#i love cold weather its going to be so sad once it gets warmer again

[triptychofvoids]

it should be snowing. as a treat for Me

[gukyi]

in the frosty air | a jjk drabble

summary: two weeks ago you and your roommate slept together. which would be fine, if you knew you both felt the same about each other. but you don’t. and now it’s christmas, and jungkook is still gorgeous and gentle and wonderful and here, and and you don’t really know what to do about that.

{college!au, roommates!au}

pairing: jungkook x reader genre: this is just an angst train tbh, but it has a happy ending! word count: 1.6k warnings: mentions of past alcohol consumption, this centers around everyone’s favorite capitalist holiday, being sad in the wintertime a/n: OHHHHHHHHHH *internet breaks* anyway yeah i’m back baby!!! here’s a little drabble to celebrate because i can’t help myself when it comes to jungkook. love me or we both go down coming soon!

“This Christmas is pretty fucking lame, isn’t it?”

You whip around at the sound of his voice. “Oh, hey. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I figured,” Jungkook chuckles, bending his head down as he crawls through the open window to join you on the fire escape. The temperature is freezing and the wind is stinging your skin, but it didn’t really feel right to be spending tonight inside. “Saw the window open. Thought you might be here.”

“Yeah. I was probably gonna head inside soon, though.” In the hopes that you would be curled up in your bedroom before Jungkook even got home. Seeing him lately has been hard. “How did your final go?”

“It was alright.” You don’t have to keep looking at him to feel Jungkook taking a seat next to you, crossing his legs over each other as he stares out into the city below you. It snowed a few days ago, and the sidewalks are still covered in that dirty slush that always lingers, wet and cold and black from car tires. Just being beside you makes your heart race, makes your chest tighten. “I was pretty stressed out about it, but then I just sort of remembered that I did my best and that was all I could do, you know?”

“That’s good.” You wish you had that mindset. You spend days studying for an exam and once it’s over, you spend days dwelling on all the things you might have gotten wrong. It’s a philosophy you apply to most aspects of your life. Why you did the thing you did. Why doing the thing you did was the worst thing you could have done. How you will recover from it. If you even will. 

Jungkook sighs. You turn to look at him, just briefly, glance at his side figure, and notice he’s wearing nothing but a giant zip-up hoodie. Isn’t he cold? “It doesn’t really feel like Christmas.”

“Yeah.” You don’t have anything else to say to that. It doesn’t. Which is a damn shame, because you and Jungkook spent the entire beginning of this month turning your tiny, two-bedroom apartment into a winter wonderland. You got a tree to put up next to your TV and decorated with the weirdest ornaments you could find. You hung up those dangly white Christmas lights on the balcony of your fire escape, the ones meant to look like icicles dripping from the metal railing. The radio has been playing nothing but Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey. And yet.

It’s not hard to wonder why this Christmas is such shit. Your spring internship fell through a week ago. Your parents rented a lake house and assumed you wouldn’t be coming with. All of your other friends have gone home already. And Jungkook, perhaps the last person in this whole goddamn city you would have wanted to spend time with, you can’t even bear to look at. 

“How did your finals go?” Jungkook asks, trying to keep the conversation going. 

“They were fine.” At least that torture is over. But living with Jungkook, seeing him every day and knowing that what you have done you can never undo--it’s endless. 

There’s silence. It’s like the two of you simultaneously have no idea and know exactly what to say. Like the words are lingering on the tips of your tongues but your lips are sealed shut. Opening them won’t be like a can of worms. It will be a dam, a waterfall of I’m sorrys and What nows. One week ago, in the heat of the night and in the haze of drink after drink, you and Jungkook made the worst mistake two roommates could ever make. 

“Are you going home this break?” You blurt out the words before you can stop yourself. 

Jungkook sighs. “I’m not sure.”

“It’s okay if you want to.” I get it. I’m not sure if I’d want to hang around and see me either. 

He shrugs. “I just haven’t decided yet.”

He knows that you’re staying. The two of you were so looking forward to spending Christmas together. Now look at you. Jungkook was the perfect roommate. Then everything changed. 

“Okay.” He’s probably just trying to figure out a way to let you down easy. 

Next to you, Jungkook rustles a hand through his pocket. “By the way, uh--I just remembered. I got you something.”

You don’t even have time to object before Jungkook is placing a small fabric box into your open palm, resting on your lap. You look down at the item, at the way your hand seems to envelop it. 

“You didn’t have to--”

��I wanted to.” Jungkook is firm in his response. “Besides, I got it a while ago. Figured now is as good a time as any to give it to you.”

There’s not really anything else to do except open it. Carefully, with trembling fingers, you pull off the lid. Inside sits a dainty silver locket resting amongst a pile of folded tissue paper. You gasp, your breath coming out in smoke in the cold winter air. 

“Oh my God, I--”

“I overheard you talking on the phone saying you wanted one,” Jungkook admits sheepishly. “I wanted to give it to you before I forgot.”

Fingers shaking from the cold, you pull the locket from the box. It dangles from its chain, a delicate little thing, barely the size of a fingerprint. Even on this hazy winter evening, it still catches the light.

For the first time tonight, you look up at him. His eyes are a swirling brown, a deep chocolate. They are unreadable. He offers a small, guarded smile your way, lips pink in the chilly air. “Thank you,” you tell him honestly. This is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for you. 

You can’t accept this without returning the favor. Wordlessly, you get up from the fire escape, rushing indoors for a moment as you grab your gift from your bedroom. It’s been sitting in there for at least two weeks now. You hold your hand behind your back as you make your way back to the fire escape, sitting down next to him once more. 

With a small flourish, you reveal your own present. They’re drumsticks. 

“For you,” you tell him, that same small grin on your face. “Since you’re always drumming on everything. Thought you could use something to do that with.”

Jungkook looks positively starstruck. He takes the sticks in his hands, feels the wood with his fingers, tracing over the logo at the bottom. You aren’t very well versed in the world of drum equipment, but your friend in the orchestra told you it was a good brand. 

“Wow, Y/N,” he says, mouth agape. “This is... this is the most thoughtful thing anyone’s ever gotten me. Thank you.”

“Always.”

And that’s the truth, isn’t it? No matter what you do, no matter what you say, you will always be there to give Jungkook what he deserves. To make his life just the tiniest bit better. Doing thoughtful things for him has never required effort on your part. There is just a part of you that will do them, because he deserves it. Because he is so gentle, and loving, and kind, and wonderful. 

You sit there for a little while longer, relishing in the brief respite of your gift exchange. It’s softened the ice, warmed the air, broken the tension. Even if only a little. But it’s enough to keep you out here, sitting next to him. It’s enough to keep you from drifting away. 

“I don’t regret that night.”

The words feel like biting wind. 

“What?” You turn to him. 

“I don’t. I’d do it again. A thousand times over.” Jungkook is resolute. He looks at you, eyebrows furrowed in determination. 

“Jungkook, what happened that night--”

“Is something I’ll never forget,” he finishes. “Do you know how fucking long I had been waiting to do that? To hold you? Kiss you? To spend the night with you?”

Each syllable presses deeper into your chest, imprinting themselves on your heart. You stare back at him, too shocked to say anything at all. 

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same,” Jungkook adds on, quickly backtracking. “I sort of... got that message when I woke up that morning and you were gone. But I just wanted you to know that that night didn’t change anything about how I feel about you.”

Jungkook’s got it all wrong. You were the one who fucked up. You were the one whose feelings won’t change. “I thought you were the one who didn’t feel the same.”

Jungkook chuckles, this sad, forced cough. “Are you kidding? I’d do anything to relive that night. You’re my favorite person in this whole world, Y/N.”

If the weather were just a little bit warmer, if the wind wasn’t as dry, perhaps tears would fall. But instead, you blink back at him and it feels at once like your heart weighs a million pounds and nothing at all. “Me too,” you choke out. “I never want to be without you.”

Your fire escape is barely big enough for one person, let alone two, but that doesn’t stop Jungkook from reaching over and pulling you in, pressing a chilly kiss to your frozen lips, the heat of his mouth warming you up from the inside out. It’s cold tonight, yes. But Jungkook makes you feel like it’s summer all year long. 

You smile against his lips. They feel like home. They taste like peppermint lip balm and coffee and ice. 

“Do you want me to stay?” He asks. As if he was even thinking about going home anyway. 

“Yes,” you whisper back. 

It feels a lot more like Christmas now. 

“Then I’ll stay.”

↳ don’t forget to message me with any thoughts or feedback! i missed you guys!

[johnsamericano]

𝓓𝓪𝔂 19:

ℓιυ уαиgуαиg

23 days of NCT masterlist.

taglist: @notbeforelong @whathamelon @curieouscapt @unknown5tar @mrcarbonatedmilk @silent-potato @ajhdr @gjheaaa

warnings: an extreme plot twist 😭, things escalate way too quickly, a bit of angst, this is so weird I’m sorry.

“Welcome.”

You heard your coworker greet someone as you finished giving the final touches to the tattoo you’d been working on for a few weeks.

“Dang, Sungchan. You’re gonna look hella fine with this.” You wiped off the remains of ink over his skin, getting up from your little stool to admire your job from afar. “Wanna take a look?”

“Hell yeah.” The tall boy straightened his back, walking towards the full-body mirror to look at the daisies decorating his bicep. “My girlfriend’s gonna love it, thanks y/n.”

“No prob.” You covered the tattoo before biding him goodbye.

As you ordered your materials, you heard the doorbell ring. Assuming it was Sungchan leaving the shop, you didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Y/n, come here!” Your coworker and friend, Xiaojun, shouted from the front desk.

“Coming!”

As you exited the room, an innocent looking boy invaded your vision. A big, black hoodie shielded his body from the winter cold, making his body look tiny inside of it.

“He wants a tattoo.” He lifted his pierced eyebrows, as if the boy’s request was some sort of joke.

“Hi, I’m y/n.” You extended your hand, allowing him to shake it vigorously. “Do you have any idea of what you’d like to get done...?”

“Yangyang.” He completed your sentence, an oddly wide smile imprinted on his face. “I actually have a picture of what I want.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket, unlocking it to show you the image of a beautiful woman smiling.

“Are you sure about it? It’s gonna take a while to finish it and I’m sure it won’t be painless.”

He blinked a couple of times before giving you another wide smile.

“I’ll be alright.”

“So I’m booked for the rest of the week, but we can start next Monday if you’re available.” You murmured while taking a look at your agenda. “If you’d like, maybe we can book the rest of your appointments in advance. And you can also send me that image so I can get started on the sketch.”

“That’d be great.”

It wouldn’t be until the next week that you finally saw the languid boy again. He was wearing a black tank top with a leather jacket on top.

“Ready?” You asked while pulling out your gun, Yangyang getting comfortable in his seat. “You can pay now or when we finish, whatever feels best for you.”

“Thank you.” He removed the leather jacket covering his naked arms.

His limbs were slightly built up, but most surprisingly, filled with intricate ink designs. You couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped your mouth, your fingers unconsciously touching the patterns over his fair skin.

“This is amazing.”

He giggled at your excitement, curious eyes gazing at you. Suddenly, you snapped out of your daydreaming.

“Sorry.” You shook your head, pulling out a piece of paper from your desk. “Here’s the sketch, we can change it if you don’t like it.”

“This is perfect, you’re really talented.” His eyes scanned the detailed sketch, smiling back at the drawn woman.

“Thank you.” You rolled up your sleeves, your ink-filled arms on full display. “Let’s get started.”

You spent about an hour in complete silence, only the buzz of your machine filling the room. Yangyang seemed to be handling the pain just fine, which made your job much easier.

“How long have you been doing this?” He asked out of nowhere, trying to start a conversation.

“When I was seventeen maybe.” Your eyebrows were knitted together as you drew shadows over the woman’s eyes. “The guy at the front desk and I opened this shop after deciding neither of us were attending to college. Guess studying wasn’t really our thing.”

“What did your parents say about it?”

“You know, the usual, but they got used to it after a while. They even got a couple tattoo a few months ago.”

“It must be nice having supportive parents.”

“Yeah, it is.”

The room went silent once again. Xiaojun turned on some music, the beat faintly reaching your workspace.

“So who is this woman?”

“My mom. She died from cancer a year ago.” You weren’t expecting him to say something like that so abruptly. Before you could open your mouth, he was resuming his answer. “Please don’t say something like “I’m sorry”, why would you be? It’s not like you knew her.” There was irony in his tone, which made you quite confused.

“Well yeah, but it must be sad for you.”

“She lived her life well, and that’s all that matters.” You hummed. That was a nice way of seeing it. “She actually helped me out a lot when I hit rock bottom a few months after we found out about her disease, even when she was at her deathbed all she did worrying about others.”

‘Why is he telling me this?’

“She must’ve been one heck of a woman.” A breathy laugh erupted from him.

“She was.”

“Well, I think we’re done for today.”

Week after week, Yangyang came back to the shop. The tattoo was turning out amazing and you couldn’t be happier with the results. Yangyang and you grew closer after that small, deep talk during your first session together, even going as far as exchanging phone numbers.

A few late-night conversations later, you were having your first date, which was followed by three more, every single one of them unique in its own way. The last one had taken place at the amusement park, the Ferris wheel serving as the perfect spot to share the sweetest kiss you'd ever received. Maybe it wasn’t very professional of you, but who could resist such a charming guy?

“Hey, y/n.” He greeted you with a small peck on your cheek, his silly smile pressing against your skin. After a small pause, he proceeded to take a seat at his usual spot.

You’d decided to wear a small shirt since the weather was getting warmer. Yangyang’s eyes were uncomfortably glued to your lower abdomen, making your hands clumsy as you prepared your materials.

“You’ve got a scar there.” A pinkish line crossed the right side of your tummy. For a moment, you were scared he’d think it was gross, after all, it wasn’t precisely a small scar, nonetheless, you carried it with pride. You were surprised to see there was no disgust in his look, instead, something you couldn’t really name.

“Didn’t I tell you? I used to have chronic kidney disease. I would’ve died if it weren’t for the transplant I received.” His mouth twitched the slightest, as if he was about to cry. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, sure, let’s continue with the tattoo.”

Halfway into your work, you felt a small drop of water staining your arm. It was Yangyang, he was desperately squeezing his eyes in an attempt to hold back the tears.

“Are you feeling any pain? I’ll try to be more careful, we’re almost done.” He shook his head. “What is it then, Yangyang?”

He pulled out his wallet, retrieving a pink card and placing it above your hand. As soon as you turned it around, you were met with a name you knew all too well, the name of the person who saved your life.

“How...?” Your words stopped as you realized that certain person and Yangyang shared their last name.

“I remembered your name from when my mom passed. One day, I googled you out of pure curiosity, what I didn’t expect was to actually find you, address and all.” A lonesome tear rolled down his cheek, staining his silver ring as it fell. “My mom would be glad to know her contribution is being used well.”

Your eyes watered at his words, giggling slightly at the odd turn things had taken.

“Thank you.” Your arms engulfed him in a bone-crushing hug. “Thank you so much.” Yanyang couldn't help but let more tears fall, he was finally getting the closure he needed. He could finally let his mom go.

Silently, he thanked his mom for having saved such a beautiful human as you, feeling as if her death hadn't been in vain.

“Crap.” You sniffled, nose adorably scrunching. “Alright, get up.”

You pushed him away from your body, grabbing your coat and swinging it above your shoulders.

“Huh?” Your hand was extended right in front of him, your pretty, pearly teeth on full display as you showed him the sweetest smile ever.

“I’m taking you out for ice cream.”

[heynikkiyousofine]

Don’t hate me for the chapter, we got some angst going on here in Chapter 4! The final chapter will be up Sunday! 

The Red Strings of Fate Chapter 4  

read it on ao3 here 😊

The autumn leaves continued to change until they fell from their branches, covering the forest floor with an abundance of colors. The bare branches, thin and frail, held the first snowfall as Kagome continued to visit Inuyasha. Some days, when the clouded sky brought chilled winds, she would accompany him in his cave, with a warm fire, telling each other childhood stories. Often, Inuyasha would forget his spot in retelling a story, becoming too distracted and mesmerized by Kagome’s laugh. In turn, Kagome would be rendered speechless catching Inuyasha’s intense stare whenever she would speak about her childhood, his gaze looking into her soul. It was in those days, they each began to fall for one another, neither of them saying it aloud.

Days when the sun shone brightly on the white landscape, Inuyasha would hang out in sturdy branches, next to Kagome, as she pulled her strings over the neighboring village. He didn’t see much of Miroku and Sango, knowing the wintertime was harsh for most humans, but did see a few demons who were able to find warmth in a pack. A wolf demon and his mate were trying to produce their own cubs when Miroku spoke about providing a blessing for the wolf tribe up north on one fo the few walks he and Sango took.

Asking Kagome if she could help, she just smirked at him and wiggled a finger on her left hand. The two red strings, braided with one another, were coiled tight as she added a third to the mix. Smiling at her involvement, he knew by spring the wolf pack would grow once more. It was moments like that, Inuyasha and Kagome silently wondered if they would ever get their own little string added to their own fate.

Winter continued to ravage the lands and yet Kagome still visited, never letting the frosty weather hinder her travels. Inuyasha wondered if the coldness ever bothered her, since she normally arrived barefoot and in nothing but a silk dress, her hair cascading down her bare back. The thought of Kagome suffering often made his heart ache, so he always made sure there was plenty of firewood to keep them warmth on the coldest of days. He had asked her one day if she ever got cold and she had only laughed and shook her head, explaining that ebbing a goddess had its perks.

He thought about all the secrets they had shared with one another, his fear of being alone, her love of flowers, his favorite food and hating spiciness, her disgust towards creepy men, but knowing a good soul when she sees one and so on. He thought about the warm evenings in his cave, thinking of it at home for the first time in a while, where she would get closer as the night wore on, almost ending up in his lap by the time it was time for her to leave. He thought about the night she discovered he turned human, smiled and continued with her conversation like it was nothing. He noted to himself, that she had stayed a little later that evening and arrived much earlier the next morning. In all his thoughts, he realized he had fallen in love.

As winter came to close, the days becoming a tad bit warmer, Inuyasha knew spring was on its way. It wasn’t until he was hunting a rabbit mid afternoon, he realized Kagome had yet to visit. Worrying, he finished up his hunt to take the animal back to his cave, hoping that she would be there waiting. When he arrived however, there was no sign of her. Her scent, jasmine, faded from the previous day, clung to the blanket he hung near the cave opening. Gripping the blanket tightly in his claws, he looked out to see nothing but meeting snow and dead trees. Continuing to get his meal prepared for the night, his mind preoccupied with the concerning thoughts of Kagome.

Days passed, with no word from her and he began to increasingly get worried. One early spring morning, he watched high from a tree branch with sprouting leaves, Miroku helping a pregnant Sango through the foliage on a walk. Smiling to himself, he was sad and happy at the same time. He was happy for the couple, Kagome’s job complete for this particular area, but sad because he may never get that chance at a family, but also, that Kagome’s job was complete. He doubt he would ever see her again. He began to get angry and fled towards his cave, his growing anger into a blinding rage. How dare she?! He seethed, as he tore through a branch with his claws.

How dare she leave and not say goodbye?! How dare she just disappear without a trace?! Did she know that he loved her?! His eyes flashing in anger, red seeping in, he noticed the soft, calming jasmine waiting for him at the entrance of his cave. Leaping from the last tree, he landed in front of her, only to see her stormy eyes filled with tears. Rushing forward, he reached for her shoulders, just as she latched onto his bright, red robe. His anger dissipated completely, leaving only confusion and worry in his gut.

“You idiot! What have you been doing all this time?” He growled, pulling her forward, closer to him.

“I’m sorry Inuyasha, were you waiting for me?” Her muffled apology came from below his chin, his hand cradling her head close. She began to cry harder and Inuyasha hugged her as close as he could, not understanding why she was so upset. He hated when women cried, especially her. He couldn’t bear her tears and sadness. 

“Kagome, what’s going?”

“I have to leave, but I-“ she began when he wrenched her away to stare into her eyes.

“You can’t!”

“Inuyasha!” The way she called his name made his heart soar, yet break at the same time. “I have to! I finished everything I needed to here. It is time for me to move on.” She looked down at their feet, while he just continued to stare, speechless, at her.

“Fine.”

“Inuyasha?” There his heart went again, this time, breaking for sure.

“I said fine. You shouldn’t have ever came back. I was fine before you came and I’ll be fine after you go.” Inuyasha let her go and turned to face the forest around him. Hearing her sniffle, and take a deep breath before her hand touched his bicep, the warmth nice in this chill, instantly regretting his angry words.

“Inuyasha, I don’t want to leave you.”

“You don’t?” He asked, shocked that she felt that way, turning to face her once more.

“No, I don’t, but I have to. I wish there was a way for you to come with me, but I will always be able to see you though. I just want you to be happy. I want you to laugh a lot. I don’t when I’ll be able to see you again, or what I’ll be able to do for you in this life, but I’ll always be by your side if I ever get the chance again.”

Reaching forward, she grabbed both of his hands, intertwining their fingers and stood high on her tiptoes. Inuyasha, still stunned by her speech, watched silently as she reached up and gave a quick peck to his cheek, leaving a warm touch behind. She let go and turned around, beginning to disappear into the forest.

“Wait! Kagome!” He called, reaching out a clawed hand as she disappeared, “I love you…..” He whispered to the air, with no one there to hear him.

taglist: @lemonlushff​ @enchantedink-ag​ @sailorlolo​ @kalcia​ @kaleyana​ @kagsandinuyasha​ @liz8080​ @swaggingtomboy​ @malditamigs​ @knittingknots​ @neutronstarchild​ @writemydaydreams​ @zelink-inukag​ @kawaiichan67​ @11volleyballcaro @yesthatsgreat @celestialmaiden5 @ruddcatha​ @olicucciola14 @thirrinwildcat @capricornsiren @mylindylady @perhapsitmaybedragons​ @briartss​ @artfanatic263​ @mlb-stuffs @inusgirl​ @anisaanisa​ @blairex

[urmyonly-vision]

Tolerate it

Description: This series is very loosely based on Taylor Swifts ‘Tolerate it’. The lyrics and imagery in this song are amazing and thought this pairing would go perfectly. Unrequited love is a bitch amirite :’) Anyway, if this doesn't mention Brock as much, its because I want the focus to be on Steve and the reader. They both deserve each other wowowow.

Pairing: Brock x female reader, then Steve Rogers x female reader.

Warnings: Angst, fluff, self esteem issues.

Words: 1.5k

The dismal and misty rain poured outside the window of the dimly lit cafe. Every so often, the awning would shudder and rhythmically release the collected rain on the path below. Everyone outside seemed to be in a rush going somewhere and anywhere to avoid being drenched.

You began to feel more grateful that you were inside, warm and dry with your hands wrapped around your hot cup of coffee. Fiddling with the sugar cubes on the saucer, you heard the bell above the door tinkle. A rush of cold air swept through the cafe and you shivered, starting to rethink the booth you had chosen to sit in.

