#it makes THEM feel better and they aren't personally threatened (yet) by the guy currently in power

[ahaura]

im sure its been said already but as the election draws near more and more liberals will come out of the woodwork to shame people with a conscience to give away their vote to the democrats for free. i'm already seeing posts saying "why aren't people more concerned about a trump presidency?" you want to know why? it's because people already know he's bad. everyone already knows what he is and what he's done and what he'll do. there's nothing to discuss. he's a racist despotic worm of a man. there's nothing else to say.

biden is currently president. the genocide is happening under his watch. he's the one funding isra*l and arming them; he's sidestepped congress more than once to give them weapons. by oct. 27, the biden administration already knew that "Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets." the state department/biden have engaged in atrocity propaganda, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the death toll recorded by the gaza health ministry, and so on. the united states is currently in the process of trying to pin the "war in gaza" on netanyahu (see sen. schumer's speech) after months of backing blatant genocide as a means to act as if they're "doing something" about the genocide (Instead of, say, threatening to cut off all aid to israel with the condition that all hostilities in gaza, the west bank, and occupied jerusalem are halted immediately and permanently, allowing palestinians freedom to travel, allowing aid into gaza, etc etc etc.)

the long and short of it is that liberals view their own lives as being worth more than palestinians'. that's it. they'll vote for another 4 years of the guy ushering in genocide and supporting apartheid + settler colonialism because he isn't outright attacking them (despite various laws and rulings happening both at the supreme court level and at the local level all over the country that will endanger people). they'll settle for the illusion of safety and security and shame anyone with a conscience and accuse them of "supporting the republicans" when in an actual democracy you would be able to use your vote as leverage to extract concessions from those who want to be elected. that's how it's supposed to fucking work.

democrats are not owed people's vote. if biden loses, it will be biden's fault; it will be his campaign's fault; it will be the democrats' fault. trump is bad; the republicans are bad. we already know this. this is not an endorsement of either. but if democrats are too cowardly and feckless and servile to the motivations of the american empire and never do anything for their constituents then why the fuck should anyone vote for them. you want to get mad at someone, why don't you do something useful and stop worrying about team-sports with a purely selfish basis and start hounding the people in power who are supposed to serve you, the voter.

[sapphire-weapon]

I think the fact that so many people want to label Leon/Ashley as canonically "sibling- coded" is because they feel threatened in the way they view other of Leon's relationships, they can tell Leon and Ashley have chemistry and they try to convince themselves that they have a familial bond going on (like Ellie/Joel) so that they can justify not shipping them and making people who ship it feel bad/weird.

Because nowadays so many people can't just dislike something, they have to make up a reason why it's morally wrong and unacceptable so that way they can bully people that think differently and feel like their own personal opinions are objective and right while everyone else is wrong smh. This is mostly the case with younger fans (tho a lot of people older than me does this too lmao) so that's why I don't really find it frustrating bc it's most likely they have limited real life experience. Plus they might not be that good at interpreting canon from contextual clues yet.

In my case though I think a lot of these people are actually doing the opposite tbh because to me it just shows that they recognize that Ashley's relationship with Leon is real and they can't even concede that they're friends in the canon because they know it could lead to something else if followed through in the story, they admit there's potential there subconsciously with how hard they try to make it seem otherwise with nonsense claims. It's like when insecure guys feel uncomfortable but try to seem tough by buying big trucks and having guns on them all the time lmao.

So, I've talked about this before -- about how the "sibling coded" or "problematic age gap" discourse is just modern-day fandom's way of slutshaming and engaging in casual misogyny in a societally acceptable way.

I'm pretty confident in saying that anyone in my generation who slaps "siblings" on Leon and Ashley are probably people who have another ship and have had it for a while and don't want Ashley getting in the way of it, tbh LMAO

Like.... my generation has co-opted the current generation's vernacular, but make no mistake about the kind of bitches we are. We're ship war bitches. That's all we've ever been AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE OUR WAYS NOW fjdskfh

But if we're talking about the current generation...

Media illiteracy is a big factor in this. It's no secret to anyone that the US education system took a massive shit starting in the late aughts/early 2010s, and things like critical reading skills aren't being taught in schools anymore.

I graduated high school in 2007. Two years later, I went back to visit an old English teacher to get a letter of recommendation, and he was lamenting to me that he'd just given up. It wasn't worth trying to explain the deeper themes of Beowulf to kids who didn't care, because the only thing that mattered was getting them to pass standardized tests.

So, now, without an overt, explicit declaration of love or something visually concrete like a kiss, kids literally do not have the skills to parse through a text and pick out themes and tropes and use of symbolism and imagery. They were never taught how to do it.

But there's a more culture-based thing happening here, I think. It's this fucking mess of a cocktail of internalized misogyny paired with learned helplessness, social anxiety, intense sheltering possibly exacerbated by the pandemic shutdowns, peer pressure, and internet purity culture.

I think it's pretty safe to say that fandom is predominantly made up of women and teenage girls. That was true in the 60s in Star Trek fandom, it was true in my generation, and it's still true today. And what I've seen happening today is that young women are absolutely terrified of their own sexual agency -- because the internet keeps telling them that, if you're under 18, it is wrong and bad and unacceptable for you to engage with anything even remotely sexual and how dare you express your sexuality -- and you'd better not do it not just because it's wrong and bad, but also because you are GUARANTEED TO BE PREYED UPON IF YOU DO. SEX IS DANGEROUS ALL OF THE TIME AND YOU'RE LITERALLY TOO YOUNG AND TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING SO DON'T TRY TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Because if you're 17 and he's 18, he's a pedophile!!!!!!!!

I just.

So, we've now basically turned an entire generation of young women into the same type of young women who created the BL genre in Japan. These are women who were too afraid to explore their sexuality on their own, and it felt safer to do it with two male characters, because it was always more "okay" for men to be sexual. This is happening here in the West, now.

Slash ships have always been a thing in the West, but not to the degree that they are today. In today's fandom, if you have an M/F ship at all, you are outnumbered by at least 3:1 -- because M/M just "feels" safer for a lot of the current generation.

So, I think young women look at the Remake portrayal of Ashley Graham, and they identify with her. A lot. They're probably around her age, and her personality is very relatable to the kind of girls who play video games. Ashley's clearly introverted, but she's a fast learner who just wants to help, and she's got a good heart and a weird, kind of awkward sense of humor.

And, not only do these girls identify with Ashley, they're probably thirsty as fuck for Leon.

But that's terrifying to them.

Because they have been taught to fear their own sexual agency. The idea that an attractive, traditionally masculine, older man would be romantically or sexually interested in them is immediately categorized in their brains as wrong and bad -- and they don't want to think of Leon in that way.

So... for them, it can't be romantic. It can't be sexual. But there's clearly something there, but Leon would never abuse or prey on anyone so... that bond must be a perfectly innocent familial affection. That's what it is. That's what it has to be, because anything else forces them to face the uncomfortable reality even young women like them go on dates and have sex -- and sometimes, it's with men like Leon.

So, they thirst over Leon at a safe distance through Luis, primarily. Or they self-indulge on reader fic, because that's so much easier to write off as "just a fantasy" and not a statement on who Leon actually is as a character.

And it's just kind of sad, man. It sucks to see this happen to an entire generation of young women.

That's why I don't really get mad when I see the "siblings" shit out in the wild. I just feel sad for those people -- because they can't just say "I don't like the ship." They're so insecure and neurotic that they have to think of a reason why the ship is literally impossible to ever happen so that they don't have to be worried about it.

One day, they'll finally suck a dick for themselves and learn that it's not that serious. It's really fuckin not. Dicks are stupid, and the boys that are attached to them are even dumber.

[s-brant]

The Endless Summer (2/?)

(gif: @beccs) (PART ONE) (SERIES MASTERLIST)

Summary: A day out on the water goes awry and puts JJ, John B, and Y/N in danger. With tensions rising and the stakes higher than ever, JJ finds it difficult to control his feelings.

Word Count: 9.1k

Warnings: Angst, implied sexual content, strong language, graphic violence, and JJ being an emotionally confused asshat.

A/N: Welcome back! Thanks for the love on this series, I’m so glad you guys like it and I hope this part is just as good. Things get a little heated in this chapter, so buckle up. Let me know if you enjoyed this. Have fun!

JJ isn't sure why she did it.

He wasn't sure then and he isn't sure now, but he knows one thing for certain: there isn't any going back to how things once were now that the barrier between them came crashing down.

Sweat drips off of his skin from the relentless heat of the Caribbean that has made their recent lives hell with the painful tinge of sunburn atop their tans and heat exhaustion they must be careful to avoid at all costs. They were educated on both topics by Pope, their godsend of a survival encyclopedia in human form, who advised them to spend most of their day outside of necessary tasks like fishing and constructing stable shelter under the shady cover of the treetops.

The sole reason he and John B aren't hiding in the safety of the shade is that it's their day to fish, but he's not thinking about the sun. In fact, neither of them is. They're both wondering where their third fishing buddy is.

It took roughly ten minutes of spearfishing with him in comfortable silence for JJ to finally break and spill his guts about what happened last night. Though there was an unspoken agreement to never tell anyone that their hatred has turned into desire, he couldn't help it. He was going mad trying to unravel it in his head.

After all, he already had a conversation with JB about the recent shift in their behavior with each other by the ocean last night, so it seems fitting to pick up where they left off with the calm and clear blue water in front of them again.

He walks on the jagged outcropping of rock that serves as their perch to observe the fish without disturbing the pattern of the current they swim through with John B closely behind.

"One second she's pissed at me, the next she's all over me. It makes no sense. Then, she didn’t say anything to me after it happened," JJ says with his face hardened into a look of concentration at the fish he squints against the sun to aim at, "Not even "Fuck you, Maybank" or one of her weirdly creative threats. She just sat there all night and talked to everyone but me."

His gaze slips away from the water as his chosen fish disappears from sight before he can bother to throw the spear, eyeing up his friend's reaction to the news.

John B doesn't seem that surprised by it, because who else, aside from everyone else in Kildare who knows of their "hatred" for one another, could've seen it coming as much as he did? He considers it for a second, then props his arm up on the handle side of the spear he digs into the rock to lean against.

"I'm pretty sure that means she likes you."

JJ retorts, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say."

