#i talk to her every thirty minutes as she walks by meowing at the top of her lungs like

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Blogging this as I fall asleep but as a dedicated cat dad I do, in fact, brush Taiga's teeth every night before bed and

I snapped a picture of the process today

The primordial look of horror and protest - xD

[angelicyoongie]

desolate (3)

— summary: you just wanted a cute little normal cat to keep you company. so, you're not really sure how you ended up with the grumpiest hybrid on earth that seems hellbent on making your life difficult.

— pairing: cat hybrid yoongi x  reader

— genre: angst, fluff, eventual smut

— word count: 4.3k

— tag list: @mrcleanheichou @ladymidnightt @cheese123344 @xanny91 @dinorahrodriguez @best-space-boy @dulcaet @moccahobi @keijaycreates​ @staytrillswag​ @xsmilebitesx @serendipityoreuphoria @jiminot7

Part one Part two Part four Part five Part six Part seven Part eight Part nine Part ten (M) Part eleven Part twelve Part thirteen Part fourteen (M)

“We’re still on for tonight, right?” Jihyo’s head suddenly pops up over her computer screen, voice barely above a whisper as she sneaks a few looks around the office. The atmosphere is tenser than normal today, and it seems like your co-workers are almost afraid to breathe every time your boss storms through the open office.

You think you overheard someone talking about a few computers being hacked into from inside the company, but you’re not sure. Either way, you figure it’s a good idea to stay on the low and out of your boss' way as much as possible, unless you want to get chewed up and spit out for literally just existing.

You give Jihyo a thumbs up, eyes glued to your screen just in case someone is watching. The thought of having a girl’s night with Jihyo and Sana definitely brightens your mood enough to make it through until lunch. You already have a few movies picked out that you’ve been meaning to watch for ages, and you can’t wait to just relax and spend some time with your friend and her hybrid.

You and Jihyo both decide to eat lunch outside, braving the cold autumn winds to escape the stifling mood of the office. You find a little coffee shop that isn’t too far away, giving you decent time to eat and talk before you need to head back.

“So, how’s your little black menace doing?” Jihyo asks with a small laugh as she places a few pastries on her plate. You shrug, reacting out for a stuffed croissant. Your sore back definitely seems to point to your kitty warming up to you, considering you ended up sleeping on the couch all night with him curled up on top of your stomach. But then again, he scurried off underneath the couch with a low grumble as soon as you woke up, so you feel like it’s hard to say. You’ve never met a cat before that’s so hot and cold.

“I don’t know,” You admit, moving behind Jihyo in line to pay for your food.

“He seems to tolerate me one second and then hate me the next .. It’s hard to say,” You frown.

“Y/N ..” Jihyo pauses, her shoulders tensing before she continues, “Maybe you should consider giving him back to the shelter? Not to be mean, but you look horrible. You seem sadder than you were before you even got a cat, and news flash, you’re supposed to feel happier - not miserable,” Jihyo throws you a look over her shoulder as she moves to pay, concerned eyes briefly locking onto yours.

You feel the clump in your stomach grow, the anxious feeling you haven’t been able to shake off completely since you brought your cat home becoming bigger. Maybe you aren’t the right home for him. Maybe Jihyo is right ..

“I guess,” You mutter as Jihyo steps aside to let you pay. You can almost feel the soft fur against your fingers as you pick up your plate, uncertainty gnawing away at your thoughts as you both find a table to share.

“But I still need to try a little longer. I’m sure he’s had a rough time before he came to the shelter, stuff like that isn’t cured over night,” You reason, the tension in your body loosing up just a tad. You will take him back to the shelter if it doesn’t get better between you two, but you need to at least try first.

“A month then,” Jihyo proposes.

“If things haven’t improved between you in a month, then you take him back to the shelter. I hate seeing you so down,” She pouts, hand reaching out to squeeze yours before she starts eating her lunch.

You take a bite of your own pastry, mulling the idea over in your head as you eat. A month seems reasonable. It’ll give your cat time to settle down a little, and if he’s still so afraid that he hides from you after all those weeks, then it’s probably for the best to bring him back.

“Alright, deal. One month,” You give Jihyo a nod, your mind already racing to come up with plans of how to make your cat feel more at home.  

.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the workday is just as stiff as the first half.

“I never thought this day would end,” You groan as you and Jihyo step outside, your shoulders aching from how tense you’ve been all day.

“Tell me about it,” Jihyo huffs. Her face lights up as she spots the waiting car, probably eager to get inside and remove those god awful heels the company forces you to wear as part of your unofficial uniform.

“I’ll head off now. Text me what kind of snacks you want me to bring, okay?” Jihyo flashes you a bright smile and a wave before she’s off, climbing into the passenger seat of the car as fast as she can manage.

“I’ll be at your place at seven!” Jihyo yells out of the window as the car takes off, leaving you behind in whirlwind of dust and fallen leaves. You sigh as you turn, beginning your journey home. Your apartment is around a thirty-minute walk from work if you’re wearing good shoes, but with these heels it's probably closer to forty-five.

You would normally take the bus, but since you need to stop by a mart and get groceries, it’s honestly better to just sacrifice your feet and take a more direct route home. Thankfully the mart isn’t too busy when you get there, and you quickly find all the things you need for the dinner tonight, as well as some food to get you through the rest of the weekend.

You pause as you pass by the chicken section; hand reaching out for the chicken breasts your cat enjoyed so much before you even realize what you’re doing.

“He’ll probably be angry at me after tonight,” You reason, and food seems like the best bribery for a cat that doesn’t like to be pet.

Your arms are shaking by the time you’ve made it up the stairs to your apartment, shirt clinging uncomfortably to your back from the light sweat you’ve managed to work up.

You quickly unlock your door and step inside, bags falling to the ground with a heavy thump as you turn around. The first thing you see in the dark hallway is golden eyes staring straight at you, the black fur almost blending into the shadows. You let out a startled squeak, hand flying to your chest to calm your racing heart.

“I know I’m late kitty, I’m sorry,” You say after taking a deep breath, a small smile on your face as you try to convey just how bad you feel for delaying his dinner. You see him give a small flick of his tail, the only indicator that he’s actually listening to you as you reach down to bring your bags to the kitchen.

You don't hear him follow you, but you can feel those golden eyes tracking you as you move around the kitchen putting your groceries away. You throw a quick glance at the clock hanging over your stove as you shove the rest of the food inside the fridge.

“Shit!” You only have half an hour until your guests arrive, and you desperately need a quick shower before you do anything else. You rush towards your bathroom, just narrowly missing bumping into your cat that’s peaking at you around the corner. He hisses at the close proximity, and you let a string of sorry’s hang in the air behind you as you hurry inside, wrestling with the buttons on your shirt as you go.

You’re practically out of breath as you wrap a towel around your damp body, holding it in place as you scurry to your bedroom to find some clothes to wear. You don’t remember leaving your door open before you left for work, but you probably just didn’t close it properly. You pay it no mind as you quickly grab some fresh underwear and sweats from your closet, it’s not that big of a deal anyway.

You slip your underwear on under your towel, throwing the pants behind you on to the bed as your search for your favourite hoodie. You frown as you rummage through your clothes, hoodie nowhere in sight. You’re sure you washed it a few days ago, so it doesn’t make sense that it’s just gone. You huff, settling for throwing on a cosy sweater instead. Your hoodie search will have to be resumed later.

You can see a black ball of fur out of the corner of your eye as you tug on your pants, your cat having moved to scowl at you from the hallway, golden eyes narrowed as they watch you get dressed.

“I promise I’m making your food now kitty,” Your cat glares at you before he turns around and leaves, the motion a little weird and eerily inhuman. You could’ve sworn it almost rolled its eyes at you .. But you don’t have time to think about it, the encounter already being pushed into the back of your mind as you hurry to start making dinner.

You get the chicken ready first, setting some aside to cool as you add the rest to the dish you’re making. Jihyo sent you a recipe that apparently Sana loves, and since you figure you’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other from now on, you really want to make your friend’s hybrid like you.

“Kitty?” You call out as you place in the dish in the oven. You hear a soft disgruntled meow coming from the living room, and it’s not that hard to guess where he might be hiding. You only have a few minutes until your guests arrive, but it should be enough time for your cat to finish eating.

You bring the plate out into the living room, placing it down a little further away from the couch than you did last time. There’s a few seconds where nothing happens, the apartment quiet aside from the soft noise outside of your window.

You hear another annoyed meow before your cat emerges, and he practically gives you the cat equivalent of the stink eye as he crouches down to eat. He must’ve realized that you’re trying to coax him out from under the couch, and it seems like he isn’t too happy about it.

You busy yourself with straightening out the pillows on the couch as he eats, trying to make your small living room look a little less cramped and more put together.

“Kitty, you need to be on your best behaviour tonight,” You see a fluffy ear swivel your way as you speak.

“My friend Jihyo and her hybrid are coming over, so please don’t hiss at them, okay? Jihyo seems to dislike you enough already, and I’m sure she’ll force me to give you up if she thinks you’re dangerous,” You grimace as you fluff out the last pillow, missing how your cat’s head snaps up to look at you with wide eyes just as the door bell rings.

“Please behave kitty,” You murmur softly as you pick up the empty plate from the floor, your cat scurrying back under the couch as you drop the plate off in the kitchen. You really hope he won’t react too badly to Sana considering she’s a dog hybrid, but as long as she appears in her human form you’re sure your cat won’t mind it too much.

But of course you should’ve known that was too much to ask for.

As soon as you open the door, a fluffy white ball of fur flies through the opening, Jihyo stumbling in behind it. The little Pomeranian takes off down the hallway, feet clicking against the hardwood floor as she runs through your apartment.

“Sana!” Jihyo calls out, bags of snacks stuffed under her arms as she hurries in after her. You quickly lock the door and follow them, a bad feeling settling in your stomach as the apartment grows too quiet again. You freeze beside Jihyo as you reach the living room, eyes widening in horror as you see Sana and your cat growling at each other near the couch.

Your cat is seemingly furious, black fur standing on edge and teeth barred to mimic the look on Sana’s face. The low hiss rumbling in his chest seem to grow louder and louder, and you see Sana’s posture turning more and more rigid the longer they keep eye contact. They seem to be squaring up to fight, and you have absolutely no intention on letting that happen.

“Jihyo!” You hiss, elbowing her in the side. “Do something about Sana!”

“I don’t know what to do! She’s never been like this before!” She hisses back, not daring to tear her eyes away from the increasingly more agitated animals.

“I’ll grab her,” You say, the dog hybrid too busy growling to notice what you’re saying. Jihyo nods, a nervous expression on her face as you take a step closer. Sana doesn’t see you, but your cat does, and that brief second his eyes flicker to you seems to be enough of an opening for Sana to attack.

You lurch forward, barely managing to scoop Sana up before she has the chance to snap after your cat. You can tell your cat isn’t ready to give up the fight, its golden eyes narrowing in on you and the squirming dog in your arms.

“No kitty!” You give him a glare, but it’s like he isn’t seeing you at all, just the white fluff that seems to be threating his territory. You quickly pass Sana on to Jihyo; bags of snacks falling to the floor as she hurriedly brings her hybrid into your room to separate them. At the sound of the door clicking shut, your cat visibly relaxes, eyes finally seeing you instead of burning right through.

“Kitty,” You warn, voice stern and your hands on your hips as you stare down at him. Your cat holds your stare for a short while before it almost sounds like he huffs in annoyance. He ignores your attempt at a scolding, and instead chooses to lick his paw and clean his face while you watch in disbelief.

“Fine. Why am I even trying, you’re just a cat,” You tut. You feel a little silly, especially since you’re trying to scold an animal that doesn’t even understand what you’re saying.

“Y/N?” Jihyo’s voice calls out to you from behind the closed door. “Can we come out? Sana’s shifted.”

“Yeah, come on out,” As soon as the words leave your lips, the door flies open. You barely get a glimpse of Sana before she crashes into your arms, arms wound around your body so tightly it almost hurts to breathe.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to be a bad dog,” Sana buries her face in your chest, tears staining your sweater as she trembles. Jihyo sends you a sad look over her shoulder, a little pout on her lips that seems to be begging you to forgive her. You manage to free your arms enough to wrap them around her, awkwardly patting her back as she cries.

“Shh, it’s okay. I’m not mad,” You say, but that only seems to make Sana cry harder.

“You’re so nice! And I’m such a bad dog, I’m so sorry!”

“Sana ..” Jihyo tries, but her voice only makes Sana cling harder to you.

“I just wanted to protect you! I smelled him inside and I didn’t want him to hurt you,” Sana pulls back enough to look up at you with her big glossy puppy eyes, fluffy ears glued down against her light hair.

“It’s okay, he’s just a kitty Sana, he won’t hurt me,” You smile, reaching up to pat her head affectionately.

“No! He’s not! He’s–” A loud hiss suddenly interrupts Sana, the sound scaring her enough to make her run back to Jihyo. She cowers behind her back, cheek pressed against Jihyo's shoulder as she refuses to look at your cat.

You’re about to scold him again for scaring her, but the words get caught in your throat as you feel something brush against your legs. You look down in shock to find your cat rubbing himself against your sweats, tail curling around your leg as he moves around.

“Uhm, does he normally do that?” Jihyo raises an eyebrow, the conversation you two had earlier in the day fresh in her mind.

“No?” You look at her with wide eyes as your cat raises its back, eyes blinking up at you. Does it want you to .. You slowly reach down with your hand, hesitating before your fingers can brush against the black fur.

Your cat doesn’t seem to mind your hand coming closer, but you still hold your breath as your fingers finally touches the silky fur, running a few fingers along his spine in a quick pat. Your cat freezes at the contact, body locking up underneath your fingertips as they run along his back.

“Sorry kitty,” You snatch your hand away, stepping back to give your cat some space. Sana is still hiding behind a dumbfound Jihyo, and you feel terrible that your evening started out in the way that it did.

“Let’s grab some dinner, it should be done by now! I made your favourite,” You smile kindly at Sana as her eyes hesitantly meet yours.

“Really?” You can see her tail wagging slowly back and forth, a small smile spreading across her lips at the thought of food.

“Yeah, let’s eat in the kitchen,” You laugh as Sana starts pushing Jihyo sideways in the direction of the kitchen, using her owner as a shield against your cat the whole way. Thankfully your cat stays in the living room during dinner, but you can see Sana’s apprehension returning the moment you suggest watching a movie. However as you walk into the living room, he’s nowhere to be found. You even sneak a quick peak under the couch, and there’s no kitty hiding there either.

You shrug, quickly getting the snacks the girls brought ready, and putting on the movie all of you decided you want to watch. You and Jihyo have taken over the small couch while Sana has curled up in the chair next to it.

“Sana?” You call out, “You know there’s room on the couch if you want to sit here?” You see her ears perk up, tail wagging as she looks at Jihyo for permission.

“Can I?” She asks, eyes bright at the thought of being allowed to snuggle up to the both of you.

You hear a dull thud from your bedroom, your cat quickly shimmying out between the crack in the door. So that’s where he was, you think.

He bolts over to the couch before Jihyo can even open her mouth, quickly jumping up into your lap and making himself at home. Your hands are frozen by your side, mouth hanging open in surprise as you watch him lie down and start kneading your shirt.

“Kitty?” You ask, but the only response you get is an ear twitching in your direction. You can tell that your cat’s eyes are trained on Sana, golden eyes barely blinking as his claws dig deeper into the fabric of your sweater. Maybe he understands a little more than you first thought.

“Kitty?” Jihyo snaps your attention to her, a questioning look on her face. “You haven’t named him yet?”

You shrug, lowering a hand to gently scratch across your cat’s head. This time he doesn’t freeze up, and your smile grows a little goofy as you feel him snuggle closer to your hand.

“No? I don’t know, none of the names I’ve thought of seems to fit him.”

“Well, it’s not like he’s gonna tell you himself,” Jihyo snorts, reaching out for the popcorn that’s placed on the table in front of you.

“I guess not,” You giggle, amused by how pliant your cat has gone in your hands. You’re practically supporting his head in your hand, and it’s obvious that he’s enjoying the petting by the low slightly broken attempts at purring your hear coming from his chest. But he’s still refusing to look away from Sana, eyes never closing fully despite how sleepy he seems.

“Yeah .. That would be weird,” Sana gives you both an uncomfortable chuckle, eyes flickering between your cat and the TV. You spend most of the movie mesmerized at the black fur beneath your fingertips, eyes hardly straying from the cat in your lap. He seems much nicer and softer like this, and you can hardly believe that it’s the same cat that attacked your arm just a week ago.

As the movie goes on, you often find yourself chiming in a beat too late when the two other laugh, earning you a few weird looks and eye rolls. But how can they fault you for not paying attention when you’ve got a lap full of a black fluffycuddly cat? It would be a crime to not pay attention to him.

The movie slowly comes to an end, the snacks on the table half eaten, and Sana’s ears drooping down sleepily. You’re about to suggest putting on another one, feeling a little bad that you basically ignored the whole movie aspect of a movienight, but Jihyo waves you off before you can even speak.

“We’ve all had a rough day, maybe it’s better to call it a night?” She reaches over to run her fingers through Sana’s hair, a tender smile on her lips that makes something ache inside your chest.

“Sure,” Come to think of it, you are pretty tired yourself. Work was stressful and almost having your kitty and Sana fight definitely didn’t lessen the tension you’ve been feeling in your body all day either. You gently ease your cat off your lap, but despite its sleepy protests it quickly settles down on the couch as it realizes that your guests are leaving.

“I had a nice evening despite .. the little hiccup at the beginning,” You smile, reaching up to ruffle Sana’s hair. A squeak of surprise leaves your lips as she suddenly scoops you up in another hug. She rubs her face against your neck as you pat her head, the dog hybrid really being too cute for her own good.

“Please be careful okay? You don’t know– I-I don’t trust him,” Sana shoots a glare in the direction of the living room, and your building amusement at her distain for your cat dies down as you see the seriousness in her eyes.

“Of course,” You give her hand a squeeze, the tone of her voice making something weird tug in your stomach.

“I’ll see you on Monday,” You give Jihyo a quick hug before you wave them off, a sigh leaving your lips as you lock the door behind you. Sana’s expression keeps floating around in your head, and you can’t seem to shake it no matter how hard you try.

You pause as you enter the living room, your cat blinking sleepily at you from the couch. You don’t really see how he can do anything bad aside from being moody and a little mean, but Sana does have actual animal genes and you don’t. You’re just not sure if hers are extra sceptical because she’s a dog and your cat is well, a cat.

“Night kitty,” You murmur as you turn off the lights, leaving the clean up for tomorrow. You hear a low hiss behind you just as you turn to close the door, a black paw scratching through the crack. Your cat has never shown any interest in your bedroom before, so you open the door, curious to see what he wants.

Your cat doesn’t even spare you a second glance as he prances inside, he just head directly for your bed and curls up in the middle of it. You roll your eyes at his shift in personality, quickly tugging off your clothes to find a shirt to sleep in.

You suddenly feel oddly exposed in your room, like someone’s gaze is watching you intently. A quick look back at the bed confirms that your cat is already asleep, eyes closed and tail tucked up over them, but you still tug on your shirt before you remove your bra, the weird notion not really going away.

You just chalk it up to Sana’s words making you a little paranoid, and you shake your head as you carefully slide into bed.

You end up practically curled around your cat, the position not very comfortable, but you’re unwilling to disturb him now that he's has finally fallen asleep. You guess all those memes about people letting their animals hog their beds had some truth to them after all.

It doesn’t take long for the exhaustion of the day to catch up with you, quickly pulling you under into a restful sleep.

There’s a wet sensation of something cold dragging against your skin, not really enough to wake you up, but it still drags you out of the dream you had. You feel it moving across your neck and collar bones, and your sleep-riddled brain barely makes the connection that it seems to be covering up the areas that Sana rubbed her face against earlier.

You huff, snuggling your face deeper into your pillow.

You’re pretty sure you fall back asleep, because the last thing you remember from your dream is a hot breath spilling against your ear, and a low gruff voice whispering Yoongi.

- - - - Hello! Hope you enjoyed the third chapter of desolate! I know things are building up a little slow, but we're getting there! The next chapter will have some surprises :)

My inbox is always open if you want to chat about the story or just fics or life in general! See you all soon!

[wontlastimokwiththat]

Witches Mates-Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Witches Mates is here! I hope you guys like it!

Warnings: None

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

After meditating for about a hour, I went to my room. Snow was perched on the chest at the foot of my bed, staring at me with her big green eyes. 

 "What?" I asked her. Because she's a familiar, she can talk. I can chose who can hear her, though, so mundanes don't randomly hear a cat talking. 

 "Those were vampires," she said. "It tried to pet me." 

 "That was Ashton," I told her. "And you need to be nice to the vampires and the hybrid. They aren't going to hurt me or you." I patted the top of her head.

 "Why are they here?" she asked.

 "They're Liam's friends and we trust him. Plus, they're my mates." 

 "All four of them?" 

 "Yes, I know. Snow, I can't help it and they can't either." I sat down on my bed and she turned to look at me from her spot on the chest. 

 "How long will they be here?" 

 "Liam and his pack are here for two more days. I don't know about the others but they're welcome to stay as long as they'd like." She glared at me but said nothing. "Hey, did you see who blew out my candles?"

"I did but I don't know who he was," she told me. She paused for a minute. "Jonathan left that." She lifted her paw and pointed in the direction of my desk. I stood up and walked over my desk, picking up the book that had a red ribbon tied around it with a note. After lighting the candle on my desk with my magic, I read the note that was written in his hand writing:

For my daughter, 

Though I can't support your path, I know every new witch needs her own grimoire. You're as powerful as you are smart so I know you'll find a way to fix the unbalance of our world. Happy 21st birthday, Mystia Firelight. 

All my love, Dad

"How did he know the name I chose?" I mumbled to myself as I pulled the ribbon off and looked at the black, worn-leather bound book. On the front cover, engraved in gold, was the Firelight family crest and, under it, my witch name. I opened it to find the pages were made of old parchment paper with ragged edges. I sat down at my desk and picked up my pen. On the first page, I wrote this:

Mystia Firelight 

Daughter of Constance Firelight, the head of the New Orleans coven and Witches Council, and Jonathan Moore, a rouge vampire 

Born on All Hallow's Eve in 1998 at exactly 5 P.M. 

Familiar: White cat with green eyes; Snow 

Mastery of the elements: 

Fire- Age 7 

Water- Age 8 

Air- Age 8 

Earth- Age 8 

Spirit- Age 9

On the back of that page and the front and back of the next two pages, I wrote down descriptions of the 5 elements and drew pictures. On the next ten or so pages front and back, I wrote down the uses of different herbs with the proper ways to use them and drew pictures of them. On the next 35 pages front and back, I wrote the 70 spells and potions I had created over the years with their ingredients, uses, and side effects. 

When I looked at the clock, it was almost 5:30 A.M. I looked back at the grimoire to see I had no pages left to write on.

 "Been a full witch for twelve hours and I have a full grimoire," I said, looking at Snow, who had jumped on the desk and was watching me closely. 

 "That's great but you should sleep," she told me. 

 "You're right," I nodded. I blew out the candle and stood up. I grabbed my grimoire and walked over to my chest, unlocking it and putting the grimoire in before locking it back. I yawned, climbing into my bed and falling asleep quickly. 

**** 

I rolled over in my bed and felt air blow on me. I opened my eyes to be met by a huge wolf. It took me a minute to register that it wasn't Liam or his pack. I squealed like a little girl as I fought to get out of bed of the other side. The wolf ran to the other side of my room as I raised my hands, about to light it's furry ass on fire. Just as I opened my mouth to start a spell, Ashton ran into my room. I locked my eyes on him, lowering my hands. 

