#let him help the kids that are like he was!!!

[cressidagrey]

White Horse - Chapter 36: October 2024 - Part 3

Pairing: Max Verstappen x Isabelle Leclerc (Original Character)

Summary:

Max Verstappen is a World Champion. Isabelle Leclerc is invisible.

She watched her family give up everything for Charles’ career—Arthur’s karting, their father’s savings, even her childhood horse. She understood. She never asked for more.

But Max does. He notices the things no one else does, listens when no one else will, and puts her first in ways she never imagined. With him, she isn’t an afterthought—she’s a choice. And for the first time, she realizes she doesn’t have to be invisible.

Warnings and Notes: 

we have now moved on from Charles bashing to bashing his whole family, Discussions of toxic past relationships, talk about loosing a childhood pet, toxic families, mention of the loss of a parent.

As always big thanks to @llirawolf , who listens to me ramble

Belle had always known that Lorenzo loved Charlotte.

You didn’t need to be particularly observant to catch it — not when he looked at her like she was sunlight bottled into human form. He was quieter about it than most, but in a way that only made it more obvious: the way he listened, the way he waited, the way his eyes found her even in a crowded room. Not infatuation. Not flair. Just… certainty.

So when Lorenzo asked if he could stop by for coffee, she hadn’t expected it to be anything dramatic.

But then he sat at her kitchen table — still in his work clothes, his tie half-loosened, hands wrapped too tightly around the mug she’d handed him — and didn’t speak for almost five full minutes.

That’s how she knew something was up.

She didn’t press.

Not yet.

She just waited.

Lorenzo had always been the sort of person who unfolded in his own time, like a letter written in longhand — slow, thoughtful, deliberate.

Finally, he cleared his throat and said, “I think I want to propose.”

Belle blinked. Once. Twice.

Then smiled softly. “You think?”

“I know,” he said. “I do. I’ve known. For a while. I just…”

He looked down at his mug.

“I want it to be right.”

Belle rested her chin in her palm and watched her oldest brother. He looked—nervous. Earnest in a way she hadn’t seen in a long time. Maybe since they were kids, before life got complicated and painful and messy.

“And what does right look like to you?”

“That’s the problem,” Lorenzo said, huffing a laugh. “I don’t know. I just keep getting in my own head. She deserves something special. Not flashy. Not over the top. Just… her.”

Belle smiled wider, something warm unfolding in her chest.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s build it.”

Lorenzo looked up, surprised. “You’ll help?”

“Of course I’ll help,” she said. “You’re my brother. She’s your person. This is literally my favorite kind of project.”

“But don’t you have enough on your plate?”

Belle gestured around the room, where baby things sat half-unpacked in calm, expectant chaos. “Max is currently on a mission to figure out how to swaddle a stuffed animal. I think I can spare a little time.”

He laughed, properly this time, and some of the tension in his shoulders eased.

“Alright then,” she said, reaching for a notepad. “Talk to me. What are the non-negotiables?”

Lorenzo leaned back, thinking. “Nothing public. Nothing performative. And something that includes her family, somehow — she’s close to them. But also something quiet. Intimate.”

Belle nodded. “Sentimental. Classic. Maybe something outdoors? A picnic? Or a dinner somewhere that matters to you both?”

“There’s a lake house,” he said slowly. “Her grandparents used to take her there when she was a kid. We’ve been a few times, and she always looks… peaceful there.”

Belle’s heart softened.

“There,” she said. “That’s the place. That’s the moment.”

Lorenzo looked like he was still trying to catch up to the fact that she was doing this with him — no teasing, no commentary, just belief.

“Belle,” he said quietly. “Thank you.”

She looked at him then, really looked at him — her oldest brother, who had been too busy or too far removed to see her as anything other than Charles and Arthur’s quiet shadow. But right now, he was here. Asking her. Because he trusted her.

“You’re going to do this right,” she said. “Because it’s not about perfect words or some cinematic moment. It’s about her. And you already know how to love her. You just need to show her that in a way she’ll remember.”

Lorenzo exhaled slowly. “You’d be a terrifying wedding planner.”

“I’m saving that energy for Emilian’s first birthday,” Belle said dryly. “There will be a live band and possibly jungle animals.”

He laughed again, eyes a little glassy now. “God, you’re going to be a good mum.”

Belle smiled down at the notepad, heart full.

“And you,” she said, writing down lake house, sunset, something honest, “are going to be a husband.”

****

They were on the couch, tangled together in the quiet kind of way that felt like routine now. Max’s head was resting on Belle’s belly, his hand absently tracing slow circles over the stretch of skin beneath her shirt, like he was trying to memorize every inch before December came.

Belle had one hand in his hair. The other held her planner, open but forgotten on the coffee table.

“He kicked again,” Max murmured, pressing a kiss just above her navel.

Belle smiled, her heart aching in that full, quiet way that still caught her off guard sometimes. “He’s been kicking all day,” she said. “Probably hates how I folded over during that client call.”

Max snorted. “He already has opinions. Verstappen genes.”

She rolled her eyes, fond. “God help us.”

They fell into silence again, the kind that didn’t need filling. Outside, Monaco glowed—blue and gold and still.

Then Max said, softly, “We’ve got the triple header coming up.”

Belle nodded. “I know.”

“Austin, then Mexico, then Brazil.”

“I know.”

“I want you to come.”

Belle looked down at him.

Max sat up slowly, brushing a hand through his hair. “If you feel up to it,” he added. “If it’s safe. I just… I know it’s the last one before—before you can’t really travel anymore. And I don’t want to go three races without you if we can help it.”

His voice was quiet. Honest.

Belle let her hand rest on the slope of her belly. Their son kicked again—just once, like punctuation.

“I was thinking the same thing,” she said softly. “I don’t want to miss this part. After Brazil, I’ll stay home. Nest. Wait. After that, I won’t be able to travel long haul. Not safely, anyway. I just… I want to be there with you. One last time.”

Max’s expression shifted—surprise giving way to something deeper. Something tender.

“You’d really be okay with all that travel?” he asked. “Three races in three weeks?”

She nodded. “I already talked to my OB. I’ll be 34 weeks by Brazil. She said if I’m careful, and I rest, and we don’t take risks, it’s fine. After that, no more flights. But until then…”

Max reached for her hand, threading his fingers through hers.

“I’d love that,” he said softly. “I miss you when you’re not there.”

Belle smiled. “You have GP.”

Max smirked. “GP doesn’t sneak me cookies or remind me to drink water. Or kiss me before every quali.”

Belle raised an eyebrow. “You want kisses before quali?”

“Obviously. It’s good luck.”

She laughed and leaned in, pressing one to his temple.

“Then it’s settled,” she said. “Three races. Three cities. Then we come home. And wait.”

Max smiled. It was a tired kind of smile, edged in awe. “He’ll be here so soon.”

Belle nodded. “It still doesn’t feel real.”

“It will,” Max said. Then, after a beat: “Are you sure, though? It’s a lot of travel. Long flights. Weird hotel beds.”

“I’ll bring my pillow fortress,” Belle teased, nudging him with her foot. “And snacks. And compression socks. I’ll be fine.”

Max leaned over, pressing a kiss to her cheek. Then her collarbone. Then her belly. “Okay,” he murmured. “Then we’ll do this together.”

Belle closed her eyes. Felt the hum of his voice against her skin. And the tiny flutter of their son, responding like he knew.

Together.

Until they weren’t two anymore.

But three.

***

Leclerc Sibling Group Chat

(Members: Arthur, Isabelle, Charles and Lorenzo)

Lorenzo: So… I have some news. Charlotte said yes ��😊

Arthur: WHAT?????? WAIT YOU PROPOSED????

Charles: BRO. What do you mean “said yes”??? WHEN??? HOW??? WHERE???

Arthur: Wait Belle knew didn’t she SHE TOTALLY KNEW

Belle: 👀

Charles: UNREAL. I TELL YOU EVERYTHING. AND YOU STAYED QUIET FOR THIS???

Belle: It wasn’t my news to tell! 😇 Also… I helped pick the ring. And the spot. And the picnic menu.

Arthur: I KNEW IT THE BASKET IN YOUR BACKSEAT LAST WEEK YOU SAID IT WAS FOR A “CLIENT MEETING”!!!

Lorenzo: It was a meeting. With my future wife 😌

Charles: Okay but for real—congratulations. You both deserve all the happiness. Still mad you didn’t tell us though.

Belle: 🥹 I was under strict brother-sister confidentiality. But I’m so happy for you, Enzo. Truly.

Arthur: Can we plan the bachelor party?? Please??

Charles: No. I know you. Absolutely not.

Arthur: 😤

Lorenzo: Thanks, all of you. Belle, especially. I couldn’t have pulled it off without you.

Belle: Anytime. Now go be nauseatingly in love.

***

Pascale hadn’t even set her wine glass down when Lorenzo said, “Charlotte and I are engaged.”

There was a beat of silence—sharp, almost theatrical—and then the room burst into overlapping exclamations.

Arthur stood up to hug him, nearly knocking over the bowl of olives. Charles thumped Lorenzo on the back like they were still teenagers. Even Alexandra, who was usually more reserved around the Leclerc chaos, was smiling wide, clutching Charlotte’s hands and asking a thousand questions.

Pascale pressed both hands to her heart, eyes wet. “Oh, my darling—felicitations!” She turned to Charlotte, enveloping her in a tight hug. “You are already family, but now it’s official. I am so, so happy.”

Belle watched it all unfold with a soft smile, Max’s hand resting on her knee under the table. She was genuinely happy for Lorenzo. 

But when Pascale dabbed her eyes and said, “Oh, we have to start planning,” Belle felt the old, familiar weight settle in her chest.

“Summer wedding?” Arthur asked. “Italy?”

“Too hot in July,” Charlotte said, laughing. “We were thinking September.”

“Belle should help you with everything,” Pascale added warmly. “She always has the best taste.”

Belle opened her mouth, closed it again.

“She already has,” Lorenzo said quickly, rescuing her. “She helped plan the proposal. Honestly, it was perfect.”

Charles raised his glass. “To love. And to Belle being a better event planner than all of us combined.”

They all drank. Belle sipped at her water, but she couldn’t quite keep the smile on her face when Pascale turned to her and said, with teasing affection, “Well, I expect an invite this time.”

The joke slipped out easily.

The silence that followed was harder.

Max’s fingers subtly curled around Belle’s under the table. “What do you mean?”

Pascale looked at Belle. “You know. The last wedding. The one none of us were invited to.”

“Maman,” she said quietly.

“No, I’m not trying to be rude, I just…” She trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. “We found out from the press, Belle.”

Belle exhaled. “You forgot my birthday, remember? All of you,” Belle said sharply. 

“I turned 25. And you were all too busy with Charles winning Monaco.”

“Belle,” Pascale said gently, “we didn’t mean—”

“But you did,” Belle interrupted, and her voice wasn’t cold. It was tired. Bone-deep tired. “You never mean it.”

The table was quiet now. Even Arthur wasn’t fidgeting.

Belle glanced down at her plate. Then back up. Her gaze flicked to each of them—her brothers, her mother, Charlotte and Alexandra.

“Max and I got married on a Tuesday morning. At Monaco City Hall. We didn’t want the press. Didn’t want a spectacle.”

Pascale’s face crumpled. “But we should’ve been there.”

“No,” Belle said, with finality. “You really shouldn’t have.”

She folded her napkin slowly, carefully, like it would help her hold back the years she hadn’t said anything.

“Because in that moment, I didn’t want to wonder if any of you thought I was enough. I didn’t want to hear one more backhanded joke about how I decorate houses for Instagram. Or how I was the ‘soft’ Leclerc. Or how I should be grateful for being in the room.”

Max stayed silent beside her, but his hand remained warm on her knee, steady, grounding.

“I wanted to be surrounded by people who saw me. Who remembered me. Who didn’t compare me to Charles or Arthur or Lorenzo. Who didn’t make me feel like a placeholder in my own life.”

She turned toward her mother. “So no, you weren’t invited. Because it wasn’t about you. Or about what a wedding should look like. It was about what felt safe.”

“Belle,” Pascale began, reaching for her, “we didn’t mean to—”

“But you did,” Belle cut in. “You’ve spent years not meaning to. Not meaning to forget. Not meaning to brush me off. Not meaning to act like my work is just expensive Pinterest. Like I’m the background character in someone else’s success story.”

Pascale’s expression shifted, like someone trying to balance shame and defensiveness and failing at both.

“When Max and I got married,” Belle continued, her voice lower now, steadier, “we had everyone there who mattered. People who saw me. Who remembered me. Who didn’t need a headline to decide I was important.”

Max’s hand tightened around hers under the table, silent but solid.

“It wasn’t a grand wedding. There was no string quartet, no designer gown. Emilie somehow managed to get my favourite flowers and cake. And it was the best day of my life.”

She looked at her mother.

“And I didn’t invite you. Not because I wanted to hurt you. But because, in that moment, I couldn’t handle the way you made me feel. Like nothing I did would ever be enough. Like even that day would be compared to someone else’s. Like I’d be asked why I didn’t wait. Or why the photos weren’t professional.”

Pascale looked stricken.

“I didn’t want to feel like an afterthought at my own wedding,” Belle finished, quietly. “So I didn’t invite the people who made me feel like one.”

Silence.

Lorenzo swallowed hard. Arthur looked like he might cry. Charles… looked wrecked.

And Pascale, for once, said nothing at all.

Belle pushed her chair back gently, the scrape of wood on tile loud in the quiet.

“I’m going to check on dessert,” she said, standing. “Max, come with?”

He rose immediately. ***

The kitchen was warm and low-lit, all copper tones and quiet clatter. Belle moved automatically, opening drawers, checking the oven—like she hadn’t just dropped every hard, buried truth onto the dinner table like a thunderclap.

Max followed, quietly closing the door behind them.

For a second, neither of them spoke. She reached for plates with trembling hands.

“Belle.”

“I’m fine,” she said. Too fast. Too flat.

He crossed the room in three steps, gently placing his hands on her hips. “You don’t have to be.”

Belle inhaled like she was bracing for another wave, but when it didn’t come, she sagged slightly into him, just enough that he felt it.

“I didn’t mean to make it a scene,” she murmured, voice frayed at the edges.

“You didn’t make a scene,” Max said. “You told the truth.”

She didn’t answer. Just stared at the cake tin on the counter like it might disappear if she focused hard enough.

“I’m just surprised you said all that out loud,” he added gently.

Belle let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a breath. “So am I.”

He rubbed small circles into her back. “They needed to hear it.”

“She won’t change.”

“Maybe not right away,” Max allowed. “But tonight… that landed. They were quiet, Belle. Your mother looked like she got hit with a brick.”

“That’s not exactly comforting,” she muttered, though she didn’t pull away.

Max lowered his head, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “I mean it. You gave them a wake-up call they couldn’t brush off. That takes guts.”

She was silent for a long beat. Then: “I didn’t want to cry in front of them.”

“You didn’t. You stood up for yourself.”

Belle turned slightly to look at him. “Did I come off like an asshole?”

Max smiled, brushing a lock of hair from her cheek. “No. You came off like someone who’s tired of being invisible.”

Belle exhaled. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her.”

“I know,” he said. “And deep down, I think she does too. But she needed to feel it. You gave her the truth. What she does with it is up to her.”

Belle leaned into his chest fully now, the tension finally starting to seep out of her limbs. “I just… I don’t want our son to ever feel that way. Like he has to earn being seen.”

Max wrapped his arms around her and kissed her temple. “He won’t. Not with you as his mother.”

She let out another breath, steadier this time. “God. Dessert feels so stupid now.”

Max tilted his head. “It’s chocolate tart. Nothing about that is ever stupid.”

She laughed, soft and tired. “You’re ridiculous.”

“And you,” he said, brushing his thumb across her cheek, “are the bravest person I know.”

***

The moment Belle disappeared through the kitchen door with Max, the silence she left behind clung to the room like smoke.

No one spoke.

Charlotte gently touched Lorenzo’s arm, but he barely registered it.

He turned to his mother, voice low. “Do you realize what you just did?”

Pascale blinked at him, eyes still wide. “Lorenzo—”

“No.” He shook his head, biting back the anger rising in his throat. “You don’t get to play innocent now, Maman. You made a joke about not being invited to her wedding, and you didn’t think once about why you weren’t.”

“I wasn’t trying to hurt her,” Pascale said, voice trembling. “It was meant to be lighthearted.”

“And that’s the problem.” Lorenzo’s voice hardened. 

Pascale blinked at her oldest son. “Lorenzo—”

“No,” he said, calm but sharp. “Don’t deflect.”

“I wasn’t—”

“Yes, you were. Like you always do. Like we all do. And I’ve let it slide for years. We all have. Because it’s Belle, and she never kicks up a fuss, right?”

He leaned forward, fingers pressed against the edge of the table like he needed something solid to hold him down.

“But she remembers.” His voice dropped, hard with the weight of truth. “She remembers everything you brush off. Every joke about her job. Every time we prioritized a podium over a person. Every thing we forgot because we were too caught up in what one of us was doing on the track.”

Pascale’s eyes were glassy. “I didn’t mean to hurt her—”

“That’s the problem,” Lorenzo snapped, sharper than anyone in the room had ever heard him. “You keep saying that. You never mean to. But it happens anyway. And because she doesn’t fight you on it, you think it didn’t cut.”

Arthur looked down. Even Charles didn’t try to interrupt.

“She helped me plan my proposal, Maman. Thought of every detail, reminded me to tell Charlotte’s parents first—she did it all with a smile. And not once did she bring up her wedding. Not once.”

He sat back slowly, tone dipping into something quieter. “She didn’t even want a wedding with us. You understand how much that says?”

Pascale had a hand pressed to her lips now.

“She didn’t invite you to her wedding because she didn’t feel safe with you. Not loved. Not supported. Safe. Do you know how devastating that is?”

Pascale blinked hard, and for once, she didn’t have anything to say.

“And you know what?” Lorenzo added. “That’s on you. Not her. She found someone who sees her. Who values her. Who protects her, because he understands what it feels like to be treated like you’re never quite enough.”

Lorenzo’s tone turned more bitter than he meant it to. “God, Max Verstappen treats her better than any of us ever have. And we’re her blood.”

Pascale shook her head, tears finally spilling over. “I didn’t mean—”

“But you did,” Lorenzo echoed Belle’s words, soft but resolute. “And I’m done pretending you didn’t.”

He stood, placed a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder.

“I’m going to help with dessert,” he said quietly.  He looked around the table, gaze landing on his mother last. “You can sit with what Belle said for a while.”

And without waiting for a response, he walked away.

***

Belle’s hands stayed on the countertop, gripping the edge a little tighter than necessary. Her breath was steady, but only because she’d fought for every inch of calm since leaving the dining room. Max hovered nearby, silently setting out the plates for dessert. He hadn’t said a word—just let her have her silence, the same way he always had when she needed to recalibrate.

Then she heard the second pair of footsteps.

Lorenzo.

“Belle,” he said gently, and that was all it took for her throat to go tight again.

She turned slowly, blinking fast. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to—tonight was supposed to be about you. And I—God, I just—ruined it.”

He stared at her for a moment. Then let out a breathy, disbelieving laugh and crossed the kitchen in two strides.

“Petite sœur,” he said softly, wrapping her into a hug so immediate and so warm that it nearly undid her.

“You didn’t ruin anything,” he murmured into her hair. “Don’t ever say that.”

Belle shook her head against his shoulder. “But I took the spotlight—”

“No. You spoke your truth. Finally. That’s not stealing attention. That’s surviving.” He pulled back slightly, hands still on her shoulders, anchoring her. “And frankly? Someone needed to say it. It should’ve been me. Years ago.”

Her eyes welled again. “I didn’t want to make it about me.”

“It wasn’t about you,” he said. “It was about all of us. And what we didn’t see. What we didn’t do.” His voice softened. “And for what it’s worth? I’ve never been prouder of you.”

Belle blinked at him, stunned.

“I meant it when I said you helped make the proposal perfect. And tonight? You gave me the best gift you could have—your honesty.”

She leaned her forehead against his. “I love you, you know.”

“I know,” Lorenzo whispered. “And I love you. Even if you made Charles nearly cry during dinner.”

Belle laughed, a wet, breathless sound. “He’ll recover.”

“Barely,” Max called from the counter without turning around. “Pretty sure he is still emotionally buffering.”

***

Text Messages: Belle Verstappen & Emilie Abadie

Belle: I just emotionally nuked a family dinner. Max says it was brave. I think I might throw up. (Also, Charles looked like someone kicked his puppy.)

Emilie: WHAT. WHAT DID YOU DO. Please tell me it was deserved and you finally snapped. I’ve been manifesting it for a year.

Belle: Lorenzo announced his engagement. Pascale made a joke about not being invited to my wedding. So I told them why.

Emilie: Holy. Shit.

Emilie: You didn’t just light a match. You set that table ablaze. I am SO proud of you.

Belle: I didn’t mean to make it about me. It just came out. All of it. Every forgotten birthday. Every time they dismissed my work. I told her she wasn’t invited because she made me feel like an afterthought.

Emilie: GOOD. She needed to hear it. You’ve spent your whole life trying to be palatable. Quiet. Easy. But you are not an afterthought. And it’s not your job to shrink so they’re comfortable.

Belle: Max has been perfect, obviously. Didn’t say a word while I was talking. Just stayed next to me. Held my hand. Told me later I didn’t make a scene—I told the truth. That they were finally quiet because it landed.

Emilie: That man. That man would build you a cathedral out of reclaimed stone and lavender if you asked.

Belle: I’d settle for the chocolate tart he just plated.

Emilie: I’m proud of you. So proud. I hope you know how big this is. You stood up for yourself and didn’t apologize for it. You chose yourself.

Belle: I think I finally did. And I think—for the first time in a long time—I don’t feel guilty about it.

Emilie: Damn right you don’t. Also I need Charles' face in that moment. Please. A voice note reenactment. I beg.

Belle: He looked like someone told him Ferrari ran out of red paint.

***

Text Messages: Max Verstappen & Sophie Kumpen

Max: Just got back from dinner at Belle’s family’s place. It was… Intense.

Sophie: Oh? What happened? Are you okay?

Max: I’m fine. Belle’s a bit wrung out. Her brother Lorenzo got engaged. Announced it at dinner. Everyone was celebrating. Pascale made some joke about expecting an invite this time.

Sophie: Oh no.

Max: Yeah. Belle told them why they weren’t invited to our wedding. In front of everyone. Calm. Clear. Brutal.

Sophie: Good for her.

Max: She told them they forgot her birthday. That they treat her like she’s nothing. Said she only invited people who remembered her. I’ve never seen her do that before. Not with them.

Sophie: She finally snapped.

Max: Yeah. But it wasn’t dramatic. It was worse. It was honest. Tired. She just laid it out—like she wasn’t going to carry their excuses anymore.

Max: And her mother. God. She looked shocked. Like she couldn’t believe Belle didn’t feel loved.

Sophie: Because people like that don’t notice until it’s too late. They don’t think they have to change because they’re the mother.

Max: Exactly. She kept saying “I didn’t mean to.” And Belle just said, “But you did.”

Sophie: Oof. That girl has been swallowing it all for years, hasn’t she?

Max: All of it. Her work. Her feelings. Being ignored. She told them the reason she married me without them was because she didn’t feel safe. And I think it finally hit them. Maybe. Hopefully.

Max: But I don’t understand her mother. How do you look at someone like Belle and not see her? She’s brilliant. She’s kind. She feels everything. And they made her feel like she didn’t matter.

Sophie: Because some people only love the version of you they can control. And Belle? She’s soft, yes—but she’s also steel. That scares people who only know how to hold love with conditions.

Max: I didn’t even have to say anything. She did it all on her own. And then she turned to me in the kitchen and asked if she came off like an asshole.

Sophie: Oh, sweetheart.

Max: I told her no. She came off like someone who’s tired of being invisible.

Sophie: I’m proud of her. And proud of you. She needed someone who would stand beside her while she took her voice back. And that’s exactly what you did.

Max: I don’t get it, Mama. How can you have a daughter like Belle and make her feel like she has to earn your love?

Sophie: Because some people only know how to love the loud ones. The gold medals. The press conferences. The obvious successes. Not the quiet girl who builds beauty and doesn’t ask for applause.

Sophie: But you see her. And that matters more than anything.

Max: She told me she didn’t want our son to ever feel like that. Like he has to earn being seen.

Sophie: He won’t. Because his father will show him what love looks like. And his mother will teach him how to build a home out of strength and gentleness.

Max: I hope so. I just hate that it ever made her feel small.

Sophie: That’s because you love her. And you, my boy, are nothing like her mother.

Max: Good. Because she deserves better.

Sophie: She has better now. She has you.

***

Victoria hadn’t meant to stay long.

She’d only stopped by to drop off a scarf she’d picked up for her mother in Amsterdam. But Sophie had made tea, and the afternoon light was soft, and somehow they’d ended up on the couch with lemon biscuits between them and a conversation that turned, inevitably, to Belle.

Specifically, the Leclercs.

Max had told Sophie the whole story via text—blunt, half-capitalized, frustrated in a way he rarely got—but Victoria hadn’t realized how much had happened until Sophie quietly said, “Pascale made a joke about expecting an invite next time,” and stirred her tea like she was imagining stirring something else instead.

Victoria blinked. “She joked about not being invited?”

Sophie hummed. Calm. Neutral. Terrifying.

Victoria sat back a little.

Because she knew that sound. She’d heard it as a teenager when Jos yelled and stomped and slammed doors—and Sophie just got quiet. When Jos was a hurricane and Sophie was the pressure drop right before the sky cracked in two.

Everyone thought Jos Verstappen was the scary one. And he was, in his own way. But Jos exploded, and Sophie? Sophie waited. Sophie watched. Sophie didn’t lose control—she took it. And there was something so much more lethal in that.

“She said it with a laugh, apparently,” Sophie went on, still stirring. “Right after Belle helped plan the proposal. Said she expected an invite to this one.”

Victoria blinked again. “Oh, wow.”

“Mm.”

“She said that in front of everyone?”

“In front of Belle. At the table.”

Victoria felt something flicker in her chest. A cold edge of anger on Belle’s behalf. “What did Belle say?”

“She told them the truth,” Sophie said softly. “That she got married surrounded by people who remembered her birthday. That she didn’t want backhanded comments at her own wedding. That she didn’t feel safe with her own family.”

Victoria’s jaw tightened. “And Pascale?”

“Tried to say she didn’t mean to hurt her.” Sophie finally set the spoon down, slow and deliberate. “I suppose that’s supposed to count for something.”

There was a long silence then—thicker than the steam curling from the kettle, heavier than any of the words still hanging between them.

Victoria had grown up around volatility. Her father’s temper was legendary, a weather system that built and broke and sometimes came back with no warning at all. But Sophie—Sophie Verstappen was a different kind of terrifying. Jos exploded. Sophie observed. Calculated. Waited. And when she struck, it was always surgical.

Jos could knock you over like a thunderclap. Sophie could gut you with a whisper.

And right now, Victoria could see it: that slow, icy rage simmering just beneath her mother’s carefully neutral face.

“She told them,” Sophie said finally, “that she didn’t invite them to her wedding because she didn’t feel safe. Not unloved. Not forgotten. Unsafe.”

Victoria swallowed. “Yeah.”

“I have half a mind to call Pascale and tell her exactly what I think of her.”

Victoria blinked. Sophie never said things like that. She didn’t make threats. She made decisions.

“She’s pregnant,” Sophie added, quieter now. “And still had to stand there and explain why her family made her feel like a placeholder in her own life.”

“I have watched Belle love that family with her whole heart,” Sophie said, and now her voice had an edge. “I have watched her shrink herself so they wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. I’ve watched her pretend she doesn’t care that they forget her. That they talk over her. That they diminish everything she is.”

The kettle clicked off, but neither of them moved.

“She was raised to believe love is conditional,” Sophie said, not looking at her. “That it comes after achievements. Or for being quiet. Or for not asking for too much.”

Victoria felt something lodge in her chest.

“She has spent her whole life shrinking to fit into their idea of family,” Sophie continued, her voice steady and lethal. “And they still managed to ignore her.”

Victoria swallowed.

“And then she gets married—to my son—and not one of them is there. And not because she wanted to hurt them, but because she didn’t feel safe with them.” Sophie’s expression didn’t change, but her tone dropped low. “That’s not something you laugh about over dinner.”

Victoria sat very still.

Because that was the thing about Sophie Verstappen. You never saw her fury coming. She didn’t yell. She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t rant or throw things or storm out. She just… waited. Like gravity. Like consequence. And then she spoke with that glacial softness that made you feel every syllable like it might cut.

Victoria suddenly felt like she was sixteen again and had missed curfew by three hours.

“I’m so mad for her,” she said after a pause. “Belle.”

Sophie nodded. “So am I.”

“She deserves better.”

“She has better,” Sophie said. And that time, there was warmth in it. Fierce. Unshakable. “She has Max. And she has us.”

“You like her,” Victoria said, surprised by the softness that slipped into her own voice.

“I love her,” Sophie corrected. “I don’t care how she came into this family. I don’t care what her last name is. Belle is mine now.”

Victoria blinked fast. “God. Okay. You’re mad.”

Sophie looked at her, eyes dark and razor-sharp. “No, Victoria. I’m focused.”

And Victoria—who had seen Jos Verstappen angry enough to make grown men shrink back—felt a shiver run down her spine. Because Jos might yell. He might throw chairs and punch walls.

But Sophie? Sophie waited until your guard was down and then made sure you never forgot the consequences.

Victoria took a sip of her tea when Sophie finally poured it. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

Sophie raised an eyebrow. “I thought you learned that lesson in 2011.”

Victoria laughed, a little breathless. “Fair.” Then paused. “Do you think they even realize how lucky they are to still be in her life?”

Sophie gave her a look that said no, not yet.

But they would.

***

Text Messages: Max Verstappen & Victoria Verstappen

Victoria: i just left mom’s pretty sure she’s going to have words with your mother in law like. capital W. Italics. Possibly in multiple languages

Max: …oh no what kind of “words”

Victoria: the terrifying kind you know how dad yells? mom doesn’t yell. she plans

Max: okay but like what kind of planning are we talking tea-and-a-pointed-sentence planning or scorched-earth-PR-nightmare planning

Victoria: you know the answer to that she was calm. TOO calm. like she’s already made a list and put a neat little check box next to “remind pascale she’s on thin ice”

Max: oh god

Victoria: on the bright side if belle didn’t feel protected before she definitely has a battle unit behind her now

Max: she does she always did but still maybe warn me if mom starts practicing her diplomatic voice that one always ends in casualties

Victoria: consider this your official warning if Mom puts on pearls and offers to “drop by for a coffee,” RUN

***

Instagram DMs: @sophiekumpen → @charles_leclerc

Sophie: Bonjour, Charles. Would you mind sending me your mother’s number?

Charles:Bonjour… of course. Is everything alright?

Sophie: Everything is fine. I just think she and I should have a little chat. Mother to mother.

Charles: ... Is this about dinner?

Sophie: Among other things. Don’t worry. I’m always very polite. Even when I’m deeply unimpressed.

Charles: ...I’ll send the number. Should I warn her?

Sophie: If you like. Though I find surprise tends to make people more honest. 😊

Charles: Noted.

Sophie: Merci. And Charles? Be kind to your sister. She’s braver than most of you realize.

***

Leclerc Brothers Group Chat

(Members: Arthur, Charles and Lorenzo)

Charles: Sophie Kumpen just DMed me asking for Maman’s number.

Arthur: wait what. as in Max’s mum????

Lorenzo: …what did she say?

Charles: She said she wants to “have a little chat.” “Mother to mother.” Also said she’s “always polite. Even when deeply unimpressed.”

