#i quite literally have no time because of studying/homework/reading/lectures

[faynthearted]

school is back in session. free time is 100% gone. 😀

[enyaliuswrites]

➽ Love and Deepspace University/College AU

Multiple characters x fem!reader tags: fluff, reader doesn’t have to be mc, college au, university au, reader doesn't have to be in a relationship with character but it is slightly implied

Xavier is an Astronomy & Astrophysics major typa student with a minor in Philosophy. You guys can disagree with me, that's just what I see it as.

Xavier is the type of student that walks around campus to find the best places to sleep and professors and students are genuinely worried when they find him sleeping on a tree. (The shade was better and no one would disturb him, he argues).

Xavier is the student that is always asleep in class and just stays there even if the next class is coming into the lecture room (poor boy, someone should've woken him up fr).

However, his grades aren't in the earth’s core. His grades are actually pretty decent, above average actually. He probably dreams about his studies in a fun way or something.

He doesn't have many friends, only 1 really close one, Jeremiah, whom they both don’t see each other very often. They have a sort of friendship that without meeting they know they’ll forever be there for each other.

You guys met because you were taking a nap on a particularly windy day, the weather wasn't so sunny and the breeze wasn't so cold, a perfect day to study under a tree and accidentally doze off I say. Unbeknownst to you, that was where Xavier would usually sleep as well. He was about to leave to go to one of his other sleeping spots but then something caught his eye.

A butterfly flying over to you and landing on your head. It was quite a sight and just in that moment you woke up. You were startled by the Sophomore Xavier in front of you and scared the butterfly off. You guys stayed there in silence for a bit before somehow it turned into you both dozing off under the tree.

From that day onwards, you guys would meet under that tree to study, talk or nap and you guys grew closer day by day.

Xavier definitely tries to help with your homework but instead his head is on the table and his mind is in the land of dreams. He really tries, but his sleeping schedule is too packed.

Watching the skies is definitely a must with him. Whether it be the night sky or the day sky—setting up a cute picnic to lie down and just point at clouds, saying what they reminded you of. Or watching the stars and the moon while basking in each other’s comfortable silence.

Xavier definitely writes love poems in class to give you later but he’ll never read them out loud to you, only when you’re about to fall asleep then he’ll read it.

He always tries to cook for you but always somehow starts a fire, even while trying to make something as simple as Kimbap or sushi. So now he’s banned from the kitchen and you have him help you with the most simplest of tasks (measuring out ingredients or cutting vegetables) instead.

“Xavier, why do I smell burning?” “I think the egg might be a little overcooked.” “Xavier, it's on fire! How on earth did you mess up an omelet that badly?!” “I followed what you said. Should I try again?” “NO!”

Xavier definitely takes you to places where he naps and the most breathtaking, picturesque and comfortable place. An old cathedral courtyard, a secluded rooftop garden on a building on campus, a secret garden on campus with a clearing in the middle. During these times when the sun is setting is when he recites poems he read or wrote to you.

Zayne is obviously a medical student specializing in cardiology. I mean it’s clear as day.

He’s the type of student that never skips any school and doesn’t break any rules whatsoever. Sick? At school with a mask on. Injured? At school with a cast. Literally on the brink of death? At school with an IV bag and breathing tube. (exaggeration)

His back is straight in classes and you’ll never catch him slacking off his perfect posture. It’s kind of creepy, sometimes. He’s the student that always raises his hand to answer the professor that over time the professors are like “I know you know. I want to see if other students know.”

He’ll never share notes. As in, even if other people look at his notes they can’t understand his handwriting. Zayne’s notes are always so organized and clean that no one believes that he did that in a single class alone.

He definitely gets a lot of love letters. Girls go crazy for this man, (you and me included) they often try to invite him to help tutor them or to grab a bite. He always says the same thing, “If you’d had paid attention then you would understand.” and then just leaves.

He’s always in the library, studying during freshman and sophomore year. In his Junior year he started interning at a nearby hospital and from that day he just became 10 times more busy.

You guys met by chance—Senior Zayne was interning at the hospital and treated you after you pushed yourself too hard, eventually fainting, which is how you ended up here. (Gotta thank your bestfriend for being so worried she rushed you to the hospital.)

He saw you on campus the next day and at first he didn’t really care much, however after seeing you stumble around (you were just daydreaming) he came over and gave you a tiny lecture about caring for your health.

Somehow, that led to him visiting you after classes to give you a juicebox “To regulate your blood sugar” or a fruit, like a banana “Bananas are high in potassium, lowering the risk of a heart disease.” He’ll say that he’s your personal doctor-in-training and always encourages you to eat healthy by getting dinner at a clean restaurant. But, you still often catch him eating sweets and it always makes you laugh.

He never outright says that he wants to see you, he’ll make a thousand excuses instead. Sometimes, he’ll say that you’re late to a scheduled appointment with him.

“You’re late to your appointment.” “I’m pretty sure I just had one with you the day before yesterday.” “You left your pen here the other day, you should come get it.” “Zayne, just say you want to see me.”

Study dates are 99% of the dates you have with him. Both of you are entirely focused on your piles of assignments and study materials. If one of you has more free time than the other, you simply sit in silence and watch him concentrate—and he does the same for you.

Even though he’s extremely busy, as a medical student in his Senior year, he still makes plenty sure that you can feel his love. Whether that be sending a quick text in the morning or before he does something.

Sometimes when you guys meet he’s really tired so don't mind him taking a quick nap on your shoulder or around you. Make sure to snap a picture and use that as blackmail material afterwards, hehe.

Rafayel is a Fine Arts student for sure. He loves arts in all forms, painting, sketching, photography, scrapbooking, sculpture, fashion, the list goes on and on.

He’s the type of student that arrives fashionably late and always has some crazy ideas with his final projects and in the end he gets the highest grade. His artwork is actually one of the prides of the university/college and he’s extremely down to earth about it, only wanting to paint the things he sees in his dreams perfectly.

He definitely has people who want to be friends with him but he just treats everyone the same. Sassy and indifferent. Except for one friend who saw incredible potential in him and always helped him, making his art go famous around campus and earning Rafayel some money (Thomas).

Rafayel is the type of student that walks around the campus for inspiration as well as walking around the city to get inspiration, often finding hidden treasures of places, tucked-away cafes, historic museums, indie theatres, vintage shops.

He definitely spends a lot of his time at the sea and most of his artworks are inspired by the underwater world. He spends time near the swimming pool when no one is there, during the late nights or early mornings.

Being very popular and famous around campus, he has many admirers which he all just waves away. He couldn’t care less, the only thing he cares about is his art and the girl he met when he was at what he called his ‘secret hideout’.

You were a little stressed from studies so you decided to walk around campus, exploring the different buildings and rooms. Unexpectedly, you found yourself in an old art gallery—the lights were turned off and the only source of light was from the sun’s rays. You stayed there for a while, even though the door was dusty and the room was cluttered with old art supplies, you presumed that this was an art supply room.

Suddenly, that was when a Sophomore Rafayel walked in and saw you standing in front of one of his old paintings. A painting that he tried experimenting with a new style of technique, one that he was embarrassed of so he hid it here. He yelped when you saw you, he thought you were a ghost.

You guys talked for a while before you parted ways, however after hearing you talking about why you liked his art (he didn’t admit it was him) he grew an interest in you.

A few days later when you were free you decided to come and absorb the peaceful atmosphere of the old gallery again, however much to your surprise Rafayel was there as well.

“You know how many days I waited for you? Why didn’t you come sooner? If I get an allergy from all of this dust you’re paying for my medical bills.” “I don’t think that’s how allergies work-” “Don’t change the subject!”

You guys became close pretty quick. His words, although sometimes quirky and sassy, were also full of depth and emotion. Whenever he talked about art or the sea he had a glint in his eyes and a nostalgic solemn tone in his voice.

Dates with him are usually you doing your work while he paints or sketches you. He’ll always show you what he cooked up while you were focused but he’ll always say how it’s never perfect and that, “I can’t capture how perfect you are, cutie.”

You guys often visit the sea, taking long walks on the beach during the day and during the night while he tells you stories of his dreams and his own fascination with the world under the waves. He often makes you cute accessories out of seashells and will always gift you something handmade after classes.

Walking around campus and finding more cool places where you’ve explored is a must with him. He’ll rub circles with his thumb, holding your hand as you guys explore rooftop gardens and just talk about dreams or studies.

Sylus is definitely a business faculty typa student. For his major it might be international trade or something of the sort.

He’s the type of student that skips most of his classes but gets a perfect grade.

When he does come to class he’ll definitely be dozing off but when there's assignments he always somehow gets full marks. If the professor calls on him he’ll answer correctly and eventually professors just stop trying to catch him lacking (they never can).

He’ll come and go as he pleases and no one really says anything, too afraid to mess with him since everywhere he walks people just keep their eyes down or walk the other way. (I mean have you seen the Lunar New Year event? Bro was sticking out so much)

He definitely has LOADS of rumors about himself on campus but bro does NOT care. And the rumors are hella crazy too, and what's even crazier is that no one knows if they’re true or not. “I heard that he beat up a couple of students the other day so badly they were all hospitalized.” “Well, I heard that he’s involved with the mafia and does their dirty work for them.” “You guys are all wrong. He is the Mafia boss! He’s just working undercover here!”

Sylus doesn't have any friends. Well, except two identical twins that always follow him around as well as a crow (strange friends if you ask me). Luke and Kieran are like his lackeys but without the mistreatment, they’ll always help him with the little things while he’s out and about doing some shady businesses outside of school.

You guys definitely met because of something random and cliche. Sylus, the mysterious senior that you bumped into in the hallway, causing your drink to stain him, you and your work. You apologized and after a while he shrugged it off and let you off the hook. However, you kept seeing him around after that day and on the days that you didn’t, you would see a crow instead.

The crow would sometimes have a candy in his mouth or a kopiko (those coffee candies). Over time you’d see Sylus more often and he’d sometimes strike a conversation and you’d continue it and before you know it he’ll be showing up outside of your class and walk with you around campus for a quick bite or even to send you to your next class. Of course, people always stare or quickly shuffle away whenever you pass by.

He sometimes brings you a little something after class when you meet up. A juicebox. Milk. Coffee. Maybe even a little baked good. He often drives you around, whether that be on his motorcycle or his car, he lets you pick. Honestly, at this point he’s like your chauffeur. All he wants to see is your smile.

Dinner dates are an absolute must with him, whether that be eating out at a fancy restaurant or him cooking for you at his place.

During study dates you guys will definitely go to a reclusive hidden cafe that he found and order something little to help fuel you. He’ll watch you and help you if you need it (you have to beg a little for it though). He has the most messed up sleeping schedule so please let him rest when he suddenly dozes off while watching you study.

Sylus will definitely drag you out of class, saying that there’s an emergency and the professor allows him too, totally buying into his words as you both walk away. Why? All because you complained to him that you didn’t want to sit in this class and that it was boring.

“Sylus! Why’d you do that?!” “Didn’t you say that you didn’t like it? That you hated it, sweetie?” “I did, but you can’t just do that!” “Let’s go get dinner. We can go to that place you love to go to.” “…Okay, let’s go.”

Caleb is an Aerospace Engineering student and a good one at that. (I mean have you read his anecdotes??)

Caleb is similar to Zayne, he never misses a class and is a top grade student. Scoring the top in every class. Honestly, everyone is jealous of him (me included).

He’s the type of student that shares his close friends with his notes and even sometimes helps tutor them. He’s loved by all his friends and everyone who works with him, whether that be group work or just striking up a conversation with him.

He’s extremely popular, due to his energetic personality, natural leadership and how reliable of a person he is. However, it feels like almost no one really knows him. He seems like an open book but he’s really a mystery to everyone, even his close friends.

He gets a lot of love letters as well, however as soon as he sees them he rips them and throws them in the bin.

He’s a great actor, (He definitely fooled me in the main story, got scared so much) and uses that to his advantage. He’s definitely involved in some shady things on campus, but no one knows. One time someone tried to create rumors about him and the next day those rumors instantly stopped.

You met Caleb through your friend. Caleb being a Junior at your university as well as the older brother of a friend of yours since middle school. You guys met once or twice back when you were in middle school but he remembered you up till the day he saw you on campus, dozing off at the library.

When you woke up you didn't expect an apple to be on your table along with a little note, “Fuel yourself for the rest of the day!” along with a doodle of an apple. You didn't eat it, afraid that it was poisoned (You weren't going to be the next Snow White).

One day you bumped into him while leaving one of your classes and he immediately striked a conversation. While reminiscing about when you guys were younger you guys walked to a nearby cafe and grabbed a drink together. The conversation developed into updating each other about life and what you guys were planning for the future and you realized that you were about to be late for your next class. Before going he quickly scribbled his contact on a piece of sticky note and you swear that you’ve seen that handwriting somewhere before.

Ever since that day he’s always accompanied you to your classes and back. 9am class? He’ll be there to walk you there, even a little snack in his hand, usually an apple. 5pm? He’ll be there with a piece of candy, to help fuel you for the last class.

He’ll always scare other boys off, whether it be putting an arm around your shoulder when he sees someone looking or holding your waist and pulling you towards him. He’ll take whatever you say after, nagging him for being too open or catching you off guard.

It’s a back and forward of him going over to your place or you going to his and eating his home cooked dinners. Eating out is barely a thing with Caleb, he loves to cook for you and secretly wishes that you love it too.

He’s extremely clingy and possessive. Even if you want to hang out with other people he’ll always ask a lot of questions, but he’ll never be overly possessive.

“Who are you going with?” “Just a few friends.” “Where? For how long?” “Nowhere. I’ll take a couple of hours, maybe. Caleb, don't worry.” “I’ll pick you up when you finish. Just tell me when and where and I’ll be there. You can tell me if you want to leave early.”

He’s definitely the type of student that’ll help you with your assignments even if that means doing extra research on the topic you’re struggling with to help you.

A/N: totally wasn't writing this while stuck in accounting class. This actually took me longer than I thought and I bet I still have more things to add even now, but this is what I imagined in my head today. Stay delusional! (*´∀`*) Art creds : Love and Deepspace Dividers by @omi-resources

[litnerd]

First week of lectures (21.10. - 24.10.) update

Hm well, I guess it's not gonna be daily updates with me after all :') but I'll try to update you as often as somehow possible.

There's some great news regarding my term paper-- after consulting my teacher she allowed me to extend the deadline/ ignore the deadline. This means I can do all this in my own time without getting horrible backpains from being hunched over in front of my notebook, working in the library for hours on end. Still, I want to finish it till the middle of November to get it out of the way so I can better concentrate on the rest of my classes.

Today's plan:

Today I will go to the library of the Seminar of English Philology (it's the coziest library 'on' campus) to work on an assignment.

Some background info for those who are interested:

In my semantics & pragmatics course we have to do weekly assignments (each will give us 4 points) which will then be added to the points we get in the final exam (adding up to a 100 points max), which is a take-home exam. I took syntax last semester and I'm so glad that semantics & pragmatics doesn't have a midterm exam and the final isn't an open book exam that you have to complete in 90 minutes! It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders.

You must know that I take a loooot of courses this semester. I have more than 30 credits (you're supposed to take courses between 28-30 credits, because they would make up 40 hours of work per week, homework time etc. included) so every course that doesn't have a super complicated final exam is a big relief!

New courses

So, I only visited 2 other lectures so far (many things only start next week): the introduction to German sign language (DGS) and one on the early modern literary period of English writing (yeiz, Shakespeare!).

I also visited two seminars: German sign language practice and my acting course.

The acting course was fun, even though there hadn't been any acting yet! The teacher said it would take too long pushing all the tables to the sides so we would start by getting to know each other a little bit. We introduced ourselves with names & the subjects we study (in my case English literature and culture and 'Germanistik') and then we played a looong round of 2 truths 1 lie, which was quite entertaining. The teacher explained to us how warming up before acting (which is what a big portion of this class is going to be about) is incredibly important and sometimes the only way to manage a play when you feel stuck otherwise. Sometimes the only way to get out of your head and manage to give the best performance is by starting at the very bottom and making your way up. I never thought about it this way, mostly cause I'm horrible at all the warm up shenanigans... It's gonna be interesting to see if I'll improve at all, though. Our final ist going to be basically a diary we have to keep about the course, which is going to be an easy pass! I mean I'm quite literally writing the diary right now already, aren't I?

The sign language course was very fun as well! I never thought about the fact that for a person who speaks German sign language, German would be their secondary language. Signers (those of them who were born deaf) can often write and read German (or whatever spoken language they grew up with) but it's more complicated for them because sign language has very short and direct sentences. As you might know if you read "the horrible German language" by Mark Twain... German is the complete opposite of short and direct. We tend to put our verbs at the end of the sentence (though not all the time) which means you work through a very long sentence having to remember the entire content of it until you FINALLY get to the verb so you know what the sentence actually is about... Sign language has different grammar in general- I didn't know that either! It does make complete sense, but I just never thought about it. And there are different dialects of sign language, even inside Germany. There are minor differences between those dialects such as how they sign colours or the days of the week.

Our teacher is deaf herself and for our first session there was a sign interpretor, translating everything she signed into German and anything we asked her into DGS. From next week on the translator won't be there anymore, so we won't be able to speak German to her unless we write down our questions on the board... Scary, but also kind of cool! She can write German, too, so she will probably give us our exercises via power point presentation. Our final exam in this course will be an "oral" test, aka we gotta practice some signing (it's not going to be extremely hard since it's a beginners course) like signing our names, using the finger alphabet, saying "hello" and "how are you" etc. Just the very basics. We tried doing the finger alphabet already this time and I felt like I was tangling my fingers into a knot :') I have absolutely no idea what my hand is doing when I don't look at it lol!

Anyways, that's it guys. See ya!

[hes-writer]

To You (4)

Summary: harry dates y/n to get closer to her best friend

Warnings: mild angst (what else lol), not a lot of dialogue for this one, and a bit of fluff

Word Count: 2775 words

A/N: I've had the worst writer's block for this series but then inspiration struck me at 2 am and I had the chance to write a lil sumthin sumthin for the next part :D

Read the full series in my masterlist (bio)

As I mentioned before, this story kind of goes backwards.

____

As self-deprecating as it is, Y/N couldn’t help but feel her guard lower with each fleeting glance at her phone. She didn’t mean to, really. It wasn’t as if she was bored out of her mind because she was the opposite of that. 

Going on her phone and tapping on Instagram was more of a distraction from studying if anything. She was hounded by piles of homework and pages of readings to do by the end of next week. It seemed that her brain was working in constant overdrive to try to remember the endless concepts and theories that were catapulted at her with no signs of stopping. Her eyes were straining from the constant stimulation from her laptop screen, and from trying to read the small letters plastered on the computer. 

Y/N was studying on her designated studying days, as usual. She was quite proud of sticking to the schedule, except for the few weeks that she opted to coddle herself in the confines of her warm blanket because that was around the time that she found out her boyfriend, Harry, was only using her to get close to her best friend, Louise. 

——

In retrospect, Y/N should have seen all the signs blaring right in front of her face all along. She gave herself facepalms more than she could count by the way she was—quite literally—blinded by love to realize that Harry’s feelings were nothing but a façade. That Y/N was nothing but a pawn in his game; a character to manipulate, disposable in order for him to get the woman he actually wanted. And Y/N had no doubts that her ex-boyfriend was treating Louise like a queen. 

Y/N wore red-tinted glasses while she was with Harry and she didn’t see the red flags rising every time he shaped their evening around Louise’s schedule. She thought that Harry was making such a good effort in getting to know the people close to Y/N’s life that he insisted on having Louise around whenever they hung out with her friends. 

Harry asked endless questions about Louise; from where she worked to what she was interested in—to which Y/N had foolishly answered, believing that she had found the perfect man to share her life with. But she should have known when he didn’t do the same for her other friends. Hell, he didn’t even do the same to her!

___

When Harry and Y/N were just friends, he didn’t bother getting to know her as thoroughly and comprehensively as he did with Louise. In fact, it could be argued that Harry hated Y/N when they were first introduced by—and this was ironic—Louise! 

Louise spoked highly and excitedly of ‘my friend, Y/N’ and with Harry being the loved-up simp that he was—wanted to please Louise by appearing interested in her friend. He guessed that he was probably too good of an actor (not to toot his own horn) because that meet up turned into a set-up. 

Louise had planned a date for her friends, Y/N was indifferent to it; she was even a little excited because she thought that Harry was sort of nice. Despite the fact that he was indirectly rude to her in their first meeting, Y/N didn’t hold grudges on people for their first impressions. She believed that anybody could have a bad day and that might just be the time when Harry was dragged by the arm to be introduced to her. 

Y/N understood if that was the case. She was not too keen on acting nice and friendly after a stressful day at work, or a hard study session at the library. So even if Harry was practically snarling at every word she said from his seat around the rounded booth table of the bar—she agreed to go on a first date with him. 

——

Harry was in shambles.

He got himself into quite an intricate mess trying to attain the woman of his dreams. He was such a pleaser that he was now contemplating inside his car, outside of Y/N’s address. Was this all worth it? Of course, it was. As much as Harry would like to say that this was part of his plan to make Louise his girlfriend, it really wasn’t. 

But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t use it to his advantage. 

It was a good thing that he was early—about twenty minutes or so. That was only because he was huffing the whole time Harry was buttoning the clutches of his dress shirt, shaking his head at the bathroom mirror and reprimanding himself for letting his lovesickness to get him deeper than he would like. But hey, the sooner Harry got to Y/N’s place, the sooner this ‘date’ would be over. 

So here he was, hidden in the shadows of the night sky and shielded by the heavy tint of his Range Rover. Palms were pressed on the lush leather steering wheel as Harry formulated how he could turn this around in his favour. He was already in Louise’s good books for even agreeing to this in the first place—why not make Y/N his own personal wingman?

Granted, that she didn’t actually know Harry well enough but maybe this date could reach Louise’s ears about how much of a romantic, perfect, and chivalrous gentleman Harry could be. That would surely make Louise like him, right?

Wrong. Absolutely wrong.

It was safe to say that Harry was feeling guilty the moment he decided to use Y/N in order to get to her best friend, but that ship sailed long ago when anger and frustration took over. Why in the hell was he so perfect to Y/N’s eyes that she had gushed about him to her best friend minutes after he had dropped her off?

Why did Harry have to knock on her door with a single-stemmed rose clutched in his fingers, doing a little bow to add humour when she opened the door? And what in God’s name possessed him to say that she looked beautiful that night in her pretty, deep green dress that he thought was absolutely gorgeous on her—but his heart was with another woman—fully knowing that it would look better on Louise?

“Why. . . just why,” Harry asked himself as he sat at a table with Y/N, Louise and her boyfriend, Dylan. 

That was what being romantic got him. That was where declaring Y/N as his unofficial wingman ended him upon. A double date with the woman he wanted with Y/N looking at him as if they’ve been together for years, when in fact, they had only known each other for a few weeks. 

Harry’s pride was too big to admit that this time; he couldn’t get the girl. And so, his bruised ego declared that this date was just another unplanned situation that would benefit him—somehow, someway—in the future. 

Wrong again. 

Because a month later,  Y/N was running off to her lecture with a bag strapped over her shoulder, leaving Harry a passionate kiss on the lips. He was quite ashamed to say that he enjoyed the affection, but not enough to ignore the throbbing of his heart

Harry wasn’t all in with his relationship with Y/N and he knew exactly why. For months, he had been pining for Louise and well, he ended up with her best friend, Y/N. Now that was just super unlucky for him. And he wasn’t usually a mean person, but Harry was very annoyed with fate (or destiny) for leaving with an ultimatum. 

First, leaving Y/N risking her tattling to Louise about him breaking her heart was a no-no. Second, staying with Y/N until she realizes that both of them were no good together. The latter was a much more pleasant choice, except the fact that it could take months for Y/N to acknowledge that she and Harry were both too different for each other. 

—— 

It was another four months later when Harry drew upon an epiphany very similar yet completely different from the ultimatum he had presided. 

Y/N was sure of her feelings more than ever, even dropping the ‘L’ word during a drunken stupor of wine and bubbly champagne. Harry was sure that she hadn’t remembered her confession the next morning because she never brought it up. However, those words that escaped her lips were enough for Harry to overthink each night one or the other slept over. 

Sometimes Y/N’s snores would serve as background noise to his serene imagination, wondering why the images of Louise and him doing couple-y stuff were now replaced with Y/N’s figure instead. 

He also pondered if his memory was so impeccable that he could hear Y/N’s laugh fluttering in his ears while she was sound asleep beside him or was it just because she released a chuckle every time he made a horrible joke?

(It was true. Y/N never left Harry hanging in the air with a questionable punchline of a head-scratching joke. Both of them knew that her giggles were pity laughs. Harry was thankful for it and Y/N just couldn’t resist painting a genuine smile on Harry’s face, looking so proud that he had made her laugh.) 

Harry was certain that his feelings for Y/N wouldn’t quite reach the threshold that he held her for now. But it seemed that he was getting a lot of his sworn predictions wrong lately. Sure, their first encounter (and the second, and the third. . .) were purely for satisfaction’s sake. A mere plot for Harry to build his boyfriend resumé for Louise. 

Harry wasn’t sure when his feelings shifted from civil and friendly to an ever-evoking, lovesick puppy. 

Maybe it was the way Y/N walked, straight into his heart and stole it, keeping it safe in her tender hands when she pressed a lingering kiss on his lip while she ran off to catch the bus. The way Harry would pout when Y/N forgot the routine she had set, resulting in him whining her name and sometimes chasing after her to get his much-needed kiss. He even started calling it his ‘good-luck charm’ because it seemed like without it; Harry came home more drained and tired than usual because nothing went right that day. 

Or maybe it was the way she giggled while reading something on her phone, laptop, or a book—even if it was for school purposes. How absolutely pleased he was to hear her melody of giggles, straining his ear to listen more closely and wanting to do nothing more than to hear it again because it was music to Harry. It usually ends with Y/N’s heaving breaths, begging him to stop tickling her. 

Was it because she was the most adorable little thing while she was asleep? No, it couldn’t be, Harry thought, even though the admiration in his eyes cannot be described as anything other than glazed over with love and affection with the way he stared at Y/N’s sleeping face. 

But why can’t he stop thinking about her when she wasn’t around? Harry felt like he was missing a part of himself as soon as he shut the door to his house because Y/N had to go to her own place. 

Why did a smile splinter his lips visualizing Y/N studying at her kitchen table with a topknot wobbling on her head and a pair of her thick-rimmed glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose? Harry still remembers the first time she asked him to redo the bun on her head, complaining that it was loosening and that she couldn’t focus when strands were haywire. 

Harry made sure to be extra careful as to not accidentally pull on her scalp, stretching the hairband around his fingers. 

Now, he only had a minute experience in hair styling, reminiscing to his long-haired days were he slipped his hair into a neat ball in a few seconds or less. But this was Y/N, his girlfriend, who had an adorable pout on her face. The finch between her brows deepening when she tried to understand the concepts written on the screen yet she would giggle when Harry would ask her, ‘Am I hurting you?’ and shake her head ‘no’. 

——-

So it was a bit questionable when Harry jumped at the chance to kiss Louise when the time came. 

She had just broken up with her boyfriend and called Y/N for comfort. However, Y/N was about to leave for an exam worth half of her grade and she couldn’t just not attend it. She may love her best friend with all of her heart, but not enough to waste thousands of dollars to redo a course because she missed the final exam. 

Hence, why Harry was sent in place of Y/N instead. And that was also how his plump lips managed to lock itself with Louise’s’ glossy ones. He should’ve felt guilt stab him right away when he tasted wet, salty tears on his tongue when he battled for dominance with Louise. 

Harry should have pulled away when his phone buzzed in his pocket; a message from girlfriend that she had just finished her exam and was ready to be picked up now so that she could give love and comfort to her best friend. 