Why would anyone ignore a person they like? It makes no sense to him. Every time he wanted a person, he'd simply walk over and make it happen. It's never been difficult for him to pursue the people he finds himself attracted to...Well, except for her. For a guy that also ignored her for the rest of the night and pretended their moment in the woods didn't happen, he has some balls of steel to be chastising her for the same things he did.

John B shrugs and says, "I'm being serious, dude. Sarah wouldn't even acknowledge my existence when I worked on the Druthers, and I thought it was some stuck-up rich person thing but it wasn't."

They shouldn't be talking at all right now as to not scare away the fish, but they do it anyway. They both know he won't let it go until it's out of his system for good. He wouldn't allow himself to forget it if he wanted to, so its better to talk it out than turn stir crazy from ruminating over it 24/7.

Though it's, as he worded it yesterday, hot as balls out, being by the sea lessens the feeling of it by a landslide.

The breeze they crave whenever they work on their huts or forage through the forest for wild berries, coconuts, or potential building supplies blows on them without pause for the time they spend here, which almost makes it more dangerous. They stand under the direct harm of the UV rays frying them without truly feeling it burn yet, and he dreads the next few days in anticipation of the returning sunburn he just peeled off of his shoulders the other day.

JJ walks down the side to get a better view of the water, balancing precariously on the sharpened edge with the spear clenched tightly in one hand. The breeze is strong enough to threaten his balance, but he holds firm and digs his toes into the sedimentary rock for traction. His body sways in the midday sun with the struggle for stability, or, at least he suspects its midday.

Since being stranded here, time is a foreign concept to them. With no phones, clocks, or any guide to go off of other that the position of the sun above to display the hours that pass, they've lost complete track of what day it is, let alone how long minutes or hours truly are in comparison to the endless summer they live within. They suspect it's been a month since they were left here, but, in all honesty, it could be two. None of them had the sense to mark the days in a tally until it was too late.

He says, lifting his arm to throw the spear, "Well, she is a stuck up rich person, so maybe it's just—"

"You know I'm right here, don't you?"

The sound of her voice from a few feet behind them startles JJ into turning around to look at her right when he lets go of the spear.

Unfortunately for him, the jerking movement throws off his carefully distributed weight and skews his balance, making the feet placed on the edge slip from underneath him and send him slipping down into the water. His calf is the first body part to hit the rocks, and the groan of pain he lets out at the feeling of the jagged rock slicing through his skin could make her heart stop mid-beat. But what truly scares her is seeing the back of his head hit the ground too.

Before he can slide the rest of the way into the water, two pairs of hands are grabbing onto his arms and heaving him up with all of their strength. She and John B grit their teeth with the effort it takes to pull him back up, their muscles burning from the strain, and once his feet are over the ledge, he pushes off the rock to help them the rest of the way. Drops of his blood disperse into the water off the edge from where he cut himself, dripping until there's hardly any left.

Once he's safely laid back down a few feet from where he slipped, Y/N is kneeling in front of him in a matter of seconds. The rock beneath her knees opens small cuts into her skin, but she doesn't pay it any heed. She sits on her heels to lessen the minor pain and lean forward to inspect the damage he took with nothing on her mind other than worry.

Soon enough, John B joins her to kneel at his feet as he sits up and watches them eye up his injury as though it’s some sort of ghastly, life threatening thing instead of a gash that won't need stitches. He watches them against the glittering ocean, waves washing up on the rocks around them to sting his wound with saltwater.

"It's a scratch, not an amputation," JJ says.

She ignores him with a frown lining her pretty features and twists his leg by the ankle to get a better view of the wound in the sunlight. It extends up the entire length of his calf, almost from ankle to knee, and dribbles fresh blood onto her hands as well as the ground beneath them. From what he can tell, it doesn't look all too severe. No muscle or bone can be seen, so it's a simple, superficial scratch.

When he doesn't get a response from either her or John B while they're too busy checking out his leg, he says again, "Guys, I'm serious, it's fine."

This time, she doesn't hesitate to answer.

"Yeah, well you may not need stitches but you still have infection to worry about. This wilderness isn't exactly the cleanliest place," she says retorts with as much snark as usual, and he quietly rejoices in the fact that she's finally acting normal after what happened last night, "Not to mention, you hit your head pretty hard. There's no need to act all tough."

He shrugs.

"It's not an act, it really doesn't hurt that bad."

John B stands and smears the blood on his hands off on the front of his shorts.

"I'll be right back, guys, I'm gonna go get stuff to patch him up."

Just like that, they are left plunging into silence as he is running away down the peninsula back to the beach they've claimed as their own.

Silence has always been her least favorite thing to share with JJ. She'd rather anything over it—screaming, fighting, joking, friendly conversation, or even what they did together yesterday night. Anything is preferable over the tense and insufferable feeling of silence when they're alone together with none of their friends, or their playful hatred, between them as a barrier between them.

Instead of seeing the same pestering jerk she always used to when she looks at him, she sees the memory of how he looked at her in the woods. He didn't look at her like she was the worst person to ever walk the planet, or like she was his least favorite Kook "Princess", he looked at her like she meant something to him.

They sit together in uncomfortable silence in the time it takes John B to rush to the beach and back, careful not to slip on the rocks the way JJ did, with the supplies from the dinghy in his arms. It isn't much to work with, but at least it's something to keep the nasty wound on his leg protected from dirt and germs. She's sure he'd leave it uncovered and up to fate if he had it his way.

Before he can set them down on the wet rocks, thus ruining the gauze and bandages in craters filled with ocean water, she gestures at JJ with a stern command, "Take off your shirt."

His brows raise.

"Shit, Princess, take me out to dinner first."

She groans in frustration, "Can you be quiet for a second and actually listen to me for once?"

He catches John B's gaze with wide eyes, but complies nonetheless, reaching down to tug the tank off of his torso by the frayed hem until it's balled up in his closed fist to hand off to her. Her eyes only linger on his body for a quick second on accident before snatching it from him.

Her bloodstained palms lay the shirt out on the flattest stretch of rock she can find to act as a barrier from the small puddles of water to protect the supplies. One nod at John B has him setting them down atop the navy fabric as she glances up at JJ with a smug smile.

"Believe it or not," she taunts, unscrewing the cap to the disinfectant, "I didn't ask for it so you could sit there and look pretty."

The words throw him back in time to their conversation on the beach while they thatched the roof to their hut, and he wonders how long she's been waiting to throw that back in his face since he first said it.

He grins at her as he asks, "You think I'm pretty?" but before he can say more, she's pouring a generous amount of the hydrogen peroxide along the length of his cut without a warning for him to prepare himself. His leg jerks away on instinct to save himself from the burning sensation, but she grips his ankle tightly enough to force him to stay still.

His nose scrunches up with the urge to groan in pain, and he does a little. Through grinding teeth, he winces in response to the peroxide slipping into every cell of open skin and bubbling up like the white water of the waves as it kills the bacteria lingering in the gash.

"Does it hurt now?" Y/N asks.

She's looking up at him through her lashes with her lips curled into a smirk as she packs gauze onto the wound until it's covered to her satisfaction. And it should be the last thing he's thinking about right now after cutting up his leg and hitting his head hard enough to worry her about concussions, but he can't help it. Looking down at her like this, it's impossible for him to not think about the unfinished business they have.

Everything is the same as it was yesterday—the tattered white top, the red panties in place of a bikini, sunburnt cheeks, and a taunting look that he'll never get tired of seeing. But that's precisely why he's reminded of it. She's wearing the same clothes and looking at him the way she did on the beach before any of last night's antics occurred, and he can't keep himself from wondering if it'll happen again.

"Yeah," he finally responds.

Her smirk grows for a second before she gets back to work.

"Good."

JJ subtly eyes her up from where she shifts on her knees to set the open gauze wrappers under the peroxide bottle in exchange for the bandage wrap, but he isn't as subtle as he thinks. She can feel his stare no matter how sneaky he attempts to be. He may be able to evade John B's attention, since he dove into the ocean to retrieve the wooden spear that began to float out in the tide, but she never misses a thing. Not when it comes to him.

When he looks at her, he finds memories.

Her legs folded up beneath her bring him back to how smooth they felt on his palms when he lifted them up around his hips. Her rosy lips pressing into a line in concentration bring him back to the coconut flavor he tasted on them. Her nipples poking against the fabric of her shirt bring him back to when he lifted it up over her breasts to suck at the sensitive skin until he got a moan from her—There isn't a place he can stare without going back to last night.

Part of him hates that.

He can't stand that a girl who he spent the last five years hating has found a way into his daydreams. Why couldn't it have been anyone else? Why did she have to lure him into her trap? He supposes there's nothing he can do about it now, though. After hours of stewing over it, he's reached the conclusion that it was likely a one-time thing, a mistake made in the heat of the moment that she won't make again, and he should get the idea of it out of his head.

When she has to adjust her grip to hold the gauze in place while she wraps the bandage around his leg, he sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth and jerks away again. She glances up at him with her best, "Are you kidding me?" face. Didn't he say he was tough?

"I'm starting to think you're a sadist, 'cause it's like you're trying to make it hurt," he says.

She gasps, feigning offense.

"Me? Enjoying this? It's not like we've hated each other for years or anything."

And though he may not realize it, this is her way of distracting him from the pain of having her apply added pressure to his cut while she wraps the bandage into place. It has to be tight enough to keep water and sand out, but not so tight that it cuts off circulation, and while it may have been tolerable without her touching it, the contact is enough to make it worse for him.

He asks, "Uh, speaking of, why are you the one doing this? Isn't it some kind of HIPAA thing to treat patients you've threatened to violate with tree branches before?"

The sound of her laughter makes his stomach flutter with butterflies, and he wonders what the hell is wrong with him.

"That's not what HIPAA is, genius"—her eyes crinkle at the sides with her wide smile while she wraps his leg—"and I'm the one doing this because I know way more medical shit than the rest of you."

Even Pope.

"Ohhh right, I forgot. Your dad is this hotshot surgeon and that makes you think you know everything," he taunts.

The casual mention of her father makes her chest ache with something not many of the Pogues, excluding Pope, have felt since being stranded on this island. With their parents either disowning them, absent, abusive, or dead, they have no reason to resist the allure of living here for the months or years it may take to be rescued, but she does.