Arthur: holy shit

Lorenzo: That’s… terrifying. She’s the quiet kind of scary.

Charles: Right?? Jos is like a storm. You see him coming. Sophie is the earthquake under your feet.

Arthur: did you give her the number???

Charles: Yes?? What was I supposed to do?? She said “merci” and then told me to be kind to Belle because she’s braver than any of us know. I was emotionally held hostage.

Lorenzo: She’s not wrong. Belle is braver than any of us. We just didn’t see it.

Arthur: we should’ve. we should’ve made her feel like she didn’t need to be brave around us.

Charles: Well. Now we wait for the Sophie Effect.

Lorenzo: Maman’s not ready.

Arthur: nobody’s ready.

***

Text Messages: Belle Verstappen & Sophie Kumpen

Sophie :Good Morning, Belle! I’m in Monaco on Thursday. Would you like to have lunch?

Belle: Yes. That sounds great. Please. Wherever suits you. (Unless you want to come to ours, I’ll make something.)

Sophie: I’ll let you choose. I just want to see you. 12:30?

Belle: Perfect. I’ll make a reservation. Thank you for asking. I’ve really been wanting to talk to you.

Sophie: As have I. I’ll see you Thursday, sweetheart. Bring that beautiful baby bump. And don’t you dare worry about anything else.

***

Text Messages: Belle Verstappen & Max Verstappen

Belle: Did you know your mother is in Monaco on Thursday?!

Max: …no? I had no idea. Why? What’s happening? Is she okay?

Belle: She just texted and asked if I wanted to get lunch. No drama. Just lunch. She was very sweet.

Max: That’s good?? I mean, she loves you. I’m just confused why I didn’t know 😅

Belle: Maybe she didn’t want you to stress about it.

***

Text Messages: Max Verstappen & Victoria Verstappen

Max: The day has come. The talk is upon us. Mom’s going to be in Monaco on Thursday.

Victoria: oh. oh no. is this about Pascale?

Max: She asked Belle to lunch. Alone. So I am expecting her to verbally annihilate Pascale for breakfast.

Victoria: SHE’S GOING TO EAT HER ALIVE IN A TAILORED COAT AND PEARL EARRINGS

Max: I’m honestly more afraid for Pascale than I was for Dad that one time

Victoria: she’s going to do the quiet voice

Max: the lethal quiet voice the "I’m not angry, I’m disappointed and also morally superior" tone

Victoria: may God have mercy on Pascale’s soul (because mom won’t)

***

Text Messages: Max Verstappen & Charles Leclerc

Max: Heads up. My mum is going to be in Monaco on Thursday.

Charles: Oh no.

Max:

I’m 95% sure this is about Sunday.

And your mother.

Charles:

Ah. She asked me for her phone number but clearly she has decided that she needs to talk to her in person… 

Max: Yeah. She knows what happened at dinner. I didn’t tell her everything, but I didn’t need to. She’s connected enough dots to be… not thrilled.

Charles: How bad are we talking?

Max: Sophie-bad. Not Jos yelling bad—worse. The calm kind of bad. The “I will destroy you with facts and a smile” kind of bad.

Charles: …she’s going to kill Maman.

Max: She’s not going to kill her. She’s going to sit across from her in linen trousers and a silk scarf and say things that sound perfectly polite and make your mother spiral for weeks.

Charles: Oh god.

Max: Belle has no idea. And I would prefer to keep it that way.

Charles: Understood. I’ll warn the others. (Should we call Lorenzo?? He’s the diplomat.)

Max:

If Sophie wants to talk, Lorenzo couldn’t broker peace if he tried.

***

Leclerc Brothers Group Chat

(Members: Arthur, Charles and Lorenzo)

Charles: 🚨 Update: Sophie Verstappen is going to be in Monaco on Thursday. It’s not a social visit. It’s a Sophie visit. Max warned me. She knows what happened at dinner. Apparently Max didn’t even tell her everything—but she figured it out. She’s not happy.

Arthur: Okay but what does that mean exactly??

Lorenzo: It means she’s coming in tailored trousers and quiet fury and is about to emotionally dismantle Maman using three polite sentences and an herbal tea.

Arthur: …should we warn Maman??

Charles: That’s what I said.

Lorenzo: If we tell her, she’ll try to control the situation and that’ll make it worse.

Arthur: So we just… let her walk into the Sophie Trap??

Charles: We let Max handle it. He asked us not to say anything to Belle. She has no idea.

Lorenzo: She deserves a break, anyway. Honestly, Sophie giving Maman a long-overdue reality check might be the best gift Belle could get.

Arthur: She’s going to obliterate Maman, isn’t she. . 

Charles: Max literally said: “She’s going to sit across from her in linen trousers and a silk scarf and say things that sound perfectly polite and make your mother spiral for weeks.”

Lorenzo: …well.

Arthur: Should we do something?

Charles: Max said not to. I quote: “If Sophie wants to talk, Lorenzo couldn’t broker peace if he tried.”

Lorenzo: Rude, but fair.

Arthur: I vote we hide.

***

Sophie hadn’t come to Monaco to start a fight. She didn’t need to.

People like Pascale Leclerc didn’t respond to raised voices. They responded to subtle shifts in temperature. Gentle truths. Icy clarity.

Sophie’s heels clicked softly against the stone path leading to Pascale Leclerc’s door, the rhythm even, precise. She’d chosen her outfit deliberately: clean ivory trousers, a soft blue blouse, hair pinned back. No jewelry except for her watch. Everything about her appearance said calm, collected, reasonable.

And that, of course, was the point.

Jos could intimidate with volume. Sophie did it with silence, with poise, with a steel-edged smile that didn’t need to raise its voice to be heard.

The door opened.

Pascale blinked at her, startled and still in her dressing robe, a coffee cup in hand.

“Sophie?”

“Bonjour, Pascale,” Sophie said, smooth as ever. “I hope I’m not intruding. I was in Monaco and thought we could catch up.”

“Oh, I—of course, come in.”

Inside, everything was as Sophie expected. Elegant. Neutral. Impersonal.

She took a seat in the sitting room, hands resting lightly in her lap as Pascale flitted to the kitchen to prepare espresso. Sophie’s eyes wandered—not snooping, just observant. Pictures of the Leclerc children lined the mantel. Arthur, Charles, Lorenzo—big frames, central placements. Belle was there too, but off to the side. Cropped in. Slightly tilted behind a decorative candle holder.

That told her everything she needed to know.

Pascale returned with the espresso cups and handed one over with a tentative smile. “Sugar?”

“Always,” Sophie replied.

There was a moment of polite silence.

“I’m not here because something’s wrong,” Sophie said calmly. “I’m here because something has been wrong for a very long time. And I think you need to hear it from someone who isn’t your daughter. I heard about Sunday finner”

Pascale blinked. “From Belle?”

“From my son.” Sophie’s gaze didn’t waver. “Belle doesn’t complain. She survives.”

Pascale flinched. “I didn’t mean to upset her—”

Sophie tilted her head, eyes cool. “You didn’t mean to. That’s always the excuse, isn’t it? You’ve built your whole motherhood on the idea that intention erases harm. It doesn’t.”

Pascale didn’t answer.

“You didn’t mean to forget her birthday. You didn’t mean to dismiss her work. You didn’t mean to make a joke about not being invited to her wedding when you didn’t even ask why you weren’t invited in the first place.”

Pascale went quiet.

Sophie continued, voice calm and exact. “You didn’t mean to hurt her. But you did. Over and over. Because you assumed she’d take it. That she’d understand. That she’d be fine.”

Sophie set down her cup and folded her hands neatly. Her voice didn’t sharpen, but it grew firmer. “I have two children. Max and Victoria.”

Pascale nodded. “Yes, of course.”

“They’re just about two years apart. He was born in 1997. She arrived in 1999. They were loud. Competitive. Wild.” A fond smile tugged at Sophie’s lips. “Very much siblings.”

Pascale exhaled. “They’re close in age too, you know. All three of them. Charles was born in 1997. Belle in ’99. Arthur in 2000. They were always… together. Loud. Chaotic. There is no manual for parenting children so tightly packed.”

Sophie let the silence breathe before adding, “And yet somehow, I managed not to forget my daughter.”

Pascale flinched.

“I love both of my children. Equally. Differently. Fiercely. And not once have I ever made Victoria feel like she mattered less than Max. Even when he started winning karting trophies. Even when the spotlight was on him and him alone. I could’ve let him take up all the space. He’s Max Verstappen—how easy would that have been? One child chasing world titles, the other left in the background.”

Sophie folded her hands delicately around her coffee cup.

“I know what it’s like to sit at a dinner table and choose to ask my daughter how her week was. I know what it’s like to remember her birthday even when Max has a race. I know what it’s like to see them both as whole people—equally deserving of being seen, even when the world tries to make it about just one.”

She let that sit between them. Let it sting.

“I don’t think you meant to forget Belle,” Sophie said, her voice soft now. “But you did. For years.”

“I know I haven’t always handled things well,” Pascale said. “Charles’ career took so much of everything. Time. Energy. Attention. And Belle never demanded anything. Not like the boys.”

“That’s the thing about girls like Belle,” Sophie said. “They don’t demand—they just quietly disappear. Until one day, they don’t come back.” Sophie leaned forward slightly. “You didn’t just forget your daughter. You erased her. Slowly. Kindly. With a smile. The kind of maternal neglect you can hide behind birthday cards and a roast chicken.”

Tears pricked in Pascale’s eyes. Sophie didn’t flinch.

“Belle is more than Charles’ sister. More than a Leclerc. She’s a woman. A professional. A wife. A soon-to-be mother. And you made her feel like the understudy in a family performance that never had room for her.”

A pause.

“She didn’t invite you to her wedding because she didn’t feel safe. That’s not an oversight, Pascale. That’s a statement. And she was right to make it.”

That landed.

“She didn’t marry Max because of who he is on the grid,” Sophie went on. “She married him because he saw her. Because he made her feel like she mattered. Because he never asked her to shrink.”

A long pause.

“She loves you, Pascale. That’s obvious. It’s why it hurt so much. It’s why she stayed quiet for so long. But she’s not going to beg anymore. And you don’t get forever to fix this.”

“I’ve watched Max fall in love exactly once,” Sophie said softly. “And it was with her. I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at her.”

That stopped Pascale. She said nothing.

“Do you understand what that means, Pascale?” Sophie asked. “Max is not an easy man. He’s brilliant, yes. But he is intense. Demanding. He grew up in a house where love was conditional, where you earned praise by winning. And then Belle—your daughter—walked into his life, and everything changed.”

“She softened him,” Sophie continued. “Not by shrinking herself, not by appeasing him. But by loving him exactly as he is. By never making him feel like he was too much. She steadies him. Sees the parts of him he doesn’t let anyone else see. And because of her, he’s gentler. Happier. Kinder.”

A beat.

She met Pascale’s eyes. “Do you know how rare that is? Do you know how much it means to me, as his mother, that the person he chose makes him feel safe?”

Pascale looked down at her hands.

“She is so good for my son,” Sophie said. “She sees him as Max, not a trophy. And he sees her—really sees her. Your daughter. Your brilliant, kind, fiercely steady daughter.”

She picked up her phone and slipped it into her coat pocket. “You may not get many more chances to prove you see her too.”

Pascale rose slowly, still blinking.

Sophie reached the door, paused, and turned. “It’s not too late, Pascale. But it’s getting close.”

And with that, she left. Silent, measured, devastating. Like a queen who didn’t need a crown to be feared.

***

Leclerc Brothers Group Chat

(Members: Arthur, Charles and Lorenzo)

Arthur:ok but like who’s going to check on Maman

Charles:not me.

Arthur:not me. Enzo, you’re up. 

Lorenzo:you’re both cowards. you’ve driven at monaco in the rain and you’re scared of a 60-year-old woman in linen this is above my paygrade

Charles: this is above everyone’s paygrade

Lorenzo:i’m not a diplomat. i can’t emotionally reparent maman.

Lorenzo: if i don’t text back in 20 mins assume the worst and tell Charlotte i loved her

Arthur: Also… maybe don’t bring up Belle for a bit.

Lorenzo: She already said, “I was trying my best.” I didn’t know what to say.

Arthur: Maybe: “Then your best wasn’t good enough”? 😬

Charles: Jesus Christ. Do not say that.

***

Belle was already seated at their usual table at Le Petit Marché by the time Sophie arrived—linen blouse perfectly pressed, sunglasses still perched on her head like she’d walked out of a silent film set in Saint-Tropez.

“Bonjour, sweetheart,” Sophie said, leaning down to kiss both her cheeks before taking the seat across from her.  “You look glowing.”

Belle laughed, a little breathless. “I look puffy.”

“You look lovely,” Sophie corrected, settling across from her. She flagged down the waiter with a tilt of her chin. “Still sparkling water?”

Belle nodded. “You remember.”

“I remember everything,” Sophie said lightly, but her eyes lingered on Belle for a second too long to be casual.

They ordered—salads, tartines, nothing too heavy—and by the time the drinks arrived, Belle had finally let herself exhale.

It was easy, being with Sophie. It always had been.

Max’s mother had never made her feel like she needed to be louder, or smaller, or clever in a way that didn’t come naturally. Sophie simply saw her, and for Belle, that was still something of a quiet miracle.

They talked about everything and nothing. It was only when their plates had been cleared and coffee had been brought that Sophie said, in her most casual tone, “And how are you doing? Truly?”

Belle blinked. “I’m… okay.”

Sophie tilted her head.

“Some days are harder than others,” Belle admitted. “But Max makes them better. Always.”

Sophie stirred her coffee once, twice, then set her spoon down with precision. “He’s different with you, you know.”

Belle smiled, ducking her head. “I know.”

“I’ve watched that boy drive through everything—noise, pressure, fire. And still, you’re the first person who made him slow down.” Sophie’s gaze softened. “It’s beautiful. And it scares him.”

Belle was still smiling when she looked up and saw Sophie watching her. Not assessing. Not judging. Just… looking.

“I had coffee with your mother this morning,” Sophie said, tone gentle but deliberate.

Belle blinked. “You did?”

“I did. She didn’t know I was coming. I like the element of surprise.”

Belle set her fork down carefully. “Was she…”

“Wrecked? Defensive? A little of both.” Sophie shrugged. “But I said what I needed to say.”

Belle was silent, unsure if she wanted to ask what that entailed.

Sophie didn’t make her. “I told her that I have a son who drives a Formula One car. And a daughter who has spent most of her life in his shadow. Just like you.”

Belle’s throat tightened.

“But I didn’t forget my daughter,” Sophie continued, voice calm and precise. “I didn’t ask her to shrink so her brother could shine. I didn’t treat her love as smaller just because it wasn’t in a headline. And I certainly didn’t make her feel like the supporting character in her own life.”

Belle looked down at her water glass. Her eyes stung.

“I told her,” Sophie went on, “that my son saw your worth immediately. From the first moment. ”

Belle swallowed, hard. “Sophie…”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Sophie said. “It was overdue.”

“She loves you, I think,” Sophie said. “But love without effort is just sentiment. And you deserve more than sentiment.”

“Thank you,” Belle whispered.“I’m really glad you’re here,” Belle said softly.

Sophie smiled and reached across the table, brushing a piece of hair from Belle’s cheek. “You are my daughter now. I will always show up.”

Belle blinked fast. “If I cry in this café, Max is going to blame you.”

“He already does,” Sophie said breezily. “Now then we’re going shopping. I saw a pair of flats that are very you, and you’re not leaving without them.”

 Which meant Belle left the afternoon with a pair of maternity jeans so well-tailored she could cry, a cashmere cardigan in the softest dove grey, and a little knit hat for the baby that Sophie claimed she couldn’t walk past without buying.

“I spoil the people I love,” she said, like it was obvious.

***

Text Messages: Max Verstappen & Charles Leclerc

Charles: Your mother’s intervention has resulted in our mother questioning all her life choices.

Max:Good. She should.

Charles: She’s been sitting on the balcony for an hour Just… staring at the sea Like she’s in an existential French film. Alexandra brought her tea and she whispered "Am I a bad mother?"

Max: Sophie works fast. And thoroughly.

Charles: She didn’t even raise her voice.

Max: She never does. That’s how you know it’s serious.

Charles: Do you think she’s available for hire? We could send her to FIA meetings.

Max: I’ll ask.

Charles: No but seriously I think it got through to her. She hasn’t deflected once today. She’s just… quiet.

Max: That’s progress.

Charles: She’s still herself, don’t worry. She asked if Belle wanted a proper wedding And Arthur started choking on his juice.

Max: Tell your mother our wedding was already perfect. No upgrades needed.

Charles: Tell your mother she might be the only person who’s ever successfully made our mother reflect. It’s like watching a glacier move.

***

Text Messages: Max Verstappen & Victoria Verstappen

Victoria: And has your mother-in-law survived Mom? 👀

Max:

She’s still breathing. But I think she’s in a mild existential crisis.

Victoria: Mild?

Max: She spent twenty minutes staring at the ocean in silence. Then apparently asked Charles if she’s been a bad mother. Then actually listened when he answered.

Victoria: Oh damn. Mom really unleashed the linen-trousered therapy nuke.

Max: She just sipped her espresso and dismantled a whole family system. Belle doesn’t know the half of it.

Victoria: She doesn’t need to. Mom did what moms are supposed to do: Protect their daughters.

Max: I know. And Belle’s glowing today. She had lunch with her and came back with a cardigan, a hat for the baby, and suspiciously expensive flats.

Victoria: That’s the Sophie Kumpen Experience™ Phase 1: espresso. Phase 2: emotional reparenting. Phase 3: light shopping spree.

Max: Tell me you’re related without telling me you’re related.

Victoria: Tell Belle I said she’s now Mom’s favorite. Also tell Pascale not to test her again unless she wants a sequel.

***

The room felt softer this time.

There was no cold weight in her chest, no sense of armor laced tight under her ribs. Belle still sat close to Max, still had one hand resting over her bump, but for once, it wasn’t to brace herself. It was just—her hand. On her stomach. Because their son had been active all morning, and she could feel the light nudges that reminded her, constantly, of the new chapter ahead.

Camille gave everyone the same calm nod as she sat. “Thank you for being here again.”

They all murmured polite hellos. Belle caught her brothers’ expressions—Charles quiet but attentive, Arthur slightly wary, Lorenzo composed as ever. Max, steady and grounded next to her, nodded at Camille. She always liked how seriously he took this.

But it was Pascale who surprised her.

Her mother looked tired—but not defensive. Not braced. She looked… resolved. There were faint lines beneath her eyes, the kind that come from crying. Her hair was pinned back neatly. Her hands folded in her lap. Belle didn’t recognize this version of her. And somehow, that made it harder.

“Before we begin,” Camille said gently, “Pascale mentioned she had something she’d like to say.”

Belle tensed automatically. Max’s pinky brushed hers in silent reassurance.

Pascale looked at her daughter.

“I owe you an apology,” she said quietly.

The words landed like a stone in the water. Clear. Heavy. Real.

Belle didn’t speak.

“I didn’t come here today to justify anything,” Pascale said. “I’ve spent too long doing that. Dismissing things. Telling myself that good intentions were enough.” She exhaled. “They weren’t.”

The silence in the room wasn’t awkward. It was reverent.

“I’ve been thinking a lot this week,” Pascale continued. “About you, Belle. About how many birthdays I missed. How many quiet accomplishments I treated like background noise. I thought I was being fair. Letting everyone find their own way. But I see now—I see that I didn’t give you the same space I gave the boys.”

Belle’s throat tightened.

Pascale looked down, voice softer. “I told myself that because you didn’t complain, you were okay. That you were independent. That you didn’t need as much.” Her voice cracked. “But you did. Of course you did. And I wasn’t there.”

There was a moment—brief, flickering—where Belle’s heart stuttered. She tried to breathe through it.

“I was a good mother to Charles,” Pascale said. “And Arthur. And Lorenzo. But I wasn’t a good mother to you. And I want to say that out loud. I need you to hear it. No excuses. Just truth.”

A beat. Then another.

“And I am so proud of the woman you became anyway.”

That broke something in Belle. She didn’t cry—but the tears burned hot in her chest, where all the old silences used to live.

Pascale looked up, eyes glassy. “Your work is brilliant. Your marriage is strong. And this baby—this baby is so lucky. Because he’ll be raised by someone who knows how to see people. Truly see them.”

Belle exhaled shakily.

“I want to earn my place again,” Pascale said. “Not as your mother by name. But as someone who supports you. Who shows up. Who listens, even when it’s uncomfortable.”

Max stayed quiet beside her. Charles had his hand loosely over his mouth. Arthur blinked hard. Lorenzo watched his mother like he was seeing her clearly for the first time.

Belle’s voice was small. “It hurt.”

“I know,” Pascale whispered. “And I’m sorry.”

[lizardho]

I took a human development class at BYU. It was a good class. The guy who taught it did a great job with it, he was passionate, he was curious, he was kind, and to top it all off he was a fabulous Mormon. I had to sign up for his class the night it opened and I only barely made it into his lecture it filled so fast. I cannot for the life of me remember his name, but I remember how he challenged the class in some peculiar ways.

A funny experience of challenging the class was when we had our lecture on conception and development in utero. He taps the microphone like a comedian who just bombed a set, asks if we can hear him, get’s a resounding and excited “yes!” and says “Ok! Ok! Y’all sounds excited! Let’s do a chant, see if that helps with some of the other energy. Are you ready?”

Of course everyone cheers yes, we’re Mormon, being in a room of people saying the same shit over and over is our jam. So he nods, gets a beat going by clapping, and starts chanting the word “sex” into the microphone. The claps die. The chant doesn’t start. But he keeps going, and going, until he gets half the class chanting with him by brutal shameless persistence. Then he changes the word. “Vagina!” And resumes until he has half the class. Then “clitoris!” then “penis!” then finally when he has half the room chanting he stops the chant and says “I only ever go until I can get half of y’all chanting because this is BYU and I’d be here all day if I waited for everyone to be comfortable even saying the word “sex” out loud which is INSANE because today we’re talking about how life begins and I guarantee you almost every woman who flinched away from chanting “penis” wants to have kids and most of the men who couldn’t pronounce clitoris want to have at least two kids and that does not work out in my head! We need to get over this fear to talk about conception openly.” He talked about sex as a biological phenomenon and as a fun thing to do sometimes and it was a transformative experience for me, and it was very funny as an opener.

He challenged us academically too, though. He assigned us the task of observing children at the campus daycare and told us he wanted to know who we had observed just by our behavioral observations. He meant it, too. He didn’t want us to just know about kids he wanted us to be able to see kids as distinct people and that was amazing. He pushed us out of the mindset of “how do I pass this assignment” and challenged us to internalize “how do I learn to do this in real life?” and he pushed us to observe children as people and not as science experiments or obedient joyful output machines.

Another way he challenged the class, and this one sticks with me tbh, is he told us stories. His technique is one I often utilize as a therapist. He tells a story that’s related *enough* to keep you aware of how your question or need is related, but just unrelated enough distract you from the question so when he brings it back to you it hits as an experience instead of a verbal response to an inquiry. He did this sometimes in response to questions from students and it was always an interesting way to experience learning. One day a student, a worried newlywed man who JUST found out his wife was pregnant, asked what he could do to help her because he felt so excited and overwhelmed he couldn’t think clearly. And the professor stops the lecture and thinks about it, like, REALLY thinks about it, and he leads into his story - it starts with a brief discussion on the complexity and uniqueness of fingerprints. Then he tells us about how one of his graduate students a few years back came into his office complaining that his wife was getting lazier. Him, being a therapist and a curious man by nature, asked the student what he meant. The student responds by saying that he felt “duped” by his wife because she’d been energetic and motivated and passionate and attentive until she got pregnant and now she “doesn’t do anything” and “has no ambition” and “doesn’t even cook dinner anymore” and “always says she’s tired even though she hasn’t DONE anything” and how he felt like it was all an act to pretend to be a good wife until she got pregnant and had him hooked forever.

And this guy is reacting to this in real time - he goes point by point through this graduate student’s complaints and nods patiently, curiously, then sinisterly as he understands the situation. He tells the grad students to come a little closer so he can show him something in a book, then whaps him upside the head with the book.

The grad student of course reacts with shock and anger and demands a justification for being whacked with a book and the professor responds with “how far into the pregnancy is your lazy lazy wife?” The grad student gives a response to he opens the book and slaps it on the desk and says “at that point in pregnancy your child’s fingerprints are developing. Do you know how complex and detailed fingerprints are? Do you know how much time and energy it would take to make that from nothing? That is what your wife is doing all day. She’s making your child’s fingerprints. Get that in your head and get over yourself.”

He then stops the story, looks at the guy who asked the question, and asks how far along his wife is? And the student responds, and he says “if you go home today and your wife is tired, it’s because she was growing functional kidneys for another human being all day. So tell her you’ll do the dishes, and don’t whine about it. And remember that any time you’re doing any chore or task you’re not accustomed to for the next few months, any time you’re eating an uninspired dinner, any time you’re rubbing her feet or helping her get to sleep and thinking “oh geez she’s so dramatic” remember she is growing another person and ask yourself if your dinner or unfolded socks are more valuable than a functioning kidney or a distinct fingerprint because I guarantee you it is not. She is engaged in the act of creation, fold your own socks.”

Y’all I mean the fucking CRICKETS in that room. My ears were ringing from the revelation he had just unleashed into my brain. There was not a single body in that room that was not GRIPPED by the response to this question. And I fully recognize that he was asking for fairly little, like, yeah, you should be an involved parent and partner because “for time and all eternity” means “even when she won’t have sex with me,” but he was saying it as a Mormon man talking to another Mormon man and that was so exciting and new to me that it stuck with me. I remember this story in a myriad of ways - it’s a good example of using privilege to challenge privilege, for example. It’s a good example of “lifting where you stand,” so to speak, by making a difference where you are instead of making a hypothetical “bigger” difference elsewhere. It helps me remind myself that neutrality is progress, too, and that the best time to do something I should have always been doing is now. It also helps me be patient with myself when I am sick - healing is work, recovering is work, resting is work, even if the demanding husband in my head can’t see it yet.

If y’all are struggling to get better and feel your frustration building as each possibility of action passes you by while you’re stuck healing, you can ask yourself if making an amazing dinner is more important than having a healthy body, then eat your “guilty”/“easy”/“uninspired” Mac n cheese or delivery pizza or peanut butter and jelly sandwich because it’s not. If you find yourself struggling because your body is not behaving like a successful experiment or an obedient joyful output machine, try seeing yourself as a full person and not an assignment you’re failing. And if you’re embarrassed about sex, chant “penis” over and over again or something. The metaphor’s falling apart, so I’ll end with my typical advice: Be gayer, be good to each other, read more Terry Pratchett, and treat people as people.

[444eggnog]

Tell Me You Want It

✍︎: i cannot help but post when i saw that one TikTok of Lando taking a pic with a kid dressed as him and immediately spiraled. hope you enjoy the fluff, the teasing, and the “baby fever in the paddock” vibes. this is 100% my way of avoiding responsibilities lol. also how amazing did lando do on fp2, fp3, and quali?? ♡

content: baby fever, soft domestic teasing, flirty but sweet, established relationship

warnings: light smut/suggestive content, mild language

pairing: teasing-but-soft bf Lando x gf reader

wc: 1.2k

They were walking through the paddock hand in hand, the morning sun turning the McLaren orange on Lando’s suit almost blinding. Y/N wore one of his team shirts, her hair twisted up in a way that let her sunglasses perch on her head.

She was in the middle of teasing him about the strategy meeting when she spotted it. A tiny boy, maybe three, with a cardboard replica of Lando’s helmet wobbling on his head, a McLaren race suit drowning his limbs. He was hiding behind his mother’s leg, peeking out with big eyes, clearly too shy to approach.

Y/N stopped walking so abruptly Lando nearly tripped over her.

“What?” he asked, exasperated.

She didn’t even answer at first. Just grabbed his wrist and tugged, nodding toward the kid.

“Lando. Look at him.”

He squinted, then his face cracked into a grin.

“Oh my god. That’s actually sick. He’s me.”

“He’s so cute,” she whispered. Her voice had gone warm and floaty in that way he secretly loved. “Go over there. Say hi.”

Lando hesitated, pretending to be put out.

“What if he cries?”

“He’s not gonna cry. Go.”

She gave him the tiniest push and he huffed but obeyed. He crouched down in front of the boy, pulling off his sunglasses so his face was less intimidating.

“Hey, buddy. Is that my helmet you’re wearing?”

The kid just blinked at him, wide-eyed. Then nodded.

Y/N had her phone up immediately. She snapped picture after picture while Lando gently ruffled the kid’s hair and posed with a big grin, even pointing to the helmet like a dork.

When the mom thanked them profusely and they finally walked on, Y/N was grinning so hard her cheeks hurt. She sent Lando one of the photos right away, her fingers tapping rapidly.

“You’re gonna make that kid’s whole year,” she told him.

“Yeah. Future world champ, that one.”

But he caught the way she was still looking at her phone. The soft little smile she didn’t bother hiding.

It wasn’t until just before the race that he really noticed her staring at it again. She was off to the side of the garage, sunglasses perched on her head, biting her lip as she zoomed in on the photo.

He sidled up, voice pitched teasingly low so no one else could hear.

“You want one of those, don’t you.”

Her head jerked up, eyes narrowing.

“What?”

He smirked.

“A mini me. Just saying… you look like you’re planning it already.”

She rolled her eyes so hard he thought they’d get stuck.

“Shut up and focus on your race.”

But her cheeks were pink.

Got her, he thought smugly as he climbed into the car.

─── 🏁

A week later, they were at home. It was raining outside, the steady tap of drops against the windows the only sound for a while. She sat curled on the couch in one of his oversized hoodies, legs tucked under her, scrolling aimlessly.

Lando couldn’t get that look on her face at the track out of his head.

He set down his phone and shifted toward her.

“So.”

She didn’t look up. “Hm?”

“About that baby.”

She sighed immediately, shaking her head.

“Don’t start.”

He smiled slowly.

“Oh, I’m definitely starting.”

She kicked off her slippers. He stood, crossing the floor with deliberate slowness until she had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

“Lando…” Her tone was warning.

He didn’t stop. He crowded closer, planting a hand on the back of the couch so he was looming over her. His voice dipped, rough.

“Say it again. Tell me you want one.”

She glared, trying to hold onto her dignity.

“I want one. Someday.”

He hummed, clearly not satisfied.

“Someday’s not good enough.”

He leaned in and kissed her. Hard. She gasped against him, her hands braced on his chest, fingers curling. He pulled back just enough to look in her eyes, smirking.

“Let’s make it sooner.”

She shoved at him lightly.

“Be serious.”

“I am serious.”

His hands slid to her hips, fingers digging in enough to make her squirm.

“Just saying… whenever you want to start trying for that mini Lando, you let me know.”

Her breath hitched. He saw it. The flicker of real want in her eyes.

He grinned.

“Fuck, you do want it.”

“When we’re ready,” she fired back, defensive but breathless. “When everything’s set up. When we’re not traveling every week and living out of suitcases.”

“I’d give it all up for you.”

That shut her up. Her mouth parted, eyes going soft and stunned.

“I would,” he continued, relentless. “For you. For us.”

He leaned in, brushing his lips against her ear.

She shivered. He felt her start to crack.

“Don’t promise that if you don’t mean it,” she whispered, voice almost broken.

He cupped her face with both hands, kissing her softer now.

“I mean every fucking word.”

Her eyes fluttered shut. When they opened, they were dark with something deeper than lust.

“I do want it,” she whispered.

He groaned, pressing his forehead to hers.

“Say it again.”

