we'll replace"

Vernon looks up at him.

"WHAT"

Jeonghan nods. "Yeah the original Dumbledore was gone a long time ago. It got in the way when I was trying to shoot arrows at a skeleton and I ended up hitting him instead."

Vernon's jaw dropped.

"I accidentally left his door open once and a zombie got to him." Soonyoung admitted.

"Pretty sure Mingyu killed him once too because he thought it was a mob"

Vernon looked to the group with his eyes wide. "So you guys have been replacing Dumbledore with a clone every time you get him killed?"

"Yeah pretty much"

"Do you think Y/N will believe us?"

"How do you even have the cat spawn egg? We turned off the option to switch to creative mode."

"I have my ways"

"OH MY GOD! Dumbledore was outside in the garden Vern! He's perfectly fine!" Y/N cheered over the discord call.

"Thank goodness he's safe." Vernon says slowly.

"Aw I'm sorry I made you go back to the OV spawn point." Y/N says apologetically. "Here let me turn on cords so you can get back and we can keep expanding the tunnels!"

"Down! We should rebuild Dumbledore's room first!"

"Right!" Y/N laughed. "Let's go!"

As the two were playing and chatting over discord, the rest of the 12 boys looked over at Vernon smiling at the computer screen with a fond smiles on their faces.

Balance was restored.

prev <- masterlist -> next

A/N: Yeah some of this doesn't follow Minecraft laws but whatever.

[pookietv]

aquatic missile | arthurtv

had this idea that i thought was adorable so here

have a little arthur with a crush on a marine biologist !!!!

after arthur had moved to london, finally getting somewhat used to the area he had moved to, he had become slightly socially worn out from seeing his friends much more often, being exposed to many more social situations all whilst trying to unpack and organise his new flat.

so he had decided to abandon his responsibilities for the day to go to the aquarium, which was honestly one of the things he had been looking forward to most when moving to a bigger city then he was used to, the museums, zoos, and aquariums he could finally visit.

he was happy going alone, wanting to unwind, his headphones hanging from his neck, ready to play some music as he strolled through and gawked at all the sea life.

when he walked into the lobby, he noticed the place was quite empty, but it didn't wholly surprise him - it was 11am on a tuesday, most people were probably at work or school, and he had somewhat been glad it was empty.

he walked up to the desk, slightly looking up at the woman at the desk before back down to his feet for a moment.

the worker was quite pretty.

"hi, can i help you?" the woman spoke, in a sweetly helpful way.

"hello, i just wanted to get a ticket?" he said, a little quietly.

"just a one day general admission?" she asked, and he confirmed with a nod of his head.

"yeah, that sounds good to me," he nodded, his eyes slightly crinkling as he offered her a slightly awkward smile.

"have you been before? we have a little leaflet with a map in that might help if you'd like one, you can obviously just wander as you please but if theres specific things you'd like to see, they're all labelled in here," she offered, placing a small blue coloured leaflet on the desk, his fingers gently reaching to take it, nodding gratefully.

"oh, thank you, yeah.. i mean, i love all the sea creatures but i do really like the sharks," he admitted with a small laugh, and she nodded, giggling a little herself.

"oh, me too.. the sharks are my favourite by a mile, i even have a specific favourite shark, they actually let me name her," she smiled, and his eyes lit up.

"no way, really? what did you call her?" he asked, clearly interested.

"a little rogue but i called her missile," she said bashfully, and he laughed.

"that is very cool." he confirmed, and she blushed a little with a nod.

arthur handed her the money for the ticket, taking it from her with a small thanks as he headed his way into the aquarium.

he could easily spend hours in the aquarium, and he did, meandering slowly and stopping at each small fish that he could see, reading all the boards with the facts on, and by the time he had even looked down at his phone he noticed it was already 2pm, and he was approaching the shark section of the aquarium, a grin on his face at the prospect.

he had barely ran into anyone whilst walking through the winding path of the place, and in the shark section he could only see one person in the whole big area, a big glass tunnel, someone hunched over on a bench, eating and watching the sharks on the other side.

he began slowly walking around, his head focussed on looking up at the glass, watching the sharks swim around, even over his head when he was lucky before he heard noise.

"oh, hi again," a small familiar voice said, and he turned to the girl eating, who had lifted her head up - the worker from before.

"hello," he said, smiling a little, "must be very cool to be able to eat here on your lunch break," he joked a bit, and she nodded.

"uh huh, one of my favourite parts of the day, checking on missile... and of course all the other sharks, i love them all. though, feeding time is also pretty cool,"

"feeding them would be so cool," he nodded in confirmation. "which one is missile?" he asked curiously, and she grinned.

"the one that swam over your head before," she laughed slightly, putting down her box of pasta and standing up for a second, slightly closer to him before pointing upwards, at a spotted slightly smaller shark, "that's missile, she's a leopard shark,"

"what about the others? do you know all their names?" he asked, and she nodded, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"that's david, he's a lemon shark... that's haribo, he's a gummy shark, that ones called eve, she's a nurse shark... and the rest are hiding somewhere, but we have hammerheads, angel sharks and cow sharks hiding round here somewhere," she laughed a little, shrugging, "some of them like the attention more then others,"

"so you're really interested in sharks? or is it just a thing where you know a lot from working near them?" arthur asked, and she nodded again.

"i studied marine biology, i usually work more behind the scenes but on quiet days i work behind the desk too, but yeah, i love sharks, and just sea animals on a whole... i mean, i even have a shark tattoo," she giggled. "what about you, you just here to see them or do you have an interest?"

"oh, um, i have an interest in animals in general, and i just moved to london, so i wanted to come see the aquarium 'cause i've never been before," he admitted, and she nodded.

"i do love the aquarium, it's so peaceful, i mean sometimes i come in even on my days off, which in most jobs seems so bizarre but, i don't know, i just love it here."

and that's how arthur ended up frequenting the aquarium more than he intended to, over the past month going at least six times, enjoying the aquarium (and secretly hoping to run into the girl who he had become just a small bit infatuated with but had only admitted that to his close friends, who in turn obviously mocked him)

"you literally don't even know this girls name," george laughed when arthur had admitted he may have had a tiny crush on her after telling them about going to the aquarium for the fourth time in two weeks.

"well, obviously i know that, but i mean, i can't find out unless i see her again, can i?"

"only arthur could go to an aquarium and randomly fall in love with a girl just because she spoke to him about sharks," chris said sarcastically, and arthur rolled his eyes at him, his face red.

"she was cool, okay? she literally gets to name and feed and pet sharks, that is cool!" he defended himself in a splutter of embarrassment, only leading to slightly more giggles

when he next went, and he had paid for his ticket with someone else at the desk, and began his wander around the museum, he heard a slightly teasing voice once in the shark exhibit.

"you know, you could have saved yourself a lot of money if you had just bought a monthly pass," a giggling voice said, and he turned around to her with a slightly red face and a shrug.

"didn't realise i was gonna end up coming so much," he admitted with flushed cheeks.

"just become obsessed with the sharks, eh?" she asked, and he gulped down with another shy nod.

"uh huh. and, um. well, kinda hoping to run into you, also," he acknowledged, only to hear her laugh a little more.

"stalking me now, are you?" she asked, only to make his eyes widen

"no, not like that! just that, you know, i thought you were interesting and that-" she laughed a little harder now,

"i'm just kidding, don't worry about it. you do know there's other ways to see girls you find interesting other then hoping to bump into them at work?" she teased.

"well, that's what i was hoping to ask, you know... if i could maybe see you not in the shark section of the aquarium? like a date?" he asked, fiddling with his fingers a little.

"sure, that sounds nice," she smiled at him, "though, you don't even know my name," she teased.

"well, what is your name?" arthur asked, slight more confidence in his voice and a small smile on his face, slightly reassured that she had said yes.

"whats yours? i mean, for all i know you're some stalker who frequents aquariums looking for victims," she teased, leading him to jokingly roll his eyes.

"my name is arthur, and i promise it was not stalking... just thought you were smart, and pretty, so.. what's your name?"

"suppose you'll have to find that out on the date, hm, arthur?

[thezombieprostitute]

Barista Steve - Part 4

Summary: Finals have you super stressed out. Steve knows how to help with that.

Word Count: ~2k

Warnings: Bad parents, Dom/Sub dynamics, Smut. Please let me know if I missed any!

You were dealing with the big F's: Finals, Family and Fear of Failure. Your parents wouldn't stop reminding you of the importance of passing your exams. Your classes were incredibly difficult. And you didn't want to think about what would happen if you didn't pass one of your finals.

As you leave your latest study group, you see Steve waiting for you by his motorcycle. You're practically running to hug him, finding solace in his scent, his touch, his comforting words.

Steve has been frustrated by your situation as well. He knows you're not getting real support from your family. Well, not the kind of support that actually helps. More the kind of support that only makes things worse. He's doubtful of your defense of "they mean well". He's seen the effects of the stress and while he's worked hard to help mitigate them, there's only so much he can do.

The one big light at the end of the tunnel for both of you was your agreement to move in together as soon as you got your degree. Neither of you cared that your parents wouldn't approve of Steve, you both knew there'd be no one else for either of you. You took care of each other, supported each other, and you were tired of keeping him a dirty secret.

Besides, your parents had told you time and time again they wouldn't support you forever. Part of you knows you should've moved out sooner, but it was a truth you couldn't realize until you got a taste of what you really wanted. Steve definitely provided that. You'd be forever grateful to him for his patience.

"Hey there, Good Girl," Steve coos into your ear. "I figured you could use a break. A chance to shut down your brain."

"That sounds perfect, Sir," you agree. "Need to let my brain relax."

"Then let's put your choker on and get your helmet."

Steve didn't take you to the studio like you thought he would. Instead he parked the motorcycle outside of one of your favorite diners. The constriction of the choker reminds you that he's in charge, you're not to question his commands, but you can't hide the look of confusion on your face.

He sees your face and puts his hand on the back of your neck, "I need to take care of my Good Girl and I know you haven't been eating well lately. So we're going to get you food, water. And remember, I'll order for you so you don't have to waste brain power."

"Thank you, Sir," you happily sigh. You've been subsisting on granola bars and coffee lately. Your stomach rumbles at the thought of real food.

Steve orders you both moderately sized meals. He knows you need to eat but too much food could hurt you just as much as the too little you've had lately. He also makes sure you both drink water. He doesn't want to be unfair and order something for himself that you can't or shouldn't eat and he knows you need to hydrate. Especially after you start drinking your water and it's gone in a blink!

After the meal you're starting to feel sleepy. Steve kisses your forehead and says he's taking you to his place. Again, you're confused that you're not going to the studio but you don't question. You just enjoy holding onto him while riding his motorcycle. Breathing in his scent, feeling his muscled torso underneath your arms. The cold wind doesn't bother you much because he's just so warm.

Steve walks you up to his apartment. You hope it'll be both of yours soon. He directs you inside and tells you to wait for him in the bedroom. You don't need to be told twice.

Once inside the bedroom, you drop to your knees and let your arms relax as you wait for his orders. It's taken a lot of time and effort but you've learned how to shut down the part of your brain that feels bad for "sitting around doing nothing". Wearing the choker, feeling it every time you breath, is a good reminder and a good focus to keep you from fidgeting and thinking about what's next.

Steve walks in wearing nothing but a pair of low hanging grey sweatpants. You fight the urge to moan at the view of his tattooed, muscly torso while your pussy clenches. He steps in front of you. "Undress," he orders.

You stand as you hurry to obey. When you're fully naked you successfully fight the urge to try to cover yourself with your arms. You never have to feel ashamed in front of Steve. He's told you time and time again how much he loves seeing all of you. He's shown you as well.

"Good Girl," he purrs. He brings out a skimpy but soft looking nightgown. "Arms up."

You raise your arms and he puts the nightgown on you. It fits perfectly, like you knew it would. Steve always seems to know what feels comfortable for you. Knows what you need and how you need it. It's why you trust him enough to shut your brain down around him.

He caresses your cheek, eyes full of love, before pulling back the blankets on the bed. "Now lay down on your side for some cuddles."

You practically leap onto the bed in eagerness. Cuddles with Steve are always so restful and generally lead to more. A part of you is worried that you're going to fall asleep, but you quiet that down. You're following Sir's orders, being his Good Girl. He knows what he's doing.

Steve gets into the bed and holds you from behind. You've never felt so safe and warm as you do in these moments. He gently caresses you, giving you occasional kisses to the top of your head. Your eyelids are getting so heavy. He whispers, "go ahead and sleep, Good Girl. Pretty sure you need it. I'll hold you the entire time."

He says more but your brain doesn't processes anything other than that he's talking, it just drifts off to sleep.

You're not sure how long you slept for, but every part of you knows you needed that sleep. True to his word, Steve is still holding you and you smile in appreciation, small tears forming in the corner of your eye. You feel Steve stir and he squeezes you tight.

"Did you sleep well?" He yawns and kisses the top of your head.

"Yes, Sir."

"Glad to hear it," he mumbles as he continues to kiss you. You can feel his erection against your ass and fight the urge to roll your hips against him. "My Good Girl needed some rest, didn't she?"

"Yes, Sir," you rasp. Your need is building. He can definitely hear it in your voice because he softly chuckles against your skin.

"I think my Good Girl needs something else now," he purrs into your ear, sending electricity straight to your core.

He moves his hand down your body and reaches underneath the nightgown. You understand now why it was so skimpy; not only did it show off plenty of skin, but it gave him ready access to everything. He starts rubbing his fingers along you folds as he nibbles gently on your shoulder, making you whimper.

"I'm going to get on my back and you're going to sit on my face," he tells you. "No hovering."

"Yes, Sir," you whimper, both excited and nervous. Steve had a tendency to get lost in the taste of your pussy, making you overstimulated.

Before he lets you go he whispers, "what's your safe word?" You tell him and he thanks you before rolling onto his back.

You're quick to move into position, but you still let yourself enjoy the sight of Steve's body, his erection making a prominent tent in his sweatpants. As you're settling onto his face, Steve is already pinning you to him and devouring you. His strong hands hold you in place as he uses his tongue to reach all of your favorite spots. They're some of his favorite, too, because of the sounds the elicit from you.

The headboard is the only thing you can grasp and you do so with all your might as the first orgasm of many hits you hard and you cry out from pleasure. A small part of your brain realizes how much you've been needing this as it feels like everything in your system is finally unclenching from all your stress. It's only been a minute or so and your limbs are already feeling like jelly.

After the second orgasm, you're already crying from relief and pleasure. You repeatedly rasp, "thank you, Sir," not knowing if Steve can actually hear it or not. You try to roll your hips, a silent plea for him not to stop. He responds with a squeeze to your hips, an acknowledgement of your request as he adjusts just enough to reach that one spot he knows drives you crazy. He smiles as you cry out from the sensation and ride his face like your life depended on it. He keeps going until you cum on his face a third time.

