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pinksturniolo · 6 months

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Play Date - A Matt Sturniolo One Shot

Matt Sturniolo x Fem Reader

You call me on the telephone, you sound so far away

You tell me to come over, there’s some games you want to play

I’m walking to your house, nobody’s home

Just me and you and you and me alone…

Summary: The one in which Matt has been helping you babysit your 5 year old brother for the past couple years. Everyone in Somerville, MA knew him as the sweetest and caring guy, always helping someone when they needed it. However, you and him never got along, always disagreeing on most things. You and him had nothing in common. Well… maybe one thing.

Content Warnings: smut, angst, small age gap, fingering, oral receiving/giving, degradation, raw penetration, sneaking around, matt being a tough guy.

Based on this song: (pls listen it's so good and the lyrics are what inspired this one shot)

a/n: i'm sorry if the age gap makes anyone uncomfortable, everything depicted in this story is purely consensual <3

Winter 2024

You watched as Matt helped untie your little brother’s shoes and unzip his jacket, the two of them coming back in from playing outside. You had stayed inside on the couch, keeping warm while you worked on your English essay, watching them from the living room window. A storm hit soon after New Year’s leaving Boston in a blanket of fresh white snow.

He sets his shoes and jacket down, leading him to the kitchen to make him a cup of juice. Your brother adored Matt, there was no denying he was a great babysitter. A couple years ago, your mom started working out of town every other weekend, leaving you home alone to take care of your brother since your dad left when you were a little girl.

Your mom had always been a strict parent, so naturally she didn’t trust you to be by yourself the whole weekend given the fact you were only 16 at the time. So, she asked one of her friend’s sons to help, who happened to be Matt Sturniolo.

Matt was trusted by mostly everyone, and your mom had known his mom since high school, so she had no problem with him being at your house. You, however, were extremely against this idea. You and Matt had never gotten along no matter how much you tried. You had known him since elementary school and from the moment you met, he always had an attitude towards you for some reason. Being that you were so stubborn, you didn’t back down from his sourness, and challenged him every chance you got.

He was a couple years ahead of you in school and always brought up the fact that because he was older, that somehow made him better than you. You refused to acknowledge that, butting heads with him constantly. It didn’t help that some of your friends were his friends and each time you guys were around each other, it was a constant competition. Who was better at bowling, who got first place in Mario Kart, who had the best golf swing. It annoyed your friends to no end.

When you were a sophomore, Matt would come over the weekends your mom worked out of town. He stayed during the majority of the day, taking care of your little brother. This also gave you the freedom to attend many of the extracurricular activities you were involved in. You took pride in being the top of your class and captain of the dance team. Matt endlessly teased you about it, calling you a “try hard” and “nerd”.

The time you did spend at home when Matt was there, you tried to avoid arguing with him around your brother. The three of you often went to the park, or got ice cream, never running out of ways to entertain him. The more time you had spent around Matt, it was hard not to develop a little crush. You would never admit it, but you admired the sweet side of him. He was good at taking care of your brother.

And he subtly started to flirt with you, teasing you over silly things, and checking you out when you weren’t looking. There was no doubt he found you attractive. But you frustrated him to no end, given the fact that you were so stubborn and weren’t afraid to voice your opinion when you disagreed with him on something. Matt liked to be in control, but you did as well. Still, he admired how hard working you were and your sensitive nature.

It didn’t take long before raging teenage hormones created sexual tension between you two. The summer before your junior year, stolen glances and accidental touches fueled the fire that had been growing over the years. One night when you were both alone, watching a movie after your brother had fallen asleep, Matt finally made a move on you. He would usually leave at nighttime, going back home to sleep so he could come back the next day and help you. But he decided to stay and finish the movie with you.

It had been a particularly good Saturday, and you had looked especially pretty that day. He couldn’t stop staring at you and when you asked him what he was looking at, he pressed his lips to yours, igniting a flame in you that you just couldn’t put out.

From that night on, you two snuck around every chance you got, whenever your brother wasn’t around or asleep, almost every weekend up until Matt graduated.

Making out on the couch until his hands found his way into your shorts and under your shirt, eliciting sweet moans from you while he thrust his fingers deep inside you. Pushing him up against the wall in the hallway as you got on your knees and took him into your mouth, his hands tangled in your hair, pulling and grunting until he came down your throat. A couple times, he even spent the night in your bed, using his mouth, hands and cock to make you cum over and over, in every different position.

As much as you both enjoyed the pleasure and excitement, there still was no denying the fact that you two despised each other. Maybe that hate was what fueled the passion between you two in the bedroom, but outside of that, you both never ceased the petty arguing. No matter the deep feelings you had for each other buried inside, it would never go past the sexual relationship you guys had built. Simple as that.

Once Matt graduated and started working in the adult world, he still took the time to keep his baby-sitting duties which you were grateful for, because at this point, you had started throwing yourself more into your schoolwork. You were applying for all the universities you could and taking extra shifts at Star Market you were working at part time. And then it came time for you to graduate, and you went off to college that fall, a few hours from Somerville. You had lost contact with Matt, neither of you taking the time or effort to reach out to each other.

✿

Now it was early January, and you were on winter break. You had come back home to visit and spent some time with your mom before she left on her work trip. Matt came over to help with your brother of course and this was the first time you had seen him since you graduated high school almost a year ago. He was now 20 years old, had let his beard grow out a little, and gotten several tattoos on his left arm.

Was it possible for him to get even more attractive than he already was back then? But you promised yourself you wouldn’t give into your past desires. You had too much to focus on and even though you were on break, you had an important English essay to finish. Besides, Matt had the worst attitude ever as soon as he saw you, making it easier for you to avoid him.

He was currently burning a hole into you with his pointed looks, glaring at you from across the room as your brother sat next to him, playing with his action figures.

You looked up at him from your computer, returning his dirty look. “Can I help you with something, Matthew?” You asked, knowing he hated it whenever you used his full name.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on break? Don’t you do anything for fun?” He said, referring to the fact that you had been typing away on your computer for the last hour.

You rolled your eyes, focusing your attention back on the computer. “Aren’t you supposed to mind your own business?” You responded.

He scoffed, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t really care what you do. I’m just tired of listening to your incessant typing.” He said with annoyance.

You ignored him, continuing to work on your essay while he continued to stare at you. You tried to focus but his piercing gaze distracted you. He sighed loudly and finally you slammed your computer shut, anger bubbling inside you.

“Fine. It’s not like I can focus with you acting like that anyway.” You snap, standing up to walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water.

To your annoyance, he follows you, leaning against the counter as you fill the glass and take a few sips. “Did you miss me, angel?” He says and you almost choke on the water, laughing as you set the glass down. “Don’t be ridiculous.” You reply, turning to face him. His eyes travel up and down your body, no shame in the way he checks you out.

“You still look hot. Brings back memories of when I had you all to myself-“He starts, a mischievous grin appearing on his face. You interrupt him though, grabbing his jaw a little roughly, smushing his lip together to prevent him from continuing whatever dirty thoughts he was going to say.

“Let’s get one thing clear, Matt. I came home to spend time with my brother, not to be bothered by you. Whatever you think we had in the past, you can forget about it. That will never be happening again.” You say sternly and let go of his face. He rubs his jaw and a dark look forms in his eyes as he leans down to whisper in your ear. “If you ever fucking grab me like that again, I’ll make sure you remember who’s really in control here. Don’t make me mad, Y/N.”

He then stalks off to the living room, leaving you there in shock, chills running through your body, a slight throb starting to ache in your core from just his words alone. Fuck. This was going to be harder than you thought.

After Matt left that night, you couldn’t help but let his words replay, memories from when he used to have his way with you cycling through your head. You just couldn’t deny your attraction to him no matter how much he infuriated you. You felt yourself growing wetter by the second as you thought about his voice, his large hands, what it would feel like to have his face between your legs again, his beard scratching against the inside of your thighs. Your fingers slipped inside your underwear, feeling the slickness there, circling your clit as you moaned out his name.

You couldn’t take it anymore. You grabbed your phone, calling Matt. He picked up on the first ring as if he somehow knew you needed him. “Hello?” He answered, his deep voice rumbling through the other end. “Matt…” You breathed out. “I need you.”

His cock immediately hardened at hearing your needy voice, knowing you well enough to know exactly how you needed him. “Be there in 5.” He replied, hanging up the phone and grabbing his jacket. Luckily, your house was 2 blocks from his and he walked in the cold, heart racing as he reached your bedroom window, lightly tapping.

You let him in, your mouths instantly connecting, tongues tangling and teeth clashing. You kissed each other hungrily, wasting no time removing your clothes and his as you laid on your bed. He put his hands all over your body, kissing every inch he could as you whimpered his name. “Please Matt, I can’t wait any longer.” You said, the need to feel him inside you overwhelming.

He hummed in fake empathy, pulling you roughly by your hips, wrapping your legs around his lower back and lining his cock up with your entrance. “Listen to how pathetic you sound. So needy for my cock already, angel?” He said, slicking it up and down slowly through your wetness, teasing you.

“Yes, please, please…” You responded, not bothering to fight his dominance. You were too turned on to care. He smirked at this, giving in and pushing himself inside you, no resistance from how wet you were. “Fuuuckk…” He groaned, head falling down, arms resting on either side of your head as he thrust into you at a good pace, uttering filthy words in your ear. “You feel so fucking good. Better than I remember baby.”

You moan loudly as he picks up his pace, his hips slamming into you over and over, your tits bouncing in his face as he leans down to suck on them and squeeze them in his hands. “Don’t stop Matt.” You breathe out, and he has no intentions of doing so, eager to get you to your climax. “I’m gonna cum soon.” You say and he looks up at you, shaking his head. “Not until I say so.” He warns, coming back up from your chest and wrapping a strong hand around your throat, squeezing slightly.

He grinds against you for a few minutes before you can barely take it, ready to beg him for what you need. “Pleaseee Matt. It feels so good.” You cry, making him almost bust inside of you.

He starts rubbing fast circles on your clit, pounding into you at a relentless pace. You bite your lip to keep from screaming, your eyes rolled into the back of your head in a state of bliss. “You gonna be a good girl and cum on my cock?” He asks, his other hand gripping your thigh, leaving bruises.

“Yes! Oh my god, yes.” You yell. “Go ahead baby, cum for me.” He says, granting you the permission to release your juices all over him and he moans loudly feeling you clench around him. He’s not finished with you yet though as he pulls out of you and suddenly flips you around before you have time to catch your breath.

He pulls your hips up, so your ass is in the air and spreads your legs with his knee, putting his hands on your lower back. “I’m not done yet, angel.” He says pushing himself into you again. You cry out from how sensitive you are, burying your face in your pillow. “Fuck, Matt.” You whimper and he thrusts into you at a fast pace again, the sounds of skin clapping together and wet sounds filling the room.

You feel pleasure building in you again and Matt takes a fistful of your hair, pulling it, making you moan with pleasure. You feel tears form in your eyes, another orgasm approaching from the way Matt is pounding into you, hitting your g spot repeatedly. “Matt...” You whimper, unable to say much else from overstimulation. “You can take it, baby. Ahhh, You’re such a good girl- fuck. I know you can cum for me again.” He says in between shaky breaths, feeling himself get close as well.

You cum again, crying out his name, your head slumping into your pillow as he lets go of your hair, squeezing your ass harshly as his hips stutter and he releases into you. You feel his warm load paint your walls and then he finally pulls out, both of you out of breath and he collapses down next to you.

“You okay?” He asks, a hand coming up to brush your hair from your face, seeing how fucked out you are. “More than.” You reply, with a small smile on your lips. He smiles back and wraps an arm around you as you lay on his chest, both of you quickly drifting to sleep.

✿

The next morning when you wake, Matt is gone. You feel a slight emptiness in your chest but ignore it as you get up and get ready for the day. The weekend is over, and your mom will be home soon. You have lots of plans for the upcoming week and don’t have time to think about all the feelings he has seemed to stir up from the past.

However, you get a call from her shortly, guilt in her voice when she tells you about an unexpected extension in her work trip came up and she’ll have to stay another week. You’re disappointed but you understand it’s important to her and now that you’re an adult, she’s okay with you staying home with your brother alone.

So, it’s a surprise to you when Matt shows up a couple days later, not even bothering to knock on the front door as he saunters in. You and your brother were sat on the couch, watching TV after lunch. “What’s up.” He says nonchalantly, sitting next to you. Your brother immediately jumps up in excitement, going over to him. “Matty!!” He says, a cute smile on his face. “Hey, buddy.” He says back, ruffling a hand playfully through his hair.

You ignore how insanely cute the interaction is, scoffing in annoyance. “Have you ever heard of knocking?” You say in aggravation, Matt losing the smile as he looks at you. “You should probably lock that door more often. It’s not safe. Which is why I came over to make sure things are good over here. I overheard my mom talking to your mom about how she’s still stuck in Aspen on her work trip.” He responds. You simply roll your eyes and sigh, not bothering to argue with him.

“Whatever. Come on, baby. It’s time for your nap.” You tell your brother, and he gives Matt a hug before you take him to his room, reading him his favorite book as he falls to sleep.

You close his door with a soft click, walking over to the kitchen table so you can sit and work on your essay some more. Matt’s already there, reading what you’ve typed on the screen.

“Excuse me! What are you doing.” You scold, ripping the computer out of his hands.

He laughs, leaning back in his chair next to you. “Not too bad, Y/N. I knew you were a nerd, but I didn’t know you were that smart.” He teases.

“You’re insufferable.” You reply, ignoring him as you continue typing.

“Hmm, I beg to differ. That’s not what you were saying when I had your legs shaking-“ Before he can finish, you pinch his thigh through his jeans, making him yelp.

“Don’t be a jerk, Matty. We both know that night was a mistake.” You say, and he furrows his brows in pain, his eyes closing and breathes through his nose.

Then he grabs your hand from his thigh, placing it back on your leg and rests his arm on the back of your chair while he leans in closer to you.

“What did I tell you before, hm? Do you need to me to put you in your place again?” He says, the blazing look in his eyes making you squirm in your seat.

You look back to your computer, attempting to focus as he traces circles on your bare thigh with his fingers. “Matt. Stop.” You say, trying to sound stern despite the butterflies that form in your stomach.

“Why?” He replies, moving his hand farther up your skirt.

You grit your teeth, swallowing hard. “Because… I’m trying to study.” You say weakly now. Why the fuck couldn’t you control yourself around him?

“You sure about that?” He whispers now, voice filled with desire. His hand is completely disappeared underneath your skirt now, his fingertips soft as he presses them to your clit, a wet spot forming in your panties.

You sigh in desperation, Matt satisfied with the fact that he has you wrapped around his finger.

His lips ghost across your neck and he places a soft kiss beneath your ear, making you moan aloud.

“Just say the words and I’m yours, angel…” He rasps, his dick throbbing in his pants.

You suddenly snap out of it, pushing his hand away and abruptly stand up from your chair. He was not going to continue to just have his way with you. “If you’re not going to allow me to study in peace, then you can leave.” You say harshly, leaving the kitchen.

You storm down the hallway to your room, Matt following closely behind. “Stop following me!” You whisper yell, trying to be quiet as your brother is asleep in his room. You reach your door, attempting to slam it in his face when he puts his arm out, stopping the door before you can. He has an annoying smirk on his face when you turn to glare at him. “What’s got your panties in a twist?” He says, making you roll your eyes.

