#leave me alone i think it's trust issues
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I'm convinced that my friend is fed up with hearing me talk about what I like. "You, the least fan of himđ" "Ok, I don't care" "You and L have me fed up with Sherlock" ??? What do you mean? I hear you talk about the lore of Genshin Impact and FNAF every day, I let you show me memes that I don't understand, i ask you for more info even if it doesn't enters my mind, and I never complain because I like to see you happy. At least don't pretend. Tell me you're not in the mood and I'll understand.
#rant#shes not a bad person#but I think he has trouble realizing that what he says can make people feel bad#should I tell him instead of uploading it here? of course yes#but it's not that easy for me#besides I'm a coward#and I don't want her to get angry and stop being my friend#leave me alone i think it's trust issues#also my two best friends aren't talking to me#and if they send me a message it's not related to the one I sent them before#I asked you what you said in the audio that I didn't hear you and you answer me after hours and it's not even about what we were talking#and I reply to the new topic and you leave me on read until the next day when you change the subject again#I don't mind being left on read but. you're literally ignoring me.#I think that's enough for today#maybe i'll delete this later#what the fuck im doing wrong
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Currently trying not to vomit over the fact that I essentially just lost almost a thousand dollars brb
#why me. why is it always fucking me am I just not allowed to have good things WHAT have I done to earn this kinda karma#my stupid fucking idiot roommate decided to resign the lease at the complex so I naturally contacted the landlords like hey. how does that#work with the security deposit cuz I paid that years before she even moved in do you guys need to come inspect the place after I leave#and they were like oh no âșïž it just carries over to her. and Iâm like. so. so even though I am not living here nor am on the lease#whether or not I get NINE HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS BACK hinges on this JACKASS not wrecking the place???? actually not even then because say#she DOESNT wreck the place when she moves out TURNS OUT the deposit goes to her cuz itâs her name and account attached to the fucking#apartment and Iâm just left sitting here like how. how is that fucking fair how does that make fucking sense I have to trust that she doesnt#ruin the place OR GET FUCKING EVICTED BECAUSE SHE HAS NO JOB AND NO WAY TO PAY RENT and then also trust her to just give it to me when she#moves out. Iâm actually sick Iâm actually gonna fucking throw up and the landlords were like yes exactly âșïž perhaps you could work something#out with her and she could buy you out of it and Iâm just like. she doesnât have a job she still hasnât paid me for LAST months utilities#let alone this months do you HONESTLY THINK she is EVER going to pay me the 900 dollars Iâm fucking owed#and itâs like does this actually affect anything? no. I didnât budget with that money cuz I didnât actively have it and thatâs not smart but#likeâŠ. 900 dollarsâŠ.. I could have paid off the rest of my credit card with that and also itâs just infuriating that that money is basically#just being GIVEN to this fucking bitch who I KNOW is not gonna keep that apartment in good shape and thatâs again if she somehow doesnât get#her ass evicted cuz sheâs not paying bills why they even LET her sign her own lease there I do not understand she literally has no proof of#income but ig they probably didnât check that cuz she technically already lived there Iâm just so. Iâm so tired and Iâm so done can I PLEASE#stop being the one who constantly gets screwed fucking over in EVERY situation no matter fucking what#while all these fucking idiots and shitty fucking ppl get whatever they want and actively BENEFIT from me getting fucked over???? Iâm done.#Iâm so fucking done I am never living with someone ever again never being finanacially tied to anyone fucking again and you know what. thats#great goes well with me basically being convinced atp to never be vulnerable with anyone ever again and never trust anyone ever again and#never dedicate ANY part of my life in a genuine sense to anyone ever again I will be fucking alone in every sense for THE REST of my fucking#life and thatâs that. itâll be better. this kinda shit will stop happening. financially emotionally psychologically I will stop suffering#because holy fucking shit I canât do it anymore man Iâm sick of it Iâm sick of trying to be a good person and depend on people and be#vulnerable and always uphold my side of the responsibilities and arrangements just to get fucking spit on like man if this is what being a#shit person gets ppl maybe I should try because they sure seem to get all the benefits and whatever the hell they want consistently and#always while I try and be considerate of others and devote myselves to them and this is all I fucking get for it#and ik I KNOW this is just the straw on the camels back and this is a lot of issues compounding and itâs not even about the money atp#but Iâm just. Iâm so fucking sick and tired and beaten down and Iâm tired of trying I just want to be completely on my own#so at least if bad things happen or I feel like shit I only have myself to blame and itâs safer that way and Iâll have to stop feeling like#this and dealing with these types of things UGH
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Silly Game Time: Have you ever seen or heard a ghost (or what some might've considered to be a ghost)? If so, when and where?
Ohohohohohohoh Iâve been looking for an excuse to share some of this shit.
Short answer, yes, a while ago, twice at my house, and once on an island.
long answer is under the cut because Iâve been looking for an excuse to ramble about this stuff and it got a bit out of hand, aka horrifically long. So just be warned I guess.
So for context my momâs side of the family has a history of some mildly supernatural stuff happening, and being able to sense stuff and all that jazz. Not in like the Hollywood type of way, just occasional feelings of a presence, or seeing something weird out of the corner of their eye, or encountering something strange for a bit, stuff like that. Overall pretty mild. And lucky me, I got it too. Maybe not ghosts or demons in the traditional sense most of the time, but definitely something else on occasion. Most of them are harmless, or just curious, but some are more malicious and all of that stuff. You can usually tell the difference based off vibes. Now hereâs the thing, if you can more easily sense them, they can more easily sense you, and tend to get curious and interact a bit more because of it. Iâve encountered a couple of weird situations, none of which I can logically explain away easily (maybe the last one was my brain playing tricks on me, but considering it was on an island where a murder occurred on the next island over and was known to have many ghosts on it and literal graves I donât think so), and Iâll share the ones I can think of right now here.
So this first one I donât actually remember, because I was a newborn at the time. But my mom has told me about it a bunch. She said that when I was a baby and had just been brought home, Iâd sometimes start randomly crying in my room. Now all kids do this, but she said I sounded almost scared. Iâd always stop a while later, and when they checked on me I was fine. But she said that she felt a weird presence in my room sometimes. Now one time my mom apparently was putting me down for a nap, and I was all fine and dandy, the room all warm, and I went to sleep, and she left. A minute later I started crying really badly, so she rushed in, and apparently caught a flicker of someone looking at me by my crib, and the room was no joke several degrees colder, like actually cold in there. She immediately grabbed me and left the room, before telling whatever it was to leave, because it was scaring me. Sure enough, after that it left, and didnât come back. It had just been curious.
The next thing I remember encountering was when I was like 10 or 11, itâs hard to remember, and wasnât really a ghost I donât think, but it was definitely something else, and it was definitely not nice. It possessed a stuffed monkey toy, one that came with a car in the trunk for some reason, with that cartoony smile and black eyes. It was cute for a while, until one day, it just. Wasnât. Its face didnât change, but somehow it felt more malicious, and like there was something behind it that meant us harm. It was in my younger brotherâs and Iâs room (we shared the room at the time), and there were several occasions when it moved on its own. Every single night it moved a little closer to my brotherâs bed, inching across the room every time, though neither of us had touched it out of fear. Finally one day it got too close, and I was scared enough to go throw it out in the kitchen trash (downstairs, and across the hall/house from the at the time family room, which is important later), thinking that it would be gone in the morning. But instead, that morning we found it on the desk in the family room, laying across one of his other toys, as if nothing had happened. (I later asked both my parents and neither one had removed or touched it.) So my brother and I were scared, and I went and put it laying down in the kitchen on the stove, which was completely empty by the way, and went to talk with my brother. When I went back in, it was sitting straight up, propped up against the cookbook on the stove, just⊠staring. That freaked me out really bad, so I did the only thing my kid brain could think of (based off the limited media I had consumed at that age and what I had) and did an exorcism of sorts. I figured that crosses repelled demons or whatever, right? So I grabbed some lavender cough rub (which ended up working really well), drew a cross on it, and pinned it in a bike helmet so it couldnât move and hung it in the breezeway. Repeated the cross thing a few more times, until it no longer felt actively malicious, and threw that thing away. It never returned.
Another one was a more complicated one, but I remember it really well. I think it was when I was 12 or 13, again, hard to remember. It was on an island, which was known for among other things, apparently having MANY ghosts, for many reasons. But I was playing a game of manhunt (basically a game of hide and seek mixed with tag for those who donât know) at night on the island with some other kids in the group I was in, and it was all dark. I had started to feel a bit nervous and also didnât know how long the game would last, so I started heading back to the hotel area/lawn area with lights and people, the main meeting place where everyone generally is, and people went after getting caught or opting out of the game. I began walking down this path, and kept seeing little blobs of shadow moving out of the corner of my eye, so I kept going to get back to the hotel area, not running or trying to catch their attention (seriously if you donât need to draw supernatural attention then you probably shouldnât, it rarely ends well), until I stopped for a moment because I saw a HUGE blob of shadow leap over the path, behind a fence into a garden or something, and disappear. I began walking to a more defined path after that, and soon began walking along the gravel path. After maybe a minute or less of walking, I heard footsteps behind me on the gravel path (a very distinct sound) and soon picked them out from my own. After a minute I stopped and turned around to see who it was, but nobody was there. But I still heard the footsteps on the path, getting closer. Thatâs when I bolted and absolutely LEGGED it back to the lawn area, to the nearest largish group of people with lights, and sticking with them for a while, until some of my friends showed up, having been caught, and we sat on the hotel area steps for a while under the lights.
So yeah, I definitely have. Thatâs not all of them, but they are the most memorable ones
#Chaos Answers#and thatâs not even counting the window knocker#(For context when I was younger I was a bit scared of the dark. At night one time I heard a knocking at my window.#My second floor of the house bedroom window. I was scared for a while. Eventually I turned over and told it I wasnât scared#and to leave me alone. It left after that. I think it fed off fear and attention.)#Iâve also had some other weird experiences that werenât really ghost things more like glitch in the matrix things but yeah#A lot of weird shit tends to happen to me#Some of my friends too#And one time I can be ABSOLUTELY SURE it wasnât a hallucination because we both heard it and got it recorded#(An ice cream truck song at random times. It got closer and farther at random. It didnât actually exist. She looked for it once. Nothing)#So yeah I guess Iâm a ghost magnet some friends are too (to varying degrees) and itâs weird and annoying to deal with#Also please donât mock me please#(None of this is religious btw. I couldnât give less of a shit about religions outside of mythology. Itâs just stuff that happens.)#(The lavender thing probably worked because of the power of belief and also lavender repelling evil stuff and it being medicine technically#Also before anyone accuses of any mental health issues or conditions trust me I got tested. Only have ADHD. Nothing else.
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aouuugh my uterus......
#long long day at work codeine wasnt helping with cramps and my meds are less effective on my period :(#ive been doing okay most of the day tho just starting feeling kind of miserable omw home bc such a long wait at the bus stop in pain#and im kind of lonely at the moment but wont be able to climb tomorrow bc of cramps so thats my main social source gone :(#and it always feels worse at home bc if im having a hard time like in physical pain or feeling down my roommate cant rly handle it#like she cant rly be in the room with me the headphones go straight on. which is ok im realising its just how her type of autism works#so im trying not to get as upset at her abt it. with varying degrees of success but it just takes time#i mean i dont get upset AT her like ik its not her fault and i dont want her feeling like it is. I keep it internal + cry once im alone#just different social needs n boundaries innit. we're a bit incompatible is all#but its still hard. I'd like support from other ppl when I'm struggling i mean i think thats a fairly normal thing to want#but of the friends I would be comfortable talking to abt how i feel none of them have that kind of emotional availability#which again is ok like its not on them. and im very capable of dealing w my shit myself one way or another so its not a Need#but idk. it would just be nice. I feel like I've had to be so independent most of my teenage and adult life and I wish I could take a#break from that sometimes. even just a hug would be nice man#sorry i always come on here and talk abt the same problems... well youll see me do it again no doubt abt that đ« #ughh and i feel so guilty for wanting things ppl cant give even though i know its not really my fault either and im allowed to want things#and i dont cross boundaries or make them feel bad abt it. i really hope i dont anyway. but still ahhh...#its so hard for me to feel connected to anyone if they cant rly engage w me emotionally at all like its a non negotiable#factor into closeness and trust for me and i get so frustrated bc i feel so distant and alienated from the ppl i care abt most#and ik i overreact bc of my rsd so maybe its just that its probably not even a real issue. but its real to me bc im the one who gets upset#man. anyway its okay just a really really long day. im gonna wash my dishes and then shower#and finish my book. maybe i should play some dead cells i miss it. i dont really want to think abt how i feel anymore#maybe ill see if anyones free to hang out tmr evening so i dont have to feel as lonely even if i cant leave the house after work#all good nice to have a plan anyway. done sniffling. my hot water bottle is helping thr cramps a littlr i think#.diaries#oh i dont think its helping actually ow. i took more codeine an hour ago why doesnt it do anything. not fairrr đ
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real
#this is so mind numbingly exhausting i don't understand how everyone else seems to just do it?#it was such a weird day#started out in a good mood but then boss scolded these two interns cause of a mistake#and like he wasn't shouting exactly but he raised his voice and said so many things like you are so careless im suffering so many losses bc#bc of you outsiders are going to think i don't have a good team and i don't have control over my team#and how we should always note things down because we're so distracted and not serious#and how before going home everyday we should report to him what work we did today#i understand that he's being reasonable (maybe? idk) but it sounded so eerily horribly like my dad i couldn't function properly for an hour#why are men so similar everywhere#why am i SO scared i could feel the disappointment radiating off him and he wasn't even mad at me and i felt like a failure#which is so embarrassing like girl stop you are a 20 year old adult woman you will not cry at your workplace because an angry man triggered#your dad issues#and upar se there was a new intern at work one year younger than me and oh my god he was so annoying#like i talked to him first bc i pitied him like what if he felt alone it was only his second day but boy literally could not stop talkingđ#like ok it's kinda cool that this senior di she trusted me enough to be like you teach him this project report this when ive only been#here for 3 weeks but bhaiđ he's so annoying đ i have newfound respect for the di how does she handle all 7-8 of us interns i would go#crazy and shout at everyone and tell them to leave me alone đ but she's so patient and kind and answers dumb questions 100 times#but she's leaving this office permanently from next month bc of her ca final :( i mean very good for her she deserves better more money#better work hours better office etc. but :(( she's leaving :((#as you can see i have both dad issues and abandonment issues so fun lol
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final input before I fall asleep I think it is so so so funny that like. watching this playthrough seeing they kept the sh4 references in I did have a moment where I was like. tbh I hope that by remaking this game instead of starting with the first one, that implies they aren't going to remake 3 either. I think they should ignore 3 completely. but I think a sh4 remake would actually go hard as hell
#chatty!#im one of the tiny handful of ppl that actually liked 4 and if they remade that one i would actually play it#something about 2 is just wrong and ive been so put off by it ever since the reveal trailer. the tone is very specific yk#but i feel like if they had done 4 instead it wouldve been such a different impression#4 of course is the bastard child and i dont expect them to actually do that one. but imagine#thatd make most sense to me personally. and i do genuinely think they could pull it off#bc my biggest issue rn i think literally is the tone of the game. combat looks bad too but its not supposed to be good#that said it wasnt *before*. remake seems extremely combat reliant/heavy so idk why they kept the awkward clunkiness too#its the fact that its a remake of a game that was Very Specific and theyre going a complete other way thats killing it for me#and i feel like what theyre doing wouldve worked better with a game that was Not so so connected to its original specific mood#u know what i mean. like i prommy im not opposed to the idea of remakes this one just was certainly a. choice#i also dont trust them to remake 3 thats why i do not want to see it <3 leave her alone
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The walls of your shared apartment seemed to close in, the air thick with unspoken resentments that had been building for weeks. What had begun as a minor disagreement about household chores had somehow torn open wounds neither of you knew were still bleeding. Xavier stood across from you, his brows furrowed, the only visible sign of his distress.
âYou werenât listening to what Iâm actually saying!â you shouted, frustration bubbling over like a pot left too long on the stove. âItâs like Iâm talking to a brick wall. Maybe we should just get divorced since you clearly donât care enough to even hear me!â
The words hung in the air like smoke, poisonous and suffocating. Xavier went completely still, the color draining from his face as if youâd physically struck him. His carefully maintained composure shattered completely. For a terrible moment, he looked like a lost child, confusion and raw hurt etched across features that rarely betrayed emotion, as if trying to process whether heâd heard you correctly.
âWhat?â His voice came out as barely a whisper, the single syllable laden with disbelief. The tremor in his hands was visible now as he took a halting step toward you. âYou want to leave me?â
The question hung between you, fragile and devastating. His eyesâusually so guardedâwere wide with a naked vulnerability that made your chest ache. Youâd never seen him like this, stripped of his careful control, looking at you as though his entire world was crumbling beneath his feet.
âNo,â he finally said, the word coming out stronger than you expected, though his voice still wavered. âNo, I donât accept that.â
He moved closer, his eyes searching yours intently. âIs that truly what you want? To end everything we haveâŠ?â Xavier was stumbling over his words, fear making his movements uncertain.
The raw pain in his expression doused your anger like ice water. You felt a crushing wave of regret as you realized what youâd done.
You felt your anger dissolve, replaced by immediate regret. âI... I donât know what came over me,â you admitted, your voice softening as you reached for his hand. âIâm just... Iâm drowning here, Xavier. I feel so alone sometimes, even when youâre right beside me.â
Relief washed over his face in stages, as if he didnât quite trust it yet. The tension in his shoulders unwound gradually, his breathing becoming less ragged. He closed the remaining distance between you, his hands tentatively framing your face as if you might disappear at his touch.
âYou scared me,â he admitted, his voice barely audible. âI thoughtââ His throat worked as he swallowed hard, then shook his head as if dismissing the painful thought. âI know arguments are normal, but please donât say things like that unless you truly mean them.â
In a surprising move, Xavier pulled you gently against his chest, wrapping his arms around you. He rested his chin atop your head, his heartbeat gradually slowing from its accelerated pace. You could feel the subtle tremor in his body, still racing from the terror your words had inflicted.
âI know Iâm not...â he struggled, pressing his face into your hair. âI know I donât show it like others might. I know Iâm... difficult to read sometimes.â
His arms tightened, as if afraid you might slip away. âBut please understand,â he whispered against your temple, ânever, never think that means I donât care.â
The silence stretched between you, filled only by the sound of your mingled breathing slowly synchronizing. His hand moved in gentle circles against your back, a gesture so tender it brought tears to your eyes.
After a long moment, he pulled back just enough to look into your eyes, his own still haunted by the echo of fear your words had planted. âLetâs talk about whatâs really bothering you,â he said softly. âThe real issueânot threats we donât mean.â His thumb brushed a tear from your cheek. âI need you to know that Iâm listening. Really listening.â
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The kitchen lights buzzed overhead, casting harsh shadows across Zayneâs tired face as another late night unfolded into another argument. The takeout containers sat cold and forgotten on the counter, another dinner youâd planned to share, ruined by the hospitalâs relentless demands.
âThis is the third time this week, Zayne!â Your voice echoed off the pristine tiles, resentment burning in your chest. âIâm tired of coming second to your patients. Iâm tired of planning my entire life around a husband whoâs never actually here!â
Zayneâs shoulders slumped, exhaustion evident in every line of his body. âWhat do you want me to say? That patient would have died if Iâd left mid-surgery. You know that.â
âWhat I know is that our marriage is dying while youâre saving everyone else!â The words spilled out like blood from a wound. âIf your work is so much more important than what we have, maybe we shouldnât be married at all!â
Zayne went completely rigid, as if someone had just flatlined on his operating table. His eyes widened with an unmistakable flash of terror that transformed his features into something you barely recognized.
âWhat did you just say?â His voice emerged as a hoarse whisper, so unlike his usual tone that it startled you both. The mug heâd been holding slipped from his fingers, shattering against the floor with a crash that neither of you acknowledged.
His hand instinctively reached for the counter edge, gripping it with such force his knuckles turned bloodless white. âDo youââ He took a deep breath, visibly struggling to regain his composed detachment but failing completely. âDo you understand what youâre suggesting?â
His other hand pushed through his hair, a gesture so uncharacteristically vulnerable it startled you. Zayneâalways controlled, always collectedâlooked like he was coming apart at the seams.
âThis isnâtââ he began, his voice unsteady. âThis isnât something to throw around in an argument.â His gaze locked onto yours, desperate and searching. âDo you genuinely want to end our marriage? Is that... is that what Iâve driven you to?â
The raw fear in his eyes struck you like a physical blow. Regret washed over you immediately, dousing the flames of your anger.