‘You do know that's the worst seat in this place’ a familiar voice said.

You looked up to see a tall man with blonde hair chuckling and shaking his head as he walked towards you.

‘Steve!’ you exclaimed with a smile.

You shuffled across the long seat and quickly stood to give your friend a hug. Steve smiled as he returned the gesture, pulling you close and wrapping his warm hands around your frame, inhaling your perfume. Unfortunately, drops of rain from his jacket had now sunk into the thin cardigan that you were wearing, leaving you with cold patches of rain water on your torso.

You made a soft gasp at the chill saying ‘Nooo, Steve! You made me wet!’’ You grimaced, wiping yourself as you sat back down.

Steve burst out laughing at your poor choice of phrasing as he said, ‘Aw doll, I���m sorry! But it’s not every day that I get to spend good time with my favourite!’.

As he began to shrug his jacket off, you thawed at the sound of his words. Steve had always said that you were his ‘favourite’. You remembered the first time he had said it and you scoffed playfully, saying, ‘you don't mean that’.

But his sincere face looking down at you suggested he meant the exact word he chose.

Everything about Steve was earnest and calm. You watched him as he patiently waited for the waitress to come by your table and take his order. You didn't know how, but even the way he asked for his coffee was deliberate but sweet. In the 5 years you had known him, you were convinced that he was a better person each time you saw him.

Steve turned around to catch you staring at him.

‘What’s going on with you, you seem like you have a lot to say y’ know’. He asked, narrowing his eyes playfully with a tilt of his head.

Taking a sip of your coffee, you smiled warmly, ‘Nothing… just reminiscing’.

You both fell into an easy conversation, taking time to ask him about his day and if he had crossed anything off his list of things to discover this week. He began to show you several memes he had thought you'd find funny, laughing more because you snorted into your coffee, leaving a foamy mess on the table.

‘Oh God, Steve, you’re getting better than me, where are you sourcing these from?’ you laughed.

‘C’mon, I’m Captain America, I have to know everything about everything’. He joked back with a wink.

You rolled your eyes in humour, saying ‘Alright hotshot’.

You loved the comfort you had with Steve. Everything was easy and calm. You didn't even have to explain yourself to him. Only sometimes when he looked at you like that. The ‘cap look’ you called it. How could someone so good be so beautiful as well? It seemed unfair. Regardless, you were more than grateful that you were friends. And close ones at that.

‘Anyway’, Steve interrupted your thoughts. ‘You would never ask me to meet you in this kinda weather unless there's something exciting going on’. He continued. ‘Wait… did you finally find the company papers that Brock hid?’

Meeting his gaze, you said, ‘Nah,... I just wanted to see you properly. I only ever see you at work.’

Steve’s heart leapt a little at the thought of you just wanting to see him. How easy would it be for him to have the choice to just see you all the time if you were together.

Reading your downcast eyes, Steve drew a breath in, muttering ‘Where’s Brock these days anyway?’

You looked up at Steve, sighing at his quiet persistence in his blue eyes. Pulling your hands into your sleeves, you said, ‘‘If I knew the answer to that I’d tell you’

Whether you believed it or not, Steve knew you very well. From the way you blew into your coffee subconsciously though it wasn't hot, to the way you bounced your knee when you were nervous.

‘Y/N, c’mon, you know you can tell me.’ He frowned with persistence, not knowing that you really did mean, that you had no clue. Steve continued. ‘Wait, are you serious? Didn't he do this last month?’

‘I dunno’ you replied, staring at the white foam in your cup. ‘He hasn’t been home since last Thursday.’ It was now Saturday.

Steve patiently waited, egging you on as he reached for your hand on the other side of the table.

A few moments passed and with a rush of sudden emotion, you started.

You began to explain how you weren't even sure if Brock was in the city, back from his work meeting in Chicago. It’s as if you knew that he liked to spend more time in the office than he did with you. God knows why someone would choose to live in the office. Despite him being the executive of the start-up company you had helped him create, nothing much kept him there for long.You guessed it was an active avoidance on his part. Or rather… someone was keeping him there. You thought you were going crazy.

….’Every time I’ve tried to call his phone, it gets redirected to his secretary Sharon’. You started to sob, saying ‘I feel so stupid… he treats me like a child and not his partner… and I’ve tried everything but it’s like I'm waiting for the worst...and Steve, I swear I can feel it coming and I don’t know what I should do... I know I heard Sharon stifle her laugh when I called again yesterday’. Tears were now streaming down your face and with a quiet whisper, you finished ‘It’s like everyone is laughing at me’.

Steve immediately frowned, responding ‘No, Y/N, they're not. I’m not laughing at you’. He began to stroke circles into your palm as an attempt to soothe you. ‘I could never’. ‘Unless you’re having a brilliant stroke of luck with your awful jokes’.

With a sobbing inhale, you countered; ‘My jokes are so good and you know that’.

As you exhaled, you began to shiver, not knowing whether it was because the rain had settled on your skin or because the sadness had buried itself in you.

Noticing your shaking shoulders, Steve picked up his jacket on the side, stood and shuffled to your side of the booth. As he placed his jacket over your shivering shoulders, you met his calm blue eyes with yours, quietly murmuring a ‘thanks’.

As Steve snaked his arm around your shoulders, you shuffled closer to his warmth, discreetly inhaling his fresh laundry powder and sandalwood scent. Suddenly, you felt so self aware, heat growing in your face as you realised you had perhaps crossed a boundary. You were still with Brock after all and in that moment, you truly wished you had with him an ounce of what you had with Steve. Maybe if the timing had been right with Steve you could’ve…

Drawing yourself out of your thoughts, you looked up at Steve, as he sipped his coffee, staring through the misted windows

You softly poked his side, asking ‘What’s America’s finest thinking about in there?’

Steve had been secretly seething at the mention of Brock’s name, yet again being the centre of your topics. Not because he was being selfish but because he thought you deserved better… dare he say even him.

For the longest time Steve had desperately wanted you for himself. You understood him and he felt truly seen with you. Something that he struggled with other people when they ‘reduced’ him to just ’Captain America’. Despite his herculean physique and good looks, more often than not, he still felt like the small guy he had tried to shake off all his life.

Whenever he imagined his future, it was impossible to not see you in it. You were what he needed and wanted. He felt he had missed the timing and he wished he had more confidence 4 years ago but then Brock came along and...

Steve snapped his eyes, focusing his gaze as he whispered ‘Nothing, doll… just, thinking’.

‘Oh yeah? What about?’

‘Well… I guess I was just… I was wondering if you’d want to spend the day with me tomorrow? Just me and you?’

Feeling warmer, you replied into the crook of his arm ‘Yeah.. why not. Let’s do it’.

Steve had a plan.

1/3

cont.. very soon

Once again. thanks for making it this far if you have! Let me know if you like what I've written so far / if you'd like to see anything else! Thanks :)

[rason-rodd]

All The Time We Need - Jason Todd x Fem!Reader (NSFW)

Summary: Reader and Jason meet again after two years being apart and reconnect with their long lost love.

Warning : Angst, Fluff, Smut  

Author’s note: A OS definitely inspired by my 2-years long hiatus and that somewhat acknowledges it. It was almost cathartic writing it and allowed me to reconnect with Jason on a writing scale. You can read it as a sequel to “Summer Love and Swimming Pool” or not. Some moments are a bit too cheesy to my taste but I hope you’ll enjoy it nevertheless. NSFW Part is at the end. You can skip that part if you want to.

You actually realise Time flies when you take time to acknowledge it. And sometimes acknowledging is like getting buried under a mountain of sand and feeling each grain slowly chocking you and reminding you there is no escaping. The sands of Time cannot be stopped, nor can they be shoveled. They run and slip through your fingers like dust in the wind and the tighter you try to grasp them the faster they go. And when they’re gone, there is no catching them back.     That’s why Time is scary. Because no matter what you do, it won’t allow you to go back or to put an end to it. And it will certainly not allow you to forget about it either. Time will pave your life until the day you die with a constant reminder that, unlike it, you’re not eternal. And the saddest thing is it doesn’t care about what you think of it.           And yet, it seemed like Jason Todd had managed to tell Time to go fuck itself. “How long has it been?”

He hadn’t changed a bit. Looking as handsome as ever. Always and eternally sporting the same disheveled short black hair and the same mischievous yet tortured blue eyes, eyes that had put you in more trouble than you could remember. “Two years or so … I don’t know.”             All you could remember was a passionate summertime infatuation that had burnt your body and your heart night and day like a hot and dazzling sun. A fading yet intense memory you secretly cherished and replayed in period of loneliness and that you couldn’t seem to be able to replace on the timeline of your life. “Still so beautiful, I see.” You scoffed and he chuckled. “What?”       “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?” He scratched his head; arm muscles compressed in a leather jacket à la Jason that made you wonder how he could bear wearing such a light jacket in such freezing weather. “I tend to believe constancy is a quality.” You goggled at his smile, childish, adorable yet naturally so seductive. The same smile that used to make your legs shake and turn to jell-o. “I didn’t know you were back in Gotham.”         “Right back at you. Last time I heard of you, you were in this little town … Hopletown, was it?”   “Appleton.” He corrected. “Looks like Timbo talks about me in my absence.”           “You’re his brother. Of course, he talks about you, just like everyone else in your family.” Judging by his signature small crooked smile on his face he seemed touched by your words, taking even time to ponder over them. Did the family really think of him in his absence?

Shivering, you tightened your wool coat around you, attempting to prevent the cold wind to infiltrate under the cloth and steal your body heat, as you let Jason think about what you had just said. But your reaction didn’t go unnoticed and it managed to pull him out of his train of thoughts. “Do you want to go somewhere warmer? We could have something to drink, catch on. I’m sure you got plenty to tell.”         “Not plenty but I could use a hot tea.” You confessed, already imagining the spicy smell of cinnamon and chai in your nostrils and the hot steam caressing your cold face.     “Amazing.” He grinned, genuinely happy and excited, a bit like a little boy at a toy store, and lowered your beanie to properly cover your ice-cold reddened ears. That gesture got you confused for a small second but it was so sweet and caring you eventually smiled. Ah Todd, always the overprotective type I see.

***

“So, what are you doing in Gotham City? I thought you wanted to ‘travel the world Dora The Explorer-style and get the hell out of this cesspool’?” He quoted you and your genuine chuckle made him smile but only briefly as you gained back your seriousness in a matter of seconds.

He could tell you were not the same girl he used to date two summers ago. You had changed, matured. You had become a woman, a woman who seemed to struggle with responsibilities so heavy they could crush her at any second. You looked tired, weary… sad even. The cheeky light in you was gone. And he wanted to know why. Not out of curiosity but to help you.           “Well, I did travel and it was awesome, like a dream come true. But I guess we always wake up from dreams eventually.” You looked down at your tea, looking at your pale reflection in the hot water, melancholia hitting you like a train. “My mother got sick and, well, her savings were not enough to pay for all the medical care so … let’s say I had to swap my backpack for a satchel… I work at Wayne Enterprises now. Bruce hired me, out of pity I suppose.”         “I’m sure it wasn’t out of pity.” You shrugged and Jason grabbed your hand and you looked up at him. “And I’m sorry about your mother. I know how it’s like to …”     “Do you still think about us?” You abruptly cut him short, not willing to keep talking about your personal issues or to plunge Jason back in dark memories that you know were very hard for him to handle.     Sure, you could have chosen another question, another topic of conversation but the thing was that those words were niggling at you since the moment you two broke up. “I mean do you happen to think about what happened between us?”

Jason didn’t answer at first, more out of surprise than out of hesitation because there was none. There was just one answer to that question. Of course.             Of course he had thought about you all over those two years. Of course he had thought about what happened, about the moments spent with you – however ephemeral they had been -, about that love he had felt and had never learned to completely erase despite the women who had entered and exited his life. Of course there had been nights in which he had replayed the lustful burning memories of you in his arms, against him, against his naked body. Of course was the answer. But not the answer he gave you. “Come with me.” He forced you to get up and slammed a fifty-dollar bill against the table, not caring about the hot chocolate he hadn’t finished or the blueberry muffin you had barely touched. “But … the change.” You tried to protest.         “Fuck the change. I want to show you something.”

***

           Out of all the places in Gotham, you never thought he would have brought you here. “Why are we here, Jason?”       It was an ancient building, far from the fancy city centre and only a few blocks away from Crime Alley. Dilapidated, covered in colorful yet ugly graffiti, this place looked liked a landmark for drug dealers and junkies and it was an understatement to say that, without Jason’s company, it would have normally made you feel unsafe and uncomfortable.         “I grew up here, before Bruce took me in.” You glanced at Jason who was staring at the place with both disgust and melancholia. “I’ve always hated that place. But it was home. And I guess it made me… I guess that is because of that place that I somehow became the man I am today… I mean, if Jason Todd hadn’t grow up here with a junkie mother and a lousy father he would have never met Brue Wayne and never became …” He stopped, on purpose, you could tell it. “Even if I hate to, I come back here when I want to think of my past, when I’m looking for a reason to keep on fighting. This place is like my temple, a memento of who I am. Damn, you must think I’m crazy.”         “ No, not at all… ” You smiled and put your hand on his arm to reassure him. “Just very Romantic for the bad boy of the Wayne family.” You teased him, knowing perfectly that literature always been Jason’s hobbyhorse and that the whole bad boy thing was a persona, a thick armour he had made to protect himself.     “Blame Alfred. He’s the one who made me ready Wordsworth.” He joked, appreciating the small banter. “Follow me.”           You took the warm hand he offered you and followed him inside the decaying building, minding your step and trying to ignore the dirt and the potential rats.          

Once on the third floor, Jason pushed a rackety wooden door that cracked and squeaked on its hinges and you entered what once was his house. “You grew up here?” You asked only to fill the heavy void caused by this dreadful place. “It was the living room. Used to hide under the table there when my parents were fighting.”

You looked around you, trying to imagine a small Jason living in here. You always knew about his crappy childhood but there is a huge difference between what you had imagined based on the stories Jason had told you in the intimacy of your bedroom and this place.       “You asked me why we’re here.” You turned around and spotted Jason knelt on the dusty wooden floor, a small dusty shoebox that he had just taken from under a floorboard between his hands. “I’ve had this since I was a child. Used to keep the things I loved most in it. Somehow, even after I left this place, I never could take it away from here.” He handed it to you and you slowly opened it, careful not to drop it. You could tell this box was important to Jason.

The content left you silent and you sat on the floor near Jason to study it. “I never really opened it. I don’t like getting stuck in the past. It terrifies me.” You frowned, thinking about all the nightmares, all the anxiety attacks he used to have back in the days you were together. “I never showed it to anyone either but hopefully that’ll answer the question you asked me in that coffee shop.” The question? You had forgotten about it, way too overwhelmed by the sudden solemnity of this moment.  “Never?”           “You’re my first. You should be proud” He tried to joke to lighten the mood and it worked for a couple of seconds. Then, you saw it, among a dog toy, a broken necklace, a batarang and other small tokens. A photo of you two kissing and smiling. A Polaroid you had personally taken on the day when Tim had offered you the camera to illustrate your travel book. “You kept it.” You declared in a whisper.     “I told you. I keep the things I love most in that box.” You stared at Jason, at the cracks of melancholia and the vulnerability in his beautiful blue eyes he allowed only a few people to see. “Of course I thought of you over the years.”       You were not the cheesy romantic type. Jason was - something rooted to his love for gothic literature and poetry you supposed. But that sincere and pure confession got you all … flushed? bothered? You couldn’t really pinpoint the feeling but you could feel the shaky warmth spreading in your body, now paralyzed by the beauty of that moment. “Did you … think of me?”

If Time could stop, you would have chosen this moment to stop it. Here, now, away from your stressful life and its issues, away from all fears and all pains, with Jason and only him, forgetting about the past you’ll never be able to change or the future that vows to be uncertain and scary, thinking about what truly matters, now. “What do you think?” He chuckled and you saw his hand slightly twitch, as if he was hesitating to do something. And so you took it in yours and shared an umpteenth intimate look only he could read. “Sometimes I wish I’d never left.” Meaning, sometimes I wish I would have stayed and be with you.           “Trust me, princess. You made the right choice. Your life would have been miserable with me.” He tried to reassure you, in vain. After all, he could barely convince himself? “More miserable than the one I have right now? I seriously doubt it, Jay.” You frowned and finally got up, leaving Jason’s box on the ground, to watch at the sunset and its red golden rays from the shattered window. “What do you think would have happened had I stayed?” You had your ideas; small little ones of pure love, happiness and bliss that Jason would have managed to lock in that little box of his. “I have a better question, Y/N. What do you think can happen right now?” He was towering you, expecting an answer, waiting as he was gazing at your skin glowing under the soft light of the sun and at your shining eyes. “You tell me, Todd.” This sentence echoed in Jason’s head as a call.

And so his thumb brushed your cold cheek and you looked up at his face, your eyes glued to his features observing them and all the small details you hadn’t noticed before. A little scar thin as a needle on his right brow and a much bigger one, an invisible one that you could see in his eyes, the scar left by all the losses and the pains he had gone through recently. Roy, Bizarro, Artemis. Maybe Jason had changed as well after all. Maybe there was no secret to stop time. But he didn’t let you ponder over this and gently pressed his lips on yours.

He needed that. He had thought about it all day and the truth was, you had too. You welcomed his kiss without hesitation or second thoughts and came to press your small body against his - which seemed so tall and strong in comparison to yours – to instinctively look for safety and protection. “I missed you, princess.” He whispered close to your mouth for a brief second before capturing your full lips with his again. “I missed you too.” You confessed, hands over his hard chest, feeling his heart beat loudly under your palms.     Jason was holding you close now, his arms tightly circled around your form as if he was scared for you to leave, scared to be alone again. His fingers weaving in your hair, his head buried in the nape of your neck, he was pecking your delicate skin, smelling the sweet and heady perfume, glad it was exactly like the one he remembered. “Damn, Y/N. You’re still driving me crazy.”  He murmured as he allowed his hands to slide in your coat and under your jumper to caress your bare back, awakening a cheekiness that you thought was long gone. “I tend to believe constancy is a quality.” You quoted him.

***

           As soon as the door to your apartment slammed shut, your coat dropped to the floor and with hasty hands, Jason threw your beanie across the room, showing an excitement you had almost forgotten. It almost knocked an old crystal vase over but he couldn’t care less.   He had waited long enough. Two years to be precise and he couldn’t wait a second longer. “Bedroom?” He asked between two hungry kisses that were making you almost suffocating against him. “ At the end of the corridor.” You whispered, already breathless, as you managed to finally get rid of his leather jacket.       “Okay.” He suddenly grabbed you to hoist you up with incredible ease, hands under your ass, squeezing it on purpose. A lustful yet cheerful action that made you yelp in surprise.  “I’m already making you scream? Perfect.” He declared with an amused smile as he rushed towards the bedroom, with you in his arms, your legs wrapped around his waist, his lips devouring yours.     “Wrong door.” You said as he tried to open the bathroom. “Fuck.” You giggled and very soon your body finally bounced on your bed as it landed on the soft mattress.

You attempted to sit down to admire Jason but before you could do anything the hasty young man was already on top of you, right in between your legs, his lips already kissing your hot belly as his hands were slowly pulling up your jumper above your lace-covered breasts.           That’s when your first moan finally escaped your mouth. “God. I missed that sound.” Jason mumbled against your shivering skin as he cupped and squeezed your round breasts. “Do it again.” He demanded, his tongue licking you up until it reached your cleavage. “Jason.” You moaned his name, feeling a very specific humid warmth forming in between your legs as you fingers were struggling to get rid of his green t-shirt.   He cursed and knelt on the bed to take off your jumper that he carelessly tossed on the nightstand. It knocked the lamp and the radio alarm clock to the ground with a loud clinking noise. “Can you stop breaking my stuff?” You joked and he apologized with another amused bright smile. “I’m sorry, princess”             “Are you? Show me how much.” You declared with an audacious confidence you hadn’t seen in a while. “Yes, ma’am.” Jason winked and immediately unbuttoned your jeans to pull them down along with your panties, revealing your wet and rosy womanhood begging for his attention. He sighed and took a deep breath when he saw it, glad to rediscover that little part of you. Slowly, his calloused fingers went to caress it, making you draw a sharp breath as your fingers tightened around the covers. You didn’t want him to tease you too long and you somewhat you know he wouldn’t. Not today. He was too excited and needy for that.     And so were you in a way judging by the certain frustration that made you mewl when Jason’s expert finger slowly entered you while his thumb came to tickle your swollen clit. You wanted him now but you had to admit you had missed his fingers down there, the same way you had missed everything about him. Which reminded you there was something you had to do. “Let’s even the odds, shall we? I want to see how you handle such a sweet torture.”   “Sweet torture?” He repeated with a cute chuckle as you unbuckled his leather belt. “How am I torturing you, Y/N?” You unzipped his black trousers and immediately plunged you hand in his underwear to gently grab his already hard cock, making Jason curse even more crudely than before.           You chuckled and free his shaft from his boxers to jerk him off. He was as thick and long as you remembered. You bit your lower lip, impatient to feel him inside you. “Like what you see?”             “Shut up.” You knelt on the mattress and immediately took his tip between your lips to suck it like a lollipop, enjoying the taste of his bitter pre-cum on your tongue and the sound of Jason’s sharp breath in your ears. “Damn it, princess.” He managed to say with half lidded eyes.   You licked his penis with a grin before finally welcoming it in your mouth with a lustful moan. How much you had missed it. “You know. I think I get what you mean by sweet torture now.” Jason confessed as he weaved his fingers in your soft hair, torn apart by two ideas: one, let you continue your amazing blow job. Two, fuck you like he never did before. But you did not listen and started bobbing your head the way you knew he loved, taking his dick as deep as you could without gagging around him. “Fucking hell, Y/N” Jason groaned as he grabbed your head between his hands to accompany your pace. “You’re fucking amazing.” Then, his hand gently slapped your ass and he bent over to kiss it with a loving smile that was swallowed by another growl of his as his abs violently tensed with pleasure. “Alright, enough.” He pushed you flat on your back and placed himself between your legs again. He kissed your folds and licked your slit to wet it even more than it already was to finally lingered on your clit that he sucked eagerly, forcing a guttural crying moan out of your tightly sealed lips. Damn, that tongue! “I thought you said enough.” You complained, your voice as low as a whisper.

Jason chuckled and smiled brightly before he eventually knelt in between your spread thighs. “God, how gorgeous you are.” He declared as he tapped his hard cock against your reddened lips, a cheeky gesture whose sole purpose was to make you beg. You knew it. “You want this?”       “Fuck, Jay.” You grumbled, moving your hips vigorously against his shaft, looking for a way to finally welcome it inside you. But Jason ignored your whim and bent over your body. “You want me?” His face was so close to yours you could feel his hot breath caressing your lips. “Yes.” You murmured. “I want you, Ja…” He did not let you finish your sentence and caught your lips with a burning eagerness, his hand around his cock guiding it inside you, making you moan in his mouth. “Fuck.” Jason growled between his gritted teeth as he felt himself slowly sinking inside of you. “I almost forgot you felt so tight.” “ I almost forgot you were so big.” You cleared your voice, an inexplicable mechanism to relax and allow his cock to fully enter and stretch you. “I know. Sorry.” He winced, adjusting his position on top of you to admire how beautiful you were around his penis and how perfect you pussy was for him. “Damn. I don’t know if I’ll last long, princess.” Jason admitted with a shiver and you cried out when he suddenly pulled out to push himself back inside of you with one long exquisite move. “That’s alright. We’ll do it again.”

