#im an hour walk away from the train station

[wooskirbyplushie]

Our Little Secret ~ K.HJ

✰ idol!hongjoong x fan!reader where the guys catch hongjoong not so secretly slip a paper into your hand at a fanmeet

✰ word count: 3.6k

✰ warnings: some cussing (nothing crazy), pet names (love), female!reader, glasses!hongjoong cuz that’s enough to drive me insane tbh, she/they pronouns used for reader

✰ a/n: hey so i randomly got this idea one day and decided to execute it lol. tbh im not sure if i’ll keep updating this or not just because it was only supposed to be a little drabble but im 87% sure i’ll continue it just so my friends don’t hold me at gunpoint to finish it😭😭

✰ italics are used for inner thoughts, bold italic is just to emphasize words, also don’t pay attention to the timestamps for the texts later on k that’s it

you were late, you were so late, and you couldn’t blame anyone but yourself.

today has been marked in your calendar for almost 2 months, the day that ateez finally had a fanmeet in your city. you had saved up for the event for so long that when they announced it you didn’t hesitate to snatch your card out of your wallet to buy tickets for you and your best friend, kaylani.

but today you completely fucked your schedule up. oversleeping was not in your plans and neither was having to iron your outfit and rush to catch the train, just for it to delay for 15 minutes. in addition to the 5 minute bus ride from the station turning into a 30 minute walk because the bus you and your friend needed to catch didn’t run that day. who knew?

by the time you finally got to the venue, security were already trying to lock up the doors. i mean, it made sense considering they started meeting fans almost two hours ago.

“hey!!” kaylani shouted to try and get the guards attention. one of them looked up, utter confusion on his face as he watched two young girls jogging at them from across the parking lot.

“please we- we have tickets. the train made us late, but we cannot miss this event” you breathed out as fast as possible, trying to catch your breath at the same time. lani shuffled around for her phone to pull up the virtual tickets before the guards shrugged and scanned both tickets to let you in. “you girls either have really incredible or really horrible timing” one of the guys commented and told you to have fun.

you both squealed the second you got inside.

following the arrows and signs, you reached the auditorium that ateez was having their fanmeet in. now usually, fanmeets had a show in the first half and the actual meet in the second. but thankfully this time around it was swapped, meaning you guys didn’t miss any of the actual show. would it possibly be delayed because you were late? ehhh you’d cross that bridge when you got to it.

“we’re really here holy shit that’s ateez 20 feet away from us-“ you started rambling before lani cut through your thoughts with another squeal. she saw her bias, that had to be the only reason

“ITS JONGHOOO AHHHH”

“wow kaylani, it’s almost like he’s in the grou- AHHH LOOK ITS HONGJOONG”

kaylani rolled her eyes and mocked you. “wow y/n it’s almost like he’s in the group.” touché.

it wasn’t long before you realized they had changed quite a bit for this fanmeet. for example, the boys weren’t sitting in age order, or what you and lani called “fanchant order”. jongho was first and hongjoong was last, which didn’t really matter, but you knew your heart would race more and more as you got closer to your bias.

joong was your ult bias and had been for 4 years. you loved all of the members (duh) but the thought of possibly holding that man’s hand sent you over the moon. sure he held other girls hands, but this was gonna be your moment.

“bro. bro we’re next” kaylani whisper shouted while gripping your shoulder.

“unhand me you fein- oh god that’s jongho like he’s real.”

“RIGHT THATS THE CHOI JONGHO. 4TH GEN VOCALIST AHHHH” if you couldn’t tell she was a jongho ult before, it was super evident now. and because of that, you let lani go first.

******

if she could’ve, kaylani would’ve talked jongho’s ear off for 40 minutes. luckily he seemed intrigued by what was being said, laughing and giggling along with your friend. and now you wish you went first instead.

eventually she moved to wooyoung and was out-yapped, while you talked to jongho, really just telling him all of your favorite runs and verses he had. then you moved down again, and again, got to san and almost forgot your morals. he had you giggling for your life and the blush on your face was impossible to hide. he was THE ateez flirt.

but you and kaylani kept moving. to be real, since you were the last people in the room, there was no real rush but you decided to be mindful of the boys time.

yunho and yeosang were adorably nerdy and a hint of shy in real life, seonghwa really knew how to catch you off guard. one second you were talking about his lego collection and the next he was spewing out compliments and grabbing your hand. you tried to turn your face to hide your blush again, but you turned right into hongjoong’s direction and almost screamed. he was staring at you, and hard. what you hadn’t realized was kaylani whispering how much you “loved him” and how he was your “ultimate bias and first choice for a husband.”

yea you were either gonna go back to jongho and tell him how she brought his photocard to prom, or you were going to murder her.

you finished with seonghwa and slowly moved to hongjoong while lani stood off to the side and snuck a few pictures. “so. i’m your ult huh?” hongjoong questioned, arms folded across his chest.

you gulped, “y-yea you’ve always stuck out to me,” your voice came out in a whisper. hongjoong chuckled and leaned forward a bit.

“i’m your ult but you have no problem flirting with san and seonghwa in front of me, yea?”

“i don’t see the difference between that and you holding a bunch of fans hands, flirting with them.”

your mouth worked faster than your brain could, and you regretted it the second you finished the sentence, slapping your hand over your mouth.

hongjoong tilted his head and raised an eyebrow over the rim of his glasses. god he looked good in glasses. “quite the mouth on you…”

“y/n” you finished his sentence.

“y/n..” he trailed off like he was letting your name marinate on his tongue. “really pretty name for a really pretty person”

now you were really blushing. you didn’t care if it was fan service, he was servicing the hell out of you and you were eating it up. “thank you joong..” and he smirked in return.

******

you talked for a while (ok like 5 minutes) praising joong just like you did all the other members. he asked you what your favorite songs were, and san jumped in when he heard you mention desire. “honestly such a hater, desire is a masterpiece!!” you exclaimed as the top desire defender in tinyville. joong and san laughed before san walked off backstage and hongjoong picked up his sharpie, doodling while you talked.

you just kept going, your level of yapping surpassing kaylani while she was talking to jongho. hongjoong was eating it up though, especially when you started listing your favorite rap verse from him, even saying you could tell an ateez song by his signature giggle.

“it’s a bit embarrassing but i’ve listened to the songs so much that i just know? your music saved me, genuinely.” you trailed off before joong grabbed your hand.

“i honestly think it’s adorable.” he replied with a genuine smile. his smile was warm and bright, like lights on a christmas tree in december. you were soon brought back to reality when a guard told joong he had to wrap up with you so they could move on to the show. he nodded while messily writing something on a small piece of paper with his non dominant hand, still holding your hand with his other.

“well i guess this is goodbye, y/n. it was really nice talking to you and your friend” joong said, subtly crumbling a paper up in his hand before going to slip it into your own.

you weren’t dumb, you played like you didn’t even realize, following along with his skit. “it was really nice to meet you joongie,” you replied with a soft smile before you both got up and walked in your respective directions.

******

“you aren’t slick joong, i saw that.” san whispered while the group got dressed for the next part of the show. he was putting on a school boy uniform, adjusting the blue tie that went with it. hongjoong sat next to him, tying the shoes that he swapped into.

“doesn’t matter if you saw it, managers didn’t see it.” he responded with a shrug. joong knew him getting caught would mean having to change his number and most likely block you if you ever reached out to him, but in his head it was worth the risk.

“if i saw it, how do you know they didn’t see it captain?”

“because i waited till they turned around. and to be honest, i don’t care if they saw. i liked her.”

“liked who?” wooyoung asked as he walked over to steal san’s cologne. “because if you mean the last two people that came in, i don’t blame you! the last one was extremely pretty..”

joong just shot wooyoung a side eye before grabbing his phone, letting out a small sigh at the sight of no notification from you. he thought you guys had a little connection, right? then again-

“she probably just thought you were servicing her. ya know, your job.” san said stiffly, fixing a few stray strands of hair. joong clicked his phone off and threw it to his side with a slight head shake. maybe san was right, you probably didn’t look much into it considering it was his job to service his fans. maybe the managers did see him and they took the paper after you were out of joong’s sight. he was getting stressed over a girl he just met and even though his friends were talking to him in logic, hongjoong refused to learn that language.

he let out another small sigh before ruffling his hair and clapping his hands together to gather the group to get on stage. he had to clear his mind so he could perform. “alright guys let’s do this. hana dul set,”

“fightingggg!!” the boys yelled in unison and cheered, hyping each other up for what was to come. one by one, the boys started leaving the dressing room to take their places in the wings of the stage curtains.

seonghwa made sure everyone made it out, before looking back to see hongjoong lagging behind. “you coming bub?” joong looked at hwa, then his phone on the couch, and back to hwa before sending him a quick nod and walking out the door.

he’d be able to make it through the show.. right?

******

“soooo we’re just gonna ignore what happened back there? you know i saw that right love?” kaylani pressed you while fixing her lip gloss, making you jump out of your thoughts.

“what happened?? we just had a normal conversation!”

“normal my ass. you talked for like five minutes and then KIM HONGJOONG SLID YOU HIS-“

you slapped your hand over her mouth. you were in the empty bathroom but there was no reason to take any chances of a manager, or even worse, a fan overhearing and reporting back to one. “kay, i love you. dearly. but please lower your voice love…”

she sighed behind your hand and obliged before complaining about you smudging her lip combo. you rolled your eyes and pulled the crumbled sheet of paper from out of your jacket pocket to show your friend. the numbers were a bit wayward, but joong was writing with his left hand so it was understandable. he somehow still managed to make it legible enough for you to understand though.

“it’s his kakao talk im assuming. i still have the app from when you and i had to use it when i was in seoul.”

“do you know for sure it’s his number ?”

“of course i don’t know for sure kay, im trying not to lose my mind right n-“

“text it.”

that may have seemed like the obvious answer but you were still extremely nervous about getting caught. and the idea of getting caught by a manager was still circling around in your brain. “there’s a chance that he’s waiting for your text ya know. just text it and see.” kaylani finished with a shrug, her lips popping as she finished up her lip combo. you took a deep breath before shakily grabbing your phone and opening your kakao talk.

what were you even going to say ? hi ? that sounded basic but there really wasn’t much else to do. there was no reason to say your full name because, well, what if it wasn’t truly him ? lani must’ve gotten bored of watching you stare at your phone without typing anything because after a few seconds your phone was in her hands as she drafted up and sent a message for you.

“KAYLANI !???”

“it’s fine, i just said hey and that it was the girl from the fanmeet. unless he’s going around giving his number out to every pretty girl like a whore, he’ll know it’s you.”

she handed your phone back to you before throwing her hands on your shoulders and flashing you a slight smile. “it’ll be fine ok? now let’s go watch our boys do the utmost embarrassing shit!”

you nodded in response and stepped out of the bathroom to make your way to your seats.

now what your best friend didn’t know when you bought your tickets was that you saved enough for front row. and the surprise was pretty evident by the screech she let out once you dragged her to the seats in front of the stage.

“no way no way we’re this close HOLY- y/n forget hongjoong will you please marry me???”

you just laughed and playfully pushed lani towards her seat, “get off of me and sit down goofball.”

******

“2 minutes to showtime!!”

the lights were dimming as the members stood in the wings of the stage, mic packs being adjusted and pinned onto the boys. wooyoung was humming some vocal warmups to himself before he walked over to hongjoong. “jeez captain, lighten up. you look like yeosang told you that hwa was his favorite hyung and not you…”

hongjoong jumped, unnoticeable to wooyoung, and scoffed in response to his statement. “please, as if that would ever happen.”

“ah you’re right. you look like your mom told you that bumjoong is the favorite child.”

“is there a point to your escapades or do you just enjoy annoying me?”

a look of fake hurt flashed across wooyo’s face in response, “ouch. you must really be missing your pretty girlfriend to talk to your best friend like that joongie.”

hongjoong spun towards wooyoung and gave him, yet another, death glare. “keep your voice down are you insane ? listen, we have a job to do, get focused on that.” and with that he stormed back to his place on stage. just take a few breaths and it’ll be fine… no reason for you to snap on your members.

“places guys; 10 seconds!”

he didn’t think it was possible, but that 10 seconds was both the longest and shortest time of hongjoong’s career. he knew you were in the crowd, he knew he had to do his best just for you. but what he wasn’t expecting when he scanned the crowd was to make direct eye contact with you and your friend in the front row.

oh he was soooo fucked.

so fucked that hwa had to elongate his intro and improvise an extra end part to get joong to snap out of his daze.