 "J, it's okay. It's just Luke," Ashton told me. 

 "He about gave me a heart attack," I said, pulling my eyes from Ashton to look at the wolf with sandy blonde fur. "Give me a heads up next time you want to cuddle." Ashton smiled and the wolf squinted his bright blue eyes. I heard a cat meow and turned to see Snow perched on my desk behind me. "It's fine, Snow. Some dogs just need to learn manners." Ashton laughed as the wolf let out what sounded like a sigh before trotting out of my room. 

"Is that who you were talking to last night?" Ashton asked, looking at Snow. 

"I talk to Snow all the time," I nodded, walking to her and picking her up. 

"Sounded like the two of you were having a conversation," he said. 

"We were," Snow said, though Ashton only heard a meow. 

 "We were," I told him. "Snow understands me and I understand her." 

"Like Damien and Annette with their Pitbulls?" Ashton asked. 

 "You met Joker and Harleen?" I smiled. He nodded. 

"How long have Damien and Annette been together?" he quizzed as Snow jumped out of my arms. 

 "Forever." Literally, they're mates. Yes, witches can have mates that are other witches, it's just really rare. "Our parents are all really good friends. Damien and Annette have been a thing since before they were a thing." 

"Must be nice to have met their person so early in life," Ashton said. 

"How old are you?" I asked, tilting my head slightly. 

"If I told you, you'd freak out," he told me. 

"Try me," I smiled. 

"One hundred and fifty-two," he admitted. 

"How old were you when you were turned?" 

"Twenty-two." 

"You didn't even get to live," I mumbled. 

"Michael lived as a human the longest. Luke, the shortest." 

"How old?" 

"Michael was twenty-three, Calum was twenty-two, and Luke was twenty." I felt a white hot rage shoot through my body. None of them had experienced life a mundane, not that I had but at least I could enjoy walks in the park without wanting to drain every human of blood. "We've accepted it, J. Michael's one hundred and thirty-six and Calum's one hundred and eighteen." 

"And Luke?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer. 

"He's twenty-three," he told me. "And he had it the worst. His first time feeding, he triggered the werewolf curse by killing a mundane." 

"Liam and his pack voluntarily triggered theirs. Why didn't Luke?" 

"Liam and his pack help with the Witches Council. As soon as they turn thirteen, they have to kill a rouge. It's not voluntary, they're forced. If they don't, they're killed." Okay, that's news to me. Liam had said they chose to and my mom had never said anything about forcing wolves to trigger their curse. 

"Why?" 

"Not sure," he shrugged. "It's just how it is. It would've been better for Luke if he was forced." 

"Why do you say that?" 

"He had to learn to control his thirst and his shifting at the same time. He was in hell when we found him a year ago and he still isn't completely in control of either. Now, he's freaking out about this whole mate thing, which is what triggered the change earlier." 

"Stress?" He nodded. "Is there anyway I can help?" Ashton smiled a sad smile. 

"No one can. We don't know what to do." 

"Oh." I paused, trying to think. "Hey, I'm gonna change and I'll meet you downstairs, okay?" 

"Yeah," he nodded before walking out and closing the door behind him. I quickly unlocked my chest and dug through my families old grimoires. I finally found the one of my grandmother's she had dedicated completely to werewolves. I flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for. I quickly wrote down the ingredients and spell before putting them all back in the chest. I left mine sitting on my bed, thinking it would be okay there. 

I pulled on black high waisted jean shorts, a red cropped tank top, and a pair of red sneakers. I brushed my hair into a neat ponytail and shoved the list I had made in my back pocket before running downstairs. I found Calum, Michael, Ashton, and Luke sitting in the kitchen. 

"Where is everyone?" I asked, grabbing an ice cream sandwich from the freezer and turning to face them. Snow was standing on the island in front of Luke, staring at him. 

"Just left for food," Michael told me as I unwrapped my ice cream sandwich and took a bite. 

"Where are you going?" "I left something at the shop last night so I'm gonna run and get it. Shouldn't be long," I told him. "Snow, stop staring." Snow turned to look at me and meowed loudly. Well, they heard a meow. I heard: 

"That is the dog." 

"Are you eating an ice cream sandwich for lunch?" Calum asked. 

"High metobolism. I could eat an entire pizza and wouldn't gain a pound," I grinned. "Joker, Harleen, I'm leaving!" The blue nose and red nose Pitbulls came running into the kitchen and Snow jumped on my shoulder. 

"We're coming," Harleen told me but I knew the others only heard a bark. 

"Are you taking all the animals?" Michael asked. 

"No. I don't take, they just come," I told him. "They like being at the shop. Snow was there yesterday but you never saw her. Joker and Harleen are there whenever Damien and Annette are there." 

"They live here, don't they?" Ashton asked. 

"Hell no!" I exclaimed. "They're place is being remodeled and should actually be done tomorrow. I live here alone and living with Damien and Annette the past few weeks has been awful. Trust me, you don't need supernatural hearing to know what they're doing." I shuttered and they all laughed. Well, Luke didn't laugh but he did smile slightly. 

"How do you afford this place?" Calum asked. "I mean, it's a mansion." 

"It was my great great grandmother's. It's been passed down and my mom didn't want it so I got it. The shop pays well enough that I can afford it easy." Calum nodded. "Alright, we'll be back."

[urlocalkpoptrash]

Misguided Ghosts| Im Jaebeom

Jaebeom x Reader | Jackson x Reader.

Genre: Angst/Fluff.

Concept: After a terrible accident, Jae is left in a coma. Five months of hoping for the best, but expecting the worst, you get a mysterious guest.

Warning: Talk of grief, death, and car accidents.

A/N: WOW I AM SAD. I wrote this for @listlessmaenads birthday gift, and I’m sorry it’s late. This story kind of (really) fucked a bitch up. Jaebeom out here making me feel things, rude ass.

- - - - -

“How was work today, Y/N?” Jaebeoms nurse set down a tray of food for you.

In most cases it was the patients that were getting the food, but seeing as the patient had been in a coma for five months, you were the one who received the food. You had become accustomed to the taste of the Luke warm chicken nuggets and corn. It was almost comforting when you had a hard day at work.

“It’s been the same,” and by same, you meant the same sympathetic glances, the gentle pats on the shoulder. People acted like he had already died, that you should be mourning the loss of your fiancé. He was still alive, even if it was with the help of some machines.

“Just keep your head up,” she offered an encouraging flash of her teeth, “when people don’t understand what’s happening, they resort to being overly sympathetic. They think those little gestures will help.”

“I know their intentions are nothing but pure. It doesn’t make it any better, though.” The tip of your spoon scarped against the bottom of your jello container, the red dyed juice splashed over the rim when you dropped the empty plastic onto your table.

The conversation seemed to evaporate into the air as she moved around Jae’s bed. It was quite the elegant dance of checking his vitals, reading over the chart to make sure the day nurse hadn’t left any notes, and adjusting his bedding to make sure his body temperature didn’t drop for any reason.

“He’s all comfortable, and set up for the night. I’ll be back to check in a few hours. If you need anything —,” she stopped mid-sentence when you gave her a knowing smile. It was the same, well rehearsed, script that all nurses told you. Except she actually meant it, “Tell Jacks I said hi,” she teased, all to knowledgeable of the goings on in your life.

You watched as she shut the door behind her, leaving you in the room with Jae. You sat for moment, listening to the steady beat of his heart monitor, and the machine that helped him to breathe. You looked over his face, all the outward wounds had healed, if it wasn’t for his life support, he would have looked like he was just sleeping. Some days, you imagined that he was, you pretended that in a few hours he would wake up, like he had been napping. You knew better though, and make believing only made things worse when he didn’t actually wake up.

You wouldn’t allow yourself to dwell too much on it, or else you’d send yourself into a spiral, so instead you took the doctors suggestion. You reached into your bag, digging around to find the poetry book that sat at the bottom of your purse. “Where were we,” you said softly, flipping the pages till you found your bookmark - a picture of Jae smiling at you from across the table at your favorite restaurant.

You held the book in one hand, your thumb expanding over the middle of the spine, stopping the the pages from folding over on to one another. Your other hand was occupied by your chin resting against your palm, being propped up by the chair you were sitting in, “Okay,” you breathed, peeking over the edge of your book, secretly wishing that one time you did that, his eyes would be open.

“For Katrina’s Sun Dial, by Henry Van Dyke -

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is Eternity.” The words held no meaning pressed into the paper of your book, but as they hung in the air, you felt the weight of them all to heavy on your chest.

You shook you head, swallowing the lump that had started to build in your throat. It was a sob that you refused to let surface, it was the cry you reserved for the very worst possible outcome, a cry you never hoped to feel. You closed the book, you couldn’t read anymore, afraid that another poem would set you over the edge.

After shoving the book back into your blackhole of a bag, you pulled your legs on to the chair, curling into yourself, wishing you could fill the hole in your chest, the way you crammed your personal belongings into your purse. Your eyelids suddenly felt like they were being dragged down by anchors, and you gladly fell into the welcoming arms of sleep.

You weren’t sure how long you’d been asleep, but you knew it had been awhile, because you could no longer see the sun sinking below the mountains, but you could see the silver sliver of moonlight reflecting off of Jae’s heart monitor. Your eyes surveyed the room, catch a glimpse of Jackson sitting in the corner, the light from his phone illuminating the tip of his nose, and whites of his eyes.

“How long have you been here?” The hoarse sound of your voice shocked you, but even more so it scared the living daylights out of Jackson. His hands fumbling with his phone, almost dropping it on the floor, but he was quick to snap his thighs shut, catching his phone in the crack of his legs.

“Couldn’t you have made a stretching noise like a normal person, letting me know you had woken up,” the breathiness in his voice made you release a sleepy laugh.

“Sorry, next time I’ll make sure to make some noise when I wake up,” he looked over at you with a thankful smile, “Wuss,” you tried to whisper under your breath.

“Hey! I heard that,” he reached back, grabbing the pillow he was using behind his back, chucking it across the room to hit you square in the chest.

“I didn’t say anything,” you tried to lie, but Jackson heard you, and knew you far too well to be able to lie to him.

He snorted, setting his phone on the windowsill. You watched as he pushed himself off the chair, making his way over to you. You knew what he wanted, and to be honest, you needed it.

“Come on, up,” he hooked his hand around your elbow, pulling you up - your bones popping in protest of the new movement.

Once you were standing, not very sturdy, but standing nonetheless, he wrapped you in his arms. His chin rested on the top of your head, and your nose pressing into his chest, taking a deep breath. He did this every time he saw you, at first it drove you crazy, but now it was something you looked forward to.

“Anything new?” He mumbled, moving his chin so he could bury his face in your hair, taking a deep breath. To him, you were the literal meaning of ‘a breath of fresh air.’

“No, nothing…” the same answer for the last five months, and you feared it would always be the only answer.

Since you were so close to his chest, you could hear the faint beating for his heart, and when you responded, his heart rate slowed. His grip on you only tightening, as if he was trying to protect you from the pain.

“You should go home for a little bit. I’ve only been here for about an hour. I’ll be here the rest of the night. If anything happens, you know I’ll call you,” pressing a kiss on to the crown of your head.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to just leave you here alone,” you brought your face up, looking at him.

“I’m not alone. I have lots to tell JB about,” and he was being honest. You had walked into the room many times, to find Jackson at Jae’s bed, one hand on Jae’s arm, talking about his day. You’d even caught him talking about a girl - Jackson always used to tell jae about his girl problems. It turns out he still did.

“I’ll have my phone on loud, don’t hesitate to call me at any time,” you reluctantly pulled away, and he reluctantly lets you go.

You gathered your belongings, Jackson standing at the door with your jacket, “Don’t forget this… again,” he teased, helping you slip it on arm by arm.

“Thank you jacks, for everything.” You pressed a quick kiss on his cheek, walking out of the room.

Jae’s nurse waved at you from the nurses station, giving you a sweet smile. As you entered the elevator, you waved back. You looked up to the red numbers above your head, watching them get lower until you reached the ground floor. You had questioned whether or not you were ready to drive again, but Uber’s would take too long to get to you and then to the hospital if anything were to happen, so you were forced to drive again.

You were lucky, the roads were basically a ghost town. The normal thirty minute drive it took you to get home, was only a cool twenty tonight. When you opened the door, Nora was already at your feet, weaving in and out of your legs, meowing loudly for some attention. You bent down, “Well hello,” you cooed, and she purred in response, pushing her nose against your face.

You always made sure she had plenty of food and water every morning before you left, and your sweet fifteen year old neighbor would come over to give her some much needed attention. You rounded the living room, walking over to the answering machine. You had two new messages, they were both from medical bill collectors, you didn’t pay much attention to them, letting them play out till they were done.

“What should I eat Nora?” You glanced at her, and she nudged your cheek with one of her paws, “Hmm, I don’t know if I want that,” you answered her as if she had responded to you.

Your feet carried you to the kitchen, the second message on the machine was playing in the background as you pulled open the fridge. You’re not sure what you expected, you hadn’t done any grocery shopping in weeks - hell, months. You sighed looking at the carry out containers, and half drank bottled water.

“Looks like I’ll be having sleep for dinner again,” you set Nora down, letting the fridge door close on its own. You pressed the delete button as you walked by the answering machine again, not even bothering to look and make sure you didn’t have any other messages.

The house felt cold without Jae, and no matter how high you turned the heat up or how many blankets you flung around yourself, none of them could ever mimick the warmth that Jaebeom radiated. Maybe it was because it wasn’t his skin that was warm; it was his heart, it was his smile, or the way he laughed at the variety show he had watched a million times, it was in the way he whispered sweetly to Nora. His warmth came from his love.

You leaned against the wall, only inches away from your bedroom, but you weren’t ready to go In there yet. It wasn’t like you hadn’t been in there since he had been in the hospital, but it was just too much of him, without him actually being there. You sank to the floor, pulling your knees to your chest. You were fine all day, you were fine at the hospital, but when you were really and truly alone, you were anything but okay.

“I’m so sorry,” you whispered, brokenly. You couldn’t recognize your own voice, because you were just a fragment of yourself without him. “It should have been me,” the air was starting to feel thicker, harder to fill your lungs with. Your eyes were burning, the tears that spilled over onto your cheek gave you no warning, neither did the choked gasp for air that passed through your lips.

You hid your face in the space of your knees, crying freely, letting the hole in your heart spread throughout your body, swallowing you into an ocean of despair. Your cries coming in waves, pulling you deeper into the current, making it near impossible to find the surface, and you were fine to just sink and never come up for air again. You didn’t want to be in a world where he didn’t exist.

After what seemed like an eternity, your tears started to dry up for the night, you began to believe there wasn’t enough water in your body to support the amount of crying you had done in the last five months. You knew if jae would have seen you this torn up over him, he’d start to hate himself, and for once you thanked god that he wasn’t around to see you like this.

You were barely able to push yourself back up from the floor, little black spots started to plague your vision, which meant you really needed some sleep. Your limbs dragged from the spot you were in, all the way to your bedroom. You didn’t bother to change, or shower. You were exhausted, and the sweet call of sleep was singing your name. You let yourself collapse on the bed, your feet hanging off the edge, but the moment your face met the pillow, you were out.

Another dreamless night - you had stopped dreaming of the accident a couple weeks ago, which gave the opportunity to sleep, and actually find some peace in the darkness behind your eyelids.

You were awake, but you weren’t all that excited to open your eyes and face another day. So you just stayed there, listening to the constant hum of the ceiling fan above, or the water moving through the pipes of your house.

“I know you’re awake, baby.” You froze, every muscle in your body tensing, and your blood running cold. There was someone else in your bed with you, but you swore you would have felt the bed dip. You always did, any time Jae moved, you felt it. There was no way in hell that you would have missed your bed moving.

You thought that maybe if you sat still, and kept pretending to sleep, that it would go away. Possibly you were just having sleep paralysis, it had been years since you had an episode, but it could have been the stress of everything building up.

There was silence again, not even the sound of someone breathing. You tried your hardest to crack you eyelid open in a way that didn’t give away that you were looking around. It was difficult to see, but what you could make out was just your empty room. You took a deep breath, allowing your eyes to finally break open.

Nothing. No one. All alone. You rolled over to your back, you were set on staring at the ceiling for another hour before you were to get up, but out of the corner of your eye you saw a figure laying beside you. You practically flung yourself to the floor with a loud scream. You were ready to run out of your house as fast as possible, escaping whoever this intruder was.

“Oh my god!” The voice called out, before you could see their feet from under the bed. You were frantic, looking for something to protect yourself with.

The foot steps got louder and closer, you were out of idea’s, and without a weapon, so you did what any normal person would do. You curled up in a ball, shielding your face with your hand.

“Take anything you want, just please, don’t hurt me,” your body was trembling with fear, fully expecting your last minutes to be you in the fetal position.

“Hurt you? Y/N…” the voice was smooth, calming. If this was a murderer, they were by far the most comforting murderer out there, “Wait… you can see me? Can you hear me? Y/N, baby, look at me.”

Baby.

You recognized the inflection of the voice, and the way the first B was harsher than the second. You gradually spread your index and middle finger apart. There he was, the tall figure who was standing beside you, kneeled down.

“C-can you see me?” Jaebeoms words stuttered over his tongue.

“Jae?” Your body started to relax. Your knees pulling away from your chest, and your legs extending towards the wall opposite of your head.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered, falling on his butt across from you, “I don’t understand,” he was talking to himself.

You still couldn’t believe what you were seeing. You had to be dreaming, there was no way in hell that he was in here with you, that he was talking to you. You rubbed your eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again. You fully expected him to be gone, but he was still there, lost in his own thoughts.

“If you’re here… does that mean you’re dead?” The realization started to flood your system with panic. Your cheeks began to heat up, and your eyes burning with the familiar sting of tears.

Your words brought him back to the moment, and he quickly shook his head, “no, baby. I’m not dead. Im just, I don’t know, I’m stuck between here and there.”

“There?” The tears you tried to stop had already started, and now there was no way for you to stop them, they had a mind of their own.

He reached out to touch you, to cup your cheeks and take away the tears, but all you felt was a very minuscule tingle on your cheek, that was gone as fast as it was there. A strangled gasp leaving his mouth agape.

“You can hear me, see me, but we can’t touch,” he looked down at his hand as if it had betrayed him.

You still sat on the floor, wordlessly staring at this version of Jae. You must be going crazy, there was no other explanation. Although you could see the way his lashes brushed over his cheek, or the way his cheeks made his eyes disappear when his nose scrunched. He must have felt you staring at him, because he looked up from his hands.

“Hi…” his voice almost inaudible, and in that moment your felt warm. The constant chill of being alone had diminished, and you figured out that he was really there, he brought the sun back into your dark world.

“Hey,” he watched as you scooted closer to him, the small affectionate action was enough to make him smile.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” His shoulders bounced slightly when he laughed. The sound almost brought you back to tears.

“It’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting you to be there.”

“In all honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to see me. I’ve been here since the third week of being in a coma.”

“So… you’ve just been watching me?” And all at once, you remembered all the times you had broken down, how many times you cursed gods name - because you had to blame someone for this, Jae didn’t deserve this.

As if he was reading your mind, he turned his head to watch you go through all the sleepless nights, the tears, the fits of anger, “I-I felt so useless. I had to sit here, watching you suffer. The nights you would call out my name, as if you were asking me to come home,” his voice broke off, the quietest of crippled gasps left his chest.

You hadn’t even recognized that tears had started to wash over your cheeks, till one lonely drop stopped at your top lip. While you were stuck in that hospital room, watching him, he was stuck in limbo watching you hurt.

“It’s not your fault, you know that. None of this is your fault.” You gestured between the two of you.

“It’s no ones fault,” a lie. It was your fault, and you knew that.

You sat silently, staring at him. What a beautiful man he was. It was never lost on you, just how lucky you were to have him, but since the accident, you’d really realized how much you needed him in your life. You could remember the life you had before him, and it was a life that you never wanted to have to live again.

“Let’s go somewhere,” he piped up, reeling you back into reality, and out of your own thoughts.

“Go somewhere?” The back of your hand dragged across your cheek, wiping away the stray tears.

“Yeah. There’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to take you, but never have. When’s a better time than now?”

“Oh, I don’t know, when you’re not just an apparition of yourself. I think that would probably be peak time to go.”

He snorted loudly, shaking his head. “Only you would complain about the way I spent time with you,” he teased.

“Uh, no. I think most people would find it ridiculous to go somewhere with their fiancés restless soul,” a laugh bubbled from your chest.

“Soul schmoul,” he flicked his hand, dismissing your very logical response.

That’s how you ended up in the car with Jae in your passenger seat, singing along to the radio, while his body was motionless in a hospital bed. Every so often you would have to remind yourself that it wasn’t really him, it wasn’t someone you could hug or kiss.

“Are you paying attention? I don’t want to get lost,” you pout, turning down the radio.

“I know exactly where we are, just keep driving,” and so you did, you just kept driving - silently watching him from the corner of your eye.

You could see his fingers twitch on his thigh, pulling into a fist and extending to smooth out his pants. He was itching for something, like an addict on the search for his next high. It wasn’t until he placed his arm in between the two seats, that you realized what he wanted to do. He wanted to reach out and touch your leg, to feel your skin under his finger tips. He couldn’t though, he couldn’t because he wasn’t really there. It was just another harsh reminder of the reality of the situation.

You’d be lying if you said that it didn’t hurt you. No, it didn’t hurt you, it killed you. Having the man you loved with all your heart, sitting in the passenger seat, and not being able to touch him.

“Your next right,” He jeered his head towards the window, indicating where he wanted you to go.

The trees were heavy, the tops of the branches on each side of the path, reached out touching one another. A sick joke from a god that couldn’t be real. You could catch glimpses of the sky between the crowded greenery. It was less than mile before you hit an opening in the woods.

“Stop. Right here,” he leaned forward, placing his hands on the dashboard.

The car came to a slow stop, the dirt beneath your tires crunched, and your breaks gave out the softest of cries.

“What is this place?” You asked, as you stepped out of the car, using your hip to shut the door.

“It was where I was going to suggest we got married,” you didn’t know, or hear how he got out of the car, you just felt him behind you, “Walk closer to the edge,” he had leaned forward, whispering in your ear.

It was always so stranger to feel chills run down your spine, while a warm breeze wafted over your body, hiding your face behind the tufts of hair that moved in the wind. Your feet carried you closer to the edge of the cliff. The walk way just cut off, and below you was a quiet and still creek, the sun cascading over the land like a blanket.

“Y/N,” he came up beside you, “I brought you up here, because it’s one of my favorite places in this world, a close second to your arms. You’re the only other person I’ve brought here.” His feet shuffled as he sat down, legs dangling over the edge from the knee down.

“You’re my person. I showed you the version of me that wasn’t always happy, I showed you the version of me that no one else gets to see. I showed you the bones in my closet, and instead of running, you grabbed the shovel. You’ve loved me through the days I couldn’t get out of bed, you loved me through the nights that I felt like I had hands around my neck - you filled my lungs with air, you helped me breathe. I will never be able to explain exactly what you’ve done for me, and I’m afraid I’ve run out of time. This was the only time I could say this.”

Wordlessly, you sat beside him. You didn’t know what else you could do, you didn’t know how you could make this better for him. You had so many words, and thoughts in your head, swimming around around your mouth. Your tongue pressing against the back of your teeth, as if they were some form of confinement.