“You’re a disgusting pervert.” You sneer at him, referring to moments earlier when had a hand up your skirt.

“Don’t act like you don’t like it.” He responded, the smug smirk on his face growing wider. “Don’t act like that’s the first time I’ve touched you… Like I didn’t just have you begging me to let you cum the other night.” He added, leaning closer to you, a dangerous look in his eyes.

You scoffed, pushing him away from you by his chest. “I don’t recall anything like that ever happening.” You say with disgust in your voice. You both knew you were lying, of course. But you had done your best to try and forget your momentary weakness that night.

“Why don’t I jog your memory then?” He speaks lowly, moving closer again, forcing you to walk backwards further into your room, closing the door behind him and locking it. Your heart races and thighs clench together, that stupid smirk still on his face as he wraps one hand around your throat, the other harshly gripping your waist and smashes his lips to yours.

You melt into his kiss, his grip on your throat making your pussy throb. “Stop being such a brat.” He says, backing you up against the wall of your bedroom. He removes his hand from your throat and trails it down to the hem of your shirt pulling it off you and then ripping your skirt down your legs once again leaving you in just your bra and panties. “But I love the reaction it gets out of you.” You say breathlessly, knowing he was only going to punish you the more you talked.

He attacks your neck with wet kisses, sucking and biting all the sweet spots he knew you loved, lustful moans leaving your mouth. He suddenly drops to his knees, ripping your favorite lace thong off you.

“Matt!” You speak. “What the hell?” You were definitely making him buy you a brand-new pair later.

“Shut up.” He simply replies taking one leg and wrapping it around his shoulder, burying his face in your cunt. “Oh fuck.” You groan, tossing your head back against the wall as pushes his tongue inside you. His hands keep a firm grip on your waist as he continues to fuck you with his warm, strong tongue, only pulling out to kiss and suck on your clit, driving you to the edge.

It doesn’t take long for you to cum, the sight of Matt willingly on his knees for you, his blue eyes staring up at you.

Once you finish, Matt stands up, ready to throw you on the bed and continue to have his way with you but you decide it’s time for you to take some control.

You push him onto the bed before he can say anything, and climb on as well, the look on his face priceless.

“Take off your jeans and your shirt. Now.” You demand, sitting on your knees in front of him, while he leans back against your pillows. He does so without any protest surprisingly, and once he’s left in just his boxers, you lean down, your ass arched in the air, and pull them off. His dick springs out, slapping his stomach and you grab it, taking him into your mouth. He groans loudly, putting a hand in your hair but you push it away, removing your mouth from him with a pop. “No touching.” You say, looking up at him seriously.

He smirks at you, raising both his hands in the air. “Yes mam.”

Satisfied with this, you lower your head down again, fitting as much of him in your mouth as you can, jerking the rest, and bobbing your head. The sounds he makes get you even wetter, and you moan around him, letting him brush the back of your throat. “Fuck, baby, you’re doing so good.” He coos, gripping your sheets as you prohibited him from touching you.

He slowly bucks up into your mouth as you take him deeper and deeper into your throat, one of your hands now resting on his thigh and the other grabbing his balls. You know he won’t last long like this and before you can make him cum, he grabs your shoulders, pulling you up to sit on him.

“Come here, angel. I want you to ride me.” He says and you straddle him, sinking down on his cock. You both moan out at the feeling, and you start to bounce on it, putting your hands in his hair and tugging.

He guides your hips, helping you ride him, the air in the room now hot and thick.

“Look at you, so fucking needy. You just can’t get enough, can you baby?” he says, groaning as he watches himself slip in and out of you.

The feeling of him deep in your guts has you back in your submissive state, just nodding at his words, moaning his name. “Yes Matt.”

“Mm, shit, you look so beautiful, dumb for my cock like this.” He continues, knowing exactly what to say to bring you to that edge again. His fingertips dig into your hips, the pain mixing with the pleasure.

You lean your head against his shoulder, starting to get tired but still chasing that high.

You puff hot breaths against his neck, lazily leaving sloppy kisses.

“Want Daddy to help you, honey? Want me to make you cum on my dick again?” He rasps and all you can manage is a whine and nod against him. “Please.”

That’s all he needs to hear before he starts bucking his hips up, slapping against you roughly and you scream out, the grip in his hair becoming tighter. He’s so deep inside you at this angle, the pressure is almost overwhelming, and you can do nothing but take it, whimpering his name over and over again.

You reach your orgasm, cumming all over him and he finishes soon after you, biting into your shoulder as he does. He holds you for a little, both of you catching your breath, before you climb off of him.

You lay next to him while he rubs a hand up and down your legs, tracing small circles on your hip.

“You know, if this is how the rest of the week goes while you’re here, I won’t complain.” You joke and this makes him laugh, pulling you closer to him.

“Don’t worry angel… I’ll help you finish that essay too.” He says, pressing a kiss to your forehead before you both fall asleep.

#sturniolo fanfic #sturniolo triplets #matt sturniolo #sturniolo smut #sturniolo x reader #matthew sturniolo #matt sturniolo x reader #matt sturniolo smut #matt sturniolo oneshots #one shot #fanfic

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peaches2217 · 1 month

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Anyone order some Expectant Papa Mario? No? Too bad, I'm in brainrot tonight.

I'm so sorry.

Mario's the kinda guy that will drop EVERYTHING to go coo and make faces at and play with any baby that crosses his path, so it's really no surprise that he starts doing the exact same with his own kid... before she's even born.

It starts when Peach excitedly calls him into the bathroom while she's getting ready to shower one night and shows him the absolute tiniest, least noticeable bump in her abdomen, so small it took getting naked and looking at herself in profile in the mirror to even recognize it. It's been a few weeks since they got the news, but this is when it really hits both of them that Oh, there's a baby in there. And suddenly Mario's kneeling down so he can kiss and press his cheek against Peach's stomach, talking to it like whatever's within can actually hear him yet — "Look at you! Already getting so big! You keep getting big and strong for us, okie-dokie? Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!" And Peach eventually has to push him away through fits of laughter because that area is way too ticklish for all that kissing. The nightly ritual of Storytime (amended to Daddy-Daughter Storytime when finding out they're having a girl some months later) begins the following evening and is religiously observed to the day of her birth.

The first time he feels their daughter kick, it's in response to Peach's voice. Mario spends the next several nights with his head against Peach's chest and his hand on her belly, singing lullabies and telling their baby all sorts of stories, jumping back and forth between English and Italian, trying to see what will get her to react to his voice. But Peach's voice is the only one to get a response out of her for a while, leading Mario to, of all things, start making bribes. He'll get her a whole stable of Yoshis, she'll never have to so much as touch a vegetable if she doesn't want, he'll have an entire castle built from scratch just for her, and all she has to do is kick his palm, right now. Peach tries to offer suggestions for his bribes, but he dramatically shushes her if she speaks any louder than a whisper. The offers are only valid if she kicks for him and him alone!

One such night, after much giggling between the couple but little success, Mario gives up for the evening, assuring his little albicoccetta that he'll spoil her no matter how stubborn she insists on being. "Papà ti vuole tanto bene," he tells her. And then he feels a nudge against his hand, just as he finishes speaking. He proceeds to tell her this exact phrase every night before bed for the rest of his natural life.

The bribes make a return as Peach enters her third trimester and their little girl's nighttime activities prevent her from getting a decent night's rest. It's annoying, yes, but still those nights always feel worth it; whether it's at 10 PM or 3 AM, Mario will get her a warm drink, help her get comfortable again, and proceed to offer impractical material riches to their baby in exchange for settling down for the night. Sometimes that's enough, and he'll ask Peach to remind him to add everything he's offered tonight to their ever-growing imaginary list of things they're obligated to give their child once she's born. Other nights, just hearing his voice won't calm her down, or Peach will be sincerely uncomfortable to the point of pain, or they'll both be too tired to keep up the comical charade, so he'll just hold his wife close and hum songs or mutter half-awake nothings to soothe both of his girls.

(One night in particular, he tries the gentler approach of kissing her belly and asking their baby nicely if she'll consider mellowing out. The resulting kick to the face is shockingly strong, enough that it actually kind of hurts; he and Peach just stare at each other in dumbfounded shock for a moment before collapsing into laughter. "Rude!" he chastises, wagging his finger at her stomach. "You're grounded! You're not allowed to leave your room for the next two months, capito?")

Mario's in an absolute panic by the time he reaches Peach's bedside, berating himself for leaving her side for even a SECOND, asking her how she's managing the pain, reminding her to breathe, he's here, he'll see her through this — but her water just broke like ten minutes ago and the contractions are easily manageable, so if anyone needs all that attention and comfort, it's him. After assuring him that she's alright, Peach takes his hand and presses it to her belly, where he quickly feels a feeble kick. "She's saying she can't wait to meet you," she tells Mario, and yeah, that's enough to calm him down for now. "You be good for Mama," he answers back with a cheeky grin. "Don't give her too much trouble, alrighty?"

The request ultimately goes unheeded, because it's another ten hours before it's over, and it's almost surreal to think something that small could cause so much agony. Half a day's worth of tension and fear and helplessness comes crashing down watching their daughter take her first breaths against Peach's chest, hearing her first tiny cries, and the rush of all these huge and conflicting feelings makes Mario's legs feel weak. "Combinaguai!" he finds himself saying, hovering a hand nearby but not quite close enough to touch her. She looks so fragile. "What did I say? 'Don't give Mama too much trouble!' That was a lot of trouble!" His teasing makes Peach laugh, and hearing that carefree laugh after she's endured so much suffering brings him so much relief that his throat closes up, and suddenly he can't say anything else.

"Hey," he manages a short time later, cradling his daughter for the first time while nurses see to Peach. She looks even smaller all swaddled and clean, fast asleep in his arms, and for the first time since he began talking to her, he's at a complete loss for words. That is, until she stirs at his timid greeting, blinking up at him with drowsy topaz eyes. Peach's eyes. And suddenly Mario has everything to say. There's so much he wants to tell her, so many promises he wants to make, so many stories he wants to recount, so many jokes he wants to crack, and he wants to do it all right now. But he doesn't even know where to begin. So, for the time being, he tells her the one thing his exhausted brain can actually put into words right now, choked between joyful tears and the heaviest, most overwhelming affection he's ever felt in his life:

"Ti voglio bene. Ti voglio bene. Papà ti vuole tanto bene."

#tw pregnancy #hangs my head in shame #once I start I simply Cannot Stop #forgive me #somehow I accidentally changed my tumblr to dark mode while typing this and I'm still not quite sure what I did #(yes I'm one of those heathens who uses light mode there's less contrast so it strains my eyes less)#peaches has opinions #super mario bros #smb #mareach #mario x peach #daddy marioposting

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fangirlingpuggle · 2 years

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Another very very dumb Bowuigi AU/fic prompt idea of matchmaking Kamek.

Just Kamek who cares deeply about his surrogate son Bowser and really wants him to have a good partner, he’d be trying to hint about Bowser not focusing on the princess so much but he doesn't know who else there is he’s been trying to find someone worthy of his son but no luck. He has like a full list of requirements and no one comes close.

That is until he starts noticing the green one, normally he pays him no mind but then one time after Mario’s beaten Jr and the other Koopalings he’s about to pick them up when he sees the green one arrive out of breath clearly trying to keep up with his brother and failing, and he’s about to hit him with a spell when he sees the plumper stop and help the kids up seeing them look angry and sad and instead of running after his brother offers to get the kids some ice cream.

Kamek starts paying attention after that, seeing that Luigi actually meets all the requirements. Not only do all the Koopalings like him, the other residents also like him he see’s him following Mario and turning Goomba that Mario’s knocked over up right as he follows his brother.

Luigi is very confused when Kamek keeps appearing out of nowhere asking random questions and then looking happy and disappearing again, he looks out the window and Kamek is just there.

Basically everyone decided Luigi would be a good dad/co king and literally perfect for Bowser. Kamek starts trying to hint and match make and it’s not working, not that they don’t like each other he’s noticed Luigi get all flustered and Bowser stare at times before shaking his head and brushing it off.

He’s one more hint away from calling the Broodals to help plan the wedding and just shove them both down the isle and he knows the kids and the whole army would help him.

They have a plan tell Bowser they’re trying the same basic wedding plan again this time they know how to stop Mario and it is the same only the kidnap Luigi not Peach.

Mario of course freaks out but Peach can see whats happening and is very excited for it and spends the rescue mission pointing out all the times Luigi has been a blushing mess over Bowser ect Mario is now 1) happy his brother might like someone who likes him 2)IT’S BOWSER WHY LUIGI YOU COULD DO BETTER 3) How dare they not invite him to his brothers wedding!

#bowuigi #bowigi #mario #au #fic prompt #bowser x luigi #luigi #bowser #bowser jr #princess peach #kamek #this is very very dumb #i am just amusing myself at this point #koopalings #koopa kids

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skipper1331 · 1 year

Text

Forced Break-Up // Alessia Russo

Today was the day, you would meet Alessias family for the first time. To say you were nervous was an understatement. You were terrified.

Alessia and you haven‘t been a couple for long but Alessia still wanted to introduce you to the her parents and brothers. You were important to her and her family as well, so why don‘t introduce you?

Lessi, the charmer she is, picked you up at your house. Because she didn‘t have a driver‘s license yet she came by bus. And that‘s also the way you got to her house. When you sat in the bus she held your hand while tracing patterns on it. She could sense that you were nervous. "They‘re gonna love you, baby" she assured you. The pet names came only recently and they made you feel really special but it didn‘t help in that moment. You were gripping her hand so hard that at some point during the bus ride Alessia had to say something. "I‘m sorry. I‘m sorry!" you quickly apologized. "It‘s okay" she whispered in your ear as she pulled you into her side. "My mom has been dying to meet you." her voice low, your head on her shoulder, more on her chest. "You‘re making me happy, okay? That‘s all they care about" you nodded weakly. You have never been this nervous in your life, it scared you. All you wanted to do was to impress her parents and show them that you‘re worthy.

Standing at the door, you gathered all your courage. You could do this. "You ready, amore?" Again you gave her a nod but this time with more confidence. She pulled her key out of her jacket and unlocked the door. "We‘re here!" Alessia shouted. Immediately her mother greeted you both. "It‘s nice to meet you, Mrs. Russo" you said while holding out your hand for her to shake. Her brothers and father now also there. "Alessia! What did you tell her?" her mom joked. "I‘m Carol and i like hugs" she grinned as she hugged you. After the hug Alessia took your hand again and introduced you to the men. "This is my dad, Mario, this is Gio and this is Luca" she explained. "It‘s ni-" you held out your hand just to be rejected not only from her dad but also her brothers. "For you, it’s Mr. Russo!" All your confidence was vanished away. Alessia looked at her mom, questioning with her eyes why they‘re being so mean to you.

There was an awkward silence. "Let‘s take a seat in the dining room, dinner is almost ready" her mom then broke silence, thankfully. "Is there anything I can help you with, Carol?" you asked, hoping there was something. You didn‘t want to be in a room with all those men. They were intimidating you. "Oh no, sweetie, take a seat." Alessia guided you to your seat and sat next to you. "So Y/n, what do you do for living?" Luca asked, eyeing you skeptically. "Well, i still go to school but after school I work as a waitress in a café" her dad wanted to say something but like on cue her mom came with the food. It looked amazing yet you didn‘t say anything.