She misses him.

For the longest time since her mom died, it was her and her dad versus the world. In everything they did, they did it together, and before she met Sarah, he was the closest she had to a best friend. Since they had no other family to help watch her as a child, she grew up in the hospital with him, drawing with crayons on his office’s printer paper with her babysitter and picking up small things along the way from watching him for so long.

He could've chosen to leave her at home, sure, but he didn't want to miss out on seeing her more than he already did, so she spent the majority of her childhood in offices, waiting rooms, and the indoor playground of the PEDs wing.

She takes a deep breath to steady herself after the sucker punch of being reminded of her dad and says, "Well, I know enough and, thankfully for you, I'm the one doing this instead of John B."

From far away, twenty or so feet offshore where their friend is paddling through the water with the lost spear held in one hand, they hear John B shouting an offended, "I heard that!" back at her. It draws a soft chuckle from them both, and she silently thanks him for distracting JJ one last time as she finishes and secures the bandage so it won't unravel.

She wipes her hands off on her water-soaked thighs one more time to get as much of his blood off of her fingers as possible before she reaches out with both arms extended to offer him help to stand. He takes them with a murmured, "Thanks," as they both try not to show how affected they are by the casual touch.

It makes them feel pathetic that something as small as holding each other's hands makes them remember what they did and desperately wish to continue it. Her throat bobs with how she must swallow the lump in her throat at their close proximity, barely breathing now that he's standing close to her with less than a few inches between them.

For a second, they don't move away. They stay face to face, and all she can think of is how badly she wants to kiss him again. But she can't do anything yet, not when she hears someone screaming from the water.

"There's a shark!" John B screams as he paddles back faster than he's ever swam in his life, already close enough to the peninsula that they can see the terror in his eyes when they turn to look.

Surely enough, there a tip of a fin too pointed to pass off as a dolphin cutting through the surface of the water to alert them of the fish's presence, but if that weren't enough, the water is clear enough for them to see its outline.

Thankfully for him, it isn't huge. It looks about as long as he is tall, but that doesn't change the degree of danger. Just because it isn't as big as other sharks doesn't make a bite any less lethal, especially when their only form of medical attention rests on her knowledgeable yet inexperienced shoulders.

For once in his life, JJ is frozen with no clue of what to do.

He's always the man with the plan, the one who jumps into action when others choke up and sit on the sidelines, but this makes him falter. What can he do to help other than stand here and pray John B can out-swim a shark? He's helpless, and now that he's faced with the prospect of losing his best friend for a second time, he doesn't know what to do.

It was his blood in the water that must have attracted the shark, and he was so caught up in his own drama with her and the pain of his cut that he didn't consider the danger of John B jumping in to retrieve the spear he dropped. It's his fault. His best friend is about to be eaten by a shark and it's his fault—

The blurred image of her rushing past in his peripheral vision rips him from his stormy thoughts, and right when he thought it couldn't get worse, it does. Water splashes up around her body and swallows her under the surface after she leaps off the edge of the rock with the aluminum spear from the dinghy raised in her dominant arm.

"Y/N!"

Before he even realizes what he's doing, JJ is screaming out her name, screaming it like he cares, and damns the consequences to dive in after her.

While he was frozen, she sprung into action without thinking of her own life first. She knew he was close to the rock, but not close enough to swim faster than a predator designed for the conditions of the ocean. It took one glance at the spear resting to the side for her to lean down, scoop it up, and get a running start to jump out as far as humanly possible. Various joints and muscles ached from how she strained to push herself far off the rock, taking flight with nothing but their survival in mind.

She sucks in a heaving breath upon breaking the surface, but she doesn't take a second to pause with John B paddling up to her so soon.

"Go back!"

The only answer she gives him is, "Use your spear!" before she brings hers out of the water in anticipation of the grey figure bolting straight for them.

It's a stupid plan, but it's the only one she has, and if one of them is in danger, they'd all risk everything they have to protect them. After all, they're already trapped here with the threat of death every day. Is there anything more worthy of dying for than your friends?

Neither of them is necessarily trying to kill it yet either, they're trying to keep it at a safe distance or hurt it enough so it swims away from them, but she puts all of her strength into spearing the fish between the eyes anyway. Her legs kick tirelessly to keep her afloat while she and John B stab as accurately as they can, choking down a mouthful of salty ocean water from how her head sinks at the surface without the help of her arms to keep her up.

Blood stains the water with a crimson hue spreading out around their bodies—whether it's theirs or the shark's, she doesn't know—and she must keep her lips clamped shut to prevent it from spilling into her mouth, breathing solely through her nose. She can tell her legs are soon to give out on her, but then a pair of hands latch onto her body. Call her irrational or stupid, but even with the clear distinction of human hands on her waist, her mind reacts in instinctual fear.

The touch makes her jolt mid-stab and sobers her feral mind back to reality for a moment until she realizes it's a human touching her, not the shark.

It's JJ.

His arms wrap around her thighs and hoist her up out of the water as much as he can while still swimming, effectively pushing himself underwater with one last gasp for air.

The sudden shift in view has her gaze shifting around to take in the new sights with a gush of red water rushing off of her onto the splashing surface: a light grey tail whips around in the chaos, the shark's head oozes blood from the multiple puncture wounds that didn't push quite deep enough, and its jaws snap right where John B's arm is before he yanks it back.

After a fraction of a second, it clicks with her that there's no time to waste watching her friend almost get his arm chomped off while she takes in the unbelievable sight. Her slippery grip on the handle remains as firm as possible, and she raises the spear over her head with an improved accuracy she never could've had from where she previously aimed it before. All of their shots landed well enough, but with the height advantage, she won't allow herself to fuck it up this time with her friend's life hanging in the balance.

She hardly recognizes her own frantic voice shouting at him, "Spear it in the gills!"

Her hands bring the razor-sharp tip of the spear down into its head repeatedly, and she isn't sure whether it's the splashing water or tears wetting her face when she buries the weapon down into it for a final time right when John B lodges his wooden spear in its gills.

Whatever she did, it must've hit its brain, because the animal halts its thrashing. Its teeth no longer snap at her friend, nor does its tail whip around in the water as violently as it did a moment ago.

As quickly as it started, it drops off into a sickening calm that leaves the white bubbles dissolving into a puddle of bloody water surrounding the trio and the fish that dies with no small amount of guilt on her part. There was no choice but to kill it. It makes her ache on the inside, but how could she regret it if she knows it saved them? The guilt might ravage her for the upcoming days, but she can't bring herself to regret jumping in after him.

She hardly has the chance to process it before she's being pulled away by both of the boys, her view of the scene shifting drastically once more with the abrupt drop of JJ letting her down in favor of guiding her through the gentle waves. His calloused hand squeezes her arm enough to cut circulation off on their journey back.

Time rushes past her in the next thirty seconds or so it takes them to reach the peninsula again in a paranoid sprint away from where the dead fish floats. One of them, John B she thinks, tosses the aluminum spear he dislodged from the shark's head up onto the rocks and clambers his way back up on his own. The waves closer to land grow rougher than the tender current out where they killed the shark, and she grunts in pain as one sends her and JJ straight into the rocks. His body hits her back with a solid ‘thump’ and forces her to wheeze with the wind getting knocked from her lungs upon impact, nails cracking on the black rock from the desperate grip she uses in an attempt to lift herself.

Meanwhile, JJ can't seem to catch his breath either, nor can he think of anything other than her once he sees that John B isn’t injured.

As soon as he sees his friend is unmarked from the teeth of the shark after he's out of the water, he positions himself behind Y/N to help her out first. He places his hands on her backside to push her up as quickly as he can. Knowing that the carcass in the water will soon attract more sharks in the surrounding area into a feeding frenzy, he'd rather it be him than her. It's a thought that shoots by too fast for him to fully acknowledge the meaning or weight of it at a time like this.

Somehow within his adrenaline-crazed mind, he is careful not to push her onto the jagged edge that sliced his leg open earlier, then climbs after her with little space left between them.

She's coughing up saltwater onto the rocks as he scrambles over to her, eyes wild with the petrifying worry of anything bad happening to her. They scan over her arms, legs, stomach, and back, and he doesn't even realize his hands are reaching out to inspect her as frantically as she had with him when he got hurt.

His hands cup her face, petting over her dripping hair and forcing her to look up so he can see if she somehow got hit in the face. Never has his mind been so void of rational thought, and, knowing him and his impulsive tendencies, that's saying a lot. The confusion of his contradictory feelings for her muddle his mind. Worry and hatred, attraction and anger—they battle it out, but only two manage to reach him externally.

Worry and anger it is. Worry for obvious reasons. Anger because—

"What the fuck were you thinking?"

She has never heard him sound so vicious since the start of whatever odd relationship/friendship/enemy-ship they have. With his worried expression and how he checked her entire body for injury after helping her out of the water, the last thing she would've anticipated from him was anger. Especially not after she saved his best friend's life. Considering what she just did for him, she thinks he should be thanking her, not chastising her.

Behind her back, she can hear a collection of yelling voices and splashing footsteps over the water dripping from them. It can only be the rest of their friends racing up the peninsula to them, but she can't turn around.

She stares at him with utter confusion flooding her at his unexpected outburst. Speechless.

"What was I thinking?" she asks incredulously with her face still cradled between his hands, "I was saving John B's life!"

Their emotional distance and disagreement are made up for in abundance by how physically entangled they've become. It wasn't intentional. It was a result of him needing to get close enough to scour her exposed skin for any bites, but now that they're sitting so near to each other, they forget to back away.

John B is too busy to engage with them.

He's doubled over on the ground with the compulsion to vomit the contents of his stomach into the ocean, but he doesn't dare get close to the edge again after what they went through. Instead, he positions himself away from them and their approaching friends until the half-digested food is forced back through his mouth. The acidic bile scorches his throat and nostrils on the way out.

JJ doesn't have the opportunity to retort back something about her being stupid, because Pope is the first person to reach them and ask, "What the hell happened?"

The rest of the group isn't far behind. It's Kie who asks the next question, then Sarah, then Cleo. They all pop off in rapid succession before either of the three of them can answer.

"Are any of you hurt?"

"Why is he throwing up?"

"Is that a shark?"