He slows to a stop as your body goes lax, tears flowing freely down your face. He gently maneuvers you so that you're beside him, still repeating your mantra of "thank you, Sir". He looks you over but doesn't pick up on anything worrisome. "How's my Good Girl doing?"

"Thank you, Sir," you whimper. "Thank you for taking care of me."

He kisses along your cheeks where your tears are falling. "Such a Good Girl. But we're not done yet. Lay on your stomach."

As soon as you turn, Steve spreads your legs. "Such a pretty pussy," he groans. He kneads your ass cheeks for a bit before kissing up along your spine until he's covering you like a weighted blanket. He wraps one of his arms around so that he's got a hold on your throat. He kisses you once again before he roughly pushes his cock into you.

"Best pussy I've ever felt," he tells you as he starts up a brutal pace that has you keening. "Taking my cock like the good girl you are," he praises. "Taking everything I give you and begging for more."

"S--S--Sir," you croak.

"Cum for me," he orders. Your body automatically obeys. "That's my Good Girl," he groans as your pussy squeezes him tight. "Fucking you brain dead feels so good." You moan in response to his words. "You like being fucked like this? You like when my cock makes you dumb?"

"Y--Yes, Sir!"

He licks along the back of your neck, making you squeal. "I need one more from you." He readjusts you so you're slightly on your knees, making his cock feel so much deeper. He resumes the brutal pace and you start to see stars from the pleasure. "Cum for me, Good Girl."

Your body obliges and you cum with a lewd sob. He's quick to follow with a few grunts before he lets go of your throat and starts giving you small kisses along your back.

He pulls out of you with a soft hiss and immediately goes into aftercare mode. He removes your choker, cleans you up, and gives you reassurances as he holds you.

Finals are done. You've officially completed your degree. You opt to not go to the graduation ceremony, too many people. You've moved in with Steve, much to your parents' disbelief and outrage. They called you a lot of not very nice things that only reaffirmed your choice to get away from them.

One of Steve's friends at his art studio actually got you connected with a well paying job near the apartment. You were happy to finally be contributing financially. More importantly, Steve didn't object to you having your own bank account. Steve never wanted you to feel you had to be with him because of finances. He wanted you to have agency. It was something you'd probably spend forever getting used to.

Thankfully, Steve had the patience to help you out.

Okay, so this series is done, right? Barista Steve won't continue to bug me, right?!

Edit: Part 3/Series Masterlist

Tagging: @alicedopey; @delicatebarness; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory; @ronearoundblindly

[darlink-xoxo]

MEMORIZED BY YOU!ੈ̊♡

in which, a boy thinks he's in need of medical attention

but he's really just in love..

GIF isnt mine

─ͥ─ͦ─ͮ─ͤ➼♥

just shoto being blissfully unaware of how whipped he is 💕

read pt2 here

Warnings: Oblivious Shoto, Shoto in Denial, Puppy Love 🫶.. spelling mistakes

❥ · ﾟ₊ he blinked when a hand waved itself in front of his face. glancing at his surroundings, shoto's brows lightly scrunched together as he tried to remember where he was. oh right, he was in the middle of eating lunch in the cafeteria. turning to look at who waved in his face, he was greeted by his friends looking at him with smug faces.

".. hello?"

"sorry to interrupt you todoroki, but you were spaced out for a few minutes now." izuku spoke with a small smile.

ochako leaned over towards tsu and whispered something, before both started giggling with fox grins. shoto blinked, confusion clear on his face, he looked towards tenya who cleared his throat.

the engine quirk user pointed behind him to a table over with a sly smile on his face. shoto's head tilted as he looked over, his breath seemed to leave him as his eyes landed on a particular someone..

their name was y/n, one of the top students of class 1b. his surroundings left his mind once more, his vision turned tunneled, and it narrowed in on them. just how much time had passed? he couldn't say.

it was like they managed to stop his world from spinning, they kept him grounded, while also making him throw away any rationality he might've had. he felt lightheaded, did he have heartburn? or was he drunk..

wait shoto doesnt even drink

you were happily chatting with your classmates kinoko and tokage. although, it was more like kinoko was listening, while you and the dark green haired girl chatted away. you both knew that kinoko was the shy type, so you didnt forget to include her in your conversations.

as you sipped your drink, you glanced to your side to see tokage whisper something to the mushroom quirk user. it was then that kinoko covered her mouth to hide her giggles, her shoulders shaking with laughter and tokage let out loud laughs.

you flashed them a confused smile as you asked them what was up. they did nothing but laugh harder, before eventually calming down and pointing forward at the next table a couple feet away in front of you guys.

you tilted your head as you turned to face the direction where they pointed at, before being stunned when you made eye contact with a certain ice and fire user. although he seemed to snap out of whatever spell he was under, his face held a similar look of shock as yours.

you quickly glanced around you in case he was looking at someone else instead, when you found no one else you sent a confused wave in his direction. smiling at him before going back to eating your lunch

shoto responded with a wave of his own, although still stuck in a daze, he felt the corners of his lips quirk up. did.. did his quirk suddenly activate? last he remembered y/n didnt have the ability to activate someone else's quirk.. so why did he feel so warm..?

izuku lightly laughed at his love dazed classmate. how could one of class 1a's top students, be so unaware of how spell bound he looked?

"hey.. midoriya.."

"oh! yeah todoroki?"

"am.. am i sick? i feel warm all over, and i think i'm experiencing a heart attack."

the green haired male blanked as shoto was finally able to turn away from his attention capturer, "midoriya.. am i dying??"

.. eh?

"i'm serious, my mind is going blank, i think i'm experiencing cardiac arrest. i couldn't even breathe, and i zone out every time i look at them. i cant even speak.. it's like i've been brainwashed."

"pff," izuku was fighting for his life to keep his laughter in, but ultimately he failed when he heard how the rest of the table burst with laughter. ochako and tsu clutched at each other as they wheezed with giggles, while tenya repeatedly slapped at the table.

"OH MY GOSH TODOROKI!! 'AM I DYING??' HAHSHAHH THAT'S HILARIOUS!"

"wh- but i mean it! i'm not even sure recovery girl will be able to help with my situation!"

"PFFF BWAHAHAHA!! RECOVERY GIRL DEFINITELY ISNT GONNA HELP THAHAHAHAT!!"

"guys i think i might be allergic to y/n 😨"

"NO WAY AHAHAHA!!!"

you looked over at 1a's table, your eyes narrowing in on a dual quirk user. you sighed happily, finding the escapade that you were watching from afar to be funny.

kinoko nudged tokage's shoulder, and both girls turned to look at you before lightly giggling behind their hands, taking a breath to recollect themselves, kinoko reached over and prepared to wave her hand in your face.

"sorry to interrupt you y/n, but you've been zoned out for a while now." they laughed.

[shenglingyuan]

title: first time he kissed me, he but only kissed (ao3) pairing: togame jo/sakura haruka summary: togasaku first kiss ;3;

The tunnel under the rail tracks became a common meeting spot for both Togame and Sakura. It was perfect and convenient – Togame would only need to walk a few blocks from the Shishitoren headquarters, Sakura could cover the patrol of the surrounding area then end right in front of the Shishitoren and Bofurin boundary, and the street itself wasn’t busy if the sun was still out.

The first few times, trouble came to their spot, what with smaller gangs from out of town escaping through the tunnel to get to the pub street. Needless to say, Togame and Sakura took care of it with no issues. After a while, word got around that monsters from Shishitoren and Bofurin were guarding the narrow street, and no one with intent to cause trouble dared to cross that path anymore.

Usually, Sakura would bring with him lots of food. Rewards from the community, he said. The people don’t seem to run out of food to give Bofurin, but even Sakura’s voracious appetite could only hold so much. Even if he was usually possessive of the food he received, he didn’t want it going bad. Fortunately, Togame shared the same stomach. He didn’t win all those eating challenges for nothing. In return, he would bring the drinks. Mostly ice-cold ramune, of course.

It’s been a month since the festival, and today was one of those usual days they would hang out under the rail tracks. Togame already finished his portion and was sipping his strawberry ramune leisurely. It was warm earlier in the day, but the summer humidity brought down a late afternoon thunderstorm. The surroundings were cascaded with heavy rainfall, and neither of them had an umbrella. There was no choice but to wait out the rain.

“This rain doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon,” Togame noted, peeking at the dark sky overhead, “I could ask Choji to bring us an extra umbrella so you can go home.”

“It’s fine, I can wait with you,” Sakura replied, staring up from his phone. He was leaning against the wall, holding a still half-full grape ramune in his other hand. “There’s nothing to do back home anyway. Here’s better.”

“Yeah?” Togame smiled as he walked back to his spot next to Sakura, swiping the ramune bottle off his hand and taking a swig out of it. “Ahh, that’s so good. I really like this flavor more – Won’t your Bofurin friends look for you?”

“Hey, you already had yours!” Sakura quickly stole the bottle back, staking his claim by drinking the remaining contents all at once. He didn’t even let at least one drop go. Then when all the drink was gone, he answered with a slight burp, “I told them I was meeting you today. They know anyway, so…”

This surprised Togame. Togame hadn’t asked if Sakura told his friends about them. He didn’t care, but knowing that Sakura did made him feel oddly satisfied.

Rain continued to pour as silence fell between the two of them. Togame glanced at Sakura. He seemed to be frozen in thought, the empty ramune bottle still lingering on his mouth. In fact, Sakura did seem like he has been occupied by something ever since they met this afternoon. Even the light sparring they did when the rain just started didn’t seem to wash away whatever it was that he was thinking about.

Concerned, Togame finally asked, “Is something bothering you?”

“…K…kiss.”

“…Huh?” Did he hear that right?

“I…I want to try it.”

Togame looked at Sakura’s face, trying to see any trace of mischief on his face. Sakura’s not the type to tease, after all. They’ve been dating for a month now, yes, and within that time they have gotten to know each other better. They both enjoy a good fight and good food. Their private moments under the rail tracks were simple but meaningful. But within that period, Sakura didn’t strike him to be a proactive type when it came to physical affection. So why was he bringing this up now?

Sakura’s forehead was crumpled into a frown, his eyes averted, but his mouth was curled into a pout and the entirety of his neck up to the tip of his ears were red. For someone asking for a kiss, he looked very conflicted about it.

Togame lets out a laugh. “You’re note being dared to do this, are you?”

“You think I’m not serious?”

“Of course not,” Togame stepped closer then, making Sakura back into the wall. In reflex, Sakura’s arms raised as if getting ready to fight, much to Togame’s amusement. Togame raised his right hand and held the back of Sakura’s head, his thumb ever so slightly caressing the tip of his ear. “But if you want to be kissed, you probably shouldn’t act like you’re about to hit me.”

Sakura froze under his touch, the bottle on his hand falling onto the ground and rolling away. Despite this, it didn’t look like he was regretting his request either.

Togame then leaned in…

And kissed Sakura’s forehead.

“How’s that for a start?”

Sakura draws in a frustrated breath, his eyes widening and his cheeks gaining another shade of red. “Are you messing with me?”

Togame laughed as he avoided a punch of protest from Sakura. “I’d never. Just didn’t want to overwhelm you, that’s all.”

“Stop playing around.”

Then without warning, Sakura took the initiative and pulled Togame down by the collar of his jacket –––

“Ow!”

Teeth smacked with lips, and in the next moment, Togame tasted something metallic. Sakura, on the other hand, suddenly squatted on the ground with a hand over his own mouth; it was his blood that Togame tasted.

“Sakura! Are you okay?”

“What the hell, all those articles are wrong!”

“You were…reading about how to kiss? Was that why you keep looking at your phone today?”

“Shuttup!” Sakura looked away, his hand still covering his mouth. It was all Togame needed to confirm his question. No wonder Sakura had been looking so distracted since earlier. He must have been thinking how to ask for a kiss and how to do it properly.

The spot where Sakura hit against was still throbbing a bit from the pain, so Togame could imagine the impact was worse for Sakura.

“Let me see,” Togame worriedly squatted down in front of Sakura and lightly grabbed his chin, making Sakura face him so he could see the wound on his mouth. Upon inspection, it didn’t seem something to be concerned about. As for the other matter… “Why do you want this so bad anyway?”

“Should there be a reason? I just feel like I want to…kiss you, that’s all.” The last part he whispered almost inaudibly. Then he stood up, roughly rubbing at the spot where his lips smacked against Togame’s teeth. “But if you don’t want to, then just forget about it.”

“I want to, though.” Togame reached for Sakura’s hand, weaving their fingers together as he slowly stood up. “Since the festival, really. But I wanted to take our time until you’re completely comfortable.”

Togame was the type to love deeply, that he knew of himself. And when he attaches himself to something, or someone, he tends to be territorial about it. Sakura’s one of the strongest people he knew, but Togame also recognizes that Sakura had a fragile side, particularly when it came to his relationships with people. Though he trusted that Sakura would overcome that difficulty, he was still careful in treading his own relationship with him. The last thing he wanted was to push Sakura away.

“I am comfortable. Especially since it’s you.” Sakura looked down at their entwined hands, and a small smile lined his lips. “It’s just that…whenever I see…romantic things, I get flustered for no reason…I feel like even if I get to…kiss you…I’d be too shaken to like it.”

Sakura’s answer brings a smile to Togame’s face. It was useless to worry, after all.

 “What if you closed your eyes?”

“Close my eyes?”

“So, you don’t see the kiss coming.”

Sakura pondered on the idea a bit, but after a while, he did as he was told without any more protest. His face was still full of nervousness, but at least this way, he would neither freeze up at the sight of Togame closing in, nor feel overwhelmed from the view of an incoming kiss. A bit of blood still stained the edge of his mouth. Togame reached out with his free hand and cleaned it up, tracing the outline of Sakura’s lower lip as he did so. Sakura’s lips were smooth against his thumb, parting ever so slightly in response to his touch. The warm and shaky breath against his finger tells of Sakura’s eagerness for what comes next.

Finally, Togame closed the distance, and this time, he carefully planted a light kiss on Sakura’s mouth, like a butterfly carefully hovering over the blooms of a cherry blossom tree.

Neither of them has done this before, so who knows what’s a good or a bad kiss. Was it awkward? Not at all. Amateur? Maybe. But it seemed that for the right person, it didn’t matter. The body would respond in kind without needing to have prior knowledge of how to do this or that. It’s just a matter of listening to one another’s desires as delivered by the lips, much like how a good fight is a fruitful conversation between fists.

