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chronicdisasterwrites · 1 year ago

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gotta keep these kids on leashes

pairing: gojo satoru x fem!reader, geto suguru, shoko ieiri (gojo’s past arc)

genre + warnings: - MAJOR FLUFF !! alooot of swearing, smoking, sexual jokes, mention of grandparents doing it (lmao you gotta read it to understand), reader wants to murder the bois, suguru wants to die, everybody is CRAZY!

word count: 3,350 (rip)

summary: OKAY i wrote it. the dynamic quartet is back doing... nothing good. suguru gets hit on, the three losers do crazy stuff and surprisingly no one dies (shocker) :0

enjoy this tomfoolery <3

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the curses are dying and you're not the one doing the killing, your head isn't pounding and your bed is so, so soft. Your window is slightly parted so the cool breeze is making the curtains dance and your skin prick. Nuzzling your head on the plush pillow and pulling your blanket higher so only your head is visible, you open your eyes, check the time, remember you have no classes, smile to yourself and dive back into the warm embrace that is sleep.

Until the tranquil atmosphere is disrespectfully shattered by the idiots you call your ‘friends’.

Your door is kicked open and the sudden sound was enough to make you jump and reach for your katana leaning against the bedside table. Your vision is blurry but your katana is half unsheathed as you contemplate killing the two perpetrators.

“Yeesh, you're hostile in the morning,” Satoru grins as he kneels on the ground and rests his obnoxiously large head on his obnoxiously large palms on the foot of your bed, like some petulant child who broke a vase and is now being their best self to appease their parents. “Nice bedhead,” his grin gets exponentially larger and your hand twitches against the hilt of your katana.

“I told you we should've knocked. You never listen, Satoru,” Suguru sighs as he walks through the gap that used to be your door.

Your morning is thoroughly fucked. The birds are dead, the curses are in your room, your head feels like it will explode and there are tiny fragments of wood all over your bed.

Your jaw clenches and eyes darken as you fully unsheathe your katana with the pure intention of murdering these morons.

“I will give you 10 seconds to run and hide.”

“Aw c’monnn,” Satoru’s obnoxious voice drawls as he attempts to pat your head, but before your blade had the chance to amputate his wrist, Suguru’s hand held Satoru’s away from you; therefore preventing a major bloodshed from occurring. Ever the mediator.

“Okay I think we pissed her off enough, Satoru,” Suguru says calmly as Satoru pouts with a small “Aw man”. Suguru lets go of Satoru’s hand as he slowly takes the katana from your hands and puts it into its scabbard. Releasing a breath he places his hand on your head and gently smooths down your wild mane.

He drawls your name and you look at him with furrowed brows and a deep scowl.

He chuckles, “We’re gonna have a day out and you can get all the mochi and pancakes your heart desires. Our treat, for ruining your sleep and…” he looks at the desecrated door, “…your door.” You hear Satoru whine about why you let Suguru touch your hair and not him and choose to ignore it.

He smiles when he sees the glint in your eyes at the mention of mochi and pancakes and your scowl gets smaller and brows get straighter. You sigh and get up off the bed, “Fine. I have to get dressed so get out.”

“Don’t be late, mochiii~ we’ll be waiting.” He manages to dodge the hairbrush you throw at his head perfectly as he jumps up to run out of the room while giggling like a schoolgirl.

Suguru laughs as he follows his dumbass friend out and you look at your completely fucked door, wondering what you did to deserve this.

—-

“Can you shut up, please? I'm begging at this point,” Your voice is tired and your eyes are glaring holes into the brunette’s head as she laughs and chortles into oblivion.

“They- broke your- they broke your door-” more laughter. “Dude this is a comedy-” more laughter and snorting. “comedy- gold-” Shoko slaps the table and wheezes as various strangers stare at the two of you and mutter among themselves with concerned faces.

You silently poke at your half-eaten cheesecake as you try to forget the events of the morning and ignore the moron sitting before you.

“Why didn't they torment you like that?” you grumble as you cut up the poor cheesecake with your fork and turn it into mush.

Shoko takes heaving breaths and sniffles as she takes a sip of her matcha latte and drags her chair forward. Her voice is light and thoroughly amused, “Because I'm not fun to tease. You, on the other hand, are the best person to tease,” her lips tilt up to a grin as she stirs her drink with her straw.

You stare at her with dead eyes. “I hate you,” you deadpan.

“Yeah, I love you too,” her grin gets wider and a few chuckles escape her as she bites on her straw.

The mall was pretty packed considering it was the weekend. Pretty girls window shopping and checking out people with their pretty friends. Couples walking around holding hands and laughing at each other's jokes. It was fun to watch them live their lives, as you lived yours. You wish you wore one of your cute, normal outfits instead of your uniform, just for today. But as you look down at your uniform, you appreciate it more. This uniform got you through some crazy times. Some near deaths, some deaths, a lot of blood. You feel comfortable in it, and it doesn't look completely awful.

Suddenly, you hear your name and Shoko’s name being yelled at in the distance and you both look at each other apprehensively and look around the little open cafe you were in. You quirk an eyebrow at Shoko and she shrugs, but then the sound of Satoru’s obnoxious voice yelling both of your names cuts through the chatter of the crowd and you both look to the side to see him running toward your table at full-speed screaming like an idiot. The moment he reaches your table he slams both hands down and heaves and wheeze as people stare at you with genuine concern.

“What the hell?! I've been looking everywhere for you two,” Satoru yanks Shoko’s matcha latte from her hands despite her “Hey!” of protest and makes a scrunched-up, disgusted face upon inspecting the bitten straw. He proceeds to open the plastic lid, chug the remaining latte, crumple up the cup into a tiny ball using his Limitless technique and drop it on the table for you and Shoko to gawk at.

He then looks at your cheesecake-turned-paste concoction and makes another face of pure disgust. “Can't you losers eat properly? Jeez,” he complains as he takes your plate and finishes the cheesecake mutation in two bites.

“Satoru…” you sigh for the umpteenth time that day, as you pinch the bridge of your nose.

“What do you want?” Shoko completes for you with her nonchalant voice as she rummages her purse for her pack of cigarettes. At this point, you know you need one too.

He makes wild arm gestures like a cheerleader for every word he utters, “Suguru. Is. Getting. Hit. On.”

Your face is unimpressed and Shoko says “Aha” while holding up a pack of cigarettes.

Satoru visibly deflates as a look of pure shock crosses his face at the shameless nonchalance you both are portraying.

“Okay. So?” you shrug as you pick at your nails with your teeth.

Satoru pulls your hand down and holds it there as he leans down and gawks at you with his jaw dropped and furrowed silver brows.

“No, no. This is serious. Suguru is getting hit on and we're wasting time,” he stares into your eyes and you can see your reflection in the dark glass of his sunglasses. You bring up your free hand to fix your hair using his sunglasses as a mirror and something in his head cracks as he jolts up, grabs Shoko’s hand, and pulls you both towards the scene of the crime. You both scramble to take your purse and you leave more than enough money on the table before being dragged away by a tall, crazy man.

“Listen up. We are going to embarrass the shit outta him, okay?” He's walking faster as he makes his way out of the air-conditioned mall towards the outdoor food court. You and Shoko are reluctantly following him as you honestly have nothing better to do and you can't lie; embarrassing Suguru sounds really fun.

“Roger that, sir,” you do a mock salute and hear Satoru chuckle. “What's the plan?”

“You two will attack first. Shoko you gotta be as scary as possible and-” Satoru’s master plan phase-1 was interrupted by Shoko asking a tangible question. Or actually; questions.

“How scary? Can I slap him? Can I throw water on his face? Should I cry?”

Satoru groans and starts walking even faster. “Okay, you can do all of that, but remember your role is the ‘cheated girlfriend’, alright? You're mad but sad. Mad and sad.”

You hear Shoko mutter “okie” right as Satoru says your name, “You can act as the ‘cheated wife’ or something. Cry, latch onto him, beg him. Go crazy,” he throws a sly grin over his shoulder and you're concerned about the evil lilt his voice took when he said the word ‘crazy’.

“And what about you? What's your role?” you ask as you feel him slow down. You look ahead and see Suguru talking with a pretty woman with long, straight black hair. Satoru stops, steps behind you and Shoko, and says with his usual cocky demeanor, “You’ll see, Lil' Mochi,” and doesn't give you the chance to complain about the nickname as he shoves you both towards the victim of ‘Satoru’s Master Plan Phase-1’.

You and Shoko look at each other with devilish grins as you activate your inner drama queens and launch yourselves toward one unaware, unprepared Geto Suguru.

You gasp and squeal with a shaking hand against your open mouth, “Oh my- Geto Suguru?! How dare you! Especially now- how could-” You choke on a fake sob and place your palm on your stomach as Suguru slowly turns back with wide eyes and a bulging vein on his temple.

“While I'm pregnant with YOUR CHILD?! You're inhuman!” you fall to your knees fake crying your heart out as you cover your face with both palms and try your hardest to not break character.

You hear gasps all around you and the sound of Suguru stuttering, and you wonder if you overdid it.

You then feel someone lift you with their hands on your arms. You glance to see Shoko acting all ‘mad and sad’ as you fall into her arms and fake cry some more.

“It's okay, I understand,” she pats your head with her soft hands and spits fake venom at an even more bewildered Geto Suguru. “He tricked me too. He was cheating on you with me first, you know?” You crank up the fake crying upon hearing this and you feel Shoko’s chest shake and you feel your concentration slipping.

Shoko nudges your head and you look at her with completely dry eyes, as you keep clutching your completely baby-less stomach. Shoko pulls out two water bottles and hands you one. She nods at you and you nod at her. You both look at Suguru and he looks like he just watched his dead grandmother have sex with his dead grandfather or something. He looks aghast. You and Shoko walk towards him and Shoko steps ahead of you as you wait your turn.

“This is for cheating on me, you spineless pig! Even though I was cheating on you too!” she declares as she drenches Suguru in cold water. You hear more gasps and you see the woman he was previously talking to blanch with wide eyes and a slacked jaw. Suguru stands completely still as his bangs drip with water and his left eye twitches in pure rage.

Well, it's your turn. You step up and stare him down and fear for your life when Suguru stares back at you with a dangerous look in his eyes. You gulp down your fears and put on the bravest face you can muster, “And this is for breaking my heart and my hymen! And you weren't even that good!” For the added effect you choke on a fake sob after the last sentence and dowse him in some more cold water. You hear a bark of laughter from the crowd and you huff and hold onto Shoko as you both slowly step away from him as his cursed energy slowly grows and grows. Suguru drags his hand down his face and flicks his wrist splattering water by his side when you hear an obnoxiously loud scoff followed by an even louder voice.

“Can you stop your cryin’? It's hurting my ears,”

Satoru stands there looking like a full-on trophy wife, left arm stacked with shopping bags and right hand on his hip. Dazzled in a silver satin shirt; he definitely wasn't wearing before, with the top buttons open and sunglasses perched on his head, giving the crowd a clear view of his glittering sapphire eyes and very open��chest.

You and Shoko gape at him in horror and you both look back at Suguru who looks like he might just explode. His uniform is soaked, his front hair is sticking to the side of his face, and his eyes just about look like they do when he’s fighting curses, except now they look unmerciful.

“Sugu, I'm done with my shopping. How about we go look at some furniture now, hm? ” Satoru slings the shopping bags over his shoulder and sends Suguru just about the sultriest look you've ever seen his face make.

You glance at Shoko and she glances back, and you both bite your lips to stop yourselves from spiraling into a peal of uncontrollable laughter.

Suguru seems to have had enough, as his eyes glazed over and he turns around to face the downright terrified lady.

“You seem nice, but I have some…” Suguru pauses, rethinks his sentence, and continues with a curt nod, “Well, take care.”

He gives her the sweetest, fakest smile as she returns a smile that looks more like a grimace and turns away. She looks back again and sees you and Shoko clutching onto each other for dear life, Suguru still smiling at her with a twitching eye and veins popping on his temple and neck, and Satoru spinning around swishing his shopping bags and singing Suguru’s name like a prayer, and quickly walks away.

The crowd slowly dissipates as you, Shoko, and Satoru stand in silence and Suguru slowly turns around, smile gone, and eyes narrowed, “You idiots… are lucky I didn't like her.”

You break first, and then Shoko, and soon the two of you are shaking each other, rolling around and laughing like absolute menaces. Satoru chortles seeing Suguru’s unimpressed poker face and walks up to him, placing the shopping bags down on the floor.

“C’mon it was funny and besides, we saved your ass. She seemed so boooring,” Satoru drawls and gags.

Suguru exhales as he closes his eyes and the muscle in his jaw twitches. Satoru finds a chink in his armor and grins. He's gonna break.

Satoru laughs and throws his arm around his best friend's shoulder and calls out to you and Shoko.

You two wheeze and try to catch a breath as you see Suguru’s serious face on the verge of breaking.

“Suguru, for the record, I thought she was really pretty,”

You voice your opinion with an innocent smile and Satoru facepalms.

Shoko giggles and shoves you, “That doesn't help, you idiot.”

You throw your head back and laugh, “I dunno dude, I think I lost a bunch of brain cells after that performance.”

“Not like you had any to begin with, Mochiii ~” Satoru mocks and you launch yourself at him as you both run around Suguru, you yelling profanities at Satoru and Satoru chanting “Mochi” and laughing like the actual spawn of the devil.

Suguru finally cracks. Resting his hands on his knees, he bends down and laughs freely, uninhibited; like a child. Shoko smiles and takes out two cigarettes from the pack she safely kept in her uniform pocket. She puts one between her strawberry lips and taps Suguru on his drenched head with her knuckles. Suguru looks up, his laughter subsiding, and accepts the outstretched cigarette held between Shoko’s fingers. He places it between his lips as he rummages his pockets for his little orange lighter. Finding it, he lights his cig and holds it in front of Shoko, as she lights her one. They stand next to each other and smoke their cigarettes while watching Satoru teleport behind you as he grabs you by the waist and spins you around. The sound of his cackling and your screaming fades into the background as Shoko asks, “You think they’ll ever tell each other?”

Suguru leans his head back and blows smoke into the sky. As people start filing out of the food court, you and Satoru were the only rambunctious morons making all the noise in the entire area. He looks at the scene unfolding before him; your head is locked between the junction of Satoru’s arm as his knuckles attack you with fierce noogies. You’re giggling while flailing around like a fish out of water as you try to shove him away but to no avail. Suguru huffs a laugh and takes another drag of his half-smoked cigarette, “Maybe, but not without help.” He nudges Shoko’s shoulder with his own and gives her a devilish grin. Shoko chuckles and stubs out her cig on the sole of her shoe, “What were you thinking? Push their faces together or ask Yaga Sensei to assign them on a joint mission?” She snorts, “That’d be something.”

Suguru hums. He stubs the cigarette butt on the ground and puts it in his pocket and says grinning cheekily, “Nah, I was thinking something more ridiculous. Something fit for two morons of their caliber.”

Shoko quirks an eyebrow and shakes her head with a smile, “Alright.”

You manage to escape Satoru's iron-clad grip after much effort. You boot him on his shin and make a run toward Shoko, tackling her in a massive bear hug. Shoko reciprocates the hug and you two waddle around conjoined like two baby penguins.

“Ow! That hurt!” Satoru limps toward Suguru and leans on him with his arm on his shoulder while Suguru does a hand-clapping motion. He receives a flick on the cheek from Satoru for that.

“That was literally the point, stupid,” you flip him off as he returns the very thoughtful gesture. You both chuckle and Suguru and Shoko send each other cheeky looks.

“Don’t think this is over, by the way,” Suguru says with a vengeance as he flicks you and Shoko on the forehead, to which you both reply with a small “ow”.

“I will get you all back for this. And it won't be pretty,” he ends his threat by flicking Satoru on the forehead; to which he replies with a whiny “I'm already injured, maaaan”.

“Bring it on, champ,” you grin and smack him on his back as you finally release Shoko as you pick up the shopping bags and swing them by your sides. Satoru joins you and takes a few off your hands as you all make your way out of the mall. The golden light marks your path with an incandescent glow. Time flies by incredibly fast when you’re with these children. It's scary, but at the same time, it's humbling. Being with them makes you want to live. They inspire you and drive you to reach greatness. They also make you want to store these precious moments into unbreakable vials or freeze time so you never have to leave. Nothing would go wrong, it would just be the four of you, through thick and thin, through blood and dust, through life and death. But you know you’re smarter than that. However, for today, you'll let yourself dream a little.

“So, how about some KFC?”

——————————————————————————-

a/n: not another slow-burn, pining, friends to lovers situation w satoru and reader whoops-

tagged: @porridgesblog, @stray-npc

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babyangelsky · 4 months ago

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My Favorite Expressions in Love Sea Ep. 7

On a personal level this week has been a very mixed bag but I know that if nothing else got me, this show got me. It's gonna come in clutch for me every time, spider bites and potential hauntings be damned.

I. Love. It. Here.

Will I ever not take psychic damage from the expression Tongrak makes when Mahasamut tells him that he cares about him? The answer is no. It's wonderful and devastating every time.

"How would you rate me out of 10?" Mahasamut asks while Tongrak's face plots teasing and mischief.

Opening a safe shouldn't look so much like staring down the gallows but here we are. Not being able to see how Tongrak's hands were shaking in a screenshot is a blessing.

The panic and terror on this man's face when he saw the read receipt on his phone is something I never want to see again. My hatred for Rak's piece of shit sperm donor is murderous and profound. How actually fucking dare he put this look on his child's face I'm going to kill him with my bare hands.

Peat's acting is so genuinely good that it hurts me. Tongrak was trembling so much that he was struggling to put the phone away and when he gets back to his room, he practically tries to crawl into Mahasamut's skin to hide and feel safe. Look at him, he looks so tiny and scared and I want to cry.

Let us take a break from the sad with this supremely horny shot of Mook unzipping Vivi's dress. Everyone say thank you.

And pour one out for our girl, as is now a weekly custom. Vivi my girly is dying CONFESS TO HER AND MAKE OUT ABOUT IT.

"I'm not going to the event! >:(" Yes you are, mi alma, look at your face when Mook threatens to quit.

Not pictured: One (1) resigned sigh

The grumpiest kitten in the whole venue.

Tongrak: *complaining* Mahasamut: *heart eyes*

My favorite moment of the face journey Tongrak goes on when he realizes just how good Mahasamut looks and that he will be Perceived and decides to mess up his hair about it. The grumpy kitten is a jealous jellyfish.

It's the fact that Tongrak looks surprised that his fans like his books and have consumed his entire body of work. I'M GOING TO SOB.

The smile is polite and professional but the eyes are sparkly. He genuinely enjoys interacting with his fans.

The proud husband smile means everything to me.

THE LOOK OF ABSOLUTE LOATHING AND DISGUST! INCREDIBLE PHENOMENAL OUTSTANDING.

IF YA'LL THINK I'M NOT GONNA MAKE A SEPARATE POST ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS MAN YOU'RE SO FUCKING WRONG

If I have to have this demonic nasty hell witch on my screen, at least I get to watch her face make this expression after Tongrak calls her out for imitating him because he got it right on the money and she knows it.

Tongrak and the visceral hatred in his eyes said play me another waltz I'm tired of dancing to this one.

God love you, but you look so tired.

This entire scene was more brutal to watch than the fight outside of Tongrak's house. It was obvious that something more was going on from how calmly he was speaking and how non-responsive he became toward the end of it, but look at his hands. Look at how tightly they're clenched. Maintaining his composure while Prin stuck that knife in his wounds and twisted it as viciously as she could cost him, and it would be obvious even if we hadn't already seen them fight.

Tongrak, you're my fighter. He still looks tired because he is, but he also looks like the imperious ice prince he's had to be to survive. Then the utterly dismissive way he turns and walks out and cuts eye contact?

We can barely see Nouel's smile but it's so clearly saying "bruh that's cringe".

He's not just my fighter. He's Mahasamut's fighter, too.

Do ya'll remember how Tongrak was acting when he first brought Mahasamut to live with him and Vivi was teasing him?

Look how far they've come.

I can't quite articulate how, but the way they look at each other has changed, and I don't just mean because they're being lovey in front of Vivi and Mook. There's this undercurrent of sweetness that wasn't there before, even in private. That scene way back in episode 3 where Tongrak told Mahasamut to ask him to stay on the island which had so much softness and fondness to it did not have that same something that's now present.

I'm gonna leave ya'll with that and then go take more screenshots so I can properly scream about Mahasamut. And let me know if you wanna be tagged in these weekly writeups!

#love sea #love sea the series #rakmut #meta

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i-cant-sing · 1 year ago

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what would yandere papa Miguel’s reaction to y/n dying in his arms? Also can y/n be a spider person but Miguel only thinks of them as his baby?

It's 1000% this:

"Time to snatch Y/n from another dimension🥰"

No I'm jk. Obviously he's devastated, heartbroken and like his brain chemistry is permanently altered and he's obviously killed whatever killed u in the first place and literally that antagonist suffered a really really bad death, -1000/10 would not recommend.

I like to think that hes gonna quit the spider society, maybe leave it Peter B's hands and just say that he's just not mentally capable to do this anymore. And ofcourse Peter understands, Miguel suffered a lot.