âNo,â you whispered, moving toward him as if drawn by gravity. âNo, Zayne, no. I donât want that at all.â You stepped carefully over the broken ceramic, reaching for him. âI just... I miss you so much it physically hurts. Sometimes I feel like Iâm competing with ghosts for your attention, and Iâm always losing.â
The tension in his body didnât immediately dissolve, but something in his expression shiftedâa cautious relief mingled with lingering dread.
âYou canâtââ he started, then cleared his throat, struggling to steady his voice. âYou canât say things like that. Not when you donât mean them.â His eyes held a wounded vulnerability that made your heart ache. âNot even in anger.â
He reached for your hands, holding them between his ownâhands that were always steady, now trembling slightly as they enveloped yours. His touch was gentle but desperate, like someone clutching a lifeline.
âIâve lost patients before,â he murmured, his voice low. âDespite doing everything right, despite fighting with everything I had. Itâs an inevitable part of what I do.â His eyes met yours, stripped of their usual protective distance. âBut losing you... thereâs no protocol for that. No training that could prepare me for a world without you in it.â
He pulled you closer, one hand moving to the small of your back while the other cradled your face. âWe need to talk about thisâreally talk,â he said, his voice regaining some of its steadiness. âAbout my hours at the hospital and how theyâre affecting you. About better ways to communicate when youâre feeling abandoned.â His thumb brushed gently over your cheekbone. âBut threatening what we have... that canât be your way of getting my attention. I canât accept that.â
His forehead came to rest against yours, his breath warm on your skin. âI chose you,â he whispered. âNot just once at the altar, but every day since. The hospital gets my skills and my time, but you...â His voice caught. âYou have everything else. My heart. My future. Everything that matters.â
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âYou promised, Rafayel. You promised youâd be there tonight.â Your voice trembled with hurt and frustration. âAnd you just... didnât show up.â
Rafayelâs expression cycled through confusion, realization, and then dismay as he glanced at the clock. Paint smeared across his forearms, flecks of blue and gold caught in his disheveled hair. âThe dinner... was tonight?â His voice was small, stunned. âI thoughtâI was sure it was tomorrow. I justââ
âOf course you did,â you cut him off, tears burning your eyes. âOf course you probably got distracted by a pretty sky while I sat there making excuses for you!â The shame and embarrassment of the evening washed over you afresh. âYou never take anything seriously! Not my feelings, not my situationânothing!â
You knocked over an empty paint cup, sending it clattering across the floor. âMaybe we should just get divorced if Iâm so easy to forget!â
The words seemed to physically strike Rafayel. The ever-present light in his eyes extinguished instantly, as if someone had snuffed out a flame. His expression crumpled in stagesâshock, horror, then a devastating anguish that transformed his features into something almost unrecognizable.
âNo,â he whispered. Then louder, more desperate, âNo, no, noâyou canât mean that. Please tell me you donât mean that.â
He moved toward you with frantic urgency, nearly knocking over his easel in his haste. His hands reached for yours, fingers trembling visibly. âPlease,â he begged, his voice cracking. âPlease donât say that. Donât even think about it.â
Tears welled in his eyes, catching the light like a fractured crystal. His hands clutched yours with desperate intensity.
âIâll do better,â he promised frantically, words tumbling over each other. âIâll be better. Iâll set alarms. Iâll never miss another dinner. Iâllââ His voice broke. âIâll do anything. Just please donât leave me.â His breath hitched on a suppressed sob. âPlease donât leave me alone in a world without you in it.â
The raw panic in his eyes made your heart ache. You squeezed his hands, shaking your head quickly. âRafayel, I didnât mean it,â you said softly, reaching up to brush away a tear tracking down his cheek. âI would never leave youâI love you too much. I was just hurt and embarrassed, but I spoke without thinking. Iâm so sorry I scared you.â
The relief that washed over his face was almost painful to witnessâlike watching someone being pulled back from the edge of a cliff. His shoulders sagged as if a crushing weight had been lifted, and a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob escaped him. Without warning, he pulled you into an embrace so tight it nearly stole your breath, his body trembling against yours.
âYou scared me,â he whispered against your hair, his voice unsteady. âThe world without you in it... it wouldnât even be a world anymore.â His arms tightened around you, as if he could somehow merge you into himself, keep you from ever leaving. âThe ocean would lose its blue. The sunset would mean nothing. Everything would be wrong.â
For a moment, you glimpsed the true depth of his feelings. Rafayel clung to you as if you were his only tether to sanity.
âYouâre the only one,â he murmured brokenly, his fingers tangling in your hair. âThe only one whoâs ever truly seen me. The only one Iâve ever truly loved.â His voice caught on the words. âOthers... theyâre just shadows. Background noise. But youââ His breathing hitched. âYouâre the melody I canât stop hearing.â
He pulled back just enough to cup your face in his hands, eyes still glistening with unshed tears. âI know Iâm not... I know Iâm difficult,â he admitted, his thumb gently stroking your cheek. âI get distracted. I get lost in my head. I disappear when something catches my attention. But none of that means I donât care.â He rested his forehead against yours.
Rafayel pressed a trembling kiss to your forehead, then your cheek, then finally a feather-light touch to your lips. âIâm sorry about tonight,â he whispered. âI saw the sunset reflecting on the water, and it reminded me of the way your eyes catch the light when you laugh, and I just... got lost in trying to capture it. A moment that reminded me of you.â He shook his head slightly. âBut thatâs no excuse. I should have been with you.â
His arms wrapped around you once more, holding you as if you were something infinitely precious and terrifyingly fragile. âTell me how to make it right,â he pleaded softly. âTell me what you need from me, and Iâll give it to you. Anything. Just... just promise you wonât say those words again. Not even in anger. I couldnât bear it.â
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âYouâre being reckless again,â he said, his voice cool in a way that only stoked your anger further. âYouâre letting emotion cloud your judgment.â
Weeks of feeling second-guessed and undermined by the very person who should have been your greatest ally finally erupted. âNot everything needs your perfect, polished approval, Sylus! Sometimes instinct trumps your precious spreadsheets!â
His eyes narrowed slightlyâthe only outward sign that your words had struck a nerve. âInstinct without strategy leads to disaster. You know that.â
The argument echoed through the room. What had started as a disagreement about your latest ambitious ideas had escalated beyond reason when he questioned your methods.
âWhat I know is that you donât trust me anymore,â you said, voice rising with each word. âIf you think so little of my ideas and my capabilities, then maybe we should just get divorced and you can find someone who meets your impossible standards!â
The temperature in the room seemed to plummet. Sylus went completely, unnaturally still. Surprise and disbelief appeared on his features. He regarded you with an unfathomable stare, his jaw tightening visibly as a muscle worked in his cheek. Youâd never seen him look so... shaken. The silence stretched between you, heavy with implications neither of you was prepared to face.
âIs that what you want?â he finally asked, his voice unnervingly quiet. There was steel underneath his words, but also something elseâa carefully concealed pain that threaded through the syllables. His eyes never left yours, studying every micro-expression with devastating intensity.
He moved toward you in a few steps. âVery well,â he said softly, the words carrying a finality that sent ice through your veins. âIf that is truly your desire, I wonât stand in your way.â
His hand reached out, hovering near your face but not quite touching, as if memorizing your features from a distance. The gesture held such unexpected tenderness that it made your throat tighten. âThough I would ask you to consider carefully if that is what you genuinely want,â he continued, voice barely above a whisper. âSome decisions canât be undone.â
The subtle vulnerability in his controlled demeanor broke through your anger. You could see it nowâthe carefully masked fear behind his eyes, the slight tension in his shoulders that betrayed how deeply your words had cut him.
You reached for his hovering hand, pulling it to your cheek. âNoâplease, donât agree to that,â you said, your voice softening with immediate regret. âI spoke without thinking. I was hurt and angry and I lashed out in the worst possible way.â Your fingers tightened around his. âI value what weâve builtâwhat we haveâmore than anything in the world. I would never want to throw it away, especially not over a disagreement.â
Relief flickered across Sylusâs face, though so carefully guarded that you might have missed it had you not known every minute shift of his expression.
âI suspected as much,â he said, his voice softer now, almost gentle. His hand, which had been hovering near you, finally made full contact, his fingers tracing the line of your jaw. âStill, you should be more careful with your threats. I might have taken you at your word.â
He pulled you against him then, arms wrapping firmly around your waist. The embrace held a desperate quality that belied his controlled exterior, as if he was trying to reassure himself that you were still there, still his.
âYou are...â he began, then paused, choosing his words with characteristic precision. âYou are irreplaceable to me.â Coming from Sylusâa man who measured every word as carefully as he measured riskâthe simple statement carried more weight than flowery declarations might from others. âWhat we have built together is not something I would surrender without a fight.â His arms tightened infinitesimally. âBut I would never force you to remain if you truly wished to leave.â
He pulled back just enough to meet your gaze, his eyes searching yours with an intensity that made your breath catch.
âWe disagree. We argue. That is the nature of two ambitious minds existing in the same orbit.â His thumb traced your lower lip, the gesture surprisingly intimate. âBut donât threaten what we have unless you genuinely wish to end it.â Something vulnerable flickered in his eyes. âI respect you too much to assume your words are empty.â
For a moment, you glimpsed behind the mask of the strategic leader who planned several steps ahead in every situationâseeing instead a man momentarily confronted with a possibility he hadnât fully prepared for: your departure from his life.
đđđđđ
The argument had been building for weeks, pressure accumulating like a storm system. What started as a seemingly minor issueâCaleb canceling dinner plans again due to a last-minute work emergencyâhad erupted into something far more devastating. The living room felt too small for the tension between you.
âThatâs the fifth time this month,â you said, voice tight with hurt as you paced the living room. âI understand your work is important, but am I even a consideration anymore?â
Caleb ran a hand over his face, exhaustion evident in every line of his body. âItâs not like I had a choice. Whenââ
âYou always have a choice!â The words burst from you, weeks of loneliness and frustration finding their target. âYou choose your career over me, and Iâm tired of making excuses for why my husband is never home, never present, never here when I need him!â
âThatâs not fair,â he countered, his own frustration rising to meet yours. âYou knew what my life was when you married me. The Fleet doesnât care about our dinner reservations.â
âAnd clearly, neither do you!â You grabbed your keys from the counter, the metal biting into your palm. âMaybe we should just get divorced if your career is always going to come first! At least then I wouldnât be waiting for someone whoâs never coming home!â
The atmosphere shifted instantly, as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the room. Caleb, who had been pacing, stopped dead in his tracks. His entire body went rigid, eyes widening with a look of such raw horror that it made your heart stutter.
âNo,â he said after a long, terrible pause, his voice dangerously quiet. âNo, you donât mean that.â
He closed the distance between you in two swift strides, his eyes never leaving yours. There was something in his movement, a barely contained desperation, that made your breath hitch.
âYou donât mean that,â he repeated, his tone leaving no room for argument despite the slight tremor underneath the words. âYouâre upset, and you have every right to be. But thatââ he shook his head sharply, ââthatâs not an option. Not now, not ever.â
His hands found your shoulders, grip firm but gentle. The look in his eyes was a volatile mixture of hurt, fear, and something possessively fierce that sent a shiver down your spine. âWeâre not doing that,â he said, each word emphasizing. âYouâre mine, and Iâm yours. That doesnât change because weâre fighting.â
The intensity of his reaction cut through your anger like a blade, leaving only regret in its wake. You felt the fight drain out of you as you leaned into his touch, reaching up to cover his hands with yours.
âYouâre right,â you whispered, tears finally spilling over. âI donât mean it at all. I would neverââ Your voice broke. âIâm so sorry, Caleb. I was trying to hurt you because I felt hurt, but that was cruel and unfair. I would never want to lose you. I just feel so alone sometimes, like Iâm competing with the entire Fleet for scraps of your attention.â
The iron grip of tension in Calebâs shoulders eased slightly, though the intensity in his eyes remained. He exhaled slowly, as if releasing a breath heâd been holding since your outburst. One hand moved from your shoulder to cup your face, his touch gentler than his words had been.
âDonât ever say that again,â he said, his voice quiet but carrying a dangerous undercurrent. âNot even in anger. Not even as a weapon. Not ever.â The hand against your cheek trembled slightly. âI couldnât bear it.â
He pulled you against his chest, one arm wrapping securely around your waist while his other hand cradled the back of your head. You could feel his heart hammering against your cheek, his breathing uneven.
âThe thought of losing you...â he murmured against your hair. âItâs not something I can bear. Not something I would ever accept.â His arms tightened around you, as if he could physically prevent you from leaving by holding you close enough. âYouâre the only thing that keeps me human out there. The only reason I fight so hard to come back.â
He pulled back just enough to meet your gaze. âI know Iâve been distant,â he acknowledged, his thumb brushing away a tear from your cheek. âThe Fleet demands so much, but itâs no excuse. Nothingââ his grip tightened slightly, âânothing is more important to me than you. Not my career, not my duty, not anything.â
âWeâll figure this out,â he promised, pressing his forehead to yours. âWhatever it takes. More time together. Better communication.â His lips brushed yours.Â
âJust donât ever threaten to leave me again. I need you to promise me that.â His voice softened, revealing a vulnerability you rarely glimpsed. âBecause I donât think Iâd survive it.â
Phew, finally. This turned out to be one of my longest scenarios yet. Iâm honestly pretty proud of it, and yeah, I got emotionalâtears were shed, lol. I really hope itâs enough to repay all the love and enthusiasm youâve shown. Iâm so grateful youâre here to read it. Thank you!
#âMission Report.#âFull Orbit.#âMindwaves.#love and deepspace#lads#lnds#l&ds#loveanddeepspace#xavier#zayne#rafayel#sylus#caleb#lads xavier#lads zayne#lads rafayel#lads sylus#lads caleb#xavier x reader#zayne x reader#rafayel x reader#sylus x reader#caleb x reader#love and deepspace xavier#love and deepspace zayne#love and deepspace rafayel#love and deepspace sylus#love and deepspace caleb
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the psychology of men (a guide to understanding how they work) â ft. phainon
if nice guys didnât always screw you over, youâd have an easier time trusting that phainon isnât the good guy full of bullshit. but heâs still nice enough to patiently wait for you to give him one chance, though

word count. â€ïž 10.3k words â in literally one day. ONE
before you read. â€ïž female reader ; college au ; reader has a shitty ex boyfriend and trust issues â she is not perfect but she is human. be nice to her ; strangers to friends with benefits to lovers ; reader has a crush on mydei at first LOL ; mentions of alcohol and drunk sex ; phainon is a YEARNER ; resolved angst, miscommunication, and arguments ; phainon is down bad and reader is simply in denial that she is too ; cunnilingus ; unprotected vaginal sex ; creampie ; not proof read
commentary. â€ïž i didnât care about this dude until today. he possessed me so hard i wrote 10k words in less than 24 hours. white hair and blue eyed freaks will do that to you
LESSON ONE: MEN ARE ALWAYS PLANNING SOMETHING. THE NICER THEY SEEM, THE MORE SINISTER THE SCHEME!
You meet Phainon for the first time while youâre freshly out of a relationship, nursing a broken heart. Your ex-boyfriend pursued you with that heartfelt, fairytale sort of devotion, and you thought youâd be telling people at your wedding one day that you knew he was âthe oneâ early on in your relationship.Â
And then he dumped you as quickly as he âfell in loveâ with you. It wouldnât be right, heâd said, it just isnât fair to keep you around when I donât feel the way I used to. He leaves you with not so much as a tear of sorrow, and youâre left with the aftermath of a devastating heartbreak.Â
Not the sad, lingering kindâthis one is the sort of heartbreak that makes you hate all men. Especially the nice onesâthe ones that manipulate you into thinking theyâre the good guys who wonât turn on you, but they do. They always do. The nice guys are the ones with the most potential to turn out dangerous. They arenât upfront about their assholery. That shitty ex of yours is a prime example, and you refuse to fall victim twice.Â
Your first impression of Phainon happens in some boring college class you take just for the elective credit and an easy gpa boost. Heâs the sort of guy your attention doesnât instantly latch ontoâheâs sweet, sure, and funny but a little too gentle to be real. Too good to be true. Too much of a green flag to be interesting. Exactly the kind of guy youâre avoidingâexactly the sort of person who can worm his way into your heart slowly and lethally and then bite. Hard. (That sort of mindset is too pessimistic to be any good, of course, but youâre only just barely in your twenties as you navigate your dramatic breakup, and your prefrontal cortex is still developing.)
You find his friend a little more intriguing for the longest time, if youâre honest. The brooding blonde next to him always made your eyes linger for a second too long.Â
âHey,â he whispers, poking your shoulder from behind. You turn, slightly irritated by the fact that some guy is interrupting your dissociation in the middle of classâdoesnât he know you have false scenarios to run through your mind while you pass the time? Professor Anaxagoras has a strict no-phones-in-sight policy if you want to keep your participation points up, so the only thing to entertain you is your own head. Sheepishly, as if sensing your irritation, he murmurs, âSorry. Can I please use your laptop charger?â
âIâm using it,â you blink.Â
âYeah, but itâs almost fully charged,â he practically pleads. The puppy eyes on him are unrealâyou feel almost compelled to cave just at the sight of them alone until you realize itâs your charger, and heâs bargaining with you about why you donât need it. Absurd. âI can see the green battery sign.â
âAre you serious,â you stare at him blandly, âitâs barely twelve pm. Why is your laptop already dying anyway?â
âI charged it,â he pouts, âbut sheâs old and on her last legs. It doesnât last if I take the charger out for too longâI forgot to bring it with me. Please. If it dies in the middle of this assignment, itâll make me start over! It took me an hour to google all these answers.â
Well. Heâs convincing in that pathetic sort of way. Just the perfect mix between nice and genuine but still a tad bit needy that just tickles your gut in the right place to loosen you up. Without a word, you unplug your charger with a roll of your eyes and hand it to him as he smiles gratefully.Â
âYouâre the best!â
âYouâre pathetic,â his friend grunts to him from beside him.
âDonât be rude, Mydei!â he whispers through a wounded voice.Â
They continue to bicker back and forth, but you tune it outâthereâs only one thought on your mind for the remainder of your time in that room.Â
You spend the rest of class thinking about the deep sound of his friendâs voice to care about anything else. Fuck, you thinkâyouâre almost debating that strict no more men rule youâd set for yourself after your break up, ready to throw it all away for the grumpy looking blonde with red tips behind you. Heâs hot. And honestly, he seems a bit rude and crabby, so really, he canât be that badâand yeah, everyone would think heâs the red flag, but you know how men go. Youâve figured out their psychology. The ones who are prickly on the exterior are actually very soft inside, and theyâre not half as bad as the soft, cuddly type of men who turn around and bite you as soon as youâre close enough.Â
This guy could be different. He could be worked into devotion instead of smothering you with it early on, only to have ulterior motives and get bored. What was his name again? Mydei? Sounds decently moanable in bed, you reason. He certainly seems like a keeper.Â
Itâs not long before the lecture ends, and you walk off with all your thoughts consumed by the grumpy blonde guy who said maybe only three words that you properly heard before he possessed your mind like a fucking demon. So much so that you forget to ask for your charger back, and that clever asshole never gave it back on his own accord like a proper human being.Â
So, the next time Phainon walks into class, youâre glaring at him right at the entrance of the room with an outstretched hand and an unimpressed curl of your lips.Â
âMy charger,â you say blandly, âyou took off with it last class. I need it back.â
âOh!â he flushes, quickly digging into his bag and pulling it outâat least he kept it in very good condition. Men are not to be trusted with things you need because they are irresponsible. Case example: not returning what they borrow. âSorry,â he says earnestly, âI meant to return it, but I forgot. Which, I was thinkingâŠmaybe we should exchange numbersâyou knowâŠto contact outside of class if we ever need it.â
You blink, seeing right through him. Why else would you ever need it again? âYou walked off with my charger just so you could use it as an opening to ask for my number?â
He flushes a deeper shade of red, creeping up to his ears and down his neck like he didnât expect you to call him out on his so very blatant scheme. âW-wellâŠdid it work?â
You contemplate for a moment before you respond, âNo.â
âHow about if I throw in some assignment answers?â
ââŠOkay, fine.â You never pay attention in this classâthe tests are open notes, and the weekly assignments are easy enough when you have the internet at your disposal. But still, having someone present the answers to you is a much faster route, and you have other non-elective classes to worry about, so all in all, if a semi-annoying guy messages you here and there, itâs not so bad.