“But I am not your person. I will be gone far sooner than you. You’ll be left without me… I can’t even imagine a world without you, so the thought of leaving you here without me, is torture. But, you will need to move on one day. You’ll fall in love again. Fuck, you might already be falling in love with someone else, and I’m okay with that. I want you to be happy, because you deserve it.” You could hear his voice crumbling. He sounded exactly the way you felt; defeated, broken, and accepting.

“I’m not in love with anyone but you, Jaebeom. There is no one else. There will never be anyone else.” How could he even think this? Even worse, how could he believe it so much so that he was saying it out loud.

“You don’t see it now. I understand why, but you know there is someone else. He’s always loved you, maybe just as much as me. He’s watched you fall apart, all that was left of you was jagged pieces, and he still held you. He took your broken pieces, and held them in his hand - even though they pushed into his skin. He put you together with bandages on his hands.”

Jackson. He was talking about Jackson. Of course, it’s was Jacks. How could you be so oblivious to it? Were you that obtuse to the world around you.

“He talks about you a lot. I can hear him. He tells me all the things about you that he thinks I miss, or things he think I should know. He sees you the same way I do, and that’s how I know he’ll always take care of you. He’ll protect you and keep you safe, even if you never accept him the way you accepted me.”

It was crazy to think, because you know that Jacks never expected anything from you. The thought of asking you to more than friends, never even crossed his mind, because you weren’t his. He’d rather be insufferably in love with you, and deal with it, than not have you in his life.

Hour and hours passed by, you two sat on the ledge, watching the sunset together. Having him sitting there was like having all your memories playing on a constant loop. His smiles reminded you of all the mornings you woke before him to wake him with kisses all over his face. The way the lowering sun caught the tip of his nose reminded you of all the times you would put whipped cream, or frosting on his nose. He could never stay out the kitchen when you baked. His laughter reminded you of the days in the park, dancing to the music of random street musicians. Occasionally, he’d walk over to them and sit beside them, singing along. He looked so in his element. His raw vocals and an acoustic guitar.

“It’s time to go,” he looked up at you, his eyes focusing on your face for some time. He must have been living in the memories of your smile.

“Are you sure?” You knew he wasn’t talking about leaving this place, he meant it was time for him to leave. He was ready to be set free.

“I am.. but can we stop one more place?”

“Of course, Jaebeommie.”

The familiar nickname made his heart squeeze. You called him that often, and now he was regretting all the times he never appreciated it. When he would ignore you when he was in the studio. All the stupid hours of working in songs, when you were in the living room reading, or playing with Nora. All the time he wasted.

The car ride towards the spot of the accident was silent. You tried to stomp your foot, throw a fit. You didn’t want to go there. You only had fleeting minutes with him, and he wanted to take you to the place that was ultimately his demise.

The street lights would move from his knees, over his face as you drove. You could see his chest rise and fall, like there was a heart inside of him. It made him seem so much more realistic. Having you forgetting that he wasn’t actually in the seat next to you.

The closer you got to your destination, the harder you gripped your steering wheel. You were glad that it wasn’t your heart hooked up to a monitor because it felt like it was about to leap out of your chest, and land in his lap.

Your headlight stopped at the tunnel. There was still a large scrap along the concrete from where your car had flipped and slid across the road.

“Why… why couldn’t you have just put on your seatbelt, Jae?” You whispered, head hanging between the arms.

“I asked myself that every time I’ve seen your cry,” he gulped, resting his head against his seat.

You tried to stop them, but your tears had more control over you, than you did of them, “But that wouldn’t have mattered if I would have been paying attention. You’d still be here, and I mean actually here.”

If you closed your eyes tight enough, you could still see the glass of your front windshield shatter, and you hear the sound of your car sliding. God, it was such a terrible sound. Just remembering it made you want you throw up.

“Baby. I need you to open your eyes and look at me,” he shifted in his seat to face you.

Hesitantly you did as he requested. You could taste the tears dripping off your lip and into your mouth. This was really it, and this was the place that took everything from you. There was nothing he could do or say to make you feel any better about it.

“This isn’t your fault,” he began, and you immediately grabbed your car door, pulling it open. You weren’t going to stick around to hear him try and justify what happened.

“You can’t run from me,” he was standing in front of you, before you could even blink your eyes.

“Not fair, you cant use your ghost powers to cut me off,” You sulked.

“I think I just did,” he did what he had set out to do, he stopped you in your tracks, “Look down.”

Without question you did so, and by your foot was a dirty, but still very shiny locket. You had lost your necklace that night, whether it was when the paramedics had to cut your clothes off, or in the middle of the crash. You knelt down, hooking your finger in the chain, letting it hang off down. He had gotten that for you on your second anniversary.

“This isn’t your fault. This was no ones fault. It was an accident, and that’s all. no one could have foreseen the events of that night. You need to stop blaming yourself, because it’ll take you to your grave if you don’t.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Y/N,” he hissed between clenched teeth, “Don’t fucking say that.”

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it, I’m just… I don’t know what I’m going to do without you.” The admittance that he was leaving soon, was almost too much to bare.

“You’ll never be without me, baby.” His hand moved across the necklace, letting it swing back and forth, “I’m always going to be right next to your heart.”

“Don’t… Don’t go, please don’t go.” You were thankful that you were already kneeling down, or falling to your knees like you just did would have hurt a lot more.

“I have to. I don’t need to be here anymore. Letting you go was my unfinished business.”

He was now on his knees, face only mere inches away from yours.

“But I’ll never be able to let you go… What about me? Don’t I get a say in this?”

“I love you so much, Y/N. You will always be the love of my life,” you could already feel the warmth that he carried with him, started to slip away.

No, no, no. Here it was, the end of it all. The end of all the ‘I love you’s.’ There would be no more early morning drives to get coffee, there would be no more moon lit dances on your roof, there would be no more him, there would be no more you.

He leaned in, pressing his lips to your forehead. You only knew he did that, because you felt the softest of tingles. He lingered there for a moment, reliving his life in seconds that felt like hours.

Finally he was gone. You couldn’t feel him anymore. All that was left was the necklace in your hand, and the air taken out of your lungs. Your body trembled, as if it was riding itself of the dead weight. A flame flashed over your skin, as if it burned off any remaining pieces of him, turning all his touches to dust.

Your cell phone continued to buzz in your cup holder, Jackson’s name popping up over and over. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. A scream of pure pain filled the night time air. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Begs and pleads to the man you cursed to angrily. Buzz. Bu— Silence.

Two Years Later

You rolled away from Jackson’s grasp to curl into your pillow, eyes heavy with sleep. You loved cuddling with Jacks, but man, that boy could really start to feel like a furnace. Every night you did this, roll away, and yet still manage to wake up with your body tangled with his. He was a magnet.

Jackson must have believed you were asleep, because most nights when you left his side, you were asleep. Not this time though, you were on the brink of sleep and being wide awake.

“Hyung?” Jackson voice was hushed. You could hear the pillow crinkle under his head as he turned to glance over his shoulder, making sure you were still ‘asleep.’

“It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you… and I’m sorry for that. Life has just been so hectic. I just wanted to say I miss you, and I know that y/n misses you too. She still says your name in her sleep, not as much anymore, but on bad days, she’ll call out for you. There’s not much I can do except to hold her.”

You had to use every fiber in your being not to turn around and wrap yourself around Jackson. You wanted to tell him that just because you still called out for Jae some times, didn’t mean that you didn’t love him. It broke your heart thinking that you still said Jae’s names in front of him.

“I don’t mind it though. I know she still loves you, and I would never ever think of taking that away from her. You were everything to her, you still are. I know she loves me too, she shows it all the time, but I’m afraid that I’m not enough for her sometimes. You know? She’s just so incredible. She is kind to everyone on the street, the smiles at little kids, and my parents love her. She’s extraordinary, and I feel way out of her league… but she still loves me. How lucky are we to be loved by someone like that?”

Lucky? You were the lucky one. Most people don’t even have one great love in their life, but you’ve had two - Jaebeom and now Jackson. You’ve been loved unconditionally, and without fear by two men, who could have the world, but decided to make you their world.

“I know you still love her too, and I hope that I can let that live through me, so she never forgets that we love her. I won’t let you down, Jae. I promise.”

A promise he did keep

[blizzardfluffykpop]

Our Home (IV)

Summary: Wishes do come true if you make them happen. Effort makes dreams come true, do everything in your will to make sure those dreams hold ground.

Bambam X Reader

Multi-parted: Part I, Part II, Mini-Part III, and Mini-Part IV (The End)

Usually, I wake up first, out of the two of us to the sounds of bird chirping. But today, I woke up to the smell of breakfast. I shake Bambam awake, “Babe, it’s too earl-” That’s when his eyes open up wide, and I know he smells breakfast. Like two kids on Christmas day we rush into the kitchen. It’s Bambam’s mom, cooking up a hearty breakfast, my mouth waters just looking at it. We politely sit there until she tells us to wake up Bambam’s siblings, and half-sibling. 

About 9:30 he is leaving to the hair salon, we make sure he doesn’t forget anything and I invite everyone over. In less than an hour, our home is decorated from the bottom to the top with decorations. We sit in the sunken living room talking about Bambam, and we wait. Instead of surprising him like usual, we leave the lights on, he already knows we’re all here. 

When he walks in and takes off his shoes he looks at us confounded, “Hey is the party starting without me or something?” We laugh at him, and we all scream, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAMBAM!” 

His mom joins in on our silly games of ‘Never Have I Ever’ and ‘Truth or Dare'. Our laughter ringing loud and clear, don’t get me started on Uno. Uno was crazy, his mom did not relent, she must have had every +2 and +4 wild card in the deck. She wrecked every single one of us, no one was safe. Not even Mr. Birthday Boy himself, he was out first cause he got unlucky by sitting next to her. It went for thirty minutes between Jaebeom and her. Neither relenting until she announced Uno and there was nothing he could do about it. For she ended on a yellow and he only had greens. 

We gathered in the kitchen to cut the cake and for him to make his birthday wishes. Instead of thinking about them, he said them out loud, “I already have everything I wished for. They say wishes never come true unless you kept them to yourself. Well, that would be a little silly, huh?” I’m not the only one confused, that he was giving a speech while the wax was melting into the cake. He continues, “Wishes do come true but you must hope and make an effort.” When he turns towards me and my eyes are popping out of my head, “Will you make my wish come true, (Y/n), and marry me.” My legs feel like jelly, I couldn’t believe my ears. Everyone is silent waiting for my answer, I pull him into a giant hug, “Yes” I say my heart leaping out of my chest. He starts jumping up and down, he swings us around so he can blow out the candles and to stop the fire hazard. He exclaims, “This is the best birthday ever!” 

When the night settles and we’re back on our living room couch, staring at each other. The little gold band around my ring finger matches the one on his ring finger. I ask him, “How long have you been planning this?” He furrows his brow, “Well, I’ve thought about marrying you since we moved to California. But, I didn’t start planning it until three weeks ago. Yugyeom and I went out to so many jewelers until I settled on this.” I lay my head on his lap, “Wow,... you’re something special, and I can’t believe you’re all mine.” He props his chin upon his elbow and looks at me. “We already live together in our home, so I thought it would be nice to make it official.” I grab his left hand staring at the ring and ask him quietly, “It is nice, how was your birthday, Babe?”

“It was better than I could ever imagine”

“Really?”

“Yeah,...”

“What about it?” I ask earnestly, as he gazes off, thinking about his answer.

“From the surprise of my parents to the delicious cake, to my mom beating Jaebeom in Uno. To her not only accepting you into the family but my siblings too. Not only did they accept you, you became my family officially. You said yes, and now I get to live with you for the rest of my life.” He sighs out dreamily, “All of my worlds came together tonight, my friends, my family, you” I smile at him, “I got a gift for you,...” His eyes go wide in shock, “You already gave me a gift--.” I shake my head 'no', and walk up to our room where his mom is sleeping. The little kitten curled up next to her, keeping this from Bambam hurt me. But now he finally gets to meet the little gal.

I tell him to close his eyes and he tells me they are tightly shut, I cradle the kitten in my arms. I carefully place her on his lap and tell him to open his eyes. The kitten starts meowing at him and nuzzling on him. I giggle as I look at him, “What are you gonna name her?” He can’t even get a word out of his mouth, he’s speechless before “Latte” leaves his mouth. I grin and tell him, “That’s perfect, now our home is complete, and we have a little thing to take care of” He grins, “We have a little family of our own,...” He ruffles my hair, “My family,...” He mutters out, “Our home,” I tell him tenderly.

[elisaphoenix13]

Pile Of Cubs

Tony came up to the family floor from the lab a little after noon and had his attention on the tablet in his hand as he stepped off the elevator. Pepper had called and harassed him about his filling email inbox and also to remind him about the meeting he had in a couple of hours that he totally forgot about. Not that he would admit that out loud, but it didn't matter since that was the sole reason Pepper called him. That was why she was his CEO. She said she had tried calling Stephen first, but when he didn't answer, assumed he was dimension hopping and tried her chances at calling Tony directly. Except, Stephen most definitely was not dimension hopping, so that was another reason Tony went back upstairs instead of staying in the lab until the last possible minute.

He needed to make sure everything was okay.

Neither Friday nor Victor alerted him to any problems, so it had the billionaire scratching his head. At least for the first ten seconds after stepping onto their floor.

"Honey? Pepper said she tried to call you. It was just to remind me about a meeting I--"

Tony stops when he enters the living room. All his questions about the sorcerer's whereabouts answered when he looked down on the floor. All of the kids were piled together, and it took a little bit of head tilting to find out that, yes, Stephen was buried under all of them. He was laying on his stomach snoozing away with seven kids laying on top, against, or across him, all sleeping as well with the menu of a movie replaying on the tv. Their three kids, the three Barton kids, and Cassie were all sprawled out, some part of them touching Mama Bear...and even Tibbs was a part of the pile. He likely just saw the cub pile and wanted to join the cuddling and wedged himself into whatever free space he could find.

It happened to be the back of Stephen's neck.

"Fri...tell the Barton's and the dumbass version of me and Stephen where their kids are and to get them at their own risk." Tony mumbles quietly as he exits the living room and walks into the kitchen instead.

FRIDAY responds quietly so not to disturb the living room occupants. "Scott and Quill have been notified. Clint and Laura already know."

"They must have..." Tony looks back up from his tablet and finds the Barton couple sitting at the kitchen table with some lunch. "...raided my fridge. Did you try to get your kids?"

Clint shudders. "I tried to grab Nate and your wife opened his eyes...and they were completely green. So I backed off and he closed his eyes again. Mama Bear kind of scares me."

Laura smiles. "We decided to enjoy the quiet instead."

"Good call. It won't last. You got an extra one of those?" Tony motions toward their sandwiches with his free hand and Laura points behind him to the island behind him.

A large plate stacked full of different types of sandwiches sat on the counter with some plastic wrap draped loosely over it to keep it somewhat fresh. There was plenty to feed Tony, Stephen, six normal appetites, and then his mutant teenager's appetite. It must have been Laura. She was one of the few that knew just how much Peter could eat since she helped make dinner whenever she, Clint, and the kids visited the tower. She knew how to feed the two super soldiers and the resident god as well. She and the rest of the cooking members.

A good thirty minutes passed in quiet as the three finish their lunch and Tony gets through a good chunk of his emails when Nate and Diana were the first to wake and join them. Laura got up and gave them each their preferred sandwich when they climbed onto a chair at the table and they eat sleepily, their lunch slowly giving them needed energy.

"Hey Little Miss." Tony leans over Diana and kisses the top of her head. "Have a nice nap with Mom?"

"Mmhmm..."

"Good. I gotta leave for a meeting soon so can you help keep your brothers out of trouble?"

Diana nods. "Cassie can help right?"

"Sure. She'll keep Underoos on his best behavior."

Clint chuckles. "Whipped."

"That's what I said but he denies it at every turn." Tony says as he turns off his tablet and places it on the counter.

A muffled low baritone voice reaches them in the kitchen and a few moments later, the rest of the kids shuffle in and grab some food, joining Nate and Diana at the table. Tibbs was next to trot in, and much to Tony's amusement, he hopped onto one of the bar stools at the island before hopping onto Tony's shoulders.

"Don't get comfortable furball."

"What are you doing up here? I thought you were down in the lab." Stephen says with a yawn as he steps over to Tony and grabs Tibbs off his shoulders.

"Was just telling the favorite child that I have a meeting soon." Tony says after kissing the sorcerer and handing him a sandwich. Peter and Harley stop midchew and glare up at the engineer who grins back. "How was the cub pile nap?"

"Rejuvenating." Stephen holds his sandwich away from Tibbs' questing paw. "When are you leaving?"

"Thought I might leave now. Give Pepper a heart attack for being early." Stephen snorts in response as Tony walks back to the elevator. "I love you demon children and princess. Be back in a few hours!"

"Rude." Peter and Harley mumble in unison and Diana waves.

"Bye Daddy! Guess what!"

"What?"

"I love you three thousand!"

Tony raises both eyebrows and looks at Stephen with a smirk.

"You hear that tesoro? Three thousand. Wow."

Stephen rolls his eyes. "How ever will I amount to that level?" He asks, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I think that puts you in the five hundred range--"

"Leave before I throw Tibbs at you." The sorcerer threatens.

Tony smiles and smooches at him with a wink before the elevator doors close and Stephen places Tibbs on the ground. The gray tabby meows at him and he sighs before tearing off a piece of his lunch meat and leaning over to offer it to the feline. Tibbs takes it with a loud purr and Stephen takes the empty seat next to Diana that Tony had occupied earlier.

The 'cub pile' that Tony and the other parents so fondly called it really was rejuvenating to Stephen. Especially magic wise. Having the kids around while he rested always helped lower his stress levels, but the pile? Instant calm. Stress levels lowered and his magic regulated itself...and really...it was the kids. In the past, the kids would have been the last thing to calm Stephen, but now they were a big part of it. All the kids loved him, he wasn't really sure how that happened with the other four kids but it did. Maybe it had to do with how he cared for them when they were sick or whenever Clint or Scott asked him to watch their kids.

To think this all started with Peter.

"...is Dia really the favorite?" Peter asks and Stephen shakes his head.

"He was just being Tony." Laura says for Stephen. "There's no such thing as a favorite child."

"That's not what Dad said." Lila says and Clint points at her.

"I told you that in confidence. Way to throw me under the bus."

Laura scoffs and smacks her husband's hand down, and the archer grins as he assures her and the kids that he was joking. After lunch, the Barton's went back down to their floor, and Cassie elected to stay with Stephen and the other three. Diana wanted to play with her, and FRIDAY said it was best that she stay upstairs anyway. Harley went back to the living room to watch another movie, Cassie and Diana went up to the little girl's room to play, and Peter stayed with Stephen in the kitchen. The teen lays his chin in his hand and pets Tibbs when the feline jumps onto the table, and Stephen cleans up the kitchen. When Peter stayed uncharacteristically quiet though, the sorcerer looked up from the plate he was washing and watches the teen stare out the window.

"Peter...Laura is right you know. There isn't-"

"Yeah. I know." He interrupts.

"Is something wrong?"

"...not really. I just..." Peter trails off and scratches behind Tibbs' ears. "Is it wrong to miss the days when it was just the three of us?"

Stephen dries the plate and puts it away. "No. You were used to being an only child, then suddenly you gained an older brother and then a sister almost at once. Not only that but then the snap happened. Diana was suddenly older in what seemed like ten seconds to us." Stephen joins Peter at the table by sitting in the seat opposite him. "A lot happened in a year for you."

"For all of us really." Peter says and Stephen had to agree.

Peter wasn't the only one who had to adjust. Harley lost and gained family, Dia was born...then the snap happened. Tony lost Stephen and the boys, raised Diana and Cassie by himself and that thought just led to Stephen's heartache. He didn't get to watch Diana grow up. Sure, he had the rest of her life, but he missed all her firsts. He barely had the memory of her first word and she had just started crawling. Now? She was walking, talking, full of sass, and already in kindergarten. At least he wasn't completely alone in the regards of missing out on five years of his child's life. Scott missed out with Cassie too.

Sometimes the few pictures and videos that FRIDAY took weren't enough. Those were the days that Stephen dropped everything to spend the day with his daughter. Things took time to flow after everyone returned. Diana had to adjust to actually having Stephen and the boys in her life.

"We all have bad days Peter. I'm sure Tibbs does too since he was snapped as well."

Peter snorts. "I don't think he really counts. He accepts pretty much anything."

"That's true." Stephen chuckles softly.

He would never mention the reality where Tony had died. How broken their family had been. How lost Stephen had been because Peter lost another parent, because Harley had been closest to Tony, and how Diana had been left with near strangers. The sorcerer tried so hard to keep it together for the kids, but the emotional pain was too much. They clung to Stephen, almost never leaving his side, until finally Steve and the others planned one last time heist. It was then that Stephen truly realized what Tony meant to them...to him.

"Are you sure Dad didn't mean it when he said Dia is the favorite?" Peter asks.

"I'm going to tell you a secret, but you can't tell your father I told you."

"Okay?"

"The whole time heist you heard about? It wouldn't have happened if Tony didn't want you and Harley back."

"And you."

Stephen smiles. "I was just a bonus."

"Please...it's a miracle he survived five years without you." Peter leans back in his seat when Tibbs jumps down into Stephen's lap.

"I believe we have Pepper and Rhodey to thank for that...as well as Cassie."

Peter nods in agreement and Stephen reaches over to run his fingers through the teen's somewhat tamed curls. Of course he knew Tony wanted Stephen back as well, but the boys were definitely what kicked his husband into doing something. He sacrificed himself to give his kids a better world, but they would never know that. Stephen and Scott were the only two who shared that secret. Tony had an idea, but he didn't remember the pain. It was better that way and the two that remembered didn't need to. They had their lives. Their distractions.

Their families. Whole ones.

"Hey Mom! I think I just found porn on tv!" Harley yells from the living room and Stephen instantly scrambles out of his seat, sending Tibbs to the floor. He races into the living room, prepared to snatch the remote to change the channel, but finds an approved movie playing instead. "Ha! I knew that would get your attention. Can we have pizza for dinner tonight?"

Stephen stares at Harley before narrowing his eyes. "Are you kidding me?!"

"I don't joke about pizza."

The sorcerer scoffs and grabs a nearby pillow to smother his oldest child with, only letting up when Harley shoves the pillow away. Stephen grabs the remote in retaliation, changes the channel to one of Diana's cartoons, and then walks away with the remote.

"NO! FRIDAY change it back!" Harley yells.

"Disregard that. Neither you or Victor are to change the channel until I say otherwise." Stephen says and both AI's respond with an affirmative as Peter laughs from the kitchen.

[multishipperlove]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Caleb Widogast, Beauregard Lionett, Nott (Critical Role), Caduceus Clay, Jester Lavorre, Fjord (Critical Role) Additional Tags: Yasha (mentioned) - Freeform, Molly (mentioned) - Freeform, Barren Eve, zemnian, Not Canon Compliant, I'll be honest this was just to satisfy my holiday cravings Series: Part 3 of Zemnian Roots Summary:

Caleb decides to have a mini celebration for Barren Eve. Everyone else somehow ends up joining him.

Caleb always knows what time it is. He knew the date and the month and what year it was, didn't even have to think about it. So despite the fact that they were in Xhorhas, a city where the longest night of the year does not matter because the sun never rises, he knew that today was Barren Eve.

It's a holiday he hasn't cared about for a long time. He doesn't have a reason to, after all.