Harry’s subconscious must have reminded him that this was the woman whom he had spent months pining on; desperately trying to make her his yet failing. And now that he had the chance to, he couldn’t stop. 

Instead of doing everything his conscience had practically yelled at him to do, Harry’s brain had buffered—his body numbed every nerve except the ones controlling his mouth because their persisting kiss was captured by a photographer hidden amongst barricades that Harry had failed to take notice of. 

Harry was sure that his presence was hidden to the best of his abilities, but he guessed that Louise’s hands had pulled his hoodie off in the midst of their make-out session, revealing his side profile and the unruly curls on his head. 

And that was how Y/N identified the image on her phone the time she felt her heart being ripped out and crushed into pieces. That, and the fact that Harry wore the same clothes she had seen him in before she left. 

____ 

And now, as Y/N paused her thumb from scrolling away from the image on her screen, the same pain and heartbreak still throbbed in her chest. 

She couldn’t seem to forget, as a lot of people say, what Harry did to her. Despite the fact that he was spotted outside her door, leaving boxed gifts of chocolate and flower bouquets a few minutes ago—Y/N simply didn’t have the capacity to sweep everything under the rug. 

The wound was still fresh—feeling air was enough to have her hissing, aiming to cover the cut in fear that it would become too painful to even ignore. For weeks, Y/N had to wallow in agonizing self-pity to remind herself that Harry didn’t deserve her or her love for him and now she was somehow ready to run back into his arms? 

She absolutely despised the way her hands twitched to send him a text. To leave him a voicemail or to simply tap his contact just to hear him speak to her again. Y/N was ashamed to admit that he thought about knocking on his front door just for another chance at seeing him again. An opportunity to ask him if he was happier with her (ex) best-friend—if Harry loved Louise more than he did with her. Or—and most of all—if Harry ever did love Y/N during their short relationship. Was everything just a game to him? 

She was doing good so far; she was strong enough to withhold from the urges of communicating with an ex. However, Y/N knew it was only a matter of time before Harry took extreme measures to speak to her, unlocking her door with the spare key she had given him. One day she would be met with his figure in the hallway with a sad smile on his face and three long-stemmed sunflowers in his hand and Y/N wouldn’t be able to resist him. 

Y/N hated herself for being so weak whenever Harry was involved. He was her Kryptonite; getting too close to him was what ripped her to shreds. 

___

Let me know what you thought!

____

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[jiyuus]

I’m Here

I was reading some hc about the smaller things that would happen with them as your boyfriend (that the literal title) and whenever I read something about Tenya I always remember how much I love him.

So I got inspired and wanted to write some fluff about him~ 

This takes place in your first year of college, Iida’s first official year as a hero, and nothing that has happened in the manga has happened in this cause it’s too sad for me to process right now~

[Iida Tenya]

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

As the sun started to set over the city, most were getting off work and going home to their families. But not the heroes. And for Iida, it was his first time. Normally he would work during the days, from around 8 am to 5 pm almost everyday. Today was different though.

He was currently on a stake out, not knowing how it would turn out once the action started. Especially because he now had you in his life. And he didn’t want to break the one promise he made to you. Sure, he literally tried to kill someone during his intern days, not that anyone besides Midoriya and Todoroki knew. But this time, he wanted to do things right- but he was scared. 

“Tenya, you don’t have to do this-”

“Please, let me.” Tenya interrupted, placing his hands on your shoulders. You looked into his cobalt blue eyes, he was more serious than he normally was.

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his noise while going to sit on your bed, “everything I do is to become a better hero than what I am now.” He looked at you, “But with you in my life, I want to be even better than that.”

“Tenya, you don’t-”

“I was not finished, Y/N.” He sighed again, “I want to promise you that no matter what, I will come back to you.” You smiled at him, walking over to sit down next to him and placing your hand on his thigh.

“I know that no matter what, promise or not, you would come back to me.” Tenya smiled at you before pulling you into a tight hug.

You weren’t a hero student, or a support student, or a business student. You were a gen. ed. student, only really wanting to go to U.A for the academics. How you and the class president of, at the time, class 1-A president- it was purely an accident.

A happy accident.

You were dropping something off in the teachers office and had, quite literally, run into him. You couldn’t remember who was at fault or what truly happened during that, but it somehow lead to a happy relationship. But even with a set date night once a week, or calls and messages with him everyday- you couldn’t help but worry.

He was a hero, someone who risked his life fighting evil to protect others. It was dangerous.

You were currently in your room, trying to focus on whatever homework your teachers assigned. But all you could do was mess around with the ring that Tenya had gotten you a year ago that was hung on a chain.

Sitting in his dorm after an intense training session, you and Tenya were studying a bit before you had to go back to your own dorm. You were sitting on his bed with your books spread around you. Suddenly Tenya got up and walked to his nightstand.

“Close your eyes, darling.” He said while holding something behind his back. It wasn’t a demand, nor was it a suggestion, but you did it anyway. Knowing that Tenya wasn’t one to argue with unless you wanted a lecture. Sighing, you closed your eyes only to feel something cold against your neck a few seconds later.

“Are going to kill me, Tenya?” You teased, opening your eyes only to look at his. It was his turn to sigh as he shook his head. You laughed before looking down at what he had place around your neck, only for you gasp.

“Tenya...”

“Darling,” he kneeled in front of you, taking your hand. “I know it’s too early for us to get married, but I wanted to show you that I truly care for you. And that I love you dearly.”

That memory replayed in your mind as you tried to concentrate, but it only made you worry more. You knew that you would get to talk to him more tomorrow and that he would be back to eat lunch with you. but for some reason you couldn’t wait. But before you had the chance to dramatically dash out of your apartment to his, you had a friend call you out of your room.

“You better have a good reason for- Tenya?” You were about to go off on your roommate/friend, but when you saw your boyfriend standing in the doorway, you stopped.

“Tenya, what are you doing here? I thought you had hero work? And isn’t it pass the time- you’re injured.” You noticed right way, despite his attempt at trying to cover it and act like he was his normal self- but you knew him like the back of your hand.

“Darling, I can assure you I’m-” you stepped forward and poked his side, cutting off his sentence and instead earning a hiss from the human car. You grabbed his hand and led him inside, forcing him into the bathroom.

“You can’t show up all bloody and bruised and say that you’re fine.” You pout, clearing some space on your small bathroom counter for him to sit on before digging through cabinets trying to find a first aid kit.

“Sit.” 

“Darling-”

“Tenya.” Without another word, Iida sat on the small counter, his body barely on the counter as you opened the box and started to remove his clothes. Even after all two years of dating, he was still shy about you seeing his bare body. Giggling you start to dab away the blood.

“Why are you blushing? You’ve done a heroes calendar and it’s nothing I haven’t seen from you before.” He didn’t say anything and only looked away, his cheeks still a blaze from your remarks. After a few minutes of silent work, you were able to patch him up as best you could.

“So what happened?” Iida didn’t say anything as you finished cleaning up, putting away what needed to be put back in the box and throwing away things that were only one use items. When you were done and you turned to face him, he brought you into a hug.

You were quick to bring your arms around him as well, taking a moment to let him relax a bit.

“That bad huh?” Iida nodded, only breathing in your scent as you waited for him to speak. You both stayed like that, until your roommate yelled at you both to get out of the bathroom. 

All he needed to know was that you were here, and everything was going to be okay. And as you both laid together, he looked at the ring around your neck. Fiddling with it, he smiled to himself knowing that you were here- he was here and that everything was okay.

[blush-and-books]

i'm about to pass out but needed to write this - JATP + school headcanons

*disclaimer: I am only evaluating their attitudes and performance in what are considered "core" classes in my state. Idk if it is universal. These are also generalizations -- ik theres different types of math and science that they are taking

LUKE

He inspired this so we start with the king

ENGLISH CLASS: He excelled. Somehow, unknowingly, became his teacher's favorite. Did the homework for this class and ONLY this class. A+

MATH CLASS: B-/C+. Does not like math, hates it actually, never did the homework. Somehow averaged a B+/A- on tests and quizzes because he would have Reggie tutor him days before in preparation. Teacher always shocked at how he managed.

HISTORY CLASS: Did not do the homework, but still, like, paid attention?? Had it with all the guys so there were funny moments and events to associate with each lesson and lecture and somehow he remembered it. Again, did not do the homework. Maybe if he was super bored. C+/B-

SCIENCE CLASS: Skipped it most of the time. Would show up for labs and experiments even if he had no clue what was going on. Bobby tried to help but Luke was so uninterested lol, and the teacher was v boring!!! Not fun. D+

LANGUAGE: Took Spanish because its what everyone did??? He thought it would be the most useful but it ended up being such a mistake. He thought that English was complicated, but shit!!! Hard :(( Julie tried to revive his education but fails often (but hes really faking it bc he just wants to keep hearing her speak Spanish and try to teach him). D+/C-

JULIE

ENGLISH CLASS: Aces all of her essays. Emotionally attached to all of her female English teachers!! Sometimes her interpretations of the books are a little off but literally everyone's are. Loves English. A-/A

MATH CLASS: Gifted kid syndrome but only with math if that makes sense?? Got super ahead in elementary and middle school but now that shes in high school she barely knows what's going on and is running out of math classes to take because she was able to jump so much from middle to high school. Has to study the most for this one. Thank god for Reggie. B-

HISTORY CLASS: Could take it or leave it! Likes the subject but hates the teacher. Does well on tests to spite them. Doodles too much on her homework and it annoys the teacher v much. A-

SCIENCE CLASS: kinds vibes ngl??? Something kinds cool about it. Has Flynn in the class, a fun young science teacher, and they all just have a really good time. Julie never really liked science but with the right people and environment shes flourishing!!! A

LANGUAGE: Did not have to take one -- took a fluency exam in Spanish her freshman year. Has minor superiority complex every time Flynn complains about not knowing her language.

REGGIE

ENGLISH CLASS: Got distracted hella easily... Not very fun :( teacher didn't understand that he had ADHD and learned things in a different way. Luke tried to help him cheat on tests tho so he didnt have to repeat the class. D+/C-

MATH CLASS: GENIUS!?!?!?!? GENIUS. Literally took two math classes one year bc he could. Somehow it all made sense. Really loved how numbers were consistent and clearly right or wrong; not subjective. Teachers loved him because he was always kind and positive and brought a smile to everyones face. A+++

HISTORY CLASS: Did not suck at it??? Kinda cool stuff and fun times with his besties. Did better in the class than any of them. Teacher was a total prick tho and Reggie was also late because it was their period right after lunch and he was a slow eater and the teacher didnt allow food. Again: teacher was a prick. B+

SCIENCE CLASS: Enjoyed the labs and experiments, usually aced those because he has exceptional attention to detail. Everything else, not so much. Certain concepts were just very hard to grasp and he had a hard time creating ways to remember things. C+

LANGUAGE: He took French because he knew his mom took French when she was in high school and he thought she could help him and they could bond. That plan didn't really work out -- but he still did okay, even if his mom didn't pay attention. B-

ALEX

ENGLISH CLASS: In between Luke and Reggie -- read the books and retained most of the information, but the essays were not it. He really liked class discussions even though the teacher would tell him his interpretations were wrong (how do you interpret something incorrectly?? Art is up for interpretation?? He will never quite understand). B+/B-

MATH CLASS: Kill him. Least favorite class. Hates math and has hated math since his first lesson on fractions broke his spirit in third grade. Reggie helped him through most of it but shit really did not click. Did his best because his parents would be mad if he didn't. C-/C+

HISTORY CLASS: Very into history for some unknown reason??? The TA in the class was hot so he made sure to pay attention and make a good impression. He was often apologizing for the behavior of his bandmates. A+

SCIENCE CLASS: Did not hate it!!! Had the fun young new teacher instead of the same old dude that had been there for 20 years. She was really fun and sweet (and totally got the vibe he was gay and was super supportive)!!! He didnt quite understand everything but still worked his ass off. B+

LANGUAGE: French with Reggie because he thought it was a more romantic language. Quickly realized his mistake and switched to Spanish the next year. Realized his mistake again (the mistake being that he would be good at learning a new language) and stopped trying lol. C+

FLYNN

ENGLISH CLASS: Her essays are well written because Julie edits all of them. Like Alex, is always told that she is reading the text wrong?? The two of them bond mega over that. Just because she has a wider imagination does not mean she should be punished for it!!! B+

MATH CLASS: Geometry is her jam but algebra makes her wanna commit every degree of murder. Sometimes it clicks and sometimes it definitely does not. Probably dont ask her for help because shes awful at explaining things. B-

HISTORY CLASS: Hates it here!!!!!!!! She hates the curriculum, hates the lecturing, and constantly either feels bored or singled out in every lesson. Is advocating in the district for textbook and curriculum reform to include diverse and pan-ethnic studies. C-

SCIENCE CLASS: Her favorite class!!!!!! Loves everything about it. She isnt learning how the world works through history but instead through the facts of science. She feels invincible in the lab and like she has so much more to discover. She particularly enjoys astronomy. A+

LANGUAGE: Spanish so that Julie could help her out!!! Can barely utter more than 2 sentences in conversation but is perfect on paper and that's more than half of the battle. A-

[clean-bands-dirty-stories]

Study Buddies ~ H.D.

A/n: Yall really be liking Hamish huh? Lol we stan tbh.

Request: “Hi could I request a hamish duke x male reader where the reader is like the super studious person like always preparing for the next test or something and hamish starts liking him? Ps you are like the only person who does the order fics and I love that you do it because I love the order boys!!” by anonymous

Word Count: 3000+

Masterlist

Psychology was hard.

School was never one of those things that came easy to Y/n. He wasn't one of those kids who could sit there and give the bare minimum effort. He struggled to follow throughout an entire lecture because the sun was bright and the grass was really green and he knew it was a nice day outside today and... wait now he'd missed five minutes of class, dang it!

In college, five minutes was like missing three days of school. The topic was suddenly completely different and Y/n was lost and confused.

That didn't stop him from being a top student in each one of his classes though. He had always been proud of his grades and worked himself near death if necessary, if it meant getting an A. Not literally near death of course, that was dramatic.

Y/n had taught himself time management at a very young age. It had been the key to his success ever since. He slept and ate food - three meals a day - and even kept a job, taking every free moment he had to study his ass off so that he knew what was going on and could deliver the proof with those beautiful red A's on the top of each of his papers.

Y/n really did study so much to get those results though. On his breaks at work, between classes, before and after school, during meals and off periods. He even quizzed himself in the bathroom and the shower, checking to make sure he'd gotten it right when he got out. It was hard and tiring, but it meant that he succeeded every time, and that's what was important.

He was a good student. His psychology teacher's TA, Hamish Duke, was very appreciative of it.

Hamish was around a lot more than the teacher was. He taught lectures and even graded papers. This class had long since been seen as Hamish’s class, and that was perhaps why it was so easy for him to slip every conversation into the direction of Y/n. Hamish was proud of all his students, but most often his star pupil.

Hamish talked about Y/n constantly. Or, more accurately, his grades. Like a proud parent showing off his child, Hamish filled his friends' ears with rant after rant about his favorite student. The only student that seemed genuinely knowledgeable about the material. The only student as well who turned in his stuff early and asked questions rather than just listening, and seemed dedicated and focused on everything, as Hamish said.

One day during one of these rants, Lilith said something that changed everything. "He likes you."

Hamish jerked back, his face twisting in disbelief. "What? No he doesn't."

Randall snorted. "No, I have to go with Lilith on this one, Hamish. I have math class with Y/n and he doesn't pay attention at all. He's just a super nerd and teaches the stuff to himself in his free time."

"Some boy doesn't pay attention in any class but Hamish's?" Jack laughed. "Dude so has a crush on you."

Rolling his eyes, Hamish stood. "You guys obviously have no sense of respect. Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to- I already knew that." The trio laughed as Hamish walked away.

After that though, Hamish became hyper aware of Y/n. The boy had his eyes on Hamish nonstop. Every once in a while, he'd even mutter under his breath as he'd watch and Hamish realized after a while that he was watching so closely, he was subconsciously mouthing along with Hamish. Probably because he read the book on his own time as well. Which made Hamish wonder why Y/n ever came to class. If he read the book, was he just... adding some context? Insight? So he asked Randall about it.

"Y/n only comes to class about half the time. The entire time he asks questions, but it's never about what's happened in previous classes or anything- just clarification about what we're learning now. I think he's got some theories? I don't know, he likes to test the water and push formulas. Our teacher actually gets a kick off of it. Y/n makes math fun, and... well, it's math. We all get happy when he's there."

So he might have stayed consistent with his insatiable need to deeply understand everything he took part in, but there was something different about Randall's experience from Hamish's. First of all, Y/n had never missed even a single one of Hamish's classes. Hamish knew because he had a perfect attendance record, and Hamish and the teacher - Ms. Merrill - talked about Y/n around their discussion on the newest lesson plan, batch of tests or even homework.

While Hamish was trying to ignore the thought of Y/n's possible feelings for him and teach a lesson instead, Y/n threw him off by approaching him after class. "Mr. Duke, I was wondering if you know any good tutors. I've been really struggling with the stuff we've been going over recently.

Hamish quirked an eyebrow. "Your grades are almost perfect."

There was a small smile on Y/n's lips when he spoke next. "Unfortunately, grades don't reflect understanding. I can sense myself starting to struggle I don't want to depend on luck being as good to me as it has been."

"Surely you're being modest."

A light chuckle. "Well, yes. I never depend on luck. I have been making educated guesses though and crossing my fingers on the rest."

That Hamish could relate to. "I see. I have to say, I don't really know anyone doing as well in my class as you are. No one who seems to be getting it as well as you do at least. It's mostly your questions that seem to clear up a lot of things for everyone else." Y/n seemed to lose hope as Hamish spoke. Maybe it was the look of panic that caused Hamish to speak next. "Uh, maybe I could." Y/n's eyes widened. "I just- I mean, obviously I understand it a little better. And in a one-on-one setting, it'll be less a lecture and more teaching since I'll be able to take you through my understanding on a deeper level."

"You'd do that?" Y/n looked so hopeful...

Despite the little voice screaming at Hamish to run, he couldn't bring himself to. "Yeah. When are you free?"

"I work everyday except Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Wednesdays I have completely free but if you wanted to work around Tuesday or Saturday that would be fine." Y/n pulled out a pen from behind his ear. Hamish hadn't noticed it before.

Hamish shuffled. He felt awkward for some reason. Why did he feel awkward? "Wednesdays will be perfectly fine for me. Should I get your number so we can decide what time and place?" Y/n nodded before holding out the pen and offering... his arm. "You don't have paper?"

Y/n rolled his eyes, but his smile was fond not mocking. "I really have to get to work actually. Could you just-?" He motioned to his arm and Hamish shrugged before trying to be delicate as he inked his number on the inside of Y/n's arm. "Thanks! I'll call you." He turned and moved quite quickly out of the room before disappearing out the doors. It was only after Y/n was gone that Hamish realized he still had the pen.

It was fine, he could give it back when they met up to study later.

Later on in the day, Hamish was still struggling to understand why he was so excited for the Wednesday study session. I mean Y/n seemed really cool so maybe Hamish just wanted to be friends with him. That made sense. But right as Hamish thought he was finally over it, it popped back in his brain again and he felt weirdly jittery and unfocused. He kept having to reread the problem he was on because he would get distracted before he could answer it then forget what it was when he finally focused again.

Lilith snapped her book open. "Okay, what's your deal?" The other two boys looked over. Hamish was surprised when he went to look at who she'd snapped at and had seen them all looking at him. When he only looked back confused, Lilith rolled her eyes. "Come on Hamish spill the beans. You won't sit still and you keep looking outside like you're waiting for a package to arrive or something."

"The last time he got like that was when you took him online shopping and he bought a grey v-neck. He threw a party when it came." The tease came from Randall.

"The he cried when you threw up on it," Lilith recalled.

"He CRIED?" Jack's eyes widened in amusement.

"It made my eyes look really good and that stain never came out!" Hamish exclaimed, defending himself.

Lilith shut up the others as they began to laugh. "Anyway, what has you all messed up now?”

Hamish scoffed. "Nothing could be as cool as a gray v-neck. You still owe me a replacement by the way," he shot at Randall, who winked and grinned in response.

"Hamish," Lilith snapped.

Pursing his lips, Hamish hesitated. Then he sighed. "There's only one thing I've got planned and it's not a big deal." Everyone leaned forward. When he didn't explain Randall motioned him to continue. Hamish rolled his eyes. "Y/n asked for some help-"

"You have a date with Y/n?" Jack demanded, his grin already face splitting.

"It's not a date!" Hamish slammed his own book shut. "He just needs someone to study with. He seems to be struggling."

Randall snorted, wiggling his eyebrows. "Probably because he's so distracted by Mr. Teacher."

Lilith nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a study date to me."

Waving his hand to dismiss what they were saying, Hamish stood and moved to the bar. Maybe if he drank something he could make sense of the chaos. Both of his friends and the one that was made up of his emotions. He usually handled both plenty well but they seemed to be refusing to make sense today. "You guys are idiots."

Idiots or not, their words followed Hamish all the way to Wednesday. He and Y/n only texted once to establish the time and place and it was just as professional as their conversation in person had been, but that didn't stop Hamish's mind from going wild. For the first time since Cassie he felt... stupid. He didn't know what to do or say. He found himself wanting to text Y/n more, but couldn't find a reason to. Why was this messing him up so much?

Panicked, Hamish pulled Randall aside at the last second. "I am freaking out."

"Your thing with Y/n today?" Randall asked. Hamish just wordlessly nodded. Randall smiled. "You like him, don't you?" Hamish was stubborn, but he wasn't dumb. He closed his eyes, groaning. "You have for a while?" Randall continued. "Like even before we said anything."

Hamish thought about that for a second. He thought about Ms. Merrill teasing him about how much he talked about Y/n. How she would hand him all Y/n's papers and tests to grade. He thought about the smiles on people's faces when he mentioned Y/n at all. He thought of the warmth in his gut he'd passed off as pride this whole time but, on a second look, was obviously something more. "Yeah." He frowned as he focused on Randall again. "Why did it take me so long to realize?"

Randall smiled. "You're stubborn. Once you've set your mind it'll never be changed. Whatever it was - whether you mislabeled the emotion, or the relationship between you guys, or even you or Y/n as people. Once you labeled it, you weren't going to be swayed until someone forced you to."

"Thank you Lilith," Hamish mumbled, feigning bitterness. Randall laughed. After a second, Hamish asked, "What now?"

Clapping Hamish on the shoulder, Randall let out a heavy sigh. "Now you go to this study date and you woo the boy. Duh."

So that's what Hamish did. He met up with Y/n and recognized the swell in his chest when he saw him. The way his stomach twisted. Now that he knew what it was, he was nervous rather than excited. Why was it suddenly so hard to talk to someone once you liked them?

They were already acquainted. Y/n had seen Hamish in all kinds of conditions, if not all but his worst. They knew plenty about each other, if just in passing. They'd talked plenty of times. They'd even been alone a few times, in a setting just like this. Y/n had been there when Hamish had been a disaster while trying to adjust to fully teaching a class instead of just doing grunt work. He'd helped Hamish out even, instead of teasing him or messing with him like the others students tried to do. What did Hamish have to be afraid of? Y/n trusted Hamish with his grades and education, and that seemed to mean a lot to him. Hamish trusted Y/n too. To tell the truth. To guide and help when he was struggling, and to liven things up when it got boring. It shouldn't have been hard to just talk to him.

And yet.

Y/n placed a hand on Hamish's arm. "Hey, are you okay? You seem upset." Hamish looked at him and realized how close together they were. Not too close, like friends, but far closer than they'd ever been before.

He didn't know what possessed him. It would have been better to break the ice. Maybe bring it up casually and talk about it. Flirt or tease. Anything to transition or something. Hamish skipped all of that. In his little moment of panic, he just leaned in right for the kiss.

And Y/n jerked away.

Hamish nearly choked. "I- I'm so sorry-"

Blush swallowed Y/n's face. "You were going to kiss me, right? I didn't misread that?"

"Yes." Hamish white knuckled his pencil. "I should have lead into that. You just- have these really pretty eyes-" He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

"You... I'm sorry you just took me by surprise." Y/n rubbed his forehead. "Please don't tell me you thought I asked for your help because I liked you." Hamish's smile fell and he tried to find something to say, but Y/n looked uncomfortable and he was afraid he'd make it worse.  "Hamish, I meant what I said when I inquired for help. You suggested doing it yourself. I don't... like you like that. Honestly I'm about to take a short leave for a few days and didn't want to get behind so I thought I'd get some clarification on some things I've been studying on my own."

Hamish felt like an idiot. "Oh."

"Yeah," Y/n returned softly.

"I'm... so sorry," Hamish breathed out. "Honestly I was talking about you to my friends because I admire your hard work and good grades and how you engage in class and make it fun, and they messed up my head." He shook his head, trying to clear it. "How about we ignore all of that and focus on school? I'm sure you still need help."

Y/n paused, a smile growing on his face. "I'd like that. I don't think I could get anyone as good as you to help me with this."

The awkward tension passed in a few moments as they got absorbed in work. The problem was, as Hamish easily lost himself in teaching, Y/n was now the one who found himself distracted. Hamish had a really nice smile and the sun reflected off his eyes and hair and made him look like he was almost glowing. Y/n hadn't noticed it before, but now... thinking about Hamish kissing him. How Hamish might like him. Might have been thinking about him and wondering. Getting up the courage for this little thing, and how he hadn't run away to save his pride because he valued Y/n's need enough to push away his own feelings.

They parted on good terms, shaking hands after a pause. Then they gathered their stuff and went their separate ways.

Hamish refused to talk about the "date" with Y/n, no matter how much his friends begged and prodded. Not even Lilith could pry anything from him. When Y/n didn't show up for class, Hamish figured he was gone for his little break. A break that lasted for a week and a half. Every class without Y/n was super boring and seemed to teach no one anything. Students all stared at him like he was speaking another language, and everyone refused to ask any questions. No jokes or engagement at all. He understood what Randall had meant by everyone getting excited when Y/n came to class now.

It was right after the next class Y/n hadn't been at that the man himself suddenly appeared. He looked determined about something, walking to Hamish quickly. Hamish was at the back of the room, trying to pull himself together and lift his spirits as he worried yet again that he was maybe just a bad teacher and Y/n was the one who made people stay and come at all. It was then that Y/n barged in and walked right up to him, cutting him off int he middle of greeting him and asking what he needed to grab him by the shirt and pull him into a kiss.

Without hesitation, Hamish kissed back. He held Y/n's face as the other boy pulled them as close together as they could get. When they parted, they'd moved a little so that Y/n was sitting on Hamish's desk, Hamish between his legs. "Whoa," Hamish whispered, both stunned by the kiss and their current position.

Y/n exhaled a sharp breath. "You asshole. I've been thinking about you nonstop for MONTHS and you finally try and kiss me right when I'm getting over you. Then I'm gone and all I can think about is you again and I miss you and your stupid class and your hair and eyes and your voice and how much I wanted you to kiss me so guess who's back early because I need you to kiss me? GUESS."

Hamish chuckled, soft but for quite a while. Y/n shoves him, but before he can go off again Hamish is already kissing him for the second time. Both boys relaxed and melted into each other. "Hey," Hamish whispered.

"Hi," Y/n whispered back.

The older boy's thumb brushed over Y/n's cheek. "Let me take you on a real date."

Biting his lip to try and contain his smile, Y/n considered. "Only if you agree to be my boyfriend."

Hamish grinned. "Does this mean we can be study buddies all the time?"

"Will you distract me with kisses like you tried to last time?" Y/n asked.

Tilting his head, Hamish avoided answering. "Not... EVERY time..."

Y/n laughed, shaking his head. "Fine. Deal."

"Deal," Hamish agreed. And they kissed again to seal it. Finally.

