#i just wanna spend like a week of winter break with her and hang out with her

[megwuru]

guys be honest am i a bad person if i don't like my friends

[leclsrc]

reciprocate ✴︎ mv1

genre: 18+, pwp, very very filthy, fem!reader

word count: 4.5k

You have trouble maintaining your vow of Max celibacy when you’re on vacation together. (part 1 here)

nsfw warnings under the cut!

18+ because… sexual tension like tons, dirty talk, masturbating, descriptions of sex, kissing, SEXUAL TENSION.

hope you like it everyone! :) req’d and i was gonna make this a drabble, but it kinda grew. kind of gives way for a part 3, so lmk if u would wanna read thaaat...?

You’re bored more than several times over the dry, chilly stretch of winter break.

With not much to do, you’ve taken to traveling before you settle back into reporting on what different teams are doing to prepare for March. It’s all car prep, helmet design, new advancements, some drama on budget breaches. But that all comes in the condensed end of February, so now you’re wandering around, aimless.

The invite comes after Christmas and before New Year’s. It’s also last minute, and you would’ve normally rejected it, but Lissie had managed to convince you despite yourself, so you text Daniel a thumbs-up, greenlighting his proposition to jet off to Monaco.

“I’m starting to think I should’ve just said no,” you mutter, dumping a bundle of clothes into your suitcase. Across you, equally busy, Lissie scoffs. 

She looks up from where she’s busy folding something, then, “In what universe would anybody want to pass up on a free Monaco trip where we can spend the entire week drinking our body weight in cocktails and swimming it off?”

You laugh, nodding in semi-agreement. It’s not Monaco, you want to tell her. It’s because everybody’s going, even Max. “You’re right,” you say instead, making a show of being excited. 

It didn’t seem the slighest bit sane to be going on a non-work trip where Max was going to be around. Your first tryst, barely a month ago, before the grand prix in Abu Dhabi, had given way to three days straight of retiring to his room, foregoing afterparties, and then, after deciding to go to one, sneaking back off and fucking in his room after just an hour of dancing.

Max is just as insatiable as you are, and it scares you—because it took every ounce of resistance from you to sit him down and affirm the statement that the constant sex was a bad idea. Outside of his room, outside his bed, you two still maintained the same caustic relationship, but the sex became like clockwork, and you could tell it wasn’t the best idea.

“We need to stop the sex,” you’d said, setting it down firmly. “It’s—it’s getting in the way of work.” 

“It really isn’t. You still have no problem calling me out after races and then getting fucked less than an hour later,” he said.

“I’m serious, it is. And if not now, it will.”

He’d shrugged. “Fine.”

“It’ll be easy,” you’d said sharply. “For me, at least.”

It feels like cosmic karma, then, when you’re told by Lissie that Max’s room is beside yours.

—

Almost funnily, Max’s is the first face you see after you’ve settled in your hotel room. You see him first, and then notice he’s joined by Daniel and Lando, at the bar near the beach where everyone else in your little group is hanging out. You make eye contact that you tear away from instantly, willing yourself to ignore him.

Daniel notices you first when you show up to order yourself a drink. “Swam yet?”

“Nope,” you say. “Think I’ll join the girls and tan today.”

“Just glad you finally accepted the invite,” Daniel comments. “Lissie told me you almost bailed for some weird reason.”

Your eyes dart over to Max, who’s drinking whiskey. He’s already looking at you, gaze cutting. You clear your throat and look away. “I thought it wouldn’t be the best idea, but I’m about three drinks away from loving it here.”

The small talk continues, and you even get your drink, but eventually Daniel and Lando are too enticed by the sunset water, running off and yanking their shirts off on the way. You shuffle nervously on the barstool, just two seats apart from Max.

“You’re here the whole week?” He asks, not looking at you. 

“I am,” you say, leveling his tone of nonchalance.

He makes a noise of petty disapproval, leaning back. From where you sit, you get fleeting glimpses of how he looks, and it isn’t helping your vow of celibacy. He’s big, which, while you knew this, still sends a throb of arousal through you. The tight tee he wears does nothing to hide what’s underneath, and his arms give you the impression that he could just throw you onto a bed or slam you against a wall like it’s nothing.

(Two things you could personally attest to, but that’s besides the point.) You’ve only just begun to get used to not having sex with him, but you’re starting to think you should get on the next flight off, because the thoughts creeping into your head of his hands, his tongue—

A cry of your name grabs your attention, and you blink, turning your head. Farther up the beach, Lissie and Lily are waving their hands around, calling you. “Let’s swim!” Lissie orders. “Now!”

“Bit busy there, were you?” Max asks, smirking. 

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” you say, downing the rest of your cocktail and jogging over to your friends. Absently, you hear him chirp another teasing remark behind you—hope you drown. The abrasive remark lets the remainder of your scandalous thoughts filter out for the time being. You’re positive, though, that they won’t be gone for the whole two weeks.

You stop in front of Lissie to undo the clip in your hair when Lily asks nonchalantly: “Why’s Max staring at your ass?”

“Lil, oh m—” You swat her playfully. “Don’t just say things like that!”

“Sorry! Jesus. It was a serious inquiry. Guy’s eyes are glued. Don’t you hate each other?”

You resist the urge to turn around and maybe get in a dig of your own, but clear your throat and shrug. “You’re hallucinating. I’m sure he’ll have some random girl in his hotel room later tonight, anyway.”

You don’t miss the way Lily’s face is still etched with lack of conviction, but you tug her toward the beach anyway, splashing around and playing frisbee with the Daniel, Charles, and Lando. At some point, talk of clubbing arises through the six of you, and at Lando’s insistence, you all agree to meet up somewhere to get hammered later. A warm Monegasque welcome, Charles had dubbed it. 

A sluice of nerves slide across you when you hear Charles relay the idea to Max, and the latter reply with a fuck yes count me in. 

You learn a few short hours later that Monaco lives up to its predestined reputation as a nightlife beast, greeting you with vigor and sophistication. You’d been here before, but mostly for work—the immense drinking, dancing, and occasional drug is still a novel experience. Evidently, though, the drivers have little trouble settling into it, accepting and ordering shots and extravagant bottles like they’re nothing.

You’re off work, you figure, and you have no concrete responsibilites tied you as of the moment, so why not join in? 

Lissie is drunkenly slurring something into your ear, about how some guy is flirting with her but he’s a 6 at best and maybe I should just make out with him to make him feel better hey wait maybe he’s an 8 actually no 9, maybe 9.5 max—no he’s a 10 I’m fucking him bye, and Lily is pissed, likely being taken care of by Alex.

Charles had upheld a promise to remain sober, but said nothing of bringing a girl home, which he’d successfully pulled off just twenty minutes ago. Lando’s obviously busy spinning the tunes at the DJ booth behind you, howling with excitement every time he plays something he likes. Which, you realize, leaves you with Daniel.

You fix the hem of your tiny dress, throwing back another shot. Your tolerance doesn’t allow for alcohol to permeate fast; it goes slowly, and never results in too much of a headache, thank the Lord. You’re pleasantly buzzed, but you want more courage, more gravitas. A timely wish, considering you haven’t quite learned how much of a party monster Daniel is.

He leans in closer. “I bet you three shots of vodka you’re not kissing someone tonight.”

“I’ll take the opposing side,” you say, laughing. “Nobody here is doing it for me.”

“A gentleman’s agreement!” He hollers, waving a passing waiter over and ordering shots for people to share.

Although you’re in a roped off area of the club, there are still people walking around and crowding the area, including a girl who’s seated on Daniel’s lap. She whispers something mumbled and low into his ear, and you roll your eyes at his equally flirty response, pinching her thigh and kissing her neck. 

He turns back to you after, like it’s a casual conversation. “How can nobody ‘do it for you’ in a Monaco nightclub, man?”

There’s a question you can answer, but woefully won’t. You change the subject instead, cupping two shots. “How about you and I just do three shots each?”

“Make it four,” he says challengingly. “And take a hit.”

“Already did, Danny,” you refute. You’d smoked half a joint before drinking anything, not wanting to get too caught up in the crossfade. You’re half sure somebody in the group took molly, but your mouth is zipped all the same. “Come on, four shots.”

“Up, up,” he pauses, thinking. “Two shots of Patron vodka—and two of Clase Azul.”

Agreeing, you search for the liquor on the lit-up table, throwing the vodka back with relative ease and then standing up to do the last two. You stumble when you place the glasses back on the table, shaking hands with Daniel and moving about to shake off the alcoholic taste in your mouth.

You pass by Lando, and he flips you off from his place at the DJ booth, but eventually you meander your way to the bar instead, wedging yourself into an empty alcove that only houses a storage room door. It’s quieter, and here you can start to feel the alcohol in your system. You lean back against the wall, and just as you wished, a guy eventually approaches you.

He’s cute(ish), tall(ish), and charming(ish), and even in your hazy mind he registers as passable and definitely way too drunk and overconfident to be approaching somebody as hot as you. His arm wraps around you, toys with the flimsy strap of the minidress you’d worn today. His accent is clearly touristy and American when he asks, “What, bored tonight?”

“Little bit,” you say lowly, leaning back and letting your lips curl up into a smile. “Nothing is really exciting.”

He hums drunkenly. “I could be exciting. Show you something exciting.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” you say, playing into him. “Tell me more.”

“I could tell you lots of things in my hotel room.” He smiles. “Don’t you want to have fun?”

“She’s had plenty, mate,” a voice unmistakably Dutch says, and pride wells up in you for having had your plan succeed so beautifully. You blink, reaching an arm out to gently push the guy out of the way—and meet eyes with the one behind him. Taller, broader, and evidently more sober than either of you, Max looks pissed (more than usual, at least.) “Piss off.”

“Christ, had I known she had a boyfriend, I wouldn’t’ve approached, man. Let’s all be calm.”

Max waves him off dismissively and approaches you, a glint of concern shadowing the irritance in his eyes. “This some kind of plan of yours?”

The alcohol has begun to rush through you. You’re hot, flushed all over, thinking of all the times you’d been in this position, purposely testing Max’s limits so he could test yours, albeit differently.  

“Dunno what you mean,” you say. Your gaze slips downward, to the big, rough hand wrapped around the glass of whiskey. You want them on you. Then they meet his again.

“Sure,” he says, unconvinced. “You’re having a lot of fun prancing around like you’ve no responsibilities.”

“Lighten up,” you insist boredly. “It’s called a vacation. It’s for letting loose.”

“Are you letting loose enough?” He asks, suggestive.

“Max.” You lean forward, and the movement lets him see more of your chest, or what your dress allows. He coughs. 

“No.” But despite himself, he’s leaning downward, too, his gaze stuck on your lips. “You told me yourself. It gets in the way of work.”

“This isn’t work,” you say, nerves hammering through you.

“Been looking after you all night, it might as well be.” His voice is cold and serious. He steps forward, effectively caging you against the wall with how bulky his frame is. “You need to be careful. I had to pry that asshole off of you.”

“What if…” You trail off, tilting your head back so you’re making searing, unbreaking eye contact. “That’s exactly what I wanted?”

You’re both frozen in place, staring up at him with the kind of coy you only get when you’re tipsy like this. Wide eyed, lip bitten, and dress riding up—this is exactly how Max likes you. Ready for him to wreck. One jerk of his knee in between your legs and you’re his. He considers other options: a light grip around your neck, or even just a hand on your waist would render you weak, too.

“You test me too much, Y/L/N.” You feel hazy from the way he says your name, in the way he always does—formal, professional, like you’re in the paddock interviewing him again. You can feel yourself growing wet. 

But you’d gotten yourself into this mess. You wore this dress, took those shots, let that guy flirt with you in hopes that Max would come over and give you his time of day. Deny as you might, you know deep down this is exactly what you were waiting for. You press a palm to his stomach, feeling the hard surface there, fisting it in his shirt. 

He grunts, lets his hand cover yours. “Schatz,” he says, guttural.

He lets your lips meet, but when you lean in for a proper kiss, he stands back up to his full height. One look in your eyes lets him realize you’re sufficiently sober, and he turns and walks away.

—

A volleyball hits your shoulder for the third time today.

Prior to that, it’d hit your forehead twice, putting an effective end to your beach volleyball winning streak. Beside you, Lando lets out a strangled cry of defeat.

“The volleyball legend is tapping out!” Daniel hoots from a nearby lawn chair, mimicking the racing commentators you’re all familiar with. 

“Piss off,” you say. “I’m off my game, too tired.”

You wave a dismissive hand to Lily and Alex and they flash thumbs up signs. You squeeze a bottle of water into your mouth, needing release from the thoughts plaguing your mind. The events of two nights ago weigh terribly heavy, annoyingly so, on your mind. 

Not Max himself, you argue. His voice. His touch. They’re so irresistible to you. The way he’d grunted out the pet name he reserved for sex, the way his hand was so much rougher, bigger than yours.

Absently, you wonder, if he hadn’t stopped it—what would’ve happened then? He must’ve been resisting his strongest demons to put an end to the flirting like that. Any other time, you think, it would’ve gone differently.

He’d crowd you against the wall, press hot, whiskey-flavored kisses to your neck. He’d drop his glass, uncaring if it shattered; he could pay for fifty of those and then some. You picture his big hands roughly feeling you up, pressing against your panties, asking if you wore them just for him. Mumbling about wanting to taste you, get on his knees and have your pussy right here, for his tongue only. You picture his fingers, nimble, yanking away the lace and pushing into your cunt, kissing your jaw, moving, moving, until you’re fully in an open-mouthed kiss, messy and dirty, just how he likes you. He’d say something mean. Do you enjoy being a slut, letting all these people watch me take care of you? You’d nod. It’s true, you do, humping his fingers and chasing release. You picture his dick, hard and thick, big like the rest of him, pressed against your bare thigh, and—

“Your gelato!” Lissie hollers crankily, waving a cone of coffee ice cream in front of you that’s begun to melt and stick to her fingers.

“Thinking of sum’in, mate?” Lando’s amused, sunglasses-clad face comes into view.

You flip him off and apologize to Lissie, attempting to enjoy your ice cream before you descend into a state of craziness. The beach day passes with additional moments of blank stares, though none to a worrying degree. Most of your friends chalk it up to you waking up late or spacing out thinking of work, thankfully. 

But, at least, you think. At least this just proves that you and Max can stick to your vow of celibacy. Right?

—

Max is never usually one to eavesdrop, but when he learned from Lily earlier in the week that your room was adjacent to his, he couldn’t help but become more conscious of it. Two days of silence, the occasional TV noise, and some stumbling provide nothing, so he’s since stopped paying attention. Between you two, you’re the one always out on the shore anyway, so there’s nothing much for him to listen to.

Tonight is different.

You don’t usually make noise—and he’s generally speaking here. You’re not a loud person. Even with the aid of a mic, your voice is composed, on the edge of quiet, during paddock reports. So why can he hear you so clearly now? The walls are a bit thin, sure, but something else contributes to it.

Something else, like maybe you’re doing all this on purpose.

The shuffling on the other side of the wall grows louder, then he hears your faint, breathy whimpers. He pauses, sitting a bit more upright on his bed, curiosity piqued, anticipates something else. Your whimpers grow louder, passing through the walls with relative ease. 

He could totally tune this out, maybe put on a movie, hell, leave the room for a late night walk or a drink somewhere.

But he’s rooted to his spot, listening intently, wanting to hear more of you. He hears it then, so breathy at first he almost doesn’t. Max.

Your moan. He blinks, feeling himself grow hard. Maybe he didn’t hear it right, but then he hears it again: Oh, Max. Please. Wanna, wanna— 

He palms at his dick through his sweats, swearing under his breath. You sound exactly like you do when you’re underneath him, two lithe hands wrapped around his wrist, begging for release, for his tongue, for his fingers. You’d been so sure, so high and mighty when you sat him down and demanded the sex stop, but here you are fucking yourself on your fingers, moaning his name.

Barely even ashamed, he tugs his dick out, already drooling with precum. He uses it to ease the glide of jerking off. Max, you say again, louder this time, higher. He remembers your conversation clearly, your solemn voice when you told him you couldn’t ever have sex again with the way it interfered with your jobs. The way you slid in a snide remark about how it’d be an easy challenge for you.

He can’t help but be amused, fucking his fist and listening to your moans, growing in volume as you near your climax. He wants to ask if your fingers are as good as his, as his tongue, his cock. He knows you’ll say yes but think the opposite. You’ve always grown so weak around him.

Gonna cum, he hears again. 

He pictures you writhing on your bed, eyes rolling back, fist half-bitten to try and silence yourself. Your thighs are probably shaking, brows knitted together, tongue lolling out—he jerks himself faster, panting, chest sweaty. It’s your last, loud moans that send him over the edge. 

I’m cumming, Maxie, fuck—! He swears under his breath, cum spurting out all over his fist. He catches his breath, pursing his lips, squeezing his eyes shut. Tries to purge himself of his thoughts of how you might look right now and retreats into his bathroom.

It doesn’t work.

—

Lando personal phone 30s ago

Lissie wants her own bacardi and could you get doritos too x

And a box of condoms pls mate xx

“One more Bacardi and a bag of Doritos,” you dictate boredly. Who knew a high profile, all expenses paid vacation in one of the richest countries in the world would still entail the mandatory grocery run? “…And condoms.”

Max turns from where he’d retrieved the rum, a brow raised in question. “Sorry?”

“Lando, not me,” you defend, holding two hands up. You two had been the unlucky pair who drew short straws and were thus stuck with a long list of niche items in an empty convenience store not far from your hotel. Outside, the sun’s already gone, leaving behind traces of orange in an otherwise dark sky. The group had decided to stay nearby and drink instead of going out tonight, since you’d all been at a club basically every other night anyway.

You review each of your baskets. “Seems like this is all,” you conclude, “except the condoms, which we’ll get at the counter.”

“Did Lando specify a… brand?” Max asks, pacing to the cashier. There are already some on display, with varying features and sizes. 

You recheck your phone. “Nope. Just get anything.”

“Alright, then.” Max picks up an XXL condom box and waves it around. “For Little Lando.”

Irritated, you roll your eyes. “Be reasonable, Max.”

“You said get anything!”

“You’re so annoying,” you fume. You catch sight of the cashier looking uncomfortable with the tension between you and Max and figure the situation needs to deescalate. “Okay. Fine. Whatever, just get something reasonable. Put that back.”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘reasonable,’” he says teasingly, clearly trying to push your buttons.

“Just get a standard condom box.”

“What is a standard co—”

“Get the ones you normally use,” you say, realizing the words after they leave your mouth.

The cashier coughs.

Shrugging, Max grabs the familiar box off the shelf and tosses it, emptying both your baskets right after. His face is amused when he turns and you see him again, but you’re both wordless while the payment goes through and you exit together. The car ride back to the hotel is quiet, stuffy, and tense, your arms crossed over your chest and Max’s occupied with both of the plastic bags.

“I’m surprised you remember what condoms I use.” He says with a smug smile when you’re both in the elevator. He’s parked his car on the basement floor, so you need to get to the lobby. You watch the lights signify what floor you’re on, waiting desperately for the ground floor button to glow yellow.

Still annoyed, you humor him despite yourself. “Why’s that?”

It dings yellow right as he responds. “You’re always begging for me to cum inside you, anyway.” 

The doors open but neither of you move. Max watches you grow flustered and take a deep breath. “You’re a sicko,” you declare, walking out. He follows you with a laugh, knowing he’s right.

You meet the group outside the lobby, where they’re already piling onto a yacht, big enough for everyone. It’s ridiculously huge and expensive-looking, bobbing softly by the dark water. Charles emerges from the upper tier and waves to you and Max with a goofy grin.  

After you help spread and deposit the groceries on the table, you walk around, finally detaching yourself from Max’s side. Eventually drinks ebb around the group, shots and crude cocktails that are fed to you like water. Buzzed with warmth and courage, you move to the back of the boat where there’s a ladder to swim, grunting when you find Max already there.

You clench your cocktail. “What’re you doing?”

“Preparing to swim, what’s it look like?”

“Oh.” You pause. “I didn’t know you could swim.”

You down the rest of your drink, leaning against the side of the boat and watching as he sheds his shirt and jumps into the ocean. Some of the water splashes onto you, and it’s cold, sending goosebumps throughout your body. He surfaces, hair darkened from being wet and smile dopey. A few strands of hair stick up. 

“Wanna join?”

“Over my dead body,” you say, taking a seat and dripping your legs instead. 

“The water’s nice.”

“It’s frigid,” you counter. “You should be wearing a snowsuit, dumbass.”

“How mean,” he says, diving underneath and surfacing again. “You’re too chicken, is all.”

Emboldened, by the buzz of alcohol maybe, the music, or—most likely of all—Max’s teasing, you nod. “Chicken?”

You get up, legs dripping, and pull your shorts down, tugging your tiny tank top off right after. You’re left in your bathing suit, and watch as Max’s eyes lock onto your tits, spilling out of your bikini top. His gaze is slow on you, like it’s his first time seeing you like this.

You step onto the cool ladder to avoid jumping, your back turned to Max’s as you feel more and more of your body submerge into the freezing water. You turn, taking a seat on one of the rungs. Max swims toward you, wiping a hand over his face. 

“Not a chicken. But I’m not going any lower,” you say firmly, in the water from the waist down. “It’s too cold.” 

“I’m fine having you like this,” he says lowly, his voice thick with desire. He cages you in, two big hands on either side of the ladder. For leverage, your legs wrap around him. You’re so close together. After days, weeks, of resisting.

You release a shaky breath, staring at him, his shoulders, his hands.

“How’s your vacation been?” He asks, lips near your ear.

“Fine,” you say. “Fun.”

“Bring anyone to your room?” You shake your head; he persists. “So you’ve had no luck there, then?” 

“None at all,” you say blatantly.

“S’that why you’ve been…” A hand leaves the ladder to squeeze your thigh. “Moaning my name while fucking yourself?”

Your eyes widen, blinking, undeniably caught. You open your mouth to formulate a defense but you can’t. “What are you talking about?”

“Aw, don’t be shy, schatz. You were the one who kept insisting we swear off sex, but I think you’re starting to miss me.”

He presses two fingers to the crotch of your bottoms, rubbing softly. It’s enough to let you whimper. “Max—”

“You keep prancing around in tiny bikinis, skirts, tops. Is it on purpose, hmm? I can’t stop thinking about claiming you. On my bed, my balcony, over any surface.”

He quickens his fingers, and you whine. It feels so good, reminiscent of how wicked he is in bed. You picture it—being bent over the side of the boat, his hands big on your waist, cock sliding in and out of you.

“Feels s’good, Max,” you breathe.

“Does it?” He asks, egging you on. You nod, gripping his wrist—your hand’s still circled around it when he yanks it away.

“But remember what you told me? Before the break?”

“I—fuck,” you mutter, frustrated. “Please.”

“They were your words, not mine, schatz,” he says, easygoing as he dives back underwater, leaving you alone and sexually frustrated. You curse lowly. It’s going to be a long rest-of-the-week.

[yankstrash]

prepare to be sick of me but,

i firmly believe gabe will notice when amelia is struggling, and offer to take her on drives around campus to clear her mind, lets her fiddle with his hand that rests on her thigh too

i wholeheartedly promise i could not get sick of you.

he always knows when she's struggling, no matter how hard she tries to hide it. gabe knows her like the back of his hand.

it's finals week and amelia has been doing nothing but homework studying. it's taken a toll on her. she's exhausted, she's stressed and she hasn't had much time for her friends or her boyfriend at all.

amelias in the middle of reading something for a class when her phone starts ringing. she sees it's gabe calling so she moved her textbook aside and answers the phone.

"hi sweet boy!" she says, trying to sound cheerful, but he knows her all too well.

"hi baby, what are you up to?" gabe asks.

"just finishing some reading for class."

gabe sighs and says, "you've been cooped up doing nothing but homework this week. i miss you."

amelias heart sinks at her words. she misses her boyfriend dearly, but she can't help her hectic school schedule.

"i know, it's been crazy. i miss you a lot."

there's a beat of silence before gabes tone changes and he says, "take a break. i have a surprise for you."

"what kind of surprise?"

"go outside and see for yourself." gabe says, smirking into the phone.

taking any distraction she can get, amelia fully closes her book and races out her apartment door.

gabe is standing there with a bouquet of flowers and open arms that have longed for his girlfriend for days.

"wanna go for a drive, pretty lady?" gabe asks.

amelia melts, almost crying tears of joy when she sees her boyfriend.

"please."

she takes the flowers inside and puts them in water, then jumps into his arms on her way out.

"i missed you." she mumbles into his neck.

gabe kisses the side of her head and says, "i missed you, princess. now let's listen to tswift and get milkshakes."

the pair drive around for a couple hours, sipping their milkshakes. once he's finished with his, gabes free hand goes to amelias thigh, it's normal placement when he's driving.

she vents about how much work she's had to do and how many exams she's had to study for. her mind begins to get overwhelmed again, and she mindlessly starts fiddling with gabes fingers from the hand that's on her thigh.

"it's all gonna be worth it, babe. you're gonna rock your exams and then it'll finally be winter break and you can come to my hometown and visit my family and we can spend all the time in the world together to make up for this shitty week." gabe says.

amelia smiles over at her boyfriend, who returns the smile and picks her hand up, bringing it to his lips to kiss it.

"hang in there, baby."

[motownfiction]

pride in a sunflower dress

Lucy breaks out her sunflower dress when she needs help with something, and she’s too proud to really ask for it. She wishes she wasn’t superstitious, but she’s always bought into the whole “lucky clothes” thing. Whenever she has a math test, she wears her bubblegum pink tights. Whenever she has to give a speech, she makes sure she’s sporting purple shoelaces. And when she’s too proud and too nervous to ask someone for help, she wears her sunflower dress, no matter how cold it is.

Today, on a Wednesday afternoon toward the end of March, it’s still pretty cold. Detroit is having a long winter. It doesn’t matter. Lucy’s breaking out the sunflower dress because she needs help, no matter how embarrassed she is to get it. The worst part is that she needs help in school.

No, maybe the worst part is that she needs help from Will O’Connor.

And it’s not that she thinks Will is dumb. He’s not. He’s smart, and he does well in school. He says he tries hard in school to impress her, but Lucy knows better than that. His eyes light up a little too brightly when they have debates in Honors English, and they’re not just lighting up to see her. It’s the kind of spark that only comes with loving what you learn. Lucy usually has that spark for almost anything, except this unit in her mandatory ninth-grade health class. This is enough to make her want to drop out and leave her Ivy League dreams in the dust.

For the past two weeks, the freshmen at St. Catherine’s have been learning CPR and First Aid.

And Lucy is really, really bad at it.

Everyone else seems to love this unit of health class. They think it’s easy and practical. And maybe, for most teenagers, it is. Not Lucy. Lucy would prefer to memorize all the warning signs of heart attacks in men and women. Anything but having to tie a splint for a grade. Whenever she tries, it just falls apart in her hands. She’s a fucking fool.

Will, as it turns out, is the master of First Aid. He says it’s because he’s the second oldest of six children, so he’s had a lot of experience at tending wounds quickly and without many questions. Sam said he was impressive in class, and if Lucy needed a little help, she should put on her sunflower dress and ask.

You know he’s not gonna say no, Sam said. To you or your dress.

So, here she is, standing in the middle of the O’Connors’ living room in her sunflower dress, trying to tie a splint around Molly O’Connor’s left arm. Will stands over her and gives her direction.

“Don’t loosen your hands so much,” he says. “Keep ‘em tight.”

“You wish,” Lucy says.

“Look, do you want my help or not? Because it’s OK if you just wanted to hang out.”

Lucy feels her chest grow warm. She swallows hard and thinks about what she’s going to say. The truth is that this is largely an excuse to spend extra time with Will. They’re friends, and they spend a lot of time together as it is, but they don’t get a lot of time without the twins or Daniel being there, too. Maybe they could if Lucy owned up to being in love with him already. But she’s not sure she’s ready for that. She’s ready for splints. Just not much more.

“Look,” she says. “If I didn’t need your help, I wouldn’t have asked for it. You know how I am about things like this.”

Will looks at her like he doesn’t believe her. Typical. He’s always been good at seeing through her. That’s probably why Lucy loves him so much.

“Right,” he says. “Well, give it another shot. Sorry, Molly.”

“It’s OK,” Molly says. “Do I still get a hot fudge sundae?”

“A promise is a promise, kid. Even if I’m gonna get lazy and wanna break it.”

Molly laughs, and against her better judgment, Lucy laughs, too. She wipes her hands on the sides of her sunflower dress before trying to tie the splint again … before keeping her hands tight, just like Will said she should.

This time, it works just fine.

[silvermuffins]

Morning gossip is something about grab bags...? Apparently there's going to be a winter break. Which might trip up my social links efforts, idk.

Gonna run around and see if the NPCs have new dialogue, then we polish off our link with Mitsuru! That should leave January pretty open for as much as I can squeeze in.

I really hope the Moon link is available during winter break...

Anyway. Time to spend a long time with Mitsuru. We all know what that means, yes? Yes.

God this link is so sweet. "Your name...is more than just a name to me. It's something special. If I were in danger, it would be my last, desperate cry for help." There's something so...warm about putting it that way.

I think Koromaru knows.

Hm, nothing to do tonight. Don't wanna go back to Tartarus, so....I suppose I'll use the lounge computer. Shove some friendship points at Kenji. We want ranks every single day if possible, complete as many links as we can.

Oh, Junpei and Fuuka coming to a decision. Junpei going to Chidori's favorite bench a lot...wah... And it sounds like Fuuka is mending her relationship with her family.

...now. I thought Takaya was organizing a following in December, but I haven't seen much of anything of that in Reload? Did that get cut? Or did it happen in January and I'm just remembering wrong?

....I think I might need to rewind and start moon before the break to make sure he's available, actually, sorry Mitsuru. I need to check if this works....if it does, we'll re-finish Empress first thing once school starts again.

God the Moon link is weird. It's not one of my favorites, not by a long shot, but it's....interesting!

God I hope this does make him available during the break...please, game, don't make me spend the week friendless and alone.

IT WORKED. Awesome, hi Suemitsu you're about to be my best friend.

I think I'm gonna do another Lost count soon. I swear there's more of them. Hmmm, new stuff at the antiques place...I should figure out what I want to have for the grand finale...

Anyway yeah I am basically doing nothing but plot events and hanging out with Suemitsu for a while. Good times. This link is a ride. We went from zero to royal guard pretty damn quick. And also to brotherhood.

Why are we going to moonwalk

Okay okay we keep this train moving because TIME NEVER WAITS IT DELIVERS ALL EQUALLY TO THE SAME END

I'm gonna hit up the velvet room and try to fill out my compendium before I carry on tho

[fandoms-writings]

Stromatolite

Word Count: 1.8K

Pairing: tfaws!Bucky x f!reader

Summary: The first time Bucky sees you, the world stands still. 

Bucky Masterlist || Main Masterpost

The first time Bucky saw you, time stood still. Everything around him blurred out of focus and every sound that tried to reach his ears became muffled. Nothing else mattered in that moment. 

He had agreed to check out the local farmers market with Sam, something about getting him out of his "dingy" apartment. He knew Sam's intentions were pure and out of concern, he had been locking himself away from society and he had to admit, it was getting out of hand. So, here he was, strolling between booths of local fruits and vegetables, handmade candles, and small artists. 

The small lot the market was being held on was packed with all different types of people. There were kids weaving between the legs of their parents, college kids looking for a break from their studies, even large burly men who looked like they belonged in a gang were taking a keen interest in the fresh fruit stand run by an elderly woman. 

"I wanna check out the jewelry stand at the end, I need something for Sarah for her birthday," Sam explained as he pointed to the small tent at the end of the row of vendors. 

