#it's almost summer now and we're still getting days of heavy rain

[artlipsis]

misc. autobio comics

[fakesimp]

HAPPY 1K CHIAAAAA

Love at first sight with Fulgur? <33

Under the rain, with Fulgur Ovid

Warning !

Fluff ; First Meeting

A/n !

Mystaaaa ! Sankyuuuu fufu~ here you gooo ! Hope you like this !

1k Followers Event Prompts !

Love at first sight

➶◜◝➴

He was the first.

. . .

The way he handle things so easily, the way he act around people, his smile, his kindness,

He's like everyone's dream man,

But there's one thing that's a bit off from him,

He always cover himself entirely despite the hot weather, by means covering himself entire is by wearing coats, gloves long pants, it's almost like he's wearing winter clothing at summer.

It made you wonder,

Multiple times, you wanted to ask but you didn't find the courage to talk to him.

You decided to shook it off,

That is until one day, it was raining hard. It's basically pouring by this point, you were running with all you can towards a nearby shed, that is until you heard a familiar chuckle coming from your side

"That was quite a sight, are you alright? You're soaked" You whip your head to the owner of the familiar voice, it is him. The man who's everyone talking about, there's not a day goes without him in a conversation. "I, just-- felt like it, ...thank you for asking though" you replied, slightly pouting and a bit flustered. Earning another chuckle from the man, "I see, and your welcome.." he smiled at you, "Well, now we're both trapped." He said as he look at the heavy rain in front of both of you.

He is literally standing so close to you, because he is avoiding the water splashes, despite him fully covered, he' still trying his best not to get soaked. You stared at him, and he's doing exactly the same thing. He stared at you, and when you realize what's happening you whip your head away, clearing your throat. "Sorry, I, didn't mean to stare" you apologized.

If only you knew how his expression soften at the sight, he could only let out a soft sigh and chuckle once more, "It's fine, everyone stares at someone they like.. no?" He spat out, making you immediately whip your head towards him who' staring at you still.

You opened your mouth, but nothing came out, you're opening and closing your mouth like a fish by this point, making him letting out a small laugh, "Cute.." he said as he then pat your head, but. It's cold.

What is?

His hand.

You look at him who' soon moved his hand away and hid it, "Sorry, I couldn't help it" he averted his eyes. "...cold" you whispered, making him loom back at you, tilting his head slightly, "Cold?" "Your hand" you notice the way he stiffen a bit when you said so. "Ah.. is, is that so? Might be from the rain.. it is cold after all" he said as he shove his hands in his pockets, both of you then stood in silence, listening to the rain.

You don't know how long has the silence taken over, it's not an awkward one, but instead a comfortable one. "Fulgur Ovid." He said out of the blue, making you look over at him, "That's my name, how about you?" He asked as he look over at you, "( . . . )" You replied and earning a smile from him. "What a beautiful name, nice to meet you" he said and then looking at the distance, the rain is slowly going down, until it finally stopped entirely.

"Ah, the rain stopped" He said as he look over at the clear skies, he then turned to you, "We may have not spend so much time together," he smiled softly at you, "But trust me, I enjoy every bits of it" his eyes soften a bit, he then reach out his hand, that looks, in humane, it looks robotic to be exact, but somehow you didn't step away, you just let him reach his hand out and then pat your head.

"You're a unique one" He chuckled as he pull his hand away, "Usually people would back away," he stared down at you, "Or even run away.. yet, you didn't.." his eyes soft, "Why?" He whispered as he tried to find an answer from your expression.

Both of you stared at each other for a good minute, "Maybe, ..because I believe that" you paused for a moment, "..You won't hurt me?" You sounded a bit unsure. He scoffed slightly and let out a breathy laugh, "..or maybe, it's because I'm ..." And you stopped and shook your head, "Nevermind, Fulgur, isn't it?" He tilted his head slightly but then nod his head.

"Do you think we can hangout again?" He blinked and smiled at you, "Of course I don't mind, ..then may I have your contact number?"

Ever since then, both of you would contact each other, planning a hangout, the day of you first seeing him, until the day of you first interacting with him. Is the most memorable thing you've remember each day, Lowkey thanking the rain, if the rain didn't happen, you both probably won't interact !

Under the rain,

You've fallen for the man even deeper, falling deep for him who's not entirely human.

Falling in love towards a cyborg named, Fulgur Ovid.

©fakesimp . 2023

A/n !

There we go ! I hope you like it ! I hope you enjoyed it too fufu~ also apologies in advance if he's ooc (⁠´⁠；⁠ω⁠；⁠｀⁠)

( 8/10 )

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Camp Wanamaker (Ch 6/10)

July 22, 2023

Notes - I was up at 5 this morning, cranking out pages before the chaos of the morning started and, after going to my nephew's 13th birthday party until 7:30, I wrote more. Now, here I am - tired and in desperate need of a shower after spending a few hours soaked in chlorinated water - to deliver you this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 6 - Sugar, We're Goin' Down

Storm clouds loomed over Sanbornton, their presence cascading the town in ominous shades of grey. Overnight, the sky had darkened significantly, releasing a downpour of heavy rain throughout the area. However, as the sun began to rise into the sky, the rain began to slow, and, by the time the breakfast alarm rang throughout Camp Wanamaker, all that was left were scattered mud puddles and the smell of petrichor. Though the clouds still signified the desire to unleash heavy rumbles of thunder and brilliant bolts of lightning, the sky remained silent - almost eerily so. The weather had remained fairly calm since the early morning hours and the only sign of bad weather to come was the rain that drizzled over the area from time to time. 

From her seat at the front desk in the main office, Vivien let out a deep breath and took a sip of the lemonade her grandfather had given her as she stared out the nearby window, hoping that her glare would be enough to scare the lingering storm clouds away. The last thing she needed was to receive an anxious call or text from Bentley that her boyfriend was having a rough time dealing with the storm on the other side of the camp while she was unable to leave her post.

Not long after breakfast, Vivien had been pulled aside by her grandparents and asked to handle the phones in the main office while her grandparents held the staff meeting. So, while they were spending the morning handing out cabin assignment lists and filling everyone in on which events would be going on during the upcoming Color Wars, Vivien was stuck sitting behind a desk, answering calls and placating nervous parents. It wasn’t the most entertaining job, but it was a job, all the same, and the young brunette knew just how important it was to the camp.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Vivien reclined in her office chair, tipped her head back, and stared up at the ceiling. Despite her best efforts, she hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, struggling to find sleep while her mind raced. It wasn’t often that she struggled to find the ability to sleep, so to have it happen two nights in a row had to mean something was bothering her more than she cared to admit. Though she knew exactly what it was that was bothering her, there was nothing she could do to change it - not until Noah came to tell her she could.

Oh, how Vivien hoped Noah would grow some balls soon! She wasn’t sure how many more sleepless nights she could suffer through. She knew Noah wasn’t the most confident person in the world - especially if it came to matters of the heart - but the growing tension between him and Royce was starting to affect her mental health and, if he held out for too long, Vivien was sure she’d end up strangling the golden-haired male. If it came down to it, she’d tell Riley herself and get things over with so that things could return to normal again.

Pushing her hands through her hair, Vivien slid her eyes shut and sighed. The Tylenol she had taken before leaving the lodge had done little to help her growing migraine, but resting her head against the desk and trying to keep the lights above her from assaulting her eyes did help a little. Hopefully, she would hear from Noah before the day ended so that she could talk with Royce in the quiet of the lodge and they could move on with life. Summer was supposed to be their time to take a break from the stress of the world and enjoy their time together; why did it seem like there was more stress now than there had been when they were spending their days at the Birch family cabin?

Groaning as the phone on the desk began ringing again, Vivien pushed herself to sit upright, picking up the phone and holding it to her ear before putting on her best customer service voice and greeting the person with the camp’s greeting, “Camp Wanamaker front desk, this is Vivien. How can I help you?”

“Hey, Vivi, it’s Charlie,” the woman on the other end of the line greeted. “Your auntie and I are heading over to pick up some fireworks at the place by our house since the ones your Nonna found in the basement were apparently bought in the nineties. Do you want anything while we’re out?”

As the front door opened, Vivien looked up before sighing, “An energy drink and a bottle of those migraine pills Aunt Hayley keeps in the bathroom cabinet.”

“Headache again?” Charlie asked.

“That would be why I asked for the pills.”

“Didn’t you tell us that those knock you out for a few hours?”

“Hence the energy drink,” Vivien confirmed, looking up once more as a blonde head of hair entered the room. Smiling up at Riley, Vivien held up a finger, telling the girl to wait for a minute. “If the migraine pills make me tired, I’ll drink some of the energy drink to counteract it.”

Charlie sighed, “Is this like that time you tried to convince me that eating ice cream in the middle of winter would make you warmer because it cools you from the inside out?”

Vivien smirked as the memory came to the front of her mind. “Maybe,” she muttered.

“Yeah,” Charlie drawled, “not happening. Pick one.”

With a sigh, Vivien relented, “I already took some Tylenol, so I guess I’ll take the energy drink.”

“Deal,” Charlie said, the smile evident in her voice. “I’ll make sure to pick up the Excedrin while we’re out  so that, if your head is still bothering you by the time your dosage runs out, you can take some before bed.”

“Thanks, Char.”

“Anytime, sunshine,” the woman said softly. “Try to get some rest once you can get away from that desk for a few minutes.”

“I’ll try.” 

“That’s all I ask. Love you.”

“Love you too,” Vivien said with a smile before returning the phone to its cradle. Taking a deep breath, Vivien turned her gaze to the short blonde before her as she folded her hands together and leaned on the desk. “How’s it going, Riley?”

Riley Nicholls was a shy little thing who could easily pass for a child if she didn’t wear her staff shirts around the campground. Her barely five-foot-tall frame made her blend in with most of the crowds of campers and, despite being fairly loud and proud around her friends, the eighteen-year-old was shy to many people and often mistaken for a thirteen or fourteen-year-old. More than once, Vivien had spotted her arguing with one of the temporary staff members who only stayed at camp for two weeks, telling them she belonged in the dance studio. More than once, Vivien had backed her up and helped her get where she needed to be.

Taking a deep breath, Riley leaned against the upper shelf of the desk and sighed, “Shitty.”

“What’s wrong?” Vivien asked.

“What isn’t?” the blonde sighed. “Turns out the dance studio isn’t really needed during Color Wars.”

Vivien nodded slightly. Typically, during the points-based, team-driven week, the normal hotspots like the music hall, dance studio, and library were abandoned in favor of the archery station, ropes course, and climbing wall. The more points one gathered for their team, the more likely they were to receive a pizza party at the end of the week. Vivien had been through the same song and dance many years over and, if she was honest, she thought it was common knowledge. Then again, she had been going to the camp for a lot longer than most of the workers had.

“Same with the music hall,” Vivien shrugged. “I guess it just means we’re left to do as we please for a week.”

Riley contemplated the brunette’s words before muttering, “I hadn’t thought of that.”

With a chuckle, Vivien asked, “What else is bugging you?”

“That solved a lot of my problems, actually,” Riley admitted, a small grin tugging at her lips as she eyed the girl before her. “I do have a question for you, though.”

“Shoot,” Vivien nodded, leaning back in her chair.

Almost hesitantly, the blonde asked, “Can I ask you how you know Noah?”

Vivien shrugged, “He and I met in kindergarten. I used to drag him around and tell him what to do all the time. We were inseparable for years and spent a lot of time together growing up. Why?”

The girl on the other side of the desk seemed to contemplate her options before sighing and saying, “I’m not sure how else to put this, so I’m just going to say it.” Vivien nodded, gesturing for the girl to just let out whatever was bothering her. “Are you and Noah together or are you with Royce?”

“What?” Vivien breathed, incredulity mingled with disgust flooding her face.

“Well, you and Noah were attached at the hip for a while,” Riley began, “but then you and Royce were really close after that and, when I asked around, nobody gave me any clear answers as to who you were seeing. I wanted to ask Jade, but she’s always busy at the pool, so I figured I would just ask you.”

Vivien sat with her mouth agape as she processed the girl’s words. Then, with a noise of aversion, she asked, “Who on earth would think I’m dating Noah?”

The front door opened and Riley gave the brunette a curious stare as she lowered her voice and asked, “So, you aren’t?”

“No!” Vivien barked, giving a shiver of disgust. “Ew, gross, no. Even if Noah and I were the last two people on this planet, I would rather die than date him.”

“Nice to know how much you love me,” an amused voice chuckled as a head of golden brown hair entered the room. As Vivien rolled her eyes at him, Noah said, “I’ll have you know, it’s mutual.”

Smirking, Vivien grabbed her lemonade and claimed, “If you were my husband, I’d put poison in your coffee.”

“If you were my wife,” Noah began, stepping past the desk and leaning close to Vivien before finishing, “I’d drink it.”

Briefly raising her cup of lemonade in a sort of toast, Vivien took a sip of her drink and returned her gaze to Riley as Noah left the room, watching the girl’s eyes follow the taller boy into the other room. Once she had Riley’s attention once more, Vivien smirked into her cup and set it down before clarifying, “Honestly, Noah and I have never dated, nor will we ever go on a date. He and I are just childhood friends - nothing more, nothing less.”

Nodding almost to herself, Riley swallowed thickly, gave the younger girl a grin, and said, “That’s good to know. Thanks, Viv.”

“Anytime, Riles,” Vivien claimed, watching the girl disappear out the door she had come in through. Once the door was closed and Vivien watched as the girl disappeared down one of the paths leading further into the camp, she turned back to the doorway Noah had gone through and called, “You’re clear to come back in, Noah.”

That was the only invitation the older boy needed as he rounded the wooden frame, giving Vivien a tentative smile as he asked, “Did she really think we were dating?”

With a roll of her eyes, Vivien nodded, “No shit, Sherlock.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That I would rather be strung up by my feet and used as a human pinata for a gaggle of sugar-cracked-out six-year-olds and the entire batting lineup for the Boston Red Sox than have you shove your tongue down my throat.”

Sighing, Noah implored, “Is that really what you told her?”

“Of course not,” Vivien chuckled. “I just cleared the air, that’s all.”

“You didn’t tell her, did you?”

“No,” Vivien said with a firm shake of her head, leaning back in her chair, “but you really should get on that before she decides to move on.”

“You say that like it’s easy,” Noah sighed, leaning against the wall.

“Because it is,” Vivien shrugged. “Considering you had your tongue halfway down her throat the other day, I’d say you’re making it far harder than it needs to be.”

Noah’s gaze fell as he took in a deep breath, “That’s not the same as asking her out. That’s not exactly easy.”

“It was pretty easy for me, actually,” Vivien claimed. “When I asked Royce out, I made it quick and easy.”

“Rip off the bandaid?”

“Exactly.”

Noah sighed, “How come it doesn’t feel that easy for me?”

“Because your balls haven’t dropped yet,” Vivien snickered. At Noah’s disappointed sigh, she relented, “Seriously, though, you just need to let it happen on its own. Until you’re sure of your feelings for her, I can’t ask her out for you like we’re back in middle school.”

“You never-”

Settling a stare on the older boy, Vivien recounted, “Avery Poske, Nick Duncan, Robin Wells, Hayden-”

“Okay!” Noah cut in, urging the girl to silence herself as he frantically reached over the desk and covered her mouth with a hand. “Okay, I get it. You’ve helped me a lot before. This time, I’ll do it myself.”

Swallowing her disgust at the action, Vivien stuck her tongue out, swiping it over Noah’s palm with a grimace until he reeled back, dragging his hand over his jeans. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Vivien smirked, “You’d better because, if I have to wait much longer for you to grow a pair, I will end up strangling you and tossing your body in the lake.”

“Violent much?”

Staring blankly up at the older boy, Vivien stated, “You’re being a total wuss with this girl, my boyfriend probably thinks I’m going to leave him for you at some point, and I haven’t slept in two days. Me throwing your lifeless corpse into the lake will seem tame if you don’t figure your shit out soon.”

Noah nodded, taking in a deep breath before smirking and giving the girl a mock salute. “Aye-aye, captain. I’ll steer this ship from here on out.”

As the older boy left the room and closed the office door with a slam, Vivien rolled her eyes one last time and sighed, “Yeah, with his luck, this ship will slam right into a fucking iceberg.”

For the first time in a little over a week, busses full of campers rolled along the dirt path leading to the grounds of Camp Wanamaker as the morning sun cleared away the dark clouds that had hung in the air the day before. The day moved quickly as buses arrived and campers filled the area. The first bus arrived after breakfast and, while some returning campers embraced their friends and flocked toward their cabins to set up for the next two weeks, it wasn’t until almost lunchtime that the place began to feel more full of life and laughter. The final buses bringing in campers from the airports wouldn’t get there until late, but the grounds already began to feel more crowded as gaggles of excited children flocked toward different areas of the camp.

Royce wasn’t exactly upset to have the distraction of campers filling the area again. While he would miss the peaceful serenity of spending mornings on the lake, reading books or comics with Vivien and Bentley, it would be a lie if he said that he didn’t miss seeing the excitement on every camper’s face as they ran through the grounds. A part of him wished he could have been like them at some point, running through the campground without a care in the world, at ease with everything going on around him. Maybe, in another life, he was just that - a carefree kid. Then again, if that were true, the chances of him being with Vivien in that world were slim to none, and a world without her just wasn’t worth living in, if you asked Royce. 

As a pair of kids with bright red hair ran into him - all but tackling him to the pine-needle-riddled ground as they dragged him from his thoughts - Royce let out a breath of a laugh, making sure they were alright before letting them continue on their way. There wasn't much for him to do in the library, something he had been warned about the day before at the staff meeting, but Royce had still spent the majority of his time there before the all-camp call had rung out, calling every staff member and camper alike to the mess hall for lunch.

Royce had texted Vivien throughout the morning, asking her what she was up to, but after finding out that she was leaving with Miles for lunch, Royce was quick to close up the library, throwing a bookmark into the novel he had been invested in before practically running to leave the building. On days when Vivien would spend her time in the music hall with Miles and Royce would sit behind the library desk to read, they would meet up where the path to the music hall met the path to the library and walk together to have lunch or dinner. Hoping they would continue the trend, Royce picked up the pace and jogged down the dirt path behind the fenced-off swimming pool, looking around for Vivien as he approached his destination.

Slowing his pace once more, Royce walked along the path until he could see the front of the pool, spotting his girlfriend and Miles standing by the snack shack near the front of the pool fence, laughing at something someone in the snack shack had said. The only people Royce knew worked in the shack were Jade and Erica, so he let out a soft chuckle, knowing just the type of jokes the pair would no doubt unleash without any campers around. Royce beamed as Vivien spotted him, her face lighting up like a Fourth of July firework display as she waved him over. Shoving his hands in his pockets as he neared the small shack, Royce found his smile faltering as he heard an all-too-familiar voice laugh from within the shack.

“Hey, Royce,” Noah beamed, raising a hand in greeting as he ran a towel over his head.

“Hey,” Royce greeted tersely. “What happened to you?”

“Some kids were running on the side of the pool and pushed him in,” Jade claimed.

Erica cackled from her chair, “I told them to.”