The last question draws everyone's attention over to the half-sunken mass of fish bobbing up and down on the breaths of the sea with a wooden spear sticking straight out of its gills. Though it isn't the biggest, most intimidating shark to roam the ocean, its presence doesn't fail to make everyone who looks at it shudder with the realization of what must have happened.

John B wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and points over at her with his trembling arm outstretched.

"She killed it."

The four of them whip their heads in her direction, jaws nearly falling off their faces in disbelief, but she doesn't say anything yet. Because as soon as they feel the eyes of their friends burning into them, she and JJ realize, as though they're returning to reality from the hazy layers of a dreamscape, that they're still holding each other.

She's slumped halfway onto him from when he hauled her body closer to inspect her, so she's essentially sitting on top of him at this point. Her legs, bruised and scratched up from when the waves crested to send them crashing into the rocks, are entangled around his enough that they look back and forth between them and where his hands cup her face in surprise.

JJ doesn't know what came over him.

Now that he snaps out of it at the same time as her, both of them separating and nudging each other away until their bodies are no longer entwined, he feels his cheeks flush in embarrassment.

When he saw her leaping past him to jump into the water, his mind shut off. He wasn't thinking about himself, or the possibility of getting killed, or anything at all. He was only thinking of the danger she put herself in, then he dove in and the rest of his conscious mind faded away into pure survival instinct. Yet, even after he knew the immediate danger was gone, the adrenaline kept him on edge, desperate to get her back to land and pray none of them were hurt.

"It was trying to attack him," she rasps. Her throat is raw from the saltwater she choked on, and every word burns. "But we did it together."

She pushes herself off the ground with an exhausted sigh.

Muscles spent from the struggle in the water, her legs wobble beneath the weight of her upper body as she takes a few steps to help John B up from his position on his hands and knees. From what she heard, he has thrown up all he has left in his stomach and hasn't gagged again in a minute or so, so attempting to stand again shouldn't be too strenuous for him.

His hand is cold in her grasp from the water soaking their bodies, but it holds firmly enough for her to help him into his feet without their palms slipping apart. No patches of blood are visible on his shorts, nor are there any puncture wounds on him from the sharp teeth that snapped at his arm in the quick but vigorous fight.

They were very, very fortunate to have made it out alive, and when he looks down at her face, he feels nothing but gratitude for the girl he previously saw as nothing more than his girlfriend's best friend. They went into the water as casual acquaintances, companions of convenience and the happenstance of being forced onto this island together, but they've come out of it differently. Now, they're friends.

Now, she's a Pogue.

He smiles at her, glancing up at their friends as their questions die down at the sight of his crazy grin, and says, "That was some real Pogue shit right there, Y/N." His eyes come back to meet hers. "I think it's about time we officially make you one of us. What do you think?"

She's opening her mouth to respond when Kiara cuts her off. The rest of them are staring at the trio as if they have ten heads sprouting from their bodies for not immediately surrendering more details of their near-death encounter other than saying she killed it.

"I'm sorry, can we please rewind to the part where you got attacked by a shark first?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, can I get a drumroll please for..."

The campfire is roaring with the abundance of sticks, leaves, and branches thrown onto the pile to fuel it as she feels a strong pair of arms looping around her thighs to lift her into the expansive, star-flecked sky.

In a flash of haunting memory, she relives the moment where JJ dove into the water after her and lifted her body above the surface to give her the high ground over the shark. She relives its thrashing hunger, the water splashing on her, and the cloudy hue of blood around them that she hoped wasn't either of the boys. For a second, as the world grows taller with her new perspective, she is brought back to the sudden shift she felt then and feels her stomach drop in panic, anticipating the danger.

But then the sound of her friends laughing, as well as the surging fire and crashing waves, comes back to her and forces the frightful flashback away. Her hip fits perfectly in the curve of John B's shoulder, and she lets her head fall back in giggling laughter at how he hoists her up in the air as though she's a holy figure of worship for the Pogues to kneel to.

His voice can likely be heard across the entire island when he shouts, "The Shark Conqueror!"

The group erupts into a triumphant mixture of cheers and laughter that fills the beach, everyone celebrating in their narrow escape earlier today...everyone except JJ.

After John B divulged the gory details of what happened, from JJ's fall to her picking up the spear and jumping in to save him from the shark, they made their way back with enough conversation to last the month. They all asked questions and took peeks back at where it happened in morbid curiosity, wondering how on earth they managed to come out of the situation without a scratch.

The rest of the afternoon continued on with the same buzzing energy that can only be created from the thrill of being alive. She's felt it many times since joining Sarah's group of friends that seem to find trouble wherever they go, but she has never felt it as vehemently as she does tonight. It's a mixture of euphoria, shock, and soul-crushing guilt for having to hurt another living creature, even one that was intending to make a meal of her friend.

No matter how much she grows up or discovers more about herself as a person, feelings never stop being as frustrating as they were to her as a child. You can get better at processing and hindering explosive reactions to them, but they never simplify. She doesn't know why she feels so much at once. She doesn't know why she feels simultaneously on top of the world and thrown off the edge of a cliff, but she thinks it has to do with him.

Since they walked back to the beach and talked about what happened until the day withered into night, which led them here to the “official” ceremony of her being named a Pogue for life, JJ hasn't spoken to her once.

Suddenly, the shoe is on the other foot.

Much like how she avoided him all night last night leading into this morning, he doesn't talk to her. He tries not to look at her too from where he sits on the log of driftwood across the fire, but it's somewhat inevitable with the spectacle John B is making of her at the moment.

Painted in the warm tones of the firelight like a goddess in her own right, Y/N is impossible to look away from, and it makes him angrier than he already is. A handwoven circlet crafted from the hibiscus and hippeastrum flowers growing in the forest around their camp sits atop her head. It doesn't fall to the ground with the movement of her throwing her head back in laughter. It stays in its rightful place against the rule of gravity until her face comes back into view for him to quickly look away from.

It dampers her laughter to see him avoiding her gaze so adamantly, taking a swig of water from one of the small cups they carved from wood and turning to talk to Kie to keep himself busy. The distinct sensation of being on top of the world slips away with the feeling of his cold avoidance and John B lowering her back to the ground until her bare feet sink into the soft sand.

Before she can start sulking about it for the foreseeable future, Sarah steps up beside her.

The familiar touch of a hand on her shoulder brings her comfort amidst her confusion and hurt over the way JJ is acting, and when she turns to see a pretty face looking fondly at her, a warm smile finds her lips.

"Pogue for life?" Sarah asks.

The three words bring make her smile grow the same way it had when she was talking to JJ on the peninsula. It crinkles the skin around her eyes with its unrestrained happiness to hear them because, as much as she pretends to let JJ's comments roll off of her, tonight marks one of the first times she's felt at home with them.

That's not to say they haven't made her feel welcome in the past, they did, but this isn’t the same. This is closer, this is the type of bond that's forged in situations like these where people have no choice but to rely on each other or let their worlds collectively fall apart, and she thinks, for the first time, that she could live here with them forever if she must.

None of them know how much time has passed since they arrived here, least of all her, but it sure as hell feels like an eternity. At first, she could barely withstand the idea of living here for months with the intention of being rescued as soon as possible, but now...

She brings Sarah into an embrace tight enough to force the air from their lungs.

"Pogue for life," she echoes back with her face buried into the salt-scented tresses of dirty blonde hair cascading over her tan shoulders.

Would it be crazy of her to think that this is where they're meant to be? That they're her family and this place she has fantasized about escaping is now their home?

After all, the lush island provides everything they need to sustain themselves with the rationing, scavenging, and hunting routines they adhere themselves to. Freshwater runs down the land in a stream from a water source uphill, plenty of different edible plants grow in the forest, and there's so much left of the expansive land to explore; it's perfect. Everything here is perfect for them, calling out to them to make it their home, but there's one little problem as of right now, and he's sitting across the fire behind her back.

Sarah's arms squeeze around her shoulders once to bring her in even closer.

"Thank you for saving him," her voice is so hushed, Y/N can hardly hear it with her lips brushing the shell of her ear to whisper into it, "I'm not gonna get all mushy with you right now, but I don't know what I would've done if"—Sarah's breath hitches in her throat, and she shakes her head—"I just wanted to thank you."

When they pull apart, Y/N is looking back at her with a knowing expression, one that says everything she can't in the presence of the others, and Sarah can't help but mirror it.

It isn't long before the blonde-haired beauty is whisked away by her boyfriend to help him cook the crabs they caught closer to shore after their encounter with the shark. Not wanting to swim out or risk slipping off the rocks again with the dead fish promising to lure more predators to their area for the next week or so, they settled for hunting for shellfish and making good use of the fruits they find growing in wild abundance in the forest.

The night ticks away in swiftly passing minutes thanks to the humorous company of the people around her.

She nearly chokes on a mouthful of banana as Cleo tells a story from before she met them, when she used to live in Nassau and work jobs with Terence and Stubbs on ships. For such new additions to the group, they both fit surprisingly well with the lifelong childhood friends that sit around and banter with such ease together.

They talk, laugh, dance, and eat together, and there are moments when she feels happier than ever. There are moments exactly like when John B lifted her up and made her giggle at how their friends cheered on her behalf in indulgence of the silly "ceremony" they did, half out of boredom and half out of gratitude for what she did. But then she is reminded of the man sitting on the outskirts of the group with his features hardened into an expression of contemplation she wishes she could decode.

The night breeze feels heavenly on her perpetually overexposed skin. It blows into the fire and allows it to swell from the oxygen supply, crackling and popping embers out every so often like the spark of the zippo lighter JJ fidgets with in his restless hands. The movement attracts her wandering eyes while they should be focused on Cleo and Kie dancing around the fire with boisterous laughter while Sarah and Pope sing for them.

She keeps herself honed in on the opening and closing of the lighter under the guidance of his ring-clad fingers for the next minute or so.

They may have been pitting themselves against each other since they met, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know him well. If anything, the keen attention that her old hatred for him forced her to keep on him made her memorize everything there is to know. And she surely has picked up on the nervous habit of him playing with the lighter whenever he's thinking, whenever there's something crawling under his skin that he can't piece together.

He sits with his back to her, facing out toward the ocean so all she can see is the hand he uses to flick the lighter open and shut with. With a quick glance at the rest of their friends to see if any of them are watching or wanting to speak with her, she pushes herself up from the log and dusts her sandy palms on her shirt.