The tent was a light purple with little colored flags hanging from its edges. Bucky followed silently, glancing at all of the people they passed. Some were too busy on their phones to realize that Captain America or The Winter Soldier were among them. Others had knowing looks, eyeing Sam with praise, and Bucky with unease. It wasn't anything he wasn't used to by now, but that didn't mean it didn't make him feel any less out of place. 

They reached the booth finally, and the voice that greeted them was like honey and silk in his ears. 

"Hi, how are you two doing today?" He looked past Sam and saw the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Everything around him became white noise - static - as he took you in. 

You were wearing a short sleeve shirt with light wash jeans that hugged your curves perfectly. Your eyes sparkled as you talked with Sam about the jewelry you made, trying to help him find the perfect piece for his sister. He watched your delicate hands as you held up different necklaces and bracelets and earrings, and he couldn't help but imagine what it'd be like holding your hands in his. When you let out a laugh with that show stopping smile, his heart skipped a beat. He couldn't take his eyes off of you. 

He wanted to spend forever hearing your laugh, watching as your smile pushed up into your eyes. He wanted to spend hours just looking at you, memorizing every little detail he could. Like how the corners of your eyes seemed permanently creased as your smile never fell. How your eyes were perfectly framed with your lashes. How your lips looked so incredibly soft and the lip-gloss you wore glistened in the sun. 

"Thank you so much for your help," Sam's voice broke him out of his stupor and he blinked rapidly as he tore his eyes from you and stared at the leaf under his boot. 

"Of course! I'm here every week if you ever need anything else," You waved at his friend with that gentle smile, showing your perfect teeth. 

"C'mon man, let's get you back to your dungeon," Sam laughed as he slapped a hand on Bucky's shoulder. 

"You go ahead, I'm gonna stick around, keep checking things out," He muttered, and when Sam glanced back at the girl he just bought a stunning necklace from, a knowing smirk grew on his face. 

"Sure, whatever man," He patted his shoulder before turning to you, "He's a little shy, but he doesn't bite." Sam laughed as he turned back around and walked back through the crowd to his car. 

You looked at Bucky once Sam left and it was like all the air left his lungs. "Hi," you giggled to him. 

"Hi," He gave his best shot at a smile for you, but he could tell you knew he was nervous. 

"Is there anything you wanted to look at?" You gestured to your table, the jewelry pieces glinting in the sun. He stepped forward to look at your pieces. 

"They're all beautiful," He mumbled, glancing up at you, watching that small grin grow on your lips.

"Thanks. Is there anyone in particular you're shopping for?" He shook his head no, as he looked back down to the simple crystal hanging from a silver chain that laid in front of his hand. 

"For yourself then?" His eyes shot up to yours with his eyebrows pinched together. 

"I'm not really a jewelry person. . ." You snorted at that and the confusion only grew on his face. 

"You say that, but you've got the most precious piece of jewelry in the country literally attached to your shoulder," You gestured to his left arm, the black and gold hidden by his leather jacket. He looked to the floor and took a step back from your table. 

"I should get going," He went to turn to make his leave, but a hand on his forearm stopped him. Looking at the pressure on his arm, he followed the arm up to meet your gaze, all humor gone from your eyes, replaced with concern. 

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," You uttered, releasing his arm, and suddenly he missed the feather light weight of your hand, "You don't have to leave, I'm sorry." The apology sent a pang through his chest, it wasn't your fault, you shouldn't be apologizing to him.

"You aren't. . . scared of me?" He asked, watching the corners of your worried frown tip up the slightest. 

"Not at all, you fought alongside the Avengers. Why would I be scared of you?" Suddenly a weight lifted from his chest as he looked down to the leaf still under his boot, and he smiled. 

"Most people are terrified," He looked back to you, your hands on your hips. 

"Well, they shouldn't be," Your voice lost it's laughing tone, and he couldn't take his eyes away from you - again. "If you want, I think I have some black and gold pieces back home, I could make something for you. . . only if you want of course," A nervous laugh escaped you as you fiddled with your hands in front of you, and he smiled. 

"I'd like that." He reached his hand out to you, "Next week?" He watched as the anxiety washed away from your shoulders and you placed your hand in his. Your grip was strong, but your skin was soft, uncalloused, unlike his own, and the second your touch was gone, he found himself wishing he could touch you again. 

The week flew by as he counted down the days till he saw you again. He pushed his way through the sea of people, trying to get to your booth, ignoring the stares that were thrown his way. Finally, that purple tent with little colored flags came into his view and before he knew it, a smile had pushed its way up his cheeks. 

He noticed the way your eyes lit up when you spotted him in the sea of faces, the way you jumped from your chair and leaned down to pull something from your bag. You turned to face him as he walked up to you, your hands behind you clasped around what you made for him. You opened your mouth to say something when you noticed the black and gold arm was no longer covered by a sleeve, and the sun reflected off of it, making the gold shine against the black. You smiled. 

"Wow, I didn't expect to actually see it," You motion to his arm with your chin. 

"I figured I should let you see it so we can see how you did on what you made." He quipped back, the smile never faltering on his lips. 

You laugh at that, "Don't laugh, it might be a little feminine for someone in your line of work." 

"I promise not to laugh," He crossed his arms in front of him, "but I can't promise I won't chuckle." Another laugh leaves your chest as you bring your hands back to your front, still tightly wrapped around the surprise. 

"Here," You hold your hand out, opening it. A small, cleanly cut stone fell from your fingers, held in the air by a simple black chain that was looped around your finger. He reached up, wrapping his fingers around the stone, and feeling the chain hit his hand as you let go. 

"What is it?" He glanced up at you, before holding the stone in the sun to inspect the gold swirled together with black.  

"It's called a stromatolite. Some people believe it can help with emotional healing," You started, "But whether or not you believe that is up to you."

"Do you believe it?" He asked, his hand still holding the necklace up, the sun making it sparkle. 

"I believe that if you think it'll help, then it will." You smiled at him, "Can I put on you?" 

He feels his face heat up as he nods and hands the necklace back. He turns around and leans on the table to make it easier for you to reach up and clasp the necklace around his neck, your hands grazing against his neck and sending chills through his muscles. 

"There you go," You pat his shoulder and he stood from the table, turning back to you, "I think it looks good on you."

"You're just saying that because you made it," He teased, watching you laugh as you pulled out a mirror for him to see himself. 

"Maybe I'm a little biased, but I do think it compliments your arm." He took a small glance in the mirror, the small stone shining against his blue henley, matching his vibranium arm. 

"What do I owe you?" He went to reach for his wallet when you held your hand out with a paper in between your fingers. 

"Nothing, it's on the house. All I want is for you to take me to dinner." He releases his wallet, still in his pocket, and gently takes the paper from your fingers, the tips of his own barely touching yours. 

"Deal," He smiles as he clutches the paper in his fist, "Tonight? How's six'o'clock sound?" 

"Deal, just text me where, and I'll be there," He smiled at that. 

"How about I text you, and you send me your address, I'll pick you up at five-thirty." You nodded with a shy smile that made his stomach do flips. 

"Okay." Your wide grin was replaced with a gentle smile that made your eyes shine. He didn't even know your name yet, but in the hours he waited for the clock to strike five-thirty, you were the only thing on his mind. 

Thank you for reading! As always - likes, reblogs, and comments are always appreciated <3

Divider: @whimsicalrogers​

[miss-owl-eyes]

⋇⋆➶Playing with Fire➴⋆⋇

⋇⋆➶Bertholdt x Fem reader, smut➴⋆⋇

❀𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬❀

❀𝘈𝘖𝘛 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬❀

══✿══°˖✧✿✧˖°══✿══

Content: dry grinding, spooning position, biting kink, marking, risky behavior

♡ 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘵 ♡

══✿══°˖✧✿✧˖°══✿══

It's about time we all got to hangout!" Exclaimed Reiner as he stumbled out of the car, probably slipping on ice. Ymir stepped around the ice patches and got closer to him with a smirk on her lips, "yeah, I'm glad about it too, and seeing you slip like an idiot makes it better."

"Come on Ymir, he's trying his best, even if it isn't working out..." commented Historia, nearly slipping as well; if it weren't for Ymir being next to her, she would've ended up the same as him. You only snickered as you climbed out of the car and onto the snow covered grass, your tall boyfriend following behind you. Reiner, now standing up and embarrassed, dusted off the snow from his jacket, "come on, let's just go inside and forget about this!" You smiled and nodded, shaking your head slightly. The others followed behind you.

It was winter break, finals were over, and you had about three weeks to relax with your friends and loving boyfriend. To celebrate this, Historia and Ymir came up with the idea of renting a cabin to spend time together. You, Ymir, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Eren were friends since high school, and college wasn't entirely too friendly to your group, if anything, it made keeping in touch more difficult. It was a blessing that all of you were able to keep in touch, but thanks to groupchats and lots of video calls, you managed to make it work.

"Okay, we got about 5 rooms, I'm assuming Ymir and Historia are sharing one, Reiner, Bert, Eren, and I can have our own rooms," everyone stood in the main room and listened to you arrange the rooms, no one seemed to object. The layout of your cabin included five rooms, a kitchen with a fridge, microwave, and a few other necessities. The parlor had two couches made of logs and maroon-colored cushions, a wooden coffee table, a chandelier made of deer antlers, and a fireplace. There was a wide staircase that led to the five bedrooms. The interior was very fitting for a cabin in the woods, especially during the middle of winter.

While everybody else was taking off their boots and jackets, Bertholdt walked up to you as you pulled off your winter jacket. You glanced over at him and smirked while he took off his jacket. He always wanted to be close to you, it didn't matter when or why, he just wanted to be next to you. You hooked the hood of your jacket on the wall and smiled at Bert, who only blushes and smiled back in reply. "Come on love birds, I wanna get used to the place!" with a sign, you followed Reiner's demands and sat down on the couch.

Bertholdt followed you like a puppy and leaned over on the couch, listening to the banter of your friends. Everybody was always open and welcoming with each other, when Historia was introduced, nobody really had a problem with inviting her to hang out or adding her to all your groupchats. Everybody managed to get along with each other, even if occasional arguments broke out.

"Come on, I wanna see our rooms!" Historia said with excitement. The others nodded and followed her up the wooden stairs. You opened the door to your room, the walls were dark wood, a painting of deer was hung over the queen sized bed with red blankets. There was a closet with no doors and a mini fridge that doubled as a bedside table next to the bed.

Throwing your suitcase on the bed, you flew yourself backwards and rested against the soft bed. With a sigh, you closed your eyes and rested your arms. This vacation was a good thing, everybody needed to get away from their work and see their friends, it was going to be a memorable experience to say the least. The pleasant thoughts drifted through your head and continued to make you happy as your eyes closed and you began to feel more relaxed and tired.

Your eyes opened to a dark and barely lit room. Your body was sprawled out on the bed in the same position it was when you laid down. Had you taken a nap? Seems to be that way. The outfit you were wearing was far too warm for your liking, sweatpants and a hoodie were too much. At this point, sleep was out of the question, but changing into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt wasn't , and that's exactly what you did.

You still weren't sure if you had taken an accidental nap, so to test your question, you grabbed your phone and opened your door. The only light you saw was the dull shine of the fireplace, the night sky showing through the uncovered windows. You left your room and walked down the stairs with your phone flashlight on, the faint creaking with every step reminded you to be quiet. It seemed as if everybody else was asleep in their rooms, so you had to be careful.

The couch was fairly warm against your skin from the fireplace, inviting you to get comfortable. The warmth radiated from the fireplace against your legs and arms while you scrolled through your phone. "1:35am" read the illuminating screen, the brightness from your screen made you squint. You changed positions from sitting to laying down. You were in comfortable silence with you and yourself, the occasional, faint snoring of the others were the only noises you heard.

While you were peacefully playing a clicker game on your phone, someone's cold hand extended onto your shoulder. You jumped and looked up at the person in fear. A kind and peaceful expression met with yours, "Hey, it's me." "Hello, Bertholdt." His sweet, emerald eyes met yours in the darkness and his large figure leaning over to see you curled in the couch. "What are you doing up? I would have thought you were asleep by now," his voice was sweet and curious as to why you still up. "Well, I accidentally took a nap when I laid on my bed..." you giggled a bit, mostly out of embarrassment.

Bertholdt only smiled at your reply as he moved to sit next to you. You moved forward and patted the spot behind you, offering to cuddle. He obliged and laid down behind you, his head resting on your shoulder and arms around your waist. "Well, I'm lucky I found you here then," he whispered against your neck.

You backed into him and pressed your body against his, adding warmth to your own body. It was always so sweet to cuddle with Bertholdt, his height added a certain charm. Despite his height, he could still cuddle you on couches or in small spaces; he was tall and skinny so it worked in his favor. His favorite thing to do was rest his arms around your neck or his chin on your shoulder.

You noticed that Bert would shift positions occasionally, hearing a soft grunt whenever he got comfortable. His grip also seemed to tighten around your waist when he moved. He rarely acted like this, but every time he did, it was incredibly subtle and easy to miss, but you knew that he was being physically clingy because of one thing: he was horny.

Bertholdt Wasn't the type to initiate sex or anything terribly intimate, you were usually the one to do that. Once you realized what was going on, you moved your hips back and pressed your ass against his crotch, a bulge already growing. His grip tightened once again, causing a smirk to grow on your face. "Oh, baby, you're already hard..." you teased with a sweet voice that was barely louder than a whisper. "I can't help myself, I've been stressed and, well..." his voice trailed off while you moved your hips against him.

"It's okay baby, we can go back to my room and-" "no." He cut you off and held you tightly, "we'll wake up the others because of the headboard, let's so it here," he suggested. This was surprising, especially for someone as shy as Bertholdt. He wasn't ever the type of guy to be into risky sex, it was so out of character for him, but that also made it more tempting. It took a bit of thought, but you agreed to his idea, moving your pants down, "okay, I don't mind doing it here..."

Bert almost immediately repositioned himself to pull down his pants, his cock protruding through his boxers and rubbing against your ass. He held your waist tightly while moved his hard erection onto your clothed ass, groaning at the friction that only added to the pleasure. He seemed almost too eager to pull out his cock when you slid your panties down and spread the lips of your pussy. He may have been shy, but he knew what he wanted and aimed to get it no matter what.

You backed into his chest, making sure you were pressed firmly against him. One of his arms wrapped around your waist while his other pulled his pants and boxers down just enough for his cock to spring out. You arched your back just enough for him to press the tip of his cock against your entrance. The warmth of the fire mixed with Bertholdt's body was the perfect environment.

To spur on your boyfriend even more, you pushed yourself backwards, pushing his cock into you quickly and forcefully. Without hesitation, he pushed his hips into you and tightened his grip around your waist, head buried in the crook of your neck. He groaned and pressed himself against you, moving his hips back at forth at a slow rhythm. "F-feels so good, baby, always so tight..." he mumbled against your neck as he continued his thrusts, slowly picking up the pace.

One of his hands held your waist tightly while he trusted his cock into your pussy desperately. Whimpers and quiet moans were mixed with gentle kisses and bites on your neck were Bert's poor attempts at keeping himself quiet. He was never very vocal in the bedroom anyway, but if he was as needy as he was now, he had a tendency to whimper and moan more than he usually would've. You too were moaning quietly and panting, just as eager for his touch as he was for yours.

His pent-up sexual frustration and stress was released in the form of quicker and deeper thrusts, his tip hitting your cervix often. His chest rose and fell quickly, his hot breath hitting your neck every time he exhaled. He was desperate and needy for you, craving your body and everything about you.

Your entire position switched when Bert pushed you underneath him, your stomach against the couch and him on top of you. He thruster into you roughly, one hand on your thigh and the other on the back of your neck. You gasped when he continued to thrust quickly, barely giving you any time to react or adjust to the new position. "Shh, be quiet baby, don't want the others to wake up..." he whispers against your neck. His breath hitting the rim of your head along with his cock hitting deeper inside you certainly was going to make that a challenge.

Bertholdt fucked you almost animalistically, pushing your front half into the couch and holding your thighs in place. Constant panting and moans came from the tall man above you while he relentlessly thruster into you. He bit down on the back on your neck, sucking and licking the sensitive patch of skin. "Look so good all marked up..." he panted against your ear, nibbling at the lobe and whimpering in your ear again. The only reason he was able to see the beautiful marks he left on your neck was because of the dull light from the fireplace.

Between the breathless pants and slight slaps of skin, the warmth of the fireplace still illuminated your now glistening skin. It felt like the world was just you and him together... until it wasn't. The creak of a door made your eyes go wide. Bert heard it too, throwing himself off of you and pulling you onto your side like you were earlier, his cock still inside of you- he was strong enough to do that effortlessly.

Both of you were motionless as the creaks of the floorboard got closer. Whoever came downstairs didn't turn on the lights, saving both of you from the embarrassment that would've been well known between the two of you.

Bertholdt peaked up and look towards the kitchen, a dim light coming from the fridge; it was Reiner who woke up. He looked back down at you and mouthed "Reiner" to tell you who it was. After you nodded, he looked back up to keep an eye on him. Reiner scuffled through the fridge and pulled out the milk carton and just...drank out of it. Bertholdt watched, mildly disgusted, as he didn't even bother to pour a glass.

While he kept watch, you remained laying down, waiting for Reiner to leave the kitchen, Bert's cock still twitching inside of you, waiting for movement. It was safer to remain still, not getting any attention from anybody who might be half-awake as well. No matter how much you wanted to move, no way in hell would you risk Reiner catching you and Bertholdt fucking. You wouldn't risk, but it seemed as though Bert didn't mind.

He occasionally moved his hips, playing it off as getting more comfortable, but he knew it wasn't. Bert ducked down once again and nuzzled your neck, pushing his hips against yours again. "What are you doing? We might get caught!" You whisper-yelled at him. He didn't reply, he only held his hands against your thighs and moved inside of you once again. "We won't get caught-ngh- as long as you stay quiet..." his words sent lust running through your veins. Bertholdt wasn't one to take risks, this was beyond out of character for him, and you loved it.

His thrusts were slow but pleasuring, teasing you while he poked your cervix. Gentle and quiet breaths against your neck when he wasn't biting and sucking at the crook of your neck. He was desperate for your body, licking at the sensitive bruises he left on your neck. It didn't matter to him that someone was only 20 feet away from catching you two being filthy together, the only thing that mattered to him was you and him.

The fridge door closed and the creaking of the floor approached the couch. You squirmed as a way to tell him to knock it off, but it didn't work, he only hit down on a different part of your neck and sucked. The creaking was right behind the couch and Bert only continued his small and quick thrusts, still biting into your neck hard enough to draw blood. All you could do was pray that Reiner didn't turn around and see you two going at it in the dull light of the fire.

Luckily for you, he moved away and after a few moments, his door closed. The two of you were alone once again. Without a second to process what you just barely missed, you were flipped onto your stomach once again. Bertholdt was rutting his hips into yours quickly, fingernails gripping at your thighs like there was no tomorrow. "Feels too good to resist..." he mumbled while pounding himself into you mercilessly. It took all of your energy to hold back the screams of pleasure he was giving you. The way his cock bottomed out in this position hit your G-spot perfectly, that little bubble inside of you forming as you lost yourself in the pleasure.

One of his hands gripped your waist tightly as he thruster himself into you relentlessly, the other hand intertwined with yours tightly. Whimpers and whines left your mouth while he held back his by biting and marking up your neck. His thrusts were quick and becoming less steady, he was as close as you were. With a pleading look in your best puppy eyes you could manage with your lustful eyes, you moaned, almost whispered to him, "harder baby, please make me cum..."

Bert didn't need to be told twice, his hand leaving your fingers and pushing down your lower back- he knew how you liked it when he took control. The hand that was wrapped around your waist spread your thighs apart, allowing him deeper penetration, while two of his fingers rubbed quick circles over your sensitive clit. Your eyes squeezed shut as you choked back the many loud moans that threatened to leave your mouth, Bertholdt biting his lip and pounding into you mercilessly.

With a few more sloppy thrusts and aggressive movements of his fingers, you were shaking under him, your orgasm coming in quick flutters in your abdomen. Just as yours ended, his began. Pulling out of you and pumping his cock quickly, five spurts of hot cum landing on your lower back and dripping down one of your ass cheeks.

The two of you were a panting and somewhat sweaty mess, your legs were spent after this for sure. While you were still unable to move, Bert wiped off his cum with the underside of his shirt, even pulling up your underwear and shorts for you. You shot him a tored smile and rolled onto your back to look at him. "Baby you know I can do this myself," you whispered. He only smiled back at you. Picking you up in his strong arms and carrying you like a koala. "I know, I know, I just feel like it's the least I can do after... you know..." even in the darkness, you knew he was blushing at the thought of it. You nuzzled your cheek against his chest and closed your eyes before he gently placed you on the bed, closing the door behind him.

Bert proceeded to lay down next to you, pulling the blanket over both you and him and wrapping his arm around your waist, head on your shoulder. "I'm staying here tonight," he stated, but you had no problem with it at all. "You're more than welcome to stay, baby."

[kindahoping4forever]

I Don’t Wanna Spend One More Christmas Without You // Poly!Cashton

@cal-puddies​​ and I want to thank everyone who read/liked/reblogged/left us feedback during our Hoe For The Hoe-lidays event. We keep saying we can’t believe we pulled this off: between our 10 solo fics and this co-write, we posted over 30k words this week! I’m proud of not only that impressive feat but also the work we produced, these have been some of my favorite pieces in recent memory.

We knew we wanted to close out with a Galaxybrain co-write but we weren’t sure which of our lanes to feed. We figured, hey it’s the season of giving: why not both? 😏 In true Cass & Crystal fashion, this started out with us just being thirsty (we wrote the smut first lmao) but ended up being super heartfelt and emotional? Please be sure and let us know what you think, we couldn’t be prouder of this one!

Warnings: Reader x Calum, Reader x Ashton, Calum x Ashton; a relatively new throuple trying to figure out how to express their feelings for one another, filth but make it fluffy, unprotected sex within a triad relationship, oral sex performed on both a male and a female, manual stimulation of both a male and a female, cum play 

Word Count: 9150

Cass & Crystal’s Masterlist  // Hoe For The Hoe-lidays Masterlist

Let  us  know  what  you  think!

“Food’s here,” a voice quietly announces with a rap on the door.

You turn to see Calum in your bedroom doorway, sheepishly mouthing ‘sorry’ when he realizes you’re on the phone. You step over to him and whisper, “I’m almost done, bub,” reassuring him with a quick peck on the lips.

A few minutes later, you follow the sounds of loud laughter and conversation to the living room; you smile when you see Ashton standing there, in the midst of an animated story while Cal sits on the couch, hanging on every word, laughing as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever witnessed. You honestly wonder if maybe it is.

You bounce over behind Ash, throwing your arms around him, nuzzling his back; his leather jacket feels cold against your face so you assume he hasn’t been here long. “I didn’t know we were seeing you tonight,” you chirp.

He chuckles, slinging an arm around you. “I was texting with Cal when he was ordering dinner and it sounded good so I invited myself,” he explains, kissing your forehead.

“Bullshit, I absolutely invited you!” Cal insists, smiling eyes betraying his words of protest. You giggle at their banter and untangle yourself from Ash to serve yourself some dinner. Cal continues his teasing, “The food sounded good, just admit you missed us and move on.”

Ashton sits down on the couch next to Cal and nudges his knee tentatively with his own. “Of course I missed you,” he says simply. The two men exchange sweet, almost shy smiles and you feel your entire being light up with affection as you watch them.

It’d been four months since you and Ash had asked Calum to be a part of your relationship and while the three of you were still individually and collectively deciding exactly what all that means, you were happy and that’s all that mattered to you.

In the year and a half you were with Ashton, it was as intense and meaningful a relationship as you’d ever had - but it was never quite right and you’d split up a handful of times. During one of your “breaks” last year, a friend of a friend suggested that Cal might be the answer to your search for a new roommate. You met for coffee one day and immediately hit it off; you’d be lying if you said you didn’t quickly develop feelings for him but more than anything at that point, you needed a friend and Cal was there for you when it really counted.

It came as no surprise that when Ash started hanging around again, he bonded with Cal as instantly as you did and the three of you became inseparable. You and Ashton reconciled once again and couldn’t help but notice how much more communicative and at peace with each other you were with Calum around. It’s like he had been the missing piece all along, he made everything feel right - and you eventually told him as much.

Which is why you’re struggling so much with the bad news you have to deliver to your boyfriends. You sit on your living room floor, picking at your dinner, going over the dilemma in your mind for the 100th time, trying to find a different solution.

“Darlin’?” Cal’s gentle but firm voice shakes you out of your thoughts and you look up blankly. “Ash asked if you wanted another soda.”

You blink a few times, as if that will reset your mind and bring clarity. “Oh. No thank you, love, I’m good!” You call out towards the kitchen.

“You feelin’ OK?” Cal asks, reaching across the coffee table to stroke your arm. “We’ve been talking about this food all day and you’ve barely touched it.”

You look into his dark eyes, full of care and concern and know you have to be honest with him. “I need to talk to you both about Christmas… it’s not great,” you admit.

Ashton searches your face as he sits back down. “Is your mom alright?” He gently asks, remembering a health scare your family was dealing with when he went home with you last winter.

You offer him a faint, loving smile. “Everyone’s fine… great, even. Uh… my sister is getting engaged,” you share, chewing your lip.

“Oh! ...Oh,” he responds, starting to understand the issue.

Calum looks between the two of you, baffled. “I don’t understand, why is that bad? I thought we liked her boyfriend?”

“We do,” you start, carefully. “It’s just… With this news in mind, I don’t know if it’s really the right time to tell everyone about our relationship now.” You can’t bring yourself to look in Cal’s eyes yet, not wanting to see if he’s as hurt as you fear he may be.

He sits back on the couch, trying to process. “I thought you said your parents would be super understanding and chill about us?”

Ash sees you struggling to find the words so he tries to help. “They would be. They will be,” he reassures Cal with a warm smile. “I think the concern is that an engagement might seem kind of mundane compared to an announcement like ours. What’s more exciting than a daughter bringing home one son in law? How about the other daughter bringing home two?”

“They’d spend the whole time doting on us, making sure we’re comfortable, Facebooking all the extended family who’s coming to visit to make sure no one says anything that might offend us… her moment would get totally overshadowed,” you explain. “And I’d hate that, this is a big deal, she deserves to be The Story.”

Calum listens intently, nodding. You finally catch his gaze and are relieved to see nothing but understanding and compassion on his face. “OK. Well, wouldn't it be better if I just didn’t go at all then?” He offers sincerely.

Your exclamation of “Bubba, no!” blends with Ashton’s soft sigh of “Cal…” and you all have to laugh at the outburst.

"That's not me trying to be dramatic or anything, I just don't want to cause any trouble," he shrugs.

You scoot around to come sit next to the couch. "I've really been looking forward to us spending our first Christmas together," you insist, squeezing Cal's knee. "If you're uncomfortable with coming under these circumstances, I understand but for what it's worth, I would like you there."

Ash places his hand on top of yours, reassuring Calum as well. "The family's already expecting you, just as a roommate," he points out. "Plus… trying to keep our secret could be kind of fun." He winks at Cal, who can't resist breaking into a wide grin.

Your “fun” holiday couldn’t be off to a worse start the next morning when Ashton arrives bright and early to pick you and Cal up only to find you still in your pajamas, rushing to finish getting your bags together. After a few minutes of Ash stomping around, huffing about getting a late start, Cal, peacemaker that he is, offers to help him pack the car while you finish up.

You meet them in the driveway a few minutes later, dragging your suitcase behind you. Ash promptly snatches it away from you without a word and you glare at him fiercely.

Calum appears at your side and holds you by the waist. “You can’t blame him for being irritated,” he says quietly, rubbing your arm. “You knew what time he was coming, you should have been packed.”

“Yeah… but,” you start.

Cal is already shaking his head. “No, darlin’, there’s no excuse. We had a plan, you should have been ready.”

“See!” Ashton says, coming up beside the two of you.

“Well, you don’t get to gloat, babe, you could have handled it better,” Cal chides.

“I don’t like it when you don’t pick sides,” Ash says, coming over to peck Cal’s cheek. He presses his lips to the top of your head. “I’m sorry I was a grouch.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t ready and delayed us 15 whole minutes,” you reply.

Cal pinches your hip. “Passive aggressive much?”

Ash shrugs at you. “It’s coming out of your breakfast time. It’s a 6 hour drive, love.”

“I’m aware, love,” you fire back, helping yourself into the back seat. He sighs as you pull the hood up on your sweatshirt and stuff your hands in the pocket.

Ash huffs as he shuts your door. Cal gently grabs his arm. “Give her a few minutes. We’ll make breakfast quick, coffee and bagels; smother hers in cream cheese, get some caffeine in her and she’ll forgive you,” he reassures.

His prediction is spot on and by the time you’re halfway through your cup of coffee, you’re leaning into the front seat to run your fingers through both of your boyfriends’ hair. “I’m so glad I get to take you both home with me,” you say warmly. “I’m sorry it can’t be exactly what we wanted, but I know it’ll still be special, because we’ll be together.”

The rest of the drive goes smoothly and when you arrive at your parents’ house, the family is waiting at the door for you; after introducing Calum, you’re immediately whisked away by your sister, gushing about the recent trip her boyfriend took her on for their anniversary. You listen quietly and hope your smile doesn’t give anything away, you love that she has no idea what’s coming in a few days.

Your dad loves Ashton and couldn’t be more thrilled that you brought him home again; he offers to help him unload the car and makes a big show of pointing out how similar their leather jackets are, going so far as to make a “like father, like son” joke.

You sneak a few apologetic glances over at Calum, who you hope isn’t feeling too left out in his role of “your roommate” as he makes small talk with your sister’s boyfriend. You feel endlessly grateful for your mother when you see her sit down and start showing Cal all the gourmet vegetarian recipes she’s bookmarked on her iPad, asking what he’d prefer for Christmas dinner; she’s clearly charmed by his shyly polite responses and you fight the urge to go over and kiss over his squishy, crinkly face as her attention continues to make him more smiley and flustered.

While your mom and sister set the table for dinner, your dad and Ash carry the luggage to your respective rooms for you to get settled; you take advantage of the opportunity to break away and check in with Cal, under the guise of showing him the trick to operating the shower in the guest bathroom.

You turn the overhead fan on to help drown out your conversation. “You doin’ OK, bub?” You ask, massaging his shoulders.

He squeezes your hip. “It was hard at first but your mom’s sweet,” he gives you a sad smile. “Guess I didn’t realize how weird it’d be to see you and Ash act like a couple again, since I’m used to seeing you be… whatever we are.”

“The best thing that’s ever happened to me, that’s what we are,” you easily respond, drawing him in for a quick, soft kiss.

He holds you by the hips, resting his forehead to yours. “Thank you,” he murmurs. “You better get out of here before people get suspicious.” He presses his lips to your forehead and you step out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind you.

You spend the next few days trying to make sure Calum doesn’t feel left out. Your dad invites him to join some of the “future son in law” activities he’d planned but Cal is easily swayed to stay with your mom and help around the house. His height and muscle mass are highly desired for decorating or carrying in groceries and he’s so sweet and well-mannered, your mom is just tickled to have him around. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think she had a crush on him.

The day before Christmas Eve, Cal agrees to join the men for lunch and last minute shopping; your mom encouraged him to go because she wanted to make a secret shopping trip with you so you could pick out a few gifts for the family to give him so he didn’t get left out.

From what Ashton tells you when they return, the outing seemed to go well; you chatted with Cal a little that evening and he seemed to be in good spirits, happy with how things had turned out. But you can still sense him needing the affection you haven’t been able to provide; aside from a stolen kiss here and there, you’d barely touched him since you arrived and he and Ash had been keeping their distance so as not to raise eyebrows. What weighs on you most is knowing Calum hadn’t slept alone since the three of you became the three of you and you can see it wearing on him.

