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sincerelyella · 3 years ago

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My Person (Liam x MC)

Book: The Royal Romance (AU)

Song Inspiration: My Person by Spencer Crandall

Pairings: Liam x MC (Ella) Summary: A one shot of my favorite couple - it’s Liam and Ella’s anniversary and there are big plans in store.

A/N: Okay, I’m gonna be very honest, I am super nervous about posting again. I wrote this maybe last week and kind of finished it earlier today. Thank you to those that I vented to about actually posting my stories, not sure why I feel really sick right now. New blog name (used to be @callmeellabella), new post LOL and I didn’t really know who to tag since it’s been a long time so I’m using my old list. Please let me know if you want off.

A/N2: Participating in @wackydrabbles this week. Prompt will be in bold.

Thank you @alyssalauren and @ofpixelsandscribbles for reading through this for me and kind of handing me that invisible paper bag for me to breathe in. Love y'all!

Warnings: Fluffs. A lot of fluffs.

Words: 1658

Isaiah and Noelle grinned as they filmed their parents in the seat in front of them, holding hands. After 15 years of marriage, Liam and Ella were the epitome of the best partners to each other and parents to their children. There were rough times, of course, you can’t escape those, but the King and Queen handled things in stride.

Noelle’s eyes filled with tears when she watched her dad lift her mom’s hand to his mouth and kiss her knuckles. The way he looked at Ella, like she was the only woman in the world, made Noelle have very high standards for a future partner for herself.

Isaiah grew up knowing how you were supposed to treat a woman, and it was all modeled from how his dad treated his mom. At 15 years old, he grew up in the public eye, but thankfully, his parents allowed him to have a normal childhood. The only time there was mention of royalty was a gala or a ball held at the palace; his Uncle Leo, Max, and Drake as well as his Aunt Olivia and parents all dressed up.

It was their parent’s anniversary that day and Liam had planned a family dinner, just the four of them.

One week ago

“Hey guys,” Liam smiled as he watched his kids sitting at the kitchen island doing homework.

“Hey, dad.” “Hi, daddy.”

Liam hung his keys on the wall by the door and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Next week is mine and your mother’s anniversary.”

Noelle and Isaiah stopped what they were doing and met their father’s gaze.

“I … was hoping you could help me with something,” his brows rounded as he stared at them.

“Sure, what did you need?” Noelle asked.

Isaiah chewed his bottom lip. “No pranks though, right dad?”

Liam chuckled, remembering that anniversary and how it went … so wrong. “No, son. No pranks. Plus, your Uncle Maxwell is not invited until later.”

Present-day

“Guys, we’re here,” Liam turned to Noelle and Isaiah and widened his eyes at them, the two nodding back with small smiles. Ella missed the entire silent exchange as she climbed out of the black SUV after Bastien opened her door.

Everyone piled into the restaurant, all of them laughed and cried as the kids asked for a cake to be presented to their parents to celebrate their special day.

“How beautiful,” Ella wiped her tears away as she gazed at the red velvet bundt cake covered in cream cheese frosting. “Was this your doing?” She turned to her husband as he smiled.

“No, love, that was them,” he gestured towards Noelle and Isaiah.

“Thank you,” she used a tissue to dab at both her eyes.

“Fifteen years is a long time to be married, ma,” Isaiah dimpled as he looked from his mom to his dad. “Now hurry up and eat it so that we can have a piece!”

The family laughed and dug into the cake. An hour later, they slowly stood from the table, grumbling about how full they were.

“Oh God, why didn’t you stop me?” Isaiah smacked his sister in the arm.

Noelle glared at her brother and punched him in the arm. “It’s not my fault you ate like you never saw food before.”

“Why did you say that?” Isaiah whined.

Liam and Ella walked behind their children, smirking at each other.

“They’re so dramatic,” Ella snorted.

“Wonder who they got that from?” Liam arched a brow at his wife.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Your Majesty.”

“Love,” Liam waited until she turned to look at him. “I have a surprise for you.”

“Where? What is it?”

“Come on,” he tugged on her hand and led her out of the restaurant and into the waiting SUV.

“Where are we going?”

“Ma, just wait, we’ll get there in a minute,” Noelle giggled in the back seat.

“You guys know too?” Ella looked from her son to her daughter and back again. “Liam?”

“Just relax, love, we’ll be there soon,” he squeezed her hand and laughed as her nose wrinkled in annoyance.

A few minutes later, Bastien turned into a small, private area for vehicles to park. “We’re here,” he said and turned to smirk at Ella. “Your Majesty, we’re going to blindfold you.”

“You’re … what?!”

Isaiah cackled as he leaned forward to wrap a scarf around his mother’s eyes.

“That’s blocking my nose,” Ella complained. “I can’t breathe.”

“You can breathe out of your mouth.”

“Isaiah Alexander,” she said sternly and he jumped.

“Sorry mom,” he mumbled as he fixed the scarf so it only covered her eyes.

“Okay,” Liam opened the door to her side of the SUV. “Come on, love, I’m carrying you to our destination.”

Ella let out a long sigh and reached up to feel her husband’s neck. She allowed him to carry her bridal style to … wherever they were going. When her family got like this it was usually because of her husband, who loved to take her places to surprise her. She didn’t mind, honestly, but it was annoying when everyone was in on it except for her.

“We’re almost there, love, I promise,” she felt Liam kiss the top of her head and she snuggled into his shoulder.

“Hey, I got a picture from Uncle Max!” Noelle opened the message and gasped.

Isaiah reached for his sister’s phone. “Is it another picture of him and his peacock Lady and the Tramping some spaghetti?”

Everyone began to laugh.

“I can’t believe that damn thing didn’t peck his eye out,” Ella snorted.

“That thing still scares the crap out of me,” Noelle said as her fingers flew over the keys.

“We’re here,” Liam smiled as he began to step down onto the large rocks towards the private beach.

“Don’t drop me, Liam,” Ella said as she lifted her nose to the air. “I smell the ocean.” She felt her husband lower her to the ground. “What now? I’m still wearing this.”

A moment of silence and some giggling in the distance made Ella furrow her brows.

“Okay, take off the scarf, love.”

Ella quickly undid the knot and opened her eyes; she faced the ocean. “Liam, what-”

“Turn around.”

As she did, she saw her husband on one knee, her children behind him in the distance carrying an old 1989 boombox, the song My Person by Spencer Crandall playing.

I was lookin' for a long time

I never found nobody like you

I got your name, got your number

And we talked 'til they turned on the lights

“A boombox?”

Liam smirked. “You made me watch Sixteen Candles.”

“Oh yeah,” she chuckled. “Liam,” Ella had tears streaming down her face and she wiped them away quickly. “Wh-what is this?”

He took hold of her free hand and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “Love, it’s our fifteenth wedding anniversary. We married that long ago.”

She nodded, the lump on her throat making it difficult for her to speak.

“But we were together before that,” he smiled up at her. “I met you and I was done for, I haven't looked at anyone else since. You came to my social season, I chose you, we were engaged for a year, and then here we are.”

My person

My heartbeat

My slow dance

My Sunday-morning-sippin'-on-coffee in bed

My know-when-you-know best friend

“You’re my person,” Liam bit his bottom lip to control his emotions. “You and the kids are my everything, and you know I’d give all this up for you if you asked.”

“We don’t want that though!” Noelle yelled and they all laughed.

“Ella Brooks Rys, I wanted to ask you if you would remarry me,” he reached into his pocket, pulled out a black velvet box, and opened it. “Renew our vows and our commitment to each other.”

The box held three rings, an emerald-shaped, 6-carat diamond solitaire in the middle, and one plain platinum band on each side of it. One was engraved with Isaiah Alexander and the other with Noelle Marie.

“Of course,” Ella choked out as Liam smiled and the kids jumped up and down.

My saving grace, my everything

I’ve never been more sure that you’re my person

Every minute is a long time

If I ain’t holding on to you

Liam pushed all three rings onto her finger. “You ready, Mrs. Rys?”

“I am, Mr. Rys,” she pulled her husband to her and captured his lips in a passionate kiss.

“Ew, gross!” “Stop! This is not part of the plan!”

“Congratulations!”

Ella was surprised by that last one and turned towards the sound. All of their friends and family were there on the beach, smiling at them.

“What are-”

“You guys are renewing your vows!” Leo hollered and lifted a bottle of champagne in the air. “Let’s get this going so we can get druuuunk!”

“Leo!” Liam snapped at his brother.

“I mean, I’m ready when you are.”

Hana and Olivia rushed towards Ella and hugged her. “Were you surprised?”

“I was,” Ella sniffled. “You guys all knew?”

“Yup!”

“My little blossom! You are so beautiful! Let me see the rings!”

Ella gave Max her left hand.

“Whatever you do, don’t let Beaumont touch it. I’m sure he’s got lasagna all under his fingernails,” Drake chuckled as he approached the group.

“Hey marshmallow,” Ella turned to hug him. “And you guys had lasagna without me?”

Liam laughed and put an arm around Noelle and Isaiah. “You guys ready?”

They both nodded.

“I’m ready to marry your mother again,” they all laughed as Ella put her arm around Isaiah. “Let’s go!”

My saving grace, my everything

I've never been more sure that you're my person

Yeah, baby, you're my person

#My Person #Liam x MC #Liam x Ella #the royal romance #the royal romance fandom #the royal romance fanfic #the royal romance fanfiction #trr au #the royal romance au #trr fandom #trr fanfic #trr fanfiction #Sincerely Ella #Ella still writes #Liam Rys #King Liam

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impalalord · 4 years ago

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You know, it's the littlest things that can change the course of life. The smallest action could topple a building, or start the construction of one instead. For us, and for the galaxy at large, humans were that change.

After they made first contact with another species, humans did what they do best and immediately got themselves wrapped up in a war with a species that had far more firepower than they did. Of course, being a fledgling species who could barely grasp warfare in the void of deep space, much less the use of common technology that would have taken them centuries to develop themselves, it ended poorly for them.

The Humans turned out to be Idealists, with individuals and small ships volunteering themselves to help in a war effort to defend their outermost colonies because their own governments would not. That was another oddity about these Humans, they did not enter the galactic fray as a single unified group. Instead, they were a loosely collected group of governments and nation states held together with treaties and deals.

At first they lost volunteer soldiers and emissaries, then they began to lose ships and outposts. Instead of demoralizing them, this seemed to fill them with rage and cause them to lash out in anger. This too ended poorly, as they fought an overwhelming force with nothing but kinetic weapons and solid-fuel engines, the galactic equivalent of sticks and pebbles.

Their losses were staggering, as the Dryzal swept into Human territory and pillaged whatever they deemed fit. Worlds were lost and razed, endless voices were silenced as the horde marched forward. But this destruction did not satisfy the Dryzal, so they took more from the young species.

The eventual destruction of their homeworld, the razing of the very cradle from which their species was raised, caused Humanity to become a drifting species among the stars. They became intergalactic wanderers with no start or end of their journey to speak of. Their birthplace was nothing more than radioactive dust, and the fire of rage seemed to have died from their eyes. Anyone who went through a spaceport most likely saw a few solo humans wandering throughout the interior, with their gaunt, sunken faces and disillusioned cold eyes. Any sane being gave them a wide berth, afraid that they would be sucked into their cold, soulless depression, unable to escape.

Humans travelled from world to world, working on any ship that was willing to take them without too many questions. They weren't strong, and they weren't fast, but they could learn quickly and had no problem doing any job as long as they got paid. They spread across the galaxy and learned the inner workings of every species

In truth, humanity had not lost their rage, or their hope. The destruction of their homeworld cooled that fiery, liquid rage in their eyes and hearts into a icey hard steel that was sharpened further with every passing day. They bided their time, licking their wounds and learning their lesson. Lashing out would get them nowhere without a solid plan.

So they spread themselves across the dominion, unseen by the populace due to their reputations as wraiths. Barely living beings that lived in the shadows and dregs of society. Learning everything they could about each species, quietly recruiting others who had earned similar fates. Humanity no longer had an army of soldiers and starships, instead, they had an army of workers. Castaways, the dregs and refuse of intergalactic society, banded together, working behind the scenes as janitors, mechanics, cooks and repairmen. Quietly building and growing until the time finally came.

Their uprising came on a seemingly normal day; transportation stopped, communications jammed, power lines cut and food stores emptied. Militaries scrambled to try and find the source of the unrest, but everywhere they went the answer seemed to be ‘everyone.’ A random janitor was just as likely to be part of the chaos as a militant roaming the streets.

After several hours of the chaos, a single signal passed through all of the VidNet. A single live video of a young male human sitting at a desk. His dark hair disheveled, his clothes dirty and tattered, his average face covered in bruises and cuts. His voice was calm and collected, but also cold and firm as he began to speak to the universe.

“My name,” he began, “is Tim. I was nine years old when the war with the Dryzal began. My parents were not soldiers. They were farmers and pacifists. They believed in the good of the universe and taught me to look for the good in all people, of all species. It is your fault I have broken that pacifism. My parents were killed in front of me on my tenth birthday. Our colony was razed and I was dragged, screaming and crying, onto a ship by a neighbor who was lucky enough to survive the purge. We set out for Earth, the homeworld of our species, hoping that someone would respond to our distress calls.”

The human paused for a moment, and sighed. “We didn’t just send distress calls to our own kind. We sent them out across the entirety of the Dominion, using every language we could find in our database. Only a single species came to help us in our time of need, the Ruvol. Much like us, the Ruvol had lost everything without any assistance from the Dominion. All they had left were a ragtag fleet of merchant ships, barely able to fly, much less fight. Yet they were the ones who came to us when we needed it the most.”

“The Ruvol did not care that they might die, or that the last remnants of their culture would be lost forever. They saw us struggling, and they gave us their hand. In the end they saved about two dozen colonies from destruction before they were all killed above Trelnax V. By then I was eleven, and I had volunteered to help the Ruvol in their evacuation plans. Once again, I watched everything I put my life towards destroyed in front of me, before being dragged back to Earth. The Dominion refused to respond to our communications.”

“I was twelve when the Dryzal finally reached Earth, their slow warpath finally reaching its destination. I was on an outbound shuttle to help with relief efforts on another destroyed colony when they came into the system. They didn’t even bother to try and conquer the planet. They just unloaded a barrage of nuclear warheads and turned everything we held dear to radioactive dust. Yet the Dominion stood by and did nothing but watch.”

“Now, exactly eight years after you stood by and watched, you beg us to help you. Our friends and allies fill your streets with fire and chaos, your communications cut and transportation is gone. Why should we, the same beings that you threw to the street, help you? There are many among our cause who have similar stories, species we pulled from the fire ourselves because you would not.”

“The Kenek at Oaphus, twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty three humans died protecting their world, zero Dominion forces present. The Grocon at Laphus, eight thousand six hundred and seventy one humans dead, zero Dominion forces present. The Swaans at Bleu, seventeen thousand, four hundred and thirteen humans dead, zero Dominion soldiers present. A pattern began to emerge in our favor, each time we gave our lives to save these species, they vowed to fight with us in our cause. Each time their worlds were attacked, they cried out for help. You never answered, so we did.”

“Entire species filled with rage and hate for your inability to lift a finger are finally coming out, their feelings boiling over the edge of the pot. You have committed the grave sin of sloth, and now you are paying the price. This universe is no longer yours to control. You all had your chance to rule over everyone, and you ruined it. You were happy to sit peacefully in your ivory towers as worlds burned below your feet.”

“Now your Ivory Towers become your prisons instead, as control slips out of your grasp and falls firmly into ours. We vow to never make the same mistakes you have. Goodbye and good luck.”

After that transmission everything changed. The Humans lifted us out of an era of stagnation and into an era of expansion and growth. Though it was not a peaceful era, it was a better one, and for that we can never truly repay them. That is why on this day every year, we remember. We remember the worlds and species wiped away by the Dominions inability to give others aid, in hopes that we may never repeat their failures.

-Transcription of Dr. Cassien Agnaits’ Remembrance day lecture at the University of Tylon IV, Standard Galactic Date 110864

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are weird #humans are space oddities #earth is space australia #space australia #earth is a deathworld

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dreamescapeswriting · 4 years ago

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The Clause ~ HJS [Request]

WORD COUNT: 10.1K

GENRE: Platonic, angst, mentions of gambaling, being owned by someone, fluffy/happy ending

PAIRING: Han Jisung x Fem!Surgeon!Reader

A/N: I hope this is okay for you sweetie, I'm still sorry about your other requests! 🥰💕

It was pouring with rain outside as you stared out of the window into the city, your boss was drowning on about your work while you pretended to listen. The rain hitting the windows made you think of that day, that one day that ruined your life and made you into somebody else's property instead of your own person.

"Y/n?" You turned your head to the side to look up at him, Park Jin-Young was staring at you from across the room. Your boss for the last 4 years and many more to come. He was in the middle of giving what you assumed to be one of his best speeches yet since he was talking to everyone in the room about upcoming events.

"Yes Sir?" He shook his head at you knowing you hadn't been listening to him the entire time. You hardly ever listened to him so he pointed to the whiteboard that was behind him so you would see what he was yapping on about this time. Your name was there grouped together with the rest your band members Bang Chan, Han Jisung, Seo Changbin, Hwang Ye Ji and Shin Yu Na. The subunit that had been formed for you to debut with last year which was currently the most profitable under JYP. You'd been working for JYP for four years already but your group was only a year old, before them, you were doing solo work for advertisements, singing, acting and anything you could possibly get your hands into. JYP was just signing you on to everything and anything that would make money.

"You all have an award show in two weeks and I expect you to be on your best behaviour! I want you all practising hard-" His speech continued on but you just went back to staring out of the window drowning out his voice the way you always did.

The rain was hammering down against the windows and the pavements but all you could think about was how lovely it must have been to be out there. Free to do whatever you wanted, walk around in the rain letting it hit you in the face without being screamed at that you could get sick. You couldn't even remember the last time you'd been allowed to do whatever you wanted without having to sneak off to do so. For this longest time, this had been your life. In and out of business meetings, being forced into a lifestyle that you did not want nor wish to have but it was your father's fault if it wasn't for him and his debt none of this would have even happened. You would have been free to live the life that you wanted instead of the one you were being forced into. Like a puppet on a string doing what everyone else expected of you and not what you wanted to do.

Thunder clapped loudly from outside of the building making you jump up as you looked up at your father, he had sweat dripping down his forehead as he waited anxiously outside of someone's office. He'd dragged you out of bed early that morning to take you out with the promise of getting breakfast together. Your first day off in over six months and you jumped at the chance,

"Did you warm up your voice as I told you to?" You frowned at the question but nodded in answer to him, you'd been warming up as he told you to all morning. You'd been practising between shifts at the hospital and doctors surgery you worked at since he told you to.

"Good, Mr Park will be very impressed by you. You want to be a singer right?" You were about to tell him, no, that you'd never wanted to be a singer or in the limelight, it just wasn't who you were when two huge double doors opened and a woman appeared. She was dressed in a black dress and clutching a clipboard to her chest as she scanned the room, her eyes landing on you and her dad and she smiled brightly.

"Mr Y/l/n," Your dad rose to his feet and began brushing down the outfit he'd talked you into wearing. You were 19 years old and pretty sure you could dress but your father insisted that this be the outfit that you wore. It was a white blouse with a pair of black jeans. It made you feel as though you were going for a job interview.

"Dad." You hissed as he continued to brush off the shirt nervously before ushering you into the room alongside him, standing you in the centre of the room directly in front of a huge desk. Floor to ceiling windows was behind the desk and a man turned around in a chair to face you and your father,

"Mr Y/l/n it's good to see you, I assume this is your daughter?" A man who was dressed in a white suit asked as he looked up from a folder in his hands, he stared at you and then at your father. The folder was then placed down gently onto the desk in front of him as he eyed you up.

"I don't have all day. Show me what she's got and then I'll see if she's good enough." You frowned harder wondering what was going on but your father smiled at you pushing you a little as he nervously whispered to you,

"You have to sing for him okay, sing your favourite song." He moved away from you and you took in a deep breath before starting to sing the lyrics of the song your mother used to sing to you every night before you went to sleep.

After performing in front of the man he smiled brightly and stood up in his chair walking over to you as he looked you up and down,

"She's quiet, you don't talk? Or ask questions?" You stayed silent as you stared at your father wondering what in the world was going on. Why the man had asked you to sing for him and then got up from the desk when you were done and began clapping. It was starting to set in that going for breakfast wasn't going to happen anymore which made you mad at the thought of being carted around on your day off. You could have had a nice lay in for the first time in years. You were working as a surgeon apprentice in a hospital as well as working in a private doctors practice and on Saturday's and Sundays you worked in a restaurant all to pay off your fathers debts. The debts he continued to round up day after day as if he didn't care that it wasn't him working his arse off to pay it off.

"She's always been quiet." He mumbled as he played with the sleeves of his coat. It was covered in holes since it was the only one he'd owned for years. Your family didn't come from much as it was and having a gambling father who didn't know when to stop didn't help you any. You glanced at your father who was avoiding all means of eye contact with you and then you bit down on your lip. You should have left with your mother when she left him all those years ago. You never would have been caught in this situation if you had done.

"Do you know what he's doing?" JYP asked as he walked behind you and whispered in your ear before coming out and standing in front of you once again. Staring up at the man you shook your head in answer to his question and then at your father.

"You didn't even tell her that you were signing her life away? That's very cold." You jumped as a folder was slammed down onto the desk in front of you and your name was splashed across the front, inside were different slips of paper with your fathers signature scribbled along the bottom.

"He...He signed my life away?" You stuttered out as you began reading over everything that was inside of the folder. Employee contracts, money contracts, debt calculators and then there were your schedules all packed inside.

"You'll be quitting all of the jobs you have, you work for me." The man clapped his hands together and the double doors opened,

"Your father will be taking this-" A silver briefcase was brought into the room and placed onto the table beside your paperwork.

"Do you want to take a guess of what's inside?" There was an evil smirk plastered across JYP's face as he watched the way your eyes danced between the case and your father who was staring at it with glistening eyes.

"Money. It's always money with him." You spat out coldly as you watched the case slowly begin to open. Inside it was filled with countless notes all for your father to take with him,

"You'll be working with me for the next...Hmm, I think we went with-" JYP turned to look down at the contracts and smiled as he ran his fingers across the black and white paper.

"26 years, 80% of your wages will come to me to pay back our fathers debt." Your mouth fell open as you turned to look at your dad who was picking up the case of money,

"DAD!" You screamed out as if you had just been shot which was what it felt like, it felt as though someone had just shot you in the chest as he took the money over his own flesh and blood.

"Don't, he's not worth it." Instead of coming across as cold and callous JYP seemed to really feel for the fact that your father was doing this to you.

"I'm paying back our debts with this, you'll earn off this in no time." Your father mumbled leaving the office without another word but you weren't through with him you began to storm out after him when the doors were shut in front of you.

"We have much to discuss, take a seat," JYP said calmly as he sat down at his desk and pulled out paperwork for you to look at.

After four years your father proved to you that he wasn't going to use that money to pay off his other debts he'd ended up gambling it all into the ground before crawling back to JYP for more. But he had nothing more to offer, JYP wasn't going to sign you on for more years when after 26 you would be no use to him and all the debt would be paid off with your payment plan. That wasn't the only one you had thought, you worked for JYP of course. You did everything that was asked of you but you never did more than that. Instead, you spent any free time you could, working in a private surgery performing surgeries on people. The pay was exceptional which meant you could put a bunch into a savings account as well as having enough to spend on yourself.