“ah i’m sorry, i got caught up looking at all of our beautiful atiny! hi guys, my name is kim hongjoong, captain of ateez!!”

the crowd seemed to take it well, i mean his job was fan service. but in truth, he was lying, he was only looking at you. and to his surprise, you were looking back; in fact he could feel your eyes on him frequently, and anytime he didn’t it was just because you and your friend were laughing together.

hongjoong kept finding himself on your side of the stage, often sending you flirty glances and winks during his verses; and god you were eating it up. not to mention how obsessed he was with getting you to smile. unfortunately for him though, he had to give that same energy to everyone for his actions to not be so obvious. even more unfortunately for him, san and wooyoung were on his ass the entire time, which caused seonghwa to send suspicious glances joong’s way. fuck.

hwa approached joong halfway through the show, once they were offstage during yunho and mingi’s unit performance. “fess up, why are you clinging to one side of the stage and why do you keep zoning out?? it’s not a good look and it’s making us look unorganized on stage.“

hongjoong just toyed with the hem of his sleeve in silence. to be honest he was trying to focus but he was drunk on the thought of being able to make you smile. there wasn’t anything he could say to get hwa off of his back, so he opted for a shrug.

“are you not feeling ok? you should’ve said something beforehand joong-“

“i’m fine.” please just drop it…

“fine.” hwa started, preparing his mic to get back on stage. the irritation was evident in his actions, but his voice was still soft. “but you’re the leader, just know this shit is on your shoulders if management says something.”

hongjoong just nodded in response, following seonghwa’s actions in fixing his mic. “that’s 50,000 won for calling me leader and not captain by the way.” he retorted with a smirk before running back on stage to meet the audience’s cheers.

******

“okay atiny, you guys enjoying the show?” yeosang asked, receiving a loud roar of approval from the crowd.

“i take that as a yes! but unfortunately…” jongho started his sentence, and atiny realized that the show was coming to an end. “hey hey we don’t want to leave either, but we have one more performance for you guys! are you ready??”

the rest of the guys were set up on a prop couch for the last song, each of them holding a red or white rose, as they waited for jongho to join them. once he did, the speakers started playing the instrumental of seventeen’s “ready to love” and seonghwa started off the cover, the crowd going insane.

eventually the boys got to the ending and handed out (or really threw) their roses to people in the crowd. and to no one’s surprise, hongjoong sat on the edge of the stage and handed his white rose to you, his fingers gliding over yours during the hand off, causing a goofy smile to take over your face with a light pink blush. kaylani teased you after making sure to get the entire interaction on video, you simply rolling your eyes and covering the camera in response. joong winked before getting up to join the members for their final bow and go back to their green room.

“thank you atiny!! we’ll be back soon” san yelled as the curtains closed and yunho and mingi peaked out to wave one last time.

******

hongjoong was the first one back in the room, his mind filled with your smile and whether or not you texted him. he loosened his tie and jogged over to the couch where he left his phone, anxious but also eager. but when he heard the members following close behind, joong grabbed his phone and rushed to the bathroom; mostly to avoid being teased by wooyoung, reprimanded by seonghwa, and shamed by san.

“you ok captain?” mingi asked from the other side of the door. “you left kinda in a hurry..”

“y-yea i’m fine, drank a lot of water earlier.”

mingi just shrugged it off with a low “okay” and went back to the other members, hongjoong letting out a small breath that he didn’t realize he was holding. he clicked his phone on and surprisingly saw a kakao notification from an unsaved contact. hongjoong’s face lit up brighter than his phone screen as he opened the app to reply.

but wait. was it you or a stalker?

did someone else possibly see the paper he gave you?

was he overthinking? yes. but most of it seemed logical.

joong sighed before he reread your message.

?: hey

?: it’s the girl from the fanmeet

still he had to confirm it was you.. and he had a pretty decent idea of how to do it.

joongie: really? then say something i said to you earlier

joong figured you would take a while to write back but you actually replied right away.

?: “really pretty name for a really pretty person”

joongie: i’m glad you texted me y/n :)

he just smiled at his phone, thinking of what to text you next. should he ask to facetime you maybe? should he flirt or was it too early for that? joong’s mind had a million tabs open at once but he really wanted to live in the current moment-

until wooyoung decided to be obnoxious and bang on the bathroom door like the police.

“hey some of us actually have to pee ya know!”

open tab number one million and one, strangle jung wooyoung…

[phagodyke]

pls let this backpacker hostel I'm staying at in a couple weeks be nice so I can go to more gigs in [redacted] and not have to worry abt how to get home from them bc I can just stay there... 😭

[sunuism]

house/cat sitting for my parents from tomorrow omg.... cat time!

[pinkaditty]

Starstruck Coral (Romeo Lucci x Reader; Tokyo Debunker)

okay so uh. i don’t really know how to explain this one. like truly i don’t. i feel like it came 2 me in a vision from a higher power or something bc this doesn’t feel like it was my own idea, much less self-indulgent, but regardless??? i actually like it!!!!

a/n: what i can say is that this was directly inspired by me buying this lip plumper tint called "Starstruck Coral" and how literally everyone around me once i put it on was like "ITS SO PRETTY!!" so yea. that's what this is. also. yea. been writing a lot of porn-free fics lately. don’t worry, im not uninspired. rather, i just wanna focus on budding feelings 4 a little while. then it’ll be back 2 porn i promise. im too insane 2 be kept from porn 4 very long i fear. 

maybe part 2? maybe? idk yet i dunno. i might. i might not. we’ll see what my brain says…

summary: romeo cannot stand your visage so he styles it to his liking. why are you suddenly the belle of the ball? (leo, rui, haru, ed, and lyca make guest appearances here lol)

cw: some sexual comments. minors dni as per usual. no smut i fear!

“...Why are we doing this, again?”

“Shut up.” Romeo’s voice is practically seething with barely restrained anger as you interrupt his focus for the umpteenth time. He holds up one finger in the air towards you, not even turning to look at you. He slowly puts his finger down, and his hands twitch, clearly resisting the urge to ball into fists. “Just shut up. Let me handle this.”

Romeo continues perusing the available colors. Pearlescent White, Modest Matte Mauve, Cherry Pop Red, Hot Tease Pink, Starstruck Coral, and Raven’s Wing Black. He narrows his eyes and whips his head around to your face, studying your features intensely. His eyes pause on your lips, and he frowns as you roll them between your teeth nervously. 

“Would you stop-! Urgh, nevermind.” He starts before abruptly stopping, turning fully towards you and grabbing your face, directing it in different angles in the light. He pays strong attention to your lips, noting the thickness, color, and shape of them. He grumbles to himself, looking back at the colors on the shelf. Only one seems to be a perfect match.

Starstruck Coral. That’s the one.

He plucks it off the shelf and places it in the basket before stalking off to the cash register. He knows you know to follow him, and you do, meekly following his steps, still unsure of the purpose of this outing. You shift idly from one foot to the other as he pays at the cash register, listening to the general ambiance of the store. People chattering, items being scanned, wheels of carts rolling along the tile floor. You’re idly reading the label of a pop culture magazine when Romeo appears at your side, sour expression etched into his face. It makes you jump, and he looks at you with an even sourer expression. “Let’s go,” is all he says, his voice loud and demanding, leaving little room for argument. He walks off again, casting a look over his shoulder to ensure you’re following him, which you are, confused expression still stuck on your face. 

The two of you return to the Darkwick train station through a door labeled “Employees Only”, careful not to get caught. Once you board the train, Romeo unceremoniously tosses the bag of products towards you and sits across from you. His expression is enough to broadcast that he’s more than over this, despite having spent hours meticulously scanning the available products to find the ones that best matched your skin. He studies you again as you take your seat and the train begins to move. His eyes rove over your face again, as though picking apart your appearance in search of flaws. He hardly flinches when you look up and catch his gaze, though when you nervously turn away, he sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Go on. Ask what you want to ask.” His voice comes out exactly as exasperated as he’d meant it to be. He would hope this would discourage you from asking any questions, but he knew better than that.

He watches you shift nervously before speaking up, looking down at your fingers fidgeting with the bag instead of making eye contact with him. “...What is all of this for?”

He exhales, already sick of answering your questions even though he hadn’t answered any. “That anomalous cloak does not do your makeup for you.” Part of him assumes this would be enough explanation, but at your still confused expression, he rolls his eyes and continues explaining. “I am tired of going on missions with someone as basic and unappealing as you. If you are going to be a constant, I insist you at least know how to do your makeup to fit in when we go on high-class missions.” He doesn’t bother sugarcoating anything. Instead, he leans back in his seat again, deciding this was a job well done. He hears the crinkling of the bag and pops one eye open, watching you as you study the products in the bag. You pull out the Starstruck Coral lip tint and suddenly you have his full attention. He opens both eyes and tries to discreetly lean forward, watching as you turn the box around in your hands. He was awful proud of that choice. It was the perfect ombre blend of coral and pink, not too warm and not too cool. It would match your undertone perfectly and it even had a shimmering quality to it. So long as you wore it right, he was sure it’d refine your appearance an exceptional amount. 

After finishing praising himself for his genius internally, he leans his head back onto his seat, content to just get this over with. As long as you didn’t look as constantly unappealing as you usually did on missions, it would be fine. He couldn’t get why, but it irritated him. Granted, your skin was okay at best. There were some acne scars here and there, blackheads all over your nose, and slightly puffy undereye, which he suspected was from not getting enough sleep on this accursed campus. Other than those faults, your skin was okay. No visible outbreaks or dryness. He had to applaud you for at least taking his advice to heart and moisturizing a little bit. It had done noticeable wonders, at least to him. 

He hears the unmistakable sound of plastic wrap being torn, and he perks up again, noticing you unwrapping the Starstruck Coral lip tint. He leans forward again, curiosity suddenly bubbling within him. “Put it on.” He says before he can think about it, his eyes focused on the small unwrapped box in your hands.

“...Huh?” You give him a puzzled look, tilting your head. His eyes flick towards you in annoyance and he gestures towards the box, his eyebrows furrowing in irritation.

“Don’t be dense, put it on!” 

You nod hurriedly, and he can tell from the way your eyes glimmer that you’d wanted to try it. He has to resist the urge to smile, your subtle but affirming reaction filling him with pride. He watches as you open the box and pull out the lip tint, turning it over in your hands before unscrewing it open. Romeo can already feel himself growing impatient, idly tapping his foot as he waits for you to start. “It may be a little messy because I don’t have a mirror, but I’ll do my best.” You warn him, finally unscrewing the tint, admiring the pretty ombre color. He sits up when you speak, and unbeknownst to you, a scowl crosses his face momentarily. You hear his footsteps before you see him, crossing the short distance across the train in record speed and snatching the tint away from you before you could apply it with shaky hands. 

When you look up at him questioningly, he shakes his head, holding the tint and applicator brush in his hand. “Just hold still.” 

With that, he leans over you, placing the thin tube of tint in your hands and firmly holding your chin, his eyes seemingly glued to your lips. “Open.” When you do as he says, he gently applies the tint to your bottom lip, pursing his own lightly glossed lips as he focuses. He exhales, and fails to notice the way you shiver, his breath fanning over your neck. His knuckles gently press into the soft skin of your cheek and chin as he carefully follows the border of your lips, watching as the plush skin yields to the pressure before plumping up again. Somewhat caught between a haze of his intense focus applying the tint and unexpected fascination with the buoyancy of your lips, Romeo accidentally smudges some of the tint. Despite his bubbling annoyance at his own blunder, for a moment, it’s an almost charming imperfection. The lip tint glitters against your skin, smudged just off the corner of your parted lips. If he were any more brazen, he would have given in to the odd temptation unfurling in his stomach to simply kiss it away. Fortunately for him and his own reputation, he’s far more proper than that. With a pointed glare at the corner of your lips, he wipes away the smudge with his gloved thumb. He glances at the sparkling residue left on his glove before wiping it away onto your top lip. When you flinch in response, he has to suppress a shiver down his spine. This action was inexplicably intimate, yet he didn’t understand where his flusteredness was coming from. There was no reason to act nor feel like this.