And the better part is that his friend is hot, so you can snag the details on him, too. Men donât really worry about the concept of loyaltyâthey donât stay far away from the people their friends show an interest in for something like friendship. You know how they work. Phainonâs number can lead you to Mydeiâs, and Mydei can break you free from your awful, terrible descent to madness from heartbreak, and when you inevitably have a happy, healthy, and loving relationship that lasts, youâll never think about your bastard ex again.
Foolproof.
âGreat!â Phainon beams. He hands you his phone, and you type your number in.
And that starts it all.Â
ââââââââââââââââââââââââ
LESSON TWO: SEX DOES NOT EQUAL INTIMACY. WHEN THEY SAY ITâS JUST PHYSICAL, THATâS TOTALLY FINE. BUT IF YOU SAY IT, YOUâRE OUT OF LINE!
Exchanging phone numbers with Phainon was supposed to be a simple way to have at least one contact for a classâa very important measure you should take for every class youâre inâand perhaps, if youâre lucky, you could also somehow get closer to that hot blonde friend he has named Mydei.Â
It was never supposed to become a real friendship.
But, wellâŠshit happens, and things donât go according to plan. It also doesnât help that Phainon is a consistent texterâalmost to a fault. What sort of man doesnât text sporadically and with a tone as dry as concrete? Phainon, apparentlyâwhich is not like any sort of man youâve ever known.Â
You even start sitting with him in class instead of in front of himâthatâs a terribly unplanned development. The bright side of it, however, is that you quickly get over his friend. Mydei is nice, but heâs a little too bored. Or maybe he just isnât interested in you; youâre not so sure. No amount of flirty comments gets a flush out of him, not a smirk, not even a smart retort back. He is justâŠbored. (Or maybe heâs secretly just one of those good friends who doesnât flirt with the girl that his friend is actively trying to pursue, but that option does not align with your very complex understanding of men, so you shove it aside. Heâs probably just bored, and thatâs just truly unfortunate. He was hot.)
But you grow fond of Phainon. As a friend. Sure, heâs clearly been interested in you since day one, but heâs not pushy, and a hint here and there that youâre still bitter about your previous relationship makes him keep a respectful distance. But heâs definitely smittenâand you? Well, youâre lonely. And heâs a good guy. A good guy who keeps you good company as a good friend and nothing more. He knows that, and you donât think youâre stringing him along if heâs aware that youâre nothing more than friendly.Â
And sometimes, friends go to parties together. And sometimes, they also drink together. And sometimes, they also end up staying at the otherâs apartment afterward because itâs closer and safer than trying to get back home alone. AndâŠsometimes, although not a lot of timesâbut sometimes, they wake up in bed together, nude with no recollection of the previous night and love bites scattered on their necks as proof that something very, very physical happened between them.
Itâs not always a common occurrence, but itâs certainly not a rare one. Does it complicate things? For certainâbut you think that you and Phainon are good enough friends and mature enough people to know that sex does not equate to intimacy. Most men are super clear about that, anywayâitâs almost ingrained in their nature to say âno strings attachedâ before they fuck your brains out in every position they can think to try. This should not be a foreign concept to him.Â
But it doesnât make the morning any less awkward.Â
âOh my god,â you say in disbelief, pulling the sheets over your bare chest as you stare at Phainon like heâs grown two heads. He stares back at you like youâre some figment of his imaginationâunsure if youâre real but painfully hopeful that you are. And then you take a quick glimpse around his room and realize heâs a space nerdâthereâs a poster about Saturn on his wall. âI didnât think you were into space. You seem a little too air-headed for that.â
âHey!â he pouts, âyou donât know me! I can be very smart!â
You snort, eyeing him in amusement. Except staring at him for too long means that you are forced to look at the hickey you left on his neck, almost like you were a raging, horny teenager last night and not an adult. You would be more embarrassed if one glimpse down at your chest didnât tell you that he was even worse.Â
âSoâŠâ you start awkwardly.Â
âSoâŠâ he echoes.Â
You donât know where to take it from there. Thereâs a beat of silence before you say, âWeâre good, right Phai?â
He softens, looking at you with those large, round eyes that house every shade of the sky and her beauty before he nods and murmurs, âYeah. Weâre always good.â
âGood,â you breathe, âIâm glad. I want us to be good.â
âWell,â he rubs his neck, âwe are, in fact, good. SoâŠyeah.â
In the end, you sheepishly turn around so he can get out of bed, find his scattered clothes and put them on, and leave, and youâonce youâre certain heâs far enough in the kitchen and the faucet is runningâscream into his pillow before slipping out of bed and putting on your own. Youâre pleasantly surprised he doesnât have only one pillow. But his sheets are navy blue, so you dock a few points for that. Not a good look.
He makes you breakfast before you leave. Something about sitting and sharing pancakes while he has tousled hair feels so natural you almost feel sick at the thought of leaving. But you tell yourself that heâs an easy friend to have and feel comfortable with, and force yourself up and to the door when the time inevitably comes.Â
He sees you out with a soft, âSee you later?â
âYeah,â you hum, âlater. Bye.â
âBye.â
âââââ
You wish so badly that you could be an ideal individual, but you are as flawed as the rest of the humans you share planet Earth with.
You and Phainon fuck again. Sober, this time. Still as friends. Not by accident, or through the influence of alcohol, or by forced proximity, or by anything that you can use to excuse it. You canât excuse it. Itâs entirely an act of free will that you consented toâbecause he does take consent very seriously, you learnâand it starts to become abundantly clear that sex is beginning to get a little too frequent in your time together.
The first time it happened after the initial accidental night, he was over at your apartment helping you build your new desk. The old one was too small, and you needed an upgraded space badly. He spends the evening hammering and drilling pieces away and fitting them together, and like some cliche joke from the universe, when you slip on the instruction manual on the floor, he catches you as your face hovers dangerously close to his. A kiss later, and suddenly heâs fitting into you and drilling you instead of the wood.Â
And then it starts to happen everywhere.Â
Sometimes in the back of his car before he drops you off at home after class. Sometimes on your kitchen counter when youâre supposed to be washing dishes after heâs over for dinner to study. Sometimes after heâs got a bad exam grade to blow off some steam. Sometimes when youâre particularly stressed over a busy week with too many assignments due on the same day and too many hours of your part-time job to work.Â
Every time it happens, you go back to acting like you always do afterward. Like it never even happened. Never mentioned, or questioned, or brought up. He never questions if something is shifting in your relationship, and you never bring it up. Sometimes, two people can have a physical relationship and still be friends and nothing more. Itâs not impossible, and itâs not bad.
If anything, it makes you closer friends. You start to understand each other better. You talk moreâreally talk. No silly banter, or heated debate, or stressed-out vents. Just you, Phainon, the sheets that cover your bodies and a quiet room that lingers with the scent of sex.
He tells you about how much he misses his hometown. How small it is, and how everyone knows everyone. How leaving home and his young triplet sisters was the hardest thing he did, but a good degree and stable job is even harder to come by where heâs from. He couldnât pass up the opportunity.Â
And you tell him about your ex. About how sweet and nice he was. How badly he wanted you. How good he was at doing things right and reading you for what you craved. How to love you like you always wished. How to spend time with you without burning you out and depleting your social battery. How to know your ticks and know when heâs pushing your buttons too far and when a joke doesnât feel like a joke anymore. How to make you feel seen.Â
No man has ever loved you like that. None have cared to, either. Learning you is a lot of workâyou have years and years of life and stories and feelings and fears and everythingâs to share. Teaching them is a lot. Learning them is even more.Â
You liked to think that boy from your past was a ticket to something good. Some better life for yourself where itâs not just you and yourself, and thatâs itâa life where you were you and someone else cared to see it. Have it. Cherish it. Keep it.Â
You donât know how someone could pour in so much time, do everything first, want things all on their own, and still walk away and tell you that they just donât feel the same anymore.
You think itâs just a man thing. Men bore easily.Â
Phainon snorts at that.Â
âThey do have short attention spans,â he tells you.Â
You smile tightly, humming as you blink back tears. âOr maybe Iâm just boring.â
âAw, câmon,â he gasps dramatically, reaching over to swipe the tears like itâs always been his job toâit feels so natural when he does it. âYouâre not boring! Youâre at least a step up from boring because boring is Professor Anaxa, and god knows what he drones on about.âÂ
âGee,â you huff, but the tears are easier to subside when itâs him. Theyâre gone quickly like a fleeting reminder that sorrow exists but shooed away like theyâre unwelcome when heâs around. Heâs around more and more these days. âThanks. Iâm glad to be just a step up from boring. Maybe in a year or so, Iâll be two steps up from boring.â
âNothing is ever impossible,â he winks. âSome day, with enough hard work and determination, you might even be three steps up.â
âYou suck,â you giggle.Â
He laughs, and the sound of his voice is enough to lull you to sleep. You sleep good next to himâalways do.
âââââ
One thing you count on is that itâs always easy when itâs you and Phainon. Phainon and you.Â
Just two people who exist with each other, and nothing else really needs to be thought out. You donât worry about what you wear around him or how you look. He doesnât care too much about what youâre doing or where youâre going. As long as itâs you and him, him and you, and nothing elseâitâs okay. Heâs good. He treats you good and makes you feel good, too. Inside and out. Physically and mentally.Â
He might even be your best friend. You donât know if you should tell him thatâmen get weird about definite titles like that. But then again, maybe not Phainon. Heâs like an anomaly of sorts, sometimes.Â
But you forget sometimes that Phainon was never hoping to just be friends. And you suppose letting him feel you come undone for him more than once is like dangling his desires right in front of his face because it all blows up on you very fast.Â
Perfect one second, like the calm before the storm, and a disaster zone the next, leaving you no time to evacuate before the tornado has hit and done its damage.Â
âMydei wants to come with us to try that new cafe you mentioned,â Phainon hums, watching in sheepish amusement as you sigh and mutter under your breath while picking up his dirty socks from the couch and tossing them across the room. (Men are all the same, arenât they?) âHe said something about there being a pomegranate beverage he wants to try.â
âFine by me,â you shrug, slumping onto his couch, âif he doesnât find it awkward, then I donât either.â
âWhy would he find it awkward?â he looks at you in bewilderment.
âI think heâd have to be oblivious to miss the way I was flirting with him,â you huff out a snort, âI donât think most men jump at the opportunity to hang out with a girl they ignored advances of, but maybe heâs just too passionate about pomegranate to care.â
Everything feels like it pauses as soon as the words come out. You thought heâd known this whole timeâyou could have sworn heâd known. How would Mydei have never mentioned it to him? Arenât they best friends? Donât men at least tell their friends when a girl is hitting on them regularly in passing? Is Mydei really that bad at giving life updates, or is he more clueless than you gave him credit for when it comes to romantic interaction?Â
Nothing makes sense, and youâre not entirely sure about anything. The only thing you are sure about is that Phainon is staring at you like youâve been disloyal to the worst degree.Â
âYou liked Mydei?â he asks in hurt, staring at you with those god-awful puppy eyes. You feel like you kicked one, too, with the way he stares at you.Â
âW-well, no,â you stutter, âI mean, yesâbut likeâŠnot really, you know?â
âNo, I donât know,â he shakes his head, âyouâre not making any sense.â
âI liked him for a very short time,â you say quickly, âlikeâŠlike a small crush, you know? He was attractive, and I am not immune to an attractive man, so it justâŠb-but it never lasted for long!â
âDid you still like him when we got together?â he asks quietly. Got togetherâyou physically have to stop yourself from flinching at those words. Some part of you feels a little bit bad that he sounds so wounded, but the other part of you feels like this is all so absurd. That heâs starting to get worked up over nothing. He has to know you were never togetherâyou never did anything that implies two people that areâŠtogether. Itâs always been a good fuck here and there, and thatâs what you kept it as strictly.Â
(Distantly, your mind gnaws at you and screams that two people who just fuck and nothing else do not do the things that you and Phainon do. Sure, you were friends first, but two people who draw the line at sex donât seek each other to FaceTime until three am, and they donât bring each other soup when theyâre sick, and they donât hold each other when they cry, and they donât, under any circumstances, tell each other about their deepest insecurities that theyâve never voiced before about shoddy exes who ruined their ability to trust and feel loved. You canât be the closest people in your lives and just have sexâbut your mind has never been your number one supporter, so you shove the voice down.)
âNo,â you admit, and for a second, his shoulders sag in relief. Like he doesnât care or feel threatened that you liked his friend as long as it didnât bleed into your time togetherâand thatâs when you start to wonder if Phainon is too good for you. Too kind and genuine in a way that is not dangerous. Too sweet in a way that doesnât slowly kill you like poison but just gives you something to look forward to. Maybe heâs a good oneâa good guy who is just good and nothing else. Still, you kill his heart anyway with a harsh blow to his chest as you add, âI didnât like anyone when we started getting physical. And I still donât, Phainon.â
Getting physical. Whatever that means. You say it like it puts some distance between the sex you have and intimacy. You say it like it rationalizes everything you do with himâyou get physical, which is only human nature, and in the mix, if you develop a good, long-standing friendship, then there is nothing wrong with that.Â
But are you really okay with just friends? Yes. You are. Are you sure about that? Absolutely. You donât seem so convinced. This is a positive, for sure, one hundred percent true reality. Phainon is just a friend. Youâre shooting yourself in the foot.Â
You force yourself to stop arguing with yourself when you notice the way his eyes flash at the words: still donât. He processes the words that you still donât like anyone, and the look in his eyes is devastating. Betrayal. Confusion. Hurt. Anger. Something else that you donât quite understand, but it makes you filled dreadfully to the brim with unease.Â
âEvery time weâve been together has just been physical to you?â he asks quietly, croaking out the words as if theyâre acrid on his tongue and taste awful. âYouâre lying.â
âI thought I made it very clear we were just friends, and I wasnât looking for a relationship,â you furrow your brows, âyou canât act like Iâve been stringing you alongââ
âBefore we started, fucking, sure! But I thought it was pretty mutually clear we were slowly turning romantic when you willingly took my dick down your throat every now and then.â
âWeâve never had a âhey, what are we?â discussion,â you cry exasperatedly, throwing your hands up as though this is allâŠso, so, so absurdâand for a second, you feel like it is. You made it clear that you werenât trying to date. Not him, not anybody. Sure, that silly blonde friend of his clouded your judgment for a bit, but that was never more than a phase. âDonât you think it was a red flag to never discuss what we are or what weâre doing if we were getting romantic?â
He falters. Something in his face makes him look so unrecognizable. So fragile and knocked down a peg that youâve never seen from him. And something about the way he looks at you makes you almost feel like he doesn't recognize you.Â
âI thought you were avoiding the conversation on purpose,â he whispers, voice cracking just as he says: you. âI thoughtâŠI thought you were just nervous about labels after everything from your lastâŠâ he clears his throat, like even mentioning the word relationship kills him, âandâŠand that I was just waiting for you to be more comfortableâŠâ
You donât know what to say. And frankly, nothing seems like itâll make him feel better. Heâs fighting the trembling of his lips and blinking back the moisture in his eyes like all he has left in his control is to not shed tears in front of you.Â
You extend him that much grace. (Men donât like being vulnerable, you reason. They hate showing emotions.)
âPhainon, I think I should go,â you murmur softly.
âYou want to leave?â he asks, gutted. Itâs got two meaningsâyou know that. You know exactly what heâs asking.
Everything feels wrong when you say, âYes,â through a soft whisper, âI do.â But you still donât take it back.
And nothing feels right when he lets out a watery chuckle and lets the first few tears slip. âWell, you know where the door is,â he spits.
He doesnât walk you out. Youâre not sure why that feels so heavyâitâs not because youâre guilty. You know that. Itâs something else, and you canât quite understand it.Â
ââââââââââââââââââââââââ
LESSON THREE: NOT ALL MEN. SURE, MOST HAVE A VERY BAD STREAK, BUT NEVER THE WHITE-HAIRED AND BLUE-EYED FREAK!
You barely last two weeks before you call Phainon.Â
At first, you thought being without who is maybe your closest friend at the moment was just eating away at you, and thatâs why you missed him. You threw yourself into your social circles, making plans left and right to fill that gaping hole of his presence. It didnât work.Â
And then it slowly starts to click in place.Â
Your friends send you a picture of your exâs new fling, calling him an asshole and how sheâs too pretty to be his next victim. You donât feel even the slightest bit jealous or hollow. In fact, youâre bored by the newsâyou have more pressing matters.Â
Then, you start to see what feels like fucking propaganda for romance everywhere. Every social media timeline is filled with some stupid, cheesy, cringe trend that rubs in your face how painfully in love two people are. You get ads for fucking wedding rings. Your friends are all magically starting to get out of the talking phases and actually have something exclusive and official. Your old high school friends are getting engaged, and invitations are coming in. Youâve RSVPâd one in spring and two in fall already.Â
Everywhere you look, itâs something that feels like the universe is promoting a relationship in your face as if itâs a poorly disguised paid sponsorship by some celebrity online, and all you want to do is throw a rock at the sky and hope it lands on whatever divine being is playing tricks on you straight in the face.Â
But it slowly becomes clearer and clearer why it unsettles you so much. Why it all makes you bitter and annoyed and tired andâŠand sad. Youâre sad. And itâs because you miss Phainon, and every couple reminds you of the hurt you caused him and why itâs your fault heâs still not in your life. Because you wanted your cake and to eat it, too. Even if it meant taking advantage of his feelings and the heart he didnât even bother wearing on his sleeve. He just pinned it to yours and let you wear it.Â
So you call him. When that doesnât work, and you get sent to voicemail, you go straight to his apartment. You knock on his door incessantly for two minutes straight (you know heâs homeâhis car is there) before he opens the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes despite it being three in the afternoon.Â
âMydei, can you at least come bother me to eat a little later in the daâoh.â
He notices you and quickly straightens up, smoothing out his wrinkled t-shirt as best as he can and fixing his ruffled hair (that doesnât do much but ruffle more) as he looks at you with what is his best attempt at a nonchalant look and clears his throat. âYes?â
âHi,â you say nervously, âhow are you?â (What else do you say? Youâre at a loss.)
âOh, you know,â he shrugs casually, ânursing a broken heart and trying to integrate back into society as a functioning member. The usual. How about you?â
You flinch at his tone, at the way itâs so clipped yet so emotional at the same time.Â
âI called earlierââ
âI know. I ignored that, by the way, if that wasnât clear,â he says as if being petty and angry is the only thing he has left. (It might just be, and you certainly wonât blame him for it.)
âI know,â you whisper, âbut I still wanted to talk. And see you. Which I know I donât deserve, but I guess Iâm clearly not perfect, huh?â you shrug softly, giving him a sad smile.Â
âWell,â he says flatly, âyou came all this way, and Iâve already opened the door. Might as well say the groundbreaking thing you came to say.â
When Phainon is hurt is the only time he does not know how to be kind. He spends so much time not hurting others, not letting them feel the pain of their feelings being overlooked, that he doesnât quite know how to handle it. How to stomach that, yes, there are hurt people in this world, and, yes, they do the hurting, too. And he might fall victim to it. And he might even be the cause of someone elseâs hurt, too, intentional or not.Â
Heâs not good at processing pain. Heâs too good of a guy to ever have to dwell on how badly his actions have impacted someone. Not because heâs perfect but because heâs gentle enough by nature to avoid the necessity of it while he can.Â
âIâm sorry,â you say earnestly. Because you are. You are. âI knew you were interested early on, and having sex as often as we did was leading you on whether I meant to or not, and you got hurt because of it, so Iâm sorââ
âUnbelievable,â he scoffs, shaking his head with a bitter laugh.Â
You blanch. âWhat?â you ask, mildly frustrated. He doesnât have to forgive you, but itâs certainly an honest apology. âYou donât have to forgive me if you donât want to. But I just felt it was right to tell you that Iââ
âIâm not upset because you donât like me or you that led me on,â he interrupts, making you blink in confusion. He looks at you for a momentâreally looks at you, and before you can say anything, he lets out another disbelieving chuckle. âYou still donât get it, do you? Do you even understand it yourselfâwhy youâre even here?â
âTo apologize, of courseââ
âNo.âÂ
He says it so seriously.Â
Phainon is hardly ever so serious. Itâs what you always liked about him, even if you hated to admit it. Heâs good at taking serious matters and making them feel like theyâre not so serious. Not in a bad wayâheâs just good at making them feel less soul-crushing with that carefree smile and those light-hearted words. He comforts you without ever letting you feel the shame of needing comfort. Itâs nice.