“I want to have your baby.”

He made a guttural sound, lifting her without warning. She squealed, legs wrapping around his waist, kissing him like she��d been starving for it.

They crashed onto the bed in a tangle of limbs. Clothes came off in frantic, graceless motions. Their mouths barely parted, teeth clashing, breaths ragged.

“Tonight,” he growled between kisses. “Let me put the idea in your head.”

She arched up into him, nails dragging down his back.

“You’re insane,” she gasped.

“Bet you like me this way,” he teased.

He slowed down then, kissing her deeply. His hands roamed everywhere. Waist. Ribs. Thighs. The soft underside of her breast.

“I want to see you all round and glowing,” he rasped. “Want to know you’re mine in every way.”

She whimpered, burying her face in his neck.

“Stop talking like that.”

“Why?”

He pulled back to stare her down, eyes blown wide with hunger and something achingly tender.

“Because it makes you want it more?”

She couldn’t answer. Her breathing was too ragged. He smirked, but there was too much heat in it.

“Fuck, I’d put a baby in you right now if you let me.”

She shuddered. He kissed her jaw. Her collarbone.

“I want it,” she admitted, voice cracking.

He froze, eyes searching hers.

“Now?”

She hesitated, even through the lust, serious.

“When we’re ready. When we’re stable.”

He huffed softly, biting at her skin.

“Let’s practice until then.”

She let out a laugh that turned into a gasp when his mouth slid lower. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling, desperate.

After that, words failed them. Just the sound of rain on the roof, the creak of the bed, and their breathless, ragged moans.

Later, the room was dark and quiet except for their breathing. She lay half on top of him, his hand drew idle circles on her hip.

“Just saying…” he murmured, voice lazy and smug. “Whenever you want to start for real… you tell me.”

She closed her eyes but couldn’t help smiling.

“I will.”

He leaned down, voice right in her ear.

“Hope it’s soon.”

She snorted, smacking his chest lightly.

“Horny idiot.”

He just laughed, warm and low, kissing her again and again, until she gave up and kissed him back.

And somewhere between the laughter and the quiet breathing, she let herself imagine it. Them. Someday. A family. And it didn’t seem so far away at all.

[spideyjimin]

a secret spun in silk: I | jjk

⤷ loving Jungkook was easy, he was the shy and nerdy guy no one really noticed, and that was fine for him. however, everything changed when a radioactive spider bite turned him into the city’s mysterious new hero. as a detective, you were quick to notice the shift. then, his mentor, Kang Sangmin, died in front of you. now, you’re hunting a killer and uncovering the truth about the man you thought you knew.

—  pairing: spidey!jungkook x detective!fem. reader 

—  genre: established relationship, murder au, mystery au, spiderman au, angst, fluff, and smut

— rating: 18+ 

—  words: 9,654

—  warnings: swearing, strong language, mention of death, mention of adoption, mention of infertility, lots of kissing, some teasing, humping, oral sex (m & f receiving), nipple play, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, creampie, multiple orgasms, mention of sex, dead bodies, burned body, mention of fire, mention of crying, description of death, blood, mention of murder, and crying

—  author’s note: hi guys!! The spiderkook fic is finally here & I hope you’ll enjoy it ✨ sorry it took me this long to post the first chapter, but life has been crazy again & my health is all over the place 🫠 however, i’ve written a lot lately & here you have the fic 💞 you’ll see that there is an alternation between jungkook & oc point of view throughout the chapter, i really hope you’ll enjoy it & let’s see if you’re good detectives 🕵🏻 thanks for reading & don’t hesitate to let me know what you think of this first chapter 🩵

Chapter I: the spider effect

SERIES MASTERLIST | next

Jungkook

His eyes scan the lab report one final time, the pages worn from hours of review. Fingers move with practiced precision, lifting each sample, examining it under the harsh lab light. He's exhausted, but meticulous. A single error could bring his boss's fury down like a hammer. This has to be flawless.

Jungkook could have chosen the easiest way in his professional career. He could have decided to work for his father’s company; the doors were all open for him, but Jungkook never chose the easiest way like his infamous brother, Joongi.

Managing people and businesses is definitely not for him. He’s too shy to be around people, and he’s not sure he’ll ever be good at giving orders and being respected. He largely prefers to stay hidden behind a lab and work on something that truly passions him. Studying samples makes him way happier than sitting in a cold office.

His father, Seojoon, always encouraged him to do whatever he wanted. It was absolutely fine for him if his oldest son didn’t follow in his footsteps. He already knew his second-born, Joongi, would be the one leading the family’s company. His two sons are complete opposites, and that’s why he absolutely loves them deeply.

Seojoon could count on his oldest friend, Sangmin, to help Jungkook on his scientific journey.  Kang Sangmin built from scratch a pharmaceutical company. He studied and worked hard before starting a company at 35. Today, his company is one of the biggest in South Korea. Seojoon and Sangmin were neighbors as kids, and their ambition turned them into the most influential men.  

Both of them chose different lives. While Seojoon decided to marry and have children, Sangmin preferred to remain single even though he had a son at eighteen. But Sangmin always considered Jungkook as a second son. He has always been by his side and guided him every step of the way.

Even though Jungkook had Sangmin, he decided not to work in his company. Again, choosing the easiest way has never been for him. So he’s working on a company focused on finding cures for rare diseases. And that passions him beyond comprehension.

“Doctor Jeon,” a woman says while entering the laboratory. “A woman is waiting for you at the reception.”  

Jungkook doesn’t even bother to look up at her, too scared he’ll lose track of where he is, but a smile appears on his face. He knows who’s waiting for him. You. His beloved girlfriend. The only person he truly adores. Well, he loves his family, but it’s a different kind of love. Loving you is easy. You truly look at him and see beyond his looks.

The scientist doesn’t consider himself handsome, no matter how many times you said it. He’s always tucked behind oversized glasses, his hair pushed back in a bun, but he always wears his awkwardness like a second lab coat. Bunny teeth and big, soft eyes. He looks more like a nervous intern than a brilliant scientist, but that’s exactly why you love him.

“Can you tell her that I just need to finish the report?” he replies.

The woman only nods before disappearing, leaving him alone once more. He’s the associate research scientist and takes his job very seriously. The big boss is always very harsh with him, but it’s because she knows how good he is. She pushes him to be better, and he doesn’t mind at all. He adores what he does.

Now, he rushes his final review to leave as fast as possible to go on the date you organized. You’re going to eat at that fancy restaurant that opened recently. Finding a table was hard, but for once in his life, Jungkook used the “I’m Seojoon’s son” card. He did it for you because you desperately wanted to try this new restaurant.

Beneath his white coat, he wears a classic outfit—a light blue shirt paired with dark blue trousers. He also has a coat matching his pants, but he’ll put it on once he’ll leave the lab. During lunch break, he perfectly tidied his hair, abandoning the usual messy bun for a neater look.

Unlike one might think, this isn’t an uncommon outfit for him. Actually, this is what he’s used to wearing. When he was younger, he was kind of forced to wear this type of outfit. And now, every Sunday, when he goes to his parents, he puts on his best outfit. Otherwise, at home, he prefers to wear larger clothes and only makes a small effort for work.

While checking the last samples, a tiny spider crawls across his hand. Since he’s very focused on the sample, he lets it be, but he wonders how on earth it got here. Erika, an American colleague temporarily assigned to the lab, has been studying spider species. Normally, they’re kept safely in their enclosure.

Jungkook doesn’t even know if the spider is venomous, but if he moves, he’ll risk compromising the sample. The second he places it down, the spider bites him.

“Shit,” he swears.

The man instantly takes the spider and places it back in the enclosure, then walks to the sink to clean the bite with water and soft soap. He’ll keep an eye on it in case it becomes weird, and mentally notes that he’ll need to apply a cold compress once at home. He gets back to work because he’s too eager to finish quickly.

As soon as everything is done, he sends the report to the department director, puts back the samples in that humongous fridge, and removes his white scientist coat to replace it with the dark blue one. As he puts his coat on, his eyes linger for a little while on the ring on his finger.

Ten months ago, on your first anniversary, you bought matching rings with your initials engraved on them. They don’t look like wedding rings, but they carry the same promise. A promise of eternal and unconditional love.

The man closes the lab before rushing to join you. He doesn’t want to make you wait any longer. In seconds, he’s inside an elevator, making his way to the ground floor. When he comes out and walks to the reception, he finds you sitting on a bench with your eyes looking at your polished nails. The brightest smile grows on his face when he sees you. You make him happy like nobody ever did.

You finally turn your head, and your eyes instantly meet his. Slowly, you stand up with your purse and jacket in your hands. Jungkook falls even more in love with you. You’re wearing that pale purple silk dress he offered you at the early stage of your relationship. He wanted to impress you and offer you whatever you wanted. Money was never an issue for him. He wanted to use it on you. He still does.  

“Woow,” he says when he’s standing in front of you. “You look like a fucking dream, pumpkin.”

The pumpkin nickname arrived when you confessed how much you like a good pumpkin soup. Your mom always prepares it in the winter, but now that you live with your boyfriend, you’re the one preparing it. However, your mother brings you some once in a while.

You tiptoe to kiss your boyfriend, and he gently wraps an arm around you. Being around you is his favorite place on earth. He always wonders how he got so lucky to find you, and he’ll forever be grateful that destiny placed you in his arms.

“And you always look so fine with that suit, nerdy,” you whisper on his lips.

Jungkook never liked being called ‘nerdy’; he always hated it, but you’re the only one he’ll ever let. It actually makes him happy to hear you call him by that nickname.

 “Ready to go to that fancy restaurant?” he asks while intertwining his fingers in yours.

“I’m so excited,” you giggle.

Your boyfriend can’t help but find you absolutely adorable. You both make your way out of the building, saying goodbye to the receptionist. Since the restaurant isn’t too far, you walk together in the streets. The closeness between your boyfriend’s workplace and the restaurant is the reason why you joined him. If it weren’t the case, he’d be the one waiting for you at the reception of the police station.

“How was your day, pumpkin?” he asks before placing a soft kiss on the back of your hand.

“Same as always,” you shrug. “We found a dead body and are now investigating the cause of death.”

Jungkook doesn’t understand how you can be doing this; you’re constantly meeting death and crazy killers. That simple thought sends shivers down his spine. Most of the time, he’s worried about you. Any crazy killer that you put behind bars has reasons to hate you and chase after you. He’s scared that one of them might do it.

“Not a traumatic dead body?” he asks with concern.

Sometimes, when you arrive home, you burst into tears. Some deaths are harder to deal with than others. On those days, your boyfriend makes sure to give you all the comfort you need.

“No,” you shake your head. “It was a simple shot to the heart.”

“Don’t know how you can call that ‘simple’,” he chuckles. “Nothing is simple with a dead person.”

You smile while his hand squeezes yours. For the rest of the walk, you explain to him how this death was simple, and the case might be closed very soon. The man found dead was hated by everybody, so one of those people might be responsible.

Jungkook also explains what he’s been up to for the day. He doesn’t go into much detail, as it’s confidential, and because you don’t know much about scientific stuff. Nonetheless, it warms his heart to share with you what he’s been doing.

Once you reach the restaurant, he walks in front of you, his fingers never letting go of yours. At the entrance, he informs the waitress under which name he booked a table. She guides you to a table near the window. A bright and big smile grows on your face when you notice the incredible view.

“You outdid yourself,” you tell your boyfriend as he pushes your chair.

“Couldn’t bring you here without getting the best seats,” he replies. “If I were going to pull the Seojoon’s son card, I needed to do it properly.”

“You’re not wrong,” you say, sitting down.

Your lover grew up going to prestigious restaurants. His parents would never settle for cheap ones because it was all about image. Jungkook never minded it. It was just a restaurant after all. But as he reached teenage years, he realized he was the only kid at school who never went to McDonald's or any of those fast food restaurants. He already felt like an outsider, but that made him feel even weirder compared to the others. His entire life, he was the nerdy guy nobody ever noticed or looked at. But he never cared about it. He had his friends, and that was enough.  

However, as years went by, he started to wonder if he would ever find a girl. He was nobody’s type, especially in the world he grew up in. Girls were only interested in looks and money. He had the money but not the looks. But sounds like money wasn’t enough.

And then, one day, he met the girl who brought some DNA samples. It was late, Jungkook’s company had agreed to assist the police with a case, and you showed up at his lab. It was your case. You were running after a serial killer. Since it was an emergency, the police needed the best lab.

Jungkook had only been working there for five months. You spent the entire night together. Him examining the samples and you, attentively watching him work. You’d ask him random questions because you were curious to find out more about him. He intrigued you. And by the end of it, you offered him breakfast to thank him. Yeah, it was already like 5 am when he finished.

It was the best night of your lives, and it was the beginning of something beautiful.

Jungkook fell madly in love with you. Just like you did with him.

You’ve been his first in all aspects of his romantic life, and even though that scared you at the beginning, you’ve been enjoying it a lot. Watching him discover everything with you is one of the biggest accomplishments of your life.     

“Next month, Sangmin is organizing a dinner at his place,” Jungkook begins. “He’d like to have us. Is it fine for you?”

It’s been a while since Jungkook last saw Sangmin. He’s been travelling a lot, gathering awards for his company’s accomplishments, and building a new branch in Kyoto. They’ve of course discussed a lot over the phone because Jungkook always feels the need to speak with him about scientific stuff.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” you tell him. “Also, next weekend, Jin is inviting us over to his place.”

Jin is your older brother, and Jungkook is quite close to him. They created a rather great bond, one you never expected to be formed because of Jin’s protective tendencies. But your boyfriend really adores being around him.

“No problem.”

Your brother is currently on his honeymoon with his wife, Hyorin. They got married three weeks ago, and they’ve been enjoying their little romantic escape. Even though Jungkook won’t admit it, he misses your brother. They hang out together quite often.

“He’s inviting the whole family,” you add.

Jungkook frowns. That’s weird.

“Why?” he asks.

“Don’t know, but it’s for sure something important.”

A couple of months into your relationship, Jungkook got to meet your entire family, composed of your parents and your two older brothers. Besides Jin, you have another brother, Taehyung, who’s only a year older than you. You’re very close to the two of them, and through you, Jungkook got two new brothers.

“My mom has already called me asking if I knew why,” you shake your head with a smile.

“She’s too curious,” he chuckles.

“She’s already thinking that they might announce an upcoming baby, but I strongly doubt it,” you confess. “Jin and Hyorin always said they wanted to take their time and enjoy their married life before having a baby. But you know my mom,” you smile.

Jungkook adores your mom. She welcomed him with open arms when you introduced him. He was so scared your parents might reject him, but it was actually the opposite.  

“She’s been patiently waiting for that grandchild,” he says while remembering the many conversations where she, without subtly, made you all understand that she wants to become a grandma.

Early in your relationship, you told your boyfriend that you and your brothers were adopted. Your parents had trouble conceiving, so instead of forcing and pushing their bodies to exhaustion, they decided to adopt. Jin was a year old when they brought him home, Taehyung was five months old, and you were just a month old. All three of you came from the same orphanage.

Your adoption was never a taboo subject, but Jungkook has always been very careful about how he approached the matter. He’s scared to hurt you.

 “The day one of us gets a baby, she’ll throw the biggest party ever seen,” you jokingly say.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

When Jungkook looks at you, sometimes he wonders what you saw in him. To him, you’re the prettiest girl to ever walk the face of the earth, while he sees himself as an ugly and boring man. But he tries to brush those thoughts away because you’ve told him many times that he’s the most handsome man you’ve ever seen.

The rest of the dinner goes by quickly while you both talk about everything. Although you live together, it always feels like you constantly have so much to say. It’s like you haven’t seen each other in days, while in fact, it has only been a couple of hours.

Through it all, he felt normal, except for the itch in his hand. He kept scratching it without really noticing.

Once over, you walk back to Jungkook’s workplace because his car is parked in the underground garage. On the way home, you sing along to every song that plays out, always trying to see who can sing the loudest. Your boyfriend is kind of wild when it comes to singing.

At home, he opens the door and lets you in first. He follows right after you, closing it carefully. His hand slips into yours before gently pulling you to face him.

“You look so good in that dress,” he whispers.

His lips meet yours for a sweet and tender kiss; there’s no urgency or anything else in it. There’s only warmth. The tenderness in it makes your heart melt completely.

“Not as good as you,” you whisper against his mouth.

Your boyfriend leads you both to your shared bedroom, his touch hinting that he wants more than just kissing you. As soon as the door closes, he turns, and his lips crash on yours once again. Your hands cup his face while you kiss him passionately. He’ll never grow tired of kissing you. He’s definitely addicted to you in every possible way.

Jungkook reluctantly breaks the kiss to sit down on the edge of the bed with an unsteady breath. He also takes his glasses off, placing them on the nightstand. You quickly follow him, settling into his lap and straddling him. The way your dress rides up steals his breath all over again. Your now bare legs are pressed against him, and his hungry eyes roam up your body, drinking in the view with the most perverted smile growing on his face.  

“You look even better from this perspective, pumpkin,” he confesses, his voice low and thick with desire.

Surprisingly, he pulls his phone from his pants pocket before taking a picture.

“Seriously?” you say as you shake your head. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Just wanted to capture perfection,” he says.

You roll your eyes, but he notices the smile fighting its way through. That smile disarms him every time.

Once he has taken enough pictures of you, he throws his phone somewhere on the bed. His hands find their way to the sides of your waist, running up and down. He absolutely savors the way your body responds. You shiver under his touch, and the reaction sends a deep pulse straight through him.

“God,” he thinks, “how did I ever get this lucky?”

Your lips crash into his again, stealing what little composure he has left. Then, in an attempt to tease him, you slowly grind your hips against his. Heat instantly blooms low in his abdomen. A low and deep groan leaves his mouth before he can stop it, a sound that you gladly swallow.

He tries to keep his breathing steady, but it’s useless. Every roll of your hips pulls him deeper into the haze, his focus narrowing to the friction between you, your warmth, your weight, the way you know exactly what you’re doing. His hands grip your waist, trying to ground himself, but his control is slipping fast.

Then you whisper against his lips, in a very teasing tone: “I guess someone’s getting turned on.”

He lets out a breathless laugh, but the sound dies in his throat as your hips move again. He can’t hide the growing tension in his body, and the ache building beneath his pants. His heart’s pounding faster. The more you move, the more he loses himself in the moment.

Jungkook opens his eyes, staring at you with lust shining in his eyes. The effect you have on him is incredible; you have him on his knees. Speaking of knees, you get off his lap to drop down on your knees.

He instantly understands what you’re about to do, and he spreads his legs for you. Seeing you between his legs makes him grow harder. It’s such a turn-on position, especially since he knows that in a matter of seconds, your mouth will be wrapped around him. Too eager to feel you, he strips himself of his pants and underwear.

“Someone seems in a hurry,” you chuckle.

“Can’t wait to feel your mouth,” he admits.

You roll your eyes with the biggest smile on your face. He can’t help but find you even more attractive. Whenever you’re both about to go wild, he always finds you more attractive than usual.

“You’re lucky that it’s what I’m about to give you,” you say, while he throws his pants and underwear somewhere in the bedroom.

Right after, you spit on his cock before your hands touch his length. Immediately, a guttural moan escapes his soft lips. His eyes are glued on you while he runs a hand through his dark hair. Fuck, it already feels fantastic. 

Seconds later, you shove his cock down your throat, which makes him growl deeply. His eyes rolling back to his head. The feeling of your mouth wrapped around him is like heaven to him. He could die right now.

Honestly, he’s so lost in pleasure that he can’t tell when you started to suck him. All he knows is that he’s a moaning mess. His legs are shaking like crazy as he gets closer to orgasm. It’s obvious he won’t last long with the way you’re sucking him off.

Jungkook avoids looking down at you because he knows damn well that the second he lays his eyes on you he’ll come. With shaking hands, he grabs your hair to guide you but never once does he shoves your face deeper into his cock. The last thing he wants is to hurt you, although he’s completely lost in pleasure.  

“Fuck, pumpkin,” he growls. “You’re doing so well,” he praises you.  

His cock twitches inside your mouth as he gets closer to the edge. He feels you hollowing your cheeks, pushing him closer to his orgasm.

“Can I come inside?” he asks when he feels himself very close to orgasm. 

Even though you’ve been together for almost two years, he always asks for your consent when it comes to sex. In this case, he’d never want to finish in your mouth unless you truly desire it. The idea of doing anything without your full consent makes his stomach turn. Respecting your boundaries matters more to him than anything else.

His cum explodes inside your mouth while deep groans leave his lips. He delicately grinds his hips, pushing his hot seed deeper into your mouth. Your boyfriend feels your eyes on him while you take all he has to give.

When you remove your mouth from his length, he falls back onto the bed, his eyes looking up at the ceiling. How on earth can you only get better at pleasuring him? He’s sure that one day he’ll die.

“You’ll kill me one day, pumpkin,” his gaze shifts to meet yours.

“It’s not the purpose, nerdy,” you smile at him.

His lips crash against yours to fervently kiss you. His tongue doesn’t waste a second to meet yours, and he can taste himself. A little moan escapes his mouth, one that you instantly swallow.

However, you quickly break the kiss as you’re both horny as fuck and want nothing more than have sex. You rapidly undress before lying on the bed. Jungkook spreads your legs and nestles himself in between them. His favorite place on earth.  

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispers.

He then proceeds to kiss your inner thigh, and his soft lips on your skin send shivers down your spine. 

“Jungkook,” your hand flies down to grab his hair. 

His tongue swipes at your folds, his mouth wrapping perfectly around you. Moans of delight escape your lips, his favorite melody. His round nose rubs against your clit, and he does it on purpose because he knows it’s something you like.  

“You always taste so good, pumpkin,” he mumbles against your core. 

Your thighs squeeze his head, your fingers push harder on his hair, and your back arches off the bed while he delicately licks your folds. Feeling you falling apart makes him groan against you. He’ll never grow tired of it.

His tongue burrows into you, lapping at your wetness. There is nothing better than having your juices running down his throat. You heavily sigh with pleasure when he tilts his head up a little higher to lap deeper into you. When he pulls at your folds with his teeth, your back arches off the bed, your legs squeezing around his head harder, his name rolling off your tongue over and over again. 

As he licks and bites your folds, you scream louder and louder, your orgasm threatening to explode at any moment. Since you started dating, he’s been learning like a good boy how to please you, and he’s proud of how he can make you come with his mouth only.

Two years ago, he wasn’t able to do anything to give pleasure to a woman. And now, he’s an expert in eating out and making love to you. He has memorized every single detail of your steamy sessions so he can get better each time. Pleasuring you is deeply important to him.

It’s a matter of seconds before you’re completely overwhelmed by your orgasm. Jungkook never stops until you’re squirting, his face now covered in your juices. He glances up at you again, his lips shining with your arousal that he blissfully licks with his tongue. 

“You look so damn hot with my arousal all over your face,” you confess with a smirk.

Before doing anything else, he strips himself of all the remaining clothes to be fully naked. He can get quite sweaty while sharing an intimate moment with you, and having clothes on him doesn’t help at all. You take advantage of the moment to also get fully naked.  

He crawls over your body, his fingers brushing along your stomach and up to your breasts. The man leans down to kiss the space between them, your back arching at the feeling of his lips on your skin. His round nose brushes against your chest while his mouth ghosts over your breasts. His warm breath stings against your sensitive skin, teasing you. 

His hands hold your breasts tightly, and his thumbs flick over your nipples. Little moans leave your mouth. His lips kiss from the valley of your breasts up to your throat, his tongue licking all the way up.

Pulling his head back, his eyes get lost in yours before he presses his lips on yours, kissing you passionately and fervently. He’s impossibly hard, precum leaking from the head of his dick, and he wastes no time in pushing himself into you.

His cock slides in you quite easily, and you cry out as he buries himself deep into you. He knows that he’s impossibly big, that’s the first thing you told him when you saw him naked for the first time. Honestly, his chest swelled with pride that time. However, he’s also fully aware that it also stretches you a lot when he buries himself in you, and that it can be painful sometimes.   

Jungkook pulls his hips out before slamming back into you so harshly, and he swears he felt your whole body shudder. The second he’s fully buried inside you, he stops his moves, watching down at where your bodies meet. 

Slowly, he resumes thrusting back into you. The man hovering over you ensures to fill you up to the brim at a very slow pace. Your moans get louder as he rails the shit out of you.

“Faster,” you tell him.  

A smirk appears on his face before he thrusts into you at a faster pace, which has you clenching so tightly around him. The room is quickly filled with the sound of his hips slapping against yours, as well as both your moans and heavy breathing.

The two of you get completely lost in your euphoria. You squeeze your walls around him, making him groan loudly, and he quickens and deepens his pace. The intensity with which he’s pounding into you makes you moan with delight.

“Oh, Jungkook,” you mewl before you bite at his lower lip, tugging at it hard. 

His eyes are locked with yours, and right now, as he looks at you, it’s like the world around him has vanished completely. Jungkook caresses your face with a smile on his face.

“You’re so wonderful,” he says before pressing a sloppy kiss on your lips.

His pace gets relentless. The bed under you is creaking while your breasts are bouncing at the rhythm of his pace. One of his hands snails up from your waist to grab at one of your breasts, squeezing at your soft flesh before he pinches your nipples. The feeling is overwhelming you both at this stage. 

The man above you leaves wet kisses along your jawline, your neck, and your shoulder. On the other hand, your nails scratch his back, leaving red marks all over him.

“Jungkook, I’m gonna,” you whimper. “I’m gonna cum...”

Your walls are clenching extremely hard around him, your legs are shaking, and your moans are pretty much out of control. He knows now that you’re close. His hips move faster, desperate to make you come undone under him. 

“Come for me, pumpkin,” he whispers in the shell of your ear. “Make a mess all over my cock.”

The orgasm completely explodes. Your eyes close as your face contorts with pleasure, and you cry out his name over and over again. Jungkook watches with marvel the way you come under him and he enjoys the way your pussy creams his cock. 

Jungkook’s dick throbs inside you but he continues to wreck you until he’s coming inside you. He’s fully aware that he isn’t going to last much longer than you do because damn, pleasure is overwhelming him so much.  

“Fuck, I’m going to come,” he growls in your ear. “Can I come inside?” 

You nod, and instantly, he lets go of any control he has over his orgasm, releasing his hot semen inside you. His body is completely tense while he sloppily thrusts two last times to push his cum deep inside you.   

Then, he slowly collapses against your chest, his lips pressing a soft kiss against your neck as he nuzzles himself against you. Your arms wrap around him as the two of you come down from your intense orgasms. The room falls completely silent except for the sound of your heavy breathing.

“We should go take a shower,” he finally breaks the silence. “I smell like sex.”

“Don’t want to break it to you, but we just had sex,” you giggle.

“Really?” he pretends to be surprised. “I thought we were driving a spaceship.”

You shake your head while you laugh. The brightest smile grows on his face as he watches you laugh at his silly jokes. His entire life, he wondered how his mom could laugh at the stupid jokes his dad made, but now he understands. It’s love. And he also now understands how his dad feels whenever his mom laughs.  

“Well,” he gets closer, his arms wrapping around you, “maybe we could drive the spaceship once more. I’ll even let you drive this time.”

“Is this how you’re inviting me to ride you?” you raise an eyebrow.

“Absolutely,” he answers without hesitation.

And just like that, you go for round two.    

Jungkook

Jungkook slowly opens his eyes, blinking against the soft morning light. For the first time in years, he feels rested. Not just “not tired” but really rested. His head is clear, and his mind is light. He feels like he has slept for a month straight when in fact, he knows he barely slept six hours. It’s like someone pressed a reset button on his body. And God, it feels good.

He breathes in deeply, savoring the clarity until something odd cuts through the calm.

You’re in the kitchen, preparing breakfast, and he can perfectly hear you. The pouring of coffee in mugs, the water running, the way you put butter on the toast. He hears absolutely everything. It sounds like you’re standing right beside him, while those two rooms are far away from each other. His brows furrow.

“Since when can I hear that?” he mumbles to himself.

He sits up quickly, way too quickly. His body stretches like elastic, every muscle feeling sore as if he’s been hitting the gym all night long. Heat pulses across his back, his arms, and even down to his fingertips. He groans while rubbing his neck.   

“What the hell did I do last night?” he whispers.

For sure, all the sex you had last night isn’t responsible for this soreness. This was a soft night because you didn’t go for many rounds. There have been nights when there were at least three rounds, and even like that, he never felt sore. So, this isn’t related at all to sex. This is something else.

By pure reflex, his eyes look down, and they instantly widen. His chest looks different. It looks leaner and tighter. His shirt clings where it usually sags. There’s definition where there wasn’t before, like faint ridges of abs, and the beginnings of something sculpted. He stares, jaw slack.

This is more than weird. How did his body change that much overnight?

“For fuck’s sake,” he groans as he tries to stand, but his feet don’t move.

They are actually glued to the hardwood floor. He yanks harder, and panic starts building up inside him. A soft cracking noise, like something unsticking, echoes under his foot before he finally sets free.

“What’s going on?” he breathes, heart pounding.

His hands shake slightly as he steadies himself. The room looks the same, but everything feels off. Colors seem more saturated, sounds sharper, and air thicker.

This isn’t normal. This is impossible. It all feels like a dream. But the soreness is real. The sounds are real. The growing fear in his chest is real. This isn’t a dream.

He walks to the bedroom mirror as he wants to check himself out. He wants to see with his own eyes how much he has changed, but it seems like it’s easier said than done. Jungkook struggles to walk to the mirror since his feet seem to cling to the floor.  

“For fuck’s sake,” he swears. “How am I going to make it to work?”

Somehow, he manages to reach the mirror and gets absolutely stunned when he sees his reflection. The body he sees isn’t the same body he’s used to waking up in.

His chest looks firmer, defined in a way that no amount of gym sessions ever managed before. His biceps stretch the sleeves of his shirt slightly. Slowly, he lifts the sleeve of his tattooed arm to take a proper look. The sight takes his breath away. It looks a lot better now.

As he runs a hand through his hair, he notices the way his fingers move faster. Every little motion feels efficient, more controlled.

But even though this is all surprising, he only feels good. Like really good. It’s like his entire nervous system has been rewired. It’s more aware, more reactive. Even the air against his skin feels sharper somehow. 

Too caught in his discovery, he doesn’t hear you coming.

“Honey?” you say, and he instantly looks at you.

At this precise moment, he realizes that he’s seeing you perfectly like he has never seen before. His vision has always been terrible. As far as he can remember, he's always needed glasses, but now, it seems that he doesn’t.

“Yes?” he replies.

You squint your eyes, and Jungkook wonders if you’re noticing the changes.  

“Are you okay?” you tilt your head. “You seem weird.”

He definitely feels weird. Something’s off, and he can’t tell why.

“I guess I’m getting sick,” he tries to justify. “I don’t feel well.”

For a moment, you just stare at him, not saying a word. He’s getting worried, and his heart starts beating crazily.

“I prepared breakfast,” you finally break the silence. “I have to go. A new body was found.”

Jungkook nods while you step forward, pressing a goodbye kiss on his lips. He clings to the moment longer than usual, the warmth of your lips grounding him.

“Have a nice day, pumpkin,” he says, managing a smile as you disappear out the door.

The moment you’re gone, everything crashes back in. He can hear his own heartbeat, the wind brushing against the windowpane, and your footsteps as you leave the apartment. His fingers twitch, and he stares at his hands.

As he does so, an event from yesterday pops out. The spider. His eyes dart to the spot where he was bitten, but there’s nothing. No redness. No mark. It’s like it never happened. He pokes at the skin, but there’s nothing unusual. Well, at least not visibly.

He looks around the room. Every object is in sharp focus. He can count the fibers in the carpet. He sees even better now without glasses than with them.