“Why?” Royce wondered slowly.

Noah was the one to answer, sighing, “She told me I needed a cold shower and I told her to fuck off.”

“So, I made them give him a cold bath instead,” Erica grinned, obviously very pleased with herself. “I even caught it on video.”

“How did you convince them to push him in, though?” Royce asked. “Some of those kids haven’t even been here for a full day yet.”

Reaching under the counter, Erica smirked as she produced a small wicker basket filled with fake gold coins. “Kids that age will do anything for free snacks.”

Royce picked one of the coins out of the little basket and examined it, reading the engraving that declared the tokens were redeemable for a free snack. “Smart,” he mused.

“I know, right!” Erica snickered. “They pocketed these and took off like a pair of little bullets.”

Noah sighed as he draped his towel over his shoulders, “Yeah, two little bullets with enough combined muscle to tackle The Rock.”

“Anyway,” Jade began, redirecting the conversation as she rolled her eyes at her girlfriend’s antics, “are you guys heading up to the mess hall?”

“Yeah,” Miles breathed, clearing his throat as he pushed himself away from the wall he’d leaned against. “Are you three coming?”

Jade nodded as Erica chuckled, jerking her thumb toward Noah, “Yeah, we’ll head out once dipshit over here is ready to go. Can’t lock up the pool until he’s gone.”

Noah didn’t look bothered by the jab, simply looking over at the blue-haired girl with a raised brow as he stated, “Chief gave me a new key.”

“We have no intention of letting you forget the fact that some kid stole your old key because you were distracted while locking up,” Jade stated, sending the younger boy a firm stare.

Turning toward the others with a smile and a hand pressed to the side of her mouth, Erica stage whispered, “He was trying to get laid.”

“I was not!” Noah quickly argued, his face visibly turning red despite the dim lighting of the shack. While both Jade and Erica made noises of mock understanding, Noah sighed, admitting, “I was getting advice.”

“From who?” Jade scoffed.

Tentatively raising her hand as Noah pointed a finger in her direction, Vivien grinned, “Me.”

“What did he need advice from you for?” Miles asked, quick to scrutinize the boy’s intentions with Vivien.

“He was wanted to know more about this place downtown that he wants to take this girl and I-”

Before Vivien could finish, Erica let out a bark of laughter and turned to Noah with knowing eyes, “So you were trying to get laid!”

Rolling his eyes, Noah relented, “Fine, yeah. Happy now?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Erica chuckled, shrugging. “Now, go get some clothes on, you drowned mole rat. I want some chicken fingers before all those grubby little hands get to them first.”

Sighing, Noah pulled his towel from his shoulders and tossed it in Erica’s direction before stalking off to change. Royce watched silently as Vivien fell back into an easy conversation with Erica and Jade, their previous conversation seemingly forgotten as they began rambling about the start of the Color Wars. As much as it shouldn’t have, the ease with which Vivien switched topics astounded Royce. He could tell he wasn’t the only one as he looked past his girlfriend to his older brother, finding him watching the girls interact with a raised brow and his hands on his hips. Miles found Royce’s gaze with ease, offering his younger brother a small shrug and an encouraging grin that urged Royce to take in a deep breath and force himself to relax. Maybe he was just overthinking things.

By the time all of the campers had arrived, the sun had already set and dinner had already been served, so it was announced that night over the speakers throughout the camp that the teams for Color Wars would be announced on Tuesday, something Vivien was perfectly fine waiting for. After eating a couple of melatonin gummies and passing out with her head on her Aunt Hayley’s lap that night, Vivien wasn’t entirely sure she could move her exhausted limbs enough to venture out to the mess hall again. She had fought valiantly against the sleep that desperately wanted to claim her, but as her aunt’s nails gently scratched against her scalp and Royce took the opportunity to rub soothing circles into the palm of her hand from his spot on the floor, she lost the battle and allowed darkness to envelop her.

It wasn’t often that Vivien had detailed dreams - especially not ones that she could remember - but as she stumbled from her room to her boyfriend’s at two in the morning, her blanket wrapped tightly around her and one of his hoodies clutched in her shaking fingers, she wondered if dreams were always so terrifyingly vivid for anyone else. If they were, she could only imagine how scary nightmares were for the people who could recall them once they were awake. Thankfully, Vivien couldn’t remember much about her dream - a melatonin-induced nightmare where a skyscraper-sized green gummy bear lumbered after her, a knife somehow clutched in its gummy, fingerless hand - but she knew she wouldn’t be asking for any sleep pills any time soon. Another thing she remembered was the vague determination to eat the heads off of all gummy bears she came across in the future, but that made little sense, even to her.

Gripping dazedly onto the doorframe of Royce’s room, Vivien took in a sharp breath and looked around, her bleary, unfocused gaze searching the room for her boyfriend. Finally catching sight of the lumpy blankets that covered her boyfriend’s sleeping form, she inched her way further into the room, practically stumbling toward his bed before tripping over a shoe and slamming to the floor in a heap. Vivien let out a disgruntled noise as the bed creaked sharply, but as she looked up, she attempted to murmur something that would encourage Royce to keep from moving out from under his covers. Kneeling on the floor beside his disoriented girlfriend, Royce took her face in his hands and softly asked, “What happened?”

“There was a gummy bear with a knife,” she muttered as though it made all the sense in the world. It didn’t take much for Royce to piece together what she meant, but his eyebrow still lifted all the same as she leaned into the hand on her cheek and mumbled, “Didn’ wanna be ‘lone.”

Royce shifted, pulling Vivien upright before settling her against him as he looked around the room. As difficult as it was to scan the pitch-black room, he easily spotted the sneaker he had tossed aside the night before and grabbed it, tossing the offensive shoe toward the dresser. Though he knew it would be difficult, Royce began thinking of ways he could maneuver Vivien onto the bed. Despite her soft appearance, he knew all too well how much muscle was under her skin - something that would be more dead weight than anything while she danced over the thin line between being awake and being asleep. 

Just as Royce was about to resign to the idea of pulling his pillow and blanket from the bed and setting up a sort of makeshift bed on the floor, a set of shadows appeared in his doorway. Looking up, he found both Riven and Bentley stepping into the room, the younger rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the older softly asked, “What happened? Is she alright?”

“Bad dream, I think,” Royce noted. “She said something about a knife and a gummy bear.”

“Why are you guys on the floor?” Bentley murmured through a yawn.

“She tripped,” Royce stated. Shifting his gaze from Bentley to Vivien and finally to Riven, Royce said, “I can’t lift her.”

Riven nodded, understanding the boy’s silent question. “Do you want me to bring her back to her room or do you just want me to help you get her on yours?”

“Mine is fine,” Royce said. “She said she doesn’t want to be alone.”

Bentley moved out of the way as Royce shifted Vivien’s head toward Riven, allowing the girl’s skating partner to take on the girl’s weight and lift her from the floor. Without the girl fighting to keep herself awake, Vivien’s grasp on the hoodie she’d borrowed loosened and Bentley was quick to snatch the golden fabric from the air as he pushed himself to his feet and helped Royce up. Before setting Vivien down, Royce turned toward Royce and nodded toward the bed, offering him the chance to slide into place if he desired. After pushing aside his blankets and sliding in close to the wall, Royce watched as Riven lowered Vivien to the mattress, making sure to bring the blanket over her once Riven moved away. 

Bentley reached a cautious hand out, pushing the brunette’s hair from her face with a small grin, “I think that medicine she took last night is kicking her ass.”

“It always does,” Riven commented. “Give it a few months and it will happen again.”

“She’s done this before?” Royce asked, keeping his voice low to avoid waking his girlfriend.

Riven nodded, peering down at the sleeping brunette as he stated, “She hardly ever takes anything more than headache medicine, so when she takes something like allergy pills or sleep gummies, this is usually the reaction she has. We’ll be lucky if she’s able to walk around much tomorrow.”

Royce sighed, stiffening as Vivien sluggishly rolled closer to him, tucking her face into the crook of his neck. Looking up to Riven once he was sure Vivien was comfortable, he asked, “What do we do?”

Riven shrugged, letting out a yawn as he replied, “Keep her comfortable. At breakfast, I’ll talk with her grandparents and let them know what happened. They’ll give her the day to rest and she should be fine by tomorrow. For now, just try to make sure she doesn’t get up and walk around again.”

With a nod, Royce watched as Riven left the room, followed closely by Bentley. Before Bentley could leave the room, Royce asked, “Where are you going?”

Turning back toward his brother with exhausted eyes, Bentley gestured down the hall and yawned, “My room.”

Without another word, Bentley turned on his heel and headed down the hall, leaving Royce with his mouth slightly open, an unasked question on his lips. Though he wasn’t surprised Bentley wanted to go back to sleep, he was surprised his younger brother didn’t just slot himself into the empty space on the other side of Vivien. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had done so. Resigning himself to a night of watch duty, Royce relaxed into the mattress and brought a hand to Vivien’s head, holding her close as he stared up at the ceiling. It wasn’t long before the bed dipped to the side and Royce’s attention was dragged toward the head of messy blond hair that situated itself on the far end of the mattress, a pillow folded in half underneath it.

“I thought you were going back to bed,” Royce muttered.

“I am,” Bentley claimed. “I never said whose bed I would be using.”

Royce let out a breath of a chuckle, “Are you sure you want to be here? What if Viv starts getting up and walking around again?” 

Lifting his head from the pillow and looking over Vivien at his brother, Bentley asked, “We’re in this together, aren’t we?”

“We are.”

“Then I’m staying.”

Nodding mostly to himself, Royce let his head fall back to his pillow, bidding his brother a quiet goodnight before closing his eyes and relaxing into his bed once more. With any luck, he’d get some rest until morning and Vivien would stay where she was until the melatonin wore off. It didn’t take long for Bentley to fall asleep, snoring faintly as he shifted onto his side, leaving Royce on his own as Vivien mumbled nonsense in her sleep. As the clock ticked over to four o’clock, Royce drifted into a light sleep, his mind struggling to relax after two hours of jolting awake every time his girlfriend moved.

Hours later, as sunlight poured in through the window, a pair of tired green eyes blinked open, glaring daggers at the light that burned through the cheap, cotton curtains beside the bed. It took Vivien’s exhausted, foggy brain a while to realize that she was no longer in her own bed, but once she slotted the puzzle pieces into place, she pushed herself to slowly sit up, her muscles protesting at the movement. Once the room stopped spinning like the Round Up ride at the carnival, Vivien looked around the room, quickly discovering she had somehow made her way to Royce’s room from her own. The journal on the nightstand was an easy tell, but so was the Polaroid camera and the photo booth strip of pictures they’d taken together at the state fair.

After taking her glasses and fully charged phone from beside her boyfriend’s journal, Vivien took her time getting to her feet, listening for any sign of her boyfriend or their friends as she eased herself upright. To not make herself dizzy once again, Vivien carefully made her way out of the room, using the wall as a brace until she reached the staircase. Descending the stairs, Vivien found that the lodge was far quieter than she was accustomed to. At the end of the stairs, she looked around for any sign of life, calling out for anyone who would listen, but when nobody replied, she made her way to the couch where she discovered a piece of paper with her name on it.

“‘Pip,’” she read to herself. “‘We’re going to get some breakfast from the mess hall and see about letting you rest for the day. If it’s after nine by the time you’re reading this, we’ll probably be in our usual places. We’ll be by around lunch to check in on you. Don’t push yourself. Just get yourself a drink from the cooler, put on a movie, and rest on the couch. You need it.’”

Pulling her phone from the pocket of her pajama shorts and checking the time, Vivien sighed; it was well past nine. With her chances of joining Miles at their normal post being dashed and the drive to leave the cabin surprisingly low, Vivien folded the note and set it back on the coffee table before dragging the small cooler out from under the table, grabbing herself a drink, and slouching back into the couch. Opening her phone once again, Vivien began scrolling through TikToks, hoping to find something interesting. After a while of finding nothing but Broadway memes and baking videos, she resigned to opening Disney+, where she connected her phone to the television mounted on the wall and allowed herself to get lost in the cult classic that was Hocus Pocus - one of her favorite comfort movies. 

Glad she hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on, Vivien leaned to her side and laid down on the couch, tugging the blanket from the back onto her as she curled into a comfortable spot. The movie was easy to get sucked into and Vivien was surprised how much time had passed as Max flicked open his lighter and brought it to the wick of the black flame candle. As the door to the Sanderson sisters’ house swung open and the three teenagers hid from the witches, Vivien jumped as the door to the cabin opened in a similar manner, banging against the doorstopper as a person with their arms full entered the building.

Peering over the armrest, Vivien sighed as she pushed herself to sit up once more, pausing the movie as she complained, “Noah, you scared the shit out of me!”

“Sorry,” the older boy said quickly as he maneuvered his way into the living area and set a plastic bag and a stack of books on the coffee table. “Your grandparents sent me over with a bunch of stuff and told me to check up on you. They were going to send your boyfriend, but he was roped into helping out in the health center. I guess a big group of kids are doing archery today and they wanted as many hands on deck as they could get.”

“Oh boy,” Vivien sighed. “We’ll be lucky if some kid doesn’t end up with an arrow sticking out of some body part or another.”

“I know, right.”

Reaching to take the bag from the table, she asked, “Do I want to know what you brought?”

“Other than your shirt for Color Wars, probably not,” Noah chuckled. “I think there’s soup, a bag of snacks, some soda, and a bunch of fruits.”

Vivien peered into the bag the boy had set aside before asking, “What, no alcohol?”

“Sadly, no,” Noah smirked, “but I will say it was funny to see your grandpa offering to send you some of his ‘special brownies’ and getting smacked upside the head by your grandma.”

Vivien shook her head, a fond and knowing smile stretching across her face, “Sounds about right.” After a moment, she turned her gaze back to Noah and said, “Thanks for bringing all this down for me.”

“Of course,” Noah nodded. As he turned to leave, he asked, “Do you want me to let everyone know that you’re awake?”

With a shrug, Vivien replied, “If you see them, sure, but don’t go out of your way. They said they were going to check up on me around lunchtime.”

Checking the watch on his wrist, Noah nodded, “In that case, they’ll be here soon.”

“And I’ll still be here.”

Noah smiled, “Alright, well, I’ll let you rest before they get here.”

“Okay,” Vivien breathed, shifting back into the couch cushions. “Thanks again, Noah.”

With a dutiful nod, Noah turned back toward the door and made his exit, leaving Vivien to her own devices as he began walking back toward the main area of the grounds. As the sand under his feet shifted, Noah ran a hand through his hair and smiled as he recalled the conversation he had witnessed between Vivien’s grandparents. In a way, he supposed not much had changed in the years since he left town. They were still some of the nicest people he knew and Noah soaked in the opportunity to watch them be so at ease with each other. Without grandparents of his own, Noah had always seen Vivien’s grandparents as the type of people he wished he had in his life. In turn, they had treated him as their own. It seemed as though that hadn’t changed despite the years they had spent apart.

As Noah reached the section of sand that melded into the pathways that lined the camp, the lunch bell rang. He watched as children in different buildings filed out, hurrying to the mess hall to see how many points their team racked up over the few hours since they had been placed on a team. Stopping in the middle of the path to let a group of kids in neon green shirts run by, Noah chuckled and looked around, spotting Bentley hanging a smock on the hook by the art barn doors. Deciding to let him know what was going on with Vivien, Noah maneuvered through the sea of eager children until he reached the art barn, leaning against the railing with a breath of relief.

“You know, I never thought this week would be so chaotic,” he chuckled as the blond boy turned toward him.

Shrugging, Bentley claimed, “Viv said it usually is. I’m trying to stay out of most of it.”

“You and me both, Bentley,” Noah said with a smile. Running a hand through his hair, he said, “I just wanted to let you know that I stopped by the lodge to drop off some stuff for Vivien and she seems to be doing a lot better than I heard she was.”

“She does?” Bentley asked, glancing toward the entrance of the beach. “What is she doing?”

“Resting on the couch, watching a movie,” Noah stated. “She was moving pretty slowly, but she seemed alright otherwise. We talked for a little bit before I left.”

Bentley nodded, “Thanks, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.”

“Alright,” Noah nodded. “In that case, my work here is done. See you up at the mess hall.”

“See you,” Bentley said, giving the older boy a wave as he watched him leave. As Bentley looked out over the sea of campers heading toward the mess hall from all sorts of places, he spotted a single, dark-haired figure weaving through the crowd in the opposite direction, heading toward Bentley despite the pushback. Snickering at his brother’s misfortune, Bentley called, “Having fun there, RJ?”

Royce lifted his head, sending his little brother a glare as he pushed through the last bit of the crowd, grabbing one of the pillars that held up the art barn’s extended roof to pull himself away from the chaos. “I think we should wait a little bit before we go check on Viv. If we go back into that mess, we’ll be lucky if we come out with all of our limbs intact.”

“We don’t have to rush to check up on her anyway,” Bentley shrugged. “Noah went to check on her and drop some stuff off.”

Bentley watched as Royce froze, his mind visibly racing as his eyes flitted between Bentley, the crowd, and the beach. “When did he stop by?”

With a shrug, Bentley said, “Probably a few minutes ago. He was just here. I guess Viv’s watching a movie or something.”

Royce reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, checking it for any notifications he might have missed before asking, “Why didn’t she tell me she was up?”

Though Bentley was sure the question was more for Royce than it was for him, Bentley suggested, “Noah said she was moving a bit slow still; maybe she just hadn’t thought of it.”

Royce glanced up at his brother, plastering a small smile on his face before nodding, “Yeah, maybe. Do you want to go check up on her with me?”

With a nod, Bentley followed Royce to the beach, tucking his hand into his brother’s as a way to comfort him as he let Royce practically pull him toward the lodge. Bentley could only hope Royce would calm down a bit when he saw Vivien. From what Riven had texted him earlier, Royce was on edge all morning - pacing the floor when he wasn’t sitting down and bouncing his leg anxiously when he was told to sit. Though he knew most of Royce’s stress was due to Vivien remaining asleep far later than she ever did, he was sure his older brother’s lack of sleep didn’t help matters any. With any luck, spending time with his girlfriend and making sure that she was back to her normal self once more would ease him back down from whatever strained high he had been on from the moment Vivien stumbled her way into his bedroom at two-something in the morning.

Wednesday was the halfway point of the week and, while Vivien despised the fact that she had missed out on a day at the archery range, helping Mick instruct campers as to how to hold and fire their weapon, she was more than willing to help her grandfather host a makeshift sword fight in the grass of the soccer field once she was able. Proudly donning her red Color Wars shirt and some war paint, Vivien held stood like a great warrior in the center circle of the field, brandishing a foam sword as the four sections of campers sat around on the grass. Divided by the colors of their shirts, each of the children was tasked with learning how to sword-fight. It wasn’t based on skill or speed, but rather just an event to have fun and fight against their fellow campers for the top spot on the leaderboard.

Most of the campers had gotten prepared ahead of time, some having asked their teammates or counselors to paint eye black under their eyes while others got creative with face paint to show off their team color. Regardless of how decorated the campers were, they all sat patiently as Chief George took to the center circle with a foam sword and began to fight his granddaughter, showing the campers how far they could go in the event and making sure to tell everyone that, regardless of whether or not they were fighting their siblings, physical fights were unacceptable.

