#i literally just sat at my computer last night while high just staring at him for like 15 minutes.

[captaincrungus]

crushing on fictional characters when ur a whole ass adult is so embarrassing. i cant stop thinking about That Guy from That Thing i like

[weirdgenetic-fuckup]

so.. rockstar ex gf reader x 90s! dave at an award show, coincidentally with the same seating arrangement and their bands nominated in the same category, one of them won and took the other to the bathroom to brag abt the award, iykwim. tytyty ilysm hbvsauiowduh🙏

A/n: HELP MY COMPUTER DIED AND I ALMOST LOST THIS I WAS LITERALLY ON THE LAST LINE I WAS GOING TO KILL SOMEONE anyway I hope you enjoy this <3

Warnings: Smut, angst, semipublic sex, if you think I missed anything let me know otherwise enjoy!

Part 2

All around you were people whispering about your current situation. Someone somewhere decided to sit your band next to Megadeth, your ex's band.

You sat across from him, trying to keep things civil with space but Dave kept staring at you, just waiting for something to happen, even going as far as to toss a few peas at you 'accidentally'.

Still, you tried to ignore him. Your bands were nominated for the same award and you were confident that, if you didn't win, you'd surpass Megadeth.

Your relationship had been no secret and your distaste for each other was well known, clearly whoever put you here knew what they were doing. Everyone was talking about it, any time you walked past someone your name was the last thing out of their mouth, their gaze always led to you.

Part of you hated it more than anything, it felt high schoolish, the whole of it. You were an adult, the people around you were supposed to be adults, how did it lead to this?

The reason was people speculating about the end of your relationship. You had been so happy together for almost two years, people were expecting a wedding, but then it was over and a fire reared its head in the wake.

You wish you knew what to tell people other than to respect your privacy.

Really, Dave came home in a better mood than usual, it was strange but welcomed. He got you your favourite flowers, snacks, the works and he was clinging to you, showering you with words of affection up until you were laying in bed.

You were curled up at his side, head on his chest and trying to fall asleep when your world came crumbling around you.

"I don't think I can love you anymore." He said with virtually no emotion, pain, sadness. Nothing.

The night ended with things being thrown, more tears than you thought you had in you and your throat hurt with how much you were screaming. All you wanted was answers but he just wouldn't give you any.

You packed your things the next day while he slept somewhere else, where you didn't know and didn't care. You were gone by the time he got back and neither of you contacted the other afterwards. Dave started his own band to get back at Metallica and you were determined to do the same, to add salt to the wound.

Until now, neither of you had a reason to see each other and you were more than happy with that, he'd given you everything and for what?

You sat back at your table right when they were about to announce who won the award. You leaned your head in your hand, swirling your drink in its glass as you waited for a name to be called.

You didn't even care anymore, you were tired of the gossip, of the rumors that you cheated on him, that this and this happened, that it was all just a publicity stunt because yes, of course, you and your love for a man who couldn't be bothered to do the same was entirely up for debate how could you be so fucking stupid?

"I know we've all been waiting for this one, the once happy couple sure is cheery, huh?" You glanced up to the announcer, the big screens showing your table.

You looked miserable. You felt even worse. Everyone around you did their best to be presentable but you were ready to flip off the camera crew.

You noticed another unhappy face at the table, Dave. He would still glance at you occasionally but he was glaring daggers at your bandmates beside you, wondering how they could be so oblivious to your sunken mood.

"Anyone know what happened?" The announcer asked, a big smile on his face. A few small laughs sounded throughout the place as tears welled in your eyes.

You wanted to run and hide but you knew you couldn't while they called out your award. So you sat there silently, waiting to hear if all your efforts were worthless. "Well, guess it's time to rip the band-aid off and let the wound bleed." How thoughtful, you thought. "And the winner is!" A soundtrack of a drumroll played even though their are more than enough capable drummers here, something you'd always wondered about. "Megadeth!"

Your ears were ringing. All the cheering, the men at your table standing and excitedly reaching for one another at the award. It felt as though you were being stabbed by everyone's eyes.

You felt a hand on your back. "Are you okay?" Your bandmates voice was muffled like it was behind a wall of foam. You nodded and excused yourself, keeping your head held high as more tears formed in your eyes, just trying to make it to the bathroom.

There was no one else there and you just stared at yourself in the mirror taking deep breaths until you calmed down but the tears just rolled down your cheeks.

The door opened, you expected to look over and see your bandmate but it was Dave. He had a concerned look on his face, those stupid glasses you wanted to rip off of his stupid face and crush them. He'd just go buy another pair but you wanted to.

"Are you okay?" He asked. You carefully wiped your eyes, trying not to ruin your makeup and further.

"Why do you care?" You muttered, keeping your voice low, not trusting it to stay stable.

"Because I care about you." You scoffed at that.

"Oh, yeah, sure you do, you cared so much about me yet you couldn't even be bothered to love me." He stared at you a moment before taking a step closer to you.

"I never said I didn't love you." You opened your mouth to protest but his arms were around you and he spoke up again before you could get anything out. "I said I didn't think I could love you anymore."

You rolled your eyes at him before wiping them again. "What a fucking difference that made." He sighed and leaned down, resting his chin on your shoulder just as he used to, the sight tugging at your heart.

"I love you. I loved you then, I love you now, I never stopped loving you and I never will." More tears came to your eyes and you couldn't blink them away.

"Shut up." You said through gritted teeth.

"I didn't want to, alright?" His voice was deep and soft in your ear, honey dipped silk wrapping around your mind. "My manager made me, said it would be good to get the band out there."

"You chose to break up with me... for fame?" You mustered, not wanting it to be true.

"If I didn't they would have dropped us from the label."

"So you didn't choose me?"

"You're not getting it-"

"I get it perfectly!" You yelled, spinning around and pushing him off of you. "You were already a big band, it would've been stupid to drop you and even if they did someone would've been dying to pick you up." He stared at you, taking in your words knowing you were right. "You didn't love me."

"You can't say that." He said, gaze falling to the ground.

"You treated me like Metallica!" Tears dripped from your jaw to the tiled floor as you glared at him. His eyes shot open. "You were done and you dropped me for what? Publicity?" He didn't say anything.

A long moment passed, neither of you saying anything.

Dave took a step closer to you, then another until he was inches from you. He wrapped his arms around you and closed the gap, his lips crashing against yours.

You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. You'd missed him for so long, so many sleepless nights with your hand between your thighs, a random man you'd close your eyes and pretend was Dave but it was never the same.

He pushed you back until you hit the counter. He lifted you onto it and stood between your legs, quickly undoing his pants and letting his half hard cock hit your already wet panties. You let out a slight gasp into the kiss and Dave groaned as he stroked himself.

He didn't bother taking them off of you and just pushed them aside as he pushed into you. He pulled away from the kiss, letting your see just how his eyes closed, how his mouth opened and soft breaths left him.

"Fuck, I missed this." He groaned. His eyes opened and he brought his focus back to you, your eyes as they swirled with lust and hatred, both directed at him. "You are so beautiful, you know that?" You bit your lip, looking down his clothed body until you landed on where the both of you connected.

He took your chin in his fingers and tilted your head up to look at him. "Do you know that?" You nodded. "Tell me."

"I know." You muttered.

"You know what?"

You inhaled deeply. "I know I'm beautiful." He gave a nod of approval.

"And this award means nothing, you know that too, don't you?"

"Yes, I know." He gave another nod.

"You know I love you, right?" You paused. He stared at you expectantly, eyes flickering all over your face, admiring your features. "You'll know when we're done." He kissed your forehead and pulled his hips back before snapping them into yours.

Your eyes shut tight and your lips parted in a moan, you'd waited far too long to feel him like this again, how he stretched you out and dragged against your gummy walls. More moans ripped from you as he set a fast pace, Dave's hands roaming your body and lips kissing up and down your neck, leaving small marks.

His hand came down and he rubbed your clit with his thumb, giving it some well needed attention after months of only you noticing it. Fuck, you loved the way he made you feel, all light headed and your body hot with desire.

A familiar knot formed in your gut, burning a passionate fire that resonated throughout your body. Your voice echoed off the walls while Dave's grunts and groans were save specially for your ears. You weren't concerned with someone walking in on you, let them see, let them hear how good he made you feel and see the love in his eyes as he stared at you in awe.

"Hah- Fuck, Dave, m'close." You mumbled, leaning back on your hands and letting him do the work, it's the least he could do and he was more than happy to do it.

He didn't say anything and kept his pace, his thumb still pleasuring you perfectly. Your chest was rising and falling, breathing laboured and your head rolling back as you felt the strings slipping and finally snapping, loud moans leaving you of cursing and repeated 'Dave' over and over.

He let you ride out your high on him but pulled out and got himself situated again. "Why-why'd you stop..?" You asked, breathing heavy and your eyes lidded.

"Well, I figured if I was gonna show you I love you I didn't need to worry about myself, right?" He said simply as he helped you dust yourself off, so to speak, and off the counter. "I can worry about that later, can't I?" He asked, wrapping his arms around you once more.

You thought about it for a moment as you made your way to the door, Dave still clinging to you. He held you tighter, not letting you leave. "You know I love you, don't you?"

You bit your lip, remembering everything that happened before the breakup. "I know you love me." You said, thinking about how abruptly it all ended.

"And?" He asked.

You looked back at him over your shoulder. "And?"

"Verdicts still out?" You crossed your arms over your chest.

"It'll take more than a fuck in some bathroom for me to consider that." You mumbled and left the bathroom, Dave still following close behind.

[ptergwen]

web of lies

take a leap. if you start to fall, the net will appear to catch you.

photographer!peter x journalist!reader || masterlist

w/c: 7.1k

warnings: swearing, one drinking mention, descriptions of anxiety, and angst if ya squint

summary: peter can’t stop holding your hands, betty and ned are the modern day bonnie and clyde, ned is a terrible guy in the chair, the osborn’s are up to something, and mj hates you all

a/n: y’all i’m super excited about this series like i haven’t had an idea i’ve really loved in months? so it’s good to be back !!! there are tons of things i have planned and i can’t wait to share them with all of you hehe i really hope you enjoy part one <3 happy reading

to be honest, which is what you do best, you’ve had a thing for peter parker your whole time at the daily bugle. you actually almost told him once.

a couple months ago, peter walked you home on a night you worked overtime. he’d came in last minute to leave some pictures on your boss’s desk. no one else but you was there, hunched at your computer in the dim office lighting. peter was pleasantly surprised to see you, yet concerned for your well-being. you had to put your finishing touches on a story.

he didn’t feel comfortable letting you travel alone at that hour. so, he went with you when you were ready. his company was more than welcomed. you told peter about your article while you two sat on the subway. he’d listened intently, your head resting on his shoulder and his arm around you. he made sure you got to your apartment building alright as well.

“hey, peter?” you’d asked, halfway up the steps. he was waiting until you were inside and safe to leave. “hm? you good?” he’d smiled sort of expectantly. “yeah. i... i wanted to say...”

your words got caught in your throat when he gave you the softest puppy eyes you’ve ever seen. you couldn’t do it. for some reason, you were too scared to confess how you felt. “thanks again for walking me home,” you’d settled on. he’d seemed disappointed that was what you wanted to tell him. nevertheless, he said not to worry about it before taking off.

that one moment perfectly captures it all; how yours and peter’s narrative plays itself out.

—

“we’ve got an update on hydra v. the people!”

“those freaky giraffes escaped the zoo... again.”

“shoot one more spitball and it’ll be your last.”

“does anyone have an aspirin?”

welcome to the daily bugle, where the chaos never ends and the calm never starts. you’ll find new york’s finest writers, publishers, and creatives of all kind right here. that would include you. you’re one of the top journalists in the whole building, according to mr. norman osborn. he’s the brilliant and slightly insane man who runs this place.

although it’s rare for someone in your field, you were hired straight out of college. norman read a few pieces you’d written and loved them so much that he offered you a job. full time, full benefits, no questions asked. there was something special about the way you wove your words together. your writing had its own voice. a strong voice, one the paper was severely lacking.

you’ve been with the bugle for just over a year now. it’s not the quiet, nine to five gig you were initially expecting it to be. you’re each very unique individuals in your office, and there’s never a dull moment because of it. your coworkers can be found hosting debates on the riskiest topics or tackling each other for blueberry muffins, and that’s just a regular tuesday. the place is stranger than strange. but, it’s become home.

thanks to mr. osborn being so accommodating, you actually settled in rather quickly. another big help has been the friends you’ve made. your first was michelle jones, who prefers to be called mj. she’s a fellow journalist with a wickedly dark humor that trickles into her writing. if you had to describe her in one word, it would be blunt. mj is as real as it gets, and also eternally loyal. she keeps her circle small, so you’re honored you get to be in it.

mj sits right next to you, which means you’re always talking through your days. that’s due in part to the way your office is set up. there aren’t any cubicles, tables and swirly chairs taking up their space instead. norman heard it was more progressive, probably from his son harry.

harry is about your age, only a couple of years older. he hangs around quite a lot, but doesn’t do much with his time besides that. according to norman, he’s still seeking out his passion. he’s banking on him finding a suitable career at the bugle. he’d like to pass this all on to harry some day, hopefully sooner than later. either way, you don’t mind having harry here. he’s super funny and friendly with everyone.

there’s also ned leeds, who’s an editor and reviews most of your pieces. he’s sweeter than candy, even when he’s ripping your grammar to shreds. on the rare occasions you’re not discussing breaking news, you two talk about movies. ned is a film buff and gives you the best recommendations. you’re convinced he was a critic in his past life.

last but so from least is peter parker. he only works for the bugle part time, since he’s still in school. you both graduated from your respective colleges the same year. peter wants to get his masters degree, though. he’s a photographer who’s aspiring to be a cinematographer. him and ned have their passion for the industry in common, and that’s what makes them such great friends.

you learned this and more from the times you and peter have partnered up on stories. he’s one of your best friends not only at the bugle, but in your entire life. the many long nights you’ve spent collaborating have brought you close to each other. they consist of drinking and deep talks, along with some actual work. he takes the pictures, you do the writing. you’ve been told you make a lovely pair.

peter says it himself, too. you’d like to believe he means it as more than coworkers. he’s so caring, and smart, and pure, and peter. yeah, you like him an awful lot. you can hardly stand the feeling of it sometimes.

the fact that you you haven’t come clean already is ridiculous.

“goddamn. not again,” you mutter out. “em, you better come look at this. it’s bad.” mj wheels over to you in her chair with a puzzled look. her eyes follow yours, landing on your computer. “leeds just sent this? to everyone?” she questions, your reply a short hum. you’re both staring daggers at the email your screen displays.

ned is responsible for assigning each journalist their own topics to cover. he’s been lacking a bit recently, having you write up think pieces on fluffy things. in other words, stuff that no one cares about. he asked you to compare oat milk and almond milk just last week. you’d hoped this week would be better, but here you are.

“this is ass. who does he think we are, buzzfeed?” mj scoffs at her own words. the daily bugle prides itself on being a reliable news source, on paper and tv. you’re starting to stoop down to the low level of your competitors. “he assigned me some tiktok dance trend. i’m not writing a single word about that app.” she sets her elbows down on the table, head in her hands.

“aw, why not? grandma mj isn’t down with the kids?” you tease and click out of the upsetting email. “i don’t write for kids,” mj deadpans. she pushes her glasses up on her nose. “what’d you get?” “the evolution of memes,” you gloomily reply. you’re surprised norman has been approving these topics. then again, ned is the head editor. he can do whatever he wants regardless of approval.

mj glares over at the kitchen, where betty brant currently resides. she’s making two hot chocolates instead of her usual one. “i blame her,” mj mumbles to you. your eyebrows furrow. “dude, what? betty is an angel. she doesn’t even work in editing.” betty is the bugle’s highest rated anchorwoman. her and her news team are on people’s televisions every night.

“no, but she has been spending a generous amount of time with leeds,” mj grumbles. she’s admittedly very nosy. the upside is that she tells you any juicy office drama there is. “my theory is betty’s making him give us crap stories so she can report the good ones.” she glances over at you to see what you think. “no way. that can’t be allowed... or legal,” you laugh back.

as if on cue, ned appears next to betty in the kitchen. he takes the extra hot coco that’s piled high with whipped cream. betty tucks a sheet of paper into his suit pocket and kisses his cheek, then he’s gone. you can only gasp as you watch this unfold. what has she done to poor, clueless ned?

“not such an angel anymore, huh?” mj smirks in satisfaction. “suddenly, she has red horns and a pitchfork,” you bitterly agree with your tongue in your cheek. betty waves to you two on her way back to broadcasting. mj gives her a fake nice finger wave, you ignoring her. “we can’t sit back and let this happen, em. we have to do something,” you decide. “let’s tell norman.”

uninterested, mj takes off her glasses and starts to clean them. “like he’ll believe us. yeah, golden girl betty brant is sabotaging the writer’s room,” she rewords her previous statement to put its stupidity in perspective. you throw your hands up. “she is, though! we literally watched it happen!” mj puts her freshly wiped glasses back on and sighs.

“i doubt norman would care, y/n. every newspaper to ever exist is corrupt somehow.” your pessimistic old pal has a point. however, you’re not so willing to accept it. “why can’t we be the first one that isn’t?” you offer a small smile. mj snickers, wheeling back to her own computer. “those are words of the innocent.” she’s already tapping her fingers across the keyboard.

“i thought you weren’t doing the tiktok piece,” you say under your breath. you’re slightly pissed mj turned you down, since she’s the reason you know about betty’s meddling. “i’m not,” mj answers sharply. “i’m gonna email quentin and ask if we can change our topics. happy?” quentin beck is another editor in the building. he’s not bad, but he is intimidating. no one typically goes to him as their first option.

“i’m thrilled,” you confirm and grin at mj to emphasize it. “thanks for stepping up. you’re forgiven.” “i didn’t realize i had to be sorry,” mj notes, this time in a playful manor. she shakes her head as she begins writing. “you and your morals.”

what you value most in your career is honesty, under any circumstances. of course, the other daily bugle writers are the same. norman strictly prohibits clickbait and crazy headlines because that isn’t real news. you leave that to companies like buzzfeed. you’re honest in the sense that you say whatever has to be said, what everyone else is too afraid to. you’ll speak your truth no matter who tries to stop you.

it didn’t used to be that way. there’s some childhood trauma that remains deep in the back of your mind. you’ve left that behind you now, having over a decade to cope with it. hey, they say the past is in the past. what’s important is your takeaway, that you would never let yourself or anyone else be silenced from there on out. never again.

quentin ends up giving you the okay to write different stories. he lets you and mj choose choose your own because he’s got “better things to do” and you’re “big girls.” what a peach he is. mj goes with how capitalism is continuing to provoke global warming. she has something to say about every major world issue, and you admire the hell out of her for it.

you’re a bit stuck when it’s time to write your article. it’s terribly ironic because you pushed for this. you aren’t too worried, though. the city is crawling with material, so you’ll find what you’re looking for eventually. lucky for you, some much needed inspiration comes skipping out of the elevator.

“morning, peter,” you hear liz greet him at the front desk. she’s your floor’s receptionist. her wisdom and patience keep this place going. “hi, liz. how’s it going?” he asks. “things have been quiet... mostly. can i do anything for you?” liz peers up at him. peter sports a shy smile. “uh, yeah. mr. osborn wanted to see me?” “right. hang on.” she nods, dialing his office phone number.

it’s endearing how peter calls him mr. osborn, seeing as the rest of you go with norman. he’s probably the politest guy you’ve ever met.

grinning, liz puts down the phone. “you can go in whenever you’re ready. good luck!” peter laughs nervously and turns to leave. “thanks, you too.” his face falls when he realizes his mistake. “wait, i- i didn’t mean to say that. that was stupid. you’re not-“ “it’s fine, peter,” liz reassures him. his anxiety makes him trip over his words sometimes. that, and he’s a bit dorky in general. you find it rather adorable.

you also wonder what exactly he needs good luck for. he’s not even supposed to be working today, so your curiosity as to what’s going on has been piqued.

“um, i’m gonna go now. bye!” peter rushes off, his face tinted pink from the embarrassing encounter. you’re hoping he’ll stop and talk with you for a little while, but he heads straight to norman’s office. your whole body deflates at that. mj notices from her peripherals.

“what’s the matter? missing your hubby?” she coos, her words dripping in sarcasm. “no,” you lie. “i’m... i don’t know what to write about.” ok, there’s some truth. mj gives you a couple pats on the shoulder. “ask parker for help. you two work... well together. don’t you?” this must be the zillionth time you’ve heard that.

“we do,” you murmur and glance at norman’s closed door. peter is hidden behind it. “i just don’t wanna bug him. he has finals soon, and whatever norman is putting him up to. it’s my job, anyway.” mj pokes your arm. “those sound like excuses to me,” she concludes, still jabbing at you childishly. “you really just don’t wanna tell him you like-“

“can you keep it down?” you hiss, yanking your arm back. “he’s literally right over there.” peter stands up and shakes norman’s hand. you catch it through the blinds on his window. “y/n, you were drooling over his mere presence only minutes ago,” mj prefaces, a smile pulling at her lips. “you can handle three little words. i like you, that’s it. spit it out already.”

you’ll never admit this to mj, but she’s right. you lost your momentum after your first failed attempt to say the three little words. you’re still not sure what stopped you. you’d shared the details of that faithful night with her, and she’s been pushing you to try again since.

the door to norman’s office opens, and out walks peter. he’s beaming after their conversation, which seems like a good sign. harry passes peter on his way in to pay his dad a visit. he claps him on the shoulder, peter happily accepting before continuing his stride back into the main office. it takes a moment to register that he’s coming towards you.

you quickly set your focus back on your computer so he doesn’t think you’ve been watching him. even though, you definitely have.

“y/n!” peter calls your name. he’s on the opposite side of your table, in front of you. “peter!” you match his tone. “i was just dropping by. i thought i’d say hey while i’m here.” he’s still grinning. “what’re you doing?” he looks cute as ever in an oversized and cream colored sweater. his curls are slicked back with a tad too much product, cheeks rosy. you gaze up at him when he rests his arms on the table.

“pretending to be productive,” mj answers for you, pressing her lips together. peter cocks his head to the side. “pretending?” “ignore her. she’s being a shit stirrer today,” you explain. “like every other day,” he jokes, earning a laugh from you. mj just tuts and keeps writing. “talk about me like i’m not here,” she mumbles to herself, then gets back into her article.

“anyways, i thought you didn’t work today?” you ask to take the attention off yourself. also, because you’re curious. “oh! get this.” peter perks up even more, if that’s possible. he has energy like no other. “you know alex in broadcasting? betty’s camera guy?” “what about him?” you wonder. “he called in sick earlier this morning, with the flu or something.” he’s oddly excited to announce this. that prompts you to make a funny face.

biting back another smile, peter elaborates. “mr. osborn needed someone to fill in for him, so he picked me. i’ll be here all week.” it makes sense, since peter knows how to work a camera and does so wonderfully. you give him a celebratory push at his chest. “peter, that’s amazing! this is the perfect way to transition from pictures to film, right?” he’s nearing his finals at school, which consist of more movie-like projects. the news will be great practice.

then, he’s off to hollywood. you’ll put that out of your mind for now.

“exactly! i think it’ll be a good place to start. the pay isn’t bad either.” peter wiggles his eyebrows at you, you giggling once again. you do a lot of that when he’s around. that’s going to be more often now. “plus, i get to see you. everyone wins.” he squeezes your hand that was just on him. your heart begins to thump. “except alex,” you challenge, playing with his fingers. “but, for real. i’m happy you get to do this and that we’ll be spending more time together.”

“thanks, y/n/n. me too.” peter grins and leans over, taking a peek at your computer screen. there’s a blank word document on it. “you never told me what you’re up to,” he chuckles. “guess mj was right... nothing.” “i’m always right,” she chimes in from next to you. you look between the two of them with a scowl. “i haven’t found my story yet. i don’t know, this never happens.” peter nods as you share your dilemma. “no good ideas are coming to me,” you murmur.

“they will. you have a way of attracting things.” he licks his lower lip, your heart completely stopping this time. “well, i gotta go set up for rise and shine with betty brant.” he waves his hand like he’s presenting his words. that’s what betty calls her morning news segment. “be careful with her. she’s being really sketchy these days,” you warn peter, mj grunting in agreement.

confused, peter purses his lips. “really? ned says she’s a sweetheart. they’ve been going out for a while.” mj pops her head up and adjusts her glasses. “did ned also tell you she’s bribing him to give her all of our scoops?” she’s asking rhetorically because she already knows the answer. of course he didn’t. “it’s one thing to not like her. you’re just making things up now,” peter huffs.

mj kicks your foot under the table. “i told you no one would believe us. not even peter gullible parker.” “it’s benjamin,” he corrects her. “whatever,” she brushes it off, resuming her work.

peter does tend to be sort of naive, to only see the good in things when there’s plenty of bad. you’re the same in that way, unless you hang around mj for too long.

“is that true? betty’s stealing your stories?” peter turns to you and asks. you gesture to your screen. “i don’t have one, so you do the math.” he hums sympathetically. he’ll listen to you, never mj. “i’m sorry. thanks for telling me, y/n. i’ll watch out for her.” he bends his fingers to look like goggles, putting them around his eyes. you sigh lightheartedly.

“are you twenty two years old or twelve?” mj remarks, but not without a comeback from peter. “you’re, like, eighty five. worry about that.” they’ve had this type of banter for as long as you’ve known them. it’s equal parts amusing and exhausting. “don’t be late on your first day.” you snap peter out of it with a knowing smile. he returns it.

“i hope something crazy happens so you can write about it.” he’s walking backwards now, towards the elevator. “see you later, pete,” is all you say back, yet another laugh threatening to escape you. “see you. bye, michelle,” peter says just to bug her. “it’s mj,” she groans without looking up. he shrugs. “not so fun, is it?”

after peter is gone, you try to get back into work. or rather, you try to start your work. what he said about you having a way of attracting things keeps ringing in your head. was he flirting? no, he couldn’t have been. peter parker doesn’t flirt. words aren’t his strong suit, and you have countless memories that prove this to be true. earlier with liz, for example.

you’re probably reading way into this. peter was simply doing what any good friend would do and gave you advice.

it’s late in the afternoon when anything worth mentioning happens again. peter is still with betty, as far as you know. they’re probably preparing for the nighttime news now. all you’ve done since seeing him is nibble on snacks and bug mj, who’s almost done with her story despite your distractions. this is really bad, considering your deadline to submit is at the end of today.

you’ve never missed a deadline.

mj emails her work to quentin while you repeatedly bang your head on the table. she hits send before deciding to entertain you. “whatcha doing over there?” she cautiously prompts, powering off her computer. “trying to get an idea. i’m desperate, if you couldn’t tell.” your voice is muffled. “i could.” mj grabs your shoulders and pulls you back so you’re sitting up. you childishly pout.

“y/n, the only thing that’s gonna give you is brain damage,” mj says sternly, then softens her tone. “why don’t you ask for an extension? norman gives me them all the time.” whining, you slump down in your chair again. “yeah, but you’re you! we do things differently, have different expectations put on us.” she’s back to cold mj after you say that. “alright. at least i did something today besides pine over that little-“

mj’s insult for peter is interrupted by harry. “ladies, what’s shaking?” he comes up to you two with a the hint of smirk on his face. you manage a nod to acknowledge him. “oh, hey... harry,” mj unenthusiastically replies. she’s the one person who isn’t really a fan of him. “not much. y/n was just having a tantrum.” “she was not,” you dismiss her. “it’s work stuff. you know your dad.”

harry clicks his tongue in a teasing way. “yep, the grind never stops in this joint. boss man is...” he does the sign for cuckoo with his finger. you laugh a little at that. “in a good way,” you add on. mj only watches you two, blinking blankly. harry gives you a definitive pat on the back. “before i forget, he wants to see you.” that gets mj talking. “norman?” she questions. “your dad?” you choke out at the same time.

“who else? he said you two have to talk.” harry flashes you a weary smile. “have fun in there, old sport.” you’re too busy biting the skin off your bottom lip to respond. “mhm... she will,” mj speaks on your behalf. even she sounds worried. saluting you both, harry leaves to go pester your other colleagues. you’re completely and totally fucked.

“that’s it for me!” you grin sarcastically, freaked out by harry. “i’m fired, aren’t i? i’m definitely about to get fired, and it’s all because-“ “relax!” mj cuts off your rambling. she reaches down and grasps at your wrists. “get it together, y/l/n. you’re the best we have, okay? you aren’t going anywhere.” your grin becomes a frown. “then why does norman wanna talk to me? and, why don’t i have a story?”

mj always has the answers, but this time is the execption. she lets out a breath. “i don’t know. you’ll go find out and tell me what happens.” there’s no use protesting. you’re going to have to face whatever you’re about to at some point. “ok,” you give in, defeated. “i’ll be back soon, i hope.”

the walk to norman’s office feels like a walk of shame. mj can do nothing but sit back and observe it. if this ends the way you think it will, you’ll be collecting your things and won’t ever return. norman is a kind man, and he’s usually pretty understanding. he doesn’t mind the workplace shenanigans as long as you get your job done. unfortunately, you haven’t today.

you hear your boss’s booming voice when you approach his door. inhaling deep, you knock on it, and the room goes silent. “come in,” norman responds after a few seconds. mustering up a smile, you open the door to be met with your doom. “hi, am i interrupting something?” you check. “not at all! you’re just the person i wanted to see. sit, sit,” he beckons you over. he’s not using his angry voice, so maybe you’re in the clear. you enter the room as told.

you’re shocked to see a terrified peter is already in one of the chairs. he visibly relaxes a bit now that you’re here. what the hell is happening? whatever you were expecting, this was the last thing.

taking the armchair next to peter, you sit facing norman’s desk. you nudge his arm to get his attention. his big brown eyes lock with yours. “what’s going on?” you whisper. “no idea,” peter whispers back. the two of you turn to norman again when he claps his hands. he’s plopped down into his cushy leather seat.

“so,” he begins, gaze flicking from peter to you. “you kids know why you’re here?” “is it because i missed my deadline?” you blurt out. you’re once again a nervous wreck. peter doesn’t speak, just winces. “not that. although, i did hear from ned that you turned down his assignment.” norman flicks at a post-it on his desk. “i asked quentin for one instead. me and mj,” you explain, peter’s eyes going wide.

“you talked to quentin? that guy’s bad news,” he murmurs to you. “how so?” norman questions, since it’s his employee. “he- he, um,” peter clears his throat before answering, “he’s super critical, you know? hates all my pictures.” “i love your pictures,” you assure him, the corners of his lips turning up. “your style is so cool. yeah, though. quentin’s pretty bitter.”

considering this, norman drums his fingers on the desk. “i’ll look into that. but, that isn’t why you’re here. i’m letting you off the hook this time.” your whole demeanor changes and a huge weight lifts off of you. “really? you are?” “i have a scoop of my own that i want you to cover,” he continues, peter bumping your knee happily. a toothy grin takes over your face.

“since peter will be sticking around for a while, i want him to join you.” norman waits a beat in case you have any questions. it’s been a minute since you last worked together. peter laughs in disbelief. “you want me to take over for alex and do this?” norman nods proudly. “y/n will need the extra hands, if you have them.” “yes, sir. i do,” peter immediately confirms. “my last class is next thursday, so i have the time.”