Those last words made Jason grin in a way he had never done before as he was genuinely happy that you didn’t want this to be a one-time thing, a casual lay to remember the old good days.       So he immediately took a nice pace that quickened after each new thrust and you let your hands caress his smooth chest from his strong pectorals down to his divine abs and the chiselled V below his navel, finding him simply handsome. Then you nudged his rear with your ankles, pressing his hips closer to yours to take him deeper inside of you, and started moaning his name again, a strong wave of pleasure forming in your core, ready to drown you. “Jay!” His mouth met your neck and sucked on the thin skin with ardour. “Are you gonna cum for me, princess?” That was too much to handle. “Yeah” You cried out, tears of bliss watering your eyes.       “Cum for me then.” He didn’t have to say it twice. You dug your nails in his back and screamed loudly as your walls clenched around tightly his thick cock. “That’s it, princess.” He said as you kept calling his name on and on, sending him closer to a most awaited orgasm that he eventually reached and let explode in you under the shape of a loud growled “fuck” and beads of white seed right inside of you. “Y/N” Jason groaned between his gritted teeth as he thrust hard and deep in you for the last time, his sweaty forehead against yours. “Jay!” You shouted again while clawing at his back painfully enough to make him wince and hiss.     Then he stopped moving, exhausted and breathless just like you, and watched you sink in the mattress trying to catch your breath. He caressed your hair as you both slowly came down from cloud nine. A kiss on your nose and he whispered. “You’re okay?” and in spite of the silliness of the question you nodded. “Never been better.”

Your lips found each other again and Jason let himself lie down on you, placing his head on your breasts, listening to your hearts pounding and to your loud ragged breaths. “I missed you.” He whispered and he held you body against his.     “I missed you too.” You repeated as you planted a kiss in his wet dark hair. “Did you have to keep your jeans on?” The question escaped with a laugh and Jason chuckled. “You know me. Didn’t want to waste any time.” He managed to gather the little energy he had left to sit down and finally remove his trousers as he thought he would feel more comfortable without them. “Oops. I think I broke your clock.” He grimaced as he noticed you the broken device on the floor and the flickering numbers flashing up endlessly on the screen. “I don’t care.” You said as you pulled Jason back against you. “We’ve got all the time we need.”

[xpeachesncream]

off the grid | seven

summary: it was as simple as swapping places with a stranger from across the world to get away from everything back home. that is - until you meet Jimin. things become more complicated as he unfolds a new chapter in your life that you were initially trying to avoid.

pairing: reader x pjm

genre: post-college au, christmas/holiday au | angst, fluff, smut (to come)

words: 4.1k

chapter warnings: fluff, cussing, flirting, hints of sex/sexual comments, breakups and exes, alcohol consumption, intoxication, dancing/grinding, good friends and good company, insecurities, lots of overthinking

notes: last two chapters will be posted tomorrow and the following day!

> series masterlist <

The next morning, you wake up to the warm sun hitting your face. You quickly grab your phone to check the time and see that it's a little past 10AM. Jimin is sound asleep behind you, his arm wrapped tightly around your waist. You slowly turn, smiling to yourself as you watch him breathe quietly. Your hand rests on his cheek as you lay small kisses on his lips and nose, causing him to flutter his eyes open and smile into one of your kisses.

"Goodmorning to you too." He slightly chuckles as he wraps both arms around you and brings you closer.

"Wake up." You whine.

"I'm awake." He says, his eyes still closed.

"Doesn't look like it." You lay another kiss on his lips.

"I mean if it means more kisses, then no. I'm not awake." You playfully smack his shoulder, causing him to scrunch his nose and open his eyes. "Ha, ow." You sit up, resting onto your elbows as you look down at him. Jimin finally opens his eyes to check his phone, all while a hand is caressing your back. "Oh shit."

"Hm?"

"Fuck, that's right." He groans a bit.

"What is it?"

"The boys are out to the bars at Hongdae tonight. I'd rather much stay in with you, though."

"Ah, don't be a party pooper, Park." You laugh. "Go to the bars."

"Only if you come with. I think it's the usual, plus some of our friends from school will be coming by."

"That sounds fun. What's the celebration?"

"Mmm, nothing really. Just wanna get together and enjoy the night."

"Yeah, let's go. That sounds fun." He smiled.

"Mmkay, love." His voice is still deep and raspy, causing you to bite onto your bottom lip.

"Speaking of school, do you happen to have any pictures from college still?" Your curiosity gets to the best of you since you've heard them talk about their college days so much.

"Yeah, a ton." He laughed. "Wanna see some? You'll see baby Taehyung and Jungkook. They definitely look way different now."

"Even better." He tilts his phone to show you pictures from his college days. His black, pink, blue and purely blonde-haired days, and the way his hair was longer or styled differently with a clear undercut, caused your heart to flutter at how good he looked no matter the color or style. He sees the glow in your eyes and smiles, continuing to scroll down. You see a ton of pics of him, Jungkook, Taehyung, Jin and Hoseok hanging out individually or all together. There were a few unfamiliar faces in other photos, but nonetheless, Jimin always showed off his bright smile and laugh.

Then there was a picture he stumbled upon that caused you to raise an eyebrow. He didn't seem to mind it, even though you knew it was a picture of him and his ex. She looked up at him while he had his arm around her waist, both laughing in a very candid picture. She had popped up in two more pictures, Jimin either wrapping his arms around her or her on his back.

"Who's that?" You weren't sure how to bring up the question, or if you should have even brought it up at all. You didn't even tell him Taehyung had brought up his ex in your conversation with him at the Common Ground.

"My ex." He looked at you, puppy eyes and all.

"Wanna tell me about her?" You rested your head on his chest, the both of you still looking up at his phone.

"We dated for almost 3 years. We broke up early last year. And honestly, I don't really know. We were good until we weren't." You felt him slightly shrug. "That's probably as best as I could put it. We started off like any other couple in its honeymoon phase, then eventually, I gave more to the relationship than she did. It was pretty obvious she was over the relationship and wanted to see other people, but I tried not to have any bad blood with her when we broke up. For the most part, we had more good times than bad, and she was my friend first and foremost before we became a couple. As long as she was happy, you know?"

"Mhm." You look up at him. "Have you talked since you broke up?"

"No. She moved on pretty quickly and I felt like we both needed the space, anyways." You nodded.

"How are you such an angel?"

"What do you mean?" He chuckled.

"I don't know. You're just too good to be true, sometimes." Seriously, how? How could someone just be so understanding like that? Sure, he definitely was hurt. It's inevitable to feel hurt and completely destroyed, especially if you found out that the person you loved didn't really love you in the same way anymore. Wouldn't that make you pissed off? Sad? Like all these years didn't actually matter? Jimin continues to surprise you every day and this is why it's been hard not to get attached. Exhibit A, right here. He was just full of love, patience and warmth.

"Mm, I just consider myself to be a simple person living a simple life." His hand is now tangled in your hair, lightly massaging your scalp. "I try not to overcomplicate things. Just takes up too much energy."

"Simple? For the record, I think you're pretty cool." He laughed.

"Such a compliment coming from a pretty girl like you." He says playfully, causing you to hit his chest. The rest of the time, he begins to talk more about the other pictures he comes across, but your mind continues to wander. Why did he have pictures of his ex on his phone still? It wasn't a bad thing, knowing what you know. But part of you couldn't help but feel like Jimin was still holding onto that part of his life, even though he says he isn't. Was he still holding onto her? Lets say you both did end up working this out one way or another - what if she wanted him back? Would he instantly drop you to get back with her? Especially since she could physically be there for him 24/7? It honestly worried you, even if you weren't sure what this was, but you brush off the thoughts and simply respond to him by smiling and nodding.

It was such a bad habit of yours to assume the worst right away. A bad habit you had trouble unlearning.

Once you both deemed it was time to get up and get on with the day, you quickly showered and threw on some clothes. You borrowed a small duffle bag from Yana's closet to throw in your outfit for tonight's bar festivities as you didn't feel comfortable roaming around in it throughout the day since it was too cold.

Jimin drove you both to his apartment so he could get himself ready while you waited. Jungkook was in the kitchen getting himself a late bowl of cereal, while Taehyung sat in his room with the door wide open.

"Had a fun night, kids?" Jungkook winked and smirked at you both. You felt your cheeks heat up as you blushed and tried to avoid eye contact.

"Shut up." Jimin laughed.

"Better yet, how productive was it?" Taehyung yelled from his room.

"TAEHYUNG-AH!" Jimin yelled, making you giggle to yourself as you sat on the couch watching him pay a visit to Taehyung to scold him some more.

"Are you coming tonight, Y/N?" Jungkook sits at their dining table.

"Yeah, I am."

"Sweet. Save me a dance?"

"Sure." You chuckled.

"What are you and Jimin up to today?"

"You know, I have no idea. He doesn't like to tell me these things."

"I'm taking her to the tower." Jimin yells from his room.

"Can we come with?" Taehyung asks.

"No, I don't want you guys to go."

"Jimin!" You shout back. "Yes, you can come with us." You hear Jimin groan as he begins to shower, making Jungkook laugh.

"Grouch. It'll be fun!" You shake your head as you make your way into Jimin's room to drop off your duffle bag of clothes. You sit criss-crossed on his bed until he appears in a towel wrapped around his waist. His hair is damp and slicked back messily. Your eyes fixate on his abs and apollo's belt, causing Jimin to laugh.

"Personality is up here, Y/N." You look up to meet his eyes and smile sheepishly.

"Woops." You joke. "Couldn't see it through all of that." You wave your hand in a circular motion in front of his chest and abdomen areas.

"Mhm, wanna tell me more?" He makes his way to his closet to throw on some clothes. For God's sake.

"Mm, maybe later." He whips his head back and smirks.

"Later, huh?"

"You little nasty!"

"Says the one who was like 'I'd rather you do it inside me.'" He mocked your tone and laughed, causing you to throw his pillow at him. "Ow."

"Go get dressed, please."

"Yes, princess." He throws on black and white button up short sleeve and distressed black jeans with boots. He throws on a thick jacket and fixes his hair before walking out to meet the rest of you in the living room.

The day turns out more productive than you both thought it would be, all thanks to Jungkook and Taehyung. Besides visiting the tower and looking at the exquisite view, they figured walking around town without any agenda would be fun. In which it was, because you unlocked more stores to buy souvenirs from and more foods to try. Jimin took a ton of polaroids of the three of you, having fun and enjoying the weather, which actually wasn't too cold today.

You all get back a little past dinner time and chill for a bit before getting ready to hit the bars. The cold picked up a little bit since earlier, but you knew once you got inside and drank a little bit, you would get warmer. Taehyung was the designated driver again and it took quite a bit to get to your designation, but it was nothing too far.

The streets were flooded with people already, swarming with college kids from the nearby university. You held onto Jimin's hand as you walked behind him and navigated the streets. The bar itself was pretty nice, and there was a good amount of people already hanging out inside. You heard lots of greetings and yelling, signaling that Jimin and them finally found their friends in the crowd. He brought you forward and introduced you to his college friends, his arm held tightly around your waist. They wasted no time getting their drinks and taking shots, in which you happily joined in to get the night started. There was enough room for you all to crowd around a table and dance around.

Shot after shot, cocktail after cocktail, your body started to feel numb from the alcohol. You were at a good level and you were highly enjoying yourself tonight. You were here with Jimin and his friends, having a good time at a laid back bar in Hongdae. What could go wrong?

"Hi pretty lady." Jimin wraps his arms around your waist as you rest your arms around his neck.

"Hey, you."

"Having fun?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Good." He places a kiss on your forehead before taking you to the dance floor. "Come dance with me." You two make it to the middle of the dance floor, Jimin immediately pressing his body against yours as you grind onto him for some time. It becomes playful, the two of you locking eyes every now and then just to smile and laugh. He turns you around and you two begin to dance around each other, Jimin showing off his moves and how good of a dancer he actually really is. The boy can dance and sing?! Yeesh. Somebody send help.

"May I steal a dance?" Jungkook comes in, holding his hand out for you to grab. Jimin smiles and nods, allowing you and Jungkook to dance around each other as if you were long time friends, him twirling you around from time to time. As a song and a half passes, the both of you make your way to the bar because JK promises he'd buy you a shot if you took one with him. He asks for a double shot of some sort of whiskey, which makes your insides crumble. Yuck. But cheers to new friends and adventures, right?

"Hey, I'm really happy we met." Jungkook smiles at you and raises his shot glass. "Please promise me you'll keep in touch no matter what? We're friends now." He slightly pouts.

"Of course."

"Cheers, Y/N."

"Cheers!" You smile and tap your glass against his. The both of you take the shot quickly, your faces immediately turning sour as the alcohol travels down your bodies. Jin and Hoseok make their way over to converse, trapping you with another shot. You gladly take it since you weren't all that drunk, and you felt like you could handle another. By the time you all had drank a little more and chatted a bit, you look over Jungkook's shoulder to see Jimin speaking to another woman. He's smiling and whispering in her ear, his hand on the small of her back. She turns to look behind her when another one of Jimin's friends greets her and you realize it's his ex. Jungkook can see that your smile had died down, so he looks behind him to check out what's going on.

"Oh." He simply says and shakes his head. "Don't worry, Jimin is just being the nice guy he is but that's completely done with." You give him a tight-lipped smile and nod.

"Yeah, you're right." Is all you can say.

"Come on, let's dance with the hyungs." He nods over to the dance floor towards Jin and Hoseok. You take one last look behind him to see that Jimin is still talking to his ex but has finally created some distance between the two of them.

Maybe JK was right, what if you were worrying for no reason? For a minute, you felt a little guilty, so you brush off the thoughts and continue to dance with the boys. But then that quickly fades when you realize some time has passed and Jimin hasn't returned to your side. Instead, his ex is whispering his ear, her hands placed along his sides.

Then it suddenly hits you, a huge wave of sadness and frustration taking over you completely. This wasn't going to work. This wasn't going to work because you couldn't physically be here for Jimin like she could. No matter how you both decided to make it work. It wouldn't be fair. Jimin needs someone to be here for him. To care for him, support him and to see him. To show him that he's loved. You couldn't do that being in LA.

Maybe he really was still holding onto parts of his past. Maybe it was just better that way.

"Hey, I think I'm just going to head home." You tippy-toe to let Jungkook know. He shakes his head and looks down at you with worry.

"Wait, what's wrong Y/N? Let me know how I can help."

"It's nothing, I'm just feeling pretty tired. My feet hurt."

"Do you want me to grab Jimin?"

"No, he's busy. I don't wanna bother him." You lie, even though Jungkook can tell this is about his ex. Very clearly. "I can make my way home."

"I'll tell Taehyung to drive you."

"No, I promise. I'll make it. Please just keep having fun. I'll probably see you guys tomorrow." You give him a reassuring smile before walking off. You needed to get out of there before he could stop you any further. You tried to rush down the street, hoping none of them would come after you. But you should've known.

"Y/N!" You look back to see Jimin slightly pushing his way through the crowd to reach you. "Y/N, wait!"

"Jimin, go back inside. I'm fine." He grabs your wrist gently.

"What's going on?"

"I'm just tired." He shakes his head.

"Are you seriously going to lie to me?"

"I'm not doing this here. I just want to go home." You plead, breaking away from his grip.

"Let me go with you."

"Jimin—"

"Y/N, stop. I'm not letting you go anywhere by yourself at this time. You either let me come with or we both go back inside." You sigh, making your way to a cab that was already parked and waiting for you to come in. Jimin gets in on the other side, directing the driver to Yana's address. The ride is quiet, your hands resting on your lap as you avoid eye contact and look out the window. You couldn't even describe your feelings right now because ya, you were hurt for many reasons. One being that he didn't even come to your side that entire time he was with her. And two, reality fucking sucks. It was never going to work between the both of you and you hated believing it could so quickly.

He quickly rushes over to open your door and follows behind you as you walk into Yana's loft. You throw the keys and your bag onto the kitchen island, tossing your shoes messily to the side.

"Y/N, please stop giving me this silent treatment. What's going on?" He gently grabs your wrists to make you face him. You look at his face and begin to cry. That face became so special to you in such a short amount of time. That face, that body, this entire being. And it hurt so, so bad.

"Jimin, what are we doing?" You cried.

"What do you mean, baby?" He asks softly.

"No, don't call me that." He's taken aback by your statement.

"W-what?"

"Did you really think this was going to work between us?"

"Why can't it?"

"Because I live in Los Angeles, Jimin! If you haven't forgotten, I don't live here and I'm going back home in a few days."

"So what?" He shrugs. "I'm going to make this work with you because I want to. I don't care about the time difference, distance, whatever. It doesn't matter to me."

"Well, it does to me! Okay? I care! Because I won't physically be here to be with you. I don't think it's fair."

"Is this about my ex?" He stepped back a bit to read your body language. "Is it because you saw us talking earlier?"

"N-no."

"Y/N, I really don't appreciate you lying to me." You wipe your tears aggressively and cross your arms. "I was catching up with her and I'm sorry I didn't get to introduce you. I'm not gonna lie, she was talking about hanging out and seeing each other more but I told her I was done with it."

"Are you really?"

"Yes." His face dropped. "How can you question me about my own feelings for you?"

"Jimin. I don't think you get this." You pleaded. "I can't be here physically. Do you not understand how unfair that is? She can be here for you and I—"

"I don't want her. I want you." You shake your head.

"This should have never happened between us." He furrowed his forehead.

"Huh? Are you saying you regret this?"

"No, but it should have never gotten this-this.. complicated. I came here to get away from all that mess back home. I just wanted to be free from it all and find myself, as cliché as that shit sounds. And now it just feels like I've completely defeated the purpose of my trip here."

"It sounds like you do, though."

"I'm not saying that. I just.." You cried harder. "I can't do this with you. And trust, I know you'll meet someone who could do better for you and be here for you. What if I can't be the person you deserve? Especially being across the world."

"I don't give a fuck about anyone else but you, Y/N! Why can't you just see that? I just want you."

"Jimin." You shake your head as you cried more. You physically feel your heart breaking, each bit falling to the deep pits of your stomach. You almost feel queazy and nauseous, like you could hurl any moment now.

"It doesn't have to be this way." He says lowly. You can see the hurt on his face. "But you know what, I'll respect you and your space."

"You know—" He shook his head and opened the door.

"Save it, Y/N. You made it very clear what you wanted." He sighed. "You became everything to me, you know? I care about you so much." He paused. "I-I fell in love with you and wanted to give you my all, but I guess it wasn't enough." He says, almost at a whisper before slamming the door shut, leaving you to cry your eyes out on the kitchen floor. You quickly pull out your phone, feeling completely lost and alone.

"Pick up, pick up." You whisper to yourself. It was early morning in LA and you knew Namjoon would be up, so you were just hoping he would be around to pick up the phone.

"Wasssssup!" Namjoon smiles, but it instantly fades when he realizes you're crying. "Woah, hey. What's going on?"

"Joon, I'm so fucking stupid." You cry into your hands, not giving a fuck what you look like over Facetime. "I'm so, so fucking stupid."

"Slow down, stop saying that. What is it?"

"I should have never gotten into this mess. I should have stuck to my plan and I shouldn't have gotten so attached to Jimin. This was never going to work." You go on and on.

"Did he do something?" You can see Joon's jaw slightly clench and tense up.

"No." You sighed. "No. It's just, what was I thinking? Falling in love with someone when I knew damn well I was only going to be here for a limited amount of time. I came here to get away from all that. All the stress and relationship bullshit."

"You can't help what you feel, Y/N."

"Yeah, but this was never going to work no matter how much I want to be with him. My life is there. The distance, not being able to physically care and love for him like-like-like his ex or some shit!" You stutter.

"You guys ran into his ex, I'm assuming."

"At the fucking bar! And she was all touchy with him."

"Okay, but how did it actually go down?" He leans forward, waiting to hear the real confrontation between Jimin and his ex.

"He told her he didn't wanna see her or take their relationship further anymore. He said he was done."

"So, why are you making an issue out of this?"

"I don't know Joonie. I wanna be with him but I can't. I'm afraid of not being able to deliver and give him what he deserves. He's an angel. I'm nowhere near that."

"Y/N, I love you. You know I do, right?" You nodded as you sniffed and wiped the remaining tears away. "But I don't think this is a good enough excuse to push yourself away from Jimin. If you really care about him like you say you do, then this distance shouldn't matter. You both could make it work as long as you both think it's worth it. And from what I can see and hear, I think he really has it for you."

"Don't say that, it's not helping."

"I'm saying it like it is." He sighed. "I know you've been hurt before and I know Romeo was a fucking dumbass, but you can't keep holding onto that, thinking every experience will be the same. You need to leave him in the past, where he belongs. The things you've told me about Jimin and the things Yana has told me about Jimin have only shown me how great of a guy he really is. Maybe you just need to let your guard down and take a chance with him."

"I'm just scared. I'm scared he might find better, you know? He'll realize this distance is too much. He'll realize how much work this is."

"I think he has found that already. And I don't think it's fair for you to speak on his feelings."

"Are you on my side or his?!"

"I just want you to think about this before you come back home feeling even shittier than when you got there. Whatever it is, whatever you decide, I'll always support you. But don't push your happiness away just because you're afraid of the little things. You'll never grow that way."

"Namjoon." You cried. "I really don't know what to do. We got into this argument and he left. I'm sure he's done."

"I'm here for you. I got you." Namjoon repeated, giving you the space you needed to let it all out and cry on the other end.

[tchallasbabymama]

M’Baku’s Love- Chapter 2

Sorry, had to repost it. For some reason it was all blacked out on mobile? Idk, it’s weird and I’m still trying to understand tumblr.

Anywho, here’s Chapter 2 of M’Baku’s Love. Check out my masterlist HERE to read chapter 1 if you haven’t already, and take a look at my other stories as well. As always, let me know what you think or if you want to be tagged in anything. Enjoy!

Word count: 2689

M’Baku pulled up to the Outreach Center a little earlier than necessary on Tuesday. He got out the automated car and leaned against it, crossing his arms as he scanned over the building and its surroundings while reflecting on the mission at hand. If they were successful, thousands of Black children, millions if they expand, would be given a better education and connected to their old, pre-colonizer ways.

He smiled at the thought and turned to grab his things, when he noticed a small rainbow dash from the other side of the parking lot into the building. It took him a moment to process what he saw, but he realized it was Miss In a Hurry, rushing yet again. He smiled fondly and shook his head before heading towards the Outreach Center, opening the door and heading inside the cool, air conditioned building.