Ashton climbs in bed next to you. “Love… who’re you texting?” He asks, already knowing the answer.

“I just want to make sure he’s OK,” you say sheepishly.

“He’s fine, love,” he murmurs, kissing your cheek, then letting his lips trail down to your neck. “You’ve said he’s had fun with you and your mom and I saw him have a great day today. He’s good… now, me on the other hand? I could use some attention.” His lips firmly attach to your jaw and he’s practically laid himself on top of you, hovering.

You giggle at his lack of subtlety. “When do you not want attention?” You tease, pulling him into a hungry kiss. “I’ve been missing you too, Ash. I’m sorry I haven’t been here for you much, I’ve just been worried about how Cal’s handling things and I love my family but being around them is kind of draining…”

He cuts you off with a sweet kiss. “I know, baby… ‘s why I thought we could use a little stress relief,” he flirts, leaning in to mouth at that spot behind your ear that makes you crazy.

You hum with interest and brush his hair off his forehead. “We’d have to be quiet, we can’t have another incident like last year,” you say with a smirk.

Ash pulls back to playfully glare at you. “We’ve gone over this, technically that noise I made was your fault. If you hadn’t done that thing with your tongue, I wouldn’t have cum so suddenly and the incident would’ve been avoided,” he argues, tickling your side.

You try fighting him off to no avail. “My sister did think it was pretty funny… after the initial horror wore off,” you giggle, batting at his hands, trying to get him to let up.

After another minute or so of play fighting, you ���win” by wrapping your legs around Ashton’s body and using them to draw him back over you. He kisses you with a little more emotion behind it than last time, pulling away to whisper, “I’m very happy I get to be here with you.” Your stomach flips at his sincerity and you wrap your arms around his neck, letting your kisses tell him how much you appreciate him.

Things start to heat up and Ash’s hands slide up your sweatshirt and over your hips; his hands are slow to tease you the way they usually do and when you rock against him, you’re slightly surprised you don’t feel him straining against his sweatpants yet. Your fingers travel under his long sleeve tee and dance over his abs to meet his waistband. You’re just about to dip your hand in when he stops you.

“Does this feel weird to you? This feels weird to me,” he sighs, flopping over onto his back beside you. He runs his hand through his long, dark hair, distressed. “Why does this feel weird to me?”

You roll onto your side, curling up next to him. “Well… we haven’t been intimate together, just the two of us, since Cal happened,” you say gently, stroking softly at his chest. “Do you think maybe you miss him being with us?”

“Yeahhhhh, I think so…” He lets out a long exhale, playing with your hand on him. “I just… it’s silly, you and me had sex a million times before we met him and now… I pull away from you and expect to see his eyes smiling at me while he kisses your shoulders. Expect to feel your skin already warm from his touch… expect to feel him warm next to me. Want it, even.”

“Ash,” you pout, touched by how he’s opening up to you, how open he’s being with himself about his feelings for Calum. “It’s not silly, you care about him. It’s not that you and I are suddenly uncomfortable with each other, it’s just that we’re used to more than this now. Need it, even.”

You rest your head on his chest and lay together, quiet and understanding while you both evaluate your feelings. After a while, you decide to lighten the mood, lifting your head up to tease, “A million times, eh?”

Ashton laughs loudly, clamping his hand over his mouth to muffle the noise. A beat passes and he meets your eyes for the first time since this conversation started, giving you an almost shy smile. “Think we could slip him in here undetected?”

You grin at him as you reach for your phone. “I don’t think the three of us would be able to keep it down, so no funny business,” you warn, texting your boyfriend. “But at the very least, we’ll get some alone time, even for a few minutes.”

Ash gets up and cracks the door, waiting for Cal to make his way down the hall; when he appears in the doorway, you see Ashton’s shoulders instantly relax. He gently closes the door behind him and wraps Calum in a tight, warm embrace; you can’t tell what Ash murmurs in his ear but whatever it is, it casts a soft, lovestruck glow across Cal’s features when he hears it.

His eyes meet yours and you open your arms wide. “Come lay with us, bubba,” you invite him.

“But…” He motions to the door, looking unsure.

Ash shrugs, “We can say we’re watching a movie.” He rests his chin on Cal’s shoulder from behind. “What do you say, babe? We miss you.”

Calum relaxes, gently reaching up to scratch at Ash’s scruff. He moves toward the bed but clearly doesn’t know what to do.

“Lay next to me, bub!” You smile, patting the bed next to you.

Ash lets a soft smile cross his face. “Why don’t you get in the middle?” He suggests.

Cal lays next to you and you instantly snuggle into him, throwing your arm across his body while Ash settles in on his other side. Cal wraps his arm around you and kisses your forehead; you look up with a pout and he presses his lips to yours. He pulls away from you when he feels Ashton nuzzle his cheek; Ash looks at him lovingly and gently plants a chaste kiss on his lips.

“Thought we were cuddling, lovers,” Cal whispers against his mouth.

“We are… just wanted to give you affection too,” Ash murmurs.

The three of you lay quietly for a while, Ash’s head next to Cal’s on the pillow and you draped across Cal’s body. His arm is tight around your back while he and Ash shyly play with each other’s fingers.

Ash looks over at you and you watch as his eyes take you in. “Our girlfriend sure is beautiful, isn’t she, Cal?” He whispers, lips gently pressing to Cal’s jaw.

“Gorgeous,” he agrees, turning his eyes to you, sweeping your hair back. Ash leans in to you first for a kiss, with Cal wanting one right after. You sigh, scooting up so you can rest your head in the crook of Cal’s neck, and let yourself drift to sleep. Calum knows immediately, he’s felt your even breath on his neck many times.

“She sleeps so easy with you,” Ash comments, brushing his fingers against Cal’s for the umpteenth time. Cal finally laces his fingers with Ashton’s, looking over at him. They stare at each other for a few moments before Ash speaks again. “I’m so glad you decided to come with us after all… I know it’s not perfect and not what we talked about, but I don’t think either of us would enjoy this without you.”

“I’m really happy to be here,” Cal responds quietly, squeezing Ash’s hand and your sleeping body gently. “I was definitely missing all of this though... thanks for bringing me in tonight.”

“We needed you,” Ash confesses, a faint blush coloring his cheeks. “Weird when you're not here now.”

Calum turns his face toward Ashton’s, nuzzling in and enjoying the warmth of his boyfriend, his rough hand wrapped with his; he grins against Ash’s cheek and Ash responds with a kiss to his forehead.

Cal stays, wrapped in the both of you, for another 45 minutes before the men agree it’s time to call it a night. He tries his best not to wake you as he slips out of bed but he fails, leading to an extra 15 minutes of your soft whines and insistence that he stay. He finally leaves you with a passionate kiss and a kiss on the cheek for Ash.

The next day, Christmas Eve, goes by fast. Various family and friends are in and out of the house all day, stopping by to share their holiday greetings. Continuing your family’s tradition, the men head out in the afternoon to pick out and haul home a Christmas tree and after dinner, you all decorate it together.

Like you’ve done since you were kids, the lights in the living room get turned off for a dramatic “reveal” of the lit and decorated tree when you’re all finished. The multi-colored lights get plugged in and brighten up the room, illuminating your sister’s boyfriend down on one knee. You squeeze Ashton’s hand and subtly brush your pinky down the back of Calum’s hand. Her “moment” is perfect and you silently thank your boyfriends with your eyes for understanding why you wanted this for her.

After some dessert and celebratory cocktails, everyone is exhausted but happy to be together. Your dad gets a fire going and your sister puts on the old Rudolph special you loved as kids; you plop yourself in Ashton's lap on the couch, with Cal sitting close by, close enough for you to keep throwing him little glances undetected. You know it must’ve been hard for him to go back to bed alone after the time you spent together last night and even harder today, having to watch you and Ash continually couple up and be gushed over by your holiday visitors.

Halfway through the show, your dad starts snoring so Mom decides it’s time for them to head up to bed. Your sister and her fiancée make it through to the end of the show but when you suggest following it up with Frosty The Snowman, they decline and tell you and the guys goodnight.

After such a long day, filled with so much unspoken emotion, it's surprising how quiet the three of you are now that you're alone. Sitting with your men in a room lit only by the warm glow of the fire and the soft colored lights of the tree - this was the type of scene you imagined when you envisioned your first Christmas together. But the feeling's not quite right.

You peck Ashton on the cheek before sliding off his lap, moving to sit on the other side of Calum, putting him in the middle of you and Ash. You run a hand through his hair, tentatively at first, just in case everyone in the house isn't quite settled yet. "How are you, bub?" You ask softly.

He closes his eyes, leaning into your touch and you feel your heart both swell and break a little at how badly he was clearly needing your affection. "Good. Tired. Happy I can finally do this," he replies, leaning in to give you a short but needy kiss.

When he pulls back, he grabs your hand out of his hair and brings it up to his lips for a kiss; he waits a beat then reaches for Ash’s hand and kisses it as well. “Missed you too, bub,” you murmur with a smile.  

Ash looks at both of you, adoration in his eyes. You recognize that look on his face, the one that means he’s searching for the right words, trying to line up his emotions with his nervous tongue.  

You squeeze his other hand that’s resting on the back of the couch behind Cal, sensing he needs encouragement and he glances at you, grateful.

"We both missed you, Cal,” he starts, shaking his head as he decides to go all in. “I’ve missed you, is what I mean actually. Not being able to have you close the past few days has me realizing how much closer I would like you to be."

He cups Cal’s face, stroking gently with his thumb while he waits for his words to sink in and his nerves to settle. He inches forward and gently kisses him; it’s brief but Ash is purposeful in the way their lips slot together. When he gets bold and slips in his tongue, Cal visibly tenses and Ash pulls away gracefully, not wanting to push.

You stop yourself from obviously reacting but your heart feels like it might burst out of your chest. You've watched them both struggle to navigate their feelings for each other over the past four months and you couldn't be happier to see at least Ashton take a step towards clarity. You gently rest your palm on top of their intertwined hands and squeeze twice; a supportive one for Ash and a reassuring one for Cal.

Cal, dazed, turns to look at you briefly before his eyes briefly widen as if a light bulb has gone off. He grabs Ash’s neck to pull him in for another kiss, this one more desperate, with daring tongue and teeth.

You quietly pull your hand off theirs, not wanting to intrude on the intimacy of their moment. You can't deny that witnessing their hunger for each other has you feeling needy yourself but you know how important this exploration is for them, how important it is for the three of you, so you patiently sit and watch.

They eventually pull away from each other, panting. You see them exchange a look of some sort and then Calum is reaching for you; he kisses you feverishly while lifting you over his lap and fitting you in between him and Ash. His lips move down to your neck and suddenly Ashton's tongue is slowly tangling with yours; you can tell by his kiss he's still in his feelings and you do your best to match his energy, letting him know you're there for him.

You break apart, one of your hands in each of your boyfriends' hair. You all look back and forth between each other and quietly laugh, ecstatic to be alone together and ready to take advantage of this opportunity.

Ashton gives you another lingering kiss, massaging your breast over your sweater before pulling away and immediately drawing Calum in for a kiss; they sit up on their knees, making out over you and you watch how they lose themselves in it, yet keep their hands occupied in each other's hair, almost as if they're unsure if they should go further. They each let out a quiet groan and you note the tents forming in both of their pants; you decide to help them out and reach to palm their straining cocks while they kiss.

It surprises Ashton more than Cal; he stops their kiss to look down at you. He runs a hand over your face and smiles at you briefly before his mouth is back on Cal’s.

You turn toward Calum, gently lifting his shirt and kissing on his stomach. He lets out an appreciative moan for your touch and you take that cue to unzip his pants; he eagerly cooperates in helping you pull him out of his boxers.

“Oh god,” he moans against Ash’s mouth as you use yours to slick him up before stroking your hand over his now wet cock. You’ve missed him: his sounds, his taste, the way he feels against your skin, the way he appreciates you and the attention you give him. You press sloppy kisses to his length, grinning to yourself as precum beads at his tip, moving to kitten lick at it.

Ashton gently tugs on your hair, wanting attention for himself. You continue rubbing over his bulge, adding in a few squeezes, buying yourself a little more time with Calum. You finally pull off and look up at your boyfriends, still lost in each other, though Cal steals a glance down at you while Ash’s lips are pressed to his jaw. He gives you a little grin and pushes his hand under Ash’s shirt.

You notice Ash falter for a second in reaction to Cal touching him that way but he quickly recovers from his hesitation, moaning quietly and tucking a hand in your hair. You pull at the button on his pants, taking his cock out and slicking him up as well; you swirl your tongue around the head, enjoying the soft groans you hear coming from him, thrilled that you're not sure if they're being caused by you or Cal. You notice that his hand has left you and has begun unbuttoning Cal's shirt; Calum reaches down and yanks at the shoulder of your sweater, gesturing for you to take it off.

Ash quietly sighs at the loss of your mouth but is quickly distracted by kissing over Cal's now exposed chest; you pull your sweater over your head and tug your leggings down while you're at it, leaving you in your bra and panties. You give a small whimper of relief as you press your thighs together before reaching for the cocks on either side of you, shiny and red, begging for your attention. You stroke them both evenly and firmly, watching with pride as their expressions change in response to your actions.

Calum is the first to glance at you and notice your new state of undress. "Fuck, darlin', look at you," he rasps, leaning down to kiss you, sneaking his fingers inside your bra to play with a nipple. "Look so pretty under all these lights." Cal smiles against your lips as he feels Ash's hand stroke through his hair while he kisses you.

Ashton pulls his own shirt off and then his hand snakes between your legs, tracing over the front of the lacy, damp material. "Mmm, so wet for us, baby,” he teases lowly, dipping his fingers underneath your panties to tap lightly at your clit. “Think you’ll be able to keep quiet if we decide to do anything about it?” Cal groans as he sucks just below your earlobe; he loves how responsive you are when Ash taunts you like this.

Proving his point, you let out a whine before quickly biting your lip to fight back any other sounds that might come out. Ash chuckles, suddenly rubbing hard and fast at your clit just to see how much restraint you have. You screw your eyes shut, determined to remain silent. “You’re one to talk, most of the noises I’ve heard tonight have come from your mouth, love,” you point out once you catch your breath. You squeeze his cock and he breathes out a deep moan, proving your point.

Cal chuckles at the exchange and Ash shoots him a glare, pulling him back over to him. “Laugh it up,” he smirks, kissing his neck to distract from his hand traveling to thumb over Cal’s nipple; Cal loudly gasps, body rigidly jolting like he’s been struck by lightning. He grabs Ash’s face with both hands and muffles his moans with an intense kiss.

You turn your focus back to Ash’s cock, knowing Calum is already dealing with a lot of stimulation from the nipple play. You bob your mouth on him a couple times, just because you feel like it and then work on building a steady rhythm with your hand. You bite back another moan when Cal’s hand moves down to cover yours, essentially helping you jerk Ashton off.

Despite their obvious attraction, your boyfriends have never gone beyond the occasional kiss during sex with you so tonight had already been a big step for them. You look up and see Cal, Ash’s lips firmly attached to his neck, looking curious but confident as he watches his hand move with yours. Your eyes meet and you nod, understanding; you drop your hand from Ash’s cock, leaning back to watch Cal seamlessly take over, continuing with the rhythm you started.

Ashton immediately reacts to the difference in touch: the unknown grip, the new sensation of rough calluses running over his shaft, the unfamiliar feeling of a hand much larger than yours stroking him. “Cal,” he shakily breathes, pulling back to look at him.

“Is this alright?” Calum whispers, hoping the quietness of his voice will mask his nervousness.

Ash closes his eyes and leans his forehead against Cal’s, breathing deep, trying to ground himself, trying to process all the thoughts and emotions swirling in his brain right now.

“Don’t stop,” he states with certainty.

Cal’s hand swipes over the tip of Ashton’s cock, spreading around the precum he’s coaxed out, expertly keeping with the established rhythm. You watched Ash’s expression change from confusion to curiosity and now you see it switch to the confidence you’re used to seeing from him, especially in the bedroom; you see his hand fidgeting at his side moments before he clenches his jaw and reaches out to touch Calum’s cock. His strokes aren’t nearly as precise or measured as Cal’s are but his boyfriend doesn’t seem to mind; Cal lets out a throaty sigh of his name and you swear it’s the most erotic thing you’ve witnessed yet.

The men lock their mouths into another heated kiss while they continue to explore pleasuring each other; with them distracted, you slide yourself up and off the couch, moving down to the floor to give them some space and to give you some space to spread out and really enjoy the sight before you. You tug at your nipples like Cal would and slide your hand down your stomach and into your panties to swirl your clit like Ash would. You miss their touch but you’re more than happy to wait your turn for it this time.

Your eyes don’t leave them for a second as you make slow, careful work of pleasing yourself. You watch as Ash boldly tugs at Cal’s jeans, trying to pull them down more; he gets them just below his ass and his free hand grips it tightly. You let out a little moan and Ashton reaches his hand out for you, finally realizing you’re no longer between them.

They pull out of their own little world, searching for you. Calum spots you on the ground first. “What’re you doin’ down there, darlin’?” He teases, moving down next to you.

You press a quick kiss to his lips while he undoes your bra; he quickly moves his mouth down to your tits, lavishing your nipples with much needed attention. “Just enjoying the show,” you confess, looking directly at Ash.

Ash moves from the couch, grabbing a blanket to lay in front of the fireplace. He discards his jeans before beckoning the two of you over to join him. You both crawl over to the blanket and before you get settled, Ash helps your boyfriend out of the rest of his clothes. He wraps a hand around Calum’s cock; he pauses to look at you briefly and then back over to the beautiful man naked in front of him. His tongue darts out of his mouth and before any of you can process it, he’s licking the tip of Cal’s cock.

“Oh,” Cal moans, tucking his fingers into Ash’s hair. Ashton, feeling emboldened by that response, wraps his lips around the head, continuing to test the waters. “Yeah,” Cal mutters. “That… that’s good.”

Ash’s other hand pushes up your thigh and you interlace your fingers with his. You watch as he tests circling his tongue around the tip before pulling back to turn his attention to you. He pulls your panties down, kissing your thighs and up over your lips, letting his tongue spread them so he can tease your clit. He pulls up as Calum settles in next to him, wasting no time in getting his turn at flicking his tongue over your clit.

“Been so good for us, think it’s time we repay you,” Ash murmurs, kissing up to your hip. He watches you tangle your fingers in Cal’s hair and groans when you do the same to him. His hand travels down between your thighs and he pushes two fingers into you. “Cal’s tongue feel good for you?”

You bite your lip, trying to hold in a moan. “Yes, love.”

Cal continues working over your clit while his hand reaches up your body, giving attention to your nipples once again; Ashton’s fingers continue pumping inside you, mouth settled against your jaw, unceasingly affirming his and Cal’s affection for you.

“So patient tonight, love,” he whispers, mouthing along your neck, careful not to leave any marks. “Lettin’ me and Cal play while you’re over here so wet and needy.”

You take a deep breath, overwhelmed at all of the sudden attention. “Wanted it for you, could tell you both needed it,” you admit, digging your nails into Ash’s arm as Cal’s lips enclose your clit and start sucking. “Didn’t mind watching either.”

Ashton grins and plants a sloppy kiss on you; he pulls away to lean down and run his hand softly through Cal’s hair before pulling him up from between your legs to kiss him passionately. Both men groan at the realization that Ash can taste your arousal on Cal’s lips; Ashton takes it a step further and removes his hand from your pussy, sinking his drenched fingers into Calum’s mouth. Cal hollows his cheeks and sucks Ash’s fingers deep into his mouth, swirling his tongue around them, bobbing back and forth on them, wondering when he’ll get to give Ashton’s cock the same treatment.

For what feels like the hundredth time tonight, your jaw drops at the erotic sight before you and you reach out for one or both of your boyfriends to tend to you. Your head lolls back as you whine, “Please... babes… I need you so bad.”

Calum promptly pulls his mouth away with a lewd pop and lays on his side next to you. “Need you too, darlin’, you have no idea,” he murmurs as he grabs your hip, easily turning you to your side and slinging your leg over him. “Can’t remember the last time I went this long without having you.” He takes his cock in hand, running it up and down to coat it with your wetness before easing himself inside you, silencing your soft, relieved exhale with a kiss.

Cal softly rocks into you, sucking gently at your bottom lip, stroking your hair back with his hand; you feel Ashton lay down behind you and begin running his fingers down your back, quietly showing you his care while respecting the moment you and Cal are having, much like you respected their time together.

Your hand moves down to grab Cal’s ass, attempting to bring him even closer to you; you feel his muscles tensing and flexing under your hold as he pumps inside you and you bury your face in his chest to keep from crying out. You hear the slick sound of Ash’s hand working his cock as he watches you two together and you reach for him, wanting him near.

“I’m here, love,” he reassures you, nibbling at your ear, massaging over your breast. “You two look so fuckin’ good together, couldn’t help myself.” He extends his arm, reaching to squeeze Cal’s bicep.

Your hand searches behind you until it finds Ashton’s cock, throbbing against your ass; you give it a squeeze and he whimpers into your skin.

“Ash needin’ you too, baby?” Calum asks, voice scratchy with desire. “Know you’re gonna make him feel so good, just like you’re doin’ for me.” He gives you a couple more slow thrusts before he pulls out and helps you onto your other side where Ashton lays waiting.

You smile hazily at Ash as he lifts your leg over his hip and taps his cock against your clit. “So generous with your body, love,” he praises you, hissing as he slides into your wet heat. “Treatin’ us both so good tonight, thank you, baby.”

You caress his cheek as he starts slowly thrusting into you; you press your lips to his and you both lose yourselves in a slow, intimate kiss. Calum hangs back, watching you two communicate what you need to; when Ash breaks the kiss to moan into your mouth, Cal reaches over and begins to play with your breasts.

Ashton’s large hand grips your ass to pull you closer, getting a deeper angle that has you seeing stars. You twist your upper body toward Cal and he kisses you briefly before moving his lips back to your nipples. You push your hand down his body to find his cock, getting in a few strokes before he stops you. “Trust me, darlin’, I’m not needing any help right now.” His hand slips down your body to rub soft circles on your clit. “Let us focus on you.”

“Babes,” you sigh in the form of a soft moan, raspy as it leaves your lips. The sound is so sensual it causes Ash’s hips to lose rhythm and he lets go of your ass, giving a few shallow thrusts before pulling out.

“You gotta take Cal, baby, I need a minute,” he pants, clearly on the edge of losing it. He nuzzles his nose against yours, helping you turn back to your other boyfriend.

“Hey, darlin’,” Cal coos, grinning as he enters you again. You immediately pull him as close as possible.

“Want you both close,” you announce, looking over your shoulder at Ash. He scoots in against your back, kissing over your shoulders. You sigh, “Thank you.”

You give Ashton a short kiss before turning to press your face into Calum’s chest as he works his hips a little faster, harder. You feel a moan reverberating in Cal’s chest but it’s muffled when it spills from his lips; you look up to see him kissing Ash hungrily.

You moan, getting lost in your own world, letting Cal have your body, feeling his body on yours, Ashton’s body at your back, the strength in their frames as you lay between them.

Calum pulls out and turns you back towards Ash. Ashton is still breathing heavy and his kisses are needy, almost frantic, as he pushes into you. “I’m sorry, love, I’m s’close,” he chokes out. “Between you and Cal…”

You cut him off with a kiss. “Nothin’ to apologize for, love,” you murmur. “Want you to cum for me.”

His fingers dig in and hold on to your ass hard, pulling you tight against his body. “Cum for us, Ash,” Calum whispers as he slides his hand down to grip Ashton’s ass, causing Ash’s hips to stutter and jolt against you. You watch Ash pull on Cal’s neck so he can sink his teeth into Cal’s plump lower lip as he spills his cum into you, shuddering in your arms. You let out a loud moan and you all hold your breath waiting to see if it’s woken anyone up.

Once Ash comes down, he tenderly kisses you. “Love,” he murmurs. You give him a few more sweet kisses before you feel Calum’s eager fingers on your skin.

Ashton helps turn you around and his lips shower your shoulders and neck with affection as Cal sinks into you. He groans at the new sensation of Ash’s hot cum surrounding his cock, making you feel even more wet and warm to him.

Ash pushes his hand between your bodies and starts rubbing your clit in time with Cal’s thrusts. “It’s your turn, love, been so good and selfless tonight. Let Cal feel you cum,” he coaxes. “Look at you, look at Cal, look at how good you feel to our boyfriend.”

Cal’s eyes are screwed shut, his lip between his teeth as he tries to hold in any noises. “Calum,” you moan softly. His eyes open to find yours and you lean in for a feverish kiss, a kiss that becomes all tongue as you work your body against him.

Ashton mutters “Fuck” behind you and Cal lets out a guttural moan as you start to squeeze around his cock. You whine helplessly, “I’m cumming.”

“I feel that… let it go,” Cal encourages. You press your face into his chest to quiet yourself and without thinking you start biting and sucking his skin. Ash keeps rubbing your clit through your orgasm until you gently push his hand away, too sensitive to let him continue.

When Ash pulls his fingers up, it’s immediately noticeable they’re covered in both your arousal and his cum that leaked out of you. As soon as that registers to Calum, he grabs for Ash’s hand and takes his fingers into his mouth again, cleaning and sucking them like before. Once he’s done, Ashton takes the opportunity to explore a little more, pumping his fingers, treating Cal’s mouth like he does your pussy.

You shift yourself slightly back, leaning more into Ash so you can watch Calum come undone. You feel his hips continue to drive his cock into you as you watch the obscene way Ash fingers his mouth. You could almost cum again from the visual alone.

“Gonna cum for us, baby?” You breathe, out of your mind with desire. Cal glances at you with a question in his eyes but you answer it before he has a chance to ask. “It’s OK, I want you to.”

Ashton pulls his fingers from Cal’s mouth and pushes your bodies tighter together. He wraps his hand around the back of Cal’s neck, thumb caressing his cheek. “Need you to cum for us, handsome.” And that seems to do it for him. Cal’s hips falter and he clings to you, groaning deeply as he pumps you with cum. It’s the first time you’ve ever let him cum in you and it couldn’t feel more right. His body is tense for a few more moments and then he relaxes, first pressing his lips to yours and then to Ashton’s.

“You’re gonna make a mess,” he chuckles as he gently pulls out.

“We’ve got plenty we can clean her up with,” Ash shrugs.

Cal considers that point and sits up, lifting your thigh to watch in awe as his cum - at least he assumes it’s his - starts to leak out of you. “Incredible,” he murmurs, leaning in, pressing kisses along your thigh.

Ashton sits up to join him and his eyes ping pong back and forth between watching you drip and watching Cal’s reaction to it. He swirls his fingers in the cum that’s now pooling on your thigh. He pulls back a little, drawing your and Cal’s attention. You watch in shock as he pushes his fingers into his mouth, tasting all three of you together. He moans and repeats the action, only this time, pulling Calum in for a kiss, sharing the taste with him.

They break apart and the three of you smile at each other, basking in the intimacy of everything that’s just happened. Cal lays down next to you, stroking over your hair as Ash reaches for his shirt and cleans between your thighs. When he’s done, he curls up next to you and Cal kisses him and then you. “So lucky to have you both,” Cal murmurs.

“We’re the lucky ones,” Ash smiles, grabbing Cal’s hand, interlacing their fingers and letting them rest on your hip.

“I hate that you have to go to bed alone after this,” you pout, kissing on Calum’s jaw.

“I’ll be just fine, this was worth it. Thank you both,” he whispers sincerely. He squeezes Ash’s hand and kisses your forehead.

You’re practically asleep, warm and naked, feeling safe with your loves when they finally decide it’s time for bed. The guys quickly pull their clothes back on and help you into yours. Ash takes the blanket to the laundry room while you put out the fire and turn off the Christmas tree lights. You hold their hands as you navigate the dark house, pulling them up the stairs.

You stop at the guest room to say goodnight to Cal. “You should come to bed with us,” you whisper.

Calum smiles at you but shakes his head. “I think we’ve already pushed our luck quite a bit tonight, darlin’.” He looks to Ash for backup.

“Your sister got her perfect engagement, we pulled off the world’s quietest threesome… we should take the win,” Ashton chuckles quietly.

You pout but know they’re right. Cal pulls you into him by your hips and kisses you, slow but passionate. “Get to bed, darlin’.”

You walk to your room and stand in the doorway, waiting for Ashton. You smile as you watch your boyfriends flirt, easily the most comfortable they’ve ever been with each other. Ash actively reaches out to pull Cal into a kiss and you decide it’s a moment for them; you lay in bed and close your eyes, letting the memories of the evening wash over you, filling you with warmth and contentment.

Ashton quietly enters the room, unsure if you’re awake; you feel the bed shift as he climbs in and you turn over to gaze at him dreamily. “How you feelin’, love?” You ask, carefully, wanting to encourage him to share with you without seeming like you’re pressing.

He lays on his side and gives you a loving, appreciative look. “Happy. Excited. Very, very grateful to have someone like you by my side,” he reflects, gently tracing where your t-shirt has lifted to expose your hip. “I know it’s taken me a while to kind of figure out what I need from this relationship… even back when it was just us, honestly. You’ve just always been so patient and open with me and I hope I’ve made clear how much I appreciate that. And you.”

You scoot in closer, resting your head on his pillow, your face inches from his. “Even before Cal happened, I’ve only ever wanted you to be happy, Ash. With me, without me… with me with someone else…” You both giggle and you peck his lips sweetly. “I’m glad you’re finding your place in all this. And I’m happy to do whatever I can to help you find it.”

You know it takes a lot for Ashton to share with you like this and you savor it when it happens. You lay yourself on his chest and he strokes your hair as you quietly talk some more. You’re starting to drift off to sleep when you hear your phone buzz on the nightstand. You look up at Ash, concerned, before reaching for it.

“It’s Cal, asking if we’re awake?” You shrug, quickly responding that you are.

Seconds later, your bedroom door slowly opens and Calum carefully closes it behind him. Unlike the previous night, he doesn’t hesitate to help himself onto the bed and snuggle into your back, resting his hand on top of Ash’s on your hip.

“Couldn’t sleep. It just… I don’t know... didn’t feel right being without you both after that,” he explains, kissing your neck.

Light kisses and soft touches are exchanged between you all and then there’s a brief discussion about how long the cuddle session should be. You push to have Cal sleep in bed with you and Ash and though they’re reluctant at first, you eventually convince your boyfriends that the family will be none the wiser as long as you set an alarm to get him back to his room before everyone is up and around for Christmas morning.

Ashton untangles himself from you both to set both the alarm clock on the nightstand and the alarm on his phone, just to be safe. You turn towards Cal and peck his nose. “Feelin’ OK, bubba?”

He smiles, brushing your hair back. “Me? How are you? Tonight was kind of a lot. This week was kind of a lot, I feel like I haven’t checked in enough…”

“Bub, I’m so good,” you promise him, snuggling into his chest. “I’ve got you, I’ve got Ash… I get to wake up with you both on Christmas morning. It seems crazy to say but I actually think this all turned out perfectly.”

You feel Ash press himself tightly against your back, stretching his arms out to hug you both, sandwiching you between the two men. It’s sweet at first and then it quickly becomes silly and the three of you giggle quietly, giddy with exhaustion and affection.

“Plus, now everyone has an idea of what we're all like together so it won't come as too big of a shock when I post a picture of me kissing you both at midnight on New Year's Eve," you grin back and forth between the two.

Calum chuckles, "Oh is that the new plan?"