Sakura’s mouth opened even more as it met Togame’s, instinctively deepening the kiss himself. Togame could still taste a bit of rustiness from the blood, but also the sweetness of the grape ramune they shared. He drinks it all in, drowning in the unhurriedness of the moment. Sakura let out a small sound against Togame’s mouth, making Togame greedier, pulling Sakura even closer to reduce the very small distance between them into nothing.

Togame lost track of how long it had been, or if he had even come up for breath. Before he completely lost himself in their kiss, he grasped at the small mindfulness that graced his mind to pull away. Yet, Sakura followed him and leaned forward, unwilling to end the moment, attempting to continue the kiss. At this point, Togame was already prepared and shifted his face a bit, only the edges of their mouths meeting. It broke Sakura away from the trance of the kiss, his eyes shot up wide open. They’re both in a state of wanting more; one of them should at least hold the fort and be rational.

“So, did you like it?”

The steady patter of the pouring rain fell in rhythm with their heavy breaths. Sakura’s eyes seemed to have lost all their intensity, staring dazedly into the air. He blinked a few times, perhaps confused as to why they stopped, and when he finally turned a hazy gaze to Togame, his glazed eyes seemed to say, More, more, more…

Ah, this is a bit dangerous.

But contrary to Togame’s expectations, Sakura resorted to wrapping his arms around his waist and burying his own face against Togame’s chest.

“Yeah, I liked it.” he mumbled, his voice vibrating against Togame’s hammering heart, “The other one, too.”

“Which one?”

“Forehead.”

Togame couldn’t see Sakura’s face, but the tip of his ears was still bright red. Alas, a first kiss like that must have been too much for someone like Sakura. As for Togame, it was everything he could have hoped for. He returned Sakura’s embrace with a smile and held the other boy tightly. Sakura shifted his weight, completely leaning onto him, that if Togame lets go, he would fall to the ground. But that won’t happen. Togame didn’t plan on letting go.

“I liked them both, too.”

Not now. Not ever.

[copperbadge]

Mr. Badge! Mr. Badge! Life hard, but Caleb and Buck are cute, can I ask for maybe a small snippet (if you have one easily avaliable, if not no worries) of fic for that good positive brain chemistry?

Yours sincerely, lostchips

Well, I don't have anything from Royals/Ramblers that's easily shareable, but Buck and Caleb do pop up in the football novel (I'm thinking of calling it Paolo's First Eleven but I already did one novel with a number in the title....)

Context: Paolo, the POV character, is a former top footballer turned youth coach, who happens to have befriended Buck and through Buck, Caleb. One of his young players, Vev, is in his early teens, so gifted that it's extremely obvious he'll be an elite player someday, and also trans, which Paolo knows is going to be an issue for his career sooner or later. Our scene is set just before morning practice begins...

To his surprise, the pair of men in the stands turned out to be Buck and Caleb -- Buck in a pair of ripped jeans and a leather jacket over a worn band t-shirt, Caleb swaddled in a hoodie with an instrument case on his back. When he came out of the tunnel, Buck waved and both of them got up to come down to the pitch. 

"Morning," Paolo said, offering them the bag of protein bars he was carrying to hand out to any hungry-looking kids. Buck waved it off, but Caleb peered into it and then took one. "Here to write me a fight song?"

Buck grinned. "Working on it. No, I'm just chaperone really, this is Caleb's joint."

Paolo looked at Caleb, curious. The younger man smiled. 

"I heard about Vev," he said. "Came to see him, see how he was getting on." 

"Oh! That's -- very thoughtful," Paolo said, as the kids on the pitch began to slowly drift towards the adults. A few stayed out; Vev, bouncing a ball from foot to foot, was one of them. "VEV, YOU TOO!" Paolo yelled. Vev looked up, caught the ball off a knee, and came running over. When he saw the pair of men with Paolo, he stopped, eyes huge, then sidled forward shyly, half-hiding behind Paolo. 

"Eat," Paolo told him, pressing a protein bar into his hand. Vev held it loosely, still watching the other two. "Vev, this is Buck Haverd and Caleb Canto, they're mates of mine."

Vev nodded. "You won Eurovision," he blurted. 

"Well, he did," Caleb said, jerking a thumb at Buck. The other children were crowding in, equally awed and impressed. 

"But you should have," Vev said, apparently forgetting to be shy as he crept out from behind Paolo. Buck began to laugh, loud and enthusiastic; he shook a finger at Caleb.

"Every time," he said, through chuckles. "Every time, someone in this damn country tells us both you should have won. Come on, you lot, let's have a kick-around," he added to the other kids, shedding his leather jacket and walking onto the pitch, most of the students following like ducklings. Paolo lingered, just in case Vev took shy again. 

"Well, whether I should have or not, Buck did," Caleb said gently. "But I'll gladly brag about being second-place." 

"I liked your song," Vev said. 

"Thank you. I wrote it about children like you," Caleb said. Vev blinked at him. "Daring princelings. I heard from Paolo that you're a star player."

"Don't let it go to your head," Paolo said, ruffling Vev's short hair. 

"So I thought I'd come along and meet the newest tavat," Caleb said, using the Shivadh word for prince that his song had popularized. "You know I'm trans like you are."

Vev nodded, digesting this.

"Well, we have to stick together, don't we? Look out for each other," Caleb said. "So I thought I'd introduce myself. That way you have a grownup who's like you, if you need one." 

Paolo swallowed, watching Vev's face go from thoughtful to pleased. 

"So if you have questions, or some kind of problem you need help with, you know you can always talk to Coach Paolo," Caleb said. "But maybe you could talk to me too, if you want." 

He offered Vev a little slip of card-paper; business cards, real paper ones, were in vogue in Fons-Askaz at the moment, and Vev took it like a treasure. Peering over his shoulder, Paolo could see it read 

CALEB CANTO  MUSIC AND VOICE INSTRUCTOR PRODUCER - REVERB STUDIOS HE / HIM 

An email address and a phone number were printed in one corner; the address of the Maritime Academy was printed in the other.

"Come by the school any time, or text me and I'll come visit you here," Caleb said. "Give it to your parents if you want so they can get in touch, too." 

Vev nodded. Paolo elbowed him and he looked up. 

"Say thanks," Paolo whispered. 

"Thank you, Mr. Canto," Vev said. 

"Caleb is fine." Caleb gave him a smile. "Now, you'd better go show Buck your best moves." 

Vev looked down at the prized business card. "Can you keep it for me?" he asked Paolo, who nodded and took the card, tucking it carefully in the little plastic pocket that held his ID. Vev turned back to Caleb and visibly squared his shoulders. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Caleb said, and Vev fled back to the field, where he almost immediately stole the ball from Buck and outran him despite being about a third of his size. 

[accirax]

Disventure Camp All Stars Power Ranking (Round 19)

The finale begins!

In case you haven't seen my previous power rankings, the Power Ranking Format is essentially a way of ranking how well each player is doing in the game. So, in essence, this is a long form way of predicting who I think will be eliminated from the competition in the next episode. There will be spoilers for last week's episode (obviously) and its power ranking, so make sure to read that first if you don't want to be spoiled on how I ranked our last boot. If you want more clarification on the rules, that first post will help you out as well. Furthermore, I'm going to be spoiling the preview for next episode, so if you want to go in TOTALLY blind, save this for later. Let's go!

Recap - The Motel Episode

Current Score: 76 acquired/113 total

(Points versus @venus-is-thinking: 27 acquired/38 total)

Bench Points: 8/10 (so far)

(Note: Scoring for Fiore, James, and Yul was taken from the Motel episode. Scoring for Tom, Aiden, Lake, Connor, and Miriam are taken from the preview.)

Well, that was... not what I expected! I mean, all of the character dynamics and fun banter I mostly expected-- other than that one last shot at some Yul depth-- but the setup for the three finale helpers being chosen by a first-dibs challenge was not. And, even if I knew that that was going to happen, I probably wouldn't have guessed that Fiore, James, and Yul would be chosen as the helpers to Ally, Jake, and Riya. I look forward to seeing those unexpected pairings gain more focus in the finale.

Yeah, I think that pretty much everything else I had to say, I covered in my initial thoughts. There's less to talk about here when no one was actually eliminated. So, let's look at the trailer!

Trailer Analysis

Looks like Emily will literally have to drag Trevor into being complicit kicking and screaming. Surely Derek and Trevor won't have a misunderstanding this episode that is resolved romantically in the last episode, right?

I'm guessing that Ally and Jake are practicing here? Notably, it appears that Jake wins the practice race. I'm sure that won't get in Ally's head.

Ooh, are they doing the Survivor-style finalists' breakfast this season?

Is this one of their letters from home? Why is Jake smiling while reading it? Out of the two of them, I would guess it's probably Riya's letter, but it could also be a surprise Connor's letter or something.

We're back in the mines from Season 1! Some bonus trauma for Jake, as that challenge occurred in the episode where Ellie berated him before he got eliminated.

I guess maybe they have to mine/dig for clues?

Despite the two seemingly getting along while eating breakfast, Ally will still sabotage Jake's team via giving James a rock to the face. Maybe that'll make James think twice about emotionally supporting Ally. (/j)

So, Emily's act of sabotage (for this episode at least) is releasing the scorpions onto the campers in the midst of an otherwise peaceful challenge. Hooray for murdering people...?

First of all, Jake needs to stop engaging in long jumps where he barely makes it to the other side. Secondly, this is probably the same gap that we see Riya putting a bridge over multiple times in the trailer, which may imply that Jake and James reach this area before Riya and Yul.

Of course, everyone is going to wind up in the same tunnel at the same point in time anyways.

This is interesting because, in the last shot, Riya was in the front of the pack. But now, she's throwing a rock at Ally, who's ahead of her. I wonder which scene happens first.

"C'mon, everyone! Let's do the Jake cheer we've been practicing!" "One, two, three, four! Gooooooo--" "And, that's enough of that! Here come our finalists!"

James looking so dead inside while doing the cheer has me dead. Based on this, I'm guessing that Ally will have Hunter, Tess, Grett, Gabby, and Ellie, as well as picking up Alec, who's there to support Fiore. That would leave Jake and Ally with even benches, and Riya with no one other than a mandatory Yul. I feel really bad for Ally, though, given that Jake picked up both Ashley and Connor. It makes sense why both of them would pick Jake (they befriended him first), but I hope she doesn't take it too hard.

Power Ranking

I don't even think anyone is getting voted out this episode, so I'll keep this formality relatively quick.

#1: Jake

Jake is still my winner pick, as he has been for a while, and nothing other than his elimination is going to change that. Going up against Ally + Fiore and Riya + Yul is a stellar combo for Jake, because no way ONC wants Fiore or Yul to actually get their hands on any money. The only mildly confusing thing is that James would wind up winning money from the show again (despite being the first boot, even), but I have half a mind to believe that he'll just donate that money to Ally anyways.

I think that James is here to be an audience insert. Having barely participated in the game at all, James is still of the belief that Jake is exactly the same as he was at the end of Season 1, no matter what Aiden tries to tell him. By being someone who had no faith in Jake who learns over the course of the finale that Jake truly did become a more thoughtful and responsible guy, ONC will use a character that the audience loves to prove why they too should root for Jake's victory. They want to prove to the nonbelievers that Jake has improved, through him mending his relationship with his first DCAS burn. Or at least, that's how I see it, as a Jake winner truther since the beginning of the merge.

#2: Ally

While an Ally/Riya finale feels basically impossible to me, a Jake/Riya finale is plausible. Offputting, but plausible.

Ally has been in the strange position of being rootable but unlikeable for most of the game. I believe that she could turn it around and win, if ONC is going for a plot twist ending, or that she could be taken out now as the lesser of two evils to let the real baddie shine in the finale. Most likely, though, I believe she'll take second, learning some important life lessons and maybe getting some money from James.

Fiore is probably here to be the devil on Ally's shoulder. She'll suggest something cruel and unusual, and it'll be up to Ally to decide whether she can resist those urges, or whether her fate will fall to villainy. Fiore also may be here as someone who can comment on her relationship with Hunter. She saw the beginning where they were fighting, but she's also been at the Loser's Motel for long enough that she probably knows how Hunter feels about her now. If she's feeling nice, she could use that as motivation.

Let's go team Fiore!!!

#3: Riya

If someone is eliminated in this episode, it'll be confusing in and out of universe if it isn't Riya. She has Yul as a partner and a second disadvantage, and no one should want to work with or root for her. She's also obviously not going to win the season, so if the writers want to keep up suspense for who does, they should eliminate her and leave the finale to Jake and Ally. Really, the only reasons why I don't think she would be eliminated this time are because 1) it's so obvious and 2) I don't think anyone will actually be eliminated this episode.

I think that Yul is mostly here for the comedy of it all, and so that the writers didn't have to choose who he would genuinely choose to root for otherwise. There is also some juicy potential for something I've mentioned before-- for both of them to reflect on their shared tendency to sabotage themselves by always choosing material success over building relationships or choosing to be kind. If we're lucky, we'll get some reflection on that, but I'll be happy with just a Riya/Yul cringe comp.

Alright, I've probably hit my government-mandated word count now that I've yapped about the helper choices a bit. Excited for the finale! Let's end this season on a high note!

[golgari-sewerposter]

It was somebody's birthday today and my very lovely aunt sent me to deliver him a present… a huge present… all the way across the undercity. You know how it is with "birthdays". It's a family social obligation. Also my "aunt" is a kraul. Very lovely. Let's just say she's hard to say no to. So, I packed some gear, put a harness on my horse-half, and hooked myself up to a wagon.

I'm pretty familiar with the tunnels, I've made trips this way before, but some idiot decided to go and get petrified right in the middle of a passage. The statue really wouldn't budge and I couldn't squeeze past him. I had to find a detour. So I doubled back, wagon in tow, to an abandoned prison of some kind, where there's a big hole on the other side of a locked cell door. Debris from a jailbreak littering the cell. All I had to do was pick the lock and I'd be headed in the right direction!

The only problem with that plan was there was a sleeping maaka in there, too. Filthy and probably sick. Still chained to the wall. The debris from the hole looked like someone tried to get in to the cell, with a hammer. I think the maaka ate whoever tried to break them out of their jail cell, out of starvation. Destroyed her chance at life by eating her only means of escape.

I unhooked from the wagon… and as quietly as I could, I used a set of picks to lift each pin… I had my ears held right up against the lock, straining to hear them click into place one at a time. Click… click… until finally I could turn the lever. As I unlocked the barred door I turned my head to see nothing but the six cat-slit eyes of the maaka. She pounced forward, her paw sent the door swinging with a CREEEEAK and a metal CLANG -- hit me square in my face. My hooves stumbled over the wagon and punched a hole in my cargo. The "present" was opened, it's stench filling the room. The maaka strained against her chains, desperate to eat me, or to eat the horrible smelling box, I'm not sure.