"Which café?" the other brother asked. "The one next to the library."

"Do you do any sports?" her dad asked in harsh voice.

"No…" you answered while looking at your plate. You felt unwelcome and just wanted to leave. Her dad rolled his eyes at you, not approving that you didn‘t do any sport. Alessia felt your discomfort and didn‘t understand why they all (besides her mom) acted like idiots. "Y/n is really good at playing the piano" Alessia added. She wished some tension would be eased but her dad had other plans. "Pff, music won‘t get her anywhere"

"Dad!" Alessia dropped her fork on her plate. What the hell was he saying?!

The whole dinner the men were disrespectful to you and didn‘t appreciate nor approve anything you said. The only one trying was her mom and still you were always interrupted in your attempt to answer.

Shortly after dinner, you decided that you wanted to leave. You no longer wanted to be in the house where you were apparently unwelcome. "I should go" you said when you were interrupted again. Alessia couldn‘t even argue. She understood why you wanted to leave and honestly If she had been in your place, she would have left as soon as possible. "I‘ll take you to the door" Alessia replied. "It was nice to meet you" everybody could hear you yet your statement was only directed to Carol.

"I‘m sorry. I don’t know why they‘re being like this" you didn‘t reply, you had no energy left. All her family (not her mom) did was to insult you and hurt you. You gave her a peck on the cheek, not longer than a second, and left. The last thing you heard from the italian was 'message me when you get home'. On your whole journey home you thought about the dinner. You've been thinking about all sorts of things: maybe they just had a bad day or maybe you were just the problem.

"What is wrong with you?!" Alessia shouted at her family. "Alessia-" her mom started "No, mom! The one time i bring someone home and then this!" she was furious. She wanted it to be perfect. She wanted you to like her family and the other way around. Her dad didn‘t even react and her brothers just looked at her. She didn‘t want to be around them any longer so she went upstairs to her room.

You to 'Less🐝'

at home.

You had nothing left, no energy, no courage, no confidence. You were hurt. Alessia wasn‘t the one to blame but you were still upset.

'Less🐝' to You

Good night,

Sleep well 💗

You didn‘t respond.

After the incident you avoided her. At school, you wouldn’t have actually seen her that day anyways yet you avoided her. Still you answered to her good morning message. Alessia knew something was off but she didn‘t seem to find you and after school didn‘t have the time because of training.

As usual after school you went to the café to start your shift. It wasn‘t too busy at the café so your shift was pretty relaxed. What you didn‘t expect though, was that shortly before shop closed Gio entered. He sat down at a table. "Hi, what can I get you?" you asked nicely. "I want you to leave my sister alone. She doesn't have time for a relationship. She needs to focus on football and doesn't need any distraction."

"What? You want me to break up with your sister?" Confusion written on your face. "Yes" wow. You didn‘t think that they disliked you this much. A break up? He couldn‘t be serious. On his way to the door, he turned around one last time "think about it. You could be the reason she‘s going to end unsuccessfully" before he left. You couldn‘t move, you couldn’t breathe. You sat on the chair for a while, unable to do anything.

You loved Alessia even if those words haven‘t left either of your mouth. Alessia loved you, too.

You to 'Less🐝'

how was your day?

miss you x

You wouldn‘t give her brother the satisfaction of a break up.

'Less🐝' to You

gimme a sec, baby

I‘m gonna call you 😘

You two have been on the phone all night. She told you every detail of her day and you about yours (minus the encounter with her brother). Everything was fine again between you.

A few days later Luca showed up at your house. As soon as you saw him you could guess what he wanted. "What do do want?" you asked anyway. Your voice was emotionless, dry. "Do you love my sister? Would you give everything up for her? For her career? What if she wants to play in a different country, would you follow her?" you ignored him, walking past him. "College is coming soon, huh? Ever thought about that?" he yelled after you. He was messing with you. Why was everyone against you? You supported Alessia in every decision she made, you went to almost every match to support her.

The final straw came when her dad visited you at the café. The mood between Alessia and you was already extremely tense. You wanted to be there for her, give her what she deserved, but you always had her brothers in mind. The way they mentally played with you.

"What can I do for you, sir?" you asked the italian. "I want you to take a seat" he said suprisingly friendly. "I still have customers, sir. I‘m not allowed to sit until my shift is finished."

"I‘ll wait" and he did, he was the last customer. You changed the open sign to closed and sat in front of him. "I'm sure my sons have already confronted you. And I know you didn‘t take their advice" Advice? Which advice? You wanted to laugh. "Look, Y/n?, right? I don‘t think you‘re good enough for my daughter. You don‘t understand anything about sports and i doubt that you’re going to make her happy on the long run. And If you really love her, you let her go and let her follow her dreams. You are a distraction" you sat there in silence. It broke your heart, your chest grew tight. Every word he said was true. You would never have been good enough for her. You were just a waitress while she was going to be a football star, maybe an idol for young girls. You didn‘t even know the rules of football.

That night you didn‘t sleep. You heard haunted voices. Voices that told you that you were a nothing, an idiot for believing that you had real chances with Alessia.

'Lessi🐝' to You

how was your shift? x

i miss you

hard day at work?

You there?

Good night

I still miss you :(

You to 'Lessi🐝'

I‘m breaking up with you.

It was the worst message to type. you sat an hour at your phone trying to type it. Tears were streaming down your face. You felt heart broken. You didn‘t want to break up that was for sure yet you had no other chance. She deserved the whole and you couldn‘t offer her that. And if you couldn't, at least someone else should have the chance.

'Less🐝' to You

What?

Why?

Y/n?

Answer me

Alessia tried to call you but you declined every time.

'Less🐝' to You

Answer the damn phone!

Y/n

Please…

Alessia sat sobbing in front of her phone. Not understanding what she did wrong to deserve this. Not understading at all where this was coming from. Her whole world crashed down.

"Mom" she cried as she walked out of her room. She needed some comfort now. She walked down the stairs to her mom which sat at the table eating breakfast with the rest of the Russo family. "She- she broke up with me" a loud sob escaped her mouth. Tears ran out of her eyes uncontrollably. She couldn't hold them back, she didn‘t want to. Her heart was just broken. She never in a million years would have thought that you would break her heart.

Alessia and Carol sat on the sofa, her head in her mother's lap, crying into it. She cried for hours until she fell asleep. As soon as she woke up she cried again. And again. She refused to eat, she refused to leave the couch, she refused everything. She just wanted you. She felt miserable without you. She didn‘t leave the house for school. She didn‘t go to training either, all she could do was to cry.

The russo men felt guilty. They didn't mean to break her heart. They only wanted what was best for her and they didn‘t think it was you. "I love her, mom. And- and I couldn‘t even tell her" she sobbed "i don‘t know what I did wrong".

"Oh sweetie…" Carol scratched her head and held her tight. It was the only thing she could do.

You didn't go to school either nor did you go to work. You were just as heart broken as she was. You only found comfort in her hoodie which slowly no longer smelt like her.

Her brothers tried desperately to get in contact with you, trying to make things right but you didn‘t answer the phone or opened the door. They waited at the café yet you never came.

In your heart broken state you started to rearrange your room, ate ice cream and chocolate (it didn‘t help like everyone always says).

Even though you weren't a couple for long, only a few months, you had a few things from her that you wanted to give back. It was her stuff after all. In all honesty: it just reminded you too much of her. You packed everything in a box and headed to her house. You didn‘t care how you looked. You didn‘t care that you hair was messy, that your clothes were worn since a few days or that you looked dead. It all didn‘t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

Your plan was just to put the box in front of the door, you didn't expect that in that moment Alessia would open the door. But she did. You were just about to leave when you heard her voice "y/n.." her voice quivering, broken. You turned around just to be faced with an Alessia that looked like you. Her hair was messy, her face pale, her eyes puffy and she wore a hoodie that belonged to you. "I just came to bring your stuff back" your voice was raspy. It was the first time since the break up that you said something. There was an silence.

"Why did you break up with me?" she asked as she stepped forward. Her lip was trembling, her eyes glassy, she was about to cry. "Alessia…" you whispered as you stepped back, trying to bring distance between you two. "No! I deserve an explanation! Tell me!" her voice got louder, more upset. Tears were streaming down her face. As well down your face. "Because i‘m not good enough for you! Okay?!" you shouted back. You were sure her family could hear you. "What?" she was speechless. "I‘m never going to be good enough for you. You deserve the world and I can‘t give you that. I won’t make you happy. They were right. I‘m just a nobody who works as a waitress while you have a great career ahead of you" It just bubbled out of you and it felt good. It felt good to say it out loud. Slowly she processed what you had said. "They? Who are they?!" Now she was getting angry. The thought of you thinking that you‘re not good enough for her. "Is that the reason you broke up with me?! Because people told you you‘re not good enough for me?" she yelled. The tears kept getting more and more. "Why would you believe them?!"

"Because they‘re your family!"

Alessias whole world stopped. She never thought that her family would betray her like that. That her dad and brothers would do something like. That they would force you to break up with her. They should protect her not hurt her. "I should go" you whispered. It was a deja vu. Somehow when you were at her house you always wanted to leave. "Please. Can I see you later?" she was relieved when you accepted her request.

After you left, she marched into the house with so much anger in her. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" she shouted at her dad, the only person in the living room. Her shouting though got the attention of all the family members which walked down. "What‘s wrong?" Gio asked confused. "What wrong is?! You forced her to break up with me!" she hit him on the chest with all her strength. He stumbled lightly but not much. "Why would you do that?" she was back crying. "We wanted to protect you" Luca said "We thought she wasn‘t good enough for you"

"We thought that she would distract you from following your dreams" her dad added. "She was the best thing that happened to me! She went to every game to watch me. All I did was trying to impress her. That‘s the reason why my game has improved so much." Alessia was sobbing by now.

"We see that now" they all replied in unison.

"All I did, was for her!" she was standing in the middle of the living room, bawling her eyes out. She hated it to cry especially in front of people but this was different. It felt like hell because they were the reason she was crying. Wordlessly her mom hugged her which made her cry more. Carol was disappointed. She liked you and you didn‘t deserve what the russo men said to you. Alessia told her about you before you even became a couple. Alessia talked about you all the time. The blonde told her how beautiful you were and how sweet and lovely. Her mother knew that Alessia was in love with you before Alessia herself realized that she was. Carol could see how happy she was with you as a friend and then how happy Alessia was with you as her girlfriend. And to think that you had break up with her daughter because her husband and sons told you that you were not good enough made her angry and sad. Because nobody had made Alessia smile this much and bright. You were special.

As Alessia calmed down (not from her anger but her crying) she turned to her family. "I hope you are happy" she said in a broken angry voice. she looked everyone dead in the eye and left the living room. "Where are you going?" her dad asked. As if he still had the right to talk to her. "None of your business" she put on her shoes and grabbed her key and phone "honey" her mom started "what are you doing?" It was okay that she didn‘t answer her dad but she hoped Alessia would answer her. "Trying to fix my relationship!" she looked one last time to her family "and for the record i hope for you that she still wants me because if not - scratch that either way I won't talk to you anymore. You. are. dead. to. me!" with that she slammed the door.

You were lying on your bed, starring at the ceiling. Your tears had stopped a while ago but your broken heart was still there. You felt embarrassed and exposed. All you wanted was to make Alessia happy and show her and the world that you were worthy of her love.

'Less🐝' to You

Can you open the door?

please

As soon as you saw that it was message from Lessi your heart fluttered.

It took you a minute to compose yourself. You didn‘t change or did anything since you saw her, you had no energy. When you opened the door your heart made a flip. Yes, you had seen her earlier but now where you weren‘t at her house shouting at each other you could appreciate it to see her.

She wanted to say something but you didn‘t let her with your eyes you told her to follow you. And she did.

You laid down on your bed (on your side) facing the window. Alessia was standing in your room, waiting for a signal. When none came she just did what was in der head. She laid next to you, facing your back. At first she left distance between you two but then she didn‘t anymore. She missed you so much. She grabbed your waist and pulled in you into her, her head resting on your shoulder. God, she missed your touch. She missed everything about you. The way you melted into her embrace, the way she could hug your smaller figure. After minutes of just holding you she whispered "I missed you so much" as a tear escaped her eye. you turned to face her as more tears stream down her face. Her eyes so clear blue in contrast with of her redness and paleness. "Please don‘t cry" your wiped away some tears. your hands didn‘t leave her face, they couldn’t. you missed her, too, so much. In her arms you felt at home, you felt peace. It was the first time since the break up where you both didn‘t feel completely heart broken. "You‘re good enough for me, okay? You- you‘re the best thing that happened to me" she cried. And she couldn‘t stop. Crying all day long she thought she had no tears left, oh boy was she wrong. "I love you" your heart went from broken to trembling to excited. Alessia loved you! No one's ever said that to you. You felt so many emotions at once; joy, sadness, excitement, fear and bliss. "Please don‘t let me go" you hadn‘t reliazed that your hands went off her face and you leant away. "Say it again" your voice was quiet, your eyes closed. "I love you" That's all it took for you to kiss her. A kiss that was so desperately needed. A kiss where you both felt alive again, where you felt whole. "I love you too" the two of you laid in silence. Your legs were tangled together, arms gripping one another scared that the other would disappear.

"What are we gonna do now?" you asked after what felt like an eternity of just holding each other. Alessia‘s heart was beating fast, she was tense. Maybe even scared. "I want to be my girlfriend-"

"But your dad and brothers…"

"I don‘t care!" Her voice was raised. It made her angry that her family had so much power over you - over your relationship. "I‘m sorry for raising my voice. I don‘t care, okay? I love you. And you love me. I don‘t want to spend another day without you being my girlfriend." she admitted. The days without you were horrible. She never wanted to exprience that again. Ever. "I‘m scared" you mumbled. Though you were already in her grasp, she pulled you closer. "I know" she kissed your forehead "but I promise you that none of them will ever talk to you again."

"What If they make you break up with me?"

"They won‘t. I love you. You make me a better person and footballer, they know that now. Even If they tried, i would quit football in a heartbeat just to be with you" her finger stroked your cheekbone so softly while her heart eyes looked into yours. "Be mine" her gaze lingered on your lips.

"Okay"

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watched Barça - Wolfsburg live, absolutely nerve wracking

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#alessia russo #alessia russo x reader #woso fanfics #woso x reader #woso #man utd women #arsenal wfc #engwnt #lionesses #engwnt x reader #lionesses x reader

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batneko · 1 year

Text

bowuigi love spell idea

Some wannabe Big Bad got it in their head that the reason Mario is so successful is he's got the Ultimate Sidekick in his own brother. What better way to defeat him than to kidnap Luigi and cast an elaborate unbreakable love spell on him? Romantic love will beat brotherly love, right??? (No.)

Obviously this doesn't go well, Mario rushes to Luigi's rescue and beats the snot out of the villain along the way. But it just so happens that one of the many complicated components of the spell was stolen from Bowser, and he barges in to get it back just as the spell is reaching its peak.

Nobody notices what happened at first. Luigi is so happy to be rescued that he thinks he's just feeling especially grateful to Bowser, even though his help was accidental. On their way out Bowser finally sees the magic circle on the floor and the items placed at various points and mutters "isn't this a waxing moon heart prison?"