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" JYP called out as he looked at everyone inside of the room, everyone exchanged glances with you and you looked down at the table. You knew what was going to be mentioned but you just hoped they would bring it up with you instead of the big boss.

"No. We're fine." Chan answered coldly before getting up to leave the room first, slamming the door behind him the rest of them all doing the same thing.

"Y/n..." JYP asked as he watched you playing with the sheets of paper in front of you.

"You keep running off during practices and not showing up on the weekends...Want to tell me where you're going?" JYP lent down on the table to look at you and as if someone was finally looking out for you the door opened to reveal his assistant telling him he was late for another meeting. You took the chance to rush out of the room and head to the practice room for your choreography practice.

"I don't get why she's here, she doesn't fucking do anything. She hasn't trained!" You were standing outside the dance studio when you heard Lia talking about you loudly to everyone else in the room. It was nothing new since they all regularly voiced their dislike for you even if you were in the room with them and you didn't blame them. You would hate yourself too if you were randomly placed into a group with no training. Chan had been training for seven years until he was finally chosen then there was everyone else who had to do weeks and weeks of auditioning just for the chance to be placed into the group.

"Where is she always running off too? I heard her father and mother died so she's not going to them," You heard Changbin laugh loudly as you swallowed the lump in your throat. Your father died last year after losing the house and then ending up in the streets, succumbing to the environment around him.

"It's not like she's got any friends either. She's so quiet it freaks me out." Yeji commented as she looked at Chan to see what he thought of all of this but the room was in silence again and you debated with yourself about walking inside.

"What's up dummy? Scared to walk inside? Running off again?" Jisung's voice filled the air and you cringed at yourself while he chuckled softly. He was always coming across as cold and hotheaded with you all of the time, you thought it was just how he was but he seemed to be so kind to everyone else around him. He wrapped his arm around your shoulder and smiled down at you,

"I was just- I don't...I didn't-" You tried to come up with something to say to him but he just rolled his eyes at you,

"I-I-I-I-" He mocked as he pushed the doors open and pulled you inside with him, dragging you out in front of everyone as he smirked at them all.

"Look what I found!" He announced causing everyone turned to look at you and glared, they wasted no time in trying to hide the dirty looks they were giving to you. None of them cared what you thought of them, they just wanted to get on with the subunit things so they could get back to their main groups. That was all it was to them. Extra pay and something that they had to do even if they didn't want to do it.

"Minho is coming to teach us the choreography, think you can stick around long enough so you don't fuck it up?" Chan snapped out as he raised his eyebrows at you waiting for you to come up with some kind of comeback which you never did. The reason he was telling you not to fuck it up was because of the countless choreographies that you'd messed up in the past but never showing up for the practices.

You kept your mouth shut as you avoided his eye contact not wanting to get into a fight with the leader when you knew you'd never win. You'd never win because he would always find some way to blame everything on you because he hated you and you knew why he hated you. Never trained a day in your life. Got straight into the company without exceptions and you were basically the spokesperson for everything JYP could sign you up for but they didn't know why. Chan on the other hand spent over 7 years of training, living in a dorm from the ages of 13 while you lived in your own place that you paid for. They hated you for acting as though this was no big deal, treating it as if it was just a hobby instead of a job. They didn't know the ins and outs of everything and how you were working to pay off a dead mans debt that had been transferred to you the moment your father died. The words JYP had screamed at you the day you found out still rang through your head. You'd gone to him with the hopes of your father dying would get you out of the debt he owned but you were wrong. It was all transferred onto you and your head. Held over you until all the money was paid back.

"I still own you! You work for me until the debts are clear." He owned you. As if you were just a piece of property that could be passed around. As if you didn't have your own life to think about but no.

"Y/n? You're at the back for this one." Minho said calmly as he looked at you, you hadn't even noticed he'd come into the room until he called out your name to move to the back. Minho was one of the nicest people you'd met in the company, he was always willing to help you out whenever he got the chance which was why he seemed to be your only friend. Only you never hung out outside of the company, you never went to lunch together or spoke about anything except work.

"Yeji and Lia at the front of Changbin," Minho called out as he began to order you all around and show you what the dance routine you would be working on was. Chan stared back at you to make sure you were still there and the music began to play through the speakers.

A week into countless practising and early mornings you were finally getting the routine done and perfected, going in for one to one practises with Minho whenever you could. It was a Saturday morning at 4 am, you'd begged Minho to come into the studios to help you as early as possible since you were expected at the surgery later that day.

"You're still having a hard time with one of the moves but it'll come to you, Jisung is your partner for it you should go to him for help." He mentioned after you both took a break to get some water together, he was watching you as you shuddered. The mere thought of going to one of the others for help was traumatising enough, you'd already been given so much shit about failing on some of the moves you didn't want to admit to needing help on a minor part. The song you were going to be performing at the award show was one of the slower songs you all sang, which meant you would be doing a slow dance in partners, Yeji and Chan, Lia and Changbin while you were with Jisung. No one else knew what it was like during the quiet times with your team, they just assumed you got along like any other unit together. Whenever you appeared on shows or interviews you all joked around as if you had been lifelong friends with one another but it couldn't have been further from the truth.

"It's okay I can do it alone." You mumbled to yourself as you got up from the floor ready to go over the move again when the door opened, Jisung was standing there looking unimpressed. It was 6 am and you were pretty sure it was the first time you'd ever seen Jisung at work on a weekend before noon so you were a little surprised.

"I already called Jisung over, I knew you needed the help." Your eyes locked with Jisung and he stared back at you coldly, he yawned as he dropped his bag down onto the floor. He hated being up early in the weekdays and now that his weekend was being invaded he was even angrier.

"Let's get this over with then! Some of us have social lives." The music started and you and Jisung started from the top of the choreography.

"1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8!" Minho called out as he clapped his hands together in time to the slow beat that Jisung had to waltz you around too, his hand clutching onto your waist as you held onto his shoulder and hand. Moving around the dance studio together as stiff as ironing boards,

"You two need chemistry you know, gosh it's like you hate one another." Minho laughed as he watched you both together, Jisung was so tense and you weren't looking at him when you needed to. Jisung looked at you and then to Minho as he waited for more instructions to be given to him.

"You need to look at one another like the lyrics are meant for you," Minho ordered as he tilted your head to look up at Jisung but it was hard to pretend to be in love with him hen he hated your guts. The song was all about love, something Changin had written that wouldn't go with Stray Kids or Itzy so it was given to your subunit instead.

"It's hard to do that when he hates me," You mumbled moving away from him as you went to answer your phone that was blaring from your bag on the other side of the room. Jisung watched you walking away and his mouth fell open. You really believed that he hated you? He'd never once meant for it to be taken seriously whenever he joked around with you, it was all playful banter and the way he was with most people. He never showed you his softer side though but he just assumed you knew it was him playing around.

"Y/n speaking..." You answered without checking to see who it was and as soon as you heard your bosses voice flow through the speaker your eyes widened. Checking the time quickly you wanted to kick yourself in the teeth, the practice was opened 30 minutes ago and you had an hour to get there before the first surgery

"Right away. I'll be there as soon as possible." You hung up the phone gathering everything as quickly as possible before excusing yourself from Minho and Jisung who were frowning at you.

"Where does she go?" Minho questioned as he watched you sprinting off down the hall,

"I don't know but you know what," Jisung grumbled as he picked up his bag from the floor and began heading to the door,

"I'm going to find out." He walked away from the practice room and followed behind you, darting into a room whenever you turned around to look behind you out of habit and then he followed you into the parking garage. Watching as you got into a cab and began heading off so he went in the direction of his car to follow the cab he was going o get to the bottom of this once and for all.

When Jisung watched you walk into the doctor's practice he assumed you were just going in to have a check-up and that was the reason you'd run away but after sitting there for four hours and you'd still not come out he began to get worried. Time began ticking on longer and longer to the point where he was late for work and he was supposed to be writing with Chan that day but he decided to cancel. If you came out soon he would go to work but if you didn't come out in the next ten minutes he would sit there and wait until you did. He wanted to know what was going on, without admitting to you that he was worried.

"You did great, not just a pretty face I see." The main surgeon who has asked for your assistance on a heart replacement surgery said as you scrubbed down from the fourteen hour-long surgery.

"Thanks, Dr Kim." You looked down at your hands as you washed them in the sink by the surgery room, the patient was being wheeled away to their private room to recover and was expected to make a full and perfect recovery.

"Will we see you tomorrow or are you taking some time off?" You bit your lip, they knew that you did a lot of acting but they assumed it was on the side. The best thing about the private doctors that you worked with was that they hardly had time to watch movies, shows or even award shows unless they had booked time off. The only person to know who you were was your boss and that was because of the background check he'd had to do on you when he first hired you all those years ago. He didn't care that your father was in debt just that you were fully qualified to work as a surgeon which you were.

"I'll probably be here, I work every weekend and whenever they need me." You smiled softly as you headed towards the locker room to go and change into your clothes. The doctor's surgery was like the home you always wanted, all of the doctors were so friendly and kind to you.

"Y/n! Someone has been sitting outside for the last fifteen hours, every time I go out there he says he's waiting for you..." Panic began to set into your chest as you realised it could have been anybody from JYP, Chan if he decided to follow you out, Minho or even JYP himself. Your secret was about to be exposed and you had no idea what you were going to do about it.

"He's been there all day?" You mumbled as you nervously began to pull at the straps of your bag and bit down on your lip,

"His car hasn't moved, I went out to ask what he was going and he said waiting for you...Wouldn't give me his name and I ran the plate-" You shook your head at her telling her that it was fine that she didn't have to find out everything and anything.

"It's fine," You glanced out of the window to see Jisung asleep in his car, his window rolled down as he slept soundly as if nothing could bother him. Relief washed over you a little when you realised that it was just him, he was the easiest one of your group.

"I know him, it's okay." You mumbled to her as you began to get ready to go out and question him on why he was sitting there.

"Are you sure? I can get a guard to-" She stopped talking once you left the front door and headed over to the car, everything was silent as you stared at the snoring Jisung who looked as though he'd needed the sleep so you just casually pushed your hand through the window and honked the horn just to mess with him.

His skin drained of all colour as he jumped up suddenly looking around him thinking someone was breaking into the car, he held up his hands as if he was going to punch the air and then he stared at you.

"Morning sunshine. What are you doing here?" You raised your eyebrow as you looked at him looking at the car and then into his eyes,

"What-What time is it?!" He yawned out, stretching his arms out to look around the car and down at his dashboard to see what the clock was saying,

"You've been in there for over fifteen hours?" He questioned staring at the clock and then at you, his eyes clouded over with worry as he looked at you taking in your appearance. There was some blood on your temple and you weren't in the same clothes as that morning,

"I was doing something-"

"Are you sick? You have blood on your cheek, did you hurt yourself?!" His voice came out panicked and you frowned as you looked at him trying to figure out what his angle was. Jisung was never kind to someone unless it somehow benefitted him.

"Careful Jisung. Someone might think you care." You mumbled as you pulled your bag over your shoulder and shook your head at him.

"Bullying me at work not enough? You've decided to take up stalking so that you can find new things to bully me for?" He frowned when he heard your reasoning for things he was never bullying you at work and if he had done he'd never meant to actually hurt your feelings.

"No I- I thought something was wrong- Why were you in there for so long?!" He'd started off caring in his sentence but quickly snapped to anger as he questioned you on how long you were in there for. He got out of the car looking at you in the eyes rain was starting to come down and so you walked away from him deciding you wanted to head home.

"I want answers, why are you running off all the time? Why have you been in there for fifteen hours?!" You ignored his calls until he grabbed onto your wrist and forced you around to look at him. The rain was pouring down between you as you stared up at him waiting for him to let go but he didn't,

"Why do you care?! Huh?! What is it? Did Chan send you after me? Did he decide that hating me at work wasn't enough he wanted to follow me to my dream job?!" Jisung froze as he looked at you and then over at the door to the doctors, there was a small woman watching the both of you and as soon as she saw him looking at her she darted back into the surgery again.

"Get in the car it's raining," Was all he said as he dropped your wrist from his hand and began heading towards the car but when he noticed you weren't following he turned to look at you. The expression on his face turned to anger as he realised you were just standing out in the rain,

"Get in the car Y/n!" You wasted no time in arguing with him, a free ride home was a free ride home.

The entire journey had been filled with an uncomfortable silence unless you were giving him directions as he drove you home,

"This is your place?" He pulled up outside a huge house that was stood on its own no other houses attached to it and had a huge security gate around the front.

"Yeah, I-I'll walk in." Jisung shook his head as he drove through the opened gates, watching as they shut behind him automatically after he hit one of the plates on the floor that shut and opened them from the inside.

"Fancy." He chuckled as he parked up outside the front of the house and got out to help you out of your side of the car,

"I'm fine Jisung." You mumbled as he held onto your hand and walked you towards the house, when you reached the front door you expected him to leave but he just stared at you.

"You didn't think you would get away without an explanation, did you? Inside." He pointed to the front door and you opened it, this was the nicest he'd ever been to you in the years that you'd known him so you headed in. Taking off your shoes and coat as you hung everything up in its place, Jisung following along with you as he took off his shoes and jacket.

Jisung's mouth was falling open as he took in the appearance of everything around him, the place was huge. The front door opened into the main area of the house that had a large grand staircase leading up to the top floor.

"It's not mine. I'm renting it from JYP." You mumbled before he could ask how you could afford a place like this but the truth was you weren't renting it at all. It was your prison. The same could be said for the JYP building though only the home was better. The home was where you could escape into your own world, gardening in your back garden or cooking in the huge grand kitchen for yourself. Everything you would rather be doing than working for JYP.

"It's so grand," He mumbled as he followed you towards the kitchen, you had rice and Kimchi on heat all morning so you plated you both some up before taking him into the kitchen. If he wasn't going to drop it you could at least come up with some kind of excuse to tell him.

"What you said to Minho earlier...About me hating you. You know that's not true right?" He questioned as he stirred a small spoon around the cup he was drinking from, you stared down at the rice in front of you and shrugged your shoulders. It sure seemed like he hated you,

"You all make it pretty clear you hate me..." You mumbled trying not to come across as though you were feeling sorry for yourself because you weren't. That was never the case.

"They don't hate-" He stopped trying to defend them the moment you looked at him, he knew that they had a strong disliking for you but he didn't know why. He just went along with it thinking it was all some kind of big joke until recently when he noticed they weren't letting up. Part of him always felt bad for you but he didn't want to be the one to break out of it all.

"I don't hate you...It's just who I am, I'll bully you but I only mean it playfully...I don't think you're actually dumb when I call you dummy." He laughed awkwardly as he thought back on it all and then looked at you to see if you believed him. You weren't sure if you could trust him though,

"You're always so cold and mean but-" That was when you thought back on it more and more. All of the times that Jisung would step in if one of the girls were being too mean or if Chan was giving you too much of a hard time. He was always trying to protect you in some kind of way without showing you that he cared about you too much.

"You're always there jumping in whenever it gets too bad...You always stop them before they get too mean..." You said slowly as you stared at him, he just drank from the cup as he nodded along to you.

"So what's going on? Why do you always disappear?" He looked at you as he continued to try and get the answers from you but you avoided his eyes. It was hard to say no to him when he was giving you that look on his face which was just his face. It was as if he had some kind of spell over you that made you want to spill every detail to him

"I work as a surgeon there." You mumbled before drinking from your cup waiting for some kind of reaction from Jisung but he shrugged his shoulders. That was no big deal, everyone did things outside of JYP, he was pretty sure Yeji taught a dance class on the weekends and she didn't take extra precautions to hide it from everyone around her.

"Why do you keep it a secret though? It's an amazing achievement right? It means you’re smart, I-I mean not that I didn’t think you were smart before that but-" You scoffed as you thought about it, bringing your knee into your chest as you stared down at the mug between your hands. The years you spent studying, the early access into colleges all for it to be pushed down the drain the second your dad gave you a way to fund his habit.

"Try telling that to JYP, the man who owns the deal to my soul." Jisung frowned, he thought he was following along but now he was just as confused as before.

"Deal to your soul?" You bit down on your lip before telling him everything, you had every right to tell him there was never a huge thing about keeping it a secret but you didn't want everyone to know. Why would you want everyone to know?

"My dad borrowed money from him, to pay him back I am in a contract until I can pay back every penny he borrowed." Jisung frowned even more so, You looked at him and then down at your mug again, as you began explaining everything it felt as though a weight was being lifted off your chest. It was no longer just you and JYP who knew about the agreement.

"I thought your dad-"

"Died? Yeah, he did, but I'm still being made to pay everything off. That's why I get all the deals, all of my money goes to him. 80% of it anyway," You pushed some rice into your mouth and Jisung tried to follow along with it all in his head.

"So like in Barbie princess and the pauper." Your mouth hung open as you stared at Jisung who had just brought back a memory from your childhood.

"Exactly like that." You giggled at the thought of Jisung watching a movie like that. His expression softened as he thought back on it all, all of the deals you were always taking no matter how much time they took. It also explained how you got into the company with no training and were placed into the top of the company. You were the one making JYP the most amount of money and it made sense that he would do it.

"How much do you have left to pay him?" Jisung questioned, you stared at him wondering if you could trust him but decided to go for it anyway.

"Over a four million left out of ten million," You mumbled dropping the teaspoon down onto the table and ditching the cup of tea, you wanted something stronger as you realised you were going to be in debt for the rest of your life.

"That's not too bad, I mean do you have any saved up since JYP doesn't know about the surgeon job?" You smiled hopefully at the thought of it and nodded your head,

"I have about half a million saved up, if I keep working myself into the ground I'll have..." You pretended to start working out in your head as you looked through the bottles of alcohol that you had in the room.

"4 years knocked off the expected 28 year-long contract," You hissed as you poured yourself and Jisung a large glass of whiskey each.

"I'll help you," Jisung said as he looked over all your copies of the paperwork reading through everything to see if he could find some kind of loophole or contract clause to get you out of it.

He'd been sitting there for the last four hours trying to find it but he'd found nothing while you'd found the bottom of the whiskey bottle.

"I'm indebted to the man, might as well sell a kidney at this rate! Maybe a leg while I'm at it," You giggled as you stole a desk chair from the study and began spinning around in it. Jisung stuck out his hand to stop you as he tried to keep his concentration on the papers but all of the reading was making his head hurt. There were so many different pieces of paper to go through,

"You're making me dizzy," He grumbled as he shook his head turning to look at you. You were so drunk you were starting to giggle at yourself,

"I'll bring my glasses tomorrow, I'll take a real look." He promised you as you continued to giggle to yourself on the chair,

"You need to get some sleep, if you show up to work drunk they'll kick you out." He mumbled as he picked you up from the chair bridal style and began to carry you towards one of the bedrooms in the house.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" You questioned as you laid down on the bed and stared up at him,

"You're always so nasty at work, why can't you be nice there? I-I want you to be nice to me." You began to cry as you thought more about it, your drunken state taking over your mind as you cried to Jisung about how mean he was to you. How spiteful all of them were to you.

"If I start being nice now it'll look weird...I'll ease into it," He whispered as he brushed some hair out of your face but you just shoved his hand away. Telling him to leave you alone and never come back to you but he just shook his head, covering you up with the covers.

"I'll come back tomorrow with my glasses to look it over, there will be a way out." He promised you as he left the room, shutting the door behind him as he walked out of the house, locking the door and posting your keys back through the letterbox.

A week later Jisung had been spending every moment he could at your place, reading through everything with a fine-tooth comb and some huge glasses. You were spending time together, getting to know him as you both worked closely to get to the bottom of your contract. Jisung had originally come up with an idea to prove that you weren't your father's daughter to get you out of the debt but you knew you were his. Being the spitting image for your dad had his downsides so he was left to go through the paperwork night after night. Even at work, Jisung was slowly starting to become more bearable to be around, he was defending you more and more in front of everyone without trying to hide it anymore. He no longer cared if it made it look weird he wanted them to start being nicer to you if they only knew what you'd been dealing with this whole time none of them would say the things they said.

"We have two more days until the show and I think we might actually all be ready," Chan said with a huge smile on his face, you looked over at him and he was even smiling in your direction. Jisung had been mentioning how much overtime you'd been investing in it. That was what he told them he was doing every night when he went to your place, practising since you didn't want him to tell everyone the truth. If they knew there would be no doubt that JYP would know next and that was something you weren't willing to risk. The surgery money was the one thing helping you get out of debt the most. Between reading through the contract and eating with you he was helping you practice, both of you getting closer as friends to the point where he was picking you up for work in the mornings to save you getting a cab.

"Y/n your phone is going off," Jisung whispered as he slid you your bag, you frowned as you looked inside to see that the doctor's surgery was ringing you and Jisung bit down on his lip. The surgery only called in the week if there was an emergency that they needed you for, they knew you had another job somewhere. There was no way that Jisung was going to be able to come up with some kind of excuse for you to get out of this practice and there was no way, no matter how much of a good mood Chan was in right now he was going to allow you to get away with it.

"I'm going to take this outside," You whispered as you got up from the floor, all eyes were on you and you saw Yeji and Lia smirk at one another. Chan rolled his eyes as he thought you went back to your original ways and Jisung bit down on his lip staying silent.

"The runaway is on again," They giggled to one another before smirking at you, you looked down at the floor as you walked out of the room to answer the phone call to your boss.

The words emergency surgery had you down to the doctors practice within minutes, you'd rushed inside to see your favourite patient being prepped as you looked at Dr Kim who had been the one asking for you. This was the biggest surgery of your life, it was a brain surgery with your number one patient who you had a rapport with over the years of coming to the same surgery. He was always cracking jokes with you since he knew who you were but he'd made a promise years ago to keep your secret with him. It was a running inside joke between you both that you would sing him to sleep whenever he stayed over or he was going to sleep for surgery.

"Mr Lee, I thought we weren't going to see you again." You said as you walked into the room drenched in sweat and panting heavily from running the cab to the building. He chuckled as he reached up to cup your face in his hands and smiled, he waited to see you smile and once you did his cheeks warmed up.

"I-I thought so too but I need the surgery, I couldn't go in without my favourite girl by my side." He squeezed your hand and you smiled at him weakly as you turned to look at Dr Kim. The surgery was one of the riskiest ones you were ever going to face in your life but if Mr Lee wanted you there then you were going to be there no matter what the case. Mr Lee had had brain surgery years ago when you first met one another since then he was in and out of the same practice for checkups on how he was healing. It was brought to Dr Kim's attention on the latest scan that they needed to perform the surgery again, only it was riskier than before because of Mr Lee's age.

"16-hour surgery, no breaks. He'll be awake throughout the whole thing." Dr Kim informed you as you both scrubbed up in the surgery room waiting to go inside. You knew the dangers of the surgery that Mr Lee would be going through, you'd been speaking to him about it months ago but no one thought he was going to need it until now.

"I need to know that I can count on you Y/n," You promised him that he could count on you and you got ready for the longest 16 hours of your life.

The next morning when you left the surgery Jisung was waiting outside holding coffee in his hands and a bag of spare clothes. He'd called you over 50 times the night before while you were in the surgery room but you didn't get any of them until two hours ago when you finally got out and had a shower. You begged him to bring you some clothes and a coffee since you knew you had to go straight to the studios for one more practice. The thought of heading to practice after the night you hand made you want to pull your hair out but you had to act like everything was fine when really your world felt like it was falling apart.

