#like not orange and light orange/white the lighter parts on the little guy were orange like inside pumpkin bread

[zahroreadsthings]

With the coast witch...

Check notes for previous instalments

'I want to go with you.'

'Of course you do. Take my bag, I'll tell you what to bring.'

You take one of the many bags down from a stand and pack a small, heavy pouch of what the witch calls water eaters and a case of cold vials no longer than your little finger.

The witch pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. 'Let's go.'

You arrive at a blue house near the viewing platform you first saw by the maritime museum. She mutters, 'The things I do,' and bangs on the front door.

The coast witch opens the door, already looking bored with the conversation. 'How... nice of you to come by. Would you like some tea?' She leads you to a sitting room much less cluttered than yours.

'This isn't a social call.'

'Then why are you in my house?'

The witch settles in a chair and heaves a long-suffering sigh. 'Pumpkin Bread. We're expecting rain in the next day or so.'

'This could have been a message.'

She looks like she might scream. Lex waves to get your attention from the other side of the room and you follow them into a kitchen. They kick the door closed behind you.

'Good practice to not be around them for over a minute.'

'What's their deal? And what does pumpkin bread have to do with this?'

'Wait.' They disappear for a minute and return carrying a sleeping cat so orange it's almost brown. 'Pumpkin Bread's this little fella. Those two have been married and divorced at least three times and mine took him in the last two divorces.'

You scratch Pumpkin Bread behind the ears. He half opend his eyes, stretches, then settles back to sleep. 'Why did we need to tell you about the rain?'

'First reason is our work's harder in rougher weather, but I don't think your witch cares about that. Second is that Pumpkin Bread needs cuddles when it rains because he gets so scared.' They snort. 'Dumber than a wall of bricks but a real hit with old women.'

'My cat at home was scared of heights.'

'That's kind of perfect, honestly.'

The front door slams hard enough to rattle the glasses to your right. You think you should leave.

[theboywithburninghands]

Part 2 of my standalone Funnybunny piece. Less angsty, more fun, still pretty heavy. I love it. Hope you will too. T/W: Mentions of drugs and alcohol, self-hatred

“You’re going to be okay, right?”

Pomni looked up at Jax. The two of them hadn’t said a word to each other since leaving his room. Thunder boomed and churned. 

“Yeah,” was Jax’s paltry reply. Pomni swallowed, from nerves and from her enduring thirst. She couldn’t chew on her gloves due to one gripping Jax’s hand and the other the lighter. She chewed on her lower lip instead. 

“You… don’t have to stay for very long. I told you I’m dogwater at social stuff, so I won’t force you to do too much. Okay?” 

“Okay,” Jax replied.

Pomni felt frustration stir in her belly. One-word answers were the bane of her existence. For the life of her, she couldn’t tell what someone was feeling if they only said “yeah” or “nah” or “fine.” Was Jax angry with her? Tired? Ashamed? Some awkward fusion of all three? …Well. That would have to be put on hold. She released Jax’s hand, the rabbit tucking his hand back into his pocket, and opened the door to Ragatha’s bedroom. 

“ Pomni! And-And Jax, you’re back! Is everything okay?”

Ragatha hurried over to Pomni, stepping carefully over her blankets and pillows. She had evidently been trying to make a blanket fort in near-total darkness, without much success. 

“Yeah. We talked.” Pomni said. 

“More like screamed.” came a dry and annoyed voice. Zooble was resting on Ragatha’s empty bed. “We could hear you from all the way down the hall. I think the only thing louder than you was the storm.”

There was a faint burble of thunder. Apparently it agreed.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you guys. I just…”

“Don’t worry, Pomni. You brought light with you.” 

Kinger ignited the wick of a long, white candle using the lighter in Pomni’s hand. He stared at the flame it created intently for a moment, before he stuck it on an old fashioned brass chamberstick, the kind with a finger loop you always saw people in silk pajamas use to look around their dark manor in old movies. He cupped the flame and brought it over to some of the candles that had fallen on the floor, setting the chamberstick down on Ragatha’s hutch so he could plate the other candles.

“You should thank Jax. He had a change of heart even before I yelled at him.” Pomni said with a nervous chuckle. 

Jax blew a raspberry through his lips and went over to help Kinger light the other candles. Pomni chewed on her glove. 

“Thank you for bringing the lighter back, Jax…” Gangle said softly. She clutched a stuffed zebra for security. “I-I don’t do so well in the dark…” 

“Whatever.” Jax replied without turning around. 

“I think that’s Jaxenese for ‘you’re welcome.’” Ragatha said with a smirk. 

“Say, why is this candle blue?” Kinger asked, holding up a squat, already lit powder-blue one in a glass jar. 

“Oh, that’s one of my scented ones. Blue citrus, it’s really nice. Leave it going for a bit.” Ragatha delicately took the candle and placed it on her table.

In time, the performers eventually had all the candles going, safely burning on sticks, sconces or small glass plates to keep any wax from dripping onto the floor. Kinger went and retrieved his camping stove, which thankfully had enough white gas left in it to get started. Ragatha filled her tea kettle with a gallon jug of drinking water she kept stowed away under her bed, setting it gingerly on the camping stove. She set about putting ginseng tea bags in her white china cups, handing them to everyone on saucers as a plume of steam began to issue from the kettle. The room smelled pleasantly of orange. 

“I know it’s a little cliché, but I love tea. Especially with my secret ingredient.” 

“Booze?” Zooble asked. Pomni couldn’t help but snort. Ragatha chuckled as well. 

“No, no. I don’t really have a name for it. At least not yet.” Ragatha went over to a small fridge that resembled a toy chest. 

“Shrooms? That’d be awesome.” Zooble sighed. Gangle stifled a giggle this time.

“Zooble, stop it.” Ragatha tisked with a hand on her hip. “You would not wanna do magic mushrooms in the middle of a blackout, trust me.”

“She’s right…” Gangle agreed. Zooble shot her a suspicious look just as Ragatha retrieved a small thermos from the fridge, shutting the door quickly to not let the cold out.

“Alright, everyone bring me your cups.” Ragatha said, taking the kettle off of Kinger’s stove with a pink and white checkered potholder. Thunder rumbled. 

Everyone gathered around Ragatha’s table as she poured hot water into their cups, the water turning deep amber as it mixed with the hot tea leaves. She bobbed the string in everyone’s cups to let out some additional flavor before discarding the hot wet bags and opening her thermos. She retrieved an elegantly patterned silver spoon from her tea set and stirred the contents of the thermos. After a moment she scooped out a heaping spoonful of what looked like purple clotted cream, dolloping it into her own cup and stirring until the tea was a pleasant, dull lavender color. She put a significantly smaller amount into every other cup, humming tunelessly. She smiled and held up her own cup after finishing. 

“Hope you enjoy! Drink it slow to savor the taste.” Ragatha gently blew away the steam drifting from her own cup and took a sip, sighing in contentment. 

Pomni blew on hers as well and sampled the tea. Whatever Ragatha’s secret ingredient was, it contained a lot of sugar and cream. It was almost like drinking a slice of birthday cake, but with a flutter of herbs she didn’t recognize. Not bad at all, but a little too rich to have more than one cup. 

“Mmm!~ This is so good!” Gangle cried. Zooble, on the other hand, spluttered.

 “Oh jeez…” they said in between coughs.

“Aw, you don’t like it?” Ragatha asked, smiling politely yet with a twinge of disappointment. 

“No it’s- it’s good it’s-” Zooble hacked and coughed. “I just wasn’t expecting like… A blast in the face from the sugar cannon. I- ahem, usually take my coffee black or my tea plain…”

“Oh man, that’s hardcore, Zooble.” Pomni said. “I at least need a little sugar in mine…”

“I’m with Pompom. It’s almost like plain coffee tastes bad.” Jax said. He sipped from his cup and looked down at it with a slightly crinkled face. “Yeah, this is like, crazy sweet though.” 

“Well you aren’t spraying it across the room, so I’ll take that as a win.” Ragatha replied, smiling proudly. 

Kinger finished his entire cup in a few gulps, holding it out to Ragatha. “More please.”

“Woah! Easy there, Kinger!” Ragatha held out a hand to slow him down. “I’m glad you like it but you’re gonna burn your throat. Plus this is ginseng, so it’ll give you energy.”  

“Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense. You stay peppy by consuming truckloads of caffeine.” Jax tapped his cup for reference. 

Ragatha giggled. “Caffeine does help. But counting your blessings and staying positive every day helps even more.” 

“Yyyyyyyeah, I’ll stick with the caffeine thanks.” Jax took a sip of his tea, squinting his eyes a bit at the sweetness. 

Pomni smiled. He was getting back to his old self. If he kept his humor to light-hearted ribbing, he was pleasant. Charming, even. She sipped her tea.

After everyone had finished, Gangle, Kinger and Ragatha going back for a second cup, Ragatha taught them the basics of making a blanket fort. While Pomni normally wouldn’t have been interested, not having any sort of caffeine or similar stimulant in months had caught up to her; her head was humming and she needed something to do. She listened to all of Ragatha’s instructions carefully, and went to get her blanket from her room along with the others. Kinger accompanied Gangle to her bedroom, the ribbon girl still paranoid about the dark even with a candle to light her way.

Jax proved himself useful at tying the blankets together. It seemed that in addition to making him a skilled lockpicker, his nimble fingers allowed him to make pretty complicated knots on his first or second try. He hardly required any instruction on how to tie them either. Maybe it was the ginseng helping him focus, Pomni wondered to herself. 

Soon, their fort was complete. It was a little on the cramped side, especially when it was filled up with pillows,  but all six of them could fit if they packed together like sardines. Pomni, cautious of having to squeeze up alongside people, opted for a seat at the end, Jax on her left and the fort’s exit on her right. She didn’t mind being close to Jax… 

“Well, this is great! I feel snug as a bug in here!” Ragatha declared. 

“It’s nice enough.” Zooble admitted. “Beats whatever stupid-@$$ thing Caine had planned.”

“When do you guys think he’s coming back? He’s not gonna be mad is he?” Pomni asked. 

“He doesn’t really get mad very much. He tries to keep the kid-friendly persona up all the time, so he can’t be too threatening, y’know?” Jax said. From how close they were sitting, Pomni could feel the vibrations of his voice on her left arm. 

“Besides, I think he’ll be proud we managed to have a little adventure together even with the electricity not working properly.” Ragatha added. 

“I just wish there was a way to bring light into our fort…” Gangle sighed. “I know it’s not safe to bring candles in here, but it’s so dark…”

Thunder sounded out from beyond the blankets, still quite loud but not nearly as frequent and quaking as before. 

“Hey, you know it’s funny you say that?” Jax said. He took a moment to reach into the pocket of his overalls and retrieve a small, tube-shaped item. There was a click and a cone of light shone from one end of the tube, causing everyone to squint.

“Jax, is that a flashlight..?” Ragatha asked, shielding her eye with one hand.

“You had a flashlight on you this whole time and didn’t tell us?!” Zooble groused. 

“Hey, I forgot I had it until I got back into my room. Why do you think I was so willing to give Jingles my lighter?” Jax tousled Pomni’s coxcomb hat, shaking the bells in it. “Besides, I was waiting for a moment like this-”

Jax held the lit end of the flashlight under his chin, turning his face into an eerie black and white silhouette with shaded eyes. 

“-to tell you guys a little story.”

Gangle let out the same sustained whine she did when the power first went out. 

“Jax, come on, no ghost stories.” Ragatha held out her hand in a “halt” motion. 

“Aw, whaaat?” Jax took the light off of his face. “You’re kidding, it’s an essential slumber party activity. Unless we were gonna sit around and talk about boys.”

“I’d rather we do that…” Gangle admitted, holding her stuffed zebra a little closer. 

“Real boys, Gangle. Not anime boys.” Jax drawled. “Come on, just one story. I promise I’ll go easy on you.” 

“I wouldn’t mind hearing it.” Kinger said.

“Sure, whatever.” Zooble grunted.

“Noooooo…” Gangle mewled, squeezing her zebra with all her strength.

Pomni smiled a bit. “Gangle, I think he really means it this time. You promise you won’t scare us too bad, Jax?” 

“Well I can’t promise-”

He paused for a second.

“Yeah, I promise.” 

“...Okay.” Gangle sighed. Ragatha reached a hand over to hold one of her ribbons, which she gladly accepted.

“Eeexcellent…” Jax held the light under his chin, giving a huge, jack-o-lantern grin. “Then let’s get started.”

The rabbit cleared his throat. 

“There once was a 10-year-old boy, we’ll call him Paul, that lived near a pretty big set of woods. It was meant to be cleared for more houses, but there was some sort of issue with zoning or maybe the HOA, you know how these things go. Paul’s house was right next to it, and since the city wasn’t doin’ anything with it, he decided to explore it. “Now Paul loved it out there. Even though it was only a wedge of land a little less than a mile long, he had the whole place mapped out. He knew where every fallen tree to balance on was, he knew where every gully was so he never fell into ‘em, he knew where all his favorite hidden clearings and funny looking bushes were. 

“But, like any 10-year-old, he would forget stuff out there sometimes. Nothin’ too bad at first, he’d forget a comic book out there, then find it again a few days later with spots of mold on it, or maybe he’d bring his lunchbox out there with some snacks and forget it, so his mom would have to wash it when he finally found it on a stump or something. “Now there was one Saturday, in April, where he went out in the morning to play. He had his jacket on since the mornings could still be a little bit chilly in the early spring. But, as the sun got higher in the sky, the day got warmer. So, he took his jacket off and hung it on a branch. 

“Not long after he did that though, his mom called him inside to do his weekend chores before he went over to a friend’s house, and he went running back home, leaving his jacket, forgotten, on the branch.”

There was a rumble of thunder, Jax’s smile only growing wider with a dark chuckle.

“So, he goes to his friend’s house, comes home, does his homework, plays some video games, and goes to bed. He’s got church tomorrow morning after all, he can’t stay up too late, and he’s tired. He had a busy day. So, he lays down in bed and falls asleep within minutes. 

“One o’clock in the morning. Paul wakes up and has to go to the bathroom. On his way back though, he hears a noise. He looks down the stairs to see that the front door is creaking open. No one locked their doors around here, it was a safe neighborhood. He figures it might be his parents back from some kind of get-together with their friends. But what comes inside…

“Oh, it isn’t his parents.” Jax let out another grim chuckle, Ragatha squeezing Gangle’s ribbon a little bit tighter.

“What shuffles into the house is a good eight feet tall with long, scarecrow-like limbs, covered in mud and leaves from the woods, piercing bright yellow eyes peering out from filthy, bug ridden hair. It tracks mud on the hardwood floor with every step it takes, leaving behind three toed footprints. It looks up the stairs, and it sees Paul! 

“Paul runs for his bedroom, but he can hear the creature snarl through a clotted throat and fall onto all fours, loping up the stairs far, FAR faster than Paul could run. Paul skids to a stop in front of his door, seeing the creature’s horrible eyes leering at him from the top of the stairs. He runs inside his room and tries to slam the door shut, but a hand tipped with three dirty talons catches the edge of the door before he can shut it. “It’s so much bigger and stronger than he is, and it throws the door open, slamming it hard against his bedroom wall. It has to stoop to fit into his bedroom, never once taking those awful, piercing eyes off of him. Paul falls onto the floor and covers his eyes, waiting for the teeth to clamp down on his head or those horrible claws to tear him limb from limb! “The creature reaches onto its back, pulling something off of its body. A weapon to stab him with or- “A jacket. The creature dropped Paul’s filthy jacket onto the bedroom floor with a wet flop.  

“‘Quit leavin’ your stuff on my property, stupid.’ it grunts, before turning and bowing out the door, down the steps and into the night.”

Everyone was quiet for a second before Ragatha started laughing. Gangle joined in, then Pomni did as well. Jax handed the flashlight over to Gangle and relaxed, putting his hands behind his head. 

“That was a good story, Jax! I liked it a lot better than the one about the babysitter.” Ragatha said. 

“Or the one about the dog…” Gangle said. She seemed to have surprised herself with how hard she had laughed, as she hiccuped soon after. 

“Hey now, this story has a moral,” Jax said from his reclining position. “What, respect nature? Don’t leave important stuff behind?” Zooble asked, barely interested. 

“Nah. Don’t be a ten-year-old.”  Again, there was a ripple of somewhat awkward laughter amongst the performers. They weren’t used to Jax making jokes that weren’t… cruel. Snarky as hell, sure, but these were… actually pretty funny. It was… nice to have him around. 

Pomni touched his leg. He opened one eye and glanced down at her glove, then back up at the jester. Even in the dim light, her blush was noticeable. “So what do we do now? Anyone got anything they want to talk about..?” Ragatha asked. “I dunno. I’d say we could nap, but I’m still a little wired from your tea. What else do you do at a slumber party?” Pomni scratched her cheek. “I could teach you guys how to make paper stars! Or maybe we could-”

There was a great swoosh of movement as the top blanket was yanked off of their fort. “HELLO EVERYONE! GLAD TO SEE YOU’RE DOING WELL!” Caine held the blanket in one hand and his cane in the other, hovering above the group and giving off his own light. Everyone jolted, Pomni pressing herself against Jax. Jax instinctively put a hand around her. “Well, we were …” Jax drawled. “What do you want, Caine?”

“The lights are still off… no luck fixing whatever needs fixing..?” Zooble asked. “Also, that’s my blanket.” 

“APOLOGIES, ZOOBLE! HERE YOU GO!” Caine hurled the blanket at Zooble like a cannonball, knocking them into their pillows with a shocked and incensed “OW.” 

“Caine, what’s-” Pomni noticed she was in Jax’s arms. “Uh… I um…” 

Jax looked down and smirked proudly. 

“EXCELLENT QUESTION POMNI! BUBBLE AND I HAVE BEEN HARD AT WORK TRYING TO FIX OUR LITTLE POWER ISSUE! ISN’T THAT RIGHT, BUBBLE?!”

Bubble emerged from within Caine’s hat, wearing a construction helmet and glowing. 

“We haven’t been able to fix anything!” he declared proudly.

Caine just about fell out of the air in shock, quickly righting himself. “Bubble! They’re not supposed to know that!” he whispered harshly. 

“Oh. I guess they do now huh?” Bubble replied. Caine swiftly popped him, his helmet falling out of the air and into Kinger’s lap.

“Ooh! A gift from the gods!” he declared, immediately putting it on. 

“You guys haven’t found the issue yet..? Is there anything we can do to help?” Ragatha asked.

“We? I ain’t helping.” Zooble declared. 

“I’m with Zoob. I’m pretty comfortable in this little tent. With my stuffed animal.” Jax said, patting Pomni on the arm. Pomni felt like she might explode.

“I APPRECIATE THE OFFER RAGATHA, BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THE ISSUE IS FOR RINGMASTER AND RINGMASTER ASSOCIATED ASSOCIATES ONLY!” 

“Well… what is the issue then?” Gangle asked. 

“WELL YOU SEE-”

Caine then regurgitated an enormous dump of information, enough to fill up three pages front and back. But his voice was sped up so quickly that it all flew by in a matter of about 30 seconds. 

“-BUT THAT’S THE SHORT VERSION!” 

“So… it’s gonna take a while to fix, then.” Pomni said. She was admittedly a bit happy they wouldn’t be thrown into another adventure right then and there. She was comfortable right where she was… right there next to Jax, sharing his warmth. His fur was fine yet plush, incredibly soft like that of a microfiber blanket.

“How did it happen anyway? Were you messing with the weather again?” Zooble asked.

“I PLEAD THE FIFTH!”

“Caine, don’t take this the wrong way, but… you look… tired?” Ragatha asked. 

“HA! DON’T BE RIDICULOUS! I’M THE RINGMASTER! IT’S MY JOB TO KEEP YOU ALL ENTERTAINED FOR-”

There was a deafening clap of thunder that stopped Caine’s spiel in its tracks. He looked up at the ceiling and then hung his head.

“I’m very tired.”

Ragatha smiled and got to her feet, stepping out of the now roofless blanket fort and over to the camping stove sitting on her table. She got the stove started after a few attempts, refilling her tea-kettle. The others watched her, exchanging looks. 

“Whatcha doing there, Rags?” Jax inquired uneasily.

“Caine said he was tired, didn’t he? He could use a cup of tea.” Ragatha replied, putting the kettle onto the burner. 

“Can Caine even eat or drink..? I don’t know if-ACK!”

Pomni was bonked on the head by an object that  fell from above. As it rigidly fell to the mass of cushions with a polite plop, its form became clear in the beam of the flashlight. 

“Caine dropped his… uh, cane!” Gangle whispered, putting a ribbon to her mouth in surprise.

The six performers looked up at the ringmaster. He hovered in the same spot, head still bowed. A sound emitted from his teeth, a mixture of a Dial-up computer’s startup sound and faint snoring. 

“Oh my God, he’s out cold!” Zooble said incredulously. They stood and tapped one of Caine’s feet experimentally. Not even a twitch. A huge grin spread across Jax’s face. “Let’s put his hand in warm water!” He scrambled to his feet, only for Pomni to grab one of his ankles on his way out of the fort, causing him to fall onto the floor, one leg still stuck in the fort. “Let’s not.” she retorted flatly. “Man, you suck.” Jax said, putting his chin on his knuckles in petulant disappointment. 

“Guys, we should let him sleep,” Ragatha said, dropping a tea bag into one of her China cups. “I think if he gets the rest he needs, he’ll be able to fix all this. At least give him until his tea is ready.” The other performers obliged, some more reluctant than others. Jax climbed back into the tent beside Pomni. They chatted quietly for a few minutes, occasionally glancing up to check on Caine, who remained suspended in the air like an unused marionette. Ragatha soon approached with a cup of her purple tea on a saucer. 

“Anyone want to do the honors?” she asked, looking up at Caine with an amused smile. 

“I’m on it.” Jax said, picking up a pillow. He squinted one eye to help his aim and lobbed it at Caine. The cushion bounced off Caine’s teeth, landing back on the floor anticlimactically. 

A few seconds of silence and then Caine slowly raised his head as a start-up jingle played. He blinked rapidly and looked around. “GADZOOKS! HOW LONG WAS I OUT?!” he cried.

“Couple hours.” Jax replied. This earned him a whap with a pillow from Pomni. 

“He’s kidding, you were sleeping for about twenty minutes,” Ragatha said. “But you needed it. Do you feel any better?” Caine scratched where his chin might have been. “HMM, LET ME SEE…” 

He put his hands on his hips, staring off into nothing. His eyes gradually drifted in opposite directions. “Uh…” Pomni began. “YES! I FEEL MUCH BETTER! ALL I NEEDED WAS A GOOD HARD RESET! DON’T YOU WORRY, MY LITTLE SUPERSTARS, YOU CAN REST EASY KNOWING THAT I’LL HAVE THIS STORM ISSUE FIXED WITHIN THE HOUR!”

“That’s great! But, you know? It was a fun little adventure on its own, I think.” Ragatha said. “FANTASTIC NEWS! THAT JUST MEANS I’LL HAVE TO WORK EVEN HARDER TO SURPRISE YOU ALL WITH TOMORROW’S ADVENTURE, WON’T I?!” 

Everyone winced. 

“WELL, I BETTER GET BACK TO IT! SEE YOU ALL ON A SUNNIER DAY!” Caine declared, picking up his cane from the pillows and twirling it around with theatrical flourish. 

“Oh, did you want your tea first?” Ragatha held up the steaming cup for Caine to see. “GOSH RAGATHA, I ALMOST FORGOT! THANK YOU, DEAR!” Caine hovered down and took the teacup with his free hand, pinky out.

“Be careful, Caine, it’s a little-” Ragatha’s smile melted when she saw Caine chug the entire thing in one go, tossing the teacup over his shoulder, where it shattered on the floor with a tinkly smash. 

“...hot. A-Are you okay?” 

Steam issued from Caine’s mouth, his tongue significantly more raw and red. Tears pooled in his eyes. “THE PAIN ITH ALMOTHT EUPHORIC, RAGATHA!” he lisped, pointing at the ragdoll. He then disappeared in a loud pop of confetti, a distant howl of pain audible within a rumble of thunder. 

After cleaning up the bits of broken china, Ragatha put Zooble’s blanket back over top of their fort and climbed back inside. The performers spent the next hour or so chatting about this and that. About 20 minutes was devoted to an argument over whether milk or dark chocolate was superior, Kinger rattled off an encyclopedic list of the insects he had in his collection, and Jax introduced everyone to the concept of “The Game.” It was agreed Kinger had the best chance of winning The Game given his iffy memory. 

Pomni was in the middle of reciting Pi, and was on the forty-first digit (6) when the lights weakly flashed on, turned off, then bloomed to full brightness. 