What Peter doesn't know is that Miguel's sneaky little ass jumps through dimensions one last time to pick another u, and then goes to a safehouse that no one knows about and fr fr this time u arr definitely not seeing the sun ever again because Miguel is far too traumatised and paranoid to ever let u leave his sight again.

And I mean he's keeping u in his line of vision at all times, 24/7. Doesn't matter that u need to go to the bathroom, the door stays open and he'll turn his head away but u both know that he can still see u in his peripheral vision. Wanna shower? Okay u can with shower curtains closed but the door stays open.

And his paranoia is through the rood. You choke on your spit? He's already on his feet, ready to perform Heimlich maneuver. Your head hurts? Off to the med bay to do all sorts of tests and scans on u.

Everytime u die, the next version of u will be met with 10X more paranoid, obsessive yandere Miguel (with his eyebags increasing each time)

#yandere miguel o'hara #yandere miguel x reader #yandere atsv #yandere x y/n #yandere x you #platonic yanderes #yandere platonic #platonic yandere #miguel x reader #miguel o'hara

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princessmaybank · 11 months ago

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New Message

Pairings: JJ x fem!bestfriend!xreader

Warnings: MDNI, unsolicited dick pic, sexting, mention of masterbation, making out, etc.

Summary: JJ woke Y/N up at early hours of the morning because he needed her help.

Authors Note: Enjoy! Let me know if I should write a part 2!

I woke up to the sound of my phone going off. I looked at the clock that sat next to my bed. It read 1:36am.

*1 New Message from Jayj <3*

JJ: Hey are you awake?

I groaned. What could my best friend possibly need at this time? Was he in trouble? Was he hurt? I had no idea.

Y/N: I am now. What's up are you okay??

I wasn't expecting an immediate response but that's what I got.

JJ: No I need your help

Y/N: What's wrong?? Do I need to come get you?

JJ: No but if you came over I wouldn't mind 😉

That is not the kind of response that you use when your friend thinks you are dying, well unless you are JJ Maybank.

Y/N: Okay then what do you need?? Why did you wake me up???

JJ: I'm hornyyyyy

A sudden redness shot to my cheeks. JJ definitely play flirted with his friends, including me but this takes the cake. Yes he was hot, yes I had a little crush on him, no I did not expect this.

Y/N: Uhm- why are you telling me this JJ?

JJ: Bc you're my best friend, and I've noticed the way you've been looking at me. You undress me with your eyes every time you see me

Somehow I was blushing even harder than before. How did he know? Before I could respond I heard my phone ding again.

JJ: I know you wanna see what I'm packing, you're at least a lil curious.

(Authors Note: MDNI!!! This is a RANDOM dick pic I found online. Please proceed at your own risk.)

I gasped. I wasn't entirely ready to see that, but I'm not gonna lie I did like it.

Y/N: JJ. You're my best friend, and don't you have a line of girls ready for you at all times?

JJ: I mean I guess, but none of them are you.

JJ WANTED ME?!?! OF ALL PEOPLE, MY BEST FRIEND WHO I HAVE HAD A CRUSH ON FOR A YEAR, WANTS ME?!?!

Y/N: What do you need from me JJ?

JJ: I need you to talk dirty to me please. I'll do anything.

I gave in so quickly. This could be the one chance I have with him.

Y/N: Are you touching yourself baby?

This was my first time talking like this so I had no idea what I was doing.

JJ: Just for you princess.

The thought of JJ touching himself to me and calling me princess got me extremely excited.

I couldn't stop my hand from creeping into my pants as I texted JJ back with my non-dominant hand.

Y/N: Mmm Jayj I can't stop thinking about your huge cock.

JJ: Oh fuck, please tell me you are touching yourself too.

I wasn't sure if I should lie or not.

Y/N: Of course I am after seeing you.

JJ: Good girl.

Fuck. Me. That is so hot, especially coming from him of all people.

Y/N: JJ I need you. I can't just do this by myself. I'm no good at dirty talk.

JJ: *Read 2:04 AM*

Oh no. He hates me now. He knew I wasn't experienced but he was always nice about that. This will be awkward to bring up at a later time.

About 10 minutes went by and I heard a *tink* on my window. I look over and see JJ sitting on my roof waving back at me. I eagerly opened my window and welcomed him in. Before I could get any words to leave my mouth his hands found my hips and his lips had found mine. He walked me backwards until my legs hit the edge of my bed. He laid me down and continued our deep kiss.

"Fuck you're so hot." He whispered in my ear after sucking on my soft spot. There would definitely be a mark on my neck for a little while. I blushed when I heard him call me that. No one has ever called me that. Then I started to get self conscious. "JJ...before we continue I want to know your intentions." "Y/N. I have been in love with you since the day we met. I was waiting for you for years. I realized you probably would never want me, so I started acting like a slut. But my intentions are to please you tonight and hopefully every night for the rest of our lives. Ya know if you let me ask you out." I couldn't stop the redness forming in my cheeks. I tried to put up a wall of confidence really fast. "Is that your way of asking Maybank? Or just what you say to all of your random hookups?" My eyebrow lifted as I stared into his gorgeous blue eyes. "Maybe it is, and I've never said that to anyone else, I cross my heart and hope to die." His eyes never left mine as he made the hand motions to go with his phrase. I trusted him. I trusted this man with my whole heart. I didn't say anything, I just attached my lips to his once again. This was going to be a long night and a good life.

(Authors Note: Let me know if you'd like a part two! I was going to write a whole sex scene but I thought this was already long enough.)

#jj maybank #outer banks #obx fic #rudy pankow smut #rudy pankow x reader #jj maybank smut #obx x reader #outer banks smut #jj maybank imagine

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caapsiizzereads · 1 year ago

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I got your heart skippin' when I'm gone

Jamie Tartt x f!reader

Words: 2,3k

Warnings: language, author’s first attempt at writing🥴

A/n: yes, the title is, indeed, a Taylor reference.

A glass of champagne in your hand, you are standing in the company of Frank, your boss, and a few other of your colleagues, chatting about how good of a job they did at setting up today’s event. A bunch of compliments are also directed at you and Frank for all of the work you’ve done leading up to this. You know you’re great at your job, but moments like this really make you feel fucking good about yourself. At 26, you can proudly say that you are the Assistant Creative Director for one of the biggest jewelry brands in England. And today your company is celebrating the launch of their latest collection that you’ve been working really hard on. The past couple of months have been terribly busy, Frank and you practically living at work and surviving purely on caffeine. But now it’s finally over, and you can just relax, look pretty (“absolutely stunning,” actually, to quote Frank), and sip champagne, while people are singing you well-deserved praises.

The company’s event team really knew what they were doing too. Natalie, your friend from PR, had been very pumped for the night, rambling about all the famous people coming. You briefly went through the guest list, of course, but, honestly, you were more excited about the open bar. But if one of those guests just so happened to be lovely enough, you wouldn't mind indulging in some of that either.

An hour into the party, you were done with all the formalities, and you could switch from your neat glass of champagne to a drink more worthy of a Saturday night. You’re standing by the bar, looking at your phone, when you hear a question, seemingly directed at you.

“Can I get you a drink?” Looking at you, there’s a guy, around your age, dyed blonde hair, pretty face, really nice bone structure. His face looks familiar, but you just can’t remember why.

You give him an amused smile, “You know that they are free, right?”

“And how am I supposed to be chivalrous in these conditions?” he says theatrically.

“If buying a girl a drink is your definition of chivalrous, maybe you shouldn’t even try,” you say, your voice full of sarcasm, but still a smile on your face.

He chuckles lightly and smiles at you, “I’m Jamie.” Really pretty smile too.

“Y/n,” as a force of habit you offer him your hand to shake. The gesture seems to surprise him a little bit, but he goes with it anyway, shaking your hand lightly.

The two of you settle next to each other by the bar with an easygoing chatter. You’ve been talking for about 10 minutes, when Jamie says that he’s a football player, and it finally clicks for you.

“Oh my God.” You tilt your head down and cover your eyes with your hand in embarrassment. “You’re Jamie Tartt. You were in our campaign a few months ago. Fuck, I’m so sorry. My memory, like, resets once the campaign is done and it’s not my problem anymore.”

Jamie smiles almost shyly at your realization. “No, no, it’s fine! I’m sure you go through a lot of those, can’t remember everyone.” He definitely remembered you, though. Not that he’s gonna tell you that. And a part of him is even kinda relieved that you didn’t because–

“On second thought, I do remember you. You were, like, 40 fucking minutes late.” Yeah, that. You didn’t speak to him directly that day, but the look on your face was the most passive-aggressive thing he’d ever seen. Honestly, could give Roy a run for his money. Except that your version also looked kinda hot. But he still would rather not be at the receiving end of that glare ever again.

“I’m sorry! I underestimated the traffic,” he says awkwardly. And to think that this has been going well…

You take a sip of your drink, giving him an unimpressed look.

“I’m not getting invited again, am I?”

“Well, you are on my naughty list, but I wouldn't write you off that fast. You attract a nice audience of sports fans and sportsmen fans.” Jamie can swear you have just checked him out. “And you have a nice neck, you know, makes the necklaces look good. But that’s just my professional opinion.”

You said it in the most nonchalant way, but you might have just become the first person to make Jamie Tartt flustered. He decides to push his luck some more.

“And your personal opinion?”

“That you were 40 fucking minutes late,” you deadpan.

No luck, then.

“So,” Jamie perks up again at your attempt to keep the conversation going, “did you have a match earlier today? Or is it tomorrow?”

“Yeah, it was today.”

“How was it?”

A smug smile appears on his face, “We won, 3-1.”

“Well,” you raise your glass, “cheers to that.”

Jamie clinks his glass to yours, “Cheers.” You both take a sip of your drinks.

“So you’re not into football then?” Jamie asks, once you put down your glasses.

“Nope,” with a dramatic ‘p’. “Don’t take it personally. I’m not really into any sports,” you say blithely.

The conversation keeps flowing easily between you two. 30 minutes later, you are pretty sure that you are taking this man home with you tonight. Jamie seems genuine, in a cute kind of way, (mostly unintentionally) funny, attractive, obviously, and there’s something about him that you just know that he would be such a good time. 40 minutes later, you even consider letting him stay for breakfast. 45 minutes later, however, you start feeling a slight headache, but fuck if you will let it ruin your night, so you decide to just ignore it and hope it will take a hint and go away.

No such luck. The universe must truly hate you, because about an hour and a half into your conversation with Jamie you feel like someone is kicking your skull from the inside. You’ve tried to ignore it to the best of your ability, but this party suddenly isn’t any fun anymore. Fuck. Your. Life. You are aware that Jamie is saying something, his voice being a steady background noise, but you don’t have a clue what he just said because all you can focus on is a throbbing pain in your head. That’s when you know that you should just give up and go home.

Jamie notices your attention slipping away and your smile faltering as he speaks. Then you look away for a moment before looking back at him with a smile, saying that it was nice talking to him and wishing him a good night. You get up from your seat and start walking away before he can even process what has just happened.

You’re putting on your coat when you see Jamie quickly walking up to you with a concerned expression on his face. “Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean–”

You don’t let him finish, “No, no, no! You’re good.” Jamie keeps looking at you with an obvious question on his face. “It’s just–,” you gesture at your head with a circling motion, “my head is fucking killing me. So I'm gonna go home, take some Ibuprofen and pray it goes away.”

Jamie’s face changes from concern to understanding. You think that this is it, so you turn to leave, but then he speaks up again. “I can give you a ride?” It was more of a question than a statement.

“No, it’s fine. Really. I’ll just get an uber.”

“It really is no problem. Come on,” he’s looking at you expectantly.

You think on it for a moment and give him an evaluating look. “I’m not inviting you in.”

“Oh. No! I didn’t mean it like that! I was really just–”

“Relax. I was just making sure you don’t have any false hopes.”

“Nope, no false hopes here.”

“Good,” you nod at him.

You walk to his car and Jamie opens the door for you. He sees you smiling at him approvingly.

“What?”

“See, now you’re being chivalrous,” you say playfully before getting in the car. Jamie closes the door after you and gives himself a moment to blush in privacy. After starting the car, he turns the volume on the radio all the way down and opens a window a little bit for you. You lean back in your seat and give him a small smile, “Thanks.”

Your talk on the way home consists mostly of you giving Jamie the directions and his attempts on small talk.

“Do you get them a lot?”

“No, not really. Only when it’s the least convenient apparently.”

“Maybe it’s because you–“

“If you’re about to say that it’s because I don't drink enough water, I'm jumping out of this car at full speed.”

Jamie’s mouth opens, closes, and opens again. “Actually, I was going to say…” he pauses again.

You raise your eyebrows at him, prompting him to go on.

“I was going to say… that it’s probably because of your hard work schedule, yeah. You know, having to deal with people being 40 minutes late and everything.” He throws a glance at you, checking if he’s managed to save the situation.

That makes you chuckle, despite the pain it causes. “You know what, I think you might be right.”

Soon, you’re parked by your building. “Thanks for the ride. It was really nice to meet you,” you say, before opening the car’s door.

“Yeah, you too,” he smiles at you.

Jamie spends another minute parked by your building. It’s only after you disappear from his view that he realizes that he hasn’t even gotten your number. He sighs and bumps his head against the steering wheel.

Meanwhile, you’re just glad to finally get your hands on some painkillers and flop on the couch, waiting for your head to stop throbbing. But an hour later, when you feel like a person again, your mind goes back to Jamie. You really liked him, huh. Hypothetically, you can look up the paperwork for the campaign he did, and his contact information should be there. Realistically, you should probably just let it go.

On Monday everything goes back to normal. After the workload that you had to deal with before the launch, the lack of a hundred points on your to-do list and constant burning deadlines almost feels like a vacation. And judging by the laid-back atmosphere at the office, you’re not the only one who feels this way.

You go out for lunch with Natalie, and after she’s done catching you up on all the fresh gossip, she can’t help but ask about your chat with Jamie Tartt. You tell her that’s exactly what it was, just a chat at the party.

She looks at you like she knows something you don’t. “That’s interesting. Because Keeley Jones, you know, from KBPR, called me earlier today to ask for your number.”

You give her a look that says “is this supposed to mean anything to me?”

Natalie dramatically rolls her eyes like it couldn’t be more obvious, “KBPR represents Jamie Tartt!”

Now it’s your turn to roll your eyes.

“Excuse me, have you seen yourself in that dress? I totally would ask for your number too.”

You smirk at her, “You have my number.”

“And now so does Keeley Jones. All I’m saying is, if you’re not interested, let him down easily. ‘Cause I'm totally planning on using him for more campaigns. Have you seen those hands?! They were meant to put rings on them. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you–”

You start cackling before she can even finish.

It’s just after 6pm and you’re getting in your car when your phone rings, you don’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Hi! (Y/n) (Y/l/n)?”

“That’s me.”

“Hi! It’s Keeley Jones, from KBPR. Natalie gave me your number.”

“Right, she mentioned. How can I help you?”

“It’s more of a social call, actually. Jamie asked me to ask for your number. You know, Jamie Tartt, the footballer? He said you met at the brand party the other night.”

You smile to yourself, “Yeah, no, I remember him.”

“I was just gonna check if it’s okay with you?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Thanks for asking me first, though.”

“Of course!”

Keeley then congratulates you on your launch, and you tell her that she should totally come to the next one.

Not even an hour later, another call, another unknown number.

“Yes?”

“Hi. It’s Jamie. Tartt. We met–”

“I know. Did you ask Keeley to ask Natalie for my number?” you ask teasingly.

“Maybe…? The alternative was to wait for you outside your building, but that would be creepy.”

“Yeah, better not do that.“

“Right. Uh, how’s your head?”

You chuckle at the question, “It’s fine.”

“Good, that’s good.”

“Mhm,” an amused smile is growing on your face.

“So… I was gonna ask, do you want to, I mean, if you’re not busy, maybe we could go out for dinner?” You can easily tell that he’s nervous, it’s quite cute actually.

“Alright,” the easiest yes you have ever said.

“Yeah?” Jamie wants to smack himself in the face for how hopeful that came out.

You chuckle again, “Yeah.”

“Cool. Uh, are you free tomorrow?”

“I can do tomorrow.”

“Fucking mint. I will pick you up? At seven?” You can hear the excitmenet in his voice.

“Okay.”

“Okay,” he grins.

“See you tomorrow then,” and if you’re smiling then there’s no witnesses and no one will prove anything.

“Yeah, see you,” and if he’s grinning like an idiot then it’s no one’s business.

“Oh, and Jamie?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t be fucking late.”

#jamie tartt x reader #jamie tartt x you #jamie tartt imagine #ted lasso fic

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wonuwrites · 7 months ago

Text

Seventeen Most To Least Likely To:

protect you from yourself

2.0 from this ask xo from @sharonxdevi

warnings: fluffy, angsty, some cursing, some food talk in Wonwoo's, stressed out Cheol + Jeonghan + kwannie :( , slight suggestive maybe if you squint, also I wrote basically a novel for Minghao's part. If you hate that, then go away bc we love Minghao here.

p.s I wrote most of this at 2 am after chugging 2 redbulls. It's gonna be chaotic as fuck and i'm not sorry whatsoever

listening to this banger of an album

M O S T

-> Minghao

Out of all of the members in Seventeen, I feel like Minghao always has an eye out for you and is always conscious of you.

I mean, if you need an example on how he'd be: look at how he babies friggin Vernon lmao.

He would do a lot of little things, like when you were being a passenger princess, because you would be. He would do this if there were bumps in road or whatever.

He also would always be holding your hand when walking and would walk by the road.

He'd peel your orange just so you wouldn't hurt yourself with a knife by accident.

Potentially might blow on food so you wouldn't burn your mouth lmaooo.

I don't think he would nag you like others would because he knew you were your own person and could do whatever they pleased.

However, he would always show how much he wanted to protect you.

You were his special person after all.

If you fell in front of him, he'd run to you and help you up. If you were laughing he might giggle as well and remind you to be more careful.

If you managed to get hurt and he was not around he would first make sure you weren't dying. Then he would just try to calm you down if you were anxious and just be there.

honestly, 100/10 type a guy. He's a walking green flag.

-> Dino

Honestly, maknae means nothing. Lee Chan is one of the more responsible members of Seventeen.

I mean in Nana Tour he was manager of money.

Just like being the manager, he would be the manager of your life?

He would constantly make sure you were okay and that any "obstacles" would not be in your way AT ALL.

He would be by your side constantly when you were out just to make sure you were safe and comfortable.

He'd be a bit more naggy than Minghao but that was just because he was nervous and was trying to convey that he was worried about you.

If you ever fell or ran into anything in front of him, I could see him either shocked if you were seriously hurt or laugh hysterically if you were fine and laughing as well.

However, if you got hurt when he was not near by, he would get so sad he wasn't able to be your prince in shining armor and protect you.

-> S. Coups

tbh you would stress him the fuck out lmfaoo.

He would try to hide it in front of you because he didn't want you to feel guilty for it. You couldn't help you were prone to accidents!

With being a leader of 12 other people, having you to watch after to was pretty much a given.

However, because of being leader he wouldn't be able to watch you as often as Minghao or Chan could which is why he is a bit lower.

Believe me, he would 100000% be number one if he didn't already have the other 12 to worry about.

When he realized you were more of a clutz then Mingyu he'd want to wrap you in bubble wrap and keep an eye on you 25/8.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately) you were a brat and would tease him often with "nOt NeEdInG hIs HeLp" it and that might trigger his brat taming kink lmfao.

If you were to fall or run into idk a wall he would just sigh and rub his temples LMFAO. I can see him being like "are you sure about that, sweetheart? Boom. a bruise. Let me just take care of you."

tbh he'd probably also sulk if he found out you got hurt and he wasn't there to prevent it. It would not be his fault but expect flowers, your favorite take out, one of his jackets, and him to be at your door asap.

-> Seungkwan

You also would stress him the fuck out.

Unlike Cheol tho, he would show you and admit he was stressed out.

Not to make you feel guilty but that was the way he was communicating why we would nag/being over protective.

End of the day, he wanted you to be safe and not hurt at all.

If he ever made you feel bad by his nagging, he would apologize and try to calm it down but he couldn't help it. He was worried as hell about you.

If you ever tripped or got hurt in front of him, he would just sigh and rub his temple LOL.

ngl he might even side eye you because he warned you.

You might apologize for it even though it was an accident which would make him apologize and then make sure you were okay.

If you were hurt when he was not around, he would feel sick. He wouldn't show you this side but he might get teary eyed until he knew if you were okay.

bc like I said... end of the day he wants you to be safe.

-> Woozi

Look bestie's been lifting weights for a few different reasons

one being, to be able to help you with things so you wouldn't strain yourself.

Like do you need to lift a box or something? He's got you babe

Need a door opened? Jihoon's got you pookie.

He wouldn't vocalize that he was doing anything to protect you, he just would.. do it

anyway where was I? Oh yeah

so Jihoon would always try to be there for you and would try to do things for you so you could be safe.

However, if you tripped or hurt yourself infront of him, he would be flabbergasted and by your side within seconds to make sure you are okay.