You forget that even he is capable of being solemn.Â
âNo one apologizes for breaking someoneâs heart unless it breaks theirs tooâdo you see that? Do you see that you care? Iâm not upset that you donât care about me or that you donât feel the same. That would be easy to move on from. It kills me because you doâyou care, and you feel exactly the way I do, and you just wonât admit itâdo you know how much that sucks?â
You swallow thickly. Itâs getting to that dangerous territory. That fragile, vulnerable place in your mind that you donât like because then you have to admit that, yes, maybe you fucking fell hard and crashed onto the ground for Phainon. Asphalt and rocks still digging into your arms with raw and bleeding skin. Yes, maybe heâs that nice, kind, genuine guy who you fell for and who has no other motives than to spend his time being nice and genuine to you. And maybe, if youâd met him sooner and not later, you could have loved him and not some other asshole in disguise, pretending to parade around like a good man, like some wolf in sheepâs clothing.Â
Maybe that would have saved you the constant fear of it inevitably going all wrongâof giving and giving and giving, and one day, even thatâs not enough, and someone doesnât even want to take from you anymore. That one day, someone doesnât even find you worth taking advantage of.Â
That stings.
Itâs this twisted sort of rejection you canât handle. This sickening sort of feeling makes you think itâs better to be needed for selfish reasons than to be discarded like a useless, meaningless waste of time. And Phainon wouldnât take advantage of you, right? Heâs too nice of a guyâheâd reel you in, make you think he wants you so, so badly, and then when he doesnât, heâll play that nice guy trick again and make you think heâs doing you a favor by letting you go. Letting you go so youâre not being used by making it known youâre unwanted and not enough.Â
As if he didnât spend so much time making you want him. Condition you into thinking being loved by him was such a treasure. Convince you into needing the devotion he hands so easily for free.Â
But youâre wrong, arenât you? Maybe heâs not like that at allâmaybe heâs just a nice guy because he really is good. Maybe heâs not nice because he needs to be to get what he wants. Maybe heâs nice because he wants to be, and it earns him what he wants the honorable way. Maybe youâve fallen for Phainon, and maybe you were wrong about that being a bad thing. And maybe you just really fucking hate to admit when youâre wrong. (Your prefrontal cortex is still developing, after all. The men of your past are not very helpful to that slow development.)
âI donât know how I feel anymore,â you whisper, tears littering your eyes. And god, you feel like a witchâusing those sad, doe eyes with the wet, teary gaze that you know will soften him up like butter. Because he does. Even if you donât do it on purpose, it makes sure he softens right up in front of your face because he hates the sight of your sadness being so tangible that he can feel it on the pad of his thumb in the form of a wet, warm rivulet.Â
Like clockwork, he wipes the tears and sighs, and you let out a shaky breath.Â
âI donât know how I feel about anything because every time I think my feelings are right, theyâre fucking wrong,â you sob, âI am always wrong, and I donât know how to stop being wrong.â
His arms wrap around you and pull you close, pressing your body flush against that sturdy chest that feels like a brick wallâstrong enough to keep you away from all the harm and cruelty of the world around you as long as he stands in front of you. Sometimes, you think thatâs all it takes. Just Phainon standing there, and thatâs it. Thatâs it to be okay.Â
âYou can only stop being wrong once youâre right,â he hums, giving you a sad, innocent little smile, âisnât that the whole point of it all? To find the person whoâs right? Thereâs gotta be a few wrong answers here and there, donât you think?â
âI donât want to keep crying over the wrong answers,â you sniffle, âitâs dehydrating me.â
He laughs. It sounds good. It feels good, too, with the way his chest rumbles against you. He always does. Everything about him is just good. The way he smells, and feels, and sounds, and just is. Phainon is just good. You like just goodâno catches, no curveballs, no fine print. Just good.Â
âHey,â he tilts your face up and presses his forehead to yours, wiping your tears valiantly still, even as they keep coming. And heâs hurt. You did thatâyou hurt him. But he seems more focused on the fact that your heart is crumbling than his own. âI canât promise you wonât ever cry because of meâIâm not always the brightest, okay? But I can promise that Iâm going to stay and wipe every last tear if I mess up. And then Iâm going to keep staying. I will always stay so I can wipe the next round of tears and hydrate you again for your troubles. Weâll figure out the rest as we go. It doesnât have to be perfect, yeah?â
âYou donât want it to be?â you snivel, âyou seem like the type to hopelessly daydream about perfect romances with not much luck.â
âIâm going to let that dig slide because you are emotional right now, and we all say things we donât mean when weâre emotional,â he rubs your back, rocking you slowly from side to side.Â
AndâŠwell, you think youâre wrong. About him. About Phainon and now heâs nice in a way thatâs too nice and too good to be true. Youâre wrong because heâs just nice, and itâs just nice enough that itâs good, not deviousâand for once, just this once, you donât mind being wrong.
Not if itâs for him.Â
âIâm sorry,â you whisper, âfor being confused and scared and unable to realize I care about you. I will get some help or something to be a functioning member of society.â
âWell, when you find help, hook me up,â he snorts, âbecause I need it, too. Youâve done a number on me.â
Youâre both laughing. And then, at some point, youâre both kissing. His lips are on yours, and yours are on his, and itâs just a mix of each other that feels less like itâs right and more like nothing about it was ever wrong in the first place. Sometimes, it doesnât have to be right as long as itâs just not wrong. Sometimes, thatâs enough to keep things going. Sometimes, they become right along the way, all on their own.Â
You cup his cheeks, making him pause his assault on your lips against his will as he lets out a soft noise of protest deep in his throat. Youâll fall hopelessly harder for him because of that laterâfirst, you have more pressing matters.Â
âIâm serious,â you whisper, âIâm sorry. Youâre right. I do care about youâso much that it scares me. I care about you and I promise this time Iâm going to stay and keep caring. So be ready.â
âIâm ready,â he smiles, all wobbly lips and a shaky voice and trembling fingertips. They dig into your hips as his head buries into your neck, and you hold himâlatch onto him and clutch his shirt because feeling him is all that ever felt good, and you donât think you can stomach letting it go a second time. âI am so ready to be the only thing you care about.â
âMaybe not the only thingââ
âDid you hear that? That weird crack sound? Thatâs the sound of my heart breaking a second time. Any more, and Iâll be collecting shards off the floor.â
âCâmere loser,â you laugh, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him into a hard, deliberate kiss that knocks the wind out of both of you. It makes your stomach twist and form knots and thereâs this weird tickle in your chest that feels like youâre about to implode. Phainon is so good at thatâat making you feel so, so unwell but well at the same time. Youâre sick and nauseous from how badly you want him, but nothing else feels right until you have him.Â
So you wrap your arms around him, pressing nearer, closer, harder up against him and kissing him until both of you are gasping for breath in between every press of your mouths together. Your hands find his hair, carding through it wildly and pulling on the strands when he nips at your lips, and when he groans into your mouth at a particularly harsh tug, you know itâs starting to become a scene that should not be happening at his front door where anyone can pass by. Â
âInside?â he pants, pulling away for just long enough to say the word.
You kiss him hard once more, making him groan again before you decide that, yes, it probably needs to move indoors. âInside,â you breathe, labored and unsteady, ânowânow, please.â
âWhatever you want,â he chuckles, âyou donât have to beg. You always get what you wantâdonât I always give it to you?â
âThen quit talking and give it to me.â
That shuts him up really fast. With a dark glint in his eyes, he pulls you in, closing the door swiftly and pressing you against it. Youâre cagedânothing but him, you, and the throbbing ache between your legs that seems to be a common denominator between the two of you.Â
âI want you so bad,â he groans, kissing your neck, inhaling your scent along your sweet, delicate skin, âwant you so bad I never want you gone. Donât ever leave.â
âI wonât,â you gasp as he bitesâand itâs a little hard. A little mean almost, but he kisses it better with a soft peck afterward that you forgive him on the spot and melt. âI wonât.â
âGood,â he hums, nose trailing along the column of your neck before he drags it along your jaw, kissing the corner of your mouth before he murmurs, âbut Iâll make it hard to walk away this time just for safe measures.â
It feels like a literal and metaphorical promise. Before you can even respond to his cheekiness, he has your mouth hostage againâkissing and groaning into it enough that you have no choice but to soften and become pliant under him. You swallow up his sounds as the bulge in his pants presses against your own heat, the slow, desperate pressure of him grinding against you, making you shiver against the door.Â
Goodâhe always feels so good. Everything about Phainon is always so damn good.Â
âFeel that?â he croons, gasping as you roll your hips in tandem with his own movements, âfeel how hard I am for you? Youâre telling me anyone else will want you this bad? No one. Iâm it for you. Iâm not giving you up. Ever.â
His voice is a low, almost dangerous promiseâand if you werenât dripping at your core from the sound of him alone, youâd be less than inclined to admit that you like the sound of that. But you do, donât you? You want him to want you so badly, so desperately, that the thought of letting you go makes him his own worst enemy. And he does, doesnât he? He wants you so badly that youâre almost scared.Â
But you like it. Love it, even. You fucking love that he needs you, and you want him to need you so badly he might just die without you.Â
âDonât,â you whisper, lifting the bottom of his shirt up to his shoulders. He lets go just long enough to pull his arms up and let you take it off of him, tossing it to the ground before your fingers run your nails along the hard plane of his abs. He shivers, letting out a soft, barely-there sound at the feeling. âDonât let me go. Ever.â
âWhatever you want, princess,â he grins. Phainon leans in again, kissing you impatiently like being away from you for that short period of time was enough to have him on edge. Maybe it does because he only melts and relaxes when his lips are against yours again. His fingers trail to the edge of your pants, toying with the waistband as you quiver at the feeling of his rough fingertips rubbing against the skin of your belly.Â
âNeed you,â you whine.
âYou got me,â he reassures, âjust wanna take my time, yeah? You can handle that, canât you? Let me have a little fun with you so I cheer up before I fuck you right against this door?â
You whimper. Heâs mean sometimes, too. Heâs so, so nice, but sometimes, itâs like a switch flips, and heâs mean. Not cruelâjust teasingly mean to keep you on your toes and have you falling apart for him. Itâs so mean, but itâs so careful and thoughtful and meant just for youâlike he thinks only about you.Â
âJust hold onto me, okay, baby?â he asks gently, pecking your lips, âIâve got you. I wonât let you fall.â
Before you can even ask what that means, he drops down to his knees, spreading yours and pulling your pants and underwear down in one go, helping them off your legs as they get thrown somewhere in the back along with his shirt. You realize exactly why you need to hold on as soon as a finger prods your entrance, splitting your folds open as he peers into them and hums at the way youâre wet and slick. You gasp, grabbing onto the nearest thingâwhich happens to be his hair as he chuckles.Â
âEasy,â he murmurs, âI hardly did anything yet. But donât worry, you can pull if you needâI donât mind.â
Just like that, his mouth is between the apex of your thighs, tongue tracing your sweet, precious little clit before he licks a stripe along your folds, humming against your cunt and sending vibrations as you mewl at the feeling.Â
âPh-PainonâŠfuckââ
He hooks a leg over his shoulder, letting you half sit on him as he props you up and devours you. Devours you like you were the only thing on his mind. Like he was starved and dying in this apartment, and the only thing to sustain him is you. His tongue dips past your folds and fucks into you before pulling away just as quickly and flicking over your clit. Two fingers gently prod at your entrance this timeâonly they donât tease you. No, instead, they fill you up and slip into you as far as they go, curling into a sweet, sweet spot in your walls that has your knees wobbling.Â
You think you will fall for a moment. You think holding onto his hair and tugging him so harshly is not going to keep you steady, and the weight he takes as he props you up on a shoulder, is not going to hold you.
But he makes good on his promise. He doesnât let you fall or slip for even a fraction, even as your legs get weaker and your orgasm draws nearer.Â
ââM close, Phaiâs-so close,â you whimper.Â
He pulls away. With a smug, stupid little grin, he looks up at you as you stare down in disbelief. âSay you care about me.â
âWhat is wrong with youââ
âAh ah, thatâs not what the magic words are!â
âPhainonââ
âThatâs not a bad guess, but still not the right answer!â
âFucking hell,â you hiss, âI care about you, asshole.â
âA little more aggressive than necessary, but I will accept it,â he hums, rewarding you with a soft kiss to your clit. âNow tell me you know I care about you. That I want you, and I want to stay.âÂ
âPhainon,â you plead, âplease, canât we do this later?â
âNo,â he says firmly, âbecause then itâs just getting physical, and I am not getting physical. I am getting intimate. Tell me what I want to hear so thereâs no mistaking things.â
Heâs throwing your words right back at your face. And the only way youâre going to get what you want is if you own up to them, even if itâs against your will. So you do. With an exasperated sigh, you tell him what he wants to hear.
âI know you care about me,â you say impatiently, âI know you care, and you want me, and you want to stay, and god knows youâre not good at leaving me alone, so I guess I will just have to get used to you.â
âAtta girl,â he murmurs, giving your clit one more kiss before heâs back to lapping at your cunt like heâs parched. Your slick coats his chin and makes his skin glisten as he traces your clit with his tongue, curling his fingers just right into your heat. They brush against that spot againâhe has it perfectly memorized, and just like that, you fall apart, gushing around his fingers and coating his lips with even more of your essence.Â
âFuck,â you sob, grinding against his face as you ride out the shockwaves of pleasure, feeling him groan against you right where you need him.Â
He lets you stay like that for just a moment, resting half your weight on his shoulder and half your weight on one leg before he abruptly stands and grabs your waist, hoisting you up as your legs wrap around his hips. Youâve done this beforeâat that point, youâd considered it just any other step to getting physical with someone.Â
Now, you realize you were beyond oblivious to how much you needed it to only be him you were doing all these motions with. It almost feels silly.Â
âIâve changed my mind,â he grins.
âWhat?â
âI donât want you against the door anymore. I want you on the bedâmy bed. And youâre staying there, and youâre going to like it.â
You laugh, breaking into a fit of giggles as he jogs over to his room with you in his arms. And when he drops you unceremoniously only to the bed, flopping on top of you and attacking your neck with kisses, you canât help but break into another fit of giggles, feeling his playful nibbles and licks against your skin. It feels so easy. So natural. Only with Phainon, you realize. Only ever with Phainon.Â
âHi,â you breathe when his forehead presses to yours.Â
He gives you a bright, toothy grin, murmuring, âHi, yourself, pretty.â
And then he's kissing you again. His lips are soft and slow this time around. Pressing against your mouth, slotting into the space like itâs his to fit intoâand it is. Itâs always been his, whether you were willing to admit it or not. His tongue glides against yours languidly, no rush or impatience or desperation like usual. This time, he kisses you like youâre his and always have beenâlike he knows what you taste and feel like, and he knows itâs always been his and always will be. He kisses you like heâs reminding you of it, one painstakingly slow second at a time.Â
âYou broke my fucking heart,â he murmurs against your mouth, voice raw and vulnerable but never not soft, âyou know that? You broke my fucking heart.â
Your hand presses against his chest, feeling the erratic beating of it under your palm as you whisper, âSeems like itâs working perfectly well to me.â
He chuckles at that. Lets out another toothy grin before he tilts his head back and laughs. Itâs cute and precious and so fucking sweetâhe sounds just like what he is. Tooth rotting sweet.
âYouâre always so smart with your words,â he drawls, pressing wet, hot, open-mouthed kisses along your jaw.
One hand slowly pulls your shirt up, inch by inch, before you slowly help him take it off of you. The bra comes off next, and youâre bareâunder him as nothing else but his. Nothing else that covers or keeps whatâs his away from him.Â
And when you eye his pants with a petulant, pouty look, he chuckles before throwing you an amused look as he takes them off slowly, not taking his eyes off of you.
You and Phainon have fucked. But youâve never been intimateânot by the real standards, at least. The proper kind where you take the time to really take in each otherâs bodies, commit each dip and curve to memory, know it inside out and like the back of your hand. Where that scar starts and ends from his childhood shenanigans, where your little moles scatter along your body in hidden crevices. And when he slowly frees his cock, and you can really stare without having to tell yourself you shouldn't, you take a good look.Â
You take a good look at the flush of his pretty cockâpretty, just like the rest of him. A nice, soft, muted pink at the tip that oozes with the beginnings of pre cum, and itâs sensitive as it twitches under your delicate thumb when you smear the dribbling essence along the head of his cock.Â
âMmh,â he makes a soft noise in the back of his throat, fluttering his eyes closed and panting as you touch him. Feel him. Want him.Â
You finally want him, and itâs almost enough to make him spill into your hand alone. But he forces himself to composure, grabbing your hand and pinning it over your headâand then goes the other. He holds them in place with one large hand, watching as you squirm under him impatiently.Â
âNo touching,â he whispers, âfirst, Iâm gonna teach you not to take me for granted. Then youâll never want to take your hands off of me.â
âIf you just ask me nicely, Iâll never take my hands off of you,â you offer.Â
He laughs, boyish and charming and so fucking smooth, you feel something flutter at the base of your stomach. Something stirring in your guts and twisting them inside out in anticipation. âPersuasive,â he hums, âbut I still have to teach you not to take me for granted.â
When the tip of his cock brushes against your entrance, your wrists struggle against his hands to break free. You need to feel himâto know heâs there against you and real. To feel his hair and tug and hear him groan in response. To scratch along his back and feel his warm, damp skin, the way he shivers under the pain and likes it. To pull him closer and feel him practically melt against you at the gesture.Â
You want to feel him. Because you need to know heâs yours. And you never, ever want to take for granted Phainon again. Your Phainon. The nice, sweet, gentle boy who stole your charger for a day to get your number. Who knew before you knew, long before you were ever willing to know, that he would love you. Even when you didnât want to, he did it from a distance. And when he thought you finally would, that youâd finally let it happen, he still did it quietly, stripped of labels and titles even though he wanted to announce it to the world.Â
For you. Everything was always for you.Â
âPlease, Phai,â you plead, âplease, please, pleaseâlet me touch you.â
âYeah? You want that, huh?â he grins, pretending to think for a moment before he hums, âtell me why.â
âSo I can feel you and know youâre mine,â you lean up and breathe against his ear, âdonât you want to be mine?â
Itâs a silly question. Itâs all heâs ever wanted, so he gives it to you easily. Lets your hands go and lets them wander over his sculpted body as he sinks deeper into youâno more taking his sweet time to draw out the teasing. Heâs impatient nowâjust as impatient as you. Maybe even more. Heâs been waiting longer than you have to make this happen. To take you and make you his and have you admit that heâs yours, too.Â
âFuck,â he groans as he sinks the final few inches of this thick, girthy length, âfuck youâre so fucking tight. You feel that? Feel me? How deep I am?â
âYes,â you mewl, âyesâso deep. F-feel so full. You feel so good.â
He groans at that, pulling out almost completely before slamming his hips into yours, cock burying deep into you and burying to the hilt. The tip of his sensitive length kisses against that sweet, delicate spot against your wallsâyour spot that he knows and memorizes so easily.Â
He knows you. Knows your body. Heâs felt it so many times under him and made it react for him the way he wants, but finallyâfucking finally, it reacts to him and only him. He knows itâs him and only him. Only ever will be if he has anything to say about it.Â
âGod, you drive me insane. So insane, you know that?â he grunts, rolling his hips hard and fast and drilling into you like he has something to prove. Every slam of his hips and every brush of his cock along your sensitive folds makes you pull him closer, kissing him hungrilyâdesperately. So needy.Â
You need him. Youâve always needed thisâsomeone to want you and need you and find you worth it to stay. How could you think Phainon didnât want to stay when he was so clearly happy with just pieces of you because you didnât want to give the full of you? When he stayed and stayed and stayed and happily took the little shards you dropped, even if they were sharp, and cut his fingers because they were pieces of you. When he was just happy to have you whichever way you let him because it was you.Â
All he wanted was you. You get that now. Youâre not going to forget.Â
ââM close,â you pant, breathing against his mouth, âg-gonna cum. With meâŠwith me, please.â
âYeah? Whatever you want, princess,â he groans.Â
His hand moves to find your clit, rubbing quick circles as his own pace quickens, and you can feel the telltale signs that both of you are not going to last much longer. He lets out a particularly deep, sharp thrustâand youâre gone.Â
Plummeting off the edge in a hazy fall. You mewl his name, chanting it over and over and over as your walls constrict around him tightly. Spasm around him uncontrollably. And your fall coaxes him into his own. He falls into his release with a soft, drawn-out moan of your name, hot, thick seed filling you up through quick ropes of cum. His cock twitches with each rope, painting your insides white with him.Â
âYou feel so good,â he rasps, âso fucking goodâyou were made for me. Only me. KnewâŠknew you were perfect for me since the first day.â
You wrap your arms around his neck and pull him as close as he can get without physically merging into your bones. His head tucks into your neck, and you both ride out the aftershocks of your highs. You feel him breathe, and he listens to your soft breaths, and itâs just you and Phainon. Phainon and you.