He applies the tint to your top lip in a more rushed fashion, suddenly wanting to replace the earlier distance between you two. He frowns when he finishes, nitpicking any slight smudges or missed spots, before stepping away, admiring his work. “There.” He plucks the tint from your grasp, screwing the applicator back on and tossing it into the bag. “...This might be good enough,” he says, feigning confidence, but he can hear the way his voice wavers with uncertainty, a part of him itching to do more. His gaze flickers upwards to meet yours and an idea pops into his head. He could do your lashes. They were long by itself, but some of the mascara he’d bought couldn’t hurt. Despite himself, he finds himself sitting back down in front of you, reaching for and holding your chin firmly again. He turns your head every which way, determining what else he could do to refine your appearance some. Unfortunately, he’s aware this train ride ends soon, and he feels himself getting nauseous at the idea of spending more time with you than he has to, despite the anticipation crawling up his spine. He reaches for the bag again, pulling out the mascara he’d bought earlier. When you reach out your hand to apply it yourself, he gently swats your hand away. “No. Hold still.”

He doesn’t give you much choice, still holding your chin and pulling your face closer to his. He purses his lips again, telling you not to blink as he applies your mascara. He finds himself staring at your eye color, noting the color of the mascara in comparison. Perhaps next time he ought to choose something that made your eyes stand out more, or maybe that’d be easier done with some eyeshadow in the correct shade. He decides to halt his thoughts there, scowling. He had to focus, and he was damn well sure there wouldn’t be a ‘next time’. He internally recoils at the thought of having to peruse the shelves with you over his shoulder again, constantly shifting your expressions, making it harder for him to focus. The slight furrow in your brow even now was distracting, and all he could think about was how he wanted to remind you that frowning causes wrinkles, and you would be especially susceptible to them if you didn’t keep up your skincare regime. Instead, he lets go of your chin and flicks you between your brows, frowning at you himself. When you get the message and relax your expression, he nods appreciatively and continues his task, moving to your other eye. 

Finally, the task was complete. His eyes flick back and forth between your eyes, watching as you blink at him dubiously. When satisfied, he pulls away, screwing the applicator back into the mascara and observing your face. Your eyes seemed wider and brighter, and the added mascara helped your lashes appear longer. Your lips were bright and shimmering, still covered in that Starstruck Coral color. Romeo smiles to himself, proud with how he managed to turn around your appearance with so little. He reaches for your face again, holding your cheeks with considerable tenderness, as though scared one wrong move would smudge and ruin the perfect portrait of you. He doesn’t realize he’s holding his breath as he gazes at you, checking your entire face for imperfections, glazing over the negligible or unnoticeable imperfections that couldn’t be immediately cleared. He exhales, feeling himself gleam with pride as a reluctant smile digs into his cheeks yet again. He sits down beside you, still holding your face. “Non c'è male…” He mutters to himself, finding his gaze lingering again on the pretty ombre mesh of pink and orange and red on your lips. Truly, Starstruck Coral had been the right choice. 

He’s basking in his pride more when he hears the shutter click of a camera, and a whistle in a familiar voice. “Now this will do numbers on WickHive.” The same familiar voice cackles and Romeo already knows he hadn’t moved away quickly enough to avoid the picture. One glance up and there he is, Leo, staring down smugly at his phone, where the incriminating image is probably being held. Surprisingly, hunched over Leo’s shoulder is Rui, inspecting the picture with a crease in his brow. Romeo cannot believe his lack of luck. 

Romeo catches it when Rui makes eye contact with you, and it doesn’t escape him how Rui’s eyes flicker with an emboldened interest. Stepping past Leo, Rui heads to you with an extra skip in his step, wide smile already spreading across his face. His voice is higher than usual, and Romeo wonders if mere makeup was enough to trip up the ladykiller himself. “Woooow, MC!” He stops a short distance away from you, his eyes flickering across your face as he takes in your makeup. “You look cuter than usual today. What’s brought this on, huh?” Rui’s tone is filled with mirth as he pokes your nose playfully. Romeo stiffens and has to bite back the urge to swat his hand away from your face. 

Romeo carefully watches your reaction, and is almost relieved when you don’t smile immediately. “You like it? I haven’t seen how it looks yet.” You reply to Rui, a little hesitant but clearly glad for the praise. 

Rui sticks his bottom lip out in a mock pout. “Awww, you should! You look so cute!” His face breaks out into a wide smile again, and it’s almost crushingly obvious that Rui’s a flirtier version of Kaito at this point. “I’m assuming we have you to thank for this, hm?” Romeo looks up to notice Rui’s gaze on him as Rui vaguely gestures in your direction. 

Romeo doesn’t resist the urge to puff his chest out a bit, folding his arms indignantly. “Indeed.” His terse answer doesn’t hide his swelling pride, he’s aware, but brevity is the soul of wit, which he likes to claim to possess.

“He picked out some makeup items for me.” You chime in, holding up the bag with a relaxed smile. It seems you’ve finally taken to Rui’s compliments. 

Rui shakes his head with a complicated look in his eyes, clearly picking up on the message behind the gift, but happy for you nonetheless. “Well, leave it to Romeo to pick out such a pretty color. It suits you.” Rui winks at you before finally finding a seat on the train, just across from you, taking Romeo’s former seat.

Leo, who’s clearly been either editing the picture or waiting his turn to soak up all the attention, saunters up to you, smug smile still on his face. Romeo doesn’t miss how your earlier smile seems to fade all at once. He would laugh, but it’s not that funny. 

“Gotta say, I agree with Rui. Who knew…” Leo trails off, his fingers reaching for your chin and holding it with uncharacteristic tenderness, tilting your face upwards towards him. Romeo notices how you stiffen at the contact. “...That the honor student could be—” Leo suddenly snaps his lips shut, and Romeo can tell from the way his lips purse despite being in a smug smirk that he had to bite back a compliment. Leo only falters slightly, brow creasing minutely before quickly straightening again, lips quirking back up into a teasing smile, more words as demeaning as they were saccharine sweet on the tip of his tongue. “Well, it suits you. You might even be unrecognizable enough to pass as a beauty in this picture.” Leo smirks, waving his phone in his hand. 

Romeo finds himself intervening before he can really think about it. He swats Leo’s hand away from your chin. “Stop that. You’ll smudge her foundation.” A blatant lie, but it would be sound enough to get him to back off, Romeo hopes. Something about this was fraying at his nerves. 

Leo raises a crooked brow at Romeo, a slow, shit-eating grin spreading across his face. “I don’t know, Romeo. The blackheads on her nose account for a lack of any foundation at all. Nice try, though.” Romeo should be thankful Leo lets it go, but all he can do is turn away indignantly, feeling his face burn with embarrassment. He hears a chuckle before light footsteps padding away, and gently exhales, pinching the bridge of his nose. By god, of all people to board the train at that moment… 

Rui walks at a much faster pace than you and Romeo, strained expression on his face. He’d left Lyca and Ed in charge of the bar while he was off on a short mission, as he explained earlier, and could only hope that they hadn’t mistakenly set the bar on fire. 

Romeo was headed to the bar for drinks, and as far as he was concerned, you were coming with him. The earlier incident with Leo convinced him he cannot let you out of his sight for today. Leo had cited some excuse for not coming to the bar, but Romeo could tell from the grin Leo flashed his way that he can expect that picture to be all over WickHive by evening. A drink to forget it, even temporarily, would be enough for Romeo. 

Rui heaves a sigh of relief as he steps into the bar, glad to find nothing on fire nor destroyed, but Lyca doing the work while Ed sits perched at the bar. A red shock of hair buried in a white sleeve also denotes another guest. Romeo has to grit his teeth, remembering how Haru went on and on about you after first meeting you. He can only imagine the endless waterfall of praise he’ll surely come up with on the spot seeing you even remotely dolled up. He makes a mental note to bring painkillers for the inevitable headaches he gets when he comes here and Haru happens to arrive. 

Clearly, Romeo needs to be more forthright about how he’s trying to protect his ears, because when you plop yourself down in the seat right next to Haru, all he feels is dread. He quickly slips into the seat on your other side, despite there being no remaining danger. 

Rui, finally behind the bar, gently nudges Haru. He immediately raises his head, and Romeo can’t tell if he woke up that quickly or was already awake and out of it so soon. The faint blush on his face indicates the latter. As Haru reorients himself, Romeo notices Lyca peering at you oddly. He’d never so much as heard this boy speak, but something tells him he’s going to be as much as, if not more of, a headache than Haru. 

“Oh, hi MC-! …Wait. Something’s different about you.” Haru’s voice had its classic drawl it always had when he’s getting close to being hammered. Romeo’s sure it’s loud enough to be heard from Obscuary’s entrance. He watches, jaw clenched tight as Haru inspects you. Boldly, and probably not realizing how drunk he is, Haru reaches out, his gloved fingers lightly tracing the skin above your eyebrows. Romeo notices you don’t recoil at this touch, but he doesn’t know if it’s because you know he’s drunk or if you happen to not dislike Haru. Both options are less than ideal.

Puzzled expression still stuck on his face, Haru traces his fingers downwards, caressing your cheek. “Yea…” He mutters to himself, his eyes tracing the path of his fingers. “Something’s…” his fingers reach the corner of your lips, “...Different…Oh!” His eyes widen like it’s finally occurred to him, and his gaze remains transfixed on your lips, shimmering coral color still bright and undisturbed on them. “You’re wearing makeup!” 

“Is that what that is?” Lyca cuts in, suddenly appearing behind you, craning his neck to get a good look at your face. He narrows his eyes, scrutinizing your appearance before leaning away, satisfied. He crosses his arms, a light blush dusting his face as he tries to ignore the staring he just did. “Hmph. It’s pretty.” His compliment is short and terse, but Romeo can tell from your relieved sigh that you’re happy to receive it nonetheless. However, said compliment is quickly followed up by: “...You reek of the damn blond gigolo, though.”

Rui stiffens behind the bar, cleaning a glass. “Come on, my cologne isn’t that potent.” He looks up from his task to find all five of you avoiding his gaze. 

Ignoring Rui’s distressed cry of shock, Haru turns to you again. “Lyca’s right. It is pretty. Though…” Haru leans towards you, his chin propped up in his hands, “I always thought you were quite the looker, you know.” His smile is disarmingly handsome, even to Romeo. His flushed cheeks and lovestruck gaze probably only add to it. Romeo suppresses a gag, turning away. 

Rui, having partially recovered from the prior shock, also leans towards you, resting his cheek in his palm, partially hiding a cheeky smile. He hums in agreement with Haru, nodding. “Can’t disagree with that. You’re an attractive gal.”

Romeo shivers, ready to pull you away from Haru and Rui’s gazes. When Lyca cranes his neck to gaze at you again, Romeo snaps. 

“Will you horny dogs keep your dicks in your pants and your lascivious gazes off of her?!” He knows he’s one to talk considering the way your lips simply shimmering was enough to disarm him on the train, but still. This was ridiculous. 

“Really, now…” A soft, low, velvety voice echoes through the silence following Romeo’s outburst. Ed appears behind you, gently placing his hands over your ears. He mockingly frowns disapprovingly at Romeo. “Using such vulgar language in front of a lady…” He shakes his head and tuts a few times, a smile crawling onto his face. “Surely you know your manners?”

Rui chimes in, teasing grin all over his face. “He may need a refresher on them.”

With that, Haru, Rui, and Ed dissolve into snickers, just as Romeo bursts into a blush. Lyca, off to the side, looks a little confused. 

“I don’t get it. Why not use words like that in front of her?”

Romeo’s walking you home. He insisted on it. He wasn’t about to let a repeat of him being humiliated yet again by your side, nor was he going to let some other ghoul or normal human lay his eyes on you, at that. Maybe this makeup was a bad idea. But then, he turns to sneak a quick glance at you. Your expression appears quite pleased, and your shimmering lips are curled into a small smile. 

Well. Maybe it wasn’t that bad of an idea. 

“Thank you.” Romeo’s surprised to hear you pipe up, and turns towards you questioningly. 

“For what?”

“For the makeup.” You gaze at him kindly, giving him a small smile. He’s taken aback by it. “Can’t say you were kind about it, but I appreciate it regardless.” 