“Yaaay! We’ve got power!” Ragatha cried joyfully. 

“Aw, too bad. I was curious about the rest of Pi.” Jax drawled. Pomni blushed and nudged him on the shoulder. 

The performers took a moment to help Ragatha snuff out all of her candles and put away all the sticks and dishes they were placed on. They carefully dismantled their fort, everyone holding their respective blanket and pillows. “Thanks for stopping by, you guys. I know I said it was a slumber party, but it’s only… uh…” Ragatha checked a pocket watch she had in her dress. “1:52 PM. So I guess it doesn’t technically doesn’t qualify…”

“Hey, don’t sweat it doll,” Zooble said. “I had a nice time. Doesn’t happen very often, you know?” 

“Mmm-hmm. I would have spent the whole day hiding in bed without you.” Gangle added. She still had Ragatha’s stuffed zebra under one ribbon, the doll said she could borrow it.

“You guys, come on…” Ragatha waved a hand, her cheeks pink. “It’s no big deal, really.” 

“Give yourself some credit, Ragatha. You did the most today.” Pomni insisted with a faint smile. 

Ragatha laughed off the compliments. Even if she was being humble, it was clear just how much the praise meant to her from her luminous blush. The performers parted ways, going to their rooms to make their beds and, for some, promptly lay back down in them. Pomni rubbed her eyes as she smoothed out her comforter. That ginseng was really carrying her, and now that the last of it had passed through her brain, she was left with the combined fatigue of too little sleep and emotional overexertion. A nap would really hit the spot right now, and the dim light from the leftover storm, now not much more than a drizzle and occasional thunder, was an open invitation for her to close her heavy eyelids. Only… there was one thing she needed to take care of first.

She swallowed, feeling a spark of anxiety in her belly, but decided to bite the bullet and go for it. She crossed the hallway to Jax’s room and knocked on his door. “Jax..?” she called, too quietly to be heard. Her anxiety had a nasty habit of forcing her voice into a mumble. She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to try again, only for the door to open. Jax looked down at her and gave her a smile. “...Hey.” “Hi…” she replied with a timid little wave. “Can I come in..?” Jax moved aside to let the jester into his room. Through his window, she could see the sky was still covered in a patchy mix of white and gray clouds, puddles dotting the grounds just about everywhere. Jax closed the door and locked it. “...I’m sorry I yelled at you.” Pomni said. She put the thumb of one of her gloves in her teeth and chewed on it. “You were being an @$$, but I was out of line too.”

Jax went over to the window and looked outside. Pomni moved her teeth from her thumb to her pointer finger. “...I do still think that… You wouldn’t hate yourself as much if you weren’t-” 

“Spare me.” 

Pomni looked up. Jax was still smiling, but it wasn’t nearly as wide as before. “You’re right. You don’t have to hurt yourself coming up with a whole big speech.” Jax said, turning to look at Pomni. She averted eye contact, looking out the window instead. 

“...I won’t. But…” Pomni bit particularly hard on the tip of her glove. “You… really don’t remember?” 

Jax shook his head. “Nope. It just… exists. The feeling that I’m nothing. Worse than nothing-”

“Less than a person.” Pomni finished.  “Below zero.” 

“Yup.” Jax said. “No cure for something with no cause.” 

Jax felt a pair of arms wrap around his torso. Pomni rested her head against his side, looking out the window with him.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to make it hurt a little less.” 

Jax felt an ache in his throat. He put a hand on Pomni’s back. She didn’t flinch.

The two of them looked out the window like that for a while. Jax eventually led her over to his bed, helping her climb in and pulling the covers back.

“I figured you were tired too.” he said. 

“God, am I ever. I feel so heavy…” Pomni sighed.

Jax tossed the covers over her. He scooted up beside her on the bed, and she immediately slid up beside him, resting her cheek on his chest. His denim overalls were warm. “I had a good time with you today…” Pomni said. “Can… Can I kiss you?”

Jax was quiet for a moment. He looked down at the jester. She met his eyes. He leaned down and their lips met. It wasn’t a long kiss, or even a very good one. Pomni was off-center by a few centimeters and ended up kissing his bottom lip only, and the awkward angle made it so Jax had to crane his neck to get any reach at all. And yet, the electricity between their lips easily dwarfed any thunderstorm.

[hsakuras]

Trap | A. Arlert

cw: drug use(weed) drug dealer! Armin, coercion, dubcon, degradation, finger sucking, oral (f receiving), cream pie, unprotected sex, spitting, mentions of baby trapping, self-indulgent

wc: 3.9k

[10:45p] Talk to Armin

You’re not sure what to say back, you want to laugh almost. You want to ask Eren if this is a joke for turning him down last week when he delivered your weed to you. You didn’t think it was that deep when you rejected him, the next text you get from him is Armin’s number.

He’s really serious.

You don’t reply. Not really in the mood to ask him why he won’t sell to you or what’s wrong with him. Instead you tap on the contact he sent you, saving it into your phone and replacing Eren’s spot.

You text him first asking if it’s Armin and explaining you got his contact from Eren. You figured they’d know each other, why else would Eren give you his number?

[11:00p] Hi! It’s me! What can I do for you?

You stifle a laugh, this is the guy you’re supposed to buy from? You know it’s awkward texting someone new for drugs but you’re almost ready to give up when he texts you again.

[11:03p] Eren just told me what you usually get, you want to meet me or should I bring it to you?

Usually you’d be in favor of getting anything you buy brought to you, but you figured it would be safer to meet him instead. Can’t have a stranger knowing where you live and your location is always on for your closest friends. You’ll be sure to text one of them before heading out.

Armin texts you an address of where to meet him. You’re quick to grab a jacket and slip your shoes on before heading out to meet him. You have half a mind to change into sweatpants before you leave but you don’t know how Armin is about being late and you don’t really feel like asking around for someone else to buy from.

The start of your drive is usual, listening and glancing to the directions of your gps to guide you across town. Recognizing that the further you go, the nicer the houses get, the bigger they get, and the more expensive they get. You almost text him to double check if you’re going the right way when it finally hits you.

You’ve met Armin before.

You were most likely fucked from a night of drinking or smoking, or both. You remember how he hung around Eren at a party and how he had on a stupid blue cardigan that matched his eyes. He looked like he didn’t even fit in with anyone. Just some cute, preppy kid running around with his family’s money, probably mixed in with the wrong crowd. It’s no wonder you’re pulling up to a nice house and of course there’s no wonder that there's a parade of cars here. You can see the numerous people with red solo cups in their hands, some stumbling, and the majority of them laughing at the antics of everyone else.

You almost want to leave when someone knocks on the window causing you to jump.

“Holy shit.” You roll your window down enough to be met with blue eyes. It’s Armin.

“Hey, uh, I have your stuff but you’re gonna have to come inside or wait out here.”

You only nod in response, not really giving him the solid answer he’s looking for.

“So are you cool waiting here orrr?”

“I’ll go inside, sorry.” You roll your window back up, taking the keys to your car and double checking to make sure it locks before following Armin inside the house.

The crowd of people outside pales in comparison to the sea of bodies inside of his house. Music blaring and your vision immediately falls to the sweaty bodies dancing in the middle of the huge living room. You continue to look around, watching in awe of how easily people let loose after a couple drinks or hits from a joint. You’re tempted to join them, that is until you make out Eren’s form holding a rolled joint up to Mikasa’s lips. You watch as she hesitantly leans forward and inhales before coughing while Eren laughs. You look away before he can see you, still following Armin before he offers his arm out to you.

“Last fuckin’ time I let Eren throw a ‘small’ party here.”

You laugh a little, holding onto Armin while he leads you upstairs. There are fewer people upstairs, some sitting around to get away from the crowd. Others start to roll a joint before they scramble to put their papers and weed away when they see Armin. He doesn’t pay them any attention, instead, he tells a couple looking for an unlocked room to ‘fuck off’ before unlocking the door to what you think is his room.

Inside everything is organized, you expected it to be. I mean this was Armin you were following, cute Armin with all of his white collared button-ups and cardigans. You don’t recall if you’ve ever seen him in a t-shirt, you watch as he fumbles around by his nightstand, still wary before he encourages you to come in and please shut the door behind you.

He tells you to have a seat on his bed, asking you if you can roll or if you want him to roll a joint for the both of you. You don’t really give him an answer before he finds his tray adorned with wrapping papers, a grinder, and more weed on it. He hands you your baggie of weed telling you that he doesn’t mind sharing his, you don’t know that he only shares his weed with girls he wants to fuck. He loves when new girls like you hit him up for bud, not worried in the slightest bit because Armin isn’t like Eren those sleazy drug dealers, he’s kind and cute.

Your eyes wander to the little bedside table where the drawer isn’t closed all the way and you can see all types of bags full of weed, you can see the scale that his weed was sitting on, and you can make out a smaller bag full of what you can only assume is molly. Part of you wants to ask why he spends his time selling, you’re in awe of his house and you’re sure that his family has more than enough for him to live comfortably.

Lithe fingers roll the joint together before his tongue peeks out of his mouth to ensure it stays together.

“Got a lighter?”

You nod, reaching into the pocket of your jacket and handing it to him. His hand envelops yours and his touch makes butterflies awaken in your stomach. You’re quick to smother them, telling yourself you’re only here for the weed and now a quick smoke session. Nothing else.

Ever the gentleman, he offers you the first hit, gently placing the joint between your lips despite your efforts to take it from him. He holds the lighter at the end and you study his face before you can finally inhale. The smoke makes the back of your throat burn, you cough a little and Armin laughs before plucking the joint from you and placing it on his lips. He inhales, the end lighting up in a bright orange while he takes off the cardigan he’s wearing.

“Sorry, it’s getting stuffy.” He says before passing the joint back to you, thankfully, he hands it to you this time. You take a longer drag, staring at the pretty veins on his arms and realizing how strong he might actually be. He isn’t like Eren, you think, he’s comfortable in the silence and you feel relieved that you no longer have to text his best friend for your drugs, not when Armin is better at responding and willing to smoke you out even if it’s just this time.

You take another hit, enjoying the feeling of your limbs growing heavy and your head swirling in bliss. You feel weightless yet heavy and you’re amazed at how only three hits has you feeling this way. It’s way better than anything Eren has ever given you.

“Armin” you say, mouth going completely dry when you notice that he’s unbuttoned part of his shirt and you can see his abs peeking through when you stretch your hand out to him holding the joint. He’s happy to take it from you, watching as you slowly grow even more comfortable on his bed, toeing your shoes off before letting your jacket fall off your shoulder revealing your little tank top you wear to bed. He takes one last hit before he tells you to finish it.

You’re not sure you can finish it, looking at the camera on your phone and seeing how glazed over your eyes look. Armin tells you to get comfortable, it’s fine. He’ll make sure that no one comes in to bother either of you.

Just trust him.

He watches as you bring the remainder of the joint back up to your lips, watching as you take hit after hit and giggling when you blow smoke on accident in his face, or when you accidentally lean a little too far forward into his own personal space. You even have the audacity to look up at him and say that you’re not even that high.

Oh but if you could see yourself through his eyes, you’re absolutely fucking baked. Pretty eyes glazed and red rimmed while you drink the water bottle he offers you, watching as a small droplet makes its way down from the corner of your mouth. You put the bottle down, “s’kay Min.” You slur and he knows he’s got you.

He reaches over and wipes the water away and you swear he’s unbuttoning his shirt when you’re not looking because there’s no way he just casually shows that much of himself to you. “You’re so pretty” he whispers, the pad of his thumb grazing over your bottom lip before looking back up into your eyes.

The compliment catches you off guard and you’re not sure if it’s the marijuana that gives you courage or the fact you would do anything to get lost in Armin’s baby blue eyes but you allow your tongue to slip out licking the pad of his thumb before he’s pushing it into your mouth. You immediately suck and Armin finally gives you a smirk that has arousal pooling in your belly. You let go of his finger and he presses his lip against yours, immediately you let his tongue in when you feel it against your lips, your hands finding the remaining buttons on his shirt and quickly pulling it apart.

Armin knows he’s got you where he wants you. Pretty thing like you walking into his house with sleep shorts, tank top, and no bra? He knew you wouldn’t protest when he started to roll the joint for you, knew that you’d smoke the entire joint because you haven’t felt this fucking relaxed in a while. He’d call you pretty while your eyes are all red and your mind seems hazy.

Your hands run along the taut muscles of his abdomen, and he’s pushing you back towards his bed. His thigh slotted in between your thighs and you fight the urge to grind down on it, knowing that he could probably feel how wet you would get just at his fleeting touches that set your skin on fire. He kisses your lips one last time before kissing your neck, teeth nipping at your pulse point just to get you to squirm.

Then he feels it.

The warmth of your pretty little pussy on his thigh and fuck he can’t wait to feel you. He wants a taste, his mouth waters at the thought of your honeyed essence on his tongue and coating his chin, how your hands must feel in his hair and what your breathy moans would sound like panting out his name.

He pulls your shirt up, pinching one of your nipples while wrapping his lips around the other, tongue flicking the hardening bud before continuing his descent on your body. Both of his hands are on your tits while he plants warm kisses along your stomach, making sure to tease along the waistband of your sleep shorts.

He’s quick to adjust the both of you, pulling you closer to the foot of the bed by your ankles before kneeling in between your pussy.

“Armin, wait—” whatever plea you had for him dies in your throat when you feel his nose press along your clothes folds, inhaling your sweet scent. He presses a kiss to it, whispering praises barely loud enough for you to hear. Telling you how pretty you look and asking to let him taste you even though he’s already pulling your shorts and panties down your legs. He groans when your cunt, mutters something about how cute your pretty pussy looks. His knuckle coming up to swipe at your slit, groaning when your slick covers it and how sensitive you are under his touch.

You feel him lick a stripe along your folds, your thighs squishing his face before strong arms come to keep you in place. You’re not allowed to interrupt him, not while he’s enjoying himself.

His lips wrap around your clit, using his fingers to reveal it to him, the sensation has you mewling and arching your back into his face. His tongue swirls around the bundle of nerves until your hands find his hair. Your fingers carding through his soft blonde locks while you beg and plead for more. He lets go of your clit in favor of licking your slit, he moans when he finally gets a taste of you, tongue wandering into your gummy walls while his nose hits your puffy clit over and over again. Your mewls are getting louder and you're begging for more, for something more because you need to cum, he has to let you cum.

Armin pulls away and you sob out to him, “Min, please, need to cum, make me cum, please.”

He can’t say no, not when his chin is covered in your slick and his cock twitches every time you plead and whine his name. He holds your legs apart, delivering a quick slap to the inside of your thigh when you attempt to close them when the pad of his middle finger finds your clit. “Keep you legs open.” He says, voice low and gravely. He doesn’t waste time, inserting his middle finger to his knuckle. The feeling of you tight, velvety walls around his digit makes his dick twitch and serve as an aching reminder that he’s not done with you yet, he won’t let you leave after this. Not until he gets to bury himself deep into the velvet of your pussy.

The muscles of his arm are protruding with the pace he sets as he finger fucks you, his lips wrapped around your clit and he begins to suck and you swear you’re in another fucking dimension with how euphoric you feel. The weed in your system makes you extra sensitive and Armin can feel another gush of your arousal all over his hand.

“Armin, fuck,fuck,fuck!”

“Give it to me, baby, wanna see you cream all over my fingers come on.”

He has to see it, inserting his ring finger and adding to your pleasure when he finds that spongey little spot inside of you that has you arching into his touch again. He takes it has his cue to lick and suck on your abused bud again, watching how pretty you look when your voice fails you and your scream goes silent as you cum around his fingers, eyes crossing as you finally give him what he wants.

“Atta girl, squeezing my fingers so tight.”

He slowly pulls his fingers out, eyes fixed on the translucent strings webbing his fingers together before he stands up. You hear the sound of him undoing his zipper before you register what he’s actually doing. With the strength you have you find his hands, watching as he takes off the remainder of his clothes, throwing them somewhere in his room.

Your mouth goes dry when your eyes land on his cock, you didn’t expect him to be so big, to have a pretty vein adorning either side of his shaft and his tip a pretty shade of bubblegum pink with a bead of precum decorating it.

“Armin, wait” you scoot back from him, “m’ still sensitive” you remind him. Your words are slurred and it doesn’t stop Armin from craning his head down and kissing you. Making you taste yourself while he hooks his hands under your thighs, exposing your pussy to his greedy eyes. “You’ll be okay, just be good for me yeah?”

Those blue eyes meet yours again and you’re positive you’re drowning in them. His pupils blown wide as he aligns himself with your drooling entrance, he hooks your legs over his shoulders, finding your hands and pinning them beside your head. He slowly inches himself forward, reveling in the feeling of your gummy walls stretching around his girth. He fights the urge to cum as your pussy flutters around him, he looks down at you, completely fucked out and eyes beginning to water as he slowly pulls back before thrusting into you again.

He lets go of your hands, one of them pushing your thighs into your chest while he brings the pads of his middle and ring fingers to prod at your lips, “suck” he demands, slowing his thrusts to allow you to wrap your lips around them. You taste yourself on his skin, tongue skillfully running along his nails and swirling around both of them.

“Is this why you texted me? Couldn’t get your stupid cunt fucked by Jaeger?” You don’t reply, still sucking on his fingers while he delivers a harsh snap of his hips against yours, he feels the vibrations of your whine, shoving his fingers further into your mouth a smirking when he feels your throat constrict around them.

“Eren doesn’t like easy sluts like you.”

He roughly pulls his fingers out of your mouth, gripping your cheek harshly and making your skin sticky with your own spit. “Keep your fucking mouth open.” You hear him gathering saliva in his mouth before his spit lands on your tongue. You swallow it without being asked, eyes rolling into the back of your skull when he begins his harsh pace again.

“Wonder what he’d say, if he saw you fucking his best friend right now. He said you were so cute, you know?” Both palms are on the back of your thighs, he’s pushing them impossibly close to your chest and letting his weight fall on top of you with each thrust. “Bet he doesn’t know that a little weed gets you desperate for cock huh?”

“m’not desperate” you slur, he slaps the back of your thighs, sending pleasurable pain shooting through your body. “Want me to call him in here? Have him see you cream all over my fucking cock?”

You nod no, but the way your cunt squeezes Armin’s length lets him know all that he needs to.

“Filthy bitch, you’d like that wouldn’t you?” He cranes his head down again, sloppily kissing you and allowing his tongue to explore your mouth, groaning when he feels your hands pulling his biceps closer to you. You turn your head away from him, sputtering a bit before begging for more, for Armin to fuck you harder, faster.

He doesn’t let you finish your sentence, his pace never faltering as he watches your face contort in pleasure. Mouth falling open and brows knitting together while you moan loud enough for anyone to hear if they were to walk by the door. You can feel the head of his dick kiss your cervix with each thrust, “say my name” he grits.

He can feel your gummy walls fluttering, he knows your close, still sensitive from the previous orgasm and from the weed you smoked earlier. Your mind is spinning and you feel so dizzy, so fucking good as Armin continues to fuck you.

“Armin! Cum inside, fuck, cum inside please!”

Hook, line, sinker.

Who knew that’s a joint is all it took to get you in bed, he almost feels bad that Eren couldn’t get to this point with you. His loss is his gain, he’d make sure that the only name you moan from now on is his, he’ll make sure Eren hears you high pitched squeals for Armin to spill himself inside of you.

“Yeah? You want me to cum inside of you? Fill your pretty little pussy up?” He groans when he feels you squeeze him again, your nails biting into the skin of his forearm as you let out a string of pleads for him to not stop.

“What if I knock you up huh? Give you a fuckin’ baby so all you can think about is me from now on?”

The fear in your eyes spurs him on, his fingers finding your sore clit until he can feel your legs trembling against him. The way he circles your bud paired with his harsh thrusts sends you over the edge, back arching and a silent sob escaping your throat while you gush all over Armin’s cock, “Fuck yeah, give it to me, dirty bitch”

“Armin! Cumming!” You squeal as if he didn’t know, Armin isn’t too far after you, keeping his words and spewing curses out as he empties his hot seed inside of you. You moan pulling Armin in for a kiss while his cock pulsates inside of you, both of you reveling in each other and your highs.

Your breathing labored as he slowly lets your legs fall against the bed. He stays buried inside of you, watching as you fight your sleep.

“Hey, stay with me for a bit, yeah? Gotta clean you up.”

You nod, closing your eyes but listening to him go to his bathroom and coming back with a warm washcloth. The warmth of the washcloth feels good against your skin, Armin adjusts you on his bed before pulling you up and helping you to the bathroom.

“You okay?”

“Mhmm” you hum, looking up at him while he helps you sit down, telling you where everything is before walking out to give you privacy.

He begins to pick up both of your clothes, setting them aside while he adjusts the bed for you to sleep in. He isn’t that heartless, he’s sure he’ll talk to you before you go home tomorrow, even if you manage to slip out before he wakes he knows you’ll be back, after all it’s not like you know anyone else that would sell to you.

He picks up the clothes again, your panties falling onto the floor. He looks up to make sure you’re still in the bathroom so you don’t see where he keeps your panties, it’s not like you would need them anyway.

He throws the rest of the clothes into his laundry basket, finding his phone to look for Eren’s contact.

[2:02am]You’re right, y/n is really cute.

[2:02am] She’s staying with me tonight.

“Who are you texting?”

Your voice startles him, he smiles before getting up to help you into his bed.

“No one important. Trust me”

[earliebirb]

i’ll save you a seat

steve/tony, established relationship, canon divergence, 1673 words

(inspired by this deleted scene from the avengers [2012])

“Waiting on the big guy?”

“Ma’am?” Steve looks up from his sketchbook, eyes squinting against the sunlight. 

He meets the gaze of one of the waitresses working at the café. Her long blond hair flows down to her chest and she is dressed in the café’s signature uniform: pastel orange blouse, black skirt, and a white half apron tied around her waist. 

“Iron Man,” the waitress clarifies, lips quirked up in a knowing smile. “A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by.”

“Right,” Steve says, lips twitching at their inside joke. He opens his mouth to say something else, but a familiar silhouette in the distance catches his eye and breaks his train of thought. “Uh, actually…”

He nods at the sky. The waitress follows his gaze.

The object grows larger, approaching at a high speed. It morphs into a blur of red and gold that streaks across the blue sky right above them, sending a gust of wind that ruffles the waitress’ blond locks. The figure lands a short distance away from the café with a distinct metallic thunk — the sound of gold-titanium alloy hitting concrete. 

All around him, people begin to whisper among themselves with excitement, some even taking out their phones to document the spectacle. Although Steve can’t really say he enjoys the attention, warmth still blooms in his chest as he observes the approaching figure. He finds himself hiding an involuntary grin behind his hand.

“Always a dramatic entrance, huh?” The waitress chuckles.

“You know it.” Steve sighs with fond exasperation. All eyes are on Tony as he walks toward the outdoor area of the café, the nanotech suit peeling away from his body. The excited murmurs and whispers increase in volume.

When Tony finally arrives at the table, he bends down to plant a kiss on Steve’s cheek. “Good morning, beloved.”

“Mr. Stark-Rogers,” the kind waitress greets with a smile. “The usual?”

“Please, Beth. I told you to call me Tony.” Tony reaches up to slide his sunglasses a few inches down the bridge of his nose, giving her a disapproving look that makes her chuckle. “And yes, please. Thank you.”

“Table’s yours as long as you like,” she says before disappearing into the indoor part of the café to relay the order. Steve knows she means it, too. She’ll make sure of it, just like she always has for the past few years.

The café had been Steve’s favorite café, at first. He visited the place often, especially during his first few weeks in the twenty-first century. He developed a fondness for their sesame seed bagels and the lovely view of Stark Tower from his favorite outdoor table, although the latter is a fact Steve would never admit to Tony even on pain of death. 

However, the café quickly became Steve and Tony’s favorite café when their reluctant camaraderie bloomed into friendship all those years ago. Even before they started dating, Steve and Tony already established a weekly ritual of having brunch at the café whenever their schedules aligned. 

Tony did eventually admit to Steve that he found the café’s coffee to be subpar. He did, however, insist that the café was his favorite, albeit for reasons different from Steve’s. Not for the bagels, not for the exceptional view of Stark Tower, and definitely not for the coffee, but because the café was a place full of memories. His memories of the two of them, his memories of Steve:

“That café was where I first made you laugh. Like, really laugh. I’d seen you smile or chuckle before, but that kind of full-body laughter? That was a first. And I remember thinking that… I really, really liked the way you laughed.”