"How did Chan take it?" Jisung stayed silent on your question which means Chan hadn't taken her running away very well so you headed towards his car wanting to get it over and done with.

"You okay?" He questioned when he noticed how red your eyes were and your tear-stained face, you nodded as you got into the car wanting nothing more than to go home and be alone by yourself instead of at work.

"Fine." He knew that you were clearly not fine but he left you to it not wanting to press you too much for the information you clearly didn't want to give out.

"Y/n!!" Chan barked as you walked into the studio fully clothed in your new practice gear, you'd changed as soon as you got into work and Jisung headed up to the studios to make it look as though he hadn't come with you.

"You're late and you ran out-" Already having enough of Chan without it even started you snapped,

"I was busy," Jisung looked up as soon as he heard you snap back at Chan, he knew something had to have been wrong for you to finally speak back for yourself. The whole car ride you'd been silent not speaking at all, you hadn't even started singing which was what you and Jisung would do loudly whenever you drove together. Chan stared at you as he cleared his throat wondering why you were trying to pick a fight with him,

"I don't see what could be more important than this-"

"That's because you can't see anything past your big fat ego," You mumbled not realising that the rest of them could all hear you and you were being stared at. Chan turning red in the face as he grew angrier with you, Changbin smirked and paid Yeji the money he owed her for the bet they all had on you to see how long it would take until you snapped.

"What did you say?" Chan asked as he stepped away from the computer coming face to face with you but Jisung stood up and rushed in front of you. Jumping up to defend you for the 100th time that week but you'd had enough of Chan thinking that he was the only badly done to one.

"It's been a long two weeks. We're all tired, how about we all just call it quits. I have somewhere to be anyway Hyung." He stared up at Chan as he begged him to cancel the practice,

"Why didn't you say you had somewhere to go? I would have cancelled..." The whole atmosphere in the room changed as soon as Chan spoke to Jisung, it was as if no one had been mad and Chan was an entirely new person and you shook your head. Mumbling to yourself about how unbelievable they all acted. You turned to leave the room with Jisung, his hands on your shoulders as he pushed you out of the door. That was when Chan made a comment,

"I'm so sick of you thinking you're better than us," You turned to look at him as tears welled up in your eyes,

"You know what. I'm not. I'm not better than any of you and I've never thought that. I don't even want to fucking be here but guess what sweet face I have no choice!" You yelled out as you dropped your bag onto the floor letting all of the medical work you had from work inside spill out onto the floor.

"That's where I go whenever I run away! I'm a fucking doctor because oh yeah. Not everyone wants to be here like you." You turned to look at the girls as you tried to be as nice as possible,

"I respect that this might be your true dream but it's not mine." Next, you turned to look at Chan,

"I get that you trained for seven years and I respect that Chan, beside you being awful to me I think you're great at what you do but I trained for four years, worked for another four, holding down doing three jobs. Now I work this one and a surgeon job so don't tell me I haven't trained." Tears were streaming down your cheeks as you looked at Jisung and then back at the rest of them.

"I am in debt to JYP because my father sold me off to gamble away the money I have to pay back. So next time you tell me I'm not trained enough or don't deserve to be here. Take it up with your fucking boss." You snapped before leaving the room leaving the rest of them standing there with their mouths hanging open, Jisung calling after you as he tried to catch up to you in the building hallway but you just wanted to be alone for a while with your own thoughts.

After the award show, you didn't go to practice for a week since there was nothing expected of you yet. Jisung had been ignoring your calls and texts and didn't bother coming around to the house anymore so you assumed he wanted nothing to do with you since your breakdown in front of everyone. JYP still hadn't contacted you so you were guessing the others hadn't told him about your side job thankfully. You were somehow hoping that Jisung had been the one to talk them all out of telling JYP or anyone else for that matter.

"Do you want a ride home?" You boss asked when he walked you out of the building late on Sunday night, you shook your head.

"I think I'll catch a cab, it's okay-" You stopped yourself from talking when you saw Jisung sitting in his car keeping his eye on the door the entire time as he waited for you.

"Looks like you have a ride, see you next week!" Your boss cried out as he walked over to his own car, you just stared at Jisung not knowing what kind of ground you stood on.

"I'll take you home." He opened up the passenger door for you and took your bag off your shoulder,

"No hello? No explanation as to where you've been? Why haven't you been answering my texts, I mean I get we're not friends but-" Jisung turned to look at you and you stopped talking as he began driving in the direction of your place, turning on the radio as he drove there in complete silence.

"Why did you bring me home if you weren't going to talk?" You questioned him more as he began walking up the stairs of your house, opening the front door and waiting for you to go inside first.

"You're freaking me out with the not speaking thing." You told him but that was when he took your bag off your shoulder and placed it onto the coat hook and began pulling you towards your study in silence once again.

"Han Jisung! Talk to me right now!" You cried out as you stomped your foot on the floor like a child, you heard a chuckle coming from the room behind him and you frowned. Looking over to see that the door was cracked open and you could just see the shadows of people sitting inside,

"Y/n let me explain," Jisung said as he finally said something to you for the first time in over an hour,

"W-Who's in there?" The door opened and Changbin stood there wearing a pair of glasses as he smiled at you,

"Come on!" Your heart began to thump as you realised that he was holding up some of the papers to your contract that was highlighted. Frowning you walked towards the room and headed inside to see that all of your group were inside, each of them holding a copy of a contract as they ran over everything, parts of it highlighted with bright sticky notes poking out of the side.

"What's going on?" Your voice cracked as you looked at Chan who was sitting at your desk, he turned to Jisung to explain and he placed his hand on your shoulder softly.

"We found the clause to get you out of it." It felt as though the ground was going to be pulled out from underneath you, you were waiting for one of them to start laughing loudly as they told you it was a joke or that they were extending the contract.

"What clause?" You whispered as you walked over to Chan who was scattering the papers out for you to see it all there in front of you.

"It took us a week but you figured you could use the help," He admitted as he pointed down at the different clauses as to why you weren't to be the way held accountable for your father's debt. Chan thought it was weird when he heard Jisung say that even though your father had passed you still had to pay it. Legally speaking if that person was no longer around you had no legal liability to pay it off.

"I can get out? I don't have to work for him?" Tears began to well up in your eyes as you stared over everything in the pieces of paper.

"You can get out," Chan confirmed as he smiled up at you, all of them feeling heavily guilty for the things they had said and done over the last year of being in your group.

"We're sorry...For everything, if we'd known we never would have...We never should have." Chan told you as you sat down on a chair beside the desk and stared at the papers, your way out finally coming towards you in bright lights.

"You have no reason to forgive us or even think about it but we want you to know how sorry we are," Changbin said as he got up from his chair and looked at you. Yeji and Lia were next as they got up to hug you tightly for the first time ever, you sobbed into their shoulders as you shook your head.

"You've done me the biggest favour I could ever ask of you, you've- You've made me the happiest person in the world by getting me out of this." You whimpered into their shoulders before pulling away and wondering how you were going to get to JYP with all of this information and as if Jisung could read your mind he smiled at you.

"We got a lawyer, he's going to go over everything we found and meet with you and JYP Monday morning. He's 100% positive that you will be out of the contract before Monday night." Without a word you screamed and wrapped your arms around his neck, burying your face into his neck as you sobbed happily to him. Thanking him over and over again for everything they had all done this last week in helping you get out.

The contracts weren't burnt months ago, the money you had earnt for the last year had been placed into your accounts - minus the normal employment takings for other idols. Now you were able to work full time at the doctor's surgery doing everything you'd ever dreamt of doing. Working as a doctor full time, going home every night to cook and work on your garden whenever you wanted to. Getting to have the life that you always wanted to have,

"Jisung's outside," Your co-worker said as she walked in from her lunch break, you looked outside of the window and shook your head when you saw him standing there. A brown bag in his hand as he waved it at you,

"Lunch." Your boss ordered as he saw what you were looking at, you rolled your eyes before going out to your lunch break. Sitting on the hood of his car he waited for you to come over to him,

"I bought cookies from Felix as well. He's been baking all night." You smiled weakly at Jisung who had done nothing but bring you lunch and dinner every night since you left the entertainment company. Jisung and you had become close friends despite the rocky start to everything. The rest of you were still on speaking terms but you couldn't see a friendship blooming between any of you just because of everything that had happened. Much to JYP's dismay but with the help of a fantastic lawyer behind you there was nothing he could have done to stop you. The lawyer had made it his one mission to get you out of the contract as fast as possible, making sure JYP knew that if he didn't let you got he would go to every tabloid he could to tell everyone what he was doing with you.

"Thank you, my Kind sir, Tell Felix I'll bring him some of my kimchi round." You mumbled as you bit down into a cookie and smiled at the taste. Practically perfect in every way the best way to have lunch as you started the sky, laying down on the car as you continued to eat the cookies.

Tagline: @taestannie @kneel-begyourpardon @channiewoo @minholuvs @bisexualmess007 @lkwonmj

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shirebarbie · 3 years ago

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Okay not to be okay (Maxwell Beaumont x Riley)

Author’s note: a random little fanfic about my favorite LI from the Royal Romance series on choices. please be kind :’)

Summary: hurt & comfort, Maxwell’s reaction to his father’s plan to take the crown princess away and Riley’s attempts to make him feel better.

After the horrible and shocking meeting, everyone from the friend group slowly started leaving the room, their faces confused and spirits low. The ones who voted in favor of the princess being taken away left quickly, probably in order to avoid more conflict with the ones who opposed the idea. Hana was one of the last people to walk through the door as she cast a sad glance in the direction of the princess Annabelle. Duchess Riley followed everyone out with her dark eyes, but she couldn't oversee the fact that her husband barely moved at all. Maxwell stood up from his chair for a moment, took a few steps, and then sat down heavily again with hanging shoulders on another chair. Olivia was sitting in that one, Riley thought, the only representative of the Great Houses that voted against Barthelemy's horrendous scheme.

Annabelle was sound asleep in her pram, her little face angelic and perfectly calm – she was lucky to be unaware of the recent events and their possible effects on both her childhood and her future. Riley cast a sad but loving look on her daughter as she slowly turned to face Maxwell who was staring blankly ahead with his usually smiling lips in a straight line, and his ocean eyes no longer friendly and mischievous. Riley crouched down so she could meet his face and she raised a hand to gently place on her lover’s shoulder.

“Max, are you alright?” she inquired carefully, although the answer was clearly written on his face. However, in his typical fashion, he quickly put on a braver façade and attempted something similar to a smile.

“Let’s not talk about me right now, we have things to handle and we need to come up with a strategy to get our baby out of this horrible- “

“Darling.” Maxwell’s ramblings were quickly cut off by his wife who knew him well enough to know he would put everyone else’s needs before his own, even when his little family was directly threatened by his own father. That was just the way he was, but Riley didn’t think that was the time to brush off something so serious.

“It’s completely okay to feel betrayed, hurt, or anything else you may be feeling now. He’s your dad, Maxwell, nobody could ever judge you for being upset with this situation.”

Before she even completed what she was saying, Riley saw Maxwell’s eyes fill with tears and his ruse was no longer. He was properly devastated, and he had no clue what to say at all. He knew Riley and Annabelle would support him and love him through everything, as they proved day after day, but he felt like he was failing them and like he could do nothing right, even though he knew nothing about his father’s malicious scheme beforehand. Through his flurry of thoughts Maxwell felt his wife’s warm hand squeeze his own, the wedding band secure on her ring finger, and her other hand reached up to stroke his cheek.

As she was looking at Maxwell, Riley’s heart broke just a little bit. She brushed away a stray tear from his right cheek while he was still staring into space, breathing becoming heavier.

“My darling angel,” she began, her soft voice dripping with love and worry, and she knew he would feel it too, “none of this is your fault to any extent. You have never done anything to endanger our family – quite the contrary – and I could never put any blame on you. For any of this,” she gestured vaguely and shook her head. “I love you and Annabelle loves you and we know you love us, which you continue to prove every single day. For goodness’ sake, you literally saved our lives once already, darling. I think that’s all the proof we could ever need about your feelings and intentions towards us.” Riley shuddered at the thought of that overwhelming night when their daughter came into the world, knowing that it wasn’t something any of them would get over anytime soon.

That one tear on Maxwell’s cheek was soon followed by many more, and quiet sobs started to ripple through his body. Riley reacted immediately and pulled him into herself, allowing one of her hands to slide into his soft hair. It was always incredibly hard to see him crying, because he was usually the happy one who saw the good in everything, but even people like that have their breaking points. Considering the overall situation, it was more than understandable that Maxwell happened to face his breaking point at that moment. Initially, when Riley hugged him close he left his arms down, but hesitantly he encircled his wife’s shoulders and waist.

“I’m a-“ he started, but the duchess knew in which direction his thoughts were flowing. “If you dare to say that you’re a royal screw-up, I’m banishing music on our next ball completely!” This made Maxwell stop talking immediately, and Riley thought she heard a faint chuckle cut through the quiet sobs and sniffs. “Good,” she smiled, but the man in her arms still didn’t seem to be doing better. With every little sob of his, her soul began to hurt a little more. Unsure of what to say next to alleviate some of the pain, the duchess settled on a gentle chorus of “it’s alright” and “we’ll be fine”, even though she herself wasn’t sure if she truly believed those words.

Maxwell was simultaneously feeling safe and scared, and after everything he had gone through with his father (and very much his absence, too) he certainly deserved to look after himself a bit, and focus on arranging his own feelings and thoughts first. Riley firmly believed that, but she knew that, no matter how tough the situation was, Maxwell would always put her and Annabelle first. She was extremely grateful for that the whole time, and she made her appreciation clear. However, it was high time for her to give better than her best for her husband now, in spite of the fear that was bubbling up in her heart.

“My sweet, sweet boy,” Riley eventually whispered as she rubbed Maxwell’s back, “if anyone in the world is trying their best for their loved ones, it is you, Max. Our friends would agree too, I’m sure of that. But it’s perfectly normal to take it easy every now and then, and look after yourself, baby. You need it.” Maxwell’s crying died down at least a little by that point, and he pulled away from his wife’s arms just a bit (he still adored her hugs and affection, and was always ready to soak all of it up, any given chance), so he finally attempted looking her in the eyes. The warmth and care that were so blatantly obvious on her lovely features almost made his heart stop for a moment. Even when he was a crying mess, she still looked at him as if he was the most perfect and precious human being in the whole universe. And he was exactly that to her.

Maxwell let out a slow, shaky breath, and he looked away again “I can’t… believe he would do something like that. To his son’s own family.”

“I know, my love, I know.” Riley bit her lip worriedly and rubbed her hands up and down Maxwell’s arms. “And I can’t even imagine how you must be feeling right now. But I do think you’re incredibly brave, unbelievably strong, smart, and loving, and I don’t have a sliver of doubt in my mind that we will manage to figure something out together.”

“You think so?” Her husband wondered out loud, his eyes regaining a slightly more hopeful and joyful look, which Riley grew to love very quickly into their friendship. He always saw so much good, and sometimes she couldn’t even fathom how and where. But that was just Maxwell.

“I know we will, Max. Just look at everything we have managed to accomplish so far, sunshine! What’s another epic fight for our amazing team, huh?” The duchess tried to offer her brightest smile, her hands still on her lover. “It has been scientifically proven that we can do anything.”

Finally, Maxwell cracked a little smile and squeezed his wife’s hands. “We are the world’s greatest superhero team,” he croaked out with a little sniff, and Riley almost melted right then and there. In her eyes, his smile was unmatched, and she wanted to be the reason behind it as much as she could. She was not sure whether she was right about any of the things she said, whether everything will really go the right way or completely awfully, and she didn’t know whether Maxwell believed her encouragements either, but at that moment what mattered was the fact that he seemed to be feeling better, at least momentarily, and that was a small victory she was willing to take.

“Maybe we should take our little sleeping princess to her royal bed,” Maxwell said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, nodding his head in the direction of his beloved daughter.

“Good thinking,” Riley nodded and finally got up from her uncomfortable position on the floor, and she extended a hand towards Maxwell. The second they were both standing up, he pulled her into the tightest hug possible and inhaled her comforting scent. “I love you,” Maxwell exhaled, some of the tension leaving his body, “and I love our little ray of sunshine too.” In return, Riley pressed a loving kiss on his lips which communicated all the love she had for him without having to say a word. They just knew.

Maxwell picked up Annabelle from her pram gently, but securely, and held her little sleeping form close to his body as the family of three exited the meeting room. More than once, as they walked to their private quarters, Riley noticed an unreadable expression on her husband’s face, but every time he glanced at their baby or she fidgeted a little, he seemed to brighten up too. It was normal – one can’t let go so quickly of something so painful and confusing. Maxwell needed time, hell, they both needed time, patience and strength to tackle the newest threat in the kingdom. Riley’s brow furrowed when she started putting the pieces together: after a mysterious coma that lasted for almost two decades, Barthelemy was suddenly perfectly well and had a very elaborate plan put together and already set in motion. Something didn’t seem completely right, but that was a conversation for another day – she couldn’t bear the thought of possibly causing Maxwell more pain and sadness than what he already had to put up with.

While Maxwell put Annabelle to bed, Riley went to change into something less formal and get something from the kitchen. In one of the halls she ran into her friend Drake, who seemed to be in an equally bad mood (to be fair, he often was, but not with that intensity). He looked at her with so much sadness that she felt like someone knocked air out of her lungs when their eyes met. When he spoke up, it was barely audible, as if he was scared of talking about the imminent threat too loudly – maybe it would make everything go down sooner.

“I’m really sorry you’re going through this,” he said. “Both you and Maxwell are really good people, and it’s high time you both got some rest and just, you know, enjoy life.” Drake chuckled humorlessly.

“Oh well, it seems like I am destined for drama. Me, and everyone around me too,” Riley shrugged, trying to stretch her lips out into a smile, at least a small one. “For now, Maxwell seems to be taking it much worse, which makes a lot of sense.”

Drake almost shivered at the mere thought of what his friend must be feeling at the time. “Hell, imagine getting such a horrible surprise from your own, supposedly dead, father.”

Riley just looked down in silence: it was extremely hard to find any appropriate words. Sensing the shift in her mood, Drake just awkwardly squeezed her shoulder as he started to leave.

“I really hope you guys get through this, and we will all help as much as we can. I know I will,” he said in a quiet voice, laden with emotion. Riley offered him a thankful smile and a curt nod before going to her daughter’s nursery. To her surprise, Maxwell was dozing off in the armchair next to Annabelle’s crib. He usually wasn’t the type to take naps – quite the contrary, he was unbelievably energetic half the time, but Riley let him be. There was enough on his plate, and rest was absolutely necessary. The duchess carefully covered him with a blanket that was thrown over the armrest, and after pressing a soft kiss to her husband’s forehead, she quietly exited the room.

#playchoices #the royal romance #the royal heir #choices trr #trr maxwell #choices trh #maxwell x mc #maxwell beaumont #choices fanfic #maxwell beaumont x mc #the royal romance fanfic #the royal heir fanfic #drake walker #choices drake #choices hana #hana lee #liam rhys

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angrylizardjacket · 3 years ago

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dirtbags // 3: Charlotte

Summary: High school AU, 1985, Winter. The year’s off to a strange start as Charlotte and her friends find out that not only does Lola work at the new diner that opened up in town, but her dad owns it! Charlotte humbles Nikki in a very un-Charlotte manor, and Vince’s parents decide to host an English exchange student in an attempt to give him a good role model; instead, they get Razzle.

A/N: 8466 words. Do I care too much about this AU? Yes. as always, for my dears @misscharlottelee and @newyeareva ft. a softer world quotes

the city sometimes feels like a movie set. maybe this is the big scene. maybe i can be an extra at least.

Charlotte’s only a few practice hours away from being able to get her provisional license, and she berates her past self for not getting it sooner, especially not when her Winter Break has been kind of a shit-show and she’d rather tear off her own arms than ride in Tommy’s shitbox of a car with Vince Neil.

Since his blowout house party, Vince had essentially been grounded for the rest of the school year, had his car privileges revoked, and the only people his parents apparently trusted him to hang around with outside of school, were Tommy, Charlotte, Eileen, and Peach. Tommy was delighted. The girls, unsurprisingly, were not. Vince himself was downright somber, and had sulked for the remainder of the semester, and well into the break.

He had been in a particularly sour mood since last night, New Year’s Eve, when his parents had announced they were going to be hosting an exchange student from England for six months. Vince is convinced it’s an attempt to give him some sort of role model his own age, and spent most of his parents’ New Year’s Eve party ranting to Tommy and the girls while they played cards in his basement.

Her saving grace is Eileen, of course, who’s father had bought her mother a shiny, new car for Christmas, and had given Eileen the keys to her mother’s old station wagon.

“It’s kinda dumb that we’re taking two cars,” Peach, Eileen’s little sister, pipes up from the back seat, hands fiddling in her lap. It’s New Year’s Day, and while their various parents were sleeping off their hangovers, they’d suggested the kids check out the new diner that was opening today. Vince jumped at the suggestion of freedom, and everyone was in agreement, but Eileen and Charlotte took Peach in Eileen’s car the moment Vince slid into Tommy’s front seat, holding the flyer he’d gotten at the mall that told them all about the diner’s opening day, “just saying, we could all fit in one.” But she’s met with silence, “are you going to be mad at him forever?” She finally sighs.

“Yes.” Both Charlotte and Eileen answer automatically. Peach sighs as dramatically as she’s able, and sinks as low into the seat as she can. Charlotte turns on the radio, and hums along to something familiar, but that she doesn’t quite recognize, staring out the front window at the back of Tommy’s car. Vince turns around in the front seat and flips them off.

“I’m gonna ram them,” Eileen says, with absolute sincerity and serenity, leveling an intense glare at where Vince was now waving.

“Don’t,” Charlotte advises, equally level.

“I don’t get why you’re still mad, I’m not even mad,” Peach huffed, pouting. Charlotte and Eileen share a look; at sixteen years old, Peach was top of almost all of her math and science classes, but she was still a teenage girl, and an absolute fool for a blonde boy who made her cry. Charlotte knew that feeling all too well, but thankfully she’d moved on from the ‘wondering why she wasn’t enough’ stage to the ‘realizing her ex is a cheating douchebag and it was never her fault’ stage. She really hopes Peach can move on to ‘realizing Vince made her cry and hasn’t even tried to change since then and deserved to get his car keyed’ stage quickly.

The diner was bustling when they arrived, a large decal on the inside of window, black, thick and flowing lettering, outlined in gold, reading Leo’s. Through the window, several booths were already filled, as were a host of the stools along the counter. It looked warm inside, inviting in golds, yellows, peaches and oranges, neon signs and rusted street signs, band and comic book memorabilia, and photos. Behind the counter -

Lola. Smiling.

“I’m freezing my butt off, can we go in?” Peach asks, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her parker, the only person who did not recognize the girl currently pouring coffee for an elderly gentleman at the counter.

Inside, the diner is warm, filled with the sounds pleasant chatter, and of the Beatles coming from a cherry wood jukebox in the corner.

“Lola!” Tommy can’t help himself, lighting up at the sight of her, and once Lola finishes pouring her customer coffee, she looks to their confused little group, and waves.

“Find yourselves a seat, I’ll be with you in a moment,” she calls back, smiling bright and wide, hair tied back with a bright, red bandana.