Once the chief settled in his office he went over the assistant files one more time, preparing for their interviews. He went over his upcoming day in his head and remembered that his meeting with the head of the Arts Department was at 11. He smiled to himself, dreamily, at the thought of her bright teal hair and her deep dark eyes, but shook himself out of it when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Mr. M’Baku?” a tall, slender man who looked to be in his early twenties stood in the doorway dressed in slacks and a button-down.

“Yes, who is asking?”

“Deontae Greene, I’m here for my interview,” the young man introduced himself. They shook hands and the interview began. Truthfully, M’Baku didn’t need to interview the other candidates, he had already decided on hiring Deontae the moment his interview ended. He went through the motions of the second and third interview, focusing on the clock more than the interviewees. As soon as his third interview ended, he called Deontae to offer him the position, then went for a quick walk around the center to stretch his legs.

M’Baku found himself outside one of Shuri’s STEM courses, watching as the middle school aged children learned coding languages. She waved him in, and he tentatively stepped inside.

“Everybody, this is M’Baku. He’s the leader of the Jabari tribe in Wakanda.”

A chorus of “Hi M’Baku” erupted from the room, and he smiled before greeting them back.

“Mholo, children. What are you working on today?”

A little girl in the back with braces and pigtails was the first to answer.

“Princess Shuri is teaching us how to make computers work by telling it what to do in different computer languages.”

M’Baku looked at Shuri in confusion and she waved it off to explain later.

The large chief walked around the room to get a look at what they were doing, but quickly made it back to the front of the room when he caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall.

“I have a meeting, or I would stay longer princess.”

“Go, and don't be a stranger to this side of the center. Technology isn't all bad,” Shuri said with a wink as he left and shut the door behind him.

M’Baku’s long legs carried him back to his office in record time, where he was met with the sight of the head of the arts department sitting cross-legged in the chair outside his office, writing in a notebook.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, I wandered down to the STEM wing and lost track of time,” M’Baku rambled on until she looked up at him. Today she had on gold wire-rimmed glasses instead of her red cat-eye frames from the day before, and he liked that he could see her eyes better with this pair. When their eyes met his heart thumped a little louder and his skin felt a little warmer. He watched a small smile brighten up her face as she set her notebook down before unravelling her legs to stand up.

“I wasn’t waiting long. Plus it was your turn to be running late this time,” she responded. M’Baku gestured for her to enter the office first and she obliged before perching cross-legged in the chair across from him. He rounded the desk and sat down, looking into her eyes.

“I do not believe we were properly introduced to one another,” he held out his hand to her, shaking it from across the desk. “I am M’Baku, as you already know from yesterday.”

“Monae Johnson. It’s nice to officially meet you, M’Baku. And my apologies about the other day, I accidentally took a nap and woke up with barely enough time to- I’m rambling, my bad, I do that sometimes.” She rubbed the back of her head..

“It is no problem, really,” more than anything, M’Baku found her adorable.

“So did you end up trying the place I suggested?”

“Yes, I am actually glad you ran into me. I loved The V Spot. It was an excellent recommendation, thank you.” M’Baku had to give props where they were due and this woman definitely knew food. “You must tell me, what else is good in the area?”

“There’s so much! What do you like?”

“I am new to most cuisines, but I am open. Our meeting ends around lunchtime, would you care to accompany me and show me something I might like?”

Monae’s chest tightened up at his seemingly unintended double entendre. The man before her was fine as aged wine and she was having a very difficult time concentrating on the conversation, instead wishing she could see how soft his lips are. She looked down at the ring on her left ring finger and sighed, knowing she’d regret her decision.

“I’d love to.”

______

“You’re a vegan, right?”

“Vegetarian, but vegan is fine.”

“Ever tried Indian food?”

“I cannot say that I have.”

“Come on, there’s a place around here with some really good lunch specials. I hope you like it.”

“Well your last suggestion was superb, so I trust you,” he said with a wink. Monae blushed and turned away, but not before he noticed. M’Baku fought to contain his smile and cleared his throat. “So are you from Oakland?”

“Nope, I’m from Nashville. A southern girl at heart,” she said with her best southern debutante affectation. “I came to Cali for college and just never left.”

“What made you stay?”

“Honestly? It never gets cold here, not the type of cold that seeps into your bones anyway. The worst I’ve felt here is chilly. I’m not made for anything below 50 degrees.”

“As chief of the Jabari I must say I am a little offended, Miss Johnson.”

Monae’s face twisted up, but then softened when she saw the glint in his eye. Was he flirting?

“My apologies, your highness,” she said with a curtsey. “But I’ll admire it from afar.” Her ring flashed in her line of vision, but she shook it out of her mind.

“Besides, you are wrong. Anything over 40 degrees is unfit for habitation. The weather here makes me want to crawl into my refrigerator.”

Monae shivered at the thought.

The two of them arrived at Bombay Palace and since he trusted her judgement, she ordered for the table. The waiter took their menus and quickly brought their waters with lemon slices.

“Are you a vegetarian as well?”

“Um sometimes. I don't eat red meat, but I still eat fish and poultry on occasion. I’m mostly plant-based though. I read that the Jabari are pescetarian, what made you switch over?”

“You have been reading about us, eh?”

“Well I like to know who I’m working with, and I imagine that over the next few months we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, so yes I read about the Jabari.”

“Yes, I would hope so,” M’Baku said before taking a sip of his water while watching her. He noticed her shiver under his gaze and adjust herself in the booth and he smirked, knowing he was getting to her. “And I just do not like the taste of fish very much. Earlier you mentioned having a dance background, do you still dance?”

“I’m so busy I barely have enough time nowadays outside of teaching a class at the center here and there.”

The waiter returned with their samosa appetizer and Monae danced in her seat a little, making M’Baku crack a smile at her endearing antics. They both dug in, M’Baku immediately thanking Hanuman for the food he had received. The familiar yet unfamiliar tastes swirled around in his mouth like a gold medal ice skater at the winter olympics, and he couldn’t get enough.

“Mmm, what is this?”

“Samosas.”

“I could eat this for the rest of my life and die a happy man.”

Monae giggled and almost choked on her food, “This is just the first course, wait until you taste the paneer.”

The two of them continued to talk as more food came out, not watching the time at all.

“How does your family feel about you living so far away?”

“Well my little sister is in college at NYU, living her own life, and my parents died six years ago in a car crash, so they don't feel much of anything anymore.”

He was torn between laughing at her joke and feeling a deep sadness for her loss.

“What’s your family like?”

“I am the oldest of ten-”

“Ten?!”

“Yes.”

“Your poor mama...”

M’Baku’s laughter roared through the restaurant and forced a laugh out of Monae as well. Of course his laugh was as big as he was, and her mind briefly wondered if everything about him was proportional to his size before she was pulled out of her daydream by a ringing telephone. She looked down and her face dropped when she read the name on her screen. “Shit. Uh, sorry I have to answer this- Hi honey...yeah of course...uh-huh...no, just out at lunch with a colleague-”

He couldn’t believe his ears. He knew for a fact that she was flirting with him, yet here he was talking to her “honey.” He wanted to roll his eyes, but instead returned them to his bowl and kept eating.

“Hey, D, can I call you back? We’re just about done here...Ok, bye.” She hung up the phone and cleared her throat.

“Boyfriend?”

“Fiance actually,” she said, showing off the ring on her finger.

“Interesting…”

“What is?”

M’Baku leaned back in his chair and looked into her eyes as he spoke.

“I was not aware you were already spoken for.”

Something about the tone of his voice made her face heat up and she crossed her legs tighter.

“I have my ring on, what would make you think otherwise?”

“That right there,” he gestured to her flushed skin and fidgeting lower half. “You are awfully flirty for someone who is betrothed.”

Monae had hoped he wouldn’t notice and they could carry on like earlier, but the moment was ruined.

M’Baku looked at his watch, realizing they spent almost two hours at the restaurant. “We should get back to the center, I am sure we are missed.”

“M’Baku, I’m sorry to lead you on, but that wasn’t my intention, I just-”

“There is no need to explain, Monae.” He flashed her his gap-toothed smile and called for the waiter to bring their check. He paid, not without plenty of arguing on her end, and they headed back to work.

Shortly after he made it back to his desk the king and prince barged in.

“Soooo…?” N’Jadaka tried to get the conversation going, but M’Baku wasn’t following.

“How did it go?” T’Challa added.

“How did what go?”

The cousins looked at each other in exasperation, and yet again the hot headed prince pushed the issue further.

“Your date nigga! We saw you and Monae walking all close and shit.”

“It was not a date,” He loved the Udakus dearly, but Hanuman, they could be an annoying and intrusive bunch. “She is engaged.”

“Barely,” the cousins said with an eye roll.

“What do you mean ‘barely’?”

“My friend, she has been engaged for three years now with no wedding plans in place and he is almost never home. Like we said: barely.”

M’Baku would never knowingly break up a happy home, but he saw her body language on the phone and she didn’t seem to be as into her fiance as she was into him. Yes he was shiny and new, but the exasperation in her voice at his interruption told him what he needed to know.

“Far be it from me to advocate for adultery, but-”

“It ain't far from me, cuz,” N’Jadaka butted in. “Bak, that beautiful fairy of a woman likes your big ape ass for some reason. Fuck that nigga, she was looking at you like you’re already daddy.”

M’Baku looked over to T’Challa who was nodding in agreement. He had watched her during their department head meeting and every time M’Baku spoke she perked up and the tension fell from her shoulders. She was definitely feeling him.

“I have met this fiance just once and did not get a good vibe from him. I am not sure what it is yet, but there is something-”

M’Baku cut him off before he could even finish. He knew if he let them continue they would end up hatching a plan and roping him into it, so he nipped it in the bud.

“Do not worry about it, I would prefer to remain unattached for the short while I am here, anyway. Now if you know someone who would like something more casual, I would not mind meeting them at some point.”

“I’ll keep an eye out, brother”

“I think the newest history teacher is single, or at least there's no ring on her finger. I can’t remember her name though, is it Keisha? Naima? Whatever it is, she’s fine as hell,” N’Jadaka’s hands outlined her voluptuous body for him, which caught his interest. “I’ll see what I can do. We gon get you some pussy bruh, on Bast.”

T’Challa simply nodded in agreement again.

“Thank you both for your concern,” M’Baku responded dryly. “Now if you gentlemen would excuse me, I have to meet with the social studies department head in a minute.”

“We understand when we are not wanted, but please at least let N’Jadaka set you up. You need to get back out there again, it’s been more than enough time,” the king patted his friend’s shoulder before leaving the room, his cousin doing the same.

______

M’Baku’s last meeting didn’t end until 5 pm, and he was more than ready to get home, cook dinner, and watch a little more Fresh Prince. He packed up his things and headed out towards his car, when out of the corner of his eye he spotted Monae on the other side of the parking lot struggling with several boxes. He jogged over and took them from her hands.

“Here, let me.”

“How are you everywhere?” She laughed.

“You are just lucky, I guess.” He flashed her his million-dollar smile and she was hooked again. Derrick be damned.

“Yeah, I guess I am...um, thank you M’Baku...well uh, I should go. Busy day tomorrow with the open house and all.”

“Ah yes, what exactly is an open house?”

She chuckled at his naivety.

“Basically people from the community get to come here after hours to see what we offer. Think of it like a mass tour.”

“Interesting, well since I have nothing to show them on this tour I am sure I will have time to help if you need it.”

“Thank you, M’Baku, I just might take you up on that.”

“Good. Well, you should go home and rest for the big day ahead. I will see you tomorrow Monae.”

“Get home safe!”

It warmed his heart to hear her caring about his safety, even if it's something she said to everybody. A dreamy smile parted his lips and he felt as if she had just kissed his cheek and sent him on his way.

“You as well, Monae. You as well...”

Next Chapter

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #3: Taking Care of BUSINESS!

November, 1984

This is a sad day for the fledgling West Coast Avengers. It’s a cool cover for the fledgling West Coast Avengers but a sad day.

Not only are they falling before Graviton but they’re falling perpetually.

Anyway, last time in West Coast Avengers: Hawkeye and Mockingbird were sent by the Vision to create a west coast branch of the Avengers. Since Wonder Man, Tigra, and Rhodey Iron Man were California based, they got the nod to be the West Coast Avengers, despite reluctance from Tigra and Iron Man.

Their first case was mistaking as a supervillain and beating up a friend of Tigra who had followed her to the Avengers Compound to make sure she wasn’t in trouble. So. That’s not great. Next, the West Coast Avengers tried to chase down a bank robber named the Blank. This is really overkill for a guy whose only power is wearing a slippery anonymizing force field but he manages to get away anyway. The charger for his force field also dunks Graviton back into the world.

And as you can see on the cover, this isn’t ideal for our West Coast Avengers.

But before that, there was an event that sort of happened between issues. In Avengers #249, Vision tried to contact the West Coast Avengers but only got their answering machine. And that’s because they were dealing with the local worldwide unseasonable winter.

If Avenging and stunt work doesn’t work out for Wonder Man, he should consider becoming the new Mr. Plow.

Anyway, the forever winter is over, thanks to the Casket of Eternal Winters being reassembled and shut over in the Thor book as part of a multi-pronged plan to take down Surtur.

The West Coast Avengers are still dealing with the remaining snow because its not like snow just evaporates! Without turning into water first! Look, it would take too much time, people have places to drive, or something.

The combination of snow everywhere but normal warm South California weather leads to some people taking advantage by going swimsuit skiing, mostly so Rhodey can wryly think that weird is a way of life for Californians as an excuse to not worry about why Wonder Man has been acting weird lately.

Uh, good rationalizing, Rhodey?

Some people who don’t care for skiing decide to instead rob Radio Shack because NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW!

But Mockingbird shows up and starts beating them up when they make the mistake of believing that they outnumber her. They are mathematically right and wrong in every other way.

Hawkeye also shows up to pin some others to the wall with arrows so one of the Radio Shack robbers runs to the getaway car and tries to get the getaway driver to help him getaway.

But cat’s got their car.

It sort of makes sense why Tigra has decided on this for her winter outfit and yet I’m still baffled.

If it had just been the boots, that’d be one thing.

She’s also the only one who has made a winter weather change to her outfit.

Bafflement.

The blond robber doesn’t even try running, saying “What’s the use? Just take me away. I wanna serve my time and forget this ever happened!”

Bad day when some electronics theft gets an entire superhero team on you.

By midday, the West Coast Avengers meet by the Hollywood sign (so that the audience knows that this is set in LA). At this point all of the snow is gone, as if it’s been whisked away. So I guess I was wrong. Earlier the casket hadn’t been repaired but now it has been.

Hawkeye: “Well, whatever happened to [the snow], you can all be proud of the job you did over the past week! You put in a lot of long hours and saved thousands of lives! I’d say we’ve all earned a little time to unwind! That’s why I propose we hold the first annual Avengers barbeque... commencing tonight at sunset, back at the compound!”

Oh ho, I see that Hawkeye is going to be the fun Avengers chairman. Don’t see Vision organizing a barbeque.

The rest of the team is pretty excited about this... except for Wonder Man, who is distracted, answers without any real enthusiasm, and then takes off.

Hawkeye wonders if he’s still upset about the Blank getting away but c’mon that was weeks ago! Surely no superhero ever obsesses over anything!

When the Avengers disperse, Tigra lies that Iron Man promised her a lift as an excuse to talk to him in private about Wonder Man.

Tigra: “Something’s bothering him, and I thought maybe you could get him to talk about it! After all, you’ve known him longer than the rest of us!”

Iron Man: “Uh... not really, Tigra! I hardly know the man!”

Tigra: “What are you talking about, Tony? You fought alongside him dozens of times!”

Iron Man: “Tony -- ?! Ohhh... you think I’m Tony Stark!”

Womp womp.

This is one of the exact things Rhodey was worried would happen if he joined a team with a bunch of people who knew Tony/Iron Man!

Rhodey isn’t about to just reveal his name to her over a case of mistaken identity but he does prove to a doubtful Tigra that he’s not Tony by showing Tigra the skin on his hand.

Iron Rhodey also suggests that Tigra talk to him for reasons of it’s always flattering when a pretty cat girl pays attention to you?

I mean, sure. Yeah. True.

Tigra is also the only person on the team who actually realized Wonder Man was bummed who didn’t immediately dismiss the idea.

I guess its up to you, Tigra.

Meanwhile, in the Santa Monica Mountains, our coverboy Graviton.

He didn’t sit idle during the big snow, oh no! He took over an estate. And then sat idle!

Dammit, it was cold out!

Graviton: I prefer starting my empire in a warmer climate!

With the snow cleared up though, he can get down to business........ of recapping his recent travails.

So, Graviton.

He comes from Canada because Marvel Canada is just like that. He was a researcher in Research City, working on a teleport beam, and accidentally gave himself gravity powers by increasing the power to see what would happen. People at the lab didn’t like him because he kept throwing stuff at them so he took over.

Then he fought the Avengers. He kicked their asses. But the woman he was trying to force to date him threw herself off his floating city rather than date him (its cool, Jarvis saved her) so Graviton accidentally compressed his floating city into a super dense sphere with him as the nougaty center.

He managed to get out of that sphere, but with AMENSIA, and tried to kidnap that female scientist again but was stopped by the Thing and Black Bolt. So Graviton imploded.

He showed up AGAIN and tried to kidnap an entire Bloomingdale’s and was stopped by Thor, who dunked him into an interdimensional void.

Now here’s where it gets slightly weird.

The Beyonder’s construct passing through the void on its way to Secret Wars woke Graviton up and let him find his way back to Earth by homing in on the energy field of the force field the Blank uses.

I don’t know why that specific energy field. We may never know. The scientist who made it walked into the street without looking both ways and got run over.

Graviton is actually fairly pleased about winding up in “this most hedonistic of world cities!” He’s decided he’s all about creature comforts now.

The Blank returns from delivering message for Graviton.

Graviton gets annoyed that the guy is nervous despite having a cool dude who never fails like Graviton as a new boss and takes REAL exception when the Blank points out that the Avengers have beaten him before.

As well he should! Because technically its not true. If you’ll recall my recap, the Avengers didn’t beat him. He imploded. And then when he reappeared to fight the Thing and Black Bolt and imploded again. Now Thor, solo, managed to beat him where Thor, plus Avengers, couldn’t. Don’t ask why. That’s just a rule of comics. Daredevil beat Ultron once.

Among other ways he shows the Blank what’s what, Graviton demonstrates his force field belt ain’t so slick by switching it off through the field. Which, yes, technically gravity could work that way?

Meanwhile, over on ye private Avengers beach because if you’re going to have a sprawling compound, why not get a beach while you’re at it? Tigra interrupts Wonder Man pacing on the private Avengers beach and offers to tell her DEEP DARK SECRETS if he shares his.

Wonder Man: “There’s not much to tell... mostly, I’ve been wondering if I did the right thing in joining Hawkeye’s New Avengers team. I sometimes wonder if I ever did anything right, where the Avengers are concerned.”

He recaps his ENTIRE LIFE STORY to her, as is the style. Got powers from some Avengers enemies, turned against them, died. Came back to life, uneasy as a superhero, quit to become an actor.

He leaves out the part where he embezzled from his own company and was arrested, the part where he was a competitor to Tony Stark, and retcons in that he’s always loved acting. Rather than seeing one (1) movie and deciding he wants to be an actor now.

Apparently, Hercules’ offer to set Wonder Man up with some sweet Hollywood contacts didn’t pan out.

Then Simon worked as hired muscle for some scientific research groups but decides not to go into that.

There’s no ‘see such and such issue of book’ so I can’t tell whether this is a thing that was published or is a noodle incident.

Then a former agent got Simon that gig on the David Letterman show. Remember that one? David Letterman knocked out the villain with a big door knob? It probably made more sense at the time?

Anyway, although the show got pre-empted for a news report in New York, it did air in Cali-for-ni-a and a director reached out to Simon with stuntman work.

And its not the acting he wanted to do but it is acting and being good at it has done wonders, man, for his confidence. Which is why he jumped at Hawkeye’s offer to join the west coast team.

But then he let the Blank escape and now he’s back to feeling out of place on a cool superhero team.

So now that he shared his not so deep, not so dark, secrets, Tigra shares hers.

She knows what he means when he says he feels like a blunderer. Her stint on the New York Avengers team was a disaster (although she managed to get Molecule Man to go to therapy! By calling him a big loser! That’s something!). And she feels like most of her life is just things happening at her without her ever really feeling in control.

She also demonstrates that she can use that little tiger amulet (a gift from the cat people that turned her into Tigra) to look like her old self but she’s more comfortable as Tigra.

Hm.

That’s two whole characters who can technically transform but prefer to stay ‘powered up’ at all times. Tigra and She-Hulk.

It’s almost a pattern.

Anyway, Wonder Man and Tigra both try to be the insecure one on the team complimenting each other and deprecating themselves but Tigra decides fine. Wonder Man is hung up on losing the Blank? They’re going to track down a goddamn the Blank.

SHE MOONLIT AS A PRIVATE DETECTIVE SHE HAS A TRENCHCOAT SHE CAN DO THIS!

Tigra: “All right, Mr. Wonderful, come on!”

Wonder Man: “Where are we going?”

Tigra: “To see a man about filling in the Blank!”

Damn, good turn of phrase. You really do have this private eye patter down, huh?

She takes Simon to the Cat’s Jazz Club, Shroud’s hangout, to see if he has a lead on the Blank but they find the joint has been busted up.

The club employees are reluctant to talk at first but the Shroud shows up and tells them its cool, the Avengers are his friends. Also: he would like to know himself.

Club employee Mouse says that the Galeno Gang hit the club but they had a message that they were under new managment and that anyone that wanted to do crime business in town had to do it with said management.

So they hit the Cat’s Jazz Club because Shroud is pretending to be a crimelord to infiltrate all the crime.

So far, its working out really well for you, huh?

Anyway, Shroud says it’ll be easy to track down the Galeno Gang and find out who the new boss is but Wonder Man insists that he tag along to help. Call it payback for cracking Shroud’s ribs in issue #1.

Shroud doesn’t want all the crime to think he associates with the Avengers but Wonder Man has a STUPENDOUS IDEA!

So at the former home of Lucky Max Galeno, where some people are getting down and maybe even boogieing, the Shroud’s black fog fills the room and out strolls Shroud and Definitely Not Simon Williams.

He used his extensive acting experience to put on a wig and a jacket, that wily Wonder Man!

(Also Tigra is hanging upside down outside the window so its a good thing that Shroud and NotSimon are drawing all the attention)

Simon hoists one of the Galeno Boys and tells him they want to see the boss so the Blank comes out from the back room.

Its a testament to Simon’s INCREDIBLE ACTING TALENT that “he doesn’t look any more surprised than the rest of the crowd” according to Tigra.

The Blank justifies having the Shroud’s people beaten by saying that he had to establish credentials to consolidate all of the West Coast mobs so Shroud tells Simon to rough him up.

I like Simon’s like BOING here.

‘Sick ‘im!’ BOING, hah.