You wrap their arms tighter across you and contentedly say, "New year, new beginning. Let my sister have Christmas, New Year's will be ours."

Your words hang in the air as you all consider the weight of them. Ash breaks the silence by laughing to himself, causing both you and Cal to look at him with inquiry.

"Care to share?" You ask, using Cal's hand to playfully jab Ash's side, causing him to laugh more.

Ashton looks at you both and smirks, "I was just thinking… if tonight was Christmas sex at your family's house, the fuck are we gonna do to celebrate New Year's Eve at home?"

Calum snickers beside you, a naughty look on his face making you wonder what's running through his mind.

"Well," you start, playfully nipping under each of your boyfriends' jaws. "We've got a whole week to figure that out, now don't we?"

————-

Taglist issues again so my apologies if you get notif’d more than once (or not at all)

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[seongsangi]

playing games

pairing: jaehyun x reader x jaemin

summary: you meet jaehyun and jaemin for the first time at a lake house during summer break. they quickly take a liking to you, pulling you into a game you don't want to lose.

word count: 8.2k+

genre: more smutttt

warnings/tags: a little bit of drinking, this one’s kinda nasty (in a good way)...

You and your best friend went to different colleges, but you kept in touch with each other every day. It was hard not seeing her all the time like you used to, so you and her would spend time together every summer and winter break. Sometimes she'd come home and sometimes you'd take a trip up to see her. This summer break, it was your turn to visit her and spend a few weeks together before coming back home.

As the days passed by just enjoying each other's company at her cozy studio apartment, she gets a text from her friends from school. They want to go to a lake house and spend a week there with a group of friends. It'll be 8 people in total: you, your friend, her two other girl friends (call them S and M), and a few guys named Jaehyun, Jaemin, Lucas, Taeyong, and Johnny. You told your friend that you might feel a little awkward around them, especially since you've never met them before but she assures you that they're all easy to get along with and they love meeting new people.

"Trust me, you'll love them! Don't be shyyy, would you rather stay here with me in my boring apartment or you wanna go to the lake?" You sigh, admitting that having a little getaway in a lakehouse does sound like fun.

You all plan to meet up the next day and take two cars, guys and girls riding separately. The drive is two hours away, but you quickly become friends with the girls in the car, playing loud music as you drive down the highway singing your hearts out and talking about the guys riding in the car behind them.

Your friend slips that S and M have crushes on Johnny and Taeyong and that's mainly the reason why they planned this getaway.

"What the hell, so you didn't tell Y/N that you like Lucas?" One of them asks defensively. You look at your friend in disbelief because she didn't mention that she liked anyone, much less someone you're going on a trip with!

"BITCH WHO IS LUCAS TELL ME ALL ABOUT HIM??" You quickly badger your friend, now excited to meet the guy she likes and has been keeping a secret from you. You're not mad about it, you're more happy for her that she finally found someone.

"Chilllll, I don't like him like thattt," she drags, obviously lying. "But I do like being around him... he's so hot but such a dork at the same time and makes me feel all giddy whenever I'm with him or talk to him."

"Do you think he likes you back?" you ask.

"I don't know, maybe? I haven't asked but we do talk quite a bit so the feeling might be mutual. Damn, I don't know, I guess I'll take my chances and find out this week," she winks at you and you're already egging her on. You were so pumped to meet the guys they like.

You ask, "What about the other two guys? Jaehyun and Jaemin?" They were too busy talking about their own crushes that no one mentioned them.

"They're cool, we don't have anything against them, I just like Taeyong more," S chimes in and you swear you could see her turn into the heart eyes emoji.

"Yeah, those guys hang out in their own circle, they're always together so we invited everyone to hang out. I would have felt weird if I didn't invite them too," M adds.

Your friend nudges you with her elbow, "They're both single... you never know what could happen." She's always teasing you, and you slap her arm. Everyone laughs, thinking nothing more of it.

Once you get to the lake house, you're shocked by how nice it looks just on the outside. And the inside is to die for. There are five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Jaehyun and Jaemin in one room while Johnny, Lucas, and Taeyong in another. You and your friend share one, while S and M in another. There'll be an extra master bedroom not used by anyone, presumably where M's parents would stay when they come up here. The bathrooms look like they came straight out of a home makeover show. You note that M's parents must be loaded to have such an extravagant place. As you walk around the house, you notice there's a boat in the garage.

"You didn't tell us you had a boat!" You say to her, eager to get out on the lake already.

"Oh, shit I didn't? Go get dressed, we'll take it for a spin when the guys get here." You set your stuff down in the room you share with your best friend, and put on the cute new royal blue bathing suit you bought for the occasion, your favorite color.

"Damnnn, that looks good as hell on you," your best friend comments, making you shy. "You might just steal all our men while you're here," she teases. You both laugh it off, hyping your friend up when she puts on her pink bathing suit and head out to the back.

Just then, the guys pull up and you and your friend walk to their car to introduce yourself. As they get out of the car, you're stunned by how good looking they all are. You've never seen a group of guys that attractive. You can definitely see why the girls fell for them.

"Finally, you're here!" Your friend yells, giving them all a hug as you stand by. "We're about to get on the boat, so go get dressed. But first, this is my best friend Y/N! She's from my hometown and she's visiting me right now so she came along too."

You exchange greetings with everyone, trying to remember their names since this is the first time you're meeting them. You pay special attention to Lucas since he's the one your best friend has her eyes on, and you can't blame her. He's hella tall, has a gorgeous smile, contagious laugh, and his voice is much deeper than you expected it to be. Johnny is the tallest one and he's got a cute smile that could draw any girl in. Taeyong has these sharp eyes that you could get lost in and see why S is all heart eyes for him.

Jaehyun and Jaemin are the two that really catch your eye though. Jaehyun has deep dimples that make your heart swoon and Jaemin beams down at you with a bright smile to match that perfect face of his, you swear he's not even real. Neither of them seem real to you, and you suddenly feel nervous again. You know the other three guys are off limits but you know these two are single, suddenly becoming very aware that while everyone else is trying to get in each other's pants, you three don't have any attraction towards each other. You tell yourself it's gonna be awkward around these three couples.

As the boys are unloading their stuff from the car, you and your friend head to the garage where S and M are waiting. You don't notice the way Jaehyun and Jaemin look at each other before they turn their gaze to you, thinking to themselves that this trip might not be bad after all.

Lucas and Jaehyun brought out a cooler full of drinks, obviously ready to get the party started. "Someone's gotta drive the boat though, so they can't drink." You all play rock paper scissors, and Johnny ends up having to drive. You can tell he's super disappointed about not being able to drink.

"You lost, Suh, now take us out on the lake." Lucas mocks, popping open a can of beer and teasing Johnny. He cranks up the music and everyone gets to chatting with one another. You love the way the wind whips past you as Johnny speeds up. You take in the beautiful view of the blue water, stretching as far as you can see. Houses are lined along the shore, taking notice of how extravagant each of them look. The sun is hot and beaming right on you from where you're sitting at the front of the boat with no shade. You pull out some sunscreen from your bag, not wanting to get burned as you so easily do.

"Oh, damn I forgot mine. Could I get some of yours?" Jaehyun asks across from you. You hand it to him with a soft smile, and his hand brushes past yours as he reaches for it. You're sure that wouldn't have happened with the way you handed it to him unless he did it on purpose, but you shrug it off. As he's putting the sunscreen on, you can't help but take a longer look at him, noticing his defined abs and beautiful skin. He's quite literally glowing, but you don't know if it's the sun or if that's how he actually looks...

He looks up for a second and you quickly turn your head away, not trying to get caught staring at someone you just met 10 minutes ago.

"Where'd you get this from?" Jaemin asks as Jaehyun hands the tube to him. 

"Y/N let me borrow it, put some on unless you wanna get burned." Jaemin takes his shirt off before lathering the sunscreen on, and again, you're staring at someone you just met 10 minutes ago. Jaemin is less toned than Jaehyun, but he's got broad shoulders that you can't help but look at. Jaehyun is looking off into the distance, and Jaemin is too busy putting sunscreen on that neither of them notice your eyes darting back and forth between the two. You don't know who you're more interested in, but from the way they look right now, it might just be both...

"Y/N!!! Want a drink?" She holds up a bottle of Ciroq and you're having a flashback to the last time you went on a boat ride.  

"Bitch, you know what happened last time," you yell back at her. She laughs, clearly remembering. "Just don't drink so much this time!" You comply, taking a quick swig of the bottle instead of opting for a mixed drink. A few sips wouldn't hurt, you tell yourself.

"Can you pour us some?" Jaemin asks, holding his and Jaehyun's cup out, half full of Sprite already.

"Tell me when," you say as you start pouring. He doesn't say when until both their cups are half Sprite, half Ciroq.

"Damn, that's a lot though," you comment, knowing you wouldn't be able to handle what they're having. They both just laugh as you give the bottle back to your friend and take your seat again across from them.

"So tell us about what happened last time," Jaehyun says to you, intrigued to hear your story. You suddenly feel embarrassed, not wanting to tell them how much you drank and how messed up you were afterwards. It's not a time you would like to go back to, but you can't say you didn't have good laughs thinking about it afterwards. You tell them what happened and they're in disbelief, laughing with you over how silly the story sounds. You got so drunk off the green apple that you were crying the entire car ride home. You don't even know what you were crying about, that's just how fucked up you were.

"You only took like three swigs and you were THAT fucked up?" Jaehyun asks, already halfway through his drink. You're staring at him like HE'S the crazy one, drinking so much in such a short time.

"Yeah, well, I've never been good at handling my alcohol. Give me that, you can't have any more, you're gonna end up like me." You reach to grab his drink out of his hands but he holds it away from him and you almost fall on top of him. He laughs as you stumble, taking another swig and boasting that he's pretty good with drinking.

"We both are, unlike someone," Jaemin teases, obviously talking about you. You roll your eyes at the remark, feigning annoyance before you successfully grab Jaemin's cup from his hand since you couldn't get Jaehyun's.

"I made half the drink for you, I think I can have it now," you say with a smile, teasing him back. He stares at you as you take a drink from his cup, keeping your eyes locked on him so you can feel like you got the upper hand. You feel more comfortable with them now even though you haven't been here for long. I guess people really can bond over drinks.

The boat comes to a halt and Johnny announces, "If anyone wants to go swim, do it now. We're just gonna chill here for a bit." Taeyong, Lucas, Johnny, and the girls are excited, finally getting a chance to get in the water.

"Are you gonna go?" Jaehyun asks, nodding his head to the group of people jumping into the water.

"No, I can't swim. Are you guys gonna go?" Jaehyun shakes his head while Jaemin is getting revved up to jump in the water too. You watch him as he dives in and comes back up, hair wet and that beautiful smile on his face. You turn your body around to face the crowd, watching them splash each other and have a good time, leaving Jaehyun to admire you without you knowing. He's tracing the curves of your body, loving the way the royal blue looks on you. He's only seen you in one outfit, but he's sure that color suits you the best. He's staring hard, and he's glad no one can see the way he's devouring you with his eyes. He gets up and stands next to you, resting his hands on the edge of the boat, watching all his friends but he just wanted an excuse to get closer to you.

Your best friend swims towards the boat and suddenly splashes water at you, laughing as you retreat from her attack. Everyone else joins in, splashing water into the boat at you and Jaehyun since neither of you were getting in the water.

"Stop, you're getting everything wet!" You yell at them, throwing your bag to the other side to protect your belongings. They eventually stop and go back to swimming, leaving you and Jaehyun to wipe the seats down. You decide if you weren't going to swim, then you were going to have fun in your own way. You down the rest of Jaemin's drink as Jaehyun stares at you incredulously. "Hold on, don't go too crazy."

You make your way to the cooler, grabbing a Seagram and telling him not to worry. "I'm a big girl, I can handle this much," you smile at him. You both take your seats as everyone starts to get on the boat again. The sun is starting to set and Johnny makes his way back to the house. Jaemin approaches his seat, wiping his body and hair with the towel he brought, looking a little too good with wet hair.

"The water was so cold at first," he says, telling Jaehyun he should have went in.

"I didn't want to leave Y/N alone," he says so you couldn't hear. Jaemin catches on quickly, knowing that Jaehyun has taken a bit of a liking to you. He watches as you stare at the water and lets his eyes roam your body, much like Jaehyun did earlier. He can see why Jaehyun would be a bit attracted to you, he couldn't help but feel a little pull himself. The way your bathing suit accentuates your breasts has him imagining all sorts of things.

"Y/N, did you have fun today?" Jaemin calls out to you, drawing you from your thoughts. You turn a bit too fast to look at them and you can tell the alcohol is kicking in. Your head feels heavy and the boat is moving so fast, you don't know if you can keep up. You don't feel as drunk as you did last time, but you're definitely feeling something.

"Yeah, I had fun," you reply, finishing the last of your drink and getting up to throw it away in the trash bag someone brought along. You can't tell if you're wobbly because the boat is moving or if it's because you're actually wobbly from the drinks. "Oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have drank Jaemin's drink," you laugh at Jaehyun, who shakes his head in an "I told you so" manner.

"You drank it all? There was still a lot left," Jaemin asks in disbelief. "You were just telling us you're bad with alcohol." "What can I say? I already drank it all," you shrug at him with a smile.

"You're crazy," he laughs, "but we'll take good care of you if you want."

You don't know what he means by that, but you're imagining it's not as innocent as it may seem.

When you make your way back to the house, everyone heads off to shower. You all meet downstairs afterwards. S and M are making dinner with the help of Johnny and Taeyong. You see your best friend and Lucas on the couch, watching something on TV. You don't see Jaehyun or Jaemin, thinking they're probably still in their room. 

Wait, they didn't give me back my sunscreen. You head upstairs to their room and knock on the door, to which someone says "It's open." You peek into the room and see Jaehyun lounging on the bed and Jaemin in the bathroom with the door wide open. He's only dressed in a towel and wiping his hair, presumably fresh out the shower. You avert your eyes quickly, not wanting to stare for any longer than you have to. Jaehyun perks up at the sight of you and asks what's up.

"Uh, I just wanted to ask for my sunscreen," you say from the door, not wanting to step fully into their room.

"Oh, it's in our bag somewhere, just come in, I'll get it for you." Jaehyun hops off the bed and turns to the bathroom to look for it. You walk in and stand awkwardly by the door. Jaemin comes out and you're trying your best not to gawk at him, knowing he's got nothing but a towel on. He smirks, and you can just feel it without even looking at him. You watch the TV and notice some movie is on. "Jaehyun, are you watching Insidious?" you ask him, trying to distract yourself from the fine ass man in your periphery. It's one of your favorite horror movies and you'd recognize it anywhere.

"Yeah it was just playing so I was watching it. I think I left it on the boat, sorry about that. I'll get it for you tomorrow," he says, coming back into the room. "It's okay! Sooo, can I watch the movie with you?" He hums in agreement, jumping back in bed as you sit on the edge, not wanting to get too close to him. Jaemin comes into view fully dressed this time, thank goodness. He lays in bed next to Jaehyun and all three of you watch. The part that scared you the most when you first watched it is about to come up, and you cover your eyes.

"I like scary movies but I still cover my eyes when I know something's about to happen," you say out loud to them. Sneaky Jaemin is inching closer to you, waiting for the scene you're talking about to come up. He grabs you and screams at the same time the scene you're dreading pops up, making you jump and scream even louder. Your heart races and you yell "What the fuck, Jaemin!" The two are laughing at your reaction and you slap him on his arm.

"You can't tell me that wasn't funny," he mocks you and you're ready to beat his ass before you hear someone yell "dinner's ready." You storm out of their room embarrassed.

The next few days you guys spend together are filled with the same antics, Jaemin teasing you and Jaehyun laughing at everything you two do. You're getting real tired of both of them at this point, Jaemin for never leaving you alone and Jaehyun for egging him on every time. But you can't say you don't enjoy spending time with them. They always manage to make you laugh even if they do frustrate the hell out of you sometimes. You find yourself gravitating towards them, since the other couples are also focused on themselves. You didn't want to cockblock anyone, so you let them have their alone time together whenever you saw them around the house. You notice your best friend leaves your shared room late at night, gone for a few hours doing who knows what with Lucas.

Jaemin was always getting on your nerves, jump scaring you every chance he got. When you turn a corner, he'd be there to surprise you. When you turn around and almost bump into him, he'd tell you to watch where you're going but it's obvious he was the one getting in your way. You've thrown so many punches his way to get him to stop messing with you, but he just says it's fun every single time with that annoying ass perfect smile of his. Jaehyun on the other hand was more flirty with you and you've definitely noticed. He wasn't exactly being subtle with it either. He'd say "good morning beautiful" to you when he got the chance, or he'd always choose the seat next to you when there are plenty of other ones open. He'd smile at you with those cute ass dimples and you'd look away quickly, not wanting to fall for his charm. His hand would brush against yours or he'd hold your waist to get past you, feigning an "excuse me" just to touch you. You'd look up and catch him staring at you, and he doesn't even look away when you notice. It's like he's challenging you, knowing he's getting under your skin and making you feel some type of way.

One evening, you wake up from a nap to a quiet house. A text from your best friend says they went out to get food for dinner and it's just you, Jaehyun, and Jaemin at home. You dread it already, you don't even want to be alone with them and have to put up with their antics again. You walk into the kitchen to see the two making themselves a quick snack. You sit at the counter, asking Jaehyun to pretty please make you a sandwich.

"You've got hands, do it yourself," Jaemin says to you without looking up from what he was doing. You get up from your seat and start hitting him, "I didn't ask you. Jaehyun's nice to me, he'll make me one, right?" He's already getting it ready for you and you love that about him.

Jaemin scoffs, and says under his breath, "Yeah duh cause he likes you."

Jaehyun yells at him, obviously not wanting you to know. You giggle, thinking it's cute he doesn't think you already know. You can tell from the way he's been acting around you and you feel like riling him up a bit. You walk towards Jaehyun, hands behind your back, and say in a sing-songy voice, "Really? I didn't know. Maybe I like him too," you tease, enjoying the way he looks away from you and back down to the sandwich.

"What's wrong? You're always staring at me when you think I'm not looking, but now you can't even look at me?" You tease further. He shoves the plate towards you, finished with your sandwich and takes his own plate to the couch. You and Jaemin look at each other, knowing you've got him right where you want him. You don't let up, following him to the couch and sitting right next to him as he always does with you. You cross your legs and snuggle a little closer to him, letting your thigh rest on his as you eat your sandwich and watch TV like you aren't obviously trying to get Jaehyun flustered. Jaemin comes to sit next to you and you're officially squished between the two. You didn't know Jaemin would sit right there and you look at him, telling him to move with your eyes. He shrugs and continues eating.

You all sit on the couch, watching something to pass the time. You get up first to put your plate away but when you come back, the two guys are holding their own plates out, signaling for you to put them away for them. You groan but you do it anyway since you're already up.

"Y/N can you get the remote?" Jaemin asks as you come back. It somehow ended up on the floor... ten feet away from them. "What the fuck how did it get over there?" You bend over to pick it up and you hear a "wow" from Jaemin. You look back at him to ask what he's talking about, but you don't even need to ask as he's staring at your ass, your shorts leaving little to the imagination. You didn't feel self conscious wearing shorts around them before because you didn't feel like you needed to, but with the way Jaemin is literally eye fucking you right now, you suddenly feel very shy. You tug your shorts down and throw the remote at him to get him to stop looking at you like that. Jaehyun didn't make any audible noise, but you can tell from the way he's looking at you and back to Jaemin that he felt the same way. You don't even want to sit next to them any more, giving up on messing with Jaehyun.

You're the one getting riled up this time, but you don't want them to know that. The way they're looking at you isn't something you can handle so you sit on the next couch away from them. They look at each other without you knowing and have their own game in mind now.

"Y/N, come back over here," you hear Jaehyun call out to you and pat the seat in between them. You don't even look in his direction and focus on the TV, giving him a firm no.

"He wasn't asking," Jaemin's voice dropped a couple octaves, making you tingle. You're afraid to look back at them, not wanting to play whatever game they were about to pull you into. You're getting turned on and they haven't even done anything but said a few words to you. You feel silly letting them get to you so quick. "You come here or we go over there."

You turn around but don't make a move to get up, just to look at them. They're staring at you with gazes you can't read, or maybe you can read them but you don't know if you're ready to decipher them. Jaehyun nods his head, beckoning for you to come back to your spot. Your heart is pounding now and your body starts to get really hot. You slowly make your way back towards them, their eyes pulling you in like they've got you under some spell. You don't sit down, just stand in front of them, unable to make eye contact with either of them.

They both reach for your hands at the same time, tugging you down and you have to catch yourself with your knees resting on the couch. Your back is now towards the TV and you're facing the back of the couch, an awkward position to say the least.

"Good girl," Jaehyun coos, making you clench around nothing as you feel yourself getting more turned on. "Now stay right there and don't move." He gets up and makes his way around the couch, standing in front of you as Jaemin stays beside you. "You listen to us better than I thought you would," Jaemin says, his hands sliding up your thighs. You start fidgeting, trying to turn back around and sit on the couch normally. He lands a hard slap on your ass and you whimper as the pain subsided into pleasure and you don't try to sit normally again.

"I said don't move," Jaehyun snarls, grabbing your chin to face him. "You thought you could get out of what you said earlier? You know I like you baby but that doesn't mean you can make fun of me in front of Jaemin." You turn a bit to look at Jaemin, and he's got that same annoying ass smile on his face, enjoying the way your ass is on display for him. Jaehyun roughly yanks your chin back in his direction, "Don't look at him, look at me."

You don't know what you should say in this moment, you're feeling extremely turned on with the way Jaehyun is talking to you and Jaemin's hand on your lower body isn't making things better. You're thinking what the fuck happened? You don't know how things turned 180 that quick. You're half embarrassed about what's going on right now, but the other half of you wants to see where things will go. You let the latter half take over. You're all alone right now, what's stopping you from beating them at their own game?

You arch your back more, pushing your ass further out for Jaemin to see and put on your best pout for the man in front of you. "Sorry Jaehyun, I didn't mean to make you upset," you whine at him, leaning on the back of the couch. You turn to look at Jaemin, shivering at the way his hand is caressing your ass. "Jaemin, that hurt," you fake pout at him too, "but I liked it." You quickly jump off the couch onto your feet before either of them can reach for you, boasting a flirty smile that has the two of them ready to pounce.

"Come get me," you sing, making a run for their room as soon as you see them both racing towards you. Your adrenaline is pumping and you love that they don't waste any time to follow you. You make it to their room before they do, locking it before they can barge in. They both bang on the door, impatient and eager to have their way with you for the stunt you just pulled on them.

"Y/N open the door, now." Jaehyun sounds so sexy when he's mad and you just want to keep pushing his buttons.

"What are you gonna do about it?" You can hear their footsteps trailing back downstairs, unsure of what's going on. Did they give up? Shit shit shit no wait come back. You wait a bit longer, to see if they really left. You hear them come back and you're about to say something when you hear a key in the door. You forgot that your friend told you where the keys to each room were in case you locked yourselves out for some reason. They both barge in, successfully opening the door and they don't look happy. Fuck.

They're glaring at you, and you feel small in their presence. You weren't prepared for this, this wasn't in your game plan. You don't know what to do any more. You back up as they make their way towards you, the back of your knees hitting the edge of the bed. "No, wait, I take it back I didn't mean it," you try to talk your way out of it but Jaemin pushes you onto the bed, not wanting to hear your excuses. You try to get away from them, but they're much stronger than you and hold you in place, Jaehyun's hands on your waist and Jaemin holding your legs down. You feel like you should be afraid, but you're actually getting wetter with each second. You weren't sure if you could handle either of them when they were looking at you in that way, let alone both of them at the same time.

"Do you like messing with us?" Jaemin asks, his hands sliding further up your legs.

"You mess with me all the time Jaemin," you retort, which earns you a slap on your thigh. "Don't talk back to me."

"Are you gonna be a good girl and listen to us this time?" Jaehyun slides his hands underneath your shirt, gliding across your stomach, getting close to your breasts.

You bite your lip, unbelievably wet at this point. "What are you gonna do?" you ask quietly, not sure if you're ready for their answer.

Jaemin moves away from your legs and sits in the middle of the bed. He holds your cheek and says in a low voice, "Mmm, we're gonna do so many things to you." You can't hold back your whimper, heart racing at all the thoughts running through your mind.

"You have to tell us if you want it though. We won't do anything without your consent." Even with the way they've been playing with you and eye fucking you downstairs, they still ask you in case you want to stop.

"Yes, I want it, I want both of you, fuck you guys are so hot" you breathe out, unable to play their game any longer. You want nothing more than for both of them to pleasure you and make you scream their names. You're up for anything and you want them to know. You're soaking through your panties, and you squeeze your legs together to get some kind of friction. "I'm so wet because of you," looking at both of them. Jaehyun cocks an eyebrow, eyes trailing down your figure, taking note of the way you're squirming underneath him. Jaemin wastes no time in pulling your legs towards him. Jaehyun lifts your shirt up to expose your chest to him, pushing your bra up and going straight for your breasts. He kneads one with his hand and sucks on the other, going back and forth between the two. You love the way his tongue glides across your nipples, and you throw your head back when you feel Jaemin's hand rubbing at your core through your shorts. Both of them are making you feel so good, but you crave more.

"Take them off Jaemin," you urge him, wanting to feel his hands on your body and not on your shorts. You lift your hips, waiting for him to slide them down your legs. When he does, he groans at the sight before him. "She wasn't kidding, she's hella wet," Jaemin says to Jaehyun, moving his fingers back to your clit, making slow circles. The only sounds in the room are your small moans and the sound of your wetness as Jaemin plays with you. He pushes two fingers in to the hilt without warning, and your hips snap up, moaning even louder as he pumps them in and out. At the same time, Jaehyun moves his lips to your neck, nipping and sucking at every inch. His hand reaches your core and rubs your clit as Jaemin finger fucks you.

"Fuck that feels good Jae," you don't know if you're talking about Jaehyun or Jaemin, but they were both making you feel on cloud nine right now. Jaemin pulls his fingers out of you and they're coated in your wetness. He brings his hand to your lips and you wrap your mouth around them, tongue swirling around his digits, licking yourself off his fingers.You feel Jaemin shifting, pushing your knees up and laying down in front of your core. Jaehyun pulls back, watching as Jaemin presses kisses on your sex before diving in and lapping up all your juices. You grab onto his hair pushing his head closer to you, mouth left in an o-shape, not making any sounds but feeling so good underneath Jaemin's tongue. "I could eat you out all day, you look so amazing right now" Jaemin comments, making you shy, trying to close your legs only for him to hold your thighs tighter and keep them open.

"I bet you'd look better with my dick in your mouth," Jaehyun says as he steps off the bed to pull his pants down and you reach your hand out to grab his member. He's taking in the view before him: your legs spread wide by Jaemin's hands as he devours you, your eyes locked on his own and your hand pumping him up and down, all needy for him. He kneels on the bed beside you, telling you to open up. You greedily take him in your mouth, licking what you can and moaning when Jaemin sucks on your clit. You close your eyes, trying to focus on the pleasure Jaemin is giving you while trying to pleasure Jaehyun at the same time.

Jaemin is keeping his eyes on the two of you, watching the way your hips buck every time he licks your clit and the way your mouth is wrapped around Jaehyun. He pulls away from you, wiping your arousal off his mouth and chin. He brings his hand down, slapping your pussy hard. You yelp and close your legs as a reflex, only for Jaemin to push them back open. He keeps your legs spread but doesn't stop, slapping both your core and inner thighs. You can't focus on sucking Jaehyun off when Jaemin is abusing your pussy in all the right ways. "Jaemin!" you cry out, and he smirks. "That's what you get for sucking him while I'm eating you out, you're supposed to focus on me."

You whine, unsure if you should keep sucking Jaehyun now that Jaemin has stopped. You look to Jaehyun, and he's staring at your body, core dripping even more than before. He turns to look down at you, hand still holding his member and you pump him slowly, loving the way his big dick fits in your hand. "Want me to fuck you first baby?" You nod, a bit too eagerly, earning a low chuckle from him. He pulls your legs towards him and throws his shirt off swiftly and now it's your turn to eye fuck him. You couldn't stop staring at him the first time you met, but this is even better than before now that he's completely naked and about to ruin you. As Jaehyun aligns himself to your core, Jaemin groans, upset that he isn't getting any action right now. You take pity on him and reach out to him, asking him to kiss you. He jumps at the opportunity and lays down beside you, pulling your face closer to his as he hungrily kisses you. Tongues clashing, you both fight for dominance, not wanting him to win you over.

Jaehyun slides in and you gasp against Jaemin's lips, knowing it was coming but you still weren't ready for it. He grips your waist as you wrap your legs around him, pushing into you with such force that you can't even kiss Jaemin properly any more. Jaehyun starts to get lost in the way your pussy clenches so tightly around him. "Damn, your pussy feels so good baby," Jaehyun moans, watching the way your breasts bounce with each thrust. You pull away from Jaemin's lips, but keep eye contact with him as Jaehyun fucks you senseless. Jaemin is rock hard by now, watching your face contort in pleasure while still looking him in the eyes, pleading silently for him to do something to you. He can tell you want Jaehyun but that you also want him just as much, which prompts him to undress and kneel on the bed, member in hand, waiting for you to take him.

Jaehyun pulls out and flips you on your stomach. You immediately get on all fours, moaning as he pushes back in again and look at Jaemin, sticking your tongue out for him to fuck your mouth. He swears, taking in the image of you getting fucked by one of his best friends but still begging for him like the slut you are. "You look so pretty like this," Jaemin says, pushing all the way in to your mouth. You gag a bit, but you want him to be rough with you. Jaehyun is fucking you so hard you moan on Jaemin's dick, making him close his eyes and revel in the way your perfect little mouth is making him feel so good. Jaehyun slaps your ass so hard, you can't help but pause on Jaemin's dick a bit, waiting for the sting to turn into pleasure. He does it again and again, and you cry out, your head falling onto the bed, unable to keep Jaemin in your mouth.

"What's wrong baby girl? You said you liked it earlier," Jaehyun mocks you, pulling your hair up so that you can face Jaemin again. "Be a good slut and suck his dick."

You take Jaemin into your mouth again, unable to deny him when he's looking at you like you're the sexiest person he's ever seen, taking two dicks at once. You feel so full, so fucked out, so good that you can't focus on either of them. You look up at Jaemin, who's pushing further and further into your mouth, fucking your mouth just as hard as Jaehyun is fucking your pussy. You don't want either of them to stop but you don't know how much longer you can go. Your body is about to give out, and Jaehyun can feel your knees starting to fall on the bed.

"We never said we were done, don't act like you can't take it princess," Jaehyun and Jaemin both pull out of you and you collapse, trying to catch your breath. Jaemin takes the initiative, laying down in front of you. "Ride me baby."

You regain feeling in your legs and climb on top of Jaemin, sinking down on his dick as his hands move to your ass. You rest your palms beside his head, moving your hips up and down slowly. You squeeze around him and he lets out a sigh. "God, you're still so tight even after that fucking Jaehyun gave you." His hands caress your sore cheeks, still red and left with hand marks. Jaehyun watches the two of you, paying close attention to the way your pussy grips Jaemin's dick as you ride him. "She's doing so well, isn't she Jaemin?"