If you got injured when he was not with you, I can see him being a bit more logical then other members and would make sure you were okay and try his best to not make you feel foolish. it might be hard tho.

-> Jeonghan

Sooo, basically similarly to Seungcheol and Seungkwan you would stress him the fuck out.

However, he would try to play it off and act like he wasn't that bothered.

Believe me tho, he was.

He'd show his stress not in front of you tho.

He would sigh if he heard something crash in the other room with you shouting "I'm okay Hannie, I swear."

Ngl he might ask if you were dumb as a joke to try to tease you.

He'd tease you a lot actually.

He'd say shit like "Gotta do this because SOMEBODY will prob break an ankle or something and we can't have that."

If you got hurt in front of him, I can see him either laugh or go "Aigoooo~ my baby."

If you ever got hurt when he was not around, expect clingy domestic Jeonghan to nurse you back to health and nag you to be more careful.

He'd feel sick if you were ever hurt to an extreme and he wasn't there to protect you.

-> Joshua

first things first, he would like to say he was a gentleman to you.

yet if you were to fall he would laugh LMAO

not to be malicious but more like "what the fuck?"

You were so interesting to him and your coordination or er lack of coordination skills was so fascinating to him.

Like how could you be standing next to him then on the floor within 5 seconds?! there was no obstacles. wtf Y/N?!

If you were to get injured in front of him, like I said he'd laugh but if it was serious. He would quickly be godsent gentleman mode and would take care of you to best of his abilities.

If you got hurt when he was not nearby, he would make sure you were okay mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. Once he knew you were okay he'd prob make a cheeky comment just to make you laugh.

"Sometimes I feel like the floor gets more action than me? Fall on me next time baby?"

-> Wonwoo

No I didn't forget about Wonu I swear, I think he's toward the bottom and let me explain LOL

So, he would act like he was the best at protecting and would kinda act like Minghao, Seungcheol and/or Jeonghan.

He'd be a bit of a nagger kinda like Seunkwan ngl.

"Y/N, you need to be more careful. Kneecaps are important." "You need to take care of yourself." "Energy drinks aren't the only type of food you need to be healthy." etc.

However, if y'all were around Mingyu he was donezo and exposed.

Gyu would just be like "Hyung, you're one to talk."

Gyu would expose this poor man and would honestly protect you from his naggings.

However, if you fell in front of them after, Mingyu would realize Wonu was right in his nagging and you were a lost cause /lh LOL

If you ever were hurt in front of him, expect princess treatment. He would make sure you were okay.

If you were hurt when he was away, he would be one of the members that would drop everything and go straight to you. He would def be one of the more emotional members if you were hurt.

-> Vernon

tbh Joshua 2.0 LMAO

he'd laugh his ass off if you managed to trip over air in front of him.

Only time he wouldn't laugh on spot is if you accidentally banged your hip into a corner of the counter or something.

If anything, Hansol would just Hansol ya know?

Just a little "oh shit, you good?"

He'd do his best to help you not be so accident prone but after awhile, he just kinda realized it was bound to happen.

He still would try to help.

If you got hurt when he was not there, he would send you memes or something to lift up your spirits.

-> DK

Joshua 3.0.

He would fall to the ground laughing with you if you had tripped over air or whatever.

He would do his best to protect you from yourself but he also would try not to focus on your accident prone ways because he wouldn't want you to be embarrassed or feel bad about yourself.

Everyone has talents and yours is tripping over nothing or running into a corner every once in awhile.

Honestly, I could see him rate your accidents if he knew you were fine and just embarrassed LOL.

Like you would trip over your new puppy or something and he would be like "oooo i give that a 8 out of 10 LOL.

If you were ever hurt in front of him like actually, he would be soft and just make sure you were okay.

He might kiss it better? :')

If you were hurt when he was not near you, I could see him being similar to Wonwoo where he'd get emotional and just want to make sure you were okay.

He would call you as soon as possible and if he heard you rate your injury, he might scoff a bit but still laugh at your humor.

-> Hoshi

look, it's not that he doesn't want to protect you. he does.

A Tiger always needs to protect his Tigress ya know? I'm not sorry but pls still read my content LOLOLOL

Anyway, he would be similar to Joshua, DK, and Hansol where he'd laugh if you fell.

Most of the time, he knew you were not hurt.

Sometimes, he might compliment your spills and it might give him inspiration for a dance move.

Honestly tho, he is one of the more accident prone members too. Here's a comp I found if you don't believe me.

He'd joke, "we could be roomies if we both get hurt so it wouldn't be too bad." LOL

Jokes aside, if you ever did actually get hurt around Soonyoung he would baby you like no tomorrow. He might get a little emotional but that was because he didn't like to see his partner in pain whatsoever.

If you ever got hurt and he was away on schedules, he would be even more emotional. He'd blame himself. Even if logically it was not his fault, he would still feel awful he wasn't there to protect you.

-> Jun

He's a bit in his own world most of the time from what I've seen.

He still would try his best to protect you and make sure you were okay though.

I feel like maybe you would have to protect him more??

Or at least attempt too?

idk I feel like you both are so soft for each other that if one of you fell, the other would join the other person on the floor so you didn't feel alone.

If you were to fall or get hurt in front of him I can see him buffer a bit and then ask you what he should do.

He just didn't want to make situation worse.

If you were hurt and he was not there, he would be there as soon as he could just to make sure you were okay.

He'd NEVER nag you to be more careful. He just would want you to be okay.

L E A S T

-> Mingyu

Look he's too tall for his own good and sometimes his own limbs make him accident prone as well.

He really would try the best he could to protect you because well let's be real, out of all of Seventeen he would be the biggest simp.

However I can see him trying to help you up and falling in the process :(

There would be a lot of laughs though.

So much laughter.

Even if both of yall were a mess and occasionally accident prone, at least y'all could be that way together.

You both don't take that much serious and there would be other areas where Mingyu could show his "protective" and "dominant" side.

trust me he would too LOL.

If you ever got hurt in front of him, he would automatically go house husband and would wipe your wounds and carry you around like a princess.

shirt optional tbh

If you ever were hurt when he was away on schedules, he would be worried thoughout the duration of the schedule. If Seungcheol was there, he would tell him just to go check on you because he knew he was not fully there unless he knew his baby was okay :((((

ahhh hope this was okay <33

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weebsinstash · 1 year ago

Note

I just have to say I'm absolutely loving your yandere Thragg & Nolan stuff! Keep it up & I hope you have a nice day!! ♡

Thank you! And, also, gonna be using this post to talk about more yandere Thragg stuff because I was refreshing my knowledge on the comics and my YTShorts feeds are now filled with Invincible lore recommendations and, jesus I forgot how fucking nasty this man is

first off I'm using this image to just help kind of visualize how much of a unit this man is. Like. He's probably something crazy like 6'6 at the very shortest, maybe like 6'8, 6'9. But. Um. He's scary. He's tough. Viltrumites get tougher the longer they're alive and he's, not THE oldest Viltrumite but, maybe he's in like the top 10? But I think there's only something like an odd, less than 50 number of pure blooded Viltrumites left anyways lmao

Which is then my transition to "dealing with yandad Thragg as his child could be an absolute nightmare especially if you don't have powers"

Dying on my hill of "even if you do have powers he's super fucking possessive over who you're choosing as a mate or even just dating" because there's layers of 1. He has his own massive ego and your actions reflect on him and anyone you bring into the family will benefit from his lineage and achievements and he's defensive about who reaps those bounties or may even be suspicious of political intentions 2. If he hypothetically does let you date he needs to pre approve them first and I'm sure you can imagine how that goes and 3. .... you're his widdle baby, can't you spend more time with dad :( shut up about finding love, why can't you crush skulls with him? "Child why can't we go slaughter alien civilizations together like we used to 😩"

The last paragraph made me think of "Thragg with a child Reader who's actually a really spunky tough kid and he like is so proud of you and you guys have like An Actually Good Relationship (for Thragg's capacity to love anyways) but as you get older you start having ideological differences and you want more freedom but he just wants you to be Daddys Favorite Little Killing Machine for the rest of your life". Like you're just giving Thragg the cold shoulder because he won't let you leave the planet without his personal escort anymore and meanwhile here's thragg hovering over you with his arms crossed, internally scowl-pouting as he remembers The Good Old Days when you were like 6 and ran up to him, "Dad, Dad, look!! this is a note from my teacher praising me for how well I beat up another student! She says I'm 'extremely proficient at bludgeoning'! Did I do a good job?" "You did an EXCELLENT job. It says here the boy needed medical attention." "Yeah, he had to be sent to the hospital! His legs were totally bent the wrong ways! He shouldnt have tried to steal my toy!" "Fine work; you should never allow anyone to take what is yours. We shall feast tonight in celebration." And he pet your hair and you flew up to his chest height to give him a crushing hug. And nowadays you're like. The Viltrumite equivalent of being in your early adult years and everything is extremely cold and impersonal and you call him nothing other than Grand Regent and he "maybe" just wants his eager confident prideful Affectionate child back because all he has now is. A child that hates him and will barely make eye contact with him and will never accept his praise or medals for your achievements.

Like imagine being a notoriously powerful Viltrumite and you're actually widely accepted but him being controlling of you throughout your childhood eventually gave you a complex. Thragg summons you to like praise you for like, subjugating a nearby galaxy, and asks what you would like for a reward, and you just coolly reply some shit like "There's nothing you could offer that I want, Grand Regent" like you hate him so much you don't even want gifts from this man

AND THE DELICIOUS DRAMA OF, imagine if he finds out that while you hate him and want nothing to do with him, maybe you've become extremely attached to Nolan or some other older father figure in his place

THE SHIT THAT GOES DOWN IF THRAGG EVER HEARS YOU CALL NOLAN OR ANYONE ELSE "DAD" like the cosmic level beef that goes on, the BLOODSHED. Jesus. Imagine being on Earth and you've got Dad Nolan or he's like declared himself your dad/mentor and he sees you bonding with another human male who's a father figure and you call that man dad, like. That man is going missing and Uncle Sam is erasing his existence from the records just, gone.

Side note actually, idea for something yandere viltrumites do with a viltrumite/hybrid reader: loving to bear hug you super hard? Like almost painfully but they won't break anything. Just. Imagine yandad Nolan or Thragg or Mark with like, a lil sibling/ child/ age regressed Reader or whatever and you're having like, hugging contests to see who can hug the hardest, and play wrestling shit idk. Imagine the infamously grumpy genocidal Thragg and then here's his like 4 year old wanting to play wrestle and trying to pin him and you're no match for him of course but like it's not, real, he's "gently" deflecting you or breaking your hold but still actually praising you in that, Thragg dad way, "your stance is too weak to take down an opponent of my size, but you're improving" " your siblings usually tire by now; you seem to have more endurance than most of my other children your age. Excellent" and then your little baby mouth gives him a kiss on the cheek and he has to go subjugate another planet to feel manly again.

I feel like yandad Thragg and Nolan are unironically those characters that are like, they could be in the middle of a war zone and they're easily winning and you go upstairs to see what they're thinking about, surely they're thinking about something serious, and it's just "I need to hurry this up and get back to my child" or "I wonder what my little warrior is doing right now" like straight up like the father from Father I Don't Want This Marriage

Yandere Thragg and Nolan are all "oh it's part of the Viltrum way to mate and procreate and boost our numbers" and Reader comes along "hey dad this is my new boyfriend--" and suddenly they turn into like, Christian fundamentalists. "Um actually that Viltrumite male is even older than I am 🤓 you are still so young and should be enjoying the fruits of your youth 🤓 you are too young to have children"

I feel like though like if you ever did manage to sneak off and get pregnant or get someone else pregnant that, specifically Nolan would adore his new grand baby and would do anything for this chubby cutie 🥺❤️ also imagine the horror if he's not even your blood dad, just obsessive self proclaimed stalker yandere shit, but you can't run away from him and he's finds you and your baby and instantly declares himself grandpa, like. Now you have to worry about protecting yourself and your baby from "PawPaw"

So like. Future spoilers I guess? Not super significant in my opinion, but, there's a period of time where there's like a truce of sorts between Earth and Viltrum, right, to keep it vague and less spoiler heavy. Imagine being like, Nolan's kid, or adopted kid, or like, neighbor who turned out to be a hybrid that he yoinked into his house or whatever, and like, after there's been some fighting, Thragg is impressed with your strength and potential and seems to be scouting you out a little. Now you've got TWO older Viltrumite males trying to father you, "my apologies Grand Regent but I was just about to take this one out to teach them how to fly better" "that is unnecessary; i shall be the one to tutor the youngling" meanwhile you're just like uhhhhh I'm not actually a big fan of how EITHER of you treat me-"

bruhhhh all hell breaks loose when you finally lose it and fly straight off the planet to try and start a new life elsewhere without them cuz then these two are TEAMING UP and they're feeding into each other, "I bet they were convinced to leave by that one male, the one who we had to warn before" "and that's why you're weak Nolan. I wanted to kill him but you didn't want to hurt the youth's feelings, and now what's happened? They're probably eloping as we speak" "no, I won't make the same mistake twice. He'll die a slow death"

You're on like some alien planet surrounded by like simple little ewoks or some shit who treat you like a water god because you dug a well for them or something and here comes Thragg and Nolan touchdown slamming onto the planet's surface and leaving craters behind, scaring the birds, the animals, your new little cute alien friends huddling behind you for protection, and you're getting SCOLDED SCOLDED. like one minute your new little like moogle friend is teaching you how to bake some kind of bread and the next minute, "AND JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOURE DOING HERE" and you're jumping to see two pissed pissed PISSED Viltrumites

"O-oh, uh, I thought I made it clear when I left--"

"The only thing that you've made clear is that you're too unpredictable and naive to be left alone"

"What were you THINKING?! You could've gotten lost, hurt, captured, or worse! And leaving Viltrum for, what?! Are these your pets? We can enslave a few and take them with us if you like em so much"

"If you EVER leave without my permission as Grand Regent again I'll reduce whatever backwater rock you stumble off to into nothing more than rubble floating through the stars, is that understood?"

"..."

"Answer him!"

'*sigh* yes, sirs"

"That's FATHER to you"

" - and Dad!"

#yandere invincible #yandere x reader #sinprompts #yandere stuff #these two always at each othsrs throats and then one day you just catch them sitting down talking about you #bonding over their. uh. attachment and surveillance of you

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jovial-thunder · 6 months ago

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Pre-alpha Lancer Tactics changelog

(cross-posting the full gif changelog here because folks seemed to like it last time I did)

We're aiming for getting the first public alpha for backers by the end of this month! Carpenter and I scoped out mechanics that can wait until after the alpha (e.g. grappling, hiding) in favor of tying up the hundred loose threads that are needed for something that approaches a playable game. So this is mostly a big ol changelog of an update from doing that.

But I also gave a talent talk at a local Portland Indie Game Squad event about engine architecture! It'll sound familiar if you've been reading these updates; I laid out the basic idea for this talk almost a year ago, back in the June 2023 update.

youtube

We've also signed contracts & had a kickoff meeting with our writers to start on the campaigns. While I've enjoyed like a year of engine-work, it'll be so so nice to start getting to tell stories. Data structures don't mean anything beyond how they affect humans & other life.

New Content

Implemented flying as a status; unit counts as +3 spaces above the current ground level and ignores terrain and elevation extra movement costs. Added hover + takeoff/land animations.

Gave deployables the ability to have 3D meshes instead of 2D sprites; we'll probably use this mostly when the deployable in question is climbable.

Related, I fixed a bug where after terrain destruction, all units recheck the ground height under them so they'll move down if the ground is shot out from under them. When the Jerichos do that, they say "oh heck, the ground is taller! I better move up to stand on it!" — not realizing that the taller ground they're seeing came from themselves.

Fixed by locking some units' rendering to the ground level; this means no stacking climbable things, which is a call I'm comfortable making. We ain't making minecraft here (I whisper to myself, gazing at the bottom of my tea mug).

Block sizes are currently 1x1x0.5 — half as tall as they are wide. Since that was a size I pulled out of nowhere for convenience, we did some art tests for different block heights and camera angles. TLDR that size works great and we're leaving it.

Added Cone AOE pattern, courtesy of an algorithm NMcCoy sent me that guarantees the correct number of tiles are picked at the correct distance from the origin.

pick your aim angle

for each distance step N of your cone, make a list ("ring") of all the cells at that distance from your origin

sort those cells by angular distance from your aim angle, and include the N closest cells in that ring in the cone's area

Here's a gif they made of it in Bitsy:

Units face where you're planning on moving/targeting them.

Got Walking Armory's Shock option working. Added subtle (too subtle, now that I look at it) electricity effect.

Other things we've added but I don't have gifs for or failed to upload. You'll have to trust me. :)

disengage action

overcharge action

Improved Armament core bonus

basic mine explosion fx

explosion fx on character dying

Increase map elevation cap to 10. It's nice but definitely is risky with increasing the voxel space, gonna have to keep an eye on performance.

Added Structured + Stress event and the associated popups. Also added meltdown status (and hidden countdown), but there's not animation for this yet so your guy just abruptly disappears and leaves huge crater.

UI Improvements

Rearranged the portrait maker. Auto-expand the color picker so you don't have to keep clicking into a submenu.

Added topdown camera mode by pressing R for handling getting mechs out of tight spaces.

The action tooltips have been bothering me for a while; they extend up and cover prime play-area real estate in the center of the screen. So I redesigned them to be shorter and have a max height by putting long descriptions in a scrollable box. This sounds simple, but the redesign, pulling in all the correct data for the tags, and wiring up the tooltips took like seven hours. Game dev is hard, yo.

Put the unit inspect popups in lockable tooltips + added a bunch of tooltips to them.

Implemented the rest of Carpenter's cool hex-y action and end turn readout. I'm a big fan of whenever we can make the game look more like a game and less like a website (though he balances out my impulse for that for the sake of legibility).

Added a JANKY talent/frame picker. I swear we have designs for a better one, but sometimes you gotta just get it working. Also seen briefly here are basic level up/down and HASE buttons.

Other no-picture things:

Negated the map-scaling effect that happens when the window resizes to prevent bad pixel scaling of mechs at different resolutions; making the window bigger now just lets you see more play area instead of making things bigger.

WIP Objectives Bullets panel to give the current sitrep info

Wired up a buncha tooltips throughout the character sheet.

Under the Hood

Serialization: can save/load games! This is the payoff for sticking with that engine architecture I've been going on about. I had to add a serialization function to everything in the center layer which took a while, but it was fairly straightforward work with few curveballs.

Finished replacement of the kit/unit/reinforcement group/sitrep pickers with a new standardized system that can pull from stock data and user-saved data.

Updated to Godot 4.2.2; the game (and editor) has been crashing on exit for a LONG time and for the life of me I couldn't track down why, but this minor update in Godot completely fixed the bug. I still have no idea what was happening, but it's so cool to be working in an engine that's this active bugfixing-wise!

Other Bugfixes

Pulled straight from the internal changelog, no edits for public parseability:

calculate cover for fliers correctly

no overwatch when outside of vertical threat

fixed skirmisher triggering for each attack in an AOE

fixed jumpjets boost-available detection

fixed mines not triggering when you step right on top of them // at a different elevation but still adjacent

weapon mods not a valid target for destruction

made camera pan less jumpy and adjust to the terrain height

better Buff name/desc localization

Fixed compcon planner letting you both boost and attack with one quick action.

Fix displayed movement points not updating

Prevent wrecks from going prone

fix berserkers not moving if they were exactly one tile away

hex mine uses deployer's save target instead of 0

restrict weapon mod selection if you don't have the SP to pay

fix deployable previews not going away

fix impaired not showing up in the unit inspector (its status code is 0 so there was a check that was like "looks like there's no status here")

fix skirmisher letting you move to a tile that should cost two movement if it's only one space away

fix hit percent calculation

fix rangefinder grid shader corner issues (this was like a full day to rewrite the shader to be better)

Teleporting costs the max(spaces traveled, elevation change) instead of always 1

So um, yeah, that's my talk, any questions? (I had a professor once tell us to never end a talk like this, so now of course it's the phrase that first comes to mind whenever I end a talk)

#lancer tactics #lancer rpg #indie game dev #made with godot #godot engine #godot 4 #Youtube

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tokyo-chainsaw-dragon · 1 year ago

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Chainsaw Man Denji Headcanon - Thanksgiving Edition (18+ MDNI)

A/N: ᵀʰᶦˢ ᶦˢ ᵐʸ ˢᵉᶜᵒⁿᵈ ʰᵉᵃᵈ ᶜᵃⁿᵒⁿ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᴵ'ᵛᵉ ᵉᵛᵉʳ ʷʳᶦᵗᵗᵉⁿ ᶠᵒʳ ᶜʰᵃᶦⁿˢᵃʷ ᴹᵃⁿ ˢᵒ ᴵ ʰᵒᵖᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᴵ ᵈᵒ ᵍᵒᵒᵈ ᵒⁿ ᵗʰᶦˢ [ᵗʰˣ ᵗᵒ @callm3senpaii ᶠᵒʳ ᶦⁿˢᵖᶦʳᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ] ᴵ ʷᶦˡˡ ʷʳᶦᵗᵉ ᵃⁿᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ⁿᵉˣᵗ ᵐᵒⁿᵗʰ ᶠᵒʳ ᶜʰʳᶦˢᵗᵐᵃˢ ᵗᵒᵒ ˢᵒ ᶦᵗ ʷᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵇᵉ ˡᵉᶠᵗ ᵒᵘᵗ

𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕: 𝟔𝟐𝟎

⚠️warnings: NSFW, Denji x fem!reader, gentle fucking, after-arguement fucking, mentions of pussy eating, oral (p in v), unprotected, etc.