It always has been.
âDonât leave,â he mumbles tiredly after a while, sleepy words said through a petulant warning.Â
You chuckle, kissing his sweaty forehead as you promise, âI wonât.â
âGood. Wonât let you.â
âGood. Donât.â
Your own eyes start to grow heavy with exhaustion, slowly fluttering closed untilâ
âWhoâs that?â you look at him in confusion as you hear an incessant knocking on the door.Â
He chuckles sheepishly, rubbing his neck. âAh,â he sighs, âright. ThatâsâŠthatâs just Mydei. Heâs coming to make sure I eat instead of starving to death from sadness.â
You blink, and then you throw your head back, laughing loudly. He watches you for a moment, smiling softly at the sound of you flooding his space. âYouâre hopeless, Phainon.â
âAm not!â
âGo tell Mydei to leave and that youâre alive.â
â...Okay.â
Idk what this is. Itâs 10k words of pure babbling and hardly a single coherent thought. Iâm sorry dfksksjr this isnât my best work but . I needed to get him out of my system
I also think writing a reader that is younger than me and navigates life and its challenges through a less mature and experienced lens was a fun project. She is not perfect but she is certainly a human who is trying her best and wants to be loved and I think thatâs endearing
#meowdei.writing#meowdei.longfics#hsr x reader#hsr x you#phainon x reader#phainon x y/n#phainon x you#phainon smut#phainon angst#phainon fluff#hsr x y/n#hsr smut#honkai star rail x reader#honkai star rail x you#honkai star rail smut
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I love to talk but I rly do feel like we have to be talking for a minimum of 8 hours straight before I feel like I can even begin to rly broach things on my mind or that have been bothering me a lot that I actually want to talk abt without being vague or deflecting or omitting or lying and if the conversation takes a break at any point it resets back to 0 and its still nice regardless but.
#we're all just desperately chasing each other around for a semblance of connection in this cold bleak world#but unfortunately due to the relentless crushing pressures of capitalism we also have to work so no time for that#man. sorry just frustrated n miserable now. wish i was capable of feeling close to other ppl wish i could give other ppl that connection#but instead we're just ships in the night passing by or whatever#and i have to settle with not rly being known or wanted or important in other ppls lives and its forever. btw#bc even if ppl do think they know me or do want me around or i am important to them in some way.. the specific torture labyrinth i call#home is constructed in the most elegant and precise way that im incapable of believing them to be sincere anyway#so thats all on me! if I tried harder and made more of an effort to communicate with or trust ppl i wouldnt feel this way!#but i dont so better luck in the next life i guess! this is why i dont think abt this shit bc it makes me want to kms#whats even the point man#dont even worry abt me im fine just need to fucking vent bc i dont have time to allow myself to feel anything bc i have plans tmr#so i need to go to bed early. and ill just try my best to keep distracted forever so ill never need to face how pathetically desperate#i am for any kind of emotional intimacy whatsoever and also physical contact but im not normal enough to fulfil any of my own needs#yeah well. its my life that i have to live and im the one making it this way. digging my grave and lying in it innit#its fine tho bc they make repressed fictional characters that i can project onto instead of confronting any of my issues#so ill just be here in my labyrinth doing that. while everyone else gets to see sunlight and grass and whatever#im just so tired i dont want to do this i want to pretend i dont care and dont need it and maybe itll become true. its too much for me#let me know when they need me to pilot the jaeger and drift with someone and thru our mindmelding i can finally achieve intimacy and trust#well anyway. that was embarrassing. hope it works out for everyone else#hope my flatmate gets her ideal life w our other old flatmates and finds a convenient way of discarding me from that like they want#except im going to make it as difficult as possible for as long as i can for them to get rid of me bc im selfish and want what i want so.#my obligate parasite ass. or whatever. im going to throw up if i keep thinking so thats a good place to stop and go to sleep probably#.vent#dont interact im being stupid as fuck and dont care just leave me alone thanks
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can't tell if i'm like... starting to dislike these girls because im pmsing and that's pretty typical for me to suddenly not like certain people, or if it's genuinely because they've been giving me weird fucking vibes and did smth i think was shitty :/
#they left one dude in the club blackout drunk bc he said he didnt want to leave yet#and his phone died and he slept in the street. woke up with no memory of what happened#and a bachelorette party at the club had ripped his shirt off in shreds apparently#and its like. yeah ik those girls that left him aren't responsible for him that's not their job but like. he couldnt b responsible for hims#--himself in that state#we're in a foreign country and he was visibly fucking blackout wasted#and they left him there by himself#and then in the morning when it was like oh fuck we dont know where jake is? they were insistent that we didnt tell the profs and would#instead wait FOUR HOURS for him to contact us (WTF) before going to the spanish police Ourselves#like what the fuck do you think WE can accomplish??#whatever it turned out okay (or as ok as it could be) bc he managed to buy a charger and picked up when i tried calling again within that 1#hour that we discovered he never made it to his hotel that night#so like. it was fine we didnt need to get the professors or cops involved and nobody had to get sent back home to the US#but like. the fact that they STILL are treating it like no big deal is really giving me rancid vibes#he could have been robbed or assaulted or kidnapped or killed. and what would we have done#like. idk. it seems like theyre just trying to sweep it under the rug bc it was THEM who saw him last#it was THEM who abandoned him while he was in no state to be on his own#and it's especially jarring bc some of those girls i'd considered to be really great people that i really liked!!#and then for one of them especially to be LAUGHING when jake was telling her in person what had happened#like zero concern whatsoever#and its so offputting like... genuinely was this no issue in your eyes.#and it's scary bc it really is a double standard bc if this was a girl then everyone would have been flipping the fuck out#the profs and cops would be called ASAP even if it meant that people got sent home early from the study abroad. bc safety is more important#but bc 'hes a grown man he can handle himself' nobody was in any sort of rush to try and make sure he was okay#its just. i dont feel like i can trust half of them anymore when that was how they reacted to the situation#and when one girl today got lowkey pissed at me for being like yeah that was scary how jake was left all alone and slept in the streets#she was like 'well its not our problem. hes the one who didnt want to leave so its his own fault. he should be able to handle himself'#WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. WHAT THE FUCK.
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your husband who loved calling you his wifeâ even outside of moments of necessity.
and the most fascinating part? he wasn't even aware of the fact how often he did it. he knew he did say it, but he wasn't aware of the fact how often he did. those two words, simple yet undeniably laced together with love and reverence, often tumbled out of his mouth before his brain could catch up.
"my wife would like these flowers," he had said to the wholesome elderly florist when he was about to buy a bouquet of your favorite flowers before returning home to you, his walletâ which had a small polaroid of you in it, by the wayâ already in hand.
"my wife did mention this the other day, now that i think about it." he had said to his friend who was rambling about the latest trending internet gossip.
"for my wife. i trust there isn't an issue?" he had simply said to the cashier upon noticing the way they lifted an eyebrow at the grocery basket filled to the brim with your favorite snacks, to which they gave a solemn, approving nod at his answer. good husband.
"my wife went out to run an errand, but she'll be back soon." he had even said to your best friend when they came to visit you, to which they replied with a very teasing smirk; "you could just say her name, y'know."
"my wife shouldn't pay when I'm around," he had said when you were about to pay for something, holding out his card before you could pull out yours.
"a reservation for my wife and i, please."
"sorry, my wife is waiting for me. i must take my leave now."
"yes, that's my wifeâ i'm quite proud of her."
"I can take it from here, sweetheart. can't have my beautiful wife overworking herself now, can i?"
and the list went on.
and yet, you didn't mind it. not at allâ you had no reason to. your heart always did that funny little flip whenever he'd call you his wife the way he did, the corner of your lips never failing to curl into a smile. he would always say it so naturallyâ so genuinely, like those words were etched onto his soul for your very existence alone. and you certainly didn't miss the way his tone would sound a touch softer everytime he referred to you, like you needed to be spoken of with the utmost care and gentleness.
so, one day, you decided it was about time you struck.
"you call me that a lot."
his handsâ which were reaching for the kitchen towel to dry his hands with after washing the dishes, yes, the dishes because chores are shared in this householdâ paused midway. he turned his head to look at you, where you had been perched on the counter, your legs swaying ever so slightly.
"call you what?" he inquired with a small tilt of his head, reaching for the towel at last and patting his hands dry.
"you know, your wife."
he immediately caught onto the teasing glint in your eyes, yet; it was unmistakably edged with a hint of affection.
for a moment, he just stood there wordlessly, blinking once, then twice, his brain taking its sweet, sweet time to allow your words to sink in. you, on the other hand, were practically straining your eyes to catch on any shifts in his expression or posture.
and then, you caught it; the faint reddening of the tips of his ears. he subtly cleared his throat, and your smile stretched into a grin.
alas, that dazzling curve of your lips disappeared as soon as it appeared when the man suddenly approached you in a swift few strides, standing between your legs and pressing his palms on either side of the counter which you sat on to cage you in.
you blinked.
"i do, yes."
he didn't even try to deny it. well, he didn't have a reason to. you were his wife, after all. where was the lie in that? and of course, he was absolutely proud of it.
then, he leaned in slightly, his tone lowering. "unless you prefer i stop calling you that?"
oh, now he was the one with that mischievous little twinkle in his eyes. inwardly, you faltered at the sudden boldness of his actions, your fingertips twitching against the surface of the counter. but outwardly? two can play the game.
then, with a deceptively sweet smile, you tilted your head, shot your hand forward and yanked on the collar of his shirt with forceâ his body jerking towards you.
"not at all," you smirked, inching closer. "i can't say i mind when my sweet husband calls me that."
his confidence faltered for a moment. you were about to internally celebrate your small victory until one of his hands slid up from the counter, now resting on your hips, his fingertips lightly pressing into your skin.
".. let's hear that again."
let's just say, ever since that faithful encounter, "my husband" had also started slipping out.
and every time? it got to him. oh, it definitely did.
(not my second fluff also taking place in the kitchen lol. i promise it's gonna be different next time.)
⥠nanami kento, geto suguru, fushiguro megumi (jjk), zayne, sylus (lads), wriothesley, neuvillette, alhaitham, diluc, ayato (genshin), jiyan, xiangli yao (wuwa), jugram haschwalth (self indulgence because i love him.), kuchiki byakuya, ishida uryuu, ishida ryuken (bleach), hyuga neji, uchiha itachi, hatake kakashi (naruto), anyone else you'd like.
#jjk x reader#jjk fluff#jjk x you#nanami x reader#nanami kento x reader#geto x reader#geto x you#geto suguru x reader#megumi x reader#genshin x reader#neuvillette x reader#wriothesley x reader#ayato x reader#alhaitham x reader#diluc x reader#bleach x reader#uryu ishida x reader#kuchiki byakuya x reader#ishida ryuken x reader#jugram haschwalth x reader#lads x reader#zayne x reader#sylus x reader#love and deepspace#love and deepspace x reader#wuwa x reader#á° : shu's archives .á#naruto x reader#kakashi x reader#itachi x reader
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Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.
About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.
How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.
So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.
But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.
We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.
None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.
The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.
Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.
Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.
Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.
And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.
Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.
This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.
Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.
And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.
I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.
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baby, baby, baby đđ§žÛ¶à§ ËÊÉË l.h.
exboyf idol!heeseung x youngmom!reader
length: 12.1k
contains: angst, hurt/comfort, abandonment issues, second chances, gaining back trust, ot7 hangouts, lots of teasing (of reader and heeseung), flirting, slow burn, co-parenting, mild explicit language, therapist jungwon, happy ending
warnings: none really... mentions of young single mom and absent father
synopsis: you never planned on seeing Heeseung again, let alone with another man's child on your hip. but when a run-in at the grocery store turns into an evening at your messy, toy-strewn apartment, you're forced to face everything you left unsaid. you're not the same girl he left behind all those years ago, and he's not the same guy that did the leaving. so where does that leave you now?
the question: how much are you willing to bet on second chances? the answer: everything.
‷ chuu's đ ââ .⊠finally posting this monster oh my god. this was meant to be a <1k word oneshot, but turned into a full-on fic. excuse me and my indulgences, i just have daddy issues and am in love with lee heeseung.Â
‷ đ i edited this a ton and added like 1000 words cuz i needed more hehe so enjoy!
ââ
You cursed under your breath as your shopping bags began to slip through your fingers. From your hip, Hana fussed unhappily, tiny hands clawing at your face as you struggled to adjust your grip on her.
âSâcuse me,â A woman said, giving you an annoyed glance as she stepped around you. The others behind you made sounds of frustration as you struggled to wrangle your babbling child and groceries out of the storeâs entrance.
âWould you mind getting out of the way?â A man asked impatiently as one of your bags slipped.
âIâm sorry,â You said, face burning with embarrassment.
Hana began to cry, her tiny body impossibly strong as she twisted in your arms, trying to escape your grasp.
âJesus Christ,â He muttered, pushing past you.
You bit your lip, hair falling in your face to hide the tears pricking the corners of your eyes. Everything was so hard. Ever since your ex had moved out, youâd had no one to help you.
No one to stay up with Hana when she was fussy, no one to entertain her so you could sneak a quick shower in, no one to get groceries while you washed, and fed, and tended to her.
Your parents were a state away, your friends busy with work or travelânone with kids of their own. No one who understood what you were going through. Standing in the doorway of the grocery store, you felt, for the first time since Hana's father left, the true gravity of how alone you both were.
Another exasperated sigh came from behind you as Hana began to cry in earnest, her shrill voice piercing the air of the store.
âShouldâve left her at home with dad,â An older woman said, tsking as she stepped around you. âNew moms these days, thinking they can do it all on their own. That kind of attitude kills marriages, you know."
You opened your mouth to defend yourselfâto tell her that you couldn't kill a marriage that didn't exist, to even just curse back at herâwhen the paper bag youâd managed to hold onto split open, the contents spilling out onto the floor.
âFor fuckâs sake,â A man said, shoving past you. His shoulder caught yours, knocking you off balance.
Hanaâs weight threw you off-kilter, and you stumbled to the ground, holding her tiny wriggling body to your chest.
You wanted to cry.
Beside you, someone stooped to the ground, hastily grabbing the groceries that had fallen out of your bag. You looked up, the apology already forming on your mouth. As your eyes landed on them, the words died in your mouth.Â
Heeseung.
Your heart skipped.Â
He didnât say anything as he gathered the rest of your things, giving you a hand up. His eyes were glued to the squirming toddler in your arms.Â
With your groceries collected, you were able to step to the side, Heeseungâs hand still on your arm. The customers whoâd gathered behind you filed past, one man glaring at you as he did.Â
âFinally,â He muttered.Â
Heeseungâs head snapped in his direction. âFuck off,â He shot back. Then, looking from Hana to you, he chuckled nervously. âSorry.â
You were speechless.
How long had it been since youâd seen him? Three years? Three years since he boarded the jet that had carried him out of your life forever.Â
You remembered it like it was yesterdayâENHYPEN was going on tour, he wasn't sure when he'd be back, or when he'd have time for you again. The group had just started to take off. This was the big break, heâd said. The one that would start the rest of his life.
Going with him was out of the question. Long distance was brutal. Fans were possessive of their favorite members, and a girlfriend was a risk that management couldn't afford. It took all but a few hours for him to be cut from your life. Gone. Erased. Entirely.Â
And now, here he was. Lee Heeseung, the great heartbreak of your life, standing in the middle of your friendly neighborhood grocery store, eyes darting back and forth between you and the one-year-old clinging to your hip.Â
Hana made a noise, reaching a hand out at him curiously. He glanced at her, his expression softening. He smiled as he leaned forward, cooing gently while she fiddled with the earring that dangled from his ear.
Your chest tightened.
âHere,â He said, taking the bags from your hands. âWhere did you park?â
ââ
âI didnât mean to sneak up on you,â Heeseung said quietly as he put the last of your things into your car.
He looked just as you remembered himâtall, handsome, soft-faced, and even softer-voiced. He carried a bag of his own, full of items that sent you back to your school days with himâglossy packages of instant ramen, cling-wrapped kimbap, and those energy drinks he always liked.
You tore your eyes from them, trying to shake the memories of late nights in his dorm from your mind.
âNo,â You said, meeting his eyes. God, his eyes. Just as deep and intense as you remembered them. âI should be thanking you. Back there,â You gestured awkwardly, âI was⊠Itâs been a long day.â
His eyes darted to Hana again. You could practically see the question forming on his lips, but he was still the Heeseung you knew, far too polite to outright ask.
âHana,â You said, smiling at the pink-faced toddler in your backseat. "She's one," You added quickly, watching for his reaction.
He nodded, his expression conflicted, like he was working through his thoughts. âI didnât knowâŠâ He said slowly, looking back at you.
âI know. I⊠didnât want you to,â You admitted. âYou had a lot going on."
His face dropped. âY/n, I want you to know, I didnât mean toââ
âI know,â You said simply, looking down. âYou had a life to live. Dreams to chase.â You smiled at him, genuine, although something deep in your heart had begun to ache, starting the moment youâd locked eyes with him. âI was always proud of you for going."
âI shouldnât have left like that. I know you wanted me to go, and Iâm glad I did, but IâŠâ His fingers toyed with the strings of his bag nervously. ââŠI shouldnât have left without saying goodbye.â
You shook your head, pushing the memories away. âDonât worry about it. Water under the bridge.â
From the car, Hana began to cry again. It was well past her dinnertime, which meant sheâd be inconsolable until you got her home and into her high chair, which was⊠still broken.
You bit back a curse, remembering that youâd needed to run to the store to replace it today. A week of trying to feed her without it had proven nearly impossible. Especially now that you were alone.
You turned back to Heeseung, trying not to feel disappointed that reality was sweeping you two apart again. What was that phrase? Right person, wrong time? Well, this was two for two.
âAnyways," You said. "Thank you. Seriously. I was losing it in there.â
âYou headed home now?â He asked, looking between you, as if trying to keep the conversation going. Hanna was bawling, fists clenched angrily.
You nodded, pulling a snack pack from your bag and tearing it open, hoping itâd be enough to satiate her until you got home. If you could get her fed, maybe youâd have time to take care of all the other things that were piled on your to-do list.
There were dishes waiting for you, and sticky counters, and laundry. So much laundry. The light in your room had gone out and needed replacing, but you barely had enough time to sleep there, let alone perform a maintenance job on it.
You sighed out a tired laugh, rubbing your face with your hand. âUm, yeah. She needs to be fed and put to sleep, and thereâs some housework stuff. You know, never a boring day,â You joked half-heartedly.
Heeseung hummed. Then, hesitantly, asked, "Whereâs her dad?â
The question knocked the wind out of you.
He gazed at you curiously, a hint of concern in his eyes. It made your stomach twist uncomfortably. This was the one thing you didnât want coming up.
The baby? Sure. Your embarrassing moment in the store? Fine. Even the state of your hair and clothes, covered in stains and baby powder and spit-up, whatever.
But the fact that you were alone, that the person youâd chosen to father your child was nowhere to be found, that stung in the back of your throat. Nothing had changed. You were still the one being left behind.Â
Heeseung read the look on your face. âOh,â He said. âIâm sorry. I didnât mean toââ
âItâs okay.â You cut him off, not sure if you could take the awkwardness of this conversation any longer. âBut, yeah, I should go. I have⊠a lot to do at home. Everythingâs on her schedule these days.â
âCan I help?â
You felt your breath catch for a second time. âWhat?â You laughed nervously.
Heeseung nodded at your groceries and at the squawking baby in the back seat. âCan I help you? Weâre on break. Been doing pretty much nothing but sitting around the house, gaming all day. Iâll come over.â
âHeeseungâŠâ You started, images of your messy baby-proofed home springing to mind. As if he needed to see any more of the disheveled single mom life. âYou donât have to do that, really, youâve helped enoughââ
âY/n, we've known each other for a long time. I can tell youâre up to your neck right now. I want to help,â He said earnestly. âWill you let me?â
You held your breath, searching his face for some clue as to what this meant for you two. Ten minutes ago, you had no idea he was even back home. And now... he was asking for a step back into your life.
The inside of your cheek stung as you chewed on it. Finally, you sighed. "What the hell. Fine. Here, let me write down my address for you."
There, at the corners of his eyes, you caught it. That glimpse of joy in his expression, of hope. It confused the fuck out of you, but you just waved to him, climbing into your car and wondering what this meant for you.
ââ
It was practically impossible to walk across your house without tripping over one of the toys that littered the ground. There were dishes all over the kitchen counters, soup stains on the wall behind Hanaâs highchair where she'd thrown her spoon, dirty laundry spilling out of your closet and across the floor.