Also, the Blank has been smoking on and off throughout this whole issue but like. How does the force field work if he can just stick things into it? I mean, obviously, its permeable to air since he can breathe and... oh I think I just explained it. Dammit.

The boing stalls out midair leaving Simon hanging there.

Obviously its Graviton. No surprise to the audience. But very alarming to the characters who must think the Blank suddenly has more powers.

Off-panel Graviton hits Shroud with Wonder Man, knocking off the wig which wasn’t even secured in place. Dammit Simon, I thought you were an actor!

The Blank recognizes him as Wonder Man so the cat out of the bag, Tigra jumps through the window and onto the Blank’s back.

Graviton finally shows himself, exasperated with how much hand-holding the Blank needs to do basic things like fight several surprise superheroes.

Wonder Man: “Tigra! Get back! That’s Graviton! He’s one of the most dangerous men the Avengers ever fought!”

Graviton: “Nice of you to acknowledge that, Wonder Man!”

See, all he wanted was some acknowledgement. And to crush Wonder Man under a localized gravity field.

The Shroud tries to obscure the room under the idea that Graviton can’t fight what he can’t see. But the guy just grabs everything in the room and spins it around.

Then he pins Tigra, Shroud, and the Blank to the wall. The Blank because he managed to get captured off-panel.

Wonder Man KRUNKs up from the floor and tries to grab Graviton, alarming him that Wonder Man is fighting through the effects of so much gravity, having to block him with a “column of gravitic energy.”

The Blank complains about being stuck to the wall when he’s supposed to be Graviton’s partner.

Graviton: “Wrong, Blank! Very wrong! At beast, you were a go-between, a figurehead in my plans to organize California’s criminal element!”

The Blank: “D-did you say... ‘were?’"

And then he yeets Blank, Tigra, and Shroud out the window and into the ocean.

That certainly is a way to deal with some party crashers.

Meanwhile, the barbecue is going on without Tigra and Wonder Man.

Imagine being dunked into the ocean instead of eating Hawkeye’s steaks.

Hmm. I like that apron but I can’t help but feel that a modern comic would have a hilarious apron extremely specific to Hawkeye. Something in the genre of Quentin Quire’s shirts.

I also like Rhodey realizing that he’s not going to be able to eat any of this barbecue through his mask and deliberating revealing his identity to his teammates SPECIFICALLY to eat a steak.

Priorities.

Mockingbird points out that Tigra and Wonder Man are late and she can’t reach them on the radio but Hawkeye dismisses her concerns since they’re both so capable.

Meanwhile, Graviton dunks Wonder Man into the pool and holds him underwater so he can watch him slowly drown.

He’s also acquired some sexy swimsuit ladies from somewhere. This is LA so I guess they just spontaneously generated.

How will our heroes get out of their various water-based predicaments??

I assume swimming will be involved.

Next issue is last issue of the limited series and for the West Coast Avengers for a while.

And since the West Coast Avengers show up in Avengers #250 with the limited series wrapped up, expect me to schedule posting the posts in that way too.

Follow @essential-avengers​ because I know the recipe to Hawkeye’s secret steak recipe and I’ll tell you if you follow. Here’s a hint: take meat, set it on fire for a while. Also like and reblog and I’ll tell you how many potatoes Captain America’s potato salad contains.

[thegayfromrulid]

How about a Yujikiri oneshot where they're in the real world, Eugeo misses snow and since they can't just make it snow, Kirito gets some really rare item in Alfheim that makes it snow wherever they are and uses that for a VR date with him.

Hello, anon! This was such a cute prompt! <3 I really enjoyed writing this. I had a lot of fun brainstorming the rare item for this, as well as imagining these two cute boys having fun in the snow! 

           “Does it ever snow in Saitama?”

           The question seemed a bit out of nowhere to me, as I finished loading the dishwasher and hadn’t been talking about climate with Eugeo prior to this moment. I looked up from what I was doing and saw him gazing out of the window, looking around at the world. It was still summer, even after spending an incredibly long time inside of the STL as a member of the Underworld. I wiped off my hands and went to stand over beside him, giving him a grin.

           “Yeah, sometimes,” I said. “Usually in the winter we’ll get some decent flakes. Why?”

           There was a sad look on his face, one that made me start to think. He was eager to see snow again. Eugeo had lived in Rulid, which was at the northernmost tip of Norlangarth. He’d lived at the foot of mountains, which meant that he was used to colder winters. Since he’d left that village, he’d not seen as much snow in the warmer capital city. It had been, in a sense, ages since he’d seen snow.

           Eugeo brushed it off, though, acting as if he wasn’t missing seeing it. I shouldn’t have expected anything less. Eugeo was the sort of person who never talked about the things troubling his heart. I would just have to do something about this. I told him it might not be as long as he thought before he saw snow again, to which he laughed and told me there was no such thing as a cryogenic art in the real world. I just laughed and saw him off, eager to get a plan in motion.

           I did a bit of online searching with the help of Suguha. As it would turn out, there was a very rare item in ALO that had the power to make it snow anywhere in the world. It was a stone, a mate to similar stones with different weather properties: summoning rain, clearing the skies for a sunny day, summoning a tornado or a hurricane or a tsunami. These stones were meant to give certain fairy races advantages and disadvantages in a PvP fight. I figured they would work just as well for a little date-time surprise.

           The entire group agreed to help out with the mission to recover the ‹‹ Snær Stone ››, so-called for the runes that decorated its surface. They spelled out the word “snær,” an Old Norse name for snow, Suguha told me. In order to earn the stone, we had to complete a rather difficult quest in an area of ALO called Niflheim called “The Hunt of Ullr.” In the quest, the patron saint of skiers, Ullr, offers players sets of skis and asks them to hunt down wolf-type monsters to protect the local NPC population. As a reward for the quest, each player would receive money, special snow resistant gear, the skis themselves, and, to the player with the most kills, the ‹‹ Snær Stone ››.

           Alice offered to keep Eugeo busy and offline for the duration of the quest, giving the rest of the group time to head out to the Niflheim area and complete the quest. It proved to be particularly tricky, as expected, as the act of skiing wasn’t as easily picked up as was sword fighting with the assist system. Much like riding horses or driving vehicles, this action in VR required some real-world practice—of which, to my surprise, Klein had the most. We spent a fair amount of time learning how to ski, and once we sort of had that down, the best player wound up being Sinon, whose bow gave her a serious advantage over the rest of us when hunting down the wolves. The gang agreed to let me have the last attack on each monster, though, so that I would end up with the stone.

           The stone felt well-earned by the time Ullr was placing it in my hands. I wanted to fall over from fatigue, but I was reminded that this was only the first step of the plan. I had to exit the dive, meet up with Eugeo, and then convince him to come back to the log cabin with me for a special snowy date. I stayed behind with Asuna, staring at the stone in my palm as I thought.

           “Do you think this will really be enough for him?” I asked her.

           She gave me that knowing best friend smile, and then she reached over to me and closed my fingers around the stone. Our eyes met, and she smiled at me, nodding.

           “He loves you, Kirito,” she said. “Don’t panic. He’s going to be very happy that you put in this much effort for him.”

           I felt my confidence increase just a bit. Asuna always knew what to say.

           “Now, go give your boyfriend a present he won’t forget!” she told me.

           In a flash, she was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts. She was right. Eugeo knew that there was no magic in Japan. He would never fault me for using ALO as the date location for snow because of that. There was nothing for me to worry about. Nodding to myself, I quickly slipped the stone into my inventory and logged out to go and text Eugeo.

           He agreed to meet up with me at a game shop close to my house. I told him to bring along his Amusphere so that we could get in some gaming time together. He went along with it. I think playing ALO reminded him of how we met. The fantasy world, even though it wasn’t at all the same as the one he’d been raised in, made more sense to him than my home world did. We checked out a few new titles at the store and then headed back to my place. I urged him to dive from my bed next to me.

           “If you insist,” he said. “But there’s more room if one of us takes the couch.”

           I laughed and shook my head.

           “We’ll be diving,” I said. “Do we really need that much extra room?”

           He just smiled at me and shook his head. He knew just as well as I did that it was an excuse to lay beside him. We climbed onto the bed, laying side-by-side, and slipped on our Amuspheres to dive into the log cabin. We shouted the log on command in unison, and seconds later, we were standing in the living area, right where we’d logged out. I smiled across the room at the blue-eyed Undine boy. I hurried over to him and grasped his hand. Eugeo let out a slight yelp and then a laugh as I tugged him along after me into the forest.

           “Where are we going, Kirito?” he asked, smiling over at me.

           I picked a spot in the woods that had a little bit of a clearing, and I stopped to remove the stone from my inventory. I’d read over the item’s instructions for how to use it. I recited a spell that had been given to me in those instructions, making sure to pronounce everything carefully as I spoke. I turned back to Eugeo, who had a quizzical look on his face, and I waited. I slipped the stone into my pocket and reached one hand out to him. He took it, still confused, and he smiled at me.

           “What kind of a spell was that?” he asked.

           I pointed my other hand up. He slipped his fingers into my hand as his eyes followed my gesture. I watched his eyes start to sparkle as he realized what was happening. Gentle snowflakes started to fall around us, landing on the ground, the trees, and our avatars. Luckily for me, this particular spell caused an area effect that would turn this place into a wintry landscape. The ground started to turn white with packed snow, and the trees held just enough to look like an old-fashioned Christmas card. Eugeo started laughing and put out his hand to catch a few of the snowflakes.

           “How did you do that, Kirito?” he asked.

           Pulling the stone out of my pocket, I opened his palm and set it down in his hand.

           “With this, we can see snow anytime we like,” I said.

           Eugeo clutched the stone in his palm and then threw his arms around me, tackling me with a hug. We fell down into the freshly fallen snow, sending up a powdery spray as we landed. The both of us laughed, now covered with icy crystals. Eugeo leaned forward and slipped his lips into mine, stealing a warm kiss amidst the cold now swirling gently around us. I cupped his face in my hands, feeling his cold cheeks start to fill with warmth.

           His eyes opened a little as he pulled away from the kiss. Our noses were barely touching. The snow falling around his face made him look less like a fairy and more like an angel. Some of it stuck to his hair, and the sunlight hit those crystals, making them sparkle. I smiled. He looked so handsome in the snow. It had been so long since I’d seen him smiling the way he’d smiled at me back in the Underworld.

           “Thank you,” he whispered. “I missed this so much.”

           I chuckled.

           “I’m glad you like the snow,” I said.

           Eugeo shook his head.

           “No, not just the snow,” he said. “I missed us just enjoying the simple things in life together.”

           I pulled him in for another kiss.

           “Me, too,” I admitted.

           I rolled us over in the snow and hopped up to my feet.

           “Now,” I said. “Are we going to enjoy this weather, or are we just going to sit and kiss in the snow?”

           Before Eugeo could respond, I was already tossing a bit of snow at him. He laughed like a child and jumped up to start throwing it back at me. We frolicked around in the snow, tossing it at one another, rolling around in it, and building little snowmen, completely lost in a little corner of winter that we’d made for ourselves. When we’d tired ourselves out, we went back into the cabin to log out, and we curled up against one another, gently dozing off as we warmed one another up from the virtual chill.

           A glimpse of Eugeo’s face before I fell asleep told me everything I needed to know. He was smiling brightly. I cuddled up to him, grateful that this VR snow day had brought him such a happy smile.

[rougebangtan]

pairing: hoseok | gender neutral!reader

genre: fluff

word count: 1.610

prompt: scarf

warnings: mild description of a panic attack, but Hoseok is a sweetheart that coaxes you out of it 🥺

a/n: thank u @heyitsmeee2​ for the cutie banner!! i love it and thank you lilli and ley for the support on this :3 @moccahobi​ @pars-ley​

Hoseok was tired.

To say he had been swamped with work lately would be an understatement. His routine had been taking too much from him. Although he loved his job, he couldn’t deny the pressure that came with it. Teaching choreographies from morning until dusk was far from ideal, but he needed the money to steadily keep on coming. Even if, in hindsight, he felt exhausted and overwhelmed trying to hold everything together.

That’s the reason why he’s late now. He was saved by the bell. Jimin called him earlier in the morning to ensure Hoseok would enter the next train to Busan in time, and that call was what woke him up – an hour before the scheduled departure. Jimin spared Hoseok from the very embarrassing outcome that missing the ride would entail. If it wasn’t for Jimin, he would be still asleep, and... probably jobless. He’d rather be a little sleep deprived and keep his paycheck. Thank you very much.

The man was a frantic hot mess. He barely managed to take a shower before he saw the time and had to fleet from his house in desperation. What he didn’t expect, however, was the wintry temperature he was met upon leaving. His body worked best in hotter weather, so he noticed as soon as he stepped out. Hoseok dreaded the next couple of hours he would need to withstand the cold, but thankfully the clothes he put on kept him somewhat warm.

Running against the clock, he succeeded in arriving at the train station in time. He felt so alleviated that at the moment the adrenaline rush waned, he felt his body deflating almost instantly. When he got in, it was unmissable how busy the train was, and Hoseok had a long way ahead. The spots were packed, absurdly so, to the point another wave of dread began brewing inside of him as his eyes anxiously scanned the wagon.

It faintly registered that putting himself through so many highs and lows could give him a heart attack, but he sagged in relief once he spotted a seat. Which happened to be right beside you. You were rugged up while you watched over yourself. The crippling anxiety was crazy stupid for the logical part of your brain yet it was all the other irrational part of it was clinging to.

“Hi,” Hoseok greeted with a megawatt smile on his face. “Is this seat taken?”

You only nod – a very subdued response to his extrovert self – yet you can’t control the crushing fear you felt. You were shaking.

“Oh, I’m sorry then.” He replies as his face falls and his upbeat gait suddenly slouches. “I’ll have to find another spot.”

Panicking with what he said, you muster all of your courage to stop him from leaving. It wasn’t his fault you were feeling the way you were feeling. “No, wait! This seat is vacant…”

“Oh, alright. Thank you.” He doesn’t need to be told twice to plop down on the said seat.

He can’t help but sense the quivers of your body since the two of you are very close to one another. He notices how your breath vacillates whenever you have to inhale and exhale; you do it so mechanically, he wonders what could’ve put you in such a mood. And you look so cute and innocent. The mitten set complements your woolen scarf which is paired with a pair of boots. He wants to help you get out of the mood you’re in. He doesn’t know how, though.

Gently, he speaks to you in the softest tone. “You okay? You can talk to me if you want.”

The way he addresses you reminds you of motherly care and despite the alarms that ring on your mind, you knew better than to deny help. Because you couldn’t fight the panic alone, you accept his offer with a nod.

“You want me to talk to you?” He asks quietly yet you’re unnerved by his unwavering attention. With your voice caught up in your throat, you can only nod again.

Once it’s established you won’t be talking any time soon, Hoseok feels his tongue create a mind of its own. Not only was he a talkative kind of guy, but he tended to ramble in these situations where he was supposed to take action.

“It’s okay… I’m here with you, okay? Breathe for me.” He treats you kindly, and his voice soothes your nerves.

Your body heat combined with his begin to befuddle your wrangled brain. Exhausted by the psychological strain, you lean into him and he takes it as a cue to lean into you as well. You didn’t know the comfort someone totally foreign to you could provide as it dawns on you that he’s there to help. That caused you to warm up to him all the more.

Since Hoseok had already experienced a panic attack, he recognized that physical comfort was a great help. So, taking a step further, he asks: “Do you want to hold my hand?”

As he utters the words, he also extends his hand to show you could take it. Much to his surprise, you do, even if a bit shyly. You’re very warm – warmer than he felt, he thinks – so he smiles at you in response.

“You’re a good one for this. See? You’re doing so well.” He mumbles to your ear as he draws circles on the back of your hand. “You’re doing so well.”

You don’t keep track, but the stranger’s kind act and the rocking of the train lull you to sleep. Hoseok takes a while to notice, uninterruptedly caressing your hand, but when he gazes at your serene mien, he relaxes even further. He feels extremely accomplished knowing he managed to coax you out of your panic attack.

You wake up a few minutes before the train arrives in Busan. For a handful of seconds, you think the unhinged fear you felt before will come back to haunt you. However, it doesn’t. When you look beside you, you realize why. The handsome guy that helped you earlier dozed off with his head resting on your shoulder, and you found it cruel to wake him up.

The stranger’s body was comfortable against yours. It grounded you to your reality. As you look around, blinking the blur away from your vision, you take in the green landscape zapping through the window. It’s been a while since you ever experienced such a thrill; you had been too afraid to go outside for the reason of earlier. You were aware you couldn’t be such a scaredy-cat because of crowded spaces yet it’s not like you could help it.

Instead of waking the poor guy up, your eyes are attentive to how he shivers from the cold which gives you a better idea. Untangling the scarf from your neck, you sprawl it on your lap as you reach for your bag. You thank the heavens for always keeping a journal and a pen in it, scratching a piece of paper. Excitement floods on your veins the more you spend observing his graceful features, and you wonder if he would contact you.

At the prospect of meeting the guy again, you scribble the words down agilely.

Thank you for helping me. If you’d like, I wish to thank you. Maybe, with coffee someday…

In case you’re interested in my offer, here’s my number: 512-586-2000.

- The one from the train.

As you wrap the fabric around his neck, with your note securely guarded between the material, you’re taken aback by his beauty. He looked a bit rough around the edges since his eye bags could be easily spotted on his face. Nonetheless, he remained gorgeous and you hoped that he would text you when in your shyness, you didn’t dare to face him after the episode.

You hope to see him again in the very near future and to be able to actually hold a conversation with him. The possibilities are endless, and they sure make you dizzy, but you’re hopeful. Grasping on to such lighthearted feeling, you cast him one last glance and walk away.

He didn’t know when he fell asleep. He didn’t feel when his head fell onto your shoulder. Neither did he know he had been shivering from the cold. When he woke up, you weren’t beside him anymore. People on the train were standing to grab their bag while others rushed outside. Panicked, he stood too and in a leap of luck, he watches as you leave and you’re already too far off the platform for him to reach you.

As he observes you walk away, a sadness settles in his chest, but his mind is quick to notice a very teensy detail. You weren’t wearing your scarf. He looked at the seat, wondering if you left it behind until he belatedly felt the soft material around his neck. It covers part of his face and the warmth is beyond pleasant. He could smell the perfume you had been wearing.

Burying his cold, and now slightly pink, nose a little deeper into the warm fabric, Hoseok feels something hard prickling on his neck. His hands find it effective immediately, and as the rest of the passengers leave the train, he unfolds the piece of paper in childlike expectation. Once his eyes fleet over it, he is filled with a joyous buzz and grabs his bag with newfound inspiration.

When he steps out of the train and sees his friend Jimin across the platform, a huge smile stretches across his face. Here he comes to the city of Busan.

[zombified-queer]

Snow Day

A (belated) @sfmsecretsanta gift for @zalenx! You asked for some Martin/Parsley winter fluff, so here it is! Hope you enjoy! :D

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

After the blessings are spoken, it's quiet. The candle burns low, flickering like it might go out. But it keeps finding a way to keep burning.

But the silence is an easy one, just watching the flicker of the flame together. It's not sombre or serious, just the sort of quiet that comes with having nothing to say.

Martin's hand finds Parsley's. Parsley holds it. Martin's fingers are cold.

Finally the flame goes out by itself, snuffed out for lack of things to burn.

"I got you a gift," Martin admits.

"I got you one too."

"You didn't have to," Martin points out. "I got everything I wanted when you came back from that health retreat.”

"Even me being a workaholic?"

"Well, I’ll just have to bring you meals at the offices,” Martin says lightheartedly.

“I’m considering quitting.”

“All of them?” Martin asks, raising a brow. 

"Well, just two of them. We still have a mortgage and bills." Parsley pulls Martin close, putting an arm around his waist. "But what's the point in working all the time if I can't see my husband?"

Martin nods. "I had no idea I was pushing you away like that."

Parsley kisses Martin's temple. "Well, we're a team, right? Those were the vows. Us against the world. We'll make this work."

"I'm not worried about making it work," Martin admits. "I'm worried about you."

Shrugging, Parsley admits, "The work I want to do is not worrying you so much."

Martin cups Parsley's cheek. He's so handsome, Parsley thinks, in the low light of their kitchen. Martin leans in, kissing him.

And everything is so perfect it hurts. Parsley walked away from this. He risked this and for what? The work doesn't compare to this, the feeling of Martin's chapped lips against Parsley's own. Martin's warm.

"Hey," Martin whispers, pressing a kiss to Parsley's jaw. "It's snowing."

Parsley doesn't turn his head to look. He trusts Martin. Out of the corner of his eye, Parsley watches the flakes falling, collecting on the windowsill.

"Think the lake will freeze over?" Martin asks. "We could go skating. Build a snowman."

Parsley nods. He's been working from home these past couple months. One day off won't kill anyone. And he's missed Martin so much.

"Just don't break your leg," Parsley warns.

Martin chuckles. "You'll have to carry me over the threshold and tend to my wounds."

"The only thing I'll carry you into is an ambulance," Parsley teases in kind.

"Ouch. Cold."

But Martin puts his arms around Parsley. They sway, just a little half-waltz in the kitchen. It's nice. Just the two of them. And quiet. A nice little break.

"I bought you a pair of skates," Martin admits. "So we could start going together when the lake freezes."

"I bought you hand warmers," Parsley confesses, hand on Martin's waist. "You're always so cold."

"I won't be cold if you kiss me again."

And Parsley does.

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

In the morning, they check the weather like excited kids. It's snowed, almost a foot deep overnight.

Parsley turns on his work computer in his office long enough to send two resignations and an email stating he's taking the day off. And then he turns it off again without waiting for a single reply.

Parsley wraps a scarf around Martin's neck. "Latkes tonight?"

"But of course!" Martin pecks Parsley's cheek. "I have been looking forward to your latkes all year. I always do."

Hand-in-hand and with their skates, they make their way through the undisturbed snow. It crunches like branches under them, too loud and too much this early. But if they wait, the lake will be overrun with kids happy to skip school in favor of going sledding and skating.

A few times, Parsley stumbles in the snow. Either stepping on unsteady ground or tripping over a boulder on the trail. Every time he stumbles, Martin's right there to help him up. Not without a laugh and brushing the snow off Parsley.

"We're going to have to clear the trail," Martin sighs.

"And salt the sidewalk," Parsley wheezes. "And shovel the driveway."

"I'll take salt duty when we get back." Martin brushes snow from Parsley's hair. "Getting cold?"

Parsley shakes his head. The snow hasn't melted enough to soak into his clothes. He's alright. And Martin kisses his cheek, which makes it better.

By the time they get to the lake, the sun's just coming up, painting everything in shades of gold and rose. Martin gives Parsley's hand a gentle squeeze. 

"It's pretty," Parsley agrees, keeping his voice low. The ice has a tendency to echo whole conversations through the hills. "Beautiful."

Martin hums in agreement. 

They find a downed log, brushing the snow from its surface with their gloved hands. Martin settles, taking his boots off to tie his skates. 