When it comes to Thanksgiving for Denji, he wants to go all out for it. Of course, you'll be the only one cooking since Denji only knows how to make instant ramen in the microwave (That's fucking bad with no experience). But this year was different, since you didn't want to do it and end up having more leftovers fill your refrigerator to the brim, let alone the freezer.

When you told Denji the news on Monday that you weren't going to do anything for Thanksgiving, he fucking nearly went out of his balls.

"Y/N! You know that I fucking love Thanksgiving, but why are you deciding that it's cancelled?!", Denji pleaded, not knowing the reasoning behind it.

"It's because I end up doing all the cooking and the damn refrigerator's too small for a fat-ass turkey! Duh!", you argue, not wanting to do anything about Thanksgiving or even talk anymore about it.

After yelling at him for the past 20 minutes, you storm off into your bedroom and shut the door on Denji since he was following you.

"Y/N?", Denji sounded desperate after the argument you two had, "Are you in there?"

You wanted to answer him, but you were still fucking mad at him, causing you to stay quiet as you lay on your shared bed while you stared at the ceiling in the dark. Shit.

Denji knew something was up with you after just five minutes. He slowly opens the door, not wanting to make you anymore pissed than you already were at him. After he comes in, Denji approaches you like a wolf stalking its prey, very slowly.

"I know that you're still pissed at me about this whole thing of not wanting to do Thanksgiving", Denji's voice was a little quiet, "but there must be something that I can do to make it up to you".

You sigh before sitting up and moving over on the bed so Denji can sit with you. "Fine, c'mere."

Denji follows your order, sitting next to you and waiting silently. You decide to whisper in his ear, telling him that you want to fuck him, and Denji looks at you almost like he's begging for you to put him inside you already and wants to feel your warm pussy.

Denji hurries to get his clothes off, releasing the monster that's been in his pants for the whole day, dying just have it feel your gummy walls and fill you with his cum.

After you get naked, you line up your entrance and get his tip in, letting it sit there for a minute in your pussy before sucking the rest of Denji's dick in, inch by inch.

Denji notices his dick disappearing into your pussy, letting out that same desperate whimper that you make whenever he eats your pussy out and you feel his tongue licking your gummy walls, trying to get every last drop like he's pussy deprived or something.

You manage to get all of his dick into you and Denji starts kissing you, to nearly prevent himself from cumming and wanting to feel your soft lips against his.

After just 10 minutes, you get your legs around Denji and instinctively get his hips closer to yours, feeling like your about to have an orgasm.

"I-I'm gonna... Fuuuuck!", Denji stammers out, also feeling his own orgasm and immediately cumming into you, enjoying the feeling of your warm pussy as his eyes roll to the back of his skull.

You both cum at the same time with you enjoying the feeling of Denji's dick throbbing inside your pussy. He pulls out, with his warm cum dripping out of him and leaking a little from your pussy.

Credit to @callm3senpaii for the inspiration.

#tokyo chainsaw dragon #chainsaw man #denji #csm x reader #csm x y/n #csm x fem reader #chainsaw man headcanons #thanksgiving #second time writing a headcanon #csm #denji x fem reader #denji x reader #csm smut #tokyo dragon smut #chainsaw man smut

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quack-quack-snacks · 10 months ago

Text

Star Crossed - Chapter 7

The Star Crossed Masterlist

My All Of Us Are Dead Masterlist

My Navigation and Masterlist

Warnings: Normal AOUAD things Word Count: 5,362

“I mean… I wanted to bite her.”

“N-no. But you didn’t!” You tried weakly to protest.

“I shouldn't stay with you any longer. If I hadn't come to my senses, I would've bitten her.”

“No, wait. Stop!” Su-hyeok tried but she just took a step towards the door as she spoke with determination.

“I'll go.”

“Please wait,” On-jo begged, stopping Nam-ra in her tracks. She then turned to Cheong-san. “You saw Gwi-nam get bitten by zombies?”

The boy rolled his eyes before answering. “I told you a hundred times, yes.”

“And you saw Gwi-nam turn?” She questioned.

He paused for a moment before sighing. “No, I didn't. I was busy running away.”

On-jo then turned to Su-hyeok. “Su-hyeok, you definitely fought Gwi-nam?”

“Yes, I did,” he confirmed.

“There's no reason for either to lie,” she started. “Maybe Gwi-nam was bitten but was not affected. In the movies, there are always people who are immune, remember?”

“We shouldn’t rely on movies for our information. Those are fiction, this is real life,” you whispered sadly and On-jo looked at you empathetically, also knowing what it was like to lose your best friend to this god-awful virus.

“And still, she tried to bite her,” Ji-min announced and your head shot over to look at her. “She could have bitten her for real. Regardless, she isn't normal, so I'm not going with her.”

A tear streaked down Nam-ra’s face and you grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently but she shook you off and your heart broke when she scrambled to take a step back, flashbacks of when Gyeong-su turned presenting themselves in your mind.

“Ji-min, stop,” On-jo pleaded.

“What? Are you saying that I'm wrong?”

On-jo paused as she debated in her mind over what to say. “Maybe… I really don't know what we should do.”

“We can't pretend she's fine,” Ji-min insisted with an angry glare towards her.

“Enough!” Nam-ra called out and everyone fell silent, the only sound being the soft groans from the turned students out the doors.

“Please don't fight. Leaving will solve everything,” and with that, she quickly started walking towards the door and before you could run after her, On-jo already had and grabbed ahold of her arm.

“Don't go! Where would you go?” She cried out as Nam-ra struggled to set herself free from her grasp. “Stop it. Please!” Nam-ra finally stopped and they stared at each other. “I don't want anyone dying.” On-jo’s hands glided down Nam-ra’s arm until they reached her hand which she gently held in her own. “Hyeon-ju and I-sak… They're hands were very cold before they turned,” she turned around to face everyone else, one of her hands still holding Nam-ra’s as she spoke again. “Nam-ra's hands are warm,” she explained her point. “She isn't a zombie. So cut it out, and let's talk about how to get to the roof.”

“No,” Ji-min stubbornly demanded.

“Ji-min!”

“No way! She may be fine now, but who knows what's gonna happen when she turns?” She looked around for help as everyone else had remained quiet for the entire quarrel. “Guys, say something. This is wrong,” everyone remained quiet at her pleas. “She said herself that she wanted to bite her. She has zombie blood in her veins. Zombies killed my mom and dad,” she paused for a moment and your eyes widened as you looked at her sadly in sudden realization. “My mom…”

Seeing a break in the talking, you looked around for something that could help you and keep your friend by your side. Finding it, your eyes lit up and you walked over to where it was. Picking it up, you walked back over to Nam-ra and gently grabbed her hand, starting to tie the curtain tieback around her hand.

“What are you doing?” She asked in confusion and you looked up at her for a second before turning your head back down to focus on the knot you were tying.

“I’m tying us together.”

She struggled and tried to pull her hand away from you, not willing to allow you to let yourself die if she did end up turning. “Stop it. Stop!”

You gently grabbed her other hand and placed it down, her struggling stopping as you looked her deep in the eyes. “Hold still, I don’t want to make it too tight for you,” you looked back down and tied to the fabric around your own hand as Su-hyeok came up to stand beside you.

“(Y/n), I don’t think this is-”

“Su-hyeok, respectfully, stay the fuck out of this,” you interrupted him as his hand reached out to stop yours and he sighed before stepping back in defeat, knowing he wouldn’t be able to convince you to stop no matter what he said.

This was your best friend after all.

You turned back to the group and held up your, now-connected, hands with a sarcastic smile. “Are you happy now? Now you don’t have to worry. If she turns and bites anyone, it’ll be me and not any of you.”

You saw some of the group’s eyes tear up but nobody spoke out to protest.

You sat with Nam-ra to your left near the window and Su-hyeok to your right. No matter how much convincing you tried to give him, he wouldn’t leave to go sit on the other side of the room with the rest of the group. It warmed your heart but annoyed you nonetheless at his stubbornness.

You couldn’t really speak though with how stubborn you were being with Nam-ra. He was probably just being a good friend just like how you were being to Nam-ra. He’d only said it once but you knew he meant it.

~364 days ago~

You walked to the cafeteria by yourself like always, passing by the group of friends Su-hyeok had gathered after leaving Myeong-hwan and his little band of bullies. You sent a subtle smile towards him when he looked at you and he returned it full force, not trying to hide it in any way so you immediately looked away and plugged your headphones in. You were still terrified by the thought of Su-hyeok getting caught up in the way people thought about you, he didn’t deserve that.

You let out a little gasp as a hand grabbed one of your wrists and your waist before pulling you into a broom closet that was to your right. You rolled your eyes after you got past the surprise, knowing it was him. You turned around to find him grinning at you so genuinely that it almost made you forget your annoyance.

Almost.

You slapped his chest and he winced slightly. “Su! I told you about this, what if someone sees us?”

“And I’ve told you about this, I don’t care who sees us. I don’t care about my reputation. I just want to hang out with you,” he reassured but you rolled your eyes despite the heat rising to your cheeks that wasn’t visible under the dim lighting of the closet.

“Well, I do. I don’t want you to be seen with me,” you told him with a stern tone and he just looked at you with a sad smile. He wrapped his arms around your waist and brought you in for a hug that you instinctually returned. You sighed as he rested his head on top of yours. “I know you have your own reputation. I know that… but I don’t want it to be any more tainted by the fact that you hang out with the school bully’s little sister. That… that would just hurt you and your friends,” you pulled away so you could look him in the eyes. “I like your friends. They’re good for you and they’re kind. So, I don’t want them to be caught up in it either. I don’t want them to leave you over a silly fact like someone you’re friends with.”

He shook his head with a frown. “(Y/n), if they choose to leave me over somebody that I am friends with who they don’t even know, I don’t want to be friends with them anyways.”

You still didn’t look convinced at his words and plopped your forehead against his chest. “But they’re becoming your real friends! Friends that you need after… everything. You should keep them.”

He placed his hands on your cheeks and forced your head up so you could look at him. You tried to avoid eye contact because of how intimate the position seemed but he tapped your cheek and you sighed, complying. He smiled when your eyes met and your heart fluttered.

Stop it. You know he doesn’t like you like that.

You mentally smacked yourself for giving yourself false hope but stopped when he spoke. “(Y/n). They might be my friends, and I might need them in my life,” he paused to place a lock of hair behind your ear. “But you’re my best friend. I don’t want to have a life without you in it.”

You smiled despite yourself and just wrapped your arms around him again.

Even if it never becomes anything more, at least he considers me his best friend.

~Present~

You were brought back to the present when he rested his hand on yours and squeezed it. You looked over at him with a smile but it faltered when you thought of something. Putting on a fake teasing smile that he didn’t seem to realize wasn’t genuine, you spoke. “So…” You leaned over to elbow him gently. “I saw you drew a picture of a girl in your notebook,” his face flushed and he looked at you with a panicked expression. “She looks familiar, who is it?” Your tone turned into genuine curiosity as you were able to hide your disappointment.

He let out a sigh that seemed relieved but also disappointed. With a blush, he looked away from you and spoke, “She’s just a drawing, nobody really…”

He didn’t seem too convinced of his wordings but you decided to let it go with a slight push of your shoulder against his and he smiled. Right as you were about to speak again, you heard banging from across the room. You looked over to see Dae-su ramming his body into the storage closet door. While he did, the zombies got more aggressive and tried to come into the room. Everyone else noticed this and started yelling at him to stop. As he calmed down and slid down the door, you turned back around to face the window, not bothering to turn around when soft music started playing behind you.

As Ji-min started to talk to the camera, you remained facing forward looking out to the blue sky. The camera passed around, each person leaving their message for their parents or what they wanted to be known for if all went wrong. After On-jo’s message to her father, telling him how much she loves him, she stood up and walked over to where Nam-ra, Su-hyeok, and you sat. She held the camera out to Su-hyeok who was closest to her.

“You guys can leave a message as well if you want to.”

Su-hyeok took the camera and looked at it for a moment. “I don't really have anything to say,” he turned to you and Nam-ra. “Do either of you?”

You looked at Nam-ra and she shook her head. Looking back at him, you spoke. “No.”

On-jo looked from you to Nam-ra, to Su-hyeok, and then to the tie that held you and Nam-ra together, then back to you. “We trust you. You can untie it now,” after that, she walked away to retreat to her chair on the other side of the room.

Su-hyeok placed the camera on the table behind you and you hesitated before reaching over to grab it.

Opening the camera and flipping the screen so it faced you and you could see how you looked while recording yourself, you hesitated before pressing the record button.

“It is currently day two of being trapped in the school. None of us have had water since the apocalypse started so we’re all tired and dehydrated,” you took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m scared to go to sleep and realize that I won’t be able to wake up,” you felt tears well up in your eyes as you thought about what you were going to say next but you blinked them away. “My brother… the high school bully… the one who always woke me up in the mornings an hour before my usual wake-up time by smacking me with a pillow. He… he was bitten by zombies and bit my best friend. I guess he’s still sentient even after being infected and that got passed to her since she hasn’t turned yet either and it’s probably been at least half an hour. I-” You got cut off by your voice breaking and you took a moment to collect yourself. “Gwi-nam? I know there’s no way you’ll ever see this… but I cannot believe what you’ve become. I stayed silent for years when you joined Myeong-hwan’s group because you told me it was to protect me. To protect me not only from them but also from Dad. He only focused on you and how badly you did in school. But, after a while, it stopped being about protecting me. Even though I know you were still scared of them, both Dad and Myeong-hwan, you liked doing it. You liked hurting the kids of the school. I wish I had said something sooner so you would have stopped before it’s too late but here we are,” you raised a hand to gestures around you with a frustrated sigh. “I’m stuck in a classroom and my best friend has been infected. Because of you, nonetheless. I don’t know what to do anymore,” you sighed again and a tear streaked down your cheek. “I already lost Mom to the pressure of dad’s expectations, I don’t want to lose you too,” you sobbed once and closed the camera.

Neither Nam-ra nor Su-hyeok said anything and you wonder if they even heard it from how quietly you were speaking. You placed the camera back onto the table behind you and after a few seconds, Nam-ra picked it up and faced the screen towards herself. She seemed troubled, like she was seeing something that no one else could see, and you grabbed her free hand gently.

She looked down at your hands, seeing the red fabric still tying them together. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this, (Y/n).”

“I’m doing it because if I didn’t then the people over there,” you gestured to the group with your free hand. “Would have kicked you out… I know it was your choice, but I just couldn’t allow it. You’re too important to me Nam, don’t you understand that?”

She looked down at her lap for a minute before asking, “You know how I said I wanted to bite you earlier?”

“Yeah, I know. But you didn’t, and you won’t,” you insisted and she nodded but still looked grim.

“It felt like I was dreaming. You were just giving off such a beautiful scent,” she said seriously but you couldn’t resist the temptation to playfully flirt with her or tease her.

“Well, if you liked my perfume that much, you could’ve just asked,” you winked at her mischievously and she shook her head with a smile. You went back to being serious as you asked her your next question, “What kind of scent was it?”

“I'm not sure. It was something that I had never smelled before. All I could think about was eating you… How much I wanted to bite you. Bite you and eat you. But then I heard your voice saying my nickname,” she looked at you and smiled.

“So you’re saying I brought you back?” You teased and she scoffed with a playful eyeroll

“Yes. I am saying that it was your voice that woke me up.”

You smiled and looked down when suddenly she looked over her shoulder at the door and stood up.

“What is it?”

“I heard something strange…” She started walking towards the door and you, still being connected via the curtain holder, walked after her, Su-hyeok following loosely behind. The group started walking towards the two of you as you did and you heard indistinct talking which you couldn’t make out. Nam-ra stood for a second and listened. “I hear it.”

“You hear what?”

“What?”

“What do you hear?”

You, Su-hyeok, and On-jo all spoke one after another.

She paused as she listened again. “I think someone is puking,” she paused before continuing. “It stopped.”

“What stopped?” Su-hyeok asked from behind you and you turned around to give him a disappointed look.

“The sound of puking,” you told him and he oohed while you shook your head.

“Yes. It stopped,” Nam-ra confirmed.

“Stop it. You're scaring me,” Hyo-ryung complained and Nam-ra turned to look at her, confused.

“Don't you hear it?” She asked but everyone shook their heads.

“I'm not hearing anything,” Hyo-ryung told her again and breathed heavily. Nam-ra’s eyes dilated for a moment as she stared at her. “What? What?” Hyo-ryung asked, obviously scared which kind of ticked you off.

“Are you scared?” The girl connected to you asked.

“Stop that.”

“It's just… you're the one breathing the loudest.”

“Do you hear that?” On-jo whispered loudly to Hyo-ryung and Dae-su.

“All I hear is that zombie,” the boy responded.

Nam-ra looked around, focusing on some things you couldn’t see or hear. “We should go. It's weird here.”

“We can't just leave,” Cheong-san stated. “There are zombies out there.”

“We should've gone to the roof when the music was playing. Shit,” Dae-su groaned and sat down in one of the chairs.

“Music. Wait a minute. We have music!” On-jo exclaimed excitedly.

“What? What music?” He asked.

“I heard some music playing a while ago, do you mean that music?” You asked and she nodded before walking over and picking up the video camera still resting on the table.

“I have an idea. We're going to have to build a tall barricade here,” she walked around and gestured a line down the middle of the room. “And then we lure them in with music. Use the instruments too.”

“We could also use the instruments as a source of noise for the zombies to hear us and come after us,” you suggested and she nodded at your idea.

“Yes, that could work well! If we leave the door open, they'll follow the music in. Once it's clear, we take the back door up to the roof,” she continued to explain the plan only to receive a couple of confused looks from her classmates.

“Am I the only one who’s lost right now?” Wu-jin asked and Dae-su raised his hand in agreement.

“Basically, we are going to build a barricade in the middle of the room by stacking the chairs and desks here, open the front door, before running out the back door once the zombies have all gathered into the room,” you looked back at On-jo for confirmation. “Right?”

“Not here. Farther back. We need more room on this side,” she corrected and you let out an ‘oh’ while nodding.

“And why is that?” Dae-su asked, not getting it.

“There aren't that many of us, but there are lots of zombies,” she explained and Dae-su closed his eyes with his head facing upwards.

“Ah…” he sighed out in understanding. “She sucks at school, but she's pretty smart,” he backhandedly complimented her.

“Hey!” She growled at him and he held his hands up in surrender.

“It's a compliment,” he defended and you rolled your eyes with a scoff.

“It’s a backhanded compliment,” you pointed out but he just gave you a confused look.

“What’s that?”

“It basically means a compliment with an underlying insult. ‘You’re pretty strong for a girl’ is an example of a backhanded compliment. It’s degrading the person you told it to and setting them on a different level than the rest. In this case, it’s just insulting,” you explained with a wink at the end while he just looked at you in shock.

“Wow, (Y/n), I never knew you were so smart. I always thought you were quiet because you didn’t know anything,” he told you and you rolled your eyes.

“Another example of a backhanded compliment,” you stated and he just rolled his eyes with a playful dismissive wave in your direction.

“Let's give it a shot,” Cheong-san commented after he saw the conversation/argument between Dae-su and yourself end. “We can figure out the rest later,” everyone nodded at his words.

“We have a TV too,” you pointed out. “If we can maybe connect the camera to the TV it might be louder than just the camera by itself.”

“I can do that!” Joon-yeong blurted out. “I will have to look for the cord though. Hey, can you help me look, Ji-min?”

The girl nodded. “Sure,” they both went to look for the cord and Hyo-ryung quickly followed behind them.

On-jo walked up to where you and Nam-ra were standing side by side. “We should untie that,” she pointed to the knot and then reached forward to untie it when you lightly knocked Nam-ra’s hand back away from On-jo’s outreaching one with your own.

“It’s okay, On-jo,” you gave her a small, although genuine, smile but she just frowned.

“She'll never be able to get close to the others this way. And no one will approach her,” she mentioned and you nodded for her to continue. “Hatred is contagious… but so is trust.”

She reached forward again and this time you let her, holding your hands out so it would be easier for her to untie it.

“You should've been the class president,” Nam-ra told her with a genuine but still monotone voice and On-jo just looked down as she smiled.

As you and Nam-ra just watched On-jo leave, Su-hyeok jogged over to stand beside you and placed a hand on your shoulder. “Come on, let's help out.”

You nodded and the three of you went over to assist. Finding whatever you could to help create a strong barrier, you pushed and pulled desks and chairs and instruments and cabinets to wherever it was needed.

“It's looking great,” Dae-su examined the work done with a proud expression and you took a step back to do so as well.