I stared in shock as I scrambled to find the right course of action. I had a few moments until she broke the chains. I realized, then, that the maaka is just like that kraul. Intimidating, but starving and weak, in a tight bind, looking for someone easy to pick on. I have too much dignity for that, or for this. I grabbed an old poleaxe from the warden's post and severed her chains. The maaka fell forward towards me, growling and flailing, but I stood my ground, weapon ready. I watched her circle around me, and then dart away through an open door.

I finished the trip but I'm not doing that kraul's job for her again.

[fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction]

Fixing Fears

Gregory's acting a little off in the process of the trio collecting things from Freddy's Pizza to transfer to Radical Eats...

.

=====

.

Cassie held up her phone, taking pictures of the strings of colorful flags draped over the dilapidated carousel and the dust drifting in tiny motes around the row of kiddie rides shaped like the Fazband. In the dim light of the games corner of the old Freddy’s place on the other side of the wall, many of the abandoned attractions still had a retro charm to them that she caught on camera. She took a few steps back from the rides, her phone in her hands as she tilted her head, giving them a second look-over to see if there could be any other angles to take photos from.

After a moment, she looked up and aside at her two friends a short distance away at the arcade machines. Those machines had been the main reason for coming this way, passing through the ventilation tunnel connecting Freddy’s to Circus Baby’s Pizza and Parties. Originally they were supposed to be here to see if the Security Puppet would finally give Gregory instructions on where to go to find the last item to get the last drive, and Gregory was supposed to bring the rest of Mike Schmidt’s things for Oswald to check for clues the two of them might not have seen.

Gregory didn’t bring the things and instead asked for help collecting spare parts from the arcade to fix up the games at Radical Eats. Both Oswald and Cassie had given him looks about that, but Oswald had let it slide soon after and crawled into the vent to get started while Cassie narrowed her eyes at Gregory to let him know she sure as hell wasn’t letting that go.

Right now, Oswald was carefully taking apart one of the old arcade cabinets, pulling circuit boards out and examining them with a flashlight he held in one hand. Gregory sat on a small stack of plastic crates that used to hold the cheap, single-ticket prizes, watching him with a faintly interested expression as he rested his cheek on one hand. Cassie rolled her eyes; that was the same look she caught him with back when she was doing her presentation of her report on Afton Robotics in class and he thought being in the back of the classroom would shield him. Gregory had a big heart and a big brain, but he was also big stupid at times.

She ambled over and plopped down on the crates beside him, bumping him with her hip to get him to scooch over and make room. “So how many boards has he gotten out of that old Pac-Man machine?” Cassie asked, flicking through the photos she took and favoriting the best shots of the bunch.

“Uh..,” Gregory trailed off, blinking as he looked to be trying to recall the information.

“You two are so easy to read,” she added with a snicker. Especially funny that them being so dense about each other meant they were clueless about her. She lifted her phone and viewed Oswald through it, taking a photo of him studying one board with a critical gaze, that slight pout that she knew meant he was thinking how much extra work he’d have to do to repair minor damage and what price to put on that.

Gregory wanted Oswald’s help with the parts, but he didn’t want the work done for free, so Oswald was struggling a little with figuring out fair costs so Gregory could present a bill for Radical Eats to cover.

Speaking of Gregory, he was giving her that confused stare, the one where he suspected she was implying something he should know but hadn’t figured it out because boys were kind of thick like that. Cassie snapped a photo of that look on his face too and giggled at him wrinkling his nose in reaction.

“There’s a lot of good parts so far,” Oswald called out to them, “I should be able to fix a lot of your arcade games with these.”

“Your dad starts his new job soon, right? This should get you plenty of your own spending money until your mom and dad can sort out a new budget,” Gregory remarked, hopping down from the crates to head over and look at the backpack full of parts set on the floor. Cassie favorited her recent photos before heading over to see for herself.

There was a faint chill in the air that seeped through her sweater and she looked up to check if the air conditioning had somehow turned on. A faint curse from Gregory pulled her attention to him and she tilted her head in confusion as his expression became an irritated scowl. Oswald stood up beside him, taking a step forward as he looked ahead of the three of them with a frown.

“Uh, what’s going on?” she asked warily. Why were they suddenly on edge like this?

“Remember those Remnant powers we were talking about?” Oswald began carefully.

“And the grouchy old ghost who guards this place?” Gregory finished.

“So.. the ghost is here now,” Cassie pieced together from their words, lifting her fingers to point to the open and empty space of the games room, “and you guys can see him.. over there?”

“Our Remnant got fucked with, yours wasn’t,” Gregory explained tightly, “So yeah. We can see him while you can’t.”

Well, that was totally unfair. She huffed, folding her arms over her chest, and tried not to feel so annoyed at being left out of whatever was going on. Oswald moved back a bit and she blinked at the cautious prodding of her shoulder, glancing over to see him hold out a hand to her, palm up. He was still focused on that big open space, so why was he offering his hand to her?

She gave him a puzzled look. Maybe there was a reason for it? Trusting that there was one, Cassie slid her hand into his, gripping lightly as an odd warmth washed over her at the contact. She felt her face grow hot and hoped no one could see it in the shadows of Freddy’s. Did he just want to hold hands?

A blink, and then Cassie started to realize something was happening. The empty space in front of them was starting to look less empty. A faint blue mist seemed to seep out of the walls, the ceiling, the floor, shimmering on the edge of her vision. And a figure stood before them, tall and lanky and kind of see-through and oddly familiar-looking. She gasped at the security guard outfit and hat that looked so much like the uniform in those lockers and in the photos of those files she helped study for ages.

Was this what the guys were seeing?!

“Is that Mike Schmidt?!” Cassie exclaimed and the ghost glared at her.

“For the last time,” he groused, “I’m not a ghost, I’m a spirit. And I ain’t Mike, I’m Six!” He wagged his fingers between them all. “What the hell are you three doin’ here?”

“Gettin’ parts,” Gregory told him flatly, chin raised as if daring him to do something about it, “Not like this place was gonna be usin’ ‘em anymore.”

The spirit narrowed his eyes as he walked towards them. Cassie tensed as he approached with that severe expression. He had that same prickly feeling of being annoyed that Gregory got when having to listen to their homeroom teacher give announcements of makeup credit work since his name was almost always on the list to get them. The spirit stopped in front of them all, hands on his hips as he stared down at them in silence for a long moment.

“That all you’re gonna do here?” he finally asked. Gregory nodded once and the spirit’s pressure dropped away as he stood back in a more relaxed pose. “Eh, guess that’s fine then. Dumbass machines ain’t part of my ‘protect’ job description,” he said and walked on past them to lean against the prize counter, relaxing against it as if to promptly ignore their presence.

“So.. we can take this stuff?” Oswald asked in an unsure tone, pointing at the backpack full of parts with his free hand.

“Yeah, I don’t care. Arcade games were more Mike’s thing; guy kept playing ‘em till he got top score,” Six replied with a lazy shrug, “Was good for helping him practice split-second decision making to save his game lives and advance, which helped a shit-ton on the night shift when he had to manage cameras, lights, doors, all that shit. Better he got in the games, better he got with everything else.”

“The frontal lobe handled decision making and impulse control,” Cassie muttered, digging out her phone to flick through her bookmarks on articles about Mike Schmidt, “Guess video games where he’d face consequences of poor choices and acting on impulse forced him to adapt around that? And getting that injury as a kid meant he still had time to grow in other ways to make up for it. Re-path it in his brain, right?”

“That’s what the docs said,” the spirit told her, “I’m rolling with it. What do I know? I’m a Remnant spirit. All I know is ‘check camera systems’ and ‘protect Guards’. Anything else is above my pay grade.”

“Then I guess we can grab a few more boards and then go to Radical Eats?” Gregory returned cautiously. Six gestured dismissively at the arcade machines and he relaxed. “Okay, then let’s get a couple more and we’re done.”

Oswald finally let go of her hand to open another machine and Cassie blinked as the spirit faded from her view, along with the blue mist that coated the walls. Her palm felt clammy and cold, and she pouted at it. Why the heck was Oswald’s hand so sweaty? She wiped it off on the back of Gregory’s shirt, ignoring his startled yelp. Boys could be so gross sometimes.

The next machine had lots of good boards in it too, and Oswald pulled a few to add to his pile before closing the panel back up. “That should be enough,” he told them, “Don’t want it too heavy or I won’t be able to carry it.”

“I can do it, then. Swap backpacks?” Gregory offered, pulling off his own backpack and holding it out to Oswald. The exchange was made and Gregory was slinging on the full backpack easily, bouncing on his heels with a grin. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Cassie agreed cheerfully, “I wanna eat lunch at your mom’s place. You still owe me for making me miss opening day.” She rolled her eyes in fond exasperation at the boys both waving their goodbyes to the empty air by the prize counter. Probably that spirit was still there, making sure they only took the parts. The air was still a bit chilly in the way her sweater didn’t ward off, so she was most likely right.

The cold didn’t really leave until the three of them were crawling through the ventilation tunnel back to Circus Baby’s side of the building.

.

======

.

“And you’re not the one fixing these things because..?” Alex drawled out, gesturing with his hand for Gregory to fill in the blank as he and Cassie watched Oswald replace the damaged boards in the arcade machines with the spare parts.

“The Afton bitch uploaded William Afton’s knowledge of animatronic programming, engineering, and construction into my head,” Gregory replied dryly, poking himself in the forehead, “Last I checked, fixing Galaga wasn’t part of that crazy old man’s interests.”

“Does having someone else’s decades of knowledge planted in your brain count as the most over the top cheat sheet ever?” Cassie asked him curiously and Gregory shrugged.

“Wasn’t my idea to put it there, so can’t blame me for using it when I can’t tell if I learned it myself or just ‘remembered’ it was there to use,” he said and looked up at Alex, “Hey, since it’s your day off from Circus Baby’s, could you ask Freddy if he’s making lunch today? I promised my friends our pizza specials but Freddy’s the one who makes them.”

Alex groaned, slouching in place, “Man, I’m only here to get some takeout before I stream in an hour. It’s my day off from work but I still have other schedules to keep y’know?”

“You still gotta talk to Freddy to get your food,” Gregory pointed out with an unimpressed expression, “Ooh, you gotta say a few extra words to him. How scary~!” He wrinkled his nose at Alex reaching down to cover his face with his palm.

“Fine, fine, I’ll ask if you knock it off with being a twer-EW! What the fuck?!” he began replying in a flat tone before screeching in disgust and yanking his hand away. Gregory just smiled up at him, tongue out and on display. “Que tan mocoso la pinche lengua!” Alex quickly rubbed his palm on Gregory’s hair, ignoring the boy yelling and flailing to get him off, “Cochino! I don’t know what you’ve been doing with that tongue! Little kids stick all kinds of nasty stuff in their mouths!”

“Dude, we’re ten, not two,” Cassie pointed out with a huff, “Clearly you haven’t been around a lot of little kids.”

“Of course not, they give me the heebie-jeebies,” Alex told her and shuddered for effect, “Constantly dirty, and staring, endlessly staring, can they stop with the staring?”

“Sounds like repressed trauma. You should get that looked at,” Cassie suggested.

“Also time’s ticking. Ask Freddy about lunch. Chop chop,” Gregory chimed in and stuck his tongue out again, “Or I’ll lick your computer mouse next time you go to the bathroom.”

“Cochino,” Alex sniffed before his expression broke into a laughing grin, “You’re such a lil shit, you know that, right?”

“Like recognizes like,” Gregory replied, holding up his hands as finger guns. He waved as Alex rolled his eyes and walked off towards the kitchen. “I think he’s loosening up more lately. That’s good.” He smiled a little more hopefully before turning back to watch Oswald fix the first arcade machine.

Cassie nodded and sat by him on the little bench placed in the games corner of Radical Eats. She gave him a few minutes to relax and enjoy himself watching Oswald working away before speaking quietly, “So why didn’t you bring Mr. Schmidt’s things for Oz to check like we planned?” She could practically feel Gregory freezing in place.

“I just forgot, that’s all. Besides, fixing the machines here is way more important,” he stammered, his shoulders raising up in that defensive hunch. Cassie hummed at the response, nodding along.

Yeah, fixing them was important, but... “Isn’t finding the last relic important too?” she asked, nudging him lightly with her shoulder. “And the last drive for the original animatronics, too. We got Bonnie, Chica, Foxy.. we’re only missing Freddy Fazbear himself.” When Gregory didn’t rise to her bait, her grin faltered a bit. “Did.. did something happen to change your mind?” she asked carefully.

“No!” he blurted out, a faintly panicked expression on his face that quickly turned evasive, “I mean, no, I.. haven’t changed my mind. I just think we can take a little time before getting that last one. Give Six a break since dealing with me all the time can’t be good for his health, y’know?”

“He’s a ghost, Gregory,” Cassie told him with a flat expression, “He doesn’t have health.” She softened and nudged him with her shoulder again, “C’mon, for real now. Did Oz talk you out of it?”

“Oswald had nothin’ to do with me decidin’ to wait a little bit before getting that relic,” Gregory replied with a harsh sigh, but he leaned into her nudge and she smiled a little as she touched her temple to his in comfort. “There’s just something I gotta sort out first, before I look for that last relic and Freddy’s drive. That’s all.”

“Alright, but remember that me and Oz got your back if you need us,” Cassie told him.

She looked up as Oswald walked up to them, his jacket tied around his waist and a paper towel in his hands as he dried them off from washing up. He looked between them in concern, tilting his head questioningly and looking to Cassie for answers.

“Putting a pause on looking for the last relic,” she said and pointed to the empty space on Gregory’s other side, “Operation: Comfort Sandwich is a go!”

Oswald nodded and hopped onto the bench with them, scooting over to press his own shoulder to Gregory’s in silent solidarity. With him tucked between them it wasn’t long before the smaller boy let tension bleed out. “So, that’s all three of your arcade machines fixed up,” Oswald began casually, bringing up the repairs to give Gregory a new topic to latch onto. “There’s still a lot of parts leftover that can be used in case of breakdowns, so I stashed them in the back room you have here before washing my hands. I’ll ask my dad to help me write out a bill so you can give it to your mom, okay?”

“Yeah, that’ll be good. Thanks, Oz,” Gregory murmured with a grateful smile. “And I promise, next time, I’ll remember to bring Mike’s stuff for you to look at.”

“Ah, no rush,” Oswald remarked with a shrug, “Doesn’t look like Fazbear Entertainment is in any hurry to pull some weird trick on us or this town, so we probably have time to focus on other stuff. Like actually making those new animatronics for the old Fazband to get installed into.”

“Oh, yeah, we can do that,” Gregory said in a more lively tone, warming up to the idea, “You guys’ll actually help me rebuild them?”