Romeo hardly stiffens at the comment. He knows he wasn’t particularly kind about it, but that’s the point. How else is someone who can hardly remove their blackheads going to take proper care of their skin? He glances at you out of the corner of his eye, letting his thoughts run around his head. Part of him wondered if he had another reason for buying you makeup in the first place, and why this entire gift felt like it was only going to bite him in the ass later. Maybe it already was, what with how you’d managed to catch the attention of every single ghoul they’d encountered today. But that didn’t make sense. Why would you gaining attention bite him in the ass? He shakes his head, a blush forming on his face as though he already knows the answer. 

“Shut up. Just use it on missions.” Romeo’s response is as terse as ever, quick and to the point. He watches as you roll your eyes, and something in him twinges, partially wishing he could’ve given a nicer comment. 

When you arrive at the chapel, he watches you bound up the steps, sticking around despite himself. He musters up an obligatory “Good Night,” right before you close the door on him, and he watches as your shimmering Starstruck Coral lips pull into a grin. 

“Goodnight, Romeo.”

He turns away as you close the door, ready to fill the rest of his walk back to Sinostra with more pondering. His phone buzzing in his pocket interrupts his peace, however, and he turns it on only to find an innumerable amount of notifications from WickHive. 

“Kurosagi…” He curses his name under his breath. “When I get you…”

a/n: yippee!!!!!!! im surprised i managed to finish this. i honestly like it a lot, i think it's really cute and i like the way i wrote it. i genuinely hope you guys like it too!!!!!

shameless note that, as usual, i love likes, comments, tagged reblogs, and asks!! please feel free to let me know in any way you like just how much you loved my writing! it's what keeps me going!

until next time!!!

EDIT BC I SOMEHOW FORGOT?: a few hc's im adding 4 relevance's sake:

rui wears strong cologne and douses himself in it

haru has grey eyes

that's all yippee!!

[aliensupastar]

i wouldn’t ask you

Rating: Mature

Pairing: Carmy Berzatto/GN!Reader

Word Count: 2.1k

Summary: You try to break your promise. Carmy won’t let you. Follow-up to “shouldn’t feel like a crime”

Part I Part II

Warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, depiction of an eating disorder, food issues, heart-to hearts, arguments, swearing

A/N: once again, thank y'all so much for the love on parts one and two of this fic, it brings me so much joy!! also, im terribly sorry for how long it took to write this. school happened and i think it got away from me a little bit, i did a lot of rewrites, and it's shorter than i'd like it to be but it’s something i’m finally satisfied with, and i hope you guys enjoy it! to anyone who’s sent me asks, left comments or replies telling me they connected with this fic, i hope it continues to bring you comfort as it has for me. i can’t express to you enough how much all your responses have meant to me. this will be the last part for this lil series, but im grateful to anyone who’s read n supported it. title insp by "i wouldn’t ask you" by clairo, gif by riickgrimes <3

Logically, you know that healing — if that’s what you could call what you were trying to do — isn’t linear. You’ve heard it a thousand times, and on some level, you know it’s true. Knowing it doesn’t stop the shame you feel when you start skipping the train, opting instead to walk, or on shittier days, run to work. 

At first you thought you’d been able to escape the anxiety that came with eating anything you didn’t know the exact calorie count of, that you’d been able to eat Carmy’s spaghetti without complication. In retrospect, it had merely been delayed, the calm and warmth afforded to you by Carmy’s presence wearing off as soon as you’d gotten into bed that night; you’d laid awake for another hour, paralyzed by your own panic. 

The only solution you found fit was to force yourself into physical activity, making your travel to and from work ten times more miserable, waking up an hour and a half earlier than usual just to get to the restaurant on time and still have ten minutes to freshen up and change into your uniform. You at least managed to make the change in your routine go unnoticed, still looking presentable once it was time to open for service, or at least you thought so. 

“Did you run here?” Sydney asks one morning, spotting you right as you clocked in and rushed to your locker to pull out your uniform. 

“Uh, yeah, I did.” You’re a little too breathless to come up with an excuse, to properly deflect her concern and surprise. 

“Okay…” She watches as you shove your other belongings into the locker space haphazardly. “Does that, like, happen often, or-“

“No,” You say, too quickly, shaking your head. “Just, uh, don’t tell Carmy?” 

You look up at her, eyes pleading, hoping she accepts this one request without question, hoping she can disregard something just this one time. 

“Tell Carmy what?” Hearing your boss’s voice makes you jump in shock, as he comes around the corner and spots you, hair messy and sweat still dripping down your temple. 

Your skill for being unnoticeable is escaping you, that much is clear. You’re essentially caught red-handed, a deer in headlights, eyes bouncing between Sydney and Carmy as you struggle to come up with something, anything to respond with. But Sydney swoops in just seconds after you freeze, granting you mercy, this one time. 

“Tell you to mind your own business, chef,” She says, her tone light-hearted so that you know to force out a laugh, and Carmy takes it. He gives a half-smile and shakes his head, heading over to his prep station and as soon as he’s out of sight, you look back at Sydney. 

“Thank you,” You whisper as you head for the bathroom, uniform in hand, and she nods, still looking concerned but thankfully, dropping it. 

Carmy’s the one who won’t drop it. It stays on his mind all day, even after you’ve changed clothes and fixed your hair and erased any trace of the mess you looked that morning; every free moment he has, he spends thinking of you. 

He wants to believe that you’d simply missed your train. An innocent, easy mistake. But the way you avoid meeting his eyes during service hours, no matter how many times he tries to get your attention, or get you to just look at him and confirm that you’re okay, tells him it’s more than that. 

He rushes through closing duties that night, just to make sure he’s good to leave before you finish closing up the front with Richie. He waits, sits in his office chair pretending to be busy until he sees you heading for the lockers, ready to clock out, and then moves to lean as casually as possible against the doorway. 

“You want a ride home?” He asks, interrupting you as you pull clothes out from the locker; the clothes you were wearing this morning, he realizes, a sweatshirt and biker shorts. Like you expect to break a sweat on the way home, too. 

“Nope. Thank you, chef, I’m good.” You barely even look over at him as you say it, and Carmy has to stop himself from making a face, making his displeasure visible. 

“I really don’t mind,” He tries again, but you just close your locker door and shake your head, ready — and desperate — to change out of your uniform in the bathroom before it’s time to lock up. You put on what you hope is an easy smile, but it comes off tense.

“I’m okay, Carm, really. It’s not like it’s raining-“

“Chef,” He interrupts you, suddenly stern. “C’mon.” 

He nods his head motioning for you to follow him, and it’s clear from his tone that there will be no room to argue. 

You trail behind him while he locks up, and on the way out to his car, you can feel that frustration building up inside you again. The same resentment and irritation you felt in the hospital, when he wouldn’t take your bullshit excuses in the same way that nurse or your other coworkers would, it rises and rises till you’re gripping your backpack strap a little too tight and shutting the car door a little too hard. 

You’re grateful, at the very least, that he says nothing when tears start to spill out and down your face as he drives you home. 

You sit in silence for a minute when Carmy pulls into your building’s parking lot. You can’t bring yourself to leave at first, part of you still craving to savor his presence for as long as you can, even if the other part of you is too angry to even look at him. 

“You wanna talk?” He asks quietly. 

“Nope.” His question is enough to set you off, pushing the car door open and furiously wiping away your tears as you haul yourself out. 

Logically, Carmy knows it might be best to leave you alone for tonight. Let you calm down and attempt reconciliation tomorrow morning. Knowing it doesn’t stop the feeling that he can’t just leave you alone, and let you walk away upset. 

“Hey,” He calls out, opening his own door and moving to follow you. “C’mon-“

“Fuck you, Carmen.” You spit out. 

He’s undeterred, even if you don’t turn back to face him once, refusing to acknowledge him tailing you the entire way up to your apartment. 

You don’t tell him to leave you alone, to stop following you, to fuck off. You don’t even slam your front door in his face like he half-expects you to. Instead it hangs open as you storm into your living room, a silent invitation. An invitation Carmy doesn’t hesitate to accept, stepping through your door and carefully closing it behind him. 

He’s still wracking his brain on what to say, clueless on how to stop the tears flowing down your face as you toss your backpack down and meekly lower yourself to sit on the floor between your couch and the coffee table, knees pulled into your chest. 

“Will you just fuckin’ talk to me?” He finds himself pleading with you again after a minute, but his helplessness in the face of your distress makes his words come out callous, and you just scoff. 

“Don’t be a dickhead, Carmy.”

“I’m a dickhead? I-I’m the dickhead, for giving a fuck?” You lift your head to glare at him, and you can see that he wants to match your anger; all the tell-tale signs of an upcoming screaming match appearing in his features, scrunching up his face as he repeats your words back to you, and you know you’re not being fair. You promised him you’d let him in, allow him to help stop you from going off the deep end again, and yet you’re the one resisting him. You wish he’d let the frustration on his face overtake him, walk out your door and leave you alone with your mind. 

He doesn’t, no matter how much you will him to. His eyes meet your own, filled with misplaced ire, and all he does is lean his head back and sigh, running a hand over his face and forcing himself to curtail the urge to give in to your bait. 

“You don’t wanna talk, I’ll talk,” He starts tentatively, before saying maybe the last thing you’d expect: “I’m sorry.” 

Your narrowed eyes widen, the contempt in them turning to pure shock, but he barely notices. 

“I didn’t mean to- if I went too far, the other day, with the spaghetti. I didn’t mean to set you off like that. I’m sorry.” The absolute sincerity in his voice as he apologizes for something you know isn’t on him — it’s too much. 

You’d love to pass the blame off on somebody else. If you could find a single other person to hold accountable for causing the near-constant state of discomfort that you’ve been stuck in for weeks, the distress of living in your own body, you think you’d jump at the chance. But you can’t bring yourself to do it to the one person who’s offered to take the fault away from you, because even now, after you’ve lashed out at him, he’s deliberately gentle with you. 

You can see Carmy is ready to move towards your front door, you’ve sat here for too long without giving him a response, weeping silently. And maybe that would be the right thing to do after breaking your promise, letting him worry over you till he thinks he’s the one who owes you an apology. But selfishly, you reach up and grasp his arm before he can even turn to leave, gently tugging him down to sit with you, and he lets you. 

“I’m sorry,” You start once he’s settled next to you, your voice still thick with tears. “I know what we talked about in the hospital. I haven’t been- I fucked all that up, I know, I’m sorry.” He’s shaking his head, looking like he wants to refute you, but you continue on.

“I just… I’m so fucking scared,” You nearly choke on your words, but it’s a relief to get them out, and suddenly you can’t stop the rest from spilling from your mouth. “I’m scared of getting better. I can’t stand the thought of it, I don’t even- I don’t know what I’d be for, if I wasn’t like this all the time. And it’s fucking embarrassing. That’s all I feel, all the time, just- constant fear, and shame. I can’t fucking stop myself.” 

You take a pause, doing your best to breathe deep and avoid Carmy’s intent gaze, so you don’t lose your nerve.

“We were good, for a bit, and I wasn’t so… out of control. But then I fucked it, and I-I couldn’t just, tell you. Felt like, for once there was someone who understood, and I just wanted to keep the rest of it out of sight, I guess.” 

It’s the most you’ve expressed to anyone about this. You think maybe you’ve gone too far, that maybe now you’ll have alienated the one person you’ve been honest with in years. But when you finally look up at Carmy, he’s nodding thoughtfully, no trace of judgment or pity in his expression. 

“I don’t.” He says carefully. “I don’t really understand. I-I don’t think I could, uh-” He pauses, clasping one hand over the other tightly, like it pains him to force his words out, too. “I guess, growin’ up, food was basically a love language. It was how I bonded with Mikey, it’s why I wanted to do this job in the first place. So, to avoid food… I don’t think I can imagine what that’s like.” 

All you can do is nod. You shouldn’t have made him listen to you vent your emotions, you should’ve let him walk out your door-

“But, I’d like to try. If that’s what you want.” He says, interrupting your spiral. “I just need to know you’re safe. Shutting me out like this – it’s bullshit. I’m not gonna just- stop caring. Even if it’s ugly. Just don’t shut me out.” 

His earnestness practically shoots you in the chest, filling you with that warm, familiar feeling that usually comes with his presence. You want to push against it, you haven’t earned it back, it’s too damn much.

“Even if I… end up in the hospital again?” You say, trying to keep your tone light, but you can’t keep the pleading out of your voice. 

“I’d drive you to the hospital a hundred times.” Carmy replies, completely genuine, and now you can’t push back against the urge to throw your arms around him, burying your face in his chest. 