“Alright. I think this is good enough,” On-jo explained with a worried face after checking the situation outside.

“Okay,” Cheong-san agreed before Dae-su called for the rest of you on the other side of the wall near where the exit was supposed to be.

“Aren't you guys coming? We left a gap over there for you.”

“Let’s go,” Su-hyeok directed, looking back and forth between everyone before grabbing a chair and walking towards the gap in the door. He placed it down before stepping onto the desk and hopping over the gap. You helped Nam-ra and On-jo hop across, Su-hyeok doing the same on the other side, until you saw Cheong-san stop, not hopping over himself.

“(Y/n), you go,” he told you and you nodded before hopping over yourself, Su-hyeok’s hands landing on your waist to help you even though for the previous girls he only held their hands. You and On-jo looked back to see Cheong-san still hadn’t jumped over, standing on the other side looking like he had no intention of crossing the barrier.

“Why aren't you coming over?” On-jo questioned.

“Well, someone has to stay to open the door.”

“Fuck…” you cursed. “We totally forgot about that…”

“Couldn't you have come up with a better plan?” Dae-su complained and you smacked his arm which he dramatically grabbed in pain.

“It's okay,” Cheong-san reassured. “I'll come over right away.”

“Wait,” you protested. “I'll come,” you told him and pressed your hands up on the cabinet to lift yourself up when hands grabbed your waist and pulled you back down.

“It's fine.”

“Like hell, you will.”

Cheong-san and Su-hyeok both spoke at the same time and Su-hyeok lightly pushed you back as he jumped over the cabinet himself. You let out a sound of complaint but he just poked your nose which succeeded in rebooting your brain for a second.

“It’ll be okay,” he promised and you pressed your lips together as you debated if you should let him go but knowing you were on a limited schedule you just sighed and held out your pinkie. It was childish and something you hadn’t done in years but he just laughed and interlocked your pinkies. You smiled at him before backing up, making sure to give plenty of enough room for them to jump over when they had the door open.

After a while, Cheong-san came back alone but the door was yet to be opened. You decided not to say anything because you knew two people on that side would just be too many people to get out.

Seconds later, the door opened and Su-hyeok ran to jump over the cabinet, using the window sill to give himself an advantage before you pushed a desk placed on its side where the gap was. You held it there as Dae-su, Cheong-san, and Su-hyeok pulled a bookshelf over and pushed it to where you once stood before moving out of the way while Joon-yeong started the music. Zombies flooded into the room and you all held it there before On-jo ran to the window to see how much you all had succeeded in your plan.

By her face, it wasn’t good.

“Dae-su, you gotta make some noise!” She instructed and Dae-su took a deep breath before screaming.

“Die, zombies! Fucking die!

“Do it one more time!” She ordered desperately.

“Shit! Stupid zombies, motherfuckers!”

On-jo grabbed an instrument and started hitting it, creating a loud banging sound and the girls followed suit as Wu-jin ran over to the window to see if the halls were clear. You stayed and held onto the bookshelf, keeping it there as the zombies piled and started to climb over.

“Wu-jin!” Cheong-san screamed in distress but he shook his head.

“We can't go yet! Not yet!” He looked back in anguish and all the girls ran back to help support the barrier, hitting the zombies that had climbed over back to the other side.

As a zombie had crawled over the rest to where Nam-ra had run back over to help, you quickly looked around and picked up a drumstick that was lying on the floor and then ran back over to her. “Nam-ra!” You screamed as you stabbed the zombie through the eye with the drumstick along with other zombies that had started to climb over and they fell back down the crowd in a lifeless heap.

As you saw Cheong-san do something similar for On-jo, you heard Hyo-ryung shouting at Wu-jin despairingly. “It's not going to hold up!”

“How much longer is it gonna take? Let's go!” Dae-su called out but the answer was the same.

“A little more. Not yet!”

‘A little more’ became ‘just a few more’ which became ‘they’re still coming’ until finally it stopped.

“Clear. We have to go now!” Wu-jin shouted as he opened the door to find no zombies roaming the hallway. “Hurry!”

Hyo-ryung was the first to go, followed by Ji-min, then Joon-yeong and Nam-ra, and then On-jo. Su-hyeok, Cheong-san, Dae-su, and you were the last of the bunch.

“(Y/n)! Go!” The three boys seemed to yell out simultaneously and you would’ve laughed given another situation but you just squeezed your eyes tight as you continued to push against the barrier to hold it up.

“Fuck off and save yourselves first!” You screamed back at them.

“Dae-su, go!” Cheong-san tried again but to a different member.

“You go first,” when Cheong-san nor Su-hyeok nor you responded, he yelled out more strainedly, “I'm gonna shit my pants. Go!”

Su-hyeok reluctantly left but not before grabbing you by the wrist and dragging you out of the room. You turned back just in time to see Cheong-san drag Dae-su away from the barrier and the barrier collapsed. You turned back around to focus on running and hurried after the others who were headed for the roof.

As you all continued to run up the stairs, Su-hyeok, who was still holding onto your wrist for dear life, tripped and almost brought you down with him if you hadn’t caught yourself in time. You reached down to hold his hand and drag him up. “Hurry!”

You all reached the top and you saw Cheong-san twisting the handles to no avail as the doors didn’t give way.

“Come on, open it!” Dae-su whined, looking behind him in fear of anything there.

“It's locked,” Cheong-san breathed out in disbelief.

“What? Move!” Dae-su pushed Cheong-san out of the way to try himself, slamming his shoulder into the door in an attempt to open it but to no success.

“Wait. Get back. Move,” Choeng-san told everyone as he ran towards the keypad to try and enter any code that might work.

As they started to call through the door in hopes of someone being on the roof, you looked over to see the sign written on the door and sighed in anger. Anger at the situation, anger at the door, but also, anger at yourself.

You had known the rooftop was always locked, your brother had told you time and time again but in the moment you had completely forgotten.

Su-hyeok and Cheong-san had gone down the stairs with their makeshift weapons and you looked back and forth between them and the door. Nam-ra had announced that the zombies had arrived and you quickly decided to try every combination on the keypad that you could. It wasn’t great but it was something. Thank god it was only 4 digits.

That’s still 9,999 codes though.

You could hear the zombies as they screamed and growled but you just focused on trying the codes. Nam-ra had the great idea of throwing a tarp over to hold back the zombies and it did an amazing job, only a few zombies got passed which Cheong-san and Su-hyeok dealt with accordingly.

Dae-su and Wu-jin fell to their knees, leaning against the door as they gave up on using brute force to wrench the door open. You watched from the corner of your eye as they ran to help with the tarp but just remained focused on trying to wrack your brain for the code. They changed the code every day but you just knew you had seen it. Gwi-nam kept a paper in his room that held the number combinations to open the rooftops because of how often his group went up there. You had seen it once and even took a photo of it, just because you wanted to. You’d never done anything with it, you just had it, looking at the codes now and then as you debated whether or not you should go up there. You decided against it every time.

8834

Just as you had remembered it and you almost laughed with glee, you heard Nam-ra say something from behind you and it made your heart stop.

“Why didn’t you die?”

You looked behind you just in time to see your brother get sent slamming down onto the blue tarp. Your eyes then locked onto Nam-ra’s and she looked at you with the same amount of shock you were looking at her with. You shook your head in dismissal of the situation, the zombies below still coming and cornering your group. “Guys! I’ve unlocked it! The door’s unlocked! Let’s go!”

On-jo was the one to push open the door and you waited until everyone piled out onto the roof, saving Cheong-san and Su-hyeok for last before you followed them out. Just before running through the door to escape the inbound zombies, you saw a withering bouquet of flowers leaning against the corner of the wall.

They were your favorites.

~~~

~~~

Taglist!

@multifandom-lover01

@justmare

@hellomotherfuker

@d1tzy-bl0nde

@queenjang21

@madislayyy

@she-kills

Lmk if you want to be added!

#all of us are dead #aouad #su-hyeok #su hyeok #su hyeok x reader

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uptondixon · 2 years ago

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Daryl & Daugther!Reader - Quarry Era I

Reblogs and likes are much appreciated, let me know what you think with some words too! Words: 863 | Warnings: just some blood | Gif not mine Chapter song is Half The World Away by Aurora

"I've been lost, I've been found, but I don't feel down."

Daryl found her while in a hunt with Merle, they ended up going further away from camp than normal, looking for something bigger than squirrels to feed everyone

They were silently following the tracks of what Daryl expected to be a deer when a broken scream cut the forest air

He ran towards it without another thought, his crossbow held high in defense, leaving an angry Merle behind, protesting that they didn't need to risk themselves for a random person

Daryl followed the screams, that soon were turning to desperate cries, and came to a stop in an abandoned shed surrounded by mud and fallen trees, the screams coming from inside getting louder as he ran towards it, jumping over the fallen trees with Merle following behind him

Daryl opened the door and found that the screams came from a little girl that couldn't be older than 10

She was on the ground, fighting a walker that had its teeth dangerously close to her face, not really acknowledging Daryl until he shot the walker in the head and took the corpse away from her

She was shaking, both from the near death situation with the walker and now with the presence of both men

First almost dying because of that walker and now what? What were those men going to do to her? She was looking around scared, trying to calm down and at the same time look for a way out

"Hey, it's alrigh girl." Daryl said, getting down on one knee, maintaining his distance from her. He wasn't a tender person, but he tried to be as gentle as possible. "I'm not gonna hurt ya." He tried, seeing her shaking.

"Ya think she's gonna just go to ya like that little brother?" Merle said raspingly, which seemed to make her shake even more.

Daryl sent a harsh look his way and tried again. "We're not going to hurt ya, okay?"

The girl finally looked at him and found his blue eyes. She was surprised with how comforting his eyes looked. She stared at him, and the distance between them wasn't enough to minimize the intensity of her stare. It felt like she was staring at his soul, trying to determine if he was a good person or not.

Apparently, she decided he was, because next thing he knew she was slowly getting up from her position on the floor, still a little shaked and keeping a distance between them.

Daryl's eyes fell on her feet, she was barefoot, both feet dirty with a mix of mud and blood that Daryl couldn't tell if it was hers or not. His question was answered when she whimpered quietly after standing up fully.

"Ya're bitten, kid?" Daryl asked, fearing the answer. Last thing he wanted after waking up today was having to shoot a little girl in the head. The girl looked at him with that same fragile look, shaking her head no. She bent down a little and started to roll up her pants, exposing her legs. They were scraped and full of small cuts, along with a bigger one that seemed to have bled the most. It was fresh and probably burned like hell, Daryl thought.

"Ya sure there's not any bite?" Merle asked, eyeing the girl down, trying to see if she was maybe hiding a bite. Daryl didn't look at Merle this time. He kept silent, wondering what to do with the girl. "No!" she exclaimed, annoyed at the insistence on the inexistent bite. She wasn't loud, but that was the first time they heard her voice.

"Alrigh'. Ya lost? There's anyone ya trying to get back to?" Daryl asked, maintaining his position on the floor. The girl looked back at him for a moment, hurt suddenly flashing in her expression until she averted her eyes to the ground. "No." This time the word came out a lot less exasperated, accompanied with a sigh. Daryl and Merle shared a look, as if waiting for her to say more.

"That's the only word ya know?" Merle said with a laugh. Daryl ignored him and turned to the girl again. "Ya sure?" Daryl asked, needing more reassurance than just a no. "They're dead." She said, looking at her feet. "I'm alone."

Daryl finally rose from his position on the floor, staring at Merle again for a second until looking back at the kid. "We're at a camp, ya wanna come?" What a stupid question, of course she would come, Daryl thought. It's not like he would leave a kid alone in the woods, he knew what that felt like, and that was before all the horrors of this new world. However, he's sure Merle wouldn't have a problem with leaving her behind.

Daryl noticed she kept silent, still not looking at either of them. She had all reasons to be unsure. "We have other kids, ya know? Women, an officer. It's safe."

The girl looked up at him again, directing him that same intense look from before. Daryl stared right back, seeing that was her way of communicating. "I promise" he said. And Daryl never makes promises, Merle thought.

#the walking dead #daryl dixon #daryl x reader #daryl dixon x reader #daryl x daughter reader #daryl dixon x daughter reader #the walking dead fanfiction #twd fanfiction

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wherebettertoescape · 5 months ago

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Top 10 Underrated Songs from Musicals (Sad Edition)

so I've been down a wormhole of YouTube rank videos of songs in musicals. And so many of them I disagree with - particularly the ones looking at the sad/evocative songs. So, I decided to make my own ranking of saddest songs in musicals, but I'm gonna try and avoid just posting the usual ones, the ones that I usually see in these videos and instead go for the ones that I WISH were included because they're SOOOOO good

I'm also very well aware that so many people are gonna disagree and argue with my choices (including Louise, who I did NOT run this post by 😂) so please - let me know which ones you think deserve more recognition!

(I don't know which order you're meant to do rank posts in so I'm gonna start with number 10 and lead up to number 1??)

10. That's What You Call A Dream (Bonnie & Clyde)

I have such a soft spot for songs in musicals that are about grief for a dead dream, grief for a life that they could have had - anyone who made it through my Outsiders post will probably know that. And that's exactly what this song is - even with the amount of death within the show, Bonnie and Clyde is not exactly what I'd call a sad musical? You know exactly what's going to happen from the start, and even while you root for the two of them, they're not exactly sympathetic characters.

Blanche, though, she is exactly that. I know some people don't like Blanche too much, and I could go on and on about how I disagree with that and also with the notion that her and Buck are only there for comic relief. But I won't, and I'll instead settle with saying that within the musical she is a reluctant participant within her own life because she is intrinsically tied to Buck because she loves him.

While the other characters have grand dreams of fame and fortune, Blanche dreams of the mundane - this song is all about how she just wants a normal, simple life with Buck. But even that simple life is out of her reach - at the time she first sings this song, they haven't yet rejoined Clyde, but she is becoming more and more aware even then (while they're living within the law) that they're never going to get the life she dreams of, because the police are never going to leave Buck alone because he has a criminal record, and even if he didn't, being related to Clyde is enough to cast suspicion on them at all times. Even so, Blanche loves Buck and sticks with him through everything - and then the reprise of it when Buck's dying, don't even get me STARTED on how beautifully sad it is.

9. Dear Bill (Operation Mincemeat)

I get the feeling that there's gonna be a slight trend in this list of songs in usually upbeat musicals that just come in and absolutely decimate me emotionally. "Dear Bill" is the ideal example of that - Operation Mincemeat as a show is so upbeat, so funny, so melodramatically unique, and all the songs are so enthusiastic and filled to the brim with jokes and word play.

And then there's "Dear Bill" - a ballad in the form of a love letter penned by Hester to their fictitious fallen soldier, drawing on her own past experiences of writing to Tom, her partner who died fighting in the First World War. She reflects on what it's like to be left behind in England while her partner is off fighting - updating him on the day-to-day things that have been going on since he died, rather than offering endless proclamations of love.

And then, midway through the song, she slips up. She forgets that she's not writing a false letter to their made-up soldier Bill, and instead addresses her lost love. The letter is becomes so full of anger and loss and heartbreak, and the audience is forced to remember that Hester was a real person, that the people in the show were all real and all felt this loss at some point or another. And Hester is so tired and angry at the war - "why did we meet in the middle of a war? what a silly thing for anyone to do", just longing for the war to be over, because this isn't even the first war she's lived through. Adding onto that is when Jean, who is listening to Hester writing this letter, later on brings up that line again (in Useful) - "I think that when people meet in the middle of a war, it feels like it means something more" and it's just this very beautiful moment of friendship between these two very different war-hardened women.

8. Lifeboat (Heathers)

Lifeboat is kinda similar in it being a shockingly sad song within an otherwise comedic show. I know that there are probably other, better songs within Heathers I could have listed, but Lifeboat has always stuck with me. The drop from her singing "the tiniest lifeboat with people I know" to her practically screaming "EVERYONE'S PUSHING, EVERYONE'S FIGHTING" is the kind of thing that haunts me when I try to sleep at night.

This is the song of a girl whose entire life has been flipped upside down. She is losing so many people who she loves, all because (from what she knows) they have decided to kill themselves. I know its a comedic line, but there's something so sad in her speech beforehand where she goes "I'm on the damn bus again because all my rides to school are DEAD".

Lifeboat is just this eruption of overwhelming emotion - sadness, confusion, anger, and above all this desperation to understand what's happening to her friends, it truly is a cry for help. Only for it to be used against her by one of her remaining best friends - Heather McNamara is not exactly a good person, but she is trying to be and she has just unburdened her insecurities (yes, in the completely wrong environment but she doesn't know any better) only to be told to kill herself. When I saw Heathers live, it was Lifeboat that brought me to tears - it was a musical that I had never cried at before, and maybe it was just that the actress I saw was incredible, but even so I think it's such an underrated song and one of the saddest musical tunes.

7. One to Seventeen (The Little Big Things)

okay I can't lie, before The Outsiders musical came out, The Little Big Things was the musical I was obsessed with - I've not seen it. I'm hopeful I'll be able to see it. I've read the autobiography, and I've seen the Olivier performance and I'm in love with all the cast.

And writing this list, there are so many songs from this soundtrack that I wanted to put on, but there's something about One to Seventeen that always brings me to tears. Just her absolute desperation, her pain at seeing her son growing up and his accident and I just can't even express it.

Also I just think that there aren't enough shows which show good parent/child relations and that's one thing that I love about The Little Big Things. And listening to One to Seventeen I just get so emotional and I wanna text my mum to like thank her for every thing she's ever done for me and like apologise for when she'd get calls from school saying I'd been hurt or something. Something about I dunno, that moment when you realise your parents are humans too? Like that's what this song feels like to me and it's so sad and beautiful and I love it

6. For Good (Wicked)

This is probably the one that cannot be labelled as "underrated", but also the one that no one's going to argue about it. As such, it needs the least explanation 😂

"I know I'm who I am today because of you" - what a BANGER of a line, just always makes me think of my best friend and how much I love her and miss her. I'm a sucker for friendships - give me friendship over romance any day.

Just the complete heartbreaking notion of being irreparably changed by someone who had originally been your enemy, and then having to realise that you're going to have to figure out how to live without them, but really they're always going to be with you just 🥺

5. Stay Gold (The Outsiders)

I'll be quick on this one, because if you want my full thoughts on Stay Gold I've made a whole other post about it 😂 - I'm obsessed with this show at the moment, and Sky Lakota-Lynch has just got absolutely no right to make me so emotional wit this song.

It's the "sixteen years" verse that gets me every time, just him realising that what he'd always dreamed about (having a family) was something that he'd actually had all along with the Greasers, and while the entire of the gang think that Johnny is the one member that they can't live without, Ponyboy is the one member that he can't live without.

And also the reference to the father who thanks him for saving the little girl and how he just truly thinks that the girl's life is worth more than his. Even typing it out gets me all emotional 🥲

4. I'll Be Here (Ordinary Days)

This is one of my absolute favourite musicals, and this FUCKING SONG has NO RIGHT to make me feel SO MUCH

It's essentially just a recap of Claire's relationship with her ex-husband who passed away. And it's such an important song because throughout the musical before this song, Claire is not exactly a likeable character - she seems kinda rude and standoffish. She doesn't seem to like her current boyfriend, Jason, at all, and the audience is left in the dark as for why?

I remember the first time listening to it and kind of wanting Jason to break up with her? I thought that she was treating him kinda bad for no reason? And then this FUCKING SONG comes along, and it breaks my heart every time I listen to it because she's so wracked with guilt and love and grief.

It's so rare, at least for me, that one song can change your entire perception of a character, but that's exactly what I'll Be Here does

3. Drink With Me (Les Miserables)

I think this is the one that most people are gonna be mad about. Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate the other fucking depressing songs in Les Mis (i.e. most of them - I could write ESSAYS on Little People and Empty Chairs), Drink With Me will always be the one that makes me sob.

Louise will confirm but I've got a thing about drinking songs and letter songs. They always make me cry a little. There's something about the vulnerability of them paired with the relative simplicity of the music.

Drink With Me is just so powerful - it's entire point is to humanise Les Amis for the audience, to allow us to recognise that these revolutionaries (despite their larger-than-life appearance onstage) are just students. And this alongside the fact that we are introduced to Grantaire as being the drunkard and the cynic of the group, and yet it's not led by him? At some point I'm gonna make a whole post about the meaning of that 😂

But as well the fact that Enjolras doesn't contribute. At least in the productions that I've seen of it, Enjolras doesn't join in - while the rest of them are being humanised, Enjolras remains distant, he remains unreachable to his friends, to Grantaire who truly does idolise him (calling him Apollo, he is the only thing that Grantaire believes in), and it keeps him distant from the audience as well, it allows us to continue to view him as a martyr. But then there's Grantaire who, despite everything he says is afraid to die, and he just wants some inkling from Enjolras that their fearless leader feels the same - the "can it be you fear to die? [...] is your life just one more lie?" is the most desperate beg from Grantaire for Enjolras to confide in them and yeah, I don't know.

For me, Drink With Me is the song where it starts for me - I start crying here, and then don't stop until the end 😂

2. What Would I Do (Falsettos)

I think it's a travesty that Falsettos is almost never on those lists. It's a fucking work of art as a musical. Just so raw and painful and I've never watched it the whole way through without crying at least once.