Later, when Luigi is lying in bed wide awake thinking about Bowser of all people, he remembers that Bowser had known the name of the spell. No need to worry Mario about this. Surely if Luigi just... asks nicely? (And he really wants to see Bowser too, that's a bonus.)

Bowser thinks the situation is hilarious, but doesn't hesitate to help Luigi when he asks. Unfortunately he's lost track of the book he read the spell in (Luigi politely doesn't ask why he was reading about love spells in the first place) and can't remember all the details. They search the castle but find nothing.

Luigi comes back a week later. They do some more searching, try out a couple curse-breaking methods. Nothing. Bowser offers to let Luigi come back again, and finally Luigi asks why Bowser is being so nice about all this.

"I know what it's like to love someone who doesn't love you back. Wouldn't wish that on anybody."

So Luigi comes back the next week. And the next. And the next. At one point he accidentally refers to it as "date night" and Bowser laughs at him but starts calling it that too.

It's nice spending time with Bowser like this. It's REALLY nice. Sure, the feelings are artificial, but that doesn't stop him from feeling them. Having Bowser's attention, making him laugh... it feels good. Luigi almost forgets he's trying to STOP feeling this way.

It goes on for months, until finally one day, after one more failed curse-breaking attempt, Bowser asks, "What if it never works?" "I'll leave you alone," Luigi says. "I'll get out of your hair for good." "Would that be so bad?" Bowser asks. "Is it really so AWFUL being in love with me?" "No..." Luigi admits. "But you deserve someone who loves you for who you are." "You're the only one who thinks that and that's just because you're cursed," Bowser says. "I mean it. Not just because of the curse, I don't think there's anybody who doesn't deserve to have somebody love them." "Then stay," Bowser says. "Be that somebody." Luigi finally realizes what Bowser's saying... what he's been hinting at for weeks, actually, and Luigi refused to see it. "I could be good to you," Bowser says softly. "I could make you so happy." Luigi gets up and leaves without a word.

It's the hardest thing he's ever done, but he tells himself it's for the best. What if the spell does break one day? He'll stop loving Bowser and shatter his heart. And even if that doesn't happen, it's not good for Bowser to settle for artificial love.

So Luigi goes straight to Mario (okay, after ice cream and a cry sesh) and tells him... most of the truth. He lets Mario believe that Bowser has been annoyed with the situation this whole time. Mario knows a lot of people who know a lot of people, so one quest later they've finally found an Old Master Wizard who remembers the spell.

"Just wait it out," the guy says. "Don't make any rash decisions, and you'll be good in a month." "...what." "Yeah the waxing moon heart prison only lasts until the moon is in the same phase it was when it was cast, then you've gotta top it up." "Is... it possible to top the spell up by accident?" "Not a chance, it's nearly as complicated as casting it the first time. Don't worry! You'll be back to normal in four weeks."

It's been four MONTHS. And Luigi never noticed his feelings changing... much. They seemed to go from infatuation to something deeper but he can't remember when exactly.

Did he fall in love with Bowser for real?

Did he break Bowser's heart by leaving for nothing?

On the way back Mario keeps staring at Luigi, waiting for an explanation, but Luigi can't give him one. He shakes Mario off before they reach home and makes a beeline for Bowser's castle.

It takes a lot of apologizing before Bowser will see him, and even after explaining that the spell has been broken for a long time now Bowser still doesn't seem interested in anything Luigi has to say. So Luigi gives a big flowery speech about all the things he likes about him while Bowser glares in silence, but at last Luigi ends it with, "I love you."

It's the first time he's actually said those words. He's talked about "the love spell" and "my feelings," but he's never said "I love you" to Bowser's face.

Bowser picks him up and kisses him.

"I love you too." "Oh! Great." "It's gonna be a while before I can remember that it's not magic making you love me." "I understand." "So you'll need to tell me. A lot." "I can do that!" Luigi says.

He's got a lot of time to make up for.

#bowuigi #luigi #bowser #super mario bros #bowigi #bowluigi #luwser #green shell #long post #batfics #kinda

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meowzahzzz · 2 years

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bowser headcanons ft. gn reader ( ♡ )

bowser fans. monster fuckers. how are we feeling are we feeling fed. i am

to say bowser doesn’t quite understand healthy ways of expressing his feelings... is an extreme understatement.

bowser has this romanticized yet very callous conception of love. you do anything for love and it’s justified, so on and so forth.

this is why his kidnapping peach thing persists.

i want to say his “love” for peach isn’t... really love. he believes it to be love, but his feelings towards her aren’t the sort. this isn’t to say he’s abusive to her (the most he’s done is kidnap her and the whole situation lost it’s “distressing” impact Long ago). rather that bowser confuses his emotions a lot, and rather than think about it too hard, he just goes with whatever’s easiest.

~ pre-relationship

when you come in, bowser’s infatuation with peach is thrown out the window.

peach is grateful she’s not the apple of bowser’s eye anymore, but she does worry about you being his now.

i don’t imagine his attempts at “kidnapping” end well. either you kick his ass and tell him to go to therapy or peach comes to the rescue with mario (and they also tell him to go to therapy).

bowser, surprisingly (or maybe not-so surprisingly), takes it to heart. and he starts to realize his thing for peach wasn’t... what he thought it was.

he used to just kidnap her over and over again, try to win her over and over again; her rejection didn’t faze him, but he was almost expecting the triumphant feeling of Love (whatever that could possibly be) to just... show up during these attempts.

of course he’s a rough and crude turtle kaiju king, but there is a softness under that shell.

bowser, at first, tries not to think too hard about it. rejection didn’t really sting the way this did before.

he’s embarrassed to hell and back, refusing to speak on it and when it’s brought up by kamek (”quit moping about the rejection, your highness”) he gets red in the face and his body stiffens like he’s turned to a statue, his voice loud and cracked (”I’M NOT MOPING, SHUT UP *tearing up*”)

when he is eventually forced to face his embarrassment and the stinging pain of rejection, he tries to think of ways to legitimately apologize. and if that works out, he definitely plans on winning you over.

and speaking of that apology, he definitely tries to chicken out at first. he’s so embarrassed. he’s the koopa king, for pete’s sake! he’s the leader of his army, he’s a ruler to be feared! yet he cowers at the thought that you’ll send him back with his tail between his legs.

he apologizes in person, despite how many times he begged to just send a note or something and kamek would have to hit him on the head with his staff (”i didn’t raise you to apologize over a note, your highness.”).

you can tell he’s genuinely sorry. there’s shame in his expression; he can’t quite look you in the hand, he fiddles with his hands, and he coughs when the words don’t quite want to come out. but when he apologizes, he does mean it.

it probably takes a bit for you to forgive him because he did come on rather strong. but he’s overjoyed when you do forgive him (he’ll probably jump in the air with excitement before going back to his “tough cool guy” act where he’s like ‘yeah i knew you’d forgive me’ *goes back home to cry tears of joy*)

you two start off as friends. and something bowser finds odd is that, despite his own feelings (as strong as they’ve started to grow), he’s... okay with that. just that.

there’s no urgency. he can just enjoy your company, flustered as it may make him.

there’s a side to bowser you, nor have the others (peach, mario, etc.), have seen before. nobody ever quite believed he was as one-dimensionally villainous as he tried to come off as, but bowser would’ve been damned to have exposed it.

he still wears his spiked shell, but it’s as though he’s coming out of hiding around you.

his voice, while still gruff, isn’t so performative; there’s no outrageous evil plans or self-conceptions of grandeur, just mundane (maybe even domestic) conversation.

of course he still wants to look cool in front of you, but he doesn’t have to cover up who he is inside either.

he doesn’t care what you want to do or what you talk about, you have this attention either way. and you can’t help but feel that... you like his attention.

there’s a gentleness he shows you that nobody else gets to see, and it’s so evident in the reactions you get from the others just by talking about your... “hang-outs” together.

he’s an absolute gentleman, of course. kamek can excuse kidnapping, but he draws the line at being ungentlemanly.

opening doors for you, holding out a chair for you, being a subtle protector when he thinks things are gonna go south, etc.

you’re a person bowser values and he’s so new to these feelings he has, and he wants to protect them as much as he wants to protect you.

to say you have certain feelings about him as well is very much an understatement.

even when you can’t specifically name it, you feel that he sees you like you hang all the stars in the sky. you’re one of the only people who have gotten a genuine laugh out of him, let alone a smile. and it’s his gentle nature specifically towards you that just makes you melt.

at first, the thought seems ridiculous, liking bowser, the koopa king of all evil, like... like that! but you think of it again, of how you’ve been friends and all the times you’ve spent together, and you feel as though you’ve been wrapped with warm ribbons, heat rising to your cheeks. it’s undeniable.

he definitely confesses to you first. a hopeless romantic at heart, he shows up at your doorstep, all fancily dressed with a mushroom and flower bouquet in hand, asking if you’d want to go on a date---with him.

his cheeks are flushed, and he stares at the floor, unable to look at you in fear he’ll find disgust on your face.

but wide-eyed and flustered yourself, you accept.

and when he looks up, there’s this... almost this shock on his face at first, mouth slightly agape, like something he never, ever could’ve expected to happen---just happened.

it doesn’t take long for him to widely grin and laugh as he picks you up into the air and holds you close to him, the bouquet sadly getting a bit crushed while he holds you in this embrace.

~ relationship

bowser is the happiest and luckiest koopa in the land. undoubtedly.

even with your relationship’s ups and downs, it’s like he’s always in the honeymoon phase.

most of his “evil schemes” are reduced to mischivieous pranks which you, and his koopalings, often participate in.

speaking of the koopalings, you have to get along with them. bowser jr, wendy, roy---all of them.

those children are his heart, and to see you not only get along with them, but be nurturing to them... his heart grows twice its size.

part of why he was so obsessed with peach was because he felt as though they needed a “mother” in their lives. he may be the king of evil and all, but he never wanted to be a failure of a father to his kids.

whether you’re aware of it or not, you helped him realize that... he wasn’t failing his kids, they didn’t “need” someone else to fix his mess. he was a good enough father on his own. and it’s only a plus to have you around, too.

bowser loves domestic stuff, he craves it. baking pies, hanging around with the koopalings---any of the most normal, mundane activities become a dream when he’s doing them with you.

he would also really like for you to join him when he and the others go kart racing, golfing, etc. if you aren’t already.

he loves the competition, loves rallying up his new family together (you included) so they can go kick that red hat wearing plumber’s ass! ...and his green brother too, i guess.

he’s just become a happier guy in general.

mario certainly appreciates it, actually being able to befriend the king koopa.

and peach likes being able to not be someone’s strange obsession, and she also considers you to be a good friend.

daisy LOVES it at first because she thinks there’s drama, but then you reveal everyone’s happy and there’s no conflict, she’s like oh... okay i guess. 😐

luigi is frightened by bowser, no surprise there, but he’s happy for you! luigi’s a bit of a hopeless romantic himself so he finds the things you and bowser do endearing, even if it is hard thinking of bowser being sweet.

you two are the cutest motherfuckers ever. in the mushroom kingdom. in the galaxy. im so jealous

#LETS GOOOOOOOO I LOVE THIS #im also doing luigi next <3 #bowser x reader #nintendo x reader #monster x reader #nintendo #bowser #super mario #self-insert #f/o

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pianokantzart · 1 year

Note

Something I love about the Mario movie is how is basically squashed any kind of ideas of Luigi being jealous of Mario from the get go that fans have come up/theorized throughout the years.

The whole “Luigi is jealous and tired of living in Mario’s shadow” has no leg to stand on when it comes to this movie.

In fact, Luigi is actively the one singing praises towards Mario, he knows that his brother dreams big and has a big heart, he knows his brother is amazing and he loves him for that.

Does he have low self esteem? Absolutely. But there is absolutely not a single bit of jealousy/envy towards Mario, Luigi loves and adores him far too much to ever be jealous and angry at Mario, someone who means the absolute world to him.

Oh don't you get me started.

Too late, I’ve gotten started. YOU ARE SO RIGHT. The movie did to theories that Luigi's “bitter and jealous” what it did to theories that Mario’s an antisocial asshat.

There are two things I can point to that are to blame for the theories that Luigi is bitter and jealous:

The description of his Negative Zone final smash from Super Smash Bros. Brawl:

"Luigi's final smash. As exotic music plays, he performs a dance befitting a sorcerous incantation. A barrier envelopes him, negatively impacting all in his area. Random effects include getting launched, sleeping, moving in slow motion, tripping, fainting, and losing attack power. This technique is a reflection of the dark side he embraced in his brother's shadow."

2. His characterization in Paper Mario

But there’s like… almost 40 years of games to glean from. You can literally pick and choose whatever you want to form any sort of theory (like a certain internet man did when arguing that Mario is an animal abusing sociopath). But 99% of the games show about as much evidence that Luigi is bitter as they do that Mario is a bad person– none at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

As for Paper Mario, it's the only time Luigi is directly characterized as envious... NOT jealous. He still loves his brother and sees him as worthy of the praise he gets, but he feels bad being stuck at home, and desperately wants to be brought along for the adventure– to have his opportunity in the limelight. But Paper Mario is kind of its own thing, established to be a separate universe from the mainline Mario games. In the Super Mario Brothers RPGs– which delve deeper into the bros character while remaining more aligned with the classic "canon"– the dynamic is quite the opposite! Mario dives headfirst into danger while Luigi desperately avoids it unless there is no other choice. In Super Mario Brothers Superstar Saga he tries his darndest to not be taken along for the adventure, confident that his brother can handle the task.

But one consistent across the Mario games is Luigi being the underdog of all underdogs; unlucky and clumsy, the butt of the joke, and constantly undermined. Naturally this causes people to get defensive of him– get angry for him, and project their feelings onto the character himself.

But tHEN WE HAVE THE MOVIE!!!!

Nintendo is given a chance to craft Mario and Luigi into fully fleshed-out characters with motivations and backstories, not just plucky videogame personalities for people to project themselves into, and boy oh BOY did they knock it out of the park.

While Mario is still a headstrong hero with a never-say-die attitude and a heart of gold, everything he does is for his brother. Mario has insecurities about feeling small and wants to prove himself to his father, but in the end his love for Luigi is his main motivator. Mario can handle being threatened, made fun of, and told he’s crazy, but if you want to truly hurt him, tell him his actions are hurting his brother. Try hurting Luigi directly, and Mario will tear you a new one.

In return, everything Luigi does is for Mario! Lu’s not the willful ball of determination and gusto that his brother is– he has always been nervous, softhearted, and sensitive, which is why he lets his brother lead the way. Luigi’s not living in Mario’s shadow, he’s thriving off of his confidence! He recognizes Mario as his best friend and greatest source of strength, and will follow him absolutely anywhere.

There is no sense of Mario being treated like the beloved star of the show while Luigi gets the short end of the stick. They are both downtrodden, both learning, and both dependent on each other. It's not just Super Mario, it's the Super Mario Brothers, who equally inspire each other to be the best version of themselves.