Heeseung didn't seem to care at all.
In fact, the only thing he seemed to care about was your daughter. Her small fists, the rosy color of her cheeks, the bubbling sound of her laughter. You'd known Heeseung liked kidsâyou'd talked about having them onceâbut what you didn't know was how much they loved him.
He and Hana hit it off immediately, faster than you'd ever seen her take to anyone before.
Without a high chair, youâd been struggling to find the best way to keep her stationary long enough to feed her. Heeseung, however, only propped her on his leg, one hand around her stomach, the other holding her plastic pink Hello Kitty spoon.
It was like magic.
No crying, no spitting. No throwing or hitting. You watched in wonder as she sat there, hands resting on his forearm. The perfect little angel you always bragged about back in full swing.
Her preoccupation with him gave you a chance to not only make her dinner, but get her pajamas out and set up her bath for later. It was the most you'd managed to get done in a single hour in weeks.
Having Heeseung there wasnât just helpful, it was... overwhelming. His presence filled your sensesâthe smell of his cologne intermingled with Hana's baby lotion, the feeling of him moving around the kitchen behind you, his voice mixing with her giggling nonsense in the living room.
It was intoxicating. It was dangerous. Because part of you wishedâhad always wishedâdesperately and against all reason, that this was what your everyday looked like.
You tried to dissuade that wish as you bent over the kitchen sink, elbow deep in soapy water and dirty dishes. Heeseung came in from the dining room, holding Hana's little bowl and matching spoon in one hand, her bib in the other.
"All done," He said, placing them on the counter. "Finished the whole thing." He sounded proud. It made your chest tighten.
"That girl sure can eat," You said lightly, grabbing the dishes and submerging them under water.
"Mmm, just like her mom, then," He joked.
Being there with him, joking with him, it stirred something in you. Something you'd spent a long time trying to forget. Your throat closed as he came up behind you, dry hand sliding over your soapy one.
"Whatâ" You started, but he was already pulling the bowl from your hands, nudging you out of the way.
"I got this. Go finish up with her."
You pressed your lips into a thin line, ignoring the fluttering sensation that crawled up your throat. He was helping, just like he said he would. It was meaningless.
Still, the feeling of his palm on the back of your hand had your heart stuttering.
In the solitude of the bathroom, you rested your chin on your hand, watching as Hana dunked her plastic horse under the soapy bathwater. She held it up to you, babbling through the bubbles on your face.
You sighed. "What d'you think? Should we let him stick around?"
She slammed her horse back into the water with a squeal, sending water over the edge of the tub.
âYeah,â You muttered, half to yourself. âThatâs what I thought.â
You looked over at yourself in the mirror, leaned against the edge of the bathtub, your clothes and hair damp from your daughterâs splashing. So different from the girl that Heeseung had left behind all those years ago. The one he once swore heâd come back for.
You felt childish for even remembering that. Everything was different now. He could have anything he wanted. The girls around him were exactly what you werenât, what youâd stopped being the moment you found out you were pregnant. They might have been your age, but they weren't saddled with motherhood.
You, on the other hand, would never be able to escape it again.
All anyone seemed to talk about with you was the baby. How old she was now, if sheâd started talking yet, how well-behaved she was.
Even running into Heeseung, the first thing he looked at was her. It was like watching yourself fade from existence, all trace of what once made you you vanishing into nothingness.Â
You werenât fun. You werenât spontaneous. Not anymore. Motherhood had drained you of all that youthful vitality Heeseung had once loved so much about you. You felt bland. Boring. Nothing to call your own except for your daughter, who seemed to be the most interesting part of your life nowadays.Â
Looking at Hana now, you knew there was no way that Heeseung was going to make a permanent return to your life, not when there was a child involved.
And yet.
And yet, Heeseung was still around when you were done with Hanaâs bath.Â
Heâd finished the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Heâd put the rest of your groceries away and tossed all of Hanaâs toys back in their bin. He even took the trash out, and was offering to fix the light in your room when you stopped him.
âAre you gonna make me kick you out?â You said, hands on your hips.
The corners of his mouth quirked, his brow lifting. âYou really are someoneâs mom, huh?â
âHeeseung.â
âCome on,â He laughed, âIâm already here, I might as well fix it. You really want me to go?â
No, of course you didnât. Of course, you wanted him to stay and help you with your light, and fix your leaky shower head, and make your daughter laugh herself all the way to sleep.
Of course, you wanted him to find a million other things to help you with, and to let you keep imagining what life would be like if he were to be there. To really, truly be there.
What, were you supposed to say no to all that?
By the time the sun finally dipped below the horizon, Hana was dozing off in Heeseungâs arms, her cheek flat against his shoulder.
You watched from the kitchen doorway, unable to tear your eyes away from the sight of them. He swayed slightly, bouncing up and down with a hand to her back.
No one held her like that. Not even her dad. Heâd wanted almost nothing to do with her. The diapers, the crying, the mess. Heâd decided enough was enough before she was even born. But HeeseungâŠ
âSheâs incredible,â He said, glancing back at you. His face was soft, shoulders relaxed. It looked almost like she was as comforting to him as he was to her, with her hand wrapped around the fabric of his shirt.
Your throat was tight. âShe is. Takes after me, you know,â You joked, trying to ease the effect that this scene was having on you. Your face was warm.
He chuckled, pursing his lips as she stirred gently. After a moment, he said, âI canât believe I didnât know.â
You leaned against the doorframe. âIt wasnât something I wanted you to hear from someone else.â
âYeah,â He said. âStill.â
Still.
He finally looked up at you, and you saw itâhow much he was holding back. How hard this was hitting him, all at once. Sure, it had been a long time, but the emotions on his face were like a second language to you. You could read them in your sleep.
âIâm not asking for anything,â You said quickly, maybe too quickly. âIâm notâbringing you here because I want something from you.â
âI know,â He said. But he kept holding Hana anyway, and when you laid her down in her room for the night, he was still in the living room, waiting for you.
âYou do all this on your own?â He asked, keeping his voice low.
âEvery day.â
âYouâre amazing,â He whispered.
âThanks,â You laughed.
He followed you into the kitchen. âI always knew youâd be a good mom.â
The comment sent a jolt of electricity through you.
âWhat?â
âYeah, didnât I ever tell you that?â
You stared at him. âNo.â
âIâm sure I did.â
âI think Iâd remember if you did. So, no.â
He flashed that smile, the one that used to make you weak in the knees. Still made you weak in the knees. âThen I was an idiot.â
You scoffed, eyeing him skeptically. âWhatever. My house is a mess, and I have literally no social life. Look at me, Iâm covered in baby food, and Iâm not even the one who fed the baby.â
âYeah, well,â He shrugged, that stupid smile on his face. âYou make anything look good.â
You narrowed your eyes. âYouâre making fun of me.â
He gasped. âWhat? No, Iâm just a very supportive friend who happens to know that you manage to make everything look sexy, even being covered in baby food.â
Friend.
âHeeseung.â You used to be the love of my life.Â
âWhat!â He grinned. âYouâre the one who keeps blushing.â
âI am not blushing.â
He shook his head as he laughed, the sound light and pure. âI missed you. God, I missed you a lot.â
You tensed.
âThat first year of tour was hell,â He reminisced, leaning back against your counter. âWe hardly slept, or ate, or got any moments to ourselves. It was just go, go, go. All day, every day.â He glanced at you. âBut being away from you was by far the worst part.â
âWhatever,â You said quietly. There was a lump in the back of your throat.
He hovered as you finished putting the dry dishes away in your cupboard. âIt was hard without you there. You know, youâre the reason I debuted in the first place. Because you believed in me.â
Did you ever believe in me? You wanted to ask. Lingering resentment was seeping from the back of your mind, coloring those happy memories a shade darker. How was it so easy for you to leave me?
âIt was hard looking out for everyone without you there,â He chuckled. âYou always made that part easier. Thatâs how I know.âÂ
âKnow what?â You said, eyes on the plates in your hands.Â
âThat youâd make a good mom. You were already halfway there with me.â
You froze. âHeeseung,â You said slowly, âDonât.â
âWhat? Iâm just sayingââ
âNo, youâre not. Youâre flirting.â
He gave you a lopsided smile. âIs that illegal now?â
You stared at him. âWe canât do this.â
His smile faltered, just slightly. Enough that you knew heâd heard the part you didnât say aloud: Not again. I canât do this again.
âIâm not trying to mess anything up,â He said quietly.
âBut you do, Heeseung. You walk in, and you smile, and she adores you, and then what? You go back to your life, and weâre left here pretending this never happened? Iâve been there, done that, okay? And I canâtâ I wonât let it happen again.â
He opened his mouth, but no answer came.
âLook, I get it. You were gone for a long time. Being back home carries a lot of weight, Iâm sure. But you canâtâŠâ You looked at him, chest aching. âYou canât just come in here and make me feel like nothingâs changed when it has. I mean, look around. I have a kid now. I canâtâ Iâm not like you. Not anymore.â
âWhatâs that supposed to mean?â He asked, a look of hurt flashing behind his eyes. Â
You ran your hand over your hair anxiously. It was late, you were exhausted, and you were letting your emotions get the better of you. You knew you should stop talking and just send him home, but you couldnât.
âYou have your whole life ahead of you,â You said. âYou get to pack up and travel the world, do whatever you want, meet whoever you want. I donât. That ended for me the second I had her.â
âY/n,â He frowned, but you cut him off.
âI thoughtâŠâ Tears pricked behind your eyes. âI thought that maybe things would just be a little different. That Iâd still get toââ You caught your breath, the weight of everything youâd gone through rising suddenly, knocking the breath from your lungs. âAnd then it ended all over again. When her dad left.âÂ
You saw the way his face hardened, a look you hadnât seen in years. Hurt. Angry. Protective.Â
âIâm alone, Heeseung,â You whispered.Â
âThatâs not trueââ
âYes, it is.â
âItâs not! You have meââ
âThen where were you!?â
His face fell. You didnât want him to see you cry, but you were dangerously close. Being near him, seeing that god forsaken look in his eyes, like he was angry with himself, it killed you.Â
âI didnât know,â He said quietly. âIf I hadââ
âYou would have, what? Cancelled your tour? Come racing home to help your ex with some other guyâs baby? Thatâs not true and you know it.âÂ
âI would have found a way to be there for you.â
âReally? You could have called. Once, even. You could have checked up on me, but you didnât. You packed your things and you left. Thatâs all anyone ever does, is pack up and disappear.â
âDonât, y/n. Itâs not the same thing. I never would have left you with our kid like that,â He said seriously.
Our kid. The words seemed to burrow into your chest, curling up around the part of you that was still so angry, so hurt, so betrayed.Â
âNo,â You said bitterly, wiping your eyes roughly with your sleeve. âYou just left me. Not as big a deal, right?â
He flinched, those big, sad eyes of his wincing painfully.
You knew it wasnât fair. You knew you were being cruel now, prodding a wound that was clearly still open in both of you, but you couldnât help it. You wanted, just once, for someone to tell you that you were worth fighting for, that the way he and Hanaâs dad had both abandoned you wasnât your fault. That you werenât defective. Disposable.Â
Heeseung held your gaze, brows creased. âI deserved that,â He finally said.
You looked away, jaw clenched.Â
He took a step toward you, slow, like he was scared you might push him away. âYouâre right, I did. I left. I let you believe that I didnât care about you. I thought⊠walking away would make things easier. That it would hurt less, instead of dragging it out, making you wait for me. You had a life of your own waiting. I couldnât do that to you,â He reasoned. âAnd look at you! You brought a kid into the world, y/n. You never needed me, or anyone else. Youâre strong.â
âIâm not,â You argued.Â
âYou are,â He said firmly.Â
You shook your head, arms tightening around yourself. âIâm not strong. Iâm surviving. Thatâs not the same thing.â
Heeseung didnât argue this time. He gave you an apologetic look, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. âI didnât mean to come here and upset you. I wanted⊠I really did want to help, y/n.â
âYou have,â You said, not meeting his eyes. It was hard to speak without your voice shaking, and you didnât want him to see you cry.Â
His voice softened, gaze dropping to the floor. âI know I canât change the past. And you donât trust me. But weâre back home until the next albumâs finished.â
Your chest tightened. So, he was sticking around. Great, you thought to yourself. Just what you needed on top of everything else you had going on.Â
âIf you need me, you can call me. You know that, right?â
You said nothing. Heeseung got his things and left, mumbling apologies as the door closed behind him. You had to catch your breath against the doorframe as the sound of his car faded down the street.Â
Here you were again. Watching the door swing closed behind him, wishing you were brave enough to ask him to stay.Â
That night, you went into Hana's room and curled up in the chair beside her crib. Looking at herâthe soft fat of her cheeks, the way her tiny chest rose and fell so steadily without a care in the worldâwas the only thing that kept you from breaking down completely.Â
You watched her silently, the occasional rogue tear slipping down your cheek. Three years worth of emotions had bubbled up to the surface, crashing over you like a tidal wave of memories and regret. The house was empty again. You were alone.Â
For the first time, you confronted the hard truth youâd been trying to ignore: no one was coming to save you. You were on your own.
ââ
Heeseung must have looked upset, because the moment he got back to the dorm, the others were on him.
âWhere were you?â Sunoo asked, looking up from his game.
Beside him, Jay, Sunghoon, and Jungwon were sprawled on the couch. Jake watched from the floor, stretched out on his stomach. Niki was curled up in the chair, half asleep.Â
âNowhere,â Heeseung mumbled, kicking his shoes off.Â
âYou look like shit,â Jay said bluntly.
âThanks.âÂ
âI thought you were just stopping at the store?â Jake turned to look at Heeseung over his shoulder. âGeez, you really do look terrible.â
Jungwon looked at him curiously. âAre you okay?â
Heeseungâs mind was still spinning. He could barely form a coherent thought, let alone answer their questions. He brushed them off, wanting nothing more than to disappear into his room in solitude.Â
But these were his group members, his best friends, and they always knew when something was wrong. They switched the game off and trailed after Heeseung as he made his way to his room, shoving his door open. It bounced against the wall loudly.Â
Heeseung winced, dropping onto his mattress. His body felt worn, his mind foggy, like heâd spent all day on stage instead of laughing with you in your kitchen. He still couldnât believe heâd spent the day with you. In fact, he could hardly believe anything about what had happened.Â
There were no words to describe what Heeseung had felt, seeing you again for the first time. It was like every one of his senses dialed in on your figure crouched in the door, your hair falling over your shoulders. His throat had closed, his fingers curling into his palms by his side.Â
His heart had nearly leapt out of his chest completely.Â
And then, there was Hana.Â
He hoped he didnât look as surprised as heâd felt, but he knew the chances were small. Youâd always been able to read his emotions. Youâd been the one to ask him out, after allâsick and tired of how painfully obvious his feelings for you were. No one else had ever came close to understanding him the way you did, not even the guys.
You probably saw right through his easy attitude, straight to the heart of his reaction: seeing you with Hana had scared him shitless.Â
He pressed a hand to his face. Iâm never offering to go to the store for the others ever again, he thought hopelessly.
Jungwon appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame. The others poked their heads out from behind, waiting for him to say something first. Jungwon might have been younger, but he was their leader, through and through.Â
He always knew what each member needed in moments like these. For Heeseung, it was space. And time. Jungwon just stood there for a while, not saying anything.Â
Heeseungâs voice was rough when he finally spoke. âI saw y/n.â
More silence.Â
He hadn't talked about you in a long time, mostly because it brought his mood down every time someone so much as mentioned your name. Years later and he was still upset about the way you'd left things.Â
And now he knew that you were, too.
âI ran into her at the store,â He continued. âHer bag had ripped so her stuff was everywhere, and people were getting pissed.â Fucking assholes. âI couldnât justâ turn the other way, pretend I didnât know her.â
No one argued with that, but Heeseung still felt the back of his neck go red.Â
"So I went up to her. I helped her grab her things. She..." He trailed off. "We went back to her's after."Â
Jake shoulders dropped, looking relieved. "So, what's with the long face? Haven't you been dreaming about this since, like, we left?"Â
âYeah, Iâm surprised youâre back here,â Jay smirked. âShe didnât want you to stay the night?â
"She has a kid."Â
That shut them up.Â
She has a kid. The words sounded foreign in Heeseung's ears. He still hadn't fully wrapped his head around it. The girl heâd been hung up on for years was a mom.
Jungwonâs eyebrows shot up. âLike.. has has?â
Heeseung nodded. âA little girl. Her nameâs Hana.âÂ
âSo that means sheâsâŠâ
âSingle,â Heeseung said incredulously, falling backwards onto his mattress. The entire situation was mind boggling. âHanaâs dad isnât around. Not sure why. All I know is that it was sudden. He just packed up one day and⊠left.âÂ
Just like I did, He thought bitterly. God, heâd made a number of mistakes throughout his life, but that had to be the worst of them all.Â
âDamn,â Jungwon said under his breath. âThatâs a lot.â
Sunghoon shifted his weight anxiously. âHow did she seem?âÂ
Heeseung swallowed. âTired. She looked so tired. And sad. I could see it in her eyes, even though she was trying not to show it.â
âShe didnât ask for anything?â Jake asked.
âNo. She doesnât want anything from me. She made that pretty clear.â Heeseung dragged a hand through his hair. âI donât even know what to do. I thought Iâd moved on, or at least that I was done holding onto her. But seeing her like thatâŠâ His voice cracked, and he looked away. âItâs like everything Iâve been trying to forget justâcame back all at once.â
Jungwon finally stepped into the room, going to sit beside Heeseung. The others trailed in after him. It was crowded with all of them there, but Heeseung was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude that they were with him. That he didnât have to spend the night alone with his thoughts.
Like you were now. He thought of you alone in that house, working through the motions of your reunion by yourself. It made his chest ache. Â
âShouldnât have left her,â He mumbled, mostly to himself.Â
âAre you going to see her again?âÂ
âI donât know,â He mumbled. âWe argued. I think she doesnât want to believe I could ever be there for her. That Iâm just going to leave again.â His throat tightened. âI canât blame her for feeling that way.â
âAre you?â
âIâ no, I donât want to. But sheâs afraid to trust me. And Iâm scared, too! What if sheâs right? Sheâs always right. I donât wanna cause her more troubleâŠâÂ
Now that he was talking, he couldnât stop. The others listened intently, nodding along, humming sounds of understanding.Â
âIâm scared that the more I try to get closer to her, the further Iâm going to push her away. She has enough shit going on in her life right now. I donât want to add to that. But I canât just let her be. Not when I know sheâs too proud to ask anyone else for help.âÂ
âNo, not y/n.â Sunoo hid a laugh behind his hand. âThat girl would rather die than rely on anyone else. Sheâs always preferred to figure it out on her own.â
âI know. I donât want to fuck up her life anymore than I already have.âÂ
âHey, at least youâre not the asshole who knocked her up,â Jay said lightly.
Heeseung bit his lip, suddenly worried he was going insane.
Worried because the smallest part of him almost wished that he was. He would have never left you alone. And⊠Well, heâd always liked the idea of you with his kids. He meant what he said earlierâif anyone was going to make a good parent, it was you.Â
A baby would have killed his career for sure, but⊠he almost preferred that to the idea of you struggling through parenthood alone.Â
âSo what are you going to do?â Jungwon asked.Â
âI donât know,â Heeseung sighed, sitting up. âWhat if I try to be there for her, and I make things worse? What if sheâs right not to trust me? I donât want toââ He ran his hands through his hair anxiously. âI canât hurt her again. Iâd rather never see her again than have that happen.âÂ
Jungwon pursed his lips, thinking. âIt is true that youâll have to leave again when the next album is finished.â
The others nodded, murmuring in agreement.
âTour life isnât exactly fit for a kid.â
âThereâs always the chance that people find out about you two.â
âYouâd have to be apart for a long time.â
Jungwon nodded. âBut⊠do you love her?â
Heeseungâs face went red. âWhat?â
âQuit acting embarrassed. We had to listen to you go on about her for a year straight after we left. I think you can tell us if youâre still in love with her.â
He pursed his lips and frowned, mulling the question over. Was he still in love with you?Â
Who was he kidding, of course he was. How else could he explain the way the world seemed to blur when he caught sight of you in the store? How his body was moving to help you before he even had time to think about it?
Heeseung was in love with you. As in love with you as he was the day he left. Why else had he spent all day at your house doing chores, enjoying every minute? The way you moved around each other, the sound of Hanaâs voice responding to yours, the way he could see pieces of you in her. God, heâd only known that girl for a day but he was already feeling protective of her.