He takes those first few steps carefully before gliding across the ice. Parsley watches, for a moment, reminded that Martin used to play hockey. 

It's a few slow circles across the lake, testing the ice. Every time he pauses to feel the ice under him, Parsley expects to hear that crack of ice and the dreaded splash. But the ice holds under Martin. It groans and creaks at the weight on its surface but holds firm.

"The water's nice!" Martin calls, voice echoing in a thousand different directions. “C’mon, Parsley!”

Parsley shakes his head and settles on the log. It takes him a while to tie his skates. He doesn’t have the muscle memory Martin does. 

In slow, unsteady steps with his arms out for balance, he takes that first unsure step onto the ice. Martin’s right there, helping Parsley up, correcting his form. He keeps a hand on Parsley’s back as they make a slow circle around the ice.

“I think you’re the one who might break a leg,” Martin teases. 

But Martin stays right with him. Martin could definitely skate faster or do some sort of ice tricks Parsley doesn’t understand. Martin stays. And that helps Parsley get a little more confident, gliding across the ice.

“I don’t understand how this was fun,” Parsley huffs.

“This? This is easy.” Martin takes Parsley’s hands, guiding him into a sharper turn. “Now imagine all this with the padding and the helmet and the sticks.”

“Horrible.”

Martin laughs. His voice echoes over the hills. He keeps skating backwards, holding Parsley’s hands to guide him. 

“D’you think you’ll go back to coaching?” Parsley wonders, getting a better feel for the ice. It’s weird this half-walking. “I think a hockey team might be nice.”

Martin hums in thought. “You’re just saying that because I teach.”

“Well...Kind of. I mean you were good. Really good.” Parsley lets go of one of Martin’s hands so they can make slow, lazy circles over the lake hand-in-hand. “I was really intimidated when I saw you on the ice.”

“This isn’t about the Tooth Fairy nickname, right?” Martin groans, shaking his head. “It was one little fight on the ice!”

“A big fight,” Parsley corrects. “But I think that’s when I knew I was terrified of you and loved you.”

“That’s sweet...I think?”

“Well, you were this hulking mass of padding and the other guy was missing his front teeth! Of course I was going to be a little intimidated.”

The whole conversation, their words echo. But it’s nothing they haven’t talked about before, nothing they haven’t acknowledged. It disrupts the quiet like fireworks.

“You just wanted to be bridal carried,” Martin teases, voice soft enough it doesn’t echo. 

Parsley’s face heats up. “Well...kind of. I mean you were taller than me back then. And you were a hockey player which...y’know.”

“Parsley Botch, into being carried.” Martin kisses Parsley’s cheek. “I still could, I bet.”

“You’d hurt yourself,” Parsley fires back. “You’re not the twenty-one-year-old Tooth Fairy you used to be.”

“You’re right.” Martin nods. “When’d we get so old?”

“We’re not that old.”

“Too old to make a snowman?” Martin asks.

“How’re we supposed to decorate it? I don’t have a carrot.”

“Pinecones,” Martin suggests, guiding Parsley to the edge of the lake. “And rocks?”

“He’s going to be one sad snowman.”

“C’mon.” Martin steps off the ice, carefully through the snow, and back to the log they’ve left their boots by. “We’ll make a snowman the neighborhood can be jealous of.”

Parsley follows, less steady than Martin. Once their boots are tied tight, they trudge off to find a nice spot to leave a snowman.

“Here?” Martin asks, pointing at a spot between pine trees that gets a good look at the lake. “Think it’ll last a while?”

Parsley nods. “Plenty of shade. He shouldn’t melt for a while.”

“If we get another blizzard, he sure won’t.” Martin kneels in the snow. “I’ll start the body. Grab some pinecones?”

“Sure.” Parsley trudges through the snow, stopping under the trees to dig out pinecones. He comes back with armfuls. “Think this is enough?”

“More than enough,” Martin says, finishing the body. “Want to help with the head?”

“Sure.”

Together, they pack the snow into an acceptable enough ball, Martin rolling it, then letting Parsley take over for a bit. Both of them place the snowman head on the body, Martin grinning.

“Well, now it just needs a face.”

Parsley nods, taking one of the pinecones. He breaks the scales off, using them to make eyes and a smile. Martin sticks a full pinecone on for the nose. And there’s little pinecone buttons. They add a little shirt collar of pinecone pieces. Even little pinecone sleeves.

By the time they’re done, it’s a snowman worth taking a picture of. 

“Parsley?”

“Martin.”

“I missed this.” Martin takes Parsley’s hand. “Spending time with you. Doing silly stuff.”

“Well, there’s going to be plenty of time to do silly stuff.”

They make their way through the snow, hands held tightly. 

“Movie night?” Martin suggests. 

Parsley shakes his head. “All they put on these days is Christmas movies.”

“What about a horror film?” Martin asks. “We could watch The Thing. It’s a winter movie without any Christmas.”

Parsley chuckles. “Sure. The Thing it is.”

[cilldaracailin]

These Are The Days Of Our Lives

Hello my Tumblr Lovelys!

It is Thursday! Woohoo, only one more day till the weekend! Though I have been feeling like it is Friday today...

Anywhoo, here is the next part for you. Thank you again for all the love and comments and reads. :)

Suze xx

3

“…I'm so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much.”

When Taron woke, a long groan left his lips and he fully stretched, his body creaking as his arms reached over his head. He felt warm and cosy as he lay on his back and as he slowly opened his eyes, it was completely dark around him. Turning his head, his cheek met the softness of the grey teddy bear fleece Robyn had given him and the last place he remembered leaving his throw was on his couch.

He rolled over onto his side but instead of rolling onto more of his couch, he ended up on the ground with a huff and moan, completely tangled in the throw. As he kicked his legs, he struggled a little to get himself free and used his hands to help pull the throw from himself. Finally free, his rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms up, cursing as his left hand smacked the coffee table.

“Fucking hell.” He cried rubbing his hand feeling it throb.

His eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the dark and he blinked a few times and with his right hand reached out very carefully and slowly feeling for the couch. Once he was sure he had a good idea of where the couch was and would avoid the coffee table, he pulled himself up from the floor and eased himself onto the couch, still a bit wary that he was on the edge but feeling the soft back of the couch against his shoulders, he leaned all the way in and sighed. Another long yawn filled his whole body and rubbing his eyes once more, he could finally start to make out his living room in the dark. Sitting for a few more seconds, letting his eyes fully adjust to the dark, he then got to his feet and cautiously made his way towards his door and the light switch, his eyes blinking at the invasion of sudden bright light.

It took him a few seconds to get used to the brightness and when he was able to fully open his eyes, he looked around his living room, a little surprised. It was spotlessly clean. The take-out boxes had been cleared away as well as the glass bottles and the top of the coffee table had been wiped down and cleaned.

“Robyn…” Taron’s voice was quiet and he wandered sleepily into his kitchen, now not surprised to see it was clean and tidy too. Any plates or cutlery they had used were washed and drip drying on the sink sideboard. He opened the fridge and the birthday cake which had caused him such stress earlier was wrapped in some tinfoil and the left overtake out was also wrapped but in cling film on plates stored on an empty shelf in his fridge. Closing the white door, Taron moved to lean on the island, his hand running down his tired face. He checked his watch and had to double check when he saw it was near three in the morning.

“I’ve been asleep that long?” He pondered out loud to himself, one more yawn moving through his whole body.

He moved back to the couch and routed around for his phone and found it eventually on the coffee table. He tapped into his received calls from face time and saw one was taken from his mam earlier on in the evening around eight. A little sad he had missed his mam; he knew Robyn had answered the call and started to wonder what the two women could have spoken about together. Standing up and picking up his throw, he draped it around his shoulders, feeling a little cold now as he wandered around his flat in the night time. Pocketing his phone, he wandered back to his door so he could turn off the main light and pulling his phone out again, he flicked on the torch and used it to make his way safely to his bedroom.

The door was open but the light was off and keeping his light away from directly shining on the bed, Taron flashed the torch on his phone up and over the wooden head board, the beam of light shining down and there asleep on the bed, curled up on her right side, in her favourite sleeping position was Robyn, wearing the new pyjamas he had gotten her for her birthday. The pyjama top had ridden up her body and although he had seen a lot of her bare back the last time they had seen each other, the lower part of her back was new to him and he smiled as even in the low light of his bed room from his phone, he could see the faintest mark of a tan line on her skin as her pyjama bottoms sat very low as she lay curled in a ball. He pulled the throw tighter around his body as a deep shiver filled him. He wished she liked massages because his hands were itching to find an excuse to feel how soft her skin was and deep down knew he was out of luck of ever getting to run his fingers over such a beautiful intimate spot on her body.

“Jesus Taron.” He quietly cursed, feeling the wonderful heat rising in his body. “Just a pair of bloody pyjamas.” He scolded himself. “She is your best friend.” He sighed a little. “Your beautiful best friend who you are head over heels in love with.” Taking a step closer to his bed, he very carefully placed a shaky left hand on her side, somewhere his hand had been before and as light as he could, moved his hand down to new territory and let his thumb stroke over her bare hip. As he thought, her skin was wonderfully silky under his thumb and so pleasingly warm. He let his index finger trail over the faint tan line lingering on her skin and then over the waist band of the pyjama’s he had bought her and he half smiled. “Knew you would wear them.” He whispered with a light chuckle. Sneaking his hand up her side and under the cotton top, his thumb traced over her ribs very lightly. She moved a little in her sleep, a long deep sigh leaving her lips and Taron’s hand stalled on her body. He half grinned to himself and took his hand from her skin, his hand running down his face as he composed himself. “Perfect.” He whispered hoarsely.

It looked like she had started out covered with his duvet but kicked it off during her sleep and it was crumbled near the end of the bed, nothing covering her body at all but after feeling how heated her skin was, he wasn’t surprised. The weather in London had become warmer as the country entered its Summer months and his home didn’t have the nice air con that Robyn’s had and he had been sleeping in his boxers under his duvet but being stubborn, Robyn hadn’t listened to him when he told her the pyjamas would be too warm to sleep in that night and now she lay asleep in a warm cotton pyjama’s instead of her normal sleeping attire of shorts and a t-shirt.

“Knew they would be too warm Robyn.” He chuckled

Robyn was snuggled on her side of the bed and deciding he needed to stop trying to touch her and stare at her before he went too far or have to leave the bedroom and go back to the couch, Taron walked around to his side and grinned as he saw the Care Bear horse he had bought her in her arms, Robyn cuddling it against her chest. It was such a sweet picture and while he still had his phone in his hands, Taron opened his camera and took a photo. She had done it to him before when he was sleeping and he was very happy to have his own picture of her sleeping to keep.

Her face was nuzzled deep into the bottom of one of the pillows, her head nearly flat on the bed. He was so glad that she had made herself comfortable in his room, especially when he had fallen asleep on the couch. He kicked his shoes off and dropped the throw to the floor so he could pull his socks off too. He knew he wouldn’t need the throw as he slept in his bedroom, especially with another person on his bed and thinking twice before he actually lay down, he pulled his t-shirt off too. Being careful not to jostle the bed too much, Taron eased himself onto the mattress, not worrying about pulling the duvet up. He was already feeling a little over heated and the cool sheets felt pleasant on his body. He turned off the light on his phone and quietly placed it on his bed side locker and then turning onto his left side facing Robyn, he closed his eyes as his head settled onto his pillow. With his left hand tucked between his knees, his right on the pillow in front of his face, he curled his knees a little closer to his chest and knew it wouldn’t be long before he fell asleep. Opening his right eye, he took one more glance as Robyn’s sleeping form and burrowing his head a little deeper into his pillows, closed his eyes, letting his body rest, sleeping deeply after a hard week of work.

When he woke, he knew immediately that he wasn’t alone in his bed and was still on his side, in the same position he fell asleep in. Waking up in the same way that he fell asleep in meant that he had a good night’s sleep, that was free from tossing and turning or his mind over working and thinking his day of work through. He stayed as he was, his eyes closed, letting his body wake up naturally, enjoying the fact that it wasn’t an alarm rousing him from his sleep. He buried his face into his pillow, stretching his legs and his back out before pulling himself into a tucked position.

“Morning.”

He smiled as he heard Robyn’s voice and opened his eyes to see her sitting up, still in her pyjamas, her hair in her perfected messy bun. “Mornin’.” He mumbled back to her, closing his eyes again.

“Made your way to your bed eventually last night?” She chuckled.

“Guess I was tired.”

“Guess so.” An hour after Robyn had ended the call with Taron’s family, he still slept deeply on her shoulder. With a bit of moving, being so very careful not to wake him, Robyn got him laying on her lap and after another hour, he was still asleep. She shifted her body from under his and placed the throw over his body and a little under his head to make sure he was comfortable and then did a quick clean up of his apartment and headed to his bed for her own sleep. “You were out for the count on the couch.”

“I didn’t think I was that tired.” He said opening his eyes. “And you put your pyjamas on.” He said reaching over to pull at the soft cotton material.

Robyn smiled back at him. “I couldn’t wait to wear them.”

“Were you too warm?” Taron asked, knowing well what her answer was going to be.

“Of course.” She laughed. “You were right but I had to wear them. They are really comfortable. Sorry I left you on the couch sleeping but I didn’t want to wake you.”

Taron shook his head. “Don’t be sorry at all. I am glad you did and that you just went to bed yourself.” He stretched again. “Thank you for cleaning up my flat.”

“No worries.” Robyn watched as Taron snuggled his face back into his pillow. “You weren’t cold last night?” She watched as his bare back muscles moved as he shifted on the bed.

“Nope. Nice and warm.”

“You could have pulled the duvet back up.”

“I didn’t need it. I don’t have your air con and my room gets hot in the Summer months. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.” He opened one eye to look at her. “So, what did you and my mother talk about last night?”

Robyn grinned. “You missed a good chat.” She laughed a little as he lifted his head from the pillow. “You missed nothing at all. A simple happy birthday was exchanged, Mari guilt tripping me to go to her birthday. The old ‘you came to Taron’s birthday and are in London with Taron for your birthday’ came out.” She saw him frown. “Tina was on it, don’t worry and I told Mari I would do my best.”

“And how much of the conversation was about me?” He asked, laying his head back down.

“Not much at all. Really Taron.” She assured him. “Tina asked where you were so I had to move your cute little sleeping face onto the screen.”

Taron groaned into the pillow. “Oh Robyn, you didn’t!”

“I had to. She asked where you were.”

“Oh, she is going to lecture me now.”

Robyn moved closer on the bed to him and reached for his right hand which was in front of his face, her thumbs running over the back of it. “She was a little concerned that you were asleep but I have a feeling she knows your script is testing and I explained that you had just eaten and had some beers. She wants you to call her over the weekend. I also tried to get the secret plans from her but she was giving me nothing.”

Although he didn’t want to, he smiled. “I will call her.” Closing his eyes again, he tucked himself up into a smaller ball on the bed. “What time is it?”

“Just after eleven.”

“Eleven!” Taron jumped up to his knees. “Eleven!” He exclaimed again. “Breakfast!” He said. “I wanted to get up early to make you breakfast.” His face turned sad. “I had waffles. Aww shit.”

“Taron…” The softness of her voice and her hands on her face, made him lift his head to look at her.

“Yeah I know.” He said his eyes avoiding hers. “Just wanted to bring you breakfast in bed.”

“You needed the rest and we still have tomorrow morning.” Brushing his cheeks with her thumbs, he finally looked to her. “You slept the night through and didn’t move once except to get into your bed so it was obvious that your body needed the sleep and needed it more than breakfast.” He nodded under her hands. “And don’t you feel the better for it?”

“Yeah I suppose.”

“And you know another thing I like to do is watch you sleep.” She smiled at him, taking her hands from his face, Taron kneeling back on his heels.

“How many pictures did you take to bribe me with?”

“None.” She assured him. “I can bribe you with head massages.” She sat back on the bed. “So Mr Egerton, what have you planned for today then?”

“Well I had planned breakfast but seeing as how I have slept through that, I guess we both need to get ready to head to this afternoon’s activity and I hate to say it but we have about an hour to get ready. I didn’t mean to sleep so long. I wish I had of told you to wake me yesterday if I fell asleep.”

“Taron!” Robyn laughed. “An hour? I know I don’t take long but talk about a rush.”

He smiled at her. “I have two bathrooms, remember.”

“And you know I can’t wake you when you are sleeping.”

“Yeah I know.” He carefully got off the bed, stretching his whole body awake.

As he stretched, Robyn felt her heart race. He had lost of lot of his muscle since Kingsman finished filming but he was still defined and the softness to his sides and stomach was so attractive to Robyn and she couldn’t help but look at his perfect physic as he woke himself fully up. His jeans sat very low on his hips and that little look she got yesterday was on full show now and Robyn was telling her body to relax. She had seen Taron without his shirt on so many times, had her hands on his chest saving his life and massaging his skin, her fingers trailing through the gorgeously soft hair on his chest but watching him from afar, being sneaky with her glances rose that all too familiar heat in her body she felt when she was around Taron lately.

“So would you like to take the en suite or the bathroom?” He asked her, his voice breaking her slightly sinful thoughts.

“Bathroom is fine for me. I haven’t unpacked and all your things are in your bathroom.”

“Sure.”

“Taron we really only have an hour?” She asked him.

“Sorry chicken. My timing was really bad. Anthony is coming to get us at twelve.”

“Don’t worry. I will be ready.”

She hopped off the bed and grabbed everything she needed from her case, her hands full as she made her way out of the bedroom and into his bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. Taking some shaky breathes, Robyn closed her eyes and only saw imagines of Taron stretching behind them. “Fucking hell.” She cursed to herself, her right hand pulling her bobbin from her hair with a tug. “Does he have to be just so lovely.” She sighed as she moved to the shower to turn the water on. “So bloody lovely and sweet and gorgeous and kind and ughhh.” Her hands went to her face as she exhaled loudly, her hands shaking as she took them down and started to open the buttons on her pyjama top.

The shower water was refreshing, once she had turned the temperature down a notch or two and after thoroughly washing her hair with her favourite scented shampoo and conditioner and did everything else required for her morning shower, she dried off and used her favourite body moisturiser on her skin.  A few spritz of heat defence for her hair, she made quick work of getting the wetness out and then drying individual sections and once she was done, added a spray of hairspray to keep fly away strands in place. Taron had told her nothing about his plans except that a nice outfit was required, to which she groaned and rolled her eyes. A nice outfit to her was jeans and a hoodie but she routed through her wardrobe and found a black off the shoulder lace top and pair of skinny jeans she loved to wear. Knowing she had picked heels for their evening, a flat pair of pumps with a little gold design completed her outfit.

She added the tiniest bit of make up to her face with some eye liner and mascara with a small bit of highlight on her cheeks and it was enough for her. She just wasn’t a huge make up person and without the pressure of a premier or a make-up artist to do it for her, simple and easy was best. A plain gloss went on her lips and once she was dressed, sprayed the perfume she always wore when went somewhere nice with Taron, the Hugo Boss orange scent her favourite. Taking one last look in the mirror at herself, she fluffed her hair a little and grinned. Black was always a good choice and she knew Taron would appreciate the off the shoulder style top. Initially she had pulled out a lovely low cut lace V-neck top but after trying it on, it wasn’t suited for what she was sure Taron had planned and was happy to save the quite revealing top for another day. She took her perfume out with her along with her lip gloss and made her way back to the bedroom, knocking on the still open door.

“Come on in chicken.”

Robyn stepped into the bedroom and saw Taron sitting on the bed with his back turned to her. He had a grey silk shirt on but it was all she could see of him, along with his black slacks.

“All good and ready to go and within the hour too.”

She watched as Taron stood up and turned around to face her, the bed between them. The sleeves of his grey shirt were partly rolled up and the top four buttons undone, showing not only a glimpse of a white tank top underneath but a lot of his upper chest. His shirt was tucked into his trousers and his whole outfit was gorgeous on him. She smiled as he walked around the bed and over to her, immediately a waft of his aftershave hitting her senses.

“So are we going to a fancy place then” She asked him. “You are all dressed up.”

“You look nice.”

Robyn grinned at him. “You too and you already knew what I was going to wear.”

“True but I can still say you look nice. Seeing the clothes on a hanger is different than seeing them on and I am ready too. Just need to grab my phone and wallet.”

While Taron routed around for his personal belongings, Robyn got her small black clutch shoulder bag ready. She dropped in her perfume and lip gloss. Sitting on her side of the bed, she picked her ring and the bracelet Taron had given her from the bedside locker and put them on, her fingers running over the silver bracelet, her lips in a small smile as she looked at it. It was still so beautiful to her and she would always cherish it.

Taron leaned on the door frame and watched her as she put the bracelet he got her onto her wrist, glad to see she could manage the catch herself. His eyes wandered up and to her bare shoulders. It wasn’t a backless dress that he picked that she wore but he appreciated the extra skin on show from her lacy black top and when he told her she looked nice, inside his heart was yelling at him to tell she looked beautiful as always but he kept tight lipped, even more so at how her perfume made parts of him tingle.

“You all set?” He asked her.

“Yep. Just have to grab my jacket but I threw it on your couch yesterday so God only knows where it could be.”

On que, Taron held up her leather jacket to her. “Found it.” He grinned. He threw it her way and his smile grew as he held up his own. “Wouldn’t be us if we didn’t match somehow right?”

“You had to pick a leather one?” She groaned as she stood up. “You probably have a whole wardrobe of jackets. Pick a different one!”

Taron chuckled as he slipped his arms into his coat. “Nope, sorry chicken. Completes my outfit.”

“Taron come on!” Robyn pulled her own coat on. “It’s my birthday weekend.” She tried, giving him a little pout. “Please?” She asked softly walking over to him. “It’s not a red-carpet thing or a media thing so us matching isn’t really needed right?” She gently gripped the left and right seam of his leather jacket. “I mean I am sure there is another lovely coat you can choose to wear instead.”

“Wicked Irish womanly powers.” He said to her but his face was smiling. “Sure. Help me pick one.”

With a little skip, Robyn turned and walked out of the bedroom, reaching for Taron’s hand as she went, dragging him a little behind. She stopped outside his little closet at his door where she knew he hung his coats and letting go his hand opening it wide. “Ok let’s see. No, no, nope.”

Taron stood behind her a little, still smiling as he watched her look through his coats.

“Try this one.” She handed him his demin coat with the brown collar and he slipped out of his leather jacket, handing it to Robyn who hung it back up and when she turned around, her nose crinkled up. “Oh no. Take it off.”

“No?” Asked Taron fixing the collar. “I like this jacket.”

“Me too but not with this look. Off.”

With a chuckle, Taron did as she asked and handed it to her and she hung it up and placed it back on the rail. “My leather one is perfect.”

Robyn didn’t answer him but got her hands on plain black coat with a simple silver zip up the front and a single side zipped pocket over the left breast of the coat. “This one.” She slipped it off the hanger and turned around to Taron. “Try this one.”

With a nod, Taron put on the coat and as he shuffled it so it fit his shoulders better, he looked to Robyn and she was grinning his way. “This one?”

“Yep.”