“wait, so you’re almost done? that’s awesome!” you bump peter’s knee this time. “yup, all that’s left is finals... and studying.” he mindlessly takes your hand, lacing your fingers together. you’re enjoying his gentle touches. “thank you so much, norman. seriously, i appreciate this a lot,” you tell him and mean it. “hey, no problem,” he chuckles at your eagerness. you grip peter’s hand tighter.

“what’s the story?” “ah, yes. the most important part,” norman starts, peter sharing an excited look with you. “how familiar are you two with spider-man?” his excitement fades at the question posed. it’s unbeknownst to you, caught up in the moment. “uh, same as everyone else, i guess,” you casually reply. “how come?” “he’s your subject.” norman points at you both. “you’re gonna study him over these next few months.”

peter’s hand goes limp in yours, and he gulps hard, throat feeling dry. “you mean, like, an exposé?” “no, no. there will be no exposing,” norman clarifies. “i’m sure he wears the mask for a reason.” that settles peter only slightly. you’re not sure why he’s so tense all of a sudden. “what’s our aim here, then?” you steer the conversation.

“see what new york’s favorite hero gets up to every day, how his life is beyond the crime fighting,” norman further describes your task. peter exhales a shaky breath, shifting away from you in his seat. the golden sun hits his face and reveals a bead of sweat dripping down it. you stare at his figure in worry. “you okay, peter?” “fine. i’m just... hot,” he murmurs back. his sweater does look pretty heavy, so you concede.

getting back to norman’s story, you grimace at the idea. “do you really think people will want to read that? for lack of a better term, it sounds kind of...” you pause. “basic.” “i thought the same thing at first,” he surprisingly agrees with you. “harry pitched the idea to me this morning. you won’t believe it! the other night, he caught spider-man hanging outside his window.”

“harry... harry saw him?” peter squeaks out. he uses the wool material that feels like it’s swallowing him to dab at his forehead. “he stopped on his balcony. must have been pretty late, the kid’s a night owl,” norman says about his son. your face lights up as you listen to him. “he took some shots of spidey in action, when he swung off. i saw a few. they were pretty great.” he’s grinning at his son’s success.

“maybe he’ll get into photography with you, pete,” norman suggests. peter gives him a weak smile in return. “we’d be happy to have him.” he usually has a lot more to say about his career than that. his behavior is starting to genuinely concern you. “anyway,” norman gets back on topic, “it got me thinking. how much do we really know about this guy? we’re supposed to blindly put our trust in him?”

you’re beginning to see the appeal now. you’ve written your share of pieces on the avengers and their methods, tackling the same questions norman just asked you. spider-man shouldn’t be overlooked, especially when he operates so close to your home. this could be another revolutionary superhero story in the making. and, you get to bring peter along for the ride.

“you know what? this has a lot of potential,” you smile at norman, then peter. he has his phone in his lap, fingers flying across the screen. it must be something important. you’ll discuss with norman while he takes care of that. “we could make it a weekly thing, about spider-man’s adventures. find out what we can about the man behind the mask...” peter shoots up in his seat. “without taking it off,” you finish, putting his mind at ease.

“see, i knew you were gonna love it! it was a blessing in disguise, you missing that deadline.” norman bangs his fist on the table with a hearty laugh. “what do you say, peter? you still in?” peter slips his phone back in his pocket. his tongue pokes out to wet his lips. “oh, of course. i can’t wait to work with you, y/n/n,” he speaks in a monotone voice, adding on, “again.”

something is definitely bothering him, and it isn’t the weather.

“i gotta go. betty needs me upstairs, so,” peter moves to get up, his body stiff. you assume that’s who he was texting. “thank you again, mr. osborn.” he’s rushing out of the room just like that, until you call after him. “um, don’t you wanna set a time to meet up? so we can get started?” you reasonably ask. “i... i really gotta go. find me later,” peter tells you, giving you both a tight lipped smile and running off.

“the dynamic duo is back!” norman announces to you. you’re disappointed you can’t share that sentiment with peter.

he’s absolutely booking it down the stairs, not bothering to wait for the next elevator. this is bad. this is a nightmare.

peter went from having one of his best days in a while to the worst in not even a full round of work. today started off fine, and got better when norman promoted him. it got way better when you came along. he saw your smile that makes his insides tingle, heard your laugh that’s the prettiest sound to grace his ears, held your hand that he never wants let go.

things went a bit downhill after that. betty was pushy and yelled at him a lot, demanding he only film her good angles for the segment. you and mj weren’t wrong when you told him to be careful.

later on when he saw you again, everything was okay. he was physically shaking as brad told him mr. osborn requested to see him. brad is mr. osborn’s assistant. a try-hard for sure, but good at his job. why did mr. osborn call him in? did betty complain already?

they’d been sitting in mostly silence, save for small talk until you came knocking on the door. simply being next to you was enough to ground peter and his racing thoughts. it was enough, then it wasn’t.

the whole day had gone to shit after he found out you were going to be writing stories about his alter ego. not only that, but he was helping. during the pitch, he’d texted ned to meet him in the bathroom. he was really anxious and needed a friend who understood why.

ned accidentally found out peter is spider-man last year. it’s a long story that involves peter hiding from some bad guys in the building and ned shrieking so loud the lights flickered. they’re cool now that peter talked things through with him. his secret has been kept, from what he knows.

pushing open the men’s bathroom door, peter is a mixture of sweat and ragged breaths. he’s panting from his fast descent down the staircase. he takes in his disheveled appearance using one of the mirrors. his styled hair is now damp and undone, hands trembling and palms sweaty, chest heaving. here’s his daily reminder that anxiety is not cute. as if he didn’t know.

his stupid, gigantic freaking sweater is only making things worse. it’s suffocating him. no one else is in here, so peter pulls it over his head and tosses it to the ground. he’s got a t-shirt on underneath that happens to be black. what a convenient day for him to wear the hottest material there is.

peter splashes his face with some cold water next to try and cool himself down. that doesn’t do much for him. his face still feels like it’s on fire, but now it’s wet. he takes his hands through his mop of curls, backing away from the sink.

“fuck. fuck, fuck, fuck,” peter repeats to himself. he’s silent for a moment, then rage overcomes him. he kicks open a bathroom stall. “shit! i can’t do this. what am i supposed to-“

the door creeks open, so peter shuts up in case it isn’t ned. it thankfully is, and he wears a deep frown at the sight of his best friend. “dude, what happened? you look...” “terrible. i know,” peter finishes for him. he tugs at his locks in another attempt to tame them. ned approaches him carefully. “you’re not, like, dying... are you? because betty was telling me you have to-“ “of course you were with betty,” peter exhales in frustration. “no, ned. i’m not dying.”

in ned’s defense, the text he received was very alarming. all peter wrote was, ‘EMERGENCY. SOS.’

“i mean, yeah. it was my break.” ned sits on the ledge by the window, close to peter. “you do the same with y/n.” the mention of your name upsets peter all over again. he hides his face in his hands as ned watches. “if you’re not dying, then what’s the problem?” ned finally asks. “me and y/n...” peter removes his hands from his face, meeting ned’s worried eyes. “mr. osborn wants us to do a project together.”

“uh, peter? you’ve been saying how much you miss her forever, dude! you’re not excited?” ned snorts at him. he means well, but he has no clue what he’s talking about. “no. it’s supposed to be about spider-man,” peter answers angrily. this isn’t the support he was hoping for. realizing the severity of the situation, ned gets serious.

“oh... but, you’re still doing it?” he questions. “i didn’t have a choice,” peter scoffs out. “i can’t let either of them down.” “you’ll expose yourself!” ned escalates things further. “it’s not like that. we’re gonna follow spider-man around and post updates on him,” peter says, technically in the third person. he’s given an are you insane? look from ned.

“you are spider-man! and, no offense, but you’re not so good at hiding it,” ned refers to himself finding out. “how are you gonna be in two places at once?” damnit, peter hadn’t thought about that yet. he can’t be taking pictures of spider-man and swinging from building to building simultaneously. “i- i’ll figure it out,” peter stammers, unconvincingly.

ned looks him over in a disapproving way. “jeez. you’re really putting your life on the line for this girl-“ “woman,” peter interjects, not loving ned’s attitude towards you. “have some respect.” unfazed, ned gets up from the windowsill. “speaking of women, remember betty? you’re still on the clock,” he changes the subject. peter nearly forgot he has to go film her segment.

“i’ll head up to her now,” peter gives in. he scoops up his discarded sweater, not bothering to check his appearance again. ned follows behind him to the door. “we wrote her script together, you know,” he gladly informs peter, who already knows from you. “not really a flex,” peter mumbles his response. “peter, lighten up.” ned hits at his shoulder. the two of them exit the bathroom.

“you’ll figure this out later. i can always help.” he shoots him a sugary sweet smile. “thanks, ned. for talking with me and everything.” peter doesn’t smile back. they do a quick bro handshake, then they’re going their separate ways. “have a good show, dude!” ned yells back, to which he doesn’t get a response. peter doesn’t have it in him.

he allows himself to take the elevator back up to broadcasting. he’s so drained from the several anxiety attacks he endured. while peter waists for the elevator, he contemplates all the issues he’d better solve. it’s a relief to hear it ding because it brings him back to earth. that doesn’t last long because both you and betty are there when the door opens.

you’d each had the same idea, to find peter. unlike betty, your intentions were good. you asked liz if she saw peter leave. she told you he went downstairs, so you did also. betty was already in the elevator when it got to your stop. she was looking for him because, you guessed it, he had to record the news. the small space was filled with tension as you and betty occupied it.

“perfect. we’re going right back up,” betty beams, motioning for peter with her index finger. “hop in!” “coming,” peter does as told, going to stand between you and betty. she presses the button for your floor and theirs. the doors close. “pete?” you speak up, voice soft. “you kinda ran off earlier. i thought you were with betty.” “clearly, he wasn’t,” betty sneers.

you’re less concerned with her and more with peter. the sweater he looked so huggable in is now folded in his arms, his face splotchy and jaw clenched. he must have gotten triggered by something back in norman’s office.

“are you sure you’re okay? you... you can talk to me about it.” you take a step closer to peter, your doe eyes searching for his. he meets them with a tiny smile. at least, it’s real this time. “i’ll be fine, y/n/n. ‘s nice that you came to check on me, though.” “don’t mention it.” your arms loop around his neck and bring him into a hug. peter hugs you back by your middle, chin resting on your shoulder, breathing out in relief.

you keep your hands on his shoulders when you pull back. his stay on your sides, a lopsided grin now crossing his features. “spider-man...” you quirk an eyebrow. “how are you feeling about that?” “should be cool,” peter somehow maintains himself. “i’m mostly looking forward to doing it with you.”

listening in, betty joins the conversation. “what’s happening with spider-man? anything i should know?” her hand reaches into her bag and emerges with a notepad. does she ever think of her own content? “she’s nothing if not persistent,” you grumble to peter. chuckling, he pulls you into his chest. if he didn’t hold you back, you would’ve pounced on her.

“we’re gonna do a piece on him,” peter tells her. “you can’t copy or steal this one because it’s already been approved,” you contribute, smiling smugly as peter holds you tighter. betty is taken aback. “are you accusing me of stealing? who said i-“ “ned ratted on you... sorry,” peter says in a sing song voice. squealing, you jump away from him. “he did? we were right?”

“mj’s never wrong,” he reiterates. “mj knew about this? oh my god, i can’t believe her!” betty stomps her foot. “we got you on candid camera.” you make a clicking noise with your mouth. peter mimes taking a picture to back you up. “alright, alright. i won’t do it again,” betty mumbles, turning away from you two in annoyance.

“finally!” you hold up your hand for a high five, which peter gives you. “we really do make the best team,” he hums. your fingers intertwine with peter’s, and he lays his palm flat against yours. he prays extremely hard you don’t notice that it’s sweaty. you do, but you couldn’t care less.

“i was wondering when you’d wanna start our... research?” peter asks you, his lip between his teeth. “you were saying something earlier. maybe we could make a schedule.” “how elaborate of us that would be,” you tease. that earns a breathy laugh from peter. with a knowing smile, you put your free hand back on his shoulder.

“what are you doing tonight?”

-

peter parker taglist

@saturnpeter @tpwk-grande @itstaskeen @missyouhollnd @becicamina @dummiesshort @zspideyy @watchitimreadinghere @my-patronus-is-mabel-pines @dpaccione @karispotters11 @theofficialzivadavid @thehumanistsdiary @kelieah @aayaissaa @petersgroupie @annab-nana @tayyx @swtltlmrvlgrl @magicalxdaydream @haoluvver @kjune113 @captainamirica @marvel-dork98 @emmastarz @killingbxys @viriditie @misshale21 @veryholland @liliswifts @tommydarlings @rebelemilu @peterspideysense @cr-uelsummer @dreamy-clousds @quaksonhehe @quxxnxfhxll @blackbat2020 @babyblue19 @falconxbarnes @zachary-s @dirtytissuebox @dracoswhore007 @heavenlyholland @thsquad @etheralholland @dhtomholland @awh-lilies @tomshufflepuff @multifamdomfan12

-

if i forgot you please lmk!

[myveryownfanfiction]

I leaned back on the couch at Central Perk. Having just gotten off work, I looked forward to enjoying coffee and my friends’ company. 

“Do you want a refill (Y/N)?” Gunther asked. I nodded as Gunther poured more coffee into my cup. 

“Thanks Gunther.” I smiled as he moved back behind the counter. The door to the coffee shop opened and I turned around as the voices of my friends rose above the din of Central Perk. 

“All I’m saying is it isn’t fair to just leave them both at the shelter.” Chandler’s voice faltered for a second. “I had to do something.”

“You could have given me the duck at least.” Monica joked. “It would have fed Joey for a day.” She sat down across from me after hugging me from behind. I smiled over at her while Chandler took a seat next to me. 

“That’s what I’m saving him from!” He exclaimed. I giggled as he draped his arm over my soldiers. “Take my side here (Y/N).” Chandler kissed my temple before looking at me expectantly. 

“Sorry Mon.” I gave her a small smile. “Chandler’s got a point.” Monica laughed and gave me a knowing smile as I leaned back on Chandler. I blushed as Chandler kissed my head again. We made idle chatter as we waited for the others.

“Hey guys.” Rachel greeted as she sat down at the small table. Phoebe and Joey came in next. Joey took a seat on the other side of me while Phoebe went to set up for her set. 

“Where’s Ross?” Rachel asked after we had all settled in. 

“He said he had some last minute things to take care of at the museum.” I filled in as Joey got up to call Ross. 

“How do you know that?” Chandler asked. 

“He called my apartment and left a message.” I shrugged. Joey sat back down and pulled my feet into his lap. 

“He’s going to be incredibly late.” He said as I snuggled back into Chandler due to the new position I was in. Chandler moved his arms so he was hugging me. “What did you do today (Y/N)?” I sighed as Chandler rubbed my arm. 

“I got yelled at by the manager and then to top it all off my computer restarted in the middle of an important project when the project didn’t save.” I rolled my eyes as Joey patted my leg. “So I have to restart it all tomorrow and hope that my computer doesn’t crash or restart again.” 

“You could always work on it on my laptop and print it out so you have a back up.” Chandler offered. I looked back at him. 

“Are you sure?” I asked. Chandler nodded. 

“Of course. Anything to help.” He smiled down at me before getting up. “While this is very interesting, I do need the bathroom.” I leaned back against the back of the couch again. 

“Serious talk before he gets back.” Rachel said before glancing in the direction Chandler went. “When are you going to make a move (Y/N)?” I blushed as Monica and Phoebe nodded in agreement. 

“Why would (Y/N) make a move?” Joey asked before looking at me blushing and covering my face. “Oh!” It clicked for him as I shook my head. 

“How about never?” I mumbled out as Joey rubbed my shin. “It’ll never work and our friendship would be ruined.” 

“I’ll let you in on a little secret but you can’t let him know that you know I know you know.” I looked at Joey confused before deciding to just agree with him. 

“Ok.” I nodded. “What secret?” Joey squeezed my ankle and smiled. 

“He likes you too.” Joey told me excitedly. “He told me and Ross once when we had all gotten really drunk at one of Monica’s parties. Chandler couldn’t keep his eyes off of you.” I blushed and shook my head. 

“Yeah right Joe.” I said. Rachel leaned over and patted my shoulder. Phoebe patted my leg from her spot on the floor. “Just drop it guys.” Everyone nodded as Chandler came back. 

“Drop what?” He asked as he took his place behind me again. Joey looked at Monica while Phoebe looked at Rachel. “Come on guys. Don’t stop on my account.” I took pity on him. 

“We were trying to get Rachel to admit to what it is like dating Ross but she didn’t want to answer so I told them to drop it.” I shrugged. Chandler nodded before putting his chin on my shoulder and resting his head against mine. We sat through Phoebe’s set before heading back upstairs. “Could I get started on my work tonight?” I asked as we headed up to Monica’s apartment. Chandler nodded as we reached their hallway. 

“Sure. I’ll keep you company.” He said as Joey nudged him. Chandler shot Joey a look before sending one to the girls. “If Ross shows up, let him know where we are.” 

“Will do.” Monica smiled at me before going into her apartment and dragging Joey in with her. 

“Don’t stay up too late, you two.” Rachel winked at me and I shook my head, thankful Chandler had his back turned as he unlocked the door to his and Joey’s apartment. 

“Laptop’s in my room.” Chandler said as he held the door open for me. “I’ll go get it.” 

“Do I want to know why it’s in your room or should I just leave you to close any tabs you don’t want me to see?” I joked as I sat at his counter. 

“Very funny (Y/N).” Chandler said, walking out of his room with the laptop. “You know how to work this. I’m just going to change and I’ll be back out.” I nodded as I took it from him and set it up. 

“Thanks again for this Chandler.” I said. “You don’t know how much this saves me.” He emerged from his room again in a sweater. 

“I’ve had this issue at work before.” Chandler sympathized as he put his hands on my shoulders. We watched the screen boot up and Chandler started to massage my back. “That’s partly why I bought the laptop.” I nodded and leaned my head back against Chandler’s chest, enjoying the massage he was giving me. “Are you going to spend the night?” I nodded with my eyes closed. 

“If it’s alright with you.” I mumbled. “Joey will be fine with it, you know that.” Chandler laughed. 

“Right?” He chuckled. “Could he be anymore obvious?” I opened my eyes and looked at him. I bit the inside of my cheek as I took in his face at this angle. 

“Obvious?” I asked. Chandler nodded as he leaned down and kissed my forehead. 

“Oh to be young and naïve.” He muttered against my head. “Have you not seen the looks he gives you in the mornings after you sleep over? I swear his eyes can’t get bigger and if his jaw could unhinge it would quite literally be on the floor.” I furrowed my eyebrows. “It honestly gets a little annoying.” Chandler gently pushed me to sit back up before moving to make some popcorn. “You honestly have never seen that?” 

“No I haven’t Chan.” I shook my head. “Then again I’m never that awake in the mornings and you know that.” Chandler chuckled and nodded. 

“Oh I know that.” I gently smacked his arm. 

“Anyway,” I turned the conversation back in my favor. “I’ve had my eye on someone else for a while anyhow.” Chandler froze as he opened the box of popcorn. 

“You have?” He looked over at me hesitantly.

“Yeah.” I replied. “I have.” 

“That’s good.” Chandler nodded. “Good for you. If anything, it makes you immune to Joey.” I laughed. 

“What about you Chandler?” I asked, thinking about what Joey had said and how he was reacting. “Got your eye on anyone?” 

“Yeah. There’s someone but I’m fairly certain they don’t even see me as anything more than a friend.” He sighed. “If I say anything I know I’m going to screw it up.” Chandler moved to sit in his burka lounger. I turned around to look at him. 

“How do you know that Chandler?” I sympathized. “It could go better than you think.” Chandler shook his head and frowned at me. 

“We both know that’s not true (Y/N).” He sighed. “I don’t want to screw things up but it always seems to happen that way.” I shook my head. “Janice. At least give me Janice.”  I nodded as I thought about Chandler’s ex. 

“Yeah. I’ll give you Janice. But you can’t take all the blame for that. I mean,” I made my voice high pitched and whiny. “Oh. My. God.” Chandler laughed and I joined in. 

“Face it.” Chandler said when we had calmed down. “I’m hopeless and awkward and desperate for love!” I shook my head. 

“You’re not hopeless and awkward.” I said as I stood up. Chandler watched me as I kneeled down next to him. “I’ll give you desperate for love. I’m in that boat too.” Chandler stood up. 

“You could have anybody you wanted. We are not in the same boat.” I stood up with him and grabbed his arm, making him spin towards me. 

“Yes we are Chandler.” I whined. “Because the one guy I want I can’t have.” Chandler opened his mouth but I cut him off. “I can’t have you.” I blurted. Chandler’s face contorted in confusion before he mouthed ‘wow’. “What? What’s wrong?” I stood there wringing my hands as he stared at me. 

“Maybe we are in the same boat.” He said. I cocked my head at him. 

“What do you mean?” I shifted from foot to foot. 

“I like you too (Y/N).” He said. He gazed at me softly as the weight of his words sunk in. Chandler smiled as I finally caught on. 

“Chandler...you...me…” I trailed off as I broke out into a massive grin. “Chandler Bing likes me back!” I exclaimed as I ran over to him. Chandler hugged me tightly and picked me up. “Oh God you like me back.” I pulled back as the reality crashed down on me. 

“Yeah. I like you back.” Chandler said soothingly as he pressed his forehead against mine. “I have for a quite a while.” gazing into his eyes, I couldn’t stop grinning. 

“I’ve liked you for a while too.” I whispered. Chandler smiled back at me as he gently put me down. His hands came up to cup my face. I put a hand on his chest and cupped his cheek with my other hand. 

“Is this ok?” Chandler asked as he pulled me closer. I nodded as I pulled him closer. 

“More than ok.” I could feel his breath on my lips and my eyes fluttered closed. “Perfect.” We closed the gap and kissed for the first time. I gripped his shirt as he kissed me passionately. We pulled away and just took in each other’s presence. A noise from the laptop drew us back to reality. I went over to check it and realized that my email had opened. I opened the newest email and paused when I noticed Chandler hadn’t come back to make his popcorn. 

“Everything alright Chandler?” I asked, not talking my eyes off the screen. “Chandler?” I turned to look at him when he didn’t answer. He was biting his lip and staring at me. He raised his eyebrows when he realized I was looking at him. “You ok there sweetie?” Chandler nodded. 

“Yeah.” He made his way over to me. “Just my best friend likes me back. And I kissed them.” I giggled as I hugged him. Chandler wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. 

“Want to do it again?” I teased and tilted my head up. 

“Could you be any cuter?” Chandler joked as he leaned down and kissed me. He pulled away after a minute and smiled down at me. “Why don’t you work on this tomorrow and join me for the night?” Chandler coaxed me from my seat at the counter and started to back up into his room. 

“I think it could be arranged.” I smiled as she kissed me again. When we had entered the room, I kicked the door closed. We could hear cheers of ‘finally’ coming from outside as Chandler led me to bed.

[loveelle]

Leap of Faith~ Part 6

Luke Patterson x Reggie’s sister!Reader

A/N: You ever feel like your notes are dropping? I feel like my notes are dropping but idk anymore. I thought I’d post more often and then I hit writers block the moment I open my computer. I’m literally rambling to no one so I’m going to stop myself before I actually ramble. Anyways, enjoy this really long chapter I hope it’s not bad lmao.

WC: 8K

SERIES MASTER

MASTER

---

Reggie laid on the couch with only his thoughts, tapping his fingers gently against his chest. It wasn’t often he got time to spend alone, but right now he truly hated it. All he could think about was being in a fight with you and disappointing Julie last night. Julie was so mad at them that she decided to stay the night at Flynn’s. As for you, well, Reggie hadn’t seen you since the dance where you requested some alone time before storming out

---

“What the hell did you guys do tonight without me?”

The three boys all exchanged nervous looks and you felt Luke finally loosen the grip on your hand before he pulled his free. You grew more confused, noticing right away that none of them had the courage to look you in the eyes.

“We didn’t do anything.” Reggie spoke up first and you narrowed your eyes at your brother’s high-pitched lie. He was still clutching his stomach, as was the other two and you let a scoff cross your lips.

“Did you get revenge on Bobby?” you asked quietly, looking to Luke because if anyone was going to tell you, it would be him. Luke remained stoic, however, and you turned to Alex, who was staring at the ceiling with his hands shoved deep in his hoodie pocket. “You’re not going to say anything?” Reggie caught your eye with his gulp and you realized what was going on. “You’re really not going to tell me anything?” Silence. You ran a hand through your hair and chewed on your lip. “So much for best friends for life, right?”

Fitting, considering your life was over.

“I need to be alone.” Reggie, Luke, and Alex hated not telling you, but they agreed that it was best you and Julie didn’t know about Caleb and the club. But now, after seeing the look of heartbreak on yours and their faces as they finally let you walk out, they thought the idea dumb.

“Remind me why we don’t tell her?” Reggie mumbled once you were out of the gym. Luke clenched his jaw and peeked behind him, hoping you’d still be there but he was met with nothing but disappointment.

“Come on,” Alex said as he walked towards the exit. “Let’s go home.”

---

His hands rubbed his face as Reggie let out a groan. He knew where you were, or at least he hoped he did, but getting up and talking to you – apologizing to you – seemed too daunting at the moment. Reggie would eventually, but not right now. Not when he can sit here and avoid his problems.

“Y/N’s not back yet?” Luke’s voice broke Reggie’s thought train as he sat up, shaking his head in response, and saw Alex with Luke.

“She’ll be back soon though, right?” Reggie grew nervous. “I mean, she’s not completely mad at us, right?”

Luke and Alex shared a glance, both of them knowing that yes, while you were, in fact, mad at all three of them, you were most upset with Reggie. “No, she’s not completely mad.” Alex assured him, partly lying but he didn’t care when Reggie let out a soft exhale in relief. “I’m sure she just needs- just needs time.”

“Yeah, she’ll be back before you know it.” Luke added on, coming over to the couch and clapping Reggie over the shoulder.

“Should I go get her?”

“No.” Alex shook his head.

“That’s probably not a good idea.” Luke grimaced at the vision of you yelling at Reggie for bothering you.

Reggie sighed deeply, looking down at the floor and playing with the arms of the flannel that hung around his waist. “I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

“She is.”

“But how do you know?” Reggie pressed Luke, seeing the flicker of unease in Luke’s face and Reggie knew that Luke didn’t know. He just didn’t want Reggie to worry.

“I can go make sure?” Alex offered, knowing that sending either one of the two boys on the couch might be the exact thing you didn’t want. He caught on to both of their looks of protests before shaking his head. “I’m not her brother and I don’t have a crush on her. She’ll probably only talk to me and I think that makes me the perfect one to go.”

“Woah, woah!” Luke stood up, feeling his cheeks heat up as he tried very hard to ignore them. “I never said I had a crush on her.” He defended himself, looking between Reggie and Alex in defiance.

Alex didn’t say anything, just raising a brow at his friend and looking to Reggie. “Where is she?” Reggie told him exactly where he thought you’d be and without another word, Alex was gone.

Luke, however, was still hanging onto that crush comment. “I don’t have a crush on your sister.” He assured Reggie and Reggie had to admit, his spirits brightened a little.

“Oh, sure you don’t.”

“I don’t!”

“I believe you!”

“Then why does it feel like you’re lying!”

“Probably because I am!”

Luke fell silent, not even bother a rebuttal against Reggie’s words and Reggie smirked at him, knowing for a fact that Luke very much did have a crush on you.

He just had to admit it to himself and hopefully soon, to you.

---

Alex appeared right where Reggie told him you could be. A hill not far from where your old house was that overlooked the ocean. “Y/N?” He called out, looking around for any sight of you, but was met with only the sound of the waves lapping below him. He breathed in the deep-sea smell before calling again, moving around slightly in hopes you could hear him better, but you never responded.

The thought he was in the wrong place crossed his mind, but Alex caught sight of a bench almost near where he appeared, and across the front of the seat were Reggie and your names carved in with a pocket knife. He frowned seeing the words but still no sight of you.

Reggie was wrong.

---

You knew you couldn’t go out to your normal thinking spots right now since Reggie knew all of them. The one you were going to go to, a quiet hillside that, during the day, granted you a beautiful view of the ocean and at night a beautiful view of the night sky, was one you and Reggie discovered together when you were younger, needing to get out of the house one day after your parents started yelling at each other. You were too busy panicking to notice Reggie’s small hand grip your small hand and practically pull you out your window so you couldn’t listen to them anymore. That hillside became your utopia and Reggie and you spend hours there clearing your heads.

Now, as dawn slowly approached, you found yourself walking the streets, tugging the leather jacket you wore tighter around your body as you paid attention to the lights, not caring about any of the people you’ve walked through. Sometimes, when you really paid attention, you could get a glimpse of their character as you walked through them, but right now you were too caught in your head to care. It wasn’t until you decided to take a break, poofing yourself to sit on top of a sturdy awning above you, that you realized how long you were out for.

You hoped your friends would care where you were, but you didn’t care if they cared. They didn’t care enough to be on time for Julie’s performance and they didn’t care enough to tell you where they spent their night.

“Coming through!” You heard shouted below on the almost vacant streets as you furrowed your brows, searching for the source. Discovering it to be a skateboarder with some pretty rad skills you let out a chuckle, but the chuckle stopped when you watched him go right through a man walking and typing on his cell phone. You knew it was a wild guess, but you might have a hunch on who he was.

You teleported yourself down, not far in front of him, but enough where he saw you and hopefully would have enough time to stop. “Willie?” you called out and the boy not much older than you, met your eyes and stopped his board.

“Do I know you?” he asked skeptically, trying to search your face for any familiarity and he came up with none.

You shook your head; just happy you caught the guy with how much Alex told you about him. “I’m friends with Alex. I’m Y/N?” You stretched your hand out for a handshake. A look of relief crossed his face before it faded and he glanced around nervously before taking the hand you offered him and pulling you into an alley. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?” you joked, feeling a little nervous you were in an alley with this boy that you barely knew, but you knew Alex trusted him.

Willie, thankfully, laughed at your joke and you eased up. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” He said and you gave him a smile.

“Yeah, you too, nice to finally put a name to a face.”

Willie let a small smile cross his face, followed by a bigger one before he controlled himself again. “Hotdog talks about me?”

Your brow quirked up amusedly at his nickname for Alex, a humorous reminder about how you died, but somehow Willie calling Alex that made it sound adorable. “You didn’t hear it from me, but yes, yes he does.” Willie joined you in another laugh as he removed his helmet and ran a hand through his hair to pull it loose. “Um, sorry I interrupted your skating back there, but I was hoping to ask you a question?” Willie nodded and held his helmet closer to his body. “Were you by chance with Alex, Luke, and Reggie last night?”

You saw Willie’s face fall in panic before he recovered and put a face of fake confusion on. “Why do you ask?”

That’s not an answer. Is he stalling?

“I’m taking that as a yes, by the way.” You told him, watching his mouth open in protest but you silently dared him to speak. He stayed silent. “Last night, they didn’t tell me what they were doing and then something- something weird happened to them? Like they were electrocuted or something.”