"She's the best I've ever had, can't get enough," he responds, looking at you sweetly. This is the first time you've seen him look at you in that way, and you realize you can't deny it either, no matter how much he's annoyed you in the past few days you've spent together. You lean down, littering his neck with warm kisses. Your soft lips on his skin makes him burn up. "Jaemin, fuck me, make me yours," you whisper in his ear, quietly so that Jaehyun doesn't hear. The intimacy shared between you two, even with Jaehyun still in the room, makes you both insanely crazy for each other. He doesn't have to be told again. He holds your hips still, shifting his feet so that they're propped against the bed. He asks if you're ready, and you kiss him softly in response. He wastes no time, drilling into you, hitting your sweet spot with every thrust. He makes you scream his name, hugging your body close to his as he fucks you so hard your head is spinning. Jaehyun is sure you said something to Jaemin, but he couldn't make out what you said. He feels a slight tinge of jealousy, wanting to know what made Jaemin snap.

You can feel your orgasm coming, and with the way it's been building up since Jaemin ate you out and Jaehyun fucked you, you know it's gonna hit hard. "I'm gonna cum, will you make me cum baby?" you plead in Jaemin's ear, and he knows he's close too. Your pussy clenches around him, getting even tighter than before. "I'm close, you need to get off," he warns, but you don't want to. You look him the eyes, "It's okay." And with that, all his inhibitions go out the window. He brings his hand to your clit, rubbing fast and hard to get you to finish at the same time.

"Fuck, I'm cumming," you yell, throwing your head back as your orgasm washes over you. Jaemin's hips stutter as he lets out a string of moans, releasing his load in you. You both take a second to come down from your high, almost forgetting that Jaehyun was in the room until he grabs your hips, pulling you off of Jaemin and throwing you onto your back.

"What the fuck was that? Neither of you wanted to tell me you were about to cum?" He's beyond jealous now, wanting to be the first one to finish in you. Your mind is still cloudy and you can feel Jaemin's cum slipping out of you onto the bed. "Sorry bro," Jaemin chuckles with his half-ass apology. Jaehyun looks at you and you can only smile weakly at him. He spreads your legs apart and thrusts two fingers in, pushing Jaemin's cum back into your core. With your own arousal and Jaemin's, you're the wettest you've been all night. You whimper, still sensitive from the intense orgasm you just had.

"Oh baby, did you think that was the end of it?" Jaehyun quickly moves his fingers in and out of you, thumb rubbing your clit as you try to move away. "I can't take any more,” shaking your head weakly.

"You can and you will," he assures you, wanting to punish you for forgetting about him. His hand snakes up your body, gripping your throat firmly, making it hard for you to breathe. The lack of air and the way he's finger fucking you makes your head feel light. You love the short, sweet moment you had with Jaemin, but Jaehyun's roughness makes your body tingle in a different way. You enjoy them both, and soon you're becoming another mess underneath Jaehyun.

"Shit, Jaehyun don't stop please," you moan loudly, feeling another orgasm approaching. He removes his fingers from your core and you feel empty, a second high so close. He throws your left leg over his shoulder, holding the other leg down as he slides right in. You can't keep up with him, can't do anything but just take it, he's so good at abusing your pussy and you love it so much. His hand presses against your throat again and he's making you feel so delirious.

"I told you you could take it. Tell me you like it," he says harshly, letting go of your throat a bit so you could respond.

"Fuck, I love it," you pant, getting close again.

"What do you love?" he presses further, undoubtedly so Jaemin could hear. He scoffs in the background, knowing Jaehyun is doing it on purpose.

"I love it when you fuck me, you make me feel so good Jaehyun," you tell the truth, not wanting him to get any more jealous. He kisses you, the first time he's done that tonight. You hold his face, letting him take control of your lips, your body, your mind. You're drowning in the pleasure he's giving you, and you can tell he's close too.

"Cum in me baby," you whisper against his lips, wanting him to fill you up. 

"You’re too much for me sweetheart, I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna cum," he groans. You reach your second orgasm of the night, and this one is even more intense than before. Jaehyun watches as your eyes roll to the back of your head and your legs begin to shake as he stills in you, spilling his own load into you. Jaemin watches as both his cum and Jaehyun's leaks out of you.

Both Jaehyun and Jaemin take a moment to admire you looking absolutely delicious in your fucked out state. They look at each other, wondering if they were too hard on you.

"Was that too much?" Jaehyun asks, as he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear, pulling you out of your trance. You feel their cum dripping, but as one last bold move, you spread your legs and gather a bit on your fingers, bringing it to your lips to let them know you loved every bit of it.

"You're so sexy, I might just have to go again," Jaehyun leans down to kiss you, telling you how you did so well for them. Jaemin is already running the shower for you so you can clean yourself up.

After your shower, you hear rustling downstairs and you're glad your friends didn't come back 10 minutes earlier. Jaemin's already taken the sheets off the bed to throw them in the washer. You and Jaehyun meet everyone downstairs, ready for dinner after everything that just happened.

"Hey, what have you guys been up to since we left?" Lucas asks, getting the grill ready for some Korean barbecue.

"We just played a few games in our room," Jaemin responds, giving you a wink. "Y/N thought she would win but me and Jaehyun put her in her place."

[certifiedskywalker]

Pomegranate Chapstick - Peter Parker

It’s Winter in New York City. Not that movie magic kind of Winter that reeks of mistletoe and Hallmark channel cliches. No, it’s no longer the Holiday Season and everyone is back to school after Winter Break. Peter Parker is happy to be back because being back means being able to see you again. Though, something is different about you but he just can’t place it.

“What is it?”

“Y/N…”

“Yeah?” Ned looked in the same direction as Peter, who, suddenly self conscious, turned his friend back around to face him. “What is it?”

“Don’t, don’t look! I just…” Peter found that his eyes trailed back over to where you talking with MJ. Your eyes were bright, hands gesturing about you as your friend shared you into a passion. Despite your movements, Peter found himself drawn back to your smile.

“Something’s different,” he finished, “but I don’t know what.” 

“It’s only been like two weeks. It was Christmas literally a few days ago.” Peter glanced warily at Ned before he looked back to you. You were still smiling. The sight made his chest tighten, stole his breath directly from his lungs. “Pete?”

“You remember Homecoming,” Peter pointed out as he met Ned’s eyes, “that all happened in a week and I almost died. Twice! Anything could have happened over break.”

Peter let his eyes wander back to you. Whatever MJ was discussing with you was enthralling. You were completely consumed, cheeks flushed and eyes wide. Slightly hidden under all of the layers of Winter clothing you were wearing, you looked warm, aflamed and bright. Suddenly, you threw your head back, laughing at something MJ had said.

The sound sent a shiver down Peter’s spine that he tried to pass off as a response to the cold. He pulled the sleeves of his jacket over his chilled hands and adjusted the strap of his backpack that dug into his shoulder. Ned blinked at him a few times, too close of a friend to not notice Peter’s nervous ticks. 

Eventually, Ned glanced over in your direction too. “Well, Y/N seemed alright. We had Advanced Geometry together and we talked.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Really? Did anything happen?”

“From what Y/N said, your Winter break was way more eventful, Spiderman.” 

Peter knocked the back of his hand against Ned’s shoulder to hush him. Classmates continued to file out of the school, laughing and chatting about the less than glorious return to academia. Peter eyed them all as they stepped down the stairs to the streets of the city. None of his peers seemed to have picked up on Peter’s secret. Satisfied his identity was safe, Peter glanced at Ned with a warning balanced in his frown.

“Sorry,” Ned said, raising his hands. 

“Gotta be more careful.” Peter glanced around at the faces of his classmates once more. Everyone was too caught up in leaving school for the day to notice the worried look on his face. All except you when Peter accidentally met your eyes. Quickly, he tore his gaze away and stared directly, wide-eyed, at Ned.

“What?”

“Y/N.” Ned glanced over in your direction.

“Headed over with MJ. Why?”

Peter’s face warmed to the point where the scarf wrapped around his jaw was pointless. “And? Does...is...do I look okay?”

Ned squinted before his lips broke into a wide grin. A laugh rattled in his chest and Peter felt a fresh wave of panic wash over his shoulders. 

“What?! Do I look-”

“Hey losers,” MJ greeted, standing by your side. Peter glanced at the curly-haired girl before he saw you gently elbowed her shoulder. He met your eyes and felt his lips instinctively curl up in a lopsided smile.

“Hi,” Peter said softly as he tried to steady his breathing. Now, with you closer, he tried to study you, sleuth out what was different.

“Hey! Do you guys wanna do something? Hang out?” 

Your smile was still as bright as your eyes as you asked. Maybe it was the ruddiness in your cheeks, spurred on by the cold that made you seem changed? No, that was too simple. 

“Nah, I gotta work,” MJ said. 

“Wow, you got a job?” Ned asked, causing Peter to glance away from your face for a moment. When he looked back to you, Peter found that you were looking at him. Though, you quickly looked to MJ, waiting for her reply.

“Yeah, over break. At the QuikMart.”

Maybe you got a haircut or, possibly, you dyed your hair and the color was fading back to it’s natural tone. Aunt May had dyed her hair a dark red one year. Peter remembered thinking there was blood in the tub when the pigment started to wash out. Though, even with his ‘Spidey-vision’, as Ned called it, Peter couldn’t detect a color.

“Awesome. Can you get me free slushies?” 

“Bro, I don’t even get free slushies,” MJ replied, frowning at Ned. “I gotta go, can’t be late. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“See ya,” you said, waving off your friend as MJ walked along the snowy sidewalks. Peter swallowed hard when you looked back to him and Ned. “What about you two?”

“I told my mom I’d be back after school to help her with my lola, my grandma.” Peter’s brow furrowed and he turned his head to look at Ned. “Really? You need help?”

“No, she’s coming over to make some food,” Ned explained as he started down the steps of the school. “I’m mom’s moral support.”

“Oh…”

“Well, have fun with that,” you said, bringing Peter’s eyes back to focus on you. “Maybe next time then.”

Ned let out another laugh. It was eerily similar to the laugh he gave Peter when he asked if he looked okay. Something about the sound made Peter’s stomach twist. 

“You two have fun!” Ned’s shout disappeared after him, down the sidewalk and into the city. His words left you and Peter alone. You glanced back to him with a soft smile on your lips. Peter couldn’t help but smile back at you, even though he did so nervously. His eyes flickered up to yours then back to your lips.

While your smile was unchanged, still yours and beautiful, he kept coming back to your lips. It had to be your lips that were different and Peter leaned in slightly to figure out how. Your eyes widened slightly and Peter’s face burned with realization.

“Uh, sorry,” Peter shifted back and let his gaze fall. “So, what do you wanna do?”

“I-I...to be honest, I don’t know. I just missed you over Winter break. Missed, all of you, I mean. MJ and Ned, and you.” You held Peter’s eyes for a fleeting glance before you busied yourself wiping snow off the steps with your boot. 

“Yeah, I,” Peter felt his chest tightened again, “I missed you too, Y/N.”

You looked back up at him, met his brown eyes and gave him a closed-lip smile. Silence fell over the two of you but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was easy, not tension filled and heavy. Being with you was always easy for Peter but this new nervousness that bloomed over Winter break was difficult to manage. He couldn’t let his eyes linger on you too long until fear took hold.

The silence too had its limit. “We should head over to the library maybe. You have Ms. Turner for chem, right? We could study together if you want.”

Peter fought the urge to cringe as his suggestion. In his head, it sounded better, more thought through. He had missed you and wanted to spend time with you. So, naturally, he had to recommend the quiet library. Maybe he was the one that was different, more awkward.

“Sure, yeah!” You started down the steps and Peter trailed after you. “She’s new and I’m a bit nervous about how she tests.”

“I’m nervous too,” Peter agreed as he fell into step beside you. “About the test.”

Peter glanced at you from the corner of his eyes and saw that you were already looking at him. Quickly, you both looked away from the other and started to walk silently towards the library. Every so often, Peter felt your gloved hand against the skin of his bare knuckles. Each time you touched him, a new sense of curiosity struck him. This quietness was different, he wasn’t sure that he liked it, and your hidden change still gnawed at him.

Mr. Stark had given Peter many words of wisdom. Always ask questions was, seemingly, his motto when it came to his ‘internship’. Though, Peter couldn’t find the words. Everytime he did, he second guessed. 

Hey, what did you get up to over break? New style? No, no, no! It had to be your smile. He was stuck on your smile, your lips. 

Finally, with nerves and desperation bubbling up inside, Peter let the words come out without thinking. “Y/N, are you wearing like lipstick or something?”

You laughed, drawing the attention of those around you. The last crosswalk before the library was fast approaching and Peter needed to find out what had changed before you were both doomed to a respectable quiet. 

“Lipstick? No, I am wearing tinted chapstick though.”

“Oh,” Peter’s brow furrowed, “I guess maybe that’s what’s different.”

“Different?” At your amused tone, Peter looked at you, brown eyes searching your face. There was a softness in his eyes and stole your breath away. His lips turned up slightly at the corners, the gentlest smile you had ever seen.

“You just...you look-”

A car horn, loud, alarming, and terribly frightening ripped through the air. Peter reacted to the sound, lurching forwards and wrapping his arms around your waist. Even with your bag slung halfway on your back, Peter was able to catch you as you nearly fell into the street. The car horn faded into the distance but your attention shifted from death to Peter in an instant. 

“Beautiful,” he finished. 

Finally, it clicked. You hadn’t changed, but the way Peter saw you had. The way he saw your lips had shifted too. More enticing than ever before. 

“Peter, I…” 

“Oh, yeah, yeah,” Peter said, quickly helping you back to your feet and out of the crosswalk. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” you said with a swallow breath. Peter’s hands were still on you, thumbs gently rubbing your coat-covered, upper arm. Your eyes lingered on Peter, unable to tear them away.

His breath, and yours, came out in small clouds, chilled by the cold. Together, you made your own atmosphere and shared the same air. Adrenaline pumped through Peter’s veins, filled, not with curisoulity anymore, but want. He took a step closer. 

“Y/N?” 

“Yes?” You found yourself coaxed closer by his warmth. 

“Can...can I kiss you?”

You smiled again and nodded. “Yes.”

Peter leaned in and pressed his lips to yours. His fingers dug into the material of your coat softly. One of your hands reached up, cupped his face and accidentally knocked his hat off of his brown curls. Neither of you cared and, instead, savored your shared late-Winter kiss. Peter’s hands trailed up your arms until they gently held your jaw, keeping your lips on his.

Peter’s eyes stayed closed and a smile plastered on his face when you pulled away. A chuckle passed over your lips when you saw how your tinted chapstick left a faint stain on Peter’s lips. Carefully, you used your thumb and wiped what residue you saw away. Peter’s eyes opened at the touch and his smile widened.

“Pomegranate?”

“You like it?”

Peter pulled you in for another kiss after saying, “I love it.”

[barzzal]

when the ball drops

summary: out of all the times you wanted to bail, for once you were certainly glad you didn’t ditch this year’s new year’s eve party.

↳ pairing: mathew barzal x you

↳ warnings: language, parties, drinking, flirty banters + a smitten mat (set in a pandemic free au)

↳ genre: fluff, meeting a total stranger, early 2000’s romantic/comedy typa thing (what i think at least)

↳ length: imagine; 5.9k

↳ masterlist: the barn

note: this is an entry for @hockeynetwork’s winter fic exchange and i was matched as @bqstqnbruin’s secret santa! i genuinely hope you get to enjoy this, boo!! i wanna thank a few mutuals, @tkachukme @calgarycanuck @pizzarandomness (esp @thirteenisles !!) for helping me out so i could get thru with writing this imagine! you guys are so nice i truly appreciate all of you. happy holidays & happy new year, everyone! 💕 (gif used: mine)

Every year you swear to yourself that you would spend the New Year’s at home, eating a peaceful dinner by yourself and maybe enjoy a good bottle of wine whilst you spend the whole night watching The Holiday. But just like all the other years you have spent alone since you’ve moved to New York, you end up breaking that same promise, pretty much with the help of your two best friends Emma and Katie.

Now, instead of being curled up in your living room, wearing your favourite knitted sweater and away from all the New Year chaos happening all at once in the very best place to celebrate such a festive occasion, here you are, getting your second glass of vodka tonic as you wait for the goddamn ball to drop.

The local bar has always been crowded especially during this time of the year. You and your friends already made it an annual thing which is probably the reason why despite the yearning you have for the idea of spending it all alone, you couldn’t find enough courage to ditch them and disappear even just for one night. 

“Where are the girls?” Gavin, the owner of the bar whom you’ve already befriended due to the amount of times you and the girls spent helping him close up was busily wiping the counter when you sat in your usual seat.

You casually motioned your hand to where you left Emma and Katie, dancing with men they’d most certainly end up kissing once the clock strikes twelve. 

“Alone again? You’ve got to blow off some steam, y/n.” He greets you with a concerned look exuding from his virile exterior. You idly shake your head, giving him a tight smile to reassure him that you were doing okay. 

“It’s not that big a deal.” is the usual thing you say to people when your being ‘alone’ on the holidays becomes in question. “Besides, I’m a big girl, Gavs.” You proudly announce, leaning against the bar with your palm resting underneath your chin. 

“I know you’re a ‘big girl’.” He rolls his eyes before his gaze trails off to your friends and then landing onto a couple of young lads from across the room. “I’m just saying, loosen up. Meet people. It feels nice to have someone holding you close at night so don’t be too hard on yourself.” 

A snort bursts from you as soon as you hear the words leave Gavin’s mouth. Who would have known a guy as tough-looking as him would be too much of a softy underneath? 

“What?” He holds his guard as he continues making your drink. The liquid swirling around a few ice cubes and a shot of liquor. 

“Nothing, nothing. I just– I didn’t think you were one of those people.” You say, clearing your voice once you’ve finally gathered yourself. “You know, the sappy romantics.”

Gavin looks at you, giving you an ‘Oh, please.’ look. “No, ‘cause that’s where you’re wrong.” He protests. “I’ve always been this soft, “sappy romantic” kinda guy. You just choose to see me the way you see me; a typical macho man who hands you good drinks.” He pauses, finishing off with the last touches of your drink. “But you know what? That’s fine. ‘Cause that’s how I know you’re just like me.” He then slides the cold drink towards you. 

“What do you mean?” You were intrigued to be fair. You already had your head tilted to the side trying to piece something that could justify what he just said.

“That.” He looks at you, index finger circling before your eyes to make his argument even more compelling. “You act like a strong independent woman, which by the way you still are,– but you have to admit that you do want someone who’s gonna want to spend his New Year’s watching that dumb old movie of yours.” He says with a grin before he pours another customer a shot of tequila. 

You were sure you wanted to just shrug it off, but somehow, you can’t help but think of how his words hit you in the subtlest way. Each word bearing an insane amount of possibilities of him being right all along. 

But what’d he know anyway? It’s not like he knew you better than anyone else. Maybe it’s just his way with words. Or maybe he’s just that good. After all, that’s basically the reason why he’s running a goddamn bar, right?

𖥸

It wasn’t Mat’s first time spending New Year’s away from his family but if he only had a choice, he’d certainly take the next plane with no question. However, given how the team’s fight for the Cup is going stronger than the last season, he couldn’t bring himself to risk going away and missing out on his usual routines. So, for the past couple of weeks he’d let himself be stuck with Beauvillier throughout the holidays. 

Now, for the sake of festivities, the two decided it’d be best to come out to the city and have fun welcoming the New Year along with some good friends that were surprisingly available at the last minute. That being said, the local bar was already the third one they’ve gone to having started the drinking binge earlier than intended. 

“Happy New Fucking Year, Motherfuckers!” The loudest and perhaps, the drunkest man cheered at the center of the dance floor, holding up his drink carelessly as he danced to the mind numbing EDM coming off from the DJ’s booth. 

“Way to get wasted. Am I right?” Dan says as he stands to gather everyone and clink their beer mugs for the nth time. 

“Somebody’s definitely gonna miss the ball drop.” Tito snides, referring to the drunken man cheering tirelessly. Mat shakes his head and idly laughs. Their glasses meet halfway, causing some of the beer to spill over the table. The loud music and cheers echoed in Mathew’s ears, finding the whole scene a little too overwhelming despite how he liked to loosen up with bottomless drinks coming his way. 

Somehow, he was thankful that he needed a second to breathe which only meant having to take his eyes off of the same guys he hangs with on and off the ice. Because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to see someone so beautiful yet seemingly out of place when his gaze landed onto that one girl sitting by the bar all by herself at what seems to be the loudest pub in the city. 

“God, she’s pretty.” The words unknowingly slip off his tongue, making him realize he’s announced his thoughts out for the group just enough to make their brows quirk at the now out-of-reach Mathew.

“What?” Anthony leans closer to him so as to give himself a view of what Mat had his eyes peeled for. 

“That girl by the bar, she’s— she’s really pretty.” Mathew says, completely sure that he has never said anything true in his life. Much to his surprise, the boys gathered around and turned their heads towards the girl sitting by the bar. 

“So? Go and talk to her, man.” Anthony casually proposes with a nudge, urging him to go after her. 

Mathew immediately lets out a foolish scoff and chooses to gulp a large amount of liquor from his mug. 

“Yeah, just go for it. What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Tyson chides, looking at the girl who has utterly made their night a little more interesting. That being said, being stuck with the three biggest blokes wasn’t that too interesting to begin with. 

“Oh, worst thing? She could hear me!” Mat runs a hand through his hair, incapable of taking his eyes off of her even just for a second. 

“You know if you don’t, I will.” Tyson puts his beer down and acts as if to make the move Mathew was too hesitant to do himself in order to boost his mate.

“Fuck off. Fine. Hold my beer.” Mat rolls his eyes and shoves Tyson his mug before gathering himself by straightening creases off his suit along with a few sharp breaths to ease out the nervousness he’d been feeling.

You watch the teeny tiny leaf of mint swirl around the whirl of liquor you’ve successfully made, ignoring all the background noise, still evidently fixated on the words Gavin has left you with earlier. Has it really been that long since you allowed yourself to be fully vulnerable around someone? 

A sad smile escapes your lips, one that made the man that was now towering all over you wonder what could have possibly caused such melancholy on the most beautiful girl he has seen all throughout the city. That’s a rather heavy way to put it but that doesn't mean he was lying. He did find you really pretty. Maybe even a little too much and too out of his league.

A tap on your shoulder pulls you from your thoughts.

“Hi.” He says, gray eyes illuminated by the strobe lights hitting your direction. You give him a tight smile, acknowledging his presence and frankly even the boldness he had to strike up a conversation. 

“I just wanted to ask if what you’re drinking is any good.” Mat subconsciously reprimands himself for coming up with what is yet to be the lamest thing he’s ever told a girl. 

Great. Now, you’re asking her if a vodka tonic is good? As if it could get any better? He thinks to himself. So, to compensate and reduce further damage, he plays it off by laughing quite sheepishly as he absent-mindedly massages his nape.

Noticing what the man was doing, you let out a shy laugh too, biting your lower lip as you find his foolish attempt of hitting on you quite adorable.

“Wow. You’re really good at this.” You tease, now giving away a playful smile, poking at his middle school pick up line. 

Mathew chuckles. His doe eyes shy and alienated by the confidence he certainly knew he had not until a few seconds ago when he met yours. “I swear I’m better than this.” He tries again, this time earning himself a soft giggle from you.

Atta boy, Mat. 

“I’m Mat by the way. Mathew Barzal.” 

He reaches out his hand which you gladly took. It was calloused and rough around the edges whilst Mat found yours completely fitting in his. Your eyes meet halfway as you both shook each other’s hands. Fingers lingering quite longer than it should be.

“Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.” 

“So, you’re telling me you haven’t had a tonic before?” You ask him, hands now all to yourselves. Mat leans against the bar, his elbow resting on the counter, unable to suppress the embarrassment now dawning on him upon remembering his little set back.

“I’m sort of a vodka tonic connoisseur.” He kids in an attempt to redeem himself. “Come on, it wasn’t that bad.” 

You look at him, shaking your head at how unbelievably gorgeous this man is. “Fine. It wasn’t. I’ll give you that.” 

“So,” He takes a deep breath before taking one of the empty seats beside you. “I– I can’t help but wonder, I mean– if it’s not too forward of me, how come you’re drinking alone on New Year’s?” 

You take a sip off of your drink and faintly shake your head, dismissing his query. “Hmm. Actually, no.” 

Mathew muttered an “oh.” at the thought of hearing what he thinks you’re about to say next. To his surprise, and frankly feeling as if a weight had been lifted off his chest, you motion towards your best girls, Emma and Katie who were now obviously way too fond of the guys they just met.

“See those girls?” 

Mathew nods, the answer to his question now becoming much clearer and put together. An answer that absolutely went along with his cards well. 

“Those are two of the most important persons in my life going at it at a New Year’s Eve Party.” 

“Would it be wrong to ask why aren’t you ‘going at it’ like how they’re doing it now?”

Is he always this formal? You think, lips curving to a grin. 

“What?” He asks when he sees the expression (he can’t quite put a finger on) on your face.

“Nah. I’m all good. I mean, not that I don’t want to. I just–” You pause. Unsure of whether telling him the truth would do your case any better. What’s there to lose anyway? He’s just some guy you’re bound to meet at the bar. It’s not like you didn’t anticipate a scenario like this from happening, right?

“Just take me as someone who isn’t really fond of big parties,” he then cuts you off and finishes your sentence, “But still go anyways.” 

“Exactly.” 

Gavin pops in for a bit, handing Mathew a bottle of beer he was certain of not ordering. He looks at him puzzled. A silent question that Gavin answered with a wink before getting back to tending to his alcohol induced customers. 

Apparently, it’s on the house.

“How come you’re here chatting with me when your friends are all the way there?” You motion towards a curly haired man and the other boys across the room. One was even smiling at you but you just opted on giving him a nod before turning your head back towards Mathew.

“Well, I didn’t like the idea of having you celebrate the New Year’s alone.” He honestly says. But since you were the kind of person who wasn’t the best at taking any type of compliment nor flirty exchanges like a normal person would, you roll your eyes and be the blunt person you were always known for. “Oh. I thought you saw a girl sitting alone at the bar and saw that as an opening.” 

To be fair, Mat wasn’t really intimidated by your remark. In fact, he actually liked how straight forward you were with him. You didn’t look at him the way he’s gotten used to whenever he comes up and introduces himself to other girls; something that only made him more interested in you. He can’t help but want to know what exactly is going on in your mind. Not the creepy kind, of course. Just the one where he’d rather spend the New Year’s getting to know a total stranger than getting insanely pissed with the same men he’s spent most of his days with.

“That too.” He admits, taking a sip off his beer without breaking his eyes off you. 

There was a sheer silence for a moment. The kind that Mat knew was much deafening than the booming sound of the usual dreadful New Year’s Eve Party. “So tell me,” Mat regains himself, catching your attention once again. “What would you rather be doing tonight? You know, if you hadn’t had to come out here.” 

He watches your lips quirk thinking about what it was that you actually wanted to do tonight. Then again, you only had one thing in mind. 

“I kinda wanted to spend it alone for the past three years.” 

“That long? How come?”

“Well, you know, for some peace and quiet. Maybe watch a movie or two.”

Like what he has been doing since the moment he’d gone to talk to you, he watches you run your fingers around the rim of your cold drink. Evidently immersed in your own thoughts from trying to piece out the real reason behind your grave wanting to spend the occasion alone. 

Turning the tables, you ask the same question back, “What about you? I mean, other than getting shit faced, what would you rather be doing?” 

Mathew takes a deep breath trying to suppress the longing he’s felt for the past few weeks. He just misses his family so much that he couldn’t help but wonder how they’re doing even if he’s constantly kept in touch with them hours before he’d gone out with the boys. 

“I’ll be with my folks. You know, all that usual family stuff.” He answers you shortly. 

You didn’t think much of what he’s told you so you just tell him the very thing that crossed your mind. “You know, it’s amazing how two people who didn’t even want to be here find each other just so they could bitch about not wanting to be here a little bit more.”

The two of you share a good laugh, utterly and undeniably enjoying each other’s company. It didn’t feel weird having to talk to a total stranger, let alone let them have bits and pieces of yourself that only enables them to put together an image of you that isn’t even as close to who you really are. Regardless of that notion, there was something about how Mathew connected with you, and how you connected with him. 

It was far from being the movie type of thing, but you have to admit, the remainder of the time you two have spent talking over a half empty bottle of beer and a glass of vodka tonic has definitely made the two of you feel this unexplainable wanting of having to learn more about each other. That being said, when all drinks were drunk till its last drop, Mathew couldn’t help himself from wanting to spend a bit more time with you. Maybe, even the whole night if you’d only let him. 

“D’you want to get out of here?” He shoots his shot as quickly as he could, afraid that losing even just a second would mean losing a night of spontaneity with you. 

You have long waited for a reason to miss the annual party. And if that meant having to wait three years just so you could stumble upon a tall and fairly handsome man that was going to save you from a dreadful evening, nothing would’ve felt as right as this if it weren’t for the push Mat had stored in his piercing eyes and mischievous grin. 

You didn’t have to give it much thought. After spending a whole hour exchanging little trivias of yourselves, Mat finally had it easy in making a riveting case. You sigh in defeat as you fish out a few cash from your purse and slide it into your tab. 

Excitement now exuding from Mathew, he bobs his brows up and down whilst he watches you roll your eyes once again for the hundredth time tonight. “I’m gonna hate you for this.” You tell him as you get off the bar stool.

Mat hurriedly signals Tito for his coat to which he was able to catch the moment he had tossed it towards his way. He then gets yours that was placed on the back of your seat before finally following you out towards the door.

“I highly doubt that.” 

𖥸

Mathew draped your coat over your shoulders, helping you to slip into it. You politely say your thanks and hold your purse close, your gloves gripping onto the leather as the two of you stroll the streets of New York, the winter breeze brushing on your cheeks with every stride you make. 

“So,” You begin, putting both of your hands inside your coat pockets. “Where are you taking me, Mat?” 

He tries to think for a second. The thought of not having a concrete plan for the night finally dawns on him. He clicks his tongue and breathes in the familiar scent of the city. Mathew looks around the block and spots the good old food truck he and the boys once tried when they were out for an away game with the Rangers. 

“How about New York’s finest burrito?” He points to where the truck was parked, clueless to how his sudden movement placed him inches closer to you. You didn’t notice it until you looked at him for his eyes were still pinned to where the truck was at. 

Mat’s eyes were pretty. That’s a known fact. But what you didn’t realize was how astonishing they are not until you got this close. You took in the sight sitting before you as fast as you could while he was still preoccupied like a five-year-old kid seeing an ice-cream truck pass by the neighborhood. Your eyes linger from his well structured brows, his unbelievably long lashes, down to the tip of his nose and his rosy cheeks before finally settling down to his cherry plump lips. All of which were more than enough to send butterflies in your stomach. 

“O-Okay.” You agree. Mathew takes you by the hand before you can even say a word. Thank the gods for letting you live in a city that seems to never stop the hustle to still have open food trucks good for a quick bite at this time of the night close into New Year’s.

“Hey, bud. Two sixes to go, please.” Mathew says politely once he knocks on the window. 

“You’ve got to try this, I swear.” He looks back at you with the same warm smile beaming on his face.

“Unless you want a proper meal? I mean, there’s a diner down the–” You immediately cut him off and take out your purse, offering to pay for it instead. “No! It’s fine, really. I’m a bit hungry myself.” 

After spending the whole time waiting for the wrapped snack, arguing on who would be paying, you let Mathew have this one for now even if you didn’t like others paying for what you can pay yourself.

You take a good look at your watch and see that you only have about an hour left till midnight. An idea pops in your head, making you gasp at the thought. Mathew looks at you with a half-eaten burrito in his hand, his brows all furrowed as if to ask a piece of your mind. 

“Come on, I know where we should go.” 

𖥸

Mathew never thought he’d found himself standing on a rooftop of a random building overlooking the Empire State during one of the coldest times in the city. The things that has only kept him sane was the girl who was still holding his hand, the city lights that have always left him in awe, and of course, the well heated rooftop.