Once Vivien and her grandfather had demonstrated how the fights were meant to go, they began picking pairs of campers - two from each color - to fight in a best-of-three match. The green team was vicious against the other campers, chasing the others down and aiming for victory no matter the cost. Those on the red team weren’t ones to back down, still fighting to win even if they were down to their last chance. Blue team, on the other hand, seemed quick and calculated, finding their opponent’s weak spots and using them to their advantage. The yellow team appeared to be more in it for the fun than anything, but the competition became fierce once they were told that the prize at the end of the week was a pizza party for their group.

By the end of the tournament, everyone was sweaty and exhausted, but the smiles on everyone’s faces made everything worth it. Around the dinner table, campers expressed their delight at how things had gone, some proudly pointing to the points tracker on the wall that displayed just how many points each team had and how many each individual had made for their team. Despite the copious amounts of sunscreen each camper had been practically bathed in, some still had obvious shades of red marking their skin. Looking around the sea of campers that filled the mess hall, Vivien was glad that everyone seemed to have been in good spirits regardless of where they stood on the leaderboard.

Settling into place beside Carrie and across from Royce at their usual table, Vivien sighed as she tucked her hand into Royce’s, “I think tonight will be an early night for most of the cabins.”

“You think?” Carrie questioned rhetorically. “I saw a kid fall asleep in their mashed potatoes a minute ago.”

Vivien snickered, stabbing a piece of kielbasa with her fork before reaching for the drink she was sure she had grabbed. When she found nothing but air in the space she swore she had left her glass, Vivien looked around the table and sighed. Had she really not picked up a drink before heading back to the table? Glancing behind her at the punch bowl, Vivien realized that, if she wanted any, she would have to get up and get some soon or else there wouldn’t be any left. Looking across the table at her boyfriend, Vivien offered him a small grin and pried her hand from his before slowly standing, telling those at the table her intentions before stepping out from the bench seats and making her way toward the punch bowl.

As she reached the table with the large, mostly-empty bowl, Vivien reached for a cup, only to smack into another hand. Following the limb up to the person’s face, Vivien grinned as she greeted Noah, “Looks like someone got into the ketchup.”

Noah’s cherry-red, sunburnt face looked painful, if Vivien were to say the least, but he smiled all the same, “Yeah, I guess Hannah Montana lied; it isn’t the greatest moisturizer.”

Vivien looked up at Noah and shook her head with a smile, rolling her eyes at his comment as she took a cup from the stack. “Good on you for trying, though.”

“Thanks,” Noah chuckled. Glancing around as he took up a cup, Noah lowered his voice and muttered to Vivien, “I think I’m going to ask her out later.”

Turning to Noah with an almost impressed look in her eyes as she poured herself some punch, Vivien asked, “You finally grew a pair?”

Rolling his eyes, Noah grinned, “Yeah, I did. She and I had the chance to hang out some while almost everyone was out on the field, so it made things a lot easier.”

Vivien smirked as she nudged Noah aside, “Told you so.”

“You did,” he agreed with a nod.

“Well, you’ll have to stop by later to tell me how it went,” Vivien offered. “After making me wait all this time, I kind of deserve to know.”

“You do, yeah.” Noah took in a slow breath, glancing over Vivien’s head to where Riley and some of her friends had gathered at a lunch table. “I’ll stop by after.”

“Cool,” Vivien nodded, offering her free hand to the older boy. “We’ll probably be watching a movie or something.”

“Alright,” Noah breathed, joining Vivien in a one-handed version of the handshake they had come up with in third grade. “See you then.”

“You better.” As Vivien turned to go back to her table, she scanned the room, finding a pair of amber eyes on her. Sighing as she lifted her cup to her lips and took a drink, Vivien hoped whatever result came of Noah’s confession would put an end to whatever narrative Royce had concocted in his mind. At the least, it would make him less suspicious of her friend. At the most, it would solve their problems entirely. She could only hope that Noah would keep confession quick and to the point. There was no need to prolong this any further than it already had.

After dinner, Vivien found herself chasing after Riven and Bentley, the latter of whom decided to declare that the first person back to the cabin would choose the first game they were to play that night. At first, Vivien felt as though she had been given an unfair advantage as she had the muscle to carry her faster than most. However, her hopes of annihilating everyone in a game of Uno were dashed all too quickly as Riven, her only true competitor, picked Bentley up like a human backpack and took off in a run, passing Vivien far quicker than she cared to admit. The thought of being forced into playing one of Riven’s ridiculous games was the only thing that kept Vivien running. Despite knowing Bentley would probably pick something like Monopoly or The Game of Life, she knew how close the easily impressionable boy had gotten to the maniacal older skater. She would be lucky if they didn’t play some knock-off, Silent-Library-type game.

Getting to the destined picnic table just a few seconds later than the pair, Vivien resigned to her fate as Riven and Bentley raced into the lodge to pick out some games to play. By the time the others made their way to the picnic table, Vivien had sprawled herself out on the seat grumbling her defeat as Royce nudged her to sit up, giving her words of encouragement as he fought the smile that dared to appear on his face. Once Bentley and Riven appeared once again, Vivien was surprised to see that Riven had settled for an only slightly tamer game than she had expected - Cards Against Humanity.

They had played it before since their time at camp and, unlike the child-friendly deck Mick had bought at Walmart to keep at her family’s house, it took them all of three rounds to realize the contents within the long black box were not rated PG. Butchy had tried to stall the game, offering them the opportunity to let him dig through the box for the cards he deemed inappropriate, but he was quickly shot down by the majority who wanted to play a few rounds. As Riven opened the box and Bentley eagerly dished out the cards to each player at the table, Vivien looked at the end of the table where Butchy sighed, shaking his head and examining each of his given cards with wide-eyed scrutiny. Fleetingly, she wondered how long it would take before he made them put the game away this time. Their fastest time had been twenty minutes, but there were some days it seemed as though he couldn’t give a shit about their cards and they ended up playing for well over an hour.

As Riven set out the deck of black cards for everyone to pick from, a voice called out to Vivien from a distance. Turning in her seat, the brunette smiled as she spotted Noah running toward them. If the smile on his face was anything to go by, he had good news. Grateful it hadn’t taken the older boy long to get his ass in gear, Vivien stood from the table, asking the others not to start without her as she made up the distance between herself and Noah. Meeting her friend in the sand not far from the edge of the lodge, Vivien asked, “Well?”

“We’re going out to the drive-in Saturday night,” Noah admitted.

“No way!”

“Yeah,” he chuckled.

Letting out a squeal of excitement for her friend, Vivien surged forward, bringing her arms around Noah as she bounced excitedly on the sand. “I’m so happy for you,” she breathed over his shoulder.

“Thanks,” Noah sighed, relaxing as he briefly brought his arms around Vivien. “I plan on telling people at breakfast.” Once Vivien backed up a step, he said, “I wouldn’t have done it so soon if you hadn’t pushed me to.”

“Or caught you in the pool shed.”

“That too,” Noah smirked.

“Good luck getting any sleep tonight,” Vivien said with a smile. “I stayed up well past midnight when I asked Royce out.”

Noah let out a sigh, “Great. I guess I’m in for a fun night, then.”

“That you are.”

With a chuckle, Noah nodded toward the picnic table and said, “Have fun with your game night.”

“Thanks,” Vivien said. “Have fun getting to sleep.”

As he turned away, Noah smirked, “Thanks, I’m going to need it.”

Smiling to herself, Vivien shook her head and jogged back to the others, not feeling their eyes on her until she sat back down at the table. Looking around the table, eager to begin the game, Vivien stalled as she found nine sets of eyes watching her every move. “What?” she asked.

“What was that about?” Miles asked, gaining the girl’s attention with ease.

Vivien shrugged, “Nothing major. I’ve been helping Noah with something and he finally grew the balls to go through with it.”

Though Miles looked ready to press for more answers, Royce made it clear he didn’t want to push the matter as he tapped his brother’s shin with his sneaker, giving Miles a small, almost unnoticeable shake of his head to dissuade him. Miles didn’t look thrilled with the idea, but allowed his shoulders to relax as Riven started the game, eager to rid the air of the tension that had formed while Vivien was away from the table. As the game progressed, Royce found himself less and less engaged. While he wanted nothing more than to believe that Vivien’s statement had been true, the growing concern he’d felt throughout the last two weeks was beginning to wear him thin. Glancing back at the sandy path Noah had departed from, he took in a deep breath; how much more of this could he take?

Hoping for a better day, Royce rose from his bed early Thursday morning, aiming to surprise Vivien with a morning swim. All in all, he just wanted to spend time with her away from everything before the day truly started, but that too seemed impossible as, when he headed to her room, he found it empty. Silently searching the cabin, Royce found no trace of his girlfriend until he made his way to the living room. Looking out the window, he a figure standing on the end of the pier and, as he made his way outside, he realized Vivien was already ready for the day, watching the sunrise from her seat on the end of the pier. 

Calling out to her as he made his way onto the wooden pier, Royce smiled as she waved. However, as he neared her and saw a head of dripping, golden-brown hair just over the side of the wooden dock, he tried not to let his frustration show. Just before Vivien was Noah, treading water as he welcomed Royce to their early morning conversation. Trying to appear at ease with the situation, Royce took in a deep breath and forced a smile onto his face as the pair roped him into their talks of school teachers he didn’t know and movie references Vivien had yet to teach him.

It took a lot of patience to sit around while Vivien and Noah traded stories, barely including him at all. As the sun rose higher in the sky and the breakfast alarm sounded, they headed back to the shore, Vivien and Noah continuing their chat as Royce followed behind, halfheartedly listening to the conversation at hand. Once Noah left to change for the day, Royce took a breath of relief and tried to force his growing agitation toward the male aside as he settled on the lodge’s porch swing with his girlfriend.

By the time they reached the mess hall, his frustration had returned as Noah met up with them on the path toward the large wooden building. At first, Noah had only conversed with Carrie and Riven, but as time progressed, the older boy moved further toward the front of the line, slinging an arm around both his and Vivien’s shoulders as he walked between them. If it hadn’t been for Vivien and Bentley keeping his hands hostage along the way, Royce would have clenched them into fists. If Noah’s gratingly silken voice wasn’t enough to set Royce on the verge of violence, his lopsided smirk was.

Choosing to say nothing and be grateful that Noah was typically kept busy at another table with some of the lifeguards that alternated shifts with him at the pool, Royce kept his lips in a tight, thin line and allowed the others to lead him toward the mess hall. He endured a few more minutes of Noah’s presence as they waited in line together. Royce only noticed how distracted he had been when Bentley grabbed his wrist, keeping him from adding a scoop of fresh raspberries to his plate. Grateful at least one of them had been paying attention, Royce ditched the spoon in the container and reached for some cantaloupe instead before grabbing a drink and making his way to the table they usually filled.

Enjoying the short break of peace, Royce ran his hands through his hair with a heavy sigh. A tray appeared across the table and, as Royce glanced up to find Carrie sitting there, the blonde asked, “Are you alright?”

“Peachy,” Royce grumbled through gritted teeth as he took a stab at his meal.

Deciding to drop out of the conversation before things could get any more tense than they already were, Carrie leaned away, sighing as she picked up her fork, “Forget I asked.”

“I plan to,” Royce muttered before shoving a forkful of waffles into his mouth.

Though Carrie was more than prepared to fire back at the teenager, she swallowed her snappy comeback as Vivien took up the seat next to her and dragged her into a conversation about the upcoming murder mystery week. Royce managed to drone out most of the conversation around him, hoping to get through most of his food before anyone else so that he had the chance to cool down on his own. 

He had no right to be so worked up over nothing. Vivien’s friendship with Noah was just that - a friendship. She was allowed to have friends. He had spent a few days with Jade and Erica at the mall with Vivien and Bentley, talking with them on their breaks and joking around with them as though he had known them just as long as Vivien had. In the case of Riven, Royce had only been intimidated by him for a few days as Vivien talked about him constantly. Then, when he met the older boy Vivien loved so much, he realized how ridiculous it was to worry about the two falling in love. If anything, they were more like siblings than anything. Why was her relationship with Noah any different?

Perhaps it was the way he looked at Vivien like she meant the world to him - the way he constantly stared and would look for Vivien before anyone else. Royce took in a breath and inwardly shook his head; no, that couldn’t be it. If it had been just that, he wouldn’t have been so worked up. He could understand Vivien being seen as a brilliant beacon of light anytime she stepped into a room; she snatched Royce’s attention every time he saw her and he soaked her in like a sponge. He couldn’t fault someone else for seeing her in the same manner.

If that hadn’t been the case, what was? He quickly ruled out Noah’s quick humor as he knew how easily Vivien laughed at her friends’ jokes. Noah’s gravitation toward Vivien was next to be questioned, but Royce found himself to be understanding of that in more ways than one. Not only was Noah an old friend of Vivien’s, but he was also a new worker at the camp and had few friends at the start of the summer. Royce knew it was only natural for the older boy to want to stay close to his comfort zone as Royce did the same thing all the time.

Maybe what truly bothered him was how Vivien seemed to gravitate toward the older boy for the last week and a half more than she had in the month or so they had been at camp. Glancing over at Noah from the corner of his eyes, Royce realized he couldn’t blame her for finding the older boy worthy of her attention. Noah was tall, athletic, muscular, and Royce had heard both workers and campers muttering about how attractive they found the lifeguard. If the boy’s apparently swoon-worthy smile wasn’t enough to win someone over, his kindness and genuine concern for those around him seemed to be. 

The more Royce thought about it, the more he realized just how different he was from Noah. The older boy could probably run from the mess hall to the parking lot without feeling as though he was about to collapse, his hair probably didn’t look like a rat’s nest in the mornings, and, if Royce were to guess, the eighteen-year-old probably a long line of girls wanting to snatch him up if given the opportunity. He was practically a Disney prince whereas Royce was comparatively closer to being Quasimodo.

Royce softly sighed as he pushed himself up from his seat, unable to finish eating. If Vivien had a thing for Noah like the majority of the staff and campers seemed to, Royce would be kicked to the curb by the end of the month, if he was lucky. If she chose to keep him around for that long, maybe it would give him the chance to come to terms with the pain the loss would bring him. If it came down to it, he might have to fight down the animosity he harbored toward Carrie in order to ask for some acting lessons. He would need all of the help he could get in order to seem less pathetic when the time came for Vivien to break things off. 

Ditching his near-empty tray with the staff member at the counter, Royce made his way outside, the thick humidity in the air doing nothing to ease the tension that threatened to overwhelm him. He sucked in as deep of a breath as he could manage before descending the front steps and walking away from the building. To Royce’s dismay, he didn’t get far before a call of his name stopped him. Turning back, Royce felt his chest tighten as Vivien bounded down the steps of the mess hall and jogged to make up the distance between them.

“Where are you going?” she asked as she slowed to a stop. “You usually wait for me or Bentley to walk you to the library.”

“I know,” Royce shrugged, taking in another breath and sighing it out. “I just needed some time to think.”

“About what?” Vivien pressed, the gentleness in her smile twisting the knife Noah had unknowingly stabbed into his back. How much longer would it be before Vivien’s adoring smile was focused on Noah instead?

Royce looked away as he admitted, “A lot of things, really.”

“I’ve been told I’m a great listener,” Vivien claimed, a sincerity in her eyes that made Royce want to give in and unleash all that bothered him. However, he was sure he would simply come across as the pathetic, clingy boyfriend who couldn’t stand his girlfriend having another guy around.

“That’s okay,” Royce said, offering a small chuckle in return as he began walking. “I think I just need to figure things out for myself. Thanks for offering, though.”

Though Royce knew how determined Vivien was and how hard she pushed to make things right with those around her, he had hoped she would have dropped the subject and left him to wallow in peace. However, Vivien didn’t seem to share that sentiment as she asked, “Is there anything I can do to make things easier?”

“Not really.”

“Oh.”

Quickly offering Vivien a smile, Royce said, “It’s alright. I’ll get over it sooner or later.”

“‘Get over it’?” Vivien repeated curiously as she stopped walking. Once ROyce turned back to face her, she asked, “Get over what?”

“It’s nothing,” Royce tried to reassure.

Vivien’s quick thinking was something Royce adored about her, but in this scenario, it only served to send a surge of mild frustration through him as she pressed, “It must be something if you’re taking time away from everyone to think it over.”

“It’s not that bad,” he shrugged. “I just want to get my head on straight, you know?”

Vivien seemed to stall, her mind presumably racing as she thought of something to say in return. However, her response gave Royce pause. “You know you can tell me anything, right?” When Royce remained silent a moment too long for her liking, she let out a nervous chuckle, “I know I sometimes talk enough for the both of us, but you have to know that this relationship isn’t a one-way street. You can confide in me as much as I know I can confide in you.”

“I know,” Royce breathed. “It’s just… In this instance, I don’t think it would be the best idea.”

“Why not?”

With a sigh, Royce admitted, “I just want to wrap my head around everything first. I don’t want things to get blown out of proportion.”

As though Royce’s words sent every thought she’d had out the window, Vivien’s eyes widened a fraction as she said, “Okay, you’re starting to worry me now. What’s going on?”

“Like I said-”

“Don’t tell me you need to think things over, Royce,” Vivien interrupted with a scoff and a roll of her eyes. “If whatever it is, is bothering you this badly, I need to know how to help you.”

“You can’t,” Royce tried, hoping the desperation in his voice would come across as honesty. “I don’t want this to come between us and-”

Cutting her boyfriend off, Vivien sharply interrupted, “I thought you said before that nothing could come between us.”

Royce sighed, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

With a bewildered yet frustrated gleam in her emerald eyes, Vivien pressed, “Well, how did you mean it, then?”

Not wanting the conversation to get any more strained than it was, Royce tried to placate his girlfriend as he sighed, “Can we not do this right now?”

In return, Vivien laughed - a sarcastic, sharp laugh that felt like it tore away the last shred of hope Royce clung to. “Yeah, no. We’re doing this now. If this is something that could affect us or our relationship, I have a right to know about it.”

“And you will, eventually,” Royce tried, his voice unconsciously rising to match Vivien’s. “I just want to think things over first; is that such a bad thing?”

“It is when I can help you figure things out a hell of a lot quicker,” Vivien snipped, “but you won’t let me help you for whatever stupid fucking reason.”

“Why is it so wrong for me to want to do things on my own?”

“Because I can help you!” Vivien argued loudly.

“And I don’t want your help!” Royce proclaimed in return.

Confused and upset, Vivien refused to back down as she pressed, “Why not?”

“Because all you’ll do is make things worse!”

As though the tsunami of emotions between them had settled in that instant, Royce froze as Vivien visibly recoiled, the frustration in her eyes dissolving. The young couple stood frozen in place for what felt like forever, staring at each other in disbelief. Sure, they had disagreed about things before, but only over inconsequential things like stolen food or what movie to watch. In the seven or so months they had been together, things had never gotten so out of hand.