“What the hell is happening to me?” he whispers.

He tries to move to the kitchen, but again his foot sticks. It clings to the floor, pulling with a strange suction when he lifts it. Instead of panicking again, he tries to calm himself down. As he does so, he realizes that it’s actually helping, and his feet don’t stick that much anymore.

This is without any doubt going to be a hell of a day!

You

“This doesn’t look good,” your colleague, Hyunwoo, says as you’re both looking at the dead body.

“It definitely isn’t,” you reply.

The victim is completely unidentifiable. The killer, or whoever did this, burned the victim’s car, and you’re now left with a burned body. This will take ages before you even find out who the victim is, and then, you’ll have to figure out what happened. This is going to be a long day. There’s no doubt about it.

“I’m already exhausted before we even start working,” Hyunwoo sighs.

“Me too,” you mumble.

There’s not much that you can do right now. You need to leave the forensic take pictures of the crime scene. Afterwards, you’ll be able to start looking for something around the car or inside it.

“How was your date with Jungkook?” Hyunwoo asks with a smile.

“It went well,” you smile as you remember last night’s events. “It’s a very fancy restaurant, and I’m glad we managed to go.”

Hyunwoo perfectly knows who your boyfriend is, and he’s also very much aware of how you managed to get in. He’s sometimes jealous that you found a wealthy guy. He wishes he could find one too.

It’s no secret that Hyunwoo is into guys; he doesn’t hide it. However, his parents still want to believe that maybe one day he’ll decide to settle with a woman. You’re pretty sure that this day might never come.

“That’s the perks of dating Seojoon’s son,” he says before chuckling a bit.

It’s clear that dating Jungkook opens quite some doors thanks to his father. Your boyfriend doesn’t take very much advantage of it, which isn’t the case with his brother, but that’s something you truly adore in Jungkook.

His father’s name literally gives him the world, but he doesn’t use it. He prefers to create his own path. However, it’s also related to his shyness. The man prefers to hide behind the shadows. He hates being under the spotlight. He leaves that to his little brother.

“Eeh,” you hit his arm. “He barely uses it.”

“He doesn’t need to,” he instantly replies. “He’s identical to his dad.”

That is absolutely true; he’s the spitting image of his father. It’s honestly so disturbing, but you can tell that when it comes to the outside world, it’s uncomfortable for your boyfriend. He adores his dad, but he doesn’t like that resemblance because everybody looks at him.

To most, it’s fascinating, but for Jungkook, it’s suffocating.

He adores his father, no question. But walking through life wearing Seojoon’s face comes with an unspoken burden. In public, he feels the eyes. The recognition. The expectations. People don’t just see him. They see the legacy, the name, the empire. And he hates that.

It strips him of something personal, something his own. He’s quiet about it, of course—he always is—but you can feel the weight pressing on him. Most of the time, it just breaks your heart because Jungkook is so much more than the son of Seojoon.

“I know,” you admit.

Jungkook hides a lot behind his glasses; you’ve noticed it. The glasses are what make him different from his father.

“Sometimes he wishes he wasn’t,” you add.

You’ve stopped counting the times when you held Jungkook in your arms while he was crying. People make too many comments without thinking about the consequences of their words. And Jungkook has very low self-esteem, and sometimes words hurt more than they should.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind having a powerful dad and looking like him,” Hyunwoo teases.

You roll your eyes.

“Trust me,” you reply, “it sometimes can be a curse.”

Well, you’ve only gotten to see it through Jungkook. It isn’t a curse for you. You don’t look like your father or your biological father. You’re actually a miny version of your biological mother, just like Jungkook is his father’s.

When you became a police officer, the first thing you did was find your biological parents. Not because you wanted to meet them or anything like that. But you wanted to see what they look like and what kind of person they are now. You have very loving parents, and you never felt the need to look for your birth parents.

Your birth mother was very young when she had you. She was only sixteen, and she had a shitty boyfriend. Following what you found out, he wasn’t really interested in becoming a father. So she decided to give you up for adoption. You know that she has been looking out for you, but you’ve never said anything.

Your birth mother got married years later and now has three kids, ages nine to two. She seems to be happy. At least, when you get to see her from far away, she seems to be a happy woman. And she has beautiful children. You’re sure that she wouldn’t be the woman she is if she ever kept you. Maybe you’d both be miserable.

But you’ll never know because she chose to give you a better life. And you’ll forever be grateful for that.

 “How can you know that?” he raises an eyebrow.

“You’d know it if you’d have a boyfriend crying in your arms because someone used him.”

Jungkook is the love of your life. You knew it the second you saw him for the first time, and you did everything you could to have him. It wasn’t particularly easy to convince this man that you were into him because of his lack of experience. But you slowly both fell in love with each other. He’s the best thing that has ever happened to you.

“Detective y/l/n,” one of the forensics comes to you. “We’re finished with the pictures.”

“Thanks,” you offer a small smile.

Your eyes now move to your partner.

“Now let’s work and stop talking about my amazing boyfriend.”

Jungkook

Jungkook hasn’t been feeling himself for the entire morning. His hands and feet cling to everything. If he takes a sample to examine it, it’ll stick to his hand. If he tries to stand up and walk, it’s mission impossible even if he takes deep breaths. It’s starting to be frustrating.

His glasses have been more than discarded. He doesn’t see a damn thing with them, which is more than weird. His colleagues have asked him why he doesn’t wear them anymore, and he invented the shitty excuse that he has decided to use contact lenses. If anybody knows him well enough, they’ll know that he would never do that.

He has also noticed that his new sculpted body is very strong. He has already destroyed half of the lab material because he’s unable to measure his strength. Luckily, he’s always been clumsy, and he can hide behind that excuse, but it’s not the truth.

But the most surprising thing is the webs coming from his wrists. He doesn’t know how it happened or how it works, but there are webs everywhere in his lab. He has spent the past ten minutes cleaning them. He’s sure that he looks like an absolute idiot today, but everything has changed.

He isn’t the same.

He feels it deep inside himself. It’s like his DNA was fully rewritten. He’s not human anymore. There’s something more in his blood, which makes him like he is right now.

“Jungkook?” his colleague Erika frowns. “What are you doing?”

Jungkook turns red, caught cleaning the webs in the lab.  

“There was some dirt, and it was making me nervous, so I’ve been cleaning.”

Erika just nods, half convinced.

“I’ve heard you were looking for me,” she says.

“Yep,” he nods while inviting her to come closer. “I’m curious about the type of spiders you’ve been studying here.”

She raises an eyebrow, slightly surprised by his interest, but steps closer anyway.

“Most people avoid them.”

“I’m not most people,” Jungkook replies with a small, almost forced smile.

His hand instinctively brushes the spot where he was bitten, still uncertain if it really happened or if he dreamt it. Erika nods, then leans against the edge of the lab table.

“They’re part of an experimental species—genetically altered arachnids. Originally from South America, but we’ve been enhancing them.”

“Enhancing how?” he asks, trying not to sound too eager.

She pauses, eyeing him carefully.

“Their venom glands have been modified. In short, they can choose whether or not to inject venom when they bite.”

Jungkook frowns with surprise. This definitely sounds intriguing. He was never interested in what Erika and her team were working on, but now that he was bitten by one of them, he needs to know what they’d been doing to those spiders.  

“They can choose?”

“They react based on neurological and hormonal stimuli. Think of it like instinct with a switch. In theory, if they don’t feel threatened or provoked, they don’t deliver venom. It’s a protective adaptation we were testing.”

“And what happens if they do inject it?” He swallows hard.

Her expression darkens slightly.

“Well, we haven’t fully tested it on humans. But preliminary results suggest the venom rewrites certain genetic codes temporarily. We still haven’t figured it out, but we hope this could help with aggressive diseases.”

Since Jungkook works in a pharmaceutical company specializing in rare diseases. Their purpose is to find a treatment or cure for diseases that are still very unknown to humans. They try to find a cure for what seems uncurable.

“We’re not yet confident to test it on humans. We think their venom might be too strong and might kill.”

His eyes widen, and he suddenly coughs a lot. Is he about to die? It certainly doesn’t feel like it. Outside of the sticky hands and feet, he feels great.

“We still need to study their venom more, which has many good properties for many diseases.” 

 Jungkook nods, half interested in her words.

“Why are you asking?” she narrows her eyes.

“Just curiosity,” he replies. “I was working near them yesterday, and it intrigued me.”  

“Well, I was just about to go back to the lab. If you want, you can come and I can share with you what we’ve been doing.”

“Yeah,” he agrees.

They both head to the lab, and he tries to act normal, even though he still feels that odd stickiness in his feet. But unlike before, they don’t cling to the floor. It’s as if his body suddenly decides to behave.

When they reach the lab where he was working the day before, something shifts in him. His gaze is immediately drawn to the spider enclosure. He tries to ignore it, but the pull is undeniable, magnetic, almost primal.

There’s no rational explanation, yet it feels as if something inside him responds to them. His heart beats faster. His skin tingles. It’s not fear or revulsion, it’s need. As if a part of him recognizes them. Like they share something now. Blood, maybe. Or something deeper.

His feet move before his thoughts catch up, guiding him toward the glass tank without hesitation. His body wants to be close to them. He can feel it in his bones, in his nerves. He actually feels it in a place beyond reason.

Jungkook swallows hard. He’s not sure if this is curiosity or instinct. Erika speaks, but he barely listens to her. His eyes are constantly drawn to the spiders, and he can barely focus.  

“Can I touch them?” he asks.

“Please wear gl…” before Erika can even finish her sentence, Jungkook is already opening the enclosure.

To their surprise, the spiders walk on Jungkook’s hand like it’s totally normal. They don’t avoid his hand. They walk straight to it like they know he’s one of them.

“That’s new,” Erika frowns. “They are usually very avoidant. Nobody can touch them.”

“They seem to like me,” Jungkook teases.

His eyes are glued on his hand with the tiny spiders. They simply walk like it’s the most normal and natural thing in the world.

“Let’s hope that they don’t bite you,” she says.

Well, Jungkook is definitely not going to tell her about yesterday’s event. She’ll for sure start studying him, and he doesn’t want that. He’s not some kind of experience. He prefers that she focus on finding a cure for diseases. What he’s experiencing now is not going to help. At least, that’s what he believes.

None of the spiders bite him, which genuinely surprises him. Maybe the previous bite changed something in him, marked him in a way they recognize. It’s possible they sense it. He doesn’t know for sure, but the lack of aggression unsettles him almost as much as if they had.

“Well, maybe I’ll leave them alone now,” he says as he tries to remove his hands.

The spiders walk back to their enclosure as if they understand that he’s leaving them. This is all so surprising.

“You’re the first that they haven’t bitten,” Erika admits. “Usually, they bite but without venom.”

Jungkook doesn’t know why, but he feels relieved to hear her say that. However, in some sense, he hoped that somebody else was also going through what he was feeling. It seems like he’s one of a kind.

“Glad they didn’t,” he smiles at her while closing the enclosure. “I don’t want to become some lab rat,” he giggles.

Well, he’s for sure going to run some tests on himself. He needs to understand what’s going on, so he’ll be his own lab rat.

“You’re lucky,” she chuckles.

The rest of the day goes by very quickly. Jungkook took some blood to examine it, and most probably, he’ll ask Sangmin if he can use his private and personal lab. He doesn’t want to start investigating his new nature in his workplace because someone might find out and do God knows what.

Once he’s home, you’re already there, watching Ginny and Georgia, your new favorite show. Instinctively, he walks to you, lowering his head to kiss you.

“Hi, pumpkin,” he whispers on your lips.

“Hi, handsome,” you reply.

“No nerdy today?” he smiles as he falls next to you on the couch.

His head rests on your lap while your hands find their way to his hair to play with it. He absolutely adores feeling you play with strands of his hair. It’s his comforting moment after work.

“Not when you’re not wearing your glasses,” you brush his hair back to take a proper look at his cute face.

“They were hurting my nose,” he lies. “I think I have to change them.”

You fall for his lie, apparently, and he’s relieved about it. He’s not sure he could have handled explaining that something is off with him. He’s not even sure you’ll believe him. But above anything, he doesn’t want to worry you with all of this. He needs to first figure out what is going on, and then he’ll tell you everything.   

“Do you want me to massage that cute nose?” you offer.

“If my pumpkin proposes, I can’t refuse,” he offers you the biggest smile ever.

You massage his perfect nose, and his eyes get lost on his face. He’s so lucky to have you in his life. You’ve given him a purpose in life. He’s always so excited to go home, even though he adores his lab a lot. You’re the first and only person he loves more than his job.

Suddenly, there’s a faint knock at the door. You both freeze, glancing at each other, before rising to answer. Jungkook pulls the door open, and the world seems to tilt before collapsing under his feet.

Sangmin stands there, barely hunched, pale, trembling. His face is hollowed out, lips barely moving. Instinctively, you run inside to grab your phone and call emergency services.

“Jung…” he whispers, the name barely a breath.

Jungkook stumbles forward instinctively, his arms wrapping around the man who had once seemed unshakable. He feels how light he is. Fragile. A shell. Sangmin collapses into his chest, and Jungkook holds him as if trying to stop the inevitable.

“Sangmin?” Jungkook breathes, panic flaring in his voice. “What—what happened?” he stutters due to the panic taking over his body.

But Sangmin doesn’t answer. His head lolls. His eyes—the brilliant, determined eyes that once inspired Jungkook to become a scientist—are fading fast. Blank. His skin is cold. Jungkook’s own hands start to shake.

“No, no, no,” he mutters, voice cracking. “Stay with me—please—stay with me.”

His chest aches. His heartbeat is wild, like it’s trying to burst out of his ribs. This can’t be real. It can’t be happening. His mentor, the man who believed in him, who treated him like a son, is dying right here, in his arms, and Jungkook can’t do a damn thing to stop it.

Behind him, he hears you talking with a paramedic, but you’re almost screaming at the person to do as fast as possible. You’re telling the person that you’re a detective and they need to hurry. 

“Someone…” Sangmin chokes, blood staining the corner of his mouth, “is trying to kill me…”

Jungkook is sobbing now, silent and desperate, his tears falling onto Sangmin’s skin.

“Don’t talk. We’re getting help—just hold on—”

Jungkook quickly looks back at you, and he sees how angry you are. He’s never seen you like this, but he can only understand you. You want help to reach your apartment as fast as possible because you don’t want to be the one investigating Sangmin’s death.  

Sangmin is slipping. His breath is shallow. His fingers twitch weakly against Jungkook’s shirt. His heart is breaking as he sees him slowly drifting. Jungkook still holds him as tightly as possible.

“Tell yn…” he gasps, eyes flickering, “to find who… did this.”

“Yes, yes,” Jungkook frantically nods. “She’ll do it.”

A smile grows on Sangmin’s livid face.

“I…” he tries to formulate one last sentence, “love you, son.”

And then — nothing.

The weight in Jungkook’s arms suddenly feels unbearable. And as he sinks to the floor, cradling the lifeless body of the man who meant everything to him, something in him breaks.

“Sangmin,” he tries to call him, knowing perfectly he won’t answer. “Sangmin…”

The desperation in Jungkook’s voice is unlike anything you’ve ever heard. Your body instantly freezes, your breath catching. When Jungkook sinks to the floor with Sangmin, he breaks down in tears, calling him in such a heartbreaking way. Anyone passing by would understand that something tragic has just happened by the way he’s saying his mentor’s name.

Jungkook suddenly feels your body kneeling behind him, wrapping your arms around his trembling frame. You’re holding him as tightly as possible, your face resting against his back. Amidst this pain, feeling you comforts him in a way he can’t even explain. It’s like you’re holding a candle in the middle of a cave and guiding him.

Ironically, he’s holding in his arms the man he idolizes, and the woman he worships is holding him.

This day couldn’t have gone worse. He can’t say what the most tragic event of the day is. The spider effect or Sangmin’s death.

When the paramedics arrive, it’s already too late. As they examine Sangmin, you never let go of Jungkook. You maintain your body pressed against his, shielding him. When they finally lift Sangmin from his arms, the last of Jungkook’s strength crumbles. Tears fall from his face, his hands finding yours to grip them like he’s afraid he might disappear without your touch.

“I’m here,” you whisper before pressing a gentle kiss on his back. “I’ll discover who did this.”

Jungkook knows that this promise carries a heavy meaning. Tracking down murderers is your job. It’s like a second nature to you, but he knows that this time, it is different. You’re not investigating the death of a stranger. You’re going to find who killed a person who shared Jungkook’s heart with you.

This time, it’s personal.

And he knows without a doubt that nothing and nobody will be able to stop you. You’ll find the truth, and make sure justice is done.

[rawme-price]

Hmmm....wolf hybrid!reader who comes from an all human team that were lowkey abusive, joining the hybrid!141???

Ghost and Soap are showing u around, getting you caught up to speed with the specifics of the base, the first you've been in designed with hyrbids in mind. The bed you get it actually embedded in the ground, designed to simulate typical den arrangements for most hybrids, a far step up from the ur old bed that stored boxed underneath, unable to ever feel safe in it.

As ur unpacking ur very meager belongings, soap pauses mid rant, eyes zeroing in on something in ur bag. When you turn around from putting ur fatigues up you freeze. Soap is holding ur muzzle. You didnt intentionally hide it, but you were hoping to maybe get a week without wearing it. Soap looks pissed, is he upset you didnt mention it outright?

"Is this a fucking muzzle?! Kid- why the fuck do you have a muzzle in your bag?" He waves the small cage around, shrugging off ghosts hand. "You what, wanted to do something with this? Some sort of hazing shit?" He assumes the worst, taking a step closer as u step back.

He only pauses when you let out an apologetic whine, looking up and baring ur neck in submission. "Sorry! sorry- im sorry sir! Its mine, I should have told you about it im sorry, here, ill put it on, okay?"

You make to grab the muzzle but soap pulls it out of reach, brows furrowed. He's looking at you like ur a problem to solve, eyes taking in the scared and submissive posture. Ghost steps forward to grab the muzzle, snaps and warps the bars between his hands easily with a growl.

"No one's putting on a muzzle, okay kid? We dont do that shit here." He grunts, knowing you don't believe him at all. When you dont respond, they awkwardly leave, not close enough to you to help without freaking you out more.

You huddle up in tbe corner of the room, away from the bare den, wondering to urself how long does this test last? Do they have their own muzzle for me? Should I say sorry for bringing my own? Why wont it stop?

[lillilybells]

Ruined plushes✧₊⁺

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

pairing|batfam x batsis!reader (featuring; Wally West)

summary|someone left your room door open and Damian’s cat ruined one your favorite plushies.

word count|1522

warnings|wally west x reader.

notes|this is my first fic literally ever!! Please keep that in mind.

“Oh no…” Cassandra whispered as the gray cat leapt onto the couch beside her. She had taken just a moment to rest and maybe watch a show — but no. The universe (or more specifically, Alfred the cat) had other plans. He curled up with the mangled remains of a battered plushie clutched in his claws, white stuffing clinging to his fur.

It might’ve been an adorable sight under different circumstances. But not for Cass. Not when she recognized the destroyed plush: the fluffy white bunny dressed in a Kid Flash costume — part of her sister’s cherished collection, each holding deep sentimental meaning.

She quickly scooped up the fluffy remains and rushed downstairs, skidding into the kitchen where the smell of cheese invaded her senses and the sound of soft popping echoed.

“Hey, Cass,” Dick called, glancing up. “Wanna join us in the theater room? We’re watching… well, I don’t know yet.”

He returned his attention to the snack he was making, totally unaware of the incoming emotional hurricane. He was visiting Gotham for a few days — and naturally, everyone (mainly you) had insisted he stay at the manor. And when Dick was around, Jason’s “coincidental” visits became more frequent. So with all five brothers under one roof, a movie night with excessive gore was practically a tradition.

“Uh… Dick…” Cass said.

He turned, raising an eyebrow — only for his eyes to land on the pile of ruined fabric in her outstretched hands. He choked mid-chew.

“What the hell happened?” he asked, walking over to gently take the bunny corpse from her.

“‘Alfred the cat’ happened,” she replied flatly.

Dick sighed, holding the sad remnants of cotton, red, and yellow fabric.

“And who left the door open?” he muttered — just as heavy footsteps echoed.

“What door?” came Jason’s voice as he popped a grape into his mouth, appearing behind Cass. Both siblings snapped their heads toward him.

Dick didn’t answer. Instead, he tossed the plush remains onto the counter in front of Jason, who frowned.

“Shit—Billy? That’s the first one Wally ever gave her.”

Tim entered, took one look at the counter, and let out a horrified, “Jesus!”

Duke followed, frowning at everyone’s frozen expressions. “Oh…”

And then Damian appeared, arms already crossed. “Which absolute moron left sister’s door open?”

The chaos ignited instantly.

“You’re the one always snooping around her room!” Tim snapped.

Damian scowled. “I would never make such a trivial mistake. It was clearly Richard or Todd — they’re the temporary residents.”

Jason threw his hands up. “I’ve been here for like, an hour.”

“And I barely even remember which room is hers!” Dick lied with a completely unconvincing expression. Damian squinted.

“Don’t even look at me,” Cass said firmly.

They all obeyed, promptly turning to Duke.

“Seriously? It’s not me! I always close the door,” he insisted, but his panic didn’t exactly help his case.

“Well, someone’s gotta take the fall,” Tim muttered, inching away.

“Which would be you — you’re her favorite,” Dick said, arms crossed.

Tim opened his mouth to object, but Damian beat him to it.

“That’s debatable,” he muttered, arms folded tighter.

“Yes, Spawn. You should take the blame,” Jason jumped in quickly.

“He’s right — it’s your cat,” Tim added. Damian looked ready to commit a felony.

“Don’t you dare bring Alfred into this! He’s the least responsible for this treachery!”

“Okay, okay — let’s not repeat the dinosaur incident,” Dick cut in with wide eyes. Everyone flinched a little at the memory.

Tim suddenly turned on him. “Wait — she’s known you forever. You’re clearly the favorite!”

“Excuse me?! She’s known Jason for pretty long as well, and she practically explodes when he visits!”

“How would you even know that—?”

“Nope! Not blaming me! I’ve already died once—”

A collective groan filled the room before Jason could finish that sentence.

“What about Cass?” Tim suggested. “Sisters don’t stay mad at each other for more than like- a day.”

“First, that’s not true. Second, no.” Cass said firmly.

They all sighed. No convincing her.

Then — footsteps. Alfred entered the kitchen, eyes locking onto the ruined bunny. He approached, gaze unreadable.

“And who is at fault for this?” he asked calmly.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. No one’s stepped up yet,” Dick replied.

“can’t you stitch it up, Alfred?” Jason suggested almost naively, wanting the situation to wrap up.

“I’m a butler, child- not a magician.” with that he picked up the bunny with delicate fingers, studied it with a faint look of mourning, and muttered, “Even my grandmother couldn’t fix this. Good luck.”

He dropped it back on the marble and turned to leave, the click of his shoes echoing ominously.

The silence lingered for a beat too long.

“Was that weird to anyone else?” Tim asked. “It was, right?”

“Pennyworth abandoning us in our time of need? Disturbing,” Damian agreed with a grim nod.

“Guys, focus,” Dick said. “Who does (Name) let get away with the most bullshit?”

All heads turned to Duke.

His eyes widened. “No. Nope. Not happening.”

“At least break the news to her—”

The doorbell rang.

Everyone froze.

“Duke, we don’t have time!” “Be a team player!” “Take one for the team!”

“NO—!”

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

They gathered in the main hallway, Duke at the back, clutching the ruined plush behind his back like it might explode.

“Oh—hey guys. This is so sweet, you’re all here,” you said, smiling at the full sibling lineup, all offering awkward waves and forced grins.

You brushed it off and tugged Wally inside. “Hey guys…” he said, smiling uncertainly at their unnerving silence.

“I don’t know what’s worse — that you’re dating my sister or that you wear your costume on dates,” Damian muttered.

“We don’t know that’s the worst part,” Jason started before getting smacked.

“We ran into a robbery,” you explained. “Wally stepped in, and I told him he could clean up and stay over. Since everyone’s here, we thought—slumber party!”

They exchanged tense glances. No one smiled.

“Okay—what’s going on?” you asked, suspicious now, hands on hips and head tilted.

“Is it because of Wally?” You asked. “Because he can leave-”

“Hey!” The ginger protested snapped.

“No, it’s not because of Wally,” Dick said gravely with a sigh. He walked up to you like he was delivering the news of someone dying, placing both hands on your shoulders. “Duke has something to tell you.”

Duke was shoved forward. With a dramatic inhale, he slowly revealed the bunny.

Silence.

You stared. And then… your lip wobbled, and eyes glossed over.

“Baby—don’t cry,” Wally was the first to speak up, hugging you gently.

The room burst into chaos.

“I’m so sorry—” “It was an accident!” “I told them to close the door—”

you on the other hand could only be described by one word- hysterical.

“Why would— do this—i always tell— keep the door close— Billy— the first you ever— our first date—” none of them could fully make out what you were saying through the sniffles and the sobs but they definitely understood, understood very well.

Wally looked like he was going to cry too. “It’s okay babe- I’ll find another one! I’ll get you thirty—I mean.. I think they’re discontinued.. — I’ll steal one from a toddler if I have to!”

“you don’t get it Wally! This- this holds so much sentimental value you don’t understand- it reminds of you when you’re gone- when I’m worried about you-” you ranted, your tone getting more agitated and angry even through the weeps.

“It’s true,” Tim muttered, “She hugs it while ugly crying whenever she misses you…”

They eventually moved to the living room, where you continued to rant. Jason tried a joke about how no one cried like this when he died. A pillow hit his face before the words were fully out.

Bruce wandered up from the Batcave, bleary-eyed, ready for bed — only to find his kids in the middle of emotional carnage.

“What the hell is going on…”

He was quickly caught up. You ended up curled beside him, ranting while he patted your hair and validated every single complaint.

“They never listen, Dad! And now Billy is gone! The symbol of a huge milestone — gone! It’s blasphemy! And they just sit on their asses-”

“Language.”

“Butts, while denying any accountability! It’s rude.”

“They’re being mean to you?” Bruce asked, voice soft and rumbly.

You nodded in his chest.

“You can’t be mad at them forever, sweetheart. People make mistakes. And Billy… Billy will be remembered.”

“yea babe- what he said, i promise ill get you a thousand more! you won’t even remember what happened to Billy..” Wally added his own two cents.

You sniffled. He reached for your thigh comfortingly — only to flinch under a Batglare and retract his hand.

“Okay!” Dick stood with a clap. “How about we go watch Sinners, and let Billy… rest in peace.”

Grumbling agreements followed.

The night ended in bickering, snacks, laughter, and sleepily leaning on each other — with a pile of yellow fluff forgotten in the corner.

And Alfred, standing in the shadows, watching with a faint smile.

He was the one who left the door open.

[velvet-milk]

──── the graysons' dilemma...

❤︎──── pairing: dick grayson x wife! reader.

❤︎──── summary: ❛❛a wayne gala is already a huge spectacle on it's own. add three tiny kids to the mix, and it's a full-blown circus.❞

WARNINGS. pure fluffy and bad humor. big family themes. pre-established relationship. minors can interact. dick's kids are very chaotic. batfamily is always around. ©velvet-milk.

❤︎──── "I don't like that, mommy," your oldest son whined, tugging at the tie you'd just spent five whole minutes perfecting. He made a valiant effort to wriggle free, puffing his cheeks out in protest and flashing you the most tragically adorable puppy eyes known to mankind. Pretty blue eyes, Dick’s blue eyes, framed by a mess of unruly black hair. Even the faint hint of a future jawline was all his father.

Little traitor. Spent nine months in your womb just to look nothing like you. You sighed and looked down at him, your posture only made taller by the pair of glossy black scarpins Dick had surprised you with last week.

"Sweetheart," you said patiently, smoothing a wrinkle from his little dress shirt, "you're the most handsome kid in the room, and that tie is staying on until we leave the gala. After that, you can pretend it never existed."

"But it’s choking me," he groaned dramatically, slumping against your legs like a tragic Shakespearean lead.

From across the room, Dick chuckled. "You're not being strangled, buddy. Believe me, I'd know."

"Not helping," you called over your shoulder as you bent to adjust his tiny collar, shooting your husband a look. Dick leaned against the doorframe, already dressed to kill in a perfectly tailored navy tux. The tie was slightly loose, but his hair was slicked back neatly and the cufflinks were from Bruce’s private stash. He looked like the cover of a magazine, and he knew it.

That’s how you ended up with three kids in four years of marriage. What can you say? Your man is just too damn hot.

"Okay, but look,—" Dick pushed off the frame and walked over to kneel beside your son, who immediately flopped dramatically into his arms. "I wore way worse stuff when I was your age. You're getting off easy."

The kid looked up at him, unconvinced. "You used to wear green short shorts."

Dick blinked. "Who told you that?"

"Uncle Jason."

You snorted, failing to hide your laugh behind your hand.

"Okay, I deserved that," Dick admitted, giving you a playful glare. "And who let them near Jason unsupervised?"

Before you could point out that Jason was basically their official, very underpaid, nanny, your daughter came sprinting down the hallway in a blur of tulle and sparkles, shouting something about needing a different tiara. She looked more like you, though the blue eyes and messy black hair were clearly dominant traits in the Grayson gene pool.

Dick stood with a groan. "We have created chaos."

Just then, she came skidding into the room, breathless. "Mom! Dad! He—" she pointed an accusatory finger at her older brother, he just rolled his eyes at her "—said I can't be a princess and a superhero at the same time."

Dick lifted an eyebrow. "I don't see why not. You live with two people who do it every day."

You gave her a high five as you passed her the new tiara. "Tell him to update his references."

Behind you, the baby let out a small squeak from the bassinet, clearly unimpressed with all the fuss. She was using a cute little dress Barbara picked up for her. Dick leaned in close, wrapping an arm around your waist as you looked over the room. One child stomping away in protest, another proudly wearing two mismatched shoes and a tiara, and a third blowing spit bubbles like the world’s tiniest critic.

"You know," he said quietly, kissing your temple, "I'd rather be here in this circus than anywhere else in the world."

Before you could answer, the circus kicked into high gear again.

"I'm telling you," your son declared, "Superman could bench press the whole planet."

Your daughter crossed her arms, unimpressed. "Wonder Woman literally fought gods. And she doesn't need a cape to look cool."

He scoffed. "She doesn't have heat vision."

"She doesn't need it. She has taste."

Without warning, she launched one of her sparkly flats at him. Dick snatched it out of the air one-handed, barely looking up. "Okay, no aerial footwear at the gala."

You raised an eyebrow. "That a new rule?"

He shrugged. "It is now."

Once everyone was dressed and ready, the Graysons were already mingling with the rest of Gotham’s elite at the gala. Everything was going almost smoothly, until something peculiar began to stir. A familiar storm was brewing in the ballroom, and every guest could feel the shift in the air. Especially Bruce, who glanced up at the ceiling with the deep, exhausted sigh of a man who had seen this movie far too many times before.

"Is that—?"

"Yup," Barbara confirmed, adjusting the baby in her arms. "It's happening again."

High above the glittering guests, your son had somehow, somehow, climbed into one of the chandeliers. Legs wrapped around the ornate gold fixture, he swung gently back and forth, belting out a very off-key but passionately heartfelt rendition of Chandelier by Sia.

"I'm gonna swiiiiiing from the chandelieeeeer!"

You froze mid-sip of champagne. "Richard Grayson Junior."

Dick, next to you, was choking on a canapé. "Oh my god, it’s happening."

Bruce turned, his voice low and dry. "Just like his father."

"Nope," you said, calmly handing your glass to Alfred. "Nope, not on my watch."