You didn’t see the worry in Willie’s eyes as you mentioned the boys flickering. He knew what it was, but he couldn’t tell you. He was scared. “I’m sorry.” His voice was gentle. “I- I don’t know. I would just- keep an eye on them, or something.” He added, knowing it would do no good, but he had to say something.

“Right.” Your voice was much quieter compared to his as you cleared your throat. “Could you at least tell me what happened last-“

“Well, who do we have here?” you jumped at the sudden voice right over your shoulder as you spun around wide-eyed. There was a man, a familiar one at that, who appeared out nowhere right behind you. His clothing choices were a little questionable: a top hat, a cane, and a coat that would hit the floor perfectly with just a long stride. You felt the change in Willie’s expression as with the arrival of the man, but you didn’t have time to question it before he was introducing you.

“T-This is Y/N.” He said, looking at you out of the corner of his eye. You glanced over at him, letting your eyes stray from the man who was making you uncomfortable by how Willie responded to his presence. “She’s Reggie’s sister.”

The man’s smile began stretching as he looked down at you, almost towering over you as you gulped. “It’s nice to meet you, Y/N. My name’s Caleb.” He seemed too overly pleased as Caleb let out a soft titter of laughter. “I believe just saw your brother and your friend’s last night, at my club.” Caleb said, pretending to think about it. “Yes, I did!”

“Your club?” your head tilted to the side. A club ran by a ghost? Interesting…

“Yes, my club! You should come to take a look, it’s right around the corner.”

“She has to go!” Willie’s words were rushed out as he lied for you, hoping you’d catch on. You didn’t, but you didn’t say a thing that would contradict his lie because, in truth, you weren’t sure if you wanted to go to this club.

Caleb was slightly staring down Willie, as you cleared your throat. “Yeah, he’s right.” You pointed briefly at Willie, knowing the smile he was giving both you and Caleb was faker than your parent’s post-fight apologies. “I promised Julie I would um, walk with her to school.” If Caleb knew your excuse was a lie, he didn’t say anything.

He stretched his hand out to you. “Maybe another time then?” You offered a kind smile at his question.

You were about to take his to shake before you held your hands behind your back. This guy creeped you out, you weren’t about to shake his hand. “Sorry, but I don’t shake.” Caleb held your gaze for a second too long after your lie before his hand was back to the grip on his cane.

“Next time then.” He let out a laugh under his breath and you held yours. That time, it wasn’t a question. You watched Caleb start to walk away, throwing a glance over his shoulder to Willie who, after a moment of hesitation and an almost apologetic look to you, followed him.

Did they go to a club last night? Without you? What did the club have to do with revenge on Bobby and why didn’t they get their revenge? And most importantly, why couldn’t they tell you?

Your feet were walking you before you could even stop them and eventually, you stood before the Orpheum. You knew you were only here because you were on autopilot thinking about the boys and this happened to be close, but it didn’t mean you wanted to be here. With a blink, you were in the air and your legs dangled over the marquee as you watched them sway gently.

Not before long, another pair of legs sat next to yours, and you didn’t need to turn your head to know it was Luke. “How did you find me?” you whispered, feeling his eyes bore against the side of your face.

Luke quickly noticed the sharpness in your voice despite its volume as he took a deep breath. “Lucky guess.” You let out a scoff, your eyes lifting but not looking at him yet. “We’ve been looking for you all morning.”

“I told you I needed some alone time.”

“We were just worried-“

“Don’t be!” you cut him off, finally meeting his eyes and your breath stalled in your lungs. Luke was closer to you than you thought he was and with the way you both were seated, if you leaned in, you could… “I don’t need you guys to worry about me.”

Luke was still so focused on your closeness that he didn’t even register you spoke again before you faced forward again. “I’m always going to worry about you, Y/N. We’re always going to worry about you.”

You faced him again, letting a sweet smile come to your face, and Luke couldn’t help but smile in response. “Yeah?” you asked and he nodded, reaching out to take your hand. “Did you worry about me last night when you bailed on Julie to go to some ghost club?” His hand was stopped in mid-air and he let it fall without having reached yours.

“You know about that?” You licked your lips with an exhale of disbelief. Luke didn’t ask you how you know instead, he immediately went into ‘I’m sorry’ mode, apologizing for something, but you didn’t know what. And frankly, you doubted he did as well.

“Luke, just stop.” You cut him off and Luke’s ramblings slowed to nothing. You were about to say something, call him out on the secrets, but you didn’t. Instead, you took a deep breath and held your tongue. “I’m not mad.”

He leaned back quizzically. “You’re… not?”

“No.”

“Uh oh.” He whispered and you furrowed your brows. Luke started bouncing his leg, knocking into yours by accident. “When you say you’re not mad, you’re pissed.”

You scoffed at him. “I don’t do that!”

Luke raised a brow at the sudden squeak in your voice. “Really? You don’t remember the time Reggie accidentally ruined your homework and you told him you weren’t mad and then gave him the silent treatment for a week?”

You clenched your jaw, looking off to the side in hopes of remembering that moment and unfortunately, you did. “No.” you lied, but Luke knew you remembered it. “Did you at least think about me when you guys were there?”

If Luke’s focus wasn’t solely on you, he would’ve missed your words, but instead, he took your hands and threaded your fingers together. You tried not to make a big deal about it, but your heart was racing. Luke’s was too. He tried to figure out how to answer you.

Of course, he thought about you. He picked up half the food there thinking about how much you would’ve enjoyed it. He thought about how you would’ve responded to seeing the dance number, or how he would’ve forced you to get out of the seat and dance with him because he knew you wouldn’t have done it yourself. He thought about how you would’ve intercepted any chance Reggie had at finding out about Jar Jar and ultimately fail because somehow, someone would let it slip, and then you’d come complaining to Luke about it and he gets to see the lovely pout you often wore when you didn’t get you didn’t get your way. God, Luke was having the time of his – dead- life and he couldn’t stop thinking about you.

He didn’t say anything to answer you besides nodding his head. In your own head though, the action saddened you because you thought he was lying, nodding just to make you feel better.

You didn’t have time to open your mouth and ask him more before another person appeared next to you and another right next to them. Alex and Reggie.

You pulled your hand away from Luke’s and you regretted it immediately with the lack of warmth you’re now experiencing. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We figured you’d be here after Luke didn’t come back.” Alex admitted as he glanced around Reggie to look at you. You tried to look at him, but it proved almost impossible by the puppy eyes that Reggie was giving you.

“Will you stop?” you snapped at your brother seconds before he threw his arms around you and you had to accept it, moving your hand to gently pat his back.

“I’m so sorry for everything I said. You are a part of the band, you’ve always been a part of the band. I love you. Please don’t leave me.” Your tough demeanor broke at your brother’s whispered words in your ears and you finally brought your hands up to give him a real hug. Reggie fell against you more as his grip tightened around you and you gave him a few seconds before laughing and trying to pull away.

“Reg! It’s okay! I forgive you, just stop choking me!” He pulled away quickly, keeping his hands on your shoulder gently to look into your eyes. “I forgive you.” you assured him, pairing your words with a smile that Reggie matched.

“I wish Julie would forgive us that easily.” Luke grumbled behind you and you rolled your eyes playfully.

“Maybe next time don’t leave her hanging at a school dance, Patterson.” Luke caught the joking spark in your eye as he smirked at you, seconds before his posture straightened and he looked between the three of you staring at him.

“I have an idea.”

---

It smelt like freshly made coffee in the small café, the bustling sounds of people all around you filled the air as you sat with Alex and Reggie and some woman, too focused on the phone in her hands instead of the food that sat uneaten in front of her. She was holding the phone up, taking pictures of the food from several angles as Reggie encouraged her and you were glancing around the café, trying to see what was taking Luke so long.

“Is this what we’re here for?” Alex jumped in, trying to figure out what was going on. “To watch people take pictures of food?”

“It’s fun! Watch this.” Reggie laughed and you settled into the conversation, giving up on looking for Luke as Reggie started pulling the plate away from the woman. You narrowed your eyes at your brother’s actions before seeing the girl’s hand hit the table again and again as she looked for her food.

“Why isn’t she looking up?” you questioned, not understanding the addiction one has with their phone.

“I don’t know!” Reggie laughed out. “People never stop looking at their phones!” Alex and you finally snickered as the woman grabbed her plate and got away from the three of you, confused as to why her plate wasn’t in the right spot. “Luke said something about this place being a hot spot for music industry people.”

Your eyes flickered behind Reggie as Luke’s flannel caught your eye and you tried looking around him to see what he was doing. “Being a ghost definitely has its privileges!” Luke’s excitement rang out as he fell into the chair across from you and even smiling at you. “I just wrote our names on the playlist for tonight.”

You bit your lip, glancing over to what apparently was the playlist as Alex leaned in to whisper to you and Reggie. “I’m getting a little worried about him. He keeps forgetting that Julie quit the band.” The last part of his sentence was pointed at Luke as his voice raised.

Luke was quick to counter. “She’s going to come back as soon as she knows we have a great gig.”

“And if she doesn’t come back, we do have somewhere else we can play, and eat pizza.” Reggie pointed out, missing the way Luke and Alex’s eyes widened and looked to you. Your brows were drawn tight and your arms crossed in front of your chest as you looked at your brother.

“Y/N-“

“It’s fine.” You cut Luke off and Reggie finally realized he was spilling more about the club than he needed to. You looked between the boys and rolled your eyes. “I’m fine! Just keep talking about making it up to Julie because you know that you’re going to need to do more than just book a gig.”

You reached forward, playing with the mini plant that sat in the middle of the table to at least pretend you were unbothered by this whole thing, and thankfully, it worked.

“I know it was awesome to be seen by lifers at Caleb’s party,” you tried to hide the way your stomach dropped at Luke’s words. They could be seen without Julie? You couldn’t even be seen with Julie. “but we got this with Julie. We don’t need him.”

The boys jumping from their jolts caused your head to snap up, looking between your family with worried eyes. “Are you okay?” you asked quickly.

“It’s that same thing again.” Alex groaned.

“Just like yesterday!” Luke looked to you, seeing your hand resting gently on Reggie’s arm and you make sure your brother was okay before looking to him, silently asking him if he was fine, and despite the way he rubbed his stomach, he nodded.

“Those look like they hurt.” You mumbled, feeling sick at the thought of your boys hurting.

“It feels like the time we were fixing my amp in the rain.” Reggie told you and you winced, now knowing how much pain they were going through. Alex and Luke looked at the two of you like you were crazy and you shrugged in your defense, not doing much to defend what you later declared a stupid decision from your brother and you.

“You guys shouldn’t…” Alex trailed off as he decided to ignore the sort of secret Reggie just shared. “Look, do you think something’s wrong with us?” He asked and you immediately started nodding.

“You don’t?” you cut in, seeing the looks of pain they were sending you. “I’m not getting them. It’s just you three, that doesn’t peg you as weird?”

Luke was the first to counter. “We ate ten pounds of pizza yesterday without a stomach. I’m sure it’s just our bodies working through it.” He blew off your worry, but it still remained in you. This couldn’t just be pizza problems, could it?

“So, we’re just going to forget about getting back at Trevor? That jerk stole our music!”

You put a hand on Reggie’s shoulder, calming him down. “And he has to live with the guilt.”

“Yeah.” Luke agreed with you. “It’s just like Julie said. We have a new band, a new sound. Okay? That’s what we have to be focusing on.”

You couldn’t help the happy smile you were giving Luke. He didn’t want revenge anymore; he knew what was more important.

“Is that Willie?” Alex’s words cut through your thoughts as the four of you looked outside, seeing the skater ghost looking right through the window at you all. When he realized he was caught, Willie ran and Alex dashed right through the café doors after him.

When Alex was outside, Reggie let out a chuckle. “Well, someone’s not focusing on our music.” You laughed at his joke and looked back outside to see Alex staring off after Willie. Luke chuckled at Reggie’s joke too but he couldn’t blame Alex because right now, all he could think properly about was you.

---

Watching the boys sing an apology song was something you should’ve expected when you hypothesized how this day would go. Apology songs are not low on their list of ways to beg forgiveness. One time, Reggie forced the boys to help him apologize to you for getting you grounded after you snuck out to meet a boy, but you were madder at yourself for risking your already nonexistent social life for an idiot than you were for Reggie who was merely confused as to why you weren’t home at 10 pm.

Julie was unimpressed by the song, which you had no doubt she would be, and when the boys started rambling afterward about Carlos using your bathroom, you stepped in to help.

“Get to the point.” You whispered over your shoulder to them as Luke licked his lips and step forwards.

“Julie, it wasn’t okay that we flaked on the dance last night. We know we let you down.”

“None of us wanted to disappoint you.” Alex added on when they saw the annoyance in Julie’s eyes. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to us since we became ghosts.”

You let a smile cross your face because Alex was right. Even though Julie couldn’t let you be seen, she’s been there for you the past weeks when you needed to talk, or she needed to talk, and you heard all about her crush on Nick and you, very reluctantly, told her about your crush on a certain guitarist. She easily became one of your best friends.

“In hopes that you’d rejoin the band, we booked a new gig.” Luke handed Julie a flyer he snagged at the café earlier as Reggie told her it was a “mega-important life-changing gig”. Luke pointed amongst the flyer for Julie to look at it. “Check it out. Tons of managers go here to listen to new bands. All we gotta do is blow them all away, and we’re living the dream.”

“So, this means a lot to you, huh?” The boys nodded at Julie’s question. “Kind of like playing in front of my whole entire school meant a lot to me.”

“Sounds like sarcasm.” Reggie pointed out before his eyes widened entirely and you brought a hand up to hide your face. “I’m starting to think our plan isn’t working.” He whispered to Alex. Alex looked at him before turning to you, watching you shrug with an eye roll at your brother and Alex sucked in a breath to speak to Julie.

“Look, we know we messed up.”

“But we need you in the band.” Luke finished for him.

“Of course, you do.” Julie bounced irritably on her toes. “because without me, no one can see you guys playing. You know, I thought that the music that we were writing was special, but you’re too obsessed with your past to even care.”

“I do care!” Luke cut her off, wanting her to understand. “Our band has a real chance at greatness. I’m not gonna let that get away from us again.”

“Uh-huh, right. So then why did you bail on me to get back at Trevor? I’ll tell you why. Cause there’s only one thing you care about, and that’s yourself.” With Julie’s words, she left you four in the studio and Luke staring after her. Your jaw was dropped open and as Luke started walking forwards, you reached out to him, grabbing his arm to get him to look at you and you could see tears starting to form in his eyes.

“Hey.” You reached up, keeping a hand on his arm and letting the other hold his cheek gently. “She didn’t mean it.” You whispered and Luke’s eyes fell to yours but they didn’t stay long before he disappeared and you let your hands fall to your side, now looking at Reggie and Alex since Luke wasn’t in the way.

“Where’s he going?” Reggie asked sadly.

You didn’t answer, just letting your eyes fall to the ground as you gnawed on your lip. “Where do you think?” Alex answered and turned to Reggie. “Remember what today is?” Reggie’s face fell at the realization and you looked up, knowing what you all were about to do.

---

Julie was working on her homework when the three of you appeared in front of her. While she wasn’t mad at you, she wasn’t going to acknowledge the two boys you were with.

“Hey, you uh, you got a second?” Alex asked Julie but the stubborn girl didn’t answer.

“Oh my gosh. She can’t see us anymore!” Reggie said, grabbing your arm tightly and you pursed your lips, giving Reggie a second before he realized she was giving them the silent treatment. “Oh, right.”

“Julie, please.” Alex spoke up but she continued. You decided to step in and save them as you moved to sit next to her, putting your hand on her binder to get her attention.

“Jules, please listen to us.” She looked up at you slowly and you softened your gaze.

“I already told them I’m done with the band.”

“I know. And they do too. But before you decide forever, we just-“ You looked up to Alex and Reggie who were both staring crestfallen at the two of you perched on the couch. “We wanted you to know that Luke isn’t as selfish as you think.”

“Yeah, you got him all wrong.” Reggie interjected and you were thankful.

Julie’s eyes moved to them finally and you allowed yourself to take a deep breath. However, instead of listening to you all, Julie scoffed.

Noticing the frown that presented itself on your face, Alex moved to lean against the arm of the couch to help. “You remember that song “Emily”? Can we at least show you who that’s actually about?” Julie was quick to look at you and you couldn’t do anything but offer a small smile as she eventually nodded.

---

The walk to the Patterson house was one you had made several times with Luke by your side. Sometimes he just wanted to talk and you were always there to be the person that would listen and other times he just wanted to sit in the trees and watch the place he once called home in silence, and you were there to do just that. Walking the route 25 years later with Julie, Reggie, and Alex was different. And once you managed into the front yard to see Luke sitting and crying as he held himself on the counter in the kitchen, it was heartbreaking.

The four of you hid behind the trees in the backyard, Reggie and you shared a tree and Julie stood next to you with Alex on the other side. When you all poked your heads out enough, you could see everything in the house, from Luke’s tears to Mitch and Emily, Luke’s parents, silently moving about with no clue Luke was there.

“Emily’s his mom?” Julie asked, ducking her body back behind the tree.

“Yeah, he thinks we don’t know but we’ve been following him.” Alex admitted and you nodded, not caring if anyone was even looking at you.

“All he does is just hang out like this and watch them. They never really do anything though.”

“They’re having cake. That’s something.” Julie said and shrugged slightly at Reggie’s words, finding eating cake doing something.

The boys fell silent and you knew it was your turn to enlighten Julie. “It’s a birthday cake for Luke.” You glanced up at her. When your eyes met, you knew yours were starting to become tear-filled but you didn’t care. Being a ghost was hard and moments like these, moments where you find what you’re missing out on because you’re gone were the worst.

“I never knew Luke was hurting this much.” Julie mumbled as you tore your eyes away from her to look back at Luke, watching him wipe away his tears.

“It’s even worse because when he died, they left on bad terms.” Alex filled her in more and you felt Reggie’s hand grab yours as you squeezed it. “His parents didn’t want their 17-year-old in a rock band, so he just left. He never got the chance to make up with them.”

Mitch pulled out a candle and placed it in the cake as Luke hopped off the counter and slowly made his way to the table with them. When Mitch brought his lighter to the candle and lit it, Luke blew it out right away. The couple stared at each other for a second before letting their eyes drift around. If only they knew Luke was right there. If only they could reach out and touch him.

“That’s why Luke was so angry.” Reggie’s voice was low as his hand still gripped yours. “If Trevor had given Luke credit for writing all the songs, then his parents would’ve known his dream was worth chasing.”

“They would’ve been so proud.”

The candle was relit and Mitch and Emily took each other’s hands. Luke’s hand hovered over his mothers’ arm and you didn’t need to know Luke well to know how much he wanted to rest his hand on her arm, but he knew it would just go right through. It always went right through. The three of them blew out the candle together.

You wiped your tears on your shirt, letting go of Reggie’s hand as you stood up and listened to Alex speak. “We know how bad it hurts whenever someone that should’ve had our back completely lets you down.” You knew Alex wasn’t only talking about friends, he was speaking about each one of your families. “We never meant to make you feel that way.”

“Julie, we love our band, and Luke does too.” Reggie motioned to Luke as you spared another look his way, his red eyes visible across the yard. “Please give us another chance.”

Julie looked to you briefly, but after seeing your eyes glued on watching the Patterson’s eat Luke’s birthday cake as she looked as well and she knew she couldn’t give up on the band that easily.

---

After the band was back together, you left them alone for the afternoon to practice, knowing you would just be a distraction. Besides, you kind of had something else to set up for tonight. By the time it was time for the performance, you popped back into the studio, coinciding with the boy’s arrival back from their visit to the venue.

“There you are!” Reggie called out and threw his arms around your shoulders, taking you back completely. “I thought you got mad at us and ran off again.” He told you and pulled away, seeing the look of understanding cross your face.

“Oh, no. I just had to do something.” You tried to ignore the curious look that Luke gave you and you knew he most likely caught on, but he said nothing. “Aren’t you guys performing soon?” You asked in hopes to change the subject.

Alex nodded and his grip on his drumsticks tightened. “Yep.” Knowing it was probably pre-gig jitters, you put your hand on his shoulder and shook him gently.

“Come on! You’re going to be amazing!” you told him and the other two before they had to go upstairs to get Julie. You appeared right outside Julie’s door as Reggie reached his hand through and knocked on the inside.

“What are you guys doing?” You heard Julie’s voice muffled through the door as your brother stuck his head through the door.

“We’re being classy.” He told her and you groaned, yanking him back so you could step inside. It wasn’t the first time you were in Julie’s room, far from it, in fact. Often your talks took place up here so the boys couldn’t pop in and bother you both and Julie wouldn’t be caught talking to thin air by her family. You gave her a smile and moved to sit on her bed behind her. Julie didn’t say anything as you picked up her phone, having caught sight of a particularly odd-looking picture in her texts. Julie’s laugh bubbled out of her at your face after seeing Nick’s picture of a costume he joked about wearing to their dance performance.

“Why are you still here? We’re going in like 20 minutes.” Luke said after you put the phone down, finally letting them talk about the performance.

Julie’s face dropped immediately. “I lied to my dad so now I’m stuck in my room all night.”

“But we were just at the venue. I mean, it’s packed. Like VIPs, managers. It’s kinda crazy.” The boys grew excited at Alex’s words and you had to admit, you were excited too.

“What are we gonna do about my aunt? She’s right downstairs.”

You scoffed with a grin. “Stairs? Oh, Julie…” The boys all shared the same grin as you as Luke walked past the bed and opened Julie’s window. “You’re not taking the stairs.”

She slowly smiled at the four of you and you let your eyes flicker from her to Luke, catching the twitch of his lips when your eyes met. “Okay, let me get dress. I’ll meet you guys there.” Without another word, the three boys popped out, leaving you and Julie.

“So…” you begin, slowly nudging Julie’s phone over as she stood up and started rifling through her things. “Cute picture of Nick.”

She froze, letting herself turn around and you saw how hard she was working to suppress her smile. “Don’t you have a guitarist to crush on?” She asked you and you scoffed at her, rolling your eyes playfully.

“And to think, I was going to wish you good luck tonight.” You shook your head and stood up. “Not anymore!” Julie’s hands fell to her hips as she watched you disappear, only to reappear seconds later. “Okay, good luck.” She threw a shirt at you, watching as it unceremoniously went through you as you winked and disappeared once again.

---

The boys weren’t kidding when they said the café was packed. Dirty Candy was already performing when you four appeared. You knew all about Carrie from Julie, but you couldn’t help but be impressed by the group’s talent once again. Then things took a turn when Alex suddenly dropped on stage behind Carrie. You stifled a laugh as Alex started dancing with them.

“Go Alex!” you shouted and started clapping. Luke nudged you as you let out a laugh, feeling his arm fall over your shoulder and pull you into his side.

When the song was over, Alex joined you all again with a smile of glee. “I was just doing that for you guys.” He said and you all nodded, watching with amused smirks.

“Yeah, you can stop smiling now.” Reggie told him and you couldn’t hold back your laugh, bringing your fist up to cover your mouth.

“I’m not gonna lie.” Julie spoke to Flynn, but you were all listening. “That was kinda good.”

“Yeah. I forgot why I hate her so much.” Flynn agreed before Carrie herself came off the stage with her entourage following.

“Hi girls!” She cheered, giving them a small wave. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

“Now I remember.” Flynn told Julie and you crossed your arms, feeling Luke’s arm shift over your shoulder as he adjusted his grip to look down at you when he noticed you were tensing at Carrie’s presence.

“If you’re looking for Nick, he didn’t come.”

“That’s not why I’m here.” Julie stood up to her.

A man stood on the stage with a clipboard, glancing down at it before grabbing the mic. “It looks like we’re closing the night out with one more group.” Julie smirked at Carrie. “Julie and the Fat Ones.”

Her smirk fell as you all looked to Luke, knowing his chicken scratch was the reason for this. “Really?” Alex asked and Luke refused to meet anyone’s eyes.

“Yeah, man. My handwriting sucks.”

“Oh, you think?” you quipped, watching his jaw unclench as he looked down at you and you scrunched your nose when you smiled. You looked away, watching Julie head onstage and reintroduce the band. “Come on, Julie! You’re going to be amazing!” you cheered for her and she spared a glance back to see the thumbs up you’re shooting her.

“What about us?” Reggie raised a brow at you and you shushed him.

“Shh, shh. I’m only here for Julie.” The boys knew you were joking and you knew they knew when Luke pulled you into his side briefly. When the contact was lost as you turned around to see them gone. By the time you looked back on the stage, the boys had appeared and the crowd started cheering. Flynn was in front of you cheering and you couldn’t make a sound, watching the band having the time of their lives as you felt your cheeks hurt from your smiling.

Luke caught your eye and when he didn’t look away, neither did you. Not that you would’ve wanted to. You felt your cheeks heat up quickly and he winked at you, causing you to look away only a moment to spare yourself but when you looked back, Luke was singing with Julie. Their faces were so close and for a second you almost felt jealous, but almost as soon as it started, they each pulled away and Luke’s eyes found you again.

It’s been so long and now I’m finally free

When the song was over, you’d like to believe you shouted the loudest in the crowd. You’re just happy things were looking up for the band. You sat at the counter with Flynn and waited for Julie and the boys.

“You were incredible!” Flynn squealed as she hugged Julie, something you wished you could do but you settled for throwing your arms around the boys when they appeared seconds later.

“You guys rocked it!” you told them, hugging each one of them, but Luke was last and his hug not so accidentally lasted a few seconds longer than the others.

The guys started talking non-stop about how amazing that performance was and you tried to listen to all of them. It was a hard thing to do until Luke shut everyone up. “Hey, Hey! Whoever Carrie was trying to impress is coming this way.” He pointed over Julie’s and Flynn’s shoulder to where a woman dressed in a very professional tan suit walked past every other person in the crowd and right to you six.

“Who should do the talking?” Reggie asked before you smacked his shoulder, getting him to realize there was only one answer to that. “Oh, right. Julie.”

You were sure the whole band was holding their breaths as Ms. Business Woman came to a stop and looked at Julie. She stretched out her hand and Julie took it. “Hi, I’m Andi Parker, and I would-“

“Julie.” Your eyes snapped past Ms. Parker and right to where Ray stood with a frown on his face.

“Dad.” Julie gasped out, knowing that she was in so much trouble for sneaking out.

“It’s time to go.”

---

After Ray took Julie home, everyone was nervous, including you. You hoped that Ray wouldn’t make Julie quit the band and you doubted he would, based on how well you knew him and how highly Julie spoke of him, but you could never be sure.

The boys sat around the living room, each of them nervous as you cleared your throat. “Um, I’ll be back in a little while.” You told them before disappearing. You popped right to that hillside where you’ve spent all afternoon, putting together a small birthday surprise for Luke. You figured right now, with the band’s future in the balance, it’s not the right time as you moved forward to start taking down the set up.

“What’s all this?” the unexpected joking sound of Luke’s voice caused you to let out a scream as you clasped a hand over your mouth.

“What the hell, Luke!” you screeched at him but Luke just laughed at you, his eyes softening as you slowly and unwantedly let yourself join him in laughing. “What are you doing here?”

He stopped laughing, his smile bright in your eyes as he glanced around. There was a picnic blanket spread out and a few lights hanging in trees and bushes and honestly, it amazed you that this took you all afternoon but it was harder to find the lights and blanket in the studio than you thought it would be.

“Did you think I was going to forget about our birthday traditions just because Julie got busted?” He raised a brow at you before throwing himself down on the blanket. You stared at him, seeing the toothy grin he gave you and your eyes rolled before you settled yourself down right next to him.

You should’ve figured Luke wouldn’t have forgotten. You have been doing this for years. It started as a group thing, the band and you but one year everyone happened to be busy during the night except you and Luke, so instead of cancelling on tradition, you and Luke celebrated alone. The next year, you and Luke did the same thing, despite the fact none of the guys were busy. Usually you’d bring a cake for him, or cupcakes depending on how you felt but since you couldn’t really eat anything, you hadn’t brought it this time.

You let yourself stare up through the trees to the night sky. Luke’s eyes didn’t leave the side of your face, as he scooted closer to you, sliding his arm under your shoulders and pulling you to lay half on his chest as he held you close to him. “Happy Birthday. I’m sorry it’s not much.”

“It’s perfect.” His voice was drowned out when he pressed a kiss to your temple and your eyes fluttered closed.

.

.

.

.

@hoechx​ // @katrin-okay​ // @ifilwtmfc​ // @winchestergirl907​ // @rachelle3musicals​ // @im-sorey​ // @magicalxdaydream​ // @sovereignparker​ // @yagorlemmalyn​ // @wanniiieeee​ // @xplrreylo​ // @starjane312​ // @kexritz // @tuttigunner​ // @sunsetcurvej​ // @lukewearingbeanies​ // @whotfisdani​ // @killerqueenfan​ // @bubblyabs​ // @who-even-is--galileo​ //@lizpop // @lovesanimals​ // @ponyboys-sunsets​ // @caprisunsister // @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ // 

[thr-333]

Drastic Measures- Part 2

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Swordplay~

To summarise: I will have the love square one way or another!

Ao3

First >Next 

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

As far as homes go it’s pretty good” Adrien stretches out, Plagg curls up next to him.

“Don't get too comfortable we’re going to be on the move,” Marinette types furiously at her computer.

“I will try my hardest,” Adrien stares blankly at her, sat atop a pile of grubby blankets next to a broken window. Marinette loses connection to her computer and slams it shut with a huff.

“Get some sleep I’m going to find an internet cafe,” Marinette stuffs the cheap laptop into her bag, amazing how something she bought at a hole in the wall place for thirty bucks didn’t work well.

“Who needs sleep when you can have coffee,” Adrian stands up, ready to follow her.

“Sleep Chat,” She pushes him down by the shoulders, “I need my partner fully operational,”

“Yeah kid, take a break, we worked hard,” Plagg yawns, turning over.

“You also worked hard Bug,” Adrien lets himself be pushed back onto the blankets.

“I won't be able to sleep until I know how everything is in Paris,”

“Neither can I,” Adrien protests, already half asleep.

“Sure you can, night Chat,”

“Night M’lady,”

Marinette leaves the same way they came in, though the window. She has to slide down the gutter to get on the street, Tikki hiding away in her bag. She has to go pretty far in town to find a suitable cafe, too far from Adrien to be comfortable. Marinette pops in her earbuds before opening her computer to let her talk to Tikki freely.

She doesn't immediately search up missing person cases. Looking instead at Paris tourist destinations and guides. Switching to the dangers of traveling to Paris; the only mention of Akuma being on obscure question and answer sites. She looks at kidnapping potential and then moves onto missing person cases. Adrien's is the first to come up, obviously. 

There was lots of outcry among his fans. Many were throwing around accusations of foul play on Gabriel's part from abuse to locking Adrien away from the world. However, Gabriel was also fiercely looking for his son. Adrien hadn’t left behind any sort of note. Well only to Nino, which Adrien had told Marinette was asked not to mention to anyone.