Taking in a deep breath as her mouth clacked shut almost painfully, Vivien gritted her teeth and nodded before slowly saying, “Fine.”

Unsure of himself, Royce breathed, “What?”

“You want time and space to figure your shit out?” Vivien asked rhetorically as she took a step back. “Fine; I’m giving it to you. But don’t expect me to be so willing to talk once you finally decide to pull your head out of your ass.”

“Viv,” Royce began as he reached out to Vivien, only to have his hand meet air as she stepped away.

“Save it,” she hissed before turning her back on Royce and making her way back toward the mess hall. 

Meanwhile, Royce stood where she left him, his hand still stuck in the air as he remained rooted in place by the tension that hung in the already thick, humid air. He had tried to walk away, to work things out by himself; how had that made everything worse in a matter of minutes? Letting out a shuddering breath as the mess hall’s screen door slammed shut, Royce brought his hand out of the empty air and slowly turned, allowing himself to stumble toward the library on autopilot as he let the morning’s events sink in.

Anyone with eyes could tell that something between Royce and Vivien just wasn’t right. Bentley had been one of the first to piece together the puzzle as he noticed Vivien return to the mess hall alone Thursday morning. He knew something had to have happened, but when he asked, Vivien simply shook her head and told him to ask his brother. He tried to make light of the situation by asking Miles, but when Vivien didn’t so much as smile, he knew something was truly wrong. She always at least smiled at his terrible jokes or little taunts, so if she wasn’t finding anything funny, whatever was bothering her had to be serious.

He silently observed Vivien throughout the rest of the day, trying to pinpoint anything that could set her off. It wasn’t until lunchtime that he realized it wasn’t just Vivien who was acting off, it was Royce too. Instead of sitting next to or across from his girlfriend at the lunch table, Royce sat silently on the opposite end, poking aimlessly at his food and barely taking anything in. Vivien, on the other hand, sat across from Riven and next to Erica, talking in somewhat hushed voices. Whatever was wrong seemed to have been bothering both of them in different ways and Bentley was determined to figure out whatever it was.

After lunch, he stayed glued to Rocye’s side. At first, it didn’t seem like Royce noticed how clingy his brother was as, once they reached the library, he had tucked himself behind the desk and engrossed himself in the book that was on the counter. However, once Bentley pointed out that his brother had been stuck on the same page for almost twenty minutes, reading and re-reading the same thing over and over, Royce sighed and set the book aside. Despite Bentley’s gentle questioning as to what was going on, Royce grew frustrated quickly and asked him to leave things alone as it was none of his concern.

“It is, though,” he stated. “You and Viv are my best friends. Normally, you guys are all over each other to the point where I have to fight to keep my breakfast down, but now you’re acting like you can’t stand each other. I just want to know what’s going on so I can help.”

“You don’t need to help anything,” Royce claimed, resting his forehead in his hand. “Viv is giving me space to think, that’s all.”

“Think about what?” Bentley pressed.

“A lot of things,” Royce sighed. “Our relationship, mostly.”

Concern washed over Bentley like an icy wave as he asked, “Your relationship? Why would you need to think about that? Are you thinking about breaking up with her?”

“What?” Royce asked, meeting Bentley’s wide oceanic eyes before shaking his head. “No. I think, if anything, she’d be the one considering that.”

“Why would Viv want to break up with you?” Bentley questioned, now more confused than ever. “She loves you.”

Royce sighed heavily, “I doubt she’s feeling that way right about now.”

“Why? What did you do?”

“I told her I needed time to think, but she kept pushing to help me,” Royce began. “Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem, but where the problem is her relationship with Noah, I didn’t want her to get upset about it if I said the wrong thing.”

“Did you tell her that?”

Royce shook his head, “She just kept pushing and, since I was already pretty worked up about the situation, it turned into a sort of fight. I told her I didn’t want her help, she asked why, and I told her it was because she would only make things worse.”

As though Royce didn’t already feel bad admitting to what he’d said, Bentley’s wide-eyed, kicked puppy expression made the pit in his stomach so much worse. “Did you at least apologize?”

“She walked off before I could,” Royce admitted.

“Royce,” Bentley sighed exasperatedly.

“I know,” Royce groaned. “I plan to apologize once I’ve gotten everything figured out, but if she’s going to give me the time to think, I’m going to take it.”

Bentley took in a long, deep breath and sighed, “Alright, but you should try to make it quick.”

“Why?”

“It’s Vivien,” Bentley replied simply. 

Royce sighed; while he knew Vivien wasn’t the type to hold a grudge forever, he also knew how personally she took things. She cared deeply for those around her and their opinions of her. Royce could recall one time Miles had commented that Vivien’s perky morning attitude was atrocious - a snippy joke he had made before his first cup of coffee - and, for a week, Vivien toned it down until he asked what was wrong. If that was anything for Royce to go by, she was probably taking his offhanded, snappy comment to heart. He had known in the moment that he had fucked up, but now he realized just how badly. 

“Just so you know,” Bentley began as he rose from his seat and made his way to the door, “I’m on her side of this.”

As the door to the library shut, Royce sighed, “Yeah, me too.”

The next day, Bentley played the role of the spy, trying his best to sneakily retrieve information from Vivien while campers fought over which team would have the highest points by the end of the day. At first, Vivien hadn’t noticed the boy’s intentions, too caught up in the monotony of tallying points to see the obvious. Then, as she walked with Bentley toward the climbing wall at the amphitheatre, she realized just how eager he was to get anything out of her. He was subtle, she’d give him that, but he wasn’t subtle enough. After he tried to see if she wanted to go with him to pick out some comics they could read later and she turned him down, Vivien noticed how his expression faltered and he seemed to return to his thoughts, determined to find a way to bring her closer to Royce.

She tested just how far he would go with it before finally relenting when he asked if she wanted to help him move set pieces in the playhouse. Having other people around as a buffer would help and, with any luck, her Aunt Charlie would be there to distract the youngest of the Murphy brothers from whatever scheme he had concocted. The walk to the playhouse was spent listening to music as Vivien pulled her earbuds from their case and handed one to Bentley, allowing them to listen to her summer playlist as they walked. Bentley was more than willing to listen to the music, bopping his head along to the beat of the songs as they walked, but, in reality, Vivien just wanted a break from Bentley’s constant inquiries.

When they reached the playhouse, she turned off the music and headed wherever Bentley led her. Vivien quickly sent a pleading look to Riven and Carrie, hoping one of them would help take the blond boy from beside her, but it was Charlie who figured out the girl’s silent desires first. Taking Bentley by the shoulder with a smile, Charlie asked, “Would you mind helping me touch up the paint on a background set?”

“Uh,” Bentley froze, his gaze flickering between Charlie and Vivien.

Before he got the chance to deny anything, Riven brought an arm around Vivien’s shoulders and said, “That would work. I need my Pip here for some help hanging the curtains.”

“You can’t reach them on the ladder?” Bentley wondered.

Instead of directly answering, Riven chuckled and said, “You know, studies show that keeping a ladder in the house is more dangerous than a loaded gun.”

“That’s why he owns ten guns,” Vivien continued with a smirk, knowing exactly what show Riven was quoting.

Dutifully, Riven nodded, “Yeah, in case some maniac tries to sneak in a ladder.”

Through Bentley’s confusion, he watched as Riven led Vivien toward the stage, wondering if their conversation had been a joke or not. While he was still trying to find the words, Charlie chuckled and led him off to the side of the room where a few of the set pieces for the upcoming play had been set aside, some in more need of a touch-up than others. While they had been finished earlier in the summer, the heat and rain that seeped in through the cracks of the old buildings had done some damage to the edges and, while it was truly only noticeable if you were close to the stage or had worked on it yourself, Bentley couldn’t allow it to look that way when the time came for the show to begin.

After handing Bentley a brush and helping him get to work, Charlie lowered her voice and said, “You know, I admire you for trying to help Vivien and Royce solve their issues.”

Glancing up at the older woman as he dipped his brush into a pale blue paint, he breathed, “You do?”

Charlie hummed as she nodded, “Sometimes people don’t realize they need help. However, if you push too hard, sometimes the help becomes a hindrance.”

“Hindrance?” Bentley questioned, the word feeling uncomfortable on his tongue.

Looking up from her paint job, Charlie nodded, “Take it from someone who has been there and done that a million times before; sometimes it’s better to let couples solve things themselves.”

“But-” Bentley cut himself off, his mouth clacking shut as he tried to think of how to phrase what he wanted to say. When he came to the right conclusion, he said, “I just don’t want them to end up breaking up over something stupid.”

Charlie chuckled, shaking her head slightly as she reached over and placed a hand on Bentley’s, “I highly doubt this would be the way they would break things off. Vivien is far too in love with your brother to let that happen.”

“How do you know?”

The woman’s eyebrow lifted as she asked, “Can you not see it yourself?”

Glancing over his shoulder at Vivien who had found her way onto Riven’s shoulders to hang the curtains on the rods above the stage, Bentley sighed, “I can see how much she cares about him and I know how much Royce loves her.” Turning back to Charlie, Bentley met the woman’s eyes as he said, “It’s just, when I was younger, our Uncle Tommy and Aunt Celine had this really nasty fight and, after a few days, they broke up. They had always seemed inseparable to me and I don’t want that to happen to Royce and Viv.”

“It won’t,” Charlie said with a determined shake of her head. “They may be young and dumb, but they won’t let some small argument break them up. Like I said, I’m proud of you for standing by their sides through it all, but just remember to give them both space to breathe. They’re navigating this the same way you are.”

Nodding, Bentley allowed the woman’s words to sink in as she patted his hands with a smile. As he turned back to his painting, Bentley sighed and tried to force himself to relax. Maybe she was right; Royce and Vivien were smart enough to figure things out on their own. All he would have to do was stand by them and reassure them that he would be there when they needed him. Taking in a deep breath, Bentley dipped his brush in paint once again and returned to his art. He would just have to hope the issues would resolve on their own.

A severe weather alert echoed throughout the mess hall at dinnertime, setting everyone’s phones off with blaring alarms as thunderclouds in the distance loomed. Though the storm wasn’t supposed to come into the camp’s area until after midnight, the alert still set everyone on edge. Chatter about the thunderstorm filled the mess hall until well after most everyone had left to get their campers in bed for the night, but that did little to sway Vivien from visiting one of her favorite quiet spots. 

The boat house was always a good spot to watch the rain in peace and quiet. Growing up, Vivien would run to the boat house with her Nonna to watch the storms roll in, climbing to the little storage area where they kept extra oars and other boating essentials to get a better view of the rain hitting the lake water and the lightning illuminating the skies. Despite the fact that she was old enough to make the trek on her own now, Vivien hadn’t spent much time in the boat house as she preferred to keep Royce company during the majority of the storms at camp. Now that she had found the time to sit by herself in the cramped storage area and peer out over the water, however, she wondered why she hadn’t taken the chance to do it sooner.

Her dripping hair clung to the red shirt she had worn almost consistently throughout the week, but Vivien couldn’t bring herself to care. In a way, it felt nice. Cool, but nice. The heavy rain would bring an end to the thick humidity and allow everyone to relax for the weekend. The tensions between herself and Royce had felt particularly high with Bentley’s constant questions and lingering presence throughout the day, so she could only hope the rain would wash that away along with the muggy air. As much as Vivien adored Bentley, the way he had pressed her for information in the first half of the day had made her feel as though the whole situation with Royce had been her fault. She knew that wasn't his intention, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel as though it was.

Taking in a slow breath, Vivien brought her knees to her chest and tried to relax as she watched the rain bounce off the lake’s surface. With any luck, this whole issue would be resolved once Royce figured everything out for himself. Vivien glanced toward the doorway she had entered through as it creaked - she’d have to break out some WD-40 to clear that up once the rain stopped - but finding nothing there other than some wind, she turned back toward the water in the distance. As she let out a yawn, Vivien rested her head on a nearby shelf, letting out a slow, calming breath, and closing her eyes, allowing the sound of the rain to lull her into a sense of serenity. 

Before long, however, the peace and quiet of the boat house were broken as the door slammed shut. Jolting awake, Vivien turned toward the door to find a soaked Miles stepping inside. Believing him to be there in search of her, Vivien took in a deep breath, ready to sigh and explain her reasoning for staying in the old building, but found her excuse cut short as a voice from below muttered, “Sorry.”

Vivien’s eyes widened. Was that Royce? When did he get into the boat house?

Miles sighed, pushing his hair from his face as he moved further into the old wooden building, “You didn’t answer my call.”

“I know.”

Vivien watched as Miles walked further into the boat house, but as he disappeared under the storage area she was hidden away in, she lost track of where he was. If she had to guess, he was probably sitting on the ledge by where a few of the canoes had been tied up, his legs presumably hanging over the edge above the water. As his voice carried up to her once again, her guess was proven correct, “You want to talk about it?”

For a while, the boat house was practically silent, the only sound being the distant rain and the lapping of water. Then, a wavering, timid voice choked out, “I messed everything up, Miley.”

Fighting the urge to climb down from her perch and throw her arms around her boyfriend, Vivien pressed herself against the wall and tried to make herself as small as possible as she heard Miles comforting his brother. Then, Miles asked the fated question, “What’s happened, baby?”

The words spilled from Royce’s mouth faster than Vivien had heard him speak before as he confided in his brother, “This whole thing with Noah has been bugging me for weeks now and I tried so hard to keep it to myself so I don’t hurt Viv, but it just kept getting worse and I- I tried to take myself away from the situation and it- I just- I-I think-”

“Breathe,” Miles cut in, stopping Royce’s ramble long enough for the young brunet to suck in a shaky breath. “Good, now try again.”

It took Royce a moment to collect himself, but once he had, Vivien wished she had moved when she had the chance. “I think Viv is going to break up with me.”

Bringing a hand to her mouth, Vivien hoped it muffled her noise of anguish as her boyfriend’s words cut through her like a knife. Hoping her boyfriend’s older brother would be the voice of reason while she sat above them in stunned silence, Vivien listened as Miles breathed, “Why on earth would you think that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Royce asked in response. “Noah’s everything I’m not and it’s only a matter of time before she realizes that.”

“Vivien loves you for who you are, RJ,” Miles argued gently. “What could Noah possibly have that you don’t?”

“Do you want that alphabetically?” Royce questioned dryly. When silence filled the air - something Vivien assumed was due to Miles sending his brother a disbelieving stare - Royce began listing his thoughts. “He’s taller than Vivien, he’s got a pair of adequately-working lungs, most of the girls at camp think he’s the next Prince Charming, and, to top it all off, he’s got his whole life planned out.”

“That’s great and all, but do you know what he doesn’t have?” Miles asked. When Royce was silent, Miles answered, “He doesn’t have Vivien wrapped around his finger. Only you have that and despite what you think, that isn’t going to change.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because I have eyes, Royce,” Miles replied. “Anyone who looks at the two of you for more than two milliseconds can see how much she cares about you and vice versa. If you think she would willingly throw away everything the two of you have built, maybe you don’t know her at all.”

What felt like forever passed before Royce took in an audibly deep breath and sighed, “I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

Miles hummed, “Did that help at all?”

“Yeah,” Royce said softly. “Thanks.”

“It’s what I’m here for.” After a moment, Vivien heard movement, then she heard Miles once more, “Now, come on, let’s get back to the lodge before everyone starts to think you ran away or something.”

Royce breathed something in agreement and, before long, Vivien watched as Royce led the way out of the boat house. Watching the brothers make their departure, Vivien froze as Miles turned back, his gaze flickering up toward her as Royce left the building. Giving the girl a small nod and a wink, Miles followed Royce out of the building, saying something about seeing lightning from the corner of his eyes as he slid the door almost completely closed once more.

Vivien remained glued to the wooden platform beneath her as she wondered just how long Miles had known she was there. Had he said all of that with the knowledge that she could hear him or was he being genuine and had only spotted her while on his way out the door? Regardless, he had helped her all the same. She would have to thank him for that in the morning. Well, after she talked with Royce, that is.

True to the weather alert everyone had received the night before, thunder rumbled over most of the state of New Hampshire as lightning lit up the sky. While the general consensus around Camp Wanamaker was to keep the campers and counselors inside to avoid any incidents, that plan only lasted until the first bus pulled into the parking lot, ready to pick up a load of children to drive home. Soon after, a few cars appeared in the driveway and it appeared as though the floodgates opened as some campers were escorted by their parents and an umbrella to their family vehicles while others braced against the weather and made a run for it before their parents could exit the car. 

For once, Royce wasn’t overly bothered by the storm. Some storm days were worse than others, but being holed up in the Lakeside Lodge with his earbuds firmly tucked into his ears seemed to make it easier to deal with. He could hear the faintest hint of thunder as it rolled overhead, but it could have easily been mistaken for the song’s bass and, if anyone were to ask him about it, that’s what he would adamantly claim it was. Grateful Riven had allowed Vivien to send him a sample of their newest songs before the summer break, Royce turned the volume up on his phone as it switched songs and stretched as he pushed himself up from his mattress. 

It wasn’t often that he stayed in his room in the mornings, but after all that had happened last night and his talk with Miles, he had felt the need to close himself off for a while and just relax. He would work up the strength to talk with Vivien at some point or another, but as he pulled the door of his room open, he silently hoped it wouldn’t be until the storm had dissipated a bit. Making his way downstairs, he waved to the group that had gathered in the living room, but as he realized Vivien wasn’t among them, found his small smile faltering as he traveled toward the little kitchen at the back of the cabin.

Flipping on the light with a yawn, Royce headed for the fridge and pulled open the door, grabbing a bottle of soda from the shelf and closing the door. As he opened the bottle, he turned, jumping at the sight of his girlfriend standing in the doorway, silently watching him with an unreadable expression. Taking in a sharp breath as he tightened the cap on his bottle again, Royce tugged an earbud from his ear and sighed, “You scared the shit out of me.”

“I wasn’t trying to,” Vivien breathed, her voice nothing more than a light whisper. Royce didn’t like the way her eyes looked anywhere but his, but he tried to push the worry from his mind as Vivien spoke once more, “I said hi, but I guess you didn’t hear me with your headphones in.”

“I didn’t,” Royce chuckled. Silence filled the air and, as Vivien reached for the large bag of cheese puffs on the counter between them, Royce tried to break it as he asked, “So, how are things?”

To his dismay, Vivien shrugged, “Pretty shitty.”

“Oh.”

“Mhm,” she hummed. Glancing up to meet her boyfriend’s gaze, Vivien asked, “How are you handling the storm?”

“I’ve been listening to music to block it out,” Royce answered.

Vivien nodded, her eyes flitting back to the floor as she hugged the bag of Cheetos to her chest and she asked, “Have you been thinking about things like you wanted to?”

Royce swallowed thickly as he nodded, “I have.”

“Good,” Vivien commented hollowly. Before silence could fill the air once more and bring thick tension into the small room, emerald eyes flickered upward, finding their target with ease as she said, “In that case, I think we need to talk.”

Unwilling to tear his gaze from Vivien's, Royce nodded just enough for it to be seen, “Alright.”