But today, he feels different. It's a calm evening for once, not that that's necessarily a good sign. Caduceus is tending to his garden, Jester and Fjord are out running errands somewhere, Nott is in the laboratory working on her crossbow and Beau is- well he's not sure where Beau is. Probably in the house somewhere. But he knows they are all trying to keep busy, because if they didn't they would have to admit that they are no step further with what they are actually trying to accomplish.

There had been no lead about Yasha in the past weeks, and despite Jester's and Caduceus' best efforts she had managed to avoid every single one of their scrying attempts. So they were stuck, and everyone was trying to distract themselves. And it was Barren Eve.

With a soft sigh, Caleb closed his book. The tiny text had finally managed to give him a headache, and with his realisation of the holiday there was little hope in continuing his work. Instead he snapped his fingers, calling up Frumpkin, and letting the cat curl up in his lap.

The gentle purring sound that started up almost immediately soothed him a bit, just like the feeling of the soft fur beneath his fingers. With Frumpkin acting as a sturdy rock in stormy weather, Caleb finally allowed himself to do something very rare.

He thought back on his childhood.

Leise rieselt der Schnee Still und starr ruht der See Anmutig glänzet der Wald Freue dich, Morgen kommt bald

One Barren Eve in particular. He had still been a little boy then, not much older than four, maybe five years old. It had been the first year he'd been allowed to come to the Church of Pelor with his parents for the evening's service.

Just walking through their village that day, seeing the lights everywhere, it had been an incredible experience. The whole way from the town's centre to the church had been lined with hundreds and hundreds of candles, lighting the way for the town's people.

“A candle for every fallen soldier, now and a thousand years ago,” his father had told him, before picking him up to make sure he wouldn't vanish in the freshly fallen snow. And as they reached the church his mother had given him a copper piece, told him to pick out a candle for himself and light it, so they would have one to hold during the service.

The sermon had taken more than two hours, but Caleb had hung onto every word the priest uttered, while being securely held in his father's lap.

“Take care of your candle” “Don't let it go out” “Careful with the fire, or you will burn yourself,” he had been told, whispered to him over and over as his father helped with keeping the little stump steady in his four year old hands.

He didn't remember this part, but had been told that by the time the priest said his last words, he'd been fast asleep. Despite his excitement, his body's desire for sleep had won that day.

Letting out a breath of relief, Caleb let go of the memory and came back to the present. He could feel tear tracks down his face, and angrily wiped them away before anyone could see. He was still alone and in his own room, but also knew very well that some of his friends didn't understand the concept of knocking very well.

Before he could get lost in any other memories, he decided to get up and make his way downstairs. Maybe he would find someone else to spend some time with, instead of sitting up here alone and drowning in his own sorrow again.

With that thought in mind, it was definitely disappointing to see the living room area of the Xhorhaus empty at the moment. But he told himself it was okay, that just being in one of the common rooms was... better. Somehow. He couldn't quite explain it, but decided that it didn't matter either.

Disturbing any of the others just because he felt lonely did not seem right either, so he settled down in one of the big chairs, trying to relax again. He still felt restless though, constantly tapping his foot on the floor.

Frumpkin, who'd followed him downstairs after complaining about being dislodged from his earlier resting place, now sat in front of him and stared him down. The cat blinked once, twice, and then meowed at him, sounding accusatory.

Caleb stared back for a moment but then sighed again. “Alright, alright. Maybe you are right. But let's not make this a habit, ja.”

He got up and spend a minute or two looking around for a candle. Not just any candle, he wanted it to be at least a little bit... not pretty, necessarily. But special. He wasn't sure what would account as special in a candle, but surely that would show itself if he found the right one.

And it did, kind of. In some back-drawer in the kitchen, he finally stumbled over a little stump of a candle that he was pretty sure he'd seen Caduceus use to keep his tea warm a few times. Not unlike the one he had picked out with his single copper piece, nearly thirty years ago. Hoping that his friend wouldn't mind, he took it back to the living room with him and placed it on the little coffee table sitting right in the middle of their assortment of armchairs and sofas.

Caleb kneeled down in front of it. He closed his eyes, not reciting a prayer like he was supposed to do but taking a minute of silence, before lighting the candle with a cantrip. “For Yasha,” he said quietly. “And for Molly. For- my family.”

He stared into the flame for a few more moments, and then settled back down in the chair. It felt better now, just sitting there in silence, and he was finally able to calm down. Frumpkin seemed satisfied as well and jumped back onto his lap, curling up into a tight ball before going back to sleep.

It didn't take long for Caleb to start humming to himself, a tune he remembered from the service that night. It was slow, but full of warmth and a weird sense of nostalgia. And unlike many of the classical Barren Eve ballads he knew, it focused more on the hope the next morning would bring instead of all the things that had already been lost to the night. In den Herzen wirds warm Still schweigt Kummer und Harm Sorge des Lebens verhallt Freue dich, Morgen kommt bald

He sat by himself for a while, until he could eventually hear footsteps coming down from Beau's room. For a moment he considered extinguishing the flame and pretending that he had been down in the living room for no other reason than his headache. But he didn't want to disturb his cat again, and also... Beau was from the empire as well. She probably wasn't very big on holidays, but he hoped that she would at least understand.

“Hey, Caleb, have you-” she stopped, just reaching the bottom of the stairs now. And there must have been something in his face, because he could see her mentally piecing everything together in a few seconds. “You, uh, want some time by yourself?”

“No, some company would be nice,” he admitted, freely for once. “You don't have to, of course, I just-”

“No no, it's fine,” she assured him quickly, though she took a step back. “Let me just get something.”

He watched her leave, curious to see what she was talking about. And really, he shouldn't be surprised, he thought, as she came back shortly later with a candle of her own. Considering the colour and the way it was made, Caleb was sure she had nicked it from one of the Cobalt Soul locations.

Similar to what he had done, Beau knelt down in front of the table to place the candle down, lighting it on the little stump that had already been burning for a while now. But she didn't stay down, instead getting up again immediately, crossing her arms over her chest.

“For Yasha. And for Molly,” she said, as if she was announcing it to the room. Then, much quieter, she added: “And for Dairon.”

She sat down on the sofa after that, and they settled into a comfortable silence. But again, it didn't hold for long. Nott was the next to come upstairs, and, being from the Empire as well, grasped what was going on fairly quickly as well.

The candle she lit on Caleb's looked like she had taken it from her workspace, still grimy with soot and whatever else she'd been handling, but burning just fine.

“For Yasha, and Molly. And for Yeza and Luc,” she said, staying on her knees a bit longer before scooting back and leaning against Caleb's legs, apparently more comfortable on the floor. None of them had noticed Caduceus watching until then, but Caleb spotted their friend at the top of the stairs just as Nott was finishing. The firbolg disappeared again, and at first Caleb thought he was just giving them space. After all, he was sure that Caduceus had never heard of Barren Eve.

But their friend surprised them all when he joined again a moment later, a candle of pure bee's wax in his hand. He didn't kneel down, not familiar with the tradition, just bend over to light it on Caleb's stump and straightened up again after making sure it stood securely.

“For Yasha. For Molly. For my family and all those we have buried,” he said, his soothing baritone ringing through the room. They all nodded, and he sat down next to Beau to join them in their silence.

Another twenty minutes later Caleb was close to falling asleep, just as he heard the front door opening and the tell-tale sound of Caduceus' wind chimes that always followed. Probably aware that it was late, Fjord and Jester tried to stay quiet on their way inside, frequently hushing each other.

Caleb smiled to himself, and had to stifle a laugh as he heard one of them push something over in the hallway, sending whatever it was clattering to the ground. He heard Fjord curse, and a moment later the half orc and the tiefling finally stepped into the living room.

“Oh, hey... you guys are still awake,” Fjord greeted them, obviously confused as he saw the four of them sitting around their little candle collection.

Caleb just gave a nod, but caduceus quickly waved them over to himself. After a few shared whispered words, Caleb could see understanding dawn on both of their faces. More cautious on Fjord's part, but Jester seemed immediately excited. “Oooh, that sounds great!” she whispered, though it came out more like a stage whisper. “Can we join?!”

Caduceus answered, quiet enough so Caleb couldn't actually hear him, and they both nodded and walked off. Just like everyone else, they came back with a candle each. “I wanna go first!” Jester insisted, more or less quietly, as she sat down cross-legged in front of the table and lit her candle on Caleb's. “So this is for Yasha,” she started. “And for Molly. And for my Mama, and Bluud, and for Nugget and Sprinkles, and for Essek, and-” Fjord stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at him. “That's- I think that's enough people, Jester,” he said gently. “Let me?” “Oh, sure!” She stood up again, letting Fjord take her place. He knelt down properly, cleared his throat, and lit his candle on Caleb's before placing it besides Jester's. His was plain and white, while hers was a long, red, elegant looking one. Caleb was sure he'd seen them at the Lavish Chateau the last time they'd been there.

“For Yasha,” Fjord started, and Caleb recognized the tone he used. He had heard it before when Fjord was speaking to the Wildmother, or simply looking for guidance. “For Molly. And for every single person in this room.”

Heut' ist heilig die Nacht Chor der Engel erwacht Hört nur wie lieblich es schallt: Freue dich, Morgen kommt bald

Caleb's candle started to flicker, almost burned down completely by now. But despite the never-ending night in Xhorhas, he took comfort in knowing that the morning would come soon, and with it... there would always be hope.

*

Here's a translation of the song (the original is more directly geared towards christmas, I changed the text a bit):

Softly falls the snow, Quiet and frozen rests the lake. Grazeful sparkles the forest: Rejoice! Morning will soon be here.

In our hearts it’s warm, Silent are sorrow and grief, Life’s worries fade away: Rejoice! Morning will soon be here.

Today the night is holy, Choir of angels awakes, Just hear how lovely it sounds: Rejoice! Morning will soon be here.

And a youtube link in case you don't know it and would like to give it a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HY28Acy1N8

[theswiftarmy]

#12 - Swiftie House: A phone call with Joe Alwyn, The Lover’s Lover

“Swiftie House!” One of the two Swiftie Soldiers guarding the door to Taylor’s hotel room barked at the other. “I want to be in Swiftie House!”

“Well, this isn’t Harry Potter!  It doesn’t work like that—you can’t just pick a house!”  The other yelled back escalating their quarrel.

“Why not?  I want to be in Swiftie House!”

“Because it just doesn’t work like that.  And besides, if it WERE like Harry Potter, you couldn’t pick anyways, The Sorting Hat picks the house.  You sit on the chair and The Sorting Hat is placed on your head, then the hat picks FOR you.”

“Swiftie House, I WANT to be IN Swiftie House—“

“Well, you are in Swiftie House OBVIOUSLY —So, just calm down.“   He pointed towards Taylor’s room.

“Woo hoo! SWIFTIE HOUSE!!!”

“We’re all in Swiftie House.  Taylor is The Sorting Hat and SHE picked us to be in Swiftie House because SHE is The Lover.”

“Love her.  She’s The Lover.”  The first soldier said staring straight ahead in a hypnotic gaze.

“Yes, I know, that’s The Swift Army motto.”  The second soldier rolled his eyes.

“I LOVE being in Swiftie House!”  He said, breaking out of the hypnotized eyes.

“Well, technically we’re in a hotel right now and not a house—So, it’s Swiftie Hotel, but yes, we all love being in Swiftie House.  I love it too.“

“Guys, I’m on the phone with Joe!  Can you keep it down please?”  Taylor called out from inside one of the bedrooms in the opulent hotel suite.  She was lying sprawled out on a king-size bed in The Ritz-Carlton Suite at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Los Angeles.  It’s amazing how quickly she was able to travel back to LA from Nashville and still make it in time for her preshow rehearsals for the American Music Awards after storming The Big Machine Records offices—Which by now was completely surrendered to the Swifties—One could say that she’s quite the SWIFT traveler.  Eh?  Eh? Anyone?  No?  Okay then. I guess laughs weren’t allowed on this flight.

Taylor had a private plane complete with chirping crickets to keep any and all jokes related to her last name company since, unfortunately the laughs were not allowed to board the flight as they were considered checked baggage and were forced to ride in the cargo hold below, their “ha-ha” and “he-he” sounds muffled by the barrier that separated the passenger cabin above and baggage area below, additionally the sound of the engines droning away were enough to completely block out the laughs leaving only the chirping of crickets and the inflight music choice, every Taylor Swift song ever made, on shuffle, and on repeat.  And one Hanson song… MMMBop, because that song was catchy, and also why not?  You gotta problem with Taylor Swift’s music choice? I didn’t think so.

The taking of the Big Machine headquarters was her Fort Ticonderoga, an early win in the Big Machine war, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold’s ghosts would approve.  She stared at the leftover eggs benedict platter she ordered earlier, the coffee now cold, and her thoughts meandered.  The platter sat on a cart beside an Ethan Allen chair.  As she chatted with Joe Alwyn, her lover, she wondered if one day far in the future, the ghost of her name, Taylor Swift would become nothing more than a furniture collection, or perhaps a clothing line.  Historic battles fought and won, and now all people know is that catchy marketing jingle associated with a holiday sale event, or brand bearing the same name.  Funny how her lover would have been on the opposing side of a war all those years ago—If she were born at that time period, my how their current Romeo and Juliet love story would be different, although, her entire life would be different. In 1775 a woman didn’t even have a chance of being what Taylor Swift is today.  Times they are a changing… She was certainly no Margaret “Peggy” Shippen.

Although, as an interesting parallel with Peggy Shippen, yes, Taylor was born into a fairly well to do family in the same state of Pennsylvania, and much like Peggy, she longed for something more in life than to be courted off by a good looking boy—but unlike Peggy she had a choice over her own fate, she was no loyalist spy for the British army, instead, she commanded her own damn army.  That’s right. What women can achieve when you peel away the patriarch.  Am I right? Hold on Beyoncé is on the other line, she has something to add… Who run this world?  Girls.  That’s right, and you’ll like it.  Partly because you’re under Taylor’s mind control from her music and you have no choice but to like it.  But also, because times they are a changing…

The Swiftie Soldiers stood in a foyer by the suite entranceway, they were suppose to be practicing their dance moves as they were also background dancers for Taylor tomorrow night in the American Music Awards performance.

“Sorry Taylor!”  They hollered back.

Taylor looked over at the full size grand piano she would use to practice on. Lover had to be perfect, just like the lover on the other end of this phone call was.  She needed every second of her performance to shine so the whole world would be on her side.

“God, these backup dancers are driving me up the walls—I can’t take it Joe, ugh, I miss you so much.”

“And I miss you my dear.  Would you like me to say a bunch of British words for you with a British accent?”

“You’re already talking to me with a British accent.  But, oh, I love it when you talk British to me.  You’re my lover you magnetic force of a man. You London Boy, you.”

“I still don’t get why I can’t just pick my own house.”  The backup dancer Swiftie soldier guards began to bicker again.

“Because it does not work like that.”

“Guys!!!!  ON. THE.  PHONE.”  Taylor yelled.  “You’re supposed to be keeping a look out and practicing for tomorrow night.  Less talky, more walky and dancy.  I’m expecting that Tuna will be here any minute and then I’ll need to make another call to a certain someone to make an offer for an exchange for a certain SOMETHING.”

Sushi meowed from Taylor’s side.

“Well YOU can talk all you want.  That’s right.  Cats are an exception to the rule, to my rule, as queen of this Swiftie army.” She waved a stick with a feather at the end of it in front of the cat, and the cat reached for the feather, taunted by Taylor.  Sushi the cat was unable to get ahold of what it desired, but unable to stop trying. Whatever Taylor wanted the cat to do, it would have no choice.

“How come the cat gets to talk and we can’t?”  One of the dance guards said to the other in a lower voice trying to keep his question from reaching Taylor’s ears.

“Joe, my lover, can you hold on a second?”

“Yes dearest lover.  For you, I would walk around the world for your love.”

“Well, I appreciate that, but that’s not necessary right now, I’m just going to put you on hold.”

“Taylor, I will wait for all eternity.”

“I only need about thirty seconds.”

“Or thirty seconds, I’ll be here my Lover.”

“Oh, I know you will.”  She smiled and thought to herself, because you don’t have a choice.

Taylor placed the phone down and got up from the bed letting her hand run along the linens.  Plush 400-thread count linens—400 thread count!  What a waste she screamed in her mind.  400 thread count!  And my lover isn’t here with me to share this.

She picked up a sonic blast attack device and walked into the other room. She set the device to low and placed it on ‘auto’.  The device began to play a series of Taylor Swift songs mashed together and layered on top of one another.  She placed the device on a small table in the foyer near the two bickering Swiftie Dance Soldiers, and stared them both down.  She smiled sweetly.

“Guys… I need you to be quiet for the moment.“ She said soothingly. “Okay?”

The solders didn’t say a word, they simply nodded.

“Listen to my music, love my music.”  She sang out.  They continued nodding back.  “When the KatyCat Kitty Cat Guard cat convoy out on mission returns, you come get me. Until then…”  She placed her index finger over her lips, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“Yes. Taylor.”  They said, in a Siri like voice.

She patted them on the head.  “When The Lover is on the phone with her lover… She needs everyone to be quiet.”

They continued bobbing their head to the beat of the music in perfect synchronization.  

“Good.”  Taylor felt a surge of power pulse through her from head to toe.  She pivoted on her feet, and went back to her conversation with Joe.

@taylorswift

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

Villainous Heroics - Chapter 14

This turned into the longest chapter of the story thus far and this whole thing spawned from what was supposed to be a 1k word intro to the actual chapter. Well... I hope you enjoy, at least!

And before I forget, this story has fanfiction of it's own! Check out "trying to take care of you" by H_C which involves a story divergence after Chapter 12 of this story.

Enjoy!

                Click here to read the work on Archive Of Our Own.

                   Click here to read the work on Fan Fiction Net.

      If you found yourself enjoying this, then check out my Fiverr gig.

                             ⍣ I have a Patreon! NOW UPDATED!!⍣                               ☪ I have a tip jar! Buy me a coffee!☪

Summary: Eraserhead is an underground hero who is constantly busy and doesn’t have time to be dealing with new villains - even if they aren’t all that villainous and make the night interesting.

Present Mic is the latest up-and-coming villain in the world and he has a point to prove to everyone out there - as long as he doesn’t keep getting distracted by Eraserhead.

Aizawa Shota is someone who soon learns that there is more to someone than the mask they show to the world - especially when it comes to playing heroes and villains.

Yamada Hizashi learns that there is more to heroics and villainy than he could have ever thought - especially in a world where some heroes still care about those lost in the shadows.

(Inspired and dedicated to corndog-patrol’s Villain!Mic AU on Tumblr.)

         <<First/Chapter>> <<Last Chapter>> <<Next Chapter>>

                                            Chapter Fourteen

Within a single day Hizashi had managed to tear one of the stitches in his shoulder, drop his keys down a storm drain, lose his time card that would allow him to clock in for his shift, had missed lunch because his boss didn’t trust him to take one without his time card, and, to top it all off, the same boss had also rejected his request for overtime even though Hizashi was pulling almost sixty hours a week.

He was sore, he was tired, and all he wanted to do was go home and sleep, but, no, instead he was staring at the door that lead into his shitty apartment complex, remembering with vivid detail the way he had dropped his keys into the drain earlier in the morning. His emergency key was also inside because he had used it a few weeks ago when losing his last set of keys in a fight.

Hizashi stared at his door, vaguely hearing Snowball meowing for him, before he turned and shambled his way back down the stairs, trying to keep his shoulder as still as possible. The over the counter meds he had taken had stopped working hours ago and Hizashi wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not that he was hardly registering the pain anymore.

Feeling his phone buzz after he was halfway to the little convenience store a few blocks away, Hizashi sighed and dug it out, glancing at the message preview, ‘Yamada-san, can you take my afternoon shift? I know you open but I need to pick up Yuki from his father’s…’ Checking the sender, Hizashi groaned as he closed his eyes.

Kameyo was a single mother with a four-year-old who just received a quirk that changed his sweat into acid. There was no way she could afford to lose her source of income or even lose too many hours. If she didn’t find a replacement for her shift, then their boss would probably cut her back by fifteen hours at least. Fuck.

‘Consider me on the job, Kameyo-san!!’ Hizashi debated not sending the text for a moment before he went through with it, watching until he got confirmation. His phone then flickered to show a low battery warning before shutting off altogether. 

Hizashi stared down at his phone and felt like everything he wanted to say was vibrating and buzzing throughout his body, pushing him closer and closer to some sort of edge. He didn’t realize he was shaking until he was winding his arm back and throwing his phone away from him as hard as he could, swearing and just barely holding his quirk back as he realized he threw it with the shoulder that had been shot just a short while ago.

“Huh. And here I thought you couldn’t swear.” Hizashi went utterly still, fingers clutching at his shoulder as if that would hold him together. It didn’t seem to be helping as everything felt even worse at realizing just who those words belonged to. After all, Hizashi could be deaf and blind and he would still know that voice. Apparently, the gods hadn’t made him suffer enough recently. “You know, it’s pretty irresponsible to be going around and throwing phones.”

At that, Hizashi slowly lifted his gaze up, swallowing as he saw Aizawa, in full pro hero gear, was holding Hizashi’s undamaged phone. If it had hit the ground, it probably would have cracked and Hizashi would have been even more screwed. It took a few moments to find his words, Hizashi almost tired enough to forget he wasn’t Present Mic in that moment. Fuck why did Aizawa always have to make things so difficult.

“Sorry, Aizawa-san. It’s… been a long night.” His body shook like there was a festering wound embedded under his skin, Hizashi rubbing at his throat and looking back down, doing his hardest to not scratch. He was an adult. He could handle himself, now.

“Mm.” Startling at the tap to his cheek, Hizashi glanced up once more, Aizawa patiently holding his phone out for him to take. “Then you won’t mind if I escort you home. Last time you were out this late you almost got shot.”

“I can promise that’s not a regular occurrence,” Hizashi said quickly, frowning a bit at the disbelieving snort. Maybe as Present Mic he got into trouble, but as Hizashi he was boring at best and uninteresting at most. “Besides, I, uh… can’t go home.”

“Why not?” With the man’s goggles resting on his forehead, Hizashi saw the way Aizawa’s eyes narrowed, a glint of red in the very center as he stared him down. Hizashi wondered if Aizawa knew how terrifying he could be.

“Oh, well, uh…” Trailing off, Hizashi ducked his face down and mumbled the reason quickly, praying Aizawa wouldn’t push.

“My quirk isn’t super hearing.” Ah, but then again, it was stubborn and brilliant Aizawa who could never let things go.

“I… dropped my keys down a storm drain.” The dreaded, awkward silence Hizashi was expecting never came and instead there was a quiet little laugh. As well, instead of feeling embarrassed, Hizashi felt something tight within him start to relax, Aizawa trying to hide his smile in his scarf. There was no hiding the amusement in his eyes, though. If he and Aizawa were anyone else, Hizashi might have called that look fond. “Yeah, like I said, it’s been a long night.”

“Come on,” Aizawa chuckled, walking forward and grabbing the front of Hizashi’s shirt before spinning him around and tugging him along to get him moving back towards his apartment. Hizashi was relatively sure Aizawa didn’t know where he lived, so the man had probably just made a lucky guess. “Do you leave your windows unlocked?”

“In this neighborhood?” Hizashi scoffed, trying not to flinch at the look Aizawa gave him. It was the same one he always gave Mic and it had Hizashi tucking into himself and fear that the other knew. “I keep one unlocked for emergencies in case I get broken into or something, but it’s not the one over the fire escape.”

“That’s fine, I can get in and then unlock the door from the front.” Right. Okay. Aizawa was helping him back into his apartment. Maybe he was trying to see where Present Mic lived? “Lead the way, then.”