[fictionliv-ing]

Akatsuki in College

Deidara:

First year art major with a minor in sculpture. That guy in the back of the class who seems like he does nothing but laze around. He’s actually really talented and aces every single class he’s in. Spends majority of his time in the sculpting room, so much that his friends have to come in and bring him food, just to make sure he eats well. It comes as no surprise to other art majors to see freshman Tobi skip into the sculpting room to bring Deidara an entire meal and multiple bottles of water. Most of his sculptures resemble woodland creatures, his personal favorites being birds and spiders. Sometimes like to set them on fire in the quadrangle for no reason at all.

When he’s not working on a sculpture for class, he can be found in the dorms where he’s probably animatedly debating with his roommate Sasori over the true meaning of art. Sometimes their arguments get so boisterous and explosive that their neighbor Pein has to poke his head in and yell at them to shut up. He secretly admires Sasori’s robots, anyway.

Sasori:

Postgraduate chemical engineering major with a minor in robotics. A silent worker. Slouches in his seat a lot, so even if he’s seated in the front row, no one realizes that he’s in their class until two months into the semester. One of the smartest kids in class, but not the easiest to work with because he scares everyone else away; definitely not a team player. One of the handful of graduate students that chose to dorm on campus because he’d hate to waste time commuting home everyday. Likes to make little robot prototypes for future projects in his spare time. Has had to stop himself from slipping some poison into Deidara’s drink about 328742374 times- but in his defense, it’s not his fault that the kid believes in all the wrong views of art.

Doesn’t really have time to socialize, but he does have time to spy on his long-time enemy, university researcher and biochemistry professor Orochimaru. He will never forget the day Orochimaru gave him the only B+ he’s ever gotten in his life. Unforgiveable. Despite being rather antisocial, he’s taken a liking to his neighbor’s friend Itachi, but maybe that’s because Itachi once proved Orochimaru wrong during one of the latter’s special classes in research ethics.

Itachi:

Third year philosophy major. Campus heartthrob. Always gets teased by his friends, Hidan and Kisame, for being so popular with the ladies, even though he’d rather just study quietly in the library. Occasionally gets dragged out by Kisame to go shopping for sports equipment, or Hidan, who wants to party.

Incredibly smart and analytical. Is always at the top of every class. Gives the best presentations, writes perfect papers, fully immerses himself in lectures- professors light up when they see Itachi walk into their classroom. Has everyone wrapped around his finger, though he never abuses it. Very kind and respectful. Is the type to quietly help others out, always patiently explaining confusing concepts to his classmates and catching nearby strangers when they clumsily trip over their own feet. The only one in his friend group that doesn’t stay at the dorms; he goes home after class every day (to the disappointment of his many fangirls) and spends his evenings helping his brother with his math homework.

Kisame:

Postgraduate sports science major. Founder of the campus swimming team. He’s big and bulky and likes to coach the swim team sometimes. The freshmen are all scared of him, but he’s the reason why they end up so great. While he’s not coaching the younger students, he’s catching up on his readings, writing his papers, and convincing Itachi to accompany him in buying new swimming trunks.

Likes talking to his roommate Pein and hearing about his microbiology ideas, and is somehow always able to make a connection with his own field of study. Occasionally comes up with research topics that they can work on together, but never actually pushes through with them because of Pein’s busy schedule. Sometimes falls victim to Hidan’s shirtless horny dancing during parties, and has to help Itachi drag Hidan home.

Hidan:

Third year theology major. Not the biggest fan of studying; he’s honestly surprised to have made it this far just by borrowing notes and copying off of his classmates here and there. He’s taking theology because he wants a better understanding of the deities that rule this earth and to find someone in this universe to look up to and worship. Despite the stereotypical ‘good boy’ standard that comes with being a theology major, Hidan isn’t shy about defying the stereotype. He’s everyone’s dealer and is that guy on campus who’ll have a thermos full of alcohol instead of water. Has incredibly high alcohol tolerance, though it doesn’t take him much to start acting crazy. Always present at every party. Takes “the party don’t start ‘till I walk in” phrase quite literally. If you think you’re having fun at a party, you haven’t partied with Hidan yet. “Yet” because you’re bound to at some point.

Likes to drag Itachi around to parties because he knows that Itachi’s not the drinking type, so Hidan can rely on him to drive him home safely. Teases Itachi for being popular with the ladies and goes out of his way to steal his friend’s fangirls for himself. Likes to take off his shirt randomly (he claims it’s a flirting technique.), much to Itachi and Kisame’s dismay, but Hidan’s never shy about it because his self confidence is that high.

Kakuzu:

Former finance professor. He retired years ago, but he contributed so much to the university’s finance department that he often gets invited to hold classes and lectures. Reluctantly goes to give talks to lesser minds. Would rather be balancing his books at home instead. Still invests in stocks and bonds and that kind of shit, he’s all about making money. Wants to be buried with his money when he dies (like, with the money inside his coffin, and not just in the ground with him- he specified it in his will). Never got married, because they didn’t allow him to marry his bank account.

Pein:

Postgraduate microbiology major. Dorms with Kisame, who talks a lot about the inner workings of sports science (it actually helps him look at his field of study in a different perspective so he doesn’t mind Kisame’s blabbering). Focuses his papers on cloning and stuff like that because he wants to successfully clone humans one day. Doesn’t know why….he just finds it cool.

Close friends with Nagato and Konan, though he spends most of his time in the library or in his dorm room, always studying. Konan and Nagato like to drop by sometimes to bring food and convince him to take a break. Lives right next door to Deidara and Sasori who argue a lot, so he ends up leaving his room just to yell at them to shut up. Pein values his study time like no other- he just wants to master everything and successfully prove that his brain is better than everyone else’s.

Konan:

Postgraduate design major. The living embodiment of “Aestheticism is the only thing worth pursuing.” Has a very strong grunge aesthetic, her closet is a combination of black, grey, navy, and maroon. Likes to color her hair a lot; some days she’ll be a redhead, then the next week, she’ll have hair the color of the sky on a rainy day. Because of this, she’s developed an extensive haircare routine, so her hair is always healthy. Dorms with Nagato, as they’ve been close friends since time immemorial, and often gets mistaken for being his girlfriend. Their neighbor Hidan likes to tease them about being sexually active together, and her only response is to blush madly and hit the side of his head hard enough to make him shut up.

Spends her time creating pieces to add to her portfolio and attending art workshops. At one point, she meets Deidara and is immediately intrigued by his sculptures. He invites her to visit the sculpting room and encourages her to try her hand at the medium. She discovers she doesn’t care much for stone and marble, but has fun working with malleable pieces of clay. This sparks her interest in origami and paper art. Nagato now comes home to a dorm full of paper cranes and paper butterflies.

Nagato:

Postgraduate philosophy major with a minor in world history. He likes to think about the rights and wrongs and many faces of the world. Befriends Itachi after meeting at a lecture and have been keeping in touch since then, talking about the flaws of this world. At some point, Itachi starts asking him for feedback on his papers and he becomes Itachi’s mentor. The Reason why Itachi is absolutely slaying his classes is because he gets advice from Nagato on how to improve his papers and make them So Good that his professors give him nothing less than an A.

Is roommates with Konan, who has been his best friend ever since they were small and adorable (he still thinks she’s small and adorable, though he would never admit that out loud.). Grunts in indifference and looks away whenever Hidan teases him and Konan about being together, and it’s only thanks to his long, red hair that his burning ears stay hidden. Always has shit to say about that kid during his weekly get-togethers with Konan and Tobi.

Tobi: 

Freshman psychology major. He decided to study psychology for fun and enrolled after getting his masters in management, which is why he’s older than all of his classmates. Doesn’t stop him from acting younger than his actual age, though. Likes to follow Deidara around (Deidara has a theory that Tobi only enrolled in psychology to learn how to effectively annoy people.) and marvel at his art.

Shares a dorm with Hidan, whose reactions are really funny, so Tobi makes sure to play lost and lots of pranks on his roomie. Always forgets that Hidan can get quite explosive when angered, and ends up having to run away from his roommate’s airborne kitchen knives. Befriends Nagato, and in extension, Konan as well. They like to spend Friday nights out together, usually at a chill bar, where they drink more than the appropriate amount of sake and complain about their neighbors, Deidara, Hidan, and Sasori (Kisame’s good, Kisame’s nice, they say.).

[peterthepark]

Princess

Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary: He’s seen her around the campus - a polite and quiet girl, who unmistakably happened to be very close friends with Billy Hargrove. But the more Steve gets to know her, he realizes that there’s a completely different person underneath that shy facade of hers. 

Warnings: smutty content, cursing, fluff, some angst, DADDY STEVE, more than 5k words

A/N: Pure filthy fun and fiction. Enjoy! 

It’s Thursday when Steve Harrington finally shows up to class. His hair is a mess, falling in matted waves against his forehead as he struggles to even out his breathing. Everyone is glaring at him because of his late and abrupt arrival. He leans against the doorframe of the busy classroom, flashing the professor a charming smile as he attempts to casually waltz in.

Steve takes the empty seat beside you, pulling out the chair with a sharp screech that makes him comically cringe. You look over to him, smiling shyly as he scoots closer to the edge of the table. He meets your gaze, returning a tight-lipped smile in your direction before he takes out his notebook and pen, scribbling nonsense as the class picks up again.

However, you do catch him looking occasionally over your shoulder at some points during the lesson, and figured that he was having trouble keeping up with the speed of Mr. Cortez’s lecture - and so you decided to do what any other kind classmate would do. You slide your notebook over to Steve, not failing to notice the breath of relief he takes once he‘s able to successfully copy your notes without rush.

“Thanks.” He nudges you softly. “I was literally dying earlier. I mean, c’mon, I show up and suddenly he’s zooming through this thing.” He jokes, covering the side of his mouth as he whispers to you. “By the way, I’m Steve.”

“I’m Y/N.” Extending his other hand, you give it a polite shake before you turn back to the projector.

“You new here?” You take your notebook back, brushing your hair away from your face as you continue to write. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around that much.”

“Oh, I only come around to class on Thursdays. I have a few other classes that - that screwed up my schedule.” You chuckle, tapping your pen lightly against your hand. “Overloaded myself this year. College sucks.”

“Shame. This is the only class we have together, then.”

He can see your rosy blush despite the slight dim in the room. She’s pretty.

Steve bites his lip subconsciously when you look away with a mousy grin. He bumps your knee with his, before he continues. “It’d be nice to have you around. You’re cool. Uh, you’d be a cool study buddy, you know? Unless - unless you have one already? A study buddy?”

Damn, get it together.

“Study buddy?” You glance at him, shutting your notebook. You lean back into your chair. “That’d be nice. It’s - It’s real sweet of you, Steve. But I’m - I don’t really... I like to stick to myself with my studies.”

“Oh! Of course. Yeah, no problem.”

“No hard feelings?” You laugh, watching as he runs his hands through his hair.

“No hard feelings.”

Class is over by the time you and Steve are done speaking. He walks you down the hall towards Economics before you feel an arm wrap around your shoulder, tugging you slightly away from your newfound classmate turned friend.

“Y/N, I see you’ve met Steve Harrington.”

“Billy.” Steve gives him a nod, clenching his jaw at how the asshole of a guy pulls you closer towards him. Billy chews on a piece of bubblegum, smacking his lips together before he whispers something into your ear, to which you laugh at.

“Oh, Steve, yeah, this is - Billy’s a friend. I didn’t know you guys knew each other?”

“We go way back. High school.”

“That’s great!”

“Yeah, sure.” Steve replies, eyes trained on the ground. “Played him in basketball a few times. For sure the best players on the team. Although, don’t get me wrong, but he was a big piece of-“

He turns his head to look at you. But you aren’t there.

And that’s when he realizes that he’s walked past your Economics classroom.

Dumbass.

“Harrington, where you going?” Billy smiles viciously at him, following Steve down the hall with long, smooth strides.

“Just headed to the library. I’ve got a free period.” He rolls his eyes as Billy starts chuckling once more. “Okay, what’s funny, asshole?”

“You - you gotta stay away from Y/N.” Billy takes out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket, lighting one as he places it between his lips. “She’s a lot different than you’d think.”

“Jesus, I’ve just met her and you’re already hounding me about her? Chill out.” Steve scoffs. Unbelievable.

Fucking annoying.

“I’m warnin’ you, Harrington.” Billy glances behind him, looking in the direction of your classroom while he shakes his head. “She’s a player. She ain’t afraid to break hearts around here. Watch your back.”

Steve gives Billy a dirty look before he walks away again, pushing his shoulder to open the door to the library. It’s silent, as expected, and Steve is sure to walk around quietly. He sits down by the table in the back corner of the room, hidden away in the shelves of numerous books. Bored, he takes one into his hands, placing it down onto the table as he reads quietly. He can’t get you out of his mind. Although his eyes read over the words of the book, all he can think of is you - your voice, your hair, the aura of mysteriousness that you carried. Normally, Steve wouldn’t care to go after a girl as shy and as resigned, but something about you simply struck a place in his heart.

But, Billy’s apparent warning from earlier also sends him into a spiral of confusion. What could you have possibly done to cause Billy to tell him that? It seemed like you wouldn’t even hurt a fly - much more a person. Maybe Billy was just trying to have you all to himself, and that irritated Steve.

Unless you were dating each other.

It’s hard for him to imagine it - Billy Hargrove, the town asshole, with one of the sweetest girls that Steve has met. It’s all very strange. But it doesn’t stop Steve from wanting to be around you more. 

He hears faint footsteps approach him. He doesn’t think of it much, until he sees a stack of books drop onto the wooden table. He looks up, and he nearly jumps out of his seat. You smile at him as you sit down across from him, pushing your stuff aside before you take out your homework.

“Y/N, hey.” Steve says, surprised to see you so quickly. 

“Hey, Econ got cancelled. That’s why I’m here.” You shrug with one shoulder, resting your chin in the palm of your hand as you fix your gaze on the tiny lamp on the table. “Free period?” You ask him.

He nods, pursing his lips. Now, he’s able to finally get a good look at you under the harsh light. He wasn’t wrong before. You are pretty. Wisps of hair dangle against your face, coming loose from the modest ponytail that you had done earlier. There’s an innocent glimmer in your eyes, accompanied with another look that Steve can’t quite place.

He watches as you shift in your chair, tugging at the knitted fabric of your sweater. That’s when Steve sees the faint, red mark hidden in the juncture of your neck. He’d recognize that kind of blooming shade from anywhere.

A hickey?

Your lips turn up into a quick smirk, and it fades instantly before Steve can see it. You cross your legs over each other, bumping your knee softly against the hard wood of the table. 

“Well, uh, there’s this party tonight,” You start, licking your lips. Steve’s eyes flicker down to the motion. “Billy and I are gonna be there with a bunch of other people from our year. I... I think it’d be nice to see you there.” 

Steve didn’t take you as the type of person to party even though he had just started talking to you.

But, really? You? A sweet, smart girl partying with Billy and other classmates?

It was a little crazy and surprising to think about. He considers your offer for a second, knowing that he hasn’t been to a college party since last year. Even more, he hasn’t been hanging out with anyone new recently - other than Robin and a few other mutual friends, who fortunately, also got into the same school as him. Though, for once, Steve just wants to be a regular, college kid - partying, hooking up with girls, or regretfully getting hungover before an exam day. There’s a voice in the back of his mind that urges him not to go, to focus on studying and finish the essay that he needs to turn in before Saturday night.

“Fuck it.” He chuckles, gesturing a hand mindlessly. “I’ll see you there.”

You grin toothily.

“Can’t wait.”

-

Steve stares at the neon pink flyer in his hands. He runs a hand down his face, sighing as he places the paper onto his bed. He looks at himself in the mirror, readjusting the collar of his leather jacket. Suddenly, he feels a little self-conscious. He tugs his sunglasses over his eyes, running his hands through his hair with groans of frustration.

He‘s gonna have fun tonight. He promises himself.

There’s a loud, rhythmic knocking at his dorm when he finally puts his shoes on.

“It’s open!”

The door clicks, and Robin peers into the room with a suggestive face. “You going to the party?”

“Yeah, aren’t you?” He tilts his head at her. A purple masquerade mask covers her eyes, while her freckles peek out from beneath.

“Of course I am, dingus. I’m trying to have fun tonight.” She chuckles, moving out of the way so Steve can shut the the door behind him. They walk down the bustling hall of boys, who also seem to be dressing up for the party. “I can’t believe you’re wearing shades...” She flicks the frame, rolling her eyes when Steve lets out a yelp. “...To a masquerade party. Literally. You’re lame.”

“I’m not lame!” He raises his eyebrows at her, wagging his finger before they leave the dormitory. The air is cool, blowing a light breeze through Steve’s hair. “These shades are - they’re cool, okay? They’re Ray-Bans, c’mon. Anyways, who are you tryin’ to impress?”

“I’m not impressing anybody. I’m impressing myself.” He shares a knowing look with her, biting the inside of his mouth. “Fine, fine. I’ll actually be honest. There’s this girl that everyone’s been talking about-“

“Oh! So she’s popular? Okay, I can get with that.” Steve pushes at her shoulder, throwing his head back with a laugh as she tries to push him, too. “Sorry! Sorry! What’s her name?”

“Literally nobody knows. She has - she’s like some mystery girl around campus with like multiple aliases. I don’t know.” Robin shrugs, eyes twinkling with wonder. “Maybe she’s into girls. Maybe, you know?”

And Steve nods with understanding.

There’s some part of him who wants to have fun and hang out with potential hook-ups. But also, he really doesn’t want to look for other girls. He wants to genuinely hang out with you, to get to know you better, to actually talk out of class and without Billy getting in his way.

After all, you did invite him to the party - which must’ve meant something, right?

Steve and Robin push past the masses of people - students and graduates alike fill the big house, each holding red solo cups or a can of beer. It’s loud and reeks of liquor, as expected from a party. Def Leppard plays through the speakers by the DJ booth, while people dance and grind around in the living room. There’s a pool outside, where older students push each other into the water and play beer pong.

Steve doesn’t deny the fact that he’s missed going to parties. High school was different, but college - it was something else. It’s wild, fun, and nobody really gives a shit about what anyone’s doing. He bobs his head along to the music, still sticking with Robin as they make their way to the kitchen. There’s cheers and hoots, and Steve runs into a bunch of friendly classmates.

“Frankie! What’s up, man?” Steve rejoices, bumping fists with his old dorm buddy. They start to chat with one another, catching up on the latest happenings in each other’s lives before Frankie - as usual - brings up something about dating and sex.

“Dude, you’ve heard about that girl, right?” Frankie pours Steve a drink, passing him the cup of alcohol.

“Which one? There’s a lot of girls here.” Glancing around the room, he chuckles. Was he talking about the one that Robin had brought up earlier? “Oh, wait! Is it - is it that girl, the one with like no name? Nobody knows her? But she goes here?”

“Yes! Fuck, yes!” Frankie pumps his fists into the air, beer sloshing over the rim of his cup. “Hottest chick I have ever seen. God, she’s supposed to show up tonight. She literally never misses a good party. She’s crazy, brother. This is why I’ve always invited you to the parties, Steve! This - this girl! Have you even seen her?” Steve shakes his head, feeling a bit overwhelmed from Frankie’s sudden burst of energy. “Man, you’ve gotta - you are missing out.”

Maybe Frankie has had a little too much to drink.

It isn’t long before Steve is on the dance floor with Robin. Alcohol pumps through their veins as they jump around and shout, taking gulps from their something-number cup of beer. Steve can barely hear his voice anymore over the booming bass, and he’s sure that he’s probably lost it from how loud he’s been drunkenly screaming the lyrics of certain songs.

However, Steve feels his chest tighten from how cramped the room is as more people begin to flood in. He lets Robin know that he’ll be outside, and steps out onto the deck by the pool - finally getting some much needed fresh air.

“Steve!” He turns with a look of surprise, shifting into laughter when he sees Penny Kramer - a friend that he had met through one of his previous classes. He pulls her into a quick hug, instantly hitting it off into a conversation about the party.

“Oh, yeah. I’m having so much fun.” He tosses his empty cup into the trash, before he leans onto the deck railing. A thought passes through his head, and he swallows before speaking, “Hey, uh, really weird question.”

“All ears.” Penny replies, taking a drag from her cigarette.

“By any freakin’ chance, do you happen to know anyone named Y/N?”

Penny bursts out into a long chuckle, blowing a puff of smoke into the night air. “Oh, Y/N? Such a nice girl. Too nice. Kinda freaks me out sometimes. But yeah, I do know her. Why?”

“She invited me here tonight. I haven’t seen her at all. Was hoping to hang out with her, but... she’s not here.”

“She invited you?” She stops, tapping her cigarette. “What the actual fuck? That’s so weird.”

“What? Why?”

“She never invites people to parties. Hell, let alone ever show up to one.” Steve furrows his eyebrows, burying his hands in his pockets as he scoffs. “Seems like she stood you up, bud. Sorry, I guess.”

“And she’s friends with Billy Hargrove? He’s an asshole? And she’s like a really sweet and quiet girl? How do you explain that?” He should’ve known that you wouldn’t have come. But why the hell did you invite him in the first place? To embarrass him? Leave him hanging?

“Now that... that I can’t explain. Maybe they’re like study buddies or something. She probably tutors the damn idiot, Steve.”

Study buddies. Funny.

Suddenly, collective shouts ring from the living room as the loud roar of a motorcycle echoes through the neighborhood.

Curiously, Steve makes his way back inside with Penny, along with other groups of students who seemed drawn to the sudden attention. He finds Robin in the crowd, tugging on her shoulder to ask what the ruckus was about.

“It’s her.” She says, not bothering to look back at Steve. Everybody turns to the front door, and Steve can just squint out the sight of a group of people approaching the house.

“Who?”

The music kicks up as soon as they walk in. Billy Hargrove, along with a few other people, stride inside. As always, Billy carries a smug smirk, sporting a leather jacket to go on top of his bare chest. He’s got a cigar between his fingers, laughing about as people begin to talk to him and greet him.

But Steve doesn’t give a flying fuck about Billy.

Instead, his attention shifts over to the girl who has Billy’s arm slung around her shoulders. A blue bobbed wig sits on her head, along with an ornate mask that covers the upper half of her face. Her lips are painted bloody red, while she shows a cocky grin. She’s barely dressed as well - wearing a flashy top accompanying the fish-net tights underneath her short skirt. It’s also as if Steve can hear the sound of her high-heeled boots click onto the hardwood floor.

Immediately, he knows who she is.

The mystery girl that everyone seemed to be whispering about.

And now, he realizes why she’s the talk of the town.

She kisses Billy on the cheek, giggling when she realizes she’s left a lipstick stain on his skin. The people in the room start to separate as her and Billy strut deeper into the house, before stopping in the middle of the makeshift dance floor.

Robin whispers something to Steve, but frankly, he doesn’t hear her.

Because mystery girl seems to have locked eyes with him.

Her blue wig glitters under the disco lights, and Steve can barely make out the color of her natural hair beneath it. The party picks up again, only this time, it’s much louder and crazier than before. Mystery girl hasn’t broken eye contact with him, even though Billy starts to kiss up her neck and grope at her hips.

Who is she?

Steve tries not to get affected by her. Him and Robin decide to sit on the staircase, taking a break from all the heavy partying.

“I’m gonna have a killer hangover tomorrow.” Robin mumbles, falling into Steve’s shoulder. “Dude, I’m so wasted. Holy shit.”

“Yeah, me fucking too.”

He looks over the crowd. He can see the blue head of hair from a mile away. She has her arms hooked around Billy’s neck, making out with him amongst everyone else. She pulls away, before whispering something in his ear. Steve shuts his eyes for a second, only to miss out on how mystery girl pointed in his direction and Billy looked.

“I’m gonna throw up.”

Steve winces as Robin hurls loudly into the toilet. He sits against the shower curtain, massaging his temples as he waits for a minute of peace. Because Robin - poor girl - is literally still spilling out her guts into the toilet. She takes a deep breath, flushing away the disgusting contents before she collapses against the sink cabinet with an exaggerated groan.

“I wanna die. This is terrible. Why are people doing this to themselves?” She scoffs, burying her face in her arms as she brings her knees to her chest.

“At least you’re already sobering up. I can still - I’m still a bit doozy.” Steve chuckles, rubbing his eyes. “God, is that - girl with blue wig... she’s the girl?”

Robin nods, voice muffled as she speaks into her arm. “Yeah. She’s always wearing a mask to parties and that wig so nobody - nobody really knows what she looks like. But I’m sure she’s beautiful. And hot. She’s probably hot.”

Steve chuckles, before he stands to help Robin to her feet. “C’mon, let’s ruin our lives some more. Make the most out of this damn party.”

That’s how Steve ends up by the keg stand.

Chugging and chugging and chugging.

He feels adrenaline soar through his veins. Beer trickles down his shirt when he pulls away, while Robin and the people around him cheer happily for his new record.

However, his glorious ‘King Steve’ moment is stolen when Billy and Mystery Girl enter the kitchen, possibly drunk off their minds.

“Harrington! Finally fuckin’ showed up, huh?” Billy punches Steve’s shoulder, biting his tongue when he sees him wobble over. “Fucking lightweight.”

“Hey, back off, dickhead.” Robin steps in front of Steve, slurring her words as she snarls spitefully at him. Pulling him away from Billy, she glances at Steve with reassurance before she ushers him to the less-crowded backyard.

If Steve wasn’t drunk before, he certainly is now.

“God, so much for ruining your life.” She scoffs at her friend. She sits him down in a plastic chair. “I’m gonna get us water and some food. Cool down, alright?”

Steve can only nod, and Robin disappears back into the house party with hasty steps. She bumps into Mystery Girl, apologizing profusely with blushing cheeks.

Her wig bounces as she wraps her arms around her chest, shielding her skin from the chilly air. There’s an empty seat next to Steve, and she gestures at it as if to ask if it were taken. She sits down, crossing her legs together.

“You’re pretty big around here.” Steve pipes up, feeling a bit nervous to be around the ‘myth’ herself. He immediately wishes he hadn’t spoke when she quirks a brow at him. 

“Really?”

The voice sounds almost familiar, but Steve can’t place where he’s heard it before. She sounds slightly strained, as if she were speaking in a pitch that isn’t her regular voice. Steve looks over at her, eyes trailing down her neck and down her chest. He shakes himself out of his trance, knowing that he shouldn’t be looking at her like that.

But he can’t help it with the way she chews on her lip.

“Yeah, everyone - everyone thinks you’re-“

“Hot? Pretty? Sexy?” She chuckles, glancing down at her freshly manicured nails. “Trust me, I’ve heard it all.”

She reeks of confidence. Steve would be lying if he said that he wasn’t attracted to her. She seemed straight out of a movie.

A fantasy.

“You’re with Billy Hargrove, then? How’s that? Must be some...” He scoffs, clasping his hands together as he leans forward in the chair. “... some power couple, yeah?”

Mystery Girl cackles loudly. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth, and Steve can’t help but smile. Her masked eyes twinkle in the night, while the water of the pool reflects ethereally onto her outstretched legs.

“Oh, Billy wishes that I was his girl.” She sighs, before she finally looks over to Steve. For a second, he thinks he recognizes the face beneath the mask, but she turns her head away again before he can mention it. “I like to ride solo. There’s nothing better than - than being free to do the shit I wanna do. Being with Billy would only tie me down.”

“Of course. Someone like you... I’m sure you have lots of - of, uh, fun.”

“Met anyone nice tonight, Steve?”

What?

“I’ve actually been look - wait, how do you... how do you know my name?”

“Uh, you mentioned it to me earlier.” She flips her hair over her shoulder nervously.

She doesn’t let Steve see the faulty break in her wall.

“Did I?” He narrows his eyes at her. She nods confidently. “Damn, I really must’ve had too many fucking drinks. Jesus.”

“It’s a party. Have fun. You’re supposed to get drunk.” She utters, waving her hands about. “When’s the last time you’ve done some stupid shit?”