“My dad was a Fazbear technician, so I know how to use some of the tools, if we can get our hands on Fazbear Entertainment tech,” Cassie told them proudly, puffing up her chest, her hands on her hips.

“I can fix broken stuff and find compatible parts pretty easy thanks to my dad teaching me stuff,” Oswald added with a grin, “And we can always do some dumpster diving behind this Pizzaplex place for any parts to start building with.”

“Yeah,” Gregory agreed, sitting back on the bench in a more relaxed pose, “I still gotta get back in there anyway to try and get the rest of the Glamrocks’ programming chips.” Oswald made a face at that and Gregory chuckled. “Shouldn’t be too bad in there. It’ll be a big mess, but Circus Baby hijacked control of the network so everything should be offline except for the Glamrocks.”

“Then let’s plan for a trip to the Pizzaplex!” Cassie exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air as the boys cheered with her, one excitedly, the other with a lot less exuberance. And if she was right, maybe working on the old Fazband for a little while will refresh Gregory’s determination to get that Freddy drive. At least, she hoped so.

[bathic]

13. Never warm, never implicitly inviting.

Word Count: 6.7k

Chapter Warning: Sexual Content, MxM, Physical Violence, Angst, Unhealthy Relationships, Toxicity, Minor Fluff.

The corridor ended in an opening to a large, circular room with planked walls of dark wood that shuddered and shook as if racked by passing chills. You eyed the boards closely, catching the smallest slivers of the same fleshy pink that the tunnel Yunho and Wooyoung had guided you through.

“Sit.”

San stood at the end of a table, the plate and bowl and mug deposited on the surface. His tone left no room for arguments, and yet you still managed to find one.

“Do you seriously think I would sit and eat after everything you’ve all done to me?” You scoff, staying rooted at the entrance to what you gathered in a quick once over to be a dining hall. Three tables sat in the center of the room, arranged in a peculiar manner with a single corner of each touching. The one your food sat on had a singular bench facing outward. Actually, all three of them did. If filled by bodies, two of the tables sitting opposite of each other would allow the ability for its occupants to be in full view of one another. The third table almost had a sense of higher ground. Nothing paralleled its position, instead it was the head that looked on at either of its flanks.

“Sit.”

“No. It could be poisoned, something I wouldn’t put past any of you of doing.”

You watched the way San’s nostrils flared, gloved hands tightening at his sides. And then he raised the closest one to the table, grasping the bronze handle of a spoon submerged in whatever was in the bowl. He refused to look away as he raised it, the juice sloshing a bit over the sides, towards his mouth that parted to quietly slurp it back. You shifted on your feet, an uncomfortable feeling biting at the back of your ankles. San lowered the eating utensil to briefly scoop up a small portion of the rice on the center of the plate and followed the same path as the soup to his mouth. Then, did he look away.

“Eat.”

“Why?” The question came out weaker than you wished but the need to still fight burned like a hot coal in your chest. It wasn’t like you were safe, nothing and nobody here could be trusted.

San sighs, “Because our food supply runs thin. Wasting what little we have means bringing us one step closer to starvation. And now that an extra ration is to be added to the preexisting eight, that’ll make the stock deplete quicker.”

Perhaps a bit of compassion could be spared in that moment, unfortunately it wouldn’t be coming from you.

“Why the hell should I care if any of you starve to death?” Did he seriously think you would actually feel sympathetic to their dwindling resources when they not only abducted you but proceeded to threaten your life left and right? You gazed at him like he was the most pathetic creature you have ever had the displeasure of looking upon.

The harsh words that spilled past your lips caused an ugly furrow to tug at his brows. He settled his sight on you once again and it was nothing but a reflection of contempt. What an awful thing to say to someone who could easily shatter your jaw with just a single punch. Was that what you wanted? For him to completely pulverize your face until nothing was discernible, to create a gaping crater of broken teeth, shattered bones and fleshy mush. He could, his hands were already itching to rearrange that scowl you were giving him.

You startle when his hand suddenly slams down onto the table’s top, rattling the dish ware from the force.

“You either sit and eat or I will escort you back to the captains' quarters. And don’t think I won’t let him know about your refusal to cooperate. One thing you will learn very quickly is how he absolutely loathes insolence.”

“I would rather stand here and rot into the floorboards than to sit at the table belonging to a bunch of psychotic freaks and eat the slop provided out of self-righteous pity.”

It was venom pitted against acid; potent poison laced in every word. San moved like a leaf in the wind, wings fluttered open and enlarged enough to drown out the warm lighting of the dining hall. Even in the shadow that he cast, you could make out the raw odium in his one eye. An untapped hatred. Oh, he was far beyond the point of anger.

The first step he took felt like the whisper of a blade against the skin on your throat. Just a light pressing, but a threat all the same. It promised for more. The next step, hollow yet loud, had you backing away. The corridor at your back was far more inviting in its shrouded darkness than the man slowly stalking towards you. Perhaps it was the lighting or the way his wings puffed out like the feathers of a peeved off chicken, but you could have sworn he almost seemed to grow in size.

“Stay away from me—“

You shuffle further back when his snails-pace progress is doubled, nearly toes to toes with one another. Something collides with your back, or you manage to run right into it in your blind attempt at putting more distance between the both of you.

“What’re you doing?”

Curiosity never blended well with danger and yet the person at your back, who’s large round eyes you met over your shoulder and instantly recognized as the same ones belonging to a certain visitor back in the brig, was every bit of that.

~

Mingi’s head turned at the sound of the door opening, watching with squinted eyes as Seonghwa slipped into the room wordlessly. From below him, Yeosang stirs slightly but remains in the throes of slumber.

“Seonghwa?”

“You’re still awake.” Wasn’t a question, wasn’t meant to be one.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

Both of them were shying away from the elephant in the room, choosing to creep around the subject out of their own selfishness. Mingi wanted to know what had happened but couldn’t stand to hear how awful (because he knew what his beloved was like— they all did) Hongjoong must have been and Seonghwa was still reeling in his anger. He didn’t want to lash out at the younger, knowing it would be misdirected. Mingi didn’t deserve that, even if his wing-bound was a royal asshole.

Seonghwa retreats to his armoire, exchanging one article of clothing with another until he was dressed in his nightclothes and the previously worn were deposited into the basket at the bottom of the closet. Mingi’s eyes watched his every movement, head laying back down onto Yeosang’s chest. Every meticulous movement seemed to lull a weight over his eyelids.

“Seonghwa?”

“Yes, Min?”

Mingi shifts a bit, curling further into Yeosang’s side while the other man lets out a sleepy huff.

“Will… Will you tell me what happened?”

There’s an audible sigh in the dimly lit room, the oil lamp sitting on the nightstand on the opposite side of where Mingi laid hardly provided enough light to make out the shape of the older man. But it wasn’t needed, he was already at the foot of the bed, tired eyes looking softly at the way Yeosang slept and Mingi attached to his side like freshly tapped sap.

“No. It’s not important, go to sleep.” Seonghwa moved to the lamp, snuffing out the flame with a turn of the wick. The room fell into complete darkness.

Mingi feels the bed shift and the covers that are thrown over the two already tucked in are tugged a bit in the older man’s pursuit of comfort. He doesn’t want to drop the subject, curiosity gripping at him like his own hand on the handle of his less-than valued dagger.

“Seonghwa—“

“What?” His tone is spread thinly within the darkness.

“I just want to know—“

“I’m tired, Mingi. Please, snuff out your curiosities and go to sleep.”

It goes quiet again but there’s a tension feeding over an invisible bridge across Yeosang’s sleeping form. Mingi shifts a bit, raising his head and his hand from the chest he was using to rest on. He had to seek out Seonghwa in the dark. If he doesn’t, he’ll remain restless.

“No more questions, promise. But a kiss, perhaps?”

Seonghwa sighs, his eyes staring at the blanket of black obscuring where he knows the ceiling panels are. Mingi wasn’t such a simple creature, but he always asked for the simplest things when his grandeur was denied. It wasn’t like answering his questions would have been such a difficult task to do but Seonghwa couldn’t continue swishing around the bitter acid in his mouth that the situation put there just to appease his mate. But he could compromise.

Mingi waits patiently when he hears the bed move and the covers shift and the micro sensation of the older man’s body heat barely gracing the moth fuzz on his face. Plush lips meet plush lips in the dark, soft and warm and gentle in their caress. Mingi sighs, hand patting around blindly for any trace of Seonghwa’s skin to latch onto. But he comes up empty handed and Seonghwa retreats back into the unknown space on his side of the bed. Mingi can’t withhold the whine from his throat, lips tingling and craving more than was given.

“Good night, Mingi.”

His disappointment is swallowed in favor of returning back to Yeosang’s chest, staring absentmindedly into the dark where he hopes Seonghwa is laying.

“Good night.”

~

Hongjoong’s in the process of unbuttoning his shirt when there’s a round of steady knocks at the door. The pipe he had been smoking earlier hung lazily between clenched teeth, small puffs of smoke escaping with each noiseless exhale. He fingers a few papers sitting on the surface of his desk before giving a loud enough grunt when the knocking continues.

“Fucking enter or leave.”

The door creaks open and a figure slips in without a word.

“What’d you want? It’s late and I’m too tired to deal with anymore of your nonsense.”

Yunho leaned against the wood of the now closed door, watching his captain pluck a paper from the desk, give it a little aimless chuckle before balling it up and casting it off to the side where the roaring fireplace crackled with life. Clouds of smoke separated into a haze around the man’s head, spreading thin yet wide.

“Mingi’s not here?”

“Does it look like he is? Sent ‘im off to Yeosang’s bed for the night. Had things to do and couldn’t be bothered with a clingy little moth in my way.” Hongjoong doesn’t turn when he speaks, rather keeping his attention on the insignificant documents begging for his approval. He hated one-sided deals, most of which taking up space on the wood were just that. Bargains upon bargains in which he’d be given less than half any share. Might as well polish dirt.

Yunho pushes off the door and approaches with steady footsteps. He counts each one in his head— not too many to be mistaken for eagerness but none too little to give way of hesitation. Either one will be sniffed out by Hongjoong in a mere wings beat.

“Good. That’s… good.” The taller’s tone was his worst enemy. Even more was his audible swallow right after.

Hongjoong turned slowly, dark eyes immediately hooking into Yunho’s beaten skin. “Why’re you here, Yunho?”

“I just…” He falters, both in voice and steps. “I just want to help you get ready for bed. I know it’s been a rough turning of day for you.”

“Has it now? And I wonder whose fault that would be, hm?”

Yunho continues forward until he stands toe-to-toe with the man who had bludgeoned him in the brig just hours ago. The man he loves. The man he vowed to love until his wings ceased to function and the last of his days were under the moon’s watchful eyes. Hongjoong’s head tilted up, not by the distance of height but by the gentle finger beneath his chin. The pipe he had between his teeth was removed by the other hand belonging to Yunho and laid to rest atop the papers.

“Not entirely mine but I will admit my faults and make amends for my mistakes… if you’ll let me.”

Hongjoong betrays nothing of his thoughts, just stares without a word up at Yunho. He didn’t need to, not really. Yunho knew he was expecting him to do what he said he would, no point in barking out more orders. Moments like this are when the captain is the easiest to love. Fleeting as they are, but all the same.

Yunho’s finger drags slowly down and across Hongjoong’s jawline, dipping over the curve of it and further descending along the side of his neck.

But that is as far as he makes it, or rather that is as far as Hongjoong allows him to go. A strong grip latches onto Yunho’s wrist and wretches his touch away from the older man’s flesh. There’s something calculative in his eyes, like he was trying to figure out the best move to make. One that’ll be entirely in his favor.

“A bit bold of you to come in here and assume that you are forgiven just because you bat your pretty little eyes and whisper pitiful machinations at me. And touching,” Hongjoong shifts his hand to merely hold the same finger that trailed an unseen path along his skin, the padded tip peeking out from his curled fist. “Did I strike you so hard that you’ve lost all common sense? Are you stupid, Yunho?”

Yunho could only swallow, the lifeline he had held onto had grown slick within his hands and was sliding out of his hold faster than he could grasp. The ground beneath him would do him a proper service by opening up and swallowing him whole. Hongjoong watched the way his Adam’s apple bobbed, the sudden nervous shake of his eyes bringing a satisfied smile to his lips.

“Oh? Did you really think you could fool me, Yunnie?”

Wooyoung’s favored pet-name sounded completely wrong falling from Hongjoong’s curled little grin. Usually, it was bathed in a soft playfulness, a comfort akin to a favored blanket. But from the captains' lips did it sound uncannily saccharine, a false pretense of what it should be but rather a poorly placed mask. Yunho knew he was doing it on purpose, making it obvious that the endearment wasn’t spoken out of the same love that his wing-bound would have done.

“No, that’s not… that isn’t what I was trying to do. Truly, I just wanted to make amends for my carelessness during the mission and for the… not birdling situation.”

“Making amends would fall into the same grave as vying for forgiveness.” Hongjoong releases Yunho’s finger but quickly scoops up the same hand and guides it with an almost calm insistence to the buttons still holding his shirt together.

Yunho exhaled heavily, “Then let me do both. At once… together.”

One button, two buttons, three and four and the count got lost between wandering hands and pressed lips. Hongjoong had his arms thrown around Yunho’s neck, boots forced onto the toes and chest pressed bare to the taller man’s clothed torso. Yunho knelt slightly, knees cracking a bit under the stiff position to wrap one arm around Hongjoong’s waist while the other crawled under the back of the captain's shirt to grasp at his warm skin. Hongjoong always seemed to have a fire lit beneath his flesh. Never warm, never implicitly inviting. But hot, smoldering, luring anyone in who got close enough to the wild exuberance without being scorched to nothingness.

Yunho lifted the other like he weighed little less than a rucksack filled with spindles of worm-silk. Long legs crossed from the disoriented desk in the captain's office to the private sleeping quarters where the oak door riddled with the past gnawing's of termites eased shut by the heel of Yunho’s boot. Hongjoong had slithered a ringed hand into dark strands, fisting their softness until the younger groaned. A sound so satisfying that the captain just had to hear it again— and thrice more after that.

“Please— if you keep doing that, ‘m afraid my legs won’t be able to hold neither of our weight.”

“That so?”

Hongjoong had a salacious twinkle in his eyes, paired with the flush gracing his skin against the orange glow of the oil lamp nearby and the swollen pout swatched in a delicate red, Yunho could feel his knees giving small warning jitters that he was quite weak already.

But that didn’t matter, not when Hongjoong descended once again onto Yunho’s lips, rendering every single nerve ending in his scalp to the tips of his toes utterly useless. Tongues dipped and curled and tasted around the edges of teeth and across slimy gums, meeting in the epicenter of moisture ridden heat to undulate against one another until saliva rose like the entrapped water lurking far beneath the city of lights. Yunho set Hongjoong down at the foot of his bed, parting with an awfully wet smack that roped off into a tethered string attached to both of their lower lips.