Marinette then feels safe enough to look up her own case. It was smaller, although was gaining attention as Jagged proclaimed it to high heavens; more so asking what they did wrong and how they could fix it and asking for any sightings of her. That could be a problem if her picture was already around. Marinette pulls her hood up higher. They might have to get haircuts and wear disguises… on second thought wearing suspicious disguises in Gotham might cause more problems.

“Tikki they seem really worried,” Marinette watches the videos Jagged posted, her parents in the background running around talking with police.

“Of course they are Mari,” Marinette feels a light tap on her side, “But you're doing the right thing,”

“No I’m not,” not when she’s watching a video of her parents crying,  “I’m doing what needs to be done, this is my responsibility, no matter what a certain someone thinks,”

She spits with venom. Maybe Adriens rant last night rubbed off on her.

“He’s the hero here,” Tiki says non accusingly, “Imagine if another hero came to Paris without asking you… remember Volpina?”

“Ah now that was an actual villain,” Marinette hadn’t trusted her from the start,  “Plus she was akumatized,”

“Marinette,” Marinette can’t bring herself to feel guilty, even under tikis scolding.

“Right but that still doesn't give him the right,” Marinette huffs, “After all would he attack Marinette? No!”

“Are you implying you would attack Lila?”

“......... no,”

“Marinette,”

Marinetti smirks to herself instinctively looking around for Adrien to share her joke. Then Marinette froze. The cafe was empty, not even a barista. How had she not noticed!?

“Wait,” Marinetti says out loud before Tiki could talk, “I’m going to have to call you back, something just came up,”

Something was watching her from the kitchen door as if she couldn’t see them. Marinette tries to act normal going for the pepper on the table and putting it on her food. They move at the same time. The attacker runs towards her, Marinette throws the shaker at- Robin?! It hits him square in the forehead, with a curse he touches his bleeding forehead.

“I am so sorry!” Marinette panics, “That was meant to explode in your face!”

“How is that better?!” Robin runs forward, sword drawn. Marinette ducks behind the table grabbing her plate and frisbeeing it towards him, he manages to dodge this one, “Draw your weapon coward!"

“I don’t have a weapon!” She grabs the table cloth ready to take the vigilante down, “What is wrong with you?!”

He doesn't answer lunging at her again with the sword. Marinette kicks up the table then kicks it towards him in one swift movement. With the impact of the table he drops the sword, Marinette jumps up landing on the table which pins Robin down to the ground with its weight and hers, with the legs sticking up.

“I knew it,” Robin spits and she presses her weight into the table to keep him pinned.

“Excuse you,” Marinette catches his wrist as he tries to pull a dagger on her using the table cloth to tie it to the legs of the table, then does the same with the other, “You attacked me,”

“-Robin!” she hears a faint call, no one is around so it must be from his communicator, “-Robin report back to the cave!”

“I’ll take that~” Marinette sings songs ignoring how he growls at her. She rolls her eyes stepping off the table she needed to get out of here now.

She steps out of the cafe throwing the communicator and likely a tracking device too on the roof of a passing car then sprints in the opposite direction. She heads for the alleys looking for an area with no cameras as she runs. When she finds a spot Marinette transforms running back to their base with record timing.

“Adrien wake up!” Ladybug jumps through the window, barely avoiding landing on him, “Batman’s after us,”

“What?!” He sits bolt upright, Ladybug pulls him onto his feet.

“Move! Now!” She grabs their bags, Adrien transforms and they take off over the rooftops.

“What happened?!” Chat shouts as the runaway, “Is Batman chasing us?”

“Yes, well kinda-- Robin tried to kill me,”

“He what?!”

“As Marinette,” She adds, slowing down as they should have put enough distance between them.

“Did they figure us out already?” Chat Noir slows down into a walk then collapses on the rooftop,

"Probably,"

“This is the worst wake up call ever!”

“Well, it's about to get worse,” Ladybug cringes feeling the distinct trace of magic she was all too familiar with.

“Akuma?”

“Akuma,”

“Great, perfect,” Chat complains standing back up.

“At least we’re not at school,” Ladybug shrugs, launching herself over a roof.

“No you’re right being chased by a masked vigilante is a massive improvement,”

---

Wow

“Robin! Get your head out of the clouds and get over here!”

Damian breaks out of his trance, regrettably tearing his gaze away from Ladybug to the much less awe inspiring sight of Batman trapped under a car. They shouldn’t be wasting their time worrying about these established amazing hero’s and worry about that assassin on the loose. Who knows who she was after. She could be planning Batman’s demise at this very moment; if she was close with his mother then surely she knew their identities which was far far more dangerous.

Ladybug could handle herself as evidence by her going toe to toe with the newest villain. In a matter of minutes, the villain was down for the count with no help on their part. 

“Ladybug!” He calls before she leaves again, maybe she could help him convince his father that he was being an absolute buffoon.

“Oh it’s you,” She says surprisingly coldly, “What do you want now?”

“Now?”

“Are, you here to attack me again?”

“... I didn’t attack you?” He had spent all morning tracking down a dangerous assassin.

“... Oh! Of course, you did- haha I just ummmm-- there must have been an… Akuma! Yes! There must have been an Akuma earlier that looked like you,”

“An Akuma was impersonating me?” Robin growls.

“Yeah, they do that sometimes,” Chat Noir pipes up, “It’s annoying,”

“Yes and if you’re here, that uh… that means the Akuma is still out there so we gotta go deal with that so-bye!” Ladybug swings off closely followed by Chat Nor; off to go save his name and reputation.

---

“So you really think that was an Akuma?” Adrien asks as they transform back.

“Maybe- I don’t know it was just an excuse so he wouldn't figure out my identity,”

“Well at least he doesn't know it,” Adrien shrugs as they walk through the alleys in search of a new place to rest that night.

“If he doesn't know then why would he attack Marinette?” She asks, “And if it was an Akuma that means Hawkmoth knows my identity which is so much worse!”

“Is it tho?”

“Chat,”

“I mean back in Paris it would have been bad,” They both cringe, “But here we have no home, no family, no friends! He cant use any of that against us now!”

Adrien beams his contagious smile.

“You always manage to find a bright side,” Marinette smirks punching him in the shoulder.

“So that's why,” They both turn around, staring in shock.

“Batman?!” Turning back their way out is already blocked by mister boy wonder. Who, by the way he is glaring at her, was not an Akuma this morning.

“I can't believe Talia called me because some teenagers were eloping,”

I know that name- WAIT!

“Eloping?!” Marinette chokes, “We are not eloping!”

“As in not at all,” Adrien blanches, “And I mean no offense Marinette you are literally the sweetest person but I can’t imagine anything more horrific!”

“Oh god, same!” At least now, “I mean once when we were younger…-- it was a silly crush!”

“Wait you had a crush on me?!”

“Yeah, well, you had a crush on me!”

“... oh god… I did, didn’t I?!”

While Adrien is dealing with that little revelation Marinette looks around for an escape. There isn’t much opportunity since both have their eyes on them, partly out of morbid curiosity at their little freakout. Well if you don't have a distraction homemade is fine.

“AKUMA!” They both look, predictably. 

Marinette grabs Adrien and runs. She goes for the side Robins guarding, sweeping his legs sending him crashing to the ground.

“I’m not sorry!” Marinette calls as they sprint down the alley.

Marinette heads for the main street, enough of a crowd to camouflage. As they are walking through as casually as possible Marinette sweeps them both for bugs putting any she finds on random passerbys. They walk sometimes ducking into busy shops in hopes of losing their trail. They come across the mall which works perfectly for them. They stay until it starts to approach closing time, it’s easy enough to avoid security and so they get locked in for the night.

“So what do you want to do?!” They walk through the empty halls Adrien skipping along and looking at each display. Marinette stops outside an electronics store, the tv’s still on and displaying the news.

“Make a plan for a way to deal with that,” On-screen are the two of them, a video of Ladybug throwing a car at Batman, “This is taken completely out of context!”

“What’s the context?” 

“Batman was being a little bitch!”

“I’m sure that will hold up in court,” Adrien laughs taking a seat in one of those massage chairs, “Besides what's the problem?”

“The problem?!” Marinette yells, “The problem is that now all of Gotham is going to hate us!”

“So? Do we really need them to like us?” Adrien gets up to stand by her, rubbing her shoulder.

“They did in Paris,”

“We’re not in Paris anymore,” Adrien says quietly, leading her towards the seats, “We have a chance to start new again, everyday something we haven't done before, a couple of pals living day to day on the edge, isn’t that exciting?”

“I just--” want to go home, “I’m tired,”

“Take a break,” Adrien sits her down in the massage chair with a kind smile, “I’ll keep watch,”

“.. ok,” Marinette curls up in the chair Tikki coming to lie beside her. With not much strength to fight it, Marinette falls asleep while she can.

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

Taglist? nope don’t have one, horrible at keeping track of them sorry~

[chaeiimimi]

How I Met Your Mother

Timeskip!Kuroo x Fem!Reader

Fluff

Warnings: None 

it was a fine afternoon, the sunlight illuminated your whole house, the noise from the tv in the background and  Kuroo was on the coffee table catching up with some of his paper works he failed to finish during the weekend, he casted a quick glance at your five- year-old son who was reading a science encyclopedia, Tetsuya was basically his carbon copy, from his feline eyes, to his raven black bed hair not to mention the same love for science and hyena laugh, they would pass as twins. You were out with your friends (Yaku’s and Kai’s wife), therefore he was in charge of the house for the day.

Kuroo went back to his task when he saw his son immersed in his encyclopedia. Not even five minutes have gone by and his son was walking towards him dragging along his Brontosaurus plushie his Uncle Kei got him, his son tugged on his shirt and he tears his eyes away from his computer to look at his son

“hey buddy, you want a snack?” he lovingly ruffled his son’s hair

Tetsuya nod “want dino nuggies daddy” man literally had to bite the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from screeching at how adorable his son is

“alright, daddy’s gonna make you dino nuggies” he says taking off his reading glasses and going to the kitchen while his son trailed behind him like a lost puppy

He sat Tatsuya on the counter’s chair while he brings out the dino nuggies and some ingredients for a sandwich and lemonade as well

“daddy?” his son called out to him and he answered with a hum while taking the nuggets out of their container

“how did you and mom meet?” he looked at his son who was looking at him with the most curious eyes

There was an instant tug on the corner of his lips as he remembered that day, internally slapping his face for feeling like a giddy teenager again

He went back with his work on the chicken nuggets and started

 “well…”

Aside from the sound of the chalk screeching against the board and the voice of his Literature teacher, it was a rather quiet afternoon.

Time seems to be going by slowly for Kuroo, he was uncontrollably tapping his feet and drumming his fingers on his desk, he was eager to get out of this class which was the last class for the day, he was eager to practice, the pressure of the upcoming nationals weighed heavy on his shoulders, his mind was filled with volleyball and classes and college applications that he was barely eating and sleeping

When the resounding bell that marked the end of the class, he immediately got out of his seat and hurriedly walked towards the door only to be blocked by the class president

“where do you think you’re going Kuroo-san? You’re on plant duty today”

He inwardly groaned, how could he forget? Today was Friday

He dragged his feet back inside, placed his bag on his chair and proceeded to look for the water can

He found it on its usual place and walked outside to fill it up, once done, he went to the classroom’s backyard and saw you with gloves on, your hair on a clip as you patiently pull out weeds

Kuroo swears his heart skipped a beat when you looked at his way and gave him a small awkward smile

He walked over beside you, took the gloves in his pocket, put it on, and started pulling some of the weeds as well

“so, which class are you from?” he asked nervously trying to strike up a conversation

“the same class as you, see?” he looked up and saw that you were pointing at the sign with your class on it

A million thoughts were running in his head like, “how come I never saw her before?” “Has she always been in our class?”  “Did I come out as rude?”

Until he heard a chuckle coming from you

“don’t worry, I get that a lot” you say as you continue to pull out weed

“I’m L/N Y/N by the way, Ayumi-chan is sick that’s why you’re stuck with me for now” you said and gave him another smile

‘I don’t mind’ he wanted to say that but he decided to just nod

“the nationals, it’s next week right?” you asked still not looking at him

“yeah” he answers

“well, good luck to you and your team, I’m the only one in the class who hasn’t wished you luck yet” you said as you started digging some holes to put your new seeds in

“thanks, I need a whole lot of that stuff” he chuckled nervously 

“well, I never thought I’d see the great Kuroo Tetsuro get nervous” it was true, Kuroo always appeared composed and confident, the total opposite of you who was shy and demure

“I’m still human you know?” you watch him as he pulls out a particularly large weed

You chuckled and nodded

“you look like you need a break” you say and went back to your own work

It was now his turn to look at you and tilt his head in confusion

You looked at him and pointed your finger to his face

“the bags under your eyes are telling me you haven’t had a goodnight sleep in these past few weeks, your cheeks has slightly deflated implying that you haven’t been eating much, plus you don’t laugh at Tadashi-Sensei’s stupid science jokes anymore, meaning you’re not really having fun or something’s wrong”

You put your finger down after voicing out your long observation and went back to your task

Kuroo was stunned to say the least, he thought he was putting up a good façade, boy was he wrong

While realization was just hitting you and your eyes widen

“PLEASE  DON’T TAKE THAT IN A CREEPY WAY, PEOPLE RARELY TALK TO ME SO I LIKE OBSERVING THEM FROM AFAR!” you immediately blurted out

There was a long deafening silence before a hyena-laugh broke out

“its fine its fine” he said in between laughter while you stood there with a flushed face

“It’s just that you were the last person I expected to hear that from” he said after laughing

You gave him a small shrug

“I just don’t like to see people losing interest in something they’re passionate about” you look at him and smiled

“if you envision the ideal outcome of what you’re doing and it doesn’t spark you joy, then there’s no point of doing it” your words dug its way into Kuroo

You went back to your work and continued “I think that you are very passionate about volleyball and I can see that school is important for you as well, you just need to take a step back, look at the bigger picture and tackle every situation one by one, you can’t experience the dream you had for three years with that depressed look in your eyes”

He freezes on the spot, everything you said digging its way to his system, a flash of relief spreading throughout his body, he felt his vision slowly widening, and for the first time in two weeks he felt tired and hungry

The birds chirping, and the sound of water trickling from the water can were the only things that were heard, the setting sun illuminated your skin as it perfectly glowed and you happily planting the new seeds into the dirt will always be engraved in his mind and heart as one of his most peaceful memory 

“hey, I’m getting food after this, do you wanna come?” he asked his eyes pleading you to say yes

You were taken aback but you eventually nodded with a small “sure”

and so you spent the rest of the day eating at a ramen store with Kuroo (man was hungry he literally finished three bowls) and went to an ice cream parlor for dessert 

After walking you home, Kuroo laid in his bed his hair wet from the shower as he sends a chat to the volleyball team apologizing for skipping practice

           “good thing you did, you looked like you were falling apart”- Yaku

           “you looked like a zombie from the house of the dead”- Kenma

           “you badly needed it man”- Kai

He shook his head as he opens another chat box, his bright smile turning into a soft one

           “hey, thanks for today, I had fun”- Kuroo

      “i don’t even know what I did but you’re welcome? Thanks for the treat”- Y/N

 “… and that’s how I met your mother, we went hung out very often after that and I asked her out after the Nationals” he said as he placed the food in front of Tetsuya, the giddy smile still plastered across his face

“Mom talked a lot to cheer you up even though she’s shy” he says as he takes a bite of his dino nuggies

“well she did confess to me that she liked me since the first year of junior high on our wedding night” he says with a smug look on his face

“you could’ve just leave that part out” both of the boys turn their heads toward you

your son immediately got off his chair and ran towards you as you lift him up and hugged him tight, he started talking to talk about everything he discovered while reading and you listening to every word he says, with a mother smile plastered on  your face.

your husband stood there, staring at you, eyes filled with love and adoration. He was pretty sure he was a hero who died for his country in his past life. There was no other explanation on how he got this lucky, how he managed to get the most perfect wife the world could offer and how he was given the most perfect son he could ever ask for. 

staring at you as you smile gently to your son, he didn’t know it was still possible to fall even harder even after being together for fourteen years.

omg this is my first ever post, It’s kind of a mess but please bare with me I am still learning.

[opossumanonymous]

How did he get in this mess?

Warnings: Inko literally uses her quirk to pull out AFOs pubic hair because I don't think anything else would immobilize him temporarily, talk of inko using her quirk to pull organs, guns mentioned

I wrote this on my phone so sorry if anything looks funky for computer users. If I made any mistakes or any characters are too ooc please tell me. Also this is a fanfic featuring AFO as Midoriya Hizashi and Inko as a ex-Black Widow and mostly features them please enjoy!~

******************************************************

How did he get in this mess, face kissing the floor and completely caught off guard?

Hizashi wasn't quite sure himself actually. One minute he was doing some 'work' before he heard the voice of his wife over his shoulder.

"Hizashi, what are you doing?"

Then he was on the floor a nearly blinding pain spread over his body leaving him in fetal position unable to think of nothing else.

Once his mind got clear again he turned his head to the side looking up at the woman who he thought was his wife. Her usually gentle smile was gone leaving a cold look on her face as she read through his files. One of her hands out stretched towards him while the other clicked through the computer.

Which made him briefly realize he may have to put plan B into action but before that he had to know if this was his wife or someone else. Last thing he wanted was to do something reckless if this wasn't his wife.

"Who-" Before Hizashi could utter a word he felt another painful pull causing him to ball up even further trying to somehow ease the pain. He choked on air as Inko? Stared at him with a blank expression now turned away from the computer. She crossed her legs as she watched him wither in pain looking at with him cold emotionless green eyes.

Who was this woman she can't be Inko! It gave him brief fear realizing that a shape-shifting spy might have tricked him somehow. After all theres no way his sweet wife could ambush him, let alone be capable of hurting him this badly! But if this is someone with a shape-shifting quirk there's no way they would also have wife's quirk as well. Unless they can copy the quirks of people they shape-shift into but then-

"So was this what you were doing while I was comforting our son?"

His eyes widened at that realization, it hit Hizashi hard as he broke out in a cold sweat. He looked up at Inko who still had that chilling look on her face making Hizashi for the first time in 200 years feel...afraid.

He didn't know whether to be impressed at her or disgusted in himself, him, All for One, the symbol of evil, the villain who has brought many heros and villains alike to their knees is...afraid? It sounds unreal just thinking about it that someone could still scare him.

Not by much but still it was a feat that no one before her had done in a long time.

He felt like he was getting whiplash knowing that the same woman who cooked him breakfast nearly every morning, who cried at anything sad or happy, and cuddled up to him at night was looming over him like some villain.

"Hizashi speak up your mumbling." She spoke harshly as he felt another pull, he's starting to lose feeling in his legs.

"I already knew." He said breathless feeling defeated almost, yet another feat none before her had accomplished. He could almost hear his brother laughing from his grave at this point. "What?" Her forehead wrinkled the cold look leaving her face for a moment making her look more like the Inko he knew.

"I checked Izuku years ago, I had my suspicions when he didn't develop his quirk after he turned 5. While I can't tell what a quirk is if I don't know it, I can sense them." He told her truthfully "When I reached into his subconscious one night after I tucked him in bed, I found no sign of a quirk." He knew their was a chance Izuku would be quirkless anyway, Hizashi was from the first generation of quirk users after all.

But he would never give his son a quirk, no he's not going to let history repeat itself, if there's anything he's learned in his 200 years of life it's never give your hero loving relatives a quirk.

Plus being a hero is 10 times more dangerous now, no thanks to him, he'd rather his precious son live quirkless.

Despite the ridicule quirkless people get from society atleast he won't ever get badly hurt or worse killed. Luckily Hizashi had a back up plan just in case he needed to protect his family from themselves.

But seeing Inko looming above him is starting to make him think about adding more reinforcements to the vault. After all she's not so much of a gullible woman like he once thought she was.

"I see but that doesn't change anything, you weren't there for our baby when he needed you most. That's why after this you're going to march into our sons room and comfort him like a good father should." He almost winched at her harsh tone. He honestly didn't know if he should be scared or not. He did still have an arsenal of quirks he could use but none that were non lethal from a long range he could use on her.

"And if I don't, what will you do?" He was curious in all honesty after all it's not every day your usually gentle and emotional wife does a 360 degree personality change on you.

"Then I'll keep ripping out your pubic hairs till you comply." He felt a slight tug again at the slight flick of her wrist causing him to flinch.

He had felt tempted to challenge her, now realizing it was a mistake seeing as she has him by the balls...literally.

"And if you try anything...well you'll be surprised at how many organs count as a small objects." She said with a chilling smile which he almost hates to admit made him flinch.

He always knew her quirk was suspicious despite only being limited to small objects it could still be a deadly quirk if used right. The number of deadly weapons considered small objects was big and considering she only needs a vague idea of where an object is located to pull it to her which includes organs...Hizashi's starting to realize he didn't really know his wife like he thought he did.

After all who would've guessed his sweet Inko would use her quirk so...creatively. He nodded, head still pressed to the hard wood floor of his office.

Inko gave a sigh of relief as she genuinely smiled running her hand through her green locks. "Good I'm glad we could come to an agreement." Hizashi felt the release of her quirk as she sat back legs still crossed.

He slowly sat on all fours before rising to his knees still feeling phantom pains with each slight movement.

Once he was on his knees he wrapped his arms around her waist laying his head in her stomach. She gently caressed his head of white curls causing him to sink further into her and let out a content hum. After a while he looked up at her, the cold look on her face gone now taking a more softer expression.

"I knew you where a villain since the first week after we got married." Hizashi didn't think Inko could shock him anymore but that honestly got him, and yet again she conquered another feat.

He would have never guessed that she knew about him being a villain before now. "Honestly I felt like I got rusty since I found out so late, but I guess living a normal civilian life will make anyone like that." She smiled gently at him looking more like the Inko he knew. Or atleast thought he knew, she was one of the most ordinary people he met from her average nursing job to her adorable naiveté at times.(which he now knows was probably just an act) She played him like a fiddle, he underestimated her and made him fall even harder for her.

That's right, he didn't think it was possible to love her even more than he already did, but this moment proved that wrong.

"Wait then if you knew why did you stay and why wait until now to bring it up?"

She furrowed her eyebrows again before turning her head away from him thinking about her answer for a second before looking back. "I'm not exactly who I said I was either..." She trailed off with a far away look in her eyes almost like she was looking through him and not at him.

He took her hand which had stopped rubbing his head and brought it to his cheek. This seemed to help her focus again as she gave him a tired smile.

"I'm not a good person either Hizashi I've done alot of things that I now regret." For a moment he guessed that she was an ex-villain that he'd just never heard of.

Although that was very unlikely seeing as he liked to keep tabs on most high profile villains to find anyone with good...potential. Inko definitely wasn't a low class villain she just didn't fit the profile of a bank robber or common street thug. Her aura gave off a more experienced air to it not to mention no low class villain would have the guts to look him in the eye once finding out who he really is.

"I was once apart of an organization who specialized in training those considered...unless in society." The way she said useless held a malice to it despite her still having a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"They kidnapped me and many other young girls most of them either being quirkless or having 'weak' quirks." Quirkless trafficking while rare nowadays still went on but he'd never heard of an organization making quirkless people assassins. Wlep there's a first time for everything he guessed.

"They trained and raised all of us to be assassins, to put it simply, they chose us because they knew we'd be underestimated."

Assassins? If someone had told him is lovely wife was secretly an assassin he'd laugh in their face before killing them for saying such a thing. But now after being brought to his knees by her he honestly isn't surprised, at this point he'd believe anything that came out of her mouth. She could tell him she could kill someone with only a plastic spoon and he'd believe her.

"I was one of the lucky ones i was able to escape before my 'graduation' if you could call it that. I was even able to find my birth certificate after months of digging through missing persons reports." She now went back to stroking his white curls as she spoke.

"After escaping I decided to live the life my mother wanted me to or at least I like to think she'd want me to." He knew she was an orphan, she'd told him that on their second date he never thought much about it.

He never even really looked into her mother much either only knowing that she died when Inko was young and that she was Nana Shimura's sister. When he found this out at first he was suspicious but over time he let his guard down, if that was a mistake is still up for debate.

"They called us Black Widows." He'd heard that name before but it's been so long, last time he heard the words Black Widow he was reading a comic book to his sick brother. It's either unoriginal or genius considering most will only think of the comic book hero Black Widow opposed to it being a real organization.

Finally getting the feeling back in his legs he stood up stretching slightly while she watched him. He stared down at her now that he had the high ground it was time to give her what she deserved.

He leaned down towards her his hands coming up to her face menacingly. But she just sat there unfazed with a serene look on her face, their was no real use in trying she knew he wouldn't hurt her. He held her face as he leaned in and gave her lips a gentle kiss.

After pulling away he took her hand and helped her out of his office chair. "Now time to go see about Izuku hopefully I can get him out of his depressed mood."

Giving her a true smile only reserved for his family he lead her out of his office not before shutting down his computer and locking the door.

"Yes please talk to him because I didn't know what to do than to apologize to him." She sighed clearly distressed. "While it has been a long time since I escaped somethings I still just don't know the right words for." She looked defeated like she didn't just have Japan's greatest villain nearly kissing her feet.

"It's fine darling soon Izuku will go back to being that happy kid again, you'll see." He gave her a final kiss before heading to Izukus room ready to help his son or else face the wraith of his wife.

He briefly wondered just how good of an assassin his wife is and just how many she's killed. But quickly shook those thoughts away as he entered his son's All Might themed room.

While he'd never ask her anything more about her past as a Black Widow he soon came to realize she was highly skilled as he watched his son on TV.

He was watching UAs sports festival with Tomura at his current hideout the boy exclaiming in shock at this year's winner.

The one to take first place was UAs first quirkless student Midoriya Izuku who took out the competition with only a pair of electroshock bracelets as wepons.

Not to say that it was only the support tools that secured his win, the way he bended dodging attacks and hit his opponents with devastating blows to the head made him nearly laugh out loud.

It was almost hard to believe that this was the same kind boy he once tucked in bed but he had to admit his son was quite reckless.

He's in all honesty proud of his son especially for beating Mizuki's brat whose bullied his poor son for years. While he isnt happy that his son's well on his way to being a hero atleast Inko trained him well.

Just how did Hizashi get in this mess he'd hoped quirklessness would make his son reconsider being a hero but it seems Inko had other plans.

*****************************************************

Extras:

So originally Inko was gonna hold him at gun point but I felt like AFO wouldn't be sacred of a gun so....

Also Inko has wepons (mostly guns) hidden in every wall in the apartment after all you never know when the red room might strike.

Inko still gets chubby but not from stress over Izuku being quirkless it's more so over the red room possibly finding him and taking him. She's still bad ass tho, can kill anyone with a just plastic spoon.

She also ran away from the red room before they could sterilize her.

Izuku does eventually get One for all but it's after the sports festival instead, tho he does still parade as a quirkless hero even after One for all.

He also is a vigilante on the side under the name Black Widow tho most think he's a girl because of the Black Widow reference. He even wears his mom's old Black Widow suit.

You could say he's hero Deku by day and vigilante Black Widow by night!

AFO totally knows it's him tho because he knows Inko wouldn't be that reckless or feral.

Izuku has no idea his loving father is AFO but knows his mom's an ex-assassin.

[midyxthcrisis]

let them go - part one | j.t.

a/n: so i literally just binged the entirety of titans in like two weeks and surprise surprise i got too emotionally attached to jason todd. sorry for the hiatus, life kind of blew up for a little bit and i lost all motivation to write, but i hope you enjoy this and my future works :D 

It was a mystery as to why you had been born with the powers that you did. All anyone knew is that you came out of the womb with ash colored hair and blue eyes that matched the icy cold nature of your skin. The doctors had brushed it off as an odd birthmark, they had seen worse before. So you were sent home to the perfect little suburb your parents lived in. Your life was normal for the first five years.

But neighbors began to question as to why frost was creeping up their windows in the middle of summer. In order to avoid any conflict, your parents packed up and moved to none other than Gotham City. The place where people like you could slip into the shadows without being noticed at all. 

That was years ago now, though, and that was before the night your parents were murdered in the middle of your apartment. The night that you fled Gotham without a second thought. The night you showed up at Dick Grayson’s doorstep with frost covering the sidewalk behind you. You were one of the few people who knew Dick was Robin, but that was a different story for another day. 

Dick treated you like a little sibling. He always had, and that was the way your life was for a few months. He would go to work at the police department while you sat at home and attended school on the computer. You were hesitant to go to a “normal” school. All you had ever known was the Gotham school system, and everyone knew it was complete shit. It was rare that you would actually learn something there. Often the school day was clogged with fights and... other activities teenagers of Gotham did. 

That was until Rachel Roth showed up. 

The next few days were a blur, but now you were walking into one of Batman’s many safe houses with an alien, a girl who seemed to have a demon inside of her, and a boy who could turn into a fucking tiger at a moment’s notice. Of course it was just another day in the life of the small group you were now a part of. When you first showed up on Dick’s doorstep this was the last place you expected to be. 

You were nearly floored when you saw the unfamiliar face in the living room of the safe house. He had to have been one of the most attractive people you had ever met. 

“Who are your friends?” The mysterious boy asked, a beer in his band. Dick immediately responded,

“Not important.”

“Who is he?” You questioned with a small smile as you approached him. You could feel Dick burning holes into the back of your head with the stare only an older brother could have.

“Not important.” 

The next minute was a blur of your little group going back and forth with the boy, who you now knew as Jason, and what he exactly was doing with Dick. Then Gar pointed out the new briefcase that held the infamous Robin suit in it. That was when it was discovered that Jason Todd was in fact the new Robin. You couldn’t stop the snort from leaving your lips.

“What, does Bruce keep you fuckers in a spare room in the Batcave? Already in spandex and spedos?” There was a bright smile on your lips, but it was clear that Jason was a bit surprised you actually knew Batman’s true identity. It was a well guarded secret. “Um, Dick and I have known each other for years. I haven’t told anyone about Bruce, don’t worry.”

There was a few moments of silence before everyone went their separate ways to do whatever. Dick with Kory, Gar with Rachel. Somehow you found yourself sitting on the couch with Jason and a beer in your hand. 

“So,” Jason broke the silence, “how did you get involved with Dick?” There was a certain tone to his voice that made your cheeks flush with heat, a rare occurrence for your constantly icy skin.

“It’s not like that, you know. Dick is like a brother to me. Besides, I have a thing against dating guys with daddy issues.” A laugh left Jason’s lips in response to your joke. This laugh was accompanied with a flirtatious look from the boy, to which you rolled your eyes with a scoff.

“That includes you, Boy Wonder. You’re Robin so you’re bound to have some shit going on. Isn’t that like Bruce’s whole thing? Taking in tortured young boys and training them to be little soldiers. I mean I will give it to him, he trained Dick to be one hell of a fighter. Did you know that he keeps his throwing knives by his bed? I wouldn’t recommend trying to wake him up with water to the face.” 

Before the two of you got the chance to finish the conversation, or the beer, Dick came asking for Jason’s help with something. And so you were alone on the couch with a lukewarm beer and a new kind of warmth in your chest that had never been there before. You hadn’t noticed Kory leaning against the doorway that lead into the living room, a shit eating grin on her lips. 

“So, a thing against guys with daddy issues?” You rolled your eyes and quickly stood up from the couch.