Steve exhales, closing his eyes in thought. “I don’t know. Uh, maybe... maybe the summer after high school graduation? Got into a fight with this...” He shakes his head with disbelief, before continuing. “... this Russian guy.”

“That’s hot.”

Her and Steve exchange another round of laughter. She uncrosses her legs, smoothing down her skirt against her thighs with the palms of her hands. She pushes her hair away from her cheeks, licking her lips.

Steve is hooked.

And he’s desperate to know who she is.

“What’s your name?”

She huffs, turning in her chair towards him. “You really think I’d tell you that?”

“Well, you know my name. I just think that...” His gaze flickers down to the hickey on her neck. His cheeks heat up, before his whole body starts to feel warmer. “I just think that it’s only fair that you tell me yours.”

She opens her mouth, hesitating for a split second.

“You can call me Princess.”

Steve gulps audibly. His jaw clenches momentarily and he feels a rush of sensation in his body.

Princess.

“That’s hot.” Steve jokes, earning another smile from her.

“Do you wanna get out of here?” She stands from the chair, holding a hand out towards Steve.

“And do what exactly?”

“Just stupid shit.”

-

Steve gasps as he is pushed against the door of his dorm. His hand cups Princess’ cheek as he kisses her deeply. Their breaths are heavy as Steve takes off his jacket, letting it fall to the floor. He steps forward, letting his hands roam all over the expanse of her back as he traps her against a wall. Her blue hair tickles his nose as he goes to suck on her neck, leaving an angry red love bite.

“Fuck...” She whispers, watching intently as Steve rids her of her shirt and lacy bra. Her mouth falls open as he cups her breasts, squeezing them softly in his hands before he leans down and takes a nipple between his plump lips. She chuckles, running her nails through his thick hair. “You’re wearing too many clothes.” She pushes him away for a minute before she tugs his shirt over his head.

Princess slings her arms behind Steve’s neck, pulling him into another messy, hurried kiss. Her lipstick is smeared all over his mouth, traces of it littering the length of his neck. Steve reaches behind her to cup her ass, moaning into her shoulder before he unzips her skirt. He curses when he sees her lack of underwear, and the fact that she was only wearing the fishnet tights for the entirety of the party. She’s taken by surprise when Steve grips her face, bumping noses with her as his lips ghost over hers. He parts his lips as he watches her tongue poke out from the corner of her mouth.

“Shit, look at you.” He brushes her hair away from her eyes, still hidden by the mask. He tries to hold back a moan when her leg brushes against the bulge in his jeans, and he places a hand on the wall beside her face to stop himself from stumbling over. “I’m so fucking hard, Princess. Fuck.” He gasps when she repeats the motion, but Steve catches her wrist the next time she does it. “Can I... can I taste you?”

She whimpers loudly, nodding with furrowed eyebrows. Steve takes her by the arm, guiding her to sit down on his bed. She yelps out of surprise when he pushes the back of her knees over her head. He rips the fishnet tights apart, moaning when he sees how wet she’s become. He sinks to the floor, pulling her to the edge of the bed before his tongue delves deeply between her sweet folds.

“Steve!” She sits up on her elbows, face contorted into a mix of pleasure and relief. Steve locks eyes with her, chuckling.

His mouth feels divine. But his goddamn tongue...

Shit.

The ridge of his nose brushes against her clit. And Steve feels himself twitch in his pants at the way her back was arching. His hands wrap themselves around her thighs, pushing her legs farther back onto the bed before he’s replacing his mouth with his long fingers. He pumps them in and out at a quick pace, collecting her juices once he pulls them out of abruptly.

“Jesus...” Steve shakes his head, undoing his belt. Princess crawls forward, tearing Steve’s hands away from himself as she unbuttons his jeans at an expert pace. Princess laughs at the state of his lips - swollen and wet and definitely sweet.

Suddenly, Steve is the one on the bed - clothes are strewn all over the room, hanging from ridiculous places as Princess lays between his parted thighs. She takes him into her mouth, humming. Her wig bounces as she pushes him into the back of her mouth, gagging once her mask brushes against his pubic bone. She pulls herself off of him, saliva dripping down her chin as she tries to catch her breath. Her hands twist around his length, jerking him off quickly while she bounces on her calves. Steve throws his head back against his pillow, groaning quietly as Princess moves to hover above his hard cock. But before she can sink down onto him, Steve flips them over, so that her torso is buried into the mattress while her ass is in the air.

“Do you have a condom?” She breathes out. 

Steve swiftly opens the drawer in his nightstand. He rips the packet open with his teeth, groaning as he rolls the latex onto his erection. He’s panting, running a hand through his messed-up hair before he finally gains the air to speak. “Do you want this?” Princess nods silently, pushing her ass back at him teasingly. “Tell me to stop. I’ll do it right now.”

“No, I want it. Steve, just fuck me alr-” She chokes on her words as Steve pushes his dick inside her, placing his hands on her hips. He’s smirking at her silence, knowing damn well that her cockiness and bratty demeanor was just an act. “Daddy...” She whispers into the sheets, fisting the material.

Steve moans filthily. He leans over to grab a fistful of her hair, pulling her back carefully to brush his lips against her ear. “What’d you call me?”

“Daddy.” She giggles, biting her lip when she decides to look into his eyes. She gasps when Steve lets go of her hair, letting her fall against the mattress without care as he starts to pound into her.

“Keep calling me that. Fuck.” He thrusts into her, screwing his eyes shut at the pleasure that he was feeling. He’s flush against her, mouth agape as his dick slams in and out of her.

“So good, daddy. I love it.” She glances back at him, flashing the small butterfly tattoo on the back of her neck when she moves her hair away. 

It isn’t long before Steve is pinned onto the bed, while Princess bounces on top of him - tits in face and everything. Steve has never done anything as dirty as this, and he feels his abdomen tighten as she leans back, placing her hands on his thighs as she rides him sensually.

“Princess...” He bites his lip, bucking his hips up to thrust into her pussy with choked moans. “You gonna cum? You gonna cum for - for daddy? Shit...”

“Yes! Yes!” Her legs quiver as she reaches her orgasm, and she falls against Steve’s chest with loud pants. Steve sits up, hooking his arm around her waist before he pounds harder into her. The sound of skin slapping against skin rings throughout the dorm room, and Steve’s glad that he doesn’t have a roommate. Princess pulls his hair, and Steve places a hand around her neck before he’s sent to the edge. He thrusts out of her, sliding the condom off before he’s covering her tits and stomach with strings of his cum. 

He stops to catch his breath, resting his cheek against Princess’ chest in exhaustion. “Fuck, that was so good.” She toys with the little tufts of hair at his neck, leaning down to kiss his cheek before she leaves the warmth of his lap. 

She combs at her blue wig with her fingers, sighing when she swings her legs over Steve’s bed. There’s a hesitancy in her voice, but Steve is too hazy to hear it. “Do you have a bathroom?”

He nods to the bathroom in the corner of his dorm - it’s super tiny, with only a toilet and sink, but it’s enough for Princess to freshen up. She collects her clothes from off the floor, before locking the bathroom door behind her. Steve grabs a fresh pair of boxers from his closet, before going to rest on his bed to wait for her to return. He shuts his eyes, placing a forearm over his head.

The last thing he hears before he falls asleep is the click of a door, and a muffled ‘thanks.’

-

“Steve.”

He groans, rolling over onto his back. The room becomes brighter as his curtains are pulled apart, bringing him to a state of anger at the sudden disruption.

“Steve.”

“What?” He mumbles, clutching his pillow under his arm. Lazily, he lifts his head towards the sound of his voice, and his eyes bulge out of his head. “Robin? What the fuck are you-“ He tightly wraps his sheets against his bare chest, scooting up till his back hits the headboard of his bed.

A pang of nausea hits him, and he’s immediately reminded of the amount of alcohol he drank last night. Still wrapped in a sheet, he sprints to the bathroom, nearly tripping over his own feet as he vomits into the toilet. He mewls dramatically when he feels the throbbing pain in his forehead. Slowly, he makes his way back to his spot on the bed with hooded eyes.

“Put some clothes on, you dingus.” Robin makes a face at him, tossing him some from his closet. Steve grunts as he slips into the fresh clothing, struggling to get into his shirt from how sore his whole body feels.

“What happened last night?” He asks, voice hoarse and laced with sleepiness.

“Dude, you ditched me!” Robin frowns at him, crossing her arms over her chest as she plops down onto his study table. “You suck!”

“I didn’t ditch you! What - when did I ditch you?!” He panics, genuinely unable to think about the rest of last night. “Ro, all I remember is the keg stand and that’s it. That’s as far as - as my brain can go. Oh, my - I wasn’t drugged, was I? I must’ve been drugged. Holy shit, it’s that whole Russian thing all over again-“

“Steve! Hey!” Robin claps her hands, blinking at Steve with utter concern. “You were not drugged last night. But you were drunk off your ass!”

Steve literally doesn’t remember shit. He’s not kidding. Frankie. Penny. Beer. Keg stand. Mystery girl. That’s it.

Then a memory hits him from out of the blue. He snaps his fingers continuously, recollecting thoughts as he turns to look at Robin. “Does the name Princess ring a bell to you?”

“Princess? Are you still drunk?” She rolls her eyes at him, slapping the back of his head. “The only princess here is you, sleeping beauty.”

“Robin! I’m serious! I swear I... nevermind.” He facepalms his forehead, obviously frustrated with how last night’s events have gone over his head. “Fuck, how drunk did I get?” He rocks back and forth on his heels, nervously pulling at his hair.

“Steve. Listen.” Robin reaches over, squeezing his shoulder with a softer voice. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out but...” She erupts into a chuckle, glancing around his dorm. “By the looks of this place... it seems like someone had a lotta fun last night.”

Surely enough, Steve’s place is messy. His clothes from the party are thrown all over the floor, along with a few pillows from his bed. There’s a condom wrapper on the floor, to which Robin gags at. 

But his gaze is drawn to the shimmering thread on his pillow.

He reaches for it, then realizing that his fingers were pinching at a strand of hair.

Blue.

“Is that...” Robin gasps, eyes widening when she takes the string of blue hair from Steve’s fingers. “Why the - what - no freaking way.”

“I have no idea what this is. What-“

“Steve. Mystery girl.” She dangles the strand in front of his face. “Did you take her here?”

Oh, fucking hell.

“Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god!” He launches himself off the bed, pacing around in short circles. “There’s no... how...”

“Steve! Remember. Try to remember.”

Stupid shit. They did stupid shit.

“We hooked up.” He realizes. His eyes dart around the room, and all the memories come back to him in short pieces. “Her - She goes by Princess. That’s her name. And then - oh, my god. I had sex with her, Ro-“

“Calm down. She didn’t hurt you, did she?”

“No! Of course, not. I just - fuck!” Steve stops pacing. “Yo, what time is it?”

“Ten.”

“Shit!”

Steve ends up late to class. Again. For the second day in a row, Mr. Cortez gives him a disapproving nod, glaring daggers at Steve as he drags his feet shamefully to a empty chair. He looks over, realizing you are nowhere to be seen. It’s Friday, and Steve remembers that you only show up on Thursdays. Maybe it was for the best, not to see you till then, because Steve did feel a bit angry and saddened that you didn’t come to the party. He’s thrown off for the rest of the day - searching for someone who resembles Princess in the halls to get his mind off you. But he doesn’t know what he’s looking for, except a bright ass blue wig and possibly a flamboyant outfit.

It’s the following week when Steve is able to see you. He isn’t late, but in fact, he is very early. He can easily spot you in your navy turtleneck, and the bare beautiful face that he can’t help but stare at. He walks up to you quietly, unsure what to say. 

“Y/N.” He says, clearing his throat when he hesitantly sits down next to you. You seem surprised, and your eyes flash with pitiful embarrassment.

“Steve, listen, about - I can-“ You drop your pencil onto your notebook, gesturing at him with an ashamed voice.

“It’s fine, Y/N. It’s fine. Just... why invite me to the party if you weren’t planning on showing up?” He scoffs, looking down at his lap as he plays with his hands. “I wanted to hang out with you. I was - Y/N, I was so excited.” He rubs at his chin, shaking his head. “Genuinely.”

“Steve, I’m so sorry. I wanted to go. I just... I forgot I had other freaking plans and I had to stay home. I didn’t mean to - to flake on you.” You pause, before continuing with a shaky voice. “I invited you because I think you’re... shit - I think you’re cute, Steve. And I wanted to hang out with you, too.”

Steve looks up at you. “Actually? You think I’m cute?”

Blushing, you chuckle. “Yeah. I do. And you’re really nice to me.” There’s a hint of distrust in Steve’s body language - due to past experiences with dating and girls during high school. Slowly, he nods, taking in your unexpected words. “I totally get it if you don’t... I mean, we’ve only known each other for a week, probably less. But the party was a way for me to get to know you more. Out of school. I definitely missed out on not going.”

You send him a hopeful look. Your lips are pulled up into a struggling smile, obviously under pressure because of the situation. Your hands tremble on the desk. “Y/N,” Steve convinces himself that you probably were busy. Anyways, he didn’t know you that well, so who was he to distrust you right away? “You know what, let’s meet up later.”

“Yeah?” Instantly, you sit up straighter in your chair.

“Yeah. Let’s go to that coffee shop down the block. It’s my favorite. I think you’d like it.” He flashes a boyish smile at you. “I’ll pick you up?”

“Okay. Yes, of course.” You nod rapidly. Stuttering, you whip around the grab your notebook, tearing out a paper before you hurriedly scribble something down. “C-call me. Later. I mean. Before you pick me up.”

“Promise you won’t flake on me.”

“I promise.”

-

“Robin, what do I wear?” Steve tosses a pile of clothes onto his bed, clearly stressed as he places his hands on his hips.

“All of this shit is ugly.” She sputters into laughter, sorting through the clothes. “Where’s that jacket I gave you for Christmas?”

That’s how Steve ends up in a denim jacket with fur lining, sporting a white shirt underneath. He rubs his hands against his cuffed jeans, adjusting the black belt around his waist. He feels good. He looks good. He smirks at himself, before spraying a round of Farrah Fawcet into his hair.

“So, tell me about this Y/N!” Robin sits up on the bathroom counter, looking down at Steve with pure excitement. 

“She’s really pretty, and shy. Smart girl.” He chuckles, flicking the stubborn curl that wouldn’t leave his forehead. “I’m going in pretty blind. But hey, it’s a date. I’ll get to know her.”

Robin smirks, playing with her shoelace. “Well, look at you, Steve Harrington. Hooking up with the hottest girl on campus then scoring a date with a smart, gorgeous lady? You’ve gotta lend me some tips, dingus.”

“You don’t need any. Anyone would easily love you.” A friendly stare lingers between the two of them, before Steve huffs and slaps at Robin’s shoe. “Now get out of my room. I’m tryin’ to call Y/N.” 

After an awkward yet pleasant phone call with you, Steve drives himself over to your house. He’s nervous, but also eager - he hasn’t been on a proper date for a long time; he knew that he couldn’t find anyone more perfect than you to be his new first. He pulls into your driveway, tapping his fingers against his steering wheel as he stares up at your big house. Preparing himself, he takes a couple deep breaths, before he steps out of his car and strides up your porch. Then, he’s struck with realization: he never got you a gift. Frantically, Steve’s eyes dart around his surroundings, landing on the vibrant yellow sunflower in a planter. It’s the thought that counts, right?

Steve immediately holds the sunflower up to his face once your front door swings open. You break out into a grin when you step out onto the porch with him. “F-for you.” He stammers. 

“Thank you, Steve.” You take the flower into your hands, completely looking over the fact that it was one that your mother grew herself. Closing the door behind you, Steve offers his arm to you. You chuckle, wooed by his chivalrous gesture as he walks you to his car. There’s a sway in your steps, and Steve finds it a little amusing that you can’t walk straight. He’s suddenly thinking about Princess, wondering if he did enough to...

He shakes his head, pushing away any thoughts of her as he reverses out of your driveway. You and Steve are engaged in conversation; all awkwardness between the two of you are thrown out the window, and Steve feels relieved in getting to talk to know you more. Weird as it seems, he also feels like he’s met you before. Something about the way you talked and the sound of your voice sent him into memory lane. Only, he’s sure that it was a recent memory. 

As promised, you and Steve walk around the city with coffee cups in hand. Occasionally, your shoulders brush against each other. Your voices are loud, filled with enthusiasm when you mention a quaint bookstore down the avenue. Soon, you’re taking Steve by the hand, pulling him into your get-away place with innocent eagerness. You start to chase each other quietly down the shelves, laughing silently as Steve manages to nearly knock over a porcelain vase. You stand on opposite sides of a bookcase, starting another interesting conversation. 

“You’ve read all these books?” Steve stares at you in wonder, following you down the aisle. You nod proudly, picking up a lost novel from the floor. You pass it to Steve, who takes it carefully into his hands. He looks at you for a moment, before he flips through the dusted pages. “This is your favorite.”

“You remembered?” You meet his gaze with a touched smile, feeling giddy at how Steve was able to remember your favorite book from when you told him on your stroll.

“I didn’t know I was gonna be tested on that.” He jokes, tucking the book under his arm. “Is it for sale? I’ll buy it for you.”

“No, Steve. It’s okay. Thank you.” You pass up on his offer, rounding the corner of the bookcase in that you stand across of one another. “I would’ve bought it for myself, but it’s too expensive.” 

“That’s why I’ll get it for you. It’s a gift. Let me, Y/N.” He towers over you, holding the book against his heart. “I like you a lot. I wanna buy it for you as a - as a...”

You burst out into laughter, taking the book from him to place it on a shelf. “As a token of your affection?” He shrugs with a playful scoff, studying you. “Steve, you don’t need to give me anything. You don’t need a book to show me that.” 

He sucks in a nervous breath, parting his lips as he speaks. “Would it be too soon for me to kiss you?” He steps forward, light on his feet. The bookstore is silent, and the sudden tension between you and Steve is loud. “Can I kiss you?”

“I think that’d be much better.”

Steve pushes your hair behind your shoulder; his fingers brush over the fabric of your turtleneck sweater as he dips down to kiss both of your cheeks. The tip of his nose bumps against yours, and Steve closes his eyes at the little gasp you make when his hand trails across your back. You step into him, peering into his beautiful brown eyes with marvel. He presses his lips to yours, softly. The toe of his shoe bumps against yours as you run your hands down his arms. He tastes like an autumn day - a combination of sugar and spice. You pull away, letting your thumb graze across his bottom lip gracefully, and Steve isn’t afraid to kiss you once more. You’re smiling like a teenager when you finally step away from each other, cheeks reddened. 

“We should go...” You grin up at him coyly, lashes fluttering against your skin. Steve’s hand envelops yours as he leads you outside. Your arm finds itself tangled with his as you walk across the street, winding around the town until you reached his parked car. 

From then on, Steve hasn’t stopped taking you out on dates, bringing you to different shops and restaurants around town until nothing new was left for the two of you. However, you never really expressed what your relationship with him meant to you. Steve was in turmoil: Were you two casual? Was that a ‘no strings attached’ kind of thing? Were you guys even a thing?

Steve thinks he’s found an answer when he sees you one Wednesday morning in the community park - with Billy Hargrove. The conversation seems to be tense, based on the way that Billy stares down at you and how you push at his chest. Immediately, Steve’s jealousy is replaced with furiousness. Was Billy messing with you? Stopping his morning run, Steve stomps over to your place by the fountain, frowning with clear resentment. 

“You okay, Y/N?” He pulls you behind him, taken aback when he sees the tears in your eyes. He brings his voice down to a whisper so that you can only hear him. “Is he messing with you? What’s going on?”

“Steve, it’s - it’s fine.” You place your hand on his chest, pulling him away. You sniffle, and Steve feels the blood boil in his chest at the thought of someone making you cry.

“Whatever shit you just pulled, Billy, I want you to know that you should fuck off.” He growls at Billy as you both walk away, tugging you close to his body. He shushes your sobs, soothing you with sweet words. “I’m here, Y/N. Can I take you home? Do you want me to take you there?”

You’re nodding rapidly; your airway is constricted with overwhelming emotion as Steve talks about his day to distract you, not once does he ask you for directions to your house, having memorized the walk there anyways. 

You’re in your room when you cry into his shoulder, clutching at Steve’s shirt that was now damp with tears. Steve feels heartbroken - not because he saw you with Billy, because that meant nothing to him. Nothing mattered to him than the beautiful, crying girl in his arms. The bed creaks as he shifts, embracing you tighter. You haven’t spoken a word since earlier, and Steve patiently waits in the silence of your room. “I’m sorry,” You croak, wiping your tears from your eyes with the sleeve of your jacket. “God, I ruined your shirt.” 

He rubs your elbow. “You wanna tell me about what happened?”

“You’re gonna hate me.” You mutter, curling up into yourself. Steve stares at you intently, clenching his jaw. “Billy... Billy and I were kind of - I don’t know what it was, but we messed around. We were messing around before we started going out.” You shut your eyes at how Steve tenses up. “I wanted to break things off with him, but I couldn’t... he knew stuff and... he wasn’t hurting me, I hope you know that. I was just too scared to let go.”

So you were messing around with Billy.

“You didn’t tell me.” Steve scoots away from you. His jealousy arrises again at the thought of you and Billy together, behind his back. “We were together and you didn’t tell me about him? Y/N, what the hell!”

“You have every fucking right to be angry, but Steve... Steve, when were we ever together? You were doing the sam - It’s not like I was cheating on you.”

No. Not like this. 

“Bullshit, Y/N! We were going on dates!” He stands from your bed, gesturing at you wildly with his hands. You hurt him. You fucking hurt him.

“I’m sorry! Steve, I’ve never... I’ve just never been committed to anyone. I-It scares me.”

“Well, it looks like you won’t be committed to anybody for a long time. I’ll see you around, Y/N. I’m done here.” 

You are left with a hanging jaw and an aching soul as Steve leaves your house, slamming the front door behind him angrily. 

Steve doesn’t sit next to you anymore on Thursdays, resorting in the dark corner of the classroom. He doesn’t talk to you that much either, rarely even engaging in a full conversation with you. He knows it’s childish to ignore you, and that you weren’t technically at fault for anything that had happened.

He’s done the same thing as you. So why the fuck was he acting like this?

He just needs time.

Time to figure everything out.

-

He’s at a well-deserved spring break party when he runs into Princess again. She seems off, disinterested in everything around her. Heck, Billy was staying out of her way as well, making out with other girls instead of her, to his surprise. Steve feels a bit suspicious, based on how she began to stray away from the attention, chatting with friends in the corner of the room and drinking soda rather than beer. When he locks eyes with her from across the house, he doesn’t hesitate to approach her. This time, he’s completely sober and he can actually feel his nerves flare up.

“Hey,” He says to her, raising his cup of water. “How are you?”

“Not in the mood, Steve.” She sighs, downing her soda as she stares at him blankly. There’s a tiny hitch in her forced voice, and Steve easily catches the way she eyes him. He inches closer to her, yet respectfully careful in keeping his distance. “A guy fucks you once and suddenly he can waltz in whenever he wants.” She snaps, brushing angrily past Steve.

What the hell?

People whisper and point at Steve as he chases after her. She walks briskly out of the party, clicking her heels against the sidewalk as her arms swing at her sides. Not once does she look back when Steve calls for her to stop. He’s able to weave around her, halting her in her tracks. “What is your problem? Does everyone have a problem with me these days? Jesus, Princess-” She stops him by smashing her lips against his, bringing his head down to meet hers. Steve raises his eyebrows in surprise, before relaxing into the kiss. He caresses the side of her neck, before he has to tear himself away. “What’s gotten into you?” There’s something about the color of her eyes underneath the mask, a shade that he’s sure that he’s seen carved into his mind. His eyes are concerned, and he suddenly feels a knowing feeling when she presses her forehead against his, tracing his bottom lip.

It feels too familiar. 

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? Princess?” Confused, he takes her hands into his. It’s too intimate of a gesture, he knows, but her behavior was worrying.

“I need you.” She whispers breathily, before stepping onto the tips of her toes to kiss him again. “Please.”

“I don’t wanna take advantage of you like this.” 

“You aren’t. I just want another good time with you...” She scoffs, and the wall she’s been putting up is back again. “Daddy?” Her face splits into a mischievous smirk when Steve holds his breath.

Screw it. 

He leads Princess by the shoulder, pushing her into the backseat of his car roughly. She lands against the leather seats with a squeal, before Steve is climbing in himself and locking the doors. He slams a hand against the window to brace himself, hovering over her body as he leaves open-mouthed kisses down her neck and over the tops of her breasts. They’re naked in minutes, grinding against each other. The car has fogged up, windows blocked out with condensation as Steve pushes his cock between Princess’ folds. Her leg is propped up over his shoulder, while the other hangs loosely against the driver’s seat. Steve can’t hear his own thoughts over the sounds of her wetness, which drives him to thrust into her harshly. She gasps at the full feeling, gripping the skin at her stomach as she bites back a moan.

“Where do you feel me? In your stomach?” She nods blissfully, combing her nails through Steve’s hair as he pounds in dick into her. “Does Daddy make you feel good?”

“Yeah. You do.” She whimpers, barely audible over the creakiness of the car. It shifts from side to side, surely drawing attention from outsiders. It excites Steve, the possibility of getting caught with Princess. He wraps his arms around her waist, groaning as she whispers dirty comments into his ear. “Look at you, daddy. Fuck, you love it. Can I cum, daddy?”

“No. Shit, no.” He shakes his head. Sweat accumulates on his forehead from how hot the car’s gotten, and he grunts loudly into Princess’ blue hair. “I’m so close. Wait for me.” Steve’s thrusts become sloppier each second, and she pushes the extra mile by clenching around him. “Go, cum. Fuck!”

Princess moans sinfully, hitting her head lightly against the door as she rubs at her clit. Steve pulls out of her pussy; she rolls onto the floor of the car gracefully, landing on her knees before she pumps Steve’s dick into her mouth. He holds onto her hair, careful not to tug too hard as he fucks her mouth. It’s messy - saliva everywhere, mascara running down her cheeks as she struggles to keep her tears under control.

With a look of approval, she lets him push her head down onto his cock, her nose brushes against his happy trail while she gags around him. Steve cums in her mouth, moaning at the lustful look that she was giving him. He pulls her up for one more kiss after she swallows his load, then collapses against the seat with ragged breaths. He’s quick to put his clothes back on, taking a glimpse at Princess with awestruck eyes as she followed his actions. 

“Hey.” He nudges her arm. “Don’t leave.”

“I have to pee, Steve.” She snickers, glancing at the house that still held a party. “But I... I’ll come back.”

“Promise?”

She cups his cheek, wiping the lipgloss from his mouth. “I promise.”

Steve feels nothing but relief when he sees Princess come back to his car. He pulls her inside, scratching his eyebrow as she takes a seat beside him. The air smells of sex, and Steve resorts to rolling down the windows. 

“Are you okay now?” He questions, staring outside. 

“I will be.” She answers. The leather squeaks as she turns to face him, leaning against the door. “Are you okay?”

There’s no point in lying. Because based on how she began to study his face, Steve knows that she sees the bags under his eyes, and the lack of enthusiasm in his voice. With an exasperated sigh, Steve meets her stare.

“I don’t think so.” She listens earnestly. “I met this... this amazing girl. Her name’s Y/N. I doubt you’ve heard of her. She’s low profile around here.” He chuckles. “But, uh... I really like her. A lot. I haven’t met someone as - as breathtaking, and kind, and intelligent as her in a long time. She’s different, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“And, the thing is... I thought I knew her. I took her on countless dates - great dates, by the way. I’m a pro at dates. Dating professional, actually.”

“I’m sure of it.” She laughs, fixing the mask on her face. “God, sorry, I hate this thing.”