Tim, laughing way too hard, dipped your daughter like a pro on the dance floor, both of them in full performance mode. She wore her sparkly pink dress, the new tiara crooked on her curls, and she was clearly trying to outshine the entire room. And Uncle Tim was feeding into it, twirling her, showing her how to dip, bowing with theatrical flair every time she giggled.

"I taught her that," Dick said proudly.

"You taught her how to fake-dip people," you corrected. Your baby was being casually passed between Steph and Babs like a hot potato behind you and your husband.

"She’s so tiny," Steph whispered, rocking her gently and making goofy faces. "What if I break her?"

"You literally brawl with metahumans twice your size," Babs said, taking the baby back like it was nothing. "You've thrown me through a window."

"Yeah but she has dimples, Barbara."

The baby blinked up at her and sneezed. Stephanie made a sound that could only be described as feral cooing. Meanwhile, you and Dick made your way underneath the chandelier, trying not to panic in front of Gotham’s wealthiest donors and politicians.

"Sweetheart," you called up sweetly, through gritted teeth. "You are going to give your mom a heart attack."

"I'm not coming down 'til I finish the song!" the seven-year-old yelled.

"He gets that from you," Dick whispered.

"You're the one who used to backflip off those exact chandeliers, Dick," you snapped. "This is karma."

"I only backflipped once. Okay, maybe twice."

You were about to argue when your son swung too far and screamed, too happily, as he made a safe landing on the buffet table, knocking over exactly seventeen shrimp cocktails and a pyramid of profiteroles.

The room gasped. You visibly aged thirty years from the stress. Dick blinked. "That was actually kind of impressive."

You closed your eyes. "We’re never getting invited back."

"Nope," he agreed, already wiping off the kid's blazer with a cloth napkin. "But hey, at least he stuck the landing."

Just then, your daughter ran over, out of breath and glowing. "Mom! Dad! Uncle Tim taught me how to waltz, and I only stepped on his foot three times!"

Behind her, Tim gave you a dramatic thumbs-up from the dance floor while limping slightly. From somewhere behind you, your baby girl let out a joyful squeal. Steph shouted, "DICK, SHE JUST SPIT ON A WAYNE FOUNDATION DONOR—IS THAT BAD?!"

You sighed deeply, grabbed Dick’s hand, and raised your glass.

"To surviving another gala," you said.

Dick clinked his glass against yours. "Barely, babe".

[binmeister]

I love you.

The first time he said I love you

Saja boys x Reader (Separate)

Making up for the heart break 🫶 the way abby and jinu are my faves… but i write longer segments for the others…

CW: fluff, mostly mushy stuff - primarily gender neutral - not proofread

Jinu

Not the smoothest guy, are you?

He likes the way you laugh, the way you’re willing to mess with him when he pokes fun at you - the soft push and pull between you two that felt natural, like home. He likes the late night talks you guys have, either out on a walk enjoying the silence of the streets or moments like now where you’re laid side by side on his bed barely a hair away from each other staring at the ceiling and you don’t notice when his head has turned to watch you as you spoke - goofy grin on his face as he watches your face scrunch up whenever you recount something or the tilt in your lips as you let out an infectious laugh.

You were rambling about idol comebacks right now, both jumping into a detailed discussion on which group sounded good this time around and who could maybe try a different concept. You talked with your hands and he couldn’t help but laugh a little at how enthusiastic you were about the topic, pointing at his direction with your hands but not turning your head when you instructed him on what his group should totally try next comeback. The topic shifted again and it kept going around in circles where you’d start one, and then he’d continue, then he’d start a new topic, then you’d continue. It was comforting.

“I love you.” He blurts out, you’d both finished laughing at some dumb interaction you had at work that day and it made you both freeze up. Slowly you turned your head, realising he had been staring at you the entire time and his face was as surprised as you were. Like he didn’t expect himself to say it.

Another beat of silence. He’s about to stammer an apology and brush it off when you laugh again, chest feeling light as you roll onto your side and then flop your upper body on top of him. The last thing he saw was your big grin and then you buried your face into his chest, he looked down at you and was so caught off guard that he couldn’t help the nervous laugh that he let out as he realised he could feel the heat from your face on his chest. 

Then he hears it, the muffle of your voice as you reply to him.

“I love you too.” You had said into his chest before finally tilting your head up to look at him, he looked a mess with his face reddening by the second and then you’re both giggling like little kids that confessed to their school crush. It takes a couple minutes before you manage to poke fun at him again, making a comment as you poke his cheek. “You’re such a loser.”

“Oh, I’m the loser?” Jinu fakes offense as he raises an eyebrow, eyes crinkled a little as he calms down and he instinctively tilts his head into where your finger is prodding into his cheek then his arms finally shift to wrap around you. “Aren’t you a loser for loving me?”

“Woah woah, chill out now. I might retract my statement.” You replied to his teasing and he feigned shock, like a scorned Victorian woman and you felt his hands squeeze your sides lightly as his voice lowered a little. “You wouldn’t.”

A sly expression slipped onto your face and before you could say you would, he shifted to hover over you, one hand moving up to cover your mouth as his other arm held his torso up - his turn now to have his upper body leant over yours and he smirked at how flabbergasted you now looked. “I’m not gonna let you.”

Then you licked his palm and he quickly removed his hand from your mouth as you started to giggle evilly at him, but you were silenced once again as he quickly shifted his head to press a brief kiss to your lips. And like that he’d backed off and started giggling as he got off the bed and started dodging your attempts at catching him.

“Hehehe.” 

Abs / Abby

Say it with your chest

He’s big, more muscle than man and knows he sometimes struggles with controlling his strength but you’ve never given him grief for it - never yelled at him for being too rough or how clumsy he could be given his stature. There’s something about the way you touch him like he’s fragile, like he could break if you’re not careful and it makes his stomach all fuzzy and his chest feel warm.

It was one of those times now where you’re both just hanging out in the guys’ apartment, laying on the living room floor and he’s got a little too much energy so he looks at you before lunging. Wrapping you up in a tight hug and rolling around with you in his playful attempt of a rough housing session, he’d never actually hurt you but he needed to get the cuteness aggression out. You’d smacked at his chest and his arms to get him to stop, complaints spilling out of your mouth in between all the giggles and gasps for air you let out and it made him melt. 

“Really? That’s all you got?” He exclaimed as he rolled you guys over for him to hover on top of you, an arm shifting to cage you in by your head as his other stayed wrapped around your waist - lifting your back slightly off the floor and you were still giggling at him. Another pathetic swat at his chest that barely felt like anything and then you’d reached up with a shaky hand to hold his cheek. The touch so light he could barely feel it and he leant his head into it, the warmth of your palm was so inviting.

“Y’know, I really love you.” Your eyes widened at his sudden confession as he looked down at you with a confident grin, boyish twinkle in his eyes as he expectantly looked at you for your response. You’d stammered and he wanted to devour you right then and there, head lowering enough so he can bump his nose against yours before he lifted himself up again. He wanted to hear you say it, say it with your chest that you loved him too.

“...love you....too..” He heard your soft voice and he feigned ignorance, squinting at you like he was hard of hearing as he watched your face scrunch up and your hands had shifted from him to shield your face. Or that’s what he thought til you smacked your cheeks and look at him with a determined expression.

“I love you!” You suddenly spoke at a much louder tone, not quite yelling but getting close to a shout with it and his eyes widened. Then he’s laughing. Eyes crinkling and he feels warm and giddy. You start laughing as well and then you feel his weight drop on top of you as his arm gives out from holding him up which makes you both start laughing harder. You managed to wriggle your arms free of his weight and he rolls to his side to free you, the arm still loosely under your waist stays in it’s place and you feel his hand squeeze your side gently.

“Now that’s what I like to hear.” He mused, head rested against the fluffy rug on the floor and you rolled your eyes a little at him. You’d shifted onto your side and reached your hands up to hold his face, cupping it like he was the most precious thing in the world and he can’t get that goofy grin off his face as you do then he’s shifting his head to press a kiss to one of your palms.

“Are you guys done?” Both of you froze, heads shifting slowly to see a very unimpressed Baby staring blankly at your tangled bodies on the living room floor, his eyes flicked from you guys to the TV before he continued on. “Controversial, I know, but this is a shared space.”

Mystery

He says it with his actions

He thinks he fell for you the day he had snapped and barked at you by mistake instead of Romance and instead of being scared or disturbed, you had let out a cute little snort that still plays in his head when he remembers the first time he met you.

“Nice to meet you too.” You had quipped as you looked at him with this mischievous glint in your eyes that made him falter, why did you seem different than the other humans he’s met? Romance was beside himself, absolutely folded over in laughter at what he witnessed and Jinu had arrived just to witness that last section of what had happened. He’d walked over and grabbed Mystery by the back of his neck and forced him into a 90 degree bow while apologising profusely to you. You laughed it off and said it was no biggie, thought it was a little funny and you hoped the guys had a good day.

He’d run into you again a few days later, gone on a walk to get away from the chaos that were his ‘demon bros’ as Abs liked to call them. You were in the park - same strip of bricked pavement where he had barked at you and it’s like you felt his gaze on you when you’d suddenly raised your head and looked at him. He saw the way you smiled, recognition evident on your face as you gave him a little wave. He waved back, smiling back at you and then felt a little tug at his heart as if telling him to go talk to you but he ended up ducking his head and continuing on with his walk.

Then he runs into you again another time. And again. And again. Actually he might have subconsciously been searching you out now that he thinks about it. But you don’t seem weirded out by the frequency that you’ve run into each other, rather you joke about it each time you bump into each other. 

“You sure you’re not stalking me?” You had said today as you run into the mysterious lavender haired guy for the umpteenth time in the last fortnight, you knew the coincidence of running into someone were low but never 0 so you just assumed it was crazy timing. Seeing as how you’d run into his two friends a few times as well, you just thought they must live around the area and like getting out. 

“I might be.” He joked. Your eyes widened a little and then it dawned on him that he’s never actually spoken to you during all of these brief encounters, normally just nodding at what you said or you’d both wave a small hello at eachother and then he sees your lips quirk up into a little smile. Like you found him cute.

“..guess I’m lucky then.” You’d said a little quieter, a bashful expression crossing your face as you shifted your weight from one foot to the other. No further words were exchanged - unknowingly your feet synced up and the two of you were walking together for a while. Indulging in the comfortable silence and then you bid each other a farewell til the next time you’d meet.

It was like a silent agreement that you’d be together every time you ran into each other after that, taking a walk around the plaza and then on some days you’d extend the walk meter by meter til your encounters went from a short 15 minute walk to an hour or more of mindlessly walking about together side by side - a respectable distance between you two that steadily grew smaller over time. Exchanging short conversation here and there but mostly just enjoying each others quiet company. 

The pair of you were nearing the end of today’s walk, steps slowing down to preserve what time you had left and then when you’d returned to the plaza you started in you’d stood still in silence. Both not really wanting to go home just yet and as you were saying goodbye and turning to leave, you felt a clammy hand grab onto your wrist gently and then you turned to look at Mystery mouth agape as if he didn’t expect his body to move on it’s own. You couldn’t help the nervous giggle you let out as you relaxed a little, turning back around to face him and then he let his instincts kick in.

It was gentle, mostly, his teeth accidentally clinked against yours as he incorrectly guessed the distance between your faces and he’d pressed his mouth against yours for a brief moment. A quiet confession. Your face was heating up and you looked dazed at his actions and then you were smiling again, a little pep in your step as you two decided to extend your walk a little longer for the night.

Hands linked together this time.

Romance

Signs it in your notebook

He likes that he doesn’t have to keep up the pretence, doesn’t have to keep up the flirty persona at all times with you and it was oddly reassuring. You’d tagged along for a fan signing event that your friends were frothing at the mouth for and when they got a little too excited at getting signatures from the Saja boys; you’d bowed a little and explained that they were really big fans. He picked up on how you excluded yourself from that.

He spotted you again at another fan signing event they held, not really paying attention to anything that was happening on stage and trying your best to look like you were having fun whenever one of your friends whipped around to look at you all starry eyed. During some brief fan interaction it was you and your friends again that had managed to luck out, the group were all exchanging conversation with your friends and you had hung back a little. Clearly not wanting to engage but not wanting to seem rude so you’d respond if anyone directed their attention at you, but then you’d quickly shift the other guys’ focus back onto your friends.

It was his turn to talk to you as your friends had switched seats to now be in front of the other guys, you’d plopped down on the seat across from him and before he could even get a word out to him you rose a hand to get him to stop.

“Don’t worry about it.” You’d said simply, his brain short-circuited as he tried to piece together what you meant by that but you’d bowed a little to show your respect before your eyes shifted back to your friends to make sure they didn’t do anything in front of their idols that may warrant concern. 

..you didn’t want him to flirt with you? It clicked now, how he normally greeted his fans and how he had just greeted your friends prior. He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling at that but he eased up, opting to ask if you’d like to just chat then. You seemed surprised at that but you agreed, the two of you just conversing mindlessly.

He asked you about your friends, you explained they were both part of the ‘Pride’ (with finger quotations) and you just wanted to support them because they get nervous without someone around to back them up. He asked if you were part of the Pride and you shook your head no. That question became a frequent one between you two as he realised this would not be your last encounter at one of these fan signing events.

He was impressed with your friends dedication when he saw you again the third time, but realised it was a different group of friends you were with and it seemed like you were just the designated chaperone at this rate. You caught his eye and gave a guilty smile at his smirk. When it was your time in front of him again, he asked you again if you were part of the Pride yet and this time you shrugged. Progress. He liked that. You spoke again, conversation not really about the event anymore and instead a little more about yourself - your interests and what you both were going to do after the event was over and the a lotted 15 minutes was up just like that. You bowed at each other as you stood from your seat to go down the line and you continued to chat with his other group mates, while he was interacting with the next fan he couldn’t help the way his eyes would flick over to where you were.

“She’s really pretty.” This fan had whispered at him and he was surprised at that, it didn’t seem like this fan was mad about it and just told him that he should totally go for it if he wanted. He put on the flirty persona after that - a little embarrassed at how he got caught out being ‘unprofessional’ as Jinu would tell him but the event still went smoothly.

The fourth time he saw you in the crowd at their latest event, you were alone. No friends around you and when your eyes met he saw the way you froze like a deer in headlights and sheepishly waved at him. The same song and dance as you’re sat in front of him, this time you’ve brought your own notebook instead of the freebie poster handed out at the start of the event.

“So..?” He didn’t ask the question in full but you knew what he wanted, you laughed a little and nodded this time. “Yes, I  finally joined the pride.”

He liked the way you laughed, liked it so much that as he was signing your notebook he flicked a corner up to one of the back pages to leave a little note for you to find later. Then you two continued your usual conversation, getting to know each other in the time slot given and you were off again to get the others’ signatures and have your brief chats. You’d gotten home that night and were showing your friends your notebook on a video call when you noticed a corner of it had been folded back, as the others were gushing you flicked to the back of your notebook and saw in Romance’s pretty handwriting.

I think I love you, call me? xxx - xxx - xxx

Baby

Slips it into conversation casually

You’d ended up apart of the group at some point, it’s fuzzy that he can’t pinpoint when and why but you’d accidentally come across their demon identities and instead of snitching - you just shrugged and offered to teach them how to people better. Jinu was hesitant at first and then he witnessed a moment of Mystery chewing on the corner of the phone that he’d received and immediately folded at your offer. Easy to say that Mystery no longer chews on technology, when you’re present at least.

He’s intrigued by you, confused that you’re not annoyed at him when he seemingly isn’t paying full attention to you but then you explain that you know he’s listening: how his ears perk up a little and he’s less focused on whatever else he’s fidgeting with and how you notice the way he instinctively leans in a little when you start talking. He scoffed and tried to play it off, telling himself he hated that you caught him out but he can’t deny that fluttery feeling he had as you looked at him with that cute little knowing smile of yours.

There was a day you’d left earlier than normal, seemingly having dinner plans with your other human friends and Jinu let you off and the other guys all waved goodbye too. As soon as he was sure you were gone he had gone to invade the elder male’s room, thinking maybe he should ask him about the fluttery feeling because he’d rather Jinu know than Romance. One of them can keep secrets and one of them is a gossipy wench.

“Hey I, when I’m with [Name] my stomach feels like there’s like...” His brain was struggling to form words as he attempted to describe the sensation he had when he was with you, Jinu was patient as he let Baby try to process his thoughts into words and sat up a little straight to hear the younger man a bit better. “Like there's bugs in it.” Yeah.. that’s the phrase, bugs in the stomach. “What is that feeling?”

“You’re in love!” Before Jinu could even open his mouth to answer Baby’s question, Romance had exclaimed loudly behind him - hands clasps together as he cooed at the youngest member and started to make a whole song and dance over it. Baby didn’t even have a chance to lunge at him as Romance ran off to tell the ‘great news’ to Abby and Mystery. This was the most energy he’s shown in day to day life as he whipped around to chase after but then Jinu spoke and it made him freeze in his tracks.

“Well.. he’s technically not wrong.” Was the calm comment, he looked amused at Baby’s disgruntled expression before he continued on. “Love is pretty strong word but, you might have feelings for [Name].”

Both of his elder demons’ words echoed in his mind for the next few weeks. Lingering as he stared at you a little longer than usual and then when you asked if he was okay he just nodded dumbly, not really thinking it over too much. You didn’t pry further as you were busy trying to teach Mystery that  ‘yes you can say this, no you cannot growl or snap your teeth at them’ when he had asked you what was appropriate interactions with fans.

It was on his mind now as you turned to ask if Baby had any questions now that the taller male was done, he didn’t have nearly as many as Mystery did but he had a couple and then as you were answering whatever bullshit question he came up with he just.. slipped his confession in between it.

“Love you.” You paused and then blinked, opening your mouth and then closing it again as you tried to process what he just said. “Wait wh-”

“I love you.” He said it again, the same casualness as the first time that threw you for a loop as he proceeded to ask another question right after it - not giving you any time to recover because he was starting to get a little nervous about it. You answered  his question with a little shyness in your voice now, the confidence you usually had shaken up a little  as you tried to process the information he let slip.

As you were bidding them goodbye for the day, you paused as you walked by Baby before leaning in for a second to tell him something. His eyes widened a fraction and he tried to play it cool in front of the other members, as you rushed outright afterwards. He would rather die than let Romance know what you had quietly confessed to him on your way out.

“I love you too, Baby.”

[breadwithpoprocks-fandom]

additions;

@arrowheadedbitch : Guys, stop with the DARE Tim versus stoner Tim discourse, obviously both are true and he's a lying hypocrite!

@ditzybat (replying to prev):

tim hosting a DARE assembly at school: i will avoid peer pressure and drugs and try my best to prevent others from ruining my happiness. i am and will continue to be drug-free.

bernard: i saw you hit a blinker in the bathroom before this.

tim: shhhhh, bear i'll let you hit my cart if you keep your trap shut…

@thebiballerina (also replying to prev) :

That is not even "lying hypocrite" territory; that is just the average effectiveness of the DARE program.

(Are people unironically using "DARE" as an antonym for stoner? I don't have any stake in this particular debate, but I have to ask, because your DARE Robin could do drugs gleefully and I wouldn't even register that as odd. I'd find it weirder if he was regularly drinking alcohol.)

Also, the other things DARE addressed besides (illicit) substance use were gang membership, violent behavior, and other "associated" petty crimes among teens. Maybe you've already failed DARE if your main extracurricular is partaking in an underground operation that engages in extralegal violence in response to your city's problems. Just saying.

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

@captainfinnsboat :

Tim, talking to Damien and Jon: Don’t do drugs, kids!

Jason: You ate four edibles last night and vomited on my couch.

@thesecretdcblog : Tim: Do as I say and not as I do

#stoner tim drake#i don't think he smokes though#he likes his lungs functioning the way they should#he's strictly an edibles guy#especially after losing his spleen

replies;

@bianca-hooks123 : Boy probably has chronic pain, of course he’s self medicating

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

@homelybiscuit : I'm conflicted because stoner tim is funny but I read a fic where he ate one of Jason's pot brownies or something and he was literally allergic and he had the unholy combination of allergy and weed anxiety. And he had to drive him to the emergency room and Bruce had to bail them out because the workers were like. This kid is underage and on drugs who gave him it

[fic: Stoned (and Supported?) by emmacortana on Ao3]

@rosieandthethorns (replying to prev) : fun fact unless they called the cops themselves they wouldn't have to pay bail because of patient confidentiality with HIPPA. In fact, lots of EMTs get extremely protective of their patients, especially at things like raves, concerts, etc. "I'm not a cop" is something they mean literally, they need to know those things to help you and if you'll get in trouble you wouldn't tell them, so now they're not allowed to snitch

tags;

@ditzybat (op) : #he has a blunt in his utility belt he plans to share with spoiler later#and a cart#and perhaps a guava ice lost mary that he hits whenever bruce isnt looking - its like a game#stoner tim drake my beloved

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

@nicomoon69 : #I just know that man has a bong he hits before going to bed every night#that man needs his weed

@kennimu : #people can try and tear stoner Tim out of my cold dead clammy hands#its objectively one of the funniest Tim headcanons#especially with his 'i will never do drugs' speedh

@oncillabrigade : #poor Jim doesn't get paid enough for this#b come get your self-medicating kid

@redlightofdawn : #tim is such a stoner he figures a way to get bart kon and cassie high#core four more like core four twenty

@ughjay : #i’m a stoner tim truther#he just looks like he’d smoke#but he also looks like he gets scammed#like 30$ for a g?#yes ofc he’ll pay that good sir#pleasure doing business

@chickadee394 : #i firmly believe tim and steph both smoke#and because he has no idea how much things should cost she overcharges the hell out of him

@url-is-url : #there's also a third option that tim is purely stirring the pot

@jesterraconteuse : #me being terrified of drugs but openly saying I'm doing amphetamines and codeine (prescribed ADHD and pain meds respectively)#tim definitely has chronic pain and you'd be hard pressed a good dispensery for CBD oil in Gotham#DARE Weed Tim can be real

tim: sweet dog you got there. gordon: yes, this is our new drug-sniffing dog. tim: still training huh? gordon: red robin.. what do you mean? tim: ... tim: nevermind...

[rafeys-angel13]

rafe not letting you get out of bed

- request a fic - masterlist -

——— ⋆·˚ ༘ * requested! - blue!collar!rafe x sahm!reader

it was a saturday, which meant everyone got a nice long sleep. you didn’t have to get up for anything at all and you could just wake up on your own accord.

not this morning though, you’re awake at the crack of dawn for absolutely no reason. you lay where for a while, watching how peaceful rafe looked. his snores didn’t even annoy you, it was just nice to see him relaxed for once. he’s always so tence.

it is weird not to see the small crease in between his forehead. you can’t think of the last time there wasnt a small frown on his handsome face.

your fingers trail over his slight beard and moustache that he said he was “trying out”. you don’t know if you like it. on one hand it is insanely hot, but on the other, you do miss his soft face when he kisses you. the scratchy bears and moustache are a little annoying, but it’s worth it for how sexy he looks with the facial hair.

when it gets to around 8, you decide to get up and get ready. you figured you’d maybe clean the house up a little so that you can spend the rest of the day with the kids and rafe without having to worry about chores.

you untangle your limbs from rafe’s and sit up, only to be pulled back down again. rafe pulls you on top of him and wraps his arms around your arms, anchoring you to him with a small groan.

“stay with me, baby…” he murmurs, his voice gravelly from sleep.

“i’d love to, but i need to get up…” you sigh and he shakes his head, his grip tightening on you.

“no you don’t, it’s saturday… the boys aren’t awake yet…” he mumbles, rolling onto his side and bringing you with him. he throws his leg over you to hold you down even more.

“you got me there… but i wanna clean the house up before the boys get up…” you respond, having a hard time convincing yourself that you actually want to get out of bed.

his cheek rests against your forehead, his face is still bed warm and a little flushed. you try to resist his addictive cuddles and his soft voice— but it’s hard.

“stay” he retorts simply, pressing a lazy kiss to your temple and closing his eyes again. he rubs your back firmly, patting it every now and then. “— go back to sleep… you need it, honey” he urges softly, his voice lulling you back to sleep.

you hate that he has this calming effect on you but you can’t help but feel tired in his arms. it’s hard to resist when he talks to you in that soothing voice and his hands rub against your achy back.

he smiles proudly when he sees your eyes fall shut and your breathing even out. he closes his own eyes when he feels your body relax fully, falling back to sleep himself.

[rosy-hollow]

｡ﾟ•┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ꒰ა ʚɞ ໒꒱ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈• ｡ﾟ╰┈➤ @ssstaryy ⦂ i saw this tiktok where this mom was talking to...uh....ehem....(bonnie blue) and she said her son was turning 18 and she was rage baiting saying stuff like "oh send him over to me" so..... bakugou with pro hero wife and she gets baited too and she just kinda.....gets really SCARY quiet. i just wanted to see bakugou kind of like "welp i tried to help you" kinda thing lmao

》 ✐ᝰ shortened the ask for all intents and purposes BUT THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD PROMPT I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING ITTT thank you for your contribution to the badass reader universe hehehe

｡ﾟ•┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ꒰ა ʚɞ ໒꒱ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈•

You swear your husband, Katsuki Bakugou, is rubbing off on you — for better or for worse.

It hasn’t even been fifteen minutes into this godforsaken interview for Tokyo’s Hottest and already, you feel the beginnings of a migraine clawing at the base of your skull

You had shown up expecting a conversation about your career — your rise to becoming the number four pro hero, the operations you’d led, the rescue missions, your combat stats, your innovative use of your quirk.

Instead?

All you’ve been fielding is a series of thinly veiled gossip questions about your marriage.

You try — multiple times — to shift the conversation back to your work. The meaningful things. But each time, the interviewer, this woman with teeth too white and a voice too shrill, giggles and steers it right back.

To him.

Now, let’s be clear — you love your husband. You’ve loved him since you were both dumb kids, and if it were Mina in front of you, you’d gush about him like you’re still twenty and head-over-heels (which, let’s face it, you are).

But this isn’t about love.

This is about respect.

And right now, you are very aware of the way it’s being chipped away with every loaded, invasive, disrespectful question this woman throws at you.

“So,” the interviewer purrs, crossing her legs slowly as if she were the one being filmed for a commercial, “we know you and your husband are totally head over heels — swoon — but come on, what’s one thing about him that just drives you crazy?”

You blink. “Uh… no? We’re pretty good.”

“Oh, come on~!” she coos, leaning forward like she’s your best friend at brunch. “Just a little thing. Don’t worry, we know you’re still obsessed with him.”

The frustration bubbles up like boiling water under your skin. But you rein it in. You always do.

“...I guess he leaves his gear everywhere?” you offer weakly. You hate yourself the moment the words leave your mouth, but in all honesty, you just wanted her to stop her nagging.

The interviewer grins like she’s won. Like you just handed her a headline wrapped in a bow.

“Ohhh, well if that’s the case,” she purrs, her voice dropping into something sultry and entirely unprofessional, “you could always send him over to me. I can handle a little mess~”

Silence.

Complete, thick, suffocating silence.

You still.

The rage is instant. Hot, electric. But you don't explode. No, you’ve learned from the best.

You don't throw a chair. You don't curse her out. You don't even blink.

You just stare.

Expression blank. Smile gone. A flicker of fire burning slow and deadly in your gaze.

She shifts in her seat. She knows.

Everyone in the room knows.

You don’t need to yell to be terrifying.

Still, she tries to recover with a nervous laugh, tugging at the hem of her skirt.

“Well, I’m just joking, obviously-!”

“Oi. Cut the fucking cameras.”

Your heart squeezes.

Katsuki.

You don’t even have to look to know where he is - somewhere just offscreen, barely holding back the urge to burn this studio to ash. But as much as you adore him for storming in like your personal hellfire…

This isn’t his fight.

This is yours.

You raise a hand toward the cameraman, who’s frozen like a deer in headlights.

“Keep rolling.”

The room stills.

You turn back to the woman, and you smile. Not sweetly. Not kindly. A slow, cold curl of your lips that spells nothing but trouble.

“Look,” you start, voice smooth like poison, “Hikari, was it?”

She nods once. Slowly. Carefully.

You lean in.

And twist the knife.

“I’ve worked my goddamn ass off to be the number four pro hero in Japan,” you say softly. “I’ve trained until my body broke. I’ve had to endure hours of torture and not say a word. I’ve walked out of burning buildings carrying children while my skin peeled off in strips.”

Her smile falters.

“But sure. Let’s talk about my husband domestic flaws”

You tilt your head, faux-friendly.

“I am not here so you can drool over the man I married like some thirsty little gremlin in red lipstick. My life? My work? My worth? None of it belongs to the man I’m married to - and treating him like a trophy on a shelf for you to paw at just shows how desperate and disgusting you really are.”

You lean back, letting the full weight of your fury settle into your words.

“He’s not for sale. I’m not here for your views. And you sure as hell aren’t getting anything from either of us.”

You sit up straighter, smile sharp.

“And that’s a wrap.”

The crew is frozen. The room? Silent. The air? Thick.

And the camera? Still rolling.

— You go to sleep that night thinking it’ll all blow over.

Spoiler: it does not.

When you wake up the next morning, your phone is vibrating so violently off your nightstand it might file for harassment.

You scroll. And scroll. And scroll.

You're viral.

Like, break-the-internet viral.

Screenshots of your face, lip curled, eyes burning; clips of your brutal monologue with remixes in the background. Edits of you walking out of the studio in slow motion with music that would make Endeavor himself flinch.

Comments flood every corner of the internet:

@ shotatochips13: mommy??? i mean- mommy?? @ kamijiroushipacc: dynamight’s definitely kicking his feet rn @ redriotinmybed: lowkey the interviewer is me but i’d flirt with HER instead @ ilovedekudotcom: book boyfriends could never.

You stare, open-mouthed. This is… a PR nightmare. But also? Kinda badass.

You wander into the kitchen in a daze, only to find Katsuki at the counter.

He's got his phone out.

And it is very clearly playing an edit of you - with some concerning angles that you don;t bother asking about.

He looks up, completely unbothered, smirking.

“What?” he shrugs. “Tried t’warn you, baby.”

You sigh.

You are never going to hear the end of this.

But when his arms slide around your waist, when he presses a kiss to your shoulder and murmurs, “Proud of you,” against your skin…

Yeah.

It was worth it.

A/N: badass reader is my roman empire now

[itelya]

Can I request ex military husband Sukuna and Toji reacting to their son calling y/n the b word? 😂 I just know they’d be furious and practically leap over furniture to snatch the kid up not knowing it’s a prank

a/n: ty for the request it was fun to write😂 also tysm for the 1k followers! 💗 ⟢﹒ masterlist

You're in the kitchen, chopping fruit, the sun filtering gently through the curtains. Your son is sitting at the counter, his elbows propped, his eyes fixed on you. Too quiet. Too focused. He has that look, that posture... the one that announces a monumental stupidity.

"Mom... you are a bitch," he says quietly.

The word falls like a thunderclap in your ears. You stop dead in your tracks, the blade still in your hand. Your gaze slowly rises, your eyebrow arches, icy. You don't know whether to scream, burst out laughing, or simply disown him right then and there. Your heart is between disappointment and anger.

In the living room, deathly silence. Toji, slumped on the sofa, opens his eyes slowly, and Sukuna, leasing on the armchair, raises his head so quickly that his neck cracks. Toji freezers, his eyes fixed on their son, the expression of someone about to go into battle. Sukuna stands up without a word, his jaw clenched.

They exchange a look like two soldiers who've just picked up an enemy signal.

"He didn't say that..." Toji breathes.

"He dared." Sukuna replies, already moving.