It has been seven years since Steve first sat at this very table and sketched the figure of Stark Tower looming before him. Beth is still working at the café, having made her way through the ranks. Now a co-owner of the café, she has developed a friendship of sorts with Steve and Tony — both of whom she claims to be her favorite regulars. Tony likes to joke about how she probably says that to all of her regulars, something Beth always denies vehemently. 

Steve turns his attention back to Tony, who has taken off and folded his sunglasses, letting them hang from the collar of his shirt. 

“Would it kill you to take the elevator and walk?”

“It’s not like I do this every single time. Besides, why take the elevator when you have a flying suit? That’s just ineffective.” Tony makes a face as he pulls his chair out.

“‘S good exercise.”

“I exercise plenty.” Tony sits down on the chair across from him, scooting closer to the table. Under the table, his ankle brushes Steve’s. “Besides, we just engaged in a vigorous workout session this morning.” Tony bites his lower lip, giving Steve a lascivious wink.

“Tony,” Steve reprimands, but finds himself unable to say anything further, not when the back of his neck is heating up at the memory of what they were up to just a few hours ago. While Steve immediately showered afterward and headed straight to the café, Tony decided he wanted to sleep for a few more hours, promising to join Steve later. 

Tony grins before leaning forward on his elbows to peer at Steve’s sketch.

“Which lucky building are you sketching today, honeybunch?”

He squints and frowns when instead of a building he finds a rough and nondescript sketch of a person’s face. 

It could be anyone to the untrained eye, but Steve’s pen strokes are sure and confident, having rendered the same jawline countless of times. 

Every single time, Tony’s figure never fails to fascinate him. Always so beautiful from every angle, in every light. Steve knows it well enough by now to be able to sketch him simply from an image in his mind’s eye. 

Still, nothing beats the real thing. Steve takes in the sweep of Tony’s dark lashes and his coffee brown eyes as he appraises the drawing.

“It’s not a building,” Steve says instead. 

Tony hums noncommittally, tilting his head at the sketch and giving it one last look before leaning back in his seat. “How was your morning run?”

“Uneventful.”

“Really?” Tony says distractedly, his attention on Beth who is once again approaching their table with his cup of coffee, black as midnight.

Tony engages in more small talk with Beth as she sets the cup and saucer on the table, asking after her husband and kids. There is an easy and carefree smile on his face, crinkles forming at the corners of his eyes.

All the while, his fingers are fiddling with two sugar packets Steve knows he will only use one of. He is always buzzing with energy, parts of him always in a state of perpetual motion, finding it near impossible to stay still. 

Steve also knows that he won’t finish the coffee because it wasn’t made by Steve or himself.

These little idiosyncrasies are details that make up Tony, the little quirks that only Steve knows.

The little things that make you mine, Steve thinks privately. He feels something inside him softening at the thought.

“Sorry, honey,” Tony says when Beth eventually leaves to take another table’s orders, his smile soft and affectionate. “You were saying? Running was uneventful?”

“Yeah,” Steve says quietly, “nothing really interesting.” He admires the way sunlight turns the tips of Tony’s dark hair into a lighter shade of brown. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’re still the highlight of my morning.”

Tony huffs, rolling his eyes, but his lips curve up into a pleased smile and his brown eyes are warm with affection as he meets Steve’s gaze. He reaches for Steve’s hand on the table, giving it a gentle squeeze. The band of vibranium around his husband’s ring finger gleams in the late morning sunlight.

“I better be, after waking you up with one hell of a—”

“Tony!” Steve exclaims, knocking his ankle against Tony’s in warning. “Stop it.”

“What? It’s the truth! You really did enjoy it when I—”

“There are children around,” Steve hisses, casting a furtive glance at a nearby table occupied by a family of four. 

Tony laughs softly, his shoulders shaking with it. Still holding his gaze, he brings Steve’s hand to his lips, pressing two feather-light kisses to the back of his hand. He continues holding Steve’s hand against his mouth, and when he speaks Steve feels his lips and the bristles of his goatee brushing his skin.

“Sorry, baby, I can’t help it.” Tony hides a smile against Steve’s knuckles. “You’re just so pretty when you blush.”

Steve looks down, avoiding Tony’s eyes in favor of staring at the cookie crumbs next to his half-full cup of coffee that has long since gone cold. His cheeks are still burning, and Tony’s words are not helping.

“See?” Tony says, before planting a kiss to his knuckles. “So pretty.”

Steve shuts his eyes with a defeated sigh. “Please just drink your coffee.”

Tony chuckles again but Steve hears the clink of ceramic, a cup being lifted from its saucer. “Aye-aye, Captain.”

He only allows himself to open his eyes when Tony gets distracted by some pigeons, immediately launching into a spiel about the one time he was attacked by a pigeon who was apparently really determined to steal his sandwich.

Steve nods along dutifully, reacting at appropriate times throughout the story, but all he can think of is that sitting there, at a café’s outdoor table on Park Avenue on a bright Sunday morning, his husband sat in front of him talking a mile a minute, is that there is nowhere else he’d rather be.

His gaze falls down to where Tony’s hand is still holding his, even when his other hand is gesturing animatedly as he tells his story.

Yes. Steve thinks, smiling helplessly at the twinkle in Tony’s eyes — the one that appears whenever he gets excited. I’m home. 

[mxchellesworld]

This is the Bakery Department How May I Help You?

Spencer Reid x Reader

Synopsis; where spencer makes trips to his local supermarket just to see the cake decorator

Warnings; just fluff!

a/n; as a goodbye to my old job and hello to 2k here is this new mini series im starting!! im having so much fun writing i really hope you guys enjoy.

part 2

any feedback is very much appreciated:)

***

It was 9 in the morning and Spencer was rushing into the bakery section of the grocery store a few minutes away from his apartment. It was most convenient when he didn’t want to drive. Which was fairly often.

Being on the road or in the air 50% of the time meant his fridge wasn’t exactly stocked. A quick trip to buy some cereal or frozen meals was done in less than 45 minutes.

But his favorite part was the bakery of course. The small section had gotten remodeled. A few extra feet of space was apparent but what caught his eye were the wide range of colors popping out at him.

A display of different pastries which he swore were calling out to him. Sickly sweet high pitched voices saying “Eat me Spencer!”

Inside a case were cakes of various shapes and sizes. Some were single layered. The basics he figured, with labels reading fudge, red velvet, and carrot. But to the side we’re the more intricate ones. A taller round cake with blue roses roses and a lighter shade piping on the bottom. Another but instead of flowers pastel balloons covered the surface.

On the side he noticed the cupcakes. They held the same creativeness. Plain chocolate but on top sprinkles and a little pick saying happy birthday. Some had coconut shavings on them. But the one that stuck out was the vanilla cupcake with orange frosting on top. It had a little leaf and brown stem, probably the decorators rendition of a pumpkin.

It was magical. With he childlike wonder growing in him, he almost forgot the task at hand. Getting donuts for the team.

He rung the small bell on the side and waited patiently for someone to help. In a few seconds an older lady came into view. Her apron covered in what he assumed was flower and other various kitchenly stains.

“Hello how can I help you?” she chirped out kindly.

“Hi I was just wondering if you had some donuts for today?” Spencer asked fiddling with the strap of his satchel.

“Mhm! Just finished them up, if you give me a few minutes I can have someone put them into the case for ya.”

Spencer nodded along, “That would be great. Thank you so much.”

He stepped back bouncing back and forth on the balls of his heels. The small catalogue with the cake designs catching his attention. Of course he could skim through it in seconds if he wanted but instead he flipped through the pages, taking a mental note to come back whenever it was one of his god children’s birthday. Or whenever Penelope needed a pick up.

The sound of wheels squeaking made him perk up. A tall rack filled with every donut imaginable rolling right past him. The woman pushing it made a quick stop, her head popping out around the corner.

Her voice was as sweet as the doughy goodness she pushed on the rack.

“Good morning,” she said with a soft smile.

Her hair was up in a bun, headband pushing back any hair which could get in her face. She had on the same apron as the other lady except hers was more colorful. What he assumed were icing stains covered the once clean white surface.

If he looked closely he could pin point the same blue shade as the flowers on the cake he had seen before. Somehow the industrial lighting shining down from the ceilings did her wonders, illuminating her hair up like a little halo.

“Morning” Spencer was able to let out softly but at that point she had already walked passed him. He turned and followed her to the donut case.

Putting on a pair of gloves she turned to look at Spencer, “How many did you need?”

“Oh uh just a dozen please.”

He watched as she opened up a box, picking out one of each donut before adding an extra. Not just any extra. Chocolate sprinkled. His favorite.

“That’s 13 donuts,” Spencer said pointing to the box as she sealed it shut.

“Bakers dozen,” she said with a wink, “plus I see you here all the time so if I’m correct that last one is your go to.”

Handing him the box she started on putting the rest of the donuts neatly in the case. The different kinds each on their own row.

He could feel his cheeks go pink. She had watched him before? If it was anyone else, considering his line of work he would feel creeped out.

She was pretty. Angelic even. It wasn’t often pretty girls went out of their way to remember what his favorite breakfast pastries were. He’d like to remember hers too. He would remember anything she’d like to share with him. Perks of the brain, he thinks.

“Well thank you,” he paused searching for her name tag.

She tugged on the small piece of plastic pinned to her shirt, making it sit correctly between the neck of the apron. Y/n.

“And you are?”

“Spencer,” he said with a small quirk of his lips.

“Alrighty, Spencer,” even his name sounded pretty from her lips, “if you ever need some donuts early or at a larger amount feel free to call the department so we can have them ready for you.”

“I will! Thank you so much again," with one last nod, he turned walking over to the registers.

Once he walked out of the store he quickly popped open the lid of the box, pulling out the chocolate donut sitting on top of the others. A hum of satisfaction leaving his lips from the sugary taste.

However nothing was as sweet as the girl from the bakery department. Maybe he'd ask to the team to put him on refreshment duty more often.

[elizabethsway]

I'm somewhere between a cool and neutral color tone. Yellow and some oranges unless they are really dark do not look good one me. That being said, that's why I never went blonde.

My grampa had a full set of grey hair by the time he was thirty and I got my first grey at five. Safe to say, by high school I started getting a nice bit of white hair on one side of my head. After college, I was pretty much half and half but I had been dying it brown.

About 5 months before COVID dropped, I noticed that white/silver hair wasn't taking color well. It turned my hair a lighter brown. Later I chose a box dye of darkest brown and so you could see the ends of my hair dark brown, the middle orange light brown and the top a light brown. It looked great (note the sarcasm).

Awkward wedding photo just after final dye

As I only really dyed the scalp/top part and not the ends, I decided to hit the whole thing with the darkest color I could and ended up looking like Professor Snape for my sister's wedding. After that I stopped dying my hair. About a year and a half later I was getting an itch to dye my hair a color but liked how healthy my hair was. I never applied any heat to it or dies so mine is a little bit of hair band trauma, it was nice.

But I added in some purple dye (it was supposed to be light) trying both Arctic Fox and Manic Panic. The one of them didn't take at all one did slightly but I had to use a lot and keep it on for hours. The white hair wanted none of it and it washed out fairly quick, leaving just a glow behind.

Well after that I gave up and cut the orange from around the time of the wedding off and let the color fade. It regrew and was pretty nice looking.

Sadly, while hanging out with a guy, he asked if I dyed my hair blonde and I was like, "You're crazy. Get your eyes checked."

A week later I was checking out my hair and it did look a bit yellow from the ear down. Online it said that you can pick up pigments from Air pollutants and other things as well as hair products. I only have one hair product that they might cause discolorization which is like a Garnier Apple conditioner but it's very faint, so not sure if that's what's happening to my hair.

And given that my hair doesn't like taking color I wasn't sure how well this was going to work but I got myself a purple shampoo /conditioner 3 set pack from Matrix. I did as the bottle said and nothing. I was still yellow.

You can see some of the yellow on the strand I'm holding but the yellow is mostly ear down. This was after Matrix.

A week and a half later I got myself Brand Mondo's Supernova Blonde Toning Purple Shampoo/Conditioner and his Forcefield Heat Shield spray. Now make a note, his conditioner said it should stay on for 5 minutes and I left mine on for 2 hours, so I didn't exactly follow the procedure but I think it worked well.

I saw a video of his where he reacted to people who used purple shampoo to dye their hair. He made a comment that said somey along the lines of that he didn't know why people left the shampoo on for several hours and if anything they should do the conditioner for longer. So I decided to take his comment out of context a bit and I put the conditioner on first to almost dry but slightly damp hair and left it on for two hours before rinsing. Then I shampooed, immediately rinsed and then did the conditioner again but only for the recommended 5 minutes.

And it looks like this.

Obviously I missed some sections or maybe they were just sections they really didn't want to take, but considering the purple is so light and metallic you looking because of my current silver hair, it blends pretty well.

Also things to note. My hair is naturally dry, it doesn't really create oil very often unless I'm touching it a lot or I put my head out the window of a car as it's moving (like a dog). But I will say it made my hair feel a little dryer and because I like to play with fate, I also did not use any gloves while doing this process so underneath my fingertips there's a little bit of purple but my hands felt pretty dry. I would suggest definitely using some kind of moisturizing product on your hair if you can afterwards or doing a mask.

I also used his heat shield product but I have not actually put any heat on it yet so it might have been a missed opportunity to try that. Do I imagine it would work very well.

Here's some bad pics of me growing out my hair, pre-COVID, when I was still going into office looking like this.

Super cute.

[the196thbattalion]

star wars human! high school! au

i’ve seen so many headcanons circling throughout the star wars tumblr about high school au’s, so i wanted to share my bit with all of you :D

anakin skywalker

five words: REBEL CHILD ON A MOTORCYCLE.

he doesn’t like riding the school bus because it makes him feel extremely claustrophobic, so he scrapped and scavenged up parts to make his own customized motorcycle, which he lovingly dubbed artoo.

the blue and silver detailing was the joint effort of ahsoka and obi-wan, because anakin doesn’t know how to paint.

if he can catch up to the bus, he’ll ride alongside it and flip off the students on it before revving on ahead of them. (the freshmen think it’s the funniest thing in the universe)

probably one of the most well-known juniors in the entirety of temple high school (mostly because of his shenanigans but partly because he’s dating padme fuckiNG AMIDALA, PRETTIEST GIRL IN THE DAMN SCHOOL)

he always wears this worn-down leather jacket his mom gave to him before she passed away, and refuses to take it off, even though it’s somehow “a violation of the dress code and should be outlawed.”

his hair alone has seduced eight different students (boys and girls)

sometimes during study hall, ahsoka or padme will get a hold of his hair and style it into little braids or make a super rad ponytail.

he really likes iced coffee with milk and sugar. he puts in the milk to make it nice and light (it’s aesthetically pleasing, obi-wan!), and then like eight tablespoons of sugar to make it actually taste good.

his favorite class is mechanics, taught by kit fisto.

anakin spent months on a mechanical arm project to replace his clunky plastic prosthetic, and he was so freaking happy when it was finished; he almost cried. (he did cry and ahsoka got it on video)

obi-wan kenobi

a mixture of the soft™, pretty™, hippie™, grunge™, vsco™ and nerd™ tropes.

he really likes peppermint tea with lots of honey but takes his coffee black.

he has had too much tea.

someone needs to stop him.

almost all of his classes are ap courses, and if cody hadn’t been watching when obi-wan was making his schedule, all of them would be.

him, cody and padme have ap english with mace windu, and cody knows how much his classes stress him out, so he lets obi-wan sleep during class and sends him the notes

the only ap class obi-wan doesn’t take is mechanics, and he shares that class with anakin.

anakin and obi-wan are super close with each other. kenobi was there when ahsoka was adopted, and anakin was there when kenobi got his cat. (they were like 5 okay)

“NAME IT C3PO OBI-WAN, OR I SWEAR TO FUCK-” “what kind of name is that, and why would i - anAKIN PUT HIM DOWN!?”.

mr. fisto constantly has to split them up for disrupting the class, but it’s almost like they can communicate telepathically, and the teachers have a running bet

mace windu literally bet $50 on these fucking nerds so you know it’s for realsies

in reality, they’ve just gotten super creative with passing notes.

kind of off topic, but he has these brown harry potter glasses that he uses (kinda for reading???? but mostly so he can do that anime pushing up glasses thing)

cody thinks it’s the funniest shit ever

whenever cody is feeling stressed, obi-wan just does the thing™ and BOOM! happiness.

people think he’s a goodie two shoes, and honestly, it’s really easy to think that. if the iconics are trying to do something stupid, he’s usually the voice of reason.

but parties?

…

you know what, just ask anakin for the video footage.

ahsoka tano

this hs!au ahsoka tano turned me bisexual confirmed ✔

okay before i go into her style, which is mainly what made me drool over my computer, can i just put skatergirl!ahsoka out there?

spray painting of the rebellion symbol all over the bottom of her board and on items in a couple of the places where she skates the most (like the back of an abandoned car yard)

her instagram is filled with these super cool vhs-tape recorded skate videos (u know)

lots crackhead 3am visits (starring anakin, rex, kenobi and barris) to a gas station to get slushies and grind the shit out of the curb connecting the store to the parking lot

trying to teach anakin how to skateboard but he just can’t figure it out? uh yes

“try to balance skyguy!” “HOW DO I MOVE? DO I SCOOT? SNIPS THIS ISN’T FUNNY AND I WANT TO GET OFF – GUYS, STOP LAUGHING!”

okay okay okay i’m done

for now

anyway, her style???? is so???? fucking????? cool!!!!!

her genetics gave her a 80% of having vitiligo, so it really wasn’t a surprise when patches of her skin got lighter, but it still freaked her out a little bit.

basically, went like this: “DAD, I’M TURNING WHITE!” “???? oh my gosh ‘soka, no.”

she has long braided dreadlocks she dyed a super bright orange with various colored beads woven into them with the help of anakin and padme. she usually styles them into little space buns atop her head.

her entire clothing wardrobe consists of fishnets, neon bomber jackets, at least 11 bisexual beanies™, handmade patchy jeans, white tank tops, and light-up platform shoes.

she doesn’t give two flying fucks about the dress code, and – IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOST BUSY HALLWAY - punched principal sidious over whether or not she “could wear shorts that short” (anakin may or may not have cheered when she broke his nose).

the fetts (chuck have mercy)

*cracks le knuckles* i’ve put it off long enough

we have: fox (24), wolffe (19), cody (17), rex (17), echo (16), fives (16), boil (15), waxer (14), hardcase (13), jesse (12), longshot (8), kix (6), tup (3), gree (2) and boba (9mo)

wolffe is off at college - fox already graduated and moved out, that cheeky little fucking shit - but both still keep in good contact with the fam, and it’s a constant clamor between eleven of the siblings of who gets to talk to them first

fox majored in government/politics, bly is majoring in space/astronomy, and wolffe is majoring in police/law enforcement shit (i don’t know how college works, so sue me)

cody and rex are juniors, and despite their similar looks, the amount of schoolwork each of them completes drastically varies

cody is the honor roll student, valedictorian, whatever you want to call it

rex kinda just either does the work really well or 9/10 times gets distracted by anakin or ahsoka sending him some nice spicy memes

cody tried to tutor rex but it ended up almost landing tup in the hospital

“that’s really simple, actually. if you – vod? rex, are you okay? what are you oH NO TUP DON’T PUT THAT IN YOUR MOUTH-”

fetts on the varsity football team is like a right of passage in the family

right now, only the juniors of the fett family are on the team, but the coach has eyes on fives and echo for next years team

SPEAKING OF

echo, fives and boil are the infamous sophomore trio that pulled the milk bucket prank on the gym teacher, pong krell.

they had to help the janitor (99) clean up afterwards, but they genuinely enjoyed 99’s company, because he’s rad as shit and knows all the secret school passageways.

to be honest, not one person (except maybe sidious) was complaining

that motherfucker makes everyone run like eight laps during gym class

even mr. windu gives them a small smile in the hallways after that

boil says he was blackmailed into it

waxer is a freshman (the poor dude, i’m so sorry), and he always looks out for the nervous freshies

if someone is having a bad day, he’ll give them a lollipop (he carries around a whole bag), a place to sit during lunch, and a shoulder to cry on

all you need to do to find waxer is to locate this long ass line of children

the school counselor, plo koon, sometimes brings his niece numa into school during the day because he can’t find a babysitter, and waxer. fucking. loves. her. PERIOD.

w+n pull these tiny little pranks on teachers, and the staff pretends not to notice, but numa always giggles and gives them away.

boil has a soft spot for numa too, and sneaks her rice krispies.

bonus shit i want to add in but can’t figure out where to put it (or i’m just gonna add it on and shit)

plo koon adopted anakin after his mother died (him and anakin’s mother were good friends), and found ahsoka on the side of the street, shivering like a maniac.

he doesn’t know where ahsoka came from, but he loves her so gOD DAMN MUCH.

he’s the school counselor, and still keeps in touch with a lot of students even after the graduated (he thinks that majoring in law enforcement/police is a bit dangerous for wolffe but he still supports his unofficial but basically son 100%)

yoda is the super old but radically rad english teacher.

his entire point of existence in my mind fic is to troll the shit out of palpatine.

a recent conversation starring yoda and palps: “did you give the students the mountain of extra work i assigned them?” “for the students, that was?” i’m sorry. my bad, that is.” “this is the seventh time, yoda.”

okay but for real

mace windu violently roots for the school football team.

“BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM, CODY! YOU TOO...OTHER CODY!”

“THAT’S A HOLDING! THAT’S A HOLDING!”

“REF IF YOU DON’T COUNT THAT TOUCHDOWN THEN I SWEAR TO SAMUEL L. JACKSON I WILL COME DOWN THERE AND BEAT YOUR SORRY PINSTRIPED ASS!”

[thewickedmerman]

Winx Club - Enchantix

It's finally time for the FINAL transformation (Which is gonna STAY the final transformation)! The fan favorite, ENCHANTIX! I am making some changes both for aesthetic reasons and for character reasons. They will all have the Bloomix wings because those are the best wings out of all of the transformations. I will be doing them in order of who earns their Enchantix.

Layla

Starting off with the BEST fairy! I didn't make too many changes, apart from the makeup, the color, the wings, and the skirt. I made the skirt a flowing high-low skirt that resembled a waterfall and a wave. I still included the straps but made both pink and kept the yellow seaweed looking things. But I also added a transparent pink thing to the skirt to make the front a little longer and to add some dimension to it. Layla has had the colors of her Enchantix outfit change from blue to green in the actual show, which I guess was because of how Bloom earned her Enchantix and they didn't want two of them to be in blue (Even though Layla's color always should've been blue and Bloom's really should've been red). However, I stuck with blue but also made is an aqua shade just like all of her past transformation looks. I also add some painted toenails because I wanted to. I changed her makeup because my girlfriend, who is half-black and is very protective of black females (Particularly full-blooded dark-skinned ones), pointed out that her makeup in her official Enchantix didn't look quite right because the lips were too light. So I used a slightly darker shade to fix that, as well as made her eyeshadow purple instead of green because it just looks better. Also, just wanted to point out the two little white things by her eyes because that is part of her original Enchantix form as well. They look like two little dewdrops. She still earns her Enchantix by using the last bit of sunlight to healing the queen of the mermaids instead of restoring her sight that was stolen by Valtor. Also, apparently the queen is supposed to be her aunt, which I'm guessing is more of an honorable love like family thing because of how the royal family of the merpeople are clearly not black and aren't even the same species as Layla. Anyway, I hope you guys like it.

Stella

Stella's Enchantix went through A LOT of changes. Don't get me wrong, her original Enchantix was gorgeous but I didn't feel like it showed enough of her sun and moon powers. I also wanted to give her a more Greek inspired look and went with her prototype Enchantix hair, which is so gorgeous and suits her and the outfit so much. I still went with her hair being lighter just like with her official Enchantix because I feel it does show her moon powers. I just really love the way she turned out. She still earns her Enchantix by saving her father from a dragon.