“Take it off then. I’d like a face to match the voice.” She glances away, peering at herself in the rearview mirror. Steve senses her uneasiness, so he moves to rub her thigh with a comforting tone. “I’m kidding. I just hope you haven’t glued it on.” Momentarily, they exchange laughter. “But I’d like to meet you one day. Really meet you. When you’re ready.” There’s a lingering gaze between them, before Steve continues swiftly. “Anyways, I’m taking Y/N on dates, then she tells me that - I guess that she was involved with someone before me. I got mad. I’m a fucking hypocrite because here I am, with you.”

He exhales shakily. “I’m jealous, too. Because someone as perfect as her could never be with someone as imperfect as me.” Princess opens her mouth, but Steve speaks before she can. “I know. I know it’s stupid to think like that, but damn. I can’t help it.”

“Not everyone’s perfect, Steve. I’m - I know that deep down Y/N feels the same way. I don’t know her, but as perfect as she makes herself out to be, she must have her vices, too.”

“I should talk to her.”

“She’d like that. I’m sure.”

A pinch of sadness wafts around the air, and Steve knows that it’s goodbye. If he really wanted to pursue you, he’d have to leave behind Princess.

He’s okay with that.

“I guess this is goodbye, then.” She smiles nostalgically.

“It is.”

Princess leans over, pressing a chaste kiss to the side of his head. “Bye, Steve.” She steps out of the car, carrying her boots as she heads the opposite direction.

Goodbye, Princess. 

-

“You wanna talk?” You look up at Steve, who leans over your desk. 

“After school. Not here.” He shakes his head, ignoring the way that your classmates were glaring at the two of you. “I’ll meet you at the bookstore. Your favorite place.” 

Steve doesn’t even wait for your response. Suddenly, he’s hollering a big ‘screw this class!’ to Mr. Cortez as he bolts out of the classroom, leaving you there in your chair with wide eyes. 

He wants to make it perfect for you - his apology, his sappy ass declaration of ‘emotion’ towards you. He’s rented out the whole bookstore, passing the clerk a couple hundreds as he waits for you to come. His head throbs with adrenaline, pacing around the store as he thinks of what to say to you. 

You’re my perfect.

I think I love you.

“Shit, too soon.” He hits himself in the face with a book.

Hour.

After.

Hour.

You still aren’t here. Should Steve be freaking out? Were you going to flake on him again? He’s too busy panicking to hear the chiming bell by the door. He walks to the back of the store, banging his head against a shelf as he tries to calm himself down.

But when he turns around, he nearly faints.

“Princess? What are you-” She holds a finger up to his lips, before she slowly pulls it away from him when he is finally silent. 

Stepping back, she inhales deeply. 

Her hands move up to touch her blue wig. With a tug, she pulls it off. Her natural hair falls in waves against her shoulders, and she combs her hands through them lazily.

Steve’s eyes widen when she reaches around her head to untie the mask. 

It clatters to the floor.

“Y/N.”

It all connects.

The voice, the movements, the mannerisms...

You’ve been behind the mask for this whole time.

“Hey, there.” You chuckle uneasily, tucking your hair behind your ears. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Y/N, you - I - Princess was - what?” He covers his mouth in shock, placing a free hand on his hip as he bites down on his knuckle.

“I’m sorry if... if I’m not who or what you expected.” You shrug, crossing your arms over your chest as you observe his features. “Steve? Are you mad?”

“No, I’m... I’m not mad.” He stares at you, mouth agape as you grab his hand. “I’m - it’s been you? This whole time?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it has.”

“Why?”

You wipe away your lipstick with the back of your sleeve. “I never told you about Billy because he knew my identity. I couldn’t let go of him because he would tell everyone about me - the real me.” You confess, feeling tears brim at your eyes. “I know this whole thing looks... looks awful. I wasn’t using you. Gosh, I hope I wasn’t using you, Steve. But fuck, you noticed me. The real me. I was too scared that you’d see all my flaws the more we got closer, and I thought that being Princess would save me from that hell.” You swallow, closing your eyes as Steve brings a hand up to hold your face. “You proved me wrong. Because someone as perfect as you ended up liking someone as imperfect as me.”

He wipes the tears from your face. “You know... you know that you’ve seen my dick, right? My actual, full-on, naked dick?”

“Steve!” You gasp, chuckling uncontrollably at his words.

“Y/N, I like you for who you are. Shit, I hope you realize that. Yeah, I did like Princess, but Y/N was a whole new level of breathtaking. I don’t care that you have flaws. We all do, remember? You told me that. And I lo - I like you for everything that you are. Whether you’re shy, or - or loud or quiet, whether you like bookstores over parties or whatever. I just wished you didn’t have to hide yourself from me. Princess or not, I would’ve fallen for you either way.”

“Really?”

“Fuck, yeah.” He whispers, leaning into you. “Princess was able to show me a good time, but Y/N is someone I want for a long time.” 

He takes you by the chin, pressing his lips against yours for what felt like the first time again. How could he not have realized? The way your lips felt, how perfect they molded with his, the sweet taste of your gloss and how feathery your touch was against his skin. He should’ve known it was you. Steve moans into your mouth when you pull at his hair, and the kiss deepens when you slip your tongue into his mouth. He spins you around, slamming your back against the bookcase. 

“I wanna see the real you, okay?” He murmurs into your collarbones, undoing the zipper of your jeans. You whine into his jaw, peppering his neck with hickeys.

He drops to his feet to pull down your panties. Steve lifts your legs up with ease, before his face is buried in your pussy. He laps at it, sucking on your clit and licking at your folds with expertise. You don’t shy away from moaning his name, yelping when he smacks his hand against your inner thigh to keep your legs apart. He pushes a finger inside you, smirking at how wet you always get because of him. He adds another digit, gasping at the wanton groan you let out when he uses his thumb to play with your clit. 

“I love your fingers, daddy. Feels so good.” You place your hand on the back of his head, guiding him to the perfect spots. “I... Steve, fuck.”

“You gonna cum so soon? You’re gonna cum, aren’t you?” He stands up, still fingering you at a fast pace. You rest your head in the crook of his neck, eyes rolling to the back of your head as you began to see white spots in your vision. “Good girl. Look at you, angel.”

“Fuck me, please. I wanna make you feel good.” You beg him, whining as he quickly stepped out of his sweatpants. He tosses his shirt aside, licking his lips at how your nipples poked out through the thin fabric of your top. He laughs at the neediness in your voice, turning you around so that your tits were pressed against the bookcase. 

“You’re beautiful, Y/N. Every single time I see you like this...” He kisses your shoulder, pulling your hair into a ponytail. His eyes land on the butterfly tattoo on your neck. “My sweet princess.” Steve lubes up his cock with his spit, groaning at how painfully hard he is. “You’re okay?” He checks up on you, pushing the tip into your wet hole. You nod, moaning when he sinks in deeper. 

Books begin to fall to the ground as Steve fucks you, holding you by your waist as he thrusts into you.

It feels better than before.

Princess was a great fuck, but you?

You were heaven itself. Despite how lustful you made him feel.

Steve cums at the same time as you do, grunting and moaning without shame as he emptied his load onto your back, where it dribbled onto the floor.

“That never gets old.” You giggle, breasts heaving as Steve turned you back around.

“You’re perfect.” Steve says, resting his forehead against yours. 

“Thank you for everything, Steve.”

He stares into your eyes lovingly, glistening with nothing but pure adoration for you.

“Anything for my princess.”

[kkulmoon]

SUNSET HEARTBEAT | KTH

pairing: Taehyung x Reader (f)

genre: fantasy au, hybrid au, sci-fi (?), fluff, angst

word count: 5.1k

rating: pg

a/n: ngl i feel like the beginning portion is a bit rusty, by rusty I mean it may feel a bit slow but pls give it a chance 🥺, I struggled to write that 😭. I am also tagging two very lovely people who were excited about this, hopefully you like it uwu @blossomkoo​ @inkedxclouds​. This fic is part of Bangtan Scenery’s collab ‘April Showers Bring May Flowers’, make sure to check out everyone else’s entries!

warnings: implied sex, other than that none, except for heartbreak and slight purple patches here and there cause I was in the mood hehe

beta read by: lovely angie @scvkjin​ and amazing emi @bangtiddies​ 💕 

synopsis: The time had come for the seventh sun to rise. For the seventh and last color in line to have its cycle. As one indigo supernova signified the coming of a purple nebula, you and Taehyung spent the remaining of your last day together creating something of your own. If it comes into fruition can only be known years in the future. A decade after you found someone unlike anyone. Truly one of a kind. Someone with a destiny they couldn’t outrun. It has been 10 years since the birth of a purple sun.

☁︎ masterlist ☁︎

It was in your final year of university, twelve years ago, that you met Taehyung. That same year you decided it was time to give up on the idea of becoming an astronomer. Quite frankly, you were just too dumb. However, it did not mean that you couldn't enjoy it all while living a life where pretending that you truly understood everything was your best bet, your only bet. They all say that interest and dedication trumps natural talent, right? For that same reason you decided to still attend as many astronomy lectures as possible even though you were studying to become an English teacher. You were always quiet and attentive so either the professors didn't notice you or let you be. Either way, what mattered was that you got to be there.

The first time the two of you interacted was a random weekday in April, near finals’ season. You were sitting at the back of the room as usual. The professor had handed out some papers to be passed back. A gold tinted hand with slender fingers, on which well groomed and shiny fingernails were present, reached out to you. You could all but wave away at the paper, trying your best to dismiss it. A pouty and confused expression was what you got as he continued to jab the paper onto your palm. You kept trying to mouth 'it's okay' but he was persistent. Not much of a purple characteristic but surely a sun one, now that you think about it. Finally you settled for a verbal response.

“I don't actually take this class, so really, i'm fine.”

He retreated his hand for a second, “Huh, don't we all wish that was true,” he said as he placed the paper on the small desk in front of you instead. “You've got this! We're almost done, hold in there.” You got a thumbs up before he turned back to focus on the class.

And every week from there on, whenever he got a short moment in class while the professor was writing on the board Taehyung would pester you with motivational notes filled with sayings. One particular somber April morning where you looked more tired than usual he even went as far as offering to help you with the class and your homework. You did your best to decline and yet that same night you got an email in your inbox that told you he obviously hadn't understood.

| Kim Taehyung     Chapter 15: Helpful Resources, (hang on there, you got this!) |

While you didn't take the class and had no official obligations to learn anything, you were still interested in astronomy so you decided to have a look. The links did clear up some questions you had during the lecture. However, you didn't want him to be wasting time helping a lost cause. As much as you loved reading about astronomy and learning about it, you were slow and having him help you was more than unnecessary. The definition of futile work. You decided to send him a screenshot of the official classes you were attending from the university's student portal. You made sure to censor your grades. He truly didn't need to think that you were any dumber, all he needed was proof that you weren't taking the class.

But once again, Taehyung's sun qualities shone through. Where it would have been expected for the person to drop the subject and for the two of you to go back to your habitual behaviour, he thought otherwise. He responded, but this time instead of answers he had questions, none of which you felt like answering so you left him on read. Well, the email version of read. You opened the email, read it, thought about answering it but ultimately left the email thread to die on the read pile.

A week went by. No Taehyung and you felt relieved. At least that's how you think you felt, the sleep deprivation might have been playing tricks on you. As yet another day came, where the indigo sun let its rays shine, Taehyung thought it better for him to act as the sun. You hadn't seen him in class, but it just turned out he changed his usual spot. He tried to catch you before you left the room but your daydreaming self was quick on her feet. He had a quick talk with the professor before he hurried to you.

“Hey!” The sound of sandals echoed against the cement floor. “Hey! You there!" 

You kept on walking, as far as you knew your name wasn’t you there'.  Someone grumbled behind you only to exclaim after a short while. 

“Y/N! Y/N! Hold up, I need to talk to you.” So in that case you were 'you there' and someone was Taehyung. 

You stopped walking and turned around. You couldn’t help but cock your head at him. You had only seen Taehyung from the torso up while in class. His attire surprised you for some reason. Maybe because he was a STEM student and you had expected him to look more uptight. He looked like one of the people from the pot dorm down your hallway.  Everything he wore was oversized except for the big knitted headband he had on now that he was outside. He looked devoid of colour with his muted clothes, but his cross body bag stood out with its patterned rainbow material.

"Yeah, what is it?" The quicker you could get it over with the better. However, Taehyung didn’t seem to agree with you on that aspect. He took his sweet time to fix the misplaced headband as you were left to witness the action. As much as you would have liked to categorise the scene as boring, it would have been a lie. His grey hair strands somehow managed to sparkle in the sun. They didn’t shine the normal way hair shines when light reflects on it. His hair literally sparkled as if it had recognised something familiar within the sun rays. But at the time you just thought you were being delusional or being tricked by the elements of his beauty.

"You didn't answer my email," he asked with curious eyes and an innocent tone. Right, that happened.

"Oh, that... uhm... I just haven't gotten the time to go through my email, things have been a bit hectic," you shot him a sympathetic smile.

Taehyung seemed like a pretty understanding person but he sure wasn’t dumb. You saw the way his tongue shifted to lick his lips as his teeth found their way onto his bottom lip. He trailed his hands on the strap of his bags as a pensive lip bite made adorned his features. Taehyung could have either been nervous or so irked by the bullshit you just spat at him that his body was reacting. Either way you felt bad for your white lie, but maybe not bad enough.

"It has been two weeks though," Taehyung stretches his back to stand straighter, "Also I take a chem class with Hoseok and you're always chatting in the gmail chat so..." 

What do you say to that? You lied and the worst part of it all was that you were caught right in the same moment. Your mouth opened and closed continuously as a hot flush made itself present on your ears and neck. You made note of the fact that Taehyung seems sweet but he actually packed a punch and was definitely ready to confront you on your bullshit. Classic STEM student approach, just face things head on. Thinking back at it, that was yet another instance in which his sun characteristics took the wheel. The sun's rays don't budge for anything or anyone and they certainly don't cave in to make others feel comfortable.

"Uhmm... right. But I am here now, so ask away!" Maybe your fake enthusiasm could make up for your little lie. Taehyung gave you a wondering look as he calculated  the pros and cons of continuing this conversation, You hoped the cons would win. 

“Uhmm, alright, fair enough,” He shrugged and the pros must have won because he kept talking. “Why do you go to astronomy lessons if you don’t take the class?”

Why did he want to get into your personal business? You could have very well told him that it was none of his business, turned around and left. But that seemed a tad bit too rude for you and for some weird reason you didn't want him to think of you as any more rude that you had been.

Would you paint yourself as an overly ambitious student that just had a general love of learning or would you tell him the truth? If you were to lie again you were sure he wouldn't manage to uncover this lie.

"I just like astronomy and find the class interesting, on top of that I've got time so like why not?" You felt good about your response, so good you were happy that you had made the choice not to lie to him, again.

"Oh okay, then how come you didn't apply for the program?" Wow, this dude was really trying to uncover all of your flaws during the first real conversation you've had. He should have become a detective instead, his focused and analysing eyes made it very hard for you to lie and not feel any residual guilt. He would, without a doubt, catch you if you were to slip up again.

"Uhm... I just felt like education was the right place for me you know." You shook your head with squinted eyes in hopes that he would just get you. Which he obviously didn’t if you had to go off of the way his jaw jutted out to the side. 

"Well, to put it simply, I am not the brightest of students and while actually taking the class would have been a nightmare, just being there and listening and learning at my own slow pace just makes me feel better about my shortcomings."

Taehyung's lips parted slightly. Okay, maybe you didn't have to give such a confession but he had been pushing and you wanted it to just end.

"Ohh, I see." Not the response you expected but how else do you respond to someone who said that they were too dumb to follow their dream. "But still my offer stands, if you need help trying to understand anything, feel free to tap my shoulder in class."

"But you changed seats to sit in the front."

"Nah not really, I was just bitter that you hadn't answered and didn't want to hurt you. From now on you'll see me at my usual spot in front of you."

The squeamish movement that accompanied the words ‘hurt you’ gave rise to a wondering look on your face. Hurt you? Why would he hurt you? Taehyung looked pretty harmless so you decided to not take his weird comment at face value. He most likely meant hurting you in a verbal sense.

The rest of the semester progressed in that same weird manner that characterised your relationship with Taehyung. A constant push and pull that kept being encouraged by your closest friends– Hoseok being the top player in the game. Inevitably, the more time you spent with him the more you warmed up to him. A month down the road the two of you decided to put a label on it. Or it was more so you who needed a verbal confirmation that you had somehow managed to catch someone's interest.

It took you awhile to reset the way you thought. Your wandering mind wasn’t only filled with personal affairs anymore, another individual had found their place in your day to day thoughts. All of a sudden being affectionate wasn't something you had to actively be, it was simply default mode whenever Taehyung crossed your field of vision.

For that reason alone, finals season was filled with movie nights, whispered love confessions, enough takeaways from different cuisines that you felt you were now ready to become a food critic. But the most precious instances of that time was the afternoons where Taehyung did his best to teach you astronomy and you being too lazy to listen despite your interest. You can't help but ask yourself if you would have been more attentive had you known what astronomy actually meant to him.

You had now been with Taehyung for one entire year. One year filled with diametrically opposite feelings. The good, the bad and the ugly. But ultimately all of it was left at the door the moment the two of you decided to reconcile despite the drawbacks. You were happy. The kind of happy that you don't recognise until it's gone. That can only be acknowledged in the midst of incoming fury. You had never in your life wished for the ability to predict the future. To see what happens after sunrise before it is manifested. 

One particular day eleven years ago, you wished that astronomy was fake, that the sun wasn't real and that it never needed to rise or set, to be born or die. You wished the sun didn't exist, knowing very well that that would mean the most important person in your life wouldn't exist. But you could have dealt with that. 

Longing for something you know you could have hurts far more than craving for the unknown. In the latter situation there's at least hope, that if you search hard and long enough you could find that thing you so deeply want. In the former, you know where that thing is, it's in fact right under your nose, or more accurately right over your head, where you can feel it at least a little bit every single day. Except this time you can't have it, no matter how hard you wish for it or how long you choose to wait. The whole scenario was like a twisted marshmallow test. Made to incite cravings with no intention of ever quenching them.

This all started a year following the start of your relationship with Taehyung. At that time you took notice to how hot he would get at the most unexpected of times. A behaviour that was usually reserved for when he was irritated or angry. It wasn’t only him that was hot but he radiated the kind of heat reserved for an extremely sunny summer’s day. 

You overlooked those instances and decided not to pay them too much mind. It could just be you having the extreme hots from him. However on a particular night, you just couldn’t bring yourself to stay in bed with Taehyung. The sheets were drenched and the windows had fogged up. You had to leave and find refuge in your living room sleeping right by a fan. 

The coming morning you woke up to breakfast on the table and right beside it there was a thick pocket sized book. The Book Of Suns. That was the white title that was engraved onto the black cover. Taehyung was nowhere to be found but his belongings were still in your room so you assumed he had gone for his morning walk. 

You had to make a choice between the two. Would you read the book first or you would eat breakfast first? You knew that whatever you were about to find out would most likely curb your appetite. Your hand glided against the rough cover of the book. 

Wouldn't it be better to read it now, just in case something made you extremely sad? That way you could cry before he got back home. Whatever it was that you were about to find out was very important to him, important enough that he wanted you to form your own opinion of it in peace. He wanted in no way for his presence to taint your reaction towards the truth that he had been hiding. Or as he thought protecting you from.

You sat down by the table, knees to your chest as you brought the book onto your hands. 'The Book Of Suns' was, as you realised after reading it, just that, a book about suns, in particular Taehyung’s sun lineage. It was a story about your world’s suns, the rainbow sun family. A fact unknown to you before that very moment. You were surprised by your behaviour, you weren’t exactly known for having calm reactions. It must have been Taehyung’s scent on the sweater you wore. It tickled your nose and calmed your senses. The book served as a track record for the next person in line to become the sun. It had seven chapters. Beside each chapter title in the contents page there were small vertical lines. The first six suns had five lines while the last had four. Taehyung must be purple sun. You read silently or more so you attempted to read silently, the deep breaths you were taking in effort to digest everything couldn't be contained.

After a continuous hour of reading you got to what was perhaps the most interesting chapter. Where do the dead suns go? And most importantly what do the suns that have yet to be born stay? You were cautious about continuing your reading. What if you found out that Taehyung was in fact just the ghost of someone that didn't actually exist? Or worse what if Taehyung would cease to exist? 

Fear curbed your initiative to let your eyes continue their dance on the page. But fear also did its job in fixating your attention on the slightly faded black letters present on the off-white pages. Fear of the unknown is always worse than that of the known.

Deep in the forest, there was the garden of suns. Every time a sun died and resurrected as a human, their statue appeared in the garden, where their sun soul was kept, only to vanish on the day of their sun birth. In the middle of the pages there was a picture, at the back of it you could read Taehyung’s harsh handwriting ‘The garden of suns -15/07/39’. He had been there four days ago.

The statues of the first five suns were covered with vibrant collared moss equivalent of their sun pigment. The sixth and seventh sun’s statues were only slightly visible in the photograph. They seemed to be in an intermediary phase. Not quite gone, yet not quite there. It was hard to figure out whether they were emerging or vanishing. That’s until you remembered the previous week’s news report. A supernova was on its way and scientists believed it would most likely occur near the end of next year. 

The indigo sun is near its death, and a purple sun is nearing its ascent. 

Taehyung’s statue was the one vanishing. His sun soul was ready to find its owner and ascend to its rightful place amongst the other stars. Just as you were about to continue reading, ready to delve into how this whole sun birth situation went about, the sound of metal clashing against metal resounded in the dead silence. Clinging keys and heavy steps entered the apartment. 

No 'hello' or 'glad to see you're finally awake'. But could you blame him? It would have been weird to act as if it was like any other of your usual mornings. You wished you had mustered up the strength to get off the chair and go greet him at the entrance. In your mind you did that but in reality you stayed rooted right where you were, back squeezed into the corner between the table and chair.

Taehyung walked in to lean against the door frame that lead into the kitchen. He looked exhausted. Dark under eye bags decorated weary eyes. You thought you could hear a tentative squeak come out of his mouth. Maybe you should've said something, because he looked like he was hurting and trying to find the appropriate words to start a conversation he knew would only end with heartache and tears. You thought that talking about the small steps he made outside was a good way to segue into talking about the biggest step he would take in his life. One that he could unfortunately not walk back on. 

"How was your walk?" You managed to ask before Taehyung walked past the kitchen and into the bedroom. He stopped midway, standing in the living room, where sun rays illuminated his surroundings. You couldn't help but think that it was very fitting for him to become a sun. The rays may have been bright and hot but he was the only one able to make you feel as hot as the sun and make your smile shine brighter than the biggest star. He was already a sun. Your sun. Why did he need to leave and become everyone's sun as well?

"Pretty good, helped me wake up," he said and sat down on the bean bag present beside him. You put the book down on the dining table just to look back at him from your seat. You were just there, in the moment, sitting down and doing your best to have an internal conversation. Both of you knew that words would hurt too much. And they surely couldn't bear the complete weight of what your current predicament meant neither could they have illustrated the joint pain that was shared between two beating hearts.

Your conversation might have been dead but the emotion was very much alive. You stood up from your seat, Taehyung's knitted sweater fell back down to caress your thighs. The walk to the beanbag felt like an eternity, not because it was but because you made it so. You had felt his sour and vigilant mood and you knew that being playful at that moment was your best bet. You tiptoed back and forth all the way to the beanbag as the sweater shifted here and there to reveal skin that was highlighted blue by the sun.

He was upset but he couldn't manage to keep his mouth set. His lips would stretch and unstretch as small playful wiggles played at the tip of his mouth. Finally you had found your way to the bean bag. You stood tall as your body cast a shadow over his. You placed a foot on the bean bag as the material sunk under your weight and you found your place on his lap. 

Right there, that's the kind of pat in the back that Taehyung gave you as his arms enveloped your slouching form. You snuggled your head deep into the crook of his neck and inhaled all the way in. If he was really gonna be leaving you, you needed to make sure you could imprint the scent and feel of his flesh right onto yours.

You sat there, quiet, with synchronised breaths yet fighting thoughts. How in the heck were you supposed to manage this? Him just being gone? Sure, you had a year left before it was officially time, but a year is far from a lifetime, what he had promised you.

"You are sure you don't want to talk about it?" Long hand strokes continue to comfort your back. You move your buried head side to side, groaning in response. Alright is all he said. Things were far from alright.

While on that morning you decided not to talk further on the topic, the coming months were filled with explorative trips to the Garden of Suns, where you would spend hours listening to Taehyung tell you about the stories of him and his sun brothers. He talked about being particularly close to the blue sun.

"It's just because he literally has no filter," he said gazing longingly at the statue covered with flashy blue moss.

"Is that like, dangerous?"

"Well yeah for you, but I am a sun remember." He turned around on the grass to face your way.

"And that's probably why I orbit around you." The huge grin that found its ways to your face was uncontrollable and contagious as Taehyung couldn’t help but snicker at your corny joke.

Just like that, your months together flew by until it was finally d-day. You hoped that waking up wouldn't be a necessity but Taehyung refused to let you sleep through it. He refused to let you think that it was all a dream. Getting yourself off the bed and into the shower felt like an endless task. One that he was patient enough to help you with. In hindsight you feel bad about having put him through that on such a significant day. He was, most likely, having a harder time dealing with his destiny than you were. That day was one to remember, the most vivid of them all, the most cherished of them all yet the most sad of them all.

All of that happened in the past and you were currently in an unsure present. The indigo sun had faced its fate, to be extinguished in an equally coloured supernova that would give rise to the last one in line, a purple sun. One day they would all be back to the complete cycle. A day where you wouldn't be present.

It has been ten years since Taehyung became a sun. You could talk to him, well, not really but you could see him and most importantly feel him. It had been a decade since you asked him to leave you something to remember him by, a part of him, a living one. On the night of Taehyung’s sun birth he decided to take you up on the offer. Cuddled up, in each other’s arms that’s how the day progressed. While usually persistent yet gentle, that night Taehyung felt it was appropriate and maybe in fact vital for him let his sun like ferocity be expressed. How else could you have understood the intensity of his feelings, a muddy mix of grief and love. The remains of that one last heated night were left for you to admire and cherish.

You thought you would manage to stay up the entire night to witness the purple sun birth but Taehyung’s warmth, forehead kisses and soft singing lulled you to sleep before you could realise it. 

Nothing was felt. No heat, no cold. Nothing was seen. No light, no spark. Taehyung was gone into the void in the same effortless way he entered your life. You’ve now been waiting over a decade to know if the fruits of that night would come into fruition. Conception can only happen when eclipses take place. Eclipses happen every 126 months. It has been 10 years. Half a year is left.

That half year could not have passed at a slower pace. It was a Thursday, yet another tiring day at school. You loved kids but you were drained of energy. You couldn't wait for time to pass by so that you could leave. It was Thursday, which meant you could watch the sunset to its complete  end without being bothered. It was also Thursday, the day after you got your first ultrasound. Taehyung may have not been there but that didn't mean you couldn't share the remaining of your waking hours with him, whenever you thought it was possible. You looked out of the window from your classroom to see purple hues in the sky as the sun said goodbye to leave place to another night.

The clouds thought otherwise, for some reason they always felt the need to be there to cloud his presence. What right did they have to cover up his tint? If it weren’t for them you would have been able to bask in his purple light, let it colour you bare as your feelings went from blank to purple butterflies that made you lose sight as tears formed in your eyes.

So you did what any sensible person still in love would have done. As soon as the clock struck 4 pm you ran to catch the train that would take you from skyscraper views to wide flower fields. It took the train two hours. You did your best to enjoy the way he set along the ride. Once you arrived you were left with two entire hours to enjoy the last of him and say goodbye to Taehyung and hello to the darkness.

During that time you reached into Taehyung's patterned cross body bag. You truly hated it but it was his so you kept it. You pulled out the ultrasound picture and raised it to the little part of sun that was still left. You didn't actually think that he would, through some weird magical way, actually be able to see it. It was more so something to calm your conscience. But most importantly, it presented you with the opportunity to capture an unusual family picture. It was you, the ultrasound, your baby bump and the purple sunset all in one picture. One that had found its rightful place on your bedside table.