“You’re the one fucking the bird, not me.” It was in reference to Kory and Dick’s night at the motel. The walls were paper thin. You had your own shit-eating grin on your face as you walked past the woman. 

After a few hours of watching whatever was on the tv with Rachel and Gar, the two Robins returned with minor injuries. It was a sort of ritual between you and Dick for you do help clean whatever wounds he had at the end of a particularly rough night at the police department. It was therapeutic for the both of you. So, you two were sat on the sterile tile floors of the bathroom and you were cleaning the busted lip he had in silence.

“So, how old is Jason? He can’t be as old as you or Kory, right?” 

“No, you’re not going to do anything with him.” Dick said simply between dabs at his bloodied lip. Another eye roll came from you, as well as a laugh and a gentle punch to his shoulder.

“I’m not going to, asshole. I was just curious. I know Bruce likes to take in young boys who need help, so I’m assuming that he can’t be more than, what, 19?”

Dick sighed and shifted away from you. He leaned against the cabinet in silence for a minute before he spoke. “He’s your age, he was picked up by Bruce about a year ago after he tried to take the Batmobile’s hubcaps.” You simply nodded in reply before standing up from the floor, first aid kit in hand.

“I’m going to make sure Jason’s alright. Hearing stories from you, I doubt he’s ever had anyone to clean his wounds beside Alfred. Much less someone his own age.” Dick gave you a curt nod of approval, not that you needed it, and with that you were leaving the bathroom and beginning to search through the condo for Jason.

You never were able to find him that night, but the next morning he was sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal and a black eye. You took the seat next to him once you had gotten your coffee. “Do you need ice or something? That looks pretty rough.”

“No, it’ll be fine. But I’m sure a kiss would make it feel better.” He looked at you with a grin and a wink. A snort left your lips as you rolled your eyes for what felt like the tenth time that weekend.

“Yeah, nice try. You’re not getting in my pants that easily.” You patted his shoulder gently.

And that was the last you had spoken to him until you left the safe house in search of Rachel’s mother. Jason was going back to Gotham, and you assumed that you would never see him again. The group had gone over the plan to get into the asylum that her mother was being held in, and it was supposed to be an easy mission. In and out. So with the tactile suit you had in the go bag you had brought with you on your body and your nerves at an all time high, you leaned against the doorway between the exit hallway and the living room.

“So, I suppose this is goodbye, Boy Wonder.” Your voice was much softer than it normally was, but Jason Todd put a warmth in your chest that made you softer than normal. 

“I suppose it is, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.” There was the same flirtatious grin that had been there the other night. 

“Stranger things have. But, I doubt I’ll be going back to Gotham any time soon. I left that place behind and I swore never to go back. And I’m sure if Bruce finds you anywhere but Gotham he’ll have your head on a spike.” You pushed yourself off of the door frame and walked over to him. “I may have a rule against dating guys with daddy issues, but if you keep trying I won’t stop you.”

With that you slipped a piece of paper into his hand, your phone number written on it. 

“Until we meet again, Boy Wonder.” 

[staywritten]

A Chance│Lee Know

Synopsis: You fall the heartbreaker. College!AU

Genre: Slow Burn, Angst (if you squint), Hurt/Comfort

Word Count: 3k

You and Minho had a somewhat complicated relationship. The two of you became close during your senior film course last semester. It was an unlikely friendship that happened over countless late-night editing of your short film. Meeting up before and after class became such a routine. At first, you thought of him as a bit of a nuisance but he really did wear you down. 

Minho was the star midfielder on the football team, the charming and handsome actor staring in most of your school’s productions. He was well-liked and always the center of attention. You, on the other hand, did your best to fade in the background. 

Minho found you hiding out in your usual spot, the mostly empty computer lab near the theater building. He grinned catching your attention-holding up a lunch bag. 

“Hey” he sat across from you with that annoyingly charming smile. “I brought you lunch” 

You tried your best to fight off the smile, but it melted when he slid the brown paper bag toward you. “I brought kimbap”

“Don’t you have something better to do” you unwrapped the kimbap shoving a piece into your mouth. 

“Unfortunately for you, I’m done with class and practice for today so I have an open schedule to bother you.” he leaned his head on his hand, smiling at you as you switched between eating and editing. 

“Is it good?” he quirked a brow, his tone teasing.

“Why does everything sound so dirty when it’s from you?” you turned to look at him, glaring at that smug look on his face. “You literally flirt with everyone”

“Get your mind out of the gutter sweetheart.” he scooted closer to you, placing a hand on top of your knee. “Besides, if I was flirting with you, you’d know” his eyes darkened as he watched you. 

“Noted” you whispered before shoving a kimbap roll into his mouth and knocking his hand off your leg. 

“What are you editing anyway?”

“I helped Moonbin film an acting reel, I’m just editing it for him.” you turned to look at him, feeling his mischievous glint. “Can you behave and let me do this?”

“Don’t I always behave?” he cocked his head to the side and winked.

“Almost never” you tried to ignore him as you edited the clips, eventually he stole one of the earbuds from you and placed it in his ear. His hand occasionally playing with your fingers as you edited with your left. 

“Are you cold?” he frowned, his fingers laced between yours. “Your fingers are cold…”

“Maybe a little, you know how they keep the computer lab.” you shrugged it off, you were almost always cold. 

“Here wear this” he grabbed his varsity jacket and draped it over your shoulders.

“Oh you don’t have to-”

“I want to.” he gave you a cheeky grin. “You look good in my clothes” You rolled your eyes before going back to your editing, but he was right. You really were warmer.  

It was comfortable, almost too comfortable. 

The next day Minho found you editing in the quad at a table under the tree. “There you are” he smiled bringing you water.

“You stalking me?” you smiled back, graciously accepting the water.

“Maybe you’re stalking me” he wiggled his brows. 

“Dream on lover boy” you scoffed. 

“What brings you to the wonderful outdoors?”

“A freshmen class hijacked my computer class”  you grumbled taking a bite of your instant ramen. He opened his mouth whining for you to feed him too. “And now you’re stealing my food” you laughed, giving him a mouthful of ramen. 

“My poor baby” he squatted beside you looking at your computer. A pout forming on his face once he sees that you’re still editing Moonbin’s reel. “Here’s an idea, how about you edit something for me?”

“You just wanna make me stare at you” you rolled your eyes.

“I do” he grinned. “I’m always staring at you, and you never look at me” he grabbed your chin, making you look at him. His beautiful dark brown eyes, dazzling you. 

“Do you ever get tired of teasing me?”

“Not at all” he grinned, showing off that bright gummy smile.

A few weeks and you still saw Minho as often as you did in class. He always found time in between his breaks to have lunch with you. He’d tease you, you’d shoot him down and you grew more and more comfortable in his presence. Admittedly you looked forward to your little lunch dates. Your alone time was cherished. 

You decided to visit campus on your day off. You had no classes and you were allowed to leave work early since it was pretty dead. You packed lunch with some food from work to surprise Minho with since he always did it for you. Looking in your hand mirror you smoothed down your hair that may have fallen out of place on your walk to campus. It was probably the first time that you bothered to do something new with your hair in a while. You even opted for a dress versus your usual comfy jeans. Did you want to admit that you may have developed a crush on Minho? No, but you weren’t gonna lie to yourself completely and ignore the little flutter in your stomach every time he looked at you.

You spotted Minho on the football field with his teammates. That same carefree smile on his beautiful face as he juggled the ball with his feet. 

You weren’t sure how to approach him, he was always the one to come to you. But you didn’t want to interrupt him or get him in trouble with his Captain or coach. Eventually, you settled on waiting on the bleachers until practice was over. 

The girls sitting on the bleachers eyed you, and suddenly you regretted sitting in such an open area. You watched Minho for a moment before looking at your phone, trying to distract from the obvious stares. You were terrified of social interactions especially when you didn’t know how to defend yourself. You knew what they were thinking. And you didn’t know the answer yourself; Why were you here? Why were you subjecting yourself to this? 

After a few minutes, you could still feel them staring, whispering. Maybe you should just go? It was better to save face and abort mission. 

You grabbed the lunch bag, and stood up, getting ready to hightail it out of there. 

“Hey” one of the girls called out to you. She was beautiful, slender, sharp features. You felt any confidence you have waiver. You tried to ignore her, pretend you didn’t hear her. Maybe she wasn’t even talking to you. She waved her hand in front of you, laughing. “Helloooooo`” she chimed playfully. 

You raised your head to meet her stare and felt yourself crumbling. “Y-yes?”

“I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you waiting for someone?”

Was this a trick? Why did she want to know? Why were you so paranoid? You nodded, finding it hard to keep up eye contact with her. 

“Sit” She sat back on the bleacher and pat the seat next to her. Your resolve crumbling instantly as you took your seat.  “You don’t have to be nervous, I’m Yeji, I'm the dance team captain. We share the field with the football team. Are you dating someone on the team?”

Your gaze shot up “N-No, I’m just friends with someone…”

Her smile brightened as she nudged you “Is it Minho?”

You looked like a deer in the headlights. Were you staring that hard? “I..” you faltered. 

“I see you guys in the computer lab sometimes” Her shining smile brightened as she looked at your dress. “I’ve never seen you wear something so cute, it suits you a lot”

“Oh…” It was all you could utter, your face was flushed from embarrassment. “Th-thank you”

“You guys are cute, did you bring him lunch” she wiggled her eyebrows, gesturing to your lunch bag. 

“Are you always so forward?” you laughed nervously.

“It’s part of the charm that comes with cheer” she winked. “Were you gonna leave?” she frowned. 

“I don’t think I should bother him…”

“Practice is pretty much over, I’m sure he’s hungry” she beamed “Don’t give up”

You nodded “Thank you Yeji...I think I needed to hear that.” you smiled, finally introducing yourself. Your anxiety becoming a smaller voice in the back of your head as you relaxed a bit more. 

“Well it’s nice to meet you, and I hope I get to see more of you.”

“Are you dating anyone on the team?”

“Ew, No” she laughed “That’s my brother, Hyunjin” she pointed to the goalie. “I’ve known these guys since I was in high school, they’re pretty much family.”

Hearing the coaches whistle, they wrapped up practice. Grabbing their gear and making their way toward the locker room. 

“Go Go, ask him now” Yeji patted your back. 

“Now?”

“Yeah before he goes inside.” she encouraged you, pushing you toward them. 

Now or never, right? You walked toward Minho, your anxiety eating at you before you called his name. 

He turned around, his widening as he saw you approach him. His lips turned upward in a smile seeing you in a dress. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just wondering...If you were busy after practice…” you chewed on your bottom lip, struggling to look him in the eyes. 

That familiar smug smile graced his lips again. “Oh? And Why’s that?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me…?”

Changbin and Han ran up to him “What’s taking you Hyung?” Changbin swinging his arm around Minho’s shoulders. “Oh who’s your friend?” he teased. 

Minho’s demeanor changed almost instantly, that playful glint gone, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. “No one. Let’s go.” he walked away first, disappearing in the building. The other two shrugging before following behind him. You stood stunned, he’s never brushed you off before. He’s never acted like that. 

Yeji ran over to you and smiled “What’d he say?”

“I don’t think he wants to have lunch with me?”

“Did he say no?”

You shook your head “He sort of just brushed me off”

“Maybe he was embarrassed” she grabbed your hand leading you into the building. 

“Yeji whyyyy?” you whined, letting her lead you “Why are you trying to help me?”

“Because I know you like him but you’re shy and I’m not gonna let you give us before you even try”

“But why?” 

“Consider me your local support extrovert” she giggled “And you’re so cute, and I don’t want you to give up” 

You pouted as she waited with you outside of the boy’s locker room, her hand wrapped around yours to make sure you didn’t leave. Her overwhelming confidence in you did help, even if it was a little. 

The voices in the locker room echoed as you could hear one particularly loud voice inside. “Minho-Hyung who was that girl? She your girlfriend?” You couldn’t hear his response, but you did hear the faintest scoff. 

“Yeah Hyung I didn’t know she was your type, She’s a little homelier than your usual girlfriends, still cute tho-”

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s just a classmate.” his voice was getting closer and you felt your grip on Yeji’s hand loosen. “You guys know me. Since when am I into charity cases?” he laughed “She just edited something for me, that’s all.” You could hear a few more laughs before he continued. “Besides I like my women a little more glamorous-” his voice faltered as he turned out of the locker room. His eyes locked with yours. Your name a whisper on his lips.

You stood sunned, eyes filled with tears that you fought so hard to keep them from falling. You pulled your hand from Yeji’s grip. “I’m sorry I’m a charity case” you pushed the lunch box into his chest before running off. 

“Wait!” Yeji yelled out for you but you had already run out of the building. “You’re such an asshole” She glared at Minho before going after you. 

Minho raked his hands through his hair and groaned, clenching on to the lunchbox. He’d never seen you so broken. And he wanted nothing more than to run after you and tell you he was being stupid, but he didn’t deserve it. “I’m going home…” he grumbled before heading out in the other direction. 

When he got home, he tossed his bag on the floor and cuddled with one of his cats that greeted him. Opening the lunch box his frown deepened. It was such a cute meal, filled with all of his favorites, delicately placed in the lunch box.

He couldn’t shake you from his mind. He could pinpoint the moment your heart shattered. And it wasn’t that he didn’t like, he loved spending time with you, wearing you down until you smiled at him. Especially given how cold you were to him when you first met. You were just one of the few people that he felt like he could be himself around. It was easier going in when you just treated him like a classmate, you were tough on him, didn’t let him charm his way through the assignment. There was no need for him to put up the super nice guy front. He didn’t have to be Lee Minho, the star midfielder or Lee Minho the actor. He was just Minho the guy that liked to joke around and eat cheap kimbap from the convenience store.

You were frugal, mindful. College was expensive and it was easy to get wrapped up in spending money you don’t have. You were the only other scholarship student he hung out with. And while he loved his team, he couldn’t always swing those expensive lunches that their school sold, or afford to go clubbing all the time. It took all his penny pinching just to keep up the facade. The only way around it was to hang out with these glamorous rich girls that liked to dote on him.

He found comfort hanging out with the only other person that didn’t care who he was. 

And he went and broke your heart. He called you a charity case. 

When you so generously opened your heart to him. He needed to make this right.

He tried calling and texting you and even waited for you in the computer lab. It’d been about two weeks and he hadn’t run into you once. It was like you changed your entire routine with the sole purpose of avoiding him. 

It was only by chance that he saw you across campus walking with Yeji and Moonbin. Yeji waving goodbye to you before heading inside her class, before you and Moonbin disappeared inside the library.

Minho’s heart sank a little, it wasn’t that you were anti-social perse. You just rarely hung out with people outside of class. He moved before he could overthink it, finding himself watching the two of you study in the library. You excused yourself to go find a book and he followed. Should he be ambushing you inside of a library when he was pretty sure you wanted to curse him out? No, but was he running out of options? Yes. 

You ran your fingers along the spines of the book, searching the reference numbers when you heard your name being called. You knew the voice well. Your heart sank, your shoulders slumped. “What?” you answered, not bothering to look back at him. 

“Since when are you and Moonbin so close?” Idiot, he cursed himself he knew damn well the first thing out of his mouth should have been an apology but he couldn’t help it. It slipped out before he could stop himself.

You turned around to glare at him, incredulously. “Are you kidding me?” you crossed your arms over your chest.

“I just don’t remember you guys hanging out like this”

“Minho, believe it or not. Some people actually don’t mind spending time with me in public.” you huffed. “I guess being a charity case is only repulsive to you.”

“I’m sorry…” he closed his eyes taking a breath. “I didn’t mean any of that, I just-”

“Didn’t want the guys to know that you were friends with some poor, homely, scholarship student.”

“I- that’s not.” he sighed. “I love spending time with you-”

“As long as no one knows it”

“I was an idiot. An absolute idiot. And I panicked. The guys were teasing me, and you looked so pretty and you’ve never sought me out before...I was overwhelmed. I was an asshole.” he raked his hands through his hair, frustrated. “I just wanted them off my back...I never meant to hurt you.”

“But you did. You did hurt me and you did say that.” you sighed, rubbing your temples and closing your eyes. “Look Minho, I know you’re not a malicious person. But that’s all...I forgive you for your little outburst”

“So we’re good?” he smiled brightly grabbing your hand “We can go back to normal?”

“What? No, Minho. I forgive you saying that because you’ve never been that much of an asshole to me. But I’m not going back to hanging out with you. I don’t wanna give your friends a reason to tease you for hanging out with a charity case.” you scoffed. “I’m not gonna forget that you said it.”

“But I like you”

“And I thought I liked you but-”

“Hey, you get lost back here?” Moonbin laughed, turning the corner to see the two of you talking. “You ok?”

“I’m fine” you gave him a tight-lipped smile. “I don’t think they have the book, can we just share yours?”

“Of course, C’mon, let’s get back to studying” he ushered you away from Minho sensing the tense atmosphere, even amongst the hushed argument. 

“Three minutes please…” Minho whispered, his hand reaching out for yours desperately. “Give me three more minutes and you’ll never have to hear from me again...please…”

Your shoulders, slumped. “Fine...three minutes” you glance at your watch. “Moonbin, I’ll meet you back at the desk.”

He looked at you skeptically before nodding and walking off. “Call me if you need me.”

“Three minutes, starting now” 

“I like you a lot, and I know I was an asshole and I know you put yourself out there and I hurt you but I don’t wanna lose this.”

“And I didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of a bunch of strangers.”

“I promise I’ll never do it again...I just want a chance.”

“A chance at what? There isn’t an us to save. We were classmates, turned acquaintance. But even if I forgive you and we hang out again. I’m never gonna be the glamorous girl you want. I can’t afford to pay for you and go to ritzy clubs just so you can save face.”

“And I don’t want that...I want lunch under a tree...I want to share cheap ramen. I want the girl that doesn’t let me get away with anything” he grabbed your hand. “Do you really not like me anymore?”

“That’s not fair…”

“Because I really like you...And I know that if I let you walkway again you won’t give me a second chance...so please….” at some point he’d backed you against the bookshelf, a small sigh escaping your lips. 

“I can’t be what you want me to be.”

“But you’re what I need…” his nose brushed yours “I can’t stop thinking about you...and I love every moment of it…” his hand cautiously reached your face, he scanned your expression; desperately searching for permission. 

“Are you going to kiss me or keep staring?” your gaze fell to his lips. 

“How much time do I have left?” he smirked, glancing at your watch. 

“45 seconds…”

“More than enough time” he grinned pulling your lips to his, smiling into the kiss. It felt like such a heavyweight had been lifted. Both of you so insecure in the other’s feelings. Hiding behind walls, and avoiding a formal confession.

Your gripped the front of his shirt, not sure what to do with your hands. All you knew was that you wanted him closer somehow. You coaxed him into opening his mouth, by teasing his top lip between your teeth. The smallest of your whimpers, covered with his low groan. 

His fingertips traced your jaw subtly, holding you closer to him. You giggled into the kiss, eyelashes fluttering open against his cheek. “Your times up.” you nipped at his lips. 

“I’m going into overtime,” he whispered, pressing kisses along your jaw and under your ear. 

“I have to get back to studying” you whined, trying to cover your panting once you felt his teeth. 

“Don’t...don’t leave me again” his voice was so small and desperate. 

“Minho…”

“Be my girlfriend…”

“We haven’t even gone on a proper date, aren’t you getting ahead of yourself.” you held his face in your hands, squishing his pouty face. 

“Yeah, I am. But I want to try.”

“What if we spend more time together and realize it was just a crush and it doesn’t work out?”

“Then we break up. But I need to try…. I need to try and make this work…”

You laughed and shook your head. “Fine… Fine… we’ll try.” you pecked his lips again. 

There was no telling what tomorrow was going to bring, but you knew the least you could do was try. 

End. 

( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ  Hey Friends <3 I hope you guys enjoyed that long one shot. If you did let me know 

I’m also working on a rather long Social Media AU that I’ll be posting soon and hopefully updating daily. I’ll be posting a teaser for that in the next few days.

-D❍MI

[diorsho]

kiss me

bingo slot: first kiss

words: 2.3k

paring: bakugou x reader

warnings: none ?

You knew that from the moment you woke up to the time you stepped out of your room, someone was bound to attack you. Whether it was your younger brother or your best friend, you were never surprised. Your best friend, Katsuki Bakugou, had been in your life quite literally from the time you were carried into your house two days after you were born, up until now. His family had moved into their house the day you were born and surprisingly they had a little boy that was just a few months older than you. You two had known each other from diapers and playdates your mothers would set up, and you were both now seniors in high school.

To say Bakugou was pretty was an understatement, you had watched him blossom into the man he was today, and to say you were attracted to him was nothing but the truth. Apart from his looks, he was never but anything nice to you, although he could sometimes be a dick. He was especially mean to your other friend Midoriya, but he seemed to cool off around you like he had some kind of soft spot. He’s sly and clever and while he seemed to have a problem with anyone that wasn’t you, this made your friendship all the better. From his cleverness and anger issues, and your sarcasm and witty comments about anything, you two were unstoppable. The tree between the two houses stopped neither of you from going over to each other’s houses and only proved to strengthen your relationship as it became a regular hangout spot. From talking about anything to nothing and just star gazing at two am, the spot was one of your favorite places. Going to school with Bakugou was nothing but fun - you two caused little problems for others and then blamed it on one another.

The only thing that was annoying about the said boy was that he never failed to cause trouble at your house. It was never anything to actually cause harm but they were annoying. Bakugou and your younger brother seemed to be glued at the hip when he was over, you didn’t mind - you loved seeing him bond with your family - but these pranks were getting out of control. Bakugou used to dislike the young boy but after time and lots of hanging out, they seemed to be best buds. As soon as your brother as they became close friends, Bakugou had stolen him away from you and started devising their plans to ruin your life. Once they were both home from school, your two favorite boys would be dead set on making you question if they really were your favorite boys. Your parents were also very fond of the boy and didn’t seem to mind that he seemed to love to tease the hell out of their daughter. The pranks weren’t that bad when they first started doing it but sometimes it would get out of hand. Like the time you were almost late to school and they had put salt on your toothbrush that morning and watched your reaction when you stuck the toothbrush in your mouth, you quickly spit it out and washed your mouth out while flicking water on the two laughing boys on your way out of the bathroom. Or the time when they taped a piece of paper to the bottom of your computer mouse when you were trying to do homework, you were almost in tears when you tried calling one of your parents. Bakugou was chuckling when he pulled your hand that held your phone so he could show you what really was the problem calling you a dumbass right after. You slapped his chest as a frustrated sigh left your lips. The pranks weren’t only at your house though - when Bakugou was out at dinner with your family one night, your brother and he had secretly asked for the waiter to keep the wasabi on your dish, and your reaction when you started eating was priceless. Your brother and Bakugou, plus your parents, were losing it at the restaurant and all you could do was offer a glare that promised you’d get back at the two later.

It was the first day of your senior year and you were scared that the pair of boys were going to ruin your morning. It was the first day of your last year of high school and to say you were excited about leaving the place was an understatement, and if your brother and Bakugou tried ruining that for you, you might just lose it.

to anger issues: if u try anything this morning, i’ll fight you mf

from anger issues: I won’t, just come downstairs already, i'm waiting on you slowpoke

You descended down the staircase carefully to not mess up your uniform. Making your way to the kitchen, the blond-haired boy sat across from your parents at the table, scrolling through his phone. Your brother was nowhere to be seen and a sigh left your lips as you went to grab a banana from the table. You stuffed it in your bag, along with grabbing the carton that was in front of your best friend. He stared at you while you sipped from the banana milk and reached to take it back but was surprised when you spun around and headed towards your front door. He quickly grabbed his bag from the floor and walked after you, you both said your goodbyes to your parents as you grabbed the car keys on the small table by the front door. You handed the half-empty carton back to Bakugou and laughed at his disgusted expression once you entered the car. You both put your backpacks in the back seat before turning the car on. You decided to carpool in your car two days of the week and he would drive the rest, he claimed something about being a better driver than you.

You stopped at a house a few down from yours and Bakugou’s and saw your friend Midoriya leaving his house. Across the street, another one of your friends, Kirishima, walked out of his house with a smile on his face and waved when he saw Midoriya. They made it to your car and slammed the doors shut, making you jump. “Hey dickheads, I’m driving you to school in my car, best if you didn’t slam the doors shut.” You smiled back at two behind you before taking the car out of park and made your way to leave the neighborhood. Your friend group sure was a wild one, but you couldn’t have asked for better friends. Bakugou never failed to let them know his distaste for them, but you knew him better. The drive to school didn’t last long, and with the small talk about how summer was, you pulled into your designated spot ten minutes before the bell. The four of you left the car, Midoriya getting your bag and Kirishima getting Bakugou’s. You all decided to meet up with the rest of your friends to chat before the dreadful day of school started.

~~~

After a long day of school, you drove to the cafe and after grabbing your usual drinks to go, you drove home. Bakugou grabbed his bag along with yours from the car and followed you till you got to the door, the jingle of keys came to his ears and the pull from his hand brought him into the house. The smell of your home rushed into Bakugou’s nose and he smiled at the sound of your younger brother’s voice that could be heard from the living room, he passed your bag to you as you walked away. “Hey kiddo, did mom pick you up early?” The boy looked up from his spot on the couch and nodded with a smile on his face acknowledging you. Bakugou placed his bag on the floor and went straight to the younger boy and sat with him drinking his cold beverage. You skipped up the stairs and threw your bag to the ground once you made it to your room. The walk back to where the two boys were was quiet, too quiet. On the last step, you felt something hit you on the back of your head, your hand moved to feel it and you were surprised to find something sticky and wet touching your fingers. Your body tensed up as laughter erupted from behind you, your other hand went up to your hair as you tried picking it out of your hair. Bakugou’s face had a grin and as your fingers kept at it, they were pulling and picking, and yet you couldn’t seem to get it all.

Your fingers were coated in a sticky substance as you turned around looking at the pair. Tears pricked your eyes and Bakugou stopped high-fiving your brother.

“Why did you guys-” Bakugou’s face fell and he walked over to you, pushing your brother out of the way before any tears fell.

“Stop. Stop pulling at it or it’ll be harder to get out. We can get it out Y/n.” He grabbed your hands lightly and held them in his own. A few of your fingers had the gum on it, he could see the remnants of it and he pulled you away from the staircase into the kitchen. Bakugou’s hands felt warm, you could feel them against the back of your hands as he made you wash your hands in the sink. “We can use peanut butter to get it out. We’ll get it out Y/n.” You heard Bakugou mumbling when he dried your hands. Apologies left his mouth in a hurry as he told your brother to go back to the couch, he walked over to the pantry and grabbed the peanut butter. “I’m sorry, we didn’t think you would try and get it out. We didn’t mean for it to get out of hand. Your brother just wanted to get you now since he didn’t earlier. I should’ve stopped him.” You were starting to freak out again and your hands instinctively went to your hair again.

“Bakugou, we’re gonna have to cut it. I have to cut my hair and he doesn’t like short hair. Todoroki won’t like me with short hair.” Bakugou felt his chest constrict at your words and he stopped what he was doing with the jar of peanut butter he had grabbed from the pantry. The front door opened and your mom walked through,

“Hey guys I’m back from the store and I picked up- what happened?” Your mom’s confused face came into view and then the tears came. “Why is she crying? Bakugou, sweetheart why is she crying?” Your mother’s hands were on your face as she wiped the tears away. Bakugou’s hands stopped and he placed the opened jar on the countertop you were now sitting next to. “Bakugou go. Go home and we’ll call you later.” The said boy was struggling to speak as he slowly walked out of the room and grabbed his bag from the couch and then left the house without another word.

The next week and a half had passed with little to no conversation, or even glances, from the two of you. You realized just how much your life had been filled with Bakugou. From the moment you had woken up to the time you went to bed. Your thoughts were filled with the boy. Bakugou hadn’t spoken a word to you, let alone look at you, and you hadn’t spoken to the boy since the day he left your house. Your mom had decided that the gum was stuck throughout your hair and that no amount of peanut butter would get it out. That night you had gone to sleep with a new look, your semi-long hair was cut right at your shoulders and you couldn’t tell whether you liked it or not. It was different and that meant the boy you were using to get over Bakugou wouldn’t look at you anymore. Bakugou was the boy of your dreams and he had never looked at you like Todoroki used to. You had tried for months to get over Bakugou and what better way to get over someone then to date someone else, but now that your hair was short, you didn’t stand a chance with the guy.

You didn’t want your senior year to start like this and neither did he but you both couldn’t face each other just yet. The blond boy was too stubborn and with an ego like his, he hadn’t made an effort to talk to you at all, and he had school to focus on. Bakugou hadn’t talked to anyone really besides his family in that week and a half. He was upset that he hadn't seen you at all since the incident happened, upset with himself that he couldn’t even get you to spare him a glance. He was also devastated that you liked someone that wasn’t him. He wanted it to be him. He liked that you cutting your hair would get that waste of space’s attention off of you. It meant that he would’ve had you back as his best friend and not constantly trying to get the attention of some other boy. Bakugou knew he should’ve said no to your younger brother when he proposed the idea of throwing gum in your hair. He also wanted to tell you he liked your hair, he loved it. Bakugou thought you looked beautiful no matter what. He wanted to tell you but he couldn’t bring himself to talk to you, let alone look in your eyes. He wanted his best friend back, he wanted to be able to talk to you again. He hadn’t been sleeping well lately and he thinks it’s because you haven’t sent your usual goodnight texts to him. Bakugou wanted to hold your hands when you had a bad day and complain that your hands were cold. He wanted to take you out to your favorite restaurant and listen to you talk under the stars in the tree in between your guys’ houses. He wanted you.

The fourteenth day without Bakugou was when you finally decided that you had decided that enough was enough. You hated not talking to Bakugou and you desperately wanted the boy back in your life. You had gone over to his house one day after school, completely forgetting that he had after school activities on Tuesdays, you saw his mom though.

“Hi Mrs. Mitsuki, how are you?” You watched the pretty older women walk around the kitchen and you smiled at her.

“I told you that you can call me Mom.” She eyed you watching her from afar and smiled when you laughed but nodded at her. “I’m good, but I’m guessing you aren’t here for me? Bakugou’s been super quiet lately and I can tell he’s a upset but he won’t talk to me about it.” Mitsuki bit into the apple and you bounced on the heels of your feet. You couldn’t tell why you were suddenly nervous, you’ve known Bakugou’s mom since you were a baby. She helped take care of you and let you stay at her house when you didn’t want to be home, but you felt your nerves kick in for some reason. “I’ll tell him you stopped by, and make sure you talk to him honey. I know he misses you.” Mitsuki smiled towards you and left the room. You left the Bakugou household and walked the small distance back to your house, you made it to your room and grabbed your phone.

to anger issues: come to the tree tonight at midnight please, i miss you.

Midnight came sooner than you thought, and pacing the floor in your room was enough to keep you busy for a few hours about thinking of what you were going to say. With ten minutes till, you waited on the platform that his parents had put up for the two of you. The window to Bakugou’s room clicked and out came the hot-headed boy. He sat down next to you with his legs spread and arms crossed.

“I like the hair, by the way, it suits you and you look pretty. If some dumbass can’t see that, they don’t deserve you.” Bakugou let his eyes drift to you seeing you already staring, you missed him a lot. Bakugou also didn’t miss the way the color arose on your cheeks when you looked away, and it wasn’t from the cool weather outside.

“Katsuki, we need to talk. About everything.” You reminded him why you were there and grabbed his hands to hold them. He didn’t move but he squeezed your hands in a means to tell you to continue. “I’m sorry for everything, I didn’t mean for this to turn into what it is.” You let your head drop and he let out a small sigh, knowing that you would blame yourself before blaming him. “And for what it's worth, I stopped talking to Todoroki. I didn’t even like him that much.” His face broke into a smile, which you didn’t notice, upon hearing your words and you squeezed his hands this time to let him talk.

“Well for what it's worth, I don’t care. He was and never will be my problem.” He paused not really knowing what to say, he exhaled before continuing. “I am sorry for forcing you to cut your hair short.” He began and locked eyes when you finally looked up. Bakugou held your gaze when he talked, “I want things to go back to normal. I want us,” he motioned his finger in between the two of you “to be together again. To be friends.” You noticed he said friends but you tried to smile back at him. You dragged his hands towards you, and he got the hint and wrapped his hands around your waist, yours around his neck. He could read your every move and he knew that you wanted him near you. Bakugou felt you sneak your head into his neck and he tried to not let his teeth show as he smiled.

Bakugou was planning something, and you just didn’t know it yet. Things were okay with the two of you, and he could finally sleep again.