Your son immediately turns pale. He should never have done that, even for a laugh. "IT-IT'S A PRANK! A TIKTOK! I SWEAR! IT WAS A JOKE, JUST TO SEE YOUR REACTIONS!"

"A prank?!" the two men repeat at the same time, their voices deepening.

Toji leaps from the couch. Sukuna crosses the room at terrifying speed, and their son rushes out of his chair, fleeing toward the dining room as if his life depended on it. Hiding behind the dining table makes him forget one detail: no piece of furniture can protect him from two highly trained ex-soldiers.

"When did they raise you to think a word like that should be tested?!" Toji snarls, stepping forward.

"Do you want us to laugh too by sending you to a retraining camp in Kyrgyzstan for six months?" Sukuna adds with such menacing calm that it sends shivers down your spine.

"But you were laughing when I said 'shit' at 4 years old!" their son desperately tries, accused from behind the table.

"To think I was ready to give you my old service knife for your next birthday..." Toji snarls, his gaze dark. "But forget that. I'd rather give it to the dog."

Your son opens his mouth to defend himself, but Sukuna raises his hand sharply, cutting cleanly.

"You want to be smart? Fine. Apology letter to your mother. Three hundred push-ups, and while you're doing them, you keep repeating 'Sorry, Mom, I'm an impressionable idiot' over and over again."

Toji quietly snuck up behind him. He grabbed him in a flash, lifting your son with a firm arm. "You want to talk like an adult? You're going to live like a soldier."

"But I've seen other kids do it...!" your son complains, offering to climb out of Toji's enormous arms.

"A follower, too?" roars Sukuna, outraged. "I was a unit captain, not some pathetic TikTok sheep."

Toji chuckles softly, that sadistic little laugh you recognize all too well. "Let's start by shaving his head. It'll help him think."

Your son starts to cry for real, shaking like a leaf. He doesn't want to lose his beautiful hair. You approach, calm, gentle, your hand outstretched.

He turns to you, relieved. This is your only chance. His light. His mother. You gently place your hand on his head, stroking his hair like a promise... then you smile. "I'm the one who's going to shave it."

A cry escapes his throat, pure and sincere. "Mom, I'm sorry! I swear I'll never do it again! I love you! You're the best parents in the world! I'm too young to lose my hair!"

Toji and Sukuna cross their arms, stoic. They look at him, already deciding what to do with him.

"Too late, soldier. The uniform starts now."

[jehhskz]

Celestial

pairing: angel!felix x fem!reader

genre: fast burn, fluffy, good vibes, smut (MDNI!)

wc: almost 17k

summary: "Felix, I told you a million times, stop messing around or one day you'll end up falling off the clouds!"

warnings: there's smut; a scene based on my beloved angel's last mission: love; i didn't research about tarot on purpose, all mentions are pure delulu

jé's note: this one goes to my european beautiful twin @jeonginsleftcheek 💕 ozzy, happy birthday, i hope your days are as bright as you make mine, thank you for our talks, laughs and delulus, you're a real gift for me; i wrote this one with lots of love, i hope you enjoy it, i love you a lot ❤️

my other fics

It was a beautiful and sunny day of June, summer had just begun and if you lived at Sunce Island you knew that was known as the most wonderful time of the year, almost as magical as christmas. 

You were typing away on your laptop, sipping on your orange juice and soaking in that rare moment of calmness, listening to the soft clacks against the keys before the footsteps and laughter coming from the second floor became noticeable as they neared the stairs. 

An excited group of college students passed you by, waving at you. Smiling back, you politely waved at them before getting back to work.

The beginning of summer also meant lots of new visitors at the island and luckily the Inn getting lots of new guests too, so you were working hard to make sure everyone would have the best time while staying there.

Focused on updating the Inn's social pages, you didn't notice the chubby little hand that tapped on the reception desk, tiny fingers reaching for the bell. You stopped typing and looked up just in time to see the woman who rushed and scooped the little boy up in her arms, before he could ring the bell for the third time. 

“Lucca, what did I tell you before we got out of the car?” She looked the little one in the eyes, holding his hand.

“Not touching anything” He murmured, looking down and upset that his fun was ruined.

“Yes, we can't go around touching other people's stuff” She reaffirmed and the boy nodded, the mom let go of his hand and looked at you “I'm sorry, he just turned 2 and is going through that exploring phase” She explained, offering you a shy smile.

“Oh don’t worry, that’s okay” You smiled at them “You've got a pretty name, Lucca” 

“Thank you” He shyly murmured, nuzzling in his mom's arms. You both laughed at his cuteness, making him feel even more shy.

During registering her family entry, a man walked in and while waiting by her side, he couldn’t help but eavesdrop on your chat. 

After watching the family walk their way to the stairs, the brunette leaned closer, smirking charmly at you, his tone soft and low as he spoke.

“This could be us, you know?” He had a teasing spark in his eyes while he beckoned at the stairs, making you roll your eyes playfully, understanding what he meant when showing the couple who spent their honeymoon there and was back with their little one to celebrate their 5th anniversary. 

“Would the kid have your curly hair?” You smirked.

“Of course… my hair and your pretty smile” He giggled, running a hand through the tousled curls, flirting back to try and conceal his flustering.

“Okay, good” You leaned back, pretending to think for a moment  “...then I guess I'd like to have two” You said with a cheeky smile. 

He nodded and you noticed his cheeks getting rosy despite his attempts to conceal it, looking away. You held back a laugh, it was quite endearing how a man like Chan could get all flushed so easily and you loved to push his buttons every time he came to stay there, which happened often. 

“You and me, two kids and a dog” He chuckled, looking back at you.

“Sounds like a plan, baby” You nodded, grinning at him and holding your hand out for him to seal the deal.

“Yeah, but I think you're forgetting an important detail in this big plan of yours” He held your hand, interwinning your fingers and gently giving it a squeeze against his.

“Hmm, let me see…” You tapped your freshly red nails against the desk, glancing up as the words rolled out of your mouth “Friday night, homemade pasta, red wine…” 

You glanced at him “Am I missing anything?” 

“A red dress, maybe?” Chan's cheeks were red again, but he was also getting excited, picturing his night.

“Nuh nuh, this part will be a surprise” You winked at him.

~ ♡ ~ 

The clock hit 6 when you closed all the tabs on your computer “That's enough for today” 

You organized the little notes scattered all over your desk, threw the strawberry lollipop's papers away, grabbed your keys and phone and applied some lipstick on before you were ready to go. 

Silence, that was so rare on the island that was always so vibrant with people buzzing around, but there was this very moment that locals would refer to as the resting hours, when the only sound belonged to the sea, because all tourists were back into their rooms, getting some rest and ready for the upcoming events.

You smiled admiring the way the sky looked like a painting with the hues of orange and pink as the sun kissed the sea goodbye, the breeze was cool, refreshing, just perfect.

Letting out a content sigh, you sat down, bringing your knees to your chest and resting your chin over it, you closed your eyes just in time to miss the shining spot falling from the sky, straight to the sea.

A strangled yelp made your eyes flutter open, at first you didn't see anything but the waves that were getting high, so you thought you imagined it, until a hand was raised, then it went down and another was up, a mess of limbs coming up before the waves crashed, almost like swiping whoever it was away. 

“What the…” You panicked. It was a person, you realized. Somebody was drowning and after a quick look around, you confirmed you were alone.

Alone and witnessing somebody drown. 

The conclusion made a creep shiver run down your spine. 

You didn't think, there was no time. 

Acting up on pure instinct you stood up and ran into the water, losing a sandal on the way, you ignored the freezing sensation when you dove in, giving strong strokes until your hand reached the person's, you grabbed their wrist, holding tight as the waves kept coming, you pulled them to you and noticed it was a boy and he was unconscious because he simply let you turn his back to you and wrap your arm around his neck without panicking or react, which made you panic a lot, but that wasn't time for that, you had to take you both back to the shore.

Swimming back wasn't easy, the waves kept crashing relentlessly and you were struggling to not swallow the water, your heart was beating so fast it was almost as if it was trying to escape your body.

Gathering all your strength, you took a deep breath and gave strong strokes once again, reaching for the shore and letting his body roll, laying down in the sand. 

You were panting as you laid beside him trying to catch your breath before leaning into your elbow and you coming closer, noticing he was breathing, you sighed in relief, touching your own heart, feeling how rapid it was beating. You took a good look at him, eyes roaming down his clothes.

He looked pretty and expensive in his all white outfit, his silk shirt had some shining silver details and his boots were silver too, probably a costume, you assumed and then your gaze shifted to his face, with his eyes still closed, you noticed his plush lips had a cute heart shape and his skin was kissed with little freckles. 

“Where's your friends, uh?” You teased, poking his arm and looking back into the sea. There was no yacht in sight. Your lips twisted and you turned back to him “Bet they are all drunk too. Too drunk to even noticed you fell” 

No response, just his chest rising up slowly, like he was peacefully sleeping.

He was probably a junior, you assumed. It was definitely his first time on the island, that much you knew. A face like his wasn't something you’d forget. 

“What were you doing? It’s better not be those stupid tik tok dance challenges” You frowned “Don’t tell me I risked my life to save you because of this” You rolled your eyes, face contorting “Because if you did, I'll smack you when you regain consciousness” 

Still no reaction. 

You gently pushed away a wet strand of his hair that was on his face, chuckling quietly “This is so silly… I feel like Ariel” You thought for a moment, still holding the strand between your fingers “Should I sing you a song to wake you up?”

To Felix, your giggles were a faint sound as he slowly regained consciousness, his eyes were still closed when he turned his head to the opposite side slightly and started coughing non stop. The persistent cough startled you and you pulled your hand back, staring at him with widened and surprised eyes. The boy rolled to the side, the coughs finally coming to an end, his eyes fluttered open slowly and he blinked a few times, your figure slowly becoming clear to him.

The wet and completely disheveled hair contouring your face, the little droplets that rolled down so lazily on your glowing skin, the parted lips and surprised gaze… 

It was the girl from the beach! 

He recognized you right away and he got flushed, noticing you were even more pretty up and close. Felix's hand came to rest on your cheek, holding your face gently and making your brain short circuit for a moment.

“What happened? How did you end up here?” His voice was shaky and from his expression and pouty lips, you wouldn’t be surprised if he started crying right away. You pulled back, his hand lingered in the air as you gasped and stared at him murmuring a “Dude, what the hell?” 

“I… I was supposed to protect you… I should have…” His little rambling was confusing to you, but you laughed nevertheless. Drunk people were so random, you were barely paying attention, until he mentioned something about you being so pretty. 

You turned to face him again, a little shy, pushing a strand of your still damp hair behind your ear. Damn, the drunk boy was really pretty, maybe you should leave your number at the place he was staying, so he could meet you up after sobering up.

Yeah, you'd definitely be doing that.

Felix sat up, he touched the sand by his sides, fingers digging on the fluffiness, his mind not so fogged up anymore as he gazed at the waves, then at his hands covered in sand and finally back at you.

“You're not dead” His tone was more calm, you shook your head.

“Well, it was really close, but no, we're alive” You shook your head joking. 

“Oh…” He nodded, you weren’t dead, okay, that was good, he was relieved. Felix gazed away, murmuring “I thought they picked us up”

“Oh no, I bet they were so drunk, they didn't even notice you fell” You shrugged, standing up, cringing at your soaked skirt covered with sand and clinging to your body “I saved your life, you own me now, blondie”

Felix struggled a little to stand up and you held his arm, helping him out. He felt the same annoyance as you because of his damp state, pouting and gazing down at his outfit.

“Alright, we must clean up. Tell me, where are you staying?” You watched him look up and point up to the sky. 

“Up there” 

“Ha, very funny. Does this pick up line actually work?” 

He gazed at you with confusion, Felix had no idea what you meant. You sighed, it was getting late and you were getting hungry. 

“For real, what place are you staying in?” You tried once more and he pointed up again.

“Ugh, who are you, an angel that fell from Heaven?” You mocked, looking away.

“Exactly!” Felix nodded and you gazed back at him in completely disbelief.

You stared at him from head to toe, he did look ethereal, angelic even and he probably heard that a lot too, so maybe that was why his foggy mind was confusing him. As some noises started becoming noticeable, you saw the people were coming back to party and soon the beach would be crowded again. You let out a sigh, looking at him.

“Okay blondie, I can't leave you here like this. You're coming with me and tomorrow we can go and try to find your friends” 

You turned around, missing Felix's little smile before he came to stop by your side. It was a small walk back to the Inn, you put back on your sandals when you reached the promenade, chewing on your bottom lip while the gears worked inside your mind. All rooms in the Inn were occupied, you'd need to take him to your house. But being alone in your house with a random drunk stranger wasn't an option either.

You had to come up with a solution and it was when you were about to reach the gate, fingers grazing over the keys in your pocket, that you looked at the house just three gates away and had an idea. 

~ ♡ ~ 

Felix's heart was buzzing as he watched you unlock the door. He followed you inside with sparkling eyes roaming all over the place, taking in every detail. The pastel blue walls adorned with your paintings and drawings, the shelf with your books collection, little flowers and the three green pots decorated with tiny strawberry drawings from your recent hobby: ceramic classes, the pictures with warm smiles and never ending blue skies behind. His lips tugged up in a soft smile, fingers hovering over a picture of you, sitting in a swing, during a spring day spent in the park, Felix didn't notice when you left, going for the guest’s room.

You rummaged through the dresser's drawers, picking a white t-shirt and a blue sweatpant, your face twisted when you fished out an underwear too. Your brother lived in another city, but loved coming to random visits so he would leave some clothes at your place just in case. You looked at the bed, went there and fluffed a pillow, smoothing the dark blue quilt lightly, before going after the drunk boy. 

He was still absentmindedly looking at your stuff when you stood next him, gently touching his arm and handing out the clothes. 

“The bathroom's just through that door. There's clean towels in the second drawer” You beckoned towards the hall and Felix nodded, holding the clothes against his chest. 

“Thanks…” He trailed off, waiting to learn your name.

“Y/n” You told him, watching his face light up and he smiled.

“Thanks, y/n. I'm Felix” 

“Alright, Felix, let’s go shower and change before we get a cold and…” You stopped talking when you noticed his grin getting wider, cheeks getting slightly rosy and then you realized what you said, mentally face palming yourself “Oh no, that’s not what I meant, you go up there and I go the other way” 

Felix's lips turned down, but he didn’t say anything, simply watching you turn around and walk to the opposite side. 

Shower together? Maybe another time, you couldn’t help the little smirk playing on your lips as you walked into your room, imagining how fun it would be to undress the cute blonde and wash his body with your favorite body wash: that one with the strawberry scent. Hmm, he would look so good, all wet and covered in lather, you could probably eat him!

Your intrusive thoughts made you giggle, while separating a pair of clean underwear and your black night dress. You stopped before laying it in your bed, fingers grazing over the silk fabric, your lips twisted, remembering it wouldn’t be something appropriate to wear while having a stranger in your house, so you brought it back to your wardrobe and picked the pink pajamas instead. 

“Okay, that’s better” You smiled and then your gaze met your phone on the bedside table, picking the device up, you quickly typed a message to Jisung, before heading to shower.

Felix was amazed after opening the wrong drawer, a sparkling green and blue ball caught his attention, picking it, the citrus scent filled his nostrils and his eyes sparked with curiosity. He read the little note attached to it, with instructions on how to use it. His smile got wider and he wasted no time in getting rid of his soaked clothes. The blonde struggled a little to turn the water on and giggled like a child after throwing the ball inside, watching the water become blue and bubbly. 

He hopped in, the bath tube was so full the water was splashing out, but it was also so warm and good, Felix barely noticed it, still giggling with the bubbles floating and popping in the air, playing and splashing more water around.

~ ♡ ~ 

You walked out of your room, fully dressed, with a pink towel wrapped in your hair and finishing applying lotion in your arms. Your eyes roamed around, no sight of Felix yet, so you walked to the couch and plopped down onto the lilac fluffiness, grabbing your phone and smiling at the notification. 

Mystic boy 🔮: okay, i'll be there in 40 minutes ✌🏻

Mystic boy 🔮:  i'm bringing pizza 🍕

Turning the TV on, zapping through the channels, the towel was gone long ago, and when another show started you realized that several minutes had passed and Felix was still in the bathroom.

“Hmm, what's that little gremlin up to now?” You murmured, deciding to get up and go check.

“Felix?” A knock on the door. No reply. Another knock and nothing. You gazed down, noticing the trail of water coming out from underneath. 

That little gremlin definitely did something. You sighed, opening the door slowly just to find the blonde’s feet lazily resting on the edge of the bath tube, his head rested on the other end and his eyes closed, lips tugged in a little grin as if he was having the sweetest dream in his little slumber. 

Your gaze trailed down to the wet floor, before coming up back to the boy.

“Felix!” You shouted and he jolted in surprise, body slipping backwards, his head got under the greenish and full of lather water, limbs flying all over while his hands tried to grab the edges so he could stand up.

His head emerged up, his hair dripping as he stood up, splashing more water out and your eyes widened up. 

“Oh my God, what are you doing?” You didn't bother to cover your eyes, and obviously they instinctively roamed down, following the drops running down his chest and abs until…

And you felt a little disappointed noticing the lather wasn't letting you get the full view. 

You noticed Felix's lips moving, he was giving you an explanation but you were too distracted to actually care. 

The sound of the intercom pushed you back to earth, Jisung had arrived. You did a  massage on your temples.

“Jisung’s here… hurry up, he brought pizza” You sighed out before walking out and closing the door, leaving Felix and his mess behind.

You made your way to the gate, barely seeing Jisung's face behind the pizza boxes he was holding, but his annoyance was very clear, by the way he spoke to you.

“Are you insane?” He handed out two boxes and you almost let them fall.

“Oh, hi Jisung. I'm great and you?” You kicked the gate closed and followed him inside your place. 

Jisung ignored your sarcasm, eyes scanning all around, looking for the stranger. He went to the kitchen's counter and placed the pizzas there, turning to face you.

“I can't believe you broke our first and most important rule: don’t let strangers into our house!” He scolded you and it was impossible to hold back your little shudder. All those years you had known Jisung, that was the first time you saw him like this.

“Ji, let’s calm down, okay? Did you pay attention to my text?” You weren’t mocking him at all, you knew his concern was real, just like yours was too, when he brought a crazy tourist to spend the night and woke up the next day with a hickey, his house spotless and a note saying he didn’t need to thank her for the clean up. Later that day he found out the 100 bucks he was saving were gone.

“I told you, he was drunk… I saved him, the inn's full and…” 

You noticed Jisung’s eyes widening and blinking, gazing over your shoulder, so you turned your head to check and your lips parted slightly.

“Okay, I'd let him in my place too…” The brunette sighed, flushed by Felix's beauty when the angel appeared fully clothed, with his hair damped, a shy smile and towel in hand.

“Boy, shut up!” You smacked Jisung’s arm, but he didn’t even flinch, still staring at the blonde.

“Uhh, hi!” Felix shyly waved at the boy.

“Damn!” Jisung grabbed your arm, clearly charmed by Felix’s deep voice.

“Jisung, behave! What the hell?” You hissed, pulling your arm back. Felix giggled, but his cheeks got a rosy shade.

“Excuse him, he just spent too much time under the sun…” You rolled your eyes, beckoning at the boxes “Now let's eat before they get cold”

The boys helped you set the table and Felix's stomach growled when you opened the box, the delicious aroma filling up the dining room. 

“Hmm, this is amazing!” Felix's eyes sparked as he grabbed another piece and yours widened when you noticed he was piling up the pieces and giving them a huge bite. 

“I'm curious, there's pizza in heaven?” Jisung asked him, gazing at the blonde with genuine curiosity. Unlike you, he believed Felix when the angel said he fell from the sky.

*** 

‘I could tell…’ He said earlier ‘Your aura shines differently’

You rolled your eyes, mystic boy clearly was affected by his new found boy crush. 

‘Really, Jisung. You see auras now?’ You mocked, taking a bite.

Jisung gave you a long stare before he spoke ‘Yeah, yours is really grey, by the way’ 

Your mouth fell agap in offense and Felix giggled, you were about to snap at the brunette, but Felix said ‘He’s joking, your aura's pink and beautiful…’ He smiled at you and murmured ‘...just like you’ Which made you almost choke on the cheese.

*** 

“No, our food's different from yours” Felix shook his head, eating another big bite.

“And does it taste good?” Jisung asked again, taking a sip of his soda.

“I bet it tastes divine” You mocked, sipping on your juice.

“Oh for sure!” Felix nodded, grinning happily, not perceiving your tone.

After dinner they boys helped you to clean everything and you went to your room, to pick a pillow and some blankets for Jisung, who would sleep on the couch. 

Once he was settled, you turned the lights off and just when you were passing by the half open door from the guest’s room, you heard Felix calling your name. 

You slightly pushed the door open, peeking inside, seeing the blonde already tucked under the covers, he beckoned for you to come closer, smirking as he watched your small steps lead you towards him.

“You forgot to wish me goodnight” He whispered and even though the lights were dim, you could see his pretty features and the delicate contorn of his heart-lips pouting. 

“What? I just said it before you came here” You tried to sound nonchalant, as if his cute pout didn't give you an urge to squeeze his pretty face.

“I want a goodnight kiss” He looked away and then shrugged, and your heart skipped a beat.

“You gotta be kidding me!” You were about to turn on your heels.

“Changbin always gives me one, before going to sleep” He casually said, turning to face you with those puppy eyes. 

You crossed your arms in front of your chest, shaking your head, but Felix pouted again, closing his eyes like he was waiting. He wouldn’t give up easily, you realized.

“Okay, fine…” You murmured under your breath, leaning closer “But don’t push your lucky” 

Felix smiled and pouted again, you closed your eyes as you gave his forehead a kiss, lips lingering just a little too long before pulling back.

“Night night, y/nnie…” He said cutely, which made you flushed, but you did your best to not let it show though. 

“Goodnight, Felix” You walked away, watching him happily wave at you as you closed the door slowly.

You sighed. It was such an eventful day, you were happy to finally slide under the sheets, so tired that sleep met you right away.

~ ♡ ~

Next morning you woke up before the alarm went off, so you surely gave yourself those blissful 5 more minutes of sleep, before sadly leaving the bed. After going to the bathroom and changing into a pink sundress, you walked to the kitchen.

First thing you saw was Jisung leaned on the counter and Felix standing in front of him, upper body slightly curved forward, fists clenching and uniting. You stopped some steps away, hearing him groan, and your eyebrows narrowed, wondering what he was up to now.

The straw of Jisung’s chocolate milk escaped from his lips as he excitedly whispered wow wow wow, as if something magical was happening.

It wasn't.

Felix's face was getting red due to the effort, he groaned again, louder. Frustrated. He gave up and decided to sit back in front of his new friend, grabbing his milk and sipping on the chocolate sweetness. 

“That's okay, buddy. Maybe you just need more time” Jisung gently patted his shoulder and Felix nodded, looking upset.

You walked to the fridge, grabbing the ingredients to make some pancakes. Jisung came behind you when you were putting the apron on, helping you to tie it around your waist.

“I'm afraid, but I'll ask anyway… what are you guys up to now?” You whispered to him.

“He can't get his wings out” He whispered back, glancing over his shoulder. Felix was gazing at the other side, head resting on his hand, appearing to be sad.

“Oh…” You simply said, cracking the eggs open, you still didn't fall for that ‘angel talk’, it was just your luck to have two silly boys in your place. 

“Girl, I know you don’t believe it, but he's telling the truth” Jisung took the bowl from your hand and started whisking the mix. 

“Ji, you do realize how insane it sounds, right?” You leaned against the counter, watching Felix grimace again, his fists clenching, he was trying whatever that was, again.

“Yeah, I know… but isn't it also exciting?” Jisung grinned with conspiracy “I never met an angel before”

“Well, it would honestly be concerning if you’d tell me that you did” You picked the bowl from him, poured it onto the pan and turned up the heat to the stove.

Jisung ignored your comment and kept his tone low “He was playing around, then he accidentally slipped and the last thing he knew was waking up and seeing you”

“Playing around?” You chuckled in disbelief, flipping the pancake “Is that what angels do? Damn, I used to think they had duties and stuff”

Jisung left the kitchen after murmuring something about going to pick his cards. You put the pancakes piled up on a plate, the vanilla scent adding to the cozy atmosphere in the kitchen. The sweet was covered with syrup and you grabbed a knife to cut some strawberries to add too.

You popped one into your mouth and noticed Felix's curious gaze at you.

“You want some?” You offered, showing him the fruit.

“Mhmm” He nodded, opening his mouth and waiting for you to feed him. As if this was the most casual thing ever.

What a cheeky gremlin. All the info you had ever heard about angels was they took care of people and all that, but not even 24 hours there and suddenly you were baby-sitting him.

“Don't get used to it” You scoffed, feeding him. You shivered in the moment his lips wrapped around your fingers too, wet and warm around your skin. 

His eyes closed and he hummed again, the sound deep and obscene. You mentally face palmed yourself, for the way your body reacted, for the intrusive thoughts making you want to push your fingers and play with his tongue, for wondering how sweet his lips would taste.

The pop of him letting go brought you back to reality, he smirked at you with mischief, as if he knew exactly the effect he had. Weren’t angels supposed to be so pure?

“More” He pleaded with those puppy eyes.

“You can pick it, yourself” You pulled back, trying to act nonchalant and he giggled, picking one and taking a bite.

“Doesn't taste as good as when you fed me” He sighed, but picked another one to eat, anyway.

Jisung came back, wingling the little purple box in hand. You decided to eat breakfast before sitting down and using the cards. Felix watched it all intently, the way Jisung skill mixed them over and over, before laying it down like a huge fan.

The blonde concentrated as he was instructed, closed his eyes, took deep breaths and let his hand hover over the shining paper for a moment, when he finally picked three. His heart beated faster as Jisung turned them over, one by one, gasping quietly and looking surprised.

You looked over from behind Felix, trying to understand what those images meant, two of them were reversed and when Felix moved to fix their position, Jisung shook his head.

“They must stay like this, just like you chose” He explained, which made you and the blonde gulp in worry. 

Jisung looked at the cards carefully, chewing on his lower lip and running his index finger on the images, contemplating, just like you saw him doing over and over again, on that little corner at the café, telling people they would meet their soulmate while walking by and watching the sunset on the beach. It was so simple, yet so romantic and delusional. No doubt that it worked all the time, not because of Jisung's impressing tarot reading skills, but because that was pretty much the experience of every tourist that was single when they stepped into the island. 

“Okay… the reason you can't get your wings out is because you're stuck here” Jisung held his own hands, resting his elbows on the table.

Felix gazed at him with confusion, and you looked down at the cards.

“What? Like he has a mission or something?” You picked one, looking at it carefully, it had a drawing of a lonely leaf floating on water.

Jisung shook his head “No, not really. It doesn't say anything about it here” 

“That's so random, read it again!” 

“Y/n, you can't simply start all over just because you didn't like the answers you've got the first time” Jisung told you, looking back at Felix.

“Maybe you broke them? Does it hurt?” 

“A little, here” Felix touched his back, where two little scars could be felt under his fingers. Every angel’s wings would be retracted there, but they could spring them free, when needed.

“And his friends can't come to like… rescue him or something?” You asked with genuine concern “Like… how do we send him back?” Jisung looked back on the cards, analysing the meanings.

“It says here they will, but not now…” Jisung pulled a new card, it had a little yellow bird caged “Oh, they aren’t allowed to come yet, because he needs to learn how to behave” 

Jisung looked up at Felix, smirking “Who'd think angels could be naughty?” 

Felix blushed, looking away and you giggled, he was cute when he got all shy like that. 

“Alright so, we must plan our new schedule now” Jisung suggested, picking his phone and opening the calendar.

“Ohh, baby-sitting an angel, that definitely wasn't in my bingo card” You sighed.

~ ♡ ~ 

“So, Jisung will come pick you up to shop for some clothes later. This will be your phone, I saved mine and his numbers here…” You gave your old phone to Felix “...so if you need talk to us, all you have to do is click on our names and send us a text” 

“Okay!” Felix grinned, admiring the device on his hands. You turned around, starting to type on your computer. After planning everything out, it was decided you'd bring Felix with you to the inn, since Jisung had readings all morning. 

“That's like bringing your kid to work” You chuckled, murmuring to yourself. At least Felix was just sitting there, not causing any trouble.

Until your phone started buzzing over and over. You picked it up, checking the notifications: lots of texts, mostly random emojis sent from an unknown number. 

You didn't need to open them to know it came from Felix, his giggles gave him away, but it was the picture you didn't even notice him snapping, that caught your attention.

It was his face, zoomed out in such a strange angle, half to the side, eyes and nose looking so big, he reminded you of a…

“Oh my God, what is it? You're looking like a frog!” You whined, staring down at the screen, zooming out the picture he sent you, that was also his icon on the chat app.

Felix chuckled, imitating the sound of the animal, and your eyes widened, freezing in surprise, but you couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“Nuh nuh, we gotta fix that” You turned to him, opening the camera and his expression changed when you snapped a new picture: a lazy smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, his eyes gazing down, some strands of his hair falling in front of his forehead and your stomach got filled with thousand butterflies going wild. 

“Uhh, hiii. Excuse me!” You turned your head, seeing two girls standing in front of the desk. 

“Good morning, how can I help you?” You said politely, offering them a smile.

“We've got a reservation under the name of Yildiz” One of them replied and you typed the name.

“Here, room orhideja. Upstairs, fifth door by the left, it's the lilac one” You picked the key with the little matching orchid keychain and handed it to her. That's when you noticed the way both girls were staring at Felix.

“Thanks!” They said together, smiling, but not to you, and actually for the blonde. 

The one with pink hair styled in braids reached out for her suitcase, groaning and when Felix noticed her ‘struggle', he stood up. 

“Would you like some help with that?” He offered, already coming out from behind the desk.

Obviously they said yes, nodding right away, exchanging glances. You rolled your eyes. Damn it, college girls could be so obnoxious. 

“I'll be right back” Felix winked at you before turning to them, grabbing their suitcases and walking with them in hands, going for the stairs.

“Hunf…” You shrugged, avoiding watching him go. 

You should have seen it coming, it was Felix and his perfect angelic face, of course he would cause a fuzz. That moment in reception was just a sneak peek of what you had to endure with all those girls trying to catch his attention somehow, until finally Jisung arrived, taking the boy with him like divorced parents looking after their kid. 

Okay, the frog picture would stay. 

Letting him stay in the inn wasn't an option anymore, you realized. Those girls wouldn’t give him a break, and even though you had lots of young guests full of hormones, it was still a family's place after all. And he was innocent, they would eat him alive. There wouldn’t be a single feather left in the end.

You couldn’t allow that. No, no. Plus, you had a spare room, it's not like you'd sleep together or anything, so there would be no problem. Just for a couple of days, soon their friends would come and life would be normal again, you'd pretend this was nothing but a crazy dream. 

But reality wasn't as simple as you imagined it would be. 

~ ♡ ~ 

Giggles, lots of them, loud and annoying as you followed them, letting the sound lead you to the backyard of the inn, to the pool area. Spotted. 

Surrounded by a small group of girls was Felix, giggling with them, his slim but toned figure almost glowing under the sun, wearing that white yet so sinful tank top and denim shorts. 

You groaned with annoyance, stepping closer enough to witness what was happening: a navy bottle in one hand, the other splashed out against the back of one of them, the girl peeking over her shoulder to gaze at him, holding her hair to the side. Your eyes followed his moves, hand roaming down her back, rubbing the white lotion. 

“My turn next!” A girl exclaimed, raising her hand.

“Felix!” You crossed your arms in front of your body, lips pressing together and a foot tapping insistently on the ground.