The tracks of her footsteps lead around the corner of the driftwood he rests against until her feet appear, sunken into the sand in front of him. It takes a lot of control to not allow himself to follow up the length of her body, panning up along her legs until he sees that infuriatingly tenderhearted set of eyes looking down at him.

However, he doesn't have a choice in looking when her hand outstretches in a silent invitation. His first glimpse of her in the last half-hour shows her jerking her chin in the direction of the beach curving around the bend of the island.

This morning, he probably would've taken her up on the offer. He would've done anything to get a few minutes alone with her, but now he can't see past his anger and doesn't know why. He doesn't know why it hasn't calmed yet, but, in truth, it has more to do with him than it does her idiotic yet brave decision to fight off a shark today. Trust him, it still has a lot to do with the idiotic shark thing, but the rest is lost in translation for him.

"Not in the mood," he dismisses her.

Her brows furrow and form a crease between them as she tries to find something to say but comes up with nothing. At least not until it clicks with her what he thought she was trying to do by inviting him to walk with her.

The last time they went off on their own together, it ended in an explosive encounter they have yet to erase from their minds. It's what greets them whenever they close their eyes for a second too long, existing in their wildest daydreams and fantasies whenever they have a spare moment to themselves. Hell, he can't stop thinking about it even when he's already occupied. It was the reason why he didn't catch any fish this morning before the incident that made him pissed at her in the first place. He couldn't stop thinking of her.

"Oh," she murmurs and starts to kneel down until her knees are sinking into the sand the same way she did when patching up his leg. Her eyes peek over his shoulder to ensure the others didn't hear them—"That wasn't what I meant...I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about today. It must have been a lot to process, since he's your best friend and all, and—"

JJ snaps, unable to tolerate it anymore, and stands up from his spot on the sand to move away from her.

"You don't need act all therapist with me, okay? I'm fine, and I don't need you to fix me if that's what you wanted. Today was fine. Everything's fine, so let it go."

Her mouth opens and closes like a fish with a loss for words. For the second time in the span of a minute, she is grasping blindly for something to say in the wake of him shocking her to silence. He's starting to walk past her but she doesn't let him. Her hand shoots out to stop him and holds onto his arm to turn him back despite his rudeness.

Underneath it all, her concern touches him deeply. It shouldn't trigger a reaction like this in him, so why does it? What about today set him off? He hasn't been this genuinely angry with her since before the hunt for the gold began, before she started to blend into their friend group and establish herself as one of them.

"Woah, woah, woah," she says, "I never said that. I thought that you needed someone to talk to. You know, as a friend."

Their friends start to notice their interaction tensing up now. Before, they didn't pick up on her stepping away for a second to check on him. Now, it's impossible to ignore what unfolds hardly six steps from where they watch as slyly as they can. The two of them haven't had a conversation as cold as this one in months, and what he says next takes it to a place that freezes over the connection they made last night and shatters the warm place it held in her heart.

He scoffs.

"We're not friends. If you think you gotta act different 'cause you threw yourself at me last night, don't bother. You hate me and I hate you. That's how it is."

No nicknames, jokes, or anything to act as a buffer, just cruelty. Rejection.

Though they truly were trying to pretend like they weren't paying attention, every single one of their friends stops and stares. A chorus of hushed reactions sound off from across the fire, and the faint sound of Kie muttering, "Oh shit," is the first thing to reach their ears. It's needless to say that none of them could've expected something so callous to come from him, not after what they saw when they ran up to them on the peninsula this morning.

With the way he was holding her then, doting on her and cradling her face between his hands even in the midst of his anger at what she did, they sooner expected the pair to admit they're dating than have a blowout like this.

In the delayed seconds it takes for her to realize what the fuck he just said to her, he watches her face shift from a look of concern to sadness, to flush-faced embarrassment, then finally to anger. Her teeth grind together, nostrils flaring on her inhale, and in one quick moment, she comes to a conclusion within herself.

She reaches up to rip the handmade crown of vibrant flowers off her head with flames to match the camp fire flaring up in her eyes for him. Before she can do anything, he already knows he crossed a line, if not multiple lines. It's evident in everything he sees, from the hurt look on her face to the force with which she shoves the crown into the center of his chest to send him stumbling back a few steps. Just like yesterday, except it couldn't be any more different.

"Fuck. You." She spits the words as though they're venomous, and he almost shrinks away under the intensity of her stare, “Go find somewhere else to sleep tonight, 'cause it sure as hell isn't gonna be with me."

Petals flutter out upon impact against his solid chest and float peacefully to the sand around his feet as he watches her turn on her heels and storm off toward their hut. Though, after what he did and what she said to him as a goodbye, it isn't really theirs anymore, is it? At least not for tonight, tomorrow, or the next day until he finds a way to make her hear him out for an apology.

He stands there, frozen, the entire time he watches her leave. Nothing can move him from the spot, not even Sarah knocking her shoulder against his with a pointed glare on her way past to follow her into the moonlit darkness.

He doesn't even resist the disappointed looks he gets, or the shoulder check from Sarah. This time, he deserves it. He deserves every ounce of their judgment. All she was trying to do was make sure he was okay and he was too consumed in his unreleased frustration from today to see it. And, in a way, he's still frustrated over it, but it's greatly overshadowed by the guilt seeping through him.

The shadowy shapes of the two girls disappear into the small hut further down the beach, and JJ is left with nothing to do but look down at the flower crown clutched to his chest in regret.

Tag List: @gabiatthedisco, @fangirlvoice, @black-syren, @apparrio, @particularcth, @planetdemon, @idk-ijustworkhere, @krisphann, @astrydis, @k-k0129, @zarahsloves, and @stilesflannels.

[hunnyuwu]

My Baby Don’t Like It || NCT Jaehyun+Mark [part I]

Premise: What went wrong along the way? After everything we had been through, you still chose to leave me?

Pairings : Dad! Jaehyun x fem! reader x Friend! Mark

WC: 2.1 K

Warnings: explicit language, some extreme fluff

Part I || Part II || Part III

"Hey baby! How are you today?" You were crouched down on your knees, shooting a silly smile as the most adorable four year old in the world ran straight into your outstretched arms, worming his way into the crevasse of your neck. You cooed into the kid’s ear, happy to see the boy happy and healthy. He  withdrew from his squirmy snuggles to plant his tiny, moist lips on your soft cheek as his little greeting to his beloved Noona.

"I'm happy to see you, Noona!" A smile lit up his round, chubby features before he nuzzled back into the crevasse of your neck. You rubbed the top of his head a few times, messing up his short black locks, before getting up so that you were finally standing at your own height.

"Thanks for looking after him today, Y/N."

Your heart beat slowed down to a steady, rhythmic pace immediately. The slow, heavy thrumming taunted you as it rattled in your within the hollow shells of your ears. You interlocked hands with the small boy beside you before lifting your chin to see the person before you.

A gentle smile blossomed over your lips, a wave of calm washing over your body as you examined the familiar face before you, "Of course, Jaehyun."

"Remember Y/N, I changed my name." Jaehyun gave you a teasing jab, a dumb grin occupying his eyes. You flinched a little backwards, knives stabbing your poor heart as memories flashed at the forefront of your mind.

‘Yeah, but you changed it for her.’

"A-Ah, right! Sorry, have a good day, Yoon-Oh."

You released a breath that were holding for a little while as you saw Jaehyun hop into the driver's seat of an extremely expensive, luxury car. The flashy woman in the passenger seat threw an overstated air kiss to the little boy beside you, glancing your way soon after. A scowl replaced the smile you were holding onto desperately as she simply smirked with triumph. Your free hand curled into a tight fist as you watched the car whiz away, to the point that your knuckles turned white and your nails threatened to puncture the flesh of your palm.

She removed Jaehyun from your life, 

And he allowed it to happen.

You and Jaehyun had known one another since primary school. On a bitter, cold day in the autumn of your second year, Jaehyun nervously approached your lunch table to ask if he could sit with your group, which you guys obviously said yes. While the friends you had in that group all eventually slipped away from your life through your years of schooling, Jaehyun and you had managed to maintain a close friendship. The close bond and chemistry the two of you had was undeniable to the public and private eye. Everyone thought the two of you would eventually get married, which you didn't mind them thinking in the slightest. Jaehyun had always thought the same too, even though there was no official romance. Just adoring looks, sweet gestures, lovely memories, and tense atmospheres.

In university, you finally confirmed your feelings for him, ready for that next step with him. You finally realized that he was your destiny, and you thought you were his as well.

Next thing you knew, Jaehyun found a girl from his economics class and the rest is history. They had an accidental child early on in their whirlwind romance, the one you were currently watching playing with stackable plastic blocks. Anger boiled your blood... you still loved Jaehyun to the depths of your heart, to the point that you regularly questioned whether you would ever be able to move on, but you couldn't understand how dense he was when it came to his girlfriend: Jimin.

Jimin wasn't your average, plain Jane college gal. She was simply receiving a business degree for the sake of having the piece of paper that she didn’t even work for. Jimin had her daddy's money and company waiting for her once she deemed herself ready for the role. When Jimin set her eyes on Jaehyun the very first class of economics, it was game over for anything between you two. Jimin made it her mission to claim Jaehyun as her own personal property, in other words her personal boy toy, basically making it her life’s mission to rid of you in his life. Or as she specifically explain it, 'spending quality time with boyfie while they were young.' You saw through her sugary sweet act from the moment you laid eyes on her when Jaehyun introduced the two fo you.

She was a brat, a snob, a snake, and any description with negative connotation that you could think of. You hissed as you remembered that the woman even convinced him that 'Yoon-Oh' was a more handsome name than Jaehyun. ‘How could he be so under her spell to not see the sort of shit she puts him through?’ You wondered. 

‘The least she could be is a sweet, decent person to make Jaehyun happy in life.’

That would have satisfied you, but in the end, you knew that people never really get what they want. You were left high and dry while a snobby rich whisked Jaehyun away like he was never there to begin with. And the fact that the woman barely paid any attention to her child made you absolutely sick to your stomach. Hot tears pricked at your eyes as you watched the innocent boy giggle as he was currently in the midst of building a little block boat. 