There have been a few exchanges that are quite notable over the time you’ve spent with Mathew. He’s told you about the usual night outs he and the boys have for leisure, the family he had back in Coquitlam, how much he misses his mom and his sister, and how much love he has for hockey that he ended up doing the thing he loved most for a career. 

Him, on the one hand, pretty much learned the same stuff about you. Well, almost, for he has yet to ask you the one thing that has been bugging him off all night. 

You were telling him how this was your safe haven in the city and how much you loved going here every time you felt like needing to take a deep breath and step back from the world when he asked you a simple question. One that’s absolutely left you surprised (and a little bit impressed) that he still even remembered it at this point. 

“What’s the movie about? You know, the one you’ve been wanting to see tonight.” He asks, both of his hands inside his pockets to keep warm. 

The two of you sat on the bench facing thousands of lights illuminating the whole city. You look at him for a second, biting your lip as you contest with yourself, the thought of Mat being the kind of douché that would shit around women and their romantic comedy films comes rushing to you like a cold December breeze. 

“Alright, why do you want to know?” You pass the ball back to his court. To which Mat shortly answers with a level-headed sigh. “I kinda get the feeling it has something to do with the three-year thing.” 

“You’re nosy.” You kiddingly say, earning a chuckle from him. 

“You’ve spent the whole night walking with me and I can barely even feel my legs anymore, y/n. Trust me, between you and me, you know you’re the nosy one.” The two of you share a small laugh, your voices are the only sound that can be heard besides the sleepless city acting as a white noise to you and Mathew’s little bubble. 

“Fine. And you’re a fucking athlete, so don’t even start.” 

You playfully give him a nudge on the shoulder when he starts mimicking what you say. Mat stops immediately and looks at you with the same doe eyes glinting under the security lights that the rooftop had. He then patiently waits for you to gather your thoughts, breathing in all of New York as he lets himself drown in your presence. 

You didn’t know how but there was this unspeakable comfort you feel around Mat. Sure, he was just a total stranger you’ve met a few hours ago, but no one, not even the guy who dumped you after your five-date rule, was able to connect with you at the same level as Mathew did. 

“It’s not that I want to see it so bad. I’ve watched it for like– a reasonable amount before it became my comfort movie. Plus, it’s literally called The Holiday. Why wouldn’t you want to see it during the holiday?”

You tell him a bit more of how you’ve come into liking it, stalling him from the real reason why you wanted to celebrate the New Year’s alone. But you know, that even after all the circles you’re willing to go through just to keep Mat at bay, you’re bound to lose all your strings and resort to telling him in the end. You just hope you wouldn’t be making the same mistake you’ve made three years ago. 

You told Mathew about your on and off childhood sweetheart Claude who has always kept you high and dry throughout the years of being together. (That is if you were in fact together.) He was the constant reminder that you will never be the kind of person someone would want to stick around with.

You and him go a long way. You both ended up going to the same university because he just had to have you around and that he couldn’t afford not being with you even just for a second. He said that he couldn’t take the thought of having to see you only on the holidays so as the dumb kid you once were, your feet followed his everywhere he’d gone.

That cycle went on and on until you finally had the courage to leave everything behind and move to New York. Months as a new kid in the city, you were scared, of course. You spent your days hanging around your apartment, doing all sorts of crap you can even think of just so you wouldn’t have to leave your flat. Although, meeting Emma and Katie was the biggest push you needed to finally let yourself let loose. Long story short, at the first New Year’s Eve Party you’ve ever gone to after moving in the city, the person you least expected to see was the very first one to come out of Gavin's bar. Claude.

Just like what a normal person would do, the two of you sat down and caught up. Pretty much the same thing you’ve gone with Mathew. Although only a lot less chit chat and a lot more kissing.

Claude told you his real intentions. He said that he wanted to start something with you for real. Of course, you had let him but you have made the biggest mistake of telling him about your five-date rule.

Lo and behold, Claude did stick around for the fifth date. That being said, he had stayed only for the fifth date. You saw him sneaking out of your flat so early in the morning, leaving you nothing but a voicemail that said his foolish reasons and insincere apologies. Since then, after a lot of major hook ups here and there, you’ve never let yourself become as vulnerable and stupid as you once were with the biggest douche you’ve ever met.

“It’s crazy, I know. You can laugh about it.” You say when Mat hasn’t spoken for a few seconds. 

He takes a glance at you, a tight smile on his face. “I don’t think it’s crazy. That man is crazy. And also, a big prick. Classic dick move.” He tells you before he turns his eyes back to the city.

“Well, yeah. That’s me. That’s the holiday story.” 

“A crappy one, of course.” You add. 

Mat shakes his head no. He didn’t know why exactly but all he wanted to do at that moment, a few seconds before New Year’s, was to give you something,– even just a memory you could look back on. That that story isn’t going to be the one you’d be remembering for the next holidays. He wanted his to be something that’ll make your three-year-old crappy story long gone and forgotten. That his version would be the one that’s stuck.

“Definitely not this one.” 

As the clock strikes twelve, cheers erupted throughout New York along with fireworks shooting into the city’s midnight sky. The first thing you see upon looking back were the same kind eyes of the man whom you have randomly met at the party you dreaded most. Only this time, drowning you little by little as it becomes iridescent under the thousands of lights covering New York City.

You were frozen to your seat as Mat’s face inch closer to yours. You feel his breath against your cold skin as if it was lulling you to sleep. His hands find its way to your face, cupping both of your cheeks rather gently as he finally paints a new memory you’d be carrying for the rest of your holidays. 

“Happy New Year.” He greets you, almost like a faint whisper whilst the two of you gasp for breath. You blink a few times just to process what had just happened and digest how unbelievably good that kiss was. 

Mathew’s hands were still on your cheeks. You held them close so he’d know you weren’t ready to let go. You take a deep breath, gathering enough courage to ask him an unusual way of greeting someone a Happy New Year. 

“Will you walk me to my car?”

𖥸

You have both of your hands tucked inside your coat pockets as you walked the street leading to where you left your car. Mat was just telling you about the game happening next Thursday against the Bruins and how it would mean a lot to him if you’d come and see him play. 

“To be fair, the Bruins are good.” You commented, a playful smirk plastered on your face rather teasingly. 

Mathew lets out a snort as he rolls his eyes, chuckling at the thought of you dissing on his team the moment you had the chance. “Hey, both teams are good.” 

“It’s just the matter of who’s better.” You finish his sentence, yet again working your way with a clever remark. Mat hums, not necessarily agreeing with your sentiment. 

“So will you come?” He asks again just so he could hear you say yes. You take a deep breath, not letting yourself think too much of the said invitation. If you’re going, you’re going as a friend. Actually, you weren’t even sure if you could even call yourself such a label.

You nod your head yes to which had become the reason of Mathew’s glee. The two of you walked side by side in peace, basking in the comfort of each other’s presence. 

Once the rush of excitement about you coming to one of his games starts to wear down, Mathew begins to feel the weight of walking befall on him as it grows quicker with each step he takes. With his brows meeting halfway, he looks at you, eyes evident with confusion. 

“Where did you park your car exactly? I feel like we’re walking straight to Long Island.” He chortles, scratching his temple quite adorably.

You bit your lower lip as you looked up at him. Mathew’s physique towering over yours. “I uh– I took a cab to the party. My car’s actually parked outside my apartment.” You admit with a shy laugh.

Mat’s mouth went agape upon hearing you confess; awkward silence envelops the two of you with every second spent not talking to one another. Not long after, he decides to break the ice, undeniably impressed at how he’d never seen it coming.

Clever. He thinks, incapable of stopping his gut from swirling. His smile widens when he sees you looking at him; unfazed and perhaps, enamoured. 

𖥸

Mat did walk you to your car. The two of you exchange your thank you’s; utterly grateful for what has to be the best New Year’s you had in years. 

You wanted to ask him for one last cup of coffee because the last thing you wanted him to do was leave. But after all the things you’ve gone through with the man within such a short amount of time (and frankly, even a tedious walk) you still failed to muster enough courage to stop him from doing so. 

Once you see him get in the lone cab that miraculously passed by your neighborhood at such an ungodly hour, you close the door behind and head straight to your flat. 

You get home to the sight of your weighted blanket spread over your couch along with a couple of pillows that seems to be the best place to bury yourself in after a tiresome night out. Things were just as they were left hours ago; prepped for a much awaited movie night. As planned, you quickly get out of your winter clothes, head for a quick shower, before finally slipping into some comfortable nightwear.

You were just finishing up putting the bowl of popcorn and a bottle of Chardonnay on top of the coffee table when a buzz coming from the intercom catches your attention.

Once your hands were free, you quickly made your way towards the box, a bit irked at the thought of Katie and Emma ruining your long-overdue New Year agenda upon remembering how she’d told you to let her in the building just in case Katie gets a little too overboard. 

“Emma, I’m about to watch Jude Fucking Law. Just come up!” You hurriedly say, turning your head back to the screen which already had the movie on pause. 

However, instead of Katie’s whiny and drunken voice, what you heard was the same familiar chuckle that had been cruising your mind all night. 

“You know, I don’t think I mentioned that I haven’t watched The Holiday. Is Jude Fucking Law any good?” He asks. A mental image of how his eyes crinkle when he laughs comes to mind upon hearing his voice. 

Once again, pretty much like how you’ve spent the whole evening with Mathew, a wide smile lets loose as you press the black button. “Come on up.”

[rogue-durin-16]

AN UNUSUAL YEAR (Part V/V)

Summary: After having little to no interest on girls for five years, Fred suddenly feels the need to nag the shit out of a certain witch, completely oblivious to the reason behind it.

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Slytherin!Reader

Genre: fluff (+ enemies to lovers)

Tags:

An unusual year: @natural-hearts @manuosorioh @lumos-solemn @westyywifee @whiskeyn-rain @warlock--protection @gossip-girl-ecr @fandomscombine @birdy944 @28cnn

Permanent taglist: @elia-the-bibliophile @randomparanoid @karlthecat15722 @thebutchersdaughtersblog

Warnings: a little angst, a little snogging 👀

A/N: maybe a bit longer than I expected but it's alright. Also I might write an addition to this story, not sure tho. I hope y'all enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it <3

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Rogue-durin-16 masterlist

"Y/n! Come sit with us?" George waved at me from the Gryffindor table as I entered the Great Hall, prompting me to sit across him and Angelina, and besides Fred. "Where's Mathilda?" He asked as I got closer, leaving my books on the wooden surface.

"She's feeling unwell." As I sat down, I noticed George's arm around Angelina and I couldn't help the knowing grin that tugged the corner of my lips. "The date exchange at the Ball turned out well, huh?"

"I could say the same about you." He wiggled his brows at me with the same grin I had.

I felt a sudden rush of panic going through my body. My eyes traveled to the boy by my side, who was oddly quiet, and I found him already peeking at me.

"Meaning?" I decided to play dumb, taking a bite of my golden slice of toast whilst ignoring the intending gazes of the couple in front of me.

"You two were having a great time last night." Angelina jumped in, leaning over her table. "Didn't see you coming back, Fred." She added, redirecting her eyes to the ginger.

"I did." His brother laughed. "I daresay you two had an intense night." I felt my cheeks reddening, not finding enough strength to meet George's look. "It was about time, really."

I was startled by Fred abruptly standing up. "See you in class." The curt reply he offered before fleeing shocked all of us; specially his brother, who, with a polite apology, left me and Angelina to go after his twin.

"I feel like I shouldn't ask." She spoke quietly.

"I don't have an answer."

I feared she would see through me. I hadn't lied, but my gut told me whatever happened had to do with the change of demeanor he had at the end of our night out.

I wouldn't say it out loud but a part of me began to worry.

The worry stayed throughout that entire week, guilt joining it at some point. Fred's attendance in Charms, Astronomy and Potions had decreased; I had only see him attend once to Astronomy. The only thing he did was play with his quill and, whenever he thought I didn't notice, stare at me.

Ironically enough, we started spending most of the time together; after the winter break, George had incorporated both Mathilda and me to their friend group, which, in different circumstances, would have been great.

Alicia Spinnet gained special interest on my best friend; Lee Jordan would joke about Slytherins and Gryffindors getting together, and Angelina— well, she seemed happier now that she could hang out with all her friends at the same time.

Fred was miserable. Everyone could see it, yet they did their best to cover it up.

George would overcompensate his brother's attitude by being louder and paying extra attention to me, but it worsened the situation.

I wanted to ask Fred what was wrong, but then again we weren't even good friends, so was it really my place to ask?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

George had proposed a trip to Hogsmade a couple of days ago and we all agreed on going, but the day came and Fred wasn't there.

His brother alleged he had a terrible headache and had chosen to stay in bed. We all saw through his excuse, and once more no one said a word.

It was that night that George came to look for me.

"—well then, go get her!" His shouts got into the common room when a second year entered..

"What's this about?" I inquired, coming out to the hallway to see the ginger about to throw hands at my prefect.

"I need you." He stated, quickly losing interest on whatever the prefect had to say. I only nodded and motioned him to move with me far from the Slytherin door. "You have to speak to Fred now." He almost pleaded, a frown of worry forming on his face.

"Sure— wait, now?" I stared at him in confusion.

"Sorry, I know it's late" his apology didn't mean he would ask me to do it in the morning instead.

I let out a sigh before inquiring, "Where's he?"

"The Astronomy tower, I believe." He replied.

"Alright," I said more to myself. "I'll go grab my jacket." He murmured another apology and a thank you before heading off to his House.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I came to a halt at the top of the stairs when I saw him sat against the wall, his knees pulled to his chest with his arms around them, and his face buried between them."Hey there, stranger."

He raised his head, letting his eyes and nose be seen."Who gave me away?"

"George."

"Tosser" he muttered, taking his gaze to the levitating bundle of newspaper on fire that was probably keeping him somewhat warm up there.

"Is it that bad to see me now?" I took a couple of careful steps towards the boy.

"It's always that bad to see you."

"Odd for you to say that," I let myself slide down the wall to sit by his side with my legs stretched out. "given how much you stare."

"Touché." He replied, the ghost of a smile breaking through his depressed demeanor. "What are you doing here?"

"What's wrong?"

"I asked first."

"I asked second." He raised his brows at me and it was my turn to avert my eyes from him. "I'm... Worried. About you."

When I shivered due to the wind flowing through the tower, he scooted closer and moved the little fire with his wand for it to be in the middle.

"You're all dejected and sulky," I explained. "You barely attend to our classes together, and if you do, you don't pay attention." I felt him shift uncomfortable by my side. "I'm... I'm gonna regret this— I miss you being a bloody nuisance."

"I knew you loved it." His teasing, though it was meant to be funny, sounded almost painful.

"now, what's wrong?" He shrugged, his chin resting over his forearms. "Listen, if you're not gonna tell me, it's fine, but at least tell George."

"Are you thick?" The bitterness in his tone took me aback. "Y/n, I fancy you." He hid his face between his arms. "quite a lot, actually." He added in a mumble.

"I figured that at the ball, you know?" This time it was me who scooted closer. "Tell me that's not the reason behind this."

"Would you like me to lie?" He questioned, shame slipping out with his voice. "I'm a very good liar you wouldn't even question it." He took a deep breath before looking back up, stretching one of his legs and leaning against the wall. "At the ball, I tried to start something." He began, fidgeting with his hands. "I... This never happened to me, so I wasn't- I didn't know what I was doing, but I thought I was making it clear." He tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. "But when I left you—"

"You know I fancy you too, right?" I tilted my head, searching for his eyes. "As in, more than a one time thing."

"That I didn't know." I felt a pang of guilt, realizing that unconsciously I had played a big part on this.

FRED'S P. O. V.

We stayed in silence.

It wasn't an unsettling silence, but the air weighed over us due to the tension floating on it; I needed to defuse it, otherwise it would crush me.

My heart hammered against my chest while I extended my arm to hold her hand on mine.

It's not meant to be nerve-wracking, I thought to myself as I pulled her hand away from her lap; we had already made clear we fancied each other.

The moment she put her head on my shoulder, the tension completely dissipated. I didn't notice the sigh that left my lungs when it happened.

"Didn't put you, Fred Weasley, in the I'm-a-bundle-of-nerves-with-girls category."

"Oh, shut it." I threw my head back, laughing for the first time in a couple of weeks.

"Never." She gave my hand a squeeze and I allowed my cheek to rest over her crown. "You could, of course, find a way to shut me up."

It wasn't her words that cracked me up, but the suggestive tone she used, which took me back to that night in the Duelling Room when I accidentally let slip my feelings for her for the first time.

I raised my head from hers. "Beg your pardon?" I played the fool, trying to hide the ghost of a smile when she shoot me a wide-eyed look. "What are you insinuating, woman?"

"Do you really wanna start the teasing now?" She gave me a warning glare.

"You've just said you missed it." I couldn't hold back the chuckle.

"I knew I was gonna regret it." She groaned, throwing her head back. My eyes, finally on her, traveled to her now exposed neck and collarbone. Though they weren't visible, I could see the trail of kisses I had left there just a few weeks ago. "Stop staring and kiss me."

It didn't take anything else for me to throw the levitating burning paper away and tug her closer by her hand.

The moment our mouths met, I slipped my hand away from Y/n's so I could led her thighs to straddle my legs.

A quiet moan escaped my lips when she rolled her hips against mines; my hands automatically traveled up from her thighs to her waist, pulling her flush against me.

The temperature in the high, cold tower had shot up all from sudden. Just as we were about to start discarding clothes, quick steps were heard climbing up the stairs.

"Fuck!" She whisper-shouted, practically pushing me away as she got up. "Move, move, move!" As she helped me up and we ran to hide, it dawned on me that we were way past curfew. That got me moving.

We waited for Filch to get to the top of the tower before running down as fast as we could.

"No time for goodbyes!" she warned as we rushed through the vast hallways with Filch after us. "See you tomorrow—"

Before she could sprint downstairs to the dungeons, I grabbed her hand and pulled her into a side hall.

"You won't make it to the dungeons." I stated between pants, glancing at the path we had taken. I wasn't able to see the caretaker yet, but his pants could be heard. "Take the other stairs I'll distract him."

"You'll get grounded." She observed, her breathing as heavy as mine, if not more.

"Worth it." I curtly reply, feeling the corners of my lips twisting up.

"You know?" She pushed herself off the wall she had leaned against to catch her breath. "Sometimes you're really sweet."

"Quick!" I tugged on her hand, seeing Filch finally turn the corner. "Gimme a good luck kiss!"

She pulled me down and kissed my lips briefly before taking off in the other direction. I had to tell myself to shake off that stupid smile and run.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

READER'S P. O. V.

The next morning I eagerly made my way to the Great Hall with two goals; having breakfast, of course, and checking if Fred had made it to his House without getting caught.

I soon spotted the group, this time sitting on the Slytherin table.

Soon his eyes found me too, and without saying a word to anyone, he got up and jogged to meet me halfway.

"Did you make it?" I asked, standing way too close to him and therefore attracting some nosey looks.

"By a whisker." He responded, taking a look around before looking back at me. "I was wondering if you'd like to go for a drink after class." I raised my eyebrows at him with a smirk. "We can use a passage to get to Hogsmade."

"Are you asking me on a proper date, Weasley?" I teased with my hands on my hips. "How cute."

He avoided eye contact, deciding to take another look around instead. "I swear if you tease me right now—"

"I'm free after four." I cut him off. "Now if you excuse me, I'm hungry." I passed him by, playfully bumping his shoulder, and made my way to our friends.

I didn't get far before his hands spun me around and cupped my cheeks, giving me a surprisingly deep kiss. "Are you gonna kill me?" He murmured, his lips still ghosting over mines.

"Oh, you know me so well." I replied, feeling my face heating up. We couldn't help but laugh when whistles and hollers came from behind me. "I might kill them too." I added, making fall into a fit of laughter as we pulled away in order to walk to where our friends sat. "I wanna have breakfast in peace." I warned them, sitting down with Fred by my side.

Everyone was giving looks at each other and trying to hold back the giggles, so I knew a comment was coming, but not from whom.

I could instantly tell I wasn't the only one shocked by the speaker. "But you just had him for breakfast." My best friend responded, faking confusion.

"I was just thinking about that!" Lee yelled, a bit too excited.

"Mathilda Foxglove—" I began, everyone cracking up.

"You are doomed." Fred finished, shoving a toast into his mouth to stop his laughter.

"It was worth it." She stated between giggles.

Fred gave me a side look with a half smile and I thanked Merlin no one could see the boy's fingers interlaced with mines under the table.

[prettyboyreid]

can you read to me? (III)

(part one) (part two)

Even after a silly fight, the reader can’t seem to go to sleep without Matthew next to her.

College!Matthew Gray Gubler x Reader

Warnings: language, angst

Word Count: 3681

The next few days seemed to drone on and on. 

Finals.  Lunch.  Finals.  Studying. 

It was an endless cycle that felt like it would never end for you.  Thankfully, on Friday, you had a ticket back home for Christmas break, which had just been delayed two days due to the snowy, icy New York weather.  The bad part was that it was only Wednesday.

You hadn’t talked to Matthew since Monday.  The second time you had seen him in almost a month, and you had fought yet again.  You wanted to talk to him again - you could hardly sleep without listening to him talk - but God you didn’t know if you could handle another argument. 

You were in the middle of reviewing for your chemistry final (thankfully, the last science class you might ever need to take) when the door to your dorm creaked open slowly and steadily.  Your roommate, Mia, peeked her head through the crack in the door, giving you a soft smile once she saw you look up from the laptop.

“Hey,” she said in a gentle voice, stepping fully into the room once you returned the smile.  “The end of the semester party is tonight.  Do you want to go with me?” she asked you, folding her arms over her chest as she leaned back against the door.

You gave her a simple shrug, closing the laptop as you turned your full attention to her.  “I don’t know, I have to study for my final,” you began to explain, letting out a huff of breath at the thought of studying stoichiometry or the periodic table for another second.  She frowned, moving to sit on the edge of your bed before resting her hand on your duvet-covered leg.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” she asked, giving you a sympathetic look.  It wasn’t too hard for her to figure out that it had something to do with Matthew; he had been in our room practically every day since we started dating freshman year, and now she hadn’t seen him in three weeks.  You used to not be able to shut up about him and any of his weird quirks; you had hardly spoken, especially since Monday.  She was good at reading people - there was no question about that - but it didn’t take a genius to figure out your heart was slowly breaking during what was supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year. 

You sighed heavily, pushing away from your small, cluttered desk and rubbing at your eyes with the heels of your hands.  “He, uh… we got into a fight,” you told her, looking down at your lap a bit as she rested a comforting hand on top of yours.  “He got pissed at me for hanging out with Jack a couple weeks back, and I got pissed about him hanging out with Lydia, so we hadn’t talked in two weeks.  I, uh, couldn’t sleep Sunday night and I went down to his room, and it seemed fine, then when I went to talk to him later…” you chewed on the inside of your cheek, hesitant to talk about one of the people that irked you the worst in the world.  “... Lydia was in his room, and he told me she tried to kiss him when we weren’t talking,” you told her softly, your voice trailing off a bit as you thought more and more about it.

The past few days, you pushed it to the back of your mind.  You didn’t want to think about either of them, the way Lydia made you second-guess every second Matthew went back to his room and went back home for break, and the way Matthew used to make you feel, the same things that used to give you butterflies now making you want to vomit at the first thought of him. 

“Shit, I’m… I’m sorry, Y/N,” was all your roommate managed out after a few silent moments.   You didn’t think Mia would know much about this sort of thing - she had never  been one for relationships, especially ones that lasted as long as yours and Matthew’s.  But, to your surprise, she was always able to make you feel better about anything that happened in your relationship.  This, as you had suspected, was no different. 

“How about we get you out of the dorm tonight.  You’re almost done with your finals, and you leave in two days.  You could use a little down time,” she coaxed, nudging your shoulder playfully with a wide grin.  

The thought was tempting.  You didn’t want to spend one of your last winters at New York University wallowing in self-pity; it wasn’t exactly your first choice of past times.

“Fine,” you sighed, leaning back in your chair.  “But we have to be back before one; my last final is at ten A.M. tomorrow and I can’t be late for it,” you told her, and her face lit up with a smile.  

“Great!  That’s perfect.  I’ll stay sober so you can let loose a little bit.  God knows you deserve it,” she said, winking at you before standing up from her chair.  “Wear that red shirt that makes your boobs look good!” she called to you from the doorway, presumably going down the hall to get ready with some of her friends.  You laughed softly but nodded, giving her a soft smile as she turned to head out the door. 

-

The second you made your way through the threshold of the fraternity house that hosted the party, a drink was thrusted into your hand.  Mia took hers happily, handing it over to you.  “You need it more than me,” she grinned, dumping the blue tinted liquid into your solo cup before tossing the empty cup into a nearby garbage can. 

You looked around the packed room for a moment, shoving your free hand in the back pocket of your jeans while Mia began talking with the first person that she noticed who came into her peripheral vision.  You couldn’t say you were too surprised with this - she was much more social than you were.  

You found yourself wandering around the first floor of the house, tapping your fingertips against your leg to the beat of whatever song was blaring through the speakers.  The longer you stood meandering through the packed house, however, the more you realized this really was the last place that you wanted to be. 

You still sipped from the drink as you made your way up the steps of the house, hoping to find a bit of solitude from the sleazy frat boys and the girls who were only being nice because they were intoxicated.  You sat down on the top step of the carpeted staircase, taking a long sip of your drink before you practically felt yourself jumping out of your skin at the sound of a familiar voice.

“Y/N?”

You turned around, probably much quicker than you should have, only to see Matthew towering over you.  The bags under his eyes had returned, and he had a cup in his hand that looked much more empty than your own.  You stood up a bit and chewed on the inside of your cheek, wondering whether or not the best place to talk was in the middle of a sweaty and loud fraternity house.  

“Hey, Matthew,” you said softly, scratching at the back of your neck somewhat anxiously.  You didn’t know what you were supposed to say to him - it felt like it was wrong to even be in the same house as him right now. 

He looked down into his cup when you spoke to him, as if he was trying to avoid the situation at hand.  But you knew Matthew Gubler better than anyone else, and you knew he definitely wanted to fix things right now. 

“I-I’m really sorry about everything that happened with Lydia,” he said honestly, though it came out so quickly you were sure you had misheard him at first.  You just nodded in response, taking another sip of your drink as you tried to turn your focus to anyone - anything - else that you could see. 

You saw him frown a little bit at that, and he looked down to his feet again.  You followed his gaze for a brief moment, and fought back the urge to smile when you noticed his mix-matched socks - one of them red with black stripes, the other purple with blue polka dots sprayed all over them. 

“I know you are,” you told him after a few silent moments, still keeping your concentration on the ground in front of you.  For some reason, now it felt almost too nerve-wracking to even look at him, like you had never known him.  Was it a bit dramatic?  Maybe, but the Matthew that you knew wouldn’t have acted the way he had the past few weeks. 

You didn’t even want to think about it more than you have been the past two nights.  

He stayed silent for a few more minutes, dragging his fingertips and nails across the grooves embedded in the plastic solo cup in his hand. He looked to you again when he finally found the words that he needed, running his hand back through his hair.  “Do you want to… do you want to go back and talk about it a bit?” he asked softly, swirling his drink around in his cup a bit.  

Right now, the last place you wanted to be was where Lydia had been.  But at the same time, it was the only place you really wanted to be, like it was the only place you thought you would be okay.  

You just nodded after a few moments and set your cup down on the thick wooden banister, shoving your hands into your pockets before walking down the steps, assuming Matthew was hardy two steps behind you.

The walk back to the dorm building was almost eerily quiet.  The only sound you could hear, or probably just register, was the loud crunching of the freshly fallen snow beneath yours and Matthew’s feet.  You didn’t really need to look back to him to make sure he was following you, you just knew he was.  

You flashed your school ID card over the scanner before walking into the building, heading up towards the elevator and pressing the button to go up.  Once you stepped into the elevator cart, everything seemed to get  even quieter.  You could swear you could hear your heart beating in your chest, the cart moving much slower than usual.

Floor one.

Floor two.

Floor three.

Floor four. 

Floor five. 

With a short ding, the large metal doors finally peeled apart, and you let out a heavy sigh.  The ride up felt like a chore, and you could practically feel yourself getting claustrophobic trying not to look or speak to Matthew.  

You led him down to the end of the hall, opposite of his dorm, and pulled your keys out of your pocket.  You felt his eyes on you - not in a weird way, though it gave you butterflies when that was the last thing you wanted to feel at that moment. 

You unlocked the door and pushed it open, hanging your keys up on a hook beside your door and flicking on the lights.  It looked much more empty than it usually did, given you and your roommate were mostly packed up to go home for a month.  You had duffel bags and suitcases scattered around the room, along with a few grocery bags so none of your snacks would expire while you were gone. 

After a few moments of silence, you turned back to Matthew with your arms folded across your chest.  “What?  What did you have to say?” you asked him, your words coming off much more harsher than you really intended them to be.

You watched a twitch of a frown flash across his lips before his lips pressed into a flat line, sitting down on Mia’s bed, across from where you were standing at the moment.  He looked like he was mulling over every single possible word he could say to you in his head, but he didn’t know which was best.  He looked up at you after a few moments, wring his hands out in his lap as he took a deep intake of breath.

“I’m really sorry.”

Your nose twitched a bit as you listened to him, letting out a heavy breath through your nose.  You had heard him say he was sorry before, why was this time supposed to be any different?  

“Sorry?” you asked with a bit of a scoff.  “You’re sorry that you kissed another girl while you thought we were still together?” 

“I didn’t kiss her first!” he defended himself, running his hands down his dark blue jeans as he shook his head a bit.  “I don’t know what else you want me to say about it, I am sorry.  I didn’t want to kiss her,” he told you, the words rolling off of his tongue as if each syllable took a weight off his shoulders. 

You huffed out again and kicked off your shoes, shoving them under your bed as you listened to him.  “Why would you invite her over if she kissed you, then?” you asked, sitting down on your bed and folding your hands together in your lap.  You weren’t sure whether or not you really wanted the answer to that question, but you looked to him expectantly and waited for his excuse for your question. 

As you expected, he was silent for a few moments.  Much longer than you would’ve liked, in fact.  But eventually, he quietly spoke up with the same answer you had heard before.  “I don’t know.”

“Of course you don’t,” you frowned, looking over at your desk where you still had a picture of the two of you framed in the far corner of it.  

“I’m sorry, okay?  It was stupid.  I shouldn’t have even talked to her after that.  I shouldn’t have let her into my room and I should’ve just let her be after she kissed me.  I don’t know what else I can do to make this better,” he told you, running his hands back through his hair and tugging a bit on the ends of it.  

You looked down at your socks as you listened to him, trying to shake the thought of everything that had happened.  You didn’t want to forgive him, and you really shouldn’t, but you knew he pushed her off.  

But he also let her in afterwards.

“I’m sorry.  She asked how everything was going with you, and I wanted to tell her what was happening since we were going to lunch, and she just… she kind of made her way in, I guess?” he tried to explain, letting his hands do some of the talking as he tried to clear the situation.  

You chewed on the inside of your cheek, checking the time on your alarm clock before sighing, going over to one of your duffel bags and pulling out a pair of sweatpants.  You changed out of your jeans and into the sweats quickly, pulling your hair up into a loose ponytail before pulling the comforter on your bed back and looking over to him.  “Come on,” you said softly, nodding towards the bed.  

He furrowed his eyebrows together as he watched her, but still slowly stood up and made his way over to her.  “You… you’re not mad?” he asked, kicking off his Converse shoes before carefully climbing into the small bed.  

“I don’t know what I am right now,” you confessed, getting in the bed next to him.  “But I haven’t slept well in over two weeks, and I know you haven’t either, and I’d rather get one good sleep before I go home than spend the night arguing,” you told him, flicking off the light next to your bed before resting your head on his chest.

