#i mean i told my officemate about them

[arathergrimreaper]

So, guess who remembered they have googly eyes?

Guess who's started putting as many of them around my office space as possible and seeing how long before anyone notices?

[the-haunted-office]

"You know what.. I'm bored... I have had my fun time to get this over with..." Smile says opening a portal that transports Ghost day and him to the safe room.

"I surrender! Lets begin shall we?" He says devious yet calm.

The others cubes just stared in disbelief.

Doomsday is confused by what's just happened. One minute she's in the maze with pointy projectiles being launched at her, the next she's sitting in the middle of the safe room with all of Cube's pieces and her officemates.

"Oh. All right, then, what are we doing?" Doom asks as casually as she can. She has her scythe out now and is ready to defend her officemates and the other cubes if necessary.

September also looks like she's about ready to attack. She has grown in size and has all seventeen of her arms out, including their various claws. Needless to say, she's ready to put them all to their best use.

Cyrus and Aurora are standing with September. Their species wasn't built much for fighting, but they do have fairly significant defensive capabilities that they will use if necessary.

Timmy, predictably, is hiding in the back, keeping Phillip the Snom company (if he's still there).

"Hi, Smiley!" says Thursday, waving at him in spite of being told how dangerous he is. In her mind, he's still a part of Cube, and that means she's going to treat him the same way she'd treat her friend. "What are we beginning? Are we going to play a game? Or tend to some of your plants around here? Oh! How about teaching me about some of these runes? Seems like fun."

[78moonchild78]

My furry best friends

My pets are one of my favorite things to talk about. They bring a lot of love and joy into my life. They make being at home feel better!

My eldest pet is Dora, she's a calico cat. She was born in February 2020. We named her Dora because she used to be the one who would always crawl out of her box when they were kittens. We grew closer when she began sleeping on my bed. We spent a lot of time in the same room together! To this day, she still sleeps in my room! Most of my mornings (and midnights) are filled with her meowing for me to give her food or water. She brings me tokens of appreciation, the only problem is that they're always small animals.

My second to eldest pet is Moku, she's an Aspin (asong Pinoy). Our neighbor gave her to use the morning after my dad's birthday, January 11, 2021. Our neighbor told us that she was born in November, 2020. I still remember that morning she was offered to us! Our neighbor brought her to our house, followed by her sister. I picked her because she seemed scared and nervous. On her first day, she kept following me around. She refused to be left alone, whenever she was left alone, she'd cry. And whenever we'd come home, she'd always cry out of happiness. Everyone in our family loves her very much! Especially my grandmother, because Moku always serves as her companion whenever she gardens or hangs clothes. She's a very smart dog too, I trained her to sit, stay, and come.

My third pet is Tonton, she's a Jack Russel Terrier. Her full name is Tonkatsu. My mom won her at a raffle her officemate held in 2021. The prizes they had were their unsold dogs. I remember the night she came home. She was such a sweet, happy, and friendly dog. She was 8 months old by the time we got her. She's a little bit difficult to teach and manage, but she's a very kind, energetic, happy, playful, and friendly dog. I play with her sometimes! It's really funny when she barks back at me.

My fourth pet is Menchi! His full name is Menchi Katsu. He's Tonton's son. He's a mix of Jack Russel Terrier and Beagle. He was born on February 8, 2023. I was there at the time of his birth. I remember studying for World Religion while we were waiting for them to be born. He had two sisters, one was stillborn, sadly. The other one was named Tori Katsu. Now she's called Maxene, and she's living a happy life in a new home. In 2023, Menchi contracted Parvovirus. At first, we noticed him being much less lively than he usually is. He also ate less. And his stool was oddly wet and dark. So we took him to the veterinarian and learned that he had contracted Parvovirus. The veterinarian told us that he had a small chance of surviving. However, we still tried and tended to him for his recovery. We felt very bad for him, because the virus was basically gnawing on the lining of his stomach, so he was constantly in pain. We stayed consistent in feeding him and giving him his medication. We sacrificed some of our time for work and for school to take care of him, and it was worth the sacrifices. Because he eventually recovered and got back to being the happy and healthy boy he still is now! All of my pets are my best friends. They're the ones I find ease, love, and comfort in. They're my best companions at home. I've learned patience, responsibility, and accountability through them. They've taught me what it means to take care of others.

[babyboibucky]

Charm

Pairing: TFATWS!Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Bucky checks whether he still has his 1940′s charm.

Word Count: 1,613

Warnings: TFATWS spoilers! No warning, just a bit of fluff I guess???

A/N: Nothing really, just that Bucky deserves all the love in the world :’)

Charming (Part 2) || MAIN MASTERLIST

“You should date someone.”

Bucky groans at Yori’s suggestion. Again. The old guy had been pestering him about it ever since they started their little friendship. Introduced girls and forced him to take them out to dinner or bingo. He did try of course, but it always seemed too fast for him.

“I already did, haven’t I? You sort of forced me to go on one, remember?” Bucky asked before downing a glass of sake in one go.

Thank god they went to a different Japanese restaurant this time. His date with the girl at the other restaurant went pretty badly, with him walking out after a particularly sensitive topic and never returning. Bucky felt bad and as much as he wanted to go back there and apologize, he just doesn’t have the courage to show his face again.

“Yeah, well you messed up.” Yori said pointedly.

Bucky chortled, “Or maybe you messed up by forcing me. I told you, you gotta take it slow like a dance. I mean, you don’t just ask anyone to dance with you. You ask someone you’d like to dance with.”

Yori’s shoulders trembled as he tried to bite back his laughter. Bucky made a face when he realized he’d been talking a lot.

“Then go find someone you want to date. Or maybe you just don’t have it in you.” The older man teased.

Bucky couldn’t help but grin, “Sounds like a challenge.”

As Bucky poured himself another glass of sake, he began to wonder whether Yori was right. Maybe he really didn’t have it anymore, the confidence and charm he used to have back in his time.

Only one way to find out.

-

The club was a bad idea. A really bad idea.

Initially, Bucky thought that it would be the perfect place to find someone to date. Apparently not, because despite the presence of beautiful girls, they were pretty much throwing themselves at him. As much as Bucky was curious about the so called “hook-up” culture in the modern times, it just wasn’t for him.

And good god, the dancing? It’s not what it used to be; Bucky wasn’t even sure if he could call those movements “dance”.

Bucky called it a night and quickly headed to the exit. And that’s where he noticed you, fumbling with your phone and clicking your tongue from what seemed to be frustration. He slowed down in his steps, not wanting to interrupt your little moment as you mumbled a string of curses to yourself.

He eyed you from head to toe, noticing that you were wearing something too simple for a club: just a white shirt, some jeans and a pair of sneakers. With Bucky’s experience, he learned to be observant enough to read someone’s personality.

You were definitely not a frequent visitor to these clubs. And he was right about that because you were just forced to tag along to your officemates to celebrate a promotion.

“Ugh, fuck. Come on!” You unintentionally exclaimed out loud, stomping on the ground causing for Bucky to let out a chuckle.

Bucky’s eyes widened when you abruptly turned around, “Oh sorry. I didn’t meant to uhh...are you okay?” He asked timidly, slowly walking over to where you stood.

You huffed out, “I’m trying to book a ride, but the signal here sucks.” You explained. “And I’m not really comfortable to walk home at this hour.” You quickly added.

It was close to ten in the evening, it wasn’t that late yet but given the location and downsides of being a woman, you really didn’t want to risk your safety.

“Won’t your friends give you a ride home?” He asked.

You groaned, “They aren’t really my friends...I just work with them. They’re all shit-faced drunk and I didn’t even plan on coming here. Not a fan of clubs.” You admitted.

Bucky chuckled as he kicked the ground, “Guess that makes two of us.”

Your hum caught Bucky’s attention and when he looked up, you were looking at him suspiciously. For a moment he thought that you might have recognized him but you merely laughed and shook your head.

“You don’t seem like the type to hate clubs. Why are you here then?” You asked curiously.

Bucky shrugged, “Thought I’d find someone here that I can you know...take out on a date.”

You cackled out loud, it was the kind of laughter that made Bucky join in. You probably thought it was stupid for him to come looking for love at a club. And well, given his experience inside, you were correct.

“I know. It’s stupid. I haven’t been to clubs really, so I honestly didn’t know what to expect.” He admitted, rubbing the back of neck sheepishly.

You nodded, “How was your experience inside then?”

“You could say I was pretty shocked. And disoriented. The lights made me dizzy.” Bucky said, widening his eyes in emphasis.

Laughing, you nodded and agreed before introducing yourself so casually. Bucky repeated your name, he liked the way it sounded.

“I’m James.”

Bucky found himself easily opening up to you. The conversations flowed naturally, from something as basic as favorite food down to your mutual hatred for crowded places and everything in between. Bucky learned that you often volunteer at an orphanage and that you hate plums which happens to be his favorite. It resulted to a harmless debate that lasted ten minutes.

You asked him about his work, something that he had to lie his way around. As much as he wanted to be honest with you, he was afraid that revealing the truth might scare you off. You seemed to be really interested in him whenever he talked about his boring daily routine.

“Do you...do you like to talk somewhere else?” Bucky blurted out.

You offered a sad smile, one that broke Bucky’s heart because you were probably going to reject him. Understandable though, he was a stranger and it was late at night. It was hard to trust people nowadays.

“I have work tomorrow morning.” You apologetically said.

“But you can walk me home...if you’d like?” You asked. “I probably sound demanding but uhh, I don’t think I can really book a ride and I don’t want to walk home alone at this hour.”

Bucky heaved out a deep sigh of relief and laughed, “I thought you didn’t like talking to me.” He sheepishly admitted.

“No, I actually like talking to you. You’re fun. And interesting.” You smiled.

Bucky beamed and extended a hand, letting you lead the way before matching your pace. The more he talked to you, the more he realized that maybe, just maybe, you’d be the first person he’d willingly ask out on a date.

The walk lasted half an hour but to Bucky, it only felt like minutes. It was definitely not enough for him to get to know you more.

“Well, this is me.” You announced when you reached your apartment building.

“Thanks for walking me home, I really appreciate it.” You said.

Bucky placed his hands inside his pockets and nodded, “Call me old-fashioned, but I felt like any gentleman should do so.”

Bucky held your gaze and debated how he should ask you out. Should he just blurt out the question? Would that be too soon? Your number! Maybe he should ask for your number first, show his therapist that finally, there was a new number registered in his contacts.

“Well, I should head inside.” You said when Bucky remained silent and although Bucky didn’t want to assume, he thought he saw a look if disappointed in your eyes.

Yori is going to regret saying that he doesn’t have game.

“Wait,” Bucky called out before you could turn around. “Being old-fashioned and all, I know this might be too forward. Or too fast, even.” he trailed and cleared his throat.

“Would you like to go out on a date with me? This Saturday. We can go to the beach, get ice cream...” he suggested.

Wrong move! Out of all the places he could suggest, it just had to be the beach! It’s not like he could wear a long-sleeved top and his gloves without getting dirty looks from people. You were going to find out the truth about him, his arm, his past. And then you’d regret letting him walk you home because who knew what the Winter Soldier was capable of?

“I’d love to.” You replied with a grin but before Bucky could suggest another place, you had already walked up to the front door of your apartment building, pulling it open before suddenly stopping.

“Or we can just take a walk at the park if you want, if that’s more comfortable for you.” You suggested turning your head to look back at Bucky.

He furrowed his brows in confusion. Again, he was unable to say something because you beat him to it with a surprising revelation.

“I’ll wait for you to come pick me up on Saturday. And don’t worry about your arm, I don’t mind. Good night, Bucky.”

And with one final beautiful smile, you headed inside the building leaving Bucky with a confused look. You knew him all along but didn’t say anything. You opened up to him, held his arm when you laughed and still, it didn’t bother you. You didn’t call him out when he lied about working for a mechanic shop, didn’t get scared when he offered to walk you home.

It took a few seconds for Bucky’s brain to process everything. And then he found himself grinning like a fool when he proved something to himself. And well, Yori too.

“Guess I still got it.”

-

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[smutfanfictionlover-blog]

CHA EUNWOO - GOOD HEART - M

WARNING: DETAILED SMUT SCENES AND FOUL LANGUAGE AHEAD!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is my first smut fanfiction for Cha Eunwoo and I didn’t expect this will be also a long one-shot smut. But I hope you will all like it my beloved readers! :)

Characters: Reader- Y/N (female) x Cha Eunwoo

 Y/N is having fun in their company outing in a beach resort together with her friend named Hyejin and Rocky. That time, they are standing the beside pool then while Y/N is talking to one of her friends, one of her officemates named Hyori that doesn't like her suddenly bumped strongly to her that made Y/N fell into the pool.

“Oops! Sorry! You shouldn’t have blocked my way!” Hyori said as she smirked and left her. Then Rocky and Hyejin's faces are really annoyed while Y/N suddenly realized someone caught her and Y/N looked at him with an embarrassing face and…

“OMG! I am so sorry!” Y/N said as she pulled out from the man’s hold and the man just smiled at him.

“It’s okay! By the way, I am Eunwoo,” the man said as he smiled at her.

“Gosh! He is really handsome!” Y/N thought as she blushed.

“I am Y/N. I am really sorry I suddenly fell into you because someone just bumped me,” Y/N said and that time Hyejin and Rocky are looking at them and…

“Oh! It seems someone will like our friend, huh?” Hyejin said.

“I know! But it’s annoying that Hyori bumped Y/N strongly and it seems they just really envy Y/N so much being the good employee in our department,” Rocky said.

“You’re right! Thankfully someone caught Y/N because you know she doesn’t know how to swim too and I am surprised that man talking to Y/N right now is handsome and hot!” Hyejin said. As for Y/N and Eunwoo continued their conversation.

“I know! But it seems she did it intentionally,” Eunwoo said and then someone disturbed them and it’s…

“I am sorry to interrupt the two of you. But Y/N, we should go now,” Hyejin said then Y/N and Eunwoo looked at each other.

“Oh! It’s okay! Just be careful next time Y/N and nice to meet you!” Eunwoo said as he smiled at Y/N and she blushed.

“Okay! Thanks again and nice to meet you too Eunwoo!" Y/N as she smiled back and left him in the pool. While Y/N is walking with her friends…

“I know it’s too late to ask but are you okay, Y/N?” Rocky asked.

"I am okay! Thankfully Eunwoo caught me but still, it's kinda embarrassing," Y/N said and Hyejin slightly laughed at her.

“But at least you suddenly met a handsome and hot guy,” Hyejin said and Y/N blushed.

“Oh well! What’s important now that I am okay,” Y/N said.

“You’re right! We shouldn’t get close to Hyori’s group of friends because there are a bunch of envious and insecure girls,” Rocky said.

“Rocky is right! Also, I remember one of your roommates is Hyori’s friend. So you should be careful, okay? Hyejin said and Y/N sighed.

“Okay! I don’t know why they are like that and they should just do their own business!” Y/N said.

"Unfortunately, those kinds of people really exist. But if ever they did something bad to you that will make you harm, you can just tell our superior so that he will be aware of their behavior," Rocky said.

“Don’t worry I will keep that in mind and I know they will never succeed in what they do if they keep doing shit about me,” Y/N said and Hyejin smirked at her words.

"That's the power, girl! We will not let our guard down," Hyejin said and Y/N nodded. As for Eunwoo who is now resting in one of the sunbathing chairs, his friend named Moonbin approached him and…

“I saw you earlier that you caught a beautiful girl in the pool, huh?” Moonbin said and Eunwoo blushed but he slightly laughed.

“Someone just fell into the water and I was surprised that I actually caught her in the right time,” Eunwoo said.

“Wow! But why did she fell in the pool?” Moonbin asked.

“Someone intentionally bumped Y/N strongly that time and I know that whoever that girl bumped Y/N really doesn’t like her,” Eunwoo said.

“Why?” Moonbin asked.

"To be honest, there was one time I was about to buy some snacks in the restaurant and there were a bunch of girls including that woman bumped into her talked about how they really dislike Y/N," Eunwoo said and Moonbin was surprised.

“Oh! You overheard them?” Moonbin asked.

"Yup! But at that time I really don't know her including her physical appearance and I suddenly met her today. She doesn't deserve to be bullied like that," Eunwoo said.

"You're right! Those kinds of people are really annoying," Moonbin said.

“I agree with you. I think I should keep an eye on her,” Eunwoo said and Moonbin smirked.

“Keep an eye on her? Wait! Do you already like her that fast?” Moonbin asked.

“Maybe you can say that. But I think she is great and she is really beautiful,” Eunwoo said as he smiled.

“Wow! I didn’t expect you will fall in love that fast even though it was just your first meeting her,” Moonbin said.

“It’s not that bad to fall in love that easily and I can feel that she has a good personality,” Eunwoo said.

“Okay! Good luck keeping an eye on Y/N,” Moonbin said and Eunwoo just smiled. As for Y/N who is having dinner with her friends someone approached them and it’s Hyori.

“Why is this bitch here?” Hyejin thought as she rolled her eyes.

“What are you doing here, Hyori?” Rocky asked.

“I am just here to say sorry for Y/N earlier for bumping her and making her fell in the pool. I wanted to give you this drink to you so that you will forgive me,” Hyori said.

“I already forgave you,” Y/N said as she smiled sarcastically. Then that time Moonbin and Eunwoo saw them and watched them carefully.

“Moonbin, that’s the girl who bumped her,” Eunwoo said as he whispered to Moonbin.

“Oh! She looks tough too,” Moonbin said and Eunwoo nodded. Then going back to Y/N and Hyori…

“You should take this drink since you already forgave me,” Hyori said.

"I know! But it doesn't mean I will accept that unless you will drink it first so that I will ensure that you didn’t poison me and your sorry is not fake," Y/N said as she smirked then Hyori was surprised at her statement then that time Y/N's friends, Eunwoo, and Moonbin were also shocked.

"Wow! Y/N is really straightforward!" Moonbin said.

"I know! I am glad she will be able to handle those kinds of people," Eunwoo said as he smirked. Then as Hyori was shocked at Y/N's statement.

“What did you say?” Hyori asked and Y/N chuckled.

“You heard me, right? You should drink it first so that, I will ensure that I am safe,” Y/N said.

“ I will never poison you, Y/N!” Hyori said.

“How can I be sure? if I know that you and your girlfriends hated me so much. Just stay away from me,” Y/N said as she raised one of her eyebrows and Hyori just got frustrated and left them.

“Wow! Y/N is amazing!” Eunwoo thought as he smiled. As for Y/N who continued to eat her food…

“You just did the right thing, Y/N,” Rocky said as he smiled at her.

“She thought she will make me drink that bottle of cola? I know she and her friends put something in that drink and I will never trust them,” Y/N said.

“You’re right! They are just insecure bitches that tried to ruin your life,” Hyejin said and Y/N smirked and nodded.

“They don’t deserve to win and be successful if they will keep that attitude,” Y/N said then Rocky and Hyejin agreed to her. As for Hyori who approached her girlfriends…

"That bitch! Gets into my nerves and when did she become that tough!" Hyori said.

"Let's just make a plan for her when we checked out the resort," one of Hyori's friends said.

“Oh! It seems you have an idea, huh?” Hyori said.

‘Of course, I am! If she’s tough then we are tougher than her,” one of Hyori’s friends said as she winked and Hyori smirked and nodded. That time, when Y/N and her friends were about to leave the restaurant, Y/N saw Eunwoo with Moonbin and…

“Wait for me guys okay? I just saw Eunwoo and I think he’s with his friend,” Y/N said.

“Oh! Okay! Have fun having a conversation with them,” Hyejin said.

"Guys! I will just say hi to them and I will come back, okay?" Y/N said then Hyejin and Rocky slightly laughed at her but both of them nodded and decided to wait for her. As Y/N approached Eunwoo and Moonbin's table, Eunwoo suddenly blushed and…

"Hi, Eunwoo! Is this your friend?" Y/N said as she smiled at them.

“Yes! I am Moonbin, Eunwoo’s friend. Nice to meet you, Y/N!” Moonbin said as he smiled at her and Y/N blushed.

“Wow! Eunwoo has a cute and handsome friend too like him!” Y/N thought.

"Nice to meet you, Moonbin!" Y/N said as she shook hands with Moonbin but Eunwoo noticed that they slightly stare for a while and…

“Ummm… What brings you here, Y/N?” Eunwoo said and Y/N suddenly looked at him and…

"Just wanted to say hi! Since I can consider now that you two are my friends," Y/N said as she smiled at them.

“That’s great! To be honest, we saw what you did with the woman earlier,” Moonbin said.

“Oh! About that…” Y/N was cut-off when…

“Don’t worry Y/N! We understand and I told Moonbin why you became like that towards that woman,” Eunwoo said.

"Eunwoo is right and you're amazing that you didn't let that woman bully you or do something to you that bad," Moonbin said as he smiled and did a thumbs-up gesture at her and Y/N blushed then Eunwoo just sighed.

“Thanks, Moonbin! I should get going and my friends are now waiting! See you around guys, bye!” Y/N said as she smiled at them.

“Okay! Take care and be careful always Y/N!” Eunwoo said as he smiled back then Y/N nodded and left them.

“She’s really beautiful, Eunwoo,” Moonbin said as he smiled and Eunwoo smirked.

“I know! Also, she’s a strong woman,” Eunwoo said and Moonbin agreed. As Y/N went back to her friends and ready to go to the beach area where a party is held…

“Y/N, it seems you saw another hottie with Eunwoo, huh?” Hyejin said and Y/N slightly laughed.

“Both of them are handsome and hot,” Y/N said.

“But if one of them asked you out, whom you will choose?” Rocky asked and Y/N blushed at his question.

"I will choose Eunwoo because he was the one who saved me earlier and I think he has a great personality," Y/N said.

“Oh! But I hope you two will able to meet again if we checked out tomorrow because it’s our last day,” Hyejin said.

"I hope so! But I am glad that I met him," Y/N said as she smiled at them. While they are having fun at the party, they didn't get close to Hyori's group of friends so that they will not get into trouble. But that time, Y/N didn't know that Eunwoo keeping an eye on her and he just decided to watch out for Hyori's every move too. Then there was one time, Eunwoo caught Hyori was about to deliver an alcoholic drink to Y/N that has a dangerous drug on it and he decided to pretend that he will pass by their party and he intentionally bumped Hyori that made the drink spill all of it in her dress and…

“Fuck! You spilled all the drink to my dress Mister!!” Hyori said.

“Oops! Sorry! You shouldn’t have blocked my way!” Eunwoo said as he smirked and remembered Hyori’s words and left her.

Then when Eunwoo was leaving Hyori, he heard that she screamed in frustration.