“Ok then. So now that you are happy with my outfit, can we go? I am sure Anthony is downstairs waiting for us.”

“Sure.”

Making sure they had all they needed, they left Taron’s flat and headed towards the gate, greeting Ben as he opened the black steel frames for them. Outside the gates, a familiar blacked out car was waiting for them and the driver door opened, Anthony stepping out.

“Good afternoon Taron, Miss Quinn.”

“Anthony!” Robyn puffed. “Please call me Robyn!”

“Of course Miss Quinn.” He grinned, opening the door of the car to let them in, Taron letting Robyn in first.

Once they were settled in the car, Anthony closed the door of the car and got in the driver’s seat. “Taron it will be about half an hour with traffic, could be a little more.”

“That should be fine Anthony. Thank you.”

As the car moved off Robyn turned to Taron. “Right ok, so what do I need to do to get Anthony to call me Robyn? This Miss Quinn thing is getting old quickly.”

Taron chuckled. “You feeling your age Miss Quinn? Ow shit! Robyn!” He rubbed his arm where she had punched him. “Jesus Christ you are strong.”

“I am not old.” She replied crossing her arms. “Just ‘cos you are younger.”

Taron smiled, still rubbing his arm. “And you are not old darling.” He swung his left arm around her shoulders, trying to make peace with her through a hug. “And I think you will have to talk to Elton about the Miss Quinn thing.” He whispered into her hair, giving her temple a little kiss and nuzzle, the scent from her shampoo so lovely. “And chicken, you are definitely not old.” He let his nose and lips brush over her skin again. “And so beautiful.”

“Pfft.” Robyn still sat in a huff, trying to ignore his soft lips on her head but when he moved his head down and quickly kissed her neck, she giggled and pushed him away. “Alright, you’re forgiven.” He had taken his arm away from her shoulder, but she took his hand and guided it over her head and around her shoulders again. “And I guess I will have to talk to Elton then.”

“Best person.” Taron agreed.

“So you going to tell me where we are going?”

“You can’t wait another twenty minutes?”

“Uh-uh.”

“Sorry chicken. I have done well to keep the surprise a surprise this far, I am going to remain tight lipped.” He laughed a little. “But I know you will love it.”

“I have loved everything so far.” She agreed. “And you too, even though you called me old.”

“I love you too even though you punched me.”

Robyn reached for her right hand and brought it to her lap, immediately running her thumbs over the back of his hand. “Sorry.”

“I deserved it.”

“Maybe a little but I am sorry.”

Taron chuckled. “No worries Robyn.”

Leaning into her a little, her let her continue her little hand massage, watching as she slowly dug her thumbs in circles on his skin, running over his knuckles and then down his fingers before turning his hand over and rubbing the inside of his palm. On hearing a rumble, she looked to Taron. “Maybe we should have fed you.” His stomach rumbled again. “Or even gotten you some coffee.”

“I have it all under control Robyn. Won’t be rumbling for long.”

“So we are going for food? And it is not breakfast because you wanted to make that for me. Lunch? Are you going for lunch? Or is it brunch?” Taron pretended to zip his lips. “Will you get some coffee?”

Shaking his head Taron then nodded. “I am sure I will be able to get some coffee.”

“And some nice food?”

“Nice try Robyn but I am not telling you.”

“But it is definitely food?” She quizzed. “Italian food? Irish food? British food? Mexican? Spanish? American? South American?”

“Robyn!” Taron laughed loudly as she listed off in one breathe several various food nationalities. “It’s fifteen minutes!” He gave her hand which was massaging his, a light squeeze. “Not great for the old surprises are you?”

“Haven’t had the best luck with them in the past.” She said more to herself than him.

Taron hugged her tight against him. “Have I ever let you down?” He asked. “Not counting New York in this.” He whispered.

“Never.” She answered him back.

“You’re going to love it. Only thirteen minutes to go.”

She swotted his hand lightly but then picked up his right hand in her two and resumed her little massage on his hand, going over each individual finger one at a time. Robyn had long fingers, perfect for playing piano, but Taron’s hand was strong and large and she lined her right hand up against his, smiling at the difference between them.

Taron chuckled at her little giggle as he watched her measure out their hands. “Smaller doesn’t mean any less strong. It’s thanks to your hands that I am here and I never forget that.” He brought her hand to his body, slipping it under his jacket and pressed it against his chest. “Still beating.” Robyn smiled at his gesture, not taking her hand away. “You know you have my full permission to do this whenever you want.”

“I know. Haven’t felt the need to do so in a very long time.”

“Getting closer to August.” Taron said quietly.

“Sure is.” Robyn agreed just as quietly.

“You still think about it? What happened?” He asked his voice very quiet.

Robyn nodded. “Yep.” She pressed her hand a little harder against his chest. “I don’t think I will ever not think about it but we have lots of other things that take preference in my thoughts.”

“Me too.” He agreed.

“So where are we going?” She asked him, giggling as he sighed loudly letting his head hit the back of the seat. “Fine I will wait.” She stretched over and kissed his jaw lightly. “I can wait.”

Taron smiled and feeling her take his hand again, he shook his head as he looked down to his hand in hers. Glad to hear she was feeling just like him but happy to leave the conversation at that. He didn’t want to ruin the happy mood they were both in, or the excitedness that was running through his blood because he knew Robyn’s first birthday treat of the day was going to be a good one.

[katelynnt]

Strawberry Fields

Chapter 4

The plane ride was quite boring, I mainly slept. Our plan is to spend the day going through the main tourist attractions and then get on a train to Liverpool, which is what we did. We went to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (which fun fact is actually called Elizabeth Tower, but the old bell inside was called Big Ben... Anyway). The British Museum, Natural History Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral...

I was most excited to go to Abbey Road... 

My mother on the other hand hated the whole trip, I keep pointing out spots I knew The Beatles had been to as well as just talk, and talk, and well talk.

Both Cassandra and I were exhausted, at the end of the day, we made it to King's Cross, cause you know Hogwarts... Anyway, we got tickets for Liverpool.

My feet hurt...

The train ride was tiring, my mother went on and on about how she met this man at the hotel. Let's just say she is up $100, as to how she got it I don't know nor do I care.

I zoned out listening to music as I do. Elton John's Sacrifice came on I couldn't help but get lost in my mind. I thought about Thomas, even though I'm young and have no clue what love is, I know I didn't love him. And if he's honest he doesn't love me, we're just a show for our parents, nothing more.

Hopefully by the time I'm 18, in what, 2 years? I'll leave him and mainly my mother behind.

I don't hate her... she's my mom, after all, but she's difficult. She is, as Madonna says, a 'material girl.' Does that make her a villain, no, does it make her distant and cold... yes. She's no whore, of course, she wouldn't stoop so low. She just can convince others to do what she wants, which has helped us in the past. It scares me I may have that ability, given her comment about my father... whoever he may be.

In school I was good at speaking, working with others, being a 'leader' as my teacher called it. How I do it is beyond me, maybe it's my father in me, maybe he's a leader, a politician, CEO, lawyer, or hell a really smart homeless man. Mom has never talked about him, only that he gives her money for me. Most likely he was a one-night stand with a wife and my mom put him under her spell as she does. I know I'll never know who he is, and I've made my peace with that fact. However I do get curious at times, think of what could be, what he would be like if he's sweet... or a dick.

"Wednesday morning at five o'clock As the day begins Silently closing her bedroom door Leaving the note that she hoped would say more"

I knew immediately what song this was, I smile, its as if my phone knew exactly  how I was feeling

She (we never thought of ourselves) Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves) Home (we struggled hard all our lives to get by) She's leaving home, after living alone, for so many years

The song didn't make me feel sad, instead, I felt safe, its almost like John was speaking directly to me telling me it will be ok that I wasn't alone. I know its a silly thought but I couldn't help but think, what made him write something like this, why did it represent everything I knew?

This is why I love music, and why I'm here. Music can speak to millions of people make them feel something, helps them cope with life. It's a made my hell feel a bit more bearable.

I looked out the window and I notice we are arriving at the station, I chuckled, I spent close to 3 hours thinking about The Beatles and my mother. If that doesn't sum up my life I don't know what does.

I grab my luggage and walk down the aisle with my mother in the toe. I step off the train and feel the wind picking up, it wasn't cold but it wasn't warm either. England weather was going to take some getting used to, right now back home it's probably hot as balls. It was late 9:30-ish with the only source of light being the lights on the station and roads.

My mother comes up from behind me turning as she states, "Valerie, get the Uber would you." She looks around the platform as if someone was going to mug us if she took her eyes off the area. "Yes, Cassandra." I joked. She turned to face me with a raised eyebrow. I put my hands up in surrender, she rolled her eyes and gave me the name of the hotel.

After a good 15 minutes the car pulls up at the entrance we get in and I look out into the night. I didn't hear my mom until I felt her pinching my arm "Ow what the hell?" I yelped. "Language" she scolds, "Sorry but what did you expect." I realized we made it to the hotel, I thank the driver and grab my book-bag and small dark blue duffle bag. I look to see the hotel in front of me. It was quite modern with glass surrounding it, and the view around was gorgeous with the ocean just a few yards ways. With more tall buildings and a large walkway nearby.

We walk through the doors and are greeted with cold air blasting, most likely the AC but damn it was cold. As I look around I see the front desk, it was again very modern, the desk itself was a grey with black stone on top, next to it was a glass staircase going who knows where a wooden couch stood in the middle with the wood making a light "C" in its shape.

I slumped down on the said couch as mom walks up to the lady behind the desk. I pull my phone and headphones back out and get my playlist going, looking through my phone seeing if anyone has texted me (No one did). I look through my social media see the comments left on my latest post of the train before I boarded. I don't use social media often, I find the people on it too snobby for their own good. It's mainly for me to put things I want to see later in life, like a time capsule in your pocket.

Cassandra looks back at me with an annoyed face, I know that face, its the "get your ass over here" face. I gathered my things and look over my shoulder to see her walking towards me with a key card in her hand.

"I'm starving and they don't have food here, I need you to go out get and something." She stated very bluntly going through her phone. I swear shes on that thing more than I do.

"Where? I didn't see anything places nearby" I questioned, I didn't like the idea of walking around in the middle of the night in a place I didn't recognize. My mom didn't even look up, "You'll be fine, go ill take the bags" She then handed me a key card and two $20's, or should I say pounds, I don't know... she then shooed me away.

I walk out of the hotel, it was surprisingly warmer than expected with the dry air blowing slightly. I started walking to my right, I had no idea where I was going I just let my feet carry me where they wanted hoping they'd lead me to food.

As I looked around I saw buildings left, right and center, I pass a cafe that was closed. My phone was close to dying at only %2, so it would be of no help. I walked for a bit longer looking at the headlights of passing cars and street lights before a knot rose in my stomach... I'm lost. I make a left at a stoplight watching the cars pass. My mind went to my mom, "She's probably sleeping" I muttered to my self know she wouldn't have been helpful anyway.

I continued walking until a reached a stone wall, it was covered in graffiti and was maybe 5 feet tall. I looked and saw a few words written on the walls but didn't stop to read them.

Then I saw it, the red gates of Strawberry Fields. "Holy shit" I yelled to no one.

I read the sign and I was right, it was Strawberry Fields with a few words under it like "Forever", "Paul is DEAD", and a few signatures. I couldn't help but laugh, I was smiling like crazy forgetting completely about my previous predicament.

Looking around I didn't see anyone, peering inside the gates it as well seems vacant.

An idea forms in my head, one I know will get me in huge trouble. However, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Gears start to turn in my head, I look around once more.

What if I do what He did? What if I jump the gate and walk around? This was a safe place, a second home. Maybe I could see what it was like. Maybe I could see where the amazing John Lennon spent his time.

God, I sound like a creep... Well, when it came to The Beatles I was, I mean I knew everything about them, it kinda scares my friends and family. I know everything they did to the date. If that didn't count as creepy I don't know what was.

"Ok, That's it! "I yelled out of nowhere, making up my mind.

I looked at the walls I couldn't climb over them but maybe if I found something tall I can jump over. I walked around to see a raised part of the ground like a small hill at the back end of the wall. It was just high enough to jump on the top of the wall and look over a large garden.

I jumped down and land on my hands and knees, slowly I got up and cleaned off the dirt from my hands.

A huge tree if the first thing I see, it overlooks the street and sidewalk. I walk past it to see a small path with small plants along with it. I was somewhat taken care of, but it still had a wild feel to it. Flower and bushes all around hiding the wall I just came from, it was like I entered a whole new planet.

"Hm, I can tell why John came here." I thought. It was peaceful you couldn't hear the cars passing by now and then, only the sound of the leaves crunching under my feet.

I continued on the path until I came upon a bench it sat on a hill slightly overlooking a large part of the garden. I sat down setting my phone and headphone out of my pocket to sit comfortably. Sitting down I noticed a building that was quite modern looking, mostly the store/museum for the place.

I sat for what felt forever humming "Strawberry Fields Forever", then "I will", "Till there was you" until I closed my eyes. I have never felt more relaxed, I started to get drowsy (I wasn't surprised I was humming myself to sleep).

Soon I laid down on the bench eyes still closed...

HIIII I loved writing this way back when, just before high school started. Any way I hope you liked it as much as I do!

[artnerd1123]

A Familiar World

Spring Sirensong  ——————————————

Outings in the seaside town were cold for Seraph’s first months of life. One can imagine her joy when it starts warming up. Of course, warmth isn’t the only thing awaiting her today... 

The masterpost for AFW can be found here. The chapter post for AFW can be found here.

——————————————

I wrote this entirely in one day! Wild. I think this is the most productive I’ve been on a chapter since... ever slkjfd Anywho! It’s some fluff with ser, in which she makes some very important friends. Hope y’all enjoy ;3c

                                                    ————

The past handful of months had been... interesting. For one thing, the shop was still in its beta stages. Turns out running a shop is hard for newbies. Evangel struggled to get stock to sell, much less show off her repair abilities. It wasn’t odd that her familiar stepped up. Seraph might not have had much experience in anything, but she was gonna do her darndest to help. While Evangel fretted with displays, Seraph got people to come in and look around. As the tailor worried over fulfilling orders, Seraph got customers to make them. Even while Evangel figured out an organization system for her creations and the shop, Seraph made sure their living space was put together. The kitchen was gonna look nice whether Evangel could cook or not! All in all, Seraph thought they were a good team. A great team! All they really needed was… more progress. More customers. More solid business plans, and less making things up as they went. Evangel was the one handling money. Seraph couldn’t help with the budget yet. She’d get there some day! She was working really hard to make it happen! But there was only so much she could do. After all, she was only five months old. Young even for a familiar. Made sense that she’d take breaks to play around.

Today, a break came in the form of a walk. Seraph was ecstatic to be heading out. Usually, she had to get all bundled up to go outdoors!!! But it was getting warmer. That meant she could slip outside in just a cute little sundress. Evangel might not be happy with warmer weather, but Seraph was loving it. She hummed happily as she skipped along, wings fluttering excitedly behind her.  “Thanks for takin me with you, mama!” she chirped. Her eyes shone in the new spring light. Her first spring!!! She’d never seen so much green before. She couldn’t get enough of it. “It’s so pretty out today!!!” “O-oh… its alright, I guess…” Evangel sighed. “Hopefully there’ll be something good for spring designs…” The sorceress had a clipboard clutched tightly in her hand. One of her special design work ones, if Seraph was remembering right. She was already eager to see the final products. “Maybe there’ll be flowers!!!” Seraph gasped excitedly. She hadn’t seen those growing since October! “Flowers come with spring, right??? You could draw some of those!!! And use them for dresses!!!” “Mmm… maybe…” Evangel fidgeted with her hood, eyes on the sidewalk. “But will floral patterns even be in this year…?” Seraph paused. Seeing mama sad made her sad. Being sad wasn’t fun! She didn’t want any sad on this nice day!!! Time to work some of her newfound magic. She stopped her skipping to reach for Evangel’s hand. She gave her a smile, patting her hand gently. “They will if you like em!” the hybrid said simply. “I know they will, mama! You’re the best at everything when it comes to clothes!!!” “Oh… thats so sweet, ser,” Evangel smiled, waving a hand. “Thank you…” Seraph just beamed back. Yes! There was that smile. It made her happy. It meant she was doing a good job. “You’re welcome!!!” she giggled. “I can’t wait to see what you make!!!” “Well, I’ve got to sketch first!” Evangel chuckled softly. The two continued on in contented silence. Past the shops, past the apartments, past the taverns and restaurants… all the way to the edge of town. Near the end of the main road, Evangel stopped. Seraph stopped too, looking up curiously. “What’s wrong, mama?” she asked. Evangel glanced at her. Sighing, she held out a hand. “We’re going up to the sea cliffs, sweetie,” Evangel reminded her. “They can be very dangerous. Take my hand, alright? That means you stay with me until I say we can stop.” “Oh!!! Right!!!” Seraph nodded eagerly. Her little hoof fit snugly into Evangel’s hand. Hopping from foot to foot, her feathery tail wagged in time with her wings’ excited flapping. “I’m gonna be right here, mama! Don’t worry!” “That’s my little doll,” Evangel smiled. Together, they started off towards the cliffs. Originator and familiar, off to enjoy the view. What more could anyone want?

The sound of laughter and singing joined the crash of waves. Evangel was off in a patch of budding wildflowers, sketching to her heart’s content. She’d told Seraph to go play. As long as she could see her mama, Seraph knew she could go where she wanted. So! She was having fun! Singing nursery rhymes at the top of her lungs was amazing. They echoed all around!!! Tumbling down the incline was just as fun. Her sundress could wash- she wanted to feel the grass and dirt on her skin! The little hybrid giggled to herself as she flopped backwards. Her wings spread wide on the ground, she hummed happily in the sun.  I wonder what other stuff I’ll see in spring, she wondered eagerly. Would she see more animals? More cool monsters? More neighbors? Or- or maybe she could start a garden! Evangel needed flowers to observe, right? And they were so pretty! I should bring some back for her!!! As she scrambled to her feet, though, something caught her attention. A sound. A low, melodic crooning. Like the breeze, or the sound a pan flute makes. But… different. It had this echo to it, swirling the sound into something she’d never heard before. As if the ocean itself were weaving through the air. It froze the little familiar in place. “Wh… what’s…? What’s that…?” she whispered. As she listened, it rose and fell in pitch. She could hear some sort of voice in there. Was this... singing? Her eyes widened in realization. It was singing. Absolutely beautiful singing. She knew immediately that she had to meet the person responsible. She had to. “Is… is someone there?” She called. Nobody answered. The song, however, kept going. Her ears flicked forwards as she looked for the source. It had to be close! How could she hear it so well otherwise? Sure enough, she determined it was coming from the cliffs behind her. So close!!! Her face lit up with joy, and she took a step towards them- -only to stop a moment later. … didn’t mama say the cliffs were dangerous….? Her mind twittered nervously. Seraph glanced over her shoulder. Evangel was still sitting in the patch of wildflowers. Sketching quietly. Back facing her familiar. She didn’t seem to hear the voice at all. Seraph took a peek at the cliff top again. It wasn’t too far away. She could get up there in minutes. And Evangel could still see her from there, right? So, technically… this wouldn’t break any rules. It would be fine to go up there, she thought, turning back to the cliffs. Just this once… Slowly, steadily, Seraph made her way to the cliff top. The song got louder as she approached. Sound and desire drew her forward. The grass went all the way up to the edge. It was a little weird to see it end so abruptly. She stopped before the very edge, of course. No need to stand somewhere so risky. Especially when she didn’t know how to fly.  She settled on her hands and knees, figuring she could take a peek this way. The haunting melody caressed her ears as she leaned forward. Just one peek at the singer… that’s all she wanted… just… one… peek… Seraph gasped loudly. Eyes sparkling, she stared down at the waves below. Something was sitting on the rocks. Or rather, someone. Someone with beautifully shiny fins, and glistening scales. Someone in soft, pretty shades of green and blue. Someone with little spots of pink and yellow along her back, and lovely stripes down her tail. Somehow, seraph knew exactly what she was looking at. A siren. And she was singing. Seraph couldn’t move from the spot. A siren! A real, living, breathing siren! Right there! She’d only seen mention of them in books at the library. The mention of their singing had made her feel warm inside. Like finding someone else who dedicated themself to your passion. Yes, they were dangerous. But she still loved them. She loved them a lot. Evangel had only ever taken home books about clothes, but music- and sirens- had been on Seraph’s mind since she learned how to read. She’d read all she could about them while they were at the library. And now… there was a siren. Right in front of her. She was absolutely spellbound. Setting her head on her hands, Seraph made herself comfortable. She was gonna stay there for as long as she could. The siren, meanwhile, seemed to know she had an audience. She’d sat up straighter, sending her song rolling far along the waves. One can imagine seraph’s sheer delight when a few more sirens surfaced. There were two of them now! No, three- four- five! Five sirens! All of them clustered on the rocks below. A blissful hum drifted from the familiar as they all began to sing. Their sound mixed perfectly… her own private symphony… … were they looking at her? Seraph blinked. Hastily sitting up, she hid herself in her wings. Peeking through her feathers, stared back in shock. They were! The sirens were looking up at her! They were too far away for her to make out expressions, but their song had changed. It was less wandering, and more… inviting. Encouraging. Welcoming. …. Are they… singing to me…? Quiet surprise continued as the sirens gathered closer. They were all such pretty colors, but varying ones, too. Like a bouquet of musical flowers. She just watched as they wove a song together. In the midst of their enchanting tune, the first started singing something new. It took Seraph a minute to recognize. When she did, she jumped a bit. Her nursery rhymes! She was singing her nursery rhymes! That meant- that meant they’d heard her singing up here! A siren is singing my songs to me, she thought, awestruck. A siren and her friends… they’re… they’re singing my songs to me… If heaven could come early, Seraph believed she’d found it. She shut her eyes, smiling softly. Just letting the music and joy wash over her. When the sirens’ song turned inviting again, Seraph found herself drawn to sing. She was small. She hadn’t been around for long. She could only manage to carry a simple tune so far. There were sirens singing down there. But, nonetheless… she let her voice join theirs. Just a little familiar, singing songs with sirens. In the moment… there was nowhere she’d rather be.

But, of course, it could only last so long. 