The teens do as they’re told, pulling off jackets and gloves and scarves, sliding into a booth by the window, looking around, wrapped up in the smell of warm food, and the confusion of Lola’s presence, and completely unfamiliar demeanor. There’s an uncertain kind of quiet among them, having just expected to spend lunch at a cool new diner, but this has shift everything, only Peach, blissfully unaware of who Lola even was, seemed at ease, rearranging the sugar packets in their little holder.

Lola comes by with menus, and cups, and a pitcher of water for the table, looking pristine and put together in a tight, black blouse, skirt, and scuffed black combat boots, little peach-coloured apron tied around her waist. She pulls a notebook and pen from the pocket of the apron, looking around at them all, as if finally taking a moment to assess the situation.

Charlotte picked up a menu.

“You work here?” Tommy asked, and Lola confirms brightly, but doesn’t give any further details. She does, however, thank them all for coming, and recommend a few of her favourites.

“I’m also partial to The Lola, for obvious reasons,” she gives an actual laugh at that, as if implying one of the burgers was named after her was giving away too much information, and Charlotte was quickly scouring the menu.

Beef patty, double bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a home-made smokey maple-barbeque sauce, on a toasted bun.

“The menu’s kind of misleading,” Lola admits, moving to look down over Charlotte’s shoulder as she was reading, “all the patties are home made too, with Leo’s signature blend of herbs and spices.” That asked more questions than it answered. No-one’s quite sure what to say.

“Can I get a milkshake?” Peach pipes up, and Lola’s smile grew wide as she asked what flavour, “chocolate, please, and do you have curly fries or regular?”

“Hand cut,” Lola tells her proudly, but that means very little to Peach, who’s just glad to be having food, “still need time to think?” Lola asks the rest, and they all give her awkward, quiet smiles and nods.

Lola leaves, heading back to the counter, and the moment she’s gone, the whole table explodes with whispered confusion, leaning in, asking questions and not getting any answers.

“You guys are being super fucking weird,” Peach hisses loudly at them all, while Charlotte and Tommy argue about how the other should have known. Eileen, quietly delighted by the chaos, demands to know if anyone else thinks Lola might secretly have a twin, and Vince, who’s had the least contact with her aside from Peach, is babbling about how it’s weird to see Lola so chipper; their mutual confusion is enough to set aside Eileen and Charlotte’s hatred of him, at least for the moment.

When Peach demands they explain what they’re all whisper-shouting about, disturbing the booth behind her, they all quiet down, and Tommy and Eileen take it in turns explaining their full understanding of Lola. Charlotte takes the time to actually look around the diner now that she was inside.

There’s two other waitress, one behind the counter, the other always moving on about the various tables and booths on one side, making sure the customers are happy and food and drinks are delivered, both in the same outfit as Lola, though with varying footwear.

The view to the kitchen is unobstructed behind the counter, a half wall where meals ready to be delivered were sat, but a clear view to where three people in the kitchen, two by the grills and fryers, turned away; a broad-shouldered man towering over the grill with the longest hair Charlotte’s ever seen braided neatly down his back, and a comparatively shorter man, also with far shorter hair, though enough to be pulled up into a messy pony tail. The shorter man’s working the fryer, and putting together burgers as the taller man cooked up their various ingredients. There was also a strangely familiar kid with a mop of dark, curly hair washing dishes on the other side of the kitchen, barely visible.

Lola worked diligently, smiling and chatting away; she collected dishes, and ferried meals, and handed out slices of desert from the cute, multi-tiered desserts display on the counter. When she came back, milkshake in one hand, basket of fries in the other, Peach is fully caught up on each of her friend’s short but confusing histories with her, and blurts out -

“You’re Lola?” Injecting new meaning into the words, into the name, as if anyone else at their entire school had the same name. Lola’s smile goes a little tight as she places the fries and the milkshake before the redhead. Standing back up, she taps her nametag, which reads Lola, with little flowers drawn around it, and confirms, though it’s clear she’s more on edge than she was before.

“You guys ready to order?” She asks, still trying to keep up her chipper attitude, pulling out her notebook again. Everyone’s quieter this time, looking over the menu and finally deciding on food.

“My mom heard the owner was a chef, is that true?” Tommy asks, looking up from the menu to Lola again, and the tense set of her shoulders loosens considerably at the question.

“Leo is a chef,” Lola nodded, grinning broadly, “trained at the Culinary Institute of America back in the sixties, and worked his way up to being the head chef of Parker House in Boston, which I know probably doesn’t mean much to you guys, but it’s,” Lola laughs a little struggling to describe it, “it’s fine dining at it’s finest, but for the past twelve years, he’s been running Leo’s in Salem, and now he’s here, still using all that fine dining training for the anyone who wants a good meal at a good price.”

“Is that something they have you memorize in training?” Vince says, a little awed, and Lola gives a strange little smile.

“Leo’s my dad.”

Everything kind of fell into place after that, finally making sense, and the gang’s confusion quickly shifted to understanding, and the air around the table seemed to clear. It was easier after that, the teens in the booth ordering quickly, and the chatter picked up to a normal level as she moved away, shouting their order back to the kitchen once she was back at the counter.

She doesn’t spend much time at their table, still in charge of waitressing half of the tables and booths, but she always gives them a nod as she passes, and their meals are being delivered efficiently, so there’s no reason to complain.

The food itself, for diner food, is nothing short of spectacular, which kind of just raises more questions - why if Leo can cook food that tastes this good, and with all the experience he evidentially has, would he open a diner in suburban LA, and not a high-end restaurant? But it feels kind of intrusive to ask, so Charlotte simply enjoys her food, and her friends’ company.

Up until Vince starts complaining about the exchange student again.

“His name’s Nicholas, he shows up in a week, and mom’s making me clear out the basement so he can sleep there,” he’s despondently poking his milkshake with one of his fries, head propped up on one hand, “I’ve been asking for years if I could move into the basement, and this fucking Nicholas just gets it?” His whole expression scrunches up at the thought, and he angrily eats his fry.

“Wait, so the issue isn’t that you have to clean up the basement, it’s that he gets to use it as a bedroom and you don’t?” Charlotte frowned, lowering her own burger, “why would you even want to sleep in the basement?”

“Privacy!” Vince throws his hands in the air, eyes wide, “Tammi keeps complaining about getting cramps in the back of my car, but my bedroom walls are paper thin,” he huffs, “I need my own space.”

“Tammi?” Peach asks, her voice high and almost painfully chipper, “Tammi Frisk? She scored the winning goal in the softball final, right?” She’s not looking at Vince, when Charlotte looks over to her, she’s looking at her plate of fries, pushing the few left around without eating any, smiling in a way that’s clearly forced.

“You were at the softball final?” Tommy asked, frowning slightly. Peach did not look up.

“For the school paper,” she explained, voice still strange.

“You’re still with Tammi Frisk?” Eileen asks, making sure the disgust is clear in her voice as she draws the table’s attention away from the clearly uncomfortable Peach. Charlotte’s lip curled; she wanted to make sure her expression was as judgmental as possible when Vince turned back to her.

It’s not that she cared about who he was dating, she was mostly apathetic to Tammi, and knew little more about her than the fact that she was on the softball team, but Charlotte knew Vince had been dating Tammi when he’d decided to crush Peach’s heart publicly at the start of the last semester.

Neither Peach nor Eileen had told any of them exactly how, but apparently Eileen’s hatred was well warranted, both against Vince, and according to Eileen, Tammi too.

Vince, immediately sensing Eileen’s shift in tone, and seeing the look on her face, frowns.

“Kind of,” he responds flatly, and his gaze flicks to Peach, “not really,” he backtracks, and his indignation at the whole situation seems to fizzle out with a sigh, and he slouches, going back to paying attention to his burger, “she’s sort of hanging out with one of the second-string football guys, but they’re not... and we’re not really...” he trails off, despondent once more.

At least Vince seemed to be self-aware of the fact that he was an asshole to Peach, at least he had the decency to feel bad about it. Why he kept inviting Peach to hang out, despite the fact that he knew Eileen, who hated his guts, would come along too - invited or not - baffled Charlotte.

Tommy was his friend, and a guy, Charlotte was a cheerleader and technically popular, and so was usually begrudgingly invited too, but Peach, sweet Peach, recent Science Fair Winner, junior reporter for the school paper, treasurer for the AV Club, by all accounts ‘a nerd’ when judged by her interests, was still on the guest list of Vince Neil’s life, even if he wouldn’t admit that out loud.

It kind of made Charlotte want to punch him in the face.

But that’s not news.

“I hope the English exchange student is a decent influence on you,” Charlotte tells him. Vince scowls.

“You sound like my parents.”

you make me want to pretend to be a better man.

Now that school has started back up, Vince has thankfully had his car privileges returned, and Charlotte can return to not glowering in the back seat of Tommy’s car when he picks her up on the way to school, and drops her home on the days they both have practice.

But it’s Wednesday, first week back, and he’s uncharacteristically quiet. Usually he’s babbling about practice, or cheerleaders he thinks are pretty, or Lola, but today, he meets Charlotte in the carpark, leaning against the trunk of his car, hands in his pockets, quiet. It’s decidedly unnerving.

“What’s wrong, Tom?” Charlotte asks, yanking the passenger door open once he unlocks it, sliding into the seat and putting her bag by her feet.

“Nothing,” Tommy voice betrays the lie, the thoughts so clearly on his mind that he was trying to avoid talking about. Charlotte won’t push him, if he wanted to tell her, he would, and he usually does, “put on some music, will you?” And Charlotte obligingly opens the glove compartment in front of her to look through the collection of 8track tapes he keeps in there, several of which had been Christmas gifts from Charlotte herself.

Feet on the dashboard, Charlotte’s more than content listening to Bon Jovi, bopping her head to the beat, when Tommy finally finds the words for his thoughts.

“Lola and Nikki Sixx are friends.”

Up until now, Charlotte was under the impression that Tommy, like her, thought Nikki and Lola would be great as friends, Tommy’s current tone implies otherwise.

“Is that not good?” Charlotte’s careful about her words, still not sure where Tommy’s hesitation was coming from.

“No, they make sense,” he’s quick to try and backtrack, words spilling from him almost too fast, “they make sense as friends.” He deliberates, before asking, “Charlie, you’re not friends with Nikki Sixx are you?” And it sounds like he already knows the answer. Charlotte hesitates.

“He keeps bothering me during my free periods, I wouldn’t exactly call us friends -”

“He called you Charlie,” its deadpan and accusatory in equal measure, and Charlotte shrinks back into her seat as Tommy keeps talking, “he called me ‘Charlie’s cousin’. It was weird.”

“I thought you wanted to be his friend -” she tries, right as they pull up to a red light, and Tommy fixes her with an unamused look, the only expression that makes him seem older than his years.

“Did you tell him I was obsessed with him?”

“No!” Charlotte snaps, automatically defensive.

“Because I’m not -”

“I never said - I told him you were a fan! That’s all! Like Duff was!” Charlotte tries to clear up, and Tommy looks back at the road, though this time he thankfully looks more pensive than angry. Only Bon Jovi cuts through the tense air between them for the rest of the drive back to Charlotte’s house, and when Tommy pulls up outside, he doesn’t say anything to her when she gets out.

The next day, like clockwork, fifteen minutes into her free period, Nikki Sixx comes climbing over the school’s fence, into the garden Charlotte had been trying to force herself to study in. In all honesty, she’d been waiting for him, picking at her nail polish beneath the table and reading the same sentence in Moby Dick over and over again.

“Miss Lee,” Nikki nods to her, a little gruffer than usual, “you seem more tense than usual; I can help you with that if you want,” but he still manages to smirk his way through an unsubtle come-on, and Charlotte rolls her eyes, not in the mood for their usual banter.

“I’d rather sit on a cactus,” she tells him icily, without even a teasing edge. Nikki’s eyebrows shoot up at the hostility, and he puts the packet of cigarettes that he’d about to offer her on the table, knowing she’d turn them down anyway, “I thought people weren’t meant to know that we know each other.”

“What people do?” Nikki frowned, raising his lighter to the cigarette between his lips, “is this about yesterday? I talked to your cousin, big deal. Everyone knows you two are related, and everyone knows you,” he looks pointedly to the embroidered logo on her cheer uniform, “I wasn’t even looking for him -”

“Dude,” Charlotte felt as though she was about to tear her hair out, “you called me Charlie to him, people don’t just call me that!”

“Plenty of people call you that! That leggy redhead you’re always hanging around calls you Charlie -”

“My friends call me that -” Charlotte snaps, “and I know you know that’s Eileen Austen.” And Nikki’s wearing a dreamy look, like he’s thinking unholy thoughts about Eileen as Charlotte speaks, before snapping out of it as the first of her words register like a bucket of ice water to the face.

“I’ve called you Charlie before. To your face.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Charlotte tells him dryly, crossing her arms, “it’s less effort if I don’t correct you. We’re so not friends that I don’t even care about correcting you.” Back when this school year started, Charlotte wouldn’t have dreamed saying half the nasty shit she’s thrown at Nikki Sixx, and at some point she may have to confront the idea that being around him has made her meaner, “but did you tell my cousin that I told you he was obsessed with you? Because I never -”

“I said I was glad he was a fan!” Nikki scowled, sitting back and glowering at her across the table, “all I wanted was to ask Lola if she wanted to sit on the roof with the rest of the smokers, and your fuckin’ yappy, dumbass of a cousin -”

Punching someone in the face hurts a lot more than Charlotte had been anticipating, but it’s worth it to see Nikki toppling backwards off of the picnic bench and onto the cold grass. His cigarette lies some few feet away while he lays groaning, clutching his cheek, and Charlotte’s standing, leaning, thighs pressed against the picnic table for support as she’s staring down at him, breathing heavy through her nose while the adrenaline rushes through her system.

“What the fuck, Charlie?”

“Don’t talk shit about Tommy,” her heart’s thundering in her chest, she can feel the blood rushing in her ears, and when she looks at her hand, she sees the skin of one of her knuckles has split enough to draw blood, “he has done fucking nothing to you apart from support you, and think you’re really fucking cool, for whatever dumbass reason, so don’t you dare talk shit about him.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nikki groaned, eyes closed, trying to catch his breath after being winded so thoroughly, hand still cradling his cheek. That’s how Charlotte leaves him, slinging her bag onto her shoulder, and stalking towards the library to finish the rest of her free period in peace.

When Tommy drives Charlotte, Eileen, and Peach home after school that day, he’s quiet once again, but it somehow feels completely different to the oppressively accusatory air of the day before. The three girls were chattering away, trying to plan a trip to the mall for the upcoming weekend, and only when Peach and Eileen were waving goodbye in the rearview mirror did Tommy speak up.

“Did you punch Nikki Sixx in the face?” There’s a smile in her cousin’s voice, and Charlotte’s not quite sure how to react.

“I had good reason to,” she says, carefully guarded.

“He said you guys were friends, and then he thanked me for being coming to the gig a while back; told me he’d asked you to bring me specifically,” Tommy’s tone was oozing pride, and if Charlotte had been looking at him, and not frowning out the window, she would have seen how he was all but preening.

“He told you all that?” Charlotte’s anger at her memory’s of the morning’s altercation was fading fast.

“He hung out with me and Lola by the carpark for lunch,” Tommy paused, snorting a laugh, “didn’t want his buddies to find out a cheerleader gave him a black eye.”

“I - what? No I didn’t...” Charlotte’s eyes went wide, and finally she looked at her cousin’s beaming face.

“You definitely did; Lola laughed at him for a full ten minutes because of it.”

“Serves him right,” Charlotte said, with a begrudging little smile.

Nikki sits with Tommy and Lola on Friday too, which Tommy is delighted to inform Charlotte on Saturday while he’s driving them both to Vince’s, where his parents have invited them over to meet the exchange student. Nicholas.

He arrived on Wednesday, but Vince’s parents have given him the rest of the week to settle in, and had invited around the few friends Vince has that they deem to be a positive influence, if only so he knew a few faces around school.

Charlotte had been picturing some over-gelled boarding-school boy, used to itchy uniforms and strict rules, and about to get a good deal of culture shock hanging around Vince and the rest of their motley little pack, but when Charlotte brings this speculation up in the car, Tommy’s quick to dismiss it. Vince, from the little Tommy had spoken to him in the past two days, was over the moon, claimed that Nicholas - Vince had called him Razzle - was amazing. If Charlotte felt an quiet sense of foreboding at that sentiment, she felt it was justified.

The first thing either of them hear after being directed down to the basement by Vince’s mother, is Alice Cooper playing almost obnoxiously loud; Charlotte’s not sure why, but it eases something in her chest.

Nicholas’s - Razzle’s? - room, first and foremost, is possibly the coolest bedroom Charlotte’s ever been in. He’s decked it out with movie and band posters, though most of the band’s she’s never heard of. There’s string-lights above a desk, a bed crammed into one corner with a bright duvet, and even a sofa, and a few beanbags all crowded around a low, wooden table that had mostly been taken up with a record player, which is where they found their friends.

The name Razzle suited him, Charlotte considered, as she took in the newcomer’s appearance, all spiked up dark hair and ostentatious clothing, animatedly telling a story while Peach and Vince hung onto his every word. He looked almost wild, like collection of half-thought ideas all vying to become a reality through the texture of his clothes, the height of his hair, the hint of amusement that tailed his words, the passion shining in the blue of his eyes when they flicked to look at her and her cousin, standing on the stairs and watching him.

His words grow quiet as he takes them in, as if waiting for something to happen, for someone to introduce them.

“You must be Charlie and Tommy!” His accent, thick and bright, made her nickname sound so familiar on his lips.

“Charlotte,” Vince corrects, giving a surprisingly respectful nod to Charlotte, who tries to shrug nonchalantly.

“Charlie’s fine. You’re,” and Charlotte hesitates for a moment, ignoring Vince’s eyeroll, “Razzle, right?” Razzle’s smile is blinding at her immediate use of the nickname, and he waves them in.

Peach throws Tommy a cushion from the sofa when he asks, and he settles himself on the floor next to Vince, while Peach and Eileen squeeze over to make room for Charlotte on the sofa clearly only made for two people.

“I was just telling these guys ‘bout my band’s very first gig, ‘nd how I had to sneak out just to get there,” Razzle settled back into his own beanbag, hands out and ready to return to his story, eyes still shining with anticipation at the memory, or possibly just glad to have an audience.

Oh, Charlotte thought, looking at this boy she barely knew, already fighting off a smile in the face of his infectious enthusiasm, maybe Vince was becoming a better judge of character.

“You’re in a band?” Tommy’s eyes light up, and Charlotte gives her cousin a fond smile; Razzle has already won his seal of approval.

we need more good crazy. it'd be nice to watch the news, and think, 'that's fucking insane', but feel a little jealous instead of just alone.

Heather hasn’t been glowering as much at lunch, and the rumour is that it’s because she’s getting laid. Well, it’s less of a rumour to Charlotte, since Heather confirmed as much to the rest of the cheer squad when one of the girls asked her, but she’s being coy and secretive about who she’s with, which is the really weird part; Heather won’t say, and no-one’s coming forward, and lord knows that most guys at their school would jump at the opportunity to claim they’re banging the Vice Captain of the Cheerleading Squad.

But Charlotte knows not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and instead just smiles back when Heather gives her a sunny smile in the cafeteria.

Tommy is less than thrilled with the news when Charlotte brings it up in the car after school. Nikki’s still sitting with him and Lola during lunch, despite his bruising going down considerably over the weekend, and Tommy is equal parts delighted and uncomfortable, for reasons he can’t seem to put into words.

“At least Pam’s single,” he says it with as much of a dreamy sigh as he can manage, though it comes out more forlorn than anything else. Charlotte pets his shoulder, and reminds him that so is over half the squad; he perks up a little at that.

They pull into Mick’s gas station, and Charlotte waves to Mick and Lola, who are sitting on the step by the door sharing a cigarette. Lola waves back.

“Meant to give this to you,” Lola says to Charlotte, still sitting while Mick begrudgingly heads inside. Tommy follows him in, not needing to fill up the tank, but rather just looking to drown his sorrows regarding Heather in a jumbo slurpee. Outside, Charlotte waits with her hands in her pockets, giving Lola an amused smile, watching as the dark haired girl pulls a pin off of the jacket she practically lives in, and hands it over.

It’s a piece of black card stock cut into the shape of a star, barely an inch in diameter, taped to a safety pin. It say Punched Nikki Sixx in silver pen, one of the points of the star already a little bit crumpled.

“You’re a little bit punk, so you get a pin,” Lola tells her, smiling around her cigarette, looking quietly pleased, and perhaps even a little bit proud; whether of herself or of Charlotte, Charlotte can’t tell, but it still makes her flush.

“I thought Nikki didn’t want anyone knowing that a cheerleader gave him a black eye,” Charlotte mused, looking at the little pin, and Lola’s face scrunched up, expression falling.

“So? Who gives a shit?” She shrugs, looking away tone having shifted to almost forcibly neutral in an instant, “wear the pin or don’t, I don’t care.” Lola stands with a groan, without giving Charlotte a chance to respond, and calls to Mick that she’s heading to the diner. Mick waves, Tommy calls out a farewell, and Charlotte frowns, wondering what just happened.

“I hate that,” Nikki says flatly, the moment he spots the pin where Charlotte’s fixed it to the strap of her backpack. There’s no hard feelings between them after last week’s altercation, thankfully, though they don’t talk about it. If Charlotte’s glad that he still showed up, if she’s realised she may, in fact, enjoy his company, she keeps that information to herself.

“Lola made it for me,” Charlotte tells him. Nikki leans in, squinting at the handmade pin.

“Of course she did,” he sighs, leaning back. Surprisingly, there’s quiet between them for a few, long moments; maybe, Charlotte considers, this will be one of those mornings where Nikki uses their time together to catch up on sleep, and Charlotte can actually use her free period for it’s intended, study-related purpose, but then Nikki sighs like he wants her to ask what’s wrong.

So she does.

“I need a new band.”

“I can’t help you.”

“I know,” Nikki nods with resignation, “I was gonna ask this guy I work with, Slash, he plays guitar, but he’s already in one -”

“Wait, you don’t mean Duff’s friend Saul Hudson, do you?” Charlotte frowned, intrigued despite the stab of anger she felt at the mere mention of her ex. Nikki seemed taken aback by her question.

“You know Duff McKagan?”

“I dated him for a year and a half,” Charlotte finds herself suddenly very interested in drawing connecting triangles in the back of her notebook, not looking at Nikki, who’s quietly processing this information.

“He’s in a band now,” and neither of them seem to be quite sure why he offered that information, but they both let is hang between them for a moment.

“Makes sense,” Charlotte nods, tone flat, “with Saul - Slash?”

“Yeah,” is all Nikki has to say.

“Slash is a good kid, I always liked him,” Charlotte offered, and finally she looks up, “Tommy plays drums.”

“Marching band isn’t exactly -” Nikki begins, but Charlotte’s shaking her head.

“No, like, legit drums,” she enthuses, “his parents fixed up their whole garage to make it sound proof for him,” but she doesn’t want Nikki to think she’s pushing her cousin on him too hard, not after last week, so she sits back, and crosses her arms, trying to play it cool, “I mean, you can ask him yourself, see if he’s any good.” She shrugs, but Nikki looks like he’s already considering it.

“How many musicians do you know, Charlie?” He finally asks, giving her a faint, amused smile.

“Probably too many,” Charlotte responds with a longsuffering smile, before her mind turns to the things Tommy himself had told her, “I heard you and Lola are getting along; what’d I tell you?” She teased, and much to her surprise, what she could see of Nikki’s face, for his hair, was turning pink.