“I will never let you harm Y/N!” Eunwoo thought then went back to Moonbin who is sitting in a chair in the beach area…

“So, did you already blocked that woman’s plan for Y/N?” Moonbin asked.

“Of course! Also, I caught that woman put a drug onto that drink and I am sure that she will deliver it to Y/N,” Eunwoo said.

“What? That was really mean and she really wanted to Y/N get into trouble,” Moonbin said as he sighed.

“You’re right! I am really concerned about her now because someone really wanted to harm her,” Eunwoo said.

“You’re right! I hope you can keep an eye on her for that long because I heard earlier that they will check out tomorrow,” Moonbin said.

“They will leave tomorrow?” Eunwoo asked.

“Yup! Why? Do you want her to say here with you?” Moonbin asked.

“I wanted to, but it’s impossible because I also heard that it was their company outing and no one should be left tomorrow here in the resort,” Eunwoo said.

"Try to talk to her tomorrow before they leave because for now, she is having fun with her friends," Moonbin said.

“I will try my best to meet her before she will check out the resort,” Eunwoo said and Moonbin nodded and both of them smiled.

THE NEXT DAY…

It was the day where they will check out the resort and after they all had breakfast, Y/N arranged all her things and she knows that their check out time is noon so she decided to take a nap first but as time goes by, it was already noon but two of her roommates were Hyori's friends and they decided not to wake her up and left her in the room. As for Hyejin and Rocky who are waiting for Y/N to go to their bus, one of Y/N's roommates rode the bus and…

“Wait! You are Y/N’s roommate, right? Where is she?” Hyejin asked.

“I thought she already rode the other bus because she was the first one to leave in our room,” one of Y/N’s roommates said.

“Huh? Are you sure? But we haven’t seen her yet in the reservations area when we all checked out,” Rocky said.

“But my friend saw earlier that she was already in the other bus,” one of Y/N’s roommates said. Then Hyejin just let the woman sit in the chair inside the bus. Then Hyejin tried to call Y/N but she didn’t respond.

“I think we should check out the other bus if she’s there,” Hyejin said and Rocky nodded but when they are about to get out of the bus…

“You two should go back to your seat now because we will leave now,” the bus driver said and Hyejin sighed then both of them went back to their seat and…

“Well, I really hope that Y/N is just in another bus,” Hyejin said.

"You're right!" Rocky said as he sighed. Then the bus that they are riding left and that time Eunwoo saw that the bus already left and Moonbin approached him.

“So sad you didn’t have the chance to talk to her for the last time,” Moonbin said.

“I know! I hope I will meet her again!” Eunwoo said. But suddenly when they are about to go back to their room someone yelled in the reservations area and Eunwoo saw Y/N and…

"Why is she still here and why did they leave her?" Eunwoo thought.

“WHAT??? They already checked out????” Y/N asked and the front desk associate nodded. Then Moonbin and Eunwoo approached her and Y/N was surprised.

“Y/N, why are you still here?” Moonbin asked.

“I thought you already left,” Eunwoo said.

“What? They really already left without me???” Y/N asked in a shocking tone and got frustrated. Then Eunwoo and Moonbin just sighed.

“I really know who planned this and I will definitely report her to the office when I came back to work!” Y/N said.

“You really should do that! “ Eunwoo said and Y/N just sighed. Then while Eunwoo is comforting her…

"Miss, May I ask if there are still other transportations going to the ship port like a bus or a van? So that our friend will be able to catch the ship," Moonbin asked the front desk associate.

“The bus is rarely passing by outside the resort,” the front desk associate said.

"Oh! Okay, Thanks!" Moonbin said and he went back to them and…

“Eunwoo, I think we should drive Y/N going to the ship port so that she will be able to catch the ship that she should take going back to the main port,” Moonbin said.

“Okay! Let’s hurry up and we might not catch the ship,” Eunwoo said and Y/N nodded. As soon as possible they went to the ship port but when they reached the port…

“OMG! The ship already left!” Y/N said as she sighed.

"Wait for a while I will ask someone if there's another ship will come," Eunwoo said and Y/N nodded. Then Eunwoo left Y/N and Moonbin and asked a netizen who is near the port and…

“May I ask, if there will be another ship that will come later?” Eunwoo asked.

“That was the last ship for this day,” the man said.

“Do you mean there will be another ship will arrive tomorrow?” Eunwoo asked.

"Nope! It will take 5 days for the ship to arrive again," the man said and Eunwoo was shocked.

“Are there other options to go back to the main port?” Eunwoo asked.

“I am sorry there’s none and if you will try to use someone’s fishing boat it will be more dangerous to go in the main port since it’s also far,” the man said.

“Oh! Okay! I will tell my friend about that. Thanks!” Eunwoo said and the man nodded. As he went back to Y/N and Moonbin…

“I am sorry to say this Y/N but the ship will take 5 days to arrive in the port,” Eunwoo said.

“What? Gosh! This is so stressful!” Y/N said.

“I think we should let Y/N stay in the resort with us,” Moonbin said and Y/N was surprised at his suggestion.

“That’s a great idea, Moonbin!” Eunwoo said as he smiled.

“But I should pay for my stay there and I know that resort is really expensive and

I don’t have a budget for additional 5 days of stay there,” Y/N said.

“Don’t worry, Y/N! I will pay for it!” Eunwoo said as he smiled and winked at her.

“Huh? Are you serious? You two already helped me too much,” Y/N said.

“Yes, I am! But are you going to be comfortable if you will sleep in our room?” Eunwoo asked and Y/N blushed.

“But aren’t the beds in your room is just only for two people?” Y/N asked.

"Nope! To be honest, our room is spacious and it has two separated beds and one king-sized bed," Moonbin said.

"Wow! It seems your room accommodation is good for a family. I want to check your room in the resort," Y/N said.

"Okay! Let's go!" Eunwoo said and all of them agreed. Then before they check-in, Y/N went inside Eunwoo and Moonbin's room and she was amazed because it was a luxurious room and…

“Are you really sure that you will let me sleep in this room? For 5 days?” Y/N asked.

‘Yup! So, what’s your decision?” Eunwoo asked.

“Okay! If you really let me sleep here then I will accept it,” Y/N said as she smiled at them.

"That's great! You can use that king-sized bed and then we will sleep here," Moonbin said and Y/N nodded.

"We will go first to the front desk area so that Y/N will be able to check in again and I will pay for her stay," Eunwoo said.

“Okay! I will arrange her things,” Moonbin said and then both of them nodded. Then Eunwoo and Y/N approached the front desk area and the front desk associate was very surprised at Y/N and Eunwoo’s decision but she just processed it and…

"You are so lucky Ms. Y/N! I hope you will have an enjoyable additional 5 days of stay here!" the front desk associate said then Y/N and Eunwoo slightly laughed.

“Thanks!” Y/N said as she blushed. Then both of them went back to the room and…

"So, what do you want to do now? It's already 3 pm, "Eunwoo asked.

“I think I just wanted to swim in the pool for now and get rid of the stress that I have,” Y/N said.

“Okay! Don’t worry we will make your stress gone for today,” Moonbin said as he smiled brightly at her and Y/N blushed at his statement.

“Moonbin is right and we are all here to relax too,” Eunwoo said.

“Okay! Thank you very much Moonbin and Eunwoo for helping me out!” Y/N said.

“No problem Y/N!” Eunwoo said as he smiled.

"My gosh! I will be with these two hot and handsome men!" Y/N thought and she just smiled at Eunwoo. Then Y/N changed into her pink one-piece swimsuit that hugged her beautiful curves and when she already showed herself to Eunwoo and Moonbin both of them were surprised.

“Wow! You are sexy in that swimsuit, Y/N!” Eunwoo said as he winked at her and Y/N blushed madly.

“Thanks! To be honest, I am still insecure with my body because I don’t have a flat stomach,” Y/N said.

“Still you look so great in that swimwear,” Moonbin said as he smiled at Y/N.

"Thanks, guys! Let's go and have fun!" Y/N said and all of them agreed. Then suddenly when Eunwoo and Moonbin took off their shirt, Y/N blushed and…

“Wow! Their bodies are so perfect!” Y/N thought as she gulped at the sight of them.

Then all of them went to the pool but while they are having fun, sometimes some strangers keep lurking around Y/N then Eunwoo and Moonbin tried to protect from them to the point where the other people thought that Y/N has two boyfriends but her heart was really just for Eunwoo. But that time Moonbin is playing with Y/N then Eunwoo was just looking at them and suddenly he saw that Y/N was about to slip beside the pool because it's wet and thankfully when Y/N slipped, Eunwoo able to catch her again but this time their lips suddenly touched that made them surprised and they pulled out from the kiss.

“I am sorry Y/N! Thankfully Eunwoo caught you. But the best part was you two already kissed in the lips,” Moonbin said as he teased them then Eunwoo and Y/N blushed.

“Stop it Moonbin!” Y/N said and Moonbin laughed at them.

“I will leave the two of you first, okay? I will get something in the room,” Moonbin said then Y/N and Eunwoo just nodded and Moonbin left them.

“Ummm… Y/N I have something to tell you,” Eunwoo said as he looked at her in the eyes.

“What is that?” Y/N asked.

“I like you, Y/N! I wanted you to be my girlfriend,” Eunwoo said and Y/N was surprised and suddenly when she was about to talk, Eunwoo kissed her lips passionately and Y/N responded to it then Eunwoo pulled close to him that made Y/N felt that he is already hard and she moaned into the kiss and in a few minutes of making out, they pulled out and…

“Does it mean you will accept me as your boyfriend?” Eunwoo asked.

'"Yes, Eunwoo! I like you too!" Y/N said as she smiled then Eunwoo smiled back and he suddenly held her hand and guided her to one of the special rooms that were in the beach area that has a king-sized bed on it and Y/N was surprised.

“Wow! They have this kind of room?” Y/N asked and Eunwoo nodded then he suddenly pushed her in the bed and Y/N blushed at the heated situation. Then Eunwoo hovered above her and looked at her reaction.

“I know this is fast but I will make sure that I will love you with all my heart and I will never hurt you,” Eunwoo said.

“Me too! Eunwoo! I will love you with all my heart and will never hurt you too!” Y/N said.

“Umm… But before we go on, is this will be your first time?” Eunwoo asked.

"Yes! But don't worry I know will be able to handle it later," Y/N said and both of them smiled at each other. Then Eunwoo decided to help Y/N remove her swimsuit and Y/N became conscious of her body and Eunwoo just held her hand and…

“Don’t cover it Y/N! You are perfect for me!” Eunwoo said as he licked his lips and Y/N blushed. Then Eunwoo suddenly took off all of his clothes and when he was already naked in front of her, her jaw dropped because…

"Oh gosh! He is really a masterpiece!" Y/N thought and she suddenly bites her lip and Eunwoo smirked at her reaction.

“This will be all yours now baby!” Eunwoo said. Then he kissed her lips passionately and his hands went to her breast as he squeezed it and played her nipples by his thumb that made Y/N moan into the kiss and that time he had a chance to slip his tongue inside her mouth and dominated the kiss. After they kissed, Eunwoo’s lips went to her neck as he licked, bit a certain spot, and sucked it that became a hickey and also, that made Y/N moan his name softly.

"You are now mine Y/N! I love you so much!" Eunwoo said as he whispered as he licked and bit her earlobe and Y/N moaned at his action. Then Eunwoo's lips went to her breast and he sucked it delicately and he also bit her nipples and slightly pulled it up that made Y/N moan loudly.

“So responsive baby! I love that!” Eunwoo said and Y/N blushed at his words. Then Eunwoo kissed every inch of her as he also left some wet kisses in her stomach and onto her inner thighs. When Eunwoo already reached her core, Y/N tried to look at him and she suddenly gulped at the sight of him being between her legs and Eunwoo smirked at her.

"I bet you will enjoy this one too, Y/N!" Eunwoo said then he started to lick her core that made Y/N's head went back to lay on the pillow and moaned his name. But suddenly Eunwoo licked and sucked her core harshly and Y/N moaned his name non-stop and she pushed his head more into her core that made Eunwoo's tongue got more access into her core.

"Fuck! Eunwoo like that!" Y/N said loudly and Eunwoo smirked. As he continued to eat her out wildly without a warning she cum onto his mouth and he just sucked all of her juices that made a slurping sound in the room. Then Eunwoo suddenly opened one of the drawers and he gets a condom and Y/N was shocked.

“How did you know that a condom was in that drawer?” Y/N asked and Eunwoo slightly laughed at her.

“Someone just told me that they provided these kinds of things in a special room,” Eunwoo said as he winked and Y/N blushed. Then Eunwoo put the condom to his cock and he hovered above again at her.

“So, are you ready for me my lovely, Y/N?” Eunwoo asked.

“Yes! I love you so much Eunwoo!” Y/N said.

“I love you too so much, Y/N!” Eunwoo said as both of them smiled. Then Eunwoo slowly inserted his cock to her core and Y/N felt a sharp pain and she yelped.

“Does it hurt that much, Y/N?” Eunwoo asked with concern in his voice and he also cupped her face.

“A little but no worries I know I will be able to feel pleasure later,” Y/N said and Eunwoo nodded. Then he just kissed her lips and neck to distract her from the pain and when Eunwoo’s cock is fully inside her, Y/N already adjusted and…

“Eunwoo, you can move,” Y/N said.

"Are you sure about that?" Eunwoo asked and Y/N just responded by kissing him and he smirked at her action and he started to thrust his cock to her at a fast pace that made Y/N gripped his biceps and moaned his name.

"Shit! You are so tight, baby!" Eunwoo said as he gritted his teeth and he decided to make the pace to a harder and rougher pace that made Y/N moaned his name loudly and he also kissed her neck and keep leaving hickeys on it then he saw that Y/N was now in pure bliss and he smirked at the sight of it.

“Fuck! You handle my cock so well Y/N!” Eunwoo said and Y/N just moaned in response and was completely in pure pleasure. Then Eunwoo placed one of her legs in his shoulder and ram his cock to her at a rougher pace and his cock got deeper to her.

“Shit! Right there Eunwoo! Don’t stop!” Y/N said as she gripped the sheets and arched her back.

"You like it rough and deep huh? I will give it to you more!" Eunwoo said as he continued to ram his cock to her at an incredible pace. But as time goes by, Y/N was becoming oversensitive inside her core and…

“Eunwoo! I will cum!” Y/N said.

"Cum with me Y/N!" Eunwoo said then in few thrusts of his cock, both of them moaned each other's name as they cum and Eunwoo pulled out from her core and he removed the condom to his cock and he threw it in the trash bin near the bed and went back to lay beside her and look at Y/N.

“Probably Moonbin is now looking for us,” Y/N said and Eunwoo slightly laughed at her.

“ Let’s just rest first. But I will also send him a message that we are just looking around the beach resort,” Eunwoo said.

“Okay! Thankfully I brought my scarf so that I can cover these hickeys,” Y/N said and Eunwoo laughed at her.

“I am sorry If I made many hickeys in your neck I just can’t control myself earlier,” Eunwoo said.

"It's okay! But next time don't do it too much," Y/N said and both of them laughed. Then they decided to rest for few minutes because they can't stay there for long. As they went out of the special room, Y/N's neck was fully covered with her scarf and they decided to go back to their room and Moonbin approached them and…

“I bet you two really had fun going around the beach, huh?” Moonbin said as he smirked because he got a glimpse of Y/N’s neck that has a hickey on it.

“Yup! The scenery of the beach is really great,” Y/N said.

“You’re right! But I think Eunwoo was much more pleased seeing you as his great scenery instead of the ocean,” Moonbin said.

“What do you mean Moonbin?” Eunwoo asked and Moonbin laughed at them.

“I bet Y/N didn’t cover the hickey on her neck that much,” Moonbin said and Y/N was shocked and she blushed.

“OMG! I think I really should just go and have shower now and change clothes too!” Y/N said as she blushed madly.

"I think you really should do that now because someone will keep teasing us," Eunwoo said and Y/N just go to shower and change her clothes, but Moonbin is still laughing at them.

“You should have just joined her in the shower,” Moonbin said as he smirked.

"Shut up, Moonbin! Just order now our dinner," Eunwoo said and Moonbin nodded but he was still laughing. After a few minutes, their food arrived, and while they are having dinner outside their accommodation…

“Tell me. It means you two are now in a relationship?” Moonbin asked as he looked at them and Y/N blushed.

“Yes! Y/N is already my girlfriend,” Eunwoo said as he smiled.

"Wow! Congrats to the two of you! I hope you two will have a long-lasting relationship," Moonbin said as he smiled at them.

“Yup! No worries! I will never cheat on Eunwoo,” Y/N said as she smiled at Eunwoo.

”Awww! What a sweet couple we have here! “ Moonbin said as he smiled at them. Then suddenly someone called Y/N’s phone and it was Hyejin.

THEIR CONVERSATION…

Hyejin: Y/N! Finally, you answered my call! How are you? I heard that the ship will take 5 days to arrive there. I am so annoyed that one of your roommates didn't wake you up.

Y/N: I am fine! To be honest, I am with Moonbin and Eunwoo and they let me stay in their room.

Hyejin: What? Those two hotties let you stay in their room?

Y/N: Yup! So, what happened when you arrived at the main port and discovered I was left here?

Hyejin: Of course! All of us panicked and then someone shared that she heard Hyori and her friends that they planned to leave you in the resort and because of that, Hyori and her friends

got fired in that instance.

Y/N: What? Are you serious? They got fired after you all arrived at the main port?

Moonbin and Eunwoo were shocked by what they heard and…

"They really should have those kinds of consequences since they are rude and evil to Y/N," Eunwoo said.

“You’re right I am happy that Y/N will be at ease when she will go back to work,” Moonbin said Eunwoo agreed at him. Going back to Y/N and Hyejin’s conversation…

Hyejin: Yup! They deserve that because this is also a serious situation.

Y/N: Well, you are right! Can you give your phone to Hyori and I will tell her something.

Hyejin: Oh! Okay! I will give this phone to Hyori.

Hyejin went to Hyori and…

“What the hell are you doing here?” Hyori asked.

“Someone wanted to talk to you,” Hyejin said as she gave the phone to Hyori and…

Y/N: I bet this is Hyori now, right?

Hyori: Yes, I am! What do you want? Are you now happy that I am out of the company?

Y/N: Well, you are the one who made that consequence to yourself! Thankfully I met two handsome and hot men here in the resort that will surely make me safe and will not harm me. Not like you! Who really likes to harm someone even though I didn’t do anything bad to you! You deserve it bitch! I hope we will never meet again!

As Moonbin and Eunwoo heard her words…

“Oh! She is really brave and I am kinda flattered on her words that we are handsome and hot,” Moonbin said and Eunwoo laughed.

“ Me too! I am very happy she is really a strong woman,” Eunwoo said. As for Hyori who can’t answer it, she just got frustrated and gave back the phone to Hyejin.

Hyejin: Y/N! This is Hyejin again! It seems you throw off some strong words at her and she’s really frustrated now.

Y/N: It's all her fault, not me! By the way, I will tell you that Eunwoo is now my boyfriend.

Hyejin: Oh! Congrats my friend! Just take care staying with those two handsome men and be safe!

Y/N: Okay! I will call you when I got home after 5 days.

Hyejin: Okay! We have to go and bye!

Y/N: Okay! Take care in going home, guys!

END OF CONVERSATION.

Then Y/N went back to Moonbin and Eunwoo…

“We heard some of your conversations with your friend and you were great!” Eunwoo said.

"We liked how you handle those kinds of people who wanted to harm you and we really know you are a strong woman," Moonbin said as he smiled.

"Thanks guys! Thankfully someone really shared that Hyori and her friends planned something to me

about leaving me out here in the resort but even though I was left out here, you two helped me out. Thanks Eunwoo and Moonbin!” Y/N said as she smiled at them.

“No problem Y/N!” Moonbin said as he smiled at her. Then Eunwoo walked towards her and he held her shoulders so that she can face him and…

"No problem Y/N! As your boyfriend, I will help you as much as I can. I love you Y/N!" Eunwoo said as he kissed her lips quickly and Y/N blushed.

“I love you too Eunwoo!” Y/N said.

“I think I am disturbing you two,” Moonbin said then Y/N and Eunwoo laughed at him.

“No! You are not!” Eunwoo said as he smiled.

'Okay! You two can just sleep in the king-sized bed but don't make too many noises, okay? I might join the two of you," Moonbin said then Eunwoo glared at him and Y/N was shocked.

“I am just kidding Eunwoo and Y/N,” Moonbin said as he smiled at them.

”Okay! But please stop teasing us like that Moonbin,” Y/N said.

“I am really sorry about that Eunwoo and Y/N,” Moonbin said and suddenly Eunwoo chuckled.

"I am just kidding too if you wanted to join us, it's okay!" Eunwoo said as he smiled then Moonbin and Y/N were so shocked.

“What? Where did that come from Eunwoo?” Y/N asked as she raised one of her eyebrows.

“To be honest, sometimes I am kinda jealous because I noticed you also keep staring at Moonbin,” Eunwoo said.

“Wait! I think there’s a misunderstanding Eunwoo,” Y/N said.

“Don’t worry I am not mad and for Moonbin, it’s okay if you wanted to join us sometimes,” Eunwoo said as he smirked.

“You know that’s not a good joke Eunwoo,” Moonbin said.

“It will be really okay for me if you wanted to join us. It will be more thrilling for Y/N, right?” Eunwoo said and Y/N gulped and shivered at his words.

“Oh damn! Why is Eunwoo suddenly like this! He and Moonbin will wreck me!” Y/N thought.

“Are you sure about that? because I don’t want our friendship to be ruin because of my sudden joke,” Moonbin said.

“Moonbin, I am serious that it’s really okay,” Eunwoo said as he smirked then Moonbin gulped and felt he was already hard underneath the table.

“O-okay! But I don’t know if Y/N will agree. I don’t want her to be uncomfortable,” Moonbin said as he looked at her and Y/N blushed madly.

“Ummm… Okay Fine! I will accept it besides you two are friends and I can’t deny that you two are handsome and hot,” Y/N said as she tried to smile at them. Then Moonbin and Eunwoo smirked at her and started to walk towards her that made Y/N blushed as Eunwoo and Moonbin took her in the king sized- bed and that night Y/N became tired because of Eunwoo and Moonbin’s stamina. But as Y/N stayed with Eunwoo and Moonbin for 5 days all of them had so much fun and made beautiful memories throughout their stay in the resort.

끝 THE END

Thank you for reading my one-shot smut fanfiction

for Astro’s Cha Eunwoo!

Stay tuned for the next member! :)

고마워요 여러분! (Thanks, Everyone!)

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

Whatever Words Exist

StudentTeacher!Cal x Reader (Gender Neutral). Like mostly fluff. 

Reader and Calum have only met briefly. But when the connection is this magnetic, you don’t press fate. 