“SERAPH, GET DOWN FROM THERE!” a voice shouted. Seraph startled so badly, she nearly rolled off the cliff. Her wings slapped against the dirt as she scrambled to her feet.  The sirens below her quit singing, hopping off their rock. The familiar let out a cry of dismay as they disappeared under the water. Her new friends! Oh no! Glancing around fearfully, her eyes fell on the source of the yelling. Evangel was running up towards her. From the look on her face, she wasn’t too happy about where her familiar had gone. Seraph’s ears drooped anxiously as she approached. Oh no- mama’s so mad at me, she thought guiltily. “Seraph!” Evangel called again, once she got close enough. “What were you thinking, coming up here?! I told you it was dangerous!” “I-I- um- I-I’m sorry mama- I’m sorry-” seraph stammered, looking anywhere but her originator. She cowered away as Evangel got closer. But Evangel just scooped her up into a hug. A very tight, very worried hug. “Don’t you do that again,” Evangel murmured. “I thought you’d left me. Or fallen over the side. Don’t do that to me.” “I-I won’t, mama,” seraph sniffled, hugging her back. She buried her face in Evangel’s shoulder. “‘M s-sorry…” “I forgive you, sweetie…” Evangel sighed. Turning away from the cliff, the sorceress started back towards the flower patch. “Why did you go up there, anyways? What made you want to do that?” “I… um… h-heard a pretty song…” seraph mumbled. She pulled back to look at Evangel. Guilt was clear on her face. “I w-wanted to see wh-who was singing…” Evangel’s distressed expression seemed to soften at Seraph’s face. Or at least shifted to one of discomfort. “... oh… you mean the… sirens…?” She asked haltingly. Seraph nodded. “... ah.” Evangel shifted Seraph to her hip as they reached the flowers. Crouching down to grab her clipboard, she continued. “Yes, there are sirens by the cliff. But you need not worry. The cliffs are enchanted to keep their strange songs from bewitching people.” Seraph felt her face grow a bit hot. Strange songs? She fidgeted with her paws timidly. “W-well... i thought they were nice…” she whispered. Evangel hesitated a moment. Yeah, that was clear discomfort on her face. Seraph vaguely recalled she made that face a lot. Especially whenever her familiar wasn’t happy. “... mmm… perhaps…” the sorceress admitted. She tucked her clipboard under her free arm. “... did you… really like them…?” She inquired.. Seraph just nodded again shyly. Evangel was silent for a moment. Considering something. “... you know… there’s no harm in coming down to listen, sometimes,” Evangel ventured uncertainly. “As long as you don’t… you know… move too close to the edge…” Seraph’s eyes widened. Was she hearing this right? “S-so… I can come back?” She asked softly. “Hmm… yes. You can,” Evangel nodded. “Just be careful, alright?” Seraph’s face positively lit up. Beaming, she hugged Evangel again. “Thank you so so so much mama!!!” she bleated. “I swear I’ll be careful!!! Really! Cross my heart and everything!!!” Evangel chuckled awkwardly, giving seraph a pat. “Y-yes, well, I’m glad to hear it, but it’ll be later. We have to go get lunch now.” “That’s ok!!! I’m plenty ready for food!” Seraph chirped. She felt like she was riding on a cloud. As long as she could come back to that beautiful singing sometime, she didn’t care what she had to do. She leaned on Evangel happily, humming shreds of sirensong. 

The walk back from the cliffs was filled with quiet music. It may have been the first sirensong of spring, but it was certainly not the last.

[lycorogue]

ML Secret Santa Story: The Great Debate

Holy smokes, it’s 2am! Uh, I wanted to have this done by Christmas Eve, but I guess an official Merry Christmas to my @mlsecretsanta giftee @mouserzwuzhere is now in order. So... Merry Christmas!

Sorry for the delay, it actually kept me most of this month to lock down what I wanted to write. In the end, I ended up going with something inspired by a Tumblr post. Of course, I can’t find the post now to link it, but it talked about the logistical fallacy of most Christmas movies where Santa is canonically real, but adults still don’t believe in him.

I went with mouserz preferences of fluff, friendship/family bonding, and LadyNoir. I hope this ends up being a pleasant surprise for you under your digital Christmas tree this morning. :D

UPDATE (12/25/19): You can now find the story on AO3, on FFN, and on DA as well as below.

The Great Debate

Summary: When Ladybug agreed to meet up later with Chat Noir, she never imagined they would end up discussing the validity of Santa being real. It’s funny the things you do for your loved ones.

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 4032

Status: Completed one-shot

Disclaimer: I’m ignoring the two-part season 3 finale with regards to Master Fu; pretend this takes place before that....

Ladybug breathed in the chilled, crisp night air. Her breath escaped in a thin fog. Her supersuit kept her warm, but her cheeks still flushed with the bite of wind as she swung through the city. Thankfully, the snow recently ceased, and the air was calm. Once she was at her destination she would be warmer.

Looking down the long roofs of the office buildings, she spotted a figure already perched six buildings down the street. He was there. He was waiting for her. She shifted the weight of the package nestled in the crook of her left arm, and sprinted towards her meet-up.

Chat Noir lazily kicked his legs as he leaned back on the tower roof's ledge, staring up at the sky; looking for stars he couldn't see. He hummed “Silent Night” to himself, and was on the third verse when Ladybug landed behind him.

“You're late, Bugaboo.”

“Don't-” It was on reflex, but there was no akuma around now. She simply sighed, and shook her head. “Sorry. I wanted to get something for you first.” She held out her package: a box of Tom & Sabine Bakery macarons. It was risky to bring them to Chat Noir, but it was also a bit of an impromptu meet-up.

Earlier that day, for the second Christmas Eve in a row, Hawk Moth decided to not take a vacation, and akumatized a poor distraught person. As they were fighting, Chat Noir seemed more distracted than usual, exchanging his usual ill-timed flirting for requests that they hang out again later. The more the battle wore on, the more Ladybug picked up that perhaps this get-together was something Chat Noir truly needed.

Then they defeated the villain. Ladybug purified the akuma, and used her ultimate power to restore Paris. The duo fist-bumped in front of the rush of reporters capturing the latest attack on their beloved city. Ladybug's earrings chimed that she only had two minutes remaining, and soon after Chat Noir's ring beeped for the second time. She couldn't say anything to him in front of the reporters; couldn't let Hawk Moth potentially know where they would be. Instead, she gave him a silent plead to forgive her abruptness, and swung away. Once out of sight, she used the last few precious seconds of her transformation to text Chat Noir where to meet up. She prayed that he would get the message before de-transforming.

It seemed he did.

She didn't have much time to plan a Christmas gift for Chat Noir. She didn't imagine an opportunity to gift him anything. It would be far too inappropriate while they were actively attempting to protect Paris, and she didn't want Chat Noir to get the wrong idea if she asked him for a meet-up for a gift exchange. She didn't have the time to make anything, and she barely had the time to purchase anything; most stores were already closed for the holiday. She lucked out that her parents had anything left in their bakery.

“Huh. Great minds, it seems, M'lady.” Chat Noir smirked as he grabbed a matching pastry box he had hidden beside his right hip. His contained a pair of over-stuffed cream puffs. He brushed the snow off the ledge beside him and patted the now-bare roof.

Ladybug studied Chat Noir. She sprinted through the list of patrons she saw in her parents' bakery that day, trying to remember any young men with blonde hair. None came to mind. Perhaps he had bought the cream puffs while she was in her room. Maybe that was why he was so persistent with wanting a meet-up.

“Great minds indeed.” Ladybug hummed inquisitively, but still accepted the cleared-off seat. Holding out her box to Chat Noir, she traded peppermint macarons for her puff.

“Mmm.” Chat Noir popped the macaron in his mouth in one bite. “I guess it makes sense that we'd both pick pastries from the Tom & Sabine. It is the best bakery in all of Paris, after all.”

Ladybug lightly blushed, and hoped her cheeks were already red enough from the cold for Chat Noir to not notice. “I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing that, especially from a superhero.”

“You should tell them too, then.”

She had never thought of that. “Perhaps I'll take the time to do so.” She bit into her cream puff, and quickly licked up the filling oozing out of the opposite side.

Chat Noir popped another macaron in his mouth. “Thank you for meeting up with me tonight.”

Ladybug stilled, looking deeply at Chat Noir. “You sounded like you needed it. Is everything alright?”

“It is now.” He gave her a sad little smile, and then scraped some cream out of the center of his puff.

“It's Christmas Eve, Kitty. Wouldn't you rather spend it with loved ones?”

“I thought I was.”

“Come on, be serious, Chat Noir.”

He put down his treats, and instead scooped up Ladybug's right hand, keeping her gaze. “I am serious. Please tell me that you know by now that I'm always serious with every love confession.”

“Chat Noir-”

He dropped her hand and scooted further away from her. “I know, I know. You're in love with someone else. I understand that, but it doesn't lessen my feelings for you, and how dear you are to me.”

“Kitty.”

Clearing his throat, he tossed another macaron in the air, and caught it in his mouth. “Sorry I'm keeping you from your loved ones, though.”

Ladybug rested a hand on his shoulder. “You're not. You're dear to me too, remember?”

They finished their treats with small, simple, stupid conversation. They talked about nothing in particular, for fear of giving something away that would reveal themselves, and yet they said a lot with the way they each talked about being a superhero, or how they felt about the past year, or even about the weather.

“How could you not love the snow?” Ladybug gathered the empty pastry boxes, and tucked them beside her.

“It's lonely.”

She quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Most people stay inside; isolated in their homes. Paris isn't as bustling as normal. It's quiet.”

“See, that's one of the things I like about the snow.” Ladybug scooped some off the roof, and started packing it into a ball. “It absorbs sound, you know. That's why Paris seems so quiet and serene when it snows. The lights then reflect off the crisp white, and the city just seems clean and new. It seems safe.”

“It is safe, with you as its savior.”

“Yeah, well you're not too bad yourself there, Kitty.” They shared a smile. “Besides, snow isn't lonely. It's inviting. Families huddle together to drink cocoa as they watch the snow. Friends play together making snow angels or snowmen, or race on sleds, or build forts together, or have snowball fights.”

Chat Noir's face fell, so Ladybug threw her freshly formed snowball at his shoulder.

“Hey!” He quickly packed his own snowball, but Ladybug was faster and hit him with another one. “Okay! Okay, I submit!” He dropped his snowball, and held his hands over his head.

“Haven't you ever just played in the snow? How could you not feel the magic of it while you dance under a soft snow fall, or catch flakes on your tongue, or simply lay in the cold silence, just feeling at peace with the world?”

“I'll have to keep all of those in mind the next time it snows.”

“Good.”

Another soft, shared look as they each offered the other a gentle smile.

Church bells softly rang in the distance; breaking the spell as Chat Noir turned to the sound.

“It's getting late. Should we head home? Don't want to chance Santa passing us up since we aren't asleep.”

“Wait, Santa?”

“Yeah. You think he's in the area already? I mean, I really couldn't ask for a better gift than to spend time with you, M'lady, but I wouldn't want to push my luck with the Big Guy in Red.”

“Chat Noir, do you still believe in Santa Claus?” She quirked an eyebrow at him, and playfully smirked.

“I mean, are you telling me you don't?” His face scrunched up as he stared incredulously at her. “We literally saw him! Twice!”

“First of all, those were both during akuma attacks, so who truly knows what is and isn't real during those? Secondly, Santa Claws seemed to just be a friendly old man who dressed up as Santa; not Jolly Old Saint Nick himself, and his 'Santa' powers were because of the akumatization. So he doesn't count. Finally, I'd hate to break it to you, but the Santa we met when Paris was overwhelmed by giant attacking toys wasn't real. It was Chris Master's powers manifesting his interpretation of Santa: the Santa in his snow globe.” Ladybug rested a comforting hand on Chat Noir's arm.

“How do you know that wasn't the real Santa? He said he'd see us next Christmas Eve; tonight!”

“He said that because it was what Chris wanted Santa to say.”

“How do you know that, though?”

Ladybug's breath hitched, and she simply shrugged. “What? You can have Cat Intuition about how the Agreste mansion security works or the fact that Volpina had an illusion instead of the actual Adrien Agreste, but I can't have Ladybug Intuition about whether or not that was the real Santa?”

Chat Noir studied her for a tell, but eventually caved. “Okay, you got me on that second meet-up with Santa; that probably wasn't the real one. Although, you were the top of his Nice list, so maybe you should hope that your Ladybug Intuition was off, and that was really him.” He winked. She groaned. “Either way, he looked a lot like the man who got akumatized into Santa Claws, which means it could be possible that the man last Christmas was in fact the true Santa, but was posing as a regular citizen.”

“Why? Especially on Christmas Eve itself? Wouldn't he be too busy delivering gifts?” Ladybug tried to keep the smug look off her face, but Chat Noir's lips kept puckering more and more with each question. She could tell that he was trying to build up a rebuttal.

Chat Noir opened his mouth to respond, pointing at her in stunned silence. A second later he relented, shrugging in defeat instead. “Alright, so maybe we haven't met the actual Santa, but that doesn't mean he's not real.”

“He might have been, once. There could have been someone who spent Christmas Eve delivering gifts to the children of a very large area – so that it felt like it was the whole world to those people – and the legend of Santa came from that, but I don't know if I trust that he's still real.”

“Well, why not? I knew you could be pragmatic, but even this seems a bit much for you.”

“He'd be well over a millennium old, for starters.”

“Yeah, but what about Master Fu?”

“There's a bit of a difference between two-hundred and two-thousand years, Chat Noir.”

“Still, Master is as old as he is largely because of the magic of the Miraculouses, isn't he?”

“Possibly.”

“So why is it such a stretch that Santa has magic of his own, and part of it is the long life, or even immortality? The Miraculouses can't be the only form of magic within the whole world, can they?”

She gave it thought. “Alright, valid point. What about the gifts, though?”

Chat Noir lounged across the roof and dismissively waved his hand. “I already told you: magic. He probably has a bag with access to a pocket dimension or some-”

“No.”

Chat Noir rocked his head to the side. Ladybug pivoted to face him, folding her legs in front of her as she anchored her hands to her ankles.

“No,” she repeated, “I'm not even talking about the plausibility of him carrying all the gifts with him or getting in and out of people's homes. If I'm going to agree with him nearing two-thousand years old because of magic, I'll concede on those other magical parts.”

“Okay, so what's wrong with the presents then?”

Ladybug scooted closer to Chat Noir and leaned a little towards him, energy buzzing off of her. “If Santa Claus truly delivers presents every Christmas Eve, then why is it that most adults don't believe in him? Wouldn't him delivering gifts to their children convince the parents that he's real? Since a large portion – probably even a majority – of adults are also parents, wouldn't someone somewhere have factual evidence of his existence by now? Or, at least, wouldn't it be a much more widespread belief, even among adults, that he's alive?”

Chat Noir sat up, hugging one leg to his chest. His eyebrows furrowed, and he wouldn't look at Ladybug.

“I mean, think about it,” Ladybug continued, rolling onto her knees as she began to gesture wildly. “You and your wife wake up Christmas morning, and gather around the tree with your kid- You're picturing me as your wife, and imagining what our kid would look like, aren't you?”

Chat Noir sheepishly smiled and shrugged.

“Never mind that. Not the point.” Ladybug waved the thought away. “So your kid is opening up gifts, finds one that is labeled 'from Santa,' and unwraps it. You don't recognize this gift. You haven't purchased it for your kid. You may just think your wife must have gotten it and not told you, so you let it go. But this keeps happening every year, so you finally ask your wife, and she tells you she always thought you were the one who bought those gifts, because she certainly didn't. Isn't that suspicious? A random present from neither of you managed to make its way under your tree? Every year? Wouldn't you want to figure out who put it there? And you hear your friends – who are also parents – saying the same thing happened for each of their kids. Wouldn't that alone be enough evidence for most parents to believe that Santa must be real, because what other explanation is there for the mystery gifts?”

Chat Noir tapped his chin with two fingers, scanning the clouds for answers. “Yeah, I guess that's true.”

“On the flip-side, if Santa doesn't actually leave any presents - so that parents don't question where they came from - then why does it matter if he's real, because he still isn't going to be coming to everyone's houses unless it's to eat the cookies.”

“I got it!” Chat Noir snapped and turned back towards Ladybug, he was also up on his knees, waving excitedly. “Magic again.”

“How so?”

“Santa's magic is memory focused. He doesn't actually use chimneys – which really helps explain all those homes without fire places – instead, he arrives just before the parents lock up for the night, and he uses his magic to make them believe they already did. He then enters, leaves the present, and locks the door behind him as he goes on his merry way. His magic then makes the parents believe they had munched on the cookies to give the illusion of Santa, and that they were the ones who purchased the gift for little Julien. The question of 'who got him that present' never comes up, and Santa still remains a glorious holiday mystery.”

“What if the parents, still disbelieving of Santa, already bought little Mary a gift from 'Santa' and already ate the cookies before going to bed?”

“Then Santa saves on unneeded calories, and he switches up the 'Santa' for 'Mom and Dad'. Then his power works exactly the same way; except this time it also makes them think they didn't label the one gift as from 'Santa' at first.”

“It's still too many homes to leave presents for in one night.” Ladybug sat on her heels and crossed her arms.

“I thought you were going to concede on all of the 'other magic stuff'?”

Ladybug shrugged.

“Okay.” Chat Noir thought for a moment. “What if his powers also allows him to teleport? Or to slow time? Or to pause time? We have Miraculouses that could do some pretty crazy things, after all.” Chat Noir's ears perked and his belt-tail twitched as if it were real. “Wait a minute! What if Santa has a Miracle Box? That feast amuk was encased in stone before leaving Tibet, and we stopped it while it was still in Paris, so what if it didn't have a chance to make it to Santa to eat his Miraculous?”

“Master would have told me if Santa was one of the guardians.”

“What if he didn't know? What if there were Guardians secretly placed throughout the world, and for their safety, the monastery Master Fu trained at didn't have their names?”

“And he only uses the Miraculous once a year to provide extra Christmas gifts?”

Chat Noir started counting out his points on his fingers. “He's not using the Miraculous for his personal  gain, so it's not breaking any rules. He's providing joy and wonderment to the world. He's making sure every kid gets at least one gift they'll love, regardless of the parents' financial or emotional standing. We don't know what he does with the rest of the year, so maybe he's protecting the world just like us, but with his memory-altering Miraculous powers, the world just never figures it out.”

Ladybug simply stared at Chat Noir. He held his ground and kept her gaze.

“Alright.” Ladybug pivoted on the roof ledge, and dangled her legs below her. “I relent that there's a possibility that Santa is real.”

“And a Miraculous Guardian?”

“It's a stretch, but I guess I can't argue against it. Not right now, anyway.”

“So does that mean you'll wait up for him?”

“No, that means there's no point. If he is real, and he does have a way of altering memories, then I doubt he'd let either of us remember seeing him. He's been doing this for over seventeen-hundred years, after all.” She gave Chat Noir a side smile.

“I guess that's true.” Chat Noir deflated a little and sat beside her.

“Besides, I thought you wanted to go to bed so you didn't chance missing out on your gift from him,” she teased.

Chat Noir curled into himself and blushed, again unable to look at Ladybug. She instantly knew she went too far. She couldn't say goodbye to him like that.

Ladybug detached her yo-yo, and looked intently at it. Chat Noir followed her out of the corner of his eye.

“Ladybug?”

She gave him the tiniest hint of a devilish grin while pressing a finger to her lips and shushing him. “Don't tell on me, okay?”

“Tell?”

Ladybug threw her yo-yo straight up, calling out “Lucky Charm!”

“What are you doing?” Chat Noir again hopped up onto his knees as he studied her. “What about no personal gain?”

The charm landed in Ladybug's hand, and she closed her fist around it before Chat Noir could make out the small red object with black spots.

“I think this one can be allowed.” Ladybug re-attached her yo-yo to her hip, and stood on the main portion of the roof. With Chat Noir still seated on the ledge, they were about eye-level.

He tried to spy her charm, but she kept her hand hidden behind her back. “So, what convoluted plan do you have for that?” He stood to try to look over her shoulder, but she blocked him with a stiff arm.

“Nothing too bad. Now sit back down.” She pushed gently on his chest, and he plopped his butt back onto the roof ledge. “Perfect.”

She then placed her hand in between them and unfolded her fingers. Resting on her palm was a tiny sprig of mistletoe, although, with the red coloring and black spots, it looked more like holly. With her spare hand, Ladybug held the Lucky Charm mistletoe sprig over their heads, then leaned in to kiss Chat Noir. Giddily, he rose to meet her, his hands reaching out for her waist as he puckered up and eyes fluttered closed.

She giggled, and used a finger to turn his head so she could kiss him on the cheek instead.

Chat Noir pouted and sunk back onto the roof. “You're supposed to kiss on the lips under a mistletoe.”

“Sorry, Kitty, but I do still love someone else.” She flicked his bell, and placed the sprig of mistletoe beside them. “I will give you one more gift though.” She cupped a hand on either side of his face, and pulled it towards her. Angling his head down a bit, she placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, and then rested hers against it. “Merry Christmas, Kitty.”

Chat Noir wrapped his arms around Ladybug and squeezed her close to him; breathing her in. “Thank you, Ladybug. Merry Christmas to you, too.”

She let him hold her for a moment, and she held him back, wrapping her arms around his neck. With their eyes closed, and the normally bustling city quiet with snow, it didn't feel like there was anyone else in all of Paris but the two of them. It only lasted a moment, but it was calming for them both.

He's right here, Ladybug thought, he's not Chat Blanc, and I'll stop him from ever feeling that desperate and alone.

She's here, Chat Noir thought, she loves someone else, but for right now she's here and I can pretend for a few seconds that I'm the one she's in love with.

The thought didn't make Chat Noir purr, as it usually did; instead, a small whimper escaped his throat.

“Chat Noir?” Ladybug leaned away from him, breaking the illusion.

“Sorry. I had a moment, but I'm fine. Thank you again for spending time with me tonight.”

“No problem, Kitty. As long as you don't want us to make a habit out of this.” She ruffled up his hair until he broke his hug in a giggling retreat. “You are a friend of mine, Chat Noir,” Ladybug continued in a serious tone. “I want to be here for you whenever you need me, and I do enjoy spending time with you, as long as you're not flirting.” She cocked an eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest.

Chat Noir meekly smiled back as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Is my flirting really that bad?”

She simply raised the second eyebrow and pursed her lips.

“In love with another guy,” Chat Noir sighed, “Right.”

She took his hand and gave it a light squeeze. “You'll find someone. I promise. She'll see the amazing Chat Noir that I do, but she'll get to know your actual name, and her heart will be only for you.”

Before Chat Noir could respond – and Ladybug knew he wanted to – she let go, and lassoed a nearby light post. “Merry Christmas again, Chat Noir.”

He gave her a genuine smile in return. “Merry Christmas, M'lady.” He said nothing else, and Ladybug was grateful. Her earrings started rapidly beeping. It had only been about three minutes, but Tikki always seemed to wear out faster if Ladybug used her Lucky Charm for personal reasons. She probably didn't have much time left.

“Let me know if you do catch Santa,” Ladybug teased. She then scooped up the empty pastry boxes,  and loosened the tension on her yo-yo, sling-shotting her through the Paris skyline.

Chat Noir looked at the discarded Lucky Charm sprig of mistletoe, and brought it up to his lips. The trinket cut their evening together short, but it was worth it for those kisses, and that hug. A couple of seconds later, the sprig burst into pink glitter that vanished in the air; like a miniature firework. Ladybug must have de-transformed, and the Lucky Charm vanished with her other superpowers.

Chat Noir no longer had his keepsake from the night, but he had his memories. Those were enough, and he trusted he'd make many more with Ladybug over the years.

Now he had to figure out how to capture Santa so he could prove to his lady that he was right.