~~~

A week after everything went back to normal Bakugou, had been over at your house more than usual and you didn’t know why. It didn’t bother you but it was definitely weird that he was with you constantly especially when he told you that he liked being by himself when you were younger. The week had been filled with constant conversations from the two of you ranging between school to what you missed with one another during the week you hadn’t talked. There were small lingering touches between you and Bakugou, but you wish there was more. He seemed to be constantly touching you in some way and made sure to pay for things when you were together.

The day after the fourth day of making up with him, it was as uneventful as a Wednesday could be without Bakugou. He stayed home that day due to being sick and he claimed he’d be back at school the next day since some dumbass fever couldn’t take him down. He also said he didn’t want to get you sick, which you were thankful for, but you missed him. You pulled into your driveway and scrambled to get inside with all your belongings. You saw your parents that were in the kitchen and by the time you made it to your room, you saw your brother was sitting on your bed.

Your brother pointed at the open window, you could vaguely see the cute angry boy on the other side. You climbed out the window and made your way to him, sitting with your knees touching on the small platform, and Bakugou was waiting for you with his fingers intertwined laid in his lap. He thought you looked beautiful with your hair slightly swaying with the small breeze and how the smile never left your lips. Bakugou hopes that the smile was because of him. You started laughing and the blond boy narrowed his eyes,

“Aren’t you supposed to be sick?” The tension left his shoulders at your comment and he chuckled while watching you mess with the string at the end of your shirt.

“Just keep your mouth shut until I’m done okay?” He watched a blush rise to your cheeks and he wanted to take a picture to remember this moment forever. He took a deep breath and moved so you were facing one another directly.

“I think I’ve been in love with you for a while and I am just now realizing it. I almost lost you and yeah I would've been fine but that doesnt matter. Anyways you’re kinda slow and you sleep like a log-“

“Katsuki?”

“Shut up I’m not done.” You giggled and noticed the tips of his ears were pink.

“But you also make my heart beat faster. You make me want to be better, and to try harder with my parents. You’re the only pretty girl in our class and quite frankly I’d rather spend the rest of my life with you rather than anyone else I know.” Bakugou’s eyes were closed and you tapped his knee to get his eyes back on you. He saw tears cloud your eyes and he felt a tug at his heart.

“Will you kiss me?” You watched Bakugou as a shit eating grin overtook his face.

Bakugou moved closer to grab your face, his touch comforting, you leaned into his touch waiting for his next move. Bakugou watched your eyes fall shut when his fingers started wiping your tears, he thought he had never seen anything prettier. You were perfect in his eyes and he loved everything about you. He pushed short hair behind your ears and cupped your face. Bakugou brought his lips to yours, you smiled into it. You had only kissed one other boy before Bakugou and it was actually one of your closest friends today, Kaminari still made fun of the kiss that you both shared in seventh grade during a game of spin the bottle. This kiss though, this kiss with Bakugou was electrifying. It made you want more and your skin felt like it was on fire. You loved the way his lips felt against yours. Your hands clenched into fists before moving to rest against his face. He was warm and you thought you could hold him forever. Bakugou tilted his head and backed away to smile with his teeth before going back in, the boy couldn’t get enough of you or your lips. He’d kiss you until the end of time if you’d let him. After a few more small pecks and the slightest whine from the boy when you pulled away, you grabbed his hands off you and laced your fingers together.

“You can kiss me whenever you want but I’m kind of hungry.” He groaned and leaned in for another small kiss, surprising you, and made moves to leave. He pushed you into your room and the moment your feet were on the ground, he pulled you against his body.

“My parents wanted to go out to eat, and you’re welcome to come with. I still need to ask you something Y/n.” Your stomach filled with butterflies at the thought of his question but you smiled as you tugged his body closer to yours.

“Yeah I guess I’ll be your girlfriend, you dummy.” It was his turn to smile and he let your waist go only to bring his lips to yours again. You pushed his chest away after a few seconds,

“Also you know I never really liked Todoroki, and I was only using him to get over you cause I thought you’d never like me back.” You clutched his shirt in your hands and he rewrapped his hands around your middle.

“Good, screw that bastard. You’re too good for him.” He watched as your eyes crinkle when you laughed and he swore he fell in love again.

~~~

You thought after becoming Bakugou’s girlfriend, the pranks would stop, but it seemed to only spur him on even more, as he could repay you with kisses now. Your short hair was currently covered in baby power and when he came up behind you to hold your waist, you rubbed your head against his shirt.

“This is your fault ‘Suki.” He scoffed but you could see the smile through the mirror.

“It’s all worth it baby.” You ran your finger across the bridge of his nose and he watched you with steady eyes. Bakugou kissed your forehead and squeezed your sides. You placed your hands on his and he twisted your bodies around so you could see the other culprit, he ran away as soon as the two of you locked eyes.

“Hey! Get back here!” Bakugou retracted his hands from your sides watching as you started tickling your brother and inevitably getting baby powder everywhere. Bakugou couldn’t have been happier, he finally had the girl of his dreams and he was so lucky that he fell for someone like you.

~~~

taglist: | @bnhabookclub |

masterlist | bingo mlist | kofi

[cozykozume]

Growing Pains

Slow Burn Tendou x f!reader

Chapter Four - No Friends are better than Mean Friends

WC: 1554

OC’s below:

Daiki, Ho-sook, Jules, Sofia - Readers high-school friends

Jazmin - Daichi’s girlfriend

Lysette - Ushijima’s girlfriend

Ayanna - Kuroo's girlfriend

I have tried to keep any identifying information out (body type, skin tone, hair color, etc.) but there may be some instances where it alludes to a curvier y/n.

Thank you so so much to all my beta readers so far, especially @hispipsqueak, @lemonadencran and @anime-nymph​

One thing you hated was that when you made a promise, it was extremely important that you kept the promise. Even if it was one you made to yourself. Which meant when Friday rolled around, you had prepped yourself the best you could to talk to them about this. You hadn’t really been able to talk to them since your semester started, usually using Friday night as time to catch up on homework or even get ahead in some classes. When they decided Friday nights for group calls, your opinion wasn’t really taken into consideration because that time worked for everyone else.

You settled onto your bed, laptop set up and snacks ready to go as you expected this to be a long call as it always had been with your friends. As you jumped into the call, turning your camera on you immediately noticed the silence in the call. “Uhh hey guys…” You said, unsure if there was a reason for the uncomfortable vibe you were getting from everyone. Sofia looked up from her phone, giving you a tight smile before her eyes dropped back down to her phone. Daiki and Jules barely acknowledged your presence, giving you a half hearted hello. The only person to actually greet you was Ho-Sook. “Hey y/n!” She said, her chipper voice bringing a wave of calmness over you as you took in the situation. “Sooo what’s up with the silent treatment guys?” You asked, reaching over for your sweatshirt that you had thrown on your bed that morning. “Us? Giving you the silent treatment?” Jules said, his voice coming out sharper than you expected.

You tilted your head, confusion taking over your face as you tried to remember what you might have done to upset your friends. “You realize that we have these calls every Friday night. And this is the first one that you could be bothered to join in over a month.” Daiki announced, Sofia and Jules nodding in agreement. “Come on guys. Adjusting to school isn’t easy I’m sure. It's not like y/n was purposely avoiding us.” Ho-Sook chimed in, a small smile on her face as she tried to calm the sudden tension in the call.  

You sat there, stunned as you stared at the screen. Thinking back, each time they invited you to join them, you always let them know exactly why you couldn’t make it. Whether it was a group project you needed to work on or getting caught up on work, you always communicated with them what was going on. You did have a tendency to leave out the part about Tendou, but still, you had not really hung out with him a whole lot in the evenings, especially on Friday nights. “I’ve always let you guys know why I couldn’t make it to our calls. I didn’t do it on purpose…” You replied, feeling uncomfortable with the way they were approaching the situation.

“Oh yeah. But you have plenty of time to fuck around with that red headed dude all day?” Daiki said, his tone dripping with attitude. Your emotions must have been written across your face because you could not recall how they would have had any clue about Tendou. “Yeah babes. Snapchat. We might not use it a lot, but we do still get on there. And you sure seem to post him a lot on there.” Daiki continued.

“So you’re mad because I made friends at school to hang out with? Shouldn’t you be happy that I was able to find people to spend my time with? As my friends, shouldn’t you want me to be happy and comfortable where I am?” You questioned, your attitude quickly matching that of your supposed friends.

“I mean...I’m not really mad about it, you know? It's not like she ignored us or ghosted us. She always lets us know why she can’t hang out with us…” Ho-Sook mumbled, clearly just as uncomfortable as you were with the conversation. Jules finally snapped, “We said we weren’t going to change. We PROMISED we wouldn’t change. You’ve been gone barely two months and boom. You have a whole set of new friends and you just threw us to the side. Were we even your friends to begin with? Because you sure seemed to have no issues getting rid of us that quick.”

You could feel tears forming in your eyes, not because you were upset by what he was saying. You were mad. No, you were furious. “First of all, life happens. Do you just expect to stay the same person you were in high school forever? The point of me going away to school was to experience new things, meet new people and discover myself and all that shit. I can’t do that while still staying the same person I was. I thought you knew that. In order to grow you have to change. You can’t grow while still staying the same. That’s literally a contradiction. Growing means change and it should be change for the better. And honestly, I think I am growing and changing for the better. The times you guys would ignore my calls and texts? I never got angry about it because I knew that you all were living your life and busy. The only person who ever called me back was Ho-Sook, and she's been the one keeping me up to date on everything. I may not have made the best effort I could to make our weekly hang out calls, but you guys didn’t try to reach out to me when I tried to connect. We have to meet each other halfway in order for us to stay close.” Tears falling down your face as your firsts shook, anger coursing through your body.

“Really? Because we all seemed to have no issues meeting each other halfway. It was you who couldn’t be bothered to meet us.” Sofia said, barely looking up from her phone to address you. Once again, Ho-Sook came to your defense, “I mean we did decide on Friday nights without really giving y/n a choice because it worked best for us…” Sofia dropped her phone in her lap, fully looking at her computer screen for the first time that evening. “Really Ho-Sook? Why do you keep defending her, knowing she's the one in the wrong?”

“You know what? Fuck it. Clearly you guys had no intention of actually hanging out tonight. This was just a chance for you to air your grievances with me and that's fine. This isn’t how friendships are supposed to work. They are suppos-” Daiki interrupted you, his voice dripping with disdain, “And how would you know what friendships are supposed to be? We’re your only friends and have been since high school. I doubt anyone from our high school would even remember you if you ran into them. We started hanging out with you because Ho-Sook took pity on you and didn’t want you to be all alone.”

It felt like someone took a baseball bat to your stomach while also kneeing you in the chest. You wiped the tears off your face, nodding your head as you gathered your thoughts. “Honestly, I’m not surprised. Things always felt a little off, with the exception of Ho-Sook. And even if she did take pity on me, she never made me feel that way.”

You look at your screen, thinking over the last 30 minutes or so and trying to figure out how you all had gotten there. Before anyone could say anything else, you closed out of the call. You weren’t sure how you were feeling, a weird mix of emotions filling your chest. You sat on your bed, your laptop still open and sitting in your lap as you stared off long into space. A thousand thoughts ran through your mind, but one recurring thought was Tendou. You wanted to be around him right now, you wanted to hear him laugh, cracking jokes with you as you snacked on random foods he would bring for you. You miss the way the corners of his eyes crinkled just a bit when he smiled really big, and honestly those were your favorite. The way he looked into you like no one else had in your life. There was something about that stare that could take your jumbled mind and slow it down, even for just a moment.  

Your phone pinged, finally drawing you back into reality. It was like Tendou knew when you were too lost in your head because he somehow always brought you out of it. You looked down to a slew of messages, each one making you smile.

Tendou: Okay I’m not sure what you’re doing but you have to watch this video

You opened the message, staring down at it while you attempted to put together a coherent thought. A few minutes pass, your mind drawing you back in before another ping brings you out.

Tendou: You know you have your read receipts on right?

Tendou: That video was only 30 seconds long!

Tendou: No. There’s no way you’re gonna tell me you didn’t think that was funny right?!

You picked your phone up, finally able to put together an actual thought.

Y/n: Hey do you wanna hang out?

[cindersandroses]

Digital Get Down, Chapter 5

AUTHORS: cindersandroses ( losille2000 and cinderella1181)

CHAPTERS: 5/?

PAIRING: Actor!Henry Cavill/ Plus-Size OFC

GENRE: Romance/Fluff/HUMOR

FIC SUMMARY: When SuperHank met OrcPrincessPeach on the World of Warcraft message boards, it was love at first raid. Now, almost a year later, they’re ready to take the next step and meet in person. Half a world away from each other, both decide to meet in Atlanta for DragonCon, since she was already going to be there for her work as a game designer at Blizzard… never mind that she is a devout nerd. They both have to face the fact that reality is very different from a digital world.

RATING: Mature

WARNING: Mentions of assault.

AUTHORS NOTES: Love you all!

Also on AO3!

Chapter 5

Opal turned to the side as she looked at herself in the full length mirror on the back of the closet door. She smoothed the front of her dress over her rounded belly and picked at the slight ruching that was meant to help hide her imperfections along with the black color of the dress, but it did neither. There’d be no hiding anything. This was about as bodycon as one could get, and indeed she bought it a long time ago because she thought she looked hot in the form fitting silk. As soon as she got it home, though, and really looked at herself wearing it in the harsh light of day, she put it away, in the back of her closet with the other beautiful clothes she’d bought but never found the courage to wear.  

That was changing. Now. Today. Okay, not today. But as soon as she walked back into her house. She planned to go straight to her closet and pull them all out and wear each of them as soon as she had the right opportunity or occasion. Considering that most of them were on the fancier side of things, meant for dates, she figured she’d have more chances to wear them now, anyway.

Even though she and Henry would literally be halfway across the globe from each other after this weekend. She couldn’t dwell on that fact, though. If she did, then the sadness set in. She refused to let that particular emotion claw its way back. They’d make it work if it was going to work. It wasn’t like she couldn’t just take her computer places and work there.

If she could convince her boss to allow frequent trips.

And it wasn’t like he didn’t also spend part of his time in Los Angeles. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Henry walked by behind her, drawing her attention away from those troubling thoughts. He fumbled with the cufflink on his left shirt cuff. She was going to make a quip about it, but the words died on her lips when she noticed he looked at her like a fat kid looked at cake. He licked his lips, smiled, and walked into the bathroom.

She couldn’t help but blush. She never would’ve believed he was truly stealing glances at her, but that notion had been squashed earlier at the spa. In fact, now she was hyper aware of his long, molten stares. 

And it was all because of the wonderful esthetician who completed her facial after their massage. What had started out as a traumatic experience ended up making her feel the most confident she’d ever felt in her own skin, thanks in part to Jessa the esthetician’s enlightening conversation. 

“He’s looking at you like you are the purest water and he’s just had some hot sauce.” 

Opal giggled, and blushed, looking at the woman.  “I just keep thinking he’s going to be like, ‘Ugh, not my type’ and leave, Jessa.” 

“Girl, please. You got one of those peach bottoms that men love to get a handful of. You already got him eating out of your hand, he’s not stopped glancing over here this whole time,” Jessa said, putting her hand on her hip. “And if he does do that, I got a handful of fine brothers who would eat that peach bottom up. So you just let Jessa know and I’ll hook you up.”

The comment made Opal laugh loudly, disturbing the serenity of the spa and resulted in a few perturbed glares from other clients. Henry had glanced up, one eyebrow raised in interest. She smiled at him sweetly and he went back to his shave. Opal smiled. “Thank you, Jessa. I’ll keep you updated.”  

Opal had made sure to slip Jessa an extra tip, even though she was sure Henry had tipped everyone well. Stingy wasn’t really a word she would use to describe this man, not materially or emotionally. 

Or physically.

Definitely not physically. He liked touching. Being affectionate.

She did not; or, more aptly, she was not used to it in the romantic sense. But she wasn’t even that affectionate with her family. There were a few hugs here and there as a child, but they weren’t overly huggy. And then there was the other thing he didn’t know about, because she never talked about it, that prevented her from initially enjoying his touches.

It was getting easier, though, the more he touched her. She found, with some relief, that she actually quite liked being close to him in that way. Perhaps there was hope for her, after all.

Opal moved away from the mirror and followed his trail to the bathroom. She rested a hip on the door jamb and watched him finish his grooming. He saw her in the mirror and smiled. 

“Like what you see?” he asked, that insidious brow raised.

“Nah,” she said with a grin. “I was just thinking about how you use twice the product I do.”

Henry rubbed his hands on a hand towel to remove the remnants of whatever moisturizer he’d used on his freshly shaved jaw. “That’s because it takes a lot to make me look this good. You’re already bloody gorgeous, so you don’t need it.”

Her cheeks heated and she shifted her weight awkwardly on her bare feet. Why were compliments so difficult to take? 

“And as an answer to your question, I do like what I see,” she replied. “I appreciate your efforts. But I also love getting to just observe each other. That’s what we were missing over the last year.”

Henry stopped and smiled at her. “I watched you getting ready, and that’s why I’m so behind. I couldn’t stop watching you. You are enchanting,” he whispered. 

The air caught in her lungs upon hearing the deep gravelliness of his sentiment. He closed the distance between them. The hunger, the lust, the pain, the joy, the need, all passed across his face. He leaned down and brushed his lips across her temple.  “We’re going to make a hell of a couple tonight, Princess.”

“Yes, we are,” she replied breathlessly. 

“Let me finish getting ready. You are distracting.” 

Opal giggled. “Pot, kettle.” 

She moved away from the door and went back to the bed to struggle into the sky high heels she had thought would be great to wear, but now she regretted the decision to pack them. Her feet were going to ache by the end of the night. But--the minx inside her reminded--that could possibly lead to another massage. This time, just with Henry. 

As she finished up the last buckle on the strappy things and stretched her legs out to check how they looked, she noticed Henry watching from across the room with a glazed look in his eyes. She laughed at him, because it was the exact same look she’d had as he secured the waistcoat around his trim torso.  “This… me putting on shoes shut you down?”

Henry reanimated with a shrug. “I have a thing for really high strappy, almost slutty, heels. Nothing like…” He stopped and blushed slightly. “Uh, never mind.”

Opal stood up and went over to him, just barely shorter than him now, and grinned. “I will have to remember that for later,” she replied. 

“Oh, god, please do. Bonus points for silk stockings and the whole belt contraption,” he murmured.

She giggled. “You know, men and women are so different. You want the littlest piece of clothing on me, but I’d rather see you in a three piece suit.”

“I can fuck in a three piece suit just as well as I can without,” he teased.

His comment, and the harsh word, caught her off guard. Taking the opportunity, he went over to grab his cell phone. He beckoned her with a crooked finger. “Come here.” 

She didn’t ask for clarification or even think about it; her feet in their dangerous footwear moved of their volition. When she reached him, he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her head, all while snapping a quick picture. He looked at it, smiled, and turned it around for her to view.

Her cheeks were high with color. Her skin glowed; her eyes sparkled. Her smile showed almost every one of her teeth. Everything about it made her seem so vital, so alive, so… beautiful. She had never seen herself so happy. Simply being near him made her want to beam from ear to ear. 

He smiled softly. “Now you see what I see when I look at you.”

“I don’t always look like this,” she protested.

“You do,” he replied. “Let me send this to you so you can send it to Amber.”

Opal shifted uncomfortably. She’d completely forgotten about sending Amber a picture. What kind of friend was she, anyway? 

“We can’t bring our phones tonight,” he explained. “Something about making sure nothing unflattering gets out.” 

Opal looked up at him and nodded. “Okay. Let me just send Amber a text telling her I’m going out for the night.” 

She saved the picture to her phone and opened up the text stream with her friend. She took the picture, sent it, and wrote, “I don’t think I ever expected my Hank to be this real. Going out for the night. Talk to you in the morning.”