‘Taking random selfies with your extremely adorable child for your dumb Instagram page does NOT count as parenting, Jimin.’

As you reminisced on all of the times that you had to deal with Jimin's endless childishness and her possessiveness over Jaehyun, you felt a little tug at your sleeve. You smiled tearily as you saw one thing that significantly brightened up your bleak life.

"Noona?"

"Yes, Baby?"

"Why do you look so sad today?"

Your heart constricted like someone was squeezing it tightly, already feeling regret as you had been too absorbed in your own thoughts to give him your full attention. You didn't have an early education degree for nothing.

"Ah, just little things, Baby. Don't worry about it."

"But I don't want Noona to be sad! We should get you ice cream like you do when I get a boo boo!" Jaehyun's son, Jeno, happily suggested, probably just wanting to eat some ice cream himself. You were put into a bout of laughter as you lovingly looked at Jeno get up to 'go get you some ice cream to fix your inside boo boo.'

You complied as you simply couldn't ever say no to the precious boy, so you were on your way out to the local grocery store near your house, which you hadn't gone to in awhile. You peered down to the eye smile prince himself who was happily skipping alongside you, his tiny hand wrapped around the middle three fingers of your hand, a gesture that you you screaming in an internal maternal mess. 

Jimin and Jaehyun have been so neglecting of this poor child lately, always going out on day long dates and luxurious overseas trips, obviously as per Jimin's request. 

You had to say, you were extremely disappointed at Jaehyun for forgetting his caring, sweet roots. The child you were currently leading into a small grocery store was basically your own, you were more of a mother to him than Jimin could ever be.

"Hey, Y/N!"

You looked around to see who called out your name when you spotted a familiar face, causing you to stumble back with pleasant surprise.

"Oh hey, Mark! I didn't know you worked here! Master's degree yet?" You led little Jeno over to the cash register to greet him, gushing over seeing the adorable guy once again. You knew Mark when you were a senior in college, him being a spry sophomore at the time. While he was a music major and you were an early education major, you two fatefully ended up in the same science requirement classes, leading to a beautiful, supportive relationship to blossom between the two of you. You hadn't been able to see him as of late as you were busy with your job.

"Yeah, I’m here part time. Needed some money so I can pay off my college debt as I'm looking for a gig at the moment. But anyways, uhhh, y-you look beautiful as ever, Y/N. Is he your child?" You blushed at his compliment while looking down at little Jeno who Mark was gesturing to gently. Jeno was shooting Mark a suspicious glare causing you to giggle as you dropped a hand to pat his head.

"No, this is Jeno, Jaehyun's son. I regularly babysit him."

Mark gave you a confused look, something wasn't adding up for him.

"You and Jaehyun aren't together?"

You were taken aback at his lack of knowledge. You even told him about Jaehyun's girlfriend a long time ago, but it seems like he didn't remember. Besides, you and Jaehyun were very, very not together.

As you were about to explain, Jeno took the spotlight.

"Daddy should date my Noona! She's a lot better-"

"Shh, you shouldn't say stuff like that, Jeno." You cooed to comfort the pouting kid as you hoisted him up onto your waist to rock him a little. He was getting a little heavy for this, but you didn't mind throwing your back out for him.

Mark laughed to himself, throwing a loving gaze your way as you and Jeno bickered for a little. His insides turned to goop as he fell down the tempting rabbit hole once again.

"Well, if you're not with anyone right now... c-could I ask to maybe take you out on a date sometime?"

You abruptly paused your conversation with Jeno to whip your head to the blushing male. A little blush to match his crept up to your cheeks as you reeled over what he just said in your mind like a broken cassette.

"You want to... go out with me?" You whispered with a tilt of your head, needing a firm confirmation from him before you let your mind start playing tricks on itself.

"Yeah, if that's fine with you." Mark restated, biting down on his bottom lip as he awaited your answer.

Thoughts of Jaehyun’s beautiful, warm smile plagued your mind like a disease; you were still very much in love with him. Even if his actions gave you a whole list as to why you should give his ass up in a heartbeat. 

You looked back into Mark's eyes, finally making up your mind.

"I'd love to, Mark."

"Really?" He choked out, already expecting a rejection coming his way. You were oblivious to it, but Mark had the largest crush on you ever since you became partners for your science class. Whenever he even thought of asking you out, he remembered how close you were to Jaehyun, so he always chickened out. 

This was finally his chance.

"Yeah, of course I would." You said sheepishly.

"But what about Daddy?"

You looked back to Jeno who was inches away from your face with round, glassy eyes. You sighed as you gave his cheek a quick little peck.

"Your Daddy is happy with your Mommy, Jeno. Don't worry, you will always be the number one man in my heart, okay? We will have a bunch more playdates!"

Mark watched as you comforted Jeno, feeling his heart thump violently against his ribcage. He knew you were the one for him, and he truly pitied Jaehyun, for he couldn't even see the true beauty that was sitting in front of him for so many years. Mark prayed above, thoroughly thanking fate to bring you to him today.

"Excuse me, but are you checking out right now?" An elderly woman appeared behind you with a harsh glare, a sharp tongue to match her tapping foot. You bowed quickly, not too much so that Jeno wouldn’t fall off, muttering small apologies as you moved out of the way.