So yeah, I was definitely torn for which Falsettos song to put in this list - Unlikely Lovers? You Gotta Die Sometime? so many good choices. But this does go back to the thing I said about having grief for a life that could have been.

And also, despite how hard their life together had been, knowing how hard it was to love each other, how painful and drawn-out their illnesses were going to be, the knowledge that Marvin doesn't regret it, that he knows that he would choose Whizzer every time?? That's my roman empire 😂

The fact as well that even in this monologue, he can't call Whizzer his boyfriend/partner, Marvin always calls him "my friend" just is so painful I don't know man

"Once I was told that good men get better with age. We're just gonna skip that stage" is just the most heartbreaking line ever - and the way that in the recording Christian Borle's voice breaks as he sings it will genuinely haunt me until the day I die

1. We Raise Our Cups (Hadestown)

Another musical that there are definitely so many options for "sad songs" - I wanna give "Flowers" an honourable mention because that's the one that really gets me, it's so beautiful.

But Louise and I saw Hadestown in the West End a couple of months ago now, and I had kinda forgotten that it ended with this song and I left the Lyric theatre in FLOODS of tears, and so for that alone I have to give it number 1 position 😂

I think it's partly with the staging on the West End, in "Living it Up on Top" when Orpheus says "to the world we dream of... and the one we live in now", there's a moment when the entire cast turns to the audience to raise their cups directly to them, and the finale with this song just took me right back to that moment and I lost it entirely.

Because I was forced to realise that when Orpheus said that at the start, that was an Orpheus who wouldn't have looked back, who had faith that the world could change, it could be kind to him. But now the Orpheus that they were singing about in "We Raise Our Cups" is hardened and more cynical and so of course he looks back

i just think it should be illegal to end it with this song and then expect you to get on the tube around London afterwards, okay? 😂

OKAY so that's my list - please let me know what your thoughts are as well - any that you agree with or disagree with? Or just your own rankings because I think I'm gonna come back to this in like a week and want to fight myself so... let me know 😂

Freddie 🐸

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daenysthedreamer101 · 9 months ago

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TVD S5 EP11&12 (mostly a rant about Tyler and Caroline)

I'm not even gonna talk about the first 10 episodes, Silas was annoying AF I'm glad he's dead. Also, Katherine as a human was hilarious.

Tyler deserved better. I said it. I never really understood the Tyler hate. Like, yeah he was a douche in S1 but if we're judging him by his S1 personality shouldn't we all hate Caroline by that logic? Cause she was kind of a bitch in S1.

Caroline sleeping with Klaus...yeah no I don't even know what to say. I knew it was coming, just didn't know when. It was dumb and just didn't really make any sense to me. I was never really on board with them, to begin with.

Why did Klaus come back to MF in the first place? To see Katherine dying? Anyways... It always felt to me like Klaus was being really pushy and trying to flirt with Care when she was obviously not into it (she seemed pretty content and happy with Tyler)

Like sir, you have a whole ass baby on the way (idk what happened with that storyline cause the Mikaelsons went to New Orleans and I'm not watching TO rn) and you're here in MF trying to hook up with a girl who repeatedly told you she wasn't interested. Dare i say, you look kind of pathetic.

Tyler my boy, you deserve better, you really do. And then, when he hears Care talking to a Katherine-possessed Elena about Klaus he is obviously heartbroken.

Look, Care, I like you, I really do, but I can't defend you on this one. It's preposterous to me that she's the one acting all shocked when Tyler gets upset. Like, you slept with the man who ruined his life, who killed your best friend's aunt (RIP Jenna you will always be missed), and oh, killed his mother! (RIP Carol you were innocent)

Also, this might just be me, but did everyone forget that Klaus was gonna kill Care in the sacrifice ritual thing back in S2? Maybe I'm just really bad at letting things go but I would never get over that? Like I would never want to be friends let alone anything more with a person who brought so much suffering to me and my friends.

You almost died because of him, twice! Damn it Caroline, where are your morals!?

Call it a moment of weakness I guess, but still, it was hella stupid. And then Stefan defends Caroline? Like no don't defend her she did a stupid thing!

Tyler is my guy and I like him. I understand not liking his character but you cannot seriously say that he was in the wrong in this situation. He had every right to be upset. And Caroline was stupid for what she did. Maybe it's because Klaus said "You'll never see me again" so she thought "fuck it, I might as well since he'll be gone for good" but still dumb af

The show has been off the rails since S4 it can only be worse from here lol

#rant post #tyler lockwood #you deserve better #i am so sorry #anti klaroline #anti klaus mikaelson #anti caroline forbes #tvd season 5 #the vampire diaries #vampire diaries #tvdu #tvd universe #tvd #forwood #katherine pierce #elena gilbert #tyler lockwood defense squad #i needed to get this out of my system #mystic falls

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starcrossedxwriter · 1 year ago

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Built for Love Part 10 (MBJ x Famous Black OC)

Warnings: Depictions of violence, trauma, lots of angst, recovery

A/N: ok this one is a longgggg doozy… gonna apologize in advance cause it is really just all angst lol BUT I'm hoping there's a treat in here that'll make y'all hate me less? lol maybe?? Enjoyyyyy!

It took everything in Charlotte physically and emotionally to drag herself to the theater the next day for opening night. She was physically exhausted, only sleeping in increments of 30 minutes or so before her own screams jolted her awake. Mentally, she was hanging on by a fraying thread. She had not felt this jumpy in so long, every unexpected noise causing her to look over her shoulder every five seconds, even in the comforts of her own home. But nothing was worse than the physical pain she was in. The bruise on her side was far worse without the adrenaline of the night before pumping through her veins. The cry of pain she let out when she first moved that morning sounded more like a dying animal than a person.

The entire drive she dreaded the facade she’d have to wear all day. She did not know how she did this years ago, mustering up her last kernel of strength to plaster a stupid fake smile on her face. Perhaps because back then, it was a means of survival and this situation was caused by her own hubris. She wanted to fight, she wanted to do this her way, but this path was lonely and more difficult than she thought. And reality was sinking in fast that she was, perhaps, not strong enough to deal with him alone this time.

She did not regret staying, that was the right decision. But she just wished Michael was here. She wanted him here, not to do anything, but just to fold her up in his soft embrace. He was the epitome of safety and she severely underestimated how alone she would feel without him here, even just for a few days. She was balancing on a tightrope and the bungee cord that secured her was nowhere to be found. She already made one wrong move, she could not let herself think what risk another one would bring her.

Here he is, about to ruin another special moment for you, she thought to herself as her driver weaved in and out of traffic to get her to the theater.

He doesn’t have to, another voice spoke up louder.

She thought back to their argument in the hallway the night before. Until she found herself on the floor beneath him, she had been proud of herself. The old her would have never said a fraction of those things to him. But she had squared her shoulders, looked him in the eye, and pushed back. Sure, she could not physically win a fight against him. But last night proved the psychological power he held over was indeed gone. And despite the emotional distress and pain she was in, that small act felt like a win in and of itself.

That small win was all the strength she needed to push through. Today was her moment, something she’d worked for for years. He could not take this away from her, the bruise he gave her could not take this away from her… not if she didn’t let him.

“You look like hell. You good?” Malcolm remarked as she dragged her feet past his dressing room.

She glanced back at him and gave him a smile that was more like a pained grimace. “Remember what you told me about fighting? Well, I got knocked down… trying to pick myself back up again.”

He raised his coffee cup as if to salute her. “That’s all you can do.”

As the day went on and she did interviews with the camera crew recording footage of opening night and they did a final rehearsal of one or two of the numbers, she did find her exhaustion and pain slowly dissipate. She knew it was all in her head, she was still very much both exhausted and in pain, but she just found the strength to ignore it. The stage was her home, her domain, and she felt at her strongest here. It was the flicker of light that she could always cling to when everything else felt dark. And so she held onto it, seized it with every fiber of her being and allowed that to give her whatever she needed to get through the day.

There was no other option, no other bungee cords to fall back on. It was just her and she had to pull herself, hold herself up, and shine bright even as she wanted to fall. Besides, she had not done all this, the secrets and lying, to let him psych her out so close to game time. She could fall apart when the show was over, but until then, her own strength was all she had. And that’s what she held on to as the day passed and showtime drew closer.

By the time she slid on her dress, she felt more like herself than she had in the last two weeks. She was ready a bit early so she slipped out and snuck to the stage. As everyone hustled around her to prepare for showtime, she watched through a slip in the curtains. The audience was almost full already. Her eyes followed the front row, recognizing some folks like Malcolm’s wife, Vanessa. She did a double take when she saw who sat next to her.

“Michael,” his name came out as a breathless sigh of relief. She did not know whether to cry tears of joy or have a panic attack. On the one hand, she could already see her web of secrets untangling right before her eyes. Even if they made it through the night without Michael and Shaun’s paths crossing, the moment they got home, there would be no hiding the angry black and blue bruise that covered her side. And she knew Michael was too smart to believe any lie she could come up with to explain it away.

However, as she looked at him, her fear of his reaction did not outweigh the joy and relief she felt at seeing him. He came back to see her, to be there for her on the biggest night of her career to date. And even if all her secrets fell apart, she could not feel anything other than gratitude and love for him for sacrificing his plans for her. Every day, he chose her and made her feel loved, supported, and safe. He did not need to say a word to her and his very presence made her stronger. Knowing he was nearby made her feel lighter and more at ease. She was no longer alone and felt as if someone attached more bungee cords to her to steady her.

She returned to her dressing room and pulled out her phone. She walked around her room, texting him.

Els: Funny… I don’t remember LA looking quite like where I work? 🤔

She did not have to wait long for the response bubble to emerge and her phone to ding.

Bakari: How’d you spot me? It was supposed to be a surprise for the end of the show ☹️

Els: I have eyes and ears everywhere 😉 seriously, though something happen in LA? Not that I’m not happy to see you but why’d you come back early?

Bakari: Something told me I was needed here more. Was I right?

She nodded as if he could see her. He knew her far too well. She did not even bother lying this time.

Els: Yea you were. Thank you ♥️♥️

“Maybe I’ll go introduce myself,” a voice whispered behind her, Charlotte’s heart sinking. “I always liked him, great actor.”

She should have known he would not let the day go by without finding some way to torture her. And she knew him stopping by minutes before show time was not a coincidence. But she refused to let him throw her off her game like he did at rehearsal.

“Hit me again and I’ll scream bloody murder,” she threatened as she turned around. She could tell he did not believe her but she knew it was effective. This was just as much his job as it was hers. He would not risk someone seeing him hurt her.

He merely sneered at her and shook his head, raising his hands in surrender. “Nope, just came to wish you luck. And say I’m a bit surprised to see you. It must be hard to dance with that?” He gestured toward her side.

“I’ve performed through a lot worse, remember?” She reminded him through gritted teeth. “This was always the one thing you couldn’t take.”

She studied him for a moment as he sucked his teeth in annoyance. She could tell he seemed a bit disappointed and frustrated by that fact, by the knowledge that she was not in bed nursing her side, crying over what he had done. Instead, she was here with a smile on her face, ready to do her job.

She had always felt like he had taken everything from her, broken her and reduced her to nothing. But this very moment was proof that he hadn’t. Every time she got up and performed with bruises or broken bones or any other injury, she silently told him that this was the one thing he could never have, the one thing she would never yield to him. That she would fight through all the pain to make it onto that stage night after night, to savor the few minutes every day where she could be the version of herself he tried to destroy. This was that flicker of light and he had always tried to stomp it out. Her brain was immediately filled with recollections of all their worst fights, all of which coincided with important shows or huge moments in her career. And every time, Charlotte never faltered, she never fell down, she never broke. She just bandaged herself up and kept moving. Not even the threat of him looming had driven her away this time.

“You know, I’ve been trying to figure out why you did all this. You want your plaything back, want that control again, sure. But this,” she gestured around them. “Is a fucking insane way to get to me. But now I know why, because this was the one thing you could never take. You took everything from me for years, reduced me to nothing but a shell of a person. N-No light, n-no personality… no agency. Nothing. B-But when I went to work a-and got on stage, even if it was for only two hours a night, I became something again. Was reminded that I was more than the nothing you made me believe I was. And you hated that. This is the last piece. You take this, you destroy my career, and I’d really have nothing.”

“I already did,” he took a menacing step toward her. Charlotte did not move though, forcing her body to stay rooted like a tree. She did not know where this sudden insurgence of strength came from but she welcomed it. For the first time, she had the upper hand. And she was going to use it. “I already took it once. You don’t think I can do it again? You were nothing back then and you still aren’t. A pretty face, a famous nigga on your arm, a nice voice… None of it changes what both of us know. I’m the only one who can love you like you deserve. I’m the only one who knows the truth about you.”

And for the first time that he told her that, she thought about all the ways in which Michael and her family proved to her daily that his words were not true. And though she still did not know if she truly deserved someone as perfect as Michael, she knew she deserved so much better than him.

She sighed, taking a step forward to close the space between them.

“I lived in absolute terror of you for years. My entire world was dictated by the look on your face. Three years ago, I would’ve believed every word you just said. In some lights, I’m still terrified of you,” she admitted, taking a deep breath. “Last night proved that. But since I left you, I built myself back up brick by brick. I met someone,” she smiled. “Who holds me up when I can’t, someone who rushed back here to protect me when he didn’t even know what I needed protecting from, someone whose very being and presence reminds me every minute of every day that I am something and I deserve so much more than the scraps you gave me. And in that light, you are far less terrifying.”

He let out a low chuckle, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward him. His grip was tight and painful but she still did not waver. “You keep forgetting what I’m fuckin’ capable of, Charlotte. Maybe I need to close the door and remind you?”

The prospect terrified her but she knew his hands were tied. It was just intimidation and she would not fall for it again.

“The thing is… I haven’t. You’ve shown me the worst you have to offer time and time again and I’ve survived every time. And it’s true. If you want to hurt me, there’s nothing I can do to stop you. I know I’m only alive because of God and luck. I can’t win in a fight with you. So take your best shot. But you know what else is true? I’ll still never choose you. No amount of fear or intimidation or pain will make me choose you. It’s him. For the rest of my life, it’ll always be him. And no matter what happens to me, you’ll have to live the rest of your miserable life knowing that.”

She used all of her force to rip her arm out of his grip, her skin stinging, as she grabbed the sweater that went with her costume and slid it on her arms as she spoke.

“You are right about one other thing though. I don’t deserve him. I don’t deserve this light or the love he gives me. And maybe,” she offered sadly, “Maybe one day, he’ll realize that too and leave me. And maybe I’ll never find anyone to love me like he does ever again. But even then, I’d spend the rest of my days alone before I spend another moment of it with you. So I hope all of this time and energy was worth it. Because I’m done… I’m done giving you a return on this investment. You can’t take this and you can’t take my joy, my body, my relationship, my peace, or anything else from me again. Your time controlling my life is over.” The lights around them started to flash, signaling that everyone needed to get in their places. She took a deep breath and offered him a smile. “That’s my cue. Enjoy the show. I’ve got a good feeling about it.”

She smiled before walking around him and walking out the door. She could feel his rage wafting off of him but that did not stop her. As soon as she rounded the corner, she leaned against the wall, her heart pounding. She let out a breath she had not even realized she was holding in, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She messaged her arm, another bruise she would have to explain away. But that one had been worth it. To say those things and finally say her piece… the only thing better would’ve been to punch him in the face but she refused to resort to violence as he did.

“Fuck, that was terrifying,” she mumbled to herself. “But you did it, you did it. Another win for today. Deep breaths,” she instructed herself, her entire body relaxing as she took several calming breaths. “Now let’s go get another one.”

She steadied herself for a few more minutes before getting in her spot just as the announcer came on to start the show.

***

She was in the middle of changing when Michael finally made his way backstage to her dressing room. Her after party dress was just passing her hips when she heard her door open.

She did not even give him a chance to speak, she barely held in the tears that immediately welled up in her eyes as she saw him. She just immediately rushed into his arms, her lips slamming into his. The breath of relief she let escape was muffled as she kissed him. She buried her face in the space between his shoulder and neck as he held her, forcing herself not to flinch as his arm rubbed against her side when he pulled her in for a tight hug. Her breath was shaky as she breathed him in, grateful to be in his arms again.

“I-It’s so good to see you,” she whispered. “I m-missed you so much.”

His hand cradled her head into his neck, surprised at her intense reaction. He was concerned when he arrived but the tremble in her voice and body, the way she sagged into him, only increased his concern tenfold. He could tell she was trying to hide whatever it was that was wrong, hold it back. But he could feel it, feel everything that simmered beneath the facade of a performer.

“You were amazing.” His other hand rubbed her back. “But what’s going on, love?” He leaned back to force her to lift her head and look at him. His thumb wiped one of the stray tears from her cheeks, kissing the path it trekked. He did not see a point in prolonging the question. He knew it was a special night but she needed help. What kind? He had no idea. But the version of her that stood in front of him was not her, at least, not a healthy version of her. “You’re not ok.”

Charlotte sniffled. She could not keep this in any longer. This was just not sustainable. That had been the problem the first time with Shaun, she had dealt with it utterly and completely alone. And here she was, falling back into that same pattern of isolation. No one in her corner, no one to support her or help her. And she could not survive that way. If she was going to stay here, she needed someone’s help. Even if all they did was help pick her up when he mentally knocked her down. And she had robbed Michael of the opportunity to do that, and she knew there would be anger for that. But more importantly, she had tied her one hand behind her back by doing so. She had robbed herself of safety and comfort and it showed in the hell-ish experience of the last two weeks. She had asked Michael to move with her because she needed him. Now, it was time to call that support in.

“No… I’m not. But now that you’re here, I will be.” She pressed her lips to his cheek. “I need to tell you something though… about-”

The last part of her sentence was drowned out by Chris sticking his head in her door. She had not realized that Michael left her dressing room door open and glanced up to find Chris, Malcolm, and a couple other company members standing outside her door.

“Everyone’s heading over to the lounge. You two ready?”

“Umm… actually I think we’re gonna head home?”

“Home??” His tone was so filled with offense, you would have thought Charlotte quit the show. “Absolutelyyyyyyy not! The star of the night can’t miss the after party. Trust me, the sex’ll be 10 times better after a few drinks.” Chris, inappropriately so, automatically assuming they just wanted to go home to fuck. “Come on!”

She sagged deeper into Michael and rolled her eyes. She glanced at him, a silent conversation passing between them. She knew they weren’t going to take no for an answer, everyone was on too much of a high from the night. Her eyes searched for his approval to which he gave her a small nod.

“Fineeeeee, we’ll come but just for a bit,” she acquiesced, Michael’s arm not leaving her waist.

“Alrighty. You better. I have at least two cocktails with your name on it!” The man disappeared, everyone starting to head over to the party.

“You sure you’re ok with going?”

He nodded. “Yea, tonight is still your night and you should enjoy it. As long as you’re up for it. We have plenty of time to talk.”

She squeezed his hand before following him out to their car. She had no interest in staying at the party too long. She found it hard to relax at first, her eyes constantly darting around the party to see if Shaun was there. But as she and Michael had those two drinks promised by Chris (and then some additional ones), she still did not see Shaun anywhere and loosened up.

Despite the looming difficult conversation she knew she would have to have with him when they got him, she still managed to have fun. The night moved faster than she expected as she and Michael danced with Malcolm and his wife. Unlike the stuffy cocktail event from the night before, this was a true party, an opportunity to let their hair down and celebrate.

Charlotte escaped the dance floor to grab another drink, leaving Michael chatting with some of the other actors and their partners.

A hand touched her arm unexpectedly, Charlotte flinching and a groan escaping her before she could stop herself. She clenched her fist in pain. However, when she turned and realized it was Michael, her heart sank.

Fuck.

“You’re hurt?” His hand gently grabbed her arm and lifted it up to examine under the dim lights of the bar. She braced herself, his eyes flashing with rage.

“Who did that to you?” he demanded as he took in the light but distinct bruise disrupting her otherwise flawless skin. He had never seen a bruise or mark on her before.

“U-Um… no one. I m-must’ve hit it or something,” she lied. She could not even stop herself, it was as thoughtless and second nature as breathing or walking and talking to lie about an injury. She also knew this was not the venue to tell him what really happened. She wanted to tell him everything in the privacy of their own home.

“You’re lying,” he said immediately, his anger only rising. “Nothing you could’ve done would cause that. Who. Did. That. To. You? Tell me right now, Charlotte.” His voice was low but she heard it. There was no room to lie or hide the truth from him now. He would not accept it.

“I p-promise I w-will tell you. B-but can y-you just wait till we get home? I d-don’t want to talk about it here. Please,” she begged.

He studied her, his hand going to her neck to hold her gaze to him. “But you’re ok right now? Whoever did it isn’t here?” he glanced around as if he could spot the person in the moment.

“N-No, no. I promise. They aren’t here. It’s just a l-long story a-and I'd rather tell you at home. T-that’s all, I promise.”

He kissed her temple, nodding. “Ok, ok. I’ll call the car.”