#not art #Mario Movie #Super Paper Mario #Mario #Luigi #Fun fact this was originally twice as long and went into fifteen other directions #this is me holding myself back #Long Post #Mario Commentary #super mario bros #super mario brothers

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bigboysfalldeep · 1 year

Text

A policemans' tale - Part 3

Two months into his job as a police officer, Lennard couldn't be happier. He's doing a pretty good job at the station, and the chief is also very confident in him and his abilities as a police officer. In fact, he gave him a new partner, one greenhorn who just finished studying, to tell him the ins and outs of the job. Right now, the car is parked in a vacant parking lot. It's noon, and the shift is nearly over. Just two more hours to go. Mario, his new partner, had to go to the toilet, which is why Lennard is waiting inside the car, watching him enter a small gas station.

The sun is shining brightly through the front window, while Lennard is browsing his phone, looking at pictures of himself in uniform. Swiping the pictures away, an ominous feeling washes over him. It feels like hes being watched by someone, something lurking nearby. He looks left and right; there is no one in sight—just a few cars, a bird here and there, but nothing threatening. "Fuck." He chuckles; maybe he's just nervous. However, his body is tensing more and more, and the hair on the back of his neck is standing at attention.

Suddenly, he can hear something deep inside his mind. A noise, a low screeching sound, like somebody is scratching the whiteboard with rusty nails. It gets louder and louder—a pain-inducing sound. He closes his eyes and tries to cover his ears with his hands, but the sound is already echoing through his every thought. Lennard realizes that it seems like somebody or something is calling for him. "Lennard." A familiar yet distant voice mutters again and again.

"What is this?" He groans when the noise suddenly drops. The officer lowers his hands and opens his eyes. Again, no one was in sight. But then. "Can you hear me, boy?" That voice rings through his head once more, causing the cop to shake his head. "What? Who?" Lennard rubs his temple. "Lennard, do you hear me?" The voice says it in a more serious tone. Shaking his head and chuckling nervously, Lennard tries to play it off. "I must be exhausted. Hallucinating." He closes his eyes to concentrate, but then he can feel a presence inside him.

"You're not hallucinating, boy." The voice smirks. "I've been here for a while now." Lennard shakes his head and looks around. Where is he? "You cannot see me, boy." The man laughs mockingly. "It's inside your mind." Still chuckling nervously, Lennard looks into the rear view mirror, and inside his eyes, he can see something different. A faint shine is hiding behind them. "Who are you?" He says it worryingly. "This has to be a dream." He thinks to himself. "This can't be." For a few seconds, the voice is quiet before laughter echoes through his mind. "Not a dream, boy. Let me show you."

Lennard's heart beats through his chest; he can't breathe or move when his eyes close shut. He doesn't have control right now, and more and more flashes explode in front of his inner eye. Memories of the past few months The voice lets him live through these moments again. He remembers the first time he went under, inside a similar police car, just one week into this job. He feels his whole body going through it again, his partner chocking him hard, the music playing in the background, the commands. Obey. Relax. Stay calm and follow orders.

His breath quickens even more as he feels himself going under again. His dick turns rock-hard, edging him on, while all of his muscles try to burst through the tight uniform. Then, as it ends, another memory bursts to life. The second time, that man visited him at home. He went under in just an instant, his body already conditioned to follow this man's voice. The same voice as today. Unable to breathe, he opens his eyes and lets out a long, deep groan. "What the fuck are you doing to me?" Lennard shoots loudly, sweating heavily. "Liked what you saw?" The voice mocks, causing Lennard to look at his crotch, his dick bulging and twitching inside his tight pants.

"This is sick!" Lennard protests, but he cannot help but stroke himself firmly again and again. It's written into his mind; hearing the voice of his master is triggering him more and more. "You're a freak!" He hisses, looking around again.

"Im just going to take whats mine, Lennard." The voice smirks again. Lennard closes his eyes for a second, contemplating. "This has got to be a nightmare". He thinks as he feels himself growing weaker. "Don't fight it, boy; you're just making it harder for yourself." Lennard bites his lips and opens his eyes when he feels a familiar warmth spreading through his body, starting at the top of his spine and sending shivers down his back.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The cop growls as his back gets stiffer. All of his muscles and every fiber in his body are vibrating. "Taking over." The voice speaks calmly. Lennard tries to get out of the car, just away from him.

But somehow, the seatbelt acts as a restraint, growing tighter around his heavy chest. "LET ME GO." He thrashes around, but it's no use. "I love it when they try." The voice laughs, and Lennard's breathing gets heavier as it gets harder to breathe.

At the same time, he is touching himself, his dick getting bigger and bigger the more the warmth spreads through his body. Lennard feels it invading his chest, his abs, and his stomach. "FUCK." He looks down, his pecs hardening, and he tries to get the belt off, or at least his police vest. Still, no use at all. Quite the opposite.

His heart accelerates even more, and he's close to fainting due to pure pressure. It's hot and sweaty inside the car. He gasps for air, for relief, but the warmth keeps spreading right into his thick arms. "No. Please." He cries out as his muscles tense more than ever before. Looking at his sleeves, he can see something move underneath his skin.

Whatever that thing is, it's really inside him already. The warmth then reaches his fingerstips, and his arms go numb. He can't move them or feel them, but in horror, he watches them move again. The hand on his dick intensifies the grab, rubbing the twitching cock now firmly, while the other strokes across his chest, easily sliding underneath the vest to put more pressure on the chest.

"How do you feel now?" The voice mocks him as he's in pain, lonely tears running down his face. "Please, stop." He begs, but that feeling won't stop. Instead, it slowly spreads into his thighs, balls, and further down into his calves, feet, and toes. Lennard kicks violently until his legs go numb too.

He can only sit there, watching his body disobey him. "Nearly there, boy." The voice says, and the officer lets the hand stroke him even harder. Lennard is already sweating; his chest and heart are aching, while his hands wander across his whole body. Then he sees Mario inside the gas station, buying some snacks.

He tries to reach for the horn to make any noise, or maybe the holster around his thighs, but his arms and hands are not responding. "Nice try." The voice giggles. "There is no help for you now."

"Dont. Please." Lennard says, his eyes following his hand towards his cock again, before he grabs himself firmly. His dick is imprinting through the pants along his thighs, and he starts to jack him off. The warmth is still spreading; his chest feels fuzzy now, and his cock is filled with it too.

Still, he can feel the pressure, the pain, and the pleasure with every move of the hand. He shakes his head in one last attempt to break free. "Still so resilient? I like that." The voice laughs, and the feeling stops for a second. Lennard takes a deep breath, hoping for it to be over. But then, so quickly, the warmth spreads into his head and his mind, flooding it with more flashes of past overtakings.

It simply gets too much, and he feels his thoughts being washed away. He drools heavily, and it stains his vest. With his hand still massaging his cock, his eyes lose focus, and with multiple strong thrusts, his body shoots loads and loads of cum right into his briefs, the hot liquid even pressing through their fabric and into the navy blue uniform pants.

For a few more seconds, he sits there, his body stiff and rigid, before it slowly goes limp. Lennard regains his composure, his eyes gain focus, and he moves a hand to steady his heavy head. However, Lennard is gone; it's the voice who's leading that body now. His eyes are shining slightly as he looks into the rear-view mirror, admiring his pretty face.

He moves his hand towards his firm jawline and traces it with one finger while the other hand touches his wet, throbbing cock through the pants. "Finally." He groans, still feeling the pleasure radiating through every fiber of his body.

"I was waiting for this day," he says in the officer's voice, yet not his voice. A mixture of their voices, deep, rough, yet smooth at times. The man starts to touch himself—his chest and neck—feeling his biceps pressing against the tight shirt and vest. "Even better than expected." He smirks, still rubbing his cock firmly. There is a huge wet spot covering his crotch, but this just makes him hard again. And the smell is so good.

Lennards aftershave is easily covering up the faint scent of cum, but it's slowly but surely getting heavier inside the car. He exhales deeply, his body still sore from the hostile takeover. "Fuck, this feels good." The officer leans his head back, enjoying this moment. He licks his lips, taking a closer look at the tattoos, which are beautifully drawn, making him even hotter. Looking at himself in the mirror, he flexes his huge arms one by one.

But then, his eyes spot Mario slowly walking towards the car, some snacks in hand, and when he sees 'Lennard' he smiles. "There he is." 'Lennard" smiles back and quickly picks up his phone from the floor, looking through it for a very special video. The door opens, and Mario gets inside. "It was a mess in there." He says, sitting down, turning his face towards 'Lennard'. "I hope I didn't catch anything." Mario giggles and hands his partner a bag of sweets, but he doesn't respond.

Just then, he notices the state 'Lennard' is in. Messed up hair and face, dranched in sweat, his vest and pants stained, and ultimately a mess. "Are you ok, Lenny?" Mario says, his eyes slowly wandering down his partner's body, catching him stroking his dick through the wet pants while going through his phone. "What the fuck?" he says, but looking into 'Lennards' eyes interrupts him. They're shining ever so brightly—multiple colors at once, it seems. Mesmerizingly, they spin slightly, and it gets worse once their eyes meet. "I never felt better." 'Lennard' smirks, but it's not his usual voice. "Whaat...what happened?" Mario stutters, his eyes pulling back from that burning gaze and back to the hand rubbing that massive cock.

"I took what was mine." 'Lennard' says, placing a hand at the officer's shoulder, right next to his neck. This causes Mario to flinch and look back into those eyes. "Yours?" He says quietly, and 'Lennard' just raises his phone right into his face. "Watch this, and you will understand." The video plays, and instantly, the car is filled with ear-piercing music. The officer tries to pull away, flinching again, but 'Lennard' holds him in place. "Whatt?" He says this, and his eyes stare at the screen. A beautiful spiral dances across the phone, with so many colors swirling around.

"Hold it," 'Lennard' demands, and without hesitating, Mario takes it with both hands. They drop to his lap, but his eyes are stuck at the screen. "Good job, officer." 'Lennard' smirks and reaches for the man's chest. Lovingly, he starts to stroke him underneath his vest, one hand still caressing his neck. "Thats right. Watch it. Good boy. Feels good?" Mario doesn't respond; instead, his mouth opens slightly, and he starts to drool. "Ah, that's good. I see." He says this, stroking him more and more as his body reacts instinctively. The chest grows firm, the nipples hard, and his muscles bulge, with the uniform barely able to contain him. "Big boy, aren't we?"

'Lennard' holds back a low growl while touching his partner's upper body. He feels good, smooth, and young. Mario enters a state of vacancy. That video is made to weaken a man's mind and make him open to programming. And Mario seems to be the perfect subject. His body reacts simultaneously to every single touch, and while he keeps watching that video, he keeps listening to the music. The officer's mind is filled with commands. Obey. Relax. Just give in. That feels so good.

'Lennard's body is reacting as well, with his throbbing cock again tenting inside the uniform. "I love this part." He says this and runs a hand down his trousers. At the same time, he feels Mario's dick tenting as well. "Good boy." He smirks, that twitching cock in his hand. "Can you hear me, Mario?"

"Yes." He says it in a monotone voice, his eyes stuck on the screen. "Good. Were nearly there." 'Lennard' licks his lips, opens Mario's pants, and manages to pull his huge dick out. "Look at that." He wraps a hand around it and gets started. Rhythmically, he moves his hand up and down, starting off slow, with increasing pace and strength. He leans into him, whispering into his ear. "Listen to my voice. You're trained to serve and meant to serve, and that's what you will do. You will follow my orders and my commands. What I say is your wish. What I want is an order. Do you understand?"

Mario's face grimaces due to the pain and pleasure echoing through his whole body. "Yes." He moans deeply, his body tenses, and all of him is pulsating—his mind, his muscles, his cock, every fiber of his being. He begins to thrust against 'Lennards' grip, but he just smirks. "Good. But you won't cum yet. Just when I tell you to. Do you understand?" This makes his body even harder. All of him is ready to cum, ready to serve, but he can't. His eyes lose focus; he drops the phone and leans his whole body back against the seat.

"Officer?" The man says, removes his hand from the erect cock, and places a hand at Mario's neck. In response, he lets out a low, guttural moan. "Now." 'Lennard' says, and with that, Mario's body twitches as his cock explodes again and again. He moans and groans as his eyes roll completely back into his skull. After a few more dry shots, he regains his composure. 'Lennard' is touching himself while watching his newest subject. "Good boy." He pats Mario's cheek, who doesn't react. His eyes are vacant now, but they are shimmering slightly. "Very good boy." 'Lennard smiles, grabs the officers dick, and carefully dresses him again.

He pats his chest and thighs, admiring that man's physique. Then he lets his hands explore the whole body. His arms, hands, shoulders, and thighs; he takes his time feeling his chest, neck, and face, enjoying that smooth skin, the stubble, and soft lips. "Can you hear me, boy?" Mario nods, his eyes looking into the distance. 'Lennard' unzips his pants, pulls them down, including the underwear, and exposes his wet, sweaty, throbbing cock.

"You earned yourself a meal." He says, patting Mario's neck firmly, "He doesn't waste any time. He bends down and takes the cock into his mouth. He knows how to move his mouth, exactly hitting every one of his most sensitive spots. "Fuuuuck." 'Lennard's groan turns into a giggle. He puts a hand at Mario's neck, forcing the whole cock into the mouth, making him gag. This, however, does not interrupt him. He keeps sucking, and after a few more seconds, after all that pleasure before, he cums right into his mouth. Mario swallows it, and 'Lennard' has to tell him to stop.

"Good job." He says, admiring Mario's engagement. "We're going to have fun".

#male on male #tf story #male domination #male transformation #male posession #male body possession #male body suit #male meat suit #cop domination #cop posession #cop tf #male hypno #male hypnosis #gay hypno #hypno story

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thankskenpenders · 1 year

Text

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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starrgaziinggg · 2 years

Text

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS | lee minho

PART EIGHT

You finally meet the man your friends Felix and Hyunjin have been blabbing about for the past couple months, and he's a royal pain in the ass.

Lee Minho is a legacy at your university. He received an honorary award when he graduated, got a position as a dancer in a company a week after receiving his diploma...and was renowned as the schools famous ice-cold fuckboy.

After coming back from a three month tour, you're introduced to him through your uni friends...and your life does a 180. It's hard enough to pass classes whilst also trying to navigate your failing relationship...but the added tension that comes with the dance prodigy you seem to be spending more and more time with?

Some would say it's too much to handle.

|Non idol AU|university AU|friends to lovers|

part eight

Everybody knows January is always the slowest month of the year. The year end always passes by in a blur, the days seemingly non existent until new year hits and suddenly it's as though time has slowed down. The days stretch, and January is a long, cold, gruelling month.

That's exactly how your January went. You'd stayed with your family over Christmas and new year, letting the boys invite of spending new year with them be turned down. They understood that you hadn't seen your family since the start of the semester, and wanted to spend as much time as possible with your parents and grandmother until you had to return back to Seoul for the start of the semester.

The only good parts about the start of second semester was that you enjoyed your class rotation, one of your end of school year exams was a group project that ran throughout the course of the whole semester so you got to pair up with Hyunjin and Felix, and you ended up passing all your exams with flying colours.

Of course you, Hyunjin and Felix had gone out to celebrate, bringing the rest of the boys, who had also passed their exams (even Changbin, which was miraculous since he barely attended his classes and did next to no revision) and Chan tagged along too. The only one who wasn't there was Minho, for obvious reasons.