Masterlist (semi-hiatus) 

_____________________

Calum readjusts the strap on his backpack, getting the bag hitched back right on his shoulder. Just up the hill he can see a gathering of people, a general human mass but still too far away for him to make out any one person in particular. He knows he’s in the right place for sure. So he continues on and a few folks wave as he approaches. Derrick, former officemate, spots Calum first and waves him closer. 

“Meet Calum--old officemate of mine,” Derrick tells the group surrounding him. First years, Calum assumes and gives them a tiny smile and wave to the group. 

“Yeah, because this jerk decided to apply for a full time instructor position. And then got upgraded,” Calum laughs. 

“Look, gotta pay the bills how I can,” Derrick returns and then goes around the semi circle introducing everyone. 

Calum looks at each one in return and then his gaze lands on yours. As a first year to the program and student teaching, you ran into Calum during the intense two week training. Well, you two didn’t really run into each other. Calum ran a few sessions during the training and you might have purposefully lingered behind on the free range Q&A that he was a part of with a few other experienced student teachers. He seemed to be calm and level headed about all the teaching and you were quite the opposite, so listening to him answer questions gave you a small amount of peace. 

The second reason you lingered until everyone else was gone and asked their questions is because you thought he was attractive. The baggy t-shirt but nice fitting jeans and the way he titled in when he was listening to someone. He seemed to really care and take his time to answer any questions--even when he had other things he needed to attend to as well. “Hey,” he says as his smile brightens around your name. 

“Hi Calum,” you return. “Slumming it with us first years.”

“I would never call it slumming, not in the slightest,” he laughs in return. The conversation steers away from that, talking about the summer and general shared interests. But every so often you and Calum lock eyes, gazes lingering for way longer than you’d like to admit. Mostly because you don’t want to be this into someone so early into the semester. And truth be told, the semester hadn’t even truly started. 

About ten minutes pass before professors start to approach, a couple of them holding boxes of pizza. And while you definitely weren’t sure how to juggle all the responsibilities of teaching, classes, paying rent on time, you were grateful for the lunch of pizza. It also meant that you’d be taking some home if enough people didn’t go in for seconds. And getting a free meal plus an easy dinner was always worth it. 

As the pizzas are lined up, you linger back, not wanting to be the first person to get food, but close enough to the first brave souls. “So, have you done any exploring around town?” Calum asks from behind you. 

You spin to half face him to talk to him. “Not a lot. By the time we get done with training I’m too tired to do anything else. But I need to get my bike looked at, so I probably should get downtown at the very least.”

“What’s up with your bike? You said it was your main mode of transportation.”

“Just double checking tire pressure--nothing major. One of them feels like it’s not as high as the other. But rather be safe than sorry since the semester starts.”

Calum nods and shuffles up as the line moves. “If you need a ride to the shop, I have my car.”

You’re not sure if Calum’s offering just to be nice or if it means more. So you default to telling him he doesn’t have to, but he insists. And even as you’re grabbing a slice of pizza and Calum’s right behind you, you try to tell him that he shouldn’t completely disturb his whole day just for you. 

“I cannot have you blowing a tire on the side of the road. Do you have your bike with you today? We could go after this.”

If there were any way to die right in this moment, you’re wishing for it. “I do,” you answer cautiously, walking towards the metal picnic tables. “But really, I can do by myself. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Oh, c’mon, this town’s not necessarily the nicest to cyclists and if you got stranded I’d feel like an ass.” Calum settles across from you on the bench, slipping his backpack off his shoulder. You do the same, setting your backpack next you and pulling your water bottle from the side pocket. 

“I don’t know what your plans are. I don’t want to intrude,” you counter, unscrewing the top to your water bottle to take a sip. 

“My plans were to sit in my office and pretend like I was lesson planning.”

“Where’s your office again?”

Calum rattles off the name of the building, before taking his first bite of pizza. And you swear for a moment the universe is fucking with you. It has it out for you. “I’m in the same building,” you state. 

“I’m in room 138.”

Oh, how cruel is the universe. How fucking cruel could it be. “Same,” you state after finishing your bite of pizza. “Haven’t been inside to see it yet though.”

“Oh, it sounds like I’m your personal tour guide today.” And it’s not that he’s being adamant about it. Because you know if you were in the reverse positions, you’d do something similar. But a glint crosses his eyes, his smile is a slight curl of his lips and he’s looking up at you from underneath his lashes. 

Your stomach flutters, and suddenly pizza looks and feels like lead, but you take another bite to do something other than let panic settle. A quiet settles between the two of you as you eat. Though more people are turning up and settling in around you to make up for the silence. A few more minutes pass, even with you tossing away your plate and saying hi to some other people who are also teaching for the first time this year before you hear the professors calling for the group’s attention.

As the group quiets down, you return back to the spot where your bag is and Calum’s still there, laughing at something Derrick is saying. You catch his gaze and you really only think that you should look away. But you do. He’s too fucking handsome not to keep your gaze lingering for a moment longer. The humorous smile changes, becomes more subtle as the two of you continue to gaze at each other. 

You can feel your cheeks getting hot but slowly feel your own smile over taking your face before you cast your gaze down and then flick it back up to who’s speaking. It’s good information to get, as you listen to each professor in turn talk about the program more. You get a good sense of who each person is, and it’s not too much longer before each of the new and old cohort introduces themself. 

It’s a natural break as everyone starts to talk again with the business now out of the way. You mingle with some of the instructors but gravitate towards the snacks that are available. Just as you get a good grasp on one of the oreos, your name is called out. You spin, making sure to keep the Oreos in a tight hold. Calum waves you over to the group he’s in and you walk over. You know you shouldn’t. You know you’re playing with fire. But you do so anyway and he introduces you to some other people in the same year as him. They weren’t at the student teacher training. 

You’re thankful for the introduction but slowly the conversation drifts to the group joking about something that you seem to be missing and you know almost without thinking that Calum’s going to seize this opportunity. You turn to him first. “I like the vibe of this program,” you start. 

He smiles. “I’m glad. It’s all pretty tight knit.” You nod, agreeing with this point, but also not sure if you’re reading the air between you and him correctly either. “Do you wanna duck out now?” he asks quietly. “Get that bike fixed up for the first day of classes.”

“Ye-yeah, that’s cool.”

He nods over to where your belongings are with a smile. And the two of you gather your things. As you lead Calum over to where you locked up your bike you pause. “Wait,” you start, “do you even have a place to strap a bike down?”

“My friends and I bike the trails a lot during the year. My SUV can handle it, I promise,” he returns with a laugh. The two of you walk side by side down the parking lot. “Where do you call home?” he asks. 

You rattle off the answer and in return ask him the same. “Well home home is Australia. But I came to the states with some mates and we’ve sort of always called California a second home.”

“You beat me the longest distance from home,” you laugh. 

“Well, only on a technicality.”

“So like your mom, dad, and siblings--if you have any--are like clear across the world?”

“Mum and Dad are. Sister’s in London.”

“Is she studying too?”

“Singer--she’s over there doing that.”

You hum. “Is singing a family trait?”

Calum laughs and you watch some lights blink from a car and you spy the keys in his hand. “I wouldn’t call it a family trait. But yeah, we all sing. In our own ways. Originally made some moves for music. Career paths changed just a tiny bit.”

“So you and the friends you moved with were in a band?”

“Of sorts. Went well for a while. Then we just needed rest.”

“So your idea of rest is going to school and teaching?” You laugh. Calum opens the trunk first for your bags. And when he closes it, you finally spot the rack to set your bike on. 

“Like I said, career paths took a turn. Rest or new experience--I’ve yet to decide on the name yet.”

With the bike settled and secure, you walk around to the passenger side door. Calum’s quick to turn the air on in the car once he’s inside. His radio starts up immediately and he scrambles to turn it down. “Sorry, don’t wanna blast you out of the car,” he states. 

“No, no worries.”

“Any requests? You can plug your phone in too, if you want.”

“Oh God, I take over the aux and you’re going to get some anime theme song and I’d rather save myself the embarrassment.”

Calum’s chuckle is quick and clear of the click of the seatbelts. He switches over the radio and hands you the white cord. “Now you have to embarrass yourself.”

“That’s what I get for opening my big mouth.” Plugging the cord in, you shuffle for a decent opening song as the truck starts backwards out of the parking spot. 

“So what about you? How did the universe drop you here?”

“Pure determination and spite,” you laugh as the song starts over the speakers. “I finished my undergrad, worked for a couple years and then promptly said this is not what I want to do forever and started looking to go back to school.”

“Pure determination and spite,” Calum repeats. He keeps his attention heavily on the road as he’s driving out of the park and through the neighborhoods. But once he hits a stretch of main road he can glance over to you. And you’re staring out of the front windshield, head slightly tilted. “You look lost in thought?”

“Just admiring the view.”

And Calum hums, a sound of agreement, but the view he’s enjoying isn’t the sight of campus and the surrounding area. The two of you continue on, weaving around some traffic and soon you’re turning down a side street. One that reminds you almost of home. And maybe that’s just the universality of it all. Almost anything could be home if you wanted it to be, because there was always going to be a piece of a place that you could connect too. 

“The guys here are nice and really quick about anything that’s a simple fix,” Calum offers. “Also, your music isn’t that bad.”

Your jaw drops just a little and a small squawk of indignation falls from your lips. “What’s that supposed to mean?” you ask, jumping out of the car. Calum’s already at the back, pulling your bike from the secure rack. 

“It means that having an anime theme song play would’ve made it ten times better.”

You huff, but follow behind him into the shop. The two of you greeted almost immediately and when the guy working on the floor spies the bike, he’s quick to walk over and see what the issue is. You explain that you’ve noticed a difference in tire pressure. In your move your gauge got misplaced and you hadn’t quite yet had time to get someone to look at it until now. 

“Yeah, we can check that for you. No problem. So any other plans for today?” he asks, making small talk. You talk briefly about the weather, though there’s not quite a lot to talk about it. Not too long later, the guy’s able to confirm that one of tires did have something puncturing it and letting out some air. But he’s quick to let you know that they can fix it in just a few minutes if the two of you have it. 

“I’d greatly appreciate it,” you start and then look at Calum, who just shrugs. “Yeah, can you fix it?”

“Sure can. Just give me a few minutes.”

“Thank you.”

You watch Calum browse, trying not to linger on the way his back moves underneath the t-shirt as he reaches up for something along the walls. And it’s like asking to get into trouble. Though there’s nothing wrong with instructors dating. You just had a plan, that's all.The first semester you’d get settled, figure out what this whole student teaching life was all about. And the more you watched Calum, the more you were sure that plan was going to fall apart. 

“Here she is, all fixed up.” You look up from your spot, in the store, having migrated to the opposite end of the door and walk over to the man with your bike. “Just a little puncture. Nothing too bad.” He rattles off the costs and it’s more than you anticipated, but not so much more that you have complaints.

Calum’s quick to take over the bike and walk it back outside, smiling as you hold the door open for him. “Thanks.”

“No, thanks to you. For chauffeuring me around.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he returns, getting the bike back onto the rack. “Did you want to explore some nearby shops?”

“Oh, hmm. Maybe later. I haven’t an ounce of lesson plans just yet. So I think I should maybe get my week 2 planned.”

“Well it sounds like you have something of week one planned,” Calum counters. 

“We were forced. Thanks to orientation.”

He laughs. “Yeah, they wanted you to have that down at least.”

In the brief glance around, as you try to tell yourself, you shouldn’t explore, you spy a little coffee shop. It looks intriguing. And you point out the sign. “Have you ever tried them?”

“Yeah--it’s a really good shop.”

You take a small step towards the building, careful though because you’re still in the parking lot and about to head into the street. “Can I tack on just a tiny bit of exploring and grab a cup?”

“Of course.”

“Recommend anything?”

Calum holds the door open as he speaks. “Chai Latte, but you can’t tell anyone that it was me that recommended it.”

“Your secret it safe with me.”

In line, you try not to think about how close Calum is, as he stands behind you. But you can feel him, or maybe you want to feel it, you’re aware of him that it’s like all you’d have to do is fake a clumsy step back to be resting into his chest. You imagine it to be firm, but somehow cozy. And maybe that’s just the worn t-shirt he’s adorned in and the beanie on his head. But his presence feels soft to you. 

Your daydream doesn’t last long as the line shuffles forward and you take the step forward rather than the step backward. The coffee shop is quaint, the wide windows letting in plenty of sunlight. But the tables are dark brown and look worn from your place in line. It feels lived in and you enjoy that even though the outside was painted a hunter green, the inside is a pretty beige accented by the chocolate wood of the tables. 

“It’s like a dream,” you state in a whisper, taking in the lights in the ceiling and the scattered bodies of students with backpacks at their feet and others whom you assume live in town and are most likely trying to enjoy the last bits of quiet before the rest of the students descend onto the campus and town. 

In all your sight exploration, your order is called up and Calum has to get it for you. He smiles though, watching the wonder that fills your eyes. “The offer’s still on the table,” he states, handing over the correct cup t you. “We can explore.”

“Can we raincheck? What does next weekend look like for you?”

He still hadn’t responded to Ashton about the hike. So he doesn’t really have plans. “Free as a bird.”

“Would it be okay? To wait till then?”

“Of course,” he exhales. “I’m not the one still learning with training wheels of teaching. I can do this in my sleep.”

“Oh, so big and tough,” you joke, but head back to the front door. The two of you break back out into the bright sun and it’s warm on your skin. “Just give me a semester. I’ll be able to knock you down a peg.”

And Calum doesn’t doubt that for a second. Not with the way you talked about getting into the program. Inside the truck, you’re handed the aux yet again and this time don’t think twice about plugging it in. “To our office?” he asks. 

“You’re not even going to be doing anything for real.”

“I like the sense of productivity.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” you laugh. The drive back to the campus isn’t as long as you thought it would be. But somehow it comes all too quickly. You’re still not sure what’s happening between you and Calum. It’s easy, natural between the two of you. But your plan--you know it’s all going down the drain. All his jokes make you laugh, and you know one or two shouldn’t. And when you do laugh, Calum turns sheepish. He goes quiet, a tiny smile quivering at his lips. 

Calum parks in the employee parking lot in front of the building with your office. Both of you climb out at the same time. And with backpacks, coffee, keys and phones all in place you two trek up to the door. “I think it’s only three of us in the office this year,” Calum talks, fishing out the right key on the hook. 

“Only three?”

“This used to be an old dorm building. So they can usually stick four of us into the room. But the email we got about office assignments only had three names. There was a fourth, but I don’t know what happened to them. They were in a different English program than us. And I don’t know if they graduated or not.”

“Ah,” you return, stepping through the door behind him. And it doesn’t remind you too much of a dorm, not in the always at least. But when Calum unlocks the door, you can see where it definitely once was an older dorm building thanks to the sink in the corner. “You weren’t kidding, huh?’

“About it being an old dorm? Not in the slightest.” He drops his backpack into the desk on the left side of the room but closest to the window. A couple pictures decorate the desktop. The desk next to him as a blanket and the whiteboard above it, has something written on it. So you assume it’s the third person. The desk on the right, closest to the door has nothing on it. The one closest to the window, across from Calum is also empty. 

You walk into the room some more and Calum pulls out his laptop from his bag and then steps around you. “As a heads up, the door stays locked. So you’ll need your key if you go out and close the door. I got locked out once or maybe twice. And it’s definitely not fun.”

You nod. “Thanks for the heads up.”

He smiles and then slips out of the door and you study the empty desk. It’s stupid, trivial to take the one across from Calum, but you drop your backpack into the office chair. The next time you come, you’ll bring desk decorations. To claim which one is yours. Because right now in the depths of your backpack you don’t have much. Well you do have a book that you don’t really need to keep up with too much. Maybe you can leave that. 

Exhaling, you get mostly settled and just before you can get your laptop out of the sleeve the door opens to Calum walking through again. The beanie’s now in his hands as he strides across the room and you can’t help but stare at the curls falling from his head. You want to curse him for looking so good. But you force yourself to go back to your screen. 

Calum settles back into his chair and watches you, sitting up straighter than he’s ever seen a person sit. And he wishes he wasn’t so chicken shit about it. You fucking asked him to hang out next weekend. But still, it’s like toying the line. Trying to make sure he’s reading the cues right. Maybe not right now, maybe next weekend he can get a better read, make a move. He turns back to his own laptop and finds the syllabus he made from the last semester. He can still use most of it. Though in the spring they had a break and in the fall, now they don’t. So he can delete that week as no class and actually have time for the group project in class that the department requires for them to teach. 

A couple hours go by, silence between the two of you, but the clacking of keys makes a chorus around the room. Calum pauses every so often to look over his shoulder. Sometimes you’re deep into work, pushed up into the seat. And once or twice, he found you slouched, staring out at the window next to both of you. 

Another hour passes and shuffling ensues behind Calum. He looks over and finds you packing up. “Headed home?”

You nod. “Managed to get the first unit mostly planned. We’ll see how it goes.”

He smiles. “I’m sure it’ll go well.” He goes to turn around and then remembers your bike is still attached to the back of his car. “Oh, let me go with you to get your bike,” he says ,shooting up from his chair. It rolls backwards for a split second but then makes a sudden stop. 

“Oof,” you let out, rubbing at your stomach. 

“Oh my god,” he rushes out, stepping in closer. “I’m so sorry. Had no clue you were that close. You okay?”

“Yeah,” you laugh and then look up. And Calum’s eyes are a deeper brown that you initially thought. Now that he's closer to you. “Yeah, I’m okay,” you exhale in a breath. 

“You sure? I think the Campus Health Services is open. Or you know, urgent care?”

“I don’t think you caused internal bleeding. Just caught me off guard.”

He finally brings his gaze up from where you’ve stopped holding your stomach to your eyes. And he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t let his gaze drop below your eyes, because truth be told he already stared too much at your lips during the entirety of orientation. And he already knows just how plump they are. 

It’s silent--almost uncomfortably so. “Can I--I should get your bike,” Calum says, saving himself from sure embarrassment. 

He steps around you and you stretch out, capturing his wrist in your hand. “No, what were you going to ask?” you ask. The question leaves you without much thought and you know you shouldn’t ask. But you just can’t help it. Because you almost stretched up to kiss him. 

“It’s nothing,” he returns. But he doesn’t pull his wrist away. 

“Is it really nothing?”

Calum feels you step in closer. He inhales and lets it slowly. He shouldn’t. He absolutely should not let the question cross his lips. But he turn, and sees you illuminated by the sun from the windows and god, how can he deny an angel standing in front of him. “I was going to ask if I could ask you a question.” And it’s not really what he was going to ask. But it buys him some time. 

“You can ask me.”

“Do you--is this--,” he exhales, for a moment hating that the words are getting caught in his throat. “I don’t know if you’re feeling the same thing I am. But I-I’ve been interested in you, like from the second I saw you at the orientation. And I really, really don’t want to make a fool of myself. But I was hoping, are you interested? In me?”

There it goes--the plan--down the drain in just a few sentences. “If you’re asking if I thought you were attractive, yes. And if you’re asking if I care to see where this goes, the answer is also yes. But it really wasn’t supposed to go down like this.”

The elation covers his face and makes his cheeks push up as he smiles--so much so that the skin around his eyes crinkles. “I’ll gladly interrupt all your plans.”

You scoff at the sentiment, but feel your body heating up. Calum steps in even closer to you. His fingers find yours and thread them together. “So the real question I had was if I could kiss you? But I wasn’t sure if that was too forward.”

“Too forward a minute ago. But not too forward for right now,” you state, already moving in to kiss him. It’s short, longer than a peck, but not quite long enough. Because as you pull away, Calum’s other hand is cupping the back of your head and keeping you closer. His hold is firm but his lips are soft and you melt, knees buckling just for a moment. Thankfully, you manage to recover quickly. It doesn’t stop Calum from chuckling. 

“Are you telling me that I have that kind of effect on you?”

“Shut the fuck up, and kiss me again,” you state breathlessly. He doesn’t need to be asked twice. His lips capture yours again, happy to finally get a small taste of you. And you’re acutely aware that it must look ridiculous--you with your backpack full to the nines pressed up against Calum’s chest, chasing down his lips because his touch is mixing in with the scent of his cologne and all you know for sure is that it’s an intoxicating mixture that you want to be trapped in forever. 

You pull away, needing just a moment to catch your breath and Calum rests his forehead against yours. “Are you sure you want to leave me now?” he teases. 

“I--I’ll be honest. The reason why I was leaving was because I knew this was going to happen.”

“Oh? You knew?”

You laugh, cupping his jaw. “Calum, I know one thing for sure. You’re a dangerous man to be around.”

“Oh you’ve just met me. I should be offended.”

“Should be?” you question. 

“You’re--I don’t know what. But I knew that I wanted to know you. So whatever words that exist for that--that’s what you are.”

“I’m flattered,” you state softly. 

“If you give me 5, I can pack up my stuff and drop you off back at home. Now I’d be an asshole not to drop you off.”

You watch him, pulling back from the closeness. “I can make it home now that my bike’s fixed. Thanks to your insistence.”

“Well, let me insist one more time that I make sure you get home safely.” 

“Fine,” you resign. And he’s quick to pack up. Out in the hallway, he takes your hand, threading your fingers again. And it’s natural, easy between the two of you. You bump shoulders, laughing as you step out in the daylight. 

Inside his car, you slip back into the passenger seat. But when Calum settles into the driver seat and gets buckled in, he rests one hand on your thigh. Not too high up, nothing too suggestive, but not directly on your knee. You try not to let it fluster you, the ease at which he establishes touch, but your heart races just a little. 

You curl your fingers around his palm--it’s something to do with your hands, but also allows you a bit of control. You direct him easily back to your apartment. It’s nearly a straight shot, minus the one left turn needed and when he pulls up into a parking space in front of your building, he squeezes at your fingers just a little. 

You face him with a smile. “Thanks, for everything.”

“Yeah of course,” he returns. “So, next weekend? More exploring?”

“I’d like that.”

“I’ll text you about the date and time for sure. Unless we meet again in the office.”

Unbuckling your seatbelt, you laugh gently stretching across the console. “I have a suspicion we shall meet again in the office.”

“Lovely,” he breathes and you meet his lips, capturing them gently before pulling away and grabbing all your things. Your bike is easy to get down and then you lock it back up on the rack outside, even though Calum does help. He leans up against the door and you spy him watching. 

“Enjoying the show?” you tease shaking your butt at him at the outside door of the building.  

His laughter rings out. “Making sure you get inside safely, actually. But a show is always welcomed.”

[djmarinizelablog]

Ultimate Bonding Experience

Summary:

Hange and Moblit follow Levi and Petra on a date. It's a disaster.