“She’s a bitch; you know she’s a bitch, right?” He asks, but he’s grinning, all sharp and dangerously amused.

“I knew you guys would get along,” Charlotte gives a pleased little sigh, as if she’d manufactured their whole friendship herself. Nikki rolls his eyes at her, and the bell goes.

Tommy, as it turns out, thinks they’re sleeping together, at least that’s what he tells Charlotte when they’re on their way to Leo’s after school to meet up with Vince, Razzle, Peach, and Eileen. The news of Nikki and Lola’s potential affair surprises Charlotte at first, but after a moment of consideration, she thinks she should have seen it coming.

Tommy’s reasoning is that they’ve become friends far quicker than he’d realised, and Nikki’s always giving Lola lifts after work, like they’re going in the same direction, even though he’d pretty sure Nikki doesn’t live near Leo’s. It also turns out that that was what had been bothering him about Nikki and Lola being friends; he still tries to insist he doesn’t have a crush on Lola, but he and Charlotte both know that’s mostly a lie.

So Charlotte can see how conflicted he is when he tells her that Nikki’s looking to start a new band, and that he asked about Tommy possibly playing drums. A beat of silence follows, and then, without looking away from the road, Tommy mutters a quiet thanks, knowing without asking that Charlotte had been the one to recommend him. Charlotte leans over and bumps her forehead against his shoulder in unspoken acknowledgment.

“Duff’s in a band,” Charlotte’s voice is soft and a little unreadable.

“Sorry,” Tommy mutters, tone somber like it’s the worst news in the world, “we could throw rotten tomatoes at him?” He suggested, at the mental picture alone was enough to make Charlotte laugh, “or is that just in the movies?”

“I think that’s just in the movies,” Charlotte says, amid giggles, “besides, the rest of his band doesn’t deserve that.”

In the week that Razzle’s been in LA, Vince and his family have taken him to several, sophisticated restaurants in the vicinity, and Razzle had apparently loved them all; Leo’s was no different. He was sitting across from Charlotte in the booth, at the end of the table, reading the menu intently as the others chattered away about their day, making noises of intrigue every time he spotted something new he wanted to try. His knee knocked hers under the table, but it barely seemed to register, so engrossed in the menu that he muttered the faintest apology.

“Afternoon, guys, welcome,” Lola at work never failed to startle Charlotte, despite the fact that she’d been here once already since the first time. At least her chipper introduction seemed to bring Razzle back to reality.

“Hi, yes - oh! I know you!” Razzle lit up at the sight of Lola, and the rest of the gathered teens watched with interest, trying not to give away how intrigued they were to see Lola’s reaction, “Miss Honky Cat, you work here?”

What?

“Alright, Razzle, you found me, did you wanna order something?” Lola says, with a good-natured eyeroll, and an easy grin, hip cocked to one side. Razzle asks her what she recommends, and orders that, and then the rest of them, who had been sitting in stunned silence, are quick to order for themselves.

When she leaves, it’s mere moments before Tommy asks what that was all about, and Razzle’s eyes go wide.

“That’s Lola, innit? From school? She’s in my music class, was playing Honky Cat on the piano in the second music room, the Elton song, you know, when we had some free this morning,” he explained, confused, “she called me Rocketman when I picked what she’d been playing, but I told her my name’s Razzle.”

“You’re an enigma,” ironically, it’s Eileen who says this, wearing a fond little smile, while Razzle just looked bemused.

“I think it’s the accent, chicks fuckin’ love it,” Vince pipes up, smirking, and Razzle tries to hide his own pleased little grin since he can’t very well deny it, “Pam was all over him in Phys Ed yesterday -”

“We were just having a conversation -” Razzle was quickly turning red, while Vince clutched at his arm, putting on a high voice, twirling his blonde hair around one finger as he pretended to be Pam.

“Oh Nicholas, tell me more about The Clash, please, I want to know more!” He ended with a fake moan, which had Eileen and Peach laughing, while Razzle grabbed Charlotte’s hand and exaggeratedly mouthed ‘help me’.

“Pam’s into Razzle?” Tommy groaned, breaking the moment, falling dejectedly against Vince, who was already leaning pretty heavily on Razzle, who was then ejected from his seat and onto the floor, while Vince was draped over where he was just sitting, and Tommy was draped over Vince, “I’m gonna die alone.”

Despite Tommy’s despair, the rest of the table was greatly amused.

Thankfully for Razzle, it wasn’t a far fall, and he’d held tight to Charlotte’s hand, so at least he hadn’t ended up flat on his back, and Charlotte gave him an apologetic grin as she helped him to his feet. He lets go to dust himself off, and it’s here Charlotte notices his maroon, velvet pants, and black and white leather shoes with their little heel.

“Fancy threads,” Charlotte points out, notes of approval in her voice. Razzle makes a move to straightening a jacket he’s not wearing, and clicks his heels together, drawing the attention of the rest of the table to his shoes, of which they all make various noises of approval, or at least interest.

“I dress to impress,” and judging by his tone, if he were as crass as Vince or Nikki, he would have winked, but Charlotte’s kind of glad he refrained. He then shoves Vince, and by extension Tommy, back up to a sitting position, retaking his seat across from Charlotte, this time purposefully knocking his knee against hers.

Charlotte’s glad that Lola’s back with their drinks, so she can look at something that’s not Razzle’s sunny smile, because she doesn’t want to think about how pretty it makes him look. Stupid, British, band boy and his stupid, blue eyes.

But then she’s looking at Lola, and all she can remember is Tommy’s dejected expression when he told her that Lola and Nikki were possibly sleeping together, and Nikki’s half-hidden, bashful grin when he calls a bitch with a kind of fondness that Charlotte had never heard from him before. The urge to protect her cousin, from harm, from heartbreak, is carved into her bones, but part of her knows it would him hurt more to let him keep falling for Lola when she’d never really end up catching him. Suddenly staring into the depths of her soda became the safest option.

i have loved since you. but when the new paint gets scratched, there you are underneath.

Heather, of all people, is holding a party, and she tries to limit the amount of people she tells - the squad and her friends were the first to be invited - but of course, the guest list spirals out of control, and it’s exactly one and a half days before Tommy’s mooning over the fact that he’s been invited to a party at an actual cheerleader’s house.

“Dude, you’re killing me here,” Charlotte tells him at lunch; she’s finally sitting with him, Lola, and Nikki, though Nikki’s late. Heather had coyly asked her to ask Vince to bring Razzle - the cute English guy, specifically - and Charlotte had picked up her bag and left. Something about Heather in a good mood was worse than when she was being catty.

“You don’t count, you’re my cousin,” Tommy waived her off, and Lola snorted a laugh from where she was laying in the grass, using her backpack as a pillow. “You going?” Tommy pokes Lola in the ribs and she smacks his hand away, but makes an affirmative noise, and throws her arm over her eyes to shield them from the sun.

Something about how that makes Tommy smile, almost pleased, has worry sinking heavy in Charlotte’s gut.

“Heather asked me to ask Vince to invite Razzle,” Charlotte’s not quite sure why she says it, or why it makes Lola bark a laugh of her own, but at least it get’s Tommy’s mind off of last time he and Lola were at a party.

“Of course -” Tommy sighs, but then, in the very same breath, he lights up like a lightbulb, “wait! If Heather’s preoccupied with Razzle, and Pam’s going, then I -” he turned sharply to Charlotte, eyes wide, “is Pam seeing anyone?” Charlotte gives him an amused, but longsuffering look, shaking her head.

“You gonna put the moves on her?” Lola’s smirking, and Tommy’s steadily turning red, but refusing to be embarrassed.

“It’s now or never, you know? She’s graduating in a few months, will go to college and date some meathead, college footballer, this is my chance,” he enthused, and Charlotte pet his shoulder in solidarity.

Nikki joins them halfway through lunch, right as Lola and Charlotte find themselves playing angel and devil on Tommy’s shoulders regarding how he should dress for the party. Charlotte’s firmly of the opinion that he should be be wearing bright, eye-catching things - “Come on, you know Pam likes those new-wave guys!” - while Lola was adamantly recommending to go all-out punk.

“Don’t ask Nikki’s opinion, you know who he’s going to side with,” Charlotte implored, and as if to prove a point, Nikki throws his bag to the side, and lays down with his head pillowed on Lola’s stomach.

“Because Nikki has taste,” Lola throws her arm above her head, into the grass, neck at an awkward angle as she looks, wide-eyed to Tommy.

“Thank you,” Nikki grumbles, and immediately closes his eyes, “what are we arguing about?” A pause, then, “and why is Charlie here?”

“Heather asked Charlie to bring Razz to the party next weekend,” Tommy says, the words sounding rote off his tongue, before he gets into the meat of the argument, laying himself back in the grass. Somehow it makes Charlotte feel left out, being the only one left marginally upright, and she slouches a little lower against the fence.

Tommy explains his conundrum, and much to everyone’s surprise, Nikki refrains from giving his opinion, sighting that he has no clue what Pam would like, and that he’s not taking the fall if Tommy looks like a dickhead and crashes and burns while talking to, arguably, the most popular girl in school.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, asshole,” Tommy groans, without really thinking, and as the realization and subsequent horror took over his expression, Lola barked a laugh, and even Nikki was grinning.

The moment was surprisingly light, Tommy’s face buried in his hands, though he’s now hiding a smile, and Charlotte is surprised at how easy it is to smile and laugh here, these people accepting her presence without another thought. The politics of the cafeteria make it all feel so foreign, but Tommy said ‘Charlie’s sitting here now’ and Nikki and Lola took it in stride.

And later, Eileen will ask her where she was at lunch, will go on to sigh and roll her eyes as she recounts barely sitting through five minutes of the cheerleaders buzzing like cheerful, little hornets, discussing who would be at the party, and how they would coordinate their outfits. She’d spent another five minutes with the swim team, who spent the entire time picking apart her backstroke technique since she ‘finally decided to join them’.

“This is why I don’t sit with them,” Eileen had frowned, sitting in the McDonalds carpark, absentmindedly violating her soda with it’s straw out of frustration, Charlotte, wide-eyed, quietly eats her terrible, oily fries, and lets Eileen vent, “if I have to listen to one more five-am-gym-going-wannabe-sports-scholarship tell me my form is off, I’m going to go full Carrie-At-The-Prom at our next meet,” Eileen warned, and reached over to snatch a fry. Very few people were ever privy to Eileen’s frustration, as the redhead seemed to do a rather good job of bottling it up, but Charlotte personally felt honored that her friend could be so honest around her.

“I was thinking of joining yearbook, maybe? Or the school paper with...” a strange moment of hesitation, “with Peach,” Eileen paused, taking a long moment to think, and take a sip of her drink, eyes glass as she stared out at the highway as cars passed before them, “auditions for the school play are on Friday,” she adds, like she’s seriously considering it, “it’s Singin’ In The Rain, Keanu actually suggested I should audition.” The idea that Keanu and Eileen have talked enough for him to suggest that she audition for a musical and for her to serious consider it is kind of baffling; Charlotte doesn’t process the meaning behind any of this now, however, just files it away in the back of her mind for later.

“Macy moved to Portland over the Summer,” Charlotte feigns seriousness with her suggestion instead, trying not to give away how amused she is, already anticipating Eileen’s response, “we’re holding cheer tryouts to replace her on Tuesday,” Eileen’s expression is already souring, almost comedically disgusted at Charlotte’s implied suggestion, though she lets the blonde finish, “you were the best bottom-right to the pyramid we’ve ever had,” she said, barely stifling giggles as Eileen turns to her.

“I’d rather die,” her lip curled, and Charlotte leaned over the center console of the minivan to press her forehead against Eileen’s shoulder, and Eileen reaches up with her free hand to scratch gently at Charlotte’s scalp, before bursting out with, “and my form’s not even bad! The coach loves me, Charlie, she loves me, they just think they’re better than me, bunch of clique-y, insular, webbed-toe bitches.”

The words hang in the air, a surprising outburst from the usually reserved and thoughtful girl.

“Do they really have webbed toes?” Charlotte asks, turning so her temple still pressed against the soft cashmere of Eileen’s sweater, but she was following the ginger’s gaze out to the highway ahead. Eileen gives a tired, little laugh, as if her outburst had left her exhausted.

“No.”

Charlotte wants more than anything to ask her what’s wrong, but knows better than anyone that Eileen only says exactly what she wants someone else to know. Instead, she offers her fries silently. Eileen takes one.

“Peach and I got into a fight today,” voice barely above a whisper, Eileen follows her words with a sigh, and suddenly her out of character frustration made complete, and utter sense. For all that she’s known both Peach and Eileen, Charlotte has never known their altercations to be quick or painless affairs, “Vince invited her to Heather’s party.”

“He invited her himself?” Charlotte’s not sure what the issue is beyond their general dislike of Vince, but if Vince himself is starting to possibly change, then it’s hard to see the issue.

“Yeah,” Eileen seems to know what Charlotte’s thinking, and pauses to find the right words, “I don’t trust him, and I don’t know how she can trust him either.” There’s a quality to her voice that Charlotte’s only heard rarely; uncertainty, “and I don’t want her going to Heather’s party, I barely want to go myself, and what if she drinks, and what if she does terrible things she regrets -?” Eileen cuts herself off, squeezing her eyes shut and leaning her head back against the headrest.

“I get it,” Charlotte says, so gentle, so understanding, but Eileen’s still quiet.

“She’s my little sister, Charlie,” Eileen sighed, “and it’s like our parents couldn’t care less, so I have to protect her, and I have to keep her from the guy she thinks is the love of her life, and I have to be the one to always remind her of all the shitty things he’s done and remind her that life isn’t a goddamn fairytale.” She sounds close to tears, soda cup between her knees and hands clutching, white knuckled, at the steering wheel, or else she may have been tearing her hair out.

There was a shake in her voice, tight and exhausted in equal measure, like the words had sat, unspoken, pressed against her teeth, for far longer than Charlotte had realized she’d been thinking them. Charlotte rests her hand on Eileen’s.

“She loves you more than anyone else in the world, you know that right? She’s just sixteen, you know all the drama and shit we went through last year -”

“I can’t watch her go through what you went through with Duff,” the words escaped Eileen in a rush, and she clamps her mouth shut, sitting forward in the driver’s seat, lips pressed into a thin line, as Charlotte’s heart sank in her chest, “I’m sorry.”

“No, I know what you mean,” Charlotte sat back in her own seat, nodding dejectedly, fiddling with her bracelet.

“You... Charlie, you know you’re my best friend, and I love you, and seeing you in pain with no way to help,” Eileen’s hands slid down the sides of the steering wheel as she forced herself to relax, though her words have Charlotte’s heart swelling with fondness, “it fucking killed me,” she admitted, leaning back, letting her shoulders sags with the weight of her words, like the weight of the world, and as she leaned back, she looked to Charlotte, so unguarded, so sincere, “I can’t let Vince break Peach’s heart like that.”

Eileen has always looked and seemed older than her seventeen years, but it’s strange to see her like this, to be reminded that she holds within her this unassuming duality. To protect is her first instinct, herself, her feelings, her friends, her family, but she’s still so young, just a kid; she still deserves to be protected too.

“I’m so tired,” Eileen murmurs, gaze dropping to her hands, now folded in her lap, and she huffs a humorless laugh, “I’m seventeen, Charlie, I’m fucking tired of feeling thirty.”

#nikki sixx #tommy lee #vince neil #nikki sixx imagine #tommy lee imagine #vince neil imagine #motley crue #the dirt #the dirt imagine #motley crue imagine #the angry lizard writes #charlotte & lola #lola&charlotte

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dreamypeaches · 4 years ago

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don’t wake up pt. 7 (END) | rafe cameron x reader

summary: rafe gives you the fairy tale night he promised

warnings: SMUT (unprotected), cursing, alcohol use

word count: 4k

a/n: so...here it is. the final part. i can’t believe i actually finished a series. thank you for all the support, it means so much to me!! i am really proud of this whole series and seeing y’all validate me makes me cry. please enjoy :) and thank you.

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Walking into Midsummers was one of the most nerve-racking things you had ever done. The few times you’d come before, you were working. Never had you excepted to walk in as a guest, never mind on the arm of Rafe Cameron. But now you were here, and you in a state of pure bliss. Most eyes were on you, but you hardly even noticed as you giggled like a school girl. Rafe’s hand was in yours, fingers interlaced as he pulled you through the party, glancing at you every few moment with a dopey smile.

His arm wraps around your shoulder as he takes a flute of champagne. He hands it to you before grabbing one for himself.

“I believe this was the first part of my master plan,” He says, tipping his glass towards you. You clink yours against it with a smile before you both down it in one go.

“Expensive champagne, check,” you giggle, the sparkling liquid already making you feel just as bubbly. Rafe’s hand found it’s place on your hip, holding you close as you surveyed the party. Another waiter passed by with a tray of champagne and you each grabbed one, taking your time to savor it.

Rafe was still in a state of disbelief. Just a couple of hours ago he had been ready to drink himself into a coma. Now he had you at his side, grinning so hard his cheeks hurt, and he felt on top of the world. Squeezing you against his side, he leaned down to whisper in your ear.

“You look so beautiful tonight.”

Your cheeks heat up as you turn to meet his eyes. You’re able to give him the briefest of kisses before you are interrupted.

“This is so weird.”

The smiles drop from your faces as your faced with John B, Kie, and Sarah. Trying to separate from Rafe, his arm tightens around your waist as he give his sister and her friends a tight smile.

“And?” He says, his tone vaguely threatening. He wasn’t going to let anything ruin this night.

“Don’t look at me like that, Rafe, you should be thanking me,” Sarah says with a smirk. “I created this,” she motions to you, “and she is perfect. Don’t ruin it!”

Rafe looks down at you, a small smile returning to his face.

“I won’t.”

“Seriously, dude, JJ already wants to kick your ass. Don’t give him a reason,” Kie chimes in. Rafe scoffs and shakes his head.

“I don’t plan on it! Now fuck off, I’m trying to show my girl a good time.”

John B and Kie pretend to gag as they walk off before shooting you a genuine smile. You sighed when they were out of ear shot, feeling as if a great weight was suddenly off your chest.

Bouncing in front of Rafe, you give him a wide smile as you move your body in a victory dance.

“That went so well!”

You twist and shimmy, reaching your hands out towards him, urging him to join you. How could he resist your charm? Especially when your dancing is the most adorable thing he’s ever seen. He takes your hands and pulls your forward, making you wrap your arms around his neck while he wraps his own around your waist.

“Did you not hear the part where they threatened to sick your guard dog on me?” Rafe scoffed.

“Yes, and I agree with them. You break my heart again I will send him after you. Pope too. He may not seem scary, but he’s got some fire in there.”

Rafe’s smile falter slightly when you mention him breaking your heart. Though he quickly covers it up, you notice the crack in his armor. Pulling him in for a kiss, you try to soothe his mind by swiping your thumb across his temple. You wished you could just reach in and pull every bad thought from his brain and throw them in the ocean. He had hurt you, this is true, but you would never in your life wish an ounce of pain onto him. The wounds on each of your hearts were still healing, and it would take time. But tonight, you just wanted to be happy. You wanted both of you to be happy.

“Will you dance with me?” You whisper against his lips.

“Already promised I would,” He replies, pulling away to lead you to the dance floor. He moves you closer to the edge of the group of dancers. Close to the beach, the pair of you are covered in slight shadow, slightly secluded from the party passing around you.

You never thought you could miss another persons touch this much. The past few days without Rafe, you had found yourself craving the feeling of him against you. From the way he was acting tonight, you were certain he felt the same. His hand had yet to leave your body since you met him outside. His hand was always holding your own, gripping your hip as he wraps his arm around you, cupping your cheek as he kisses you. Right now, his hands found a home on your lower back, holding you close as you sway to the music. You dance through a few songs, basking in each other’s love, before Rafe speaks.

“You are so…exquisite,” He says. The look in his eyes contains so much love you almost drown in it.

“Are we playing scrabble? That was easily a 20 point word, got an ‘x’ and a ‘q’ in there.”

“How about a few more words? You are…” He places a kiss on your cheek, “alluring.”

A kiss on the other cheek. “Stunning.”

On your jaw. “Ravishing.”

Your neck. “Heavenly.”

Your collarbone. “And drop dead sexy.”

His lips return to yours. This kiss is more passionate and needy than any of the others earlier that night. The shock and excitement of being back together again has worn off, and now there is just a deep need and urgency to be as close as possible. He starts to trail kisses across your jaw and down your neck, when you are once again interrupted. Someone clears their throat behind Rafe.

Rafe is suddenly ramrod straight, back stiff as he recognizes the disappointed aura radiating from his father. You took his hand as he turned, squeezing it to let him know you are there.

“So, this is her? The mysterious girl? Were you planning on introducing me at any point?” Ward Cameron questions, arms crossed at his chest. Rafe clears his throat, grip tightening on your hand.

“Um, dad, this is Y/N. My girlfriend.”

“Right, one of Sarah’s Pogue friends. We’ve met before, I believe?”

“Yes, sir. It’s nice to see you again,” You say, plastering on a smile. After everything Rafe told you about the man, you wanted nothing more than to give him a piece of your mind, maybe even knock his stupid teeth out. But you restrained yourself, not wanting to ruin the night.

“Well, don’t let me interrupt your night. Just try to be more modest, Rafe, please?” He starts to turn away, but pauses to say, “Congratulations. You seem very happy.”

The stiffness rushes out of Rafe, his hand nearly goes limp in your own.

“I think that’s the nicest things he’s ever said to me.”

Pressing a kiss to his cheek, you tug on his arm.

“Then let’s celebrate! More champagne!”

You find another waiter and grab two glasses, the two of you downing them in only a few sips.

The night passed like a dream. You and Rafe became lost in each other, in the pure bliss and love that you radiated. You danced and laughed and drank and ate and held onto each other for dear life. The bubble you had started your relationship in was gone, allowing anyone to gaze in on you. You were quick to realize your worries weren’t valid. Sure, people were looking at you, but you could handle a few strange looks and whispered comments if it meant you got to be with Rafe like this all the time.

You ran into the Pogues a few times during the night, including JJ and Pope, who were both working for Heyward. The tension between the two Pogues and Rafe had been thick. A lot of threatening glances and passive aggressive comments were shared. The three boys were about two seconds from whipping their dicks out and measuring them before you pulled Rafe away, rolling your eyes at the testosterone in the air.

It was easier with Topper and Kelce. The moment you had seen Kelce, you pulled him into a bone crushing hug, thanking him profusely. Rafe almost had to pry you off Kelce, trying his best to hide his obvious jealousy. Topper, on the other hardly said hello. You didn’t mind, and Kelce made up for it by practically saving your relationship.

Once Rafe finally forced you to say good bye to his best friends, you complained to him about the inherent misogyny you had experienced that night. A speech spurred on by the liquid stars moving inside you.

“The fact that I could hug your best friend and you and my best friends want to rip each other’s throats out is ridiculous. And do you know who’s fault it is? You fucking men. Getting all protective and territorial over me. Why don’t you go pee in a bush or something and let me handle myself.”

Rafe chuckled at you.

“You’re right, angel, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah you better be,” You replied with a tipsy smirk. Rafe laughed louder at you and wrapped his arms around your waist, tugging your back against his chest. He peppered kisses down your neck, the softest touches that tickled and made you giggle.