You hadn't spoken to him at all since he'd left. He hadn't made any effort to reach out to you, so you reciprocated the action. It wasn't as though you had much to talk about over the phone, anyway. You'd said what you needed to say when you'd seen him last, and that was that.

After the events of last semester, your life almost started to feel boring, monotonous. It was the same schedule daily; go to classes with Hyun and Lix, come back to the dorms and either watch tv with Seungmin or wait for him to get back from baseball practice and make him spend time with you then.

He knew you were bummed about the whole situation, and although he'd refrained from saying, 'I told you so', you could tell he wanted to knock some sense into you. He'd said from the start that your friends with benefits situation with Minho wasn't good for you, since he could see your feelings for him a mile off. He knew you too well, you'd decided.

Despite this, he'd been a great friend to you after your return to your dorm the first week of January. He played mario kart with you whenever you asked, still cooked you most of your meals, and let you vent about how much you missed Minho. He was probably sick of hearing it, but he never showed.

Hyunjin, although you'd seen him multiple times since you'd been back home, had been kind of distant with you. He hadn't really been his usual clingy, excitable self, though you had no idea why. You didn't blame him for the misunderstanding because you knew how rumours spread - one piece of stray information gets misconstrued and ends up a whole different thing entirely.

You hadn't spoken to him about it much, other than just explaining that he was wrong about the whole thing, and you were starting to think he was more upset about the whole situation than you initially thought. It was due to this that when Hyunjin messaged you, a message very similar to the one you'd received that had started this whole thing, you'd agreed to meet him at the coffee shop for a chat.

The early January air seemed impossibly colder than that of December, so you were pleased to escape the freezing chill of the outdoors as the bell chimed in the coffee shop, signalling your arrival. The best part about the coffee shop you spent most of your time in was that it was less than a five minute walk away from your dorm - and, obviously, that Jeongin worked there. He gives you a wave and a smile from behind the counter, before letting his eyes dash to an obviously stressed Hyunjin sitting in the booth, and back to you.

You shrug at him, unable to do much more, as you walk up to your booth and place a hand on Hyunjin's shoulder to notify him of your presence, since he was sitting in the chair facing away from the door. He practically jolts out his skin when he feels your presence, standing up awkwardly. He moves to hug you without thinking twice, and you'd be lying if you said you hadn't missed his embrace, and him acting fine with you in general.

It's strange for a second as you slide into the booth silently, waiting for Hyunjin to start speaking. After he doesn't make a move to start, fiddling with his fingers instead, you go to talk - just as he begins to speak, which make you both laugh nervously.

"You go," you say, mostly because you weren't actually sure what you were going to say to him in the first place. He takes a deep breath before he begins talking.

"I'm sorry, I'm just getting this massive wave of deja vu and it's making me all wonky," he whines, and paired with the puppy dog look he has on his face, you can't help but to chuckle at him.

"I know, me too," you say honestly. "But whatever you need to tell me, it's alright."

He uses your encourage words and takes them in his stride, pushing on with what he wanted to tell you. "I don't know if you know, but Minho hasn't talked to me since he left. Well, until yesterday."

You did not know this. You had thought Minho's radio silence was reserved only for you; subject to your terms of his leaving for two months.

"Had he been talking to the other guys?" You ask, and he nods, frowning. He pulls the strings of his puffer jacket.

"Yeah, so I figured he was annoyed at me for telling you, you know," he says, tilting his head. You knew. "But he called me last night, saying that Seungmin forced him to call me and sort things out."

You nod this time, knowing Seungmin hated it when his friends fought and although he always put up a demeanour as though he couldn't care less, he was always the one to try and make his friends make up after an argument.

"He was practically screaming down the phone at first, and I understood why after he explained everything to me."

You tilt your head. "Explained what?"

"About how he's practically in love with you," he says instantly, widening his eyes afterwords and covering his mouth with his hands. "Fuck, he specifically told me not to tell you that. See, this is why I keep messing things up so much!"

"It's fine, Hyun," you say sincerely. "I won't say anything. Did he actually tell you that?"

Hyunjin nods slowly. "Yeah, those exact words, amidst some shouting about how I'm a terrible friend."

You can tell he's genuinely upset about whatever Minho had told him, so you go to hold his hand, choosing to focus on comforting your friend over focusing on the revelation. He squeezes yours as soon as you make contact.

"He didn't mean that, Hyunjin. He was just angry," you say, knowing that Minho would regret everything he said to Hyunjin as soon as he'd calmed down. "You're not a terrible friend, you just got things wrong."

"I guess," Hyunjin replies, deflated. "But I still have a lot of apologies to make, and I wanted to do them in person, starting with you. Since Minho isn't back for another three weeks, obviously."

He sighs, looking at your intertwined hands before talking again. "I'm so, so sorry for not being supportive of you and Minho. He was right - he's supposed to be one of my closest, longest friends, and I had absolutely no faith in him. Even after he told me that he felt different about you right at the start, I didn't believe him."

You screw your face up at him, and he almost bangs his head off the table. "Oh my fucking god, I need to shut up, seriously."

"What do you mean he told you right at the start he felt differently about me?"

"I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Jesus, I'm turning into Felix telling all these secrets."

"Hyunjin," you say warningly, and he throws his hands up in the air in defence.

"Okay, okay. You remember that night, when we went clubbing after you and Doha broke up, and me and Minho talked pretty much the whole time we were having drinks in your dorm?" You nod your head in response. "It was then. He basically said he thought there was something special about you, and if anything was ever going to happen between you both he didn't want it to just be some meaningless fling."

You have to force your jaw to stay in place at Hyunjin's revelation. This kind of changed everything, since you knew now how serious Minho was about actually being with you. He'd known it from the start, even going as far as to tell Hyunjin about it.

"But please, please forget I told you that - this is all, fuck, I just need to shut up," Hyunjin rushes out. "Anyway, I just wanted to say how sorry I am about...well, everything. I was horrible to you about your ex, and even though he was a dickhead, I should have been nicer about the whole thing. And then, when you started seeing Minho and I was so judgmental about that too..."

He trails off, and when you look at him properly you realise he's tearing up. He looks down at his lap, sniffling, and your heart genuinely breaks in two. Without a second thought, you stand up and move to his side of the table, wrapping your arms around him. You weren't much of a hugger, but you knew when your friends needed comforting.

Hyunjin responds instantly, letting you hug him and wrapping his arms around your waist. "God, I don't even know why I'm crying."

"It's okay, Hyun," you chuckle, starting to feel emotional yourself. You hated seeing your friends upset (every time Felix so much as drunk cried, your heart shattered), so seeing Hyunjin cry because he felt bad about how he'd treated you was awful.

When you finally pull away from him, he wipes his eyes with his jacket sleeve, running both hands through his long blonde hair as if to sort himself out.

"Jesus, this is not how I wanted this conversation to go," he laughs slightly, revealing his dimples as he shakes his head. "But we're okay, right?"

"Of course we're okay!" You say in disbelief. You'd never had someone care so much about your friendship as to be this worried about it before. As much as you hated seeing Hyun so emotional, it was almost heartwarming to know how much he truly cared for you. "You didn't do anything you did out of spite, you only did it cause you were looking out for me."

He hums, nodding, giving you a lopsided smile. "I think one of the reasons I'm so protective over you is because you're an only child, too. We never had siblings to look out for us, we just had to figure things out for ourselves, and sometimes I feel like you're the little sister I never had. Especially with boys."

He adds the last part in a comedic tone, but it doesn't stop your eyes brimming. You know exactly what he means, and it pulls at your heartstrings. Just before your about to get all sentimental, though, Jeongin dumps his apron on the table and places an extra fancy hot chocolate in front of you, sliding into the booth next to you.

"So, I'm on my break - are you two done with your soppy lovey moment?" He says cheekily, so you roll your eyes at him and give his shoulder a nudge.

"Yes, we're done idiot," Hyunjin replies, distaste in his tone. "Why does she get a free drink and I don't?"

"Because I like her more than I like you," Jeongin says plainly, shrugging. "Now, tell me more about this secret birthday party I'm not supposed to know about."

You spend the next couple hours drinking hot chocolate (you swore Jeongin made the best in the world) and trying to avoid the topic of Jeongin's secret birthday party, which actually was very real and apparently not very secret. You'd all been planning it for months, since he was turning twenty one - a special birthday. All of you had done your best not to tell Jeongin about what was going on, but once Felix knew, he couldn't keep his mouth shut, and Jeongin caught on pretty quickly.

You'd just returned from the shops one night a week later, out to buy your joint present with Seungmin for Jeongin (a pair of shoes you knew he had his eyes on), when you were faced with someone you honestly did not expect to ever talk to again.

As you pushed open the main door of your dorm, balancing a shopping bag, a shoe box and a birthday banner in one hand and your keys in the other, you called out for Seungmin to come and help you carry your things inside. You'd realised something was up when he emerged looking distressed, giving you a worried look.

"What?" Is all you said, an eyebrow raised as he took the shopping bag from you and you headed through to your room to dump all the things you'd bought for Jeongin's party.

"Um," Seungmin started nervously, moving in your way to block your bedroom door. "Firstly, I tried my best to stop her and secondly, please don't scream at me. Or kill me."

You're utterly confused until you push your bedroom door open and Sooyun is sitting on your bed, on her phone. She looks up at you. Your eyes widen as you slowly turn to Seungmin.

"You're a dead man," you say quietly, dumping everything you were holding on the floor and turning to throttle him. He ducks out of your reach.

"Please don't!" Sooyun speaks up, the sound of her voice more than jarring. "It's not his fault, I demanded he let me in. Literally."

"I never though I'd say this," Seungmin says with a shaky voice, holding your wrists in his hands. "But she's right, I really did try to keep her out but she's scrappy!"

You turn to look at Sooyun, who gives you a nervous smile. "I am pretty scrappy."

With a huff, you turn on your heel to face Seungmin. "If were not done talking in five minutes, I've probably murdered her, and you will need to help me bury the body."

"Fair enough," Seungmin breaths out, saluting you as he slowly backs away. You turn to Sooyun.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm doing good, how are you?" Sooyun starts, rolling her eyes sarcastically and clasping her hands. "I'm loving this warm welcome."

"Get out," is all you reply with, pointing towards your door. She huffs, softening up physically.

"Okay, okay, sorry," she rushes, sighing. "You know I use humour as a coping mechanism."

You don't even say anything, just wait for her to continue with whatever it is she's come here to say. You'd honestly be more than content with never speaking to her again but, alas - life seemed to have other plans.

"I'm sorry," she says, and you can tell she's being sincere. You used to know her inside and out, after all. You move to sit on your bed, the opposite end to Sooyun. "I genuinely, really am. I never intended for you to find out the way you did, and I honestly never intended to go behind your back, either."

"But you did do both of those things," you say, surprisingly calmly.

"I did yes, but in my defence I did try to tell you before you found out," she reasons, and you roll your eyes. "You were brushing me off the whole week before you walked in on me and Doha. I tried to make plans with you so many times to tell you, and you ditched me every time."

"I ditched you because I'd just found out Doha was cheating on me!" You shout, remembering you're in a communal living situation and attempting to lower your voice. "I wanted to figure things out myself. I was planning on dumping Doha and coming to tell you, but that didn't happen."

Sooyun huffs, looking up at the ceiling, and when you take a peek at her you watch tears well up in the corner of her eyes.

"I know," she says softly, surprising you. "I know I'm the worst friend ever, and I don't want to excuse my actions at all. I shouldn't have gone behind your back, and I shouldn't have lied to you about it and - I just..."

She stops, taking a deep breath. "I just want you to know that I am sorry for what I did to you, and I will always be sorry. It's the worst thing I've ever done."

"So why did you do it?"

She waits for a second before speaking again, turning to look at you properly. "I never intended to love him, not at all. He was you're boyfriend, but I'd always kind of had a crush on him. I just put it to the back burner for your sake -"

You scoff. "How kind of you."

She actually chuckles at your interruption, shaking her head before continuing. "But then in summer, we bumped into each other in that coffee shop near my place in Busan, and got to talking. I tried so, so hard to ignore my feelings but when he started reciprocating them...I just couldn't help myself. I know it's terrible, and I don't want or expect you to ever forgive me for what I did."

"So what's the point in telling me all this?" You ask, genuinely wondering why she felt the need to explain herself after all these months.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about you, and then in turn I knew I should at least try and apologise," she says, and you tilt your head. "When I saw you at the Christmas markets, you know, at the skating rink, I realised how much I'd missed you."

"What's that got to do with what you want to tell me?"

"You've been looking miserable around campus recently," she points out, and you know she's right. "You looked ecstatic that day at the ice rink with Minho."

"You know him?"

"Everyone knows Lee Minho, babe," she chuckles. "Well done, by the way."

You shrug, feeling kind of proud.

"But you've not been together recently, and I figured that might have something to do with the fact you've had a face like a slapped ass of recent," she tilts her head questioningly. "And as much as you hate me now, we once told each other everything, and it pains me to see you so upset."

Oh, what the hell. You hated her, sure, but you could use a girls perspective on your current situation. You didn't need to make amends with her and you certainly didn't like her by any means.

"He's working away for two months," you start to explain the basics, not wanting to spare huge details of your life to the girl who stabbed you in the back. "And we left things on a bit of a limbo note. I'm fine, it's just...weird."

You notice the way her eyes light up as you speak to her, not expecting you to open up. "Well, if it's any consolation, you looked really cute together. You were smiling at him in a way I don't think I've ever seen you smile, or be as comfortable as you were with Doha. And I'm not just saying that due to the circumstances."

You can't help but let out a laugh. The whole situation was beyond you at this point, and you had much bigger issues you wanted to deal with. At least this was a step towards all that mental improvement you'd told Minho you'd achieve before he came home.

"This doesn't mean I forgive you," you point out with a straight face, and Sooyun holds her hands up.

"Don't expect you too," she counters. "As long as you take in my apology, and sort out your shit with your man, that's good enough for me."

"Excellent. Now get out," you say, but you're smiling slightly as you say it, and she gives you a small smile back as she stands up. When she opens your door, Seungmin is standing cautiously on the other side.

"Oh thank god," he breaths out, placing a hand on his heart. "I was about to get the gloves and shovel out."

Sooyun chuckles, manoeuvring past Seungmin to stand in your hallway. "I wouldn't have been surprised if you had to. It's what I deserve."

Seungmin turns to you with a raised eyebrow and you shrug in response. "Bye, Sooyun."

"Bye guys," is all she says, turning on her heel and seeing herself out of your dorm. Seungmin comes to join you, creating a dip in your bed as he takes a seat.

"So," he starts, getting himself comfortable and turning to face you slowly. "What did the she devil want?"

"Surprisingly, all she wanted was to apologise and tell me she thinks I've looked miserable since Minho left," you answer, rolling your eyes at the nickname that's clearly stuck around after all these months.

"Hm," Seungmin says audibly, a curious look to his face. You'd noticed Seungmin was strangely good at reading people, always paying more attention than most. "She's not wrong, to be fair. But that's all? I thought you guys would be screaming at each other, honestly."

You chuckle, shrugging your shoulders. "Same, seriously. I'm shocked at how civil our conversation was - she literally just apologised and explained how she'd had a crush on Doha for a while or whatever, and wanted to tell me she was seeing him the weekend I found out and broke up with him, so she didn't get the chance."