Tags:

one-shot, fluff and humor, nonbinary Hange, they/them pronouns for Hange, officemates, best friends forever, friends to lovers, jealous Hange

Notes:

This is for the Levihan Filo Week Day 4 Prompt, Tourist Destinations, featuring Greenbelt, Makati (Yes, the audacity of me.)

—

"You're going out on a date with Petra?” Hange stood up too quickly, knocking down the pen holder on their office desk in process. “As in… Petra Rall? From the Marketing Department? As in, sweet-as-candy, honey-bunny, gorgeous glam girl Petra?”

Levi swiveled his computer chair to face his best friend. "She asked me out."

"Hmm. And you didn't say no?" Hange was absentmindedly tapping the end of the pencil against their lower lip.

He gave a half-shrug. "Wanted to try something new for a change."

This was really new. Hange was incredulous. Levi never went on dates. Levi went on food trips and grocery shopping and karaoke nights (mainly due to Hange’s persistent nagging), but he never agreed to a date. There were always other people around whenever they hung out. The two of them had been best friends since college, and now as colleagues, Hange could tell from the numerous awkward and sort-of romantic encounters with Levi that Petra wasn't exactly his type.

"Is this a joke? Is this for a dare?" Hange kept prodding. They would bombard him with questions nonstop until he gave in. “Did you hit your head somewhere? Are you dying?”

"No, I just told you, Four-Eyes, I wanted to try something new.” Levi returned to his work and continued typing on his computer. “She said she already has planned something for tomorrow."

"This isn't you, Levi. You don't like itineraries," Hange said, sitting down to compose themself, gripping the pencil in their hand and holding it too tightly against the notepad.

"Maybe it's about time I do."

“So you’re choosing her over me?” Hange was already upset. Their hand was already shaking at this point, the tip of their pencil threatening to break. Levi would usually hang out with them to binge-watch a show or series on Saturdays over pizza and cheap beer, which reminded her, “What about our UBE?”

“Our—what?” He looked over his shoulder, confused.

Hange gave him a hopeful smile, hand still resting on the paper. “Our Ultimate Bonding... Experience?”

Levi glued his eyes to his computer screen once more. “You can Netflix and chill on your own for one night.”

The pencil snapped in half.

—

It was only 6 pm and Hange had already downed half a bucket of beers this Friday evening. Tomorrow morning, Levi would meet up with Petra somewhere for their date, maybe have lunch, a movie, some hand-holding and kissing, and then the two would possibly end it up with a bang. Something was really boiling deep inside Hange as these imagined scenes flashed through their mind.

And Erwin had to bear with them for tonight.

"I just don't understand, 'Win," Hange started, "Why would he do this? Why would he trade our pizza night for a girl he can't even relate to?"

Erwin was Hange and Levi's colleague in the same department before he got promoted to an executive position in corporate. Times like this, he would lend an ear to his friends' complaints and act as some sort of a part-time counselor, part-time therapist, and full-time drinking buddy.

Hange should be thankful Erwin had never charged them for these sessions before, but now with all of their whining, he was probably regretting that he gave them for free.

"Last I checked, you guys are just best buddies," Erwin commented. "Have you ever told him how much he means to you?"

Hange pouted.

"I'll take that as a no," Erwin said.

Their friend had a point.

"I can imagine it already, " Hange mused, eyes already watery, "I can imagine him walking down the aisle with pretty-face Petra and making babies with her, while I end up becoming that unknown relative who sends them presents for Christmas every year."

"Ah, I can imagine all the regrets you'll be having for the rest of your life."

Hange grabbed a fistful of hair in both hands. "What do I do now? I want Levi to be happy, I really do. I want to see him be happy, even if it's not with me. But why am I getting all riled up about this?"

"Then follow him," Erwin simply said as he wiped the beer of his mouth with his sleeve. "Follow him to the ends of the earth. Maybe you'll see for yourself."

Erwin had meant it as a figurative speech. When he said follow, he meant Hange supporting Levi all the way through. He never meant Hange stalking their best friend on his date.

Obviously, Hange had gotten it all wrong, because now they just blinked once, twice, a grin forming on their face. As if an epiphany had appeared before them. "Hmm. You're right."

Follow him.

This could be the greatest thing that Erwin Smith had ever come up with. Brilliant idea. Superb, even. One-of-a-kind strategy by none other than the genius Erwin Smith—oh, yes, yes, yes.

Erwin was still finishing up his beer when Hange tackled him into a hug out of gratitude, their smile wider than before. "You really are the best of the best, you know that?" They told him. This could work, Hange thought.

The plan was to follow Levi, literally.

—

"Boss, why did you pay me a hundred bucks to follow them?"

Hange was wringing their hands together. "We’re doing this together, Moblit! I wanna see how Levi acts around this girl."

"That's it?" Poor Moblit couldn't believe what he's hearing.

"I just wanna make sure he's making a good impression!"

They’re both sitting in a cafe right across Levi’s apartment. He and Hange were dressed up in plain clothes with matching sunglasses and baseball caps. Moblit had no choice; Hange was going to strangle his neck if he declined.

Moblit rested his head against his palm. "Aren't you jealous?"

"Pffft, me? Jealous?" The sour look on Hange's face was enough to tell Moblit that they weren't fooling anybody. It was just Levi’s attitude towards the entire ordeal that was tearing Hange apart. “I’m sure I’m not being rude.”

Moblit scratched his head and sighed. Hange as a boss could be really demanding at times, but the two of them were also friends in real life, which is why he agreed to this. "I thought Petra was head over heels for Oluo?"

"I thought so, too."

"He's dense, though," Moblit said. "Maybe this was just a ruse to get Oluo to confess?"

But Hange was already distracted by the sight of Levi coming out of the building.

"Ooh, he's leaving." Hange pointed towards the familiar figure. They then put their shades on as part of their undercover mission. "Let's go."

The two of them hid behind the fast food mascot of the big fat stupid ugly bee. Levi really knew how to dress up, Hange had noticed. He was wearing a plain button-up with dark pants, his hair neatly trimmed and his face cleanly shaven. He never dressed up like this whenever they hung out. It hurt Hange to see him this handsome. Levi then headed straight for the nearest station and waited for the next train to arrive. Hange and Moblit then took the same train but stayed on the other rail cart, catching a glimpse of Levi every now and then to make sure that he hadn't alighted by then.

“What would you do if they do end up together, Boss?” Moblit had to ask.

“I'd sign my life away as a single person for the rest of my years. Be an old cat person, maybe.”

The skyscrapers of Makati were passing them by, huge billboards left and right of commercial ads and government campaigns looming over them. If they looked far enough, they could see shanties and informal settlers nested in small alleys here and there. Hange had been seeing this for the past few years of their lives; Metro Manila could be daunting, but they wished they could spend away from the noisiness and busyness of the capital.

“He's getting out at Ayala Station, Boss!" Moblit pointed out. "They’re probably meeting somewhere in Greenbelt.”

“Ah, fancy-schmancy. Who could have known?”

Makati was the place only for the very rich, or for the very poor. There was no in between. Nobody dared to bat an eyelash at the rickety houses behind the skyscrapers. The shopping district and the high-end restaurants where affluent people would gather: celebrities, business executives, expatriates, anyone who could call themselves rich, rich, rich. Hange was none of those. Levi wasn't either, but he could easily pass off as one if he wanted to.

When they got off at the station, Hange and Moblit crouched behind the dumpster, craning their necks enough to get a glimpse of Levi coming up to Petra who stood waiting in front of the fountain.

“Ah, I’m so glad you’re here,” Petra said, her smile warm and happy as Levi walked alongside her. “Shall we?”

Petra was effortlessly gorgeous. She had her hair clipped into place, her slender figure matching the nice summer dress that she wore. She had also put on some light makeup, but even without it, Hange could tell that Petra would still be as breathtaking.

There really wasn't anything that Hange could hate about Petra Rall. Petra was attractive and alluring, sweet and shy, probably the ultimate dream girl of every person in their office. Hange would date Petra if she were even into them, provided the two of them had a spark.

But Hange's attention was all for Levi. Always had been. Always will be.

"Shall we, Boss?" Moblit interrupted Hange's train of thought.

"Right."

Tonight they felt that they had to accept the possibility of Levi ending up with someone else. Regardless of how this would end, Hange had decided they'd be there for him.

—

They didn't really blend in with this fancy-schmancy place. This was one of the most expensive fashion malls in the area; the price tags made broke people cry, and the restaurants were considered artisan for their taste. People were dressed up in crisp polos and cocktail dresses, the faint smell of perfume wafting here and there. The gardens had a beautiful landscape, stoned paths paving the way, and the lights were carefully draped on the trees around them, glowing like stars. It was a romantic setup for lovers.

Petra was pointing out all the different sights around the area, holding onto Levi's arm. Levi remained stiff all throughout their date, not even shedding a single ounce of emotion when Petra popped a joke. It ended up being a lousy one, though, since Levi didn't even scoff. Hange felt smug after that; their own jokes were terrible as well, but at least Levi would call them out for that.

"I think it's going well, don't you, Boss?" Hange's assistant teased.

“Oh, yeah, perfect, I can see how compatible they are.” Hange was being sarcastic.

Petra had chosen a place called People's Palace. It had a five-star rating on the internet, and even the cheapest item on the menu could break a whole in someone's wallet. There was no way they could eat there. Levi didn't even protest, though. He must have been saving up for this all along. Thankfully, the restaurant's walls were a solid transparent glass, and Hange could see the two of them from afar without having to go in.

Petra was saying something in a hushed tone when Levi came over to her side. He then put a hand on her face, tenderly brushing her cheek, as if he were about to go in for a kiss.

The moment Levi held Petra that close, Hange had to stifle their gasp which ended up like a strangled cry.

The sound made Levi look over his shoulder. Moblit had to cup his hand over Hange's mouth to shush them up, pulling them down behind the huge pots of plants.

"You alright?" Petra asked him, craning her neck towards the source of the sound as well. "What was that?"

Levi clicked his tongue. "Probably some lost bird. Well, more like a dying one."

The two went back to their meals and didn't bother to check if they were being followed. Moblit then let go of Hange and sighed in relief. They were safe, for now.

Everyone in the restaurant looked classy and elegant, soft lights all over the room. After Levi had paid for the meal (he didn't look too happy when he saw the check), he and Petra stood up and exited through the other door on the farthest end. Hange had forgotten about that. The People's Palace had an entryway connecting to the indoor gardens. They would have to enter the premise in order to follow Levi and Petra.

Without any further thought, Hange immediately stood up to barge into the restaurant, urging their assistant to follow. "They're probably confessing to each other in the gardens!" Hange was already right through the entrance. "Moblit, hurry up, I need to—"

"Boss, watch out!"

The warning came in too late. Hange had already knocked down a drink from the waiter's tray right behind them, the liquid spilling all onto the customer sitting nearest to where they were. The huge beefy man was furious, the steam already coming out of his reddened ears.

"Why, you, son-of-a-gun—"

Hange held up both hands in front of their face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

"Do you even belong here, you prick?" The stranger grabbed the front of Hange's oversized shirt. There were gasps from other customers, and one of the servers left to call the manager.

"Please, don't!"

The man started shaking Hange. "Filthy, pathetic, piece of—"

Somebody grabbed his wrist before he could even do anything else. "Let go."

It was Levi.

"And who the fuck are you?"

He was small, but his presence was intimidating, firm. "My friend already apologized. Isn't that enough?"

The stranger released his hold of Hange and held out the stained fabric. "Fucking pay for this shirt, asshole!"

Hange was mouthing 'sorry, sorry, sorry,' to him, their eyes filled with apology. Levi didn't bat an eyelash. Instead, he quickly took out twenty bucks from his wallet and shoved it into the huge man's hand. He then grabbed his friend by the elbow. "Hange, come on."

"Hey, this isn't enough, shortstack," the stranger grumbled, crumpling the bill. He gestured once more to his stained shirt. "Do you know how much I bought this for?"

"You could buy a similar one from one of the thrift stores downtown for less than half the price. I doubt anybody would notice." He tugged at Hange again and headed for the exit.

"What did you say, you little—"

They were out of the restaurant before the man could even finish. The manager had kept the customer in his seat, trying to console him with a discounted coupon.

Outside was a breath of fresh air, the coolness of it enough to clear their minds.

“You alright?”

Hange was still trembling. Their lips quivered, too. They had never been roughly-held like that before. Levi calmed them down by rubbing their back, urging them to take slow, steady breaths.

"Levi?" Petra called after the two of them. "Are we still heading to the movie?"

Hange had feared this all along. They didn't want to ruin his date with Petra; they merely wanted to see Levi, and now they had done it. Hange held their own face in both hands. Levi saw it and knew what he had to do.

“I’m sorry, Petra, but we should probably call it off at this point.”

"Should we re-sched?"

Levi paused before responding. "I had a good time tonight, Petra. But I think... once is enough.

“Oh. Okay.” Petra stood still for a moment, disappointed. They expected her to cause a scene, to thrash at him or at Hange, and then complain about her evening. But to Petra's credit, she merely broke into a smile and said, "Thanks for giving me a chance, Levi. I had a good time, too. You guys enjoy the rest of the night."

The huge beefy man suddenly burst out of the glass door, the restaurant manager no longer able to hold him back. "You fucking punks, I'm going to call the police—"

Hange hid behind Levi out of instinct, which didn't make any sense, considering that he was a couple inches shorter than them. "What now?" Their hand was still in his.

"Go ahead, Petra's safe with me," Moblit assured them. "I'll text you guys once we get home safely."

Levi nodded and took off with Hange.

They ran past the gardens, past the expensive shops, past the fountains and the bright lights. Everything seemed like a blur. Hange's senses had overloaded their brain at this point, especially since Levi's hand was still holding on to theirs. It was warm. They never expected any of these to happen. Levi would look over his shoulder once in a while to see if Hange could still keep up. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, and with every tug of their hand, Hange felt like they were living in a dream. The two of them had already reached the station, heavily panting as they clutched their chest.

"So much for trailing me all this time, Four-Eyes," Levi heaved. He knew.

Hange was beyond apologetic. "I'm sorry, okay! I just wanted to see how you'd act around someone while on a date."

Levi made another scoffing sound. For a minute, Hange thought he was mad. But the intensity in his eyes was full of longing, like somehow, he did want Hange to follow him. And then Levi sighed. "Erwin told me you might be spying; my suspicions were confirmed when I saw you hiding behind the plants."

“Oh.” Hange had nothing else to say. “Well, then, I, uhm, I should probably head home. Sorry for ruining your date."

They were about to leave when Levi held their hand once again, stopping Hange in their tracks. "Where do you want to go?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"You already ruined my date, so you might as well hang out with me for the rest of the night."

Hange couldn't believe what they were hearing. It was almost too good to be true. But the reality dawned upon them; they were still in Makati, and they couldn’t really afford any of these places. "Uh… well, I don't really have any money, and I'm not really sure I want to dine here…"

"It's fine,” Levi said. “I know a place to go."

-------

Part 2 coming up soon!

[zombiegurlmode]

Taxi camila cabello

It’s funny how they only relate the song to matthew because of the line english man and yet discarded the entire lyrics of the song:

1) during their PR, the two could barely be seen separated. It’s like they were glued to each other. In taxi’s lyrics - “we ran out of time again tonight. And it happens everytime.”

Sounds like camila is spending time with someone on a very limited timeframe. Like camila is exasperated that their tender moments must cease until their next encounter. Yeah, these two lines clearly speak of matthew. CLEARLY! No arguments here! Enough camren shippers! *sarcasm* (disclaimer: sorry need to emphasize the word sarcasm here. Since people are in the virtual world most of the time, there has been incremental reports in the decline of people’s ability to detect sarcasm)

2) “Darling, I think that this might be the greatest love story. That's never been, never been, never been, never been easy”

oh yeah again totally proves it’s about matthew. Like liven people! Are you blind? I totally see it. The greatest love story is about a man and a woman that has never been easy. No wonder i see men and women couples everywhere. Like my dad and mom, my brother and his wife, my officemates and their respective husbands. Oh yeah and the wedding rate between a man and a woman across the globe is quite phenomal too. Ok, so what’s so great about a love story that i see as common as the sky is blue? And what is so difficult about it that everyone around me could do it? Is it classified as great that it’s legendary? (Do i need to insert another disclaimer here? I think by now i don’t need to right?) Oh i know. It’s so legendary that they could not contain themselves and ended up breaking the relationship. Quite right. Moving on, shall we?

3) “Where the hell have you been hiding?” Probably from the damn public or the management. Who knows really? But who am I kidding? Who am i really referring to? This song is about matthew. What’s he hidding from? You both didn’t bother to hide when you were lip locking in the damn park! Oh i get it! He’s hidding in the trunk of the taxi cab that’s why camila titled the song as taxi. She found an english man hidding in a taxi cab’s trunk. And that’s how the greatest love story has been foretold.

“We'll tell the moon when we're old” ok let’s throw a bone to my fellow delusional camren shippers. We have to wait for century until they confirm it. We all heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. They’re only going to tell the moon when they’re old. So prepare for launch off people it’s going to be a long bumpy ride.

“The greatest love story that's never been told” if it’s love between a man and a woman which is so special, so legendary, so great that’s never been told because almost the entire population of the world has been doing it, why was it never been told again? Unless... ok stop, stop, just stop right there! This is about matthew! Sure... I get it. It’s never been told because everyone’s doing it and getting married and having children that really there’s no need to tell. Everyone already knows it. So cliche man. Let’s carry on even i’m getting bored.

4)

5) were you waiting for number 4? It has never been told before remember? So let’s just move on to number 5 shall we?

“Funny how no one knows all of our inside jokes (ah! Now we know why whoever that person is laughed at all of camila’s jokes... wait, wait, wait, wrong person. I’ll just pretend i did not write this)

You know my demons by name, I know your beautiful soul (is this why both of them speak of healing? Like they both are in therapy? Wait, who are we talking about again? Or why they have these secretive looks that held KFCs secret spices *cough* getting side tracked here)

All of the secret we keep, you know that I'll never leave” (hmmm... more secrets locked away in vaults.... you two and all your secrecy. Sure you’d been so secretive that the park incident just kind of happened right? Just to be clear, like i’ve written there has been steady decline in the ability to detect sarcasm and i might be suffering from one as well, we’re still referring to matthew here right? So the public news of your break up was a setup? How could you?!)

Just a question here: have any of you ever heard matthew laugh at camila’s jokes? No really? I’m serious this time, or not. Either way... it’s never been told. Carry on.

6) “And yet, there's still so much left to unfold

The greatest love story that's never been told” ah so matthew and camila pretended to break up publicly, so camila could pursue another public relationship with shawn and then.. ok, what is the point again? Because there is so much left untold for couples who broke up? Is that it? Because again the greatest love story that’s never been told is about a couple ending up being torn apart right? That was what camila is saying here right? Ah i see where this is going. She never got the chance to talk about the break up. Yup! She was salty about that. Did she even address it directly? I can’t remeber. Maybe she also wanted to make a remake of the movie the break up. Who knows really? Last i heard camila’s brain is like a corn maze only the deserving ones could run through it and crack the code.

Now, that we’ve proven that it’s all about matthew. I think it’s time to speak to my fellow delusional camren shippers again. This outro part is what we call a point retention if the song lyrics was a speech. The purpose of point retention is quite literal. It’s an emphasis for us to retain the sole intention or meaning or message behind the speech or in this case song. I’ll just highlight it. There is no need to go in deep with camren shippers. They know how to read between the lines: “And yet, there's still so much left to unfold. The greatest love story that's never been told”

[moonstarsolar96]

Bohemian Rhapsody

By

MoonstarSolar

Warning

Text copyright © Kiths L. Napao ™ 2021-

The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. This story is published subject to the condition that it shall not be reproduced or retransmitted in whole or in part, in any manner, without the written consent of the copyright holder, and any infringement of this is a violation of copyright law.

A single copy of the materials available in this story may be made, solely for personal, noncommercial use. Individuals must preserve any copyright or other notices contained in or associated with them. Users may not distribute said copies to others, whether or not in electronic form or in hard copy, without prior written consent of the copyright holder of the materials. Contact information for requests for permission to reproduce or distribute materials available through this course are listed below:

Email: kithsnapao@gmail.com

Discord: MoonstarSolar#7479

All rights reserved ® MoonstarSolar™

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

••••

Synopsis

Bohemian Rhapsody depicts the story of Penelope and Sev, who have a love-hate relationship between the two of them. Sev is the most self-obsessed, narcissistic, jerk she has ever met. He's her boss, yes, but she won't let him ruin her career, even her day. Sev is the co-founder and CEO of Grey Holdings. He is one of the richest businessmen and also one of the youngest billionaires in the whole world. He was featured in Spring Magazine's Top Person of the Year. Steven Grey may look like a nice person, but deep down, he's a bad boy. He never fails to make Penelope's life a living hell as soon as they meet. He likes to taunt her. He likes to tease her. He wants to own her. He became obsessed with her.

Chapter 1: Is this the real life?

I have been an intern at Grey Holdings for exactly a year. I was surprised to learn that I had been promoted to be the supervisor of the team. Linda, one of my co-workers, ran up to me and hugged me as she congratulated me on having the promotion.

"I'm so happy that we're on the same team!" she happily said and hugged me tighter, swaying our bodies from side to side as I tried to untangle her curly blonde hair from the rim of my glasses.

"Thanks, Linda. I am also happy that I can now show my mom this black calling card!" I showed her my calling card that I got earlier that our senior supervisor gave me.

We have three colors for three types of calling cards. The white ones are for lower-ranked employees like interns. The black ones are for higher ranks, like supervisors. And the gold ones are for the CEO, CFO, and COO.

Grey Holdings Inc. is one of the biggest, and also the best companies in the whole world. Our company is the parent company of Samseong, Hyeondae, and many more. The company even owns an expensive hospital--Grey Medical Center. If you're wondering, a holding company is a company that owns the outstanding stock of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies to form a corporate group.

I really love everything about the company. We have a world-class lobby that looks like you're in a five-star hotel. We have a big cafeteria where the pantries are always full and anything that you like will be free and it wasn't even deducted from your salary. We also have a room where we can rest and take a nap.

"Penelope, I need you at my office now," my boss, Mr. Cohen, called. I excused myself from Linda's nonstop embrace and headed to my boss' office door.

"Come on," I heard him say. "Here is your new company ID, company phone, company laptop, and your new payslip." Mr. Cohen handed me all of the things that I needed to start my new journey in life. I am now an official employee of Grey Holdings Inc.

I have never been this happy in my entire life.

I am so happy, I feel like I'm on cloud nine.

But not until I met the worst person inside this huge building.

Steven Grey. The youngest, the prettiest *gags*, and the richest CEO of the company. His company became the fastest-growing company of the year. In just a few years, his business boomed, and he managed and held a large number of stock investments from other big companies and investors. It was all because of Steven Grey's hard work.