Years unmasked themselves to reveal the growth of your child. One that grew to inherit the intensity of her father. Every now and then you made sure to let her know about him. As young as she was she couldn't truly understand it all, but as a child your love story was something that was within imaginable grounds. So you took advantage of that and taught her all you could about him. Maybe if you started early she could manage to develop past your less refined genes with regards to learning.

You took your time to tell her all that she wished to know and all that you wished to share. Sugarcoating to the maximum, cause that’s what Taehyung would do, but still making sure to keep a coherent timeline. One specific day you are unable to answer her question.

"Wh–why did dad break the promish?"

You had to fight long and hard with your tear ducts. Never had you cried in front her and you didn't intend to do it anytime soon.

In fact in one way or the other, Taehyung hadn't lied about keeping his promise. He had omitted some important specifics but he hadn't completely been untruthful. He said a lifetime and he would give you a lifetime. It just happened to be one where he wasn't always there, present by your side. 

However he would always get up to see you rise, and always say goodbye as he sets down to give place for lonely nights. And on all of those goodbyes unlike the one where he left you for the first and last time, you could swear that in bed with your child pressed to your chest, you could feel and hear his sunset heartbeat as clear and strong as the rays of a certain purple sun, your only one. Sun rays filled with his most cherished truth: 

‘I will turn purple when i miss you and to say i love you’.

Posted: May 28, 2020

[lovelyirony]

ravenclaw!tony x quidditch player!rhodey (i'm not sure which house)

Tony was never very interested in Quidditch. He was an excellent flyer, that much can be said. But he was more focused on his inventions and making sure that Professor Pierce didn’t find out that he was using the time that he spent lecturing about “the illustrious history of wizards (who were predominantly pureblood)” to do more useful things, like take a nap or invent a quill that could write longer than fifteen minutes. And, you didn’t have to dictate it. 

So Quidditch was rarely his thing, although occasionally he let Sharon drag him down or he went to go see Bruce play. 

This time, it was Ravenclaw against Gryffindor. Bruce had told Tony it would be quite an interesting match because it was a real competition this time, and it’s not like Tony had any homework due. He’d done it all at least a week in advanced. 

So Tony went down to the stands and stood with the rest of the crowd, a hum of excitement buzzing in the air. 

The teams came swirling out of the gates, cheers erupting. But while Tony is cheering and looking for Bruce, someone else catches his eye. 

It’s a very attractive man in red and gold, laughing as Sharon fist-bumps him. He doesn’t know who that is, but he wants to. Suddenly, he’s glad that he’s in the first row. 

The game becomes more interesting. Tony secretly cheers as the guy zooms and scores and people around him groan. 

“Fucking James,” a guy next to him murmurs. 

“Is that the Gryffindor?” Tony asks. 

“Yeah, James Rhodes. A nice guy, absolute beast on the field.” 

“I don’t think I’ve seen him before,” Tony says. 

“That’s because you’re a gigantic nerd who only stays inside during most matches,” Maria hollers. “He goes by Jim and he’s in our Muggle Studies class!” 

“Good to know,” Tony says, looking forward. Pepper rolls her eyes as she finds Tony in the crowd. 

“So, you finally noticed Jim.” 

“Sorry that I was utilizing my time for education instead of ogling someone,” Tony retorts. “My bad.” 

They both turn back to the game. Pepper is surprisingly invested in the game of Quidditch. Her father and mother had met through the sport, both professionally involved. She had surprised both by not entering in to play for Ravenclaw, which they had expected. 

But she cheers loudly as Bruce knocks a bludger directly out of space right into...

James Rhodes. He obviously isn’t expecting it, but it slams into his stomach and he gets knocked off his broom, falling. There are gasps, and Tony can’t bear it. 

He uses a cushioning charm, which could be potentially dangerous seeing as how it was advanced for what he was doing in magic, and he technically wasn’t supposed to know about it. 

James doesn’t know who the hell did the charm, but he grabs his broom and speeds back up. He doesn’t have time, not when the Ravenclaw Seeker is racing towards something that looks suspiciously shiny. 

The Ravenclaw team ends up winning, and James is left to brood as their captain rants about strategy for about the twenty-first-straight-minute. But after the brooding, their captain asks him how he knew about the cushioning charm. 

He blinks. 

“I didn’t.” 

So begins the great question: who did it? 

Pepper knows. So does Bruce. They tease Tony relentlessly about his new crush. 

“Leave it to Tony to put advanced magic as the first move,” Pepper says, reaching delicately across the table to grab a croissant. 

“Shut up,” Tony hisses. “I just...didn’t want him to get hurt. You remember that one kid who’s arm went boneless.” 

“Yeah, that was because of Lockhart, that idiot,” Bruce says, scowling. “I still can’t believe our Defense teacher wanted us to read one of his books. It’s shitty and plagiarized at the same time.” 

Tony laughs. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Luckily, we both bullshitted the essay to prove a point and she didn’t kick our ass.” 

“May’s a scary lady,” Pepper says, shuddering. “I heard she took on a den of vampires all by herself. They called her ‘The Cavalry’.” 

“Well luckily for us, she likes all three of us,” Tony says. “And I need to get to Advanced Arithmancy. I hope I don’t put my wand to my head out of boredom. I’ll see you guys in Muggle Studies!” 

The day goes well, until thirty minutes before Muggle Studies he remembers that they have it with Gryffindor, and this means he will see James Rhodes. 

The Gryffindors are a bunch who tend to not hold too many grudges, although quite a bit of pride was hurt. But they don’t hold it against most of the house and the lesson starts amicably. Their professor then decides they need partnerwork. 

“I’ll be pairing you up with a student from the other house,” Coulson says. “Alright, Pepper Potts with Carol Danvers....” Bruce gets paired with Eddie Brock, who’s been busy writing notes on his arm for a new story, and Tony’s left. 

“Anthony with James.” 

“Tony.” 

“Jim.” 

Coulson rolls his eyes. 

“You two are perfect then. Get to your lesson on researching different innovations, and your presentation will be in fifteen minutes. Two minutes each, be sure to be compelling.” 

Tony is nervous, but he flips through their textbook. Jim is a nice guy to look at. 

"So, you’re Tony?” he asks. 

“You’re...Rhodes?” 

“Call me Jim.” 

“Ah, no. Used to have a neighbor named Jim who tried to kill me when I started making his garden gnomes fly around.” 

“That’s problematic. How old were you?” 

“...seven.” 

“Then what are you gonna call me? Hmm?” 

“Well, I’m not sure, there are lots of possibilities. There’s Jimmy, which is--” 

“No.” 

“Alright, moving on then. Rhodes?” 

“What am I, a butler? Next.” 

“Jim-Jam.” 

“Oh god, that sounds....gross.” 

“Rhodey?” 

“I can....live with that.” 

By the time the conversation is starting to get friendlier, presentations are starting and Tony and newly-named Rhodey realize that they haven’t, in fact, researched any sort of Muggle device, so they will have to bullshit one. 

“Hope you know tech,” Tony mutters, as he stands up. “We researched the computers, which started out technically in the 19th century...” 

“...and now we’re dealing with virtual reality and the revolution of technology in relation to rising prices,” Rhodey finishes. 

“I’m glad you both did thorough research...unlike some of your classmates.” 

(Tony can see the birds that Pepper and Bruce are flipping him, and he nearly laughs out loud as he makes his way to his seat.) 

But Rhodey smiles back at him, and Tony waves. 

When Rhodey comes back to the common room with a tune humming, the whole of the house knows that Rhodey’s feeling something. 

“Who’s the lucky guy?” Carol hollers. 

“What?” Rhodey asks, closing his textbook. 

“Who’s got you dazed and in loooveee?” She sing-songs, tie askew. 

“Nobody,” Rhodey says. “And quit it.” 

“You only hum when you have a crush,” Sharon reminds him. “Remember when you liked Sam?” 

“Please make me forget the humiliation of finding out that he was already dating somebody,” Rhodey says. “And don’t announce this to everyone.” 

But it’s too late, because all of Gryffindor knows and then Carol, Thor, and Sharon make him tell them at midnight. 

“A guy from Muggle Studies,” Rhodey admits. “Name is Tony.” 

Sharon laughs, eyes wide. 

“You mean Tony Stark? My cousin? Oh my god, this is gonna be hilarious.” 

“If you make fun of me I’m going to snipe you,” Rhodey says, flopping onto his back with his pillow. “Now let me sleep.” 

Similarly, Pepper and Bruce have also made fun of Tony. 

“You like him. You gave him a nickname and everything. It took me four months to get one,” Bruce says. “And you gave him one in, like, two seconds. That has to mean true love.” 

“Well sorry I’m not calling someone something as dignified as James or as awful as Jim,” Tony says. “Besides, he’s just cute. I don’t really know anything about him other than he has a nice face and seems nice.” 

“That’s all you need,” Pepper reminds him. “Now come on and try not to look for him when breakfast is.” 

Tony looks for Rhodey. Because of course he does. But Rhodey is looking over his way, and he turns red and waves. Rhodey smiles back, and goes over to talk with him. 

“Oh god,” Tony mutters, trying desperately to swallow the roll he shoved in his mouth quite quickly. He doesn’t manage to and has to spit it into a napkin and face Rhodey, who is laughing a bit. 

“The rolls that bad?” 

“Just a bit on the stale side,” Tony lies. Bruce and Pepper are looking studiously at the bagels that are on their plates, and trying desperately not to belie the laughs they want to belt out. 

“Well just wanted to say hi, wonder what you’re up to. You coming to the next match?” 

“It’s you guys against...Slytherin, right?” 

“Yeah,” Rhodey says. “I’m gonna see if we can kick ass. Natasha’s back with a vengeance.” 

“She tends to like the sharp cuts and daring dives,” Tony says. “Stay steady and don’t chase after her, because she will beat you.” 

“You gonna be there?” 

“Not sure yet,” Tony says, smiling. “Why?” 

“Just thought you’d like to see it,” Rhodey says, shrugging. “I’ll see you soon, okay?” 

“You got it.” 

When Tony turns back to Bruce and Pepper, they look very unimpressed. 

“You need to go to that match,” Bruce says. “And this is coming who only comes for Thor and literally nothing else if I’m not playing.” 

“It’s true,” Pepper says. “Go, and be in the Gryffindor section. I’ll loan you my golden-red scarf.” 

“Why?” 

“Guys like seeing the person they like in their colors,” Pepper says, smiling. “You should invite him to come with you to Hogsmeade. He’d probably indulge your sweet tooth a bit.” 

“That is true,” Bruce says. “Or you guys could watch the new band that is playing at the bar.” 

Tony turns red. 

“I should go, shouldn’t I?” 

“Don’t be an idiot,” Bruce says. “I’ll come with you.” 

Tony starts looking for different Gryffindor scarves to wear, because Pepper’s is too bold. He wants something understated. 

As it turns out, Gryffindor doesn’t do understated. They’re all bold and they all keep asking why he wants it, and he breaks down and says that he’s going for Rhodey, and he wants to fit in. 

Sharon elbows him and gets a sweater. 

“I love this,” Tony gushes. “Thanks for letting me borrow your stuff, Sharon.” 

Carol looks on as he rushes down the hallway. 

“He doesn’t know that’s Rhodey’s, right?” she asks. 

“No, no he does not,” Sharon adds, grinning. “I think our guy might just run into a hoop. Do you think they count in-love players as points?” 

“If we bribe Sam enough,” Carol snickers. “Hope you didn’t just doom us for tomorrow.” 

(She almost did, but Rhodey’s a good player. 

But he does go in for a kiss on his broom, and it makes a lovely picture for the school picture.) 

[rusalkii]

Pretty good week all in all

I feel broadly on top of homework, projects, and the basic requirements of being a person, which is already an improvement over the previous semester. I have not been doing well at making sure I actually understand the material for exams, and I’m really bad at keeping to my scheduled study blocks. Either I’ll be tired, or I’ll have something more urgent to do, or I’ll do homework for that class instead of the studying I was going for. I’ll try to switch to targeting a certain number of hours per week, instead of specific time periods, and see if that works any better. I’ll also make it an explicit goal to have all the content for that week written up properly in my notes.

I did not go to the career fair because of who I am as a person a combination of inconvenient timing and learning about it late enough that it felt like a sudden terrifying obligation instead of just a thing to schedule. This is bad, actually. I can’t do that much about it right now, but I should go to the things that the econ department keeps sending us (at the very least, add them to my calendar), and also set myself a reminder to email R if he doesn’t contact me by the end of the month. I also still haven’t updated my resume, because, uh, I have literally no excuse aside from “there kept being things that seemed more important”. I think I’m avoiding it because I can’t figure out what’s best to cut down to keep it to a page. I should just write out a long version and then think about it from there.

More broadly, I’m not sure what a good systems for doing the minor tasks that never quite rise to the level of “urgent” until it’s too late is. I haven’t trimmed my hair or hung up some posters or applied to internships for the next summer or set up a website or thought about writing an Actual Serious Person Blog. Some of the things in this category technically never need to get done (my hair is fine, it’s just getting a bit ragged; I don’t need to have posters on my walls) and some don’t have any hard deadlines (I’m not invested in any particular internship, even if I don’t apply anywhere formally I have a couple threads that will almost certainly lead to something acceptable, and my absolute worst case scenario is to do another summer at the place I was this summer) and so there’s nothing really pushing me and more urgent short term tasks keep displacing them. I’m not sure if there is a solution other than Just Have Your Shit Together So That You Have Extra Time For Non-Urgent Work, which is sort of where most of my energy is going anyway. Leaving aside time specifically for these kinds of tasks is an option but might result in genuinely more time-sensitive tasks being undone. It’s sort of tempting to just ban myself from all of my pointless internet bullshit and see if productivity magically rises from the aether to fill in the gaps, but I suspect the actual outcome will be the rise of new internet bullshit or replacing all of it with equally pointless YA novels or something. Probably when I figure this one out I’ll have an answer to the problem of the human condition.

Sleep hacks: weighted blanket?? I sure have the internal experience of sleeping more soundly. I don’t track my sleep consistently, I might try one of those apps that purport to do this (do they actually work? look into this). Last time I did this it made sleeping without the weighted blanket a lot harder, though. Trade-offs: a thing. Unfortunate. I’ll experiment with melatonin starting next week, the plan is to raid my mother’s slightly excessive medicine cabinet when I visit my parents this weekend.

I... sort of completely dropped the ball on everything related to paying even the slightest bit of attention in any of my lectures this week. My options are (a) figure out how to learn the material without attending lectures or (b) figure out how to make myself pay attention. Unfortunately my ability to self-motivate shows up on full moons, alternate Fridays, and days I see a prime number of birds, which makes just teaching myself the material a slightly dubious proposition. I tried to follow the “only skip class if you’ve done the reading” rule and bumped into the problem where I don’t actually know what the reading is for each class. Theoretically I have an aderall prescription that - shit, actually, is it still being filled? I should maybe figure out if I’m costing the pharmacy a lot of wasted effort. Uh. Anyway. Theoretically I have an aderall prescription but as you can see I don’t use it, because Anxiety Hell and also mood issues. The tree app helps but half the time I don’t use it, because the prospect of having to listen to someone lecturing for an hour with no distractions is hellish. Doing something with my hands during helps but doesn’t mitigate the problem. Sewing is worse for this than crochet, so I should start another crochet project. Otherwise, ???. I’ll try to focus on doing the reading and notes from lecture slides, but I’m not sure how to patch this.

I didn’t do any of the hobbyish thing I mentioned last week, but ballroom classes started up again and I’m going backpacking this weekend, so I’ll give myself this one. Same goal as last time, no double counting the weekend. Social things: failed to go to a thing with M because lines, ballroom happened, studied with my brother and made plans to do that again, got lunch with F, got to pet some dogs. Otherwise basically nothing. Can’t do Friday evening things because backpacking. Also, my regular dance in DC is shutting down and I don’t know where I can go now. Almost nowhere else is really metro accessible. As for future plans, I could go to the trail club’s intro trip and hopefully do more things with them, but I also could use that weekend to vist @ghostofasecretary and I know which one I’d enjoy more. On the other hand “”making friends””. I’m so incredibly bad at interacting with people not preselected to be exactly the kind of people that make sense to me. For next week: either go to a new club thing or make plans to spend time with a local friend.

[waitineedaname]

An Evolution of Friendship

Or: Karkat isn't quite sure why he cares so much about these assholes, but they sure are part of his life now.

also on ao3!

Sixth Grade

“You’re in my seat!”

The kid sitting in your - your!!!! - seat at the lunch table frowned up at you, blinking mismatched eyes, and spoke with a thick lisp. “There aren’t assigned seats, stupid. It’s not your seat.” You clenched your fists and continued to yell.

“I sit there every day!”

“So? I don’t see your name on it!” The kid challenged. “Go sit somewhere else, you’re annoying.”

That’s it. Dad was gonna be so mad if you got in trouble, but he shouldn’t have been the one to teach you the swear words anyway.

“Asshole!” You shouted as loud as your eleven year old lungs would let you.

“Shithead!” The kid spat back, bristling.

“Bitch!”

“Dick!”

You drew in a deep breath, and then yelled so loud it practically echoed. “Fucker!”

There was a brief hush that fell over the cafeteria, and the kid with the mismatched eyes gaped up at you.

“Karkat!” Your teacher had suddenly appeared, furious. “Silent lunch!”

“But-”

“No excuses! You should be grateful I’m not calling your father and telling him what you just said.”

“Hah!” The kid who practically started this by sitting in your seat looked smug.

“Oh no, you too, Sollux.” Your teacher said, and the smug look disappeared.

“What?”

“You were clearly antagonizing him. Both of you, silent lunch. Come on.”

You and the annoying kid - Sollux - were both ushered to the end of the table where the teachers could keep an eye on you. You sat opposite each other, both of you scowling deeply. You stuck your tongue out and got a tongue back.

You spent the rest of the week in silent lunch, making faces at each other from across the table. At first it was to piss each other off, making more and more obnoxious faces while still trying to be quiet, but it didn’t take long for that to dissolve into trying to make the funniest face and get the other to laugh first.

The next week, you were allowed to sit in your regular spots, and Sollux sat down next to you. You were inseparable ever since.

Ninth Grade

You could never understand why teachers fucked with the seating arrangement at least once a year. Just when you’re getting used to the people around you, you have to move? Fucking ridiculous.

Not that you had needed to get used to your table partner. As soon as your earth science teacher had said you could sit wherever but he’d change it after the first quarter, you and Sollux had plopped your shit down together, but still. It was the principle of the matter.

Now Sollux had been moved across the room to be table partners with Terezi, which you were sure you’d hear plenty of complaining about from both of them. Honestly, they would probably end up being the most productive pair in the room. You, on the other hand…

You had been paired with Gamzee Makara.

You didn’t really know Gamzee that well. He’d apparently moved to town over the summer, and he seemed to mostly keep to himself. He sat at the back of the room on the first day and always walked in reeking of weed. That was the extent of your knowledge and all you needed to know to conclude you’d be carrying the brunt of all the group work for the rest of the semester.

You dropped your shit on the table, and Gamzee looked up at you from where he had his cheek propped on his arms. A sleepy smile spread across his face. You answered it with a scowl.

“You better not expect me to pull your ass into a passing grade just because we’re grouped together.” You said right off the bat. Gamzee raised an eyebrow slowly.

“Wasn’t expecting nothin’, motherfucker. I’ll handle my own grade, don’t you be worrying about it.” He spoke with a gently dipping drawl, voice far deeper than a freshman had any right to be.

You were about to snarl something else at him, but the teacher started talking and you didn’t want to get called out for being the loudest person in the room again. After a brief PowerPoint lecture, the teacher passed out a worksheet to each pair with instructions to work together.

To your surprise, Gamzee sat up and pulled the worksheet closer to himself to read it. You had kind of expected him to sleep through the assignments and make you do all of it, but here he was clicking a pen and already scribbling an answer to the first question.

“Hey,” He drew your attention to the second question, “D’you remember the difference between marshes, swamps, and bogs? I always get my shit mixed up with them, ain’t had a chance to study yet.”

“Uh.” You blinked at him, then shook yourself out of your surprise. “Fuck, I don’t think I know either. Hold on-” You started rifling through your notebook, and Gamzee pulled out the textbook.

Well. There might be more to Gamzee Makara than you thought.

—

Tenth Grade

“I’m just saying, it’s a load of shit! They act like their class is the most important thing in the world, when news flash! It’s not! We’re all taking other classes, asshole, and extracurriculars too! But sure, I’ll dedicate two hours a night to all your useless homework! It doesn’t matter that none of this shit helps me understand the chapter any better and I’m having to do it in my scrap of free time between all the other dozen extracurriculars I’m forced to do!”

The three of you were sitting in Sollux’s car after you had finished gorging themselves on fast food, and you were yelling your chosen tirade of the hour as Sollux and Gamzee listened patiently. Or, they would be if “patiently” meant “debating the merits of strangling your best friend” and “two seconds from falling asleep draped across the backseat”, respectively.

“Who the fuck is forcing you? You’re in eight different clubs because you’re an overachieving dumbass and have no self control, KK.” Sollux countered with the exasperated tone of someone who’d heard this same rant a dozen times now.

“College is forcing me! And their unrealistic expectations! Oh, take all the hardest classes and be in all the clubs, and oh! You have to have a leadership position in all of them too! And a job! And then maybe we’ll consider you!”

“Man, you gotta chill out sometime.” Gamzee said with a laugh, shaking his head. “You ain’t gotta worry about gettin’ in anywhere, you’ll get into anyplace you apply at.”

“As much as I hate agreeing with the reigning idiot, Gamzee’s got a point. You stress yourself out way too much, and that’s coming from me.” Sollux grimaced. “I can’t believe I just agreed with Gamzee.”

Gamzee laughed in a loud way reminiscent of a self-satisfied goose. “You know I’m motherfucking right, brother! Wait.” He paused and seemed to be in thought. “Sister? Sibling?”

Sollux’s lips quirked. They’d come out as bigender to the two of you not too long ago, and it hadn’t taken too much trouble to adjust to their pronouns. Things like this still popped up every now then, though.

“I mean, both brother and sister work. I like sibling, though.” Sollux said, clearly trying not their hardest not to be visibly relieved that Gamzee was willing to adjust the way he referred to them.

“Hell yeah, my best motherfuckin’ sibling.” Gamzee grinned, broad and easy, and reached up to ruffle Sollux’s hair, laughing when they squawked and swatted him away.

You watched the two of them for a moment, hesitating. Something had been worrying at the edge of your mind for a while now, and Sollux coming out might be enough to give you the courage to talk about it. “Hey, Sollux?” You said.

“Yeah?” Sollux said, squirming out of Gamzee’s reach. “What’s up?”

“Do you like guys or girls?” You winced as soon as the words left your mouth. There was definitely a more tactful way to say that, but thankfully, Sollux didn’t mention it.

“Uh, both I guess. I’m pretty sure I’m bisexual.” They said with a shrug. You nodded thoughtfully.

“I think I might be pansexual.”

“That’s cool,” Sollux said at the same time Gamzee yelled “Fuck yeah, me too!”

“Wait, what? You too, Gamzee?”

“Yeah!” Gamzee said, grinning. “Motherfuckin’ girls are hot, boys are hot, non-binary folks are hot,” He added with a poke to Sollux’s shoulder, “Everybody’s motherfuckin’ hot!”

“Wow, thank you so much for the validation, Gamzee.” Sollux said, voice dripping with sarcasm as they rolled their eyes. “All my self esteem issues are cured because the head jester of the Kingdom of Stupid thinks I’m attractive.”

“You know I always got your back, sib.” Gamzee said, honking with laughter again. “Motherfuckin’ always.”

—

Eleventh Grade

“Gamzee, stop it! Leave him the hell alone!”

“MOTHERFUCKER BETTER WATCH HIS FUCKING TONGUE BEFORE I RIP IT FROM HIS MOUTH-”

It was taking all of you and Sollux’s combined strength to keep Gamzee from lunging at the little asshole in front of you. You didn’t know him, but he’d been making snide transphobic comments, pointing them in Sollux’s direction. Sollux had been ignoring it; they were used to getting shitty comments about literally everything else in their life, so they didn’t see a point in confronting some random asshole they didn’t know.

Gamzee, however.

Gamzee had completely flipped.

He had always been a little cagey about his life before he moved to your high school, but from what you’d gathered, he’d gotten into his fair share of fights - or at least more than you and Sollux had in your middle school career. It had been hard for you to imagine calm and friendly Gamzee fighting anyone.

It wasn’t hard to imagine now.

Gamzee thrashed against you, trying to get another hit in on the guy, and you yanked him backwards to the best of your ability. “Gamzee, you dumb asshole, chill the fuck out!”

He glanced down at you, fury written on every inch of his face, and softened for just a split second.

But apparently the transphobic asshole had never learned when to shut up.

“Yeah, listen to your boyfriend!” He jeered despite the already purpling bruise on his face. He said something else too, a slur that made your blood run cold, and if your grip loosened when Gamzee tugged against you again, well…

“MOTHERFUCKER, I’LL KILL YOU, TEACH YOU NEVER TO SAY THAT SHIT AGAIN, SNAP YOUR LITTLE NECK-” Gamzee had slammed him against the wall, using the significant height advantage he had over most of your peers to tower over this other kid. You and Sollux took a step back and watched in horror as the adults rushed in, pulling them away from each other. It took two adults much larger than either of you to restrain Gamzee and yank him down the hall to the principal’s office.

The assistant principal told you the crowd that had grown around your scene to go to class, and then turned to you and Sollux. “You two, come with me.”

You opened your mouth to complain, but Sollux grabbed your arm tightly and sent you a look that clearly read don’t you fucking dare.

The two of you followed the assistant principal to his office in sullen silence and sat down in the chairs pulled up to his desk. He sat down opposite you and frowned, looking both of you in the eyes for a moment. “You mind telling me what that was about?”

Again, you opened your mouth to start yelling, but Sollux got to it first. “Some twerp was saying offensive shit he shouldn’t have been saying, and Gamzee got defensive.” Sollux shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal, but you could see the tension in their shoulders.

“That piece of shit was calling us slurs!” You jumped in. “You can’t suspend Gamzee for defending his friends and you sure as hell can’t let shit like that be tolerated!”

“Mr. Vantas, you are in no place to be telling administration what we can and cannot do.” He responded coldly, and you snapped your mouth shut. He then sighed. “I will try to make sure Gamzee is not the only one punished. Okay?”

Both you and Sollux nodded stiffly, and you were escorted back out into the waiting room in the front of the office. He told you that he could write you a note back to your classes, but you made it very clear that you were going to wait for Gamzee. The two of you waited in apprehensive silence for what felt like an eternity until the principal’s door opened and Gamzee slinked out with the other kid. The slimy asshole disappeared out the door in a rush, but Gamzee walked over to you two with his hands in his pockets.

“What’d they say?” Sollux asked.

“If you got arrested, I’m killing you.” You added, and that made Gamzee huff out a quiet laugh.

“Nah, motherfuckers, just suspended.” He stared at his feet, scuffing one of his worn shoes in the flat carpet. “...Dunno how I’m gettin’ home, though. My foster dad’ll be fuckin’ pissed if I make him leave work to pick my dumb ass up.”

Sollux glanced at the clock and shrugged. “Fuck it. I don’t think I could give less of a shit about my English class right now. I’ll drive you home.” Gamzee looked up at them like they’d just promised to pay for his college tuition. “What? Don’t fucking look at me like that. KK, are you in?”

“Why the hell not, I’ll just go full fucking delinquent! This is what you’ve done to me, Gamzee. You’re making me a reprobate. Soon enough, I’m going to be selling cigarettes behind the middle school and stealing cheap alcohol, and it’ll be all your fault.”