Something in the way the captain looked at Yunho made him feel wanted in the worst of ways. Underneath long lashes was a beast in wait, teeth aching to sink into supple flesh and tear apart every inch of untouched soul.

“Finish your amending, Yunho.”

Had he been a stronger man, had he never left his beloved alone after the minor argument they had, choosing to stay and fix it rather than leaving Wooyoung to sleep on with heavy heart, had he chose to remain in that room instead of here with his mate looking up at him like he was just another object in his possession— realization that reconciling required more than just a prurient approach to mend the unstable situation between him and the captain would have kept his boots by the door of his own quarters. Instead, they were kicked off across the wooden floors of Hongjoong’s bedroom where another pair joined and the littering’s of leather, linen and cotton branched out to connect each article of clothing together.

Hongjoong’s soft moan fades into a breathy laugh, head knocked back while Yunho’s lips birth irregularly shaped bruises across the column of his throat. In his lap was the barest form of Hongjoong, sweat spread lightly over the curves and contours of his body lit aglow by the oil lamp. Yunho could almost swap out the horrible man from the brig with this erotically lust-drunk creature swaying atop of his cock. In a way, this was a completely different person. Someone who reflected his most vulnerable state without hindrance, unashamed of the whines and eyerolls and desperate pleas for more and more and more.

“Does he know you are here? Fucking me, warming my bed while his remains cold. What a— oh fuck— what a terrible lover you are.” Hongjoong’s at his ear, enticing moans intertwined with salacious commentary. But it was true, Yunho left Wooyoung to sleep alone after another petty squabble to come here and bury his cock in their captain. The same one that held no mercy when bludgeoning his face and torso. It was wrong to not care but the man didn’t, not for his wing-bound, not for himself.

Yunho’s hips bucked upward in a round of steady jolts, cock sheathing to the hilt from a halfway point that left the remaining length inside of Hongjoong. He couldn’t really part from him, a note of possessiveness of having his captain under his large warm hands, in the cradle of his arms and impaled on his member. Not even the reminder of the bruises on his face, the swollen mess of his eye or any of the cuts and splits of his flesh could compare to the throes of passion he was drowning himself in. All for Hongjoong, all for his beloved captain.

~

You swivel away from Jongho like he had held a lit cigarette against the back of your arm, nearly slamming into the entrance frame of the corridor. He looked at you then at San and then to the plate of food sitting untouched on the table.

His head tilts and a pout tugs his lips forward, “Not eating? Better not let captain find out.”

“He won’t. Not unless you keep your mouth shut.” San was stiff, eyeing the sudden appearance of his mate like he came bearing all sorts of wicked omens.

Jongho’s gaze flits back to San, his wing-bound, and the stirrings of something mischievous flutter within his chest. Oh, how he loved to see his beloved bothered, teetering on the fine edge of glass by his own hand. Nothing soothed his soul more than knowing that he was upset by his presence, his meddling.

“Are you threatening me? Your mate?” His attention drifts to you, pressed tight against the dining hall entrance. “Can you believe that we are bound both by soul and the very blood pumping us alive? You’d think with the way he speaks to me that he hated me. Isn’t that interesting?”

You had nothing to say, and even if you did it wasn’t like the situation would be proper enough to spit it out. Jongho looked at you like how an unruly child looks at a shiny new toy, the promise to yank and pull and handle without any sort of care gleaming within his round eyes.

“Why are you here?” But San wouldn’t let a second of barely held control slip further from his fingers.

The question makes the younger’s eyes roll, having heard enough of it all-hours in passing. Was he not allowed to be anywhere, around anyone? For fucksake he felt like a fly stuck against the sticky tassels from above— the thought halts and the stirring in his chest amplifies.

Once again, you are in his sights. “Didn’t you say you were from above?”

How he knew that was beyond you, a detail within a conversation you didn’t have with him let alone anywhere near him. It causes an uneasy feeling to creep along the back of your neck, like the tips of spindly fingers just barely catching against your skin.

“I didn’t— not to you.”

Jongho looks contemplative, eyes adverting to an undisclosed spot on the ceiling. San takes the short opening to draw near, close enough that he could reach a full arm's length towards you and the fabric of his gloves would brush against your arm. A butterfly effect almost ensues, you, having seen the movement, tries to sidestep further away which immediately captures Jongho’s attention once again and upon seeing his lover attempting to grow closer, makes the decision to suddenly grab a hold of you all the easier.

“Running off so soon? And without having your dinner that was not only prepared just for you but also carried all the way here, so you had someplace to eat that wasn’t on the floor.” You shudder in his surprisingly constrictive grasp, leaning away when every word he spoke into your ear was accompanied by a blow of warm air. “Maybe you should have it on the ground, yeah? I’ll tip every last bit of it for you to lick up like those beasts running wild up above. You know, the ones that howl at the moon.”

“Jongho.”

San’s warning tone did nothing to the younger man, rather Jongho seemed to ignore him altogether.

You writhe around like a cat caught by the scruff, legs kicking back and nailing any part of his legs that you could land. There’s a gathering of spit in your mouth, and surely if you stood where San was then you’d appear to be frothing as if ridden by rabies.

“Let me go! Let me fucking go you crazy piece of shit!”

“What a mouth you’ve got there. But if you insist. Have it your way.” Jongho releases his hold right when both of your legs are kicked up into the air, unceremoniously dropping you onto the floor. You hiss at the pain shooting up from your backside, but it doesn’t compare to the sudden hand carding through your hair and fisting the matted and dirty strands at the roots.

Jongho yanks your head back, peering down at you like a child would when stumbling across a funny looking bug. His smile is disarming, rounded cheeks and small little squared teeth with plenty of pink gums. You scowl, trying to ignore the fact that your head was throbbing from the source of his hand.

“I don’t think those beasts can talk. Should I help you with that as well?” He thinks for a moment, “Maybe some other time. Right now, you should have your supper. Come along.”

The man takes a step forward and with the next one proceeds to drag you by the hold he has on your hair, treating it like a leash on a dog. You curse, hands immediately flying up to his own, scratching and digging into his skin in hopes that he would let go. But he didn’t, rather he would pull and tug you along while you fought with what little energy you have left. Your feet were useless, not having enough grip to dig into the floor. San watches on silently, jaw clenched, and fists balled at his sides. He knew he should step in, make his beloved cease his torment but a part of him that kept his boots rooted reminded him of your disobedience and apathetic behavior towards him and his mates.

Jongho stopped at the side of the table where your food sat, untouched (only slightly) and probably cold. With his unoccupied hand, he takes the plate with the bowl and topples it over onto the ground. Vegetables, mush and congealed soup with meaty bits splatter across the wood, even so much as splashing onto your jeans. You can’t flinch away with the grip still wedged within your hair.

“Isn’t that better? Now you can properly enjoy your meal as intended. I’ll even assist you further.”

Another strong yank and your head is brought face-to-face with the spilled slop, hands slipping through the soup to try and keep yourself from face planting into it. But that wasn’t good enough for Jongho. No, he wanted to see you pressed into the mess you’ve created by being ungrateful. His hand lets your hair go and relief is immediate, enough to have you sighing. But you realize rather quickly (or maybe not as quickly as you wished) once you begin to raise your head away from the floor that you’ve made a wrong move.

“Uh-uh, down you go.”

Something hard collides with the back of your head and sends it slamming into the food riddled ground. Your face is squashed onto its side and whatever it was that hit you remained pressed to your head, keeping it pinned in place like one does to a specimen.

“Get— off—“

You claw at the wooden panels beneath like it would help but it only caused your fingertips to burn.

“What was that? Shouldn’t you be eating?”

Jongho’s boot presses more firmly down against your head, the sound of your muffled cry bringing a satisfied smile to his lips. San couldn’t watch anymore, head cast down and to the side, your wet pleas for help-like nails on a chalkboard. You felt humiliated, like a dog who’s pissed on the floor after holding it for far too long, knowing that the action will only lead to trouble and the consequence for it is to be shoved face-first into the yellow puddle while harsh obscenities are thrown like darts at a dartboard.

“Please— ‘M sorry— I won’t do it again—“

What exactly won’t you do again? Refuse to eat? All of this just because you were cautionary against your captors. Is that not normal behavior after being forced against your will by strangers to god knows where? It’s not like any of them have been particularly welcoming, if anything you could probably count on both hands the amount of threats they’ve spewed at you and on your toes the actual physical harm they’ve done. This was madness, and all because you didn’t trust them or their intentions (which were made blatantly clear by that bastard captain).

“Sannie? What are you— Jongho, what the fuck are you doing?!”

San lifts his head just as Jongho turns his, both meeting Wooyoung’s wide eyes from the dining hall entrance. He was a bit disheveled with sleep still clinging to his nightwear and ruddy cheeks. His hair was mussed into a messy nest with strands sticking out here and there. But his eyes, despite clearly having just woken up, were more awake than the rest of him.

~

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sosorry.”

After cleaning up the kitchen for the night (and whipping up an extra plate for the not-birdling), Wooyoung dragged himself to his shared quarters where he hoped Yunho would be waiting. There was much to be said but when he opened the door and saw his wing-bound sitting on the edge of their bed, beaten black and blue the only words he could get out between the sudden onset of sobs is ‘I’m sorry’. Yunho welcomed the hold of his lover with his own awaiting arms, both wrapping each other in an embrace that spoke far more than words could. There was love, reassurance, guilt and forgiveness.

And what didn’t pass through their mutual holding was exchanged in fleeting kisses— one pressed here and there, a little chaste, a bit of teeth, soft, soothing, adoring. It happened between the shedding of Wooyoung’s clothing and his redressing, tender and gentle. But Yunho didn’t escape from his own attire, refusing when the younger tried to undo the ties on the front of his trousers.

“You… You aren’t staying, are you?”

Wooyoung hated the bitter feeling clawing at the back of his throat. Even more when Yunho’s eyes adverted while he excused himself to instead fluff the pillows on Wooyoung’s side of the bed. Even after all of sediments shared, his mate was still planning on being anywhere that wasn’t with him.

“Just going for a short walk. Seeing if, you know who, is still down in the brig.” Yunho avoids every attempt that Wooyoung makes to make eye-contact until he grows restless enough to let out a strained laugh.

“Seriously? You never care about anyone who ends up there.”

Yunho runs a hand through his hair, a bit out of nerves and a bit out of frustration. “She wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for us. There’s a difference between that and the slugs that wish to do us harm that end up in those cells.”

Wooyoung frowns. He knows Yunho is making up a lie to where he is actually running off to, almost like he knows that if he revealed his true intentions the younger would throw a fit.

Seeing his beloved growing upset causes Yunho’s face to soften. He hated keeping things from Wooyoung, giving half-truths and evasive answers but if his wing-bound knew that he was planning on sharing Hongjoong’s bed tonight (even without the captain himself knowing) than Wooyoung would put up a fight that would probably bring the walls down in their shared space.

“Youngie—”

“I hate that you feel like lying to me is the best thing for you to do.” He looks at Yunho with an unreadable expression, one that makes Yunho wince. “I know you better than anyone else does, better than you know yourself, Jeong Yunho.”

Wooyoung buries himself under the covers of their bed, back turned to his mate out of pettiness. Yunho winces again at the use of his full name, very rarely was it ever used especially by his beloved. Perhaps it was a mistake to leave and seek out the danger in the dark but deep down he wanted to taste that heat, that fire promising nothing but to consume and ruin him into nothing.

Hesitantly, Yunho bends over the bed with one knee sunken into the mattress, to place a soft apologetic kiss to the side of Wooyoung’s head. No words are exchanged further, and Yunho is gone behind the closing click of their private quarter's door. Wooyoung lays in the quiet stillness until it bears down on him too much for him to handle. The tears bubble and flow down his skin and soak into the neckline of his sleep shirt and pillow, some even slipping between his parted lips as he sobs uncontrollably into his hands.

He wept and wept and wept until his tears soothed him into a sluggish slumber, the only comfort he had, the only thing that would remain stuck to his skin even after he aroused an indiscernible amount of time later. Still alone and still crying.

Perhaps he should go for a walk himself. Clear his head of his heartache, banish away the somber thoughts for the night.

~

Wooyoung’s eyes flit from San to Jongho to you, with your face still squashed against the spilled food and floorboards, boot heavy against your head.

“Wooyoung, what are you doing awake?” San looks over Wooyoung, from the tear trails staining his skin to the puffiness lining his eyes. He quickly drew the conclusion that his mate had been crying, something that bothered him immensely.

“Me being awake isn’t important— what the hell are you both doing to her? Jongho, remove your fucking boot from her head!” Wooyoung rushes over to Jongho, socked feet shoved into wonky looking slippers that have most definitely seen better days. That’s all you could see, were his slippers.

Jongho pouts when Wooyoung shoves him away, his boot removed from your head. You let out a shuddered sigh, shakily pushing yourself up onto your knees. The feeling of cold soup and meat bits against the side of your face threatened to draw a gag out of you. Even the smell had gone pungent.

“Explain— one of you! Whatever the fuck this is, right now.”

“It’s nothing, Wooyoung.”

San’s failure to give an actual explanation only made the other man more upset. But why? It wasn’t like he owed you anything, not like you’ve been the most personable person since he and Yunho brought you here. Not even beforehand, had you displayed even an inch of niceness. But maybe his anger wasn’t from this ordeal, most of it had to have been from his squabble with Yunho. The sour feelings left on a bitter open edge. However, that wasn’t exactly right either. He was still angry with his beloved, but he was very much ticked off by what his other two mates were doing to you. Because despite him wanting to believe he really didn’t owe you anything, Yunho’s words from earlier did dust off the truth. You wouldn't be here if it wasn’t for them. You wouldn’t have been thrown in the brig or faced Hongjoong or forced under Jongho’s boot if it wasn’t for his baseless accusations.

He did owe you. Even if a little bit.

“Nothing? Do I look stupid to you? This clearly isn’t ‘nothing’.” Wooyoung turns with a hiss, eyes narrowed.

San looks away at that, a tinge of shame crossing his features. Maybe things did go too far, and he was too blinded by his own minuscule grudge to see that.

“It really isn’t that big of a deal. She refused to eat, so I gave her a warning. Could have been worse,” Jongho pauses, looking down at you with that passing gleam in his eyes. “Hongjoong could have found out and she’d be dealing with him… again.”