Midsummers was starting to wind down. The older guests and people with children at home were the first to leave, and everyone else began to trickle out after. The party was coming to a close. Staff were starting to clean up around the more drunken patrons. The dance floor, to the center of which Rafe pulled you, was practically empty. He made you stand in the middle, giving you a kiss and running over to the stage where a band had stood only an hour before. Now there was just a speaker playing a playlist someone hit shuffle on.

You watched Rafe fiddle with something, when the opening beats of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac floated from the speakers. He jogged back over to you, a grin on his face as he takes your hand. Pulling you close, he keeps his one hand clasped in yours while the other rests on your hip. Your hand rests on his shoulder, slowly moving to play with the hairs at the base of his neck. He begins to sway you in slow circles, your head resting against his shoulder. You hum along to the music for a few bars before sighing.

“This is a sad song, you know.”

“I mean, the words might be sad, but it doesn’t make me sad at all. Because all I can think about when I hear this song is you.” You grin into his chest.

You’re silent for the rest of the song. Despite the long night and the exhaustion in your bones, neither of you wants this night to end. Your minds are wide awake, taking in every second.

You and Rafe continue swaying as the music fades out. He leans down to place a kiss below your ear before whispering.

“Did you happen to receive my other gift?”

You smirk up at him, your eyes suddenly clouded with lust.

“Why don’t you find out?”

Eyes darkening, Rafe licks his lips and pulls you away from the nearly empty party, down towards the beach. You’re forced to pull your shoes off as Rafe leads you down the sand. Eventually, you reach a patch of trees that create a small, secluded area on the beach. There is a few chairs and towels hanging around, a box off to the side, signs of life littered across the small stretch. Rafe brings towards the back. He grabs a large blanket from the box and spreads it out before wrapping his arms around your waist from behind. He begins to place open mouth kisses down your neck, nipping at the skin in some places making you gasp.

“What is this place?” You question.

“A Kook hangout we made a few years ago. Don’t worry, no one comes here this late,” He reassures you before continuing his assault on your neck. One hand tangles itself in your hair, pulling it to give himself better access to you. The other hand slides down your side, grabbing at the skirt of your dress and bunching it up, revealing your bare thigh to the open air. You gasp at the contrast of the cool hair and his warm hand as it trails up to the waistband of your lacy underwear. His finger ghosts across your slit over the fabric, making you whimper. He suddenly pulls away from you and shoves you gently forward.

You turn to face him and feel your core ache at the look he’s giving you. A cocky smirk graces his lips while his eyes are burning with hunger and lust.

“Strip,” He commands. You do as he says, never breaking eye contact as you tug at the dress, letting it pool at your feet.

Rafe let’s out a fuck under his breath as he takes you in. Clad in the lingerie he had bought for you, this image was one he had been dreaming of since he purchased the fabric. It’s white, just like your dress, adding to the already heavenly glow the moonlight casts on you.You go to remove the crown of white daisies on your head but he stops you.

“Don’t. You look beautiful in it.”

Your cheeks heat up as you slowly lower your hands down to your sides. You feel yourself melting under his gaze. He licks his lips before he dives in, holding your face between his hands as he crashes his mouth to yours. The kiss is hungry, and you prepare yourself to be absolutely devoured by the man in front of you. Not that you minded.

Fingers dance down your sides and into he waistband of your underwear. The teasing touch of before is gone as he presses against your clit, making you scream in shock and pleasure. He holds the pressure, starting to move his fingers in slow circles. Your eyes roll back, so much pleasure hitting all at once like a tidal wave. Rafe’s other and holds the back of you neck, pulling you away from the bruising kiss.

“I’m going to make you cum some many times tonight, you won’t be able to walk for a week. Are you ready, angel?”

You give a weak nod and a whimper, only to whine when he moves all touch. His hands move instead to grip your ass, giving one cheek an agonizing slap.

“I need words.” He gives another slap to end his statement.

“Yes, Rafe. I’m ready. I want you.”

A primal grin spreads across his face. He pushes your shoulder, nodding toward the blanket.

“Lay down for me.”

You lay on your back across the blanket, allowing you to look up at the moon and stars, but your focus is not on that ethereal sight. Instead, you are focused on the sinful man in front of you, who removes his bow tie and jacket. In no time he is undressed down to his boxers and kneels down between your legs.

He leans forward to capture your lips for a moment, before moving down your body. He makes sure to leave hickies across your collarbone and chest, peppering a few on your stomach as well. He snaps at the elastic band with his teeth before for pulling the underwear down with his fingers.

“You look so fucking beautiful in these, I want to see you in them again. We can’t go ruining them on the first night.”

As he speaks, his breath fans across the expanse of your stomach, but it is his words that make you shiver. He pulls the garment down your legs slowly, allowing the anticipation to build until you are squirming for his touch. He removes your bra next, your nipples hard in the cool ocean air. His finger ghost across them, sending waves of pleasure down to your pussy.

“Please, Rafe. I’ve missed you so much, missed your touch so much. Don’t keep me waiting,” You moan, but there is no threat in your words. You both know exactly who is in charge here.

“Did you think about me, angel? Did you touch yourself and wish it were my fingers making you cum?”

You bite you lip and nod as you make eye contact with Rafe. He smirks and one of his fingers tease your entrance, gathering wetness before plunging in. Moans drip from your lips as he sets a steady pace, fingers curling up to touch your g-spot. He adds a second, then a third. He kisses you neck as he speeds up, other hand moving to rub your clit. You are a moaning mess, clenching around his fingers as you get closer and closer to your climax.

“Is this what you wanted? You want to cum all over my fingers?”

“Yes! Yes, please, I want to cum. Can I cum?”

He groans at your pleading tone, fingers starting to pound into you.

“Cum, angel.”

You do so with a scream, back arching off the ground as he slows his movements only slightly. He replaces the hand on your clit with his mouth, giving the bundle of nerves a few kitten licks before pressing down on it with the flat of his tongue.

“Fuck!” you scream, still sensitive from your orgasm only seconds before. His fingers pick up the pace again, his tongue continuing to attack your clit. Your second orgasm comes quickly, and he removes his fingers, not allowing you time to adjust to the emptiness before he starts to fuck you with his tongue. An arm lays across your torso, holding you down as you buck into his mouth. His other hand moves to you clit, giving a much gentler touch than before. A few minutes later, Rafe is lapping up the juices of your third orgasm.

He sits up and grins at you, lips shining with your wetness. Your eyes are hooded, exhausted from the pleasure coursing through your veins. He kisses you, quick to deepen the kiss by plunging his tongue into you, allowing you to taste your self.

He pulls away to remove his boxers, lining himself up with your entrance when he returns. You hiss as the tip brushes across your clit as he gathers your wetness. He thrusts into you slowly with a low moan, savoring every inch of your pussy around his dick. You meet his eyes as he bottoms out, stilling inside of you for a moment. His face suddenly softens and he gives you a tender kiss.

“I love you,” He said

“I love you too,” You replied. The words leave your mouth wrapped around the promises of tomorrow, of spending another day on Earth with you. He kisses you again as he pulls almost all the way out, slamming back into you fully. You scream against his lips as he sets a brutal pace. He hikes one of you knees higher on his hip, hitting that spot inside of you that makes you see stars. A hand wraps around your throat, squeezing lightly as he fucks you into the sand.

Rafe never found you more beautiful than now. Your halo askew on top of your disheveled hair. Your tits bounce as he pounds into you, moving in rhythm with his hips. Moans and curses fall from your sweet lips and Rafe groans at the sight of your wide open mouth and closed eyes. An angel screaming for god as she faces the heavens. He squeezes your throat a little tighter.

“Say my fucking name, angel.”

“Fuck! Rafe! Rafe…please, Rafe!”

The new mantra spills from your mouth, sweet like honey. He catches it with his own lips, thrusting harder. You feel the sting of his hips snapping against yours and you love it.

You feel your legs start to shake as you approach your fourth orgasm, and Rafe can feel it to. He moves his hand to rub your clit but the pressure he gives it sends you over the edge. You scream his name, becoming a whimpering mess as he continues to fuck you.

“It’s too much…” You whimper but he quiets you with a kiss.

“One more. You’ve got one more for me, angel.”

He hooks one of your ankles on his shoulder and you moan as he hits you deeper than ever before. He continues to rub gentle shapes into you clit. As you get closer to the edge, you feel Rafe’s thrusts get sloppier. You clench around him as you cum, the feeling sending Rafe over right behind you.

He gives you a few more pumps before pulling out completely and collapsing next to you. You feel absolutely spent, breath heavy from the multiple orgasms of the night. You’re ready to curl into Rafe and pass out, but his finger linger down your body to your center.

“I can’t…” You manage to get out, but it fades into a moan as Rafe massages your clit slowly. He takes one of your nipples in his mouth, biting it lightly before sucking on it and pulling away with a pop.

“Just one more. Please, angel. You’re doing so good for me.”

You moan as he goes back to your breasts, sucking at biting at them as he continues to rub your clit slowly. Your sixth orgasm builds slowly, almost taking you by surprise. You cum with a quiet moan, legs shaking as Rafe brings you down from your high. He leaves a few more kisses on your collar bone before standing up, returning a few seconds later with another blanket. He pulls you close to him, covering the both of you in the blanket. You fall asleep quickly under the stars, body exhausted from the stress, excitement, and pleasure of the day.

Rafe awakens to the sunrise, orange rays scattering across your bodies Your chest rises and falls against his and he makes sure to memorize every part of your body. Yesterday had been blissful. For a moment, you both got to forget about the problems that surrounded your relationship. But it was a new day, and the rest of his time with you would be an uphill battle.

He had shit to work on, shit he would never want you to see. But he wanted you, hell, he needed you by his side through all of it. He trusted you to hold his fragile heart and prayed that you would allow him yours. He refused to shatter it again, especially when it was still mending. He would hold it tenderly and cherish it for the rest of his days.

The days ahead would be rough. There was a lot to talk about. But he thinks of that night beneath the stars over two months ago, when you found him. Neither of you knew it then, but when you sat beside him on the sand and spoke sweet words, you had taken his heart and never given it back. He didn’t mind, he knew you would keep it safe.

As he felt you stir beside him, he closed his eyes and pulled you closer, wanting to spend a little longer away from reality for a little longer. It was time, though. Time to love you wholly. Time to love himself as much as you loved him. Time to get his life together.

“Rafe,” You whisper, “it’s time to wake up.”

taglist: @teenwaywardasgardian @kindahavefeelingskindaheartless @obxmxybxnk @butgilinsky @juliarose21 @bluesiderudy @ilovejjmaybank @diverrdown @diverdcwn @mdlyncline @https-luna @broken-jj @nqbmf @ityagirljay @downbytheouterbanks @girlsru1eboysdroo1 @trinnwazheree

#rafe cameron x reader #rafe cameron fic #rafe cameron imagine #rafe cameron smut #obx fic #my writing

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keeper-not-hero · 3 years ago

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MY THREE HUMANS AND MY THREE TROLLS ARE FINALLY DONE BEING THOUGHT ABOUT AND ARE NOW PLACED INTO THE WORLD FOR YOU TO ENJOY READING ABOUT, Massive post under read more!!!

[Obs: These ain’t kids. They’re all in their early 20’s tho.]

Gatolt Osbizb (name means nothing. = Muse of Doom.) -

Looks: Hair that goes down to her shoulders, curly and surprisingly well groomed. Skin (and body) made up of tiny chunks stitched together. Fingers, hands, legs, slightly different shades of grey, with seams colored with the multitude of different blood types beneath. Blank eyes, shirt and pants. Simplistic dress code.

Personality: A hodgepodge of Troll flesh, bones, and a few cybernetic enhancements all stitched together into a singular being. Goldblood, purple blood, violet, and more. Both of her eyes are blank (though she can still see thanks to cyberoptics), and she is usually in at least a mild amount of pain due to the strain of her body barely being able to keep itself together. Despite all that, she tries to act cheery and tries to be the life of her friend circle, though not always with success. And besides, she rarely tries to mingle outside of it, feeling unwelcome in other circles.

Constantly requires maintenance which she usually does herself, and… fresh replacements. Her creator fucked up in making her, which means she is now slowly yet constantly rotting away, to the point every part of her body except the brain and enhancements are different than her first resurrection. Her girlfriend, Bakhus, usually helps with gathering ‘replacements’. She feels like a burden due to her condition that sometimes leaves her bedridden for days, which makes her stay quiet and sometimes even enable her friends’ bad habits, because she doesn’t want to be a drag. Hates the fact her whole life revolves around her condition. Likes gardening and clockwork.

Bakhus Gredui (Greedy Bacchus / Dionysius. = Thief of Void) -

Looks: Hair that goes all the way to the floor and a few feet behind her, greasy, messy, and dragging food bits in it. Tank top with her sign (Sign of the Brazen) on it, suspenders and oversized clown pants. Juggalo make-up messy and somewhat faded, droopy yellow eyes, usually with a hunched stance. Very, very tall, and extremely strong - with some healthy weight to her body to go along with it.

Personality: A purple-blood that represses her kind and motherly urges under liters and liters of Faygo. A chef at heart and a great cook from years of experience, she constantly throws barbecues and small carnivals on her massive garden, which attracts lowblood and highblood alike. Her festivities have become small gathering spots for those who wish to mingle with the upper / lower classes despite their own status, and for spies of both the Condescension and those who oppose her. Bakhus is, of course, too busy grilling to mind that she has accidentally created the perfect neutral spot.

Despite her cooking prowess, the Faygo inhibits both her ability to feel much empathy or care about the taste of her food. Deliciously cooked and prepared meals placed near overly-sugary, soggy, Faygo-drenched pretzels. She carries a massive cookbook alongside her massive pot, which has recipes that certain blood types enjoy, and… recipes made out of said blood types. She has no qualms cooking violets and reds, and sometimes will go so far as to grab Faygo-drunk trolls in her cookout and take them inside to ‘rest’. They’re never seen again.

Also keeps a small spice garden. Gatolt usually takes care of it, with whatever isn’t used to cook as fertilizer. Occasionally, she sends the butchered corpses to Marciu. Who also happens to be Gatolt’s creator.

Marciu Shelli (Like, y’know. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein’s author. = Seer of Space) -

Looks: Short hair, think Eridan, but with no streak. Scrawny to a fault, and clearly underfed. Big scientist glasses with special prescription lenses, white lab robes that hide his starving figure and his left hand gloved with thick, hazmat-suit-like protection. The right one is a prosthetic, indigo tubes and wires trying to replicate the sensation of the original with… some success. Pointy nose, sharp teef.

Personality: Anxious, skittery and, quite frankly pitiful even for an indigo blood, Marciu spends most of his days either robbing graves for corpses or putting his ill-gotten gains to use in his laboratory. Deeply resentful of feelings he has about himself, he buries them deep within him and, to make sure no one can say he is valid or try to empathize with his pain, keeps pushing himself further and further down the hole until he pushes everyone away. Having lost a hand to a nasty accident involving a bone saw and a few too many of Bakhus’ spiked snacks, he also has a mechanical replacement.

A master of biomechanical engineering, he constantly creates half-troll, half-machine abominations to help him around the lab. Rotten servants just barely able to move their joints with hollow eyes and faces, mechanical hearts pumping blood and fuel throughout the system. Still, despite his best attempts at being as repugnant as possible, his friends still cling to him.

Except Gatolt. Gatolt has actively tried to kill him multiple times, being stopped only by Bakhus’ eternal kindness to the weirdo that occasionally gives her “aged” ingredients. Also, his human friends.

[Why does he have human friends? Idk, Pesterchum + machines or AU where humans and trolls live in the same world after a few Sburb/Sgrub/Swhatever versions playing out after homestuck and Lord English being gone.]

Bert Kairos (Albert Einstein and his whole relativity stuff + Kairos, a greek concept of time. = Mage of Time.) -

Looks: Very short and very curly hair. Dark skin, both legs missing, though one has a very unpolished, simplistic metal prosthetic to help him stand in one foot. Right arm missing too, half of a prosthetic attached to it,cut off at the elbow from an accident. Hasn’t bothered replacing it yet. Blouse with a robot symbol and shorts, chin stubble. Brown eyes.

Personality: A gentle soul who makes more time for everyone else than he ever did to himself. Spending literal days away from his parents’ home, staying in his makeshift workshop creating toys for the kids on his street and to help the people of his community. Lost both legs and an arm from accidents with heavy machinery and cars that he work repairing to make a living, usually for meager scraps out of the kindness of his own heart and the belief that it’s all part of a greater plan that he barely gets enough to survive, relying on crutches and Marciu’s prosthetics that often break because of even more accidents due to his very precarious working conditions.

He dreams of one day being able to inspire people, though. A big, endless machine of silly, simple delights. Not curing the world, not controlling the weather, a machine with the same utility as a painting. A machine that could cover the entire world in its width and length, proof that humanity can do anything if it just bands together. A wish that sometimes consumes his mind as he spends hours on end, instead of sleeping, building small moving pieces that will hopefully one day help fill this whole. This magnificent machine he will make to help mankind flourish through its artistic value, that they will sing his name in praise for generations, that mankind will be uplifted until we don’t need work, money, barriers, differences, just a homogenous mass streaking across the cosmos with machine brilliance.

But, he has way too many people to take care of, so he never dabbles on it too much.

Andy Eissuh ( :) - Lord of Life) -

Looks: Blonde hair tied in a manbun. Bushy stubble beard all over his face. Smuggest fucking grin you’ve ever seen. Blue eyes. Average height, an air of superiority that is as annoying as it is believable due to how he carries himself; like an untouchable douchebag. White tuxedo and business pants, y’know, like a doctor. Right? He’s even got the white cross! Yeah, sure, that sounds right. Like he cares about proper dress code for doctors.

Personality: A very, very, very bad doctor. A very bad doctor that has just enough good reputation and far too much money from their family to let their pretty much 100% patient loss rate slip without anyone being able to pry into it. Patient comes in, body bag goes out, and nothing ever leaves the hospital. The one time he actually saved someone was by accident, and it was a botched (and misdiagnosed by him) liver transplant where he accidentally removed the appendix instead of said liver, forgot to replace it, and the patient recovered in a short while with the help of the nurses from what he later learned was appendicitis.

Believing himself to be able to do no wrong, with a chirpy, colorful yet aggressively passive personality, he keeps his friend group around mostly to dispose of the bodies without many questions asked, and so he can feel better than the pathetic wretches he considers them. Completely blind to his irredeemably cruel medical malpractices, which he didn’t even study for, he simply bought his way into a degree because he “could feel it was my destiny.” Soft, sweet, and completely unhinged. Finding great joy preying upon the insecurities and naivete of his peers, which he feels is a breeding ground to use and abuse them for his own needs. Shoulda been smarter if you didn’t wanna get taken advantage of, duh!

Cain Pyrite (Cain the first sinner + Fool’s Gold. = Rogue of Light. ) -

Looks: Hair slightly above his shoulders, dark and greasy. Sickly pale skin, beeg librarian glasses. A nice fuzzy coat, plus shirt, plus jeans. Eye symbol on his coat. Looks like he hasn’t seen the sun in weeks, which, yeah, is absolutely right. Gentle smile, though it occasionally cracks into a nervous attempt at hiding… something!

Personality: Dedicated to… no, OBSESSED with preserving occult and ancient knowledge. Scrolls from ancient alchemists, bones of kings, relics thought long since lost hidden on the back of his seemingly normal book shop. Spending most of his days with no clients, he occasionally gets someone who is aware of his darker inclinations. He is always happy to trade knowledge for knowledge and artifact for artifact.

Only, not always the originals. No. Never the originals.

Always finding a way to spin a story and make sure that he can spot out any fakes, he builds his collection of convincing lies, and hidden truths. Friends with the others since grave-digging always inherits some fun and interesting things, and his appetite for the esoteric and forgotten is only comparable for his taste in interesting and unique foods.

#oc #long post #homestuck #Enjoy!!!!!!!! maybe idk #they're all horrible peopl #who will one day get better...#if i ever fucking WRITE my fanadventure #or... the dream #manage to turn it into a fancomic with someone

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rebelwrites · 4 years ago

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Chapter Sixteen: Into The Darkness - Lola

As this is an original fic it is hard to tag, so I’d really appreciate it is you reblogged and shared with your friends and followers 🖤 and if you reblog with comments I will love you forever

Warnings: Kidnapping

Join The Group Chat Here - If You Want Tagging Manually Let Me Know 🖤

Falling For Red Masterlist

This Months Writing

As I walked home, I was in my own little world, a smile permanently etched onto my face. The crisp morning air didn’t bother me as once again I was drowning in the smell of Grayson, seen as I had stolen one of his black shirts and a hoodie before leaving. Luckily his sister was still around and by some miracle wore the same sized jeans and shoes which meant I could borrow some skinny jeans and pumps to go home in. My mind kept replaying the last twenty four hours which meant I wasn’t taking in my surroundings as usual.

I didn’t realise anything was off until I felt a rag being placed over my mouth, the strong smell of chloroform burning my nose. I tried to fight it but I knew it was no use, this shit was good. But it didn’t stop me thrashing about for the next five minutes trying to get whoever it was off me.

“Told you I’d see you soon Lola” Jacob laughed as my eyes fluttered closed and the darkness slipped over

When I finally came around, I knew instantly I was fucked. I could feel my hands and feet had been bound together, I had some form of duct tape over my mouth as well as being blindfolded.

Fuck.

This was all Grayson’s fault, he had got in my head and I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around me.

“Finally you are awake” Jacob laughed, ripping the blindfold off me “I was starting to get bored”

Narrowing my eyes at this prick as I tugged against my restraints, but it was no good, they weren’t coming loose any time soon.

“You know I much prefer you like this” he smirked “you talk way too much and annoy the shit out of me, but I guess you always have sweet Lola”

I knew he was trying to get a raise out of me and I wasn’t going to fucking give him it. Just like I wouldn’t give him any information. I had no idea where I had been taken but I just needed to play this smart, we had done toture training back at the agency but nothing could actually prepare you for it actually happening. Yes I didn’t look bothered on the outside but deep down I was scared. I knew what Jacob was capable off when we were back at school but now I had no idea.

But this was my life, I guess I didn’t deserve to have a life away from the agency nor did I deserve to be happy. It was in this moment I realised that in the last twenty four hours I was the happiest I had ever been. And it was all because of Grayson.

Once again I was lost in thought so I didn’t realise until my skin felt like it was being ripped off that Jacob had pulled the duct tape from my mouth.

“You fucking cunt!” I screamed tugging against my restraints.

“I did tell you I would be seeing you again” he winked. “And I don’t see my brother anywhere so he won’t be able to save his little Lola”

“They will find me” I spat “as soon as they realise that I never returned home, they will find and rescue me. But not that I need rescuing because I’m going to fucking kill you”

“I highly doubt that sweetheart” he smirked leaning against the wall. “I have the upper hand here and I will get the last laugh”

“Jay enough” a voice boomed walking into the room.

I recognised him, I had seen his face in pictures. He was Blade and Jacob’s uncle. That’s when the penny dropped. And I realised who was standing in front of me.

“What the fuck do you want with me you pig” I spat.

“Well you see miss Hudson, I know you are close with Blade and now fucking Grayson Knox hired you to take Jacob out” Reid smirked coming closer towards me , grabbing my chin in his hand. “So it was perfect really, I want revenge on my trator of a nephew and I’ve been trying to take down Grayson for years now”

“I don’t get what the fuck this has to do with me” I growled, spitting in his face.