She plugged her phone in, stood up, and took Henry’s hand. “Okay. Let’s go.” 

 ~~~

Opal stood in the atrium of the Georgia Aquarium and sighed. She was enchanted. She’d been here a ton of times before at previous cons, but never on a night specifically designed to be an intimate cocktail party with all of the con’s celebrity guests.  

What actually was her life right now? 

Henry talked to Dany and Dwayne, and she couldn’t get over the fact that she was standing next to The Rock. How many times had she sat next to her brothers while they watched this giant man wrestle? If someone had told her this was going to be her life when she left Los Angeles the night before, she’d have told them they were lying. It was all a little surreal.

Dany smiled at her, obviously picking up on the fact that she had zoned out and had literal stars in her eyes.  “So, Opal, what do you do?” 

Opal hummed and blinked at her. “Yeah, sorry. I’m a designer and programmer for Blizzard. I have been there, oh gosh, almost ten years now. Best job I have ever had.”

“And you live with?” Dany inquired. 

Opal understood Dany’s reticence to accept her into the group. Dany didn’t want anything to harm the business, and even though she seemed tough, she clearly cared deeply for both men as friends. Still, though, Opal didn’t think she gave off a crazy fan vibe.

“My best friend, from like middle school,” Opal said, moving to stand closer to Dany. She leaned in to speak quietly.  “I know you’re worried about me using him, I get that, trust me. If I was in your position I would, too. But honestly, Dany, I didn’t even know he was him… until this morning when I arrived. I just thought he was a dorky British guy named Hank. That was it. In the months leading up to this I just got to know his heart and who he is, not Henry Cavill, God’s gift to women. I knew SuperHank, the cleric who runs around healing people, because he is that guy. I got to know the Hank who was shy and loved to cook and gets excited about Warhammer and new fantasy novels. Who tells me constantly that I am worthy and beautiful.” 

Dany beamed at her. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.” 

“And frankly, you scare me a little bit, so I won’t do anything untoward,” Opal said.

Dany laughed and flexed a bicep. “Don’t you forget it.”

“I won’t.”

“But seriously, Opal,” she said and grabbed Opal’s hand. “He needs someone he can love with his whole being, and I’ve never seen him happier than when he has spoken to me about you.” She squeezed her hand. “It’s not going to be easy, but I promise to make sure you’re okay and safe, and that you can be with him.”

Opal grinned. “He is pretty special.” She looked beside her, expecting to find him there.  “And... gone, apparently.”

Lauren smiled at her.  “He and Dwayne went to get some drinks.” 

Opal felt her stomach clench. She tried to smile, but before she could muster one, Henry was back by her side. He handed her a flute of champagne. “Here, Princess.” 

Opal took the glass from him and didn’t say a word. Her jaw clenched and it took everything in her to stop her hand from shaking. 

Henry frowned. “Is that okay? Do you want something else?”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s fine,” she replied and tried to smile again. Even though she couldn’t see it, she knew it came off as more of a grimace because of the expression Henry returned. He knew something was wrong, but the words to explain it to him failed to form on her tongue.

Not that she really had the chance to say anything, anyway. A loud, booming voice rang out across the atrium, “LITTLE BRUDDA!!!”

Opal spun around and watched in abject horror as two grown men raced towards each other and chest bumped each other like drunken frat boys.

Dwayne shook his head.  “Seriously, you two? We’re in public.” 

Henry came back and smiled.  “Jason, my man, this… is Opal.” 

Jason looked at her, his eyebrow raised.  “Well, hello there, beautiful. I’m Jason…” He took her free hand and kissed the back of it. “If he gives you any trouble, let me know.”

Opal blushed. “Thank you. I will.”

Dazzled once more by the Man Also Known As Khal Drogo, Henry startled her with a hand on the small of her back. She looked up at him, still holding the flute from which she had not yet had a drop of champagne.

Henry leaned down into her ear. “Do you want me to get something else for you?”

She shook her head.  “No, I just, uh… I’m going to get my own drink.” 

She excused herself and headed over to the bar, trying to convince herself that she wasn’t running away from him and running away from the conversation she should have already had with him, even before they both decided to meet here in Atlanta. 

She wasn’t in line long when she felt his presence behind her. 

“Are you okay?” he asked again, concern written all over his face.

“I am, honestly. I just… well… it’s stupid. I don’t drink anything that I don’t see poured myself, and I very rarely drink alcohol in public. I should have told you. It’s just my hang up and, gah... I’m sorry I freaked out a little bit.”

Henry’s eyebrows knit together. He nodded, but he clearly wanted more. 

“Let me get my drink and we’ll take a walk and talk, okay?” she asked, hoping to smooth things over.

He nodded and stood quietly with her. Even though he was clearly confused and maybe a little angry, his presence was still one that calmed her and she found herself resting against his sturdy bulk as they waited. Opal ordered her cranberry juice in a martini glass. To anyone other than herself and Henry, it looked like a Cosmo. It was her fallback when she wanted to hang out with the cool kids but didn’t want to do what the cool kids were doing. Because that one time she did what the cool kids were doing? She lived to regret it.

She took his hand and started to walk through the first exhibit. Opal paused at a tube enclosure in the middle of the room full of jellies. A black light shone down into the water, illuminating the sea creatures as they performed a graceful, haunting dance around their tank. She stood quietly, Henry standing next to her, silent, thinking. 

Finally, she cleared her throat from the heavy emotion making it difficult to breathe. “I was drugged.”

Henry’s fingers curled into her back. Though he tried to mask the sharp intake of air, his gasp was still audible. “Opal, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because,” she said, just barely above a whisper. “It wasn’t just that. Amber and I were freshmen in college and I wanted to fit in. We went to a frat party. A guy we had art history with invited us.”

His anger was palpable; it wasn’t anger directed at her, though. Somehow, she knew that, as she stared at the gelatinous orbs bobbing through the water. She took a sip of the cranberry juice before moving on.

“I woke up the next morning, head fuzzy, in a room I had never seen before, and my panties around my ankles.” She braved a look up at Henry, to gauge his reaction. The sharp line of his jaw was set, his rage evident.

For some reason, it was cathartic to share this secret with another human. Amber knew, of course. Amber had nursed her back from the brink after they got home from the hospital.

“It’s the reason I pull away sometimes when you touch me, and the reason I am so unsure of myself. I’m sorry I never told you before, but you have a right to know.”

Henry didn’t speak; he looked at a point beyond her, staring in stony silence for the longest time. He finally tore his focus away from that point and gazed down at her. His face spoke volumes, even before his words did. He rested his chin on her head and wrapped her in his arms. “You know I would never, ever do that.”

“Oh, no, I do! I just… I want so badly for you to touch me, to be yours, I just need… time,” she said. “I don’t even know if I’m actually a virgin or not. I don’t know what they did to me. The next morning, Amber took me to the ER and a rape kit was done, but it was inconclusive. I’m sorry if this changes the way you feel about being with me.”

Henry pulled away from her and put his drink on the floor. He took her face gently in his hands. “I never, ever would feel any different about you. I just… I understand now.” He kissed her forehead, but didn’t move his lips from the spot they’d touched. His next words were muffled, but the meaning behind them was everything. “My promise to you is that I will not hurt you, and it’s all going to be at your pace.”

She smiled and pushed his hands away from her face. With her free hand, she reached up and let her hand rest on the nape of his neck. “Well, then, we can do this, cause I’m very ready for it.” 

With little strength, she pulled him down to her and kissed him. It wasn’t passionate or chaste; it was somewhere in the middle. A reassurance. A promise. Her promise to be as open with him as possible. His cue that she was okay with him pushing her boundaries. And she loved him for it.

[imissjoongsmullet]

My Prince (3)

Pairing: Minghao x reader

Genre: fluff/(angst)

Summary: Life is not exactly easy being the royal gardeners’ daughter but at least it’s simple. When you’re suddenly called upon to serve as the prince’s personal servant, things get a little more than complicated, especially considering the secret history you and the prince share.

Part 1

Part 2

Warnings: general angstiness, a bit of a slow burn, very romantic, very soft, the fact that this will most likely become a long series cause I have no chill

Word Count: 3.5K

Author’s Note: it’s here finally! Sorry this took so long, (computer problems ehh) Also, I really love this series and I don’t just wanna keyboard smash it ^^ I hope this fluffy little chapter brightens your day/night ♥ to everyone supporting this, thank you, I love you!! ♥

Alsoooo any kind of feedback literally makes my day, like serotonin through the roof I’m telling you, so please feel free to let me know what you think ♥

►

You slept terribly that night. The distraught look on Minghao’s face covered the walls of your mind like some gruesome mural. It occurred to you then, that even though you saw so much of the young prince’s life, you hadn’t fully understood the weight he’d been carrying all this time. It wasn’t only the weight of his father’s expectations; it was the weight of a hole empire. Millions counted on him to be their savior. No one had ever even asked him what he wanted.

When you brought him his tea the following morning, you were all the more prudent. You opened the door noiselessly and tiptoed in. He was fast asleep. You set down your tray and began preparing the tea as you considered your next course of action. You carefully cut up the fresh herbs you’d taken from the garden before sunrise, hoping their properties might alleviate some of his stress, and added them into the mixture as well. Your eyes kept finding him in the sheets, so serene and content; so unlike him, surely, when he would wake.

Gingerly, you made your way to his bedside, small cup between your fingers.

“Your highness,” you said so softly it was nearly a whisper, though it still felt intrusive to the dead quiet of morning.

His brows furrowed but he did not wake.

“Minghao.” His name slipped out before you could catch yourself.

The prince let out a drowsy moan and shifted, pulling his sheets close to himself.

You couldn’t do it.

With a sigh, you set his tea down beside the bed and rose. You weren’t sure about the consequences of your actions but knew it was the right thing to do.

“The prince isn’t feeling well,” you explained as the emperor and his wife sat down for breakfast.

Xu Yilan looked at you in silence for a while, his eyes piercing. Then he raised his eyebrows and said in a cold voice, “very well,” before turning to his food, indicating the conversation had ended.

You spent the rest of the morning in the prince’s quarters. You remembered Minghao had told you to leave him alone but you were worried about him, so you sat in the corner of his room, doing random chores. You polished his crown and jewelry until they shone like mirrors. You folded his robes and sheets, finding you were finally starting to get better at keeping the creases out. More than often you looked toward the bed, but the prince was clearly enjoying the extra hours of sleep, for he did not rouse.

It was nearly noon when you heard movement behind you. You laid the newly folded sheets in his dresser and turned to see Minghao shift. Your heart lurched and your whole body began to prickle with nerves as you watched him slowly but surely wake up. Flustered, you bent back over your work, folding sheets in the corner on the floor as if you’d heard nothing. The rustling behind you came in bursts until it finally stopped.

“What time is it?” His voice was gravelly.

You steadied your breath before answering. “It’s noon, your highness,” you said, “I’ve alerted the emperor you’re not feeling well.” Hearing the words come out of your mouth now, you felt foolish. You hadn’t asked permission to do anything. Who knew the kind of trouble you’d thrown upon him by doing this. And the silence that followed your explanation wasn’t reassuring in the slightest.

“What did he say?” Minghao responded at last.

You turned to him, still on your knees, keeping your eyes on the floor. “Not much,” you said, “but you’re excused from activities for the time being.”

Another silence followed in which you stared at the shiny wooden floor hoping it might swallow you whole. You were so caught up in your own nerves you barely heard his response when it did come.

“Thank you.” 

You looked up at him, finding his eyes on you. He didn’t smile but there was a genuine kindness radiating from his face that made the tension ebb from your shoulders.

He let you prepare some of your fresh tea and while he drank, you hurried to the kitchens to fetch his breakfast.

“Have you eaten?” he asked as you set the tray down onto his bed.

You hadn’t; you’d forgotten all about it, worrying about him.

“Have some,” he went on, gesturing to the food, “you’ve brought far too much for me to finish by myself.”

You felt your face heat up. “I couldn’t,” you mumbled, looking away.

To your surprise, you heard him chuckle softly, “it’s really fine, don’t worry. Have some.”

Hesitating, you sat down on the edge of his bed. He slid the tray your way so it sat between the two of you.

“Here,” he said, offering you his chopsticks.

Your eyes went wide as you stared at his hands. A prince sharing his cutlery with a servant was about as unheard of as a snowstorm in July. There was no way you could let him—

Without warning, he took hold of your hand and placed the chopsticks in your palm. Then he proceeded to pick up a dumpling with his bare hand, putting it past his lips.

You were dumbfounded. You hadn’t seen him this improper since— well, since you were children. The tiniest smile crept onto your lips. You stifled it as you picked up some fried egg and allowed yourself to have breakfast with the prince.

After you were both stuffed with comforting breakfast foods he took you to the library, where he huddled over his books and you continued your search for his missing book. A Vast Unfathomable Secret, brown cover, gold foiling, lily on the cover… it was a near impossible challenge but you wanted to succeed now more than ever. You pulled out book after book in the beautiful, tall-ceilinged room, only to put them back where they came from. You were getting quite tired and your eyes hurt from peering at all those symbols you didn’t know how to read. But you kept going, knowing how much it’d mean to Minghao if you managed to locate it.

After hours of searching, much of you initial gusto had died out, buried under repeated disappointment. The sleepiness was getting to you as well; you’d woken up so early. You were so out of it, it took you a few moments of dead-eyed staring before you noticed the little flower on one of the covers. Realization hitting, you let out a tiny gasp as your fingers wrapped tight around the brown covered book.

“I—” you breathed, starting to step down the ladder, “I think I found it.”

Minghao tore his head from his book, looking to you expectantly.

“Is this it?” you asked, holding out the brown, leather thing.

He glanced at it and the momentary excitement in his eyes died out.

“That’s not the title,” he said, frowning up at you from his seat, “see?” He took the book and showed you the cover, where a string of symbols read what was apparently not A Vast Unfathomable Secret.

“I’m sorry,” you said simply, not knowing what else to say.

He continued to look at you quizzically. After a long pause he let out a long sigh. 

“you don’t know how to read.”

Embarrassment washed over you as you stood there, fumbling with your hands. “I was never taught.”

Something in him softened. “You should have said something.”

“I’m sorry,” you replied, cringing at yourself.

“Don’t apologize.” He shook his head as his eyes searched yours. “Sit down.” He gestured at the small space next to him at his table.

Without a word, you got down on your knees and sat beside him, feeling all of a sudden very hot. Minghao slid aside his own book, then opened the book you’d given him and laid it open on the table between you.

You stared at the countless symbols on the page, brain going haywire.

“It’s not that hard,” he said, small smile playing at his lips. And then he began reading out loud, his velvety voice filling the air around you. This was a children’s book, you realized; a fairytale. Your parents had told you this story when you were a child. It was about a farmer whose onions came to life and stole people’s toenails. There was a lesson in there somewhere about greed, but you didn’t really remember. Minghao read the first page, slowly, before sliding the book a bit closer to you.

You shook your head. “I can’t—”

“I’ll teach you,” he interrupted and without pause started explaining the meaning of the various symbols.

It was a slow job, and you were sure the prince had better things to do, but he sat there with you all afternoon, going over the story sentence by sentence, character by character. By the time the sun started to go down and natural light was fleeing the room, your head was drowning in new information in the best way possible. You never thought you’d be able to learn something like this.

“We should probably continue this some other time,” Minghao said, looking up at the darkening room.

You nodded, feeling a little guilty for taking up so much of his time.

“Thank you, your highness,” you said quietly.

“I’m glad to help,” he replied. Then he cast his eyes downward, thinking for a moment. “Actually, I wanted to apologize.” He sighed and looked back up at you. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you last night.”

“I—” you stuttered, “It’s okay, I understand.”

He gave a weak smile.

You could tell there was a lot going on behind those warm brown eyes of his. Part of you wanted to reach out and comfort him in some sort of way but you realized you’d have no idea where to start.

“Minghao—” you spoke up but the boy was already rising from the floor.

“Let’s go for a walk,” he said.

You trailed behind him along the deck outside the library, wondering what had gotten into the young prince. He felt more like he did years ago, like a carefree boy with all the time in the world. But there was something else as well, you couldn’t help but notice. You were practically watching him bury it deeper within himself with every footstep.

“You want to go see the orchards?” he said, turning around to you with a mischievous grin.

Exhilaration rushed through you at the thought; you hadn’t visited the orchards since you’d come to the castle.

“It’s nearly time for dinner,” you said but the prince wasn’t fazed. He merely continued smiling at you and reached out his hand.

Eying him with suspicion you took his hand — a gesture that set about a million butterflies loose in your stomach.

“Come on,” he said, flinging a leg over the railing of the deck. You watched him crawl to the other side as you clung to his hand, hoping he wouldn’t loose balance and fall down to the grass below. Then he was pulling you over as well. You felt tremendously awkward in your long robes and flimsy slippers. Minghao took notice and grabbed your other hand as well, keeping you balanced until you slid to the other side right next to him.

“I used to do this a lot as a child,” he said, smiling into the evening sky.

“I can tell,” you answered unable to stifle a nervous laugh.

He looked at you, amused. “It’s not that far down,” he promised, “on three?”

You barely had the time to think for he was already counting, then taking your hand again and jumping off the deck.

The fall to the tall grass down below was soft and once your heart had calmed itself, an overwhelming glee filled you. You were out.

Minghao pulled you up by the hands, laughing. “See? It’s not so scary.”

You walked through the unruly grass until it gave out to a large row of bushes. You slid between the branches, trying not to rip your clothes, finally entering the vast area that was the royal gardens. From there, you knew exactly where to go. You walked up a naturally pebbled path, over the wooden bridge of a narrow stream, through the famous rose gardens, until you reached the start of the apple orchard. It looked enchanted in the full moonlight, the ripe apples near glistening on the trees. You felt yourself relax in their presence.

���Dinner is served,” Minghao said, strolling up to the first tree and pulling a perfectly round apple from its branches. He bit into its flesh, the sound of it’s crisp juiciness penetrating the night’s quiet.

You walked up beside him, taking an apple for yourself. The moment your teeth dug into the fruit, you remembered the countless times you’d done this, back when you tended the gardens on a daily basis. The joy of picking your food right from nature’s generous hands overwhelmed you. In the last few months you’d nearly forgotten all about it. So much had changed.

Minghao was already sauntering through the trees towards what you knew was the orange trees. He’d always liked those best. You followed him up the small slope and around a bend where about a dozen trees stood in a circle. It was easy to hide away here.

He threw you an orange and immediately continued picking more for himself. You waited for him in the center of the clearing, smiling when he finally joined you, carrying a hefty amount of fruit in his arms.

You spent a good part of night there, between the trees. You sat, peeling and sharing oranges, gazing up at the sky and recollecting stories of times long past. The whole thing felt like a dream, too good to be true. It felt like a big, fat rock had been plunged into the lake that was your feelings for Minghao, sending the water flying everywhere. His smile made you deliciously lightheaded and his laugh had you feeling like you wouldn’t feel an ounce of sadness ever again. You wanted nothing but to spend more time with him. You knew it was a path destined to lead to destruction but you shut out those thoughts stubbornly because every time the prince looked your way the stars came out inside of you, lighting you up from within.

The days of summer seemed endless. They belonged to you and the prince alone. Minghao was still avoiding his parents and determent to spend most of his time with you, either in the library, teaching you to read, in his quarters, having dinner in bed, or in the extensive gardens, where you could hide away from everyone. You did hear words of concern here and there. The maids whispered amongst themselves when you walked by and Tou Ma had even ordered you to talk some sense into the prince. But no matter how good of a point the head servant made, you refused to take in the advice.

“—and his toenails had disap—”

“—disappeared,” Minghao completed your sentence, index finger underlining the text.

You exhaled and shifted on your little floor cushion next to him. “It’s hard.”

“You must be tired. Let’s end it here for now,” he said, breaking out into a sheepish smile, “sorry, I tend to get carried away with books.”

“I know,” you said, glancing his way. You loved way he immersed himself in his books. It had always fascinated you, especially considering how foreign the idea of reading had always been for you. The fact that he was sharing something so dear to him meant more to you than you’d ever admit to his face.

“Why do you love it so much?” you asked out of the blue.

Minghao scrunched up his nose in thought. “Reading? I don’t know.” He closed the book, letting his fingers graze it’s sot leather cover. “I suppose it’s a way for me to travel outside the castle, to do different things, be different things.” His eyes narrowed as he let silence take over again.

You nodded, letting the information sink in. You felt an overwhelming urge to put your arm around him, to lay your head on his shoulder, but you just sat there, picking at your nails under the low table. You wanted to ask him more about the kind of traveling he’d like to do but, here too, your bravery failed you. In the end, you decided to ask him a different question entirely; one you’d been meaning to ask for weeks.

“What’s A Vast Unfathomable Secret about?”

He clearly hadn’t expected the question.

“Nothing,” he answered at last with a wave of his hand.

“Nothing?”

“Yes, nothing.”

You eyed him shiftily. “But it’s important?”

“It’s important.”

A chuckle escaped your lips.

“Don’t laugh,” he said with feigned disdain, “you’re making a fool of a royal.”

His fake-proper tone only made you laugh more.

“Oh I’m quite serious,” he went on smirking and pointing a finger at you.

“Uhuh, yeah I’m listening,” you giggled, nearly falling over on your cushion.

He reached out and took your wrists, trying to still you. “I could have you executed for treason.”

“Oh no!” you let out before breaking out into another fit of laughter that sent you both to the floor.

For a moment he was unbelievably close, hovering over you, laughing. But the next, his eyes went wide and he pulled away, scrambling up and starting to clear up the table without another word.

That evening, he took you or a short stroll around the gardens, where you picked as many pears as you could carry, and headed for his room. He ate as you finished up some of the chores you’d been procrastinating. You hurriedly dusted his entire quarters, knowing Tou Ma was notorious for random check ups of your work. After that, you rearranged the items on his desk, refilled his ink bottle, cleaned his brushes and finally put away his fresh laundry. The sun was well on its way down by the time you finished. All the while you’d felt his eyes on him.

You’d been talking of random things, keeping the conversation light, but your mind was esewhere. Your mind was still in the library where his lips had been so close to touching yours. It was hard to focus on anything when all you saw was his perfect face hovered over you.

“I should go,” you said as you closed his closet doors, knowing you probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways. You put on your slippers and headed for the door.

“Wait—” you heard him say, followed by his muffled feet on the wooden floor. You turned around just before reaching the door, finding Minghao looking gingerly at you.

“Um,” he started and it occurred to you just how different he felt from when you first became his servant. You thought for a second he would continue to stare at you forever, eyes swimming with something you couldn’t quite place.

“Here,” he said at last, holding up another pear timidly, “you should eat.”

The pear sat perfectly between you, the only thing separating you from one another. Once again, the closeness of it all flooded you and you found no voice to answer him with. Slowly, you reached up and wrapped your hand around the fruit, fingers brushing his in a way that was so paralyzing you thought you’d never come to your senses. You heard him say your name; a soft whisper from his lips. You looked up at him, startled to see he was just as zoned out as you were, like he wanted to say something but had no idea of where to begin.

Then out of nowhere his hand let go of the pear, letting it tumble between your feet so it could hold your hand instead. His fingers were so warm and soft yet slightly apprehensive in their touch.

Your lips parted as you stared down at the space between you, where the bruised pear now lay.

“Minghao—”

Just then, there was a loud knock on the doors. The both of you jumped; Minghao never had visitors.

The prince opened up as you took a few steps back, blending in with the walls as a servant should.

“You’re expected in the conference hall,” the broad-shouldered guard said coldly, “immediately.”

“It’s night time, can’t this—” Minghao started but the guard wasn’t having any of it.

“It’s urgent.”

You watched the dread wash over the prince as reality sank in. Without another word, he followed the guard out and all you could do was trail behind him, hoping for the best.

Part 1

Part 2

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Like Real People Do

Warnings: noncon/dubcon elements (rough sex, oral), deception.

This is dark!Loki and ft. some Steve and explicit. 18+ only.

Summary: You’re a temp in Stark Tower by day and a fanfic writer by night. What happens when your professional life collides with your secret hobby?

Note: Brief break from HSB but I’m gonna be working on that today and hopefully figuring out when I’ll finish my other pending series. I need to wrap some stuff up so I can move on to newer series, etc. But for now, I hope you like some sneaky Loki.(inspired by an anon ask) Love you guys!

Leave some feedback, like and reblog if you can <3

It was your second week at the tower. You were still in disbelief. Working with larger than life heroes. Literally. And a paid internship no less. It was like a scene out of your very own fic. Well, those could stay a secret. Especially here. 

The golden haired vet and his billionaire pal didn't need to know about your blog. Or that they were the main attraction of it. Or that you had a notebook in your bag of all the ideas that came to you as you typed away at your desk. And who would guess the new assistant was anything but a chipper upstart?

It was almost thrilling. Smiling at them as the plots whirred in your mind. The comments of other thirsty fangirls. And it was all harmless. Just fantasies. Dreams. You'd get your job experience and be on the way all while fueling your illicit hobby. 

It was busy that day. Traffic came in and out as you waved them along and checked in when Tony buzzed. It was an easy job and time passed quickly with the people.

As you looked up, you almost rolled your chair out from under you.  You dropped your pen and quickly retrieved it from your desk. You smiled up at the burly man as he approached you, a thinner, just a familiar man at his shoulder.

"Hello," You sang as you stood to greet him. "You here to see Tony?"

"Why yes I am," The large blonde boomed in response. "You are new here, my lady?"

"Started just over a week ago," You introduced yourself as he offered his hand. "And you're Thor obviously."

He smiled as the other man rolled his eyes. You righted yourself and shook off your excitement. You glanced at him meekly and cleared your throat. 

"Ah, yes, and this is Loki, my brother," Thor chuckled. "He's the quiet type."

You nodded and sat back down. "I'll let him know you're here if you wanna head in."

"Certainly, but if you don't mind, my brother will stay out here." He elbowed Loki playfully, "He's not exactly permitted beyond the desk."

"It was a joke," Loki grumbled, "Your midgardian friends need to evolve a sense of humour."

"Just sit down," Thor turned back to Loki. "And don't give her too much trouble."

Loki rolled his eyes again and retreated. "Don't worry, brother," He sat among the line of chairs, "I'm not so easily amused."

Thor sighed and turned back as he headed past your desk with another smile.  Loki leaned back and draped one leg over the other. You took out your cell and hid it behind your monitor as you checked your notifications. 

You scrolled for a while and set it aside. Several visitors and regulars passed but a tension remained. The office phone rang and you answered with your usual chime. You turned halfway in the chair as you took the call.

You got down to search through the files in your drawer and as you sat up, you found a lithe figure standing not far from your desk. Loki examined the framed photo of Stark and his lab in London. You finished up your call and hung up as he turned away.

He sat again and tapped his toe impatiently. He ran his long fingers down the lapel of his dark suit as he leaned heavily on his elbow. His green eyes stared dully at the wall opposite him, just right of your desk. You peeked at him and squinted. He caught you before you could look away. He smirked.

You looked down and scribbled along the border of the calendar across your desk. You could sense him watching you. You ignored him as you waited for his brother to return. You slid your phone closer and swiped it open. A message blipped in your inbox.

‘Very intriguing stories’. It read. You hurriedly tapped in a ‘thank you’, hit send and locked your phone again. You stared at the screensaver as it bubbled up the monitor.

Finally, you heard that deep voice again. You glanced over your shoulder as Thor appeared beside your desk with Tony. They chuckled as they neared but Loki did not rise. 

“Fine. You keep him in line and I can put up with him. I let the rest of the team know.” Tony said.

“Oh, you know, he’s not all bad,” Thor grinned at Loki and beckoned him over with two fingers. He didn’t move. “He’s a changed god. Trust me.”

“Mmhmm,” Tony hummed skeptically. “We’ll see but you understand, it all comes down on you.”

“You two are much more alike than you think,” Thor laughed. “You both worry too much!” He turned and swept over to Loki. “Come on, brother, before your sour face changes his mind.”

Loki stood with a huff but followed his brother out; chin held high and eyebrow arched. Tony shook his head and leaned on your desk. 

“Word of warning: avoid that one.” He grumbled and you nodded with a shy smile. “Oh, and, coffee. Please. Need it after that one.”

🖋️

Thor and Loki became another staple in the office. By the end of your first month, you were over being star struck. The avengers, the worldly heroes, they were all just your co-workers. And they were nice. Nat brought you a frap every now and then, Steve always went out of his way to say hi, and Bruce was just happy to have someone who would smile and nod through his scientific spiels.

And your blog was booming.

Every night when you got home, you wrote and posted as much as you could. Your small following had doubled and so had your enthusiasm. You might’ve felt a tinge of guilt as you sat across the desk from America’s saviour or his grungy best friend, but they made for steamy fics. Besides, you reminded yourself, it was fiction. You knew the difference between fantasy and reality.

That didn’t always keep you from daydreaming in the office. That day you found yourself doing so several times as Tony stayed late for his last meeting and you were chained to your desk until he was done. You spun lazily in your chair and checked your phone every now and then. You wanted to write but you didn’t dare do that on a work computer.

Finally, the door opened and you looked over as the two shadows neared. Steve clapped Tony on the back. You sat, patiently patient, as you tore yourself from your thoughts. Tony checked his watch as Steve bid you farewell and waited for him to leave before he turned to you.

“Well, kid, I guess you can head out,” He said. “See ya tomorrow, bright and early?”

“You sure?” You asked coyly.

“Don’t push me. I can always find some colour-coding that needs to be done.” He teased. “I gotta find Pepper before she finds me.” He straightened his jacket. “Have a good one. And wish me luck… I’m only about an hour late.”

He strode out and you stood from your chair with a long stretch. Maybe you’d ask for an upgrade in seating. You packed up your purse and the elevator dinged again. You looked up, surprised. Steve waved awkwardly as he entered. 

“Hey, you know, I was just about to leave and I realised, well, it’s late and…” He shrugged, “You need a ride?”

“A ride?” You repeated as you grabbed your blazer from the back of your chair. “Oh, you really don’t have to--”

“It’s dark and kinda chilly. I got heated seats,” He offered. “But I can understand if you prefer those luxury subway recliners.”

 “Alright, you’ve twisted my arm.” You rounded the desk and neared him. “Thanks, Steve. You’re a real hero.”

“Well, that’s what they say,” He smiled as he led you to the elevator and hit the button. “So, where exactly am I going?”

🖋️

Once you were in the car, you were near giddy. It was a bit reminiscent of your last fic. An indulgence on your part. You resisted the urge to pull out your phone as you smiled at him from your seat, his sparkling blue eyes reflected the street lights. Captain America, the Captain America, was driving you home.

Alright, alright, settle down. He was just a man and he was just being nice. And you were terribly quiet, weren’t you?

“Um, so, how was your day?” You asked nervously.

“Ah, usual,” He said. “Tony’s such a perfectionist. We’re headed… we’ll, we’re due for a mission and he’s been lecturing me about ‘unnecessary heroics’, although I call those my job.”

“Mmm,” You nodded emphatically. “Sounds exciting… dangerous.”

“Surely more than riding a desk,” He chuckled. “How’s it going, anyway? You ready to bring a pillow with you or what?”

“Ha, yeah,” You scoffed. “I mean, I’ve had worse. There was an unpaid internship I had entirely in a mail room. Amazing experience.”

“Sounds like,” He returned as the GPS guided him down your street. “You should see if Tony can show you around the lab. He’s always keen to show off his latest toys.”

“Maybe I will,” You chirped as he pulled into your building lot. “Thanks again for the ride.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t feel right. I was already there and--” He put the car into park as he looked at you. “And well, I’ll be honest. Forgive me if it’s a little forward but… we don’t really get much time, do we? In the office, there’s so many distractions and interruptions--”

You giggled nervously as he stretched his arm over the back of your seat.

“What I’m trying to say is it was my pleasure.”

You looked down shyly. Your cheeks burned and you slowly looked back up. You squeaked as his lips met yours. You tried to pull away but he only leaned in more. While it wasn’t entirely unwanted, you couldn’t help but think of your internship. He didn’t seem the type for one night stands and you weren’t exactly fond of the idea of an office romance; even with him.

“Steve,” You finally parted, breathless.

“Sorry, sorry, I just…” He sat back and looked at his hands meekly. “I had to. I’m sorry if I--”

“Really, it… it was nice but I just don’t think…”

“You liked it though?” He interrupted.

“Of course, I mean, I--” You caught yourself and squeezed the strap of your purse. “I can’t really afford to lose this internship and this could--”

“No one needs to know,” He blurted out. “I know how these things are nowadays. I just… I really like you.”

“I don’t know,” You bit your lip. “I… um…”

“Look, I won’t pressure you.” He raised his hands. “I just was putting myself out there. I guess… bad timing.”

You looked at your purse then back to him. You peered around the car. Who would know? Well, you would and Steve would. Things might get awkward if you were to… Then again, this was a dream come true. Were you really going to get out of this car alone? You couldn’t help but wonder if reality lived up to fiction.

“You’re right,” You said quietly. “No one needs to know.”

🖋️

Steve had you off the floor before the door was closed. Your purse bounced across the carpet as he carried you past the doormat and the flimsy coat rack. He blindly lumbered around with you in his arms, your lips locked together. He fell onto the couch with you beneath him as you pushed the leather of his coat down his shoulders.

He parted to help you untangle it from his arms and was just as quick to tear your blazer off and toss it away. His tee shirt was next and your blouse barely kept its buttons as he ripped it off. You never expected such vigour from him; more a doting sore of intimacy, not that you were complaining. 

You slipped out of your heeled oxfords and he kicked off his own shoes as you admired his torso. Every muscle rippled beneath his flawless skin and for a moment, you felt a tickle of insecurity. Look at him. He was perfect.

The jingle of his buckle drew you back. You bit your tongue eagerly as you stood and wiggled out of your stuffy dress pants. His eyes followed your hands as you bared your thighs and stepped out of the wool. With his fly undone, he reached out and drew you to him. He kissed you again as you straddled his lap.

His hands were swift in unhooking your bra. Another surprise. You always dreamt of the clumsy pan plucked from the past. You dropped the undergarment down your arms as he cupped your tits. You flung it away and wrapped your arms around him. You tossed your head back as his lips tickled your throat and rocked atop his lap. He groaned and ran his thumbs over your nipples.

You purred and felt along his chiseled torso. You pushed your hand past his jeans and the elastic of his briefs. Your fingers slipped below as he gasped against your throat. You gripped his cock and slowly moved your hand between your bodies. He was thick and just as big as you imagined; maybe bigger. 

He bent his head and kissed along your chest. You arched your back and twined your fingers through his hair. You held him to you as you stroked him and he kneaded your ass hungrily. He lifted his ass easily with you atop him and shoved his pants down his thighs until he sprung out. 

You carried your motion as he fell back against the couch. His hands trailed up your sides and back again. He gripped your hips then dragged his nails down your thighs. He nodded as you bit your lip and got up on your knees. You hovered over him and shed your panties. You straddled him again and lined him up with your entrance. You lowered yourself onto him as you slid your hand down his length. 

He squeezed your thighs and let out a long moan as you took all of him. You pulled your hand away and grasped his shoulders. He was a lot and your walls strained around him. You shuddered and his fingers danced up your curves.

“Go slow,” He said.

You nodded and tilted your pelvis carefully. Your breaths were shaky as you lifted yourself up and he impaled you once more. You leaned back with your hands on his thighs as you tried to ease the pressure. His eyes roved your body as you rocked your hips, slowly building your tempo.

“That’s it,” He uttered. 

He explored your body with one hand and his other rested just below your stomach. He pressed his thumb to your clit. You bucked and sped up as he played with you. You huffed as you arched your back and rode him wildly. Your eyes rolled back as you chased your orgasm. The tendrils that stretched over your flesh and strangled you in bliss.