You’d never skipped a day in your life, but you spent the rest of the afternoon on Sollux’s couch playing Splatoon. It almost felt like the events of that morning hadn’t happened, and when Gamzee hugged you both very tightly, you hugged back despite your complaints and Sollux’s teasing.

—

Twelfth Grade

“Terezi, I know you know which way the camera is! Will you turn the fuck around already?!”

Terezi cackled at your yelling, which you felt was a good summary of your friendship in five words, but she finally obliged and turned around. You grumbled and put your arm around her shoulders, your other one around Gamzee’s back where he leaned against you. Sollux was on the other side of Terezi and you had to reach over to smack the side of their head to get them to put away their phone.

“Say cheese!” Aradia said, smiling at the four of you from behind your phone as she took the picture. They could call you a mom friend all they wanted, but you wanted to document this. You were graduating, all four of you, and by some miracle, you were all going to the same college.

The miracle in question was actually the combination of you and Terezi’s sheer stubborn natures and determination to not break up the squad that had developed over the years - whether that be a new addition, like Gamzee, or someone who had been annoying you since second grade, like Terezi, or someone who didn’t even go to your school, like Aradia.

You still couldn’t believe it had happened, even though you’d been the one to orchestrate it. When you received your acceptance letter, you might have cried a little bit (okay, a lot, but really, was that so out of ordinary for your overly emotional ass?). Gamzee had been just as stunned - he’d gone through school with people telling him he’d be lucky to graduate, and his disciplinary record hadn’t made that easy, but you think encouraging him to explain himself in his short answer questions helped; an undying loyalty to his friends and defending them at his own expense had to mean something, right? Sollux and Terezi hadn’t been surprised by their acceptances in the slightest, the smug assholes, but you knew they were just as happy as you were.

Terezi dragged Aradia off to do god knows whatever mayhem the two of them got up to together, and Gamzee pulled you and Sollux over to sit down on one of the benches nearby.

“Man, I can’t believe y’all didn’t let me smoke before that.” Gamzee said with a laugh, taking off his graduation cap and undoing the bun he’d had to tie his curls into to get the cap to fit.

“The alternative was you sleeping through your name being called and making the rest of us wait for someone to wake up your useless stoner ass. I think you can fucking deal for a few hours.” You snapped back. “Besides, you have plenty of time to get blazed out of your mind before you come to the graduation party. Just don’t bring your bong or Kankri will throw a conniption fit.”

“Man, he does that already. Dude needs to motherfuckin’ chill out a minute. Hey, do you think he’d-”

“Nope. Don’t even try to get my brother high.”

Gamzee shrugged as if to say we’ll see and glanced down at Sollux who was oddly quiet between you two. He followed their gaze and chuckled softly. You looked too and snorted. Sollux was staring in Aradia’s direction, their face the perfect image of lovestruck fool.

“You’re such a fucking sap.” You said, nudging Sollux and earning yourself a glare.

“What?” They snapped. Behind them, Gamzee started humming something that sounded suspiciously like Sollux and Aradia, sitting in a tree…

“Oh, nothing, just that the biggest asshole I know somehow found a girlfriend that makes them the softest idiot in the world. You’re staring after her like a fucking puppy, who the fuck are you and what did you do with Sollux Captor?”

“Shut the fuck up, KK, I don’t have to deal with this shit from you.” They made a face at you and turned back towards Aradia’s direction. “Just because you and Terezi were dysfunctional, that doesn’t mean everyone else has to be.”

You were about to bluster about you and Terezi’s (failed and long-dead) relationship, but Gamzee poked your shoulder, leaning around behind Sollux to get to you.

“I bet she don’t get all of ‘em soft.” Gamzee said in an overly loud stage whisper.

“Oh my god!” Sollux yelled. “I’m going to strangle you two!”

“Aw, come on sib, y’know you be lovin’ us no matter what.” Gamzee said, squishing his cheek against Sollux’s and only laughing when Sollux put their hand flat in the middle of his face and pushed.

“I changed my mind, I’m switching colleges. If have to spend four more years with you assholes, I’ll end up killing either you two or myself.” Sollux said venomously, squirming half onto your lap to get away from Gamzee despite your protests.

“Aw, but then we’ll be at different schools!” Aradia suddenly appeared in front of you, Terezi at her side. “I’ll help you hide the bodies if it comes to that, though. Terezi, what are the laws on murdering your roommates?”

“Extremely illegal! You would rot in jail forever.” You’d never known someone to be able to perfectly personify a smug “>:)” like Terezi fucking Pyrope. “Of course, justice might have some… blind spots.”

“Was that a pun? Did you just fucking make a justice is blind pun?” You asked, affronted.

Terezi grinned in a way that showed off all of her teeth and you couldn’t help but be reminded of a shark about to tear its teeth into you. “The prosecution refrains from comment!”

“We’re not even on trial! How the fuck would you even be a prosecutor?!”

“‘Sides, ain’t it me and Karkat gettin’ killed here?” Gamzee added, having given up on his mission to squish Sollux. “Wouldn’t you be defending us ‘n all?”

“Gamzee, if a dead man ever found a way to get convicted, it would be you.” Terezi sniffed and looked down her nose at him - or at least she tried. Her face was actually pointed a couple feet to his left. She did her best.

“And if a lawyer ever managed to convict a dead man, it’d be you, Rezi.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment! Anyway, Karkat, your parents are looking for you.”

“Ugh, I’ve probably gotta go help them get ready for the party.” You groaned and extricated yourself from under Sollux. You got to your feet and brushed yourself off. “You’re all coming, right?”

“Duh.” Terezi answered for the rest of them, who all nodded their agreement. “Why wouldn’t we, Crabcakes?”

You grimaced at the nickname, and you knew she knew you were doing that, despite not being able to see you. “Just don’t trash my fucking house, okay? And don’t bring your fucking bong, Gamzee!” You shouted over your shoulder, walking over to where your family was talking to Sollux’s dad.

“No motherfucking promises!” He shouted back. You shot him the middle finger.

College should be interesting.

—

Freshman Year

It was 2:34 in the morning, and your dumbass roommate was still awake.

You’d ended up in doubles, and Gamzee had magnanimously decided to go with a randomly assigned roommate so you and Sollux could room together. It had turned out alright so far; Gamzee’s was living just down the hall with an awkward animal science major in a wheelchair that Gamzee looked at like he’d hung the moon, and you and Sollux had yet to kill each other because of being stuck together in close quarters.

The only problem was you were pretty sure you hadn’t seen Sollux sleep at all in the past week.

“Sol?” You said, your voice raspy with sleep. Sollux glanced over their shoulder at you, then turned back to their computer. “Why the fuck are you awake?”

“Go back to sleep, KK.” They said, not even looking at you. They just continued to type away at some program they were coding. You frowned and sat up.

“What the hell are you even doing?”

“My final project, and you’re fucking with my focus.”

You rubbed at your face, forcing some of the bleariness out of your eyes. “Don’t you have an 8am?”

“Yeah, and?”

“And it’s the asscrack of night, shithead! You should be asleep!”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

“That might be sooner than later if you keep this up!”

Sollux shrugged and didn’t respond. Alright, time to pull out the big guns. You mumbled something about going to the bathroom that you’re sure Sollux didn’t listen to whatsoever climbed out of bed. You shuffled down past the bathroom to Gamzee’s room and knocked.

There wasn’t a response. You knocked a little louder and heard a muffled “Gamzee, wake up” followed by a sleepy grunt and the creaks of someone climbing down a bunk-bed. The door opened to reveal a half-asleep Gamzee. Tavros looked like he’d already fallen back asleep.

“What’s up, bro?” Gamzee said through a yawn.

“Sollux isn’t sleeping.” That was all you needed to say for Gamzee to nod and step out into the hall with you. Sollux had done this a couple times in high school, usually around exam week, and you both knew they wouldn’t go to bed unless physically forced.

Sollux didn’t look up from their laptop when you came back to the room, but they did jolt to attention when Gamzee leaned over their shoulder to peer at the work.

“What’re you workin’ on?”

“I’m coding something for my final - why the fuck are you here?”

“This is an intervention.” You answered for Gamzee.

“For what? He’s the druggie.” Sollux said, jerking their thumb at Gamzee. Gamzee just hummed lightly and pulled Sollux’s chair back.

“You need to sleep before you end up in the hospital. This is due, what, two weeks from now? I think you can risk one night of sleep.”

“I told you, I’m fine, I just- stop it!” Sollux squawked as Gamzee scooped them up in his arms.

“Nah, the motherfucker’s right. You gotta get some sleep, best friend.” Gamzee plopped down on your bunk, still holding Sollux tight. You saved Sollux’s work on their laptop - you were abhorrent at coding, but you knew how to do at least that much - and dropped yourself on top of them both. Sollux was squirming and scrambling like a cat trying to escape a bathtub, but their scrawny ass couldn’t escape Gamzee’s tight grip and your weight on top of them.

“God, can you calm down for three fucking seconds?” You grumbled, still tired from having woken up in the middle of the night.

“That’s rich coming from Shitfit Vantas.” Sollux snapped, but they finally stopped wiggling around. “I’m gonna fail.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. I’m going to fail this class and they’re going to kick me out of my major.” It was clear they were getting sleepy despite their words.

“The alternative is death. There’s no fucking dying allowed in this dorm room, got it?”

“I’ll die in Gamzee’s room, then.”

“Good motherfucking luck.” Gamzee mumbled, already half asleep with his face in Sollux’s neck. Sollux groaned and seemed to finally give in.

“I hate you both. You know that, right? You’re the fucking worst.”

“Just shut up and go to sleep, asshole.” You mumbled, passing out on Sollux’s chest.

Sollux slept until 4pm. They missed their 8am, but they didn’t fail their class. You counted that as a win.

--

Sophomore Year

You and Sollux were sitting on either side of Gamzee, both of you holding his shaking hands. The therapist’s waiting room was empty except for the three of you.

The past couple weeks had been rough. At first you’d thought the stress of school on top of working a couple jobs to afford the apartment the three of you shared had been taking a toll on Gamzee, and it probably had been, but it became clear something else was at play.

He’d been acting erratically, his mood swinging from calm to angry much more than it ever had. He shirked his responsibilities, skipped all his classes, locked himself in his room, looked at you and Sollux like he didn’t recognize you. You’d seen him angry before, just a handful of times, and it was a frightening experience, but you’d never had it turned on you before this past week. He seemed like he was itching for a fight and didn’t know where he was.

Whatever episode it had been, it was over now, and Gamzee was miserable. It was Sollux who took the initiative, who insisted he go to a therapist. You both promised to go with him, and you had a feeling that’s what convinced him to go.

“Gamzee?” A kindly looking woman appeared at the end of the hallway. She smiled at the three of you. “You can come down now if you like.”

Gamzee took a shaky breath and you squeezed his hand. “Do you want us to come with you?” You asked, and he nodded. The three of you got up and followed the therapist to her office.

The therapist asked some questions that you expected; this was supposed to be an initial assessment to figure out where to start with Gamzee’s mental health. When scheduling the appointment, you’d mentioned the oddness of the past couple weeks, so that’s where she started. He told her what you’d assumed: he hadn’t been thinking clearly, there was some disconnect with reality, he couldn’t control his mood, how he’d felt like he could and should do anything. That all you could’ve gathered from the outside. But when she asked if he’d been hearing or seeing things that weren’t there, you were surprised, even more so when Gamzee hesitated and said “I-...Yeah. So motherfucking loud…” You had no idea, and it took all your willpower to not bombard Gamzee with questions. She kept talking to him, gentle and comforting the whole time, asking how he felt now (miserable, guilty, exhausted), if this had happened before (not this motherfucking much), if mental illness ran in the family (ain’t never fuckin’ known his dad to be anything but angry, and he ain’t been in the old man’s house since he was a little kid, anyway. Brother get real angry too sometimes, but not that bad, he’s nice enough, ain’t never hurt him).

When their appointment time was up, she pulled out a business card and scribbled something on the back. “I’m going to refer you to a psychiatrist friend of mine. That way you can get a second opinion and get on a prescription.” She said, handing him the card.

Gamzee looked at the card, then at her, confusion written on his face. “Prescription? I ain’t got a cold or nothin’.”

“If she agrees with my diagnosis, she’ll probably prescribe you anti-psychosis medication.” You heard Gamzee’s breath hitch beside you. “I believe you might have schizoaffective disorder.”

“Motherfucker, what?”

“It’s a common disorder where someone exhibits symptoms of schizophrenia and a mood disorder.” She seemed to sense Gamzee’s rising panic and was quick to try to reassure him. “I know it sounds scary, but it can be treated, I promise. Medication and therapy go a long way.” A light flashed on her wall notifying her that her next patient had arrived, and she stood, prompting the three of you to stand as well, Gamzee much more slowly than you and Sollux. “I’m afraid I have another appointment right now, but I’d be happy to schedule you in again next week, alright?”

Gamzee didn’t respond, still staring at the business card numbly, so Sollux jumped in. “We’ll call you.” They said, tugging Gamzee towards the door.

You passed the therapist’s next patient in the hall and found yourselves in an empty waiting room again. Gamzee was still silent between you two.

“Gamz?” You asked. “Are you okay?”

“No I motherfucking am not.” Gamzee sighed. Sollux peered over at the business card.

“That’s the psychiatrist I go to for my meds. She’s pretty nice.” They said, and both you and Gamzee stared at them in surprise.

“Since when the hell do you take meds?” You asked.

“Since this past summer.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it didn’t come up! Excuse me for not walking around declaring ‘guess what, I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar type II disorder!’” Sollux folded their arms defensively. They looked at Gamzee and sighed, their posture softening. “Look. I’m not gonna lie to you and say this shit doesn’t suck. Getting diagnosed with a mental illness? Realizing you’re not functioning the way you should be? Having to take medication to get your brain to cooperate and release the right chemicals? It all fucking sucks. But you’re not the only one going through this shit, okay? Medication helps. Going to therapy helps. And if you ever feel like your brain is plotting your own demise, chances are high that you can come to me and be like ‘hey Sollux, I hate having a brain right now’ and I’ll be like ‘oh shit, me too!’ and we can lay on the kitchen floor and have a depressive episode together while Karkat, I dunno, yells positive affirmations or something. Trauma thunderdome featuring our loud, encouraging roommate.”

“I wouldn’t yell at you if you were having a depressive episode!” You protested.

“Yes you fucking would. Yelling is just your default state of talking. Is Karkat’s mouth open? Then he’s yelling.” Sollux rolled their eyes. Gamzee laughed weakly and rubbed at his eyes.

“Fuck, y’all, I’m-” Gamzee took in a shaky breath and tugged both of you in with his long arms for a tight hug. “I’m so fuckin’ grateful for whatever motherfucking miracle it was that brought y’all in my life.”

“The miracle was Mr. Webb in ninth grade.” You mumbled, face half squished against Gamzee’s chest. Why were all of your friends so stupidly tall? It was uncalled for. You hugged him back.

“I definitely wouldn’t call Mr. Webb a miracle.” Sollux said, and their thin arms wrapped around you both. “He cared more about the basketball team’s scores than our grades.”

“He’s a motherfuckin’ miracle if he got me to meet my best friends in the whole motherfucking universe.” Gamzee’s voice sounded thick and you pulled back to get a look at him.

“Are you crying?”

Gamzee rubbed at his face and let out a watery laugh. “Guess I motherfucking am. I just can’t believe y’all give a shit about me.”

“Big dumb idiot.” You grumbled, grabbing a box of tissues from a nearby table. “You should know by now that we give more than a shit about you.”

“What’s more than a shit?” Sollux asked. “A full bowel movement?”

“That’s disgusting, but yes. We give a whole bowel movement about you, Gamzee. You’re the food being digested and going through the intestinal tract of friendship. Got it?”

Gamzee laughed and took the tissues from you, wiping at his face. “Yeah, motherfucker, I get it.”

“Come on,” Sollux jingled their keys at you, “Let’s move this cry session home. I’m tired of standing in this fucking waiting room.”

“What, you don’t like the decorations?” Gamzee teased, which was encouraging return to normalcy. “Look, they even got a cute lil clown painting, I didn’t even see this motherfucker earlier.”

“I especially hate that decoration.” Sollux said, making a face.

“If you even think of decorating our apartment with clowns, I’m evicting you. Do you hear me?” You added, backing Sollux up.

“What, not even my room?” Gamzee put his hands in his pockets and started to follow Sollux to the door. “No fuckin’ clown posters? Some juggling clubs maybe? Make a motherfuckin’ carnival out of the place.”

“If you want to turn your room into more of a circus than it is already, I can’t fucking stop you, but it better stop at the doorway, so help me god.”

“Hell yeah, motherfucker. Might pick up the unicycle too.”

“Every time I think I understand you, you just say shit like that and I have to reevaluate how fucking weird you are.” Sollux said, shaking their head. “Are we going or what?”

“Yeah, motherfucker, we’re going.” Gamzee said, and the three of you left the office.

--

Junior Year

“You’re overthinking this, KK.”

“I am not overthinking this! I am thinking precisely the right amount for the situation! It just so happens that the situation warrants a fuck ton of thinking!”

“Man, I told you, just suck the motherfucker’s dick.”

You glared darkly at Gamzee, who was currently stealing grapes from the fridge and giving you an amused look. Sollux spoke before you could verbally rip him to shreds.

“It’s an anniversary gift, GZ. It has to be something he doesn’t do all the time already.” They said, audibly bored despite the smirk they gave you when you turned your outraged look on them. “What? We all know you suck dick.”

“That’s not the fucking point!” You argued. Sollux rolled their eyes.

“Right, get angry that I implied you’re sexually active with your boyfriend. Great fucking logic, 10/10.”

“The point-” You continued, raising your voice even louder, “Is that this is our first anniversary! It demands a grand romantic gesture!”

“Just buy him flowers or something, you overly dramatic mollusk enthusiast. Dave’s fucking smitten with you, I’m pretty sure he won’t give a shit if it’s not peak romance.”

You started to argue, then paused and processed what they’d just said. “What the fuck does mollusk enthusiast even mean? What the hell?”

“You know, mollusks. Because you have a hermit crab?”

You stared at them for a long second. “...You dumb son of a bitch, do you mean crustaceans?”

“Eh, mollusks, crustaceans, whatever, you’re the enthusiast here.” Sollux waved you off. “The point is that you could probably write a love note on Dave’s toilet seat and he’d still have the doki dokis for you.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s satisfied with the bare minimum! He deserves more.” You huffed and buried your face in your arms on the table. There were a few moments of silence where apparently Sollux was making some kind of facial expression at Gamzee because you heard him say “motherfucker, don’t ask me to help him, I don’t know shit.” That made you shift to glare at Sollux across the table. “Yeah, Gamzee doesn’t know shit, but you do. You’ve celebrated anniversaries with Aradia and Feferi, what the fuck did you do?”

“I don’t know, it’s different for each of them.” Sollux sighed, resigning themself to give you actual advice. “I usually choose an event that they like that we wouldn’t normally go to. Feferi and I have only had one anniversary so far, but we went into the city and I bought her a nice dinner and we saw a concert. Aradia and I have a tradition of going to a graveyard she hasn’t been to yet so she can live out her goth date fantasies. For our joint anniversary, they took me to get beekeeping lessons. It was fun.”

You wrinkled your nose. “I don’t know about a graveyard or beekeeping, but… dinner might work.”

“I can send you some of the places I was considering for Feferi.” Sollux offered, and okay, maybe they weren’t the worst friend.

“Hey, the brother’s at likin’ dead shit, right?” Gamzee asked, sitting down next to you and offering his bowl of snacks.

“That’s the creepiest way of saying he likes paleontology, but yes, he does. Why?” You said, grabbing a handful of chips.

“You know that science museum Tavros’s working at? They’re hosting some collection, full of dinosaur bones and shit. Supposed to be pretty fuckin’ cool.”

“Why didn’t you lead with that, asshole, instead of suggesting I suck his dick a million times?!”

Gamzee shrugged, grinning easily at you. “That idea still ain’t off the fucking table.”

“Hopefully there won’t be any fucking on the table.” Sollux interjected. “We all eat here and I don’t trust you to not have warts on your ass.”

“That’s fucking rich coming from someone greasy enough to put KFC to shame! I don’t know why you ever get your oil changed at the Kia dealership, you could probably just wring out your pillowcase into the tank and you’d be good! Do you have an agreement with Burger King so they can get the formula to their greasy garbage from studying your pores? Are your girlfriends aware that they’re dating a Checkers wrapper?”

“Jesus, KK, take a breath, what the fuck. I don’t want to have to explain to the EMTs that you asphyxiated because you were defending your ass warts.” Sollux shook their head, more than used to your raging at this point. Gamzee patted your head absently, but you were pretty sure he’d already checked out of the conversation.

You huffed loudly, but for all your grumbling, there was still a tiny part of you that was deeply grateful for your friends. They were fucking weird and total assholes, but then again, weren’t you? You’d been friends through the embarrassment that was middle school, the stressful hell of high school, the chaos that was your entry into adulthood. Together for the good times, splurging on bad food and wrecking each other in Mario Kart, and for the bad times, pulling Gamzee away from fights and making sure Sollux ate during their depressive episodes. Sure, your friend group was larger than you’d admit, made up of a combination of the people you’d known since you were a kid, like Terezi, and the new people you’d met in college, like Kanaya, and that friend group was only growing as you got to know a vast web of friends through Dave, but Sollux and Gamzee still stood out. They were your best friends, and they meant the world to you.

Ugh. You grimaced the moment that embarrassingly fond thought crossed your mind. Lucky enough for you, Sollux had started trying to throw grapes in Gamzee’s mouth and their atrocious aim meant you got a grape in the eye at a high enough velocity to make you screech, and the moment had effectively passed.

Yep. These were your friends, and you were stuck with them. For better or for worse.

[latteunwoo]

living with university student!got7 au; hyung line

a/n: i wrote this at like 2am so please bare with me, but here’s a little au of what it would be like living with each member. please do note that although i know the boys very well by now, i don’t know EVERYTHING about them so these are just some assumptions that aren’t really meant to be taken seriously. also, i’ll do the maknae line as soon as i finish this one. 

got7 m.list

Mark Tuan

where do i even start with this headass 

mark is either a good roommate or a terrible one

there’s no in between

and you never know which one it is because almost every day it’s different 

one day he’ll be the best roommate ever 

sometimes it’s because he’s not even there 

but on your more lucky days, he’ll actually be good 

like if you’d ask him something he wouldn’t give you some sassy comeback or anything 

actually he might because he’s a little bitch like that 

but really 

he’ll answer and do whatever it is you needed him to do without any complaints 

maybe that’s because he didn’t want to get kicked out

but mark has always quietly cared for his friends 

like if you look closely at videos from the shows got7′s been on you can see mark quietly taking care of his members 

if we were to rank the members from cleanest roommate to messiest, mark would be somewhere closer to the clean scale but still a bit messy 

like sometimes he would make a mess and not clean it up right away because he’s lowkey too lazy 

OR OR OR 

he might be playing a game while eating and he’d accidentally drop some food onto the floor but wouldn’t clean it up until after he’s done playing 

speaking of games

mark would be that roommate who literally plays PC games like league of legends, overwatch, fortnite, etc 90% of the time when they’re at home 

once he became more comfortable with his roommates, he would also be more comfortable with vocally expressing his frustration at the game 

this is when terrible roommate mark would appear 

sometimes he would play late at night and it’d either wake you up or disrupt whatever you were doing 

he’d probably rage-quit too and slam his door on accident as he went to the kitchen to calm down with a snack or something

to rage-quit is basically to “ angrily abandon an activity or pursuit that has become frustrating, especially the playing of a video game.” 

mark would lowkey be that roommate who if you were home but on your way to school, he would text/call you and ask you to bring something to school for him 

“i left my ______ at home, can you bring it?”

he lowkey would ask for something while you’re in your classes too

you’d be in the middle of a lecture and you hear your phone beep

you look and it’s a text from mark asking if you have an extra charger or something else lowkey stupid 

if you two had the same class, he would also ask you for notes because he obviously didn’t take any in class 

overall, mark would be an okay roommate

he’d be hella quiet and reserved at first 

but as time passed by he would be more loud and active 

just like how he is now 

Im Jaebum

bitch 

if anything, he’s better than the other members but he’s still an annoying roommate sometimes

he’d probably be the roommate who accidentally eats your leftovers you left in the fridge 

“oh that was yours? sorry i was hungry” 

then he’d give that stupid meme smile he always makes 

speaking of which

memebum 24/7

sometimes you can’t take him serious because he’s such a meme 

he’d use this to his advantage tho 

if you were upset about something like him eating your leftovers he would start acting like a complete meme and this would cause you to give up arguing with him because you can’t even 

despite lowkey stealing your food

jaebum is actually a good roommate 

he rarely ever causes any serious problems and pretty much cleans up after himself 

he also cleans up after his cats if they ever made a mess 

speaking of his cats 

whether you liked it or not, he would keep his cats there 

if you were allergic like youngjae he would keep them in his room

but if you weren’t then he would let them roam around the house 

this would lowkey annoy you sometimes 

especially if the cats messed with some of your stuff

jaebum is a sleepy grandpa so 

obviously he would sleep anywhere and everywhere 

sometimes this annoyed you because if you needed to clean and he was somehow in the way, you wouldn’t be able to clean that area until he leaves 

which probably isn’t for a long time 

unlike some of the other members *cough cough* jaebum wouldn’t really bother you about anything unless he really needed your help 

however, if you were doing homework he wouldn’t ask you about what he needed until he saw you weren’t busy anymore 

Jackson Wang

bYE

jackson, along with the whole maknae line would be the worst roommates

but in a good annoying way 

LOUD AF 

also very nosy 

he’d be all up in your business most of the time 

“what are you doing?”

“do you want to get something to eat?” 

“did you hear _____?”

“who was that i saw you with earlier?”

“can i borrow ________?” 

“hey! hey! hey! look what i go today”

etc etc etc etc etc 

he’s like this because he’s pretty clingy to his members too 

also he’s such a headass 

he’s lowkey the best roommate tho

if you need something, he wouldn’t hesitate to comply 

even if he’s tired he would still do it for you because that’s what friends are for hehehehehh

VERY CARING

if he noticed you haven’t left your room since you got home from classes, he would bring check up on you to see what you’re doing 

and if you’re still alive 

then he would bring you food because he knows you haven’t eaten yet 

always reminds you to eat your meals 

lowkey brings you organic foods tho 

“it’s good for you” he’ll say as he continues to pester you about how you should start eating more organic foods like him

speaking of 

almost 90% of the food you guys have is organic 

if you like organic foods too, then he’s literally the most perfect roommate at this point

if you don’t necessarily like organic foods like me then he can lowkey be a pretty annoying roommate when it comes to this 

anyways back to the very caring part

he’ll always make sure you have everything you need for your classes that day 

“do you have all your homework done?” “do you need to print anything before you leave?” “do you have all your chargers?” etc. 