You don’t know how long you sit there, on the hard floors of your living room, arms tight around each other, breathing together. All you know is that you don’t want him to leave; he makes no move to go. 

a few people asked to be tagged on this part, so here you go! @rexorangecouny @moonlight-sonata99 @kpopgirlbtssvt

[taurasiluv]

girl with the tattoo ⸝ ⸝ ⸝ chapter one

「pairing」 breanna stewart x riley carter (oc)

「summary」 riley carter just got drafted to the new york liberty, and she can't seem to figure out whats up with the vet, breanna stewart.

「cw」 n/a

「notes」 first chapter... im scared i hope yall like this!

series masterlist

her heart was beating out of her chest, her palms were soaked, and she couldn't believe this was happening.

she was sitting in the front row at the 2024 WNBA draft, fresh off the high of her last college season and getting ready to enter her rookie year in new york. she had nothing to worry about, she was the first pick and was guaranteed a spot on the roster, but her brain was still swimming with every possible thing that could go wrong. it was about to start, she cleared her throat and sat up straight, knowing cameras were gonna be on her any second.

a lot of talk, she was having a hard time focusing though, more focused on planning on how to not look like a fool on the stage. then before she knew it, it had actually begun. "...with the first pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, the new york liberty select riley carter, university of notre dame" riley grinned widely. she knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any less exciting or shocking. she hugged those around her, her mom, her dad, her little brother, and then her best friend, and made her way up the small set of stairs to the stage. the commissioner, cathy, stood there with a new york liberty jersey in her hand, the number one printed on it in bold.

she held it with one hand, flashing a smile at the several sets of cameras that surrounded the stage. the next few hours were blurry for riley. sitting through the rest of the draft, cheering for her fellow teammates who also were drafted, then the several after-parties that followed.

hours later, riley found herself stumbled into her hotel bed, staring at the ceiling. her mind was racing,

this was the beginning of everything.

—

a week and a half had passed, riley had managed to find a small apartment perfect for her new home in new york. she had flown home briefly, packing all her stuff from her apartment in indiana and flying it all the way to her new place in new york. she had made her way around downtown brooklyn, finding a couple places to eat and a couple museums to put on her list of things to check out. she was still nervous, who wouldn't be? she had to uproot her entire life and move, she has to learn a new teams way of playing, and the people on it.

the first day of training camp started tomorrow, and riley was scared as all hell.

she woke up bright and early that morning, going through her usual camp morning routine. run, breakfast, shower, get ready, go. she made her way to the subway, music quietly playing through her headphones until she got to her destination. a few songs had cycled through before the subway stopped at a station, the one riley had to get off on.

she scooped up her gym bag and threw it over her shoulder, exiting the cab and then walking up the stairs to the ground floor. liberty's training facility was only a block away, a couple-minute walk. she wasn't alone for much longer, being greeted by two women as she got closer to the facility.

"carter! welcome rookie," the dark-haired one said, sticking out her hand to shake.

riley smiled, her hand meeting the woman's. "its nice to meet you, you are..?"

the woman laughed, shaking her head with a small chuckle. "completely forgot to introduce ourselves! i'm camilla, and this is lily," she pointed to the shorter, blonde woman standing next to her. "we'll be showing you around today," she started talking about the schedule that in store for her. several meetings with different members of the front office and coaches, then the actual camp with her new teammates.

the women showed riley the way around the long concrete hallways and eventually to the locker room. "your locker is on the far right, you should see your name on it! we'll let you get settled in and in about 15 minutes you can meet us in the conference room, sound good?" lily told her.

with a nod, riley made her way over to her locker, an led screen above it with her name and number. she grinned, they really were making this special for her. she placed her gym bag into the cubby, unpacking a couple pairs of shoes and tucked extra socks and shirts into the drawers below. there were a couple other people in locker room with her, a few new rookies and some other players. she exchanged hi's with a few of them, more focused on getting that stupidly heavy bag off her arm.

as riley sat down, taking a sip out of her water bottle, she saw a woman approach her, "riley, right? your college highlights are absolutely everything!" the unmistakable smile recongized her as new yorks 6'1 center, kayla thornton.

"thank you! kt, right?" she smiled up at the dark skinned girl.

she nodded then turned her head around and pointed to a group of girls standing only a few lockers down, "thats nyara, kb, and leo." she said, pointing to each of them as she said their names.

riley sat there nodding, pretending like she didn't know all their names. "it's nice to meet you all, i think i'm supposed to have a formal meeting with everybody on the team later in the day."

her and kayla talked for a while longer before riley realized she should probably head down to the conference room. "i think im stuck in another meeting with the front office before camp starts."

kt frowned, "alright! well, we'll see you later rook."

—

after what felt like forever, it was finally time to start actually playing basketball. riley walked to the practice gym in her brand new practice jersey and shoes. at the door, stood sandy brondello, the head coach, and breanna stewart, the world-famous vet. she had seen breanna before, she was certainly gorgeous, but nothing like she was now. a smug smirk across her face and leaning against the door frame, it was like whatever stupid childhood crush she had on the player had come back full swing.

she gulped, getting herself together and walking up to the two. "its a pleasure to have you on our team, carter." sandy smiled, shaking her hand.

"notre dame, huh?" breanna raised her eyebrow, glancing down at the white piece of paper she held in her hands, presumably an information and stat sheet about her.

"dont get too cocky, husky." riley smirked, teasing back already.

"i like this one." breanna said to sandy, the two girls broke out into giggles before heading into the gym.

the gym was nice, one that you could call home for the next season or potentially more. after a couple of introductions and explanations everybody got split off into pairs in order to get some shots up, and of course you ended up getting paired with breanna.

“alright rookie, let’s see what you got.” she smirked, putting a hand on your shoulder.

“are you gonna call me names the entire season or are you just hazing me now?” riley asked, looking up at the taller woman.

breanna smiled at that and a warm feeling erupted in the pits of your stomach, you could almost feel your face getting red. “i don’t care if im on my deathbed and you’re a hall of famer, im still calling you rook.”

she rolled her eyes and walked towards the ball cart, grabbing one and tossing it at breanna.

the two girls started the drill, trading shots and rebounding for one another.

“so, how are you liking new york so far?” breanna asked, sitting down by the post for a second to take a sip of her water.

"its alright! its definitely different than indiana," she laughed, motioning for breanna to hand her the water bottle next to hers.

breanna tossed her the water bottle, resting on her arms before speaking again. "i'll have to take you to some of my favorite places sometime," she paused for a moment, realizing the implication of her words. a soft silence fell over them for a second. riley's brain was reeling, was breanna really flirting with her or was this wishful thinking?

"that sounds great." riley smiled. breanna held her hand out, asking for help up off the floor. riley grabbed her hand, pulling her up. her hand was soft, her long fingers wrapping around the rookies hand and leveraging herself up.

they looked at each other for a second, an unexplainable silence sitting between them. riley's eyes met breannas eyes, the icy blue ones looking into rileys green ones. she still held her hand, almost unable to drop it.

before either of the girls could say something, sandy called out for everybody to come huddle before dismissing camp for the day.

breanna cleared her throat, dropping rileys hand and walking away without words.

riley swallowed, realizing that whatever stupid thought she had about breanna maybe flirting with her wasn't realistic and wishful thinking. she was years older than her anyways.

she walked over to the huddle, listening to sandys speech before being dismissed back to the locker room to gather her stuff and go home.

she walked with kayla and leonie, small talk about moving and the upcoming season to fill dead air. they made it back to the locker room and she began to gather her things, ignoring the feeling of someone watching her from the other side of the room.

when she turned around, she saw just that, breanna standing at her locker pretending like she wasn't looking at her.

riley left without a word, not wanting to think about whatever the fuck happened between them today, worried she already messed up her relationship with her teams vet.

[thoughtsforsoob]

i have a prompt !

taehyun + wrapping his scarf around the reader <//3

A/n: this is a really cute idea here! Im gonna try my best to write this as sweet as I can! This was honestly giving me attack on titan vibes (Eren and Mikasa :0) please enjoy and feel free and requests anything you’d like in the future! (Okay so for the translation bit, I wanted to add a little note for those who have never been on the trains in Japan/korea…ITS ALWAYS LIKE AN OVEN IN THE STATIONS AND IN THE TRAINS THEMSELVES. Its truly an unforgettable experience…)

You and Tyun made plans to hang out in the evening. He had invited you to go get some coffee and pastries from a new pop up cafe in the city and then to go on a walk. You were so excited to go out with him that you decided to go out a little earlier than the planned time and buy him a little gift for planning this outing. When you left, it was still really nice out so you only brought a cozy hoodie and warm clothes. No gloves and no scarf since you had no idea what the weather had inshore within the next few hours. 

You get taehyun a little keychain for his bag that had a cute T charm on it, for his name. You had thought of getting one with you initial but it would make others wonder about the significance of that letter so you opted to not do it. Once you paid and were on your wait to the train station to get on your way to the cafe, you noticed how the weather started to turn into a bitter coldness, the sky turning grey even though it was only 3pm. You felt yourself shiver and quickly scurried off into the train station and were warm once again. 

Upon exiting the station and going back outside, you were met with even colder weather. Your ears and nose were starting to feel exceptionally cold.

Taehyun finds you inside of the cafe with a war, drink already in your hand. He walks up to you with a frown, “You didn’t wait for me?” You shake your head at him, “Sorry. It’s just so cold out and I didn’t even think to dress up warmer. It was so nice out when I left.” He was very understanding and immediately went to bring a drink for himself and some pastries for you both to share so he could come back and help you warm up.

You two stayed in the cafe for about 2 hours and when you both decided you were ready to leave, you grimaced at the idea of going back out into the cold. You felt silly for not bundling up and taehyun poked fun at you as well for not bundling up. He stopped the you told him the whole reason and gave him his little charm. He attached it to his bag right away and thanked you with a big warm hug. 

Once you two were outside, you two started to walk out by the river, obviously feeling more cold because of the water. You huddled up to him as close as possible and looked up at him. His heart broke when he saw how red your face was getting. He pulled his arms away from you and pulled off his scarf. “Hyun. What are you doing? You’re gonna get sick!” You chided at him and he just kept going, wrapping the scarf around your neck. He hated seeing you in other other state but happiness and this cold was not making you happy. “Well, maybe if you weren’t so clumsy I wouldn’t get sick. Hm?” He of course didn’t mean what he said. Taehyun loved taking care of you, even if it meant putting himself at risk. He just loves you that much but he would never admit it out loud. He trusted in you to know he cares about you more than anything else. 

[pablitogaviobsessed]

Heyyyyy i love your work!!

I was wondering if u can write a story of Gavi is secretly watching u play soccer alone and he was amazed on how great u are at it? Thank you!!!

Guys I'm so happy that Gavi finally has the number 6 on his back! I already bought his jersey.

I'll tell you quickly: Englishisnotmyfirstlanguagethanksforunderstanding<3

My amazing football girl

Gavi was at training today, like usually. This few hours were your slowest and most boring hours of your life. But lucky you, you always can spend some time playing games on his Play Station, cleaning the house or reading some book. But now you really don't have the mood for any of them.

Since Gavi is a football player, he always have at least one ball around the house and luckyly one was in front of your eyes in the yard. You decided to kick it a bit. You never actually told Gavi that you can play football pretty well. First you just did some penalty without anybody. Well, you couldn't really call it penalty. You just shot the ball into the net and thats all. You kept doing it for a few minutes and then you got bored of it. Then you decided to do some free style since you were really good at it. You practiced those tricks so many times. You didn't give up until they weren't perfect.

Now you had been playing with the ball now for hours. Gavi eventually got home.

"Princesa I'm home!" he shouted, went to the bathroom and tossed his training clothes to the basket. "Princesa, where are you?" he asked since you didn't answer him. He went to the living room and saw you through the opened door. He was amazed. He never knew you can do those thing with a ball. He went to the door and watched you with opened mouth for 15 minutes. "Why didn't you tell me you actually good at football?" he asked, scaring the hell out of you.

"Pablo!" you turned around and accidentaly kicked the ball into the pool. "When did you got home?" you asked with a red face. You were kinda embarrassed because he saw you.

"About 20 minutes." he said. "But why didn't you tell me this before? You're playing so well with the ball. Im amazed princesa." he smiled and kiss your lips while you just blushed even more.