Musa

Musa's Enchantix went through A LOT of changes. Her original Enchantix was gorgeous but I felt that it should've ditched the pigtails and had more of an Asian influence to it. I went with her Bloomix hair because it is very Asian influenced, though I just added chopsticks, which was suggested by my girlfriend. I also tried to make her makeup look Asian inspired to just add to the look, which I really love. The blue of the outfit was almost gold but I changed it so that it would match the wings. The outfit is mainly purple, which I have as her signature color, but also made sure there was red because of how it is an important color in Asian culture. I made sure to add a music note on her top because of how she is the fairy of music and it goes with her wings. I really love her look and I'm pretty proud of how she turned out. Musa still earns her Enchantix by refusing to leave Princess Galatea behind and nearly dies protecting her. However, I also have Galatea be Musa's cousin because I'm keeping the 4KIDS canon of Musa being a princess, though one that is the daughter of a prince that denounced his throne. I feel like Musa being royal adds to the story of her parents because of how her mother rejected her classical training and her father rejected his royal title in order to have a career in music. However, they still didn't have much money and that added her mother dying because they couldn't afford the right medical attention. This resulted in her father giving up music forever and deciding to beg his family to let him back into the royal family, in order to keep Musa from struggling like he did and would have the means to have proper medical attention, so he wouldn't lose Musa either. He was let back into the royal family for the sake of Musa. However, her father would not be the one to inherit the throne, which would go to Galatea's father. So this means that Musa isn't just saving the princess of her planet that is a friend, but also saving a family member. I'm just assuming that Galatea is Asian with blonde hair (I mean, Musa has blue hair, so why not?) because her father is shown to look like a Chinese Emperor and the planet of Melody is very Asian influenced. Sorry for rambling.

Flora

I really didn't do any changes to Flora's Enchantix, apart from the Bloomix wings because Flora's Enchantix is perfection. She still earns her Enchantix by saving her little sister, Miele (Yes, I prefer her actual name over her 4KIDS name, Rose).

Tecna

For Tecna's Enchantix I really wanted it to be the most revealing of her fairy outfits (Well, tied with Sirenix) because of how I had her starting to show off more skin for her Believix form and it shows how she's grown and opened herself up to others and let herself be emotional instead of just logical all the time. Just because she isn't skinny it doesn't mean she has to alway be covered up. But I did adjust the length to make it more tasteful (Even though her original Enchantix wasn't distasteful). I also wanted to add some elements from her Bloomix form besides just the wings. I added the technology pattern she had on her leggings because they looked so amazing (But were a pain to do) and gave her that transparent fabric she has in that form. While Tecna's hair has grown in this transformation (Just like with all the girls), I didn't want to make it more than a few inches below the shoulders because her short hair makes her unique. I didn't add sparkles to the armor because I wanted to make clear the difference in material. Since I have her color being green, I did have to mess around with the coloring a bit and I love the way it looks. The way she earns her Enchantix is my favorite of all the girls because she saved not only her home planet, Zenith, but other planets by closing the portal to the Omega Dimension on Andros. That's just a whole new level of sacrifice. She doesn't die and does manage to escape, of course, but the impact of what she did is just a staple in the Winx Club and how much she means to the group and what an awesome character she is.

Bloom

Bloom's Enchantix was one I was VERY excited to do because of the GORGEOUS hair and how I really wanted to make her dress look like fire. This has gone from one of my least favorite Enchantix forms to one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, her original Enchantix form was gorgeous but really didn't feel like it suited her powers. I did combine this with her Bloomix form because for one, the hair is just GORGEOUS and I really wanted to include the scales from the form. I wanted to have the top also have some flow to it. I especially wanted that with the skirt. I wanted it to appear like actual flames with red, orange, and yellow. I also blended the colors as they transitioned. I added blue-looking flames because of how fire does have a hint of blue to it, which is the hottest color. I decided to make her gloves orange to go with her fire powers and made her jewelry gold to go with her fire powers, as well as purple gems to go with her wings. I gave her a dragon necklace because it looks really badass. I went with a fiery-looking eyeshadow with blue and orange, which was easier to do because of how her hair isn't orange here. As for how she earns her Enchantix, I am NOT having her earn it by that bull crap of it being sheer force of will, which I know that my amazing friend @bellatrixobsessed1 will appreciate VERY much. Also, just so you all know, I'm keeping her birth parents and the entire population of Sparx DEAD! Yes, it's tragic but it's also something that gives Bloom a huge layer of depth. Anyway, what I decided to have happen is that she is on Pyros doing all she was doing in the show and basically trying to cheat to get her Enchantix with the help of Maya. However, Valtor, wanting to destroy Bloom once and for all and knowing that Pyros would be where she was at and that he couldn't enter because of a barrier that kept out dark magic decided to get Bloom to come to him by going to Earth to put her adopted parents in danger. Bloom, deep in meditation learns that her parents are in danger because her sister, Daphne appears to her in a vision to warn her. Bloom in desperation to save her parents begs Maya to help her to Earth. Maya warns her that if she leaves now that she may never be able to earn her Enchantix and that without it, she could die while trying to leave Pryros. Bloom says she doesn't care because Valtor may have taken her birth parents from her but she was NOT going to let him take her adopted parents. Daphne and Maya, reluctantly, use their magic to help Bloom get to Earth through a portal. Traveling through the portal was physically painful for Bloom but she kept on going and refused to give up. She nearly dies but as she arrives to Earth, just as Valtor was about to kill Mike and Vanessa (Bloom's adopted parents), a weakened Bloom with what little strength she had left threw herself in front of them to save their lives. She was close to death but this selfless act saved her life because of how it was what had her earn her Enchantix. Why? Because Faragona said that in order to earn Enchantix, you have to save someone from your home world and make a big sacrifice in the process. Home doesn't mean a place you are born in but rather a place you're loved and have a life. Earth is her home world, so saving her adopted parents allowed her to earn her Enchantix. Bloom, now more powerful than ever was able to fight off Valtor, forcing him to flee. Did you guys like my version of how Bloom earned her Enchantix? Let me know.

My final group picture of the Winx Club in their final forms. This was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and a lot of headaches. I couldn't have done it without the help of my girlfriend, @keeloves, who gave me suggestions and ideas, as well as feedback during the process. Thank you guys so much for liking my stuff, even if you didn't leave comments. I'm really happy to be done with this and I'm grateful for all the love this has been getting. Also, I have the girls flying instead of just standing like I did with their Magic Winx, casual looks, and Believix.

Credit for the bases goes to SelenaEde of DeviantArt

Credit for the wings goes to AstralBlu of DeviantArt

Credit for the backgrounds goes to xKaJot of YouTube & Keerene and SparxGuardian

[izzyfandoms]

The Colour In Your Eyes

SHIPS: Patmile

CHARACTERS: Emile Picani, Patton Sanders

WARNING: Nothing

GENERAL TAGLIST: @quillfics42 @aj-draws @phantomofthesanderssides @phlying-squirrel @sly-is-my-name-loving-is-my-game @because-were-fam-ily @imtryingthisout @a-creepycookie @emo-disaster @littlestr @spooky-scary-virgil @fuyel @mimsidoodles @soupgremlin @aroaceagenderfluid @birdsbookshiddeninrealbirdsskin @quirkalurk @gingers-trashy-stuff @iinyxtello @justaqueercactus @melodiread @mrbubbajones @glassferns @pun-master-logan @gayturtlez

Masterpost

A Series Of Soulmate AUs Masterpost

Emile was always daydreaming about colours.

He’d read as much as he could about them, memorised every little description he could find and asked anyone he knew who could see them to tell him the colours of everything around him.

He knew of the warmth of red – the way it was like sun on your skin, anger and love and everything hot and burning. He knew of the coolness of blue – like sky and water, all that was wet and cool and calm. He knew of the life of green: vegetables and vegetation and the way you could practically taste the colour on your tongue when you ate your greens.

He knew exactly how every colour felt, had a basic idea of what each of them looked like, but he had never seen one.

His vision was grey, just like everyone else who had a soulmate but had never met them. Some people were born with the colours in their eyes, but Emile was not one of them.

He was glad he had a soulmate, and he was so, so excited to meet them, but he was just as excited to finally get to see the colours: to watch all his favourite cartoons the way they were meant to be watched, to see life the way it was always meant to be seen. He couldn’t wait for the moment the world turned bright and vibrant.

So, it was strange that the moment that colours first filled his vision, he almost didn’t notice them.

He was lost in a pair of soft, grey eyes.

The prettiest eyes he’d ever seen.

But then, he noticed the pink at the corners of the whites of the eyes – a colour he’d never seen, but one he’d researched and knew the name of. The cheeks were pink, too, as were the parted lips, and the hair was light and curly and a colour that Emile assumed was blond. There was freckles across the bridge of his nose, and Emile suddenly realised that he’d leant in much closer the moment he realised that he could finally see the colours.

It was okay, though, because the other man had leant in just as much, too, so close that it would’ve only taken a slight movement for their noses to bump and their glasses to collide.

(In the past, when Emile had imagined meeting his soulmate, he’d always thought that he’d spend minutes, possibly even hours, looking around at his surroundings and taking in all of the colours. But, right now, all he could do was stare at the other man. There was nothing else he wanted to look at.)

“Wow,” the other man breathed, finally snapping Emile out of his daze and prompting him to take a step back, out of his soulmate’s space. “You’re my soulmate.”

He sounded so, so happy, which was a mood reflected exactly in Emile’s heart, and Emile couldn’t help but let out a delighted laugh and beam at him. He opened his mouth to speak, and what he’d meant to say was ‘they’re so pretty,’ referring to the colours that had blossomed in front of him, but something else came out instead.

“You’re so pretty,” he said softly, and then his eyes widened and his hand flew up to cover his mouth when he realised what he’d just said.

His soulmate blinked at him, startled, before he brought his hand up to his mouth and giggled.

Emile’s heart skipped a beat in his chest, and he suddenly felt all warm and fuzzy inside, as that laugh was now his new favourite sound.

“Gosh, you’re just- wow,” Emile’s soulmate smiled sweetly, before he held his hand out for Emile to shake. “I’m Patton,” he introduced himself. “Patton Sanders. You?”

Emile took Patton’s hand without hesitation, shaking it. “Emile Picani.”

“Emile...” Patton repeated slowly, like he was savouring the name. “That’s a pretty name.”

“Thank you.”

“So, Emile,” Patton said, smiling. “Are you doing anything today?”

“Nope, it’s my day off.”

“Great! Can I take you out, then?”

“I’d love that,” Emile said genuinely, with a soft smile that matched Patton’s exactly.

“Oh, wonderful!” Patton beamed, but when he opened his mouth to continue talking, likely about the date, he suddenly cut himself off with widened eyes when he finally took his eyes off of Emile’s face. “Oh my gosh, look at all the colours!”

That prompted Emile to do the same thing, and he was no less astonished and amazed when he took in all of the colours around them. The world had never been more vibrant, and it had never been more beautiful.

The first thing Emile looked at was the sky. The fluffy white clouds were the same as they’d always been, but this time against a backdrop of a colour he knew was named ‘blue,’ inside of grey. It was the exact same colour of the polo-shirt Patton wore, under his grey and white cat hoodie. The bricks of the nearby buildings were a warm dark colour he assumed was red. The grass and the bushes in the park across the road were a colour he knew was green. The flowers in the windows of the shop they were stood in front of were all kinds of colours, and now far more pretty than Emile had ever found them before.

He looked down at himself, and found he really liked the colour of his tie – which his brother had called pink: like red, but lighter.

“Those flowers are gorgeous!” Patton said, sounding just as breathless and amazed as Emile felt as he admire the flowers that Emile had just looked at.

Emile straightened up. “I’m going to buy you a bouquet,” he announced.

Patton turned back to him. “Aww, really?”

“Yup! Come on.”

Emile hesitated for a moment, before he held his hand out to Patton. Patton took it immediately, and Emile found that his hand was warm and soft and he never wanted to let go of it again. Emile squeezed his hand, and Patton squeezed his back.

As they pushed the store door open and stepped inside, Patton spoke up again.

“Do you like puns?” He asked.

“Of course, I like puns! Who doesn’t?”

“How about dad jokes?”

“They’re the best kind!”

“Wow, you really are my soulmate, huh?” Patton joked, and Emile laughed.

“Do you like cartoons?” Emile asked.

Patton nodded eagerly. “Of course!”

“Disney?”

“Yup! I’ve got all of their songs stuck in my head, like, all the time.”

Emile beamed. “Oh my gosh, we have got to have a movie marathon some time.”

“I’ll bring the popcorn!”

“It’s a date!”

They stopped in front of the flowers, and Emile found that they were all much prettier and more vibrant up close. They weren’t as gorgeous as Patton, of course, but Emile got the feeling that that was pretty much impossible.

“Which ones are your favourite?” He asked Patton, gesturing with his free hand.

Patton hummed, looking them over. “Gosh, I really don’t know! They’re just all so gorgeous, you know? Who knew that colours were so beautiful!”

“Yeah,” Emile nodded in agreement. “Ooh, how about these ones? They’re the most colourful.”

“Oh, they’re so pretty!” Patton agreed. “But, dang, you know, I really wish I knew the names of all these colours. They’re all so pretty!”

Emile picked up the bouquet with his free hand, looking it over. He then pointed awkwardly at one of the flowers with the hand still in Patton’s. It likely would’ve been easier to point if he let go of Patton’s hand, but he definitely didn’t want to do that.

“I think this one is blue,” he said. “It matches the sky – same as your polo-shirt.”

Patton looked down at his shirt as if he hadn’t noticed it. “Oh, you’re right. I think this is my favourite, it’s so pretty!” He then looked back up at Emile, meeting his eyes and giving him a soft smile. “And it’s the same colour as your eyes.”

Emile smiled back. “Yeah, my brother told me that.”

“Oh, you have a brother?”

“Yup! His name is Remy, he’s three years older than me and he’s gotta be the coolest person I’ve ever met. He met his soulmate, Logan, when they were twelve, so he’s been telling me about colours for a while.”

“Aww, that’s sweet. I have a brother, too. His name’s Virgil and he doesn’t have a soulmate so he’s always been able to see them. He’s my roommate, and he keeps telling me that the colours of my socks always clash, but I think I prefer them that way.”

Emile looked down at their feet, and saw that Patton’s socks were two different colours, one that he recognised as a dark blue, and the other that he didn’t know the name of, though it was bright and looked like the opposite of blue, so he assumed it was orange. The blue one had many differently-sized white spots across it, and the orange was covered with dark and light grey cat faces.

He loved them.

Emile smiled at him again. “I like them.”

Patton beamed. “And are those foxes on your socks? Where did you get them?”

“I’ll have to ask Remy, he got these for my birthday,” Emile said, before gesturing with the bouquet he still held. “So, these flowers, do you like them?”

“Oh, yes, they’re perfect.”

As the pair made their way to the checkout for Emile to pay for the flowers, Patton squeezed Emile’s hand to catch his attention.

“Hey, what do you call a girl with a frog on her head?”

“What?”

“Lily!”

Emile laughed, and Patton gave him the fondest look imaginable, seeming incredibly pleased with himself and his pun.

“Okay, okay,” Emile said. “Why did the woman not like camping?”

“Why?”

“Because she found it too in-tents!” Emile laughed at his own joke. “Get it, ‘cos you camp in tents?”

Patton giggled. “Ooh, what do you call it when two flowers start falling in love?”

“I don’t know, what do you call it?”

“A budding romance!”

“Aww, that one’s cute.”

The cashier gave them an amused look as they handed her the flowers and she scanned them.

“First date?”  

“Yeah,” Emile said. “How’d you guess?”

“You guys just have the look,” she said, as Emile handed her the money.

“Yeah, uh...” Patton gave Emile a fond look, squeezing his hand. “We’re actually soulmates. We just met.”

She smiled at them as she handed Emile the flowers. “Aww, that’s sweet. Well, I hope you have a nice date.”

“Thank you,” Emile smiled at her.

The couple walked away, and the moment they stepped out of the shop, they stopped. Emile turned to Patton, and made a show of dramatically handing him the bouquet. Patton giggled, taking them happily.

“You’re quite the gentleman, aren’t you?”

“Oh, they’re just flowers,” Emile responded. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

“Well, I can’t wait.”

Patton held the flowers up to his nose, taking a deep breath and then sighing happily.

(Emile had been smiling so much he could already feel his face start to ache. But it was impossible to stop: it was impossible to keep his immeasurable joy from bubbling up. He and Patton had only just met, but he was already excited to spend the rest of his life with him. That voice was already his favourite sound, and that smile was already his favourite sight.)

“So,” Patton squeezed his hand, and Emile automatically squeezed back. “How about ice cream?”

“Sounds great.”

“Okay! There’s a place just a few streets away, I go there basically every week. The ice cream’s just so good!”

Emile nodded, and Patton immediately began walking in the direction of the ice cream place, gently tugging Emile along. Emile went along with no complaint, and he already knew he would follow that man anywhere, to the ends of the earth.

When Patton glanced back over his shoulder to smile at him, he caught another glimpse of those pretty grey eyes, and he couldn’t help but smile back.

Emile had been daydreaming about colours since he was old enough to daydream, but never had he once considered that his favourite colour would end up being grey.

[refinedbuffoonery]

Flawless (2)

masterlist.

Content Warning: swearing, violence, sex, PTSD

I’m really proud of this chapter. It’s some of my best work, maybe ever. Also, in case you missed, this fic will be updated every Sunday, so check back in next weekend for chapter three! 

*****

“So,” Riley began as she dropped her arm-load of overflowing paper grocery bags on her slate gray granite kitchen counter. Mercifully, the feds hadn’t connected Riley to any of her aliases after her arrest, so her overpriced Santa Monica penthouse apartment was exactly as she left it. 

Well, not exactly the same. After Riley’s arrest, Nikki had thrown out all her food and hung up the laundry Riley had left in a pile on her bedroom floor. She’d also paid Riley’s bills, which led to a whole argument in the grocery store that Riley knew they’d be rehashing later. 

“If Leanna’s out, then we need a new member,” Riley said. “Otherwise we’ll have to rename the team ‘Four Eyes,’ and I’m not about to do that.” 

Nikki snickered, haphazardly unloading groceries into the fridge. “Why not? You’re a nerd. It’s fitting.” 

“Bold words for the only one of us who wears glasses.” 

“They’re blue light glasses, you asshole. My vision is just fine.” 

Riley gave her a shit-eating grin. Whatever you say. 

Putting the groceries away took forever; Riley bought way more food than any one person needed. She couldn’t wipe Nikki’s disapproving face from her mind—the one that accompanied comments about Riley being too skinny. Nikki was just looking out for her, she knew, but that didn’t make Riley hate the scrutiny any less. 

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, Riley asked, “Do you have anyone in mind?” To replace Leanna, she didn’t need to say. Nikki chewed her lower lip nervously. “Who is it, Nik?” 

“It’s a long shot, but this girl I work with. Jill Morgan.” 

Riley frowned. “We don’t need a third techie.” 

“She’s not that.” Riley raised an eyebrow. “I mean, she is, but Jill is nothing compared to you or me,” Nikki quickly corrected. “Before she got the IT job, Jill worked for LAPD as a forensic analyst.” 

“I’m listening.” 

“Apparently she is one of the best in all of SoCal, but LAPD fired her after someone caught her using evidence from a closed case to conduct research for the crime novel she’s writing. No police department would touch her after that, so she managed to swing the IT job in the most bullshit interview I’ve ever sat in on.” Nikki crossed her arms. “Jill obviously didn’t know how to do half the things she said she did, but she managed to convince our boss otherwise.” 

“And let me guess.” Riley leaned on the counter. “You were so impressed with her ability to lie that you took her under your wing and taught her everything you know.” 

Nikki grimaced. “Yeah.” 

Barely stifling a snort, Riley said, “You never could resist a liar.” A low blow, considering the fate of her most recent relationship, but Nikki laughed it off. 

“Want to meet her?” 

Riley wasn’t sure this Jill girl would fill Leanna’s shoes, but if Nikki thought she had potential, then Riley had to give her the benefit of the doubt. For now, at least. 

“Sure. I just have something I need to do first.” 

*****

To his credit, the man standing before her wasn’t a coward, but Riley didn’t miss the slight tremor in his voice or the way he flinched every time she moved. He was short—she had a couple inches on him in her high-heeled boots—and dressed like a Hollywood film industry wannabe. Judging by the film equipment stashed in the adjacent living room, he was one. 

“Remind me of your name again,” Riley purred, leaning against the kitchen counter. Cleaning non-existent dirt from under her nails with a butcher knife, she looked like a female James Bond villain, with her sleek high-ponytail and dressed in black leather leggings and a tight, black tank top. 

The man had been busy cooking dinner when she’d broken into the house, and Riley delighted in the way he cowered against the sink, brandishing a vegetable peeler as if he thought he could actually land a hit on her. 

The old Riley would’ve worried about the man trying to attack her in some shoddy attempt at self-defense. The new Riley simply gave him an icy, feline smile to remind him of his place. 

Maybe prison had been good for something after all. 

She kept toying with the man, knowing full well what his name was. “Brian?” she mused. “Boxer?” 

“Bozer,” the man said through gritted teeth. He had a white-knuckled grip on the sink’s edge, and Riley did her best not to sneer at the alcohol label stickers covering the stainless steel—perhaps the only decor choice trashier than the empty bottles lining the windowsill like a frat house. How Leanna could stand to date a man whose house looked like he majored in partying was beyond Riley. She certainly wouldn’t. 

“Right,” she said. 

Riley hadn’t expected Leanna to still live in LA after remaking her identity, and she was correct. According to her classified CIA file, Leanna had a nice apartment in Virginia, with a short twenty minute commute to Langley every day. Imagine Riley’s surprise when the file also disclosed Leanna had a long-distance boyfriend, right here in LA. 

What Riley still didn’t understand was how a millennial could afford a house in the Hollywood Hills, but that was beside the point. 

A little more digging through the CIA’s heavily encrypted files revealed orders sending Leanna to the City of Angels for two weeks to assist another agency. The orders failed to mention which one. 

So, Riley waited for her friend, terrifying her clueless boyfriend to pass the time. 

“What are you making?” 

Bozer glared at her, pressing his full lips together. He was attractive enough, although he wasn’t Riley’s type. He seemed a little too domestic for her taste. 

She chastised, “There’s no need to look at me like that, Bozer. I don’t bite.” 

“Says the woman holding a freshly-sharpened knife.” 

Riley examined the blade, gently brushing her thumb over it to confirm Bozer’s statement. “A sharp knife is a good thing, actually. Sharp knives make clean cuts.” Bozer’s throat bobbed under the intensity of her gaze. “It’s the dull ones you have to worry about.” 

Before she could torment him any more, Riley heard the unmistakable sound of tumblers rolling over and the front door opening. A familiar voice called out, “Baby, I’m home!” Riley set the knife down and turned to greet her friend. 

She noticed the physical changes immediately. Leanna’s hair was a lighter shade of brown than before. She had bangs now. Her posture was stiffer, more uptight, and Riley could just see hints of well-defined muscle beneath her friend’s navy pantsuit. 

Upon seeing Riley, Leanna stopped dead in her tracks, eyes blown wide in surprise. “What are you doing here?” It sounded more like a threat than a question. 

“No ‘Hi’? ‘How are you?’ ‘I missed you’?” Riley placed her hand on her chest in mock offense. 

“You—” Leanna started. Her eyes flicked to her boyfriend, then back to Riley. He doesn’t know anything, the look said. “Let’s talk outside.” Without another word, Leanna gripped Riley’s elbow and led her through the back door. 

The balmy night air smelled like jasmine and rotted oranges, and crickets harmonized above the distant hum of freeway traffic. Instead of having a backyard, a multi-level wooden deck spanned the entire backside of the house. Beyond the deck lay a wall of bushes and a sweeping view of downtown. Again, Riley thought there was no way a millennial could afford a house like this. Unless...was there more to Leanna’s boyfriend than met the eye? 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Leanna said, leaning on the railing. Riley tried to catch her gaze to no avail. Leanna’s eyes were firmly on the city lights to the south. “Bozer is a normal guy. Harmless. The house belongs to his roommate, and the mortgage was paid off long ago when his roommate’s grandpa lived in it.” 

The lingering hope that Leanna might not be as clean as Nikki suggested dwindled by the minute. Riley gave up on trying to meet her eye. 

“How long have you been out?” 

“Two days.” 

“That’s...good.” 

Riley hated how awkward this was. Once, Leanna had been her closest confidant. Now she couldn’t feel farther away. 

“Did you enjoy terrorizing my boyfriend?” Leanna asked, mercifully lightening the mood. A small smile curved Riley’s lips. 

“I started cleaning my nails with a knife so I’d look more intimidating, and he nearly shit his pants.” 

Genuine laughter bubbled from Leanna’s throat. It was infectious, and within seconds Riley giggled too. It was almost enough to make her forget why she was here in the first place. 

Almost. 

Riley decided to just bite the bullet and get it over with. She spoke in a low, tentative voice. “Why’d you leave, Leanna?” Riley watched Leanna’s chest expand and collapse as she sighed deeply. She waited, giving Leanna time to think through her answer. 

After a long pause, her friend finally said, “You, actually.” 

“Me?” 

“Watching that was one of the worst moments of my life.” Leanna kept her wording vague, in case her boyfriend was listening, but Riley didn’t need to ask what the ‘that’ referred to. That haunted Riley’s every waking moment for the last two years. “I realized I couldn’t do it anymore. Not when that was the cost.” 