“Thank you. I j-just need to run to the bathroom. 5 minutes?” She could tell he did not want to let her out of his sight but she offered him a reassuring nod. “I promise I’m ok. Just five minutes. I’ll be right back.”

He nodded and kissed her on the cheek, watching as she left.

Charlotte had to take a couple turns to find the bathroom, finding it empty when she entered. She tossed her clutch and phone on the couch before going into one of the stalls. She took a few deep breaths, already strategizing how she would explain the last two days to Michael. She was almost thankful the tower was crumbling, it was too hard to hold up anyway. But she wasn’t ready for the fall out, not fully anyway. But she knew once she told him, the weight would be off her shoulders and she could breathe easy for a moment. And she welcomed that. She knew honesty after secrets and lies came with a storm but there was always calm after, eventually.

As she finished up and readjusted her clothing, she heard the door open. However, she did not think much about it until she stepped out to find Shaun standing in the bathroom.

“W-what are you d-doing in here?” She asked, taking in his staggering posture and eyes. They were red, glazed over with rage. She was not even sure when he arrived at the party. She had not seen him once since she left him in her dressing room.

“You know I tried. I fuckin’ tried so hard to be reasonable…” he remarked as he reached back to the bathroom door and locked it behind him.

Charlotte let out a shaky breath, all of that confidence from earlier vanished in an instant. No escape and no upper hand this time and she knew, when push came to shove, he would always overpower her. She wondered if anyone would even be able to hear her scream over the loud music. She knew Michael would come looking for her in a few minutes if she did not return or some woman would likely try to come use the bathroom. However, she also knew Shaun did not need long.

“But then… you parade that nigga around in my fuckin’ face?!” He slammed his hand against one of the stall doors, the force causing it to bang against the wall loudly. Charlotte nearly jumped half way out of her skin, taking another step back from him. “‘It’ll always be him,’ he mimicked her speech from earlier. “It’s me… Or it’s no one, Charlie.” His steps were measured and menacing, despite the alcohol that clearly seeped out of every pore of his being, a predator who had finally cornered its prey and was tired of the games. There was nowhere to run or go as Charlotte found herself cornered by the wall. “You choose.”

Charlotte knew what she should say, lie to get herself out of the situation alive. And if he had asked something else of her, perhaps she would have said anything to appease him. However, she could not force herself to do it, not this time and not about this. She knew in her heart and soul that Michael was it for her. And she would never deny that, no matter the consequences.

Her heart pounded out of her chest but she forced the words out, “I-It’s… it’s still him, Shaun. M-My h-heart is his, my soul is his. A-and I c-can’t give you what you want. Not anymore. If it’s not him, t-then it’s n-no one.”

He let out a few deep breaths of shock and staggered back from her for a moment as if she had slapped him. She imagined he did not expect her to answer truthfully but she could not deny Michael. She would never.

Charlotte started to peel herself off the wall, hoping this was her moment to leave and escape. However, she only made it a step before she felt a sharp sting across her cheek, the force of his slap sending her body crashing into the sink in the bathroom. She grunted as her stomach hit the hard edge of the counter and knocked the wind out of her. She used one hand to brace herself to stop from falling to the ground. The other immediately touched her cheek, pulling her hand back to find blood where his ring had cut into her skin.

“S-Shaun, p-please d-don’t… do this…”

He scoffed and shrugged, his face resigned as if she had given him no choice. “I told you. Me or no one.” He slapped her again, harder, her body falling to the ground as her head hit the cold tiles of the floor. Her vision immediately grew blurry as he appeared over her. Her arms and legs flailed violently as she tried to fight back.

She could feel every blow, his fists aiming for any part of her body he could reach. Her face, her chest, her stomach. All she could do was scream for help as she futilely tried to fight him off of her.

His hands wrapped around her neck, squeezing. Charlotte’s eyes grew wide as she realized his intentions, her fingers clawing at his skin with all her might to force him to break his grip. However, it was no use. He had strangled her before, which was scary but she always knew he would stop. This, however, was totally different. This time she knew he had no intention of stopping until he felt the life drain from her body. She could see it in his eyes, it was over for her.

The edges of her vision started to blur. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of his weight and hands being ripped off her before everything went black and her last thread to the conscious world snapped.

***

Michael took a last sip of his drink as Charlotte walked away from him to the bathroom. Michael sighed as he did a scan of the party, his eyes following on a man in a disheveled suit who appeared at the entrance. Michael stared at him for a moment, something about him gave him pause but he could not place why. He watched as the man did a scan of the room before heading to the hallway that led to the bathrooms. He figured he was merely on edge as the sight of Charlotte’s arm came back into his mind. His hands clenched into a fist.

Another puzzle piece, another thing that did not make sense. Someone had clearly hurt her but he did not understand how or when or who would do that. He had only been gone for two days. Shaun did pop up in his head but he dismissed that quickly. When would the man even have shown up without Michael knowing? Michael was pretty much with her anytime she was not at the theater since they moved.

He continued to people watch for a few minutes, his eyes glancing in the direction of the bathroom every few seconds as he waited. His phone dinged with a message from Rob letting him know he was waiting downstairs. Michael glanced at his watch, realizing more than five minutes had passed since Charlotte went to the bathroom. He searched the crowd for her. He happened to run into Malcolm and his wife during his search.

“Aye,” Michael grabbed their attention. “Have you seen Charlotte?”

“Nope, not since she went to get a drink. Why?”

“Y-Yea. She said she was going to the bathroom but it’s been a minute. And she didn’t answer her phone. Figured she maybe passed by me or thought I was gonna meet her outside or something.”

“I was about to head to the bathroom before we headed out too. I’ll walk with you. I’m sure she’s fine.”

Malcolm and Michael walked the maze of hallways to the bathrooms, Michael stopping as they turned the last corner and another sound filled his ears, battling against the thundering bass of the music from the party.

“You hear that?”

“Yea. Sounds like someone screaming?”

Michael rushed up to the ladies’ bathroom door, getting close enough to hear the screams behind it. He only needed to hear one to recognize the voice. Charlotte. It was as if someone had replaced the blood in his veins with ice water. That sound would haunt him for the rest of his days, he was sure of it.

He immediately went to open the door, finding it locked. However, he did not give that a second thought as he told Malcolm to call the police and ram his entire body into the door. It took two tries before it yielded to his force and weight.

Michael did not need an introduction or explanation as he took in the scene in front of him. He had never seen a picture of Shaun in his life but instinctively, he knew who he was. Charlotte’s brief descriptions of him, her actions for the last two weeks, her nightmares, her injury, all those puzzle pieces seemed to fit instantly and paint quite a clear picture.

Michael immediately grabbed the man by his collar, dragging him off his girlfriend. He got a quick glimpse of Charlotte’s bloodied and bruised form, her eyes half closed, as he pulled the man away from her. He threw him down to the floor and kicked him in the chest, a satisfying crack filling the quiet bathroom. And he did not stop at one.

Shaun barely had time to think or defend himself as Michael channeled a year’s worth of boxing training into beating the life out of him. This man who had terrorized the love of his life for years, this man who had been the source of so much strife and pain in her life, this man who had been the reason for the rage filling Michael’s body. All he saw was Charlotte’s broken body and he lost all sense of himself.

He was thankful the loud music of the party drowned out Shaun’s screams. Every punch he rained down on him felt cathartic. Every scream and yell felt like music to his ears. Though he typically believed violence could be avoided, in this case, his soul needed this more than anything. This was the only answer. Michael had never felt the desire to feel someone’s life leave their body but he felt it in that moment, strongly, fervently. And he knew, if it came to that, he would not feel an ounce of guilt about it. This man did not deserve to be among the living, not with all he had done.

He thought about every time Charlotte screamed or whimpered in her sleep; every time her big brown eyes filled with terror and panic as something triggered her; every time she thought of herself as broken, unworthy, and unlovable - these things that were the farthest from the truth but he made her believe; every scar littering her perfect form that she looked at with disgust. He thought about it all and every time his fist connected with Shaun’s skin, he felt a bit of that rage he had bottled up since he learned about Shaun release. It felt good to finally do something with it. No longer did he have to punch the punching bag in his gym pretending it was this man’s face. The object of his rage was right there and he did his worst.

Michael only stopped when a force pulled his arm back, his savage beating cut short by Malcolm.

“It’s over, it’s over.” He whispered, holding Michael’s raised arm back. “I think Shaun understands your point. The police are coming. Charlotte needs an ambulance, now.”

Michael stopped, his hand still holding Shaun up by his collar, and glanced at Charlotte who was unconscious and propped up against the bathroom wall. He almost wanted to throw up at the blood that smudged the floor by her body.

“She’s alive,” Malcolm assured him as he took in the look on Michael’s face, Michael knew it must have looked lethal. “She hit her head but she’s alright. But she needs you right now and you can’t be there if you get arrested for killing him.”

He nodded and pulled his arm out of Malcolm’s grip. He stood and pulled the man to his feet. He was not even recognizable now, covered in blood. Michael could tell his nose was broken, a few teeth had been knocked out, and he was not even sure if the man could still see with both of eyes nearly swollen shut. And despite this damage and the pleasure he felt administering it, it still - somehow - did not feel like enough. The man was still conscious and still breathing and that did not feel fair.

“I’m only gonna tell you this fuckin’ once.” Michael’s voice was low and lethal, he did not even know his voice could sound so terrifying. He did not know who this person was, this dangerous version of him he’d never needed to pull out before. “Stay. The Fuck. Away. From. Her. If I ever see you again or you ever lay a finger on her again, I swear on everything I love, I will fuckin’ kill you. I’ll make what just happened look like a scratch. And I’ll end your pathetic life. We clear?” At his silence, Michael scoffed before throwing two back to back jabs into Shaun’s ribs, the sound of more bones cracking filling the air along with a pathetic, girlish scream. “I said, are we fuckin’ clear??”

“W-we’re c…c-clear,” Shaun forced out, the words barely audible as Michael’s arm pinned him to the wall by his neck, crushing his windpipe, was the only thing keeping him from doubling over in pain.

“Good.”

Michael removed his arm, the man unceremoniously crumpling to the ground with a groan. He could not help it but he kicked the man once last time for good measure as he shook out his hand and flexed his fingers. His knuckles were caked with blood and ached but it did not matter as he rushed over to Charlotte.

He pulled her body into his arms, propping her up against his legs. His breaths were shallow and rushed as he pressed his fingers against her neck. He knew Malcolm said she was alive but it was as if he needed to prove it to himself, assure himself. He let out a strangled sigh at the pulse he felt pumping against his fingers, strong and distinct.

She’s ok, she’s ok. Just knocked out.

“I’m here, baby. I’m here. I gotchu. You’re safe, you’re safe.” he whispered as two EMTs rushed into the bathroom. Michael did not notice the small crowd that followed them, Malcolm going over to Chris who was standing at the front, his face the picture of shock and confusion.

Michael felt as if he was just going through the motions as he rode with Charlotte in the ambulance. He merely just repeated that same refrain over and over again, holding her hand as the EMTs worked around him. They assured him none of her injuries were life threatening or severe. She took a beating but she’d be fine once they treated the head injury.

They forced him to wait in the waiting room while they rushed her to the hospital, Michael calling all of her family and his to tell them what was going on. He knew this would likely make it onto the news somewhere and did not want anyone to find out about it. Her father, who lived in Baltimore, and oldest brother, who lived in DC, promised to drive up first thing in the morning, Lauren, Jackson, and Jazz were planning to be on the first flight out of LA, and her eldest sister would be on a flight from Atlanta.

He cycled through pacing and texting her family until a nurse came to get him. He was thankful, the two hours he waited seemed to move by in slow motion.

Michael absentmindedly scratched the nape of his neck as he rushed behind the polite nurse, his ears barely registering her preppy and annoying voice. Her words were nonsensical until he saw Charlotte. He barely registered them once he realized she had little information to offer him. He knew nothing she could have said would satisfy him anyway until he saw her for himself, saw the warmth in her skin, felt the blood pumping through her veins, saw her injuries without blood caked in them, making them look far worse to his eye. He had not seen her in hours and he did not want second hand accounts that she was ok, he wanted to see her for himself.

The cycle of torture he had been on for the last few hours finally ended in front of her closed door. He took a deep breath and sent up a silent prayer before walking into the room to find Charlotte, his sweet honey bee alive and conscious. He studied the steady rise and fall of her chest, the way her hand fidgeted with the fraying edge of her blanket. He let out a strangled breath he did not realize he was holding in. He felt as if he was breathing for the first time in hours, a weight lifted off of his heart and body. The room was completely silent aside from the beeping of machines surrounding her, her eyes trained on the glittering lights of the skyline out of her window.

He examined the injuries he could see: the bandage on her forehead, the bruises already blooming on her face and neck. He imagined more had to litter the rest of her body, the areas hidden beneath blankets and a hospital gown.

“H-Honeybee…” his voice came out as a strangled whisper, his pain and fear flowing from his words like blood from an open wound. Her eyes clenched shut as she heard his voice, and heard the emotions laced throughout it.

At her silence, his hand wrapped around hers as he sat in the chair by her bed. He did not bother stopping the tears that slowly trekked down his face as he gently stroked her forehead.

“Baby…”

“I-I’m ok… r-really, Bakari,” she croaked out, her voice sounding small and broken. She avoided his eyes but he could see the clouds of guilt, shame, and embarrassment that filled hers. He knew she likely hated that he saw her like this. But it did not matter to him. He was just happy she was alright. “I-I’m o-ok.”

“No, you aren’t. Els... baby. Look at me, please," he whispered, noting the small shake of her head as she bit her lip. He could hear her silent pleas to not push. However, he needed to see her, truly see her.

“Charlotte.” His rare use of her full name did the trick, the young woman turning her head toward him.

Her eyes still did not fully meet his, but he decided it was a start. His thumb stroked her cheek, her eyes fluttering closed at the soothing gesture. Her head lulled to the side and rested in his palm. He did not say a word, he just offered her what he could tell she needed. His presence and his gentle touch that always soothed the troubled waters of her soul. However, so much of her face was bruised that it did not take long for him to graze a tender spot and cause her to wince.

“I-I a-a-m so-so sorr-sorry…” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I f-…” she started to hyperventilate, her hand going to her chest as she felt the shooting pain of her sharp breaths radiating against her fractured ribs. “I-I t-tried to fight… I-I s-should’ve t-told…”

Her words became incoherent as she tried to talk through a panic attack. Michael immediately moved to the edge of the bed, hoping he could calm her down.

“Hey… hey, shhh… baby, take a deep breath for me. It’s ok, Els. You ain’t got nothing to apologize for, I promise.”

His voice was low and soothing as he tried to get her to calm down. He took a few deep breaths, encouraging her to mimic the action to slow her own breathing. “There we go… That’s good, baby. Relax, it’s ok. You’re with me and you’re safe now.”

He watched her eyes fall down to his hands, which a nurse cleaned up and bandaged for him. She sniffed.

“You saved me?” She asked quietly.

“Yea… I c-came for you.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes, refusing to let them fall. She winced slightly as she hit a bruised area. “You always do. Thank you.”

“Always,” he whispered, his hand wiping his own tears that started to fall. He knew he could be vulnerable but part of him battled to be stronger, despite how upset and scared he was. Right now she needed to be the vulnerable one, which meant he had to be the rock.

“I-I s-suppose y-you wanna know w-what happened?” she asked quietly, knowing he likely still did not know how they ended up in this situation in the first place.

“Yea but… that conversation can wait till we get home. All that matters right now is that you’re ok.”

She did not argue with him on that point. Charlotte’s head pounded as she laid in the bed, Michael sitting quietly next to her. Neither of them said much, she just closed her eyes and focused on his touch, his hands, strong and comforting against her skin. But cautious, she could feel that caution with every caress and stroke. She thought she had lost this forever, that she would never feel the heat of his loving touch on her skin again.

A knock at the door tore their moment of solitude away from them, both of their eyes moving to find two men in dark suits standing in the doorway. They flashed their badges identifying themselves as NYPD. The back of Charlotte’s hand hastily whisked away her tears before forcing herself up into a seated position. She forced a smile on her face but she knew with the cuts and bruises, it likely did not look like one.

“Good evening. We are sorry to interrupt. I am Detective Simpson and this is Detective Zidan. Ms. Bennett, we are so sorry for the ordeal you have suffered tonight. The doctors told us you were conscious. Would you be up for talking about what happened?”

She nodded, gesturing for the two men to come farther in. “Y-You can just call me Charlotte. And yea… Um… we were at the Purple Cat lounge, c-celebrating the opening night of our broadway s-show.”

“The Lighthouse?” Detective Simpson interjected. “My wife’s a big Broadway fan… we saw it last week in previews,” he clarified. “You were phenomenal.”

“T-thank you,” she whispered. However, even that compliment could not lift her spirits right now. “Umm, we had a few drinks… two or three I guess? But I w-was tired a-and M-Michael realized I was injured so w-we decided to go home. I went to the bathroom a-and when I came out of the stall, Shaun was there. H-he locked the bathroom door and knocked me down… hit me. A-and then he started choking me.”

“Did he try anything else?” His words were vague but Charlotte and Michael understood the implication. She felt Michael stiffen beside her.

“No, no. He didn’t do anything like that.”

“And what is your relationship with Shaun Parker, the assailant?”

“We dated for about three years a few years ago? He was abusive. I-I had a restraining order against him when I lived here back then. F-filed a police report a couple times then dropped them.”

“That’s great, very helpful thank you. That’ll establish a history of violence, pattern of behavior. How’d he know about the show? Have you had contact with him since you broke up? Any idea how he might’ve gotten access to the event you all were at?”

Charlotte clenched her eyes shut. And here goes that wrecking ball, she thought to herself. She prepared her mind and heart for the inferno of rage Michael was about to experience, this time directed at her.

“H-He showed up at o-our last rehearsal b-before previews two weeks ago. H-he’s a-and investment banker or manager and w-was working with one of the producers.”

Michael’s head whipped around in her direction, shocked that her answer was not a simple no.

“What the fuck?? He’s been around for two weeks??” He approached the bed, his brow furrowed and his heart rate increasing as his frustration skyrocketed. He was seething.

Charlotte’s hands twisted in her lap as she felt his anger waft toward her.

“I… I-It was fine at first, he didn’t really say anything o-or bother me. But l-last night, one of the investors hosted a cocktail event for us a-and he approached me… and punched me,” her voice got really small as she said that part, Michael stepping away as his rage grew to unprecedented levels. “A-and then today b-before the show, he c-came by my d-dressing room to taunt me. A-and grabbed my arm, l-left a bruise. I t-told him that I’d n-never be with him a-again.”

Michael ran his hand over his face. “Why didn’t you tell me??”

“I didn’t want you to worry!”

He threw his hands up in the air, his exasperation obvious to everyone in the room. “I don’t believe this shit,” he muttered under his breath before turning back to her. “You’re in a fuckin hospital bed, Charlotte. There was clearly a reason to worry! A-and you let me go all the way to fuckin’ LA where I couldn’t do shit to help you??”

“Michael, I-I’m s-sorry, I j-”

“Charlotte, Mr. Jordan, please,” the detective interjected. “Let’s all just calm down for a second. We don’t want to take up too much of either of your time. We know this is difficult to hear and a lot to process. Mr. Jordan, can you tell us what happened when you arrived in the bathroom?”

Michael turned away from Charlotte. His mind was on information overload, his anger pulled him in 30 different directions. But he knew the detectives were right, now was not the time. And putting this man behind bars was more important than his anger.

“It had been a few minutes and she didn’t come back, I went to the bathroom and heard her screaming. I forced the door open a-and saw him choking her. I-I pulled him off a-” Michael stopped speaking, the anger of that moment flooding back.

“Yea we saw Mr. Parker’s injuries. We can piece together the rest. Well, that’s all we need for now. Your accounts align with Malcolm Roberts’, the witness, and the scene so we are good for the evening. We’ll leave you two to get some rest.” He fished his business card out of his wallet and handed it to Michael. “If you think of anything else once you’ve gotten some rest, give us a call.”

Michael stopped the men. “And what about me?” While Michael did what he did to protect Charlotte, and did not regret it, he knew his beating of Shaun would be considered overkill by anyone with eyes.

The detective shrugged. “From my assessment of Mr. Parker’s injuries, you used necessary force to subdue him. And that’s what I plan to write in our report.”

At the raised eyebrow Michael gave him, the other detective merely winked at him. “I’m a husband… If I’d walked in on what you did… let’s just say he’s lucky he got off the floor at all. Even if he wants to press charges, given the circumstances and well, your status, the DA will likely decline to move forward and we would back that up. We aren’t here to ream you up, Mr. Jordan. You will have to pay for the damages to the door at the club but that’s it.”

Michael felt relief wash over him.

“We’ll be in touch,” the detective said before turning to leave. However, he turned back and said, “Loved you both in Creed. Take care of yourselves.”

Michael pocketed the man’s card and watched as they left before turning his attention back to Charlotte.

They sat in silence for a while, Michael’s hand rubbing her arm to comfort her. She could still feel it, his anger, but he controlled it, kept it to himself. They were both two powder kegs ready to explode. Both of them were using materials as flimsy as scotch tape to hold back the avalanche of emotions that threatened to consume them.