"You better give me a discount for the ice cream, Mark!" You yelled as you walked away with Jeno over to the ice cream freezer. Mark gave you a cute little smile before diving back into scanning the items that that woman gave to him. Though it has been hard in your journey to give up on Jaehyun, there may be just as amazing men that would be better for you out there. You sighed out happily, maybe things were going to improve for you in the future.

~~~

Part I || Part II || Part III

This mini fic is the result of when I learned that Jaehyun said he would have basically been a teenage dad if he wasn't an idol 👁👄👁

[nalufever]

Second chapter to my Flash fic, my Snowells week 2020 entry ‘Happy Together.’ More road trip shenanigans!

The casual food dive the unlikely pair found themselves in was quaint and that meant the decor was at best a decade fresher than the no-tell motel. At least it smelled delicious. A doe-eyed twenty-something woman greeted and seated them, gave a short spiel about the specials and informed Frost and Eobard she’d be back very soon to take their orders.

What had to be a selection of locals were having a noisy meeting; loud talk about the mayoral race and even louder mentions of how good Vanessa looked in her pink waitress uniform. Both Frost and Eobard were of a mind to ignore these distractions until the dudebro in charge of the meeting started running his mouth in earnest.

“So, have y’all decided?”

Both Frost and Eobard nodded, but before either could speak, one of the rowdy regulars interrupted. “Nessa, can you freshen my coffee?”

Frost gave the waitress a small smile. “You should deal with Mr. Can’t Wait, first.”

“Ooh, that’s actually close to what we called him in middle school.” She giggled and pitched her voice louder, “We called Eddy The Little Emperor.” Vanessa dropped her order pad back into the small pocket of her apron and faced the little runt. “Oh, no, it’s not quite the same. Could you let me do my job for this nice couple? I’ll be right over with more coffee for the table once I take their order.” She only smiled as Eddy glowered. Giving her customers her attention again, Vanessa retrieved her order pad and flipped it open, her pen inches away from the surface. “Now, what caught your eye?”

“I’d like -”

“Your ass!” Eddy snickered without any remorse - surely he was the product of shoddy upbringing. “We’re regulars over here so don’t waste your time on uncertain tips.” He tapped his empty coffee cup and then started banging it on the table, several of his dudebro brethren copying. “March that fine ass back and serve us coffee.”

Frost lost every trace of ‘easy-going patron’ in her body she’d ever had in her life and by the look of disgust on Eobard’s face, so had he. Of one mind and will, they excused themselves from the table, stood and sauntered over to Eddy.

Eobard gave a regal hand wave to Frost, indicating the first shot was hers. She did not disappoint. “Eddy, Eddy, Eddy. Didn’t you ever learn to respect people? Ain’t nobody got time for your bullshit.”

“I must agree.” Eobard leaned over on the table and picked up Eddy’s coffee cup, giving the miscreant a wink that might have passed for roguish if it hadn’t been so evil. “If you’re in such a hurry, why not get it yourself?”

“I don’t know who you folks think you are, but you’d do well to learn to keep your noses out of other’s business!”

“Eddy, you got between us and our meal.” Frost gave Eddy her best dead-eyed stare. “You should learn how to play nice.”

“My dear, some guys never learn to be nice.” Eobard chuckled as the absurdity of what he was saying hit him. “But, some of us assholes do learn to at least fake it.” He sucked air over his teeth. His tone was low and threatening as he said, “Seems Eddy missed class that day.”

“Well, then. He needs to learn that lesson, yes?” Frost met Eobard’s eyes - trying to suss out what her erstwhile partner might be willing to commit to without drawing too much attention. Even if Eobard was not currently speedy, he still had what amounted to decades of evil-doing experience. “We’re over-qualified, but needs must, eh?”

“Hey, what’s with you two acting so tough? Some emo goth woman and an old man? Pfft! I ain’t scared.” Eddy stood abruptly, scraping his chair on the floor, making it skid noisily backwards. “I’m too important -”

Frost gave Eddy a sharp rabbit punch in the throat, smiling angelically as Eddy folded like a cheap suit.

He crumpled and sobbed - once he was able to inhale - like the little bitch he was.

“Any more takers?” Frost planted her hands on her hips and let her derision show on her face.

Eobard glared at the rest of Eddy’s posse. “Go while the gettin’ is good, or else my dear companion will hand out more lessons.”

In short and satisfying order the gaggle of men dragged Eddy out after tossing several bills onto the table to cover their bill.

Frost sat back down at their table and picked up her menu and smiled at the waiting Vanessa who had the widest grin on her face. “I’ll have the rib dinner with coleslaw and fries - no, make that a poutine.”

Eobard gave Frost one of his classic evil smirks. “Nice to know I’ve converted you into a poutine connoisseur.”

“As if! I’m just hungry.”

“Ain’t you two the cutest couple I’ve had in ages!” Vanessa ignored the distressed look Frost and Eobard exchanged. She asked Eobard, “And for you?”

“I’ll have the spaghetti and meatballs special.”

“Cheese on your garlic bread?”

“Um, sure.”

“I’ll put in your orders and bring you drinks in a flash!” Vanessa speed-walked away, ignoring their protests they hadn’t selected anything to drink yet.

“Well, that went over better than a lead balloon.”

Eobard played with the salt and pepper shakers, clinking them as if he was heralding something momentous. “Lead balloons can float. Ever watch Myth Busters? You just gotta know what you’re doing.”

His companion sighed, putting an elbow on the table and settling her chin into her cupped hand. “You watch TV?”

“I’m human, aren't’ I?” Eobard answered. “TV or youtube, content is content. And, there’s too many streaming services to mention even half of them.”

“Debatable actually,” Frost scoffed, “Both things! You, human? And if content isn’t sometimes twisted by delivery. Don’t get me started on having to pay extra for one channel for one damn show and then they have the damn nerve to not have all the episodes available to view!”

“Tch. Angry much? And this is how you treat the wonderful person who introduced you to the amazing wonders of poutine?”

Vanessa bustled back to the table and plonked a very big bottle of red wine down. “Eddy has needed an ass kicking for too long. Thank you! No charge, so please enjoy!” She put two glasses next to the bottle. “I’ll be back with your food soon.”

Eobard raised one eyebrow. “How nice.”

“Better than you deserve.” Frost shook her head. “Sorry, bad habit. You were pretty decent.”

“Ah, that’s the damning faint praise I prefer.” He pointed to the bottle and smiled. “Open that and pour. I’m not going to let you hog our reward.”

“Wasn’t even thinking of not sharing.” Frost opened the wine and deliberately gave Eobard a generous pour and then filled her own. “Cheers to our little partnership.” She inclined her head as Eobard raised his glass to clink with her own. “Long may we wreak havoc.”

“Long may we wreak havoc.” Eobard copied Frost’s words a scant heart-beat later and then added his own sentiment. “Cheers to one astounding bad ass bitch.”

“True.” Frost brushed imagined fluff off her leather jacket. “I’m more lethal than the plague.”

“Funny fact, thirty years into the future there’s another plague.”

“That is funny.” Frost took a fortifying sip of her wine after Eobard’s weird proclamation. “And all this talk of disease makes me sooooo thirsty.”

><><><><

Frost supported a stumbling and giggling Eobard into their motel room. She guided him to the bathroom - just in time - and he barely remembered to shut the door before unzipping and relieving his bladder.

She shrugged and sat on the edge of the bed, kicking off her boots. Tonight had been weird. Actually, all of today had been weird; from driving the Reverse Flash out of Central City to sharing food and then giving that loser Eddy the beat-down he so richly deserved. It kinda felt like a partnership.

Eobard waltzed out of the bathroom, his pants mercifully up but the fly was at half mast.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Frost resolutely looked away. “Zip up!” Why was she cursed with manners?

“What’s got your evil panties in a bunch?” Eobard struggled with his zipper, fumbling for long seconds before the tell-tale sound of metallic zipper teeth fusing together meant the free show was locked away. “Never guessed you to be a prude!”

“As if!” Frost forgot she’d removed her boots - she tried stomping over to her unlikely road trip companion but didn’t make as much of an intimidating impression as she’d hoped. “I happen to have respect for boundaries.”

“Hahahahah!” Eobard bent double, clutching his stomach. “Boundaries? This from the evil genius that ruined three of my best plans? Oh, you are too much!”

“Eh?” Frost knew she did not in any way shape or form sound like an evil genius at the moment - but the surprise was too overwhelming. “Huh? I ruined three of your best plans? You gotta be kidding me.”

“Tell me more lies!” Eobard stood straight and edged even further into Frost’s personal space, using his height to look down imperiously at the woman. “Tell me sweet little lies.” He swayed the most miniscule amount but he stared with fiery passion at Frost. “Sweet, sweet lies.”

Frost blamed nobody but herself for her next actions. She was an adult and this clash had been coming ever since the feeling of camaraderie from them working together to teach Eddy that lesson at the diner. Or maybe just because Eobard was one hot piece of ass. That could totally be the reason - and the fact she’d been in a dry spell in regards to finding a suitable relationship. Evil-doers need sex too.

“I’ll give you sweet lies.” Frost let the back of her hand caress Eobard’s stubbly cheek. “Sweet and addictive - but they’re lies.” Her other hand was clamped onto his shoulder and she half shoved, half shook the inebriated man. Eyes bright, she licked her lips and whispered. “Do you want my lies?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

It sounded exactly like a demand from Eobard, and that mentally ticked off the consent box for Frost. So that’s what she did - she coiled herself around the man, plunged her fingers into his dark hair and ravaged his mouth with a series of deep kisses. Long, long minutes passed. Breathing was a heavy chore for both Frost and Eobard - and when they broke contact, they were dazed and confused.

“S-sorry.” Frost hated to stutter - but that was small potatoes against the need to apologize. “I shouldn’t have -”

“Done that when I’m buzzed, yeah.” Eobard leaned against Frost, letting her support a good amount of his weight. “Tuck me into bed, okay?” He stepped out of his shoes and ignored how stiff and shocked Frost was as she openly watched him flop into the double bed. He patted the pillow beside him. “Tuck me in, I needs the sleep.”

“Far be it from me to keep you,” muttered Frost, “from the sleep.” She pulled the coverlet up to Eobard’s chin and tried to walk away - but he grabbed her wrist and tugged, urging her into the bed with him.

In a much softer and kinder tone than she’d ever heard from him, Eobard said, “Don’t make me sleep alone. I’m tired of the cold…”

Incredulous, Frost wanted to scoff, loudly - but she only sighed because Eobard rolled over and began to snore. “Pfft. All I have to offer is cold.” Fuck it. As tired as she was, and as out of it as Eobard was - there would surely be no harm in sleeping together. Facts were facts, Eobard was currently powerless or he was faking. In either case, his apparent inebriation had been flawlessly real. Maybe he’d found some really good drugs to help him get drunk? Stranger things had happened - King Shark; half man, half shark to name one such strange thing.

><><><><><

Several hours into the drive the next morning, the awkward silence between Frost and Eobard was lifted in the most unlikely of ways. A catchy tune on the radio got them humming along - and then eventually singing full blast with the music.

Obeying the unspoken offer to not talk about the previous night, Frost offered Eobard what she considered the premium choice from her bag of candy. “Hot tamale?”

Eobard made what could only be described as a grimace. “Excuse me?”

“Do you want a hot tamale? Candy?” Frost shook a handful of the small treats into her palm and offered them to Eobard. “Truce?”

“Oh...it’s candy.”

“Duh. What did you think I was gonna give you?”

“We took actual nourishment not even an hour ago.” He kept his eyes on the road, refusing to look away. “I don’t need anything extra.”

“Um, duh!” Frost wanted to snort but kept herself to a quiet eye-roll. “Nobody needs treats, but out of the goodness of my heart I’m willing to share.”

“Are we having this conversation now?” Eobard shook his head. “Maybe later.”

“Oh, there won’t be any available later.” Frost popped the candy into her mouth and chewed with gusto. Heaven would excuse her talking with a full mouth. “Screw you.”

Eobard took the high road and only thought of his response. You wish.

“Anyways, much like I said to Jimmy No-thumbs, I’ll take it under advisement.”

“Under advisement?” Despite his decision scant seconds ago to stop engaging with the bewildering woman, Eobard asked a question that would later haunt his dreams more than once. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, you’ve never run into Jimmy No-thumbs? Hah! He’s a goof.”

“That makes no sense.”

“He thought I was going to pay him back for his help - and unwanted help it was, from a bunch of other idiot thugs. Did you know he thought I needed rescuing?” Frost dumped another handful of candy into her mouth. “Hah! He’s lucky I didn’t castrate him.”

“Castrate?” Eobard asked despite knowing nothing good ever comes of a conversation that contains any mention of castration. “What did he do?”

“What did he do? Just keep making suggestions that I could clear things up by going on a date with him. I’d just ice him and get it over with but...well, he’s already got no thumbs so I’m not sure if that would be a mercy killing or not? Hm, then I thought I could freeze something else off as a discouragement.”

Eobard hoped like hell his shifting in his seat was not telegraphing how uncomfortable Eobard Junior was feeling.