He nodded softly, sinking down a bit so he was lying flat on his back so the two of you could be more comfortable.  “What do you want me to read to you?” he asked quietly, looking up at the ceiling as he waited silently and patiently for your response. 

“Can you read Annabel Lee again?” you asked quietly, letting your eyes adjust slowly to the darkness around you as he cleared his throat a bit, knowing he was focusing on the ceiling so he wouldn’t forget anything. 

“It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me…”

You let your eyes slowly close as his voice slowly lulled you to sleep, worried you wouldn’t even be able to stay up for the rest of the poem.

 “I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

Coveted her and me.

 “And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsmen came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.”

His long, slender fingers eventually found their way to your hair, pushing some loose, fallen strands from your face as he spoke.  The words rolled easily off his tongue, like he didn’t even have to think about them.  

 “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me—

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 “But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;”

His voice was much more rigid and stoic than the last time he recited the poem to you, like he was reading from the pages the first time he read it to you.  Like he was detached, like he almost… didn’t care as much as he used to. 

“For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea—

In her tomb by the sounding sea.”

You looked carefully up at him, making sure not to disturb him, before frowning a bit.  His face was focused on your ceiling, almost looking bored, like he had better places to be.  You sighed and rested your head on his chest, slowly but surely falling into another slumber.  

 -

By the time you woke up a few hours later, you couldn’t help but frown at the lack of warmth surrounding you.  You rubbed tiredly at your eyes as you looked around the empty room, seeing your roommate had already cleared out for break. 

You looked to your side, seeing an empty bed that differed from what you saw last night.  You sat up and leaned back against your pillows, before you caught sight of a loose piece of paper on your desk. 

You reached over and grabbed it, smiling sadly when you saw the scrawled, curly handwriting that spelled out your name on the front of it.  You carefully unfolded it, your smile quirking down into a glower when you saw what the letter wrote.

“Y/N,

I love you.  I really, really do.  

But now isn’t a great time for either of us.  

I can’t put you through what you’ve gone through the past two weeks over all of Christmas break.  I don’t want to make you have to deal with all of that again. 

I’m sorry I left without saying anything, but my flight was early and I couldn’t miss it; my mom wanted me home tonight for a big family dinner.

If you want to talk over break, you know my number, and you can call me whenever.  I’ll always answer.  

I love you, my Annabel Lee. 

(In the totally not necrophiliac way)

     Matthew <3”

You couldn’t help but frown as you read it, but shoved the flimsy paper into your back pocket.  You didn’t want to think about what he had written, or even think about him at all.  You just packed up the last of your clothes that you would need for the month, pushing down the pictures of you and Matthew, or just Matthew, whenever you came across them in your room.  

When you finally packed up, you grabbed all of your bags and brought them out into the hall, setting them down on the ground as you locked up.  As you did, however, you couldn’t help but frown as you found yourself looking down towards the other end of the hall, hoping to see Matthew coming out of his dorm all of a sudden, laughing and being happy like he usually was. 

But instead, you were met with a dark hall, piles of snow mounted on the windows darkening the hallways.  It almost made you feel sick, the way the light seemed to drain out of your entire life the second Matthew was gone.  

As you walked down the hall to the elevators, you silently wished that you could go back and change everything, make it all right. 

But you knew it was too late. 

------

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Jairsolas

Fantasy Masks AU: Chapter Six

A JSE Fanfic

*gasp* A POV change?! For the first time in this story?! How exciting! Yeah short description because I’ve had a long day as of queueing this, but basically we follow Marvin as he tries to track down the King. But instead, along the way, he meets someone new. And that’s all I have to say. Hope you enjoy :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

The noble family Portmota lived on the edge of the Southern Moors, their castle built on the last bit of solid land before the rivers came in and flooded the south of the kingdom. Officially, their claim covered all of the Moors, but everybody knew that the Moors ran on their own, much like the mountain villages to the west and north. But the meagerness of their claim didn’t stop the family from building themselves a solid, grand castle. It sat on top of a small hill, surrounded by a thick stone wall. The castle’s multiple towers reached the sky, and were numerous to require a large staff to keep the place running for the noble family and any visitors they might have.

With such a large body of servants, it was easy to slip in unnoticed. They always accepted help, and as long as you didn’t appear troublesome, they’d immediately snatch you up and put you to work the moment you asked for a position, no interview needed. 

This was something Marvin found out first hand when he decided to infiltrate the castle in preparation for the King’s visit.

Maybe they needed help to clean up for said visit, maybe they were always like this, the result was the same either way. All Marvin had to do was show up on the grounds, dressed in ragged clothes, and he was immediately hired by the head servant. She didn’t even mind when he said he had to keep his cat nearby at all times.

Once he was inside, it only took him a few days to get a scope of things. Normally his sense of direction was terrible, but the servants were always being sent on numerous chores, so the castle’s layout quickly solidified in his mind. The cleaning and cooking was...hard, he had to admit. Unlike Jackie and Schneep, he hadn’t grown up doing chores, and taking care of things was a relatively new skill. He went to bed in the servants’ quarters exhausted. But this was a small price to pay for the opportunity that had presented itself.

He began to notice odd things about the castle. First of all, effort was put into cleaning and clearing every room in every wing, even the ones that had been sealed off so the heat wouldn’t escape into the winter air. Every candlestick was being polished, every tapestry dusted out. Why all the work? Unless...there was something big happening.

There were also a lot more people wandering around the castle. Visitors. Nobility, to be specific. An oddly high amount. Not that the nobility didn’t like to go see each other, especially for parties, but the Portmota claim was currently home to just one person: the Marquess Portmota, the eldest member of the family. Marvin knew all the other Portmotas were either traveling, or had married into other noble families and now lived with them. There were far too many visitors in the castle for one woman to entertain, even for something as important as a Longest Night celebration.

Not to mention the rumors circling through the servants’ ranks. News spread fast through this network, and soon, maids, cooks, and gardeners were muttering to each other about the King himself visiting.

Marvin tried not to get too close to any of these servants. It would just...get in the way. Sure, many of them were friendly to him, offering to share lunches or spend their breaks with him. But...no, it wouldn’t work out. It couldn’t. Besides, he didn’t need them. All he needed was his familiar, Draco.

He’d been in Portmota Castle for a week when the rumors started to buzz. The cleaning suddenly intensified, and the visitors to the keep began strutting about in their finest clothes. One night, to confirm his suspicions, he asked a laundress named Mina what was going on.

“Huh? You mean you haven’t heard? You haven’t seen?” Mina glanced about the laundry room where she was busy working. Seeing nobody else nearby, she leaned close to Marvin and whispered, “They’ve seen the King! Here!”

Marvin’s eyes widened in exaggerated surprise. “Really? Why would he be here?”

“Why would he be here? For the Longest Night celebration!” Mina chuckled. “Elders, Westley, you can be oblivious,” she said, calling him by the fake name he was going by.

“Oh. That makes sense.” Marvin glanced down at the floor. Draco was batting at a loose sleeve dangling from a laundry bin, so he quickly bent over and scooped him up before the cat could knock the whole thing over. “Who saw him? How’d they know it was the King?”

“A couple people. Teresa, Connor, Kelley. They saw a man fitting his description walking around, with the brown hair and slender build, and Teresa pointed out he was walking very purposefully. Dressed finer than all other lords who’ve come to visit.” Mina dumped some of the laundry into a washbasin as she talked. “Kelley got really close to him, too, when they were serving food in the hall. They said he had the royal green eyes.”

“Royal green. Wow.” Marvin pretended to be in awe, and made sure not to show off any of the burning anger smoldering inside him. “If he’s the King, where’s he staying? I don’t think any room here would be noble enough for him.”

Mina shrugged. “Nobody’s said yet. There are a whole bunch of new rooms made up for the visitors, hard to tell. It’s not like he’ll be hanging the royal crest on the door.” She glanced about the room again, then nudged Marvin’s shoulder with some urgency. “Oh no, Ursula is coming. Better get out of sight before she demands you stop standing around and start working.”

“Right.”

That conversation was abruptly cut short, but Marvin got a lot of information from it. Namely, that the King really was here. The detail about the royal green eyes sealed it. Yes, the royal family were once known for their distinctive shade of green eyes, but none of them had actually been born with the color in recent generations. Until the current king. Something like that wouldn’t be forgotten easily. Now the question was how to get close to him.

He spent two days trying to figure out which room the King was staying in, but in the end, the answer fell right into his lap.

It was early morning, and he was in the kitchen, kneading bread for the day. It was a task he often volunteered for; something about the kneading motion was very calming to him. Even if Draco wandered around and tried to get under the feet of every grumbling chef and baker.

With no warning, the door suddenly flew open, and a voice called, “Any of you lot free for a quick delivery?!”

Everyone looked over in unison. It was Ursula, the head servant. “Depending what the delivery is!” answered Everett, the head cook.

“We need a breakfast tray prepared quick!” Ursula demanded. “It’s urgent!”

The chefs and bakers muttered amongst themselves. “How urgent is it?” Everett asked.

Ursula huffed. “Very. One of the lady’s important guests ordered it. And we don’t wanna upset him.”

Marvin’s head shot up. Could it be...?

“Alright, don’t get your skirt twisted, Helendaugh,” Everett muttered, rolling his eyes. “We’ll make one up. But you’ll need someone else to bring it up. We’re all busy here, if you couldn’t tell.”

“No one else can bring it up! They’re all busy too! Sure, I could scout around for someone, but that’ll take too long! Do I need to repeat that he ordered it urgently? Or that we can’t upset him?”

Marvin slowly raised his hand. “Um...sir? If you give me a minute, I’ll be finished. I can do it.”

Everett gave his kneading station a once-over, then nodded, satisfied. “Alright, that’ll be just enough time to make up the tray. See, Ursula? Westley can do it, no problem.”

Judging by the tightness of her face and the way she was wringing her hands, Ursula still thought there was a problem. But she stepped back. “Okay. Westley, you’ll want to head up the central tower, all the way to the top room. Knock on the door, but don’t wait for a reply. Open it and slide the tray right in, then close it and leave.”

“I understand, ma’am.”

“Make sure you do. This is very important, for a very important guest.” Ursula took a few more steps back, right out the door. Then she shut it behind her.

Some time later, Marvin was practically running through the halls of Portmota Castle, Draco at his heels. The central tower was quite far away from the kitchens. Though...a tower room was odd. Most nobility preferred to stay in the keep itself, since towers got drafty, and walking up and down the stairs was rarely worth the view. Maybe the King was different? Eh. It didn’t really matter. The King wouldn’t be around long enough to enjoy that tower room.

Marvin stopped at the base of the central tower, breathing heavily. He quickly glanced around, but luckily, the area was clear of any servants or noble visitors. Good. He needed to be quick. He slid over to the wall and knelt down, putting the tray of food on the floor. There was a floor-length tapestry nearby, and he pulled it over his shoulders, partially hiding him from view.

Then he reached under his shirt and pulled out a pendant on a chain. A beautiful pendant, with its smooth, palm-sized emerald and silver frame looking too expensive for the rusted chain it hung from. Even though wearing it might give him away, he couldn’t bear to part from his magical focus. A wizard without a focus was like a painter without their paint. They couldn’t do anything without it.

Quickly, Marvin pressed two fingers to the surface of the emerald, which immediately started glowing. When he pulled his hand away, the glowing light stuck to his fingertips. He drew a rectangle on the ground with his fingers, leaving light behind like chalk on a board. Once the rectangle was fully formed, the middle of it faded away. Now, Marvin was looking at the inside of a small box. And inside the box were a few things. A small dagger, a bottle of brown glass, a coil of thread, a white handkerchief, and a candle. Marvin plucked the bottle out from the box. He reached for the breakfast tray—swatting Draco away in the process with a “No, not for you”—and pulled it closer. Then he unstopped the bottle, poured a few drops of the liquid inside onto all the food items, and stopped it again, putting it back inside the small box. Once the bottle was back in place, the glowing rectangle disappeared. The floor reappeared as solid stone once more, with no sign of the magical box that had just been there.

“Good,” Marvin said, grinning to himself. He pulled away the tapestry, picked up the food tray, and stood up. “Now for the most difficult part...the stairs.”

That statement was a joke—a joke for no one, really, since Draco was the only one around and he didn’t really understand human humor—but Marvin was definitely winded by the time he reached the room at the tower top. No matter how often he walked up stairs, no matter how frequently he’d done so in the past week, he still hated them. Maybe that said more about how fit he was than the design of the stairs themselves. Which made no sense, he’d spent the past few years running around the kingdom, surely he’d be more fit by now?

He was getting distracted. The room door was in front of him. Wooden. A fine door, but no more fine than literally any other door in the castle. Yet...the King was inside.

Following the instructions, Marvin knocked on the door, but didn’t wait for a reply before easing it open and setting the tray down on the floor inside. Draco almost poked his head through the gap, but Marvin pushed him back, then closed the door.

He waited for a few minutes. Expecting to hear movement inside. But there was nothing. Well...the room must have thick walls, then. With his task accomplished, Marvin turned back and headed back down the stairs, which proved much friendlier on the way down.

That poison worked quickly. By that night, they’d hear news of the King’s assassination.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

But that was not the case.

Marvin waited with anticipation, but nothing happened. There was no outcry of poison, no panic as the King’s lackeys were left unsure what to do. Things proceeded as normal. Leaving him confused. He was sure he got the dose right, and he’d made sure to poison all of the food on the tray. Hadn’t he?

The next morning, the exact same thing happened. Ursula barged into the kitchen, demanding a breakfast tray for an important guest. Everett said everyone was busy, and Ursula repeated the urgency. So, Marvin volunteered to deliver it again. Once he was alone, he took the poison from the hidden box and again dosed the food, making sure to add a bit more this time before putting the poison back and delivering the food to the top of the tower. He even had to push Draco back from the door again.

But still, nothing happened.

And when the same thing happened the next morning, Marvin was about ready to shout out “Am I going mad?!” But he didn’t, and instead played it cool. This time, Everett asked him to take the tray up ahead of time, expecting him to be able to. And of course, Marvin agreed, and secretly added even more of the poison. And of course, Draco once again tried to squeeze into the room at the top of the tower. Honestly, Marvin felt he should have more control of his familiar, but given how cats were impossible to order around under normal circumstances, he took Draco even listening to him as a plus.

When nothing happened the fourth day, Marvin began to suspect something unusual was going on. Perhaps someone tampered with the poison? No, that should be impossible. That box was buried in the ground, far away from Portmota Castle. He could only access it because of his magic. But...maybe? If he tried again today and the King still did not die, he’d try a different method.

So once more, he took the breakfast tray when offered, headed to a private area to get the poison out of the box, added yet more of it to the food, and trekked up the stairs to the room at the top of the central tower. He knocked on the door, then without waiting for a response, opened it to slide the tray inside.

And the instant the opening was big enough, Draco leaped through the gap and into the room beyond.

“Draco!” Marvin cried out, dropping the breakfast tray. Without thinking about what to do next, he threw the door open and rushed inside to scoop up his cat.

But of course, there was someone in there. Someone who’d been startled by the sudden appearance of an off-white cat, but was even more surprised to see someone run into the room after it.

Marvin skidded to a halt, looked around, and before he could even think about it, blurted out, “You’re not the King.”

The person inside slowly shook their head.

“Oh.” Marvin took a step back. Now that he wasn’t worried about his familiar jumping into the hands of the King, he gave the stranger inside a once-over.

The person—Marvin now recognized him as a man—looked a bit like the King, at a first glance. He had brown hair, as most people in the kingdom did, and was fairly thin. But he was shorter than the King was said to be, had a distinct, dark mustache, and most importantly, blue eyes. Not green. His clothes were fine, indicating nobility, but the style was a bit old fashioned. Like the black bow he wore around his neck, something that had gone out of style at least ten years ago.

Draco was sitting on a stool next to the man, looking very self-satisfied. Evidently, the strange man had started petting him right before Marvin barged in.

“Well...sorry, then,” Marvin said awkwardly.

The man smiled and shrugged. He gestured to Draco.

“Huh? Yes, sorry about him. And about barging in, I wasn’t thinking.” Marvin glanced around the room. “So...is the King going to be back soon?”

The man tilted his head, puzzled. And shook his head.

“Why do you look so confused?” Marvin took a minute to think. Then a possibility occurred to him. “Wait...is the King...not staying in these rooms?”

And the man shook his head again.

“Damn it,” Marvin whispered, barely audible. 

Honestly, looking around the room, he didn’t think this place was fit for a king, anyway. Certainly, it was noble. There were plush sofas and chairs sitting about, and a desk with a mirror and stool in the corner. The windows had thick blue curtains that one could pull over to cover the glass. And he could see two more doors, both slightly ajar and showing a bedroom and a bathroom. But...it was rather small, in all honesty. The furniture was pushed together, and the blue wallpaper looked a bit old. Not to mention it was cold, as well, with no fireplace. Marvin wished he’d thought to bring a cloak, but the one he owned was too fine, and he had to leave it behind while masquerading as a servant.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed,” Marvin said politely. “They said someone very important was ordering the breakfast trays so—wait, have you been eating that food?”

The man looked embarrassed, and shook his head again.

“No? Well it couldn’t just disappear.”

Now even more embarrassed, the man pointed towards the bathroom.

“You’ve been...dumping it in the lavatory?” Marvin realized, shocked. “Every day? Well no wonder you look so thin, then, if you’ve been skipping breakfast the whole time.” He then remembered the tray of poisoned food he’d brought, and dropped in the hallway. “Oh. But ah, might have actually been a good idea this time. I mean, the—if I’m being honest, it was all undercooked, anyway,” he lied. “And the one for today is all splattered now. Sorry.”

The stranger smiled good-naturedly. He nodded.

“Um...I’ll just leave now.” Marvin took a few steps backwards towards the door.

Hurriedly, the man shook his head, gesturing for him to stay. Meanwhile, Draco pressed his head against the man’s arm, demanding pets.

“Oh. Right. Draco, come on.”

Ears drooping, disappointed, Draco hopped off the stool and walked out the door. “Sorry about all this,” Marvin muttered, backing fully out of the room and pushing the door closed.

As it shut, he could have sworn the man inside had a very strange expression on his face. Something like disappointment and desperation mixed in one.

How...odd. Marvin hesitated, wondering if he should go back inside. But...maybe he’d misread the man’s face. That was far more likely than...whatever he just saw. Yes. He should turn his mind to more practical matters. Like where the King was actually staying, if not here. And getting someone to come up and clean the tray he’d dropped.

But as he retreated back down the stairs, he felt somehow regretful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The next day, the order for a breakfast tray came in, as usual. Marvin wasn’t sure about delivering it, but by this point, he’d volunteered enough that Everett and Ursula expected him to. After all, it was much easier to have one person do something than to constantly find someone new every day. So Marvin quietly took the tray and headed to the central tower once more. This time, he did not stop to poison the food along the way. Now that he knew the King wasn’t there, it wasn’t much use.

When he knocked on the door, it swung open before he could pull it open himself. The strange man from the day before was standing there, smiling and practically bouncing with excitement. He immediately grabbed Marvin and dragged him into the room.

“Whoa! Watch out, you’ll spill the milk!” Marvin quickly set the breakfast tray down on the nearby desk, making sure nothing had fallen off. He didn’t want to make another mess.

The strange man didn’t respond to that comment. He was kneeling on the floor, petting Draco. Much to the cat’s delight, of course. There was a lot of purring.

“Why’d you do that?” Marvin asked. “Pull me in, I mean. If you want to know if the breakfast’s good to eat this time, it is. I...um, checked. Did you just want to pet my cat?”

The man made a so-so gesture.

Marvin suddenly felt frustrated. “Why don’t you just tell me what you want?!” he snapped.

At that, the man stopped. He looked over at Marvin, then stood up. He was wearing another neck bow today, blue this time, and he silently pulled it down so that his neck was more visible. There, right in the middle of his throat, were two scars, arranged in a + shape. Clearly the result of some sort of surgery.

“Oh.” Marvin’s stomach immediately sank. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”

The man waved away his stammered apology with a small smile. It was clearly a sensitive subject, but since it was an accident, all was forgiven.

“Still, I...I’m very sorry. Ah...do you have something to write with, maybe?” Marvin suggested tentatively.

The man shook his head. He did that a lot, didn’t he?

“...nothing at all? What about in this desk?” Marvin wandered over to said desk, opening the drawers. But the man was right. There weren’t any quills or chalk to be seen. There wasn’t even any stationary, and Marvin knew that nobles were fond of keeping their own personalized paper nearby in case writing was needed. Instead, the desk’s drawers were mostly empty, only containing a few game boards and card decks.

As Marvin looked through the drawers, the man walked over to stand next to him, watching. When Marvin opened the drawer with the cards inside, he reached forward and quickly snatched up one of the decks. He turned to Marvin, grinning, and pointed at him, then at the cards.

“You...want to play cards?” Marvin asked, trying not to sound excited.

The man nodded.

“Well...I’m supposed to have chores, but why not?” Marvin grinned as well. “I have to warn you, I’m very good at Luck of the Deal.”

That only made the man smile wider. He guided Marvin over to the sofas and gestured for him to sit.

A couple hours passed before Marvin remembered he had more to do. Not just chores, but he also had to locate the King before the Longest Night celebration, after which he’d leave and return to Suilthair, the capital, and be untouchable. So Marvin hurriedly excused himself, but found himself leaving with a certain spring in his step. It had been a while since he’d sat down and played a few card games with someone. He...really missed it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next few days, he and the man in the tower developed a routine. Marvin would take a breakfast tray up to the room, and the man would drag him inside for a few games. Cards, mostly, though they pulled out some of the board games, too. The breakfast tray would be mostly ignored, though Marvin tried to insist that the man actually eat it. The stranger was on the thin side, after all, he probably needed a meal. A bit odd to see a skinny noble, actually. They could definitely afford enough to eat. But Marvin wasn’t going to ask, in case it was sensitive, like the voice issue.

There were, however, other questions that he wasn’t afraid to ask. The first one came up on the second day of this routine. They’d finished their first game of cards—Enchanter’s Gambit, a shorter one—and Marvin had asked, slowly, “Can you tell me your name? I understand you can’t speak it, but there has to be something I can call you.”

The man paused in shuffling the cards, thinking. Then he set down the deck, stood up, and walked over into the bedroom. A few moments later, he returned, holding something. He handed it to Marvin.

“A handkerchief?” Marvin asked, turning it over in his hands.

The man pointed to one of the cloth’s corners. Marvin examined it, and saw a small design embroidered in gray thread. A rabbit, curled up and sleeping, surrounded by a circle of thorny plants. It was the sign of a noble family. But not just any family. One Marvin instantly recognized.

“That’s the Jairsolas crest,” he gasped. “But—that’s—a-are you a friend of theirs, or...?” He trailed off, not needing to finish his question. The man’s grim expression confirmed everything. “That’s...impossible,” Marvin whispered. “They’re all dead.”

More specifically, they’d been massacred. By the King and his forces.

The death of the Jairsolas family had been one of the earliest signs of how dangerous the King was. The Count and Countess Jairsolas had ruled over the small family peacefully, loved by the people of their land. When the King began demanding more warriors, when he began taking away royal funds from medicine and farming, they were one of the nobles who protested. Eventually, they refused to enact his royal decrees in their northern territory, saying they would not compromise the welfare of their people. They accused the King of swiftly becoming a tyrant. The King immediately proved them right by forcibly invading their land and killing the entire family.

And yet, even after this clearly unwarranted act, there were still nobles out there who stood by the King. There were still warriors who pledged loyalty to him and believed in his cause. There were even common people who repeated that the King was just and good, though that was usually because they were simply unaware of what was going on. The nobles and warriors, however, had no excuse. They continued to fawn over the King and happily harm innocents. It made Marvin sick just thinking about them.

“I’m...so sorry,” Marvin said quietly.

The man nodded slowly, sadness flashing in his eyes. He must’ve been a more distant relative, to survive the King’s attack. Marvin, unsure what to do, placed a hand on his arm, hoping the gesture would convey the sympathy he felt. The man patted it, and smiled a bit, indicating it was alright.

“Jairsolas is a bit cumbersome,” Marvin said slowly. “Can I call you...Jair? For short?”

The man nodded, eagerly accepting the nickname. He pointed at Marvin, raising an eyebrow.

“Me? I’m M—I’m Westley.” Marvin remembered his pseudonym just in time, and quickly changed the subject. “Want to play another round?”

For someone who couldn’t speak, Jair was very expressive, gesturing widely and exaggerating his facial movements. Marvin assumed that was necessary, to compensate for not being able to say anything. Though it was odd that there were no writing utensils or parchment in his room. That seemed like it would be helpful, and easy to acquire, too. But Marvin didn’t want to push the issue. Maybe it was just a preference. Or maybe Jair assumed Marvin, appearing to be a servant, couldn’t read much.

Despite the issues of communication, Marvin proceeded with his questions. About eight days after the first breakfast tray delivery, he got tired of Jair continually ignoring the breakfast. That was perfectly good food going to waste. “Why do you even order the trays if you don’t want to eat them?”

Jair looked up, a bit surprised to be asked this while the two of them were in the middle of a game of Fidchell. He indicated himself, then shook his head.

“You...you mean you’re not the one ordering them?” Marvin asked, confused.

Jair nodded, confirming this, and looked back down at the board, moving a piece.

“Wh—how’d you do that?!” Marvin spluttered, momentarily distracted. “I was going to move one of the warriors there—you just cut off my path!” He scanned the board. “How did you surround my king again?!”

Jair laughed silently, a breathy sound, clapping his hands in delight at winning another game.

Marvin scowled. Draco promptly jumped onto the sofa and knocked over the board, scattering the pieces. “Yea, take down that game. I’m shit at it, apparently.” He sighed, and grabbed the cat, moving him to the side. “Who’s ordering the breakfast trays, then? Can you tell them to stop? It’s enough work as it is.”

Shaking his head, Jair pointed at Marvin.

“I could find some other way to get up here.” Marvin paused, noticing Jair’s slightly uncomfortable look on his face as he went about collecting the knocked-over game pieces. “Can you...not tell them to stop?” He thought about it for a moment. “It must be someone higher ranking than you, then. That would make sense, and it would explain why they always said someone important ordered the trays. Heh. Is it the King?”

Marvin asked the question jokingly, but for a moment, Jair’s shoulders stiffened. Then he brushed off the question, laughing without sound again.

That...couldn’t be right, could it? Why would the King go out of his way to order breakfast for some random noble? And one related to the Jairsolas family, which he destroyed? It didn’t make sense. There must be some sort of lie or trickery involved. Maybe it wasn’t actually the King. Or the King didn’t know Jair’s true identity. Or Jair didn’t know what happened to the rest of the family. Something like that.

Either way, Jair was quickly putting away the Fidchell pieces and board, clearly wanting to move on. So Marvin dropped the subject for the day.

But he still needed information. The King was somewhere in the castle. Other servants had caught glimpses of him, but Marvin still hadn’t figured out where he was staying, or run into him at all. Longest Night was approaching. He was running out of time. So, he decided to ask Jair a few more questions.

“Have you seen the King around?” he asked one day over a game of Saelan checkers. “Apparently he’s in the castle for the celebration, but I haven’t seen the tail of him. Others have, though. What bad luck, huh?”

Just like the last time he brought the King up, Jair stiffened, and immediately denied anything with a shake of his head. He pointed to the board.

“Right.” Marvin moved one of the small stone balls that served as pieces, getting closer to the end goal at the other side of the board. He wasn’t too good at board games, preferring cards, but he was better at this than he was at Fidchell. “I suppose I shouldn’t assume you’d know, anyway. I was just curious. I’ve never seen him. Does he really have green eyes?”

Jair nodded, distracted by planning out his next move.

“It’s strange that none of us know what room he’s staying in. That’s why I assumed he was staying here, ha.” Marvin watched Jair’s face as he continued to talk. “Is he even staying on the castle grounds? I know it’s traditional and all, but I don’t know if anyone would stop him.”

Jair shrugged. This time, his response didn’t seem like avoiding the question, but genuinely not knowing.

“Do you...I’ve never seen you out in the castle,” Marvin realized. “Do you stay in these rooms the whole time?”

Squirming, Jair didn’t answer, instead focusing on jumping one of his pieces over two of Marvin’s, capturing the last one.

“That’s not good for you. Staying in all the time, I mean. Especially when you don’t have a fireplace here. And it looks like an old room, you’re probably breathing in dust all the time. You don’t have to go out and make conversation with others, or even go outside, but just walk around. Do you even go to the main hall for dinner?”

Jair leaned back and looked away, folding his arms.

“Oh. Sorry, I...didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Marvin said. “I was just...worried, I suppose. You don’t eat breakfast, you don’t go out, you don’t have a fireplace...it’s just...worrying. I’m...worried about...your health.”

Despite the clumsiness of Marvin’s statements, Jair looked touched. He patted Marvin’s hand and gave him a reassuring smile.

“If you’re sure you’re alright,” Marvin said reluctantly. “Try to take care of yourself, though.”

Jair placed his hand over his heart, suddenly emotional. He nodded, smiling. 

Had...no one ever said anything like that to him before? Had no one looked after him? Marvin felt something stirring deep inside his chest. A familiar ache. He’d...he’d never someone he could...well...relate to.

Marvin was supposed to ask more about the King, but he found he couldn’t go through with it today. He would try again tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The next day, Marvin arrived at the tower room a bit later than usual. It took them a bit longer to cook it today, since there was more food than the previous times. He hoped that meant Jair was planning to actually eat it, and not just feed pieces of sausage to Draco the whole time.

He knocked on the door, waited for a few moments for Jair to open, but when he didn’t appear, Marvin pulled open the door himself and walked inside. Huh. Jair wasn’t actually in the room. The bedroom and bathroom doors were closed, so maybe he was doing something in there. “Hello? I’m here,” Marvin called as he set the tray down on the desk. Something brushed against his legs, and he looked down to see Draco curling around his legs. “Hmm? What’s wrong?” Draco didn’t usually stick close to legs, not after too many occasions of people suddenly moving and tripping over him. And his tail was standing straight up, the fur all puffed out.

At that moment, the bedroom door opened, and Jair walked out. He waved at Marvin the moment he saw him.

“Tthere you are. I was wondering why you didn’t open the door.” Marvin glanced back down at Draco, still on edge, then back up. “Is everything alright?”

Jair nodded, waving away the question. He then walked straight over to the desk and started rummaging around the drawers, pausing for a moment to gesture at Marvin.

“Oh, I don’t want to do anything specific today. Maybe more cards?”

Nodding again, Jair pulled out one of the decks. While he walked over to the sofa and began shuffling, Marvin glanced around the room once more. Nothing looked out of place...what had Draco so spooked? He walked over to the window and pulled back the curtains, looking out the glass at the scenery. Clear skies ahead. On the ground below, there were...a lot of people in the surrounding open-air keep. More than he saw on the way over to the tower. That wasn’t too unusual, though. So Marvin closed the curtains again. “What were you doing?” he asked Jair.

Jair looked up at him, confused.

“I mean, you’re usually waiting for me. What was different this time?”

There was a slight pause. Then Jair shrugged. He pulled on the ends of his neck bow, tightening it, and followed it up with a so-so gesture.

“I don’t understand, what do you mean? Something about getting dressed?” Marvin asked. This whole thing felt...odd. Why did it feel odd? Was it just because Draco was still clinging to his legs?

Actually, Draco wasn’t just staying close to his legs. He was also staring at something, ears flat, a warning growl low in his throat. Marvin followed his line of sight...to the door they’d just come through. And...now that he wasn’t speaking, he could hear something underneath the sounds of shuffling cards. Faint, but growing louder.