Nodding and moving to walk beside the man, Hizashi chewed on his lip for a moment before working up his courage. “Um, Aizawa-san… Why are you helping me? I mean, surely a hero has more important things to deal with,” Hizashi aimed for a jovial tone and a laugh, but it must have fell flat because Aizawa looked so serious when he looked over at him.

“I think you’re plenty important, Yamada-san.” This man was bad for his heart. “And don’t bother with the honorifics. They make me feel old.”

“I hardly think you’d be considered old seeing as you’re still in your twenties.” There was a burst of deep, thrumming laughter, Hizashi almost tripping over his feet at realizing he had made Aizawa laugh.

“How old do you think I am?” Ah, that question when paired with a laugh meant Hizashi was about to feel deeply embarrassed.

“I don’t… Twenty-six? Twenty-seven?” That seemed about right. Aizawa was messy and often had tangled hair and stubble, but his face was still smooth and young.

“I’m thirty-one,” Aizawa laughed again, this laugh softer and more subdued. “I’m honored you thought I was the same age as you, though.”

“Wha- What?” This time it was Hizashi whose laughter bubbled over. “Well, good news for you, Aizawa-san, we are the same age.” Aizawa stared at him as if he couldn’t believe it, Hizashi trying to smother his laughter.

“You should make it more obvious.” For a gleeful second, Hizashi could pretend that the man was blushing. “And I thought I told you to stop with the honorifics.”

“Mm, alright, but only if you promise to do the same,” Hizashi said, his nerves disappearing in the wake of Aizawa’s smile before they got the chance to grow.

“I suppose we have known each other for a few months, now.” It was only Aizawa’s calm and relaxed pace that made Hizashi realize the other had been talking about the coffee shop and not the face they were arch enemies. It was hard to believe that Aizawa had known his civilian self for months and yet they had never talked beyond those short few minutes in the coffee shop every other morning. “Is this your complex up here?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Hizashi had never been overly embarrassed about the places he had lived in his life, but the fact that Aizawa was seeing his shithole of an apartment made him feel nervous and like he needed to explain himself. “It doesn’t exactly look the best, but it’s not all that bad. It’s just, you know…”

“It’s a place to live.” Aizawa had an expression that could almost be called soft, the man giving him the trace of a smile. “It reminds me of where I lived until I graduated U. A.”

“Oh.” Actually, now that he thought about it, Aizawa had mentioned something about growing up in a neighborhood like this one. “You lived somewhere like… here?”

Aizawa was silent a moment, looking to the ground and then back to the complex as he nodded, “I lived over on Block 27 in this area.”

For a moment, Hizashi’s mind was completely silent. That was enough to shock him, but what Aizawa said took precedence because what, “You’re shitting me. You- Block 27?”

“It’s a bit on the outskirts and no doubt my complex was torn down, but yes.” Aizawa looked over at him, raising his eyebrows. “Are you-”

“I lived three blocks away from there for almost four years when I was in my last few years of school. Are you kidding me? You were right there-” Hizashi’s anger was shot through with a spike of pain, Hizashi unable to do anything but gasp and clutch at his shoulder.

“Yamada!” Hands were catching him by his arms before the pain could knock him over, Hizashi unable to even appreciate the fact that it was Aizawa holding him as he tried to block out the pain. “What happened? Are you alright?”

“I-” Hizashi winced and grit his teeth and closed his eyes for a long moment. “I messed up my shoulder a few days ago and I haven’t taken anything for a while, is all.”

“Come on, let’s get you inside. Which door is yours?” Aizawa tugged him along even as Hizashi mumbled the door, hating himself for how weak he was when he honestly almost blacked out while walking up some steps.

He felt himself propped up against the wall, the cool concrete soaking through the back of his jacket and dragging out a small sigh of relief. He heard a mutter from Aizawa, but before he could question it, the man was patting at his cheek.

“Oi, stay awake, alright? I don’t want to pick your lock when that’d just fuck up your ability to use a key on it in the future. I’ll go around through the window and let you in as soon as I can, alright?”

Cracking his eyes open, Hizashi swallowed down a million words before settling on a quiet, “Sorry.”

“For what?” Aizawa frowned, looking as if he honestly didn’t know. The man was too nice for his own good, honestly.

“I’m a grown adult,” Hizashi muttered, gritting his teeth for a moment when the pain spiked again. “I should be able to take care of myself and not waste a pro’s time with this.”

“You’re not wasting my time, Yamada.” Aizawa stared at him as if he was holding back words of his own before turning away. “I’ll be right back.”

“Do you even know what window to look for?” Hizashi yelled, completely unsurprised when Aizawa vanished without an answer. Honestly, that man.

Leaning back against the wall, Hizashi tried to calm himself down and focus through the pain. He had been through a lot worse than a shot shoulder, but damn if it didn’t hurt when he was trying to take care of the wound on his own.

One of the EMT workers at the bank that night had been in possession of a minor healing quirk so Hizashi at least avoided a trip to the hospital, but it was still a nasty wound. It was also easily identifiable as a bullet wound - especially to a pro hero that was so keen on helping him out. Jeez, it wasn’t like their coffee was that good.

Pushing himself off the wall, he startled as his door swung open with an anticlimactic little swing, Hizashi letting out a quiet laugh, “Wow. That was pretty fast. Consider me impressed, Aizawa… Ah.” Hizashi blinked, staring at where Aizawa’s arms were full of a purring Snowball. Aizawa was absolutely beaming. “I see you found my cat.”

“I thought you would be the type to have a small cat.” Aizawa didn’t look willing to let Hizashi’s cat down anytime soon, but Hizashi supposed Snowball was a pretty great cat. This was also the most Hizashi had ever seen Aizawa smile, which was… equally wonderful and unnerving.

“He is small!” Or, well, he had been, at least, before Snowball’s sudden growth that still left Hizashi scratching his head some days. The cat was barely even a year old, after all, if that.

“Do I need to teach you the difference between small and massive?” Aizawa said, cocking an eyebrow with a hint of a smirk.

It took more effort than it should have to push down all the dirty jokes that sprung to mind. He was Hizashi right now, not Present Mic. And Hizashi needed to shuffle his way inside to at least get his shoes off, although he ended up staring at where Aizawa’s boots were already on the ground. It looked like he had taken them off after climbing through the window and somehow that, of all things, made Hizashi remember just how stupidly in love he was with this man.

“I’m not sure what breed he is, you know. I thought he could be a maine coon or a forest cat, maybe, that was thrown out by a breeder or something, but the structure is all wrong. You know, he does shed.”

“If I was worried about shedding fur, then I wouldn’t have my own cat,” Aizawa snorted, finally letting Snowball down and moving to help support Hizashi as he kicked his shoes off. Hizashi was trying not to laugh at seeing the black jumpsuit was already covered in fur - most likely the reason it took Hizashi a few moments to realize what Aizawa had said.

“You have a cat?” That… made sense, but it was also stupidly cute. He suspected Aizawa had a cat, at least, but it was nice to get that confirmation. “You know you have to tell me their name, now.”

“Only if you tell me his name,” Aizawa said, nodding down at Snowball. Hizashi was happily about to tell the man before he remembered with horrifying clarity that it was Present Mic to tell the man that he had a cat named Snowball. It was already dangerous enough just talking to him like he was, now.

“I, uh, maybe next time. Right now I should really get inside and check on my shoulder and everything.” Did Aizawa even suspect anything yet? Hizashi hadn’t realized how comfortable he was until just that moment, but if he slipped too much… it wouldn’t be too hard to connect Yamada Hizashi to Present Mic. Villains had already done it themselves, after all, with that Trigger dealer, and Hizashi knew that Aizawa could find out through the police station any time he really wanted to know.

Actually, now that he thought about it, why hadn’t he? Maybe the first few times could be explained away as not caring enough, but after all they had gone through, Aizawa had to have looked into it by now, right? Nothing had changed, though, between them - both as Present Mic and as Yamada Hizashi. Was he just not worth it, then? That had to have been it.

Hizashi wasn’t worth the effort and Aizawa had never bothered to try and figure out who he really was, because why bother with something that wasn’t even interesting. He had read all of this so wrong. To think he once thought there was a chance. No. There was no way-

“Yamada.” Jerking at the sharp tone, it was only Aizawa’s hands on his arms that kept him from jerking back and hurting himself. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Oh- Sorry, no, I’m- It’s been a pretty bad day. Sorry, I should let you get back to your patrol. Can’t leave these streets undefended, after all!”

“I was saying that you should at least let me help you look over your shoulder.” If it wasn’t for Snowball’s meows and purrs, there would have been absolute silence in the apartment.

“What? No- Why would you want to?” One sentence and Aizawa had managed to throw all of his fears and questions into doubt. “You’re a pro hero who’s supposed to be underground. I probably shouldn’t even know your name.”

“I doubt you’re about to run out in the streets and tell every villain there is my real name,” Aizawa laughed, moving to close the door that Hizashi had left open since he thought Aizawa had been about to leave. “Come on. You’re looking ready to pass out.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Hizashi muttered, unable to bring himself to fight as Aizawa led him further into the apartment. “I’m not much a fan of pity.”

“Pity is the last thing I feel about you.” There was something in those words, but Hizashi was nowhere near the proper state of mind to try and figure it out. “Which door leads to your bathroom?”

“Second on the right,” Hizashi sighed, managing a small smile as Snowball led the way with loud, vibrating meows, Aizawa looking to be holding back laughter. “Sorry. He’s as loud as me, sometimes.”

They fell into a more comfortable silence this time around as Aizawa pulled and pushed Hizashi until he was sitting on the edge of the tub, a first aid kit opened beside him. Aizawa looked like he was hesitating before finally meeting his eyes, “Would you be okay if I helped you get your shirt and jacket off? If you want to keep the shirt on, I can try to work around it.”

“Oh.” That was… oddly sweet. It might be safer since Hizashi didn’t know what he would do with Aizawa’s hands on him, but, well, he was always a bit selfish. “Sure, just let me know if you need help or something, I guess.”

As Aizawa started to work, Hizashi clamped his mouth shut and tried to suppress any and all noises as Aizawa worked his jacket off first and then his shirt, slow and methodical with each movement. He was so caught up in staring, he almost missed the quiet, “Talk to me, Yamada.”

“Oh, man, I think you’re the first one to ever ask for me to talk. Most people are always trying to tell me to shut up.” There was no joke that maybe he should go back to being silent, Aizawa only calm and relaxed as he nodded like he wanted Hizashi to keep talking. “This is a distraction from the pain, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” At least he was honest. “Tell me something that’s been on your mind, tonight. Something that made this day such a bad one.”

“I mean, I already told you about the keys,” Hizashi said, scrambling for words and scrunching his eyes shut as Aizawa started working the shirt around his hurt shoulder. “Um, okay, the phone thing- I threw it away because it died right after I took on a coworker’s shift because of a bunch of reasons, so now I need to work morning and afternoon, tomorrow.”

“Do you normally pick up more shifts than you can handle?” Aizawa asked, Hizashi letting his silence speak for itself. “Thought so. You seem the type to cause yourself stress to save others from it.”

“Ah, how rude to assume things of someone you barely know,” Hizashi teased with a forced grin, Aizawa’s hands faltering against him before he was moving to prod at his shoulder. For the first few moments, Hizashi had to control himself from saying or doing anything stupid as he felt callused fingertips trailing against his skin and searing a path into him that he would likely never forget. It then took everything in him to not activate his quirk when Aizawa pressed against the edges of the wound because that would let Aizawa know who he was for certain. 

“Sorry. It doesn’t look infected, but it doesn’t look all that good, either.” Aizawa seemed to know what he was doing and Hizashi didn’t bother to try and look. It had been bad enough when he had to change the bandages on his own the first time and had almost fainted. He wasn’t aware he had completely silenced himself, however, until Aizawa was patting at his side, startling him. “Talk to me, Yamada.”

“Oh, um- Right. My shifts- I don’t mind. She’s been through a lot, more than me, it feels like, so I don’t mind helping her. It’s our boss that’s the real jerk- I mean, you know those cat muffins we sell? What am I saying, of course you do, you always buy some.”

“They’re cute,” Aizawa said simply, Hizashi wanting nothing more than to coo over the man and tease him and maybe sneak in a kiss or two to the cheek and maybe- Ah, okay, right, pain was very good for focusing his thoughts. “What about the cat muffins?”

“I was kind of at fault for when we brought them back, right? Since I was the one to ask my boss about them, he decided that I should be the one to make them, so my usual morning shift got moved to where I have to come in an hour or two early. I mean, I’ve adjusted, by now, but it was awful when it started.”

“You… You make those muffins?” The small, soft tone of awe had Hizashi’s heart tripping into overtime, the look in Aizawa’s eyes making him hope for a second. The moment of hope was probably the cruelest joke of them yet. “Why would you go through all that? They can’t sell that well.”

“I…” It was because he had worried about his ‘enemy’ not eating in the mornings. He had seen this scruffy and tired man and worried because he knew how much work he put into everything he did. Aizawa had seemed sad about when they stopped and Hizashi had wanted to see him smile, or be given that small smirk of his, or even just look like he didn’t have so much weight on his shoulders. He wanted to thank the hero so badly, so he had done what little he could to try to help. “I guess I don’t really have a reason.” He had several.

Aizawa seemed to know there was more he wasn’t saying, but he finally shook his head, Hizashi shivering as he felt some sort of cream spread over the wound after Aizawa dabbed at it with some disinfectant. Aizawa’s voice felt more like a balm than the actual medicine, “You, Yamada, are something else entirely.”

“Guess I am,” Hizashi chuckled weakly, smile feeling a bit more real when Snowball, tired of being ignored, jumped onto the edge of the bathtub and shoved himself against Hizashi’s side. Aizawa looked like he was trying not to laugh, Hizashi giving one for him. “You know, I actually really like all his purring and meowing. It makes this place feel less quiet.”

“That’s one of the reasons I love my own cat,” Aizawa said quietly, digging through the first aid kit again. “She makes the room feel less empty.” Hizashi had been about to respond before he felt a bandage pressed against his wound - probably to keep it from bleeding considering his torn stitch. “Sorry. There’s nothing in here to really numb the area.”

“I have a bottle of wine somewhere,” Hizashi managed to wheeze, grinning a bit at Aizawa’s laugh. He must have started going silent again, because he felt Aizawa give him a little nudge as he started wrapping his shoulder up tightly.

“Talk to me.” Fuck, why was it that both as Mic and Yamada it was always Aizawa that wanted to hear him talk. Hizashi didn’t know how to deal with that and now it was coming at him from both sides of his life. “It can be about anything.”

The pain spiked for a moment and the words were tumbling out, “Fuck, okay, uh, it’s hard to believe that we used to live only a few blocks away when you were growing up? High school, right? That’s around the time I lived there- Fuck, we could have seen each other and never even known.”

“Almost done,” Aizawa said quietly before his tone picked up. “And we never met. I think I would remember someone with hair like yours.”

“Nah, I used to keep it really short,” Hizashi laughed, the sound pained more than anything. “I wonder what would have changed if we had met back then or more than just in passing, maybe. That would have been fifteen or sixteen years ago, right? Jeez, that’s half our lives. We could have known each other for half our lives if things had been different.”

“I don’t know… I think I like this version.” Aizawa sounded further away. Prying his eyes open, Hizashi saw the bright lights of his bathroom that were almost blinding since he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses, Aizawa sitting back with a small smile. “The torn stitch didn’t look good, but they’re all dissolvable, so you shouldn’t have to go to the hospital. This bandage should last a few days, too. By then you should be healed enough to be able to change them on your own.”

“My hero,” Hizashi laughed, taking a moment to try and relax as Aizawa put away the first aid kit as if he did this frequently. Considering the fact he was a pro, he probably did do things like this frequently.

When he focused back, he saw that Aizawa was holding out a glass of water and a couple of pain relievers. Hizashi took them gratefully, near draining the cup of water before he looked back up, trying not to let Snowball knock him into the floor where he was trying to get more attention again.

“I know I’ve said this before, but you’ve seriously saved me this time around.” There was a quiet laugh, Hizashi biting his lip for a moment as he remembered the conversation he and Aizawa had after the hero had recovered from that USJ attack. “The world could use more heroes like you.”

“Maybe.” Aizawa clicked his tongue, Snowball leaping into his arms in a heartbeat. The sight of the stern hero Eraserhead holding a loud, purring cat was enough to make Hizashi laugh up a storm. “What about you, Yamada?”

“What about me what?” Hizashi asked as soon as his breathing was under control, giggles still slipping out of him.

“Did you ever want to be a hero?” There was once a time where that question would have sent him into a panic, but this was Aizawa and he wasn’t Present Mic. Besides, it would be nice to be honest, for once.

“When I was younger,” Hizashi finally said, standing up slowly and carefully as he set his now empty glass down on the edge of the sink. “In our society, it’s all kids want to be when they grow up, after all.”

“What changed?” Aizawa didn’t look like he was paying much attention, but Hizashi knew how sharp and clever this man was. If he let slip even one clue that he was Present Mic, Aizawa would connect the pieces together in no time at all.

“I… think it was a lot of little things, honestly.” He didn’t want to lie, but there was no harm in being careful. “I started thinking differently not long after middle school. That’s when everything really changed.”

“It’s a shame we never met.” The man’s voice was soft as he let Snowball back down, and when he looked back up, his gaze was even softer. “I think we would have been decent friends.”

“Oh, hero…” His only saving grace was that for once he spoke the silly nickname in Japanese instead of English. “You give people too much credit.”

“I think you give yourself too little credit.” Aizawa stared at him and Hizashi watched as his smile turned into something he could only call beautiful. “I have a feeling that you would be an amazing hero, Yamada.”

Jeez… Aizawa Shouta was far too much of a hero.

                                                           ::

It had taken almost another hour, but soon Hizashi had been tucked away in bed with his door safely locked, Aizawa back out on patrol while Hizashi set huddled up in blankets with a cat purring on his stomach.

“Block 27…” With his hearing aids out, Hizashi could only rely on his thoughts to really know what he had said. He usually thought over everything silently at night, but these thoughts felt too big for silence. “Friends, huh?”

Eraserhead was a hero that was better than them all. Not only had he stopped to help a civilian he didn’t even really know, but he had stayed with Hizashi long enough to even help him with his shoulder - and he hadn’t even asked what had happened to him.

Hizashi wondered what would be different if they had met when they had been going to high school or even junior high. If they had met, would Aizawa somehow have managed to convince him that he could be a hero? Would Hizashi have tried for U. A.?

There was no way to know, but Hizashi indulged for just a moment in the idea of being childhood best friends. He thought about the two of them meeting, both deathly silent until Aizawa managed to coax words out of him like he had in the bathroom.

They could have gone to U. A. together. There could have been a day where Hizashi would grow to love Aizawa as much as he did now, but in that version he would have called the man Shouta and would have been less scared to share his feelings. Hell, maybe they would have been heroes, together, too. Above all, there was a chance that they could have been friends from the very start.

It was a nice little dream, but then Hizashi remembered their long nights of chasing each other and fighting in the streets, sharp words flying just as quick as fists and weapons. Their relationship here, if it could be called that, was fast and unsteady and went from fighting with all they had to Aizawa sitting with him silently on a rooftop in peace.

It was mad, and crazy, and it shouldn’t make sense no matter how he looked at it, but Hizashi agreed with one thing Aizawa had said that night.

No matter how bad his life was at times or how confusing it all got to be, Hizashi could honestly say that he liked this version of it all. It made him more appreciative of all the good that was in his life - like tonight.

He was tucked away in bed surrounded by covers and a large cat, his shoulder had been carefully cleaned and bandaged, and he had managed a conversation with Aizawa that was just that. A conversation with Aizawa as himself. Sure the rest of his life was a wreck that was slowly unraveling, but with nights like these…

With nights like these, where Aizawa smiled at him and told him that he would be an amazing hero, well.

Hizashi almost believed it.

[lachlantrash]

“I’m right where I belong”

You get off the plane, walking a few steps before feeling your heartbeat pick up pace and the nerves settle in. You're in Australia, you actually moved to Australia. Immediately realizing your four cats have been trapped in a plane for the past 20 hours, you suck up your nerves and make your way to finding Lachlan so you can welcome your cats to their new home. And oh, do you find him.

"Babe?" He says before you have a chance to say anything, standing from the airport seat and taking his long strides to you and instantly pulling you into his chest, holding you to him as if he hasn't seen you in years. Yeah, that's a stretch seeing as just three months ago he visited you in America, but you two talk daily and just being with him in person is amazing.

"I love you, Lachlan." You murmur, holding him just as tight as he's holding you. You feel him smile into your hair, planting a kiss on top of your head. He pulls away from you only to kiss you, a deep kiss showing just how much emotion he's been storing for you over the three months.

"I love you so, so much. You're here, you're actually fucking here." He says, pulling you back into his chest to hold you close again.

"I am, I am here... And I really hate the idea of ruining this moment, but my cats are probably scared out of their minds in the crates and I need to get my baggage..." You trail off, making Lachlan laugh as he lets go of you.

"Right, we actually have to get you to your apartment, I'm sorry." He laughs. "Okay, you go get your cats and I will get your baggage? It's labelled, right?" He asks, making you nod.

"Yeah... Three suitcases came with me and everything else is being shipped. Should I just wait at pet pick-up for you?" You ask, not knowing anything about the layout of this airport.

"Yeah, I'll bring your luggage to the car and then I'll drive the car to that end of the airport, and I'll come help you carry your cats out of here, then we can drive you to your new place and you can see what little furniture I've actually set up for you." Lachlan laughs, placing a quick kiss on your head before you two part ways. You quickly walk to where you see a line of people waiting to collect their pets, groaning because you're worried about your babies. Eventually you get to the front of the line, shocking the man when you show him the four identification papers for your cats. He's obviously surprised someone would fly four cats to another continent, but there's no way you'd leave them behind. It takes him a few minutes, but he comes back with this cart of sorts with the cat carriers stacked on them.

"So you can bring this up to the exit, but the cart has to stay in the airport. Sorry ma'am." He says, and you nod. You move out of the way so the next person can be rekindled with her pets, stopping to check on your cats.

"Hey guys, mom's here. Don't worry, we're almost at our new home. You guys are probably scared, Lachlan will be here soon. Then we'll all go explore the new place together." You say, standing in front of the cart near the closest exit. When one of your cats, Hera, sees you she meows, walking to the front of the crate and scratching at it making you want to cry. "I know honey, almost time." You say, petting her paw through the cage comfortingly.

"Are you guys ready to go?" You hear Lachlan say, making you whip your head around.

"Let's go quick, they're all sad and it's breaking my heart." You pout, grabbing Crash and Hera's crates since they were on top, leaving Lachlan to grab Paris and Storm. He grabs their crates with ease, using his hip to move the cart against a wall before leading you out to where he parked the car. You two get the cats into the back of the car somehow, your luggage all in the trunk. "How far away do I live from the airport?" You ask.

"Like, an hour. They'll be fine, and don't worry I made sure to get a litter box set up in both of your bathrooms, there's at least dry cat food out, and a water bowl all ready for them when they get home. I knew that'd be your top priority." He laughs, reaching over the console for your hand.

"I'm sorry... I'm really excited to be here, I really am, I just want them to be settled. Then hopefully, you and I can find the bed you hopefully have set up?" You add, regretting it immediately after with a groan.

"Wow, you want to find the bed with me already?" He chuckles, making you roll your eyes.

"Aren't you so funny? I meant we can cuddle and talk and just love each other because fuck Lachlan, I'm actually here for good. I'm in Australia. With my cats. With you." You say, squeezing his hand as it sets in.