It took a few more hours of poking and prodding before the doctors told her she could go home. She was thankful, just wanting to sleep in her own bed in Michael’s… if he was not too angry at her to deny her that.

She pushed herself out of bed, Michael handing her the clothes Malcolm had picked up and brought over for them. She started to lift the nightgown over her head but groaned lightly at the stretch needed to do so. She let it fall back down over her legs.

“Let me help.”

She bit her lip, fiddling with the gown for a moment as her eyes bounced between him and her body, before shaking her head. “Umm no, no… I got it.”

“Why won’t you let me help you?”

“Because I don’t need it. I got it.”

He scoffed and raised an eyebrow at her. “You really think now is the best time to lie to me again, Charlotte?”

She covered her eyes with her hand for a moment before sighing. “I j-just don’t want you to see t-the bruises… I k-know you’re mad at me. I-I don’t want to m-make it worse. A-and I don’t want them to change h-how you see me… feel about me.”

Michael’s feet came into her line of vision before he lifted her head and kissed her forehead.

"Look at me," he quietly demanded. He rarely demanded but she heard it in his voice, it was not a request she could refuse. His hands held her face, holding her gaze to his once she looked up at him. “There is nothing in this world that’ll ever stop me from wanting you, aight? These bruises are just a reminder that you survived and that’s all that matters to me. And it doesn’t matter how mad I am, I’ll never deny you what you need. And right now, you need help. So let me help you.”

It took another moment or two of coaxing but ultimately, she relented. He kissed her cheek before his hands pulled her gown over her head, the young woman wincing at the stretch in her side. Michael’s eyes trailed up her body, happy to see most of it looked fine. Her upper half though, her chest, her stomach, her neck and her face were covered in bruises that made his hand clench into a fist.

His eyes focused on the bigger one on her side, one that clearly had been there longer than the others.

“That’s where he…” he could not even say the words. At her small nod, he took a step back from her and turned away from her. His breaths were shallow and pained.

“It’s not as bad as it looks… I’ve had worse.”

He shook his head, the scotch tape simply could not hold his rage back any longer. “I can’t believe you kept this from me.”

“M-Michael… I’m s-sorry. I didn’t want to upset you.”

“I’m upset because this,” he gestured at her bruise, “is upsetting. This nigga was terrorizing you, Els. And hurting you while you let me fly across the county to sit in bullshit ass meetings when you knew you needed me here.”

“I thought I had it handled!”

“Oh so what? You’re fuckin’ Olivia Pope or some shit?”

“Not funny, Michael.”

“I aint fuckin’ laughin’ Charlotte. If this was handled, I would not be looking at your body covered in bruises and we wouldn’t be in a hospital. He could’ve killed you. If I hadn’t gotten there when I did, he would have killed you. I mean… what were you thinking??”

“I-I s-should’ve told you,” she admitted. She knew there was no excuse for lying as she had and she would not waste his time trying to come up with one. “I-I just didn’t t-think you’d understand.”

He shook his head, a strangled sigh of frustration escaping him. “Well you’re right. I don’t understand why my girlfriend, the love of my life, the woman I want to marry and build a life with, lied to me and hid something so dangerous and life threatening for weeks. You let me move all the way here to protect you, and when you needed it most, you didn’t trust me to do it. I don’t understand why you didn’t trust me.”

All she heard in his voice was his pain. Beneath his righteous anger, she understood where it stemmed from, a well of hurt and disappointment that she did not trust him with this problem.

“M-Michael,” she approached him. “I t-trust y-you with my life. I-it wasn’t a question or lack o-of trust. I w-wanted to tell you so b-bad. T-that night when you helped t-through that nightmare, when you called me the other night from LA…in my dressing room earlier. I wanted to tell you.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

She sighed, she turned back to the bed and sat down. Her physical body was barely standing, barely holding on.

“I dunno… I t-thought I needed to d-do it alone. It’s a-always been me d-dealing with him… I g-guess it’s just a-all I know. A-and I-I was t-tired of losing… tired o-of him t-taking everything… tired of r-running,” she admitted. “A-and I was afraid, afraid you a-and my family w-wouldn’t understand why I would w-want to stay once I knew he w-was around. A-and I was afraid you’d try to stop me. A-and worst of all, I w-was afraid if you gave me an out, I’d be a coward and take it a-and then he w-would’ve taken something else from me. So I l-lied. I lied and kept it from you b-because I knew it would force me to handle it on m-my own a-and it almost killed me. Literally a-and figuratively. B-Because I did… need you.” She let out a small sob. “I needed you so bad. J-just to be there. A-and I deprived myself o-of that and I deprived you of the chance to help me a-and I am s-so so sorry.”

Michael unfolded his arms as he listened to her. He could hear it, her regret and the sincerity of her apology. He was still angry but the roaring rapids of anger were now more like a quiet stream. Far easier to manage and put in perspective. He understood that her scars with Shaun went deeper than he could possibly understand. It was not shocking that she had defaulted to these choices. Michael sat next to her on the bed, his hand resting on her thigh.

“I know, I know. But listen to me, Charlotte.” She lifted her eyes to look at him, surprised to find the anger gone and nothing but grace and compassion remaining. “You never have to deal with anything alone again. I’m here and whether I agree with your decisions or not, I’ll always support you and help you. I promise you that. But you gotta come to me from now on, Charlotte. This? The lying, the secrets, putting your life in danger. You can never do this again. When I saw you, I thought you were…” he stopped himself and let out a shaky breath. “You can’t scare me like this ever again. Do you understand me?”

“Never. I promise. I’m so so sorry, baby.”

He nodded. “I know you are. It’s ok. Let’s get you home and in bed, aight?” Michael still felt guilty, ashamed that he was across the country instead of protecting her. He had known something was off and still left and that would haunt him for a while. But holding her choice against her because he felt ashamed would not help either of them. He trusted that she understood him and would come to him if she ever needed help again and that would have to be enough.

***

“How are you feeling?” Charlotte’s dad asked as they settled around the living room.

Charlotte was tucked into Michael’s side as she talked with her family. She had not really left his side since they left the hospital that morning. And he kept his hands somewhere on her the entire time. She knew they were both clinging to each other, unsurprising given what all had transpired.

She was not surprised but still slightly put out to find her entire family waiting in their apartment when they finally got home. She had not slept well in weeks and had not gotten more than an hour or two in the last 48 hours. She just wanted to curl up into Michael’s chest and sleep for days. Instead, she was on hour four of her family fawning over her. It was sweet and she understood why but she had never been less excited to see them in her life. Emotionally, she was barely holding it together and she was ready to fall but instead she was forced to hold on a bit longer, remaining upbeat so her family knew she was alright.

“I’m in some pain b-but none of it is super bad. Doc said I c-could be back on stage in a week as long as this heals alright,” she answered, pointing to the bandage on her head. Her voice signaled her hopefulness that that would be the case.

“That fast?” Tiffany, her eldest sister, asked from the kitchen.

Charlotte nodded. “Yea, I was kind of surprised too. But Chris canceled a couple shows, just till Tuesday so I won’t even miss a full week. The optics of his lead almost dying at the after party weren’t the best,” she admitted. She glanced up at Michael. “Can you make sure we send him some flowers and a bottle of wine? There’s a Merlot he loves that I can try to find. As an apology. I know that’s not how he saw his opening night going either.”

“Whatever you want, babe.”

Charlotte smiled, trying to keep the mood positive as everyone’s faces still looked grim every time they looked at her. “Well in a sort of silver lining from last night, the show went really well? Reviews came out a-and Michael read them on the way home. They are so amazing. I can’t wait for y’all to come back so you can see it.”

“Oh that’s great!” Allen offered.

“As if there was even a doubt about -” CJ started to say before Jackson cut him off.

“Are you fuckin’ serious right now?” Jackson blurted out, his anger getting the better of him. Charlotte could tell he was more upset than the rest of her family as he had been virtually silent since they arrived. But she knew why. “Are we really gonna talk about that damn musical like she didn’t fuckin’ almost die to be in it?”

“Baby…” Lauren chastised him. She offered Charlotte and Michael an apologetic glance that told them she tried to head off this outburst before they arrived. “We said we were gonna talk about this later.”

“Nah, fuck that!” Jackson stood up and all the anger in him seemed to explode. “What the hell is wrong with you?? How could you be so reckless? So fuckin’ stupid to let him do this shit to you again?? What the fuck, Charlie?”

Charlotte knew her brother did not mean his words, knew he was just angry. However, in such a fragile state, she could not help the way her body folded into Michael’s at Jackson’s tone and his words. She knew she deserved it. She had kept secrets and lied to her family as much as she did Michael. She knew what she put them through was wrong.

Michael immediately stood up in front of her, using his body as a protective shield from her brother’s harsh tone. He understood Jackson’s anger, he really did. But he had made peace with Charlotte’s choices and accepted her apology. And hours removed from the shock of everything, he regretted piling onto her pain in the hospital by blowing up at her. It was the wrong time to have that conversation. And so was this. He refused to allow anyone else to do it either. She had been knocked down enough in the last 24 hours, the last thing she needed was to get it from the people she loved too.

“Aight brah. Cool it. She knows she messed up but regardless, what happened last night wasn’t her fault. You need to take a breath and calm down.”

“Like hell it isn’t. She knew what he was capable of! And no disrespect but I’m tryin’ to have a conversation with my sister. In case you forgot, I’m the one that pieced her back together after that nigga fucked her up the first time. Meanwhile, she wouldn’t even look like that if you had been here protecting her instead of out in fuckin’ LA.”

“Aww shit,” Jazz muttered as Michael took a menacing step toward Jackson, his words clearly striking a sore spot.

There was barely any space for God between the two men as they stood off, Michael ready to throw hands with anyone who stepped at Charlotte the wrong way, present company included. The other men in the room rose from their seats as well, the tension between the two men palpable.

“I don’t give a fuck what you’re tryna do. I’m the one takin’ care of her now. And I’m tellin’ you to back the fuck up and calm the fuck down. Take another step toward her or raise your voice at her in my house again and I won’t be tellin’ you shit.”

“Alright, enough, enough.” Charlotte called out. She grunted in pain as she pushed herself up from the couch and made her way through the sea of testosterone to her brother and boyfriend. “Let’s all just calm down and sit down. N-No one, least of all me, has the energy to hear either of you argue about who’s more protective.” She placed a gentle hand on Michael’s chest to nonverbally let him know she was fine. He took a step back, raising his hands in surrender. However, when Charlotte stepped in front of him, his hand still went to rest on her hip as if he would need to move her behind him again. He was on edge, everyone understood it.

She turned and faced her brother. “You’re right. What I did was reckless and it was dumb. But I know you, Jackson. Look me in my eyes and tell me if you knew what was going on, you wouldn’t have flown here and made it your mission to drag me back to LA with you?”

Jackson scoffed. “Of course I fuckin’ would’ve. Because I’m the one that nursed you back to health when you left him, the one who woke up to you screaming night after night for months. Every good day, every bad day, every horrible day. I was there. I saw what he did to you, how he destroyed you. And I never wanted to see you go through that again. But I can’t believe I would’ve even had to convince you. The fact that you weren’t on the first flight home after you saw him is fuckin’ insane, Charlie. It makes me question your judgment entirely.”

“I know I wouldn’t be standing here without you, Jackson. Y-You and Lauren saved my life. A-and I am sorry for the lying and the secrets. Truly. I-If I could go back and do it differently, I w-would have told all of you. But even though I regret that, I still would’ve stayed here and done this show even if I knew this would be the outcome.” At her family’s shocked expression, she sighed. “Question my judgement, call me stupid, I don’t care. You helped me heal but I put myself back together piece by piece and I didn’t do that to live in fear of him for the rest of my life. I did it so I could live the life I want. So I could build the life I want, so I could be free. And I don’t regret staying here to fight for that life. I almost died and it was terrifying for me a-and I can only imagine how it felt for you all for the second time. And I’m truly sorry for that. But it was my choice. And I’m not gonna apologize for fighting for what I want, for what my soul needs. You don’t have to like that decision but you do have to respect it.”

“Jackson… she’s right,” her dad, Christian Sr, interjected. “Charlie has always been smart and driven. I wish there’d been another way but I understand. I’m just glad you’re ok, squirt.” Her dad wrapped her in a tight hug.

“Same, sis. But can this be the last time you almost die on us, please? It’s getting kinda old,” Tiffany joked under her breath, CJ hitting her on the arm.

Charlotte let out a belly laugh that made her ribs ache. “Y-Yea, I can do that. I’m down to 6 or 7 lives now anyway. I should preserve them. I’m sorry for scaring everyone. Seriously.” She glanced at her brother who had now gone silent. “Can you forgive me, J? Please?”

He pulled her into a hug, his lips pressed into the top of her head. “Don’t ever scare me like that again, Charlie,” he warned.

“I promise.”

“Ok, let’s all go check into our hotels and give Michael and Charlie some time alone. She needs rest. We can come back tomorrow,” Lauren remarked, shoo-ing everyone toward the door.

Charlotte mouthed thank you to her before wrapping her in a hug. If there was one person who was always a ride or die for her, it was Lauren. She never failed. Michael immediately led Charlotte into their room as soon as everyone filed out and started to help her get ready to finally rest.

“I-I think I want to shower first?”

“Whatever you want, baby. Need help?”

She shook her head. She had not been able to detach herself from Michael since they got home. But she realized after her family’s visit that she needed at least a moment of solitude, a few moments to process the last 48 hours alone. “No, I don’t think so. But I’ll leave the door open just in case.”

Michael settled into bed himself, grabbing his phone to check his email and text messages. It took him a while to make his way through all of them. He had ignored nearly every notification in his phone since he got back from LA. He clicked on one, a link to CNN from Steelo.

He wondered if he should even press play on the video but he decided to.

“And now, breaking news from Broadway. Last night, after the opening night performance of The Lighthouse, the musical’s star, Charlotte Bennett was attacked at the show’s afterparty at a nightclub in the Upper West Side. Bennett, a rising star most known for her role in the recent blockbuster hit Creed, recently returned to Broadway after a two year absence. The assailant, Shaun Parker of New York, was apprehended and is in police custody. NYPD held a press conference late this morning where they announced the state would be pursuing assault and attempted murder charges against the 30 year old investment banker. NYPD also shared that Bennett’s boyfriend, actor and star Michael B. Jordan, also from Creed, was also involved in the altercation, restraining Parker until police arrived.”

“NYPD found that there was a history of domestic violence between Parker and Bennett, Bennett having filed a restraining order and several police reports during their relationship. Lead detectives are still determining Parker’s motivation for attacking Bennett but evidence suggests it was in retaliation for rejecting his advances. Parker’s lawyers were not available for comment.”

“Guess that cat’s out of the bag,” he heard Charlotte mumble. Her body was wrapped in a towel, leaning against the door. He had been so wrapped up in the story that he had not even seen her exit the shower. He quickly closed the link and threw his phone down on the bed. She looked better to him, the light and life returning to her skin. She still looked dead on her feet but he knew only time in bed would fix that. He watched as she chewed on the side of her lip.

“I guess… I knew it’d make the news a-and people would find out. Now everyone’s gonna know how dumb I was, every stupid mistake I made.”

“Or… everyone’s gonna know you survived something awful and applaud you for it,” Michael offered as he grabbed clothes for her to change into and handed them to her.

She used his arms for balance as she stepped into a pair of his Calvin Klein briefs and he helped her pull the sweater over her body. She tried to control the grimaces and small expressions of pain but it proved difficult.

“Somehow I doubt that,” she whispered as he helped her get situated in bed. She let out a deep content sigh of relief at finally being able to relax. She looked at him for a moment and pulled on his arm to bring him close to her. “Thank you for taking care of me and for saving my life… a-and loving me.”

He shook his head. “You don’t ever have to thank me for any of that.” He pecked her on the lips.

However, as he leaned back, her hands cupped his face to stop him. Her thumb rubbed the stumble of his beard as she studied him. After a moment or two, she kissed him again and this time, they did not stop. Michael could feel it, all the pain she felt, her desperation and need as she clung to his body as if he would disappear if she let him go. However, when her hands naturally drifted to the waistband of his sweats to take it to the next level, he wrapped his hands around them to stop her. As much as his body responded to hers, he knew he could not allow this moment to go too far.

His hesitation had nothing to do with a lack of desire, his straining manhood was the proof of that. However, given how Shaun treated her during sex, Michael took great care in how he did. He vowed to ensure she never felt like she was merely a plaything or a warm body for his use. And while, after the day they had and almost losing her, he would love to bury himself inside her, he knew he could not do it even if she wanted it. Even if she chose to ignore it, Michael knew she was merely minutes away from falling apart and this would not help her hold it together.

However, the pained and disappointed look in her eyes almost made him question that resolve. And it broke his heart.

“W-what’s wrong?”

“You were almost murdered less than 24 hours ago. You’re injured and in pain. I can’t fuck you like that didn’t happen. I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“But I wasn’t. And I appreciate you being a gentleman but I’m fine, I promise.” She captured his lips again.

“I-It’s not about being a gentleman. It’s about knowing you and what you need and this ain’t it.”

“ I need you,” she whispered back, her forehead resting against his. “Bakari, please. Don’t make me beg you. Please.” She tried to stop her voice from breaking, she knew that would not help convince him she was ok enough to do this. But she could not describe how desperate she was to feel something other than her current pain.

And now, his refusal only made her feel worse. This was utterly foreign to her. There had never been a time where Michael denied her or pumped the brakes. She had not even considered this outcome, figuring he would be ready to go if she was. But she supposed she could not blame him. Her bruised body was far from attractive.

He’s angry and disgusted by you, a voice in her head rang out loudly.

His eyes clenched shut as he struggled to stay steadfast in his convictions. But the need in her voice tested every fiber of his being. That voice, so vulnerable, so clearly desperate for him, made him want to relent. But he couldn’t.

“The last 48 hours have been hell. I see it in your eyes, you’re barely… you’re barely holding it together, love. You need rest and maybe you need me but I don’t think sex is what either of us need right now. And… whether you realize it or not, I imagine the things he did to you, however long ago, are gonna come back up. I don’t want to trigger any…” his words failed as she tore herself from his arms and turned on her side to face away from him in frustration.

“I-I k-knew this would happen,” she whispered to herself. “The bruises… s-seeing what he did. I d-disgust you.”

“That’s not it! Look at me. You have never and will never disgust me. I don’t even want to hear you say that shit. I always want you. But your physical and mental health is more important to me than anything else and that means we can’t do this.”

“I just want…” she whispered, unable to put her desires into words. It was not even a physical desire she craved. She just wanted to keep moving. She just knew if she laid here and sat in the stillness with him, the dam would break and she would fall apart. And she just was not ready to feel the extent of all of this yet. And she hated that Michael knew that, picked up on that so quickly. “I’m fine, Bakari.”

“I think you just want to feel something else… I think if we do this, it’ll make you feel like you’re fine when you aren’t. I know it’s hard for you to be vulnerable. But you got me, I’m here and you can fall apart, scream, cry… whatever. You can be not fine. You got me and I’m not going anywhere.”

Her eyes went to the ceiling to stop the tears from falling. “I am fine, Bakari.” She let out a groan of frustration at his silence, knowing he did not believe her. She could not tell who she was trying to convince more. Him or herself. “I’m fine.”

His hand wiped a tear that fell from her eyes as she stammered. “I promise you… I’m fine. I’m… fine,” she whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of it all, the simple words being much more difficult to say. “I’m… f-” the words died in her throat as she started to sob.

“Come here.” He enveloped her in his arms as she broke down into tears, her sobs filling their bedroom. “You’re gonna be ok, Els. I promise. I gotchu and you’re safe. I promise.”

He moved onto the bed to better cradle her into his side, her face buried in his chest. They stayed like that all night, until she cried herself asleep, finally releasing weeks of pent up pain and fear. Michael watched her for most of the night, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest next to him. Every so often, she woke up whimpering softly, nightmares plaguing her sleep. And he would just hold her again and whisper the same refrain in her ears until she calmed down again. She was safe and he'd never let her feel this pain again. And he would make it his life’s mission to ensure he kept that promise.

Tag List: @certifiedlesbianbaddie @bangtanxmegan @reelwriter19 @prettyisasprettydoes1306 @hi888888sworld @msniaimani @destinio1 @lynaye1993 @chaoticevilbakugo @blackerthings @pipsqueak-98 @miyuhpapayuh @passionxwrites @gopaperless

A/N: First, if you made it through this long sad chapter, THANK YOU! I hope the savage beating of that nigga was worth it LOL If you are wondering what I envisioned, if you watched Game of Thrones, think about when Jon beat the hell outta Ramsey after Battle of the Bastards lol that sort of visceral rage and Ramsey looked better than Shaun in my mind haha… I promise y'all, our story is on an upswing from here on out lol 90% fluff from now on, I promise!

Drop a comment and let me know what you think/let me know if you want to be tagged! How do you think Bakari and Els are gonna recover from all this?

#black writers #michael b jordan #michael b jordan x oc #mbjordanedit #michael b jordan x reader #creed 3 #black panther #adonis creed #michael b jordan fanfic #creed iii

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