Riley furrowed her brow, not quite believing. “And yet your current job is better?” 

Leanna laughed bitterly. “You got me there.” She ducked her head. “In all honesty though, it is different. I’m not close to my coworkers like I was to you.” 

Was. Past tense. Riley frowned at the implications of that. 

“You could come back, you know.” 

Leanna scoffed. “Let me guess, Nikki found someone to replace me because you cooked up a new job, and now you’re here to drag me back just so you don’t have to deal with a weak link. Sound about right?” Riley pressed her lips into a thin line, refusing to dignify that with a response. “I’m done with that part of my life, Riley. And you should be too.” 

“Agree to disagree.” Just like that, the last flickering bit of hope inside Riley was extinguished. “It was nice to see you again, Leanna,” she said softly. “I’ll show myself out.” 

She made it as far as the stairs leading down into the house when Leanna called out, “Where?” 

Riley offered her friend a sad smile. “Paris. Just like we always talked about.”

*****

The next day, Riley met Nikki and their new recruit for lunch at one of the sketchiest taco shops LA had to offer. They were already there when Riley arrived, standing in line to order and looking incredibly out of place in their nice business clothes. Nikki and the new girl were about the same height, and both wore their blonde hair in loose waves, but the new girl had wider hips and her shoulders caved in slightly, as if she were trying to make herself smaller. 

Riley silently walked up behind them, grinning. “How’s it going?” The new girl jumped, glasses sliding down her nose. Nikki smirked, unfazed. 

In fact, she didn’t even bother taking her eyes off the ridiculously extensive menu as she chastised, “Play nice, Riles.” 

Even though Nikki couldn’t see her, Riley rolled her eyes anyway. “You’re no fun.” 

The new girl watched Riley with apprehension. Jill. Her name was Jill. 

Riley extended a hand. “I’m Riley.” 

“Jill,” she squeaked. Her grip was feather-light as they shook hands. She’s shy, Riley noted. Shy wasn’t a good trait in a criminal. 

Neither was jumping to conclusions, however. Riley had promised to give Jill a fair shot, and that meant taking time to get to know her. 

Riley let the blondes go first before ordering a California burrito for herself. There were only two booths—every good taco place was the size of a broom closet, after all—and Nikki led them to the one further from the entrance. She and Jill sat on one side, while Riley slid into the other, her back to the door. Riley couldn’t remember a time she and Nikki didn’t do that—sitting on opposite sides of the table, one facing each exit, just in case. 

She doubted anyone would come after them in a dingy taco shop, but slipping into old habits brought a calming sense of normalcy Riley loathed to admit she needed. 

“So,” Riley addressed Jill directly. “Did Nikki fill you in on what we do?” 

“A bit, yes.” Jill’s eyes flicked around the room warily. Riley wished Leanna or Cage were there to psychoanalyze her. Jill was clearly nervous, but she didn’t seem afraid. Confidence Riley could teach. What Jill needed to prove was that she could hold her own against some of the biggest egos in the Western Hemisphere. 

Present company definitely included. 

“Good,” Riley said. “I want to be very clear on something. We are not Robin Hood. We do it for the adrenaline and the money.” Riley’s gaze flicked to the thousand-dollar watch on Nikki’s left wrist. “Although, none of us need the money anymore.” 

“Then why don’t you get your adrenaline fix somewhere else?” Jill questioned bravely. “Maybe pick up skydiving.” There it was—the spark Riley was looking for. 

“We all have our own deeper, more personal reasons. But me?” Riley leaned closer. “I do it just to see if I can.” 

“One day, you’re going to be caught. You know that right?” 

Riley’s stomach dropped. It seemed Nikki had left out some key information. Riley forced herself to grin as she said, “Maybe, but that day isn’t today.” The cashier called out their order number, and Riley retrieved their food before launching into her interrogation. “What I need to know now is what you can do for me.” She consumed her burrito in classless, ravenous bites, uncaring what Jill thought of her table manners. Each bite tasted like heaven. 

Jill’s eyebrow twitched, that spark flaring up again. “How would you like to never leave a fingerprint ever again?” She casually bit into her taco. 

“And how would I do that?” Riley probed. Nikki’s attention flicked between the two, observing, listening. 

Not even bothering to swallow her food first, Jill said, “I’ve met plenty of your type before—” Riley took note of her careful use of innuendo— “and I’m not dumb enough to give away that kind of information for free. If you want it that badly, you’ll pay me.” 

Riley pocketed that key detail for later. “Out of curiosity, what would you use the money for?” 

“Paying off my student loans.” 

Riley nodded. She’d never gone to college, but she had the utmost respect for anyone who drowned themselves in debt for the sake of an education. In addition to that, Jill was smart, not easily swindled, and responsible—all traits Riley was looking for. 

The bell tied to the restaurant door jingled when it opened, letting in a hot gust of summer air. Two men entered; one was about Riley’s age, with blonde surfer hair. The other was older—fifty maybe—and he scanned the room the same way she’d seen Desi do a million times, but it was the blonde one Riley focused on as he froze, eyes locking on the women. 

More specifically, on Nikki. 

“Time to go,” Nikki warned. She shoved Jill out of her seat and dragged her toward the back door. In their haste, Nikki and Jill left their remaining tacos on the table, but Riley clutched her half-eaten burrito as she ran after them. 

For the moment, Riley didn’t care who these men were. All she cared about was getting them off her tail. 

She paid no mind to the cook shouting as she hauled ass through the kitchen. Riley spied an apron hanging off a doorknob, and an idea clicked into place. She grabbed it, turned on the gas stove, and held the fabric in the flames until it ignited. The blonde man skidded around the corner. Riley threw the flaming apron, and her feet carried her away before it even hit him. 

Nikki and Jill were already out the back door and waiting in the alley when Riley caught up. 

“You two didn’t happen to drive here, did you?” Nikki and Jill shook their heads. 

Jill asked, “Did you?” 

Riley shot Nikki a glare that could’ve curdled milk. “I would’ve, if someone hadn’t put my car in storage and then been too lazy to get it back. But noooooooooo, I had to take an Uber.” 

“Shut up,” Nikki growled at the same time Jill questioned, “Storage?” 

Ignoring Jill’s glaring lack of information, Riley grimaced. “Then I guess we’re running.” She took off down the alley, Nikki and Jill at her heels. Over her shoulder, Riley said, “I really hope I’m wrong here, but was that who I think it was?” 

Nikki groaned. “Unfortunately.” 

“Is someone going to fill me in?” 

“My ex.” 

“Oh.” 

Before they even reached the main street, both Riley and Nikki had broken a sweat, but Jill kept pace alongside them like it was nothing—wearing stilettos, no less. 

Perhaps Riley had underestimated Jill. 

Shouting erupted behind them. The men were closing the distance between them, despite the blonde one being too busy fiddling with something in his hands to watch where he was going. The three women ran faster. 

“What the hell is he doing?” Riley hissed. 

“You know how we hack computers? He hacks everything else.” 

A bullet pinged off the alley wall. “Perfect.” 

The main street wasn’t as crowded as Riley had hoped. There was far too little coverage to hide from...whatever these men were. Nikki had some explaining to do when they got home. 

They ran one block before another alley divided the storefronts. First glancing over her shoulder to ensure the men hadn’t turned the corner on the main road yet, Riley pulled her companions into the alley. It was empty aside from a large, faded black dumpster. Riley’s stomach churned at what she was about to suggest, but now was not the time to be picky about solutions. 

“In the dumpster,” she ordered. “Now.” 

Nikki and Jill made pained faces, but neither argued. They tossed Jill in first, then Riley gave Nikki a boost. Yanking her phone from her back pocket, Riley quickly opened a FaceTime call with Nikki and hid her phone beneath the dumpster before climbing inside and closing the lid over their heads. 

The women waited in silence. 

The smell was nauseating, and trash bags squished under Riley’s combat boots. Her boots were going directly in the trash when she got home, favorite pair be damned. She might very well toss her cutoff jean shorts and tank top too. Any article of clothing that touched garbage fluid was not going on her body ever again. 

Nikki dutifully studied their makeshift security camera feed. The dumpster muffled outside sounds too much for Riley to listen for the heavy footsteps of their pursuers. Jill mercifully knew to refrain from making any sort of noise. At least she won’t get us killed, Riley thought. 

When Nikki finally signaled that the coast was clear, Riley breathed a deep sigh of relief she immediately regretted. Gagging, she desperately shoved the dumpster lid open and clawed her way to fresh air, doing her best not to vomit. She’d already sacrificed the uneaten half of her burrito to the dumpster. Riley wasn’t about to give up the half she’d already swallowed too. 

Nikki wasn’t so lucky. 

Jill held back her coworker’s hair, rubbing her back in smooth circles. She didn’t seem affected by the smell at all. When she noticed Riley starting, Jill explained, “I’ve dug through dumpsters filled with half-decomposed bodies. A plain old trash dumpster is nothing.” 

Riley could only nod and offer her a queasy half-smile. 

Retrieving her phone, she called Desi and begged the woman to pick them up, conveniently leaving out the part about the dumpster. When she was done, Riley turned to Jill. “I want you on my team. Take the rest of the day off from work and think about my offer. There’s a team meeting at my apartment tonight. If you’re in, have Nikki pick you up on her way. The choice is yours.”

[moogghost]

(note - tumblr and general screen saturation may have made the image quality gross so idk for sure how good some of these look. unfortunately a lot of these were more desaturated palettes-)

boredom got the best of me while digitalizing some art so i decided to make some colour palettes based off of the minecraft ost because i regularly listen to it. specifically it's based off of what colours it immediately makes me think of (or the...closest of what i could do for it bc i think only Oxygene, Equinoxe, Mice on Venus, and Dry Hands are exactly accurate to what i imagined, the rest is kind of vague guessing as to what exactly those colours were)

i might do smth w/ these colour palettes, or at least the ones i like the most? idk i might redo some of these at some point if i can get more accurate colours - but here's the thought process behind all of 'em since i am in the mood to ramble. i am so sorry for those who choose to read my uncoordinated thoughts it is extremely messy /lh

1. Key & 2. Door - kind of mashed these two together because i cannot listen to one without listening to the other. they must go together in my mind idk why. it's a lighter colour palette with mostly warm colours as it makes me think of new beginnings and opportunity and that's what yellow/oranges make me think of when it's these songs

3. Subwoofer Lullaby - idk why but i always get the image of more desaturated colours when i listen to this song. like blues and greens especially. it's not even "oh this song sounds kind of somber" no it's just desaturated blue and green my guy

4. Death - idk if it's because of the background noise in this one but. yeah no this one has dark green and blue bc grass and water. dark desaturated red and beige for the chicken

5. Living Mice - this song always played whenever i was in a plains or plains-ish biome so. it also getting some form of blue and green was inevitable. this time it's slightly brighter since it's living mice though

6. Moog City - hehehe i love this song. it gives both light grey and white vibes w/ bright reds and blues at the same time, but with a hint of a slightly desaturated indigo

7. Haggstrom - i wanted to add grey because this song always makes me think of cobblestone for some reason but?? i could not find a way to make it work with the rest of the vibes this gave. but anyways most music box-esque sounding pieces give light yellow and blue vibes, the pink is simply because i remember this playing a lot whenever i played in creative mode (which was and still is. a lot) and for some reason pink gives me adventurous vibes in this song. or flight. idk

8. Minecraft - ik it's kind of boring but. yeah this was kind of just the basic grass block but it does give of very green vibes to me?? like sort of faded green and not like the green vibes Mutation gives me but it's green

9. Oxygene - evening sky sounding like...right after the sun isn't visible but you can still sort of see that light. idk if it makes sense but,

10. Equinoxe - idk if it's because i'm thinking of the dragon quest ix grotto boss or what but. yeah it's a dark midnight sky with blues/purples highlighted with faint yellows and silvers

11. Mice on Venus - it's a very fun and bright piece and therefore it gets pinks, oranges, and purples. especially at the second half of it

12. Dry Hands - like...the beginning just feels very brown to me idk. and the other parts accompanying it is a desaturated light blue

13. Wet Hands - i get a lot more from Dry Hands but. it's sort of similar, slightly more vibrant but as it goes on it gets a little more desaturated. idk

i do not think these make complete sense but this is the best i can explain some of these (if i make a part two the explanations will not be better i am sorry)

[wanderingmirror]

Split And Fractured

(AU where the demon who possessed Arthur gets split into a spirit and demon. Demon possessing Lewis and spirit binding to Arthur. Very confusing. Also Mystery boi is the one to forget. Very confusing indeed.)

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

It hurts.

That’s the only way Arthur can describe it. The burning pains in his chest and body. Why? Why did Lewis have to kill him?! He wasn’t bothering them! He was happy to let them be happy! So why did he have to kill him in that cave?!

Arthur opened his eyes and sat up with a hand on his chest. He felt lighter. He felt different somehow, like something had changed. He looked down and found a ghost like body. A dark orange suit with a trench coat over top. His left arm was black with hints of green.

He shrieked with fear. He remembers the demon, remembers Mystery yelling for Lewis to move. But then Lewis grabbed his arm and shoved him off the cliff side. A dark grin on his face. What the hell was going on?! Arthur looked slowly behind him and his new orange pupils shrank with fear. His body lay impaled on stalagmites.

And his heart was pierced straight through from behind.

He growled and looked to his left and found a small star shaped object. He stood on wobbly legs and floated over to the glowing star. When the blond ghost picked it up he felt it pulse and narrowed his eyes. Lewis was to blame for his death. And what about Mystery? Or Vivi? Where they okay? He hoped so, he really did. Arthur floated to the entrance of the cave, finding it sealed off by a giant boulder. He frowned, touching it carefully with his right hand. Nothing happened. Except a small shock from magic. His hand phased through it not a second later.

Arthur didn’t have time to yelp before he fell onto the ground skull first. Alerting a certain Kitsune to his presence. Mystery turned and immediately growled at the ghost. Who was this guy? He didn’t recognize him. Arthur looked around and found the growling fox. Arthur’s eyes widened and then narrowed. He really didn’t want to fight with Mystery right now. He got up and started to float away from the larger creature. Mystery calmed, looking baffled. Why wasn’t the spirit attacking him? He could sense a demonic presence with him, so why not attack the white Kitsune? The blond ghost could sense the fox’s growing confusion and sighed an empty breath. He turned back towards him and noticed the other spirit eyeing his left arm. He hid it behind him and out of the bigger spirits view. “Who are you? And why have you come here, Demon?” Mystery growled when the origin of the demonic presence was removed from his sight.

“I have no interest in fighting you, Mystery. And before you ask, go find Lewis and Vivienne. They’ll answer any questions you may have if you ask them about an old friend named Arthur.”

His voice was melodic, smooth. Sending a shudder through Mystery’s spine. The orange pupils narrowed a bit before turning soft. The electric haired blond turned and walked away after that. Leaving a confused Mystery behind staring at his back.

———————————————————————

Arthur stepped into the two story home he made for himself, it had taken him almost three hours to make. But he wasn’t really paying attention to the time. What good was time when you were DEAD? In Arthur’s mind, he only had one person to blame, and that was Lewis. He sneered at the mere thought of his old best friend. Obviously he wasn’t good enough to be saved after Mystery warned the giant. What, did he honestly think Mystery— Or hell even Arthur— would let him be hurt?! Doesn’t matter now! But then he felt the effects of being alone. He missed his uncle and Vivi. He missed Galahad and Mystery.

Arthur floated up to the second story bedroom and went inside. A dark rusted colored coffin greeting him. He moved and laid down on the cold stone of the bottom. And his star shaped anchor, having remembered what spirits called them, beat slowly on his chest. Arthur curled up and fell into a meditative like state. Eye sockets empty and hair no longer electrified.

———————————————————————

Lewis and Vivi both walked along the small pathway of cobblestone. The van had broken down, and Arthur wasn’t around anymore to fix it up. Vivi was excited to see where the path led, while Lewis was a bit more hesitant. Mystery was a bit more concerned for Vivi and her excited attitude. He could sense the same demonic presence as before, the one connected to the ghost from the cave. He had asked about this Arthur fellow, but Vivi started to cry. While Lewis began to apologize for something about the man. Soon enough, after a walk of nearly a mile, a small two story house came into view. It had an orange, yellow, and red glow to it. And Mystery began to growl when the door opened by itself.

Lewis gripped his prosthetic tightly with fear and felt electric currents flow through the trio.

__________________________________________

Arthur knew a lot of time had passed, his anchor beat with excitement when Vivi and Mystery came to view. But then it slowed into anger when Lewis was with them. So it wasn’t enough to kill him?! He had to come back for more?! That was fine with Arthur. He’d make him pay with his life in return for killing him. His arm pulsed with unease, the demon within not liking where his thoughts lay. Galahad, who had been left behind in Kingsmen Mechanics, whimpered when he felt a zap from his ghost’s energy. His electro beats, the few he had with him now, gave glares to the magenta haired man.

“Leave him to me. Don’t harm the others, not a hair is to be harmed.” Arthur spoke with a low tone, the once demon and hamster shivered. The electro beats hissed and growled in understanding. “Is that really necessary, Human? You know I’ve been split in two, right?”

Arthur didn’t respond, leaving the side that was still light based to sigh sadly. The ghost would not stop until he either got what he wanted, or was forced to fade away. Galahad growled with worry, getting a gentle petting from Arthur in comfort. His sockets rose to signal he was smiling reassuringly to the orange and yellow hamster. Then they focused on the door that slammed behind his current guests.

“Took you three long enough to find me. But it begs the question as to why you went looking for a dead man in the first place.” Vivi and Lewis yelped while Mystery growled lowly. The demonic presence in the ghost’s arm still there but really weak after a year. But why was it not trying to control the ghost? The demon could sense him looking at it and shivered lightly. Arthur hid his green and black arm from the Kitsune. Lewis and Vivi both looked at him with wonder and fear.

“Well, Lewis?! Come to finish the job?! Huh?!” Lewis flinched at the ghost’s tone, and wondered how it knew his name. Vivi’s eyes glowed with excitement, she stepped closer to the ghost only for it to float a little away from her. His glowing pupils not as bright as before when shouting at Lewis. “How do you know Lewis?” She asked and Arthur glared. His skull getting covered in lightning and shaping to be his human self. “Does this ring any bells?” He asked with a saddened tone and Vivi gasped. “A-Arthur? No you can’t be him he’s gone!”

Arthur grabbed his left arm when Lewis stepped closer. The spirit shivering with worry in sensing the remnants of his other half. Long since destroyed by Mystery. “Boy, please. Get them to leave before something happens. Something we both will regret later on.” He spoke quietly in case the humans and Kitsune could hear him. Galahad squeaking in agreement. Arthur looked at his arm and the hamster. Sensing worry and seeing had him doubting what to do now. “Are you really,” Lewis walked up slowly, “Arthur?”

Arthur glared at him and turned around. “Leave.” Walking back up the stairs while Lewis and Vivi tried to call him back. Mystery growled, used this to try and rip the demon away from this ghost. Only to be shocked and thrown back. “Don’t. Do. That.” Arthur didn’t turn around. The spirit in his arm trembling, making his arm shake. He walked away. And the electro beats dragged the three out of the small home. Arthur having lost interest in harming Lewis for now. Anchor beating sadly at the thought of taking Lewis from Vivi. Maybe, maybe he could forgive Lewis this once. Maybe it was an accident?

Arthur groaned and held his skull. He laid down in his coffin. Galahad curled in his coat collar and the spirit already drifting to meditative state. Arthur had a lot to think about after seeing the three. Especially Lewis. And his thoughts ended there as he was dragged to a light sleep-like trance.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

(Let me know if you want part two and I’ll try to figure out how to do that and post it)

[maybebanks]

You Know I’m a Minor Chapter 04

jj maybank x reader

Start at PART 1

You crept inside your battered home, the floor creaking quietly at your feet.

You bit your lip. These damn floorboards.

Your throat felt dry, maybe you are just dehydrated.

Immediately, you approached the kitchen and took out a glass, then filled it with water.

But before you could take a sip, you felt a pair of rough calloused hands wrap around your neck.

—

“What’s got you down, Y/n?” Kie asks. So far this had started out an amazing summer, you were never bored with the pogues.

“I just..need a job,” you explain what you were thinking about, these days it was getting harder to even put food in your stomach.

“Don’t you already have a job?” Pope questions.

“Yeah, but I need another. I have a little extra time and I can work on weekends,”

“Weekends? But when will you have time for us?” Kie asks, worried.

“Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kie,” JJ adds, Kie didn’t take offense to it, but he wasn’t wrong.

“You can mow lawns in figure Eight with me,” JJ offers.

“Help deliver groceries?” Pope adds.

“We always need an extra hand at the Wreck, I can ask my dad if he’ll hire you,”

You smile and nod excitedly at Kie’s offer, “Yes! that would be amazing Kie,”

JJ pouts, “Are ya sure? You’d be missing out on a great view,” JJ jokes, gesturing to himself and his six pack.

“No offense JJ,” you roll your eyes, “I’m allergic to grass,”

“Allergic to grass? Huh?” JJ asks dumbfoundedly.

Everyone’s laughs mix together at the look on JJs face. JJ dips his fingers in his beer and flicks it on to you.

“Ah! You’re getting beer in my hair?!”

“Are you allergic to beer too?”

—

Finally back at John B’s place, the sun was starting to set, painting the sky with beautiful arrays of orange and pink.

You were all inside today, it was slightly raining and the mosquitos were raging outside.

John B had his arm around you on the couch, and JJ, Kie and Pope were sitting across from you on the floor and on some shitty deck chair on the porch.

JJ began smoking, bringing you back to the first time you got close with JJ. Too close?

You twiddled you’re thumbs in your lap and played with your fingers, the silence made you nervous. You didn’t want to smoke, it just made nerves worse.

“JJ!” Pope scolded when JJ blew smoke directly into his face.

“Oh sorry Pope? You want a hit of this?” JJ smirked hazily and sarcastically.

You laughed, Pope was frustrated, but he let it slide when he saw your smile.

“So none of you want a hit of this?” JJ repeated, Kie took it from his fingers and took a long hit, not coughing once.

JJ scanned the rest of us, when no one responded he groaned, “didn’t realize I rolled with a bunch of nerds,”

You bit the inside of your cheek, your shoulders visibly tensed, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Stop overreacting.

John B rubs your shoulder comfortingly, taking notice of your behavior.

John B glanced at JJ and gave him a scolding look, in which JJ pushes his hands up in defense.

“Want some Y/n?”

“I think she’ll pass,” John B says, causing JJ to look down in defeat.

“Sorry, I’m..I just don’t want to smoke,”

“It’s okay, Y/n, I don’t mind,” JJ smiled, flipped his lighter on and off.

As the night went on, the pogues got drunk on beers and high on laughs and good conversation. John B was basically falling over, he turn over and his head landed on your lap.

“John B, you are so drunk right now,” you told him.

“You’re so pretty Y/n,” he slurred.

“Um, I-thanks,” you mutter, not believing he is being genuine, just drunk.

“I wish you didn’t have a boyfriend already, that stinks,” John B says again, causing the rest of the group to silence.

“Uh what?” JJ says in shock.

“No- I don’t! What are you talking about John B? You’re just drunk, you don’t know what you’re saying,” you conclude.

John B, lying down, raises his hand up to your face, then puts his finger on your neck and pokes at it a few times.

Instantly, you slap his hand away. Before you can ask what the hell he is doing, he mumbles.

“Hickies.”

Your mouth went dry, you knew the marks he was pointing at were not hickies. But you couldn’t exactly tell the truth.

You gently push his head off of your lap and get up, leaving the couch. A few of them ask where you are going, you just mutter some excuse and head inside.

You open the door to a random room and hop inside. Collapsing on the unmade bed.

—

“You really love that bed don’t ya,” a light-hearted voice rips you from your sleep, the voice was slightly groggy and scratchy, you hated to admit it but his morning voice was kinda attractive.

JJ tapped your bare shoulder, you were laying on your stomach, waving him off and wishing to fall back asleep.

“Y/n,” JJ repeated softly.

You instantly remembered you had removed your shirt becuase it was too hot last night. To react, you pull the covers over your face, hiding from JJ.

This resulted in a laugh, “Get up babe,” JJ encouraged tugging at the covers.

“Stop! JJ I’m practically naked!” You continue to cover yourself in embarrassment.

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen-“

“JJ! Close your eyes!” You demanded.

JJ listened to your order, smirking to himself at the small glimpse he got of your white lace bra at your chest.

Fortunately, he didn’t notice anything else, no injuries or imperfections.