"I know, it's all hitting me too. You're actually here for good, you're staying in Australia (Y/N). I hope you like how I set up some of the furniture you ordered, if you don't like it obviously I was planning on still being at your place tomorrow so I could help you rearrange it any way you'd like it-" He says, getting cut off by a long meow in the back of the car.

"Storm it's okay, we'll be there soon hopefully. You guys will love the new place, it has lots of windows and I'm even setting up a pet room." You talk to the back of the car, making Lachlan laugh.

"You just talked to a cat, you do know that?" He asks, taking a brief look at you before focusing on the road again.

"Yes, I do know that. Sorry my cats have never been on a twenty hour plane ride, they're probably thinking they're off to the worst vet trip yet." You say, making Lachlan laugh.

"Oh c'mon, you have to admit that was funny." He says, and though you're trying not to let it show you let out a small laugh at what you said. "We just got into your town, another five minutes and we'll be there." He adds, making the butterflies return to you. You'll be at your apartment soon, your new apartment in a whole damn new continent. "How are you feeling, babe?" He asks, trying to read your expression as you see the apartments sign on the side of the road.

"I'm great, Lachlan. I'm so, so great and excited." You say honestly as he pulls into the parking lot, getting the spot as close as he can to your apartment. Luckily the place you chose to rent from was moreso townhomes, being split side by side instead of into multiple floors. It makes it easier to bring all of your belongings in, and before you know it all the cat crates and luggage bags are in. "Are you sure you have all the windows and doors leading to the outside closed?" You ask.

"Yes (Y/N), it's safe to release your cats from their confinements." He laughs, watching you eagerly unlock all the cages to give your cats their freedom. "Oh, hello to you too... Storm?" Lachlan says, hoping he said the right name to the cat rubbing against him.

"That's Crash, but you tried." You smile, walking up to Lachlan and wrapping your arms around him. "Do you remember what you promised me?" You mumble, looking up at him.

"What did I promise you?" He asks, putting his hands on your hips and pressing you into him.

"You promised you'd bring me a Lachlan oversized hoodie, did you forget it!? I'll leave, I'll go back to America right now if I don't get that hoodie to sleep in tonight." You say playfully, pulling out of the embrace.

"Oh, that! No, I didn't forget, it's upstairs in your bedroom on your bed. Do you want to go see your room? You're probably tired, we can go lie down... Your cats and luggage will be fine, I'll help you organize tomorrow. I'll leave the door to your cat room open so they can explore the one cat condo I set up." He laughs.

"Thank you, that would be great." You sigh in relief, going up the stairs and luckily remembering the layout of the apartment you walk into the right room. Lachlan has the queen size bed set up, and a dresser there too. There's boxes of other furniture he obviously knows will come in here but it isn't unboxed yet. He even went to the trouble of making the bed, and placing the huge hoodie folded at the end of it. You waste no time in stripping out of your disgusting airplane clothes, leaving nothing but your underwear and bra on before slipping into the hoodie that goes well past your thighs.

"God, if you didn't look so sleepy I'd definitely try to make a move on you right now." You hear Lachlan sigh from the doorway.

"Oh, c'mon now! It's my first night in Australia and you're already trying to sleep with me?" You ask, plopping down on the made bed. "This is so fucking comfy, you picked a great mattress." You moan in satisfaction, crawling up to get under the covers.

"Well when you make noises like that, my mind begins to get ideas..." He trails off, taking his shirt off and joining you in the bed after throwing it across the room.

"Don't make a habit of doing that, I will have a clean apartment." You fake threaten, cuddling up to his chest. "This is great, I can actually be in your arms right now. And anytime we want, we can just be with each other. We don't have to wait hours for a flight, we're a thirty minute drive from each other." You say, looking up at Lachlan's face, taking in every detail you've memorized from the last time you saw him back in Florida. The different hues of blue that come together perfectly to form the eyes you're in love with holding most of your attention.

"Technically, it's a 34 minute drive..." Lachlan says, a smirk on his face as you roll your eyes.

"Oh you're right, suddenly that's unbearable... If that's the case I'm better off just moving back to America." You sigh, looking at him with a teasing smile.

"If that's what you want it's okay, you don't have to stay here... I won't end our relationship if you decide you don't want to live here, okay? Remember that, please remember that." He says, planting a kiss on the top of your head.

"Lachlan, I'm right here where I belong. I'm not going to leave, unless you give me a hell of a reason to. I don't plan on leaving, I want to be here." You say, sitting up to plant an actual kiss on his lips. "We have a lot of unpacking and furniture shopping to do, but I really want to be here. With you, and nobody else."

"I'll happily unpack and furniture shop with you if it means I can cuddle with you at least weekly." He says, gently pulling you back into his bare chest just so he can hold you.

"Only weekly? I was thinking a few times a week, I'm a bit disappointed." You sigh dramatically, making him chuckle.

"Well if that's what my girl wants, I'll happily oblige. We can definitely spend as much time as you want cuddling." He says, squeezing you closer.

"Don't promise me that, we'll never leave bed and you won't be able to make videos anymore if you do." You laugh.

"I don't see a problem with us never leaving bed..." He trails off, adjusting the way you two are cuddling so he can kiss you.

"God, do you only think about sex!?" You sigh, making him laugh.

"It's been three months, and you're not wearing any pants right now and we're cuddling, I'm sorry. I'll try to control myself if that's what you want, but don't be upset if I keep making comments." He says, and as an after thought adds, "Plus you're wearing a hoodie with my name on it and I think that's so fucking hot."

"Fine, fine... We got some cuddles in so I guess if we both want it to go further..." You trail off, allowing Lachlan to kiss you again, this time his intentions clearly portrayed.

"So you want it too?" He asks against your lips, not moving away enough to keep his lips from brushing against yours as he speaks. He's hovering over you now, waiting for a response as he begins kissing the side of your neck.

"I've wanted it since I saw you wearing an all black t-shirt at the airport... But when you took your shirt off I was reminded of it. I was just playing hard to get." You say, eagerly moving his lips back to yours.

"Oh princess, you don't have to play anything to have me." He says before fully connecting his lips to yours, ending in a great first night at your new home.

[ginnyweatherby]

Ev’rybody Wants to be a Cat

Does anyone still read Beauty and the Beast fic?  Yes?  No?  Maybe?

Well, for anyone who does, because I know I sure miss it, here’s a short story about Gaston adopting a kitten, as requested by @gingersnap0369

Sorry it took so long to get this out, but I hope you like it!  I can never seem to get enough of my faves with kittens.

He'd often been told thinking was a dangerous pastime, but this was a good idea for once.

Ever since his young bachelor days, Gaston had fantasized about having a sizable family.  The picturesque vision of coming home to a loving wife, a gaggle of children, and a dog or two to top it off.  He couldn't shake the smile that came to his face any time he imagined playing catch with a half dozen little boys that looked so much like him.

Despite all his attempts and efforts, the years passed faster than he thought they would, and now Gaston was a hair over thirty, and still lived alone.  It was fine at first, but he was beginning to feel trapped - not so unlike the luckless foxes he liked to hunt.  He felt like he was running out of time.

As much as he loved them, he never assumed Lefou would be the one to have two young kids underfoot while he was still single and childless.  When Charlotte would hug him hello or Barney would show off a craft he made in preschool, Gaston often wondered if he would ever have that with children of his own.

But he wasn't discouraged.  Gaston was a stubborn man, and he knew he would find someone to settle down with soon.

Still.

The house was lonely.

Which was how he found himself at Villeneuve Animal Shelter, his heart set on finding a new furry companion.  If Gaston wanted to start on that perfect family, a dog seemed like a good place to begin.

He wandered through the different rooms, in awe of all the pets there were to choose from.  He knew he wanted a larger dog, one that would make a good guard dog, but was still friendly enough to play fetch with.

He met rottweilers and shepherds and pitbulls of all colors, allowing each of the animals sniff or lick his hands, but none of them seemed to mesh.  They were all fine dogs, and he was sure they would make fine pets, but he didn't feel… it.  That feeling in the pit of his stomach that something clicked.  That he'd met the pet for him.

Until he saw it.

A flash of orange that zoomed by so fast Gaston wasn't sure what he'd seen.

“What was that?”  He asked the woman who had been guiding him around, introducing him to the different dogs - all of which had dissolved into a frenzy of competitive barking.

Before he got an answer, another volunteer came scurrying into the room, quick on the tail of whatever orange blur had entered.  From behind a cabinet, she pulled out something - or someone, rather - tiny and ginger.

A kitten.

“This little one has been trying to escape for days,”  The woman said, as she flattened the fur on the kitten's head.  “Whoever brings him home is in for quite the workout.”

Gaston crossed the room in his long, demanding strides, and stuck his hands out.  “Could I?”

The woman looked confused as a man such as Gaston, surrounded by a dozen barking dogs, took the tiny kitten into his large hands.

The kitten let out a soft mew, and nipped at Gaston's fingers, before nuzzling his pink nose into the palm of his hand.

He was soft.  He was warm.

And Gaston was his.

“Welcome home,”  Gaston announced, as he opened the pet carrier (intended for an animal much larger than the one inside) and allowed the kitten to poke his nose out.

“Go on, then,”  Gaston knelt on the floor, as the kitten crawled out of the cage, taking in his new surroundings.

“There we are,”  He approved, as his new friend explored the room and began to sniff around.

Gaston watched as the kitten jumped up onto the sofa.  “You'll be needing a name, I suppose.”

The kitten seemed to take a liking to the pillow thrown on the side of the couch.  A birthday gift from Lefou, with an impressive embroidered buck sewn into it.  The kitten curled against the deer and closed his tiny eyes.

Gaston scratched the kitten’s head, as a purring sound filled the room.

“Antlers it is.”

Antlers proved to be an interesting addition to Gaston's home.  He was a fearless cat, jumping onto any surface or counter-top he could reach, meowing louder than Gaston thought possible from someone so small.  He crawled under the furniture (coming out with assorted dust bunnies on his head), and even followed Gaston into the bathroom.  The cat seemed to like his new home.

Gaston almost didn't want to go to bed, he was having so much fun playing with his new little friend.  He let Antlers chase a laser pointer around the room until sleep called him, and reluctantly decided to turn in for the night.

He walked into his bedroom, offering Antlers the enormous bed he’d purchased for the dog he was supposed to come home with, and watched as the kitten crawled in, looking so very small against the cushion.  Antlers curled into a little ball and Gaston took that as his cue to climb into his own bed.

Quiet as it still may have been, suddenly his room didn't feel so lonely.

Gaston woke up to something warm and furry resting in the crook of his neck.

He coughed and spat the hair out of his mouth, before his mind registered what was happening.

Doggie-bed apparently forgotten, Antlers seemed to take a liking to Gaston's, and he almost didn't have the heart to wake the kitten sleeping so innocently against his face - even if it did make him want to sneeze.

Antlers began to knead his shirt with his paws, and Gaston felt a smile creep onto his face.  He'd known this cat less than twenty four hours, and he already loved him so much.  Maybe this was what being a father felt like!  Deciding he couldn't bear to wake him, Gaston began to drift back to sleep…

A frantic knock on the front door startled him awake.  Antlers’ head perked up, his ears twitching in every direction as he sought out the source of the noise.

Gaston sighed and pulled himself from the bed, Antlers close on his heels as he threw on a proper pair of pajama bottoms, and went to investigate.

He swung the door open to reveal a little girl, no more than ten with a wild array of dark hair and freckles, one of his favorite smiles on her face.

“Hey, Buddy!”  Gaston greeted, as Charlotte threw her arms around his middle.  “What are you doing here so early?”

“Papa said you got a cat,”  Charlotte said brightly, as Lefou made his appearance close behind, four-year-old Barney’s hand clasped in his own.  “I like cats!”

“Do you?”  Gaston scratched his unshaven chin.  “But I thought your mother raised you to be a dog person.”

“I like dogs too,”  Charlotte assured as he let them into the house.  “But where's the cat?!”

The young girl was so excited, bouncing on her toes as she spoke.  She was so much like her father, always talking a mile a minute, constantly radiating a restless energy.

“Well, speak of the devil,”  Gaston said, as Antlers poked his nose into the room.  “Here’s the little guy now.”

Charlotte fell to her knees, sticking her hand out for Antlers to approach on his own time.  Growing up with so many pets and a veterinarian for a stepfather appeared to teach her how to treat animals properly.

Antlers wasn't afraid.  He licked Charlotte's hand and leaped into her lap.  She giggled as the kitten began to play, nipping gently and purring.

“Can I play?”  The younger, more tentative of the Lefou siblings asked.

Gaston grabbed Barney's hand and led him to where Charlotte was sitting.  He gently took Antlers into his hands and allowed the boy to pet him.

“He's super soft,”  Barney said, approvingly, and before long he had joined his sister waving a feather in front of the cat, their laughter ricocheting off the walls as Antlers chased it.

“Looks like you may be getting a cat soon,”  Gaston said, nudging Lefou’s shoulder as they watched.

“There's no need,”  Lefou said, smiling as Antlers tackled Charlotte’s hand, eliciting a squeal from the girl.  “Not when Uncle Gaston has one, anyway.”

Just as quickly as they had before, the years continued to pass.  Gaston watched as his rambunctious little kitten grew into a rambunctious, strong cat.  Antlers was a animal after his own heart, made of pure muscle and endurance.  Even as he aged, he still jumped onto high surfaces and meowed at decimals even the neighbors could hear.  He demanded attention when he wanted it, and was something of a star on Gaston's social media accounts.

About three years had gone by since he and Antlers chose each other, and Gaston still melted a little when he curled up on his lap, purring happily.

Gaston’s life had taken on some significant changes in those few years.  Lefou was married now, and Stanley had taken permanent residence in their lives.  Gaston himself tied the knot not so long ago, moving to a new neighborhood to celebrate.

Maybe this was the true picturesque life he'd always dreamed about.  It didn't have to include a houseful of children, or dogs at his feet.  Maybe he could be content to have just his lovely wife and his favorite feline.

Gaston watched as Antlers climbed off of his lap, and settled into his wife's.  Antlers tolerated her normally, but made it no secret that Gaston was his favorite person, so this struck him as unusual.

Antlers sniffed her belly, rubbing his head against it, before laying down to sleep, nestled comfortably in her lap.

The newlyweds shared a look, small smiles creeping onto their faces.

Then again…

Maybe his original idea wasn't so far off, after all.

[klaineanummel]

not just where you bump and grind it

Twenty-five-year-old model Blaine Anderson has a very interesting meeting with Vogue's editor-in-chief, Kurt Hummel.

This was written for a prompt I got from @yruablackwarbler here on a tumblr. They wanted model!Blaine and older!Kurt. Hopefully this is somewhat what you had in mind <3 Hope you all enjoy!! See you soon for Klaine Advent ;)

Title from Madonna’s “Vogue”

Read on AO3

Blaine’s Friday shoot ends up running about two hours over, but Blaine is used to that. Honestly, he doesn’t even care. It’s not like he has anything better to do anyway. His roommate is out with his girlfriend, and Blaine’s boyfriend is working late, yet again.

Might as well clock in some extra hours himself.

“Can you turn your head a little to the left?” the photographer, Jane Hayward, asks, and Blaine complies instantly. He learned pretty early in the model-game not to question the photographer, or the artistic director. It’s especially imperative not to question somebody when they’re playing the role of both, as Jane usually does.

He’s on his last outfit of the evening, but he’s considering asking if they can do a couple more. He needs the money, and he’s also not ready to go home to an empty apartment just yet.

He could, of course, go to his boyfriend’s apartment and hang out with Mr. Meows, his boyfriend’s cat, but he isn’t sure if that’s sadder than just being alone. Besides, his boyfriend’s apartment is substantially bigger than Blaine’s, meaning his alone-ness would only be magnified.

“Okay, Blaine, can you focus in, please? You’re getting that glossy look in your eye again.”

“Sorry,” Blaine mumbles, bringing himself back to the moment. He’s worked with Jane more than any photographer in his career at Vogue, and he forgets sometimes how well she knows him.

Jane instructs him to change his position, and Blaine does so easily. He and Jane work well together, and he’s glad that it’s her he’s stuck back with. He once got stuck with a contract photographer, and it was the most miserable nine hours of his life.

“Look just beyond my shoulder,” she says, and Blaine does so, knowing the position accents his jawline perfectly.

It also brings to his attention that Kurt Hummel, editor-in-chief of Vogue, has just walked onto his shoot.

“Oh, lord,” Jane says instantly, and Blaine looks back to her to see that she’s lowered her camera and is looking over her shoulder. She smirks when her eyes land on Kurt Hummel. “I knew it,” she says.

“Just keep shooting, it’s fine,” Blaine says, getting back into position.

He watches as Kurt Hummel chats with one of the make-up artists, who looks like she’s about to pee her pants. He shifts a little, surreptitiously trying to get a better look at the older man, though clearly not doing a good enough job, as Jane sighs heavily and says, “You said to keep shooting, Blaine.”

He blushes, forcing himself to look at her. “I’m sorry,” he says.

She shakes her head, clearly trying to hide a chuckle. “Does your boyfriend know about your massive crush on our boss?”

If anything, Blaine blushes harder. “Maybe,” he says, eyes straying back to the man in question. “Okay, yes, I may have mentioned it once or twice.”

“And he’s okay with it?”

He shrugs. “He thinks it’s cute.”

“Really?” she lets go of her camera near her chest, letting it hang there. “He thinks it’s cute that you spend most of your time here lusting after a rich, older man?”

Blaine looks back to her. “Yes?”

She doesn’t hide her chuckle this time. “You’re the luckiest guy in the world, then, Blaine.”

He sighs, eyes flicking back to the editor-in-chief of the magazine. “Yeah, I am.”

“Okay, come on, enough mooning,” she says, snapping her fingers. “We’re almost done here, and I’m ready to go home. Can you manage not to look like a love-struck teenager in every one of these pictures, or should we just call it a day?”

Blaine nods instantly, pulling his eyes away from Kurt. “Yes, of course. Let’s get this done.”

He does manage to focus well enough, despite his accelerated heart rate. He occasionally glances over to see if Kurt is still there, a feeling of pure glee shooting through him every time he sees that yes, indeed he is.

They shoot for about ten minutes before they are forced to stop again, though this time it isn’t Blaine who is the culprit.

Kurt Hummel stands before Blaine, just behind Jane, drawing her attention with a careful throat clear and a quiet, “Miss Hayward.” Blaine’s throat dries at the sight of him this close, and he watches as he and Jane engage in a quiet conversation that he can’t quite hear.

He really looks remarkable for his forty-two years. Tall and lithe, wearing the hell out of a burgundy suit, and eyes sparkling like those of a child. If it weren’t for the hint of grey creeping past his roots, and the lines at the edge of his eyes, you’d never guess he was a day over thirty.

Blaine bites down on his lip as he stares at the man, trying not to be too obvious. Not that it really matters, of course. Everybody at Vogue and their mother knows about Blaine’s crush on Kurt. He isn’t exactly the subtlest of crushers.

He’s staring at Kurt’s face when the man turns to him, like an after-thought, “Oh, Mr. Anderson,” he says, ever the professional, “I should still be around when you’re finished shooting, if you’re ready for that meeting you requested last week.”

Blaine nods instantly, trying not to grin too widely. “Of course, sir,” he says. “I’m definitely ready for it, sir.”

Kurt raises an eyebrow, lips quirking up just slightly in the corners, then turns on his heel and marches away.

Blaine watches him go, lips pressed together in excitement.

“Easy there, tiger,” Jane teases.

Blaine chuckles self-deprecatingly, then tries to force all thoughts of his upcoming meeting with Kurt out of his mind, wanting to finish the shoot as soon as possible now.

Maybe this evening won’t be such a bust after all.

It feels like an eternity passes between Kurt leaving the shoot and Blaine finally standing in the elevator, pressing the button for the building’s top floor. In reality, it only took around half an hour longer to finish the shoot, and then another half hour to change and get his things in order.

Still. All he can think about is this meeting with Kurt. He really hopes they’re going to be discussing what he thinks they’ll be discussing, because otherwise he is going to be very disappointed.

The elevator doors ding to announce his arrival, and he walks out with a pep in his step. The top floor is almost completely deserted, as basically everybody has gone home by now. He thinks he sees a couple of lights on under office doors, but for the most part it’s a ghost town. Even Kurt’s secretary isn’t sitting in front of his office, just waiting to give him a withering glare and a snappy, “Do you have an appointment?”

Today, he walks right past her desk and right up to Kurt’s door, knocking on it lightly.

“Come in,” Kurt calls through the door.

Blaine opens it carefully, trying not to come across as too eager, even though it’s a lost battle. The minute the door is closed behind him and Kurt raises his eyes to Blaine’s, Blaine is across the room and in Kurt’s lap.

“Oh, hello,” Kurt purrs, hands going down to Blaine’s hips to steady him as he practically climbs on top of Kurt. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”

Blaine grins down at Kurt. “We were already running over when you got there,” he says, leaning his face down toward Kurt’s. “Almost ready to wrap up. Can I stop talking and make out with you now?”

“Always so eager,” Kurt teases, but he tilts his head up as he does it, parting his lips ever so slightly in a far too tempting invitation.

Blaine covers those amazing lips with his own, hands tightening on Kurt’s shoulders. Kurt pulls his body closer, his torso tipping toward Kurt and bringing his hips into contact with Kurt’s stomach.

“Missed this,” Blaine whispers, their lips brushing as he speaks. “You’ve been working so much lately.”

“Issue comes out in two days.”

Blaine groans. “Working. So. Much.”

Kurt chuckles. “What about you? I feel like every time I go down to the studio you’re doing a shoot.”

“I’m booking as many as I can,” he says. “Hoping you’ll see me and remember your poor boyfriend, suffering without you.”

“Oh, my poor boyfriend,” Kurt coos. “What can I do to make it up to him?”

Blaine pulls back a little and raises an eyebrow, licking his lips. “Let me ride you in this chair?”

“Blaine,” Kurt groans, head falling back. “You can’t just say things like that.”

“I think I just did,” Blaine says. He grins, wiggling his eyebrows. “Come on. I know you have lube and condoms hidden here somewhere.”

Kurt’s cheeks turn slightly red, and it brings Blaine so much joy to be able to do that. He climbs off Kurt’s lap and raises an eyebrow. Kurt stares at him for a moment, then sighs and gets out of the chair, heading toward the bookshelf in the corner of his office.

Blaine takes the opportunity to quickly rid himself of his pants and underwear, making sure he’s bent over facing away from Kurt for when Kurt turns back around.

He hears his boyfriend’s gasp, and within seconds there are hands on his ass, palming the cheeks and spreading them slightly.

“Fuck, Blaine,” Kurt whispers into his ear. “Do you even know what you do to me?”

Blaine smirks, feeling Kurt’s cock rubbing against his lower back. “I think I do,” he says, pushing his ass further into Kurt’s hands. Kurt squeezes tight, one finger dipping down to tease at his hole. Blaine gasps.

He turns in Kurt’s arms, leaning up a little to kiss Kurt again, bringing a hand up to the nape of his neck to keep him in place. Kurt keeps one hand on Blaine’s ass, fingertip rubbing over his hole, while the other deftly undoes the buttons on his shirt. Blaine shrugs out of it as soon as he can, leaving him standing naked before his still fully-clothed boyfriend.

With a grin, he pushes Kurt back into the chair, then takes the lube and condom from where Kurt had set it on his desk and shoves the lube into Kurt’s hand. Kurt watches, eyes dark, as Blaine undoes his belt, pops open his pants button, and lowers his zip. Blaine’s cock throbs as he pulls Kurt’s cock out of his underwear and pants. He carefully places himself back in Kurt’s lap, straddling his legs precariously on the chair.