"I don't know. I thought it's not a big deal so I didn't tell you. It's not that important." you said and walked to the pool to get the ball out.

"No princesa, it's important. I can tell everyone that I have the most beautiful and talented girl. You're amazing. I wanna see you play more." he helped you.

"If I'm talented with some tricks then what are you?" you laughed how much of a fan he became of you.

"The next goat." he laughed too.

"Well, I'm not doubting that." you finally get the ball out.

"What?"

"What?" you asked back. He just hugged you.

"Do you know how much this means to me? he asked and hugged you more tight. You started to caress his back. "But know I have to play with my amazing girl."

"Amor, you just had a 4 hours training and now you want to play again?" you pulled away from the hug.

"Yes, princesa. I wanna see how do you play against me." he smiled knowing that it will be the cutest thing he will ever see. "So first, just try to get the ball." he said.

"Well, I might not be able to do that but I will try." you said trying to take the ball away from Gavi and you actually did it.

"Amor, I did it!" you screamed and put your hands up to celebrate. He looked at you like he never saw a human in his entire life. "What's wrong?"

"Princesa." he started to walk towards you. He cupped your face in his hands. "You're amazing. Like, you're the most amazing girl I can ever have. You're so loving, caring and even good at football." he kissed your lips.

"Stop amor." you giggled. "I'm not that amazing."

"Yes, you are!" he said and kissed your lips again. "Don't you dare to say this again. You're the best princesa. Now I can even play football with you. It's just so exciting. Playing football with the love of my life is the best thing." he said with a big smile on his face but his stomach interupted the speech.

"Someone is hungry." you laughed. "Come on, already made food for you." you and Gavi went to the kitchen and started to eat.

"And even you're food is amazing." he said with food in his mouth. "I'm so lucky that I have you." you just smiled at him because he looked so cute while he was talking to you with his mouth filled with food. Obviously he was on his phone the moment, like always.

"Hey! Why did you change me name on Messenger to "My amazing football girl?" you asked. You literally took it personal.

"Because you're my amazing football girl." he smiled at you.

"No! Change it back to "Princesa"." you asked him to do this but he just simply said a "no". You took his phone out of his hands to change your name back to "Princesa".

"There we go!" you said giving back his phone.

"Okay fine." he said with a pout on his face. You kissed his cheek and took your plate to the sink.

A few days later

"Princesa, can you call me on my phone? I can't find it." he asked you still searching for his phone. You called him and you heard the ringtone and you went to it's way. You find it in the basket in the bathroom.

"Amor I found it!" you shouted and you saw your name on his contacts. "Amor why is my name "My amazing football girl"?" he just laughed. Yeah... he changed your name in his contacts after you didn't let him change your name in Messenger.

[kaziwi]

Beach Day!!

Character(s): Zoro, Nami

WC: 832

Note: agagaga plz request stuff im running low on ideas

Zoro

The party pooper of beach days…

He likes to think of the beach as a new terrain to train in rather than hangout with you

You insist he should relax, but he’s very very against it

Somehow always convinces you to train with him, so you end up working even more than you did before your vacation

It was the perfect day to spend at the beach. The sun was high in the sky and there was the perfect breeze so you wouldn’t be too hot. The smell of salt water and meat that Sanji was grilling filled your nose. It was honestly the perfect day, except your boyfriend was busy lifting instead of laying next to you. You’ve asked him MULTIPLE times to stop training and just hangout with you, but he always said no. You knew that asking him again was pointless, but you decided to go up and ask him anyways.

“(Y/N)-swannnnn~” Sanji yelled from his grilling station, “Stop worrying about that stupid moss head and come over here with me!!!”

“Yeah (Y/N), Zoro is just gonna be weird and train the whole time, come lay with me and Robin,” Nami said, patting the seat next to her. You were enticed by her offer but declined as you continued to make your way to your boyfriend.

After walking a little bit further from the rest of the crew, you found Zoro swinging his giant weights around. He seemed to notice your presence, but kept swinging his weight back and forth above his head.

“Heyyyy Zoroooo,” you sang out, “Whatcha doinggggg”

“If you ask me to come back with you the answer is already no,” Zoro said not loosing his concentration.

“Come on Zoro, why can’t you just train later, I wanna spend time with you.” Zoro put down his weight and turned to you, “I did bring some smaller weights if you wanna join me.”

“Are you serious???? Why can’t we just relax at the beach??”

“Look how about this, do a few reps with me and then we can go to the beach.”

“You promise???”

“I promise.”

A few hours later you both walked back just in time for dinner. You were covered in sweat and exhausted, but glad that you now get to spend time with your boyfriend at the beach <3

Nami

Beach days are usually the one day she gets to truly relax

No navigating, not having to worry about marines, spending the day with you: it’s a dream come true

The one thing she hates though is getting her hair wet (she’s just like a cat :3 )

“Nami-SANNNNN, (Y/N)-SWANNNN I have your drinks!!” Sanji yelled twirling towards you. A tray of two drinks was placed in between your and Nami’s beach chairs. You each took a drink and sipped it in delight. Sanji always knew the perfect drink to make on a hot summer day.

"I could get used to this," Nami said while raising her arms up to stretch.

"Yeah, shame the log post resets tomorrow," you replied while sipping down the delicious, fruity drink.

"Ugh. Don't remind me. I don't want this to ever end." You chuckled at her response and grabbed her hand. She was right, this really was a peaceful, relaxing day. You closed you eyes and laid you head back on your chair, hoping to sleep a little.

Just then it felt like the sun was covered up, maybe some clouds were covering the sky, or Sanji was putting an umbrella over you and your girlfriend. You slowly opened your eyes to see what was blocking the sun, and were met face to face with a bucket of water being poured on you.

"Come on Usopp we gotta run!" You hear Luffy's voice as you wipe the water from your eyes. You turn to look at Nami who is also soaking wet. She looks absolutely devastated, her orange hair was soaked and clung to her body. Both of you were in utter shock that neither of you had a word. In all honesty Nami looked really attractive like this, you just couldn't look away.

Nami noticed you staring and quickly turned away, "Don't look at me," she stuttered, "I never look good with my hair wet.."

She never looked good??? Nami literally looked like a goddess right now how could she thinks she doesn't look good. You leaned over and cupped her cheeks, forcing her to turn to look at you.

"Well I think you look beautiful," you said as you gave her a quick peck on the lips. Her cheeks reddened to a degree you've never seen before and she quickly pulled away, "Thank you..." she said shyly.

"If I remember correctly, Franky said he made some new water-guns, how about we get some revenge," you said, a giant smirk growing across your face.

"I like the sound of that," Nami grinned and grabbed your hand and started running towards Franky, ready to get her revenge.

[hugejk]

hearts aglow - jb5

summary: idk really just based this off of hearts aglow by weyes blood

wc: idk it’s kinda long tho

"hearts aglow, we dont know where were going"

sitting at the counter in your kitchen, scrolling on your phone not knowing where jude is. He got off training almost an hour ago, he hasnt texted you in ages. you starte to worry but right as you went to tet him you hear the door swing open, "honey im home!" jude says as he dropped his bag. "Ive been worried sick jude, where have you been?" you say slightly angered as he hasnt texted you, but then jude reaches into his bag an pulls out a bag of your favorite snacks.

"i was so bored take me to the water babe, show me whats its like to be yours"

jude hugged you, taking in his scent. Somehow he smelt good for coming back from training. He puled away and looked you in your eyes, "i have a suprise for you.." You give him an eyebrow while looking him up an own, "whats the suprise?' you say. "its a suprise for a reason"" jude says with a cheeky grin.

"oh but baby your the only one who would drive me down to the pier, take me up on that ferris wheel"

"jude babe, i think we need gas.." you say as the tank is meter is barely on E. "yeah i think so too." jude says as hes stil focused on the road, pulling into the nearest gas station. "do you want any snacks?" he asks as hes getting our of the car. "no im good, you already got me enough snacks." you say chuckling a bit. You pull out your phone and start scrolling waiting for jude to finish. As he got back into the car he looks you up and down, mesmerized by your effortless beauty.

“you can’t control hearts aglow”

you watch as you pass by the lights of the inner city, wondering where jude is taking you. You pass by people with their families, loved ones, and friends. All walking into shops, laughing, eating, and talking. You can’t help to think of your family, how much you miss them. You come to a stop at a red light. “babe y’good?” jude asks in his thick accent. “yeah, just miss my family a little.” you say still looking out the window. “well hopefully this amazing suprise planned by the best boyfriend in the world will help cheer ya up” jude says as he steps on the gas pedal.

“might be the moon, or the cotton candy, or it might be a man, who finally understands me.”

you finally make it to the suprise destination, a small carnaval in a random old parking lot. Jude gets out and opens your door. He bows as you get out and you can’t help but laugh a little at his antics. Jude grabs your hand and leads you into the entrance, a small fee of 5 dollars per person. “i’m a bit hungry, you want anything?” jude says looking at all the food booths around you two. “Some funnel cake sounds really good right now.” you say hoping they have it. Seeing the booth that says “funnel cake” in bright lights makes you excited, you let go of jude’s hand without thinking and run over to the booth, getting in line enthusiastically. It takes a while for jude to come back to you, but once he does he puts his arm around your waist to let everyone know that youre his.

“cause i’ve been waiting for for my life to begin, for someone to light up my heart again”

after getting your food, you and jude casually walked around, pointing out the game booths, dogs casually walking around with no owners, some of the rides that sound interesting. Walking by one booth you see a stuffed animal of a seal (your favorite animal) and you immediately pull jude to the booth and beg him to win it for you. It was a simple game, get the rings onto the bottles to win a prize. Jude reluctantly agreed and you stood by him, watching how he flicked the rings onto the bottles, how his perfect face was contoured perfectly in all of the lights around him. You were so busy examining him, that you didn’t even see that he won the seal for you! As jude handed the stuffed seal to you, you pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek, thanking him.

“hearts aglow, we don’t know where we’re going”

as your night came to an end, jude insisted you two got on the ferris wheel to complete it. With your seal between your arm and torso, you agreed and made your way to the ferris wheel. It wasn’t one of those big ones, a tiny humble wheel with enough room to fit you two. As long as the wait was your started to think maybe it wasn’t worth it, but finally it was your turn. as you two got into the tiny cart, seal stuffed in between you two, it was finally time to start the ride. Taking in the beautiful view from above, all of the lights, all of the people, cars, and buildings. Jude turned your head towards him and gently kissed your lips, as unexpected as it was, it was quite enjoyable. As his lips moved with yours perfectly, he pulled away and gave you a soft smile. “i was waiting all night to do that.” he said as he held you hand. “i was expecting a kiss before we left.” you said playing with his hand.

“i love you.”

“imposible, i love you more.”

A/N: FIRST FIC DONE LETS GOOOOO 😛😛 pls tell me what you think because i genuinely don’t know what i wrote 😭

[tuliplov3r]

remus lupin (part 4)

part 1 part 2 part 3

•💌•

its been 3 months since you reconnected with your twin and have been accustomed to the group of 4 boys. all 4 of them made sure to see you every time they could, they felt like you were their sister as much as sirius's. except remus. remus and you had been going out for awhile now. you could remember the first date like it was yesterday. the night was ethereal.

it started of with a picnic in the park, classic. you guys talked for hours, bonding over everything you could. you guys laid down and watched the stars. that night ended with him walking you to your flat, kissing the top of your head and he walked down the street with the biggest smile on earth. the warm and comfortable feeling followed throughout your relationship with remus. you guys were not official yet, however it felt real in your heart and that was enough.

you were currently at the train station waiting for regulus. sirius had work that day, so you and remus were going to pick your brother up. you both stood hand in hand, excited for your brother to be home again. you had to admit, when regulus went back to school you missed him a lot. remus always came over, however you missed the time you had spent with your younger brother.

"excited?" remus asks look down at you. "very" you respond with a smile. remus smiles back and kisses your cheek.

the train comes to a stop and you pull out the sign from your purse. the sign read "welcome home reggie". you see regulus hop of the train, talking with his friends. regulus looks away from his friends as they pointed out the sign his sister was holding. regulus spots you and quickly says his goodbyes and runs towards you, he embraces you in a warm hug. "you crushed my sign" you say with a pout, looking down at the crumpled sign. "i missed you too, sis" he says with a smile, going in for another hug. he spots remus and hugs him too. "treating my sister well?" regulus asks with furrowed brows. remus was about to answer, but you cut him off quickly. "yes he does, the best" you say smiling and grab remus's hand, interlacing them. "barf" regulus says and proceeds to gag. you slap him and you guys continue on your journey back to the boy's flat.

when you got to the flat, you immediately started cooking dinner. you made remus and regulus help you with the meal, you had to a cook a lot, especially since the boys ate like wild animals. as each boy came home from work, you assigned them to a task.