You scowl, lunging towards him with your hand balled into a fist. You’ve had enough— of him, of the rest, of Hongjoong, of this awful place, of the pit. Your momentum is sluggish enough for Jongho to evade with a casually sidestep and Wooyoung to grab ahold of your flying arm without hardly moving from his spot. Fuck, you were exhausted.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t really care. But you will do yourself a favor and clean this shit up before Hongjoong finds out you’ve wasted food just to torment her.” Wooyoung hauls you up by your one arm and then maneuvers it to drape across his shoulders. You can’t find it in yourself to shove him away, like that last bit of reserved adrenaline had completely wiped you out.

“I didn’t waste—“

“Shut up. Mops in the closet over there with the bucket for water. Dry rags are on the second shelf.” Wooyoung turns away, barely acknowledging San as he passes.

“You’ve been crying.”

“You should probably help him.”

You keep your eyes downward as Wooyoung leads you out of the dining hall and down the corridor bathed in shadows. He takes a left and another left and a right and you wonder if you are in some kind of maze. But that’s probably just your exhaustion settling over your brain, a thick impenetrable blanket that ends up stealing away your consciousness before you realize. Wooyoung feels your weight suddenly grow heavier, enough to have him stumble a bit. He looks over at you to see your head bent forward uncomfortably and when he shakes you, it lulls to the side. You’ve fallen asleep or rather fallen unconscious under a dog pile of stress.

He sighs, shifts you around with the finesse of a baby caterpillar, hooking an arm under your knees and around your upper back. The position had to be uncomfortable if you were awake and for him, it definitely was looking at it, but it provided an easier means to transport you. Wooyoung hadn’t a single clue where you were to be sleeping for the night if things had turned out differently for you but for now, he was going to return back to his room with you cradled in his arms and hope that either you spare him your wrath when you wake up or Yunho— he bites the thought in half. No part of him wants to entertain anything pertaining to his wing-bound at the moment. If Yunho shows his face in the morning with an argument ready on his tongue than Wooyoung will gladly sever the muscle right in half.

Oh, those tears weren’t even worth shedding. Staining his skin and pillow, leaving behind the evidence of a breakdown worth absolutely nothing.

════════════════════════════════════

Masterlist

[cowgurrrl]

If I Ever Were to Lose You

Pairing: Joel Miller x fem!reader (plus platonic Ellie Williams x fem!reader)

Author’s note: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DO NOT WANT TLOU2 SPOILED FOR YOU (also I was going to wait to post this but I like it so it’s getting posted 🥸)

Summary: “Perhaps, somewhere, some day, at a less miserable time, we may see each other again.” - Vladimir Nabokov [1.1k]

Warnings: spoilers for tlou2 that’s all I’m gonna say, all the feminine rage, poor Tommy

The day is going by slower and slower as the patrolmen search for them. You knew Tommy and Joel were on patrol together, but they were supposed to be back by now. Ellie, Dina, and Jesse formed the groups before you could even wake up. You trusted him to take those late night/early morning shifts, you had no reason not to, but now the pit of anxiety is solid in your stomach. You would probably be throwing up if you had anything in your stomach. Maria tries to get you to eat, but you can't. You can't do anything until you know Joel and Ellie are safe.

Before the Outbreak, you heard stories of wives waiting for their husbands to come back from war. You listened to them recount nights of dread and fear. You sympathized with them when they told you the prayers they whispered despite never believing in God. They just needed to beg for their lives. They needed someone to hear them. And it still wasn't enough to bring their husbands back alive. You never thought you'd be like those wives who said prayers into non-believing hands, but here you are.

He told you not to go. He told you he had it handled. He told you it was fine, and you believed him. You've trusted Joel with your life before but always struggled with trusting him with his own. He could be reckless and get tunnel vision, especially when protecting his family. You've argued about it more than enough times. You thought he knew to keep his mouth shut and his head down, so he came home alive. You thought he knew the rules. You thought he could handle himself.

You hear the footsteps coming up the porch before you see the people. Maria calls after you as you rush out the front door to see Ellie standing there, blood dried to her face and hoodie. You don't think twice before wrapping her in your arms and crying with relief. She barely returns your hug, her weak arms shaking around you. "Who did this?" You ask when you pull away, putting your hands on her face. Ellie's not all there, that much, you can tell. She has the same faraway look in her eyes that she got after she killed David. She can't even look at you.

Tommy clears his throat behind her, and that's the first time you see the men standing on your porch. Tommy's bloody and bruised too, but he's alive. The rest of the patrolmen stare at their snow-covered boots, dried tears staining some of their faces. You search the faces three times and feel your body tremble when you can't find Joel.

"Tommy," you say, your voice breaking on the second half of his name. "Where is Joel?" Ellie flinches at your question and flees from your arms, retreating into the house. Bombs could've been falling from the sky, and it wouldn't have made you look away. Tommy says your name softly and tries to put his arms around you, but you push him away. "Somebody, please tell me where my fucking husband is!"

Two patrolmen step to the side to reveal the body bag they had been carrying. Your knees buckle under you. Tommy holds you up and says something in your ear. You think you hear Sarah's name but can't understand him over the ringing in your ears. You can't see anything except the black body bag in the snow. "Let me see," You say. The patrolmen look to Tommy like it's his decision, and you lose a piece of your sanity. "Let me see him!" You yell. Slowly and hesitantly, they unzip the bag and reveal Joel or what's left of him. You think they expected you to flinch or to run away at the sight of his body, but you don't. You drop into the snow next to him and stare at him. You reach for his hand and hold it tightly in yours, like the warmth from your body will be enough to breathe life back into his.

"What happened, baby?" You ask him, kissing his cold hand. The glint of his gold wedding band catches your eye, and you feel like you could shatter into a million different pieces. It's dented and stained with blood, but he's wearing it. He never wore his ring on patrol, but he wore it any other chance he got. He must've fallen asleep with it on and never taken it off this morning. He died wearing the ring you put on his finger, the one you used to promise you would love, respect, and honor him until he died. Until this moment. Except, your love doesn't fade looking at him even now. You squeeze his hand and sniff as tears fall into the snow next to him. "You said it was fine. You told me. You fucking told me you'd be home for dinner," you sob. You faintly register the patrolmen around you kneeling, but you can't look at them. You can only look at Joel. "I would've gone with you, you stubborn bastard, and we would've come home. We're a team. I should've been there. I should've… oh, God."

Your head drops to rest on his chest, and you scream so loud that the mountains seem to shake with the force. You don't care who hears. You want the earth to rumble with the depth of your grief. You want time to stop for everyone else the way it just stopped for you. Joel died, and you weren't there. Joel died, and you didn't get to say goodbye. Joel died, and there was no way to protect him after you promised him you would always have his back. You want more time. You deserve more time. He deserves more time.

You cry for a long time. Nobody tries to pull you away from Joel or soothe you. They just bear witness as darkness tingles at the base of your spine until your tears stop and you pick your head up. You kiss his hand one more time before laying it back down and holding your palm to the place where that big, soft heart used to beat.

"Who did this?" You ask. The patrolmen don't move or speak until you hear familiar footsteps approaching you.

"It was a kid. She couldn't have been much older than Ellie." Tommy says, and that makes you wince. Of course, Joel would soften for a young girl like Ellie. Of course, he would let his guard down around her. Of course, that would be his downfall.

"Where did she go?"

"She's a kid."

"That's not what I fucking asked you, Tommy," you stand and turn to face him. His Adam's apple bobs when he sees the deadly look in your eyes. "You tell me which way she went so I can rip her eyes out of her skull and then come back and bury my husband."

"I…It was a group. You can't take them on by yourself." One of the patrolmen speaks up, and your jaw clenches.

"If you make me repeat myself one more fucking time, we’re gonna need more body bags,” you snap. “Where. Did. She. Go.”

⛳️

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Tag list (that I forgot I started): @evyiione @nyotamalfoy

[liberalk1tsch]

10 first lines

rules: share the first line(s) of your last ten published works or as many as you are able and see if there are any patterns!

ty @adsosfraser for the tag lol

seeing as many of my published fics have been scrubbed from the internet due to my mother stumbling across my wattpad in 2014 and forcing me to deactivate my account (i can’t blame her — i was 12 and hoping i’d get sold to one direction), i don’t have many that are actually public🫣🤗

so here’s a few published mixed in with unpublished/wips

1. Sparks Fly: (everlark, published, finished)

The frosty air around me has long since stolen the warmth from my hands and the once-steamy flask of tea they grip tight. My body is stiff all over, as if my muscles themselves have frozen in the harsh January weather. If a predator were to attack me now, the odds of me walking away unscathed are miniscule. I should get up, get the blood flowing through my veins. I should do so many things. Say so many things . . . But instead I sit, still and silent as the first rays of dawn begin to break over the horizon and the calls of birds begin to split through the trees.

2. Made of Ashes: (everlark, published, wip)

I slide a hand down to my swollen belly and stare at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather of my boots. A few yards away is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood. Over there was the kitchen table. The bricks of the chimney, which collapsed in a charred heap, provide a point of reference for the rest of the house. How else could I orient myself in this sea of gray?

3. Cruel Summer: (everlark, published, wip)

I try to scream, but no sound escapes my throat as my head is shoved under the surface of the slimy, foul-smelling water of the Capitol’s underground tunnels. I thrash against the two sets of hands holding me down, but it’s no use as the eerie, smiling faces of Coin and Snow swim into my vision.

4. The Loneliest: (everlark, temporarily re-unpublished, needs reworking and planning)

I grip my father’s hand tightly, dreading the moment I know he’s going to let go and push me towards the line of all the other 5-year-olds already forming outside the classroom door. It’s my first day of school, and I know I should be excited, but all I feel is an anxious pit in my stomach.

5. Exuent: (mrs. everdeen x mr. everdeen origin, unpublished)

I slump my head in my hands, the scorching summer heat starting to get the better of me as I shift uncomfortably in the apothecary stall. I hate summer. Really, truly hate summer.

6. untitled gtb (unpublished, NOT sparks fly related, peeta’s pov)

I find her laying on the sofa for the fourth morning in a row. Not eating. Not sleeping. Just . . . staring. At what, I have no idea. But her gaze is fixed on something outside the window.

7. untitled victory tour wip (playing with calling it temporary fix) (yes i have a fixation on them getting caught sneaking away and the whole «nights on the train» thing, idc) (unpublished, peeta’s pov)

“You wanna get away for a bit?” I whisper softly into her ear as the song we’ve been dancing to fades into another. She has that artificial, inauthentic smile that doesn’t quite meet her eyes. The same one she always uses whenever we have an audience. The same one that’s fallen ever so slightly with each question she’s had to respond to, every congratulating compliment she’s unwittingly received.

8. untitled random wip i started and never finished for my friends: (everlark, smut)

I wake with a start, but it's not the usual nightmares plaguing me tonight. The symptoms of a nightmare are all there — my thundering heart, my body breaking out in a sweat, shaking uncontrollably, my throat hoarse from crying out. But then there's the heat in my stomach I connect only with those kisses with Peeta in the cave.

9 and 10 are 5sos and 1d fics that somehow survived the wattpad purge by hiding in my google docs but will be remaining nameless and sentence-less bc i should not have been writing those things as a 12 y/o💀

anyways, they’re unnecessary — the common denominator is that i’m a Certified Yapper who might enjoy narrating a little too much

tagging: literally anyone who feels like it😅 i’m tired and can’t think of anyone rn

[cosmicjoke]

Winter

Winters in the Underground are bleak.

It’s the drafts, Furlan knows, coming in through the holes in the caverns roof, the ice melt which sinks down through the sewer grates, and flurries of fat, freezing flakes of snow. There is no sun to melt it as it carries on the strange currents of wind which suck down like a vortex into the open space, blowing endlessly through the dark tunnels of their world.

Isabel hates it. Complains constantly about how cold it is, shivering and shaking as she tries in vain to warm herself by their pitiful firepit.

Levi bears it like he bears everything. In silence, grim faced and unreadable.

Though, sometimes, Furlan catches the tremble in his small hands.

This year is worse than usual.

There’s a famine up above, apparently. No rain during this last spring resulting in fields of dead crops.

It’s well hard enough getting food down here, even when things up top are thriving.

But people struggling for food on the surface meant people starving to death in the Underground.

It’s been hard for everyone, even the three of them, who usually did a descent enough job staying afloat, thanks, mainly, to Levi.

But these last, few weeks, they’ve had to take to scrounging through the gutters in hopes of finding some tossed out and molding piece of bread, or wilting, days old vegetables, just to get by.

There’s no food. The merchants from the surface willing to come here, few and far between as they are, have all packed up their stalls and left, and whoever’s left has nothing to sell at all, stands left bare and empty, their owners gone and out of sight.

Levi had managed to hit one of the fleeing merchants about a month back now and steal a sizable sack of dried goods from him, and they’d been living off that ever since. But, between the three of them, even with Levi skipping meals and leaving the bulk to Furlan and Isabel, much to their dismay and protests, they’d finally bled the haul dry, and now they had nothing.

Each new day was weighted with uncertainty, then, as to whether they would eat or not.

They all knew what starvation felt like. They’d all been through it.

That didn’t make bearing it any easier.

It didn’t make the pain, or the fear, go away.

And the cold was only making things so much worse.

It was fucking freezing, even holed up in their little space as they were, clinging to each other for what little warmth they could share. Levi has his arms around both of them, drawing them against his sides as they hunch with their heads together in front of their meager fire, and Furlan can feel Levi shaking just as violently as he and Isabel.

Through the thin material of Levi’s shirt, Furlan can feel his ribs and the ridges of his spine. He’s lost a lot of weight, from skipping so many meals these last weeks.

“… I’m gonna’ die, ain’t I?” Isabel’s voice breaks the pressing silence, dried and cracked and barely more than a whisper.

Furlan feels Levi stiffen.

“Don’t be talkin’ like that.” He scolds her, his own voice barely seeming stronger. “You ain’t gonna’ die.”

“… B-but I’m so hungry, B-Big Bro, and… and I’m cold. Oh, God…”

“I know. But ya ain’t gonna’ die, Izzy. I wouldn’t let that happen. Alright? You trust me, don’t ‘cha?”

“Y-yeah Big Bro. Yeah…”

Levi’s arms squeeze tighter around them, and the room goes silent again, but for the pops and crackles of the fire.

Furlan squeezes his eyes tight and bites the inside of his cheek ‘till he tastes blood.

He knows Levi means it. He means it when he says he isn’t gonna’ let them die. Knows Levi would give his last damned breath to keep both him and Isabel going. But… strong as Levi is, it doesn’t amount to much when there just isn’t any food to be had.

Shit… they might have to resort to trying to catch rats soon, if things don’t improve.

Furlan doesn’t think Levi would eat a rat. He doesn’t think Levi could bear it, twitchy as he is about disease and filth and the like.

Something to do with his mother, Furlan thinks, who Levi told him died from disease when he’d been a child. He hadn’t said more than that; Levi rarely spoke about himself at all. But Furlan can guess at the ugliness of the thing.