Nodding almost as though it was more to reassure herself than anything, Vivien took a small step backward before stopping. Turning toward Royce once again, she shifted the bag of cheese puffs into her left hand before hesitantly offering her right hand to the boy before her, her fingers twitching for the familiar warmth the boy offered. Instinctively, Royce’s hand found purchase in Vivien’s, a smile appearing on his face as he followed her out of the room and toward the main living area.

Standing behind the couch, Vivien scanned the room before finding her aunts in their typical resting place - one perched in the other’s lap despite there being ample room on the loveseat for them to be sitting side by side. Clearing her throat enough to gain the room’s attention, Vivien kept her gaze on the pair to make sure they knew she wanted to talk with them as she asked, “Moon House?”

Charlie glanced at Hayley for confirmation and the brunette was quick to nod, smiling as she said, “So long as you don’t go hunting for your birthday presents.”

“Promise I won’t,” Vivien said with a small nod.

Hayley chuckled, “In that case, go right ahead, baby girl.”

Vivien nodded and began leading Royce toward the exit, but before he could pass the loveseat, he found his wrist captured by Charlie who looked up at him and said, “Remember, just because you two have had your first fight does not mean you two can have make-up sex.”

“Especially not in our bed,” Hayley scoffed before taking in a spoonful of ice cream.

“Don’t plan on it,” Royce chuckled awkwardly, feeling the familiar burn of embarrassment under his skin as Vivien tugged at his wrist, urging him away from the interaction.

As Vivien pulled him toward the door, she instructed him to put his earbud back in while she grabbed an umbrella and threw on the first pair of shoes she could find. Before long, they were outside, walking shoulder-to-shoulder through the heavy rain toward the treehouse that had been built not far from the lodge. Allowing Royce to go first, Vivien handed him the umbrella and stood by, keeping watch to make sure he had made it safely onto the deck that wrapped around the treehouse. Once she was sure he had made it up safely, Vivien began her ascent, climbing the tree’s limbs until she was safely standing beside Royce. The pair locked gazes for a fleeting moment, both wondering who was more nervous about the interaction that was to come, but it was broken as Vivien led the way into the small cabin. 

Though both of them dripped water onto the floorboards, Vivien appeared to care very little about the consequences as she pulled her hoodie off and tossed it on the floor by the door, her shoes joining them as Royce followed suit. Looking around the celestial-themed room as he pulled his earbuds out once more, Royce felt a bit out of his element. He had never been to the treehouse before and, despite knowing that it was where Vivien’s aunts had been staying since the beginning of their time at camp, he hadn’t expected it to basically be a bedroom adorned with stickers of the solar system and a few strings of star-shaped fairy lights everywhere. 

On the other hand, Vivien was quick to adjust to her surroundings, pushing some of her aunts’ belongings aside as she made her way to the canopy bed and made herself comfortable on it. Glancing over at her boyfriend, she let out a breath of a laugh and asked, “Are you going to come sit or would you be more comfortable on the floor?”

As though he hadn’t noticed Vivien had moved, Royce jumped, caramel eyes locking on the brunette as he numbly nodded, crossing the room and making sitting on the edge of the mattress so as not to disturb anything. “So,” he began, “what did you want to talk about?”

Taking in a deep breath, Vivien turned toward Royce and shifted so that she sat cross-legged on the bed before saying, “Well, for starters, I want to talk about this whole Noah situation.”

Though Royce had anticipated this becoming a topic of conversation, he hadn’t expected it to be the first thing Vivien chose to work on. Nodding understandingly, Royce swallowed thickly as he nodded, “Alright, well, I just want to start by saying that I never once worried about you cheating or anything like that.”

Allowing a small grin to tug at her lips, Vivien said, “Thank you.”

Royce hummed, grateful she had accepted his claim. A more relaxed pause of silence took hold of the air as Royce thought of how he wanted to phrase everything, but he didn’t allow it to linger for long. “I don’t even know how it started,” he admitted. “All I know is that, after a while, I began to wonder why you were with me instead of someone like him. He’s a lot better for you than I am.”

“Who decided that?” Vivien asked rhetorically. She knew the answer. Hell, both of them did.

Royce thought for a moment before sighing, “I guess I did.” When Vivien nodded, he backed up his statement by listing off his observations, “He’s athletic, witty, he’s apparently attractive to a lot of the workers, and he knows what he wants for his future and how he’s going to get it. You deserve someone who is structured like that.”

Despite Royce’s sincerity, Vivien shook her head, “Why on earth would I want that?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Royce asked in return.

“Because I’m not some white-picket-fence, suburban cookie-cutter who plans on spending her life in a loveless marriage, looking after a zillion kids while her husband works and spending all of her free time wondering why nothing exciting ever happens,” Vivien stated matter-of-factly.

Though his girlfriend’s response utterly confused him, Royce tried not to let it show as he asked, “What do you mean?”

Taking Royce’s hand in hers, Vivien squeezed it and smiled as she clarified her answer, “The whole, ‘having your life planned out’ thing isn’t exactly something I’d like. Especially not when you take into account how Noah thinks life is supposed to go.”

Curiosity successfully piqued, Royce found himself asking, “How?”

“He plans on settling down, having a few kids, and eventually taking over his father’s spot at the company his family owns - working a dumb nine-to-five job at a desk until he can finally retire,” Vivien claimed. With a shrug, she said, “I couldn’t live like that. I thrive on adventure and spontaneity; experiencing life to its fullest. If I were to go out with someone who had everything planned down to the day they die, I would lose who I am.”

“So,” Royce began slowly, piecing the puzzle together as he went, “you wouldn’t want to go out with Noah even if he asked you to?”

“Of course not,” Vivien scoffed. “It would be like dating my own brother. Besides, he’s in a relationship.”

Taken aback by the ease with which Vivien spoke, Royce’s mouth bobbed open and closed like a fish before eventually snapping shut as he allowed the information to sink in. “He’s dating someone?”

With a breath of a laugh at her boyfriend’s expression, Vivien nodded, “Noah’s going out with Riley Nicholls. Actually,” she lifted her watch and investigated the date before meeting Royce’s gaze once more, “they were supposed to go to the drive-in tonight as their first date.”

Royce seemed to flounder for words as he thought about the situation, but eventually came to a conclusion as he asked, “So, if he liked Riley this whole time, why were you spending time with him all week? To help him make her jealous?”

“No,” Vivien answered easily as she pulled her phone from the pocket of her shorts. “I caught the two of them making out in the pool shed while I was helping Erica and Jade put stuff away. Once we got over the awkward questioning phase, Noah asked me to help him figure out how he felt toward Riley. Now that they’re talking about going on dates and stuff, I’d say he’s figured it out.”

Letting out a disbelieving scoff of a laugh, Royce breathed, “I can’t believe this.”

“Yeah, well,” Vivien shrugged, scrolling through her texts with Noah before tapping on a picture he had sent and turning the phone toward Royce, “believe it.”

Though he didn’t feel the need to look through his girlfriend’s phone for proof, Royce allowed her to push the device into his hand. The picture before him was of Riley and Noah sitting together in the mess hall, the blonde rolling her eyes with a smile on her lips as Noah pressed a kiss to her cheek. They looked happy together. Taking in a breath as he realized just how out of hand he had allowed things to get, Royce practically dropped the phone into Vivien’s hand as he sighed, “I’m so stupid.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Vivien teased.

Royce’s bark of laughter bordered on surprise more than humor as he found his girlfriend’s eyes again and asked, “How long have they been together?”

“Well, I’m not sure how long they’ve been screwing around and stuff - not that I’d really care to know in the first place,” Vivien admitted, giving a grossed-out shiver as she did, “but they’ve been a couple since Wednesday night.”

“Wednesday?”

“Mhm,” Vivien hummed. “That’s what he stopped by to talk to me about while we were getting ready for game night.”

Recalling that night, Royce said, “You said something about him finally growing the balls to do something.” Vivien nodded and Royce asked, “That something was him asking Riley out, wasn’t it?”

“It was, yeah.” Vivien sighed, “I was planning on enjoying game night in peace and telling everyone about it on the way to our stations after breakfast Thursday morning, but, well, you know what happened there.”

“I screwed everything up,” Royce breathed.

“In a way, we both did,” Vivien shrugged. “I could have easily told everyone about it when he told me, but I didn’t, and I take full responsibility for that. Now that it’s over, though, I think we’ve learned that we need to try communicating things better, right?”

“Yeah,” Royce agreed, quickly nodding adamantly.

“Good.”

“I’m so sorry I let it get this far,” Royce sighed.

Vivien grabbed a small black object from the nightstand by the bed before leaning back on the mattress and staring up at the white sheet on the ceiling as she chuckled, “Don’t be. We’re still learning how to handle things like that. It’s only normal, I suppose.”

“I guess so,” Royce allowed.

Vivien watched him for a while before patting the empty space beside her and asking, “Well, are you going to watch the stars with me or what?”

Curious, Royce slowly leaned back against the mattress and watched his girlfriend as she pointed the small object - one he now realized was a remote - at the headboard of the bed. Following her gaze up to the ceiling, Royce watched as a star show covered the plain white sheet above them, filling the celestial room with realistic stars and glowing cosmos. Before Royce could think to ask Vivien about it, she moved, lifting his arm up and sliding herself under it before resting her head on Royce’s shoulder. Deciding it would be best to leave well enough alone, Royce allowed himself to smile, tightening his grasp on Vivien as she relaxed into him. Maybe she was right; they had made it through just fine.

[huntinglove]

☔ with sebastian!!

Hi hi!! Thank you so much for the ask!!

☔ — F/O and S/I got caught in the rain... Write about how they handle it! Did either of them bring an umbrella?

Sebastian and Eri were sitting by the dock, chitchatting the day away, laughter filled the air as the wind blew gently around them. Shortly after, however, a small hint of shock coated the farmer's face as she stuck her hand out, shifting it slightly as she looked at the sky.

"Was that a droplet? Damn it, we're so far away from home... I didn't even bring our horse!"

With a sly smile and an eye roll, the grim looking man lightly elbowed his wife.

"I told you it was going to rain today, the sky's closing up..."

Before the farmer could show her annoyance, the rain began to pour, fast and heavy, almost immediately drenching the couple, which in turn began to look for a dry place to hide.

"I think Willy's store is still open, if we hurry we can-"

"Nah... Let's just walk home."

The man said, smiling gently as he stood up. Eri tilted her head in confusion as Sebastian offered her his hand, helping her get on her feet.

"Everyone's already gone inside, no one will see us anyway. Besides, summer rain is always refreshing. I was starting to melt in this hoodie.."

With a giggle, the farmer held onto her husband's hand, walking together as the rain continued to pour. The sky was dark and the wind was strong, chilling out the couple's bodies as they walked, holding on to each other for warmth.

As they walked, the farmer glanced at Sebastian, who was smiling calmly, looking forward as his arm rested over Eri's shoulder. He didn't seem bothered or annoyed whatsoever, he actually seemed pleased.

Once the couple had made their way to the farm, both of them took a moment to stand by the porch and watch how the rain embraced the farm.

The droplets danced rhythmically with the crops, the gentle snoring of the animals could still be heard from the barn and coup. The trees shook gently, whispering their secrets to the wind.

Soon enough, Eri broke the silence between her and her husband, gently pulling at the soaked sleeve of his hoodie.

"Sebastian? Why did you want to walk through the rain? Isn't it uncomfortable to get all... Wet like this?"

The man let out a surprised laugh as he rubbed the back of his head, turning to face his wife.

"Well, we made it home okay, didn't we? A rain shower every once in a while can be fun. Besides, now that we're home we get to dry up and relax, right?"

The farmer nodded, smiling happily at Sebastian, who cupped her cheek gently, before placing a quick kiss to her lips.

[psychelis-new]

Hey Lys..

How are you? Hope you're always in good health.

If you're wondering why I send this ask, it is my reply to: https://www.tumblr.com/psychelis-new/730079721904308224/hey-lys-sorry-that-it-took-me-a-long-time-to?source=share

----------------------------------------------

I really wish I could go a hiking one day. Maybe just a ground-level-trail will do. I once go on a spontaneous trip to hike down part of a mountain (a range to be exact, I just remember the name) just to go see a type of flower. But it wasn't their blooming season so a lot still stay as buds. I cannot go futher down because it's steep. I remember vaguely, my aunt got latch by a leech and she wore high heels (wedges to be exact). Some of us were wearing flippers and shoes. The trail was slippery and we almost stumble. She didn't even once while wearing wedges. Of course this was all when I was still healthy.

Do you like hiking? If you have to choose: steep like mountain/hill or ground-level (park) trail?

I check on hailstorm in google and confirm we don't have it here. The ice that I saw my friend capture (video) was melt almost immediately when it hits the ground. So small and thin ice flake that looks like dust. The coldest we can get is 15°C, hottest is 36°C. Even that is already feel like we're in the middle of desert. Today we have an afternoon rain so now it's midnight here with 23°C. It's not that cold but enough to get me sleepy.

Some people like thunder. Some people sleeps like a baby comforted by the sound. You are lucky to not be scared and even like them.

Does the fog make it looks like there is an overcast? I think I can picture this. If I remember I have a picture I took of a road. I might share it with you only if I can find where I store it.

I used to be inspired by cook books/recipes. I don't have the time to do it beacuse I came home late from work and just wanna get rest. If I'm on my 2-days break (since I work 8-5) I still feel tired. Right now I'm on a big break (waiting renew contract) so maybe I can try some baking. *cross finger* 😉

Hi Nari :) I am a bit tired but I am good, I think I just need to sleep hehe! I hope you're doing well and recovering a bit on your big break.

Huge congrats to your aunt, I think I would have fallen somewhere if I were her hah, but yeah I think ground level walks could work for you. Maybe one day you'll be able to try one for real.

I like hiking, I don't do very difficult trails but I always liked to go hiking. A part of my hometown is elevated from the other so probably is for this reason too. And also cause I think I can gain a different perspective on things. You know, I like walking in nature in general but I really had to choose... maybe hiking on hills. It's not as tough as mountains (at least here) and it's a little different than parks as it's already a bit elevated. I'd just like to enjoy some good view and nature in peace atm. Hiking at times can get heavy for sure.

I think we occasionally have them though. Not that often lately but yeah it has happened in the past. It wasn't ice and it wasn't water, like something in between. The temperature here goes below 0°C (at times even far down) in winter while in summer it gets 36-40°C too (occasionall ygot over as well but luckily not for long). I'm glad it'll be fresh enough to help you sleep tonight! Here it's getting pretty cold outside... not too much as other years October was way colder than this but still kinda cold (maybe cause it happended suddenly, we got 10-15°C of difference in a couple of days).

I think I am in between those scared and those who just enjoy thunders... it depends though as if they are sudden and right over my roof, I do still get scared. But it's a good scared? Idk how to explain. I used to have tears back in the days... right now I think it's mostly earthquakes that scare me that much.

Yeah at times fog makes it look like an overcast, others it's just far in the distance and it's mostly an annoyance (but looks good)... let me search for some pictures I took. I also have a video but I think it's boring or weird as it's in a park and it's... very Halloween-ish. And ofc, if you find that pic, send it :D

I understand that after working all day and all week you don't feel like cooking or baking. Maybe yes, on this break you can try something! If you do, let me know :) Take care of you though!

[bagsybaggins]

Chapter 5: The Discovery

Just days before Halloween, I received an owl from the Ministry. 

My grandad had passed away.

-

Inside the Room of Requirement, I found the Beach Vivarium the most comforting. The sound of the constant waves, and the sounds of the beast that I had saved. Deek had taken care of them over the summer, and I was grateful for that.

I had been resting against the Lord of the Shore when he had moved, and let out a warning growl. As I opened my eyes, I could see a figure hesitantly walking down from the entrance of the Vivarium.

"Atropos? Are you in here?" He called out.

"Ominis?" Standing up and shaking off the sand, I approach him. Or try to, the Lord stepped in front of me, stopping me from approaching Ominis. 

"Calm down Lordy, he's my friend. He won't hurt you or me." Brushing my hand against his thick skin in an effort to calm him, I look at Ominis. "Ominis, give me your hand. Slowly now."

Ominis swallows thickly and slowly lifts his left hand, his right clutching his wand tightly. "Atropos, what are you-"

"Shhh, you'll startle him. I'm trying to get him to let you approach, he's very protective." I calmly state as I reach out and take Ominis's wrist, slowly bringing his hand toward the Lord's nose and tentacles. "Trust me Ominis, I won't let anything happen. But I need you to calm down."

I see him nod in the corner of my eyes as I watch as the Lord studies Ominis. "I can calm down. I am calm." Ominis says to himself.

Grinning to myself as the Lord exhales heavily and turns away, heading back to the shoreline. 

"What just happened?"

"I think he's alright with you." I turn to Ominis and watch as he slowly sags in relief. "But what are you doing here Ominis? How'd you even get in?"

Ominis clears his throat and slowly takes his hand back. "You were missing from Herbology class, Sebastian was wondering where you were, and that's when Poppy told us. I'm so sorry for your loss, Atropos."

His eyes always had a tint of green in those clouds, sometimes I wished that they would clear so he could see the world as we could. 

"Thank you, it means a lot," I whisper, crossing my arms as I feel the pain lumping in my chest.

His unfocused eyes drifted over me as his brows furrowed down, "Are we on a beach? How-"

"We're in one of my vivariums, in the room of requirement. It's as real as it can get without leaving Hogwarts, and it's to house the beasts I saved." I turn around when I hear the younger Graphorn, Davy Jones, snort, his eyes concentrated in Ominis's direction. "Perhaps we should go back to the room, and let the beasts rest."

Ominis nods, the frown still drawn on his face. "Alright."

-

"You've had this place, I mean this room since last year?" Ominis asked as they walked down the stairs, the smell of the plants and the soft musical tone playing gently filled the room.

Atropos nodded with a soft smile, "Professor Weasley showed me this last year, to help me stay caught up with potions and herbology. I have to say, it's definitely helped."

She sat down on the chair across from Ominis who was taking in his surroundings with his wand, noting that there was more than just that vivarium.

The sunlight streamed down through the vines that curled around the beams on the ceiling, green clashing with the yellow walls, yet it melded together perfectly. The balcony in front of the Highlands vivarium had its yellow curtains pulled back, with a chess table and two chairs on either side of it, taking up the balcony space. The floor was stone that made a harsh clacking sound when walking on it, something that would normally remind Ominis of the older parts of the Gaunt Manor. But the whimsical music drowned it out, and unlike the harsh cold floors at home, these were warm and almost a comfort of sorts.

Ominis was amazed, stunned into silence as he breathed in the room, the chair he sat in emitted a gentle tone of lilac. His thoughts both stormed like heavy rain with many questions and stayed calm with the lilac and the music that encased him like a warm embrace.

"Do you remember,” she paused, “the first time we met?" She leaned her head back, staring up at the botanical ceiling. The sun's rays just missed her by mere inches.

Ominis thought back, nodding slowly. "I do."

She exhaled softly before closing her eyes. "And you remember the Scriptorium?"

His chest tightened as her screams echoed through his ears, how the hair on his arms and neck rose. "Why are you asking me this?"