When you peek over the covers, JJ is holding out a shirt for you. The same Pelican Marina t-shirt.

You grab it and throw it on, before you could get up though, JJ puts his hand on your thigh. Holding you back.

Feeling violated, your expression changed. Anxious.

Seeing this JJ, quickly removes it. He was only trying to ease the tension for what he was about to say.

“Uh..can we talk?” Was all he could muster.

“About what?” You sighed, quickly thinking he was going to ask about the smoking dilemma.

“Last night-“

“I’m sorry,” you interrupt, “I shouldn’t have been so weird, I just, I didn’t want to get high, and I didn’t want to say or do something I’d regret,”

JJ chuckles, “that’s okay Y/n, I don’t care if you don’t want to smoke, I actually wanted to talk about what John B said, about your boyfriend and stuff.”

You tensed.

Then got up from the bed, moving towards the door.

“Who-I mean...is he right? Why don’t you just tell me?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend, John B was just drunk. Honest.”

“But he said..” JJ paused, stepping closer as his eyes trailed down your face, stopping at your neck, “who gave you those?”

You moved your hand over the bruises.

You scoffed, clearly trying to deflect, “I just burned myself. But seriously it doesn’t matter. Can you stop interrogating me?”

“Yeah. Okay sure,” JJ said disappointedly.

—

JJ slipped on his board. Falling into the ocean near you. You were sitting on your board, one leg on either side.

He splashed water in your eyes.

“JJ!” You screamed.

You had to admit he was an amazing surfer. But you thought his wipeouts were even better.

After he came up he smiled a goofy smile, causing a laugh to erupt from your mouth.

“Dope wipeout,” you complimented.

“Yeah, you just ate shit!” Kie shouts from a little farther away.

“Ohh you wanna see a wipeout?!” JJ shouted competitively.

You furrowed you’re brows in confusion, but suddenly you understood when JJs hands gipped your board and flipped you over.

“Hey!” You screamed before being succomed into the cold.

JJs arms wrapped around your torso and he pulled you up into his chest.

He brought you face close to him, you wrapped your legs around his waist and he just held you there, treading water.

“That was mean,” you pouted.

“What’s mean is you treating my t-shirt like a second skin! I’ve never seen you take it off, we’re surfing for god sakes!”

You rolled your eyed and pushed JJs firm chest farther away, his grip left your waist, then returned to your board.

—

If he could see you now.

He would tell you to stop acting like a whore. For getting closer to JJ day by day, for letting him hold you. He would tell you to drop these new friends, who lifted your spirits, and settle for being alone.

What are you? Some kind of rebel?

Normally you would feel anxious, but the feeling of freedom made you forget about your troubles. For now.

You ran up to John B and jumped on his back for a piggy back ride. Taken off guard. He stumbled and landed in the sand, you following down and landing on your side.

“Ow! Y/n why did you do that?” John B laughed.

Kie helped him up and Pope helped you up. You mentally scolded yourself when you realized the temporary pain from the impact of falling decided to stay a while.

Determined, you decided to stand up on your own, obviously showing balance problems.

“How can you surf when you walk like that?” JJ commented, his hands met your waist to steady you. It’s cliche to say, but after you brushed his hands away, his touch lingered.

“I’m...fine,” you said, breathing heavily like you just sprinted.

Instead of his usual laugh, he cocked his head in concern. But luckily, Kie changed the conversation shortly after.

“Do you guys think we should crash the Kook party tonight?” She asked, excitedly.

You bit your lip, hard. The scene of your nightmares was a kook party. Last time you were at one, things turned out horribly.

You coughed when JJ took notice, he always seemed to notice the little things.

“JJ what do you think?” Pope asked.

JJ didn’t want to hover over you, every time he asks if you are okay, you just shut him down, making him feel stupid for being concerned.

“I’m cool with it. As long as John B doesn’t hold me back if I try and punch Topper,”

John B scolds JJ for always being so reckless, and Pope tells him not to be stupid.

Finally the van is in sight.

But there was something on your mind that you wanted to confront JJ.

You grab his forearm gently, and tug him back a little, not really wanting the pogues to hear.

“Um JJ?”

“What’s up Y/n?” he asks, smiling a usual JJ smile.

“I know you are... protective over-“ you stopped yourself, not wanting to assume he’d consider you a friend, “and I just, I don’t want you to get hurt,” you admit.

JJ chuckles, “No need to worry about me,” he puts his hand on your shoulder.

You punch his arm gently, just joking around.

“If anyone knows how to throw a punch...” he gestures, and slowly brings his fist up, mimicking a punch, his fist accelerates towards your face but slows down at the last minute.

“JJ I was just kidding!” you exclaim as your hands reach and protect your face.

“Relax Y/n. What? You thought I would hit you? For real?” JJ asked, his tone seemed offended, but also pitiful.

“Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize. God damn,” he mumbles.

“What-um...what I meant before was just, can you just hold off, and not get into any fights? Please,”

He nods, “promise,”

—

Get a grip! Stop being such a shy little bitch who stutters her words and wants to cry at every mention of life’s bullshit. Stop acting like the world is on your shoulders. Because it’s not.

“Whatcha thinking about?” JJ asks, talking a sip out of a red solo cup.

“Nothing,” you reply, eyeing the liquid in his cup.

He smirks, “wanna sip?”

“Fuck it,”

—

Chapter 05

I really am struggling and have no idea where this is going! I’m tryna do a slow burn but it is harder than I thought!! I’m so sorry this is bad please bare with me, part 5 will be better!

Taglist: @p0gue420 @kristinaxilliano @belledutchess @maebanks @omgpankow @kaylinfayezink @dolanfivsosxox @thesurfingsnail @obsessedweirdo @dudebroskiprn @milked-down-coffee

[gguksgalaxy]

Bulls Eye | JJK | Bottoms Up

A summer weekend isn’t complete without Jungkook coming to seek you out at your job at the beach club to bless you wish his smile. A smile that quickly fades to anger one night, when he catches your ex trying to get your attention.

›› Bottoms Up Masterlist ›› AU: Friends to Lovers ›› Genre: Smut / Fluff / Angst ›› Rating: 18+ (sexual content) ›› Pairing: JJK x Reader ›› Word Count: 9.4k Warning Include: Mild violence, swearing, minor injuries, alcohol, toxic past relationship, toxic ex, sex, fingering, cunnilingus, lots of smooching.

Jungkook: Okay but when do I finally get to meet u irl? [19:23]

You: You're legit going to see me like, tonight [19:25]

Jungkook: Meeting u when ur at work doesn't count :((( [19:34]

You: Jungkook, you see me every weekend, the entire summer [19:36]

You: How much more of me do you want to see? [19:36]

You: Nvm dont answer that [19:38]

Jungkook: Ur just scared imma beat ur ass in mario kart [19:38]

Jungkook: Ill let you win though if that means we can hang out :((  [19:40]

Jungkook: Hello? [19:45]

Jungkook: ARE YOU IGNORING ME? [19:59]

Jungkook: I am: H U R T [20:10]

You chuckle at your phone as you’re doing your make-up sitting at your vanity. Jungkook’s been like this for the short time that you’ve known him. It was a little under a year ago when he’d left his phone number on a napkin at your work. Normally you know better than to pick up random number from semi-drunk strangers but his smile had been too good to deny. That, and he had been more friendly than the normal party-goer.

From working at a beach club in the summer, you’re not unaccustomed to receiving numbers that you truly do not want.

When you met Jungkook, he was arguably a little bit tipsy, but he made no attempt at flirting with you as he dropped down onto the barstool in front of you.

You’d been dating someone, something you’d made very clear and it hadn’t mattered to him. You’d be lying to say you hadn’t been a little curious about him. He’d smiled, wide-eyes and wholeheartedly, and you might’ve been whipped ever since. So you’d taken his number under the pretence of sending him the dumb picture you’d taken of him. At his own request.

Here you are, nearly a year later and one boyfriend less. Jungkook has kept texting you but you’ve never really been sure about taking your relationship past your work. According to him, he became a regular just to see you. But it’s easier to not fall too deep in your crush as long as work is the only place you see him.

For him, it seemed to be more of a struggle. When the club closed for winter you truly had expected him to grow bored of you and stop texting. Especially because last year, you were still dating your ex. Also known as the demon who made you last autumn a living hell. 

Jungkook, on the other hand, is an angel. Or well, he might be a bit of a brat from time to time but you’ll take it in stride if you get to enjoy his presence a little more. His daily texts at least. 

It’s because of his sheer kindness and unabashed behaviour that your ever-growing crush developed past a small infatuation. You catch yourself smiling in the mirror just thinking about him. His sweet smile and soft lips. His sharp jawline and broad shoulders. His hands that — you really need to get your head out of the gutter.

That’s how you knew your crush had taken a … ‘bad turn’. When he’d sent you a Snapchat of his Starbucks drink and your first thought was; ‘I wonder what that hand would feel like on my body’. Or when he’d sent you a video of him working out — obviously as a joke — and all you could see what the bulging of his arm muscles.

Truly, you’re whipped for him and you’re afraid to admit it. His flirting has never passed the line of playful, it’s just there to tease you. Guys like Jungkook — caring, sweet, good-looking — don’t go for you. You’d rather keep your friendship with him, than take a risk and lose everything.

Your phone chimes again, not aiding you in your thoughts. It only makes your smile widen.

Jungkook: I will come whoop ur ass tonight if u don't text me back! [20:31]

You: Oh stop crying will you? I was getting ready [20:31]

Jungkook: Did u think about me? [20:31]

You: Jungkook, why in the lord would I be thinking bout you? [20:33]

Jungkook: Oh I dunno, cuz Im cute? cuz u love me? :(( [20:35]

You: Do I tho? [20:36]

Jungkook: D: [20:36]

You: See you in a few hours kook [20:36]

Jungkook: yiss [20:36]

The club is bustling, the air warm and humid as soon as people start to trickle in. The weather is calm, after a few rainstorms it’s good to feel the ocean breeze. It’ll be busy tonight, and you’re prepared for it.

It takes an hour or two for the club to be filled, music on blast and beer flowing like water. You’re behind the black wooden bar, dressed in a red off-shoulder blouse that hangs loosely around your frame. The dress code at work is jeans and anything red, so you invested in a pair of red sneakers just to match.

The dance floor is crowded, people moving, dancing as you mix drink after drink upon request. Cocktails are your specialisation, that is your corner of the bar. By the time your two hours in your hands are sticky with liquor.

As you’re washing your hands, you find yourself searching for that one familiar face. The fact that Jungkook is about as handsome as they come hasn’t helped you fall for him any less in the short time you let yourself. The second you stopped withholding yourself from thinking about him like that, you found yourself thinking about him like that — all of the time. To the point where you almost drunk dialled him, twice.

Truly, you hope to see him. A night at the club is not complete without Jungkook gracing you with his smile. You remember he said something about dying his hair recently, and you’re curious to see as to what he’s done.

A girl walks up to you with an order, and you’re amidst making her three cosmopolitans when Jungkook finally shows himself.

The glass almost drops out of your hand when you lay eyes on him. “Jungkook,” you stammer out.

He’s wearing a thin white t-shirt, neckline showing his collarbones that are covered in a faint sheen of sweat. The fabric clings to his chest a little, not leaving much to the imagination. He’s more muscular than you thought. You wonder if he —

“Hello, eyes up here,” he chuckles, smiling widely.

You blink at him, realising his hair is a few shades lighter than its usual black hue. It softens out his features, yet the side part reveals his forehead and makes him look more mature at the same time. The way in which he looks both sweet and sexy is odd — confusing is perhaps a better word.

“Hey,” you manage to blurt out, trying to focus on your work again. You pour the girl her drinks and garnish them with a piece of orange zest.

“Did you just get here?” you ask Jungkook.

He shakes his head. “No, I got here about an hour ago.”

“And you didn’t come say hi? I’m offended.”

He chuckles again, nose scrunching up. “Let me give you a hug as consolation?”

Your eyes widen at the request. It’s not that you haven’t hugged him before. He’s managed to ensnare you enough times when you were out collecting glasses. Though, this is the first time he’s so openly asked for it and your stomach jumps at the thought. For your own sanity, you want to protest but you find yourself unable to.

“Please? I haven’t seen you for eight months. Give a guy some love.” Jungkook cocks his head to the side, a gesture that makes his hair fall over his forehead. The light catches his eyes — you can’t say no to those eyes.

“Fine, fine,” you sigh with a roll of your eyes as you sling the towel over your shoulder.

Jungkook grins so widely you blush as he envelops you into a bone-crushing hug. He is warm, smelling like an odd mix of beer, sweat and a light perfume. Strangely, it works but you can’t help but wonder how nice he’d smell when he’s not in a club. The perfume you caught definitely matches him.

You can just withhold yourself from literally inhaling him as you rest your chin on his shoulder. His shirt is so thin that you can feel the dip of his spine as your hand grazes his back. Your stomach flutters again.

He lets go too soon, and you have to stop yourself from pouting. “The usual?” you ask.

“Yeah, Tae and Jimin are hanging out somewhere, so two beer too.” He looks over his shoulder to where he must assume his friends are. You don’t seem them, but you doubt they’d stray far. He usually comes with them, though he’s shown up alone too. Every Saturday in the summer like clockwork.

Jungkook always orders the same cocktail. You step back behind the bar as he watches you carefully. His eyes follow you as you move — you’re hyper-aware of it, but too afraid to look up and meet his gaze.

Bulls Eye is not a drink that’s order often, but you’ve started to associate it with Jungkook. As you pour the lemon juice into the shaker, you mix it with light beer, ginger ale, and some sugar. It’s stirred, not shaken. The drink is not your thing, but you’ve tried it on his recommendation. Sadly, anything with beer has a tendency to make your tastebuds cringe.

It’s poured over ice, cold in your hand at you pass it to him. “Here, not too heavy on the lemon juice.”

“You remember?”

“How could I not?”

Jungkook seems taken aback by your comment, silent for a few beats too long. He doesn’t shake out of his trance until you give him the two beers. “Thanks! The others must be wondering where I went. I’ll see you around!”

You smile at him, giving a short wave as he walks off with the drinks crammed in his hands. He turns back to look at you once before he disappears into the crowd. You hope he didn’t catch you staring.

Seeing him again — hugging him — has truly confirmed that you’re in over your head. Your heart is thrumming just from the sight of him. It’s been eight months and yet you swear he matured. The purposely odd-angled Snapchats truly didn’t do him justice.

You remember a few months ago when he’d started sharing his workouts with you. Apparently, he’d been held up by a shoulder injury, but now he was back on his regular regime. Also known as the regime where he spends most of his free time either working out of playing video games. Either of which you receive excessive clips of.

The thoughts make you chuckle. You’ve never been much of a gamer, but Jungkook's excitement about it has pushed you dangerously close to getting yourself a console. Who knows, maybe soon.

His offers to play Mario Kart with you are tempting. It’s the thought of what could happen that make you hesitate every time. The chance of this ending in shambles becomes more and more likely the deeper you fall for him. You’re not sure there even is a way out anymore.

“Hey, miss whipped!” your colleague calls out, waving a hand in front of your face.

“W-what?” You shake yourself.

She chuckles. “Legit, are you still not dating him?”

You frown. “Who? Jungkook? No, we’re not dating.”

“You’re willing to tell me that you two are out here looking at each other like you’re about to walk down the aisle and you’re not dating? Girl, get a grip, the boy’s all over you. Has been since the first time he saw you.” She’s washing out the dirty glasses, hands moving quickly.

You’re unsure of what to tell her. It’s the second year you’re working together but you wouldn’t really consider her a friend. “I’m not sure about that.”

“Wait.” She stops. “Don’t tell me you’re still dating that douche from last year? I know we’re not close but he was a dick and you need to get rid of him.”

“No, no. I broke up with him a few months ago.” You think back of your ex. Last summer when you’d taken this job he’d been displeased. But it’d worsened when he came to see you and decided that every guy who ordered from you was either flirting with you or out to take you from him. He’d always been a little possessive, but after summer he’d just crossed the line with you. Though, breaking up with him wasn’t as easy as you’d thought it’d be.

Despite him being possessive, you really thought you loved him. You didn’t want to lose him and it caused you to be stuck in an unhappy relationship for three months. Until you finally decided to cut him out — a messy breakup to be honest.

If it wasn’t for Jungkook showing you that you were so unhappy you’d still have been moping around.

“Well then,” your colleague says. “What are you waiting for? If I had a guy that hot smiling at me like I’m the sun his earth revolves around I would jump his bones any chance I got.”

“Nina!” you squeal.

“What?” she answers wide-eyed. “Oh please, you must’ve thought about it. Did you see his pecs?”

You blush furiously. “Okay! That’s enough lusting after my friend for tonight!” You push her towards the sink and get back to taking orders.

If she’d been wrong you doubt you’d be this flustered. But she’s not. You hate yourself for thinking about him like that. Jungkook’s a nice guy, he’s not out for more than a friendship. Surely he’d have said so if he was. Right?

You see Jungkook three more times that evening, each time a little more drunk and with a little bit of a wider smile. Though, when he comes to you for his fourth drink he asks for water. His t-shirt sticks to his skin and he giggles out something about needing some refreshment. You tell him to go for a swim in the sea. He replies with a wiggle of his eyebrows, asking you to join him. For skinny dipping.

You blush; your mistake. He sees right through you, eyes narrowing but no commentary following. Instead, he purposely brushes his hand against yours when you hand him his drinks — you now this because he lingers a tad too long. His gaze settles on you before he walks away and you want to blame it on the alcohol in his system but it feels like he knows.

Nina leans over to you. “Girl, your boy is giving you bedroom eyes. Are you really out here telling me he doesn’t want you?”

“Stop!” you shriek.

“Listen, it’s easy. You want him, he wants you. Nobody says you have to bed him, though I’d advise you to. He looks good.”

You roll your eyes at her again, walking into the back to get something to eat and take a breather. The night is warm, but the breeze that trickles in from the open back door is nice. You wish you could swim actually. It’s been a long time since you actually went to the ocean, even if you live so close. Life’s been busy.

When you walk into the club to collect empty glasses and bottles, you spot Jungkook. He’s with his friends, laughing and dancing without seemingly a care in the world. He doesn’t see you, but when he smiles particularly wide your own lips twitch.

You wonder whether being with Jungkook would be as bad of an idea as you thought. Being stuck in this crush for the rest of your friendship might be the end of you. He is too good to be true, yet he’s right here within reach and you’re letting him slip between your fingers.

Would kissing him be as good as you’ve imagined? Because you certainly have imagined it — his lips on yours, soft and maybe a little demanding, smiling into it even.

A hand wraps around your arm and you’re pulled around before you can truly register what happens. “Hey, babe.” You recognise the drawl of the pet name immediately. Your ex.

He smiles at you, fingers smoothing down your arm with a slight tilt of his head. His grin is glazed over with the effects of alcohol in his blood. He’s drunk, about to start something.

You take a tentative step back. “What do you want Hyunwoo?”

Instead of answering immediately, he moves closer with fingers trailing your waist. “I’m just wondering if you’ve had enough time to think? Did you realise you miss me yet?”

The scoff that slips past your lips is probably a mistake — the twist of his face shows his displeasure.

“Babe, don’t be like that. You said you needed space, didn’t I give you that?’

“No,” you spit. “That was months ago Hyunwoo. Before I broke up with you.”

He licks his lips and you hold your breath. Hyunwoo is mostly bark and, usually, no bite, but won’t hurt you but starting a scene is not past him. “People change their minds, don’t they?”

You push his hand off your hip. “Listen, you and I are done. I don’t want to be with you anymore, we don’t work. It’s better if you just leave me alone.” He’d better leave your sight soon. You’ve closed this chapter of your life and this just brings back bad memories you don’t need. Unwilling to grant him another second of your time you turn away to go back to the bar.

He grabs your hand again, pulling you against him. “Babe, come on.”

“Hyunwoo, let fucking go of me!”

Someone pushes him away from you, pulling you back.

“I think you need to back off,” Jungkook snarls suddenly from beside you. Hyunwoo reaches for you but Jungkook stops him with a shove. “I said back off man.” His voice is laced with anger and when you finally gather yourself enough to look up at him you’re surprised to see the furious look on his face.

Jungkook’s eyes are dark, brows set — it’s almost scary.

Your ex merely scoffs. “Who the fuck do you think you are, kid?”

“Someone who’ll treat her much better than you ever did. Now fuck off before I rearrange your teeth.”

The way Jungkook speaks is so out of character, you barely recognise him. Never have you heard him this angry over anything — it’s pure disgust coming out of his mouth. You suppose he’s never liked Hyunwoo, but you sure hope he can keep his hands to himself.

“Jungkook,” you try, touching his arm that’s coiled tight.

“I cared for her when no-one would and what?” Hyunwoo’s eyes run up and down Jungkook’s body. “She cheats on me with a highschooler.”

Jungkook scoffs. “You call isolating her from her friends, caring?” He steps towards Hyunwoo with a puffed-out chest. Your attempt to pull him back by his shirt only fails. “She didn’t cheat on you, have a little self-respect and leave her alone.”

“Self-respect? She’s the one going around fucking randoms.”

“That’s it,” Jungkook barks, shoving him back two steps. “You manipulative fuck, you have thre—“

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before Hyunwoo’s fist connects with his cheek.

“Jungkook!” you exclaim, but he doesn’t hear you. Instead, he retaliates before you can do anything. Jungkook hits him back and you flinch upon the impact. You’re nailed to your spot as you watch Jungkook’s fist collide with his face again, not even stumbling. Everything around you slows down, you try to pull at Jungkook’s shirt, call his name, but he keeps pushing Hyunwoo further back.

“Stop!” you yell. People around you take notice, and someone tries to pull you back as Hyunwoo tackles Jungkook to the ground. He hits him in the face again and you cry out.

Suddenly, two security guards rush in. They just manage to stop Hyunwoo from hitting Jungkook again. Jungkook scrambles up from the floor and wipes the blood from his mouth as the guards force Hyunwoo out of the club. He yells something you can’t hear over the thumping of your heart.

Jungkook pushes at the third guard that comes for him, swaying on his feet.

“Hey!” you splutter out. The man from security recognises you, stopping with a firm grip on Jungkook’s upper arm. “It’s alright, he was protecting me. I’ll take him outside.”

“Are you certain miss?” He gives Jungkook a sceptical look. One of Jungkook’s eyes is watering, and there’s a bit of blood running from his nose.

You nod. “Yeah, I’ll get him some ice and send him on his way.” Jungkook is rubbing a hand over his eye, and you shakily grab his elbow to stop him. You look around, hoping to find Jimin or Taehyung so they can take him home, but they’re nowhere to be found. “Let's go.” Your voice falters, laced with nerves as you try to steady your own legs.

Jungkook sets his jaw. You shove him forward but he won’t budge. “Go Jungkook, to the bar.” Your legs feel like lead, body heavy with what just happened. He grumbles something when he finally starts walking to the front. The fear of what could’ve happened to him won’t stop running circles through your mind.

You guide him behind the bar and Nina perks up at the sight of him. “What happened?!”

“He punched my ex in the face,” you scoff.

She shoots Jungkook an approving look. “Good riddance.”

“Listen,” you say, grabbing a glass full of ice. “I can’t find his friends so I’m taking him to mine. Will you guys be okay without me?”  Jungkook’s slumped against the bar behind you, still not having said a word.

Nina nods. “Yeah, you look pretty shaken up yourself. We’ll be fine. Do you need me to call a cab?”

You shake your head. “It’s okay. I don’t live far.”

Jungkook huffs at you when you sit him down on a chair in the back. He really overstepped himself, and you want to be angry at him for making a scene at your work. But then again, he wasn’t the one who started throwing punches and the fact that he did it to protect you…you can’t just get mad. He could’ve gotten so much worse, you’re just glad he’s okay.

“Wait here.” You shuffle around the cabinets to find a washcloth and dump the ice in there, trying it up and giving it to him. “Here, for your cheek.”

He doesn’t take it, he just keeps rubbing his eye and blinking aggressively. “I think I’ve something in my eye.”

You sigh, slapping away at his hand from his face and tipping his head back into the light. “I think you just have a serious case of stupid.” Surprisingly, he lets you examine his eye, gently rubbing the skin under it. “It looks fine, just stop rubbing it.”

Jungkook blinks up at you. “Thanks.”

“Where are Jimin and Taehyung?”

He frowns, trying to think. “Uh…I think they were going out for food. I was going to join them after I said bye to you when I saw — what’s his name — talking to you.”