"working hard are we" sirius asks with a laugh as he enters the kitchen. the rest of the boys start yelling at him, throwing an apron at him and making him chop up more vegetables. you laugh at the boys behavior and watch as regulus and sirius hug and continue to bond over cutting vegetables. "want to take a break, love" remus asks, caressing your cheek. "im okay, thank you" you respond, kissing his palm and going back to stirring the noodles. the boys immediately started imitating the two of you. james grabbing a hold of sirius's cheek and copying remus in a deep voice, "want to take a break, lovie". "im okay, thank you" sirius responds in a high pitched voice, biting jame's hand. this ends in a chase around the house between the two boys. which you and remus had to stop, like most nights.

finally, food was done and you guys were at the table enjoying dinner as a family. the boys talked about work and regulus discussed how school was going. you liked watching the boys talk, especially your brothers. all they used to do was argue, but now all they do is joke around with one another.

remus grabs your hand and smiles. "you okay" he asks looking a little concerned. "yeah i am, why" you ask softly. he moves his hand to your cheek and wipes a tear from your face. you smile somberly, "i didn't even know i was crying" you whisper. remus nods his head, kisses your cheek and continues to eat his dinner. still holding your hand. it felt nice watching your new family bond with one another, the tears were tears of joy.

later in the night, the boys went one by one to sleep. regulus and sirius were helping you clean dishes as peter and james had gone to sleep, them being the two who had work tomorrow. sirius took off tomorrow to spend time with regulus. remus was cleaning up the table and putting things away.

"hey why don't you head to bed, we can take care of the rest" remus says with a gentle smile. "are you sure" you ask him and your brothers. they all nod their head, agreeing to let you get your well needed rest. you smile and say goodnight to your brothers, hugging each of them tightly.

"i will be up there in a little bit" remus says as he kisses your head and hugs you gently. you smile and nod your head. you make your way up the stairs, to remus's room. remus watches you walk up the stairs with a sweet smile.

"do you love her" regulus asks softly looking at remus. "he does" sirius answers for remus, cleaning a plate. "yeah, i actually wanted to talk to you guys about that" remus says nervously. the two brothers stopped what they were doing and paid their full attention to remus, worried he might say something they don't want to hear.

"i am deeply in love with your sister. whenever i look at her, i just know she is the one. may i have your guys' blessing to date your sister" he softly asks. sirius smiles and nods his head. "she loves you, you make her happy. im glad you and her are together remus. i couldn't think of anyone better to date her" sirius says gently. regulus looks at remus and smiles "if you break her heart, your face will end up broken too". sirius laughs but nods along, agreeing to regulus's warning. remus smiles and says "thank you, i wont let you down". "i know you wont" regulus says smiling, happy for his sister.

you felt remus climb into bed with you. "rem?" you ask sleeply. "its me, love" he whispers. you nod your head and cuddle up next to him.

"i love you" remus says. "i love you too sweetie" you say tiredly. "i want you to be my girlfriend" he says softly. you smile and kiss his cheek. "of course remmie" you say excitedly, continuing to pepper kisses all across his face.

•💌•

the end!

[hanzhen0506]

~’Im Sorry for Letting Go’~

Hello! Its Zhan! It is our amazing leader Shinyu’s turn! This was actually inspired by my own experience as I had to rush myself out of the train today 😮‍💨, I hope you enjoy this!

The night was cold as you huddle close to Shinyu. We were exploring around Japan, and the train station is so crowded, luckily we only brought a bag each so we didnt had to worry about our luggage, but people were walking so fast that they were pushing and bumping everybody. I had no choice but get closer to Shinyu to not be taken away from the crowd. Shinyu held me close and rub my back as we wait for our train to arrive, waiting in line. “I think the train has arrived.” He said tapping on my back as I hum in response. When the train arrive we both got in, luckily a seat was available and Shinyu offered force me to sit there. Shinyu situated himself and stand infront of me holding the railing above with his tall figure. He smiled looking down at me and I smiled back. 

The train was very crowded but the motion of the train felt really relaxing. I relax myself to Shinyu, putting my head on his stomach and closed my eyes, he kiss and stroke my forehead. “Ill tell you when to get out okay? Go rest.” He whispered, it was not long that I fell asleep.

After minutes felt like hours I felt Shinyu tap me. “Lets go,” I hum sleepily and got my stuff ready. The door soon open and many people rush outside, me and Shinyu were far in the back but due to not holding his hands tight, I was pulled back into the train from the people who entered. “Yuya!” I shouted and he too panic but before he could go back the door was shut close. I ran to the nearest window while the train start to move, he mouth the words “next station” and I nodded. This sudden event was shocking to me as I try to calm down my panic breath. 

The door open and I hurriedly walk out of the train. The station was more crowded than before and with my anxiety increasing I ended up sitting close to one of the pillars at the station. I close my ears with my hands as I focus on evening my breath, but without Shinyu around it was harder than expected. “Shinyu..”

A few hours pass and the next train arrive, it was less crowded than before and fast footsteps were getting closer to me. My anxiety increases thinking that a bad person was coming my way but the footsteps stop. “Y/n,” Shinyu said, kneeling down to my level. I opened my eyes and was welcome with his pair of concern eyes. On instinct, I jump towards him hugging him tight stumbling down on the floor. “Hey, hey, its okay, Im here now.”

“I-i was so scared and all of a sudden I had a panic attack and-and I couldn’t calm down and-and-“

“Its alright, I get how you feel, Im sorry for letting go.”

“No- its not your fault, I wasnt holding tight too, its my fault too.”

“Its my fault too, I could have go back but I couldn’t I was so scared for you for the past 40 minutes. The train wasn’t coming so- I hope these could make up for it.” He showed a bag of all of my favourite snacks and a plushie. I teared up and hug him back tight. “Im just glad, im with you right now.” He sigh in relief hugging me back. “Me too darling, me too.” We sat there on the floor hugging each other until its time to go back to the hotel. Throughout the walk, Shinyu held my hand tightly while I lean on him. Not wanting any space left at the moment.

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(Please do not steal my works!)

[ya-bug-boy]

Im so glad I'm not the only one obsessed with the self aware reader and submas story! If you dont mind, please continue the story! Its the one thing that helps me stay sane these days 🥲

Submas x Self Aware Reader! part 6

You're lost in thought, hands protectively holding onto your backpack which contains the royal honey you needed for your potion. There's a good chance that the potion could have a potential poisonous element in its brewing, so you required the royal honey and spring water from the Forbidden Forest to negate its affects.

Similar to before, the train ride that would ordinarily take hours to reach your destination happens in only a few seconds. The three of you return back to the safe borders of Moondrop, safe and sound. The twins immediately exit the train first, turning their bodies around to face you.

"Thank you," You say politely as you step off your train. "The journey took much longer than anticipated. Why don't you two step inside to rest?"

At first the twins aren't sure what you meant by this but you walk to your train office, which was also your home. This was usually an area not implemented into the game! So the twins are very excited to see what your home is like.

You unlock the door and the player characters fight to pass through first, momentarily blocking each other before they're allowed in. To the twins, they see the train station, a momentary black screen, before they see your wondrous home.

Your home is actually many times bigger on the inside. An elegant home furbished with black plank floors and white walls, decorated everywhere with potted herbs and plants hanging in glass bottles. Your living room was also your kitchen, there was the ordinary wood-fueled stove with a mighty large black cauldron a few paces away. The most modern piece of furniture you have is what resembles a fridge but its appearance suggests it's from three decades ago. There were many bookshelves filled to the brim with ancient texts of the kingdoms that fell out of existence prior to Moondrop. Specks of radiant light shimmered in and out of darkness, much like fireflies.

The two walk around your home, taking in delight of being able to see this. Emmet excitedly points out a certain window, which is where you sold your train tickets. Ingo immediately runs over and tries to sit in your spot, to which Emmet whines about taking his turn. You can't help but to chuckle lightly, it's strange how the twins found you to be so interesting, but you're thankful for it.

"Is my life and home so interesting that you two fight over a chair?" You ask out loud, with a light laugh. You hear Emmet go "Mm-hmm!" in person as he finally gets a turn in your station chair.

"What is this statue?" Ingo asks out loud as he comes across a shrine in your corner.

The statue is a creature with numerous hands, all yielding a different mask. The creature itself is faceless. "This here is a shrine dedicated to appearances. It allows me to change how I look. Though it takes an even greater magic to completely change your body, which is what I've done several decades ago. This statue mostly allows me to change the length and color of my hair." You demonstrate by standing before the statue. You take off your train conductor hat. Your ordinarily short hair suddenly changes into two times its original length." You hear the twins clap and applause, taking in delight over your new appearance. This was technically considered new character art that they've never seen before!

"I normally don't really don't care much for my hair and because I'm always wearing a hat." You stop to pause, about to change your hair back to its original length when you turn to the twins and stare. You glance away for a moment, being embarrassed. "Well. Since you two take so much delight in it, would you two like to help me pick a new haircut?"

A "yes" or "no" box appears for the twins and they immediately click yes! You can't help but to smile and laugh with how eager they are, despite your limitations with them.

You stand back in the center of the sigil on the ground. "Very well. I will continue to change my hair. Simply raise your hand when you think I've found something suitable." For the next several moments, your change your hair into various styles. Women's, men's, androgynous styles all appear for the twins. Sometimes you see one twin excitedly declare a certain look to be good, but it leaves the other twin dissatisfied. Ingo seems to prefer you with a longer length of hair where Emmet likes it cut short. It's impossible for them to decide and you laugh when you hear them bicker in person. But finally, they do manage to find something that works. They fight over the color of your hair as well. Ingo seems to prefer natural tones whereas Emmet wants to see you in every shade of color before deciding.

Long black hair tucked into a bun with your bangs cut short. Your eyes aren't usually seen under the brim of your hat, so the twins both agreed to keep your bangs short so they can see it. Your face is clearly visible and your hair can adjust its length at your free will, tied up or left down.

The twins finish deliberating and conclude with this. "Ah, thank you. This feels refreshing," you say as you pat your bangs. You reach for your hat but realize it wouldn't work with your current hair style. And after all the deciding it took the twins to do to reach this conclusion, you find yourself not wanting to put the hat on. You put it on the counter of your ticket station.

"My head feels oddly light without a hat now," you confess with another laugh. "Perhaps I should look into a new one." The twins get excited over another possibility of being able to customize you again but the option never appears.

You walk away from the statue and sigil and peer into your cauldron. You hum in thought. "I'm feeling rather hungry. If you two don't mind waiting for me to cook something." But both twins immediately stand up again, their character models offering you crops from their latest harvest. This leaves you perplexed. They had their crops with them their whole journey into the Craymore Moutains? Is that...what they were eating to recover their health? Raw vegetables? When did they catch that fish?? Did they consume it whole, scales and bones? You belly laugh again as you accept their crops, taking it into your hands. This world was certainly strange, strange beyond words or belief. No wonder either of the player character looks injured.

"Well, this does look high quality..." you say as you examine the crops. "Would you two like to help me?" The twins immediately get excited, but to them this is just another minigame with a cooking theme.

You decide to make several dishes, while explaining to the twins in real life how to make the recipes. You make roasted sea bass, mashed potatoes, a light tomato pasta, and for dessert, you give both twins the recipe for your strawberry pie. You look at the dinner, it all looks amazing, the smell of the food wafted into your home, lingering in the air...but the twins can't eat this food. Their player characters can't eat this because they hadn't taken any damage yet, they were both healthy. You got carried away with cooking because there was just a profound sense of joy of being with others to cooking and sharing a meal. But you can tell that the twins are proud of themselves for doing a perfect job on the cooking minigame, as the food literally radiates a shining glimmering light.

You're about to eat when you hear it, there was another noise in the distance of the twins' actual home. There's a momentary pause of silence as both twins disappear from their computers. You're not sure what to make of this but the twins exit the game. Their character models leaving in an instant as well.