The giggles died right away, turning into annoyed glances that you completely ignored as you watched him turn and grin widely at you.

“Y/nnie!” He greeted you with a surprise hug, earning a squeal from you.

“What are you doing here, uh?” You asked, pulling away from him and smoothing your crop top. 

It had been a month since your life changed, saving a crazy drunk from drowning, just to learn he was an angel, which still sounded very insane to you from time to time. Nobody came after him, not even tried any contact. In the first week, every morning, without noticing you were peeking, Felix would stay in the backyard, trying to get his wings back. It was very cute, actually, the way his eyes would close, cheeks would turn rosy and his fists clench hard.

As the days went by, it seemed like he was getting used to life down here. Curious, he wanted to learn about everything, so at night, when he would offer to brush and braid your hair, you'd watch tv together and talk about your lives and experiences, it was fun to learn about the celestial world, Felix told you that unlike many others, he wasn't human before becoming one, so he had no previous memories like some of them. 

That was the reason everything felt so new and exciting for him, why he was always giggling and with sparkling eyes as he would tell you what he and Jisung had been up to during their days. 

Felix spent lots of time with Jisung, they clicked right away, which was great for you, because he would drive you insane most of the time, messing stuff around while trying to ‘help’, plus, it wasn't good to let him be in the inn either, especially without supervision, because scenes like this were highly like to happen. So you got him a video game to keep him distracted while Jisung was busy and it was working just fine. 

“You weren’t there when I woke up, I wanted to see my jagodica…” His gaze roamed down the red fabric, and his arms wrapped around you again, holding you tight. Your heart skipped a beat because the nickname caught you off guard, and you couldn’t hold back your grin, especially after taking a little glimpse at the annoyed girls behind him. 

You weren’t there when I woke up… Your arms wrapped around his neck, hugging him tight too.

Cute. He was so precious, he made it sound like you were in a special relationship without even realizing it, and you wouldn’t be crazy to say otherwise. 

“Alright, enough of helping. You're being needed inside, now” You pulled back and held his hand. Felix smiled, looking at your fingers intertwined, and let you pull him along with you back inside.

“What do you need me to do?” He asked, sitting down beside you.

“Just…” You looked around, trying to find something to keep him busy, then you remembered the booking site “Click on the heart on people's comments and answer their questions” 

“Okay!” He nodded, starting to like the comments. You smirked, resuming to work with Felix every once in a while asking you the info he needed to reply to the guests online. 

Your fingers blindly tapped against the desk, seeking for your black coffee.

“Uuuugh, that’s awful” He groaned, face twisting as if he was in pain, holding your cup away.

“Silly, don’t you have coffee in heaven?” You grabbed the cup from his hand, chuckling and taking a sip “You guys are missing out” 

He kept groaning how awful that was, body shaking as if he was trying to get the coffee out of his system. You chuckled again, standing up and leaving the little drama queen alone for a moment. 

“Alright, angel. Try this” You held out the small and pink milk carton for him. 

“What's it?” He picked it, inspecting the drawing of little strawberries with caution. 

“Strawberry milk. Don't worry, you're gonna love it” 

He nodded, but you could tell he was still a little suspicious, while trying it out. It changed right when the liquid hit his taste buds and his eyes popped up like a cartoon, humming and giving up a thumbs up in approval.

“This is amazing, we don’t have stuff like this up there” He looked at the carton again, rambling to himself “Maybe we could ask for them to come and pick some… is it possible to send stuff up there?” 

You giggled, gently pinching his cheek “Silly little gremlin, you can't send it to the heaven like fedex” 

“That's not fun” He pouted and sipped more, making you giggle again. 

It was almost evening when a couple stopped by the desk, asking for recommendations of a nice place to go have dinner. You were still chatting with them, asking what their vibes were, when Felix chimed in.

“You should go to the Garden's bistrô” He typed something on his phone and then showed the screen for the couple.

“Ohh, it seems nice” The man said with a smile.

“Yeah, exactly what we are looking for” The woman agreed, smiling too.

You watched as he even suggested to them what they should choose from the menu. A smirk tugging in the corner of your mouth, you waited for them to leave before you playfully poked his side.

“Garden's bistrô? How come I didn’t know about this place?”  

“I saw it on tik tok, it's trending on the best places to visit” He said with a proud smile.

You simply nodded and after being silent for some time, while you finished putting everything back in the right place, Felix spoke again.

“We should go there” 

“Yeah, sure. We could go someday…” You said absentmindedly, writing down some notes.

“No! Let’s go now!” Felix gently shook your arm and you turned to face him.

“Please, y/nnie. You never spend time with me” He pouted.

“What do you mean? We always spend time together” 

“Yeah, but only after work and always in your house. It’s not the same” 

“You won't leave it, will you?” 

“Of course not” He shook his head.

“Okay, fine…” You sighed out “Just gotta go shower first” 

Felix grinned, hugging you and randomly giving your cheek a big smooch, chuckling after from your surprised gasp and flushed face.

“You're cute, jagodica” 

~ ♡ ~ 

It wasn't a date, you kept repeating to yourself in the shower, and while applying your favorite lotion, then after changing your dress twice, choosing a red backless one and styling your hair down. 

You stopped by the mirror and did your makeup, going an extra mile with that red lipstick, you smiled at your reflection and put on the little tub inside your purse, grabbing your phone and leaving your room.

Felix was waiting outside the house, looking effortlessly good in blue jeans, a white shirt and a denim matching jacket on top. His hair was a little tousled and his eyes sparked when he saw you, eyes roaming shameless down your figure, that side smirk appearing on his lips. 

“Looking good” 

“Thanks, you aren’t that bad either” You tried to sound a little nonchalant and he smiled, grabbing your hand.

“Let’s go!” He excitedly grabbed your hand and almost made you fall with the sudden pull for you to follow him.

It was a small run - walk - to the bistrô, accommodated between the buildings, like a hidden gem, the place was small, green and cozy. There were all types of flowers decorating the walls, and a beautiful view from the sea. Felix guided you to the table there.

After placing your orders, Felix saw the yellow tulips on the vase near your table and with a cheeky smirk, he plucked the flower without you realizing, being distracted admiring the love quotes delicately written on the wall. He gently tapped your shoulder and you covered your little gasp with your hand, admiring the tulip he gave to you.

“Are you crazy? You can't pluck the flowers” You whispered, giggling. Your heart swell with such cute gesture.

“Oh no?” He looked at you with panic, picking the tulip and trying and failing to put it back. Which made you giggle more.

“Stop it…” You picked it back, holding it close against your chest “It's mine now, here's another lesson for you, once a gift is given, you can't take it back” 

He nodded, taking mental notes and then stared at you “Do you like it?” 

“I love it!” You smiled at him with sincerity and he smiled back at you. 

The sweet moment was interrupted by the waiter who came with your meals, and Felix chuckled watching you quickly hide the tulip, putting it on your lap, both sharing a cheeky glance, thanking him for the food and chuckling when he left.

Dinner was good, filled with chat and laughter. You didn't notice the time passing, chuckling with him once again, as the waiters started to pick everything up, in a subtle way to invite guests to leave. 

You let him hold your hand on the way back, swinging them as you walked down the streets. The air was getting windy and some dark clouds hid the stars, so you hurried up to make it back before the rain would start.

Inside, you went to pick a vase to put your flower, while Felix stayed in the living room, glancing out of the window. A thunder made him shiver slightly, crossing his arms. 

Oh, sleeping with storms outside really was something else. You thought, turning to the side and cuddling your pillow, you were almost drifting to dreamland, when your door opened. 

Felix didn't even say anything, he just rushed under the duvet like a cat and you noticed he was trembling.

“Hey hey, what's wrong?” You instinctively touched his arm.

“The rain…” His whisper was barely audible because of the pouring rain, but you understood, opening your arms and letting him scoot closer to you.

“Shhh, it's okay… I'm here” You soothed him, fingers gently carding through his hair, his head resting against your chest, hearing your heartbeat.

“Can I stay here?” He whispered again, his tremblings were slowing down. You pondered for a moment, but when you gazed down and saw those puppy eyes staring at you, there was no way you could tell him no.

“Okay, but just because of the rain” You sighed out and he grinned, wrapping his arm around your waist, pulling you flush towards him. Your heart skipped a beat.

“Thanks y/nnie…” He said with a cute voice and if he wasn't trembling a minute ago, you'd think he was faking this fear of rain to try and be sneaky.

“That's okay, just don’t make me regret it” You murmured, shifting and turning away from him, trying to act nonchalant as he was then spooning you. Felix shifted too, molding your body against his, face nuzzling on your hair, his voice muffled.

“Night night, y/nnie” 

“Goodnight, Felix”

It wasn't raining in the morning and you woke up some time before your alarm went off. Stirring up, you felt trapped and then looked down, confirming your suspicions. Felix had a leg thrown over your thigh and one hand was casually resting against your breast. Your eyes widened and you tried to escape from his embrace, only to be squeezed. 

You pushed his hand away, groaning “Hey, what do you think you're doing?” 

“Y/n?” Damn, his voice sounded even deeper. He was sleepy, very sleepy as his hand came up once again.

“Hey hey, you can't do that!” You scolded him, holding his hand down and away from his target. Ignoring the tingle you felt in your core.

“Why not? It’s soft…” He rambled in his slumber “I like it” Felix chuckled softly at his confession.

You wouldn’t lie, it got you flushed, but you also wouldn’t give it away either.

“It's not proper, but we will have that talk when you are fully awake” 

“Mhmmm” 

“Now behave, or I'll kick you out of my bed” You threatened him. 

“Mhmmm” He kept his leg over yours, but his hands were then resting in ‘safe places’. 

That wasn't the only night you slept together, rainy nights were happening more often, it was quick and not too loud, but it was enough for Felix, who would wrap his arms around your body and make you fall on bed by his side, when you'd give his goodnight kiss.

And deep down, you were enjoying this more than you should.

~ ♡ ~ 

Felix learned his lesson and wasn't plucking flowers anymore, except for that day when you arrived back upset and he left a red rose on your bedside table for when you'd wake up the next day. Cutely lying it had already fallen when he got it, you knew it didn’t, but his gesture was so sweet, you just smiled and didn't say anything else. He smiled, looking down at the yellow tulips bouquet in his hands that he got after his visit to a little flower shop he found during his exploration of the island. 

His smile faded when he walked in the inn. Standing there, lazily leaning against the desk, was a man, his hair tousled and curly, muscular arms full on display thanks to his black tank top. Felix's lips pressed together, watching the way you were giggling at something he said, and his whole body felt like burning when the man touched your hand.

Felix's body wasn't the only thing that felt like burning. The moment Chan held your hand and playfully intertwined your fingers, he jolted with a hiss, pulling his hand away instantly. 

The blonde smirked, feeling proud. He didn’t get his wings back yet, but at least his powers were. And in the moment your confused gaze went from Chan's palm to Felix's smile, something inside you told you that it wasn't a coincidence.

“You should probably run some water on it” You told Chan, noticing how red it got.

“Yeah, guess I should do it now. Before it gets worse, talk to you later, y/n” He nodded, walking away slightly disappointed.

Felix approached you with a smirk, showing you the flowers. You picked them when he handed the bouquet to you.

“It was you, wasn't it?” You smelled the fresh scent of them.

“I've got no idea what you're talking about” He looked away, failing to sound nonchalant and you smirked.

“Yeah, just like that other day on the beach. That dude who randomly tripped and fell on his face” You giggled, remembering how your legs was the last thing the random guy saw before kissing the sand.

“Well, if he paid attention to where he's walking, stuff like this wouldn’t happen” He shrugged. And you found his jealousy adorable.

“Cute” You giggled again and Felix blushed slightly, looking away. 

Felix invited you out to dinner that night, another new habit of his. He was loving to explore the island and consequently find new restaurants too, but that night in particular he wasn't hyped to try the delicious pasta, he actually wanted to hide the news that he almost burned the kitchen down, while trying to recreate a recipe he learned on tik tok. 

Dinner was great, there was a violinist playing some romantic songs in the little cantina, and between the bites of pasta and sips of wine, you and Felix got tipsy very fast. You decided to walk back home, wearing his jacket, with his arm thrown over your shoulder and yours around his waist, you strolled slowly though the pebbles by the beach, admiring the small waves from a far.

“Well, today was fun” You commented, lifting your arms up and yawning. 

Felix hummed in agreement, his fingers still running through your hair, while you sat on the floor, with him behind you on the couch, a random movie you both weren’t paying attention to was on TV. 

“I'm going to bed now” You stood up, smoothing your pink nightdress, you yawned again. Felix chuckled, standing up too and playfully poking your nose.

“Cute sleepy, moranguinho” 

“Uh?” You looked at him with heavy sleepy eyes. 

“It means little strawberry” He chuckled once again and you groaned. Boy was spending too much time with tourists to your liking.

“Hm, okay. Goodnight” You gave him a quick peck on his cheek and turned on your heels, going to your room closely followed by him that even had the audacity to pull the duvet and lay down before you.

“What do you think you're doing?” You lied down too, but kept a distance from him.

“Going to sleep” He replied cheeky, grinning.

“Your room's over there” You beckoned and instead of getting up, he scooted closer.

“I know, but you aren’t there” Your heart fluttered and your gaze went down.

“Our agreement was only on rainy nights” You murmured, fluffing your pillow.

“A storm can start at any minute now” He said with conviction and you shook your head.

“No way, the sky was clear” You said and Felix just stared at you, as if he was waiting and some minutes after, you heard a thunder. 

“You gotta be kidding me!” Your mouth fell agap in surprise “Did you do that?”

He chuckled, finding your surprise very endearing and shook his head.

“Maybe somebody up there's by my side” He pointed up, joking. Earlier the news warned about random climate changes to be expected.

You were still impressed, letting him pull you closer and hugging you, staring at you with a mischievous smile.

“What now?” You asked, staring back at him.

“A kiss” He whispered, pouting.

“You already got one” You tried to not giggle, covering his pout with your hand and Felix licked your palm, making you squeal and pull back.

“Hey!”

“But I came to sleep here, so that one doesn't count” He shrugged.

“Okay, fine” You rolled your eyes and leaned in, giving his cheek another small peck “Goodnight, Felix”

“Y/n…” His hand held the back of your neck, his touch was gentle, just to keep you in place before you pulled more away. Your heart was beating fast and your face was so close to his, you could count his freckles even under the dim light.

“Felix, what…” Your voice was barely audible.

“I want a kiss” He repeated, his tone more serious now, gaze traveling down to your lips before coming back up to meet your eyes “Like the one people were sharing at the restaurant” 

Your heart flipped and you shivered, staring at him. All this time living the blonde, you got used to his playful personality and his casual flirting, but in that moment… It didn’t seem like he was joking.

“Why?” You asked softly, his hand still keeping you in place, but you knew you could pull away if you wanted to.

“Because Hyunjin told me that’s how people express their affection” 

“Hyunjin? Who's him?” You raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was making friends you weren’t aware of on the island.

“He's the cupid, the angel of love” Felix explained.

Right, you forgot there were sections in Heaven, with angels belonging to groups and having assigned duties.

“Oh yeah, okay… hmm, but you know, there's lots of ways you can express your affec…” Your words got cut short when Felix decided to close the distance between you two, pressing his lips against yours. Softly. Hesitant, even. So delicate, you could barely feel his lips, just the jolt of electricity that ran down your whole body.

He pulled back just a little and you blinked a few times, standing still. His forehead rested against yours, his eyes still closed and heart racing when he whispered.

“Kiss me… now” And that's what you did, taking the lead, you were the one to close the barely existing gap between you, pressing your lips more firmly against his soft ones and the jolt felt stronger this time. 

Felix gripped your waist, pulling you flush against him, tilting his head slightly, mirroring your actions. He parted his lips slightly and shivered when your tongue traced his bottom lip before diving inside. He didn’t even notice the thunder, having his own storm happening inside him, Felix never felt such a thing before. He let his tongue slide into your mouth, moving against yours, tasting you, exploring you while his hand that was on the back of your neck trailed down slowly, caressing your collarbone and you could feel his little smirk when his feather like touch reached your breast, giving it a little squeeze and earning a little gasp from you. 

He liked that, the softness, how it felt on his hand, your little sound, how it made him feel a funny tingle down there. 

He squeezed it again, and you gripped on his arm. Your lips were moving in sync, you were feeling tingles all over, and that's when you felt it too. When Felix pressed his body harder against yours, not only he got hard, he also was hopping lightly against your thigh and your eyes fluttered open when you noticed that, gently pushing him.

“Okay, enough” You whispered against his lips, a little breathless like him. Felix nodded, but instead of pulling away, he captured your lips again, kissing you like you did to him on the first time and you let him.

Your arms wrapped around his neck, the kiss was getting hungrier, and you rolled over, straddling him. The sound he let out was the most beautiful thing you ever heard and you bit down on his bottom lip, letting your soaked panties drag against his covered length.

Felix felt in heaven, which was a funny comparison, but no words could describe better the sensations he was feeling inside, overwhelming him, turning him into a whimpering mess under you. And the best part was that you didn't even start. 

He let his hands roam over your sides, feeling you up before they went for your breasts again, fondling them, you moaned against his lips, leaving them to trail wet kisses on his neck. Hips rolling slowly against his, you barely moved and he groaned deeper, crying out your name over and over again as he came on his pants. 

You pulled back, looking at his face, panting, shaking beneath you, with his rosy cheeks and hair falling on his forehead, lips slightly parted and the cutest clueless expression. 

“Shhh, that’s okay… y/nnie got you!” You caressed his cheek and gave him a little peck. He looked so good, you wished you could just eat him up. So you kept moving, a little faster now, seeking your own high too, almost instinctively. 

Felix's eyes rolled to the back of his head, groaning, that was too much, his hands went for your hips, holding you, letting you do whatever you were doing that was making you moan and look like a hot mess on top of him. Until your whole body was trembling and you collapsed on top of him.

“Y/nnie, are you okay?” He whispered, his tone soft but also concerned, touching your hair gently.

Your reply was a muffled ramble against his shoulder, Felix didn't understand much other than great but that was enough for him to relax. You shifted again, adjusting yourself still on top of him, letting your fingertips caress down his chest, while you calmed down. 

Then reality kicked in and you suddenly lifted your head, staring at him and before you could say anything, he pulled you in for a kiss that made you melt into his arms. That kiss felt different, less desperate, more romantic, slow and sweet, just like his hands caressing your skin, still unsure, but curious, eager to learn you. And you'd gladly help him in his mission, sighing and arching against his palm as he took note of every little reaction he could get from you. 

You knew you should stop, this was surely wrong for so many different reasons, but every word in that big list seemed to fade with every caress and every little kiss so carefully peppered on your neck, leaving just a blank space ready to be filled with your sweet moments together. The reasons why it was right. You were burning up for him, not just out of lust, but also the love you were tired of ignoring. 

Felix was taught when you loved someone, the best way to express it was with actions, every kiss and touch was like a confession, like a promise, like a tattoo. Something precious, to be imprinted on your lover's soul and carried forever. Leaving traces of you was always a great option too, although Felix wasn't really sure how to do it. But he wanted to learn, he wanted to learn everything from you and with you. The pretty girl from the beach…

Countless were the nights he spent admiring you from afar, daydreaming of what life would look like, if he only had a chance. He was scared, when he fell, but that feeling was gone the moment he opened his eyes and saw you there. The angel thought he was dreaming, that was too good to be true.

Just like it was too good to finally be breathing in your sweet scent, while trailing soft kisses on your neck, lips gently grazing over the sensitive skin, tongue darting out to give an experimental lick, smirking when you shivered and doing it again, getting more deliberated. He took his time, following his instincts, slowly rolling you to lay on your back, his body hovering above yours, he sat down on his knees for a moment, letting you pull his t-shirt up. 

You smirked, admiring his abs, mesmerized with the glow of the moonlight on his skin, fingertips reaching out, roaming all over, feeling him shiver under your touch. Who would have thought there was a gym in Heaven? You wanted to laugh, but held back, it wasn't the moment for that. Instead, you sat up, kissing his collarbone, shoulder and then his neck, each kiss lingered longer than the last, until you reached his jaw and went for his lips again. 

Felix touched your shoulder, playing with the thin strap of your night dress, twirling it between his fingers while the kiss got deeper, until he pulled back just to lean in again, lips going for your neck, he found the sensitive spot right under your ear and nibbled there, when you moaned, tilting your head back, he let his tongue and teeth explore freely, while he pulled the night dress down. 

He was doing it like you did to him, until his hand tugged on the delicate fabric and he made it lower even more down, exposing your breasts. His brain short circuited when you laid on your back again and his breath hitched, reaching out to touch and squeeze them. 

Hovering over you again, with those big and needy eyes staring at you, thumbs teasing your nipples, you bit down your lower lip, knowing exactly what he wanted.

“Go ahead…” You sighed out, closing your eyes right before he leaned down, capturing a nipple and sucking a little too hard. You whimpered and he looked up at you.

“Baby, it feels good, but it’s also sensitive, so just be a little bit careful, okay?” You said gently, caressing his hair. Felix nodded, twirling his tongue around the bud before he started sucking again, his hand never stopping squeezing and teasing the other.

“Yeah, just like that!” You purred, panties getting more damped, and he was hard again, occasionally rubbing against your thigh. 

He let it go with a pop and did the same with the other before his hands slowly pulled the silk all the way down, until he tossed it somewhere on the floor. His eyes got darker as he gazed down at your body and stopped at the dampness on the white lace. 

“You've got soaked like me…” He said under his breath and you smiled. His innocence was so cute. 

“I did, but it’s not the same as you, love” You smiled again at his confused expression, looking back at you.

“No?” 

You shook your head, gently grabbing his wrist “No. This is arousal, it means I'm enjoying what you're doing…” You guided his hand to the fabric, letting his fingers run down your covered middle and your hips instinctively circled, seeking for friction.  "Feel it?"

“It's wetting my fingers…” He breathed out, that side proud smirk appearing as he kept rubbing “You must be really enjoying it, then” 

You purred and Felix pressed his thumb, watching closely how you shivered and moaned, he did it again, rubbing a little harder. 

“I want to feel it better” He suddenly pushed the fabric to the side and stared mesmerized at your glistening folds, his voice was barely audible when he let out a breathless wow. 

He let this finger run over your folds and looked at you, who nodded for him to keep going. Soaked fingers pushed in between and you sighed in pleasure again.

“Right here…” You put your hand on top of his again “That's where I'm the most sensitive. That’s where you need to focus”

“Like this?” He did little circles with his thumb and you withdrew your hand, purring again.

“Yeah, just like that”

He kept on, going slower and then faster, applying more pressure and trying different ways until your legs started to tremble lightly.

“Wanna kiss it…” He whispered, already lowering his body and your heart jumped.

“Oh my God, do it!” Your foggy mind didn't even think twice, watching him intently, you shivered when felt his soft lips pressed against your clit.

His soft kisses became little experimental licks, your taste was so inebriant for him that he was soon licking and sucking on it as if he was savoring his favorite meal.

“Oh Felix!” Your hand tugged on his silk hair and he groaned against your core. He held down your thighs when your legs tried to close, shaking beneath him.

“Not yet!” He groaned, remembering how you were shaking like this before you collapsed on top of him. And he wanted to taste you more. So he kept going, your loud moans sounding like a melody to him, grinding against the mattress, because his cock was so hard it was getting painful.

“Felix, please!” You cried out his name once again, feeling your orgasm wash over you like a tidal wave. Your whole body trembled and he was still there, lips wrapped over your clit as you came down your high.

“Did you like it?” He lifted his head, smiling at you with his lips and chin glowing with your essence.

“I loved it… you were… amazing” You were still a little shaky, pulling him back up to you. Felix smiled proudly, nuzzling his face on your neck, peppering kisses there.

“I loved it too…”

You chuckled lightly and gently pushed him to the side, making him lay on his back and straddling him.

“You're gonna love this, too” Your fingers hooked on the sides of his sweatpants and you slowly pulled it down his thighs, bringing his ruined boxers along with it. His hard and leaking cock slapped against his abs. Your mouth watered at the sight, you wanted it in your mouth, but that would have to wait for another time.

“So pretty…” You murmured and Felix blushed, watching you wrap your fingers around it, thumb smearing the precum down his length. He moaned and it was the most delicious sound you had ever heard.

“You're so cute, and I'm just starting” You giggled softly, stroking him, admiring his rosy cheeks and parted lips. You stroke some more, leaning down to kiss him, swallowing his moans, moving your hand faster and stopping suddenly, when you felt his desperation and knew he would come. He whined in protest.

“Shh, shh… don’t worry, love. I'll give you something much better…” You stood on your knees, lowering your hips until you could drag his cock against your folds, coaxing it with your arousal, both moaning.

“Much better…” You said in a sultry whisper, guiding him to your entrance. Your teeth sank down on your bottom lip as you aligned with him, lowering your hips slowly, his groan was so hot, you focused on that, ignoring the burning sensation as you made room for him.

“Y/n…” He held your hips, letting his hands roam over up and down your sides “I… I'm feeling it… again…”

“Yeah baby…”

“It’s too tight, I can't…” He whined again, closing his eyes. That feeling in his lower stomach was building up again and he knew he was about to explode.

“I know, I know… just hold it back, okay?” You stood still, adjusting to him and also letting him calm down a little, secretly loving the desperate written all over his pretty face.

“I'm gonna move now… hold it back, alright?” You told him, placing your hands on his chest. He opened his eyes, nodding.

You started, letting your walls slowly drag around his cock, setting a slow pace, softly moaning, Felix thought he was dreaming again, he let his hands run up and squeeze your breasts, reminding him that you were real, that was happening. He concentrated, doing his best to hold back, even when you picked up the pace, bouncing faster.

“Oh god…” He groaned, eyes rolling to the back of his head.

You slowed it down a little, grinding on him, you could tell you were about to come too, clenching more around him. You lowered down, kissing him, it was messy and desperate, the sound of skin slapping against skin becoming more evident as you were riding him fast, his hands came back to your hips, helping you move.

You came on his cock, nails digging on his chest, crying out his name while you clenched around him even tighter, over and over again. He came without warning too, whining and crying out your name, he even cursed as he was spilling his seed inside you, that kept riding him, until you both came down from your high.

You collapsed on top of him again, panting and satisfied, closing your eyes and just feeling his rapid heartbeat.

“That was… wow…” He was speechless, tracing idle patterns on your back. You chuckled softly, holding his free hand and Felix smiled at them together, how small and delicate yours was compared to his. He brought them to his lips, giving the back of your hand a little kiss.

The calmness didn't last long, it barely even lasted minutes, when his hand lowered down your back until he stopped at your butt, giving the flesh a little squeeze.

“Hey!” You lifted your head.

“Can we do it again?” He whispered in your ear, making you shiver.

“Yeah… we…” You started saying, when you noticed he was getting hard again and you giggled “Wait, you wanna do it now?”

“Mhmm, want more. Let's do some more” This time he rolled on top of you, and even though you were a little sensitive, you wouldn’t be crazy to tell him no.

~ ♡ ~ 

The annoying sound of the intercom woke Felix up and he groaned, holding you tighter against his body when you tried to sit up.

“Shhh, it's sunday. Stay here” He murmured, still sleepy.

“Gotta go check, might be important” You told him, gently starting to untangle yourself from him.

“I'm more important!” He protested, pouting and you giggled.

“You're, and that's why I'm going to check and will come right back to you. Okay?” You caressed his hair, brushing a strand away from his face. He nodded, letting go of you.

You swung off the bed, picking the t-shirt he was wearing last night and putting it on, also fishing for underwear and shorts in your drawer. You squealed when Felix leaned off the bed and reached out, slapping your butt when you bent to put it on. 

He was still chuckling when you left the bedroom, going for the living room and checking on the little screen, you saw Jisung waiting there.

“Hey, what's up?” You greeted him after opening the gate and Jisung stared you up from head to toe before he passed you by and walked into your house. 

“You're creeping me out, what happened?” You chuckled nervously, following him. Your heart came up to your throat as soon as you realized he was going to your bedroom, where a fully naked Felix was lazily lying in bed, like a cat. 

“Wait, wait, wait!” You ran and stopped in front of him, blocking his way. 

“Ha! I knew it!” Jisung squealed, raising his fist up.

“I don’t know what you're talking about” You shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant. He leaned closer, raising his hand and touching your hair. Your eyebrows furrowed and you pulled back slightly.

“Are you sure?” He opened his palm and you gasped. It was two little white feathers. 

“So, how was it?” Jisung wiggled his eyebrows, looking at you and poking your sides “I bet it was heavenly!” 

“Boy, shut up!” You shook your head and desperately grabbed his wrist to prevent him from getting there “Don’t go there, it's sacred you know?” 

“Ohhh I know” He teased again, and you bit your tongue. You didn't mean it like that.

“Mind explaining to me why you are suddenly at my house on a sunday morning?” 

“Well, last night while I was putting the box back on the shelf, a card flew out and landed on my face…” He finally changed his plans, walking to the couch and sitting down. 

“Hmm…” You hummed for him to continue, sitting beside him.

He took it out of his  pocket, handing the card to you. It was an image of a silhouette of a couple who appeared to be naked, kissing. 

“Cute, but what's it with the little squares?” You giggled at the censor covering their intimate bits. 

“It’s the passion” He pointed at the golden letters at the bottom. You read it, humming again.

“The passion? And you really want me to believe from all 100 cards, this is what you chose?” 

“78 cards, actually. And I didn’t choose anything, it hit me” He shook his head, pulling his hair back and showing you a very faint bruise on his forehead “See?”

“Hunf, there's nothing here” You touched his forehead with your index finger. 

“Because you seduced an angel”

“Hey, I didn’t seduce anyone. That was totally consensual!”

“That's not what the cosmos says” Jisung shrugged and you smacked his arm.

“Enough of this whole gossip from the cosmos. I thought you were supposed to help people with it”

“And I'm… that’s why I came here” Jisung rubbed the spot you hit, as if it was hard enough to hurt him anyway.

“Explain…” You whisked your hand in the air.

“So, apparently your little adventure messed up with the universe” He started explaining and you narrowed your brows.

“No way! You think the universe's mad at me or something now because I misaligned it?” You knew it, deep inside, you thought about it, for about 2 seconds, but the idea crossed your mind. But you tried not to worry much even after learning this news, you were in love, what was so wrong about that?

Jisung thought for a moment “Well, not exactly mad… but something clearly happened”

“Like what?” You gazed at him with curiosity.

“I don’t know… I tried to read it, but the cards kept messing up” He shrugged again and ran a hand through his hair “So I came here, maybe if Felix's there then they will say something?”

“Okay, get everything set, I'll go call him”

“Alright”

~ ♡ ~

“Come on, give us some answers” Jisung murmured, opening the fan of cards on the table once again.

You lost the count of which attempt that would be. Everytime Felix tried to draw a card, the wind would blow and fly them away.

“Maybe it's not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe they just don't want us to know” Felix said, watching the cards fly again.

“Yeah, if it was bad, they would probably be at my door right now” You chuckled, trying to soothe the mood and jolting when the intercom rang. The three of you stared at each other in shock.

You dragged your feet all to the screen, imagining how the celestial jail looked like. After taking a deep breath, you stared at the screen to be greeted by your neighbor waving at you.

You clicked the speaker “Lucy, hi!”

“Hey y/n, I was cooking lunch and accidentally made too much gnocchi. Would you like some?” She raised the pot she was holding.

“Yeah, I'd love it. Thank you” You smiled at her, and went out to pick the food.

The boys got excited when you came back with the pink pot in hands, quickly getting up and helping you to set the table. The cards were left scattered on the floor where they landed, all facing the ground, with the exception of one…

The cradle.