“… I’ll go out and look for somethin’ to eat. You two stay here.” Levi says after a while, and he starts to stand.

Furlan is slow to react, his energy sapped almost to nothing, and it takes too long for Levi’s words to process. By the time they do, Levi is already wrapping his cloak around his shoulders.

“Levi, wait…” he starts to protest, beginning to stand. “you can’t go out there now. It’s too cold. You’ll…”

“Stay here Furlan. You and Izzy keep holdin’ each other, try to stay warm. I’ll be back soon as I can.”

“Levi, please, you could die out there…”

Levi just shakes his head, starting for the door.

“I’ll be alright. I’m strong Furlan. You know that.”

“Y-yeah, but…”

“I’ll be fine. Stay with Izzy. Don’t leave. Don’t come after me neither. Alright? I’ll be back, soon as I can.”

Before Furlan can lodge any more protests, Levi is gone, the shabby wooden door creaking shut behind him, and Furlan feels what’s left of his energy drain outta him as he sinks back to the floor. Isabel throws her arms around him, burying her face against his shoulder.

“H-he’ll be alright, won’t he Furlan? Big Bro’s the strongest, s-so he’ll be alright. Yeah?”

Furlan puts his arm around her, laying his cheek to the crown of her head and holding her tight against his side.

“… Yeah.” He promises, and wishes he felt as confident as he forces himself to sound. “He’ll be alright.”

//

Levi doesn’t come back ‘till almost four hours have gone by. Isabel had fallen asleep, somehow, and Furlan had been grateful for it, because he’d been starting to grow sick with worry, more and more convinced with each second that past that something horrible had happened to Levi.

He didn’t know what they would do if something happened to Levi.

He didn’t know how they would survive.

But then Levi walks in through the door, carrying a heavy looking sack over his shoulder.

Furlan stands immediately from where he’s still sat by the dwindling fire, stumbling forward a step, before coming to a halt partway, eyes wide.

Levi’s got blood on his face, a thick smear of it coated across his brow, over his eyes, running from what Furlan can see is a large gash, just a little above his left temple. Gaze dropping to his hands, and Furlan sees Levi’s cut up and already swelling knuckles.

He’s been in a fight, then. A bad one, from the looks of it.

Furlan can’t help the words which spring unbidden to his tongue, a tight, sick knot in his gut.

“What happened?”

Levi looks dolefully back at him, silent.

It wasn’t that Furlan was surprised.

Levi was rough stock. He came from some kind of hardship extreme even from down in this place, and for a long time, violence was his only friend. The only thing he could depend on to make it from day to day. Furlan knows that. He knows. Even though Levi rarely spoke about his life before he met him, or Isabel. You could hardly miss the scars littering the kid’s hands, or all over his body. Knife fights, long, gnarled ropes of raised, white skin, some clean and straight, some jagged and twisted, like whoever’d done the cutting meant to make it ugly as possible. There were starburst shaped patterns of raw, too smooth skin on his chest, parallel in place on his back, and Furlan knew those to be entry and exit wounds from bullets.

Yeah, Levi was rough stock, and he’d made his way before mostly through fighting.

That was the thing down here, in this place. Predators picked off the weakest looking prey, and Levi was small. Just a tiny kid. The top of his head barely reached to Furlan’s chin. Hell, Furlan knows, when he’d first seen Levi, he’d thought like everyone else. Short, scrawny looking kid, should be an easy mark, even though, by then, there’d started to be talk of a scrappy little midget who could take down men twice, three times his size, even. And like everyone else, Furlan had wanted to see if the rumors were true.

Well… Levi was rough stock. He was fucking terrifying. Stronger than any man Furlan had ever seen. He’d felt it, one time. How strong Levi really was. One time, when a guy from a rival gang had come charging at Furlan, ready to sink his knife into his back, and Levi had caught Furlan by the arm and jerked him outta the way before it could happen. In his panic, Levi’d grabbed him hard, harder than he’d meant to, Furlan knows, and the power in his hands, in his grip, had stolen the breath right outta his lungs. He could break bones with his bare hands. Furlan knew it then sure as he knows his own name. And then that’s what he did. He took hold of the man who’d tried to put a knife in Furlan’s back, and he’s crushed his hand. Mangled it, ‘till he couldn’t hold a knife, or any other kind of weapon, ever again.

You didn’t fuck with Levi.

That’s what kept Furlan and Isabel safe. Because everyone knew. You try anything with them, and it was Levi you’d bring down on your own head. And you didn’t fuck with Levi.

Unless you were the MP’s. They fucked with Levi all the time, ‘cause they fucked with everyone, down here, and ‘cause they knew Levi wasn’t fool enough to kill no government workers. That’d draw attention. That’d get people from up above involved. And Levi was always telling him and Isabel, it was best not to get people from up above involved, ‘cause they had money, and money gave ‘em power, and they could take everything from them. Levi was always saying. They could take everything.

Furlan’s eyes catch on the sack over Levi’s shoulder. It’s one of those stitched potato sacks, starched white, and printed out in bold, black letters across the front, are the words “Government Property”.

Well, shit…

“Levi… what happened?” Furlan asks again.

Levi slides the sack down, lying it gentle onto the floor.

He doesn’t say anything as he kneels down on one knee, starts undoing the tie round the bags end.

“Levi… did you kill military police?” And even as the words leave him, Furlan feels a dizzying horror in his head, threatening to black out his vision. If Levi killed police, then…

“… I didn’t kill ‘em. Just roughed a couple up. They ain’t dead. Just socked ‘em, some.”

“Levi…”

“They did me first. I… I tried talkin’ to ‘em Furlan. You know how I ain’t good with no words. But I tried talkin’. I told ‘em I could do stuff for ‘em, if they was willin’ to spare some ‘a their food. They got… all this food, Furlan. More ‘an they need. It ain’t fair. It ain’t right, down here, what you got people starvin’ to death, droppin’ dead in the streets from starvin’, and cold. I told ‘em Fur… I said…”

“Levi, alright. It’s alright.” Furlan says, keeping his voice even and level.

Levi got like this, sometimes. He got emotional, like this. He kept himself so even keeled most of the time. Was most of the time so reserved. He only got worked up like this when he was real upset about something.

Levi sniffs, wipes the back of his hand against his nose, and keeps working at the bags tie. He gets it open after a minute, and starts pulling what Furlan can see are dried goods, mostly. Crackers, standard military rations, some cans of beans. Stuff like that.

Levi’s hands are shaking.

“… What did you tell ‘em you could do for them, Levi?” Furlan asks, even though he doesn’t want to.

Again, Levi says nothing, just keeps pulling the goods from the bag.

There’s a lot.

Enough to last ‘em several weeks, Furlan thinks.

Their lives are saved.

“Levi, you didn’t…”

“I said, ‘cause, like… you know.” Levi cuts him off. “I said I could do ‘em some jobs. If they needed anything, like… like, I could steal stuff for ‘em, or what. You know how good I am at that stuff Furlan. You know, ‘cause I’m small. I can sneak into any place. You know it, right?”

Furlan nods.

“Sure do, Levi.”

“Well, but then they got to laughin’ at me. And one of ‘em says, he says, what I could do for him is suck his dick, ‘cause I’m… ‘cause he says, I’m the perfect height for it. And they were laughin’ at me Furlan. And I got mad. So I beat ‘em up, and took a bag. They got dozens ‘a bags, Furlan. They won’t miss just the one.”

“… Okay.”

“They were laughin’ at me Furlan. They… they used to laugh at Mama like that. I remember. They used to laugh at her just like that. I got mad.”

“Okay.” Furlan feels his heart sink.

“But I didn’t kill ‘em. I just socked ‘em good.”

“… What happened to your head?” Furlan tries, and Levi blinks at him.

Furlan points to his own head, near his temple, and he sees understanding come into Levi’s eyes.

“… Yeah. I socked the one who said about my height, and the other one came in and hit me with his billy. Caught me good too. I almost went down.”

“God, Levi…”

Levi shakes his head.

“But I kept my feet. Kenny says to me, you gotta’ keep your feet, no matter. No matter what they hit you with. So I kept my feet, and I socked him too. I just knocked ‘em cold Furlan. I didn’t kill ‘em, so you don’t gotta’ worry none about that. Don’t worry none. Only, maybe we’ll have to move soon, in case anyone comes sniffin’ around. Them MP’s don’t like to be stolen from. You ask me, they’re the ones stealin’. There’s people starvin’ to death in the street, Furlan. There’s little babies dead out there in the cold.”

“I know, Levi.”

Levi looks at him, and his eyes are, for a moment, so damned hurt, that Furlan has to look away.

Fuck…

“Well, I gives some ‘a what I stole to some poor lady, ‘cause she had a baby, Furlan. I lied, before. I’m sorry. I took more than one bag. I… I took a couple. And I gives one to some poor lady. Don’t be mad, Fur. We gotta’ eat. You know that. We gotta’ eat.”

“I ain’t mad Levi. God, I ain’t mad at ya.”

And he isn’t. He can’t be.

Fuck, Levi just had too much feeling in his heart, and Furlan couldn’t ever be mad at him for that.

It got sometimes so he could hardly stand to look though, for all the hurt Levi had in him. All the hurt he had for everyone else.

People didn’t know, ‘cause Levi was rough stock, and he grew up learning to keep it all in, pressed down so nobody could use it against him. He kept it all in, usually. But when he got like this, there it was, plain as anything, all that feeling and hurt he carried around inside him for everyone else, and sometimes Furlan could hardly stand to look.

He couldn’t imagine what that felt like, to be carrying around all that hurt, keeping it all inside like that.

“… Yeah? Well, alright then.” Levi says and starts up emptying the sack again.

“Say, Levi, that can wait ‘till later. I should clean up that gash you got on your temple. Okay? Fix up your hands too.”

Levi keeps unpacking the canned goods for a moment, before he stops, rubbing at his nose again.

“… Okay.” He finally agrees, and Furlan feels an almost dizzying relief.

He has Levi sit down along the bench in what they’ve designated the living area of their small hovel, and tells him he’ll be right back, going to fetch a bowl of water and some clean rags.

They’d filled a couple wooden buckets with water a few days ago, when the ice stopping up the well a little ways from their place had final broken enough apart, but they were gonna’ have to get more soon. Assuming the well hadn’t frozen over again. It probably had. Furlan tries not to think about it. Getting drinkable water down here was almost as hard as getting food, now.

He sees Levi’s removed his cloak, finally, as he makes his way back towards him, and he’s got his arms crossed against his chest, his hands stuck in the pits of his arms. He’s shivering, and Furlan knows he must be freezing, though Levi won’t ever complain about it.

Furlan knows better than to make a fuss about it either. Levi never liked anybody fussing over him.

Instead, Furlan just takes a seat across from him and sets to work, cleaning his wounds.

The gash along his temple is pretty bad. Might even need stitches, Furlan thinks, frowning to himself. He tells Levi as much, and Levi huffs, but doesn’t otherwise protest as Furlan gets up to set the bowl of water to boiling over the fire and fetch a needle to sterilize. He needs to add some kindling to the fire to make it hot enough, and Isabel tosses and turns in her sleep, mumbling incoherently to herself, dreaming.

“She alright?” Levi asks as Furlan comes back.

Furlan shrugs.

“Sure. Good as she can be, I suppose. She’ll be happy to see you’ve got us food.”

“… Yeah.” Levi says, and goes quiet again.

Furlan doesn’t say much as he sets to cleaning and stitching Levi’s wound, good as he can, and Levi doesn’t complain, sitting stiff and still, mouth pulled tight at the corners.

“Hands.” Furlan orders after, and Levi dutifully holds them out for him.

There’s scar tissue all over Levi’s knuckles, the skin split and bleeding now. It must hurt, but Levi gives no indication of it as Furlan works, trying to be gentle as he can.

“Alright.” Furlan says when he finishes, letting Levi’s hands go.

“Thanks, Fur.”

Furlan smiles tightly back.

“No problem.”

Furlan packs the materials away, leaving the used rags in the bowl of water to soak for a bit. He’ll have to clean them later, or Levi will get upset.

Levi busies himself by storing away the food items he’d nabbed, and there’s a heavy, comfortable silence which falls over the place.

Furlan wants to ask Levi if he really thinks they’ll have to move again soon, but he knows Levi will let him and Isabel know if they do. If he’s anything, he’s cautious, and keeps his eyes open and ear to the ground. He’ll know if their spot’s been compromised.

Furlan rummages around in their pile of wood bits they’ve been collecting for kindling, throwing a few more pieces on the fire, stocking it and building the flames back up.

“Levi, you should rest.” He calls to the smaller man after a while, watching Levi move restlessly about the space. He’s got his duster out, aimlessly waving it at different surfaces. Even from half the room away, his face looks gaunt, pale and too thin. The circles under his eyes are like dark bruises. He must be exhausted.

Levi stops, but he doesn’t turn to face Furlan, just stands there, staring at the ground.

“Come on, Levi. You can lay by the fire, try to warm up a little. You need rest.”

“… Okay.” Levi at last relents, placing the duster down and making his way to where Furlan and Isabel are lying together. Furlan scoots some to the side and holds his arm out, inviting, as Levi settles down, nestling against him.

They’re quiet for a while, and Furlan stares absently at the ceiling above them as Levi turns, pressing his face against his shoulder.

There’s a thousand and one things Furlan thinks he wants to say to Levi. He wants to beg him to stop doing this. Going out and putting himself in so much danger like that. He wants to thank Levi for it, for taking care of him and Isabel, even at the expense of himself. Wants to find a way to show Levi how much he appreciates it, how grateful he is. Wants to understand why it is Levi seems to care so little about himself in turn. Why he… treats himself like a tool to be used, instead of a person who matters.

Maybe it’s his fault, Furlan thinks dismally. Maybe, because when he first met Levi, that’s all Furlan saw him as too. A tool. Somebody he wanted, so he could use him to move up in the Underground gangs. Somebody who’s strength he coveted.

He was still using Levi for that, in a way. Even though Levi was their de facto leader, he let Furlan make all the plans, let Furlan, ultimately, call all the shots. He didn’t have to. If Levi wanted, he could rule their gang with an iron fist, and there wasn’t anything Furlan, or anybody else, could do about it. But Levi only ever leant his strength to make Furlan’s plans reality, only ever did all the hard stuff, the dangerous stuff, and Furlan let him.

He thinks he shouldn’t.

But he does, and he knows it’s because it’s comfortable for him, this way. Because he’s too selfish to try and change their setup. Because his plans, he knows, wouldn’t even be possible if he didn’t have Levi backing him up.

So he says nothing now, just curls his arms tighter round Levi and Isabel both, lets the silence settle over them as the night deepens outside.