Since you're limited to this world and aren't really knowledgeable about the technology that binds you to them, you grow worried. You run to your crystal ball and once again pierce through the veil that was blocking you from viewing their world. An extraordinary amount of magic is required to do this but to them, you're using the camera on their laptops.

You see them with food of their own. Oh. They simply disappeared to grab food of their own. But then you see that it's nearly the same ingredients you used to make your dinner from earlier. The only difference being that the fish they were using was red in hue.

The twins disappear through a hallway of their home. Where were they going? Surely there was another way to see where they were going? Maybe the crystal ball can access another point of view? You immediately get up from your seat, knocking over papers and materials from your desk as you go to your potion cabinet. It is no doubt that you had magic, no doubt you were in fact the strongest mage in this world but you were limited to this game specifically. In order to interact into the twins' real world, you needed a boost, akin to a caffeine drink.

You uncork a glass potion and down it, the magical energy of the potion surges through your body and you swallow heavily. It burns as you drink it, bubbling with electricity. With your eyes open and dazzling a certain kind of light, you rush back over to the crystal ball. Energy manifests and swirls around your feet as you pierce the veil again but through another connection!

You were on their smart phone now, looking at them through the camera. The phone was propped up against a bag of flour so the twins can look at it. It looks like they're actually cooking the food they made in the minigame, but in real life. Your heart falters at this, a blooming sense of joy deep in your chest. They were making the food so they could eat with you.

But why? You were simply a character made for their entertainment. But then you take note of the kitchen interior. It's a modern kitchen, unlike yours but you take note of the aprons the twins were wearing. It had your insignia, your mark of The Golden Eye.

But then you see it. A giant yellow spider beast crawling on the ceiling. It approaches Emmet. He does not take note of it! The beast is unlike any monster you've ever seen, why was it in their home?!

"Emmet, EMMET LOOK OUT!" You scream into your crystal ball, before clamping your mouth shut.

[holly-fixation]

Three... Guards?: Ch 16

Summary: Tifa finds Cloud at the train station in Sector Seven. It’s the first time she’s seen him in seven years. But he’s not alone. Three silver haired boys protected him. Three silver haired boys that triggered memories of her hometown. Of steel through her chest. Of SOLDIER First Class. Of Him.

Kalm offered a small break from the journey awaiting them all.

Please Enjoy!

Inspired by the prompt by @im-totally-not-an-alien

Chapter 16: Queen's Blood

Tifa and Strife left the rooftop not long after spotting the former Crimson Soldier, Tifa to attempt to get some rest while Strife said he had a few more things to take care of before he could turn in for the night. The older blond dropped Tifa off at her bedroom door, and she took one final deep breath before opening it. 

Almost everything was the same as she left it, but her bed was claimed by the crimson beast they found in the lab.

“Sorry…” came the only apology, Aerith's whisper just above the quiet breaths of the other occupants. 

The couch sat unattended with a white sheet and blanket on its cusions. The two remnants of Sephiroth that shared the room were laying in their same locations with only pillows, stirring slightly away from the door. 

“Don't worry about it,” Tifa brushed off softly before taking the saved place.

* * * 

“Apparently it's ‘Queens Blood’,” Strife explained to Cloud, blue eyes locked on the gifted deck from the owner of the inn.

“It's an effective method for obtaining information, cards, and gil,” Genesis defended. 

“So why didn't you save us all trouble and get a third room?” Barret called out. 

“Because I'm no master of a children's card game, as easy as it is to pick up. Abilities become difficult to manage and decks are limited to fifteen cards. I lost. And per our agreement, I donated my previous winnings to street musicians.”

“Look, I'll take care of getting the rest of us upgraded weapons if you two can focus on finding Shinra's next move,” Cloud suggested while holding a hand to his head, earning an odd look from his future self. “You said you've already changed things. Let's make sure Shinra and Sephiroth are on the same track so we can cut them off.”

The Remnant attached to Cloud's hip stared at the ground despite the eyes on him. 

“And also… maybe…” Aerith spoke up with a small raise of her hand, “relax and enjoy the town a little? Only for a few hours.”

Both Cloud Strifes stared hard. 

“We could all use a real rest,” the one armed father agreed. “As much as sleepin’ on rocks in the middle of dead lands was nice and all.”

“And we won't be stopping anyone if we burn ourselves out,” the bartender mentioned, her crimson eyes sparkling against mako blues. “And I… I'm still recovering from everything last night.”

Strife closed his eyes with a sigh and Cloud turned away. 

“...Fine. Two hours. Then we get out of town,” the leader relented.

Aerith and Tifa high fived. 

“Broden said to meet him here when we're ready to leave Kalm,” Strife added. 

“Then that's where we'll meet.” Cloud said no more on the matter. He felt the weight of the child at his side but made no mention of it, walking out into the Republic themed town outside. 

Worn cobblestone streets connected every inch of commercial and residential land, mapping the town so perfectly it was simultaneously difficult and easy to lose oneself in it. It took longer than Cloud would've liked to identify the weapons shop. 

The owner seemed surprised when they walked in. Cloud's hands itched for the sword on his back, but he forced himself to wait. “Something wrong?”

“Not used to seeing kids in here is all. Is he old enough?” 

“He won't be touching anything. He likes to look.” 

“Well, then what will it be today?”

“What do you have?” Despite a glance around the store, none of the weapons on display suited his party at all. 

Just their luck, the store had everything useful in the back, but there was no way Cloud or anyone in their group had enough money to buy a gun prosthetic, a double wide long sword, a magic staff, two sets of combat gloves, a feathered collar, a new pistol, and a small katana. 

Cloud purchased his own upgrade first and walked away. 

The child at his side poked at his pockets. 

The blond shuffled through its contents and found the small box gifted by the store owner. “Huh. Good idea.”

It looked like it was time to duel. 

* * * 

The flower girl paced along the entrances to far too many colorful shops, each with bows and collars and necklaces of beautiful and sometimes amazing power. 

“We still need instant knockout resistance, frog immunity, physical and magical dampening resistance, poison immunity if we're lucky,  and Stop diffusers. How long do you think it'll take us to make enough Gil for all the accessories we need?” Aerith turned to the oldest boy, who stared at her like a Nibel deer in headlights. 

“Uh? Uhhh???”

“Okay, maybe that's too much to ask. Can you carry the bags then?”

“Yes please.” 

* * * 

“Why didn't you take Loz for this…?” Yazoo questioned as he balanced a multitude of bottles. Potions, ethers, antidotes, meals. The pile blocked most of his sight.  

“Because you said you wanted to check out the tavern.” Barret's loud reply came. “The hell did you think I was doin’ bringin’ ya?”

“I assumed you volunteered to allow Tifa more rest…”

“Well that too. Can't have her tucker out so quickly. Been through a lot and all.” 

“Can't we create some of these items for free using an item transmuter and what we found in the badlands…?”

“Find us a transmuter without Shinra tracking and then we'll start talking.”

The boy sighed, adjusting the bottles. “Can we at least purchase a sack for this then…?”

“I'll think on it.”

* * * 

“Why do you have interest in this anyway?” Genesis questioned before playing the first Shinra Trooper card of the game, keeping the real troop in sight through a window of a café. 

“The game represents human tactical abilities. I appreciate your willingness to play a few rounds with me.” Red XIII played a grassland wolf. Both recently escaped lab rats kept an ear on Shinra's men, hoping for a useful slip up. 

“I have to ask, how did a creature like you end up in Hojo's lab?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

“Fair enough. But I'm positive my story will trap us here until dawn. May I at least ask where you're from?”

The creature grumbled. The man in red sighed in defeat, a new card on the mat. 

* * * 

“How dare you break through my impenetrable fortress by cheating,” the woman surrounded by a wall of cardboard boxes proclaimed.

“What cheating? You're delusional,” Cloud scoffed. 

“I see just fine with these protected eyes I have, and the little one at your side does not hide his subtle hints to your deck.”

Mako eyes met a head of silver hair that refused to look at either players. “He could not care less.”

“I'll only accept defeat and give you the reward you so desire if you allow me to play the child in a fair match.”

“Are you really that petty?”

“You walk through my impenetrable defenses and judge how I view my enemies?”

“...fair enough.” Cloud sighed, kneeling down to capture the boy's attention. “Just one round so we can move on?”

Kadaj gave the smallest of pouts. 

“I will never ask you to do this again.”

The remnant hesitantly grabbed the cards, eyes glazed and movements slow. 

“Now,” The woman announced, “let the battle begin.”

First turn belonged to the boy who skimmed the cards, reading each ability carefully. He kept looking between his hands and the playing field. 

Cloud looked over the child's shoulder. 

“Ah-ah-ah! No aid!”

“It's not aid.” The blond pressed a button behind the dragon, signaling the next move. All of Kadaj's cards required too many pawns to use. He couldn't do anything if he wanted to. 

His bad start was not balanced by his skill. In fact, Cloud stepped behind the child because he kept cringing at every decision made.

He might be able to turn this around if he-

Nope. Never mind. 

But if he uses that card just right-

Of course not. Not a chance. 

The end score tipped the scales with the greatest number of chips: 25 to 28.

Well at least she was bad at the game too. 

Cloud couldn't wait to get back on track and end these useless hours of rest. At least it earned them all new weapons. 

.

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.

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To be continued…

Thanks for reading!

Chapter List 

Note: I tired myself out on this chapter very quickly. Turns out I'm not cut out for filler. We'll get back on track next time in the Grasslands. 

[cuttingcophater]

i wake early in a house of friends and dress. we wear the same thing as each other; black jeans, black tshirt. no bag. no phone. friend artlessly applies dark make up over her identifiable features to stop ai ID'ing her. we leave and run for the train. on the walk from the train station to the park where the black bloc will meet to pre brief, friend speaks a poem into the dark. i've heard this poem before and wish i had a written version. i know i'll hear it again.

soon we're on the picketline and we've been getting bashed for two or three hours at this point. we're running around, breaking police lines. breaking mounted unit lines. i feel alright. i look around and they've got friend. they're bashed her behind three lines of police i know we can't pass. i can't help it; i start to sob. i put my hand over my mouth as i cry and my tears wet my bloc. someone hugs me and lets me go again. i feel rough hands snatch me and im dragged away and forced onto the concrete. my hands are zip tied behind my back. i call out to my friend who was arrested and she tells me she loves me.

[sunset-bridge]

hi hi! cat clowder update . from october 12th 2023

second day ive been hanging out with the clowder. i want to give a name to the group.. im thinking train clowder. or oil clowder. they live in the train car... conductor clowder..station clowder..subway clowder'??

****

ANYWAYS. i brought some wet cat food for them : ) at first i only saw Colmillo (the white one) and Solecito. but soon Daisy and the tuxedo kitty (havent nicknamed him, thinking Sam) showed up also.

I am learning more about them. Daisy is very cautious, she seems to have a loner personality. actually, i dont think you can see her in any of these photos LOL! she was there all the time , but instead of laying down, she kept going away for a bit, walking, then coming back. making rounds. it seems she may prefer to be alone.

Colmillo and Solecito seem to get along well. They seem to stay close together most of the time.

The gray kitty, i think im nicknaming him Nebby. Well, he is part of the clowder! He seems to be very delicate and curious... likes to approach from above but keeping his distance! he has very beautiful emerald green eyes, that you cant see well in this photo (thank you sun)

The tabby brothers, Trueno and Tormenta. I have learned to differentiate them from eachother! Trueno has a more wide-set face, that also appears smaller because he doesnt have as much cheek fluff as Tormenta (may trueno be a girl?) . He also has 6 black stripes on his tail. Tormenta, has a more balanced face, with cheek fluff, and 4 black stripes on his tail. Their eyes are a different hue as well.

Trueno seems to be playful and silly! I saw him playing happily with a piece of trash >_< he was rolling around ehehe. cute ~~

Anyways! Development! I spent around an hour or so with them in the early afternoon before class. Then, i had the opportunity to go back to them a bit later, i had bought a muffin so i wanted to give them a few crumbs and just say hi again.

Well! Colmillo surprised me because she got quite close! I didnt dare try to pet her yet, but she bumped into my leg a bit??! Amazing! I hope we can become good friends soon..... ! I think if Colmillo becomes closer to me, Solecito may get the courage to also come closer.

******

Thats it, thank you for coming to the clowder update.