“You see my nephew has always had a soft spot for you and from what I’ve heard you and Grayson are getting somewhat close, even though you were only hired to take out Jay” he smirked “so this way I get to hurt the two people, both of which I can hurt by hurting you”

“You really think you will get away with this” I growled. “As soon as they realised I never came home they are going to go ape shit”

“Hmm we shall see about that sweetheart” Reid laughed “now we can do this the easy way or the extremely painful way it’s up to you. All you need to tell me is what Grayson’s plans are with the drugs”

“Drugs!?” I exclaimed “I know nothing about any fucking drugs. I only know Grayson because of a job. I’ve known him less than a week. Do you think he would spill his darkest secrets to me”

“Well apparently Jay walked in on you to extremely close the other day and I know you were on the way back from his house” Reid said squeezing myself face tighter “so I think you know more than you are letting on Lola”

“Even if I did I wouldn’t tell a cunt like you” I hissed as he let my face go.

“Oh you will tell me Princess” he smirked.

“I am not your princess” I spat.

“Sorry I forgot” Jacob scoffed “a little slut like you, I can’t keep track of who's Princess you are now” before they slammed the door behind them leaving me in complete darkness once again.

The fuck were they on about, Grayson doing drugs. He was an investment banker not a drug lord. He didn’t have the aura of a drug lord, yes he was an arrogant, cocky asshole but not a drug lord. But things didn’t make sense and I was only hired to take someone out, normally the job was easier than this but it turns out that they were as good at hiding as I was. I had no idea what time it was or if the guys even knew I was missing yet.

One thing was for sure, right in this moment I felt like the old Lola was back as the feeling of being weak and vulnerable washed over me.

@chibsytelford @everyhowlmarksthedead @talicat713 @little-diable @band--psycho @mrsmarvelous1995 @pancakeisreading

#rebel writes original #falling for red

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stardancerluv · 4 years ago

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At War

Part 4b

Summary: Roman, takes care of what’s his.

Warning: none

“Zsasz, get us the fuck out of here.” When he climbed back into the Rolls, he saw you shaking and trembling. He exhaled. “Come over here.” Pulling off his mask, he reached over and out it on the passenger seat beside Zsasz who was already tearing through the streets.

He ruffled his hair, looking over he saw you still being consumed by your fear. He was used to seeing people at the other end of his wrath acting like this. He hated seeing you feel like this. He slid over to you.

“Baby.” He whispered. “Come here.” Wrapping an arm around you he pulled you close. He had felt you flinch but then you relaxed. In a breath, you wrapped your arms around him and buried his face into his good side. He ran his fingers through your hair.

Being with you made him face things he disliked, he mused. He was certain you had blood on your face and now that was on his suit. Also this need for comfort, he wasn’t used to giving it. He couldn’t explain it but when you wrapped your arms around him, he actually liked it. Annoyance did not claw at him. If anything, he really wished he could bring you even more comfort.

He’d love to promise you that he will get the head of Gillis but right now he knew best to be quiet. As he held you knowing he killed St. Clair filled him with happiness. She was responsible for the argument the two of you had this morning. The fucking pretty boy got her, he smirked.

The heavy metal door came down behind them as Victor pulled into the underground parking garage.

“Y/N, we’re home.” He tucked some hair behind your ear. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

You looked up at him. “Cleaned up?”

He pressed his lips together and nodded. “Yeah.”

Worry crossed your face.

“I’ll take care of it.” He said to you. Zsasz, he noticed had opened the door. “Let’s get out of this dank parking garage. Yes?”

You nodded and followed him out of the Rolls. He looked at Zsas, “You know where it goes. Make sure that door is locked and then come up and meet me in my office.”

“Want me to give you sometime?” Zsasz, scratched the back of his head.

He exhaled. “Right now is not the time for games.” He gave Zsasz, a hard look. “Once up in the penthouse make sure the elevator only travels to your floor and mine. I do not want to be worried about it.”

“Sure thing boss.”

******

Silently, he took your hand and interlaced your fingers with his gloved one. Looking at it, he rather enjoyed its kind of odd balance. It was the two of you.

He brought you the bedroom, he stopped short of the bathroom. “Wait right here.” He hesitated at you closet but then he turned to his, you barely reacted to him taking his knife back.

Once in his closet, he shed his jacket. He would have to have another one made. He had been rather fond of the maroon color. Pulling off his gloves, he let them fall onto his jacket. A smile tugged on his lips as he looked at all the knives he had, he out the one you took and placed it where it belonged

Opening the drawer below it, he grabbed one of his t-shirts and a pair of his pajama pants. He knew what you had just got through had been a lot. He didn’t want shock or panic setting it.

With his shirt and pants slung on his shoulder, he led you into the bathroom. “Sit here.” He suggested once guiding you to bench he had in there. He placed his shirt and pants beside you.

You looked up at him. “Is it that bad?”

He put a finger under your chin and drew your face up. He shook his head. “No. But my girl should have to deal with this.”

You gave a soft smile. “Thank you.”

He smiled. “What kind of guy would I be?”

You nodded.

He went over and grabbed a wash cloth, he wet and soaped it up. “As much as I love you looking up at me,” He smirked. “Close your eyes, so I can take care of this.”

Looking, at your face seeing the blood splattered there. Incensed his anger. You were only part of this world because of him. How dare they.

He was just grateful, you had that idea. If he had just gotten the news you being killed. There would be even more blood on the streets tonight.

He would have Zsasz, find out what he could about Vanessa. Thankfully, he had set up the transfer but boy executed it because he waited making sure the plan would work. He had not expected this. The other girls would be upset. Everyone, seemed to like her. David on the other hand, had been a decent driver but he had no connections with the others and no family to speak of. GothamPD could handle him.

More reason, for him to dislike Gillis and her gang. Making more unnecessary trouble. He gritted his teeth

Gently holding your chin as brushed and rubbed the blood away. “Stay this way, now I have to rinse the soap away.”

He threw away the wash cloth. Grabbing a new one he soaked it with warm water he twisted it and grabbed a dry one and you would be set.

When he back, he noticed that tears had run down your cheeks. He sighed, “It’s not your fault. You had an amazing idea. It saved you. And I will make Gillis and her gang pay.”

Your eyes were watery. “Ok. Good.”

He held up the wash cloth. “Hold the dry one for me, baby.”

You took it and he made sure all the soap was gone. He went over it a few times. After drying you off, the wash clothes were on the floor. He’d never use them again. He helped you to your feet.

Easily he helped you out of your clothes. “Ooh.” He made a sound as sweet as he could while letting his finger trace the band of your panties. “These are very nice.” But then he helped you into his pajama pants followed by his t-shirt. “There’s my girl.” He pulled you close and brushed aside the fresh tear.

“Baby, I have to gather my men and protect us here. Now you can lay on the sofa in my office while I talk with Zsasz or you can stay in here.”

You swallowed. “I’ll stay here.”

“Alright, thats my girl.” He smiled. “I am very proud of you tonight.”

“You are?”

“Yes. You had a solid plan and it worked. And those people will pay for what they did.”

You looked down. He drew your face up. “Maybe I will let you scream at them when I capture them.”

You smiled then that made him feel better. He was relieved, he didn’t want you getting depressed. In this world people died, he was just glad you were not one of them.

“There’s the smile that pulled me in.” He smiled. “Ok, I’ll come get you if the need arises. Maybe get some rest. It has been a rough night.”

You nodded.

*****

Roman, was right your plan worked and thankfully it wasn’t you. Perhaps, when things calmed down the two of you could do something for Vanessa’s family, if it was needed. You picked up the discarded wash clothes, your clothes and brought them to the chute that dropped them into the incinerator. You saw where he dropped his suit-jacket and gloves. It was best to let him decide what he wanted to do.

Going the room where you kept your stuff, you gathered Vanessa’s and also put them down the chute. Pushing the button, you let the incinerator do its job.

As you walked back to the bedroom you watched as Roman hunched over maps sipped at some whisky. He undid the first few buttons of his shirt. Seeing him do what he did his best made you feel good, it made you feel safe.

Going back to the bedroom, it was too much work to pull the blankets aside so you laid on top of them. You barely laid down and sleep claimed you.

*****

“Alright, let’s see.” He took a sip of his whiskey. “I want some downstairs in the club and I want the rest spread out in the neighboring buildings.”

“We can do that.” Victor sent out the messages. “Who do we want down stairs?”

“The ones who are directly on my payroll. The other ones,” He pressed his lips together. “Those who uphold and pledge their loyalty can stat staked out in the other buildings. Give them an incentive. A bonus if they stay there ams stay good look outs and support if she comes.”

“Alright good. They should all like that.”

Roman, looked at him. “They better. And of we catch any of them helping her, we take their fucking head.”

*****

Later, much later after he had finally spoken to various groups. He finally decided to sleep. He was ready.

Feeling like he was shedding clothes from a lifetime ago he felt worlds better. It felt good to feel the silk of his pajamas.

He tiredly smiled when he saw that you and cleaned things up. The entire maroon suit went down the chute along with the gloves. Pushing the button, for the second time that night the incinerator roared to life.

Seeing, that you laid on top pf the blankets he would too. He saw anguish splashed across your face. He exhaled, he was tired to his bones with the situation Gillis threw his life into. But carrying for you felt easy, it was like taking care of himself. He went and laid close.

“Daddy’s here.” He breathed close to your ear and pressed a kiss on your cheek.

Draping an arm over your side, he gave himself up to the sleep that had been pulling hard on him.

@darling-i-read-it @spn-obsessed-dean @vintagemichelle91 @xxxeatyourh3artoutxxx @ewanfuckingmcgregor @zodiyack @angel98624 @frenchgirlinlondon @nebulastarr @emyliabernstein @thepeachreads @itsknife2meetu @omghappilyuniquebouquetlove @nomnomnomnamja @poe-kadot26 @top-rumbelle-fan @babydoll97 @hazel-nuss @vcat55 @feelthemadnessinside @rosionis @queenofgotham800 @brookisbi @peachthatdrinkslemonade @johallzy @foreverhockeytrash @frostypenguinoz @starwarsslytherin @proffesionalclown @chogisss @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @shantellorraine @xxinvisiblexx @pooshnulooshnu @speedypartyducksuitcase @blondekel77 @corey-clown @drarrylov3r @i-cant-hear-you16 @deadlymistress24 @yesqueenofthelight

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adoredontour · 5 years ago

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all the fics i read and loved this month, in order from longest to shortest!

For As Long As I Can Remember (It’s Been December) by green_feelings @greenfeelings 128k

After recovering from a severe accident that causes Harry to lose his memory of three years, he moves to London to start his life over as a star chef. Little does he know that when he falls in love with Louis at first sight, it’s not the first time they meet.

Featuring an unintentional game of hot and cold, Harry chasing memories that won’t come back, Louis burying himself in work to try and forget what he can’t forget, Liam being torn between two of his best friends, Zayn as a moral compass and Niall saving the day with good music and brutal honesty.

got the sunshine on my shoulders by hattalove 124k

five years ago, harry styles left his tiny home town to make it big as a recording artist. he didn't have much regard for what he left behind - a life, a family, and a husband, who woke up one morning to find him gone.

now, harry has everything he could possibly want: he's rich, famous, and adored by everyone he meets, including his boyfriend. but when said boyfriend proposes to him, he's forced to face the uncomfortable facts of his past - and louis, who's spent the last five years returning every set of divorce papers harry sent him.

(or, an au based on the movie sweet home alabama.)

Tired Tired Sea by MediaWhore 113k

As a B&B owner on the most remote of all the British Isles, Louis Tomlinson is used to spending the coldest half of the year in complete isolation, with his dog and the sea as sole companions. Until, one day, a mysterious stranger on a quest to rebuild himself rents a room for the winter.

nothing worsens, nothing grows by soldouthaz @soldouthaz 102k

and he sits there quietly with harry’s headphones in his ears while his eyes begin to close, totally unaware that he’s listening to the soundtrack of harry falling in love with him.

or, another roadtrip au featuring harry as the misunderstood hipster, louis as the bitter psych major, liam as the one with the secret boyfriend, and niall as the one who just wants everyone to be happy.

& more under the cut!

Follow Your Arrow by bitter_leaf @bitter-leaf 78k

Harry was the golden child, blessed in every way; Niall was the charming miscreant, a bad boy; Liam was the future-son-in-law parents of daughters dreamt of, and Zayn was the kid parents wished was their son. But Louis, Harry thought, Louis was the special one.

It's senior year and everything is about to change.

somethin’ bout you by missandrogyny @missandrogyny 59k

Of all the government agents in the world, Louis had to go and land the most charming one.

The Recklessness in Water by LarryOn @larryonsimon 50k

Louis Tomlinson is miserable. He's stuck on a family vacation at a lake cabin in New Hampshire when all he wants to do is bemoan his sorry existence and wallow in his sweatpants. As if the humidity and mosquitos weren't bad enough, he becomes the singular target of an obnoxious lifeguard named Harry.

Missed Connection by littlelouishiccups @littlelouishiccups 39k

Soulmate AU where your soulmate’s first words to you are tattooed on your skin.

With a boring and generic soul mark like Hi, Harry is pessimistic he’ll ever find his soulmate or that he’ll realize it when he meets them. But he could always have it worse, like his new friend Louis who had a drunken one night stand with his soulmate a few years ago and woke up the next morning alone.

before we knew by falsegoodnight @risthebrave 39k

“C’mon Lou,” says Zayn after a moment, He sounds even more exasperated than before. Louis sort of has a knack for exasperating people, especially people like Zayn who aren’t usually bothered by his brattiness. “Can’t you give this guy a chance? Harry Styles? Aren’t you curious about him at all?”

Despite his best efforts, Louis still flinches at the name. He really shouldn’t be so affected after all these years. He’s seen the name printed down the curve of his waist in obnoxiously and uncommonly large loopy letters every single day since his sixteenth birthday eight years ago. He’s very familiar with the name Harry Styles.

It sounds pretentious and Louis hates it.

He hates everything about his supposed soulmate.

He hates his large handwriting that stands out like a claim on his skin whenever he’s walking around shirtless. He hates his pretentious name. And now he hates his supposed curls and green eyes and dimples.

Or Louis has been skeptical of soulmates for years so it seems like fate when he finally bumps into the owner of the obnoxiously large signature printed into his skin since age sixteen: Harry Styles, a human rights attorney who is firmly against soulmates.

what’s mine is yours to make your own by soldouthaz @soldouthaz 39k

sometimes, the closest harry ever feels to home is louis. it's their shared hotel rooms on tour, their shoes toed off in the doorway next to each other, jackets hung on the same post.

it's everything he doesn't notice until it's been taken away from him.

And Touch Me Like You Never by runaway_train @runaway-train-works 35k

“Lets move back a bit yeah?” Harry clutches at his waist with a free hand and tugs him to move through the crowd until they are almost at the back of the group and settles them both beside the far wall. “There. That better?”

Louis looks up at him, as if he’s a tad dazed. “Uh, yeah, thanks. Can’t really see much from back here either though.”

Harry lifts a shoulder and grins at him, placing a hand on the wall behind Louis to pen him in. “We’ll just have to create our own fireworks then, won’t we?” He says it jokingly with a wink, and Louis laughs but he seems nervous. He must know that Harry is harmlessly flirting. Harry flirts with everyone after all, including Louis.

“Do you think this is a good idea Haz?” Louis asks quietly, almost too quietly in the clamour of the room, his head bowed as he scuffs his shoe on the carpet.

“Stop over thinking it Lou, it’s one kiss. What’s the worst that could happen?”

The one where Harry and Louis agree to be each other's New Year's kiss and it ends up being a lot more than they bargained for.

last blues for bloody knuckles by creamcoffeelou @2ofusmp4

Styles was a name everyone knew. It had evolved into something of a fairy tale, a far away problem that normal people didn’t have to deal with. Louis never thought he’d find himself falling in love with him. When he finds himself pregnant with Harry’s child, he knows he has to leave the life, and Harry, behind. For her sake.

He never expected Harry to show back up on his doorstep five years later.

A mob au.

like it’s a game by soldouthaz @soldouthaz 32k

there is little harry hates more than truth or dare.

and louis.

gathered on wings by Brooklyn_Babylon @twopoppies 32k

As Harry lay by Louis’ side, covered in sweat and come, he knew he should feel ugly, messy, ruined, like the life he’d left behind. But something about the way Louis looked at him, the way his eyes stared at him with want and awe, made Harry wonder if he’d ever feel this beautiful again.

Harry rolled his eyes at himself for his momentary romantic dreaminess. As good as this was, he knew it was nothing more than sex. He literally couldn’t afford to fall for just anyone, no matter how fit they were.

-----

What Harry Styles wanted was to be taken seriously as an artist. What he needed was a new sugar daddy to pave the way. Louis Tomlinson is an artist who isn’t what Harry is looking for. Somehow he still manages to turn Harry's world upside down.

let’s make a thing of cream and stars by missandrogyny @missandrogyny 24k

It doesn't explain why he's lying on the floor, with Harry Styles, of all people, planking on top of him.

As in, seventeenth most influential person in London, pop-star-turned-rock-star Harry Styles. The same Harry Styles who has had countless model girlfriends, left, right and centre. Also the same Harry Styles who has been the subject of Louis' wet dreams since he was about eighteen.

(Or: Louis is a Radio 1 DJ and Harry is a pop-star he interviews.)

Strong Enough by jacaranda_bloom @jacaranda-bloom 21k

The biggest obstacle is still in place, firmly ensconced as a roadblock, cemented in their path and preventing them from moving forward. The thing is, it’s not actually Harry that’s the problem. Harry, for all his faults, for whatever decisions he’s made to lead to him to where he is in his life right now, would move heaven and earth and all that’s in between to help Liam, to support him. No. It’s Louis. He’s the one that has to reach out. He’s the one that has to let go and get the fuck over himself. It’s been five years for Christ's sake. It’s time to move on and suck it up.

“So…” Liam starts, and Louis instantly knows where this is going. He’s actually glad that it’s Liam that drags the subject out from the shadows and into the world. Louis turns to face him, mirroring his position on the couch and nods, ready for him to continue. “Have you spoken to Harry recently?”

Five years after Vertigo goes on hiatus, the band comes back together for a benefit concert. Can Louis and Harry work through their complicated past, or are some wounds too deep to be healed?

you flower, you feast by stylinsoncity @aliensingucci 18k

He's King of the Underworld, but don't assume Louis has it all. He could stand for some excitement in his monotonous, eternal life and maybe, even.....a soulmate.

(Despite not having a soul.)

And along came "Harry".

The Orchards of Jessop by jaerie @jaerie 15k

At age 40, there isn’t much excitement in widower Louis Tomlinson’s life, but wasn’t that the reason he’d moved to Jessop Island in the first place? Back then he hadn’t thought retiring before he reached 30 and moving to the countryside would mean that he’d be doing it alone. Now, just to fill the space, he welcomes lodgers into his home that pass through working as temporary labourers at the orchards just up the road. They’ve all been young adults eager to start lives of their own after one last summer of freedom.

All of them have been much the same, coming and going from Louis’ house with just enough social interaction to keep the house from feeling so empty. But when a global pandemic shuts down the world, being quarantined with a quiet twenty year old who keeps to himself might turn out to be an awkward arrangement. By the time the restrictions have been lifted, their relationship has developed into something Louis isn’t quite ready to give up. With their twenty year age difference, Louis has to be prepared for the inevitable outcome when the reality shatters the private world they’ve been living in. He’s not sure he’ll be able to let it go.

if i had the chance, the things i would do to you by missandrogyny @missandrogyny 14k

Niall sighs. He leans forward, pushing his mug of tea carefully to the side, before bracing his elbows on the table, chin in his hands. It makes him look like some sort of bottle-blonde cherub. "You have quite the fanbase, Harry. I'm not denying that. And you've done a good job of popping out every once in a while in the past two years, just to make sure you're still talked about. But that's all you've done, and I'm not satisfied. I want more." He blinks at Harry. "Don't you want more?"

(Or: AU where Harry and Louis compete in the Lip Sync Battle)

One Way Road To Something Better by femstyles @femstyles 12k

Four years ago when Louis and Harry moved in together, Louis promised Anne that he’d take care of Harry no matter what. But things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes risky choices have to be made.

Inspired by Don't Let It Break Your Heart

baby look what you’ve done to me by ballsdeepinjesus 9k

The next day kind of turns everything upside down, though. Louis gets another lingerie catalogue addressed to Harry. He’s about to toss it when he sees a personalized note stuck to the front; it thanks Harry for his previous purchases and offers him a complimentary six-month subscription to their magazine free of charge. It’s a unisex lingerie catalogue. Lingerie specifically designed to allow for the existence of penises, apparently, judging from the bulging cocks covered in lace that he sees as he flips through the pages. His breath catches in his throat at the thought of a faceless Harry -- mysterious, odd Harry -- dressed up in his purchases, whatever they may be.

He thinks he needs a lie down, to be honest.

[louis moves into harry's old flat. harry gets a lot of mail.]

golden hearts (light their way back down) by fairytalelights @lookslikefairytale 4k

“..So, top or bottom?” Louis asks when Harry tunes back in. And... what? Harry knew he should have been paying more attention but he has no idea how in the hell Louis explaining camp rules to him could have led to discussing sexual preferences this quickly. He must have smiled and nodded at the wrong place one too many times.

or, the one where Harry’s first day as a summer camp counsellor doesn’t go quite as planned.

Still, Somehow, You’re Perfect Now by FallingLikeThis @fallinglikethis 3k

Harry Styles is Captain of the footie team and all-around popular dude-bro-pal to the entire senior class. He’s kind to everyone from what Louis Tomlinson can tell, and kinder still when he thinks no one is looking. Of course, Louis has been looking. Ever since he transferred schools at the beginning of the year and noticed Harry for the first time, it’s been hard to look away.

All My Friends Are Here by abrighteryellow

He is about to decline, though. If he has to sit through forced merriment, the least he can do is avoid participation at all costs. He is about to, but then the guy with the microphone is looking out into the crowd. He’s saying things, too — about rules and prizes and team names. At least, Louis assumes so. He can’t really hear him over the ringing in his ears.

“Alright, mate. I’ll play.”

A pub quiz has invaded Louis’s favorite dive. Fortunately, it comes with a charming host.

Front porch and one more kiss by Femstyles @femstyles <1k

A goodnight kiss on a front porch

BONUS: (rereads)

Unbelievers by isthatyoularry @isthatyoularry 136k

It’s Louis’ senior year, and he’s dead set on doing it right. However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.

Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

Close to Nowhere by angelichl @angelichl 34k

“I will kill you in your sleep,” Louis threatened as he quickly stepped out of his jeans.

“I don’t think that would work very well baby, seeing as you talk to dead people all the time.”

“I’ll kill you in your sleep and ignore your ghost. And don’t call me that.”

Louis and Harry are psychics who kind of hate each other. They go to Tennessee to investigate a haunting.

led by your beating heart by missandrogyny @missandrogyny 24k

Nick leans over. "Oh," he says, his voice smug. "Who is that?"

Harry just blinks at his phone. "Um," he manages to stammer out.

"Who's that, Harry?" Nick asks again, but this time he raises his eyebrows and smirks. Harry knows Nick is just teasing, and that he's not really looking for new Harry Styles gossip, but, um. He might have found something. Accidentally.

Harry opens his mouth to speak, but all that comes out is another 'um'. He really needs to work on translating his thoughts into words. But then it probably wouldn't be any helpful right now, would it? His mind is as blank as a newly erased etch-a-sketch.