Park Jinyoung

university student!jinyoung is the concept i live for 

jinyoung is like mark 

he’s either the best roommate or the worst 

for example, if he found a mess anywhere in the house he would become a petty little bitch 

“i thought we agreed that there won’t be a single mess in this household”

“you made the mess so you clean it up” 

“if i see a mess again, i won’t hesitate to kick you out”

etc.

sometimes he would just clean it up himself if he knew you were really busy 

despite being sassy almost all the time, he’s actually a really sweet roommate 

even if he says he doesn’t want to or you don’t ask him to, he’ll still cook some extra food for you while he’s cooking his own dinner because he knows you’ll probably be too tired or forget to eat dinner 

“here, i cooked this for you so you don’t have to get up” “you haven’t ate dinner yet, so here” etc

however sometimes he’ll be that sneaky little bitch he is and cook for you because he needs or wants something

“i cooked for you this time, so next time you have to cook for me” “you have to do the dishes later” “can i use your printer? i ran out of ink on mine” etc.

petty park jinyoung wouldn’t hesitate to say “no” when you ask him for help with homework

or if you two had the same class and you decided to ditch because you wanted more time to sleep he wouldn’t let you copy his notes down or tell you what happened in class 

“if you were there, you would know” 

of course jinyoung being jinyoung would help you if he saw you really were struggling 

like if he saw you working on a math problem or reading the same sentence over and over again because you couldn’t comprehend what it even means, he would help you out 

jinyoung isn’t the best roommate but he’s sure as hell better than most of the other members 

aLSO despite being a sassy bitch, if he noticed you needed some quiet time to yourself, he would go to the coffee shop near your guys’ apartment to study there instead 

he would do that anyways but if you really just needed the apartment to be dead silent he would just go somewhere else for the time being 

[itsbuckysworld]

Studious - Part II - College!Sebastian Stan AU

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x Reader.

this is kinda... wow ok its v long. yikesss.

Guest Appearance: Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo as the teacher.

Warning: Drinking (responsibly)

Summary: Y/N and Sebastian have a lengthy class together. Y/N is the studious type, Sebastian isn’t. The two form a bond over class notes and projects, and their opposing personalities might fit in together just right.

A/N: AAHH! Here it is! Part two to Studious! You guys really enjoyed it and wanted a part two and I, of course, wanted to write one as well. Hopefully this is good and you guys enjoy it as much as the first one and I’m happy to announce that I planned ahead and might even have a third part planned to end this little impromptu mini series.

Studious tags : @ilovethings-somuch @void-imaginations @redefining-happinesss 

PART 1

Y/N your name | Y/L/N your last name. 

Much to Y/N’s relief, and quite frankly Sebastian’s as well, she was feeling better and ready to go back to her normal vividly studious self in no time, less than a week even. 

Sebastian hadn’t been able to stop by anymore after the day he dropped the Sociology notes over, and the day after that as he promised, so when she walked in through the door the following class, she could hear his surprised clap and sigh of relief as Y/N walked up to their long shared desk. “Yes!” He slams a hand on the table top, looking up to the ceiling dramatically “Hallelujah” his relieved expression caused her to laugh out loud. “Well, I’ve been missed” she joked taking a seat next to the blue eyed man. “My wrist has never been happier to see you” he gives the shy girl a sly smirk. He’d smirked her way a couple times before, and neither one of them she know exactly how to take it, all of them making her a little tingly inside, more than she would ever admit. Sebastian and her caught up on what she had missed, which given Sebastian’s awful note-taking skills was a lot more than she thought and he was blushing in embarrassment. She assured him it was alright, that she would ask Mr. Ruffalo for notes or to email her a resume and work something out, and as the man in question walked into the room, y/n set down her notebook and pen, surprised to see Sebastian do the same. “What?” he asked confused. “I’m back, you don’t have to take notes” he only shrugged. “I’m kinda starting to like it, plus it’s unfair if I just feed off of your notes forever.” The last two classes without her helped him realize just how hard she worked for her notes and all he did was sit and listen and read whatever she allowed him to read. He would pass this subject quite literally on her shoulders, and that was unfair. So he thought it was time to put in, at least, some work. “That’s okay. I kinda like sharing notes” y/n announced, not leaving him a chance to reply as the teacher started with the day’s introductions. Once more Sebastian only blushed.

The semester seems to fly by in a blink of an eye, and along with it, the friendship between Sebastian and Y/N bloomed. From only talking before class to chatting after it too, and walking down the halls together until one of them reached their following classroom alongside y/n’s friend Elizabeth, had become sort of routine. Sometimes they would be joined by Chris, who they all found out Y/N knew from an elective earlier that school year, and slowly but surely, Y/N and Sebastian were more than just mere classmates.

With the end of the semester came the always hectic finals, and Sebastian knew before she even said it that Y/N had planned ahead weeks and weeks of non-stop studying. He knew her well enough by now to know that most if not all her activities included classes, revising and studying, with the occasional trip to the movie theater or binge watching Netflix documentaries – which in Seb’s mind classified somewhat as studying more often than not – at most.

Ruffalo had been clear, and instead of an exam he was assigning them a project in duos. Y/N chirped up and look into Sebastian’s bright blue eyes with a smile, and, by all means he wasn’t as studious and smart as she was, but she didn’t seem to mind as she poked his shoulder and called him partner, and knowing just how bookish she was, he knew he had to give his 100%, and he wanted to. For her. For the little defenseless ladybug that he had gleefully befriended over the course of the weeks.

He only wanted one little thing before that.

“Come on! It’s going to be fun!” he said, gathering his belongings after Professor Ruffalo wrapped up another lecture. Y/N seemed reluctant. Well that would be an understatement, she had already said no a couple times but Stan wasn’t having it. “Seb” “Y/N” he whined, practically begging as he fell into step with her. Elizabeth was nowhere to be found when they walked down the student-littered hallway. His hand reached up to push back stray strands of hair and he scratched his subtle stubble, and when he pulled them back down he took a hold of her heavy books, carrying them for her. She gave him a soft smile but continued to deny his invite. He had asked Y/N to join him the following Saturday and go to a bar close by where one of his friends would perform with his band. He wanted Y/N to let loose a little, have a little fun. He also wanted to see her in another environment that did not include classes and homework and complete and utter stress. He worried she would get sick again with how much she was overworking herself over exams she probably could ace in her sleep.

Before they knew it they had reached her next classroom, but Sebastian wouldn’t let go of her hand, grasping it in a tight hold with his free one. Her notebooks were heavy on his arm as he anticipated her answer after begging once more. “Fine!” she groaned, what else could she do? Saying no to Sebastian when he was this insistent only meant he would try again and again and again, and so – despite not thinking it was a good idea – she agreed to go. She figured she could come up with something between today and saturday, an excuse not to tag along, but not even her smarts could compete with his charm and – gently put – incessant spirit.

Saturday rolled around and, as he promised, he was by her dorm room at 6:45 pm. The small show wasn’t until around 8, probably even 9, but he hadn’t told her that in hopes that maybe he could take her out to eat before, or they could chat quietly before the whole ordeal started. Well, that was plan B, because plan A certainly included him having to fight her to make her go out in the first place. He knew her patterns already, and if she had any say in it, he was sure she would evade going.

Sebastian quietly thinks to himself that he should play the lottery numbers and make himself a rich man with this luck, because he was 100% right, his suspicions confirmed when Y/N opened her door in comfy wear and not at all looking like someone who had plans to go out.

Sure she looked cute and put together. Pink shorts and hair brushed back to perfection, like he always knew her – except for when she was coughing up a lung last week, voice raspy and tired from her cold – but he gave her a knowing grin when he saw her, as if saying ‘you’re not getting away with this that easily’ “Seb!” she acted surprised, but he was having none of it. “You ready?” Y/N racked her brain for something to say, whatever excuse she had failed to come up with in the past two days. Deep down a part of her wanted to go, join him for a night out, but the bigger, stronger part of her worried about her chemistry exam a little too much. 

Sebastian walked inside her room and she still mumbled, trying to find the perfect excuse, but in the end all she could do was sigh. She couldn’t lie to his piercing blue eyes, and she didn’t have it in her to lie that well that Sebastian would back down. “I need to study for my chemistry exam, Seb. I can’t” All he did was nod, nonchalant, as if he expected no less. He looked at her desk and saw the scattered cue cards. He pointed to them with an arched eyebrow and she gave him a small smile. “So, there’s nothing I can do to pull you out of this room then, doll?” The nickname rolled of his tongue easily, too easily, and even he was surprised at his words. Y/N swallowed but tried to keep her composure. Nothing he could do to make her leave the room and stop studying. “I’ll make you a deal” he started with a smirk “I’ll help you revise these for the next–” he flipped his wrist his way to look at his watch. Very early still, he had time. – “for about an hour and a half, and then you’re coming with me to this show. No questions asked” “But–” “You said you’d come!” he whined with a chuckle “And, god, you need to take a break! Now, sit down. I’m going to read these and you’re going to get them all right and then we’re going for drinks” and that was his last word. “Fine. But I have to be back by 10” and he agreed, knowing very well that was not going to happen.

Sebastian read the cue cards to her a total of 3 times. He went through the whole pack with her answering expertly, and when he was done and having no more of it, he walked outside and waited in the hallway until she changed.

When she came out, cute blouse loose and swaying with the motions of her arms, comfy jeans and converse, Sebastian thought he was hallucinating. For starters he didn’t think it would actually work, that she would waltz out of her room all changed and ready for a night out, but then he noticed that she was slipping her keys and cue cards in her purse. He wanted to say something, but opted not to. If this was the only way to get her to join him then so be it. Besides, she’s not going to get much study time in a dive bar, that’s for sure. He gives her a side smirk, the kind that lets her know he noticed and he’s slightly mocking her as he calls a cab.

“Name three noble gases” he says in the confines of the back of a cab. “Helium, Neon, Krypton” “You said Krypton last time, give me another one” “Xenon” “Good, now please, put those cards down and let’s have fun.” He pays for the short car ride and stumbles outside of the taxi with her in tow, folding the lone cue card in his hand and slipping it in the pocket of his jeans, letting her know that was the last he wanted to hear of chemistry for the night. Y/N rolled her eyes at his childish behavior but continued to walk behind him.

The place was nice. For what she expected of dive bars according to movies and novels, she was waiting for a more rowdy and darker place where she would feel afraid before she could feel out of place, but this wasn’t half bad. 

Brick walls, neon signs and rustic decor scattered all around, giving the place a much warmer feel, with a set of metal round stairs that led to an up area Y/N couldn’t see proper, but Sebastian would later on tell her the bathrooms were in that direction. It was brightly lit and filled with students and a couple of older looking people, many faces she had seen littered around campus, and others were total strangers, but the aura of the place was more welcoming than she would have ever thought. Sebastian lead the way as they went deeper inside the joint, over to the far end of the bar, closest to the small stage. For a second Y/N wondered if she even knew how to let loose and have fun, because all her brain could think about was atoms, molecules and chemical solutions, but it all easily moved to the back of her head whenever Sebastian snapped her out of her trance to make her pay attention to her surroundings. “Relax” he kept saying, as if she needed to be constantly reminded and he could sense her tense up every now and again. She babysat the same drink all night, just a light beer, and kept looking around at all the people, how some danced without a care in the world, how others worried more about finishing their drinks and flirting, and then there was Seb, who only cared about making sure she wasn’t feeling out of place, and that she was having at least a decent time.

When his friends went up on the stage – smoothly introduced as The Wings – they started with a cover of a song Y/N knew the lyrics to, the female singer helping her let go and focus on something other than her discomfort, and Sebastian couldn’t help but smile. This was a more calm Y/N, and he was glad to meet her. He felt as if after all this time he didn’t know Y/N fully, he only knew the driven focused one, not the one that threw her head back laughing or screamed over music to keep a conversation, the one that truly felt warm and alive. She could have been weirded out at first but after the first couple of songs he knew he had accomplished his mission, successfully getting her to take a much needed and deserved break.

He gladly introduced her to the band as they finished their set. His friend – Anthony, he’d said – played drums and the singer – who’s name was Scarlett – gave Sebastian a tight hug upon seeing him. She ruffled his hair and proceeded to kiss Y/N’s cheek as a friendly greeting. Y/N congratulated them on a great set, and couldn’t help but be a little starstruck by the gorgeous redhead in front of her. She had never met someone in a band, much less a band that sounded so cool and seemed to have somewhat of a following – if the screams from the bar-goers weren’t indication enough, the fact that most knew the lyrics to some of the band’s own original songs was enough to prove the point – so to say she was pleasantly surprised to see them and actually meet them, was an understatement. “You guys sounded so good” she smiled, all her nice teeth on display, causing Seb to smile just as widely behind her. “Thank you! We’re going to a party in about an hour, you guys up for it?” Anthony said, flipping one of his drumsticks in between two fingers. “Yeah, it’ll be fun, and we’re playing some more there too” Scarlett raised her eyebrows up and down repeatedly, taking a sip of her drink, trying to encourage them to tag along. Sebastian ran a hand through his hair, the other placed itself securely on Y/N’s lower back. She didn’t flinch of pull away, visibly more relaxed than an hour ago, her beer long gone. “I think that’s a little too much excitement for tonight for us” he excused the pair swiftly, but promised to make an appearance at their next gig, and he was greatly surprised when Y/N said she would love to tag along for the next one as well. And with that promise on the table they continued to talk and dance and joke around as the band killed time with Seb and their new friend Y/N.

“And Mackie was so drunk!” Sebastian’s laugh was loud and bright as he walked side by side with Y/N, whose snicker mimicked his boisterous one, up the sidewalk on their way back to campus, hands deep inside his jacket pockets, and her fingers played with the tassels on her purse, taking wide steps trying to keep up with his long legs. The distance from the bar back to the dorms wasn’t much and he didn’t want her to sit in a cab only to turn on the lights in the car and read though her notes again as she did on the way over. He wasn’t giving her space to think about class or exams, that was his goal.

They danced around lamp posts and hopped over cracks on the cement path, laughing and telling tales, mostly Sebastian given that Y/N had never been one to go out much, leaving her with little to no stories of drunk friends and loud adventures. “Admit it” he started after they fell into silence, the wind moving his long-ish hair around and nipping at their rosy smiley cheeks. Y/N looked up to the man, catching his blue eyes staring down at her intensely. “You had fun”

She jokingly pushed him away, not being able to hold in a laugh, but the truth was that she couldn’t even lie to herself, it felt like she didn’t know how to have fun until tonight, and she had lots of it. “I did” she shrugged lightly, but Sebastian felt accomplished. “See? And you’re still incredibly prepared for your exams. Nothing wrong with taking small breaks Y/N” “You’re right. I just… I’ve never really cared for anything else other than studying” her voice was small, almost a whisper as she smiled up at him. The brunette gave her a mocking look, as if saying he didn’t believe it, but the truth was, deep down he did. He wasn’t wrong when he sensed her as a cute defenseless puppy, she was just a very shy and locked up one, and from the looks of it, had been for a long time now, maybe even before high school even. “You’re just the studious type” he said nonchalant. “I am, aren’t I” she said a little shy but he assured her there was nothing to feel bad about “It’s fine.” he poked her shoulder “You just care for A’s and passing classes, and then maybe you can take a break, but as long as there’s something to do, you’re not stopping until it’s done, and that’s remarkable really” “Maybe… And what are you then? What’s your type?” Sebastian was taken aback by her question. He never saw himself as more of a normal student. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Just a guy who tries to pass. If I like a class I do good in it, duh, if I don’t then a C- will do” that was a sentence Y/N could not relate to. B’s were a nightmare in her eyes. Truly a mission failed, and she realized that yes, she really was the studious type, but Sebastian didn’t let her feel bad for it for a single second.

As they approached the campus grounds their laughters died down, trying to keep quiet so as to not disturb anyone that could be around, or the people in the first floors of the living buildings they passed. “Listen,–” Sebastian resumed as they walked down the middle of campus, cutting across the small park that marked the center of the college grounds, on his way to her dorm building. He was dropping her off at her door and he wasn’t taking a no for an answer. – “I know I should care more for my grades and all. I’m the kind of guy that should study more and you… You’re the kind of girl that needs to study a little less” his eyes shone, letting her know he was half joking, half serious, and for the first time since God knows when, Y/N thinks that he’s right, she could use a couple more breaks every once in a while. Sebastian pushed open the glass doors that led to the living area in her building. This was as far as he could make it without earning himself a warning from some Dorm Monitor because guys shouldn’t be around girls dorms at this time.

“I was thinking, what are you doing tomorrow?” Y/N started to panic. There was no way she could do this again tomorrow, or something similar. There would be no more breaks in her study schedule, this one was already enough. She just said she could study less but that didn’t mean she would start right now. It was a slow process, like rehab. Or was he going to ask her out some other way? No, she was not ready for that. Was she? “Oh god, Seb, no. I had fun, I did, but I can’t postpone studying anymore, I-” “No no. I was going to say we could go to the library? Get started on Ruffalo’s project?” he smiled at her, seeing her immediately ease up. “We already did tonight my way. Let’s do tomorrow your way, yeah?” the smile on his face was too warm and welcoming for her to bear. He was… 

He was just too amazing and Y/N had to admit that even when he insisted – quite a lot – on going out, she never actually felt pressured by him or forced, deep down she wanted to see what all the fuzz in not studying was about because she’s never known anything other than it, and something about him and how he was always gentle with her and caring – the man did drop by her room twice while she was sick, and they weren’t even friends-friends back then – let her know that if she was actually uncomfortable or it was something that she genuinely couldn’t or didn’t want to do, he would stop insisting. So it was safe to say she felt secure with him around, like he knew her boundaries and wanted to push them, but only at a pace she could manage. She was grateful for that.

“Sure. I’ll text you?” and with quick nods they set the plans in stone. “Great. Well, here you are. Right on curfew” Sebastian joked, trying his best to keep his laughter in a whispery level so that no unwanted attention would be drawn to them. “It is almost midnight, Sebastian, that is so not curfew” She had noticed the time ages ago, realizing after she found herself singing along to Shape Of You with the rest of the bar at what her phone marked as 10:30 pm that she was not going to make it back to campus on time, and looking over to Sebastian’s smiling face as he screamed the lyrics out of tune, she found herself surprisingly not caring a single bit. “Hey, every college student has to get in trouble for breaking curfew at least once, that’s like… tradition” his hands were thrown up in a defensive motion, as if saying it wasn’t his fault when it sure as hell was, but Y/N wasn’t about to point any fingers. She hadn’t minded.

As they said their goodbyes and she thanked him once more for the night out Sebastian took a hold of her hand, making her turn to his frame that still stood in the dimly light living area, jacket framing his body perfectly and the lamps just bright enough for her to make out the blue in his eyes as vibrant as ever. “Promise me you’re going straight to bed, no more revising. You’ve already done enough of that. It’s a miracle you don’t get sick more often, woman” he gave her another eye roll and she giggled. “Promise” her feet absentmindedly took her closer to him as she pressed a quick peck to his cheek. Sebastian prayed and prayed and prayed that the lights were low enough that she wouldn’t see him turning into an actual tomato. “Good” he choked out, regaining his composure with a quick shake of his head. His hands pushed his hair back, a nervous habit, and he cleared his throat “Now I need to sneak my way out of here and back to my room without getting caught. I have one too many broken curfew notes on my record” “Oh my god” Y/N laughed, properly out loud, before trying to contain herself. They were going to get caught if she kept this up “You’re reckless, Stan” she whispered stepping away from him. He took steps backwards towards the glass doors, still focused on her frame as a loving chuckle escaped his lungs. “You’re cute, Y/L/N”

Seb made it to his dorm like a ninja in the middle of the night, quickly changing out of his jeans, jacket and shirt with the aid of one lamp – he didn’t want to wake Chris up – and staying half dressed, only clad in his boxers and undershirt, deeming that enough to go to sleep, as he folded his clothes to put away. A small piece of paper fell from the folded jeans, slipping out of one of the pockets. Sebastian unfolded the edges and read over the words. He took in Y/N’s pristine handwriting ‘name at least 3 noble gases’.  Sebastian chuckled, placing it on top of his desk as he reminisced of the night he had gone through. He found himself smiling, wanting to see more of the relaxed Y/N, finding her equally as endearing as the studious one. “How was your date” Chris ’s rough, sleep-filled voice startled him. The sheets ruffled as he propped himself on his bed to face his best friend that seemed to be just getting in. With a quick glance he saw the time on the clock. Fifteen past midnight. “Jeez, Evans. It wasn’t a date” Sebastian rolled his eyes as he let his body flop on his comfy sheets, ready to rest for the night. “Uh-huh… Why are you smiling like that then” the teasing continued and all Seb could do was groan. After a short silence where he could tell Chris was still staring at the outline of his body across the room and wouldn’t let go of the topic anytime soon, he sighed contently. “I just am, Chris. I just am”

FEEDBACK IS GREATLY APPRECIATED! AHHHH WHAT DID YOU THINK?! I THINK I’M GIVING THIS A FINAL PART 3 LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT IT!  

I no longer write Real People Fiction, and this will not have a part 3, I apologize and hope you understand.

HERES MY ASK Have a good day lovelies

Smooches, L xo <3

[cha-ching-chengcheng]

Wish | Ding Zeren

You just wish he was yours

Note: This is hella long so get ready lol. This was also supposed to be the first in my tutor series???? but it has nothing to do with tutoring???

“Welcome class!” The middle-aged instructor announces with a big grin

Though this class is in a big lecture hall, there can’t be more than 30 people in the whole room

The turn out is more than underwhelming but I guess that’s what fuels the instructor to have such enthusiasm

“Happy first day!” She continues

Some lazy cheers and supportive whoots come from different parts of the room

The instructor studies the crowd before commanding, “Scoot closer, guys! It’s hard looking all over the room when there are only a few of you!” 

You happen to be sitting in the middle of the second row so you just kinda wait for people to join you

A guy sits next to you, but he looks, in a word, stressed

Well okay, maybe not stressed but like 

Concerned

He’s holding this cup of coffee like it’s a fucking life-jacket and you’re just looking at him like ‘are you okay?’

The instructor nods approvingly seeing the class now clustered into the middle section of the first and second rows

“Welcome to Korean 1”

She then starts the first lesson

An hour and a half later, your class is granted a 20 minute break, but in that time, you guys are expected to pair up

The first homework assignment is a group presentation

Great

As other people pair up and step out of the class to get fresh air, you stay seated

You don’t know anyone in this class 

You look around, hoping there’s someone who looks as confused as you

But it doesn’t take that much effort because the person you’re looking for is sitting right next to you

“Do you wanna be partners?” You ask him

He looks over at you and you’re just like

WOW

How are his lips so?? Appealing???

He smiles for the first time this morning and you’re like 

Oh shit

That’s one hell of a smile

“Yeah.” You try to smile back like a normal person but you’re pretty sure your face isn’t hiding the fact that you’re totally enamored with this dude 

He doesn’t seem to notice though, he just holds out his hand for a handshake

“I’m Zeren”

You shake his hand and introduce yourself too

How are his hands so warm????

“Wanna get some fresh air?” He asks

“Yeah” You’re trying so hard not to sound too enthusiastic

You two walk out of the lecture hall and head out to the courtyard

The sun’s shining just enough that it’s warm but a few clouds swimming around prevent it from being too hot

“It’s a nice day” You try to make casual conversation

“It is” He smiles and you have to stop yourself from falling over

Suddenly, you hear some guy yell “Ding Zeren!” Zeren whips around and you see this dude with dyed blonde hair naruto running towards you two

The blonde dude says something but you realize it’s in Chinese

Zeren replies unfazed

Wait a minute

A Chinese dude taking a Korean language class?

Sounds like a bad and a bit racist joke

The blonde dude notices you standing there with wide eyes and says something to Zeren wiggling his eyebrows

Zeren suddenly gets super flustered and says something to the blonde dude before turning to you

“Um y/n, this is Justin, my friend” then he turns to Justin and says “Justin this is y/n, my classmate”

Okay you don’t know a word of Chinese but something definitely happened in that last 30 seconds

Nevertheless, you smile politely at Justin and say “Nice to meet you”

By the end of the class you guys decide to exchange numbers with plans of meeting tomorrow at the campus coffee shop 

And now it’s tomorrow

You decide to go to the coffee shop early so you can order your drink beforehand and not have to waste any time when he gets there

As you walk in though, you see a familiar face: Justin

He’s standing behind the counter looking bored, once he sees you though, he perks up a bit

“Y/n! What are you doing here?”

“I’m meeting Zeren so we can work on a project”

“Nice” Justin nods in approval “Oh! Here he is!” You look toward the door and you swear you hear Justin mutter “Where’s my popcorn?”

Zeren walks up to you guys

“So what’d you like to order?” Justin says

You turn back to face him and say “Medium mocha”

“Mkay” Justin rings up the order and you reach into your backpack to get your wallet

Zeren steps forward though “How much?” 

“$4.75” Zeren reaches into his backpack and pulls out his wallet

“Oh no, you don’t have to-”

“Oh come on, it’s the least I can do” 

He takes out a $5 bill and hands it to Justin. Justin smirks, taking the money

“Aren’t you going to order anything?”

“Huh?” Zeren’s cheeks blush “O-oh, yeah.” He smiles nervously and it’s seriously the cutest thing in the world

“I’ll have a medium americano”

Justin rings up the order and you guys go to wait at the other end of the counter

And it is AWKWARD

Holy cannoli why is it so awkward right now?

As the song playing over the speakers changes, you both start tapping your foot to the beat

It’s honestly a much better song, with a good sound that you could dance to 

You start nodding your head to the rhythm 

You look over and notice he’s doing the same

He sees you looking and smiles shyly

“Do you dance?” You ask him

“Yeah. Do you?”

“A little. I don’t dance as much as I did in high school.” He nods.

“Order for My Number One Ship!” Justin shouts even though you guys are literally right there

You guys both just stare at him in shock

Did he just say???

What you think he said??? 

You guys look down at the drinks and you notice that half of a heart is drawn on each one. Justin pushes the two cups together and the two sides of the heart almost join

Zeren gives Justin this look that you can’t quite read 

But like

Props to Justin for being the best wingman ever

You take your cup and quickly turn around to go to a seat

You try to nonchalantly fan yourself, hoping the fresh air will cool down your cheeks

It doesn’t really work

You slide into a booth trying to take calming breaths

He joins you on the other side of the booth, staring at his coffee 

You open your backpack, taking out a notebook and pencil 

“Let’s um, let’s get started” 

Two months later, you guys are still talking

You’re actually really good friends now

It’s all pretty chill except for the fact that you still like him

So now it’s Tuesday, and you guys are studying in his dorm room

But for some reason, it’s awkward

The music lazily spilling out from the speaker is playing the same old songs

The notebooks spread out around you are still filled with the same old notes

And yet something is different

You guys are sitting at opposite ends of his bed, eyes focused on your own textbooks

But it feels like neither of you are actually studying

You risk a glance his way and find him looking at you already

Your heart thumps loudly in your chest

“What?” You ask, trying to keep your voice steady

He blinks a few times, returning his eyes to his textbook

“Nothing.” He stammers

“What is it?” You try again

“Do you…” He starts, avoiding your eyes

He looks back down at his textbook

“Do you know how to solve this?” He points at a math problem in the textbook

You scoot closer, leaning over to see it

You start to look at the numbers, but your mind wanders to how close you two are

Your shoulder and his are touching

Your knee is just barely brushing against his thigh

His right hand is resting next to your left one

You look up without thinking, and find that his face is mere inches from yours

His eyes meet yours and you forget how to breathe

You glance down at his lips but quickly retreat back to his eyes

His left hand reaches up, and he brushes your cheek with his thumb

“You have an eyelash” He mumbles

He keeps his hand up and shows the eyelash balancing on his thumb

“Make a wish” His voice is just above a whisper

You lightly blow the eyelash off his thumb, quickly glancing down only to look back up at him afterwards

The only wish that comes to mind is for this moment to last a bit longer

You silently plead with the universe to let you have that one wish…

His hand returns to your face, lightly stroking your cheek, tucking a stray hair behind your ear

Suddenly, you can’t hear the music

The only sound you can make out is the two of you breathing

Every cell in your body wants to be close to his

There’s a pulling feeling in your chest begging you to close the distance between you two

His hand slides down to your chin 

His thumb grazes your bottom lip and suddenly breathing is a difficult task again

He leans forward but hesitates, unsure

Your lips are so close

You lean forward just an inch and suddenly you’re kissing

Your hand meets his on your cheek, your fingers wrapping around his warm palm

The kiss ends slowly

You stay close enough that you can feel each other’s breath

“Hey” He says, leaning back a little. You look up at him, waiting for him to continue

“I think…” He looks up and down your face, infatuation pooling in his deep brown irises

“I think I’m in love with you” 

-Alison