Linda has been a huge fan of the guy since she first stepped foot in this company until now.She never fails to fantasize about him, though she had a boyfriend. I told her that John was much prettier than Mr. Grey, but she gave me a horrifying look when I said that.

All of my other female officemates agree with Linda. They think of him as a God. But not me.

The guy is so self-obsessed. He can't function whenever he can't see his face in the mirror when going out of his office and going for an interview. He also can not stop himself from avoiding issues with himself and some other girls that he dated.

People are so fond of him, and he likes the attention.

Ever wonder why I hate him so much, I could die?

He was one of my college friends back then.

And yes, we had a past.

I was a scholar at Grey's Foundation back in high school. When I became a college student, I got an offer from Grey's Academy. That's where I met him and became friends with him.

He was the first one to talk to me back then, when literally, all of my schoolmates and classmates bullied me every time I stepped my foot on the marbled tiles of the school's entrance.

Sev--I mean Steven, helped me by threatening all of the bullies to stop harassing me or else they would be expelled and he would make sure that they'd never get into any universities.

They somehow stopped one day, and I was very thankful for that.

We became friends and I got into the same circle as him. We had some mutual understanding back then, but it all vanished when I learned that he and his friends played a bet on me.

His best friend, Noah, told me and I got mad. I was really thankful that there was Noah. He's always by my side. Noah became my best friend when Steven kicked him out of his group of friends.

And since then, the bullies continued to harass me again and again, until I transferred to another university because of their actions.

Steven just watched me get bullied and turned his back on me. Noah remained at Grey's Academy because his father wouldn't let him transfer to my school because it's for 'poor' people.

I lost contact with Noah and my other friends when I transferred, so I've decided to live a new life. Away from the bullies, and away from Steven Grey.

Whenever we saw each other in the company, I always turned my back first and ran away from him. I hate him even though I work for him. I am running away from him because I'm so scared he might break me again like what he did to me in college.

Whenever we saw each other, I was so confused because he was looking at me like he missed me, or did he not? My heart thumps louder whenever we make eye contact.

This day was the first time we got to be together in one room. Mr. Cohen introduced me to him as the new supervisor of the team.

But we were all surprised when Mr. Steven Grey started speaking. "Mr. Cohen, I'd like her to be my secretary."

To be continued...

[sometime-in-1995]

Ya'll know what, I'm more disgusted about ya'll uglies of course being ugly about Heechul & Momo dating. Ya'll trying to act decent, innocent & rightful. UGH Puhleaseu I'm not even surprised about your reactions lol You don't even let SJ breathe in peace since 2005. I don't think there's any need to justify Heechul & Momo's relationship because they didn't do anything wrong. It's none of our fucking business, and it's not up to us to say if the person our fave's dating is right for them or not.

I mean like, ya'll uglies sound like a joke to me. Ya'll really be crying about their age gap when you're out here fantasizing/fetishizing/sexualizing about idols in their mid 20s to late 30s when you haven't even started or in the middle of puberty. Kids, sit down and drink your milk.

Humans date whoever they feel attracted to. Most people date someone who's around their age. But some date someone who are younger or older than them and that doesn't necessarily mean they're pedophiles. Ya'll really should stop shaming and stigmatizing mental health conditions, it's freakin' 2020 for heaven's sake.

Ya'll always sound so weak, playing victim and abused. Please people, thank you for caring but you're unnecessarily and inappropriately reacting to the matter. Besides who are you to invalidate Momo's choices or anyone who are in that kind of relationship? If you're not into this kind of relationship, it doesn't mean Momo can't be in one too.

I hope those people making shitty posts about Heechul dating Momo because of their age gap won't choke on it one day. I hope ya'll really won't regret any of it when you or your future kids end up in a relationship with someone who's 10+yrs older/younger. It's 2020, age gap shouldn't be a big issue in a relationship anymore. There are a lot more disturbing relationship issues than this that you should put your effort into. The shitty things these uglies posted about Heechul are so grave. Do ya'll even hear yourself when you posted those shitty things? I just hope they realize the weight of it but who am I kidding? They never learn. They be telling us that we have such a good image of Heechul in our head yet we don't know who he really is. Lol Joke's on them, the same goes for everyone of us. No fan knows their idol too well. Ya'll think we don't know that? Again, kids, sit down. Stop lecturing us about things you know nothing about. I know even if I don't make this post, the rest of ELF will come at you.

I don't think Heechul just mindlessly and irresponsibly confirmed the news without considering Momo's sake. If there's anyone who understands Momo's situation now as an idol, that's Heechul. He've been through it and he definitely wouldn't want Momo to lose any of the things she've worked hard for. There's a reason why JYP has this 3year rule for their artists. It's making their hard work during trainee days payoff for themselves and for the company to have the return of investments they put on them. The succeeding years after that allows them to date recognizing their needs as a human being and to help them have inspiration as an artist. Why can't ya'll uglies do the same?

It's our first working day at work and the first news I hear from my officemate/friend who is a Carat is the news of Heechul dating Momo and I couldn't be any happier! What a beautiful news ro start the day, to start the year! I'm sincerely so happy for Heechul & Momo. Considering all the things that has happened last year, he deserves all the happiness he could get from being in a relationship with Momo. For the 15yrs in his career, no one was ever exposed nor confirmed to be his girlfriend and him confirming the dating news means a lot. For me, this means that he's ready. He's been hinting about wanting to settle down and I guess he's been prepping us for this day. I cannot speak much about Momo aside from being the sweetest girl ever since their debut and I really like her. Heechul has always told us ELF to find someone to date so they could also date and get married without worries. But I think, that's the other way around for me. I want to see them settling down happy so I could be at peace as a fan. That's all I really want for them, happiness. So may Heechul and Momo's relationship flourish and prove that what they have is true. If taking time off is what you need Heenim, then so be it. Take your time, we'll just be here supporting you.

[the-haunted-office]

Seeing Ed take off his glasses and put them on nightstand prompts her to take off her own. She'd forgotten to do that and she isn't sure why - probably because she was tired and wasn't paying attention. It's a little awkward, putting her glasses on someone else's nightstand, but then she is in someone else's bed and shouldn't that be more awkward?

She finds that it doesn't feel so awkward, though. If anything, she feels pretty comfortable. She's listening to Ed speak and trying to figure out exactly how she feels about this whole thing, and it takes her a moment to figure it out.

Lonely. She doesn't feel lonely right now. She feels comfortable because she doesn't feel lonely. It's been a long time since she hasn't felt that way in the Office, even among her Officemates, especially now that her sister is gone. Being with people who feel like family is one thing. Being with someone who doesn't feel like family but is a friend is another. True, she doesn't know Ed all that well as they've only recently met, but she knows him well enough to consider him a friend. Maybe not a best friend, but... a friend. Enough to be in his room and sleeping in his bed and to not feel so lonely for the time being.

For a moment, she thinks about saying something to this effect. To say something like, "Thanks for letting me stay, I've been so sad and lonely and truth be told I'm so tired of it, I'm so, so tired of being alone and feeling alone all the time, of screaming out to people that I feel so alone and nobody hearing me, it's killing me, and my sister just died but nobody cared, nobody even noticed, and I'm the only one who is hurting from it, really hurting, I'm so alone, so thank you for asking me to stay."

But she doesn't. She says none of that, not even so much as a little "thank you", because even that much would be too much, she fears. Besides, he doesn't want to hear all that. And he probably wouldn't care either. People never do.

Instead, she lets out a groggy little laugh. "You're damn right, I am. Seriously, though... there's nothing wrong with the hallways... I mean... outside of the whole... forced dimension-hopping thing," she says with a sigh, "and Shadow creeping on people, it's just Dorian and Cyrus, and... you know, maybe some other ghosts hanging about. That sort of thing. Anybody here give you any shit, tell me, and I'll take care of it."

Ed honestly hadn't expected Doomsday to agree to stay, except before he could even think to discuss sleeping arrangements, she was in his bed, and he was left standing in the middle of his room awkwardly.

It had been a very long time since he had any form of company, and Ed... had no idea what to say or do.

...That was his bed, but he was under no illusion that she wouldn't beat him into a bloody pulp if he overstepped her boundaries. Or. Maybe not a bloody pulp. He hoped, especially since they still had no idea if he would respawn if she did. She would certainly beat his ass six ways from Sunday. (Or, from Thursday, he should say? Thirteen ways from Thursday, to keep the alliteration? That's besides the point. She'd make him regret it.)

For a moment, he considered just curling up on the dog bed with Colossus, though he knew he would regret it in the morning.

The bed is big enough that they could share it without being right on top of each other.

He'd just sat down on the edge of the bed, about to lay down on the opposite side from Doom when she spoke. The sentiment is sweet, like having a sister he'd always wanted but never dared hope for. Except... taken to the logical conclusion...do anything she didn't like, and he'd suffer the consequences as well.

Ignoring the threat, though, Ed wasn't sure what had prompted her to say that, what she thought he was afraid of. He'd figured she'd be more likely to pass out in the hallway from exhaustion than actually die, though he knew waking up from that would be painful. Or... It would have been for him. He had no idea if her magic healing ability--or whatever it was called--extended to mitigating the back pains that inevitably came with age or not.

"...Yeah, I know," he murmured quietly, finally taking of his glasses, setting them on the nightstand, and settling in bed. He turned over onto his stomach, face turned toward Doom, and arms tucked under his chest. "Nobody would dare mess with you... You're... the most terrifying... in this forest."

[iankarlo]

81 Days Before Christmas

What a Monday morning. It was a super duper busy Monday to me. I was assisting Dade and I was too focused to finish our job to be done. I am not participating in any discussion in our team the entire morning. I am not talking to him the whole day as I am trying not to be toxic to him. I tried to ask for his attention cause I know I have been asking for it and I want to give him the space that he wanted, I wanted to not to interrupt him at work, I just wanted him to be free from my trace, if that’s makes him happy.

However, upon being busy this morning, he is trying to make conversation with me, I mean even though its work related, I know sometimes that’s his technique to talk to me, I feel it. I know him, he is not doing it in a regular day to me. He is not initiating a talk to me. I am always starting the talk. So since this weekend, I gave him the space that he needs. Even though I miss him a lot, I tried not to have even a single conversation with him.

This afternoon, I was talking to our other officemate, and I am not talking to him too, it’s like he is not there. We’ve been talking like almost 15 minutes, a non-stop conversation. He was acting silent there until he tried to join in our conversation and he talked about the social issues which I am really in to. He even tagged me in a post which I just reacted. We talked about the government and he even asked my in sights about the COVID, he even telling my name in his talks. It’s weird but I’m just letting him. Around 5PM, he cut off the talk and we stopped our videocall.

Dade and I still talked about the shit things at work earlier. We kept on laughing with their reactions earlier and just making our mood lighter. Dade is someone I can talk to when I feel super stressed. He can make me feel better and calm. 

I went out to get some food and I bought siomai cause I am craving for it since then. I got it from Master siomai and I had dinner with my brother and my parents. It’s been a while since the last time we ate as a family. I miss eating with them.

After our dinner, I went straight to our bathroom and took a bath. While I was browsing on Twitter, he messaged me about Dade, like he feel sad what happened to Dade, he even asked me to call him, cause he misplaced his phone, and asked me about the GCash, etc., but I got scared on falling back to those technique so I cut it off and told him that I will take a bath and I replied to him after almost an hour but he didn’t replied to me anymore as he is still working. 

It’s fine. I am really used to his actions like that. He even like to post about his past love, like he is still waiting for that person to come back to him. I don’t know to him. Hello!!! I’m here, why you kept on waiting for someone to comeback when that person dumped you already. Hello!!! I’m here!!!.

So, I stopped staring at his posts cause I am losing my temper and patience. 

Anyway, he is so cuter today but I tried not to make so much stares to him. 

Good night.

Love Always,

Iyaaan

[heechulhamster]

The Truth You Can’t Hide IV

KIM JUNMYEON (SUHO) x Fem Reader

Chapter 4 [The Truth You Can’t Hide MASTERLIST]

1 - 2 - 3 -  4 - 5 - 6 - 7 ongoing

You did it so well for six years. You’ve hid your son from the biggest threat of his life. But one mishap led to the biggest secret in your life being face to face with the man you’ve kept him away from all these years - his father.

Mafia!AU, Angst.

Each muscle of your feet started to ache as the clock struck eight, the current case the law firm you worked as a paralegal in required you to go overtime. You’ve had an internal agreement with yourself to stay in the firm and distance yourself from Junmyeon’s line of work, as you know that his two separate businesses will always coincide with the other - and you wouldn’t want both of Jaejin’s parents to have an indecent track record. 

Only a few lights are lit at this time of the night, most of your officemates already in the comforts of their own home and family. An empty sigh of exhaustion escaped your lips as you sat back on your chair, freeing your feet from the tormenting heels before neatly stacking and organizing the paperwork left on your table. Organizing the case files by urgency as you plan to get your hands on it eagerly the first thing tomorrow. 

“Did Mr. Goo request you on overtime again? You should take a rest.” A sudden voice spoke behind you, making you turn around. You see Atty. Zhang, one of the associate lawyers in the firm. His cripst white dress shirt neatly tucked in his black pants as he leaned over the table next to yours. 

“No, Sir. I did it voluntarily. I’m really absorbed on this recent case.” You said with a light chuckle, trying your best to hide your fatigue from the day. 

You heard him take light footsteps on the way closer to your desk, eventually you saw Atty. Zhang’s hands over the pile of paperwork on your desk. “Is this the one regarding the sexual harrasment case of that actor…” He snapped his fingers three times, apparently thinking about the name that’s on the tip of his tongue. “Seojoon? Bang Seo Joon?” 

“Yes, I’ve been re-reading his sworn statements and the victim’s.” You stated as he read through the pages of the case file. 

“This file’s been through a lot.” He said, smiling over the littered highlights and notations you’ve made all throughout the paper. “Now tell me if there’s anything you’ve found. Are we on the losing end here?” 

“There has been inconsistencies with the victim’s sworn statements. Like how she said that Mr. Bang and her met around dinner at that Monday, but she has also stated that her shift as a waitress ends at closing time. She had once said that he went on a date with Mr. Bang on a Tuesday the week prior, so both Monday and Tuesday couldn’t have been her off days. And the timeline of the alleged harassment doesn’t quite add up. There’s a lot of lapses here and there.” 

“You’ve really put your mind on this haven’t you? I’m impressed. Poor SeoJoon must’ve been framed.” He said smiling at you, the wells of his cheeks showing as adorable dimples as he shone his bright teeth in amazement. “But you need to rest for now, the case can wait for another day, don’t you think?” 

“I’m actually on my way out.” You explained as your hands tidied your desk a bit more, putting the scattered pens and pencils back on the green holder just on the corner of the black modern table. 

“I’ll come with you, then.” Mr. Zhang said with a hearty smile. 

Your way down the building was filled with short talks, including of which where he asked you to plainly call him Yixing as the both of you are in the same age. It would be an understatement to describe him as attractive, he’s magnetic - naturally absorbing every attention and respect by everyone graced by his presence. Yet oddly humble despite being aware of his huge presence. Yixing know how enticing he is, yet he doesn’t impose the fact on anyone. Just letting his trait speak for itself. 

“Where are you parked?” He asked, suddenly rising from your shared laughters as you both walk out of the building. 

“I take a cab to work.” You answered simply as a matter of fact. 

“Are you serious?” Yixing responded in shock, “Do they really pay paralegals that low here?” 

“No, it’s just that I haven’t had time yet to renew my license and fix papers for a new car, you know. It’s a hassle.” You explained. 

“Lucky you tonight, “cause I’m morally obliged to give you a ride.” He said lightheartedly, his chuckle low and baritone that it just lingers in your ear. 

“You don’t need to.” You waved your hands to accentuate your declination, yet the smile on his eyes told you that he’s insisting.

“Who told you I’m taking no for an answer?” And with his bright smile emphasised with his charming dimples, you wouldn’t even dare to say no. 

Only a few minutes in the ride, your phone flashed with a text from Junmyeon. Reading that he and Jaejin are out for dinner in a nearby restaurant and that as per your son’s request, both of them are waiting for you. 

“You know that Japanese restaurant near the station?” You asked Yixing, to which he answered a simple yes. “Can you drop me off there instead? Someone just texted and I’ll be meeting them there.” 

“Sure thing.” He responded with a chuckle, which stirred a confused look from you on the shotgun seat. “I almost thought you’d ask me out for dinner there.” 

His implication made you blush, something that you haven’t experienced for a while. “I’m sorry to get your hopes up.” You said with a chuckle rhyming his. 

“Too bad for me, I guess.” Another few laughters was all that you shared while he drove silently. Not yet developing a dynamic beyond being coworkers resulted in an odd silent tension between the two of you. As if feeling that both parties want to speak yet not finding the courage to do so. 

“How long have you been working in the firm again?” Yixing spoke, finally ending the tormenting ill-at-ease silence. 

“Barely three months.” You answered as-a-matter-of-fact. 

“That’s odd.” He simply remarked, sensing a sheer curiosity on the tone of his voice. You expressed a simple hum in the guise of an inquiry. “I mean, three months yet as far as I remember this is the first time we talked properly. Aside from you asking me for staples, of course.”

The growing blush on your cheeks finally bloomed when he spoke of that incident. It was the early weeks of your job in the firm, hardly even familiar to everyone in the workplace. Marking probably the first time you noted of Yixing’s existence, his youthful appearance made you think he was just one of the interns or a paralegal. Atty. Goo was a man who values his time, one that is always in a rush that’s why being assigned in his team challenged you. That day, you were running late for work - your cousin who was supposed to take care of Jaejin was a quarter of an hour late arriving at your home. You carried the files, or bundles of paper which aren’t stapled to Atty. Goo’s liking just yet. That’s when you came across him, carrying his leather suitcase and a cup of coffee, just when panic started to kick in. 

“Uhm.. Hi!” You waved your right hand as your left hand tightly gripped the bunches of papers, your feet dashing in front of him. “I’m new here, as much as I would like to do a proper introduction Mr. Goo needs these papers almost five minutes ago, so could you be my savior and lend me some staples?” You tried to flash your sweetest smile, maybe charming people would still work. 

“Hold a second.” He answered with his pearly white, magazine cover teeth showed. Probably laughing at how ridiculous you look for your new job. He put down his still steaming cup of coffee on the table nearest to the both of you, before scanning his bag for the said tool. Retrieving a few staple pins in his bag a few seconds later. “This enough?” 

“Yes! Thank you so much!” You rushed and not-so-carefully put the pages of case files and statements on the same table. Loading your stapler with the pins and organizing the pages by its groups. 

The moment you finished the dreaded task, the striking man was long gone by your side. And you quickly rushed to Atty. Goo’s room, politely apologizing for the delay as you laid down the papers at his desk. 

It was later that day that you discovered that the man you ambushed for staples earlier was no intern, nor a paralegal. Just outside Atty. Goo’s room, you saw the office that has been unoccupied for the first few days you’ve been there at the firm. They said that Atty. Zhang was back at China for personal reasons. And now he’s obviously back, and missing a few staple pins in his arsenal. 

“Don’t bring that back! Please.” You covered your face from his sight with your left hand in embarrassment. “It was so awkward for me to talk to you afterwards.” 

“It wasn’t a big deal, really. I found it oddly adorable, even.” Yixing noted. “I mean, I don’t look that old enough to be one of the lawyers, don’t I?” He said, a notion of cockiness evident in his statement. 

And he was just being truthful, the firm was filled by tenured and accomplished lawyers already in their 50’s. It was a shock to learn that he was among them. A tall, singularly handsome and well versed young lawyer already making his mark in the city.

“This is the place, isn’t it?” He pointed to the right, a remarkably cosmopolitan Japanese restaurant in the wealthiest areas of Seoul. “Are you going on a date? This seems to be too extravagant for a simple dinner. Expensive taste.” 

“It’s not a date. Easy to say that this person I’m meeting is a little bit too loaded in their bank account.” You said lightheartedly, to which Yixing also responded with a light laughter. “Thanks for the ride, Yixing.”

Before your hand even opened the door, he was able to hold you back by speaking again. “I was wondering if I could keep my hopes up and actually take you out for dinner some time.” 

Your eyes almost widened at his indication. “Is this dinner in line of work or…” 

“A date? Most preferably so.” He answered as his fingers lightly played with the steering wheel, signifying uneasiness or even nervousness. 

“Oh.”

“Does that oh means you acknowledge my statement or does it indicate that you’re declining the proposal?” Yixing’s choice of words made you feel like a defendant in inquisition. 

“It meant that oh, I didn’t expect to be in the receiving end of such proposal. But I’ll keep the offer in mind.” You playfully reciprocated his legalese tone.

“How long would the processing take?” Yixing asked back. 

“Three working days.” 

“Noted, see you on Friday?” He replied, understanding what you meant quicker than lightning. He flashed his charmingly irresistible smile yet again that made you flash one in return. 

“See you, Atty. Zhang.” 

The dinner was spent with Jaejin’s juvenile astonishment over the fact that fish can be eaten raw. Despite the fact that you haven’t allowed him to eat sashimi just yet, he was already looking forward on the day you’ll let him do so, settling on a good bowl of traditional and expensive ramen. And it’s in these times that you realize how close the two have gotten. How Jaejin and Junmyeon would share inside jokes that would leave you wondering on your own. The fact that the two already have bonded this tight relationship between the two of them that no one can penetrate. And that’s still in spite of Jaejin’s lack of knowledge regarding who Junmyeon really is in his life. 

And you’d be lying if you don’t admit to yourself that your life has been easier with Junmyeon in it again. You don’t even have to work the long hours just to make sure that you’ll be able to save enough money for Jaejin’s future while still making all ends meet. Junmyeon already opened a trust fund under your son’s name. The hassle of looking for someone to take care of him while at work was now long gone, with Jaejin having his own sitters that Junmyeon grew up with himself. He was already taking the majority of the parental roles even before he was formally introduced as his father. 

“Goodnight, Mama. I love you.” Jaejin declared with a youthful smile on his face just after he finished his nightly prayer. To which you answered the same sentiments before kissing his forehead and eventually walking out of the room. 

It was agreed upon you and Junmyeon for you to take the guest room. As Jaejin is now old enough to sleep on his own. And your habitual over time at work could cause a sense of discomfort to Jaejin if he’s still dependent at your presence for sleep. 

You were stunned to see Junmyeon standing outside Jaejin’s room after you shut the door. “Oh, Hi.” 

“Hey.” He answered thriftily. A few seconds have passed and nobody dared to talk, and all you were able to muster was raising your eyebrows. 

“Who were you with earlier?” Junmyeon asked curiously. 