Luckily, Frost kept up both sides of the conversation. “What do you think about making him Jimmy No-Di--"

"Don't even say it," Eobard said, wincing, “For the love of all things holy, don’t go there.”

“And that’s what he eventually said!” Frost concluded with extreme relish. “Don’t ever come near me again!” She giggled, slapped her knees and turned up the radio. “Of course, it was pretty hard to understand him, what with the crying and the snotty tears all over his face, but I’m sure he’ll never be able to harass another woman like what he did with me.”

><><><><

Frost took the opportunity of the coffee slash bathroom break to pull her itinerary from her jacket and check their progress against her map, hastily shoving it back after. Even with the unexpected extra person - or maybe because of her driving partner, she was on track; maybe even a little ahead of her schedule. She knew there were other things going on with Eobard. The man was known as the Reverse Flash, and as the most hated enemy of The Flash - it was beyond strange he was travelling by car. It seriously boggled the mind.

She held her hand over her heart and lifted her eyes to the heavens. Once a year she did her best to separate her naughty side from her previous existence. Once, she’d been a lawful member of society. Once, she’d been a member of a team that strived to bring down evil. All that was in the past - all but this small trip down memory lane. Frost let her shoulders relax, her head sinking to rest on her breast bone.

Closing her eyes she took a deep breath in, unconsciously lifting her head upright - held it and then breathed out. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

“Ready?”

She clutched her chest. “HO-ly fucking shit, dude! Do I need to put a bell on you?”

“Not to be too trite, but chill, yeah?” Eobard laughed. “Get it?”

“Ha. Ha. You are soooo funny.” Frost pointed at Eobard’s empty hands. “Where’s my coffee?”

“Dunno, where’s my coffee?” He smirked; one eyebrow lifted and his eyes damn well sparkled. “Didn’t I buy you breakfast? It’s your turn to reciprocate.”

“Fancy words from a cheap, cheap man.” Rolling her eyes, Frost made a rude face. “You’re the one horning in on my vacation.” She fished out a wad of cash from her back jeans pocket and waved it under Eobard’s nose. “Hope the pot is bitter so it matches your attitude.”

“You wound me!” Eobard clasped his chest in mock horror. “Moi? Bitter? Haven’t we reached an accord?”

“Pfft. Maybe.” Frost sighed and sashayed into the trucker friendly diner attached to the gas station.

Eobard smiled and hurried into the vehicle Frost had jacked; well, she’d said she’d stolen it, but he’d seen the rental agreement - and if she’d boosted someone else’s rental - how was it she had the proper keys? Settling into the passenger seat, Eobard noticed the dwindling bag of candy at his feet. He picked it up, fastened his seatbelt and began rooting for what he considered acceptable sugar.

“Oi!” Frost thunked two coffees onto the roof of the car, yanked open the passenger door and grabbed hold of the wrist of the hand Eobard had inside the bag of candy. “Ah, that’s my stash and I don’t recall offering you anything!”

Amused, with a big grin on his face, Eobard spent a full minute looking back and forth from into Frost’s outraged eyes and where she held his wrist. “You offered earlier.”

“And you didn’t want any!” Frost frowned and considered stamping her feet. “It wasn’t good enough for you then, it’s not good enough for you now.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of people changing their minds?”

“You’re not most people.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet.” Eobard’s smile grew wider, deepening the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “How about we replenish your candy the next change we get? I’ll buy you something that’s my favourite.”

Realizing she was losing this battle, Frost released her companion’s wrist. “It better be amazing.”

“You’ll be endlessly grateful.”

Frost scoffed her derision, her face actually looked sour. “Big words you got, this candy had better blow my mind.”

“It will, so get your ass in the car and let’s get going.”

Eobard laughed, narrowly avoiding getting slammed with the car door. Frost stomped to the driver’s side and after dropping the drinks, silently held out her hand for the car keys. Accepting them, she jammed the key into the ignition and peeled rubber out of the parking lot. Tight-lipped and scowling, she drove towards the next city on her itinerary; Garnet.

><><><><

“This place has everything you could ever want.”

“I don’t see any ponies.”

“What?” Eobard stepped closer to Frost and peered into her eyes. “I don’t see any dementia…”

She swatted his chest ineffectually. Well, even if he didn’t move back, his chest did feel pretty damn nice. Maybe later she’d get to grope him better; one could only hope. Or perhaps plan to get him drunk again… “I’m not crazy. I’ve always wanted a pony; you said this place has everything I could ever want.”

Eobard chuckled.

Damn. When Eobard grinned like that, he was even hotter and sexier than usual. Down girl!

He said, “Within reason, it goes without saying - usually.”

Wow. How was he managing to sound amused and sexy? Damn, damn, double damn! How long had it been since her last sexual escapade? Too fucking long, that’s what. Frost giggled.

“Do I amuse you? Am I a clown to you?” Eobard smiled to show he was joking and quoting from a movie. “How about we indulge?”

Frost mindlessly swallowed and licked her lips before common sense slapped her in the face. Eobard was talking about buying whatever candy they wanted - not an endorphin freeing sex romp. Fuck. She snorted. Not ever the right kind. “You’re paying.”

[lh-dreamlog]

08.29.XX

this dream... was the first that blended my reality and the dream world that i had become accustomed to. the detail of it was a lot more memorable than my previous dreams, hence the lengthy log entry.

also potential triggering events: if you are sensitive to strong violence or the topic of burglary, please read with caution. this was a warning.

the dream had started off in another strange way, but it was one that i had seen before. i was with my extended family when everything became eerily staged, almost as if they were producing a sitcom. i behaved normally, not following their forceful flow of events, though something told me that wasn't what was planned for me that night.

a daunting feeling overtook me as i almost gave into the dream's persistence for my cooperation. thankfully, a new presence brought everything to a halt.

"h! there you are! we need to get you out of here!"

it was my long time, closest friend, e, breathing heavy and grabbing my wrist. relief was evident, though it couldn't beat my curiosity. as she pulled me out of the crowded house, i stared at her, "e... what's happening? how are you here?"

her voice was trying its best to seem calm, though you could hear the fear rising quickly, "please, h, i can't answer anything yet. i have to get you out of here."

as we escaped, she brought me to a running car and hopped into the driver's seat after leading me to the back door, "get in, h. just... cover your ears and don't look outside until i say it's okay. got it?"

i nodded, though thinking this behavior didn't quite fit the e i knew in reality. i followed her instructions easily as i felt the car swerve and e swear quietly, "i'm sorry, h. we'll get there soon."

my eyes clenched shut until we finally came to a stop. i heard a car door open before mine and e's voice broke me out of whatever trance i was in, "come on, we have to go. they'll be here soon."

my eyebrows furrowed as i looked at her, "how do you..."

"we need to go! come on, get out of the car, h. i'll explain everything inside." i quickly followed her, my intuition telling me to follow the currently anxious blonde. we approached a beautiful house that was surround by ominous woods.

the interior was just as stunning, though it felt very empty (despite the beautiful furniture). i wasn't sure how much time passed, but i was sure that e was becoming more and more frantic. she watched the windows as she muttered about things not being how she remembered.

finally, i approached her and ask what i had been thinking from the start, "what. is. happening? how are you--?"

"i don't know either, but for some reason, i've been here before and you're in danger. so, please stay away from the left side of the house. that's where they'll attack from first."

it took a second to process what she had told me before i grabbed her wrist, "we need to hide then. tell me what we're up against."

as we went to hide, she began to explain how there were two men who had used my family to try and lure me into a trap. my eyebrows furrowed, unsure what i had done to warrant the hostile behavior, but accepting it rather quickly. i looked at her as i pointed to a closet, smiling, "don't hate me for this, but get in. if they're after me, then i'll just hold them off."

her eyes widened as she moved back seemingly against her will, "h, please, they have guns. let's hide together!"

i considered it, but ultimately shook my head, feeling a pang in my heart as tears gathered in her eyes, "don't worry, e. i'll distract them enough for us to both get out of here safely."

"they'll be here any minute. i swear to god if you get hurt, you better let me out of here, you stubborn ass."

i chuckled as i nodded and closed the door, successfully hiding my friend from any danger. however, that seemed to have triggered the next events as there was a knocking on the window.

just as e had described two men grinned sadistically at me as i put on a brave façade, "can i help you?"

"where is she? i know that brat is planning to get in our way again. there's no way she would make it this easy.." the taller male muttered, keeping his eye on me as he climbed into the room from the window.

my eyes followed the man wearily, noticing the weapon that had been secured in his hands. i kept eye contact with the man as he slowly approached me, "there's no way you aren't afraid. yet, you have the guts to look me in the eye like that?"

i glanced at the other male, who was clumsily making his way into the room. 'i need to be stronger, faster.'

smirking, i let the façade come to life, mocking the man, "it's not like there's much to be afraid of."

i could only hope he would take the bait, but he just scoffed, "looks like there's another brat. you must be stupid."

a scoff left me before i could stop myself, "says the person who is chasing after two young women for the hell of it."

his eyebrows furrowed, frustration clearly winning as he got within three feet of me, "the attitude on this bitch... my finger almost pulled the trigger."

"do it, then." i knew i was flirting with death, but i need the man to attack in some way to progress the plot. a sigh left me unexpectedly as i was met with a cool barrel to my forehead, wishing it hadn't had to come to such a cliché, "classic."

i grabbed the gun barrel with sudden speed i wasn't aware i possessed and quickly disarmed the man. the other looking at me in shock before groaning, "man, why did we get the hard job?"

with my new weapon equipped, i aimed at the armed man, quickly pulling the trigger on the farther man, not wanting him to become an inconvenience later on. the bullet hit his wrist, making him drop the gun as he fell to the floor and screamed in pain.

before i could bring the aim back to the more aggressive male, he smacked the gun out of my hand. my heart rate skyrocketed as he grabbed my face, but the adrenaline kept my mind moving as i squirmed under his hold. 'be stronger, they can't hurt e.'

tears formed in my eyes as his grip tightened, "you shut up? what? am i scaring you?"

i closed my eyes out of frustration, desperately attempting to kick him away from me, "h! help will be here any second now! just please, be careful!"

i heard e's voice as clear as day, but it seemed that the two men did as well, "find that bitch and i'll take care of this one."

"NO!" i screamed as i finally landed a blow on the man's torso, noticing the gun only a few feet away. the man only stumbled back slightly, yet somehow, that gave me more than enough time to grab the loaded weapon. quickly, i finished the injured male without a second thought, turning the gun to the surviving attacker.

somehow, he kept a grin on his face, despite his partner just being killed, "now, i get it. i see why they wanted you alive."

my eyebrows furrowed as i kept my sights on every move he made. as my finger danced over the trigger, i mumbled, "shut the fuck up. one more word and you're next."

his grin widened as he lunged at me, successfully surprising me. exhaustion was becoming obvious as a fight ensued, but i could only focus on my best friend's safety.

soon, a familiar voice could be heard, "H?! where are you?!?"

the gun flew out of my hand due to the man's forceful attacks. a yelp escaped me as i tried to fend off the angry man, "s! we're here! we're here! please help h!"

soon, my legs finally gave out, making me fall to my knees. however, the attacks stopped as a familiar boy came into my sights and tackled the attacker. there were another set of footsteps as a tall, panicked boy rushed into the room. a safe feeling flooded me as i saw him, "y... you're here too. please, go get e. she's in that closet."

the overwhelming exhaustion hit me as i laid on the floor, any pain suddenly taking its toll. i could see s fighting the man without any trouble, using some martial arts mixed with instinct to fight him.

my sight moved over to the closet where e and y where now embracing tightly. i could see tears falling from y's eyes, before their sights landed on me, "h!"

as soon as they called out to me, i heard s yell out in victory as he knocked the man unconscious. a sigh of relief escaped me as i saw everyone was unharmed. my eyes met s's frantic stare as he rushed towards me, panic clear on everyone's face.

i wanted to tell them that i was fine, that there were no life-threatening injuries. but i couldn't gather the energy too. smiling, i tried to soothe them, "i'm tired, guys."

s looked at me and quickly scooped me up in his arms, "yeah, you fought hard, h. let's go get some rest, okay?"

tears pooled in his eyes as he looked down at me. i gathered the last bit of energy i had before smiling, "until next time?"

the scene around me was already fading, signaling my waking up approaching. s's face was the last thing i focused into as his tears finally fell and a sigh escaping him, "until next time, h..."