~ ♡ ~

“Hey girly, are you hungry?” You bent down, caressing behind Lucy's dog ear.

You were at your neighbor's house, looking after Laila, the maltese, while her owner went on a little trip to visit family in town. Laila shook her tail in excitement and you giggled.

Picking the spinach and chicken option, you opened it up and poured it down to Laila's pink bowl and the dog came trotting.

Since being there, you decided to do a little cleaning up in the house. Felix offered to help you, so you stayed in the living room while he went to the garage.

You heard a weird click sound when you were dusting off the shelfs. Looking around, it seemed like everything was the same. You didn't look up, but even if you did, you wouldn't notice the subtle crack appearing on two strings of Lucy's huge chandelier.

Still cleaning up, more clicks, so subtle, they went unnoticed. You kneeled down in front of the coffee table, the chandelier slightly swinging above your figure.

“Cute” You quietly chuckled, holding a small knick knack of a dog, you noticed Laila approaching and showed it to her.

“Look, it's you!”

Swinging more, the chandelier's sounds were clear now, creeping you out, making a shiver run down your spine. You looked up and gasped, no sound coming off from your mouth, eyes widening in panic.

The chandelier was plunging to you and Laila. You leaned forward, pushing the dog away with all your strength and embraced your body, closing your eyes and trying to protect yourself.

You felt a rush of air and suddenly everything went silent. Your heart was beating like crazy inside your chest, you whimpered, afraid of opening your eyes.

“It’s okay. You're safe, I'm here” Felix soothed you down. You lifted your head, opening your eyes slowly and gazing at him.

“Lixie?” Your voice was barely audible, he smiled at you, nodding and then you noticed.

Everything around was white, like you were inside a cocoon, and when you paid more attention, you realized the white and big feathers. Your lips were the first to start trembling, and then it was your whole body.

“Shh, shh… it's alright” He held you tight.

“It's true!” You tried to speak, still shaking “You really are an angel!”

“I told you so” He chuckled, but you were still in shock. You reached out, fingertips lightly grazing over the feathers and you pulled back, starting to cry.

“No, no, no. This can't happen” You clutched at his shirt, wetting the fabric with your tears “This means you'll leave, they will take you away from me”

“No, y/nnie… I'm not going anywhere, nobody's taking me away from you” He tried to calm you down, although he didn’t know for sure. All he knew was that he didn’t want to leave, he couldn’t be away from you.

“You… you promise me?” You hicupped, a tear rolling down your cheek.

“I promise” Felix whispered, wiping that tear away. You leaned against Felix's chest, closing your eyes and quietly crying.

Not much time had passed when you heard Laila barking like crazy and your heart almost escaped up to your throat.

“Y/n, Felix, what's happening?” You heard Lucy's voice and opened your eyes, feeling like your soul just came back into your body, when you noticed his wings were gone. Little shards of the chandelier all around you two.

Felix smiled when he saw you entering the bedroom, with your hair slightly wet and wearing a crimson nightdress. He put away the book he was reading, gently tapping on the mattress for you to get there. You crawled towards him, wrapping your arms around his neck, nuzzling your face there, inhaling his scent.

“Thank you for saving me, today…” Your voice was muffled against his skin and although your tone was as soft as the little kisses you were peppering there, he twitched in anticipation.

“You don’t need to thank me, baby” His voice was a little shaky already and you found that adorable.

“Ohhh, but I want to” You cooed, tongue darting out and licking right under his adam's apple.He shuddered and you giggled against his skin, lazily licking again, tugging on his t-shirt.

“Y/n…”

“Ohh I love how you say my name” You teased, pulling down just to pull the fabric up and out of your way. You straddled him, letting your red nails play along his chest and abs, while your lips kept giving his neck little love bites. You moaned quietly, feeling him twitch again, he was getting hard and ready for you.

“You're so hot…” You whispered against his skin, trailing kisses down his chest, playfully licking his nipple and he whined loudly, making you chuckle.

“Awwn, you're sensitive here” You teased, grazing your fingers over the other and giving that one another small lick. He whined again.

You lowered your body, lips never leaving his skin, teeth gently grazing over his abs while you hooked your fingers inside his pajama pants, bringing them down. You stared at his white boxers and almost drooled.

“Just relax and enjoy” You winked at him, lowering his underwear and gasping when his cock almost hit your face.

You wrapped your fingers around it, holding it by the base, that was where you started licking first, making your way up until you sucked on the head. Felix groaned, loudly, obscene and deliciously.

His hips bucked up when you started bobbing your head up and down, swallowing him more each time, he felt dizzy, like the room was spinning. You smirked, noticing he was gripping on the sheets, you grabbed his hand, bringing to your hair.

Felix held a handful of your hair and in the spur of the moment he pushed your head down, making you take him whole. You gagged on it, tears appearing in your eyes, and he got worried, of course, but also turned on, awfully turned on. Just like you.

“Oh baby, I'm so… sorry, I…” He tried to speak, it was hard, your mouth felt so soft and warm wrapped around him, his brain was short circuiting. At least his grip on your hair got a little loose.

You let him slip out of your mouth, stroking him slowly “It’s okay, love. I kinda liked it”

Your admission made him even more dizzy, wasting no time, you sucked on the tip, playing with it on your tongue while your hands fondled his balls.

“Are you gonna come?” You batted your eyelashes at him, voice sultry. He nodded, desperate, gripping tighter onto your hair.

“Good!” You smirked again, giving it a hard suck, before letting it slip out of your mouth again.

“Come on y/nnie's mouth, let me taste you” That line went straight to his core, he felt like he could pass out, your words, your lips, the way you pushed him almost whole into your mouth again. It was too much, he shuddered again, harder and you felt the white ropes sliding down your throat.

You hummed, satisfied, licking his length clean and sucking him slowly as he came down his high, just then you crawled back on top of him, the blonde panting and his cheeks rosy. You smiled, giving him a peck.

“Think I need to save you more often” He let out weakly and you chuckled, lying down on his chest.

~ ♡ ~

Summer was coming to an end, slowly the tourists were waving the island goodbye and much to your luck, you weren’t forced to kiss your lover goodbye too. Nobody came after Felix, even after that incident. In fact, he was praying they never would. He was happy on the island, happy to be living with you and life never felt so good.

“Babyyy, my tummy hurts” Felix dramatically whined, entering the kitchen, benting a little, hugging himself.

“Hmm, let me guess… you ate all the strawberries that were here?” You grabbed the little basket with just one strawberry and he nodded, pouting.

“Awn love, I told you to stop doing that” You chuckled, caressing his cheek, even though he ruined your baking plans, you couldn’t get mad at him when he looked at you so cutely like that.

Felix leaned closer and stole a kiss. “I won’t do it anymore” He murmured against your lips and you chuckled.

“You promise?”

“No” He chuckled with you, giving you another kiss.

“I knew it. Now, go find something to do, I need to bake another cake now and you distract me” You smacked his butt and walked to the fridge.

“But what if I already found what I wanna do?” He grabbed your hips when you bent, seeking for the ingredients. You shivered, feeling him pressing against you.

“Felix!” You hissed, but he knew you loved when he did that. You straightened up, turning to face him.

“I thought you weren’t feeling good?” You stared at him suspiciously, crossing your arms in front of your body. He came closer, kissing your neck.

“Just got better” He smirked, whispering against your skin.

“You little gremlin” You scoffed, letting him grab your hands and put your arms over his shoulders “I'm busy, you know?”

“Yeah, you've been busy a lot lately. It’s time for a break” He nibbled lightly on your neck, easily picking you up and sitting you on the kitchen's counter.

He spread your legs, setting in between, caressing your thighs in circle motions. Capturing your lips in a sweet kiss, he tasted like chocolate and strawberries. Your arms wrapped around his neck and you pulled him closer, melting into the kiss when he gently pulled your hair, tilting your head and deepening the kiss, sucking on your bottom lip.

“Mhmmm, seems like somebody was waiting for me?” He broke the kiss, teasing you when he felt the absence of underwear under that cute floral dress you were wearing.

“Surprise!” Your giggle got cut short when he caressed your middle, coaxing a moan from you.

“Such a sweet, jagodica. Never fails to amaze me…” He whispered, giving your earlobe a little bite. Fingers pushing between your folds, rubbing circles on your clit until you were aroused enough for him to slip his fingers inside you.

“Lixie…” You sighed, gripping on his arm, forehead resting on his shoulder.

“Hmm?” He hummed, pumping in and out fast, preparing you for him.

“Need you…” You lightly bit down on his shoulder.

“Need me?” He smirked, Felix loved hearing that, he wanted more “How so?”

“Inside”

“Oh, but what about my fingers?” He teased, pushing further “Isn't that enough?”

“Nuh nuh…” You shook your head, grip on his arm getting tighter and your free hand slid between you, palming him “Want your cock”

He twitched inside his pants, feeling strangled.

“Greedy little thing, aren’t we?” He withdrew his fingers and licked them clean, staring at you.

He let you unbutton his jeans, watching your fingers work quickly to pull it down, you smiled, seeing him tilt his head back, his adam's apple bobbing up with a sigh of relief when you freed his cock. Your lips trailed kisses on his jaw and neck, leaving a little love bite there, while stroking him.

You softly moaned, shivering when you felt the dress being pulled down, his hands fondling your breasts. He leaned down, licking on your collarbone, all the way down, sucking on a hickey right above your heart. Your fingers carded through his hair, playing with the strands, moaning when he started giving gentle and little love bites on the flesh.

He held his cock, bringing it to your core, rubbing the head against your slick, groaning, wanting to just dive in, but holding back.

“No teasing” You pleaded, tugging lightly at his hair.

“No teasing” Felix repeated, cheeky, shaking his head. But he kept doing just that, teasing your entrance, letting just the head in and pulling back, chuckling at your frustrated groan.

“Lixie!”

“Okay, okay. No teasing” He chuckled again before kissing you, swallowing your moan when he pushed all the way in with just one thrust.

You held onto him, occasionally kissing his neck and shoulder, while he pounded hard and fast into you. He held your hips, pulling you to the edge, slamming harder against you, getting your mind hazed.

Felix smirked, hearing your cries and rambles.

“Does it feel good, love?” He kissed that sensitive spot under your ear. “Do you like it when I fuck you like that?”

You whimpered, nodding “Mhmm… love it…” And he smirked, sucking on the sensitive skin.

“Mine” He admired the lilac mark appearing there, not resisting the urge to suck a new one a little under.

“All mine…” He emphasized his words with slow but deep thrusts.

“All yours… forever…” Your legs were getting shaky with your climax approaching.

“Gonna cum, Lixie… I'm gonna…” You cried out, starting to clench around him. His hand reached down between you, rubbing fast circles on your clit.

“Shh shh, Lixie got you, love… let it go, come all over my cock”

And you did, clenching hard around him, holding him tight and crying out his name while you saw stars. Felix groaned, keeping up the pace as he brought you down from your high, seeking his own. You were shaky and spent, letting him spill it all inside you, clenching again, milking him dry.

He embraced you, tracing idle patterns on your back, while you both calmed down.

“I love you” He kissed the top of your head and you looked up at him.

“I love you too, my angel” You leaned in, giving him a sweet kiss.

~ ♡ ~

Autumn was beginning, but the weather was still nice on the island, Felix clenched his fists on the sleeves of his blue coat, sighing. The sound of the beach was like a lullaby, putting him to sleep.

“Lixie, hey!” The full moon was already hanging bright in the sky, when a soft giggle woke him up.

“Alma? What are you doing here?” He stared at her with surprise, his heart skipping a beat. The little angel wasn't supposed to be down here. Did she fall too?

He sat up, opening his arms and letting her come into them. Felix picked her up, noticing how strong her lilac aura was shining.

“I was missing you” She pouted and Felix wanted to squeeze her cheeks for being so sweet.

“Ohh sweetie, I missed you, too” He caressed her hair gently, smiling when she wrapped her little arms around his neck.

“They said you can't go back anymore…” A tear rolled down her cheek and he wiped it. But deep inside, her words gave him relief. He couldn’t go back anymore. His heart felt full. He was going to stay and be with you, forever.

“But I wanted to see you, so Jeongin helped me…” She smiled slightly, happy to be with her friend and he smiled too.

“I hope I'm not causing you both trouble”

The little angel shook her head “It’s fine, I'm already going back”

“Oh, okay”Felix put her back down, kneeling in front of her, he noticed her cheeky smile, staring at him. Alma looked both ways and leaned closer.

“I've got a secret” She whispered and covered her mouth, giggling.

“A secret?” He raised an eyebrow, curious

“And may I know what's it?”

“Don’t worry, you will soon…” She giggled again and hugged him a final time.

“I've gotta go, now” The little angel gave him a little peck on his cheek and ran, stopping in the middle of the way, she turned, waving at him.

“See you, Lixie!”

A bright golden light fell from the sky, covering Alma, and suddenly it disappeared, along with the little girl. Weeks had passed, Felix kept visiting the beach, but Alma didn't appear anymore.

~ ♡ ~

“I'm y/n, feel free to call me if you guys need anything…” You smiled and handed the keys to a new couple that was visiting the island for the first time “Enjoy your stay!”

“Thank you!” They said in unison, smiling at you before picking their lugares and heading to the stairs.

Your phone buzzed on the desk and you smiled, seeing who the notification was.

My angel ❤️: baby, was there something wrong with the brownies? 🥹

You: hey love… no, it was absolutely delicious as always!

You: why?

My angel ❤️: you barely had a bite

Your stomach twisted a little when you remembered your attempt to eat in the morning. It really got you upset, because his brownies were your favorite treat.

You: yeah, my stomach's feeling a little sensitive lately, i must be getting sick 🫠

My angel ❤️: my poor fragolina 🥹 what about i make you a light soup and we cuddle and catch up on that show you like?

You: sounds perfect, thanks love 😘

With a smile, you put your phone down, excited to close everything and finally be back into your lover's arms. Knowing that you would feel better instantly.

In your house, Felix put the apron on and went to tik tok, looking up cozy soup recipes. While cooking, he grabbed the fluffy blanket and cushions and took them to the living room, went to change into his blue pajamas and then got back to the kitchen to pour the soup in the bowls and take them to the living room. Just in time to see you opening the door.

He placed the hot bowls on the coffee table and rushed to you, holding your face between his hands and giving you a big smooch that made you giggle.

“Heyy” You greeted him, smile getting wider as you looked at the couch and the bowls.

“That's so sweet, thanks love” This time you were the one cradling his face, but instead gave him a sweet peck.

“Don't need to thank me, jagodica” He held your hand, pulling to sit down “C'mon, eat a little. You will feel better”

He handed you a bowl and you smiled again, enjoying the warmth against your fingers, you were cold due the little walk back home. Felix turned the tv on and grabbed his soup too, he clinked on yours, like making a toast and you chuckled.

Your stomach was still sensitive, but luckily you were able to savor the whole bowl. Felix didn't let you get up, taking your empty bowl and going to quickly wash everything before he came back, lying behind you on the couch. He pulled the blanket over your legs and cuddled you, that snuggled up against him.

“Are you feeling better?” He murmured, gently rubbing small circles on your tummy.

“Mhmm, much better” You purred, enjoying his caress.

“Good” Felix murmured again, still caressing you, when he noticed not only the heat coming off from his palm was getting slightly different, but it seemed that under his motions was shining a new light. He gazed down.

Your aura was pink, but your tummy was shining in lilac light.

“No way” Felix gasped under his breath, it felt like the more he stared at it, the clear the lilac circle appeared.

“Uh?” You turned your face to him, staring at the blonde with confusion.

“Baby, when did you start feeling sick?”

“I don’t know, it's been a while now. I probably should go do some blood checks and stuff. Maybe I'm developing some lactose intolerance or something” You shrugged, the idea of giving up on cheese upset you.

Felix grinned, finding it endearing how oblivious you were being. He held your hands, squeezing them.

“This isn't funny” You scolded him and he laughed.

“Of course not. This is the best thing that could happen”

“What do you mean?” You were still confused, being pulled by him into a tight hug.

“Baby, you're pregnant” He whispered and you were glad you were sitting and being held, because you'd fall right there.

“No way!” You sighed in disbelief, pulling back to look at him, your heart drumming like crazy. Was that even possible? You never thought about it before, so you never used any barrier and then putting two and two together, you realized.

“Oh my God, we're having a baby!” You felt the tears gathering in the corner of your eyes, a happiness so big and amazing that you felt like you could float around if he didn’t hold you.

You wrapped your arms tightly around his neck, squealing in excitement and Felix chuckled, equally excited as you. He started peppering kisses all over your face, whispering I love's you after each one, letting a hand go down, caressing your tummy gently.

After you went to bed, Felix pulled you to lay down on his chest, you embraced him, lazily tracing patterns on his abs, enjoying his fingers carding through your hair.

“You're gonna look so cute all round” He murmured, kissing your forehead “She's gonna love you”

“She?” You looked up at him, who smiled cheeky at you, humming.

Your heart swell with love and you looked down at your tummy, placing a hand over it and caressing it slowly.

“Mommy loves you so much already” You murmured and then looked back at him, smiling “And I love you, too. My angel”

“I love you more, my jagodica” He gently held your chin, tilting your head and giving you a kiss.

thanks for reading, let me know if you liked it ❤️

tagging: @doitforbangchan @athforskz @jeonginsleftcheek @moonchild9350 @hyunjincanraptoo @changbinniescurlyhair @hwangjoanna

[lazysoulwriter]

all about that ass. - pedro pascal. ── .✦

requested! thank you.content: partner!reader obsessed with pedro’s butt, playful + thirsty tone, domestic teasing, soft + spicy moments, light biting, slapping, grabbing, squeezing — all consensual and loving and just a lot of ass worship

---

It started as a joke. A casual slap in the kitchen while he was washing dishes, one cheeky little smack and a giggle.

Pedro had gasped like you'd committed a crime. “Excuse you,” he huffed, swiping a wet hand at your thigh.

You’d just grinned. “What? I’m only human.”

But the thing is — you weren’t kidding.

Because Pedro Pascal has the ass. Perfectly shaped. Round. Solid. Absolutely irresistible when it’s hugged in jeans, devastating in sweatpants, and downright illegal when he’s in boxer briefs, all sleepy and soft and unaware of the effect he has.

—

Exhibit A: He’s brushing his teeth, bent slightly at the sink, just wearing his low-slung briefs.

You wander in, pretend to be casual about it — and then bite him. Right on the curve of his left cheek.

Pedro jumps, nearly chokes on toothpaste. “Did you just—did you bite me?” he asks through a mouthful of foam.

You smirk. “Barely. That ass is asking for it.”

He groans dramatically. “I should’ve known when I started dating a biter.”

—

Exhibit B: Lazy Sunday morning, he’s face-down in bed, the sheet barely covering him. One leg out, boxer briefs twisted low, cheek half exposed to the sun and your sinful thoughts.

You crawl onto the mattress, kiss a trail down his back, and sink your teeth lightly into the softest part of him. Not hard enough to hurt, just enough to claim.

Pedro lets out a sleepy moan, voice deep and muffled. “You’re obsessed, baby.” “Can you blame me?” “…no. carry on.”

—

Exhibit C: In public. On set. At a party.

You never cross the line, but you absolutely give it a friendly tap when no one’s looking. Just a light little pat. A promise. A you’re mine, you fine-ass man reminder.

He side-eyes you every time. But his smirk says he lives for it.

—

Exhibit D: In bed, heated, skin on skin, and his hips are grinding down into yours just right.

Your nails dig into his ass without thinking — hard enough to make him hiss. “Shit—baby,” he pants, rutting deeper, loving it. “You know exactly what you’re doing,” you growl, squeezing the muscle in both hands like it’s the first and last time. Pedro’s voice goes wrecked. “Can’t help it. It’s all yours anyway.”

—

You even have pet names. “Cheeks.” “Booty boy.” “General Rump.” (he hated that one, but it stuck.)

---

✦ please do not copy, repost, or translate this work. © lazysoulwriter // i write with a lot of love and care, so please respect that.

[chimerafeathers]

reading the end talks knowing how everyone feels about staying with each other feels like being beaten over the head with a hammer. the subtext that Siffrin is taking away from each conversation confirming his own expectations of the others' expectations, versus the subtext that each of them are desperately trying to convey back to him without coming across as weird and clingy because of their OWN perceptions of everyone's expectations.

Bonnie (regular): "Wait, that's such a long journey though!!! I'm not gonna go find you just so I can punch you if you're wrong!!! That's dumb!!! [...] Okay, then I'll believe you!!! Hopefully I won't have to walk forever to punch you!!!"

Bonnie (friendquest): "...I'll miss you, Frin. ... I know you'll leave soon, but, um... Y-You should come by Bambouche one day! So you can meet my sister!!! So I can say... "That's Frin! They helped me a bunch! They're really cool!!!" So come and see me sometime, yeah? Promise? [...] I'll be waiting for you, Frin!!!"

"i know you'll leave soon" "that's such a long journey" assuming that Siffrin would never want to stay close by, that wherever he goes would be arduous for them to reach. ...and, maybe in Siffrin's interpretation, not worth the annoyance and exertion it would take to reach them.

Isabeau (regular): "I can't wait to go back to my old job, you know? Make sure to say hi when you're near Jouvente, 'kay?"

Isabeau (friendquest): "...I hope...I hope you'll at least visit sometime, Sif. Our journey is over, but don't be a stranger, okay?"

Isabeau, short and restrained after his aborted confessions. maybe keeping it brief and simple to not overcomplicate the triumph of the moment, hoping he'll have the chance to express himself properly later (they're all having dinner together tonight, after all! they'll have time for feelings talks then! why wouldn't they?). not wanting to overwhelm or assume. how can he ask for anything more substantial than a visit before Siffrin knows how he feels, what he might want, what Siffrin might want?

Odile (regular): "But now I can finally get back to traveling. [...] It'll be weird to travel alone now, but I'll get used to it again. Or I could just go home to Ka Bue... Hm... [...] Ha...I'll miss you, Siffrin. You're a little strange, but you're a good kid. Maybe try letting down your walls every once in a while, huh? And come to Ka Bue anytime. Maybe we'll meet again during your travels."

Odile (friendquest): "It was fun. Traveling with everyone. I will miss it. [...] I... I suppose everyone will go back to their homes, now... Mirabelle will probably stay here, Isabeau will probably go back to Jouvente, and we'll ask someone to accompany Bonnie back to Bambouche... And what about you, Siffrin? Will you be going back home? [...] Oh... Why no-- ... No. Sorry, this isn't any of my business. But... No home at all... I never knew. I'm sorry. [...] ...I'll probably be going back to Ka Bue soon. Our paths will diverge soon... But if you ever come towards Ka Bue... Please come by, and say hello, won't you? ...Don't be a stranger, Siffrin."

Odile, reinforcing everyone's assumptions, backing away from the opening Siffrin gave her out of respect for their privacy, and sharing more of her own hand than Siffrin may even realize—resigning herself back to the quiet of her own company after the warmth and noise of being with everyone else. but even as a fellow traveler, both ~obviously intending~ to continue their journeys, there's no suggestion that their paths may intertwine deliberately, only inevitably diverge and briefly cross by happenstance or on a whim.

Mirabelle (regular): "...You can be so nice, Siffrin. [...] You know, um, um... Um!!! I know we haven't known each other for that long... B-But I hope you know I really treasure your company! I do! I really really do!!! And so... Thank you! Thank you for accompanying me on this journey! [...] ...I'm sure you're excited to go back to traveling on your own... But don't forget me, okay? Come see me at Dormont anytime! I'd love to hang out! Promise!!!"

Mirabelle (friendquest): "I have a lot ahead of me, still. But I never would have realized this without you, Siffrin! S-So, whenever you're done traveling, or you'd like to stay someplace for a little bit... Maybe think about coming to visit Dormont? Just to say hi? B-But you don't have to!!! It's just an idea!!! [...] I'm glad we're friends, Siffrin. ... D-Don't forget about me on your journey, okay!"

Mirabelle got so goddamn close to an actual, straightforward invitation for them to stay with her. "whenever you're done traveling or you'd like to stay someplace for a bit" could be a long-term thing of indefinite duration! but then she anxiously backtracks to "visit," "just say hi," "you don't have to! it was just an idea!" out of fear of coming on too strong, imposing too much. she's the one afraid of being forgotten, here, worrying that she'll fade as easily from their mind as anything else, unmissed. trying to balance emphasizing that his company is something that she genuinely wants, but leaving room for them to back out without feeling awkward if it's not something that they genuinely want.

in every case, Siffrin's plans "to keep/go back to traveling" are assumed, the distance is assumed, the separation is inevitable. it's all Siffrin can hear, couched in polite, socially mandated overtures to keep in touch. everyone will be gone and they will be alone again, outside of brief, occasional reunions (and always reunions that he would have to impose to initiate—how can they choose to visit Siffrin if they have no home to visit?—how can Siffrin know if they truly meant it when they asked, if they'll still mean it as time goes on?).

it's all the rest of the party can imagine, too—of course their mysterious rogue will quietly disappear back into the forests and crowds, impossible to find or contact after it's all over. they're left asking, begging, through the clenched teeth of social restraints, not to be left behind or forgotten, either. please visit, they say. don't you get it? don't you know how important to me you've become, how much i want to keep you in my life? they don't say.

and now all i can hear when i read back these lines is

i can't ask you to stay/come with me, but please, please don't let this be the last time i see you.

[feelfreetopleasemexo]

I'm in my knees begging for bnha boys (like maybe katsuki, izuku, eijirou, denki, and maybe you could add shinsou and/or monoma on it) reacting to you smudging lipstick stained kiss on his lips without them knowing and letting them go outside for theor hero-work duties. Not them actually noticing it until a co-worker (sidekick) points it out. I'm gonna kiss you if you do it. 🥰

Now kith ;)

Leaving your mark

Where you accidently leave lipstick from your kiss on their lips and they go to work with it on them still.

Katsuki was used to people staring at him, people always seemed so intimidated by him merely walking the streets, so when he noticed they looked like they were hiding something, he started to get pissed. It took almost until the end of the day before kirishima clocked in for the night shift and mentioned it to him.

“Yo! Super manly you’re wearing makeup man, can I get some? You can’t be the only guy wearing it round here, I want some of that manliness too!”

His eyes burned at his scowl turned towards kirishima,

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Well, Yano, your lipstick…think it suits you, makes you look more approachable and manly. I don’t wanna miss…”

He blasted past him as he stomped towards the mirror in the communal prohero kitchen. His eyes widened at the red stain across his lips, were all those extras laughing at him all day because of this?! He immediately started scrubbing his sleeve across his lips, making them infinitely more red as the friction threatened to burn his lower lip. He pulled his phone out and text you, hands shaking as he tried not to blow his phone up.

“You’re never kissing me again. I hate you.”

Every morning before work, Keigo insisted on a full make out session in his office. It was always steamy, full mouthed and aggressive. He cared very little for if you were wearing lipstick or not, he needed his mouth connected to yours for at least 10 minutes before both your shifts started. It was no surprise that youd left him with stained lips after he has caressed your mouth so violently, so by the time his sidekick Tokoyami came in, his lips might as well have at least three layers of your bright red lipstick smeared across them. Tokoyami stared at him silently, questioning whether this new look was indeed a mistake or just something new Keigo was trying out as usual. It took him a few moment before he mentioned it,

“Do…do hawks usually have red beaks or?”

“What’re you talking about kid?” He pulled out a tiny vanity mirror from his desk, staring at the way your lips had stained his. He smirked at the reflection and simply put the mirror back in the draw and carried on talking to Tokoyami.

“Oh yeah this, yeah sometimes they do. Only the best ones though, Yano like the big daddy ones, yeah. The best of the best, plus I think I look hot with it so fuck it, why not.”

When he got home, his lips were infinitely more red as he’s gone and brought a devilishly red lipstick to wear and applied it multiple times throughout the day. You looked over and laughed at him, as he strutted through with his hand on his hip and twirled infront of you.

“Hot as fuck right? Can we add more eyeliner to my markings too? Wanna watch Tokoyami lay an egg tomorrow when he sees me rock a full face of makeup.”

“Can we make it slightly bigger and bigger everyday and see who notices?!”

“This baby bird, this is why I love you.”

When Denki rocked into work with red smudges all across his lips no one batted an eye at first. It was clear hed been making out with you before work as usual, so by the time he sat down for the first briefing his lips had usually lost their swollen cheery tint and had settled down, but not this time. He sat through the whole meeting with cheery pink lips, glossy and shining throughout the entire thing, as sero couldnt help but snigger at him. Throughout the whole thing he would wink and pretend to shoot kisses to denki, to which he pretended to catch and press against his abs and laugh. They always had flirty banter together but today sero was being a little more audible with his laughs at denkis reactions. Towards the end, sero leant over the desk as everyone was packing up their paper work and simply said,

“You still haven’t realised have you? Didnt think she was the type to claim you with lipstick there man but hey… looks low-key kinda good.”

Denki immediacy reached up and touched his lips, a tiny smear of your lipgloss lingering on his finger as he pulled it away. He grinned and started rubbing it off with the back of his sleeve as his cheeks turned the same colour.

“So you only want me when I wear lipstick? Best wear it more often then bro. Come’ere, let’s share!”

Izuku always loved the way you peppered his face with tiny kisses before work, but today you had decided to kiss him after applying the new lipstain he brought you, instead of before you applied it. Not only was it a slow action stain, but nothing could possibly get it off, which izuku eventually realised later on. He arrived to his class, lips and cheeks covered in tiny pink kisses, as his whole class stifled their laughter. The poor man honestly thought hed finally gotten through to them as throughout the entire first half of the day they were all increasingly more cheerful, and even erupted in laughter at his famous allmight impression, finally. It took a TA popping their head in during first break and questioning what had happened to his face, for him to finally rush to a mirror and audibly gasp at the sight before him. The kisses youd peppered on him had now almost completely covered his freckles, lacing down to cover most of his upper lip. He was beyond mortified at the sight of the stain, desperately trying to scrub and wipe the marking away, only to find the friction from the wet paper towels making them infinitely worse. He spent the rest of the day with a hat and dark shades on, trying his best to cover the lovesick kisses that framed his sweet cherub face so perfectly. When he finally got home, his eyes were filled with tears as he questioned wether you meant to cause him such embarrassment infront of his class, only to find you nearly falling to the floor laughing at how sweet and innocent he looked, covered in beautiful tiny kisses.

Shinso worked nights so it wasn’t always possible for you to stay awake to see him off, although you desperately tried most nights, so when he did leave he’d usually kiss the top of your head as you slept and grabbed the little packed lunch youd made him, before quietly slinking out to start his patrol. You always made sure to kiss the little note youd written for him, one that he would never admit to anyone that he secretly kissed on his break too, only for you to be wearing a deep red lipstick this time. After he kissed it and shoved it back into his pocket, the remains of the lingering smudge stayed on his lips. Throughout his patrol his face was mostly covered, only tearing his mask away to drink or if it became too clamy in the Japanese humidity. His sidekick caught a glimpse of the deep red markings on his lips as he chugged some of his water, laughing slightly at the idea of Shinso wearing lipstick under his voice modulator.

“So, does the lipstick help with female voice change or what?” His sidekick snickered, glancing a side eye at him as he brought the mask back up to his face. Shinsos eyes widened at the comment, reaching his hand into his mask and brushing it over his lips. He looked down at his fingers as they were now staining slightly with the red smearing from your note. Shit.

“Oh er, yeah sometimes, I guess. Just trying it out I guess….nevermind.”

He quickly turned and dowsed his hand into water as he tried to reach in and rub the remaining of your lipstick off him. There was no way he was returning home with your lipstick covering him, forcing him to admit to anyone, even you, that he secretly kissed your notes because of how much he missed you at work.