“Okay, well…I live one subway station away. I have a spare mattress, you can stay over for tonight. Come on.” You pull Jungkook up and he stumbles but manages to stop himself from completely falling over. He’s less drunk than you thought, probably just shaken up like you are. You’re not sure if he’s hurt past bruising, but at least his nose has stopped bleeding. At home, you’ll get to take a better look.

You exit through the back door, grabbing your coat and bag and pushing Jungkook towards the subway. He doesn’t say much, on his way there, just silently holds the ice against his face — it’s not going to last long in these temperatures.

You think back, the way that Hyunwoo went from nothing to full-on fist fighting within seconds. It flashes before your eye — Jungkook on the floor under him. Though he too had seemed pretty adamant on giving Hyunwoo a permanent facial.

Once you reach the station Jungkook grabs your hand, ice-cold and wet. You look up at him, his cheek red and a little swollen. “You okay?”

He looks at his feet. “I’m sorry.”

You sigh, squeezing his hand. “It’s okay, let’s just go to my place.” When the train arrives you realise his nose is bleeding again, and motion for him to hold the washcloth up.

Jungkook looks defeated as he sits down next to you. It takes him two entire seconds to lean into your side and nod off. His hair smells nice like he washed it just before he went out. It’s soft, floral maybe even.

As you sit here next to him you realise his hand is still loosely encasing yours, laying in your lap. You never expected Jungkook to just protect you like that. The way Hyunwoo just attacked him, you just hope that he really doesn’t have anything aside from a future bruise. The thought of Jungkook getting hurt because of you is not something you think you can stomach. Even if your ex totally deserved it — maybe you should’ve seen it coming. After all, it had been Jungkook who’d shown you that you deserved better.

When he nuzzles his cheek into your shoulder you realise that better might be him after all. Jungkook has always offered you warmth, a shoulder to cry and lean on.

You gently shake him awake at your stop, and he blushes when he opens his eyes to see you so close. It’s endearing, and you find yourself no longer caring to hide your feelings. You brush the hair out of his face. “We’re here,” you whisper.

Jungkook stumbles after you, sleepily dragging himself up the stairs where he bumps into you again. He’s finally stopped rubbing his eye but it remains a little red. You push him ahead when he wavers and spot scuff marks and a cut on his elbow. It’s worse than he’s letting on.

“Kook, you’re bleeding.” You stop him, twisting his arm to look at it. It doesn’t look to deep and you sigh in relief. The way you’d pulled him has him close to you, almost nose to nose when you look up. “A-are you okay?”

He nods slightly, eyes skimming over your face.

“Okay, we’re almost there.”

Your stomach keeps twisting with the realisation that he got hurt because of you. If it hadn’t been for the guards…Jungkook he’s more than just a friend to you. Even if you never hung out, the steady presence in his life is so important to you. You don’t want to imagine it without him. He texts you almost every day if he can, and maybe it was a good place to start. You feel that you know him as you watch him slump against the wall of the elevator. He knows you. There was nothing physical before you fell.

Jungkook hesitates on your doorstep, looks inside the hall as if something is going to jump out at him.

“Get inside Kook.” You look at him over your shoulder. “I’m going to get a warm towel and some stuff to clean the cuts on your elbows and we—“

You’re muffled by Jungkook pulling you into a hug. Your heart jumps as your cheek is pressed against his chest while he holds you. The washcloth is cold against your back where he still holds it. He rests his chin on top of your head, holding you tight. His chest is warm, and you find yourself pressing even closer — you want to feel this forever. He holds you as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.

Tears sting the corners of your eyes as you wrap your arms around his waist. All the tension releasing itself it seems. “Kook.”

“I’m sorry, okay. I just — I saw him grabbing you and I saw how uncomfortable you were. All I could think of was protecting you and I should’ve stayed out of it. I only made it worse and I — I can’t imagine what you must think of me now. I got so angry, I didn’t know what I was saying.”

What you think of him? If only he knew.

He presses his nose into your hair, his next words muffled. “Please forgive me.”

Forgive him? That was never a question on your mind, you were never mad at him. Maybe a little upset, but it was nothing he’d need your forgiveness for. Not in your eyes. You’re more upset about him getting hurt than anything else.

“It’s alright. Just sit down so I can make sure you’re okay.”

He hums and affirmative into your hair and plops himself down on the chair after. You quickly return from the bathroom with a clean towel and some antiseptic. Jungkook sits slouched forward a little, it makes him seem smaller than he really is — cuter. There’s still some blood running from his nose and by the small stains on his fingers you know he’s been rubbing it.

“You’ve got to stop touching your nose,” you mumble. “You’re going to get blood all over the place.” You fill a glass with water for him to drink, and knock your knee against his as a gesture. He parts his legs so you can get a closer look at his face.

“Squeeze the bridge of your nose and lean forward.”

“Everyone always says backwards.”

“Forward, Jungkook. And give me your hand.” You grab his free hand and twist it up. This way you get a good look at whatever caught his arm. The cut shallow, mostly dried by now. “You know,” you drawl as you gently clean the wound. “You really shouldn’t do stupid shit like that.”

You clean away the blood from his arm and fingers. He’s shockingly pliable in your grip. “You could’ve really gotten hurt Jungkook.”

“I wouldn’t have let him,” he answers nasally, still leaning forward.

“I’m serious, Hyunwoo would’ve ripped you to shreds.” Jungkook’s other arm is less wounded, but you clean it anyway.

He winces a little when you twist his wrist to check the cut again. “Do I look like I’m going to let an asshole like him just talk to you like that?”

You remove his hand from his nose, tipping his head back to clean his face too. His hand is warm and you find yourself wishing you could hold it for longer. “Still, you can’t just do stuff like that because you care about me. You don’t have to prove it.”

Jungkook grabs your hand again, pulling it away from his face so roughly you gasp and drop the towel to the floor. “Care about you?” he snorts. “You think I did that because I just care about you?” A soft chuckle leaves his lips as he shakes his head. “I don’t know if I haven’t made it obvious enough but…I wake up and go to sleep thinking about you.”

You stare at him, standing between his legs in the light from your kitchen. Jungkook looks at you with so much determination you’re unable to move or even speak. Was that a confession? You purse your lips together.

He sighs deeply. “All I think about is wanting to wake up next to you and make you breakfast and you think I care about you. You’re a fool.”

A fool for him. “Kiss me,” you whisper.

He falters — stops with parted lips and a change of gaze that is so gentle you’re not sure if he heard you properly.

You shake your hand from his grip and place both on his shoulders, leaning in close enough to touch noses. He hiccups, tiny breath puffing out against your lips. You smile. “I said, kiss me fool.”

He needs to hear no more. His lips come up for yours like he’s coming up for air after a long time starved. Jungkook kisses with fervour, gently but with purpose and you sigh into him. You’ve thought about this for so long and it surpasses all your expectations. Your legs dare buckle at the first graze of his teeth against your bottom lip.

Jungkook catches you, manoeuvring you into his lap and taking advantage of your gasp to deepen the kiss. You moan, surprising even yourself, but the sound he lets out in return is worth it. His hands paw at your hips, sliding under your top to touch your skin after yearning for so long. Everywhere he touches, every little sound you make — it’s like it sets him free. He grows bolder with every move.

Every swipe of his tongue into your mouth is devilish, a stark contrast with his previous words. This beats all imagination. Jungkook is too good to be true. His kiss is a little inexperienced, a little experimental, but you take it in stride because he is so eager.

You want him. “Jungkook,” you moan into his mouth that is parted against yours. He pants heavily, hands played out over your back to keep you against him. You feel steadied by him — you need it when he ruts his hips up into yours without warning.

He’s not hard yet but God you’re already feeling the pleasure pool in your own stomach and you don’t want him to stop. You kiss him even deeper, tongue wet and warm and so good. “Fuck.”

Jungkook pulls at your hips and when you settle over his lap properly, you feel him. The jeans-on-jeans contact doesn’t do much for you but the sheer thought of having him underneath you is your undoing. He breaks the kiss to lather kisses down your neck. Open-mouthed and with a little tongue, your fists tighten into his shirt when he grazes his teeth over your pulse point.

“You’ve no idea how long I’ve waited for this,” he speaks into your skin. His nose is pressed against your neck, paused to take you in. As if time is going too fast.

You can’t blame him, you would stay like this forever if you could. It’s the burning between your legs that won’t let you. “Don’t stop.”

He laughs, a puff of warm air that fans out over your chest. When he looks up at you his eyes are darker, the stars in them dimmed to dusk. “Are you sure?”

“Jungkook,” you whine, grinding your hips over his. He stutters and you grin at the feeling of his hardening dick. “I’m already on the verge of soaking through my jeans — yes, I’m sure.”

Strangely, his cheeks flush at your commentary but it doesn’t faze him in the slightest. He kisses back up to your mouth, claiming it as his and kissing you with a little more ease. It’s as if he already learned from two minutes ago. He slows down, hands ghosting all the way down your mode to squeeze at your thighs.

You gyrate your hips, circling him until you’re certain he must be uncomfortable in those tight jeans. Yet, he seems more than satisfied just occupied with your mouth. You could kiss him for days, but you’re so frazzled by him you have to come up for air. Everything he does makes it hard for you to function, and he sniggers as you nuzzle along his jaw to kiss softly at his neck.

“You good?” he muses, fingers combing through your hair.

“Hmm, perfect.”

“Can I eat you out?”

You frown, looking up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. Did you hear him right? Did he ask to eat you out — as if it is the most normal question in the world? As if he just asked you if you like pancakes. You do, and the thought of having his mouth on you…“If you want to.”

“If I want to,” he mocks. Without any warning, Jungkook hauls you up and you squeal when you tip over backwards. You cling to him, gripping at his back and making his shirt ride up. “If I want to, she asks me. I’ve been thinking about it for months — yes I want to.”

Jungkook deposits you on the kitchen table and you‘re not willing to let him go just yet. You seek out his mouth again, warm and comfortable and your kiss-swollen lips want nothing more than his for the rest of the night. Yet, you can already see the sun rising through the curtains behind him.

“I thought about it too.” Your words get muffled with the kiss but you know he hears you from the groan he lets out. A sound that vibrates in his chest — his chest which you feel rise and fall beneath your fingers. He is muscular, and your mouth waters at the thought of seeing him. “Take your shirt off first.”

He obeys, pulling the white material off with one hand. You marvel at him once he’s shirtless, fingers seeking out his skin and trailing down his abs. They’re defined in the best way, just enough for you to feel them move under your touch as his breath hitches. Jungkook really is gorgeous and you find yourself kissing down his chest.

“Hey, hey,” he chuckles again, stopping your fingers that had slipped down to the buttons of his jeans. “I’m eating you out first, so hands off and back on the table.”

You raise your eyebrows at his half-assed command, a snicker on the edge of your lips. “Oh?”

“I said,” he grins, coming nose-to-nose with you. “On your back.”

You stomach flutters but you listen as he parts your legs. The table is cold against your back and it’s not an unwelcome contrast against Jungkook’s hands sliding up your now spread thighs. He squeezes your flesh and you can’t help but thrust your hips up with a whine. “Kook.”

“Impatient are we? Lift your hips for me.” He pops the button of your jeans and slides them down as you lift. There’s a bit of a struggle shucking them off your legs but it brings some laughter when he finally manages. “Damn tight jeans.”

You huff, still on your back. “You’re one to speak, I can practically see your dick outlined from here.”

Jungkook brushes your shirt up a little to kiss right under your belly button — your stomach dips at the soft touch. “It’s fine right where it is. For now, I wanna know what you like.” He waits for your answer, ticking off the time with little kisses and nips around your hip-bones that make you whine in the back of your throat.

“I — I don’t know?”

He looks up with a frown. “He really sucked didn’t he?”

“Well technically, he didn’t… “ You bite your lips in shame.

Jungkook rolls his eyes at you. “You can guide me as I go then.” He resumes his kisses down your stomach, sucking the faintest bruises on top of your thigh. “I want to make you feel good.”

You nod, laying back and enjoying the feeling of just him. The brush of his fingers as he hooks his thumbs into your underwear, the press of his lips to your skin. It seems like he’s mapping you out, tracing your sweetest spots as he pulls off your panties. The cold skin hits you and you shiver.

The first brush of his lips is tantalising, you hold your breath. It’s not a feeling your unaccustomed too but that it’s him is enough to undo you at the first touch. He spreads your folds, a little hesitantly. The tremble in his fingers gives him away and you fight the urge to lean up and look at him. “Keep going.”

He hums, breath warm against your mound. You can feel him staring and it’s exposing, but you can’t close your legs with his shoulders spreading you apart. Jungkook kisses your clit and your muscles tense, again and again until he licks and you let out a soft cry. He has the nerve to smile against you. The pull of his lips is obvious against your core and you lick yours in anticipation.

For a bit, he keeps at it like that, gently licking your bud until you’re certain you're going to break your toes from curling. “I need more,” you whimper. He obliges, wrapping his lips around the bundle of nerves and suckling. It’s tender but so so good and the little breathy moan he lets out when you tangle your fingers in his hair echoes through your core. You sigh, it’s heavenly. He’s patient, taking his time to learn you — unfold you — as you urge him on bit by bit.

His hair is silky smooth between your fingers and you pull lightly. “A little more to the — ah — left — yes!” you cry, head thudding against the wooden surface. You’re moving so much Jungkook has to slide your back up the table a little. His mouth picks up, figuring out what makes you scream and using just that against you. Your stomach is tingling and you’re moaning without shame now.

“Fingers?” he mumbles, looking up at you through his lashes. The sight of his head between your legs, lips shining, eyes dark — it’s too much.

“Yes, gently.”

He chuckles against you again, a little chiming sound as he circles your entrance with the tip of his finger. “Relax,” he whispers, other hand coming down to press your hips to the table. “I’ve got you.” When he slides in you feel every knuckle and you practically suck him in. You’re so wet it takes him little effort to wriggle in another finger. He starts up a slow pace, kidding your thigh in random intervals as he observes your reaction. You can feel his unwavering gaze on you. “Good?”

“Yeah, just — don’t stop.”

“More?”

“N - No. Ah.” You gasp when he curls his fingers up and deeper. He’s so attentive you’re certain he needs no more verbal affirmatives. Right now you’re putty in his hands, shaking and trembling for him. His fingers glide along your walls, rubbing until you clench him tightly. “Jungkook,” you moan.

He knows. He knows because he starts sucking on your clit again like no tomorrow and it’s enough to make you feel the edge of your orgasm. It builds with his movements, tight, languid, just right — you come hard and he edges you through it until you twitching in his grasp. He keeps his fingers inside of you until you finally open your eyes to look at him.

Then, he withdraws them and sucks them clean. His eyes are even darker if that was possible. You know he isn’t done with you yet.

Your chest heaves as you try to grasp reality again. Jungkook looks ravished, standing between your limp, parted legs with two fingers in his mouth. His hair is a mess, right side sticking up from where you’d gripped it so hard. You open your mouth to say something, but it dies on your tongue.

“Are you still with me?”

“Yeah,” you pant, running your fingers through your hair. “When you said you were gonna make me breakfast, this was not what I thought you meant."

Jungkook laughs, lips spreading into a gorgeous smile as he grabs your hands to pull you up. You come chest to chest, mouth to mouth. His tongue parts your lips and you keen at the taste of yourself in his mouth, arms winding around his neck. Your legs wrap around his waist, coarse material of his jeans rubbing against your sensitive centre. Jungkook’s chest is sticky with sweat already and the muscles in his back dance under your fingertips as you caress them.

He is so good, touching every inch of your body while he takes his time kissing you. There are groans dying in the back of his throat and you can feel the twitch in his hips when he brushes against you. Your hand snakes down his chest to his jeans, palming and drawing a curse from him. You trace the outlines of his cock and he caves, forehead falling to yours.

“God please tell me you have condoms because I’m not done with you yet.”

You don’t want him to be. You’re getting wet again just at the thought of having him inside of you. From what he’s shown — from what you can feel right now — he’s not going to disappoint. “In the bedroom.”

He lifts you up, legs around his waist and his hands on your bare ass. With a grunt, he squeezes, manoeuvring you to the bedroom with your guidance that is drowned out in a kiss. You yelp when he bumps you into the corner and he soothes it with a soft caress, laughter erupting from the both of you. He presses you against the wall and you notice the skin of his left cheek is warm. A hiss passes his lips when you grace it.

You pull away to look at him, brushing his hair away from his face. His cheek is swelling a little but the lustful look in his eyes is enough for you to continue. Kissing him, you lightly pull the hair at the nape of his neck. He likes it, you note.

Jungkook lowers you down to the best, carefully so as he lays himself over you. “Take off your top,” he whispers, sitting up on the bed to undo his own jeans. You slide the fabric off your body, discarding it haphazardly along with your bra. He sits and you sling your legs over his lap as you push him back into the covers.

“What — ah.” He sighs deeply as you start kissing down his chest, fingers grazing his nipples. Jungkook is so pliant, chest heaving underneath you as you crawl down his body. He’s straining against his boxers and you appraise his self-control. “Baby,” he drawls, fingers carding through your hair as your lips stop at the edge of his underwear.

You chuckle, teeth nipping at his skin before you draw his boxers down slowly. His cock slaps up against his stomach, the tip wet with precum that had stained his underwear. You curse at the sight of him, fingers coming up to wrap around the base.

He stops you before you can get your mouth on him, hand around your wrist. “Fuck I — I want to come inside of you. Another time.” His breathing is laboured and his flushed state somewhat cute as he looks at you between his legs.

Yet, you can’t argue with him, you do want him inside of you. Sooner rather than later. You crawl back over him to kiss him more, hips settling over his dick. So heavenly, that first skin on skin contact. Both of you moan, heads thrown back as you rub him up and down, wet with your juices now.

“Stop,” he whines. “I really, really want to fuck you.”

You let him flip you over, your back pressed into the mattress. Jungkook’s muscles stand outlined by the faint light in the room, twisting as he reaches for you. His skin is soft and warm and you want to feel it, everywhere.

“Condoms?” he asks again.

“Drawer.” You point and he reaches beside him to retrieve a packet and throw it onto the bed. It seems that neither he not you can get enough of kissing. The soft nudge of him against your thigh is a reminder of what’s about to come.

You’ve fantasised about this so often you should be ashamed. But what can you do when Jungkook looks like half a god, half an angel all the time. You want him to ravish you, to make you his, now.

He falters as you touch him between your legs, stroking him and fumbling to find the condom. “Here,” he grabs it and wastes no time ripping it open. You help him roll it on, eyes trained on the way he twitches at the feeling. He’s hot and heavy in your hand as you guide him down to your entrance. Jungkook has other ideas however, because he pulls your hand away from him to secure it above your head.

You whine when he nudges his tip against your folds but leaves it at that. “Jungkook!”

“I know, fuck, I know. I just — you know this is not just about sex right?” His eyes lighten, brow smoothing out as he searches your yes.

You trace the seam of his lips with a sigh. “I do, but you can tell me everything over breakfast. Actual breakfast. Right now, I really want your dick inside of me, please.”

He smiles, capturing your lips as he presses closer. You feel him collect your wetness, teasing your clit with the tip of his cock. The anticipation gets to you and you fingers slide over his back to pull him closer. His chest brushes yours when he gently kisses down your neck.

The first breach of him stings, and you tighten your legs around his waist. It’s been so long, but it’s so good and you moan at the stretch of him filling you up slowly. You hiss at the delicious burn — Jungkook hears it and withdraws so quickly you yelp. “Hey!” you splutter, pulling him back to you.

“Was I hurting you?” His eyes are wide with concern.

You snicker. “You’re not that big Jungkook, get a grip.”

He whines. “I’m serious!”

“Silly,” you grin, kissing his cheek. “It was good. It’s just been a while, go slow hmm?”

He nods, pushing back in hesitantly. His eyes won’t leave yours, making sure that you’re feeling good. And boy are you feeling good. The way he stretches you is so delicious you can barely keep your eyes open. When his hips are flush with yours he moans, fingers of one hand tightening around your waist. His bottom lip is drawn between his teeth, brow furrowed in concentration.

“You feel so good,” you whisper hotly.

His cheeks heat up and you can’t help but find it endearing. He’s balls deep inside of you and he still manages to be cute and you love it. It’s uncharacteristically him and —

“Oh,” you gasp when he withdraws a little and pushes back in.

He feels so good, the press of his hips against yours every time he bottoms out. Your nails press into his shoulders, keening at the smooth slide of him inside of you. Jungkook moans, a sweet little sound he tries to hold in.

You touch his face, making his eyes snap up at you again. “I want to hear you,” you say.

“Fuck.” He shifts his legs under you. With a new-found goal he lifts one of your legs over his shoulder and he all but folds you in half as he slides even deeper. “God, you’re so tight.” His voice strains as he starts up again, a steady in and out that has you building up fast.

Jungkook keeps thrusting, making sure you feel his hips on yours every time. A tiny little pause to feel himself fully inside of you and it makes him reach so deep your toes curl.

“Faster,” you moan.

He picks up his pace, groaning into your skin as he does. You try to meet his thrusts. His chest vibrates with his moans, they’re delicious and beautiful and you can’t get enough of it — enough of him. The way he draws out and pushes back in has you clenching him tightly, especially when he grazes that spot inside of you. He lurches forward at the feeling.

“There,” you moan, “right there.” He zeroes in, pulling out all the way and slamming back in with so much force you scream his name. Your mouth falls open as he leans up and starts a punishing pace. He’s relentless now what you like, fingers scrambling to get a touch of your chest. A tweak of your nipple, a squeeze of your breast — he gets it all the while you’re coming apart around him.

“Tell me,” he groans after a particularly hard thrust. “When was the last time you were fucked properly.”

You whine, shaking your head. “Haven’t  — ah — so long — you’re doing so good — don’t stop.” Your sentences are broken with every thrust of him inside of you. Your tipping closer to the edge, yet not close enough. It’s been months since you’ve had anything and this is almost too much, you’re paralysed with pleasure.

He laps up your neck, supporting himself on one hand. “Nobody? For that long? Fuck, that’s why you’re so tight.” His words are muffled against the hot skin of your throat as he bites down and soothes the sting with his tongue.

“All I wanted was you.”

He snickers, pace not faltering as he kisses you again. It’s hot and open-mouthed and sloppy as his tongue seeks out yours. You’re overwhelmed with him. He seems to get deeper with every thrust, every sound he makes sending a shiver down your spine.

“I’m close,” he groans. “You?”

You suck the pads of your pointer and middle finger into your mouth — his eyes darken upon the sight. All you need is the slick slide of your own fingers against your clit, quick circles to get you on that edge. “Wanna feel you come,” you whine. “Please.”

Jungkook doesn’t stop, he pushes your leg even closer to your chest and watches you rub yourself as his dick disappears inside of you over and over again. Your stomach is tightening, walls clenching him in tightly.

His hips stutter, falling back over you as he comes undone with a deep groan. The feeling of him twitching against your walls is enough to give you that last push. You shudder apart around him, clenching down hard with eyes rolling back into your head. It seems to last forever as he holds you, gently rolling his hips to ride out his peak with you.

You’re both panting, still entangled as you come down. His hair sticks to his forehead, sweat dripping down his neck and your fingers slip on his skin. You’re stuck to the sheets, looking up at his ravished form as you feel him soften inside of you.

A foreign feeling erupts in your chest as he kisses you softly, just once. A small peck that makes you want to giggle with the overflow of feelings.

Jungkook pulls out carefully, and you know that you’re going to be sore tomorrow. He soothes your skin, rubbing your thigh before letting it down from over his shoulder. It’s so sweet, the way he looks at you and asks you if you’re okay.

You laugh at him, startling him a little. “To be blunt with you. I’ve never came that hard from sex and I want to do it again.”

He scrunches up his nose but blushes regardless. “Again?”

“Again.” You confirm with a yawn.

Jungkook discards the condom, pulling the soiled sheet from under you as you point him towards a clean one in your dresser. He drapes it over the both of you as he settles down beside your still numb form. You can’t believe he made you come so hard that you’re still seeing stars now.

You snuggle into his side despite the warmth of the early morning. “Your cheek’s going to bruise.”

“Worth it,” he grins. “We should’ve done this much sooner. “

“I agree.” You kiss the cusp of his shoulders, drawing tiny little patterns on his chest where his heart beats quickly.

Jungkook shifts, looking at you with hopeful eyes. “So?”

“So?”

“What now?” He bites his lip.

You giggle as you realise his shyness. “Is this your way of asking me to be your girlfriend?”

A small kiss is pressed to the tip of your nose. “Maybe,” he whispers. “If you want to.”

“Well…” You trail a finger down his stomach. “Maybe I do.”

“Maybe?”

You lean up, kissing him firmly, just once. “Definitely.”