Her eyes opened, and she turned to him. "Because I was glad you were there. I was afraid that if you hadn't been there, I might have learned it. That I might have changed more than I have now."

He froze in his seat as he digested her words, wanting to argue with her, wanting to know what she could have meant. But he stayed quiet, thinking. He knows what it's like to be under the curse, and he shamefully knows what it's like to cast it. But she didn't, she chose not to learn. And she would have if he wasn't there.

"Why?" He blurted out, his head turning towards her.

"Even though I didn't know you all too well, and you didn't know me well either. You still trusted me, trusted me enough to tell me your story. To tell me the truth about the curse." She paused and looked at him. "I feel like my arrival, and my part in your friendship has caused the rift between you and Sebastian-"

"You have done no such thing, Atropos. You were the one that kept it together, if it weren't for you-" Ominis swallowed, his fingers clenching into tight fists as he tried to think of the right words. "If it weren't for you, I'm not sure Sebastian would still be in Hogwarts with us. And our friendship would be in ruin, with no hope in ever repairing it."

Atropos's throat tightened at the thought of Sebastian in Azkaban, her memories of being there for a short time. The hopelessness, the madness of the prisoners, and the Dementors.

"Azkaban is a horrible place, I can't even try to imagine Sebastian there-" Inhaling sharply she shook her head. "He wouldn't survive there."

Ominis stayed silent as she stood up and crossed her arms, but then she paused as she let out a shuddered breath. Tears began to build up in her eyes, cascading down her cheek as she hiccupped. Ominis's eyes widened in alarm as she tried to contain herself, his thoughts jumbled as he thought of what to do. And so he stood slowly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"He's fine Atropos, he's here in Hogwarts. Currently running around like a headless chicken trying to find you, but he's perfectly safe."

But she shook her head. "No, I'm sorry I just- I guess it all just came down on me, the news of my grandad, and my sudden Aunt inviting me to stay- and my brother also being with her-"

A stutter of confusion passed over Ominis as he tried to follow her ramblings, only to be frozen by the news of her sibling.

"Brother? I thought you were an only child?" 

"No, I mean. I'm not, but I haven't seen him since I was 8." Atropos wiped her cheek with a small snort, "My grandparents on my father's side had magic, and they took him since I never showed signs of magic. I haven't seen him since then, never even got a letter."

Sorrow was dipping off her sentence like a dew drop on a hanging leaf. Ominis could understand what she meant, his own siblings rarely talked to him in or out of Hogwarts. 

"My grandad was all I had, and so I was left with him. And now I learn that I have an aunt on my dad's side, and she's now offering me a place with her. I just-" Sighing heavily, she moved back into the chair, and rested her face in her hands. "I have so many questions, and so many emotions are piling up. "

Ominis crouched in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders, and rested his head against hers. "Don't think about it just yet, you have time. And you need to grieve first before you consider anything else, Atropos. We're here for you, and you don't need to make a choice just yet. You have time, let yourself have time."

Ominis fell silent as he waited for her breathing to slow down and become even again. Letting her think of his words, and hopefully, even consider them.

She nodded her head slowly, pulling her hands away from her face and smiling thinly. "Alright. I'll give it time." 

Ominis smiled. "Good."

Atropos leaned forward, pulling him into a hug and closing her eyes. "Thank you Ominis. Truly."

Ominis blinked slowly before returning the hug, placing his hands on her back. Nodding, but saying nothing.

[mintugiyuu]

> here’s the final part of your request @kyojoroo ! I’m so sorry it’s in two different parts, but I learned for the first time that these text boxes have a limit lmao, again I hope you enjoy and have a great day/night! <3

༄ we have to stop meeting like this - continued

sfw one-shot

➥ pairing || rengoku kyojurou x reader

➥ au || modern day; college

➥ warnings || cheesy, tooth-rotting fluff with extra cheese

➥ synopsis || the reader keeps bumping into the one and only rengoku kyojurou; only instead of just casually seeing him over and over again, they quite literally bump into him in the most inconvenient ways possible. (cont.)

➥ part one || click here!

༄ the mediterranean sea collection - masterlist

Today had to be one of the worst days in your life. Freezing, drenched, and newly homeless, you tucked yourself onto the bus stop bench. Lucky you, this one didn't even have an awning to protect you from the elements.

The rain had no pity for your predicament as it pelted your body, the light clothing doing close to nothing for you. Summer had just come, yet the night rainfall seemed to have brought an unexpected chill.

Not to mention the suitcase and duffle bag you had with you were now also getting soaked.

You could only hope nothing was too waterlogged.

Your hand did little to protect your dying phone from getting wet as you tried to search for the nearest place to stay. Motel, hotel, air B'N'B; anything in range to get you off the streets for the night.

You had a feeling this would happen, and boy were kicking yourself for not seeing the red flags and preparing sooner.

Not having enough savings for a dorm, you had signed a contract with the residents of an apartment to rent out one of the rooms for cheap.

The agreement only lasted for two semesters, but they had promised that you'd be able to renew it once summer rolled around.

"Promise my ass." You grumbled, remembering how the original owner had gotten a partner. In return, they refused to let you sign another contract so they would have space for the "love of their life".

You saw the signs; you saw how their stuff slowly moved into the apartment and all the time they were spending there.

You just didn't think they'd be shitty enough people to kick you out the moment your contract ended.

A gust of icy wind rolled through, causing another shudder to rack your body. The closest place wasn't in walking distance, and it was far to late for the buses to be running. Sighing, you shut off your phone and closed your eyes.

You had resigned yourself to walk the several blocks to the nearest 24/7 fast food place to at least get out of the rain.

That was until the rain fall suddenly stopped beating down on you. The rain couldn't have stopped though, you could still hear it. You blinked your eyes open and looked up, surprised to what - or more accurately, who - you saw.

"...Kyojurou?"

Standing there in all his warmth and glory, Kyojurou looked down at you with concern, holding a bright red umbrella over your soaked form.

He couldn't seem to help the small smile that graced his lips at the sound of his first name.

"I'd be happier that you finally used my name if you didn't look so sad and drenched."

A humorless snort escaped your lips as you hugged yourself, shivering slightly. "Timing always has my side doesn't it? I'm just about to head to the closest food place to get out of the rain, so don't worry about it."

"Why?"

"I got kicked out," you shrugged, looking to the ground.

"This late at night?"

"It surprised me too. They found a new roommate and wouldn't let me renew my contract for the next school year, and it just so happens it ended tonight." There was a hint of bitterness in your tone, one that was completely understandable.

Kyojurou's brows furrowed. "They didn't give you a heads up? A two week notice?"

"I'm just lucky they let me pack all of my stuff before I had to leave." You continued to look down at the ground, not seeing the way Kyojurou's face contorted ever so slightly.

He didn't get mad often, but whoever your old roommates are were now on his shit list

"Well that's a shitty thing to do," he stated bluntly, causing you to sputter and blink dumbly at him.

It's been almost a year since you've met the blonde, and in all that time you never once heard him say a single bad word.

"Did you just curse??"

He pretended not to hear, pulling out his own phone to see the time as you mulled over the fact that this sweet ray of sunshine just called someone shitty.

Expression neutralizing as he schemed, he turned back to you. "You don't have to stay in a fast food place for the night."

"Huh?? Are you suggesting I sleep in a box?"

The man smiled, resting a reassuring hand on top of your shoulder, frustration forgotten for now. "You can stay with me!"

"What now?"

Chuckling, he passed the umbrella off to you to hold, beginning to slip his arms out of the jacket he wore. "You can stay with me for the time being until you get back on your feet! Well, us. If you wanted to of course! Sanemi just moved out, so we're looking for a new one regardless."

Baffled at the sudden offer, you started to shake your head, forming the words to decline him. It was too big of a favor, how could you accept that?

He was one step ahead of you, as he always is.

"Before you say anything, no, it would not be any trouble, you're a joy to have around! We can settle the nitty gritty later, let's just get you out of the cold."

"Wait, Kyojurou," you were silenced by a heavy warmth that suddenly engulfed your upper body, including your sight. Moving the fabric from your eyes, you realized it was his jacket.

His once dry clothes was slowly becoming just as soaked as you were as he took back the umbrella, insistently keeping it solely above you.

The gentle way he smiled in combination with the light post that shined behind his head had you convinced he was your guardian angel in disguise.

You hesitantly pulled the jacket closer to your body, not being able to deny how relieving the warmth felt. "But, won't you be cold?"

"My insides are practically pocket heaters, it takes a lot for me to be cold. A little wind and rain won't do anything to me, I promise! Now come on, before you get sick," he insisted as he grabbed your bag, throwing them over his shoulder.

"Little" was an understatement, but you didn't have the energy to argue. It was the middle of the night and you could feel your eyes starting to droop.

Grabbing your luggage to role behind, you let the other wrap his free arm around your form, hand resting on your arm. "Thank you, truly I don't know where to start showing how grateful I am. I owe you big time."

"Never refer to me as Rengoku-san again and I'll call it even!"

A wobbly smile tugged at your lips as you leaned into his side, letting him guide you down the route to his apartment. "You have a deal then, Kyojurou."

The weather broadcasters warned everyone about heavy snowfall, but you couldn’t help but think they could’ve prepared everyone a bit more as you stared out your window and could only see the shadow of snow.

Thank the gods above it was winter break or they’d have to cancel classes, which would just be tuition money flushed down the shitter.

Your train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door of the bedroom you were in, which was odd because the door was open.

Low and behold, it was your sweetheart of a boyfriend, holding two mugs and using his foot to knock. “I brought hot coco!”

"You don't have to knock, this is your room you dork."

"Our room technically, my dear." He responded smoothly, shutting the door with his foot behind him as he made his way to you.

"Careful not to spill it," he winked, laughing slightly as he handed you your mug.

"Just for that I should," you scoffed playfully, sticking your tongue out at him as you took the drink. The smile on his face was nothing but adoring, finding you to be adorable. You had to look away to dismiss the butterflies that swarmed in your tummy. “Looks like we’re snowed in for a bit. The snow is above the windows.”

Kyojurou hummed in agreement. “I still don’t understand how tiny snowflakes can become so damaging so fast!”

“You’re funny,” you chuckled, taking a sip of the hot beverage. Kyojurou always made the best hot chocolate.

“... UME! I’m glad I can be amusing!” You couldn't hold down the snort at the realization that he wasn't joking, swallowing and shaking your head. You granted him mercy and switched the subject.

“What are the others up to?”

Kyojurou leaned against the sill next to you, shoulder bumping yours affectionately. “Tengen is in the living room playing video games with his girlfriends, Mitsuri is watching a movie in her room and Obanai is watching with her. I think she's also painting his nails from the conversation I overheard while passing by."

“I see.”

The both of you were leaning against the window sill, basking in the comfortable silence. It wasn't common in an apartment full of unique roommates.

Even now you both could hear the loud victory cheer of Suma as Tengen groaned in defeat.

Taking another sip of your drink, you hummed, lifting your head to face Kyojurou. You were going to say something, but that was forgotten as you covered your mouth with your fingers as to not laugh suddenly.

"Hm? Is something wrong?" Your poor oblivious lover had a whipped cream mustache. He tilted his head at you - not unlike an owl - seemingly confused to your sudden shift in expression. You swallowed your laughter down as you placed your drink onto the sill, stepping closer to the blonde.

"No, nothing's wrong. You just have a little something rigghtt..." you reached out to grip his chin gently, swiping your thumb across his top lip to collect the whipped cream. "-there, all gone!"

A pretty, bright red color spread across Kyojurou’s face, wide eyes blinking owlishly at you with his mouth slightly agape. Laughing quietly at his reaction, you licked the cream off your thumb, patting the side of his cheek teasingly.

"You'll catch flies, hun." A click of teeth could be heard as he closed his mouth.

"RIGHT!" He stopped himself to clear his throat, turning to face the window as his usual smile reappeared, though a bit wobbly. "Thank you!"

All you did was hum, a slight mischievous smirk settling onto your face. You were set to happily go back to your drink when you shivered, the chill of the room finally reaching you through your clothes.

Kyojurou caught it from the corner of his eye, turning back to you. “Are you cold?”

You waved him off, shaking your head. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence, you'll just get another sweatshirt.

“I’ll be ok. The hot coco will warm me up in- WOAH!” That plan was thrown out the window when he suddenly scooped you up into his broad arms, smiling determinedly.

"You're not allowed to just continue on being cold, not if I can help it!" The firey man plopped you down onto your shared bed, quickly gathering the collection of fluffy blankets you have accumulated over time.

In the blink of an eye, you were neatly swaddled in said blankets and being held gently to your boyfriend's warm chest. He settled underneath the main blanket, wrapping his strong arms around your body.

“Is that better?” He beamed at you, looking oh so proud of himself.

What did you do to deserve him?

"Much," you all but groaned, snuggling your face into the warmth of his chest. It was like cuddling a big warm marshmallow. “I still can’t understand how you’re so warm.”

“I’m a living-breathing heater, my dear. I’ve explained this before, I’m sure of it.”

You snorted, leaning into his hand as he began to run his fingers through your hair. “I’m not complaining, you’re good to keep around for whenever my hands freeze.”

“I wouldn’t mind one bit," his voice came out softly, planting a warm kiss to onto your forehead. This in turn caused you to melt even further into him, burying your face into his shirt.

Kyojurou laughed with amusement as he turned on the television, looking for something for the two of you to watch for the rest of the evening. You eventually peaked your head out to look at him, wrapping your arms around his middle.

“Hey, Kyojurou?”

“Yes?”

All of his attention was on you. Even in these small moments he looks at you as though you're the most precious human being in the world. And to him, you were.

You hummed, placing a kiss onto his chin. “I’m happy I spilled my drink all over you.”

The small peck had similar effects from the whipped cream incident earlier, though he seemed to snap out of it quicker this time. He smiled brighter, cupping your cheek with his large, warm hand.

“That's an odd way of saying I love you."

This made you pause, the 'L-word' not being used between the two of you yet. “Wait, what?"

He gave you no time to question further as he placed a kiss onto your lips in return, his other hand finding the small of your back to pull you closer.

The initial shock of being kissed faded quickly, your arms finding their way around his neck as you pulled yourself closer. The kiss was short and sweet, yet the passion that Kyojurou lived by was always present.

The kiss came to a pause with you laying on top of his chest, remote forgotten and blankets wrapped around you as you steadied your breathing.

Kyojurou's eyes crinkled slightly with his smile, brushing the back of his hand across your cheek.

"I love you too."

[ariparri]

This drawing was inspired by a story my friend cursedautumn wrote for me as her part of our usual story for art trade.

It's been so long since I've drawn something in this style, I was scared I was going to give up half way through the entire thing. But nope, I was quite ambitious and pulled through 9 hours to finish this piece!

Look at that! It's absolutely beautiful 😭 I can stare at this and be so damn proud of it all day!

Speaking of the story, you can read it here under the cut. Flowers may be my absolute favorite from autumn's stories, but this was just too cute. I just adore the father/daughter dynamic Veruca and Elroy have.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His Princess

"Alrighty, I'm leaving." Wilhelmina kissed Elroy on the cheek and took the bag. “I'll be there in the evening, don't wait for me early. I left a list of products that Vera needs to be fed. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"You underestimate me," Elroy growled, jokingly offended. "Veruca will be fine, I'm a fully capable father, Wil. Go and have a good rest, you'll see when you come back, the house will shine, and the child will have the tenth dream." Wilhelmina smiled dryly and rolled her eyes. "You're the same as always. Well, I'm off."

With that, she opened the door and went out. Elroy watched her go for a while until she disappeared behind the fence, then closed the door and took a deep breath. Elroy McQuaid was a father of two children, but, frankly, he had already forgotten what it was like to stay all day with a small child. Coby had grown up a long time ago, now he was at Hogwarts (where, by the way, he recently received an indignant letter from Minerva McGonagall about his son's behavior), and little Veruca did not want to sit still and quickly came up with entertainment for herself: she rolled away from her father, turning over from her back to her stomach, then, on the contrary, crawled up to him and began pulling his hair or stubble. Elroy didn't mind, but he couldn't let his daughter roll around on the floor all day and pinch him! He had to think of something to do. So he picked up Veruca in his arms and spoke,  "What should we do? We're going to play with toys, aren't we, baby?"

"Yes!" Veruca said glibly. She didn't know how to speak yet, but she already knew words like "yes", "not", "ma", "pa" and "Co-i" (that is, Coby). Elroy was infinitely proud of his daughter; Wilhelmina took it much more calmly and even laughed at his constant delight. Elroy was slightly offended: "How can you, Wil? She talks great for her age!", but there were no big quarrels because of this, and he understood that his wife showed love for her daughter in a slightly different way.

As soon as she was in her room, Veruca clung tightly to a wooden box filled to the brim with toys. There were dolls, plush toys, a plastic tea set, with which the baby sometimes gently beat her older brother, several suits with bat wings and many other means of entertainment. Elroy watched in silence as she turned over the wooden box, and sighed to himself: later he would have to take a long and painstaking time to clean up the mess that his daughter had made. But he obediently waited until all the contents of the box were on the floor, and smiled, "Come on, Vera, choose what we will play."

Veruca thought for a while and a soft bat colored so bright it was slowly eating out Elroy's eyes. This bat was given to the McQuaid family by friends a few years ago, and at first Coby played with it, and then it was taken away from him by his younger sister. Veruca took it out at every opportunity and forced the first family member she met to entertain her, holding her in their hands and "butting" the girl with a toy. Elroy didn't have much choice right now. He asked, "Are we going to play this?"

"Yes!" Veruca nodded. She had the same light green eyes as Elroy, like clear, transparent water.

"All right," he agreed. "I'll butt you. Come on…" Suddenly, he quickly grabbed the toy and began to gently poke his daughter in the face. Veruca burst into a ringing childish laugh, trying to grab a bat, and randomly waved her plump hands in the air. Elroy poked the toy first on her cheek, then in her stomach, then in her shoulder, and she laughed and made futile attempts to outwit dad and catch her pet. At that moment, Veruca strangely reminded Elroy of a young Wilhelmina, just as cheerful, laughing happily, not yet so strict and upset by the behavior of her growing son. Actually, Veruca was much more like her father, but there was already something about her that made her obviously the daughter of Wilhelmina McQuaid.

After playing with the bat, Veruca lost interest in it and took up a book of fairy tales written by the bard Beadle. Of course, it was still too early for her to read them, but the bright pictures on the glossy paper attracted the eye, and the baby ran her finger along the pages with genuine interest, looking questioningly at Elroy, as if asking what was depicted here. Most of all, she was interested in pictures of beautiful queens, princesses and sorceresses, women with long hair, dressed in dresses, robes and heavy jewelry. The girl especially liked the drawing of Morgan Le Fay, a tall red-haired woman with light green eyes, in a white dress. Veruca poked at it with her finger and hooted. 

"This, baby, is Morgan Le Fay. She was a very outstanding sorceress, healer and fortune-teller. The sorcerers bewitched people, Vera, they are also wizards, it's just that their magic was different. And Morgan was both a sorceress and a witch. It's complicated, isn't it?" Elroy explained, to which Veruca frowned and turned away, indicating that she was not interested in this topic. She always did this when she did not understand what was being said to her, but she did not want to show her ignorance — it hurts her pride so much!