“Huh? What?” You didn’t quite catch what he was pertaining to. 

“Who dropped you off earlier? I recognized that a Tesla was too extra to be just a cab.” You tried to sense any hint of emotion in his voice yet it just came off as a casual question. 

“Oh, it was someone from work.” You started walking, your steps rhyming with the cadence of his feet. 

“Workmate or… you know, someone.” He stalled, and you understand the connotation. 

“Workmate that kind of just expressed that he wanted to take me out on a date. Kinda.” You couldn’t help but chuckle as you remember that Yixing, an eligible bachelor as one could get, has just asked you out on a date. 

“So.. are you going?” Junmyeon’s eyes shrunk in curiosity. 

“Yeah. I mean he’s nice, undoubtedly attractive. Would be dumb to not give him a shot don’t you think?” You replied, still wearing a smile on your face. 

“I mean, you look excited. So I guess why not.” Junmyeon smiled back, but something in your guts just told you that it was visibly forced. 

“We wouldn’t have a problem with us having relationships right?” You tested the waters, as this relationship - cohabitation, coparenting, or whatever the two of you shared surely need to be clarified with bounds soon. 

“Yeah, yeah. No worries. We could go both live our lives, of course with Jaejin as priority.” 

“Of course. Another thing, I don’t think this would last much anyway. He doesn’t know yet that I have a son, whatever this is would probably end once he knows. I’ll just consider it as a dry run whether or not I still have it in me to be something for someone.” You continued as both of you approached the hallway where you would eventually part ways. 

“If he does that, it means he’s an asshole. And it will be his loss, his great loss.” Junmyeon smiled briefly and noticeably faint. 

You cleaned your hands on the apron that hung on your neck, dusting its material with a good amount of flour. Finally lining the pan with butter before pouring in the mix and eventually letting nature do its thing once you put it inside the preheated oven. Sitting on the chair at the kitchen island and a lonesome red juicy apple in hand, you just let yourself  to detach from reality as you relaxed. The piling paperwork slowly creeping up your sanity, and your only solace was Jaejin’s hugs at night - and maybe the few jubilant smiles that you and Yixing share at work. 

The past two days saw a rise of interactions between the two of you. Earlier, he even dropped by your desk to give a thoughtful warm cup of coffee when he saw you taking piles of papers head on. And Yixing’s brand new presence is your life is refreshing. To relinquish that juvenile feeling of excitement is a good thing to feel every once in a while, and for you it’s really been a while. 

“How’s parent life with ex holding up?” Your quiet thoughts were invaded by a man who you didn’t notice sit in front of you. 

“Minseok. I didn’t see you there.” You said, your widened eyes by shock looking at his feline features. 

“I could tell, pretty sure that apple’s gone dizzy from rolling over your hands too much.” He joked, where you answered a laugh to. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. How’s things?”

“Well, obviously a lot has changed since you’ve last seen me.” And the last time he has seen you, aside from the unfateful meeting at the mall, was more recent than anyone would expect. 

“Yeah, I mean he walks now.” Minseok lightly tapped his fingers on the granite countertop. “Last time I saw him he still needs to be carried everywhere.” You just smiled at the thought, before he continued. “And the biggest change could be the fact that Jun knows now.” 

“Probably the biggest change.” You replied. 

The scorching heat of Los Angeles hasn’t gotten into your system yet. Your palms and back sweaty and tired from carrying all the grocery bags which you held with much caution. You’re body’s carrying too much, all these produce, milk cartons, and of course the baby that’s growing in your stomach. Struggling to put down the bags as you couldn’t quickly squat, you curse yourself again for deciding to go through this alone. 

“Need some help?” An oddly familiar voice presented itself beside you, making a chill run down your spine. He couldn’t be here, he shouldn’t be here. 

“Minseok…” You said in shock, your hands quickly lowering the grocery bags in an attempt to hide your 20 weeks pregnant stomach. 

“Let me get that, Y/N.” He stepped forward as he softly retrieved the grocery bags from your hands. Your stunned figure unable to protest nor to say anything. “Could you open your door now?”

“Yeah…” You answered with a nod, still unable to process his presence while getting your keys from your shoulder bag. 

Still silent, you both entered your small apartment. Barely decent enough for the way you were brought up. But this is all that you have now, and it’s better than nothing. The past four months were the hardest for you. A twenty two year old expectant mother cut off by her influential family and left alone to live and make ends meet in a foreign land. Tough luck, tough life, you thought. 

“Where should I put these milk, in the fridge or…” Minseok asked yet you’re quick to cut him off. 

“Did he send you here?” You looked in his easily distinguishable eyes, now painted with imminent confusion. “Junmyeon, did he send you here?” 

“Send me? I’m not his employee.” He answered with a short almost humorless laugh. “I’ve been in LA for business the past few weeks. Didn’t expect to see you while doing groceries, found a familiar face, so I trailed you down. Too creepy?” 

“Does he know?” You asked, not bothering with the small courtesies as you were more nervous of the possibilities of finding him here.

“Where you’re at? Probably. He probably still keeps track of you.” Your breath hitched at Minseok’s response. “That you’re pregnant? I highly doubt. If he does, he wouldn’t let you live alone in this barely modest apartment.” 

Your hand uncontrollably caressed your bump, a sense of protectiveness flowing all over you. “Would you tell him?”

“Not if you don’t want me to.” There was sincerity in his voice, and you know Minseok is a man of his words. “Junmyeon is my friend, but you are too.” 

He slowly walked over your form that just sat on the sofa. “But first you need to make me understand why you left him and why you’re living in this…” He looked around the bare white walls, the undeniable lack of furnishings and decor “..sad excuse for a home, with no offense meant.” 

“Suho.” You dryly answered with almost a whisper, folds forming in his face in your response. “I didn’t leave Junmyeon. I left Suho. Whatever he is, I don’t want my son to do anything with him.” 

“You know, don’t you?” You asked him again even before he was able to form any answer. 

“I…” He started off, still processing any suitable answer. “I am aware of that, yes.” He slowly nodded, finally sitting down the uncomfortable wooden chair in front of you. “How did you…” 

“Your friend was stupid enough to leave a folder full of transactions where I could read it.” You answered bitterly, still unable to accept the harsh truth behind the man you so dearly loved. 

“Does he know that you… know?” Minseok was obviously careful in choosing his words, not wanting to upset a pregnant friend.

“You think I’ll be here if he’s aware that I know his dirty secret?” You said with a humorless laugh. “I don’t think I’d even be alive if so.” 

“Come on, it’s not the best money maker but Junmyeon wouldn’t kill you. Not in a million years.” You just responded by shaking your head. “But, why are you here? And why in a place like this? I mean, it’s nice that you’re independent. But… isn’t this a little too low for your taste?”

“My parents cut me off when they discovered I’m pregnant. I begged them not to tell Junmyeon, had to make an excuse in my own expense just for them to not to lash it out on him. Told them the baby wasn’t his, a result of a drunken one night stand at a high end bar. Told me I was a disgrace for letting such a man as Junmyeon go, called me a whore for being pregnant with a random stranger. So I guess here I am.” A bitter taste still lingers in your mouth as you relayed what hell you’ve went through. 

“But you don’t need to go through all of these, you could tell Junmyeon and..” You decided to cut him off even before he finishes his ill advice. 

“And have my child live off the money he makes by breaking the law and ruining people’s lives? I’d rather stay here, Min.” You stated, not even considering to bend your moral compass. 

He just sat there, an uncomfortable silence grew between the two of you as he struggled to digest the information. Minseok looked as if he’s thinking for an advice he could give or any action he could take. 

“I wouldn’t tell Junmyeon, I wouldn’t tell anyone in one condition.” He finally spoke, which you just nodded for him to proceed. “Let me help you. You’re still my friend, and Junmyeon is my friend, it would be rightful for me to help your child. I can’t let you stay here knowing a baby is on the way.”

“Another thing, you couldn’t stay here any longer. Junmyeon probably has his men tracked on you, and you need to lose them before your belly grows too much to hide. I know a place.”

Minseok kept in contact with you, and he kept his promise too. There has hardly been any indication that Junmyeon was aware of your whereabouts, or the fact that he knocked you up. Minseok was even the one to help you arrange fees in the hospital when you gave birth. He’s an heir to a trademarked coffee shop line that has hundreds of branches so you took no guilt in accepting his offer. 

“We kinda lost contact after Jaejin turned two. What happened?” He asked, swirling the contents of his glass making a sound of ice and water splashing around.

“Found a guy, he served as Jaejin’s father at that time. So I figured that I should cut all possible ties with my ex.” You answered, still playing with the unfortunate apple with your right hand. 

“Fair enough, I guess. You could only think of how shocked I am to see you in that mall. I don’t even know that you’re back here. I had no idea that I didn’t even think that child was Jaejin.” He suddenly said lightheartedly.

“Maybe it was inevitable.” You answered with a deep sigh. 

“Yeah, it was bound to happen.” He replied back. “But he’s doing a great job as a father now, isn’t he? He’s nailing it.”

“I guess. He and Jaejin are inseparable now.” You said, accompanied by a slight chuckle. 

“If it makes any difference…” He started as he stood up from his seat, leaving the now empty glass on the countertop. “The gifts were from Junmyeon. Tricked him with the fact that I signed him up as a foster father overseas to help him recover from you. So that’s pretty much it, until next time.” And with that, he left you alone in the kitchen still waiting for the cake to finish. And wondering about the what ifs and what could’ve beens. 

The red-bottomed black stiletto heels that you had for years now fitted your feet perfectly as you cautiously walked down the pathway of an exclusive and undeniably expensive Chinese restaurant. The splendid and effeminate white dress clinging to your body in ways that made you feel confident to be in such a place. 

“Reservation under Mr. Zhang?” You told the receptionist that wore a red cheongsam. She asked your name for confirmation before she asked one of the butlers to lead you to one of the distant tables. 

And there you saw Yixing Zhang, clad in a wonderfully simple black blazer and white dress shirt. A humble outfit that only made his stature and facial features pop out from feet away. The place was exquisite yet he seemingly outshined all crystal chandeliers and golden adorned walls. 

“You look fantastic.” He stood up from his seat as he kissed your hand, a trail of electricity climbing up your cheeks resulting to an unconcealable blush. 

“You, too.” You answered as he pulled a seat for you. And they say that chivalry is dead but the epitome of a gentleman was living and breathing in front of you. 

“Isn’t this a bit too much?” You whispered, a tad bit ashamed at the immense effort. 

“I figured that you have a bit of expensive taste. It’s just right to be on your best foot at the first date, right?” Yixing answered, a smile slowly forming on his face and his eyes adorably forming a smile as he does so. 

He willingly and enthusiastically introduced you to a myriad of chinese cuisine. Chatting over his childhood back in his motherland that was sparked in remembrance over the presence of cua pao and char siu. The funny stories of his nameless cat and his fond memories shared with his beloved mother. How he transferred from China to Korea for the better law education, and you just willingly listened and admired how animated his hands become while he speaks about something he’s passionate about. Waving his hands around as he hold his chopsticks makes him seem so alive and vibrant, yet his face still tells a story of seriousness and sincerity as a result of his years of law practice. 

“How about you? Why stop on being a paralegal? Haven’t you dreamt of pursuing law school?” Yixing asked with his eyes full of earnest intent to listen. And you feel your mood slip down, if the tables have turned and you’re now the subject, it was inevitable to admit who you really are - a mother. And you’re scared of losing this spark that you’re enjoying once he knows the truth. 

“That has been my lifelong dream, honestly. But things came up, change of plans…” You delayed your revelation. It’s not that you’re ashamed of Jaejin, it’s more of being afraid of being deemed unworthy over again. 

“What change of plans?” He asked as he wiped the sweet and sour sauce on his lips with the table napkin. 

“Got pregnant.” You answered simply, trying to put it lightly. 

Yixing visibly stalled in front of you, trying hard to digest the bomb you just dropped. And you understand his shock, it’s not the first time a promising date went downhill by the fact. But it still made you a tad bit sad that Yixing’s not an exception. 

“Dealbreaker?” You tried to chuckle. “I’m sorry for dropping the truth a bit too late. This dinner was going well but I couldn’t let it go on without you knowing.” You shook your head. 

“What? No! It’s not a dealbreaker. It’s… awesome.” Yixing’s charm filled dimples presented itself yet again while he smiled. “I just… I didn’t expect you to be a mother. You don’t look like one just yet.” 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” You said with a smile. 

“So how old is he.. He or she?” He asked again, and you could feel like he was sincerely interested in talking about Jaejin. “Wait, you’re not married right?”

“Jaejin, my son, is 6 years old. And yes, I’m not married.” You said with a smile.

“I know this is a sensitive subject but, where’s Jaejin’s father?” 

“We live with him, just for the past few months. But we’re not together. We’re civil just for the sake of Jaejin.” You explained. 

“So, coparenting?” He asked again. 

“Yes, I think you could call it like that.” You answered again, and a period of short silence enveloped the two of you before you spoke again. “Is it really okay with you? I mean, I totally understand if it puts you off I-”

“No! I promise it’s not a problem for me. It made me even more interested in you, really. It painted a whole new aspect of you for me, stronger.” Yixing had a happy tone which made you breathe in relief. “Right now I’m just really looking forward on the day I meet Jaejin.” 

And it was needless to say that put a smile on your face and lit a new fire in your heart.

“Is this where you live?” Yixing asked as the automated gates of Junmyeon’s mansion open and he started driving in. You answered a silent yup, trying to digest the clashing of worlds, the new one just ever so casually driving his car in the turf of your old. “So this is your ex’s place?”

“Yeah.” You answered with a low breath. 

“You’re uncomfortable?” He asked with a chuckle. “Yeah, me too. This is unusual.” He remarked as he parked right at the front of the huge carved wood main doors and the large white marble fountain. 

“So, thank you for tonight?” Yixing spoke again. “And I sincerely hope this wouldn’t be the last. I mean it.”

“I don’t think it would be.” You answered comfortably. 

Yixing went out of the car and around to your door as he opened it. The manly smell of his perfume overtaking your senses and now your face is only a few inches from his. You could almost feel your face gravitate to his until a voice called your name behind him. 

“Junmyeon…” You quickly fixed the way you stood and closed the door of his car. “This is.. This is,” Your hands moved in an awkward way. 

“Attorney Zhang.” Junmyeon suddenly muttered, finishing your sentence for himself. 

“Mr. Kim, it’s been a while.” And you swear you could feel the tension rise between the two as you stood there mind boggled on the fact that they’re aware of each other’s existence. Like two overlapping circles on a venn diagram.

“You know each other?” You cluelessly asked, head turning back and forth between the two men who had their eyes intensely looking at each other, almost boring a hole at each other’s heads. 

“You could say that we have a bit of a history.” Yixing answered, a dry smile trying to facade the growing friction reflected in his eyes. 

[mahalkitajohnnysuh]

Housemates (Ten)

Did you expect that I’m going to write about Ten? If not, then surprise! I have a soft spot for him, and here’s my take on him being Essie’s housemate. 

Mahal ko kayong lahat! :)

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Summary: This installment is inspired by this post, and one of the scenarios mentioned is inspired by an offhand comment I made that shocked my officemate because he never knew I had green humor. Yes, I take a lot of inspiration from everywhere – myself included. 

POV: 2nd person again. 

Word count: 1,300 + words

Warning: Okay, I have to be honest here – Ten might be a bit OOC because I pegged him as someone with a sassy personality that can come sometimes across as something else if you know what I mean. I edited out some parts that imply his alleged sexuality since I don’t want to fight anyone on that. I hope you understand, and please enjoy this piece! 

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When you lived with Ten for a week, it was a hell of a ride. Or trip, whatever the kids say these days.

Most of your friends said that the two of you are a terrible combination. Both of you couldn’t stop making green jokes to the point that people wanted to shut you up.

But most of the time, it was Ten who started it. That boy had one of the dirtiest minds, and you loved that side of him because if you were completely honest with yourself, you are a freaky bitch.

“I want some meaty barbecue on a long stick,” he said while you were eating at the dining table with Johnny, Jaehyun, Mark, and Doyoung. He even invited the four men to have dinner with you, so it’s not just the two of you bitches making goo-goo eyes at each other.

You and Mark almost choked on your zucchinis with his offhand comment while Johnny raised an eyebrow at him.

“Isn’t that meaty enough? I made sure to get the meatiest meat of them all,” the Korean-American eyed the barbecue he was eating, which Jaehyun observed as well.

“But what I got isn’t as meaty as yours!” Ten whined, frowning at the barbecue stick he was almost done eating.

“Teeeeen!” You groaned, your face flushed from the innuendo of his words. He gave you a smirk in response, and you felt your cheeks heat up even more.

“How about you, Mark? Is your barbecue stick meaty?” There was no stopping Ten now that he had been told to by no less than an ally.

The younger guy observed his stick and shrugged. “Just the right meatiness, I guess?” He said before taking a bite.

“Ah, that must taste good,” the Thai commented loud enough for you – and only you – to hear.

You kicked him under the table, and he returned it. “Damn bitch, slow down! I don’t want to die laughing because of your meaty barbecue,” you muttered.

He just laughed at your reaction as he got another barbecue stick to eat.

\\\

“What do you mean we can’t have fruits?!” You grumbled, still browsing the fridge for something to eat. Ten’s fridge was close to being bare, and he almost screeched at you for suggesting to have apples in his chiller.

“Girl, you should know by now that I hate fruits. Like, seriously.” He assumed a serious pose in front of you, hands folded in front of his chest.

“That’s a weird fear to have, but okay? So you fear even bananas then?” You closed the fridge and copied his position.

“If that’s a banana that isn’t yellow and green and comes in different sizes, then yes.”

“Is there any other banana that’s not yellow and green?”

He gave you a wink, and shame on you that you didn’t get what he meant right away.

“You are such a horny bastard, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul.”

Ten cackled at your response before he dragged you with him to the living room.

\\\

You pulled an all-nighter at Ten’s and was ready to call it a night (well, what else would you call it?).

However, the Thai stunner had other plans as he played some upbeat Top 40 song. “Girl, let’s have a dance battle! Whoever dances the most gets to skip all household chores!”

It was your third day staying in his place, and you have been assigned some chores by the host himself. To make your stay more fun and challenging, he decided to hold a dance battle at four in the morning.

“Chittaphon!” You groaned, but in the end, you were dancing along to the choreography of a Latin trap song with no effort at all.

In the end, Ten won – he knew all of the choreographies of each song. Of course, he would win – he set up the game for him to do so.

“You put me in a trap!” You shook him by the shoulders, and he was laughing at how much of a sore loser you were.

“Of course, dear! You’re in my court, so I get to make the rules here. So…” he looked around the apartment for something you can do for him, “please take out the trash.”

“I’ll get you for this, Chittaphoooon!” You swore, raising your fist in the air in annoyance. As always, Ten giggled at your amusing reaction.

\\\

In another similar moment, Ten disturbed you in the wee hours of the morning for something.

At first, he woke you at 2:45 a.m. asking for a phone charger. “But wait, isn’t your phone an Android one?” You asked, halting the search for your charger in your bag.

He looked at the socket of his phone and smiled sheepishly. “Oh yeah, it is. And you have an Apple charger, right?”

You nodded, and he laughed awkwardly, embarrassed that he had to shake you in bed for a charger that’s not even compatible with his phone.

“But can you help me look for it then?” He used his cute voice, which made it hard for you to say no. “Damn you Ten, you owe for me this,” you grumbled as you got up from the bed, helping him find his phone charger in his apartment.

\\\

The third time that he had to ruin your peaceful sleep was when he lost his glasses. It was almost 5 a.m., and he was whining about where he had put it.

“Essie, my sweet girl! I need my glasses! Please help me find them,” he pleaded, almost kneeling in front of you.

“Where did you last put them? Do you remember where?” You asked as you put on your slippers.

“I forgot, I’m sorry! But I really need them! I can barely see anything,” he said while holding your wrist. He led the way on the search for his glasses, his other hand free for touching any surface they come across.

“You know, I’m blind as a bat too when I don’t have my glasses on. So next time, please remember to take care of them!” You decided to lead the search instead of him since you wore yours.

“Yes, Essie noona,” he said too sweetly, making you roll your eyes. “Don’t call me that, Chittaphon. Don’t remind me I’m old.”

“But you said you’re as blind as a bat without glasses, so I presume you’re a dusty old bat with them.”

“Chittaphoooon!”

\\\

When you and Ten stepped out of the house for some shopping, you were a bit annoyed that he relegated you to be his photographer.

“At least you’re not the one carrying these bags, girl,” he huffed, raising the paper bags that he carried in one hand. “Just take photos of me, and I’ll carry your bags in return.”

“Whatever you say, bitch. Now, can you please fix your pose?” You directed him to lean toward the column and give his best Greek sculpture pose.

Once he did, you took multiple snaps. “Yes, yes…work it, uh-huh…that’s fabulous!” Your comments were honey to his ears – he loved getting complimented for his modeling.

“Can I look at my pics?” You handed him his phone back and scrutinized the shots you took. “Oh my, I look gorgeous,” he gushed, sliding through each photo with a smile on his face. “Let’s look for another location at this mall.”

You rolled your eyes at his comment but grinned anyway. You were flattered that he loved your photos. Maybe you should get back into photography, so you and Johnny can bond more through the hobby.

After all, things were looking peachy for the both of you. It seems there is a possibility that you can take your friendship a bit further, but of course, Ten has to know if you and Johnny end up together.

Ah, such feelings complicate friendships, but that shouldn’t ruin them completely. You hoped that Ten would still be okay with you if you admitted that you had a crush one of his closest friends.

–––

FIN

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 3954 Chapter: 10/? Summary: Not all wars are fought on the battlefield. Some are fought at the conference table, with whispers in the shadows, or even in the bedroom.

In a world where the Senju and Uchiha traditional lands were too far apart to have ever made them enemies, Butsuma and Tajima are the ones who come together and sign a treaty of peace. Madara isn’t happy to have his life signed away for him in a political marriage to strengthen the bond between their clans. He is even less happy to have Tobirama make assumptions of him from their very first night together. What follows from there is a journey of healing, of learning, and finding the places to belong in the places least expected.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Chapter 10

Despite sharing an office with two other Senju who had chosen to devote themselves to administrative duties over active missions, on a day to day basis Tobirama found himself alone more often than not. His two office-mates were both the busybody type prone to sticking their noses in to other people’s business but it served them well when they had both also taken on perhaps more duties than wise. Most of their time was spent in other people’s offices speaking about one project or another, sometimes milling around in what was coming to be known as the Mission Room to gather information from their returning soldiers.