"Interesting," Seungmin raises his eyebrows. "While it was decent of her to apologise, she's still a snake. And, why does she think she can tell you shit about you're own life as if she has any say in it anymore?"

"Who fucking knows," you groan, leaning against the wall beside your bed, turning your head to look over at Seungmin. "I'm over it. I can be civil."

"She doesn't deserve civil," he points out.

"That's true, but I'm not wasting anymore energy over it. I have other issues to deal with," you say with a sigh. Seungmin tilts his head at you.

"You're finally maturing!" He gleams, grinning at you and showing off his braces. You roll your eyes playfully, knowing that he's kind of right. "You're a better woman than me."

When all you do is raise an eyebrow, he laughs and shakes his head. "You know what I mean. Anyway, how are you doing? You know, with the whole Minho situation."

"I dunno," you respond lazily. "I kind of realised I missed him when I started rereading our texts when I couldn't sleep, and now I just want him to come home."

"That's the last stage - acceptance."

"He's not died, Seungmin," your quick to cut in with a laugh.

"No, but it's the same principle. At least you can finally admit you like him more than as just a sneaky link," Seungmin points out, rearranging his position on your bed.

"It wasn't a very sneaky link," you shake your head laughing. "But yeah, I like him. He's not given me any reason to not. I feel like I was just trying to downplay my feelings for him because I didn't want to admit to myself I liked him as much as I do."

"I get it," Seungmin says after humming. "It's scary to get intense feelings for someone so quick after your relationships ended."

"Yeah," you nod, agreeing with him. Seungmin never failed to help you figure out your emotions. "God, if Minho could hear this conversation he'd be gloating."

"Oh, he so would be," Seungmin laughs, rolling his eyes and the thought of his friend. "On a less deep note, did you get the shoes for Jeongin?"

"Yup," you say, heaving yourself up off your bed to grab the box with Jeongin's shoes in it. You open the lid off the box to show Seungmin, tilting it.

"They are hideous."

You role your eyes as you close the lid of the box again. "Shut up, he's been wanting them for ages. For some reason Jeongin can pull off clothes that would make anyone else look like a clown."

"True," Seungmin nods. "Also, have you heard about our new plan regarding Jeongin's birthday party?"

"No?" You question. Jeongin's 21st was proving to be one of the most complicated events you'd ever helped set up in your life. The boys were going all out on the celebrations, which is what you thought Jeongin deserved for putting up with their idiocy.

"We're now no longer informing Felix of any of the plans. He's out. He's a little blabbermouth and cannot be trusted."

You laugh, giving Seungmin a thumbs up. "I'm so on board with that. The amount of times I've had to cover his mouth or change the subject because he keeps 'forgetting' Jeongin's not supposed to know about his surprise party."

"He's an idiot," Seungmin chuckles, standing up from off of your bed and clasping his hands. "I think it's dinner time. Chicken wraps?"

You nod, grinning. "You speak to my soul."

Jeongin's surprise birthday party arrived faster than you'd expected, the days seeming to be a blur of decorations, organising, studying and sleeping. What was meant to be a small get together at Hyunjin and Felix's dorm turned into a full blown party at Changbin and Chan's apartment in the city centre. You weren't aware of just how many friends Jeongin had outside the guys, but he was apparently a very popular guy.

It was a whole ordeal, having to go as far as miss your last lecture on Friday afternoon to help set up. By the time you, Chan, Changbin and Seungmin were set to finish, their apartment would be transformed from a gym bro torture chamber to party central.

You'd all spared no expense with the decorations; streamers, fairy lights, tinsel, and to top it all off - a banner that read, 'happy brthday Jeongin!". Yes, Hyunjin had been in charge of the banner, and yes - he'd misspelled it.

The operation began at 5pm on the dot. Jisung's role was to assist Jeongin in getting to the party location - a process that was made ten times harder from Jisung's idea to stop Jeongin from finding out he's actually headed to his birthday party. He'd gone as far as to create a group chat excluding Jeongin (and Felix, who knew nothing) and propose his 4 step plan.

Step One: The Study Date.

Him and Jeongin had arranged a study date together on Friday after their lectures last week, leaving Jeongin unsuspecting.

Step Two: The Phone Call.

Changbin phones Jisung in a panic about how he was in the bathroom, accidentally slipped out the shower and hurt himself and the lock has broke, leaving him stranded as Chan was out. This is credible, since the dodgy bathroom lock in Chan and Changbin's apartment is infamous (due to many an awkward on-the-toilet encounter), and Changbin is quite clumsy.

Step Three: The Formation.

Jisung ropes Jeongin into going to rescue Changbin with him. Shouldn't be too hard, since Jeongin likes spending time with his friends and will have nothing better to do. Plus, he'd get a kick out of seeing Changbin trapped and in pain. Meanwhile, everyone is also on their way to the party, or already there.

Step Four: The Party.

Everyone hides and does the whole, classic, 'surprise!' scenario, Jeongin is surprised, everyone parties and life is good.

It was actually a pretty decent plan, and everyone was up for seeing it through. That's how you ended up teetering on the edge of a ladder, trying to pin the banner up.

"A little more to the left," Seungmin says, standing back so he can get a comprehensive view of the misspelled banner. You move the banner accordingly. "Hm, maybe down a bit."

You move the banner again, trying to be careful and not fall to your death.

"No, that's too far, more up," Seungmin nags again.

"Oh my god, it's going here - end of," you say exasperatedly, pinning it in place and climbing down the ladder. It looks fine, so you leave it in place and take the ladders away.

"That's the kitchen area finished," Chan announces, walking over to you and Seungmin, dusting his hands off on his trousers. "Hyunjin is such an idiot."

You laugh, nodding your head. "His excuse was that he was half asleep when he painted it."

"If we get Jeongin drunk really quickly he'll probably not notice," Seungmin points out. "Where's Changbin?"

"Here!" The man in question shouts from his room, wandering out with his phone in hand. "Fifteen minutes until the seed is planted. This place looks good!"

"Thanks," you say with a grin, knowing you'd orchestrated the decoration process. "I should probably go get changed - people should be showing up soon, right?"

"Yup," Chan answers. "I told people to show up at around seven, which is in ten minutes, so get your skates on."

"Hold on," Seungmin speaks up, a confused look on his face. "If people are coming in ten, who's getting Jeongin's cake?"

Everyone falls silent, looking towards each other. Changbin shrugs his shoulders, while you roll your eyes.

"Nobody picked up Jeongin's cake?" You groan, knowing that something was bound to go wrong after everything had been going so smoothly. You'd messaged the group chat to say the cake was due to be picked up at some point today, after ordering it online, but it had clearly gone forgotten. You'd get it if you could have, but the cake shop you'd ordered from had to be driven to, and you didn't have a car.

"Do we have time to get it before people start showing up?" Changbin asks.

"Dunno, isn't the bakery a ten minute drive from here? That's a twenty minute trip, not to mention actually getting the cake, and Jeongin and Jisung are only a five minute drive away. As soon as Changbin calls them, they'll be turning up," Chan responds, looking towards you with raised eyebrows.

"Could you drive there, Chan?" Seungmin asks, but he shakes his head.

"Changbin and I had a couple beers this afternoon," he responds, shutting down Seungmin's question. "I feel okay but I'd definitely be over the limit if I got stopped."

"Why don't you drive, Min?" You ask your dorm mate, but Changbin laughs before he gets a chance to respond.

"Seungmin? He hasn't even passed his written test, let alone the actual test," he scoffs.

You turn to Seungmin with a blank stare. "You haven't got a drivers license?"

"Shut up."

You turn on your heel to Chan. "Would you let me drive your car?"

"Sure, if you treat her with respect."

"I'll go, then," you say, because realistically it's the only option. You'd absolutely hate to miss Jeongin's suprise entrance, but you'd hate it if one of the boys missed it even more. Plus, his cake was super expensive and the plan was to bring it out for him straight away. "Where's your keys?"

Chan walks through to the kitchen area wordlessly, grabbing his car keys and chucking them towards you.

"If she comes back with a scratch -"

"You'll kill me, I know," you chuckle, giving the boys a wave and heading towards the door. "Text me when people start showing up."

"Will do. Drive safe," Seungmin answers, as you leave the apartment and hurry down the stairs. It was going to be a mission to get to the cake shop, pick up the cake and get back to the apartment before Jeongin and Jisung arrived, so you had to move quickly.

Chan's car was fairly easy to drive, which was useful since you hadn't driven much since you'd moved to the city for university. It wasn't long until you reached the cake shop. They handed over the cake after you'd checked it to make sure it was the right one, and you basically scrambled to get back in the car and put the foot down.

You'd set your maps up on your phone to find your way back to the apartment when you got the message that Changbin had called Jisung and set the plan in motion, as Jisung had been texting Changbin to say Jeongin was getting antsy in the library, which was a nightmare. Since Jisung and Jeongin were much closer to the apartment than you were, you could only hope Jisung's stalling would buy you some time.

You wouldn't call yourself a particularly fast driver, but in this instance the speed limits were useless to you. Luckily, the amount of times Minho had driven in this area like a maniac and bragged about never getting ticketed had paid off, as you knew there were no speed cameras around. Usain Bolt would have been your only rival as you parked up, grabbing the keys, your phone and the cake box as you bolted up the stairs of Chan and Changbin's apartment building.

Your efforts seemed futile, though, as you slid into the hallway outside their apartment door and saw Jeongin and Jisung standing right outside the door. There was a only a split second where Jeongin turned round upon your arrival, a confused look over his features, before the door burst open and Jeongin's friends shouted, 'surprise!'.

Although you should have been more startled by the array of people screaming in front of you, or disappointed that you'd missed being on the other side of the door for the surprise, the real reason your jaw dropped and you stood stock still was because of one particular person straight in your eye line.

Minho stood, his face only just visible behind Jisung's, amongst your friends. You felt like you were hallucinating until you were snapped back to reality.

"Oh my god?" Jeongin grins, looking between all of his friends. "How could I not have figured this out!"

"Because you weren't blessed with brains," you heard Seungmin say cheekily, earning him a scowl from the birthday boy.

"Shut up. Is it bad I'm kind of disappointed I didn't get to see Changbin in a state?"

Everyone laughs at this, and you follow as the two boys in front of you are ushered into the apartment. It takes Jeongin all but two seconds to notice Minho, and his reaction makes you think he wasn't aware of his grand return either.

"Minho hyung!" He squeals, even going as far as to give the older man a hug. "I thought you weren't able to be back in time for my birthday?"

"Change of plans," Minho says with a smile, reciprocating Jeongin's hug. "Happy birthday, kid."

The front door closes behind you, and you turn to see Jisung winking at you.

"Did you know about this?" You whisper to him, and you watch him shrug as he takes the cake box out of your hands.

"Might have done. Go say hi," he replies with a genuine smile. You roll your eyes, unable to resist smiling back at him as you turn around - and Minho is standing right there. It almost feels like a dream.

There's a moment where he just looks at you, a small smile playing at his lips, until he pulls you into him and wraps his arms around your shoulders. You just let him take you in his embrace, and if you had to describe how it felt - you'd say it felt like home.

Your reunion was, of course, interrupted as Chan strolls towards you both.

"Okay, lovebirds, there's enough time to get reacquainted later," he grins at you both. You pull apart, thankful that Jeongin's party guests had started to mingle amongst themselves and hadn't witnessed your sappy moment. "How's my baby?"

"Your cars fine," you respond, chucking his car keys in the air, which he catches. "Only scratched her a couple times."

Chan just shakes his head at you, walking away to hang up his car keys. Just as you think you've got a minute to be able to talk to Minho, your arm is swiftly pulled away and Felix drags you into him for a hug.

"Hello, my favourite girl," he grins, wiggling you about. "How's your day been since I last saw you a couple hours ago?"

You laugh, shaking your head at Felix's eternally happy nature. "It's been stressful. I actually still need to get changed, so if I could perhaps get a second -"

"BIRTHDAY SHOTS!" You hear Changbin scream from the kitchen area, and take it as your queue to dip. You silently slide away and grab your bag, heading into Chan's bedroom to get changed. He'd given you permission earlier in the afternoon to change in his room, so you start pulling your clothes out of your bag.

Before you get the chance to change, you hear a gentle knock at the door. Sighing, you shout through that they can come in.

"Sorry to interrupt," Minho says quietly, sliding through the door as if to not reveal his disappearance from the party. "I saw you come in here, and I wanted to say hi properly."

"Hi," you all but giggle, moving closer to him out of instinct. "Is it cringe if I say I've missed you?"

"Super cringe," he answers, coming closer to you still. "But I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss you too."

You hum, letting him come even closer and bringing your hand in his. He gives it a squeeze as you rest your head against his chest momentarily.

"You didn't talk to me while you were away," you mumble. You knew why he'd given you the radio silence, but it didn't hurt any less.

"I know," he sighs back, bringing his free hand up to place it in your hair. "I just wanted to give you space. I was so busy, too."

"No, I get it," you interrupt, pulling away slightly to look at him properly. "I just...I dunno, I thought I'd have a lot more time to plan what I'd say to you when you came home."

Minho chuckles, shaking his head slightly. "Well, we've got plenty of time to catch up later. If I don't give Felix about an hour of my time tonight he will kill me."

"I don't doubt it," you smile. "That boy has missed you more than I can say."

Minho can't help but smile, and you can tell how much he has missed his friends. He steps back from you slightly and nods towards your bag on Chan's bed.

"I'll leave you to it. Find me later on though, yeah? We've got a lot to talk about," Minho says, taking a few steps backwards and smiling at you before leaving.

You take a minute to yourself before getting changed, smiling inwardly at the thought of seeing Minho again, of him being back home. You'd waited for this day for almost two months and now it was here - you were more ecstatic than you thought you'd be.

Once changed, you leave Chan's bedroom to find the party in full swing already. You recognise some people, such as Jeongin's friends from work and some people on his course, but you decide to head in the direction of the birthday boy himself. You find him downing shots with Hyunjin, who gives you a grin as you walk towards him.

"Hey," he says, passing you a shot on instinct. You down it with a grimace, placing the empty glass on the table beside you. "You look less crap than you did a half hour ago."

"What a lovely compliment," you sneer, turning to the younger boy to your left. "Happy birthday Jeongin - the big twenty one."

"Don't remind me. I'm as old as you guys now," he laughs, already going to pour another round of shots. "Your decorations are great - I'm so glad they left if to you. If it was any of the boys, Hyunjin's dodgy birthday banner would be the only form of decoration."

"Hey!" Hyunjin shouts as you chuckle.

"You noticed that, did you?" You ask Jeongin, who shrugs with a grin.

"Of course I did, it's literally the centrepiece," he says, turning his attention to Hyunjin. "Really? Who forgets the 'I' in birthday?"

"Okay, okay, now that you're my age doesn't mean you get a pass to be a cheeky shit," Hyunjin counters. "The day you can outdrink me is the day you can make fun of me all you want."

Jeongin takes that as his queue to pass out the shots he has poured, so you take it and clink your glass against his and Hyunjin's before downing it. Hyunjin must have noticed what you had at that moment, Minho sitting next to Felix on the sofa, as he nudges your shoulder.

"Did you talk to him yet?" He asks.

"Yeah, a bit. Did you know he was coming home early?"

Hyunjin shakes his head, and when you look to Jeongin he shakes his too.