Of both of you.Â
He sighed. âYes⊠I do. I am.â He pressed his thumb into his palm, where heâd brushed the back of your hand. âI really missed her,â He mumbled. âBut Iâm scared to mess everything up. Again.â
 âYouâre not gonna do that,â Sunghoon said, leaning against the wall.Â
âYeah, come on. Iâve never seen you make the same mistake twice.â
âThanks,â He muttered, still unable to shake his fears.Â
âIf you really love her, youâll find a way to make it work,â Jungwon assured him.Â
Hearing that brought a small amount of relief to Heeseungâs anxiety, but he still wasnât convinced. âWhat if she doesnât want to see me?â He asked quietly.
Sunoo rolled his eyes. âHonestly, youâre so dramatic. If she doesnât want to see you, sheâll tell you. Did she?â
âNo⊠not explicitlyâŠâÂ
âThen you still have a chance. Donât screw it up.âÂ
Heeseung chuckled lightly, feeling slightly better. âIâll try not to.â
âScrew your feelings, we miss having her around,â Sunghoon joked.Â
âYeah, I wanna meet this kid,â Jake said eagerly. âIf sheâs anything like y/n, sheâll fit in just fine with us.â
Niki hummed in agreement. âYeah, we never agreed to your break up.âÂ
âMm. Very inconsiderate of you,â Jay said.Â
Heeseung laughed, for real this time. He felt his chest untighten for the first time in hours, his shoulders dropping, his jaw unclenching. God, he was grateful for his friends. They were right.Â
Heeseung had been losing his mind over what he should do when there was really only one option in front of him: to prove to you how serious he was about you. Whether or not you were able to fix things between you two, that didnât matter to him.Â
All he cared about was showing you that you could trust him. That you werenât alone in this, no matter how long youâd spent believing otherwise.Â
Seeing you today confirmed what heâd known the second heâd left all those years ago: you were the only one for him. And meeting Hanaâfeeling the warmth of her against his chest, smelling your perfume on her skin, noticing the way her lips curved up in the same shape that yours didâit was the final nail in the coffin.Â
His life would never be complete without you in it, one-year-old and all.
ââ
Heeseungâs reappearance in your life didnât happen immediately.
In fact, it was a few weeks before you heard from him again. Lost in the throes of trying to find a babysitter so that you could pick up an extra shift at work, his text was left buried in calls from your landlord and notices about upcoming bills.
Heeseung Are u busy this weekend? I have some overexcited friends who are anxious to meet that baby of yours.
It sat unanswered for a day.Â
You didnât know it, but every single one of the 24 hours that passed before you got back to Heeseung was like knives in his skin. The day dragged by, long and torturous, as he sank deeper and deeper into the belief that maybe heâd been wrong, and you didnât want to hear from him after all.Â
He was relieved when his phone buzzed on his desk, your name popping up on his screen for the first time in three years.Â
Y/N Oh god.
Y/N Are u really gonna bring them over here??
Heeseung Not if youâre not okay with it.
Y/N Itâs not that Iâm not okay with it. itâs just⊠weird
Y/N Never thought Iâd be introducing your group members to my kid.
Heeseung Definitely weird.
Heeseung Always figured theyâd meet ours first but this works too.
Y/N Heeseung.
Heeseung What? Just saying.
Y/N đ
Heeseung Iâll be good. I promise. Saturday?
He chewed the edge of his nail as he watched his screen, heart racing at the base of his throat. Your text came in and he couldnât help the smile that took over his face.Â
Y/N Yeah right.
Y/N See you then.
You had precious little time to clean up before they got there. When you heard Heeseungâs knock at the door, you were part-way through clearing Hanaâs things out of the living room.Â
Sweaty, hair a mess, sticky toddler on your hip, you pulled the door open to a group of faces you hadnât seen in years.Â
The guys stood there for a second, taking you in. Sunoo was the first to break the silence, his face widening into a grin. âWow,â he said, âMotherhood really does suit you.â
You rolled your eyes, your face warming as you shifted Hana on your hip. âShut up, Sunoo.âÂ
Hana peeked out at them, fists clutching your shirt nervously.Â
Jakeâs eyes went wide as he crouched down, level with her. âHi,â He said, his voice going soft. âYouâre so cute, oh my god. Mind if we come in?â
Hana smiled shyly, burying her face in your shoulder.
âSorry about the mess,â You said, stepping aside to let them in. âCan never seem to keep anything clean these days.â
âYou shouldâve called us,â Sunoo pouted. âWe couldâve helped.â
âNo way. You guys are busy enough as it is.â
âDonât worry about it,â Jay said. âYou should see how these guys liveâ
âOh, shut up, Jay. Your room is disgusting. I donât know how you live in that filth.â
âMy room is disgusting!? Should we talk about how you keep the living roomââ
âGet out of the way!â Jungwon complained, pushing past them.Â
Heeseung was the last to come in, messy-haired and bare-faced. He looked nervous, but his shoulders dropped when he caught sight of you.
He paused in the doorway. âYou sure youâre okay with this?â He asked quietly.
âYeah,â You said. âItâs fine. Just⊠donât expect her to start doing tricks or anything.â
âAre you sure?â Sunghoon asked, peeking at Hana. âI heard kids can dance these days.â
âPlease,â You scoffed. âShe can barely get a spoon from her plate to her mouth.â
They laughed as they filed in, avoiding the toys that were scattered around the floor. For a moment, no one wanted to sit down. They crowded around you, pulling funny faces to make Hana laugh, reaching out to pinch her face.Â
Heeseung hovered beside you, eyes flicking to yours. It felt good to have him close. Youâd never had this many people in your house before, not since having Hana. His presence was steadying. Reassuring.Â
You found yourself wanting to stick close to him as well.Â
They followed you into the living room, pointing at the photos and finger-painting scribbles hung up on the walls. You noticed Heeseung from the corner of your eye, bending down to grab things from the floor as he went, tossing them into Hanaâs toy chest the same way he had when he first came over.Â
It was instinctual, that desire to help you, to take some of the load off your shoulders. Always had been.Â
âHow are you, y/n?â Jungwon asked, âBesides the cute baby and messy living room.â
âUm,â You sighed, âIâm⊠managing. Getting used to doing all this on my own. Itâs hard but rewarding, too.â You smiled at Hana, pressing your lips to her head and breathing in the soft, sweet baby smell of her hair. âShe makes it worth it.â
Your voice was easy, your face relaxed, but Heeseung could see the fatigue in your body. Your shoulders drooped, Hanaâs weight sagging in your arms.Â
Getting used to doing all this on my own. Youâd never know how sad it made him to hear you say that.Â
âI canât imagine how tired you are,â Jake said, watching as Hana curled a hand around his finger.
You laughed lightly. âI definitely donât sleep the way I used to. Or, at all, really,â You admitted. âYou donât even want to know how long itâs been since Iâve showered.âÂ
âI can see that,â Sunoo teased, gesturing at the myriad of stains across your shirt. âI like the baby food. Itâs a good look on you.â
âGlad to know itâs working on you, jerk,â You said playfully. God, you missed having these guys around. Â
âDo you want me to take her?â Heeseung asked. The question caught you by surprise. He seemed so easy about it, like it was something he did every day. âYou can take a quick shower⊠if you want.â
âWhat? No way. You guys are friends, not my babysitters.â
âNot yet,â Niki said, leaning down to coo at Hanaâs face.Â
âSeriously, we donât mind,â Heeseung insisted. Â
You bit your lip sheepishly. âAre you sure?â
âDefinitely. Weâre professionals.â Sunghoon said seriously.Â
âI mean, we are terrible at music,â Jake added, âBut picture books and stuffed animals? I think we got it.â
âGo,â Heeseung insisted softly. âWeâre here. Let us help.â
You hesitated. It was such a small thingâshowering, putting on a fresh t-shirtâbut it felt huge. Like accepting their help would mean finally admitting just how worn out you were.Â
There was also your protectiveness over Hana, too. Youâd never left her with anyone but your parents before. It was why finding a babysitter had become such an ordealâtrusting anyone with your child took an incredible leap of faith.
But then you saw the look in Heeseungâs eyes. The hopeful, almost desperate need to do something for you. He held your gaze, steady, solid.Â
As if in answer, Hana reached out for him, squirming away from your grasp. Sheâd always been good with faces, and he was wearing the same jacket heâd worn the first time he came over. She stretched towards the familiarity of his arms and you surrendered, allowing her to climb into them.
âShe likes you,â Jungwon said, a big grin on his face.Â
âYeah,â Heeseung said, unable to hide the pride in his voice. âI like her, too.â
Seeing her in his arms again brought back the same feeling from before. The one that made you want to see Heeseung with your daughter all the time.Â
They just looked so⊠at home together. Like Hana had known him since the start. You hated to admit it, but you were starting to wish that she had.
âAll her toys are in there, and thereâs snacks in the fridge if she gets fussy. If she gets really upset Iâve got a pacifier in her roomââ
Heeseung nodded, the corner of his mouth quirking up at your rambling. âSheâll be great.â
You sighed. âOkay, but if she starts cryingââ
âWeâve got it,â Jay reassured you.
Sunoo shot you a wink. âGo on, mama. Weâll look after her.â
You let out a breath you hadnât realized youâd been holding and slipped down the hall, feeling, for the first time in a long while, that you had people in your corner. It was a good feeling.
ââ
âShe sorta looks like you, Heeseung.â
âOh, stop teasing him. Heâs not gonna let us come back with him next time.â
âYouâre so full of it. They donât look anything alike.â
âSheâs got a real Shin Min-a look to her. Old school.â
âShe looks like her mom,â Heeseung said, only half-listening to what his idiot friends were debating about.Â
His attention was mainly on the tiny human balanced on his thighs, her hands tangling in his hair. She was a stout little thing, skin slipping under the slippery fabric of her shirt as he kept a firm grip on her.Â
A Lakerâs jersey. Your guysâ favorite team.Â
He took a deep breath, trying to steady the emotions rising in him. Just being thereâwith Hana, with youâit was enough to make him crazy. He tried not to feel dizzy as Hanaâs hands moved to his face.
âShe missed you,â Jungwon said quietly, fidgeting with a plastic airplane in his lap.Â
For a second, Heeseung thought he was talking about Hana, but no. He was talking about you.
Heeseung glanced at him. âYou think so?â
âYou shouldâve seen the way she was looking at you when she opened the door.âÂ
Jay snickered at him, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. âYeah, she was totally checking you out, man.â
Heeseung rolled his eyes. âShut up.â
âItâs true,â Niki chimed in, tossing a stuffed rabbit at Sunghoon. âDonât act like you didnât notice.â
Heeseung just shook his head. âSheâs just⊠Itâs been a long time.â
Jay shook his head. âNah, man. Youâre still important to her.â
âItâs obvious,â Sunoo agreed. âIf Jay noticed it, itâs real.â
âWhatâs that supposed to mean!?â
âWell, youâre not the most observant of people, are you?â He said, side-eyeing him.
âThatâs rich coming from you.â
Heeseung chuckled, shaking his head. He hoped they were right.
ââ
The guys started coming around more often after that. They always insisted that they were restless at the dorm and liked having somewhere else to hang out, but you knew it was more than that.Â
It became something of a tradition to have a big meal at yours at the end of the week, and as time passed, it became easier to rely on them. It felt good to have a kitchen full of noise, a table that wasnât empty, a house that shook with laughter and music.
Theyâd bring bags of groceries over and cook these huge, chaotic dinners to share in your dining room. The kitchen was left a mess but they always cleaned up.Â
Weeks went by and Heeseung stayed behind more and more often, tidying up the rest of the house with you, even helping to put Hana to bed.Â
Despite your reservations, you liked having him there. You liked the way heâd come through your door unannounced, toting drinks for you and a snack for Hana in his bag. You liked the way heâd get up from the couch when he heard her fussing, and how the others teased him about it in front of you.
âIs that your baby now or what?â Jungwon would laugh, eyes flicking between you and Heeseung with that knowing look.
Youâd turn red and Heeseung would just shake his head, smiling.Â
Even in your hardest moments, he was still showing up for you. Providing you with the comfort and stability that you were trying so hard to give your daughter. You tried to remind yourself not to get too used to his support, but there was no denying itâit was easier to take care of Hana when there was someone taking care of you, too.
âI donât know what to do,â You sighed, reaching down to pick her back up from her crib. Your phone was tucked between your cheek and your shoulder, Heeseung on the other end of the line. âIâve tried everything. She just wonât settle.â
His voice came through rough and scratchy with sleep. It was late, and he probably shouldâve been asleep hours ago, but youâd started calling each other. A lot. If he wasnât there in person, he was on your speaker phone, talking to you and keeping Hana entertained.Â
âDo you wanna try feeding her again?â He asked, yawning.Â
âIâve tried. She doesnât want it. She doesnât want anything.â You sighed as Hana let out another ear-piercing wail. Her face was red and blotchy from crying. It looked like another all-nighter for you.Â
âCan you take her to your bed? I think she just doesnât like being away from you.â
That was certainly true. Hana was getting clingier and clingier these days, spoiled by all her uncles constantly wanting to hold her.Â
âI canât, Iâm scared that Iâll fall asleep,â You said.Â
Countless horror stories about parents falling asleep with their babies in their bed had left you anxious to bring her to yours. It was moments like this that you wished her dad was thereâthat you had someone to take turns staying up with.
âIâll let you go,â You sighed. âIâm gonna try walking her around the house or something, maybe another bath. Sleep well, okay?â
He hummed as you ended the call, the vibration tickling your ear through the phone. Almost like he was there with you. At least one of you would be able to get some sleep, you thought enviously as you pulled Hana to your chest.Â
Only, ten minutes later there was a knock at your door.Â
âHeeseung?â You stared at the man in your doorway. Hana scratched at your face as she wailed up at you. âAre you crazy? What are you doing here?â
He shrugged, smiling as he stepped over the threshold. âWanted to make sure she was okay,â He said, as if that was a reasonable explanation for showing up at your house at 2 a.m.
âSheâs fine,â You said, half-stunned as you shut the door behind him.Â
Hana let out a disgruntled whine at not having your attention. You raised a brow at her, shaking your head. âYouâre such a little drama queen. Look, youâre not even upset anymore.âÂ
It was true. Hanaâs cries had slowed to a sniffle as she gazed at Heeseung with wide, glossy eyes. He held a hand out for her to grab onto.
âHad to make sure mom was okay, too,â He said quietly, thumb brushing over her knuckles.
You looked up at him, your chest tightening. His hair was a mess, poking out from under the hood of his sweatshirt. A rush of emotion washed over you at the sight of him, at the dark circles under his eyes, the tired smile on his mouth. The way he was tryingâreally tryingâto be there for you both.
âYou didnât have to,â You mumbled, averting your eyes.Â
God, even in his most sleep-deprived state he was gorgeous. Eyes burning into yours in the low light. His body hummed with that quiet power that had drawn you to him in the first placeâthat confidence, that steadfastness. How he seemed perfectly at ease no matter where he was or what he was feeling inside.Â
Standing next to him, you felt slightly less exhausted. Like simply being around him was enough to energize you.Â
âI know,â He said softly, âBut I wanted to.âÂ
He stepped forward, hands slipping under Hanaâs arms with a tenderness that made your heart sting. She let out a giggle as he lifted her up, hands smacking against his chest as he settled her against him.
âSheâs always happier with you,â You said quietly. It wasnât a complaint. Hana really was calmer around Heeseung, and that brought you a sense of peace that you werenât quite sure how to explain.Â
He looked at you, his expression softening. âSheâs happier when youâre okay,â He murmured. âCome on, letâs try this again.â
Despite his best efforts, Hana was still unhappy in her crib. She clung to his arm as he tried to place her down, voice going up several octaves. You winced at the volume, grateful that you didnât share walls with your neighbors. Theyâd have lost their patience hours ago.Â
Heeseung didnât seem to mind. He didnât even flinch as she shrieked, clawing at his hands in frustration. He just scooped her back up, resting her against his shoulder and muttering reassurances over her cries.Â
You tried for an entire hourâwalking her around the house, reading her favorite books and making sure to do all the funny voices, swaddling and unswaddling her, over and over and over. The best luck you had was in your room, like Heeseung had suggested, which both heartened and annoyed you at the same time.Â
How were you supposed to deny a man with such good instincts?Â
âYou are so dramatic.â You shook your head as Hana hiccupped from your pillow, smiling like sheâd never been crying in the first place.Â
âI wonder where she gets it,â Heeseung said lightly, sitting down on the other side of her.Â
You tried to stifle a yawn as Hana stretched out, both of your eyes drooping.Â
Heeseung couldnât help but smile at the both of you. Heâd never met your exâhadnât even seen a pictureâbut he didnât need to to know that Hana hardly took after him.
 Her smile, her mannerisms, that was all you. She was yours, through and through.Â
âCome here,â He said, pulling Hana closer to him to make space for you to lay next to her.Â
âIâll fall asleep,â You protested.Â
âI know. Thatâs why Iâm here.â
Anyone else, and you would have said no. Anyone but him, and youâd have insisted they leave, resigning yourself to another brutal night of no sleep.Â
But it was Heeseung. He propped himself up on one elbow, his arm curved over Hanaâs head.Â
You sighed in resignation as you settled in on the other side of her, your hand resting over her stomach gently. His hand came down to brush the hair away from your face. His fingers were soft against your temple, the same gentle touch that you used to love so much.Â
Anyone else and you would have turned them away, but it was Heeseung, and he watched the two of you sleeping like you were the most precious things to him in the world.Â
ââ
When you woke the next morning, the sun was peeking through your window, filtering through your blinds and washing your room in soft, white light.Â
In front of you, Hana was still sound asleep, her fists clenched by her head. On the other side of her, Heeseung was there. Still on his side, shoulders curved inwards protectively. His arm was still stretched out above you both, his hand resting gently against your hair. Heâd fallen asleep that way, holding you both like you were his to care for. His to protect.Â
And waking up that morning, you realized that maybe you were. Maybe you wanted to be. You slipped out from under his hand, trying not to disturb either of them as you rolled the ache out of your shoulders.Â
You padded into your kitchen, warm light spilling across the floor. Leaning against the counter, you finally admitted to yourself that you had a problem.Â
Heeseung was doing it. He was making you believe.
You let out a breath.Â
The nightly calls, the small gestures, the way Heeseung was there for you, it was working. Are you really falling for this? You thought stubbornly, trying to reason your way out of the way you felt about him. How much of it was real, anyways? And how much had you made up in your desire to have him close? Your mind screamed at you not to trust any of it.Â
He was an idea. You didnât need him.Â
But you wanted him so bad.Â
Your heart warred against this truth, desperate for somethingâanythingâto convince yourself otherwise. But it wasnât easy to do. The life heâd painted around you in just under a month was like something out of a dream. One youâd had before the baby, before the breakup, when you still felt like dreams like this had merit.
It was everything youâd ever wanted, and that made you suspicious. What reason did the universe have for giving this to you? When it had been so intent on taking things away?Â
Your thoughts were interrupted as Hana came crawling into the kitchen, slapping her hands on the cool floor. Heeseung trailed in after, looking exceptionally tired with his hair sticking up in awkward places. He yawned, scooping Hana up with practiced ease and perching her against his chest.Â
âHey,â He said, bringing her over to you. âDid you sleep well?â
You took her grabbing hand in yours, kissing a good-morning into her hair. âThanks to you. Youâre so good with her,â You said, trying to keep your voice even. Your stomach was fluttering nervously. âI donât know how you do it.âÂ
He shrugged, giving her a little bounce that sent her squealing with laughter. âItâs easy. Sheâs a charmer. Just like her mom.â
Your heart stuttered, and you looked away, fighting the stubborn burn in your chest. Heeseung saw it, though. He always saw it.
âIâm glad I came, y/n. Seriously. I slept great.â
âYou slept terribly.â
âAlright, fine, I slept pretty badly, but it was worth it,â He insisted. âAnd Iâd do it again. And again, and again, and again,â He laughed, nuzzling his face into her chest. âCan the guys come over today? Unless you want the day to yourself⊠I know weâve been over a lot. I can go home if you want.â
Words could not describe how badly you wanted him to stay. âYeah, of course. I like having you guys around.â
I like having you around, is what you should have said, but you didnât have to say it for Heeseung to know what you meant. The smile on his face told you that he understood completely.Â
It was already the beginning of the end for you when the other members came over and started teasing you both mercilessly. Weeks of hanging out at yours had made them boldâand it was clear that they wanted you to address what was going on between the two of you.
âShould we start packing your room up?â Sunoo asked, side-eyeing you both as he came in.
âYou might as well just move in, bro,â Jay said, clapping his hand on Heeseungâs back.