Usually Tobirama had very little problems with the way this worked out for him. The rare occasions when one of his office partners took it in to their heads to bother him about his own work were well worth suffering through to earn his own quiet space the large majority of the time. In fact, it was only now as he sat staring across the desk at a middle-aged woman with all the markings of a civilian that he realized there might be one downside to having the room to himself.

He didn’t have anyone to fall back on for picking up his slack with socializing.

Though he tried his best not to look too intimidating or disinterested, there was only so much he could do without slipping over in to Hashirama territory and greeting her with a hug or some other garish nonsense. The woman stared back at him as one does when faced with a particularly daunting task and visibly steeled herself before stepping further in to the room.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said and Tobirama shook his head.

“Paperwork is patient – sometimes. How may I help you?”

“Oh I don’t – um. I don’t need any help. Actually I was hoping to present Tobirama-sama with a gift if that- if that’s okay?” Clearly nervous, she still managed to gather the courage to step a little closer and clutch tightly at the satchel she was wearing on one side.

Intrigued, Tobirama blinked. “A gift? I’m not sure I’ve done anything to earn such things.”

“Well, um, Tobirama-sama might think of it as more of an apology.”

At the curious tilt of his head the woman rummaged through her satchel in a flurry of motion before holding out a small package with both hands shaking ever so slightly from the tension in her body. The package itself was wrapped in plain blue cloth and tied neatly with a white bow. Tobirama took it from her more because he was worried she might think he was rejecting her offer than anything else, a little too stunned to know how he should be reacting himself.

“I can’t imagine what you need to apologize for,” he murmured, one eye on the package and the other on his guest. Her looks were distinctly Uchiha if one were able to see past the softness of her civilian musculature and the unusually light shade of her hair.

“When Tobirama-sama came to the clan we did our best to respect your traditions and treat you as we thought you would expect to be treated. Madara-sama has spoken to us and told us of the insult we gave by accident. We didn’t mean to!” Her buried bow rather neatly covered the way Tobirama’s jaw hung loose with shock. “Please consider this gift an apology from my friends and me in the marketplace. We only sought to make Tobirama-sama more comfortable but in our ignorance we–”

“Please,” Tobirama interrupted her, half standing from his chair and reaching out as though to physical stop her from bowing. “There’s no need to apologize. I was never angry.” Well, not after the situation was explained to him and he’d had time to calm down. He’d been sad, of course, but he wasn’t going to mention that to this earnest woman here trying to make amends for something that wasn’t her fault. Feeling extraordinarily awkward, Tobirama looked down at the gift in his hands and murmured, “You really didn’t have to get me something.”

With slow words the woman pursed her lips and asked, “Does Tobirama-sama wish for me to take the gift back?”

“Let’s not start a loop of accidentally offending each other, I beg you.” Rubbing the space between his brows, he nearly missed it when his guest began to laugh.

“Of course not, my lord.”

He opened his mouth to tell her she didn’t need to call him lord or anything of the kind but she spoke just before he could, dismissing herself and bowing out of the room with well wishes and urgings for him to enjoy the present. Tobirama slumped back in to his seat without really knowing how he felt.

The gift itself was surprise enough but to know that Madara had spoken to his people, presumably at one of the clan meetings Tobirama had never bothered to attend, and explained how their good intentions had gone wrong? Of all the kindnesses he never would have expected from his husband that was something he wouldn’t have even thought to put on the list. It was downright thoughtful.

Such a gesture deserved one in return, of course. Tobirama knew enough from observing other marriages in his own clan to know that give deserved take. The main problem was that he had no idea what gesture he could make in return. All the things he thought he knew about Madara from exchanging letters had been rendered unreliable by the discovery that it hadn’t been Madara he’d written to after all and it wasn’t as though he’d spent a great deal of time getting to know the man since their wedding night. If the last couple of weeks had told him anything it was that he should probably do so now. Better late than never.

First, however, he needed to open the bundle he was still holding absently between both hands. Soft blue cloth rustled softly as he gently set it down to fiddle with the bow. Just cutting the white ribbon felt like a disservice despite there being no one here to judge him for his present opening habits so Tobirama took a moment to pick the bow apart and slide it off, allowing the cloth wrapping to slough down and reveal the contents. He recognized the packaging as soon as he laid his eyes on it and smiled. Surely it must have been nothing more than a lucky guess for the woman and her friends to pick out his favorite incense, the same scent he’d been burning since his mother passed away because it carried so many memories of her, but he could appreciate lucky guesses when they hit the mark so well.

The gift included a new burner which Tobirama very carefully put away in his desk drawer so he could decide where to set it up later. He didn’t want his officemates using it without asking and there was little point in setting it up in either his lab or his home since one was not an environment for open heat sources and the other he still didn’t devote more time to than necessary.

It was with that in mind that he checked the time and stretched his senses in search of Madara. Unusually considering it was the end of the work day his husband was making his way up to the top floor of the tower to drop off whatever files he needed to in his father’s office, something he normally did at lunch. Tobirama did not envy him that duty. Tensions had been high between the two founders of their village over the past little while leaving everyone but the two heirs grateful that they were afforded the distance of sending their work by courier. The runners, at least, never seemed to get yelled at for bearing bad news. It was easy enough to have everything of his own work squared away by the time Madara's chakra signature backed out of Tajima’s office to descend the main staircase.

At first sight his husband paid him no more attention than they usually afforded each other when passing in the hallways. Tobirama figured he had only himself to blame for the necessity of turning quickly on his heel to fall in step with the man he was looking for.

“Did you need something?” Madara's voice carried the faintest overtones of apology and Tobirama very carefully looked straight ahead as he answered.

“Nothing,” he admitted. “We’re both leaving. I just thought we might walk together – if you are headed towards home, that is.” Too late it occurred to him that Madara might have made other plans for his evening than hanging around in a house where he usually found himself alone.

Just in time to be as annoying as all older siblings were destined to be, Hashirama appeared between them a moment later and clapped his best friend on the shoulder. “Ready to go?”

“Ah.” Tobirama desperately hoped he didn’t look quite as awkward as he felt.

“Oh, I almost didn’t see you there, Tobi!” Hashirama smiled and tried to clap him on the shoulder as well, a gesture he brushed away before it could connect.

“Get your eyes checked, I’m not even the same color as anything in this hallway.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring that pout was easy after a lifetime of practice. Tobirama blinked past him at Madara and decided he didn’t even want to make an attempt to figure out what thoughts were going on behind that strange expression. He’d already embarrassed himself, the best thing to do now if he wanted to salvage his pride would be to bow out with grace and not make a scene.

Madara had other ideas, apparently.

“Go away, Hashirama,” he grunted shortly. Tobirama blinked while Hashirama clasped his chest like he’d been stabbed.

“But we were going for tea!”

Trying to be subtle, Tobirama shook his head and murmured, “You are free to go enjoy your tea.”

“I said go away. We can have tea tomorrow.” Madara retaliated to the kindly greeting his friend had given him by clapping Hashirama so hard between the shoulder blades that he stumbled and then stepped around him to pull Tobirama away by the sleeve. “Don’t give me those sad eyes, you just spent all day with me! You’ll survive without tea. Go home to your wife.”

“You didn’t have to ruin your plans,” Tobirama told him as soon as they stepped outside and left Hashirama out of earshot. “I really didn’t need anything important.”

“Maybe I was just tired of his face.” Underneath the gruff bravado Madara's voice still sounded vaguely apologetic and that was just embarrassing enough for Tobirama to shut his mouth with a light cough. He was the one who had interrupted previously made plans but there was no way he was having this ‘no need to apologize’ conversation twice in one day.

He settled for an awkward nod and trying to remember what he was supposed to do with his arms while walking. Why, he asked himself as they both joined the crowds choking the streets, had he thought this was a nice gesture? Not a single topic of conversation occurred to him no matter how desperately he wished to fill the silence. Instead they rounded two corners and crossed at least a quarter of the distance back to their shared domicile in utter silence, occasionally peeking over at each other only to look away in a hurry when their eyes met unexpectedly.

At some point the crowds began to thin and by the time they passed out of the village center in to the more residential areas they were nearly alone on each street. Tobirama continued to wrack his brain for something to say all the way up until Madara finally broke the tension.

“Were you…planning to stay in tonight?” he asked. Tobirama was glad they weren’t standing still, which made it much easier to resist the urge to shuffle his feet like a nervous child.

“Unless you were hoping to invite guests. I wouldn’t wish to intrude.”

“S’your house too,” Madara said under his breath.

An odd thrill ran through Tobirama’s limbs when he heard that and he found himself asking, “Is there anything in particular you might like for dinner? I wouldn’t mind cooking.”

“Oh. Uh. I don’t know, whatever you feel like making should be fine.”

He was indescribably grateful that Madara didn’t bother with any polite refusals or asking if he was sure because just making the offer in the first place had taken enough courage and he wasn’t sure he could have defended his own decision. Not when convincing himself to make it in the first place had already needed so much effort. The thrill of success felt a little like electricity at his fingertips, though, and he found that his thoughts were much clearer now that the silence wasn’t quite so stifling between them.

“I was thinking gyudon. Not that difficult to make and it’s nice to have something other than fish at least every once in a while.” Also from what he could remember of the last time he poked his nose in to the kitchen for a quick meal he was fairly sure they had everything he would need to make gyudon.

“That sounds fine. You…like fish?”

“My favorite. Any kind of fish, really, but there’s this one kind I tried the last time I was in Uzushio–” Without even realizing what he was doing Tobirama hared off on a tangent about one of his biggest passions outside of anything related to battle: the many and varied seafood dishes he had enjoyed in his lifetime. Madara actually asked a few questions so it wasn’t until he saw their house down the street that he realized he’d just babbled away their entire journey about fish. In his efforts to build more positive relations between them he had probably just alienated the man by painting himself as a boring idiot with nothing better to talk about.

A great deal of effort went in to snapping his jaw shut to cut off the flow of inane chatter and Tobirama silently made a few unflattering comparisons between himself and his brother as they stepped in to the house together. They busied themselves with kicking off their regulation sandals and setting them in neat little pairs on opposite sides of the genkan. While Madara pulled off the light coat he’d thrown over his typical robes and hung it up Tobirama scurried out of the way and turned towards the kitchen.

The first thing he did was open the fridge and shove his head out of sight behind the door where he could squeeze his eyes shut and berate himself for being so stubbornly awkward. Never before had he had such trouble communicating with other people – and that was saying something considering how stiff and unapproachable even his own reserved clan tended to find him. Yet here he was with a husband of his own and years of lessons in the Senju traditions all running through his mind telling him exactly how to charm his spouse, make the best of the life he had been given, and still he found his brain as empty as a leaking sieve.

Before he could do anything as telling as give himself a tight slap across the mouth to get his thoughts in order Madara stepped hesitantly in to the kitchen as well, forcing Tobirama to scramble for the ingredients he would need and pull away from his hiding spot.

“Would you like some help?” Madara offered. “I can prepare the vegetables if you prepare the beef.”

“Oh. Yes. I would- thank you.”

The break in his words seemed to amuse Madara, if nothing else. Tobirama supposed laughing at him for tripping on his own speech was better than scowling darkly at him for daring to step foot inside the home before night had fallen.

With a startling amount of ease the two of them danced around each other in the limited kitchen space, each attending to their own half of the preparations. Tobirama could have sworn he felt Madara's eyes on him a few times as he sliced the meat and cracked a few eggs in to a clean bowl but each time he turned to look he found the man’s eyes locked on to the onions and scallions before him. Either he was imagining things or his hyper awareness of every move they both made was playing tricks on his mind.

He had only just added the onions to the pan he’d been heating when Madara once again proved himself the braver of the two of them in social situations like this, keeping his attention on the sauce ingredients he was measuring out.

“I understand you were part of the meeting with the Inuzuka delegation?” he waited until Tobirama nodded the affirmative before going on. “What’s your impression of them?” Tobirama kept his face towards the onions to cover up the shock that his opinion might count for something.

“Loud,” he murmured because that was the first thing that came to mind. “An uncouth bunch from my experiences, although they make excellent trackers and their skills on the battlefield are not to be sneezed at. If they are allotted a separate compound as most of the other larger clans have asked for then I don’t foresee many problems with their integration beyond the usual phase of finding where they fit in best and who they get along with the easiest.”

“The adjustment period.” Madara nodded agreeably.

“Precisely.”

Stirring his onions and pulling the sliced beef a bit closer in preparation, Tobirama dared to peek over at his husband. Not so much at his expression, thoughtful and focused on their conversation as he appeared to be, but rather at the man himself. Long dark lashes framing deep set eyes with permanent dark circles that would not have worked on any other face. Cheeks that never quite lost the final bit of baby fat, puffing out with indignation and rage almost every time he left the house. Small bits of hair broke off from the thick tangle flowing down his back to hang down and frame his face like a living portrait. All in all he made quite the image. Enough so that Tobirama came very close to getting lost in that image until Madara turned to him with a questioning lift of one brow.

“No qualms with them, then? You’ll welcome them in to the village once they finally sign the treaty like everyone else?”

“Well…I could live without the dogs they insist on taking with them everywhere.” Tobirama wrinkled his nose. He understood the bonds they made with their companions but…

“If they kept cats I would be much more enthusiastic to have them here.”

He blinked, not expecting to have his thoughts given voice. “I feel much the same. Cats are cleaner, quieter, and much more suited to the life of a shinobi who doesn’t wish to announce their presence ten minutes before they arrive anywhere.”

“Exactly! I’m sure there must be some nice folk among the Inuzuka but…they’re just so loud, them and the dogs both. We’re not likely to make great friends off of the battlefield.” Madara shook his head.

“Your territory was a little closer to theirs than ours was before the village was built and I have to say”-Tobirama paused to smirk-“I don’t envy you that. Allow me to thank you now for keeping them occupied and saving me the headache of dealing with them more often.”

“Little shit.” Madara rolled his eyes but he too was smiling and Tobirama felt like he’d won a medal.

“I already had Hashirama to deal with. Adding the Inuzuka in to the mix would have driven me crazy before I reached double digits.” Just thinking about it made him shudder. He couldn’t imagine what sort of madness he would have had to put up with if he’d had to battle Hashirama’s frequent idiocies on top of smelling the Inuzuka’s dogs every time he stepped outside the compound walls.

He doubted any of them had even tried owning cats, the heartless bastards.

Madara, on the other hand, appeared to be a smarter man than Tobirama knew in that he also preferred cats to dogs. On the list of things he thought they might have in common he really should have expected that one considering the relationship between the Uchiha clan and the ninneko hidden beneath the streets of Sora-ku. Tobirama had never been able to keep a pet cat before, not wanting to set off Hashirama’s allergies, but he wondered if maybe now Madara might be okay with it. Village life lent itself much better to keeping pets anyway.

“That’s very fair. Much as your brother has become a very dear friend I don’t know that I would survive living with him.” His husband laughed and Tobirama was surprised to feel jealously at his words. A friend, Madara had called him, and he trusted that Hashirama felt only the same in return. There was no need to worry himself about whatever relationship was building between the two of them but they had at least a kind of relationship and for that he envied his own sibling.

“If I know my brother then he’s probably invited you to stay the night after dinner several times.” Tobirama finally deemed the beef cooked well enough and slowly began to add in the ingredients for the sauce. “Perhaps you should take him up on the offer sometime and experience for yourself the horrors I’ve had to put up with.”

“Like?”

“Ugh, like his morning breath.”

Apparently that wasn’t the sort of answer Madara was expecting because it startled a booming laugh out of him, unselfconscious and free in a way Tobirama was sure he himself had never managed in his life. Mirth painted twin circles of pink across Madara's cheeks and the look was so nice on him that Tobirama nearly forgot to stir the gyudon to keep their dinner from burning. Unsurprising, that. Physical attraction had never been the problem between them; Tobirama could remember having to control his face very strictly upon catching his first glimpse of the beauty he was to be married to. The trouble had been their spectacular skills in miscommunication up until recently.

When their meal was finally ready he was pleased to have kept the conversation going with the same light tone and not a single argument yet. By the time he had served two generous bowls and sat down with the drinks Madara poured for them he was feeling more optimistic about the future than he had in half a year. With just a little extra effort it seemed they were able to get along after all, which gave him hope for the things he had been groomed to wait his entire life for.

A happy home and a partner to lean on when the days were long, what more could anyone ask for in life? If he tried hard to keep things moving as they had been lately he, too, might have those things. Watching the smile on Madara's face as they circled back to a happy discussion of why cats were far superior to dogs, seeing the languid way he sat in his chair as though they had no reason to be ill at ease around each other, Tobirama thought to himself that for the first time since their wedding he could finally see the man who might someday become a proper husband.

[junionigiri]

and you say, stay Chapter 5 - Fly Me To The Moon

[former title: just another secretary story!]

Summary: Director Todoroki takes Secretary Uraraka out after work.

Rating: T

The Office of the Executive Director begins the next day in abject and utter suffering. Struggling through their hangovers, they each draft out their gravely-worded apology letters while passing out a bottle of aspirin between them.

“Oh my god, I can’t even remember how we got home, Kiri!” Mina whines, slapping a cold compress over her forehead. “I woke up on the bedroom floor feeling like I got punched in the face! Where were you? You should have carried me to bed!”

“I was home too,” Kirishima groans through a hefty chug of his protein shake. “I passed out on the stairs, remember? I felt so bad I couldn’t do a single dragon flag this morning! Not manly!”

“I, too, awakened in a most uncomfortable position! My head was at the foot of my bed, my feet were on my pillows, and my pyjamas were inside-out!” Iida adds in utter humiliation. “How did we arrive home safely? Did the Director teleport us home, somehow?”

“No, he drove all of us home,” Ochako answers, gathering all their letters for them. “So you should all thank him when you can, okay?

“Really? The Director was there last night?” Monoma grumbles irately. “Figures. All I remember is the vague stench of evil and existential dread. I bet I drank so much so I can ignore his demonic aura.”

Camie snorts. “Cuz, you sat right in the bossman’s lap. You got no rights anymore.”

“What?!”

Monoma demands to see evidence, and Camie happily complies to everyone’s horror. Her many blurry selfies of the night before painted an awful, embarrassing picture. Only the owner of the phone finds this amusing. Her promises not to upload anything can only do so much to stave off the shame.

“Utsushimi-kun! I implore you to get rid of this evidence!” Iida begs.

Camie hums. “Change my mind. You can start with an orange frappuccino~”

As another argument goes forth, Ochako leaves them with an amused smile and makes her way to Director Todoroki’s office.

With a gentle knock, she enters the room and finds him seated behind his computer. Unlike her officemates, there is no evidence of a headache or exhaustion in him. It would have been infuriating if she had the same terrible hangover as the rest of them, but luckily she watched her intake last night and her head’s clear.

Not-so-luckily though, she clearly remembers laughing at the Director and everyone else. And she can’t pretend to forget if he asks her about it, because just thinking about everyone cuddling the Director makes her want to burst out laughing again.

Because of that, she places the apology letters over to his desk with her own letter on the top of the pile. “Here is all that you asked us to accomplish, Director,” she says as politely as she can.

Todoroki hums in disinterest, eyes not moving from a set of data on his computer. It’s obvious that he’s going to ask her to shred these documents later without so much as reading them. It’s some small relief for them at least, because then they can pretend none of this happened. “Asui from Marketing requested an emergency meeting with us about the art center project. You have all the proposals for the launch ready, right?”

“Of course, Director. We just need the Chairman’s approval. I’ve already sent an email to their office about it.”

He clicks his tongue and tugs on his tie in thought. “Send another reminder to Takami-san. I need an answer before lunch.”

“Yes, Director,” Ochako says, eyeing his fingers on the tie. While at first she hated that she had to fix his tie for him so often, it’s now a point of pride for her to keep the Director looking neat at all times. So much so that it annoys her to see it so crooked.

It’s pure muscle memory at this point that she’s stepping over to his side and her hands are flying to his tie, pulling at it expertly until it’s tidy. She took all the trouble convincing him that morning that he can wear this diamond-patterned tie instead of the solid dark blue ones that he preferred. She has to make sure that he looks perfect.

“You’re perfect.” Satisfied with the results, she looks up at him and directly meets his eyes.

The demon Director’s stare is famous for a lot of reasons--the color, the intensity, the way they make you feel like you’re both burning alive and freezing at the same time. It’s not a metaphor Ochako likes because being burned must feel terrible (his scar tells a story all on its own), and also she’s used to being the target of that stare when he’s irritated or dissatisfied, so she knows it in a way that cannot be enjoyed.

But now he’s staring at her the way he was last night at her doorstep. The burning feeling behind it is less like fire and more like the warmth of her blood rushing through her veins and the throb of her pulse. It’s intense, unwavering. Ochako’s hypnotized for exactly half a second too long.

“Thanks,” he says absentmindedly. “I could have done that myself.”

She snaps herself out of the trance. “With all due respect Director, you didn’t. But, noted.”

All the strange thoughts fly out of the window of the 65th floor office. It’s good that she’s reminded of how infuriating he is. His vague warning about how he shouldn’t underestimate her might be making her see him in a different (inaccurate) light, but she should know better. She bows and turns with a suppressed huff when he calls to her again, “Secretary Uraraka.”

She turns to him. After a thoughtful pause, he asks, “You speak with your colleagues differently, don’t you?”

She blinks. “Not that I know of, Director. Has anyone sent a complaint about the way I speak? I should apologize and clear up any misunderstandings--”

“No, not them.” He gestures out the door. “Iida and the others. Last night you spoke with them informally. Using ‘ sure thing’ or ‘ yup’ instead of ‘ of course,’ for example.”

“I… see.” Gosh, he sounds so weird just trying to talk in a casual way. “It’s only when we’re drinking. But if it offends you...”

He shakes his head. “It’s… fine. In fact, you may use that sort of language with me. Provided that it’s just the two of us, of course.”

Ochako stares at him incredulously. “Beg yer pardon?” she mutters by accident.

“Yes, like that.” Todoroki gives her a reassuring nod. “That’s what they call the Kansai accent, right?”

She tries not to slip into her accent again when she asks, “May I know what brought this on, Director?”

“Are you offended?”

“No, but… this is a strange request.”

He shrugs. “You seemed more comfortable speaking that way instead of the usual way you converse with me. Since I am giving the same freedom to Utsushimi, I am granting you the same thing.”

Well, Camie hasn’t talked to him directly since the interview and since she got drunk in front of him so she can’t say that it’s exactly the same freedom. Plus Ochako isn’t sure that the Director is just telling her that she can talk more naturally around him, or if he’s commanding her to do so. Frankly it’s making her sweat figuring out what he wants.

“If you say so, Director. Of course I’ll--”

“Not of course, ” Todoroki insists. “ Sure thing .”

Ochako gives him a strained smile. “S-sure thing, sir. I’ll keep it casual in front of you.”