And even though Veruca was still a very little girl, she had pride. This pleased Elroy: if self-confidence and healthy pride are inherent in a person from childhood, nothing will knock them out of there. So let his daughter be proud. It was better to have pride than not to have it, his sister had once told him, and Elroy completely agreed with her.

Suddenly, his daughter turned over on her stomach and, starting to turn over slowly, rolled in the opposite direction from him. Elroy was so surprised that he didn't even understand what was happening, and he stared at Veruсa with his mouth open for a few seconds, and then he realized that the typical willfulness of the McQuaids had awakened in her, and she decided to try to move herself. Attempts to "escape" have occurred before, but Wilhelmina, with the air of a connoisseur, assured that this is normal and there is no need to interfere with the child's self-development.

"Veruca!" Elroy called out to his daughter.

"Ah!" she answered him and giggled, once again turning over on her stomach. "Vera," the man said more quietly. "Where are you going?" Veruca smiled with an almost toothless mouth and giggled louder. Elroy sighed loudly and got to his feet to put the mischievous girl back in her place.

Suddenly, Veruca reached out with a tiny hand and grabbed the leg of a chair. She tensed, slightly lifting the body and pulling her legs under her.

And then she began to get up — in the literal sense, to get to her feet, holding tightly to the leg of the chair, as if for a handrail, and finally straightened up and stood up, swaying slightly. Elroy froze in mute amazement, joy and disbelief, watching his little daughter, his princess, stand on her feet for the first time, and was afraid to even sigh and break the great moment. This feeling was even brighter than what he had experienced when Coby first got on his feet, much, much brighter, although Elroy did not want to admit it to himself.

It seems that Veruca was afraid of her own independence and the next second fell on the carpet and began to cry. Elroy was at his daughter's side in the blink of an eye and hastily picked her up in his arms, saying affectionately:

"Don't cry, Vera, don't cry, my princess, everything will be fine, you're a good girl. Look, you got up for the first time today, can you imagine?" and he kissed the top of her head, stroking her back. Veruca's crying wasn't caused by pain or anything worse, it's just that she hardly expected such sharp physical progress from herself.

So he patiently calmed her down until the girl stopped crying and wearily buried her face in her father's shirt.

"Do you want to sleep?" Elroy asked gently. "Let's go sit outside. It started raining there, we'll swing in the chair, listen to the weather…"

They did just that. Elroy went out onto the terrace. There he sat down in a wicker rocking chair with Veruca in his arms and was quiet; a summer downpour was really rustling on the green street and in the garden. The storm swelled over the McQuaid estate, rallying in the sky in a dense purple wall, ready to crack and burst into lightning. But while there were no loud noises, Elroy held the sleeping Veruca, wrapped in a plump purple blanket with a bat's face, in his arms and looked at the blooming garden. There was an unusual calmness in his soul, although, in general, there was no cause for alarm; nevertheless, such satisfaction in his soul had not been for a long time-maybe because he was the father of two children, the eldest of whom was now supplying his school with problems, and the youngest was still very small and helpless, like a porcelain doll. They had to look after both of them, and it was difficult for him and Wilhelmina. Very difficult.

Elroy kissed the top of Veruca's head as she dozed off. No, he was grateful to his wife, Providence, and himself a million times for his daughter, because since his youth his dream was to have a daughter, his little princess, just like from fairy tales. As a child, he saw how carefully his father treats his sister, and just dreamed of doing the same.

And now he had Veruca.

His little girl.

His princess.

Elroy wrapped his daughter more tightly in the blanket and began to doze a little himself. The storm did not break out with thunder and lightning, only the rain began to rustle more loudly, and somewhere on the horizon a rainbow began to appear, as if the sky was watching the father and daughter and letting a bright ray through the summer rainy haze.

The rainbow was flaring up. Elroy and Veruca were sleeping peacefully.

[enchantedtomeethyun]

Cruel Summer Part 3-Chan

Warnings: mild smut. Language. ANGST

It was a week later and I hadn't seen Chan all day. He had been busy preparing for an interview with the boys and he wasn't going to be back at the dorms until late because of practice. After that night we had made things official but not completely. He told the boys of course who had a feeling something was going on. But he had not told his manager or the company about it since they are on a dating ban until next year. Seems pretty stupid if you ask me but at least he's mine right?

For the past week I have been living at the dorms with the boys cause my apartment is getting renovated no thanks to my neighbors neglect of their pasta and setting almost all of their kitchen on fire and mine as well. Since there are people there working I can't sleep so Chan offered for me to sleep over at the dorms. Of course me being me thinking I can get in on some one on one time with him since that night we confessed didn't end with an intense session of fucking. Instead he drove us to ihop and we ate pancakes. Yeah pancakes are great but I wanted some dick. Some Chan Dick™️.

We actually haven't touched each other for about a week and half. Yeah he's busy but man my mind can wonder just laying in his bed all day waiting for him to come back. 

The rain began to pour and I fell asleep on the pillowy soft bed. It smelled like him too. Now you're wondering what he smells like. But only I know. It was around 12am when I heard the creaking of the door open and shuffled footsteps approach the bed. His heavy breathing makes me confused. Was he in a hurry to get back? Tossing over to the side where he is I opened my eyes slowly.

"Channie.." I said quietly. He sits down on the bed and cups my face in his hands smiling.

"Did I wake you? I'm sorry baby.." he said kissing me on the forehead. He takes off his shirt leaving only his boxers on. Climbing into bed with me he reaches for my torso pulling me close to his. He drapes his arm around my waist and I feel his hot breath on my neck. Everything is calm and cozy but I kind of wanna raise a little hell. I adjust my position stretching my legs then rubbing my butt against his front earning a confusing grunt from the boy behind me.

"Baby are you ok?" He mumbles out half asleep  reaching for my hand and holding it.

"Mmmm yeah I am it's just.." I trail off.

"Hm? What's wrong? Are you cold I can turn off the fan or get you a blanket did you need something?" He continued on worry in his eyes.

"Maybe not something.." I said looking at him hoping he would get my drift.

"Oh uh ok goodnight then heh " he responded sounding nervous. How is this man so dense. What do I have to do take his dick out and suck it?  Maybe if I just flat out say it. I want your dick.

"I want your dick". I said flatly. Chan's eyes opened wide. He began to laugh covering his face.

"Sorry sorry .....sorry". He said between laughs.

"Yah! What's so funny!"  I said sitting up irritated.

"No no! You're just so bold all of a sudden. I was just surprised." He said smiling and catching his breath from laughing.  I climbed over to him sitting on top of him. His arms stretched behind his head relaxed. He had a dazed smile on his face.

"Why are you looking at me like that.." I said slowly. He chuckled and remover his hands from behind his head and placed them in my waist.

"This is just the first time we are doing this together ever since we made it official. I'm just nervous. " He says eyes looking away.

"Nervous about what? We did this before.. I've seen your dick before chan?" I said crossing my arms.

"Yeah but this is the first time in this setting. In my home. What if it's different or like ?" He goes on and I cut him off mid sentence with a kiss to the lips.

"I missed those rude interruptions.." he said as he began to feel around my waist pulling me in for a longer kiss. His lips are soft and welcoming. He feels like coming home. In the heat of the moment he takes the time to take off my sweatshirt and shorts leaving me in nothing on top of him. His boxers begin to feel a bit uncomfortable for him as his dick begins to make its self known underneath my lap. Taking my hand I begin the stroke him. He stops me for a second to take off his boxers leaving nothing on him. He then takes me by my waist lining me up with his throbbing dick dripping with pre cum. When I go down on him it takes me a second to get comfortable but once i do I begin to ride him slowly. Chans moans are low in tone but loud in volume. I kept going till I heard laughing coming from the other room making me stop and my eyes shoot to Chans panicked.

"It's just hyunjin and his girlfriend. They watch 90 day fiance every Friday night." Chan explains pleading with his eyes for me to keep going. I nod my head and continue on until I feel it building up. I know he feels it too because there is no way Hyunjin and his girlfriend can't hear him. While riding out my high all I can think of is how their laughing and talking ceased. Snapping me out of that was Chan thrusting into my rapidly trying to cum. When he does I feel it shoot up into and the warmth begins to ooze out as I climb off of him. He kisses my cheek rolling over to hold me. With that i fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up and Chan was gone. I was a bit sad since I had always Imagined what it would finally be like wake up by his side in this context. My only one. Instead I feel that feeling that I was all too familiar with. Waving up the next morning in the hotel room to an empty bed and money on the table to tip the maid. I'm sure he needed to go to practice so i decided to get up forgetting about what he did inside me the night before. Touching my upper inner thigh it felt sticky to the touch. Walking over to the corner to grab my clothes I put them on and walk into the hallway to find the bathroom. Walking past Hyunjin's room I hear similar sounds Chan and I were making the night before. The only difference is their "I fucking love you" and "fuck you too ahh". Chan never really talked to me or expressed his feelings during sex. Walking into the bathroom my head was hung over. Removing my clothes and locking the door I took my phone out of my pocket and texted Chan.

Me: hey where did you go? Practice? Cuz hyunjin is here still

Sent

Placing it on the counter I step into the shower and begin to wash away the night before. After I was finished in the shower I wrap myself in a towel and sit on the stool by the counter checking my phone for any response from Chan. Before I could look there's a knocking at the door.

"Hey uhh when are you done cause we need to shower .." Hyunjim says.

"Oh my God don't say it like that. First you sound rude and second you make us sound gross." The girl said laughing.

"Yeah I'm done hold on." I said laughing. I slipped my clothes back on and opened the door. There stood hyunjin and his girlfriend holding towels behind their backs. Weird. The girl was shorter than him by like 8 inches at least but that didn't stop him from hugging her from behind as they waited. Scrolling through tiktoks and laughing in their own world I made my first foot step loud to get their attention. This worked cause the moment the door way was free I heard them yelling about racing to see who could get naked the fastest and the door slamming shut. What an odd couple. I look at my phone looking for Chans reply and there it is.

Chan: we were crazy to think that this would work

Huh.

Me: Chan what do you mean where are you?

Chan: I'm at the spot. Meet me there.

Racing to get there grab my shoes and leave the dorm and take the short walk it was to our spot. The vending machine alley. Once I arrived i ran over to him giving him a hug. He was sitting on the ground with his head in his hands as he colors me blue.

"You make me blue." I said pouting and taking a seat next to him on the pavement. He reaches for my hand and holds it.

"We're we stupid to jump into this?" Chan begins.

"What are you talking about we've been seeing each other for months?" I said questioning him.

"I can't seem to separate what we had previously and what we have now. Last night felt the same and I don't know why but I'm confused..." He said looking at me.

"Con confused? It felt the same cause we've liked each other that's why! That's a good thing..." I said laughing.

"No it's not I should feel protective over you and want to be the only guy for you but it occurred to me that if I saw you with someone else I wouldn't be hurt.." Chan said seriously.

"I can't talk to you when you're like this! Fuck Chan you always over think everything!" I said taking my hand back.

"No listen to me.." he said. 

"I thought we could get away with this. But I look at Hyun and his girlfriend and i think that's not how I see us.." he said choking up.

The nerve of him to cry cause that's all I wanted to do. He's all I wanted but not like this.

"You're all I wanted Chan.." I said as I cried. He squeezed my hand.

"I know..." He said looking down disappointed in himself.

"I care about you. I do but I don't think I can do this. I feel like there's a standard for dating and what if Im not doing it right?" He said still crying. 

" We don't need to do it right. We can do it our way. Don't be scared of me. Don't be scared of us. You know everyone always warns you about times like this. The road feels long and you feel lost. But we can be lost together. We might get away with this.." I said to him reaching for his face shaking. I kissed his cheek with my quivering lips as a tear rolled down his face.

"Religion is in your lips." He said wiping his tears then mine.

"It's a false God but I'll still worship this love." Chan said leaning in to kiss me. 

We aren't perfect people but we might be the perfect people for each other. We just need to try and hold on through the tough times cause through the dark there is always daylight.

[escapingpost]

Five Things Everyone Knows (Final)

Part 1: Five Things I Know About Cho Seungyoun 

Sequel: Five Things Cho Seungyoun Knows About You

Suggestive and language warning.

The kiss in the alleyway would have been the cherry on top for this mess of romantic comedy. It would be the turning point of the plot where the next few scenes were merely a fast-forwarded, shortened down versions of what would be to come with your perfect “friends to lovers” relationship.

But, you were hit with the reminder that this was not an actual romantic comedy and reality is much harsher.

The next day, you woke up from a text from yours truly telling you that the girl he was texting ages ago finally got back to him. They were going on a date this weekend.

Your mind went through different thoughts in a span of one minute:

Were the two of you that drunk yesterday? If that was the case, you would have a hangover. And Seungyoun? You were sure he was too busy making Hangyul drunk to drink himself.

Were you just dreaming? No, your hair definitely smelled of rain water and you could still almost feel Seungyoun’s strong arms around your waist.

Then, what the hell was this?

As if answering your thoughts, Seungyoun sends another text message.

younie: I smell like sewage right now. What even happened last night.

And with that one text message, you were brought back to the reality of romantic relationships in your twenties.

Romance was dead and so were your feelings.

NOT my best friend: Dumbass, how am I suppose to know.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Woohyun was currently hovering over Seungyoun on the couch as Seungyoun holds his phone out of his reach. Woohyun gets up and dusts himself off. “Have fun being lonely. I’m rooting for Hangyul.”

“Wait, Woohyun.” Seungyoun also gets up from his couch. “I’m sorry. I just, I can’t do it.”

“Seungyoun, what do you mean, you can’t?” Woohyun says trying to keep calm. Him and the guys did the most to get Seungyoun to realize his feelings, but when he actually does, it backfires.

“I don’t want to mess us up.” Seungyoun says, avoiding Woohyun’s gaze.

“You know the feeling is mutual, so why?” Woohyun asks.

Seungyoun takes out a few crinkled pieces of paper from the small trash in his studio. He takes the first crumple piece of paper and hands it to Woohyun.

Woohyun looks at Seungyoun weirdly before unfolding it and reading his chicken scratch writing.

I wish you happiness

It's okay if it's not me

I don't think I'm good enough for you

We're so different

Woohyun takes the rest of the crinkled papers and unfolds them.

Tell me you're tired of me

Tell me you're seeing someone else

For me, even just a little bit

To hate you, just lie to me

Woohyun stops reading and crumples the paper into its original state, “This is different from the last time. You know it.”

“We’ve been best friends for years. I just can’t risk that.” Seungyoun looks down, his fringe hiding his eyes.

And Woohyun could not think of a comeback with Seungyoun looking like he already lost the most precious thing in his life.

“You know, its true what they say about musicians. You are all creative, crazy messes.” Woohyun says with a huge sigh.

Which brings us to the first thing everyone now knows: 1) Seungyoun, for a fact, has slight commitment issues.

A week passes by after the night with Seungyoun. You try your best to avoid him, but he stuck to you like nothing had happened. Sure, it was only the alcohol that made him do it and the reason why he could not remember. But, he should take some sort of responsibility, right?

The day of his date with the girl, you went to a library to study for your classes, but the silence was worse. It only made your sad thoughts louder. Letting out a deep sigh, you run your fingers through your hair and leave the quiet room.

“Hey!” Before you could start walking down the staircase to the lobby, a familiar voice calls your name.

You close your eyes. You knew exactly who it was and he was probably the second person you did not want to run into. Quickly changing your expression into a neutral one, you turn around to him, “Hey, Hangyul.”

Long story, short: You and Hangyul did go on a date. You actually had more fun than you thought and he said he would call you back, but never did. When he did end up calling you for a second date, the two of you still had unfinished business. Seungyoun crashed your second date before the two of you could talk about it.

Hangyul scratches the back of his neck, a habit of his whenever he felt uneasy. Your fake expression was apparent to his eyes, “Do you want to go to a cafe? I hated the silence in that library.”

You said yes and maybe it was the fact you wanted to show up Seungyoun for being on a date. Or, it might have been that you believed Hangyul was a nice, decent guy so he deserved some sort of explanation.

“I just wanted to say sorry for everything.” Hangyul says with a soft smile.

“Sorry about what?” The warm tea hits your throat and it calms your nerves.

“Sorry about not calling you when I said I would.”

You let out a petty laugh, “So you did know.”

Hangyul moves in closer, “Of course, I did. I was just confused and needed time to think.”

You purse your lips, “Well, I’m sorry for taking Seungyoun along on our second date.” You look down at your cup of tea.

Hangyul plays with the straw of his smoothie, unsure of what to say.

“It was a dumb decision.” You add.

“Did something happen?” Hangyul carefully asks.

You shrug, not wanting to think about it, still looking down.

Hangyul takes a deep breath and lowers his head so he was in your peripheral view, “Hey, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if you were actually available.”

You are forced to return his gaze, his face a little closer than a few minutes ago, “What do you mean?”

“I know you don’t have a boyfriend.” Hangyul was now staring at you intently with a soft expression, “But, on our first date, it didn’t seem like you were emotionally available.”

And that’s exactly what everyone thought: 2) No one else was really good enough for you, but him.

The guy with cute dimples? You preferred adorable rabbit teeth. The talented vocalist? A high-toned voice with the duality of IU’s ballads and Flowsik’s rapping was more your genre. The possible future president of the country? How about the person who you trust all your secrets, dreams, and inside jokes with?

As exaggerated as it was, Seungyoun just started to infiltrate your mind with no invitation.

You gulp and slowly nod your head, “Sorry, Hangyul.”

Hangyul feels a heavy weight lifted from his shoulders and he gives you an assuring smile, “We’re good.” He pats the side of your head.

You return his smile, feeling ten times better.

"I’m not sure what happened with you and Seungyoun, but if you want, I’m meeting with him later with the guys. Maybe you want to come?”

Your ears perk up at hearing his name, “Wait, Seungyoun is hanging out with you later?”

“Yeah, Seungyoun and some other people from the Taekwondo club.”

‘What about his date?’ You think. ‘Did that brat lie to me?’ You add. Did you not just have a small monologue on how great he was?

Hangyul calls out your name.

You snap back to reality, “Oh sorry, why don’t you text me the address and I’ll meet you there?”

The night was a little colder when it was predicted to be a warm summer night. Mercury was in retrograde or something along the lines of a pseudoscience explanation. 3) Everyone just knew it was going to be an interesting night.

“You like to hurt your own feelings?” Dohyun scratches his head.

“Masochism. Its called masochism.”

“Yohan, shut it. Don’t teach him that.” Hangyul rubbed his temples.

“Well, at least you’re better off than Seungyoun. He didn’t even give closure. He completely made his whole friendship awkward as hell.”

Hangyul blows out air from his nostrils. He wanted to keep it a secret and was not planning on inviting you to see Seungyoun. It was his chance to ask you out for a third date. But, taking advantage of your vulnerable state was the last thing he wanted to do.

Yohan hands Hangyul his black jacket, “Here, buddy. At least look cool while setting up the two idiots.”