"No idea. It was a nice birthday surprise, except Felix won't leave him alone now," Jeongin laughs. "I'm using my birthday boy status to demand a chat."

Jeongin peels off, heading towards Minho and Felix, which leaves you and Hyunjin.

"Don't worry about it," Hyunjin says in a calm tone, obviously sensing you were nervous about how to navigate Minho being home. "Enjoy yourself tonight. I've got no doubts that Minho will be occupied all night, since everyone's missed him almost as much as you have, but you'll have plenty time after the party to talk. Or not talk, up to you."

You nudge his shoulder at his suggestive tone, but laugh all the same. "I know, I guess I'm still shocked he's even here. Have you talked to him yet?"

"Nope," Hyunjin shakes his head. "He arrived only a minute after Felix and I did, and then not even five minutes later Jeongin turned up. I'll catch him at some point tonight."

You hum in response, giving your friend a small smile. "You shouldn't worry either," you say, knowing your emotional friend is probably shitting it for his conversation with Minho after everything that happened. "It will be fine between you two."

"Yeah, I know. I just hope he knows how sorry I am."

You roll your eyes at Hyunjin, unable to help yourself. "Come on you big softie, you know what Minho's like. He probably already doesn't care."

Hyunjin's face lights up at this, as if you've reminded him how much Minho actually loves him, and that he won't let one stupid incident bother him too much.

"You're right," Hyunjin nods, pulling a hand through his messy blonde hair.

You shrug your shoulders in response. "I always am. Now, want to pour us some drinks? Plus, isn't that girl you were seeing a couple months ago, the one on Jeongin's course, here? Maybe you could apologise for ditching her at the library that one time."

Hyunjin laughs, shaking his head. "Yeah, that might be a good idea," he says, looking in the direction of that girl and her friends, until Seungmin starts walking towards you both. "Want a drink, Seungmo?"

"Was just about to ask for one," Seungmin responds, giving Hyunjin a thumbs up when he picks up the bottle of liquor Seungmin wanted. "Plus, I wanted to tell you both to stop moping in the corner. Jeongin's adamant on setting up beer pong, and I need to win this time. He's never stopped rubbing the New Years game in my face."

"What happened on new years?" You ask, the two boys having clearly forgotten you weren't there.

"Only the greatest showdown in history," Hyunjin responds with a grin, handing you and Seungmin the drinks he poured for you both. "It was Jeongin, Changbin and Felix vs me, Seungmin and Changbin with Jisung as ref. It was the most intense game, and Jeongin ended up winning at the last second."

"With some dirty tactics," Seungmin huffs sulkily, turning his attention to you. "Anyway, I'm replacing Changbin with you on my team, because he lost for us last time, so come on."

The beer pong game you get roped into ends up lasting hours, since Jeongin continuously disappears to either talk to his party guests or down the never ending cycle of drinks being given to him. Due to this, Seungmin's team ends up winning, even after Hyunjin's position is switched out to one of Jeongin's work colleagues, since Hyunjin's attempt to apologise to that girl he left in the library actually works.

When people start heading home after a couple hours, you notice him leave with that same girl, a cheeky grin plastering his face. You shake your head at him in response as you continue your clean up mission. Everyone had gotten very drunk very quickly, which had led to Chan and Changbin's apartment getting all but trashed.

Hyunjin's birthday banner was ripped in half, both sides dangling off the wall, though Jeongin had said it looked better like that, since you couldn't see the spelling mistake well. The birthday boy in question was crashed on the couch, the alcohol clearly overcoming him. Felix was right there with him, though that was the opposite of a surprise. You'd think with how often that boy drank he'd began to build a tolerance, but alas.

That left you, Seungmin, Chan, Changbin, Jisung and Minho, each one of you doing your bit to help make the apartment look as presentable as a bunch of drunk people could. You were placing all the red cups into a trash bag, when you felt someone tap your shoulder. Turning, you see Minho behind you, handsome as ever.

"Hey," he says with a smile. "Seungmin and Jisung are planning to crash here tonight, but I was wondering if you wanted a lift home? I haven't been drinking."

You can't help but inwardly smile, not only at the prospect of getting to spend time with Minho, but also at being able to sleep in your own bed and not on the sweat infested gym bro couch.

"Yeah, that would be great," you agree. "When do you want to go?"

"Now, please. I can only spend small doses of time in this apartment. It's the embodiment of revolting," Minho shudders, taking the bin bag from you and tying it up, walking towards the front door with you in tow to place it with the others.

"Oh come on," you counter. "It's not that bad."

"If you opened that fridge, all you'd see is chicken, beer, and protein shakes. This is a terrifying place."

You laugh, turning to find Seungmin and say goodbye. You spot him on his phone, chilling on the sofa beside a sleeping Jeongin who not only had a bunch of random objects stacked on top of him, but had 'dick' written on his forehead.

Walking over, he catches your attention and gives you his signature salute. You return it with a smile. "Use protection," he says lowly to you, an eyebrow raised.

"Shut your mouth," you smile sweetly back, grabbing the dorm keys he chucks at you and turning on your heel. Minho waves bye at his friends quietly, not wanting to wake up the two sleeping beauties.

"Cars parked just outside," he informs you as you both walk down the stairs. "Sorry I couldn't spend much time with you tonight, it was like every time one conversation ended, another one began straight away, and I was in an endless loop of talking about the same thing."

"It must get annoying," you say, walking out the front door of the apartment building as Minho holds the door open for you. "I bet you end up having the same conversation again and again every time you come home from touring."

"Mhm," Minho says, using his car keys to open the door before you both climb in. It feels strange, being back in Minho's car as if he hadn't been gone. "But I won't have to do it anymore."

You turn to him, visibly confused. His eyes widen, and he shakes his head. "Shit. Guess the cats out the bag."

"You're not touring anymore?"

"It was meant to be more of a grand reveal," he sighs with a smile, whilst you practically squeal. It didn't help that you were drunk, being told news as exciting as this.

"So, how - what are you doing now?" You ask, trying to get a grasp of what was happening. Minho starts the car and pulls away, heading in the direction of your dorm.

"You know how I was telling you about possibly getting a permanent position here in Seoul?," he asks, which you nod at. "Well, when I was touring a position opened up, and I applied for it straight away. I was offered the position two days ago, and the transfer was instantaneous. I got the first flight home I could."

You felt like you were dreaming, which wasn't helped from the alcohol in your system. "So you get to stay here, all the time?"

"Yup. I work for a venue owned by my company, which means I'll only ever be dancing there. No need to leave anymore," he smiles, keeping his eyes on the road. "The pay rate isn't as good, but since I'll be working more than when I was touring, I end up making more money in the long run."

You sigh contemptibly, grinning like a madman without even meaning to. It's not long until Minho is pulling up outside your dorm building.

"Are you coming in?" You ask, which he nods at.

"Yeah, if that's what you want," he smiles, getting out of his car. You do the same, closing the door behind you and using your keys to open the main door. Once you reach your bedroom, you can't help but to rush into Minho's arms. He chuckles at you, knowing the alcohol is definitely fuelling your emotions.

It doesn't stop him from holding you tightly against him, placing his head on top of yours.

"I lied before," you mumble. Minho raises an eyebrow, waiting for you to continue. "I didn't just miss you. I wished you'd come home every day. Life wasn't the same without you in it."

Minho doesn't say anything straight away, and at first you think he's going to turn around and say he doesn't like you, he doesn't want to be with you - until you pull away from him slightly and realise he's tearing up.

"What's wrong?" You say instantly, going on your tip toes to catch the tears in the corners of his eyes before they fall.

"Being away from you - it was way harder than I thought it was going to be. There was so many times I wanted to call you just to hear your voice, but I wanted to give you the space you needed. And then when Hyunjin called me, I just got so angry about the whole situation, and I took it out on him which I shouldn't have. I still need to apologise to him for that," he chuckles. "But it made me realise how much I genuinely cared for you, how much I missed you."

You look between his eyes as he talks, taking everything in.

"Why don't we sit down," Minho smiles, nodding towards your bed. "I've got so much I want tot tell you."

"Me too," you agree, sitting on your bed and making yourself comfortable. "You go first."

"No, you," he counters, his usual demanding self. "I want to hear about what you've been up to."

You shake your head but oblige nonetheless. "Well, I did good in all my exams, and I haven't had anymore shit from my lecturers. I haven't really done much, other than spend time with the guys and study."

Minho nods as he listens. "I knew you'd ace those exams, I didn't doubt it."

You smile. "You helped a lot, though. Oh - I almost forgot, the other week Sooyun came to see me."

"The she witch?" Minho says, shocked. "What the hell did she want?"

"She basically told me she's sorry blah blah and that she said I've looked miserable since you left."

Minho's features soften at this, and on instinct his hand goes towards yours. He takes it in his absentmindedly, and you had to admit, you missed the way his skin felt against yours. Warm and safe.

"You...you were miserable whilst I was away?" He asks sincerely.

"Not miserable, just not as happy," you say. "You've been a big part in my life the end of last year, and when you left, it was like a little bit of my happiness did too."

Minho tilts his head, studying you. "I felt the exact same way. It was fucking weird - I thought I'd be fine and I'd be home in a couple months and we'd see each other, but I just couldn't stop thinking about you."

"Hyunjin said you said you love me," you blurt out all of a sudden, and you watch as the tips of Minho's ears turn bright red. You smile at his reaction.

"Hyunjin is an idiot. But he's not wrong."

The smile is completely wiped from your face, hearing him say that out loud.

"You love me?" You say cautiously, not quite believing it was real.

"I don't know much about love," Minho sighs, a small smile on his face. "My parents...they weren't loving to me. Hell, I don't think they even love each other. But, if someone asked me what I think it is - I would say it was this. You. My feelings for you are as close to romantic love as I ever thought I was capable of having."

Shell shocked wouldn't even begin to describe your feelings. You can't help but feel tears brim at the corners of your eyes, just like Minho's had done moments before. He chuckles at your reaction.

"I've never had a serious girlfriend, and I don't know if I'll be any good at being a boyfriend, but if you feel the way I feel, I want to try with you. You are stubborn, naive, and such a brat," he starts, and you scowl at him. He laughs in return before continuing. "But you are also the kindest, most talented, and beautiful person I have ever met. I knew you were special the moment we met, and I'd be an idiot to ever let you go."

"You're just as stubborn as me," you say, stubbornly focusing on that part of Minho's speech. He laughs openly at you, shaking his head with adoration.

"I am, but you love me for it anyway," he says cheekily.

"I do."

"Say it," Minho says instantly, staring you down. "Say you love me."

"What do I get in return?"

Minho scoffs. "You get to love me? What's better than that?"

"A paracetamol and a glass of water," you say, the effects of the alcohol already starting to kick into your system. Minho laughs at you, shaking his head.

"Okay, doll. If you say you love me, I'll nurse your hangover," he says honestly, hands up.

"Even tomorrow? You'll stay the night?" You ask, putting on your best puppy dog eyes.

Minho nods, holding his pinky out. "I promise. Now say you love me."

You look properly into his eyes, sincerity taking over. "Are you ready for my cringe speech?"

He laughs, nodding, so you continue.

"Being cheated on sucks. It's shit to put all your effort into somebody just for them to stomp on it. You were there for me throughout a really crap period of time. You were my friend, and then you were something more, and as much as you were a distraction to what had happened, you also became my rock. My shoulder to lean on - and I really don't know what I would have done without you during those months. You showed me what it felt to be genuinely liked again, sparked my happiness and passion and everything else, and I am so thankful for your dumb existence," you say, trying to keep your confession semi lighthearted. Minho smiles.

You take a deep breath, looking up at Minho. "I love you, Minho. I feel like I didn't know what proper love was until I met you. Nobody has ever treated me like you do, and I have never felt such intense feelings for anyone, ever. I love you, and I'm so glad you feel the same way."

Minho shakes his head fondly, a smile threatening to crack over his features.

"God, who turned us into such sappy people?" He asks, looking back at you.

"Who knows," you laugh, trying your hardest not to cry from all the emotions you were feeling.

"So, what do you think about being my girlfriend?," Minho asks, immediately talking again afterwards. "If you don't want to make things official too quickly that's okay, I mean we have only been on one date and -"

"I would love to be your girlfriend, Minho," you reply seriously. He stops rambling and smiles.

"Really?"

You laugh at him. "Really, really. Your first act as my boyfriend can be to get me some damn paracetamol, my head is pounding."

Minho chuckles as he shakes his head, standing up off the bed. "Is this my life now? Servitude to your highness?"

"Hey! You signed up for this," you laugh, watching as Minho walks out your door to head to your kitchen, knowing exactly where you keep the medication.

You smile in at at yourself, thinking back to the first time you met Minho at that bar, thinking back to how enamoured you were with him and how easily he became such an important part of your life.

It hadn't been easy to get to where you were now, going from nothing but acquaintances, to friends with benefits, to nothing at all - but you'd do it over again in a heartbeat, to be able to call Minho your boyfriend.

"Here you go, love," he says when he returns, placing a glass in your hand and the pills in the other, smiling down at you with adoration.

Yeah, you'd do it all over again.

Maybe friends with benefits works out after all.

sorry about the wait, yet again. I hope this heals all your broken hearts!! feedback is always appreciated, and a massive thankyou to everyone who’s ever interacted with this story <333

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@miamyre @skzgallll @kgllmre @tangerminie @nepytune @jeyelleohe @dis-baku-bitch @judeduartewannabe @endzii23 @mitchinggoni @vixensss @odhnlzl101 @yoonguurt @trashieforchannie @xcookiemonsteer @kingsoowolves @woahsehun @laylasbunbunny @sahazzy @hyukastuffies @multifandomtrash-dree @sherlockholmes08 @iam2out @jisungxident @amnmich @raspbinniecreme @fairygemss @linoots @galaxleeknow @ninashellhole @casualwombatcheesecake @kpopwh0r3 @fixation-dump @mal-lunar-28 @vidkqb @foreverdreamingofyou20 @zerefdragn33l @i8rsie @strayluvr @multinci @cutiespghetti @identityincrisissoulinhell @yoontaethings @lomllino @biribarabiribbaem @downbadreading

@miamyre @skzgallll @kgllmre @tangerminie @nepytune @jeyelleohe @dis-baku-bitch @judeduartewannabe @endzii23 @mitchinggoni @vixensss @odhnlzl101 @yoonguurt @trashieforchannie @xcookiemonsteer @kingsoowolves@woahsehun @laylasbunbunny @sahazzy @hyukastuffies @multifandomtrash-dree @sherlockholmes08 @iam2out @jisungxident @amnmich @raspbinniecreme @fairygemss @linoots @galaxleeknow @ninashellhole @casualwombatcheesecake @kpopwh0r3 @fixation-dump @mal-lunar-28 @vidkqb @foreverdreamingofyou20 @zerefdragn33l @i8rsie @strayluvr @multinci @cutiespghetti @identityincrisissoulinhell @yoontaethings @lomllino @biribarabiribbaem @downbadreading

#lee know #lee know x y/n #lee know x reader #lee know fluff #lee know imagines #lee know x you #lee know smut #stray kids minho #stray kids boyfriend #lee minho #lee minho x you #lee minho smut #minho lee #stray kids x reader #stray kids #stray kids smut #stray kids fluff

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