Director Todoroki nods in satisfaction and gets back to work. Ochako walks out of the office and tries to do the same thing, but it’s suddenly hard to concentrate.

*

A few days later Ochako comes home tired as all hell and not in the best mood, as she does when the Demon Director is extra demonic. Honestly, for all his talk about wanting her to be more comfortable around him, he’s making it impossible for her to even breathe normally within his vicinity.

The art center project is now top priority to beat their competitors, so suddenly the office is rushing through all the things they were scheduled to do for the next two months, over the course of three weeks. The stocks of energy drinks and orange juice in the pantry is running dangerously low from their efforts to keep awake. It’s so bad that Monoma was even caught drinking ‘peasant’ instant coffee instead of his usual French press ones.

And Camie… oof. Ochako knows that she’s trying her best and that this is a lot of pressure for someone who’s new to the team, but she missed one of the financial reports completely during the staff meeting. And while both of them apologized for her mistake, Todoroki only directed his ice-cold glare at Ochako.

“Is this how you do transfer of duties, Secretary Uraraka?” She flinches just remembering the cutting edge of his voice. She hates it when he uses that because even though his standards are impossibly high, it tells her that he expected more from her, and she let him down.

Well at least she’s home an hour earlier than usual. Director Todoroki told her not to collect Victoria at his home as previously ordered. There’s just enough time for her to eat the convenience store katsudon she got on the way home, take a bath, and watch her soaps before angrily passing out on her couch.

… if only her phone would stop ringing! It takes all of her strength not to throw her food over her kitchen table when she fishes for her phone. The name on the screen gives her pause, however, and she’s extra careful to mind her tone when she answers, “Chief Midoriya?”

Midoriya Izuku opens up their conversation with another alarming cough. Ochako wonders if this is merely an unfortunate butt-dial until he stammers over the line, “A-ah! Hi, Uraraka-san! This is Midoriya Izuku from Endeavor’s Marketing Division! Oh, wait, you know that already, haha.”

Ochako laughs cautiously. Even over the phone, Midoriya’s usual nervousness is palpable. “Yes sir! How may I help you?”

“Er, yeah! So there’s this urgent thing that I need your help with that’s, um, related to work. It… it’s not weird or anything, it’s totally normal, nothing to be alarmed about. So the Director wants--no, not the Director, I mean-- koff koff koff! ’

Midoriya suffers another coughing fit so violent that it sends Ochako close to panic. “Are you okay sir?! Do you need someone to take you to the hospital?!”

“No, I’m fiiine. Please don’t ask. ” The chief takes a deep breath through the phone which seems to calm him down somewhat. “I’m expecting a package for work, but Secretary Hagakure made a mistake with the shipping address. You’re the one closest, so I was wondering if you could pick it up for me?”

That sounded like a weird mistake to make, but she also knew about the time Tooru-chan accidentally ordered twenty Hawaiian pizzas instead of the single calzone that Chief Midoriya wanted to eat for lunch. “Where do you want me to go?”

Midoriya gives her the exact address and pleads with her to be there in twenty minutes. “I hate to be a bother, but this is important for the company, so you can’t be late, okay? I’m counting on you, Uraraka-san!”

“Okay Chief! I’m heading out,” she says, rushing to her door. Twenty minutes to the address given to her is tight, but she’ll make it if she runs to and from the train station.

It’s good that she changed out of her office heels and into sneakers. She makes it to the address in fifteen minutes. It’s only then that she realizes that she’s in the location without knowing who to look for and what to expect.

Also, she’s in front of MightyLand, the amusement park in the middle of town dedicated to their governor, All Might. It’s closed today for some reason. It’s dark, quiet, and scary as amusement parks which are completely dark tend to be.

Ochako calls Midoriya in pure confusion and tells him, “I don’t think I’m at the right place, Chief.”

Midoriya laughs. “You’re exactly where you should be, Uraraka-san.”

Wondering what he means, she turns around just as the lights click open all around her, and the stagnant water of the fountain at the entrance springs to life.

She almost drops the phone from her hand as the fake castle gates of MightyLand flash and glow in pinks and blues and greens, sparkling prettily under the night sky. Soft string music plays in the background. The lights along the pathway light up one-by-one like fireflies, guiding her eyes to the entrance of the park.

Breathless, she watches Todoroki Shouto emerge from the gates. And while her eyes dart everywhere trying to make sense of what’s happening, his eyes are on nowhere else but her.

“Secretary Uraraka,” he calls as soon as he’s in front of her. He’s in the same three-piece suit and tie she picked for him this morning, but somehow he looked impossibly devilish in it tonight. “Fancy meeting you here on this ordinary night.”

She should pick her jaw off the floor any second now. “G… good evening, Director Todoroki,” she stammers. “Chief Midoriya sent me here on an important errand. I’m afraid I don’t understand what--”

“I allowed you to speak as you normally do around me, Uraraka.”

“Er… yeah, so,” what the fuck, she wanted to say, but instead she squeaks out, “What’s goin’ on?”

Satisfied, he says with an enigmatic smile, “Nothing special. Come.”

He signals her to follow him with a bend of a forefinger, and with very little strength in her to ask any further questions, she silently follows him into the park.

*

She should have known that there wasn’t anything ordinary waiting for her that night.

Even though everything is lit up and functional, the park is entirely empty except for them. While Ochako is busy gawking at all the sights, Director Todoroki is leading the way with brisk, purposeful steps. It takes some effort for her to keep up with his relentless pace until he gets to the destination in mind. Before she realizes it, they’re at the Smashville area of the park, where all the big, scary rides are.

Ochako stares up in horror at Todoroki’s first choice of activity: The Carolina.

“It’s a drop tower, 100 meters tall. We rise to the top at an excruciating pace of 10 km/h and drop at a speed of 100 km/h. Not the tallest or the fastest in the world, but it’s in the top ten,” the unfazed Director explains like he’s talking about the latest performance review. He holds a hand out to the seat at the very center and says, with a smile that looks evil, “After you.”

Ochako doesn’t know how she wills her feet to move, but with nobody to help her escape, she gets strapped in right next to her calm boss.

“D-Director--”

“I know you’re excited,” Todoroki says when they’re fifty meters above ground. “Don’t hold back.”

There’s nothing to hold back, not even her internal organs, when the first drop occurs. And the next one, and the next one. Ochako screams as she’s never screamed before, while Todoroki is so silent that she legitimately worries if he passed out in the middle of the ride.

He didn’t. With a spring in his step, he hops off from the ride and assists her shaking body off the ride. “You must be excited. Don’t worry. There’s more to come.”

Oh, god.

He takes her to the other extreme rides: The Nebraska, The California, The Detroit. Ochako never imagined that there’s more than one way to drop and spin and tumble anyone via a machine, but with each new ride she loses part of her soul and all sensation of her legs. Todoroki’s unnervingly steady after each ride, however, and just brings her to the next one without an ounce of hesitation.

By the time he brings her to the coup de grace of all the rides--The United States of Smash, the biggest roller coaster in Japan--she’s sure of it. The Demon Director brought her here to punish her for all her misdeeds.

“You must be looking forward to this one all night, Secretary Uraraka,” Todoroki says with that same dark smile. “If you’re ready to get on, then…”

He wants to kill her.

Rushing to the nearest wastecan, she hurls up an entire rainbow consisting of all the colors of the energy drinks she ingested that day.

Dammit, how embarrassing! She would have cried but it already takes a lot of effort to stop the earth from spinning in the wrong direction. She hurls for another solid minute when she feels a cold, comforting hand tentatively rubbing circles on her back.

The rush of cool surprisingly makes her feel better in an instant. She stands up and bows to him apologetically. “Director… sorry. This is really icky,” she whimpers helplessly. “I’m super weak when it comes to rides like this. I get dizzy real easy.”

He holds out his expensive silk handkerchief to her. “No, it’s my mistake. I should have anticipated that you had weak labyrinths.”

Were her ears deceiving her, or did that sound like an apology? She takes his handkerchief and wipes her face gratefully. “No… you looked like you wanted to do all those things, so I did my best to keep up.”

Todoroki blinks. “Ah. But I thought you wanted to…” When Ochako stares at him curiously, he pauses and considers his next words carefully. “I assumed that you liked this amusement park like everybody else does. I must have made an error in judgment.”

She laughs weakly. “Nah, I’ve always wanted to go back to MightyLand… just not Smashville.”

He ponders on this briefly. “... okay.” He holds his hand out ahead of them and tilts his head ever so slightly. “Secretary Uraraka, for tonight, you lead and I’ll follow. What do you want to do next?”

She doesn’t hide her surprise at that. And thinks about it. And smiles excitedly.

A long walk to the other side of the park later, Director Todoroki looks up at her ride of choice blankly. “Space World.” he deadpans.

It’s a cutesy, slow ride made for kids that simulates a gentle ride through outer space, complete with planets and aliens and constellations. In front is a statue of Thirteen, the famous space explorer that she idolized when she was in grade school.

“Let’s go in right now!!! Hurry, Director!”

She can hardly believe it. She had promised herself to get on this ride after her resignation, and she’s even willing to line up with all the little kids on a busy weekend just to get here. Yet here she is, no lines, no embarrassing explanations necessary, just her and the Director and the fake stars. Once the little train brakes in front of her she’s climbing on it in an instant.

She doesn’t even notice that she’s dragging Todoroki by the hand until they’re side by side in the car and the lights grow dim around them.

“Oh. Sorry,” she squeaks, thankful that outer space is supposed to be dark and he doesn’t get to see her blush.

Even then, she feels his gaze on her. But he says nothing as the first comet passes them by.

Ochako gasps. It’s a lot prettier than she imagined. The narration drones above them as an emulation of the Big Bang blooms above and around them like a flower. “Oh my gosh, look at that! I can’t believe it, it feels so real! Director, isn’t this pretty?!”

She feels the subtle turn of Director Todoroki’s head toward her. “Yes. Beautiful,” he mumbles somewhere close to her. After a pause, he adds, “I don’t think it feels real, though. If it did, we’d be suffocating by now. There’s no oxygen in the vacuum of space.”

“Geez, Director, just enjoy it.”

“I am,” he assures her, as the little car follows Jupiter into orbit.

But just like that, the ride is over. Ochako is sad when they have to get off--that is, until Todoroki tells her, “We can stay here if you want to go again.”

So she happily pulls him down on the seat next to her, pulls the bar down, and goes through the ride again.

Seven more times.

To his credit, Todoroki sits with her the entire time without complaints. Although she hears him silently fuming in his seat every time she goes “again, again!” She’d feel guilty over it, but dammit he made her go through the Carolina and the Nebraska and the California and the Detroit--twice!--and she needed this after all that he put her through that week.

Anyway, she makes it more tolerable for him by telling him everything she knows about the planets and the stars that the narration doesn’t tell them. “You know, Saturn has 150 moons! Some of them are bigger on Earth, and most of them are frozen solid! Some of them might have oceans under the surface too!”

“I know,” he says quietly. “But keep going.”

Of course he knows everything. But he doesn’t seem to want to ruin her mood, so there’s that. She continues feeding him all the space facts she knew happily.

The moment she says “Okay I’m good,” Director Todoroki gets them off that ride so quickly he almost lifts her up off the seat. “Back to earth with you, Secretary Uraraka.”

She giggles. “Why, Director! Speaking figuratively? I didn’t think you knew how.”

He blinks, as if astonished with himself. “Huh. I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

He drives her out of the park and into a different part of the city. There’s a field decorated with fairy lights, flowers (all hypoallergenic, he says when she braces herself for a sneeze attack) and a table set for two. Below them is the city, and above them are the stars. It’s mind boggling how beautiful the set-up is.

Todoroki leads her to the table. As soon as she sits down, there’s fancy vintage wine being poured in her glass. From a distance, she sees Sato doing finishing touches on a pretty plate. He winks at her when she catches his eye.

They’re served steak, and pasta, and fancy vegetables with violets on them. They’re all delicious as expected, but then Sato comes out with what seems like an unlimited supply of strawberry mochi for them and she’s instantly melting.

“Everything is so good, I can’t believe it,” she gushes. Oh man, the mochi is so good. If she kept up at it, she’s seriously going to explode.

“Good. I’m glad you like it.” There’s a smug look on his face when he says this. Dangerous…

“Director... what’s this about?” she asks suspiciously. This isn’t another ploy to get her to not quit, is it? If he ends up proposing again, she is seriously going to break something expensive (and probably regret it later).

He hums as he cuts up his mochi neatly. “We had a welcome party for Utsushimi. It’s only fair that you had a goodbye party of your own to show my appreciation before you leave. Nothing special, but something ordinary that you liked.”

No proposals then? That’s a relief. She was going to say no (really, she was!) if he had asked, and that would have ruined such a beautiful night. “Director… I’m sorry, but there’s nothing ordinary about what you did for me!”

He blinks. “Taking you to an amusement park and treating you to dinner isn’t ordinary?”

It’s almost amazing that he’s genuinely baffled, but then again she expected nothing less from Todoroki Shouto. “Closing an amusement park so we had it all to ourselves and then treating me to a five star dinner prepared by a famous chef to a picnic under the stars is not what I’d call an ordinary date, Director.”

Wait. Date? Did she say date? Is she out on a date with the Director?

“I see. I’ll take note of that.” Oh no, he didn’t deny it! “For next time.”

Next time?! Oh no. No no no. She can’t date the Director! Reiko and Yui would kill her if they found out! And she didn’t mean it, he suckered her into it, she didn’t want to, not really--

“But you really enjoyed yourself, so I consider this a success,” Todoroki says, satisfied. “You made me ride Space World seven times. I’d give you a salary deduction if you said you didn’t enjoy yourself.”

He is never going to let go of this, is he? Despite that, she laughs again. “I went overboard, didn’t I? It’s just that I’ve wanted to ride that since I was a little girl. You wouldn’t wanna hear it, it isn’t exactly a happy story.”

He stares at her. “Tell me.”

She swallows a bit of mochi reluctantly before starting her story with a sigh. “Well… Director, if you remember from my job interview nine years ago, I told you that I started working for you because I needed to earn money as quickly as possible. It’s obviously because my family wasn’t well-off, and I was the only one who can earn money somehow.”

“... I remember.”

“Well… even when I was little, we were poor. We lived where MightyLand was before the houses there got demolished, so that space is kind of special to us. Sometimes Ma and Pa had extra money to bring me and my cousin Yui there, but the money wasn’t ever enough for passes to get to rides like Space World. Even though I wished for it so hard, I never had the chance.”

Todoroki unexpectedly watches her tell her story in rapt attention. “I see. Why Space World?”

She shrugs. “Why not Space World? Outer space is great, isn’t it?”

She would have studied astrophysics in university if she could, but there’s no point in telling the Director that. He doesn’t seem like the type who feels guilty over anything, but she doesn’t want to test that by admitting that she chose to stay by his side instead of doing what she really wanted.

“So, that’s the sad, sad story of my youth. How about you, Director? You must have been a more interesting kid than I was.”

Todoroki keeps those distinct eyes on her--a black hole and an entirely blue galaxy, she suddenly thinks, moons with oceans hiding under frozen wastelands, the waves beneath straining to reach the surface. He seems to want to reveal them to her, just for a second, but the second passes, and time remains locked.

“No, not really,” he finally decides on saying. “Nothing much happened to me. I grew up as Enji’s heir from the start and worked hard from the moment I learned how to talk. I had no choice, because my older brother failed. Fuyumi and Natsuo were never given the chance to try.”

An older brother? Is he talking about Natsuo? While it’s true that Todoroki Natsuo won’t ever be the heir of Endeavor because he chose to become a physician instead, Ochako could have sworn the Director was talking about someone else.

“It was difficult, but I met most of his expectations, and now I’m here.” His eyes become cold again. Knowing that he gets this way after talking about Todoroki Enji is just the basics of dealing with Todoroki Shouto.

It was her mistake to even suggest bringing up his childhood. Now it’s her job to ease him out of it. “You did great, Director. If we were friends when we were kids, I’d have been the first to cheer you on.”

He freezes for just a second, a look of pure enigma in his eyes. “... is that so? Do you think we would have been friends if we met earlier?”

He seems to be expecting an honest answer out of her. Ochako guesses it has to do with certain parts of his past that he obviously doesn’t want her to see. She can’t blame him, but in all honesty, if they were both young and innocent, being friends with him wouldn’t have been hard. “Yes Director. I don’t doubt it.”

He looks genuinely taken aback by this. A second passes before he allows himself a relieved smile. “Thank you for your vote of confidence. I’d believe you more if you don’t quit.”

“Don’t even try it, sir.”

He clicks his tongue. And then, in true Todoroki fashion, the conversation’s suddenly over.

With the taste of strawberries lingering in her mouth, she follows as he leads them to a grassy knoll some ways away from dinner. Flowers of all colors surround their feet, glowing ethereally under the moonlight. The city below, the stars above. It’s a beautiful night.

And… cold. Ochako is painfully reminded that she’s in a thin silk blouse and the denim shorts she wore at home when a particularly sharp gust of wind blows past them.

Todoroki observes her with a stern look. “You’re not in appropriate clothing.”

“I didn’t know you were going to bring me to such a windy place, Director.”

“You weren’t supposed to know. This is a surprise, after all.”

Still, he looks frustrated that she’s so cold--not a good look. Her secretary instincts tell her to do something about that. Trying to smile meaningfully through her chattering teeth, she suggests, “You know, ordinary guys offer their jackets to their dates when it gets chilly.”

He blinks twice before he makes that eureka! face again. “I have an idea, Uraraka. Since you’re cold, you should wear my coat.”

“Oh--but you’ll get cold.”

“No, I’m always temperature regulated,” he says with a voice that doesn’t leave her much room to (pretend to) argue.

He drapes his coat around her easily. He’s much taller than her and has wider shoulders, so naturally she’s swallowed instantly in fine woollen bliss. She suppresses a sigh when she feels the toasty warmth, and suppresses a shudder when she feels his fingers brush around her shoulders and her neck.

“Is this okay?” he asks earnestly when he notices her shiver. His warm breath tickles her ear.

She nods through the overwhelming feel of his voice vibrating through her body. Oblivious to this, he nods in satisfaction and looks up at the stars. She stares at his profile against the moon, feeling light-headed and mesmerized at everything.

Oh, gods, this is a date . Reiko and Yui are going to kill her in her sleep.

When he notices her staring, he gives her an odd, puzzled look. “Secretary Uraraka. Since you like the stars so much, you should take advantage of this. I suggest keeping your eyes off me and keeping them to the sky.”

A vein pops on her forehead. Okay, so the Director is still the same clueless demon with no sense of romance. No surprise. This isn’t a date, after all.

She follows his orders and looks up at the sky, lined by a myriad of shooting stars.

*

After the star-gazing session, they both decide that it’s late and he brings her home. He drives the car, and thankfully this time the drive goes by smoothly. He parks at the narrow street in front of her home and follows her out of the car, looking strangely self-assured.

“Director, thanks for the great evening,” she says. “I’m honestly speechless. For a surprise, that was…”

A small smile is on his lips when he asks, “Ideal?”

“Yes, exactly, ideal.” Wait. Ideal. Where has she heard that before?

“Hm. I thought you’d say that,” he says smugly. “I doubt that anybody else will give you as much mochi as you had tonight.”

Describe your ideal partner.

A tall, handsome guy with a stable job who will feed me mochi until I explode!

“And I don’t think anyone else will bring you to an amusement park and a picnic under the stars in the span of a single evening.”

Describe an ideal excursion with your ideal partner.

A date in MightyLand, where we can ride all the rides I like as much as I want!

A simple picnic with tasty food where we can go stargazing afterward is pretty neat too!

This guy is a sneaky, sneaky bastard. Ochako crosses her arms in front of her as Director Todoroki ambles confidently to the trunk of his car. “Finally, I doubt that any other ordinary man will give you…”

Describe an ideal product that you would like to receive from your ideal partner.

A giant stuffed toy that I can hug in my sleep!

(I don’t care what it looks like as long as it’s soft and cute!)

“Director,” she cuts him off with a controlled smile. “There’s… a giant stuffed toy in the back of the trunk, isn’t there?”

Todoroki freezes just as he pulls out the offending item--a giant stuffed cat.

“... how did you predict this,” he says stiffly as he presents the gift to her.

She laughs. “Chief Midoriya almost had a heart attack giving me that survey, you know. You should make it up to him.”

“... maybe,” he says, although the sudden dark look in his eyes tells her otherwise. She should apologize to the freckled Chief when things happen. “In any case, this is for you, if you’ll have it. It’s your very own Victoria. You should be grateful to have such a beautiful object.”

The cat is white and about half as big as her, with a squinty smile and a little bell on its collar. She won’t admit it, but she loves it immediately. She takes it from the Director. “Thank you, Director. I am filled with such gratitude.”

“Formal language, again?”

“I’m just teasing.”

He huffs. “You seem to be getting used to that, Secretary Uraraka. I don’t approve.”

She snickers. “Yeah? Well, approve this! ”

She playfully smacks the cat’s face right into his. She doesn’t know why she suddenly had the balls to do something like that, but the small surprised mmph he produces makes it all worth the risk. When he pushes the cat off of him to glare at her, she’s in another fit of giggles.

“I thought you had a good time. Is this how you say goodnight?” he asks in mild annoyance.

“I did! And, yes,” she says with a confident smile.

“Strange. That’s not what I know of ordinary people saying goodnight on ideal dates.”

Without warning, he steps closer to her, and closer, and closer. She should be backing up to keep a safe distance, far enough that he doesn’t hear her blood rushing or her heart beating or her mind racing into oblivion. She should, but she doesn’t--all she does is hold her breath.

Even when he meets her eyes.

Even when he leans in closer.

Even when her eyes are suddenly squeezing tight in anticipation of something she shouldn’t.

Whatever it is she was waiting for doesn’t come, however. Because what she feels in that cold, dark, anxious and excited void is something cold pressing into the very tip of her nose.

When she comes to, she’s staring cross-eyed right at his index finger.

Todoroki Shouto is poking her on the nose.

He gives a little satisfied smile and steps back. “That’s how they do it, right?”

She stammers, face impossibly red. “No? That’s not a thing anyone does in any planet! Where did you even learn that?!”

He chuckles lightly, the sound of it another shock to her senses. “I guess being ordinary is more challenging than I thought. Goodnight, Secretary Uraraka.”

Why is he so weird? Why is she feeling so bamboozled? Before she can make any sensible words out of her mouth, the Director is already behind the wheel and smugly driving off into the night.

God, all she can do is to run into her apartment, dive on the bed and hide her face over Her Very Own Victoria’s face to hide her blush. But then she remembers what she made this doll do (read: smack the Director in the face), and then she remembers that smooshing her face against it is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Great. How is she supposed to sleep now? Stupid Director!