Hangyul turns to Dohyon, “Don’t you dare learn from Yohan.” Hangyul moves closer to whisper in Yohan’s ear, “Yohan thinks he’s some sex god.”

Yohan has an appalled and disgusted look on his face, “A dude grinds on the floor one time and automatically becomes the icon of greasiness.”

Hangyul receives a text message alert and stops their conversation.

soju girl: Hey, I’m already here. My phone’s on vibrate so just text me when you get here! Too loud to take a call :(

“Lets go, idiot three.” Yohan puts his arms around Hangyul.

hangyul: see you soon

You bite down on your bottom lip and pull down on the short black dress that you wished did not sacrifice to cover either your chest or thighs. It was one or the other. You furiously shake your head to get some sense in you, “I need a drink.” Or not.

One drink turned into two, then three, then four and it all went downhill from there. The last sober thought you had was the fact that you could change your social media addiction and put your energy in making a blog about the wonders of alcohol.

“Close her tab.” you hear a voice and the person has reached over the counter. That was weird because you only conditioned yourself to listen to one specific voice through a loud bass of music.

“Oh? Its my best friend, Cho Seungyoun.” your voice slurs and you see he is confused because he can’t hear anything through the music and you made no effort to talk over them music. Seungyoun quickly scans your state and has you wear his oversized bomber jacket. You do not put up a fight while he quickly zips up the jacket. “Am I your date for tonight?” You say with no energy or volume.

Seungyoun gets to eye level with you and smiles, “Lets go.” He mouths.

The unapologetic smile, his eyes that assured you that your were safe, and his eyebrows that drooped in worry made you furious. The alcohol spoke and made the decision for you, “Fuck that.” You push him away and stagger through the dance floor.

And Seungyoun never felt so awkward trying to keep you away from other people on the dance floor while still remaining a sinful centimeter away from you and that miniature piece of fabric people called a dress.

His eyes darted around to catch the glimpses of other people on the dance floor to make sure they knew you were with him. Just when he thought people were getting the hint, a stranger attaches himself behind you.

He quickly snakes his hand around your waist and pulls you into a secure hold, turning your whole body like a tango move.

You continue to shamelessly dance, not giving a two coins because all you could see are the blurry lights, your mind was still buzzed, and whose ever arm was around you felt too good.

No matter how much he tried, there was only one answer to your shenanigans.

If you can’t beat them, join ‘em.

Seungyoun brings you into his chest as close as humanely possible and lays his hands on your hips as you two dance. He can only catch glimpses of your face, but when he did see you through the club lights, the look on your face got to him.

Your eyes were no longer the awake eyes that he could see from a distance away. Your eyes were half-lidded and seductive. Your baby hairs stuck to the side of your face and your cheeks flushed pink.

Then, Seungyoun’s ears were blocked as if he had water stuck in them. Your mouth was moving, but he could not understand what was happening anymore. The loud bass drowns out any reasonable thoughts.

Seungyoun did not drink any alcohol that night.

But, he got the same sweet alcohol on the tip of your tongue and caught the same alcohol buzz.

When Hangyul left the club that night and did not get to see you or Seungyoun, it was already a given: 4) The literal climax of the story that everyone would know of.

By the time you were all partied out and the two of you got to his apartment, the alcohol high wore off, but neither of Seungyoun’s or your hormones did.

The conversation was said through messy kisses, but it went something along the lines of Seungyoun apologizing for being a coward and a liar. Then, you try to say something back, but whatever he was doing down there did not help you form a coherent thought.

It was the climax that happened in Seungyoun’s small studio, both emotionally and physically.

Finally, it was the scene before everything fell into place. At least, as much as reality allowed you to.

“That dress wasn’t going to cover anything.” It was the morning after and you did not wake up glamorously. It was a good thing Seungyoun always saw you like that and nothing about his feelings changed. He laid on the couch and watched you find your stuff that was lost in the hurricane.

“Yeah, but your sweater will.” You quickly slip into it a sweater that he left hanging on his chair and Seungyoun curses in his mind for being weak to the cold.

“Wanna get breakfast?” Seungyoun sits up and also looks around for his lost t-shirt.

“Not like this.”

“I can pick something up from the convenience store.” Seungyoun finally finds his clothing piled up on the side of the couch.

You two only had to be apart for ten minutes, but Seungyoun was running back from the store like he left a stove on.

Also, you had no idea what you were getting yourself into until Seungyoun drops the food on his small desk and starts to make his way towards you. Alert, you hold him back with one finger, which stops him for a grueling second until he picks you up like a bride and lays you down on the couch.

You always thought Seungyoun looked like a rabbit with his two front teeth. Now, he looks like a tiger creeping up on his pray (read: you). You were quickly reminded Seungyoun was actually a bear because he pulls you into a warm hug as the two of you lay on his couch.

“There’s not enough space, so we have to stick as close a possible.” Seungyoun is breathing down your neck and you were not sure if it was on purpose.

You stir in his arms and he looks at you.

The images of you two playing tongue hockey in the middle of the dance floor flashes through your mind and you wanted to dig a tunnel into the couch because this time, he was there to remember it.

Seungyoun bit back a silly smile.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything?” He says with a smirk.

“Hey, we can’t tell anyone.” You are talking to his chest because you could not bear to look at him without being reminded of last night.

“Why not?” Seungyoun, on the other hand, had no shame and kept his eyes on you. “I swear, I was going to post this on my story.”

“Seungyoun!”

He gives you his cheeky, smiling eyes and presses his forehead on yours, “I’m sure every already knows.”

“That’s a little bit T.M.I, no?” You ask him.

“Not with them. They know everything.”

The two of you look at each other both thinking that everyone was weirdly invested in the two of you getting together. You and Seungyoun laugh knowing the same thought went through your head.

“I like you so much.” Seungyoun unconsciously says.

“I like you too.” You say making random shapes with your fingers on his chest. “Hey, um.” You finally muster up the courage to look at him.

“Yeah?” Seungyoun gives you his full attention.

You gather your arms and push him off the couch, “I’m hungry.”

Even if you were not hungry, Seungyoun’s scent was getting to your head and all the red flags went off.

He didn’t have to know that, though.

Months pass and you two are still together and annoying.

“Can you not?” You step on Seungyoun’s foot under the table.

“What?” Seungyoun moves his hand closer to your inner thigh, but you swat his hand off.

“Can you two just stay in Seungyoun’s studio? Forever.” Wooseok pretends to barf.

“We would, but the AC is broken.” Seungyoun shrugs.

You smack him on the side of his head.

“I don’t even want to sit on that damn couch now.” Seungwoo slowly shakes his head.

“Maybe it was better for you two to stay single.” Yohan taps on the table.

“Hey, I’m all for that.” Hangyul chuckles as he opens a bag of chips.

Seungyoun’s neck almost breaks turning to Hangyul, “If you eat chips like that, your fingers are going to stain.”

“Well, I’m gonna eat it with chopsticks.” Hangyul retorts.

“Where are the chopsticks, genius?” Seungyoun mocks Hangyul’s matter-of-fact tone.

Hangyul’s eye darts back and forth, until he sees you slipping him the chopsticks. “Here.”

Seungyoun makes a face at you, “Whose side are you on?”

You give him a chaste kiss and the self-proclaimed all rounder turns into one thing and it was the fifth and last thing everyone knew.

5) “Whipped.”

[eryiss]

Fraxus Week 2020: Day 4 - Drunk

Summary: After a crappy post-college first year, Laxus jumped at the opportunity to leave town for a week for a road trip with his friends. He intended it just to be a week away with his friends, but when he meets an unfamiliar stranger, the vacation turns into something much more. [Fraxus Multichapter]

This is the fourth part of my Fraxus Week admissions, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus​. This year I’ve made the prompts into a single multi-chapter fic. You can see all the chapters in the Masterpost linked below. Hope you enjoy.

You can read this on Fanfiction, Archive of our Own, and under the cut. Read the other chapters from this masterlist.

Chapter Four – Out of the Rain

The contrast between the two days was ridiculous.

Laxus almost couldn't believe that it had been a day since he was lounging in the hot summer sun, whereas now he was narrowing his eyes as he drove the RV through the onslaught of rain. The storm had come from nowhere and according to the weather forecast, it would be sticking around for the rest of the night. The clouds were thick and covering the stars, meaning it was almost pitch black on the empty roads.

Unlike the day before, everyone was still awake as evening turned to night. They had spent the entire day driving, trying to catch up for the time they'd used at the water park. Bickslow had driven through the morning and early afternoon, and then had switched with Laxus.

At that moment, Laxus was fighting off sleep. They needed to find somewhere to park soon.

Not that they'd have a good night's sleep, though. The sound of rain battering down on the RV echoed loudly, and Laxus knew that it would sway and creak in the wind. It would be safe, but not anywhere near easy to sleep in. All he could do was hope that the forecast was wrong, and that the storm would end a lot quicker than they had stated.

He also hoped that he didn't fall asleep at the wheel.

"We have some money left over from renting the van, don't we?" Evergreen asked Bickslow, looking up from her phone.

"Yeah, a little over a hundred dollars. Why?" Bickslow asked, yawning into the thermos of coffee he was drinking.

"Well, there's nowhere close that'll let us park up and stay in the truck," Evergreen said, and Laxus cussed under his breath. "But there is a motel at the next rest stop. We should be able to get two double rooms with that."

"Sounds good," Laxus nodded. "Nobody's got a problem with that?"

When everyone agreed it was the best use of their spare money, Laxus got the directions from Evergreen and started to drive towards the motel. It was clearly a good choice, as soon after they made it lightning and thunder started splitting apart the sky, with even heavier rain following it. With his tired state, Laxus knew that it was best to get off the roads as soon as they could. It was certainly the safest thing to do.

Eventually they pulled off the highway and followed the illuminated signs to the motel. It was a nice enough looking place, which probably was a lot more welcoming in the day and when it wasn't a storm. It would certainly better than staying in the RV though the night.

Bickslow, who still had the money saved for the RV in his account, was the one who went to the reception. It took him a short while, but he eventually returned to them all with two keys from two double rooms, soaking wet with the water dripping off him. As he dried himself off with a beach towel they had brought yesterday, he claimed that he wished to share a room with Evergreen for the night.

"Why, exactly?" Freed asked, packing the clothes he would need for the night into a bag.

"Because I've had sleepovers with the two of you and you're both really boring," Bickslow claimed. "Evergreen lets me paint her nails and we gossip. You two just like sleeping."

Laxus was almost certain that it wasn't the real reason as to why he wanted to share his room with Evergreen. Given that both of them knew that Laxus had developed a crush on Freed, it seemed likely that this was some way for them to torture him by making him sleep in a room with him and nobody else. If the room they shared only had one bed, he was going to kill the bastard.

"It is appalling how we want to sleep at a sleepover," Freed commented, and Laxus sniggered.

"And that's the kind of boring attitude that makes me and Evergreen the best friends and you two the boring people on the side-lines," Bickslow grinned as he tossed a room key towards Freed, who managed to catch them without difficulty. It was an annoyingly attractive feat. "Room 203. Top floor."

Apparently leaving no room for argument, Bickslow turned is back and started to pack an impromptu overnight bag. Laxus and Freed shared a glance before picking up their own bags. They opened the door to the RV and winced at the rain they needed to walk to.

Despite the fact it had taken less than a minute to get under the protection of the building's veranda, both men had been drenched by the heavy rain. They quickly found their room and unlocked it, and Laxus let out a small breath when he realised that there were indeed two beds waiting for them. It was a nice enough room, with a small kitchenette – if a coffee machine, mini fridge, sink and microwave could be considered that – and a large enough TV mounted onto the wall. The large beds were rather appealing, given how Laxus had been curled up as he slept since they'd left Magnolia.

"It's better than I thought it'd be," Laxus commented, placing his bag at the foot of the nearest bed. "Kinda nice actually."

"It is," Freed agreed, walking to the bathroom and looking into it. "And a shower that might actually fit you inside of it."

Laxus grinned, mainly at the teasing tone in Freed's voice, and glanced into the bathroom to see that there was indeed a large shower. He reached over Freed and picked up one of the towel's hanging up. He started to dry himself off as Freed shucked off his jacket.

"I think I might have a shower before I go to sleep," Freed commented. "I need to wash my hair, might as well do it now."

"Sure," Laxus nodded, then he chuckled. "I get what Bickslow meant when he said we're boring."

"So do I," Freed said thoughtfully. "It's quite annoying that we're proving him right, isn't it," He sighed, and Laxus couldn't help but smirk. Freed really was quite a competitive person; Laxus enjoyed seeing it. "Why don't we try and prove him wrong instead?"

"How d'you suppose we do that?" Laxus asked with furrowed brows. He expected Freed wouldn't want to prove Bickslow wrong in any way Laxus was thinking.

"Well, our judgemental friend payed for this on his card, and all charges from the room will be his to pay," Freed commented absently as he walked towards the small kitchenette, and opened one of the cupboards. "And this place has a rather well stocked mini bar."

Laxus grinned when Freed pulled out a bottle of tequila.

"Sounds like fun."

~~~

"Oh come on," Laxus proclaimed with a slight slur in his voice. "That's bullshit."

"I told you, she's vicious," Freed said with a tipsy laugh. "It's why she always wins her fights."

They had gotten drunk. Well, maybe not drunk. But they had passed tipsy.

After they'd taken shots of the tequila, something that Laxus hadn't done since he was in college, they had both finished bottle of high percentage beer each. That was when they had turned on the TV, looking for something to watch to put off sleeping. That was how they had gotten where they were: sitting side by side on Freed's bed, a bowl of hot nuts, chips, and chocolate between them, watching The Real Housewives of… somewhere.

"She threw a plate at the guys face," Laxus argued. "It's bullshit."

"It's what she's paid to do, be stupidly annoying and start fights with people. It was probably staged anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it," Freed argued, reaching into the bowl of food between them. His head snapped up when the woman on the screen threw a champagne glass at the man she was arguing with.

"Bet that hurt," Laxus said with a grin. He was winning this argument.

"You can't be sure," Freed said indignantly.

"I can throw a mug at your face and we can see if it hurts ya," Laxus threatened with a grin.

Apparently, the alcohol in Freed's body had made the false threat hilarious, as he let out a loud and boisterous laugh. Laxus joined in, watching the shorter man as he almost doubled over as he laughed, the handful of food dropping onto his bedsheets.

"How often do you watch this crap," Laxus asked with a grin.

"Ever makes me watch it. Every night we went to one of our dorms common areas and watched something. Ever got obsessed with it, and then got Bickslow into it too," Freed laughed, shifting himself so he was sitting up again. "I would have complained about it, but Bickslow used to make me watch awful kids' films, so this is better."

Again, Freed started to laugh, and Laxus found himself unable to resist the charm of it and joined in too.

That was how they spent quite a lot of the night, eating the snacks that Bickslow would be overcharged for while watching crappy reality TV. They got a little bit more sober as time went on, as the only thing left in the minibar was champagne and they weren't going to be so cruel as to make Bickslow pay for that as well.

Part way through the night, Laxus had taken note of how close they were to each other. Their sides were pushed together, shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh. In his drunken state, Freed also seemed to be just a little bit more physical. He gesticulated a lot more, and Laxus often found himself with the other man's hand on his shoulder when he was making a point. At one point, Freed had even grabbed Laxus' wrist to get his attention, and it sent a thrill through Laxus that set his blood on fire.

On their third episode of rich people fighting, Laxus found his gaze on the man beside him. He was watching the show with contentment, a tipsy smile on his face as he made comments about the people on screen. It was endearing, and Laxus was left with an equally happy smile.

His smile faltered when Freed's did.

For a second, Laxus had thought that the other man had noticed him looking and was uncomfortable with it. But he didn't move away and Laxus realised he was now almost glaring at the TV. Laxus looked towards it to see that they were on the 'next time' part of the show. One of the women was shouting at a man, and it took a moment for him to realise that she was accusing him of cheating.

"He cheated on me," Freed commented, with a smile that was most likely sad. "My ex, not the man on the screen."

"Oh," Laxus mumbled, not sure of what else to say. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Freed sighed, closing his eyes. "I shouldn't be sad about it; I don't understand why I am. I wasn't in love with him, I'm not even sure if I particularly liked him by the end of the relationship. I was actually going to leave him, for heaven's sake. So I shouldn't feel bad that he found someone else, but I do."

"Well," Laxus began again, not sober enough to think of anything eloquent to say. "He cheated on ya. It's a shitty thing to do. You get to be pissed off at that."

"I suppose so," Freed sighed, almost as if he was disappointed in himself. "What does annoy me is how it happened, though. I didn't walk in on him, or find out myself. He just told me," He laughed bitterly at that. "Just sat me down, said he was seeing someone else and that we weren't together. I didn't get to be a dick about it, really. I didn't yell, or really react at all. It just sort of ended, and then I came back home again."

"Should have punched the fucker," Laxus commented indignantly. "Sent him to the other guy with a black eye."

"It wouldn't have been productive," Freed waved the idea off, eyes still closed. "It's a tempting thought though, I must admit."

"You can punch me if you wanna. Get it out of yer system, y'know," Laxus suggested, and it was clear the booze in his blood had made him suggest that. Freed looked to him with a small smile.

"You're far too good a man to be compared to him," Freed commented.

Laxus blushed a little at the compliment, even if it wasn't much. He looked down at the man, who was watching the TV and clearly trying to act like he wasn't affected by what he had just said. But even drunk, Laxus could tell that the man had lost his easy posture and his hands were clenched at his sides. Laxus frowned at this, reached for the remote and muted the show they were watching. Freed frowned and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry the bastard cheated on ya," Laxus said with as much seriousness in his tone as he could show. "I know that you said you wanted to leave him, and that ya think it's stupid you feel bad about it, but the guy betrayed ya. And you didn't deserve to feel like that, or to be treated like that. So, I'm sorry."

"As I said, you don't need to worry about it," Freed said with a sigh. "It's not your fault, and I'll get over it."

"But you shouldn't have t' get over it because you shouldn't have been cheated on," Laxus said with an insistent tone in his voice. "I mean if I were dating a guy like you, I wouldn't even think about looking at other guys. I mean who fucking would. Yer hot, you're and interesting, and know how to make a guy enjoy himself. Who wouldn't want that?"

"Well, it seems that my ex disagrees with you."

"Then he's stupid," Laxus said firmly. "Seriously, this guy is clearly a dick head. Because if he looks at you and thinks he wants something more, or different, then he's an idiot. Cause you're fucking… just look at yourself. Can't think of anything I'd change."

"Oh," Freed said, a little shocked. Was he blushing as well? Probably not. "Well, thank you. That… that's nice of you to say. I appreciate it."

Freed turned and looked towards him, and only then did Laxus realise just how close they were to each other. Their noses were almost touching, and Laxus' mind screamed to him that it would be easy to close the gap and press their lips together.

"Well, I mean it," Laxus shrugged.

With the booze flowing through him, and his good sense all but gone, Laxus listened to the voice in his head. He pushed his face forward, cupped Freed's face, and kissed him.