Your climax shook you. He grasped your hips and kept you moving as your arms trembled weakly. “So naughty,” He whispered. His voice was low, dusky; so unlike his own. “So delectable.”

Your vision was blurry as you lifted your head. You let him use your body as another orgasm rose. You sat up as he guided you up and down his cock. You whined as you came and closed your eyes in rapture.

You cried out as you were suddenly flipped onto you back. He didn’t miss a beat as he fucked you into the cushions, your legs splayed around him. His snarls were animalistic, ravenous, as he rutted into you. You babbled and grabbed weakly at his thick arms planted beside your head.

He pulled out and grunted. A warmth spilled down your thighs as he pushed himself back onto his knees. He watched as he stroked himself over the edge and his golden hair fell forward. You sighed as you touched your forehead dazily. He caressed your thighs as he caught his breath.

“Wow,” You murmured.

“Yeah,” He panted. “Wow.”

🖋️

In the back of your mind, you dreaded the early morning but you were too elated to care. Too intoxicated by your lust to worry about the body next to you as you fell asleep. Your double bed was barely big enough for both of you but you didn’t mind his warmth as he slung his arm over you. You dozed contently; floating in a river of bliss.

You woke with a snort. Your face was buried in the pillow and the sky was still dark outside. You sat up groggily and felt your way to the bathroom. You relieved yourself and rinsed off the remnants of your tumble. You stumbled back to the bedroom, eager to squeeze in a few more hours before you had to drag yourself back to the tower. 

You tiptoed out to the living room and grabbed your phone before you got back into bed, careful not to disturb your guest. As you laid back and lit up your phone, you dropped it on your chest. You lifted it and held up the glow to the pillow next to yours. That wasn’t Steve.

You swore loudly and threw your phone at Loki. His eyes shot open as yours began to adjust to the dark. You pushed yourself up as he caught your wrist. A low snicker sent a chill through you as he tugged you closer. His arm snaked up below you and he pulled you against him.

“’His eyes spoke of his sin, but his body promised heaven.’” He slithered and you froze. “Poetry, almost.”

“You-- How did you--” You cringed at your own words; written for your lascivious blog.

“I do wonder what he would think,” Loki clung to you as you squirmed. “I don’t think he’d be so eager as all that.”

“How could you-- You tricked me,” You pushed against his shoulders.

“I gave you what you wanted,” He said. “And you can’t say you didn’t enjoy it, dear.”

“I thought you were...him,” You stuttered. “I never would have--”

“I can be him,” You felt the change, heard it in his voice. “Or maybe another favourite.” His voice deepened and you recognized Bucky’s sonorous tones.

“No, no,” You whined desperately. “Stop! Please.”

“Stop?” His voice returned to normal and he turned so that you were atop him, his arms firmly around you. “Oh, but I am your biggest fan, dear. I have but one suggestion.” He stared at you through the dim. “I’d be a great addition to your repertoire.”

“You’re sick!” You snarled. “You--you--”

“I know your secret,” He sneered. “I admit, your little tales would make for some fascinating conversation among those ridiculous Avengers but I think you might just find yourself no longer welcome among them.”

“You wouldn’t,” You hissed.

“What makes you think that?” He taunted.

“What do you want?” You breathed.

“I’m sure your dirty little mind can answer that,” His hand wandered lower and you felt the twitch between you. “Hmm?”

You shook your head; mortified, shocked.

“You can resist it but I feel your heart racing; the heat coursing through your veins… mmm, that would make for great prose, wouldn’t it?”

“Please…” You begged.

“Oh, I can please you,” He said. “You just have to let me, dear.”

He rolled you onto your back in a moment and his hand crawled along your stomach cloyingly. You stared at him, his silhouette limned in the dull light that streamed in past the curtains. He slowly retreated as he lowered his head. His lips made you shiver as he laid a trail of kiss along your chest.

“Loki…” You whispered.

“Louder,” He spoke against your skin.

“Loki,” You said louder. “Please, don’t.”

He continued his path along your stomach, a hand played with your tits blindly as he did. You trembled as he reached the vee of your pelvis. His teeth grazed your hip bone and you closed your eyes. You caught his hand on your chest.

“Loki,” You said again.

“My dear,” He raised his head. “I’m about to put your stories to shame.”

He slipped his fingers up along your ass and between your folds. You winced as he bent his head and his cool tongue met his fingers at your clit. You inhaled sharply and tilted your pelvis against him. He purred in approval as he swirled his tongue around your clit.

You reached down to stop him and he flicked his tongue. Your fingers tangled in his hair and you urged him on. Your legs bent around him as he nestled between them. He hooked his hands around your thighs and held on as he lost himself in you. You writhed as he suckled and lapped, soon breathless and mewling.

You bucked your hips as you came and he held you firm as he coaxed you over the edge. He was slow to pull away and you covered your face as he sat up in the dark. 

“Don’t be shy, dear,” He drew your hands away from your face. “You don’t have to be with me. I know everything. I’ve read every story a dozen times.” He pinned your hands beside your head. “And I want to live them all.”

He held you down as he dipped his pelvis. You felt his tip along your cunt and held your breath. There was one part of himself he hadn’t changed. The head of his cock slid along your folds and he slowly pushed inside as he found your entrance. You gasped as he plunged into you entirely. He lingered and basked in the feel of you around him.

He wasn’t slow this time. Or gentle. As he thrust, he jerked your entire body and the bed swayed beneath you. You were still tender from before and you whimpered as he rocked into you. His motion was deliberate and deep. He was sure to make you feel it. He squeezed your wrists until your fingers were numb.

“Say it,” He snarled as he pounded into you. “Say my name.”

“Loki,” You cried out. “Loki!”

“Again!” He commanded.

You repeated his name over and over, though you weren’t sure if you were begging him to stop or keep going. It wasn’t long before your core was once more buzzing. You pushed your head back into the pillow and gritted your teeth as the chant turned erratic. You squealed as you came, the syllables uttered pathetically.

He released your wrist as he sat back. He grabbed your legs and pulled them up against his torso but never wavered. He hammered into you as he held your legs to his shoulders and you groped desperately at the blanket. The springs of the bed were noisy and added to the salacious sounds of your fucking. 

He stopped suddenly. A few final spasms as he hugged your legs to him and gave a soft groan. You felt the warmth seep through you. He dropped your legs and they fell around him as he breathed heavily. He rocked his hips a few times before he pulled out of you. You could feel his cum as it leaked out onto the sheets.

He ran his hand along your thigh and squeezed it. He nudged you and when you didn’t move, he forcefully rolled you over. He slapped your ass as he pushed your legs together and straddled your thighs. You lifted your head and he shoved it back down..

“My dear,” He slithered. “I think I might just be your best story.”

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

Missin’ You is Terrible- Part 1: Missin’ You

Calum isn’t looking for deep feelings, just for some fun. But he’s pretty sure friends with benefits isn’t supposed to go like this. Black!Female Reader. 

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No one has my permission to repost this fic, including translations. All rights reserved. Copyright © be-ready-when-i-say-go.

_______________

I’m in your city. 

It is not his smoothest line. Even as he drafts the message, he wears a doopy ass grin, giggling to himself. He can imagine her eye roll, the purse of her lips, the tsk of her tongue sliding over the roof of her mouth and the back of her teeth. He watches the gray bubbles appear on his screen, the circles shifting from light gray to dark gray as he imagines her fingers tapping away at the screen. 

What’s that supposed to mean to me, Hood?

Calum scoffs. She likes giving him a hard time. I have a day off here too. 

You still haven’t answered my question.

She’s already starting. She’s going to make him say it, make him beg for it already. He’d normally hate this. He was normally direct. If he wanted sex, he’d say so. If he didn’t, he knew how to open his mouth. But she made this different. She made this fun. She’d play annoyed, unphased, but he knows that deep down her gut twisted just like his. He knows that no matter how many times she faked annoyance, she’d crack. Her giggle would escape her in tufts and she’d snort sometimes. But only sometimes. He can see the grin on her face, the way she’s tugging her lip between her teeth. 

Her teeth, fuck. He loves the feeling of her teeth grazing over his bottom lip. Even better than that though is the feeling of her teeth sinking into his flesh, his lip, tugging it a little. The mere thought leaves him nearly moaning in the dressing room. He taps away to reply, It means you should be at the show and pick me up tonight. 

Well lucky for you, a very nice man sent me tickets. I will be at the show. 

Calum stares at his screen. He waits. Is she going to confirm that she’ll pick him up? He asked her to the show, but didn’t really confirm if they would see each other. He wasn’t sure what her schedule would look like and didn’t want to be too demanding. He groans when nothing comes through for a solid minute or two. You’re an ass. 

But you like my ass. 

I do. I really fucking do. Calum bites down on his lips, inhaling deeply as the bubbles appear again. 

I’ll pick you up after the show. But you’re going to have to either get me access to the back of the venue or hike your cute ass to event parking. 

Calum pushes to his feet. He’d rather not be seen walking to her car. It’s nothing against her. He just knows the second fans catch an ounce of suspicious activity, they will run a mile with it. He’s always kept a low profile, no matter how hard it was. He presses the phone to his ear, reaching for his bag. He rips a page from his journal. She answers on the second ring. 

“What kind of car do you drive?” he asks. She rattles of the brand and make. Calum writes it down. “Plate number?”

“What’s this for? You know my car.”

“It’s for security, so they know I’m not walking to some fucking strangers car. They’ll probably escort me, but still they might ask or want need it to make sure who are who you say you are.”

“Just tell them it’s the hella attractive girl.”

Calum laughs. “Yeah because that narrows it down so well.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if I got you from the hotel in the morning,” she offers. 

Calum shakes his head, walking to over to one of the bodyguards. “That’s too long.”

“You’ll be exhausted after your show.”

“I’m always exhausted, babycakes.”

She exhales hard, the phone crackle a little. He knows what that nickname does to her. “You’re in for it now,” she whispers. “You’re dead in the water, Hood.” The call ends. Calum’s not even shocked. He slides his phone back into his pocket, handing over the information he has. He describes her, maybe a little too in depth but the guard doesn’t say anything about it. 

They talk to the head coordinator and event staffing. It’s not until an hour or so after soundcheck that Calum gets confirmation that a someone will be on the lookout for her car and will escort him. He’d fight against this, but knows he’ll ultimately lose that battle. 

“You’ll be back to the hotel in time for the drive right?”

Calum nods. “Of course.”

Then with a bit of smirk and a wink, the guard adds, “Just don’t get into too much trouble.” The laugh bubbles up in his chest, spilling past his lips. Calum shakes his head at the antic. If he only knew how much trouble, Calum would be getting into. 

Calum’s not sitting on the couch, more like laying against it, though is butt is still technically in a sitting position, Michael giggling at him. He flips him off, teasingly. “Leave me alone, Clifford.” Then in responds slides in further from his barely upright position. 

“It’s your back you’re breaking,” Michael chuckles and then goes back to his phone. 

Calum’s phone vibrates against his stomach. He pushes back up to see the notification. New iMessage- A-1. It’s an inside joke. She’a A-1 and he’s Steak Sauce, though in her phone it’s spelt like S-O-S a joke off the band acronym. She was way too pleased with herself over the pun. Calum doesn’t have the heart to tell her how cheesy it is, so he lets himself forever reside in her contacts as SteakSOS and gets a chuckle every time he happens to see it. 

He slides to unlock the notification and a shaky breath leaves him. Fuck, fuck, of course. It shouldn’t even make him this hot and bothered, but what he did not think would happen is that he’d open that message to a video. It’s just a video of her hand, pulling up fishnet thigh highs. But her nails are shaped into a point and painted a pretty yellow against the warm red depths of her brown skin. He watches as she flexes, gripping at unclothed thigh before the video ends. He can feel the way the sharp point digging into his shoulders now. He can imagine that way her fingers feel dancing across his skin. 

He plays it again, there’s no sound--he’s thankful. Another message follows it. Did I spend two hours at a nail salon just to send you that? Yes I did. Did I spend another thirty minutes trying to fucking record one handed? Sure did, angel.

Angel. His heart nearly stops as he exhales shakily again at the nickname. “You alright?” Michael asks. His tone rings with amusement. When Calum meets his eye, he can see the smile decorating Michael’s face. He knows, Calum figures. It’s not like Calum’s exactly hidden this friendship, friends with benefits relationship, from the boys. But he tries not to make it so obvious. 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Calum says with a chuckle. It’s breathy and nowhere near convincing. But Michael doesn’t push it. He smiles with a nod. Whatever is happening, Michael knows Calum will be sporting marks come tomorrow. 

You’re not just trying to kill me. You’re trying to swallow me fucking hole huh? 

In more ways than one, she replies. 

Calum groans, throwing his head back into the cushions. “I hate her,” he laughs to himself. He sits there, reliving their last meeting. They were in his car, sitting at the edge of the beach, watching over into the water. Or more like the water was watching them fog up the windows. 

His brain wonders down all the random assortment of memories of them together. He lands on their first meeting. Calum started noticing her about a year and a half ago. She went to the same coffee shop that he frequented. She was always hunched over some stack of paper, always tapping away at her computer. He always wanted to ask her what she was doing. But he found himself afraid, always choosing to watch from afar as she typed away, as she scratched words onto the page. She looked endearing with three red pens stuck in her hair. 

Then one day, he caught her, head resting on her forearms. He didn’t want to disturb her, but he did notice some kids eyeing her things. So he went over and sat across from her while he waited for her drink. Make it seem like they were together. He didn’t have anything planned for the day. He just needed some coffee. He didn’t mean sitting there, just to make sure that her belongings didn’t get stolen. After about twenty minutes, he noticed her stirring, so he gathered his empty cup. Calum was sliding his phone back into his pocket when she spoke. “Well, I haven’t just woken up from a nap. I have died and gone to fucking heaven.”

He snapped his head at her, the heat flooding his cheeks. He couldn’t really blush, it never really showed up. But god, did his face feel warm. “I’m sorry. You were sleeping and some kids looked like they were planning something. I sat down to try to and deter them. They left, but then I was worried someone else would try and come up. So I figured I’d sit here until you woke up.”

“Thank you. You’re a literal angel.” 

They talked every all the time in the coffee shop. And then the coffee shop turned into bars. Bars turned into bedrooms. Bedrooms turned into the back of cars, the back of cars turned into her spending the night. Spending the night turned into baking at nearly two AM. Baking at nearly two AM turned into laying out in his backyard pondering the universe. Then she moved further up the Californian coast and out of the city to work for an independent publishing company; she’s happier there. Calum is glad for her. Just misses her two AM baking excursions. 

Now, they rarely get to see each other. Now it’s Calum texting her, I’m in your city as if he didn’t make that two hour drive anytime he wanted to see her. But it’s fun this way. Things feel more intense this way. They turn out all the stops. Which leads Calum here, eyes closed, grinning like an idiot, the ghost of her touch tickling his skin. He pops off the couch, heading to the bathroom, phone in hand. Payback’s a bitch, he hopes she knows that. 

He Facetimes her. No videos, no pictures. He has a strict rule against it. The call rings loudly, bouncing off the concrete walls. She picks up, only to see Calum’s tattooed hand rubbing over his crotch. He lets the sigh fall over his lips at the pressure. He’s needed this, he could feel tightness growing in his pants, the way his lower gut ached for release. He couldn’t give her that. But he could tease her; he could release some of the tension for his own benefit. A moan is building in him. He presses his lips together, refusing to crack just yet. But she knows. 

“Let me hear you, angel,” she commands. “If you’re going to sit there and be this much of a gotdamn tease, at least give me the satisfaction of hearing your sweet moans.”

Calum could. He could give her that. But he won’t. He ends the call, exhaling hard. His phone is about to explode with messages from her. One message comes in, he feels the phone shake in his hand. Then another comes in. Then another. A fourth. A fifth. A sixth one. Calum grins to himself, finally taking his hand away from his crotch and then running it through his hair. He’s in trouble now. 

It’s while the boys and he are eating a small dinner before the show that his phone buzzes again. It hasn’t buzzed in a while after her rant about him being “a motherfucking ass”. I’m at the venue. She describes where’s she’s parked, in a parking deck on the back side of the venue stating “if she were any higher up, she’d touch God and any further back she’d revert herself to the 1950’s”. Calum alerts a bodyguard who takes an event security guard to investigate where she is. 

That’s not very descriptive, you know, Calum replies. 

Another text comes in, about ten minutes later. Clearly it was, because I can spot two of your goons headed for my car. 

_________

Calum can’t spot her in the crowd. He tries, looking up the upper levels of the venue. But he can’t see anything clearly. He wishes he could but that’s not going to happen with lights. It’s when Luke gets a talking break that the flashing lights die down. But he can’t see through the haze. He takes out an inner ear, trying listen for her voice. But doesn’t catch anything. Then he gets to talk. “How are you guys doing tonight?” The crowd roars to life. He repeats the question. “I asked, how are you guys doing tonight!” he adds emphasis to the last word, shouting into the mic. 

Then he hears her, right as the crowd is starting to settle down. Just as clear as a bell, “I can’t scream any louder. I’m waiting for ‘Valentine’ to lose my shit.”

He laughs into the microphone, looking for her in the crowd again. He think he spots her, in a bright yellow shirt. “You’re going to be waiting a little bit then, ba-,” The nickname almost falls off his lips. He almost lets it slip through his lungs, but he catches it right on the edge of his tongue and swallows it back down. “But we’ll get there. I promise. Right now, we’re slowing it down. Is it okay to slow it down for second?” Calum jokes around a bit with the boys as Michael strums before launching into Amnesia.  

As they take their final bow, instruments still reverberating into the speakers, Calum looks out over the crowd for her one last time. He spots the yellow in the crowd again. But he can’t be sure it’s her. They exit the stage, the adrenaline still pumping through his veins. High fiving each other, still breathing hard after the show. He can’t wait to have her beneath his finger tips. Calum showers first. He knows he ought to eat something. But he’s not worried about that. He just needs her. He wonders to the bus, gathering the last of his things. He walks back with his traveler bag in his hand. 

Ashton whistles. “Uh huh, who are you going to see?” He can smell the cologne on Calum.

“Nobody, man. Nobody,” Calum returns, nothing sliding his phone into his pocket. 

“Nobody seems like a hell of a somebody

“Shut up,” Calum huffs, a chuckle falling from his lips as well. 

“Still a lot of foot traffic. Might as well eat, give it another half an hour or so,” the bodyguard warns. Calum wants to say fuck it, but figures if he does, he’ll be spotted. “We’ll go the second it dies down.”

Calum nods and manages to get through most of his second dinner. It’s as the first drop hits his stomach that realizes how fucking hungry he actually is. True to his word, the second the venue is cleared, Calum follows behind the guard. He can hear as the stage is torn down, people’s voices echoing. Outside near the buses, they cut across the back, jaywalk over the shockingly clear road. 

As they approach the top of the parking deck, Calum spots her figure in the shadows of the lamp posts. He grins, picking up his gait. He might as well run as the pace he’s half jogging. She pushes up from the hood of her car, starting towards him. Calum wraps her up in his arms, rocking the both of them side to side. She was in yellow. He buries his face into the crook of her neck, smiling against her skin, inhaling the faint scent of her hair products. Calum melts into her touch, the way she squeezes him, the hum of her effort falling over her lips. 

This is a goddamn home away from home, here in her arms, Calum thinks to himself. They release each other. Calum stares down at her, lips turned up into a smile. His hands slide down her side, stopping at her hips. Her nails drag over the veins in his hands. “It’s been too long,” he whispers. 

“Well Mr. Rockstar. My address is still the same.”

“I’m sorry.”

She grins, nails digging a little into the flesh of his hands. “You can make it up to me,” she states, pulling her hips from his grasp. Her boots make a soft clacking sound as she struts to her car, backwards. Her fingers slide over his. Calum hooks his middle finger around hers, so the contact isn’t lost. She readjusts the grip, hooking her pinky through his as they walk side by side. “You realize I nearly called you babycakes in front of the audience tonight right?” he asks, watch the light and shadows cross over her face. 

“I know.” 

“That would’ve been embarrassing.”

“For you, not for me.”

The inside of her car is warm, he notes. Very warm. She shrugs out of her jacket. “What were you cold or something?” he tease, poking at her thighs beneath the gaps in the fishnets. The black and white houndstooth pattern skirt looks flimsy. It’s all for the aesthetic, he figures, and he likes it. He just likes her, if he’s completely honest with himself. But he never is. Not in love anyway. He can’t afford to be completely honest. 

“I didn’t want to greet you with a cold car. And my legs are freezing. I didn’t think it’d get this cool.”

He rubs his palm over her inner thigh, after putting his seatbelt on. She doesn’t shudder, doesn’t moan. She just smiles, her cheeks lifting as her bottom lip falls victim to her teeth. Calum leaves his hand there, buried in the heat of her inner thighs meeting. She descends the parking structure. “Long way home or sit through traffic?” she asks stopped at the exit. 

“Long way,” he shrugs. He has nowhere to be right now of course. She squeezes his fingers with her thighs. 

Calum brushes his thumb over the skin, also brushing up against her thinly covered sex. She mashes her lips together, making a left turn. He can’t feel anything. He won’t push it now. He’ll wait. “What made you decide to wear yellow, huh?”

“Wanted to stand out.”

“I was looking for you, you know?”

“Bet my big mouth was the fastest way to look for me.”

He chuckles, “It was.” His thumb hooks into the side of her panties. Her gasp is audible, she grips tighter at the steering wheel. 

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she hisses softly. Calum doesn’t listen. He’s done with it. They’ve been driving for a few minutes now. He should’ve picked the traffic. At least she could’ve stopped. Not that going that way was completely risk free. Even though it would’ve been the tail end of it, they still could’ve gotten spotted together. 

Dragging his middle finger up, he groans at the slickness coating his finger. “You really did miss me.”

Her laugh strikes him odd. It’s sad, quiet. This is unlike her. But she doesn’t speak. Calum teases his finger at her entrance. Slowly, he lets the digit slip inside. She shifts, the softest sound leaving her parted lips. “Talk to me babycakes,” Calum urges, pushing his finger as deep as he can. He’s breathless at the feeling of her sitting on his digit.  She sits around his finger so well, pulling him deeper almost. He wishes it was his cock, but he’ll have to wait.

“I’d rather misbehave,” comes her response before she adds on, “Besides, you know it’s killing you. Have a taste.”

He already knows well enough what she taste like that slight saltiness. He can already taste it. He wonders if she remembers the way she tastes. Because if not he’s about to remind her. “Pull over,” he demands. 

“We’re on back roads. The shoulder is very narrow.”

“How much longer?” he asks, curling his finger. 

She hums, a chuckle falling over her throat. “Another ten, fifteen minutes if we don’t encounter any critters.”

Calum chuckles at the term. She might have left her home town, but her hometown has not left her. He decides not to risk it. “Can you handle this? Can you just still on my fingers?”

“Finger,” she corrects just like he knew she would. Calum pulls the one finger out before pushing a second one alongside it. Expelling all of the air in her lungs, she does her best not to make a sound. It’s not the first time he’s had his fingers deep in her while driving. Besides she has more important things to focus on like this fucking road. If she could spare the glance to Calum to throw daggers at him with her glare she would. 

But she keeps her eyes on the road, his fingers deep in her aching core. He must love this, she thinks. Loves her wrapped around his fingers, whether it’s her tongue or her heat, it doesn’t really matter. As long as she is somehow wrapped around his finger, he is in heaven. She tightens her pelvic muscles, squeezing around his digits. Calum groans, head falling into the headrest. His stomach jumps. 

“Do it again, please,” he breathes, rolling his head to look at her. She glances over. His face is a tad pink. He’s flushed already. She tightens around his fingers again. He is putty in her hands though his hands are the only that are milking her with his lazy curling inside. 

It’s the longest five more minutes to pull into the driveway of her house. It was left to her in her grandmother’s will. Also another reason why she moved. The house isn’t much, one story but with a lot of space. The engine cuts off and Calum is leaning over the console, fingers still buried in her. His mouth brushes over hers. He doesn’t have the words, the breathe to speak his next thought. But it’s like she knows as her mouth seals over his. She pushes all the right buttons as her teeth sink into his bottom on. Calum hisses, pushing his fingers particularly hard into her. Her legs fall even farther apart. 

Her nails dig into the muscles of his shoulders as they kiss. The points of pain are like small fires in his skin. Calum trails the tip of his tongue up her lips as he pulls away from the mess of lips, bites, teeth, and tongue. She pulls his fingers out of her, bringing his hand to her mouth. Through her lashes, she watches his face. Calum’s gaze is trained on the way his fingers glisten before the lights in the car go out. 

He laughs, a huff of a chuckle. It’s silenced as she sucks his digits into her mouth. Calum’s mouth falls open, a moan falling from his throat. She runs her tongue between his fingers, cleaning every inch of them. He wants to kiss her. But he doesn’t want her to stop sucking on his fingers. Calum leans in, pulling his fingers from inside her mouth, but leaves them resting against her pouty lips. 

“I wasn’t done,” she sighs. 

He doesn’t respond, instead he kisses her, the tips of his own fingers brushing against his lips too. It’s nice for a moment and then she brings one digit back into her mouth, leaving Calum’s lips hovering over hers yet again. This is ridiculous. He wants to kiss her, just wants to feel her supple lips against his again. Who gives fuck if his own finger is in the way? Calum kisses her, over his own knuckle as her tongue massages the pad of his finger. 

Calum’s not even sure when they made it inside her house. His senses too full of her, her scent, the way her skin feels, her moans, her groans, her sighs, the way his name sounds from her lips. He drops his bag in front of the her couch. “Thirsty?” she asks, toying out of her shoes. 

Calum unzips his boots, watching her hips as she walks to her kitchen. His socks are a little slippery against the tile she has down, but he manages to catch up to her, taking her hips into his hand and pulling her back into his chest. She grinds down into his crotch, feeling the bulge. Sliding them down to the hem of her skirt, he pushes it up until the band of her panties are exposed. “The only thing I need is you,” he whispers, yanking at the flimsy material. She shudders, but steps out of them. 

Calum steps away, hooking his pinky through hers. “Fix yourself. And c’mon.”

It takes  a few seconds for her to get the skirt back down her legs, but she follows behind Calum as he wanders down the main hallway.  As they enter her bedroom, she slides in behind Calum, wrapping her arms around his waist. Her fingers trail up underneath the sweatshirt. It should tickle, but Calum tenses for different. Her fingers trace the line of his pants and underwear until she pops the button. Her movements are slow but precise. 

She pulls the material up. Calum helps her pull it up and over his head. She tugs at the t-shirt too. “I’ll be underdressed,” Calum laughs. 

“Take it off, please?” She presses kisses through the cotton of the shirt. Calum pulls it up, tossing it to the heap with his sweatshirt. 

Her nails run down his back ad Calum shudders. The pain will be coming next and the anticipation is killing him. He needs it. He needs it like he needs her to suck on his fingers again; he needs it like he needs to kiss her. He needs the pain just like he needs her, to be beneath above, beside her. It does not matter. Her touch is light, the pads of her fingers just barely touching. Then her nails are digging into his lower back. He grunts, fingers curling into fists. She doesn’t let up either. 

With a growl, he spins around and pushes her into the wall. She collide with the wall with a particular loud thud. Calum cups the back of her head. “You okay?”

She nods. “But you’re not going to be,” she grin, hand running up his stomach and chest. 

“What does that mean?”

Her fingers dance across his lips and Calum opens his mouth. Her eyes twinkle. He knows what order is next. Two of her fingers slip over his tongue. “Suck,” she whispers, staring into his warm brown eyes. They’re hidden a little behind a cloud of tiredness, but a thick layer of lust. His moan shakes against her fingers, but he hollows his cheek, pulling his head back a little. The tip of his tongue tickles against webbing of her hands, but he loves it. He loves the weight of her fingers on his tongue. He the slight string as she runs the tops of her nails over the rough of his mouth. 

Calum grabs onto her wrist, holding her still, so he can run his tongue over each one of her digits. With her free hand, she reaches into his pants, grasping his length. Calum’s jaw falls slack at the grasps. He forgets all about her fingers in his mouth, placing his hands on the wall on either side of her head. She runs her hands down to his pants and pushes them down. Kneeling she tugs the pants down and helps him step out of them. “I am severely underdressed,” Calum pants. 

He reaches a hand down and tangles his fingers into her hair, pulling her gaze up to his. “Strip, leave the fishnets.”

Still on her knees, she buttons the blouse, letting the material fall down her arms. She sit on her but, pushing her hips up with her core and heels. The material slides down over her calves. She sits propped up against the wall, legs spread open for Calum. Her core is soaked, leaking, creating a shine to her skin. Calum groans, dropping to his knees between her legs. He goes to lean in when she stops him with a foot to his chest. Calum runs his fingers up her skin. She plays at the necklaces hanging from his chest with her toe. 

“Please don’t toy with me,” he begs, squeezing her thigh. “Please, babycakes.”

She drops her foot. Calum scoots back, pulling her into his lap. Her lips find his immediately. One and tangled in the hair at the back of her neck, Calum drifts his fingers to her clit. She shudders at the first contact, moving to his earlobe and biting down. “Fuck,” he whispers at the slight twinge of pain. 

“I wanna ride you,” she whispers, kissing down his neck. 

“Of course, babycakes. Just come around my fingers once. You know how much I love it.”

With a nod, she pushes off his lap. “I can do that, anytime, angel.” Pushing to his knees, Calum grabs her thighs and nudges her against the wall. Using his fingers he pulls back her labia and licks a stripe up her, sucking on her cit. “Goddamn,” she sighs. Calum inserts two fingers into her, pumping and curling at the inside of her. He needs her to unravel around his fingers. He needs to feel that squeeze one last time. He hasn’t felt that in so long. She moans from above him when he starts to kitten lick the bundle of nerves. 

Nails scratching at his scalp, Calum moans against her mound as she tightens her grip. Her legs tremble. He presses her harder into the wall, curls faster, hits deeper inside her. “Fuck. Calum.” Her voice is strained. The muscle in her legs starts jumping, legs bouncing. Calum grins. This is it. This is it. She comes around him, a grunt falling over her lips. “Cal--” she chokes on her own breathe. 

She contracts and releases around his finger. Calum groans, slowly his lapping. But leaves his fingers buried deep in her heat. When he pulls his fingers out, she sags, sliding down the wall. Fuck, she can’t breathe. God. She feels like she’s floating. It shouldn’t take thing long to come back down. Calum strokes her cheek with his clean hand, kissing across her face. If it doesn’t work, he’ll find a way to do a cold compress. “Come back to me, babycakes. Deep breathe.”

Her eyes slowly blink back open. Calum grins. “There you are.”

She laughs. “Unfortunately.”

“I need some help.”

Inhaling deeply, she lets her close drift close before opening them and exhaling. “What’s up, angel?” 

Calum taps his fingers coated in her arousal against her lips. “Can you help me clean these?” 

She opens her mouth, resting her tongue flat against his fingers. Calum bends down, licking off the otherside. Together they clean his fingers, tongue brushing every so often. Calum pulls his hand away. She captures his lip between her teeth again, pullling hard. He groans. “Can I ride you now?”

“I would say you you don’t have to ask twice, but you just did.”

He’s always like this. Always still sassy. “Just get the fuck on the bed.”

Calum stands first, helping her up. “You sure you can handle it.”

Playfully slapping his ass, she laughs. “I’m sure I can.” He acts like he hates this, sending a glare to her over his shoulder. But Calum loves this, loves that they can still be playful in sex. Opening her bedside drawer, he pulls out a condom. Her birth control is right on top of the nightstand. She’s still taking it. When he turns around, she’s sitting on the edge of the bed. She’s just watching him. Her gaze makes his gut flip again. What is she looking at? 

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” he chuckles, tearing opening the package. 

“You said no to pictures. Lay back,” she comments, patting the mattress. Calum rolls the latex on and reclines into her plush pillows. 

“Tell me,” he starts, watching her crawling up the length of body, pausing to kissing his thighs. “What were thinking about in the ride over here? When I asked--” the question stops on his tongue as her lips near his crotch. “When I asked if you missed me?”

“I’ll explain later, okay?” she whispers, lips ghosting over his cock. Calum goes to speak again until her nails dig into his hips. He moans. She continues to kiss up his body. She kisses and sucks a hickey onto his each collarbone. 

“Please, God, please,” he whines. That’s all she needs before sinking down onto his length. “Fuck,” Calum swears, grabbing onto her hips. She grinds her hips against his, holding herself up by pressing her hands onto his chest. 

“Tell me, angel, how’s the view?” she grins. 

Calum reaches up for one of her breast, rolling the brown bud between his fingers. “It’s like heaven,” he pants. Calum wants more, but he knows to wait this out. His body feels like it’s on fire, but it’s a fire that continues to get stronger. Moving his fingers from her breast to her clit, he tries to help build her to faster to her second orgasm. The moment he touches her nerve, she snatches the hand away. 

All movement is paused. “You want to fuck me huh? Is that what you want to do?”

“I want you to feel good. I--I want to make love to you.”

The phrase leaves her speechless. This hasn’t been about love. Or at least not on the surface, not with a label. It’s been a physical connection for sure. But the mental one has also been under the surface. Always felt, never talked about. Calum sees the shock on her face and takes this moment to get the upper hand. He hugs her close, before rolling them over. Her beneath him, still buried in her velvet heat. 

“Can I?” he asks. 

She nods. “Yes-yes.”

Calum kisses her, open mouthed before pulling out and slowly thrusting back inside her. She releases a small sigh in his ear as he thrusts inside. That’s a new sound. He thrusts slowly back into her. She releases it again. “Shit, you make the most beautiful sounds,” he whispers. He can’t get deep like this. So he pauses and places a pillow under her hips, brushing her knees to her chest. 

She grips the sheets as Calum re enters her. “God, fuck.” She can feel him everywhere. Not just inside her, his body is pressed firmly against her. She can feel his chest against his, his breath ghosting over her skin as his face is buried her into neck. His hips roll at just the right angle that he brushes over her cit. 

With very little warning, she cums beneath him, muscles tensing. Calum lifts his head to watch her face. The way her eyes screw up shut, the o she makes with her lips, the way her back arches off the bed. He loves this. He loves watching this. If he could record it, he would. To watch it over and over and over. Calum’s own orgams washes over him. He gives a final two thrusts before spilling over into the condom. 

They stay meshed together, the metal brushing over her brown skin. He loves the way it looks. God, how he could stay here forever. But he can’t. “Can I kiss you?” she asks, not sheepish, but concerned, but hesitant, unsure. 

“Of course.”

This kiss isn’t a clash of teeth, tongue or biting. It’s slow, and sensual. Almost loving. They part, Calum slowly pulling out of her. She pulls him alongside her into the bathroom. They clean themselves up, use the restroom. She leans up against the counter as Calum washes his hands. “I didn’t answer you when you asked if I miss you because I don’t just miss sex with you. I miss having you around.”

Calum pauses, hands still resting under the warm water. “I miss you too,” he whispers. 

She shakes her head. “Not the same way.” She shouldn’t have been vulnerable with him. He can’t do it. It’s not his fault, fully. It’s the road, it’s the constant travel. It’s the always being away. It’s the past too. It’s the people before, it’s the cruelty of being of being so invasive, it’s this life as a person of color. It’s not all his fault, but some of it was, like the shutting people out, bottling up. 

Calum quickly dries his hands, before following into the bedroom. She starts picking up her clothes and his. Calum stands bare at the threshold. “I know how you like your tea. 2 parts honey, one part sugar. You prefer black fruity teas. You despise coffee. But drink it because it’s the only thing that keeps you up for deadlines. You edit in coffee shops, but like writing in your backyard best. You prefer early morning to late nights. You like tequila over vodka which I’ll never understand. You hate twisting your hair, but like the way the curls look in the morning. You do pineapples when you’re lazy. You still can’t perfect the slicked down ponytail, but you still try. You’ve thought about doing a blow out but are too scared it’ll ruin your curl pattern again. You prefer shea butter moisturizers. You shop black owned every chance you get. You hate the fashion world, but still like designer shoes. 

“You’ll shop a sale every chance you get. You donate half your closet twice a year to the domestic abuse shelter in honor of the women in your family. You volunteer at hospitals during Christmas because you like walking in as Storm and having the other black kids staring up at you in awe. You wished you cosplayed more. You play the piano well for someone that’s never learned a scale. Your voice is so fucking soulful and if I could get you to sing on one our songs, I think I’d die in the studio before you ever opened your mouth. I miss you too. I am listening. You’re one of the first people I want to tell good news too. You’re the first person I think of when I see a cute dog. I miss not being to talk in my backyard.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you say anything.”

“I didn’t know how. I hate being so far away from you. I like this--being normal. I wish I didn’t have to miss you. But I’d rather miss you than not have you at all.”