“Finger me,” he whispers, draping his arms over Kurt’s neck, condom dangling from his fingers. “Please.”

“Love it when you beg,” Kurt whispers back, kissing him briefly, before focusing on uncapping the lube and spreading some around his fingers. As soon as that’s done, he awkwardly tucks it between his thigh and the chair, bringing his wet fingers back down to Blaine’s ass, parting his cheeks carefully with his dry hand.

“Oh, god,” Blaine hisses as he feels Kurt’s finger breach him.

He’s always loved the feeling of something in his ass, ever since he discovered he could finger himself back when he was sixteen years old. Still, though, nothing has ever felt as perfect inside him as Kurt’s fingers or Kurt’s cock. Every time feels like the first time, and it makes goosebumps erupt all over Blaine’s skin.

“Why are you taking so long?” Blaine whimpers as Kurt pumps a single digit in and out of him. “You know I can take more.”

“Yeah, I do know,” Kurt says, tilting his head up and pressing a kiss to Blaine’s chin. “But it’s been almost three weeks since we’ve done this, and I want to savour it.” He sucks gently at the spot where Blaine’s jaw becomes his neck, careful not to leave a mark. “Do you have a problem with that?”

He pulls his finger out, then pushes it back in, accompanied by a second. Blaine moans, head falling back slightly.

“Not enough of one to make you stop,” he manages to say, rocking his body gently against Kurt’s, moving his hips to the rhythm of Kurt’s fingers.

As promised, Kurt takes his sweet time fingering Blaine open.

Blaine both loves and hates every second of it.

By the time Kurt has been pumping three fingers in and out of him for almost five minutes, Blaine feels about ready to burst. His cock is dripping pre-come, and his ass is desperate for more.

“Please, fuck me now,” he groans, pressing himself against Kurt tightly, desperate for some friction on his dick. Usually Kurt would ream him out for daring to get pre-come on his shirt, but he can tell that Kurt is pretty far gone, too.

He grins up at Blaine and says, “As you wish,” before removing his fingers from inside of him.

Blaine lifts himself slightly, ass clenching around nothing, and tears open the condom package, rolling it onto Kurt’s dick as quickly as he can. Kurt follows the action up by covering his latex-covered cock in lube, carelessly tossing the small bottle out of the way when he’s done.

“Get down here,” he practically growls at Blaine, who is more than happy to acquiesce.

Kurt’s suit pants feel odd under his thighs, especially contrasted to the feeling of his cockhead rubbing against Blaine’s asshole. He bares down on it, forcing Kurt inside of him. He’s not in the mood for any more of Kurt’s teasing.

Thankfully, Kurt doesn’t seem to be in the mood for that anymore either. He places one hand on Blaine’s hip, keeping the other at the base of his own cock, and helps the younger man sit himself on his dick.

Blaine breathes out deeply as he fully seats himself on Kurt’s lap, his cock deep inside of him. He can feel it throbbing in his ass, and clenches his muscles around it, loving the sound of Kurt’s moan when he does it.

He begins to roll his hips slowly, getting used to the feel of Kurt inside of him after so long. Kurt moves his other hand to Blaine’s hips as well, helping to move him up and down on his cock, watching him with a smile on his face and pupils so dilated his eyes are practically black.

“Love watching you do that,” Kurt breathes, eyes never leaving Blaine’s. “Love watching you bounce on my cock.”

“Just watching?” Blaine asks, raising an eyebrow, increasing his speed minutely.

“And feeling,” Kurt rasps out. “You have the tightest ass in the world, Blaine. Fucking made for my cock.”

“I know,” Blaine agrees instantly. “I know.”

They fall back into silence, the only sound in the room that of their skin smacking together, and the chair creaking slightly under their shared weight.

“You know,” Blaine says, clenching his ass again. “I think Jane thinks I’m cheating on my boyfriend with you.”

Kurt gasps as Blaine rolls his hips expertly. “She thinks you’re cheating on me with me?”

“At least emotionally,” Blaine replies. “To be fair, she doesn’t know that my boyfriend is you.”

“Because she’d think I was your sugar daddy, right?” Kurt teases, squeezing Blaine’s hips.

Blaine laughs. “You are my sugar daddy,” he teases right back. “I would have never got that gig at Luna’s if it weren’t for you.”

“So, not your sugar daddy, just your career advancement daddy,” Kurt says, beginning to move Blaine’s hips with his hands, forcing him to go faster.

“You know it,” Blaine replies. “Though don’t expect me to start calling you ‘daddy’ in bed.”

“I would never,” Kurt promises, thrusting up into Blaine particularly hard and making him cry out.

Blaine tightens his hold on Kurt’s shoulders, then asks, “Did I tell you that that producer I met at Luna’s called? He wants to sign me on for an EP.”

“Blaine!” Kurt says, hands tightening on Blaine’s hips. “You couldn’t think of any better time to tell me that?”

“Sorry, I just remembered now. You’ve been so busy lately…”

“I know,” Kurt says. “I promise things will calm down soon, okay?”

“Okay,” Blaine says, leaning down to kiss Kurt gently.

“Okay,” Kurt repeats. “Now, can we please stop talking about things that aren’t me fucking you?”

“Oh, yes please,” Blaine whimpers, quickening his pace. “I’m close.”

“I am too,” Kurt says.

Blaine raises an eyebrow, thrusting down hard. “Really?”

“Hey, there,” Kurt says, pinching the skin around his hips, making Blaine gasp. “Was that a dig at my age?”

“Obviously,” Blaine replies. “You usually last a lot longer than me.”

“Well, that’s because you’re twenty-five, and haven’t practiced taking your time enough.”

“I think we’ve been practicing plenty,” Blaine says. It’s true, too. Ever since he and Kurt started dating six months ago, he’s had more sex than he’s ever had in his life.

Although, he supposed not as much lately.

“Three weeks, Blaine,” Kurt says, as though reading Blaine’s mind. “It’s been three weeks.”

“The longest you’ve ever gone without getting some ever, right?” Blaine can’t help but tease.

Kurt leans up and nips Blaine’s bottom lip. “You’re particularly feisty today.”

“Must be all the cock in me.”

“I like it,” Kurt chuckles.

He brings a hand down and wraps it around Blaine’s cock, something he only ever does when he’s about to come. He knows well enough by now that Blaine can hold off a decent amount of time, as long as Kurt doesn’t touch his cock. As soon as he touches his cock, it’s all over.

Indeed, within minutes Blaine feels his stomach tightening, and his head falls back as he comes into Kurt’s hand and onto his own stomach. Kurt groans and comes inside of him, clearly pushed over the edge by Blaine’s ass clenching around him as he comes.

Blaine falls limply against Kurt, knees giving out as soon as he finishes. “Oh, god,” he whimpers. “My thighs are going to burn tomorrow.”

“This was your idea,” Kurt reminds him.

“I know,” Blaine sighs. “Don’t regret it, either. I needed that.”

“So did I,” Kurt replies, pulling Blaine close and pressing a kiss to his forehead. “So did I.”

“Hey,” Kurt says as Blaine goes to leave. Blaine stops in the doorway, raising an eyebrow at Kurt. “Do you want to move in with me?”

Blaine’s eyes widen. “Really?” he asks.

“Yeah, really,” Kurt says, walking over from where he’d been lounging against his desk. “I hate going home to an empty bed, especially on nights like this.”

Blaine smiles, nodding instantly. “Of course,” he says. “I’d love to move in with you.”

“Good,” Kurt says, leaning down to kiss him when he reaches him. He pulls back a touch, then asks, “What about going public?”

Blaine freezes. “You… you want to go public?”

“Yeah,” Kurt says. “I mean, we’ve been dating for six months. Everybody knows you have a thing for me. Is it really that big a deal to confirm that I have a thing for you, too?”

“I thought you were worried about the talks,” Blaine says. “You know, the judgement.”

“I don’t care,” Kurt says, shrugging. “Let them think what they want.”

Blaine’s face slowly blooms into a smile. “You’d really be okay with it? With people knowing you’re screwing a twenty-five-year-old model?”

“No, Blaine,” Kurt says, cupping his face tenderly. “I’m okay with people knowing I’m in love with you.”

Blaine’s smile grows even wider. “I love you, too,” he says, beyond happy to finally say those words out loud.

“Good,” Kurt smiles. “So. You move in, and we come out as a couple?”

Blaine hums. “Only if you let me ride you in that chair again sometime soon.”

Kurt laughs and pulls him into a hug. “I think that can be arranged.”

[starsinursa]

"...I should never have asked you to do this."

“Here’s her food,” Cassays, hefting a bag onto Dean’s counter. “She gets ¼ cup in themornings and ¼ cup at night. Don’t let her nag you into giving her more, butshe can have some of her cat treats if she’s being persistent.”

“Got it,” Dean says, feeling confident. Catfood, cat treats. Not too hard.

Cas places a tube on thecounter next to the cat food. “She gets furball medicine twice per day. Youcan give it to her at the same times as her food. She won’t take it willingly, so you’ll haveto put it on her paw so she’ll lick it off. You should try to do it while she’s eating and distracted, otherwise she’ll seeyou coming. Just make sure you get it on her paw well enough so she can’t shake it off.”

“…okay,” Dean agrees, picking up the tube to peer at the label. Chicken-flavored furballpaste. Gross. But still not that hard.

“Here are some of hertoys,” Cas adds, hefting a plastic bag onto the counter. It jingles and rattles as he setsit down. “She likes the feathered toys, but she tears apart the feathers. She’llonly chase the laser light for a little, that’s not her favorite, but sheloves the balls with the bells inside and the catnip mice. Be cautious with the catnip though, or she’ll be running through the apartment at 3 a.m.”

Dean nods distractedly,mentally making a list of this shit to keep everything straight. Casdoesn’t even notice, still talking.

“Oh, and don’t touch her rumpright in front of her tail, she’s sensitive about that area. You can stroke down her back, but stop right before her tail. And don’t try to pether by reaching your hand over her head, I think it scares her, but she likes her cheeks rubbed and her chin scratched.” Finally, finally, Cas pauses. “I think that’s everything…I hope I’m not forgettingsomething…oh! Shelikes to have her litter box somewhere dark, like a closet, or under a towel.She won’t use it if it’s out in the open, and then she’ll find her own darkcorner without the litter box, and you really don’t want that.”

Dean’s gonna take Cas’ word on that and hopefully he’ll never have to experience it first-hand. “If I don’t want cat piss in the corner, put the litter box somewheredark,” Dean says weakly. “Got it.”

What the fuck has heagreed to?

“Oh! Your Benadryl!” Cassays suddenly, reaching down for another bag. It’s bulging with boxed packagesof Benadryl, the sharp corners pressing against the plastic.

“Christ, Cas, you’re only gone for a couple of days, how much Benadryl do you thinkI’ll need?” He hesitates. “You…you’re only gone for the weekend, right?”

“You’re right, it’s all toomuch,” Cas sighs, looking miserable. “Ishould never have asked you to do this.”

Somehow, that gives Deanresolve. Fuck his own worries and misgivings, Cas is depending on him, and Dean can’t let his best friend down.

“Hey. It’ll be fine, all right? I’ve got this.” He puts a hand on Cas’shoulder and squeezes firmly, more confidently than he feels. “I practically raised Sammy, how hard can cat-sittingbe?”

“Are you sure, Dean?” Cas meets his eyes, searching, and Dean keeps his face carefully calm. “I don’t want to put you in a position where you feel uncomfortable. I can still ask Gabriel to watch her, it’s not too late -”

Dean snorts. “Dude, no, you can’t let Gabe watch your cat, you’d come back and she’d be…dyed pink, or something.” He brings out his brightest, most self-assured smile. “I promise you, Cas, we’ll be fine. I’ll take good care of her.”

“…I know you will, Dean. I trust you,” Cas says earnestly, beaming at him, and fuck if that doesn’tgive Dean a pathetic rush of warm pride and make his heart feel two sizes toobig for his ribcage. The smile slips from Cas’ face. “It’s just… I’ve never been away from her since Iadopted her. We’ve made so much progress, but she’s still so skittish. I just don’t want this to set us back.”

“I get it, Cas.” And honestly, Dean does. Well,maybe not the cat thing per-se, but the importance of building trust and fighting hard for every inch of progress? Yeah, he gets those parts. “But you’ve done a greatjob with her and she’s not going to forget that. She’ll be waiting for you whenyou come back.”

And so will I, Dean thinks before he can crush the thought, because now is definitely not the time to get caught up in all of his unspoken feelings for his best friend. However, it does make for a ridiculous, if somewhat depressing, mental image: him and the cat, both standing with their noses pressed to the window, waiting for Cas to return. At least the cat gets to go home with Cas in the end, lucky furball.

The warm smile Cas giveshim makes everything worth it. “Thank you, Dean. For everything. You’re thebest friend I could ever have.”

“Damn right I am,” Deanjokes. “Now get out of here and knock ‘em dead at your work thing, and don’t forget to get me one of those little souvenir keychains.”

Ten minutes and aridiculously drawn-out goodbye (to the cat) later, Cas gives him a parting wave as he pulls his car away from the curb. Dean returns it with only a hint oftrepidation, shuts the door, and takes a deep breath.

Back in the kitchen, he crouches down to peer inside the pet carrier.

“Well, Meg, looks likeit’s just you and me for a couple of days.”

Meg hisses.

__

The next two days are an ordeal that Dean will eventually start referring to as his “stint in Hell”.

Okay, so the first three hours aren’t so bad. As soon as he opens the carrier, Meg shoots off under his bed andrefuses to come out. 

He tries to coax her out, kneeling beside thebed and peering underneath, wiggling his fingers and making all kinds of stupid noises, but she hisses and scoots away with her black fur all puffed up, sohe gives up after a while and decides to let her get adjusted at her own pace. He unpacks her toys, lugs thelitterbox into a corner of his bedroom where it’s overshadowed by his dresser, sets down a small bowl of water, and lets her be. He chases down his first dose of Benadryl with a swig from a beer and settles in on the couchto watch Dr. Sexy reruns.

After three hours, theyowling starts. And doesn’t stop.

He tries coaxing her outfrom under the bed again. He talks to her. He pushes cat treats under the bed.He meows back at her (the neighbors in the next apartment must think he’sbatshit crazy). He gives up on Cas’ set feeding schedule and tries to give hera bowl of cat food. He pushes her jingly balls and catnip mice towards her. Nothing works. Meg only stops yowling long enough to hiss at him, but there’s no way he’s calling Cas when he promised everything would be fine, so he plops down on the bedroom floor with his laptop, tries Googling some shit about cats, and sings quietly under his breath (he’s not sure if he’s trying to soothe her or drown her out, but it seems to help regardless). 

The yowling finally tapers off, and he’s not thinking about her for a few moments when he starts getting ready for bed… until she shoots out from underthe bed and attacks his feet as he’s toeing off his socks. His resulting high-pitched shriek startles themboth, and she scampers back under the bed like a bat - or a cat - out of Hell.

It happens again in themorning. Dean actually loses custody of a sock this time.

She comes out to eat somecat food, which Dean counts as a victory until he creeps close and tries to put furball medicineon her paw, and then it’s war. Meg retreats back under the bed and Deanretreats to the living room, sporting some impressive scratches.

An hour later, theyowling starts again.

Later, he’spleased to see that she’s found and used the litter box. He’s not so pleased tosee that there’s litter kicked everywhere around the box. He grabs thevacuum without really thinking about it, and the moment he turns it on, Meg shoots out from under the bed, claws her way up his windowcurtains in a panic, and promptly drags them all down on top of her.

He’s barely donere-hanging the curtains when he catches her sharpening her claws on the back ofhis leather sofa.

When he tries to administer her furball medicine that evening, she sees him coming, and leads him on a thirty-minute chase around his apartment.

That night, he takes arunning start and practically leaps into his bed from the doorway so she won’thave the chance to attack his feet.

She finds the jinglyballs around 1 a.m. Fuck his life.

The next morning, he takes a five-minute walk to check the mailbox for his apartment and comes back to a puddle of cat piss in his bed. 

It’s the finalcountdown, and Dean is napping on the couch before Cas gets back. God knows hedidn’t get a wink of sleep last night, because every time he’d start to doze off, thetell-tale jingle and skitter of a cat ball would jerk himawake.

Never again, he swears.Not even if Cas looks at him with those beseeching baby blues, not even if Casdrops the ‘best friend’ card again. Meg is a demon, and it’s very obvious that herand Dean should stay far, far away from each other.

That’s his line ofthinking as he dozes on the couch, straddling the muzzy line between sleep andwakefulness, forearm thrown over his eyes. He’s leaning towards the sleep side when anadded weight shifts one of the couch cushions, so he doesn’t notice. 

He does notice when tentative paws creep onto his stomach and press into his bladder.

He’s suddenly wide awake, not daringto move. Hell, he’s barely daring to breathe. One wrong move and she’s going toshred him, he’s sure of it. She’s crouching right next to his junk, and oh, god, he’s going to be de-manned by very sharp set of claws, she’s caught him in a moment of weakness and now he’sgoing to pay for it, he should have known better –

He waits, frozen, as Meg turns in a slow circle and settles on his stomach. Then very, very softly, a low purr starts. And it doesn’t stop. There’s no hissing, no sharp rending of razor-sharp claws. Little by little, Dean relaxes, onemuscle at a time, until the purring has evened out into asteady rhythm, and it’s actually kind of soothing. 

If this is what cats can be like, maybe they aren’t always so bad…

___

Castiel is not worried. He’s not.

Except he actually is.

Although he wouldn’t be worried if Dean would actually answer his damn phone, but Castiel has called three times now and only gotten his voicemail, so it actually makes sense to be worried. Anything could have happened. Maybe Meg got out and ran away. Maybe Dean’s allergies became so severe that he had to go to the hospital. Maybe there was a gas leak. Maybe -

That’s why Castiel feels totally justified using his spare key to Dean’s apartment and letting himself in, even though he’s never actually used it before now.

As soon as he sees them on the couch, he lets out a sigh of relief. They’re fine. They’re sleeping. It’s…adorable, actually. Dean is sprawled on the couch, one leg hanging off the side, face peaceful and relaxed, and Meg is curled up in a pleasantly purring ball on his stomach, tail tucked around her body. Just looking at them makes his heart swell with affection - and more, there’s so much more, sometimes when Dean smiles or laughs or even just looks at him, he feels like he could burst with it.

Castiel creeps closer and stealthily takes a picture with his cell-phone. The click of the shutter effect makes Meg stir, ears perking up and head lifting sleepily, and he tucks his phone back in his pocket so he can reach down and scratch gently under her chin to soothe her. The purring magnifies, and apparently it doesn’t go unnoticed because Dean is stirring now too, green eyes blinking blearily in confusion. Before Castiel can actually think about what he’s doing, he reaches out and runs his other hand through Dean’s hair, sliding the strands between his fingers.

“Dude,” Dean mutters thickly, voice hoarse with sleep, “you pettin’ me?”

Castiel keeps his voice carefully calm, but doesn’t stop. “Is that okay?”

Head dropping back to the couch, Dean closes his eyes again. “Yup. Don’t ever stop.”

Castiel patiently cards his fingers through Dean’s hair, and after a few minutes, Dean sighs with sleepy contentment.

“’m glad you’re home, Cas.”

He smiles. “Me too.”

[tellmevarric]

Catalyse

This is my piece for Day 2 of Sniperpilot Halloween Week 2017 at @sniperpilothalloween2017 . The theme for today is Spells.

I may have been feeling a little silly when I wrote this.

“Ooops!”

Bodhi’s eyes were wide and horrified as he stared at the cat who had, until about thirty seconds ago, been his really cute but really grumpy neighbour. “Jyn!”

Jyn held her hands up. “In my defence, I wasn’t expecting that knob Krennic to move that fast.”

They both turned to watch the aforementioned knob practically sprinting down the street away from them. Then a very irritated yowling brought their attention back to Bodhi’s neighbour. Who was now a cat. A very annoyed cat.

A moment later a tall, lanky man appeared in the doorway of the house Cassian lived in. He looked down at the cat then up at Bodhi and Jyn. “I’m allergic to cats. Also, you did this, you fix it.”

With that, the tall man closed the door with a decisive bang. The cat yowled again and started scratching at the door. Bodhi watched all of this with horror and turned to Jyn.

“Please tell me you can reverse this?”

“Um.” Jyn bit her bottom lip. “I… might need to go and talk to Chirrut and Baze.”

“Jyn!” Bodhi yelped. “You can’t reverse it?”

“It’s a perfectly ordinary garden variety hex,” Jyn explained patiently, though she was eying the cat, who was stalking angrily towards them, warily. “If nothing else, it’ll wear off in twenty-four hours.”

The cat came to a halt in front of them and started spitting and yowling and meowing very, very angrily. Bodhi’s eyes widened and he held his hands up.

“Um, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… Jyn didn’t mean to do this and she’s going…” He turned a hard glare on his friend, “to find a way to turn you back immediately. Isn’t she?”

Jyn gave a start and backed away a step as the cat turned its gimlet glare on her. “Um, yes! Yes, I am. I am going to go and see Baze and Chirrut right now about it. They’re very skilled. If anyone knows a way to reverse this, they will. In fact. I’ll go right now.” She leaned in to Bodhi. “You can look after your crush, okay?”

She flashed him a wicked grin then scurried off towards her car. Bodhi glared at her then turned back to the cat. Which was his neighbour. His really cute but grumpy neighbour whom he’d had a crush on since about three days after he moved in. The cat was giving him a squinty-eyed look that if he’d been human, Bodhi might have called speculative.

“Um. So.” Bodhi began, unsure of what exactly it was he was supposed to say to his neighbour, who was now a cat. “You’re…. er… Cassian, right? I’m Bodhi.”

Cassian’s eyes narrowed a bit more then he started walking up towards Bodhi’s house. Bodhi watched him for a moment then he sighed.

“Right. Yes,” he muttered to himself.  “Because cats can’t talk, Bodhi. Even cats whom you have a stupid crush on when they’re human.”

He followed Cassian into the house and found the cat sitting on his table. Glaring at him. He’d been on the receiving end of a few of Cassian’s glares when the man was human however he was far more intimidating as a cat. Not that he planned on telling Cassian that.

“Um. Jyn’s really very good at this. Normally,” Bodhi said, shifting from foot to foot. “We just… well, Krennic moved so fast and we weren’t expecting you to come out of the house just then and… I’m sorry.”

Cassian glared at him for a moment longer then he stood up, turned around and around a few times and curled up in a ball facing away from Bodhi.

Bodhi sighed. “Right. Apology not accepted. I get it.”

He watched the cat for a few more minutes but Cassian didn’t move. Bodhi sighed and headed for his desk, glad for once that he was able to work from home when he needed to. He’d only been sitting there for about half an hour when Cassian seemed to almost materialise out of nothing on the edge of his desk. The cat stared at him unblinking for a disconcertingly long time then he walked right into the middle of the work Bodhi was doing and sprawled out on top of it.

“Cassian!” Bodhi protested and tried to pick the cat up and move him. Cassian defied every effort by sliding out of his hands and even using his claws until Bodhi gave up with a sigh. “Is this my punishment for not being able to stop Jyn from turning you into a cat?”

Cassian sat up and stared at him for a moment. He then let out a loud “Meh!” and headbutted Bodhi’s chest before moving to rub his face against Bodhi’s.

Bodhi couldn’t help but run a hand down Cassian’s back and quietly grin when the cat arched into his touch. “I can’t tell whether you’re annoyed at me or not. Just so you know.”