"Oh," Nick says again, this time gleefully, seemingly having picked up on Harry's distress. "Looks like we've got a story here! Are you going to call or delete her number?"

Her number. So Nick thinks it's a girl. Well, Harry can't blame him: 'Lou' is kind of an androgynous nickname. His stylist's name is Lou.

But this Lou, well, Louis, he's kind of, really, really not a girl. He's really pretty though, which, is something.

(Or: AU where Harry's in One Direction, Louis isn't, and they reconnect over a game of 'Call or Delete'.)

#monthly fic rec #rec #28th appreciation #fic rec

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willowistic22 · 4 years ago

Text

The pleasure’s all mine... Prince Romeo

A grand party is held in the palace tonight, but one of the royal family member isn’t in the mood to indulge in it like how they’d usually be. Luckily, a stranger comes to save them. It just so happens that this stranger is so dangerously handsome.

Word count : 4688

Part : -

Warnings : light mentions of alcohol, cursing, and that should be it. it’s nothing too serious.

A/N: HIIII this is my gift for @s9da (well technically for paranormalsoup... i think you can piece in together why i asked you abt paranormalsoup in the wormsie discord server hehe) for the @newsiesgiftexchange i had fun making this bcs i absolutely love newsies royal au, so i hope you don’t mind i wrote a somewhat self indulgent fic for your gift hehe. it was still spromeo like you asked, but uhh idk i hope you like it bcs half of me think it’s not as great as i thought it was in my head. But anyways enjoy!!! :D

“Romeo! Get your ass out of there!”

“How long does it take for you to get dressed?!”

The two muffled voices turned into banging on the door. Romeo rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore his brothers and continuing to adjust his tuxedo in front of his full length standing mirror.

His bedroom door swung open with no warning. In turns, two boys formally dressed came storming in.

“Race! Crutchie! You could have at least waited for me to let you two in!” Romeo protested, adjusting sleeves under his dark blue blazer.

“My God, Ro! You’re not even ready yet!” Crutchie commented, walking over as fast as he could with his crutch to get to where Romeo is standing. He takes the silver tie from the dresser and slings it around Romoe’s shirt collar, “The party is supposed to start right now and you know dad would want all of his sons to be present!”

“He was probably too busy talking to the cat, weren’t you?” Race flops on the big bed, causing the dozens of velvet pillows to jump. It also seems to have awakened a huge white fluffy cat in the midst of the pillows.

“Racetrack! Snowy was getting his beauty sleep!” Romeo protested, seeing the scene unfold from the mirror.

Crutchie flipped both of his brothers off, telling Race to be careful so he doesn’t mess his own outfit up and making Romeo stand still while he helps him get ready. In under five minutes and Romeo is properly dressed just like his brothers.

Crutchie places Romeo’s crown on top of his black locks, the magnificent silver object goes perfectly with the intricate silver curlicue designs on the shoulder and back of his dark blue blazer. With the tiny silver crown lapel pin and its tiny chain draping on the fabric to wrap up the dashing outfit.

The three head out of the room. They strut through the grand hallway like it’s a fashion week runway, feeling confident with every step following the red velvet carpet till they reach the grand ballroom decked to the nines just like them.

A huge chandelier hanging above the open space. A few tables and chairs neatly organized for the awaiting guests but still leaving enough space for a dance floor. The huge glass doors wide open to make use of the huge balcony for the party, also letting the evening breeze through the door.

“About damn time you three show up!” Jack, the oldest brother exclaimed.

“Jack! Do mind your language!” Their father protested.

His three younger brothers walk up onto the podium, greeting their father who’s sitting on the only throne present.

“It was all Romeo’s fault. He didn’t know how to tie his own tie!” Race joked.

The brothers have their little silent squabble as they stand behind the throne. Crutchie decides to not get himself involved in it and tries to break it up, “Oh, grow up you guys!”

Those words did nothing to help. In turn, Crutchie turns to their father in hopes to ignore those three.

“Jackie-love! Listen to your brother, please!” A different voice chimed in.

The three turn their focus away towards it and see Jack’s husband already fully dressed up. In a classy dark purple suit with a grey tie in the same shade as Jack’s own suit.

“We’re celebrating our sixth anniversary and Sarah is finally home from her travels. The least you could do is to keep yourself presentable!”

Jack pushes aside the squabble, switching on his loving smile for Davey. Romeo and Race pulled away from the squabble right after Jack. Their father silently sighed in relief to see his sons finally deciding to act like fully grown adults.

He tells the royal guards to let the guests in. In under five minutes, the ballroom was instantly filled with guests in formal attire. Some fill their assigned seats for the dinner that was promised in the invitation while others mingle with each other. The band, playing lovely tunes loud and clear but it wasn’t time for the guests to get up and dance.

The princes have also indulged themselves in the party. Jack and Davey can be seen mingling with the guests they’ve invited, listening to their congratulations on their sixth anniversary. Crutchie has gone to god knows where, which is surprising because he’s wearing a flashy yellow and black suit in the midst of all the mostly dull colored outfits in the ballroom. Race had gone off to fulfilling his promise to their father of introducing his new lover, the future king of Brooklyn.

Romeo is left to slump on the round table with leftovers sitting idly on his plate. An odd thing for him to do, and he’s quite aware of it too. Romeo adores mingling, making new friends, or even catching up with some old friends that he has indeed spotted somewhere amongst the crowd this evening. Though, his energy to do so doesn’t seem to be there in this particular moment.

The young prince watches from afar as his big brother finally introduces Spot Conlon to their father. Spot’s dark red suit is really contrasting to Race’s own outfit, a bright blue suit with golden curlicue designs on the shoulders and back which is a bit like Romeo’s. It matches perfectly with his blond messy curls and electric blue eyes.

Romeo smiles, seeing his brother’s face lighting up as their father seemingly approves of the dashing Brooklyn boy that he has so helplessly fallen in love with for the past two years. Romeo doesn’t linger on it though. He returns his focus towards his empty table and plate, a sad smile painting his face as he observes his own reflection on the ceramic.

“Well, aren’t you the life of the party!” A voice interrupted his thoughts, causing him to lift his head up, “But if I do say so myself, and I mean no offense to his royal highness, you’re quite the tragic sight sitting here all alone”

His eyes landed on a gentleman standing proud and tall in a maroon suit, a black tie neatly tucked under his blazer. His complexion reminded Romeo of the topaz rocks in some of the castle’s intricate decorations, rich with brown but always glowing bright with the rest of the gems. In this case, his glow comes from the simple smile and the lovely brown eyes behind the silver framed spectacles.

The initial comment brought a smile to Romeo’s face and a little laugh along with it. He fixes his sitting posture, eyeing the stranger with a head tilt while his head tries to figure out who this guest could be.

“And you’re what? Here to be my savior from my little slump?” Romeo replied to match with the stranger’s cleverness.

Seeing the success his opening line has brought, the gentleman pulls out an empty chair next to Romeo and sits himself down, “Well, you’re the prince here. Whatever it is you command me to be, I’m pretty sure I need to follow”

Romeo lets out a small fit of laughter through his smile, looking away from the man’s eyes. It also makes the stranger laugh along with him.

Romeo returns his sight back to the man in front of him. He walked right into a gaze-off he cannot look away from. In no means for intimidation, but a brief yet firm infatuation through the art of eye contact with the man he just met. Only now did Romeo realize how dangerously handsome this stranger is.

“Romeo!” The call of his name pulled him away from the gaze and back to the world around him.

He spots Crutchie zipping through the crowd. A smile painted on his face, just as bright as the yellow and black suit he’s currently rocking in. Romeo stands up to give his brother a hug.

“I see you’ve met one of my friends from the lab!” Crutchie gestured back to the stranger Romeo was just previously speaking to, already slightly bowing his head to pay his respects to the two members of the royal family.

“Oh, you work in the lab!” Romeo concluded, turning back to face the stranger who’s already on his feet.

“Yeah. We call him Specs!” Crutchie giggled, making the other man laugh along while Romeo looks back to where he’s currently standing, “And Specs, this is my brother, Romeo!”

Specs pulls up a simple smile for Romeo and a firm head nod.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you two!” Crutchie apologized, a few moments after remembering they were previously having a conversation. He adjusts his crutch to get ready to leave, “I’ll leave you two to it, okay?”

Romeo watches as his brother walks away to mingle into another group. It leaves him with the previous gentleman he was talking to. The only differences now, he’s not much of a stranger anymore.

“So... That’s what they actually call you? ‘Specs’?”

“Well, it’s because, if you can’t already tell…”

Specs gestures towards his spectacles that rests on the bridge of his nose. Romeo chuckles, playfully rolling his eyes. But the smile tells Specs he’s still in the clear from offending a royal family member.

“What’s your actual name? Unless you don’t have one”

He laughs, parting his lips to let it out before saying, “It’s Julian. But now people mostly refer to me as Specs”

Romeo nods, staring directly into his sparkly brown eyes. Whatever is gleaming under it is very inviting, and Romeo isn’t opposed to this mysterious invitation. He’s rather pleased by its presence. Before he knows it he’s already engaged with it, letting his own obsidian gemstone eyes linger in the gaze.

“A pleasure to meet you... Specs”

“The pleasure’s all mine... Prince Romeo”

Soon enough the sun has fully set. The night sky takes over the heavens above, thread by sparkling pearls to break up the deep blue. But the party didn’t stop. The royal family’s favorite performer, Ms. Medda Larkin, has finally arrived in the most fashionably late way. Her grand entrance was welcomed with warm arms by King Denton himself.

With the presence of the superstar, the band picked up its lack of entertainment as Ms. Medda picked up the microphone after a quick dinner. The jazzy upbeat tune sends all the guests roaring for the dance floor.

Romeo though? He has his own entertainment, in the huge balcony by the bar with his own partner.

“No dance?”

Romeo pries his eyes away from the dance floor he’s observing from outside. He glues them onto Specs, leaning his shoulder on the shiny bar top while twirling his glass of scotch.

Romeo shakes his head, making a semi weird face, “Not really up for it”

“Huh, you’re nothing like what Prince Charlie says” Specs commented, taking a gulp from his glass to finish his drink off, “He says that you’re very energetic and flirty”

The comment makes him scoff through his smile, “I can’t say that he’s wrong. But… I’m just not feeling it tonight”

The little silence between them is giving Romeo the impression that he should explain even further. But he takes this chance to finish his own drink and change the subject, “So, you work in Crutchie’s lab?”

The subject of Specs’ profession quickly did the trick. It also reveals some basic facts about him. As it turns out, Davey was the one that pushed him to work in the royal lab. He’s been friends with Davey since college and has been partners in crime ever since. Davey was first to get the job as a chemical engineer at Crutchie’s lab after a year of switching jobs to match his preferences, while Specs was still continuing his studies for a masters degree. Since he’s been an A+ student at a young age, the first application he sent got him the call for the job interview and got in quickly.

Romeo was very impressed by the story. Half way through it he starts to question as to why he’s been given the honor to talk to Specs. There is no way Specs is anywhere close to Romeo's league.

Regardless, Specs doesn’t seem to question all of that. While there’s a noisy ballroom in the background, they’re having a party of their own. Smiling, laughing, and basically having a great time in their private little universe. Romeo is very much infatuated by the gentleman and wouldn’t want anything in the world to ruin the moment.

“Y’know, you should probably just drop all the formalities at this point” Romeo lightly mentioned, between sipping his third drink he had only touched after half an hour upon asking the bartender for one, “It’s just me”

“Just you?” Specs questioned, lips wrapping up into a warm smile that makes Romeo’s heart melt.

He froze in place, admiring the wonder to behold. It makes Romeo smile wider as he slowly nods at the question.

Before he could say anything else, the loud sound coming from inside took over their center of attention. A loud cheering of guests over something neither Specs or Romeo knows about, as the view was blocked by dozens of backs.

Romeo turns his head away from it, focusing back to where he is currently at. He glances over at Specs and says, “Let’s get out of here”

Specs looks back at Romeo, a little confused with his offer, “And go where, exactly?”

Romeo sips the remaining liquid in his glass, setting it back with a loud clang against the bar top. He spontaneously grabs Specs’ hand and drags him away, leading him to the stairs on the side of the huge balcony. With every step down, the twinkling Manhattan view slowly fades away from their eyes.

It was soon replaced by the view of the royal garden in the dark. A cobblestone path stretching to as far as the eyes can see in the dark, pass the green trees with overgrowing plants hanging over it, and various shapes of bushes strategically placed all around the settlement. The smell of the grass is so fresh and different, unlike anything Specs has ever encountered before.

However, Romeo drags him to the other direction. They walked under a dimly lit tunnel, under where the balcony and the ballroom is. They can barely see each other in this kind of lighting, though Romeo’s crown was able to let the tiniest ray of light reflect on its figure. At the end of the tunnel, they can see an opening which would lead them to the center of the palace where another garden is located.

“Where are we going, if I may ask?” Specs returned to his previous unanswered question.

“Just… around, I guess”

The two smile at each other, Specs nodding along to whatever bullshit he was just fed but still getting entertained by it anyways.

“So… are you gonna tell me why you decide to detach yourself from the party?”

So he noticed. Well, it isn’t like Romeo has been sneaky about it but he was hoping it wouldn’t be brought up.

“That party isn’t for me so…” Romeo started, fiddling the hem of his blazer, “... It didn’t felt right if I were to mingle in there”

“Because that party wasn’t for you?”

Romeo stops in his tracks, realizing how wrong that sounds, “Okay, wait, I take that back umm…”

“No, it’s okay if you’re a little… self centered” Specs half teased.

Romeo scoffs at that, playfully shoving his arms with his shoulders that sends the taller boy laughing. He recollects his composure and re-explains himself, “I mean… Jack, Race, and Crutchie are up there because they have…’something’”

The two continue to walk through the tunnel, Specs fixated to Romeo as he explains himself.

“You see Jack, already living up to his reputation from being a good leader. Charismatic, fearless, all of that. He’s just waiting for our father to step down from the throne so he can unleash his full potential” Romeo started out, which made no sense to Specs question but he kept listening anyways, “And then you got Race. However big of a dumbass and a troublemaker he is, he’s smart! He doesn’t work full time at the lab but you’ve seen him there a few times, right?”

Specs nods, recalling the memory of him seeing prince Anthony while he was working.

“A great problem solver. Despite being the one that causes the most problems in the castle” Romeo added, making Specs chuckle a bit. He lets himself smile at that but it didn’t linger long.

“And you know Crutchie. He’s smart and wants nothing more than to help others. Hearing the voices of the little people” Romeo continued.

He stops walking, causing Specs to do the same. They’ve almost made it through the tunnel, just a few more steps away. The moonlight can reach just far enough to illuminate their faces and highlight their main features.

Romeo looks up to the other boy, “I’m almost 23 and I haven’t really done shit”

Specs fully turns his body towards Romeo, his words from before finally clicking in his head.

“I thought you were a performer” Specs said, “Isn’t that something to be proud of?”

“It is something I’m proud of. But people talk, Specs”

His older brothers are famous for what they’ve achieved that are viewed as ‘useful’ with their title as royalty. Romeo, on the other hand, is a famous Broadway performer. Whether it’s playing the lead role, a side character, or just a part of the ensemble, no one will deny his talent. But people still talk badly about his title mixed with his love for theatre.

Specs stays silent while waiting for Romeo to continue. He let’s Romeo walk out the tunnel first, letting the glow of the night illuminate his whole body along with the garden he’s in. Though, his heart doesn’t seem to be enjoying it the way that he should.

Romeo turns around to face Specs, already slowly stepping out of the shadows of the tunnel. He takes his crown off his head, letting it dangle freely in his right hand, “Living here has its perks. But the downside is people expect you to be a leader of some sort”

The taller boy stands next to Romeo, observing one side of the castle. The bright lights from the chandeliers clear as day through the huge windows.

“So you’re really going to let the stupid comments old people say about you affect the rest of your life?” Specs questioned, letting a small smile creep up his face, “I mean, you’re the one that gets all the girls drooling”

“I guess, but I prefer guys anyways” Romeo half chuckled, his smile yet to return.

“Then it looks like the odds are with me” Specs said in a cheeky manner, taking a few steps ahead of Romeo.

It caught him off guard. He dumbfoundedly stared at the boy for a good few seconds while his back was facing him. Heart beating very fast. Heat rising up his cheeks. The corner of his lips picks up on the tiniest bit of joy and excitement his heart is indulging in.

Specs turns around and Romeo shakes away any obvious adoration towards the boy, pretending to admire his crown in his grasp.

“I mean, I think you’re a very talented actor”

“So you’re a fan?” Romeo asked cleverly, looking up to meet his eyes again while placing his crown back on his head, “Is that why you came up to me in the first place?”

“Among other things… yes”

Well, that’s something to know.

Romeo and Specs roam around the garden in the dark, though they stay quiet in fear that other people might hear their presence. The laughing felt more personal and heartfelt when it’s secretive like this. Somehow Romeo is falling out of his usual confident nature, getting shier with every giggle that escapes their lips or clever remark Specs added on to the conversation.

Romeo brought up the idea for the two to head to his bedroom after spotting a glimpse of his balcony on the second floor. Well, from the ground it’s three floors up. Regardless, they were still able to utilize their environment to work in their favor on climbing to the balcony.

Romeo avoided entering his bedroom because it was embarrassingly messy. So they stayed where they are, carefully sitting on the balcony railing and continuing their conversation. They picked it up so easily that they’re soon laughing together like before. This time, they get a view of the garden below, a glimpse of Manhattan, and closer to the night sky. The warmth of his bedroom through the open balcony doorway defeats the freezing temperatures from outside.

Specs was interrupted mid sentence after an odd feeling came by his leg. Fluffy and warm, like it’s a living being.

“Who’s this?” Specs looks down to see a white fluffy cat looking back up to him. He gently picks up the white furball and cradles it close to his chest with a loving smile.

“About time he decides to wake up from his nap” Romeo commented, scooching closer towards Specs so that they’re shoulder to shoulder so he can pet his little feline companion, “His name is Snowy”

Snowy purrs at the love he’s receiving, giving the two boys long and slow blinks with every pet they provide.

“Do you have any pets, Specs?” Romeo asked.

“My apartment doesn’t allow pets. It actually sucks because it can get a little lonely” Specs replied. He lets Snowy go after the cat starts stirring in his grasps. Specs cleans any excessive fur that got stuck on his blazer before turning back towards Romeo, “I’m glad I get to have my own space after needing to live in a foster home for the majority of the time. But I got used to having lots of people around so…”

“Not courting anybody?” Romeo asked again, “You look like the kind of guy who’d win a lot”

Romeo you fucking idiot. His mind was yelling at him for saying that. No one with common sense would blatantly say that to someone they just met that day.

Specs chuckles through his smile, staring at Romeo with a little twinkle hidden in his brown eyes. It could just be the stars from the sky reflecting in his eyes, but it’s not possible because there was a meaning behind his glimmer.

“Not really my style” Specs replied, a flirtatious smirk making its way up to his face, “Though, I met a guy recently and… I’m trying my best to impress him”

Oh. My. God.

Romeo didn’t realize how close their faces were getting. Hot breaths circulate the small gap between their faces. Romeo diverts his eyes away from Specs’, but it absentmindedly went to stare at his lips. He imitated the way Specs has his lips slightly parted.

“A-and how’s that going for you?” Romeo dared to ask, stopping the gravitational pull towards each other. Any closer and Specs might know how fast his heartbeat is going.

“Not sure” He replied breathlessly, “You’ll have to tell me”

If stomach butterflies could explode then that is definitely how Romeo is feeling right now. But they stayed still. Neither quite seem to have the courage to take the next step.

Specs took the initiative, slowly guiding his hand up to cup Romeo’s cheeks. He then whispers, “Can I-”

“Romeo!” A muffled voice interrupted their little moment. They quickly pull apart and stare at Romeo’s bedroom door inside the dimly lit bedroom. Violent knocking followed after the voice and it continued, “Romeo, are you in there?”

It didn’t take long for Specs to catch on to what’s happening. He scrambles himself away behind the brick wall of the balcony, just next to the doorway. Romeo fixes his suit and answers the door.

Just as he expected it, it was Race. No one in the family knocks as violently as he does.

“My God, Race! Can I ever get some time alone in my room?” Romeo answered the door.

“Why are you even in here? You’re supposed to be at the party!” Race said, “Dad was looking for you, y’know”

“I just needed a little air but I’ll be right there, I promise”

He flips Race away and turns around, seeing the previous boy he was with coming out of his previous hiding spot. He smiles sheepishly at Specs, which was met with his own chuckling.

“Guess, we better head back” Romeo said, looking up to meet Specs’ eyes, “But you’re gonna have to use the balcony”

“I figured”

Specs sits back on the balcony before swinging both legs over the railing to climb down. Romeo leans his body against the railing, held up by his arms. It’s only polite to wait for Specs to climb down before he leaves to get to the ballroom himself.

“By the way… thanks for keeping me company” Romeo felt like he owed him a thank you. After all, Specs could’ve had some fun or gained more than just a casual get-to-know-me conversation if he were to fully participate in the party.

Specs looks up from minding his steps down, back up to Romeo’s eyes with a loving gaze towards him, “Of course. When else will I get the chance to be this close to you?”

Rome looks down to his hands to hide away his blush and bashful little smile. He notices Specs hands are still on the railing, placed quite close to his own.

“But how did I do? Were you impressed?”

Romeo looks up, finding the other boy’s face is already two inches away from his own. The exact same position they were in before getting interrupted by his brother, just this time Specs is hanging on the balcony.

“Is that something you want to know?” Romeo questioned back with a little giggle following it. He thought it would be fun to tease him around before they finally part ways.

“It’s not usual for me to straight up ask but… “ Specs caught on with the teasing, “... technically you were the one that ask”

Romeo giggles along with him. He nods to his question and answers properly, “Yes. I was very much impressed by you, Specs”

The next seconds were filled with silence. The high from their little banter turned into adrenaline to do something with how they’re positioned now. They both realize it, as both smiles slowly fade to parted lips with hot and heavy breaths hitting each other’s faces. Romeo glues his eyes on Specs’ lips, he could only imagine the other boy did the same.

“Do I get the permission to kiss you?” Specs asked, barely above a whisper while his hands traced up Romeo’s arm until it reached his cheek once again.

Romeo stuttered through his next few words before replying with a little giggle, “Permission granted”

Specs wasted no time, softly crashing his lips on the other boy’s. Fireworks set off in their heads as the feelings developed for each other from this short period of time are released in one gentle kiss. Romeo moves one hand to hold his neck, as a means to deepen the kiss and to secure Specs from falling.

They part with heavy breaths escaping their lips. The heavy breathings turned into giggles and giggles turned into goodbyes.

Romeo watches as a giddy looking Specs makes it to the ground and walks towards the previous tunnel. Before finally escaping his vision, Specs glances back up to Romeo. Despite the distant Romeo can see a stupid grin on his face, which only made him laugh.

As Specs finally escapes his view, Romeo lets out a long and adoring sigh and melts into the moment. Lowering his body and placing his head on top of his hands that are gripping on the balcony.

He hears his beloved fur ball meow near him, but he’s far gone for that boy to even care what the cat wants.

“I know, Snowy,” Romeo said, as if understanding the language his cat speaks, “He’s such a dream…”

#random writing #spromeo #spromeo newsies #newsies #specs newsies #romeo newsies #tw alcohol #tw cursing

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