Footsteps coming up the stairs.

Now why would someone be coming up the stairs? The only thing in the central tower were guest rooms. But most rooms were farther below, and the steps were definitely close enough to be heard. Meaning...someone was coming to this room. Why? Jair wasn’t exactly sociable. It could’ve been Ursula coming to get Marvin for chores, but...Marvin grabbed his amulet through his shirt, and his eyes lit up the smallest amount. No, he could sense more than one living person approaching. Quite a lot more, actually.

“Can I use your lavatory?” Marvin asked. He didn’t wait for Jair to nod before heading over and disappearing inside, closing the door behind him.

Just in time for the room’s entrance door to open, and for all those living people to fill the room. Accompanying the footsteps he’d heard before was the faint sound of metallic clanking, like...like chainmail. Or weapons.

Panic flooded Marvin’s mind. They’d discovered him, hadn’t they?! He had to get out of here! There was a small window in the bathroom, maybe just barely big enough to squeeze through. It was quite a drop to the keep below, but better than nothing. Marvin tried to break the glass with his fist, but only managed to crack it, so he pulled his amulet out and began to focus.

“Open up! We know you’re in there, traitor!” Bang bang bang bang bang!

“Damn!” Marvin cursed. They were knocking on the bathroom door. He didn’t have time to break the window, he needed to go through them! He whirled around—

The bathroom door slammed open, revealing three warriors wearing tunics with the royal crest. Marvin grabbed his now-glowing amulet and made a throwing motion. Light flung from his hands, hardening to stone as it hurled through the air, and three good-sized rocks hit each warrior in the chest, knocking them down. Marvin immediately bolted.

The small room was packed with other warriors, as well. Many were blocking his way to the door, armed with broad-bladed swords. Marvin threw more light to either side of him, and the warriors yelled as they tried to get out of the way of the suddenly-appearing rocks. For the ones in front, he pulled more glow from the amulet, forming it into a long, thin whip made entirely of green flame. He swung it around and many of the warriors scattered. Two stood their ground, acting quickly to pull circular shields from their backs and block the magic fire. But then Marvin was in front of them, his hands ablaze with more flame.

And then pain wrapped around his torso.

He looked down just long enough to register the black thorny vines wrapped across his chest before suddenly being yanked backwards. Pulled off his feet, he landed on his back and was dragged across the floor for some distance before suddenly stopping. He looked up and saw a face looking down at him. Unnaturally blue eyes. Pale blonde hair, stylishly curled around her face. And a few smattering of freckles, almost disappearing beneath a light layer of cosmetics. She looked as surprised to see him as he felt seeing her. “Marvin,” she said.

“Thalia,” Marvin scowled.

“I didn’t think it would be you. They said the servant’s name was Westley. Unless—you lied, didn’t you? Like you always do.”

“You’ve always been the liar.”

“No I haven’t. I’m always honest with everyone.”

“Nope. I know you haven’t told anyone about those secret visits to the mountains, have you?” Marvin laughed at Thalia’s surprised expression. “That was hard to find out, but I immediately recognized your handiwork. Burning the stone? Really? Talk about excessive.”

“Shut up,” Thalia snapped. She reached up and touched a silver-and-ruby broach pinned on her tunic. Her focus. Her eyes lit up. “I’m the one in charge now.”

“No you’re not.” Marvin grabbed his own focus, flicking the light from it up into her face. Thalia yelped as the glow turned into liquid and went into her eyes, and she lost concentration on the vine spell. Marvin shot up and looked around the room again. Now counting, there were ten warriors. One of them was holding his cat-shaped mask. Damn it! They went through his belongings and found it. He could have left it behind, but he brought it in case something happened and he needed it. Clearly that hadn’t been worth the risk.

All of the warriors were strategically blocking his ways out. The window, the door out, the doors to the bathroom and Jair’s bedroom—

Wait, Jair?! Where was he?!

Marvin didn’t have to look far. Jair was sitting in the exact spot he’d last seen him. On the sofa, having not moved a finger since the warriors and Thalia entered. His eyes were fixed downward, his hands clutching the deck of cards tightly in his lap. Marvin blinked. “Jair, what are you—”

Fog suddenly filled the room, unnaturally quickly, blinding him in seconds. Marvin whirled around, lighting up his amulet to try and see through the mist. 

Dark figures lunged out of the fog and grabbed at him. Shouting, Marvin threw the light in a circle, turning it to green flame again. Several people cried out, and the fog lifted as the fire burned through it. Marvin saw the surrounding figures of the warriors, and then someone lunged at him from behind, wrapping legs around his and pulling his hair.

He yelped. “Thalia! Get off me!”

“No, give me that focus!” Thalia demanded, clawing at the chain around his neck.

“Die in freezing!” Marvin tried to grab his amulet, but that was a bit difficult while the chain was strangling him. He had to divert effort to giving himself room to breathe. “Who jumps on someone’s back?! You’re thirty years old!”

“You’re the one acting like a child! You stole that, I recognize it!”

“It was mine, too!”

After a few moments, the combination of struggling and the weight on his back caused Marvin to fall over, bringing Thalia down with him. The moment he was down, five of the ten warriors lunged forward, pinning him. He struggled, but there were just too many. Then Thalia pulled once more on the chain holding his amulet, and it broke. She backed away, holding the amulet upward in triumph.

Out of nowhere, there was a yowling sound. Thalia screamed as a streak of off-white fur ran at her and began clawing at her leg, tearing through her trousers while spitting and hissing. Instinctively, she kicked, and the ball of fur went flying across the room.

“Draco!” Marvin cried, managing to push free of the warriors for long enough to see his cat stand up again. “No! Get out of here!”

Draco wailed, then hissed, ready to attack despite being outnumbered by eleven tall humans.

“No! Out! Run!” Marvin’s magic was quickly fading without his amulet within reach, but he had to get Draco to safety. He looked Draco in the eyes from across the room. His flickered blue for a moment, and Draco’s eyes glowed for a second in the matching shade. Marvin sent the image of a safe place to go through the connection he had with his familiar, and followed it up with instructions on how to get there.

Reluctantly, Draco turned...then bolted, weaving in between the legs of the warriors in a sudden burst of speed. Once he reached the door, an unnatural wave of strength overcame him, and he pushed it open and disappeared. The warriors cried out, but Thalia called, “Let it go! It can’t do much!” She looked down at Marvin. “Really? A cat? Why not bond with something more useful, like a dog?”

“Fuck you!” Marvin shouted, and lunged at her.

Then a warrior brought the hilt of their sword down on the back of his head, and everything went black.

[rainydayhogwartsimagines]

aaaah I was wondering if I could request a draco x reader w/ social anxiety? draco being a fluffy boi 🥺

Oh my lord you guys are GETTING ADORABLE WITH THESE REQUESTS

You were so not a fan of being around people

Thank God you ended up in the most reclusive house

Slytherin

You always kept to yourself, you didn't really talk much

Large crowds scared you so you usually ate dinner in your room

No one really noticed you

The most anyone had conversated with you was the portraits on the walls because you'd sometimes sit on the benches

The ghosts also knew you by name too

Moaning Myrtle actually didn't hate your guts.

Well one day you were in a hurry and you accidentally ran into Draco.

"Ow-- Geez, watch where you're going!" He winced as the spine of one of your books hit him on his elbow

"S-S.. Sorry." You apologized, grabbing your books in a hurry and then running off.

Draco realized he had no idea who you were

"Goyle, who was that?" Draco asked.

"I'm not sure." Goyle shrugged.

"Crabbe?" "I don't know either."

So he started asking around and no one had conclusive answers.

Not even Fred and George seemed to know the hell you were.

One day Draco saw you walking.

"Hey, wait a minute." He said after one of your books fell.

You turned around and he handed it to you.

"What's your name?" He asked.

You were practically shaking and it worried him.

"Uh.. Uhm... I-I..." You swallowed and he frowned.

"Y-Y/n.. my name is Y/n." You said.

So there was the answer.

You looked down at your watch and grabbed the book before running.

He began to notice he actually had a lot of his classes with you.

He started trying to talk to you more and more and you usually would have panicked responses

One day he sat next to you in potions and you seemed very... Withdrawn

You weren't talking, you weren't showing any signs of communication

Draco was actually concerned.

He noticed you were gazed out and staring at your desk.

Then your head dropped a little like you were sleeping.

He tapped your shoulder and you just toppled over out of your seat

He caught you before you could actually hit the floor but he was really concerned

Basically: your body hadn't slept in a few days and you literally crashed.

You conked the fuck out.

Draco would always check on you while you were recovering in the medical wing.

You woke up confused and he was sitting there with a book just reading.

"...D-Draco?" You muttered.

He didn't say anything. He just pushed a jello cup to you and kept reading.

Draco was a lot more pushy with you though

"Have you eaten?" "Have you slept?" "When's the last time you drank water?"

You were confused on why he seemed to care but you still answered him.

He would notice you refuse to go to quidditch games or even walk into the great hall for dinner.

The house elves of the school knew you by name as well.

"Miss L/n, we made you some brownies for your passing of the exams" one of them told you.

You smiled and took them, thanking the house elf.

Draco was surprised that even the smallest creatures of the castle seemed to know you.

"Good Evening Y/n" Nearly Headless Nick would greet you in the halls

"Good Evening Sir Nicolas, enjoying your stroll?" You would greet back.

Draco was baffled and confused on how you had no problem with talking to these things but struggled to find words around actual people.

You noticed that he was of course following you around more

Especially since he would just take your books from you and start walking to your next class

So one night you were in the common room

You couldn't sleep so you just sat on the couch with the fire place going.

Draco is a night owl and found you.

"Y/n? What are you doing up, do you try to have another passing out incident?" Draco asked.

You sighed and just stared at the fire.

"what's wrong?" He asked sitting next to you.

"We go home in a few weeks." You muttered.

"Do you not want to go home?" Draco asked.

"Not if my step brothers are there." You muttered.

That was the first hint that something was not right to Draco

He looked at you and then had an idea.

"Wanna spend the summer with my family?" He asked.

You looked over. "You barely know me."

"Think of this as... A friendship investment?" He suggested.

"But--" "if that's an argument forming it's nonsense just say yes."

So you spent the summer at Draco's

Lucius noticed you retreat back but he didn't really comment on it

Narcissa actually got you to open up though

You'd sit in this day room like area with her and have tea

She learned all sorts of little things about you

You came from a wealthy family

Your dad was practically your best friend

Your stepmother was nice but your step brothers seemed to loathe you.

Draco began to notice his mother with you

How you would actually smile around her

You wouldn't stutter that much

Draco began spending time with you and Narcissa

He actually discovered you were very very sweet and VERY sarcastic

You loved to read and often read muggle books

According to you it's "interesting to find out what muggles can come up with when they don't know magic"

When you went back to school more people suddenly knew who you were

They'd just randomly greet you and it made you uncomfortable

Like really uncomfortable

Draco was with you most of the time and you'd actually hide behind him sometimes

He almost found it... Cute?

But the one student you finally seemed to open up to besides Draco was Neville

He understood you

He understood what it was like to live with anxiety

So he introduced you to another friend

Luna.

You and Luna were best friends, always smiling and sharing these small inside jokes

She was a year below you so you only saw her in your free time but Draco was glad you were trying to communicate

Hogsmeade was a thing

Draco kept close to you at all times and you seemed so weird a few days before the trip

You kept sniffing the air

"I smell snow." You'd say

"Y/n, snow is frozen water, it doesn't have a smell." He'd tell you.

"Ask Luna. I can smell snow." You'd tell him.

He thought it was bullshit but one night he saw you sneak out.

He followed you and you nearly had a heart attack.

"What are you doing!?" He whisper shouted.

"I can smell snow Draco, it's going to happen." You told him.

"Y/n, this is absolutely ridiculous--"

Guess what.

It snowed.

Draco was so confused but you were looking up at the night sky with this gorgeous smile as snowflakes fell onto you

He fell for you. Then and there

How could he not?

So you two snuck back to the common room, drinking hot cocoa and clinking your mugs together for the first snow fall of the winter.

Hogsmeade was amazing

Neville was happy to hang out with you

Though Draco was acting a tad... Odd

An unexpected friendship duo I didn't know I needed: Draco and Neville

Neville kind of pulled him to the side while you were sidetracked and looking at something and was like "Dude are you okay"

And Draco kind of told him about the first snow fall and Neville had this smile "Draco... You like her."

"Oh.... OH." Draco realized.

"What are you two talking about?" You asked curiously.

"QUIDDITCH!" they both lied.

"I've never been one for sports." You shrugged.

You, Neville and Draco would have days where you all sat in the library

There would be a break in the day where Draco had a class but you and Neville didn't

That was when you revealed "Neville, I think I like Draco" but you also made him swear to secrecy.

He was in this frustrated state.

HE WANTED YOU TWO TOGETHER GOD DAMNIT.

You ended up spending the summer with Neville, Luna and.... Draco

Neville's parents? SO FUCKING SWEET

Luna was so awesome to hang out with too.

You and Neville were like siblings and Draco enjoyed seeing you smile and laugh around them

So the fourth year starts

And you hate it even more because there are EVEN MORE STUDENTS NOW

You were surrounded by people 24/7 and you were NOT A FUCKING FAN MAN

But you found comfort in Fleur though.

She found you one day in the library and had to sit with you because it was too crowded.

She was so sweet to you

Like holy crap

New friend? Obtained

You watched the goblet of fire do it's thing

"Harry potter" was drawn and Draco seemed to twitch

You knew about some quidditch rivalry but never knew the extent of it

Draco just griped about how the boy effortlessly ended up in the public eye constantly.

You didn't seem to care though. Fleur was in the competition so you would cheer her on

You loved seeing your friend go out and kick some ass.

For the first time you were able to sit in the quidditch arena with a group and not feel absolutely terrified about being around people

You were however very much afraid of the dragon that was chasing Fluer

She made it though

Your group helped her with her egg and all of you seemed baffled on why it SCREAMED.

"It's making noise for a reason." Luna said looking at it

"But why?" Draco asked.

"Maybe we're not listening to it correctly?" Neville suggested.

"Hmm?" Fleur asked.

"Muffle the noise?" You asked seeing what Neville meant.

So she dunked it underwater

Somehow it got back to you that Harry was having trouble figuring out the purpose of the egg too.

You were the one that hinted on how to solve it.

After catching wind of this, Fred and George had to know who you were.

After all, you had an oddball group of friends

So they scared the crap out of you a few... Dozen times trying to get to know you

But because Fred and George aren't completely stupid they asked the portraits "how do we get to know her?"

They told them to be patient and sure enough they were in.

Fred and George both noticed you and Draco spending a lot of time together

You actually got the whole group into baking

Like you stressed baked during the trials for Fleur

So one day Draco decided to learn how to make cookies

And you two got into a flour fight and you were giggling the whole time

The two of you made cookies but Draco couldn't actually pick them up because he insisted his hands were dirty. So you were sitting on the counter and fed him one.

He smiled and looked at you, wiping off some excess chocolate on your face

You and him exchanged this look and he FINALLY kissed you.

You two finally started dating and Neville almost cried.

"I HAVE BEEN HIDING YOUR CRUSHES FOR ALMOST A YEAR AND I'VE BEEN GOING INSANE"

The second trial comes along and you're watching it with the group, Neville helping Harry with something so he could breathe underwater

You and Draco were sitting on the docks playing poker with jellybeans with the group

Everyone started coming back

Fleur was empty handed and she was panicked.

"Gabrielle-- she's down there I-I Co-couldn't

You knew who that girl was from the conversations you had and frowned.

"Neville do you have any of those things left" you asked.

Neville handed you gillyweed and you ate it, jumping in with no hesitation

Draco nearly jumped in after you but Fred assured him that if it took too long George and him would go get him

You came back up with Gabrielle though and were shivering the whole time

"IT IS FUCKING COLD." You shivered.

So you took that dance class and to everyone's surprise you actually could dance.

Though you were mumbling "One two three"

You still did quite well

Draco was smiling the entire time

"Hey Y/n... Would you like to go to the Yule ball?" He asked you.

That made you trip and fall onto him.

"Fuck-- sorry-- I am so sorry!" You apologized

"Love, if I weren't so used to this then this would be slightly alarming." Draco chuckled, helping you up.

You chuckled and sighed. "Yes." You nodded.

"Hmm?" "To the dance. Yes."

So Luna was the one who helped you that night

Neville went with Luna that year and it was fun for the whole group

They were all ✨classy✨

But you. You were stunning

When you came down the stairs Draco's eyes were huge

"Fred do you have sunglasses because my girlfriend's radiance is BLINDING ME."

He was dancing with you and he would whisper sweet little compliments in your ear.

For the first time in a crowd you weren't so scared anymore

The group loved seeing you so happy with Draco

They all snuck back to the Slytherin common room and you were all eating cookies when Snape found you all

"Hi professor... Cookie?" Fred offered

"... Insolent children"

Harry ending up winning and giving the money to Fred and George

Summer at the burrow and you finally meeting the rest of the Weasleys

Molly loving you

Molly loving Draco

MOLLY ADORING LUNA

Molly LOVING NEVILLE TOO

All of you laughing and having campfires during the night

Luna plays guitar?

Fred does too?

You all being kind of sad when you go back to school because it's Fred and George's last year.

You all spending as much time as possible together

Agreeing to work in the store after graduation as their "numbers gal"

Doing that after graduation

Draco also working at the store? Whaaa

Neville becoming a herbology professor

Luna becoming a caretaker of magical creatures and helping out with the shop too

Draco proposing to you one night after closing

Fred and George cracking out the champagne

And you telling them getting drunk in a building with things that can explode was a terrible plan

But you did it anyway

Nothing bad happened but still

You and Draco getting married that year and the whole group was nearly crying the entire time

Neville was the best man (again this is a duo I didn't know I needed until now)

Luna was the maid of honor

You had your son... Scorpius Fredrick Malfoy

Fred was crying the entire time holding the kid because he was "so smallll"

George saying "Of course he's small he's a baby moron... But he is cute"

[shoichee]

omg cngrts on 100!!!! <3 u deserve it!!!! hii how are you??? ahaha hows genshin going for you?? also for ur milstone event, can i request kise ryota with prompt 19 or 20, i cant decide between the two, so ill leaave it to you!! <3 i hope youre doing well 💖💖💖💖

dhfiuseyghieaugh tysm ily reeeeee <33 been playing genshin nonstop to keep my sanity from my uni papers SEND HELP

Kise x Reader

19. “I think I’m in love with you, and that scares the crap out of me”

Word Count: 2851

prompt list here

Note: we need more manga Kise, i repeat, we need more asshole Kise

»»—————　☼　—————««

How could this happen? How could he, the veteran of receiving female attention, be so careless?

He only saw you as an intrigue. A challenge. Perhaps a friend at the very most.

How did this happen?

Kise slightly grits his teeth before he quickly exhales, bringing his hand to rub out the tension in his neck. His mood had not gone unnoticed by his fans around him.

Ah, shit.

“Ryōta!” one called out, her tone dripped in saccharine. “What’s wrong?”

“Have you been pushing yourself lately?” another one chimes in.

“I can come with you to the infirmary… surely you’d have trouble!—”

“Move—I asked first!”

“H-hey! Quit being so snappy—!”

“Stop.”

He instinctively sends a glare at the mob out of irritation but then stops himself to quickly etch a sweet smile of his own for them. No matter how much he hears these words of concern, he hears nothing but empty wind. Hanging around girls was supposed to be a fun pastime. A challenge. Nowadays, his mind doesn’t bother to register any of their names, their faces. All their voices that come out of their mouth have become constantly replayed recaps; their chatters have become equivalent to those of flocking pigeons. “Don’t worry, everyone! Basketball practice has just been tough, is all. You’re all so kind to worry for my health, though! Thank you!”

Squeals rang throughout the courtyard as they hung onto his every word. Predictable.

As he firmly separates himself away from the group and leaves off with a cheerful facade, he quickly turns around to make a break with a brisk walk. Where to, exactly? He doesn’t know, but anywhere that didn’t have people around would be godsend.

His mind always returns back to you. You, who he thought would be the cure to his social life, just as Aomine and Kuroko were to his life of sports. You, who respected his personal space. You, whom he had meaningful conversations with during breaks sometimes. You, who he felt like he can drop his facades around recently and just entirely be himself.

As cruel as it was, he once challenged himself to make you fall for him. A sick, twisted game that would cure his boredom and give him something to look forward to other than practice. Something to keep him on his toes throughout the beginning of high school. You, who wasn’t honestly that special, other than the fact you treated him differently, unlike other people. Hell, even the adults are wrapped around his finger. What’s not making you fall head over heels for him? His curiosity continues to grow exponentially the more he spends time with you; never once did it get satiated.

Was it his ego that you bruised up? Was it his competitiveness kicking in at the thought of experiencing a type of “defeat?” Was it the unsaid uncertainty in his heart that is currently panicking of the thought of entering a whole new territory with new emotions and thoughts?

There is nothing special about you. You were only a challenge. There is nothing special about you. Once he figures you out, your game, you would just be like everyone els—

“Ow!”

“Ah, sorry! My bad, my bad! Are you alright? I’ve been a tad dizzy lately, here let me help you, oh…” As he rambles in a slight fluster, he immediately jumps back into his chivalrous side, immediately clasping a hand to help them up. Expecting to see another faceless individual, his eyes widened when his mind registered a pair of eyes staring inquisitively at him. Your eyes.

“Are you the same Ryōta I know?” you stifle a laugh. “Since when were you so quick to ever help me out without complaining my ear off?” When they say his first name, it has always sounded off, sickening even. He still could not comprehend why he, despite hating the sound of his first name rolling off of people’s tongues, insisted on you using his first name. Strangely, whenever you call him out so sincerely, he couldn’t help but always jerk back in genuine surprise at how… nice it felt.

He only let you use his first name to force a sense of closeness. This was only to accelerate the forming of a bond between the two of you. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing more than a challenge. Nothing more than an asset to accomplish it.

But every time he has had these thoughts lately, his heart spiked with painful palpitations.

How did this happen?

His swirling thoughts halt when he feels your hand against his forehead. “You said you were dizzy earlier, right?” you said worriedly. “You don’t seem sick… have you been eating properly?”

You were tippy-toeing to try to reach his height, one hand grasping his shoulder for support while the other was feeling his temperature. And oh, you were so close.

This was a game you were playing, too, right? You must’ve known this entanglement was all just a challenge and you wanted to play along for the fun of it, right? But these thoughts quickly cease as you separate yourself from him to give him the usual physical distance.

What sort of game were you playing? Tug-of-war? Cat-and-mouse chase? Two can play at that game.

“Hey…” he looms over your figure, leaning closer to your face. “Maybe you’re the one making me dizzy, after all?” His sharp eyes search for any subtle signs you give off: your facial expressions, body language, your reactions.

“What?” Your eyes widen at his abrupt advance, worried eyes quickly turning into one of confusion as you scan Kise’s face for any other subtle signs of his own.

There was no way you could have good intentions. There was no way you could have genuine concern for him. There was no way you would be hanging around with him, unless you had some ulterior motives of your own.

After all, he chose to get to know you for the most selfish reason. How could he ever bring himself to tell you that this precarious friendship you two shared was built on the premise of deceit on his end?

“Sorry,” he chuckles. “Just wanted to see your reaction.” And with that, he ruffles your hair playfully before he continues to walk to his intended destination of the school infirmary.

“You’re definitely sick!” you call out, rushing to catch up to him. “You’re acting really strange!...” Your voice—he wishes he could tune it out just as easily as the rest, but you were right… he was acting strange. He couldn’t believe he can distinguish your features from amidst a sea of people. Your voice amidst a clutter of noises. Your warmth amidst all the sunlight, clothing, and body heat he’s ever felt. The same warmth encapsulating his own hand.

What sort of game were you playing?

“Here! Follow me,” you said, tugging his hand forward as you take the initiative to lead him. “If you’re sick, you shouldn’t be walking around alone. What if you collapse?”

What sort of game were you playing?... Was having the most scrunched-up brows and worried eyes part of the rules? He tightens his lips into a thin line at the sensation of his heartbeats again.

As you tug along his hand and lead him down the hallway, his mind drifts to the moments you two have shared for the past few weeks. When you bumped into him and succinctly apologized before excusing yourself… when he approached you constantly every chance he got during breaks to figure you out… when he saw you efficiently defending yourself against his dedicated fans… when you first approached him after he exited the lockers to congratulate him on a home game win before you turned to Kasamatsu to talk of club affairs with the council… when he first heard you actively cheering his name on the stands… when you inopportunely saw him weeping about Kaijo’s loss at the Winter Cup and successfully comforted him…

With each progression in his thoughts, his hand suddenly feels warmer against yours, his heart rate thumping faster, his eyes growing more out of focus as he gazes at your back, and then your intertwined hands. Maybe he really is sick.

“Are you alright?” you asked, turning to face him as you both keep walking. “We’re just about here.”

He says nothing as he keeps his face straight ahead. He doesn't trust himself to keep it together after that slipup with his fans; messing up in front of you would be certainly disastrous.

“Is there anyone here?” you softly called out, tentatively sliding the doors open. There was no one, but they were probably on a lunch break before coming back soon. He hears you sigh before you tug him in completely into the room. “Sit here, and I’ll look for some ice packs, at least… I don’t know if that would work, though…”

As you let go of his hand to try to rummage through the drawers, his hand instinctively holds you tighter.

Shit.

“Ryōta?...” you said. “Do you wanna lay down instead, I’ll look for something for you to—”

“... (y/n)-cchi, stay here.”

Shit. Kasamatsu was right: he needs to learn how to shut his godamn mouth.

“Ryōta,” you shyly mumble. “That was the first time you addressed me with -cchi at the end. Don’t you only use it with your old teammates?”

Shit… shit, shit, shit.

He can’t slip up, and he’s fucking up three times in a row? He’s losing his edge. There’s no way he’ll lose now… not when he’s come so far.

“... Do you know what you’re doing?” he exhales, dropping your hand to run his hands through his locks. “You’re driving me insane…”

“Me?”

“What games are you playing here, I swear to god—there’s no reason for you to care this much for me like this—”

“I do have a reason,” you replied, averting your eyes to feign looking for those ice packs. There you go again, acting coy… that’s what he chants to himself anyways.

“Wha?~ You’re keeping secrets from your friend, already?” he coos, trying to gain back the momentum. Yes, that’s right…you are only considered a friend. “It’s kind of cruel to bring it up but then decide to not divulge them, y’know?”

“It doesn’t take much human decency to worry and care for another,” you smile. “Even more so for a friend.”

You finally turn away to continue hunting for anything useful in the cabinets, while Kise silently watches you from his chair. Silence settles between the two of you.

“Y’know… I’ve been thinking,” you start, handing him a glass of water, a wet towel, and ice packs. “I don’t want for us… to be friends anymore.”

It took his entire self control to not jump from his chair to grab you and interrogate you into oblivion. But why? Did you realize his true intentions? Did you hate his guts after all? Did you accomplish your own objectives and deem this friendship no longer useful?

Why does he even care about any of this?

“You’re… joking, right?”

He really expected for you to burst into laughter and call it a prank or tease him about his unfiltered reaction at your words, but your eyes have now become determined and very serious.

You weren’t joking.

“Ryōta, I’ll just get this out of the way first things first, but I know that you only see me as some type of trophy to go after… for a while now.”

How did this happen?

“It’s just the way you look at me sometimes seems off,” you said. “It’s not obvious to others, but we’ve spent almost every day with each other for a while, so I’ve kinda noticed… Honestly, that only solidified my initial impressions of you being a complete asshole.”

Why does his heart feel like it’s going to shatter?

“But…” you continued. “Recently, you were just… different. You were still stupid, sure. But you’ve laughed so much more and supported me when I needed it most. I’ve never laughed this hard until I met you—you make me wheeze out the ugliest laughs, as I’m ashamed to admit. But I want to be able to support you too… like, it feels that this whole thing you’re trying to put up when you meet with other people… it must be exhausting, right? I know you first acted that way with me. I can understand and kind of relate to that, so you can always talk to me alone if you need an ear.”

“Why are you telling me that you don’t want to be friends anymore?” Kise flatly asks. “You’re clearly correct about everything about me. You could’ve just left a long while ago. Did you have to pretend to care, too? Go ahead, aren’t you going to gossip about this to everyone?”

“What? No! I’m not done talking yet, idiot! I wasn’t pretending anything! Can you just stop projecting yourself onto me and listen up? Even though you’re such an asshole sometimes, er—all the time, the time we spent together has grown to be genuine, and I know you felt it too!... so well, I know you’ve heard these words so many times from other people, but…

I like you. That’s why I don’t want to be just your friend anymore. But I know you don’t reciprocate these back, so I just wanna tell you to get it off my chest… that’s all.”

He is absolutely stunned.

You’ve confessed to him, didn’t you? He got what he wanted. He won his little challenge. But why doesn’t he feel the adrenaline, the excitement, of it all like he normally would? His heart beated painfully erratically like how his team suffered a bittersweet loss at the games. Especially when you turned away to leave after you gauged his silence as rejection.

“(y/n)-cchi! W-wait!” He fumbles to grab for the warmth of your hand again. “You just confessed, right? Don’t you have to hear what I say?”

You simply shrug in response, but nonetheless, you turned back around to face him and await his response.

What you didn’t expect though was for him to pull you into a tight embrace and put his head on your shoulder. He pours his innermost thoughts and his emotions out, your shoulder slightly muffling his words, but you still understand everything he had spilled. He finally apologizes for everything he’s done, reassuring you that you don’t have to forgive him, though you kept telling him that it wasn’t that big of a deal. He finally breaks away from you and hangs his head low and exhales. He finally lifts his head to make eye contact with you. His eyes burn with intensity and the usual confidence he bears, although you note the tinge of nervousness behind his pupils.

How did this happen? How did he ever grow so attached to you? And since when did he grow mature enough to concede his defeat?

“I think I’m in love with you…” His words trail off, and his confidence disintegrates away when he realizes that he is no longer the receiving end of a confession.

… and that scares… the crap out of me.”

“You think you’re in love with me?” You stare at him incredulously. Kise squirms uncomfortably under your scrutiny. He’ll admit it, it was the lamest reply anyone could’ve given. You honestly deserved better.

His thoughts were interrupted when you suddenly guffawed and slapped your hands to your mouth to try to stifle your hysteria.

“Hey! I spilled my entire heart to you, don’t just laugh… damnit, hey! It’s not that funny!...” he protests, but after unsuccessfully trying to get you to stop snickering, he sulks back into his chair and huffs with the reddest face.

“Ah… A+ for honesty, at least,” you breathed out. “I thought you were gonna be eloquent about this, since you’re used to this sorta stuff and all…”

“Shut it.”

Kise buries his head into his hands, but you gently pry them off in an attempt to see his embarrassed state.

“Were you really actually sick, though?~”

“Shut uuuup, alreadyyy.”

“I inherited this personality from you, y’know.”

Huh, it seems that you really do know how to be coy, after all.

“Can you two please see yourselves out? The infirmary is not a place to hold your secret rendezvous, especially with this inappropriate behavior.”

“(y/n)-cchi, run!”

“I’m trying, I’m trying!”

In a hurry, Kise grabs hold of your hand and makes a break out the door, dragging you behind with the school nurse trailing far behind. Even if he suffered a loss once again, he still won the complete monopoly of you and your genuine care and warmth for him.

Was it really a loss, though? He doesn’t think much of it now that his head feels clear when he shares these moments with you.

He supposes he misjudged you when you were truly special after all. Déjà vu just hits him like a truck when he fondly thinks about his ex-mentor Kuroko, and how similar you are to him.