© GguksGalaxy 2018-2020

Special thanks to: @lapysllazuly @jeonkookd @bubypjm @sunshineangelhobi 

Let me know if you guys liked it! <3

@mooniva @flowerymoonlight @lunyua @chimycthulhu @lilacdreams-00 @biblionerd @nininek12 @mrcleanheichou @pakovahayhuha @burgeoninggirl @faithsummers11 @angeltothecore @burntrain @ylevolretsnom01 @lachicayolo @cvbachacbitch @kxkth @d-noona @thethiathang Sorry to those who I couldn't tag <3

[enithinggoes]

Wanderer’s Refuge, chapter 3:Lawrence knows people

The Wanderer’s Refuge was heading for the beach, Agatha and Ursa still wanted to stick to their plan of visiting it, and what better time than the present right? Lawrence didn’t mind, he didn’t have anywhere to be.

But they were going to have to make a few stops along the way for supplies, such as water for the boiler, coal(Lawrence couldn’t keep his flames going for long and without steam, making the train move was very tiresome for Agatha), and just some better clothes.

Lawrence suggested the little town of Sunhill, known for being one of the few places where you can still buy items to make sorcery more potent and useful, though you’ve got to know where to look, plus it was on the way anyway, although it’s location in the middle of a meadow not connected to the railway system meant the coal would have to wait.

After they landed in the woods close by, the trio headed into the town of Sunhill, observing it to be a lot quainter than their last stop, the streets had lots of trees around and the wind seemed just a little bit lighter. Lawrence guided them to what seemed to be a regular clothing store, but after Agatha and Ursa picked up a few sets of clothes, including a cute white sweater for the former and some sturdy leather gloves for the latter, he took them to changing room 3, telling them all to get in.

After they entered a bit confused, he pulled on handle on the wall and said “What our souls make is forever ours”. The wall opened like a door, revealing a secret, hidden store where a man with a dirty black beard welcomed them.

“Well, go on in, my mom said these guys hold the highest quality when it comes to magic apparel, this is where she got me these fire-proof gloves that don’t inhibit my sorcery.” He gestured to the secret store, “have fun in there, I’m gonna go get myself some new suits and we can meet outside.”

After Lawrence left with a little smirk, Ursa wheeled Agatha in and they had a look around, “what can I offer you today?” said the bearded clerk, “tell me about your natural sorceries and I can give you a few recommendations.” He had a slightly dangerous smile of a man who’d been through quite a few tribulations and should not be taken lightly, but there was no hostility in his demeanor.

“Oh!” Agatha chirped with anticipation, “I create iron and Ursa creates steel, I’d like something that could help me make precise images to transform into my creations, please.” She wheeled herself forward faster than Ursa pushed her.

“Very well then, I think I have just the right thing, draw something in this notepad, please, reeeally concentrate on it,” the shopkeep suggested.

Agatha picked up the white chalk and started scraping it over the flat black pad, after she drew a small pocket watch, it seemed to spontaneously manifest in the table next to her, prompting a rigorous observation and a gasp of excitement from Agatha, once she’d confirmed it was identical to her drawing, she rubbed her hand over the pad erasing the drawing, the watch disappeared.

“Oh this will definitely help, thank you sir, I’d love to take this!” Agatha exclaimed.

 Ursa, who’d been looking around at the artifacts since she’d gotten in, took this chance to say what she was looking for, “You got anything that can help me use my sorcery on my whole body? So far I can only really get it to go on my arms and legs.”

The man scratched his beard as he went over his store’s inventory, “hmm. I think I know what you need, something to center yourself! Here you go, wear this over your heart.” He handed her a plain white circular brooch.

“It’s… Unusually warm,” commented Ursa.

“When you want to use sorcery on your whole body, focus on that warm feeling as the center of your being,” explained the vendor.

“Huh.” Ursa rubbed the brooch between her index finger and thumb. “I’ll take it.”

Meanwhile, Lawrence was indulging himself with a new dark blue suit and taking a look at a few hats, when he saw a young man that caught his eye, with short black hair, light brown skin, a button-up vest and a bandana around his neck. Though the trait that interested Lawrence most the sharpness of his brown-orange eyes, “there’s a man who knows what he’s looking for!” thought Lawrence.

“Hey, handsome.” He greeted, leaning his elbow against a rack to his left, “what brings you here?”

The man tilted his head and stared at him curiously for a moment, as if not expecting any kind of interaction, then answered in a serious tone “Oh, hello sir. I’m actually here on the job, if you’re well acquainted with this store’s patrons, could you tell me a bit about the clientele?”

“Oh, well, we get a bit of everything here, men, women, children, you name it, it’s got items for all tastes, as long as you’ve got some dough.” Lawrence showed a tightly closed fist as he gave the least informative answer he could think of, he would have to keep an eye on this guy, “what are you, anyway, an investor or something of the sort? The name is Lauren, by the way, enchanted to meet you.”

The man furrowed his brow as he shook Lawrence’s hand, “I’m Tobias Walker, and I’m tasked with investigating the strangely high criminal presence in the region surrounding this store, have you seen anything… unnatural lately sir?”

Lawrence hid his worry under a well-practiced clueless smile, “well, you’d have to tell me what you’re looking for, because I haven’t witnessed anything I’d describe in such a way these days, mister.”

“Hmm, I can’t tell a civilian too much more about it, just leave it alone, I’ll find my way around, thank you. One more thing, do you know anyone who’s seen two girls, one white-haired with glasses and the other one black-haired with a horizontal scar over her nose?” As the man spoke, Agatha and Ursa were coming out of the dressing room, before they could come to greet Lawrence and give themselves away, he grimaced and pointed outside at his hip height, doing his best to alert them without being too suspicious.

“Hey! I haven’t seen anyone like that, but maybe I can talk to the people I know around here and tell you what I find out over coffee somewhere nearby?” Lawrence did his best to keep the investigator’s attention on himself as the girls snuck away from the building.

“I see, I don’t think that will be necessary, we’re leaving in a few days but thank you for the offer,” he said, and Lawrence took note of the use of “we”, “just one more thing, what’s your real name?”

That caught Lawrence off guard, but Tobias’ expression was closer to amusement than accusation. “It’s Lawrence,” he answered with a grin not letting his surprise show.

“Well, I haven’t heard of any misbehaviors on your part, but color me curious, what reason would a man like you have to lie about their name?”

Lawrence winked and leaned closer, saying “maybe I can tell you about it if we meet again.” before dashing out into the street.

Tobias was left quizzical, thinking “I think that man may have just stolen a few suits…”

“We gotta go we gotta go we gotta go!” Lawrence shout-whispered at the girls as he gently pushed them along away from the clothes store.

“What’s happening? Who was that guy? Are we in trouble?” said Ursa, wheeling Agatha forward quickly to avoid the pushing.

“Not if we move quickly, that was an investigator trying to find the centers of sorcerous activity around here, also you two specifically, I didn’t know you were such a hot topic,” answered Lawrence, moving quickly back towards the woods, “we’ll have to spend a while laying low around here, if we take off while they’re looking for you they’ll know exactly where we’re going”.

The trio came back to the Wanderer’s and hid inside, but there was something strange, dirt on the floor of the train, and not in the shape of their shoes, but in the shape of paws, five toed, long-clawed paws. Perhaps more surprising, in a few more moments, they saw that one of the sacks of less perishable food was missing, not torn up, but seemingly, inexplicably carried away.

[obx-snippets]

Chapter 1 ∫ ≈ Rush Hour and New Friends

Summary: Reina finds herself flustered on her first day of work. And the Pogues make quite the first impression on her when she has to take their order.

Warning: light cursing? That’s about it....

Word count: 3.5k

Pairing: JJ Maybank x female!oc

Masterlist

a/n: I probably should have mentioned this in the beginning but this series is a...

SUPER  S L O W   B U R N.  

So enjoy! Feel free to ask to be tagged!

Reina's limbs were growing weak at the speed she was going down the lengthy sidewalk along an empty road. To her dismay, every corner of the island seems to be next to a beach, and the only sound that was able to come at par with the wind muffling her ears was the beating waves. She regretted not bringing her cassette with her; the music would have gone nicely with the Kildare county atmosphere. It might have also helped with her rapid heartbeat, wishing the ocean would just disappear. Nature sprouted from every corner, various people making their way down the opposite sidewalk to shop at different vendors. They seemed relaxed for the most part, but then again, many of them worked for their share, and the mask they wore wasn't fooling Reina. She wore the same one all too often.

Too deep in thought, she nearly missed the sign that read 'the Wreck' and came to a skidding stop, her body slightly jolting forward as she gripped her bike's handlebars. The wind from the ocean brought her hair to blow in her face as she dipped her eyes down to her phone, her GPS reading arrived.

After finding a comfortable place to park her bike, she made her way up a wooden ramp to enter the restaurant's threshold. The closer she got, the slower her pace as she heard a mix of rowdiness coming from inside. It was just her luck that the Wreck was extremely busy and evidently short on staff. Reina heaved around a few people who were waiting in line to be seated. Customers were grumbling among themselves, complaining about how the food had better be the best they've ever tasted if they had to wait that long. It was breakfast hour, and that was when people were the crankiest.

She blew air from her mouth once she made it to the front desk, a few customers muttering how she cut. Smoke from the kitchen just in front of her filled her nostrils, and her eyes brightened with delight. Only two men were hard at work, one with his belly hanging out from his stained white shirt while another tall man with tanned amber skin cutting fruit relentlessly. And with skill.

Reina was enthralled in the dynamic that she hadn't noticed how far she was leaning over the counter to watch everything they were doing. The taller man briefly looked over his shoulder before noticing the ripped paper wedged between her knuckles.

"Hey!" the man called over the spiel going around the crowded restaurant and the clinking of pot being moved about, continuing his cutting on a pineapple. Reina snapped her attention to the man, slightly embarrassed that she had been staring so long. "You Chris and Mina's kid?"

Reina shrugged, "Well technically, stepdaughter but uh--same thing yeah, that's me." she skipped the specifics of it all, not wanting to cause the man's forehead to crease more than it already was. "I uh--I came for the interview..." she looked down at the paper, about to ask about the cooking job when he suddenly advanced toward her.

"You a good cook?" he questioned sternly, almost hopeful. His eyes were desperate, sweat already trickling down his forehead.

"Absolutely," her confident answer came out almost immediately, making the man smile. She would cook all day if it meant not facing the water that was just a few hundred feet away from her. Even over the uproar in the open restaurant, she could still hear the waves taunting her like a dark, menacing laugh.

A toothpick twisting between his lips, he tapped his fingers harshly against the counter, contemplating if he should let a new teenager take part in his kitchen. "Fuck it, get in, kid." he pointed to the other side of the counter for her to enter. He didn't miss the ever-growing smile touching her lips as she hustled around the counter, already pulling her hair into the messiest low bun before washing her hands thoroughly. "Start cracking them eggs and beat 'em'. We got an order waiting at table five."

Reina's whole demeanor changed. She was locked in and moving like a ballerina, careful not to bump into anyone as she veered about to collect seasoning for the eggs. The tall man, which she learned went by the name of Mr. Carrera, watched her intently. All he had to do was tell her the recipe once, and she was already whipping everything up by memory. So much so that she served the waited tables in under an hour. It seemed the frequent customers took notice of the new girl as well; her sweet smile was inviting like she had been doing this her whole life. Reina was known to be more easy-going around adults compared to kids her age. She was the life of the party back in Cali, extremely outgoing and adrenaline-driven. But since the incident, she felt more comfortable being in her own reserved shell.

Mr. Carrera wasn't the only one noticing the girl's natural skill in the kitchen. Kiara Carrera led the way into her father's restaurant, her fellow pogues trailing behind like hungry puppies. Harlow Westwick struggled to keep up as they hadn't waited for her to tie her shoelaces, and she nearly tripped forward before finding her balance again.

"Woof," John B furrowed his brows, sidestepping around a woman as he took in the scene around him, "busy in here today, huh?"

The kids maneuvered their way through the packed dining area, all of their eyes searching for an empty table.

"Hell yeah, it is," Kie responded, her eyebrows stitching together as she caught sight of an unfamiliar raven haired girl in the kitchen.

She knew her dad had set up an interview with someone the other day, but he was never the one to hire and put to work the same day. Her father was very strict about who came in and out of his kitchen and how it was run.

"Found one!" JJ called, running across the floor to get to it before someone else could. He plopped down on a chair, running his ring clad fingers through his blonde locks before placing his red cap backward on his head. Harlow pulled the seat out next to him, flicking his red hat from behind, bringing the boy to quickly catch it before it hit the table.

Kie followed them wordlessly, her eyes still locked on the new cook in the kitchen as curiosity tickled her brain. "Do ya'll know who that is?"

The three boys and Harlow turned to look, all of them shaking their heads in response, a chorus of 'no's' or 'uh huh's' here and there.

Kie pursed her lips, her slender fingers tapping at the wooden chair before she signaled to the guys that she'd be back in a minute and moved towards the kitchen. The girl in question had swiveled around one of the older cooks, trading spots with him as she grabbed a pair of plates off the counter.

"'Scuse me," she smiled with a bow of her head, moving past Kie to put the plates down at one of the tables.

She turned around quickly, wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead with a rag before throwing it back over her shoulder.

"What's your name?" Kie questioned, crossing her arms over her orange halter top.

"Uh, Reina," the girl responded, a little confused by the random girl's straightforward inquiry before hurrying back to the kitchen, not giving Kie a chance to say anything else.

Just as the mystery girl - Reina, disappeared back into the kitchen, her father rounded the corner, giving her a nod to assure that he knew her and her friends were there, and they would get their food as quickly as they could get it out. Kie gave him a small smile in return and went back to her table, not before grabbing a stack of paper cups and a jug of water.

"You find out who the new girl is, Kie?" JJ asked, swiping a fry off an empty table.

"Just that her name's Reina," Kiara shrugged, offering the guys a cup and some water.

John B craned his neck to try and spot the dark-haired girl in the kitchen. "I haven't seen her around before," he pointed out.

"You think she's a kook?" Harlow questions, more so to herself as she noticed the seemingly expensive top.

"Maybe she's new," Pope chimes in his suggestion, his eyes fixated on how quickly she moved about the kitchen like muscle memory.

"Who moves to the Outer Banks?" JJ questioned around a mouthful of fries.

"Ew, gross," Kie muttered as her face scrunched up and finally took a seat next to Pope.

The Pogues chattered amongst themselves as customers were in and out of the restaurant. They were so used to sitting there for hours on end that they hadn't realized a difference in the food until it was displayed in front of them.

JJ was the first to mindlessly get a forkful of food into his mouth, suddenly moaning at the taste, pointing aggressively at his plate,

"This is fucking bomb, dog," he mumbled.

Upon seeing the other boy's reaction to the food, Kiara picked up a few eggs off of her plate and stuffed them into her mouth, "Holy shit," her eyes widened, knowing for a fact that this was not her father's cooking. "this is really good."

"Whoever made these needs to cook everything on the menu," Pope chuckled, diving into his fluffy pancakes lovingly.

Harlow was munching happily on her toast, her light brown hair that had recently been dyed two shades lighter at the tips was pulled back into a ponytail. She didn't bother making any comment, too entranced with the powdered sugar that she gladly licked off her fingers before wiping them off on a napkin.

John B peeped up from his plate, his chewing slowing down when he saw how white powder coated Harlow's pink lips. He rolled his eyes, grabbing a napkin and nearly scaring the girl to death when he wipes her lips with his thumb. "Much obliged, JB," Harlow chimed once he finished.

Reina had just finished washing her hands of the sticky juices of fruit when she noticed the group of kids hadn't been served their drinks. It seemed the Wreck was even short on servers. She huffed to herself, already dreading having to interact with them. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand before grabbing a paper and pencil that sat on the counter to get their drink order.

"Hey, sorry for the delay on the drinks," Reina apologized when she made it to the table. She grew uncomfortable by how all their eyes bore into her own, and she dropped her attention to the notepad in her hand. "what can I start you off with?"

"I'll take a Sprite, please!" Pope exclaimed, instantly taking notice of the group's surprise in his response.

"Okay," Reina responded, quickly writing down his drink order in her notepad, "for you?"

"I'll take a raspberry ice tea," replied JJ, earning groans from the rest of the table, "with four pumps of the syrup, and only fill the glass halfway with ice so I can stir in my sugar-"

"Oh my gooooood!" groaned Harlow, "why are you so weird, JJ?"

JJ makes a face, "How am I weird? She's asking for my order!"

"Yeah, your drink order, not the secret recipe for a heart attack!"

"You know, what?-"

"What?-"

"Well, maybe if you let me finish my sentence-"

It wasn't long before the entire table erupted in a full-blown argument. Reina stood at the end of their table, brows furrowed, mouth parted. What the fuck..

Her eyes glanced around the packed dining room, her fingers twitching around her pencil. The place was still crowded, and the kitchen seemed to be going up in flames.

"I hate to interrupt, but does anybody else want anything to drink?" Reina spoke over the shouts.

The table quieted immediately, seemingly having forgotten about the girl waiting to take their order. The teens passed around embarrassed looks before the girl who'd come up to Reina earlier spoke.

"Pepsi's are fine."

Reina pursed her lips and gave her a nod before shoving her notepad and pen back into her apron and hurrying away from their table.

"Nice going," Kie snapped, throwing a rolled-up napkin at JJ.

                                                •≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈•

As the day carried by, the restaurant's capacity was waning down to only a few customers an hour. Reina hadn't expected the day to be so eventful. Some adults and teens discerned that she was new to the island and welcomed her before paying her a generous tip. Mr. Carrera was already falling in love with the new girl's cooking and didn't bother telling her she got the job; it was already guaranteed. He told her to have the day to herself tomorrow, and she could come work every other day. Reina would prefer to keep herself busy in the kitchen instead of being forced to explore the island, but she obliged nonetheless.

The seven pm sun was warming Reina's skin as she walked alongside her bike. She decided to take her time heading home, hoping her surprisingly laid back step-parents would say it's too late for her to go to the party at the beach. The sound of the waves crashing onto the shore was enough for her jaw to clench, wishing to drown out the sound. For a moment, the wind picked up around her loose hair, and she instinctively let her fingers ghost over the scars on her neck, flashing her back to that night.

•

"Reina, just jump, bro!"

The California moon was set on full display as the stars were barely distinguishable from the colorful, luminescent lights blinding the party at a rich kids' beach house. After Reina's friends informed her of a party being held in the Hamptons, she couldn't refuse. Not when the boy throwing the party was loaded with cash. School was nearly over, and one last party would surely end the year with a bang.

After a few heavy drinks and five shots, Reina found her unbalanced body standing on the highest point of the house's roof. The cold California night air brushed against her skin, but the warmth from her drunken state didn't let goosebumps make an appearance. Her hair was tousled behind her; space buns atop her head, keeping strands from invading her vision. Her black eyeliner was smudged from the excessive wave of laughter that overcame her a couple of hours before, and her chapstick was secured in her back pocket of her shorts in case of a possible make-out session.

"You think I'll make it?" Reina's crazed question was muffled out over the shouting and cheers coaxing her to jump into the vast pool below, and she let one of her bare feet dangle off the edge.

Her brown eyes caught sight of her sweet friend Vanessa, who was acting as a chaperone for the night, glaring up at her through the rims of her blue glasses. "If you're actually asking for a probability, you're insane!" Vanessa yelled.

"C'mon Nessa!" a brunette boy, Dimitri, came tumbling toward the red-headed girl draping his wet arm over her shoulder. His bare upper body smelled of herb and chlorine as his brown hair was swiped back from the pool. "Quit being a killjoy. The jump isn't even that high."

"It's not the jump I'm worried about, ass wipe." Vanessa growled, shoving the boy away from her, "Do you not see how drunk she is? If she even tried to jump, she'll land face-first on the cement."

Even beyond the overpour of music blasting through her ears, Reina heard Vanessa and saw it as a challenge. "Prepare for landing, ladies, and gentlemen!" Reina warned with a playful salute, loud enough for the crowd of teens below to roar out an applaud, making a clear opening for her in the pool.

"Rae, no! Stop!" Vanessa tried lunging for the house, but Dimitri pulled her back by her arm. "I swear to--"

It was too late. Reina opened her arms wide and let gravity take its toll once she leaped from the edge of the roof. She tucked her body into a ball just when she made contact with the water. The music invaded her eardrums, and the white noise muted all the applause from her life-threatening jump.

A wide grin set on full display on her lips brought ease to Vanessa, knowing she wasn't hurt, and she decided to retire into the house, too angry to say another word to her reckless friend. Reina's buns came undone, and her raven hair was dripping down her shoulder as she swiveled around people to exit the pool.

The crisp air made itself known as it nipped on her skin, but it vanished as soon as Dimitri came crashing toward her. Her black bikini top nearly shifted out of place from the boy's abrupt intrusion, but as this was his party, she would let him do whatever. As long as she could find his wallet in the depth of his pool trunks, she was good to go.

Dimitri separated from her and gripped her by the shoulders. "Badass Reina. Fucking hot," he breathed out sporting a smirk, his breath laced with weed.

Reina shrugged innocently, "The roofs not even that high off the ground. It's nothing."

Dimitri rolled his eyes before trailing his hands down her soaked waist and pulled her close enough for his lips to graze over the shell of her ear. "Wanna do a line? I got some of my buddies sellin' here tonight. My treat?"

Reina bit down on her lips, her audacious nature taking root once again. "Bet you can't last more than two lines," she mumbled with natural confidence. Dimitri lifted a brow and nodded leisurely, taking hold of her small hand, lacing it with his own.

"You're on, Bayard."

•

The honking of an obnoxious horn penetrated her thoughts, and Reina whipped her head around to see a VW van slowing down until it made a complete stop.

She was surprised to see the boy from early in the driver's seat with his arm draped out the window. His unruly brown curls sat atop his head, almost looking like a surfer and frat boy at the same time. His sun-kissed skin was radiant under the North Carolina sun, and she realized how handsome the boy really was.

"Hi again," the boy greeted with a casual wave of his hand that was gripping the steering wheel. Reina flashed a tight-lipped smile, nodding in response. She had only realized the girl from earlier on the passenger seat when she poked her head out from over his shoulder.

"Reina yeah?" the girl asked, hopefulness in her tone that she got the name right. Her mocha eyes were squinted from the bright sun behind Reina.

Reia nodded gradually, kicking the metal bar on her bike to let it park. "Yeah..." her tone came out as a question, puzzled that the random girl would make another appearance.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for how we acted today; you had enough on your plate and didn't need to deal with us acting like children."

Reina could hear commotion from the back seat due to the girl's tone directed to a friend of hers.

Reina's rigid shoulders relaxed at her words, taking a step closer to the beat-up van as she ran her hand down her arm. "Oh, no, it's okay. I've dealt with worse," she replied dismissively.

"Still," the girl shrugged before a small smile appeared on her lips, "By the way, I'm Kiara, we'll be seeing a lot more of each other now that you're working at the Wreck."

"You work there too?" Reina asked.

"My dad owns the place." It suddenly made sense why the teenagers strutted in the restaurant like they owned the place.

Kiara's hand stuck outside of the window, waiting for Reina to shake it. She did so wearily, an awkward chuckle leaving her mouth.

"This is John B," the boy driving the van sent her a nod, "and in the back are, Pope, JJ, and Harlow." a mix of greetings was heard from the back.

Pope? Odd name.

"Hi," Reina replied softly. The interaction seems like a simple one, but a storm was brewing in Reina's head.

"We're throwing a party down at the Boneyard - you know where that is?" John B asked, toying with the bandana around his wrist.  

Reina pondered for a moment, "Is it that party at the beach I heard about?"

"Kegger!" a male voice corrected her from the back seat, earning an eye roll from Kiara.

"Right yeah, that. Shouldn't be hard to find."

"Great!" Kiara beamed, a bright smile on her face, "you should come! It's gonna be fun!"

Reina parted her lips slightly, not expecting the invitation. "You really don't have to invite me--"

"No, no, seriously. If you're the one who cooked that killer food back at the Wreck, a drink is well deserved." John B licked his lips, waiting for her to respond to his attempt.

Reina wanted to decline almost immediately. But Chris' demand came jogging back to memory. "Make friends!"

"Uh, yeah, okay," Reina nodded nonchalantly as if her brain wasn't exploding at the idea of being so close to the water, "sure."  

Her mind wandered the rest of the walk home, thinking up every horrble possibility. When Reina arrived home, she pulled out her cassete from one of her boxes she was yet to unpack and fell on her bed. Her eyes drifted closed, as she tucked the plastic ear buds in her ear and hummed along to work all day

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