Cassian headbutted his chest again then eeled his way down into Bodhi’s lap where he promptly curled up with the air of someone who was comfortable and was therefore going to stay where he was for the foreseeable future. Bodhi looked down at him then sighed and shook his head.

“You’re very confusing, Cassian Andor,” he murmured as he lowered one hand to rest on the cat’s back. “I don’t know whether you hate me or like me or you’re just being a cat and can’t understand me at all.”

Cassian didn’t move, he just started purring. Bodhi sighed again and went back to his work. He was deep into a report when the cat on his lap began to shift. He grumbled under his breath and shifted a bit further out from his desk, thinking that Cassian wanted to get down, and the next moment his report went flying when he suddenly had a fully grown human Cassian Andor sitting in his lap.

“Um. Hi,” Bodhi said.

“I don’t hate you,” Cassian blurted after a moment’s awkward silence. “I never did. I like you.”

“Oh.” Bodhi gulped and very gingerly put his hands on Cassian’s waist. “I… you kept glaring.”

Cassian looked away. “I’m… not good at this.”

“Me neither,” Bodhi admitted.

They stared at each other for a moment then Bodhi said, “Um, did you… want to get up?”

Part of him hoped Cassian would say no because he kind of liked having the other man sitting in his lap. He was nice and warm and comfortably solid and maybe if he stayed in Bodhi’s lap there might be some kissing. Which he’d rather like.

“…no?” Cassian said then he hurriedly continued. “Unless you want me to.”

He made to move but Bodhi tightened his grip. “No! You can stay.”

Cassian went still and stared at Bodhi with wide eyes. Finally he nodded. “Okay.”

They were still staring at each other when Bodhi’s cell phone suddenly rang. He reached around Cassian and picked it up.

“Yes?”

“Hey! It’s Jyn. Did it work?”

Bodhi looked up at Cassian. “Um, if you mean is Cassian not a cat anymore, then yes. I take it Chirrut and Baze knew how to reverse it.”

“Yep,” Jyn replied cheerfully. “You know, you should take Cassian out to lunch to apologise.”

“I didn’t turn him into a cat!” Bodhi yelped. “You did!”

“Then you should take him out to lunch to celebrate him not being a cat anymore,” Jyn said blithely. “Just make a move, chicken. The pining is getting so ridiculous, you’ve practically planted a forest.”

“Yes, well, he’s sitting in my lap right now so I think I’m doing just fine on my own,” Bodhi said irritably then he clamped his mouth shut and blushed, refusing to look at Cassian.

Jyn was saying something excited but Cassian plucked his phone from his hand before he could even listen to it.

“We’re fine, thank you,” Cassian said. “Bodhi will talk to you later.”

He ended the call and tossed the phone on the desk. He then cupped Bodhi’s face in his hands. “I’m guessing it would be okay if I kissed you?”

Bodhi nodded frantically. “Yes. Definitely. Absolutely,” he gulped.

Cassian smiled and leaned in. The kiss was soft and gentle and sweet and Bodhi thought he was going to die. He was kissing Cassian. Cassian was kissing him. And it was even better than he’d imagined it might be.

When they finally broke apart, Bodhi make a small whimpering noise that got an answering chuckle from Cassian.

“Jyn’s never going to stop being smug about this,” he said.

Cassian’s smile turned very wry. “She will when I tell her Kay’s the one who deflected her spell onto me.” His smile widened at Bodhi’s slightly horrified but curious look. “He got sick of my pining. He’s the one who’s going to be insufferably smug.”

Bodhi considered that for a moment then made a decision. “You know what?” he said, pulling Cassian close so he could kiss him again. “I don’t care.”

Given how easily Cassian leaned into the kiss, he suspected he agreed.

[denimwrappednightmare]

I pet this kitty, and boop his nose!

Summary: After finishing up a hunt that took you and the boys to an animal shelter, you try to convince your boyfriend Dean to let you take home one of the adoptable cats.

Pairings: DeanXReader

Characters: Dean, Y/N, Sam

Warnings: Fluff, kisses, are cats a warning, Dean being adorable

A/N: This is actually the first time I’ve ever written fanfic, let alone posted it. So, tell me what you think, any feedback is welcome. I figured it would be fun to write a cute little story about Dean warming up to a pet cat.

Dean knew that bringing Sam along to wrap things up at the animal shelter would be a bad idea, so he had you come along instead; however after you had been gone for over thirty minutes in the kennels Dean began to worry. He finished up talking to the vet tech that was on staff about how the unusual dog attacks that had been occurring across the town were all taken care of, and went down the hall in search of you. He entered the kennels and walked up and down each aisle, calling your name only to be met with an occasional bark. He had sent you in here to make sure that you hadn’t missed a grim. After searching every pin, finding no large black dog with glowing eyes and no site of you, Dean went back inside the building and headed back to the front. Maybe she already finished up and was in the bathroom, he thought. Just as he turned the corner to head back to the receptionist area movement caught Dean’s eye behind a large glass window. He looked through it and saw you laying in the middle of the floor. Exasperated, Dean sighed and entered the room.

You were supposed to be checking out the dogs in the kennels. That’s why Dean had you go along with him on this one because he knew you wouldn’t try to adopt them all like Sam did when he came with Dean at the beginning of the hunt. It’s not like you didn’t like dogs, because you did; you just weren’t really a dog person. You figured this would be pretty simple: go down the hall, turn the corner, door at the end, and bam! Check out the dogs, make sure there weren’t any grims. No big deal. That was until you saw through one of the windows the room with all the adoptable cats. “It’ll just take a minute,” you lied to yourself knowing full well that you planned to play with and snuggle every single cat in that room.

Somewhere between opening cage doors and petting cats, you had lost complete track of time. At some point, after all the cage doors were open and the cats were free to roam the room as they pleased, you had taken off your shoes and laid down on the floor, to play with the cats more on their level. You were so engrossed with the swarm of cats around you that you didn’t hear the door to the room open and shut.

Dean stood just inside the room taking in the scene as he waited for you to notice his presence. There were cats everywhere. A few on the counters with one playing in the sink, one was pawing at a cabinet door, two were wrestling in a corner. You were lying on the floor on your stomach, legs bent at the knees and up in the air. There was a smaller cat trying to attack your feet as you moved them, and another sitting on your back. There were cats curled up beside you napping while you distracted a feisty pair of orange kittens with your jacket sleeve. Finally there was the small brown kitten that you were petting. Dean leaned in closer; you were humming. No. Wait. Singing, Dean realized, you were definitely singing.

“I pet this kitty. I pet this kitty and boop his nose. Pet this kitty. I pet this kitty and boop his nose!”

At hearing your lyrics, Dean couldn’t help but smile. You were so relaxed and happy, and you looked so cute albeit a little crazy. Dean cleared his throat hoping to get your attention, but you didn’t move or seem to even hear him. “Y/N,” Dean said startling you. As you jumped you disturbed the cats sleeping around you, particularly the Wilford Brimly looking cat who was sleeping on the small of your back. Twisting to look behind you, you saw Dean standing at the door.

“I thought you were going to check out the dogs.”

“I, uh, I got distracted.” You smiled sheepishly at him.

“That’s obvious, Dr. Evil. We’re supposed to be wrapping up a case, Y/N, not playing with animals. That’s why I brought you along instead of Sam,” he said as a Cornish Rex purred and rub against his legs.

You stood up and put the hairless cat back in its cage. “I know, but kitties, Dean! Look at them all!” You made a sweeping gesture indicating all the cats milling about.

“Yeah, and you have to put the monsters back in their cages. I’m not helping you with this.”

As you were putting the last cat back in its cage, you realized that it was the precious little brown one from earlier that let you pet him as much as you wanted. Holding him in your arms like a baby, you turned around to face Dean. With your best puppy dog face, you looked up at into his fan-fiction green eyes.

“Dean,” you pouted. “Can I keep him? Just this one!”

“Y/N...”

You widened your eyes and pouted your lip more. “Pweeeeease?”

Dean stared at you, trying to maintain his resolve, but he had never seen you as happy as you were when you were surrounded by all those cats. The little furball meowed loudly almost like he was on Y/N’s side as well. Even though he hated cats, he relented.

“Fine.”

You squealed. “Really!? I can really keep him!?”

“Yeah, I guess. But! Don’t give him some dumb person name like George or Steve.”

A little while later, after signing the papers making the little cat officially yours, you happily sat in the Impala with the boys as you headed back to the bunker.

“Wait,” Sam started again. “Let me get this straight. You let Y/N adopt a cat but I couldn’t adopt a dog?”

“Yeah Sam.”

“Dean, you don’t even like cats. You’ve never liked cats!”

“So? What’s your point, Sam?”

“Why? Why does Y/N get to bring home a pet?”

“Because unlike you, Y/N has perfected the puppy dog face, and I can’t say no when she does it.”

“Hey Sam,” you piped up “I’ll see what I can do to get you a puppy.”

Dean groaned. “Great! Now the bunker will turn into a zoo!”

The three of you rode in silence for a while until Hammer to Fall started playing over the radio.

“Hey, turn that up,” you said from the back seat.

“Why?” Sam asked reaching for the volume knob.

“A.) Because Queen is the greatest band in the world, and B.) I can’t do it myself because I have a sleeping cat on me. And you don’t move sleeping cats.”

Dean looked into the rear view mirror at you, “Speaking of that little furball, you pick out a name for him yet Umbridge?”

You thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, actually. I have.”

“Well...” Dean prompted.

“I think I’m going to name him Fred.”

Sam turned around and looked at you “Fred?”

“Yeah. Fred. You know, like Freddie Mercury.”

“I though we said no people names, Y/N.”

“Oops.”

“Great!” Dean said throwing his hands up. “My girlfriend named her cat after a British rock musician.”

“I think Freddie Mercury is a fine name for him, Y/N,” Sam looked at Dean “even if Dean doesn’t.”

————————

A few months had passed since you had brought Freddie Mercury home to the bunker, and after he had warmed up to the space, the little cat had put on some weight, started acting like he owned the place, and fully started to live up to his name. Usually very loud, and always about and making his presence know, Fred was nowhere to be found one day when you were trying to find him to give him his flea medicine.

You searched all over the bunker in his usual spots. He wasn’t in the library climbing among the books, not in the war room sleeping on the center of the table. You checked the kitchen twice because you thought you heard him knocking things off the counter but both times it was just Sam looking for a snack. As you made your way down the hall to check Sam’s room once more just in case he was asleep on top of Sam’s laptop, you heard Dean mumbling something from the room the two of you shared. You decided to stop in and ask him if he had seen Freddie.

As you got closer to your room you could finally make out what Dean was singing.

“I pet this kitty! I pet this kitty and boop his nose!”

You giggled when you saw Dean lying on your bed with the cat.

You pulled out your phone and took a quick video of the big, strong Dean Winchester singing to a cat and booping its nose. You put your phone away, saving the video to show Sam later.

“I thought you hated cats,” you said startling him as you walked to the bed.

Freddie jumped down and rubbed himself against your legs.

“I mean,” Dean started. You stopped him with a kiss.

“The big bad Dean Winchester caught snuggling and singing to a cat. Not as tough as you like to act, huh?”

“What can I say, I have a soft spot for adorable things that could kill me if they wanted to,” he said while pulled you closer to him.

“I would never! And neither would Freddie!” You playfully pushed away from him. “But this might,” you said pulling your phone out of your pocket and playing back the video you had recorded of Dean singing to the cat.

Dean reached to grab your phone, but you were too quick and started running down the hall yelling “Hey Sam! Sam! How badly do you think this will kill Dean’s reputation?”

“Damnit Y/N! You better not share that with anyone,” Dean said running to the door, but he could hear you and Sam laughing in the kitchen already and knew it was too late. Freddie looked up at him, meowed, and reached upwards indicating that he wanted to be held. Dean picked him up and scratched him under the chin. “At least you still respect me, huh boy?” Freddie just closed his eyes and purred.

[toevenexist]

The Darkening Pt. 11

MAKE SURE TO READ PART 10! ALSO POSTED TONIGHT! Heres Chapter 11! Please do let me know what you think so far! I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I love to write it!

Enjoy xx

The morning was crisp, as crisp as the gravel giving way underfoot. Each quiet breath sent a white plume out from their mouths as they walked across the base. Nebulous clouds rolled slowly across the overcast sky and birds flew mutely overhead. 

They had been woken early that morning. Nina had forewarned them the day before, so it hadn’t been much of a shock. 

It was, however, a strain for Amelia, who had concluded her sickness was in-fact, morning sickness, and it was continuing at full force. She had been ripped from sleep an hour before everyone else, and was found asleep against the toilet by Owen after thirty minutes. She was now walking in a trance, eyes mostly closed as she struggled to keep from throwing up.

 It was eerily quiet on the base. They walked together, shoulders brushing softly as they swayed in step. The buildings changed from sprawling buildings, like the hospital, to huts laid out in grids.

 “This here is yours” the soldier that had been leading them stopped beside the door to one of the huts and pulled a whole bunch of keys from his jacket pocket. He opened the door and handed them to Richard.

“Your food stores are stocked, you have a limited number of tokens per person each week, which you can use to get your rations. You will be given work based on your previous occupation, you will find out your roles ahead of the weekend. I recommend you settle in here for now, sleep, eat. Feel free to head out around nine. You’ll find a map of the base inside and you’ll also see a landline with a code book. If you have any needs, questions, or request’s, call the support line 4402” He stopped abruptly, straightening up and marching off without another word.

Ray jumped up and down beside Arizona, “Can I go in?” she squealed excitedly, springing up onto the step and jumping. Her eyes danced around the group, hesitating briefly on Amelia’s ashen face. “Go” Arizona said, walking towards her with an energized grin, following her up the steps with Ellis bouncing happily on her hip.

“Come on…” Owen uttered quietly, wrapping his arm around Amelia’s. She moved forward, every step making her stomach clench painfully. ‘I need to lie down’ she thought, pressing close to Owen as they slowly migrated down a long hall.

Through the first door on their left, Ray was jumping on a single bed. Arizona was just walking back to the hall after having settled Ellis in a crib. She grinned at the pair as she approached the door. “This place is great, I’m right across the hall from these two, and there’s a double in there for you?” she said, gesturing to the second door on the left. She disappeared through the first door on the right, one of three, evenly spaced doors.

Ray saw the pair and pounced down from the bed, “Did you see my room, I get to share with Ellis! And … and you will be right here! See?” she said, running ahead of them and pushing open the hollow, dark wood door.

 It was a small room, enough for a double bed to slot in at the far end, as if the room had been made to fit the frame. They’d both have to climb on from one side, the other side was pressed against the far wall. Above the bed was a wide single-paned window. A bedside table sat beside the head of the bed and two trunks sat against the wall next to the door. 

Owen dropped their belongings atop one of the trunks and turned his attention back to Amelia. She ambled carefully to the bed and sat down.

“Ray… you hungry?” Arizona poked her head in. Ray nodded emphatically and ran from the room. “There’s a toilet right next door to you if you need it” Arizona said, nodding once before backing out and pulling the door closed.

“Here lie down…” Owen said, plumping the pillow beside her and applying gentle pressure to her shoulder until she began to sink down.

 She groaned quietly. “I still can’t believe this is happening” she sighed, relaxing against the mattress. Owen sat slowly at her side, feeling nauseous for her. He soothed his hand under her shirt, against the bare skin at her waist, running up and down from her hip, to her ribs. “Me either…” he said, watching her slowly doze off.

He stilled his hand, the heel of his palm resting at the side of her stomach and he stared down, feeling warmth washing over his body. His eyes traced her figure as he tried to steady his breathing. He had found himself dizzy with worry since they had found out. Amelia had often been too preoccupied with the morning sickness to notice. 

Amelia fidgeted, moaning softly in her sleep. Owen brought his hand up to her face, pushing her hair back with his fingertips, tracing around the back of her ear. He dropped a kiss at the corner of her mouth and she fidgeted again, pulling her knees up until they were pressed against Owen’s thigh. He stood, finding a brick coloured wool blanket at the foot of the bed and pulled it up to her shoulder.

“Hey O” Megan greeted him from the sofa, a steaming bowl of porridge in her lap. Ray walked over slowly, watching her feet as she carried a bowl for herself. She sat beside Megan and smiled up at her. 

“Hey” Owen breathed out, taking in the large room. Behind him on the left was a toilet, separated by a wall from the shower room, his and Amelia’s room behind that, beside their room, also on the left, was Ellis and Ray’s room. Opposite those rooms, on the right of the building was three single rooms, Arizona took the one closest to the front door, followed by Alex’ and then Richard’.  

“Do you want some porridge sweetie or something else?” Evelyn was busying herself at the kitchen. The room smelt of sweet porridge, Owen walked to the window and opened it, hoping that the new smell wouldn’t set off Amelia’s nausea before it could even settle.

“Porridge is fine Mom, thank you” he waked into the center of the room, looking around. In the furthest corner from the front door was another bedroom, he could see Evelyn’ things on the bed inside, another bed sat around the corner.

“This is a nice place isn’t it?” Evelyn said, placing a bowl down on the bar that sat against the wall, seven stools pushed under it. “There you go sweetie” she said, sitting back down at a small round table in the centre of the kitchen space. “Did Amelia go back to sleep?” Evelyn said, pulling her tea towards her and stirring the contents. The teaspoon clanked against the tin mug.

“Yeah” he sighed, bringing his bowl and sitting across from him mom at the table.

“You know I had bad morning sickness with you?”

“Really...Sorry?”

Evelyn chuckled, shaking her head. “I had none with Megan… horrible heartburn” she said, grimacing. Owen smirked, enjoying hearing his mom talk about her pregnancies. “She had much more hair than you though” she smirked, raising her brows.

“Knock knock… Hello?” Nina called, she let herself in and closed the door. “Hello?.. Ray...” Ray gasped, and her eyes stretched wide. She smiled and jumped up from the floor, knocking over the Lego tower she and Ellis had been building.

Amelia grinned, unmoving from the comfortable embrace of the couch.

 Nina appeared from the hall. A cat carrier in her right hand. Ray squealed, calling Ginny’s name. Ginny meowed longingly, her fur poking through the front of the cage. Nina set it down on the floor and Ray fell to her knees, immediately releasing her friend and squeezing her in her arms. 

Owen entered the room then, greeting Nina with a smile. 

“Evelyn” Ray squealed, clamoring up from the floor and running over to where Evelyn sat, reclined in the armchair, “Look” she gasped, nuzzling her face into the scruff of Ginny’s neck. Evelyn pulled the girl onto her lap and they both stroked the cat together. The creature stretched out its long body, basking in their love.

Amelia sighed inwardly, muscles relaxing at the feeling of Owens hot hand against the back of her neck. He stooped and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, “Alright?” he murmured softly, his expression radiating love and worry.

She smiled, nodding, taking hold of his hand.

“Have you had a chance to look around?” Nina asked, sitting on the edge of the couch where Amelia sat. Amelia shook her head,”no, I haven’t but I think everyone else has…” Amelia said, glancing at everyone around the room. Evelyn shook her head, “I haven’t been out yet” she said, distractedly, scrunching her hand against the cat’s belly. Nina looked up at Owen, “What did you think?” she asked.

Owen pouted his lips, shrugging, “It’s good, everyone seems nice…”

Nina nodded, pulling some paper from the folder she had carried in with her. “I imagine you will get bored very quickly… so I have arranged for you all to start work in our community hospital.” Alex and Arizona had migrated over from the kitchen. 

“Now as you may have noticed, our population here isn’t very big, so the inflow of patients won’t be what you are used to. You can work when you like, as long as we have at least two of you at the hospital during the day, we won’t need you in at night but we will need two of you to be on call. You are… and don’t take this statement at face value… you are on call twenty four seven” everyone's brows furrowed at this. She lifted her hands in defense. “Listen... I’m on call twenty four seven but have had only two real patients in the past two weeks… you’ll be acting as general practitioners when you’re one of the two who’re on shift at the hospital… and when you’re on call you’ll be paged if needed for something in your specialty.”

Everyone seemed satisfied with the set up, nodding to one another. “Evelyn, Megan, there’s various things you could do, would you like to see the options?”

Evelyn nodded and Megan slid down from her stool at the breakfast bar. Nina stood and lunged, passing Evelyn a sheet of paper. “You can decide between you who will start tomorrow” she said, sitting back down. “Amelia, maybe wait a couple of days wait to see if your sickness settles?” she said, and Amelia nodded, agreeing, feeling her chest tighten at the mention of her pregnancy.

It still scared her, no matter how many times she reminded herself that the baby was healthy, and that they were all safe, she still found herself awash with a paralysing fear.

She was vaguely aware of Nina leaving her side, moving towards the Evelyn before leaving. Owen showed her out. Everyone in the room scattered again, leaving Amelia alone, or at least she thought alone. “Hey” Alex appeared at her side. He smiled kindly, perceiving the fear in her gaze. Amelia forced a smile and inhaled sharply, “Hey.”

Alex sat down next to her. “How’re you doing?” he spoke softly, the chatter in the room giving them a sort of privacy. She dropped the smile, lingering at his eyes for a moment before looking down. “I’m terrorfied” she admitted. She shook her head, placing a hand against her chest.

“Everything is fine isn’t it?” he asked. She nodded, looking up to meet his eyes again, smiling tearfully. 

“Everything is happening so quickly… I have no control over it… anything could go wrong” she said, bringing up her other arm, and wrapping them around herself. He pursed his lips, lolling his head to the side.

“Amelia… you do have some control, you just have to look after yourself, you’re surrounded by doctors… I really do think everything will be fine… perfect even… this… this isn’t going to be like last time Amelia” he said, finally. She met his eyes, tears falling freely. She nodded almost imperceptibly and breathed in, closing her eyes and throwing her head back. “Alright” Alex said, patting her knee. She smiled genuinely now, and nodded, looking back to him. “You talk a lot of sense” she chuckled.

He smirked smugly, standing up. “Anytime” he replied, circling around her to the kitchen, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly as he went.  Sunlight flashed around him as he passed the windows along the wall where the breakfast bar was affixed. They framed a landscape of fields and woodland. Layers and layers of fencing stood between them and the far distance. Dust specs danced around within the columns of light that bridged from the windows to the carpeted floor.  

Owen stepped just into the room then. His eyes landed straight on her. It took her a moment to notice him there. Her eyes met his in a gentle way, and he smiled, sliding his hands into his jean pockets. “Want to go look around?” he asked. His voice was so faint that she relied mostly on the motion of his lips. “Yeah” she replied, nodding, pressing her open hands into the cushions to get up.

There was a buzz in the air outside, like a shuffling sound, the sound of people going about their day. They walked slowly, Ellis holding onto Owen’s hand and waddling beside him. Amelia breathed in deep, eyes falling shut as she drank in the cool air. 

“We can go and pick up everyone’s pagers?” Owen said, stopping to lift Ellis up onto his hip. Amelia nodded, rocking against his other side, wrapping an arm around his waist. “You okay? You’re very quiet” he asked her, lifting his free arm over her head and onto her shoulders. She smiled up at him, eyes sparkling.

“I think so…” She savoured the silence, looking down at her shoes, ankle high rubber boots she’d been given. “I’m scared” she said, still not looking up, kicking the gravel underfoot. “But I think i’m alright, or… going to be” she smiled, looking up to meet his eyes. He was grinning. His happiness was contagious. He pulled her closer, tightening his arm around her shoulders. She softened against him, leaning into the kissed he pressed against her temple. “Love you” she uttered.

“Love you too” he replied.

 LINK TO CHAPTER 12

Thank you for reading xxxx