You scoffed. âYeah right, not until he starts paying rent.â
Jay smirked. âHeâd do it.âÂ
âShut up,â Heeseung mumbled, rolling his eyes.
Their banter might have embarrassed you once, but it felt natural now. The way they spilled into your living room, fighting over who got to hold Hana and which toys she wanted to play with more moreâit was hard not to feel like this was how it had always been.Â
You clung to whatever thin resolve you had left as you watched them all with your daughter. No matter how much you tried not to, your gaze always landed back on Heeseung. The way he lifted Hana into the air, blowing raspberries into her stomach until she was screeching with laughter. The way he handed her off to someone else and insisted on helping you get her lunch ready.Â
Things between you and Heeseung became⊠different.Â
It didnât fluster you as much when the others teased you for being attached at the hip anymore. And you didnât mind when heâd sit with his arm slung over the back of the couch, fingers brushing the back of your neck.
For every inch you gave, he seemed to take a mile. Eventually, it became commonplace for him to collapse on the couch right next to you, thigh brushing yours, arm stretched behind your shoulders.
The others stopped asking if Heeseung was leaving with them. They knew heâd choose to stay with you.Â
âAre you just gonna stand there staring at me all night?â You asked, your back turned as you put your dinner leftovers into the fridge. You could feel his eyes on the back of your neck, sending shivers down your spine.
âMaybe.â He said, âI like watching you.â
âYouâre insufferable.â
He smirked, eyes glinting. âYou didnât seem to mind earlier. When I put my arm around you on the couch, you didnât move.â
Caught.Â
âThat was different,â You managed, keeping your voice even. He didnât need to know how much of a rise that simple touch had gotten out of you.Â
âWas it?â His voice was low as he came to lean against the counter beside you, arms crossed. âFelt pretty natural to me.â
Weeks passed and lines got blurrier. He touched you. A lot. Practically couldnât keep his hands off of youâbrushing a strand of hair from your face, a hand on your lower back, a stroke of his thumb against your temple.Â
By the time you realized it was happening, that you were really, truly falling for him again, it was too late.Â
Waking up with your head on his chest, Hana curled between youâit was too late.Â
His arms resting on either side of you against the counter, his chest to your back as Hana sat on top of itâit was too late.Â
His hand running back through your hair in front of everyone as he tried to find the scar youâd gotten from hitting your head on his dorm door all those years agoâit was too late.
As much as you tried to manage your affinity for himâremind yourself that he had always been friendly, that this was just a passing thing for him while he was bored at homeâit was during your weekly dinner as a group that your feelings became impossible to deny any longer.Â
You were in the kitchen, putting the dishes away when you heard a sharp crash from the other roomâthe sound of glass breaking.
Your heart skipped as you dropped the bowl you were holding and ran towards the living room. Someone had knocked a cup from the table, the shards spraying across the floor.Â
Heeseung was on his feet in a second, scooping Hana up away from the broken pieces, stepping away as the others got up.Â
You paused in the doorway, your breath catching as you watched him. The others stepped around him to clean up, bickering lightly about who was to blame, but Heeseungâs focus never wavered. He murmured something in Hanaâs ear, pointing at the broken cup, bouncing her gently as they swept up the shards.
He looked up and caught your eye, and it was suddenly so clear.Â
Youâd been an idiot.Â
Looking at Heeseung now, it was impossible for you to deny any longer. Heeseung loved you. How had you managed to convince yourself otherwise?
Old grudges rose in the back of your mindâhe left you. he left like it was nothing, like everyone else does, and heâs going to do it againâbut for the first time, you pushed them away with ease.Â
They were words.Â
And what use were words when there you had actions to prove them otherwise?Â
Something about that moment, the way Heeseung had gone for Hana first, letting the others handle the mess while he made sure she was alright, made your doubts melt away. His first instinct wasnât to scold whoever had knocked the glass over, or even to help clean it up.
It was to keep your daughter safe.Â
You spent the rest of the day with a lump in the back of your throat, the awkward ache of all the things you wanted to say to him. He seemed to notice your change in attitude, that something was bothering you, and he stuck even closer than he usually did, stopping to ask you if you were okay multiple times.
âWill you stay behind?â You asked, glancing up at him. âAfter everyone goes.â
He looked surprised, but nodded. âOf course.â
The others eventually left again, wanting to go out for dinner. Heeseung promised heâd catch up with them but they just rolled their eyes, not believing him for a second.Â
With the house empty again, it was impossible for you to dance around it anymore.Â
Hana was down for her napâeased to sleep by Sunghoon and Jakeâs rendition of her favorite bedtime story. Heeseung was leaned against the counter, as if half-expecting you to say something. And your words sat heavy in your throat, aching to come out.
âYou donât know how much it means to me,â You murmured finally, looking up to meet his gaze, âHaving you and the others here. I donât know how Iâll ever make it up to you.âÂ
âYou donât have to make it up to us, y/n. Weâre happy to help.âÂ
âNo,â You said, shifting uneasily. âI dont know how Iâll make it up⊠to you.âÂ
His eyes widened slightly, but you went on before he could answer, afraid that if you didnât talk now, youâd never be able to again.
âI knowâŠâ You started, cringing internally at how difficult this was for you. Your feelings were so strong, why was it so hard to explain them? âI know I was harsh on you when you came over the first time. You were being kind, and I got defensive. Iâm not proud of how I behaved at all,â You admitted.Â
âY/nâŠâ
You stopped him. âJustâlet me finish.â
He closed his mouth, but you saw the anxious twitch of his brow.
âYou didnât have to come back. You didnât owe us anything, not after the way we left things and definitely not after the way I spoke to you. But you did anyways.â You crossed your arms, feeling self-concious. âI didnât think that I would ever have this again,â You said, gesturing at the things left over from their visit. âI really thought I was going to do this by myself. And that was fine, Iâd made my peace with it, but nowâŠâ
You paused, your eyes flicking to the picture Hana had drawn with the othersâa mess of scribbles that resembled a house, and a group of people standing in front of it. âNow itâs different. And thatâs hard for me.â
Heeseung swallowed, as if gathering every ounce of his strength to keep his voice steady. âItâs okay if⊠if you donât want me here, y/n.â He held your gaze bravely, but you could tell the idea hurt him. âIf this is too much, if youâd rather⊠I can goââ
âI donât want you to go.â
He blinked, startled.Â
âI know Iâve been guarded, and Iâve been pushing you away. But⊠but seeing you with her, and with meâitâs made me realize how much Iâve missed this. How much Iâve missed you.â
Heeseungâs brow furrowed as if he didnât quite believe you. You almost smiled. He was so reserved, hands clenched at his sides, braced for what you were going to say.Â
âI know I talk a big talk but⊠I donât want to do this alone, not if youâre willing to be here. Not if youâre willing to⊠to be with us. I donât want you to go.â
âYou donât want me to go.â He said it slowly, like he couldnât quite believe what he was hearing.Â
You bit your lip, laughing a little bit at the look on his face. âNo, I donât.âÂ
Then, his face broke into a grin. His shoulders dropped and he was stepping towards you, pulling you into his chest like heâd been waiting to do it for years.Â
And he had. He really had.
His touch was overwhelming. His arms wrapped around you, the heat of his throat warm against your cheek. You buried your face into his neck, breathing in the smell of his cologne and the lingering smell of kid that was all over him. All over both of you.Â
You pulled away, giddy with nerves and relief. âHappy?â
âHappy,â He breathed. âSo⊠what now?â
âI donât know⊠what do you think?â
He quirked his head, lips twisting into a smile. âI think⊠Iâve been waiting a long time to kiss you again.â
Your heart skipped. âThen whatâs stopping you?â
He smiled lazily, like he was half-dreaming, and brushed his nose against yours before pushing his lips onto yours. You melted against him, so happy you could hardly think straight.
Heeseung pushed you back against the counter, his hands on your waist as yours threaded through his hair.Â
âI was an asshole,â He mumbled against your mouth. âIâm sorryâÂ
You shook your head, breathless beneath his lips. âIt doesnât matter. Not anymore.â
Besides, you thought, that was years ago. And the Heeseung in front of you now was not the same one that had left you behind.Â
Not by a longshot.
#enhypen#enhypen imagines#lee heeseung#lee heesung x reader#baby fic#angst#enhypen x reader#boyfriend heeseung#ex boyfriend heeseung#guppiechuu
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-> soft yandere caleb hcs:
1. âyouâre mine. you said so.â you get busyâmiss a call, forget a textâand when you finally answer, his voice is calm, too calm. âi waited. for hours.â you apologize, sweetly, teasingly even, but he doesnât laugh. âyou promised youâd always be there, remember? donât break your promises. i⊠donât handle that well.â and later, when he holds you close, you feel the way his hands tremble slightly against your waist like heâs afraid youâll disappear if he lets go.
2. his name in your phone has a lock emoji. -> he changed it himself. he also disabled the option to delete his contact. âjust in case someone thinks they can slide into your messages,â he said, pressing a soft kiss to your cheek, âtheyâll know who you belong to.â
3. he tracks you. -> not in a creepy way (okay maybe a little), but he has your location always. and when he sees youâre somewhere unexpected, he texts immediately: âwhat are you doing there?â âŠâŠyou ask how he knew. âbecause youâre mine pipsqueak, and i need to know youâre safe. thatâs not too much to ask, is it?â and the look in his eyes? heâd burn the whole galaxy just to get you back home.
4. he doesnât like you being friends with your ex-> at all. he doesnât raise his voice. doesnât tell you not to. he just shuts down emotionally, turns icy and unreadable. itâs bound with his actions though⊠he would probably still do everything acts of service wise. but he wants you to understand something is wrong, wants you to probe⊠and when you confront him, he finally murmurs, âi donât want to be second choice to anyone. i want to be your only. and if thatâs too muchââ you cut him off with a kiss. you have to. because his voice was starting to sound a little unhinged and a little too honest.
5. he locks the door when you argue.-> not to trap you essentially (which he thinks he isnât doingâŠ) just to make sure you donât leave. âweâre not going to sleep angry pips,â he says, softly. âyou donât walk away from me. not when we love each other this much baby.â and when you calm down, he pulls you into his lap, arms like iron around you, and whispers again and again, âmine. mine. mine.â
6. he doesnât like you dressing up for anyone but him.-> you put on a new outfit, stunning, radiantâand his jaw clenches. why are you so breath-taking my gorgeous he thinks⊠no wonder he wants a world with just the two of you. âwhoâs that for?â / âme,â you say, innocent. but he steps closer, cups your jaw gently, possessively. ânext time, wear it only when weâre alone. i donât want anyone else seeing whatâs mine. or~ youâd hate how i become and say something like i killed your old caleb.â
7. his anger is unpredictable.->when someone flirts with you in front of him, he doesnât start a fight. but sometimes the look in his eyes speaks more than words ever could. maybe he will break their bones when you leave, maybe he will let it slide. who knows what calebâs mood dictates him to do. sometimes, he just smiles. and later, when youâre home, he pins you softly to the bed, hands on either side of your head.âdo you want them?â he asks, voice flat. âbecause i can make sure they never speak to you again.â and youâ you tell him itâs just him. itâs always been him. like a prayer, like a chanting to balm his rage. and he finally kisses you like a starved man, whispering âgood girl.â
8. he deletes numbers from your phone.->youâll never notice. heâs too smooth. but people you used to talk to? stop replying. and when you ask caleb, he just shrugs with a soft smirk, âmaybe they realized they could never compete with me.â and then changes the subject with a kiss and that dangerous look in his eyes againâŠ. this isnât out of sheer possessiveness though its just out of trust issues.
9. he doesnât like letting you sleep mad at him.-> you try to turn away in bed, still upset. away from him⊠back on his face like an iron wall. but he slides his arms around you from behind, strong and unyielding.âno. you donât get to walk away from me in your sleep, either.â and you can feel how serious he is. âwe fix this now, angel. iâll do anything. but you donât leave.â
10. he has nightmares about losing you.-> he never tells you the full details either. just that he wakes up shaking, pale, and pulls you into his lap, holding you so tightly it almost hurts. âi saw you leaving me,â he whispers into your neck. âdonât ever do that. i wouldnât survive it.â
#love and deepspace#lads x reader#yandere lads#yandere caleb#caleb x reader#caleb hcs#caleb headcanons#lads headcanons#love and deepspace headcanons#lads#l&ds#lnds caleb#yandere lnds#yandere caleb x reader
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Bruce: What do you do if you wake up to one of your wards standing over your sleeping body, checking your heart rate while holding an Anti-creep stick?
Barry: Im going to take a wild guess here and ask: Was that Danny?
Bruce: Yes! He wanted to make sure I wasn't a vampire.
Clark: Where was Dick?
Bruce: Digging a hole.
Diana: Why was he digging a hole?
Bruce: In case I turned out to be a vampire, they needed somewhere to hide the body after Danny killed me.
Hal: Spooky, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I think those kids you took in are a danger to the public.
Bruce: They're good kids! Dick is just going through a lot with his parents being killed in front of him and Danny.....well, Danny escaped a lab that his parents sold him off to. Both of them are having some trust issues right now and are acting out. That's all.
Clark: Bruce, last week Danny broke into my apartment and held me at knife point demanding to know what my intentions were with you. He wouldn't accept that we're coworkers.
Bruce: He probably thought you were a vampire. Danny doesn't like those.
Hal: Didn't Dick break into your house too Barry?
Barry: Yeah, but that was more so he could cuddle with Wally then to make threats at me. Danny, on the other hand, showed up at three am. after rumors about Batman and Flash sleeping together went around. He threatened to cut the muscles in my legs so I could be " The fastest crawler in the world" if I didn't offer Bruce a ring by morning.
Bruce: Why is this the first I'm hearing about that?
Barry: *shrug* I figured you knew since the next day you showed up and apologize for the boy's behavior.
Bruce: I did not know. I was apologizing for him breaking into what I assumed was to see Wally while grounded like Dick. Great, now the boy is going to kill me in my sleep and/or ensure I never get a lover again.
Diana: I think it's rather sweet. Danny is placing a challenge for your would-be suitors. It's like a wolf pup attempting to scare away mates from his father. No real harm was done.
J'onn: He set me on fire.
Bruce: What? Why?
J'onn: Apparently, my eyes were on your back for too long. I was admiring your cape, but Danny believed my eyes were focused too low, and I was instead admiring your bottom. Dick threw glitter in my eyes a few hours later.
Bruce: *sigh* Danny is overly protective, and Dick does whatever his big brother tells him to. I don't know what to do anymore.
Oliver: Tell him you're a vampire but like a sluty one that feeds on lust instead of blood. He'll get scared and leave your dates alone.
Bruce: That's an incubus. What you just describe is an incubus. Also, that's a terrible plan. I would be in a hole so fast.
Hal: Yeah, but they would cry while they buried you so there's that at least
#dcxdpdabbles#dcxdp crossover#from a fic i never wrote#Danny is 15#Dick is 9#Bruce is way in over his head#The JL are friends#Also Danny thinks everyone is simping for B#and he needs to protect him#Danny âThe Menaceâ Fenton-Wayne
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Mercury in the houses
(Where does your brain do the most damage? Letâs find out! đ)
Mercury in the 1st House: "I Talk, Therefore I Am." đ
Speaks like theyâre in a debate competitionâeven when ordering coffee. â
When it comes to job/career, can succeed in anything requiring fast thinking, persuasion, or scamming people legally. (Lawyer, salesperson, journalist.)
Will text you a 3-paragraph explanation for why they took 5 minutes to reply. đ±
Probably debated with your siblings (if you have any) so much as a child they now have trust issues.
Flirts like it's a TED Talkâinformative, persuasive, and slightly exhausting.
Looks like their pen was possessed by a demon mid-word. đ»
Your brain runs at 5G speed, but their mouth runs at 6G.
Mercury in the 2nd House: "Money Talks⊠and So Do I!"đ°
Talks slow and calculatedâlike theyâre charging per word.
For job/career, you are perfect for finance, business, or making passive-aggressive Etsy shops.
"Who owes me $15 from 2020? I remember."
Your Handwriting: Fancy-looking cursive that belongs on an expensive check. âïž
If has family, you might have an Excel sheet of who spent what on Christmas gifts. đ
Watches finance YouTubers like theyâre movies.
Mercury in the 3rd House: "I Have 1000 Thoughts Per Minute."
Can out-talk an auctioneer. Never. Shuts. Up. Talks so fast, even their Wi-Fi canât keep up.
For job/career, you could do well as journalist, social media manager, or that one coworker who emails at 3 AM.
Chaotic bisexual, pansexual, or flirts for sport. đ
Handwriting: Could be unreadable. Like a doctorâs prescription.
Probably has 50 tabs opened at once.
ADHD? I've seen this placement with people who has mercury in 3rd house.
Mercury in the 4th House: "Letâs Overthink Our Childhood."đ
When they talk it sounds like a therapist even when giving food orders.
For job/career, anything home-based (Freelancer, therapist, professional nostalgic, home maker).
Writes long emotional texts and then deletes them.
They're the one that tells their sibling, "Mom always liked me better" or "You're adopted".
Handwriting: Cutesy and emotionalâlike a grandmaâs love letter.
On their social media accounts, they posts sentimental throwbacks way too much.
Biggest Flaw: Lives in the past.
Mercury in the 5th House: "Flirting is My Second Language."đ
Flirty, dramatic, and annoyingly charming.
For job/career, anything creativeâactor, writer, public speaker, meme creator.
Flirts with everyone, dates no one. Flirting in the comments section.
Was the funny but annoying child.
Canât take anything seriously.
Mercury in the 6th House: "I think in bullet points."
If anyone asks them a question, it would sound like a Google search result.
For job/career, perfectionist boss (or their employeeâs worst nightmare).
Too busy analyzing red flags to enjoy romance.
Handwriting: Neat, small, and borderline obsessive.
Leaves detailed Yelp reviews.
Mercury in the 7th House: "Letâs Discuss This⊠Again."đ
Speaks in "we" instead of "I" (even when theyâre single).
For job/career, they are good at lawyer, diplomat, or customer service expert.
Always "the mediator" in sibling fights.
Plays marriage counselor to their parents.
Canât be alone, but overthinks commitment.
Mercury in the 8th House: "Secrets? I Know Them All."đ
The way they talk: Low voice, deep words, big secrets.
For job/career, they're good at investigator, psychologist, hacker, or a blackmail expert.
In love, communicates in mystery and sexual tension.
Handwriting: Looks like a serial killerâs notes.
Leaves cryptic tweets.
Wonât admit their sexuality⊠but they are. Sometimes they could be straight, but a sibling could be gay.
Mercury in the 9th House: "I will talk your ear off about philosophy and conspiracy theories" đ
Flirts by explaining history.
In love, turns deep convos into foreplay.
Probably thinks theyâre smarter than their parents.
Posts long Reddit rants.
Handwriting: Could be messy, but big and confident.
For job/career, could excel at teacher, philosopher, or annoying podcast host.
Mercury in the 10th House: "Iâm CEO of Overthinking My Career."đ
Talks like a LinkedIn post and takes life too seriously.
For job/career, could be a CEO, politician, or a corporate robot, lol.
Will literally schedule date nights.
Takes love as seriously as a business contract.
Will only befriend "useful people."
Mostly posts work-related updates.
Mercury in the 11th House: "I'm the human embodiment of a Reddit thread"đ
Speaks like theyâre in a sci-fi movie.
Tech startup, social activist, or online troll.
In love, probably falls for their best friend.
Might like the idea of "open-minded" relationships.
The "black sheep" of the family.
Handwriting: Either it looks like it belongs on a protest sign or kinda bad.
Mercury in the 12th House: "Did I Say That Out Loud?"
Mumbles, forgets what they were saying.
Job/Career: Psychic, therapist, or mysterious writer. If writes, these people would write under a pen name.
Either super close to their siblings or never speaks to them.
Very much into horror, psychological thriller movies.
Handwriting: Looks like a haunted diary.
Terrible at explaining emotions but fantastic at writing it.
Mercury is where your brain lives, where your mouth runs, and where your Wi-Fi connection to reality glitches. đđâš
Curious about your birth chart and what it's really saying about you? đ Slide into my DMs for a personalized astrology reading, and let's unlock the secrets of your stars. âš Donât forget to check out my pinned post for pricing details! đź Letâs make those cosmic connections happen! đđ
#mercury sign#vedic astrology#vedicwisdom#astrology readings#astro observations#astro notes#spirituality#spiritual journey#spiritual awakening#astrology#astrology content#astrology tumblr#astrology blog#astro posts#astrology notes#natal astrology#astrology chart#astro blog#astrology community#sidereal astrology#astro community#astro placements#natal placements#vedic chart#astrology placements
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